Title
Approval of an Ordinance Granting the Renewal of a Franchise Agreement with Comcast for Use of City Rights-of-Way to Operate and Maintain a Cable Communication System
Recommended Action
Committee Recommendation:
Not referred to a committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Move to approve the ordinance on second reading.
Report
Issue:
Whether to approve the Ordinance on second reading.
Staff Contact:
Kellie Purce Braseth, Director of Strategic Communications, Executive, 360-753-8361
Presenter(s):
None. Consent Item Only.
Background and Analysis:
Background and analysis has not changed from first to second reading.
The City of Olympia's 2009 franchise agreement with Comcast Cable Communications Management, LLC, expired in March 2019. The City notified Comcast of its intention to begin the renewal process in December 2017, and in March 2018 entered in an interlocal agreement with Thurston County and the cities of Lacey and Tumwater to jointly negotiate the renewal of the cable franchise agreement, as had been done with the 2009 agreement.
Together, the four jurisdictions retained Ken Fellman of Kissinger & Fellman, P.C., an attorney with significant experience negotiating cable franchise agreements and who the jurisdictions had retained to negotiate the 2009 franchise agreement. The length of the negotiations required extensions of the 2009 agreement, the last to expire on December 31, 2020. The attached draft agreement was negotiated through the interlocal process. The proposed franchise agreement went before the City of Tumwater on January 5 and will go before the Thurston County Commissioners on January 13. The City of Lacey will hold public hearings on the proposed franchise on January 21.
The proposed cable franchise agreement is for non-exclusive use of city rights-of-way to operate and maintain a cable communication system in Olympia. It is based on Olympia's 2009 franchise, but updated to address new technologies, to reflect changes i...
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