Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-06-15 City Council Regular MinutesCITY COUNCIL REGULAR MEETING JUNE 15,1999 The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Apache Junction, Arizona,was held on June 15,1999,at the Apache Junction City Council Chambers pursuant to the notice required by law. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Coleman called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. INVOCATION Pastor David Watson gave the Invocation. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Councilmember Durbala led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL Councilmembers Present:Mayor Coleman Vice Mayor Surra Councilmember Dietz Councilmember Durbala Councilmember Eck Councilmember Insalaco Councilmember Urich Staff Present:City Manager Curtis Shook City Clerk Kathleen Connelly City Attorney Joel Stern Public Safety Director Robert Warner City Engineer Paul Stears Public Works Director Doug Dobson Development Services Director Glen Van Nimwegen Others Present:Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 1 OF 44 MIS Project Manager Spencer Paden ACCEPTANCE OF CONSENT AGENDA )Vice Mayor Surra MOVED THAT THE CONSENT AGENDA BE ACCEPTED AS PRESENTED:AND THAT THE FOLLOWING EMPLOYEES BE RECOGNIZED FOR THEIR OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY:RECREATION SUPERINTENDENT BETH COWLES;ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER MICHAEL MUNROE; HUMAN RESOURCES ADMINISTRATIVE SECRETARY EDNA MORGAN;BUSINESS LICENSE COORDINATOR TALEEN CARPENTER;PUBLIC WORKS SECRETARY ELAINE COLBURN; RECREATION COORDINATOR LIZ LANGENBACH;RECREATION COORDINATOR JAY REYNOLDS; CHIEF CLERK OF THE COURT SHELLY UNDERHILL;LIBRARY CLERK II GAIL GRAHAM-FISEL; DETECTIVES ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT SUZANNE WHITTEN;AND PERMIT TECHNICIAN I I MIKKI FRAZIER. Councilmember Urich SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. AWARDS.PRESENTATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS None. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Mr.Elliott Fisher,547 E.Quail,Apache Junction,stated he was there on behalf of the Greater Apache Junction Association for Effective Government. He welcomed an invitation from the council to discuss anything.He added he had been speaking to other organizations,including MAG,regarding transportation and other issues.He commented he had been trying to get some editorials into CityScape,as he believes he has the right to give his opinions in the paper.He stated people do not like being discounted and ignored.He also does not believe the general plan amendment can be finished and voted on in sixty days.He questioned why money was being spent on Community Sciences Corporation if there already was an Apache Junction plan. CITY MANAGER'S REPORT REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 2 OF 44 City Manager Curtis Shook commented the city has been successful in getting the Bureau of Land Management to allow the city to lease the additional 200 acres encompassing Silly Mountain.The city can therefore control the access, design and build something that will make it a jumping off point for the rest of the bordering open spaces,which will enable the city to make full use of the parks and recreation areas that the city has.Passive improvements will be made with picnic areas. PUBLIC HEARINGS PROPOSED RESOLUTION NO.99-27/DECLARING AMENDMENTS TO CHAPTER 14 RELATING TO CABLE SYSTEMS A PUBLIC RECORD;PROPOSED ORDINANCE NO.1086/AMENDING CHAPTER 14 OF THE CITY CODE RELATING TO CABLE SYSTEMS )City Attorney Joel Stern briefed the council on the items.The resolution states that the ordinance will be a public document,along with the amendments that go with the ordinance.He recommended the city code be changed as this section of the code was written in 1984 while cable was still in its infancy.There have been many changes in technical issues,legal issues and other issues.Certain changes have been recommended.As this issue is related to the negotiation with Triax for their license,staff recommends this item be continued for another public hearing to be held in concert with the public hearings for the Triax agreement.He believes the changes will benefit the city;they should have been done at least five years ago.The agreement has been taken from different cities across the nation,including some in Arizona,and it is based on federal law. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the items. Mr.C.R.Mills,1471 E.22 Avenue, Apache Junction,addressed the council.He does not believe Triax is entitled to a new contract based on the service he has received.They should only have their contract extended for a year so the public is not tied down to a long term contract.He also wanted to know what percentage the city gets from the cable network and where it is spent or what department it goes to. City Attorney Joel Stern stated the REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 3 OF 44 Triax issue will be reserved for the next public hearing.Currently the city gets 3% of the gross revenues from Triax,which comes out to approximately $50,000 per year,and the money is put into the general fund.It is spent for basically any cost that could be incurred that could come out of the general fund. Mr.C.R.Mills asked if he should say something about the television service or wait until later. City Attorney Joel Stern stated it should wait for the next public hearing if it does not involve regulation. Mayor Coleman closed the public hearing and opened the items to council discussion. Vice Mayor Surra commented she liked Mr.Mills idea of limiting the number of years for a contract agreement based on the past history.The current contract is a 15 -year contract. Councilmember Eck agreed that 15 years is way too long for the contract. Councilmember Insalaco agreed also. Mayor Coleman closed the discussion and called for a motion on Item #4A. Vice Mayor Surra asked if they would be able to continue Item 4A for further information to another date.She asked if it would have to be date specific. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated it would have to be date specific. City Attorney Joel Stern commented the recommended date is July 6 for a public hearing and then there would be another public hearing on July 20,plus a work session on July 19. Vice Mayor Surra MOVED THAT WE REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 4 OF 44 CONTINUE THIS ITEM TO THE JULY 6m DATE FOR FUTURE AND CONTINUED PUBLIC HEARING INPUT,BASED ON THE FACT THAT NOT ALL INFORMATION IS HERE,AND THAT WE HAVE ANOTHER ONE TWO WEEKS HENCE AT THE JULY 2e MEETING WITH A WORK SESSION ON THE 1 9 1 TO TIE UP ANY LOOSE ENDS THAT WE MIGHT WANT TO DISCUSS IN WORK SESSION FORMAT. Councilmember Durbala SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. Mayor Coleman called for a motion on Item 46. Vice Mayor Surra MOVED TO CONTINUE 46 IN THE SAME WAY TO JULY 6m AND 20m WITH A WORK SESSION ON THE le SINCE THEY ARE TIED TOGETHER.She thought they should continue both of the public hearings. Councilmember Durbala SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PUBLIC HEARING FOR POSSIBLE RENEWAL/ RENEGOTIATION/EXTENSION OF CABLE SYSTEM LICENSE CURRENTLY HELD BY TRIAX MIDWEST ASSOCIATES/PROPOSED ORDINANCE NO.1087/ GRANTING AN EXTENSION OF 60 DAYS TO TRIAX MIDWEST ASSOCIATES FOR PROVIDING CABLE SERVICE )City Attorney Joel Stern stated these items could be taken together:the motions can be separate or combined. Mayor Coleman stated they would combine the public hearings and consider separate motions. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 5 OF 44 City Manager Curtis Shook stated staff would like to put information on the record prior to the opening of the general public hearing. City Attorney Joel Stern stated the city is currently in the information renewal process.Three years ago Triax sent a letter to the city requesting renewal.Under federal law they have the right to ask for an informal process,which means they can come to the city and talk about what they want in the agreement and what the city would accept, and the city can go back and forth with them.There is no formal process at that point.A copy of the agreement he drafted up has been provided to the council.He used agreements from different cities as his sources for this agreement.Included is a needs study for future cable needs.There are also comments from different experts that the city has hired on the technical and legal issues.Negotiations have started with Triax,but the agreement needs to be looked at again as they have not received all the input from Triax.He believes they should have public input on whether this agreement should be renewed.He provided an ordinance for the extension period;action does not have to be taken as the agreement with Triax would continue until the formal hearing has taken place.Staff recommends that these items should be continued also,so that staff can talk to Triax and try to form an agreement that will fit the future needs of the city while still assisting Triax and keeping them competitive. Vice Mayor Surra asked who sets the guidelines for the formal or informal processes for renewal of cable contracts for any city. City Attorney Joel Stern stated federal law sets the guidelines.There are some areas where federal law is silent,and it has been determined across the country that where the federal law is silent,the city has the authority to act.There are things in this agreement that are not covered by federal law.These things have been put in the agreement,much as other cities have done. City Manager Curtis Shook commented federal requirements caused the city to either approve or deny a relicensing agreement.It is not within the city's jurisdiction to deny without discussion. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 6 OF 44 City Attorney Joel Stern stated that under the informal process the current cable holder would have the ability to come to the city to request a hearing.This hearing is part of the procedure. If the council is inclined to deny the current license,the council may do so and the city would have to put Triax on notice in writing.This would finish the informal process and start the formal process.The city would request a proposal from Triax.Upon receipt of the proposal from Triax,the city would look at it,based on the needs assessment that was done,decide whether or not it fits the future cable needs of the city,and take action to approve or deny the agreement.If denied,Triax has the right to go to court on the agreement and have a court decide through preponderance of evidence that the city was justified in denying the license agreement.There is case law available on this and cities have denied cable licenses.However,99% of the renewals are successful as the two parties are able to come to an agreement.The council could grant the renewal with negotiated terms,those that would be new and additional to the current license agreement.The company would then have to fall under all the rules of the agreement.Under this agreement,Triax would have to follow Chapter 14 regarding billing functions and the procedural due processes required if there is any non-compliance.Triax would have to abide by all the terms and conditions that are in the agreement as well as in the licensing regulatory ordinance. City Manager Curtis Shook stated staff would like to give a brief presentation addressing the history and the experience of the city with the Triax contract.He requested Michael Munroe to provide the report. Vice Mayor Surra asked if there were any members of Triax at the public hearing today. City Attorney Joel Stern stated they are represented at the public hearing;they will be allowed to speak after Mr. Munroe and before the public hearing is opened. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe briefed the council on the item.He has served as the cable administrator for the city and has researched and reviewed the cable issues since January 1997.The renewal process is federally mandated by the Federal Communications Commission.The renewal time period begins three years prior to the expiration of the agreement.This license was to expire June 1999. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 7 OF 44 The city had two clear objectives to accomplish during this renewal process - to determine the future cable related needs and interests of the community, and to review the past performance of Triax as the cable operator.A citizens'advisory committed was formed to perform a needs assessment to determine the future cable related needs and interests.Public meetings were held for public comment.They also sent out a survey and reviewed the results.Based on the information provided,they made their recommendations. He stated he had 4 exhibits that he wanted to present,and they would be referred to as Exhibit A,Exhibit B,Exhibit C and Exhibit D.Exhibit A is the final report formulated by the citizens'advisory committee,and it includes an introduction,a background of cable television in the city,a brief description of the committee,information on the public meetings that were held,discussion on the cable television survey,further discussion on the results,a presentation on the recommendations that the committee made, and the conclusions made from this information.In the appendix is the Apache Junction Needs and Interest Survey Quantitative Results and Qualitative Results.The survey was sent to 12,000 households in the city,and they had a 17% return.The qualitative results totaled about 100 pages of open-ended response from the citizens.Customer satisfaction was measured,length of subscription,types of services they like,and the types of services they would like to see in the future.The second issue looked at was past performance.The city notified Triax in May 1996,previous to the renewal period,that the current license agreement had been violated several times.A letter was sent by then City Attorney Glenn Gimbut stating the concerns had not been addressed.The situation was monitored from then on.In January 1997 City Manager Curtis Shook notified Triax they were in violation of several issues,including no local office being open for 4-6 weeks during December 1995 to January 1996.The cable television rates were increased with no notification.There were numerous complaints on the aspects of the cable service on the survey;people felt the service was poor,the local office was not customer service oriented,they were not able to make payments at the office or get billing issues resolved,phone calls being routed long distance from the local office,and having no local phone number listed.A recent violation,in the last three weeks,involved the correction of and receipt of an application for permits to operate in the right-of-way.City Engineer Paul Stears had to discuss the problem with them going into the right-of-way and having to alter it.At one point,Triax cut a newly paved street in order to lay cable.The issue was the restoration of the street back to city standards.Exhibit B contains these and all the correspondence that the city has had with Triax.Exhibit C is a technical audit by William F.Potts of the REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 8 OF 44 cable system that the city and Pinal County partnered on.The summary page refers to a lot of findings.FCC Proofs of Performance are supposed to be done semi-annually on the cable system and submitted to the city;Triax failed to meet the minimum standards at most of the test points.This essentially meant the system was failing.The quality of signal and sound was lacking. The results of the measurements made during the on -site visit and those made afterwards show that the cable system is being operated below FCC technical standards.They withdrew their April 60 ,7th and 8th,1997,FCC Proof of Performance due to its lack of completeness and accuracy.These are serious violations of the FCC rules.Exhibit D is the current cable ordinance, Chapter 14.In Section 14-1-11,Public Buildings,Triax violated the ordinance by not providing basic cable service to all public buildings that had been specified by the city.In Section 14-1-12,Triax violated the ordinance by not having an emergency override section in place.In Section 14-1-13,Triax violated the ordinance by not having emergency standby power units available along the distribution center or along the head end.In Section 141-18,Safety Requirements,Triax violated the construction of the cable system in Paragraph B.In Section 14-1-24,Rates,which also gets at several other issues,Triax violated the requirements for submitting periodically,especially in the event of a rate increase,the necessary paperwork.None of those items were formally submitted to the city, therefore,when the rate increase was put into effect it violated the contract.In Section 14-1-27,Triax was to submit periodic reports to the city.Most of them were never submitted,and some were not submitted even after being requested.In Section 14-1-28,Triax violated the requirements by not submitting proofs of performance.There was no record of their being done for some time.The one done for the consultant was found to be inadequate and an incorrect study.Other issues involve record inspection and customer service violations. Vice Mayor Surra asked what was the result so far as penalties or punitive measures against Triax for the city defining for them where they fell short on the agreement,since those problems were not resolved. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe stated there were no penalties or damages assessed.They were documented as occurrences that were kept on record as part of this process. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 9 OF 44 Vice Mayor Surra asked if there were avenues in the agreement defining any penalties that could have been imposed if there had been a breach in the agreement. City Attorney Joel Stern stated there is a termination clause,Section 14-1-36.The city would have to put them on notice of the violations,give them a certain amount of time to comply in writing,and have a public hearing on the matter if there was failure to comply.The council would then have the ability to give them additional time or terminate the license. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe commented some of the violations are current and some of the violations have been resolved. Vice Mayor Surra asked what the Federal Communications Commission imposed on them in the way of penalties or punitive measures because of their failure to provide the reports. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe stated the Federal Communications Commission basically just puts out standards that should be maintained.They do not take disciplinary action.That is left to the city to take care of within the parameters of the licensing document.The issue of rate regulation is one that can be taken to the Federal Communications Commission for relief. City Attorney Joel Stern stated Section 14-1-22 allows for $500 in damages per day for each day the installation is not fully completed. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe stated that was just for the initial construction. that was correct.It is the only penalty draft have a number of liquidated damages from $100 to $2,500,for different things installation. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 10 OF 44 City Attorney Joel Stern commented of liquidated damages.The current for different violations,ranging including billing practices and Vice Mayor Surra stated she was interested in the past history of their failure to comply and with what was done in order to add incentive to comply.Obviously,there was nothing that gave them enough incentive.Even her husband's nasty calls to them was not enough incentive for them to fix some of the problems.She is sure other customers called with nasty comments.She believes the individual is powerless unless the city acts on their behalf.She wanted to make sure the city had been lenient up until now and that it was not Triax ignoring anything that had been imposed as a penalty.She asked if the city had been "Mr.Nice Guy" up until now. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe stated they were put on notice on several occasions that there were violations. Vice Mayor Surra asked if it was ever taken any further. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe stated there were some instances where there was a disagreement as to whether or not there was a violation.In some instances Triax did not recognize what the city was saying or agree that what we were calling a violation was a violation.In other cases,they solved the issue.There was a spectrum of violations with different outcomes. Vice Mayor Surra stated the goal, with the input of the citizens and the subscribers,is to put into effect an airtight agreement that will "hold their feet to the fire" for a change. Tonight they are asking for people to define for the council,and for the members of Triax in attendance,what should be in the next agreement and ordinance. City Attorney Joel Stern commented the proposed agreement sets forth a procedure for correcting the license violations.There is a fourteen day time frame to inform them of the violations,thirty days to comply with the violations,plus a notice of dispute if they disagree with our classification of a violation,and a revocation and removal clause.In his estimation,this agreement is very airtight. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 11 OF 44 Vice Mayor Surra commented it is one that is very easy for everyone to understand.She added it would not take a Philadelphia lawyer to determine if there was a violation or not. City Attorney Joel Stern commented it may not take a Philadelphia lawyer,but possibly a Minneapolis attorney. However,she is not here tonight.The agreement is clear enough wherein any judge should be able to pick it up and understand it. Assistant to the City Manager Michael Munroe stated they do want public comment tonight;the key thing in the negotiations is that the city has to represent what the needs of the city are for cable television in the future.The survey was a good measure,but the administrative hearing is for people to publicly comment on the license and to restate those needs and interests. Mayor Coleman called for the applicant to address the council. Mr.Tom Bordwell,the government relations manager for Triax,addressed the council.He thanked the council for their consideration of their proposal for renewal.He commented Triax was alerted when it was learned the city was performing a needs assessment.They had an older system serving a growing community,trying to keep up with more customers,additional growth and a greater demand for customer service.There was no competition for cable service at the time this system was built.Today there is competition from other providers and from direct dish satellites. The company had to decide whether to continue the way they had done or change it;the message was clear to change the system.They took the work of the needs assessment committee and their own staff seriously and put together a plan that put a capital budget in place.The system upgrades began last September,starting with fiber backbones,which would increase reliability and performance.Other goals include programming choices and customer service, but the first goal must be reached or the other two would suffer terribly. They just completed an installation of over 130 miles of fiber optic cable within Apache Junction and Gold Canyon.They can now offer over 100 video channels,pay per view channels,and stereo radio all on a fiber backbone which has back up power;this was in the needs assessment report.There is now battery power on their nodes.They are willing to provide the city's technical consultant with all the information on their upgrades and future REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 12 OF 44 plans for continued upgrades.He added they have Steve Starr,the construction supervisor,Ben Traw,the area plant manager,and Sandy Wiese who rolls out the digital product,here tonight.They cut in the last fiber node at 2 A.M.this morning.There are 37 nodes in total.Previously,in an average month they would get 280 trouble calls for the Apache Junction system. Since the cut over began in the last month,the calls for the month of May were 107.He believes i t is clearly a benefit of the fiber optic system. They have a stronger signal,and if the power goes out their generator kicks in and has the signal going out within 3 seconds.Now that the first goal is complete,they will start aggressively marketing their new channel line-up with increased programming.This is their answer to the competition.They need to compete head on with price and product.He believes their product is a good value.Triax's plans have changed as they have entered into an agreement to be purchased by Mediacom.Mediacom is well aware of the discussions going on with the city regarding the renewal and the future franchise license.Under the terms of the purchase,any commitments that Triax would make with the City of Apache Junction would also be an obligation of Mediacom.Therefore,they are in the loop of what is being discussed. They look forward to coming to speak to the city at a future public hearing. They are excited about the system and the condition of where its at,and they look forward to improving the system as well.The third area of their focus was customer service.There have been problems as they have grown.People can get served at the local office:all the services you can get over the phone can be taken care of at the local office.They will continue to make improvements in customer service.They are trying to make all of their customer service representatives aware of all the products they have available.Apache Junction is the only city with their digital product.They have reinvested in their phone system,which now allows them to pull out data to show how quickly they answer the phone and how long it takes to handle a call.They believe they have identified the major issues on both sides of the agreement and they think they can get to an agreement both parties will be satisfied to sign. Mayor Coleman opened the item to council discussion. Councilmember Durbala commented the rates go from the basic rate of $29.50,which gives the same channels as received before,to $67.00 a month for the ultimate,which includes the movie channels. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 13 OF 44 Mr.Tom Bordwell stated the $67.00 per month would give you everything. Councilmember Durbala asked if there was any Internet accessibility.He thought that was supposed to be part of the agreement.He commented the price change seems like an awful big increase. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated it is not necessarily an increase,i t is an increase in channels.The digital product allows you to decide what you want to buy,whether it be primarily sports channels,movie channels or others. Councilmember Durbala stated the average cost will be $47 to $52 per month for most of that.It would give you the basic cable,the Encore and the Star program. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated it could also give you different movie packs. Councilmember Durbala commented those would be the older movies plus the music stations.It would be the smaller things.He reiterated he did not see anything on the Internet. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they are currently not providing an Internet service on the system now. Councilmember Durbala commented he thought that was supposed to be in the agreement.He asked Mr.Bordwell to explain the "interconnection" mentioned in the agreement.From what he understands,one is supposed to be able to link up with other cable systems or other individuals offering other channels. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they have not taken a close look at that to define exactly what i t is the city is trying to accomplish.However,they cannot legally hook into another city's cable system. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 14 OF 44 Councilmember Durbala commented they are supposed to be able to have a system that would enable them to connect into another satellite. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they have that today. Councilmember Durbala asked if the people would be able to get the Suns games. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated that is not an equipment issue,it is a programming issue. Councilmember Durbala wanted it on the record as to whether the city would be able to get that. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they are trying to get that programming. Councilmember Durbala commented they are still in "limbo land" on that issue. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated that was correct.It has to do with the programming agreement currently in place with the providers. Councilmember Durbala asked if the payment to the city would be increased to 5%. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated it is currently 3% and the city is now asking for 5%. Councilmember Durbala asked what would happen if Mediacom backs out of the purchase deal at the last minute. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated if the sale does not close,Triax will operate as is and it would be bound by any and all franchise agreements that are in place. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 15 OF 44 Councilmember Durbala commented it appears to be a 25% to 30% rate increase over some of the other cable systems, when including the movie channel offerings. Mr.Tom Bordwell asked what that was compared to. Councilmember Durbala stated it was comparing the old rates with the new rates. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated he had not done the percentage numbers.He reminded them that they have added product. Councilmember Durbala asked if everything would be digital. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they would continue to provide an analog signal right now.He is not sure of the cut over plan to get everybody on digital.He added if they did a complete cut over to digital,every customer would need the extra converter box.He is not sure they have planned to do that. Councilmember Durbala asked if that was an additional $1.29 per month. Ms Sandy Wiese stated the analog charge is $23.54 per month,which is the basic rate for the $29.00.That will remain the same.Anything above and beyond that is the digital service;one will pay extra if they want it. would need a different converter box. Councilmember Durbala asked if they Ms Sandy Wiese stated they would. City Attorney Joel Stern reminded the council that people from the audience need to come up to the podium to speak as this is being recorded. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 16 OF 44 Councilmember Durbala stated Triax has not produced the quality of service that they were contracted to do.This has occurred over and over again.As an example,in the last three days his wife took the remote control to their office.The first day she was told that she had to have a cable ready television.This was for an old 13"color television in their bedroom.They next told her they did not have those remote controls anymore.When she went in there the second day,they gave her another remote control.That one did not work either.After going in earlier today,they finally gave her a new one.The woman working there apologized; i t is a shame that she talked to three people and only one of them seemed to know if the remote control worked.He has heard numerous complaints from other people about their system being out continually,the channels frequently changing,the lack of information they received from the Minnesota office and their refusal to give them a local telephone number.He thinks the latter is very poor service.He continually hears nothing but problems about Triax.He is glad they are being bought out as this may give the city a chance to have a cable company that will listen to the people.Right now it appears Triax does not care one way or the other what happens.He does appreciate their working with the AJ News to get the local sports coverage on the system.He added other than that,he does not see where they have done anything to help this city. There was general discussion as to when the city received a cable system and how long the supplier has been Triax. Councilmember Eck asked when the city started receiving pay -per -view.He has been a customer of Triax since he moved there and he does not have pay -per -view. Mr.Tom Bordwell commented it started about thirty days ago. Councilmember Eck asked when they were going to inform the customer that they have pay -per -view available. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they could not get pay -per -view until the city was cut over to the fiber system,which was just completed.They first started notifying their premium channel customers;they were their first market. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 17 OF 44 Councilmember Eck commented that they put one set of customers above the entire group. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated it was for good reason.When they got a product out that they were going to sell en masse,they wanted to be able .to get it out there and know what the bugs were for installation,they and the local team would know the product,and they would not be so overwhelmed with requests for service that they could not handle them in a timely fashion.The plan will be much more aggressive now that the system is complete.They have found that the installation at the beginning could take as long as three hours to accomplish because of different equipment they have not used before.They go over a video with the customer at installation so that they know how to operate the system and navigate around the system which is like a mini -computer. Councilmember Eck asked about the 100 plus channels,as he does not have 100 plus channels. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated the digital product has 104 channels,plus additional music channels.The cable modem box is required to receive those channels. Councilmember Eck asked when the fiber nodes were cut in. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated the final one was just put in this morning. Councilmember Eck stated their customer service is less than desirable by any means.He paid a bill in cash at this office.The Minnesota office billed them the following month,stating they did not pay it.His wife called them and she was told to bring in a receipt.She faxed the receipt to the main office in Minnesota.The Minnesota office told his wife that it looked like the receipt had been tampered with.That response irritated him.The Triax employee actually said "It looked like it had been messed with".His wife could only tell the employee that it was a paid receipt.He repeated that their customer service is less than desirable for him and for much of the community.His cable went out on him on a Friday night last winter and he had no service until Monday. That is irritating.He commented it overwhelms him that all this work has REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 18 OF 44 been done in the last month after being here for so many years.It seems ironic;if he was in business himself,he would have been doing these things throughout the years so he would have a good rapport with his customers.He would not try to make everything look like a rose at contract negotiation time. Councilmember Dietz added that a buy out is involved. Mayor Coleman closed the discussion and opened the public hearing on the items. Mr.C.R.Mills addressed the council.He commented he was proud to hear some of the comments and opinions expressed by the council.He stated they were promised a local weather station in the beginning;they had it for a number of years.They also promised that channel 37 would be nothing but a program channel.For the past six months he has been calling Minnesota regarding the weather station and he gets different excuses every time,and different dates as to when it will be back on.At this time he is only getting the Phoenix weather and he wants to know what the local weather is.Channel 37 is now a split image advertising channel;frequently with 3 stations on it.It goes too fast to read,and if it is squeezed into two stations,you cannot even read it.He would like to know why these channels are still like that after six months.He has been complaining about channel 37 for five months.He added he thinks their service is pitiful.He would not like to see the residents saddled with that service over a long term. Mrs.Jennie K.Bennett,422 Rosal, Apache Junction,addressed the council.She feels with the technology available today,they should be able to get telephone service through this company.They should not have to go a mile out of the city to solicit their business.There should be a local telephone number where their complaints can be taken care of. Mrs.Midge Conway,902 S.Ocotillo Drive,Apache Junction,addressed the council.She complained about having a remote control that would not work.She had to get up and physically change the channel.After calling them,they came out and showed her how to work the REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 19 OF 44 remote control.Their employee told her that this was the only call they are going to make because they get only one service call.This provoked her.She called them shortly afterwards to complain and told them she would have to have Channel 5 get after them.She believed that would be more effective than calling the city.Also,she never received any notification that the city was having meetings on the cable licensing.She would have attended if she had known.She only receives 52 channels;even when she got HBO she only got 52 channels.She has no problems with the reception on channel 37,but she thinks i t leaves a lot to be desired. Mr.Elliott Fisher,547 E.Quail, Apache Junction,addressed the council.He commented the only thing he finds going faster than the scrolling information on the information channel is their billing statements.He thought he would slow them down and pay the late fees,but the statements then sped up.These are hard days of owning a vehicle in Apache Junction and not being able to afford no transit options. He added the statements come less than every 15 days.They might want to do something about working with the customers a little more. Mrs.Midge Conway asked why she pays $30 per month and Jennie Bennett pays $29.She wondered if it was because she complained. Vice Mayor Surra stated it was probably over that remote that you called on the second time. Councilmember Dietz stated it was because she used her service call. Mr.Rick Gardner,685 W.Tepee, addressed the council.He explained about the telephone call and office experience he had regarding informing him of his ability to receive fiber optic programming.After determining which programming he wanted,he called the office and set up an appointment for installation.Twice they canceled scheduled installation appointments,asking him to reschedule each time,but leaving no telephone number to call to reschedule.He has finally given up; but it would be okay if someone wants to come out and put the modem box in for the digital service.He also does not want to see the same program on numerous channels,and requested that they do things logically. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 20 OF 44 Mayor Coleman closed the public hearing and reopened the item to council discussion. Councilmember Urich stated some of the comments she has heard tonight she has heard echoed out in the community over and over again.She took an informal survey of the citizens to see if they would like to temporarily extend the contract until the council can negotiate a better one.All of them wanted it extended,as for some of them i t is the only television they have.She is hoping they can negotiate a contract wherein they put customer back in customer service. Councilmember Insalaco stated he has been a customer of Triax ever since they have been in Apache Junction,and he thinks the system stinks -all forms of it.The Tuesday before last Labor Day channels 2-13 started fading out on his television:they could hardly be seen. He called and told them no one would be home until after 5:30 p.m.When he got home,there was a sticker on the door stating someone had been there at 1:00 p.m.and he needed to call to have another person come out.He called on Wednesday,and by this time he had no channels whatsoever.He again told them to come after 5:30 p.m.as no one would be home.When he got home,there was another sticker on the door stating they had been there at 4:40 p.m.and to please reschedule.Thursday someone was there at 5:30 p.m.just as he got home.They could not find the problem and they would be back on Friday.No one showed up on Friday.He called on Saturday,still not having any services.There was no answer.Monday is the holiday so there is no answer. He refused to call them again so his wife called them on Tuesday.Someone finally came on Wednesday to fix it.It went out again on Thursday afternoon. It took two more weeks before he finally got his service back:however,his bill came right on schedule to pay in full. Councilmember Dietz added it was for the full amount. Councilmember Insalaco stated he called to have a billing correction done and they told him they needed documentation.He told them they had it,all they had to do was look and see how often the repairmen had been out there.He is not pleased with their service and he knows he is not the only one.He added as he is a customer of theirs,it will be very hard for him to make a decision. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 21 OF 44 Councilmember Durbala commented they had stated their complaint call average went from 280 calls down to 100 some in May.He wonders if it was because they were not answering their phones there or they no longer know what it is. Vice Mayor Surra stated it is probably that the winter visitors left. Councilmember Durbala added they have an excess of about 20,000 people leaving at that time.That was something he had been going to say before the vice mayor said it. City Manager Curtis Shook asked what experience people would have if they called their system.He wanted to know who they would reach or talk to. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they have a 1-800 number for customer service that goes to Wauseka,Minnesota.That is also for repairs and billing information. City Manager Curtis Shook asked where one would get that number,as it is not in the local telephone book. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated it would be on every billing statement that is sent out.They can also get it through directory assistance. City Manager Curtis Shook asked if it cost the customer money to call directory assistance. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated he was not sure. There was a general consensus from the council that it does cost the customer money. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated he was not sure if they had a local listing with the 1-800 number in the white pages. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 22 OF 44 Councilmember Insalaco stated they were not in the phone book. City Manager Curtis Shook stated he had shown him different responses received from city employees that have called for the purpose of receiving information on the digital system. Depending on what day it was,they would get a different response altogether. One time they might talk to someone in Minnesota,another time they would be referred to another number.When you dialed that number,it would give you the same message you had received on the previous number.He asked why that would happen. Mr.Tom Bordwell asked if they were talking about the blank space experience. City Manager Curtis Shook stated he was. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated that happened last Thursday.When they went back to investigate what had happened, it appeared to be a phone switch problem that had occurred.It was directly related to the digital product.The calls coming from Apache Junction regarding the digital product require a level of training on the customer service representative's part so that they are informed of what is involved in the installation and about the products themselves.They want to minimize that experience from occurring,as it did to the one gentlemen,and hopefully prevent i t from ever happening again.Those representatives were pulled off the phone lines on Thursday to receive updated training for Apache Junction. The person handling the phone switching should have forwarded those calls to other representatives on the next desk.Instead,it was put into a repair and billing cycle,which then looped them back into the phone call since the repair and billing cycle is an after hours number.As it was not after hours, there was no one there to answer the phone. City Manager Curtis Shook asked if one called under normal circumstances with the phones working appropriately, where would that representative be speaking to them from. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 23 OF 44 Mr.Tom Bordwell stated they would be speaking from Wauseka,Minnesota. City Manager Curtis Shook asked if he thought that follows the current ordinance. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated he does not have the language in front of him of the current ordinance. City Manager Curtis Shook commented that it does not.He asked if he knew if the annual audits and performance reports had been submitted to the city within the confines of the current ordinance. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated he did not know. City Manager Curtis Shook commented he believed it had already been submitted for the record that they probably did not. Mr.Tom Bordwell stated those questions regarding to conformance and compliance may have a different response from other members of the company.With the proper hearing and notification they can probably fully answer those questions.He does not want them to assume that his answers are complete for those questions. Councilmember Dietz commented he had no problem when he called Triax last week.He got right through to cancel his service. Mayor Coleman closed the discussion and called for a motion. City Attorney Joel Stern stated there was a council member missing from the room.(Vice Mayor Anne Surra had left the meeting at 8:35 p.m.due to a medical emergency.) REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 24 OF 44 City Clerk Kathleen Connelly commented she did not know if she would be back as she did not hear everything the vice mayor had said. Mayor Coleman commented she had left her purse so she should be coming back. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated to add to the record that she was temporarily absent from the meeting. City Attorney Joel Stern commented they could go ahead with the motion. Mayor Coleman called again for a motion. Councilmember Urich MOVED THAT CONSIDERATION OF TRIAX MIDWEST ASSOCIATES,L.P.'S REQUEST FOR RENEWAL OF ITS CABLE SYSTEM LICENSE BE CONTINUED TO TWO ADDITIONAL PUBLIC HEARING DATES OF TUESDAY,JULY THE 61",1999,AND TUESDAY,JULY THE 20m,1999,AND A WORK SESSION ON MONDAY,JULY THE 1 9 4,1999:AND THAT ITS CABLE SYSTEM LICENSE BE EXTENDED TO JULY THE 20-m,1999 AT 11 P.M.;AND THAT THE CITY MANAGER BE DIRECTED TO NEGOTIATE NEW TERMS AND CONDITIONS TO BE REFLECTED IN A WRITTEN LICENSE AGREEMENT WHICH MEETS THE APPROVAL OF THE CITY ATTORNEY. Councilmember Dietz SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous.(Vice Mayor was temporarily absent during this vote.) Mayor Coleman called for a fifteen minute break. Mayor Coleman reconvened the meeting.Vice Mayor Surra had returned to the meeting. PROPOSED ORDINANCE NO.1083/AMENDING ARTICLE 10-1 OFFENSES -GENERAL BY AMENDING SECTION 10-1-29 TRUANCY REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 25 OF 44 )City Attorney Joel Stern briefed the council on this item.The ordinance includes an emergency clause and it reflects the current statutory law.It defines truancy and enables the city to prosecute more violations within a shorter period of time that have been documented by the school district.The school district has been advised of the changes and agrees with them.This ordinance will assist his office in prosecution.He asked for approval. Councilmember Durbala asked if he had any contact with the school concerning this ordinance. City Attorney Joel Stern stated he had not,but Mary Ann Coyne had talked to school officials and advised them that the city would be prosecuting pursuant to state law.They apparently have no difficulty with that whatsoever. Councilmember Durbala wanted to make sure that this would be replacing what they have in their school policy now, and if they had advised the parents. City Attorney Joel Stern stated he could not answer that.He does not know what the school board will do with their policies.If they are advised by a school resource officer or by another school district official and they have documentation which fits our definition of truant,the city will prosecute them.This ordinance will make it occur in a shorter period of time.It used to be an accumulated amount of 7 or more unexcused absences per semester;it now reads being truant means having an unexcused absence for at least one class period during the day. Each one is a violation. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and called for any council discussion. Vice Mayor Surra asked if it could be a very busy office on senior ditch day. City Attorney Joel Stern stated it probably would be,in addition to right before the prom. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 26 OF 44 Mayor Coleman closed the discussion and called for a motion. Councilmember Eck MOVED THAT ORDINANCE NO.1083 BE READ BY TITLE ONLY WITH THE EMERGENCY CLAUSE AND THE READING OF THE ENTIRE ORDINANCE BE WAIVED. Councilmember Insalaco SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly read the ordinance by title only with the emergency clause. Councilmember Eck MOVED THAT ORDINANCE NO.1083,AS READ BY THE CITY CLERK,BE APPROVED AND ADOPTED. Councilmember Dietz SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED ORDINANCE NO.1082/AMENDING CHAPTER 9 HEALTH AND SANITATION BY ADDING NEW ARTICLE 9-5 HOURS OF COLLECTION FOR COMMERCIAL SOLID WASTE )City Manager Curtis Shook briefed the council on this item.The commercial pick up hours were inadvertently left out when this was amended last fall.Staff has brought back an ordinance including that.However,this ordinance states pick up may begin at 5 a.m., he believes some council members would like that changed to 6 a.m.The past ordinance did have it at 6 a.m.Council may wish to amend the starting time. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 27 OF 44 Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and opened the item to council discussion. Councilmember Urich stated she had called the City of Mesa and learned that they do not start their trash pick up until 6 a.m.She believes they should have the same pick up time for residential and commercial;that it be from 6 a.m.to 5 p.m. the 5 p.m.time is monitored. they do it by complaint. give him a complaint. Vice Mayor Surra asked how closely City Manager Curtis Shook stated Vice Mayor Surra asked if she could City Manager Curtis Shook stated they do phone in the complaints when they are received.It would be difficult for city personnel to be out on the streets to note the infractions. Councilmember Eck asked what the times were for residential collection. Councilmember Urich stated i t is 6 a.m.to 5 p.m. Councilmember Eck commented he thought the consensus in their discussions was that the commercial would start at 6 a.m.He was confused when he saw the 5 a.m. City Attorney Joel Stern stated he put 5 a.m.in there after he was advised by Michael Munroe that that is what was common in most other cities.It was at 6 a.m.to begin with,but he recalled at the last work session that 5 a.m.was preferred. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 28 OF 44 Vice Mayor Surra stated it was preferred only by one individual that occupies a lot of your time at that end of the dais. Councilmember Eck believes 6 a.m.is a more appropriate time. Mayor Coleman closed the discussion and called for a motion. Councilmember Dietz MOVED THAT ORDINANCE NO.1082 BE READ BY TITLE ONLY WITH THE EMERGENCY CLAUSE AND THE READING OF THE ENTIRE ORDINANCE BE WAIVED. Councilmember Insalaco SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly read the ordinance by title only with the emergency clause. Mayor Coleman asked where the ordinance would need to be amended. Vice Mayor Surra stated it would be under Section 9-5-2(A),under Hours,reflecting 6 instead of 5. Councilmember Dietz MOVED THAT ORDINANCE NO.1082,AS READ BY THE CITY CLERK,BE APPROVED AND ADOPTED WITH THE AMENDMENTS:THAT THE HOURS BE CHANGED FROM 5 A.M.TO 6 A.M.TO 5 P.M.IN SECTION 9-5-2(A),BE APPROVED. Councilmember Insalaco SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 29 OF 44 The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION OF INTENTION NO.99-20 /STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID 9712-1)IRONWOOD ESTATES )City Engineer Paul Stears briefed the council on the item.He commented he has a number of items on the agenda this evening regarding street light improvement districts.New subdivisions are coming on line;it is time to get the districts established and authorize the construction of the said districts.This one is for Ironwood Estates. The developer petitioned for the establishment of this district on December 12,1997.All the paperwork is in order;he requested the council to approve the resolution. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing on the item and opened it to council discussion. Councilmember Dietz asked why it has taken a few years to get the district established. City Engineer Paul Stears stated it should have been established a lot earlier.This one has not progressed as quickly as it should.They are bringing these forward so they can proceed with the assessment collection. Councilmember Dietz asked if that is the case for the other districts being heard this evening. City Engineer Paul Stears stated they are trying to clean the books up and get all the districts established. Mayor Coleman closed the council discussion and called for a motion. Councilmember Eck MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-20,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,DECLARING ITS INTENTION TO CREATE A DISTRICT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PURCHASING ELECTRICITY,WHICH INCLUDES A CHARGE FOR THE USE OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 30 OF 44 LIGHTING FACILITIES,FOR STREET LIGHTING WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS IRONWOOD ESTATES,A SUBDIVISION,AS RECORDED IN CABINET C,SLIDE 031 OF THE PINAL COUNTY RECORDER'S OFFICE,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA:ALL WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF APACHE JUNCTION,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,PURSUANT TO ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES ANNOTATED ("ARS")§48-616 AND §48-617 AND DECLARING THE PURCHASE OF ELECTRICITY TO BE OF MORE THAN LOCAL OR ORDINARY PUBLIC BENEFIT,AND THAT THE COST OF SAID ELECTRICITY SHALL BE ASSESSED ON THE DISTRICT,BE APPROVED. Councilmember Insalaco SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION ORDERING WORK NO. 99-21/STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID 9712-1)IRONWOOD ESTATES )City Engineer Paul Stears stated this resolution will order the construction of the Ironwood Estates street light improvement.Once approved,they can order Salt River Project to start establishing the street lights there. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on this item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and opened the item to council discussion. Councilmember Eck asked why there are two separate resolutions for the establishment of street light improvement districts. City Attorney Joel Stern stated they do different things. Mayor Coleman commented the first one establishes the district and the second orders the work to be done. City Attorney Joel Stern commented under state law you have to have two separate resolutions. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 31 OF 44 Councilmember Eck stated he was confused because usually a resolution is followed by an ordinance. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated that is when you declare something a public record and then adopt it by reference. City Attorney Joel Stern commented that is different.It is totally separate.Under state law,i t is done by resolutions for improvement districts. Councilmember Dietz asked if the street lights were already installed. City Engineer Paul Stears stated they were. Councilmember Dietz commented they are now just giving them the okay to put them in. City Engineer Paul Stears stated that was correct. Councilmember Eck MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-21,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO ORDER THE INSTALLATION OF STREET LIGHTS WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS IRONWOOD ESTATES,A SUBDIVISION RECORDED IN CABINET C.SLIDE 031,PINAL COUNTY, RECORDER,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,BE APPROVED. Vice Mayor Surra SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION OF INTENTION NO.99-22 /STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 32 OF 44 9804-1)ARIZONA GRANDE )City Engineer Paul Stears briefed the council on this item.The petition from the developer was received on July 13,1998.All the paperwork is in order and he asked for approval of the resolution. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and opened the item to council discussion.There being no discussion,he called for a motion. Councilmember Urich MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-22,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,DECLARING ITS INTENTION TO CREATE A DISTRICT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PURCHASING ELECTRICITY,WHICH INCLUDED A CHARGE FOR THE USE OF LIGHTING FACILITIES,FOR STREET LIGHTING WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS ARIZONA GRANDE,A SUBDIVISION,AS RECORDED IN CABINET C.SLIDE 058 OF THE PINAL COUNTY RECORDER'S OFFICE,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA:ALL WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF APACHE JUNCTION,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,PURSUANT TO ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES ANNOTATED (1416")§48-616 AND §48-617 AND DECLARING THE PURCHASE OF ELECTRICITY TO BE OF MORE THAN LOCAL OR ORDINARY PUBLIC BENEFIT,AND THAT THE COST OF SAID ELECTRICITY SHALL BE ASSESSED ON THE DISTRICT,BE APPROVED. Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION ORDERING WORK NO. 99-23/STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID 9804-1)ARIZONA GRANDE )City Engineer Paul Stears briefed the council on the item.This resolution follows along after the previous resolution.He requested approval of the resolution. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 33 OF 44 public hearing on the item and opened it to council discussion.There being no one wishing to speak,he called for a motion. Councilmember Urich MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-23,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO ORDER THE INSTALLATION OF STREET LIGHTS WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS ARIZONA GRANDE,A SUBDIVISION RECORDED IN CABINET C,SLIDE 058,PINAL COUNTY RECORDER, PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,BE APPROVED. Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION OF INTENTION NO.99-25 /STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID 9801-2)CORTEZ RANCH )City Engineer Paul Stears briefed the council on this item.The petition from the developer was signed on January 19,1998.All the paperwork is in order and he asked for approval of the resolution. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and opened the item to council discussion.There being no discussion,he called for a motion. Councilmember Insalaco MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-25,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,DECLARING ITS INTENTION TO CREATE A DISTRICT FOR THE PURPOSE OF PURCHASING ELECTRICITY,WHICH INCLUDES A CHARGE FOR THE USE OF LIGHTING FACILITIES,FOR STREET LIGHTING WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS CORTEZ RANCH,A SUBDIVISION,A RECORDED IN CABINET C,SLIDE 030 OF THE PINAL COUNTY RECORDER'S OFFICE,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA;ALL WITHIN THE CITY LIMITS OF APACHE JUNCTION,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,PURSUANT TO ARIZONA REVISED STATUTES ANNOTATED ("ARS")S48-616 AND §48-617 AND DECLARING THE PURCHASE OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 34 OF 44 ELECTRICITY TO BE OF MORE THAN LOCAL OR ORDINARY PUBLIC BENEFIT,AND THAT THE COST OF SAID ELECTRICITY SHALL BE ASSESSED ON THE DISTRICT,BE APPROVED. Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION ORDERING WORK NO. 99-26/STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID 9801-2)CORTEZ RANCH )City Engineer Paul Stears briefed the council on this item.This is the resolution ordering the work for the district just established.He requested approval. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and opened the item to council discussion.There being no discussion,he called for a motion. Councilmember Insalaco MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-26,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO ORDER THE INSTALLATION OF STREET LIGHTS WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS CORTEZ RANCH,A SUBDIVISION RECORDED IN CABINET C,SLIDE 030,PINAL COUNTY RECORDER, PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,BE APPROVED. Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. PROPOSED RESOLUTION ORDERING WORK NO. 99-24/STREET LIGHT IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SLID 9510-1)ARROYO VERDE PHASE 3 REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 35 OF 44 )City Engineer Paul Stears briefed the council on this item.This street light improvement district has already been established;the petition was received in October 1995.The district was established in December 1997.This resolution will order street light installation in Phase 3.All paperwork is in order and he requested approval of the resolution. Mayor Coleman opened the public hearing on the item.There being no one wishing to speak,he closed the public hearing and opened the item to council discussion.There being no discussion,he called for a motion. Councilmember Eck MOVED THAT RESOLUTION NO.99-24,A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA,AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO ORDER THE INSTALLATION OF STREET LIGHTS WITHIN AN AREA DESCRIBED AS ARROYO VERDE,PHASE 3,A PORTION OF A SUBDIVISION RECORDED IN CABINET B,SLIDE 170, PINAL COUNTY RECORDER,PINAL COUNTY,ARIZONA,BE APPROVED. Vice Mayor Surra SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. OLD BUSINESS. None. NEW BUSINESS. FY 1999-2000 HUMAN SERVICES FUNDING RECOMMENDATIONS AND DIRECTION REGARDING PREPARATION OF THE CONTRACTS )City Clerk Kathleen Connelly announced there were members of the commission in the audience that were prepared to speak. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 36 OF 44 of the commission of the commission made as there had by the council on caught. discussion. Mayor Coleman thanked the members for their hard work on this difficult task. Mrs.Carol Cranmer,chairperson ,addressed the council.She commented a mistake had been been a $5,000 error.The commission would like a decision what to do about the error.She apologized for it not being Mayor Coleman called for any council Councilmember Urich suggested this be referred back to the commission for further deliberation.They have spent numerous hours determining which agency should receive funding and how much. Mrs.Carol Cranmer stated there are three of them here tonight.The only commission member who may not be in town is Carmen Huerta.She agreed with Councilmember Urich's suggestion.However, she was not sure if they could get a quorum. Vice Mayor Surra asked what their correction for the recommendation would be.Council could then make the correction through council action. Mrs.Carol Cranmer stated there are different solutions.She would not recommend accepting their current recommendations as they are $5,000 short on one agency. Vice Mayor Surra asked if she would like to reallocate the dollars the way they were intended to be. Mrs.Carol Cranmer stated she is only one member of the commission. Councilmember Urich commented the commission did not know about the typographical error when they deliberated. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 37 OF 44 Mr.Cranmer entered the meeting to advise his wife that their son had just been injured and she needed to leave. The council in general told her to go and they would take care of the matter. Vice Mayor Surra asked if they could continue this to the July 6 meeting to allow the commission to meet in the next few days to formulate a new recommendation. •City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated the earliest they can meet is Thursday,if they can all get together,without violating the open meeting law. Vice Mayor Surra thought that would be okay as Ruth Waters is not leaving until the 23'.That gives them a week to do a new recommendation. City Clerk Kathleen Connelly stated she would contact them tomorrow to see if they could get together over the next several days. Vice Mayor Surra MOVED THAT WE CONTINUE THIS ITEM TO THE JULY 6 AGENDA. Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE APPROVAL FOR CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND EXECUTE AGREEMENT WITH SELECTED SOFTWARE VENDOR FOR SOFTWARE IN DEVELOPMENT SERVICES AND CITY CLERK'S DEPARTMENT )Development Services Director Glen Van Nimwegen briefed the council on the item.The update of this program will improve customer service and solve a Y2K problem with the current software. Tidemark was chosen for their flexibility;they can provide the highest number REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 38 OF 44 of current users and their forms can be easily modified to reflect the needs of each user.They are the low and the high bid.Staff has had preliminary discussions to clarify things with them.Option B should be able to be implemented right away and resolve the Y2K problem.Additional funds will be needed to create additional uses for the program.Staff recommended authorizing the city manager to negotiate a contract with them,not to exceed $170,000,which will allow them some flexibility on the city's needs. Mayor Coleman opened the item to council discussion.There being no discussion,he called for a motion. Councilmember Urich MOVED THAT AUTHORIZATION BE GIVEN TO THE CITY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE AND ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH TIDEMARK COMPUTER SYSTEMS,INCORPORATED FOR AN INTEGRATED PLANNING,PERMITS,CODE ENFORCEMENT,BUSINESS LICENSING,SALES TAX AND FIELD INSPECTIONS SOFTWARE PROGRAM NOT TO EXCEED $170,000,PENDING REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF THE CITY ATTORNEY. Vice Mayor Surra SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. COUNCIL DIRECTION TO STAFF ON PROPOSED LEGISLATION OR ACTION LETTER FOR ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RECOMMENDING POINTS FOR PROPOSED LOW INCOME TAX CREDIT APARTMENT PROJECT )City Manager Curtis Shook briefed the council on this item.This item,and the next,are requests by the State of Arizona through its Housing Program Manager,John Lopach,for the city to consider whether,and by how many points,to award two specific projects. This proposal is for a 168 unit project located at the southeast corner of Royal Palm and Old West Highway,developer Glen Walling.In May council directed staff to better acquaint them with the low income tax credit program. They now have the information but they have not made a draft of evaluative criteria and how to review them.That is in process.He does not believe REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 39 OF 44 they are at the point where they can provide a response to the Department of Commerce regarding either application.As there is a June 18 deadline,he requested staff be directed to send a letter to the Department of Commerce advising them of the city's efforts to establish a criteria to review such projects under and that the city could not provide comments or points at this time on either of these two projects. Mayor Coleman opened the item to council discussion. Vice Mayor Surra commented it would be nice to apply these criteria against a huge plan with drawings,not just from someone's verbalization on something submitted to the council on paper. They should have to do computations.She agrees that they are not ready to say anything about these projects as they have not had the benefit of that kind of large presentation to clarify what they are actually awarding points for. City Manager Curtis Shook commented that is a good point and it should be reflected in the evaluative criteria. Any submission for this program should be similar to what we require for subdivisions,commercial or residential.It would be difficult to assure the community that they would be getting the product that was verbalized otherwise. Vice Mayor Surra stated they might want to add being given acceptance by the neighboring community as part of the criteria.She believes there are still some things missing. Mayor Coleman closed the discussion and called for a motion. Vice Mayor Surra MOVED THAT THE FOLLOWING DIRECTION BE GIVEN TO STAFF REGARDING THE REQUEST FROM THE ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FOR CITY ASSIGNMENT OF POINTS FOR THE APPLICATION FOR A LOW INCOME TAX CREDIT APARTMENT PROJECT FILED BY GLENN WALLING OF WALLING DEVELOPMENT FOR THE 168 UNIT PROJECT LOCATED AT THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF ROYAL PALM AND OLD WEST HIGHWAY:THAT STAFF NOTIFY THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE IN WRITING THAT THE CITY'S IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPING BUT HAS NOT YET REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 40 OF 44 ESTABLISHED CRITERIA FOR THE RATING AND EVALUATION OF LOW INCOME TAX CREDIT HOUSING PROJECTS AND UNTIL SUCH TIME THAT THIS CRITERIA IS REVIEWED AND ACCEPTED AND THAT A PROPER PRESENTATION IS DONE BY THE PROPOSED PROJECT MANAGER THAT THE CITY WILL MAINTAIN A NEUTRAL POSITION AND NOT ASSIGN POINTS TO THIS PROJECT.IF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FINDS IT NECESSARY FOR THE CITY TO RESPOND AT THIS TIME,THEN OUR POSITION FROM THE COUNCIL IS THAT THE CITY CANNOT SUPPORT THE PROJECT. Councilmember Insalaco SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. LETTER FOR ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RECOMMENDING POINTS FOR PROPOSED LOW INCOME TAX CREDIT APARTMENT PROJECT )City Manager Curtis Shook stated this is exactly like the previous item.This is a 164 unit project north of the northwest corner of Superstition and Idaho. Mayor Coleman opened the item to council discussion.There being no discussion,he called for a motion. Vice Mayor Surra MOVED THAT HER MOTION FROM THE PREVIOUS ITEM,WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE NAME OF THE PROJECT, BE PLACED ON THE RECORD.(The project is being developed by Dee Luckinbill, representing Campbell -Hogue & Associates.) Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. ACKNOWLEDGING RECEIPT OF PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 1999-2000 BUDGET AND DIRECTION TO REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 41 OF 44 STAFF )City Manager Curtis Shook briefed the council on the item.He commented they had received the city manager's proposed budget for FY 1999-2000.He asked them to formally acknowledge receipt and to direct staff as to public hearings and work sessions. There was general discussion on the dates the council would be available and how many meetings would be needed. City Manager Curtis Shook reminded them that the tentative budget must be approved by the third Monday in July. Councilmember Durbala MOVED THAT WE ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT OF THE PROPOSED FISCAL YEAR 1999-2000 BUDGET AND THAT THE FOLLOWING DIRECTION BE GIVEN TO STAFF REGARDING THE DATES FOR BUDGET DISCUSSION AND ADOPTION OF THE TENTATIVE BUDGET:BUDGET DISCUSSION ON JUNE 22 AT 7:00 PM.AND ON JUNE 28 AT 6:00 P.M.IN THE CITY CONFERENCE ROOM AND CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS RESPECTIVELY. Councilmember Eck SECONDED THE MOTION. Vice Mayor Surra asked if he had said 6:30 p.m.for the meeting on June 28. Councilmember Durbala stated he had said 6:00 p.m.for those members who have to get up early. Mayor Coleman commented he hopes the second session will be canceled and that they all come prepared.Questions should be dealt with ahead of time:he does not anticipate them combing through each line of every department.They should look at the overall goals. Councilmember Durbala commented he thought he had been elected to look at all the line items. Mayor Coleman commented he hoped he would do that by himself:he does not want to sit and watch him do it. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 42 OF 44 City Manager Curtis Shook commented the budget staff will make themselves available to the council individually to answer their questions. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. SELECTION OF MEETING DATES.TIMES.LOCATIONS.AND PURPOSES Councilmember Durbala MOVED THAT AN EXECUTIVE SESSION AT 6:00 P.M.AND WORK SESSION AT 6:00 P.M.BE HELD ON TUESDAY,JULY 6,1999,IN THE CITY CONFERENCE ROOM AND CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS RESPECTIVELY:AND THAT A SPECIAL EXECUTIVE SESSION ON JUNE 22 AT 6:00 P.M.BE HELD IN THE CITY CONFERENCE ROOM. MOTION. VOTE:Unanimous. The motion carried. INFORMATION AND REPORTS None. ADJOURNMENT Councilmember Dietz SECONDED THE )Mayor Coleman adjourned the meeting at 9:50 p.m. Consent Agenda Items are as follows: 1.Acceptance of Agenda. 2.Acceptance of Minutes of Regular Meeting of June 1,1999. REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 43 OF 44 3.Recognition of Outstanding Service to the Community by City Employees. Employees receiving recognition are:Beth Cowles,Michael Munroe,Edna Morgan,Taleen Carpenter,Elaine Colburn,Liz Langenbach,Jay Reynolds, Shelly Underhill,Gail Graham-Fisel,Suzanne Whitten,and Mikki Frazier. ACCEPTED THIS 6TH DAY OF JULY ,1999,BY THE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION,ARIZONA. SIGNED AND ATTESTED TO THIS 6TH DAY OF JULY ATTEST: KATHLEEN CONNELLY City Clerk DOUGLAS COLEMAN Mayor CITY COUNCIL MINUTES CERTIFICATION 1999. I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Apache Junction,Arizona,held on the 15th day of June,1999.I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 26th day of June,1999. KATHLEEN CONNELLY City Clerk REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL JUNE 15,1999 PAGE 44 OF 44 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ORIGINAL CITY OF APACHE JUNCTION APACHE JUNCTION CITY COUNCIL MEETING JUNE 15, 1999 7:00 P.M. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 4110 12 1.3 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 June 15, 1999 MAYOR COLEMAN:We'll call to order the regular meeting of the Apache Junction City Council.Appreciate having all of you here.And our invocation will be led by Pastor David Watson of the Overcoming Way Church, and the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by Council Member Durbala. (Invocation led by Pastor David Watson) (Pledge of Allegiance, led by Council Member Durbala) MAYOR COLEMAN:Roll call. THE CLERK:Mayor Coleman? MAYOR COLEMAN:Present. THE CLERK:Vice Mayor Surra? VICE MAYOR SURRA:Present. THE CLERK:Council Member Dietz? MR. DIETZ:Present. THE CLERK:Council Member Durbala? MR. DURBALA:Present. THE CLERK:Council Member Eck? MR. ECK:Here. THE CLERK:Council Member Insalaco? MR. INSALACO:Here. THE CLERK:Council Member Urich? MS. URICH:Here. THE CLERK:All members present.We have a quorum, Your Honor. ANv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 MAYOR COLEMAN:Thank you.I'll call for a motion on the consent agenda. VICE MAYOR SURRA:Your Honor? MAYOR COLEMAN:Vice Mayor Surra? VICE MAYOR SURRA:I move that the consent agenda be accepted as presented, that we recognize the outstanding service to the community by the following city employees: Recreation Superintendent, Beth Cowles; Assistant to the City Manager, Michael Monroe; Human Resources Administrative Secretary, Edna Morgan; Business License Coordinator, Taleen Carpenter; Public Works Secretary, Elaine Colburn; Recreation Coordinator, Liz Langenbach; Recreation Coordinator, Jay Reynolds; Chief Clerk of the Court, Shelly Underhill; Library Clerk II, Gail Graham-Fisel; Detective's Administrative Assistant, Susan Whitten, and Permit Technician II, Mikki Frazier. UNKNOWN MALE VOICE:Seconded, Your Honor. MAYOR COLEMAN:Moved and seconded.Roll call. THE CLERK:Council member Dietz? MR. DIETZ:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Durbala? MR. DURBALA:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Eck? MR. ECK:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Insalaco? A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 4110 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 MR. INSALACO:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Urich? MS. URICH:Yes. THE CLERK:Vice Mayor Surra? VICE MAYOR SURRA:Yes. THE CLERK:Mayor Coleman? MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes. Thank you.We'll move on to call to the public. This is the time set aside at each of our council meetings for the public to address the council.If you wish to speak, you .must fill out a Request to Speak form.You may fill one out now and hand it to the city clerk.Also, forms are available on the right as you come in the door.Our city clerk is right here. When called upon to speak, please come forward to the podium and state your name and address for the record. If there is a group speaking on the same subject, please choose a spokesperson.Each speaker will be allowed five minutes to speak.Address all -remarks to the chair.Please observe all rules of courtesy.The council welcomes all of your comments and suggestions.Due to the open meeting law requirements, however, the council will not be able to answer your questions, or discuss your comments at this time. Follow-up by council through the staff will be provided at the earliest possible time. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 I have received two. requests -- no.One requestto speak form, a:call to the public, Mr. Elliott Fisher.' MIL FISHEIR.Thank you, Mayor and council members •for having me-- affording me -the 'opportunity.My.nameHis Elliott Fisher, 547 E. Quail, Apache Junction.. I. am also here On behalf of the new association.That's.the.Greater Apache Junction Association, for Effective Government. -When.I -came in this evening, staff approached ..me and mentioned thatthere was some 'confusion on,some statements I made:in an editorial column in the Tribune .and it was also carried in the A. J. News.-I have. always :said I am open to any kind of discussion or invitation by this council to discuss .anything_ I ,have never been. confrontational.If I come off that way, I'm sorry.But, I don't thinkfrom.what I have been seeing in the papers onthe impact fee issue, I am confused.But, if I am, I'm willing to discuss it. I don't know if the council knows, but ,I.have been speaking at,other organizations around the valley, included MAG, in regard -to -transportation and other issues.And .there is a lot of discussion that has to ,be brought forward when it comes to growth impact fees, various -details of. the Growing Smarter legislation and the impact on the city I.spoke .to a gentleman by the name of Pat Brenner I guesSheruns the City- Scape. magazine in the.. city, „and 1. have been tryingto . ANv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 •25 get some kind of space to editorialize in there.Because it was my position that the city, in this City Scape paper, has several pages devoted to what they are doing.And there are opinions in here. And I was asking Mr. Brenner, you know, since I am a taxpayer in the city, and I am assuming this is a city newspaper, that the residents in the city ought to be able to have a place to speak at.I don't think it's too much to ask.But this is all part of what I have been saying all along.People dislike being not included and ignored.And I've tried many times on many occasions to, you know, find out what's happening before it happens. For example, last week's meeting with Planning and Zoning, the General Plan Amendment, boom, 60 days it's going to be voted on.Sixty days for a city this large.I mean, that's -- I can't believe it.Okay?If I'm wrong, I apologize.But that's what my understanding was from the documentation, okay? I asked several questions of the gentleman from Community Sciences Corporation.What form of development or what -- who could I read or what kind of model would he use in the development of this city?And he basically told me that A.J. plan is the plan I am going to use.Well, if there is an A.J. plan, why did we spend $96,000 bucks on Community Sciences Corporation? A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 7 You know, I think that there is just a lot of questions here, and a lot of things are popping up real fast with this Growing Smarter situation and the impact fees and several things, and hey, I'm willing to talk about it.Thank you. MAYOR COLEMAN:Thank you.Was there anyone else who wanted to address the council during call to the public? We'll go ahead and move on then to -- we'll move on then to the city manager -- UNKNOWN MALE VOICE:There's a gentleman -- MR. MILLS:(In audience). I turned in a slip, I don't know. MAYOR COLEMAN:I believe yours was for a public hearing, correct? MR. MILLS:Yeah. MAYOR COLEMAN:Your name is? MR. MILLS:Mills. MAYOR COLEMAN:Mills.And when we get to those public hearings we'll have you speak then. MR. MILLS:Thank you. MAYOR COLEMAN:Okay.We'll move on to the city manager's report. MR. SHOOK:I will be brief, Your Honor.I just have one thing I wanted to talk about. Last night you heard from director of Parks and A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 8 Recreation, Jeff Bell, regarding the BLM Land in the Silly Mountain, 200 acres, and we did look at three different concepts.I think it is important to let the public know through this forum that the City has been successful in getting the Bureau of Land Management to allow the City to lease that additional 200 acres, which encompasses Silly Mountain, which will give us the ability to 1) control the access, 2) build -- design and build something that will truly make it a jumping-off point for the rest of our open spaces which border the eastern boundary of the city and the northern boundary of the city and make full use of the parks and recreation areas that we have. So I am really pleased that we were able to, you know, get in there and snap that up, and that we have a plan to, at the very least, make passive improvements with picnic areas and that type of thing that will provide the jumping- off point for Silly Mountain.I thought that was worth mentioning this evening.Thank you, Your Honor. MAYOR COLEMAN:Thank you.We will move on to the public hearings and we have quite a number of public hearings on the agenda this evening, and so that I would ask as you come forward to speak, that you would please try to be brief and not repeat things that have already been said and try to hold your remarks to two to three minutes. And we will consider Items 4A and 4B on the agenda A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 together in a single public hearing.And Items. 5A and 5B. together in a. single public hearing.Okay? Item 4A is Proposed Resolution No. 99-27; Ordinance No. 1086, dealing with cable systems,And Item. 4B 'is Proposed Ordinance NO. 1086, dealing with Chapter 14;_ relating to cable systems also.And go to Mr Stern,: our city attorney. MR, STERN:Thank you, Mr. Mayor and members 'of city council.Essentially, these items can be taken together legally.Resolution 99-27, basically says that Ordinance 1086 will' be a.public document.ancLthe amendments that go with the ordinance.We have provided you a fairly lengthy ordinance, this would be Chapter 14 of the cable systems under volume One of our code. We recommend that it.be.changed, because the last time it was written was in 1984, when cable was in its: infancy.Things have changed since .then with. cable; technical issues, legal issues and other issues, and we recommend certain changes.You should have all received a copy of this last week. Staff ,S:recommendation,.at this time, because this issue is related to the negotiation with Triax ,for their license, and we recommend that -thisitem be continued:for another public hearing, basically.in.concert with the public hearings for the Triax agreement.. And I have provided you a A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 10 motion;You have several options, however, we do recommend ' that this be continued. Once again, there are changes between this cable system license regulation and theone .that is currently, existing.And, welpelieve that there,— there is a lot:— the Changes are really:a:lot better for,the -City.And it needed to be done probably five years ago, maybe even longer.But this will update us.It's taken from different cities around the country actually, as well as Arizona.Most of it is based on federal law because federalA.aw really preempts cities in many areas.There is only a limited amount of areas that the city can act. If there.isany questionsabout this particular ordinance at this time, I'd be happy to answer them MAYOR. COLEMAN:.Are there any questions from members of the council at this point?. Okay.We'll go ahead, then, and open up-the -public hearing .for Items -4A -and AB.Is there .anyone who would like to address the council on Items 4A or 4B? Mr. Mills, on your request to speak, it had Item 4A through 5B.Oh, you wrote that.Okay.Did your comments relate to our ordinance, or is it more : f .a concern with the - current service? MR. MILLS:Well, that and the current contract that is _coming up. A/Vv TRONICS INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 410 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 1 1 MAYOR COLEMAN:Should we have him speak now or -- MR. STERN:That's fine.You can have him speak at both public hearings. MAYOR COLEMAN:Mr. Mills, would you like to address the council, and could we get your name and address for the record, please. MR MILLS:I am C. R. Mills, 1471 East 22"1 Avenue. And my concern is with the services that we have had from cable, that they are not entitled to a contract.They should just be extended on the basis of maybe a year.I don't think the public should be tied down to a long-term contract. Also, I would like to know what percentage the government, or the city government takes from the TV and where it is spent.What department it goes to. MAYOR COLEMAN:Can you address that under the current -- MR. STERN:I will attempt to.Mr. Mills, as for the Triax issue, in fact that issue can be reserved for the next public hearing.As for the issue of where and what percent currently the city gets from Triax I guess that's your issue? MR. MILLS:Yes. MR. STERN:Currently, it's three percent of their gross revenues.It comes out to approximately $50,000 a year for the City of Apache Junction.That money goes into the A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 12 General Fund.And so expense for basically everything that's in the General Fund, any costs that could be incurred. MR. MILLS:Thank you.Should I say anything more about the TV service or wait for it later? MR. STERN:If it doesn't involve the regulation Chapter 14, then you probably may want to reserve that for later. MR. MILLS:Thank You. MAYOR COLEMAN:Was there anyone else who wanted to address the council on either Item 4A or 4B? Okay.Hearing none, we'll close the public hearing. Is there questions or discussion from members of the council? VICE MAYOR SURRA: I like Mr. Mills' idea of limiting the number of years for a contract agreement based on the history, past history.Our current contract, I think, was a 15 -year contract and boy, that really held our feet to the fire and nobody else's.So, I like your idea of maybe shortening that contract a little bit -- MR. MILLS:Thank you very much. VICE MAYOR SURRA:-- for the future.Thank you, Mr. Mills. MAYOR COLEMAN:Any other questions, comments? MR. ECK:I agree with his idea.Fifteen years is A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 •25 13 way too long to have a contract. UNIDENTIFIED MALE:I'll make it three. MAYOR COLEMAN:Okay.I will go ahead and call for a motion on Item 4A. VICE MAYOR SURRA:Your Honor, I would like to ask if it is possible for us to continue Item 4A for further information to continuing to another date.I don't know.Do we need a date specific for that, Kathy? THE CLERK:Yes.It's -- VICE MAYOR SURRA: Can we get one in July -- THE CLERK:July the 6th? VICE MAYOR SURRA: Does that -- is that old enough? MR. STERN:Vice Mayor Surra.The recommended date is July 6th for another public hearing and then after that another public hearing on July 20th. VICE MAYOR SURRA:20th? MR. STERN:Correct.And a work session for the 19 th of July. VICE MAYOR SURRA: Okay.I would like to move, then, that we continue this item to the July 6th date for future and continued public hearing input based on the fact that not all information is here, and that we have another one, two weeks hence, at the July 20th meeting with a work session on the 19th to tie up any loose ends that we might want to discuss in work -session format. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenii, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 14 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE:Second, Your Honor. MAYOR COLEMAN:We have been seconded.Roll call. THE CLERK:Council member Durbala? MR. DURBALA:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Dietz? MR. DIETZ:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Insalaco? MR. INSALACO:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Eck? MR. ECK:Yes. THE CLERK:Vice Mayor Surra? VICE MAYOR SURRA:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Urich? MS. URICH:Yes. THE CLERK:Mayor Coleman? MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes. THE CLERK:We have it, Your Honor. MAYOR COLEMAN:And thenI'll call for a motion on Item 4B. VICE MAYOR SURRA:If I may, Your Honor, I'd like to also continue 4B in the same way, to July 6th and 20th with a work session on the 19th, since they are tied together.I think that we should continue both of those public hearings. UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE:Second. MAYOR COLEMAN:Moved and seconded.Roll call. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 15 THE CLERK:Council member Eck? MR. ECK:Yes. THE CLERK:Vice Mayor Surra? VICE MAYOR SURRA:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Urich? MS. URICH:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Durbala? MR. DURBALA:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Insalaco? MR. INSALACO:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Dietz? MR. DIETZ:Yes. THE CLERK:Mayor Coleman? MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes. THE CLERK:We have it, Your Honor. MAYOR COLEMAN:Thank you.We'll move on to Items 5A and 5B.A public hearing for possible renewal negotiation, extension, denial of cable system license currently held by Triax Midwest Associates.Again, I will call upon our city attorney, Mr. Stern. MR. STERN:Mr. Mayor and members of council, 5A and 5B can be done together.So you could also read 5B -- MAYOR COLEMAN:Which is the extension of 60 -Days. MR. STERN:If you are going to have one public hearing.Correct. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 MAYOR COLEMAN:Okay. MR. STERN:However, you will need to do separate motions or combine the motions. MAYOR COLEMAN:We'll combine the public hearing and then that's when we'll consider separate motions. MR. SHOOK:Mr. Mayor? MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes. MR. SHOOK:The staff, through Michael Monroe, would like to, at this time, put information on the record prior to the opening to the general public hearing. MR. STERN:Before we start, could I say a few words? UNIDENTIFIED MALE:Sure. MAYOR COLEMAN:Yeah.I guess you could, go ahead. MR. STERN:I appreciate that.Basically, Mr. Mayor and members of city council, the City is currently in the informal renewal process, because approximately three years, Triax sent a letter to the City requesting renewal. Under federal law they have that right.They asked for an informal process, which basically means they can come to the city and talk, they can talk about what they want in the agreement and what the City would accept.The City can basically go back and forth with them.There is no formal process at that point. Tonight you have a copy, or you should have a copy A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 of an agreement that I provided and that I drafted up in the past week.And, basically, I took things from different sources for this agreement from different cities; from our city, from specific things that Mr. Monroe will talk about involving a study, a needs study for future cable needs. That is basically in the agreement.Also, comments from different experts that we've hired on the technical issues, as well as legal issues. At this time we have started some negotiations with Triax, and it needs to be basically looked at again.We haven't received all the input yet from Triax, so we do need additional information to bring you a more finalized product. However, for tonight, because it is a public hearing, I think it was essential to have input on whether this agreement should be renewed. The extension issue is 5B, and I did provide an ordinance for you on that.You don't really have to take action on it because, technically, Triax -- the agreement with Triax would continue because the full-blown formal hearing for the renewal has not taken place yet.And that is down the line in the structure of the legal staircase that we have to climb in order to either approve or deny.But tonight is just a public hearing on that issue and between myself, the city manager and staff, Mr. Monroe and a few others, we basically have a recommendation that this should A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • • 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 18 be continued also, so that we can basically talk to representatives of Triax to see if we could iron out an agreement that fits the future needs of the city, while it also assists Triax and makes them competitive.So, at this time, I will turn it back over to Mr. Shook. VICE MAYOR SURRA:Before we do that, Joel, would you be able to state for the record, please, who sets the guidelines for the informal or formal processes for renewal of cable contracts for any city? MR. STERN:Well, federal law basically sets the guidelines, the basic guidelines.There are some areas where federal law is silent, and it has been interpreted around the country that where the federal law is silent, then the City would have the authority to act, and there are things in this agreement that are now covered under federal law that we feel we can actually put in the agreement.And other cities do it also.So, does that answer your question? VICE MAYOR SURRA: Yes.Thank you for clarifying that for the public. MR. SHOOK:Perhaps it would be worthwhile to go just the extra little distance, which is to state simply that federal requirements cause the City to either approve or deny a relicensing agreement.It is not within the City's jurisdiction to deny without discussion.Would that be a fair statement? A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 19 MIL STERN:Yes.Basically under the infOrmal process the current cable order,or .holders would have .the ability to:go:to the :City and requesta hearing, and basically they did that when they asked for the informal procedure to begin three years ago.And we're still doing that.And that this is part'ofIthe procedure, this,.hearing. If the council were inclined to deny the current license, the council could do so, and then the councilwould have to -- or the.City would have to put Triax on notice in writing, saying:that the informal process is no longer ongoing..The formal process has nowstarted.Please present a proposal to us. And then Triax, underfederal law, would do that, or they'd have theability to do that, and at that point the City could then look at the, proposal, based on the needs assessment that the City did orwill dO.Actually, we have already done it, so we are ahead of the process.And then, at that point, the .City Council could look at the proposal and decide whether they think it fits the needs, the future cable needs of ,.the City, and then take action. i Either grant or deny. If they deny it, then the -- then Triax would have the right to basically go to court on it and have a court decide whether or not there was preponderance of the evidence that justified the City denying the license.There is some A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 20 case law on this already.So, I have seen it happen where cities have denied licenses.On the other hand, I'd say 99 percent of the other renewals around the country, they basically get renewed because they've worked out an agreement.So the council could grant the renewal with negotiated terms, new and additional terms to the current license agreement. And then, at that point, the company would fall under all the rules of the agreement, and under this particular agreement, it says that Chapter 14 shall guide, basically, the billing functions and the procedural due process that's required if there is any noncompliance.So, Triax would have to abide by all the terms and conditions that is in the agreement, as well as in the licensing ordinance which is 5A -- 4A and 5 -- 4A and 4B. So, are there any other questions regarding the process? MR. SHOOK:Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, the City, through Michael Monroe, and perhaps even myself as supplement, would like to give a brief presentation which we address the history and the experience of the City and -- with the Triax contract.And I'd like to ask Michael if he'd come forward. MAYOR COLEMAN:You are not going to read all of that, are you? A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 21 1 MR. MONROE:Oh, every word of it, line by line. 2 VICE MAYOR SURRA: Oh, are there members from Triax 3 that have come to the public hearing today? 4 MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes.We will let them -- we'll 5 call upon -- 6 MR. STERN:Yes.They should have an opportunity 7 to speak. 8 MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes.We will call upon -- 9 VICE MAYOR SURRA:I just wanted to make sure they 10 heard this side first, you know. 11 MR. MONROE:Honorable Mayor and members of the 12 City Council.Thank you for the opportunity as staff to come 13 in and speak to the issues on cable television.My name is 14 Michael Monroe.Beginning about January of 1997, I was 15 assigned the project of cable television and review of the 16 license and the renewal process that we were in with Triax 17 Cablevision.Since that time, I have, for all intents and 18 purposes, served as the cable administrator for the City in 19 doing research and review of cable issues.We're, as the 20 city attorney has told us, we're in this process because it 21 is governed by the federal government that we do this based 22 upon the request of the incumbent cable operator, and that 23 process is specifically mandated by the FCC, the Federal 24 Communications Commission. 25 At the time that I began to take on this project, A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting 8c Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 4110 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 •25 22 we were about six months in to the renewal time period, which begins three years prior to the expiration of the license agreement, so the term of the license was to be through June of 1999, therefore, the license renewal period began in June of '96. In proceeding forth in this renewal process, really, the City had two clear objectives that we needed to accomplish to do our part and -- in this renewal process with Triax, the cable operator.One was that we were supposed to determine the future of cable -related needs and interests of the community.The second one is that we were to review the past performance of Triax as the cable operator. To determine the future needs and interests of the community related to cable television, we basically launched into a needs assessment.And to do that, a significant portion of that work was done through a Citizens' Advisory Committee that was formed.It was a seven -member committee of citizens from the City and they began holding public meetings where the public was notified.They were encouraged to come and make public comment.The other thing that the committee did is they sent out a survey and surveyed all households in the city of Apache Junction, and then they reviewed that survey and its results and made recommendations to the City. I'd like to, right now, submit a couple of -- four A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 23 exhibits, for consideration on the record.Here are the Exhibits A, B, C and D, and I will refer to these exhibits for the remainder of my presentation here.I'll give these to the court reporter here. Exhibit A is the final report that was formulated by the Citizen's Advisory Committee and it has several component parts.First, was some introduction as to this process.A background of cable television in the city.A brief description of the cable committee itself.Information on the public meetings that were held.Discussion on the cable television survey.Further discussion on the results. Finally, a presentation of the recommendations that the committee made, and then the conclusions from this. Listed as appendices in this report are the Apache Junction cable TV Needs and Interest survey, quantitative results and qualitative results.And I'll flip through here quickly.A copy of this survey right here went to all 12,000 households in the city.And there was about a 17 percent return response rate from residents of the city.And from that we were able to look at these quantitative results and -- am I going to quickly?I'm sorry -- and come up with some results of what's happening in the city as far as cable. Also, there is qualitative results, which were open-end responses from the respondents, that totaled about 100 pages of single-spaced written comments by respondents to the A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 24 questionnaire. In the survey, things like customer satisfaction was measured.People were also asked how long they have been a subscriber.What types of services they currently like that are being provided.What types of services would they like to see in the future.And those recommendations were incorporated into this report. The second issue that we had to look at here in the City was the issue of past performance, and as early as 1996, around May, even previous to the renewal period having started, the City notified Triax Cablevision that there continued to be several violations of the current license agreement.A letter from then city attorney, Glenn Gimbut, to Ric Hanson stated that, "Please be advised that Triax has violated and continues to violate many sections of our cable television ordinance.We have met with local officials of Triax on a continuing basis and our concerns have not been addressed." From that point on we continued to monitor the situation with Triax Television, and then again, in January of 1997, it was necessary for the city manager, Curtis Shook, to notify Triax of several of the issues where they're in violation of the current license agreement.One very significant one was that during about a four- to six -week span in December of '95 to January of 96, there was no local A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 25 office open for business in Apache Junction for cable television.The Triax office ceased.It just shut down for those four to six weeks, and there was never really any explanation as to why. There are several other issues that the city manager addressed in there, and one -issue of cable television rates and the numerous complaints that we were getting about the rate increases and the non -notification of the rate increases and other issues like that. There is also, along with the cable survey itself, a great deal of complaints as to various aspects of.cable service contained in that, along with the needs assessment. A lot of comments that the people felt that the service -was poor.There wasn't -- the local office wasn't customer- service oriented.They weren't able to make payments there, get billing issues resolved.Numerous things like that. Also, problems with' making phone calls to the local office and being routed to a long-distance, out-of-state calling center, not even having a local phone number listed in the phone book here.Numerous issues like that are pointed out in the results of the cable survey. Recently, a recent -- within the last few weeks, a violation of the license agreement has been to the correct application for and receipt of permits to operate in the right-of-way in the city.It was necessary for the city A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 engineer, Mr. Paul Stears, to discuss with Triax representatives some problems that were occurring with them going into the right-of-way and having to alter it. Basically, there was recently a new street paved within a subdivision and for different reasons it was necessary for Triax to lay cable in that subdivision to the point -- and then cut the new street.The issue was whether they were going to restore the condition of the street back to the condition that met the city standards.And it was necessary for us to point out that violation of our ordinance and basically the contract. All of the items, I should say, are contained in Exhibit B with -- it's kind of the correspondence that the City has had with Triax Cablevision. Exhibit C is a Technical Audit that the City did on the cable system here in the city that we partnered with Pinal County.And what had happened was there is -- well, we were suspect of the condition of the cable system.So, the City partnered with Pinal County, and a consultant by the name of William F. Potts, came and did a technical audit of the system.His report is quite lengthy.It's very technical and goes into a lot of detail.But just from the summary page, he is able to summarize a lot of the findings. Referring to Page 29 in this document, talking about FCC proofs of performance that are supposed to be done semi- A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 annually on the cable system and submitted to the City. Mr. Potts remarks, "It shows that the Subscriber Network failed to meet minimum performance FCC standards for more than one parameter at most of the test point locations."Meaning that the system basically was failing. It wasn't producing the quality of signal and sound that it should. He further remarked, "The results of the measurements made during my on -site visit and those made after the on -site visit show that the Triax cable television system is being operated below FCC Technical Standards for many of their subscribers." He said that they withdrew their April 6, 7, and 8, 1997, FCC Proof of Performance due to its lack of completeness and accuracy, and then he goes on to say that these are serious violations of the FCC rules. Last of the exhibits that I have here is the current cable ordinance, "Chapter 14 Cable Television" in the city.And I'd just like to real quickly go through and point out some of the issues that have been problems for both concerned and actual violations of the current license agreement. Beginning on page -- well, in the ordinance Page 96, Section 14-1-11, Public Buildings.There was an issue there where there was not basic cable service being provided to all public buildings that had been specified with the A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 28 City. Section 14-1-12, there was not an emergency override system in place. Section 14-1-13, Emergency Power.There, for some time, was not emergency standby power units along the distribution center or even at the headend for a period of time. 0 Section 14-1-18, Safety Requirements, paragraph B were being violated as to the construction of the cable system. Section 14-1-24 is titled "Rates."But, it gets at several other issues.It provides a list of about 18 items that the cable operator should be submitting to the City periodically, especially in the event of a rate increase. None of those items were formally submitted to the City. Therefore, when the rate increases were put into effect that was a violation of contract. There is also on 14-1-27, periodic reports that were to be submitted to the City, some of which -- most of which never were.Some, after being requested, still were not provided. Performance tests in Section 14-1-28, those were referenced by the consultant, Mr. Bill Potts, saying that those reports weren't being done.There was no record that they had been done for some time.And then the one that had A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 29 been done after he reviewed- it was fOund to be:inadequate and not a correct study. Other_issues would be record inspection, customer service violations; and that would, you know, quickly be brief overview:of some of the -violations directly-in the ordinance. Again, we wanted to make a presentation concerning those two different objectives that the City .had in this renewal'process.The needs assessment and review of the past performance and I will:submit that to the -city council.If theicouncil would like further detail, staff can provide that:tothe council.And if you have any questions, I guess, directly .to my presentation, I'd be happy to answer those. MAYOR COLEMAN:Vice Mayor. VICE MAYOR SURRA:Michael, can you tell me, the notice that was sent, or notices, letters of note that were sent about the breach in the agreement, just what resulted as far as penalties or punitive measures against Triax for us defining for them where they fell short in the agreement, since they didn't seem to resolve those problems.What measures were taken? MR. MONROE:There were no damages that were assessed or penalties.Basically, what was done is we documented those -- AfVvIRIDNICS,ENC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 30 VICE.MAYOR -SURRA:Okay. MR. MONROE:"-- as occurrences that had occurred' that we would keep on record as part of this process. VICEMAYORZURRA.:Were there avenues, inthe agreement themselves that defined or delineated penalties that could have been ,,imposed,should there be a breach in the agreement? STERN:Mr. Mayor, members of council and Vice Mayor Surra.Yes, there is a.termination clause, Section, 14-1-36.Essentially, to sum it up,-the City was to put them on notice of the violations, and.then ,actually in writing: give them a -certain.amount of time to comply, and then also, if they did not comply, have a:public hearing,on the matter. VICEA%4AYORISURRA:Okay. MR. STERN:At which time, the city council would have the ability to 'give them additional time, or to basically say your license is nowterminated. VICE MAYOR SURRA:And MONROE:.I should preface to -- sorry to interrupt.But, those violations, some of them are still currently in violation.Some of those have been resolved by the cable operator.They have addressed those.issues ,and corrected them. VICE:MAYOR .SURRA:Okay.In regard to those failed FCC standards, what did the,FCC impose on Triax in theway of A/Vs TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 31 penalties or punitive measures because of their failure? MR. MONROE:As far as a regulatory agency, the FCC basically just puts out standards that should be maintained. They don't have -- take any disciplinary action or anything like that.That's left to the City to take care of within its licensing documents.In our case, this license agreement.But what they establish are mainly just standards.There are some issues that you can take to the FCC for their review and for some relief.But those mostly relate to issues of rate regulation. MR. STERN:Vice Mayor Surra.Currently, in the Chapter 14, which is in essence the agreement, 14-1-22, sets forth liquidated damages of $500 for each day the installation is not fully completed. MR. MONROE:That was just the initial construction. MR. STERN:Correct, the initial.That was the only penalty of liquidated damages.The current license agreement -- or I'm sorry, the draft -- has a whole bunch of liquidated damages for different violations ranging from, I think, 2500 all the way down to $100 for different things; including billing practices, installation, and other things. So we have a more comprehensive indemnifi-- I'm sorry -- liquidated damages clause.That's what's being proposed. VICE MAYOR SURRA:I really was interested in the ANv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 32 past history of the infractions or the failure to comply and with what was done in order to add incentive to complying, and obviously there was nothing that was enough incentive. Probably not even my husband's nasty calls to them was incentive enough for them to fix some of the problems, as I am sure lots of customers did call and give nasty comments. But, I wondered if there had been anything other than the individual, who really is powerless, unless a City acts for them.And I just wanted to be sure that we had been lenient up to now and it wasn't because they were just blowing off anything that we had imposed as a penalty.It's just that we've been just Mr. Nice Guy up to now, right?And I use that phrase "up to now" loudly. UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE:In a manner of speaking, yes. MR. MONROE:We did put them on notice on several occasions that there were violations. VICE MAYOR SURRA:But let it drop there, right? MR. MONROE:Well, in some instances there was disagreement as to whether it was a violation.Some instances Triax did not recognize what we were saying, agree with what we were calling a violation, a violation.As I said, in some cases, they've cured the problem and they solved the issue.So, we are kind of talking about a spectrum of violations that had different outcomes.A lot of AfVv1PRIDNICS,ENC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 11111 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 •25 33 it, though, we made sure that -- VICE MAYOR SURRA:So the goal here, to cut to the chase, if I may, the goal here is that with the input from the citizens that live here and the subscribers who take advantage of an opportunity to have cable come into their home, we're going to put into effect an air -tight agreement that will hold their feet to the fire for a change.Is that correct? We are asking tonight for people to define for us, again, in the presence of the members from Triax, so that they hear loud and clearly that this is not something that came out of our seven minds but is a reflection of our community's feelings about the cable service here.And so that -- your presentation of the survey and the Citizens' Advisory Board's recommendations, and the people who are here that will probably speak this evening, should be what we use to define the next agreement and the ordinances in the amendments to that licensing, right? MR. MONROE:Yes. VICE MAYOR SURRA:Thank you. MR. STERN:Right to the terminology.To the concept, I can't comment.I would like to add something. The proposed agreement under Section 13 sets forth a procedure for correcting the license violations, and it's pretty tight.There is a 14 -day time frame to inform of the A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 34 violations, 30 days to basically comply with the violations. There is also a_Notice of Dispute if they disagree.with our classification of a .violation.So, it's pretty tight Also,,a.Revocatiorvand Removal clause is also in here.So, I just wanted to add that .because you:did :mention you wanted an air -tight agreement.In my estimation,: this is very air tight. VICEIMAYOR SURRA:And:one :that is easy for everyone to understand, so: that.it_dOesn't take a - Philadelphia: lawyer to come in and .decide if we really have a violation. MR. STERN:Well, maybe not a Philadelphia lawyer, but possibly:a:Minneapolis attorney, but I'm not sure.She is not here tonight.So basically, I think it's pretty -- it's clear enough so that I think any judge could pick this up and say "Oh, I understand it." VICE MAYOR SURRA-:Thank you.That the end ,of my questions, comments, and opinion._ MR. MONROE:To restate, though, Mayor and Vice Mayor Surrai it .is.correct.What we do want is public comment tonight.The key thing is that the negotiations, what we as:a city represent needs -to -be, what theneedsJand interests are for cable television in .this city, that means a variety of services that is provided in cable television, and that's what we:hope-to hear.We feel that the-survey_was A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 35 good measure of those things; a lot of input, a lot of data. But in this process, the administrative hearing, we're definitely holding public meetings so the people could comment specifically on the license and to restate those needs and interests. MAYOR COLEMAN:Any other questions for Mr. Monroe?Thank you very much. Would the applicant like to address the council? MR. BORDWELL:Good evening, Your Honor, Vice Mayor and council members.My name is Tom Bordwell, I am Government Relations Manager for Triax.I am, excuse me.I am not an attorney, so I am not going to be able to answer your legal questions.I am going to save that for Joel and our attorney, Jane Bremmer. First of all, I'd like to thank you for consideration of our proposal and renewal.If I can tell you a short story, I think I can kind of take this up to where we are at to date.When you started your needs assessment effort, our antennae went up, too, at that Triax, and :I am going to speak from my conversations with others in the company.I started with Triax in 1997.August of '97, so I don't have that rich a history, but I can assure you I'm fairly familiar with the history here and what happened. The antennas at Triax went up in that obviously the system was having some growing pains.An older system A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 36 serving a growing community, trying to keep up with both more customers, additional growth and a greater demand for public -- customer service. At the time when operators built systems 15 years ago, there wasn't any competition for cable per se.It was either cable television or nothing.Today, we face competition, not only from other providers coming into different communities, but mainly from direct -dish satellites.So, it's a real competition.It is a choice our customers can make every day. And given that set of parameters, our company had to decide whether, number one, to continue to operate the way we have been or do we change it.And the message was clear, we need to change it.We took the work of the Needs Assessment Committee very seriously.It took the work of our own staff and our own expertise of providing cable services in over 300 communities very seriously, and put together a plan that put a capital budget in place to upgrade the system, which we began last fall, September. In essence, what that upgrade started out to be was a fiber backbone.And the fiber backbone, the goal of that fiber backbone was to, number one, increase reliability and performance.We have other goals in the company, mainly programming choices and customer service, but if we don't get to the first one, reliability and performance with our A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 37 pictures, the other two would suffer terribly.And I think there is ample history in any cable operator's system that is not updated to point out the detriment of going down that road. We've just installed and completed an installation of over 130 miles of fiber optic cable within Apache Junction and also in Gold Canyon.We now have, and I'll leave it with you today, the ability to offer our customers over 100 video channels, pay -per -view channels, stereo radio, all in -- off of the fiber backbone that has backup power, which came up in the needs assessment report and also battery power on our nodes (phonetic) that are out there. There is plenty of technical information that we can provide, as we stated to Mr. Shook and Mr. Stern, that we would provide your technical consultant all the information on our upgrade and our future plans for continued upgrade, which will kind of give an -- immediate comment in a couple of minutes.But anyhow, that was the first goal and we've completed that.We've got Steve Starr, construction supervisor, and Ben Trotter, our area plant manager here. Sandy Weiss, who rolls out our digital product, is also here, but Steve and Ben and I think Sandy, attended just for fun, cutting the last fiber node this morning at 2:00 a.m. I don't know what time you guys finished, but, we cut into the fiber, which causes a short disruption until it A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 38 is spliced in till we do that.Not we, because they have the technical expertise.They do that.All the fiber nodes are now cut in.So, our entire system in Apache Junction is operating off the fiber backbone. And we've already -- we have been doing that -- Steve, how many nodes total? STEVE:Thirty-seven. MR. BORDWELL:Thirty-seven.So, this was the 37th one today.We've had almost a month as we've done this cut- over, and already in our trouble call reports that we've generated, on an average month we would get approximately 280 or so trouble calls for the Apache Junction system.That includes anything that would be our equipment, user, operator.It means the truck has to roll, and we have to figure out what the problem is and solve it.Our average is about 280.Our numbers for the month of May were 107.And it is clearly a benefit of the fiber optic system; stronger signal, much more reliable signal.If the power -- if the electricity goes out, we're still sending signal out because our generator has kicked in and within three seconds we have got our signal going out.So, that's just a quick update on what happens with the benefits of the fiber optic system. But, clearly that was accomplishing, we hope, goal number one. The second goal, which is increasing programming, A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 39 comes along. with it.And as I said, we've got a:channel lineup that we're rolling out You will probably see :a much more aggressive marketingof this .product, now that everything is amplified or cut.over.This is our answer .also, to competition.And if you can buy -a 'direct satellite dish and get 100 -and -some channels, we!d much rather have you buy, •as I am sure you agree, because youget a part of our operation, as well. We want to compete head-on both in terms of price and product with satellite.And I think when you look at our product, it will show you it's good values and I'll leave copies with you. (Pause) MR. BORDWELL:-We are very -anxious to continue this upgrade-, but as you .know, Triax!sTlans have changed in that they have entered into agreement:to -be purchased by MediaCom. And MediaCom representatives are well aware of out discussions with the 'City regarding our reneWal and future franchise license.And under the terms of the purchase, any commitments that Triax would make with the City:of:Apache JUnction would also be an obligation of MediaCom, so we've agreed with MediaCom, obviously,' to :make sure that they are in the loop: ofHwhat we're all.diScussing here and.what we hope we will agree to in the end. And they also look forward to coming and speaking A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 40 with you directly at .a future ,public hearing, just to introduce and tell you more about how they operate and what they're vision is, as well.But, I can tell you, they are very excited about .the system.They are excited about the condition of where it's at, and look forward to continued improvements with the system, as well. The third .area where we tried to focus and continue to focus is the area of customer service.And there are blurps in the radar as we have grown, and one of the things, I think that maybe have been a little .secret, a little kept secret, is:that people can get served better at our .local office.You can go in, just a few minutes away from City Hall here. You can have your questions answered.You can have your.bill brought up on the computer.You can make a payment.You can make a service change.You can turn in equipment.We can tell you how to operate other equipment. All of the services that you might want to try to get over the phone, you can get in person at our local office.And we have a good staff there and, as soon as they catch up on their sleep too, they'll be in better shape, as well: But, we continue to make improvements in customer service, and one of the things that we always are looking to dO is to try tojnake all of our customer service representatives aware of the different products that we are putting out there.Apache Junction is 'ahead of the game A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 41 because we don't have a digital product out there in any of our systems yet, other than here.So, we're constantly, as new employees come with customer service representatives, we need to train them really quickly, make them aware of not only our normal cable products, but the digital product as well.So, it's a constant training issue.It is something that we're continuing to work on and will continue to work on. The other thing that we've done was reinvest in our phone system.And our phone system now allows us to pull out data.And the data will show, are we answering the phone on the first or second ring, how many percentage of the time. How long are we -- is each customer taking to be served.You know, those types of things that help our call center managers react to different things that are happening in the field.So, we look forward to giving our customers better customer service and we'll continue in that effort, as well. I'd be happy to answer any other questions.It is just kind of a brief overview of where we're at. As far as the renewal and the discussion on the agreement, we think we've identified what the major issues on both sides are, and we think that we're very confident that we can get to an agreement that we'll be happy to sign and you will be happy and proud, and will provide you the safeguards for, not only service issues, but also future ANv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 11110132 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Amok 25 42 services and products. MAYOR COLEMAN:Are there questions from members of the council?Council member Durbala. MR. DURBALA:Yeah.Let's start with some basic things first here, I guess.Looking at your rates.Wow, it goes from a very basic rate of $29.50, which is the basic rate, right? MR. BORDWELL:Uh-huh. MR. DURBALA:Which would cover approximately the same amount of channels I am receiving today, right, 53, 54? MR. BORDWELL:Yeah. MR. DURBALA:And then as I just go up to the very basic, which is without counting any real movie channels, I am looking at 42, all the way up to the top of $67 a month for the whole thing, right? MR. BORDWELL:With everything.Yes. MR. DURBALA:Okay.And I don't see anything in here about Internet accessibility?Isn't that supposed to be part of the agreement, that we will be able to have Internet capability, which is -- I don't know what page it's on, but I know we are supposed to be able to have that under the thing. And then, boy, that seems like an awful big increase, isn't it? MR. BORDWELL:Well, it's not necessarily an increase.It's also an increase in the number of channels. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 43 So, what the digital product allows you to do is that, as you look on there, too, if you have an interest in a particular area, maybe it's sports, maybe it's movies.You know, rather than us at the cable company decide what we are going to provide and what you are going to buy, this product allows you to decide what you are going to buy.And if you want to buy a lot of sports, you can buy a lot of sports.If you like movies and really want to load up on movies, you can do that. MR. DURBALA:Okay.But the average rate looks somewhere between about 47 to $52 for most of that.Kind of basic packages.Give you the basic cable, the Encore and the Star programs. MR. BORDWELL:And different movie packs. MR. DURBALA:Yeah.Which is, looks like older movies like the -- plus the music stations, some of the smaller things.I am still wondering, I don't see anything in here on the Internet. MR. BORDWELL:No.Currently, we are not providing an Internet service on the system, no. MR. DURBALA:I thought that was supposed to be in our agreement.And then I do have a question on page 18. You have a copy of this? MR. BORDWELL:Not in front of me, but I'll take your questions. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 • 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 44 •.DURBALA:Okay.You should have one up there. UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE He does.. MR. DURBALA:He does have one now, okay.On page 18, number 22, which is the interconnection. •BORDWELL:Uh-huh. MR. DURBALA:Can you explain that to me?. I do understand that that's supposed to be so that you can link up with other cable systems that! maybe either offer, whether it be to a cable system or a private individual that's.offering, say the Suns games, which we can't seem to be able to get out here. MR. BORDWELL:The interconnection -- again, this is in the draft agreement that was provided to us last week, but we have taken a close look at .that to try to define what exactly it is•you are trying to accomplish.I think some of the things that you may want'to'accomplish, we probably can't legally do it.We can't hook into another city's cable system. •DURBALA:Okay.What I mean, is being able to have the access or having a system so that you would be able to connect in with, it says here, "microwave link, satellite or other appropriate methods." MR. BORDWELL:Yeah We have that to date. •DURBALA:So we are going to be people here would be able to get the Suns games? A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 45 MR. BORDWELL:-The issue of the Sunsgames:is not an equipment issue.It's a programming issue. MR. DURBALA:It's a programming issue.But I want that put on the record.I want to know if we are going to be able to get that. MR. BORDWELL:We're trying. MR. DURBALA:You're trying.So we're still in limbo land on that one. MR. BORDWELL:Yeah.It has more to do with the programming agreement that's currently in place with the providers. MR. DURBALA:,Okay,Then, I guess, on page 24, which is the payment to the City.That is five percent now? MR. BORDWELL:-It's currently three percent. MR. DURBALA:Currently, but we're asking for five? •BORDWELL:You're,asking for five.Yeah •DURBALA:Let me ask you, what happens if say MediaCom since you ,are in theprocess of them purchasing you.What happens if they back out .of the deal at .thel_ast minute?Are you going to be able to stay here and do what you are saying in the agreement? •BORDWELL:If the sale doesn't close, Triax: continues to operate as is and we would be bound by.any-and all franchise agreements that are in :place. •DURBALA:Okay.The big thing is we're :looking A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1'2 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 46 at about a 25% to a 30% rate increase over some of the cable systems now, right?With the movie channel offering what they are offering now? MR. BORDWELL:Compared to -- MR. DURBALA:Compared to the old rates versus these new rates which you are looking at? MR. BORDWELL:I haven't done the percentage, council member.But, again though, it's not without adding product. UNIDENTIFIED MALE:Okay.Is everything going to be digital? MR. BORDWELL:We will continue to provide an analog signal right now.And maybe Steve or Ben may have a little more information.I am not quite sure if we've got a cut -over plan to get everybody.If we did cut over to all digital, then every customer would need that extra converter box, and I am not quite sure that we made a plan to do anything of this sort. MR. DURBALA:That's an additional $1.29 a month, right? MR. BORDWELL:That could be the cable. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE:The analog signal is now 2 through 54, and that will remain 2 through 54.That's your basic rate of the $29.Anything above and beyond that is your digital service, and that's where you are going to A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 47 pay extra if you want it. MR. DURBALA:Okay.Well, you'll need a different remote box, am I right? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE:For the digital.Yes. MR.DURBALA:And even on your analog TV? MR. STERN:Mr. Mayor, if you could -- when people do talk from the audience, make sure they come up to the podium, because we are recording this. MR. DURBALA:Okay.In the past, I mean, Triax has definitely not served up to what they said they were going to be over and over. I know, just a personal example, here in the last three days, my wife took my whole little remote control thing out to your office, and the first day she took it out, they said well you're supposed to have cable -ready TV.Well, this is an old color 13 -inch that we have in our bedroom.Then they told her they do not have those anymore.So, she went out again a second day and they gave her another one, which of course did not work.And then she went back today and they finally gave her a brand new one, and the woman apologized.But it is kind of a shame that she had three people there she's talked to and there is only one that seems to know that thing works. And I hear this from numerous people that go -- actually have gone out to your office, call to complain about A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 48 their system being out continually.The changes sometimes, especially when you changed -- that takeover about three or four months ago, when they started making changes on the channels, where there were different movie channels, and that would change.A lot of people didn't even know that for a couple days until they finally got hold of your office, and sometimes even when you call the office, I think it's in Minnesota now.Is it the one where the answering service is at? MR.BORDWELL:Waseca, Minnesota. MR.DURBALA:And they don't even know what's going on.And they refuse to give you a local telephone number.I think that is pretty poor.And just, continually, all we ever hear is nothing but problems from Triax. I am sure glad that somebody is buying you out, because I think at least that would be -- maybe we might have a chance to get a cable company in here who will probably listen to the people, instead of what seems to me right now, they don't care one way or another what happens in this community. I know you are saying that you have done some things, and I do appreciate the one thing you've done, and that's with the A.J. News, as far as getting the local sports on TV.Other than that, I don't see where you guys have really done anything to help this city. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 49 I just have nothing else to say.I would just probably lose my cool and get very disgusted here. MR. ECK:I'll cut into him.How long has Triax been in A.J.?In Apache Junction? VICE:MAYOR SURRA: '84. MR. ECK:But it wasn't actually Triax in '84. UNIDENTIFIED MALE:No.IT was Dow (phonetic) -- MR. ECK:Okay.But Triax has been, several years, I guess, it's safe to say.When did we start getting pay- per -view? MR. BORDWELL:Pay -per -view -- ECK:Period.I don't have pay -per -view.I have been a customer of Triax ever since they've been here- I don't have pay -per -view. MR. BORDWELL:About 30 days ago. ECK:When are you going to inform the. customers they have pay -per -view? MR. BORDWELL:The roll out of the digitaLproduct as we cut over --,first of all, you couldn't get pay -per -view until we cut you over to the fiber .system, which we: just completed.But, as ,we did that,'we,-started with our premium customers, those who -were subscribing -to pay -per -view -or pay customers like HBO and movie channels if they werepay customers, our marketing was, first to them.And what that did ,was it allowed us to, number one -- A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ to 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 50 MR. ECK:So you put one set of customers above the entire group? MR. BORDWELL:For good reason, council member. If I can explain. MR. ECK:Okay. MR. BORDWELL:What we wanted to do is make sure that, when we got a product out there that we are going to sell en masse that, number one, to get it out there, we know what the bugs are for installation.We know the product. Our local team knows the product back and forth, knows the installation hands down.And also, not to try to be overwhelmed with so many requests for service handle them in -a timely fashion. So, and again, I think that the plan for that will be much more aggressive now that the system is complete. But, what we found is that the installation could, at the beginning, take upwards of almost three hours to do, to accomplish.So, and that's because we've got different equipment that we haven't used before.We want to make that we can't sure the bugs are worked out.There is a video that comes along with it that we go over with the customers so that when we leave the customer's home that we know that they know how to operate the and we want channels on system.It is a new piece of equipment for them, to make:sure that they know there is 100 and some there and how to get to them.How to navigate A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 51 around.It is almost like a mini -computer.It is a mini -computer. MR. ECK:Okay.And you say there are 100 and some channels.Because I don't have 100 and some channels.I don't understand what you're referring to. MR. BORDWELL:The digital product, Mayor, digital product is 104, I believe.Hundred and four video channels. We have additional channels that are just music, as well. And you need the cable modem box. MR. ECK:And you said the fiber nodes were just cut in.When were those just cut in? MR. BORDWELL:The final one was just cut in this morning.There's -- MR. ECK:This morning. MR. BORDWELL:Yes. MR. ECK:Ironic.The customer service is less than desirable by any means.But, two months ago, I paid a bill cap at this office, and your office from Minnesota or whatever billed us the following month and said we didn't pay it.So, when my wife called, they said bring a receipt.She brought a receipt to your office.She faxed the receipt from here to the main office in -- I am saying Minnesota, I'm not sure. MR. BORDWELL:Sure. MR. ECK:And she said that it looked like the A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 52 receipt had been tampered with.And that irritated me, I guess you could say.Actually, she said it looked like it had been messed with.And my wife said, "I do not know what to tell you because this is a paid receipt."So, your customer service is somewhat less than desirable for me, and I think, for much of the community. The situations where cable goes out on Friday night, it happened to me just this last winter, and I had no service until Monday.That's extremely irritating. I just -- it overwhelms me, all the work that has been done in the last month, after being here so many years, and now all of a sudden we are getting fiber nodes and we are getting all these things done here.It is so ironic that, I just think that if I was in business for myself, I would have done all the things to take care of these customers throughout the year so I had a good rapport with my customers and not try to make everything look like a rose at contract negotiation time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE:When a buyout is involved. MAYOR COLEMAN:Any other questions?No? Thank you very much. John, did you -- JOHN:No.It's a comment.I can -- MAYOR COLEMAN:Okay. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 53 This is a public hearing and I'll open the public hearing on both Items 5A and 5B at this time.I have one Request to Speak form, which we'll take first.You don't need a Request to Speak form to speak during the public hearing, but we do ask that you keep your comments brief. Mr. Mills. MR. MILLS:Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council.I am really proud to hear some of the expressions and opinions that you all are giving Triax.I think it's wonderful.Now just keep at it. My complaint tonight kind of goes along with that. In the beginning, they promised us a weather, local weather station, which we had for a number of years.They also promised us Channel 37 would be a program channel.Nothing but programs.And I have been trying for six months now. And I called, and I hate to guess how many times, to Minneapolis about the weather station, and I get different excuses every time.I get different dates of when we'll be back on with it.And I still don't have anything, except Phoenix weather, and I don't care about Phoenix weather.I want to know what our weather is, like they promised us. Channel 37, they made an advertising channel out of it now.It's a split image.Most of the time there is three stations across there.It goes so fast you can't read it. Then they squeeze it down to two and forget trying to read A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 54 it.Now, I'd like for the man from Ttiax to explain to me why those two situations is like that after six months.The Channel 37, I have been complaining about it for five months. And 'I think their service is pitiful, and I don't think:we should be saddled with that kind of a deal for a very long term.Thank you very much. MAYOR COLEMAN:Thank you.Was there anyone else who would like -to address the council?Please come to the podium.Name and address for the record. MS, BENNETT:I didn't_turn in a slip.But I am Jennie K. Bennett, Apache Junction, 422 Rosal.I feel like,. with the technology that we have nowadays, and we've a . company that we've got here, that we should have a place where we can get telephone service.We -shouldn't haveto go a mile out of the city to even -..- even to solicit their business.I think that there should be a telephone number where our complaints and it all could be taken care of. MAYOR COLEMAN:Local what? VICE.MAYOR SURRA:A local number. MS. BENNETT:Excuse me.A local telephone. MS. CONWAY:My name is Midge Conway, and I live at 902 South Ocotillo Drive.First of all, several months ago, I had a. complaint.I have a television in my bedroom with a hand remote control.But, that would not work.I had to get up and do the other thing from the box.I called them and ANv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 55 told them and they came out and they showed me how to do i But he said this is the only call we are going to make, because you get one service call and that's it.I was really provoked.Then the next -- I called them very shortly after that because I was so angry.And my response to that was, "Oh, I guess I'll have to call Channel 5 and have them get after to you."I wasn't going to call the city.I think that's the best plan. Secondly, I never received a note that you were having meetings about this cable television.And so I probably would have attended. MR. STERN:Midge, could you put down the paper down, so they can try to pick up. MS. CONRAD:Oh, I'm sorry.Microphone. MAYOR COLEMAN:That's okay. MS. CONRAD:Oh there.I'm sorry.I only get 52 channels, I don't know why.Even when I had HBO, I only got 52 channels.As far as 37 goes, I'have no problems with that.I mean, I can pick it up very well.I can read everything that's on it and it goes slow enough for me to even read it.But, I do think that it has a lot to be desired.Thank you. MR. FISHER:Elliott Fisher.547 East Quail, Apache Junction.On the Triax, the only thing I find that goes faster than the scrolling of their information on the A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 56 information channel, is their billing statements.I figured I'd slow them down and pay the late fees. well then the statement sped up, so I didn't accomplish much there. When I was in my hard days, having owned a vehicle in Apache Junction and I can't afford no transit options. Yeah, the statements go real fast, less than 15 days.So, you might want to do something about, you know, working with the customers a little more. VICE MAYOR SURRA:You are a jewel, Elliott. UNIDENTIFIED MALE:If there is any way that we can help get you out of town, I'm for it. (Laughter) MS. URICH: I never got to say something.I was just talking to Jenny earlier.She pays $29.00 and I pay $30.Why? VICE MAYOR SURRA:They don't like you, Mary. MS. URICH:They don't like me because I complain. VICE MAYOR SURRA:It's probably their remote.You call the second time. UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE:Here's a copy of the new rates. MAYOR COLEMAN:Is there -anyone else who would like to address the council? MR.GARDNER:Rick Gardner.685 North Tefee. Some young thing from Minnesota called and said, A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 57 "Congratulations, you now have fiber optics in front of your house and we can provide you with one of two different service options; which one would you like?"And I said, "What's in them?"She says, "Well, I can't tell you."She said, "But if you go over to your local office, you can find out from them." So I went over to my local office, and I said, "What is this about the fiber optics network that I have in front of my house and this little box that I am going to get?"And she says, "Well, do you know anything about fiber?"I said, "After 38 years with the Bell System, and having been in on the ground floor, yes, I do know a little bit about fiber.Would you like to discuss satellites, too?" And she said, "Well, I don't think I am allowed to give that stuff out to you."And I said, "Well, how am I supposed to know what service I want?"And she turned around to another lady, and she says, "Is it okay if I give this guy a copy of Plan 1 and Plan 2?"And the lady says, "Well, I suppose you can."So, she duplicated a copy of it and she gave it to me. And I said, "Well, I am not going to promise you anything right now.I'd like to take it over and talk to the war department first."And she says, "Well, okay fine." So, we made up our decision and called them and said, "Let's set up an appointment for Friday afternoon after 1:00."Fine.Great, we'll be on out there.We'll put in a A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 58 17 -inch long box and everything else. I got a call that says, "I'm sorry.We won't be able to come out and do that for you on Friday afternoon.If you want to resubmit the appointment, please call us."And hangs up.I said, "Call who?" So, I waited until I get the next call.They said, "Well we'd like to come out and install this thing for you, could we make an appointment?"And I said, "Yeah, sure. Friday afternoon after 1:00."Tuesday or Wednesday I get a call.We ain't going to be able to come out there.If you want to schedule it again, please call.No telephone number. I said, "The hell with you." As far as I am concerned they can commit a biological impossibility on themselves. Now, if someone from Triax would like to come out to my house and put this little box in and give me the digital service that I would like to see -- and I don't want 900 channels of music.I don't want to turn on 104 channels and see "It's A Wonderful Life" on every one of them.But, please, somebody, for God sakes, do something logically in the first place.Thank you. MAYOR COLEMAN:Is there anyone else who would like to address the council? Okay.Hearing none then, we'll go ahead and close the public hearings. ANv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting 8c Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 59 18 there questions or further discussion, comments from the members of council?COuncil member Urich and then Council member Insalaco. MS. URICH:Some of the comments that I have heard tonight, I have heard echoed out in the community over and over.What I did lately was take aninformal survey:of some of our citizens to see if they would 'like to temporarily extend the contract until we can negotiate a better contract. And without exception, everyone I've talked to said, "Yes, please do."Some of the people I've talked to, that's the only TV they have is the cable system.And I am hoping that we can negotiate:a contract where we can put "customer" back into customer service. MAYOR COLEMAN:Council member Insalaco. MR. INSALACO:Your Honor.I'm sitting here biting my tongue and steaming at the same time.I'll try to.be polite and say it politely, being a:customer of Triax ever since I've been in Apache Junction, and 'I am not any different than any one of us_up.here; but that system stinks for me.All. forma of it. Going.back-ito last Labor Day.Can't remember the dates,: but on a Tuesday my channels started fading out from 2 all the way up to 11.You can:hardly see them.The upper channels were great.So, I called andI told them, "No,one is home till after 5:30." A/Vv TRONICS9 INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 0 12 1 '2 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 60 It's on a Tuesday.Tuesday afternoon, I get home and there is sticker on the door, "Was here at 1:00 in the afternoon.Please call to have another person come out."I called the next day, out of town, and told them what happened.Now, we're at a Wednesday, TV is gone, there is no channels whatsoever.And I tell them, I said -- I made a statement that I won't be home till after 5:30.No one is here.We both work.Someone will be out.Wednesday afternoon I get home and there is a ticket on the door, "was here 20 minutes to 5:00, no one home, please call and reschedule." A little perturbed.Thursday, someone was there at 5:30, just as I walked in they were coming down -- pulled into the driveway.They couldn't find the problem.They'll come back Friday.Okay.Friday no one showed up.I called Saturday.It's the weekend.No service yet.Nothing.Now, we are into the Sunday.Monday is a holiday.No TV.So, that is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.Tuesday I call again.I take it back.My wife called again, because I refused to call again.I don't know if it was a woman's voice or what.Someone was there on Wednesday to fix it.For it to go out again Thursday afternoon.Two weeks later, I got TV. But, boy, I'll tell you what, my bill came right on schedule.Pay in full.And I called and said "I'd like to A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Repordng & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 61 have some correction done on this," and they said they wanted documentation.I said, "You've got it.All you've got to do is look and see how many times your service people have been out here." You know, like I said, I have been sitting back holding this, but if this is the kind of service, and it's like I say, I know I am not the only one.But, this is one person. that's a customer of yours, and it's going to be awful hard for me to make a decision. MAYOR COLEMAN:Councilman Durbala. MR. DURBALA:They mentioned earlier that they had up to 280 calls that dropped down to 100 and some in May. The only thing I can think of why it got down to 100 and some in May is they probably weren't answering the phones there. The 800 numbers were out.People no longer know what it is. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE:The winter visitors left. MR. DURBALA:I was getting to that.You took my thunder away.Please. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE:I'm sorry. MR. DURBALA:I was going to say, we have an exodus of about 20,000 people leaving about that time, so that's what I was going to say.That's probably why you didn't get all those complaints. MAYOR COLEMAN:Any other comments, questions? A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 62 Curtis, did you have anything? MR. ECK:They went down from 200 -to 187.That's what I heard.108. MR. SHOOK:Mr. Mayor and council, I guess, if I could. Tom, if I could ask, could you tell us what our experience would be day-to-day if we had different people calling your system, who would they reach, who would they talk to?Could you tell us that? MR. BORDWELL:We have -- customer service, we have a 1-800 number that goes to Waseca, Minnesota.Also, for repairs and billing information. MR. SHOOK:Where would one get that number?It's not in the local telephone book. MR. BORDWELL:It's on our -- every billing statement that goes out has our phone numbers on it.If somebody calls directory assistance, a local directory assistance, and asks for the number -- MR. SHOOK:Does it cost money to call direct assistance? MR. BORDWELL:I'm not sure that we have a local listing of a 1-800 number in there. UNIDENTIFIED MALE:It's not in the phone book. MR. SHOOK:Reason I ask is that I've shown you different responses.We've had city employees call for the purpose of establishing information on the digital system, A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 63 which we really didn't have.And during the course of that, I think I made you aware, that depending on what day it was, you could get a different response altogether.One day you might talk to somebody in Minnesota, but other times you'd be referred to another number.When you dialed that number, it would give you the same message that you had just received on the previous number.Can you tell us, how did that happen? MR. BORDWELL:The -- Mayor, council members, are you, Mr. Shook, are you talking about the experience I was informed of last week? MR. SHOOK:Yes. MR. BORDWELL:Yeah.That happened last Thursday, and when we went back and did a little investigating this afternoon on what may have happened, actually, what -- it's actually a phone switch problem that happened last week, and directly related to the digital product.What we had at the time set up was that the calls coming from Apache Junction right now regarding the digital product require, you know, a level of training on the CSRs part so that they are informed of what's involved with the installation and about the products themselves. I'm just so -- as this gentleman related his experience, when we first started it out, we wanted to minimize that type of experience, and hopefully prevent it from ever happening.But, in order to do that, we need to A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 • 12 13 14 15 • 16 17 18 19 211 21 22 23 24 25 64 train people and pull them off the phone lines What we did .is on Thursday, as those people got pulled off the phone lines to have their training updated on the digital for Apache Junction, the person who handles phone switching should have forwarded those calls to other CSRs, basically the next -desk over.It wasn't.It was put into -a repair and billing cycle.And, as your employee found out, is 'thatit looped them 'back into the phone call, because the repair and billing.cycle was an -after-hours number, and it wasn't .alter hours, so there wasn't anybody there to answer that.iSo, it ended up chasing our tail then :for that period of time., MR. SHOOK:If one were to call Triax, under a normal circumstance where the phone system is working appropriately, and they would get a representative, where would that representative be speaking to them from? MR. BORDWELL:Waseca, Minnesota. MR. SHOOK:And do you think that follows the current ordinance? MR. BORDWELL:Pardon me? MR. SHOOK:Do you believe that that follows -- MR. BORDWELL:I don't have the language in front of me of the current ordinance. MR. SHOOK:I guess I would submit to you then that it doesn't. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 65 Regarding annual audits and other performance -type of reports that are due the City, do you know if those have been submitted to the City within the confines of the current ordinance? MR. BORDWELL:No, I do not. MR. SHOOK:Okay.I guess that's it for the record.They can probably -- thank you, Mr. Mayor. MR. BORDWELL:Mr. Mayor, what I'd like to point out, too, is that those questions regarding conformance or compliance, my response is not based upon -- the company, other members of the company may have different responses. Under the proper hearing, I've given a proper notification I think that would fully answer that.I -wouldn't want you to assume that my answers would be complete to those questions. MAYOR COLEMAN:Council member Dietz. MR. DIETZ:I was just -- comment to Curtis.I didn't have a problem last week when we called at all.Just got right through when we canceled our service. MAYOR COLEMAN:Are there any comments, questions? I'll call for a motion then on Items 5A and 5B.Council member Urich? MS.URICH:Your Honor? MAYOR COLEMAN:Council member Urich? URICH:I move that consideration -- MAYOR COLEMAN Hold on just a moment. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ • 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 66 MR. STERN:We do have a council member missing from the room.I don't know where she went. (Discussion between council members) THE CLERK:I don't know if she'll be back.I couldn't hear everything she said. MAYOR COLEMAN:Oh, okay.Never mind. MS. URICH:I'll put on record that she's temporarily absent from the room. MAYOR COLEMAN:Okay.Go forward with your motion. I mean, that's -- (Discussion between council members) Let's go ahead.I'll call for a motion on Item SA. Council member Urich?And then we'll do 5B. MS. URICH:My motion is going to combine 5A and 5B. MAYOR COLEMAN:That's fine. MS. URICH:I move the consideration of Triax Midwest Associates L.P's., request for renewal of its cable system license be continued to two additional public hearing dates of Tuesday, July 6, 1999, and Tuesday, July 20, 1999, and a work session on Monday, July 19, 1999, and that its cable system license be extended to July 20, 1999 at 11:00 p.m., and that the city manager be directed to negotiate new terms and conditions to be reflected in a written license agreement which meets the approval of the city attorney. A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 67 MAYOR COLEMAN:Is there a second? UNIDENTIFIED MALE:Second. MAYOR COLEMAN:Move and seconded.Roll call. THE CLERK:Council member Urich? MS. URICH:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Insalaco? MR. INSALACO:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Dietz? MR. DIETZ:Yes. THE CLERK:Council member Surra is temporarily absent.Council member Durbala? MR. DURBALA:As much as I hate to, I have to say yes so we can carry this thing on for a later date. THE CLERK:Council member Eck? MR. ECK:Yes. THE CLERK:Mayor Coleman? MAYOR COLEMAN:Yes. THE CLERK:We're unanimous, Your Honor. MAYOR COLEMAN:Okay.Let's go ahead and take a 15 -minute break. (End of Public Session) A/Vv TRONICS, INC. Professional Court Reporting & Transcription Phoenix, AZ