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A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF LOCAL CABLE AND VIDEO PROVIDER FRANCHISING WHEREAS, the City of is committed to ensuring that all of its citizens have access to the most technologically advanced broadband services available in the marketplace today as a means to ensure the competitiveness of the City, as well as its corporate and individual citizens; and WHEREAS, the City, by means of the local cable franchising process, has obtained commitments to meet the cable - related needs and interests of the community, including full access to a wide array of video and broadband services for all citizens of the City; public, educational and government access channels; financial support for facilities and equipment for the production of programming; free cable services to schools and governmental facilities, and an Institutional Network and other services that support important government, educational, and public interests; and WHEREAS, in Congress, bills have either been introduced or drafted and discussed in committee that would hinder or preclude the City from requiring providers of cable and video services that use City rights -of -way to fully meet local community needs; and WHEREAS, these bills — HR 5252 and S 2686 — would effectively nationalize the franchising of video services, setting a course toward preemption of all local authority over the provision of cable and video services within the community; and WHEREAS, HR 5252 and S 2686 would reduce the funding support for public, educational and government access services provided by the North Suburban Access Corporation /CTV North Suburbs by 80 %, lowering its income from $1 million to $218,000, thereby decreasing the ability of the community to produce programs about local issues, people, organizations and activities; and WHEREAS, HR 5252 and S 2686 would eliminate any build -out requirements for any video service provider, thereby allowing providers to cherrypick the City's most lucrative neighborhoods while leaving others unserved; and WHEREAS, HR 5252 and S 2686 would permit companies that may not be financially, legally, or technically qualified to get a license or franchise to build and operate a cable systems in the City's public rights -of -way; and WHEREAS, HR 5252 and S 2686 would deprive City residents of the ability to address issues locally by removing to the state and federal government all customer service issues and transferring local enforcement of franchise issues to the federal bureaucracies and courts; and