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C. Comcast Cable Franchise In addition to federal and state law, local law also must be considered. The local law applicable to the application for an additional franchise is the current franchise with the incumbent franchised cable operator, Comcast. states: The Comcast cable franchise addresses competitive franchises in section 2.2.3, which 2.2.3 This Franchise and the right it grants to use and occupy the Rights - of -Way shall not be exclusive and this Franchise does not, explicitly or implicitly, preclude the issuance of other franchises or similar authorizations to operate Cable Systems within the City. Provided, however, that the City shall not authorize or permit itself or another Person or governmental body to construct, operate or maintain a Cable System on material terms and conditions which are, taken as a whole, more favorable or less burdensome than those applied to the Grantee. Section 9 Issues Raised by the Public The public was allowed to testify at the public hearing and the NMTC left the public hearing open for over one week for the purpose of allowing the public to submit written comments. There was testimony from a citizen and Comcast at the public hearing. Other than a letter from Comcast, no additional written comments were submitted. A. Economic Redlining or Cherry Picking. One member of the public testified at the public hearing that it would be unfair for the incumbent cable operator to be required to build out an entire franchise area, but not a new company like CenturyLink.26 B. Issues Raised By the Incumbent Franchised Cable Operator - Comcast The letter from Comcast submitted into the record at the public hearing raised the following issues: Concern about whether CenturyLink will have similar franchise commitments as Comcast. Exhibit 5 at pp. 1-2. An expectation that "the same level of due diligence and scrutiny that the NMTC would and has applied to Comcast and its predecessors' will also be applied to CenturyLink." Id. at p. 2. 26 Public Hearing at 27:50. See FN 2 above. 11