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service. Id. at ¶ 8. No adverse administrative, civil or criminal action has been taken against the applicant over the past five years. Id. at ¶ 9. While the applicant will operate the cable system, the facilities in the public rights-of- way will be owned by Qwest Corporation ("QC"). Id. at 10. Any cable franchise to applicant must contain adequate provisions ensuring compliance by QC of any franchise provisions related to the location, removal, relocation, testing, performance, and any other franchise requirement or applicable cable regulation relating to any portion of the cable communications system. Based on the information contained in CenturyLink's application and responses to the NMTC's request for information, it appears that CenturyLink has the legal qualifications to operate a cable communications system in the NMTC. Any franchise that is ultimately negotiated is subject to all restrictions under federal, state and local laws. d. Cable -Related Community Needs and Interests. No formal needs assessment is legally required in connection with an application for a competitive franchise. The NMTC's cable -related needs and interests were addressed in the 2002 Comcast cable franchise and recently updated through a 2014 Settlement Agreement. See e.g. Blaine Ord. No. 02-1957; and NMTC Res. No. 12-17-2014. Any franchise negotiated with CenturyLink should be substantially similar (but need not be identical) to the 2002 Comcast cable franchise, as amended, and consistent with this Report. Section 11 Cable Franchise Considerations In the event that the NMTC directs NMTC staff to negotiate a cable franchise with CenturyLink, the Administrator recommends that any franchise include, but certainly not be limited to, addressing the following issues. a. Economic Redlining or "Cherry Picking." Comcast raised a concern that CenturyLink will discriminate based on the income of residents in the NMTC member city area. See Exhibit 5 and Public Hearing Testimony. There is nothing in the record to indicate that CenturyLink will do so. However, the application does not provide clarity as to where CenturyLink will provide cable service. The CenturyLink application only indicates that its cable service "will be available to over thirty percent of the households in the [NMTC] member cities." See Exhibit 2 at p. 4. The Federal Cable Act does prohibit economic redlining. See 47 U.S.C. § 541(a)(3). While economic redlining is illegal, it should be addressed in any negotiated cable franchise with CenturyLink. c. Franchise Area - Reasonable Build -Out of the NMTC. As discussed in Section 8 above, the state of Minnesota has a statute that requires that all initial cable franchises contain a franchise provision requiring a 5 -year build. It is CenturyLink's position that the 5 -year Build Statute is preempted by the Federal Cable Act. See Exhibit 3 at ¶¶ 28-31. While there is no court decision directly addressing whether the Federal Cable Act preempts the state 5 -Year Build Statute, CenturyLink does provide a good faith basis for its 16