St. Cloud council votes to enforce Charter violation

St. Cloud will move forward with enforcing its agreement with Charter Communications.

Charter moved the public, education and government, or PEG, access channels without the city's permission, which is a violation of the agreement. The city had put off enforcing the violation, hoping it could reach a new franchise agreement with Charter that would address the issue.

Charter pays franchise fees to the city under the agreement in exchange for the right to use public right of way to provide its service.

On Monday, the council decided the city had waited long enough. A public hearing was held to discuss a proposed new franchise agreement but that document was not ready. A number of issues still need to be finalized.

Instead of giving the attorneys more time to work out an agreement, the council unanimously approved moving forward with enforcing the violation. That means Charter has 30 days to move the PEG channels back.

If it does not, the council will give Charter 14 days notice before holding another public hearing. At the hearing, the council will consider the evidence and decide whether a violation occurred.

If the council determines there was a violation, Charter could be fined $250 for each day they were in violation. The city could go as far as terminating the franchise agreement.

Charter would have the right to appeal the decision.

Despite the violation enforcement, the city still needs to come to a new franchise agreement with Charter.

The biggest hindrance to coming to an agreement is about providing service to public buildings. In the past, cable was given to schools, libraries, City Hall and other public buildings for free as part of the franchise agreement.

Charter wants to continue to provide service to schools for free. But the company wants to create a separate agreement to provide cable service to other public buildings.

Attorney Brian Grogan, who represents the city, said he could not find any similar agreements between a cable company and city.

Another issue is removing abandoned cable equipment throughout the city. There are about 3,000 pedestals and 12,000 feet of aerial cable that are no longer being used. The city wants Charter to remove them.

In 2011, the city received almost $735,000 in franchise fees and more than $140,000 in public, educational and government access fees.

The agreement creates a 5 percent franchise fee and a 1.5 percent public, education, government access fee. The agreement would last 10 years if approved.

The agreement does not prevent another cable company from coming into the area to provide service.

Follow Kari Petrie on Twitter @karipetrie or call her at 255-8765.