PORT ANGELES — Residents will soon get a chance to influence the city’s cable franchise renewal process with WAVE Broadband — impacting an agreement that will affect subscribers for years to come.
“These types of agreements traditionally last 10 to 15 years, so whatever we are able to take out of these focus groups and sit down and negotiate with WAVE is going to be affecting the people in this community, potentially up to 2032,” said Gregg King, Port Angeles power resource manager.
“This is important, in part, because of the length of the franchise agreement. The last franchise agreement was 15 years in length.
“This agreement will most likely, although not necessarily, be also 15 years in length,” after the current contract expires in 2017.
415,000 customers
WAVE provides residential and business cable TV, broadband Internet and telephone services on the West Coast to about 415,000 customers from central California to Washington State — including Clallam County.
Residents are invited to participate in the focus-group stage of the renewal process during several meetings starting Feb. 24.
Each focus group session will last about two hours and is open to the public.
During the meetings, residents will be given an opportunity to share their vision of cable service — as well as local community media in Port Angeles — over the next 15 years and inquire about services that could be available through WAVE in years to come.
The goal of the focus group stage is to “give the citizens an opportunity to make their opinions known,” King said.
“We definitely want to listen to the people that we work for here.”
The Buske Group, a Sacramento, Calif-based consulting firm assisting the city with the franchise renewal processes, will conduct the focus-group sessions.
“We work with local governments to help them with [the] franchise renewal process, which is what happens when a cable operator — who has a franchise or contract with the city to use the streets to put in cable — [has] to have their contract renewed,” Sue Buske, president of the Buske Group, said.
Aid in negotiations
The Buske Group will help the city adhere to government guidelines for negotiations, Buske said.
“Federal law lays out a process local governments must go through when these franchise renewal proceedings occur.
“They give you three years, and it has several aspects.
“One of them is to look to the past. Has the company complied with the current contract or franchise?
“The next piece is to look to the future. What are . . . the future community cable related needs and interests in the community?”
After that information is gleaned, “you use that to determine and justify what you are going to negotiate for,” Buske said.
“By having a lot of people involved, and having a lot of peoples’ information, we are providing a stronger legal foundation for what the city is going to be able to negotiate for when we go to the negotiating table with WAVE.”
King also highlighted the importance of having community involvement before negotiations.
“The more people we have saying this is what we want, the stronger foundation we as the city have when we go to talk with WAVE.”
Residents should be thinking of the future during the meetings, Buske said.
“If you think about how much communications technologies have changed in the last 15 years, it is dramatic.
So, when a city is going through a process like this, they have to look at — not only what has happened the last few years,” but what is projected for the future.
“We’ve got to look at what the needs of the community are going to be that far into the future, so it is almost like you really need to do a communications planning process when you are doing this.”
Internet impacts
The negotiations will indirectly affect Internet service for area residents as well.
“The reason why the city can negotiate this franchise is because of the cable [TV] part, not the Internet part,” Buske said.
“But the Internet travels on exactly the same fiber as the cable does, so even though you are technically not negotiating the Internet part, you are, because it is the same wire that it all goes on.”
Buske also noted the lack of a local TV channel dedicated to city government.
“One of the things that is an opportunity for the future — if the community is interested — is having what we call a community education public and government channel or channels.”
Such a channel would be used to broadcast government information, city council meetings and public service announcements.
Those interested in participating in the focus groups are asked to RSVP online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/Port_Angeles.
For more information on the focus groups, contact King at 360-417-4710 or gking@cityofpa.us.
