Agenda - Council - 10/22/1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I :1 I I I I I I I I I 1 I I I Vose informed the Commission that Continental and U.S. West have entered into an agreement to merge. A FCC form 394 has been filed in that respect by U.S. West. Vose stated that it was originally believed that all of Continental's assets would be merges with U.S. West, Inc., however, after asking questions, it has been learned that U.S. West Media Group, Inc. will be merging with Continental. A new entity that has not yet been incorporated will be merging and taking all of Continental's assets. Vose reminded Commission members that this information is very important because what ever entity ends up with all of the property is usually the entity that will be responsible for performance obligations or to look to if the Commission was needing to sue and also to fulfill the obligations of the franchise. This problems brought about the importance of the corporate guarantee. Clearly U.S. West is legally, financially, and technically qualified to operate the franchise. Mr. Vose and Mr. Creighton's recommendation is to move forward with resolution to each member city to approve the Continental/U.S.West transaction as well. Donald Jacobson stated that he believes that there should be some kind of a time frame for the transaction to be completed and that if they can not complete it in this time frame they need to come back to the Commission and ask for a extension or the deal is null and void. Vose informed the Commission that U.S. West recently requested of the FCC that a waiver of an existing Federal Law which is part of the Federal Cable Act which prevents telephone companies from purchasing a cable system with in their own telephone service area. U.S.West is asking that the FCC waive this provision for 18 months. The new Federal Law clearly sets out criteria for the FCC to follow on g.ranting these waivers. One being, the requesting company has to get approval of the local franchise authority. U.S. West is filing a petition s~ating that the statue does not clearly state that they need to get the local Franchise Authorities' authorization. There has been a opposition filed by the Commission's attorneys regarding getting a waiver "with out" permission. Mark Nagel voiced his concerns that he has with U.S. West and their "corporate character". In the past Nagel feels that when ever a problem arises involving the city they go straight to the legal matters instead of trying to sit done and work it out.