by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
By the end of the month, a newly-drafted ordinance detailing what is expected of Jacksonville’s current and future cable service providers will be put into place. Although materializing out the tempestuous relationship with former cable provider AT&T, City employees have confidence that the new document will set things straight.
“The ordinance has been greatly strengthened,” said Mario Taylor, director of the Regulatory & Environmental Services Department. “It brings the city into the 21st Century. We took it very seriously and it definitely has teeth.”
Although the path to this point was not easily crossed, Taylor insists that over the long haul, it will be worth it.
“For the past year and half, we have, unfortunately, been in the throes of demanding our cable service provider perform at a level that they should be performing,” said Taylor. “It got to the point where we needed to do something.”
Taylor said that by mid-2001, cable complaints skyrocketed from a typical 50 a month, to upwards of a 1,000.
“We were accustomed to working in a posture of receiving nominal complaints before things had gotten out of control,” said Taylor. “Service performance steadily decreased and people wanted satisfaction.”
Although some improvements were made, service remained substandard.
“Periodic spots of goodness are not enough,” Taylor said. “It’s not acceptable.”
By July 2001, Taylor and cable franchise manager Howard Conner began meeting with a City Council subcommittee in an attempt to solve the problem before it could get too large to mend. Ultimately, a resolution could not be reached and the City’s franchise agreement with AT&T dissolved.
In the wake of Comcast’s arrival, it was agreed that the old cable ordinance — which had remained largely unchanged since its creation — should be altered to insure that future dips in customer services could be recognized early and corrected quickly. Two months of research and drafting by the Council, RESD and outside consultants were invested into the complete overhaul; a near laundry list of revisions.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Taylor. “It required a serious amount of effort, but we wanted a decent product to come out of it.”
Among the aspects of the 100-page agreement with which Taylor is most pleased, is correctional measures that were formerly exercised by the Council are now his to employ.
“The rewritten ordinance gives this regulatory agency the tools, the ability and the authority to require and demand accountability and results from our cable service provider,” said Taylor.
With the shift in implementation power — which includes fines and periodic service performance checks — from the Council to the RESD, Taylor is confident that future problems can be avoided.
“Any product can be better,” said Taylor, “but this really will enable us to react and work quickly.”