Code of Ordinances

The Coun­ty, pur­suant to 220 ILCS 5/70–501(r)(1), does here­by pro­vide for a sched­ule of penal­ties for any mate­r­i­al breach of the Cable and Video Pro­tec­tion Law by cable or video providers in addi­tion to the penal­ties pro­vid­ed in the law.  The mon­e­tary penal­ties shall apply on a com­pet­i­tive­ly neu­tral basis and shall not exceed Sev­en Hun­dred Fifty Dol­lars ($750.00) for each day of the mate­r­i­al breach, and shall not exceed Twen­­­ty-Five Thou­sand Dol­lars ($25,000.00) for each occur­rence of a mate­r­i­al breach per customer.

(A) Mate­r­i­al breach means any sub­stan­tial fail­ure of a cable or video provider to com­ply with ser­vice qual­i­ty and oth­er stan­dards spec­i­fied in any pro­vi­sion of the law.

(B) The Coun­ty shall give the cable or video provider writ­ten notice of any alleged mate­r­i­al breach­es of the law and allow such provider at least thir­ty (30) days from the receipt of the notice to rem­e­dy the spec­i­fied mate­r­i­al breach.

(C) A mate­r­i­al breach, for the pur­pos­es of assess­ing penal­ties, shall be deemed to occur for each day that a mate­r­i­al breach has not been reme­died by the cable or video ser­vice provider after the notice in (B).

The Coun­ty here­by adopts the sched­ule of cus­tomer cred­its for vio­la­tions.  Those cred­its shall be as pro­vid­ed for in the pro­vi­sions of 220 ILCS 5/70–501(s) and applied on the state­ment issued to the cus­tomer for the next billing cycle fol­low­ing the vio­la­tion or fol­low­ing the dis­cov­ery of the vio­la­tion.  The cable or video provider is respon­si­ble for pro­vid­ing the cred­its and the cus­tomer is under no oblig­a­tion to request the credit.

The Coun­ty does here­by pur­suant to law declare its intent to enforce all of the cus­tomer ser­vice and pri­va­cy pro­tec­tion stan­dards of the Cable and Video Pro­tec­tion Law with respect to com­plaints received from res­i­dents with­in the County.

(A) Adop­tion.  The reg­u­la­tions of 220 ILCS 5/70–501 are here­by adopt­ed by ref­er­ence and may be applic­a­ble to the cable or video providers offer­ing ser­vices with­in the County’s boundaries.

(B) Amend­ments.  Any amend­ment to the Cable and Video Cus­tomer Pro­tec­tion Law that becomes effec­tive after the effec­tive date of this Arti­cle shall be incor­po­rat­ed into this Arti­cle by ref­er­ence and shall be applic­a­ble to cable or video providers offer­ing ser­vices with­in the County’s bound­aries.  How­ev­er, any amend­ment that makes its pro­vi­sions option­al for adop­tion by munic­i­pal­i­ties shall not be incor­po­rat­ed into this Arti­cle by ref­er­ence with­out for­mal action by the cor­po­rate author­i­ties of the County.

All fees due and pay­ments which are past due shall be gov­erned by ordi­nances adopt­ed by this munic­i­pal­i­ty pur­suant to the Local Gov­ern­ment Tax­pay­ers’ Bill of Rights Act, 50 ILCS 45/1 et seq.

(See 220 ILCS 5/21–801)

(A) Audit Require­ment.  The Coun­ty will noti­fy the hold­er of the require­ments it impos­es on oth­er cable ser­vice or video ser­vice providers to sub­mit to an audit of its books and records.  The hold­er shall com­ply with the same require­ments the Coun­ty impos­es on oth­er cable ser­vice or video ser­vice providers in its juris­dic­tion to audit the holder’s books and records and to recom­pute any amounts deter­mined to be payable under the require­ments of the Coun­ty.  If all local fran­chis­es between the Coun­ty and cable oper­a­tor ter­mi­nate, the audit require­ments shall be those adopt­ed by the Coun­ty pur­suant to the Local Gov­ern­ment Tax­pay­ers’ Bill of Rights Act, 50 ILCS 45/1 et seq. found in Chap­ter 36.  No accep­tance of amounts remit­ted should be con­strued as an accord that the amounts are cor­rect.  (See Chap­ter 36 – Tax­a­tion)

(B) Addi­tion­al Pay­ments.  Any addi­tion­al amount due after an audit shall be paid with­in thir­ty (30) days after the County’s sub­mis­sion of an invoice for the sum.

Noth­ing con­tained in this Arti­cle shall be con­strued to exempt a hold­er from any tax that is or may lat­er be imposed by the Coun­ty, includ­ing any tax that is or may lat­er be required to be paid by or through the hold­er with respect to cable ser­vice or video ser­vice.  A State-issued autho­riza­tion shall not affect any require­ment of the hold­er with respect to pay­ment of the County’s sim­pli­fied munic­i­pal telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions tax or any oth­er tax as it applies to any tele­phone ser­vice pro­vid­ed by the hold­er.  A State-issued autho­riza­tion shall not affect any require­ment of the hold­er with respect to pay­ment of the local unit of government’s 911 or E911 fees, tax­es or charges.

All deter­mi­na­tions and cal­cu­la­tions under this Arti­cle shall be made pur­suant to gen­er­al­ly accept­ed account­ing principles.

(A) PEG Fee Imposed.  A PEG access sup­port fee is here­by imposed on any hold­er pro­vid­ing cable ser­vice or video ser­vice in the Coun­ty in addi­tion to the fee imposed pur­suant to Sec­tion 8–2‑2(B).

(B) Amount of Fee.  The amount of the PEG access sup­port fee imposed here­by shall be one per­cent (1%) of the holder’s gross rev­enues or, if greater, the per­cent­age of gross rev­enues that incum­bent cable oper­a­tors pay to the Coun­ty or its designee for PEG access sup­port in the County.

(C) Pay­ment.  The hold­er shall pay the PEG access sup­port fee to the Coun­ty or to the enti­ty des­ig­nat­ed by the Coun­ty to man­age PEG access.  The holder’s lia­bil­i­ty for the PEG access sup­port fee shall com­mence on the date set forth in Sec­tion 8–2‑2(D).

(D) Pay­ment Due.  The pay­ment of the PEG access sup­port fee shall be due on a quar­ter­ly basis, forty-five (45) days after the close of the cal­en­dar quar­ter.  If mailed, the fee is con­sid­ered paid on the date it is post­marked.  Each pay­ment shall include a state­ment explain­ing the basis for the cal­cu­la­tion of the fee.

(E) Cred­it for Oth­er Pay­ments.  An incum­bent cable oper­a­tor that elects to ter­mi­nate an exist­ing agree­ment pur­suant to 220 ILCS 5/21–301(c) shall pay, at the time they would have been due, all mon­e­tary pay­ments for PEG access that would have been due dur­ing the remain­ing term of the agree­ment had it not been 
ter­mi­nat­ed pur­suant to that sec­tion.  All pay­ments made by an incum­bent cable oper­a­tor pur­suant to the pre­vi­ous sen­tence may be cred­it­ed against the fees that the oper­a­tor owed under Sec­tion 8–2‑3(B).

(A) Fee Imposed.  A fee is here­by imposed on any hold­er pro­vid­ing cable ser­vice or video ser­vice in the County.

(B) Amount of Fee.  The amount of the fee imposed here­by shall be five per­cent (5%) of the holder’s gross revenues.

(C) Notice to the Coun­ty.  The hold­er shall noti­fy the Coun­ty at least ten (10) days pri­or to the date on which the hold­er begins to offer cable ser­vice or video ser­vice in the County.

(D) Holder’s Lia­bil­i­ty.  The hold­er shall be liable for and pay the ser­vice provider fee to the Coun­ty.  The holder’s lia­bil­i­ty for the fee shall com­mence on the first day of the cal­en­dar month fol­low­ing thir­ty (30) days after receipt of the ordi­nance adopt­ing this Arti­cle by the hold­er.  The ordi­nance adopt­ing this Arti­cle shall be sent by mail, postage pre­paid, to the address list­ed on the holder’s appli­ca­tion notice sent pur­suant to 220 ILCS 5/21–401(b)(6) to the County.

(E) Pay­ment Date.  The pay­ment of the ser­vice provider fee shall be due on a quar­ter­ly basis, forty-five (45) days after the close of the cal­en­dar quar­ter.  If mailed, the fee is con­sid­ered paid on the date it is post­marked.  Each pay­ment shall include a state­ment explain­ing the basis for the cal­cu­la­tion of the fee.

(F) Exemp­tion.  The fee here­by imposed does not apply to exist­ing cable ser­vice or video ser­vice providers that have an exist­ing fran­chise agree­ment with the Coun­ty in which a fee is paid.

(G) Cred­it for Oth­er Pay­ments.  An incum­bent cable oper­a­tor that elects to ter­mi­nate an exist­ing agree­ment pur­suant to 220 ILCS 5/21–301(c) with cred­it to pre­paid fran­chise fees under that agree­ment may deduct the amount of such cred­it from the fees that oper­a­tor owes under Sec­tion 116.02(b).

As used in this Arti­cle, the fol­low­ing terms shall have the fol­low­ing meanings:

(A) “Cable Ser­vice” means that term as defined in 47 U.S.C. § 522(6).

(B) “Com­mis­sion” means the Illi­nois Com­merce Com­mis­sion.

(C) “Gross Rev­enues” means all con­sid­er­a­tion of any kind or nature, includ­ing, with­out lim­i­ta­tion, cash, cred­its, prop­er­ty, and in-kind con­tri­bu­tions received by the hold­er for the oper­a­tion of a cable or video sys­tem to pro­vide cable ser­vice or video ser­vice with­in the holder’s cable ser­vice or video ser­vice area with­in the County.

1. Gross rev­enues shall include the following: 
   • Recur­ring charges for cable or video service.
   • Event-based charges for cable ser­vice or video ser­vice, includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, pay-per-view and video-on-demand charges.
   • Rental of set top box­es and oth­er cable ser­vice or video ser­vice equipment.
   • Ser­vice charges relat­ed to the pro­vi­sion of cable ser­vice or video ser­vice, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to acti­va­tion, instal­la­tion, and repair charges.
   • Admin­is­tra­tive charges relat­ed to the pro­vi­sion of cable ser­vice or video ser­vice, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to ser­vice order and ser­vice ter­mi­na­tion charges.
   • Late pay­ment fees or charges, insuf­fi­cient funds check charges, and oth­er charges assessed to recov­er the costs of col­lect­ing delin­quent payments.
   • A pro rata por­tion of all rev­enue derived by the hold­er or its affil­i­ates pur­suant to com­pen­sa­tion arrange­ments for adver­tis­ing or for pro­mo­tion or exhi­bi­tion of any prod­ucts or ser­vices derived from the oper­a­tion of the holder’s net­work to pro­vide cable ser­vice or video ser­vice with­in the Coun­ty.  The allo­ca­tion shall be based on the num­ber of sub­scribers in the Coun­ty divid­ed by the total num­ber of sub­scribers in rela­tion to the rel­e­vant region­al or nation­al com­pen­sa­tion arrangement.
   • Com­pen­sa­tion received by the hold­er that is derived from the oper­a­tion of the holder’s net­work to pro­vide cable ser­vice or video ser­vice with respect to com­mis­sions that are received by the hold­er as com­pen­sa­tion for pro­mo­tion or exhi­bi­tion of any prod­ucts or ser­vices on the holder’s net­work, such as a “home shop­ping” or sim­i­lar chan­nel, sub­ject to sub­sec­tion (i).
   • In the case of a cable ser­vice or video ser­vice that is bun­dled or inte­grat­ed func­tion­al­ly with oth­er ser­vices, capa­bil­i­ties, or appli­ca­tions, the por­tion of the holder’s rev­enue attrib­ut­able to the oth­er ser­vices, capa­bil­i­ties, or appli­ca­tions shall be includ­ed in the gross rev­enue unless the hold­er can rea­son­ably iden­ti­fy the divi­sion or exclu­sion of the rev­enue from its books and records that are kept in the reg­u­lar course of business.
   • The ser­vice provider fee per­mit­ted by 220 ILCS 5/21–801(b).
2. Gross rev­enues do not include any of the following: 
   • Rev­enues not actu­al­ly received, even if billed, such as bad debt, sub­ject to 220 ILCS 5/21–801(c)(1)(vi).
   • Refunds, dis­counts, or oth­er price adjust­ments that reduce the amount of gross rev­enues received by the hold­er of the State-issued autho­riza­tion to the extent the refund, rebate, cred­it, or dis­count is attrib­ut­able to cable ser­vice or video service.
   • Regard­less of whether the ser­vices are bun­dled, pack­aged, or func­tion­al­ly inte­grat­ed with cable ser­vice or video ser­vice, any rev­enues received from ser­vices not clas­si­fied as cable ser­vice or video ser­vice, includ­ing, with­out lim­i­ta­tion, rev­enue received from telecom­mu­ni­ca­tion ser­vices, infor­ma­tion ser­vices, or the pro­vi­sion of direc­to­ry or Inter­net adver­tis­ing, includ­ing yel­low pages, white pages, ban­ner adver­tise­ment, and elec­tron­ic pub­lish­ing or any oth­er rev­enues attrib­uted by the hold­er to non-cable ser­vice or non-video ser­vice in accor­dance with the holder’s books and records and records kept in the reg­u­lar course of busi­ness and any applic­a­ble laws, rules, reg­u­la­tions, stan­dards, or orders.
   • The sale of cable ser­vices or video ser­vices for resale in which the pur­chas­er is required to col­lect the ser­vice provider fee from the purchaser’s sub­scribers to the extent the pur­chas­er cer­ti­fies in writ­ing that it will resell the ser­vice with­in the Coun­ty and pay the fee per­mit­ted by 220 ILCS 5/21–801(b) with respect to the service.
   • Any tax or fee of gen­er­al applic­a­bil­i­ty imposed upon the sub­scribers or the trans­ac­tion by a city, state, fed­er­al, or any oth­er gov­ern­men­tal enti­ty and col­lect­ed by the hold­er of the State-issued autho­riza­tion and required to be remit­ted to the tax­ing enti­ty, includ­ing sales and use taxes.
   • Secu­ri­ty deposits col­lect­ed from subscribers.
   • Amounts paid by sub­scribers to “home shop­ping” or sim­i­lar ven­dors for mer­chan­dise sold through any home shop­ping chan­nel offered as part of the cable ser­vice or video service.
3. Rev­enue of an affil­i­ate of a hold­er shall be includ­ed in the cal­cu­la­tion of gross rev­enues to the extent the treat­ment of the rev­enue as rev­enue of the affil­i­ate rather than the hold­er has the effect of evad­ing the pay­ment of the fee per­mit­ted by 220 ILCS 5/21–801(b) which would oth­er­wise be paid by the cable ser­vice or video service.

(D) “Hold­er” means a per­son or enti­ty that has received autho­riza­tion to offer or pro­vide cable or video ser­vice from the Com­mis­sion pur­suant to 220 ILCS 5/21–401.

(E) “Ser­vice” means the pro­vi­sion of “cable ser­vice” or “video ser­vice” to sub­scribers and the inter­ac­tion of sub­scribers with the per­son or enti­ty that has received autho­riza­tion to offer or pro­vide cable or video ser­vice from the Com­mis­sion pur­suant to 220 ILCS 5/21–401.

(F) “Ser­vice Provider Fee” means the amount paid under this Arti­cle and 220 ILCS 5/21–801 by the hold­er to a Coun­ty for the ser­vice areas with­in its ter­ri­to­r­i­al jurisdiction.

(G) “Video Ser­vice” means video pro­gram­ming and sub­scriber inter­ac­tion, if any, that is required for the selec­tion or use of such video pro­gram­ming ser­vices, and which is pro­vid­ed through wire­line facil­i­ties locat­ed at least in part in the pub­lic right-of-way with­out regard to deliv­ery tech­nol­o­gy, includ­ing Inter­net pro­to­col tech­nol­o­gy.  This def­i­n­i­tion does not include any video pro­gram­ming pro­vid­ed by a com­mer­cial mobile ser­vice provider defined in 47 U.S.C. § 332(d) or any video pro­gram­ming pro­vid­ed sole­ly as part of, and via, ser­vice that enables users to access con­tent, infor­ma­tion, elec­tron­ic mail, or oth­er ser­vices offered over the pub­lic Internet.

(A) Fran­chise Fee.  A Fran­chisee shall pay the Coun­ty a Fran­chise Fee of five per­cent (5%) of Gross Rev­enues.  In accor­dance fed­er­al law, the twelve (12) monthperi­od applic­a­ble under the Fran­chise for the com­pu­ta­tion of such Fran­chise Fee shall be a cal­en­dar year.  Pay­ment of the Fran­chise Fee shall be due annu­al­ly and payable with­in nine­ty (90) days after the close of the cal­en­dar year.  Each annu­al pay­ment shall be accom­pa­nied by a report from the Fran­chisee show­ing the basis for the com­pu­ta­tion of the Fran­chisee Fee payable for the applic­a­ble cal­en­dar year.

(B) Reg­u­la­tion of Rates.  The Coun­ty may reg­u­late rates for the pro­vi­sion of Cable Ser­vice to the extent per­mit­ted by fed­er­al law.

(See 55 ILCS 5/5–1095 and 1096)

(Ord. No. 2010–2; 03–01–10)

(A) Fran­chise Required.  No per­son shall pro­vide Cable Ser­vice with­in the Fran­chise Area with­out a Fran­chise Agreement.

(B) Grant­i­ng of Fran­chise.  The Board may grant one or more non-exclu­­­sive Fran­chis­es for the use of the Pub­lic Right-of-Way with­in the Fran­chise Area for the con­struc­tion, oper­a­tion and main­te­nance of a Cable System.

(C) Fran­chise Non-Exclu­­­sive.  Any Fran­chise grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter shall be non-exclusive.

(D) Fran­chise Appli­ca­tion.  The Coun­ty may require that any Per­son seek­ing a Fran­chise under this Chap­ter pro­vide the Coun­ty with a writ­ten appli­ca­tion in a for­mat pre­scribed by the County.

(E) Term, Expi­ra­tion, Renew­al and Transfer.

1. Any Fran­chise grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter shall be for a term no longer than fif­teen (15) years.
2. Any Fran­chise grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter shall ter­mi­nate upon the expi­ra­tion of the term of the Fran­chise unless renewed pur­suant to this Section.
3. Any Fran­chise grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter may be renewed by mutu­al agree­ment of the Coun­ty and a Fran­chisee pur­suant to fed­er­al law.
4. Any right, title, or inter­est in a Fran­chise grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter shall not be sold, trans­ferred, assigned, or oth­er­wise encum­bered, oth­er than to an enti­ty con­trol­ling, con­trolled by, or under com­mon con­trol with a Fran­chisee, with­out pri­or writ­ten notice to the Coun­ty.  No such notice shall be required, how­ev­er, for a trans­fer in trust, by mort­gage, by oth­er hypoth­e­ca­tion, or by assign­ment of any rights, title, or inter­est of a Fran­chisee in the Fran­chise or Cable Sys­tem in order to secure indebtedness.

(D) Fran­chise Area.  The geo­graph­ic area cov­ered by any Fran­chise grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter shall be the unin­cor­po­rat­ed por­tions of the County.

(E) Use of Pub­lic Right-of-Way Non-Exclu­­­sive.  Any use of the Pub­lic Right-of-Way grant­ed pur­suant to this Chap­ter and any Fran­chise Agree­ment shall be non-exclu­­­sive and the Coun­ty may grant sim­i­lar use of the Pub­lic Right-of-Way to any oth­er per­son at any time.

(F) Use of Coun­ty Prop­er­ty.  Noth­ing in this Chap­ter or any Fran­chise Agree­ment shall grant a Fran­chisee any right to prop­er­ty owned by the County.

(G) Revo­ca­tion of Franchise.

1. The Coun­ty may revoke a Fran­chise and any and all rights and priv­i­leges of a Fran­chisee under this Chap­ter, and under any Fran­chise Agree­ment, upon the occur­rence of any sub­stan­tial breach of this Chap­ter or of any Fran­chise Agree­ment.  For pur­pos­es of this Chap­ter, and any Fran­chise Agree­ment made pur­suant to this Chap­ter, sub­stan­tial breach shall include the following:
• Fail­ure, after notice and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cure, of a Fran­chisee to pay any por­tion of a Fran­chise Fee; or
• Fail­ure, after notice and an oppor­tu­ni­ty to cure, of a Fran­chisee to com­ply with any mate­r­i­al pro­vi­sion of this Chap­ter or any Fran­chise Agree­ment; or
• Mate­r­i­al fraud or mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion by the Fran­chisee in obtain­ing the Fran­chise; or
• Insol­ven­cy or bank­rupt­cy of the Franchisee.
2. Upon the occur­rence of any sub­stan­tial breach, the Coun­ty shall pro­vide the Fran­chisee with writ­ten notice describ­ing the nature of the sub­stan­tial breach and, if applic­a­ble, requir­ing that the Fran­chisee cor­rect the sub­stan­tial breach with­in thir­ty (30) days.  With­in thir­ty (30) days of deliv­ery of such writ­ten notice, the Fran­chisee shall respond in writ­ing either con­test­ing the County’s notice of sub­stan­tial breach or out­lin­ing cor­rec­tion mea­sure being under­tak­en by the Fran­chisee.  The Fran­chisee may file a writ­ten request for a hear­ing on the mat­ter.  The Coun­ty shall hold such hear­ing with­in thir­ty (30) days of any such request filed by the Fran­chisee.  The Board shall pre­side at any such hear­ing and deter­mine whether a sub­stan­tial breach has occurred.  The Board shall ren­der a record of its pro­ceed­ings and of its findings.

For the pur­pose of this Chap­ter, the fol­low­ing terms shall be giv­en these definitions:

(A) “Act” means the Fed­er­al Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Act of 1934, as amended.

(B) “Board” means the Board of Com­mis­sion­ers of the County.

(C) “Cable Ser­vice” means:

1. the one-way trans­mis­sion to Sub­scribers of video pro­gram­ming or oth­er pro­gram­ming ser­vice; and
2. Sub­scriber inter­ac­tion, if any, which is required for the selec­tion of such video pro­gram­ming or oth­er pro­gram­ming service.

(D) “Cable Sys­tem” means a facil­i­ty con­sist­ing of a set of closed trans­mis­sion paths and asso­ci­at­ed sig­nal gen­er­a­tion, recep­tion and con­trol equip­ment that is designed to pro­vide Cable Ser­vice to Sub­scribers with­in the Coun­ty; pro­vid­ed, how­ev­er, Cable Sys­tem does not include the following:

1. a facil­i­ty that serves only to re-tran­s­mit the tele­vi­sion sig­nals of one or more tele­vi­sion broad­cast sta­tions; and
2. a facil­i­ty that serves only Sub­scribers in one or more mul­ti­ple unit dwellings under com­mon own­er­ship, con­trol or man­age­ment, unless such facil­i­ty uses any Pub­lic Right-of-Way; and
3.  a facil­i­ty of a com­mon car­ri­er which is sub­ject, in whole or in part, to the pro­vi­sions of Title II of the Act; pro­vid­ed, how­ev­er, that such a facil­i­ty shall be con­sid­ered a Cable Sys­tem (oth­er than for pur­pos­es of Sec­tion 621(c) of such Act) to the extent such facil­i­ty is used in the trans­mis­sion of video pro­gram­ming direct­ly to Sub­scribers, unless the extent of such use is sole­ly to pro­vide inter­ac­tive on-demand ser­vices; and
4. an open video sys­tem that com­plies with Sec­tion 653 of Title VI of the Act; and
5. a facil­i­ty of an elec­tric util­i­ty used sole­ly for oper­at­ing its elec­tric util­i­ty system.

(E) “Coun­ty” means the Coun­ty of Union, Illinois.

(F) “Fran­chise” means an ini­tial autho­riza­tion, or renew­al of such autho­riza­tion, by the Coun­ty which autho­rizes the con­struc­tion or oper­a­tion of a Cable Sys­tem with­in the Fran­chise Area by a Franchisee.

(G) “Fran­chise Agree­ment” means a writ­ten agree­ment by and between the Coun­ty and a Fran­chisee regard­ing a Franchise.

(H) “Fran­chise Area” means the unin­cor­po­rat­ed por­tions of the County.

(I)  “Fran­chise Fee” means any tax, fee or assess­ment imposed by the Coun­ty on a Fran­chisee sole­ly because of such Franchisee’s sta­tus as a Fran­chisee; pro­vid­ed, how­ev­er, Fran­chise Fee shall not include the following:

1. Any tax, fee or assess­ment of gen­er­al applic­a­bil­i­ty; and
2. Cap­i­tal costs incurred by a Fran­chisee asso­ci­at­ed with the instal­la­tion or main­te­nance of PEG Access Facil­i­ties required under this Chap­ter or a Fran­chise Agree­ment; and
3. Require­ments or charges inci­den­tal to the award­ing or enforc­ing of a Fran­chise as pro­vid­ed for or required under this Chap­ter or a Fran­chise Agree­ment includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, pay­ments for bonds, secu­ri­ty funds, let­ters of cred­it, insur­ance, indem­ni­fi­ca­tion, penal­ties or liq­ui­dat­ed dam­ages; and
4. Any fee imposed pur­suant to fed­er­al law.

(J) “Fran­chisee” means any Per­son hold­ing a Fran­chise pur­suant to this Chap­ter and any law­ful suc­ces­sor or assign of such Person.

(K) “Gross Rev­enues” means all rev­enues of a Fran­chisee derived from the oper­a­tion of a Cable Sys­tem with­in the Coun­ty; pro­vid­ed, how­ev­er, Gross Rev­enues shall not include any Fran­chise Fee col­lect­ed by a Fran­chisee from Subscribers.

(L) “PEG Access Facil­i­ties” means:

1. Chan­nel capac­i­ty for pub­lic, edu­ca­tion­al or gov­ern­men­tal use; and
2. Facil­i­ties and equip­ment for the use of such chan­nel capacity.

(M) “Per­son” means an indi­vid­ual, part­ner­ship, asso­ci­a­tion, joint stock com­pa­ny, trust, cor­po­ra­tion or gov­ern­men­tal entity.

(N) “Pub­lic Right-of-Way” means the sur­face of, and the space above and below, any pub­lic street, high­way, free­way, bridge, land path, alley, court, boule­vard, side­walk, park­way, way, lane, pub­lic way, dri­ve, cir­cle or oth­er pub­lic right-of-way, includ­ing, but not lim­it­ed to, pub­lic util­i­ty ease­ments, ded­i­cat­ed util­i­ty strips, or rights-of-way ded­i­cat­ed for com­pat­i­ble uses now or here­after held by the Coun­ty in the Fran­chise Area.

(O) “Sub­scriber” means a Per­son who law­ful­ly receives Cable Ser­vice from a Franchisee.

This Chap­ter shall be known as the Union Coun­ty Cable Tele­vi­sion Code.