City Council - Regular Meeting

. . . . ¶¶ ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ Thank you. ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ Thank you. ¶¶ ¶¶ Good afternoon, Bill. Bill, can you hear me there? Bill, can you hear me? Yep, I'm just testing to make sure that... Attorney August, can you hear me? Or can you hear any of the broadcast? He says he cannot hear me. Adam? The participant says he cannot hear me over Zoom. No. Can you hear me now? Yes. Excellent. I will go ahead and get started.

Okay, great. Hi, Moran.

Hi, Attorney August. Today is July 21st, 2026. Good afternoon and welcome to the City of Lowell's public hearing on whether Lowell should commence an initial licensing process to invite cable companies to apply for non-exclusive licenses to provide cable service in Lowell and thus provide competition in the Lowell cable market. By way of background for the public, state law provides that the city manager as statutory cable license issuing authority may on his own initiate may on his own initiate or commence a process to invite applicant proposals to provide competitive cable service. This public hearing is to provide the public and interested persons an opportunity to comment on the City Manager's deliberating on whether to commence initial cable licensing to invite cable companies to submit proposals to operate in Lowell. As the hearing officer, I've been delegated by the city manager to conduct this hearing for the sole purpose of providing him a recording of the hearing, any exhibits entered into the record for his deliberation and decision, and I shall merely be accepting information for his review and his decision on commencement of the cable licensing process. Notice of this hearing was in the local newspaper for two successive weeks, and copies of the notices will be entered into the hearing record as hearing exhibits one and two. A copy of the existing Comcast license will be entered as Exhibit 3 as we are considering an initial cable licensing process in which applicants, if any, may be asked to refer to the existing Comcast license as a source of cable license terms and conditions that are currently in effect and reasonably meet City needs. Comments from the public and other interested persons should be directed through me, and I will rule whether they are in order. When providing a comment, please make sure to state your name and address. Now we are ready to proceed to accept comments from the public, if any. Let the record show that there is no one else in the chamber. If there is anyone who would like to speak in favor, you're welcome to approach.

attorney august thank you hearing officer fernandez i would like to comment on um one aspect of the process uh to let the record reflect that the city manager's uh team has uh considered and had excellent discussions about doing this in a spirit of providing a level playing field so that any applicants and competitors would be in an equitable relation to Comcast in terms of equal treatment of Comcast and the applicants that no applicant would have an advantage over Comcast and Comcast would not have an advantage over an applicant based on the intent of the city of Lowell as evidence to me in conversations with the people who are planning this and discussing it. I just want that to be in the hearing record because I know the hearing record is going to the manager and this is consistent with what the manager's office wants. Because when there are competitive licensing situations, it's important for the city to be cognizant of structuring a level playing field. So by my commenting on this, I'm showing we are cognizant of it. And beyond being cognizant of it, Moran Hernandez, who's one of the the members of the team is very astutely aware of it and has identified the relevant factors. So in terms of pursuing such a level playing field approach. So no one can come back and say, we were not aware of that in Cognizant. We're very much aware. That's all I have to add and kudos to Lowell. This is motivated by a public interest concept of one of the most fundamental principles of economics is that competition is beneficial. it's almost a truism in marketplaces. And that's what's motivating this whole thing to give the subscriber choice. Choice maximizes consumer welfare. It's as simple as that. That's really has been the motivating principle in all the contacts I've had with the city. And that's a good thing. So I just want the record to reflect that too.

Thank you very much, Attorney August. Moving along, if there's anyone here to speak in opposition or opposed to this, they're welcome to approach now. Let the record show that the council chamber is empty otherwise. So this essentially concludes this hearing, and all the materials will be forwarded to the city manager as issuing authority for his review and adoption. Attorney August, do you have anything else to add? No.

Thank you.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.

Okay. Thanks. Good night.