6.22.550 Provisions to Alert Subscribers in the Event of an Emergency; Standby Power.
(1) In the case of any emergency or disaster, the MCS provider shall make available its facilities for the Council/franchising authority to provide emergency information and instructions during the emergency or disaster period.
(2) In order that subscribers may be alerted in the event of an impending, imminent or actual, natural or man-made emergency, then all MCS providers shall ensure that the multi-channel system providing multi-channel service to all, or part, of the City is designed so as to permit an authorized official of the City to override the audio portion of all channels, by touch-tone phone (or functional equivalent) from any location.
(3) In accordance with and at the time required by the provisions of FCC Regulations Part 11, subpart D, Section 11.51, and as such provisions may from time to time be amended, the MCS provider shall install, if it has not already done so, and maintain an Emergency Alert System (“EAS”) for use in transmitting Emergency Act Notifications (“EAN”) and Emergency Act Terminations (“EAT”) in local and state-wide situations as may be designated to be an emergency by the Local Primary (“LP”), the State Primary (“SP”) and/or the State Emergency Operations Center (“SEOC”), as those authorities are identified and defined within FCC Reg. Section 11.18. The Council/Franchising Authority shall permit only appropriately trained and authorized Persons to operate the EAS equipment and shall take reasonable precautions to prevent any use of the MCS provider’s cable system in any manner that results in inappropriate use thereof, or any loss or damage to the cable system.
(4) In addition to any other requirements listed in this Section, an MCS provider shall:
(a) designate a channel which will be used for emergency broadcasts of both audio and video;
(b) inform subscribers of the designated emergency channel at least daily on at least one (1) channel of the multi-channel system;
(c) maintain all channel video blanking capability to facilitate the needs of hearing and sight-impaired customers;
(d) cooperate with the City on the use and operation of the emergency alert override system; and
(e) develop a plan (with the City’s concurrence) on methods to provide continuity of multi-channel service, and response to service calls in the event of a natural or man-made emergency.
(5) As one method of providing continuity of multi-channel services in the event of a natural or man-made emergency, an MCS provider shall, unless exempted by federal or state law or the Council/franchising authority, maintain equipment capable of providing automatic standby power for a minimum of four (4) hours.
(6) Compliance with this section is to be implemented on the same time-line set forth in 47 C.F.R. § 11.11 dealing with EAS systems.