Bullhead City Franchise Licensing Commission Regular Meeting - January 23, 2024
Bullhead City Franchise Licensing Commission Regular Meeting - January 23, 2024
The Bullhead City Franchise Licensing Commission held its regular meeting on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, at the Bullhead City chambers. The meeting was called to order at an unspecified time, with roll call and the Pledge of Allegiance. Agenda items included approval of previous meeting minutes, quarterly reports from franchise holders, and a legal discussion regarding the impending expiration of the Suddenlink (Optimum) cable license agreement.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes – October 24, 2023: The minutes were approved with a correction: for Southwest Gas, the active customer count should read 22,983 (as verified by staff). Motion carried unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Gary Genevieve (Bullhead City resident): Asked about whether power lines near trees are shielded or bare. Penny Lyons (Unisource) deferred to technical expertise but advised assuming downed lines are live.
Discussion Items
- Optimum (Suddenlink) – Quarterly Report & License Renewal: No representative appeared and no report was submitted despite staff requests. City Attorney Garn provided an update: the existing 10-year license expires in May 2024. The company had invoked a statutory renewal process two years ago. The attorney has reached out to a corporate contact but received no response. A special meeting will be scheduled (likely late February / early March) to review the current license terms and negotiate renewal. The license covers use of city rights-of-way, customer service standards, and other provisions.
- Unisource Energy (Penny Lyons): Reported 1,201 residential and 55 commercial customers as of November 2023, with no power outages. Provided electrical safety tips. No rate case finalized yet; a docket number may be available through the Arizona Corporation Commission.
- Bermuda Water (Stephen Taylor): Reported 9,648 total customers, with 1,921 within city limits. Leaks: 41 total, 5 in city; all repaired with no street closures. An 18% rate increase took effect September 1, 2023; no further increases planned.
- Southwest Gas (Charles Cook, new District Manager): Provided limited data due to recent start. Reported 71 new meter sets in the prior quarter and ongoing PVC pipeline replacement projects near Hancock Lakeside and Marina Boulevard. No rate change details; directed to website for updates.
- Republic Services (Chris Klein): No recent or planned rate changes. Serving 19,586 customers. Collected 5,117.77 tons of residential waste and 1,766 tons of bulky waste in Q4 2023. Free bulky service continues (6 per year per customer). Mobile app available.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes approved with correction to Southwest Gas active customer count (22,983).
- Optimum/Suddenlink license renewal: City Attorney will establish contact, schedule a special meeting (target late Feb/early March), and provide current license to commissioners for review. Commissioners will communicate concerns directly to the attorney.
- Future agenda topics: Primarily the Optimum license renewal; no other topics proposed.
- Meeting adjourned after brief closing remarks.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. Happy new year. This is the 23rd of January, Tuesday, 23rd of January. And the Bullhead C chambers. And this is our regular meeting of the franchise licensing commission. I'd like to call the meeting to order. Roll call, please. Commissioner Brandt is there with that. Okay. I'd like Linda to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Would you please stand? Which is stands. If everyone would please silence their phones. Okay, we have called to the public. This is an open call to the public portion of the meeting for the citizens wishing to address the commission on issues within our judication jurisdiction in the city. If you wish to address any item already on tonight's agenda, you will wait until the item is called for the public hearing. At the conclusion of call, open call to the public, individual members of the commission may respond to criticism made by those who have addressed the commission. May ask of staff to review a matter or may ask that the matter be put on a future agenda. However, members of the commission cannot discuss or take legal action on matters not already on the agenda. Agenda modifications. Seeing none, we'll go forward. Agenda modification. Number five and number seven. All those in favor? Aye. Just say aye. Aye. Opposed. Any opposed? Okay. So we'll be moving agenda items. Our action items number five and number six. Number seven up to number one and two. So here we go. Quickly. And if there's any discussion. Linda, do you have any? Um there is one on Friday from five to eight at the Shrine Club. Um it is a benefit. Um and they're gonna have the foodie trucks there, and everybody's welcomes open to the public. Jason. No, I do not. Okay, I'd like to note if you would all please come. There's two uh things going on on Friday, three things going on on Friday now. Uh at noon at uh Cal Ranch, they're doing the ribbon cutting. It's a new store in town, and we need to support them. And then at 5 30 at the new hospital, you may have seen the tent out in the back. They're gonna do a mixer. So there's two things for you to do, three things for you to do on Friday. Uh any comments from our staff.
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