§ 26-37. Duty of franchisee to maintain adequate staff and equipment.

(a)

Adequate staff. The failure of the franchisee to hire sufficient staff or to train properly its staff will not justify a franchisee's failure to comply with any provision hereof.

(b)

Adequate equipment. Franchisee must have sufficient trucks, tools, testing equipment, monitoring devices and other equipment and facilities and the trained and skilled personnel required so that franchisee complies with each and every requirement of applicable law, including applicable customer service requirements, technical standards, maintenance standards and requirements for responding to outages. This includes the facilities, equipment and staff required to:

(1)

Properly test the system and conduct an ongoing and active program of preventive maintenance and quality control; and

(2)

Be able to quickly respond to customer complaints and resolve problems.

(c)

Measurement. The franchisee must install and maintain equipment necessary to measure its performance with applicable consumer protection standards set forth herein; except that franchisee may obtain relief temporarily from this requirement if it shows that:

(1)

It has a high level of subscriber satisfaction;

(2)

There are alternative, adequate ways to review its performance; or

(3)

For other good cause shown.

(d)

Trained staff. Knowledgeable, qualified representatives shall be available to respond to customer telephone inquiries.

(e)

Meeting standards. The county may fine a franchisee for violation of this section $500.00 for each violation with each day of a continuing violation constituting a separate violation.

(Ord. No. 02-18, § 2, 7-30-02)