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HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/12/1999 COW minutes MINUTES COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE JANUARY 12, 1999 I. CALL TO ORDER Mayor Fadey called the meebng to order at 7:35 p m Present at the meeting were Trustees George Clowes, Timothy Corcoran, Paul Hoefert, Richard Lohrstorfer and Irvana Wdks. Trustee Nocchi arnved at 7:57 p m Staff members present ~ncluded Vdlage Manager M~chael E. Janoms, Assistant Vdlage Manager David Strahl, Pohce Chief Ronald Pavlock and Sergeant Mmhael Semk~u. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval of M~nutes from December 8, 1998 Motion made by Trustee Hoefert and Seconded by Trustee Lohrstorfer to approve the M~nutes M~nutes were approved Trustee Wdks abstained. I III. CITIZENS TO BE HEARD - '-" None IV. pOLICE DEPARTMENT REACCREDITATION UPDATE Police Chief Pavlock provided a general overview to the Vdlage Board outl~mng what is currently underway in the Police Department regarding reaccred~tat~on He stated th~s is the second reaccred~tation the Department has undertaken since the ~nit~al accreditation ~n 1989. Accreditabon of Pohce Departments grew out of the accred~tabon process in other organizations and is ~ntended to ~ncrease agency efficiency and cooperation and enhance c~t~zen involvement. There are approximately 436 standards which the accreditation agency has targeted for adherence by a Department the s~ze of Mount Prospect's The standards themselves are fluid and flexible enough to meet the needs of the commumty and the laws and regulabons as they apply to varying situabons Sergeant Semkiu stated that he has been assigned the reaccred~tation manager on behalf of the Department He prowded an outhne of the actual reaccred~tat~on process at the Vdlage of Mount Prospect including the bmel~ne of act~v~bes dunng the reaccred~tat~on period of January 31 through February 3 The Department goal Is 99% standard compliance which would be a higher compliance than the prewous reaccred~tat~on of 97% General comments from Vdlage Board members included the following items' There was a question regarding the cost/benefit of the process to the c~bzens themselves and how that apphes to Department actiwbes Another comment was made regarding th~s accreditation process as a s~mdar process that many businesses have undertaken called ISO 9000 The focus of such accred~tabon processes is to ehm~nate pohc~es and procedures, which may be wasteful or inefficient Chief Paviock stated that there currently is a budget of approximately $13,000 for reaccred[tabon expenses, He stated that the accred~tabon process estabhshes standards for comparisons w~th other Departments and the accountab~hty of the Department in terms of enforcement of procedures and operations is qu~te invaluable This item was provided to the Village Board for information purposes only and required no action at this time, V, CABLE FRANCHISE POLICY DISCUSSION - AMERITECH NEW MEDIA Assistant Village Manager David Strahl stated that after the Committee of the Whole d~scuss~on on December 8. 1998, a copy of the draft TCI Agreement was forwarded to Ameritech representatives for their review. At the meeting, a number of areas were pointed out that would need to be addressed and may need to be changed ~f cable competition were to become a reahty Upon review by Ameritech representatives, those areas, which were prewous, ly polnted,~ou~,are Mow being requested to be changed ~n order to obtain a compet~bve franchise provider The TCI Agreement focused on preparing a draft Agreement that was favorable for compebbon and the anticipated changes from Ameritech are now brought before the Vdlage Board for concurrence As prewously identified to the Vdlage Board, the defimtion of gross revenue would be changed to remove the advertising revenue from the, defimt~on which would reduce the overall revenue to the V~llage by approximately $25,000 The duration for the Franchise Agreement w~th Amentech has been proposed at 15 years The previous agreement w~th TCI had a phase-out per~od of one year for the PEG channels from e~ght to the basic four channels W~th the Amentech Agreement. the PEG channels would be reduced to four at the point the Agreement ~s consummated Pubhc Access Studio ~und~ng from Ameritech ~s provided ~n a one- bme grant and a percentage of gross revenue 2 Other areas of the TCI Agreement, which Ameritech was agreeable to included the enhanced hqu~dated damages, Interest on late payments and annual certificate of insurance information. General comments from V~llage Board members included the following items: There was a d~scuss~on regarding the lowering of standards ~n order to obtain compebt~on. There has been some Improvement of service but add~bonal subscnbers may not make up the d~fference of lost revenue [f the change ~n the definition of gross revenues ~s removed. It is recommended that Amentech consider adding language which would be considered a "Most Favored Nat~ons" clause which would state in part that if the advertising revenue is prowded to other commumt~es m Ilhno~s then Mount Prospect would also have the opportumty to receive that revenue There were also comments made regarding the need for compebbon to improve the product and to grow the general subscriber p~e C~t~zens have voiced a desire for competition and the potenbally Iowenng of prices for services Jim Szczepaniak, Manager, Public Affairs for Ameritech New Media, spoke He introduced Andy Sachs, the corporabon counsel for Amentech New Med~a He stated that the Naperv~lle Agreement, which was awarded ~n February of 1996, is the only agreement of the 16 Franchise Agreements in Ilhno~s to include the advertising revenue, _The Agreement Included the advertising revenue due to a pending law change at the time and since the Agreement w~th Ameritech, a corporate decision was made that no additional agreements would ~nclude / advertising revenue. Amentech representabves wanted N~apervdle as a keystone to starting in the market and when the Cable Act was finally approved, the defimbon --for gross revenues stipulated th~at advert~.~ing rev_enue is permissive not mandatory He stated that Ameritech currently is not doing any advertising, therefore, the amount of adverbsmg revenue ~s mute. He stated Amentech ~s adding subscribers ~n commumt~es m which it has come In to TCI has responded to competition through service improvements and prices that are now offered in commumbes where another provider is present He stated that Ameritech would accept a clause commonly referred, to as a "Most Fav?,red Nations" clause in the Mount Prospect Agreement . He stated that the budd-out bme frame of 42 months ~s standard language m all Agreements but experience has shown that typical build-outs take substantially less than 42 months and have not gone beyond 24 months to date He stated that Arhngton Heights is a simdar community as Mount Prospect in terms of the amount of overhead cable and that build-out took 13 months He stated that once the town is In the pipehne, the t~me frame is dependent on available brae and the infrastructure is currently In place for Mount Prospect 3 ~ He stated that ~t would take approximately six months of engineering and the budding should start by the end of 1999 He stated that the customer density of 35 homes per I~neal mde should include all of the areas of Mount Prospect He has not found any areas that would not be included based on the density w~th~n the commumty He stated the head end for the satellite reception is in Hoffman Estates He stated that Ameritech would have to work with Mount Prospect to determine the location for the insertion of PEG programming He stated the government access channel has been reserved as Channel 6 on the Amentech system and the Vdlage decides on who uses which PEG channel locations. General comments from the V~llage Board members included the following items' There was some d~scussion regarding the PEG channel usage and the pubhc access studio funding Mr. Szczepaniak stated that Amentech's stance ~s that there is no need to build a second studio when one already exists and the opportunity to provide a grant and fees to manage the studio has proven to be adequate in other communities. He stated the 15-year t~me frame ~s typically ~ncluded to cover the infrastructure cost Investment to build the customer base to obtain enough revenue to make the budd- out financially feasible. He stated that MPTV would feed into both systems from Mount Prospect and it would be Amentech's responsibility to make sure that that takes place, He stated that Ameritech currently does not have the abd~ty to get the TCI s~gnal PEG programming to Ameritech customers. Consensus of the Village Board was to move forward with the Ameritech Agreement for consideration at the next Village Board meeting. There was also consensus to include add,tional language regarding "Most Favored Nations" status add, ressing the advertising revenue for Mount Prospect. VI, NON-PROFIT CORPORATION TO MANAGE PUBLIC ACCESS STUDIO Cable Coordinator Ross Rowe stated that an Ad Hoc group was formed to draft an agreement to manage the Public Access Studio, which ~s s~milar to agreements in other communities throughout the country He prowded a general overwew of the detads of the operations of the Studio and how the management of the Studio and pubhc access channels would be undertaken He stated there has been some ~nterest from other towns but to date there have been no official commitments made He stated that once the corporabon was m place, funds would be d~rected straight into operabons and the agreement would need to be added to the two Franchise Agreements, which are under cons~derabon Once the Vdlage Board was comfortable w~th the draft Agreements, he would approach the two cable prowders to discuss how the operabons would be incorporated into the Agreements 4 General comments from Village Board members included the following items' There was a concern regarding the disproporbonate share of the cost of some commumtles who had made the dec~sion to direct funds to the Studio while other communlbes would not do so. There was some concern regarding budt-in sunset language and how the funds would be d~stnbuted ~fthe corporabon was d~sbanded Cable Coordinator Ross Rowe responded to a number of comments He stated that according to his esbmates, there would be a need of at least four communibes to commit to the Studio in order to ensure adequate funding He stated that ~f there were users that resided in communibes that d~d not contribute a fair share for operation, ~t is likely that those users would be charged for Studio t~me d~rectly Consensus of the Village Board was to continue discussion with the cable providers and incorporate additional language to address sunset of the corporation and how the funds would be distributed in the case of dissolution. VII. MANAGER'S REPORT None. VIII. ANY OTHER BUSINESS None CLOSED SESSION Mobon made by Trustee Hoefert and Seconded by Trustee Nocch~ to move into Closed Session for Property Acqu~sibon d~scuss~on The meebng was adjourned ~nto Closed Session at 9 30 p m Meebng reconvened ~nto open session at 9 57 p m Mob~n made by Trustee Wdks and Seconded by Trustee Nocchi to adjourn the meeting The meeting was adjourned w~th no other bus~ness at 9 58 p m ~ Respectf.ull~(subm~tted, . ,~ DAVID STRAHL DS/rcc Assistant Vtllage Manager H \GEN\Cov~M~nutes\l'1299 COW Minutes doc