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Home My WebLink About12/08/1998 COW minutes· ~ ~ MINUTES ~OMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE ~ DECE,MBER 8 !998 CALL TO ORDER ~ "~ Mayor Farley called the meeting to order at 7,34 p m Present at the meebng were. Trustees George CIowes, T~mothy Corcoran,'Paul~Hoefert, R~chard Lohrstorfer and Darnel Nocch~ Absent from the meeting was Trustee Irvana Wilks Staff members "present ~ncluded V~llage Manager M~chael E Janonis and A~ss~stant Vdlage Manager Dawd St ahl r APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approval of M~nutes from November 24, 1998 Motion made by Trustee Corcoran and Seconded by Trustee Lohrstorfer to app, rove the M~nutes M~nutes were approved unammously CITIZENS TO BE HEARD None ' CABLE FRANCHISE POLICY DISCUSSION ~Assistant Village Manager David Strahl prowded a genera overview of the Cable negot~a~t~ons to date w~th TCI ~ He outhned the negotiation process !tself and stated that the FCC regulates the negotiation process s~gmficantly, therefore, there are only hm~ted ~tems that can be d~scussed at the table The V~llage also cannot]ust dec~de to h(~t ~enew the Agre~ement because of Federal regulations unfortunately Many other commumt~e§ that surrouhd Mount Pr(~spect ha~e completed their negobabons~w~th TCI, ther~efore, the Vdlage has benefited from what has been pr~3wd~l 'to them 'by the cable prov.~er~ The latest ext&ns~on' wdl expire on February 1, 1999 Acc_ordmg t? the Agreement, extensions can only be granted ~n s~x-month ~ncrements The Agreement ~tself ~s wntten ~n such a wa~/to m~n~m~ze possible hurdles to any compet~bon, whmh may occur. Compebbon ~s ~n place ~n ~' Arhngton Heights, Prospect Heights' and Des Pa~ne~ Ameritech New Med~a remains interested ~n negobatmg an Agreement w~th Mount Prospect to prowde ~ alternative §erv~ce to the residents ~ 'A number of ~ssues are ~ncluded ~n the material ~n which lam, requesting d~rect~on from the Vdla~ Board on' 1 Number of PEG Channels Prewously, the Vdlage had a m~nlmum number of five channels regardless of the prowder However, hm~tabons by Ameritech only allow for four channels S~nce the Vdlage has e~ght PEG channels at this time, the Agreement ~ncludes the provision that the additional unused channels be reduced after one year , ~Staff would recommend an Agreement with a m~nlmum of f~ur PEG channels .General comme~nts from Vdlage Board members ~ncluded the following items There was some concern about reducing the number of PEG channe s prematurely just to'obtain ~nter~st ff~n~ Ar~entech The Jrn-prove~ments'~.n t~ch~ology should allow for incremental expansion of the number of channels John Higgins of TCl explained the language; which triggers the additional PEG ha els based o~ usagel els . Consensus of the V~llage Boara was to reduce the number of PEG channels to four as recommended by s~ff. 2 Gross Revenues There ~s a potenbal revenue loss of $25,000 if the Vdlage accepts the staff recommendabon Amentech has steadfastly negohated a rews~on to the defimbon of Gross Revenues to exclude adved~s~ng revenue Whde the TCI Agreement ~ncludes the revenue defimbon which allows for adve~smg revenue to be~pa'~ of Gross R~v~n~es, ~f and when compebbon ~, arrives by way of Amente~h, th~s revenue ~dl ~doubtedly be reduced General comments from the V~ age Board members included the fol)ow~ng ~tems Sore Board members fet that compebbon woud ~mprove,se~ce and th~s red ct~o' accept s~ff recommendatmn to revise Consensus'&f the Wllage Board ~as to the d~fimt~o~ of Gross Revenues to'e~&lude adve~smg r~venues if and when the,Ameritech Agreement becomes closer to reah~. 3. ~ Pubhc Access Studm The Studio ~6uld remain-at the ~CI facd~ty for the , r foreseeab e future Ag~eements~th~other ~ommumbes require the studio be w~th~n five m~ es of their borders and since the studio already ~s m Mount Prospect, the hkehhood of ~t m&v~ng appears to'be remote However, once compet~bon does arnve, there ~s a poss~bd~ty that a Grant would be prowded ~' ' by TCI o¢ an&thsr'prowder w~th 1% of ~evenues earmarked for,operabons of the studio Also, the Vdlage under the eadersh~p ~f Ross Rowe has ,. 2 .... , spearheaded a d~scuss~on among other surrounding commumbes for a ~reg~onal non-profit Agreement, h~vever, such an' Agreement is not a pnonty w~th other communities as ~t is w~th Mount Prospect because ~)f the number of pubhc access users Staff would recommend the standard language be ~ncluded in the Agreement which requires a studio w~thln five mdes of the community and acknowledge the fact that funding arrangements for the studio operations w~ll hkely be altered once competition is in place General comments from the V~llage Board members included the following items ,',There was some concern regarding the amount of storage space currently prowded at the studio in Mount Prospect There was also d~scuss~on concerning the overlap of trained users between Ch~a,n~117 and the pubhc, access stations themselves ghlights~o ' 'i'CI A~ H' f other items in the reement Duration: The Franchise Agreement is for ten ye'ar~ instea~ of the tyl~ica115 years as m the prewous Agreement, however, if the cable system ~s upgraded w~th~n the first five years of the Agreement, the Agree~;en~ ~,ll autom~t,cally b~e` extended by five years ~ ' Interest on Late Payments: There is additional language, which a ows for interest to be assessed for late payments in addition to the penalty ~tself Annual Certificates of Insuran~:e: 'I:~s'language requires 'i'CI 'to prowde necessary Certificates of Insurance and Bonds on an annual bas[~ to the Wllage Enhanced Liquidated Damages: After the standard penalty of $100 a day for a set number of days, additional penalties are. a,ss. essed at $250 a, da? ~ the situation ~s not resolved Government Channel Location: The.~V~llage government channel has been moved several t~mes in the last five years Staff felt ~t was cnt~cal to maintain wewersh~p by keeping the channe location at the lowest number on the dial as possible There was also concern regarding the location of the channel whereby two blank channels would d~scourage channel surfing to find the government channel The Vdlage retains the option of placing government channel' programming at any location among the designated PEG channels, therefore, the Vdlage government channel w~ll be placed at the lowest numbered channel avadable. General comments from V~llage Board members ~ncluded the following ~tems There was a request concerning the status of the system upgrades as outhned by ~3 TCL There was also a d~scusslon regarding Internet access thrc~ugh the at-home s~rv~:e. A question was raised regarding the Lifehne service, which was prowded bY a previous Franchise carner before TCI bought the system John Higgins prowded a letter to the Vdlage Board outhnmg the proposed system upgrades He also stated that he would expect the at-home service to be avadable ~n 1999 with the upgrade currently'[Jnderway to provide th~s service He stated that basic channels as prescnbed by the FCC must include specific channels on specific Iocabons He also stated that TCI chose not to have an increase m rates ~n June of 1998 so that the basic service was readily available for as many subscribers as Consensus of the Village Board was to move the draft Agreement forward for final approval by th.e V?lage Board at an upcoming V,llage Board meeting. ANY OTHER BUSINESS , ~ -,~ ~, ~.; .... , .. ,, ,, Trustee Clowes stated that the Youth View program, on channel 35 w~ll cover the subject of youth dnnk~ng and driving _ VILLAGE MANAGER'S REPORT ~ ~ ~, .~, . ~,,~.~ ! ,.~ ~ ~ V,llage Manager Janon,s reminded Board members and the audience that Coffee ,w~th Council ~s scheduled for December 12 from 9 00 a m unb111 00 a m at the V~ll.age Hall ~ ~ ~, ~ ~ ~ ~'~ ~.' ~,', ,- ~ , ~ v~ ADJOURNMENT 1' ~ The meebng was adjourned at 8 30 p m .. - ,,Respectfully submitted DAVID STRAHL r ~ Ass~tantVdlage Manager .4