Urbana Cable and Telecommunications Commission Meeting

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA CABLE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES DATE: May 15, 2013, 4 pm PLACE: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL MEMBERS PRESENT: CHAMPAIGN - Rick Atterberry, Karen Walker URBANA - Dale Sinder, Peter Folk UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS – Chris Lukeman PARKLAND COLLEGE – Chris Foster MEMBERS ABSENT: Giraldo Rosales STAFF PRESENT: Jake Schumacher, City of Urbana Jeff Hamilton, City of Champaign 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 4:05pm and attendance noted by the Clerk. 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was unanimously approved. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the July 18, 2012 meeting were unanimously approved. 4. CORRESPONDENCE Jeff Hamilton noted that the Commission’s annual report is included in the Commissioners’ packets, as well as the change to Champaign’s ordinance as regards eliminating their Council representation on the Commission, the Comcast annual report for Champaign, and the AT&T U- Verse annual report. Jake noted that a similar proposed ordinance change for Urbana is also in the Commissioners’ packets, as well as e-mails from the Keep Us Connected Coalition, and from the representatives of the local service providers, who expressed regrets at not being able to attend today’s meeting. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Amendment of Commission Rules & Regulations Chair Atterberry presented a draft prepared by himself and Jake Schumacher. Chair Atterberry suggested adopting a change proposed by Jeff Hamilton to Section J-1 from “majority of the quorum” to “simple majority.” Commissioner Sinder asked about wording in Section A regarding “duly appointed members;” the wording was changed to “a majority of those members present.” Commissioner Sinder suggested that Section G, Item number 5 should be changed to “Unfinished Business” rather than “Old Business” and the numbering be corrected. Peter Folk asked about Jeff Hamilton’s comments concerning Section L, Annual Report and annual budget request, which Jeff says is included in both City Codes. Confusion was expressed about whether both Councils need to be included in the annual budget request, and what wording needs to be changed where. This section was left as it was. Commissioner Folk suggested adding language to enable the Commission to address emerging technologies. Lengthy discussion followed concerning the exact name of the Commission, which differs in each city code by one word. Chair Atterberry said he could make the ask of the Mayor or the Mayor’s Chief of Staff. Commissioner Sinder pointed out that the public generally refers to the Commission as “the Cable Commission.” Chair Atterberry suggested the rules be left as they are, and said that he would approach the Mayor concerning the discrepancy. A motion was made to forward the amended rule changes to the Urbana legal department for their consideration, and passed unanimously. 6. REPORTS A. Committee Reports. There were none. B. Staff Reports. Jake reported that UPTV continued to work extensively with Urbana High School in broadcasting sports. Jason is beginning work on a podcast tour of 25 of the most historic houses in Urbana. Jeff said CGTV continues to work on “Champaign Connection” as a primary production focus. A 60-second PSA was produced for the City, and another concerning the Mahomet aquifer. The UC2B Policy Board meets regularly in Champaign. Jeff also pointed out that the Broadband Access Committee does still exist as a Committee of this Commission, and that its membership is still subject to open meetings laws and other requirements. Jeff also pointed out that in the last meeting, Commissioner Folk had suggested that the Commission write this year’s Annual Report to the City Councils, and that that Report is due sometime in August. Commissioner Folk asked if that meant the Commission would need to approve an Annual Report at its July meeting, and thus would need to have written it prior to that meeting. Jeff responded that the Commission did not need to approve its own report, and that traditionally he and Chair Atterberry had written the report. Chair Atterberry said that he thought the Commission could write it at the July meeting. Commissioner Folk said he believed more thought should go into the writing of the report so that it could contain advice to be passed “up the chain” and thus it would be appropriate to have it on the agenda of the July meeting. C. Operator Reports. There were none, as operator representatives were unable to attend the special meeting. 7. NEW BUSINESS A. Discussion of a study session for addressing Broadband Access Committee, UC2B and Community Benefit Fund questions. Commissioner Folk, as chair of the BAC, noted that it had been dormant, and felt that it was time to “kick the tires again” with an eye towards getting members who were no longer in the community off the Committee, and re-envisioning its role. Commissioner Folk said that at the next Commission meeting he would like to give the Commission a roster of people involved in digital equality issues in this community, and to make them the new members of that Committee, and have that Committee serve as an organization that would provide facilitation and an overview for all of those efforts and activities. Chair Atterberry said that because the BAC had fulfilled its original charge, as an ad hoc committee it would need to be given a new charge, or disbanded. He asked if this should take place at the July meeting or as a special meeting. Commissioner Folk replied that he thought it should be TBD, but that it could not be before the July meeting, because the membership of the BAC would need to be changed at the July meeting, so it could take place either at the July meeting or at a later date. 8. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Dr. Stephen Shafer of 1403 Country Lake Drive in Champaign addressed the Commission. Dr. Shafer is retired from UI where he was an Assistant Dean of Liberal Arts for 25 years, taught film and history at the University for 36 years, and worked in local radio, and is an adjunct member of the College of Media. He recognizes that the charge of the Commission is not to address programming by the local franchise holders; but in his travels he has come to feel that C-U is disadvantaged with respect to other similarly cosmopolitan communities in the programming that is made available by our franchise holders, specifically with regards to information programming, but also entertainment programming. He spoke of his appreciation for the programming provided by UPTV including several programs from the Free Speech TV Network, but asked why we could not have the FSTV network itself as an offering. Dr. Shafer has attempted to address these issues with the local Comcast manager but has been unable to do so. Chair Atterberry said that he would draw this issue to Comcast’s attention and ask them to watch the video of this meeting. Commissioner Sinder asked if Dr. Shafer had investigated the offerings of the satellite providers; while he has not sampled those services, he has begun to wonder if it would not make sense to switch to a satellite provider, which would be less expensive and perhaps offer a much greater range of programming. 9. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Lukeman spoke about the Media Commons project being launched by the Undergrad Library at UIUC. Commissioner Foster promoted the upcoming Parkland Challenge quiz bowl series on PCTV, as well as the Parkland commencement ceremonies. Commissioner Folk had requested one of the cable providers respond to an email he had received, but the providers were not present at this meeting. He asked that the annual reports of Comcast and AT&T U-Verse be placed on the agenda of the July meeting. Commissioner Foster asked about the possibility of changing the regular meeting day and/or time. Commissioner Folk said that the meeting should be within normal business hours if operator representatives were expected to attend. Different options were discussed. Thursday at 4 pm seems to be an acceptable option. Jake pointed out this would require another amendment of the rules. Chair Atterberry said that he would meet with Jake to discuss how to accomplish this. 10. SET NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT Pending any rules change prior to its occurring, the next regularly-scheduled meeting date is July 17, 2013. The meeting was adjourned at 5:07 pm.