Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES DATE: June 14, 2013 12:00 p.m. PLACE: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL MEMBERS PRESENT: Peter Folk Marie Polk Dale Sinder Dana Mancuso MEMBERS ABSENT: Chris Fuller Carol Inskeep Durl Kruse STAFF PRESENT: Jason Liggett Jake Schumacher I. CALL TO ORDER Chair Folk called the meeting to order at 12:04 p.m. II. ROLL CALL Attendance was noted. III. MODIFICATIONS TO AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was unanimously approved without modification. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the Mar 8, 2013 meeting were unanimously approved. V. CORRESPONDENCE Commissioner Kruse sent an email regretfully resigning from the Commission, and an email concerning the proposed Policies revision. A citizen indicated the UPTV Commission as a secondary interest in a desire to become an Urbana commissioner, but has not followed up with the Mayor’s office or with UPTV. VI. STAFF REPORT New programs include: “CU Immigration Forum TV”, produced by Ricardo Diaz; “Breaking News in Wellness and Health”, produced by Dr. Zachariah; “On the Rock”, produced by Dr. Underwood; and the “Busey Bank 2013 Economic Seminar”, an annual program produced by Busey Bank. Our partnership with community access radio stations WEFT and WRFU continues with UPTV’s airing of “Not Another Sports Show,” “The Prairie Monk” and “WEFT Sessions.” Volunteers continue to record the YMCA “Friday Forum” lectures, and the most recent C-U Bluegrass Festival concerts held at the IMC. UPTV aired the mayoral candidate forums, generating substantial public interest. A new program about African-American theater in Chicago, “A Taste of Theater” is now airing, and the Twin City Derby Girls roller derby matches are now airing on the Wednesday and Saturday evening sports nights. Long-standing UPTV volunteer/producer/host Conrad Wetzel will be leaving town in July. “Sitting Down with Conrad Wetzel” has aired for many years on UPTV, one of the station’s best informational conversation programs featuring topics and personalities of local interest, and UPTV wishes him and Martine the best. The 5p-6p strip of DW news and information programs continues, as well as a special DW summer concert series including Jethro Tull and Amy McDonald. We have joined the new City of Urbana Communications and Marketing group formed by Natalie Kenny-Marquez and Christina McClelland, incorporating a number of different City departments that present or coordinate community events. Jason has produced concerts from last year’s Sweetcorn Festival, new monthly editions of “Art Now!” in cooperation with Public Arts, and new weekly editions of Market Menu. UPTV is airing live and rebroadcasting the new Market at the Square Advisory Commission, and Jason is producing spots highlighting the new “Why I Love Urbana” campaign. UPTV recorded and is airing the 2013 commencement ceremonies for Urbana High School and the Urbana Adult Education program. Jason spoke of his work with Urbana High School sports: our first baseball broadcasts, as well as Urbana girls’ soccer. UPTV will once again have a team of producers working to document this year’s Champaign County Freedom Celebration and Fourth of July parade, and we have been in discussions with Common Ground Food Co-op about a possible series of programs on food, from farm to table. A short clips reel was played for the Commission. VII. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION There were no members of the audience who wished to address the Commission. VIII. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Policies and Procedures Revision Jake recapped the progress made in the previous meeting reviewing the proposed revisions to the Policies and Procedures document in its entirety. At that meeting it was suggested that the document’s revised format be vetted by Legal for its suitability. The City’s legal department called the proposed document’s format “legally sufficient,” and in addition made several suggestions (as did Commissioner Kruse) concerning format tweaks that could improve the document’s consistency and usefulness. It was also, however, suggested that the new document be brought into consistency with another document not previously discussed: Section 9 of the City of Urbana’s Policies and Procedures Manual. This internal city document is the source document, from which all subsequent UPTV policy documents originally derived. Because it has not been revised since 1995, it is almost completely out of date in terms of references to committees that no longer exist, structures that have been changed, media no longer in use and the like. Once aware that it was this controlling document that needed revision before any other, work was halted on the proposed UPTV P&P revisions. It was also the opinion of Legal that the sole arbiter responsible for approving revisions to that Section of the City Code was Bill DeJarnette, as the current head of Finance, which controls UPTV. Jake proposes sitting down with Bill to work on revising Section 9 when Bill’s schedule allows, in order to ensure that the proposed revisions are in line with his thoughts. Bill has also requested that UPTV make a presentation to the Council this summer. After assimilating any Council reactions or suggestions, a final new version of Section 9 can be nailed down, and following that, a new UPTV P&P manual in line with the City’s P&P. It was Legal’s opinion that we should then notice those revised documents in the agenda for the following meeting, post them on the website, and then at that meeting accept any public comments on the documents. Commissioner Sinder asked about the number of subsections of Section 9; only one section was included in the Commission’s packet, as an example of how badly out of date the document currently is. Chair Folk requested notification of the date of the City Council presentation so he could attend; Jake will notify the entire Commission when it has been scheduled. Commissioner Kruse sent proposed changes to the previously-revised UPTV P&P, primarily concerning format; as that document will need substantial revision following the revisions to Section 9 of the City Code, some will be included, some will be moot. Commissioner Sinder wished to clarify that in Legal’s opinion, Bill DeJarnette’s was the only approval needed for revisions to Section 9, and that is in fact what UPTV was told by Legal. IX. NEW BUSINESS A. Equipment Purchases The JOCO Black Box audio recorder was acquired for use in recording live events and concerts. The TV set in the Council Chambers is being replaced. Per Chair Folk’s previous request, the past five years of equipment purchases were included in the Commission packet, as were financial figures for the last four years for UPTV. Chair Folk asked about IMRF, which is the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, and VERF, which is the Vehicle Equipment Replacement Fund, and clarified what was income and what were expenditures. Chair Folk then asked for further information as to the expenditures made from the PEG fee income that were made by City employees other than Jason, in line with the Commission’s responsibility for oversight. Jake responded that this would be a matter Bill DeJarnette would need to address, as those purchases are not within the specific purview of UPTV, and that Jake would inform Bill of this request. Chair Folk said the request was not urgent, and might in fact be more appropriate to the Cable Commission. Chair Folk asked for more information about the JOCO Black Box 24-track audio recorder. It will greatly increase the quality of recording, and will prevent volunteers having to haul their own personal computers to events to achieve similar results. X. COMMISSIONERS’ COMMENTS Chair Folk indicated interest in the CCFC specials, and Commissioner Polk noted specifics concerning those events, including times on July 4th, and a call for additional volunteers. Commissioner Mancuso asked for more information at the next meeting on the public’s use of the website, and Chair Folk reiterated his interest in an RSS feed of new productions. XI. SET THE NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT The next regular meeting was announced for Friday, Sept 13, 2013 at 12 noon in the Urbana City Council Chambers. The meeting was adjourned by unanimous consent at 12:36 pm.