Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION DATE: Friday, June 14, 2019 TIME: 12:00 P.M. PLACE: Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S Vine St, Urbana, IL 61801 MINUTES Members Present: Peter Folk, Christopher Fuller, Dale Sinder, Marie Polk, Carol Inskeep Members Absent: Mark Schultz Staff Present: Jason Liggett 1. Call to Order & Roll Call & Declaration of Quorum Chair Folk called the meeting to order at 12:04 p.m. A quorum was present. 2. Approval of Minutes Commissioner Sinder moved to pass the March 8, 2019 minutes as drafted, seconded by Commissioner Fuller, passed by unanimous voice vote. 3. Correspondence There was no correspondence. 4. Staff Report Jason thanked UPTV Camera Operator Kevin Lau for operating the cameras for the meeting and for taking over some of the production duties including the City of Urbana’s weekly Calendar of Events video. UPTV won two awards at the Alliance for Community Media’s Best of the Midwest Media Fest. City of Urbana staff were recognized for their instructional video, How to Aerate Your Lawn. The Urbana Park District was recognized for their studio talk show, Mark in the Park. Special programs produced included Carletta Donaldson’s series of Memorial Day services, Herbert Burnett’s Backbone of the Black Home and Stuart Levy’s Clean Energy Jobs Forum. UPTV staff worked with the CU 1 to 1 Mentoring program to produce videos of the seniors and their mentors. Zander Russel produced his first film, Kid Hulk, which premiered at the ACT-SO competition at Urbana Middle School. The Urbana Middle School’s Eighth Grade Promotion Ceremony was the most popular YouTube video over the last quarter with 1,100 views. The most popular Facebook post was a clip of Urbana High School Freshman Allison Deck pitching at perfect game for the softball team. It reached over 2,500 people. The most popular tweet was a highlight video of the Urbana baseball team’s home opener. It reached over 1,100 people.  The FCC has proposed changes to the 1984 Cable Act, which would allow non-cash items provided by cable companies to be charged back to the City’s 5% franchise fee. Mayor Diane Marlin wrote our representatives asking them to voice their disapproval of these changes to the FCC Chairman. The Mayor is also co-sponsoring a resolution in opposition of the FCC’s proposed rule-making at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. IT Director Sanford Hess and Jason are working with the City’s legal department to develop a new franchise agreement with Comcast. The City is entering into intergovernmental agreements with the Urbana School District, Urbana Park District, Urbana Free Library and Housing Authority of Champaign County to recover costs incurred by UPTV for meeting coverage of those entities. 5. Audience Participation Urbana Middle School Technology Teacher Parker Sands presented on technology curriculum at Urbana Middle School. This includes photography, podcasting and video production. 6. Unfinished Business There was no unfinished business. 7. New Business A. Budget for UPTV Staff Jason presented the budget scenarios with different levels of staffing. B. Equipment Purchases Jason reported $51.84 in equipment purchases this quarter, which brings the total amount, spent in fiscal year 2019 to $2294.67. Upcoming equipment purchases for the remainder of fiscal year 2019 includes new in-ceiling speakers for the Council Chambers. C. Feasibility & Logistics Report to Council Jason previewed the feasibility and logistics report he plans to present to the Urbana City Council in July. Comcast has 30 days to provide the City with the cost of launching the channel once it is requested. The City will need to cover the cost of the transmitter and receiver as well as the cost of any fiber installation. The channel will be in the three digit tier, 100-999. The City will need to cover the cost of the encoder and any fiber installation for i3 Broadband. If the new channel is housed in a building on i3’s fiber network there will not be a need to install new fiber. The City can choose their channel location as long as it’s not already being used. The standard definition channel will be between 0-399. The high definition channel will be above 400. The City will need to fill out and submit a PEG Service Request Form for AT&T U-Verse at least 3 months in advance of the in-service date. The channel will be located on the channel 99 PEG line up. Staff met with UPTV members on February 23. Members expressed the importance of physical space for a new access channel. They are interested in expanding the channel into other communities including Danville and Rantoul. The new access channel will need a proven and  stable funding structure. Members want to make sure a membership fee will not be a deterrent for people to create media. Staff met with community member and former UPTV Commissioner Durl Kruse. Durl wants the access channel to be located in Urbana. He has concerns about the financial stability of a non-profit organization running the public access channel. Durl would like to see a portion of the City’s 5% franchise fee go to the public access channel. Commissioner Inskeep hopes there is a way to retain public access television in our community. Chair Folk wants to retain all the services currently offered at UPTV and expand the channel to serve the larger Central Illinois area. 8. Commissioner’s Comments Jason reported the possible staff scenarios for a new public access channel as Commissioner Sinder previously requested. Commissioner Inskeep is concerned about staff turnover if it is just a part-time staff person. Chair Folk wants the UPTV Commission to express to the Council how important public access is to the community and how great a job City staff has done at providing that service. 9. Set Meeting Date and Adjournment The next meeting was set for September 13, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. in the Urbana City Council Chambers. The meeting was adjourned at 1:13 p.m.