Urbana Public Television Commission Meeting

URBANA PUBLIC TELEVISION COMMISSION DATE: Friday, December 13, 2019 TIME: 12:00 P.M. PLACE: Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S Vine St, Urbana, IL 61801 MINUTES Members Present: Peter Folk, Dale Sinder, Carol Inskeep Members Absent: Mark Schultz, Marie Polk, Christopher Fuller Staff Present: Jason Liggett, Sanford Hess, Jake Schumacher 1. Call to Order & Roll Call & Declaration of Quorum Chair Folk called the meeting to order at 12:10 p.m. There was not a quorum present. 2. Approval of Minutes Minutes were not approved due to a lack of a quorum. 3. Correspondence There was no correspondence. 4. Staff Report UPTV Camera Operator Kevin Lau and Jason Liggett worked with kids at the Urbana Park District Summer Arts Camp to produce cooking videos. Kevin also ran camera for the Champaign County Freedom Celebration Parade in July and the Parade of Lights in December. UPTV covered two other parades since the last Commission meeting in the Urbana High School Homecoming Parade and Champaign-Urbana Pride Parade. Staff continued to work with Urbana High School Journalism students to produced broadcasts of their sporting events. In addition, seniors Hugo Becerril and Trevor Morgan produced a feature story on UHS Theatre’s production of The Theory of Relativity. UPTV began hosting University of Illinois students to produce Illini Drive. This is due to WPGU’s studio flooding. The students were happy to have UPTV as a resource. Some notable public access productions over the last quarter included Karen Aram’s coverage of the Green Party Illinois’ Annual Conference and Paul Mueth’s productions of the University YMCA’s Friday Forum lecture series. David Johnson interviewed Pat Simpson about Single- Payer Healthcare and congressional candidate Stefanie Smith on his show, Labor’s World View. The Parade of Lights was the most popular YouTube video over the last quarter with 334 views. The most popular Facebook post was Facebook Live video of the Mayoral Proclamation declaring LGBTQ+ Pride Week in the City of Urbana. It reached over 2,600 people. The most popular tweet was the feature video on the Theory of Relativity.  Commissioner Inskeep suggested UHS Broadcasting produce a video highlighting students’ thoughts about administrative decisions at the Urbana School District. 5. Audience Participation Durl Kruse proposed the Commission have a special meeting in January prior to staff’s presentation to the Urbana City Council. He pointed out the UPTV budget will have a surplus of $112,000 at the end of fiscal year 2020. He doesn’t think it is necessary to cut any UPTV services at this time for budgetary reasons. Durl would like to see some of the 5% cable franchise fee used toward the UPTV budget. He values public access as a community service, which improves the quality of life and provides a free speech venue. He suggested the Commission recommend maintaining the current staffing and services next fiscal year or returning to two full-time staff members as maintained in previous fiscal years. Durl would like the Commission to write a statement to the City Council in support of public access. Commissioner Folk asked Durl if he saw value in a separate public access channel. Durl said if another organization were to run a separate public access channel it would need adequate funding from the City’s PEG and cable franchise fees. 6. Unfinished Business A. Feasibility of a New Public Access TV channel Jason reported staff did not receive any proposals from community organizations to operate a public access TV channel. There was interest from WEFT and the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, but those organizations are both facing their own challenges. Jason reported the UPTV Membership had suggestions on how to raise funds to support public access service. He noted staff is stretched for time just to keep the everyday operations moving forward. Any additional fundraising efforts would cut into video production time. The City did enter into Intergovernmental Agreements with the Urbana Free Library, Urbana School District #116, Urbana Park District, Housing Authority of Champaign County, and the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission to provide A/V support for their board meetings. This does bring in additional revenue. Jason reported a possible partnership for studio space with Vineyard Church. The City would continue to provide staff, but the Vineyard would provide facilities. Members were cautious they would lose the space at the City building and lose the space at Vineyard Church later. Members were also cautious about housing a studio in a religious institution, as they want to make sure everyone feels welcome. Jason reported the next steps would be to present this information to the City Council in January and then wait to see how the budget comes together this spring. Commissioner Inskeep and Chair Folk suggested having a special meeting of the UPTV Commission sometime after January 6, 2020, but before staff presents to the Council. 7. New Business A. Annual PEG Report Jason presented the Annual PEG Report. Chair Folk suggested Jason present this along with a highlight reel to the Council in January. Jason suggested Chair Folk provide a presentation on the value on UPTV to the Council in January separate from the staff presentation.  B. Equipment Purchases Jason reported $4,408.56 in equipment purchases since the last UPTV Commission meeting in June. The total spent in fiscal year 2019 was $4,832.91. The total spent in fiscal year 2020 is $1,870.32. Upcoming equipment purchases for the remainder of fiscal year 2020 include new cameras in the Council Chambers. 8. Commissioner’s Comments There were no comments. 9. Set Meeting Date and Adjournment The next regular meeting was set for March 13, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. in the Urbana City Council Chambers. There will also be a special meeting in January at a date to be determined. The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m.