Agenda Packets - 2014/07/14 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Mounds View City Council June 9, 2014 Regular Meeting Page 5 current PEG fees were at $4.15 per month. She reported that under federal law Comcast cannot 1 be required to pay operating expenses. However, capital expenses can be required to be covered 2 by Comcast at CTV and at the member cities. She indicated Comcast came in at a significantly 3 lower amount for equipment replacement than was estimated by NSCC. 4 5 Mayor Flaherty inquired what Comcast had proposed for PEG fees in the new contract. Ms. 6 Wilson stated Comcast was proposing to have the monthly PEG fees be 44 cents. 7 8 Mayor Flaherty asked what the 5% franchise fee covered. Ms. Wilson explained that this fee was 9 passed along to member cities and a small portion was contributed to the NSCC budget. These 10 funds could be used by member cities for cable equipment, cable staff and the production of City 11 meetings. 12 13 Council Member Hull questioned if any other member cities had not renewed the proposed cable 14 franchise. Ms. Wilson reported Lauderdale and St. Anthony have already preliminarily denied 15 the cable franchise. 16 17 Council Member Meehlhause requested further information on the non-data network fees. Ms. 18 Wilson stated public institutions (schools, libraries and City Halls) were currently allowed free 19 access to the Comcast network and could transmit local data back and forth. She indicated the 20 proposed Comcast cable franchise would eliminate this free access to the local institutional 21 network and each public institution would be charged $1,675.80 per month. 22 23 Council Member Meehlhause questioned who owned the local institutional network. Ms. Wilson 24 reported that Comcast technically owns the network and NSCC has access to the six fibers. She 25 stated a managed services proposal has been discussed with Comcast, but has yet to be 26 developed. 27 28 Mayor Flaherty reviewed the three sticking points at this time as being the reduced number of 29 local channels, the proposed monthly connection fees for institutional uses and the PEG fees. 30 31 Mike Logan, Comcast, thanked the Council for their time and expressed his interest in finding a 32 resolution to this matter. He commented the Council was voting to not renew the formal cable 33 franchise this evening, which was a legal course of action. He stated Comcast was prepared to 34 continue down this course and believed it had enough facts to take this matter to Federal Court. 35 36 Mr. Logan encouraged the Council to further review the NSCC’s transparency and inter-37 workings. He commented all local funding would end in November, if the contract was not 38 renewed. He reported the I-NET connectivity issue and number of cable channels should be able 39 to be resolved informally, but stated the PEG fees were extremely misaligned. He discussed how 40 operating fees should be covered outside of PEG fees. 41 42 Mayor Flaherty questioned how the cable franchise would proceed if Mounds View voted to not 43 renew. Ms. Logan discussed the formal process if all other member cities were to not renew. He 44 indicated that informal discussions would continue between NSCC and Comcast. 45