Laserfiche WebLink
Regular Council Meeting <br /> February 12, 1991 <br /> page 4 - <br /> 1 • <br /> 2 proper notification to subscribers of an anticipated rate increase. <br /> The Cable Commission has received no response from the cable company. <br /> The Commission' s complaint with this procedure can be handled one of <br /> two ways; notify the federal cable regulating commission of the violation <br /> 5 or advise the company it is expected to return the funds received from <br /> this rate increase to the subscribers. Zawislak stated that' there is <br /> A approximately $20,000 realized from the increase. <br /> �9 The Cable Commission is undertaking the responsibilities of cable access <br /> 11 features of the company. Assumption of these duties requires the hiring <br /> 12 of staff and of an Executive Secretary. Cora Lee Wilson, formerly of <br /> 13 Ohio, has been hired as the Executive Secretary and has assumed her duties <br /> 13at this .point in time. Bill Bruce, who represents Little Canada on the <br /> 5 Cable Commission, will be working closely with this cable access project <br /> 1 <br /> 15 and expects it to take about three months to be in place. <br /> 17 Zawislak noted that the -Cable Commission has set aside funds for a <br /> 18 <br /> 19 scholarship open to a resident of any of the ten member cities. <br /> 20 This student must be a communications major and have attained the <br /> 21 student status higher than a freshman, preferably a sophomore or junior. <br /> 22 A press release regarding this scholarship program was received in the <br /> 23 City offices today. <br /> 24 Presently, all ten cities have a cable representative serving on the Cable <br /> 25 <br /> 26 Commission and there are eight alternates. Zawislak was appointed to rep- • <br /> 27 resent St. Anthony in January of this year. He feels the City should form <br /> 98 a Cable Commission of its own and could look to those persons who expressed <br /> 29 interest. in serving in the past to appoint. He inquired what the distribution <br /> 30 of the funds received from franchise fees was and was advised these funds <br /> 31 go back to the General Fund. While he recognized that the City is facing <br /> 32 some financial restraints he indicated he may be requesting some funding <br /> 33 for equipment. <br /> 34 Discussion continued regarding some programming suggestions which could be <br /> 35 run on the City' s access channel . Among the suggestions were recycling tapes , <br /> 36 monthly reports on city activities and projects, and possible reruns of <br /> 37 taped Council meetings. <br /> 38 <br /> 39Zawislak had attended a two day seminar which focused on cable television. <br /> 40 41 At the seminar activities on the federal level were discussed, noting that <br /> 42 there is presently some efforts being made to reverse the impact made by <br /> 43 the "Goldwater" bill which took much local control of cable operations away <br /> 44 from municipalities. Generation of competition between cable companies is <br /> LS being considered also to make the companies more responsive to .local needs. <br /> 46 The ten cities jointly represented on the Cable Commission have one hundred <br /> 47 and one votes. The number of votes are determined by the amount of saturation <br /> 48 and density each city has. The City of St. Anthony has four votes. <br /> 49 <br /> 50 <br />