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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 83-07-06MINUTES OF AN ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING OF THE CYPRESS CITY COUNCIL HELD July 6, 1983 The adjourned regular meeting of the Cypress City Council was called to order at 7:02 p.m. in the Administrative Conference Room at the Cypress City Hall, 5275 Orange Avenue, Cypress, California, Mayor Otto Lacayo presiding. PRESENT: Council Members Kanel, Mullen, Partin, and Lacayo ABSENT : Council Member Cornelius M. Coronado, Jr. arrived at 7:07 p.m. Also present were Oarrell Essex, City Manager; John Murphy, City Attorney; and the following staff members: Barrett and Johnson. At 7:08 p.m., the Mayor called an exeoative session for matters of personnel, and the meeting was reconvened at 7:12 p.m. CONSIDERATION OF CABLE TELEVISION COMMUNITY FACILITIES: The Mayor asked that all members of cable companies introduce themselves. The following self-introductions were made: Maureen Whalen, Kit Fremin, Ted Chfnn, and Louise L. Arlyan (Group W); and Michael Isaacs, Colony Communications. The Mayor called for the staff report on community facilities for cable television and indicated that he wished to have all questions held until the completion of the staff report. It was requested that the staff both summarize its report and comment on the institu- tional user needs lists (Attachments A, B, and C). Mr. David Barrett summarized the staff report, indicating the following key points: Access channels must be dedicated. The basic facilities and equipment package must be available to the public, and there must be some type of on-going funding and/or operator staff support. 2. The minimal list of initial cable institutional needs for the City were cited as follows: (a) A full equipment production studio, including post-production equipment (b) A pool of portable broadcast quality equipment with editing equipment for institutional use (c) A pool of one-half inch port-a-pack ensembles for general public use with separate adding equipment (d) Low cost, mobile van (e) Engineering and technical staff support including facility and equipment maintenance The staff also indicated that future improvements, by way of guranteed phasing, should be encouraged so as to enable cable operators to meet more fully the com- munity desires as subscriber penetration rates and local production activities increase. Finally, Mr. Barrett pointed out that Cypress College has expressed a desire to take an active role in community programming and has made offers to use existing facili- ties, college staff and students to enhance such a program. The use of Cypress College facilities for these purposes was recommended where potential bidders could demonstrate that any cost savings realized from this type approach would be returned 442 City Council Minutes July 6, 1983 to the community by way of improved local prograrmning facilities or program funding support. The staff continued its report, reviewing the institutional users cable tele- vision needs list. Mr. Barrett stated that Attachment A, "City of Cypress Government Access Utilization of CATV" emphasized community information (teletext) by way of a character generator with expansion capability. The attachment also cited the Police Department's desire to use cable television as a means of increasing the visibility of their community relations activities. In addition, staff reported that the city's computer will have a need for intercon~ nection on the institutional network between all city and district b~ildings. Traf- fic signal interconnectioo capability was also requested to be built into the system design and five different live origination points were reviewed. The Cypress Recreation and Park District's cable television system needs, listed in Attachment B,were high-lighted by Mr. Barrett, as follows: A. The primary concern of the district was having adequate production equipment facilities available to all community users. Bo Local program funds and facilities should be controlled by either the City Council or a Council-appointed non-profit foundation board in order to insure equitable use. Ali productions which are later sold or leased for profit should provide for royalties payable to the city. To enhance the quality of the television production, training courses should be provided to all institutional users as well as to the general public. D. The role of a non-profit foundation, as illustrated in the organi- zation chart included in Attachment B, was discussed. Mr. Barrett reviewed the Educational Consortium needs list in Attachment C, noting that the local production work, as envisioned in the consortium report would come from Cypress College with limited production work coming from Cypress High School and possibly Cypress Library, while the Cypress Elementary School District would concentrate on transmission of educational material on CATV viewing equipment. Channel dedication, as requested by the consortium, was considered by staff to be very feasible on a large 100-plus channel system. Mr. Barrett noted, however, a smaller system would require consolidation. in reviewing the microwave requests in the consortium report, Mr. Barrett indicated that Cypress Elementary School District has a definite need for all of its schools in the system to be connected, ~ince all but two schools are located in the City of Cypress. The other microwave requests for the high school and college were noted as being very good ideas, but appeared to be more internally oriented, and more inform- ation on the need for the microwave improvements will be required before they can be prioritized. The live origination points listed in the report were noted by staff to be very good except for the Business, Sciences, and Humanities Learning Centers and the Word Processing Center at the College. Further clarification on these locations was requested. Staff indicated that instead of reviewing the detailed equipment listing in the con- sortium report, it would only comment that fulfilling all of the requests would have a substantial impact on subscribers' rates. The consortium also requested staff sup- port from the cable operator, and the city staff agreed that it would not be unreason- able to expect such support from a cable operator who would have to have an engineering and technical staff in orde~ to operate the system properly. -2- City Council Minutes July 6, 1983 In response to question from Councilman Coronado, Mr. Barrett stated that the listings of equipment and facilities in the staff report were general in nature in order to provide potential bidders maximum flexibility. Councilman Mullen reviewed the channel dedication section of the staff report for clarification and expressed concern regarding the extensive needs list, as well as how to determine the allocation of time among the users of the system. Council- man Mullen went on to say that the city subscribers should not be expected to pay for all of the CATV improvements and equipment that will be utilized by entities with regional constituents. Councilman Kanel requested comparative information on what was proposed and agreed upon by the other Orange County cities in order to de- cide if what Cypress is offered is fair. Mayor Lacayo, expressing his desire for the Council to state what type of system it wants offered to Cypress citizens, stated his preference for a subscriber- oriented approach to CATV. The Mayor further stated that his pzimary goal was to keep the rate as low as possible and offer the maximum in commercial prograrmning; and that local programming should be phased in, based upon subscriber reactions and willingness to support it. The Mayor also encouraged the schools to invest in cable to a degree that their own budgets would allow, but not to ask the city or the subscribers to subsidize the school system's use of CATV. The Council discussed the concept of a subscriber-oriented system. Marsha Jeffer, representing Cypress College, commented that the schools are not asking to be subsidized for their CATV needs, but rather feel that they will be- giving the community very valuable educational and cultural programming. In response to question by Mayor Lacayo, staff responded that the F.C.C. limits the city to five percent of the gross revenues and that other cities have exceeded that amount by establishing a non-profit foundation for local programming to receive ad- ditional funds. Marsha Jeffer, responding to question by the Mayor, indicated that all the CATV improvements and equipment to be located at the college would be used solely for the Cypress subscriber channel and that the college already has a studio and equipment for instructional purposes. Christine Swain, representing Cypress Library and Cypress Elementary School District, expressed full support for maximizing the utilization of the college's resources. Councilman Coronado expressed the need to clarify that the Cypress approach will be to discourage the traditional front-loading of improvements and to encourage maxi- mizing the resources of the college with the phasing in of more improvements as subscriber penetration increases. Councilman Mullen stated his support of a basic level of local programming and maxi- mizing the college and high school resources, but he suggested that such an approach should have a joint-powers agreement to insure fairness in the utilization and cost- sharing of the facilities. The City Attorney indicated that the legal problems arising out of this type of situ- ation could be addressed by agreement with the educational consortium that the im- provements and equipment supplied via the Cypress CATV franchise would be restricted to the Cypress CATV system users unless the City Council approved a broader use. At that time, the City Council could require the appropriate contributions by the beneficiaries of such broader use. Councilman Partin expressed his desire to get the main issues clarified for the po- tential bidders to go to work on, and to address the more detailed type questions after the proposals are in and there is sufficient information available to resolve them. In response to question by Councilman Kanel, Mr. Barrett indicated that the affect on subscriber rates of each major element of the community programming improvements and equipment would come out of the final negotiations on the franchise agreement or might be obtained by use of a CATV consultant prior to the bid submittal date. -3- 444 City Council Minutes July 6, 1983 The Council discussed the use of a CATV consultant. Mayor Lacayo then recapped the evening's discussions, and the Council discussed the recommendation of the staff report for consideration of the motion. Mayor Lacayo moved, and Councilman Sullen seconded, to approve the staff recommenda- tions which were cited as follows: 1. The City Council endorses the miniml listing of cable needs on page two of the report. The City Council adopts the three statements of priority in the staff report for evaluating the community facilities and equipment requests. The City Council encourages potential bidders to offer guaranteed phasing of future community facilities and equipment based upon in- creases in local production activities and subscriber penetration rates. The motion was unanimously carried by the following roll call vote: AYES : 5 COUNCIL MEMBERS: NOES : 0 COUNCIL MEMBERS: ABSENT: 0 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Coronado, Kanel, Sullen, Partin, and Lacayo None None The staff reported that the City Council, at a previous workshop, had indicated its intention to consider extension of the August 1, 1983 deadline for submittal of the cable television franchise proposals. Staff further reported that Group W, in its written comments on the previous workshop, requested an extension of the deadline to Septemer 15, 1983; and that Colony Communications, in their most recent meeting with the staff, had also requested extension of the deadline. The City Council discussed alternative dates for the extension of the deadline. Councilman Sullen made a motion to extend the deadline for submission of proposals for cable television franchise to September 15, 1983. The motion was seconded by Mayor Lacayo and unanimously carried. RECESS: At 9:35 p.m., the Mayor called a five-minute recess. The meeting was called back to order at 9:40 p.m. Mayor Lacayo made a motion regarding the City Manager's salary to adopt a resolution by title only, title as follows: RESOLUTION NO. 2669 A RESOLUTION OF I~HE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CYPRESS AMENDING RESOLUTION NO. 2481, ESTABLISHING SALARIES FOR CITY EMPLOYEES DESIGNATED AS MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL The motion was seconded by Councilman Sullen, and it was unanimously carried by the following roll call vote: AYES : 5 COUNCIL MEMBERS: NOES : O COUNCIL MEMBERS: ABSENT: 0 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Coronado, Kanel, Sullen, Partin, and Lacayo None None ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m. ATTEST: CI%Y/ C~RK~ 0~fTHE~C%~Y~ CYPRESS OF CYPRESS -4-