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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/03/14 000 Goes 00000 G G000* Meeting Location: Municipal Center City of Apple 7100 147th Street West Valley Apple Valley, Minnesota 55124 TELECOMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING AGENDA MARCH 3, 2014 - 7:00 P.M. 1. Called to Order 2. Approved Agenda 3. Audience —No one requested to speak. 4. Approved Minutes of December 2, 2013 Regular Meeting 5. Regular Agenda Items: A. Reviewed 1st Quarter Complaint Log B. Reviewed 1st Quarter Activities Report C. Presented Franchise Renewal Update D. Approved 2013 Annual Report E. Elected Officers 6. Informational Items A. No FCC Rulemaking and Other Franchise Issues B. Reviewed E-Commerce and Business Development Issues C. No Other Staff and Committee Updates 7. Adjourned NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING: Monday June 2, 2014 7:00 p.m. (Regular) 000 Goes 00000 G G000* Meeting Location: Municipal Center City of Apple 7100 147th Street West Valley Apple Valley, Minnesota 55124 TELECOMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING TENTATIVE AGENDA MARCH 3, 2014 - 7:00 P.M. 1. Call to Order 2. Approval of Agenda 3. Audience - 10 Minutes Total Time Limit - For Items NOT on this Agenda 4. Approval of Minutes of December 2, 2013 Regular Meeting 5. Regular Agenda Items: A. 1st Quarter Complaint Log -- none B. 1st Quarter Activities Report C. Franchise Renewal Update D. Approve 2013 Annual Report E. Elect Officers 6. Informational Items A. FCC Rulemaking and Other Franchise Issues B. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues C. Other Staff and Committee Updates 7. Adj ourn NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED MEETING: Monday June 2, 2014 7:00 p.m. (Regular) Telecommunications Advisory Committee City of Apple Valley December 2, 2013 7:00 P.M. Municipal Center Minutes 1. Call to Order Chair Westbrook called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, John Magnusson, Dale Rodell, David Westbrook Members Absent: none Others Present: Nathan Bang, Charles Grawe 2. Approval ofA_eg nda MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Brown,to approve the agenda as presented. Motion passed 6— 0. 3. Audience There were no audience items. 4. Approval Minutes of September 9, 2013 MOTION: Mr. Hugstad-Vaa moved, second by Mr. Bible,to approve the minutes of September 9, 2013. Motion passed 5 — 0. (Mr. Magnusson abstained) 5A. 4th Quarter Complaint Log Mr. Grawe distributed the log. 5B. 4th Quarter Coordinator's Report Mr. Grawe briefly provided a verbal update of the staff activity. 5C. Franchise Renewal Update Mr. Grawe briefly updated the Committee on the progress of negotiations. 5D. Annual City IT Project Update Mr. Bang briefly updated the Committee on IT projects and initiatives in the City. 5E. Adopt 2014 Meeting Calendar MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Hugstad-Vaa,to approve a regular meeting calendar of March 3, 2014; June 2, 1024; September 8, 2014; and December 1, 2014. Motion passed 6— 0. 6A. FCC Rulemaking and Other Franchise Issues Mr. Grawe reported no new issues. 6B. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues Mr. Grawe had no new issues. 6C. Other Issues and Staff Updates There were no new issues. 7. Adjourn MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, second by Mr. Magnusson,to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed 6 - 0. The meeting was adjourned at 7:40 p.m. 000 0000 00*60 0*00 000 City of Apple Valley MEMO Administration TO: Mayor, City Council, and City Administrator FROM: Telecommunications Advisory Committee DATE: March 3, 2014 SUBJECT: 2013 ACCOMPLISHMENTS The Telecommunications Advisory Committee held five meetings in 2013. The members of the Committee throughout 2013 were: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, John Magnusson, Dale Rodell, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, and David Westbrook. David Westbrook served as Chair and Jerry Brown served as Secretary. Major accomplishments and/or undertakings by the Telecommunications Advisory Committee during 2013 include: • Year Two of Cable Franchise Renewal Process: The City continued work with the renewal of the franchise agreement. The existing agreement took effect in 1999 and has a term of 15 years. Typically, the franchise renewal process takes three years. However, more recent renewals have taken 18 to 24 months. The City used the legal services of Mr. Bob Vose of the firm Kennedy and Graven. The City is working jointly in the renewal process with the Cities of Farmington and Rosemount. While each city will have its own franchise ordinance, the language will be virtually identical in each, allowing for more efficient joint administration of the three franchises and cohesive partnership in the cable commission. There are three significant steps involved in the renewal process. The first step is conducting a needs assessment. The three cities jointly utilized the assessment services of Ms. Holly Hansen of Holly Hansen Consulting. Ms. Hansen met with a variety of stakeholder groups, interviewed various stakeholders, and conducted a non-scientific, on-line cable customer survey. The results of the assessment report were provided to the cities in early 2013. The three cities began the second step of the renewal process by contracting with the firm of Moss & Barnett to conduct a franchise fee and PEG fee audit review. This process began in late 2012 and continued through 2013. Results of the audit are anticipated in early 2014. The final step is actual negotiations between the cities and the cable company. Typically, the cable company initiates the negotiations by proposing new language. This did not happen, possibly due to delays in the renewal of the neighboring Lakeville franchise with the same company. As a result, the three cities directed legal counsel to draft new language desired by the cities which was distributed to the cable company in 2014. • Participation in State-wide Cable Administration Association: The Committee continued its participation in the Minnesota Association of Community Telecommunications Administrators (MACTA). MACTA held several conferences during the year and has proven invaluable in keeping Committee members current with both cable television and telecommunications related trends. The Committee also monitored events pertaining to municipal wireless and broadband service provision. • Participation in Joint Powers Cable Commission: The City of Apple Valley also participated in a joint powers agreement with the Cities of Farmington and Rosemount to provide for certain cable television services. The group approved an operating budget for 2013 and operated for its twelfth year with a joint cable coordinator serving the three cities. • Review of Cable-related Complaints. The Committee reviewed cable complaints received by Commission staff The number of complaints in recent years has been historically low and most pertain to unburied service drops or billing issues. • Franchise Fee and PEG Fee Review: Pursuant to the franchise agreement, the cable company is obligated to pay the City an annual franchise fee equivalent to 5% of their annual gross revenues. Under the renewed franchise, the Cable Company is required to make quarterly franchise fee payments, rather than annual payments. The quarterly payments were as follows: Quarter Franchise Fees PEG Fees First Quarter 2013 $154,539.28 $17,212.00 Second Quarter 2013 $157,655.64 $16,818.00 Third Quarter 2013 $157,346.43 $16,586.00 Fourth Quarter 2013 $160,290.16 $16,515.00 Total $629,831.51 $67,131.00 The franchise fee for 2013 totaled $629,831.51, up from $595,045.87 in 2012. Quarter Franchise Fees PEG Fees First Quarter 2012 $144,615.75 $17,148.26 Second Quarter 2012 $147,904.95 $17,190.19 Third Quarter 2012 $148,065.34 $17,050.85 Fourth Quarter 2012 $154,459.83 $17,007.06 Total $595,045.87 $68,396.36 Pursuant to the franchise agreement, the Cable Company is obligated to collect a PEG fee for the City. Per the franchise agreement, the City's PEG original fee was at $.25 per subscriber but can be increased at the City's discretion within limitations stated in the franchise. In addition, the Cable Company imposed an additional $.25 per subscriber fee to recover the costs of the "capital grant" given to the City in the original franchise. At the completion of the cost"recovery", the Cable Company's $.25 fee was automatically transferred to the City, raising the City's collection to $.50 per subscriber. The City received PEG fees in the amount of$67,131.00 for 2013. The PEG fee revenue for 2012 was $68,396.36, as shown above. This decrease in PEG fee revenues implies a decrease in cable subscribers during the year. The PEG fee revenues are used to finance the City's portion of the joint cable commission. • Capital Equipment Planning and Acquisition: The City continues web streaming its programs. This also allows the City to create short public service announcements and other video enhancements to the website. In 2013, the City began planning to implement a new agenda management system. Related to this project is a switch in web streaming services to a new video integrator. The new system will allow viewers to link to and view agenda documents while viewing the related Council discussion on the video. This project carried into 2014. Planning began for the 2014 budget and 2013 to 2017 Capital Improvements Program. The City's cablecast and related Council Chamber equipment is now 13 to 14 years old. Many pieces are no longer supported or can't be repaired as parts are no longer available. Further, the old equipment is based on the analog and standard definition standards and many producers do not support those standards any longer, providing digital and HDTV standards with current products. As a result, when one component fails, we may no longer have the option to only replace that component, but rather must replace all of the related components based on the standards they require. The Cities of Farmington and Rosemount face the same issues. As a result, the three cities hired a firm to plan, design, and create a specification for the full replacement of the control room and related council chambers equipment. This design process was completed in mid-2013. Around the same time, the State Legislature passed legislation granting sales tax exemption for the equipment purchases. As the three cities would potentially save tens of thousands of dollars in sales tax, the project was placed on hold until 2014 when the sales tax exemption is in effect. Apple Valley also adopted a policy of diverting some franchise fee funds to a capital equipment fund to support the equipment replacement. This is a necessary step, in part, because the PEG fee rate has not changed since 1999 and PEG revenues have been falling steadily for more than a decade. • Cable-cast of Public Meetings: Cable-casting of City Council and Planning Commission meetings continued in 2013. In addition, City of Farmington and Rosemount City Council and Planning Commission meetings and Dakota County Board meetings were also televised. • Government Access Programming: Government Access Channel 16 continued to provide government access for the joint powers commission established by the Cities of Apple Valley, Farmington, and Rosemount. Programming and bulletin board materials were added for the other cities. Digitally recorded programming cable-cast on Apple Valley Government Access Channel 16 continued in 2013. In 2008, the Commission assumed all program production duties on behalf of the City for the Valley Beat and Hook & Ladder programs. The City also used City and Commission staff to produce a video of the State of the City address. The City continued to cable-cast live Planning Commission and City Council meetings. These meetings were recable-cast periodically. • Public Access Television: Under the new franchise agreement, Charter Communications is no longer required to provide the same public access television opportunities provided in the past. In 2010, Charter transferred this responsibility to the Cities in the joint powers commission. The cities provided video bulletin board messages on the channel, but not program playback. • Joint Powers Commission Summary: The Commission continued to provide staffing and support services to the Cities of Apple Valley, Farmington, and Rosemount. With the full compliment of public safety programs under production, more of the staff time is devoted to the production of the bi-monthly programs. The Telecommunications Advisory Committee welcomes direction from the City Council as well as any recommendations, questions, or concerns.