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JuneMinutes

Minutes of the June 29 Telecom Board meeting: from Telecom Board listserv for approval, July 21 meeting

Telecommunications Board Meeting Minutes June 29, 2005 Room 219, 113 West Mountain

Call To Order And Roll Call Board members present were Bruce, Graves, Thompson, Cromwell, Brown, and Boyle. City of Fayetteville Public Information & Policy Advisor Susan Thomas, CAT Vice Chairperson Michelle Key and Cable Administrator Marvin Hilton were also present.

Introduction of New Members and Participants New board members Graves, Thompson and Bruce briefly introduced themselves. Sitting board members, Cable Administrator Marvin Hilton, and City of Fayetteville Public Information & Policy Advisor Susan Thomas then introduced themselves.

Approval of Minutes from January Meeting Brown took exception to the minutes which stated, “Smith then made a second on a motion he apparently thought Nance had made to accept the revisions to the UATV contract discussed above. The unmade motion passed.”

Brown said he recalled that Nance made that motion.

Cromwell agreed with Brown and said, “It passed unanimously anyway so I’m not certain it matters about the technical who did it first and second. And I’d like the minutes to reflect, if we can’t accurately describe who did the first and second, simply that the board unanimously passed the UATV contract that had been submitted by Elliot Nance.”

NOTE: A review of the January 20, 2005 tape showed that Nance spoke about the revised contract with UATV but did not make a motion to recommend approval of the contract.The January minutes have been changed to reflect the above discussion.

Brown then moved that the January minutes be approved with the sought after correction. Boyle made the second and the motion passed.

PEG Equipment Committee Thomas announced a committee is being formed to discuss equipment for the PEG Center. It will consist of Cable Administrator Marvin Hilton, CAT Manager Sky Blaylock, a government channel staff member, a CAT staff member, a CAT producer, someone from the city’s IT department and herself. It will be an open meeting with others welcome to attend. Thomas said the CAT equipment committee will continue to meet and will also be included. The first meeting will be held at noon, July 6 at City of Fayetteville’s Administration Building room 326.

Update On UATV Contract

Thomas said the City Attorney is reviewing the contract. Eventually it will be sent to the University of Arkansas administration for their review.

TTIP Task Force

Brown said the Telecommunications Technology Infrastructure Planning Task Force has not met since last year (December 7) and that “the task force has run out of steam.” He suggested reorganizing it with new members and gave a brief overview of what was and was not accomplished.

Thomas will have city employee and task force member Scott Huddleston send copies of the Beta Rubicon Inc. report to the three new TCB members.

Update From CAT

Michelle Key, Vice Chairperson of the CAT Board reported four policy changes.

	Only CAT staff will be able to check out Cat equipment

	Requestors of Imported Programs will be listed on a message board page

	Five minutes of black on both front and end of tape will now be the standardized format for submitting local programs

	The number of program replays was revised due to the increasing number of programs submitted and the limited times for airing

Key then inquired about the request for proposal (RFP) for the public access contract.

Hilton said the purchasing department will have a selection committee interview applicants. He added it is now a four year contract.

Cromwell said the TCB needs to approve the RFP before it is sent out and suggested a subcommittee to review the previous RFP to determine if it worked and then have it added to the listserve.

Brown suggested the current contract also be posted to the listserve.

Brown then asked about the status to the CAT slam invoice to recoup channel-change expenses.

Cromwell said she will ask Fred Guerra, the new Cox representative in Springdale about that.

Government Channel Policy Discussion

Cromwell cited the complaint issued by citizen Jim Bemis about the government channel’s three-citizen-request-coverage policy in regards to the Fayetteville School Board.

Bemis expressed his appreciation for the board members service then said he wished not to characterize his written communication to the board as a complaint but more as a request for clarification on two issues.

1. What is the government channel’s policy for coverage of any FOI meeting of any kind? That is, will the government channel continue to tape meetings as they do now?

2. Where there is supplemental media (UATV, Jones TV) will they serve the same purpose of duplication as the government channel coverage? That is, will citizens get the same level of service from UATV that they now get from the government channel?

Cromwell voiced a need to have a stopgap decision on the policy so the government channel would know what to do tomorrow. Regarding the three citizens requesting any FOI meeting Cromwell said “we introduced inconsistencies and ambiguities with section A-2.” She then suggested a subcommittee look at the policy and take it to the city council adding that they had failed to do this before.

Susan Thomas said she had discussed the issue with City Attorney Kit Williams and agreed that uncertainties exist.

Bemis continued by saying that there is a need for an overall organizational structure of telecommunications for the city. He suggested a flow chart and role descriptions for all the people involved in the area that deals with telecommunications as there are many “statutorily-created institutions” that have no one governing them.

Lastly, Bemis said the city council had two one-year resolutions in late 2003 or early 2004 that the taskforce complete its assigned task and that the city complete the Cox franchise.

Because there are three citizen requests to cover the Fayetteville school board in perpetuity a discussion followed regarding that policy.

Hilton suggested 12 people need to request instead of three if the policy is kept.

Thomas and Cromwell both expressed the need for limits to the policy. That is, the government channel cannot send a crew to cover meetings in Washington, DC. or even Little Rock and under present policy that request could be made.

Brown suggested honoring the requests until the policy is changed.

Bemis mentioned the policy that if a request is made to FGC to cover a meeting and FGC cannot meet the request, it would be videotaped (by whom it was not stated) and the TCB would later determine whether to cable cast it.

Cromwell told Bemis limited FGC resources cannot be tied to FOIA meetings and we cannot have a policy that states that all government meetings are taped. She then said to Hilton that the request policy should be in effect on a per meeting basis. That is, which meeting, where it is held, and sufficient lead time should be given.

Hilton said policy states two weeks notice is required and added there should be a limit on how far out a meeting is requested. He also mentioned the policy that one governmental entity cannot provide a service to another governmental entity free of charge and that’s why a nominal fee is charged.

At this point Cromwell asked “Who wants to do what with this language? Meaning right now for tomorrow…how Marvin will do business tomorrow.”

Brown suggested leaving the policy alone and saying the requests must be for one meeting at a time.

Thomas warned against changing policy language in one night and asked Bemis to give the board an extension on the 10 day limit for a response to his complaint to allow time for policy review.

Brown suggested that a response doesn’t require a resolution but can be a statement that the board will review the policy.

Cromwell then asked for a volunteer to chair a subcommittee to review government channel policy and report to the board.

David Bruce did so

Before closing, Brown asked Thomas to provide whatever she can find on the franchise agreement the city has with SBC.

Cromwell will put that on the July agenda.

Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:50 pm. after Cromwell thanked former members Jon Lofton and Steve Smith for their service to the board and expressed her appreciation for former board member Gary Cochran who recently died.