03/08/1982 Meeting (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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e Councilor Wooten thanked the volunteers who have worked on the issue of public access broadcasting. She said that she had spent considerable time studying the proposed changes to the franchise and had the following concerns: 1) she wanted public access television to work and did not see how it could be a success on a budget of $50,000; 2) she felt that using leased access and other revenue- generating activities would be healthy for public access and would help public access become self-supporting; and 3) she felt that the area of pay TV is changing so rapidly that the commission needs to discuss when and how to request the next franchise evaluation. Councilor Haws said that he found the whole process extremely frustrating. He asked staff to work on improving the process. He said that Teleprompter was a poor utility and did not meet up to Eugene's standards or to the standards of other utilities serving the city. He said that he would vote against the proposed amendments as a protest against Teleprompter. He said that the citizens of Eugene deserve the same level of cable service as other cities. Mr. Lindberg said that providing good representation on the Cable Commission was the responsibility of the council. He said that on a number of occasions Mr. Hamel had asked councilors to give him direction and that councilors had not done so. He suggested that a small subcommittee of the council be formed to discuss the issues, formulate positions, and provide information for its representative. e Councilor Obie expressed surprise at the charges that he had a conflict of interest on this matter and noted that he is not involved in the television business. He said that the $410,000 expenditure for public access came ultimately from the rate payers, not from Teleprompter. He said the rate payers should be polled to determine whether they wish to pay for public access. He said that public access is available now on Eugene's commercial television statio~s and on statewide publicly owned stations. Mr. Obie said that he would vote against the franchise amendments, since cable subscribers have not been polled to determine whether they are willing to pay for public access television. Councilor Hamel said he had listened to the arguments of public access advocates for fifteen months. He said that he had attended cable information meetings sponsored by the National League of Cities. He said that there is no standard of the art in the cable industry and that the Eugene-Springfield area must create its own standard. He said that he had asked for input from councilors on this issue but had not received it. He said that he would vote in favor of the amendments. Mayor Keller said that the council had not studied cable issues, but had instead delegated cable-related decisions to the Cable Commission. He said the council could therefore only blame itself if it was unhappy with the process that had been used or the results of negotiations. He said it appeared that several councilors favor the 1981-plus funding formula and suggested that discussion of this matter be pursued through traditional budget channels and be considered by the full Budget Committee. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council March 8, 1982 Page 12