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- ~ "- ' e enable this support but would also be a source of revenue for the public access center. Ms. McKelvey said that negotiations with Teleprompter had failEd to provide adequate funding for staff for the access center and that such staff was needed to make the center a success. She questioned whether Councilor Obie might not have a conflict of interest in this matter, since he is in the communications business. Martha Arango Lopez, Earl/Morton Hall, University of Oregon, said she agreed with the concerns expressed by Mr. Hodsdon. She requested clarification of the connection between Teleprompter and Westinghouse. Nancy Carlson, 2352 Onyx Street, said she had read about the proposed amendments in the Oregon Daily Emerald. She asked staff to explain in simple terms the purpose of the amendments. Fred Simmons, 312 South 52nd Place, Springfield, said that there were some beneflclal things included in the amendments before the council, particularly Teleprompter's commitment to funding for public access. He disagreed with Mr. Sullivan's earlier statement and said that Teleprompter's present offer of funds for public access was approximately twice, not five times that made a year ago. He said that Teleprompter was already in the process of obtaining the necessary permits from the City Building Division for remodeling the access center building. He therefore urged the council not to delay approval of the amendments, since Teleprompter will not begin construction until the amendments are adopted. e Mr. Simmons said that negotiations should not be held in secret. He said that public negotiations that had been conducted in Dubuque, Iowa, had produced the quality cable franchise agreement that Eugene/Springfield deserves. Mr. Simmons urged the council to support the 1981-plus funding concept to provide an adequate budget for the operation of the Cable Commission and for public access. He said that when the review of the fiscal commitment of the grantor and the grantee to public access is examined in September 1983, Teleprompter should be asked to make a larger financial contribution. He urged that Teleprompter voluntarily contribute more funds for staffing of the center. Lois Wadsworth, 1540 Wilson Street, thanked the council for holding a public hearing on this matter. She recognized that the issues were technical and complex and therefore difficult for councilors to grasp. She felt that the proposed amendments represented an erosion of the oversight capabilities of the Cable Commission, particularly in the regulation of pay TV, in which the commission would lose all ability to consider or regulate charges for future programming. She said that ground had also been lost in the area of leased access and in the reduction from the four public access channels Teleprompter had promised in September 1981 to the two channels now offered. Ms. Wadsworth regretted that Mr. Martin had felt it necessary to conduct major franchise negotiations in such haste, under what she believed to be the arti- ficial deadline of 90 days for consideration of the rate increase request. She said that as a result of adherence to this artificial deadline, the cable commissioners had to vote on the amendments without reading them. She was concerned that the commission had spent $20,000 for a financial report from e MINUTES--Eugene City Council March 8, 1982 Page 4