Victoria MN Newspaper

VICTORIA’S NEW FRANCHISE AGREEMENT

DIRECTLY WITH MEDIACOM, NOT THE LMCC

On November 25th, Council held the first reading of an ordinance for a cable franchise agreement with Mediacom. The second reading was held December 9th with no public comment. Afterwards, Council unananimously approved the franchise agreement with Mediacom.

Effective January 1st, 2014, the Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission will no longer be video-taping city council meetings and airing them on public TV.

Back in September, Victoria city councilmembers voted to withdraw from the Lake Minnetonka Communication Commission. Said City Manager Don Uram, "We are required to have a franchise agreement. Mediacom has the only franchise in Victoria." He said the new agreement is modeled after agreements with Orono, Minnetrista, Medina, other cities who have opted out of the LMCC, and Chanhassen.

Mr. Uram said the city will be applying for a capital grant to purchase its own AV equipment to record city council meetings, possibly Planning Commission meetings, and Concerts in the Park. "Maybe we can install a camera system in the [proposed] band stand. We're looking at all the options," he said.

"Do we have the staff in place to do this?" asked Councilmember Joe Pavelko.

Replied Mr. Uram, "The equipment we're looking at is fairly easy to use. The $45,000 we would have paid in franchise fees [to the LMCC] surely will cover a part time person to do our council meetings."

In replying to questions from the Gazette, Mr. Uram there is another $30,000 in PEG fees that the city can only use on capital equipment. Those funds, he said, will be used to purchase camera equipment and related paraphernalia for the new City Hall. PEG stands for Public Educational Government cable television channels.

On December 9th, Mr. Uram reported that the LMCC presented a $30,000 proposal to the City of Victoria for taping council meetings for the year. "We can do it for much less," he said. "We don't know how many people watch Cable TV versus our website streaming. On our own we could do both city council and Planning Commission meetings."

Until city staff moves into the new City Hall, the city will tape its own meetings, perhaps through a student in the school district, and post them on the city's website. Mediacom will later provide a cable to the new City Hall where production equipment will be permanently installed.