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Home My WebLink About05/04/1992252 MINUTES ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO MONDAY, MAY 4, 1992 - 12:00 - 2:00 P.M. COUNCIL HEARING ROOM - CITY HALL - 990 PALM STREET SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA ROLL CALL Councilmembers Present: Councilmembers Peg Pinard (arrived at 12:10 P.M.), Penny Rappa, Jerry Reiss, Bill Roalman, and Mayor Dunin (arrived at 12:05 P.M.) Absent: None City Staff Present: John Dunn, City Administrative Officer; Ken Hampian, Assistant City Administrative Officer; Jeff Jorgensen, City Attorney; Pam Voges, City Clerk PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD There was no public comment. STUDY SESSION 1. SONIC CABLE FRANCHISE (File No. 463) Council considered a report from Telecommunications Management Corporation (TMC) on the Sonic Cable Television franchise renewal process. Deb Hossli. Administrative Analyst, introduced Carl Piinick, the consultant for the franchise. She stated that the franchise agreement with Sonic Cable Television will expire in April 1993. Because of the complexity of the renewal proceedings, the Council has secured the services of Telecommunications Management Corporation to assist staff with the process. The president of TMC, Mr. Carl Piinick, was available to review the time frame and process for conducting the franchise renewal. Further, he would explain how the Cable Policies Act of 1984 will Impact the renewal proceedings, provide an update on current legislation effecting cable, and answer questions of the Council regarding the process. Carl Pelnick, president of TMC, reviewed the renewal schedule which Included 1) conducting a technical and performance review of the cable system by May 1982; 2) assessing public educational and governmental (PEG) access needs and interests by June 1992; 3) assessing the cable systems ability to meet PEG access needs Identified by July 1992; 4) developing recommended franchise objectives by July 1992; 5) preparing a franchise agreement and ordinance and evaluating cable company franchise proposals by August 1992; 6) taking the lead in franchise negotiations expected to begin September 1992 and conclude by November 1992; and 7) preparing and assist in final adoption of franchise agreement and ordinance by January 1993. Further, he talked about a very important component of the renewal process which is to assess the public needs and concerns regarding cable. Staff is recommending that public input be obtained from it "town-hall° type meeting in the City/County Library Community Room as opposed to a formal City 1 I I City Council Meeting Page 2 ' Tuesday, May 4, 1992 - 12:00 P.M. Council meeting. Under this approach, the Council would be invited to attend but staff and TMC would facilitate the meeting, respond to public questions, and record concerns. It is the staffs feeling that a less formal setting would encourage greater public participation. Further, there would be additional opportunities later at City Council meetings when the franchise would be scheduled for public hearings. It was important to note that the consultant proposal initially included an option to conduct a survey of residents to evaluate customer satisfaction with the cable operator's performance at a cost of $15,000. After discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this type of survey, staff opted to forego the study. It was felt that adequate customer satisfaction information could be obtained through a thorough public meeting process making it unnecessary to spend an additional $15,000 for the survey. If the Council felt it was necessary to conduct it, staff can be provided with direction during the study session. Mr. Pilnick said that generally when these surveys are made, the same issues come up over and over again and generally it is related to system reliability and cost of the system rates and programming. Mayor Dunin asked for public comment. Tom Friedman spoke on the cable company's future use of fiber- objects which could provide a wide variety of services including data services, 150 television channels, long distance telephone service (by- passing the telephone companies), and other ramifications which may appear within the next few years. Lane Martinez 1635 Santa Rosa and a teacher at Cal Poly, suggested an intrinsic infrastructure decision for the city be made in that how can cable be used for teaching educational program and other training programs be provided on cable. He felt that it was important to educate the citizens as to what is available through cable prior to trying to obtain their input on what they wanted. Upon question, Steve Burrell, representing Sonic Cable TV, stated that he was available for comments but was mostly here to listen. Councilwoman Rapp@ indicated she could support getting community input through the use of the town -hall meeting but believed there is a real opportunity through the use of the City's newsletter and an attempt to do a survey. Mayor Dunin stated there is dialogue going on now between the County and other cities about the possibility of having a County-side cable committee look at these issues. He suggested that a survey regarding community concerns might be. possible through the use of the newsletter. Councilman Reiss also supported the concept of a town -hall meeting and was interested in the idea of conducting a survey to find out how the community feels about the cable companies. Upon question, Mr. Pilnick didn't believe the city would get much back through the use of a survey. He stated that if the Council wanted guidance regarding making a decision in setting priorities or approving an agreement, a survey would not do it. He suggested interviewing one- on-one with educational people, city departments and affected groups. Councilwoman Pinard stated that the Council should first get itself better educated as to what cable ' companies can provide. She suggested the Council be educated as to what the options are and then it can better identify what to ask for in a survey. She could also support the use of the newsletter for this purpose. City Council Meeting Page 3 Tuesday, May a, 1992 - 12:00 P.M. Councilman Roalman felt that unless the survey could tell the Council something useful, he could not support it. Councilwoman Raaaa agreed with Councilman Roalman. She felt the Council needed to get community input on the various areas that cable can provide so those issues can be prioritized. Rates and programming are already known factors so there needs to be a method to determine other components such as providing extension courses. She wold like to see some way to solicit information and educate at the same time. In addition to knowing what services people would be interested in, she was also concerned what people were wilting to pay for. Councilman Reiss was concerned that the Council not tie the community into 5-15 years of something that really represents only a few special interest groups. He supported the concept of a town -hall meeting and was interested in the idea of conducting a survey to find out how the community feels about its cable needs. After discussion and upon general consensus, Council directed staff to bring back, as a consent item, what the proposed survey would look like and incorporating Council comments and ideas as discussed. 1:40 P.M. Mayor Dunin adjourned the meeting to closed session concerning litigation. The title of the litigation was Yahana Boston vs. City of San Luis Obispo. 2:00 P.M. there being no further business to come before the City Council, Mayor Dunin adjourned the meeting. 1 APPROVED BY COUNCIL: 6/16/92 Pa Voges, City rk PV:cm MINUTES REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1992 - 6:45 P.M. COMMUNITY ROOM - CITY /COUNTY LIBRARY - 995 PALM STREET SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA ROLL CALL C ,)uncilmembers Present: Councilmembers Peg Pinard, Penny Rappa, Jerry Reiss, Bill Roalman, and Mayor Dunin Absent: None cry ^.tall Present: John Dunn, City Administrative Officer; Ken Hampian, Assistant City Administrative Officer; Jeff Jorgensen, City Attorney; Pam Voges, City Clerk