Agenda - Council - 12/10/1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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O'Connell asked the Commission Directors if they still wanted to plan on the public hearing in November. Don Jacobson stated that he believes that the Commission needs to l'ook for a system that has the capability of handling new products and services. Creighton also stated that if the Commission doesn't decide what those needs are going to be, he will have to go and decide for the Commission. Creighton also stated that the Commission basically has three choices, 1.) come up with a sophisticated renewal plan, 2.) have Creighton do the renewal negotiations for the Commission, 3.) the Commission could "get in the back of the renewal line" and let the other franchises scheduled to expire go first. Creighton believes that all of these choices are appropriate. Don Jacobson made a comment to O'Connell about identification of the networks that are existing in the four member cities. What would be a process or way that the Commission could do the needs assessment? What kind of process is used to obtain this information? Jacobson made the comment that we are just the Cable Commission why should we care about other services such as telephone, fiber optic lines, etc. O'Connell stated that he shared his views at one time, however, when he starting reviewing the process that the Commission went threw in 1981 to obtain the franchise there were very distinct "boundaries" and those boundaries are now "blurred" by technologies such as fiber optics. The communities telecommunications' needs are in all likelihood much greater than they were during the initial franchise granting. O'Connell stated that the Commission needs to think about what their role is and what it will be in the future. Creighton then stated that the Commission should consider the possibility that if it does not have a fairly sophisticated documentation on what the community's telecommunications needs are, or they decide to take Ryan Schroeder's approach and see what the other cable commission's proposal look like, then the Commission should no longer be the first cable service territory to renew. The Commission get see what is be proposed to other commissions when they're franchise expires first. Creighton informed the commission that it had until late November or early December to look at the renewal options and that the Commission needs to set up a sophisticated system to meet everyone's needs. O~Connell is looking forward to working with Bill Middlefeldt and his students from Anoka High School. Middlefeldt's "2010" group could