Agenda - Council - 03/27/1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ANDOVER .., ANOKA CHAMPLIN. RAMSEY l~j ~-,. 2015 1st Avenue, Anoka, Minnesota 55303 · 421-6630 CITIES CABLE COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION March 26, 1990 Mayor Reimann and Members of Ramsey City Council: I regret that neither Mark Lundeen nor I ca~ personally attend the Ramsey Council meeting of March 27, 1990. We are both enrolled in an "Amiga" computer graphics course at Minneapolis Community College which starts on the 27th. It is my understanding, an agenda item for the Council meeting is to determine if city staff should continue to assist Quad Cities Community Television in the production of city oriented information programs. Let me provide a review of some of the objectives the Cable Commission has established and hopes to achieve for government programming. Also, explain why city assistance is so vital. One of the most important functions of government programming is to give citizens an opportunity to see their public officials in action. By covering the deliberations of local government officials, we as community producers help return local government to the people. This cannot be accomplished without your cooperation. It is established that city meetings are among the programs with local origins that enjoy a consistent viewership. City council members from all four cities have reported that they are stopped by citizens who have watched the meetings and commented on something that happened during the meeting. Frankly, sometimes it is to mention some technical difficulty of our equipment. However, the primary government program objectives of the Commission's programming entity, Quad Cities Community Television (QCTV-33), are to accomplish the following: · better provide public service information to the citizens of the member cities; · increase awareness of the activities and deliberations of the · legislative and advisory bodies of the member cities; · increase the citizen's knowledge of their cities' various functions; · determine if programming or information distribution between the member cities is viable. In light of the importance of this type of programming, not only did we need to overcome technical problems, but the Commission has spent time clarifying their policies and procedures for handling important and sometimes sensitive government proceedings. Effective city coverage does not start when the cameras are turned on and stop when they are turned off. The information needs to be expanded and explained. This can only be accomplished by people involved in the policy making decisions. In other words, we at QCTV-33 certainly need staff assistance to allow us to expand our ability to transmit unbiased information to the citizens of Ramsey concerning the operation of the city government.