01-28-08 Information and Technology Committee

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1-~-$ -G$ January 28, 2008 Council Information and Technology Committee- Video of Council Meetings 1) WNIT taping -satisfaction with service and price (just need to work out a fund transfer or appropriation in the Council budget to cover the 2008 taping costs---I absorbed the 2007 WNIT bills in Public Works budget to deal with the unplanned drop by Comcast, but we should allocate the 2008 and beyond cost to the user budget) 2) Some Council interest in redoing RFP? I believe we have what we need at a great price and would recommend extending the unit price which WNIT has agreed to for 2008. 3) Interim DVD & web page compressed video of council meetings (credit Brent Cummins in IT) -check it out on Council web page -good audio, decent video of individual Council members speaking on issues, nice titling and subtitle identification of speakers, but wide shots admittedly get grainy with necessary file compression to reduce huge file size. 4) We collect state cable franchise fee of about $ 670,000 per year---same amount as when local franchise authority in South Bend. 5) Funds are deposited in the General Fund which is mostly for public safety support. 6) Comcast dropped Public, Education and Government (PEG) channel studio, video taping & broadcast support in late 2007 citing state preemption of local cable franchise contracts. 7) PEG broadcasting is not a city core competency for South Bend, Mishawaka or Elkhart---there are some better models in Indiana & elsewhere, but timing is not good to start a new city program when property tax reform and local government streamlining may pose significant fiscal issues. Council should provide City service scope input to Mayor, but his policy direction to me has been go cautiously---keep council meeting publicly accessible, but don't encourage PEG expansion of services and related costs at this time. 8) Intention: Looking to keep council meeting accessible while looking at WNIT public television move to downtown South Bend as a strategic opportunity to restore at least community calendar & council meetings to PEG channel---eventually maybe some modest increases in Government & Education programming support through WNIT from those respective budgets. Public access programming may be an outdated approach with Utube and Google video and other Internet outlets surpassing historic cable PEG approach for creative expression that are inherently more cost effective and flexible for niche followings. The City wants to stay out of Public access part with no ability to censor content and potential for offensive material. 9.) Suggestion: Get some publicity that meetings are online. Do media release (perhaps Tom or Mikki can help the Council with this), note in water bill newsletter to public that they can watch Council meetings online through the City web page, etc to get the word out and get feedback on what people think. Regards, Gary