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HomeMy WebLinkAbout[08b] Cable PolicyMEETING DATE: AGENDA ITEM: SUBMITTED BY: Council Agenda Item gb March 20, 2014 Cable Policy Administration BOARD /COMMISSION /COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION: PREVIOUS COUNCIL ACTION: In 1998 the City established a Cable Commission and started broadcasting meetings. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: There has been some discussion over whether or not the Cable Policy is being followed. Since 1998 the Council at different times has made motions with regard to which meetings would be broadcast. By motion the Council agreed to televise the regular meetings of the City Council and Planning Commission and all budget meetings. To help clarify the policy, it has been updated and reflects the current practices. BUDGET /FISCAL IMPACT: ATTACHMENTS: Request for Council Action 1998 Community Access Policy 2014 Community Access Policy REQUESTED COUNCIL ACTION: Consider adopting the revised Community Access Policy to reflect the current practice of the City, based on formation actions by the City Council. CITY OF ST. JOSEPH CABLE COMMISSION COMMUNITY ACCESS CHANNEL RULES AND REGULATIONS The Community Access Channel is available to provide public, governmental and . educational information to the community subscribers. The primary function is to serve a communication need to our community. Broadcasting will be provided for communication of issues, activities, and events that impact the lives of our citizens. Additionally as time permits public broadcasting may be allowed. A. The City of St. Joseph governmental programming shall take precedence. All City Council meetings and sub committee meetings will be broadcast live and at least one additional time within 5 days following the meeting. B. The following shall be the order of precedence in allocating channel time: City Meetings: All Public Hearings City Council Planning Commission EDA Board Park Board Cable Commission Other local government meetings. 2. Other City governmental broadcasting. 3. Educational programming 4. Community Events - In case of a conflict in scheduling the cable Commission will establish priority. 5. Programming produced by citizens of the local community. 6. Programming produced locally by persons or organizations from outside the St. Joseph Community. 7. Non - locally produced programming. A program -will be considered non -local if less than 50% of the content is produced locally, or if the program is not prefaced or followed by a locally - produced segment equal to 50% or more of its length. C. The Cable Commission shall function as the Regulating Board for Cable Access Channel matters. D. The City Council shall determine the retention time for tapes of public meetings. E. The actual costs associated with posting notices on the bulletin board and broadcasting of tapes may be charged to those requesting the broadcasting. PROGRAM CONTENT AND OWNERSHIP A. The community access channel is not to be used to advertise or promote the sale of products or services, including advertising for or endorsement of candidates for public office. Description or praise of a product, service or business which encourages purchase is not permitted. Intentionally showing business or product names, logos, and other symbols specifically for advertising or promotion is prohibited. B. Community producers may, however, seek funding for or sponsorship of their programs from private and /or public sources. Such funding or sponsorship is limited to $200, including in -kind donations, for a single program or $500, including in -kind donations, for a series. Credit to funding sources may only be given at the beginning and ending of the program and may say only that assistance or support was provided by the funding source. A character - generated name or logo may appear, but no address, telephone numbers, or pictures of the business or its location may be used. Audio is limited to.. "This program is brought to you in part by (name of sponsor)." No information regarding services may be allowed. C. No obscene nor indecent material will be cablecast. The U.S. Supreme Court has set forth the following standard for determining whether material is obscene: 1. The material or program which "taken as a whole" by the "average person" applying contemporary community standards appeals to the prurient interest in sex, protrays sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. 2. The Supreme Court has stated that prurient may be constitutionally defined for the purpose of identifying obscenity as 'that which appeals to a shameful or morbid interest in sex." D. Neither lotteries nor lottery information will be cablecast. E. The channel will not be used to slander or libel any individual or group F. Although "broadcast standards" will not be used in considering programs for cablecast, the following technical standards will be applied: Video quality Audio quality G. The above notwithstanding, the Cable Commission will not edit, or alter in any way, the content of any program submitted to it for cablecast. Any editing that is required in order to comply with these rules must be done by the community producer. H. The community producer is responsible for obtaining all clearances from the owner for use of any copyrighted or protected material, including music licensing organization, program distributors and any other persons necessary to authorize transmission of program material on the access channel. Likewise, the community producer is responsible for securing all talent releases and must be able to document the cablecasting of the program does not violate the rights of a third party. The community producer agrees to assume full responsibility for any and all disputes arising from unauthorized use of copyrighted material and agrees to hold harmless in such disputes the St. Joseph Cable Commission, the City of St. Joseph, the cable company serving them, and their affiliates, officers, agents and employees. I. The producer is responsible for reimbursing the City for the actual production costs for any programs sold, that are produced with publicly owned equipment. J. The Cable Commission is not responsible for loss of program content due to damaged or lost tape. We will, however, replace the damaged tape. K. The Cable Commission retains ownership of the content of any program produced with publicly owned equipment. If the Cable Commission has supplied the tape for the master of the program, the Cable Commission retains ownership of the master tape and reserves the right to cablecast any program produced using its equipment and facilities any number of times on any of its channels. The Cable Commission may also, at its discretion, erase a program on its video -tape in order to recycle a videotape or if the material is no longer timely. SCHEDULING OF PROGRAMMING A. A REQUEST FOR CABLECAST /STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE FORM must be signed for all programs to be scheduled for cablecasting. B. Channel time may be requested up to a month in advance. Live programs require a minimum of two week's notice with City costs for staff time paid in advance. C. The Cable Commission will attempt to satisfy requests for the cablecast of programs at specific times on specific dates, depending on the availability of equipment and channel time. The Cable Commission reserves the right, however, to schedule programs at the discretion of the Staff. D. The use in a monopolistic manner by one or a few selected groups or individuals is not deemed to be in the public interest, nor is the domination of one type of programming over another. Channel use limitations may be applied in cases where the public interest in diversity of programming is not being maintained. E. Regularly scheduled series time slots may be allocated at the discretion of Cable Commission staff. Series will be scheduled for a maximum of 13 weeks, after which the community producer must submit another REQUEST FOR CABLECAST/STATEMENT- OF COMPLIANCE FORM. If a series producer fails to submit new programs for more than two consecutive scheduling cycles, the remaining portion of the series may be reassigned at the discretion of the staff. - F. With the exception of live programs and series, no program will be scheduled until it has been completed. Exceptions may also be made when the timeliness of a program is essential. A request for waiver of this requirement should be made at least one week in advance. G. Any program produced with Cable Commission equipment or facilities or produced locally will be scheduled once for cablecast. Additional cablecasts may be scheduled at the discretion of staff and based on the availability of channel time. I. The following guidelines will be used in scheduling non - locally produced programming: 1. The amount of non - locally produced programming shall not exceed 5% of the total number of hours the public access channel is programmed per week. 2. If the program submitted for playback was not produced locally, then the program must have a sponsor who is either a resident or member of a local community organization. This sponsor must hand - deliver the program, complete the REQUEST FOR CABLECAST /STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE FORM and edit the following message at the beginning and end of the program: "The following program was produced outside the St. Joseph area but is being presented courtesy of (Sponsor's name) (Address) " 3. Such requests will be filled on a first -come, first- served basis. 4. If scheduling allows, a non -local program may be cable -cast twice during any weekly period. Programs or single episodes in a series will not be scheduled for cablecast more than twice a month. 5. Informational programs produced by public agencies may be exempted from these guidelines. J. All programs submitted for cablecast must be clearly labeled on the tape and the case with the name of the program; the exact length (in hours, minutes and seconds); the name, address and telephone number of the person requesting cablecast;.and any special instructions. In addition, the person requesting cablecast is responsible for securing all clearances and releases for the program. The clearances and releases must be in writing and must be presented at the time the tape is submitted. K. The community producer and /or sponsor is responsible for picking up any programs not produced on Cable Commission videotape. If the program is not picked up within two weeks of being notified of their availability, City staff may dispose of or recycle the videotape at their discretion. Adopted by the City Council for the City of St. Joseph this 5th day November, 1998. Rachel Stapleto Clerk/Administrator ATTACHMENTS: MODEL RELEASE REQUEST FOR CABLECAST /STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE Revised 10-14-98 City of St. Joseph Cable Commission Guidelines STATEMENT OF PURPOSE As part of the agreements with television providers, such as Charter and Mid Continent, the City of Joseph operates a community access channel. To help oversee the operations, the City Council has established a Cable Commission who is responsible to oversee the programming of the community access channel. FUNCTIONS OF THE COMMISSION A. To foster the development of Community Programming of interest to residents of the City of St. Joseph. • The primary function is to serve a communication need to the St. Joseph Community. • Broadcasting will be provided for communication of issues, activities and events that impact the lives of the citizens of St. Joseph. • As time permits public broadcasting may be allowed. B. To promote usage and viewership of the Community Access Channel. • To create maximum interest in local events, people, place and issues via the community access channel. • To assess, review and make recommendations regarding the adequacy of the community access equipment and facilities. • Annually review the inventory of the cable access equipment. C. To televise City meetings as established by the City Council which shall take precedence over other programming. • The Cable Commission shall televise the regular Council meetings each month, 1St and 3rd Thursday as well as rebroadcast the meeting at least once within five (5) days of the meeting. • The Cable Commission shall televise all budget meetings as established by the City Council as well as rebroadcast the meeting at least once within five (5) days of the meeting. • The Cable Commission shall televise all regular meetings of the Planning Commission, 1St Monday of each month, as well as rebroadcast the meeting at least once within five (5) days of the meeting. • The Cable Commission shall broadcast other meetings as requested by the full City Council. D. To provide annual budgetary data. • The Cable Commission shall monitor the PEG Access fee collected by the City and prepare a five year capital improvement plan to allow the equipment and facilities to be updated and maintained. • The Cable Commission shall annually prepare an operating budget which shall be provided to the Administrator by July 31 of each calendar year. PROGRAMMING A. Precedence: The St. Joseph Cable Commission reserves the right to review, reject and schedule all programs submitted for broadcasting on the Community Access Channel. In determining precedence in allocating channel time the following shall apply in the order as stated: • City Meetings • Other Governmental broadcasting • Education programming • Community Events • Programming produced by citizens of the local community • Programming produced locally by persons or organization from outside the St. Joseph Community. B. Program Content and Ownership • The Community Access Channel is not be used to advertise or promote the endorsement of candidates for public office. No obscene nor indecent material will be cablecast. The U.S. Supreme Court has set forth the following standards for determining whether material is obscene: • The material or program which "taken as a whole" by the "average person" apply contemporary community standards appeals to the prurient interest in sex, portrays sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. • The Supreme Court has stated that prurient may be constitutionally defined for the purpose of identifying obscenity a "that which appeals to a shameful or morbid interest of sex'. • Neither lotteries nor lottery information will be cablecast • The community access channel will not be used to slander or libel any individual or group. • Although "broadcast standards" will not be used in considering programs for cablecast, the following technical standards will be applied: Video and Audio Quaility. • The above notwithstanding, the Cable Commission will not edit, or alter in any way, the content of any program submitted for cablecast. Any editing that is required in order to comply with the programming requirements must be completed by the producer of the video. • The community producer is responsible for obtaining all clearances from the owner for use of any copyrighted or protected material, including music licensing organization, program distributors and any other person(s) necessary authorize transmission of program material on the access channel. All required releases must be submitted with the video. Likewise, the community producer is responsible for securing all talent releases and must be able to document the cablecasting of the program does not violate the rights of a third party. The community producer agrees to assume full responsibility for any and all disputes arising from unauthorized use of copyrighted material and agrees to hold harmless in such disputes the St. Joseph Cable Commission, the City of St. Joseph, the cable company serving them, and their affiliates, officers, agents and employees. The Cable Commission is not responsible for loss of program content due to damaged or lost tape. C. Scheduling of programming • The Cable Commission will attempt to satisfy requests for the cablecast of programs at specific times on specific dates, depending on the availability of equipment and channel time. The Cable Commission reserves the right, however, to schedule programs at the discretion of staff. • All programs submitted for cablecast must be clearly labeled on the DVD with the name of the program, the exact length (hh:mm:ss); the name, address and telephone number of the person requesting cablecast and any special instructions. The person requesting cablecast is responsible for securing all clearance and releases for the program and they must be presented at the time the DVD is submitted. Adopted by the City Council this 201h day of March 2014. Rick Schultz, Mayor ATTEST Judy Weyrens, Administrator