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HomeMy WebLinkAboutR-82-0303CM/ah/rr (4/l/82) M RESOLUTION NO. 82 2 {! `; A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING AN INDEPENDENT NONPROFIT COMMUNITY ACCESS CORPORATION TO BE KNOWN AS THE "MIAMI CABLE ACCESS CORPORATION" ("MCAC") TO MANAGE AND ALLO- CATE THE USE OF THE NONMUNICIPAL PUBLIC TELEVISION SYSTEM; PROVIDING FOR INITIAL APPOINTMENT OF A FIVE (5) MEMBER BOARD COMPOSED OF INDIVIDUALS REPRESENTING CERTAIN DESIGNATED INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING WHO SHALL CONSIDER THE MINORITY, ETHNIC AND COMMUNITY NEEDS OF THE CITY OF MIAMI AND UNDERSTAND THE VALUE THAT CABLE COMMUNICATIONS CAN BE TO THE CIVIC, CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL GROWTh OF THE COMMUNITY; FURTHER PROVIDING THAT THE MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, WHEN APPOINTED, SHALL SERVE WITHOUT COMPENSATION AND SHALL MEET FOR THE PUR- POSE OF HIRING A CONSULTANT TO ASSIST IN PREPARING ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION AND BY-LAWS FOR MCAC AS OUTLINED IN THE ATTACHED MEMORANDUM FROM THE CITY MANAGER DATED MARCH 19, 1982; FURTHER PROVIDING THAT THE BOARD SHALL PREPARE A REPORT AND TIMETABLE TO THE CITY MANAGER AND THE CITY COMMISSION RECOMMENDING THE ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION AND BY-LAWS FOR APPROVAL PRIOR TO THE FORMAL INCORPORATION OF MCAC UNDER STATE LAW; PROVIDING FOR AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS TO SERVE ON THE BOARD PRIOR TO APPROVAL OF THE ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION; FURTHER ALLOCATING FUNDS THEREFOR NOT TO EXCEED $50,000 FROM THE MIAMI CABLE ACCESS REVENUE FUND WHICH IS TO BE FUNDED FROM ANTICI- PATED REVENUES FROM THE CABLE LICENSEE AS SET FORTH IN SECTION 403(b) OF THE CABLE TELEVISION LICENSE ORDI- NANCE NO. 9331, ADOPTED OCTOBER 19, 1982. WHEREAS, the City Commission on October 19, 1981 adopted Ordinance Number 9332 entitled: "Miami Tele-Communications, Inc. and Americable of Greater Miami Ltd. Nonexclusive Cable Television System License Ordinance", hereinafter called "Cable Television License Ordinance"; and WHEREAS, Section 402(b) of the Cable Television License Ordinance requires that the "City Commission shall establish an independent access corporation to be known as "Miami Cable Access Corporation" ("MCAC") to manage and allocate the use of nonmunicipal public access chan-els of the system; and WHEREAS, said ordinance provides that the MCAC Board of Directors shall include a broad representation of the City's educational, cultural, ethnic, minority, community and business organizations; and WHEREAS, MCAC shall be responsible for the programming of said nonmunicipal cable television channels to serve the communication needs of the City of Miami; and CITY COMMISSION MEETING OF APR t :;;22 in immm ............................ 3 f 0* WHEREAS, the first step in achieving this goal is the appointment of a five (5) member Board who will be respon- sible for the preparation of the Articles of Incorporation and By -Laws; and WHEREAS, upon approval of the City Manager, the City Attorney, and the City Commission, said Article of Incor- poration and By -Laws shall be filed and MCAC can be chartered as a corporation not -for -profit under the Laws of Florida; and WHEREAS, the initial funding to prepare said Articles of Incorporation and By -Laws shall be provided from a portion of the $200,000 start-up fee which shall be paid by the cable licensee within thirty (30) days of the incorporation as required by Section 4O3(b) of the Cable Television License Ordinance; and WHEREAS, said Articles of Incoporation and By -Laws shall provide for a permanent Board of Directors made up of fifteen (15) individuals to be appointed by the City Commission; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF MIAMI, FLORIDA: Section 1. The City Commission hereby establishes an independent nonprofit community access corporation to be known as the "Miami Cable Access Corporation" ("MCAC") to manage and allocate the use of the nonmunicipal public access channels of the City of Miami's cable television system. The initial Board of Directors of MCAC shall be comprised of five (5) individuals as follows: the President or Vice -President or Chairman of the Board or Members of the Board of each of the following institu- tions of higher learning: Barry University, Biscayne College, Florida International University, Florida Memorial College and the University of Miami, who shall consider the minority, ethnic, community needs of the City of Miami and understand the value that cable communications can be to the civic, cultural and - educational growth of the community. Section 2. The five (5) initial members of the Board, when appointed, shall serve without compensation and shall meet for 82-303 t r the purpose of hiring a consultant to assist in preparing Articles of Incorporation and By -Laws for MCAC as outlined in the attached memorandum from the City Manager dated March 17, 1982. The Board shall prepare a report and timetable for submission to the City Manager and the City Commission recommending the Articles of Incorporation and By -Laws for approval prior to the formal incor- poration of MCAC under State Law. Section 3. Funds not to exceed $50,000 for achieving the requirements of this resolution are hereby allocated from the Miami Cable Access Revenue Fund which is to be funded from anti- cipated revenues to be received from the cable licensee in the form of a start-up fee as required by Section 403(b) of the Cable Television License Ordinance No. 9332 adopted October 19, 1982. Section 4. The aforesaid five (5) Board members shall con- stitute the initial Board of Directors which Board shall be expanded to a total of fifteen (15) members who shall be appointed by the City Commission prior to its final approval of the Articles of Incorporation. Section 5. The remaining ten (10) Board members will be representative of the tri-ethnic composition of the City of Miami witheach City Commissioner nominating two (2) such members for appointment by the City Commission. PASSED AND ADOPTED this 1st day of April_ -, 1982. _ Maurice A. Ferre M A Y O R TEST: RAL G. ONGIE, CITY CLERK PREPARED AND APPROVED BY: g. ROBERT F. CLARK DEPUTY CITY ATTORNEY APP ADV.-ED AS 0 FORM AND CORRECTNESS: I -3- 8 2 - .90 9 ' CITY OF MIAMI. FLORIDA INTER -OFFICE MEMORANDUM To The Honorable Mayor and Members DATE March 17, 1982 FILE. of the "City Commission S 1L7r JE:T Structure and Timetable for the 7 Establishment of an Independent Nonprofit Community Access Corporation Howard V. Gary PCrERC'.CES City Manager ENCLCS'..RCS. Introduction and Summary This memorandum is submitted for your consideration pursuant to Section 402(c) of the City's cable television ordinance, Ordinance No. 9332 ("the Ordinance"), which requires the City tianager to present a recommendation to the City Commission as to the structure and timetable for establishment of an independent nonprofit community access corporation to be known as the Miami Cable Access Corporation ("MCAC"). In summary, my recommendations are as follows: 1. As soon as practicable, the City Commission should advertise for the appointment of five (5) individuals, with appropriate backgrounds and an interest in public service, who will function as the incorporators and initial Board of Directors of the MCAC. 2. These persons should then select and retain independent counsel for the MCAC, who, in consultation with the City Attorney and the City Manager, would draft appropriate Articles of Incorporation and By- laws for the corporation and ensure that the corporation is estab- lished in accordance with all applicable legal requirements. Fund- ing for these activities would be an appropriate expenditure of a portion of the S200,000 start-up funds to be contributed by the cable licensee within thirty (30) days of the MCAC's incorporation, pursuant to Section 403(b) of the Ordinance. 3. Thereafter, consistent with the Articles of Incorporation and By- laws prepared by this initial working group, the City Commission should appoint fifteen to twenty (15-20) persons, in such manner as it determines to be appropriate, to constitute the permanent Board of Directors of the MCAC, including therein a broad repre- sentaton of the City's educational, cultural, ethnic, minority, community and business organizations. 4. The City Manager should be authorized to enter into a formal written agreement between the City and the MCAC, in a form to be agreed upon by the City Attorney,•t;le City Manager and counsel for the MCAC, setting forth the responsibilities and duties of the HCAC in consideration for the City's funding of the MCAC 82-303 Mayor and Members of the C Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 2 March 17, 1982 and for the allocation of channels to it in accordance with the Ordinance. These recommendations, as more fully explained herein, reflect my consideration and evaluation of information and perspectives that have been obtained from a variety of sources. Members of my staff and I have personally contacted, both formally and in- formally, concerned citizens of Pliami with respect to these issues. We have also sought and obtained information from other municipalities which have had experiences with similar organizations in their communities, and have consulted with the City's Special Counsel, Arnold & Porter, in this regard. Finally, the subjects of public access and the relationship between the cable licensee and the MCAC have been dis- cussed in detail with representatives of both Miami Tele-Communications, Inc. and Americable of Greater Miami Ltd. --most recently in connection with my responsibil- ities under Section 403(a) of the Ordinance to determine whether to approve a plan and budget submitted by the licerSee showing what specific access services, facil- ities and equipment the cable companies will provide and hew they will allocate their financial commitment to public access among various activities and objectives. I. Background A. Section 402(b) of the Ordinance states that the City Commission shall establish the MCAC as "an independent nonprofit community access corpo- ration" to engage in certain specified activities: 1. to manage and allocate the use of the non -municipal public access channels on the cable television system in the City; 2. to support efforts by public and community groups to use the cable system's access services; 3. to develop and produce local programming; and 4. to raise funds to support the purposes and objectives of the corporation. B. Beyond this, the Ordinance contains a limited number of provisions that expressly address the appropriate structure of the access corporation or the nature of its relationships with the City and with the cable licensee: 1. The MCAC's Board of Directors must include broad reprEsentation of the City's educational, cultural, ethnic, minority, community and business organizations (Section 402(b)). 2. The City Manager from time to time shall allocaQ channels to be placed under the control of the MCAC (Section 401(a)).— 1/ Under the Ordinance, the licensee must supply a minimum of 20 channels in the subscriber system without charge, for the purpose of transmitting programming by the public, City departments and agencies, institutions and similar organizations . These channels in this category that are not allocated to the MCAC are to be dedicated to municipal uses and placed under the City Manager's jurisdiction (Section 401(a)). � 1 Mayor and I'lembers of the City Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 3 March 17, 1982 a 3. Under the Ordinance, the City reserves the right to establish rules and regulations governing the use of access channel time and facilities, to ensure that access services are available on a non- discriminatory basis, and that any rates charged for such services .by the MCAC are nondiscriminatory and reasonable (Section 402(f)). 4. The City must conduct an annual audit of the books and records of the MCAC, the results of which are to be made publicly available (Section 402(g)). 5. The cable licensee may not prohibit or limit any program or class or type of program presented over any access channel (Section 402(f)). 6.. Within nine months of its incorporation, the MCAC must submit to the City Manager for approval a three-year plan for the management, opera- tion and use of the cable system's access services, together with a report assessing the public, institutional and community needs the system's access services should serve (Section 402(d)). . 7. Thereafter, at least three months before the close of the City's fiscal year, the MCAC must submit to the City Manager an itemized budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which will indicate the amount of direct financial support, if any, the MCAC is requesting from the City (Section 402(e)). 8. In addition to such funds as it may be able to raise independently, 2/ the MCIAC will receive certain direct and indirect financial support as provided in the Ordinance. a. First, for the first five years after the establishment of the MCAC, the City must contribute to it annually not less than 20., of the contributions the City receives from the cable licensee pursuant to Section 405 of the Ordinance, or $200,000, whichever is greater (Section 405(a)).3/ The City may make additional contributions as it deers appropriate. b. Second, the cable licensee must commit, during the term of the license, at least $2 million for the purpose of providing facil- ities and equipment and at least $1 million for an annual opera- ting budget starting in the third year after the effective date of the Ordinance. These funds are to be expended by the cable 2/ Under the Ordinance, the MCAC will have the power to impose reasonable charges on classes of users, if it determines that such charges are appropriate, and to expend funds so obtained for any proper purpose in support of its operations (Section 402(f)). Additionally, the Ordinance contemplates that the MCAC will raise funds by seeking available grants, public contributions or other similar sources of funding. 3/ Pursuant to Section 405, the licensee is to make annual contributions in the amount of 3=: of the licensee's gross revenues, or $600,000, whichever is greater. These c^ntributions are in addition to the amounts paid as license fees to the City pursuant to Section 901 of the Ordinance. 6 Mayor and Members MCAC-Structure and page 4 March 17, 1982 of the City Commission Timetable licensee, in consultation with the MCAC, for such purposes as es'tablishing,equipping and maintaining access programming and editing facilities and mobile units; hiring staff to operate access services and facilities; developing and implementing training to provide local community groups with the skills neces- sary for access programming production; and related purposes (Section 403(a)). c. Third, the cable licensee is to.make a direct cash payment in the form of an initial start-up contribution to the MCAC in the amount of $200,000, within 30 days after incorporation of the access corporation (Section 403(b)). II. Recommended Objectives for the City in Establishing an Independent Access Organization A. Experiences in other cities suggest that, for public access to function prop- erly, the existence of channel capacity alone is not enough. Effective public access requires a local catalyst --separate and apart from the local government -- which will facilitate and enhance the use of the access channels on the cable television system by interested members of the public and by others who, with exposure and adequate information and training, will quickly become interested. These may include not only individuals, but also health services and educa- tional institutions and public interest groups that may want to develop the capacity to produce a wide variety of informative and useful programming for transmission on the access channels in the subscriber system. B. In this manner, the cable system's large channel capacity can provide a unique opportunity for the use of television as a communications medium throughout the community. By coordinating and focusing this activity through an inde- pendent, nonprofit corporation, the right of individual self-expression can be retained while, at the same time, creating both the opportunity for tech- nical guidance and direction and a mechanism for the impartial allocation of channel time and production resources. C. In this connection, it is my recommendation that, at a minimum., the MCAC be expected to accept the following responsibilities and to undertake the follow- ing activities, in addition to such other activities in which it may determine to engage, consistent with its purpose and goals: 1. The MCAC should assume primary responsibility for informing members of the public of the services and facilities that are available to them: This might include, for example, holding informational work- shops and the issuance of regular publications listing the programs scheduled to appear on the access channels and describing the various services and funding opportunities available through the MCAC. 2. The MCAC should coordinate efforts by the cable licensee to train 0 Mayor and Members of the City Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 5 Harch 17, 1982 members of the public in the use of the system: specifically, the MCAC should work with technical personnel from the cable companies located at each access studio to assist in the encouragement, pro- motion and facilitation of community involvement through various means, and to target work-study educational programs for area educational institutions. 3. The MCAC should assist the licensee in its community assessment activities in connection with the Licensee's own local origination programming. 4. The 1ICAC should develop and administer rules regarding the use of access facilities and equipment and schedule programming. 5. The MCAC should obtain and make available any necessary production equipment and supplies that are not provided by the licensee, and, in conjunction with the City's cable regulatory activities, monitor the licensee's compliance with its oblibation to maintain, upgrade and replace facilities and equipment. 6. The MCAC should provide a mechanism for addressing consumer complaints regarding access services. 7. The MCAC should develop, experiment with, and implement innovative programming and services that may expand the uses for institutional and public access, and may, to the extent its budget permits, engage in the funding through grants or otherwise of projects of this nature by other qualified entities or individuals. 8. The MCAC should develop a long-term fundraising plan, so that it will not be totally reliant in the long term upon the City's contributions to fund all of its activities. The establishment of a successful, broad -based independent access corporation of the type contemplated by the Ordinance should provide Miami with an opportunity to use the resources of its cable television system for a public benefit. It is with this expectation that I make the following recommendations as to the structure and time- table for establishment of the MCAC pursuant to Section 402(c) of the Ordinance. III. Recommendations for Implementation A. Organization and Structure of the MCAC 1. Pursuant to the Florida Not For Profit Corporation Law (Florida Statutes Annotated Sec. 617.01 et seq.), the MCAC may be organized as a perpetual not for profit corporation by as few as three (3) persons, acting as the incorporators of the organization, who could also serve as the initial Board of Directors. To facilitate the prompt incorporation of the MrAC, which I believe to be desirable 82-303 I Mayor and Members of the City Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 6 March 17, 1982 for the reasons set forth in Part C of this section, I recommend that the City Commission promptly appoint, in such manner as it determines to be appropriate, five (5) persons with appropriate backgrounds and experience and an interest in public service of this nature, to function in this capacity. 2. Once these persons are selected, they should select and retain independent counsel for the HCAC, who, in consultation with the City Attorney and the City Manager,.should draft appropriate Articles of Incorporation and Bylav:s for the corporation and ensure that the corporation is established in accordance with all applicable requirements of the Florida Not For Profit Corporation Law and that tax-exempt status is promptly soughtfor the organi- zation. Funding for these activities would be an appropriate expenditure of a portion of the start-up funds to be contributed by the cable licensee within thirty days of the MCAC's incor- poration, pursuant to Section 403(b) of the Ordinance. 3. In addition to such other provisions as the City Attorney and the City Flanager may recommend in consultation with counsel for the MCAC, the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws should specifically provide that the City Commission shall be responsible for the appoint- ment and replacement of directors of the MCAC, that only persons so appointed to serve on the Board of Directors shall be members of the corporation, and that the directors shall have staggered terms. The Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws should also provide that any amendments thereto must be approved by the City P-anager and that the City Manager may propose amendments thereto for considera- tion and possible adoption by the Board of Directors. 4. Thereafter, consistent with the Articles of Incorporation and Byla�-rs prepared by this small initial working group, I recommend that the City Commission appoint a significantly larger number of persons to serve on the 11CAC's Board of Directors. Experiences in other cities and with other organizations of a similar nature suggest that the optimal size for a board of directors may be approximately fifteen to twenty (15-20) persons. Appointment of a group of this size to constitute the permanent Board of Directors of the MCAC would also facilitate compliance with the requirement in the Ordinance that the Board of Directors include broad representation of the City's educa- tional, cultural, ethnic, minority, community and business organiza- tions. Thus, following the MCAC's incorporation, I recommend that the City Commission appoint fifteen to twenty (15-20) persons, in such manner as the Commission determines to be appropriate, to con- stitute the permanent Board of Directors of the MCAC. 5. Based upon research and discussions with various persons, it does not appear that any one method of selection merits recommendation over any other. The City Commission may wish to designate fifteen to twenty (15-20) distinguished citizens from various back:t ounds, Mayor and Members of the ry Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 7 March 17, 1982 *to serve in this capacity, based upon its knowledge of persons who would be available for and interested in such service. 4/ Alterna- tively, the City Commission might publicly solicit volunteers and reconriendations of persons for such service. The City Commission might also consider applications from existing groups, who might seek appointment with the understanding that, to comply with the Ordinance, their membership would have to satisfy the requisite standards of broad community representation. I also recommend that the members of the Board of Directors be appointed to serve without compensation. Membership on the Board of Directors of the IICAC should be regarded as recognition of an individual's standing in the community and as an opportunity for public service. 6. When appointing members of the Board of Directors of the MCAC, to avoid internal conflicts the City Commission should consider, in its selection process, minimizing the participation by persons who may be expected to be the principal users of the access ser- vices. While it may be desirable to involve the key potential users in some aspects of the activities of the MCAC, their domi- nation of the organization could have an undesirable result. Like- wise, the substantial contributions to and interest in the City of Miami on behalf of many persons who do not reside in the City leads me to recommend that a limited number of members on the Board of Directors could be non -City residents, if such participation was clearly in the best interest of the City. At the same time, the clear majority of the Board, in my judgment, should be City residents. 7. Some cities have established special neighborhood advisory councils to facilitate the incorporation of the public access corporation. While public access in Miami and Dade County has not yet developed broad community based leadership and support, it can be anticipated that citizen activities will result from the opportunities available in Miami. Such local advisory councils could be helpful in develop- ing community interest and knowledge of public access programming as well as providing a group from which future MCAC board members could be selected. 8. I recommend that the permanent Board of Directors, upon its appoint- ment, should then be responsible, in accordance with the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws of the MCAC, for the selection and employment of a full-time executive director or comparable opera- ting officer, who shall have primary administrative responsibility for the corporation and for hiring additional technical or support staff as required. 4/ Consistent with the requirement in the Ordinance that the Board of Directors include a broad representation, including the City's business organizations, it does seem important that the Board include a number of persons with significant business experience. Mayor and Vembers of the C!,y Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 8 March 17, 1982 B. Relationships Between the MCAC and the City and the Licensee 1. There should be a formal written agreement between the City and the MCAC, in a form to be agreed upon by the City Attorney, the City Manager and counsel for the MCAC, setting forth, at a minimum, the responsibilities and duties of the MCAC, as articulated in this memo- randum, in consideration for the City's funding of the MCAC and for the allocation of channels to it in accordance with Section 401(a) of the Ordinance. Preferably, the terms of such an agreement should be worked out in advance of the incorporation of the MCAC. The Articles of Incorporation for the MCAC could then recite that a principal purpose of the MCAC, upon its formation, will be to enter into this agreement, in the form attached as an exhibit to the Articles of Incorporation. 2. The Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws of the MCAC, as well as its agreement with the City, should specify that the MCAC shall have the duty and responsibility in the first instance to establish rules and regulations governing the use of access channel time and facilities, to ensure that access services are available on a nondiscriminatory basis, and that rates charged for such services are nondiscriminatory and reasonable. Consistent with its powers and responsibilities under Section 402(f) of the Ordinance, however, the City should retain a right of oversight with respect to such rules and regulations. 3. In addition to the fifteen to twenty (15-20) positions on the Board of Directors to be filled by the City Commission, two representatives of the cable licensee should be represented on the Board because of the close coordination that will be necessary between the MCAC and the licensee, and because of the experience that such representatives can bring to the Board. 4. The MCAC should have broad discretion with respect to programming decisions and the day-to-day administration of the access channels on the cable system. However, the City itself has a natural interest in the success and productiveness of the organization. The Ordinance contemplates or expressly provides for six interrelated mechanisms by which the City may make a flexible contribution toward the long- term direction of the MCAC as follows: a. The power of the City Commission to appoint the members of the MCAC's Board of Directors and their successors. b. The power of the City to approve the MCAC's Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws and any amendments thereto. c. The explicit reservation in Section 402(f) of the Ordinance of the City's right of oversight with respect to rules and regulations governing the use of access channel time and facilities. Ip Mayor and 'embers of the L i ty Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetable page 9 March 17, 1982 d. The discretion aranted to the City Manager pursuant to Section 401(a) of the Ordinance as to the number of channels on the cable system that shall be from tire to time allocated to the MCAC. e. The City's discretion, pursuant to Section 405(a) of the Ordinance, whether to grant the MCAC funding in excess of the minimum amount specified in the Ordinance during the initial five-year period, or to grant any amounts of fund- ing thereafter. f. The power of the City management to enter into a contractual agreement with the MCAC, upon its incorporation, setting forth, as a condition to the allocation of channels on the system, the responsibilities and obligations provided for in the Ordinance and such related conditions and responsibilities as may be deemed appropriate. Because of these responsibilities there is a need for a direct liaison between the City administration, the MCAC and the cable licensee. Also the Cable Communications Agency will be responsible for programming a government information channel and a cooperative effort will be needed between the MCAC and the cable licensee to assure the efficient and effective use of the allocated cable channels. I,therefore,recommend that at least one additional member of the board be designated by the City Manager to serve as a liaison between the MCAC and the Cable Corgi-',uni ca ti ons Agency. C. Timino for Establishment of the 11CAC 1. Pursuant to Section 402(d) of the Ordinance, the MCAC must submit to the City Manager for approval, within nine months of its incorporation, a three-year plan for the management, operation and use of the cable system's access services, together with a report assessing the public, institutional and community needs the system's access services should serve. Allowing a reasonable time for selection by the City Commission of the incorporators and initial Board of Directors of the MCAC and completion of the necessary legal work to effect incorporation, it is possible that this plan may not be completed in a year, even if this process were to commence immediately. Based upon the proposed construction schedule submitted by the cable licensee, a substantial portion of the system should 5e completed and operational in major portions of the City within that time. The Ordinance requires that the entire system be completed within three years after its effective date: that is, slightly more than two and one half years from now. The cable licensee has indicated an expectation of corlpleting the system su5stantially in advance of the schedule mandated by the Ordinance. During the first year pre- liminary educational and training activities in the community will t V 2 - eJ O t7 Mayor and Members of the Ct'"*,A Commission MCAC-Structure and Timetabi- ' page 10 March 17, 1982 be required to make public access work effectively. There will also be opportunities to produce Miami community programming for broadcast on the Public Education Channel (WLRN-TV) as well as the Miami public access channels. 3. Additionally, the cable licensee has expressed a willingness to cooperate with and accept a reasonable level of guidance from the MCAC with respect to the manner in which it commits $2 million in funding, as required by Section 403(a) of the Ordinance, for access facilities and equipment and the additional $1 million funding beginning in the third year as required by the Ordinance for an operating budget. However, such guidance and direction from the MCAC obviously cannot be supplied until that organization is formed, has hired staff, and has commenced, if not completed, the preliminary plan for management and utilization of the system's access capacity, as required by Section 402(d). For all of these reasons,I recommend that the City Commission promptly select five (5) individuals to serve as the incorporators and initial Board of Directors of the MCAC, with the direction that such persons, in accordance with the other recommendations contained herein, effect the incorporation of the hiCAC without delay. 4P 13' t Howard V. Gary_ City Manager lark ate rill Assistant to the City Manager Intergovernmental Affairs March 23, 1982 Establishment of the 'LIiami Cable Access Corporation (MCAC) = Resolution Memo from H. Gary to Commission-3/ 17 /8. "I recommend that the attached resolution estab- lishing the Miami Cable Access Corporation (MCAC) be presented to the City Commission for their approval." On October 19, 1981 the City Commission adopted the Cable License Ordinance No. 9332 which requires the establishment of an independent community access corporation to be established under the not -for -profit corporation laws of the State of Florida. The formation of a small group of citizens to workout the technical details of pre- paring the Articles of Incorporation is an important step in achieving the require- ments of this ordinance. Because of the value that the public access channels can be to this community, it is equally important that this part of the process be done properly. The resolution provides for a consultant to assist the five (5) member panel in developing the Articles of Incorporation. While it is important this task be accomplished with legal assistance, it should not preclude the use of professional help from consultants who have been working directly with this phase of cable devel- opment in other parts of the country. The appointed panel should have a bread range of choices since the field of expertise is so limited. There are several larger cities, nationally, that are using the independent nonprofit corporation to accom- plish community public access programming. Miami has the potential of developing a model access corporation that will serve this community for years to come provided that each step taken to realize this goal is completed carefully. Since this is a new area where not too many local people have an understanding of cable television public access programming, the Commission may wish to advertise for citizens to express their interest in ,participating on the board. . The estimated cost of this phase of the cable access project would be funded from a one time start-up fee of $200,000 from the Licensee as required by the cable license ordinance (Section 403(b)). These funds are paid to the *ICAC within thirty (30) days of the incorporation. C'1/ah I*82-:1n'. I