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04/24/2006 - City Council SpecialSPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING APRIL 24, 2006 7:30 P.M. JOINT MEETING WITH THE BURNSVILLE CITY COUNCIL EAGAN ROOM-EAGAN MUNICIPAL CENTER AGENDA I. ROLL CALL AND ADOPTION OF AGENDA II. JOINT MEETING WITH THE BURNSVILLE CITY COUNCIL o Burnsville/Eagan Community Television and Telecommunications Commission o Broadband Discussion o CVB Discussion-Study Possibilities for Closer Working Relationship Between the Burnsville CVB and Eagan CVB III. OTHER BUSINESS IV. VISITORS TO BE HEARD V. ADJOURNMENT City of Eagan demo TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILMEMBERS FROM: CITY ADMINISTRATOR HEDGES DATE: APRIL 21, 2006 SUBJECT: SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOPS FOR MONDAY, APRIL 24 / TUESDAY, APRIL 25 Advisory Commission Appointments Interviews for incumbents applying for Advisory Commission appointments are scheduled for Monday, Apri124, beginning at 5:00 p.m. There are a total of thirteen (13) incumbent applicants. Interviews for the new applicants are scheduled for Tuesday, Apri125, beginning at 5:30 p.m.; there are a total of fifteen (15) new applicants. The vacancies are as follows: APC - 4; APrC - 4; ARC - 4; and BECT - 3. A breakdown of the terms of each of these vacancies is included in your packet. There are four (4) openings for the Gun Club Lake Watershed Management Organization. It has been a past practice that applicants for the WMO have not been interviewed, but appointments are made at the same time as the Advisory Commissions. There are five (5) applicants requesting appointment to the WMO. Their applications are included for your review in the binder containing Advisory Commission applications. Background investigations have been conducted on each new applicant and no concerns have been raised. Also, in keeping with the City Council's desire and direction from last year, the "sample" questions have been reduced so they are not so wordy. There is no requirement for the City Council to use standard questions; they are only available as a resource. Also, last year there was desire by the City Council that a brief summary of each Advisory Commission be included in the City Council's background information. The half page summary was prepared for each of the four (4) Commissions, as well as the Gun Club Lake WMO. Joint Burnsville City Council Meeting/April 24, 7:30 p.m. The format for the Joint Burnsville/Eagan City Council Meeting is informal and is designated as a joint work session. The joint work session will not be on cable and will be held in the Eagan Room. The Burnsville City Council is planning a work session at 6:00 p.m. on Monday to discuss a local option sales tax and will be meeting in our Eagan Room from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. while the City Council is interviewing Advisory Commission candidates. The work shop agenda for the joint Burnsville/Eagan meeting includes a welcome and update on the success of the Eagan and Burnsville Council committee meetings that were held last fall and earlier this year. As a reminder, Teresa Daly and Dan Gustafson are the members of the Burnsville City Council who have met with City Councilmembers Fields and Maguire and the idea for a joint Burnsville/Eagan work session was an out birth of those meetings. The formal subject matters identified for discussion include 1.) the expansion of the Burnsville/Eagan Community Television and policy direction setting parameters on facility location; 2.) the Telecommunication Commission membership; 3.)A discussion regarding broadband; and 4.)A study of establishing a closer working relationship between the Burnsville and Eagan Convention and Visitors Bureaus. Enclosed on pages ~ through ~ is a copy of background information prepared for the item relative to the Burnsville/Eagan Community Television. A second item on the agenda pertains to broadband discussion. Both the cities of Burnsville and Eagan have a contract with Dynamic City to perform a technology study. While the City of Eagan is working with a tech task force to identify more opportunities relative to fiber to the home and Dynamic City is performing an economic impact study on how the City can proceed with its joint investment with District 196 fiber project, the City of Burnsville is looking for opportunities to serve their business and residential communities as well. This meeting will allow both cities to share their stories and opportunities which could lead to some potential cooperation. A third discussion topic is an interest on the part of Burnsville to have the Eagan Convention and Visitors Bureau (ECVB) look at opportunities to merge the Burnsville CVB. The City Administrator has explained to the Burnsville City Manager that this topic has had some discussion by the ECVB Board. That would be an appropriate body to discuss any further consideration for a potential merger. It is the intention of the Burnsville City Councilmembers to at least bring up the topic. Thomas L. Hedges City Administrator a City of Eagan/City of Burnsville Joint City Council Worksession Monday, April 24, 2006 Community Television/Telecommunications Commission Policy Discussions • Expansion of Burnsville/Eagan Community Television and policy direction setting parameters on facility location. • Telecommunications Commission Membership Policy Discussion 1: Should the City Councils consider expanding Burnsville Eagan Community Television to other Dakota County cities? If so, the lease at the current facility expires at the end of 2006. Are there any options the Councils feel strongly that should not be pursued or any that should be strongly pursued? These two items are somewhat related -and could be more closely related -depending on City Council direction provided tonight. • The concept of expanding Burnsville Eagan Community Television is not a new idea. It has been informally discussed by staff for years and multiple meetings at the staff level have been held over the past two years to explore the topic. • In fact, this concept was part included as a potential for exploration in the High Performance Partnerships (HiPP) study of 2004. • At their November meeting, the Burnsville/Eagan Telecommunications Commission discussed and then passed a resolution encouraging the cities to explore "community television partnerships" with other Dakota County cities. • Cities mentioned specifically were Apple Valley, Rosemount, Farmington and Lakeville, although arrangements with other cities and Dakota County could also be explored. • These cities have expressed an initial interest in a cooperative effort and would benefit from the experience and equipment of BECT to deploy a community television function in a timely and cost efficient manner. • Currently these cities do not manage public access television and would have significant costs to establish a center. • The vision would be to expand the current Burnsville/Eagan Community Television to willing partners. The goal would be to improve and stabilize overall revenue, expand volunteer production opportunities and provide better programming options for all partners. • Funding -Funding for such an operation would be provided through a fee paid by cable television subscribers. Burnsville and Eagan currently collect fees for community programming and the potential partners do not. One positive for Burnsville and Eagan would be a reallocation of $75,000 in franchise fees annually to each city. • Governance - A joint powers agreement would be created and approved by all city council's involved in the partnership. Facility Options-The lease on the current Burnsville/Eagan Community Television facility expires at the end of 2006. Current lease payments for the 7159 sq ft facility are approximately $140,000 annually, future facility payments would not exceed this amount. A decision on the current facility is needed by September. Policy Questions: Do the City Councils want to maintain the facility at its current location? or Should other cities be interested in partnering, would the City Councils be supportive of a studio location in one of the new partnering cities? 1 Current BELT Burnsville/Eagan Renew Lease (1-3 years) Facility Border l.a Current BECT Burnsville/Eagan Renew Lease (5-10 years) Facility Border l.b Current BECT Burnsville Eagan Purchase Building Facility Border 2 Minnesota Zoo Apple Valley Pursue joint operations with other Dakota County units of government 3 Burnsville Burnsville Construct studio as part of Performing Arts new arts oriented facility Center 4 Other Locations Burnsville/Eagan Lease or buy an existing in Burnsville or structure Eagan 5 Dakota County Multiple cities, Explore co-location Facility or School Apple Valley, options District Facility Burnsville, Eagan 6 Other Lakeville, Should a facility in either Rosemount of these cities become available, is this a suitable location? Policy Discussion 2: Should the membership of the Burnsville Eagan Telecommunications Commission be reduced? If so, would that have a negative impact on their work? The Burnsville Eagan Telecommunications Commission is ajoint-advisory board to each City Council. The commission includes four regular members and one alternate member from each city for a total of ten members. The commission meets every other month and in worksessions when necessary. They held ten meetings in 2005. The Telecommunications Commission has established the following focus areas in their work to advise the councils: • Ensuring compliance with the cable television franchise • Providing for orderly franchise renewal and transfer • Evaluating new franchise applications • Regulating rates and fees • Providing channel content policies and complaint review procedures • Advocating and advising action on state and national telecommunication policy. The commission has experienced turnover of commissioners and several Burnsville seats and one Eagan seat have remained open pending a review or commission membership by the city councils. The amount of training and time commitment needed to become an effective commissioner is certainly a factor in these vacancies. Moreover, the commissioners who left or who are leaving the commission are the most experienced commissioners. This creates a steep learning curve for those coming into service. Now with pending applications for advisory boards, a decision needs to be made before applicants are interviewed and/or appointed. The councils have a wide range of policy considerations regarding commission memberships. These include: 1. Keep the commission as it is currently structured 2. Reduce membership to eight members by eliminating the alternate position 3. Reduce membership to six members by eliminating the alternate position and one regular member. 4. Other