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Home My WebLink AboutORDINANCES-1985-123-O-85I 10/23/85 11/5/85 I 123-0-85 AN ORDINANCE Enabling Ordinance for the Evanston Community ij Television Corporation (ECTC), Setting Forth • I the Relationship of said ECTC to the City I� i� WHEREAS, on September 1, 1981, pursuant to Ordinance �I85-0-81, the City of Evanston granted to Cablevision of Chicago a non-exclusive franchise to own, operate and maintain a cable I i communications system within the City of Evanston; and WHEREAS, said franchise is subject to the terms and conditions of a certain franchise agreement dated September 11, �1985; and WHEREAS, said franchise agreement has been amended pursuant to Ordinance 121-0-85; and 1 WHEREAS, said amendments, among other provisions, provide for the establishment of an Evanston Community Television Corporation and for the funding and powers of such entity; .. i NOW, IT ORDAINED THEREFORE, BE BY THE CITY COU.NCIL,OF TITHE CITY OF EVANSTON, COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS: i SECTION 1: PURPOSE: I A non-profit Evanston Community Television Corporation, I hereinafter referred to as ECTC, shall be created as hereinafter provided to promote and develop maximum community involvement in and use of cable television for cultural, educational, health, social service, civic, community and other non-profit purposes, to produce community programming and to administer use of public access channels. SECTION 2: COMMUNITY PROGRAMMING AND PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS: The ECTC shall administer any public access channels and community channels provided for in the Evanston franchise • I agreement as may be amended from time to time. SECTION 3: FUNDING: The ECTC shall be funded by payments from the Evanston Cable I i I I 123-0-85 Communications franchisee as provided in the franchise agreement and as amended from time to time, and foundation grants, corporation grants,.governmental grants, philanthropic grants and other ECTC fundraising activities. SECTION 4: INCORPORATION: The ECTC shall be incorporated by seven (7) incorporators, who shall be broadly representative of the City and its diverse cable access constituencies. Seven (7) shall be individuals named by the Mayor and broadly representative of the Evanston non-profit cultural, educational, health, social service, civic and cable access constituencies. The incorporators shall , conduct their first meeting no later than thirty (30) days after appointment of the incorporators. They shall, at the earliest feasible date, take all steps necessary to incorporate. the ECTC as an Illinois not -for -profit corporation, exempt from federal and state income tax, and eligible to receive tax_deductible contributions. SECTION 5: DIRECTORS: The incorporators shall be the initial directors. Subsequent directors shall be selected by an electoral mechanism designed and implemented by the initial directors within three years of incorporation to assure broad -based representation of the Evanston non-profit cultural, educational, health, social service, civic, and cable access constituencies; and to guard against the directors becoming a self-perpetuating group. SECTION 6: POWERS: The powers of the ECTC shall be as set forth in the Articles of Incorporation. They shall include the power to: A. Conduct public information and educational activities. B. Allocate public access channel space and time for non=profit uses on a fair and non-discriminatory basis. C. Provide financial, technical and other assistance for non-profit programming and other non-profit uses of the cable system. D. Retain ownership of studios and other program production facilities and equipment, and employ staff. -2- 123-0-85 • E. F. A. 11.2 C. a E. Produce community programming. To adopt and amend as appropriate access user rules as necessary to carry out the purposes of ECTC. SECTION 7: RESPONSIBILITIES: Administration of Access Facilities and Public Access Channels. ECTC shall establish rules for use of access facilities by public access users, educational access users and municipal access users. ECTC shall also establish rules for the administration of the public access channels. The access facility and public access channel rules shall enhance, develop, provide and encourage access by the widest possible number of Evanston residents and non-profit organizations. Until such time as ECTC adopts access rules, the access rules set forth in Exhibit V of the Evanston Cable Communications Franchise Agreement dated September 11, 1981 shall be utilized as temporary rules. Community Programming ECTC shall develop and produce community programming that is relevant to the needs of Evanston citizens. Within ninety (90) days of incorporation and after consultation with broad segments of the Evanston community, ECTC shall develop, recognizing resource limitations, a community programming plan. The plan shall describe the nature and hours of programming that ECTC will produce including the requirement to cablecast City Council and Cable Commission meetings unless the City agrees to accept this responsibility. The community programming plan shall�'be submitted to the Cable Commission, which after public input, shall give the ECTC its advisory opinion on;the merits of the programming plan. Access Promotion and Cutreach ECTC shall use its best efforts to publicize, promote, and otherwise encourage properly qualified persons and organizations to use ECTC facilities and the maximum number of persons to use public access cablecasting time. The purpose of the outreach program is.to educate individuals and groups on the availability and how to utilize access training, facilities, and equipment to develop access programming. Additionally, ECTC shall coordinate and lead efforts of public, municipal and educational access users to promote viewer awareness of access and community programming. Training ECTC shall develop and implement regularly scheduled training programs for single camera video production, editing, post -production, multi -camera studio production, mobile -van production and other relevant production skills necessary to meet the needs of public, municipal and educational users. Internship Program ECTC shall use its best efforts to establish an internship program for high school and college students and ensure that students selected are representative of the student community of Evanston. -3- 123-0-85 F. Grants ECTC shalltake over the Cable Commission's responsibility for administration of the Access Programming Grants Fund. • G. Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action ECTC shall strictly adhere to the equal employment opportunity and affirmative action requirements of the FCC, state statutes and local regulations. ECTC shall comply at all times with all other applicable federal, state laws and regulations, and all executive and administrative orders relating to non-discrimination including Chapter 12 of the code of the City of Evanston. SECTION 8: RESTRICTIONS: ECTC shall not: exclude any person or organization who abides with ECTC rules from use of access facilities and/or public:,,, access channels for any lawful non-profit purposes, although it may allocate space and time on a fair and non-discriminatory basis. Any person or organization alleging denial of this right may petition the Evanston Cable Commission for review. ECTC shall not permit operation of the public access channels to be subject to direct or indirect governmental interferences • with, or control of, program content. SECTION 9: GOVERNANCE AND REVIEW: A. Budget Within six (6) months after incorporation, ECTC shall adopt, in a public process, an initial budget for the balance of the calendar year which details the planned allocation and expenditure of funds. Nothing herein limits the ability of ECTC to adopt an interim budget.. After the initial budget, an annual calendar year budget shall be adopted in a public process each year. Copies of any interim budget, the initial budget and each subsequent annual budget shall be submitted to the Cable Commission and be made available.for public inspection. B. Annual Report and Evaluation On March_lst each year commencing 1987, ECTC shall submit `�. a report detailing its activities, progress in meeting its responsibilities set forth herein, and an audited financial statement covering the previous calendar year to the Cable Commission. After review of the ECTC annual report, the Cable Commission shall send a report to the City Council, assessing the status and progress of ECTC. ' The Cable Commission's role in reviewing ECTC, aside from • mediating and resolving disputes between the franchisee and ECTC, and between access users and ECTC, shall be limited to the annual review. C, Meetings_ All meetings of ECTC shall be conducted in compliance with -4- 123-0-85 the Illinois Open Meetings Act, as amended from time to time. D. Federal, State and Local Laws All programming cablecast on ECTC dedicated channels and all operations of ECTC shall be in compliance with appropriate Federal, State and Local laws, Rules and Regulations. SECTION 10: All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed. SECTION 11: This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage, approval, and publication in the manner provided by law. Introduced: c�� , 1985. —&�44Adopted: ZzV_e� 7 1985. L. ATTES. , Cit Clerk Apt oved as to orm: Corpora ion Co nsel App o ed:� / 1985. Mayor -5-