Title
An ordinance authorizing the City Manager to execute and administer an Interlocal Agreement between the City of Mesquite and Mesquite Independent School District (MISD) for the operation of the City's Educational Access Channel.
Body
On March 7, 2011, the City executed an Interlocal Agreement with the Mesquite Independent School District (MISD) to establish the terms and conditions under which MISD would operate the City's Educational Access Channel (EAC). Pursuant to this Agreement, MISD may request funding for capital expenditures related to the EAC from the City's Public, Educational and Government (PEG) Access Fund as long as current PEG funds are available.
Even though MISD has traditionally operated the EAC since the introduction of cable television in the 1980's, under State law, the City is responsible for cable programming. When the City's municipal cable franchise expired in 2011, the City adopted Ordinance No. 4132 to establish the terms and conditions under which MISD would continue to operate the EAC under State franchise authority.
Under Chapter 66 of the Texas Utilities Code, both DirecTV (formerly AT&T) and Charter Communications d/b/a Spectrum pay the City a PEG fee equal to one percent of gross revenues from their respective Mesquite cable and video service subscribers to help defray the costs of PEG programming. Federal Communication Commission rules limit the use of PEG funds to capital expenditures only.
This fiscal year, both the City and MISD are spending PEG funds to update studio equipment for operating the City's Government and Educational Access Channels. The City is spending $139,000.00 to upgrade camera equipment for video recording and remote streaming of City Council meetings, and MISD is spending $97,000.00 to upgrade camera equipment for video recording and remote streaming of Board of Trustees meetings. Attached is a table that summarizes the distribution of PEG expenditures over the last ten years. During this period,...
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