ORDER-2020-105 : An Appropriation from the Peg Access Cable Fund (#2922) in the amount of $300,452.04 to MMTV and Melrose Public Schools.

Transcript (~12 min @ 41:10)

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▶ 41:06 Speaker 1: yes counselor thomas yes councilor maladin yes president Grigoraitis chairman sanella

▶ 41:20 Christopher Cinella: yes 11 yes closed okay so first quarter of this evening order 2020-105 an appropriation from the peg access cable fund account number 2922 in the amount of three hundred thousand four hundred or $52.04 to MMTV and the Melrose Public Schools. I'd like to entertain a motion to suspend the rules because I believe we have a guest speaking tonight.

▶ 41:46 Speaker 7: Motion to suspend the rules.

▶ 41:47 Christopher Cinella: Motion to suspend the rules, made by President Grigoraitis, seconded by Councilor McNaught.

▶ 41:54 Speaker 1: Vice Chair Migliorelli. Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi. Yes. Councilor McMaster. Yes. Councilor McNaught. Yes. Councilor Eccles. Yes. Councilor Garipay. Yes. Councilor Stewart. Yes. Councilor Thomas.

▶ 42:19 Speaker 1: Councilor Thomas. Yes. Councilor Jamaleddine. Yes. President Grigoraitis. Yes. Chairman Cinella.

▶ 42:30 Speaker 8: Yes.

▶ 42:31 Speaker 1: 11 yes. So I brought in Mary. Can you guys see her? her can you hear us yes I can there's a are you able to add your video yes I

▶ 42:55 Speaker 8: move so yep can you hear me hear you we can see you

▶ 42:59 Speaker 1: good how are you folks tonight thank you right the screen is all yours if you

▶ 43:05 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: have some prepared remarks certainly I just am appearing before you this evening to request that you support the first order on the agenda 2020-105 which is an appropriation and as it relates to MMTV it's $240,361.63. It represents the cable company revenue that we have negotiated with the city and the cable companies for our operational expenses. It's, there are two companies, as you know, Verizon and Comcast, and this figure represents two payments from each of the companies.

▶ 43:55 Speaker 1: And I'm happy to entertain any questions that you might have for us.

▶ 43:58 Christopher Cinella: And just so you know, you'll see folks raise their hands, which I put them in queue. I didn't see anybody raise their hands. Anyone have a question?

▶ 44:11 John N. Tramontozzi: Thank you. Mr. chairman. Good evening. Mary Beth. Welcome. Good to see you. Thank you. I just have a couple of questions.

▶ 44:22 John N. Tramontozzi: I understand that there is a contract in agreement with the cable companies that contribute. To this fund, is there a limit if, you know, that is, is there a limitation on what the, the funds can be used for? And and I know it's being split between in the TV in the mirror of public schools. And is there a rationale behind that particular split in the terms of the percentages?

▶ 44:55 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Uh, yes, thank you. Um, when the cable contracts are renegotiated every 10 years between the city and, uh, the provider, we have facilitated those negotiations and paid for them, um, with, uh, outside attorneys and city attorney help as well. The total amount that is the maximum is 5%, and prior to the last round, we received, I believe, only 4%. We were able to negotiate up to 5%, and the schools received 1%, and the MMTV cable access receives 4%. there are no restrictions as to how it can be used in terms of you know basically it's facility equipment salaries and that sort of thing I'm not familiar with the school departments how they are doing theirs but it is it has always been broken out and in the past MMTV received their funds directly and And the schools funds with the city, so last year, the governing body determined that it was more appropriate to have these funds come through the city. Although there is no management of the funds by the city.

▶ 46:23 John N. Tramontozzi: And if I, if I'm correct, there's no matching funds coming out of the city's funds to to match.

▶ 46:33 Speaker 1: Exactly, there's no matching funds. No.

▶ 46:35 John N. Tramontozzi: Okay, and these funds are generated every year.

▶ 46:42 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Through the cable companies. Yes. And generally, it's, we get 4 payments a year, I believe from Verizon and now I believe it's 2 payments a year from Comcast. And it's based on the access fees that are charged by the cable providers to each individual subscriber. Your bill item that says peg, which is public education and government. So it covers our operational expenses for all 3 stations. We have, in addition to the school department receiving their 1% separately, we have provided the school department with all of the funding and the equipment to the technology for their video production classes. And also we fitted the middle school at 1 point with their production facilities as well.

▶ 47:40 John N. Tramontozzi: Excellent. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Chairman.

▶ 47:48 Mark Garipay: Together, thank you. Mr chairman. Thank you. Uh, my goal is to be in here just for my knowledge. Um. On the revenue that comes in for this. This count, is it a balance or do we, as it gets transferred in the total dollar markets transfer it out.

▶ 48:09 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Is he used up every year balance left? I'm not I'm not certain with the school department as to when those funds are released to the school. to the school department but they are released completely to us I believe if there is any interest that accrues in the fund while the while the monies are being held by the city that the city I believe is able to retain the interest I don't think it's a potato a lot of money because we're trying to do this twice a year we did it last at the end of December early December and I know one of these payments had come in but it was too late to go on that particular order the payment from December 2nd we rolled that over into this year thank you very

▶ 49:00 Christopher Cinella: much anybody else in queue I didn't thank you chairman smell and thank you

▶ 49:04 Jen Grigoraitis: miss McAteer Margolis it's always lovely to see you I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone in MMTV for all that they've done to help us ensure that we're able to continue to connect with the citizens of Melrose during this pandemic. I think we all know how challenging that has been as we've had to move to a virtual platform and you guys have provided a critical link for residents and I can only imagine the challenges that has created for you all so thank you for that I'm really appreciative of it.

▶ 49:32 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: You're entirely welcome Madam President. It's where we're happy to be able to do it um in the format that we can um regretfully we can't run them live as you know because um the webex is in is not compatible with our system but we do um run it as soon as we get the file not only on the cable access television station but on our um goes through our vimeo online program so if people don't have cable access they are able to watch it through their internet so and we'll be back to business pretty soon i'm sure thank you anybody else did

▶ 50:19 Jack Eccles: i miss anybody counselor eccles um i was going to make a motion to recommend for passage but if council mcnaught has a something i can wait do you want to get a second time that or yeah

▶ 50:32 Christopher Cinella: motion to recommend for passage second seconded by council mcnaught on discussion council mcnaught

▶ 50:37 Jeff McNaught: did you have something you wanted to say i just wanted to thank miss mcateer marcolis for uh being here tonight also a ward 2 resident and former city councilor uh thank you for presenting tonight it's a pleasure to have you here i did have one question i may have missed it somewhere and that was um how much of the percentage or dollar value that mmt receives goes to salaries and it's a two-part question how many people are on the payroll at mmtv uh we actually have four

▶ 51:10 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: people on the playroom that's it which is kind of unusual a lot of cable access stations spend um much many much more money on their salary lines um we have chosen to spend more of ours on our facilities and our upgrades to our technology and our production equipment And I'm sorry, I don't exactly have the breakout. I would say it's probably, I think we probably spend around 30% on salaries or less than that. And the balance would be on equipment and rental, you know, facility rental, upkeep, that sort of thing.

▶ 51:53 Jeff McNaught: Thank you so much. And thanks again for being here tonight.

▶ 51:56 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Thank you. It's nice to be back kind of in the room, so to speak.

▶ 52:05 Christopher Cinella: anybody else on discussion being none madam clerk if you could please call the

▶ 52:09 Speaker 1: roll vice chair Migliorelli yes councilor Tramontozzi yes councillor McMaster yes councillor McNaught yes councillor Eccles yes councillor Garipay yes councillor Stewart yes councillor

▶ 52:41 Mary Beth McAteer-Margolis: Thomas appreciate we appreciate your support and we look forward to continuing to cooperate and work with the city government going forward thank

▶ 52:54 Speaker 1: you good luck with your budget deliberations