Index of SPPS Budget Discussion http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/spps-posts.html _________________________________________ Just wanted to chime in on what the City Council members and their staff can get out of attending the National League of Cities Meetings.
If you are a fan of cable access in Saint Paul and the number of cable channels we have and the quality of the equipment available and the quality of the studio, I would suggest that at least part of that is do to the Council Members Thune and Long and myself (Thune's aide at the time) attending a National League of Cities meeting in DC Before we went to DC the Mayor's office was handling the cable negotiations and many of the access advocates were convinced that the administration was ready to concede many of those services in their negotiations with Continental Cable. While attending the conference I was assigned by my boss to the cable sessions. With the information I got there and shared with Thune and Long, they returned and immediately authored a resolution to find Continental in violation of their franchise agreements. The City Council (acting as the cable board) took over the negotiations and though it took years, finally forced the cable company (now Comcast) to live up to the contract and provide those services. Easily the change in direction brought us hundreds of thousands of dollars of services that would have been lost but for the council's action, and without the information garnered at the conference none of the council would have felt that they were in a strong enough position to take the action. (There was no rate increase with this either) So, I always felt having the council member spending $7,000 a year to make themselves and their staff smarter was probably a good idea, and if I am even close on the amount of money the City saved out of that one action, a lot of council members trips have been well paid for. Chuck Repke Thune's Aide 90-97 _____________________________________________ SPPS Budget Reduction Forum - Feb. 23-27 Co-Sponsored By NEAT: http://www.stpaulneat.org/ _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
