The Scandia City Council voted 4-1 at its June 21 meeting to leave the Forest Lake Cable Commission. The two remaining cities, Columbus and Forest Lake, are still mulling their options.
The Scandia vote came after weeks of city representatives broadcasting that the municipality would likely end its participation in the commission, which operates Lakes Area Television. As part of the commission’s governing agreement, Scandia will still contribute franchise fees for a couple of years unless the commission is dissolved before then. Mayor Randall Simonson and multiple council members have said that the commission doesn’t present enough of a benefit to Scandia residents, many of whom don’t even have the option of purchasing cable service.
“I just think it is something that is underutilized and is past its time,” Councilman Bob Hegland said.
The lone no vote was Dan Lee.
“It is a great access and extremely enlightening and enables kids to have access to the media that they would never have,” he argued. “I just think it’s a great thing.”
While Columbus and Forest Lake representatives have expressed interest in continuing to film government meetings even if the commission is disbanded, the future of tapings in Scandia is unclear. Simonson told The Times in May that he doesn’t believe the council holds the taping of meetings in high priority.
The city councils in Forest Lake and Columbus also discussed the commission at meetings on June 20 and 22, respectively. Neither body came to a decision on how they would like to see the commission conducted in the future, and the member cities will likely discuss the matter further at commission and city meetings in the future.
In Forest Lake, commissioner and Councilman Ben Winnick argued that LATV is still providing a good service, one that is paid for not by taxpayers but by cable company Midcontinent and its subscribers (if the commission was disbanded, the city could use Midcontinent’s franchise payments for other purposes).
“I believe the people who are paying for it are receiving a benefit,” Winnick said.
Other council members favored or wanted to learn more about a proposal from the three cities’ administrators that would restructure the commission, scaling back LATV’s event coverage to a few key broadcasts and focusing more on meeting recordings.
“I think there’s more efficient ways of doing what we’re doing,” Councilman Michael Freer said.
City Administrator Aaron Parrish said he’d discussed the idea of the commission partnering with Forest Lake Area Schools, but the school district did not express interest in the idea. The lack of support for LATV by the district was criticized by multiple council members, who pointed out that LATV currently films many FLAS events. Winnick argued that the school should be partnering with LATV to allow students to learn about video production and broadcasting.
In Columbus, commissioner and Councilman Jeff Duraine agreed with Winnick’s assessment of LATV’s performance.
“I believe the access channel is a large asset to the city. … I think they do a good job,” he said.
Councilman Denny Peterson thought that reorganization would be beneficial, or even inevitable in the wake of Scandia’s exit.
“I don’t know if the cable commission can stand on its own without three partners,” he said.
Some Columbus council members also expressed dissatisfaction with FLAS’ current level of involvement with LATV.
– Terry Traver and Paul Rignell contributed to this report.