Scott Davis resigns from NCO board; to head ad hoc group on community media

Northfield City Council member Scott Davis resigned from the Northfield Citizens Online (NCO) board of directors last night. The City Council revised this motion, and on a unanimous vote, placed Davis solely in charge of the public input process.

The ad hoc group will examine all types of community media, including public access television and the internet.

I'll post the full text of the revised motion here as soon as I obtain it.

Update 5/20: The full text is now attached.

FINAL MOTION ON THE CABLE COMMUNICATIONS

The city council of the city of Northfield wants to improve programming and communications to the greater Northfield community including public access television, which serves the cities of Northfield, Dundas and the greater Northfield area. The city of Northfield is required to provide public access television by the cable franchise agreement and this service is funded through cable franchise fees.

To accomplish this task, the city council of the City of Northfield directs Councilmember Scott Davis to take the lead on the public access and communications information gathering phase of this process. Councilmember Davis shall rely on staff support from a public entity that is directly responsible to the citizens of the greater Northfield area, since this is the area served by cable and public access television. This entity will assist him with designing and implementing the broad based information gathering that is needed before proceeding with direction on delivering these services. The process, when completed, will give the community valuable input on public access television and other communications as well as options to provide the required public access services at a minimum.

The city council directs Councilmember Davis:

1) To develop and implement a community information gathering
process that may use a variety of techniques for gathering information on citizen interests in all forms of communication including information from potential users of public access for communication purposes (e.g. schools, colleges, Dundas, township residents,, Arts groups, students of all ages, etc.), creators of visual media and the customers of public access television;

2) To develop a list of goals and objectives as a result of this broad based area-wide community input process on community communications.

3) To research successful models for providing public access communications.

4) To evaluate the information received from this public input and
information gathering process, and to return to the city council by October 31, 2005 with an option or options for delivering improved public access television and communications to the community. These options shall include a recommended composition of members for a citizen