Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-11-1973 Youth Commission minutesr MINUTES YOUTH COMMISSION TINE: JANUARY 11, 1973 - 7:30 P.M. PLACE: CRISP MEMORIAL CONFERENCE ROOM, SARATOGA CITY OFFICES, 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE, SARATOGA, CALIFORNIA 95070 TYPE: SPECIAL MEETING I. ORGANIZATION A. ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Belanger, Baker, Gordon,. Hilsenrath,. Hollis, McLeod, Saitta, Smith and Wright Commissioners absent: Sprinsock B. MINUTES The minutes of the last meeting were approved as written with the correction of ConciAssioner McLeod's name. II. OLD BUSINESS None III. NEW BUSINESS A. YOUTH ATTENDING CITY MEETINGS Chairman Gordon talked to the Mayor and to Mrs. Belanger who is on the City Planning Commission. Mrs. Belanger suggested having an advisor sitting in on the Commission meetings but did not suggest having a youth commissioner for a Commissioner. It was agreed that, the neat time there is an opening for a commissioner on the City Council or the Planning Commission we should advertise for some youths to join these commissions. Commissioner Wright.moved; that the Youth Commissioners go to the City Council meetings, Parks and Recreation meetings, and the Planning Commission meetings so they will be informed of the other activities of the city. A representative should go to each. Commissioner Hilsenrath seconded the motion and i* carr.ied unp.-ni lously, The Planning Commission meets every second and fourth Monday, and the Parks and Recreation Commission meet the first and third Mondays. Co- miissioners Belanger and Hilsenrath will go to the Planning Commission meetings, Commissioner Hollis will go to the City Council meetings, and Commissioner McLeod will go to the Parks and Recreation meetings. IV. COMMITTEE REPORTS A. COMMUNITY GARDEN Commissioner McLeod went to the Community Garden Coimmittee meeting last week and is now a memLer of the Committee. They talked main- ly about getting money from the various agencies in the area. Allen Chadwick was chosen the Director of the Community Garden. -1- IV. COMMITTEE REPORTS - Continued Greg Baines is the Manager. They also chose their Board of Directors. Commissioner McLeod worked on the Community Garden the first week of her Christmas vacation. She talked about the various things the Community Garden now has. She wrote an article for the Saratoga News about the Community Garden. She also wrote an article about the Saratoga Youth Commission. The Commission decided to print both of these articles. B. YOUTH CENTER REPORT Commissioner Hilsenrath loked into having a benefit and it didn't look to good. There is a meeting of the Youth Center this Tuesday to discuss this project. All the Youth Commission- ers are invited to attend. It is at 3 :30 P.M. on January 16, 1973. It was suggested that Commissioner Hilsenrath call the booking agencies in San Francisco to try and book a group for a benefit and really play up the advertising that the City could do for the group. C. YOUTH DIRECTORY Chairman Gordon asked Mr. Scott, the Saratoga School Newspaper Director, if he would put out'the booklet for the Commission. He said he would if they supplied all the materials. Chairman Gordon said that Mr. Scott can print anything on his printing machine. He explained the different types of printing. Chair- man Gordon asked the Commission to think of different formats for the booklet and asked them to take pictures of things they think would be interesting in the booklet. He showed the Com- missioners the present layout of the booklet. Chairman Gordon also asked the Commissioners to ask around and find out what the people of the Community want in this booklet. He suggested changing the AAUW section on law to be more concise and just tell what will happen if you are caught at various illegal acts and what the Youth's rights are when confronted with the legal system. V. ADJOURNMENT The next meeting of the Youth Commission will be January 25, 1973. Commissioner Saitta moved to adjourn the meeting and Commissioner Hollis seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 9:30 P.M. Respectfully subm'tted, THOM FORD, SECRETARY YOUTH COMMISSION da:ne r YOUTH COMMISSION MINUTES TIME: FEBRUARY 22, 1973 - 7:30 P.M. PLACE: CRISP MEMORIAL.CONFERENCE ROOM, SARATOGA CITY OFFICES, 13777 FRUITVALE AVENUE, SARATOGA, CALIFORNIA 95070 TYPE: REGULAR MEETING I. ORGANIZATION A. ROLL CALL COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: GORDON, BAKER, WRIGHT, MCLEOD AND BELANGER COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: SAITTA, HILSENRATH, SMITH AND EVERHART B. MINUTES Tabled until next meeting. II. OLD BUSINESS A. YOUTH COMMISSION PUBLICITY - RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMUNITY ACCESS SECTION IN THE PROPOSED C.A.T.V. ORDINANCE The Commission reviewed and discussed the draft of the proposed recommendation. There was some discussion whether the City would be asking the cable company to make an unreasonable capital out- lay in order to support community access services. The Commission finally agreed however, that in terms of the total capital expendi- ture that the cable company would be committed to in order to set up a cable system, the requirements to provide community access facilities represent a small proportion of the total capital out- lay. It was moved by Chairman Gordon and Seconded by Commissioner Wright that the Youth Commission approve the draft recommendation with the following modifications: (1) That the Youth Commission would aid in the preparation of the community access manual /guide. (2) That a provision for leased - channels to non - profit organizations should be included. (3) That mention should be made that the Youth Commission will at the convenience of the City Council, provide a demonstra- tion on the use of Sony � inch Porta Pak video tape equipment.. Recommendation with modifications accepted unanimously. (final recommendation attached) III. NEW BUSINESS A. PROPOSAL BY SUNJAMMER; THE LOS GATOS SWITCHBOARD, THAT A YOUTH HEALTH CLINIC BE ESTABLISHED IN THE WEST VALLEY Five members from Sunjammer attended the meeting. After intro- ductions, R. Eric.Fawcett presented the proposal. Essentially the proposal calls for the establishment of a free youth health clinic in the West Valley. The clinic would treat primarily VD YOUTH COMMISSION MINUTES - CONT. PAGE 2 on a confidential basis and hopefully provide psychological counseling. The idea would be to use the existing County Health.Facility in Los Gatos. The costs involved would be staff and medicine costs. This approach has been tried suc- cessfully in East San Jose and downtown San Jose clinics. Many of the patients receiving care at these centers are West Valley youth. After a general discussion and agreement that there is a de- finite need for services of this nature, Eric Fawcett asked for 2 volunteers from the Saratoga Youth Commission to sit on a committee which will be writing the proposal to the County Health Department. Commissioner Baker and Secretary Ford volunteered. The meetings are tentatively scheduled to begin in early March. B. PRESENTATION OF PRELIMINARY YOUTH COMMISSION BUDGET - COM- MISSIONER HILSENRATH Commissioner Hilsenrath was not present to outline the budget. Discussion indicated that there is a need for a Youth Commission Budget in that it requires a statement of Youth Commission and Community Goals and further commits the Youth Commission to meet- ing those goals in the following fiscal year. The Chairman asked the Commissioners to determine what the Youth Commission goals or programs should be for the next year and determine the costs involved so that these programs can be factored into the pre- liminary budget. It was indicated that all Youth Commissions in the County have an operating and /or Program oriented budget. IV. COMMUNICATIONS A. WRITTEN None B. ORAL The Secretary was directed to indicate to Mayor Smith that ap- pointments to the Youth Commission have to be made to fill the seats left vacant by Commissioners Rellas, Sprinsock and Hollis. V. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business before the Youth Commission, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 P.M. Next meeting will be Thursday, March 29, 1973. Respectfully sub * tted, THOM FORD, SECRETARY YOUTH COMMISSION R in CITY OF SARATOGA MEMORANDUM TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM: YOUTH COMMISSION FEBRUARY 22, 1973 SUBJECT: RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING COMMUNITY ACCESS PROVISIONS IN THE PROPOSED C.A.T.V. ORDINANCE Recently, the Youth Commission has studied the question of the provision of a community access section in the proposed C.A.T.V. Ordinance. Various members of the commission have met with representatives from Committee For Open Media, Gill Cable Co. and, Focus on Media. In addition, 6 members of the Commission have attended 2 free workshops on the operation of i inch Sony Porta Pak video tape equipment and are now qualified to operate this equipment. In its investigation, the Youth Commission found out that the Federal Communication's Commission has required that each cable system make avail- able a "public access" channel on a first -come, first - served basis. Further, the FCC has ruled that when this channel is full, another is to be provided. The Youth Commission feels that there are 3 problems inherent in the FCC ruling: (1) Transmition of Messages - There is no provision for a large number of public access channels to be made available to people and communities to "air" programs during reasonable or prime hours viewing. (2) Reception of Messages - The FCC ruling does not insure that public access messages will be received due to; (a) the competition of commercial channels, (b) lack of publicity /advertising for community originated programming arid, (c) non - allocation of channels and channel - time in a way which would facilitate their reception. (3) Creation of Messages - The FCC ruling does not provide for an economic base whereby, funding to provide for the use of videotape recorders, editing machines and skilled teachers for community access would be avail- able. Based, in part, on the above observations, the Youth Commission recommends the following regarding the requirements of the community access section of the proposed CATV Ordinance: (1) The Cable company must provide equipment and staff free of charge to support the participation of individules or groups exercising their community access rights, ie., the Cable company to provide studios; several half -inch videotape recorders; editing machine and auxillary equip- ment; a staff or resourse person to teach the-use of video equipment, assist in productions and, to schedule and coordinate videotape equipment loans to individuals or groups in the Community. (2) Insure that community originated tapes are scheduled for "airing" at a reasonable hour. Reasonable hour to be defined as that time of day or night which would indicate that 60% of the total viewing audience would be available to view programming. Public access is meaningless unless there are subscribers available at reasonable hours to view programming. -1- (3) The C.A.T.V. Company would be responsible for the printing and distribution of a manual free of charge to subscribers and non- sub- scribers which would explain the various types of channels available in the C.A.T.V. public access system, instructions or procedures about - how to gain access time on C.A.T.V. (procedures to be followed),-instruc- tions on the use of 2 inch video tape recorders and, information about the C.A.T.V. stations availability of community access services. The Youth Commission could aid in the preparation of these documents. (4) Insure that all programming on public access channels is ad- vertised through the local newspaper entertainment or T.V. sections and require publication and distribution of a weekly community access T.V. guide. In addition, the cable company should be required to make periodic spot announcements over their local origination channels announcing the existance of public access channels and the procedures involved in gain - ing their use. (5) The local C.A.T.V. company could not censor community orig- inated programming'transmitted over public access channels. (6) Individuals or groups using public access channels would be held solely responsible for the content o.f their own program. (7) The C.A.T.V. company would be exempted from all liability re- sulting from community access channel programming. (8) Funding public access channels and activities could be imple- mented by an increase in the gross receipts tax. Perhaps a non - profit organization could be set up to sponsor community video tape training, etc. (9) Leased channels- Provision should be made for the leasing at cost of certain specified channels to non - profit organizations. If the demand for leased channels exceeds the availability of these channels then the City Council should establish procedures and policies which would allocate leased channels on a fair and equitable basis. For the past several months the Youth Commission has been working on the preparation of a Community Services Directory and organizaing a benefit concert for the Saratoga Community Garden. -We feel that- "our -tasks would ­be -much easier-and, in the case of the Community Services Directory, not needed, providing there was a good C.A.T.V. public access system implemented in the City of Saratoga. Incidentally, the Youth Commission is currently working toward the preparation of their vwn. program on 2 inch video tape to be broadcast over the San Jose Cable T. V. System free of charge. The program content would concern the Community Garden. The Youth Commission would recommend: further that the City Council serious- ly consider the purchase of one or more Sony 2 inch Porta Pak video tape recorders for use by the Code Enforcement Office, Community Services Depart- ment, etc., and that a Porta Pak be located at the Youth Center for use in video workshops and be made available for Community loan. Members of the Youth Com=ission will be available at the convenience of the City Council, to demonstrate 2 inch Porta Pak Video Tape equipment and, in addition, offer this service for any subsequent Public Hearings or Committee of the Whole meetings. Respectfully submitted, SARATOGA YOUTH COMMISSION ne