For those of you who may care. Your Little Falls, Mn. Cable Review Board(part of the city charter) did not meet yesterday Oct. 30, 2017 as scheduled and listed on the city website, because the one in charge of overseeing this important committee(city administrator Jon Radermacher) didn't coordinate the meeting correctly. He didn't even have the courtesy to cancel the meeting on the public city meetings list, or inform Councilor Leif Hanson, Mark Diehl(from the highschool channel) or Thor Lindquist(the only member to show, other than Leif Hanson). There was no quorum for the last meeting on July 7,2017, so half a years worth if meetings there has been no oversight and no quorum. The city has an obligation, under the Open Meeting Law, to alert the public for meeting changes or cancellations, and they did not.....again. This is a pattern with these incompetent leaders. The quarterly meeting for October was postponed from Oct. 16, 2017 to Oct. 30,2017. Why?
So where were President Jay Spillum, Al Stencil, Norm Sandberg, Jill Moore(Great River Arts Association) and Mark Slupe yesterday? Well, Mark was likely on his way to Bangkok, Thailand(he made it well known he was going in November), and all the others have no excuse. Both doors were locked, and it was bitterly cold out. Leif had to walk all the way around the front only to discover GRAA closed. Supposedly Jon Radermacher was working on getting enough to have a quorum. City so called leaders are completely shirking their duties with regards to this very important committee, that is supposed to be overseeing how the THOUSANDS of dollars every month, are used, and what the customers are getting for their money. It is the most important venue for free speech in town. And that is no small potatoes. The only other free speech at public meetings you get is a meager 3 minutes of public forum comment time at the work sessions of the city council.
Remember, at their last meeting July 7, 2017, Jay Spillum announced that if the committee had to hear complaints, they would all resign. He also clearly states he had no idea about a GRA TV policy and Procedure, even though that is part of his and all the other committee members duties(to oversee Local Public Television and it's policies) according to the city charter. What a joke these people are. I have never witnessed so much incompetence in all my life. And Mayor Greg Zylka is guilty of Dereliction of Duty(according to the city charter) for not mandating the people responsible for negotiating the required Franchise Agreement, to accomplish that long before the past one expired on March 15, 2015. Above is that video to refresh your memory.
Why is this so important? Because almost 11k per month(total for approximately 2,000 customers, is being collected from Little Falls Charter/Spectrum subscribers, I believe, ILLEGALLY. Why is it illegal? Because for a year and a half, the city of Little Falls, Mn has not had the required Franchise Agreement(that enables Spectrum and the city) to collect Peg and Franchise Fees on monthly bills. The previous Franchise Agreement expired 3-15-2015.
I believe every penny of the 200k or so that has been collected, needs to be returned to all of the 2,000 customers in town. Now.
Of course, Mayor Greg Zylka, Jon Radermacher, Leif Hanson, Jay Spillum, Norm Sandberg, Al Stencil, Thor Lindquist, Mark Slupe, Jill Moore, Scott Wonderlich(president of the GRAA) do not want you to know that you are getting ripped off. Why? Because GRAA is using the almost 7k per month (the high school gets almost 4k per month)collected illegally to finance their arts association and it's salaries. That's why.
Yesterday I filed an official complaint with the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission and I recommend you do the same. Here are the phone numbers to lodge your complaint.
FCC 888-225-5322
FTC 877-382-4357
You can also write to Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson's office to complain. Here is her address and phone number. 651-296-3353
Call the mayor to complain also at 320-232-9336
Call Cable Board president Jason Spillum at 320-632-8514 or 320-632-1724
Call Norm Sandberg at 320-632-9030 or 320-632-9230
Ask them why they weren't there in Monday. Ask Norm was he didn't attend the last 2 meetings.
Call Jon Radermacher at city hall 320-616-5500
You can leave a message there for any of your elected officials, especially Leif Hanson, who is the mayoral appointee to the Cable Review Board.
I strongly suggest all other customers of New Spectrum/Charter/Time Warner, contact all of the above to complain. The more that complain, the more likely we will recover our illegally garnered franchise and peg fees.
More updates to come. Promise.
