SWCTC

About SWCTC

The South Washington County Telecommunications Commission (SWCTC) is the cable television franchising authority for the Minnesota cities of Cottage Grove, Newport, St. Paul Park, Woodbury, and Grey Cloud Island Township.

The member municipalities participate in accordance with a Joint Powers Agreement. This agreement allows for the appointment of two voting representatives to the SWCTC from each community; one city official and one council appointee.

The franchise process started in 1981 with a series comprehensive studys to determine community needs. Over a two year period the Commission conducted need-based assessment surveys, formulated cable system specifications, and issued a request for proposal to the cable industry. In late 1983 the Commission accepted a bid proposal from Telephone and Data Services (TDS) and awarded them a 15 year franchise. Cable system construction began in the spring of 1984 and TDS began offering cable service soon thereafter.

Today SWCTC manages resources received from the cable operator on behalf of its member cities and township. The cable operator is required to pay a quarterly franchise fee to the SWCTC in the amount equal to five percent (5%) of its gross revenues. The cable operator also collects and pays PEG fee to the SWCTC amounting $1.00 per subscriber per month. Comcast is the largest cable operator in the United States with over 21.5 million subscribers and presently the only cable operator in South Washington County.

The Joint Powers Agreement delegates to the Commission all responsibilities for FAQ and enforcement of the franchise, regulation of basic cable rates, coordination of transfers of ownerships and franchise renewals. The Commission requires a performance bond, letter of credit, liability insurance and other security from the cable operator to protect cities from provider caused damages.

It requires the operator to provide reports and records to the Commission and reviews equipment and rate filings to make certain they are complying with federal standards. The Commission requires the carriage of local emergency alerts oversees the use and construction of the Institutional Network and interconnection requirements and oversees construction standards to protect and manage the public right-of-way. It conducts compliance inspections, technical audits of the cable system and sets and enforces customer service standards and protection of privacy rights. The Commission requires cable channels for public, educational, and government access (PEG), and funding from the company to support these channels. It monitors the signal quality or transmission of the PEG channel programming so it does not fall below technical standards to ensure that live and taped programming is cablecast efficiently to subscribers.

The SWCTC employs a full- time Administrator, a full-time Master Control Operator, four full-time Government Producers, and four part-time cablecasters. The Commission staff operates three local cable access channels that are seen in over 20,000 cable viewing homes in South Washington County.

The SWCTC has designed and equipped each member city hall with state of the art equipment to bring government closer to the people. Over 23 city council and commission meetings can be seen live on government channel 16 as well as web streamed on the www.swctc.org. Professionally produced programming unique to the South Washington County area can be seen on "City 18" and programming submitted by residents of South Washington County is aired on Community Access Channel 14.