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Council discusses dissolving Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission; Metro East seeks smoother funding path
Summary
Fairview councilors and regional partners discussed dissolving the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (MHCRC) and redirecting franchise/PEG fee flows so more funding can stay with local access operations (Metro East Community Media); Metro East warned a sudden funding cutoff would be damaging.
Fairview councilors spent part of their Sept. 17 meeting on a region-wide discussion about the Mount Hood Cable Regulatory Commission (MHCRC) and Metro East Community Media, the nonprofit that operates community media services for East Multnomah jurisdictions.
Why it matters: Cities across East Multnomah County receive franchise fees from Comcast for cable TV service; those fees historically funded operations and capital for public, education and government (PEG) access. Declining cable subscriptions have reduced that revenue, and several jurisdictions want to reevaluate the MHCRC structure and how funds are distributed.
Julio Melchick, identified in the meeting as the Metro East chair, traced the long history of cable franchise agreements and told the council that the current structure — an intergovernmental approach that allocates about 60% of a local franchise pool to Metro East for operations and routes other administrative money through Portland — no longer reflects current needs. Melchick said the MHCRC currently pays Portland about $1.4 million a year for services the partners increasingly view as unnecessary.
Melchick asked the council to direct staff to explore what it would take to dissolve the MHCRC, saying, “I want that to go away,” meaning the existing administrative contract and the money going to Portland. He also described two paths: (1) a city withdrawing from the existing IGA and handling franchise administration locally or (2) a unanimous dissolution of the commission, which would trigger a redistribution of some pooled dollars and allow PEG funds to be reallocated (he suggested a 60/40 split between Portland/OpenSignal and Metro East for PEG-capital monies).
A Metro East representative told the council the nonprofit provides community media services, digital-inclusion training and programming, and that a sudden end to governmental funding at the close of the fiscal year would be “really devastating” to Metro East’s operations; the representative said the nonprofit is pursuing philanthropic supplements while seeking a predictable multiyear transition if the commission structure changes.
Council reaction: Council members discussed options. A Gresham letter (June) asking to leave MHCRC by fiscal year-end 2026 was reported in the meeting; staff and councilors said Gresham is the largest contributor among the jurisdictions outside Portland, and its departure would complicate a cooperative path forward. Staff said the four city managers (Gresham, Troutdale, Wood Village, Fairview) planned to meet to discuss administrative options and implementation steps; one option would be to replace the Portland-administered service with a smaller local administrative role (a quarter-to-half FTE) to handle franchise accounting and complaints.
What’s next: Councilors directed staff to continue exploring options with the other East County jurisdictions and reported the 4-city managers would meet soon. Metro East said it will seek philanthropic funding to smooth any decline in government revenue but asked jurisdictions to plan a multiyear transition rather than an abrupt cutoff.
