University City councilors agree to pursue ordinance repealing CALP and plan budget for remaining PEG funds

University City City Councilors on May 12 directed staff to prepare an ordinance that would repeal the local commission charged with recommending uses for PEG (public, educational and governmental) cable-access funds and asked staff to bring back a proposal for how to allocate roughly $154,000 remaining in that account.

The action followed a staff report that the CALP commission has not met since June 2022 and that the city has not received PEG funding from cable companies since early 2012. City Manager Gregory Rose told council, “I would certainly recommend that you discontinue CALP, and that you authorize me to work with staff in the preparation of an ordinance to repeal the ordinance that created CALP.”

Why it matters: the remaining PEG funds were originally generated by a franchise agreement with a cable operator and have been held without appropriation; council’s decision will determine whether the money supports public-access programming and facilities, a proposed scholarship for University City High School graduates interested in video production, or other PEG-eligible uses.

City Attorney John Mulligan outlined the origin and legal limits of the money. Mulligan said the city’s 1981 franchise agreement with what was then Continental Cable Systems (later Charter) included a peg funding mechanism and that the Missouri Video Service Providers Act of 2007 created a statewide franchise framework. “The city has not received any funding from the cable companies for these PEG purposes since 02/2012,” Mulligan said, and he added that the council may appropriate the remaining funds for PEG purposes — services, programming, facilities or equipment — through the regular appropriation process.

Council members discussed likely destinations for the funds. Councilmember Smotherson said much of what the CALP commission used to do could be transferred to the Arts and Letters Commission and suggested shifting some CALP funds there. Councilmember Teaman and others said the council should consider the final wishes of the remaining CALP members while recognizing that ultimate discretion rests with the council.

Jenny Chase, who said she worked with the CALP commission in 2022, described the commission’s intent to create a scholarship for University City High School graduates interested in film and video. Chase said CALP planned to place $50,000 with the St. Louis Community Foundation to create an endowment that would yield a $2,000-a-year renewable scholarship. “The idea was to take $50,000 and roll $2,000 a year off in order to create the scholarship,” Chase said, describing how the foundation administers applications and preserves donor intent.

Council members also noted a related public-arts “levy fund” that supports the city’s public-art program; speakers estimated that levy fund at about $7,000, saying it could last two to three years at current levels without additional support from partners such as Washington University.

Next steps and process: Council did not vote to repeal the ordinance on May 12. City Manager Rose said he would work with the city attorney and staff to draft the repeal ordinance and a proposed budget to allocate the CALP funds; he recommended that the city circulate the proposal to the community before final action. On a separate procedural item, the council later voted to go into closed session under Section 610.021(1) of the Missouri statute for legal actions and privileged communications; that motion, made by Councilmember Teaman and seconded by Councilmember McMahon, carried on a roll call of ayes.

The council’s future ordinance could either designate specific uses at adoption or leave the funds available for future PEG-eligible appropriations, Mulligan said. Any final appropriation would come through the council’s normal budget and appropriation process.

For now, the principal outcomes from the study session are direction to staff to prepare a repeal ordinance and a request to return with a recommended plan for spending the roughly $154,000 in the former CALP account, together with legal guidance on permissible uses.