Centerville Council approves merger plan for regional communications councils to sustain services

Centerville City Council members approved a resolution on May 19 to support a merger that would combine the Miami Valley Communications Council (MVCC) with a regional educational technology cooperative and create the Miami Valley Technical Communications Group.

City Manager Wayne Davis told the council the merger is intended to sustain MVCC services as cable-fee revenue declines. "Part of the financing structure of Miami Valley Communications Council being able to provide that level of services has been cable fees. I think we all understand that cable is, declining in its popularity," Davis said, explaining why MVCC and Mavaca are pursuing consolidation.

The nut graf: MVCC provides video production and shared-technology services to local governments in the Miami Valley; Mavaca (the Miami Valley Educational Computer Association) provides similar infrastructure and cybersecurity services to school districts. Consolidation is planned to put the two organizations under one umbrella organization and to consolidate assets so the combined entity can continue offering technology and production services to member governments and school districts.

Davis said the groups proposed an umbrella council that would govern both functions and that executive directors from the two organizations had presented bylaws and a plan at a recent work session. He named Jay Weiskircher and Mapeka Thorsage as the executive directors who briefed council on the structure. "We looked at the opportunity to be able to sustain MVCC into the future, and 1 of the ways to do that would be ... to merge MVCC and Mavaca," Davis said.

Deputy Mayor Kenley, who moved approval of the consent agenda that included the merger resolution, and a second by Councilmember Angert resulted in the council's unanimous approval of the consent agenda. The resolution approving the merger plan was one of several consent items adopted without separate roll-call debate.

Councilmember Joanne Rauch spoke in favor of the consolidation, saying the MVCC board had discussed the measure extensively and supported it. "The support from the MVCC board was unanimous in making it happen," Rauch said in the discussion recorded for the meeting.

Ending: The merger plan will proceed as an approved item from the council's consent agenda; local membership in the merged entity is intended to preserve MVCC services such as video production, utility aggregation support and other shared-technology offerings to Centerville and partner governments. Additional implementation steps and any required contract or bylaw changes will be handled through MVCC/Mavaca and follow-up staff reports to the council as they occur.