MSA’s Key Staff
Stuart G. Chapman is President of Municipal Services Associates, Inc. (MSA). Mr. Chapman has a substantive background of over 30 years experience in working with municipal administration and telecommunications related activities. Since founding MSA in 1992, Mr. Chapman has worked with over 200 communities and special purpose governments in ten states on a wide variety of activities concerning cable communications, including cable-related needs ascertainment studies, rate regulation, analyses of institutional networks, public, educational and governmental (PEG) programming, system performance evaluations, franchise negotiations, and antenna/tower siting.
Among MSA’s projects, directed by Mr. Chapman, include a cable television franchise transfer process covering the suburban Chicago metropolitan area which included over 200 local governments and eight regional councils of governments; successful cable television franchise renewals in 31 Illinois and Wisconsin, and Indiana communities; cable telecommunications community needs ascertainments for cities in Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, California, Tennessee, and Idaho; and wireless telecommunications ordinance preparation and tower site inventory services for communities in metropolitan Chicago. Mr. Chapman has also coordinated numerous cable television system technical examinations, cable franchise fee audits, and evaluations of PEG programming operations for MSA client communities.
Mr. Chapman is widely quoted in the media. He has been interviewed by local newspapers and radio outlets, the telecommunications trade press, and business publications, including Crain’s Chicago Business, and Forbes.com.
From 1986 to 1991, Mr. Chapman served as Administrative Assistant to the Village Manager of the Village of Schaumburg, Illinois, a Chicago suburb with a population of over 75,000. As the Village’s Cable Television Administrator, he enforced the Village’s cable television franchise agreement, and oversaw the transfer of ownership of the franchise from Cablenet Associates to Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), negotiated modifications to the franchise agreement, and developed cable customer service standards. He directed a conversion of the cable system from a dual cable to a single cable system, and supervised a performance evaluation of the cable system, which included a technical assessment of the system, and an audit of franchise fee payments. Mr. Chapman advised the Village Manager, Mayor, and Village Board of Trustees of legislative changes and technological advances in cable TV and related telecommunications, which affected community residents and municipal government operations.
Mr. Chapman has addressed the Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky Municipal Leagues on telecommunications issues. He has spoken at numerous National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) and Illinois NATOA conferences, and has lectured at the University of Wisconsin seminar on Municipal Telecommunications Regulation.
Mr. Chapman graduated with a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from The Ohio State University. He has also received a Certificate in Negotiation and Collective Bargaining Skills from the Illinois Public Employer Labor Relations Association. He is a former member of the International City/County Management Association, and a current member of the Illinois City/County Management Association, the Illinois Municipal Broadband Communications Association, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), and the Illinois Institute for Local Government Law. He is currently president of the Illinois Chapter of NATOA, and is a recipient of NATOA’s Ovation award.