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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000/01/27 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - Regular Minutes of the Cable TV Advisory Commission January 27, 2000 Page 1 OFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK CABLE TV ADVISORY COMMISSION JANUARY 27, 2000 --7:00 P.M. ST. LOUIS PARK CITY HALL SECOND FLOOR, NORTH #1 CONFERENCE ROOM MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce Browning, Dale Hartman, John Herbert and Mary Jean Overend MEMBERS ABSENT: Rick Dworsky, Ken Huiras and Robert Jacobson STAFF PRESENT: Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator; and Shirley Olson, Recording Secretary 1. Call to Order - Roll Call Vice Chair Browning called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Roll Call: All current members of the Commission were present except Rick Dworsky, Ken Huiras and Robert Jacobson. 3. Approval of Minutes: It was moved by Mary Jean Overend, seconded by John Herbert, to approve the minutes of December 9, 1999 meeting of the Cable TV Advisory Commission with the following corrections. Motion carried unanimously. Page 2, Paragraph 6, change to “Reg Dunlap asked what the plan was for the full-time Leased Access Channel 23. Arlen Mattern said that it would be infomercials produced by Guthy- Renker.” Page 2, Paragraph 9, delete “with VCR.” Page 2, Paragraph 11, change “City Council” to “City Manager’s Office.” 4. Adoption of Agenda: Vice Chair Browning recommended that agenda be adopted with addition of Item 6c. The Commission concurred. 5. New Business a. Annual Commission Report to City Council Minutes of the Cable TV Advisory Commission January 27, 2000 Page 2 Reg Dunlap gave a brief update and indicated the date for when the Annual Commission Report was to be presented to City Council was yet to be determined. b. Election of Commission Officers Vice Chair Browning recommended that this item be tabled until the April, 2000 meeting when members of the Commission absent at this meeting would be present. Mary Jean Overend stated that she was not interested in being an officer. c. Discussion of additional information received concerning Basic Cable costs and channel line-up Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator gave a brief update on the information received concerning basic cable costs and channel line-up. He indicated that the information received showed that there were external costs to meet these basic costs. He questioned line 704 and line 707 on the external cost worksheet and recommended no action until further review and clarification. Mary Jean Overend agreed to direct staff to investigate this issue for further and report back to the Commission. The Commission reviewed the channel line-up for St. Louis Park and noticed C-SPAN was deleted. Reg Dunlap said that Time Warner’s position is that they were in compliance because they gave 30 day notice that C-SPAN would move to a new channel; but they did not clearly state that it would no longer be available on Basic cable. John Herbert believed that the Commission’s responsibility was to oversee the Franchise Ordinance which established proper controls. John Herbert moved to direct staff to research if there was inadequate notice and provide feedback as to what has been done and if it was appropriate. The Commission reviewed the Franchise Agreement, Page 88, Section 9-719, Section 4 (e) Report on Channel Use; Notice. “When television stations are to be deleted or added, the City and all subscribers shall be notified in writing thirty (30) days prior to the date of a deletion or Addition.” The Commission questioned if the language television station referred to a cable channel and concurred that it did. Reg Dunlap indicated that C-SPAN was only deleted for basic subscribers. Minutes of the Cable TV Advisory Commission January 27, 2000 Page 3 The consensus of the Commission was that Time Warner deleted C-SPAN from basic cable without proper notice and were in violation of the Franchise Agreement. Mary Jean Overend believed staff should ask regulators about this violation. She believed it was important to set a precedent for the future. John Herbert said that large organizations such as Time Warner needed to be held to agreements because there was no purpose in having a body to uphold the agreement if decisions were going to be rubber stamped. He withdrew his motion. It was then moved by John Herbert, seconded by Mary Jean Overend, to recommend to the City Council that the Commission believes Time Warner is in violation of Section 4E, Section 9-719 of the Franchise Ordinance and to direct staff to follow-up on corrective action to bring the company into compliance. The motion passed unanimously. d. TV Guide Channel Update At the December meeting, the Commission was concerned that Time Warner removing the TV Guide Channel from the channel line up may be a violation the City’s franchise ordinance (9- 719, paragraph 4). After the 750 MHz upgrade, a channel guide will be available to subscribers who rent converter boxes, but not available to cable-ready TV sets. Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator indicated that he talked with Time Warner about the complaints received and believed that although this was a less than perfect solution, there was not a lot of recourse. John McHugh noted that Commissioner Dworsky, who could not be present at the meeting, sent an email stating that he was displeased with this solution. John Herbert stated that there may be a franchise violation here, but the Franchise Ordinance language was weak. The Commission suggested considering using a basic cable channel for TV Guide and also a health care information channel in the future. e. Needs Assessment John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator gave an update. He indicated a meeting was held recently where the list of questions for the needs assessment were reviewed and recrafted. He stated that questions on income have now been included. He stated that the data collection process would start in March with the business and educational communities and results would be back by April, 2000. Mary Jean Overend was concerned that the response may be moderate and wouldn’t determine futuristic technology needs of the community. Minutes of the Cable TV Advisory Commission January 27, 2000 Page 4 The Commission briefly discussed the feasibility of determining the pulse of future needs without knowing what the future technology possibilities are going to be and that the proposed needs assessment was designed to determine current unmet needs. f. School District funding for 2000 Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator stated had no update on this issue, since he had not yet received a report from the School District as requested by the Commission. 6. Old Business a. Annual Commission Work Plan The Commission directed staff to provide a draft of the work plan to the Commission to review before the meeting scheduled for March 13th or March 27th. b. Other - None 7. Reports a. Reg Dunlap presented a brief review of additional Time Warner cable complaints logged by city staff. 8. Communications from the Vice Chair - None 9. Communications from City Staff Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator indicated that Councilmembers Latz, Nelson and Sanger stated their reluctance to support Senator Kelley’s proposed legislation since funds would go to the state without any guarantees it would come back to St. Louis Park. He also said the Council seemed to support some eventual restructuring of telecommunications regulation that protected the City’s interests. Reg Dunlap said that Time Warner has provided maps and plans to proceed with the upgrade to 750 MHz. He recommended that St. Louis Park could waive the 30 day notice requirement to change a channel since it is easier for the company that way, the company is convinced it serves the customer better, and other cities have waived it: the Commission concurred. Reg Dunlap asked if there was any interest in the closed or open access AOL issue. The Commission believed open access was good for citizen and agreed to have staff investigate this issue further with the City Manager’s Office and report back to the Commission. Reg Dunlap explained that Portland, Oregon invited other competitors to overbuild their city for broadband since AT&T would not do it while the open access requirement was pending. He also said that a frequent question in St. Louis Park is: what has the city done to invite Minutes of the Cable TV Advisory Commission January 27, 2000 Page 5 competition? He asked if the Commission felt inviting competitors to St. Louis Park was a worthwhile expenditure of staff time, and the Commission concurred. He also stated that it was unlikely to result in any interest since Time Warner was upgrading the system. 10. Adjournment With no other business to come before the Commission, it was moved by Bruce Browning, seconded by Mary Jean Overend to adjourn at 8:55p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Shirley Olson Recording Secretary ATTEST: Reg Dunlap Civic TV Coordinator City of St. Louis Park