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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014/10/14 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - RegularOFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF October 14, 2014 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce Browning, Dale Hartman, Cindy Hoffman, Toby Keeler, and Bill Theobald MEMBERS ABSENT: Rolf Peterson and Andrew Reinhardt STAFF PRESENT: Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator OTHERS PRESENT: Kate Hensing, Comcast Cable 1. Call to Order Chair Hoffman called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Browning, Hartman, Hoffman, Keeler and Theobald. 3. Approval of Minutes for June 25, 2014 It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Keeler, to approve the minutes of June 25, 2014, without changes. The motion passed 5-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda It was moved by Commissioner Keeler, seconded by Commissioner Browning, to approve the agenda. The motion passed 5-0. 5. Public Comment Mr. Dunlap said a resident called him about receiving scam phone calls. The caller ID listed his or her own home phone number. He answered the call and it was “Rachel from card services,” which is a scam promotion and people should be careful and not provide private information like a credit card number. 6. New Business A. Comcast/Time Warner/Charter/GreatLand mergers Mr. Dunlap indicated that this item does not require a motion at this time. The Commission has received a detailed report with information provided by Comcast. Comcast plans to provide additional financial information as a part of SEC filings by October 31st. There was an extension to January 15th for City action. Brian Grogan, the contract attorney hired to assist with the transfer process, mentioned that the extension doesn’t help much, and there may be new members on this Commission and on other City Councils. Mr. Grogan suggested extending the deadline to February, which would be easier for municipalities. Comcast included information about wanting to resolve this through discussions. Tentatively staff is planning on the December 8th City Council study session as the time to meet with Brian Grogan. The next regular commission meeting is December 9th. Staff needs to find out if Brian Grogan is available and if the report will be ready at that point. The response from Comcast included information that all field employees would be Midwest employees and that the call centers and customer service centers will be operated by Charter. GreatLand will take care of operating the system and technical services. The packages of services customers receive would be what is offered by Charter and would be different. They would transition to the Charter Spectrum services, which is similar to the Comcast X1 system in improved search functions and being internet-based. The transition will occur over one year, but the contract service agreement would be a three-year term. Commissioner Browning asked if 2/3 of GreatLand would still be owned by Comcast shareholders and the other 1/3 would be the Charter piece? Ms. Hensing replied yes. She had discussions with Brian about the concerns about new members. She talked with their team about that. In the letter, the number one question they got was what would happen with equipment. Everyone can keep their boxes and the Charter Spectrum service will work with the X1 boxes. The second question was about Email. For one year Comcast customers can maintain their Comcast.net address. When the domain is figured out, all messages will be forwarded to the new domain. It could be a one year transition or longer. We want to make sure there’s time for customers who pay bills online to make the transition. Phone numbers will stay the same. The most exciting thing is that Internet Essentials will still be continued. Mr. McHugh asked when Comcast would state in writing that the equipment would not need to be changed out to accommodate Spectrum programming? Ms. Hensing replied it was on page 12 of the letter, “customers will be able to continue to use their current premises equipment after the Transaction closes. Midwest Cable will rely initially on Comcast for transition services to support the X1 platform. Midwest Cable ultimately will deploy the Spectrum product suite developed by Charter, which will include a cloud- based user interface similar to the one X1 provides.” Mr. McHugh said it says initially they will be able to retain their equipment. They all know that equipment change-out puts additional pressure on customer services. It would be the right thing for Charter to state categorically that there will be no equipment changes because it will all be done on a software basis. Chair Hoffman asked if the customer service numbers would change? Ms. Hensing replied she was unsure. Chair Hoffman asked if they would retain the same customer service representatives and would they be located in the U.S.? Ms. Hensing stated they have two call centers in Minnesota, Minnetonka and St. Paul. The St. Paul office and 400 plus employees will go to Charter. Comcast will keep the Minnetonka office. Something really positive about the Charter call centers is that they are all based in the US. Mr. McHugh said that is something Charter should brag about. Comcast has met customer service needs inadequately using off-shore employees and it has not been a satisfactory experience. It says, “Charter will support Midwest Cable by providing customer service directly or through its vendors.” That is vague. It does not say United States customer service locations. The foreign locations Comcast has used have been unsatisfactory and have not met the needs of subscribers. Commissioner Browning asked technologically, what do they envision for further build out for fiber and if Charter was looking at that? He expects that Charter may have some competition fairly soon via fiber. Ms. Hensing was not able to answer at this time. They are still operating as Comcast now and still building out with fiber. After that, she was unsure. They are still waiting on the FCC ruling for approval of the transition. The new CEO, Michael Willner, is very innovative and comes from Insight Communications. Keith Hall is now overseeing government and corporate affairs and could meet with the commission. Mr. McHugh read the following as a suggestion, “whereas 50% or more of St. Louis Park subscribers have digital boxes in the electronic program guide or interactive program guide define programming, and whereas Comcast has declined over the years to provide city local programming on their electronic program guide, and whereas Charter states their spectrum guide will improve significantly television search and discovery functionality and whereas charter has the technical qualifications to operate and improve advanced features on a cable television system.” He suggested a transfer of franchise be conditioned on Charter promising to perform and adding the local channel listings to the electronic program guide in the same manor and convenience they provided to any other local programmer. Commissioner Browning replied that seemed like a reasonable request and didn’t understand why there would be an objection. Mr. McHugh believed because it is cumbersome. If they come up with an excuse, it means going forward for the future, local programming will not be searchable like any other programming. If they can’t do that, it speaks to their technical qualifications and they should be able to figure it out. He suggested they condition approval of the transfer on their promise to do that. Commissioner Browning said he would have no issue with that. Commissioner Keeler said they should be capturing these ideas, and we may have additional conditions to recommend when we meet with the City Council. Mr. Dunlap replied they would have other opportunities to discuss this. They could make a motion tonight, and then at a later date pass another motion with additional conditions. Chair Hoffman suggested they include the local stations and that it be put into writing that the CPE equipment stay in place and be changed only on a software basis. Mr. McHugh added local customer service. The imprint description is vague. Commissioner Browning suggested they table making a motion to next meeting to make sure when they make a motion it is well defined with the conditions. Commissioner Keeler asked staff to run the suggestions by Brian Grogan to get the wording correct for the recommendation to City Council. Mr. Dunlap stated their next commission meting would be December 9th. By then, they should know what action needed to be taken and if there is an extension. He will make sure those conditions are raised at the next meeting. Commissioner Keeler believed the FCC extended the comment period because of number of comments received. It appeared that there was some questioning about the approval based on the comments received. There was a good likelihood it would be extended. B. Franchise Fee audit update Mr. Dunlap prepared a summary of the progress so far. The consultant had been working with Marc Lockhard from Comcast. A short memo details the information requests over last few months. On October 9th a request for information was sent and included getting clarification on what they want Comcast to provide. The audit is on track to be complete by end of the year. Commissioner Browning asked how many local cities were in the group using MACTA for the transfer financial analysis? Commissioner Keeler replied 12 or 13 LFA’s. C. Complaints Mr. Dunlap noted the complaint log went back to late April. Commissioner Browning indicated that the escalation team is terrific, but people before should be able to take care of the issues before that point. A lot of the complaints have to do with cost and equipment. Chair Hoffman noted a lot of the comments were about reaching a different country and long wait times. Do they track hold times? Ms. Hensing replied that there was an option to receive a return call. She could look to see if they keep track of the times. D. FCC update Mr. Dunlap intended to prepare bullet point based on a presentation at the last MACTA meeting, but it was not ready at this point. E. Fiber Study updates Mr. Dunlap staff looked at the fiber study specific recommendations. The most significant thing to highlight was City built out fiber to three park buildings and put in background equipment to offer public Wi-Fi. The City plans to do three to five more buildings next year. Another part of having fiber in those park building is that it can be used for security and cameras and security services like opening the bathrooms. They will be continuing to re-route fiber (ex. Hwy 7). The Conduit that had been installed over last year related to the Connect the Park program and would continue. He will forward specific questions to Mr. Pires. Commissioner Browning liked what they were doing and they should continue. F. Studio update Mr. Dunlap indicated that there are people that use studio and because of that they found out that a camera in School Board meeting room doesn’t work (it is 12-13 years old) and should be replaced. Scott has used the studio 40 times for Park Update and he has also been shooting “Rec minute” features there. It gets used and is very adequate. Mr. McHugh noted the report showed he didn’t have any studio appointments. The alternative was doing things other than going to the studio. One of those results was a program called The DVD Dude, a resident who reviews Blue Ray movies. Commissioner Browning stated that Twin Cities Public Television did something in conjunction with the City of St. Louis Park that was currently running. He wondered what was done? Mr. Dunlap replied it was a program called Health in the Park and was part of grant from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. There would be a public viewing tomorrow, and soon will run it on the local Park TV channels. Park TV staff assisted shooting some of the video. The trailer is on YouTube. 7. Communication from the Chair, Commissioners and City Staff Mr. Dunlap noted Park Update won a national honorable mention award and Day in the Life won 2nd place at the NATOA conference. Commissioner Keeler thanked commission members who attended NATOA. Mr. McHugh distributed the local programming list from Channel 15 and some of the programs have been done in the City Hall conference rooms. 8. Adjournment Commissioner Browning made a motion, Commission Hartman seconded to adjourn at 7:42. The motion passed. Respectfully submitted by: Amy L. Stegora-Peterson Recording Secretary