HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017/05/10 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - RegularOFFICIAL MINUTES
ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
MEETING OF May 10, 2017
ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS
MEMBERS PRESENT: Maren Anderson, Bruce Browning, David Dyer, Cindy
Hoffman and Abe Levine.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Rolf Peterson
STAFF PRESENT: Jacqueline Larson, Communications and Marketing
Manager, Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator and John
McHugh, Community TV Coordinator
OTHERS PRESENT: Kate Hensing, Comcast Manager of External Affairs
1. Call to Order
Chair Anderson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
2. Roll Call
Present at roll call were Commissioners Anderson, Browning, Dyer, Hoffman and
Levine.
3. Approval of Minutes for February 8, 2017.
It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Levine, to
approve the minutes. The motion passed 5-0.
4. Adoption of Agenda
It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Hoffman, to
approve the agenda. The motion passed 5-0.
5. Public Comment – None
6. Reports & Discussion
A. Comcast price increase effective June 1
Mr. Dunlap made a presentation about the price increases. Most bundles went up $5, and
DTA’s went up $2.
Commissioner Browning asked if Comcast carried all the broadcast sub channels, and
Commissioner Levine said that he thought they were all carried but in a different part of
the channel lineup. Mr. McHugh said some of them are in the 200’s channel positions.
Mr. McHugh passed out a handout from the Comcast web site that doesn’t list limited
basic. He raised this point in a meeting with Comcast earlier this week, and Karly
Werner said she would check on that.
Commissioner Dyer said that he feels the sports and broadcast fees should be part of the
package price, because people sign up for a package and then these fees get tacked on.
Ms. Hensing said that their competitors were also charging those fees outside of package
prices.
Commissioner Hoffman asked how the broadcast fees were set, and Ms. Hensing said
they were set across the region by the Comcast corporate office.
Commissioner Levine said that price increase could increase pressure to break up the
bundle, and lead to more over-the-top services. Ms. Hensing said that Comcast is still
adding video customers and the X1 box and apps are very popular.
Mr. Dunlap showed some screen captures from the My Account app and said he now sees
some value in it. For example, you can request that Comcast call you, which is nice for
the customers that hate telephone trees.
Ms. Hensing said there are other useful features in the app, but customer feedback shows
that the most convenient thing is for Comcast to contact the customer.
Commissioner Hoffman asked about the call history feature, if it includes details of the
call, or the referrals. Ms. Hensing said she was not sure.
B. Review Comcast first quarter compiled complaint log
Commissioner Browning said that he had an internet service problem, and when he
scheduled a service call, the technician came on the wrong day but luckily he was home.
It took two service calls, and it turned out to be a known network problem outside the
home. Ms. Hensing said that the Tech ETA app shows a picture of the tech, and the date
and time of the appointment, and when he is on the way. This is useful for customers that
are in their two hour appointment window.
Mr. Dunlap showed a slide of cable TV complaints received by City staff for 2015, 2016
and 2017. He said the 2017 complaints were compiled up to May 5 instead of stopping at
the end of quarter 1, so there are 5 more weeks of complaints listed for 2017 than for
2016. The good news is that the total complaints are similar, so the average number per
month is lower this year, 7.5 versus 9.6 last year in quarter 1.
Commissioner Dyer said in his previous service on the Commission, some complaints
were almost ridiculous in things that were going on, or in the responses to customers. He
said it doesn’t look that way now, and asked Mr. Dunlap if he feels there has been
improvement. Mr. Dunlap said Comcast is doing a better job of solving the easy
technical questions routinely. Their business has gotten a lot more complicated, but most
complaints are resolved quickly and to the benefit of the customer, which is good.
C. Discuss the City Council strategic goal: Supporting public and private schools and
community education initiatives.
Mr. Dunlap had a PowerPoint slide listing Council priorities and goals relating to this
topic. Commissioner Hoffman said that there is an annual cyber security session at
Metro State to check malware on phones and things like that. With the internet of things
on the horizon, the weakest point on the network allows access, so they demonstrate how
to securely set up a home network.
Commissioner Browning said that would be a good topic for a video recording. Mr.
McHugh said that he has recorded some of the appropriate sessions at the Lenox
Computer Buddies weekly class.
Commissioner Levine said that is free software available to help kids create their own
software, and that some schools are teaching kids 9 and 10 years old how to use
PowerPoint. That could help both adults and kids. He asked how to proceed with
creating that content and making it available to the schools.
Commissioner Browning suggested a meeting with School District staff to see how to
accomplish that. He said that targeting school children is great, but we shouldn’t
exclude older adults from these learning opportunities. Mr. McHugh said that
Community Ed accepts proposal for their catalog.
Commissioner Hoffman said the FBI has a web site with digital games to learn Java
online, for example. It shows how basic coding works. She suggested adding links to the
City web site for folks to self-learn, in addition to Community Ed classes, and she thinks
City of Bloomington’s web site has that. Ms. Larson said the City web site policy has
been for links to support the municipal government mission, so we have links to other
government agencies and nonprofits. She said there is a liability aspect, but we can raise
this with CIO Pires and IT Manager Jason Huber, and if the City of Bloomington does it
we can look at that.
Commissioner Hoffman said that the Police web site has tips on protecting your house or
car. This is similar to cyber protection.
Commissioner Levine said that it sounds like a meeting with the School officials is in
order to see how to proceed. Mr. Dunlap said that the Technology Officer at the School
District may have a wish list compiled, including useful projects that may be smaller
scale that won’t be part of the referendum but that could use City assistance.
D. Background on City’s new web site
Commissioner Levine said that he received a phishing email today that purported to be
from Comcast, and provided a link to find out more. Ms. Hensing said Comcast likes to
know when those happen.
Ms. Larson said the City is working with Vision to redesign the City web site, and started
with testing to find out how people want to use it. Commissioner Browning was part of
that. The biggest finding is that it is transaction based, they want to pay a utility bill or
check the Council agenda and leave. We’re finding that social media is a better place for
useful information like tech tips. The current site has about 8 ways to reach everything,
so we’re eliminating clutter. A contract writer is rewriting articles in plain language,
instead of simply transferring articles. There will be a soft launch next week and in early
June for the public.
Commissioner Browning said he’s recently started using Next Door, which is very useful,
and Ms. Larson agreed.
E. Consider survey of residents related to technology uses and interests
Mr. Dunlap described some direction from CIO Clint Pires on this, to ask what the
purpose of the survey would be and to consider the difficulty of doing a scientifically
valid survey. Mr. Pires suggested focusing on the subcommittee with Commissioner
Levine and Browning first, to review information already available, like the recent Smart
Cities webinar. Commissioner Browning said the webinar talked about Kansas City
using technology to determine how many parking spaces were available, and for traffic
and lighting control.
Commissioner Dyer said he got a recent online survey from the Police. He asked for a
reason why there wasn’t value to a Survey Monkey version. Mr. Dunlap said he didn’t
mean to suggest online surveys didn’t have value, because they are easily done and have
little cost. He was referring to a scientific sampling survey of enough residents to be an
accurate reflection of all of St. Louis Park for telecommunications practices, which
probably costs thousands of dollars. Ms. Larson said that Vision 3.0 is getting responses
from the community that include technology, so we may want to wait until some of that
is compiled.
Chair Anderson said she agreed that it may not be the best use of time and resources to do
a scientific survey but it would be interesting get information on the topic of supporting
schools and Community Ed. Commissioner Levine said that makes sense because the
survey has a purpose. He said it could be broken down, for example, into students and
those less technology astute, and identify what might help them. He said Survey Monkey
could work for that.
F. Review CenturyLink first quarterly meeting summary
Mr. Dunlap said that Chair Anderson, Commissioner Browning, Mr. McHugh and Mr.
Dunlap attended the CenturyLink quarterly meeting in March. He said CenturyLink has
put franchise negotiations on hold, after negotiating franchises with 40 or 50
communities. CenturyLink is considering an over-the-top product, which would be
available outside their service area. Our CenturyLink contact says they are committed to
Prism TV as a good product, but it is not a very profitable product, which is why they had
a price increase and are considering the over-the-top option. The take rate for Prism TV is
3.9% in St. Louis Park which is a bit under the metro average of 4.4%. Three of the
ParkTV channels are now carried in HD on CenturyLink and one is in HD on Comcast.
A marketing push will be forthcoming about that. CenturyLink now offers a 1-gig
symmetrical upload and download service for $179 per month.
Commissioner Browning asked Ms. Hensing if Comcast would offer a symmetrical
service? She replied, not yet, but they do offer fiber to the home in Roseville, since that’s
where their head end is. Commissioner Levine said if you’re going to do that, put it
underground instead of on utility poles, and don’t leave yourself at the mercy of the
weather.
G. Complaint logs for CenturyLink and Comcast
Commissioner Browning asked about the relationship between EarrthLink and Comcast?
Ms. Hensing said that the business agreement has expired and a notice letter was sent to
their customers. She added that Comcast is participating in the Smart Cities program in
Philadelphia, and when it’s ready, she offered to arrange for a presentation for the
Commission.
Commissioner Levine said that he didn’t see anything systemic in the complaint log.
Commissioner Browning asked if the products and price lists are available in the
Comcast stores, and Ms. Hensing said they are.
7. Communications from the Chair, Commissioners and City staff
Mr. McHugh passed out a list of programs he has recorded so far in 2017, and is up to
program 46. Commissioner Levine asked how many people watch these programs? Mr.
McHugh said the last benchmark was a statistically valid survey where awareness of
ParkTV as a whole was in double digits, at least ten percent had watched a program in the
last thirty days. Mr. Dunlap said that Bill Morris and Decision Resources used to
conduct surveys for the city, and in the last one, viewership of ParkTV was double the
usual rate in other cities. However, this information is at least ten years old. We look at
the You Tube hits for an indication, and many sports events are one hundred to three
hundred hits, and the Benilde vs. Park High games are regularly over five hundred hits.
Ms. Larson invited Commissioners to the Ice Cream Social at the new Recreation
Outdoor Center, with free ice cream and an opening ceremony and ribbon cutting.
8. Adjournment
Chair Anderson adjourned the meeting at 8:13 p.m.
Respectfully submitted by:
Reg Dunlap
Civic TV Coordinator