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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005/12/08 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - RegularOFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF DECEMBER 8, 2005 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Rick Dworsky, Dale Hartman, Mary Jean Overend and Rolf Peterson MEMBERS ABSENT: Bruce Browning, Ken Huiras and Bob Jacobson, STAFF PRESENT: Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator OTHERS PRESENT: Arlen Mattern, Time Warner Cable Public Affairs Administrator 1. Call to Order Chair Dworsky called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Dworsky, Hartman, Overend and Peterson. 3. Approval of Minutes for October 6, 2005 Commissioner Peterson indicated it should note he abstained on the motion to approve the July 26, 2005 minutes. It was moved by Commissioner Peterson, seconded by Commissioner Hartman, to approve the minutes of October 6, 2005, without changes. The motion passed 4-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda It was moved by Commissioner Overend, seconded by Commissioner Peterson, to approve the agenda. The motion passed 4-0. 5. Public Comment - None 6. New Business A. Time Warner presentation on new cable rates Mr. Dunlap indicated most rates were going up $2.30 to $3.00 (not including 5% franchise fee and 6.5% Minnesota sales tax) and reviewed the changes in packages. The increase was about 5%, similar to what the industry had done the last few years and similar to Comcast’s proposed increase. Converter boxes, Road Runner, digital telephone and the movie pack, sports pack and single premium channel prices were not going up. The trip charge for a technician to come to your home had dropped, as well as the hourly service charge for custom work. Chair Dworsky asked the rationale for the increase and what the customer could expect? Mr. Mattern replied the increase was for operating expenses, and that quality of programming was also a major factor. Commissioner Hartman expressed a concern about paying for sports channels when people didn’t view them as well as channels that had a lot of infomercials. Mr. Mattern responded sports channels were very popular which was why there were so many. Commissioner Hartman suggested programs running between 6-9 PM should be repeated later in the evening. Mr. Mattern replied they didn’t control the programming. Mr. Dunlap indicated companies were considering a la carte more and as well as offering more tiers such as a family tier. B. Review School District reports Mr. Dunlap stated the $31,500 that went to the School District late last year, as part of an equipment grant from Time Warner had not been spent. The proposal was to upgrade the senior high studio facility. They were waiting to see what happened with the proposal for Pavek Museum and whether or not they could go forward with putting a community TV studio there. They upgraded the NASA TV signal to digital. They were going to do a pilot project sending video over their fiber and use the Central Community Center and the Spanish Immersion School as the test case because there was presently no cable service there. They were getting a tremendous amount of programming from Susan Lindgren School, as well as programs from the Senior High, Aquilla and Peter Hobart. Chair Dworsky asked a time frame for the Pavek Museum? Mr. McHugh replied he would include that in the renewal update. C. Set meetings for 2006 The Commission set the 2006 meeting schedule as follows: January 19, February 9 (Annual meeting), March 27th tentatively (Joint meeting with City Council), May 4, August 3, October 5 and December 7. Mr. Dunlap indicated he would report back if there were conflicts with room availability. D. Work Plan for 2006 Mr. Dunlap suggested the Commission use this time to suggest additional items. They will host a meeting January 19th to discuss the City’s website and improvements the public would like to see. The City hired a new web master and they are considering video streaming of City Council meetings and adding other features. The Commission could combine this with the annual meeting. Chair Dworsky asked if there was a way to solicit input and let people know how to provide suggestions? Mr. Dunlap replied they could call him with input or send an email. Chair Dworsky suggested a link be provided on the website for people to comments. Commissioner Peterson asked about the visioning on the January 19th schedule? Mr. Dunlap replied Martha McDonell, the facilitator, would be discussing it after the meeting. He described the Vision St. Louis Park process. They will begin running a DVD of the process on Channel 17 in the next week or two. 7. Old Business A. Franchise Renewal Update Mr. McHugh reported the renewal would be going before City Council on December 19th. It had been continued several times. The discussions were now between legal counsel, which was a good sign and they were close to finalizing language. Another issue was how long the existing television production studio would be available before replacement and possibility of using the Pavek Museum. Chair Dworsky asked if there was a time frame? Mr. McHugh replied December 19, 2005. A letter was received from the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting regarding the proposed studio and their conditions for using it. The City needed to provide liability insurance. The Pavek Museum needed to be able to use the studio for their purposes and the City would need to schedule around museum use. The television production studio would be a new addition, which was driving their interest to use for school field trips. A concern was where they would put the studio and it would probably require a City variance. He hoped there would be progress before the Commission meeting on January 19th. B. Transfer of cable system from Time Warner to Comcast Mr. Dunlap reported the transfer would be going to Council on December 19th with the franchise renewal. Fridley, Shakopee and Bloomington had all approved a transfer to Comcast. Minneapolis was not as close and had presented several conditions. Commissioner Peterson asked what kind of conditions other cities proposed? Mr. Dunlap replied Bloomington went with St. Louis Park on a franchise fee review. Bloomington’s was conditioned that the franchise fee would be wrapped up to their satisfaction. Shakopee’s conditions weren’t extraordinary. Minneapolis had presented several pages of conditions, such as Comcast specifically stating there would be no impact to customers after the transfer happened and rates would not go up as a result of the transfer. There were a series of things Comcast had to provide to the City of Minneapolis in writing within 30 days. C. St. Louis Park Wi-Fi pilot project update Mr. McHugh indicated the City had done research on wireless options. One of the driving factors was for the City to use wireless connectivity as opposed to on going monthly payments to an independent provider. Public Safety and public services would test this to make sure it worked in the field. Use for residents would go along with that. City Council had recently chosen to go ahead with a pilot project, which would be done in four residential areas (not chosen yet), a business area and a multiple unit dwelling. The timeline would be to select pilot areas in end of January, beginning of February. Evaluation would happen in April and May, concluding with a survey of users in May. After the evaluation, Council would decide if they wanted to go citywide. The pilot project would cost less than $300,000, which will be an internal loan from the Economic Development Fund. If rollout were done citywide, it was estimated to cost around $4.4 million. Chair Dworsky asked when the Council would decide? Mr. McHugh replied the end of May. 8. Reports A. Complaints Chair Dworsky indicated many of the complaints were regarding emergency broadcasting tests. What should viewers expect and what was the difference between analog and digital and the frequency? Mr. Dunlap replied that Time Warner had recently provided answers for the complainant. A Time Warner engineer indicated many of the cable channels on standard cable are part of an advertising system. If you are on one of those channels, during the alert system tests (generated monthly), there is a crawl at the bottom of the screen and you can still see your program. One of the exceptions was Turner Classic Movies, TCM. TCM shows a full screen graphic for 20-30 seconds saying a test was underway. Time Warner expects to replace the emergency alert system component that causes this problem by the end of the year and the customer was satisfied to hear that. Chair Dworsky asked Mr. Mattern to report about complaints 4, 5 and 6. On complaint number four, it concerned him that it noted no supervisor was available. Mr. Mattern stated the supervisor was possibly on the phone with another customer or away from their desk. This customer had an account that was still past due and he believed they went over and above for them. They were supposed to get back to the customer on #5, but had been provided with the wrong address and phone number and couldn’t get back to the customer. On compliant #6, work had been done, but the customer hadn’t checked before calling. Commissioner Hartman indicated Channels 63-69 had been experiencing an intermittent interference problem between 9-10 PM that made it difficult to watch. Mr. Mattern responded he could have someone check the area. Commissioner Peterson stated he had seen the same problems and added he could faintly see another channel. It was very intermittent. Mr. Mattern stated he would have the channels monitored. Commissioner Overend indicated she had noticed problems with audio on Channel 17 with the School Board meetings. Commissioner Peterson replied they have a different microphone system and School Board members need to hold the microphone button down when speaking. Sometimes they don’t remember to do that. They are looking at improving their broadcasts. 9. Communication from the Chair Chair Dworsky indicated channel WGN exchanged their satellite. Was that an improvement? Mr. Dunlap replied yes, the customer who complained said it was definitely improved. 10. Communications from City Staff Mr. McHugh stated Channel 15 programming had a catastrophic failure of two DVD jukeboxes. A DVD changer was on order. If it works, they will order more. Plan “B” was to alternate programming with the remaining jukebox and video server and VCR’s. . He provided a list of Channel 15 programs produced so far this year. 11. Adjournment Commissioner Peterson made a motion, Commission Overend seconded to adjourn at 7:58. The motion passed. Respectfully submitted by: Amy L. Stegora-Peterson Recording Secretary