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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009/12/10 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - RegularOFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF DECEMBER 10, 2009 ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Bruce Browning, Rick Dworsky, Dale Hartman, Toby Keeler and Mike Mulligan MEMBERS ABSENT: David Dyer and Rolf Peterson STAFF PRESENT: Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator OTHERS PRESENT: Arlen Mattern, Comcast Cable Public Affairs Administrator; 1. Call to Order Chair Keeler called the meeting to order at 7:02 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Browning, Dworsky, Keeler and Mulligan. Commissioner Hartman arrived at 7:05 PM. 3. Approval of Minutes for October 8, 2009 It was moved by Commissioner Browning, seconded by Commissioner Mulligan, to approve the minutes of October 8, 2009, without changes. The motion passed 4-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda The agenda was approved as presented. 5. Public Comment - None 6. New Business A. Comcast presentation on new cable rates and/or changes in the channel line up Mr. Dunlap noted there were price increases for: Standard cable, all of the Digital cable packages, additional outlet fees, High-Speed Internet modems, Digital Voice modems and late fees. Digital starter boxes will cost less and the price for all High-Speed Internet packages dropped. Many things stayed the same, including: Basic cable, installation fees and service charges, equipment costs such as digital receivers, premium services like HBO, etc. and the bundled Triple-play packages. There are less expensive services offered by Comcast such as Basic Cable and the Family Tier for under $30. Digital Economy is a new video service that offers 49 channels for $29.95/month if you subscribe to other Comcast services like digital voice or high-speed Internet. Commissioners discussed other differences further. B. Federal Law updates including the CAP Act Mr. Dunlap noted there is nothing in the Commissions work plan that includes the CAP Act. It was discussed at the MACTA conferences and it fixes a few things that had been trouble for community TV, mostly in other parts of the country. In areas where AT&T’s Uverse system is offered, they put some local channels in low resolution in a sub menu available only on digital converters. The CAP Act prohibits discriminatory treatment of PEG channels, was introduced in the Federal House and will go to a committee. There is a push to get Minnesota elected officials involved. The Commission requested Mr. Dunlap provide a written report and wanted to support the Act. It is a benefit to the residents of the City and they wanted to address it further at the next meeting. C. Review School District programming reports Mr. Dunlap stated he exchanged Emails from School District personnel, but hadn’t heard back. This would need to be brought to the next meeting. D. Draft Annual Report for 2009 Mr. Dunlap indicated he Emailed the report to Commissioners and reviewed the report. Let him know if anything should be added. Commissioner Browning suggested including Commissioner members on the WiFi sub-committee. The Council Study session is January 11th. E. Draft Work Plan for 2010 Commissioners present made no additions to the Work Plan. This would also go to the January 11th Council Study Session. Chair Keeler noted LocaLoop should potentially need to be added. Mr. McHugh suggested local channel updates be added as an agenda item so they can also include channel 14. Commissioner Browning made a motion, Commissioner Mulligan seconded to approve the 2010 Work Plan. The motion passed 5-0. F. Set meetings for 2010 2010 meeting schedule: February 11, May 13, August 19, October 21 and December 2. G. Elect Chair & Vice Chair, effective next meeting Chair Keeler called for nominations for Chair. Commissioner Browning agreed to serve as Chair. Commissioner Mulligan nominated Commissioner Browning to serve as Chair, Commissioner Dworsky seconded the nomination. Chair Keeler called a second and third time for nominations. The motion to approve nomination of Commission Browning as Chair was carried 5-0. Chair Keeler volunteered to serve as Vice Chair. Commissioner Browning seconded the nomination. The Commission approved nomination of Commissioner Keeler as Vice Chair. Chair Keeler called for second and third nominations for Vice Chair. The motion to approve nomination of Commissioner Keeler as Vice Chair was carried 5-0. 7. Unfinished Business A. Long term fiber infrastructure planning update Chair Keeler stated he had been working with Clint Pires on the LocaLoop proposal. They had come to a tentative agreement on some terms. The Attorney’s for the City are drafting an agreement, which will be submitted to LocaLoop for review and approval. The plans and sketches and fiber location length had been submitted and appeared OK. LocaLoop is a little behind on the water tower antennae lease in that they need to submit plans to a company called KLM that the city uses to review the plans. They need to be approved by the FCC before the lease could be approved. This would delay them until the end of January or early February. Once it is approved, they can officially begin a pilot project. Commissioner Browning asked if this was happening anywhere else? Chair Keeler replied he was not aware of other locations. Mr. McHugh indicated St. Cloud and Duluth currently have WiMax systems, but they didn’t have any details about them. Commissioner Browning stated he would contact Duluth staff to get information for an upcoming meeting. Chair Keeler noted Clear Wire had also applied for an antennae lease on the water towers in St. Louis Park as well. The consultant for the City would begin a Fiber Optic policy study sometime in late January, after the LocaLoop material is cleared. The Commission should provide a recommendation to the City Council when that is completed. B. Park TV production van update Mr. Dunlap stated the target date to have the van ready was January 1st and that it is still on schedule. They are in the process of shipping the van and it will then be outfitted with the equipment. C. Proposed Park TV & School District #283 agreement Mr. Dunlap indicated Jamie Zwilling, the Communications Coordinator, said he had gotten some feedback from the School District on the agreement and there are still some details to work out. They hope to have that completed before the next meeting. D. Comcast audit update Mr. Dunlap said the auditor expected Comcast would have to pay any revenue that was underpaid for either the Time Warner period of time from 2005 and 2006 or the Comcast period of time from 2006 to 2007. Robin Pepper from Comcast informed him that it was their opinion that Time Warner was responsible for the unpaid balances during their period of time because it wasn’t a traditional transfer, it was a special arrangement as part of the Adelphia bankruptcy. He was waiting to hear back from Time Warner who had received the report. Other Business: Commissioner Browning said that Comcast analog receivers may go away and everyone would be required to have a digital receiver to pick up analog signals, was that accurate? Mr. Mattern replied it was coming, but he was not sure when. They are currently working on this on the east side systems to notify their customers that it was happening. Commissioner Mulligan indicated the FCC just passed another upgrade after the digital conversion that allows mobile digital connections. Commissioner Browning replied he had read an article about it and television stations wanted to transmit their information to mobile phones and other mobile devices. He could find out if the local stations were considering this. 8. Reports A. Complaints Mr. Dunlap noted he had complied the annual complaint log from City staff including a comparison from 2005 to 2009. The largest number of complaints related to billing issues. Customer service, relations, missed/late appointments, company response and attitude received zero complaints throughout the year, which was good news. The total cable service complaints were down in 2009 with 76 complaints logged over the year. Chair Keeler said the complaints were trending down, in the right direction, and thanked Mr. Mattern for his help with these. 9. Communication from the Chair - None 10. Communications from City Staff Mr. McHugh noted he passed out a programming summary of original programming that community TV had done in 2009 and said programming premiers were lower because producer Scott Smith has been producing Park Update since June, which can be seen on all the Park TV channels and the City’s You Tube channel. 11. Adjournment Commissioner Dworsky made a motion, Commission Browning seconded to adjourn at 7:52. The motion passed. Respectfully submitted by: Amy L. Stegora-Peterson Recording Secretary