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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004/12/02 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - Regular OFFICIAL MINUTES ST. LOUIS PARK TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING OF DECEMBER 2, 2004 7:00 PM ST. LOUIS PARK COUNCIL CHAMBERS MEMBERS PRESENT: Rick Dworsky, Dale Hartman, Ken Huiras, Bob Jacobson, Mary Jean Overend and, Rolf Peterson MEMBERS ABSENT: Bruce Browning STAFF PRESENT: Reg Dunlap, Civic TV Coordinator; John McHugh, Community TV Coordinator; Amy Stegora-Peterson, Recording Secretary OTHERS PRESENT: Arlen Mattern, Time Warner Cable Public Affairs Administrator 1. Call to Order Chair Huiras called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. 2. Roll Call Present at roll call were Commissioners Dworsky, Hartman, Huiras, Jacobson, Overend and Peterson. 3. Approval of Minutes for August 19, 2004 It was moved by Commissioner Jacobson, seconded by Commissioner Overend, to approve the minutes of August 19, 2004, as presented. The motion passed 6-0. 4. Adoption of Agenda 5. Old Business A. Renewal update Mr. McHugh reported that staff met with Time Warner Cable to go over several points. The School District indicated they were planning to transition audio and video signals to their own fiber optic network, but they haven’t done it yet. Once they have done that, they don’t need the traditional institutional network and then Time Warner could go ahead with whatever plans they had in mind. Time Warner indicated they wanted to use different technology to transport the signals of the local channels back to their building to send out to subscribers. Time Warner would be in contact with the School District on the transition for the institutional network. Mr. McHugh indicated that Mr. Dunlap met with Time Warner about the Emergency Alert System and saw a demonstration of the improved capability to use it with digital service. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 2 Mr. Dunlap stated that Time Warner staff conducted an emergency alert system test. They showed him the procedure which was a little more involved than the analog system test. Analog channels were 2-75, which most people with cable were watching. The test that they conducted was for digital channels 200-2000. The franchise called for an alert system to notify people of an emergency, typically related to weather, police or fire. The test of the digital alert system put a text crawl on the screen that would say for example, “Please tune to “x” channel for more information.” They would map it to the Civic channel and would have a generic screen stating what kind of emergency was occurring. The Police or Fire Chief could be shown live on the Civic channel and explain the emergency and what residents should do. The digital alert test was not as easily accomplished as the analog system that Police dispatchers had already been trained to use. Staff proposes to test at an appropriate time and at a minimum of inconvenience to customers. The system would electronically be mapped to the St. Louis Park area out of the Hennepin County system. The message would say that it was an alert for Central Hennepin County, it can’t be modified to say that the City of St. Louis Park is the source of the alert message. Commissioner Peterson asked if it was just video or was it audio too? Mr. Dunlap replied it was both video and audio. The visual information was canned information that they couldn’t control, other than specifying the channel to tune to. The audio file paralleled the visual text. Chair Huiras asked if dispatch would do this? Mr. Dunlap responded that they would make sure the Police and Fire management had a chance to let them know what made the most sense. In the case of a severe emergency situation, dispatchers would probably be very busy and unable to make the announcement. For a situation such as a weather emergency, he thought the police dispatchers would be the appropriate people to implement. If he were at work, he would make weather announcements, but he would develop a policy with emergency personnel that would be clear about who should make these announcements. Chair Huiras asked if the analog alert would still be done by the dispatchers or if it could be done remotely? Mr. Dunlap responded yes to both questions. Commissioner Jacobson asked if Time Warner would notify the subscribers of this activity? Mr. Dunlap said he was holding off notifying residents until he knew it worked. When the tests are done and the policy is ready, the alert system could be publicized in the newsletter or on the cable show. Commissioner Jacobson asked if school closings constituted an emergency? Mr. Dunlap responded he hadn’t thought to apply it to that. It would be less cumbersome for people to look on their local channels for that information. Commissioner Overend asked if they were linked to Hennepin County for a national emergency? Mr. Dunlap replied that this alert system was linked. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 3 Mr. McHugh stated that another item they discussed was customer service. Mr. Dunlap gave a proposal to Time Warner with two parts. One would describe in general terms the type of role that Mr. Mattern played helping the city and subscribers solve customer service issues. There would be the equivalent of that contact that could solve the problems. Mr. Dunlap added that the second item referred to policies that Time Warner had in writing. The second, “upon request Time Warner would provide the City a copy of their written policy…if they had a policy that pertained to the item in the complaint.” It was to be sure the company followed their normal procedures. If they didn’t apply the policy as clearly as they should have, the benefit of the doubt should go to the customer. The vast majority of complaints received are given to Mr. Mattern who reviews them and works with the customer to come to an agreement. Mr. McHugh indicated another item discussed was listing of local channels on Time Warner Cables channel guide, which was currently available only on the digital service or if you have a converter box and subscribe to navigator services. Time Warner proposed that they have a five-character channel description and a 17-character space displayed as channel listings go by that says something about the local channel. If you select the “info” button on the remote control, there is a three-line display, which may provide more information on programming as well as contact information. These displays are only available on the digital service. Mr. McHugh stated the last item discussed was local production issues and local origination and the equipment that went with it (ex. studio and production van). The City proposed that the local origination library, equipment inventory and van inventory be transferred to the City who was planning to assume responsibility for local origination programming in the City. Time Warner responded that they hadn’t finalized their plans for local origination in the city. The City hadn’t seen anything in writing that laid out what would be continuing. The City proposed to continue in much the same manner as Time Warner had up to this point. The City may be able to work out an arrangement with the School District to use the districts studio, which hadn’t been discussed with the School District yet. Staff also plans to continue using Time Warner’s studio in St. Louis Park. Mr. McHugh said that they would want the Time Warner studio equipment transferred to the access entities for use in a community studio setting. Almost everything on the Time Warner studio inventory had been fully depreciated and was purchased by previous franchise holders. Time Warner was going to respond to the proposal. Staff met with Time Warner’s Lance Leupold and Paul Olivier, a consulting engineer, who toured the facilities in City Hall and the School facilities. Mr. Olivier emailed Mr. Leupold that “within the constraints of what they were proposing for an access fee that was for equipment purchasing, if you want to, along with the consulting engineer, come up with a suggestion list of how that kind of money would be spent to benefit the community for production equipment, they would be happy to receive it.” Over the life of a 15-year franchise, the proposed access equipment fee adds up to approximately $460,000 of equipment without a production van. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 4 Mr. McHugh reported that the City proposed to Time Warner some cable television related items they would like to have considered as part of the renewal, including running fiber from existing locations of the police department (Meadowbrook community police station and the Texa-Tonka community police station) to City Hall. This would probably be using Time Warner’s existing plant, along with some new fiber. The third item was a water tower on West 34th Street. The City had preliminary plans for a local area network for a municipal wireless application for Police, Fire, Inspections and mobile laptops for those departments and remote meter readings for the City Utility Department. They were looking forward to integrating fiber provided by Time Warner into the City’s future technology plans, which would be good toward finalizing the franchise renewal. Chair Huiras asked if they were including Meadowbrook COP shop, and Mr. McHugh replied yes. Chair Huiras asked if they were still looking at closing the customer service location on Belt Line? Mr. McHugh replied that was proposed and the City responded if the company was no longer requiring any franchise required services in their building, that they could relocate the customer service within four driving miles of the City of St. Louis Park. They currently have a customer service store in Richfield on Penn Avenue. The City collected comments from residents and subscribers during the renewal comment period, about how they felt if they had to leave the City to get a new converter or pay their bill. There wasn’t much response. Chair Huiras asked how much the studio was used? Mr. McHugh replied it was used monthly or bi-monthly. Chair Huiras asked how much use the customer service facility got? Mr. Mattern replied whenever he had been there, there was someone there, although he didn’t believed it was a lot. Commissioner Dworsky asked about bill and equipment drop-off? Mr. Mattern responded that he didn’t have that information. Chair Huiras asked if they could complete the renewal talks by February, when the franchise expired? Mr. McHugh replied it was possible, but not likely, and that Council could extend the franchise ordinance up to six months. Commissioner Jacobson asked how the studio related to the renewal process? Mr. McHugh replied that they wanted to make sure that a studio opportunity for St. Louis Park was in any new franchise. Commissioner Jacobson asked if studio use was for citizens, staff and students or was it limited? Mr. McHugh responded that it would be available to the community. Typically students in public schools had access to school district facilities. One-third of the school children in St. Louis Park did not attend public schools. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 5 Commissioner Jacobson suggested that quite a few video producers were going digital and the analog equipment wasn’t being used, maybe they could make a deal to get some of the equipment. It would be very appropriate for the community studio to use. Chair Huiras asked if the Time Warner studio were closed, had they approached the School District for the public to use the high school studio? Mr. McHugh replied that November 15th the City used the high school studio for a community production. They were required to do an insurance policy. They hadn’t discussed continuing to use the studio. The production quality was as good as if they had done it at the Time Warner studio, the studio was bigger and in a handicapped accessible building. Chair Huiras asked if private schools could use some of the equipment? Mr. McHugh responded that they have offered production systems to a couple of private schools and it depended on their staff and if they had time. They had given some schools packages (camcorders, TV, VCR, etc.) and had gotten them back because they were not being used. It was better to give them the opportunity to do studio productions. Commissioner Peterson asked if there was a time limit when they used the high school? Mr. McHugh replied they aimed to start after school let out. There wasn’t a specific need to finish by a certain time, but it was convenient for them to be finished by six. Commissioner Peterson asked if there was a cost to the City? Mr. McHugh replied no. B. Emergency Alert System update See Item A above. Chair Huiras asked if they would continue to test the system? Mr. Dunlap replied yes, they would normally test the analog system the first Wednesday of the month at 1:00. They hadn’t come up with a procedure for the digital, but he believed it would be once or twice a year, and would work with Time Warner to determine that. C. Time Warner Annual Filings Mr. Dunlap stated the Finance Director Jean McGann indicated that the filings met generally accepted accounting principals and she didn’t have any concerns. She thought the table was a useful tool and a good way to track things such as the St. Louis Park revenues. If this generated questions, they could have a future discussion. Commissioner Dworsky indicated there were two areas where he had questions, the increase in general administration expenses and in interest expenses. Mr. Dunlap didn’t know the answer, but pointed out interest expense was much lower than it was in 1998. Considerable upgrades to the system were done to offer services like Road Runner and telephony, and that was possibly why those items increased. Chair Huiras asked if Road Runner was included? Mr. Dunlap said that he was unsure if Road Runner revenues would be included in these amounts. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 6 Chair Huiras stated inclusion of Road Runner might be the explanation for the jump in expenses from last year. Mr. Dunlap indicated he would ask for clarification and send information by email or provide it at the next meeting. 6. New Business A. Time Warner Cable information on new cable rates and/or changes in the channel line-up Mr. Mattern indicated there would be three changes, the addition of Nick Tunes, which would be on 245, WRNB Radio on the music choice channels and they were duplicating the TPT channels on the digital variety pack. Chair Huiras asked if the franchise said that they needed to notify the customers 30 days prior to the new rates? Mr. Mattern replied yes, he was unsure why they hadn’t received a notice. There should have been something in the bill to notify them that rates were changing. Chair Huiras asked if that was OK based on the franchise? It had always been a notification separate from billing. Mr. Dunlap replied he didn’t know if it had always been that way, or if it frequently had been that way. In terms of the notice, it was a federal law for notice 30 days prior to rate increase. He received his cable bill and with it the specified rate adjustments. Commissioner Dworsky asked if there would be anything about the significant increase on the standard package? Mr. Mattern said there would not be an explanation within the bill, and that the standard package increase was 4.9%. The price adjustments were due to purchase of new equipment, increased programming costs, system improvements, inflation, etc. and were based on FCC guidelines. They tried to keep it in the neighborhood of 5%. Mr. Dunlap indicated that the total for the standard package would go from $48.31 to $50.69, an increase of $2.38. The access fee would be going down $.62, which would offset some of the other increases. Mr. McHugh asked if the only changes for channel additions and deletions were digital and no changes to analog? Mr. Mattern replied yes. Chair Huiras asked if these were new channels? Mr. Mattern replied Nick Tunes and WRNB were new channels, TPT was a duplicate of channels that they already had. Mr. Dunlap commented that most residents would see their bill going up between $2.40 and $4. The converter box fee was going up, but the digital access fee was being eliminated for additional converters. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 7 Commissioner Dworsky asked why the access fee decreased? Mr. Mattern replied that last year Time Warner paid a $100,000 equipment grant and the access fee was increased to cover the grant, which had now been paid for. Commissioner Jacobson suggested that more information be put on the bill about the rate changes being based on FCC guidelines. Mr. Mattern responded that the rate wasn’t just based on FCC guidelines, there were other factors, and he could bring the issue to senior management. Chair Huiras asked if there had been any installations of the digital phone service? Mr. Mattern responded that they only had testers. Chair Huiras asked that the digital phone service information be included in the monthly report that the Commission received. Mr. Mattern replied that he could and briefly described the digital phone service. Chair Huiras asked if they could get information on the digital phone service and how it worked? Mr. Mattern responded that it goes into a router and gets attached to the phone. Because it doesn’t not have a batter back up, if you lose power the phone would not work. Commissioner Dworsky asked if they had thought about adding a battery backup? Mr. Mattern replied he wasn’t sure, but thought they were probably considering it. Commissioner Peterson asked if their network had battery backup? Mr. Mattern replied yes, they were required to. 7. Reports A. Complaints Chair Huiras noticed that there again seemed to be complaints about people on hold for long periods. Mr. Mattern stated that there were a lot of new customer service representatives (CSR). They were also getting more familiar with all of the products, in particular digital phone. It was a problem because some customer service reps hadn’t been with them for very long. It was a complicated group of products that they had to work with. They took a little more time to explain how things were working and there were a lot of options. People were also being taken off of the phones for additional training. They had another groups of CSR’s that were just about ready to begin, hopefully that would make a difference in the call times. Commissioner Dworsky asked how many calls came in for a normal day? Mr. Mattern replied they took about 2.5 million a year. The automated response unit was supposed to help with frequently asked questions. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 8 Chair Huiras asked if they could ask questions by email? Mr. Mattern replied a message could be sent to a customer service representative. He thought one of the complaints related to that as well. Chair Huiras indicated he had tried a few times in the past and it didn’t work. Commissioner Dworsky asked how many subscribers they had? Mr. Mattern replied there were about 207,000 customers. Commissioner Overend asked about the turn over? Mr. Mattern replied with that type of position, there typically was a big turn over of employees. 6. New Business B. School District Equipment Grant Mr. Dunlap reported that there were two options, the Commission could give 1/3 of the $100,000 equipment grant to the School District and could act based on the report provided, or the Commission could lay this over to the next meeting for more discussion with the School Board. Their proposal was about $31,000 of which the biggest was $22,000 to replace two cameras in the TV studio. Equipment mentioned in the request finished a three-year plan to refurbish the studio. The last equipment grant was two years ago for $38,000. They had now spent all but $1,700 of that. The most recent $8,881 was to purchase a personal title maker, a DVD recorder and player, stereo compressor, a series of audio equipment and rack mount gear. Commissioner Overend asked if it would be possible for the School Board to estimate the cost if the public began using the Studio? Mr. McHugh indicated that the biggest concern was that there were professionals to supervise studio use. At this point, there wasn’t staffing to do that. If there were any municipal or community use, there would be at least one employee there. He didn’t think that would be an additional cost, it would be scheduled into a workday for a city employee. Commissioner Peterson made a motion, Commission Dworsky seconded to approve a $31,500 equipment grant for the School District. The motion passed. C. Set Meetings for 2005 2005 meeting schedule: February 3, March-to be scheduled with City Council, May 5, August 4; October 6 and December 8. D. Work Plan for 2005 Chair Huiras indicated an item he would like to see added to the work plan was an update of the by-laws from the City Clerk. Mr. Dunlap replied he would speak to the City Clerk and put it in the next packet. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 9 Chair Huiras reviewed the proposed 2005 work plan. He asked what the conference policy was? Mr. Dunlap replied that came from the discussions for attending the National Telecommunications Officers and Advisors national conference. The basis was to decide who could attend the conferences and to form a policy. Typically there was money in the budget for one commissioner to attend the national conference. Commissioner Dworsky stated in October, assuming someone goes to the national conference, they could report on the September conference at that time. He attended a conference in Denver and heard about things you don’t hear at the state conference. There is an ability to meet with people throughout the country and to be able to hear about their cable systems. They heard from Comcast, Time Warner as well as national legislators. 7. Reports B. MACTA Conference oral reports Mr. Dunlap noted that Mr. Browning and Scott Smith toured the City of Bloomington facilities. Commissioner Dworsky stated that he toured the facilities and the Council Chambers were very impressive. Their studio was small, but they also have a theater and an art gallery. Chair Huiras asked if there was a legislative report? Mr. Dunlap replied yes, Senator Steve Kelly was there to talk about how he helped pass a “clean up” bill to State law Section 238. It would never have passed if he hadn’t carried it. The bill made it a lot easier any time a cable system is sold to another company. The transfer process was extremely awkward because State law conflicted with Federal law. That inconsistency has been taken care of. Chair Huiras asked if there was anything on the agenda for the next legislative session? Mr. Dunlap replied he didn’t recall the agenda but would keep the Telecommunications Commission posted. 8. Communication from the Chair - None 9. Communications from City Staff Mr. McHugh distributed an updated list of programs that the department had produced in 2004, including numerous programs with the Nurturing Our Retired Citizens (NORC) project at Lenox. Much was programming that would be pertinent in five years. Chair Huiras asked if the programs were available on tape? Mr. McHugh replied they had them on DVD, but did not have a DVD duplicator. Many are on VHS tape or could be copied for loan. They can also be scheduled by request. They were making an effort to publicize that a schedule of programming could be emailed if requested. St. Louis Park – Telecom. Cmsn Minutes December 2, 2004 10 Commissioner Dworsky asked if a resident wanted to request particular playback, how would they go about doing that? Mr. McHugh replied they could call City Hall at 924-2528 to request it. 10. Adjournment Commissioner Jacobson made a motion, Commission Dworsky seconded to adjourn at 8:35 PM. The motion passed. Respectfully submitted by: Amy L. Stegora-Peterson Recording Secretary