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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018/07/24 - ADMIN - Minutes - Community Technology Advisory Commission - Regular Telecommunications advisory commission Unofficial minutes Meeting of July 24, 2018 1. Call to order Vice chair Nathan Munson called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. as Chair Abe Levine was running late. 2. Roll call Present: Maren Anderson, Bruce Browning, Cindy Hoffman, Abe Levine (arrived 7:10 p.m.), Nathan Munson, Rolf Peterson Absent: David Dyer Staff: Reg Dunlap, Jacque Larson, John McHugh Guest: Brian Grogan, attorney, Moss & Barnett 3. Approval of minutes: May 9, 2018 McHugh said he was absent from this meeting; the minutes will be changed to show him as absent. Motion by Browning, second by Peterson to approve minutes; all voted in favor of approval. 4. Adoption of agenda No changes to the agenda. Motion by Hoffman, second by Browning to approve agenda; all voted in favor of approval. 5. Public comment: none 6. Reports and discussion Comcast background on franchise renewal timelines Brian Grogan, attorney with Moss & Barnett, gave a presentation regarding upcoming renewal of the Comcast franchise agreement with the city. Franchise ends in 2021, so agreement will need to be in place by the end of 2020. The plan is to bring a draft agreement to the city council by fall of 2020 to allow time for any possible changes. Comcast already triggered formal renewal process in January and said it would like to pursue informal negotiations, which is the standard for most renewal processes. Informal means there are no real timeline or deadlines; can’t force anyone to agree; and agreement must be mutual. If you can’t get it done informally, then you move to a more complicated process. The goal is to get a solid contract that meets the needs of the city and of Comcast. Grogan said the city should define its needs, wants and priorities. This will help craft a needs assessment that clearly articulates objectives to Comcast. In addition to a needs assessment, Grogan recommends a PEG review and a technical review prior to beginning negotiations. Levine asked if the technical review requirement could be written into the franchise agreement to be undertaken at any time, so money doesn’t have to be spent if it isn’t necessary. Grogan said yes, it could be, and save the money if city staff feel there isn’t a problem. Page 2 Dunlap asked about individual drops to people’s homes – city staff couldn’t necessarily inspect those facilities. Grogan said experts who do technical reviews are familiar with spotting issues with drops such as improper grounding, etc. The franchise gives city the right to say that if it’s not in compliance with code, even if on private property, we still have authority to enforce. Dunlap said a technical review was not done for the last franchise renewal. Grogan explained that a telephone survey focused on customer service and PEG system performance would be helpful but not required. This step could also be accomplished via public hearings, which costs almost nothing except time. Larson asked if the survey could be folded into a larger survey and still be effective. Grogan said yes, but would have to limit questions. Survey results can support city’s needs in a formal process and are also helpful to decision makers. Grogan explained the existing franchise was adopted in 2006 for a 15-year term. Most franchises now are ten years at the most. Subscriber counts at best are holding steady or dropping. Flat or slightly increasing franchise fee payment can be attributed to increased prices, not increased subscribers. Commissioner Levine asked if cable companies are using the same right of way, why only cable and not other services have to pay franchises (for example, use of telephone wires). Grogan explained that federal law has separate laws for cable, telecom and broadband. Cable can be franchised. Telecom is regulated at the state level through a public utility agency. Broadband (information services) has no regulation at the local or state level. Local government can’t regulate telecom or broadband. Grogan said Comcast is likely to say they want a cable TV franchise that lets them do anything they want in the right of way to provide service without further fees. The city wants to retain the ability to impose rules on citizens’ property – right of way. The FCC has been asked by large cable operators to unilaterally prohibit a city from doing that. City may wish to put in some comments at the FCC level to ask that they study this at the least before allowing companies to do whatever they want. Commissioner Levine asked about 5% fee; Grogan said it’s the maximum cap allowed by federal law. State just granted very favorable terms to telecoms to put small cells in right of way; cable companies wondering how that’s fair. Grogan said grant payments have become a lesser method used to finance PEG. Previously, there was an ever-increasing subscriber base over which to spread the grant costs. Now, companies would rather set an amount per subscriber or a percentage of gross revenues. Grogan stated that RFPs for various reviews and assessments will be completed in 2018, with reports received in 2019, then use to start drafting a contract midway through 2019. McHugh asked if, within the last five years, any city had to move to formal process and extend its current franchise. Grogan said this has become more common lately and cited several examples. Page 3 Grogan said right now cities are not held in high regard at the FCC; the term “barrier to entry” comes up a lot, especially with wireless. Trend line at federal level is to tie city’s hands. The goal should be to get the agreement done on or before expiration date rather than extend. Commissioner Peterson asked about impact of companies like US Internet on Comcast, etc. Commissioner Browning asked if we would reach a point where cable isn’t cable, it’s just data and that’s the business model. Grogan said if there is death of TV/cable it will be over a long period of years, not months. Some analysts say be careful of projection that it will continue at same clip of reducing subscribers. Commissioner Browning said he belongs to local broadcast engineers chapter; some are saying that over the air (OTA) services often have web/streaming presence and they foresee when OTA goes away because it’s expensive to have transmitters, electricity, etc. when streaming services already offer all of that. Grogan said this assumes everyone can afford the amount of service needed to support streaming. Commissioner Munson asked if there are any actions TAC should take before the October meeting related to franchise renewal. Grogan said no. If commissioners have questions, email them to Jacque Larson. Grogan mentioned it would be helpful to provide city comments on FCC proceedings related to local control. He suggested the city should prepare something other than a canned version, as it’s helpful to have uniqueness to filing. Commissioners were in support of this. At this time, Larson passed out a packet of letters to commissioners that had been sent from Mayor Jake Spano to legislators opposing recent proposed STREAMLINE legislation that would limit local control of small cell placement. Commissioners were pleased this letter had been sent. CenturyLink Dunlap told commissioners CenturyLink informed the city at the last quarterly meeting that it was up to the city if they wanted to continue having the meetings. Commissioner Browning was in favor of continuing the meetings. Larson suggested a teleconference since the meeting is often short and this will save travel time. Commissioners asked if CenturyLink would likely renew its franchise; Dunlap responded that no, at the last quarterly meeting the city was told CenturyLink wouldn’t pursue renewal. Larson reported on the city’s participation in a franchise fee review for CenturyLink. Results will be available in the fall. Commissioners had no questions. CenturyLink and Comcast complaint logs Commissioner Browning said that he was concerned by the amount of construction-related complaints listed in the logs. Commissioner Munson asked about right of way issues in his neighborhood. He asked if the city had a brochure about right of way obligations that also listed which entities could be in the right of way. Larson said she didn’t know if that existed but would check; if not it’s something the city could consider creating. Page 4 Commissioner Browning asked about various cables boxes from different manufacturers, and stated operations of boxes not the same. He wanted to know if a user could receive all the channels you should be able to get, or are you limited, regardless of box manufacturer Dunlap said customers who take digital preferred service receive the same service regardless of the box manufacturer. X1 is the full featured, flagship box from Comcast. Dunlap added that ParkTV staff have been adding information to Gracenote for past couple years for DTA and electronic programming guides. Commissioner Browning asked if internet is required for X1; answer is no. Commissioner Levine asked if a franchise needs assessment could include an up/down online tool similar to Xcel Energy. Commissoner Munson said he recently received advance notice of work, including text message before and text message after. Commissioner Levine said that’s for scheduled appointment; his case was different. He suggested Comcast should be able to send automated messages. Commissioner Browning said elderly people may not have smart phone capability so wouldn’t get texts. He added that a lot of people don’t know how to reboot their modem which is often the first suggested troubleshooting measure. He suggested it would advantageous to send instructions in the bill on a couple of items to try to troubleshoot before calling customer service. Smart Cities subcommittee progress report Commissioner Levine attended a meeting with staff about the Climate Action Plan. Levine said Environment and Sustainability Coordinator Shannon Pinc gave an excellent presentation. Levine sees it as an Internet of Things project. From the standpoint of being informed, there’s a massive amount of information to be aware of. Commissioner Munson asked if there was discussion of overlap between Climate Action Plan. Dunlap said yes. 7. Communications from the chair, commissioners and city staff MACTA conference Commissioner Browning said he attended a number of sessions at the June MACTA conference, including on closed captioning. Larson said there is money in the capital improvement program for 2019 for closed captioning; Dunlap said current equipment is compatible with closed captioning. Additional sessions included being better in front of a camera. Browning attended a technical session on live to web video, like how to use smartphones to provide programming. One example was a city that used smartphones on tripods to broadcast council meeting. This provides a means for a more cost-effective approach to government education. He thought it was exciting to see how people were using it for on location. The last session he attended was related to crisis communications. Browning found it worthwhile to attend the conference and it was well attended. McHugh passed out a programming report for Ch. 15. The commission reminisced about Dunlap’s long career with the city and wished him well in retirement. 8. Adjournment Browning motioned to adjourn the meeting, Anderson seconded. Meeting adjourned at 9 p.m.