TICC 04-04-2012 TECHNOLOGY, INFORMATION & COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Regular Meeting
April 4, 2012, 7:00 p.m.
Conference Room A, City Hall
MINUTES
CALL MEETING TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 7pm.
ROLL CALL
Commissioners present: Peter Friedland, Wally Iimura, Rod Livingood, Beverly Siegel, Shishir
Chavan
Commissioners absent:
Staff present:
Visitors: Rob McCoy
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
1. Minutes of the regular meeting of March 7, 2012
Commissioner Iimura made a motion to approve the minutes as submitted, Commissioner Chavan
seconded. Vote: 4-0 with 1 abstention (Friedland who was absent last meeting)
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
2. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission on any
matter not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three (3) minutes a person. In most cases, state
law will prohibit the commission from making any decisions with respect to a matter not listed on
the agenda.
Rob McCoy from the Public Safety Commission was present. He is the designated liaison to the
TICC. The TICC decided to reciprocate and send members to attend PSC meetings. Friedland
will attend the next meeting on April 12th
WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
3. March 2012—Letter from the PUC regarding area code changes
4. March 12, 2012—Letter from Comcast regarding enhancements to XFINITY
5. March 14, 2012—AT&T report regarding programming changes
The Commission had considerable discussion on the addition of the new area code (669). The
biggest surprise was the need to always include a 1 and the area code before a 408 number. This
would affect burglar alarms, health alerts, etc. which may need to be reprogrammed. It was
suggested that the city put several warnings in the Scene and on the website relating to this issue
since it won't be obvious for autodialers, some of which may be safety and health critical, after the
effective date. Commissioner Friedland will email Rick this request.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
6. Subcommittee reports on the Work Plan
Commissioner Livingood would like to withdraw his prior request to have the city complain to
Comcast about channel changes. However, he did want to focus on Comcast getting into the
equipment warranty business as noted in their recent letter. He felt that this was not covered under
their telecommunications license and wanted to see if the city would need to give explicit
permission to use their telecommunications associated mailers and other channels to advertise the
service. Also, Commissioner Livingood wanted to make sure the city would receive tax revenue
from any warranty fees. He also felt that such warranties were very likely to victimize senior
citizens and other less technologically knowledgeable citizens who don't realize the huge profit
margin they entail for Comcast. Commissioner Friedland will email Rick on this matter.
Commissioner Iimura is studying the use of SMS messaging after a disaster as a way of relieving
stress on the phone system. He will contact Randy Okamura of AT&T to get access to a technical
expert who can help determine whether such use by individuals to contact loved ones, etc. after a
disaster is something the city should recommend.
Commissioner Siegel talked about the progress of interviewing candidates for The Better Part.
Some have expressed concerns about legal restrictions, although those seem to have been allayed
by the city.
Commissioner Chavan is interested in studying performance of city website under stress from
simultaneous use. He will contact Rick on this subject. He also talked about the email from
Mariyah Serratos, The city's IT Manager, updating the TICC on progress in improving the City's
interne connection. Commissioner Friedland will be contacting Mariyah with the TICC's
concerns on this issue.
Commissioner Friedland provided an update on cell tower requests (no new ones recently). He
will contact Colin for update on the Results Way AT&T tower.
OLD BUSINESS
NEW BUSINESS
Commissioner Livingood raised the issue of Cupertino considering banning plastic bags in
grocery and other stores. He believes that the science does not support this idea and will present
the results of his research at the next TICC meeting. The TICC will then discuss this with Erin.
Commissioner Friedland talked about the impressive savings in water and electricity reported by
Erin Cooke at the previous TICC meeting after a year of implementation of the new irrigation
controls and new street lighting. The TICC felt that Erin Cooke and other involved city staff
should be complimented for this and moved that: "The TICC would like to compliment Erin
Cooke and other Cupertino staff for the impressive initial results of the "green" project to improve
irrigation and street lighting systems. Besides the positive environmental effects, there has already
been a substantial financial return to the City from these efforts." Shashir seconded and the
motion passed 5-0.
REPORTS
7. City of Cupertino
Commissioner Iimura reported on the Mayor's meeting on April 2.
MISCELLANEOUS
8. Review Activities Calendar
The TICC voted to move the next meeting to May 16 because both Commissioners Livingood and
Friedland had potential difficulties with the May 2 date. Commissioner Friedland made a motion
and Commissioner Livingood seconded, Vote: 5-0.
The Mayor's meeting on June 18 will be attended by Commissioner Chavan, the meeting on
August 6 by Commissioner Siegel, and the meeting on October 1 by Commissioner Livingood.
The Public Safety Commission meeting on April 12 will be attended by Commissioner Friedland,
the meeting on May 10 by Commissioner Chavan, and the meeting on June 14 by Commissioner
Iimura.
9. Review Action Items List
Actions 3, 4, and 11 were removed.
New actions were added:
Contact Rick Kitson regarding new area code planning and publicity—Commissioner Friedland
Contact Mariyah Serratos regarding City interne questions/concerns—Commissioner Friedland
Contact Colin Jung regarding the Results Way status—Commissioner Friedland
Do analysis of plastic bag recycling—Commissioner Livingood
Do analysis of SMS in emergencies—Commissioner Iimura
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 9:15pm.
SUBMITTED BY: APPROVED BY:
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Karen B. Guerin, Recording Secretary Peter Friedland, Chair