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TC 12-01-99 Telecommunications Commission Regular Meeting Doc~-~-~bor l, 1999 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Sal Algeri at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Sal Aigeri, L.T. Guttadauro, Ernest Tsui, David Eggleston; Bill Mannion Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren De Anza College: Bob Haber AT&T: Eddie Garcia Guests: Linda Grodt, Michael Isbutt APPROVAL OF OCTOBER 6, 1999 MINUTES Guttadauro made a motion to accept the minutes as submitted, Mannion seconded thc motion. All in favor. Aigeri and Tsui abstained. Motion passed APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER 3, 1999 MINUTES Eggleston made a motion to accept the minutes as submitted, Guttadauro seconded the motion. Ail in favor. Mannion abstained. Motion passed. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: L'mda Grodt said her shows have been aired on the educational channel, which broadcasts all over Milpitas, San Jose and Sunnyvale, but as of Jan. 5, they will be taken off this channel and will not have the exposure they've had in the past. Producers are upset, she said. Haber said the distance learning demands have tripled and demands will only increase. There are possibilities of other avenues and they are looking at a few other options, however. Written: Tsui reported on his visit to AT&T San Jose/Cupertino Cable Headend. Tsui. saw the summer testing results and said they were not as good as the winter tests, however, they did pass the FCC requircments. The AT&T people were very informative, he said. Staffreported on Wally Dean's status. Commission agreed to take educational grant applications out of order. NEW BUSINESS Review of educational grant applications - Commission was very impressed with the proposal submitted by Regnart School. Mannion made a motion to approve the Regnart proposal for $$,000. Guttadauro seconded the motion. All in favor, with Tsui voting against. Tsui said he would have pulled the personal computer from the proposal. Motion passed. Algeri made a motion to deny the proposal from Eaton. Mannion seconded the motion. Commission agreed the proposal did not meet the goals. All in favor. Motion passed. Algeri made a motion to postpone votinE on the proposal submitted by Fremont Union High School District until they submitted a more detailed budget or submitted an alternate proposal. Guttadauro seconded the motion. All in favor. This iterr~ will be placed on the agenda in January. OLD BUSINESS Activities Calendar. The date of the December Producer's meeting was changed from the 13th to the 6th. Guttadauro end Algeri will attend the COPA presentation. Tsui volunteered to go to the January Mayor's breakfast meeting. Eggleston will attend thc February meeting and Guttadauro will attend the March meeting. Review and update of producer guidelines and agreement form with De Anza College access director - Bob Haber mentioned the specific changes that were made to the agre~i~ent (date change, reference from TCI to AT&T, and change to reflect Cupertino Community Television Channel 15). There were no major changes to the agreement. In the Guidelines, the AT&T references and Channel 15 designations were corrected. The do's and don'ts of sponsorships were clarified and exhibit numbers were added. Commission will review the copy Haber submitted and he will give them a final copy at the Jan~_~_~_ry meeting. Commission will be prepared to vote on the guidelines and agreement at the January commission meeting. Mannion suggested it be updated each year. Tsui suggested and Algeri agreed the section on copyrights be combined to include music and video. NEW BUSINESS AT&T representative - ~liome service- The representative was not in attendance at the meeting and his presentation was postponed to Jan,~ary. Eddie Garcia - Open Access Presentation - Eddie Garcia, government affairs director at AT&T, presented a summary of the open access issue to commissioners. Open access bA~ become a national debate, he said, that has reached the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Large telephone companies are lobbying to have cable operators open their lines, so that they can use them to offer high speed Interact access. Garcia said AT&T Broadband and Internet Se~ces has an exclusive agreement with Excite ~-Iome that runs for another two years. After that, he said, the company would like to open its lines through business partnerships, rather than because of regulations imposed by federal, state or local governments. In the meantime, telephone lobbyists have homed in on cities that are negotiating fianchise agreements, hoping to use the open access issue as a lever for renewal and approving AT&T mergers. Gareia said thus far, 1,451 municipalities have approved transfers without imposing forced acces: cities are attempting to impose open access, and those cases are in the courts. He also said there were several myths surrounding the open access issue that have no basis in fact. These include fees for AT&T Internet access, consumer choice of ISP and cable blocking of Internet content. Commissioners asked several questions and then thanked Garcia for his explanation of the open access controversy. COPA subcommittee recommendation - The subcommittee recommended George Maragoluf for the COPA award. Eggleston said Maragoluf's consistency, productivity and value to the community all contributed to why he was selected. Eggleston made a motion to select George Maragoluf as the winner of the COPA award. Guttadauro seconded the motion. All in favor. Motion passed. Krey sa/d she will do a press release on the C0PA award and put it in the January ,qcene. The award will be presented on Dec. 6th at thc Producer's meeting. Mayor request of goals identification - Krey said Mayor Statton wanted to integrate the goals of the various city commissions into the city's goals. The Telecommunications Commission normally docs their goal setting in Sanuary, but took this opportunity to convey to Station three of their goals. · Joint project with the Planning Commission to develop a wireless facilities Master Plan for the city. Membeii will be involved in guiding the siting and design of aerial facilities throughout the city. · The seamless integration of the newly annexed Rancho l~inconada area into the main Cupertino cable system. The commission intends to monitor the cable upgrade now being done in this part of the city, and to ensure that residents have the identical technologically advanced system now available to the rest of the city. · Commission continue to work toward a goal that pwmotes the use of video and other media arts within the Cupertino educational system. Next year, members will develop specific activities that further that goal, for example, hosting an Open House event at the De Anza College Television Center for teachers and school administrators in both eleii~entary and high school districts. Krey will draft memo to Mayor Statton stating the Telecommunication Commission's goals. Reports from: TCI: Garcia reported to Commission during the month of October customer service representatives answered incoming calls within 30 seconds, 92.8% of the time. Commission had no questions for Garcia. City of Cupertino: Krey reviewed with Commission the letter David Walton, AT&T Area Director, sent to Don Brown regarding the customer coupons. Tsui recommended publicizing that AT&T is still willing to honor the rebate coupons for those who were inconvenienced by the upsrade. Garcia said this was a policy issue and felt Walton should deal directly with the city manager. Krey said the city manager had asked specifically for input from the commission. Algeri made a motion that AT&T extends its rebate period and that staff work with the company to come to a resolution on the issue. Tsui seconded the motion. All in favor. De Aaza College: Haber reported that due to the ever increasing demand for distance learning programming on the Education Channel, the Public Access hour, currently Monday through Friday from 6 to 7 p.m. was eliminated. This programming change takes effect on lan. 3, 2000. As an alternative measure, Haber was able to obtain Public Access time on the Education Channel toward the end of each quarter, when there is a substantial decrease in Distance Learning programming. Haber said they ordered a Mini DV deck by IVC. This deck will be used in conjunction with the 03 Macintosh computer which is equipped with final cut pro video editing software. Cupertino Community Television received four awards for BACE, three awards for Hometown and seven awards for WAVE. The latest episode of Gustine Castle and You, a WAVE award winner this year, was completed last week and aired. The 21st episode of Cupertino Access Pub is complete and will air Dec. 9 at 6 p.m. Haber reported the newsletter for October, November and Decei~ber will be completed early next week. AI}JO~lqT Mannion made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:21 p.m.; Algeri seconded and the motion passed unanimously. ATTEST: APPROVED: