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TC 07-07-99 Teleeommunleafions Commission Regular Meeting luly 7, 1999 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Sal Algeri at 7:04 p.m. ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Sal Algeri, L.T. Guttadauro Bill Mannion, Ernest Tsui Commissioners absent: David Eggleston, Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren De .Anza College: Greg Bartschenfeld Guests: Linda Grodt, Shelby Reyes, Emie Piini APPROVAL oF JUNE 2, 1999 MINUTES Mannion made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Guttadauro seconded and the motion passed. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: None Written: A memo from Shelby Reyes, which included a list of questions to commissioners for his upcoming show, was included in the packets. Krey distributed the WAVE award applications, Community Media Review and the Commnnity Review Connection. Tsui asked if Krey could join thc SCTE (Society of Cable Television Engineers) on behalf of the commission. Krey said she would apply for membership. OLD BUSINESS Activities Calendar. The WAVE awards deadline of Aug. 20 was added to the calendar. Algeri asked Krey if COPA awards were promoted. Krey said she sends press releases to several media outlets. On Sept. 7 the applications become available and on Oct. 15 the applications are due. Krey said she would include De P, nza College on the mailing list. Review of grant application and guidelines - Mannlon submitted several changes to the Grant Guidelines and Application Procedures form that were included in the packet. Guttadauro incorporated some of the changes into the document. At the meeting, Tsui also suggested several changes to the document. Krey made an additional change. The following changes were made: · Add the word "program" and delete the words "proceeding program" to the Funding _ Acknowledgments paragraph. · Add the word '~mducers" to the Eligibility paragraph to read: "Individual producers requesting a grant must be at least 18 years of age." · Add the word "amount" to the Grant ~mounts paragraph, second sentence to read: '~l~l~s amount will be at the discretion of the Commission." -- * Change it~n n*]mbcr 3 to number 2 and chmxgo it~ numbor 2 to number 3 in thc Administration of the Grant Process section. · Add the phone number "864-8766" under the address below Public Access Director in the Submission of Grant Proposals section, ite,~i number 2. Also add the phone number "???-3262" under the address below Public Info~mation Officer. · Delete the words "it is advisable for" and replace the word "to" with "should" in the 5th itei~ under Submission of Grant Proposals. At the end of that sentence, add the following sentence: "Please call PIO at the above number to confirm meeting date and avoid delaying the grant process." · Delete the first use of the word "any" from item number two under the Management of Awarded Grants section. · Delete the words "(excluding labor) fi~m the section Outside Services and Miscellaneous. Guttadauro made a motion to approve the Grant Application Form and Grant Guidelines and Grant Application Procedure as modified. Algeri seconded the motion. All in favor. NEW BUSINESS Cancellation of August meeting - Algeri made a motion to cancel the August Telecommunications Commission meeting. Tsui seconded the motion. All in favor. Grant request from Shelby Reyes - Algeri asked for a breakdown of the travel costs. Reyes said the travel costs consisted of six round-trips to San Francisco to visit Channel 9 and Channel 4 studios. Guttadauro made a motion to accept the grant as submitted. Tsui seconded the motion. All in favor. Krey said the grant request would go to City Council on July 19. As soon as it was approved, a check would be released within two weeks. Review of educational grants program - Krey will e-mail a soft copy of the educational grants program application to Tsui for his l~iew. The grant application is currently made available to the school districts and not to individual teachers. Commission suggested they might want to meet with the district representatives one-on-one to discuss potential projects. Algeri asked Krey for background information on the grant program. Krey said when the city renegotiated the franchise with TCI it was dete,,ined that $1.6 million in grant money, over a period of 15 years, would be used for public access, government and education. Each year $10,000 is allocated for educational access, $15,000 for government and $89,000 for public access (De ,~nT~ College TV Center). It was suggested by Commission to provide the district with examples of projects. Krey said the applications would be sent to the districts in September. Krey will e-mall the addresses to Tsul of the · district representatives, Suzanne Sanders and Karen Burnett, in case he would like to meet with th¢~. Review producer guidelines and agreement form - Mannion has reviewed the producer guidelines. Guttadauro will review guidelines and asked that this item be continued to the September meeting. Reports from: TCI: No report -- TCI was not present at the meeting. Krey reviewed with Commission the writte~ report she received from TCI. Calls have dropped considerably. ICrey said she only received one complaint on the rate increase and one complaint from Sun Microsystems on a possible connection problem. There were no system complaints. Krey said she reported to council the results of the TCI settlement for upgrade issues. Residents should begin receiving the voucher coupons fxom TCI in the amount of $13.54 at the end of August or beginning of Septr~ber. The coupon can be used for paying bills or buying additional services. The coupons amount to $130,000. The City Government channel will receive $155,000 to upgrade their equipment to digital. Public access will receive $45,000 for new equipment proposed by Bob Haber. Krey said Couucilmember Statton thanked the Telecommunications Commission for its hard work in this TCI upgrade process. Guttadauro mentioned the commission should be the watchdogs on the cable service. He said his service has been t~,tible. He has had outages for hours at a time and fi~zzy reception. He has called TCI. Tsui said the commission needs to review the six-month testing in September. He suggested the commission request the performance test results that TCI submits to the FCC with ~mphasis on the nodes TCI completed last. Krey will contact TCI and find out why they are not attending the Telecommunications Commission meetings. ' City of Cupertino: Krey reported the Y2K video would air on July 19t~ at 6 p.m. on the City Channel (Channel 26). The city has a Y2K team consisting of Carol Atwood, Administrative Services Director; Klm Smith, City Clerk; Bert Viskovich, Public Works Director, a representative from the Sheriff's Office, Mark Henderson, Information Technology Manager, and Krey. Staff will be conducting a Y2K tabletop exercise in September. City staff will be on-call for any possible problems that may occur. The Y2K article in the Cupertino Scene asked residents who were interested in a public meeting to send in a "sound off" card. De Anza College: Assistant Director Greg Bartschenfeld said Robert Haber was attending the Hometown Festival in Cincinnati. Two of Cupertino's producers took three first place awards this year. Don and Jeanne Yeager, producers of"On the Move," won two first-place awards. One was for best talk show and the other was for best documentary. Andrew Willyoung won a first-place award for "What's Up Wit' That?" for a program featuring Viotoam vets. On June 11t~ the premier of a video entitled "Gestational Diabetes" was aired. The program was the joint effort of Cupertino Community Television; Sweet Success, a nonprofit group which assists women who develop gestational diabetes; "Stick It In Your Eye" productions, three local hospitals and De Anza College. The project was funded by a grant from the March of Dimes. Bartschenfeld also noted the remote cart was used to tape the Gay Pride Festival held at Guadaloupe Park in downtown San Jose and again on June 25 in a joint effort by Public Access, volunteers and the TV Center to cover this year's commencement ceremonies at De Anza College. The new Macintosh G3 is now up and running and networked with all of the other computers in the TV Center via the Ethernet. Bartschenfeld said the center is currently shut down this week but it should be up and running next week. Guttadauro made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:46 p.m.; Tsui seconded and the motion -- passed tmianinlously. ATTEST: APPROVED: