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TC 04-07-99 Telecommunications Commission Regular Meeting April 7, 1999 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Sal Algeri at 7:01 p.m. ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Sal Algeri, L.T. Guttadauro Bill Mannion, Ernest Tsui, David Eggleston, Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren De Anza College: Bob Haber TCI: Dave Walton Guests: Linda Grodt, Ronald Moore, Don Yaeger, Fariba Nejat, Shelby Reyes, Shirley Yang APPROVAL OF MARCH 3 1999 MINUTES Tsui made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Guttadauro seconded and the motion passed. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: Ronald Moore, member of the Cupertino Senior Television Group, asked how much money is available in the grants program and inquired where the money comes from. Algeri said $2,000 is available for grants and the money comes from the general fund. Moore asked who set the limit at $250 for individual grants. Algeri said the commission set the limit however, it is possible for the commission to approve grants for over $250. Moore said he felt it made sense to give the total grant allocation to the community access group. Algeri said the original purpose of the grants was to defray out-of-pocket costs for individual producers. The intent was to spread the money around and not to have it just go to one person. Algeri said the commission would welcome comments from producers when this item is put on the agenda for discussion. Don Yaeger asked Krey for the status of the access channel that the Sunnyvale city council had agreed to pursue. Sunnyvale needed to get approval fiom Los Altos and Cupertino. Los Altos had a few probl¢i~.~ with thc idea. Krey said it was more of a financial issue for Los Altos. They didn't want Sunnyvale to reap the benefits without a financial contribution. Cupertino's City Manager will meet with the City Managers of Sunnyvale and Los Altos to discuss the issue. Los Altos will take the lead. Fariba Nejat thanked the commission for all their help with the "Payvand Magazine" show. Nejat said it aired the previous evening. Written: Krey distributed articles to the commission that came out after the packets were mailed. Krey referred to a letter from Cupertino High School and said a consensus was needed from .- the commission regarding a change in equipment from the educational grant proposal. After discussion, Tsui made a motion that Mannlon and Eggleston represent the commission and confkiii the substituted equipment actually meets the needs of the students. Algeri seconded the motion. All in favor. Commission aRreed to take New Business out of order. NEW BUSINESS Grant request from Shirley Yang - Guttadauro asked how the $250 grant of the $1,100 budget would be used. Yang said $250 would cover the basic costs for videotapes and narration costs. Yang said she is trying to raise the balance of the budget through donations. Commission told Yang they had discretion to grant more than $250. Guttadanro made a motion to accept the grant application as written with $100 being used for tapes, $75 used for narration and $75 used for music. Algori seconded the motion. All in favor. Grant request from Liada Grodt - Guttadauro said Grodt did a very good job with her grant request. After brief discussion, Guttadauro made a motion to accept the grant application as submitted. Tsui seconded the motion. All in favor. Krey said the grant requests would go to City Council on April 19. As soon as they were approved, checks would be released within two weeks. OLD BUSINESS Activities Calendar. There weren't any changes to the calendar. Workplan for 1999 - Commission reviewed the workplan, the suggested timeline and the areas of responsibility. It was decided a subcommittee is needed for reviewing the grants program, which will be addressed at the May meeting. Tsui expressed an interest in getting the 5Cs video on the web site. Tsui will work with Haber to put a QuickTime video of the 5Cs video on De Anza's web site. Algeri said there might be interest by other groups to have their videos also on the web site, so they may want to take that into consideration. Update from subcommittee on TCI upgrade project - Tsui received the final testing results for the completed nodes on Feb. 24, 1999. Tsui had additional questions for TCI. l) Did TCI complete upgrade at Eaton School? If it is complete, when was it completed? Walton will get back to commission with the answers to these questions. 2) Tsui asked if returns for two-way video for CUSD were complete. Krey said they were complete. 3) Tsul wants status of EAS. Walton will get back with answer. Tsui stated they found node 4, channel 98 did not pass channel to channel variation. Node 8, channel 98 visual carrier did not pass. Walton said it is usually corrected on the spot. Tsui said testing came back at 550 MHz, however the franchise calls out 750 MHz. Only in rare instances is there testing data for 750 MHz. Tsui said he would like to see the data. Walton said all testing is a sampling. Krey said a meeting has been set with TCI to begin discussing settlement for upgrade issues. Reports from: TCI: Walton reviewed the February 1999, outage report. Answer time is down with 84% of the calls answered within 30 seconds. As of the end of March, it is at 90%. Walton said outages were because of the rebuild. Krey said there were still problems with customers being disconnected. Customers are calling TCI and being told they are experiencing an outage when in fact they have been disconnected. TCI is in the process of walking the Rancho Rinconada area. TCI just purchased the Pacific Bell plant and it was Pacific Bell that installed the Rancho area. The fiber and coaxial cable are already in place. Algeri asked about getting the word out to the Rancho area. Krey said the Rancho area is very organized, with a neighborhood newsletter. Tsui asked TCI for a soft copy of TCI's update to the matrix. City of Cupertino: Krey reported the judges met to select the recipients of the CREST awards, which recognize community volunteers. The event will take place on May 13, at 7 p.m. at the Quinlan --' Community Center. It will also air later on the City Channel. Algeri and Mike Wincn wit meet to review the FCC 1240 forms for TCI rate increases. Krey announced an informational fair would take place on April 17 at Sedgwick School for the newly annexed Rancho Rinconada area. De Anza College: Haber reported a recipe page from the Vegetarian Indian Gourmet show has been added to the web site. On March 25 another Indian Vegetarian show was taped using the remote cart. BACE Award finalists should be listed soon. The producer of the Croatian Magazine returned to his family in Croatia in April, however before leaving, he completed 42 - thirty-minute programs. On March 20 the remote cart was used to tape the Persian New Year event at the Hinson Campus Center at De Anza College for the Assyrian Magazine. ADJOURNMENT Manulon made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:18 p.m.; Guttadauro seconded and the motion passed unanimously. ATTEST: APPROVED: