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TC 03-03-99 Telecommunications Commission Regular Meeting Mm'oh 3, 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, Bill Mannion, Ernest Tsui, David Eggleston, L.T. Guttadauro Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren De Anza College: Bob Haber TCI: Dave Walton Guests: Linda Grodt APPROVAL OF FEBRUARY 3 1999 MINUTES Eggleston made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Mannion seconded and the motion passed. Sal Algeri abstained. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: none Written: Krey distributed an article fxom thc MultiChannel News and announced the International Conference and Trade Show for the Alliance for Community Media would take place on July 7-10 in Cincinnati. OLD BUSINESS Calimdar of important dates. Commission reviewed calendar and advised Linda Lagergren of changes and updates. Krey asked which comnaissioners were interested in attending the BACE Awards. Eggleston, Guttadauro, Mannion and Tsui said they would attend this year. Annual Report- projects - Mannion reported the annual report video is completed except for an interview at the end with Bob Haber, introducing him as the new access director. Mannion showed the Camcorder club at the Senior Center the tape and they said, '~not so much of Bill." The Commission asked if they could view the tape at the next commission meeting before it gets distributed to council Pubic Access Producer's Guidelines - Sponsorships - Commission reviewed the proposed changes. Conunissiun asked to update thc public access channels on sectiun 12A. In Section 11 - Grants and Underwri~g - changes were made to sections Bb, Bc, Bd and Bf (all changes were underlined in the proposed document.) In Section Bd the words "phone numbers" were added to thc last linc. In section C, the first line was updated to read: "As the Producer, you will bc totally responsible for contacting underwriters and making underwriting agreements, as well as exercising reasonable care in taping sponsor shots." Guttadauro made a motion to accept the proposed rewrites as edited, Mannion seconded the motion and all were in favor. Motion passed.. ' NEW BUSINESS Recommendation from subcommittee on TCI upgrade project and checklist - Algeri and Tsui met as a subcommittee, as well as Krey, to review the TCI upgrade project. Algeri infoi~ed the commission of the findings and recommendations. Findings: , Technical documentation of new system is not complete. T~st r~sults on half ofth~ nod~s hav~ not yet been received. · Questions remain on other technical compliance issues regarding upgrade. Tsui is awaiting responses fi'om TCI. · Extension deadline was missed by at least seven weeks. · TCI has been requested to submit a letter stating completion date based on (1) when the system was instailed and operational in all areas of the city (2) when testing of all nodes was complete and (3) when all customers had been notified that the new system was ready for their use. Recommendations: Telecommunications Commission recommendation to the City Council that: · Requests additional time to complete the technical evaluation of the upgrade, based on the fact that not ail documentation from TCI has been reviewed. · Begins the process for assessing penalties, due to TCI's missed deadline. This process would entail setting up a negotiating committee consisting of representatives from the city council, city staff and telecommunications commission. The committee would then meet with TCI to discuss this issue · Suggests some form of compensation to residents who experienced numerous large and smail inconveniences during the project · Authorizes the Telecommunications Commission to work with TCI in developing a construction schedule and a technicai compliance review for the Rancho Rinconada area. Walton distributed a memo to commission regarding the completion of the Cupertino cable system upgrade. Completion date was established at Feb. 28. The completion of the system testing was Jan. 31. TCI is running a completion test on the area that was completed between Jan. 31 through Feb. 24. Eggleston asked if the role of the commission is to see that this is the best possible system. Krey said the role of commission is to see that it meets FCC standards, although she is aware it does not meet TCI's intemal standards. Waiton mentioned that internai standards are constantly tweaked. Manuion mentioned when the baiance of the 600 residents are hooked up, the quantity of complaints would be a good indication of the success of the system. Krey said in November and December there were lots of complaints. In February and early March Krey has not received any complaints on signai quality, however, there were complaints about contractor work and customer service. The major focus of the rebuild was to improve signai quaiity and reliability. Waiton said he was pleased with how the rebuild turned out, but he admitted problems with the process. He said if he had to repeat the project, he'd give more warning to the community about what was going to happen. Krey said she would put a notice in the Scene to let the remaining 600 homes know to cail for an appointment even if they have not received a door hanger because they will be at risk of having their cable turned offifthey do not make an appointment. Commission said the next step is for the subcommittee to meet again to go over remaining technical data. TCI has come up with fimding to begin the rebuild of the Rancho Rineonada area. All lines are aerial in the Rancho area so TCI will need pole attachment agreements from Pacific Bell TCI has a corrunittec working on negotiating this with Pacific Bell. TCI will have to do pole replacements in the Rancho Rinconada area. TCI said they w/Il start the Rancho area while the contractors are still in the areic Rancho Rinconada will take appwximately three months to complete. Guttadauro made a motion to accept the recommendation as written from the subcommittee and send the recommendation to council on March 15. Mannion seconded the motion. All in favor. Motion passed. Workplan for 1999 - Krey reviewed the compilation of the suggested workplan items. · Continue to monitor TCI services to residents (including Rancho Rinconada upgrade) and provide information about advanced services (i.e. digital, ~-Iome) - ALL · Continue to work with FUHSD on technology plan and to act as a resource for both elementary and high school districts. - TSUI · Freshen commission page on city website - GUTTADAURO · Review grants program: consider broadening scope, promotions campaign - (to be determined) · Continue direction and guidance to 5Cs video subcommittee - MANNION · Increase viewership of Channel 15 - ALL · Work with school districts to promote student video projects through competitions, such as WAVE awards - MANNION & EGGLESTON · Coordinate ~view and update of producer guidelines and agreement foi-i~ with De Anza College access director- ALL Reports from: TCI: Walton reviewed the January 1999, outage report. Answer time is down, 120 people have been hired and are in place answering calls. AT&T has asked TCI to step up their customer service. AT&T brings a name with them that they want TCI to live up to. City of Cupertino: Krey reported she had a meeting with Dave Walton, Woody and the City Channel crew to discuss the INET lines and the interference they are experiencing. TCI is going to walk the INET loop and check out everything and see if there are any probleixxs. TCI has promised to report back by next month with any problems they encountered. Krey reported 500 children would be coming through City Hall on March 15 through 19 for SWING week. De Anza College: Haber reported they added their newsletter to their web site. Hema Kund~orgi aired a new episode of Vegetarian Indian Gourmet. Sixteen entries for the Hometown Awards have been sent in. The producer of Croatian Magazine returned from overseas to produce new episodes of his show. Pat Kapowich completed the first pwgram of Silicon Valley Real Estate which preiifiers on March 3. Haber thanked TCI for their assistance in greatly improving the video and audio signal quality. ADJOURNMENT Guttadanro made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:40 p.m.; Mannion seconded and the motion passed u~anlmously. ATTEST: APPROVED: