TC 01-06-99 Telecommunications Commission
Regular Meeting
Sanuary 6, 1999
MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Sal Algeri at 7:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Commissioners present: Sal Algefi, L.T. Guttadauro, Bill Mannion, Ernest Tsui,
Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren
De Anza College: Bob Haber
TCI: Dave Walton
Guests: Linda Grodt, Don Yaeger, Ed Hutehins
APPROVAL OF DECMF~BER 2, 1998 MINUTES
Guttadauro made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Mannion seconded and the
motion passed.
COMMUNICATIONS
Oral: Linda Cu'odt thanked Bob Haber and staff for a great producer's meeting. She also
thanked the commissioners for her award. Don Yaeger, producer of"On the Move" explained that the
Sunnyvale city council agreed to pursue an access channel. It is planned to air on April 1. Krey
mentioned Katherine Chappelear from Sunnyvale contacted Cupertino and Los Altos regarding the use
of local access programming in Sunnyvale. In previous discussions, thc commission agreed a wider
audience for Cupertino producers was beneficial, as long as there was no financial obligation to the
city or De Anza. Chappelcar has drafted a letter of agreement and will forward it to Cupertino. Ed
Hutehins introduced himself as an applicant for the Telecommunications Commission.
Written: Krey distributed a thank you letter from Linda Grodt, the Nov. 1998 report from TCI
and a letter from Dennis Seace to the commission. Krey gave Walton the transmissions logs from the
City Channel.
OLD BUSINESS
Consideration of FUHSD grant application - There was no one from Ftemont Union High
School District present at the meeting, so commission agreed to delay discussion of this item.
Project timefine - appoint commissioner to take lead on timeline for 1999. Algeri asked
for a volunteer from the commission to keep the timeline updated for the 1999 year. Commission
agreed they only needed dates for major milestones and upcoming events. Linda Lagergren offered to
create a list of important dates and update them each month for thc commissioners.
Commission agreed to delay the TCI rebuild update item so that Wincn could participate in the
discussion when he returned from his interview for the Planning Commission.
Annual Report - projects - Commission agreed to change the wording of the second bulleted
item in the annual report. Mannion made a motion to appwve the annual report with the one change
arid then forward it on to council. Tsui seconded the mot/on and it was approved. Krey w/fl put the
annual report on the council .agenda for their approval. Mannion spoke with Haber and they will meet
on Jan. 15 to begin taping the annual report.
Mannion reported he saw the cultural diversity video and it was quite good. Krey asked if there
were plans to do another video. Mannion said they hoped to do three to four videos per year. They
hoped to enter the cultural video into the BACE and Hometown awards competition.
NEW BUSINESS
Review of guidelines for advertising on public access - Haber suggested bilingual
community volunteers be selected to review current shows and note anything that is questionable for
discussion later. His hope was that volunteers wOUld be seen as impartial viewers with no personal
interest in the shows. Guttadauro mentioned the specifics on advertising are not dear in the producer's
guidelines. Haber said he felt examples should be called out in the guidelines so that there aren't any
gray areas. Krey mentioned Haber might want to add a section on sponsorships and list examples. She
also mentioned the 5Cs membership would be a good source from which to draw volunteers. Alger/
asked Haber if he would be willing to draf~ a .revised sponsorship paragraph for the commission to
review. Haber agreed to have a drai~ ready, by next .month's commission meeting. Guttadauro
volunteered to help Haber if he needed assistance with the drafL Krey suggested Haber contact Laura
Domondon Lee for names of people from the SCs for possible volunteers.
TCI rebuild update and upgrade eertiflcafi0n and franchise compliance - TCI's general
manager, Dave Walton, reported to commission on the upgrade status. · 100 percent of the fiber is complete
· All 14 fiber optic nodes have been installed
· In the Cupertino upgrade areas, .all nodes except one (Node//10) was activated with the
expanded channel line-up as of Dec. 30, 1998. Node 10, which represents about 670 homes,
was completed Jan. 6, 1999, and these homes now have the new line-up.
· Portions of the old San Jose upgrade area (A/B switch), also are affected by Node 10. This
area requires all-new construction, of which' 60 percent is now complete. The remaining
construction (affecting 870 homes) will be .complete by Jan. 19. The other customers in the
San Jose section are being individually connected to the new system. In the Node 4 area (100
homes), about 800 feet of more undergronnding is required. The node will be completed by
Jan. 12.
· Once this work. is done, the process of cleanup and wreckout will begin. This involves
removing unused cables, inspection of the system and setting up the advanced services. All
this is scheduled to be finished by March 31. (Our franchise agreement gives TCI 90 days to
remove old equipment following completion of the upgrade.)
Krey asked Walton if the Rancho Rinconada area was part of.the rebuild. Walton said he would
check into it and report back to Krey the following day.
Walton said he gave Commission's checklist to the engineering group. TCI will be performing
the entire testing procedures the last week of January. Tsui asked if the tests could be dated on the
report. Krey asked Walton if he could submit answers to' whatever questions could be answered from
the checklist prior to the testing and then answer the balance aider the testing is complete. Krey
reported that at the council meeting on the previous Monday, she informed council a report would be
presented to them at the second meeting in Febrile_ry. However, commission agreed the first meeting in
March might be a better date.
Commission appointed a subcommittee consisting of Tsui and Algeri which will do two things:
(1) review the test results of the new system and ensure compliance with thc technical requirements of
the franchise agrc~nent (2) determine the date of completion and recommend a course of action for thc
city council.
Walton reported on the cable outages from TCI's Nov. 1998 report. There were 200 outages of
which most were caused because of upgrade splicing. There were 153 disconnects, however, Walton
said disconnects were always high at this time of year. Walton r~orted TCI had a converter issue.
Customers had their premium channels scrambled and a new code had to be written to correct this
problem, Krey will put this in£o.i~ation in the Feb. Scene.
Winch arrived at the meeting.
Reports from:
City o! Cupertino: Krey r~ported the Commissioner's dinner would be held on Feb. 5 and
invitations were going out soon. The State of the City address is scheduled for Jan. 28. Krey reported
at the last council meeting she gave a report on the educational grant and the grant to Hema Kundargi.
Councilmember Statton pulled the item from the consent calendar to commend the
Telecommunications Commission on the great job they did on the ~nts.
De Anza College: Haber reported the carpeting o£the TV Center is complete. On Dec. 16 they
took the remote cart out to tape two new episodes o£ Vegetarian Indian Gourmet. Haber notified the
Prevue Channel, access producers, Cupertino Courier and the Scene of their channel changes. The
Cupertino Access Pub Show has booked another band to tape a new show on Jan. 14, 1999. Two new
producers have been added for the winter quarter. Cupertino Diversi~y Yournal will air on Thursday,
Jan. 7 at 6 p.m. on both access and education channels. Haber announced he hired a part-time assistant
to help with phones, the station phone log, press releases and producer notifications. BACE award
entries are due on Feb. 8, and Hometown enRies must be postmarked no later than Feb. 19, 1999. The
next producer meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 8, in studio A, De Anza College TV Center.
Future meetings are scheduled for June 7, Oct. ll and Dec. 13. At the Dec. 13 meeting, the COPA
award will be presented.
No one from Fremont Union High School District arrived at the meeting, so the item for consideration
of FUHSD grant application will be continued until next month.
Guttadauro and the rest of the commission thanked Wincn for his dedication and service to the
commission over the last eight years.
ADJOURNMENT
Guttadauro made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:15 p.m.; Tsni seconded and the motion
passed unanimously.
ATTEST: APPROVED:
Chaj~rp~rson