Loading...
TC 05-06-98 Telecommunications Commission Regular Meeting May 6, 1998 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chahman Bill Mannion at 7:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Bill Marmion, Sal Algeri, Ernest Tsui, L.T. Guttadauro, Mike Wincn Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren De Anza College: Bob Haber TCI: Dave Walton, Eddie Garcia, Tiffany Jacobs Guests: Linda Orodt, John Gels APPROVAL OF APRIL 1, 1998 MINUTES Algeri made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Tsui seconded and the motion passed. Guttadauro abstained. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: Linda Orodt met with Steve Enders, a new reporter with the Cupertino Courier, and gave him some infomuation regarding the BACE awards on May 15. He wrote an article for the paper. Grodt also inquired about putting the schedule in the Courier and Enders stated that Orodt would have to check with the editor. Written: Krey said there was an article in the Courier on student videographers in Sunnyvale and the article mentioned the educational channel at Cupertino High School. The article also stated Homestead High School is using the channel and the elementary school is making use of the videos. Krey also distributed the Alliance for Community Media newsletter. Tsui distributed a flyer on a seminar on digital TV. It is put on by PBS and it is a vehicle to train technicians and engineers. Winch said it might be beneficial to get the college involved. Chair agreed to take New Business item out of order. NEW BUSINESS Presentation from TCI on rebuild - Dave Walton reported that the engineering walk-out of the city is 100 percent complete. Tomorrow morning TCI will select the sites for its node cabinets. Commissioners saw a large map of the city, with the first phase of the upgrade plotted out. This phase includes a fiber line down Stevens Creek Boulevard from around Stelling Road to Finch. Nodes will be located on Stelling, Blaney, Portal, Miller and on Stevens Creek Blvd. Each node will serve about 1,200 homes. The cabinets are much smaller than was originally anticipated and require no noise-generating equipment, as was first proposed. In residential areas, they are actually smaller than those currently in place. TCI thinks it will be able to simply swap cabinets in most areas. All cabinets will be placed in - the public utility easements (none on private residential property). TCI said that public works people will be notified and consulted regarding the node sites. Fiber optics will run to each node and the existing co-axial cable will run to the home. The co-axial cable will be upgraded where needed. In all but one case, TCI expects to meet the requirements of the franchise agreement regarding customer notification. The requirement in question says the company must give 30 days notice to property owners located adjacent to the proposed locations of the nodes. TCI is proposing a customer notification plan that includes a mall piece sent two to three weeks in advance, face-to-face meetings with property owners, door hangers 48 hours in advance of any construction and again on the day of the construction. The person in charge of all this is Tiffany Jacobs, who will be headquartered in TCI's Cupertino office on Imperial Avenue during this project. Ms. Jacobs will be the person knocking on doors and meeting with the residents. Even though these nodes will be located in the public right-of-way, TCI says it will work with residents to find unobtrusive locations near their property and will offer landscaping at the company's expense if a homeowner desires. TCI expects the other notification requirements to be met. These include notices of construction in the newspaper, announcements on access channels, and notices to the city. The commission suggested TCI put the whole notification plan in writing and submit it to the city. TCI wasn't too specific as to when the first phase of this system upgrade would be complete, but Dave Walton said he expected the process to go quite quickly now that all the "behind-the-scenes" work has been completed. He said probably the first-phase customers could be switched on in July. TCI will present a written monthly report to the Telecommunication Commission. The report will outline progress to date and future plans of the project. OLD BUSINESS Project timeline: Wincn asked for any updates on the timeline. Krey suggested adding the walk-out to the timeline. Wincn said he had all the updates to BACE and ACM FarWest. Winch asked for updates for De Anza producer meetings. Production of videotapes - cultural diversity video: Mannion said he went to a meeting with Producer Shawn Spano and Technical Advisor Tom Pollard. Spano is still working on the script. Mannion took Spano over to meet Bob Haber at De Anza College. The 5Cs subcommittee is scheduled to meet on May 14 from noon to 2 p.m. They have scheduled to pull the crew together on Monday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m. At that meeting they will pick a date in June to do the filming, which will be completed by the Fall. They plan to do a video once per quarter. Tsui said he met with the group last Thursday and he got the script for the first show. Shawn Spano will be the moderator of the video. He will show the transition of Cupertino, how the city has changed and then he will go into some of the issues. He is going to use the first show as an introduction and a background of the PDC. They are going to have a lot of shots of Cupertino. It will be a 30-minute show. Community education event (1998): Chair Mannion will draft a letter to TCI formalizing the invitation to speak at the Rotary meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23. Schools - survey -forum - Tsui reported that he met with CUSD in mid-April. They have a technology forum. They haven't thought about cable and how it could be used for education. CUSD has schools located in six different cities, which have different franchises. To have a uniform plan, they need to meet with all the separate franchises. CUSD is very interested in networking the schools. They came up with a one-page list of requirements. Tsui and Algeri will summarize the CUSD information and present it to the commission next month. Integrate student programming in public access: Mannion said that this was primarily to get the students on public access broadcast so they could enter the awards competitions. Ron Fish said it would have to be in a half-hour format aud then he could put it on the air. Mannion said he is working with the teachers. NEW BUSINESS Telecommunication Commission policy on CityNet - Mannion presented a marked-up copy of the policy. The policy is unrelated to the commission's charter, but refers to receiving compensation for use of fights-of-way. It was agreed that the policy needs to be pulled off of CityNet and then tabled to be updated at a later date. Appointment of subcommittee for access channel usage - Sal reported on a meeting that included representatives of the Sheriff's Department, CUSD, FU-HSD, Fire District and De Anza College. De Anza College is requesting one additional channel for educational telecourses. They feel they have sufficient justification and they are currently limited by the availability of channels. The school districts are not quite ready for an additional channel. Fire and the Sheriff's depari~uents said they could share services on an existing channel. With the rebuild, two additional channels will be available. The city would like to set up a subcommittee of two commissioners who would evaluate proposals and make a recommendation to the commission on how these channels should be used. That recommendation would then go to the city council. Guttadauro made a motion for Algeri and Tsui to work cooperatively and try to combine their subcommittee group on community education along with the assessment of access channel usage. Winch seconded the motion. All in favor. Appointment of representative to De ?,nTa hiring committee - Krey reminded the commission that they were invited by Willie Pritchard to participate in the hiring of a new access director. This would involve reviewing the applications, weeding out people who were not qualified and then sitting in on the interviews. Guttadauro volunteered. - Maunion made a motion that Guttadauro be the commission's representative on De Anza's hiring committee. Algefi seconded the motion. All in favor. Krey suggested that Outtadauro talk to Bill Mannion and Linda Grodt to see if they have any specific criteria that should be considered. Appointment of representative for FCC rate review - Krey mentioned that Wincn will be leaving the commission in January after serving for eight years. In the past, he has been the commission's representative to review the rate increases by TCI. Wincn said he will be available to help when he goes off the commission. Mannion volunteered to sit in on the discussions between Krey and Wincn for this year. Algeri will take it over from Winch after this review. Reports from: TCI: TCI reviewed their outage report. Walton said they are happy to report that calls answered in 30 seconds are at 90%. The on-time completion percentages are at 98% for service calls completed. The unplanned outages were affected by cut cables that occurred because of all the construction in the city. Walton mentioned that today a construction project cut a cable and 65,000 customers were affected. Krey suggested if TCI could give a reason on the recording for the outage, such as a cut cable by a construction crew, and not because it is a bad system, people would feel better about it. Tsui requested TCI produce the latest FCC tests and supply the commission with testing standards for digital TV. - City of Cupertino: Krey reminded Commission of the CREST Awards on May 14, 7 p.m. at the Quinlan Community Center. The CREST Awards presentation will mn on the City Channel. Krey said Guttadauro and Tsui will be attending the BACE awards. She also mentioned that Dorothy Stevens would be receiving the Rip King award at that ceremony. De .S, nza College: Bob Haber said that their web page will be completed this month. They have new producers and new programs that will begin in July. Ron Fish has left permanently for new employment. Bob said he is acting director and he has a new assistant, Crreg Bargenf¢ld, who is also a producer. ADJOURNMENT Wincn made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:22 p.m.; Tsui seconded and the motion passed unanimously. ATTEST: APPROVED: /'~ City Clerk ~7 ' Chairperson