TC 04-01-98 Telecommunications Commission
Regular Meeting
- April 1, 1998
MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Cha~itmn Bill Mannion at 7:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Conunissioners present: Bill Man~ion, Sal Algeri, Ernest Tsui, Mike Wincn
Commissioners absent: L.T. Guttadauro
Staff: Donna Krey, Linda Lagergren
De Anza College: Ron Fish, Bob Haber
Guests: Linda G-rodt
APPROVAL OF MARCH 4, 1998 MINUTES
Algeri made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Tsui seconded and the motion passed.
Wincn abstained.
COMMUNICATIONS
Oral: none
- Written: Krey said she received a letter from TCI stating thc launch of the new digital
entertainment service in Cupertino within the next 30 days. This has nothing to do with the rebuild.
Krey mentioned TCI would be meeting with her to discuss this new digital launch. Fish had a question
about the digital launch because not all homes are wired to digital. Algeri said they are using one of the
analog charmels and digitally modulating those analog channels.
OLD BUSINESS
Project timeline: Wincn asked for any updates on the timeline and mentioned he put in student
videos. Tsui said we need to reschedule the school forum. The survey is done so it will be noted as
completed. Krey said we gave the schools until the end of the month to respond. If we were to do a
forum August or September would be a good target date. The commission can review the results of the
survey at the May commission meeting. Wincn wanted clarification on the public access award dates.
Krey said last year nomination foims were sent out in August and they were due in September. The
subcommittee reviewed the applications in October; commission voted in November and the award
was presented in December. The BACE event date was changed to May 15 and Alliance for
Community Media Conference was changed from Suly 8 to July 11. The community education event
will occur in late September.
Production of videotapes: Mannion said he sat in on the meeting of the 5Cs subcommittee to
discuss the cultural diversity video. It was well attended. Shawn Spano said he would produce the
first video and his first action item was to create the script. Mannion's action item was to reconstitute
the crew and he mentioned that he got commitment on a director and an editor, and other people are
coming in little by little, so they have a crew. Tom Pollard who teaches film and video at National
University attended the meeting. He is taking a three-month sabbatical and he will be free to work with
the committee on the video. The committee will meet again in April, pick a date, come to Ron in April
to set a date to come to the studio and pull the crew together, have them meet Shawn and talk about the
content of the show. Mannion asked if this group could apply for a grant. Krey said they could.
Mannion said it was mentioned in the meeting that a well-designed logo should be created. Shawn
Spano will contact the San Jose State computer graphics department to create it. They are also going to
· -- ask the music departments of San Jose State and De Anza College to help create the music. Krey said
that Spano submitted a draft script. Mannion said Spano received feedback on the script and he has
now gone back to revise it. Someone from the 5Cs said she would like to understudy Spano and then
produce the second show.
Community education event (1998): Chair Mannion spoke to the Rotary Club about getting a
date for TCI to come and speak to the club. The tentative date is for late September.
Web page: Krey said that Klm Smith and Linda Lagergren are the conduits for changes to
forward to our web masters. The commission may have digitized photos on the web page. Any kind of
data that the commission wants transmitted to the web site would not be a problem. It was mentioned
that approximately five months ago the commission came up with some ideas of what they wanted on
the web site. Guttadauro has that list. Commission will take a look at that list and evaluate if it is still
current. Mannion said on CityNet the Telecomrounlcations Commission policy is not up to date. Krey
said the policy was approved by the city council. If it needs to be updated then it has to go back to the
city council. Winch suggested Marmion mark up the policy, submit it to Krey and agendize it for the
next meeting. The purpose of the policy was to ensure that the city be compensated by
telecommunication providers using its rights of way. The commission had the following ideas to put on.
the web site:
· Link to Channel 26
· Digitized photos of commissioners
Telecommunications mailbox - Krey would receive mail, route to commissioners and
responses could be coordinated through Krey.
· Annual report
· Ordinance - meeting dates & times
· Updated Telecommunication policy (if appropriate)
· TCI construction schedule
· Announcements - awards, written material, etc.
· Copy of grant application
Promote Commission as a resource: Schools - survey -forum -Krey said the survey fO£ihS
were sent out. In talking to both districts, they suggested we send them to the two key people and let
them disperse the surveys. The surveys were sent to Suzanne Sanders and Karen Burnett. They have
until the end of the month to respond. We haven't heard from the high school district but S-7~ne
(CUSD) was a little confused about why we were doing it and what we wanted to get from it. We are
clarifying some things for her and we are asking to get a copy of their district wide
telecommunications policy.
Integrate student programming in public access: Mannion said he gave three teachers the
WAVE award applications from prior years. Videos should be submitted by the first of August. Ron
said the shows have to have aired on an access channel and be in a half-hour format. Krey asked if it
counts if they play the tapes on their own educational channel. Mannion said they have that capability
at the high school level but not at the elementary school level. Krey said she thought the high school
channel was going to make room for the elementary school student programming. Marmion said he
thought they would have a huge amount of student entries,
NEW BUSINESS
BACE and ACM conference - Krey said she had not received any information on BACE
awards. It is scheduled for May 1 $ at/5 p.m. at the Westin Hotel in Santa Clar0. The cost is $45 per
person. Ernest Tsui and Bill Manulon are planning to attend. Sal Algeri will let Donna Krey know if he
can attend and Mike Wincn will not be attending. Fish said we are submitting 25 entries. Krey asked
for the commissioners to let her know in the next few days if they are interested in attending. The
Alliance for Community Media National Conference (ACM) will be held in Portland, Oregon on July
8 through 11. The deadline for registering is April 20. The commissioners were not interested in
attending the national conference.
Promote Commission as a resource: - Library - There was some confusion as to what this
workplan item was. Winch said that we wanted to make sure the Library Commission is aware of the
Telecommunications Commission as a resource for issues on telecommunications. Krey mentioned
that a good communication vehicle is the Mayor's breakfast meetings. Mannion said that he would call
G-uttadauro and remind him to speak with Charley Pow, Library Commission Chair. Mannion said he
got a call from Pow asking how the Telecommunications Commission was going to manage the new
studio in the expanded library. Mannion told Pow to call Krey or Statton. Pow said the librarians were
upset because it was additional work and some technology they are unfamiliar with. At the Mayor's
breakfast meeting, the commission should let Pow know that the commission is interested in talking to
the Library consultant.
Service club/organizations - Mannion said this item was put on the work plan because when we had
a joint meeting with the Rotary it was so successful that we were interested as a commission in seeing
if any other service club would be interested in having the commission present information. Krey said
the Kiwanis club is always looking for speakers, so if anyone is interested in being a part of a speaking
group, the service clubs would probably welcome that outreach. She recommended waiting until the
commission had something concrete to talk about, such as specific information on the TCI rebuild.
Marmion suggested we might want to look into a speaker's bureau from all the commissioners to speak
to service groups. Krey said the Chamber has a speaker's bureau, but she could look at adding a
separate list of city commissioners to the list. Algefi said he thinks we need to be careful crossing the
line of advertising. It's ok to give infom~afion, but we don't want to be construed as promoting TCI.
Algefi said even speaking to the Rotary about TCI is bordering on it, so we need to be careful about
what is presented at these meetings. It should be infomuafional only, which would include reliability
and performance issues and additional programming capabilities, but we need to stay away from the
advertising. Tsui will do a draf~ article for the Scene regarding the digital launch and ~Home services.
Reports from:
TCI: Commission reviewed written material from TCI.
City of Cupertino: Krey said that Algeri represented the commission as a CREST
judge. There are eight recipients this year. The event will be on May 14 and it will also be broadcast on
the City Channel. The TCI contractors, who will be doing the construction in the rebuild, have met
with the public works depat;,nent. The contractors were not too knowledgeable about the city's layout,
so they got lots of infoLmafion from the public works department. The public works department has a
copy of Mike's matrix and a copy of the franchise agreement. In addition to that, TCI will be meeting
with Krey tomorrow and will update the commission next month. Krey said the city got the FCC reims
that TCI submits every year when they are looking for a rate increase. Winch has gotten a copy of
those and Krey will be getting together with Wincn to review them. Cupertino received three fo,-ms -
one for the Cupertino system, San Jose system, and for the rebuilt system. The San Jose system will be
going down, the Cupertino system is increas'mg by 40/o, and the rebuild system is five cents higher than
the Cupertino system. We will be taking this to the city council in May and we automatically lodge a
-- complaint on the expanded basic. We have to get three complaints on the rates to lodge a complaint.
Tsui asked if Krey had spoken to Chang regarding cultural diversity videotapes. Krey said Chang does
not have any cultural diversity videotapes. She is calling a meeting of all the access user groups to find
out what the needs are in regard to new channels available after the rebuild. Tsui asked Krey to ask
TCI for their proposed digital testing standards.
De Anza College: Fish introduced Bob Haber who will be replacing Fish in his absence. Ron
Fish will be on leave from the end of April until November 1. Fish did not provide a Director's report
this month. He stated that their web page is close to being done. De Anza has hired an assistant, G-xeg
Bargenfeld, to take Bob Haber's place.
ADJOURNMENT
Wincn made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:50 p.m.; Tsui seconded and the motion
passed unanimously.
ATTEST: APPROVED:
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