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TC 12-07-94Cable Television Advisory Committee Regular Adjourned Meeting De Anza College Campus December 7, 1994 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:01 p.m. by vice-chairperson Carol Marble. ROLL CALL: Present: Jane Chiavacci, Carol Marble, Donna Poggi, J.M. Wincn Absent: Laird Huntsman Staff: Donna Krey, Laura Newman TCI Staff: Daryl Henderson (arrived 7:10 p.m.) De Anza College: Dave Barney, Ron Fish Guests: Linda Grodt, Sam MacNeal, Len Batchelor, Daniel Wade APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER 2, 1994 MINUTES Jane Chiavacci made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Mike Winch seconded and the motion passed unanimously. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: Sam MacNeal expressed his concern with TCI's decision to transfer The Disney Channel to the Expanded Basic tier, which, under the 1992 Cable Act, the city cannot regulate, and asked that the committee write a letter of complaint to the FCC protesting this change. Donna Krey informed MacNeal that the city could file a protest only as to the transfer not being a consumer choice, which the city has already done. Wincn informed MacNeal that if the "going forward" rules are approved by Congress as of Jan. 1, 1995, cable companies will not be permitted to shift channels from a regulated to un-regulated tier. Following discussion, the committee decided that a letter should be sent stating that the city wants to encourage TCI to offer consumers choices when there are changes made to the expanded basic channels, since there are customers who may not wish to pay for these channels (i.e. The Disney Channel) with a copy to the FCC. Krey will draft the letter. Written: Krey distributed copies of a letter from Farokh Deboo, who attended the previous month's meeting and voiced his complaint against TCI. For the most part, Mr. Deboo was extremely pleased with the end results, however, he felt he should not have had to come to a meeting of this committee in order to have the problem fixed by TCI. Henderson will follow-up with the other letters submitted to the committee in its packet with complaints about cable service and report his results back to the committee at its next meeting. OLD BUSINESS Discussion of second educational channel: Krey reminded the committee that the current franchise states that if the educational channel is up to a certain capacity, TCI must provide the city with a second educational channel. TCI has agreed to do this so there is now a second educational channel available. She said she met with representatives De Anza College and Cupertino Union School District and Fremont High School District to find out if there was a need for and interest in supporting a second educational channel with programming. The outcome from that meeting was that they did want it and they felt they could offer some quality programming. TCI has asked the city to decide which channel should be removed in order to make room for this educational channel. Also, the second educational channel does not have the broadcast capability that the first educational channel has. It will only be broadcast within the city limits of Cupertino, whereas the first channel is shown from South San Jose to Palo Alto. She expressed hope that the committee would make some recommendations about channels that they wouldn't mind deleted. The committee's recommendation was to delete the Home Shopping Network, Sneak Preview, QVC, or Cal-Span (since The City Channel also shows Cai-Span). Chiavacci expressed concern that the committee might not be qualified to make any recommendation. Krey said the educators suggested the committee look at TCI's market research to find out what people are watching, and what might be missed the most or the least. The committee decided more formal data would be appropriate prior to making any recommendation of deleting a channel. Henderson said there are certain channels which come under the "must carry" rules. He was requested to provide that information to the committee at the next meeting. The educators said they would like the second educational channel from 6 a.m. to midnight. Another meeting is scheduled with the educators in January. Report on insurance for access producers/equipment: Krey reported on her discussion of this matter with the city attorney in which he said he could envision a possible three-way split between TCI, De Anza and the city in picking up insurance costs. Further discussion on this item was continued to January due to the absence of Laird Huntsman. NEW BUSINESS Discussion on re-establishing grants subcommittee: Donna Poggi distributed a proposal for a grant application which contained information she gathered from her attendance at the recent Far West conference. One of the suggestions was to establish a database of grant applicants, most likely using De Anza College as a resource. Following discussion on the history of the grants process, Chiavacci made a motion to re-establish the grants subcommittee with Poggi as the chairperson; Wincn seconded and the motion passed unanimously. Krey told Poggi she would send her the grant application currently used by the committee. Poggi will report back to the committee at a future meeting. 1-NET/Educational: Marble had nothing new to report regarding the I-NET/Educational channels. TCI: Henderson distributed copies of his report to the committee members. He said there had been a big improvement in answering customer calls within 30 seconds during the past month. He said he was preparing an informal franchise proposal to give to the city on Dec. 19 which contains some key points for discussion. Henderson wanted the committee members to let him know when they encountered problems with TCI representatives. He requested that they take notes, find out who they spoke to, and what the process was because he wants to try and detemdne where the problems lie--whether it be a computer glitch, or did someone not follow through, or are jobs not being routed properly. He will bring the results to the committee for its review. De Anza College: Fish passed around his access director's report for the past month. He told the committee that he hired a new employee to handle publicity. Her name is Annee Pattee and he is very excited to be working with her in this capacity. He said all access centers in the area are being contacted and asked to send copies of any Christmas shows they might have. These will be shown during the holidays. The banner for the access channel is once again hanging across Stevens Creek Blvd. He also said the video flyer will be purchased from H.G. Electronics in exchange for the editor which was purchased approximately a year ago. He went to see a demonstration of this non-linear editor and was extremely impressed. City of Cupertino: Krey reported that Mayor Dean will be giving the annual "State of the City" speech on Jan. 19 at noon at the Quinlan Community Center. Tickets can be purchased from the chamber of commerce. She stated that TCI notified the city several weeks ago that it would be taking advantage of the FCC's offer to impose quarterly rate increases on its subscribers. These quarterly rate increases are to make up the cost of programming that TCI must purchase. The FCC has allowed the cable companies to pass these costs along to the consumers. These quarterly increases are not retroactive, so if the cable company wants to recover its costs, they have to charge every quarter. Sunnyvale and Los Altos also received the news about the quarterly increases. Krey said she has been meeting with Sunnyvale, Los Altos, San Jose and Campbell on a regular basis (all TCI cities) in order to discuss common issues. When this quarterly notice was received, it was decided that the cities talk to TCI as a group to find out if there was a way to not charge these quarterly rate increases because it wasn't in the best interest of its customers. A meeting was scheduled for the Monday prior to the committee meeting. On the Friday prior to the Monday meeting, each of the cities received notice of the proposed third quarter rate increase. The meeting did occur and the idea of the quarterly rate increases was discussed. The cities told TCI that if it wanted to go ahead with the quarterly rate increases, it would probably be asked to attend all council meetings to give a public explanation to each of the five cities, four times a year. As a result of this meeting, Kathi Noe, governmental affairs manager, would be providing written responses to the questions raised faxed to each city by Friday. Contact has been made with 10 cities in San Mateo county who also are TCI customers and a meeting has been set up in January. Also invited are Hayward and Fremont, bringing the total up to 17 cities which will be talking about common issues encountered by each city in its dealings with TCI. ADJOURNMENT Poggi made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:35 p.m.; Chiavacci seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The next meeting will be held on January 4, 1995. ATTEST: APPROVED: City Clerk Chairperson CABLE TELEVISION ADVISORY COMMITTEE NOTICE OF ADJOURNMENT NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the regular meeting of the Cable Television Advisory Committee of the City of Cupertino, California, held on November 2, 1994, was adjourned to Television Center at De Anza College, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino at 7:00 p.m. Dated this 3rd day of November, 1994. Laura Newman, Recording Secretary