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TC 12-01-93CABLE TELEVISION ADVISORY COMMITTEE Regular Meeting Dec. 1, 1993 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 7:03 p.m. by chairman Mike Wincn. ROLL CALL Present: Wincn, Len Batchelor (arrived 7:11 p.m.), Laird Huntsman, Carol Marble Absent: Jane Chiavacci Staff: Donna Krey, Laura Newman De Anza College: Dave Barney, Ron Fish Guests: Linda Grodt; Mason Miller APPROVAL OF NOVEMBER 3, 1993 MINUTES Laird Huntsman made a motion to approve the minutes as written; Marble seconded and the motion passed unanimously. COMMUNICATIONS: Oral: Mason Miller, a student at West Valley College, introduced himself to the committee members. He said he was attending the meeting as part of a class assignment. Linda Grodt showed the committee the article and photo from the Cupertino Courier about her show "Silicon Kids." Written: Wincn submitted a letter to the committee in response to Sam MacNeal's letter dated November 6, 1993. He asked that his letter be made a part of the public record. The committee concurred. OLD BUSINESS Status of re-franchising effort: Krey reported that the next re-franchising meeting was scheduled for December 9. The education meeting had been held last month and it was expected that some of the topics that came out of that meeting would be discussed at the meeting. Bill Levan will submit a report from the technical subcommittee which will also be discussed at the next negotiating meeting. Huntsman said Levan and Dave Carlson, of TCI, are looking at the detail measurements--signal quality measurements--that should be made at various points. Carlson and Huntsman are looking into the possibility of placing a monitor on the system which would interpret the signal quality at all times. Carlson will submit a report prior to the next negotiation meeting regarding the signal quality equipment. Page 2 NEW BUSINESS Discussion of access tape policy: Ron Fish told thc committee that the college and the producers have an agreement that the college will lend brand new tapes to new producers who are supposed to use the tapes and then return them to the access department so that it can be recycled for someone else's use. This policy is not working out since the producers are not returning the tapes as agreed. Because the producers are not returning tapes, in essence the college is giving free tapes to producers without being reimbursed. He said he would like to stop stocking tapes for all producers, just enough for new producers. The producers could buy their own tapes. He has talked to the college bookstore manager and he is willing to stock broadcast tapes at the bookstore. After some discussion, the committee asked Fish to provide a copy of the current policy as well as a proposed amendment to the policy at its next meeting. Review of TCI policy for hooking up multi-family dwellings: This item was continued to the January meeting due to the absence of Daryl Henderson. De Anza College: Dave Barney reported that the education channel at the college was down for a 24-hour period during the last week of classes. TCI was not being cooperative in its efforts to fix the problem. The City was requested to give any assistance it could in getting TCI to fix the problem. He wanted to go on record that this was unacceptable. The quality of the picture has been poor for some time. This is also unacceptable. He will write a letter to TCI complaining about the downtime and signal quality and submit a copy to the committee at the next meeting. Krey said the committee should also send a letter to TCI. Winch said he would put together the letter and send it to the committee members for their input. A copy would also be sent to Dave Carlson, TCI's engineer. Fish distributed copies of his access director's report. He informed the committee that beginning December 5 there will be a banner across Stevens Creek Boulevard promoting the access channel. Business cards with the new access logo have been ordered for the producer groups. The Cupertino News Show completed its fourth show which included a piece on Martha Kanter, President of De Anza College. TCI: There was no report due to the absence of Henderson. I-NET/Educational effort: Marble said she talked to Daryl Henderson earlier in the week to check on the progress of the hook-up of I-NET to Portal School as well as the drops hooked up for the high schools. He told her that the work had been done at Portal and the only thing that needs to be done for completion is the splicing and inspection of the cable. The hook- ups to the high schools are not complete. The contractors were waiting for a certain type of equipment and once it was received they would be able to finish the job. Barney told the members that INET is used between Foothill and De Anza colleges and has been plagued with problems from the beginning. TCI has not been able to resolve them. The college may have to change over to dedicated phone lines due to the incapacity of TCI having a reliable signal. He will include a reference to INET in his letter to TCI. Marble said the meeting of November 22 included representatives from TCI, Don Brown, City Manager, Cheryl Kershner, Deputy City Attorney, Len Batchelor, Marble, and all of the school representatives. Each school district presented a plan and specific examples to TCI. As a result of the meeting, it was suggested that the three school districts meet and talk about equipment and personnel requests. This information will be given to the negotiating team for discussion at a future meeting with TCI. Page 3 City of Cupertino: Krey announced that Barb Koppel is the new Mayor and she will continue to have the Mayor's lunch with commissioners beginning in January. Krey reminded the members that the Commissioners' Dinner will be held February 24. Krey told the committee members about PacBell's proposed plans for moving into the cable industry. Network construction will begin the second quarter of 1994. The plan is to first hook up the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles County, Orange County and San Diego. The estimates for adding customers have been 15,000 per week. PacBell has already petitioned to carry the cable programming which is in the courts right now. Nobody thinks there will be a problem except for the phone company's not wanting to pay any franchise fees. This is something cities will be following very carefully because the cable companies have said that if the telephone companies are exempt from franchise fees then they are going to make sure they can get that same exemption. Krey went on to state that PacBell will hook up 1.5 million homes by the end of 1996 and more than 5 million by the end of the decade. PacBell is making overtures to the city to find out how they can work together and what they need to do. She said Don Brown will be meeting with representatives of the telephone company in the near future. ADJOURNMENT Marble made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:11 p.m.; Huntsman seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The committee will meet next on January 5, 1994. ATTEST: APPROVED: City Clerk