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TC 03-04-92CABLE TELEVISION ADVISORY COMMITTEE Regular Meeting March 4, 1992 Conference Room A City Hall MINUTES CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by chairman Mike Winch at 7 p.m.. ROLL CALL Present: Winch, Jane Chiavacci, Laird Huntsman, Carol Marble, Walter Trefz, Jr. Staff present: Donna Krey, Laura Domondon Lee United Artists Cable: Daryl Henderson Channel 30 staff: Dave Barney, Suzanne Orcutt Guests: Len Batchelor, Linda Grodt, Don Yeager APPROVAL OF FEB. 5, 1992 MINLrl'ES Chiavacci made a motion to approve the minutes from the February meeting; Trefz seconded and the motion passed unanimously. COMMUNICATIONS Oral: Producer Linda Grodt told committee members that "Silicon Kids" was featured in. the Cupertino Courier and Don Yeager mentioned that KTEH will consider airing "On the Move." Written: Krey distributed articles relating to Senate Bill 12 and a letter to the mayor regarding updates at United Artists Cable. OLD BUSINESS Status of Re-franchising Efforts (Activities, Timelines, Plans, Progress): Wincn discussed a revised timeline of the re-franchising process, as per Cheryl Kershner's recommendations. Committee members reviewed a draft of the survey to be distributed to residents and agreed to ask if TCI should be required to provide channels for government and public access. Batchelor said the residents should also be asked which channels should not be aired. Henderson stated that TCI is interested in participating in a phone survey. Barney said he will compose a question asking residents to prioritize channels offered. Wincn will collect survey changes from committee members by Wednesday, March 11, and said the survey will cost $324 to print and 59 cents to return by mail. Barney mentioned that De Anza College may be able to give the committee a better printing bid. Members agreed the return postage costs were too high to include in the survey ~oudget. Committee members discussed the possibility of including the survey in cable bills. Henderson said he will obtain envelope dimensions from TCI's public affairs office. Krey suggested the survey be sent separately from the bill Batchelor told the CTVAC that the Heritage survey, sent separately from cable bills, received a good response. Huntsman said the survey should be sent on its own because TCI will be evaluated. Members agreed to send the survey separately. Batchelor reported that he met with Dave Barney, Kathleen Schuller and Mike Winch regarding non-profit organizations and said Michelle Mann was planning to attend the CTVAC meeting to discuss the issue. Yeager suggested that the NFLCP be contacted for information on non-profit agencies. Huntsman agreed to join the non-profit approach subcommittee. DiscusSion of Subcommittees: Education: Marble reported that she toured the access center and is planning to meet with principals in the school district. Barney mentioned that he will discuss the I-Net with Marble. This will also be included on the April agenda. Grants: Krey recapped the responsibilities of the Fine Arts Commission's grantt subcommittee, stating it first evaluates grants then brings them before the entire commission. Chiavacci volunteered to write a proposal for a grants subcommittee and consult with Orcutt. A grants subcommittee will be discussed at the next meeting. NEW BUSINESS Thank You to Walter Trefz: Wincn read and distributed a letter thanking Trefz for his work as past chairman on the committee. Public Access Program Schedule: Barney discussed the proposed cancellation of. a Los Altos access program which was to be replaced by a teleconference at De Anza. He said De Anza has not pre-empted programs in the past and that showing the teleconference was a special request from De Anza's president. Barney went on to say that nothing was pre-empted and he did not anticipate pre-empting anything in the future. Wincn asked Barney to write a letter to Los Altos explaining the situation. Fixed Assets Budget for De Anza College: Orcutt reviewed the quarterly budget and fixed assets recommendations as projected for 1992-'93. She said TCI will supplY an audio mixer requested for Edit A. Barney stated that the Advanced Technology Center has been approved by the state and construction will begin this spring. REPORT FROM DE ANZA COLLEGE Orcutt told the committee there are 46 active producer groups. She thanked the committee and TCI for sponsoring the Hometown and BACE entries. She also reported De Anza is researching ways to limit noise from producers' pre- production meetings. The next producers meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 9, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Orcutt summarized the producer survey results. Barney said the possibility of reinstating Saturday time slots Will be researched, as well as the development of the ROE REPORT FROM TCI/UiNITED ARTISTS CABLE Henderson said 103 installations took place during the last campaign. Normally, 300 installations are ordered per month. Henderson said TCI experienced a "data crashing" which left the computer System inoperable for 36 hours. He said this resulted in only telephone Pay Per View purchases being charged to customer accounts. Remote controlled purchases were not charged immediately, so TCI will manually apply these orders to the bills. Henderson also mentioned that the state engineer and safety officer visited the Cupertino office. REPORT FROM CITY OF CUPERTINO Krey .explained to the committee that the dty was facing a $1.2 million budget shortfall next year and that the problem was likely to be an ongoing one, unless substantial budget cuts were made and new sources of revenue could be found. She said all city department heads had been' instructed to prepare both a normal and a "bare bones" budget for each activity. She continued saying that although the committee has had funding guaranteed by the council in the past, those council-authorized funds were now considered discretionary - unlike funding earmarked by the United Artists Cable franchise agreement. Krey distributed various budget proposals should the coundl decide to pull back some or most of its franchise fee support. Available revenue with no change from the council is about $114,000 and the least amount outlined in the budget proposals is $72,267. The committee expressed major concern~ °vei {ts possible funding change. Members cited various reasons for keeping franchise fees allocated as they are, including council precedence, tpcoming franchise renewal negotiations and critical public access support. Huntsman said since the shortfall is about 10 percent of the city's budget, each activity should be required to save only 10 percent. Krey responded saying the council would be looking for long-term revenue sources. Barney questioned whether the Tripartite Agreement would be violated by proposed funding shifts. Krey said the agreement states that De Anza would receive 35 percent of "available" revenue, and that percentage would not alter. He, and committee members, stated the spirit of the agreement would be violated and said the college would not be willing to make up the difference in city funding. Committee members agreed to have Wincn write a letter to the city council urging continued support of the public access program and will attend budget hearings to protest any major budget cuts. They indicated they would be willing to increase the City Channel's portion of funds to help offset the city deficit, but wanted to maintain the current franchise fee distribution. ADJOURNMENT Huntsman made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 9:56 p.m.; Marble seconded and the motion passed unanimously. The next Cable Television Advisory Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 1 in Conference Room A at City Hall. -- APPROVED: ATTEST: