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TC 06-03-87Cable Television Advisory Committee Regular Meeting June 3, 1987. Interim City Hall - Conference Room MINUTES Committee Members Present: Leonard Batchelor, Chairperson Michelle Mann, Vice -Chairperson Dorothy Schmid William Fletcher Committee Members Absent: Jane Chiavacci Staff Members Present: Travice Whitten, Liaison Donna Osterman, Community Relations Officer Elliot Margolies, Access Coordinator Dustin McKennan, Community Relations Assistant Guests Present: Joe Wilcox, United Cable T.V. Herb Everett, DeAnza College Rose Cortney, Citizen The meeting was called to order by Len Batchelor at 7:02 p.m. Agenda Item #1 - New staff introduction. Donna Osterman introduced Dustin McKennan, who will be taking minutes and agenda for the Cable Television Advisory Committee. Agenda Item #2 - Approval of Minutes of May 6, 1987. Michelle Mann motioned that the Minutes of May 6, 1987 meeting be approved. Bill Fletcher seconded and the motion carried unanimously. Agenda Item #3 - Update on United Cable Audit of Access Facilities. Kathy Wilson was sick and did not attend the meeting. Joe Wilcox said that she would present the report at the next meeting. Agenda Item #4 - Update from United Cable on Complaint Procedures. Joe Wilcox passed out items on Customer Complaint Procedures, and Answering Service Calls used by United Cable to address the complaint problems. Joe Wilcox said that he would make United Cable's complaint log available for Donna Osterman and committee members in the future. Committee members also asked questions on United Cable's Customer Service policies for the main office. Donna Osterman asked if United was planning on increasing staff or adding extra phone lines to better handle the influx of calls. Mr. Wilcox said staff has already doubled since the time he arrived and the level of phone activity usually drops after the beginning of the month. Bill Fletcher asked if the committee could determine an adequate level of complaints by United Cable customers. Michelle Mann stated that statistics need to be developed to compare with other cable systems before determining a mean complaint ratio for United Cable. Agenda Item #5 - Report from Sub -Committee on the effect the Cable Act of 1984 has on Ordinance 930 and recommendation to City Council. Len Batchelor, Michelle Mann, Bill Fletcher, and Donna Osterman met twice to update and revise Ordinance 930 before submitting it to the City Council. Len Batchelor mentioned that a lot of terminology needed to be defined, but that basically the 930 Ordinance was oper- ative with a few changes to sections 6.28.045, 6.28.060, 6.28.180, and 6.28.220. Batchelor also recommended that a fact file be started with data and observations being kept pertaining to United Cable's rate increase, operational standards, and franchise renewal fees. Batchelor said that when it comes time for the FCC to make its report to Congress, the CATV Committee will present its data to the FCC and to local congressional representatives. Agenda Item #6 - Report from Vice -Chair Michelle Mann and Access Coordinator Elliot;Margolies on the NFLCP Regional Meeting. Elliot Margolies reported on his presentation of using vol- unteers in public access. He said his outreach -type seminar brought recognition to Channel 30 and that he was.asked to speak on Success- ful Access Operations at the National Conference. Michell Mann said she gave a presentation on producing community events. Agenda Item X67 - Access Coordinator's Report Elliot Margolies passed out a newsletter promoting Channel 30's roving reporter program to air Sunday, June 14, at 5:00 p.m. The newsletter also mentioned free workshops for in -studio and remote production for those interested in the channel. Margolies also handed Gut his May Committee Report. The Report mentioned pre- parations for DeAnza Day, community television highlight column in the Mercury News Extra Section, the Access picnic, bids for stationery,�and equipment usage and repair. Margolies also inquired into purchasing a modem for a computer link with Lon Berquist in Los Altos. Questions arose as to which budget the money would come from. The item was continued for discussion at the next meeting. A discussion between Elliot Margolies and Joe Wilcox Followed. Margolies asked if the Access Channels from local cities could inter- connect to provide a better variety of programming for cable viewers. Joe Wilcox said this was possible but it would be hard to physically match area cable systems. He said this can be done, as shown by the current Educational Channel interconnect between Mountain View and Los Altos, but the main question is still: who's going to pay for it? Herb Everett agreed with Wilcox's assessment of interconnecting saying that the city is not involved monetarily in the interconnect, but that it's up tothe individual cable companies. He said this cost could run up to $25,000 per interconnect or hook-up. Everett also mentioned that instead of interconnecting, the Access Cahnnels could dub individual -program tapes and dispense their programming in this way to each other. Agenda Item #8 - Written Communication There was no written communication. Agenda Item #9 - Oral Communication Rose Cortney addressed Joe Wilcox, asking him about the poor reception and service that she has been getting in the Glenview area. She said she called everyday and still couldn't get through to Customer Service on the phone. Cortney said this has been a re- occuring problem for over a month and feels that she should get better service. Donna Osterman passed out a letter from the Municipal Channel 53 staff requesting -the Cable Television -Advisory Committee members to monitor channel 53 for technical problems, if possible. Agenda Item 410'- Travel, Accommodations, and Registration for the NFLCP National Conference in Chicago July 16-18, 1987. Michell Mann.stated that the NFLCP membership had Expired and that committee members couldn't• get preferred rates until a renewal took place. Mann also suggested that since she is going to attend the conference for several groups, she would ask that the City of Cupertino pay only for her airfare, with the other groups paying the rest. Travice-Whitten suggested that committee members use San Antonio Travel to set up airfare and accommodations since the city has an account with the travel agency. Agenda Item 411 - Review of Publicity Campaign for the Informational "Call -In" Show to be Cablecast on Channel 30 on July 9, 1987, at 7:30p.m. Joe Wilcox said he could no•t make it on the above date and suggested postponing the show until after the NFLCP Conference. A discussion regarding what type of format should be used for the show, i.e. call-in or structured commentation. It was decided to open the latter part of the show to callers. The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m.