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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/04/2001 • i Telecommunications Advisory Committee City of Apple Valley June 4, 2001 7:00 P.M. City Hall Minutes 1. Call to Order _, The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chairperson Bible. Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, John Magnusson, Dale Rodell, David Westbrook iviembers r�bsent: Scott Hugstad-�'aa Others Present: Charles Grawe, Maxk Moore, Ellen Martin, Denis LaComb 2. Approval of A�enda Mr. Bible asked for changes to the agenda. No changes were requested. 3. Ap�roval Mir�ut�s of l�arch 5, 2001 Mr. Westbrook moved, second by Mr. Rodell, to approve the minutes of March 5, 200L Motion passed unanimous. , 4. Iylunicipal Center Update Mr. Grawe said the Municipal Center coristruction project was slowed due to strikes and completion is anticipated by mid-July or early August. Mr. Bible suggested a tour would be appropriate once the building is complete. � 5. �arr�N�ti���e Francr�ising update Mr. Grawe said Wide Open West formally withdrew its application far a competitive franch Mr . Grawe re no new interest fro oth parties at thi time. 6. Telecommunications Le�islation and MACTA Update Mr. Moore said the telecommunications legislatioxi did not pass this session. MACTA is investigating possible legislation for next year. MACTA is also exploring options of - writing joint legistation with the cable industry. . • � 7. Public Access Subcommittee Update Mr. Moore said the subcommittee has met twice. The subcommittee has examined draft policies and guidelines, possible equipment purchases, possible staffing needs, and varying levels of service. Mr. Magnusson noted that there is the risk of controversial programming that is protected by the First Amendment. The City might not wish to provide production facilities in order to reduce the risk of the facilities being used for such productions. One solution was to contract with Burnsville/ Eagan for production facilities. Mr. Moore said Burnsville/ Eagan currently charges $1.50 per month in PEG fees to support their services and would require a very large financial contribution from Apple Valley for a joint venture. Mr. Bible asked what had been done to measure public demand. Mr. Moore said the subcommittee was exploring using a short survey tool. Mr. Bible expressed concern that a survey could create a non-existent demand for services. Mr. Bible also expressed concern about heightening public awareness of public access when the current PEG fees are not nearly adequate to cover more than playback services. Mr. Brown said the subcommittee plans to keep the service as simple as possible. He noted that service consisting only of playback would require minimal staffing. Mr. Moore estimated a capital cost of around $2,200. He noted that staff time would primarily be spent entering text for the bulletin board and reviewing the tapes submitted for playback. The group agreed that the subcommittee would likely require four or five more meetings to make a recornmendation: 8. Discuss Charter's Centralized Customer Service Center Ms. Martin said Charter opened a$10 million facility on May 21 st in Rochester. A model center is operational in Wisconsin. Currently, the center handles all after-hours calls for Apple Valley. On August 27th, the center will handle all of the Apple Valley calls. By the end of the year, the center will handle all Minnesota calls. The technical service and dispatching remains in Apple Valley. Apple Valley offices will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays for walk-in traffic. Ms. Martin believes the new center will increase the quality of customer service. The City's contact for complaints would not change. Ms. Martin said Charter has a contract with HSA for ISP services. HSA would prefer to be a national office operation without local offices, similar to AOL. Charter is attempting to buyout the contract and provide the services itself. At this time, technical service calls are routed to a central HSA call center. Charter Pipeline also uses contractors to install the modems. Eventually, Charter would prefer to handle the installation and trouble-shooting in-house. � • r 9. 2nd Quarter Complaint Log Mr. Moore noted a considerable number of complaints following the rate adjustment and channel line-up change. There have been relatively few complaints after March. Ms. Martin said she has made an effort to improve the cable drop/ bury response. 10. Programmin ag nd Equipment Issues Mr. Moore said a new controller was ordered that can handle multiple inputs and outputs. This would allow the City to send one signal to the Municipal Center and another signal to Channel 16. He said the controller would be installed in the new building. Mr. Moore said the fourth part of the Public Works series is on the air. 11. Other Ms. Martin said that Charter is in a dispute with ESPNnews and might pull the station from the channel line-up. ESPNnews is providing an identical signal for free on the Internet, but charges the cable companies and customers a fee to carry it on the cable. Charter is prepared to replace the signal with the National Geographic Channel on June 30th if no agreement is reached. The Home Shopping Network will be added on August 1 st. 12. Adj ourn Mr. Rodell moved, second by Mr. Westbrook, to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimous. The meeting was adjourned at 8:03 p.m.