Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/06/2004 , � � Telecommunications Advisory Committee City of Apple Valley December 6, 2004 7:00 P.M. Municipal Center Minutes 1. Call to Order Chair David Westbrook called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, John Magnusson, Dale Rodell, David Westbrook Members Absent: Others Present: Charles Grawe, Mark Moore, Tucker Carlson, Roberta Gibbons 2. Approval of A enda Mr. Westbrook asked for changes to the agenda and there were none offered. MOTION: Mr. Rodell moved, second by Mr. Brown, to approve the agenda as presented. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Approval Minutes of June 7, 2004 '� MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Magnusson, to approve the minutes of June ' 7, 2004. Motion passed unanimously. ' 4. Public Hearin�on Charter Communications Rate Increase Mr. Moore explained that Charter Communications has submitted copies of several Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Forms that would be used to calculate a potential rate increase. While a rate increase has not been placed in effect at this time, the City is holding a hearing on the issue as it is not unusual for a new rate to be initiated at the beginning of the year. The City's regulation authority only pertains to the basic . service rate which is currently at $12.97 and could be raised as high as $13.66 per the submitted documents. PUBLIC HEARING OPENED: Mr. Westbrook opened the public hearing at 7:09 p.m. He asked for public comments on the possible rate increase. No public comments were offered. Mr. Westbrook closed the public hearing at 7:10 p.m. � � . 5. Update on Charter / Comcast Interconnect Discussions Mr. Moore reported that the City's cable attorney has informed him that the physical construction of the interconnect is underway, but negotiations continue regarding the City's use of the interconnect when complete. Mr. Carlson confirmed that the cable company intends to have redundancy by providing interconnects at two locations. He noted that Time Warner has a fiber connection to the broadcast stations, while Charter Communications receives the broadcast signals from an antenna tower. The interconnect provides an alternate receiving mechanism should atmospheric or other conditions disrupt the reception of the broadcast signal. He also clarified that Charter has the equipment for its interconnect needs, but Charter has not provided the equipment that might be necessary to meet the City's needs. He also noted that the interconnect will restore the provision of Metro Channel6. Mr. Bible asked how discussions have progressed since this summer regarding the cost estimates for the installation of dark fiber. Mr. Carlson said no further progress has been made on this issue. He said Dakota County's insistence on dark fiber as opposed to leased bandwidth, is not something that the cable companies are interested in providing. The County did not want to share bandwidth. Mr. Bible asked for a date that the interconnect would be complete. Mr. Carlson said the interconnect would probably be completed by January of 2005. He said the physical connection has been made, but the installation of the equipment and appropriate cards and the ability to transmit the signal would be in place by the first quarter of 2005. 6. Update on RFP for Audit Services with the Cities of Lakeville, Farmington, and Rosemount Mr. Moare reported that the Apple Valley, Farmington, Rosemount Communications Commission and the City of Lakeville accepted a proposal to conduct an audit review of the Charter Communications franchise fees between 2001 and 2003. He explained that the Cities received nine responses to their request for proposals and three firms were subsequently interviewed. The firm of HLB Tautges Redpath was selected. The Cities are still working on a few details before the audit review can begin, but Mr. Moore said he expects the review to be done in January. Mr. Moore said the Joint Commission share of the cost of the review is just under $8,000 and is based on the number of subscribers in each participating members' jurisdiction. , i Mr. Carlson noted that as the audit results are technically public information, Charter is ' requesting that the cities sign a non-disclosure agreement so that Charter's internal I� documents remain private. Mr. Moore said he expects to have the results of the review by the next meeting of the Apple Valley Advisory Committee. He also said that he believes a regular audit review is a good management practice that is part of the City's fiduciary responsibility and that future audits need not be triggered by any particular event. . � � . 7. 3 and 4 Quarter Complaint Lo�s Mr. Moore reviewed the complaints from the third and fourth quarters. He noted that the complaints in the third quarter were largely related to construction. He also noted that he had not received a complaint since the third week of October. Mr. Carlson said that there had been problems with some of the subcontractors. He said that Charter is attempting to reposition its operations such that it would conduct 75 percent of installations with in-house staff, rather than using subcontractors. He said the problem is that there are a large number of new line drops done over the winter that need to be buried over the spring and suminer months. When the subcontractors do not properly document the new line drops, they can go unburied for prolonged periods of time. Mr. Carlson said that Charter is also reviewing the they in which complaints are taken and then transferred from the centralized call center to the individual field offices. Mr. Bible noted that he was disappointed in the increase in the number of customer complaints. 8. 3r and 4 Quarter Coordinator's Report Mr. Moore briefly discussed events in the thircl and fourth quarters. He noted that there was a problem in cablecasting one Farmington meeting when a rodent chewed through the phone line necessary to switch Farmington from the Apple Valley signal to the overriding Farmington signaL He noted that the rewrite of Statute Section 238 passed last legislative session and the Minnesota Telephone Association would likely try again to rewrite the "level playing field" requirements to allow cherry picking, or the provision of services to selected areas only. Mr. Carlson said that the cable companies are currently required to serve all of a city. He said the cable companies oppose limited area franchises that allow cherry picking. Mr. Moore said that the MACTA organization is currently reviewing its position pertaining to this section of the law. Mr. Moore said the City is planning for its conversion to digital recording and playback. In the initial phase of implementation, recordings would be made to both a hard drive and a DVD. Mr. Moore said the City recently produced a short PSA on the use of child safety seats. He said that the Police Deparirnent is currently planning to replace the Police Beat program with shorter segments that can be webcast as well. Mr. Moore said the next joint powers Commission meeting is December 16` He continues to discuss options for cooperative community programming with other cities in Dakota County. 9. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues Mr. Grawe noted that several articles on wireless networks and the pros and cons of I government provision of wireless service were included in the packet for the �� Cominittee's information. �'� , � II�� . � � . 10. Other Mr. Carlson noted that Beth Engel is no longer with Charter Communications and Craig Stenses is now in charge of the operations. Mr. Carlson noted that Charter continues to negotiate for broadcast provider HDTV signals, but has had some difficulty as the providers are often including the fees for cable channel HDTV signals in the package. 11. Adj ourn MOTION: Mr. Magnusson moved, second by Mr. Brown to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:18 p.m.