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MINUTES Access Oversight Committee (AOC), AS APPROVED JUNE 7, 2022. Tuesday, May 3, 2022 at 5 PM
The AOC held its meeting by ZOOM conferencing. Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, vice chair Wies van Leuken, City of Ithaca Common Council liaison Jorge DeFendini; Lauren Kelly (Director of Government Affairs - Finger Lakes Region, Charter Communications), Michael Montesano (Sr. Manager, Programming, Charter
Communications); members of the public Theresa Alt, Paul Smith, Patrick Pinney, Tony
Ingraham, Will Metro. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo, 5:01.
02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments. Ingraham: Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli was an incredible resource. She was extremely valued by all who used the studio. I am deeply
disappointed with how she was treated by Charter. I am sorry she was not properly
appreciated and honored by her employer, instead she was restricted, reprimanded and put under a great deal of unnecessary stress. Alt: What will we do without her? Pinney: still working on streaming the Channel 13 signal; will reach out to Jim Blizzard's
successor. Let's consider this at next meeting. Will miss Stefanelli!
DePaolo to Metro: we cannot hear you; please use chat or telephone to communicate your comments. 04. Retirement of Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli.
See attached announcement by Mike Montesano. Browne moved and DeFendini seconded a resolution of appreciation for Lauren Stefanelli who retired on May 28, 2022.
WHEREAS, Lauren Stefanelli has served as Access Coordinator at the PEGASYS Community Media Center since 1986; and WHEREAS, Lauren taught and guided countless producers in the art of high-quality television production; and
WHEREAS, Lauren presented the annual Peggy Awards ceremonies with skill and grace; and WHEREAS, Lauren was an effective advocate for public access and enthusiastically
promoted the profile and visibility of local access television, in person and as the producer of PEGASYS Presents; and WHEREAS, Lauren with great ingenuity identified the best equipment that the budget allowed, and found quick and creative solutions to uncountable technical problems; and
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WHEREAS, Lauren has conscientiously mastered ever-changing technologies and enabled others to cope with them, and
WHEREAS, Lauren’s motto was “I will do what is best for producers”; and WHEREAS, Lauren retired from her position on April 28, 2022, now therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Access Oversight Committee expresses lasting gratitude and
appreciation to LAUREN M. STEFANELLI, Studio Coordinator extraordinaire, for three and a half decades of generous assistance to video producers and steadfast service to the viewing public.
Approved unanimously, 4-0. Browne has offered to get a plaque made with part of this
text, as a gift for Lauren. DePaolo will distribute the resolution. Ingraham: should there be a press release? DePaolo: this can only be done by the City, not by the AOC.
05. Comments by AOC members: none.
06. Approval of Minutes of the April 5, 2022 Meeting. Moved by DePaolo, seconded by DeFendini. Approved with 1 change, 4-0.
07. Access Studio Coordinator Report, kindly submitted by Montesano in .docx format
(Attached). a. Discussion. Montesano to DePaolo: The Studio is covered for the same hours as when Stefanelli was there. In the interim, the Studio is being staffed by an employee from Charter’s Rochester office. Posting for the job is in progress.
– We now have one of the edit laptops set up in the enclosed edit room so that producers and providers can upload their programs to the PEG server in the studio. Van Leuken: Thank you. This fulfills what we asked for. Montesano: We have come up with software that will convert different file formats, such as mp4 and .mov, to MPEG 2 format; I will check on .avi format. DePaolo: a positive
development. 08. Member Reports a. 2023 Budget – Follow-Up. DePaolo: The Town of Ithaca will take up the AOC’s budget recommendations on May 9. The budget needs to be approved by the end of
June. DeFendini: The City of Ithaca Common Council will vote on the budget recommendations after review by the Administration Committee. He will check with the City Clerk for details. Van Leuken: The Village of Cayuga Heights will vote at their May meeting.
DePaolo refers to an Email from Lauren Kelly dated May 3, 2022 (attached): I have to concur with Charter's position: the Franchise doesn't provide for the budget to include a website. It's neither equipment nor facilities. Either the AOC funds a website independently or not at all. Perhaps the Usage Fee Fund can be used. Currently
subscribers are paying $0.15 per month but are not getting the PEG channels when
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they use the Charter App, unless they also pay for a cable box. A web presence of PEG channels is therefore essential.
b. AOC Vacancy. DeFendini assumes the City will have an interview process for choosing a candidate to fill the AOC vacancy. c. Disposition broken JVC Camera – Resolution
There is only one producer who is still able to make programs with the broken JVC
Camera. Van Leuken moved and Browne seconded a resolution to donate the camera to this producer, Andy Finkle. WHEREAS one of the PEGASYS Community Media Center’s (“PEGAYS”) JVC Camera
menu buttons stopped working; and
WHEREAS, Charter Communications, Inc. (“Charter”), reported that it will not repair the camera, and
WHEREAS, Section 15.3 - 2 of the Franchise Agreement states that Participating
Municipalities shall approve the use of Public, Educational and Governmental (“PEG”) access equipment; and WHEREAS, the Access Oversight Committee (“AOC”) resolved that the broken JVC
camera be donated to the producer who can still get it to work; and
WHEREAS, Charter and the Access Oversight Committee (“AOC”) agreed on a Used Equipment Donation Agreement format per Resolution #59 dated April 6, 2021; now therefore be it
RESOLVED that the AOC directs and authorizes the AOC Chair to execute the attached Used Equipment Donation Agreement between Charter, the AOC and the producer. USED EQUIPMENT DONATION AGREEMENT
THIS AGREEMENT ("Agreement") is made effective as of the date executed by both parties ("Effective Date"), and is between Charter Communications ("Transferor"), as authorized by Access Oversight Committee (“AOC”), and the undersigned individual or entity ("Transferee"), under the following circumstances:
Transferor and Transferee agree as follows: Section 1. Removal of Equipment
1.1 At a mutually acceptable time and date, but not later than 30 days after the Effective Date, Transferee will, at Transferee's sole cost and expense, remove the equipment identified in Exhibit A to this Agreement ("Equipment") from Transferor's offices at the address listed on the exhibit (the "Site").
1.2 The sole consideration to benefit Transferor as a result of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement shall be the convenience of having the Equipment
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removed from the Site. No monetary consideration shall be due to Transferor under the terms of this Agreement.
1.3 Effective upon Transferee's removal of the Equipment from the Site, Transferor, as authorized by Access Oversight Committee, hereby transfers, assigns and conveys to Transferee all interest in and to the Equipment.
Section 2. Disclaimer of Warranties; Limitation of Liability.
2.1 The equipment will be conveyed to transferee” as is.” Transferor and Access Oversight Committee make no warranties, express or implied, whether of title, merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose or use or otherwise, on the
equipment.
2.2 Under no circumstances will transferor, transferee, Access Oversight Committee and/or its affiliated municipalities be liable to any other party to this agreement for any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages arising out of or related to
this agreement or the equipment.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have executed this Agreement as of the date first written above.
Charter Communications TRANSFEREE: By: ______________________ Name, or entity: ___________________________ Date: ____________________ Street Address: ____________________________ _________________________ ____________________________ Authorized Signatory Authorized Signatory Access Oversight Committee By: Rich DePaolo, Chair AOC Date: ________ _____________________________ Authorized Signatory EXHIBIT A EQUIPMENT SCHEDULE SITE LOCATION 612 W. Green St. Ithaca, NY 14850 EQUIPMENT DESCRIPTION JVC Camera PURPOSE (Please describe how the equipment will be utilized) JVC Camera is being donated to the producer who will use it to produce programming for the Ithaca, NY Public Access channel. DePaolo will print and sign the Agreement and send it to Montesano.
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Approved unanimously, 4-0.
d. File-upload Kiosk: see 07a.
e. Covid Guidelines Montesano: masks are no longer required except in common areas. DePaolo suggests that Montesano provide updated text. Van Leuken asked about notifying producers.
Montesano: The AOC should do that. We do not have a complete contact list for
producers, until a permanent studio manager takes office. f. PEGASYS’ operations. Van Leuken asks Montesano about the PEG.NY e-mail address. She understood that e-mails get checked off as having been "read" as PEG
coordinators go through them to find the ones that are for their studio. This confuses
the next coordinator going through them into thinking that they were already read causing messages to be missed. Montesano: PEG.NY is only used for Ithaca. I checked them just now to be sure that none were missed, and none were. DePaolo: We still have unresolved issues on bulletin boards and scheduling, but we can
leave these for now.
Van Leuken: On the field equipment form, it still says "7 days in advance." Montesano: will remove it. In fact we've never turned any producers away based on this. We do want to reach agreement with AOC on the bulletin board. We did bring WRFI back as a source of audio background. We've scheduled several archive-programming blocks
during the week.
Van Leuken: Let's put this on next month's agenda. DePaolo recalls the "disclaimer" issue; AOC would prefer it be shown during the bulletin board rather than bracketing programs.
09. Old Business: none.
10. New Business: none. 11. Next meeting: Tuesday, June 7, 5 pm. (In person or virtual?)
12. Adjournment 6:06. ================ Authority: City of Ithaca code Chapter 18, "Cable Access Oversight Committee". Adopted by the Common Council of the City of Ithaca 11-5-2003 by Ord. No. 2003-17. Available at https://ecode360.com/8386207. Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Common Council liaison 2022- Jorge (George) DeFendini <gdefendini@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: (vacancy) Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com>, <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>. Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4@cornell.edu>. Web site for the PEGASYS Community Media Center studio, with program schedules: https://pegasys.webstarts.com/index.html studio location, mailing address: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York 14850 phone (607) 272-7272 fax (607) 277-5404 e-mail PEG.NY@charter.com PEGASYS staff: interim replacements for studio manager.
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RE: [EXTERNAL] Resolutions and request for clarification- AOC, 4_5_22
KE Kelly, Lauren E <Lauren.Kelly@charter.com>
To:Rich DePaolo <richdepaolo.town@gmail.com> Cc:Paul M Van Leuken +4 others Tue 03-May-22 11:24 Ithaca AOC_RESOLUTION 2023 Budget.doc
40 KB Rich, As always, thank you for your patience. Please see our response to your 2023 budget recommendation resolution, specifically the $1,000 earmark for the website:
Section 15.32 of the Franchise Agreement specifically provides that the $.15 per month fee billed to subscribers shall be used for “the construction and purchase of access facilities and equipment for the Green Street studio.” Access equipment is the physical electronic and
mechanical equipment needed to allow viewers to watch PEG programming. Facilities are the physical buildings in which the equipment is located. A website is neither access equipment nor facilities, and is, therefore, an improper use of the funds under the franchise agreement.
This interpretation of the term equipment is supported by the April 5, 2022 “AOC Recommendations for 2023 Budget” resolution in which $50,000 was reserved for “equipment” and then in another $1,000 was reserved for a website. Clearly the website is not considered part of the equipment by the AOC, or there would have been no need for two different reserves. With regard to the term “linear”, I was simply referring to television programming. Apologies for any confusion here as this is, perhaps, not the best term to use when describing our obligation per the agreement. To note, I will be in attendance this evening. Best, Lauren
From: Rich DePaolo [mailto:richdepaolo.town@gmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2022 11:38 PM To: Kelly, Lauren E <Lauren.Kelly@charter.com> Cc: Paul M Van Leuken <pmv4@cornell.edu>; E Wayles Browne <ewb2@cornell.edu>; George DeFendini <gdefendini@cityofithaca.org>; Montesano, Mike D <Mike.Montesano@charter.com>; Stefanelli, Lauren M <Lauren.Stefanelli@charter.com>;
Patrick Pinney <ppinney@ithaca.edu> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Resolutions and request for clarification- AOC, 4_5_22
Hi, Lauren- Attached, you will find two resolutions passed by AOC at its 4/5/22 meeting.
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The first is the budget resolution we intend to distribute to our respective municipal bodies for consideration. The second is an amendment to our Policies and Procedures
Manual that attempts to better harmonize COVID policy in the manual with the recently-
revised COVID guidelines issued by Charter. I trust you will find both resolutions self-explanatory. As you know, AOC is exploring options to modernize its web presence and raise the
visibility of our programming. In your recent email, you wrote, "Charter’s only obligation
is for linear service, this per the current franchise agreement.” The committee requests that you define “linear service,” as that term does not appear in the franchise agreement.
Finally, Charter currently requires that content providers upload their files
using “Filezilla,” an antiquated SFTP client that, according to public comment, has caused technical difficulties for some of our producers. AOC would like to remind Charter that defining the means by which programming can be provided to Staff is an AOC function, and that limiting producers to Filezilla is not specified in the Policies and
Procedures manual, which defines PEG operations. The committee seeks to allow its
providers to use one of the many modern cloud-based file-sharing platforms or, at a minimum, allow Lauren to help facilitate file uploads to Filezilla on-site, for producers who are experiencing problems off-site. Since it is in everyone’s interest to ensure the smooth provision of programming, AOC expects that Charter will collaborate in finding a
solution to a recurring problem that is inhibiting efficient operations.
In the alternative, since WiFi is available onsite to producers, there should not be a requirement that laptops signed out for purposes of uploading files have to leave the site before they can be utilized for that purpose.
Thank you, Rich
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Lauren Stefanelli Retirement
Montesano, Mike D
To:Rich DePaolo <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>+3 others Cc:Stefanelli, Lauren M <Lauren.Stefanelli@charter.com> Tue 12-Apr-22 17:11 Good afternoon, Lauren Stefanelli has informed us she will be retiring on 04.28.2022.
Please see the attached document.
Thank you,
Mike
Mike Montesano | Sr. Manager, Programming | 585.756.1587 71 Mt. Hope Avenue | Rochester, NY 14620-1090 April 12, 2022
Dear Mr. DePaolo,
Lauren Stefanelli has informed us of her retirement from Charter
Communications, effective April 28, 2022. We are currently in the process
of hiring her replacement.
The facility will be fully staffed after April, 28, 2022 and the hours of operation will remain the same.
Monday: 5:30pm-9:30pm Tuesday: 5:30pm-9:30pm Wednesday: 1pm-5pm Thursday: 5:30pm-9:30pm Friday: Closed
Access users are asked to utilize the PEG.NY@charter.com email address and the general PEG telephone number (607-272-7272) so their requests
are addressed by PEG staff in a timely manner.
There will not be an interruption of services provided to access users after
April, 28, 2022. Sincerely, Mike Montesano