HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-AOC-2025-06-03 1
Minutes Access Oversight Committee (AOC)
Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at 5 PM (as approved August 5, 2025)
Town of Ithaca Hall (Aurora Conference Room), 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY
Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, vice chair Wies van Leuken, member
Paul Smith, City of Ithaca Common Council liaison Margherita Fabrizio. On Zoom: Sean Ryan
(Supervisor of Public Access, Charter Communications), Glenn Foster (studio manager), Lauren
Kelly (Director of Government Affairs – Fingerlakes Region, Charter Communications).
01. Call to Order by DePaolo 5:05.
02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none.
03. Public Comments: none.
04. Comments by AOC members: none.
05. Approval of Minutes of the May 6, 2025 Meeting. Moved by DePaolo, seconded by van
Leuken, approved 3-0 without change.
06. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached). Liability forms: producers have signed them
without issues.
a. 2025 Budget Equipment Purchases - Report: Equipment was received; installation is
almost completed - see attachment.
07. Member Reports
a. Municipal Approvals of 2026 Budget - Report. Van Leuken: Cayuga Heights approved it
May 21. Fabrizio: to be voted on June 4 by Ithaca Common Council.
b. AOC Sales Tax Exemption and Letterhead - Report. Fabrizio: pending; City Attorney
didn't have answers on these points.
c. Common Council meetings on Government Channel 15 - Report. Fabrizio: Who did the
test of telecasting equipment in Council chambers? DePaolo: former studio manager Alex Wiers
and Ryan did. Fabrizio: City Clerk insists on getting a list of what is needed. DePaolo: someone
has to power up some piece of equipment and notify PEGASYS staff to turn a switch. Fabrizio:
Can Ryan make a list? Ryan: didn't touch equipment himself, was let in by Scott Kronenbitter,
(City's Information Systems manager). Not sure what the process is. DePaolo: cablecasting City
meetings this way was meant to save the City money: the franchise agreement said that the
City should pay Charter when its staff records meetings.
Kelly: will try to get a quick answer (from Wiers). DePaolo: we'll try to approach him too.
d. Communications with City Attorney - Report. DePaolo will see City Attorney Victor
Kessler and Asst. City Attorney Isaac Gaylord on June 10, will ask for definition of "facilities."
e. Quality of Channel 15 cablecasts. Van Leuken: The sound is still low, but variable. Kelly:
the signal is coming to Charter that way; the problem is with the County. Rich: there will be a
meeting on June 30 to discuss this with Robert Henry who does media production for the
Tomkins County Communications and Public Information office. Smith: we should get an
engineer to put a test tone on that channel so we know what is coming in and going out.
f. Curtain - Resolution. DePaolo went to the Studio yesterday and measured the curtain,
made a budget for hardware needed: 150 feet of 2 mm. chain, 48 S-hooks, fiberglass rods,
$68.44 total from Amazon. He's willing to buy these and get reimbursement, and to install them
himself (est. 1 1/2 hours). Kelly: still trying to figure out how to reimburse. DePaolo: will send
2
you the list, and Charter can figure out how to reimburse. Smith: knows a specialized vendor in
Syracuse for such equipment: Syracuse Scenery and Stage Lighting. Resolution: to be
considered next meeting.
g. Educational and Government Outreach: see 7e above.
h. Website. Smith: is now putting his newly designed site on the web listing programs
available on YouTube. DePaolo: bought the internet domain pegasys.tv some years ago, still
seems to be available. Smith needs this or a similar domain name to point to the website he is
now developing. He will maintain it. He will research its costs. He needs someone to do a trial
run to test out his site.
i. Publicity of PEG Channels. Van Leuken: PEG channels are listed on the TV Program
Guide (accessed on TV screen with the remote) as just "Local Access", "Governmental Access"
and "Local Educational Access" - but do not list individual series and programs. [though
Channel 13 provides a list of the next programs to be shown on the channel during unused time
slots]. AOC is asking Charter to at least show the list of series programs on the menu for
Channel 13. DePaolo asks: how does that info get onto the channel guide? Foster: will look into
the possibility of adding more info than just "Public Access" - but doubts it.
Van Leuken asks DePaolo for a paragraph stating that the 3 access channels are now available
on the Spectrum app to share with the media.
08. Old Business
a. Streaming Channel 13. No report.
09. New Business. None.
10. Next meeting: Tuesday, August 5 [skipping July].
11. Adjournment: 6:05.
-=-=-=-=-
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. Page on the City website: https://www.cityofithaca.org/369/Cable-
Access-OversightCommittee
Contact information for AOC members:
City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>.
City of Ithaca: Common Council liaison 2024- Margaret (Margherita) Fabrizio,
mfabrizio@cityofithaca.org.
City of Ithaca: Paul Smith <smithcommapaul@hotmail.com>.
Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <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 or https://pegasys.yourwebsitespace.com/
studio location: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York
mailing address: 519 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
3