HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-AOC-2026-02-03Minutes, Access Oversight Committee (AOC) meeting Tuesday, February 3, 2026 at 5 PM (As approved April 7, 2026) Town of Ithaca Hall (Aurora Conference Room) 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY Present: chair Rich DePaolo, secretary Wayles Browne, City of Ithaca Common Council liaison Pat Sewell, member Troy Parish, member of the public Will Metro; by Zoom: vice chair Wies van Leuken, Glenn Foster (studio manager), Hanna Walier (Director, Government Affairs, Charter), member of the Outreach Subcommittee Paul Smith. 01. Call to Order by DePaolo 5:02. AOC welcomes two new members. All members introduce themselves. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions. 2 additions: 06b, 07h. 03. Public Comments. Metro introduces himself and the program he produces. Smith: former member of AOC through 2025, one-time staffer in the studio, long-time producer of programs, will continue to work as a member of the AOC's Outreach Subcommittee with van Leuken. Their focus is presently on the PEGASYS Awards.
04. Comments by AOC members. Van Leuken describes the work Smith contributed to and made possible while on the AOC such as several TV series, the resumption of the annual
PEGASYS Awards, our letterhead and bringing the main studio back to full functionality. Van Leuken asks about the studio's policy against bringing personal items in. Charter staff: still prohibited. Browne: this disadvantages women; men carry items in their pockets but women
carry them in purses or, as one producer does, in a backpack. Foster: will ask management about the possibility of leaving items in the entryway to the studio building (where the coat hooks are). DePaolo: this is also an AOC decision. Browne asks about a producer's upload of a program Feb. 2; it took many hours instead of the usual 20-30 minutes. Have other producers found this happening? Van Leuken: I find that upload speeds vary. Foster: that depends on the upload speed of the individual's internet provider. Upload speeds are commonly slower than downloads--ask your own provider. The studio upped its own upload speed back last spring. 05. Approval of the Minutes of the January 6, 2026 Meeting. Moved by DePaolo, seconded by Browne. Approved without change, 5-0.
06. Access Studio Coordinator Report (attached). DePaolo asks about the lack of trainings. Foster: trainings are publicized on the website and on Channel 13's bulletin board (slides
broadcast in between programs). a. Annual Subscriber Fee Report. Van Leuken: for consideration at the next meeting. b. Maintenance/replacement of coax cable to PEGASYS studio - report. Walier: We had an
outage on 1/8 that required replacement of a decoder. To avoid future problems, the cable between the PEGASYS building and the Head End building (at the Green St. site) must be replaced (switching from coax to fiber optic). AOC will have to pay for this. DePaolo asks: Could you cite us the relevant section of the Franchise Agreement that tells that AOC is responsible for infrastructure outside the PEGASYS building? And could we get a cost estimate? Walier: will send this info and its costs. Doesn't have a ballpark figure. 07. Member Reports
a. AOC Appointments. Parish and Sewell are newly appointed. Browne: On Jan. 8 I filled out a "Board/Commission Application" form requesting the City of Ithaca to reappoint me to
AOC; in past years, they did it automatically. b. Terms Committee Members. DePaolo and van Leuken have terms till the end of 2027. Smith's term ended in Dec. 2025; has resigned. The City's webpage
https://www.cityofithacany.gov/369/Cable-Access-Oversight-Committee at present still shows data from 2024. Sewell will ask the City Clerk to update this. c. Common Council meetings on Government Channel 15 - Report. DePaolo looked at the broadcasting booth next to Common Council chambers. There are two transmitters but neither is the same frequency as Tompkins County's transmitter, so neither can help troubleshoot the County's telecasts. Sewell doubts there'll be great interest in renewing telecasts of meetings, but DePaolo would like to do it if possible; will write a few words of summary about it for Sewell. Van Leuken: I strongly recommend putting meetings back on Channel 15. There is public interest in watching meetings on TV, esp. in the older generation. The City had invested a lot of money in equipment for it, some of which is still the property of PEGASYS as it was bought with funding and under the rules of the previous Franchise Agreement.
d. Tompkins County's Cablecasting Problems - Report. See 06c. e. Publicity of PEGASYS. Van Leuken: Few members of the public know about PEG. Foster has designed an attractive flyer last fall which we should be using; can Sewell get copies
made in City Hall? Foster: will send the file for the flyer. f. Outreach Committee - PEGASYS Awards Report. Van Leuken: the Outreach Committee is in the midst of organizing the Awards. We received 30 entries: 16 from Public Access
producers at PEGASYS and 14 from Educational Access producers at Ithaca College. There is a panel of 3 independent judges: will judge on line next week. The ceremony is March 6 at IC's Park School Auditorium. Searching for people to speak briefly at it (DePaolo and Browne will be away). Perhaps someone from Charter? DePaolo will contact Ithaca's Mayor. Wilier: will ask Charter. g. Contact Information other PEG Studios in New York State. DePaolo finds no centralized database of PEG studios; will search city by city. Charter has no other cities with production facilities. Van Leuken wants to know "what company we keep"; knows of a couple of studios in New York, one in Rochester and one in Troy. h. Final 2025 equipment report to the City. The list of equipment bought in 2025 is in the Coordinator's report this month; AOC has decided previously that presenting it in these Minutes
is sufficient as a report to the City of Ithaca. 08. Old Business
a. Streaming Channel 13. No report. 09. New Business: none.
10. Next meeting: Tuesday, March 3, 5 pm. 11. Adjournment at 5:59.
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.cityofithacany.gov/369/Cable-Access-Oversight-Committee [new web domain for the City].
Contact information for AOC members:
City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Common Council liaison 2026- Pat Sewell <psewell@cityofithaca.org>.
City of Ithaca: Troy J. Parish <parishtroy7@gmail.com>. Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>, <rd@richdepaolo.com>. 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