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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2004-06-29Access Oversight Committee Held at the PEGASYS studio, 519 West State Street June 29, 2004 — Minutes [approved] Present: Wayles Brown, Will Burbank, Dan Cogan, Ellen Morris - Knower, Wies Van Leuken; PEGASYS director, Lauren Stefanelli. Called to order approx. 4:40 pm 1. Notetaker /Facilitator /Agenda Lauren Stefanelli designated as notetaker. 2. Approve Minutes Wies asked that future minutes include summary of substantive discussions. Minutes from 5/24/04 meeting were approved unanimously. 3. Public Comment Dan mentioned that he had heard a number of messages [5] on the PEGASYS answering machine asking when "Democracy Now" would resume cablecast on channel 13. [Kenny Ritter stopped by and said that Pete Meyers would start recording and delivering DN, possibly as soon as Wednesday]. 4. Update on Prior Agreement Capital Fund Status of carry -over capital fund from the previous franchise: Dan Cogan met with Tom Doheny, Alan Cohen, Asst. City Attorney Patricia Dunn, and Mayor Peterson to find out about the background of the decision to set these funds aside, and the City's wishes regarding their expenditure. He was told that there was a feeling that because the funds were paid by City cable subscribers, the money should serve City needs and not be rolled into a fund controlled by all three Participating Municipalities. He said there had been some talk about using the funds for City government access needs, such as making additional INET sites capable of access cablecast. Mayor Peterson confirmed that the City preferred to hold the funds in reserve for now, but that the AOC might request that some funds be used for public or educational access, provided the request identified very specific needs not being met by the regular capital fund. Dan felt that the AOC was not ready to make such a request yet, and should work on getting a handle on the current access capital budget process first. He said the amount of the carry -over funds was about $100,000. Wies brought up several concerns: whether it is appropriate to use carry -over PEG funds for non -PEG purposes such as INET extensions. whether the former mayor's actions under the old franchise of eliminating the cable commission by not making appointments, which made him the Administrator of the Franchise, and then deciding not to make capital purchases during franchise negotiations, were appropriate. She said that she could understand if not all of the $100,000 had been used for studio equipment, but that only using $2,000 created a really difficult situation in the studio that could have been remedied with a few thousand dollars. Dan said that if that decision had been brought before Common Council, the council members would have agreed with the Mayor. Wies said in that case it would have been an acceptable decision since it would have been made in an open meeting with a chance for the public to comment. It was pointed out that the old Franchise Agreement had been modified with a Memo of Understanding. Dan suggested that Wies continue to look into this. He suggested that the committee's focus should be on getting up to speed with current needs. There were general questions about capital; Lauren explained several parameters to capital spending: - we are using a calendar year as our fiscal year. - the prior agreement lasted until Dec. 2003, when the NYS Public Service Commission approved the new franchise. Collection of capital funds under new franchise through subscriber bills began in January 2004. - the AOC gets to approve capital expenditures. - capital expenditures are for new equipment or else for refurbishments or upgrades over $500 that significantly extend the life of a capital asset. - software can only be a capital expenditure if it's bundled together with hardware. - Time Warner pays for equipment repair and maintenance expenditures out of funds other than the access capital fund. 5. Tour of PEGASYS Studio AOC members looked over PEGASYS studio, control room, field production and post - production facilities. Lauren explained the reasoning for items listed for 2004 in the PEGASYS 10 -year capital plan, and the eventual major expenditures needed for the full conversion of the studio and playback to digital systems. MOTION by Wayles, seconded by Wies: to include $20,000 for access capital budget for 2005. Carried unanimously. MOTION by Dan, seconded by Wayles: to approve staff spending plan for 2004. Carried unanimously, with the understanding that any remaining funds from the "Boynton" item could be used for other educational uses. Lauren said that next step for this year's budget will be preparation of detailed, itemized purchase list, including vender quotes, followed by submission of purchase authorization for approval through Time Warner Cable's administration and accounting departments. This should take much of July /August. Lauren will report progress at next meeting. 6. Fees for users from non - participating municipalities Dan Cogan suggested that as members seemed reluctant to charge users from non- participating municipalities a fee, to instead develop a system wherein users from participating municipalities have priority in choosing time slots for use of equipment, or some similar benefit. He asked Lauren to think about it and comment at next meeting. Remainder of agenda tabled until next meeting due to lack of time. These included: Member issues Grant Requests from Schools 7. Next meeting - Tuesday, August 24, 4:30pm, at PEGASYS. Lauren will send a press release to local newspapers to announce this meeting. 8. Meeting adjourned at about 6:10pm. Meeting minutes by Lauren Stefanelli.