HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2005-12-06Cable Access Oversight Committee Minutes [approved]
Tuesday, December 6, 2005 4- 5:30pm p.1
AOC Members Present: Wayles Browne, Wies van Leuken, Will Burbank [ch], Dan
Cogan, Lauren Stefanelli [ex officio].
Public: Gary Tracy, Shane Seger
Agenda:
1. Approve November 2005 minutes.
Approve minutes: moved by Wayles, seconded by Wies. Passed [4 — 01.
2. Public Comment
Gary Tracy, of Newfield, returned to express his concern about his pending
disenfranchisement from eligibility to use PEGASYS production facilities. He says he
plans to take 2 steps: 1/ urge Common Council to adopt fees for residents outside the 3
participating municipalities; and 2/ sublet a small room for a nominal cost from a friend
to create a valid document showing "residency" in the City. He still plans to live in
Newfield, but hopes such a lease will qualify him to use PEGASYS. He asked who
would make the determination about this.
Shane Seger is an in- coming Common Councilman who will be appointed to replace
Dan Cogan in January as an AOC member.
3. Eligibility and Fees
Lauren answered Gary's question by saying that Time Warner believes it is her
responsibility to evaluate and enforce eligibility rules, and that cases she knew to be
fraudulent she would have to disallow. AOC members discussed this issue and passed
the following resolution:
RESOLUTION [motion by Wayles, second by Dan]:
PEGASYS will accept as eligible all individuals who produce proper
documentation [such as a lease or drivers' license] that they are a resident of a
participating municipality. Copies of residency documentation will be kept on file
for each facility user. Cases where an individual represents him or herself to be
such a resident, but cannot produce documentation, or where there is a dispute
about documentation, will be referred to the Access Oversight Committee for
their determination. Resolution passed 4 — 0.
Members discussed the issue of fees, saying they were surprised by Gary's
situation. They had believed that when they passed a resolution at their September
meeting, approving the fees Dan had originally proposed in January, that this would
supersede the notice of disenfranchisement sent to producers that month. They said
they had believed that this fee schedule was about to take effect in January. Lauren
reviewed Time Warner's position, as outlined in the August 13, 2005 letter to
Cable Access Oversight Committee Minutes
Tuesday, December 6, 4- 5:30pm p.2
municipalities [attachment to September minutes]: due to the inability to come to a
consensus with the AOC about fees, Time Warner will follow the franchise to allow only
participating municipality residents to use PEGASYS until the municipalities produce a
fee structure under which others can also use it.
Dan said that in this case, the AOC members needed to go back to their respective
municipalities to request that they set fees quickly. It was agreed that Dan would
summarize his fee proposal, incorporating the September amendment, to produce a
document that could be submitted to all three municipalities. Dan said he would try to
put this item on the agenda of the 12/7 Common Council meeting, although he could not
guarantee it with such short notice.
Will thanked Gary for bringing this problem to the AOC's attention.
4. Enfield residents' tape submission privileges
Will asked for a discussion about the issue Cris McConkey brought to the
committee last month of disenfranchisement of tape submission privileges for Enfield
residents because they are served by another cable provider. Will said that he agreed
that to preserve public access television as a service for local residents, limits must be
set somewhere.
Dan said he believed Time Warner was within its rights to exclude people living
outside their service area, so it would be an uphill battle to argue. But it could be
argued that Ithaca is the center of a community that extends to all of Tompkins
County, that prior practice recognized eligibility of all county residents, and there is no
compelling interest in changing this.
Will said there is no additional cost to PEGASYS to allowing Cris continued access
to channel 13, and suggested grandfathering Cris' rights as a fallback position.
Wies will draft a letter to the PSC asking for advice, and send draft to other AOC
members for comment. When the letter is ready, Will will send out — he has the
address for Carol McTeague — and write to Tom, asking him to hold this eligibility rule
in abeyance until the PSC gives us their interpretation.
5. Report from Studio Manager
Several proposed changes for the new year were presented:
1. eligibility change: production center eligibility restricted to PM [participating
municipality], channel eligibility restricted to service area residents.
2. hours change; reduction of PEGASYS hours from 35 to 20 hours,
including all access administration, starting in January. This will match
access hours to funding from the PMs.
3. promote additional PMs: Time Warner is hoping to encourage some of the
18 non -PM municipalities to join in supporting PEGASYS by having
Lauren use her other 20 hours to try to persuade them of its value, and
develop additional value in the channel [for instance, by trying to
encourage and produce more E and G programming in these areas to
appeal to these more conservative communities].
Cable Access Oversight Committee Minutes
Tuesday, December 6, 4- 5:30pm p.3
4. 2006 capital : Time Warner proposes moving PEGASYS to front of 612
building, keeping the present studio and control room, and access to the
bathrooms. 2006 capital would be used for the remodeling costs.
Discussion: The issue of fees and eligibility had been addressed by the
members earlier in the meeting.
Regarding the hours cut, members considered asking for a lower wage staff
person to stretch hours, but Dan Cogan said that there is no way to know
whether this would help, because the franchise would allow Time Warner to put
another higher wage worker in the position, perpetuating the problem of
insufficient staff and hours, and there is no way to be assured of Time Warner's
good faith in this matter. Wies asked for a report on the exact amount of revenue
for 2004 and 2005 that has been used to fund PEGASYS staff.
Time Warner's plan to have Lauren's access hours replaced with hours in
which she should be convincing rural communities to become PMs, Dan
dismissed as a "fool's errand" that Time Warner knows is unlikely to succeed, at
least not to the extent of changing the staff funding situation.
Regarding the building move, they asked some questions about the relative
merits of moving vs. staying in the present location, however they felt it was
improper to use access capital to pay for it. They said that if the move had been
at their behest that would be one thing, but if Time Warner wants the move for its
own internal purposes, they can not appropriate access capital.
Dan said that these moves by Time Warner were very discouraging. The
AOC's goal is to increase use of access television, and most of what has been
happening over the last 2 years has gone in the opposite direction. If we can't
find a way around this, he said, he would question whether the AOC should
continue to exist. If we can't effect change, there is no reason for us to provide
Time Warner with cover as it steadily diminishes access. Our time is valuable.
Dan said he worried about attracting people to serve on such a committee.
However, he believed in the mission of public access: in these times of media
consolidation, independent media outlets such as public access were of
increasingly vital importance to this community.
Will agreed that access serves as an important free speech forum. Even
when people have no power, they need a forum to be heard. Will suggested
scheduling a separate meeting with Tom Doheny to discuss Time Warner's
plans. Dan said that such an extra meeting was warranted in this case.
Next AOC meeting Tuesday, December 20, 4pm at PEGASYS
Meeting adjourned at 5:30pm.
Minutes by Lauren Stefanelli