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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-2006-10-03Cable Access Oversight Committee Minutes. The Committee [AOC] met at Ithaca Town Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006, 4 -5:30 pm. Present: AOC Members Elizabeth Bauchner, Wayles Browne, Will Burbank [chair], Shane Seger, Wies van Leuken. 1. Notetaker: W. Browne. 2. Minutes of Sept. 12 meeting: accepted with small amendments. 3. Public comment: none. 4. Seger reported on the meeting, held between Lauren Stefanelli, Tom Doheny, himself and the Assistant City Attorney Patricia Dunn and City Attorney Dan Hoffman, concerning the question of whether a worn rug in the access studio can be replaced out of the capital budget. Doheny stated his arguments in favor, cited legal liability for Time Warner Cable [TWC] in case anyone falls. Dunn agreed that TWC would be liable for falls. Her materials from the franchise agreement negotiations are extensive. Hoffman: What was the intent in them? Dunn: The capital budget was intended to be spent on a potential new studio and equipment. Doheny: will get TWC executives to sign an affidavit that the intent was to include maintenance. Seger stated his concerns to them: this is a 'slippery slope', may result in more and more maintenance items coming out of the capital budget; also AOC seems to be ceding authority over the capital budget to Doheny if Doheny is to make decisions on maintenance. Dunn suggested negotiating with Doheny on the matter, and perhaps seeking mediation or going to the NY State Public Service Commission for a ruling. Seger would be open to talking about it but not without consulting the AOC. The City Attorneys: We can't tell you what to do, we can just clarify the franchise agreement. Doheny: we want a beautiful, welcoming studio with new desks and the like. Discussion: should the AOC negotiate a middle ground or ask the PSC to make a ruling? On a previous occasion (the question of whether an out -of- area producer could submit tapes for broadcast) the PSC contacted both TWC and the City Attorney's office before getting back to AOC. Is there something that AOC could ask in return during negotiations? 5. Cathy Valentino, Town of Ithaca Supervisor, comes in at AOC's invitation. Burbank and Seger summarize the carpet controversy. Valentino: To be a capital project in the Town, an item would have to be larger than $10,000. Studio manager Lauren Stefanelli arrives. AOC clarifies with her that PEG takes up 2/3 of the building but News Center 10 has part of the 2/3; in addition, there is a designer and a meeting space in the building. The studio itself is sometimes used for TWC meetings too. Occasionally it is rented out to an access user for pay. Stefanelli: the TWC accounting rules definition of "capital" is an item that costs over $500 and (if it's video equipment) lasts 8 or more years or extends the life of a large durable item; "capital" can include small items if they are bundled into a big project. Seger: I am willing to consult Dunn and Hoffman about how to write a possible agreement with TWC. C. Valentino (before leaving): caution -- attorneys need to be given clear parameters if they are to negotiate or write agreements. Discussion continues of possible points for negotiation. Clarification of how much space the "studio" or the "facility" refers to? of operating hours? of definition of "capital "? "I hate to negotiate on something that's already my right." Interim conclusion: inform Doheny that we talked about the matter and are organizing a subcommittee to draft a proposal [consisting of Seger and van Leuken]. 6. Studio manager's report (Lauren Stefanelli): I have made a complaint form for producers and members of the public to use, and an equipment malfunction report. [She distributed these.] I will e -mail copies for the Minutes. [See her message in Appendix, and her two attachments.] TWC's engineer just today repaired some equipment. The network needs to be fixed to improve playback. If Nexus quits, the engineer can be asked to come and restart it. There are some public- access studios in the region that are run by separate non - profit organizations: Lockport, perhaps Rochester. Rochester is a separate branch of TWC from Syracuse. 7. Next meeting; Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 4 pm. [Subsequently postponed to Dec. 19.] 8. Meeting adjourned 5:45. APPENDIX: message from Lauren Stefanelli. Date: Tue, October 3, 2006 8:33 pm Files I distributed at today's meeting are attached. Another repair topic not listed on the equipment repair report was the problem with NEXUS digital playback unit while I was away for 2 weeks. found that 2 NEXUS elements - one of the 2 MPEG players and the MPEG recorder, had both frozen, apparently during the second week I was gone. believe occasional instability in our network caused this, because it has happened while I am here. The remedy is to reboot NEXUS, a simple 30 second process. The freezing of an MPEG player does not damage the scheduled events inside NEXUS, so once rebooted, all subsequent events can play normally. Our engineer, Paul Cullings, is willing to reboot NEXUS in a situation where I am away and it is needed. He can do so from his own computer. The problem is communicating to him when this needs to be done, as he does not have time to monitor all access shows. My idea is to recruit producers with shows scheduled during my absence; each producer could be asked to monitor just one show on one day, and to email Paul if they see black instead of a program at the scheduled time. But before I try that, just had a simpler idea - I should be able to simply disconnect NEXUSfrom the network while I am gone and solve the problem with less bother for everyone!