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Home My WebLink AboutMN-CABLE-2014-08-04Access Oversight Committee (AOC) minutes Special Meeting Monday, August 4, 2014, 4:30 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Access Center, 519 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY As approved September 15, 2014 Present: AOC members Wayles Browne, secretary; Michael Brutvan; Liaison from Common Council (City of Ithaca) J.R. Clairborne. Excused: chair Rich DePaolo (out of town), vice -chair Wies van Leuken (ill). 01. Call to order at 4:55 by J. R. Clairborne. 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: none. 03. Public Comments: none. 04. Request from City Attorney. W. Browne: I was at the meeting of the City Administration Committee of Common Council on July 16. One item on the agenda was a resolution saying roughly this: "Common Council disapproves (or, alternatively, approves) a'Transaction' by which Time Warner Cable (franchisee under the agreement with the City) would become a part of Comcast." Along with this item was some correspondence between Comcast and the City, including a request for the City's approval of the Transaction. At the meeting, City Attorney Ari Lavine said that Council could disapprove the Transaction, but only if there is a good reason to. Good reasons might include past violations of the franchise by TWC. Deb Mohlenhoff, the chair, saw me in the audience and invited me, as an AOC member, up to the table. J.R. and I spoke briefly about AOC's perpetual difficulties in working with TWC, and so did Cynthia Brock, as former Council liaison to AOC, concentrating on the worsening service. Lavine felt that gradual reductions in service, and the technical changes that made PEG channels somewhat more difficult for TV subscribers to view, might or might not really be violations of the franchise; it's a gray area. But when we mentioned TWC's failure to provide AOC with up -to -date figures on PEG fees collected, and TWC's astonishing slowness in purchasing equipment for the PEG studio that AOC had approved on the 2013 yearly budget, he asked me to write him an e-mail detailing these possible violations - -and send it within the next two weeks. I have drafted the e -mail he requested, and gotten input on it from Wies van Leuken. Lavine gave me two weeks; in fact, he needs the letter for a Council meeting Aug. 6. AOC discussed the draft, suggested further language, and approved sending it to City Attorney Lavine. [It was sent Aug. 5 by Browne as secretary, and acknowledged by Mr. Lavine.] The text of the letter is attached. 05. Adjournment: 6:50. Notes by W. Browne as AOC secretary. Contact information for AOC members: City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2 @comell.edu> City of Ithaca: Michael Brutvan <mbrutvan @me.com> City of Ithaca: J. R. Clairborne, Common Council liaison 2014 <j clairbo @cityofithaca. org> Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd @richdepaolo.com> Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4 @comell.edu> Web site for the PEGASYS studio, with program schedules: http://pegasys.webstarts.com/index.html studio location: 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, New York mailing address: 519 West State Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 phone (607) 272 -7272 fax (607) 277 -5404 PEGASYS staff. studio manager Lauren Stefanelli <lauren.stefanelli @twcable.com> Letter to City Attorney August 5, 2014 Dear Mr. Lavine, At the City Administration Committee meeting on July 16, 2014, while the Committee was considering the resolution to disapprove or approve of the merger between Time Warner Cable and Comcast, you suggested the Access Oversight Committee should write you an e -mail citing past actions by TWC that could be considered violations of the franchise agreement. This letter is the AOC's response, as discussed at our special meeting of August 4, 2014. We should say that our Chair, Rich DePaolo, has had phone conversations this year with TWC's David Whalen, who recently became responsible for government relations in this part of New York State. The AOC participated in one of these, because it took place during our meeting of July 14. These conversations have helped clear up some of the issues that troubled us in the past. While this recent development is encouraging, still, AOC has long- standing concerns. As AOC sees it, TWC's repeated refusal to provide accurate and up -to -date figures was a violation. In particular, we do not receive operating information, i.e. incoming revenues (PEG share of the Franchise Fee) and expenditures (staff costs). Without this information we cannot determine how many hours per week the studio can be open. This refusal dates back to the start of the current Franchise Agreement. Only one CC liaison to the AOC was - just once - shown the information and she could not share it with us. TWC gave us an estimate that the available money would support 24 hours per week of staff time, but insists on reserving 8 hours for playback and administrative work, during which the studio is not open. AOC believes the studio should be open the entire time. Another matter is the digital adapters. Older TV sets require these in order to see the PEG channels 13, 15, and 16. These adapters now have to be paid for by viewers and are of inferior quality. We know that at least 7 adapters malfunctioned in the studio before we had one that worked and 5 malfunctioned in the City's studio before their use was bypassed altogether. We have received reports from numerous subscribers who no longer get these channels. This therefore indicates a systemic problem. And finally TWC has made no effort to inform their customers how to remedy the loss of PEG reception - by including information with their bill - although the customers pay for such reception. This goes against section 15.1 of the Franchise: "...shall be made available at no charge." (However, DePaolo's conversations with Mr. Whalen suggested a willingness to remedy this, at least the lack of information.) Contrary to expectations, TWC's change from analog to digital cablecasting did not bring better picture quality. Numerous technical factors have conspired to worsen the experience for viewers, despite section 10.0 of the Franchise. Also from AOC's viewpoint, TWC's long - running failure to procure new equipment for the PEG studio, as it should have done under the year -2013 budget that AOC approved in mid -2012, could have been considered a franchise violation. The money was already there in TWC's coffers; and TWC ought to have spent it beginning in January of 2013. TWC did not. TWC explained its delay in buying the equipment, first, by claiming that within its internal accounting system it had not yet set up an account for the AOC year - 2013 and other funds, and later, by claiming that it had changed its internal chain of approvals that had to be traversed before buying would be completed. True, an account was allegedly set up in February 2014, and the approvals, after multiple attempts, were made final sometime in June or early July, but it took till the week of July 21, 2014, for the 2013 equipment to arrive. Further problems included difficulties in keeping the studio open and running in weeks when the one employee, Lauren Stefanelli, was on vacation or on medical leave. In our view, TWC was obliged, under the franchise, to pay a replacement employee during these times, but it consistently refused to, leaving AOC to collect small sums of money from out -of -town producers of public- access programs and pay a temporary employee out of that. If you wish more detail on the technical aspects of our concerns, we will be happy to meet with you. Yours sincerely, Wayles Browne Secretary, Access Oversight Committee