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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLE-1991-03-04 Minutes of the Cable Access Advisory Board (CAAB) Meeting of 4 March 1991 The meeting was called to order at 7 :14 pm, Tompkins County Public Library Present: Jim Blizzard, Rick Gray, Eloise Greene, Pete Hess (Chair, Ex officio) , Floyd Johnson, Lauren Stefanelli (Ex officio) ; Public: Doria Higgins Minutes were approved for the meeting of 4 February 1991 Chair's report: As newly appointed chairperson, Pete gave the CAAB his personal commitment to conducting the meetings efficiently and keeping them short, within the usual two hour time frame. Appropriately his report was brief . He mentioned the efforts being made to recruit individuals to fill the city appointed positions on the CAAB. No vacancies were filled at this meeting. Public comment: No one was present for public comment; however, all members had received some word or words from Doria Higgins in support of Bill McCormick and his freedom of expression on Round About Ithaca and urged that no punitive action be taken. (Doria arrived after the comment period and was assured that her views had been heard and no action would be taken at this meeting. ) ACC and City Cable Commission reports: Eloise commented on the term "tabled" referred to in the CCC report with respect to creating a third access channel by ACC. Lauren stated this was ACC's response to the standing CAAB resolution which called for a freeze on all capital equipment spending. Committee reports: Parking: Rick reported on his trip to the Building Dept. and subsequent phone conversation with the (nearly departed) Bldg. Commissioner Eric Datz . In short nothing in the file on 612 W. Green St. placed any restriction on what ACC could do with its parking places on this property. Rick suggested that should parking become a major issue for access volunteers (there seems to be little evidence of this currently) it should be added to a list of items to be placed before the negotiators of the next franchise. Draft response letter to people who complain about program content on public access : Was adopted without complaint. Jim suggested the language could be made less formal or official . To whom does the "We" refer in this letter? The letter was sent on to ACC for their use in responding to complaints. Mission of the CAAB: Report was deferred until some of the documents could be deciphered by their author. On committees: Jim presented a list of 17 committees and encouraged members to sign up. Capital spending plan (Proposal and time-line) : The CAAB voted unanimously to adopt the proposal written by Pete with two minor changes (Resolution as passed is attached) . Jim suggested wording to make clear that the spending plan must follow the franchise agreement requirements. Eloise advised that the plan should initially set up an escrow account rather than wait for some point when the time-lime was not met (as originally worded) . In the discussion about the capital spending plan there arose general agreement that a long-term ( 3 to 5 year) plan was needed to identify goals and give clearer direction to PEG access development and growth. Naturally a committee was set up and Jim, Rick, Pete, and Lauren agreed to serve on it. Old business: Regarding membership attendance of CAAB meetings: Acknowledging ACC's reluctance to accept a retroactive rule regarding attendance, Pete moved the same resolution to be active from this meeting date forward. Jim added the amendment that "three consecutive meeting absences" be reduced to "two consecutive meeting absences" and it was moved and adopted as amended (resolution as passed is attached) . Series timeslots or the lack there of: Lauren presented the current state of the continuing saga of the programming .crunch. Eloise questioned the current policy of repeats suggesting that it may be to liberal. Lauren pointed to several actions taken to eliminate abuses in this regard, but stated that the absolute crunch is specifically for live, weekly series programs. Lauren offered one volunteer's solution that there be limits on cablecasting per producer. Rick urged, quite apart from solving the cablecasting crunch, that the automatic or preferential series renewal policy now in effect went against the letter and spirit of the phrase "to be served on a first come, first served nondiscriminatory basis" ; this being discrimination based on seniority or prior agreement. To give equal weight to the "nondiscriminatory" element of that phrase (found in both the franchise agreement and the State PEG Minimum Standards) means relying on some random selection process whenever more than one producer is vying for a timeslot at the beginning of a scheduling period. Rick was not enthusiastic about making a lottery part of the policies, but challenged anyone else to devise a system that accomplished the same effect. In closing Pete suggested that series reservations be accepted for only the month of April while the CAAB continues to study the problem. Educational channel: Eloise stated that I .C. programming is growing with each passing semester and that she will again be requesting a separate educational channel on which I.C. 'could move that programming. She further noted that it would be a relatively inexpensive technical solution to the designation of a third channel. New business: Letter of suspension from ACC to Robin Palmer: Lauren showed this letter to CAAB members before it was to be mailed the following day. Coming at the close of the meeting there was no formal discussion of its contents, yet there was general agreement that the penalty was just, the letter should be sent. The meeting was adjourned at 9:08 pm. NEXT MEETING MONDAY 1 APRIL 1991 AT 7:00 PM, AT THE ITHACA CITY HALL, 2ND FLOOR CONFERENCE ROOM AGENDA (attached) Minutes respectfully submitted 1 April 1991, by Rick Gray Cable Access Advisory Board (CAAB) RESOLUTION Regarding Membership Attendance of the CAAB Meetings WHEREAS, the Cable Access Advisory Board plays a vital role in guiding the direction and function of Community PEG Access and, WHEREAS, all members of the CAAB must meet on a regular basis to fulfill the minimum requirement of this role and, WHEREAS, in fairness to all members, each member must make an effort to attend all scheduled meetings or to give advanced notification to the chairperson of any necessary absences, now therefore be it Resolved, that any two consecutive meeting absences without advanced notice and any five meeting absences (without . notice) within any twelve (12) month time period shall constitute grounds for removal from the CAAB, and be it further Resolved, that the City and ACC shall appoint their respective member(s) to fill any vacancy(s) resulting from the imposition of this resolution without delay. Pete Hess, Chair CAAB March 4, 1991 To: Cable Access Advisory Board I rom: Peter Hess Subj: Report of the March '91 Cable Commission meeting Date: 3/21/91 Public comment John Efroymson spoke,expressing the feelings of a number of concerned members of Media Ithaca about the dangers of censorship in the case of Bill McCormick. He said that censorship is by its nature arbitrary,and that a 10 pm cutoff for"adult" programming is both arbitrary and meaningless since the advent of VCRs. John suggested that if ACC is concerned with profanity, it should tell producers exactly what language they cannot use. He asked he Cable Commission to urge ACC to avoid any further restrictions on the content of access programming, noting that it is up to viewers to exercise their right to change channels when programming they find objectionable comes on. Bill McCormick spoke about his dispute with ACC. He said that he asked Barbara Lukens for examples of profanity which could be grounds for ACC action. Bill says that Barbara did not cite any such examples. After the initial warning, Bill received a letter from Lauren Stefanelli citing"chronic and willful disregard of ACC policies" in connection with his use of profanity and threatening 3 month suspension of Bill's producer privileges. Bill said he was making a formal complaint about ACC's behavior towards him. Tom Terrizzi said that nothing in the law supports the ban on"harsh profanity". Chris Doyle of ACC said that ACC was responding to customer complaints and invited participation by the city. Mayor Nichols suggested that the CRAB become involved. Bill,Tom,and Chris will meet to discuss the dispute between Bill and ACC. Tom suggested that a Cable Commission sub-committee be formed to deal with issues relating to access programming that might be judged adult or obscene. Capital Equipment The Cable Commission considered the CAAB resolution dealing with establishing a procedure for capital spending. Tom proposed that the chair of the CAAB be assigned responsibility for seeing to it that the proposed time line be adhered to. With that modification,the Cable Commission voted to pass the resolution as its own recommendation. I was asked to transmit the recommendation to ACC. Channel 53 Peter and Jim will be a sub-committee to work with ACC toward providing playback capablility for channel 53. DRAFT- Orientation Sheet for New Members of the Cable Access Advisory Board- DRAFT (Note to CRAB members: I am looking for asuggestions to improve this handout. - Peter) 1. Meetings- Meetings take place on the first Monday of each month. They begin at 7:00 pm and members are expected to arrive on time. 2. Membership- The CAAB consists of nine members. Seven of these are voting members (the other two are representatives of the Cable Commission and ACC). A quorum of four voting members is required to conduct business. 3. CRAB Officers: •Chairperson - The chair of the CAAB is appointed by the City Cable Commission,from among CRAB members. The chairperson conducts CRAB meetings, makes sure that members receive information they need to meet their responsibilities,and oversees the work of the board to keep it on track and on schedule. •Vice-chairperson - The chair may appoint a member of the CRAB to be vice-chair. The vice-chair will serve as chairperson when the chairperson is absent. •Ombudsperson - The ombudsperson is appointed by the voting members of the CAAB to assist in solving problems that develop between access users or access users and staff. 4. Length of Term - CAAB Members are appointed for a two year term. Terms begin in March. Nothing prohibits members from serving consecutive terms. Members appointed to complete an unexpired term serve out the remainder of the term. 5.Attendance- Members who miss three consecutive meetings without notification and cause will be dismissed from the board,as will members who miss 5 out of 12 meetings. Members should notify the chair if they need to miss a meeting. 6. Duties- The following passage is extracted from the franchise: "The advisory board shall report regularly to the City Cable Commission...The advisory board shall review and monitor all access policies and procedures but will remain advisory in nature. ACC shall consult with the Advisory board on the purchase of new equipment, the studio hours available for access users,and access rules. ACC shall provide quarterly reports to the board on the purchase and maintenance of equipment,the schedules of access staff and the use of studio time." Note:a committee of the CRAB is currently working to develop a more specific list of duties and responsibilities. 7. Committees- Because the work that the CAAB is called upon to do cannot be accomplished in one brief monthly meeting,committee work is important to the board's functioning. Participation in committees is voluntary, but encouraged. 8. Minutes&Resolutions- Minute-taking 1s rotated among the members. Minutes must be typed and submitted to the CRAB chair ten days prior to the next CRAB meeting. Any resolutions passed at the meeting should be typed by the minute-taker on a separate sheet of paper. The chair will number the resolution in accordance with the following sequence: 91.1 first resolution of 1991 ,91.2,second resolution,etc. The chair will arrange for the minutes, resolutions,and other relevant materials to be mailed to CAAB members by the City Clerk,to be received prior to the meeting. Members should bring these materials with them to the meeting. 9. The following items should also be submitted to the chair ten days prior to the meeting. If received in time,they will be mailed to Board members with the minutes. •Resolutions to be brought before the board by CRAB members. •Reports of committees which met during the month. +Proposals by members for new committees, projects,etc. •Any written submission that will expedite and/or clarify the business of the board. 10. Meeting protocol - The following courtesies should be observed by members: make statements concise; come to meetings prepared; arrive at meetings on time;treat other members with consideration. If a member is having difficulty entering a discussion,s/he should raise his/her hand. The chair will recognize members who raise their hands in the order in which they are noticed.