HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CABLECOMM-1992-02-11 City of Ithaca
Cable Commission
Minutes of February 11, 1992 Meeting
Present: Commission members: Peter Hess, Chair; Mary Euel; Jim
Ferwerda; Tom Terrizzi.
CAAB Chair, Rick Gray
ACC Representatives: Chris Doyle, Asst. Manager; Lauren
Stephanelli, Access Coordinator.
1. Minutes of the January 14, 1992 meeting were approved as submitted.
2. ACC Report:
None was submitted. Mr. Terrizzi asked Mr. Doyle about employee
demonstrations that took place in front of ACC last week. One allegation made by
ACC employees was that ACC management was compiling misleading information
regarding customer service standards. Employees charged that customer telephone
calls to ACC are not answered within 30 seconds as represented. Mr. Doyle said he
had not heard the allegation. He said it was not true and said he would supply the
Commission with information regarding the record keeping for ACC's customer
service standards.
3. Public Comment:
Robin Palmer said that Bill McCormick swore on a Channel 13 show before
10:00 p.m. He said that he was expecting more problems in the future. He wanted to
see the Commission's proposed regulations regarding speech that have been under
consideration since last April. Mr. Terrizzi said that they will be released soon but
that they will probably not satisfy Mr. Palmer's concerns.
4. CAAB Report:
a) Access channels are still offset by one channel due to a technical problem.
ACC ran a test that didn't work for those sets that have a tan converter box. The
problem can only be corrected by changing each converter. ACC will notify
subscribers of the offset.
b) The Educational Access Advisory Board was established. A March 10, 1992
meeting is scheduled to organize the EAAB.
c) Rick Gray was elected as CAAB Chair. Peter Hess, the outgoing Chair, was
thanked for all his work on the CAAB.
d) Activation of Channels:
The CAAB rejected the proposal submitted by Mr. Hess, on behalf of the
Commission, regarding the activation of new access channels. The CAAB felt that
the Commission should not compromise what they felt was the clear language of
the franchise regarding the activation of channels.
In view of the CAAB position, Mr. Hess prepared a letter to ACC General
Manager Barbara Lukens requesting that ACC comply with the terms of the
franchise regarding the activation of access channels and that the cost of activation
should not be deducted from the 2% access fund.
Mr. Terrizzi expressed disappointment that the compromise was not
acceptable to the CAAB. He noted that Ms. Lukens was advised that Commission
acceptance of the compromise was subject to CAAB approval. He said that since the
CAAB has rejected the compromise, the Commission should approve Mr. Hess'
letter and take the next step of pursuing the activation of channels with the NYS
Cable Commission, if necessary.
Mr. Ferwerda asked about Barbara Lukens' statement that a routing switcher
was not part of a required package to activate a channel.
Mr. Gray felt that ACC should pay for the switcher. It was not an
"enhancement" as Ms. Lukens called it but was necessary if there was more than
one site producing programming for a channel.
Ms. Stephanelli said that a switcher was on order and was being paid for out
of 2% funds.
Mr. Terrizzi suggested that a time frame be established for the activation of
the next public access channel.
Mr. Hess proposed that the next channel be established within 60 days. The 60
day limit was approved 4-0.
Mr. Terrizzi moved that that the demand letter for the activation of channels,
proposed by Mr. Hess, as amended,be sent to ACC. The motion carried 4-0.
Mr. Ferwerda asked Ms. Stephanelli for statistics on prime time access usage
and the percentage of original broadcasts and repeats. She said that December and
January were relatively slow and that prime time slots were available. No requests
for repeats were turned down but that she expected another crunch on cabecasting
time in the spring.
e) Other Access business:
Ms. Stephanelli said that WSKG will be put on behind the bulletin board on
channel 13 as soon as the equipment can be modified to allow it. Mr. Hess stated that
there were people in Ithaca who were upset with WSKG-radio and were circulating
a petition asking for the substitution of WSKG with WRVO on cable.
Mr. Doyle stated in response to a question, that ACC was negotiating a
contract regarding technical standards and call letters with DJ Sarge who wants to
begin broadcasting on cable.
5. New Business:
a) The Commission ratified the appointment of Rick Gray as the CAAB chair.
b) The appointment of a Commission representative to the CAAB was tabled.
c) Mr. Hess reported that the city is concerned about ACC's announcement
that basic rates were being raised, effective March 1, 1992, to $13.95 per month and
that a $.70 franchise fee was being added to it bringing the total bill for basic service
to $14.65. The total exceed the maximum rate established in the franchise by $.01.
The City Attorney has written to ACC regarding the increase.
Mr. Gray inquired whether the calculation of gross city revenues included the
advertising revenues from channel 7. Mr. Hess stated that the Commission would
inquire into the calculation of the the gross revenue figure.
d) The Commission agreed that at future meetings, there would be only one
public comment period and that each member of the public would be limited to five
minutes, with extensions to be granted by the chair.
e) Mr. Hess suggested that the Commission discuss, at a future meeting,
establishing a n annual agenda. He suggested several possible items: establishing
contacts with other municipalities; pursuing the creation of a budget fro
Commission operations and conference attendance.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Minutes prepared by Tom Terrizzi
CITY OF ITHACA
TV CABLE COMMISSION
Meeting
February 11, 1992
7:30 PM
City Hall
Agenda
1. Call to Order
2. Approval of minutes of January 14, 1992 meeting / designation of minute taker.
3. Chair's report
-McHugh letter
-Rate increases
4. Public comment
5. ACC Report
6. Public Comment
7. Cable Access Advisory Board Report
8. Old business
a) Negotiations with ACC regarding access questions
9. New Business
a) Appointment of CAAB chair
b) City representative to the CAAB
c) Consider changing the regular Cable Commission agenda to
include only one session of public comment.
d) Annual agenda
10. Adjourn
•
• '`rO�[�t'f`l 1111
i
rT1-1-51-19 '
CITY OF ITHACA
108 EAST GREEN STREET
ITHACA, NEW YORK 14B50
OFFICE OF TELEPHONE: (607)274-6504
CITY ATTORNEY FAX: (607)272-7348
January 22, 1992
Barbara L. Lukens
American Community Cablevision
519 W. State Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Dear Ms. Lukens:
I am in receipt of a copy of your letter of January 15, 1992
addressed to the City in which you advise us that ACC is
increasing the rates for basic service from $12.58 to $13 .95 with
a five percent franchise fee to be collected in addition. When
the five percent franchise fee is added in, the rate which
customers will be paying is actually $14.65, a penny more than
the maximum set forth in the franchise agreement.
As I read Section 19 . 1 of the franchise, ACC agrees not to
raise the basic rate higher than the $14 .64 charge. Section 20.1
states that the City shall be entitled to receive from ACC, not
from the consumer, the franchise fee. Therefore, I would assume
that the maximum that ACC can charge the consumer, including the
franchise fee, is the $14.64 charge. Accordingly, I believe that
the increase you are proposing actually brings your rates over
the maximum set forth in the franchise agreement.
You further state in your letter of January 15, 1992 that
the rates for basic cable service are related to overall
increases to ACC for general operating costs. I would appreciate
your forwarding to me a financial statement setting forth your
general operating costs for 1990, 1991 and projected for 1992 to
demonstrate that the 58 percent increase since December of 1989
is actually related to overall increases for general operating
costs.
I expect that Common Council will be discussing this issue
and I would appreciate a response as soon as possible.
Very t , - .}•,
— Guttman
City Attorney
cc: Mayor Benjamin Nichols
Tom Terrizzi, Cable Commission
Peter Hess, Cable Commission ,.
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- ' - *.jiiiirihin litiiiiit these proposed changes.
Report on the CAAB meeting of 1/28/92
1. ACC report
-The channel offset which has affected access channels is to be corrected as of 1/30/92.
-ACC arranged for a demonstration of Amiga computers and titling software in response to interest
expressed in purchasing this equipment from the `92 access capital budget.
2. Old business
-The committee to develop the 1992 access capital budget was formed. The committee is to submit
a report to the full CAAB at its March meeting. Their first meeting will be 2/10.
-The committee on educational access was formed,consisting of Eloise Greene,Robert Manville,
and Rick Gray as charter members. Eloise presented a draft of a letter to other prospective
members of the committee inviting them to a March meeting. The board approved the letter and
Eloise will send it. Lauren will provide a mailing list.
-We discussed proposed changes to the Access Center Handbook. Several points of possible
revision were noted. A CAAB committee will meet with Lauren to further discuss these on 2/17
-Negotiations with ACC on proposals for negotiating settlement of differences regarding access
matters were discussed in closed session.
3. New business
-The board voted to recommend Rick Gray for appointment as CAAB chair. Jim Blizzard was
voted vice chair and will continue as ombudsman. It was suggested that the role of the
ombudsman be the responsibility of the vice-chair henceforth.
date
addressee
Dear •
The Cable Access Advisory Board and the Ithaca Cable Commission, with
the approval of American Community Cablevision, have authorized the
formation of a committee to administer local educational access cable TV
channels on ACC. The resolution is attached. By this letter, we are
inquiring whether your organization desires representation on this
committee. The first order of business would be to develop an operating
document.
Noncommercial educational access channel 54 went on line in September,
1991 with programs produced and/or sponsored by Ithaca College
Television and by the Tompkins County Public Library. It is expected that
programming sponsored by the Board of Cooperative Educational Services
will also be cablecast soon. These programs were formerly cablecast on
die public access channel 13; institutional interest and the growth of public
access made development of a separate channel desireable. "Educational"
refers to the sponsoring/producing entity, rather than to the nature of the
programming, which may be entertaining, instructional, informative,
experimental, etc.
If you have any interest or questions, please call either of us. We would
like to schedule a meeting for early March.
Sincerely,
Eloise Greene Robert Manvell
Cable Access Advisory Board Cable Access Advisory Board
Ithaca College 274-3242 T-S-T B.O.C.E.S. 257-1551
CLC K s cO
City of Ithaca Cable Commission
108 E. Green St.
Ithaca, NY 14850
January 20, 1992
Congressman Matthew McHugh
2335 Rayburn Office Building
Washington,DC 20515-3228
Dear Congressman McHugh,
I am writing on behalf of the City of Ithaca Cable Commission with regard to the pending FCC
ruling which would allow regional telephone companies to enter the business of distributing
television programming. We favor fostering competition in this market,if it is done in a way that
maintains the protections guaranteed by existing federal and state legislation, such as the Cable Act
of 1984. From what we understand,the pending ruling does not adequately affirm these
protections.
The existing legislation governing the cable TV industry wisely provides for local involvement in
cable systems. This has been beneficial to our community in the following ways:
•As local regulators, the City Cable Commission is readily accessible to citizens who
want to be heard,and we understand the unique needs of our community.
•The City is empowered to franchise cable operators doing business within its borders,
allowing it to negotiate for the community interest in return for the franchise grant.
•The City has the authority to collect a franchise fee,which provides about$100,000
annually to the municipal treasury.
In addition,cable regulations mandate the establishment of public, governmental, and educational
access channels, and our franchise guarantees their financial support. Our four access channels
have become a vital community resource,carrying city and county meetings,programming
produced by local educators and students,and over 40 hours a week of public service, special
events,religious, artistic, and"soapbox"programming produced by local citizens.
Phone company entry into the cable market is a threat to the benefits cited above,if the phone
companies are not held to the same requirements as the cable companies. Should this happen,it is
likely that our existing prerogatives will be revoked,as deregulation of the entire industry is
instituted to"level the playing field". The work of those who wrote our franchise, set up the
mechanisms for local control and regulation of cable,and made access programming an effective
local communications medium wouldbe lost,and other communities,of course, would experience
similar losses.
We hope you will energetically oppose FCC actions that would effectively deregulate the cable
industry and circumventing existing legislation. We would appreciate any information that you can
provide that would help us better understand these deliberations, and more effectively press our
concerns with Congress and the FCC.
Sincerely_ ,
Peter Hess, Chairperson, City of Ithaca Cable Commission
cc: Alfred Sikes and Commissioners,Federal Communications Commission
Benjamin icchol Mayor,City of Ithaca
•an 'o ■ airperson,Charter and Ordinance Committee,City of Ithaca
ar es Gunman ity Attorney, City of Ithaca
o n Efro mso ommon Council, City of Ithaca
ld embers of th- ity of Ithaca Cable Commission
Susan Herman,President,National Association of Telecommunications Officials and Advisors
Steven Shaye,New York State Cable Commission
January 9, 1992
Dear Congressman McHugh,
I am writing on behalf of the City of Ithaca Cable Commission to
express our concern about the pending FCC ruling allowing telephone
company entry into the business of distributing video programming.
This ruling appears to deprive local municipalities of regulatory
powers granted to them by the Cable Act of 1984 and leaves our
citizens at the mercy of a monopoly which, since the creation of the
RBOCs, has more than doubled its rates for local phone service.
In addition, this move threatens to obliterate public, governmental,
and educational access programming which is becoming a vital force
in our community. In our area, for example, the government access
channel carries Ithaca Common Council meetings and County board
meetings. The two educational access channels carry programming
from BOCES, Ithaca College, and the Tompkins County Library as well
as the foreign language service SCOLA. The public access channel
carries a rich mix of public service, soapbox, community events,
religious and artistic programming averaging over 40 hours per
week. It seems certain to us that this vital community resource
would be lost in short order if the FCC ruling which contains no
provisions for providing access is adopted.
I trust you will do whatever you can to thwart this Reaganite
attempt on the part of the FCC to circumvent regulation and
community interests. Please let us know if there is anything else
we can do to make our concerns known. Any additional information
your office can provide to the Ithaca Cable Commission about the
progress of these deliberations will be very much appreciated.
I am enclosing a copy of a similar letter addressed to FCC chairman
Sikes.
Sincerely,
Peter Hess, City of Ithaca Cable Commission
January 9, 1992
Dear Chairman Sikes and Commissioners of the FCC,
I am writing on behalf of the City of Ithaca Cable Commission to
express our concern about the pending FCC ruling allowing telephone
company entry into the business of distributing video programming.
This ruling appears to deprive local municipalities of regulatory
powers granted to them by the Cable Act of 1984 and leaves our
citizens at the mercy of a monopoly which, since the creation of the
RBOCs, has more than doubled its rates for local phone service.
In addition, this move threatens to obliterate public, governmental,
and educational access programming which is becoming a vital force
in our community. In our area, for example, the government access
channel carries Ithaca Common Council meetings and County board
meetings. The two educational access channels carry programming
from BOCES, Ithaca College, and the Tompkins County Library as well
as the foreign language service SCOLA. The public access channel
carries a rich mix of public service, soapbox, community events,
religious and artistic programming averaging over 40 hours per
week. It seems certain to us that this vital community resource
would be lost in short order if the FCC ruling which contains no
provisions for providing access is adopted.
We urge you to reconsider this ill advised ruling.
Sincerely,
Peter Hess, City of Ithaca Cable Commission
cc: Rep. Mathew McHugh
Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan
Sen. Alfonse D'Amato
Resolution of the Ithaca Cable Commission Regarding Activation of Access
Channels
Passed unanimouly, 2/11/92
The cable franchise adopted by the City Council of Ithaca on June 8th 1988,
submitted to the NYSCC on December 20th 1988 and approved by NYSCC on
September 12, 1989 contains the following language:
14.1 A. (1) Nine downstream channels shall be designated for public,
governmental, and educational access. The access channels shall be available
for use by New York State, local governments, educational institutions, or
members of the public for education and public service programming,
municipal services and local expression.
The City and ACC have been arguing over whether the word designate means to set
aside space in the spectrum (ACC) or to provide activated channelsfor PEG access
use (the City).
The following language is found in the NYSCC rules "setting minimum standards
for the designation and use of channel capacity for public access". Notice of these
rules was released on February 24, 1988, and they became effective on September 8,
1988:
595.4 (b) (7) The designation of PEG access facilities shall include the provision
by the cable franchisee of the technical ability to playback prerecorded
programming and to transmit programming information consistent with the
designated use of PEG channels.
We have every reason to believe that the drafters of our franchise were familiar
with the proposed access rules and the way they construed designation of channels.
We must assume that it was the understanding of the signers of the franchise,
including ACC, that the franchise required ACC to provide nine activated access
channels. After a careful review of the documents pertaining to this matter, it is
our opinion that there is no ambiguity in the franchise; that it is incumbent upon
ACC provide nine activated access channels as part of its franchise obligations.
Therefore, we resolve that the money taken from the access capital budget to
activate access channels should be rebated forthwith.
Further we resolve, consistent with our prerogatives and our understanding of the
needs of the community, that the activation of a second public access channel take
place within 60 days from the passage of this resolution.
Peter Hess
City of Ithaca Cable Commission
108 E. Green St.
Ithaca,NY 14850
February 17th, 1992
Dear Barbara,
In your letter to me of December 20th,you discussed the history of the long standing impasse over
the purchase of transmission equipment for access channels out of the access capital budget, and
outlined a proposal for resolving it.
You recalled your expectations arising from the June 12th meeting of company and City
representatives and their attorneys,namely that ACC would"write a letter to the City stating what
equipment was required for transmission of a video channel and...that the City would make a
recommendation on the point at which additional channels would be activated"based on use and
need. My recollection is that these"expectations"were ACC's proposals.
You also referred to the meeting that you,Tom Terrizzi,and I had last November 11th, saying that
Tom and I"did not want to address the issue of when PEG access channels would be activated".
My recollection is that we indicated a willingness to have that on the table,while noting that the
perspective of the Access Advisory Board would be seriously considered before the Cable
Commission put its support behind any agreement.
In any event,I brought the essence of the proposal contained in your December 20th letter to the
January CAAB meeting,with some modifications of my own. At that time,I advocated this
compromise which included guidelines regarding the activation of new access channels. This
proposal was not well received by the board,and it became clear to me that the Cable Commission
would fall short of its responsibility to uphold the franchise if we agreed to anything less than what
I feel is clearly guaranteed in the franchise: nine fully functional access channels to be activated on
demand.
Accordingly,the Commission, at it meeting on February 11th,passed the resolution which I am
forwarding to you herein. We hope that you will find its provisions acceptable. We request a
written response from you before the next Cable Commission meeting which will take place on
March 10th.
Sincerely,
Peter Hess
cc: Chuck Guttman,City Attorney
Members of the Cable Commission
John Efroymson, Common Council Liaison
Ben Nichols,Mayor
Peter Hess
131 West Haven R .
Ithaca, NY 14850
February 18th, 1992
Dear Steve,
When you were in Ithaca last May,one of the central issues we were trying to deal with
was a disagreement between ACC and the City over what was meant by our franchise
requirement designating nine access channels.
We have had some negotiations with ACC since then but have not resolved our differing
interpretations. At our last Cable Commission meeting,the Commission passed a
resolution stating our position and asking for what we believe is guaranteed by our
franchise.
We are awaiting a response from ACC. If they reject our request,we believe they will be in
violation of the franchise and State Regulation 595.4(b)(7). We will then want to petition
the NYSCC for a ruling on this matter. In anticipation of this eventuality, I would
appreciate your advice on how to initiate a request for a ruling from the NYSCC.
I have enclosed copies of ACC's most recent offer to the City, and of the Cable
Commission resolution referred to above, along with the cover letter that was sent to
ACC's General Manager with the resolution. I would like to discuss this with you by
phone. I will call toward the end of next week,in the hope that you will have some time for
this conversation. Should you want to contact me, please feel free to call me at work at
607-274-3384.
In addition to the items mentioned above,I have enclosed two other items which I thought
might be of interest to you: a letter to Rep Matt McHugh about proposed FCC rules
concerning"telco entry", and a resolution establishing an educational access committee for
our coverage area which we discussed briefly earlier in the year.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Peter Hess
Chair, City of Ithaca Cable Commission