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Home My WebLink AboutMN-AOC-2019-03-05 1 City of Ithaca Cable Access Oversight Committee Meeting Minutes Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 5 PM Meeting Room, PEGASYS Community Media Center 612 West Green Street, Ithaca, NY Present: Chair Rich DePaolo, Vice Chair Wies van Leuken, secretary Wayles Browne, Common Council Liaison Rob Gearhart; Access Studio Coordinator Lauren Stefanelli; members of the Cortland Cable Commission Sharon Stevans and Duane Andrus, Public Access Coordinator Cortland [Spectrum] Jonathan Stamp. 01. Call to Order 5:04 by DePaolo 02. Agenda Additions and/or Deletions: 07e, f, g added. 03. Cortland Cable Commission. The two members stated their concern for the future of TV cable. Will Charter/Spectrum continue TV over cable at all? DePaolo: is in touch with other municipal officials from New York State, who are concerned over possible redefinition of TV. Sharon Stevans: The PSC (NYS Public Service Commission) says Charter can't walk away from cable service without submitting a plan for keeping existing subscribers connected. J. Stamp is cablecasting programs as best as possible, including a few from Ithaca that have sponsors in Cortland and some simulcasts. There is no funding mechanism for new equipment. Cable Commission: Cortland's franchise ran 1995-2005, and is in effect until a new franchise is signed, negotiations on new franchise agreement are not making progress. Spectrum fired the previous access coordinator. DePaolo explains the consortium of 13 municipalities that is seeking to negotiate a new franchise with Spectrum for Tompkins County. The previous negotiator from Charter moved on; now we're communicating with a woman from Charter’s Rochester office. There is a need for an updated definition of what constitutes “television”. Stamp: Cortland has a studio and some older equipment; office is also the control room. We have a community bulletin board. 2 or 3 shows air per day. S. Stevans: there are 2 channels--the second is from Cortland High School. Government meetings used to be cablecast. Stamp: could air more Ithaca shows if a Cortland resident signs paperwork. 04. Public Comments: none. 05. Approval of Minutes of the February 5, 2019 Meeting: approved 4:0 with corrections. 06. Access Studio Coordinator Report [attached] a. Equipment Purchases Report for 2018: no purchases were made in 2018. See attached Report #3. 2 b. Charter’s Annual Report on collected Subscriber Fees ($.15/Mo "PEG" Fee): for next month's agenda. c. Semi-Annual Usage Fees Report: the fund has a balance of $330.00. See attached Report #4 for details. d. Podcasts - update: nothing new from D. Nguyen. Gearhart: Nguyen may know some other podcasters. Stefanelli will ask him. For now, take this off the agenda. e. Archiving public access shows – update. Stefanelli has heard nothing new from Megan at the Public Library or from the History Center. We can take this off the agenda until the History Center finishes its move into the new building on the Commons. f. Equipment/Battery purchase. Stefanelli's superior has promised to buy a new battery for the old Sony PDX-10 camcorder, but none has been purchased yet. DePaolo placed an order for the battery during the meeting. g. Volume on the 3 PEG channels. Van Leuken: the low volume of the PEG channels has been corrected. 07. Member Reports a. Peggy Awards. See Stefanelli's report. Charter no longer funds the Peggy awards, but Ithaca College will fund the trophies this year. AOC expresses gratitude to IC for this. We have unfortunately missed the deadline for entering our highest-scoring entry in the national Hometown competition, but will keep this in mind for next year. Stefanelli stated that she will schedule special cablecasts of the winning entries. b. Preliminary Budget Discussion. Stefanelli: at next month's meeting will suggest some expenditures. c. Quarterly Franchise Fee Report from City, Town and Village . Van Leuken clarifies that Charter sends a check to each municipality shortly before the deadline, but only months later sends a shortened version of the worksheet that the check is based on (rather than the previous full "worksheet"). Van Leuken needs the report for the third and fourth quarters (Q3, Q4) of 2018 on the amount received by the Town of Ithaca, as well as Q1 and Q2 for 2017 and Q1, Q2, Q4 for 2018 from the City. d. AOC's Equipment Purchase Report to City: no equipment was bought in 2018. e. Outreach. Van Leuken: Stefanelli will review our draft explaining what PEGASYS can do for nonprofit organizations. f. AOC Members' Terms. Van Leuken's term expired at the end of 2018, DePaolo's term at the end of 2017. They continue to serve unless replaced, but the City's Common Council should officially reappoint them. Gearhart will check on appointments. DePaolo: the Town still wants me to serve. g. Access Rules: for next month's agenda. 08. Old Business a. Franchise Agreement: no report. 09. New Business: none. 10. Next meeting: the first Tuesday in April (April 2), 5 pm. 11. Adjournment 6:27. ================ Contact information for AOC members: 3 City of Ithaca: Wayles Browne, secretary <ewb2@cornell.edu>. City of Ithaca: Rob Gearhart, Common Council liaison 2019- <rgearhart@cityofithaca.org>. City of Ithaca: member [vacancy] Town of Ithaca: Rich DePaolo, chair <rd@richdepaolo.com>, <RDePaolo@town.ithaca.ny.us>. Village of Cayuga Heights: Wies van Leuken, vice chair <pmv4@cornell.edu>. Web site for the PEGASYS Community Media Center 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@charter.com> 4 March 2019 Access Studio Coordinator Report  PEGASYS Awards The PEGASYS Awards are now underway. We have 27 entries, 3 judges, and Ithaca College has very generously offered to sponsor the funding of our trophies. The $50 allowance from the PEG fund will be used for certificates and refreshme nts for the event.  PEGASYS 2018 Reports 2018 Reports on Channel 13 Programming, PEGASYS Equipment Usage, Equipment Fund Collections/Expenditures and Usage Fees. Report #1: 2018 Programming on Channel 13: 5 Report #2: 2018 Usage of PEGASYS studio and field equipment: Report #3: PEG Capital Collections 2018 Update [December 2018 balance: $40,598] 6 Report #4: Producer Usage Fees Report 2018