HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-09-17-CAC-min TOWN OF LEXINGTON
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
CONDUCTED BY REMOTE PARTICIPATION
Call to order. Communications Advisory Committee (CAC) Chair Kenneth Pogran called the
meeting to order at 6:35 PM, held remotely via Zoom teleconferencing.
Members Present: Ken Pogran, Chair; Bob Avallone, Dave Buczkowski, Dave Becker, Smita
Desai, Dorinda Goodman, Nick Lauriat, Ben Moroze, PK Shiu, Ramin Taraz, Rita Vachani
Quorum: A quorum of members was present.
Others Present: Florence DelSanto —LexMedia; Mark Sandeen—Lexington Selectman
Materials Referenced: LexMedia Contract Amendment 1, CAC's report to selectman's office,
CAC's Received Complaints, Previous Meeting Minutes, LexMedia's Grant Agreement
1. Call to order and roll call—Ken Pogran
Meeting called to order at 6:35.
2. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes.
The draft minutes of the meeting of June 15, 2020 were unanimously approved.
3. Service provider reports
No service provider representatives were present at the meeting
4. Chairman's Report—Ken Pogran
1. Committee reappointments and new member recruitment
a. Ben Moroze has asked not to be nominated to be on the committee
b. CAC members are encouraged to find a replacement
2. Review of 2020-2021 dates and assignments
a. Future meeting dates and locations were discussed
i. CAC members will continue to meet remotely every third Thursday @
6:30
3. Working group assignments
a. Members remained in their 2019 assigned groups except for the wireless licensing
group where Ramin Taraz replaced Ben Moroze.
4. LexMedia update—Florence DelSanto
They are following town's guidance on COVID-19 management.
LexMedia reports to be open and providing service to the community: Lending equipment,
rebroadcasting Zoom meetings from citizen, recording of graduation, recording activities at the
Lexington Police Department, recording of Citizen's Academy.
Studio equipment is being upgraded to 4K(cameras, monitors, switching, etc.). Older equipment
will be returned to town. Town will have to decide what to do with the returned equipment.
5. LexMedia contract revision—Ken Pogran
Contract was amended to reduce burden of providing audited financials every 3 years vs. every
year to be in line with previous contracts.
However, members were notified that the audited financials are required for any non-profit that
has a budget of$500K or more.
6. Verizon license renewal status and process —Nick Lauriat, Dave Becker,
Verizon will be asking for a 5 year contract instead of the previously common 10 year.
CAC recommends scheduling the public hearing on or near October 15 and informing Verizon
that CAC members will be working on the formal letter.
7. Review and VOTE to approve CAC's contribution to the Town Annual Report
Report contribution was voted on and unanimously approved.
8. Report on Planning Board hearing, proposed zoning bylaw change re wireless sites -
Ken Pogran
Special permit process will be deleted from zoning laws to avoid penalties that are triggered by
shot clocks. These timing requirements were put into regulation at the federal level by FCC and
missing their deadlines will have negative consequences to the town.
The town will be able to have aesthetic regulations for wireless sites. The town staff is currently
working on creating the aesthetic requirements for wireless sites since they have to be in place
before a site is erected.
The proposed zoning law changes will be presented at town meeting.
9. Select Board report—Mark Sandeen
No update from Mark Sandeen
10. Town IT update—Dorinda Goodman
IT equipment was moved to alternate data centers after the flood of 2019.
Recovery from water damage is almost behind us and should be in full recovery in a month or
so.
The IT department reports that transition to remote working for town employees and services has
gone well.
11. Wireless applications —Nick Lauriat, Ben Moroze
No new applications
12. Complaints —Ben Moroze (February), Nick Lauriat (March), P. K. Shin (April), Smita
Desai(May), Dave Buczkowski(June), Bob Avallone (July), Ken Pogran
(August), Dave Becker (September), Upcoming: Rita Vachani(October),
Ramin Taraz (November)
No new complaints were filed with CAC.
A question from a CAC member, Bob Avallone: How would citizens go about filing a complaint
with the town if not satisfied with a carrier? The answer is that the citizen should look at town
website.
13. Verizon intermittent Internet issue—Ken Pogran
One CAC member noticed an email thread on a town mailing list about a Verizon outage
affecting multiple houses. Verizon's representative was notified. Verizon tracked the issue to a
failing device in Verizon's network. The device was replaced and issue resolved.
14. Election of Committee Chair, 2020-2021
For the annual selection of a committee chair, the committee members nominated Ken Pogran as
the chair and voted unanimously for him to remain in the position of committee chair.
15. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 7:56 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Ramin Taraz
Recording Secretary