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Home My WebLink About2022-05-19-CAC-min RECEIVED 2023 '1 ,Jain, &54 am TOWN OF LEXINGTON TOWN CL,ERK COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE LEXINGTON MA MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF MAY 19, 2022 CONDUCTED BY REMOTE PARTICIPATION Call to order and roll call. Communications Advisory Committee (CAC) Chair Kenneth Pogran called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM and called the roll. The meeting was conducted remotely via Zoom. Members Present: Ken Pogran, Chair; Bob Avallone, Dave Becker, Dave Buczkowski, Dorinda Goodman, Steve Kaufman, Nick Lauriat, Ramin Taraz, Rita Vachani Members Absent: Smita Desai, P.K. Shiu Quorum: A quorum of members was present. Others Present: Julie Manougian, LexMedia; Kerry Morris, Comcast Materials Referenced: Draft Minutes of the meeting of April 21, 2022; draft CAC response to the LexMedia Q3 report; revised LexMedia Q3 report 1. Review Minutes of the April 21, 2022, CAC Meeting -Ramin Taraz The minutes were approved unanimously with Steve Kaufman abstaining, as he was not present at the April 21"meeting). 2. Service provider Reports Comcast—Kerry Morris Ms. Morris had an informal meeting with Town Manager James Malloy to introduce herself, give him her contact information in case of emergency, and let him know that she would be attending CAC meetings. She also reminded CAC members that Comcast instituted the Internet Essentials program and is a partner with the FCC in the Affordable Connectivity Program, both to make it easier for low income people to access the Internet, which is almost indispensable for business people and students today. Mr. Pogran noted that the Town's Web site is being updated over the Summer, and we will plan to include information on availability of these programs so that eligible residents can access this support. He also said that, as Comcast has informed the Town that is wishes to renew its cable television License (currently expiring in August 2024), the CAC's negotiating group is preparing to conduct an Ascertainment to determine the Town's needs and desires for negotiations on a Renewal License. The negotiating team will be led by P.K. Shiu and will include Nick Lauriat, Dave Buczkowski and Dave Becker, who have negotiated multiple licenses over the last twenty-odd years. Ms. Morris asked if we would send her copies of the active licenses for the other Lexington operators. She also said that Comcast is planning to increase their maximum Internet bandwidth toward 10 Mbps to offer increased productivity for their customers. 3. Chairman's Report—Ken Pogran Mr. Pogran reported that he sent out an updated provider contact list and monthly list of CAC complaint handlers with the notice of this meeting to continue to expeditiously resolve problems Cable television customers may have in their operator relationships. He also noted that our Select Board Liaison, Joe Pato, will be unavailable until at least September, and so has no report for us tonight 4. LexMedia Update- Florence DelSanto (absent,but submitted a written report) The LexMedia schedule is very full until the middle of June. LexMedia has been training volunteers, covering LHS spring sports and school and community concerts,plays, and lectures and will be covering Discovery Day. LexMedia is working with the town celebrations committee on a Memorial Day program. An electrical problem took down the LexMedia website last weekend. It was not clear what happened but it was repaired in less than 48 hours. A new broadcast server is expected to be installed in the next couple of weeks. Julie Manougian, representing LexMedia, added that Patriots Day coverage included many events during that weekend (reenactments,parade scenes, interviews, and the pancake breakfast), and the footage, accessible on LexMedia's YouTube channel, looks very good. 5. LexMedia Q3 report and the CAC response LexMedia submitted its third quarter report, and there seems to be a need for more definition, both to provide the best information for the reviewers and to reduce some of the detail and thus be less of a burden on the LexMedia staff. The CAC wants to discuss ways to accomplish these objectives for the next contract term. The CAC reviewers have prepared a response to the current Q3 report, but LexMedia has not yet had an opportunity to review it. Because of this, further discussion, and a vote to approve the report, was postponed until the next CAC meeting on June 16th. 6. LexMedia Contract Renewal Update Mr. Pogran reported that, in preparing for a new LexMedia contract, we realized we had overlooked a current license requirement: conducting a public hearing on LexMedia's performance prior to awarding a subsequent contract. We had essentially decided to renew the contract based on our evaluation of LexMedia's performance under their current contract, which we monitor through monthly oral reports and detailed quarterly written reports comparing specific performance to contract requirements. Subsequently we investigated the reason for having this contract requirement. We found there is no general statutory or regulatory requirement, at any level, nor were we able to discover any such requirement known to local access corporation managers or our cable attorney, who works with many municipal franchise authorities. We concluded that the provision was included in the earliest LexMedia contracts because the Town was not sure of LexMedia's capabilities and so wanted feedback from subscribers about LexMedia's performance prior to signing a new contract. With concurrence from all parties involved, we intend to delete this provision from the contract. However, see the discussion about LexMedia funding, below. The CAC tracks LexMedia funding source history (that is, patterns of payments from Lexington's cable television providers) in planning for future LexMedia budgets. Although history does not necessarily mean that the pattern will continue, such"PEG revenues" have been going down by 5%to 10% annually, and we believe it prudent to plan for continuing reductions. In addition, our latest Verizon agreement permits them to give up their Lexington license, with due notice, after three years. As Verizon's payments are about 50% of our total PEG funding, this could be a significant setback to our financial plan. We may need to find additional funding or reduce LexMedia's budget in future years, and we have drafted possible plans for several budgeting possibilities. Our current plan is to ask for Town funding to avoid damaging reductions in LexMedia's capability. In support of this request, the CAC may want to schedule a public hearing, not only to permit residents to express their views on LexMedia's performance, but to show Town finance planners the clear benefits to having a robust LexMedia. 8. Town IT Update—Dorinda Goodman Ms. Goodman explained that the "core" of the Town's communication networks, at 201 Bedford Street, has had chronic air conditioning problems,primarily due to pollen accumulation in the month of May. Although this HVAC system was supposed to be cleaned in early May, it's not clear that this cleaning had been done, and very high ambient temperatures (130 —144 degrees F) were recorded in the room. Although emergency measures were taken, exposure to high temperatures can cause temporary or even permanent damage to the communications electronics. This damage apparently occurred in the Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system, core equipment and some of the alerting systems. Systems in that room temporarily shut down due to the heat. Police Dispatch reported that they couldn't get on the Internet. Technical differences between the Municipal and School network designs, as well as school staffing shortages, also appeared to make the School-side services experience a longer outage. Facilities is going to move the condenser on the roof away from the"patch of green" that is a main source of pollen. The entire UPS will have to be replaced, and the damaged parts of the core are expected in within the next few days. IT expects to keep pushing for full redundancy as soon as possible. 9. Wireless Applications There has been no wireless application activity this month 10. Complaints No complaints were received by committee members this month. Ramin Taraz will handle complaints for June, and Nick Lauriat for July. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 8:07 PM. Respectfully submitted, Dave Becker Recording Secretary