HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-04-20-CAC-minTOWN OF LEXINGTON
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF APRIL 20, 2023
CONDUCTED BY REMOTE PARTICIPATION
1. Call to order and roll call
Communications Advisory Committee (CAC) Chair Kenneth Pogran called the meeting to order
at 6:34 PM, and called the roll. The meeting was conducted remotely via Zoom.
Members Present: Ken Pogran, Chair; Dorinda Goodman, Bob Avallone. Rita Vachani, Nick
Lauriat, PK Shiu, Smita Desai, Raman Taraz, Dave Buczkowski and Dave Becker
Members Absent: Steve Kaufman
Quorum: A quorum of members was present.
Others Present: Florence Delsanto, LexMedia
Materials Referenced: (1) Draft Minutes of the meeting of March 16, 2023; (2) Slides for
discussion of the Comcast ascertainment
2. Town IT Update – Dorinda Goodman
Ms. Goodman reported that there have been a number of telephone service (Voice Over IP)
outages over the past several months: Last month a significant outage affected both the
Municipal and the School buildings for over a day due to the utility provider (Windstream on
Verizon) infrastructure. It was attended to by both the School and Municipal IT departments, and
was reported on the Town website. The Town is working on putting redundancies in place so
that there are three providers (RCN-Astound; Comcast and Verizon). Two will connect in a
School building and two will connect in a Municipal building. Dorinda stated that the outages are
frustrating to parents because they can’t call into the schools.
Communication has also been lost recently because of failures of HVAC systems. Such critical
support systems are also being inspected to determine those that may need to be replaced.
On another matter, at least one transmission of a meeting (the 2023 Town Meeting) failed before
the meeting was completed, and so was also not available from LexMedia’s ON DEMAND
service.
3. Review and Approve Minutes of the March 16, 2023 CAC Meeting – Bob Avallone
The minutes were approved unanimously (except for Dorinda Goodman and Rita Vachani, who
abstained because they had not been at the March 16st meeting).
4. Select Board liaison report – Doug Lucente
Mr. Lucente was unable to attend, so there was no report.
5. Service Provider Reports
No service provider reports were supplied.
6. Chairman’s Report – Ken Pogran
Mr. Pogran displayed the slides dealing with the Comcast ascertainment process to provide an
overview of what the CAC has to accomplish to be ready for the renewal negotiations.
7. LexMedia Update – Florence DelSanto
Ms. DelSanto provided an update of current activities.
On Patriots Day Weekend, LexMedia covered more than 20 events with the help of volunteers. It
went really well.
LexMedia covered the following community activities:
• Town Meeting
• CAAL Play at Cary Hall
• Fire station naming ceremony
• Cary Hall concert by the Billy Kilson Quartet, sponsored by the Association of Black
Citizens of Lexington (ABCL)
• Met Wind Concert
• Climate Change Crisis
LexMedia has a new cooking show, with a very talented Chinese chef, called Tasting the Eight
Traditions.
There is a new art exhibit at the LexMedia facility.
LexMedia has been hosting programs for Lexington Community Education, Indian Cooking and
Fermented Foods.
Our news magazine show, LexLocal, requires a lot of staff time and has been well received.
LexMedia received a $10,000 grant from the Town of Lexington under the Small Business and
Non-Profit & Cultural Grant Program.
LexMedia will prepare a 10-year capital budget for use in the Comcast negotiations.
8. Comcast cable television license renewal ascertainment process
– Ken Pogran, P.K. Shiu, Dave Becker, Dave Buczkowski, Nick Lauriat
Mr. Pogran discussed email correspondence he had with our cable attorney, Bill August,
regarding our plan. He noted that Mr. August preferred that an ascertainment public hearing be
held by the Select Board, but ultimately agreed that the Committee's plan, to receive public
comments at a CAC meeting and then have our ascertainment report endorsed by the Select
Board, was a reasonable plan.
The Committee then discussed what sorts of requests we might make of Comcast. Topics
mentioned were HD PEG channels, a PEG Capital grant, and, potentially, additional Internet
bandwidth for Cary Library and for schools. The latter item depends upon whether Comcast is
still offering this type of support, as they did when we were negotiating the current renewal
license.
The Committee further discussed the need to justify asking for the full 5% Franchise Fee
payment in the renewal license. The Committee agreed that we have been diligently maintaining
PEG revenue projections and should have no trouble demonstrating a need for the full 5%
payment.
The Committee also discussed the schedule for the ascertainment process, deciding to hold the
public comment session at the Committee's June meeting, with a goal of having the Committee's
ascertainment position endorsed by the Select Board sometime in August, which would be
twelve months prior to the expiration of the license. This would position us well for negotiations
with Comcast.
9. Wireless Applications – Nick Lauriat
Mr. Lauriat reported there are currently no active wireless applications.
10. Complaints
No complaints were referred to the Committee.
11. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:07 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Dave Becker
Recording Secretary