HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-02-29-CAC-minTOWN OF LEXINGTON
COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF FEBRUARY 29, 2024
PARKER ROOM, TOWN OFFICE BUILDING
CONDUCTED IN-PERSON AND BY REMOTE PARTICIPATION
1. Call to order and roll call: Ken Pogran
CAC Chair Ken Pogran called the meeting to order in the Parker Room of the Town
Office Building at 6:35 p.m. and conducted roll call. The meeting was conducted in
hybrid mode, in person and via remote participation over Zoom.
CAC Members Present in Person: Ken Pogran, Chair; Bob Avallone, David
Buczkowski, Steve Kaufman, Nick Lauriat, Rita Vachani
CAC Members Attending Remotely: Smita Desai, P. K. Shiu, Dorinda Goodman
CAC Members Absent: Dave Becker, Shabbir Bagasrawala
Quorum: A quorum of members was present
Others Attending Remotely: Mark Sandeen, Select Board Member, Florence
DelSanto (LexMedia Executive Director)
Materials Referenced: Draft minutes of our January 18 meeting; CAC request for
Select Board motion re Verizon license renewal; LexMedia FY23 financial
statement; LexMedia FY24 Q2 report; Draft CAC response to LexMedia FY24 Q2
report; Mass. DTC letter re Comcast license expiration; Response to Mass. DTC
letter re Comcast license expiration
2. Review and Approval of CAC January Meeting Minutes: Dave Becker
This item was deferred to the March meeting as Dave Becker was not present.
3. Select Board Liasion Report: Mark Sandeen
Mark Sandeen mentioned that the Annual Town Meeting starts on March 18 th 2024
and the Select Board is focused on that.
4. Service Provider Reports:
No service providers were present.
5. Chair’s Report: Ken Pogran
Ken Pogran reported that the Verizon license will be ending on October 31, 2026
and he has asked the Select Board for approval to start the license renewal
process. Mark Sandeen confirmed that this item is on the consent agenda for the
Select Board Meeting on March 6, 2024.
6. PEG Revenue Trend Update: Rita Vachani
Rita Vachani updated the team that the year end 2023 subscriber count was 5790,
a 9.5% drop compared to year end 2022. All three cable providers saw this
significant drop in subscribers. However, the revenue for the first 3 quarters of FY24
dropped by 4% (compared to the first 3 quarters of FY23), in line with the
projections being used to estimate LexMedia funding and supplemental funding
required from the Town for the next few years. There was discussion on possible
reasons for the decrease in subscriber counts.
7. LexMedia Update: Florence DelSanto
Florence DelSanto reported that LexMedia continued to be very busy covering the
regular meetings and, in addition, providing coverage of Town Elections (various
candidate nights, interviews with candidates for Town wide offices); Lexington
Schools Sports events including playoffs and School concerts; several public
interest events including the Lunar New Year celebrations; and, cooking shows.
They are now gearing up for the start of the Annual Town Meeting as well as
Patriots Day events.
Florence DelSanto also mentioned that the LexMedia Annual Meeting was held on
February 15th, 2024 at the Depot in Lexington. This year, they had journalist Janet
Wu as a special guest. The change of venue, as well as the special guest,
contributed to the meeting being a great success, and likely will become the model
for future Annual Meetings.
Mark Sandeen as well as several of the CAC members thanked Florence DelSanto
for the excellent coverage and support provided by LexMedia for the Town.
8. LexMedia FY23 Financial Statement: Florence DelSanto
Florence DelSanto reported that the audited statements for FY23 were received late
from the auditors. Other than concern about the timeliness of the report, there were
no questions or comments from the CAC members about the report.
9. LexMedia FY24 Q2 Report and Draft CAC Response: Bob Avallone, Smita
Desai, Rita Vachani
Smita Desai led the review of the FY24Q2 report and the CAC response. Minor
comments were: list of equipment purchased was not included as part of the report
though the $ amount was. Smita Desai also suggested that as part of the renewal of
the LexMdeia license, the header Complaints in the quarterly report should be
changed to Comments/Complaints.
The draft CAC response to the report was approved by all members present.
10. Comcast License Renewal Update: Dave Becker, Dave Buczkowski,
Nick Lauriat, Ken Pogran
Several meetings were held with Kerry Morris (Comcast), Bill August (our attorney)
and members of the License Negotiation Group to work on the new license. The two
big items still pending are: PEG capital grant from Comcast (in addition to the 5%
PEG revenue), and the number of HD channels that Comcast will provide to
LexMedia in addition to the 3 SD channels provided currently. C omcast’s position is
that they will upgrade 1 of the SD channels to HD, thereby providing 2 SD channels
and 1 HD channel. With this approach, if any residents have SD TVs, they would
not be able to view the programming on the HD channel. For comparison, As tound
provides 3HD channels, Verizon has agreed to 1HD channel, in addition to the 3 SD
channels. There was discussion at the meeting about other options and also if it
would be possible to find out how many residents still have only SD TVs.
For the Capital Grant, Comcast is proposing providing $18,000 annually versus an
ask of $26,000. There was discussion at the meeting on whether our ask should be
linked to subscriber counts or front loaded so we get a higher amount in the first few
years of the license and a lower amount in the later years. The team view was that
we should not link the Capital Grant to subscriber counts and agreeing to a
predictable amount per year is the preferred option.
11. Town IT Update: Dorinda Goodman
Dorinda Goodman reported that the IT staff, together with Public Safety staff , met
with Verizon to discuss cell signal coverage through Town, as poor coverage results
in potential delays in critical situations (fire, ambulance, police response). Verizon
has said that if they receive a list of “cold spots” they will look into the coverage.
This item could tie with discussions of the Wireless Applications Group. Dorinda
Goodman also mentioned that there has been discussion of public wi-fi in the Town
Center.
12. Complaints: Rita Vachani (January), Nick Lauriat (February)
No complaints were received.
13. Adjournment:
The meeting was adjourned at 7.50 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Rita Vachani
Recording Secretary