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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-06-20-CAC-min TOWN OF LEXINGTON COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF JUNE 20, 2024 Call to order. Communications Advisory Committee (CAC) Chair Kenneth Pogran called the meeting to order at 6:36 PM via Zoom and conducted roll call. Members Present: Kenneth Pogran, Chair; David Becker, Rita Vachani, PK Shiu, Nick Lauriat, Shabbir Bagasrawala, Dorinda Goodman (joined 7:1Opm) Members Absent: Steve Kaufman, Smita Desai, Bob Avallone, David Buczkowski Quorum: A quorum of members was present. Others Present: Florence Delsanto, LexMedia; Mark Sandeen, Select Board Materials Referenced: Minutes of the meeting of May 16, 2024; LexMedia Grant Agreement Renewal Options slide presentation. 1. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes. The minutes of the meeting of May 16, 2024 were unanimously approved without corrections through a roll call. 2. Selectman's Report Mark Sandeen had no updates, except that Ken Pogran attended the last select board meeting with Florence DelSanto. Ken noted that this will be discussed in more detail in the chair report (see below) 3. Service Provider Reports Ken noted that there were no service provider representatives in the meeting today. We were going to have Kerry Morris talk about the Comcast license. We also were going to have David von Moritz from Astound to talk about IP streaming offers, but he emailed to indicate that due to his commitment to participate in the last day of school in the Seattle area he couldn't attend. 4. Chairman's Report a. CAC involvement with Selectboard meetings Rita Vachani, Florence and LexMedia Board Chair Jim Shaw attended the Select Board meeting on Monday for LexMedia's presentation to the Board about their programming, accomplishments and so forth. Florence presented to the Board the increased programming and the corresponding stretching of the staff. This was a prelude to the presentation that Rita will give to the Board pertaining to the LexMedia contract extension and budget options for extending that contract. Mark Sandeen and Ken discussed that the Select Board will take this under advisement for preparation of the Town budget in the November and December timeframe. b. Comcast license renewal execution by Select board Ken noted that on July 22nd we will recommend to the Select Board that they approve and execute the Comcast renewal license. From a procedural point of view, there will also be a public hearing required and we will conduct the same in the July 22nd meeting. David Becker reminded Ken that we need to advertise this public hearing two weeks and one week before the meeting. Ken noted that a draft was prepared by our cable attorney, Bill August, and it will be advertised in the newspaper of record, i.e.. the Lexington Minuteman. Ken asked if others would like to attend this meeting and Rita indicated that she will be there in person. c. Scheduling of next meeting on September 19th Ken indicated that this is the last meeting for the summer, and he suggested that keeping the practice of holding the meeting on the third Thursday of the month, we would schedule the next meeting on September 19'h. There were no objections. d. Expiry of memberships Ken highlighted that Mr. PK Shiu and Mr. Dave Becker will have their memberships expire the end of September. Emails from the town clerk on renewal for another 3 years or stepping down from membership on the committee should be anticipated. Mark Sandeen indicated that the Select Board office has a new administrator, Samantha Lino, who will coordinate resignations and renewals. e. Last year for Ken Pogran as committee chair Ken indicated that this will be his last year as the committee chair. He would like someone else to take on the role as the committee chair. So, he asked the committee to consider this for the next meeting. f. Update of CAC website Bob and Smita are looking at revising the CAC web page on the town website. Bob and Smita are going to review this over the summer and we will discuss in the September meeting. 5. Discussion of Astound IP offering David von Moritz offered to answer questions about Astound's IP offering over the summer until we meeting in September. Florence had a question on the impact on PEG revenues through IP offering. It was agreed that we would wait until they September to learn more about this offering. 6. Discussion of the Comcast license renewal Kerry Morris from Comcast has indicated that the license renewal has been reviewed by them and approved internally within Comcast and ready for us to execute. This will be a 10 year renewal with the license effective from September 1"2024 to August 31"2034. This will be presented to the Select Board on July 22nd. Members of the public will have an opportunity to comment on the renewal. The committee will need to put together a public file for inspection prior to the public hearing that contains details of our current license, the proposed renewal license and the 2023 ascertainment report. Ken mentioned that as part of the renewal we will need to decide between dropping one SD PEG channel in exchange for an HD channel or alternatively Comcast will upgrade all three PEG channels to a digital interface for better picture quality. The other update is that Comcast has agreed to keep language about having a customer service store within a reasonable distance from Lexington. Kerry Morris also provided to us a letter indicating that low income senior citizens will continue to get a discount. Ken suggested that the committee pass a motion that the Communications Advisory Committee approve and recommend that the Select Board approve and execute the Comcast renewal of the cable television license for the term September 1st, 2024, to August 31"2034 as presented. Motion by Rita and second by PK Shiu. The board approved this motion unanimously with a roll call vote. 7. Update on LexMedia Florence provided an update on recently conducted as well as planned LexMedia programming, stories and coverage. 8. LexMedia Contract Extension Rita Vachani provided a summarized presentation to the CAC which was presented to the Select Board on LexMedia Grant Agreement Renewal Options. It is anticipated that with declining PEG revenues from service providers, town funding must supplement for the shortfall in revenue for the immediate term of FY25 and subsequently for FY26 through FY30 and beyond. Options between keeping the current staffing or increase staffing with town supplemental funding were presented with the latter option ensuring the same service that is currently being provided for the FY25. It was discussed that the CAC can provide advice or a recommendation on one of the two options. The committee had a discussion on keeping the current programming going versus a long term concern on the increased funding requirements. A consensus in the committee was reached that option 2 i.e., the option for the CAC to advise the Select Board for the Town to supplement the funding of LexMedia for the FY25. The committee also discussed how to prioritize programming and requests for coverage by LexMedia. Ken Pogran summarized the discussion that in terms of what we need to do right now we have a consensus recommendation for option 2 for the next 2 years, but we do need to begin a discussion in early fall on what the next LexMedia contract will look like in July 2026 and the supplemental funding required by the Town. Dave Becker suggested that we can look at reducing the cost by moving the location where LexMedia does its programming. 9. IT Update Dorinda indicated that she is busy with the new police department facility. She will provide a more detailed report in the next meeting including pictures of the new cell tower behind the police station. 10. Complaints No complaints were received in the last month. Bob is going to monitor for complaints for July, Ken will be covering complaints for August and Dave Becker will be covering September. 11. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 8:08pm. Respectfully submitted, Shabbir A. Bagasrawala Recording Secretary