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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-10-18-CAC-min TOWN OF LEXINGTON COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF OCTOBER 18, 2018 Call to order. CAC Chair Ken Pogran called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM in the Parker Room (G-15) of the Town Office Building, 1625 Massachusetts Ave Members Present: Ken Pogran, Chair; Smita Desai; Dave Buczkowski; P. K. Shiu; Ramin Taraz; Ben Moroze; Nick Lauriat; Bob Avallone; Dorinda Goodman; Dave Becker. Members Absent: Rita Vachani Quorum: A quorum of members was present. Others Present: Joe Pato, Selectman; Florence DelSanto, Executive Director, LexMedia; Steve Iverson, citizen Materials Referenced: (Draft) Minutes of the meeting of September 20, 2018; Verizon Cable License Expiration Notice from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Telecommunications and Cable; Cable Television Renewal Process, A Practical Guide from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Telecommunications and Cable; (Draft) Communications Advisory Committee submission to the Town of Lexington's Annual Report 1. Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes. The minutes of the meeting of September 20, 2018 were unanimously approved with corrections. 2. Selectmen's Report Joe Pato reported that Verizon Wireless has replied to the latest small-cell site complaint from Baskin Rd., and has offered to do more RF measurements inside the residence. The Town received a letter from Verizon concerning the beginning of the renewal period for their license. The RCN license renewal is next year, so the new Town Manager needs to be made aware of both items. Joe Pato suggested that mid-December or early January might be a good time to do that. 3. Service provider reports No service provider representatives were present. 4. Chairman's report a. Welcome new CAC member P. K. Shiu Ken Pogran welcomed P. K. Shiu to the committee. Steve Iverson visited as a retiring member of the committee, and Ken Pogran thanked him on behalf of the committee for his service. b. Review of 2018-2019 recording secretary and complaints assignments Bob Avallone pointed out that the meeting agenda had the November and October complaint assignments swapped, though the assignment spreadsheet was correct. Ken Pogran explained how the complaints process works, and that there is a document about the complaints process on the Committee's page on the Town website. Ken Pogran took an action to send P. K. Shiu the spreadsheet. c. Letter from Department of Telecommunications and Cable re Verizon FiOS license expiration October 29, 2021 and renewal process The town received a reminder letter from the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable that the Verizon FiOS license is due for renewal. Ken explained that the Town Manager needs to know about the renewal process because it involves a contract, but Dave Becker said that Selectmen sign the license, not the Town Manager. Joe Pato pointed out that its legal review is under the Town Manager's purview. The state also sent a guide to license renewals. Ken Pogran mentioned that Verizon asked Bedford for a 5 instead of a 10 year renewal period, and that that the Verizon representative had confirmed that at the Committee's last meeting. d. Wireless Services Working Group meeting The Committee reconstituted this working group at the last meeting—Ben Moroze, Dorinda Goodman, Ramin Taraz, and Ken Pogran had agreed to participate. Ken Pogran would like to get this working group going soon—perhaps the week of November 12'h 5. LexMedia update Ken Pogran mentioned that LexMedia owes the Committee an annual report. This report was due 60 days after the end of the fiscal year, but has been pushed out to 90 days. Florence DelSanto mentioned that an audit of LexMedia is not done yet, and that state law requires a complete audit every year because they have a budget of over $500,000/year. This audit will be part of the annual report. Florence DelSanto said LexMedia owes the Committee a first quarter report by the end of October. The LexMedia annual meeting is the same day as the next CAC meeting, but the Committee will get the report before the next meeting. Smita Desai, Rita Vachani, and Bob Avallone are in the LexMedia oversight group and will review the report. The LexMedia annual meeting is on Nov 15''. Florence DelSanto met with the new Town Manager and invited him to visit LexMedia for an interview. New camera equipment has been ordered for the Selectmen's Meeting Room--this will allow control of the cameras from LexMedia. There is currently a booth in the town office building to operate the cameras. The room projector will have a feed directly to LexMedia for presentations, similar to the hall in the Cary Building. These will be high definition cameras. Ramin Taraz asked about security of the network link between the Town offices and LexMedia: the video feed goes over private fiber, and camera control and video may share the same link. Dorinda Goodman said that it's a private LexMedia network. Dave Becker asked how we send video to the cable providers from LexMedia: it is sent to each provider from Klein Hall. LexMedia projects underway: redesigning the LexMedia website (Cider House is the contractor for the website); there is new building signage for LexMedia, but Avalon contractors haven't put the signs up yet. LED lights for the studios have been ordered but not installed. LexMedia hired a social media person, tasked with maximizing use of social media sites (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook). This new hire has done a study, and set up social media guidelines. LexMedia hired a new part-time employee to help with community outreach and producing stories. LexMedia has a partnership with Minuteman High School. Minuteman is building a mass media department, and the department head is bringing a class to LexMedia every two weeks to recruit students to the department. LexMedia is having a student come from Cotting School—they are learning editing and helping to digitize old programs. Cotting School has been asking for years to partner with LexMedia. There are new podcasts which are not yet up on the new site. These are from both the Friends of the Council on Aging and Massmouth. LexMedia is installing a new membership and inventory system. Dorinda Goodman asked to see the new social media guideline document. 6. Review of CAC contribution to Town Annual Report and VOTE to approve Ken Pogran distributed this document to the committee. It follows the format of previous years' contributions. The contribution is due October 19, 2018, and covers July, 2017 to July, 2018. The Committee voted to approve the contribution as written. 7. RCN license renewal progress report Ken Pogran, Dorinda Goodman, and Dave Becker met on the RCN license renewal. The discussion was around how much speed and bandwidth the Town wants from RCN--the Town wants whatever the current commercial offering is, for free. By the end of November, Nick Lauriat, Dave Buczkowski, and Dave Becker will put together specific requirements for RCN, then get a proposal from RCN, and negotiate. The next step is that the Board of Selectmen accepts the proposal. Ken Pogran verified that the Town is using the informal track, rather than the RFP process. 8. PEG accounts update Dave Becker and Rita Vachani will schedule a meeting with the new Town finance person they want to encourage the Town to separate PEG money from money for improving network communications. Dave Becker reported that the Town had not been current in LexMedia rent payments to Avalon. Ken Pogran said LexMedia has a nominal sublease from the Town of the Town's lease of the space from Avalon. The Town pays Avalon from PEG account money, but doesn't go through LexMedia. Ken said there's a new 10-year lease agreement with Avalon. The Town's rent to Avalon is $30-$40k/year. Ramin Taraz asked whether the Town should be looking for alternative LexMedia locations, given the prediction of PEG revenue going down. Ken Pogran said that there is a bigger issue of what to do about LexMedia funding if PEG revenue declines. For now, there are sufficient funds to get through the remaining LexMedia contract—but when it's time to do a new contract with LexMedia, this needs to be considered. P. K. Shiu asked if LexMedia can do its own fundraising. Ken Pogran said that they can and do, but that the amount is modest. 9. Town IT update Dorinda Goodman said the Fire Department has moved to its temporary location and that the location has active fiber service. The Town met with RCN about running fiber out at the Old Reservoir property. The Town is renovating there which makes this an ideal time to get service to the site for phone and computer. The RCN drop is already located behind the Bridge Elementary School. Ken Pogran asked if the Old Reservoir is on new RCN i-net sites list: it is. Dave Becker asked about the connection to the new Minuteman School—there was no update. The latest information is that conduit was being put in across the old Minuteman School site. There was no update on the AT&T police station cell tower proposal. 10. Wireless site applications There was no new activity. 11. Complaints Smita Desai (September), Dave Buczkowski (October) No complaints were received. Dave Becker asked about the status of the complaints spreadsheet, and Ken Pogran will follow up. Upcoming: Bob Avallone (November), Ken Pogran (December) 12. New business There was no new business. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 7:34 PM. Respectfully submitted, Ben Moroze Recording Secretary