The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2019-05-16-CAC-min TOWN OF LEXINGTON COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF MAY 16, 2019 Call to order. CAC Chair Kenneth Pogran called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM in the LexMedia Studio, Kline Hall at 1001 Main Campus Drive. Members Present: Ken Pogran, Chair; Bob Avallone; Dave Becker; Dave Buckowski; Smita Desai; Dorinda Goodman; Nick Lauriat; Ben Moroze; P. K. Shiu; Ramin Taraz; Rita Vachani. Members Absent: None Quorum: A quorum of members was present. Others Present: Selectman Joe Pato; Selectman Mark Sandeen; Florence DelSanto, Executive Director, LexMedia; David Tabeling, photographer. Materials Referenced: (Draft) Minutes of the meeting of April 18, 2019; LexMedia Q3 report, cover letter, and draft CAC response. 1. Review and vote to approve minutes, April 18 meeting The minutes of the meeting of April 18, 2019 were unanimously approved. 2. Selectmen liaison report Selectman Pato reported that the Board of Selectmen has changed member assignments, so that Selectman Sandeen will be the new liaison to the CAC. Mr. Pato anticipates a change in the Board’s goal-setting process, moving toward a more strategic, possibly multi-year, view. Mr. Sandeen foresees a perhaps more rational prioritization of the final goals. They believe that the Board will possibly announce the plan for this year in June or July. Mr. Pogran noted that, as we don’t meet in the summer, we may not have a contribution until September. Mr. Pato suggests that the CAC could concentrate on goals for the Committee, particularly any for which support from the Board is needed. 3. Service provider updates No service provider representatives were present, nor were any reports submitted. 4. Chairman’s Report All planned topics were discussed during the Selectmen liaisons reports. 5. Committee photo for the Town’s Annual Report The meeting was temporarily adjourned, and Mr. Tabeling took photographs of the Committee for inclusion in the Town Annual Report. 6. LexMedia update Ms. DelSanto gave the Committee a tour of the studio, which has been rearranged to be more efficient. The podcast studio is working well. Customers are beginning to utilize the facility. LexMedia now uses streaming Internet channels to send video from remote locations to the studio for broadcast and for streaming. The backup facility is currently at the studio while LexMedia is planning for new space at Cary Hall. While the now-standard HD format requires more backup storage, higher density magnetic disks can compensate for this factor to some extent. LexMedia believes their system will remain manageable for the foreseeable future. LexMedia is very busy and will continue to be until the High School graduation and its associated events are complete. 7. Review LexMedia Q3 report, draft CAC response, and VOTE to approve response Mr. Pogran believes that the new Web site discussed in the Report should have a more clear reference to the relationship between LexMedia and the Town, perhaps including the current contract as a referenced document. Some graphics in the Report need to be revised, particularly those related to programming. A motion to approve the CAC response, with appropriate corrections to the Report, was made and seconded, and unanimously approved. 8. RCN license renewal update The negotiating team is concerned that we have not heard back from RCN on the draft list of changes we discussed with Tom Steel about a month and a half ago. We believe that he currently has a lot of responsibility, but we are on a tight schedule to get a renewal license signed by the current expiration date of June 30. RCN has been nonresponsive. Last week, Tom promised to get us something by early this week, but as of today there was no word. We can schedule the required public hearing on or after June 20 if the Board of Selectmen Chair agrees to place a legal notice in the Minuteman by May 31. It will be 2 tight, because the Board of Selectmen would have to meet after the hearing date (and any comment period) and before the end of June. We plan to ask our cable attorney (Peter Epstein, newly under contract again) to draft a formal “Preliminary Denial of Renewal” in case the schedule slips past what’s achievable. We also want to have a vote of the CAC recommending that the Board approve the renewal. Mr. Pogran will contact Mr. Steel as soon as possible. 9. Verizon FiOS license renewal process The Town received notification dated March 18, 2019 that they want to renew their cable TV license that expires on October 31, 2021. The earliest date on which they could have notified us was three years prior to expiration, or October 31, 2018. so they appear to not be in a rush. To preserve our rights should either party choose to use a formal negotiation process (that we believe is NOT preferable), we have to show some activity seen as preparing for negotiation within six months of their letter, or by September 18, 2019. We can easily do that, but can’t forget the obligation. We’ve heard that Verizon has so much renewal activity that they plan to use local attorneys instead of in-house staff because of the extra work load. A motion to request authorization from Board of Selectmen to initiate the license renewal process with Verizon was made and seconded, and unanimously approved. 10. Discussion of 5G wireless technology and concerns about potential health impacts Cecelia (Cece) Doucette gave a talk at the April 25, 2019 Hanscom Area Towns (HATS) Committee at Lincoln Town Hall on (her perceived) dangers of Radio Frequency (RF) Radiation to humans. She was formerly associated with the Ashland, MA schools, and was instrumental in getting the town to upgrade schools’ communications using more wireless technology. She has now been convinced that wireless communications is dangerous to humans, and is on a campaign to bring people to her point of view. Messrs. Avallone and Becker attended that meeting and reported their thoughts. Cece is a true believer that the sky is falling. She has compiled a large number of references on RFR, but may not understand their significance at any depth. In her talk she refers to certain documents for support, but Mr, Becker believes that support to be weak in some cases. She also claims a series of human ailments are caused by RFR (child and adult cancers, autism, Alzheimer’s, infertility…irregular heartbeats, anxiety, depression, behavior issues…and more) without any solid evidence. Reminds one of old-time medicine men selling elixir off the back of a covered wagon, but in this case as the cure for a list of diseases (flu, syphilis, cancer) instead of the cause. 3 There doesn’t seem to be any reliable information on the safety or danger of this radiation, leaving us without much on which to base a strategy. The issue is impo rtant because it does seem that IF the current fourth generation (4G) of wireless radiation presents a danger, THEN the implementation of the forthcoming fifth generation (5G) may exacerbate that danger because of increased frequency of the data packets to deliver higher data rates. Verizon has announced a plan to replace fiber-optic delivery of cable TV signals with delivery with 5G wireless, using ‘small cell’ technology. This would introduce significantly greater uncertainty of the safety of the Town’s radiofrequency environment to our residents than we now have. It may be that our only option is to stay aware of any new evidence from governmental, university and private labs of 5G RFR danger and to work with other municipalities to resist by all means attempts to introduce possibly dangerous technology. Mr. Sandeen noted that there is an effort by some municipalities to own the antennas and compel local cable operators to use only those antennas, paying a rental fee. This provides funds for the town but does not seem to ameliorate any health risk for the residents. 11. Regulatory updates a. FCC “in-kind contributions” proposed rulemaking Mr. Pogran reports rumors, but not confirmation, that the FCC will “soon” put on their agenda a rule requiring subtraction of “in kind” payments by an operator from the 5% cash payments for cable-related purposes. b. “Net neutrality” Mr. Avallone reported that the only news he has seen at the Federal level is that Representative Katherine Clark has stated it is very important to the people of her district. However, it seems unlikely the Republican-dominated Senate will take it up soon. 12. Town IT update Ms. Goodman reported that the Town Web site is being redesigned, but nothing else of note is in process. 13. Complaints Mr. Pogran had discussions with Verizon’s Niall Connors about a resident of Avalon Lexington Ridge wanting FIOS. So far Verizon and the management of the multi-resident dwelling have not reached an agreement that would enable Verizon to install FiOS in the complex. 4 14. New business There was no new business. 15. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 PM. Respectfully submitted, David Becker Recording Secretary 5