Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-06-16-CAC-minTOWN OF LEXINGTON COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF JUNE 16, 2011 Call to order. CAC Chair Jim Goell called the meeting to order at 6:34 PM in the Selectmen's Meeting Room of the Town Office Building. Present: CAC Members: Jim Goell, Chair; David Becker, Frank Cal, Dorinda Goodman, Maria Kieslich, Ken Pogran, Linda Roemer, Smita Desai. Others: Florence del Santo, LexMedia; George Burnell, Board of Selectmen. 1. Approval of previous meeting minutes. The minutes of the meeting of May 19 were approved. 2. Carrier reports. Mary Lou Frere reported, via email, that there was "nothing of significance to report." No other carrier reports were received. 3. Selectman liaison report. George Burnell reported that the state Legislature is holding hearings on seven bills pertaining to enforcement of the existing law regarding "double poles." The active proposal is to require escalating fines beginning 180 days after a double pole is installed. George reported that one or more Lexington residents intend to provide testimony at these hearings. 4. Chairman's report. A. School Committee letter requesting agenda item times for LexMedia. The Committee Chair sent an email to Dr. Ash on June 2 requesting that the School Committee Clerk record start times for each of the agenda items at School Committee Meetings to facilitate indexing of these meetings by LexMedia. No response has been received to date. B. Next meeting. The next meeting of the Committee will be on September 15. The room for this meeting is yet to be determined. C. Items held for the fall. The Chair stated that the following items will be held for discussion in the fall: 1. Town Meeting projector problems. 11. Discussions with Pat Goddard about Library meeting room audio and general upgrade. Communications Advisory Committee June 16, 2011 Town of Lexington Page 2 111. Town Office Building Room G 15 upgrade for LexMedia filming. A preliminary discussion was held regarding the latter item. The Town has no definite plans, at this time, to equip Room G 15 for TV program origination. The Committee will review the Town's plans in this regard in September. 5. CATV basic service rates letter. Frank Cal drafted a letter to send to the Town's CATV service providers regarding their basic rate structure, in comparison to the basic rate structure in other towns. It was moved and seconded: That the Committee authorize the Chair to send the letter to the service providers in early July, and to follow up with the service providers. In discussion, the sense of the Committee was that the letter sent to service providers should not include what might be regarded as an implied threat that the Committee would help subscribers switch to over - the -air reception. The motion was amended to direct the Chair to remove this text from the letter. The motion was then passed, as amended. 6. Promotion of Town Government programs by LexMedia. Florence del Santo reported that Harry Forsdick has not yet spoken with anyone in Town government regarding getting LexMedia coverage of meetings and other Town government events noted on the Town event. This item is "on hold" until Harry returns from his trip. 7. LexMedia On Demand status report. Florence del Santo reported that LexMedia is making very good progress getting recent meeting recordings onto the On- Demand server. Approximately half of the 2011 meetings have been put on line. She reported that there are 104 meetings from 2010, and LexMedia can put about 20 meetings per week on the server. This work is being done by a summer temp, and is expected to take about five weeks to complete. LexMedia continues to look at the issue of getting non - Government programs on line. Florence expressed optimism that the summer temp will be able to accomplish this, as well. 8. Review process for LexMedia 2Q11 report. Committee Chair Jim Goell explained that, although the Committee would not be meeting over the summer, we wanted to provide a quick response to LexMedia's second quarter report, as called for by the contract. Not providing responses to LexMedia promptly reduces the value of those responses. Maria Kieslich should be able to prepare the Committee's response to LexMedia, and together with the Linda Roemer and the Committee Chair, acting as a Subommittee, should be able to prepare the response and hold the required public meeting. It was moved, seconded and passed: That Maria Kieslich, Linda Roemer, and Jim Goell be authorized to accept LexMedia's report on behalf of the Committee and provide the Committee's comments and response. Communications Advisory Committee June 16, 2011 Town of Lexington Page 3 9. WiFi report. Ken Pogran reported that he will have a draft report to circulate to the Committee prior to our September meeting. 10. Letter to wireless carriers. The Committee reviewed the current draft of the letter to be sent to wireless carriers regarding broadband service in Lexington. It was moved, seconded, and passed: That the Committee Chair be authorized to send to the wireless carriers serving Lexington the letter as drafted and discussed at the meeting. 11. Carrier revenue breakdown. Dave Becker reported that all three cable service providers' licenses contain similar provisions regarding how PEG payments, totaling 5% of the service providers' revenue from the town, should be broken down in their submissions to the Town, based on type of revenue. Comcast and Verizon have provided some detail, while RCN has provided none. Having the specified level of detail helps the Committee in gaining confidence that the service providers have reported all of their revenue sources (subscription revenues, infomercial revenues, merchandise channel revenues, etc.). This is a requirement of all three licenses, and RCN is not complying. It was moved, seconded, and passed: That the Committee Chair send a letter to RCN reminding them of their documentation requirements regarding breakdown of their revenues, per the provisions of their renewal license. 12. Hartwell Avenue internet service availability. Dave Becker reported that he had not yet had an opportunity to call the service providers regarding availability of their internet service on Hartwell Avenue. 13. Review of finances. Dave Becker provided members with a statement of PEG income trends. The objective in performing a review was to ensure that we will be able to meet our funding commitments to LexMedia, per the recently awarded contract, and to understand the impact of any Town spending of PEG funds. Dave had previously made some extrapolation based on incomplete information, some of which was incorrect: Estimates for the fourth quarter of 2010 were high, so extrapolations from those estimates were too high. In particular, Verizon's revenues are now growing more slowly. The actual trend is that the total number cable subscribers in Lexington is beginning to level off, but we cannot tell if it will head downwards. The consensus of the Committee was that we should review these numbers roughly once every six months, so that we can spot a downward trend, if one emerges. This should leave us in a good position with regard to our three -year funding commitment to LexMedia, and should also enable us to advise the Town regarding any other potential expenditures from the PEG account. The Committee agreed that this latter point should be discussed further at our September meeting. Communications Advisory Committee June 16, 2011 Town of Lexington Page 4 14. Wireless subcommittee report. Frank Cai reported there were no new wireless applications, and no updates to existing applications. 15. Future plans and new business. No issues were raised by Committee members. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 7.54 PM. Respectfully submitted, Kenneth T. Pogran