HomeMy WebLinkAboutTelecommunications Board - Minutes - 03/11/1997TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
MEETING MINUTES
Council Liaison: Chris Kneeland
Chairperson: Phil Wadas
Members Present: Tom Maher
Greg Smith
Members Absent: Barbara Hain
March 11, 1997
7:00 PM
Staff Liaison: Liz Stroh, Michael Gitter
Phone: (W) 22
Ernie Powell
Phil Wadas
Howard Lowell
221
Larry Rowland
City Staff Present: Michael Gitter, ICS Dept., Cable 27 Program Director
Eric Dahlgren, Light & Power
TCI Staff: Kathy Stewart, District Manager
Jeff Weist, Regional Director of Government Affairs
I. APPROVAL OF JANUARY MEETING MINUTES
The minutes of the January 14, 1997 meeting were accepted with one change: on
page 2, paragraph 2, line 16, the word "include" should be changed to "including."
Greg Smith abstained from voting on approval of the minutes because he was
unable to review the minutes prior to the meeting. Due to staff miscommunication,
the minutes were mailed to the Board members late.
II. TCI UPDATE
Kathy Stewart distributed TCI's digital compression technology overview, called
"All TV," as well as TCI's interactive reference guide to programming. Stewartsaid
that after the digital upgrade, customers will have the option of staying with the
analog system, or having some TV sets in their home on analog and some on
digital. The compression ratio at launch will be approximately 8:1. Jeff Weist said
that digital technology delivers better picture and sound at a fraction of the cost of
a traditional plant upgrade. Phil Wadas suggested that the Telecommunications
Board hold its June meeting in Greeley to evaluate the digital rollout there.
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III. STATUS OF TCI'S REQUEST FOR AN UPGRADE EXTENSION
Staff member Michael Gitter reported on a March 5 meeting with the City Manager,
other City staff members, Kathy Stewart and other TCI representatives regarding
the issue of extending the time required by the franchise for system upgrade
completion. The City's position was that TCI had missed the window in which to
request that the City Manager grant TCI an extension in order to complete the
system upgrade, and that any such request would now have to be made to the
City Council, in the form of a franchise modification. The City's position is that if
TCI requests that Council modify the franchise to grant the company additional
time to upgrade, then the City will likely review with Council several other
provisions in the franchise which the City believes may be beneficial to modify as
well. The TCI representatives indicated that they were not likely to challenge the
City's position regarding the timeliness of their original request that the City
Manager extend the time required to complete the system upgrade. They also
indicated that TCI may come to Council for a request to modify the franchise to
allow more time to complete the upgrade. However, TCI did not rule out the
possibility of still meeting the November 1997 deadline for system upgrade
through the use of digital compression technology. In response to a question by
Wadas, Gitter responded that the franchise agreement provides the City with the
opportunity to evaluate TCI's engineering plans for the system upgrade.
IV. 1998/99 BUDGET FOR THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
Among the items to be addressed by the Board in 1998 include a five-year
performance review of TCI as required by the franchise, and the likelihood of a
survey issued by the City to assess customer satisfaction with TCI. Tom Maher
asked if the City has contingency funds if the Board encounters expenses it hadn't
anticipated. There are such contingency funds available. In response to a
question by Greg Smith, the new two-year budgeting process is a true two-year
budget; that is, the budget is only developed every two years.
V. CITIZEN COMPLAINT
Wadas reported that several citizens had questioned him regarding the schedule
of City -produced public forums related to the upcoming April municipal election.
Citizens were apparently confused regarding the City's policy for cooperating with
non -governmental entities to produce such forums. Gitter explained that for the
past three to four years, the City has invited outside organizations to cooperate
with the City to produce various public forums which have been cablecast on
Channel 27. Channel 27's operational policies permit the City Manager or his
designee to invite outside entities to participate in City TV programming. During
the past few years, we have invited Citizen Planners to cooperate with the City to
televise various issue -related public forums. This was done originally at the
request of several City Council members who suggested that since Citizen
Planners regularly conducted several local issue forums each year, it would be in
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the public interest to work with the organization to televise some of these. None of
the City's cooperative efforts with Citizen Planners in the past have generated any
controversy. However, after the City asked Citizen Planners to cooperate in the
telecast of a candidates debate this March, City staff and officials were inundated
with citizen objections to the participation of Citizen Planners. Some citizens
perceived Citizen Planners as biased and requested that another organization be
invited to participate as well in an effort to counter that perception. The City
Manager decided at that point to invite Choice City Citizens to participate along
with Citizen Planners. As a result of the issues arising from the organization of
this forum, the City Manager has said that he wants to review in the future how the
City cooperates with non -governmental entities.
VI. DIGITAL COMPRESSION DEMO FROM TCI
TCI was not prepared at this meeting to present a digital compression demo. The
demo may be offered in May or June.
VII. OTHER BUSINESS:
A. In response to requests from Larry Rowland and Tom Maher, Kathy Stewart
said that she would provide them with technical specifications for the planned
digital compression rollout in Fort Collins.
B. Stewart said that the interconnect with Scripps -Howard is being delayed due
to difficulties obtaining a permit to bore under the railroad tracks. She
believed this issue could be resolved soon.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm.
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