Minutes Cable Telepro 12 4 01MINUTES OF CABLE COMMUNITY TELEPROGRAMMING COMMISSION MEETING
DECEMBER 4, 200t
CITY HALL ANNEX CONFERENCE ROOM # 2
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Sr. Carol Hoverman, Paul Kohl, Jennifer Tigges, David
Wanamaker
MEMBERS ABSENT: Anthony Allen, two seats remain vacant on the Commission
OTHERS PRESENT:
Jim Barefoot, Mediacom
Merrill Crawford, Cable Franchise Administrator
Sr. Hoverman called the meeting to order at 5:36 P.M.
Acceptance of the Agenda.
Upon a motion by Mr. Kohl, seconded by Ms. Tigges, the agenda was accepted
as published.
=
Approval of the Minutes of the October 2, 2001 Meeting.
Upon a motion by Mr. Wanamaker, seconded by Mr. Kohl, the Minutes of the
October 2, 2001 Commission meeting were approved as distributed,
3. Public Comment.
There were no citizens present to address the Commission. Mr. Wanamaker
commented about a constant buzzing in the audio of Channel 45. Mr. Barefoot
agreed to check into it.
4. Promotion.
Commissioners briefly discussed the status of gathering articles for an access
newsletter.
Ms. Tigges reported on visits by Intemet surfers to the community access
website and commented briefly upon how seamh engines direct visitors to the
site.
5. AcCeSs Equipment Expenditures.
Mr. Barefoot told Commissioners that everything but two monitors which had
been on order in the most recent batch of access equipment had now arrived.
He had hoped to also pumhase a laptop computer for promotional use, but there
is probably not enough authorized expenditure funds left to do this and also
meet the sales tax obligation on the recent purchases. The upgrading of
transmission cabling within the Five Flags Center for video productions has
been completed. This should greatly benefit the ease of setup and the quality of
signals from video originations in the arena and other portions of the Center for
projects such as the ballet, large community events such as the Holy Family
Mass, etc.
Sa
=
Mediscom Franchise Renewal.
Mr. Crawford reported in detail on the work plan and tentative schedule of CBG
Communications, whom the City has hired as a consultant to lead a community
future cable-related needs ascertainment. He told Commissioners that he was
gathering volumes of preliminary information for the consultants regarding the
Dubuque community, educational institutions, the cable franchise and related
agreements and rules and regulations, PEG access equipment inventories,
rules, and sampler tapes, and as much other information as possible about
community organizations to give the consultant a flavor of Dubuque and its
relationship to cable. Additional requests for information of a more specific
nature will be received from the consultant and processed. It is expected that
the consultants will visit Dubuque the second full week of January 2002 and
conduct a series of workshops, focus groups and interviews with representatives
of various segments of the community, followed by a mail-out survey to a
statistically valid sample of the residences. There will also be a joint
brainstorming session with the two cable commissions during that week. Mr.
Crawford asked the Commissioners to try to keep the week of January 7 - 11,
2002 open on their calendars as much as possible, and welcomed any
assistance that individual Commissioners could give regarding the logistics of
information gathering and the January events.
Mediacom Cable Report.
Mr. Barefoot distributed copies of the October and November 2001 access
facilities use reports. He commented on some of the projects and users who had
been active during this period. He told Commissioners about the video projects
of a class of Central Alternative High School.
Mr. Barefoot discussed with Commissioners a problem, which had arisen
regarding an SVHS camcorder and tripod which had been checked out by an
access user and which are now missing. The access user insists that he
returned the equipment the following day to the facility, but found the doors to
the programming office locked and staff unavailable so wandered through
another building entrance, spoke to some other Mediacom employees and left
the equipment on the floor in a hallway. Mr. Barefoot told Commissioners he has
been unable to corroborate the access user's claim, and that the equipment is
missing and presumed stolen. Commissioners reviewed the access rules
pertaining to fiscal responsibility for borrowed equipment, the rule dealing with
lost or stolen equipment, and the access user agreement form which is
completed by each person checking out equipment. Mr. Crawford advised
Commissioners that since the Commission adopted the rules and approved the
form for use by the cable operator and access volunteers, Mediacom may
appropriately apply these tools in safeguarding the equipment and facilities, or
recovering lost or stolen equipment. The Cable Franchise Administrator and the
Commission would still have a role in an administrative appeal process, should
an access user feel that the cable operator has not appropriately or fairly applied
one of the rules.
Cable Franchise Administrator Report.
Mr. Crawford told Commissioners that the Dubuque Police Department was
currently assisting with a review of building security during daytime and
nighttime hours for the City Hall Annex building, and that it was possible their
recommendations might include stricter security regarding building entrances
after hours and affect the conducting of public meetings in the building after
business hours.
He also expressed to Commissioners a goal of finding some clear, easy to
understand method of educating access users about the copyright law and their
significant dsks should they violate the law with regard to materials they
cablecast on a public access channel.
Future Agenda Items.
No additional items were suggested.
Adjoumment.
Upon a motion by Mr. Kohl, seconded by Ms. Tigges, the meeting was adjourned
at 7:20 P.M.
MC/cj