Minutes Cable Teleprogr 1 7 03MINUTES OF CABLE COMMUNITY TELEPROGRAMMING COMMISSION MEETING
JANUARY 7, 2003
CITY HALL ANNEX CONFERENCE ROOM # 2
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Sr. Carol Hoverman, Paul Kohl, Jennifer Tigges, Dan Wilant
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Three seats remain vacant on the Commission
OTHERS PRESENT:
Jim Barefoot, Mediacom
Merrill Crawford, Cable Franchise Administrator
Ms. Tigges called the meeting to order at 5:42 P.M.
1. Acceptance of the Agenda.
Upon a motion by Mr. Kohl, seconded by Sr. Hoverman, the agenda was
accepted as published.
2. Approval of the Minutes of the December 3, 2002 Meeting.
Upon a motion by Mr. Kohl, seconded by Mr. Wilant, the Minutes of the
December 3, 2002 Commission meeting were approved as distributed.
3. Public Comment.
There was no one present to address the Commission.
4. Access Equipment Expenditures.
Mr. Barefoot told Commissioners that the camera cables, which had been
malfunctioning, have returned from the Mohawk repair facility and now seem to
be working fine. The Media 100 editing system is presently under repair through
Electronic Communication Systems in Davenport. The replacement of the floor
tile in the hallways of the Mediacom facility was delayed and a different product
was acquired.
5. Access Programming.
Mr. Barefoot and Mr. Crawford led a discussion regarding the desirability of
establishing some sort of criteria or guidelines for differentiating between
educational programming and religious programming on the educational access
channel. Generally, church services and religious programming is cablecast on
the public access channel or in the case of the Mercy Medical Center mass, on
the local origination channel, but educational programming submitted by the
Holy Family Schools or a college with a religious affiliation is cablecast on the
educational access channel. A citizen had recently complained that in his
opinion, a particular musical performance in a church sanctuary by high school
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students had crossed the line between education and religion. The Commission
discussed the question and the general policy of years ago to allow the
educational institutions to self-regulate the use of their channel through an
informal educational access consortium that the City had facilitated. Such a
group is not active presently.
Mr. Barefoot noted that there is very little production activity from the local
backyard wrestling groups that were so active last year.
6. Mediacom Cable Franchise Renewal.
Mr. Crawford posed several questions to the Commission based upon
anticipated recommendations from the City's consultant regarding PEG access
needs. They focused on criteria for expansion of PEG access channel capacity
when current channels are full, criteria for designating a particular PEG access
channel or band width to a particular user or general subject matter, question the
regarding the need for additional equipment checkout and editing centers in
other locations of the city, and question regarding the form that mobile
production should take (traditional production van, trailer, or modules?) He also
encouraged Commissioners to check out the Alliance for Community Media list
serve and feel free to pose questions of other access centers regarding the
issues that we face in renewal an on an ongoing basis.
Mr. Crawford briefly reported on the flurry of activity anticipated in the next
couple of months, including negotiation toward meeting the need for a broadcast
basic tier in Dubuque, the anticipated arrival of "local into local" satellite
retransmission of broadcast signals, the January 15 deadline for the receipt of
proposals for a municipal cable/telecommunication feasibility study for Dubuque,
the indications by Senator John McCain, new Chair of the Senate Commerce
Committee, that he plans to address the problem of cable rate increases in
excess of inflation, and the recently announced $5.00 increase in basic cable
service (also called "family cable") effective February 1, 2003.
7. Mediacom Cable Report.
Mr. Barefoot distributed written copies of the facility use report for December and
commented upon it.
8. Cable Franchise Administrator Report.
Mr. Crawford distributed copies of an article regarding a public access program
in the Boston area called "High Tech Fever."
9. Future Agenda Items.
There were no additional items to be returned to the agenda for the next
meeting.
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10. Adjournment.
Upon a motion by Mr. Wilant, seconded by Mr. Kohl, the meeting was adjourned
at 6.54 P.M.
MC/cj
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