March 2006 CFB Meeting Minutes

March 20, 2006

MEMBERS PRESENT

Peter Blum, Chairman
Kent Burrow, Member

MEMBERS ABSENT

Elizabeth Herriman, Member
Daniel Lynch, Member
Robin Winston, Member



OTHERS PRESENT

Chairman Blum calls the March meeting of the Marion County Cable Franchise Board to order.

The Board will not vote on the January or the February minutes this month due to no quorum. The first order of business is the Cable Agency Report, submitted by Rick Maultra, the Director of the Cable Communications Agency.

Mr. Maultra thanks the Board for the opportunity to highlight some of the things that the Cable Communications Agency has been involved with during the past month.

There appears to be a growing bi-partisan legislative move to move at the Federal level toward national franchising legislation whereby telcos would get a nationally issued franchise and incumbent cable franchises would be held local until such time that the telcos achieved a 15% penetration of the incumbent’s territory. As Mr. Maultra understands it, the state held franchises legislation would pre-empt any nationally passed legislation, which was by design.

The Indiana House and Senate have approved the state wide video franchising measures that as far as Mr. Maultra is aware are now just waiting for the governor’s signature.

With that signature by the governor, First Mile has advised the Agency through their counsel, that they will not likely pursue an application for local franchise, in light of the Indiana state legislation. The Agency had secured sponsors from the Council for this proposal, but in light of the legislation and First Mile’s sentiments, the Cable Agency considers the matter on hold.

The auditor has submitted his findings to the City with respect to Comcast’s franchise fee review for year ending 2004. He has found that the operator has overpaid the City by $54,233. The Agency proposed to Comcast that they underpay the City in each of its four quarterly payments this year by $13,558.25 to make up for the discrepancy. This does not require a vote by the Cable Board, but the Agency wants to advise the Board of the plan.

ETC advises it has made considerable progress about coming to an agreement with the University of Indianapolis on moving its head end to that campus. Mr. Maultra will defer to Mr. Harris as to the details.
Bright House Networks sent the City a check in the amount of $136,968 with respect to underpaid franchise fees. The auditor believes that the City is due and additional $68,091 plus accrued interest on both the $136,968 calculated through the date of payment and on the remaining balance when it is paid. That is the discrepancy between Bright House’s own internal audit and with that of the Agency’s CPA consultant.
The Cable Communications Agency has been serving as a consumer advocate to Indianapolis and Marion County cable subscribers in assisting them in mediating cable complaints on their behalf.
For the month of February, the Agency received 23 complaints for Bright House. The high areas of complaints were in service interruptions and telephone service. For Comcast, the Agency received 58 complaints. The high areas of complaints were in the areas of billing procedures, rates, and customer service.
That concludes Mr. Maultra’s Agency Report and remarks and he will answer any questions that the Board may have.
The next item on the agenda is the Government Access TV Programming Report with Ken Montgomery, Manager of Channel 16.

Channel 16 had 54 hours and 14 minutes of new live and tape delayed meeting coverage last month. Channel 16 has now added to their regular roster of coverage 3 of the Law Enforcement Consolidation Organizations, the Advisory Board, the Transition Authority, and the Steering Committee.

As always, Channel 16 covered a lot of the Fire Department’s Awards Banquets that happen early in the year. They covered the Perry Township, Wayne Township, and Lawrence Township Awards. There were 21 hours and 39 minutes of specials and events production and 3 hours and 3 minutes of in-kind production for City-County/Government agencies. They did a couple for the Public Defender’s Office on Continuing Legal Education and another Hot Spot on the INET with Chief Greeson.

There were 2 hours and 30 minutes for series programs.

The total new production for February in all categories was 81 hours and 26 minutes.

Channel 16 did about $2,290 worth of in-kind services if they would have charged for it.

With that, Mr. Montgomery will answer any questions from the Board.

The next item on the agenda is the Cable Operators Management Reports beginning with Bright House.

Buz Nesbit, Division President for Bright House Networks will present their operator’s management report that was included in the Board Packet. Mr. Aldridge is in Washington D.C. to receive the Cable Television Public Affairs and Administration Award for Public Affairs. Last week Mr. Aldridge received the Midwest Cable Academy’s Pinnacle Award for Public Affairs.

Bright House began the month with 60,499 customers and ended the month with 61,192, giving a system total of 693 customers gained for the month of February.

On the incoming call report, Bright House handled 55,842 calls out of 56,144 calls received. 51,078 calls were answered in 30 seconds or less, which gave a call answer rate of 91.5% and a busy rate of 0.0%, as represented by them.

On the Complaint Summaries Report, there were 23 complaints from 17 customers.

100% of service interruption calls were addressed within 24 hours. There were no planned outages, but there were 17 unplanned outages that affected 2,862 customers. The system reliability for the month was 99.99%, as reported by Bright House.

100% of total service calls were addressed within the next business day, unless as otherwise directed by the customer. There were no appointments kept outside of the 4-hour service window during normal business hours, unless requested by customer.

100% of standard installations were performed within seven business days after the order was placed.

There were 0.23 aerial constructions in multiple dwelling and commercial units on West Market Street and at the Statehouse Library during the month of February.

The Division continued to run in-kind promotional spots for community non-profits. This month they ran spots for the Indiana Neighborhood Housing Partnership, the National Kidney Foundation, the Virtual Scavengers project, the 2005 Indianapolis Home Show, and the "Keep Indianapolis Clean" PSA with Councilor Lonnell Conley. The value of these gratis spots was $41,337.

The division was again a sponsor of The Indianapolis Home Show. They sponsored Nickelodeon's Patrick Star from the "Sponge Bob Squarepants" show for the final two days of the show. This was our third year as a sponsor of this event.

Through their association with the Indiana Cable Telecommunication Association, Bright House sponsored the Indiana Black Caucus Bar-Be-Queue at the Walker Theatre Center and the Legislative Prayer Breakfast at the Westin.

The division was a sponsor of the Inaugural Indiana Black Hall of Fame "Sale-A-Bration" at the Indiana Convention Center.

This event was a celebration of the culmination of Black History Month for 2006.

The continued partnership with WDNI provided the required hours of local programming as mandated by the City's franchise agreement.

With that, Mr. Nesbit will answer any questions from the Board.

Next is the Comcast Management Report.

Mike Delph will present on behalf of Comcast their report to the Board for the month of February.

Comcast represented that the number of customers requesting total basic service decreased by 431.

79.86% calls were answered in 30 seconds or less with a busy rate of 0.2%.

System Reliability for the month was 99.99%

96.77% of total service calls were addressed by the next business day, or at the direction of the customer. 99.94% of appointments were kept within the 4-hour service window during normal business hours, or at the direction of the customer.

100% of standard installations were performed within seven business days or at the direction of the customer.

Comcast calculated 58 complaints sent to the Cable Agency.

Comcast completed construction in one new subdivision and one condominium complex.

Comcast aired about 200 hours of local community interest programming during the month of February.

Comcast aired public service announcements for Noble of Indiana, “Evening in the Garden” at an in-kind value of $184,405 and Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Project, “Home Fair” valued at $45,175.

Appearing on Newsmakers last month was Representative Phil Hinkle, Senator Jim Merritt, and Representative David Orentlicher, and others.

Comcast is the cable provider in Junior Achievement's Finance Park, a reality-based, hands-on simulation experience for 8th and 9th grade students in Indianapolis. Several Comcast employees joined students from Creston Jr. High School, on February 7 and 8 and helped facilitate the simulation that will help them make intelligent financial decisions in adulthood.

Comcast was a sponsor of The Community of Saint Matthew Dinner, Dance and Silent Auction on February 10. Proceeds from the event support a number of St. Matthew charities including Little Sisters of the Poor and St. Matthew's Youth Services.

That concludes Mr. Delph’s formal report and he will answer questions from the Board.

Chairman Blum stated that the improvement on the telephone stats from January to February was very small and it is highly unlikely that Comcast will meet the quota. He asks what is being done as far as making improvements.

Mr. Ward responds that they have established a recovery plan. It has taken time to get people hired and trained. The holidays proved to be challenging but they have recovered well and looking at their stats, he anticipates staying at the 90% or above going forward.

The next item on the agenda is the ETC Monthly Report submitted by Earl Harris.

Mr. Harris, President of the Education Television Cooperative, with Charlie Wiles will talk primarily about the plan in terms of the playback site. The University of Indianapolis President’s Cabinet is voting on the agreement today and Mr. Harris will pass on the information to the Board as soon as he gets word.

Chairman Blum asks Bright House if they are at the ready and Mr. Nesbit responds that they are.

Mr. Wiles goes over the report that was handed to the Board by Mr. Harris. This is the result of a few months of work. Looking at ETC as an underutilized community asset, these are some of the ideas that have been put together in a 3-year draft, or an action plan to make it more of a community asset. There are a lot of good ideas than can be explored. There are a lot of prospects for folks that can help underwrite the programming that would help educate the community and promote good community interest for a good corporate sponsor for some of the other different Universities.

For a lot of the different not for profits, community and cultural educational organizations out there, ETC provides a wonderful platform for them to tell their story in the community to make people more aware of and therefore access community resources. This plan spells out the cinergy that Mr. Wiles and Mr. Harris thinks can be created to help achieve that. The ultimate goal is to get ETC as a sustained community asset in the Indianapolis area.

With that Mr. Wiles will answer any questions about the direction they want to go. They recognize the challenges that come with the change in the telecommunications law. They understand there is a commitment to community access television and educational governmental channels.

Chairman Blum states that ETC has actually had a jump on having to think about this a head of time because now they will not have a choice with the new legislation. He adds that he has not had chance to review the plan but appreciates the time put in to generate it.

Mr. Wiles adds that it is incomplete and they are still looking on the budget. They will come up with more of a detailed budget as well as a detailed marketing plan, some of the ideas they are going to pursue and how they intend to pursue it. The organizational development that they are looking to achieve in the next several months is laid out in the plan.

Chairman Blum adds that he will take it under advisement and will get back to them with a response.

There is no New Business to be heard in front of the Board.

George Zeltner spoke under Public Comment about his concerns regarding Comcast’s call answering time within 30 seconds.

Chairman Blum announces the next Board meeting on Monday, April 17th at 5:30 PM in room 118 and adjourns this meeting.



___________________________
Mr. Peter Blum, Chairman

___________________________
Mr. Kent Burrow, Member

___________________________
Ms. Elizabeth Herriman, Member

___________________________
Mr. Daniel Lynch, Member

___________________________
Mr. Robin Winston, Member

___________________________
Ms. Cristy Tirotta, Recording Secretary

Home | Search | Services | Mayor | Council | City | County | Courts

© 1996 - 2008 All Rights Reserved | Privacy Statement | Terms of Use | About this Site