December 2006 CFB Minutes

December 18, 2006

MEMBERS PRESENT

Peter Blum, Chairman
Lara Beck, Member
Kent Burrow, Member

OTHERS PRESENT

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

 The Board will begin the meeting with the Cable Agency Report submitted by Mr. Rick Maultra, 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.

 Comcast was given a State issued cable certificate from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) on November 30.  Their monthly report for November is their last to the City.

 The City, through the Office of Corporation Counsel, sent a demand letter to Bright House Networks, to cooperate with the City and its agents with regard to the franchise fee audits for 2004 through 2005, yet to be performed.  Bright House responded that any financial burden resulting from doing an on-site audit will not be their responsibility contrary to our reading of the franchise…..keeping in mind that this is a departure from 25 years of providing data off site. Copies of the audit correspondence are included in the Board packets. With respect to the audit years of 2002-2003 for which the City has received only a partial remittance of revenues owed, the City still looks forward to a final draft of Bart Brown’s findings.

 The Agency has been assisting the Information Services Agency on the financing and the contracts drafts for the City’s web streaming and on-demand venture.

 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 November, the Cable Agency received a total of 12 complaints for Bright House.  The high areas of complaints were primarily in customer service. 

For Comcast, the Agency received 47 complaints.  The high areas of complaints were derived from billing procedures, customer service, and service interruptions.

 That concludes Mr. Maultra’s Agency Report and remarks and he will answer any questions that the Board may have.

 The Board goes back to the first item on the Agenda, the Approval of the November Minutes.  Ms. Beck moves to approve the November Minutes.  Mr. Burrow seconds the motion.  The motion is carried 3-0.

 The next item on the agenda is the Government Access TV Programming Report with Mr. Ken Montgomery, Manager of Channel 16.

 During the month of November, Channel 16 had a busy month.  There were 45 different events for live and tape delayed meeting coverage which totaled 63 hours and 15 minutes.  Part of that coverage included the Stormwater Advisory Board and the Cultural Development Commission.

 There were 7 hours and 46 minutes of specials and events production for the month of November and 7 minutes of in-kind production for City-County and Government Agencies.  The total for new production in all categories was 72 hours and 8 minutes.  The largest number for the in-kind services would be for the Keep Indianapolis Beautiful – Monumental Affair Video.  $3,025 would have been the cost if Channel 16 would’ve charged for that.

 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 Networks. 

 Al Aldridge, Director of Public Affairs, along with Buz Nesbit, Division President for Bright House Networks will present their operator’s management report that was included in the Board Packet. 

 Bright House began the month with 58,985 customers and ended the month with 58,912, giving a system total of 73 customers loss for the month of November.

 On the incoming call report, Bright House handled 57,840 calls out of 58,117 calls received.  52,925 calls were answered in 30 seconds or less, which gave a call answer rate of 91.5% and a busy rate of 0.003%, as represented by them.

 On the Complaint Summaries Report, there were 10 complaints from 7 customers. 

 100% of service interruption calls were addressed within 24 hours.  There were no planned outages, but there were 24 unplanned outages that affected 4,738 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 0.37 underground and 0.02 aerial constructions in Desoto Townhomes and in Habitat for Humanity House during the month of November.

 The Division collaborated with Bill Payment Express (BPE), a local minority business, to open up more payment options for their customers.  This partnership lets their customers make payments at BPE Kiosks in 6 Kroger Super Grocery Stores within their Indianapolis franchise area.

 The Division now has one of the largest logo brands in Conseco Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers.  “The Legends Sponsored by Bright House Networks” is a 600-plus limited – membership area that offers the best broadband technology available, including wireless internet services throughout the Legends area and its conference rooms, digital cable including high-definition TV and digital phone service.

 The Division sponsored a float in the 2006 Veterans Day Parade.  11-BHN Vets participated in the parade.

 The Division sponsored the 4^th annual Bright House Networks Holiday Card Contest among all of the schools in their franchise areas.  There were three winners: Elementary – Kyle Moore, Frances Slocum Elementary, Marion, IN, Middle School – Scott Heffern, Carmel MS, and High school – Ashley Chew, Broad Ripple HS.  Each winner received a plaque with their winning design on it, a package of 25 holiday cards with their design to use for sending out to family and friends, and an education scholarship check for $500.

 The Division held its 2006/2007 Annual United Way Campaign during November.  Through their efforts, they raised $11,410, which was 95% of their Division goal.

 Members of the Division continue to volunteer with the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, ICTA, the YMCA, the Walker Center , the 100 Black Men Indianapolis Chapter, and the Indiana Hemophilia Foundation.

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

 Mr. Nesbit would also like to set the record straight of Mr. Maultra’s mention that an on site audit review is a departure from 25 years of experience.  He had his associates go back and look up files going back to 1993, and gives several examples from letters discussing dates and times to set up on site reviews.  He expresses his willingness to cooperate in the audit procedures but wishes to find a way to get through the process in a timelier manner.

 Chairman Blum appreciates Mr. Nesbit’s comments.  He stated it is a minor point that has been blown out of proportion.  The problem lies in that the City has had a hard time finding a local professional willing to take on the audit in full; however, he is hoping to see a kind of arrangement in the future between Mr. Brown and Mr. Lewis combining their separate skills with Mr. Lewis being based in Florida and Mr. Brown being here enabling a way to get the information needed to Mr. Lewis so he can complete the audit without unduly burdening Bright House ’s staff or anybody else.  Chairman Blum added that there is too much time spent arguing about how these audits are conducted rather that the results of them.  Before beginning the next audit, the Board will come to a public agreement with Bright House on how to get the information the auditor needs.

 Mr. Burrow adds that in this specific instance, in looking at the four items with Mr. Brown, a couple of the items will go away after this audit.  With Mr. Brown’s help, the City has been able to refine the questioning technique for specific information.  They have learned more of what numbers they’re after and how they are derived.

 Chairman Blum asks the Board what is there pleasure as far as the ETC Report and if they would like Mr. Maultra to read it for the record or accept it as written since there is no representative to present the report from ETC.

 Mr. Burrow moves to accept the report as written and include it into the Minutes as written.  Ms. Beck seconds the motion and it is agreed upon unanimously.

 IPS will be producing the “IPS Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration.”   This is an annual event put on by IPS that celebrates the life of Dr. King with performances and speeches by students.  Dr. Stanley Warren will be the keynote speaker at the event.  The program will be seen live on ETC 1 in January 12^th at 10am.  It will replay throughout the rest of January.

 Starting in January, IPS will begin production on “What About Our Children?”  The show will be co-hosted by IPS Superintendent Dr. Eugene White.  The show will focus on the effect and role religion can play in education. 

 The ETC membership discussed making changes to its bylaws and how the organization can generate more involvement by member institutions.  Planning of the next ETC Annual meeting has begun.  A future update will be provided.

 The next item on the agenda is the Annual Assessment for Legislative/Regulatory Fund for NATOA.

 Mr. Maultra stated with the renewal of the membership in NATOA, they also assess a suggested legislative/regulatory fee.  It is tiered based on city size and for Indianapolis they are suggesting a fee of $750 based on a population between 1,000,000 and 500,000.  NATOA has been working with NLC and the US Conference of Mayors with respect to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at the FCC regarding franchising.

 Chairman Blum asks what the history of the dollar figures is for this assessment.  He asked if it has been pretty constant and Mr. Maultra responds that he remembers giving $5,000 at one time for this assessment and that this is below average.

 Chairman Blum asks if the Cable Agency already has the money budgeted for this assessment and Mr. Maultra responds that it is available in their character 3.

 Mr. Burrow moves to approve the Annual Assessment for Legislative/Regulatory Fund for NATOA for $750.00.  Ms. Beck seconds the motion.  The motion is voted on 3-0.

 The next items on the agenda are the contract renewals for Megatrax, Captivision, Dale Smiley, and Jack Tapp.

 Mr. Montgomery stated that three of these contracts are actually extensions under existing terms and one is a new contract for a larger amount than previously.  The contract for Dale Smiley and Jack Tapp are for engineering services and one for Captivision for closed captioning services for City-County Council meetings.  All three of those vendors agreed to extend their contracts under the current terms as per this year.  All three of those contracts were budgeted for out of the 2007 budget accordingly.

 Mr. Montgomery explains that the difference with the Megatrax contract was there is a cost increase that was factored into the budget for 2007 as well.  It’s a higher price so it is not just an extension like the others.  It was a 10% increase.

 Mr. Burrow moves to approve the contract extensions for Jack Tapp, Dale Smiley, Captivision, and the contract with new terms for Megatrax.  Ms. Beck seconds the motion.  The motion is voted on 3-0.  

 Mr. Burrow follows up on the form in which the Board is receiving these contracts.  In the future, he would like to see the prior contract that is being amended rather than just the amendment.

 The next item on the agenda is the Bright House Rate Audit for 2007 under Old Business.

 Mr. Maultra asks the Board to approve $5,000 for Action Audits to perform the form 1240 and form 1205 that Bright House sends to the City each year for their rate period of January 1^st through December 31^st, 2007.  This is for the limited basic tier of service along with associated equipment and services.  That includes truck rolls and hourly service charges.  These are things that Action Audits reviews to see if it’s in compliance with the FCC Rules and Regulations.

 Mr. Burrow moves to approve the Action Audits Professional Service Agreement in the amount of $5,000 for the 2007 Bright House Networks rate review.  Ms. Beck seconds the motion.  The motion is carried 3-0.

 Mr. Nesbit asks the Board if they gave any consideration to his suggestion of Bright House getting together with the City and saving the $5,000.

 Chairman Blum responded that the Board did take it under consideration and had several conversations about it.  They came to a consensus that it’s wiser for the City to have an outside set of eyes take a look at it. 

 Mr. Burrow comments on the problem with local firms doing this audit.  If there is not a national practice in this area, there are not enough of these audits being done to make it economical for a CPA firm to engage in this.  There are relatively few firms out there doing this on a national scope. 

 There are no public speakers.

 Chairman Blum announces the next Board meeting on Tuesday, January 16^th, 2007 at 2:30 PM in room 260 and adjourns this meeting.

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

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