November 15, 1999

City County Building
Indianapolis IN 46204

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Carlton Curry, Chairman
Stuart Rhodes, Member
David Leonard, Member
Charlie Hiltunen, Member

Members Absent:

Gretchen Gutman, Member

Others Present: 

Chairman Curry brought the meeting to order at 2:30 P.M.

The first agenda item was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s October 18, 1999 meeting. The Board postponed discussions of this item until the Board had a quorum.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Agency Report. Mr. Maultra presented the Cable Agency report which highlighted the events that have taken place at the Cable Agency in the last month. Mr. Maultra stated the Cable Agency met with its legal counsel to discuss the merits of preparing an open video system (OVS) ordinance that could be brought before the City-County Council. OVS was created by the 96 Cable Act as a means by which common carriers, such as the phone companies, could provide competition to the cable companies in the realm of multi-channel video offerings. The Cable Agency has recently fielded a number of inquirers from companies that have expressed a desire in competing in this market. At least one of those companies said their methodology of deployment was the way of OVS. In every cast, the parties expressing an interest in competing in this market found out about the Indianapolis market and the Cable Communications Agency via the Agency website.

The Corporation Counsel and the Cable Agency prepared the necessary documents for Crow Chizek to review those portions of both cable operators forms 1240 and 1205 documents as approved last meeting by the Cable Franchise Board. The 1240 forms and 1205 documents are annual submissions by the cable operators that reflect the propose maximum rate allowed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that an operator can charge their subscribers for limited basic service and associated equipment and service costs.

At the request of the Director of Public Safety, the Cable Agency and Channel 16 met to discuss ways in which to communicate with Indianapolis’ ever increasing Hispanic Community. The Agency discussed ways in which to utilize Channel 16 to accomplish this in both external and internal programming. The Cable Agency took a number of cable complaints over the past month and worked with Comcast and Time Warner in an effort to resolve those matters.

The next item on the agenda was the Channel 16 programming report presented by Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery highlighted some activities of Channel 16 for the month of October. In October there were 35 hours and 52 minutes of Live Meeting coverage. Tape Delay meetings totaled 5 hours and 23 minutes. Special Events production totaled 20 hours and 31 minutes.

In the area of In Kind Production, Channel 16 had 4 hours and 33 minutes. Series programming totaled 2 hours. Total new production for the month of October was 744 hours.

In additional notes, The Interactive Bulletin Board Service was not shown regularly (4 hours daily) from October 4^th through the 31^st , allowing additional time for replays of Candidate Forums.

Mr. Montgomery also reported that the second government access channel went "on air" at 8:00 am this morning (November 15, 1999).

The next agenda item was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s October 15, 1999 meeting. Motion was made by Mr. Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Leonard, to approve the minutes of the Board’s October 15, 1999 meeting. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operator’s Management Reports. Ms. Johnson stated that Time Warner had a slight increase in new subscribers ending the month with 69,744 subscribers. Time Warner had scheduled 4,181 installs and 3,166 were completed. Incoming calls for the month were 36,479 received and 35,694 handled. Ms. Johnson stated service calls were down for the month with 99.3% of calls answered within 36 hours. Time Warner had 52 outages including 3 planned outages. See Construction report. The Community Involvement report supports a lot of different community events and programming (see report).

The next item on the agenda was the Comcast’s Management Report. Mr. Wilson stated that Comcast has gained over 400 subscribers ending the month with 177,096 Marion County customers. Incoming calls: Comcast received 91,663 and handled 90,594. Comcast had 83 outages including 1 planned outage. Comcast received and scheduled 3,310 service calls and completed 3,223; 99.8% were completed within 36 hours or by customer request. Installations: Comcast scheduled 3,584 and completed 3,508; 100% were completed within 7 days or by Customer request after 7 days.

Mr. Wilson stated that Comcast had 27 hours of lease access programming and 155 hours on WAV-53. Comcast aired and produced 21 public service announcements and 18 newsmaker segments. For Comcast events and sponsorships; see report.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC report. Ms. Wilson stated that ETC has begun fully programming the second educational channel with the moving of EPS programming to the second Government Channel. Future updates will provided.

The ETC did show a Mayoral program produced by Pike Township students which featured the candidates answering questions posed by the Pike High School Senior Class.

The ETC was able to record from the program "Fathers Matter" produced by the U.S. Department of Education & Health and Human Services. It is about the critical role fathers play in children’s education.

Under Programming Funding, ETC is continuing conversation with the IUPUI Liberal Arts Office. It centers of IUPUI office funding SCOLA programming.

Ms. Wilson stated for November 1999, ETC provided: 0 hours of purchased programming and 422 hours of free or donated programming and 315 hours of SCOLA.

Mr. Hiltunen arrived.

Under New Business, Mr. Maultra discussed NATOA Legal Defense Fund. Mr. Maultra stated that NATOA has a number of filings that it is participating in that need financial support. The most significant is a proceeding (WT Docket #99-217, CC Docket # 96-98) that raises the threat of federal preemption of local communities’ control over their rights-of -way. The first part of this proceeding in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) which primarily addresses access to buildings that would preempt safety concerns or codes; the second part is the Notice of Inquire (NOI) which addresses rights-of-way compensation, management and local tax authority.

NATOA has already signed on with the United States Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties in the initial comment filing back in early October. A number of other entities signed on to this original filing, having contributed to the cause.

Now comes the reply comment round that enables local governments to respond to the initial comments filed by industry factions. Those comments are due December 13. NATOA is seeking $5,000 from larger community members such as ours to contribute to this important matter.

Mr. Maultra stated additionally, there are a number of other, smaller filings anticipated for the rest of this year that include Cable Act Reform, FCC Cable System Transfer Process, and Municipalities Abilities to Provide Telecommunication Services. NATOA is seeking $1,000 from larger community members to participate in these proceedings.

 Mr. Maultra stated we have the funds available in character three to support these important issues. Mr. Maultra stated his preference would be to vote on the issues separately. Mr. Maultra also stated that Peggy Piety has prepared a summary of the Initial Comments in Wireless NOI filed October 12, 1999.

Motion was made by Mr. Leonard and seconded by Mr. Hiltunen, to approve the $5,000 contribution to NATOA to support the NOI filings. Motion carried unanimously.

There was no motion by the Board, to approve the $1,000 contribution to NATOA to support the smaller filings.

There being no further business to come before the Board, Mr. Curry adjourned the meeting at 3:45 p.m.

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Carlton Curry, Chairman

 ______________absent________________
Ms. Gretchen Gutman, Member

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Mr. Charlie Hiltunen, Member

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Mr. David Leonard, Member

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Mr. Stuart Rhodes, Member

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Ms. Janise Winston, Recording Secretary