October 16, 2000

City County Building
Indianapolis IN 46204

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Stuart Rhodes, Member
Ray Patel, Member
Terry Thurman, Member

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Carlton Curry, Chairman
Charlie Hiltunen, Member

OTHERS PRESENT:

Stuart Rhodes brought the meeting to order at 2:30 P.M.

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION

The first item on the agenda was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s October 16^th , 2000. Motion was made by Mr. Thurman, seconded by Mr. Patel to approve minutes. Motion carried unanimously.

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 last month. Mr. Maultra stated the Agency has worked with the City-County Council Office and SCT to make available the new provider cable TV franchise agreements of Digital Access and TotaLink. These agreements are located on the Cable Agency home page, right below the cable TV franchise agreements of Comcast and Time Warner.

The Cable Agency and the City’s Chief Information Officer along with interested public safety agencies, met with Comcast to discuss the Agency’s request for Comcast to provide institutional network services per the provisions of the 1996 franchise agreement.

Time Warner has filed forms with the Cable Agency to increase what it charges subscribers for rates in its limited basic tier and associated equipment. The Cable Agency is requesting that the cable Franchise Board approve funds to secure Lou Karrison of Crowe Chizek to review the Time Warner forms. This time there are three forms to review. There is now an FCC 1235 form that Time Warner has filed to apportion rebuild costs to the various tiers of service. Mr. Karrison estimates the cost of this review to fall somewhere between $9,600 to $12,400. Mr. Karrison also recommends that an engineer perform a review of the 1235 form to see if the technical costs associated with the upgrade are appropriate. The Cable Agency is looking into an estimate from that engineer for an audit. The Agency intends to come to the Board seeking funding for review of Comcast’s year 2000, FCC form 1240 and 1205 filings to the Cable Agency. The estimate for that review will be between $4,600 and $5,900 dollars.

Mr. Maultra further stated that Mr. Karrison is still awaiting justification numbers from Comcast before concluding his audit of their 1999, 1240 and 1205 filings. The area of contention is whether Comcast can leverage an overcharge one year with and undercharge the next year for the same product or service. For those watching at home who are not familiar with FCC Form 1205 and 1240, the Cable Board may review rates as filed by the cable companies in the areas of limited basic service and its associated equipment.

Mr. Maultra resumed his report by stating that the Agency continues to serve as a consumer advocate in mediating a number of cable television complaints received by its office.

The next item on the agenda was further discussion of Time Warner’s 1205, 1235 and 1240 forms. Mr. Maultra restated Lou Karrison has given the agency estimates of $9,600 to $12,400 to review the Time Warner forms. Upon discovering that Lou Karrison has only reviewed one 1235 form, Mr. Maultra stated he has solicited another vendor who is more familiar with the 1235 form to give the Agency cost estimates. Rick Maultra recommended that the Action Audits company performs the review of the 1205, 1235, and 1240 forms. Action Audits estimates for these reviews would be $8,400.

Mr. Rhodes stated this item should be on next month’s agenda for further consideration.

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 September. In September there were 36 hours and 54 minutes of Live and Tape delay meetings. Special Events production totaled 21 hours and 17 minutes

In the area of In-Kind Production, Channel 16 had 3 hours and 5 minutes. Total new production for the month of September was 63 hours and 46 minutes. Series programming totaled 2 hours and 30 minutes.

Mr. Montgomery addressed the Board with a request for a Bid/Purchase for equipment including switchers, Das, Audio Boards etc. He further requested that the Board review the document in the amount $78,884.00, next Board meeting.

Mr. Montgomery stated Lamson and Condon provided the Building authority and Channel 16 cost information necessary to evaluate the economic feasibility of relocating Channel 16 to the Fairbank building. The Study included, Architectural repairs and replacements, MEP Engineering cost and Environmental cost. Lamson and Condon proposed to provide services for a fee of Six Thousand Seven Hundred Dollars. Not included in the fee amount are reimbursable expenses, which include printing/reproduction of drawings, long distance communications, postage and handling, state filing fees, photographs, courier services and travel/parking, with Owner approval. The Architect will invoice reimbursable expenses at one and one-tenth (1.10) times the amount incurred.

Motion was made by Mr. Thurman, seconded by Mr. Patel, to approve $6700.00 for the engineering study. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operator’s Management Report. Mrs. Shary Johnston introduced Time Warner Management team. She introduced Buz Nesbit as Division President, Mike Sellers as Vice President of Engineering and David Marshall, Vice President of Marketing.

Mrs. Shary Johnston stated Time Warner has continued to loose customers. Installations for the month were 3,994; completed 2,963. Incoming calls for the month were 34,112 received and 32,938 handled. Time Warner received 2,692 service calls; scheduled 1,866 service calls and completed 1,776; 99:8% completed within 36 hours or by customer request. Time Warner had 49 outages including 2 planned outages.

Shary Johnston stated Time Warner aired 117 hours of leased programming WAV-53. The Community Involvement report supports a list of different community events and programming (see report).

The next item on the agenda was the Comcast Management Report. Mr. Apple stated Comcast gained customers in its three tiers. Incoming calls for the month were 57,650 received and 55,988 handled. Comcast had 100 outages including 4 planned outages. Comcast received and scheduled 3,453 service calls and completed 3,194; 99.7% completed within 36 hours or by customer request. Installations: Comcast scheduled 3,459 and completed 3,128; 100% completed within 7 days or by customer request. See Construction report.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC report. Mr. Harris stated ETC has made contact with Time-Warner about connects to and from the new playback site location.

Expected completion is mid-December. All ETC Playback site equipment has been received with exception of the Vela System. It is expected to be shipped by the end of the month.

Letters were sent to educational bodies, both k-12 and University, to formalize their ETC representatives. ETC is currently in the process of receiving responses.

The ETC will be holding a major meeting soon to introduce changes in the organization. Changes in the areas of Playback Site, 5 -Year Plan, and others. A date will be announced soon.

The IPS Marching Band Contest was produced on October 12^th. It took place at IPS Northwest High School and featured performances from all five IPS High Schools. IPS will be providing a copy of the competition for playback on ETC.

Public Comment: Mr. Smashey commented that his service has changed and his bill has not. Mr. Smashey stated he would like for the Director of the Cable Communication Agency to go before the Council Committees to have legislative action to bring resolution upon the matter of Mr. Smashey’s cable bill. Acting Chairman Rhodes suggested that Mr. Smashey discuss his cable bill with his provider.

There were no further business to come before the Board, Mr. Rhodes adjourned the meeting at 3:50 p.m.

 ____________absent______________________
Mr. Carlton Curry, Chairman

________________________________________
Mr. Stuart Rhodes, Member (Acting Chair)

________________________________________
Mr. Terry Thurman, Member

___________absent_______________________
Mr. Charlie Hiltunen, Member

________________________________________
Mr. Ray Patel, Member

________________________________________
Mrs. Janise Winston-Thompson, Recording Secretary