January 16^th, 2001

City County Building
Indianapolis IN 46204

MEMBERS PRESENT:

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

MEMBER ABSENT:

Terry Thurman, Member
Ray Patel, Member

OTHERS PRESENT:

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

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION

The first item to be discussed 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. Stating the Agency Counsel, the City’s Chief Information Officer, public safety officials and the Cable Agency met to discuss institutional network (INET) considerations per the 1996 Comcast franchise agreement. The township fire departments seek to implement that portion of Comcast’s franchise agreement that speaks to constructing and providing an INET. Comcast offered an alternative proposal to what was agreed upon in the franchise. The meeting was to discuss Comcast’s alternative proposal and move forward from there.

The Cable Agency has been assisting Action Audits to review rate filings submitted by Comcast and Time Warner. Action Audits has sough additional information from both cable operators aide in their review and the Cable Agency has been facilitating that.

The Department of Capital Asset Management for the City has asked the Cable Agency to assist it in research with regard to right of way (ROW) management of streets and easements. The City is undertaking a review of its approach and treatment to occupants of the City ROW. The Cable Agency has historically supported previous administrations in research and recommendations with regard to right of way policy matters.

The Agency had been serving as a consumer advocate in mediating a number of cable television complaints received by its office.

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 January. In January there were 34 hours and 41 minutes of Live and Tape delay meetings. Special Events production totaled 12 hours and 37 minutes. Series programs totaled 3 hours.

In the area of In-Kind Production, Channel 16 had 5 hours. Total new production was 55 hours and 18 minutes.

The next item on the agenda was the Cable Operator’s Management Report. Mrs. Shary Johnston stated an apology to Rick Maultra and the Cable Franchise Board in reference of not informing them of Time Warner's new channel line up in a timely fashion.

Mrs. Shary Johnston stated Time Warner gained customers in the month of December.

Stating Time Warner completed 100% of installation within 7 days. Time Warner received 2,725 service calls; scheduled 1,708 and completed 1,589; 80.2% within 24 hours. Incoming calls for the month was 36,360 received and 35,551 handled; 87.7% of calls were answered within 30 seconds. Time Warner had 29 outages including 1 planned outage.

Shary Johnston stated Time Warner aired 104 hours of lease programming on 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 all three tiers. Incoming calls for the month were 52,640 received and 49,438 handled. Comcast had 75 outages including 2 planned outages. Comcast received and scheduled 2,490 service calls and completed 2,040; 100.0% completed within 36 hours or by customer request. Installations; Comcast scheduled 2,647 and completed 2,251; 100.0% within 7 days or by customer request. See construction report.

The next item on the agenda was the TotaLink presentation. Peter Jablonsky stated TotaLink pre construction is on going with mapping and designing. Stating TotaLink installed 500 cable anchors in ground for the beginning construction to start on March 1^st, 2001. Mr. Jablonsky also stated the Bond issue with the City has been settled with the help of Bob Borgmann, who is City of Indianapolis, Corp counsel.

The next item on the agenda was the approval of minutes for the Cable Board’s December 18^th, 2000. Motion was made by Mr. Hiltunen, seconded by Mr. Rhodes, to approve minutes. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was the ETC report. Mr. Earl Harris stated the Vela Broadcast System has been installed and is operational. Programming returned to both channels on Monday, January 8^th at 7:30am. Earl Harris thanked Time Warner for their assistance during the down time providing a message informing viewers of the January 2001 return. ETC also thanked Time Warner for their assistance in getting live programming from IPS on the channels.

Programming, PBS will now be seen on overnights on the channels. SCOLA will return to overnights on ETC 1 over the next few months. ETC thanked WFYI and WTBU for providing the programming.

Friday, January 12^th IPS produced its annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. The event featured speakers, including Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, and performances by IPS students and honored the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The next item on the agenda was Old Business, Mr. Maultra stated at the last meeting the Cable Franchise Board, the Cable Communications Agency requested $3,000 to support NATOA’s (National Association of Telecommunication Officer’s Advisors) filing with regard to how cable modem service is defined. The CFB asked that we detail the names for the initial filing. The funding we are seeking is for the filing of the Reply Comments (Indianapolis did not fund the initial filing) and we have the money in the budget to support this.

At stake for Indianapolis is hundreds of thousands of dollars, (if not millions of dollars over a short time) of lost revenue should the City not be able to collect franchise fees on cable’s high speed internet service. This lost dollar amount is based upon Comcast’s current penetration and projected penetration at year end of their cable modem service, as well as Time Warner’s soon to come roll out of their cable modem platform with TotaLink's roll out at year-end.

Mr. Maultra stated the Cable Agency respectfully requests this filing be supported by the Cable Franchise Board in the amount of $3,000.00

Motion was made by Mr. Rhodes and seconded by Mr. Hiltunen, to approve $3,000 appropriation. Motion carried unanimously.

The next item on the agenda was Old Business, Mr. Montgomery presented a renewal of contract for freelance engineer Jack Tapp who does the Television engineering for Channel 16. Mr. Montgomery stated the contract terms are basically the same from last year including the hourly fee.

Motion was made by Mr. Hiltunen and seconded by Mr. Rhodes, to accept the contract for Jack Tapp. Motion carried unanimously.

Secondly, Mr. Montgomery stated over the past few years Channel 16 has acquired PC based graphics and editing systems that fall outside of the service parameters of SCT, the City’s systems support provider. It has become increasingly apparent that Channel 16 requires a staff member to serve as an internal systems administrator or an as needed basis. Staff member Alan Dhayer has essentially been serving in this capacity for some time now, Mr. Montgomery stated he believes the job should be made official for two reasons: to fairly compensate Alan for the extra duties he already performs and to ensure sufficient salary funding to attract eligible candidates in the event Mr. Dhayer chooses to leave the position.

Mr. Montgomery gathered the information needed from human Resources to consider creating the new Systems Administrator/Producer position. According to HR, the new Systems Administrator/Producer position will be a non-exempt Grade 5 job salary. Stating that would adjust Alan’s pay upward by $3,500 yearly.

Mr. Montgomery stated this change was not included in 2001 budget, so if the Cable Franchise Board supports this plan, it will require a Council fiscal ordinance to achieve. Mr. Montgomery recommended moving $3,300 from the existing Character 4 budget into Character 1. Stated he have targeted $3,300 in Character 4 that can be made available --$1,800 for two monitors actually purchased in 2000, and $1,500 for an audio amplifier that can be deferred. Mr. Montgomery also stated if approved, the salary increase will likely go into effect in March, so $3,300 will cover the bi-weekly pay increase for 2001.

Motion was made by Mr. Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Hiltunen, to approve moving $3,300 from Character(4)budget into Character (1) with the intent of creating the new Systems Administrator/Producer position. Motion carried unanimously.

Public comment: Mr. Smashey complained in reference to Time Warner/AOL channel line up switch. Stating the City is in violation due to the moving of channels across tiers.

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