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August 2005
August 15, 2005
MEMBERS PRESENT
Peter Blum, Chairman
Kent Burrow, Member
Elizabeth Herriman, Member
MEMBERS ABSENT
Dan Lynch, Member
Robin Winston, Member
OTHERS PRESENT
| Jonathan Bryant, Corporation Counsel |
Cindy Cade, Comcast Cablevision |
| Rick Maultra, Cable Communications |
Doug Ward, Comcast Cablevision |
| Cristy Tirotta, Cable Communications |
Jim Smashey, Public Comment |
| Ken Montgomery, Channel 16 |
David Pilbrow, Public Comment |
| Al Aldridge, Bright House Networks |
Jean Coughlin, Public Comment |
| Mike Delph, Comcast Cablevision |
Kathleen Dobie, Public Comment |
Chairman Blum calls the August Meeting of the Marion County Cable Franchise Board to order and informs the people that the meeting is not being broadcast live. It will be tape-delayed and broadcast on Channel 16 at 8:00 PM on Tuesday the 16th.
The first item on the agenda is the approval of the July Board Meeting Minutes, which were distributed in the Board Packets.
Ms. Herriman moves to approve the minutes. Mr. Burrow seconds the motion. The motion was voted on three-zero.
The next item is the Cable Agency Report, submitted by Mr. Maultra.
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.
The City has received Comcast's yearly rate filing for what it intends to charge customers from August 2005 through 2006 for limited basic service and associated equipment with respect to receiving that service, such as pricing for converters, remote controls and maintenance. This issue will be brought up under New Business, later in the meeting.
The Agency has finished their budget prep discussions and prepared narratives with and for the Controller's Office for 2006.
The Agency will be appearing before the Council's Finance & Administrative Committee August 16 to present their budget for Council's consideration. As the Agency has traditionally done in the past, they will have the Board to consider their 2006 budget later in this meeting under New Business.
As approved by the Cable Board, the Cable Agency has been working with Corporation Counsel in preparing a response to Bright House Network's Effective Competition Filing with the FCC of last month. A copy of the City's filing has been included in Board packets.
The Indiana Association of Cities & Towns (IACT) had invited the City of Indianapolis to participate in a telecommunications subcommittee that IACT had formed to discuss upcoming legislative issues at the Statehouse. The Agency had their first meeting August 5. This is the second time that the Cable Agency has been invited to serve on IACT's Telecom Committee.
With respect to First Mile, the Agency and its counsel have yet to get instruction as to what to do with regard to First Mile.
Mr. Maultra suspects that we need to take the lead on this more pro-actively and have it set as an agenda item as to what they are voting on and why.
The Cable Board previously approved that the application process commence and handed this off to the City-County Council so they could approve that process.
One of the inhibitors with this process is that the City Cable Code needs to be amended to change the application-filing fee to one of affordability based on available resources. It sets to maintain a level playing field for all.
The application fee needs to be reflective of the time and resources placed on the City in going through a franchising process with a company that has 43 subscribers versus one that has tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand plus subscribers.
The Agency will be bringing this matter up before the City-County Council to change one of many matters in the City Cable Code to bring it up to date.
The City should be principled in franchising all video users of the public right of way per Title VI of the Communications Act that allows municipalities to franchise video.
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 July, the Agency had a total of 12 complaints for Bright House Networks and a total of 52 for Comcast. The high area of complaints for both cable operators was in the area of billing. Comcast had even higher complaints reported for telephone service.
That concludes Mr. Maultra's remarks and he will answer any questions that the Board may have for him.
Chairman Blum asks Mr. Bryant, what is the next step regarding the Effective Competition.
Mr. Bryant responds that the City has received copies of Bright House's response reply to the opposition. Mr. Bryant thinks that under the FCC Rules, the record is now complete. There have been instances where the Commission has accepted further filings by an opponent to petition for more complete factual records, even though a further reply from the City is not contemplated by the rules.
Mr. Bryant adds that he and Mr. Maultra will go through the reply they received from Bright House and determine whether a further response is warranted.
Mr. Burrow asks Mr. Maultra if the language regarding the City-County Council proposal that he has indicated is in the Board packets, or if they have already been drafted about updating the City Ordinance.
Mr. Maultra responds that it has not. The City Code requires a filing fee for Application for Franchise of $50,000. What Mr. Maultra would like to change it to is something based on resources available and leaving it up to the franchise administrator to weigh out the resources available at hand. The resources and the filing fee are supposed to be reflective of the City's actual cost in looking at the franchise.
Mr. Maultra explains for instance, getting into a franchise application, sometimes even with a renewal, it could be a 3-year window. Comcast, for example, has 125,000 subscribers, Bright House Networks has roughly 60,000 subscribers and this mom & pop outfit has 43 subscribers and they are already in the public rights of way providing video service. First, it is a matter that's principal. They should already be getting the video franchise, cable franchise agreement. Secondly, it has to be done in such a way that it is level playing field and it is reasonable. That is one of the many changes that needs to be brought to the City Code.
To answer Mr. Burrows question in short, the City does not have the technical language that they are planning to bring in front of the City-County Council.
Chairman Blum adds that the real issue is that the City and the Board has repeatedly asked the Council for guidance and they have not received any. The idea of doing whatever the Board can do to jump-start the process is a wise course.
Mr. Burrows states that he is supportive of the efforts but he wants to understand the timing of this process. He asks Chairman Blum if it is anticipated that this issue will be brought forth to the City-County Council before the next Cable Franchise Board Meeting.
Mr. Maultra answers that he does not believe it will go in front of the City-County Council before the next meeting and he would like to defer to counsel all questions regarding timing.
Mr. Bryant states that there is another filing deadline before the next time the Cable Franchise Board is scheduled to meet. There is also a filing deadline by September 30th.
Chairman Blum states that he is not comfortable going forward until the Board has had time to review this issue.
The next item on the agenda is the Government Access TV Programming Report submitted by Mr. Montgomery.
Mr. Montgomery, Studio Manager of Channel 16, goes over a few of the highlights from the July Production and Programming Report that was included in the Board Packets.
Channel 16 covered 52 hours and 56 minutes of live or taped delayed meeting coverage, which included coverage of the Indianapolis Charter Schools Board, which was 4 hours and 15 minutes. Channel 16 covered quite a few of the Indiana Black Expo events that happened in July, a Business conference in Economical Development Round Table, a number of things on State of the Black Family, and also on Black Enterprise: Wealth Building on Financial Empowerment.
Under Specials and Events Production, Channel 16 did 10 hours and 59 minutes; one hour and 41 minutes of in-kind production, primarily some documentation of a public hearing for the Department of Public Works and INDOT and a series of programs.
The total for the month of July for all categories was 68 hours and 6 minutes. It was very light for in-kind services last month. The total was $3405 worth of in-kind production.
Mr. Montgomery closes with his report and opens for questions.
The next item on the agenda is the Operator's Management Reports, beginning with Bright House.
Al Aldridge, Director of Public Affairs, presents on behalf of Bright House Networks their 2005 July Report. Before he begins with the report, he would like to compliment Bright House on an event that they did June 18 through July 5. They did an install campaign with their customers.
They selected several non-profit organizations in the community to help by donating part of the installation fees that were collected during that period to five community charities. They worked with Habitat of Humanity, March of Dimes, Alzheimer's Association, and a few others. For that campaign, Bright House has a check for $25,308, individually about $5000 each for each organization. This is something that Bright House is proud of and are excited to share.
Bright House began the month of July with 3153 limited basic customers and 57,863 full service customers for a system total of 61,016. Bright House ended the month with 60,379 for a loss of 637 customers.
Bright House received 52,077 calls for the month. They handled 51,899 with 49,009 being answered within in 30 seconds or less for a call answer time of 94% of calls being answered in 30 seconds or less with no busy rate.
Bright House reported 12 complaints by 11 customers. There were 7 complaints for billing, which was the high area of complaints.
Bright House had 40 unplanned service interruptions for the month, which affected 7730 customers. The system reliability was 99.96%
All service calls were answered within the next business day, unless otherwise directed by the customer. 100% of all appointments were kept within the 4-hour service window.
100% of standard installations were performed within 7 business days or by customer request.
Bright House had 1.18 miles of new construction for the month.
For Community Events, the Division was again a major sponsor for the Indiana Black Expo's 2005 "Summer Celebration." Bright House sponsored the IBE Corporate Luncheon and produced the video saluting the IBE corporate sponsors. They also hosted a joint information booth in the Convention Center for the 3-day cultural event.
The Division sponsored the 4th of July "Taste of Freedom" event in conjunction with Clear Channel Communications (WFBQ-FM). This event is an all day fun event at the White River State Park. The Division invited the Mayor, members of the City-County Council, members of the franchise board and over a hundred members of the community to be their guests at the VIP tent during the event.
On Friday July 9th, the Division hosted a Customer Appreciation Day in their payment centers in Marion, Hendricks, and Hamilton County. They served over 300 hot dogs and sodas to Bright House Networks customers visiting their payment centers on that day. This was their 2nd Customer Appreciation Day during 2005.
The Division hosted a corporate table at "Dance Diaspora" at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. This annual event raises funds for building the new Indiana Museum of African American History, scheduled to open in 2008 in White River State Park. The museum was design by Blackburn Architects.
Members of the Division continue to volunteer with the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, ICTA, the Walker Center, the 100 Black Men Indianapolis Chapter, and the Indiana Hemophilia Foundation.
Bright House provided over 225 hours of local programming with their partner WDNI.
Mr. Aldridge opens for questions from the Board.
Next is the Comcast Operator's Management Report.
Mr. Delph presents on behalf of Comcast their report to the Board for the month of July.
The number of customers requesting total basic service decreased by 221. 79.3% of calls were answered within 30 seconds or less with a busy rate of 4.2%. The system reliability for the month was 98.82%.
Comcast had one planned service interruptions for system improvements. 98.6% of total service calls were addressed by the next business day, or at the direction of the customer. 93.05% 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. There were 28 complaints sent to the Cable Agency, according to Mr. Delph. Comcast completed construction in two new subdivisions and one condominium complex.
Comcast aired public service announcements for the Indiana Black Expo, Dick Lugar Run/Walk, and the 2005 Gymnastics Championships.
Comcast participated heavily in the Indiana Black Expo, serving as a sponsor of the Corporate Luncheon that was attended by President George W. Bush. They also hosted a booth at Expo, and partnered with TV One to bring Jeff Majors, host of "The Gospel of Music," to their booth to sign autographs and pose for pictures.
Mark Apple, Regional Vice President of Communications & Public Affairs, was elected to the Board of Directors at Gleaners Food Bank.
That concludes Comcast's report.
Chairman Blum points out the 79.3% of calls answered in 30 seconds or less. These numbers are around where they were the first quarter of this year, after it was said that there was going to be improvements made.
Mr. Ward, Comcast's Customer Service Manager, states that the second quarter showed improvements, but Chairman Blum points out that it was the first quarter that Comcast had difficulty. Mr. Ward states that they recovered from that and they did meet the service level in the second quarter and they did implement all the things they discussed before. There was a turn around in service level, according to him.
Chairman Blum asked why Comcast was in the situation they are in now and what are their plans to get out of it.
Mr. Ward responds that the overall call volume that they receive year over year is much higher this year than it has been in the past. Comcast has been recruiting constantly. There is a class of 12 people in training to date that will be on the sales floor taking calls within the next two weeks. Comcast is working to get ahead of the staffing curve where they have actually been behind before. They are continuing efforts to maximize as many phone personnel as possible so they can meet the service level. There is a recovery plan in place and they are optimistic that they will meet the service level by September.
Chairman Blum asks what are some of the details that are included in their recovery plan.
Mr. Ward responds, in addition to the training class of 12, there are an additional 12 people scheduled to start training September 12th. In the mean time, they have reached out to Comcast employees that have been promoted and moved to other departments to take some calls now. Some are on an overtime basis, and some as part of their workday, so Comcast can meet the call volume demands.
Mr. Delph invites the new Board members to visit their facilities to see how things operate on a day-to-day basis.
There is no representative for the ETC Report. The Board will not take the time to read their report into the record. It will be available on ETC's website.
The next item on the agenda is the Comcast Rate Review under New Business.
Mr. Maultra states that the City received Comcast's filing, with regard to the maximum permitted rate, for what is known as FCC forms 1240 and 1205. 1240 has to do with what the FCC allows as the maximum permitted rate from limited basic tier of service. The 1205 filing has to do with associated equipment and the servicing for that limited tier of service, that would include truck rolls, remote controls, rental for converters, etc.
The Agency has checked the budget and they have the $5000 available for Action Audits to see whether the selected rate by Comcast for the 1240 and the 1205 submitted forms fall within the FCC's maximum permitted rate.
The Agency recommends that the Board approve $5000 for Action Audits to review the rate filing for 1240 and 1205 submitted by Comcast.
Chairman Blum asks if this is for Comcast only and Mr. Maultra replies that it is.
Chairman Blum asks when is the Bright House filing and Mr. Maultra replies that it is usually January 1st.
Mr. Maultra states that he has negotiated discounts with both of the City's consultants based on doing multiple audits. $5000 is the negotiated rate and it is extremely inexpensive compared to what Mr. Maultra has been able to solicit otherwise.
Chairman Blum states that there is no question that the audit has to be done.
Ms. Herriman asks how often these types of filings are done and Mr. Maultra replies that they are done every year by each operator.
Chairman Blum states that these are actually the only rates that the City and the Board are able to regulate.
Mr. Maultra states that the Agency is certified by the City to try to maintain a lifeline tier of service of affordability to those can least likely afford it and the FCC permits us to do that. That is part of the certification the City has with the FCC to carry this out.
Ms. Herriman states that she agrees that the audit must be done.
Mr. Burrows asks Mr. Maultra who the consultant is that will be used to do the audit.
Mr. Maultra replies that Action Audits will be doing the audit. The auditor has audited for many municipalities around the country. Mr. Maultra finds him to be fair and extremely detailed.
Chairman Blum asks Mr. Maultra if he will provide the Board with the auditor's resume qualifications.
Mr. Burrow asks Mr. Maultra if there is an engagement letter or an agreement with the auditor on the type of report they are to provide.
Mr. Maultra states that counsel puts together a contract with the requirements and Mr. Burrow asks if Mr. Maultra can make that information available to the Board.
Chairman Blum suggests that the Board review the information before they vote on it.
The next item on the agenda is the Agency and Channel 16 2006 Budget.
The Agency and Channel 16 have been working with the Controller's Office with respect to the budget planning for 2006. There have been cuts in all areas. To highlight for the Cable Agency, character 1, which is salaries, has been reduced by 22.5%, or $24,000.
On the budget that was passed out to the Board, it shows that the Cable Agency budget was reduced by 23.9%. There have been some amendments to the budget since then. In the end, the budget for Channel 16 and the Cable Agency had a total reduction of $183,271, which is reflective of 21.3% over 2005.
That is in excess of the parameters that were given by the Controllers office initially as far as how much to reduce our budget.
Chairman Blum states that virtually no area was left untouched, but nobody was reckless about it. The Agency and Channel 16 tried very hard to eliminate the money that did not need to be spent, but also tried very hard to guard the money that was needed. They were prudent and realistic. It was not an easy process. Chairman Blum states that the Board will vote on the Budget and then it will be passed to the Council.
Mr. Burrow moves to recommend the Budget to the Council. Ms. Herriman seconds the motion. The motion was voted on three-zero.
David Pilbrow spoke under Public Comment on the topic of public access. He asks the Board to consider renewing that privilege to the community.
Jean Coughlin, associated with Public Access of Indianapolis, spoke under Public Comment.
Kathleen Dobie spoke under Public Comment for Public Access of Indianapolis concerning the Public needs Assessment.
Jim Smashey spoke under Public Comment.
The next meeting is September 19th, 2005 at 2:30 in room 260. Chairman Blum adjourns the meeting.
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Mr. Peter Blum, Chairman
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Mr. Kent Burrow, Member
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Ms. Elizabeth Herriman, Member
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Mr. Daniel Lynch, Member
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Mr. Robin Winston, Member
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Ms. Cristy Tirotta, Recording Secretary
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