November 2005

November 21, 2005

MEMBERS PRESENT

Peter Blum, Chairman
Kent Burrow, Member
Daniel Lynch, Member
Robin Winston, Member

MEMBERS ABSENT

Elizabeth Herriman, Member

OTHERS PRESENT

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

The first order of business is the approval of the October minutes, which were included in the Board packets. There was one correction to the minutes on the last line. It stated the next meeting would be December 19th, and it should actually say November 21st. Mr. Burrow moves to approve the minutes with that correction. Mr. Lynch seconds the motion. The motion was voted on four-zero.

The next item on the agenda is the Cable Agency Report, submitted by Rick Maultra, the 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.

The City has been in discussions with First Mile regarding their easement practices and any exclusivity concerns that the Cable Board might have. The City believes they have had those concerns addressed and they have a letter from First Mile stating as much.

The Cable Agency has been reviewing the City’s Cable Code for making broader recommendations and more narrowly, with respect to making recommendations regarding the sections they are currently contemplating with respect to administrative costs relating to franchise applications. The Agency plans to take the latter up under Old Business later in the meeting.

The Cable Agency recently met with those involved in future planning with ETC to discuss next steps with respect to the organization as well as strategic planning for the upcoming franchise renewals.

Indiana University has received the $41,050 grant to administer to ETC. The IRIS Grant for the reading impaired is presently stuck upstairs in the Controller’s Office. The Agency hopes to get them to expedite those funds soon to WFYI for their intended use.

There are a number of legislative and court matters that the National Association of Telecommunications Officers & Advisors (NATOA) is presently involved with. As the Board is aware, the City of Indianapolis is a member of NATOA. Along with its membership renewal, which is due at present, the City routinely contributes to the organization’s legislative fund. This year, the City has been asked for a $1,000 assessment. Mr. Maultra will take the matter up under new business. The background for this assessment is in the Board packets.

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 October, the Agency received 24 complaints for Bright House. The high areas of complaints were for that of service interruptions and billing procedures. For Comcast, the Agency received 59 complaints. The high areas of complaints were in the areas of billing procedures, followed by programming and rates.

Another item that Mr. Maultra would like to draw attention to is, there is a notice for proposed rule (NPRM), making out that the FCC has issued at the urging of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (CRBOC’s), such as SBC and Verizon. Mr. Maultra would like to take the issue up under New Business. It is a 26-page report and he has sent that to the Board via email to read that if they would care to. It is something that NATOA is going to be responding to, along with NACO, NLC, US Conference of Mayors, and they are also urging cities to get involved in writing a response with regard to this rulemaking. Mr. Maultra is hoping to get the Board’s urging or approval for him and Mr. Bryant to write a response to the NPRM on behalf of the City of Indianapolis so that the rulemaking does not go unanswered.

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

Mr. Maultra has some good news to share with the Board with regard to a recent achievement at Channel 16. The Police Department often uses the resources of Channel 16 for forensic work in catching criminals. Often times they view surveillance tapes from stores and other places that have been a victim of crime. Channel 16 puts together shows called Crime Stoppers that highlight in detail these crimes that have taken place and they put the videos out over Channel 16 in hopes that through the Crime Stoppers program, somebody might recognize individuals to call in with a tip.

Recently there was a murder during the month of October. A gentleman was shot and killed in a convenience store.

Channel 16 was asked by IPD Homicide Division to come in on a Saturday to look at the surveillance work and to do what they could to enhance the video in such a way that would make the person of concern or interest more recognizable for public consumption. Alan Dhayer came in on Saturday. He has been typically the point person used by the Indianapolis Police Department in assisting with these forensic matters. As a result, shortly after IPD received the video from Channel 16 and it was released to the mainstream media; family members called in and reported the person of interest and that person was apprehended.

Detective Todd Lappin was invited to say some comments today, although he is not present at the meeting. He was working with Mr. Dhayer specifically with regard to this matter. He conveyed to Mr. Maultra that this matter, as in many other cases, would not have been solved if it weren’t for the resources of Channel 16, and specifically for Alan Dhayer’s work. This is an incredible benefit to the community and it is certainly one that Mr. Maultra, as the Franchise Administrator, is particularly proud of. The Mayor’s Office would also like to recognize Mr. Dhayer with respect to the time he spent and his overall hard work and achievement in helping out the community and IPD and essentially catching criminals and getting them off the streets.

Chairman Blum appreciates Mr. Maultra’s comments and states that he has a proclamation from the Mayor’s Office for Mr. Dhayer. It reads…

“The City of Indianapolis hereby recognizes and honors the dedicated service and outstanding contributions of Alan Dhayer to our City and its citizens and presents these greetings as an enduring symbol of our gratitude and appreciation.”

Chairman Blum adds the congratulations and the appreciation while Mr. Dhayer accepts his award and thanks the Board.

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

Mr. Montgomery stated that it is also worth noting that Tom from Crime Stoppers told him that since this new format that Alan basically pioneered and created himself has gone out, there have been many calls related to that and people conveying that they have seen it on the Government Access Channel.

Channel 16 had a busy month during October. There was 60 hours and 33 minutes of live and tape delayed meeting coverage including another one of the Consolidation Study Commission meetings over at the State Senate early in the month.

Channel 16 had a healthy amount of specials and events production. They covered pretty much all of the Howey Political Report sessions. They covered a significant portion of the 12th Annual Black Male State Conference as well as the Hope Team Summit. The total was 25 hours, 37 minutes, and 30 seconds for that category.

In-kind production for City and County Government Agencies was 4 hours and 58 minutes for the month of October, including the crime scene forensic work that Mr. Dhayer was just acknowledged for. Mr. Dhayer also did a series of shows for the Marion Superior Courts Conditions of Probation, an English version, a Spanish version, and one that is aimed at sex offenders.

Channel 16 is way ahead of their average for the year with 93 hours, 58 minutes, and 30 seconds of total new production. In the realm of in-kind services, if Channel 16 would have charged for their services, the total cost would have been $7,470.

With that, Mr. Montgomery will answer any questions from the Board.

Mr. Winston asks if the Probation Department intends to play those videos over and over to the people on probation.

Mr. Montgomery responds that they are on a loop tape so they play all day long to serve as a way to communicate what is expected of the people who go into the probation program.

The next item on the agenda is the Cable Operators Management Reports beginning with Bright House.

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

Bright House gained 27 limited basic customers and 158 full cable service customers, giving a system total of 185 customers gained for the month of October.

On the incoming call report, Bright House handled 55,400 calls out of 55,723 calls received. 51,329 calls were answered in 30 seconds or less, which gave a call answer rate of 93% and a busy rate of 0.25%, as represented by them.

On the Complaint Summaries Report, there were 24 complaints from 20 customers. There were some service interruption calls as well as billing questions.

100% of service interruption calls were addressed within 24 hours. There were no planned outages, but there were 32 unplanned outages that affected 3,831 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 was 0.01% underground construction for the month and a 0.05 aerial.

The Division continued to run in-kind promotional spots for several community non-profits including the Visiting Nurses Service, National Kidney Foundation, and the advertising Council. Bright House also produced and ran spots for the American Cabaret Theatre "Porter & Gershwin.” The value of these gratis spots was $40,170.

The Division was a major sponsor of the recent "Under the Stars Kidney Gala.”

The Gala was a unique event as it was the 2nd time that this event was presented in 2005 because of a timeframe transitioning of the event.

The Division was a major sponsor of the Circle City Classic football game on the 1st. Bright House provided over $50,000 in sponsorships and advertising support for one of the largest events held in the City of Indianapolis. This was their 18th year of sponsorship.

On October 25th, Bright House participated in a Press Conference to announce a partnership between the IHSAA and the three major cable operators in the Indianapolis area to carry 18 "live" Indiana High School championship games. This partnership will offer cable coverage of tournament action in high school sports, including baseball, volleyball, football, and basketball for the next 5-years. The first event to be on the IHSAA TV networks will be the Class 4A Volleyball State Championships in November. The games will be available throughout the state over the cable operator's networks.

The Division was a sponsor of the Marion College Scholarship Opportunities Dinner. This dinner/silent auction fundraiser helps to raise funds for the college scholarship programs. This was Bright House’s second year of providing sponsorship.

Bright House participated in the Indianapolis Recorder's celebration of providing Indianapolis a community newspaper for a 110-years. The celebration was held at the State Museum.

The Division was a sponsor of the 8th "Mystery Bus Tour" presented by Hemophilia of Indiana. This is the non-profit organization's fall fundraiser.

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

The continued partnership with WDNI provided 225.77 hours of local programming.

With that, Mr. Aldridge will answer any questions from the Board.

Mr. Winston asks what the aberration of service level percent on the two days in October that went down. The dates were the 22nd and the 24th. They were down in the 60’s.

Mr. Aldridge responded that it was weather related.

Mr. Nesbit added that it was actually an Internet related problem. The North Hub was causing some problems and it affected the Carmel customers, which in turn had an impact on the telephone answering.

Mr. Winston asks if there were 2700 calls that day because the service was out.

Mr. Nesbit responds that was one of the reasons why it was high that day but points out that wasn’t the highest day.

Mr. Nesbit introduces Mike Higginbotham to the Board.

Mr. Higginbotham is Mr. Nesbit’s assistant and he is the one that deals with the complaints when they come in from the Cable Agency.

The Comcast Management Report is next.

Mr. Delph will present on behalf of Comcast their report to the Board for the month of October. With him is Mr. Rusty Robertson, Senior Vice President of Operations for the Indianapolis Division.

Included in the Board Packets is a copy of Comcast’s 626 letter expressing their intent to entering the negotiations for their franchise renewal. Comcast looks forward to an amicable dialogue that will result in a mutually agreeable product that benefits their customers, the City, and Comcast.

Comcast represented that the number of customers requesting total basic service decreased by 513.

92.8% of calls were answered in 30 seconds or less with a busy rate of 2.2%

System Reliability for the month was 99.98%

94.27% of total service calls were addressed by the next business day, or at the direction of the customer. 99.91% 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.

Comcast calculated 59 complaints sent to the Cable Agency.

Comcast completed construction in 13 new subdivisions.

Comcast aired over 225 hours of local community interest programming during the month of October.

Comcast aired public service announcements for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society "Light the Night Walk" and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation "Scooby Doo Walk.”

Appearing on Newsmakers this month was Joe Bill Wiley of ALS of Indiana, Joe Simpson with United Way of Central Indiana, Mike Howland of Noble of Indiana, and City-County Council, Scott Schneider, among others.

More than 500 Comcast employees, friends, family members and neighbors volunteered for the Binford Boulevard Beautification Project, as part of Comcast's fifth annual company-wide day of service, Comcast Cares Day, October 1. Comcast partnered with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, other neighborhood businesses, and the Binford Redevelopment and Growth (BRAG) organization and planted 125 trees and 5,000 perennials between 65th – 75th Streets. Together, volunteers logged more than 3,000 volunteer hours in one day.

Noted guests included Steve Talley, City Council President, Teresa Lubbers, State Senator, Cindy Noe, State Representative and Beth White, Director of Neighborhood and Constituent Services from Mayor Peterson's office.

Comcast was a media sponsor of the Circle City Classic football game, benefiting Indiana Black Expo, October 1. They supported the Classic by airing more than $50,000 in advertising in Central Indiana.

Comcast was a sponsor of the Alzheimer's Association, "Memory Walk" at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, October 2. The walk raised funds to support individuals, families and care givers who struggle with the daily effects of Alzheimer's disease.

Comcast is a media sponsor of Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy – The Exhibition at the Indiana State Museum. This unique exhibit opened October 6 and will run through January 2006. This touring exhibition, based on "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy has toured some of the world's major cities, including Boston, London, Sydney, Singapore and now Indianapolis. Attendees get a behind-the-scene glance at many of the trilogies' costumes, armor, weapons, make-up and special effects.

Comcast was a sponsor of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's "Walk to Cure Diabetes" at IUPUI, October 8. Comcast promoted the walk with public service announcements and hosted a visit by Scooby Doo.

That concludes Mr. Delph’s formal comments.

Mr. Robertson informs the Board that Comcast is going through reorganization in their region. Cindy Cade continues to be Mr. Robertson’s right-hand person, but with specific responsibilities over the call center. Mr. Robertson relinquished his responsibility over St. Paul. St. Paul with the Comcast, Time Warner, and Adelphia deal is going to take on Minneapolis so it will become it’s own region. Mr. Robertson is back in an operations role in Indianapolis. His region will be taking on some other properties like Lawrenceburg, Shelbyville, and a couple smaller systems in Illinois that he will be responsible for. In addition to that, there is going to be some bigger acquisitions in 2006 in Indiana that they are starting to get prepared for, not really anything to do with this particular market.

Mr. Delph informs the Board of a video he would like them to watch before taking questions.

After viewing the video, Mr. Robertson informs the Board that this video was produced before the Sprint/Nextel announcement. The big deal with the Comcast Digital Voice trial that they have been focused on in Indianapolis was the 3-product offering. Probably within about 6-8 months, Comcast will have a quadruple play offering with access to the Sprint/Nextel Network all over the country. Many people are converting from a landline service to a wireless service so Comcast wants to have that option open to their customers as well.

Mr. Lynch asks Mr. Robertson where Comcast ranks in the Cable TV market.

Mr. Robertson responds that Comcast is #1 and they have over 21 million basic customers. The second largest is Time Warner with 12 million. He adds that the system in Indianapolis is always on the cutting edge of everything.

The Indianapolis system was one of the first to have high-speed data, one of the first to have digital, and one of 3 market trials to launch telephone service.

Mr. Winston asks if the cable companies could give a report on the professional development of their staff. The professional development, skills, and technology have changed and are more high tech. He suggests using some time to brag about the quality of the labor force and investment.

Chairman Blum suggests the cable companies report that development to the Board every 6 months.

Mr. Robertson informs the Board that they have a group called Comcast University that prepares their people for IP and all that comes with that.

Mr. Winston adds that every time new products are added, new training is needed.

Chairman Blum commends Comcast for getting back on track as far as the customer service standards and asks if they will be able to make it in November.

Mr. Robertson stated that activity has really slowed down. August and September were crazy in terms of activity and it has really helped that it has slowed down, but they are in great shape.

Getting into the detail of the service level report, with a couple of exceptions, when Comcast missed the 90%, they really missed it. One or two are close and the rest of them are almost 10% or more off.

Mr. Delph responds that on October 1st, for example, there was a commercial power failure, which looks like it had an impact on them missing service level even though calls were backed out, but he will go back and try to get some more detail on it.

Chairman Blum informs the Board that Mr. Burrow will need to leave the meeting at 3:30 so he would like to move to Old Business. Under Old Business is the Modification to Chapter 851/Filing Fees.

Mr. Bryant informs the Board that the draft before them continues the discussions from previous meetings, but is a significant departure from the previous draft. Previously, Mr. Bryant focused on amending section 851-261 of the code. This draft actually calls for repealing that section. The reason for that is another section within the code, 851-237, authorizes the City to recoup its expenses that it incurs in evaluating applications for a franchise. That language states the Grantee shall pay the City a sum of money sufficient to reimbursing for all of its publication and other expenses including, but not limited to consultants and legal expenses incurred in connection with the granting of the franchise pursuant to the terms of this division.

What Mr. Bryant has done in section 851-262 is reiterate it to make it apparent that the City is part of the review process and it may decide to impose that authority on an applicant. The remainder, section 1 of the draft that is before the Board, just makes it a corresponding technical change. The only other change that Mr. Bryant points out that is not reflected in the draft is in the second line of section 851-262.

The second line states that the City may require the applicant to reimburse the City for its reasonable out-of-pocket expenses in considering the application. “Reasonable out-of-pocket expenses” is the phrase that is currently in the code and in order to be responsive to Mr. Maultra’s request, Mr. Bryant may consider striking the phrase “out-of-pocket.”

Chairman Blum asks if striking that phrase will also get to the concern that Ms. Herriman had at last month’s meeting of capturing City time.

Mr. Bryant believes that was also the genesis of Mr. Maultra’s concern.

Mr. Maultra stated that bringing forward section 237; he came up with the phrase that stated, “to reimburse the City for its reasonable out-of-pocket expenses in considering the application for an initial franchise.” Counsel has written “specificity to consultant’s and attorney fees.” Mr. Maultra would like to add, “including but not limited to consultant’s and attorney fees and any sum of money sufficient to reimburse the City for all other expenses applied to utilizing City resources, including but not limited to publication, in-house counsel, and the local franchising authority.” Mr. Maultra thinks that not only addresses Ms. Herriman’s concerns but also captures all the things that could be in-house, out-of-pocket, or internal costs.

Chairman Blum would like to reiterate the point that this is for new applicants only. He adds that he recalls Mr. Bryant telling him that all that the City can legally ask of an applicant is to cover the City’s expenses. There cannot be an application fee where essentially a number is pulled out of the air. As a matter of principle, Mr. Blum thinks anything that is cable related should be brought in line with that law.

Mr. Maultra asks if it is agreeable to counsel and the Board to take what Mr. Bryant has passed out and amend it with the language that Mr. Maultra has suggested.

Mr. Lynch stated that the language that Mr. Maultra used implied that he was considering Ms. Herriman’s concern that the City’s out-of-pocket expenses are the small cost piece of this and he needs to make sure the Agency and any other internal resources that are allocated get covered.

Mr. Burrow asks if the amendment that Mr. Maultra is putting forth does include striking the phrase “out-of-pocket expenses” or if it is being left in.

Mr. Maultra responds that out-of-pocket expenses is included but not limited to consultant and attorney fees and resources utilized by the City, giving some examples as to what those costs might be, but saying that it is not limited to those either. The City’s costs internally are figured and then the out of pocket expenses are covered all inclusive of the way this is written. This is strictly the Board’s desire to have this cost driven.

Mr. Maultra’s recommendation is to take what counsel has provided for the Board and going down to the second line on his sheet that was handed out, after applicant, this language will be included right after it says, “how’s this.” Begin after applicant and end after where counsel has attorney fees.

Mr. Winston asks if in this scenario, does Mr. Maultra envision informing the applicant of what they can project those expenses would be just to keep down any pretentious nature.

Mr. Winston asks if there is anything in this document to protect the applicant from sticker shock at the end of the process.

Mr. Maultra responds that this is size driven. The size very much determines the expense.

Chairman Blum suggests that because it is size driven, any estimate is just that. The thing to do would be to put in some language that would have the Agency report to the Board and to the applicant on a monthly basis what the expenses for that month are. If there is going to be sticker shock, it will be a gradual shock.

Mr. Lynch asks how this process can move forward in terms of amending the code.

Mr. Bryant responds that the Board, by a motion will authorize counsel to put this in final form and Mr. Maultra will enlist council sponsors. It will be filed at the next submission deadline for City-County Council consideration, which is the first Friday in December.

Mr. Lynch stated that when leading into the discussion, it sounds as if there is redundancy in the code, in terms of how to do this billing.

Mr. Bryant responded that there is redundancy and what he was hoping to do by stating in 851-262 with that first little section and deleting the phrase “out-of-pocket” was basically getting at the same result that Mr. Maultra’s language gets to without all that language printed twice, although there is no harm in saying it twice.

Mr. Lynch asks what is the core of section 237.

Mr. Bryant responds that 237 states the Grantee shall pay the City a sum of money sufficient to reimbursing for all of its publication and other expenses including, but not limited to consultants and legal expenses incurred in connection with the granting of the franchise pursuant to the terms of this division.

Chairman Blum entertains a motion to instruct counsel to prepare a draft for the full City-County Council that includes what the Board was presented, with the Maultra amendment, plus the small amendment to address monthly reporting to the Board and to the applicant.

Mr. Lynch moves to instruct counsel to revise the draft amendment to include language either identical to or very close the language offered by Mr. Maultra and to include a text or a line addressing monthly reporting of accrued cost during the franchising process to go to the City-County Council. Mr. Burrow seconds the motion. The motion is voted on 4-0.

Chairman Blum goes back to the New Business portion of the agenda. The Service Contract Extensions for the Engineers and Captivision are not ready yet so they will be addressed in December. That leaves two NATOA related issues.

Mr. Maultra informs the Board that he has received the membership renewal fees for $750.00. These fees are usually done by size of city; Indianapolis is on the high side in terms of membership dues.

NATOA routinely asks cities to consider legislative assessment to handle a number of legislative and regulatory issues that are numerated in the handout that was included in the Board Packets. The Agency has probably taken this before the Cable Board historically 5 or 6 times over the years. Usually anywhere between 3-5 thousand dollars is what the Board has approved. The Agency has the money in character 3 to do this and they are asking for $1,000. Mr. Maultra recommends that the Board comply with NATOA’s request for $1,000 assessment when the Cable Agency pays the City of Indianapolis’ dues for next year’s membership.

Mr. Winston asks what funding source this will come out of.

Mr. Maultra responds that it comes out of character 3, attorney’s consultants or similar to that.

Mr. Winston moves to approve the $1,000 assessment to come out of character 3. Mr. Lynch seconds the motion. The motion is voted on 3-0.

Mr. Maultra stated there is a notice of proposed rulemaking before the FCC that the RBOC’s, also known as the Regional Bill Operating Companies, have petitioned the FCC to address what the RBOC’s feel are barriers to entry by cities in terms of providing competitive franchise agreements to those seeking competitive entry. Verizon and SBC are the main pushers for this NPRM. Mr. Maultra emailed some links to the Board with respect to a copy of the Noticed for Proposed Rulemaking, also known as NPRM, plus some of the comments by the various commissioners with respect to this.

Looking at the Communication Act of 1934, there is language stating the franchising authority may not unreasonably refuse to award an additional competitive franchise. The FCC says that it has been alleged that there are some areas of the current operation of the local franchising process that serves as a barrier to entry. The NPRM goes on to say that accordingly this notice is designed to solicit comment on implementation directive that LFA has not unreasonably refused to award competitive franchises. It questions whether the franchising process unreasonably impedes the achievement of the interrelated federal goals that enhance cable competition and accelerated broadband deployment, and if so how the commission should act to address that problem.

Mr. Maultra states that from NATOA’s prospective, the FCC is asking for specific examples from the RBOC’s as to the municipalities that are engaging as a barrier to entry and what some of that specific nature would be in terms of keeping them from getting a franchise agreement. The two main arguments that RBOC’s has is there are too many city’s to deal with and it takes too long to get a franchise agreement.

Mr. Maultra spoke with NATOA’s Board of Directors at the conference in DC about strategy in terms of heading off the RBOC’s arguments. There are several different things to consider in looking at federal legislation in the form of probably 4 different bills, State Legislation that took place in Texas and Indiana is probably around the corner, now there is this notice for proposed rulemaking at the FCC. Municipalities are being hit on all fronts and it is quite an undertaking to address all these different things.

The main two arguments by the RBOC’s is length in which to engage in a franchise process and dealing with the number of cities in which it takes to do this.

Mr. Maultra proposed and argued with NATOA the majority of communities don’t engage in active franchising. They don’t have the resources to implement the FCC customer service standards, to mediate cable complaints, or to enforce franchise agreements. Some of those communities might be better off with a boiler plate franchise agreement, probably similar to one they already have or could be better if one can be nationalized to meet a lot of concerns and address a few committee benefits. Complaint mediation could be bumped over to the state or the federal level for those communities. Those communities that want to opt in and who have the resources to take care of their constituents in terms of complaint mediation and enforcing FCC standards should be afforded the opportunity to do so. That takes away the numbers argument from the telephone companies in terms of some of the legislation they are pushing.

In terms of the length and time it takes to get a franchise agreement, Mr. Maultra does not think there is going to be that much difference between what the incumbents have signed on to and granting a franchise to a company the size of an SBC. With their size, they should be entering into a situation that is similar to the incumbents that also creates a level playing field. Rather than having the process take 2 or 3 years, the tweaks from the city might be, instead of having the same provision for public service drops, because you don’t need 2 public service drops for cable, data, or for the same school or local government, that dollar amount can be shifted somewhere else where the community has a need. That really shouldn’t take that much time to do. Rather than looking at a 3-year process, it could actually be a much shorter process, taking only months to perform.

If some of the organizations like NATOA, U.S. Conference for Mayors, NACO, and NLC can get on board with that and grease the skids for competition but also address the arguments by the telephone companies, this NPRM is something to be looked at collectively with those that are on the municipal side of the ledger.

Mr. Maultra would like to have the Board’s approval for the Agency and counsel to co-write something by the deadline without getting too locked up in having a lot of input in terms of going through different bodies, getting it approved, and showing different factions. Mr. Maultra thinks if doing something consistent with NACO, NLC, U.S. Conference for Mayors, and NATOA, the Board would embrace it as well. A response is going to be time consuming but it has to be done quickly.

Chairman Blum asks when is the deadline and Mr. Maultra responds that it is 60 days after it is published with the National Public Registry. A colleague informed him that will probably be in about another month. It will probably be a maximum of 90 days to get this done.

Mr. Bryant advises that there is at least 60 days to respond and suggests taking this matter up at the next meeting after the Board has had the opportunity to read and digest the information.

Chairman Blum responds that will also give counsel time to prepare a draft and it will give the Board time to advise him on what they think it should say.

Mr. Maultra adds that there is no cost for this to be done; versus the cost he solicited from attorneys to produce this response for the City, that cost being 5-6 thousand dollars. That particular gentleman was representing a number of municipalities and Mr. Maultra had a fear of the response looking homogenized coming from the same attorney on the behalf of many cities.

There is going to be various governing organizations that are going to file their own comments. As many municipalities that can file comments as possible, will give a personalized, real world look at what is happening to that particular city, what’s important in the franchising process, and perhaps they will be able to overcome some of the barriers in meeting the arguments that the RBOC’s have set forth.

Mr. Lynch stated that it is his understanding that the actual local franchise fees themselves is not on the table with any of this legislation.

Mr. Maultra responds that it goes back and forth. It depends what piece of legislation is being looked at. Senator Ensign from Nevada has gutted access channels, PEG support, and franchise fees. There is something called the Barton’s Bits Bill that looked like it was something workable and a lot of time was spent on that in DC. Then there was Son of Bits that is currently being contemplated for another response but it’s much harsher to municipalities than the original legislation. It had some discussion on the Senate floor. There were a number of democrats that were extremely upset at some of the revisions and that consumers and municipalities were being left out of it.

Mr. Winston asks if there are any regional meetings on NATOA and if there are any nearby.

Mr. Maultra responded that there are meetings but since he is no longer on their Board and does not attend their meetings regularly due to budget cuts affecting travel, he is unsure if there is any nearby.

Mr. Winston asks what the dollar amount of the impact nationwide will be if this legislation is passed and Mr. Maultra responds that it will be multiple billions of dollars impact on municipalities.

Chairman Blum stated the Board will review the progress over the course of the month and take this issue up at the next meeting.

The next item on the agenda is the ETC Report. Standing in for Mr. Harris is Ms. Tamika Williams.

Franklin Township has begun production on a new on-going series called “Franklin Township Community Ties.” The 30-minute show will be produced once a month. It will include interviews, features, and upcoming special event announcements for the nine K-12 public schools in Franklin Township. Each program will endeavor to include an interview with central office staff and at least one building principal. From time to time, a community topic may be featured, such as the Franklin Township Historical Society. The program is meant to provide ties between the community and the school corporation. The show will be seen on ETC 1 starting in December.

The Indianapolis Public Schools has produced a new show called “Student Voice: The Power to Make a Difference.” The show profiles a student led research project as students from all IPS high schools prepare for the change to small schools. It includes interviews with students, teachers, and other involved as they discuss their thoughts on small schools and how effective they believe it will be on IPS. The show will be seen on ETC 1 starting in December.

IUPUI student Claire Morrison has joined ETC as a production intern. She will focus on producing television shows for the ETC channels. She will produce shows of her own creation as well as working with others on their show ideas.

Next is the Public Comment portion of the agenda.

Ms. Jean Coughlin from Public Access of Indianapolis thanks the Board for providing the opportunity for the public to see what the NATOA issue is about and to offer input and give support in making something good for the City.

Chairman Blum announces the next Board meeting on December 19th at 2:30 in room 260 and adjourns this 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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