March 19, 2007

MEMBERS PRESENT

Peter Blum, Chairman
Kent Burrow, Member
Lara Beck, Member
Loren Heger

OTHERS PRESENT

Chairman Blum calls the March meeting of the Marion County Cable Franchise Board to order and recognizes the Board’s newest member, Loren Heger.

 The first order of business is the Approval of the Minutes.  Ms. Beck moves to approve the December, January, and February minutes.  Mr. Burrow seconds the motion.  The motion is voted on unanimously.

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

 To expedite the outstanding audits with Bright House , the Agency will be asking the Board to approve travel for the City’s auditor to examine data at the operator’s premises.  The Cable Agency also intends to have the same travel cover other audit years, as well.  That will be heard under New Business.

 Action Audits reviewed the rate forms 1240 and 1205 for the limited basic tier for Bright House ’s proposed maximum permitted rates for their subscribers in 2007 and that will be heard under Old Business.

 IFD and the Cable Agency met at Comcast recently to move forward on the IFD INET being connected to include Washington Township .  Mr. Maultra would characterize the meeting with their top management to be quite positive and anticipate interconnection near future by Comcast to Bright House for the INET and subsequent connections in Washington Township .  This will be a scaleable INET so as to add on additional townships as the County consolidation continues.

 AT&T has submitted their interconnection plan to the City for carriage of PEG access.  The Agency has sent a briefing to counsel and the Cable Board subsequent to that.  Mr. Maultra hopes to discuss this matter further after Counsel has had a chance to digest it.

 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 February, the Cable Agency received a total of 20 complaints for Bright House .  The high areas of complaints were primarily in billing procedures and programming.  For Comcast , the Agency received 11 complaints since the Agencies contact information has been taken off of Comcast ’s billing statement.  The high areas of complaints for Comcast were derived from programming and rates.

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

 Chairman Blum asked Mr. Maultra if the Cable Agency is still forwarding Complaints and Mr. Maultra responded that the Agency is still taking complaints and sending them on to Comcast for resolution.

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

 Mr. Montgomery will go over the February, 2007 programming and Production Report that was included in the Board packets.  February was a relatively shorter month with a holiday in the middle of the month.  Channel 16 still covered 36 different events for live and tape delayed meeting coverage totaling 48 hours and 53 minutes.  Channel 16 is now covering the monthly meetings for the Marion County Commissioner’s Office.

 There were 11 hours and 45 minutes of specials and events production for the month of February and 1 hour and 19 minutes of in-kind production for City-County and Government Agencies.  The total for new production in all categories was 59 hours and 57 minutes.  The in-kind services included a CLE for the Public Defender’s Office, Super-70, and a message from Chief Greeson from the Indianapolis Fire Department. 

 Mr. Montgomery would like to mention that the Channel 16 and the Government TV2 channel are now being streamed live on the Internet.  There are links on the City of Indianapolis pages that can get to those channels and they are available 24/7.

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

 The next item on the agenda is the Cable Operators Management Reports by Bright House Networks. 

 Al Aldridge, Director of Public Affairs and Buz Nesbit, Division President of Bright House Networks will present their operator’s management report that was distributed to the Board. 

  Bright House began the month with 58,628 customers and ended the month with 59,367, giving a system total of 739 customers gained for the month of February.

 On the incoming call report, Bright House handled 52,848 calls out of 53,182 calls received.  48,625 calls were answered in 30 seconds or less, which gave a call answer rate of 92.0% and a busy rate of 0.401%, as represented by them.

 On the Complaint Summaries Report, there were 20 complaints from 16 customers. 

 100% of service interruption calls were addressed within 24 hours.  There were no planned outages, but there were 25 unplanned outages that affected 3,222 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 were 0.09 underground constructions in Blackthorne Buildings and Windridge during the month of February.

The Division officially launched their partnership with IPS School #51.  They have recruited several volunteers and are set to start sending volunteers on March 7th.

The Division was a float sponsor of the AYS Mardi Gras Mambo Parade during the month.  AYS is an after school youth program.  The AYS organizes the parade to promote cultural diversity.  The parade's theme this year is "Brazilliant," celebrating the culture of Central and South America .  Following the parade there will be a community fair at the Athenaeum YMCA.  This was the first year that the Division has participated in the parade.

Members of the Division met with IPD officials to develop a plan to offer a community Neighborhood Watch project in Indianapolis called, Operation Bright Eyes.  This project asks members of their field technician group to be alert while working within the various Indianapolis neighborhoods.

The Division was a corporate sponsor of the Hearts for Hemophilia, a fundraiser at the Scottish Rite Cathedral during the month.  Al Aldridge continues his membership on the Executive Board of Directors as the Secretary.  Al has been a member of the Board for 13 years.

Members of the Division continue to volunteer with the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, Gideon's Gate, the Indiana Cable Telecommunications Association, the YMCA, the 100 Black Men, LEAD, Inc., the Indianapolis Chapter, the Coalition of 100 Black Women, the Hemophilia Foundation, and IPS School 51.

The next item in the agenda is the ETC Monthly Report submitted by Mr. Chuck Fearnow.

ETC Programming includes a six part series called "Ethics in America II."  That program explores gripping ethical dilemmas using the time-honored Socratic Dialogue format.  The program can be used with a discussion guide to help teachers engage their students in the process of ethical reasoning and acquaint them with its traditions through historical essays and other writings.

ETC has been contacted by John Dalton from Whitewater Community Television in Wayne County about ETC programming that can be shared with his channel.  ETC members interested will make direct contact to discuss.

The next item on the agenda is the 2006 Franchise Fee Audits for Comcast and Bright House and the Travel Expenses for the Auditor under New Business.

Mr. Maultra stated that after internal discussions on the outstanding issues with the Bright House audits, the Cable Agency is recommending that the Cable Board approve travel for the City’s auditor from Florida to Indianapolis to conduct in-person audits at Bright House ’s offices.

The travel expenses requested would not exceed $2,500.  The audits examined would be for the unresolved years of 2002-2003, and years 2004-2005, the latter not having been embarked upon yet.

Additionally, the Cable Agency requests $14,300 for the auditor to examine the 2006 revenues for both Comcast and Bright House .  This is the same discounted rate the City had for 2005 for conducting multiple audits.

While these travel expenses are unanticipated budget matters by the City, the Agency will have to make do in hopes of bringing some closure to the 2002-2003 franchise fee audits with Bright House .

With that, the auditor has expressed he is available to come to Indianapolis in the latter part of April. The Agency will coordinate schedules with Bright House staff and Mr. Burrow, who will be accompanying the auditor to do on-site reviews of their books for all of the aforementioned years.

Mr. Burrow moves to approve travel expenses for Lewis and Associates.  Ms. Beck seconds the motion.  The motion is carried unanimously.

Mr. Burrow moves to approve the audit fees for Bright House .  Ms. Beck seconds the motion.  The motion is carried unanimously.

The next item is under Old Business is the 2007 Bright House Rate Order.

The Cable Franchise Board and the City of Indianapolis is certified to regulate rates for limited basic rate tier as well as associated equipment and those matters relating to customers receiving that in user service, such as truck rolls. 

The Agency had Action Audits perform a rate audit for Bright House for their proposed rates for 2007 and that is reconciled against what their selected rate is to the FCC’s maximum permitted rate, also known as NPR.

The consultant has recommended approval of the 1240 and 1205 FCC rate form filings and that the Bright House selected rate of $12.55 for the regulated cable services does not exceed the maximum permitted rate.

Mr. Nesbit announced that he has the FCC’s Effective Competition Order from the federal government.  It was approved on March 2, 2007.  He said he thought the City had a copy of the Order.  Mr. Maultra did not, nor did the Board, receive a copy.

Chairman Blum stated this matter will be tabled until the next meeting.

There were no public speakers.

Chairman Blum announces the next Board meeting on Monday, April 16^th, 2007 at 5:30 PM in room 118 and adjourns this meeting.