September 2006 CFB Minutes

September 18, 2006

MEMBERS PRESENT

Peter Blum, Chairman
Kent Burrow, Member

OTHERS PRESENT

Chairman Blum calls the September meeting of the Marion County Cable Franchise Board to order. He announces that Ms. Herriman is in the process of resigning from the Cable Franchise Board and that now leaves only two members out of five. There is no quorum to transact business. Until the Mayor’s Office and the Council Office appoints new members, the Board will continue to meet to hear the reports from the Agency, the cable operators, and ETC. Anything that requires a vote will have to be delayed until there is a quorum.

The first item on the agenda is the Approval of the August Minutes. That will be put aside and the Cable Agency Report submitted by Mr. Rick Maultra, Director of the Cable Communications Agency will be next.

The Agency has been working on the fire department request for INET interconnection to the Washington Township locations and they are in discussions with Comcast about it. With respect to IPD's interest for interconnection to the 10th & Post Police Academy, the police department has been unresponsive to requests from Comcast for cooperation and unresponsive to our office on follow up.

Bart Brown has the data he requested and he should be wrapping up his review of the Bright House audit for years 2002-2003 with respect to franchise fees. Scott Lewis is presently working on the 2005 franchise fee audits as recently approved by the Board.

The Cable Agency presented its budget for 2007 to the Finance & Administrative Committee of the City-County Council. They used it as an opportunity to brief the committee on not only that they were not requesting in additional funding but to brief them on the state legislation and pending national legislation as it pertains to cable franchising.

Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Maultra attended NATOA where they learned considerable on such matters as web streaming (for which they have recently met with a potential vendor on 9/14) on right-of-way management and compensation and updates on the national franchises legislation (where they have repeatedly briefed and shared pertinent information on the municipal side of the ledger).

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 August, the Agency received a total of 11 complaints for Bright House. The high areas of complaints were in billing procedures and service interruptions. For Comcast, the Agency received 104 complaints. The majority being in that of billing, which is traditional for both cable companies. Following that was in the area of telephone service, as people were trying to get through to their cable operator, service interruptions, and customer service.

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

Chairman Blum asks why the complaint totals don’t match between the Agency and what Comcast reported.

Ms. Tirotta responded that Comcast contacted her after she sent the monthly complaint log to them. She was informed that they did not show record of receiving two of the complaints and asked if she would resubmit them under September’s numbers. Ms. Tirotta explained that she had already sent the August report in the Board packets.

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

Channel 16 covered 93 hours and 44 minutes of live and tape delayed meeting coverage during the month of August. There were 12 hours and 45 minutes of Specials and Events Production.

For In-Kind production, Channel 16 did a Continuing Legal Education program for the Public Defenders Office, and Public Service Announcements for the Marion County Health Department and Central Indiana Commuter Services.

For series programs, Channel 16 did programs for "Off the Bench" Traffic Court and "Wake Up Indianapolis" New Leadership at local NAACP. The total for the month of August in all production categories was 107 hours and 31 minutes.

The total for In-Kind services if Channel 16 would have charged for it was $4,310.

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

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

Buz Nesbit, Division President for Bright House Networks will present their operator’s management report that was included in the Board Packet.

Bright House began the month with 60,723 customers and ended the month with 59,793, giving a system total of 930 customers loss for the month of August.

On the incoming call report, Bright House handled 66,793 calls out of 67,187 calls received. 61,022 calls were answered in 30 seconds or less, which gave a call answer rate of 91.4% and a busy rate of 0.001%, as represented by them.

On the Complaint Summaries Report, there were 11 complaints from 11 customers.

100% of service interruption calls were addressed within 24 hours. There were no planned outages, but there were 20 unplanned outages that affected 9,220 customers. The system reliability for the month was 99.98%, 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 0.19 underground and 0.06 aerial constructions during the month of August.

Bright House was one of the media sponsors for the Wheels for Winning, a bike-a-thon held at the famed Indianapolis 500. Members of the community get pledges to ride their bikes in the event on the track that raises funds for Hemophilia. This fundraiser is a part of the Annual Meeting of Hemophilia of Indiana. Over 250 Indiana families take part in this Annual Meeting and race festivities.

Bright House Networks sponsored an August visit of the C-SPAN School Bus. The bus stopped at School 91 (Rousseau McClellen). The bus hosted several teachers and ran various students through the bus in the 4-hour visit. Two members of the State Legislature, Rep. Greg Porter and Rep. David Orentlicher made a visit to the bus during the visit. This was the 2nd visit of the bus to Indy in the last 60-days.

The Division sponsored a Community Back to School event, "The Back to School Blast." The event provided over 2,000 backpacks to students in the Martindale Brightwood area. Brightwood is the community where the BHN Division's offices are located.

Members continue to volunteer with the Indianapolis Public Schools Education Foundation, ICTA, the YMCA, the Walker Center, the 100 Black Men Indianapolis Chapter, and the Indiana Hemophilia Foundation.

The continued partnership with WDNI provided the required hours of local programming as mandated by the City's franchise agreement.

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

The next item on the agenda is the Comcast Monthly Report submitted by Mike Delph, Regional Director of Government Affairs.

Comcast represented that the number of customers requesting total basic service decreased by 308.

89.70% calls were answered in 30 seconds or less with a busy rate of 1.70%.

System Reliability for the month was 99.24%

98.01% of total service calls were addressed by the next business day, or at the direction of the customer. 99.85% 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 101 complaints sent to the Cable Agency.

Comcast completed construction in 2 new subdivisions and 1 apartment complex.

Comcast aired over 200 hours of local community interest programming during the month of August.

Comcast sponsored the Sea Lion Splash exhibit at the Indiana State Fair, August 9 – 20. This tour consisted of family fun activities and an inside look into these fascinating animals. As part of their sponsorship, a group of approximately twenty (20) matches from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana were treated to a free performance on August 19.

Comcast sponsored two ABBA – The Tribute Symphony on the Prairie concerts at Conner Prairie, August 11 and 12. A Comcast employee staffed a booth, which provided giveaways for the trivia contest as well as a Karaoke contest for concertgoers.

Comcast, along with Discovery Networks, sponsored "Race to Replace," a fundraising event for Indiana University Cancer Center and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, August 12. The event drew 365 cyclists from 33 states along with a special appearance by Lance Armstrong.

Several Comcast employees participated in the Loop for Life ride around I-465, August 19. This annual motorcycle rally raises money for local charities and organizations that provide support and research for diseases that have impacted friends, family and others associated with Loop for Life and the Marion County Sheriff’s Department PAL Club.

Comcast sponsored the 8th Annual Turn Up the Volume – Blast Ovarian Cancer walk, August 26 at Victory Field. Funds raised through the walk will help educational efforts toward development of a much-needed early diagnostic test for ovarian cancer.

The Comcast Foundation awarded Girls, Inc. a $20,000 grant to support their Latina Initiative: Diversity through Learning. The program promotes tolerance, acceptance, and understanding of cultural diversity and involves activities in economic literacy, math, science, and technology. This funding from The Comcast Foundation will provide programming to more Latinas and other ethnically diverse girls through peer education and mentoring.

Comcast aired public service announcements for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, "Various Symphony on the Prairie" valued at $92,040, Indiana University Hospitals "Race 2 Replace," $175,565, and Indiana Sports Corp., "Corporate Challenge," $89,375, and others.

Appearing on Newsmakers this month was Colleen Stacey from Ovar’ Coming Together, Harvey Mover from Loop for Life, Tim Northcutt of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Courtney Crocker of Junior Achievement, Cmdr. Greg Maguire of the US Navy, and others.

That concludes Mr. Delph’s formal report and he will answer questions from the Board.

Chairman Blum asks Mr. Delph about the incoming calls report. He asks Mr. Delph if he can offer something to the Board in writing regarding why they are not meeting the 90% and what solid plan is to rectifying this situation.

The next item on the agenda is the ETC Monthly Report presented by Mr. Earl Harris.

The University of Indianapolis will be producing two new on-going productions. The first "UIndy News" will focus on campus news and news of interest to college students. "Sports Beat" will focus on University of Indianapolis sports. Both will begin being seen on ETC 2 in October.

The Indianapolis Public Schools has produced begun production on a series titled "Parents Empowered". It will include demonstrations of teaching methods parents can use at home with everyday items. The first show will focus on "Preparing for ISTEP". The next two shows will focus on reading and math. The reading and math shows will also be produced in Spanish. The show can been seen on ETC 1 and 2.

IPS is also producing the third edition of its "Dialogue With…" series. This program will focus on drop-outs. Teens discuss events that led them to their decision to drop out of school, the impact this has had on their lives, and their plans to complete their education. The show will begin being seen on ETC 1 in October.

IPS has also produced "This is IPS Wellness". The goal of the program is to increase awareness about the need to physical activity and wellness. It discusses the role of exercise with improved grades. Senator Lugar introduces the program. The show will begin being seen on ETC 1 in October.

IUPUI will begin producing a weekly newscast that will also include campus event listings and announcements called "JagTV". The 5-10 minute segments will begin being seen on both ETC channels in October.

Mr. Jim Smashey spoke under Public Comment.

Chairman Blum announces the next Board meeting on Monday, October 16th, 2006 at 2:30 PM in room 260 and adjourns this meeting.

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