Minutes of January 15, 2009, telecom-board meeting

Telecommunications Board Meeting Minutes
January 15, 2009
Room 219, 113 West Mountain
5:30 p.m.

Board members present were Sales, Cusanelli, Graves, Shepherd, Hilton and Mayes. Also in attendance: Community Access Television (CAT) Manager Sky Blaylock.

Election Of A New Chair
Vice Chairman Sales opened the meeting and asked for nominations for chair.

Cusanelli nominated Aubrey Shepherd.

Hilton made the second.

The vote was unanamous in favor of the motion.

Chairman Shepherd asked that board member Cusanelli act as parliamentarian.

Hilton suggested that the chair ask for additional comments each time before moving onto other agenda items. It was hoped by Hilton that this would avoid interruptions.

Shepherd welcomed new board member Andrew Mayes.

Approval of November 20, 2008 Minutes

Hilton noted an error on page two; the word “compliant” should be “complaint”

Graves moved to approve the minutes as amended.

The second was made by Cusanelli and the motion passed.

City 16 Television Report
Shepherd read the written report submitted by City 16 TV Station Manager and Public, Education and Government (PEG) Center Office Coordinator Ric delaHoussaye.

Hilton asked if the noted change to dimmable fluorescent lights was through out the building.

Blaylock said it was just in the control room and the editing suites but there are plans to change out the studio lights in the future.

Cusanelli moved to accept the report.

Graves seconded the motion.

The motion passed.

CAT Report
Blaylock distributed flyers promoting the community media summit in March, the planning of which is on-going. She then gave a demonstration of CAT channel 18 being web streamed and said it could be found on the web at catfayetteville.org. She complimented University of Arkansas work study student Flint Woods on his work to bring this to fruition. In addition, she thanked the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation and the City of Fayetteville for the funding they have provided CAT.

Shepherd asked if any of the programming would be archived for on-demand playback.
Blaylock said not currently but that is a possibility. Other features of the new site are an online dub request form and registration forms for workshops.

As a side note, Shepherd warned that the one year time limit on city meetings on granicus is about to expire for January 2008.

Compliments
Shepherd read a complimentary email to City 16 from former City Alderman Nancy Allen. A second compliment from United Way was read thanking the Cable Administration staff for their financial support in the City’s fund drive.

Complaints
Three resolved complaints concerning Cox were read.

One complaint regarding AT&T U-verse that has yet to be addressed was read.

Cusanelli explained that AT&T is working on getting its U-verse service to all of Fayetteville and asked that would-be subscribers be patient with the process. He added that the channel lineup can be found at www.att.com. He noted that the religious channels are on the lowest subscription tier and soon the PEG channels will be available. He added that for those subscribers on the fringe area, the PEG channels will be available on Dish Network.

Discussion Of The Forum And Brainstorming Session
This is in regards to the Jim Bemis complaint about an alderman’s request for forums that were denied by the previous city administration.

Hilton suggested a planning session to move forward on this. A committee consisting of Bemis, Hilton, Shepherd and Graves was self selected to do this and noon Monday, January 26 at the PEG Center was chosen.

Shepherd said Hilton will coordinate this with an agenda. It is an open meeting for the public and will be taped by City 16. He added that the City 16 policy inconsistencies that need to be remedied will be part of the discussion in both the forum and the brainstorming session.

Citizen Jim Bemis then addressed the board, welcomed Mayes and complimented CAT on the web streaming of its programs.
Concerning his previously filed complaint he said the purpose was “to have a complete complaint process.” He said he sees the forum and brainstorming session as a discussion of the roles, responsibilities and jurisdiction of the TCB, the city council and the city administration concerning the legal obligations and administrative responsibilities for the development and interpretation of the Fayetteville Government Channel policies and procedures. This would establish who is in charge Bemis said. In addition, he mentioned the April 2008 Forum on Forums and the unaddressed agenda items that still need to be thought out.

Graves said the issues Bemis raised were to be discussed in the forum but not in the January 26 planning meeting.

Hilton asked for forum participants from the board.

Cusanelli and Shepherd said they would participate.

Mayes said he might.

Old Business
Shepherd read the suggested changes to the City 16 message board metric.

Hilton said that since this is a performance measure it should be voted on and moved to accept the change.

The second was unidentified.

The motion passed.

New Business
Hilton suggested and moved to have LIVE phone-in and email participation in future TCB meetings to encourage public participation.

The second was made by Graves

The motion passed.

Bemis asked that his November 17 request/complaint concerning the policy and procedures subcommittee be taken up by the board at their next meeting.
He claimed this is a new, separate complaint as he did not meet the time requirements on a former complaint.

Graves sought a summary statement in the November 17 Bemis document and settled on the complaint being about how the board arrived at the new policy.

Bemis agreed with her.

Adjournment
Sales moved that the meeting adjourn.

Graves made the second.

The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:50 p.m.