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TII~URSDAY, JULY 20, 2006
The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.zn. by Dennis Stroil~, ChaiT-l7erson.
ROLL CALL: M~nibers Present:
~Zenlbers Absent ~ Excused
Council Representative:
City Represe.TZtative:
Con2cast 1~ epresentative
Legal Coua.~sel:
r"3.I Y~~IV Y~XL LBO' ~'i11tl tJ~['1 ~.7
Dennis Stroik, I~en .EIei~I~e, Ruebelz IZuen, and. Dan Stvve
Dave Ma1~loney, Bob But~altz and Brad Peterson.
Bruce i~Tawroclci
Linda Magee
I~atl~i Do~u~elly-Cohen
Steve Cruzzetta
~lotorz by Kef~t Menke, seco»~c~' by Z3enni 5~ Str°c~i1~, to a~~~r°ove the Ta7i~7z~tes fi~r~~~~ the 1~7eeiir~g of 14p~°il ?D, X006. 1411
rr~~e,c.
C31~ I7~ BTJSIN~~
f'~. Channel Checlc
Lvcly~tlung checked out fuze, except tl~e variation in. volume levels that has been 1~oted in the bast.
B. Coi-~•espoi~dence Log a.nd Follow Up on Complaints
The complail~t received fion~ 1Vf~-. Jerry Joluisol3 at 129b 52~~ Avenue h]F l2as been resolved. The cable
he was concerned about vas a new t:~ber line that has been co~~~ected to az~ existing wire. He was
satisFed the work was done quickly.
C. Other Old Business
No other old bus~il2ess.
~TE~~ I;IJS~I~l~~S
A. Franchise I'ee for l st Quarter 2006
We received the l st Quarter fi~a7lcluse fee payment and a copy was enclosed in tllc agenda paclLets.
B. Notice of Progralmning Charges
Begimring .Tune 1, 2006 Comcast is offering the addition of KSTP-DTNWS (a news cl7amlel~ to
customers with Di ~ita1 converters. Also, Current TV will be moving from Digital Lxtra to Digital
Classic, making it available to more customers.
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C. ~tlier Ne~v Business
Dail SWee re-pone Ply ~ ~ n7-----:--._ o_ 7,~„ ;,-,,. (`n~n~~~icetnt~ iT1
d 12e 11ad been a roaclled !~ ~ a member of the r~iaiuul,~ ~ ~,~~~~~~; ..~~~u~~..,~.~_~ ~_
regards to an antetu~a being added at tlae Nigh School by T 1\~~obile, and whether the
Telecommtz~~cations Coi-~~naission should also review such requests. liter a brief diseussian
regarding tl~ ,Linda stated that the Tower Siting Ordil~ance adopfied by the City CoLmcil puts the
review of these .requests into the hands of the Plaluxin ; P.; Zoning Commission as they require a
Conditional Use Permit and must meet criteria set by am- Zoning Qrdinance.
® Dan Swee reported no one ever got back to 1~im regarding the difficulty of s~vitclung back arzd forth
to Uluversal Service. I~athi stated tl~e Tecl~n~ical Service Mgl. didn't tlul~lc it was a problem. and
hasn't received any complaints on it, so didn't feel a need to respond.
Derulis reported he lead called customer service last weep as the TV Land elraru~el was scrambled.
He said it tools hi~z~ 17 minutes to get tluougli to someone, who stated that was an average tuna for
that eveni_ug. Dennis questioned flow the customer sef-vice reports could i~~dicate much faster
response scats. I~athi explained it is an average of the tvl.~ale month taking into accou~~t all 24 hours
each. day. So the response time is vezy quick for some hours and days, and on days with problems, it
can be ~~uch Ionger.
~ Denl~is reported that while watcl~ii2g I-Ieadli~ze News, the Con~cast conullercial that came on was
much louder than the rest. Kathy said that is helpful as they can check that situation because of the
izifarz~lation Dem~is pi°ovide~d. She stated that audio range levels are sti11 iii place, but it sail vary and
still be within the range.
A. Report of Conulussioners
Education-Nothing to report
Library-Notl~zg to report
1 ublic-Nothing to repay
Govenunent-i43othing to report
B. Report of Comcast-
~ l~athi answered questions regarding cite scats provided zu the reports foi° r-lpril-JLme, a~~~d she
briefly reviewed the high paints of the moz~ithly newsletters. Slae pointed out the success of the
Emma Bowen h~~te~i~i Program which is a ~ year program that gives minority students an
oppoi-t<lnity to work in several areas of the business operations of the cable >Iidustsy. It is a paid
position with ful3diilg towards their pursuit of higher education. Currently, 7emufer Peterson
from Blaine is working in one of these positions.
~ Kathy stated that she and Linda have had preliminary discussions about renewing the franchise.
l~atl~i will be presenting a draft proposal witl~i the next month. Sl1e stated the delay has been
Aie to pending legislation being considered at the p'ederal level Sv1ce neither the House or
Senate bills have been passed yet, she wi11 be incozporatialg language info the proposal to protect
both sides, if in fact the laws change.
TELI/,CC~M14/ICJ~~IC`A'I'IG~IS CC}1~11~!CISSION ~~LIEEZ Ii~Cr
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PAGE 3
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Steve Guzzetta, Legal C'aunsel, reviewed the t~vo pending Federal hills beinff con idered.
The House .Bill-Conniiunicatians Opportunity, Proznoti.on, and Enl~anee~nent Act (COPE
Bill) was passed and sent to the Senate for consideration. It ~vauld put the FCC i~ charge
of granting national franchises alzd there would be no build out requirements. Local
control over public right of ways would be signilica~ntly in2pacted. Use of Right of Ways
would be u~~der the FCC's autl~arity. Franchises could ably be tenzzilated under very
limited circtma Lances. There would be linitations sat oil the ~% fianchise fens collected,
it would limit auditing provisions, and customer service ~vauld be dealt with through tl~e
FCC. PEG Access support would be united to 1°'o and additional access channels could
only be requested once every 10 years. This bill tapes away ~~zany rights acid t17e authority
to franchise tionl individual c2.ties.
T'l~e Senate Bi11 File~26~6-Communications, Cansun~er's Choice and Broadband
Deployment Act of 2006-- passed aut of the Senate with changes. The amendments are
still being worl~ed on so a final version. is not yet clear. They have changed the bill to the
Advanced Telecoizuuiuucatians and Refann Act #5252 (same as the COPE Bill). If the
revision goes to the Conference Conul~ittee it will expedite its adoption. As of yet, they
do not have the 60 votes necessaay to get it passed. Evan though. tlis hill is better it still
puts Iiz~its on the rights of cities.
The Senate version leaves the franclisi~.g at the 1oea1 level. The FCC would create a
form that is filled out so eve3ything throughout the i~dust~y is standardized. It would be
good fora 15 year period and the renewal process would stay the sonic. It would a11ow
fora 5% franchise fee. The definitron of Gross Revenue is better i1 the Senate version
than the Flouse Bill. It gra~~ts the cities more authority over the lase of their Right of Ways
and authority over Customer Service Standards. A 1 % :PEG F'ee far Access Chazu~els is
similar to the House bill. Steve stated. that bath hills state that new providers cazmot Le
required to provide I-Net. And neither bill has build out requirements. The most
significant debate concerned "net neutrality". The proposed net neutrality amendnze.nts
failed, so this bill does not bar telecommunications fn7~is and cable operators from
charau~g fees to preferred businesses far speedier hztel7zet delivery. Proponents to this,
could kill the bill.
Although, it appears a Federal BiII won't have enough time to get passed in tlis session
due to the differences bet~veerl the two bills that need to be worked out, portions could be
pulled out and passed. Steve expressed lis opinion that if not passed this session, it will
be brought back and changes wi11 be made soon. F-Ie shared his views on how these bills
came to be proposed and how the players it the Tndustzy got to the point dley have
because they made business decisions that went in the wrong direction.
~ Kathy said that ifnotling passes at the Federal level ills session, Qwest is prepared to
propose a bill at tl~e State level. They Dave been doi~~g this ii other states thoughout the
countzy.
TELECC71~%IM[J'i~7ICATIOi`.TS CC~~II~~IISSI~}N ~~IINUTES
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® `l`l~e col~z~issioners asked ~~uestiolzs of the Attorney-
Ken asl~ed if a gill goes through faster the ?~"~ year it is offered. IIe vas told that depends
on a couple of thugs, one is who gets elected to office. It was pointed out tizat the
proposed bills already exist and would o~~y need to be tweal~ed before re-introducing.
Reuben asked about tl~e bras and cons of net neutrality. Steve responded that he felt it
was necessary. ~I`he concept is that everybody should have the same access to the
i~~te~~zet, at the same speed. It shouldn't be sonsethii~g that people wh.o are willil~g to pay
.more and can afford it, get special service that others don't.
Bruce aslted how our MN Legislators voted. Steve told 1~z1 what he could renlenlber.
D. Report of the Assistant to the City ?vlanager
Lil~da reported that Jean I~uelu7 retie°ed .Tulze 30, 2006, and that her pasitioz~ will izot be filled at
this time. Her duties hay,-e been re-distl-ibuted to current staff. Refuse and recycling have been
transferred to Public RTOrlcs. Adam .Davis will continue to broadcast and tape the Council
meetings and the Planning ~ Zoning Comnlissian meetings. Iz~farmational items will be placed.
an the website by Paul Grosse, IS Technician, and on Channel 16 by staff: Linda explained that
die Software CastNet allows indiviA~al departments to create their own~nzessages and submit to
Carole Blowe~•s in Ad.nzizristration :Eor approval and publication on Channel 16. Bruce Na~~nocl~i
questioned who would be doh~g the progra~n~ning for Channel 16. Lil~da explained it would be a
eombinatian of Adam alzd tl~e staf~in Administration to schedule the tape decks, and the system
automatically defaults to tl~e character generator messages wheal tapes aren't rLUU~ng. h~dividual
departments will do their own programs, if they so desire, as the Ideights Calendar Program will
na longer be dare.
Demiis asked whether we would be switching the system over from VCR tapes to DVD's. She
stated that is in the proposed %007 budget, and will lie discussed in the budget review process far
2007. Sloe will beep the members updated.
11.1t~tiofz by Iien Het~k~, secr~nchd by Reuhe~2 R~ren, to acrjou~°rz fT~e r1a~~tif7,g at ~: QO ~~7~. .4Z1 ayes.
Respectfully submitted,
~llelley Hanson
~retary