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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Cable Communications Commission - 02/23/2009 r� MINUTES RECEIVED CABLE COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SEP 1 0 2009 February 23,2009 CITY SECRETARY'S OFFICE PRESENT Chairperson Connie Gutierrez,Vice Chairperson Steve West, Commissioners Carolyn Moon,Leo Estrada and Latrice Sellers ABSENT City Staff Lisa Aguilar,Assistant City Attorney,Kim Womack and Andreina Keller,Public Information Office Connie Gutierrez called the meeting to order at 6:03pm and verified the necessary quorum. Ms. Sellers asked that it be noted that she was against the commissioner business cards. Mr. West moved that the minutes be approved as amended. Ms.Moon seconded the motion.All Commissioners approved. REVIEW AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING VIOLATION APPEALS— a. "Falling Into Place" — Mr. Chavez was not present at the meeting. He will have the opportunity to attend the next Cable Commission meeting to appeal his violation. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING RULES AND PROCEDURES— A. Ms. Aguilar passed out some recommended language for Section B2. She proposed to add "non-character generated" before the word "signs" to the section. Ms. Sellers felt that there need not be a change to the current language and that recommended changes were nonsense. Ms. Moon maintained that there needs to be specific wording on character generated signs. Mr. West explained that the issue was the non intentional display of sign vs. an intentional signage. Ms. Moon agreed with the recommended language as "character generated" signs are placed purposefully in a production. Mr. West noted that the changes in language were not in response to any particular case or person, but simply to clarify the difference between a sign in the environment and a sign purposefully created by a character generator. Mr. Gordy was still not clear about the proposed language and felt that the commission has been talking about rewriting rules and procedures for a year and that he believes City staff has had enough time to take care of the issue. B. Next on the agenda was to discuss possible times and dates to schedule the next subcommittee meeting. Staff asked for clarification about who was on the subcommittee team to change rules and regulations as there had been some confusion when speaking with commissioners over the phone. Staff would like a consistent group to be on the subcommittee meeting. It was decided that Latrice Sellers and Leo Estrada were the subcommittee members and that Steve West only be responsible for coming to the meeting(if he was available) when one of the two before mentioned are not able to make it to the subcommittee meeting. Ms. Womack told the commission that a list of possible dates would be provided at the next meeting. Also staff will attempt to plan tentative dates for a couple of months in advance. .REVIEW AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING CABLE OPERATOR COMPLAINTS. SCANNED Ms. Triplett was not able to show for the meeting. Ms. Womack let the commission know that it is most likely going to be a challenge for there to be consistent representation from Time Warner because of Ms. Triplett's travel schedule. There has been no alternate assigned to be present at the Cable Commission meetings when Ms. Triplett is unable to attend; although they have given a contact for legal and franchise issues. Legal was asked if customer service was part of the franchise agreement. Ms. Aguilar was not certain if there was anything in the Franchise Agreement which states that Time Warner is required to be present at the meetings. Mr. Gordy informed the commission that he also sends operator complaints to a Ms. Charlotte Strong whom he understands to be above Ms. Triplett and has not received any communications from her either in regards to the complaints. Mr. Jesse Nesmith also spoke and informed the commission that the PAUG used to have a direct line to which they could contact a technician however now that is no longer the case. He agreed with the sentiments that there is no customer service being provided by Time Warner. Ms. Moon was under the impression that customer service was part of the franchise agreement. Ms.Aguilar informed that the commission that there are customer service standards but those are more applicable to the individual residential cable customers but was unsure if there was anything specifically about customer service to the cable commission. The Commission asked that a letter be sent to Time Warner regarding the issues. Ms. Aguilar pointed out that the franchise agreement does say that Time Warner is to provide PAUG cablecasting if they they are not then an issue can be raised by sending Time Warner a formal letter from the City. Ms. Moon moved that a formal letter from the City be sent is regards to Time Warner not fulfilling its duty to provide cable casting and that they meet with the city to discuss these issues. Mr.Estrada seconded;the motion passed. REVIEW AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING PUBLIC ACCESS COMPLANTS- There were no items to speak of on this topic REVIEW AND POSSIBLE ACTION REGARDING MEDIA DELIVERY LOGS— The logs were fine CABLE OPERATOR REPORT— Ms.Triplett was not present to give report. PAUG UPDATES—. Channel 10: Mr. Gordy provided the current schedule. Ms. Sellers asked Mr. Gordy if cable access was 24 hours. Mr. Gordy said that it indeed was; but he was not allowed to fill anymore times until all of the slots from 8am to midnight were taken. Channel 18: Mr.Nesmith that everything was fine and that 4 new producers had signed up. DISCUSSION OF TIMES FOR FUTURE COMMISSION MEETINGS City staff informed the commission that the new schedule that they had approved of last meeting had scheduling conflicts on all of the 6pm meeting dates. Ms. Moon moved that they return to the original schedule of meetings. Mr.Estrada seconded and the vote passed. I � STAFF UPDATES Ms. Womack posed the question to the commission if producers would be allowed to have the option to opt out of making their information public:Ms. Moon felt that producers should tell the PAUG where their address is. Ms. Womack explained that as things are if someone was to request the information of a producer and put in a request for public information then the City would have to provide it. Mr. Aguilar suggested that this was an item to speak with the attorney of public information to get their opinion. Mr. Gordy did not agree with the proposed item as he felt it was made to accommodate a specific producer. Ms. Womack was concerned that because of alleged threats the City could be liable in the unlikely event that these threats were carried out. Ms. Sellers asked that this item be tabled for the next meeting; Mr. West agreed that commission should wait to decide on this item until word from the attorney general has come back. DISCUSSION OF COMMISSIONER RESPONSIBILITES AND JOB DESCRIPTION Staff provided the commission with job description and duties as commissioners. Ms. Sellers asked if it was a requirement that cable commissioners had to be cable subscribers. Ms. Sellers asked if the requirements to be a commissioner could be provided. PUBLIC COMMENT— Mr. Gordy asked that the council be provided with the 2008 annual report. Ms. Womack informed the commission that the report was a summary of the approved minutes from the cable commission meetings. COMMISSIONERS COMMENTS— There were none. Mr. West asked staff about SB5; Ms. Womack informed the Commission that there has been no movement on that item because of an impasse. Ms. Aguilar added that there was also a lawsuit pending in association with SB5. ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING There were no items identified ADJOURNMENT OF MEETING—Ms. Gutierrez adjourned the meeting. The meeting at 6:45 p.m.