Cable Advisory Council Area 2

Bridgeport, Fairfield, Milford, Orange, Stratford, Woodbridge

April 12, 2007

Present at Woodbridge Town Hall – Howard Jacobson, Bob Greenberger, Jody

Eisemann – Fairfield; Paula Patterson, Dennis Guaglianone – Milford; Pat Tancreti, Ron Davis, Marlene Silverstein – Orange; Bruce Alessie – Stratford; Laurence Grotheer – Woodbridge; Jennifer Nacewicz – Cablevision

Call to order at 7:18 p.m. by Ron Davis. The council members were welcomed by Sheila McCreven, chairperson of the Government Access Commission in Woodbridge. Sheila explained that the commission was just recently granted its status by the town and they had just held a preliminary budget hearing this past Monday night. They had approximately 85 townspeople in attendance in the audience. Sheila commented that she felt this was a great turn out; the people were concerned how the budget was going to be dealt with and they had a terrific dialog. Sheila said she felt that Woodbridge WGATV has made the public much more aware of what is going on in their town.

A motion was made to approve the March minutes. Paula said she had received a correction from the Fairfield First Selectman, Ken Flatto, regarding the line that states that “Fairfield would be requesting ADR time.” Mr. Flatto indicated that Fairfield is not seeking the ADR process at this time. He said the town will be seeking access on both a regional and town-specific basis. He added that SV has indicated to town officials that they would like to satisfy Fairfield’s requests and needs. A motion was made and seconded to approve the March minutes with the correction noted. All present were in favor with one abstention from Dennis, who had not attended the March meeting.

Treasurer’s Report The opening balance was $6,555.94 with disbursements for clerk, postage and refreshments of $242.43, leaving a closing balance of $6,313.51. Ron asked if members could have an update on any expenditure programs that had been previously discussed. Paula replied that none of the proposals ever got off the ground. Ron added that he felt they should be brought before members again and discussed. Pua questioned where council money came from and Paula explained that the grant is a committed sum from Cablevision. Jennifer said she would get specifics on the percentage of money which came from fees.

Membership Action Plan Ron said he had no update at this time.

Towns Dennis reported that Milford cablecast live on March 14, the result of mediation sessions with the DPUC and Sound View. The Milford Board of Alderman also approved the general terms of the Milford agreement with SV but some issues remain. The agreement allows Milford to be town specific at certain times with blocks of local programming and repeats each week. Dennis added that in six months they will revisit the agreement.

Milford will also get $10,000 from a $60,000 fund set aside by the DPUC from SV’s reserves designated to help Area 2 towns create local programming. Sheila explained that she had attended the Sound View board meeting and there had been discussion regarding where the $10,000 came from. She asked Paula how Milford had arrived at the figure. Paula said that Milford asked for one sixth of the money Sound View had available. She said Milford must follow through with a grant application to obtain the funds.

Sheila questioned whether other towns would feel it was appropriate to file for a similar grant now. Bruce added that he thought no grant money was to be distributed until the so-called “new” SV incentive plan and request process was in place. He espressed concern that the Milford grant signaled a need to assure that other towns would be treated equally in allocation of these funds.

Pua asked Paula and Dennis what type of programming is running on 79 when they are not town specific. Dennis said he has seen CT-N, the Military Channel, Town of Stratford and some Milford meetings. He noted that on occasion, he has also seen blank screen. He said Milford will be giving Sound View some of their programming to air. Sheila then asked how clearly the programming was marked so the viewers would be clear which town’s programming they were watching. Dennis replied that town and meeting titles are burned in and flash in and out.

Laurence reported that Woodbridge is still waiting on its mediation date. Ron reported that Orange also awaits it invitation to meet. Sheila asked Ron if Orange cablecasts local Board of Education meetings. Ron explained they do not because the room in which the board meets is a multi-use site. Sheila explained that Woodbridge is looking at Beecher School for live meetings. She asked for advice using a remote location for live sessions. Ron explained that the meeting would have to be taken off the I-Net which would cost some quality. Pat added that additional equipment may be needed as well as extra set up time. Paula said that Milford is on the I-Net everyday with distance learning and they have been using it for some time now.

Chair’s Announcements The next meeting will be held in the Stratford Town Hall, Room 217. Please take the stairs or elevator to the second floor . The room is the first room to the left. HB5297 Howard reported that this bill supposedly died in committee although with town legislators paying attention there may be some life left in it. HB7179 Originally tagged HB 6037, its support for consumer protection gained acceptance in committee and now the bill is currently going through various general assembly committees for analysis. Co-sponsored by OCC, some of its useful aspects include development of local community access studios and giving advisory councils, once more, affirmation of the need for a direct voice for advisory councils in the formulation of the community access budget.

I-Net surveys Howard had asked a representative from each town to survey their local I-Net sites and determine the status of CV installed equipment. Ron has suggested putting stickers on the equipment when found, tagging it as Cablevision property so that it is easily identifiable. Sample stickers were passed around. Dennis asked Howard if he could possibly send the Milford mayor an email on this need for an inventory and condition of CV equipment at town designated I-Net sites. Howard agreed to do.

Cable billing inserts Howard said Jennifer notified him that information about the CAC will again be included in subscriber bills. Bob questioned whether this information would also be included in electronic bills and was assured by Jennifer it would be. Howard said that Jennifer has also provided him with two VIP phone numbers for immediate access to Cablevision customer service managers in urgent situations. Howard said he saw no distinction because in his mind all customers deserved urgent care. Jennifer explained that for CV urgent situations might be a loss of service for an extended period of time or for a portion of town.

Jennifer was asked if it might be possible to run a crawl a few times a year about the council and she said she was not sure if that was done already but whatever CV does is in compliance with DPUC requirements. Dennis asked if CV could possibly run something in the future about the GEG fees. Ron asked Jennifer who he might contact at CV’s headend should he have technical issues. with I-Net installation and wiring. Jennifer said that all requests should go through her so that responses are coordinated. Jennifer also offered to provide members with a form for issues that arise and for capturing all pertinent information.

Ex-Officio role at Sound View Board meetings Sheila stated that she had attended the last Sound View board meeting. Sound View expressed at the meeting that they were disappointed that Woodbridge had not had further discussions regarding the government relations issues. They also spoke about a retreat recently held, attended by members, dealing with government relations issues. Howard asked CAC members to adopt Sheila’s proactive stance and seek an ex-officio role in their towns for attendance at SV board meetings.

Sound View Annual Report. Howard said the 2006 report is now on file with DPUC public records. Howard said SV’s budget assumptions did not always materialize in line items and faulted in part the lack of a sub-ledger accounting scheme for E and G channel expenditures. Howard said he answered a recent request during budget formulation by SV’s finance committee with a desire to see sub-ledger accounting for E & G channels, a request which has unanimous support of the advisory council, but was informed by Sound View’s president that SV had no intention of changing its accounting methods.

Verizon Howard reported that in adjacent states Verizon is offering a local TV channel with professional staff and inviting local user generated content in HD format. Howard stated that they are trying a similar format in Massachusetts and in two towns in Westchester County. Howard suggested the towns make a direct approach to Verizon to seek out their PEG intentions once in Connecticut.

GATA Marlene reports that the agenda for the April meeting is discussion of HB7179 and its implications for the towns. Alliance members recently discussed doing PSAs on any bills concerning cable TV and posting the information to the towns.

Old/New Business None

Cablevision None

Public Comment None

Adjournment at 9:21 PM The next meeting will be held on May 10 at the Stratford Town Hall, second floor. Directions enclosed.