Cable Advisory Council Area 2

Bridgeport, Fairfield, Milford, Orange, Stratford, Woodbridge

May 10, 2007

Present at Stratford Town Hall: Howard Jacobson – Fairfield; Phil Kearney, Paula Patterson, Dennis Guaglianone – Milford; Pat Tancreti, Marlene Silverstein – Orange; Kent Miller, Heather Siano, Bruce Alessie – Stratford; Tom Castelot – Sound View Community Media

Call to order at 7:00 p.m. by Howard Jacobson. A motion was made and seconded to approve the April minutes. All present in favor with abstentions from Heather and Kent.

Membership Action Committee Howard reminded all members that because all appointments end June 30, 2007, all members would need two-year reappointment letters from their chief elected official. Howard asked Kent if he knew the current census figure for Stratford and Kent replied that the population is still under 50,000 by about 100 people. Howard reminded the Stratford reps that a vacancy still exists for an education representative. Kent reported that he had emailed the Board of Education with the request and awaits their response. Bridgeport has five at-large vacancies. Ann Osbon has sought her replacement for the library vacancy with success. Howard said that with permission from the Bridgeport library he would seek a candidate from Fairfield, the next largest library in Area 2. Carolyn Marcato, Fairfield, has put herself on leave because of schedule conflicts, and probably will not return. Gerry Speno has indicated he would not accept a reappointment. Thus Fairfield will have one at-large and one education vacancy. Dennis reports that the population in Milford is now more than 53,000. Howard asked for a confirmation of that population from the chief elected official. If a fact, then Milford would have another at-large representative. Orange has no open positions and Woodbridge has two open positions, one at large and one from education.

Resignations Howard reminded members that council bylaws follow cable act regulations on attendance by appointed members at regularly scheduled meetings. Any member who has three consecutive absences or who misses 50 percent of the yearly meetings must be deemed resigned

Treasurer’s Report Opening balance was $6,555.94 with disbursements of $229.85 for clerk, fees, postage and refreshments, leaving a closing balance of $6,326.09.

Announcements by chair and Agenda Preliminary 2007-2008 Calendar Proposed meeting dates for the next calendar year are September 20, October 11, November 8, March 13, April 10, May 8 and June 12. The September meeting will be held in Milford at Platt Tech. Howard said he would like to continue visits at least once to each Area 2 town. He asked members to check now with their officials on an accessible meeting site at their town hall, a library media room or a town board room with all available creature comforts including facilities for refreshments. Howard reminded present members that the June meeting is the annual dinner meeting scheduled at the Dakota Restaurant, 1651 Boston Post Road, Milford, 6:30 p.m.

I-Net Inventory Howard reminded the membership that he still would like to see an inventory of the operational status of each town’s I-Net sites. He passed around forms created by Cablevision which, when filled out and returned, would signal a need for assistance at a specific I-Net site. With assistance from Ron Davis, “Warning” stickers have been created and will be distributed to place on CV equipment. He also reminded members that currently a Council endorsed moratorium exists on new site buildouts because so many of the sites remain unused. With superintendent endorsement, education site requests will still be considered by council’s I-Net chair, Pat Tancreti.

Paula, an I-Net committee member, recalled that a few years back the sub-committee concluded that although the sites were out there potential users were not aware they were there. Paula volunteered to put some reasons for use to paper of someone would do the research. Howard added that Pua Ford had put together a great one page presentation on I-Net and the education channel. Pat said that the issue has always been that no one wants to commit the time to develop content and programming. Marlene suggested the council sub-committee make presentations at local PTA meetings.

Ex-officios Howard lauded Sheila McCreven for regular attendance ex-officio at SV regular board meetings. Howard requested that the other Area 2 towns follow her example. Ask your chief elected officials that you be deemed his/her ex-officio representative for SV board meetings, he said. Howard requested a meeting schedule from Mr. Castelot. Tom replied 8:30 a.m. on June 18 and September 23 at the same time. The chief elected officials from all Area 2 towns have received schedules, he said. Howard asked if the ex-officio attendee was free to participate in all aspects of discussion-- executive sessions and voting excepted--and Tom confirmed this.

Status of cable bills Howard said HB7179, a Consumer Protection bill is currently stuck in the finance committee. HB7182, is still on the House active calendar and deals with defining IPTV rules and regulations.Dennis asked about HB5297. Marlene replied that the bill is currently on hold but Howard added that he thought it had died in the Energy and Tech Committee. Howard wanted the membership to know about Docket 07-01-07, the Cox case which argues that the DPUC is statutorily obligated to assure that access funding remains a requirement for Multii-channel Video Programming Distributors (MVPD). Cox said it complies with the community access funding and support under three separate agreements. Cox maintains that CT law requires MVPD’s to contribute to community access funding, With the launch of MVPD services in several Cox locations in CT, Cox is charging that AT&T as a MVPD, must contribute to community access per each franchise agreement. Should AT&T not contribute, Cox claimed this would result in under funding of community access in the Cox franchise areas.

Content exclusives set by CV in Area 9 Howard asked members to consider a situation in Area 9 now before the DPUC which might have implications in Area 2 now that some towns have moved to preserve their rights on distribution of local content to other providers. He reported that Area 9 sent an interrogatory to the DPUC, asking what Cablevision intends to do should they make their material available to other producers. Cablevision stated through their lawyers that all support provided by the franchise to local producers is for the exclusive benefit of franchise subscribers because support is funded by CV customers. Area 9 council claims their towns will not benefit from accepting the current funding with distribution restrictions. Their council is currently discussing whether they should continue to accept access support from Cablevision since CV grants account for only a portion of the funding Area 9 receives.

Howard reminded all members that they should be very aware of this situation when they are in meetings or mediation with Sound View. He further stated that today there are many other options for getting content on the air like Google or YouTube. Tom wanted it noted what Sound View’s position was on content. Sound View views itself as the third party PEG provider. They view all programming going out through Sound View as the property of the producer, unless Sound View itself produced the programming. They are merely the transmitter. Sound View believes that the DPUC will rule that the copyright belongs to the producer. Tom said Sound View received a call from Cablevision regarding this situation which they forwarded to their attorney.

Howard asked the towns if they reserve copyrights. Dennis replied that both Milford and Orange do. Howard noted that in Wallingford, there are three separate access providers in the town, but all programming produced by town services or town departmenta carries an “All rights reserved” notice, retaining all copyrights. The town has also indicated that they will seek copyrights for any candidate programs, health issues or emergency programs produced by other producers. Howard asked Tom if a producer were to produce a local interview show, could the producer use Sound View’s equipment and then take the programming back to their town. Tom said the producer must be certified, but as long as Sound View gets a copy of the programming it remains the producer’s property and they can take it back to their town.

Standing Committees Marlene reported that they did not have a quorum at the last GATA meeting. Nonetheless HB7179 as was a motion that would appoint alternates who have voting rights.

Old/New Business None

Towns Phil reported that Milford is in the middle of their budget hearings. He thanked Tom for helping them get on the air prior to signing the official agreement. He also commended Dennis for his production skills with local programming. Dennis added that the Aldermen are very happy too but more technical improvements are coming.

Cablevision Jennifer passed out I-Net report forms which would expedite upgrades or repairs as towns check the status of their E & G channel sites. Any requests for changes should be processed through her Norwalk office.

Public Comment Tom announced that Sound View, with the aid of DPUC appointed mediators, has completed a local programming agreement with Milford. The DPUC approved the plan. Orange and Woodbridge have requested the ADR process. Tom said that he met in March with the First Selectman in Fairfield, Ken Flatto. Flatto then attended the March SV board meeting.

Howard told Tom he had received a complaint letter from a certified producer regarding Sound View’s failure to cablecast his program in its scheduled slot. He requested an additional time slot the following week to make up for the slot missed. He asked for a direction with his complaint. Tom said that the situation occurred when he was away but was resolved by staff immediately after his return.

Adjournment 8:10 p.m. The annual dinner meeting will be held Thursday, June 14 at Dakota Restaurant, 1651 Boston Post Road, Milford, CT @ 6:30 p.m.