Cable Franchise Review Committee

 Town Council Chambers

Tuesday, February 14, 2008

Attendees:

Absent:

Bernard Gordon (via Conference call), Kathy Murphy, Doug Poulin, Diane Hardy, and Ed Wojnowski. Also, present was Jay Somers of Comcast.

---------- Agenda Topics ----------

 Minutes of January 29, 2008

Discussion: None  

A motion was made by Kathy Murphy and seconded by Ed Wojnowski to approve the minutes of January 29, 2008. All in Favor.

Person responsible

Deadline:

Preparation for Second  Public Hearing

The second public hearing will be held on February 19 at 7:00 pm in the Town Council Chambers. The committee has  invited members of the community to attend to specifically discuss the needs of the schools, arts and cultural heritage, medical/health care outreach; economic development, emergency management, low income groups and senior citizens, historic society, Channel 13 and other community groups; such as the Veteran’s Group. At the hearing, there will be an overview of the survey results. A public notice has been put in the paper and the meeting was advertised on the town’s web site and Channel 13.  Doug will make arrangements to have the meeting pre-recorded for viewing on Channel 13.

Person responsible:

Deadline:

2/19/2008

Meeting with Jay Somers, Senior Manager of Government and Community Relations, Comcast

Jay Somers gave the committee an overview of the negotiation process. He said that they would be proposing a 10 year franchise agreement. He would be getting a “one voice”, document, which are Comcast’s standard conditions to the committee to start off the discussions and for review by our legal counsel. He said they are doing a consumer survey and would have an executive summary of the results for the next meeting. He stated that they didn’t have the flexibility to change the Comcast programming, but would take the comments under advisement. He also talked about the cap, which is set at 5%,  which is placed on the franchise, which is dictated by state and federal law. He said that there was a process for extending the infrastructure and the programming to certain homes and would look into the situation currently being experienced by the residents of Harvest Way. He had also received a formal complaint from a resident there who does not have access to Channel 13. Mr. Somers did not have information about the 3.0 DOS, program which he believed had to do with the strength of the signal and would have to discuss that with one of the technical people in the company.  He would get back to the committee with that information. He indicated that he would like to have the committee prepare its “wish list” before the meeting.  Mr. Somers said he would attend the public hearing on February 19 and field any specific questions regarding Comcast’s services. He will send a stenographer to transcribe the proceedings as was done at the first hearing. Diane Hardy asked for an index map to go along with the Comcast service line maps, as it is very hard to locate certain neighborhoods. Discussions with Mr. Somers will resume at the March 6, 2008 meeting.

Person responsible:

Deadline:

Comcast.Audit Letter

Discussion:  Diane Hardy has sent out the audit letter and documentation to Attorney Ciandella for his review. He is to review the documents and draft a letter to Comcast highlighting areas where additional information is needed and identify areas, which may constitute breaches of the original contract. Doug Poulin has also provided an in-depth review of the contract and raised several questions that will be reviewed by legal to determine if the conditions have been properly addressed.

Conclusions:

Action:  A copy of Doug’s review memo will be forwarded to legal counsel.

Person responsible:

DP/RC

Deadline:

3/1

Next Meeting:

Discussion: The next meeting will be scheduled for Thursday, March 6 at 2:00 pm in the Town Council chambers to resume discussions. 

Person responsible:

DH

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