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ICTC Agenda and Packet 2017-11-27
Agenda Iowa City Telecommunications Commission City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St., Tower Place Parking Facility, Level 3A November 27, 2017, 5:30PM 1. Call to order 2. Approval of minutes 3. Announcements of Commissioners 4. Short public announcements 5. REPORTS Consumer Issues Mediacom Report Local Access Reports City Cable TV Office Report 6. Adjournment Draft Minutes Iowa City Telecommunications Commission October 23, 2017 – 5:30 P.M. City of Iowa City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St. - Tower Place, Level 3A Call to Order:Meeting called to order at 5:33 P.M. Members Present:Derek Johnk, Paul Gowder, Matthew Brenton Members Absent:Laura Bergus Staff Present:Ty Coleman Others Present:Gerardo Sandoval Recommendations to Council: None Approval of Minutes: Johnk moved and Gowder seconded a motion to approve the September 25, 2017 minutes as presented. The motion passed unanimously. Announcements of Commissioners: None Short Public Announcements: None Consumer Issues: Johnk noted that all issues were resolved except for one that dealt with a resident’s problem with her CenturyLink service. Coleman said he recently checked in with the resident to see how her service had been performing and learned that it had not improved. The resident said she spoke with someone in customer service who implied that more customers are being added to existing copper-based infrastructure and that the system is not able to handle the load very well. Coleman said he continues to reconnect CenturyLink staff with the resident in hopes that they will get the issue resolved. Gowder expressed that he has had issues with his CenturyLink modem in the past and suggested that perhaps a modem update was needed. Mediacom Report: No information was received from Mediacom. Local Access Reports: Sandoval said Public Access Television (PATV) seeks to become more current and 1 Draft relevant, noting changes in how people receive video content. Sandoval said the PATV board has become a more active board. Johnk said he feels there should be a way to partner with other entities, such as the Public Library, to make access to equipment easy. Sandoval said PATV will be producing a live-streamed show on Fridays called “We Are Iowa City” where the public would be welcomed to the studio. He also mentioned that they would be creating video holiday cards where the public can come to the PATV studio to record a holiday greeting that can be shared with family and friends. Sandoval said participants would have a chance to do this on three Saturdays leading up to Christmas and that they would be offered an opportunity to donate to PATV. City Cable TV Office Report: Coleman said that the process to fill the Media Production Assistant position was still in progress and that he hoped to have a decision made later in the week. Coleman said that this was a busy time of year for the Cable TV Office. Coleman reported that the City Council had recently brought up again the idea of meeting with the Telecommunications Commission and expressed a continued interest in scheduling time for discussion. Coleman said the council preferred to wait until the vacant seat on the Telecommunications Commission had been filled. Johnk said that when the Commission does meet with the City Council, it would be important to talk about higher accessibility and competition. Coleman said that two remaining City Council candidate forums will be recorded later in the week. Adjournment: Gowder moved and Brenton seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. Adjournment was at 5:46 p.m. 2 November 21, 2017 To: Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator (MPSC) Re: Cable Complaints October 2017 1.) Date: 10/17/2017 Method of contact: email to MPSC Complaint/Comment Summary: Customer reported issues with Mediacom services in her neighborhood, including intermittent outages that occur multiple times throughout the day. The resident inquired about recommendations for other cable, phone, and Internet providers in Iowa City. Resolution Summary: MPSC mentioned CenturyLink as the other widely-used provider in Iowa City, though noted that similar technical issues are possible and have been reported to the Cable TV Office in the past. MPSC also explained the challenge of bringing a competitive service provider into the community due to the high cost of constructing a cable-based system. MPSC also contacted Mediacom’s Rick Karnes to investigate the technical issues being reported. Karnes reported that a faulty power supply was found in the neighborhood and noted that it was likely the cause of the issues that had been described. Karnes said the power supply was replaced during the overnight maintenance window. MPSC passed this information on to the resident and told her to contact the Cable TV Office if problems seemed to continue. No further problems have been reported by the resident. Date of Resolution: 10/18/17 2.) Date: 10/22/17 Method of contact: Email to MPSC Issue/Comment Summary: Customer inquired about competition in Iowa City, stating that his service with Mediacom was unreliable. Resolution Summary: MPSC offered to assist the resident with getting his technical issues resolved by communicating with local Mediacom staff. MPSC also explained the challenge of attracting competition due to the unique nature of the cable industry and the extremely high initial investment required to build a system to serve Iowa City residents. No further communication was received from the resident. Date of Resolution: 11/01/17 3.) Date: 10/30/17 Method of contact: Email to Cable TV Office Issue/Comment Summary: Resident complained of a poor experience with her Dish Network TV service and asked if the City had a franchise agreement with satellite TV providers that was similar to what it has with the cable TV provider. Resolution Summary: MPSC informed the resident that the City does not have a contract with or regulatory authority over satellite-based service providers. MPSC noted that the Federal Communications Commission regulates satellite transmissions, while the Federal Trade Commission governs the business practices of satellite TV service providers. MPSC sent the resident a link to a federal website that provided information on what to do to complain about a satellite TV company. Date of Resolution: 11/01/17 4.) Date: 10/30/17 Method of contact: Phone call to MPSC Issue/Comment Summary: Resident complained of Mediacom staff who did some work at a pole near her back yard and had left a cable on the ground along the edge of her garden area. She expressed concern that this occurred without any notification by Mediacom. She was also worried that the cable would pose a trip hazzard, adding that the cable at the edge of her garden was on a hill. The resident had reservations about a cable potentially being buried in her yard. Resolution Summary: MPSC investigated the issue with Mediacom’s Rick Karnes. Karnes reported that the cable was a temporary feeder cable and was in the process of being replaced. Karnes said that Mediacom staff met with the resident and provided an explanation of what was happening and stated that the resident seemed satisfied. As of November 21, Karnes reported that a new aerial cable had been built and will be cut over within two weeks. Date of Resolution: 11/21/17 Date: November 20, 2017 To: The Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator, City of Iowa City Cable TV Office Re: City of Iowa City Cable TV Office report for the November 2017 meeting Media Production Services Provided by Jack Brooks, Special Projects Assistant and Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator Recent production activities: ●Iowa City Update programs covering a variety of topics, including: ○tips for those going out of town for the holidays ○an update on the progress of the Gateway Project on Dubuque Street ○reminders about snow emergencies, property owner responsibilities following a snowfall, and what to do to prevent frozen pipes in extreme winter temperatures ●The Chamber of Commerce’s annual recognition event, which acknowledges outstanding businesses, organizations, and individuals making a difference in our community. ●A public service announcement to promote the Iowa League of Cities’ “If I Were Mayor” essay contest for seventh grade students. ●The City’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan public input meeting. ●A women’s leadership conference with presentations on topics such as unconscious bias, cultural humility, and immigration issues. Upcoming productions: ●A meeting of the Council’s Economic Development Committee. ●A panel discussion at FilmScene, featuring the mayors of Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Iowa City, and Madison, who will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing their communities. ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council lectures. ●Information about the City’s upcoming move to single stream recycling and a ban on cardboard in the landfill. Programming and Interactive Services Provided by Kevin Crawley, Communications Technician Recent and Upcoming Projects: The new website project is coming along well. Our West High volunteer web developer has been helping to get the bulk of the backend and application hooks in place. Website: In October, we had 2,901 users access 6,339 pages in 4,364 sessions. Our most popular pages were again Mediacom's channel lineup, our home page, Mediacom's cable rates, our video page, and our Meet The Candidates page. Our old streaming media provider reports 6,408 total hits, which includes 3,511 Events (player window was loaded), 85 Sessions (media was played), and 1,362 OnDemand Hits (media was scrubbed or index point was clicked). 1343 podcasts were downloaded, and our HQ media was accessed 100 times. It's worth noting that we have not updated any content on that site since June of 2017. Our live stream was accessed 1,495 times -- 1,300 of which were accesses of less than one minute. On YouTube, we had 6,884 video views account for 23,752 minutes (395 hours and 52 minutes) of watch time. We added 15 subscribers, bringing our total subscribers up to 223. Our most watched videos by views were the Iowa City In Focus story about the prison dog program (two months in a row), The Welcome to Iowa City! video, the SHOUT Program, Mazahir Salih's Meet The Candidates video, and Know Your Neighborhood: Longfellow Neighborhood, while the most watched videos by time were the Prison Dog Program video, an Obermann Conversations episode featuring Taylor Mac, a lecture on Current Middle Eastern Affairs, Know Your Neighborhood - Longfellow, and the University Heights City Council Candidate Forum. Programming: We cablecast 172 programs produced in-house 978 times for 602 hours of programming, 43 locally-produced (DITV, Senior Center, Hoover Library, Task Force on Aging, JC Board of Supervisors, Coralville, North Liberty and University Heights) programs 111 times for 99 hours of programming, and 24 imported programs 71 times for 33 hours of programming. We also showed 109 PSAs 1197 times for 27 hours of programming. Programs Completed by the Cable TV Office in October 2017 ●City Council Candidate Forums ○Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce Iowa City Council Election Forum ○LWV Iowa City City Council Candidate Forum ○Racial Justice Forum for Iowa City Council Candidates ●Economic Development Committee Meeting of 10/19/2017 ●Iowa City Book Festival 2017 panel discussion - Publishing Now - Stories that Sell ●Iowa City City Council Meetings ○October 3, 2017 ○October 17, 2017 ●Iowa City City Council Work Sessions ○October 3, 2017 ○October 17, 2017 ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Present ○The New Arabs: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East ○Travel Bans: Uncertainties and Real World Consequences ○Why the Japanese School Year Begins During Cherry Blossom Season ●Iowa City In Focus ○Stories included: ■Prison Dog Training Program ■SHOUT (Students Helping Out) program ■Know Your Neighborhood - Longfellow Neighborhood ■City Leaf Vacuum Program ●Iowa Women's Foundation 2017 Award Luncheon: Building Solutions ●Current Middle Eastern Affairs, A Lecture by Phyllis Bennis ●Bike Shorts PSAs ○How to register your bike ○Using proper hand signals ○How to pass a bicyclist ●Iowa City Update ○Pink Patch Project ○2017 Fire Prevention Week ○Interactive STEAM Display ○Halloween Events and Safety Tips ○Crisis Intervention Training ●Community Highlights ○Dog Paddle 2017 ○Monarch Festival 2017 ○Northside Oktoberfest 2017