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Home My WebLink AboutICTC Agenda and Packet 2018-01-22 Agenda Iowa City Telecommunications Commission City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St., Tower Place Parking Facility, Level 3A January 22, 2018, 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 November 30, 2017 – 4:00 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 4:00 P.M. Members Present:Derek Johnk, Paul Gowder, Matthew Brenton Members Absent:Laura Bergus Staff Present:Ty Coleman Others Present: Recommendations to Council: None Approval of Minutes: Brenton moved and Gowder seconded a motion to approve the November 27, 2017 minutes as presented. The motion passed unanimously. Approve comments to the FCC regarding net neutrality: Johnk asked if there were any necessary edits to the letter that had been written by Laura Bergus and Paul Gowder on behalf of the Telecommunications Commission, which contained comments to the FCC on the topic of net neutrality. Johnk said he was happy with the content of the letter. Gowder moved and Brenton seconded a motion to approve the letter for presenting to the Iowa City City Council, in hopes of gaining its support before submitting to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and area legislators. The motion passed unanimously. Presentation of approved comments to the Iowa City City Council, FCC, and other parties: Johnk noted that Coleman had prepared a memo to the City Council to accompany the letter. All commissioners expressed that they were happy with the memo. Coleman suggested that one commissioner could come to the December 5, 2017 City Council work session, where Council would be given the opportunity to support the comments by agreeing to be added to the signature of the letter. Coleman said that one or two commissioners may be able to answer any questions that Council might have about the issue. Brenton said he would plan to attend the work session. Adjournment: Gowder moved and Brenton seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. Adjournment was at 4:06 p.m. January 18, 2018 To: Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator (MPSC) Re: Cable Complaints November 2017 1.) Date: 11/01/17 Method of contact: Email to City Cable TV Office Complaint/Comment Summary: The resident complained of difficulties with her Dish Network service and wondered if the City had a franchise agreement with satellite TV providers. Resolution Summary: MPSC explained that the City only has a franchise with the cable TV provider. MPSC provided the resident with a link to where she may be able to find a suitable method for filing a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission. Date of Resolution: 11/01/17 No other complaints were received by the Cable TV Office during the month of November 2017. January 18, 2018 To: Iowa City Telecommunications Commission From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator (MPSC) Re: Cable Complaints December 2017 1.) Date: 12/07/17 Method of contact: Phone call to MPSC Complaint/Comment Summary: The resident reported that in an attempt to get her Internet working better, a Mediacom technician had run a line through one of her electrical outlets, continuing outdoors through a hole in the siding. The line needed to be moved and the electrical outlet was left with one of the receptacles remaining non-functional. The resident wanted to set up an appointment to get the electrical outlet working again. Resolution Summary: MPSC contacted Mediacom’s Rick Karnes to investigate the issue and to facilitate the arrangement of a service appointment. Karnes later reported that the customer’s issue had been resolved, but that the hole in the siding was not the result of any work completed by Mediacom. Karnes said this information was explained to the customer. Date of Resolution: 12/18/17 No other complaints were received by the Cable TV Office during the month of December 2017. The Library Channel Report prepared for the Iowa City Telecommunications Commission monthly meeting by Beth Fisher, Program Librarian and Bond Drager, Equipment Specialist. December 2017. December 2017: Children’s Programming: • Dance Me a Story: The Nutcracker with Ballet Quad Cities • Gingerbread Fun Storytime! • Family Storytime with Angie • Toddler Storytime with Mari Adult Programming: • #Hashtag Activism – An Obermann Center for Advanced Studies Conversation Event Monthly Program Update: This month: December 2017 Next Month: January 2018 Live Children’s Programs • 4 • 2 Live Adult Programs • 1 • 2 Programs Cablecast • 673 • Programs videotaped by Govt. Channel/CTS • 0 • The Library Channel Report prepared for the Iowa City Telecommunications Commission monthly meeting by Beth Fisher, Program Librarian and Bond Drager, Equipment Specialist. January 2018. January 2018: Children’s Programming: • Author storytime: Spencer Earl Watts read from his book “The Turtle in the Glass Shell” • Owl Babies with special guest Sarah the Owl and her handler Joan • Preschool Storytime: Lost and Found Adult Programming: • Project GREEN Second Sunday Garden Forum: Creating Garden Rooms with Lisa Orgler faculty member of the Iowa State University Department of Horticulture and artist behind the website Paper Garden Workshop. • League of Women Voters Sunday Speaker Series: Voter Registration Changes in Iowa Monthly Program Update: This month: January 2018 Next Month: February 2018 Live Children’s Programs • 3 • 1 Live Adult Programs • 1 • 4 Programs Cablecast • 661 • Programs videotaped by Govt. Channel/CTS • 2 • PATV Report to Iowa City Telecommunications Commission December 2017 Call in Mockery, a comedic show, is one of our newest Live Broadcast at PATV. We have also added new members with great show ideas like Brew Talk, House Cleaning Hacks, and a Local Music Talk Show. We have also seen some great new cultural programming/content from our newest members. End of the year has brought not only comedy, new talk shows and cultural programming to PATV. PATV Board Meetings PATV Board of Directors next meeting January 18th, 2018 at 6 pm. Intro Workshop Guidelines orientation is the ﬁrst Thursday of every month, 6 pm at PATV or online @ www.patv.tv Next Guidelines is Thursday, January 4th at 6 PM. Video Workshops Schedule Studio Training – The second Tuesday of the month from 5 – 7 pm. HD Camera – The third Thursday of the month from 6 –8 pm. Digital Editing – The fourth Thursday of the month from 6 - 8 pm. Current and upcoming staff supported productions Call in Mockery GreenFire The LyleStyle Show PATV Presents: Thursday Night Live at Uptown Bills Tom’s Guitar Show Time for Truth Submitted by Gerardo Sandoval 12/20/17 206 Lafayette St. • Iowa City, Iowa 52240 • Phone 338-7035 Fax 338-8456 • contact@patv.tv • http://www.patv.tv PATV Report to Iowa City Telecommunications Commission January 2018 2018 is off to a great start. Our regulars are on schedule and live in the studio like Tom’s Guitar Show 23 years running and counting: GreenFire, Time for Truth. New shows are a brewing like: Local & Punk, KNHB Radio Live & HomeBrew Talk. Some of our old shows are too returning like the sitcom BaitShop. Lastly, we were very fortunate to have carpeted MLK Day at Bethel A.ME. Church. PATV Board Meetings PATV Board of Directors next meeting Feb. 14th., at 6 pm. Intro Workshop Guidelines orientation is the ﬁrst Thursday of every month, 6 pm at PATV or online @ www.patv.tv Next Guidelines is Thursday, Feb. 1st at 6 PM. Video Workshops Schedule Studio Training – The second Tuesday of the month from 5 – 7 pm. HD Camera – The third Thursday of the month from 6 –8 pm. Digital Editing – The fourth Thursday of the month from 6 - 8 pm. Current and upcoming staff supported productions Nora’s House of Dance PATV Presents: Prairie Lights Education Exchange GreenFire The LyleStyle Show PATV Presents: Thursday Night Live at Uptown Bills Tom’s Guitar Show Time For Truth Submitted by Gerardo Sandoval 1/22/18 206 Lafayette St. • Iowa City, Iowa 52240 • Phone 338-7035 Fax 338-8456 • contact@patv.tv • http://www.patv.tv CITY OF IOWA CITY Cable Television Office 410 E. Washington Street, Iowa City, IA 52240 Ph: 319.356.5454 December 6, 2017 Mr. Lee Grassley Senior Manager, Government Relations Mediacom Communications Corporation 6300 Council St. NE Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 Re: 2018 Funding for Public Access and Community Programming Services Dear Lee: This letter conveys the calculation for the 2018 payment to the City of Iowa City (the City) from Mediacom Communications Corporation (MCC) for the support of public access services, as stated in Section XI (C) of the municipal cable television franchise agreement between the City and MCC. I have included a copy of page one of a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicating the CPI-U U.S. City Average. The enclosed CPI-U is based on consumer price index activity for the entire month of September 2017 and the calculated percent change since one-year prior. We agreed to use the CPI-U U.S. City Average and the September index to calculate each year’s payment amount. This year, the CPI-U U.S. City Average landed at 2.2%. Applying this figure, I calculate an increase of $5,321.01 which, when added to the 2017 funding amount of $241,863.94, yields a figure of $247,184.95. As you know, however, the municipal franchise agreement between MCC and the City is set to expire in 2018, therefore this amount will need to be prorated. According to our legal staff, the effective date of our current agreement was officially August 5, 2005. As stated in Section II (C) of the agreement, the “Franchise shall not become finally effective until the Franchisee files an acceptance in writing with the City of Iowa City.” Mediacom’s acceptance of the franchise agreement, sent on August 1, 2005, was officially filed with the Iowa City City Clerk’s Office on August 5, 2005. I have included a copy of this letter of acceptance for your reference. The agreement states in Section IV that “the term of the Franchise shall be for a period of thirteen (13) years from the effective date,” resulting in an expiration date of August 5, 2018. Prorating the calculated payment amount to reflect the 217 out of 365 days in 2018 that will fall within the remaining term of our agreement, accomplished by multiplying the full year’s amount by 0.595, results in a 2018 payment amount of $147,075.05. This payment is due to the City by January 1 of each year. The City will provide funding to the public access programming entity Public Access Television (PATV) as agreed upon within the contract between the City and PATV. The City also expects that during the remaining term of the franchise, Mediacom will continue to provide monthly “pass through” payments “for equipment, facilities, and ongoing support for public, educational, governmental access, and community access programming” at the rate of sixty cents per subscriber per month, as described in Section XI (B) of the municipal franchise agreement. Please review the figures above and let me know if you do not concur. Sincerely, Ty M. Coleman Media Production Services Coordinator City of Iowa City Cable TV Office cc: Geoff Fruin, City Manager Ashley Monroe, Assistant City Manager PATV, Inc. Iowa City Telecommunications Commission CITY OF IOWA CITY Cable Television Office 410 E. Washington Street, Iowa City, IA 52240 Ph: 319.356.5454 December 13, 2017 Mr. Lee Grassley Senior Manager, Government Relations Mediacom Communications Corporation 6300 Council St. NE Cedar Rapids, IA 52402 Re: 2018 Funding for Public Access and Community Programming Services Dear Lee: This letter conveys the adjusted calculation for the 2018 payment to the City of Iowa City (the City) from Mediacom Communications Corporation (MCC) for the support of public access services, as stated in Section XI (C) of the municipal cable television franchise agreement between the City and MCC. This letter is in response to your December 8, 2017 emailed reply to my letter, dated December 6, 2017, which calculated the payment amount based on the interpretation of the effective date of the franchise as being August 5, 2005. Though the City disagrees with the assertion that the expiration date of the franchise is July 31st, our expectation is that the payment would, at a minimum, cover the 212 days leading up to and including July 31, 2018. This results in a multiplier of .581, which, when multiplied by the calculated full-year amount of $247,184.95, results in a prorated payment amount of $143,614.46 for 2018. This payment is due to the City by January 1 of each year, though I understand that due to the extra time needed for us to work out an agreeable calculation, the payment could be slightly delayed. The City also expects that during the remaining term of the franchise, Mediacom will continue to provide monthly “pass through” payments as described in Section XI (B) of the municipal franchise agreement. Please review the figures above and let me know if you do not agree. Thank you for your patience and cooperation in this matter. Sincerely, Ty M. Coleman Media Production Services Coordinator City of Iowa City Cable TV Office cc: Geoff Fruin, City Manager Ashley Monroe, Assistant City Manager PATV, Inc. Iowa City Telecommunications Commission Date: December 18, 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 December 2017 meeting Media Production Services Provided by Jack Brooks, Special Projects Assistant and Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator Recent production activities: ●Recorded a panel discussion featuring the mayors of Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, Iowa City, and Madison, Wisconsin. ●Captured lectures of the Iowa City Foreign Relations Council on topics including the claim and management of maritime conflicts since 1900, the economic and political challenges in Brazil, and house crows in India. ●Shot and produced five episodes of Iowa City Update. Topics included Holiday Thieves’ Market, firework restrictions, energy audits, Citizens Police Academy, and recycling christmas trees/lights. ●Created a December edition of Iowa City In Focus. Topics included single stream recycling, corrugated cardboard ban, and Know Your Neighborhood – Goosetown. ●Produced “Bike Shorts” PSA on how to properly lock a bike. ●Created PSA on donations needed for the Iowa City Animal Services after impounding 200+ birds during an animal welfare investigation. Upcoming productions: ●The annual show choir benefit concert for the Greater Iowa City Area Student Scholarships non-profit organization. ●FY2019 City budget overview presentation. ●Continue producing weekly Iowa City Update program. ●Iowa City In Focus for January will include a feature on new City Council member Mazahir Salih, new rental permit requirements, and snow emergency rules. Programming and Interactive Services Provided by Kevin Crawley, Communications Technician Recent and Upcoming Projects My West High volunteer web developer has been a great help on the new website project, and I've been having a great time writing the new supporting code. We are hoping for a launch date just after the start of the new year. I spent some time working with City staff and a third-party vendor who will be supplying a new council meeting agenda and packet management system to ensure that system will work with our current Council video playback system. The City's new email system is requiring new coding changes to our Event Request Form and our Snow Emergency crawl switch, so I'll be working on that in the near future. Website: In November, we had 2,883 users access 6,316 pages in 4,063 sessions. Our most popular pages were Mediacom's channel lineup, our Meet The Candidates page, Mediacom's cable rates, our video page, our home page, and Ryan Hall's Meet The Candidates video playback page (followed closely by Kingsley Botchway and Angela Winnike's pages). Our old streaming media provider reports 6,006 total hits, which includes 3,711 Events (player window was loaded), 55 Sessions (media was played), and 1,055 OnDemand Hits (media was scrubbed or index point was clicked). 984 podcasts were downloaded, and our HQ media was accessed 199 times. Our live stream was accessed 2,168 times -- 1,870 of which were accesses of less than one minute. On YouTube, we had 8,990 video views account for 28,546 minutes (475 hours and 46 minutes) of watch time. We added 27 subscribers, bringing our total subscribers up to 250. Our most watched videos by views were the Unity Potluck and Mazahir Salih's Meet the Candidate video, the Welcome to Iowa City! video, the Iowa City Update episode on the Gateway Project and the Ashton House video tour, while the most watched videos by time were the Unity Potluck and Meet the Candidate video (both featuring Mazahir Salih), University Heights City Council Candidates Forum, the November 7th meeting of the Iowa City City Council, our Welcome to Iowa City! video, and the Black Entrepreneurs Roundtable. One notable statistic is that a record 28% of our traffic was from outside the United States, with significant traffic from Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the UK and Australia. Programming: We cablecast 147 programs produced in-house 817 times for 561 hours of programming, 31 locally-produced (DITV, Senior Center, Hoover Library, Task Force on Aging, JC Board of Supervisors, Coralville, North Liberty and University Heights) programs 98 times for 99 hours of programming, and 20 imported programs 62 times for 27 hours of programming. We also showed 95 PSAs 1179 times for 27 hours of programming. Programs Completed by the Cable TV Office in November 2017 ●2017 Pat Meyer Vision Awards ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents ○The UN is Our Greatest Hope for the Future ○Venezuela in Crisis ○Mediation to End Civil Wars: Assembling the Dream Team ○Immigration Hits Home: How New Immigration Policies Affect Iowa City and How Iowa City is Responding ●Iowa City Book Festival 2017 Panel Discussions ○A Sense of Place ○Writing as Recovery ○Who Do You Read? ○Politics ●Iowa City In Focus: November 2017 ○Featured stories: ■Building Trades Apprenticeship Programs ■Flood buyout program ■Know Your Neighborhood - College Green ■Bike Shorts: using hand signals ●Iowa City Update ○Gateway Project Update ○48 Hour Parking ○Small Business Saturday ○2017 Holiday Thieves' Market ●34th Annual Human Rights Awards Breakfast ●A Clean Slate - Everyone Deserves a Fair Chance, Part 2 ●Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County Urbanized Area Policy Board Meeting of November 15, 2017 ●Fire Prevention Week 2017 - Fire Safety Performance at Alexander Elementary ●If I Were Mayor Essay Contest 2017 Promo ●Iowa City City Council Meeting ○November 6, 2017 ○November 21, 2017 ●Iowa City City Council Work Session ○November 6, 2017 ○November 21, 2017 ●Climate Action and Adaptation Plan - Public Input Meeting - November 2017 ●Council Economic Development Committee Meeting of November 27, 2017 Date: January 18, 2018 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 January 2018 ICTC meeting Media Production Services Submitted by Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator and Jack Brooks, Special Projects Assistant Recent production activities: ●Recorded portions of the City Council budget work sessions, including an overview and highlights of the proposed FY2019 budget as well as presentations on proposed capital improvement projects. ●Coverage of the regular meetings and work sessions of the City Council. ●Taking portraits of IC Fire Department staff for internal purposes. ●We’ve started the spring Iowa City Foreign Relations Council program series. ●Recorded the annual Historic Preservation Awards program, recognizing home owners, contractors, craftspersons, consultants, and community organizations who have completed historically appropriate projects. ●Shot and produced four episodes of Iowa City Update. Topics included Christmas Tree Collection, Cardboard Ban, Rec Center Renovations, and the new Public Information Officer. Upcoming productions: ●City Council meetings. ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council lectures. ●A legislative forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Johnson County. ●The annual Preucil School of Music string concert at Hancher. ●Continue producing weekly Iowa City Update program. ●The next Iowa City In Focus will include a feature on new City Council member Mazahir Salih, new rental permit requirements, and snow emergency rules. Programming and Interactive Services Submitted by Kevin Crawley, Communications Technician Recent and Upcoming Projects: My West High volunteer web developer is still working on the new website project, but our holiday schedule hasn't left me a lot of time to work on my parts. I now hope to have it online by the end of January. I have reworked our Event Request form and our Snow Emergency crawl switch to work with the City's new email filter. We've retired our old phone-activated switch, which allowed the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to go live on our channel for their once-a-month live cablecast, and replaced it with an internet-based solution. I can trigger it remotely right now, but I'll need to write some new code to allow Johnson County staff to access it without security problems. On the scheduling front, we programmed our traditional Music Marathons for the Christmas and New Year's Holidays, programming chamber and choral music on Christmas, and all of our Friday Night and Market Music concerts on New Year's Eve/Day. Website: In December, we had 2,021 users access 3,908 pages in 2,877 sessions. Our most popular pages were Mediacom's channel lineup, Mediacom's cable rates, our video page, our home page, our program schedule page, and our bandwidth troubleshooting page. Our old streaming media provider reports 5,653 total hits, which includes 3,996 Events (player window was loaded), 51 Sessions (media was played), and 422 OnDemand Hits (media was scrubbed or index point was clicked). 1049 podcasts were downloaded, and our HQ media was accessed 132 times. Our live stream was accessed 1,854 times, but only 9% of those were accesses were for periods of more than one minute. On YouTube, we had 5,734 video views account for 21,940 minutes (365 hours and 40 minutes) of watch time. We added 22 subscribers, bringing our total subscribers up to 250. Our most watched videos by views were the Unity Potluck video, the Welcome to Iowa City! video, the latest Geneva Lecture Series presentation, our Iowa City Update episodes about the Landfill Cardboard ban, Rec Center renovations, rental permit policies, and the Animal Center Bird rescue, while the most watched videos by time were the latest Geneva Lecture Series presentation, the Unity Potluck video, our Iowa City Update episode about rental permit policies, January 2 City Council meeting, and the Welcome to Iowa City! video. For the second month in a row, 28% of our traffic was from outside the United States, with other traffic from Canada, the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Germany. Programming: We cablecast 169 programs produced in-house 868 times for 580 hours of programming, 33 locally-produced (DITV, Senior Center, Hoover Library, Task Force on Aging, JC Board of Supervisors, Coralville, North Liberty and University Heights) programs 96 times for 103 hours of programming, and 25 imported programs 68 times for 31 hours of programming. We also showed 99 PSAs 1248 times for 26 hours of programming. Programs Completed by the Cable TV Office in December 2017 ●City High School Fall Choir Concert ●Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce - A Toast to Our Communities Breakfast Program 2017 ●Onward Christian Warriors: Evangelical Masculinity and the Rise of Donald Trump ●Iowa City City Council Meetings ○December 19, 2017 ○December 5, 2017 ●Iowa City City Council Work Sessions ○December 5, 2017 ○December 19, 2017 ●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents ○Chasing Urban Crows in India: A Fool's Errand to Mend an Environmental Crisis? ○Patterns of Maritime Conflicts, 1900-2010 ○The Economic and Political Challenges Confronting Brazil ●Iowa City In Focus - December 2017 ○Topics included: ○Single stream recycling ○Corrugated cardboard ban from the landfill ○Know Your Neighborhood: Goosetown ●Iowa City Update episodes ○Birds Rescued ○Christmas Tree Collection ○Energy Audits ○Fireworks Restrictions ●Panel discussion: A Mayor's Perspective: What Four Mayors Have Learned Over the Past Year ●Promos and bumpers for City Channel 4’s music marathons ●Women's Leadership Conference 2017 ○Implicit Bias in the Judicial System ○Our Unconscious Contribution to Systemic Inequities ○The Urgency of Cultural Humility ●Shorts: ○The Johnson County Crisis Center ○Animals Services seeks donations after rescuing 200+ birds ○Christmas Tree Collection ○Bike Shorts: How to properly lock your bike Watch these and other City Channel 4 programs at www.citychannel4.com/video or subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/citychannel4.