HomeMy WebLinkAboutICTC Agenda and Packet 2020-01-27
Agenda
Iowa City Telecommunications Commission
City Cable TV Office, 10 S. Linn St., Tower Place Parking Facility, Level 3A
Monday, January 27, 2019, 5:30PM
1. Call to order
2. Approval of minutes
3. Announcements of Commissioners
4. Short public announcements
5. Municipal broadband research
6. REPORTS
Consumer Issues
City Cable TV Office Report
7. Adjournment
If you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate in this program/event, please contact Ty
Coleman at 319-356-5454 or ty-coleman@iowa-city.org. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow
sufficient time to meet your access needs.
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Iowa City Telecommunications Commission
12/16/2019 Meeting Minutes
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Minutes
Iowa City Telecommunications Commission
December 16, 2019 – 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 5:30 P.M.
Members Present:Adam Stockman, Gina Reyes, Matthew Brenton
Members Absent:Andrew Austin, Kyla Paterson
Staff Present:Ty Coleman
Others Present:
Recommendations to Council: None
Approval of minutes:
Stockman moved and Reyes seconded a motion to approve the November 25, 2019 minutes as
presented. The motion passed unanimously.
Announcements of Commissioners:
Brenton noted that he had invited to someone he knew with networking experience to a
Telecommunications Commission meeting, to be a resource for the discussions on municipal broadband.
Brenton said he also extended an invitation to the community group known as the Community Internet
Project who had been researching options for providing greater access to broadband.
Short public announcements:
None.
Municipal broadband research:
Stockman reported he had connected with someone from the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities
(IAMU) and that his email thread was included in the meeting packet. Stockman said he spoke with
Curtis Dean, who is part of the IAMU, but who is also a consultant for municipalities that want to set up
broadband. Dean provided information about the municipalities in Iowa that have broadband utilities.
Stockman said a municipality needs to have greater than fifty percent voter support to proceed with
building a network. He said that if city funds are to be used for a municipal broadband project, sixty
percent voter support is needed. He said that if a vote fails, a municipality must wait three years before
holding another vote on the issue.
Stockman said some of the information he received from Dean, also found in the meeting packet,
included numbers of how many have voted yes and he felt the numbers were surprisingly high.
Stockman said that many of the cities listed are somewhat small, but that some larger cities, such as
Waterloo and Dubuque, are looking into municipal broadband. Stockman said that Dean would be able to
provide contacts for many of the municipalities listed.
Brenton said he reached out to someone who works in networking at the University of Iowa and asked
some questions about the Iowa Communications Network (ICN). He said he read more about the ICN
and permitted use cases and it seemed that it may not be suitable for municipal broadband projects, but
that he would verify it with someone from ICN. He said governmental entities allowed to use the ICN
included judicial branches and federal agencies with offices in Iowa. He said educational institutions were
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Iowa City Telecommunications Commission
12/16/2019 Meeting Minutes
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also on the list of those for which the ICN was intended.
Brenton’s contact also provided a contact at Cedar Falls Utilities, with whom he would be communicating
in the near future. Brenton said he reached out to someone he knew that had worked at Muscatine Water
and Power as another resource. He also reached out to the owner of a company he had worked for in the
past. He said the company had been able to purchase Internet access and then used wireless
point-to-point technology to distribute it. Brenton said he hoped to have more to report to the
Commission, after he received responses from those he contacted, by the next meeting.
Brenton said one of his contacts had brought up the 5G technology starting to be implemented by cellular
companies and said that some press coverage speculates that 5G will be a disruptor for the Internet
Service Provider (ISP) business. Brenton said he asked his contact for better resources for information
about 5G. He said 5G has come up in past discussions of the Telecommunications Commission about
municipal broadband and that it is something the group would need to be mindful of as it continues its
efforts. Reyes said she could get some information regarding 5G technical aspects. Brenton said any
concrete information about 5G would be useful.
Reyes reported she had looked further into the website for the Office of the Chief Information Officer that
offered information about helping rural infrastructure and the availability of grants. She said she found a
map that provided a Census overview of broadband coverage in Iowa. She said that while it looks like
most of Iowa City is covered, there were some pockets without access to broadband. Reyes said she
would be contacting someone to ask about the data and how it was obtained.
Reyes said she found that available grants tend to lean towards either building up infrastructure or
increasing access. She said there is money available for projects such as apartment builders putting in
wiring and equipment and also subsidies for things like reduced monthly payments. Reyes referred to
Mediacom’s reduced rate program for cable TV service and said she found another program in the area
for Internet service and would look for contacts for such programs to learn more. She said that if Iowa City
developed new infrastructure, a plan would still need to address increased access for all residents.
Brenton said he looked at the coverage map and found that most of the areas marked as not having
broadband access were green spaces. He said, however, that he did notice a couple of mobile home
areas that did not appear to have access as of June 30, 2018. Coleman asked how broadband was
being defined for the map. Brenton said it was defined as download speeds of 25Mbps and upload
speeds of 3Mbps or greater. He said this makes one of these areas a targeted service area that is
eligible for state incentives.
Stockman said he felt that having some information ready to present to the City Council by sometime in
March was a realistic goal. Brenton suggested sending some communication to the Council to say the
Commission would be providing information soon.
Stockman said that before the next meeting, he hoped to obtain a list of email addresses for contacts
related to existing municipal broadband networks in Iowa. Brenton said that if Stockman is able to get a
list, he didn’t see a reason not to send out the survey at that time.
Consumer issues:
Coleman said there was only one issue in the December 2019 cable complaints report. Brenton noted
that it was listed as unresolved and asked if there had been any changes. He said the issue dealt with a
property owner trying to get Mediacom service extended to his property. Coleman said that the status
was the same as listed in the report.
Brenton asked what governs whether a customer has to pay construction costs for extending service.
Coleman said that under Iowa City’s former franchise agreement with Mediacom, Mediacom was required
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12/16/2019 Meeting Minutes
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to build out its infrastructure to areas that met a certain density threshold. Coleman said that with the
State of Iowa Utilities Board now overseeing cable franchises, he didn’t believe that the requirements
were as strict. He said he had encountered some similar situations in the past where it was determined
the customer would need to pay for construction costs and it was expensive. Coleman said he had the
impression that the customer with the issue currently at hand was expecting that he may have to pay
some construction costs.
Brenton mentioned the rate increases announced by Mediacom in a letter that was included in the
meeting packet. He said it was interesting that the letter addressed the fact that people are moving away
from traditional methods of viewing TV programming and that the local broadcast stations and regional
sports networks were raising the costs to carry their channels on Mediacom’s system.
City Cable TV Office report:
Coleman said he didn’t have anything to add to the report submitted in the meeting packet. Stockman
referred to the upcoming holiday lights drone video the Cable TV Office planned to record. Coleman said
the Cable TV Office has two licensed drone pilots and that they have been doing really great work and
that drone video has been getting a good response on the City’s social media channels. He said the
drone was purchased last year and was being put to good use. Coleman said his office also gets
requests from various City departments for aerial photos and video of particular areas or projects.
Adjournment:
Stockman moved and Reyes seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously.
Adjournment was at 6:03 p.m.
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Iowa City Telecommunications Commission
12/16/2019 Meeting Minutes
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TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
12-MONTH ATTENDANCE RECORD
Gowder Paterson Brenton Pierce
01/22/2019
Meeting not held due
to inclement weather
and lack of quorum.
-
-
-
vacant
-
resignation Stockman
02/25/2019 x vacant x x o/c
Reyes
03/25/2019 resignation o/c x x x
04/22/2019 vacant x x x o/c
06/03/2019
Meeting not held due
to lack of quorum.
vacant
-
-
-
-
06/24/2019 vacant x x x o
Andrews
07/22/2019 x x x x resignation
08/26/2019 o/c x x x vacant
Paterson
09/23/2019 x x x x o
10/28/2019 x x o/c x o
11/25/2019 o/c x x x o
12/16/2019 o/c x x x o
(x) = Present (o) = Absent (o/c) = Absent/Called (Excused)
ACTIVE Iowa Municipal Telecom Systems
Full Name Title Phone Email
Algona Municipal Utilities Lowell Roethler Communications Superintendent 515-295-3584 lroethler@netamu.com
Algona Municipal Utilities Bob Jennings Marketing Director 515-295-3584 bjennings@netamu.com
Algona Municipal Utilities John Bilsten General Manager 515-295-3584 jhbilsten@netamu.com
Alta Municipal Utilities Randy Tilk General Manager 712-200-1122 altatec@alta-tec.net
Alta Municipal Utilities Stephanie McSparran Telecom Clerk 712-200-1122 telecomclerk@alta-tec.net
Alta Municipal Utilities Brad Koth Telecommunications Tech 712-200-1122 bktech@alta-tec.net
City of Bellevue Abby Skrivseth City Clerk/Administrator 563-872-3357 abbey.skrivseth@bellevueia.gov
City of Bellevue Emily Medinger Telecommunications & Billing Manager 563-872-3357 emily.medinger@bellevueia.gov
Cedar Falls Utilities Steve Bernard General Manager 319-266-1761 steve.bernard@cfunet.net
Cedar Falls Utilities Dave Schilling Communications Services Manager 319-266-1761 david.schilling@cfunet.net
Cedar Falls Utilities Rob Houlihan Director, Communications Services Operations 319-266-1761 Robert.Houlihan@cfunet.net
Cedar Falls Utilities Mike Litterer Director, CSBD 319-266-1761 mike.litterer@cfunet.net
Cedar Falls Utilities Kent Halder Communications Sales Manager 319-266-1761 Kent.Halder@cfunet.net
Coon Rapids Municipal Utilities Brad Honold General Manager 712-999-2225 bradley.honold@gmail.com
Coon Rapids Municipal Utilities Kari Woodard Director of Accounting and Finance 712-999-2225 kari.woodard@crmu.net
Grundy Center Municipal Utilities Jeff Carson Telecommunications Manager 319-825-5207 jeff@gcmuni.net
Harlan Municipal Utilties Doug Hammer Director of Marketing 712-755-5182 hammerd@harlannet.com
Harlan Municipal Utilties Jim Gedwillo Director of Telecommunications 712-755-5182 gedwilloj@harlannet.com
Harlan Municipal Utilties Kenneth Weber CEO 712-755-5182 weberk@harlannet.com
Independence Light & Power,
Telecommunications Kevin Sidles General Manager 319-332-0100 ksidles@indytel.com
Independence Light & Power,
Telecommunications Josh VanDenburg Telecommunications Manager 319-332-0100 jvandenburg@indytel.com
Indianola Municipal Utilities Kurt Ripperger Telecommunications Manager 515-961-9439 kripperger@indianolaiowa.gov
Indianola Municipal Utilities Chris DesPlanques General Manager 515-961-9439 cdesplanques@indianolaiowa.gov
Laurens Municipal Power & Communications Chad Cleveland General Manager 712-841-4610 chadc@laurens-ia.com
Lenox Municipal Utilities John Borland General Manager 641-333-2550 john@lenoxia.com
Manning Municipal Utilities Beth Swearingen Administrative Assistant 712-655-2660 beth@mmctsu.com
Manning Municipal Utilities Jeremy Carroll General Manager 712-655-2660 jerry@manningia.com
Manning Municipal Utilities Jason Ehlers IT Technician 712-655-2660 jason@mmctsu.com
Mapleton Communications Theresa Steinhoff City Clerk 712-881-4000 tsteinhoff@longlines.com
Muscatine Power & Water Gage Huston General Manager 563-262-3315 ghuston@mpw.org
Muscatine Power & Water Jason Brown Manger, Telecommunications 563-262-3315 jason.brown@mpw.org
Osage Municipal Utilities Brandon Halsne Telecommunications Supervisor 641-832-3731 bhalsne@omu.email
Osage Municipal Utilities Josh Byrnes General Manager 641-832-3731 jbyrnes@omu.email
Reinbeck Telecommunications Utility Eric Lage General Manager 319-788-7888 ericl@reinbeck.net
Spencer Municipal Utilities Steve Pick General Manager 712-580-5800 steven.pick@smunet.net
Spencer Municipal Utilities Mark Baedke Communications Manager 712-580-5800 mark.baedke@smunet.net
The Community Agency D.J. Weber Telecommunications Manager 712-928-2240 djweber@tcaexpress.net
Waverly Light & Power Jeff Magsamen Telecom Manager 319-559-2000 jmagsamen@waverlyutilities.com
Waverly Light & Power Darrel Wenzel CEO 319-559-2000 dwenzel@waverlyutilities.com
Vinton Municipal Communications Utility Tom Richtsmeier General Manager 319-472-4813 generalmanager@vmeu.org
Fw: SSB 3009 and Iowa League of Cities
From: Adam Stockman <iowaadamstockman@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2020 7:52 PM
To: Ty Coleman
Subject: Fwd: SSB 3009 and Iowa League of Ci es
For discussion at the next meeting.
-Adam
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Curtis Dean <curtis@smartsourceconsulting.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 9:21 AM
Subject: SSB 3009 and Iowa League of Cities
To:
Cc: Whipple, Tim <twhipple@iamu.org>
Good morning;
By now you are likely aware of the Mediacom-backed bill that was introduced this week that would place
severe restrictions on municipal broadband projects. SSB 3009 is the first serious attempt by incumbents in
over a decade to quash competition from community-owned networks.
IAMU legal counsel Tim Whipple did a nice job of summarizing the effects that this bill would have on cities:
· It’s an compe ve (it eliminates the ability of municipals to follow market-based pricing).
· It’s an consumer (it would likely increase prices and do so for no good reason).
· It’s an growth (it makes it harder for communi es to improve their service, speed, and prices).
· It puts customer bases at risk which puts debt financing in jeopardy.
· It treats smaller communi es differently than larger communi es and appears to be an a empt to
pit them against each other.
· It appears to be an a empt to limit municipal u li es forma on only to markets Mediacom
doesn’t want to serve.
· It’s a direct a ack not just on Cedar Falls, Waverly, Musca ne, Indianola, and Independence, but
on communi es like Charles City, Vinton, Ft. Dodge, and Waterloo that want to start their own and
need financing tools.
IAMU is mobilizing its resources to stop the bill. However, Tim has informed me that the Iowa League of Cities
has not yet registered against the bill. That's where you come in.
I'm hoping that your city can reach out to the League of Cities and strongly encourage them to register
against SSB 3009 in order to protect the interests of its members who may want to exercise your home
rule authority to improve broadband for your citizens.
Thank you in advance on behalf of the Iowa communities that have built networks, are building them today, are
planning to build them in 2020, or are studying their options in 2021 and beyond.
--
Curtis Dean
SmartSource Consulting
517 SE 17th Street
Grimes, IA 50111
515-650-0251
www.smartsourceconsulting.com
SendAttachDiscard
January 21, 2020
To: Iowa City Telecommunications Commission
From: Ty Coleman, Media Production Services Coordinator (MPSC)
Re: Cable Complaints December 2020
1.)
Date: 12/04/19
Method of contact:
Email to City Council
Complaint/Comment Summary:
The customer reported bad cable TV reception with intermittent dropouts.
Resolution Summary:
MPSC responded and contacted Mediacom’s Rick Karnes to investigate whether there were any problems
reported by others in the customer’s area. Karnes had a technician look into the problem.
The customer reported that the technician was friendly and spent time listening and checking things out. She said
the box was swapped with another one and the technician provided his phone number if the problem happens
again. Karnes reported that the problem was with the drop cable going to the residence and not a wider problem
in the neighborhood.
Date of Resolution: 12/11/19
2.)
Date: 12/18/19
Method of contact:
Phone call to MPSC
Issue/Comment Summary:
The customer called with concerns about a significant increase in her cable TV billing and wasn’t clear where the
increases came from.
Resolution Summary:
MPSC inquired about the issue with Mediacom’s Stephanie Poole. Poole said the customer came into the local
Mediacom office and helped the customer to lower her bill. Poole reported the customer had been on two
different promotions, which had just reached the second year and were subject to an increase. She said she also
removed some of the movie channels the customer said she was not watching. Poole said that often promotions
will include free movie channels for a few months and require the customer to cancel within a certain timeframe to
avoid being charged for the channels. Poole said the customer’s current promotion will end in December of 2020
and the customer will be able to renegotiate to a different promo at that time. She also informed the customer that
she would see a rate increase in early January 2020 due to increased local broadcast station and regional sports
surcharges.
Date of Resolution: 12/19/19
Date: January 21, 2020
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 2020 meeting
Media Production Services
Submitted by Jack Brooks, Special Projects Assistant, and Lillie Ostwinkle, Media Production Assistant
Recent production activities:
●Covered the selection and swearing in of the new Iowa City mayor and mayor pro-tem.
●Livestreamed a legislative forum held by the League of Women Voters.
●Live coverage of a global issues forum focused on issues of importance in the November
presidential election. Sponsored by a group of Iowa City non-profit organizations.
●Produced episodes of Iowa City Update with topics that included Four Module Piece
sculpture, budget sessions, a new community relations officer, and household hazardous
materials collection.
●Released PSA videos on holiday tree curbside collection, holiday lights, and a new series
introducing our different plow drivers.
Upcoming productions:
●Producing a video of the United Way of Johnson & Washington Counties’ “Cheers to 100
Years” event.
●Covering two events from the One Book Two Book Children’s Literature Festival.
●Continue producing Iowa City Update episodes with topics including caucus details, the
Parks and Recreation Department’s new Maker Space, One Book Two Book, and more.
●Recording a new Iowa City Matters podcast episode on winter in Iowa City.
Programming and Interactive Services
Submitted by Kevin Crawley, Communications Technician
Recent and Upcoming Projects
In programming news, we did our annual Christmas Music Marathon, showing all 5 years of our
MusicIC concerts from 9pm Christmas eve to 10 pm Christmas day, and our New Years
Marathon, playing all of our other music (Friday Night Concerts, Market Music, Preucil concerts,
and a few fundraisers) from 2019 on New Year's eve and New Year's day. Currently, I'm working
on a new web animation template for InfoCast, with the hope that we might be able to find a way
to get animation implemented into the City’s digital signage to increase its visual appeal. Various
City departments now have 7 digital signs, and they have been so well received that I suspect
we'll install others in the next year.
Website
In December, there were 3,353 users accessing 5,729 pages in 4,516 sessions. Our most
popular pages were Mediacom's channel lineup page, our live video page, our home page,
Mediacom's rates page, our program schedule, and the City Council meeting of December 17.
On YouTube, we had 6,545 video views account for 370 hours of watch time. We added 21 more
subscribers, and our current total is 733. Our most-watched videos by views were the newest
episode of Iowa City in Focus and all four of the Iowa City Update episodes from December, and
the most-watched by total viewing time were Iowa City in Focus, the City Council Meeting of
December 17, the City Council meeting of December 3, and the ever-popular Hindustani vocal
concert.
Programming:
In December, we cablecast 154 programs
produced in-house 801 times for 531 hours
of programming, 33 locally-produced (DITV,
Senior Center, Hoover Library, Task Force
on Aging, Education Exchange and
meetings of the JC Board of Supervisors,
Coralville, North Liberty, University Heights,
and ICCSD School Board) programs 112
times for 100 hours of programming, and 44
imported programs 133 times for 78 hours
of programming. We also showed 115 PSAs
1125 times for 25 hours of programming.
Below, please find a listing of the programs completed by the Cable TV Office in December 2019.
Programs Completed by the Cable TV Office in December 2019
●Student Leadership Awards - Regina Elementary School 2019
●City Channel 4 Winter Station IDs (3)
●Holiday Lights in Iowa City
●Holiday Music Marathon 2019 promo
●Holiday Tree Curbside Collection
●How the City treats our salt supply
●Human Rights Campaign Releases 2019 Municipal Equality Index in Iowa City
●IC Climate Expo
○Recap #2
○Recap #3
●Iowa City City Council Meetings
○December 3, 2019
○December 17, 2019
●Iowa City City Council Work Sessions
○December 3, 2019
○December 17, 2019
●Iowa City Foreign Relations Council Presents
○Climate and Culture Change: Archaeology at Castillejo del Bonte, Spain
○U.S. Foreign Policy and its Role in the Upcoming Elections
●Iowa City In Focus: Transit Study
○Topics included:
■Iowa City Area Transit Study
■Ped Mall Improvements Project
■Snow emergency ordinance information
■Flushable wipes and their impact on the wastewater system
●Iowa City Transit Study info
●Iowa City Update
○'Four Module Piece'
○Budget Sessions
○Holiday Art Market
○Holiday Schedule
○Recycle Holiday Lights