Cable
Advisory Council
P. O. Box 87
Newtown, Connecticut
NOTES
Public
Regular Meeting - Tuesday, July 9, 2002
Newtown, Connecticut
There was a regular meeting of the Cable Advisory Council called to order
at 7:46 p.m. July 9, 2002 by Co-Chairperson, John Sabo at the offices
of Charter Communications in Newtown, Connecticut. As there was not a
quorum of council members, this was an unofficial meeting.
ATTENDEES:
John Danscuk, Carl DeVoe, Paula Hopper, Eugene Rosen, Judith Eslami, John
Sabo, Co-Chairperson. For Charter: John Dee, Dick Elwell, Greg Van Antwerp.
PUBLIC
INPUT:
No one present.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
No comments or changes to minutes of 5/14/02. No approval of minutes due
to lack of quorum.
TREASURER'S
REPORT:
F. Standt was unable to attend and, therefore, there was no current report
available. F. Standt subsequently faxed the report for inclusion in the
notes.
Opening
balance of the checking Account (5/15/02). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . $ 146.18
CHECKS WRITTEN: Carl DeVoe (#164 -$80.00) for PO Box
Newtown Sec. Svc. (#165 – $399.83)
DEPOSIT 6/25/02 from 021-61533330 ($1,000.00)
Closing balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 641.35
Opening Balance on the Money Market Account (5/15/02) . . . . . . . .
. . $ 10,568.78
Interest 4/29/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.94
Interest 5/30/02) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.10
Closing Balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 10,593.82
1 yr. plus CD @ $10,000 + $970.99 int. to date = $10,970.69
Matures 8/27/02
TOTAL
FUNDS = $22,205.86
No
approval of treasurer’s report due to lack of quorum.
COMMUNICATIONS
AND CORRESPONDENCE:
C. DeVoe indicated receipt of a letter from L. Siegel, representative
from New Fairfield, resigning her position on the council due to a conflict
in her schedule. C. DeVoe indicated a letter was received from a customer
residing in the area serviced by the Willimantic system, and this was
given to John Dee for further handling. A letter was received from the
Town of Kent regarding lines from Charter on some of their old poles.
J. Dee indicated this was the first time he was made aware of this situation,
and the letter was also sent to the DPUC. J. Dee indicated the matter
has been resolved, but he was upset that the DPUC was made aware of the
problem prior to Charter having been made aware and given the opportunity
to correct the situation. J. Dee indicated he is responding in writing
to the complaint, and will copy the council on his response. A letter
was received from a Mr. Quirici of Woodbury relative to a mistake on his
bill regarding the price of a modem, purchase vs. lease. This customer
also expressed dissatisfaction with the customer service representative
he spoke with regarding the matter. The letter was given to J. Dee for
follow-up. Additional correspondence included report to DPUC on Charter’s
installations and upgrades, and June 4 and June 12 correspondence where
DPUC is making revisions on recommendation for Charter’s franchise
renewal. J. Dee indicated they will provide quarterly reports on telephone
statistics to the DPUC. The DPUC also wants the Council to develop a few
questions for an annual survey of customers conducted by Charter. This
will be put on the agenda for discussion at the next council meeting.
J. Dee will provide a sample of the questions Charter asks.
CHARTER
COMMUNICATIONS REPORT:
J. Dee indicated Charter should be in the new building by September 1.
He indicated they are in the process of training 8 new customer service
reps, and another 10 will start training on August 2. He indicated they
should be close to being fully staffed when they move into the new building.
J. Dee stated that Charter received franchise renewal for 13 years. G.
Van Antwerp distributed the most recent newsletter and public access report.
He also indicated there were three truck shoots in June, including the
Pomperaug High School graduation. G. Van Antwerp stated Charter won an
award for their website Communityvision21.com. He also informed the council
of their open house to be held at the New Milford studio to promote usage
of that studio. C. DeVoe questioned the possibility of covering high school
football games in the fall. G. Van Antwerp stated they would like to do
some, especially the rival team games. He further indicated they have
the ability to do day or night games. D. Elwell indicated they are working
on airing Sunday morning political debates. J. Sabo commended G. Van Antwerp
on the taping of the Pomperaug High School graduation. J. Dee indicated
Charter was a flagship sponsor of the New Milford Relay for Life event.
Employees raised $5,000 and Charter Media contributed by airing $10,000
to $15,000 worth of advertising spots. The event raised in excess of $80,000.
OLD
BUSINESS:
Scholarship Committee Report – P. Hopper asked council members to
help getting together a list of names and addresses for publicity purposes.
J. Dee suggested J. Vance might be able to provide information in this
regard. P. Hopper asked that people forward their information to her via
e-mail at chetts@juno.com. C. DeVoe asked that Charter provide biographical
information on Jim Diaz.
Web
Site – J. Sabo indicated he had spoken to someone regarding development
of the web site. C. DeVoe indicated T. Joyner had all the information
on requirements as to content, links, etc. J. Sabo will follow up with
his contact and report to the council in September.
NEW
BUSINESS:
J. Eslami indicated she had spoken with the Heritage Village Masters Association
liaison relative to the council and what they do. She indicated they were
interested in having a representative from Heritage Village on the council.
J. Eslami further indicated it would be beneficial if the Heritage Village
population were able to view the education channel, indicating their inability
to view this channel does not provide them with information that would
prove helpful on budget issues. It was suggested that possibly the education
programming could be aired on Channel 21 in the morning so the Heritage
Village audience could view it. J. Dee indicated he would check into it.
J. Dee also questioned if there was anything else resulting from the Masters’
meeting that Charter should or could be doing, and J. Eslami indicated
they simply want a contact to answer questions.
C.
DeVoe suggested that, since P. Hopper was currently unable to accept an
appointment to Chairperson, John Sabo act as Chairperson and P. Hopper
be appointed to the position of Vice Chairperson. It was agreed that an
election would be held at the next meeting. C. DeVoe further indicated
that F. Standt agreed to continue in the role of Treasurer until someone
else could be found to assume this position.
Due
to a scheduling conflict, P. Hopper requested the next meeting be scheduled
for the 3rd Tuesday of September instead of the 2nd Tuesday.
Due
to failure of the recording equipment currently used, J. Sabo asked the
recording secretary to purchase a new recording device.
ADJOURNMENT:
The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted by: Lorna J. Szalay, Recording Secretary
NEXT
MEETING: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 at Charter Communications offices
in Newtown, 7:30 p.m. |
