CTAC Minutes

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – September 1, 2010

Joyce Listro, NH

Johnes Ruta, NH

Peaches Quinn, NH

George Alexander, H treasurer

Tad Weinstein, WH chair

Jen Sacco, H secretary

Carl Lambert, Sr., H

Shalita Sampson, Hamden

Richard Gay, West Haven

Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m. by Tad Weinstein.    CTV representative not present.  Comcast representative not present due to illness.

George moved to approve the minutes; seconded; August minutes approved.

George raised the issue of Comcast high school senior scholarship; we have received a flyer from Comcast.

George reported on the correspondence we have received, including a letter from the DPUC regarding N’Zinga Shani’s complaint that was copied to us, requesting more information from each party (Shani and CTV) regarding their dispute, but we have no later update.

We got another letter as a courtesy regarding the status of the Groton franchise of Comcast and their version of CTV, which Comcast runs.  There is a candidate who would like to take over the running of their public access channel, and Comcast is supportive, yet the town of Groton is fighting it.  George wants the issue of CTV not providing feed to AT&T put on the agenda for our meeting next month, and Peaches agreed to raise the issue to the CTV board meeting.

Check from Comcast was finally received.

Peaches reported about the CTV July meeting that she attended.  CTV brought up the email from Joe Schofield of July 7 about why he would no longer be attending our meetings, and what was being alluded to regarding the legal liabilities our meetings may have subjected CTV to.  Their point of view is that for Joe Schofield to attend our meetings where the ASIM complaint was being considered, he may subject CTV to additional legal liabilities.  So, the CTV board and lawyer asked that he NOT attend our meetings.  CTV board would like to be informed about what topics we would like to have them address, so they can send a relevant board member to our meeting to answer the questions we might have for them.  Joe will come for meetings where we want program review reports, and other members of the CTV board would attend according to our interests, so long as they know in advance.

Johnes raised the issue of where we hold our meetings; George raised the issue that no public space is fully open to every member of the public, as there may be other reasons why other members of the public cannot enter other facilities (like schools, etc.)  In George’s opinion, we cannot move our meeting to accommodate one particular member of the public.  Tad and Joyce also pointed out that wherever we hold our meeting,  it requires that someone from whatever facility be available after business hours to let us in, etc. 

Peaches will attend this month’s meeting of the CTV board, and will ask for an updated financial report about CTV, and also about what is on the horizon regarding AT&T, etc.

George suggested that Peaches become the representative to the CTV board; Peaches agreed on the principle that other people can fill in for her if needed. 

Meeting adjourned  .

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – August 4, 2010

Johnes Ruta, NH
George Alexander, H treasurer
Tad Weinstein, WH chair
Jen Sacco, H secretary
Carl Lambert, Sr., H
Sharon Codeanne, Comcast
Shalita Sampson, Hamden ([email protected])
Richard Gay, West Haven ([email protected])

Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m. by Tad Weinstein.    CTV representative not present.

Introduction of new member.  July minutes approved online.  Comcast report from Sharon.  General discussion of Comcast/Blockbuster’s announcement of DVD service by mail, but details not yet available.

As there was no representative of CTV present, we have no update.  Peaches, who had also attended the CTV board meeting last month, was not present to report back on the meeting last month.  CTV has no board meeting in August, and Peaches has agreed to attend in September again.

Correspondence—Tad had an email yesterday from N’Zinga Shani indicating she wanted to address a complaint about CTV to us.  Tad responded via email that she should put her complaint in writing.  We also received a copy of a letter from Joe Schofield to Ms. Shani indicating she has had her producer privileges revoked for allegedly not furnishing the requisite 20% of proceeds from sales of dvds made at CTV.   We have no further information from either Ms. Shani or CTV.

Tad, Sharon, and Carl expressed concern that if the message were sent first to Ms. Shani via email only (as indicated in the followup letter from Joe Schofield), she should have been sent a letter via U.S. mail, probably certified, to remove the possibility that the message could have been missed.

We still have not received the check from Comcast. 

George asked Tad if we have an update from the Statewide Video Advisory Council regarding their meeting with the DPUC; we do not, Tad will inquire at the next meeting of the SVAC.

Meeting adjourned 6:55.

click to read FOIA Complaint

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – June 2, 2010

Johnes Ruta, NH

Joyce Listro, NH BOE

George Alexander, H treasurer

Tad Weinstein, WH chair

Jen Sacco, H secretary

Carl Lambert, Sr., H

Sharon Codeanne, Comcast

Shalita Sanford, Hamden, visiting possible member

Richard Gay, West Haven, new member

Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m. by Tad Weinstein.    CTV representative not present.

May minutes approved online.

Comcast report from Sharon; Tad and Johnes inquired about the speed of the internet packages.  Sharon will email the packages as well as the channel lineup around.  Johnes asked about Xfinity service name; Sharon says they wanted to brand internet service distinctly from Comcast, to emphasize that they are not just a cable company anymore. 

George told Sharon that we still have not received the check; the original one is missing, so a new one is being issued. 

George forwarded one stray subscriber check to Comcast via Sharon.  Johnes inquired about the customer complaint regarding her bill that we received via email; Sharon has already forwarded the email to Comcast representatives to respond.

George asked about correspondence we received from Robinson and Cole, attorneys for Comcast.  George asked for explanation from Sharon.  Comcast collects fees from subscribers that goes to paying for public access, and the DPUC asked cable companies to sign an affidavit that they are in compliance, so they responded.

Tad brought forward the petition being circulated from one person (Stephen Simonin) in Torrington (Cablevision area), who is also a member of a local cable council (Litchfield) and also the statewide AT&T council, who argues that people should pay according to the compression ratio of service, not a flat fee, because he claims the compression decreases the quality of the picture.  It is a highly technical issue, and from what we know of him, he is very knowledgeable in the field of cable provision.  In late June, Cablevision is eliminating all analog channels, which means if you have an analog tv, you will receive nothing.  Based on his testing performed in his own home, the quality of the signal is much below the capacity of the cable, even on HD.  Same cable is used to provide voice, cable, and internet, and so cable television is being compressed.  Idea in petition is that whoever installed cable throughout the state, that cable should be used only for cable.  If this were to pass, internet providers would have to allow outside competitors to install something in central offices and lease time or space to provide competing services to homes.  They also ask for a bill of rights for customers, including indication of the compression rate so consumers can shop around.  Also wants cable boxes to indicate level of service.  Also says that cable companies should pay customers for the space that cable boxes take in their homes.   Pixellations, freeze-ups, and sound in-synchronicity would require credits to customers.  Also indicates that customers should be able to choose different providers using the same cable lines. 

George said that this gentleman had provided his complaint to the FCC via Senator Lieberman’s office, and the FCC responded saying “yes, and please tell us how you measured all this and what equipment you used.” 

Johnes moved that we vote on whether or not to sign on to the petition as the CTAC.  Jen seconded.

Before vote, Richard Gay, new member of West Haven, introduced himself. 

Mr. Sydney Evans interrupted from the gallery to ask if he’d be allowed to speak.  He was told no, as he is not on the agenda. 

Vote on petition was delayed for several minutes for Richard to read over the petition itself.

Johnes asked if anyone was aware of any updates to the issue of net neutrality.  George said that supposedly the FCC was going to install measuring equipment in 3000 households around the US to gauge the issue of signal speed being provided to homes.   DSLreports.com is a site that can measure your signal speed.

Vote was taken on petition, all votes in favor, so the motion to sign as the CTAC carries.  George asked if he could sign for our group, then scan and send back in to him.  We also signed as individuals. 

Question of CTV representative no longer attending our meeting was raised.  George looked at the DPUC site, and there is no requirement that a representative of CTV attend.  On the other hand, we ARE required to monitor the service of CTV as part of our duties.   George suggested that Jen write a letter on behalf of CTAC asking CTV’s board of directors for explanation of Joe’s email to our group. 

Discussion of CTV and CTAC is tabled until July meeting.   

Meeting adjourned 7:00 p.m.

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – May 5, 2010

Johnes Ruta, NH

Joyce Listro, NH BOE

George Alexander, H treasurer

Tad Weinstein, WH chair

Jen Sacco, H secretary

Carl Lambert, Sr. H, new member

Sharon Codeanne, Comcast

Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m. by Tad Weinstein.    CTV representative not present.

April minutes approved online.

We received two certified and unopened letters from CTV to Mr. Sydney Evans, which he sent to us because it was not mailed to his desired/appropriate address.   We returned them to Mr. Evans at our meeting; he wanted us to note that it was not sent to the appropriate address.

Comcast report from Sharon; George inquired about why the “free” set top boxes never materialized for some customers who requested them, because they would have had to go to New Haven to pick them up.  The offer is now expired.

Tad, Jen, and Joyce expressed concern that new rate hike  is the second price increase within six months.  There are some packages that were raised separately, so that not everything being raised now was raised in December, but to our recollection a number of these same packages (particularly basic) were raised both times. This outstrips inflation, and so the board asked for justification for the price increases.  None were really forthcoming.

Johnes raised the issue of net neutrality.  Comcast is opposed to regulation; Johnes is questioning what justifies that.  Sharon offered to connect Johnes to a person with technical expertise to discuss the issues of internet speed/net neutrality.

George mentioned that a website, DSL report.com, can measure the speed of your internet; Jen asked George if we could put a link to that on our webpage so that anyone interested might be able to do this. 

Johnes asked Sharon about the “Classic Arts Showcase” channel, which he had raised to her before.  Sharon says they prioritize channels for which a really high demand.  Marketing v.p. and division office make the final decisions regarding channel lineup.  Sharon said she would check with them to see if there is a final decision about “Classic Arts Showcase.”

George asked when the 2010 check from Comcast would arrive.  Sharon will mail it to George’s house, so he can make the deposit ASAP.

Johnes asked about the CTV bylaws, which since our last meeting are now available on the CTV website.

CTV had Hamden police come to remove Larry Czajkowski, who was observing the meeting, due to ongoing disputes between CTV and Mr. Czajkowski.  We received a certified letter from CTV containing a copy of an April 8, 2010 letter addressd to Mr. Czajkowski.  The letter concluded with “Staff [CTV] has been instructed to call the police immediately should you enter the premises.”

Though they were not on the agenda, Mr. Sydney Evans and others representing ASIM raised the issue, and wanted to know why the CTAC “authorized” having Mr. Czajkowski “arrested.”  Many minutes were spent explaining to the observers that we do not control CTV, nor the police.  Repeatedly members of the council were told by Mr. Evans that we would be held “individually accountable” for the removal of Mr. Czajkowski.  Mr. Evans also pointed his finger at the Council and each member separately and said that if his issues were not resolved it “will cost you your whole life.”  Mr. Evans was told repeatedly that the threats were unwarranted and not appropriate. 

George read the response of CTV (to the DPUC’s request for information pertaining to the dispute lodged by representatives of ASIM) to the board and observing guests.

CTV has now responded to the DPUC; now the CTAC awaits the finding of the DPUC.

CTV is still broadcasting old tapings of ASIM; according to Mr. Evans, CTV is not airing the newly recorded shows that he has been bringing on DVD to CTV.

Due to the length of the discussion, the meeting extended beyond the normal time of adjournment and CTAC was asked by CTV to leave because no one was available to lock the building.  Meeting continued in the parking lot where it was decided to contact the Hamden Mayor’s Office regarding the threats by Mr. Evans.

Meeting adjourned 7:40 p.m.

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – April 7, 2010

Johnes Ruta, NH

Joyce Listro, NH BOE

George Alexander, H treasurer

Tad Weinstein, WH chair

Jen Sacco, H secretary

Carl Lambert, Sr. H, new member

Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m. by Tad Weinstein.  Introduction of council; Sharon/Comcast not present; CTV representative not present.

Feedback from state video advisory council meeting from Tad Weinstein; Tad is now treasurer of SVAC by election.  They are working on picture quality, video quality.  At&T and Cablevision were present at the SVAC meeting.  George was uncomfortable with the lack of information about picture quality and technical information.  Should output signal be measured, or signal strength into a box be measured?  George was told that no signal is technically digital; all transmissions are on RF frequency which is a carrier of a digital signal that is converted at the box itself.   So the question is, what are we interested in?  The picture quality, or the signal quality.  Tad responded that the SVAC maintains that picture quality could be better if it were not so compressed, that an engineer on the committee has done independent testing and found better quality picture.  That man maintains that pay for service should be tied to picture quality; if the signal will be highly compressed, he believes consumers should be able to pay less. 

George raised issue of court decision in favor of Comcast that the FCC had no oversight for maintaining “net neutrality.”  “Nuclear Action” would be for FCC to declare that video providers are the equivalent of the bell system of phone providers.

Tad reported that Comcast has received notice that Comcast rates are going up.

Introduction of new member of CTAC. 

Heard from Sydney Evans, of “America Speaks It’s Mind” show.  Alleging that friction between CTV and the ASIM show was “premeditated.” 

Heard from Larry Czajkowski, who says they refuse to back down until they get a ruling favorable to their claim, which is that they  arbitrarily and capriciously had their show cancelled by CTV and that they were thrown out and threatened with the police.  He feels he has been slandered, in front of the press, without evidence.

Mr. Evans claims this is an issue of freedom of speech, and that the future of the U.S. is at risk as a result. 

George clarified that their first complaint, which was filed with the DPUC, is now out of our hands as an advisory committee.  He asked for clarification about the claim of censorship; is there evidence Joe Schofield saw their tape prior to not allowing them to air their show? 

Larry Czajkowski claims that CTV is being mismanaged by CTV; Tad cautioned us not to lose sight of what the real topic at hand was, which is their original complaint.  They said that when they were denied a film crew, everyone else should be denied a film crew as well.

They claim the rules of CTV need to be updated, and are also mad that Comcast did not send a representative to the meeting.  

While we are waiting for CTV to respond (they have until April 21^st), Jen suggested that we ask for a copy of CTV’s rules and regulations, so that we can look at them to see if there is some substantiation of the claims of not following due process on the part of CTV.

ASIM claims to have never been given a reason why as to why their show was cancelled.

Mr. Evans believes the reason the show was cancelled was because of personal friction, not because of content. 

Meeting adjourned 7:00 p.m.

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – January 6, 2010

George Alexander, H, Treasurer

Tad Weinstein, WH, chair

Jennifer Sacco, H, secretary

Sharon Codeanne, Comcast

Joe Schofield, CTV

Joyce Listro, NH Library

Johnes Ruta, NH

6:05 p.m. meeting called to order.

Joe Schofield gave report from CTV.  CTV is very interested in moving out of current location because of lack of parking due to construction, and costs due to having to have front door open on Saturdays because back of building cannot be used for parking.  They will be putting this space up for rent shortly, and they have an agent looking for a new space.  The board of CTV really wants something centrally located to the three towns.  May wind up in New Haven, but still considering a space in Hamden.  George suggested Whalley avenue near 15 (around A1 car dealership).  All is dependent on finding a tenant to sublease the current space, even if at a loss.

Joe Schofield has been looking into AT&T to see if CTV wants to broadcast on it, now that the viewer has improved.  Joe is still not happy about the lack of surfing-discoverability.   AT&T can’t be obtained here at the headquarters, and most of the producers for CTV also cannot get AT&T service at home; it cannot reasonable be monitored.  Joe is leaning to at least putting the government channel on AT&T, but not necessarily the others.  Board may be opposed to putting any channels on AT&T.  CTV is still pursuing a rollback with the state senate; CTV wants the state senate to bring AT&T into compliance with all of the regulations that Comcast had been subject to.  CTV is making the case of economic discrimination by AT&T regarding neighborhoods where service is not available.  Joyce asked Joe about the return line from the field house, and he says it is ready to go and that they are just waiting for something to broadcast from there.

Comcast report given by Sharon Codeanne, including price decreases for services.   George inquired about DTAs (things that make boxes unnecessary and allow for digital channels but not OnDemand in other rooms); they are to be available in New Haven second quarter of 2010 and will be $1.99/month.  Johnes asked about the Classic Arts Showcase; they CAS does have a “digital sidecar” which Johnes wanted to know if this would make it carry-able by Comcast.  Sharon agreed to forward the specs to the marketing department and head-end engineers at  Comcast.

George cannot close the books for our 2009 year without the bank statement for December yet.  He will send info. out by email so Tad can put together our year-end report.

Tad raised the issue as to why CTV still refuses to be on AT&T, when AT&T is collecting money from subscribers and CTV is getting the funds.  Tad argues that CTV should be on AT&T.  Jen asked what they would actually lose by joining in terms of their leverage to pressure AT&T to provide a better situation for public access.

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – October 7, 2009

George Alexander, H, Treasurer

Tad Weinstein, WH, chair

Jennifer Sacco, H, secretary

Sharon Codeanne, Comcast

Joe Schofield, CTV

Guest from the public, Johnes Ruta, art director of New Haven Public Library

6:08 p.m. meeting called to order.

Comcast report given by Sharon Codeanne.   Tad raised the issue of the extreme increase for the cable modem rental, which will be $2/month, when a modem can be purchased for about $50 total.  George raised the issue of cable cards, which are much cheaper than cable boxes, yet Sharon informs us they don’t have full functionality, as they don’t have a hard drive, and so they are not capable of Video on Demand, etc.

George forwarded checks we received which belong to Comcast to Sharon.

Joe Schofield reported on behalf of CTV, including that they will be covering the three mayoral debates in the three towns.  They will not be covered live, but they will be recorded and broadcast within 24 hours.  The board of CTV formed an exploratory committee to explore sites for relocating CTV.  They did visit 5 or 6 sites, but did not find one quite yet.  George asked if there were any sites considered in Hamden or West Haven.  Jen suggested that CTV consider some of the available office space on Dixwell Avenue.  Joe is concerned how someone from West Haven would be able to get there by bus.  Jen volunteered to send addresses of available office space on Dixwell to Joe.  Joe does not anticipate necessarily moving before the first of the year.  George asked how much space they want (5000-6000 sq ft.) with parking and access to public transportation.

Tad raised discussion of CTV sending signal to AT&T subscribers.  Tad suggested that perhaps AT&T had made enough improvement in the quality of their signal, so maybe it was time to re-evaluate broadcasting on AT&T.  Joe says CTV still has an issue of not being able to surf channels.  Joe recommended that we come to the CTV meeting to raise the issue to the board of CTV.  We will send a message to the board to ask them to re-consider their position.  CTV is unwilling to pay to hook up to AT&T.

Johnes Ruta brought forth a letter describing programming – the “Classic Arts Showcase”—and would like to see it added to the Comcast lineup on a channel below 99.  Sharon said that she would bring this to Comcast, but Comcast would not be adding any analog channels to their lineup.  Joe said that CTV had carried Classic Arts Showcase, but they lost it because they needed an additional antenna, which would require a commercial install, which the Dish Network will not do, nor will they let CTV put it up themselves.  (They had a dish antenna, but it appears to have been hit by lightning and needs to be replaced.)  Joe indicated that CTV could get behind this issue, and that perhaps it would save Comcast some customers from leaving to the Dish Network in order to receive it.

George presented the mail to Comcast.

We postponed a decision on the renewal of our financial support of the Alliance for Community Media until we are able to get the point of view of CTV next month.

Tad and Joyce attended the statewide meeting of the AT&T advisory council.  Cablevision has a statewide contract as well, though they are not available in all areas, though they were present at the meeting.

Tad asked George to send an email to Joe Schofield to take back to the CTV board about bringing CTV to AT&T, now that the viewing capability is improved.

December meeting in West Haven will be held on the second Weds. Of the month instead of the first Weds. to meet Tad’s schedule.

Meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m.

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven, and West Haven – September 2, 2009

Tad Weinstein, WH, chair

Jennifer Sacco, H, secretary

George Alexander, H, treasurer

Joyce Listro, NH BOE

Sharon Codeanne, Comcast

Joe Schofield, CTV

Meeting called to order 6:00 p.m.  Technically, we don’t have quorum, so can’t approve minutes from last meeting.

Sharon gave Comcast report; lots of sports channels moved around because of deal with ESPN and in order to make room for all of the channels picked up.

Tad raised issue of the free boxes with Sharon because John of Comcast indicated to us that the deal expired, but no one who had contacted our council appears to have ever gotten one.  Sharon said that the deal might be renewed in the future.  Next year as expanded basic is brought into digital, customers will be offered a free digital converter box forever, but this is not rolled out in our area yet and Sharon is not sure when it will be.

Tad asked about the message Gabriel Michael had received from Comcast when he moved which had email addresses for more than the relevant cable council. Sharon will look at the message that went out.

Joe Schofield asked if info. for CTV shows could be made available to Comcast customers, instead of just a generic description of “public access programming.”  Sharon will look into this to see if it is technologically feasible for the info. to be associated with the shows.

CTV had to file a report with the DPUC for the $64,000 grant that they received.  The idea had been to use the money to expand PEG programming, and Joe said the money would be used to create 2-3 new programs per channel.  As of the end of July, 39 new programs had been created (including outside programming and locally originated shows, which are about half and half of the new shows created.)  The server has been quite a boon to CTV in terms of getting new programming, and CTV will provide us with a report by the end of the year with all of the data about the impact of the server.

CTV is looking to move locations because parking is at a premium, and potentially will be a bigger issue when a new building is completed in this location.  The parking situation has meant that CTV had to have 2 staff members on Saturdays to supervise the entrances, and so have shut down on 2 Saturdays a month.  They would also like foot traffic, and so would like to move to downtown New Haven.  Finances are an issue, though, for moving to New Haven.  Joe believes they should be looking for a space to buy or at least have an option to buy.  Subscriber numbers are going up, more program content is going out, but people coming in to the station has leveled off.  The staff has been going out to the field to record things, but they would like to get back to a model where the public comes here to make their own programming.  They want to be on a bus line and have parking available which would at least be free to the producers.  Rent at the North Haven location has ballooned significantly, so move to North Haven hasn’t necessarily saved them money from whatever deal they would have had at the old New Haven location.

Joyce asked Joe about the return line from the Field House, and he said she should call CTV once a week to pester them to get out there to try to get it functional.

George will inquire about getting an additional key to our mailbox since Stu had the other one.

Alliance for Community Media membership is up for renewal.  We discussed whether or not to send an additional contribution. We didn’t send extra last year, because CTV had a difference of opinion with ACM about the collection of fees.  Joe had to leave early, so we tabled the issue until next month since we have time before the membership is due.

Tad asked if anyone could attend the ATT meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23^rd, but we do not know where the meeting is being held. Joyce made a deal with Tad that they would go as a team so long as it is not ridiculously far away (more than 20 miles away).

Jen raised the issue with Sharon of the difficulty of trying to pay cable bill online at Comcast.com (or Comcast.net—not clear which site it was, and the online chat person said they were combined).  George also said it was very difficult to get price/product information from Comcast.com.

Meeting adjourned 7:00 p.m