June 3, 2015 Minutes

MINUTES of CTAC of Hamden, New Haven and West Haven

Meeting Date: June 3, 2015

 

Call to order: A regular monthly meeting of CTAC was held at CTV Offices at 843 State Street, New Haven, Connecticut, on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. President Tad Weinstein presiding. Don Levy Secretary. Meeting called to order at 6:05.

 

Members in attendance:

Tad Weinstein, Chair (WH)

Peaches Quinn, Vice Chair (NH)

Don Levy, Secretary (H)

Johnes Ruta, (NH)

 

Steve Gemmell, Local Manager, Field Operations, Frontier Communications

John Bairos, Manager, Government & Community Relations, COMCAST

 

The minutes for the May meeting were approved.

John Bairos, who is the Manager of Government and Community Relations for COMCAST in Connecticut, attended the meeting and said he would be the COMCAST representative to CTAC going forward. John presented the COMCAST report. He provided additional details about the X-1 platform, saying it is able to respond to voice commands. John indicated in response to a customer complaint that in the future COMCAST will be more careful with regard to sending letters to its customers. In this case a customer was informed by letter that he would be losing some channels whereas in fact he later learned he would not be losing any channels.

Steve Gimmell, local manager of field operations for Frontier Communications, told the commissioners that Frontier has recently acquired new customers in Los Angeles, Tampa and Dallas. This addition to Frontier’s customer base was five times as large as the recent takeover here in Connecticut. He anticipated that the experience of these new customers would be smoother than that experienced here in Connecticut. Steve also said that he anticipated being able to work out all the technical and financial arrangements with CTV shortly so that Frontier customers would finally have access to the unique programs produced at CTV for which they have provided funding over the years.

Speaking on behalf of the nominating committee, Johnes said that the committee had recommended that all current officers be put forward for another one-year term. The commission voted to accept this recommendation.

Don provided a quick review of the plans for the updated CTAC grant program. After a brief discussion. the commission decided to delay action on the new program until the July meeting.

Members expressed their appreciation for the excellent work and customer responsiveness of former COMCAST representative Sharon Codeanne. As a token of the Commission’s appreciation, members voted to send Sharon a dozen yellow roses along with a note of thanks for the years of service she provided to COMCAST customers in the three-municipality area.

The June regular meeting of CTAC was adjourned at 6:53 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by D. Levy, CTAC secretary