Cable Advisory Commission

Taunton Community Cable Advisory Committee Minutes of November 10, 2021 Present were: Peter Higgins Gregory Glynn John Gonsalves George Mendros Daniel Rapoza And Patrick Shearns, Sr. Governmental & Regulatory Affairs Manager for Comcast. 7PM Comcast Ch 17 Verizon Ch 24 On Line: https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/taunton/?page=HOME Commissioner Higgins opened at 7:00 pm with a moment of silence for all Veterans who have served and are serving. I. Introduction of Patrick Shearns, Taunton’s new Comcast Cable Liaison and Sr. Manager Government & Regulatory Affairs Comcast Cable Communications Inc. Mr. Shearns introduce himself. After college he stated that he in Senator Markey’s office and other state and local politicians. He spent 7 years working at the Department of Justice and Labor offices during the Obama administration. He also worked for a small local communications firm working on governmental affairs and labor relations. He’s been with Comcast since June of 2021. His area of coverage ranges from Taunton, Dighton, Rehoboth, and Fairhaven along with northern Mass. communities in northern Mass. Such as Newberry and Shirley to mention a few. Approximately 30 cities and towns. II. Communications from the Chairman. 1. Commissioner Glynn will report on the progress of the Comcast feed at the new City Hall. Commissioner Glynn reported that a PO had been created and approved to start the work on bringing cable service into City Hall. Mr. Shearns stated that he had passed the information along to the installation department. Their proposal stated that it would take about 30 or so days to schedule the install. Commissioner Rapoza asked about the size or gauge of the cable to be installed. Mr. Shearns wasn’t sure about that request and said that he would get back to us on the schedule of the install and the size of the cable to be used in the install. Commissioner Rapoza stated that he was concerned about the possibility of more future cable outlets in the building than had been originally requested. 2. Commissioner Glynn will explain the upcoming changes to Taunton's Live Streaming and streaming the Legacy VOD (Video On Demand) Found on: https://cloud.castus.tv/vod/taunton/?page=HOME Commissioner Glynn explained that the city’s CASTUS streaming service on the new Cloud VOD streaming site is being revamped and upgraded. It’s appearance and operation will not change but it will become easier and more timely for the Taunton Municipal Network to upload meeting videos to the Cloud. All of this work will be done by CASTUS and should be done by sometime in December with more meetings available. 3. Commissioner Higgins has sent correspondence to Taunton City Solicitor regarding legal representation during Taunton’s Verizon Contract negotiations. Commissioner Higgins has sent a request to the City Solicitor for his insight into legal representation for the upcoming Verizon Cable contract negotiations. Three named attorneys have been submitted and we are waiting to hear back from Solicitor Gay. 4. The Committee needs to propose a selection process for reviewing and selecting the attorney candidates interested in representing Taunton with the Verizon Cable Contract negotiations. During the Commission’s conversation relative to this matter it was suggested that we get resume’ from each candidate and then hold in-person interviews with those candidates to assist the Commission in our final choice. 5. Reported changes in Comcast and Verizon P.E.G. allocations funds. There haven’t been additional charged to date levied against P.E.G. allocation funds. There have been no reported changes in how and the amounts of P.E.G. allocation funds at this time. 6. Commissioner Higgins has reached out to Senator Markey’s office inquiring the status of HR 5699 & S3218 The Protecting Community Television Act. Co-Sponsored by Senators Markey and Congresswoman Anna S. Eshoo and will report findings to the Committee.. Commissioner Higgins has reached out to Senator Markey’s office and was in contact with Mellissa Olesen regarding to find out the status of the co-sponsored bill by Sen. Markey’s S3218 bill and Congresswoman Anna S. Eshoo’s House bill H5699 called “Protect Community Television Act”. Ms. Olesen welcomed Commissioner Higgin’s call and said that she would be in contact with him when any news is received.  Taunton Community Cable Advisory Committee Minutes of November 10, 2021 III. All commissioners should have turned in their Conflict of Interest Certificate to the City Clerks Office. It was noted that all Commissioners had completed the Conflict of Interest certification process and had passed their certificates into the City Clerk’s office IV. Old business There was no old business. V. New Business A brief discussion about the recent City Election ensued. It was noted that it seemed like the results were slow in coming and that the final unofficial results were relayed to TACAM’s coverage rather than the past historical precinct by precinct results. The city now has a new “Election Department” and it was the new Registrar of Voters second election here in the City. It’s suspected that procedures will improve and change as the office becomes more familiar with the operations now and how they were in the past. It was also mentioned that the Taunton Municipal Network is looking into ways to provide visual coverage of the election results hoping to be able to show precinct by precinct in the City Council chambers for the result seekers to view on the big video walls. The next meeting will be January 12, 2022. Meeting adjourned at 8:45. TCCAC FY21/22 January 12, 2022, March 9, 2022, May 11, 2022