Cable Advisory Commission

Taunton Community Cable Advisory Committee Minutes of May 11, 2022 City Hall Conference room 7PM Comcast Ch 17 Verizon Ch 24 On Line: Taunton.vod.castus.tv Meeting opened at 7:05 Present were Chairman Peter Higgins, Gregory Glynn, George Mendros and Daniel Rapoza. I. Communications from the Chairman. A debt of gratitude for Commissioner John “Jack” Gonsalves for his years of service on the TCCAC. Chairman Higgins commented on Jack’s years of service to the city with his tenure on the City Council and then with the Cable Commission and thank him for those years on the Commission. 1. The TCCAC will reach of to the Attorney candidates recommended by MASS ACESS President, David Gauthier William August, William Hewig, and William Solomon. Chairman Higgins reached out to MASSACCESS’s President David Gauthier for recommendations for attorneys our upcoming Verizon Cable Contract negotiations. Mr. Gauthier recommended the following: William August, William Hewig, and William Solomon. He stated that all three are well versed in cable negotiations with all the different cable companies. In past contract negotiations the city has used William August and William Solomon. 2. 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. Chairman Higgins discussed and proposed a method for selecting an Attorney. He is going to reach out to the three above stated attorneys to get resumes from all with highlights of recent negotiations, locations, and contact people for reference. 3. A determination of the percentage of annual revenue growth or revenue to PEG Access Corporations. 4. Commissioner Higgins to contact Ben Thomas, Sen. Markey’s Aide and report on any progress regarding 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. Our Representative Jake Auchincloss MA District 4 is a Cosponsor as well. Chairman Higgins reached out to TCAM’s Board Chairman Bob Jacobs for a percentage breakdown of either revenue increases or revenue losses over the the past three years. Mr. Jacobs stated that there has been some loss over the past 3 years the possibly could amount to the salary of one of his employees. TCAM receives 2% of the gross cable companies revenues each year. Chairman Higgins also reached out to the City Budget Director Gill Enos to see if the same was true for the Educational Access and Municipal Access. Mr. Enos stated that there has been a slight increase in the shared revenues that come into City Hall. The educational access receives 1.5% of gross and municipal receives .5%. Chairman Higgins is going to reach out to both people to gather more information on the monies received, also Mr. Higgins has reached out to Ben Thomas of Sen. Markey’s office for any progress on the status of HR 5699 and S3218 the Protecting Community Television Act. No further comments were received. Mr. Higgins also reached out to Rep. Jake Auchincloss’s office and received back that they appreciate the inquiry and will be looking into issue.  Taunton Community Cable Advisory Committee Minutes of May 11, 2022 III. NEW PROPOSED LEGISLATION AT THE MASSACHUESETTS STATE HOUSE 1. Commissioner George Mendros to contact the office of State Senator Jason Lewis’ sponsored S.2200 An Act Relative to Digital Entertainment On Public Rights Of Way: Referred to: Joint Committee On Telecommunication, Utilities And Energy to determine if there has been any progress. Commissioner Mendros reached out to Senator Pacheo’s office and spoke with Louis Loura and has found that at this time no action has been made on this bill. 2. Commissioner Dam Raposa to contact Representative Carol Doherty a Petitioner of Bill H.3152 An Act To Modernize Participation in Public Meeting Sponsored by Denise Garlick of Needham. An effort to create Hybrid participation at Public Meetings and report the Bills status back to the committee. Commissioner Raposa reached out to Rep. Doherty and was told that the specific bill that bill H3152 comes under is H 4700 which is the State Fiscal Budget bill that is being worked on now for 2023 and the specific Amendment #841 has been struck from the bill and the State Budget. Also the amendment could be sent in to the Senate side of the budget by Friday, May 13 at noon. Somebody needs to call Senator Pacheco to ask if the amendment be placed on the the Senate side of the Budget. Relative to this issue is an explanation as to the amount of the funds from Rep. Doherty.. "Mr. Vitolo of Brookline moves to amend the bill in section 2 by inserting after item 7006L0071 the followi] item: "XXXX-XXXX [For a grant program to support public access and community television stations in meeting the increased demand for coverage of municipal meetings and non-profit voter education programming; provided, that grants shall be disbursed to MassAccess member stations, or Alliance for Community Media member stations, or stations that provide a minimum of 100 hours of municipal coverag and non-profit voter education programming annually $ 10,000,000] " 3. Commissioner Glynn to share communication from MASS ACESS regarding funding distributions. Relative to the above bills in the State House and specifically above referenced bill a question came up as to how MassAccess and the ACM ( Alliance for Community Media) would distribute the monies if the bill passed. The requirement was for “100 hours of Municipal coverage and Non-profit voter education programming annually” Commissioner Glynn’s question about this was who would overseen the distribution and what if one of the agencies had a community that did less than the requirement and give that community a portion of the monies where a community outside of their purview might do the requirement but not get any of the monies. But now finding that that section/amendment of the bill has been struck then this question is a moot point.