11/17/03 Board of Public Works Public Hearing Minutes

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392A PUBLIC HEARING NOVEMBER 17, 2003 time for repairs, satisfactory nature of repairs, outage problems, responsiveness to billing errors and refunds, and public access to the local public education and governmental channel. As for any comments unrelated to these topics, this is the time to be here to influence Comcast. The City of South Bend cannot require Comcast to provide any particular program, or include a specific network. The City's contract is on behalf of City residents, and any comments from them will be considered, which is a determining factor for the Board of Public Works to extend this contract to 2013. Mr. Jim Petersen, Comcast, was available for comment and feedback. Mr. Petersen noted that Comcast has made a few changes since the contract was approved in 1998; from TCI to AT&T to Comcast. Procedural changes were made, as well as organizational changes. The rebuild of the South Bend system was completed during this time in the City of South Bend. $13 million was spent in an upgrade to the physical plant, which is over five hundred(500) miles of cable that has been replaced over the past several years. A number of channels has also been added from 36 channels to 59 in basic and expanded categories. Additional digital product has also been added. The digital package n ow has 188 channels, compared to 44 channels five years ago. Many options are available to customers. Comcast can now offer new technology as it comes out, most currently, high speed Internet service. The future will bring video on demand and Tivo. The reliability of the cable service has also increased in the past five years. Level of service calls has decreased in the same time period. The public hearing was then opened for comment. Six (6) citizens signed in to speak their comments, all of which is contained in the recording, which concerned the following topics: 1) Removal of desirable programs from the basic service package and positioning of these programs in the higher level of service which low income persons cannot afford; 2) unavailability of a service package rate slightly higher than basic level which would contain removed programs; 3) a surplus of home shopping channels in the basic package and deletion of more desirable programs; 4) availability of cable in the downtown South Bend area and in public buildings; 5) poor service and poor notice of changes; 6) using the local access channel for commercial programming and inadequate equipment for public access channel; 7) too many programs with "murder, mayhem and sex"; and 8) lack of direct access on the public channel (3). An audio tape contains the actual public comments. There being no one else to speak, the public portion of the public hearing was closed. Written comments or e-mail comments could still be forwarded to the Board of Public Works within the next five (5) days. Mr. Peterson, Comcast, had no further comments. Any additional comments or e-mail comments would be reviewed by the Board of Public Works. The Board will take action on the franchise agreement extension in December 2003. This date of this meeting will be posted on the City's web page. At the public Board meeting, public comments will also be welcome. Attorney DeRose gave her e-mail address to attendees. Mr. Peterson was asked to forward his comments to the City of South Bend within the next five (5) days. All comments will be posted on the City of South Bend's web page. All public information regarding this meeting will also be available from the Clerk of the Board of Public Works. Comcast gave the audience a toll free number to call (1-800 824- 2000) which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer a variety of questions from customers. 1 1