Minutes

1. Call to Order

Chair David Westbrook called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, John Magnusson, Dale Rodell, David Westbrook

Members Absent:

Others Present: Charles Grawe, Denis LaComb

2. Approval of Agenda

Mr. Westbrook asked for changes to the agenda and there were none offered.

MOTION: Mr. Rodell moved, second by Mr. Hugstad-Vaa, to approve the agenda as presented. Motion passed unanimously.

3. Approval Minutes of September 12, 2005

MOTION: Mr. Brown moved, second by Mr. Magnusson, to approve the minutes of September 12, 2005. Motion passed unanimously.

4. Update on Audit Review with the Cities of Lakeville, Farmington, and Rosemount

Mr. Grawe said the joint powers Commission received the audit review and requested a response to the review by Charter Communications. Charter has since responded and offered counter arguments to the auditor's findings. As many of the arguments were related to both technical accounting and legal issues, City staff did not believe it could offer the best evaluation and analysis of the findings of the report and the counter arguments. The Commission authorized the auditor and the attorney to provide the analysis of the counter arguments. The accounting portion has been completed but the legal portion has not. Mr. Grawe noted that in general, the audit findings did not yield clear omissions of payment, but instead areas of possible omission that has been subject of much legal debate.

5. Discuss Proposed Annual Basic Rate Justification for Charter Communications

Mr. Grawe said the City received notification from Charter filing for its annual rate justification for 2006. The notice included FCC Form 1240 which calculates the maximum permitted rate for basic tier service. Mr. Grawe noted that premium cable services are not regulated. Under the calculation, the rate for the basic service tier could increase from the current rate of $13.50 to $13.91 per month.

Mr. Westbrook opened the floor to public discussion of the justification. There were no public comments on the justification.

6. Resident Request for Cable Service on 120th Street

Mr. Grawe said the City received an inquiry from a resident on 120th Street seeking to have cable service extended to the homes on the street. The street, located north of Valleywood Golf Course, is isolated from other residential areas. Mr. Grawe estimated the distance from the existing cable plant to the last house on the street to be at least one mile. Mr. Grawe said he has made Charter aware of the request and Charter is preparing an initial cost estimate to extend cable to the area. Mr. Grawe noted that the franchise ordinance established a formula for calculating the share of the costs to be provided by Charter and that to be provided by the residents receiving the service.

7. 4th Quarter Complaint Log

Mr. Grawe distributed the complaints received during this time period.

8. 4th Quarter Coordinator's Report

Mr. Grawe briefly discussed events in the fourth quarter. Mr. Magnusson said he attended the annual MACTA Conference and noted that indexing the DVD recordings of Council meetings allows for links from individual agenda items when web streaming.

9. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues

Mr. Grawe noted there were several new wireless articles distributed with the packet. Mr. Bible asked if the City had current plans to provide wireless service. Mr. Grawe said he was not aware of any plans to offer services to residents. He said he is aware of general discussion among the cities within Dakota County as well as the County itself to cooperatively explore a number of different communications avenues including fiber optic networks and possibly wireless broadband service for public safety departments. Mr. Grawe briefly explained how the cities and County are currently working jointly to provide joint public safety dispatching services and share a trunked radio system. Mr. Bible asked if representatives from the City's Information Technologies division as well as Dakota County could attend the next meeting to inform the Committee of some of the existing public fiber networks and possible plans for the future.

10. Other

There were no other discussion items.

11. Adjourn

MOTION: Mr. Rodell moved, second by Mr. Brown to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 8:02 p.m.