Minutes

1. Call to Order

Chair David Westbrook called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m.

Members Present: Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, John Magnusson, Dale Rodell, David Westbrook

Members Absent: Scott Hugstad-Vaa

Others Present: Charles Grawe, Mark Moore, Todd Oliver, Tucker Carlson

2. Approval of Agenda

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

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

3. Approval Minutes of June 5, 2006 and June 22, 2006

MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Rodell, to approve the minutes of June 5, 2006. Motion passed unanimously.

MOTION: Mr. Bible moved, second by Mr. Rodell, to approve the minutes of June 22, 2006. Motion passed unanimously.

4. 3rd Quarter Complaint Log

Mr. Westbrook expressed concern over the level of complaints. Mr. Moore noted that there was a significant increase over the summer. Prior to July, the City had received three complaints in 2006. In the three summer months, the City received 11 complaints. Most related to line drops that were not buried, missed service appointments, failure to return customer calls, and uninformed customer service representatives. Mr. Moore said he communicated his concerns to Mr. Carlson and changes were implemented. Mr. Westbrook noted that prompt service response times are important for people working from home and using the service for their work.

Mr. Carlson said that Charter is planning to launch its new phone service in October. This initiative required a series of upgrades to the system. Charter also reorganized is corporate call centers, with a number of the centers consolidated or closed. The new call center organization includes some outsourcing. He said that there were some initial problems with customer service representatives incorrectly coding the complaints so that were not directly appropriately. Charter has since assigned a liaison to the outsourcing companies to resolve this problem. He said there have been improvements over the past month. Mr. Carlson also said that some billing centers are located outside of the United States. He said that part of the reorganization included limiting customer service staff access to potentially sensitive customer information. Mr. Carlson explained that the company's policy if a single customer has a service outage after 5:00 p.m. is to repair the problem the next day, but if three or more customers in the area have an outage, it becomes an emergency repair response. Mr. Moore asked for clarification on the repair calls that were scheduled for one week out. Mr. Carlson said that during the system upgrades, there may have been several business days of downed service if a customer service representative miscoded the type of problem. He said the staffing plan is adequate, but depends on the staff to correctly code the problems. Mr. Westbrook requested that City staff notify the Committee members if there is not a decrease in the number of customer complaints. Mr. Bible said he appreciated that Charter has resolved the complaints.

5. 3rd Quarter Coordinator's Report

Mr. Moore said he entered a Police Department training video into a competition to gain production feedback. He said he is working with the Police Department to develop a new regular Police program. He is also working on plans to webcast meetings and had proposed funding in the 2007 budget for that project. Mr. Moore said the FCC is considering possible requirement of closed captioning for access channels. He is monitoring this issue. He noted that after quick passage in the House of Representatives, the telecommunications legislation has bogged down in the Senate. At this time, the bill's author is attempting to gather 60 votes in favor so the bill can be moved to the floor for a vote. Mr. Moore expects this process may continue into 2007.

Mr. Moore noted that he would register Committee members for the Fall MACTA conference if they were interested.

6. E-Commerce and Business Development Issues

Mr. Grawe noted there were several new wireless articles distributed with the packet.

Mr. Oliver said that he expected Frontier to approach the City with a revised wireless network proposal within the next few weeks.

Mr. Carlson said that Charter is offering ten MB modem service and will be launching its telephony product soon. The new base level of modem service will be three MB. Mr. Carlson also noted that Charter is waiting for improvements in the Wi-Max technology before launching any wireless services.

Mr. Carlson said the NFL network will soon feature regular season football games and is negotiating to become part of the Expanded Basic Tier. Charter does not believe that the subscriber demand justifies such a change to the tier.

7. Adjourn

MOTION: Mr. Rodell moved, second by Mr. Brown to adjourn the meeting. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m.