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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/27/1991 COW minutes Minutes COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE August 27, 1991 I Roll Call The meeting was called to order at 7:56 p.m. by Mayor Gerald L Farley. Trustees present were Mark Busse, George Clowes, Tim Corcoran, Leo Floros, Paul Hoefert, and Irvana Wllks. Also present were Village Manager John F. Dixon, Finance Director David C. Jepson, Public Works Director Herbert L. Weeks, Communications Administrator Cheryl L. Pasahc, four members of the news media, e~ght representatives from Telenois/TCI, and approxamately 20 Village residents II M~nutes The Committee of the Whole Minutes of August 13, 1991 were accepted and filed with one correction Trustee Clowes pointed out that the Committee went into executive session at 6'07 p.m. rather than 6.02 p m. III Citizens To Be Heard Margaret H~mmons, 211 South Albert Street, reported to the Committee that the traffic congestion at the intersection of Central Road, Mount Prospect Road and Rand Road is a problem especially m the late afternoon. She said she is concerned that ~t will get much worse once the new Wai-Mart Store opens. Village Manager D~xon stated that he had contacted IDOT regarding the tlrmng of the traffic signals but the configuration of the streets and the volume of cars makes it d~fficult to resolve the problem. Ms Hammons also stated that squirrels were making a number of holes in her yard and she encouraged Village officials to d~scourage residents from feeding the squirrels IV TCI Comphance Hearin~ Pursuant to Section 6 404A of the Cable Communications Code, a public hearing for the purpose of receiwng citizens' input relative to the ten year performance evaluation of the Cable Television service provided by Telenois/TC[ started at 8 03 p m Communications Adnumstrator Cheryl L Pasahc stated that a notice of the public hearing was published m the Mount Prospect Herald on August 17, 1991. Additionally, approximately 500 notices of the hearing were sent to subscribers who had reported complaints to the Village over the past three years, an announcement of the hearing was broadcast on the Village government access Channel 63 and an announcement was broadcast by Teleno~s Ms. Pasalic stated that the evaluation process will include a review of techmcal features of the service and a review of financial information in addition to the input received from the subscribers of the service relative to programming, service and rates The total evaluation process should be completed in about 60 days and at the conclusion of the evaluation a report will be presented to the Village Board. Ms Pasahc reported that prior to the public hearing, she had received twelve (12) written responses from residents The twelve wrmen comments indicated concerns in the following categories 1 Outages 2 Customer Service 1 Excessive T~me to Answer Telephone 10 Rates and Service I Quality of Reception I Quality of Repmrs 6 Single V. Dual Cable The written responses have been placed on file with the Village Clerk and will be made a part of the permanent record Mayor Farley then inwted residents attending the meeting to make comments. Jim lDinuto of Westgate Apartments on Westgate Road stated that he would prefer the single cable system with 60 channels rather than the dual cable system with 120 channels He said that a single cable system is user friendly and would enable h~m to ehminate the converter. He also sa~d the single cable system would allow him to watch one channel and s~multaneous- ly tape another channel. Add~tlonally, he stated that rates could be reduced by 20%-40% with the single cable system Mr. Dlnuto also stated that he felt that poor service occurs because TCI doesn't want the Village to have the dual cable system He said he feels that TCI treats Mount Prospect residents like "second class citizens." Bob Giovanoni, 1905 Ivy Lane, stated that he was concerned with the Increases in rates charged by TCI He mentioned that a recent article in USA Today compared Cable TV rates on a nationwide basis The rates ranged from $11 95 to $23 95 with TCI at the top of the range. He said that some communities have more than one Cable TV service to choose from and as a result have lower rates He also inquired why TCI is telling subscribers that outages are due to the upgrade work when the upgrade was completed last year. Mark Karwoski, 307 South Lores, stated that he has had a number of problems getting repairs made. He said that he has had a number of repair calls for the B Cable because the p~cture quality is not as good as the A Cable. He added that he has friends in both Arhngton Heights and Des Plaines which have the single cable service who have better quality than he does He also stated that it was d~fficult to get through to schedule repairs and the repairs do not last He said that TCI's service "stinks." Pat Padero, 124 South Bobbie Lane, said she was very disappointed when Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) was eliminated without notice. She said she took a personal survey of 66 homes in her neighborhood and got 58 signatures supporung TBN. She said she found the VISN programs bonng and requested that TBN be returned. 2 Pat Koch, 1907 Seminole, stated that she has been a customer since 1984 and has seen an improvement in the quality of the picture and a reduction m the number of complmnts She said she also preferred the single cable system Ms Koch disclosed that she is an employee of TCI but was speaking as a subscriber. Louis Venuso, 1015 South NaWaTa, stated that he had recently purchased a new TV that would accept a single cable system without a converter and that he would llke to see a single cable system. Phil Stephenson, 11 South Lores, stated that he read a recent article in Consumer Reports which rated five (5) Cable TV services including TCI in Mount Prospect. He reported that the article ~ndicated that TCI's rates were one of the highest in the nation He added that 16% of the TCI subscribers polled indicated they were very satisfied compared to 40% who were somewhat to completely dissatisfied He said that 60% of TCI subscribers contacted said it was hard to get through to TCI He also said that he did not think the one cable system vs dual cable system was the ~ssue as much as the service provided. Roy Chapman, 1102 Sycamore, stated that there were too many outages now with the dual cable system and ff TCI went to the single cable system it could be a disaster. He said he thought there could be a problem with the way the TCI personnel were trained because many of the outages were due to problems outside of his home. He also said he has had to wait for service. Don Weibel, 1833 Tano Lane, stated that he has seen a marked decrease in problems since the last public hearing that was held in September, 1990. He said that since January of 1991 the service has been very good However, he said he had two concerns: 1) He would like to see the Weather Radar returned to Channel 49, and 2) TCI's rate increases were excessive. He added that he thought the Weather Radar was very helpful and asked why the weather program on the single cable system could not be put back on Channel 49 as it was before. He also said that TCI's rates have increased at a 10% compounded annual rate. He requested that the Village support legislation to encourage competition. Margaret Hammons, 211 South Albert Street, smd that she hoped that TCI would be able to broadcast high density programming when HD TV sets are commonly used. Mayor Farley then lnviied the repr'esentatives from Telenois/TCI to make comments Kelvin Fee, General Manager of Telenois/TCI stated that TCI has made a conscious effort to try to improve the service m Mount Prospect He said they have recently completed a $15 nnlhon upgrade of their equipment and he thinks they are on the right track today He added that in a survey conducted by TCI, the subscribers md~cated the technical features had improved, service calls were down, and the customer semce requests were being taken care of promptly He said he meets with Ms Pasahc on a regular basis to try to resolve complaints of Mount Prospect subscribers. In response to some of the comments made by subscribers at the public hearing he stated the following' 1. Rates - TCI is very sensitive to rates but that the major reason for the increases is the rise in programming costs He said they have to pass on the increased programming costs to subscribers 2. Single Cable vs Dual Cable - TCI would prefer the single cable system He agreed that the dual cable system does prowde some back-up but that the subscribers were paying extra for the back-up feature 3. Training - TCI has a trainer on staff that works with TCI personnel Their turnover rate is down and they are responding better to customer complaints 4 TBN Network - It was a corporate decision to change from TBN to VISN and he thought VISN is a better service with broader appeal. 5 Weather Radar - A negotiated agreement was reached with the communities where the Weather Channel was restored He said they gave up a pubhc access channel to restore the Weather Channel and TCI made the same offer to Mount Prospect 6. Survey - Mr. Fee indicated that he understood that the Consumers Report Survey was based on 1990 information that was prior to their recent upgrade. Mr. Fee concluded by saying that they have tried to improve their service and that they will continue to make improvements He said their corporate offices are in Mount Prospect and that they want to be a good corporate citizen. Ih response to a question from Mayor Farley, Jim Mitchell, TCI Programnnng Director, stated that they currently schedule two workshops per year for citizen training for public access He also said there has been an increase in interest from schools and other institutions to become involved in access programming Communications Administrator Pasalic stated that the Consumers Report Survey was included in a letter with the written comments that were filed with the Village Clerk and that she understood the survey was taken within the last six months Mayor Farley then asked for comments from the Village Board members. Trustee Paul Hoefert stated that during May and June he had received a number of comments sinnlar to the ones voiced at this public hearing. He said that since he had been appointed to the special Cable Comnnttee, he had met with Mr. Fee of TCI as well as Ms. Pasahc of the Village. Trustee Hoefert feels that we should move to the single cable system as soon as possible He cited the following reasons for his posit~on' it will allow subscribers to use their own remote controls and eliminate the converter box, it will provide stereo sound and it will reduce costs He added that he thought it was sigmficant that 12 of the 14 commumties that have TCI service have gone to the single cable system Trustee Hoefert said that he believes the current TCI management is less antagomstlc and more responsive to complaints. He added that although he would like to see more ~'~ competition, the barriers are incredible. He also thought it would be worthwhile to give up one public access channel to restore the weather channel 4 Trustee Tim Corcoran stated that he is aware that the response to service calls has improved and that the representatives are more courteous He said that previously he had waited 3 to 5 minutes to get through but that on two occasions recently the wait for one call was 40 seconds and 2-1/2 minutes for the other. However, he smd the survey results mentioned earlier were still a concern In regard to the single cable system he said he could go along if TCI would make a comnutment to reduce rates and linut increases for a period of time. He said he might consider giving up one public access channel to restore the weather channel. He also smd he agreed wah a previous comment that TCI was treating Mount Prospect subscribers like second class citizens Trustee Corcoran asked about the status of the financial audit and Ms Pasahc said it was completed. Trustee Corcoran then asked Mr. Fee about "pay per view" service and what concessions TCI was expecting with the single cable system. Mr. Fee responded that with a single cable system the public access channels would be reduced from 13 to 8 and the Cable Guide would be optional at a cost of $.50 Mr. Fee stated that the details for the pay per view are still being worked out but a number of events are coming up in the near future. Trustee Corcoran concluded by stating that if the converter box was removed with the adoption of a single cable system it may need to be returned to utilize pay per view in the future He said he would like to be sure of the preference of the subscribers before we make any changes Trustee George Clowes said he was concerned over the quality of the service and the cost to Village residents and would like to see more choices for subscribers. He also said he would like to see more competition in providing Cable TV service. Trustee Clowes then asked what needed to be done to change from the two cable system to the one cable system Ms Pasahc said that TCI would need to make some equipment changes and then turn off the A Cable and run on the B Cable. Trustee Clowes said that it was significant that 12 of the 14 communities have changed to the single cable system but that he would like to receive more information on the two types of systems. Trustee Irvana Wilks complimented TCI on the programming choices that were available. She then asked for an explanation why the single cable system was better. Ron Lultgaarden, Systems Engineer for TCI, said that the dual cable system required more maintenance, and he estimated that the elimination of the converter box would reduce sen, ace calls by 35%. Trustee Walks said the pubhc access channels are very important Trustee Wllks asked where the evaluation goes from here. Ms Pasalic said that the technical and financial information needed to be evaluated and a report prepared. Trustee Mark Busse asked how many complaints were still unresolved and how much time it would take to convert to the single cable system Mr. Fee responded that there are still a few unresolved complaints and they are trying to work them out as quickly as possible. He said that it would take about four months to change from the dual cable to the single cable system He added that it has gone fmrly smooth in the other commumties. Mr. Fee stated that Wheeling and Mount Prospect are the only two communities with the dual cable system He also said they will continue to make improvements to their system as required by the franchise agreement Mayor Gerald Farley said that he ~s aware of residents that prefer the dual cable system especmlly when serwce goes down. Mayor Farley expressed his appreciation to the residents and staff who provided input at the pubhc hearing. He said the Cable Comnuttee and Staff will continue to meet with TCI to help plan for the future The pubhc hearing concluded at 10 04 p m V Mana~ Village Manager John D~xon reported that the Illinois Municipal League Conference would be held on October 11-14, 1991 at the Chicago Hilton. He also said that the Street Resurfacmg Program ~s progressing well with the resuffacmg expected to start by the second week in September. He also reminded Board members of the special meeung on Saturday, September 7, 1991. VI Other Business Trustee Wilks asked Finance D~rector Dawd Jepson for a status report on the change ~n the alarm system from the former Police and Fire Building on Northwest H~ghway to the temporary facilities on Pine Street Mr. Jepson stated that the Village paid approximately $24,000 to move the telephone hnes and has billed each of the 168 users of the alarm system $127.60 for their share of the cost Currently, 138 users have paid w~th 30 remaining outstanding He reported that a follow-up letter will be marled by cert~fxed marl to the property location and the property owners for the outstanding accounts. He added that the Village does not own the alarm system and as a result, the cost of the move was passed on to the users of the system In ad&tion to the billing from the Village, the users will also be billed by Illinois Bell for a d~sconnect and re-connection charge Trustee Walks asked ff there would be s~milar charges when the new F~re and Police Building ~s completed, Mr. Jepson responded that there will only be a connectton charge from Ilhno~s Bell at that time and they have indicated that it should be less than the current charge Trustee Corcoran asked about the status of the C~t~zens UfiIities acqmslt~on Village Manager D~xon responded that there have been discussions vath Prospect Heights, Glenview and C~t~zens Utilities. He smd the next step would be to put all the numbers and information together and see if a joint referendum questmn could be worked out with Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights Trustee Corcoran requested that th~s ~tem be placed on a future Comn~ttee of the Whole agenda Trustee Floros asked for more reformation regarding the legal fees which SWANCC has been paying He said he was concerned over the escalating fees Trustee Corcoran smd the fees are h~gh because SWANCC has been put in the position of defending itself in a number of stats He said the SWANCC d~rectors review the fees before they are paid and that additional mformat~on ~s available from Bdl Abolt of SWANCC. Trustees Wflks and Clowes also expressed thetr concern and Trustee Clowes smd he would hke an update from SWANCC on the progress of the baleflll There being no other business the meeting adjourned at 10 34 p.m. Respectfully Submitted David C. Jepson, Finance D~rector DC J/sm