Chairman Mauceri called the meeting to order at timeHour19Minute07:00 p.m. in Room 10 at Town Hall in the presence of members Mr. Veno, Mr. Dardeno, Mr. O’Leary, Mr. Harris and Town Administrator Greg Balukonis. Also present were Ms. Ruth Kennedy, Chair of the Cable Advisory Committee, Mr. Theo Kuliopulos, Vice Chair of the Cable Advisory Committee, Attorney Bill Hewig from Kopelman and Paige and Mr. Brad Jones of the Finance Committee.
DISCUSS VERIZON CONTRACT
Mr. Mauceri opened the meeting stating that the objective of the meeting is to answer any outstanding questions in regards to the Public Access Corp or the contract in order to properly conduct a Public Hearing on June 19th.
Mr. O’Leary asked what the liability would be to the town if the Public Access Corporation should fail. Mr. Hewig stated that because it is a corporation, the town’s liabilities are limited. A discussion followed.
Ms. Kennedy commented on how similar corporations are run in other communities with much success and talked about her experience in running such a corporation. Ms. Kennedy also distributed a list of cities and towns which currently have similar public access corporations.
Mr. O’Leary stated that he is concerned with the basic cost to operate such a corporation, that $160,000 a year may not be sufficient. Mr. Veno mentioned that he had asked Mary Rafferty of Verizon if the 5% rebate to the town to run the corporation would be passed on to the consumers and she had stated that the cost is already built-in to the contract.
Mr. Hewig stated that the 5% pass-through is not a given, that it is at the discretion of the cable company.
Mr. Mauceri asked Mr. Hewig to comment on the cable industry’s petitioning of the Federal Government to take the governance of cable access away from the communities. Mr. Hewig stated that it depends on what type of legislation is passed but that his guess is that licenses that have already been negotiated would be preserved.
Mr. Hewig stated that this license is unique because the Comcast license wasn’t a good license and the Cable Advisory Committee negotiated very hard to get more than what Comcast was providing. Mr. Hewig said that it is a license that the Board of Selectmen should be proud of and one that will help other communities.
The Board determined that all notices from Verizon would go to the Town Administrator. This will be noted in the contract.
The discussion next turned to the topic of how Verizon would handle customer service as they do not have a local office. Mr. Hewig stated that they would most likely not agree to opening a local office but that customer service standards are outlined in the contract. At the request of the board, Mr. Dardeno will ask Verizon if they currently have a policy in place to handle customer service.
Mr. Mauceri brought up the “double pole” issue and underground wires in the center of town. Mr. Mauceri stated that he expects Verizon to uphold their commitments in completing those projects and would like to get a status report on them. Mr. Dardeno will ask Verizon about those two issues.
Mr. Dardeno stated that Verizon wishes to be operational by July and that the Cable Advisory Committee had negotiated in good faith with Verizon. Mr. Dardeno asked the board to give him some indication if there is a chance that they will turn down this contract on Monday night.
Mr. O’Leary stated that he would postpone the decision for two weeks if necessary until the issues of customer service, double poles and underground wiring are resolved. Mr. Mauceri stated that he has no problems with the contract but that the board should take the opportunity to use it as leverage to tie up some loose ends.
There was a brief discussion about how the Public Hearing will be conducted on Monday night. Mr. Mauceri thanked the Cable Advisory Committee for all of their efforts.
Regarding the Board of Directors for the Corporation, Mr. Dardeno proposed a seven member board. A brief discussion followed on the make-up of the board which will be discussed in further detail once the license is signed.
ADJOURN (timeHour20Minute508:50 PM)
MR. CHAIRMAN, I MR. VENO, MOVE TO ADJOURN.
SECONDED BY: MR. O’LEARY
VOTED: UNANIMOUS (5-0)
_______________________________ ___________________________________
Date Joseph Veno, Clerk
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