2013-03-21Beverly Cable Advisory Commission Meeting
DATE: March 21, 2013
LOCATION: Beverly Public Library, Beverly Ma. 2M meeting room
TIME:7:OOP.M.
COMMISSION MEMBERS:
George Johnson — Chair - person, Al Torsey, Eric Overberg, Don Berman, Alex Ushakoff, Muriel
Zaginailoff, Diane Costa, Alternate - Neil Overberg.
• COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT:
George Johnson — Chair - person, , Eric Overberg, Don Berman, Al Torsey, Alex Ushakoff, Diane
Costa and Muriel Zaginailoff .
• PUBLIC PRESENT: BevCam members Paul Earl, and Walt Kosmowski.
• A quorum being present the meeting was called to order at 7:00 P.M by chair- person
George Johnson.
• OLD BUSINESS:
• Communications and correspondence: Al Torsey received a complaint from a citizen in
getting Comcast to provide service.... the customer got action after they contacted Mass. Dept. of Cable and
Telecom. George stated that a Verizon employee claimed it is the Mayor's fault Beverly not getting
FIOS..George will pursue.
• Operation alert: Ongoing.
• Meeting minutes: A motion was made by Don Berman and seconded by Muriel
Zaginailoff to accept the Feb. 21, 2013 minutes as written.
• Membership: New member search ongoing..
• NEW BUSINESS:
• Q1 -2013 meeting with BevCam.
Paul Earl and Walt Kosmowski presented the Q1 BevCam report. Paul gave overview of Q1
accomplishments on programming, training, the state of BevCam financials and project summary for 2012.
He stated that there were no salary increases in 2012, Heidi Ushakoff made permanent, and health care
benefits acquired. Walt reported on Ch 8 program hours, new producer shows in 2012, infrastructure and
technology, the BevCam annual report, active and reactivated members, channel 22 growth, and the
BevCam quarterly budget. George requested more information on producers' attrition and changeover to
outside series producers. The question came up of the format of the spreadsheet which does not show
detail of individual staff salaries as called for in the BevCam agreement with the city. BevCam responded
that "it is not normal reporting practice for both for- profit and nonprofit companies" and that a separate
report had been given to the commission last year and no further salary changes had been made since then.
• SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS:
• Compliance and oversight Don Berman, Al Torsey, and Alex Ushakoff.
Don presented an outline on various topics regarding C &O committee
issues. Alex presented several CAC letterheads for consideration.
• CAC policies and procedures: Muriel Zaginailoff and Diane Costa.
Muriel and Diane will meet to establish an outline for their committee.
• I -NET and Operation Alert. George Johnson and Eric Overberg.
Details of George and Eric's March 1, 2013 meeting with Mayor Scanlon and
Mike Collins on I -Net expansion and Operation Alert, were discussed. CAC
voted 7 -0 to proceed with request, as per contract, to Comcast via Mayor Scanlon
to expand I -Net to Lynch Park and Beverly Farms.
• OPEN ISSUES:
• Search for additional commission members.
• Operation alert. Ongoing.
• I -Net build out. Ongoing.
The next CAC meeting will be held at the Beverly Public Library, third floor conference room
(2M), On Thursday April 18, 2013 at 7:00 P.M.
At 8:55 P.M. a motion was made by Muriel Zaginailoff and seconded by Don Berman to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted: Eric Overberg, Secretary.