1987 09 28 CSC Minutes
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M I NUT E S
LA QUINTA COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMISSION
A regular meeting of the La Quinta
Community Services Commission, held at
City Hall, 78-105 Calle Estado, La Quinta
California. '
September 28, 1987
7:00 p.m.
1. CALL TO ORDER
c~ai:man Moran called the La Quinta Community Services Com-
m1SS1on to order at 7:07 p.m. Commissioner Rothschild led
the salute to the.flag.
2. ROLL CALL
Present: Commiss~on Members Beck, Griffith, Jaffy,
Rothsch1ld,Mendoza, and Chairman Moran.
Absent: Commission Member Pina
Also Present: Administrative Services Director, Saundra Juhola,
Community Services Specialist, Michelle Gilstrap.
3. ELECTION OF NEW CHAIRMAN AND INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBER. .
MAUREEN MENDOZA.
Moved by Commissioner Jaffy , seconded by Commissioner Beck that
Commissioner Rothschild be elected as Chairman of the Commission.
Unanimously adopted.
Commission Member Pina arrived at 7:10 p.m.
New Commissioner Maureen Mendoza was introduced to the Comm~ssion.
4. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
None.
5. PRESENTATION BY CVTV (Palmer Cable Company)
Stewart Nazarro, General Manager, was accompanied by two technicians
from Palmer Cable Company. Mr. Nazarro spoke to the Commission and
the members of the community who were present concerning the problems
that his company had in La Quinta.
Basically he stated that his company had a problem with power outages
in La Quinta, but his company was working to install $25,000 worth of
equipment to override the outages. This new equipment would fill in
when there is a power outage. This problem was brought before the
City Council in May by residents who presented a petition to the
City Council signed by over 600 residents stating that there was
a problem with the cable service.
Mr. Nazzaro's technicians explained that the new equipment would run
off from a 60 volt system and will run up to 4 hours and would impact
30 to 40 percent of the residents. The power override system will
be on line by November 1.
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Community Services Commission
Minutes - September 28, 1987
Page Two
Commissioner Pina pointed out to Mr. Nazarro that the Company
is to give notice to subscribers before they turn off the system.
One of Mr. Nazzarro's technicians stated that the cable system
was off that morning because the Company was making repairs on
the system. Several members of the audience commented that there
was no notice given. Commissioner Pina said whenever it is more than
one hour for the service to be out.
Commissioner Pina questioned Mr. Nazarro if the Company is adhering
to the construction schedules in the agreement 4.9 and Performance
testing 5.11. Mr. Nazarro said yes they were complying and that
if the City wanted a witness on any of these areas, he would call
the City Manager and inform him when these tests were conducted.
Commissioner Mendoza stated that if the public were notified
properly about the service being out due to repairs it would
eliminate a lot of the problems that the audience was voicing.
Commissioner Beck proceeded to tell the cable company how to
put a slide up on the screen to tell the public that the service
would be off.
Mr. Nazarro stated that over 1/2 of all of the outages in La
Quinta are power related and the 20% of the staff time is spent
La Quinta due to the bad power from Imperial Irrigation.
Mr. Nazarro also stated that the FCC auditor had just inspected
Palmer Cable in the Valley and that they exceeded FCC regulations on
all issues. Our Maintenance is up to par and we are in compliance.
We have installed 25 phone lines and now have 9 people to answer the
phone. He informed the Commission that handling trouble calls was
a major priority of his Company.
Mr. Nazarro also informed the Commission that there were government
public and educational access available to the City but that at this
time no City in the Valley was using this provision in the agreement.
Commissioner Pina urged Mr. Nazarro to give more information to
the City regarding maintenance and accountability regarding how
the Company is handling problem areas in La Quinta.
Commissioner Jaffy mentioned that although the residents circulated
a petition regarding cable problems, it was before the Company
switched Channel 8 to Channel 28, and that the Company must listen
to your consumers.
Commissioner Griffith stated that he thought Palmer Cable might
be improving their service but 30% improvement over nothing is
not much.
6. PUBLIC COMMENT:
Several members of the audience addressed the Commission with their
concerns of Palmer Cable Company.
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Community Services Commission
Minutes - September 28, 1987
Page Three
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PUBLIC COMMENT:
Louis Campagna, La Quinta Pharmacy owner, presented the reasons
behind the Coachella Valley Television Petition that he initiated
in July from July 3rd - July 15th. There were 653 signatures on
the petition.
He stressed that all that Mr. Nazarro stated to the Commission was
not true. He said that Nazarro had made false statements. In a
recent phone call to the cable office, where he waited 26 minutes
for someone to come on the line, a young man named Bob, said they
had no communication with the Business Office of the Company.
He stated that last week alone there were four cable. outages. He
stressed that the Community needed to be given credit for each loss
of service in excess of one hour. He restated that subscribers be
billed for service based on prior months service rather than one month
in advance.
He also stressed that Commission act on the Petition in its entirety
rather than to take it apart.
John Bund, local architect, stated that the Cable service has never
been adequate and that if the Cable Company had the same dedication
to their service as they did to look at each name on the petition
and say it was invalid that there would not be a problem in La Quinta.
Carol Nelson stated that she wanted to know what firm had conducted
the research regarding the move of KCET-Channe1 8 to Channel 28.
Why should the subscribers have to pay more a month to receive a
free chane1.
Adolph Winkler stated that he has lived in La Quinta since 1980
and that he was written several letters regarding the Cable Service
and has been told that there are improvements. He stressed that
relay stations should be put up on the mountains as they do in Europe
and that the City take over the television system.
More members of the community spoke and each relayed poor service,
and their anger with the move of KCET without notifying the subscribers.
Mr. Nazarro agreed that the concerns from the public were valid, he
would be taking action on many of the issues brought up tonight.
He stated that they do give out customer credit to anyone who requests
it and encouraged members of the audience to contact his office.
Mr. Nazarro then explained about the KCET research.
He stated that in three days his Company would be making an announcement
regarding KCET.
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Community Services Commission
Minutes - September 28, 1987
Page Four
FOLLOWING COMMUNITY COMMENTS ACTION TAKEN BY COMMISSION
It was moved by Commission Member Sybil Jaffy and seconded by
Commission Member Martin Beck that if the Corporation (Palmer
Cable Vision) answer is negative (regarding the moving of KCET back
to Channel 8 from its present location of Channel 28), that this
Commission recommend to the City Council of the City of La Quinta that
the City of La Quinta file a friend of the court brief, which is known
as a amicus curiae brief, to support the position of Palm Desert in
their law suit which they have filed against Palmer Cable Vision to
challenge Palmer Cable Vision right to arbitrarily.determine channeling
and programming.
It was moved by Commission Member Thomas Pina and seconded by
Commission Member Sybil Jaffy that the Community Services Commission
recommend that the City Council recognize the petition circulated
from July 3- July IS, 1987, as a legitimate complaint
and that the Community Services Commission endorses all points made
on the Community petition and recommends the Council review with
serious consideration all four points of the petition.
The four points are:
1. Subscribers shall receive credit for each loss of service in excess
of one hour.
2. Subscribers shall be billed for service based on prior months service
rather than one month in advance.
3. Henceforth, that Coachella Valley Television adopt a courteous
and respectful customer relations posture particularly in response
to subscribers attempts to report service related problems. We
continue having great difficulty in communicating outages due to
inadequate and frequently unresponsive telephone operators.
4. Furthermore, we request the City of La Quinta investigate the feasi-
bility of either establishing their own cable system or possibly
of another franchised cable operator and whatever legal means are
available to force Coachella Valley Television to perform up to
their legal responsibilities under their franchise agreement with
the City of La Quinta.
Community services~mmission
Minutes - September 28, 1987
Page Five
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Commission Resolutions roll call votes were taken for each one.
The first resolution all members of the Commission voted yes with
the exception of Commissioner Moran who excused himself from the
discussion and voting due to a conflict of interest.
The second resolution regarding support of the community petition,
all members voted yes except for Commissioner Beck who voted no.
(Let the record reflect that Commissioner Beck called the secretary
the next day and asked that his reason for voting no be entered into
the record. His reason for opposing the second resolution was that he
was opposed to the section of the petition that indicated that the City
Council form their own Cable Company and he knew that the City Council
did not want to do this, therefore he voted no.)
Following the Commission action, a recess was called at 8:48 p.m.
The Community Services Commission resumed at 9:00 p.m.
7. OLD BUSINESS
A. Appointment of Committee members
1. Human Services Committee - Commissioners Griffith & Beck
2. Parks & Recreation - Commissioners Pina, and Moran -
3. Culture & Fine Arts - Commissioners Mendoza and Jaffy
Chairman Rothschild will serve as a member at large of each committee.
It was the consenus of the Commission that
that positions are open on the Committees.
a job description for the committee member,
that the position is a non-voting member.
the public be advised
Asked staff to design
so they understand
B. DISCUSSION OF ORDINANCE NO. 109 ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY SERVICES
COMMISSION FOR POSSIBLE MODIFICATION REGARDING II ENHANCE QUALITY
OF LIFE II .
This phrase was not included in the Ordinance as adopted by the City
Council and was assigned to the Human Services Committee to look at
and bring back in front of the Commission.
C.' REVIEW GRANT PROCESS OF 1987.
This was referred to a committee established with Mark Moran as
chairman of a subcommittee with Commissioners Pina and Mendoza.
It appears that the City Council has concerns regarding this process,
therefore the subcommittee will review the entire process and application
D. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:-June 29, 1987
Commissioner Moran moved and Commissioner Jaffy seconded the minutes
were approved.
E. TIME CAPSULE UPDATE
Subcommittee formed with Mark Moran as chairman.
Community services~mmission e
Minutes - September 28, 1987
Page Six
F. DISCUSSION CRISIS COUNSELING IN LA QUINTAl SUCIDE HOTLINE:
Chairman Rothschild refered this to the Human Services Committee
G. Affordable Housing Discussion - Commissioner Pina Report
Commissioner Pina handed out the Ad-Hoc Report on Housing and asked
that staff send this report to each commissioner following this meeting.
Referred to Human Services Committee
8. NEW BUSINESS
A. Red Ribbon Week - Drug Awareness Week
Commission Members read over the Informational Memo and decided
that if Commissioner Beck had further information he should give
his information to City Hall so that the information can be
distributed. Sample Proclamation was recommended to City Council.
It was the concensus of the Commission that they endorsed Red Ribbon
Week and asked that Commissioner Beck get in touch with Chairman
Rothschild for anything further or give it to Michelle Gilstrap
so that it can be distributed.
B. Share Program - Informational Memo - moved to next month's
meeting as well as the Meals on Wheels Program.
C. Commissioner Beck brought up that Affirmative Action was not
on the Agenda and that it was susposed to have been on the
Agenda. The City Staff is "lily white more than any City in Californi
a Affirmative Action Plan with the City Manager, needs to be discussed:
Chairman Rothschild referred this item to the Human Services
Committee and asked that specific items be brought to the Commission
Commissioner Mendoza stated that if Agenda items are brought up
for the next meeting, that the majority of the Commissioners should
want an item on the Agenda.
Commissioner Pina asked that the Affirmative Action be placed
on the next Agenda for the meeting. Several Commissioners asked
that background be brought to the Commission regarding Affirmative
Action.
9. ADJOURNMENT The Commission was adjourned following a motion
for adjournment.
The regular meeting of the La Quinta Community Services Commission
held Monday, September 28, 'l987, was adjourned at 9:20 p.m., at
City Hall, 78-l05 Calle Estado, La Quinta, California.
Respectfully submitted, Michelle Gilstrap, Community Services
Specialist