FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes 04-12-2011MINUTES
FIBERNET MONTICELLO ADVISORY BOARD MEETING
Tuesday, April 12, 2011— 6 p.m.
FiberNet Customer Service Office
Present: Clint Herbst, Glen Posusta, Jon Morphew, Wayne Mayer, Dennis Sullivan, Jeff
O'Neill, Jerry Olson (HBC)
Absent: None
Guests: Michele Hertwig, Alyssa Weldon, Bryan Rabe, Matt Henning, Brandon Smith,
Brett Demarais
1. Call to Order
Clint Herbst called the meeting to order at 6 p.m.
2. Additions to Agenda
• Fiber Locating procedures (Wayne Mayer) — under #4
• Business wiring (Jerry Olson)
3. Consideration of Approval of Meeting Minutes — March 15, 2011
JON MORPHEW MOVED TO ACCEPT THE MINUTES FROM THE MARCH 15,
2011 MEETING. DENNIS SULLIVAN SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION
CARRIED 4-0. (GLEN POSUSTA ABSTAINED FROM VOTING.)
4. Operations/Financing Report — General Manager
• Financial report — HBC has been working on a business financial report and are
getting closer to a report for the Advisory Board; waiting to get March numbers
from the City and HBC to blend into a financial statement. First draft of the
Balance Sheet is looking promising.
Collection of past due accounts — Started out with over $55,000 past due; took out
accounts that had issues to resolve. Sent out over 132 accounts with about
$47,000 past due. Results: accounts disconnected were 27; the balance of the 132
accounts have been remedied. Those that will not be collected at this time total
around $14,000. Clint Herbst asked what the responses were from customers
when they were contacted. Jerry Olson reported that FiberNet did everything
possible to try to keep customers and make valid adjustments. The have a
collections agreement now with Bullseye Properties, with them keeping 30% of
what gets recovered from accounts turned over to collections (after
disconnection). Clint Herbst asked what the plan is for turning accounts over to
collections. Jerry noted that would be done when accounts are over 60 days past
due. FNM will look into providing customers with a collections policy at the time
they are signed up. This may help defer some of the collections cost.
11 FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — April 12, 2011
Glen Posusta asked about setting delinquent customers on automatic debit for
credit cards. Jerry noted that is a possibility but it would only be as good as their
credit card. Dennis Sullivan questioned the process of charging for pay per view.
Right now customers are allowed to charge them on their bill. Jerry said that
currently the system does not allow them to restrict to credit card only, but they
could do other type of restrictions.
• Installation goals and objectives — Jerry handed out a list of services installed for
December 2010 through March 2011. Average Revenue Generating Unit has
been decreasing slightly which is of some concern. Wayne Mayer asked about
porting of numbers and costs charged to FNM. He also verified that ported
numbers stay with FNM. Dennis Sullivan commented on promos that Dish TV
used to include with monthly bills and wondered if those could be used by FNM.
Jerry said they are limited by what the content providers give to them.
• Marketing report — Michele Hertwig noted that she is currently working on the
website update and the new website should be ready by the end of April. Michele
explained some of the changes including newly formatted tabs, common links at
the bottom of the page, scrolling information. Michele is looking at making the
site more user-friendly and understandable.
Michele explained that they are finishing up a new marketing plan. A full page ad
will go into the Chamber Directory. An article is going into the City newsletter
due to go out in May. The billboard ad is ready to go: "Let us hook you up." The
next steps will be to expand on this theme in other marketing efforts. Looking at
putting something into the Promo Pak which goes to all households with 55362
zip code. Idea is to convey a consistent and constant message to the community
about FiberNet. Glen Posusta suggested that information and image about
FiberNet be put into community center. Clint Herbst recommended focusing on
linking local community to FiberNet such as when the football game was
televised.
Jerry Olson explained that the Marketing Plan puts together a plan for the year
laying out all the marketing campaigns, projected costs, marketing targets and
more.
Jon Morphew asked about possibility of doing a survey or research on why people
are not signing up with FiberNet and try to develop a process for contacting those
that are on other contracts to get them to sign up with FNM.
a) Input from installers on marketing — Bryan Rabe talked about how to
market to people who are under contract with other providers. One idea
would be: customer pays the penalty for ending the contract and FNM
gives free services to move customer to our services. We would not
really be out the money as we wouldn't have those customers otherwise.
Bryan recommended targeting groups of customers in these
21 FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes — April 12, 2011
circumstances. Jon Morphew suggested that we start targeting
customers that already have boxes on their homes and/or drops.
Jerry summarized the various marketing tactics that have been used and
emphasized that it is important to continue to provide a consistent message.
Alyssa is handling a lot of marketing in the office and Brett is focusing on
marketing to businesses. With Michele's assistance, this is a collaborative effort
to get the word out and attract more customers.
JON MORPHEW MOVED TO AUTHORIZE STAFF TO PUT AN INCENTIVE
PLAN INTO PLACE TO SOLICIT CUSTOMERS ON OTHER PLANS WITH
A CAP OF $300 (WITH TRIPLE PLAY SERVICE). GLEN POSUSTA
SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5-0.
• Staffing alignment/work plan — Installs have been a little slow so some of the
seasonal contractors have been laid off for now. Once the marketing picks up,
they anticipate the work to increase.
Matt Henning pointed out that the only area that has not been constructed is
Kjellberg's Park. There was some discussion on the potential for wireless to
serve that area.
• Training_plan — Jerry explained that Matt and Thaddaeus attended a week long
course on HPBX Troubleshooting and Provisioning, which is related to hosted
services on the MetaSwitch system. They found that they will need to work with
other vendors to help install the hosted services in business locations.
• Fiber Locating Procedure — Generally one tech is sent out to do locates, which
was usually done by Dan Stelton. Wayne Mayer commented that he had noticed
recently that there were 2 techs together with one holding the flags. Staff thought
that might be related to locating affiliated with the 7th Street streetlights; one of
the persons was probably a seasonal employee helping out with locates. Wayne
Mayer will discuss with Jerry offline.
5. Governance Ordinance
• Recommend Council approval of current rate structure -
JON MORPHEW MOVED TO APPROVE THE PRICING STRUCTURE FOR
RATES FOR FIBERNET SERVICES AS PRESENTED. DENNIS SULLIVAN
SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5-0.
Jerry noted that at some point the Advisory Board will need to review rates and
make some adjustments with rates for some of the video services.
• Establish bylaws for AdvisoKy Board — City staff will prepare a draft and have the
City Attorney review prior to bringing it to the Advisory Board.
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes —April 12, 2011
6. Consideration of Approval of Universal Service Two Year Plan (See attachment)
Jeff explained that the City and FiberNet are working on getting approval for ETC
funding status which would allow utilizing funds that can be used for underprivileged and
similar uses. The Advisory Board was provided a draft for a 2 -year plan to review. Jeff
explained that the plan involves bringing services to residents in mobile home parks and
apartment buildings.
JON MORPHEW MOVED TO APPROVE THE DRAFT CONCEPT PLAN FOR ETC
APPLICATION FOR FUNDING STATUS. GLEN POSUSTA SECONDED THE
MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5-0.
7. Lawsuit Settlement
Jeff reported that a settlement was reached with TDS at $1.5 million and money has been
wired to City. City is currently working with figuring out attorney fees and settling with
LMCIT. It was suggested that the City put together a press release to let the public know
about the settlement. Jeff will work on this with Jon Morphew.
8. Outreach
• Municipal User Group Meeting - Jeff O'Neill noted that they are still working on
forming user group; should have more information at next meeting.
• TISP presentation on May 4, 2011 — will include City of Monticello and several
other public entities that will talk about partnerships in broadband network
development.
• MPR (see website for Minnesota Public Radio) — Advisory Group was provided a
copy of the article.
9. Discuss Process for Filling General Manger Position
Jerry explained that Jeff, Tracy (HR Director), and Jerry have been working on a job
description for the General Manager position and an advertisement for the position has
been released. Jerry is proposing that a small group made up of HBC administration and
city staff would review applications and participate in interviews.
Wayne Mayer suggested that they look for applicants that have experience with
telecommunications management and development and not just administrative
background. Glen Posusta agreed that it is important to hire a person that has
considerable experience in telecommunications. Jerry commented on the job description
which requires a significant amount of knowledge in telecommunications. Wayne Mayer
also recommended they make inquiries into what kind of field knowledge that applicants
would bring to the position.
10. Community Based Programming Update
41 FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes —April 12, 2011
PEG & Franchise fees — payments to Sherburne Wright Cable Commission — Jeff O'Neill
and Cathy Shuman reported on the status of bringing the fee payments due to the Cable
Commission up to date. These are required as part of our video franchise agreement with
SWCC. The PEG fees have been paid to date and city staff is still working with HBC to
work out the formulas for the franchise fees.
11. Future Items
• Update of FNM website (see marketing report)
Added Items:
• Phone Outage: Thurs, April 7 - caused by a problem with the profile in Calix
equipment. Longest that a customer was out of service was 12 hours. Outage
started about midnight and found out about it at 1 a.m.; took until about Sam to
figure out the problem. About 5 minutes was required to correct the profile for
each customer. It was noted that Matt Henning and Thaddaeus Rousu researched
and corrected the problem from Des Moines, where they were attending training.
• Business Wiring — Bryan Rabe reported that it may be possible that Charter is
using wiring that has been installed by FiberNet inside businesses. Wayne Mayer
suggested that be reported to Charter to let them know what is going on. Bryan
suggested that there may be some contract issues here. It is felt that the City
should seek a legal opinion on this to protect our investment in businesses.
12. Adjourn
WAYNE MAYER MOVED TO ADJOURN AT 8:27 P.M. GLEN POSUSTA
SECONDED THE MOTION. MOTION CARRIED 5-0.
Recorder: Catherine M. Shuman
Approved: May 10, 2011
Attest: 6- /6 1 'Ll
CitY,7A#nistrator
FiberNet Advisory Board Minutes —April 12, 2011