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Municipal Telecommunications Utility (MTU) Board Minutes
January 31, 2006
Board Members Present: Scott Crowley, Bob Heaton, Doris Kelley, Randy Pilkington,
and Jim Waterbury
Staff Members Present: Linda Craun
The Board met at 4:00 p.m on January 31, 2006.
Randy Pilkington moved, Bob Heaton seconded that the minutes of April 17, 2006, be
approved as submitted. Motion carried.
Doris Kelley presented draft surveys for the City Departments and Medium and Large
Businesses. The draft survey for City Departments was reviewed first. During this
review, Linda Craun presented a map provided by the City of Waterloo MIS Department
indicating the location of fiber owned by the City. In reviewing this survey, it was
determined that the City IT person may be able to answer a lot of the questions regarding
the entire Waterloo government; the remainder of the questions could go to the various
departments. Various board members suggested several edits. Because the survey will
take some time to complete and the Board would like as much cooperation as possible,
Jim Waterbury will meet with the Mayor first to explain the survey; then one or two
board members would meet with Jim Quint, MIS Department Head. After that someone
from the Board could be present at a Department Head meeting.
The draft survey for businesses was reviewed and edits were suggested. There was
discussion as to how many businesses and what size of businesses the Board would be
surveying. Randy Pilkington reported that he spoke with Steve Dust, Greater Cedar
Valley Alliance, and it would not be a conflict for the Board to be conducting this survey
while the Cedar Valley Alliance is conducting their survey. Mr. Pilkington felt that Steve
Dust would help us identify businesses. It was suggested that the surveys could be done
one-on-one with each Board member interviewing several businesses. Bob Heaton was
concerned that with each member conducting the surveys the information from the
businesses would become public; he would like the information from the individual
businesses to be confidential. Mr. Heaton thought we could better maintain that
confidentiality if the Board had a third party conducting the survey. Cedar Valley
Alliance will start their survey in April; Randy Pilkington will speak with Steve Dust
again to see if the Board's survey could be joined with Cedar Valley's survey. There was
also the possibility of Doris Kelley conducting the survey of businesses.
The Board would like Mr. Walsh to give them an opinion as to the confidentiality of the
information provided by each business —can just the summary be public information, and
not the information from the individual businesses? Will it make a difference depending
on who's conducting the survey, i.e. Cedar Valley Alliance, all the Board members, or
just one Board member?
Jim Waterbury will obtain a list of businesses and send out to the Board members.
January 31, 2006, Minutes
Page 2
Due to the time, Jim Waterbury suggested that we table the rest of the agenda items until
the next meeting. However, Bob Heaton informed the Board that he had already
contacted Waterloo Community Schools and Hawkeye Community College and provided
them with the draft survey. He has already received the filled -in survey from Hawkeye,
which he provided to the Board members. He expects to receive the one from the
Waterloo Schools soon.
Scott Crowley reported that he has not yet gotten the information from Deere as the
people he needs to speak with have been traveling.
Randy Pilkington reported on Location One. He did a blind search for various cities
comparable to Waterloo; in that first search Waterloo is about the same as the other cities.
In speaking with Steve Dust, once RFP's are requested, specific information is obtained
from Mediacom or Qwest.
Jim Waterbury has not had a chance to obtain the information from the hospitals.
There is a workshop in March. If Board members would like to attend, it would be at
their own expense.
Bob Heaton will contact Thomas Neith from Hawkeye about the possibility of attending
one of the Board meetings.
There is a question in the business survey regarding whether the business would be
willing to switch providers with a 20% savings in monthly charges. Eri Schmeising was
concerned that 90% of the businesses would say yes to that and the Board would interpret
that to mean there is a need for the Board to provide those services, or an assumption that
a 20% savings could be realized.
Randy Pilkington moved, Doris Kelley seconded that the meeting be adjourned. Motion
carried.
Linda Craun
Secretary