A special meeting of the Rancho Murieta Association Communications Committee was held Tuesday to establish a committee to quickly study alternatives to having the RMA run the cable system. Meanwhile, plans to launch new programming on the upgraded cable system, completed recently at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, are still on hold.
"The infrastructure is, by and large, all done," General Manager David Stiffler reported to the group. "It's just the programming now." Negotiations for the new channel lineup are expected to be completed in early May.
The search for alternatives to operating the system, which the RMA has dubbed Plan B, was previously regarded as a back-up to the multi-year cable improvement plan. It has taken on a new urgency because of a movement to make participation in the cable system voluntary. Plan B options are sell, lease, subcontract operation of the system or shut it down.
RMA members now pay about $30 a month for basic cable service as part of their dues. The RMA cable system provides basic TV programming, premium TV channels and broadband service for the community.
The options appear in an outline for the ad hoc committee prepared by Stiffler and Communications Committee member Carol Anderson. Committee members were asked to review and comment on the outline before it goes to the RMA board. They were also asked to indicate if they want to be considered for the committee. The board will select members for the ad hoc committee at an executive session to be held in early May.
The selection of members for the ad hoc committee was one of many points of friction among the directors at last week's four-hour board meeting, with some directors adamant about choosing the committee members.
President Jack Cooper said the Communications Committee's role was "increasing dramatically," and anyone who served on the ad hoc committee would have to have "expertise and courage."
Stiffler described the process of developing Plan B as "requiring a significant amount of due diligence." The association needs to know the value of the system and "potential mine fields" from a legal perspective, he said.
George Roper and John Weatherford urged the committee itself to develop Plan B because it will take too long to bring a new group up to speed.
Roper and Weatherford belong to the Freedom of Choice group that wants to make cable voluntary by changing the bylaws to prohibit the use of dues to support the system.
Roper said the real question is that needs answers is, "Can you make (the cable system) stand on its own two feet?"
Committee Chair Mel Standart said "costs may double" without the support of about $850,000 annually from dues, although he added that there is no data to prove that at this point. "We don't know if we could sell enough service since we've never tried," he said.
If TV service ends, broadband service would also end as well. RMA broadband has 522 subscribers.
"It seems to me that people should know what they're getting into and what they're getting out of. ... People need to know the pros and cons," said Anderson.
Roper and John Weatherford said during their petition drive they'd found people often didn't realize they were paying for cable service in their dues. When they were told that's the case, they signed the petition to opt out, Weatherford said.
"It may be very counterproductive to rattle this cage too much," Roper said in response to Anderson's suggestion.
"It might wake up an element of people - we don't know this -- that says, ‘Wait a minute, I don't have any problems'," Standart said.