RMA upbeat about cable improvements and launch of new services
The Rancho Murieta Association Communications Committee received an upbeat report about recently completed cable system improvements and reviewed plans for a new channel line-up Wednesday.
"Projects 1 through 8 have been a very large success," General Manager David Stiffler told the committee. "We are well under budget for the project. ... We have found that our service calls have dwindled down to very, very few. ... We're very, very pleased with the outcome and we're ready to launch."
There was no acknowledgement of an announcement by organizers of the drive to make participation in the cable system voluntary that they have collected more than half the proxy votes needed to force the change. The proposed bylaws change would prohibit the use of dues for the system. RMA members currently pay about $30 for basic cable service as part of their monthly dues assessment.
There is a question whether the cable system can survive without dues support. The cable system provides TV programming and broadband Internet access.
The "soft launch" of the new digital programming is expected to begin early next week. The high-definition and digital program offerings will be added over a launch period of about two weeks.
The committee approved adding new high-definition channels to basic cable after Stiffler handed out a revised channel line-up he and cable consultant Justin Jordan, a former committee member, had prepared. Stiffler declined to provide a copy to RanchoMurieta.com.
"Over the course of the last several months, HD programming has basically gone wild," said Stiffler. "There are 12 channels out there that we can get for free, and what we want to do is put those as part of the basic tier so our basic subscribers, who already get about eight HD channels, will get about 20 at no additional charge. These programs include A&E History, ESPN and ESPN 2 for free. ... This is really a big win for not only the Communications Committee but the members. ...
"If we look back to May of 2007, one year ago today, the entire cable TV department was broken. We had no employees. ... We have rebuilt the communications department not only from a personnel aspect but also from an infrastructure aspect. In one year we have rebuilt it from scratch."
Premium channel subscribers will receive the new programming free for 30 days. That will be followed by free service for 30 days for the first 100 sign-ups. Anyone signing a one-year service contract will receive a new set-top box and 30 days of free service.
For $24.99, subscribers will receive 75 channels of new TV programming and 50 channels of music, Stiffler said. The complete range of cable TV offerings will be 229 channels, including premium channels, at a cost of $108, he said.
He said he told the board at a closed-session meeting Tuesday that in his opinion, "We could never be in competition with DirectTV and Dish Network, but what we can do is offer a comparable product."
He said promotional material will be going out to members in the coming weeks.
This is great news.
This is great news. With all the new subscribers at $108 a month, this will substantially reduce the risk of running this cable TV system on a voluntary basis. Sounds like the communications committee, along with the general manager have turned over a new leaf and they are advancing to new heights of achievement. With sound management in place our worries are over.
Timing is everything! As the freedom of choice committee continues to collect proxies, and the communications committee and the staff continue to complete the fantastic new system, it looks like this will all dovetail together to close out the year 2008 and we can begin 2009 with the freedom of choice.
Congratulations everyone. Keep up the good work.
Prices
I'm glad to see that we finally have some prices to compare. As mentioned in this article, the digital service will run from $24.99 to $108. If we add the $30 basic fee we get $54.99 to $138, plus additional fees for additional TV's. As I was quoted in a recent article in the River Valley Times, my entire bill, for 280 channels of Dish TV with HD, cell phone, DSL, both local and long distance (with call waiting and all the bells and whistles), is $138 a month in a bundled package from AT&T, and I don't pay a $5 a month billing charge. The Telecommunications industry is a very competitive place for a little homeowner's association to compete.
Jack, I think it is time to call RM North as your legal counsel has advised.
What you get for $108
RMA General Manager David Stiffler asks that we make clear the $108 quoted as the cost for the complete range of cable television services includes the $30 members now pay for basic cable television service through dues, as well as the fee for a DVR converter box and a billing fee.
CC&Rs Trump By-laws
This news report says it: Per RM dot com "the proposed by-laws change would prohibit use of dues for the system." The problem for FOC is that the RM CC&Rs trump the by-laws, and the CC&Rs permit such use. Require it, really. A scheme on the part of the BOD to kill the system by tortured interpretation of the word " maintain" would surely be dereliction. However, the system is becoming more voluntary. I notice that these "improvemrnts" are largely on a voluntary basis, as is broadband, of course.
"Require?" Where?
Read RMA's counsel's own opinion a little more critically. It's not holy writ, it's an opinion, sold for money, which says what counsel was asked by the person with the checkbook to make it say. It's merely RMA's position statement, not necessarily true, not necessarily credible, just their position statement intended to scare you from exercising your rights.
Last paragraph, page 4: "...the CC&Rs permit but do not require RMA to own, operate, and/or maintain a cable system." Then note how stunningly swiftly RMA's counsel glosses over their hit and run allegation that all expenses of the Association to sustain its Common Facilities must be collected and paid as dues, without citing any passages and without discussing one iota what the CC&Rs call "special assessments," which includes among other things how you pay for HBO and Broadband. Their opinion pretends special assessments do not exist as a means of revenue which is an offset against what has to be collected via Regular Assessments (dues) to cover "Association Common Expense" in the budget. A shell game, Al, a shell game.
Pull up the CC&Rs and read along. They're at
http://www.ranchomurietaweb.org/doc/toc.asp?assn_id=12111&doc_cat_id=248...
Assessments are covered by Article IV of the CC&Rs. Under section 1(a) we are all obliged to pay our Regular Assessments (dues) and our Special Assessments (fees and fines). Section 2 defines the Regular Assessment (dues). Section 3 provides for Special Assessments which can be imposed equally on everybody under some circumstances. Section 4 provides for Special Individual Assessments to individual lots. (i)(A) is for rental of an RV parking space in the mythical RMA RV Lot. (i)(B) is for rental of association common facilities (remember, that's what RMA says the cable system is when they say its use can ONLY be paid for by general dues). (i)(C) is a special assessment paid "When a request as been made, in writing, by an Owner for the Association to provide materials, labor and/or services ith respect to the Owner's Lot which are over and above the Association's routine maintenance and repair responsibilities as defined in the Governing Documents." Although an awkward fit, that is the rubric under which RMA collects payment for HBO and Broadband services delivered across this cable system which they insist is an "Association Common Facility" and thus its use may only, they say, be paid for by the regular dues assessment.
Which is sheer nonsense, the CC&Rs provide the mechanism for paying a la carte for renting association common facilities (the amphitheatre) or for requesting services from RMA which the governing documents do not require RMA to provide as a benefit of the regular assessment.
Remember, RMA's counsel admit that the governing documents do not require RMA to provide cable TV. So it is, unquestionably, a service which can be delivered optionally at member request for which a special individual assessment is paid. Which is precisely how they sell HBO.
What do we do at budget time with all that special assessment revenue from rentals, premium TV and broadband, fines, ARC fees, etc etc? It goes into the budget as income and reduces the regular assessment. It goes into the pot of money that pays Association Common Expenses including the cost of maintaining Association Common Facilities.
Nobody has explained why HBO is a use of this "Common Area Facility" which can be paid for by Special Individual Assessment but The Golf Channel is not. Nobody can. So far as the CC&Rs regimen regarding assessments and revenue is concerned, they are two indistinguishable services being delivered across the same Association Common Facility. If services delivered across that Facility can only be paid for with dues and it would be illegal to collect special assessments for those then we are all entitled to Broadband and Premium Channels as part of our dues, too, and the residents who have been paying extra for it are entitled to a refund of everything they paid, according to RMA's counsel's theory.
It's a shell game, Al. They're blowing smoke at you and you're gulping it in. Stop that, it's bad for you.