View it through wider lens
Published 12:01 am Sunday, March 27, 2011
A recent request for the City Council to approve the purchase of new equipment for Everett TV, the city’s public-access cable channel, turned into its own reality TV episode. It put into sharp focus the need to take a fresh look at the endeavor’s purpose, priorities and programming — and its generous source of capital funding.
Eight-year-old equipment used by Everett TV is outdated and breaking down. It needs replacing. But when the price tag presented to the council rose in a year from $250,000 to $469,000, eyebrows naturally rose. Questioning by council members revealed not only a lack of careful cost estimating, but that the account to pay for such upgrades — funded by a $1 monthly tax on citizens’ cable bills — has about $1.7 million sitting in it, more than enough to buy the equipment currently requested, plus another upgrade in six years.
If ever there was a tax that was no longer necessary, at least for the foreseeable future, this would appear to be it.
The council’s questions also opened the door to discussing how this public resource is used, and how it could be used better to fulfill its stated purpose: ” … to provide people who live or work in Everett with information about city government.”
It currently does so primarily by televising and web streaming City Council meetings, and via a monthly studio show, “Mayor’s Update.” Other programming includes a quarterly interview show, “Inside Everett,” a Silvertips interview show and a bulletin board of current events and other notices. (An excellent archive is available for viewing on the web at tinyurl.com/EverettTV.)
Council member Brenda Stonecipher questions current programming priorities, suggesting more effort should be put into televising and streaming public meetings — say, of the planning commission and park board — than producing studio programming.
That makes sense from a government transparency standpoint — the more citizens have access to policy processes, the better informed and involved they’re likely to be — but also financially. Proceeds from the cable tax can only be used for capital purchases, not for staff time. Operating costs come out of the city’s already stretched general fund.
Televising board and commission meetings is more central to the mission of government TV, and requires less staff time than a lot of studio programming. It could be done fairly simply if such bodies met in council chambers, where equipment already is set up. If some boards are too large for that space, new equipment could be placed in a larger room. The money certainly is there.
Council members asked city staff for a more detailed briefing regarding the equipment request and Everett TV overall. It’s scheduled for April 13. It ought to be a launching point for a broader discussion about how to use this valuable public resource, and how to pay for it.
