Saratoga News

City Council to revisit TV, but don't expect a rerun

By Sarah Lombardo

The Saratoga City Council is expected to revisit the issue of increasing broadcasts of its meetings, specifically its Tuesday night meetings, when the council holds its regular meeting Jan. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Adult Care Center of the Community Center. But although the council has been talking about the idea for almost year, don't expect the next discussion to be a rerun; the council will most likely make some decisions on the issue next week, according to City Manager Larry Perlin.

"I'll have some recommendations for them, and [the council] will be given the opportunity to decide on them," Perlin said.

The City Council's Wednesday night meetings are already broadcast on Saratoga's community access station KSAR-TV (Channel 6).The push to add Tuesday meetings to the lineup came last December from then-newcomers to the council, Stan Bogosian and Jim Shaw, who complained during their campaigns for office that Saratoga city government was not open enough to its residents and that important decisions were often made at the non-televised meetings.

Funding for televising meetings comes from two sources: a cable refund trust account and cable-access television franchise fees. The trust account is a result of a settlement with SouthBay Cablevision, which was taken over by TCI, over the company's late-charge practices. Saratoga's share of the settlement came to $60,000. An agreement between KSAR and the council reached in May provides that the more than $60,000 in the trust account--which by law must be used for public access, education or government programming--would be turned over to KSAR for the purpose of televising additional meetings, and that the city continue to pass along to KSAR 40 percent of the franchise fees at a level of about $54,000 each year, which it already does. The money will be used to pay for equipping whichever facility is chosen for the meetings and for staffing.

No money for televising meetings will come from the city's general fund, Perlin said. But the overall costs of the project will depend on what the council decides.

Should councilmembers decide to move meetings to the multipurpose room, that room must be outfitted for broadcast. The Adult Care Center will also need cable wire run from the Civic Theater, should the council decide to continue holding only Tuesday meetings there.

Bogosian said he personally was in favor of keeping meeting locations as they are, adding that the theater was already set up for television broadcast, and relatively simple outfitting will prepare the Adult Care Center. "I think the sooner we get these meetings online, the better," he said.

Planning Commission meetings are already scheduled to go on the air at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 25. Perlin said commissioners do not seem as wary of their new television roles as they were concerned about viewers. Because commissioners often scrutinize maps and architectural designs, commissioners wondered how viewers would be able to see such items.

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