League of Women Voters of Albany County Issues and Action

On July 3, the Albany Common Council Ad Hoc Committee on Cable Access met to review the Report and Recommendations of the Committee. Co-president Moehringer and Ray Blanchard represented the Albany County League at this meeting. The League has supported and advocated for public access for the past five years and submitted testimony in April 2003 and at various times thereafter. Committee chair, John Rosenzweig, reviewed the report recommendations for the committee and the public to obtain final comments before submission to the Common Council. Following are some excerpts from the report which can be obtained from Aimee at 85aimee@nycap.rr.com.

“There is an overwhelming support for PEG access in our City by people from different socio-economic, ethnic, educational and geographical backgrounds.” Money would be used to set up all three PEG (public, educational, government) channels. The government channel would be broadcast from the Council Chambers and would air all public meetings. The education component of PEG access would be housed at Albany High School. The public component would be delivered from the Albany Public Library’s main facility. The Ad Hoc Committee recommends that the City negotiate a ten-year franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable and ask for $500,000 in start up monies for access over the ten year period. Additionally, the committee recommended a $.35 monthly ($4.20 annually) pass-through fee to Time Warner subscribers for continuing costs of full time positions. Very importantly, the report recommends that an entity other than city government or elected officials should oversee PEG access. Such entity will be determined by a future action of the Common Council.

The Report and Recommendations were approved by the Committee and will be acted upon at the August 6 Common Council meeting. If approved, the Report will provide the Corporation Counsel with key points for negotiation with Time Warner (or another cable operator) in obtaining a new contract for provision of cable service to the City. League members from the City are advised to attend and speak in support of public access TV.

Allaud Testifies Before Albany Common Council

LWVAC member Aimee Allaud testified before the Albany Common Council on August 6th. Below is the text of her testimony.

Members of the Common Council, Council President Morris

I am Aimee Allaud, resident of the City, and a member of the League of Women Voters of Albany County, as well as a member of the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations public access TV committee.

Members of both organizations have advocated for a public access TV facility for Albany for the past six years. Anticipating that when the City’s contract with Time Warner terminated in 2004, we would have an opportunity to once again consider creating a public access television capable of providing full public, government and educational access for Albany’s citizens, we began to do our homework.

We were very pleased that Mayor Jennings appointed a Council member, Dave Torncello, to head a committee to review and study the cable contract and to investigate the potential for including a comprehensive public access television facility. (Insert for oral presentation the following: We were also pleased that a new committee chaired by Councilman Rosenzweig was appointed to continue the work which had been begun by the previous committee) Our organizations have presented testimony on a number of occasions, beginning in 2003, which is part of the public record. We produced a brochure, “Public Access Albany, New Possibilities for Community Telecommunications Infrastructure,” which we used to spread the message to the community about the benefits of public access. We participated in a number of meetings to share information with Mr. Torncello’s committee. Meanwhile, the CANA public access TV committee, continued to borrow camera equipment from the Bethlehem public access TV studio to film the monthly meetings of the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations. Individual neighborhood associations have endorsed the concept and have submitted their own Resolutions. As the Ad Hoc Committee report indicates, “there is an overwhelming support for PEG access in our City by people from different socio-economic, ethnic, educational and geographical backgrounds.”

Your committee has produced a report which, by and large, reflects the goals that our organizations have supported for a public access facility and programming for City residents. However, we have several comments on the report which we would like to be entered in the public record as follows:

1) Although the report establishes that the Council Chambers would be the home of the Governmental entity, it does not indicate that there would also be an I-NET to connect government buildings to facilitate communication between Albany city government and city residents. This technology should not be limited to broadcasting meetings, but can be a very effective means of disseminating important information on a timely basis to City residents,

2) the report does not recommend that meetings of the Albany School District Board of Education be included in the scope of the meetings to be televised. We would recommend that this body be named in your Final Report.

3) The report indicates that the committee rejects the idea that equipment should be loaned from the facility. We suggest that you refer a decision on permitting loans of equipment to the entity which will be the governing body for public access. Having been responsible borrowers of equipment from the Bethlehem Library for four years, we would like to think that other members of the community would also benefit from a policy which encourages the production of home-grown programming.

4) Regarding the financing of PACTV, the Resolutions adopted by the neighborhood associations recommends “….the city to provide ongoing support to the operation by dedicating a percentage of the annual fees collected from the franchisee to the operation of easily accessible public access broadcast facility/facilities.” The report does not reflect this recommendation and seems to rely solely on the $.35 monthly pass through fee to Time Warner subscribers. In our region, the City of Schenectady supports their PACTV station through an annual contribution to the station’s budget. We would ask you to re-consider this point.

We commend your committee for the vision and plan for PACTV which this report sets forth and look forward to a new contract with a cable provider which will pave the way for public access here.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.