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01/19/1996 - C-View Task Force Meeting C-VIEW TASK FORCE BOARD CITY OF CLEARWATER January 19, 1996 Present: Joseph Brown Carrie Huntley Peter Caffentzis Deb Lutz John Carassas (Legal Dept.) James Martin (First part of the meeting) Shawn Stafford David Campbell Commissioner Fred Thomas Dan Hamsmith (Last part of the meeting) Jeff Harper Rich Whitaker Absent: This meeting was called to order by Jeff Harper at 3:00 p.m. in the DRC conference at the City Hall Annex. He introduced Carrie, Deb and John Carassas, Assistant City Attorney to give advise on public records law. A good way to get started is to go around the table and introduce ourselves to each other. JIM MARTIN - I've been a resident since around 1962 and graduated from the University of Florida. My specialty was originally in TV production, then I switched over and got an engineering degree and got into broadcast engineering and in the armed forces I was infantry and armed forces radio and television. Afterwards, I've been in broadcasting for a good number of years. I used to run the live truck at Channel 8. Later SPN traveling the country. In recent years, I was industrial video and production and occasionally doing some freelancing. Currently I'm a teacher teaching broadcast journalism and Social Studies in Dunedin Middle School. Wife and two grown kids. SHAWN STAFFORD - Time Warner, formerly Vision Cable for five years - Been in the television business for seven years. I've directed, freelanced, and I'm not married. PETER CAFFENTZIS - Hold a doctorate in Social Psychology. I have done some stuff for Channel 13 in New York. Hosted an early show called Perspective. I teach Divorce and Impact on Children and produce and direct Couples and Conflict on the Community Access channel. JOE BROWN - Originally came from Kentucky. Been a resident since 1971. Graduate of the University of Kentucky in civil engineering. Currently working for Florida Power for 18 years. Did a tour with the Marine Corp in the early 760s. I have a wife and two kids in Clearwater High School. JOHN CARASSAS - I'm here to brief you and update you on the Sunshine Law and answer any questions. DAVID CAMPBELL - My goal on being on this board is single minded. Two years ago, the Commission decided to have a C-View Community Outreach where they could broadcast meetings from the Chambers. I watched that come and grow and it is very viable and useful tool. As a result, I'm a very harsh critic. I don't do it for good work not being done but as room for improvement. I may be the cause of this board meeting. See things that need room for improvement. I think it good particularly with a bunch of people who can come together and give their collective opinions and me not being the sole voice for the City of Clearwater. Much of what I said got totally ignored or disregarded simply because I was the only one saying anything. It didn't matter if it was true or not. We are here to change that. RICH WHITAKER - Started off in Broadway when I was about 17 years. Was in real estate brokerage for a while. Five years ago, I went to work for Visual Cable in the Community Access program. I fell in love with the concept. It think it is absolutely viable to our Community. One of the reasons I accepted the job here. Currently my son and I do animations for broadcast and industrial video. All three of my kids are grown and out of the house except for the one that comes in and works. Been married for 32 years. DAN HAMSMITH - Graduated 1984 from Southern Illinois University in TV production. Associates degree in education, Bachelor degree in TV production and a minor in marketing music merchandising. I've worked for the City of St. Petersburg since October 1989 when it started up as a Government access operation. In June this year we went to broadcast. Been in business for 14 years. Served briefly for Vision Cable. Then moved to the City of St. Petersburg. I'm married with 3 boys. CARRIE HUNTLEY - I've been the Manager of Community Outreach. I've with the City for about two years. Graduate of USF with a major in Mass Communications. I interned in master control Channel 28 for a couple of years and moved onto Channel 8 as an associate producer. Stayed there for a few years and went City of Tampa's Government Access Channel. It was one of the oldest in existence and is an award winning facility that is setting a lot of precedence and has really set the standard for government access channels around the country. I was recruited by the City of Clearwater and am working to make it the best channel possible for the citizens of Clearwater. JEFF - I'm director of Information Management. I've worked for the City for a long time. I've worked in Human Resources, Administrative Services. In 1993 I was asked to direct the new Information Management department. The department came about as a result of Community consensus projecta a few years ago. Resulting in a strategic planning meetings were held by the City Commission and they decided that the City really hadn't done a very good job marketing itself or of getting information out to the public. So this department was set up to bring together all the different kind of Commission services that are in the City. We are unusual department, we are not only public information, we are also Information Services, from the data processing. We have all the computer systems, networking, also telecommunications, graphic production, press relations, and the TV channel. The next thing we need to do is select an interm chairperson. I suggest we do it on a interm basis since we are meeting for the first time. David: Volunteered Pete and Jim seconded. Peter: Does anyone else what to be chairperson? What do we consider interim? Jim: Volunteered. Joe: Bimonthly meetings. Jeff: We can change later. Pete: Three month - extend to four month. Joe: Let's make it interim for two meetings. David the first meeting and Jim the second. Jim, Peter, Rich - Good idea Jeff - Acceptable, Yes John: Open vote Peter - Proposed Dave: First motion Jim: Seconded Unanimous vote Jim: You've got some ideas that need improved. I think that what is almost required for improvement here is that we need to watch the channel to see what can be improved. Suggestions need to be objective. Understandably, what's on the channel is directed by what is the subject material. We cannot change the pacing, wording, but you can improve on the picture quality, sound quality and the information. Carrie: We need to elect a chairman, then I think Jeff do an overview. Jim: Mr. Campbell can be the chairman. Peter: I would like to request, that for something like this, that you bring in newsprint, masking tape, and felt tip pens so that as talk about things, we can capture that information visually. We aren't relying on did they hear me or do I have to say it again. Carrie: In you packets, there are several surveys. We hired a research firm to do some historical data gathering for us. There were focus groups done as well as phone surveys done. This survey came back with results saying that the citizens of Clearwater are more than happy with what C-View is doing. I think that it would be very important for this group to look at the information we are providing to you. The Bordner Research did come as a result of Mr. Campbell's concern and rather than just listening to a subjective opinion, the Commission decided to get some integral data together. I think it's important that you go over this information before making any judgements or decision about how you're going to proceed. Jeff: This is a meeting and we do have to have a chairperson. Elected chairperson should be chairing this meeting. Carrie: We have and agenda for this meeting. I think it is important to establish the groundwork and look at some of this data and research. We wanted this to be a sit down and get to know each other talk about what our goal is and get to know the government and Sunshine information and give you some history for those of you who don't know about C-View. Jeff: In your handouts, you have the agenda item that established this task force. Attached to that is the proposal that I sent to the Manager/City Commission to establish the task force. It was changed to four members being appointed by the City Commissioners, and three were appointed by the City Manager. Other than that, this is what was approved by the City Commission for the purpose of this task force. We have proposed an agenda for you tonight, but it is just a proposal to you. I would suggest that Chairperson David take over and proceed. David: I see seven people with seven different opinions as to why we are here today. Is it to layout new equipment, video quality, change the programming style, advise as to what we got now and do a better job of making it fit? Jeff: Are you talking about the purpose of the Task Force? David: Yes, Jeff: Purpose of the Task Force defined in this agenda item which is to get input from the citizens how they think the channel is doing and give us advise on that. We need to develop policies. Joe: Motion agenda Dan: Seconded Opposed David: I am somewhat overwhelmed by the lack of advance notice on what we are supposed to do. We have a tremendous package here that is a great tool and I appreciate you giving it to us. Dan: I think we have approved agenda as is today. I think that is you go down through the agenda as set forth to us, we will get information on the public records law as it relates to this Task Force. We are going to get item No. 4 which is the purpose and a status of C-View. as it currently stands. Based on that we can act accordingly to the task that we've been assigned to. John: He handed out three part memo from City Attorney's office. First part is a brief overview, a letter from the City Attorney's office outlining what the Sunshine Law is. It is a 1967 Florida statute, the state legislature passed the bill of public records law requires that all public meetings of any kind must be open to the public at all times and that all issues have to be discussed in public. I begin by telling you that as of today, all members of the Task Force are governed by this and are subject to the penalties of that Sunshine law. As members of the Task Force, all discussions are considered public meeting and must be properly advertised in one of the local newspapers. Must be open to the public. Can set rules and procedures such as time to speak. It can be different as you go along. Cannot talk to each other outside the meeting. More than one person is considered a meeting. Minutes are being recorded and Deb is taking minutes of the meeting so in case there any questions on motion, time period, etc. This all needs to be documented. Penalties - It is second degree misdemeanor, punishable by less than one year in jail, for anyone violating these regulations. Second part of the memo is do and don't list of commonly asked questions-take it home to digest. Third section is the Statutes in effect today. Government in the Sunshine. They can be made available to anyone who wants it. Pete: I like the dos and don'ts list. John: This is the material that we hand out to all the other boards. You are an advisory board. Jeff: Established late 1993. Jeff talked about how C-View government access channel was set up to get information to citizens. We gathered a lot of procedures from other channels handled elections, all of them had concerns on how the elected officials had access to the channel during election time. Looking for guidance and set policies on we should handle elections. We welcome your suggestions on how the channel is doing technically. Decision Advisory board is not responsible for the day to day operation of the channel. City staff and City Manager is responsibility for running the channel. We are finding that a lot of people are watching it. We took a very unscientific survey at the Harborview Center. People like the Library and News Spot. Joe: Is this open access? Jeff: This is a government access for the public. Programming is controlled by the City for purposes for the City, not public or community access. Shawn: How many hours to program? Jeff: We are on the air all the time. Carrie: We are unique. A log of government access channel share their channels with county or other municipalities. We went on the air January 4th of 1994. It's Time Warner Cable, used to be Vision Cable, if you live in the City Limits, you can watch Channel 15. We just moved from Channel 35 to 15 so we have gone through some transition. Luckily they moved us down and I think people are more likely to tune to us know than when we were on 35. We had to do a lot of changing things on the channel, print, and marketing things we have done. but we think it is a real good change. We do, as Jeff says, cover City Commission meetings live, the work sessions, Development Code Adjustment meetings and Municipal Code Enforcement meetings which meets twice monthly, Planning and Zoning which meets twice monthly. The Environmental Advisory Board and Downtown Development Board both meeting once monthly. The Development Code Adjustment Board which is twice monthly and the Parks & Recreation board which is once monthly. Altogether we cover approximately 13 meetings every month. Those are live meetings range anywhere from 2-10 hours. In addition, we also produce three series programs, two cooperatively. Blue Line CPD, is produced with the Police Department with Chief Klein hosts that half hour program. It is taped at the Time Warner local origination access studio. We do Library Windows taped on location at the Main Library and hosted by Dr. Arlita Hallam, Library Director. Both those shows focus on those departments. They large produce them, we are the facilitators for them. They do the content, the flow of the show and what goes where and we advise them as they need it. We edit and put it together and put in on the channel. They are both half hour shows done monthly. In addition, we do a show out of the Information Management department called In the City. I host that half hour show and tape it at Time Warner's local origination studio. Commissioner Fred Thomas arrived at the meeting. In the City program focuses on activities, events, hot issues going on in Clearwater, Usually we break it up in three segments, 7-8 minutes per segment. It has been really well received. It has only been on for a couple of months, and in our surveys, a lot of people are watching it. It gives the departments that don't have the time and staff to produce a half program every month the opportunity to be on a talk about program or topic that they have publicity for. In addition to the series programs. We also do C-View exclusives. These are stories, usually 3-5 minutes, about important events happening of a timely nature. We group things together like the Harborview opening, Clearwater Pass Bridge opening, Sparkle Day activities, public service announcements are produced such as Beach Parking permits that citizens can buy. It is a 15 minute news show that covers all kinds of events. We did a show Clearwater Face to Face. The coalition of neighborhoods approached us about doing. Hosted by Diane Bordner who did the research for us. It included two citizens, who tried to get a business leader and a resident of Clearwater, and Rich Baier from the City and another a woman from one of the social services in Clearwater who talked about her program at the end of the show. It basically was a question and answer between the between staff and citizens. Who worked out real and we got a good response. The Fire department has also approached us about doing a monthly series show. In addition to the Municipal Board meetings, various programs, and C-View exclusives, we do special programs that don't fit into those categories. We produced a show getting people here Clearwater FL - One Great Place. It was a day in Clearwater - What you can do while you're her. We recently won an international award for it. We distributed it to over 1,000 travel agents, both nationally and internationally and put it on the channel. After we got the people here, we then produced a video per the request of the City Commission we produced a show While You're Here - A Day in Clearwater. The host goes around all over Clearwater Beach and focuses in on City owned things such as the pier, marine, recreation center, etc. and at the end we do a calendar of events that is updated on a monthly basis. We look forward to doing more of those types of programs for our channel and for marketing the City. As Jeff mentioned two major projects we'll be taking care of this year. Video for HarborView Center. Needs to be used by Harborview Center to send to prospective renters. Economic Development video for two departments that work with the City. The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) and the Economic Development Department. It's a tool to help them both retain businesses in Clearwater and leu business to Clearwater. Two big projects that will take the staff months. In addition to the programming that's produced or covered live during meetings, we also do a City bulletin board that is a sequence of pages that advertise City meetings, City happenings, City events, legal notices, meeting live and replay times, series show schedules, job advertisements, station IDs, wide variety of information. We have a form that City departments can fill out with whatever message they have for us to put on the bulletin board. That is included in your packet. We have an intern who does that for us. She worked for us about 30 hours a week and spends about 25 of those hours working on the City bulletin board. It has been effective for the City departments and people like the bulletin board. David: Who is that? Carrie: Jennifer Klein. Our weekly program schedule appears in the St. Petersburg Times, Tampa Tribune's Sunday television magazine, the TV guide and Beachviews. Jeff also mention earlier that staff works on things that never see the channel at all like Candidate orientation tapes, board appreciation tapes, new board member orientation tapes, budget overviews for City departments and PSAs for distribution to all the broadcast channels. For the technical people - Our playback system is a automated Robotics system and has two Sony PBW 2800s in it, it has 80 hours of programming capacity, it has 90 & 30 minute bins and a log keeping function. To cover meetings, we had equipment loaned to us by Time Warner. That's a JVC switcher with two effects busses and no downstream capability. The Chambers does not have TV lighting. There are four cameras three are remote controllable. It was designed for surveillance. Panasonic audio mixer which is fed by an audio mixer that is controlled by the City Clerk. We record with two Sony PBW 2800s and three VHS recorders. One copy goes to the Clerk and two to the Library for checkout. City Commission meetings - Two copies go to the Library, one copy to the City Clerk and all other municipal board meetings, one copy goes to the City Clerk and we keep a copy. Library does not have self space for them. The editing suite is located in City Hall next to Time Warner equipment. David: Music Library on bulletin board. Our audio library includes narrator tracks, music bakery, and sound effects library. We did that because they were all buy out libraries rather than spend money every year renewing subscription. It was much more cost effective. She talked about what field equipment they have and will have in the new Municipal Services Building. If anyone would like to tour the facility, I would be more than happy to do that. Preferably one at a time. David: Very comprehensive report. One thing that is very disturbing to me is that we have a lot on our plate. We have precious little time. Once every two months not adequate. Once every other week would not be too much if we are going to get anything done. Elections in March. Meet the first and third Wednesday. City Manager's conference is free. Won't conflict with other meetings. Jeff objects to that. Staff has a hard time attending. Dan, Jim, and Shawn suggested monthly. Dan: At the most once a month. David: First Wednesday of each month. Joe: What are the two goals established? Rich: Are we to set broad parameters? Joe: I understand the election issue is a pressing issue. It is not addressed by March, what's the loss? Discussion was held on the forum. Jeff: Time Warner going to cover forum. David: I have some technical issues with station, particularly audio. Dan: I think we should establish here is - Do we have any rules that we are operating under here? Roberts Rule of Order or is it a loose format? David: Whatever we want it to be. Jim: I think we should establish guidelines of it rules that are standardized and we should state that we should be able to agree to disagree, everyone should be able to be heard, agreeing to be civil at all times, and polite to each other and other issues like that. If there other side issues, they should be addressed, all in time, according to Roberts Rule of Order. This would give the chair the guidance to running these. At any point, according to Roberts Rule, the a point of order can stop with the proceedings. David: Don't see this as an issue. Jim: Let's standardize it right now so everyone understands it. Once it is understood, we can get on. David: Let's identify what is on our plate. Jim: Quality and clarity for viewing. David: What needs to be done on issues and concerns. Joe: I like Jim's Robert Rule. I would like to see more environmental side. David: Voiced his concerns with schedule, quality control issues, etc. Jim: How old is the survey? Carrie: That was done at the Harborview Center last weekend. That was a non scientific survey. As people came up to the booths, and wanted information, they were asked if they would like to participate. Jeff: The Bordner Marketing Survey is a scientific survey. David: Let's get to the issues. Jim: I am concerned about what this is costing us to do this. Dan: Time Warner is very conscious about the signal they send out, at least when I worked there. Robotics cameras are a lot different than staffed cameras. A concern with me is with Robotics cameras, you are at the mercy of what is going on. Running two cameras is very difficult when you don't have anything on the podiums. It is possible to try to accommodate the viewing. There are solutions but maybe not to everyones satisfaction. David: C-View does an outstanding job with the equipment they have. There is a lot audio and scheduling, and clock being off several minutes. (Set the clock correctly and keep it set.) I am looking for quality control of what we're doing. We don't have to spend money doing that, just do it better, check for errors, and check inconsistencies. I can't justly complain about CView. Jim: Robotics can be easy to operate, if you plan ahead, or they can be horrendous if there is lack of planning or they are not operating as they should. That is correctable. Carrie: The Robotics system that we have was not designed to do live television. It was designed for surveillance. Jim: I understand that and have been there. Carrie: We have two very experienced television production specialists. Randy was the technical director at Channel 13 news for 10 years. He is very experienced and this is a challenge to him using the Robotics cameras. We are doing everything we can to make those meetings look good. We are limited by our equipment. The equipment is owned by Time Warner. David: We have been through what is ahead of us. I would hope we could get these ideas translated to paper so we can study recommendations, and brainstorm for our next meeting recommendations and present our ideas to the board. Jim: I agree Jeff: I would suggest that before the next meeting, you might want to come up and take a look at the equipment we are working with rather than rely on subjective evaluations of it. There are some limitations to it. It's old equipment. It's a surveillance system that doesn't working properly. Peter: Do we have a priority in those issues? David: Sort out the list. Peter: Let me get the list of issues. Dollar allocation/budget Technical Robotics - picture quality Signal quality - This could be lost going back to Time Warner Programming (scheduling - TV guide) Production Chambers lighting quality needs addressed Audio Technical director keeping people on audio presence Content Scheduling has to have consistency. Is what is being sent out worthwhile to viewers? (Schedule needs to be scheduled) Music library Will the new City Hall have a chambers? Jeff: No, the Chambers will stay where it is and be reconditioned. There is a studio in the new building. Dan: There is a differentiation between what the City of Clearwater can do with all it's regulatory abilities and through the franchise and what Time Warner is going to do when they have the time to do it. David: City needs to know. Channel 7 is now the Time Warner local access provided channel. It also has a bulletin board with music. It is such music that you want to go turn it up, it is always different, always good, solid music. Channel 15, you don't have music. I want to get honest to God music on the channel. That is an issue. Peter: Let's operate two meetings without Roberts rule. David: I think we are doing great. Dan: We need to address Roberts Rules and consider it at this point because this is a Sunshine law. The public has the right to come in and we have to address the questions of what if they want to speak, how do we set up our agendas. Based on that are we going to take comments from the public, when is that going to take place and how much time are we going to allow? We need to address that now and get it out of the way. Next meeting, when this has been posted, we have a public meeting with this task force, we have established those rules. Peter: The next two meetings be open to the public, but not for input? No, we are still trying to get ourselves straightened up. Dan: Concerns me Peter: I have an issue on the membership for this group. Narrowcasting, I'm looking a seven white males on an advisory. I don't now how I'm going to narrowcast to a female audience about health issues, to any ethnic group that is in the audience. We are up for being the same old faces, same old ways, same old City government. I would like to save ourselves, the City Commission, your staff, and everybody of that embarrassment. I don't know how do address that except that we want to expand the membership of this committee to include others. If if means dropping one of us to do that, I have no problem. May issue is very limited and I deal with that issue. David: I think virtually everything we are dealing with has nothing to do with the issue of quality of C-View. How many blacks, and how many women applied for this position? Carrie: Several women and African-Americans, but remember they were appointed positions. Commissioner Thomas: Let me help. I am very impressed with what I have heard here today. Tracking beautifully - Basic things like what kind of business are you in, truly identify where you are at in your business, where do you want to go, and how you want to get there. And then measurable goals and objectives dollars versus results. There is no rule that says that once you have that list that you cannot create subcommittees. This basically is a temporary advisory task force currently by law. This not a permanent year by year by year issue. It was initiated because we had new business here and we wanted technically expertise to get if off the ground correctly. You will determine on your recommendation to the Commission whether you think it should be made into a permanent group. You're going to determine your groups future. It is a temporary structure. Let's get our points, and measures goals and objectives.How you are passing law and voting. You have a big job ahead of you. You are the formal body to create leadership in Communications. That means everybody. Roberts Rules of Order is designed where you are casting law. It is a means of controlling how law gets on the table, how it is debated and discussed, and how you vote on it. Common courtesy is the most important thing in any kind of meeting. Jim: I can see having to have more input on community Ethnic coverage on the public access channel but this is not our vista. This is public information of the City government and on the public relations of the city around the nation and in the City of Clearwater. Commissioner Thomas: You can't deal with the issue until you truly help. What is your business. Have you defined your business? Where are you at in your business, where do you want to go and how do you want to get there? If you haven't done those four things, and you're beginning to do them now, it doesn't matter whether your black, white, pink, purple, male, female. None of those things count until you know what you're doing. David: How do we get items done. Solution Do we dibby it out or pick. Jim: First, between now and the next meeting, we need to be viewing the channel so we know what we are talking about. Second, if the opportunity comes up, we need to visit the facility. David and Shawn have already seen the studio. Carrie: We have a new playback system. We were having some major problems with the automated playback system. David: When was that purchased? Carrie: It went on line about a month ago. We went on line after a week of training which was a decision that we made that we would rather have the Engineer there and go on line with it and experience some operator error type of things rather than have him leave the facility and go on line without him there. It is a pretty involved system and it's wonderful. The other features besides the programming functions of it, it everything that plays, it tells you what time it played, how long it was on, if there were any problems, everything is right there in the computer. It also does a the library and database. David: How long does it keep logs. Carrie: Forever, until you purge it or run out of memory. You can't edit them. It tells you if there is black on the channel, whether cable is down or the channel is down. David: Will it show you a blank gap in the tape (when there is nothing on the tape)? Digital? Carrie: No, just gaps where the programs ended and start. Digital-yes David: Adding new panels. Is it becoming easier Carrie: Unfortunately, the character generator system that was purchased to do our bulletin boards has had a bug since we purchased it. Jeff: It was purchased in 1993. David: Are we going to replace it? Carrie: We are trying to work around it, but it is very expensive to replace it, not only in staff time, because of the time we have invested into it, but also have bought three systems. The computers, software and the video boards. I have looked at replacing them and the options that are out there don't look nearly as good and are not really designed for our purpose to run continuously. People really like how the bulletin board works. A lot of the surveys we did, both the Bordner survey and the survey we did at Harborview, people say "it's the best bulletin board on TV". They are really nice pictures and frame crab. Joe: An hour to tour facility? Carrie: I was thinking of the Sunshine law, it couldn't be groups of people. It can be as short or as long as you like. David: It's a still a relatively very small room. Jeff: I think it best be one at a time, then you avoid public records law issues. Peter: Would it make sense to split us up between novice and experienced? David: You're going to ask questions on your level. Jeff: If you come together, you're a meeting. Call and we'll schedule individual times. David: I don't know if anyone else has a handle or a feel for what the problems are in the areas that I'm interest in. Rich: Let's have that it in writing, give a copy to all of us. Jeff: We do need to respond to the issues David is talking about. Issues we have all addressed before several times. It is our responsibility for running the station. We will continue to do that. Peter: Where are we trespassing that we don't want to do that? Jeff: It is the responsibility of the staff to run the station. We have been over the schedule a lot. We think we're doing a pretty good job considering the aspects of government access so dependent on meetings that have variable times. I just don't want you to have a bunch of information saying everything they are doing is wrong without getting staffs input. David: Given that it is wrong. How would you correct? Jeff: I'm saying that "given that it isn't". If you would like to give us some suggestions, that's fine. Jim: I think that it should be addressed like that. Obviously, you're doing most everything to correct. Carrie: Our surveys say that. Jim: What can we advise to improve on it? Otherwise, this turns into a witch hunt. David: I don't want this to be a witch hunt. Jeff: That the biggest fear on the part of the staff. Jim: I've been on both sides of that too. David: I will come up with my perception of the problems and suggestions what can be done, put in on paper and have it predisseminated by next meeting. Jim: I think anyone going down to visit the facilities or watching the channel should come up with their own ideas. It think that is where we're going to make some progress. That way, we're not going to be defeating ourselves and we're going to be duplicating ourselves. The City Commissioners are going to want to know what can be done, what is understandably limited, and what can't be done. This is a fact finding panel that is supposed to come up with real world solutions. David: Have ideas on paper by every individual in their perspective area of concern. Jim: Some of the limitations haven't been explained to us. Asbestos. One word explains an awful lot about why things haven't been approved right away. What can and can't be fixed at this time. Jeff: Carrie mentioned earlier the show "While You're Here". It is a show intended for visitors to Clearwater and is on early in the morning. Concern we have is the information that follows on bulletin board of activities that are occurring, mainly City activities. We would like to give some thought to how appropriate it would be, how the City can list things that are sponsored by private businesses without offending every other business. Rich: A problem I see with promoting commercial. One is free time, I want my name out there, and two is commercial people are saying you're getting subsidized with tax dollars and you're steeling my business. Jim: It has to be planned out and prescreened. Rich: One of the things that happened at community access under Time Warner is nonprofit organizations may now promote upcoming events. If we restrict it to nonprofit promoting, we don't have any problem at all - can't step on my commercial toes. Jim: I have no doubt, The Florida Chamber of Commerce has the same staff we could use. It's a resource. Jeff: Issue that we need to address is how do we react to private businesses that want to be on the bulletin board. We would like some direction as to how we respond. Jeff: We are putting on programs that are produced by Clearwater or other government. Done or sponsored by the City. David: "While You're Here, that scroll at the end of the month at the end of the program about the Library program. I personally think it does more harm than good. First, it points to the Library, secondly by the 19th of the month, half the scroll has come and gone, thirdly tourist are looking for places to go, they don't want to go to the Library. Commissioner Thomas: We can't sell time on the station. We can give free time to commercial interests based on them buying the production time. Where do you get money to buy the equipment? You can have 60 second, 120 second, three minute commercials in the private sector and charge them X thousands of dollars a minute for creating that time on the tube. That would give the City positive cash flow so they can upgrade their equipment without going into the budget and yet you're really not selling the TV time and they have turn their commercial over, so every 30 or 60 days, that commercial has to be redone. It satisfies the law because they are buying the production and the staff can charge production rates as high as they choose because their is no level or limit buying a commercial. I can buy a 30 second commercial for a million dollars or $1,500 to produce. It depends on how sophisticated I want my commercial to be on TV. Jeff's division is going to need hundreds of thousands of dollars in new equipment and the need will continue. This City doesn't have the money. Jim: It has been established that can be the process? Commissioner Thomas: It has been established, but it can be but it was for you to determine, as an Advisory Board, to the Commission whether you felt that was the right thing to do. Rich: The more I hear about that, the more I upset I get and the more I object to that. I have the government, that I am paying for with taxes, who has something given to them that then goes out and sells that to a third party for revenue, that doesn't go with my value of upbringings. I have a moral objection to this. Jim: Should we be drawing to a close on this particular session and coming to some conclusions for next time? David: As you go through your tour of the studio, to be included should be the Chambers. Off to the right is the City Clerk's desk where she does all of the control of the audio. You get feedback and can't fine tune the volume, and get assorted array of problems. With the asbestos problem, you can't rip out that audio control box. We've got a problem. It takes a trained expert to sit there and control those knobs and earphones. With the earphone and the expert, we have a lousy program. I can't help but believe that there is technology out there that you are aware of some sort of microphone or PA system available. Jim: That falls under technical issues. David: When you tour the facility, tour it with that thought in mind. Carrie: It is owned and operated and controlled by the Clerk's office. We are looking at redoing the Chambers and when that happens, that would be cost effective time at that time. If the director is in Chambers adjusting microphones, they're not moving cameras around. Jeff: Also in the Bordner Research, you'll find survey results on sound and picture quality. Carrie: We're trying to address it with what we have. It's a problem. It aggravates us. David: If you see some wireless systems, I would appreciate report back so we can brainstorm some ideas. Joe: Along with us preparing our comments and suggestions for the next meeting, I would like to see staff have wish list of what do you expect from us? Dan: What actions you already taken. You talk you have equipment out there for bid. We could get a feel for what direction you're heading. That may solve some concerns for Task Force. Jim: It would also help to find out if the City Engineer has done any research al all into audio alternatives. Dan: Do you have a communications division that handles electronics, Communications for the City, radios, etc. Jeff: No. People think the sound is OK. Peter: The survey taken at Harborview was a highly self selective group of people. Let's chill out on the survey. Jeff, I will read it and I'll let you know what I think of it in terms of my ability to development questionnaires, to do interviews and to work with it. Jeff: I'm not talking about the Harborview survey. Peter: I understand. I'm not here to hurt you, I understand you're in charge of that, I don't want to mess with you empire, but if I'm going to be spending my time on an advisory group, I'm going to give you my advice. It's up to you to take it or throw it away. I do not have a problem with that. I will have a problem if you try to control what advice I'm going to give you or what channels I will advise you on. Jeff: I hope I'm not doing that. Peter: It's starting to feel like that so I will tell you that as well. I have no problem with us saying that this is were we are going, and this is what I think of this, and I have the right to be wrong with what I think. I don't have a problem with that. You are in charge, Jeff. My issue is how soon and from whom do I get a budget of what it is costing now and what what the projected expenditures are? That is my issue today that I will look at. I'm just using monetary as opposed to any other objective. What are we thinking of accomplishing? I have yet to see anything like this capped. Jeff: It is not just for C-View. It will have to be broken out. Peter: I would like to have the whole budget with the breakout. Dan: Do you have demographics in terms as to how many people in the City of Clearwater. I'm concerned with numbers of people in the viewing area Carrie: It's the City of Clearwater city limits and we reach approximately 35,000 households. They say in each household, there are approximately three people. We have a very power media. Carrie: We are very mission driven. That is our ultimate thing is that our mission is providing information to the citizens of Clearwater. The meetings we do gavel to gavel and live, we don't edit them. We do as many meetings as we possibly can with the staff that we have. We found that those are the things that people are most interested in. They want it watch it themselves. We take that responsibility very seriously. We're trying to do as much as we possibly can with what we have. David: Item 6B. Is it OK to meet the 7th of February provided we can get the City Manager's conference room? Good starting time for everybody? Carrie: It's easier for staff to meet here. David: I understand that, Carrie. I would like it very much to have it in the City Manager's conference room. You don't have coffee provisions here. It would be a whole lot more conducive to getting the job done at City Hall. Discussed length of meetings. These are not decision making meetings for us but information sharing meetings. Dan: Eight hours is too much. We'll have a temporary chairman at the next meeting. We need to decide how often and frequently we need to meet. David: I would like to have City Hall. Peter: Let me respect the chairs, if City Manger's conference is available, that would be first choice, if that's not available, let's make this DRC conference room the second choice if the rest of you don't mind. Commissioner Thomas: You have Harborview, the Library. Carrie: How about a different day? David: Could I make a suggestion? This is the boards decision and staff can tag along if they can. 5-9 February 7th is the next C-View Task Force meeting. (See table attached on who will work with who on what issues) Rich: Motion to adjourn. Dan & Shawn: Seconded. Jim: In Favor. Meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. Next meeting February 7th in DRC conference room of the Annex from 5-9 p.m. C-VIEW TASK FORCE BOARD SCHEDULE from 01-19-96 meeting WHAT  WHO  WHEN  Budgetary Issues Staff Peter Caffentzis 01-30-96  Content Issues David Campbell Rich Whitaker 02-07-96  Marketing Staff Joseph Brown Shawn Stafford 02-07-96  Measuring Results David Campbell Peter Caffentzis Scientific Survey 03-96  Scheduling Issues David Campbell 02-07-96  Short/Long Term Planning Commission Staff C-View Task Force Board Start 05-96  Technical Issues Dan Hamsmith James Martin Shawn Stafford 02-07-96  Visit Facility Carrie H. One on One Individual visits before 02-07-96  Wish List Staff 02-07-96  Worthwhile Programs AC Neilson Peter Caffentzis Rich Whitaker 02-07-96