Friday, January 12, 2001
Friday, January 12, 2001 |
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Not for TV: PTC Council decides not to broadcast meetings for residents
By JOHN
MUNFORD If you want to "tune in" to Peachtree City's council meetings, you're going to have to leave your remote control at home. Council has turned down the idea of airing its meetings on a local cable channel, on a 4-1 vote at its meeting Thursday. The only vote against deep-sixing the plan was councilman Dan Tennant, who brought the issue up several months ago. Tennant argued that airing the meetings would help expose other citizens to meetings, particularly citizens with younger children who can't come to council meetings or elderly citizens whose physical disabilities keep them from coming. "I think we owe it to the citizens of the community," Tennant said. But councilwoman Annie McMenamin said even if the city spent the money to broadcast the meetings, she wasn't sure many people would tune in. "Quite honestly, I don't think they'll watch council meetings," McMenamin said, adding that the city uses its Web site and the monthly Update newsletter to provide information to citizens about council actions. Councilwoman Carol Fritz agreed. "They're changing the kids diapers or doing homework, not sitting down to watch a council meeting," she said. Although the broadcast could be performed for approximately $3,300 a year in addition to a start-up cost of $3,500 for equipment, city staff recommended a more expensive option. Staff wanted council to hire a professional video company to tape the meetings at a projected annual cost of $16,800. Tennant had suggested at an earlier meeting that the cost could be defrayed by seeking sponsors for each broadcast. But it was decided that could put the city in a position of having a apparent conflict of interest in case a sponsor ever has to petition council for action on a particular issue. AT&T Broadband Cable had offered to equip council chambers at no charge to the city to facilitate the broadcast. Some had worried that broadcasting the meetings would lead to grandstanding by those speaking to council and possibly council members themselves. It was also suggested that residents would be less willing to speak to council if they knew they would be on TV while doing so.
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