Northpinellas: County picks up public access TV

Cable companies Time Warner and Verizon Americast don't want to provide public access studios and equipment for Joe Schmoes looking to get their history, cooking, rap music, religious, non-profit and panel discussion programs on TV.

So Pinellas County will.

Work crews already are laying down the concrete on Chestnut Street, across from the courthouse in Clearwater. The county is spending $7.3-million on equipment and building costs for a government and public access facility scheduled to be completed in February.

When it is finished, the building will house 26 county employees in the county's public affairs department, as well as a government access studio where County Commission and other government meetings are produced. An old building that used to house the department has been demolished.

A portion of the new two-story structure will be set aside for a public access studio fully equipped for county residents to use for free -- a milestone that public access buffs have waited nearly three years to reach. That's how long it took for the county to negotiate a franchise agreement with Time Warner. The county recently reached agreements with both Time Warner and Verizon, formerly GTE Americast.

Much of the delay was over public access that the cable companies did not want to provide. But county commissioners heeded the pleas of people such as Connie Mudano, who says public access is a must.

"It's the peoples' video voice," said Mudano, whose show Pinellas Past is among the longest running on public access in the county. "It's an excellent medium for the people to express all kinds of ideas."

Without public access, Pastor Don Vestal would have no outlet for his show, Strength for Today. His church of about 65 members uses the monthly program to reach people who can't come to church, he said, and to let the community know about his services, should someone want to visit one Sunday.

"That's why public access is such a great opportunity for us," he said.

As part of their agreements with the county, both Time Warner and Verizon will pay Pinellas a total of about $500,000 a year toward operating expenses for the public access portion of the new building, said Mark Woodard, the county's director of management and budget.

That will take care of the salaries for two employees who will run the facility, as well as the costs of maintaining equipment, Woodard said. The county will pay to build the studio, he said.

Pinellas then will choose a non-profit group to act somewhat as directors for the public access. The group will raise money for special events it deems necessary, promote the benefits of public access and recruit residents to use it more frequently.

Later this week, county administrators will discuss the process of choosing the non-profit group, said Ronnie Goodstein, director of the county's public affairs department. Non-profits will be able to bid on the responsibility.

Mudano's group, Pinellas Community Television Inc., or PCTV, plans to bid.

Mudano sees a new day for public access in Pinellas. Three years ago, she said, there were about 200 producers in local public access. "It has now dwindled to 70," she said, as Time Warner cut available production and air time.

"We feel that public access in Pinellas County has been drastically restrained by control by a for-profit," Mudano said.

But a Time Warner official said it was time for the company to get out of public access. The cable company has provided free studio time and equipment to residents for years. Verizon, on the other hand, came into the market in the past several years and does not have to shell out those same expenses.

"With two cable operators in the area, it makes sense to bring the program under one umbrella," said Amy Van Dell, manager of educational development for Time Warner.

Time Warner will close its public access studio near St. Petersburg when the county's building is up and running, said Rich Whitaker, public access supervisor for Time Warner.

To fulfill an educational component that Time Warner provided, the county has contracted with the Pinellas Technical Education Center, where residents will get training to work equipment and produce their own shows.

At least one person sees a problem with the new public access setup, however.

Whitaker, who is a subcontractor for Time Warner, questions whether the county should take in the money from the cable companies as county revenue. He thinks it should go directly to the non-profit organization overseeing the program. That's the way public access is handled in Hillsborough County, Whitaker and Goodstein say.

Whitaker sees a potential for censorship, or at least a chilling effect, on residents who speak their minds about government if they know the facility is county-owned and the two employees who staff it get their paychecks from the government.

"If I'm employed by the county, who's my allegiance going to be to?" Whitaker asked.

Goodstein said Pinellas commissioners and administrators decided to do things a little differently than Hillsborough County. Still, she says, there's no threat of censorship by the county, which intends to have a hands-off approach for public access. Federal regulations don't allow censorship of public access TV, aside from obscene material, she said.

"We are law-abiding," Goodstein said.

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