when you don't watch WCCA.
Cable Advisory Opened Meeting August 19th 7:30 AM
Submitted by mauro on August 19, 2008 - 8:00am.
August 19th, 7:30 AM in 310, City Hall, Worcester MA
Cable Advisory members met at City Hall, at 7:30 AM, to approve a final draft of their recommendations regarding the city’s PEG channels. WCCA was present. WCCA TV 13 is the Public Access channel (P of the PEG Channels).
The Cable Advisory members voted to approve a document that was not available at the meeting. I was told the document was emailed to the cable advisory members in advance.
Earlier, the City’s government channel /cable division director had informed me that she emailed a draft to the Chair of the committee last week. WCCA had requested a copy of the draft in advance but it was not made available.
There was a motion to vote on the document that was emailed to the committee. The Chair asked if there should be any corrections. There was no further discussion and the vote was to approve the document. The committee members were asked to sign another document, which appeared to be some sort of confirmation pertaining to the vote. There then was a motion to adjourn.
I asked, for the record, for a copy of the final document that was approved and the Chair said he would email a copy to me.
Whereas WCCA and the E&G channels rest in the balance of the Cable Advisory Committees recommendations, and whereas I could possibly offer important insight, I also asked, for the record, why I was not given the opportunity to review in advance the document before the committee voted on it. WCCA TV was told the City Solicitor’s office instructed the Chair not to send out copies until the final version was out.
WCCA TV will update you, upon receiving a final version of the document.
- 583 reads
Chronicling as we see it
For clarity sake:
We believe the document mentioned in the above story was a final draft of the committee's recommendations and research concerning allocation of PEG franchise funding and capital grant, length of contract term, best practices, to devise new definitions for the term local programming, and other items focusing on the operations of the PEG entities.
As we understand it, the city manager had recently directed his cable advisory committee with a post ascertainment process mission to re-review PEG needs, which includes that of WCCA TV 13, the facilitator of Worcester's Public Access. The City Manager has stated that these recommendations will set the basis for his negotiation with WCCA long term public access contract.
MD
Smells like an open meeting law violation
Any concerned citizens or persons eager for justice out there?
According to open meeting laws, the government body must provide and make all documents available for the public BEFORE a public meeting NOT after a meeting.
Were are those activist and reporters when it counts?
File a complaint to the DA's office it's a winner for sure.
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