Meetings Seen on Cable : City Council Puts on a Show--on TV

Its ratings aren’t expected to threaten “Dallas” or “The People’s Court,” but the show that aired on cable television Monday should interest San Diegans who wonder how their taxes are spent.

The new “show” was a videotape of Monday afternoon’s San Diego City Council meeting.

Among the highlights: Councilman Bill Cleator presented a plaque from the mayor of Mazatlan, Mexico, to Mayor Roger Hedgecock. Councilman Mike Gotch tried but failed to block a $15,000 extension of a lobbyist’s contract. And at the top of the hour, council gadfly Rose Lynn complained that the deputy mayor had once tried to have her arrested, talked beyond the three-minute limit and then insisted, “I am very, very relevant!” when Hedgecock asked her to sit down.

Following the example of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which began televising its meetings two years ago, the city is spending $31,500 to bring such vignettes into the homes of 336,000 Cox and Southwestern Cable subscribers. The meetings are being taped by technicians from the county Office of Education and will air at 7 p.m. Mondays on Cox Cable TV 25 and Southwestern TV 30 (C-SPAN.)

City officials hope the televised meetings will encourage participation in city actions. As Hedgecock explained, “If you’re not able to get down to see your City Council debating, you can see it on a replay.” Also, VHS tape cassettes of the meetings will be available at the city’s public information office two days after the broadcast.

The broadcasts will run through June, and may continue after that if there is sufficient audience interest and if private sponsors can be found to pay production costs.

However, some council members are skeptical about the whole experiment. “In my opinion, so much of the council meeting is so boring that the viewing public is going to lose interest,” Cleator said Monday. “There are specific items before the council that are very interesting. . . . But to watch a whole program is like watching grass grow.”