TV Coverage of Future Council Meetings Dims
The televised weekly meetings of the City Council could become the latest victim of the city’s budget crunch, now that the council has pulled the plug on its cable network.
Recently, the council axed the Community Communications Network, which videotapes the council meetings every Tuesday and televises them on Channel 36 on Mondays and Wednesdays. All seven jobs in the Public Affairs Department are being eliminated.
The layoffs, which are to take effect Feb. 9, are among the latest in a budget crisis that already has cost about 85 city employees their jobs.
City officials, however, are being asked to consider a proposal from some employees in the department to become private contractors for the purpose of continuing cable coverage of City Council meetings, said John D. Johnson, special assistant to City Manager Howard Caldwell. The manager’s staff, Johnson said, is evaluating the proposal. The council has not yet seen it, he said.
City Council broadcasts began in 1983, according to Sumire Gant, director of the network and Public Affairs Department.
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