Volunteers Sought for Panel Overseeing Cable Channel : Communications: The group will set guidelines for access programming, including when programs will air and what content will be permitted.

City officials are seeking volunteers to serve on a panel that will create rules governing Santa Clarita’s controversial cable access channel.

The Community Cable Channel Committee will look at policies and procedures used by other cable access channels in Southern California and use that information to establish guidelines for cable access programming, such as when the programs will air and what content will be permitted.

ATC Cablevision and King Videocable, which serve Santa Clarita Valley cable users, are required to provide cable access services to community-based programming under their franchise agreements with Los Angeles County that Santa Clarita took over upon its December, 1987, incorporation. The two cable companies said they will offer up to six channels of cable access, as warranted by the amount of programming received from the public.

Although cable access is common throughout California, some residents fear that extremists, such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, will try to place programming on the Santa Clarita channels if careful editorial control is not exercised.

The deadline to apply for the cable committee is Aug. 16. The committee, which will include five members and two alternates serving two-year terms, is expected to meet monthly beginning in late September.

“We expect to get a lot of applicants for this. There has been a lot of interest in the public access channel,” said Gail Foy, city public information officer.

Participants will ideally represent diverse interests, ages and ethnic groups, Foy said. Members will be chosen by representatives of the two cable companies, along with the city, county and College of the Canyons, which will provide studio services.

The cable channels are projected to be fully operational by December or January. Foy said City Council meetings will subsequently be broadcast on tape delay.