No Action by Board on Televised Meetings

A proposal to televise meetings of the Orange County Board of Supervisors was continued to the board’s March 2 meeting after supporters said they lacked enough votes to pass it.

Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Tom Wilson had proposed the idea to increase public access. But after questions were raised by Chairman Charles V. Smith and Supervisor Cynthia Coad, Spitzer urged Wilson to drop the measure at Tuesday’s meeting.

“If you want to push a vote right now it would fail,” Spitzer said. “But if we answer these questions raised, we could come back and get a 4-1 vote and the measure would pass.”

Under the proposal, three board meetings would be taped and distributed for broadcast through the county’s network of cable companies.

Both Coad and Smith said they support the concept of televised meetings. But Coad said a proposal must have area cable companies agreeing to broadcast the meetings. Smith said a proposal should contain language that limits topics and speakers’ time and some guarantees that meetings will be broadcast throughout the county.

Supervisor Jim Silva was the only board member against the idea. He said that in his experience as a Huntington Beach councilman, people tend to abuse televised meetings by grandstanding.

Also, Silva said, televising meetings should be “market-driven” that is, local cable companies should be interested in televising them and saving government the expense of producing their own shows. The board’s meetings are not exciting and the interest is not there, he argued.

County staff was directed to examine production costs to tape meetings and investigate whether an agreement could be reached to ensure the meetings are broadcast countywide.