Don’t Cancel Board’s TV Show

For a group that already has unfavorable public approval ratings, the Board of Supervisors should not be surprised by bad TV ratings.

It’s a shame that it took so long for the board to decide to make televised meetings available in the first place. For a while, Orange County was the only large county in the state not to have its supervisors’ meetings on TV.

Now that meetings are being taped and made available free to several cable companies covering the county for the last six months, there’s a disappointing early response from viewers. A recent internal report presented to the board counted 10 responses from the public--two e-mails and eight voicemail messages.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer reports that he has encountered far more positive response from county residents on his travels around the area. County spokeswoman Diane Thomas reports a similar informal reaction. So it is possible that people are watching but not registering.

Supervisor Jim Silva, who never warmed to the idea in the first place, is less sanguine. The longtime opponent of televised meetings reports that his office got only one call, from a viewer who didn’t like the programming.

Spitzer and Silva represent the two poles of thought on the board about the effect of this undertaking. But there is an importance to the telecasts that transcends how much people actually care about supervisors on TV. The mission is much closer to C-SPAN than it is to prime time. It’s public service.

It may be that if supervisors were network presidents, we might be seeing them withdraw their lineup of offerings for a quick revamping, or even polishing their resumes. They aren’t. They are doing the public’s business. That work has moved up on the public’s radar screen since the 1994 bankruptcy. The battle over El Toro and the antagonism over tobacco settlement money also have increased the visibility of the board.

The argument never has been about ratings. It always has been about bringing government to the public. The sense that it is a distant board is aggravated by the fact that it holds its meetings during the daytime, when it is difficult for many to get to Santa Ana.

The board is in the midst of a one-year trial instead of a three-year contract that was under consideration. The $299,000 annual cost for taping, staffing and distribution is high. The county should try to get a better deal. But low ratings and all, the supervisors should find a way to keep their meetings on TV.