The Hillsborough public access lawsuit

Here's a copy of the lawsuit filed by Speak Up Tampa Bay Inc., the operator of the public-access cable channels in Hillsborough County, against the Hillsborough County Commission for cutting off the station's funding: Download SpeakUp.pdf

The lawsuit says that Hillsborough's decision "completely censors all unincorporated Hillsborough County residents' abilty to produce, transmit and view television programming carried over public access channel capacity..."

At first blush, this seems like a difficult case to win. Do citizens have the "right" to force the government to give them a soapbox? If that were the only issue, the answer might be no.

But if the government is deliberately shutting down public-access BECAUSE of its content, and giving favor to other speech instead... then maybe there's a case.

Speak Up's lawsuit cites examples of public-access shows being criticial of the County Commission, and cites examples of comments in reply by county commissioners expressing their hostility toward public access.

On top of that, Hillsborough has decided to eliminate only the citizens' access channel, while keeping its own -- a channel that features government-produced programs with a completely absence of criticism of the government itself.

Speak Up's lawsuit argues that the county is violating the First Amendment by (1) specifically targeting and shutting down a citizen forum for criticism of the government on one channel while (2) preserving and funding a comparable channel that provides pro-government speech.

The argument is sounding better...

Column: At What Price, This 'Routine' Vigil?

At least 22 arrests dating from age 12. A prison record. A history of violence. An upcoming trial that seemed likely to put him back behind bars.

Michael Allen Phillips had built some track record. And he was just 24 years old.

"Mike was mentally unstable," his ex-girlfriend told a reporter Wednesday, "but he was a good person, too."

Definitions vary.

Early Wednesday, good person or not, authorities say that he shot and killed a veteran Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy, told his ex-girlfriend of the act, and informed her that he was coming for her family next.

Deputies soon found Phillips at his mother's home in Brandon. According to Sheriff David Gee, he spouted Aryan sayings over the telephone to negotiators. Phillips then exchanged gunfire with the SWAT team that surrounded the house. That decision did not turn out well for him. [rest of column]

The TV Wars, Hillsborough and Pinellas

Looks like there are battles now on both sides of Tampa Bay over the proposal of county governments to eliminate public access cable channels, and in Hillsborough to eliminate funding for the educational access channel as well. In both cases, the government is favoring its own, government-run access channel.

I wrote about this in a column on July 17. Of course, broadcasting public meetings and the workings of our democracy is a good thing, but government TV often goes beyond that, and serves as a puff-piece propaganda mill, giving rosy coverage to existing elected officials. If we're cutting budgets, it seems like a prime target.

Last night, supporters of Access Pinellas asked the Pinellas County Commission to keep public access, and it was a better-than-average pitch. They even came up with their own, alternative budget proposal to keep public access going while making trims to the government station. The commissioners gave no indication of whether they were listening. In a meeting earlier this year, though, some of them said that public access was one of the first things they wanted to cut.

In the following two posts, I'm printing the text of letters addressed to the Hillsborough County Commission from Ann Goldenberg of the Tampa Educational Cable Consortium and from Louise Thompson, executive director of the Tampa Bay Community Network.

The Education Channel's Letter

Text of a letter from Ann Goldenberg of the Tampa Educational Cable Consortium to the Hillsborough County Commission, on proposed budget cuts:

Dear County Commissioners:

The County Administrator’s recommended FY 08-09 budget eliminates all funding for Tampa Educational Cable Consortium (TECC), which operates the local educational cable channels, helping thousands of Hillsborough students succeed academically by providing the educational material they need – like Mathematics Homework Hotline and college courses, promoting our local educational and cultural offerings, providing homebound seniors with quality arts programming, and televising the School Board meetings for the civic minded.

TECC has served the public with outstanding commercial-free educational programming for the last twenty years, has won the highest national award - Overall Excellence in Educational Programming - the last four years in a row, and has NOT received any increase in funding from the County for the last seven years . 

After twenty years of impressive service to this community, why is TECC being singled out for elimination?

Although the Administrator recommends modest reductions for many area non-profits, TECC is slated to be completely defunded. While the Administrator’s budget cuts off all funding - $519K - to TECC, Hillsborough County’s Communication Department, which operates the government’s channel, HTV22, is reduced a mere $82,410 in operations (-2%) and still maintains a budget of $4,152,51 for staff and a capital budget of   $238K.   Hillsborough County should not be favoring government programming at the expense of educational programming, but should seek a more just solution. Unlike HTV22, TECC did not benefit from any of the budget growth in the last seven years and should not take the full brunt of budget reductions this year, causing our community to lose these unique educational services.

Please reinstate TECC’s modest funding and keep The Education Channel alive and serving our community in Hillsborough County.

I would like to discuss this problem with all of you and will call your offices to set up a meeting.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Ann Goldenberg

Tampa Educational Cable Consortium

The Hillsborough Public Access Letter

Text of a letter from Louise Thompson, executive director of the Tampa Bay Community Network, to the Hillsborough County Commission on a budget proposal to eliminate funding for public-access television:

Dear County Commissioners: 

The County Administrator’s recommended FY 08-09 budget eliminates all funding for Tampa Bay Community Network, the public access cable television channel used by the residents of Hillsborough County to learn new and marketable skills and to produce programming that is not only important to them but is also protected by the First Amendment.

TBCN provides County residents with the training, equipment and facilities to produce their own programming.  This includes programming containing speech that is critical of our elected officials and local governments as well as programming that highlights our elected officials, local non-profit organizations and governmental agencies.  Please note that we are County Community Link Partners and please review our most current annual and quarterly reports [attached] for a detailed listing of all those we are serving.  Also, please note that staff from the Museum of Science & Industry recently completed our video production training and is expected to produce programming featuring MOSI on our channels in the very near future.

It appears that there is more than enough money to have kept TBCN in the budget.  Although the administrator’s budget cuts off all funding [$355K] to TBCN, it contains $900,000 in increases for the Tampa Sports Authority and Tampa Sports Commission as well as a $1.6 million increase to the Tampa Convention and Visitors Bureau and more than $300,000 over the next two years for the Tampa Convention Center.

Please note that TBCN has not received an increase in funding from the County for seven straight years.  Our budget has been stagnant at $355,443 per year although we have asked for increases during every two-year budget cycle.  Please also note that cable subscribers contribute a significant portion of the $27 million in revenue that the County collects from communications services taxes and should, therefore, be able to avail themselves of the services and programming provided by the public access channel.

We turn to you for help in assuring that the public’s voice remains on the cablewaves and is adequately funded.  Please reinstate funding to Tampa Bay Community Network at least at the level previously allotted – if not more.

I will call your offices to set up meetings with each one of you at your convenience.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

TAMPA BAY COMMUNITY NETWORK

Louise M. Thompson

Executive Director

Protecting Wetlands Is For Sissies

Not even the Florida Legislature had the stomach this year to pass a pro-developer bill that would have wiped out local wetland protection in Florida.

But the Hillsborough County Commission has no such reservations. On Thursday, the commission voted 4-3 to disband the wetlands management division of the county's Environmental Protection Commission.

The four who voted to do it were Brian Blair, Ken Hagan, Jim Norman and Kevin White. The three dissenters were Rose Ferlita, Al Higginbotham and Mark Sharpe. There still has to be a public hearing before the decision becomes permanent.

As my colleague Michael Van Sickler reports, three of the prevailing commissioners argued the need for budget cuts. But that's a thin pretext, since the environmental commission had already come up with the necessary cuts.

The real reason, of course, is that developers don't like having county-level rules that are more strict than the state's. One developer in particular has been running an anti-EPC campaign that now seems to be bearing fruit.

Blair didn't hide behind budget cuts but revealed the real math at work: "You know who pays for that? It's every person sitting here, every person that builds a house or moves into a house." Which is perfectly true, and part of the choice we have chosen to make -- a choice that Hillsborough County now seems willing to undo.

The whole thing is weird and backward for a county of 1-million people in the year 2007. The back-to-the-1950s yahoos are winning -- and Hillsborough County now is reaping the awful consequences of electing this bunch.

For a great look at wetlands protection (or the lack thereof) in our state, and why Hillsborough has had among the best protection in Florida, check out the St. Petersburg Times' reporting by my colleagues Craig Pittman and Matt Waite at:

www.sptimes.com/wetlands