City and Council Seem to Agree – Blow Up Everett TV and Start Over

What does the Everett City Council want from Everett TV?

I first wrote about Everett TV back in March when the Everett City Council balked at spending almost half a million dollars on equipment upgrades. Since then the Council Found out there is more than 1.7 million dollars in the equipment fund that’s been collecting $30,000 a month from cable subscribers in Everett. Last month the council voted to stop collecting the fee and asked the city administration to give them the basics on the cable channel. Tonight the city council received some very basic operating suggestions and held a discussion about Everett TV. About all that came of that was the acknowledgement that the current equipment is failing, they don’t know exactly what it costs to run Everett TV in its current form and they need more budget information. The administration and council seemed to agree that they need to start over with Everett TV. One place they may want to look is the definition of Everett TV from the city’s own website…  Everett TV is a government access station as provided for in the 1994 Cable Act and a franchise agreement between the City of Everett and Cable TV providers. Its purpose is to provide people who live or work in Everett with information about city government.

Some programs like Everett Silvertips Rinkside and Inside Everett may not rise to the level of information about city government the council is looking for and could be replaced by broadcasts of planning commission and other board meetings. It looks like Everett TV won’t be ready for prime time for quite a while.