 Seeing none, we will move on to the next part of our agenda which is the consider the this is item number 37 consider the report on the status of community television's plan in timeline to address the change in funding and related action included with that as a letter of the director of information services dated February 12th 2012 and a report from community television I see that our our director of information services Kevin Bowling has has assumed the position so I assume we're going to hear from him first thank you good afternoon just a couple of things before I turn it over to community TV as you know our local cable franchises have to end June 2014 we will have to move to the state franchise agreement then for charter and Comcast has a couple of big impacts to it one big impact is with community TV one what you can charge and peg fees which are for their public education and government stations that we have we have to recalculate how we're collecting those fees and I've done a rough cut and given them the community TV now that will be a net probably a net reduction of about 300,000 a year from what we're doing right now the bigger issue is what you can spend the money on there's some restrictions under federal restrictions on how the money can be spent that we have had the luxury to not have to deal with do the same far so with that community TV's got a significant issue in terms of about 85% of their current revenue is really not going to be able to be used starting June or July 2014 and what we've asked them to do is work pretty hard trying to come up with solutions for that and with that I wanted to turn over to Mary and Thayken from community TV so that she can start to give you a feel for it because I believe when the budget when they submit a budget this year they're going to have to start dealing with the loss of revenue otherwise you know 2014 that's a pretty significant cliff that you're going to hit Kevin just a quick question yes you said Sam far was the credit but wasn't a John Laird oh no John went was it John Laird never mind he probably doesn't do it what USB cord to use don't worry so with that I'll give it to Mary Ann you know hi good afternoon thank you I'm Mary Ann Thayken and I'm the executive director at community TV also today from community TV we have our chair Karen Machado and our vice chair Keith Goodger here representing I've given you packets of material that you have seen that talk about the sea changes that are necessitated by Divca but also by the technology changes in our industry there are simply changes that have to be made so on May 8th we'll be returning with a work plan and a budget that will speak to the future of CTV but now what I wanted to do is give you an opportunity to have a snapshot of where we are and where we're going CTV operates three channels one is a public access channel one is educational and one is government focused we operate 24 7 every day of the year staff members of CTV and citizen producers create programming for the station this year we have covered events as varied as what's next for Santa Cruz lectures to the Christmas parade staff created almost 350 programs while the public created over a thousand programs for distribution by our channels this makes us one of the most active stations in the country in terms of the amount of programming that comes in another major mission for CTV is training we train our members to use our tools effectively we train local nonprofits to tell their stories and increase their value in the community and we also go into schools and we train students on media literacy and 21st century job skills in our preparation for Divca we've really been at work for a couple of years in terms of thinking about what these changes are going to bring about we have been looking for ways to expand our business model to bring in money two years ago we had never had a fundraiser nor did we even think of ourselves as an organization that would need to fundraise but we that has all changed we have had two successful fundraisers and that's a part of our activity as is membership growth we have actively pursued grant money that would serve our mission like our current South County youth training program which is a $65,000 project now going on in Watsonville middle and high schools we have revamped our for hire production service and bidding on and getting production work that will make us money we have changed our standards and have been able to go out and compete with other production groups in Santa Cruz we have updated our tools and our potential with the with the launch of our HD production truck the truck has allowed us to cover things in ways that we really didn't have the potential to do before and it also has allowed us to get grants in terms of training for using the production truck we've developed partnerships with groups like the community foundation which clearly I don't know how to use their initials properly but with the community foundation to engage in four fee training programs and working with them and we have moved the board from a governance board to one that works actively in fundraising and strategy so what are we doing currently well we've made progress but clearly have a way to go as the materials that you got show we're hard at work at trying to find solutions to take us into the future we have begun with an analysis of every program and projects we have revamped our financials to allow us to understand the costs of everything that we are doing and the amount of money that we're bringing in and though that some of the information that I'll be presenting to you in May led by board vice-chair Keith Goodger we have committees covering technology fundraising training programming and marketing and they are meeting weekly as we assemble our plan for 2012 2013 we're analyzing our space needs we're garnering information from community members we're working with other pay stations to learn from their plans and to seek possible partnerships we're talked to see map about potential shared services and other kinds of things that we can do to stretch our dollars and finally we're enlarging our intern and volunteer programs to prepare us to serve the community for less while providing valuable job skills in the process challenges and opportunities well there are some incredible challenges and some amazing opportunities that are really in front of us as you've heard divs difficult difficult challenge is that funding is restricted to capital expenditures and that necessarily means for us a paradigm shift but it doesn't mean the end of community television we have the potential to grow and change the way the technology is changing as we continue to deepen our web and our smartphone accessibility we have the potential to look for new groundbreaking process projects to bring in grant money from foundations who understand that hyper local government access is the way of the future and not the past we have the potential to enlarge our pool of citizen producers by making it easier for them to upload and access content and we have the potential to heighten our relevance through more different models of programming and citizen contribution our future may be one where our capital expenditure allows us to have incredible cutting end equit cutting edge equipment that entices the best interns and volunteers in the county it we are not sure what it's going to look like we know it's going to work look differently and work differently but we do know that we are going to work hard to maintain our focus to give community our community voice to share our deepest concerns and to focus on our most important polls I welcome your questions about any of the information and any input you may have as we are putting together our plan for the coming year thank you thank you are there questions from the board I don't have a question but I just want to applaud your positive attitude it's it's it's probably not easy but it seems sincere and I I appreciate that thank you I feel that it's an incredible resource and there is a way to make it continue to be incredible make lemonade right yeah it's got a supervisor community thank you for the report I think you know community TV is an important part of our the whole county and it's because it's important I think that's part of the anxiety of the sort of drastic change over this coming down the road and our anxiety that in fact that you and your board and your members are able to to really make that transition and keep it around so that we can have that yeah some of the the when I look at your report some of the things that I saw is you identified that a third of your expenditures is going to train and support community producers correct meanwhile member dues bring in only about sixty seven hundred dollars a year and I know that the way that the governance is set up is that seven of the eleven members of your board are really chosen by those three hundred or so members of which my understanding is only about ten or fifteen percent of them actually vote in elections so I it creates a situation where your board becomes very heavy on the production side productions are wonderful you obviously are doing a lot of great productions all that sort of thing but there may be different skills that are needed to do this transition from being funded in a way that is going to be significantly different than what it is in the future when you come back on May eight I'd like you to have some discussion about governance issues absolutely about how you address that because I understand that the board has worked well at a time when there was the money in order to do those productions there may need other skills on that board and other ways to bring about that I think that you have to start creating reserves for this time when this transition goes on and I know you know the budget has been pretty much break even or even overextended a little bit so I think that you're obviously have in a sense of the direction you need to go I think you hopefully the way you present it that you're ready to move that way and your board is ready to move that way but I just want to make sure there's nothing that sort of gets in the way of of doing that because you're you're very important the community want to see you continue to go on as strong as you can thank you yes that was that is another area that we'll be looking at we will be looking at governance and all and how they the board of directors is appointed and selected so those we will be coming back to with that information okay thank you yeah supervisor stone I said all I can do is reiterate those comments very and thank you for coming caring for coming in and presenting to us it's I think it's important to keep this connection up I'm glad you're coming back on the 8th but in the 8 plus years I've been on here we haven't had too much information from community TV I think keeping us surprised in and having the venue to be able to talk about where you're going and the exciting things that are coming down this is a great place to be able to do that and you have a very interested audience here we do all understand the impact and the importance of community TV is to our community and to be able to get information out community about so many things that are important so thank you for coming in thank you look forward to watching and being a part of the evolving process I'm really looking forward to having you all be a part of the process as well it's extremely important to us as we as we go forward thanks thank you thank you I just had a couple of questions the reason I asked Kevin at the at the beginning to clarify about John Laird because I recognize that John when he was our assembly member it created a little cutout for Santa Cruz that was really critical and we've seen that a lot this year about the value of that work that he did over 500 homes will be able to access cable TV though therefore be able to see your the community TV and that's really important in the rural areas and along with internet access because we got this two-year carve out yeah we are we are ahead of our neighboring communities and the fact that we get to have two more years of operation dollars than they do and we're behind because they're obviously have to prepare for these changes now and and and don't have the luxury of having two more years and it would be helpful when you return in May to to be able to give us some reflection about what's happening around the entire Bay Area about how how people what the models they're using because that should be instructive to us we should be able to learn from the best practices of our neighboring communities or any community actually in California because the statewide law and be able to pull the best to maintain the vibrancy of community TV there has been suggested that that there be some money put aside for reserve to continue to have operation expenses have your board talked about what that percentage might be well we are going to be cutting 15% out of our budget in the coming year like the other county departments and that money will be in reserved and then we are hoping to add to that to save more money than that in terms of trying to build up that reserve for next year so we're trying to figure out a way to add to that and when you come back to us in May will you have a revised staffing plan that looks out more than just the 2012 2013 year but the 2013 14 and beyond yes what we're trying what we're putting together right now is a business plan and to put in front of you to take a look at what how we think we can best succeed as we go forward and that will mean changes necessarily that we have to do next year to prepare us for 2013 14 and then we will bring changes in over that period of time so what we're looking to do as we come into the year is be is have our decisions are going to be based on 2014 they're not going to be based on just getting us through next year well I think that'd be really helpful because I think that this law was passed in 2006 and so I appreciate the positive attitude and and and the commitment to bring you back to something that's the last couple of the next couple of months and there there's been this law was passed in 2006 so it should come as no surprise as operating I know Marianne you haven't been there all that long and so it's a responsibility of everybody involved to make sure that we have adequate plans but the speed at which this transformation has to take place will accelerate with every passing month yes and so the the responsibilities that I hear you're going to be meeting on a weekly basis with these subcommittees and I think that that's going to be critical because the the community TV is a critical resource for our community you know as someone who's lived here for over 25 years and is a meeting person and I've gone to city council meetings board meetings community meetings the luxury of being able to watch some of these meetings at home and not have to go down it is a great one and it improves our democracy that we get to see people in action rather than just having to depend on a newspaper report or radio reporter or TV that people could actually see the interplay between elected officials can hear the discussions and I think that that's that's an important value in a democracy and I think that the varied program that goes on there whether it be history projects or cultural programs or news programs or sports programs but they become part of the community fabric so I believe in community TV but I think the past history will not be the best guide to what the future will look like and that transformation will be extraordinary and will have to happen very fast because the planning hasn't gone on before this and so that will necessitate many changes some of which may be appreciated by your membership and the community and some may not right but we were talking about survival and you're not talking about just survival of your individual job or the members of the board but you're talking about the survival of this resource for the community and so that the all local jurisdictions have entrusted in you this resource and we wanted to continue to go on but we need to see this this rapid transformation so I'll be looking forward to the to the May report and I think we will all be looking critically about about what's contained therein and the budget information and what the vision of the board is for that transformation because it's it's too important to let fail. Thank you. Supervisor Leopold is an expert at fundraising because that's that was his job before he took on this job and I know that when you create that budget when you take a look at it May this opportunities for grant writing there's opportunities for fundraising there's opportunity for membership dues but all those things I think we're going to be taking a hard look at because Supervisor Leopold knows in order to accomplish those things it can't just be a number on a page you really have to set up a structure in order to make those things happen and we'll want to look and see how the board and how your organization really approaches all those different categories to make sure that those numbers are real numbers and attainable so it's it's hard but you're an important institution so we want to work with you to make all that happen. Thank you it's really appreciated. Are there members of the public who would like to say anything? No member of the public no action required on our part as far as I can tell so thank you. The recommendation of the letter is to direct them to come back I will take that as a motion Supervisor Stone seconded by Supervisor Coonerty any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously we'll look forward to seeing you back here sometime soon and we'll move on to our next item which is item 38 which is consider approving in concept of approach.