 So I'm really pleased to be here tonight at the CCTV Channel 17 holiday party and Matt Kelly is joining me and Matt is a new Channel director for Channel 17 and also the executive producer of CCTV Productions welcome. Thank you. I'm really really excited to be here excited for the holiday spirit here and 2013 is gonna bring so you've been on the job for two weeks. What it's been what has it been like? overwhelming But what's really great is everybody's been so welcoming and Very helpful very willing to assist me trying to learn the the lay of the land so to speak so the first week was a little bit Challenging, but the second week already feels Comfortable like it is home in a sense. So that's been just really heartwarming And are we starting a plan for the legislative session? Yes, we've already started contemplating our Signature series under the dome Jill Kruinsky is here We're gonna be speaking a little bit tonight and further in a week ahead about upcoming topics that we're gonna want to cover So that it dovetails with what the legislature is talking about so that we can bring in senators and representatives to speak on Those topics to you the viewer. That's great. Yeah, and then we're gonna go right into town meeting. Yeah, it's very very quick So no downtime. It's learning on the job as they say and luckily you Didn't have to work the general election, which we've all been doing. So it's a very it's a it's a jam-packed four or five months Well, I was down in Montpelio or that so that was exciting as well as I was telling you throughout this whole process I'm a I grew up here in Burlington But I left in 1990 so 22 years ago And so coming back to Burlington a lot of the issues are still the same They've not been solved. It's just the people that have changed and what have you been doing for the past 22 years? Oh gosh, it's been a whirlwind tour of the country at least Bay Area New York City Los Angeles and Hawaii and now back here so a big circle to come back where it all started Well, I'm so glad that you're on the team. It's very exciting So Margaret Harrington is right there. Maybe you could bring her over and we can interview her So we're here at the CCTV Channel 17 party and we love this party It is a great opportunity for us to visit with folks that come in and make TV and attend our events and there really are diehard champions of free speech and community engagement and Coming up. We have Margaret Harrington who is been working on Anti-nuclear activism for many years and we're so glad you're with us To twice in one day you get to be on TV. Yes, how wonderful and happy holidays and everything like that It's such a pleasure to work with Channel 17 and I've been doing it for about four years now with the nuclear free future program and You've always been a wonderful person here for me and everything and I've loved working with Rob Riber and Tuyolendl so much And welcoming the new director, which is seems like a nice guy He is he's very outgoing. It's wonderful. Now. Tell us. What was the topic of your program today? It was Nuclear waste the gift that keeps on giving and it was about that huge problem nuclear waste both at American nuclear power plants and all over the world and Especially It's an ongoing problem and there are wonderful experts right here in Burlington the Gundersen's Arnie and Maggie Gundersen who've been on the program several times over the last few years They're a wonderful resource in the community and they can be seen What kind of impact do you think your programs have I think that it gives information to people who are not Really apprised of the situation because in many ways we are blocked off from what's really happening for example Seven women can be arrested down at Vermont Yankee for trespass of the Vermont Yankee power plant and yet their story isn't publicized at all for They went down there for 22 times to make it a Direct action against nuclear power and especially Vermont Yankee down there because it's unsafe and so dangerous And yet they are ignored by the by the press but here on they've been here on the nuclear free future program and That's very important. I think that people know that there are activists out there and concerned people and in the case of My guest today who is arnie gundersen a chief engineer with fair winds energy education somebody who knows exactly what is going on So that's that's why it's important and why channel 17 is Important because it gives more the the in-depth information on the issues that Really should not be swept under the rug or in a corner. Well, Margaret. Thank you for your work to do that We exist here for you. So thanks for making use of it. Thanks for for making it possible Good to see you So we're gonna be speaking here with Bob appell longtime public servant. Welcome. Nice to see you. Thank you So nice to be here. You've been toiling in the fields of civil rights for many many years between that criminal defense 35 years Yes, and now you are moving on to a new position. What is it? I'm joining a law firm to be known as Cone Wrath Danon and appell in Heinzburg, Vermont It's a firm the Eileen blackwood recently departed to become city attorney here in Burlington. So and Eileen's practice is similar or was similar to my interest in employment Discrimination and employment cases and school cases. So and I hope to do some criminal defense again. I sort of miss it It's once you do it it gets into your blood. So I am looking forward to the change And what have been the highlights of your career so far? Wow a Question I know a question the opportunity to serve the people of Vermont in a variety of roles and I think do some important work particularly around Making us who are white in the dominant culture understand that people who don't look like us may have different experiences I think generally although Vermonters lack malice on race they also lack experience with different cultures I live in Hardwick I'm over here a lot and it's like two different worlds. So You know, I I think getting past the sense that we don't have racism here Has been a struggle and will continue to be a struggle But I think we're making progress in that regard the other issue I mean I've been asked that question a bunch in the past week and I have to say that the issue of criminalizing people with psychiatric disabilities is a very important one to me Started when I was a public defender investigator seeing people come through with very serious mental health issues and they go into jail and don't You know, they don't get treatment. They get managed I am all for holding people accountable But we also want to take the opportunity while we're paying to house them to try to improve Their lot in life and therefore make the community more safe. So that's been a long-standing issue to me And then the other pieces around physical access removal of physical architectural barriers and housing in places of public accommodation Vermont is full of old housing stock old commercial stock And it's a challenge again. It's a lack of understanding by people who are I like the term temporarily able to body as I get older I mean, I think we're all gonna have infirmities and the notion of providing universal access which makes it easier for people with present physical Mobility issues makes it easier for all of us. So I think that's an important issue going forward and racial profiling by police those have sort of been my focus Do you think that the mental health courts has has helped in the area? I do. Unfortunately, they only exist in three counties that being Washington Rutland and Chittenden and when you're outside of Rutland Washington and Chittenden there's virtually no public transportation and When you're in the throes of the criminal justice system, you're often ordered not to drive You may be under suspension You know it becomes very challenging and I've been pushing that that opportunity become universal and not an accident of geography So and also drug courts. I mean the other driver of criminal You know something like 85 90% of inmates have substance abuse problems either drug addiction and or alcoholism You know and the other Statistically it always sticks with me is People in jail under the age of 22 90% or high school dropouts and half of those were on Individual education plans meaning they were eligible for special ed. They have some form of disability So again, it goes back to the notion of we're criminalizing people with disabilities instead of trying to build their capacity to lead productive safe Healthy lives and contribute to our community. So I'm sure that we will continue and my success Or in the staff there can will continue on these issues and I'm hopeful that the community joins in with that and I really want to thank you and your staff here you've been very open to Engaging the community on these issues over the years I've had the opportunity to sit here with a variety of hosts and it's just it's just wonderful that you provide this sounding board for issues that all too frequently are not covered by Commercial media. I have to say I think the commercial media is coming along Without a doubt, but I think you You have shown great leadership and I commend you for that and hope you can do it for many many more years Thank you, Bob. It's a real mutual admiration society. So good luck with your new position Yeah, and we'll see you soon. We want you we'll get you on. Thanks. All right. Very good. Thank you so much So happy holidays. We have Mike McNamara who's the chairman of the CCTV board How are you? Same to you. So glad that you're here. Glad to be here. So, um, you've been Continuing with your long-standing series on housing and community development the Vermont housing and communities show Next show will be the first wednesday in february And what was the most recent program that you did? We just did a show on the fiscal cliff With airheart manka of the affordable housing Coalition just talking about what the ramifications of housing In the upcoming federal budget discussions and also what we might expect in the legislature coming up in the state And do you think we're going to go over the fiscal cliff or? My I think we have there's a good possibility. We could go over the cliff Yeah, I read an article where someone wrote, um, we created this cliff. It doesn't mean we need to all go over it That's right. That's right that we did create it and You know, they created it because they couldn't come to the grand bargain and Now they're trying to come to the grand bargain only at a very compressed Period of time. So I know, uh, congressman welch thinks we're going Going over and the hope is that if we do go over It will set the stage to to fix it in a short period of time But sometimes things take longer in washington than they Than they should so So how have you, um, enjoyed working in vermont in the political scene? I mean for many years you have been in public service and when you compare it to washington Well, I came from massachusetts and of course Politics can be very corrupt in massachusetts there very clean in vermont comparatively speaking Um, as we say in vermont, we play in a small sandbox So people have to be nice to each other because you're going to see them You know on the street or at the dump or wherever you bump into people And uh, we've really appreciated having you in a leadership position at cctv. It's been great. I've been on the board now for three years four maybe And um, it's great to see to learn about the other side of how everything Goes it's one thing to sit here and talk to people that's easy But what you and the staff do are just amazing to put all the programs together like channel 17 like common good vermont It's really pretty amazing. It's certainly fun to work with you Well, and it's certainly fun to work with you and all the new blood you've brought in Recently, we hated to see jess wilson go but um, you know, she's she's moving on and seems to be doing well And we're bringing new blood in like matt and uh, I think it's all going to be good Thanks so much michael so much too. Happy new year All right, so um, again, here we are at cctv channel 17 holiday party and we've got arnie gundersen It's always a pleasure to have arnie. How are you getting some air time today? How are you? Are we live? Oh my god? Oh, this is scary. I know well, don't be scared. It's fine. I'm here with you Okay, so um, I know you've been quite busy in the past. Well forever But what have you been working on in particular in the last couple months? Well, I got back from tokyo The beginning of september. I was there for 10 days um I was invited by a bunch of citizens groups and I spoke to The diet which was fascinating. That was the that's their house of representatives kind of the japanese law association and Um, uh, at the university of tokyo, there was a symposium and then a couple other citizen group meetings as well um, yeah on my least favorite topic fukushima um, but apparently, you know, maggie and I have been Really honest Unlike their own government. So apparently we're well respected over there So they I guess they appreciate it that at least somebody they could find on the internet was telling them the truth Yeah, and so I think um, it has really fallen out of the news that what's been going on in japan So so what is the current situation there in terms of the contamination and the quality of life? Uh, yeah contaminations all over the place and um I was in tokyo and I had my little plastic bags and my little spoon and I was collecting samples and I brought them back and Uh, the the ground in tokyo is as radioactive if it was in the united states We would be shipping it to texas as radioactive waste And and people are walking around in and that's that has become the new norm And you know the the theory as well. It's low and you won't get cancer But when you spread that out tokyo's 35 million people Um, you know clearly people are gonna get cancer that that the the neat thing is that um There's essentially a rebellion underway led by women And in that culture what it's it's really extraordinary to see women take step forward and um You know their husbands sort of still believe the party line But um women are saying, you know, I'm taking the kids and leaving Because we are not going to live within 100 miles of this plant and you can either come with me or not So there's an extraordinary change Um political change in in uh in the off of yeah, so it sounds like a real domestic change too In terms of the house household dynamics and culture. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it really is and and I think once you cross that line You don't go back. You know, I think it'll be very difficult for the women to Disappear and become subservient to the men again, which I don't think you'd want to happen Anyway Well, I want to thank you so much for your work and certainly keeping our our audience posted by participating in programs here at channel 17 You guys were there before cnn and before all those guys So I really feel like I owe it to to you know to channel 17 because you were listening before the world wanted to hear Well, yeah, thank you Arnie for all your work. Good to see you. Happy new year So we're here at channel 17 and cctv's holiday party. We've got a wonderful staff working In the background. We've got sylvan on camera They're gonna work in the control room and we have just a wonderful group of people Terry, how are you? Why didn't you come join me? Terry, um, jeralamin is one of our regular access folks You're a public access user. Why do you support community access television? Not because it's an opportunity for The general public to get their point of view across I I do produce a program called vermont today on vcam channel 15. I'm on it 9 30 every monday evening 11 o'clock on wednesday evenings and 6 30 Thursday mornings, and we have a very interesting program this time talking with two Two residents of wake robin who are relatively wealthy and they're advocating higher taxes for the wealthy To solve our budgetary problems. And that's the only fair thing to do When after the second world war the tax top tax rate was 90 percent and now it's way down About 30 percent. In fact, some of the richer people like warren buffett pay less than their secretaries to So it's really not fair and so we'll look forward to that program Yes, so I interview Keith Olson who's a former professor. He lives at wake robin don hornstein who is a managed a mutual fund on wall street and stan greenberg who is Blind and Has another point of view Well, I can't wait to see that and we're just so glad you're using vcam. That's great news It's always great to see you. Thanks a lot. Okay governor hoff. It's always a pleasure to see you Come on over here in the light with me We'll get right here by the camera. How are you my friend? Well, I'm okay Yeah, well, I'm glad you made it. This is awesome. Well, I've made it here for a number of years You know No, no doesn't feel she has to cook anything for dinner That's what we're counting on That's good. So, you know, we go back a long time from our very first series of programs that we did with you Yeah, I think we do and um, you know nats been working on the archives I think we have almost 19 000 pieces of media Do you really? I know what are you gonna do with it? Well, we're archiving it people can actually Watch a lot of it online or they can come here and watch them and you know, it goes back to 1984 Really? Wow, that's a while ago It's almost who's back as far as I do Well, you know this year was a big year because they just completed a book about the work that you did while you were governor, right? Who did wasn't that the didn't that book get published about the sixties? Three guys And it's a very nice book really. Yeah, very complimentary and very complete Nice book. So you're pleased with how it turned out. Oh very much so It must be feel good to have your legacy documented so people can understand what happened during that period Well, it's nice to have your legacy documented period So much happens in this world that nobody gets credit for so it's nice to get credit for something You deserve a lot. You've been a real leader and inspiration to us. So thank you so much and thanks for coming tonight Okay, so um phil hoff is um our former governor here in the state of romana He was governor in the sixties and uh, we are always really happy that he and jone come and visit with us Hello, lisa. How are you? We've got lisa condon the newlywed. How are you? I well happy holidays. Happy holiday Good to see you. Thanks for that to be here So tell us what you've been working on you're just a hive of industry and the nonprofit and the community in the business sector Wow, I've been working on quite a bit. Uh, the most recent thing and it actually we're just kind of shutting it down From a crowd campaign fund for uvm extension and doing the raps campaign Which is uh rebates for roll bars program But you know, I continue my quest for doing good in the community of burlington So how did that campaign go? Well, we wanted to raise $23,100. We raised about $10,000 of that And since it was the first time we were doing a crowdfunding campaign. I think that that's excellent Um, and what that equals out to is actually putting roll bars for 15 of the 35 farmer 15 roll bars On 15 families of the 35 families on the waiting list. So that's important and maybe just to remind people Why roll bars on tractors are so vital? Absolutely. So farmers in general Are 800 more likely to die than the average worker And what roll bars do they are 99 effective from saving a farmer's life when a tractor actually rolls over So that is really amazing because they're expensive and the families can't afford them. So this program subsidizes them. Absolutely It's a 75 subsidization for subsidization. I guess that's a word. I just made sure I like the word um, and so what that does is it allows these families to actually purchase them and tractors have a 40 plus year lifespan So it actually gets passed from generation to generation and families get to then not only keep the tractors But keep the farms and we as people of burlington or across the country get to have the bounty that they provide. It's wonderful Well, you deserve a lot of credit for all your community activism. So thank you so much And thanks for being on the cctv board. We miss you. I miss you. Okay. Bye. Bye So richard kemp is here with us richard is a um long time Supporter and uh, I don't know how many episodes of your program you've done but over a hundred Fantastic, but I also served on the board of directors. So is that right? Don't you remember? I do and you served on the channel 17 trustees as well. Yes. I'm Committed to public service Great commitment. I'm sitting, you know standing here with a person that has made an enormous impact in citizens life of the city of burlington And the person is not me. It's the person holding the mic Thank you so much. And it's both of us really when you get right down to it Yeah, you let me make television and I keep on doing it. You do it. Thank god Yes, richard show near and far great program and a great party. It's always nice. It is. It's really it's nice. It's a very Delightful group of people. So thank you so much so much for what you continue to do day in and day out I don't know if you work on sunday or not, but I try not to Although I was addressing envelopes on sunday Thank you, richard. So I want to um, thank everyone for joining us I think abdulla is going to join us abdulla is one of our volunteers He comes every um every week to run the cameras and direct the shows. How are you my friend? Hi lorry. I'm so glad. Thanks for joining me here See, I'm enjoying Yeah, exactly. We got the lemonade flowing right in this operation. So tell us why you volunteer here at channel 17 Yeah, first I started from being community producer Which is it was interesting to go get the occupied New york or burlington news story out and bring it in here And get their voices out So I started from there and And I realized I like to serve So why not just keep on serving so And I uh talked to rob and rob said, okay I think yeah, you need to get a one on on a one year Contract to serve. I say all right. Uh, I sign up for it and you see make sure you come every day I say, okay outcome and you don't have to worry I worry about that. So So you come every week and you run the cameras and you direct the shows? Yeah, and Except when I'm sick, that's the only time Well, everybody's allowed to be sick and then you've recently got a new job. Is that right? Yeah, yeah Yeah, two or four months ago now. Maybe uh, way block of motion Fantastic How's that going for you? It's great. And yeah, great people to work with and I as you Maybe can remember I told you when I had my accident how everybody came out to help me from there. I never had So uh found myself surrounding such a people that are so caring for someone else, you know, so I'm thankful For what happened to me Well, we're grateful for you and all your help Abdullah. It's just a pleasure to work with you. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot Thanks for joining us today Cheers, okay. Lee Turhun community activist Lee. How are you? Good. How are you? We've worked together a long time You know, we were talking about that earlier as we were sitting enjoying your wonderful dinner. What a spread It's really nice. Yeah, we were talking we were telling some youngsters about the old days when we first got this Beautiful community asset And it's just so awesome that you're still here. I mean, you know, well, so are you you're still doing community activism in the old New north end. Yeah, true Any good stories any success stories from making television that you want to report from making television? Well, I did the um, the north end npa report for about four years And that was so much fun, you know, philavine and I did that together and carol did camera and chuck did the production room And then we'd always go out to dinner afterwards And we had our usual hecklers who would call and ask us questions. That was a lot of fun. Yeah Yeah, it was fun. And you're still active with the npa Up until last night last night was my last npa meeting except i'll continue to go As a resident, but it was my last meeting as a steering committee member And um, it brought things full circle to me because when I began with the npa I took that planning part of npa neighborhood planning assembly very seriously And it was because we were faced with a with really a devastating development that was looming over us And in my neighborhood. Yeah, which was um out on apple tree point And that went away and now we have a wonderful project that's about to be break ground in the spring And so I get to leave on a high note Fabulous and we get to leave on a high note too here at the channel 17 cctv party. Thanks for joining us and thanks for watching