Harvard Cable TV Committee Chairman Bill Johnson’s progress report to the selectmen last month may have been long on strategy and short on financial details that would be filled in later. But even without all the numbers firmed up, one key point in its favor was that the HCTV budget proposal would not include a request for taxpayer dollars—not this year or for the next 10 years, which is the term of the contract with Charter Communications, its sole funding source.
But Chairman Ron Ricci was more concerned with language than with numbers. According to his read of the report, the committee seemed to be expanding its mission without authorization from the selectmen, he said.
According to Johnson, the HCTV vision highlighted in the report aligns with its mission. “There’s been no change in goals or implementation of strategy,” he said, citing “staffing needs” to account for some increased operating costs as HCTV gears up to provide direct broadcasting from the new Town Hall meeting room.
The 10-year strategy highlighted in the report indicates that HCTV aims to move forward rather than aging in place. The strategy includes creating more local programming through collaborations with the schools and the Council on Aging, expanded training, added staffing that includes a station manager, recording studio upgrades, and improved live broadcast capabilities.
Seeking added income
Another strategic goal is to seek added income from studio rentals, grants, and local business partnerships. The idea is to generate sufficient income and annual reserves to ensure that no taxpayer funding would be called for, now or in the future, Johnson said.
From left: Catie Segaloff, Bromfield teacher Kathleen Doherty, and cable committee chairman Bill Johnson in the HCTV studio last year. (Courtesy photo)
But Ricci said the fundamental question now was whether the “new HCTV mission” and the substantial outlay for new equipment this year would result in better cable reception and signal strength for residents.
Noting that the committee’s role is to support local programming, not promote it, Ricci cited “significant” changes in the report showing its mission had changed, although the selectmen’s charge had not.
“In reality, we are expanding our initiative,” Johnson conceded, and to that end the committee used its capital grant from Charter to buy new recording equipment for the HCTV studio at Bromfield, Town Hall, and for its mobile set-ups. And town government coverage has improved, he added. “We cover more meetings than we did five years ago, or three years ago.”
With the new cable course offered at Bromfield, Johnson said some equipment in the HCTV capital budget this year was needed to meet the required educational component in the cable contract. “We are trying to do more,” he said, showing a film clip to illustrate his point. Bromfield students are using the new cable equipment for their own projects in the studio’s “green screen” room and filmed two Council on Aging events last year; that footage, spliced into “vignettes,” plays on-screen in the school lobby and cafeteria, he said.
But Ricci wanted to see a more direct link to justify spending more money, even if it comes from Charter rather than taxpayers. “Tie it in with your original mission,” he said.
“We are expanding our mission, reaching out,” providing training and “first-time ever” event coverage in town, Johnson responded, including the muster, flea market, and Fall Festival. “To clarify, I was defensive about all the things we do for government but didn’t emphasize the extra things we do,” Johnson continued. And if “mission creep” was at issue, he was prepared to discuss it, he said. But Ricci let the matter drop, asking instead, “All this major investment is because cable signals are digital instead of analog now, right?”
“Yes,” Johnson answered. “Using the old equipment to convert signals that the new equipment is designed to receive takes too much processing time,” he explained.
“Charter caused the problem but also gave us money to fix it,” Ricci said. Johnson agreed that was true. “The really crappy transmissions people were getting before will be a whole lot better now,” he said.
Ensuring quality service
There was no mention of mission creep when Johnson came back to the selectmen as promised on Dec. 1 with a completed budget. Selectman Ken Swanton noted that the Capital Planning and Investment Committee supported the committee’s new equipment purchases, which totaled $90,000 for fiscal 2016. The money came from Charter via a capital investment grant, which, like the initial seed money and installment payments for operational needs, is part of the cable contract. Charter parcels the cost out to subscribers as a percentage of their cable TV bills.
Ricci provided more insight on his position during a phone interview this week. “My issue is that the HCTV mission is already defined” in the selectmen’s charge, he said. “It’s not their purview to change it.”
The committee acts as an agent for the selectmen in the town’s dealings with Charter, Ricci continued, and an element of that is to ensure that cable subscribers get good quality service. It was “out of line” for the committee to change the mission’s original wording so that “supporting” became “promoting,” Ricci said. “So I pushed back on that.”
Ricci said he and Johnson had since resolved the issue. As for the funding outlay, it was huge, he said, but he has no problem with it. As he understands it, the new equipment was needed to compensate for the signal upgrade from analog to digital, and the Charter contract provided funding for it, he said.
