Travis County Commssioners Court
April 20, 2004
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Item A2
A-2, take appropriate action from the Texas house of representatives to broadcast the special session of the 78 legislature on tctv channel 17.
>> good morning.
>> good morning, judge and Commissioners. Steven, director of records management and I have al jackson, manager of tctv what. We have before us is a request from the Texas house of representatives to cablecast on tctc sessions of the special house sessions that are beginning today. City of Austin has agreed to air all days except Thursday for the sessions. That's of course when the city council meets. Travis County has in the past accommodated this request on Thursdays. We have at least I think three sessions under our belts, five sessions that we've done this for. There remains a concern that it may bump up against Commissioners court work sessions that we may have conflicts. How we've handled this in the past is that we have broadcast those sessions, but relied upon the closed circuit system, channel 13, for -- sorry, channel 12 for our internal broadcast. However, that doesn't broadcast to the e.o.b. Or outside the campus area. Those are the issues. And --
>> what would our position be I guess we are conducting business at Travis County, channel 17 ought to be on us. Like if we have a work session on Thursday, cover us live, and I guess after that however we normally show them if the legislature were not in town. Then on the Thursdays when we do not have a special session or during times on Thursday when we're not in session, we try to accommodate the state as much as we can.
>> judge, that is essential certainly -- that's a court decision. I can tell knew the past and I'm not evacuating a position, I'm just giving-advocating, the decisions have been made somewhat ad hoc and it's been decided depending upon the importance of the Commissioners court session by Commissioners court. Now, most of these sessions don't run into the afternoon. So we've had very few actual instances where they've bumped up against one another.
>> I think our thoughts ought to be if Travis County Commissioners court is in session, we ought to cover it. Otherwise I think we may ought to question whether we ought to be spending Travis County taxpayer money on this. And if we are not in session, we will try to accommodate the state. So we never have work sessions in the morning, to the extent there are meetings in the morning we work with them. Ours in the afternoon, we cover us. I think that ought to be our policy. The other thing would be, I mean technology is such that we don't invest a whole lot of effort in this. It's really a matter of pushing a few buttons or is it more than that?
>> that's correct. No, we just fax a form to time warner, time warner pushes a couple of buttons. So production costs are negligent.
>> it's possible that aisd might have something available that they could assist maybe on those occasional Thursday afternoons when we have work sessions, perhaps aisd's channel could be utilized. There are more than two governments in this town who have access channels. I think we want to be as accommodating as we can, but we also have business that we need to conduct in the public lighted.
>> aisd has been regularly covering the senate. The city and county has been taking care of the Texas house. And they asked us to take care of the senate. There may be a conflict, I'm not sure.
>> are they asking us to provide coverage on other days when we're not in session, like Monday and Wednesday?
>> the city agreed to cover any dates except when council meets.
>> so they don't need us.
>> no, they don't.
>> judge, Commissioners court will always be number one in our hearts.
>> I would say that too right before budget.
>> right. [laughter]
>> judge, I would move approval that we basically communicate to the state of Texas that we will free up space on channel 17 when we are not in session as it is necessary for them to utilize us.
>> second.
>> any more discussion? Clarification. Does that include replays or just live? Us? > that's a good question. That has come up in the past.
>> I think if we have done replays, we ought to keep doing them. I don't know that we ought to be a replay if they are live. We can be more accommodating on our replays as compared to their live sessions. Is there a weekday schedule that we go by? Week to week or --
>> yes, for work session immediately that night at 7:00 and the next morning at 9:00.
>> if they are live and we are on replay and I guess I would defer to the live coverage.
>> our replays are also available on the web.
>> that's true.
>> yeah.
>> I'm also thinking if they are live at night it will be towards the end of a session and there is likely to be something important happening if they are there at night.
>> yes.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 9:31 AM