CTV30 board rejects cities' bid to downsize CTV30 board rejects cities' bid to downsize (April 01, 2005)

With director gone, board members say cutback would hurt station
by Jeb Bing

The Tri-Valley Community Television board of directors rejected a request last week from the four cities that support the system to downsize its 11-member board to five, similar to the number of members of most city commissions and city councils.

Jeff Eorio, director of Parks and Recreation for San Ramon, made the plea as this year's liaison to the board, a position that also makes him the official secretary and city representative to the CTV board. It's a position that is rotated annually among the four controlling cities: Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore and San Ramon.

Ellyn Axelrod, Assistant to the City Manager of Livermore, will take over July 1; followed in 2006 by Jason Behrmann, a Senior Analyst for the city of Dublin; and then Jacqui Diaz, Assistant to Pleasanton City Manager Nelson Fialho.

To change the number of authorized board directors, the current board would have to rewrite the bylaws. They have been in effect since shortly after CTV was organized 27 years ago and call for each of the four cities to appoint two members to the board. The eight appointees then are allowed to appoint three others, called at-large directors because they can live anywhere within the CTV coverage area.

"Right now, the four cities are hoping that you will revise your bylaws and downside the board," Eorio told board members at their March meeting. "Their position is to appoint only one member from now on, and for the board to make CTV30 less dependent on the cities for support. That's the direction I have for the board from the mayors and city managers of the four cities."

But Board Member Nancy Pennell of Pleasanton, an at-large director whose term is expiring, said no.

"I frankly think that downsizing the board to only five directors is unacceptable," she said. "When you look at the recent turmoil at CTV and consider the work we have ahead in evaluating new positions and people, I don't see how a five-member board could possibly handle all of that. I know what the cities want to do, but I am not going to vote to change it."

The "turmoil" Pennell referred to was the resignation in January of Bruce Goddard, executive director, who quit under pressure after the cities and board members found his management decisions unacceptable. Since then, Eorio has served as interim director, although he has given increased responsibility to four full-time employees at CTV.

But even though the CTV bylaws provide for an 11-member board of directors, there have been frequent vacancies as terms expired and were not immediately filled. Currently, only five members serve on the board, including Pennell, Joan Zehnder, chairwoman, and Ginger Ripplinger, all at-large members, Beverly McAdams from San Ramon, and Valerie Barnes of Dublin. Neither Pleasanton nor Livermore has a representative on the board, although both are looking for one volunteer from each community.

At the board meeting, Eorio reported that more than $450,000 in new cameras, production equipment and editing decks is being installed in CTV's Pleasanton studios, located behind the Pleasanton Unified School District headquarters at 4665 Bernal Ave. The equipment is part of a $1.8 million station upgrade that will take the nonprofit station into the digital age with better quality and more flexible productions.

The improvements will include construction of a new studio and production facility on school district property at the end of Second Street off Abbie. That building, to be owned by the school district and leased back to CTV, will provide larger production and studio facilities, giving CTV the capability of producing fee-based programs. For now, CTV relies on approximately $680,000 a year collected by Comcast from its cable subscribers, a 50-cents per subscriber fee that is turned over to the four cities which then use it to finance CTV's payroll and operating expenses.

Eorio said he is now writing a job description for a new executive director position, which will pay $55,000. The job will be posted on various Internet lists as well as on the CTV Web site, www.ctv30.org.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.