CONNEAUT – The dust is settling on a number of changes made to the way the Cable Advisory Board gets its content to the residents of Conneaut, but there is still some cleanup that needs to be completed.
With the retirement of Cable Access Coordinator Regis Galvin, City Manager Nick Sanford stepped in to fill a void, but it has not been viewed as a permanent solution.
“What I believe the group is looking for is a little bit of direction,” Ward 2 Councilman Chris Castrilla said during a regular work session on Monday, April 6. “What does that mean? That means we talked about editing and whatnot. Right now, (City Manager Nick) Sanford is taking that on himself, and I think that’s a little bit too much. I think we all agree with that.”
According to city ordinance, city council is responsible for funding, oversight and appointments to the Cable Advisory Board. Council is also responsible for programming, equipment and supplies as well as the medium used to broadcast programming.
“I guess the issue that is going to come down to council is, do we hire somebody, do we hire a little bit more money,” Castrilla said. “What are our options that needs to be on this group?”
When Galvin left, there was no trained replacement waiting in the wings.
“Regis did a lot of good things because he did all that editing, he took that upon himself,” CAB Board member Lance Drew said. “He was hired to upload and coordinate, keep the schedule. He wasn’t paid to edit. Regis was good that way, because he would provide training (on how to film) and help people along. He would encourage them.”
Sanford devotes the time he has available each week to edit and upload content.
“Right now, I can dedicate, usually, one day in the week where I can set aside a few hours and upload the content that’s submitted to me,” Sanford said. “By and large, that doesn’t involve a terrible amount of editing, with the exception of some things.”
Unfortunately, the time available to Sanford doesn’t always align with the CAB’s needs to get content posted in a timely manner.
“The thing we need, I think anybody who isn’t here would agree with this, anything that is turned is kind of timely, so the longer to get it on YouTube or wherever, that’s the thing,” CAB member Jim Kulko said. “Martha (Sorohan) is doing a week’s worth of news and it doesn’t matter two weeks from now, so it’s timeliness that is really probably the biggest thing we’re talking about.”
The problems the CAB and the city administration are trying to solve stem from the way the board and city administration operated over a long period of time.
“What’s happened previously, we’ll go back to previous administrations, they have adjusted verbally to do this, verbally to do that,” Castrilla said. “What I would like to see is that we have it in black and white when it’s all said and done.”
Everyone in the room was in agreement when it comes to a solution to the problem.
“You need a coordinator,” Drew said. “Regis came up here once a week and then uploaded everything.”
Hiring a coordinator seems to be the solution everyone is looking toward.
“That will alleviate him from the obligation he currently has, or you put it on the cable advisory board being responsible and saying, ‘Hey, you guys have got to go get your own volunteer, or whatever,’” Castrilla said. “We can walk away from it all together, much as I don’t think I want to do that, but that’s all up to you guys.”
Council President Terry Moisio seemed to think hiring a coordinator was the right route to take.
“It sounds like it’s a pretty good plan to have someone do the editing, like a liaison and a wage, not getting too crazy with it,” Moisio said.
At-Large Councilman Nick Perkoski suggested the members of the Cable Advisory board use a meeting to draft a job description for council to consider.
“I would recommend, that you guys meet again, maybe have a special meeting, to decide what the job description looks like, what the hours needed are and what we can afford to pay the person and then bring it back to us,” Perkoski said. “I think you know more about what you need than I do.”
Perkoski expressed his support of hiring a coordinator.
“I am all for supporting you guys and making sure you have someone that’s doing the editing,” Perkoski said. “If we need to pay someone, I think we need to pay someone. We were paying Regis, why can’t we pay someone now to do it? I think you have to look at what you are looking for, how many hours do you think we need to hire this person for and what the duties are going to be. We just need to spell it out. Is that something that the Cable Advisory Board, can do?”
The number of hours a coordinator or editor is needed varies each week depending on the amount of content turned in.
“The other thing is not to make them a city employee,” City Finance Director John Williams said. “That way, they can come in on their own hours and do their own thing. You get your stipend per month and we don’t control your hours.”
No matter the recommendation made by the Cable Advisory Board, it will be city council that makes the final decision.
“They can make a recommendation, but the way it is really set up, it’s on us,” Castrilla said. “It comes down to we have ownership.”
“It’s going to be us,” Castrilla continued. “They can make a recommendation how they want the job posted, but it’s going to come down to us to make that final decision. They can make a recommendation through the city manager.”
City council will have to pass ordinances regarding governance of the CAB once the wrinkles are ironed out.
“Basically, we haven’t finished ordinances,” Castrilla said. “We’re not finished here with all the final details yet – whether we’re going to hire another person or not. Once all this is said and done, then I’ll bring it back in ordinance form, and then we can act. I will get their approval with it as we review it, or I’ll include them.”
In programming changes, moving the Cable Advisory Board’s content from Vimeo to YouTube has been well-received.
“I like the idea of this thing going to YouTube,” Kulko said. “I don’t know that that is a problem in my personal mind. We got the counts of all the views at both meetings since the change and we had way more counts than we had on anything else they were watching. I’m sorry, that’s the fact.”
It could be argued that a change in medium was needed much earlier.
“I can tell you a bunch of stories about Vimeo, and I’m glad we’re getting rid of it,” CAB member Bob Lebzelter said. “I think we should have made the decision before that, because we’re paying for a year for nothing. YouTube is going to be much better. Stuff that I put on there 15 years ago is still there, but the stuff that Vimeo did, it runs out, and you’ve got to keep paying them, or it’s gone.”
“I did a bunch of stuff on the hospital’s 100th year, but after a while, Vimeo just took it off. (Moving to YouTube) was a good thing, but I think we needed to have some input,” Lebzelter said. “When they said the city manager was going to be editing stuff, we would have said, ‘Are you crazy?’”
Programming already on Vimeo will remain available through 2026, though all new programming will only be available through the city’s YouTube page, https://www.youtube.com/@CityofConneautPublicAccess.
The one sticking point for CAB members is probably that their opinion on the matter wasn’t sought after.
“I found out about the big change when I emailed Regis about something and he says, ‘Don’t you forget that I retired,’” Lebzelter said. “I thought he was going to hang on month by month. That didn’t happen, but we weren’t told that. Then, I see a Bob Ettinger story about all these changes that are going to be made. Nobody approached us about it. I learned most from Bob Ettinger’s story, and I scanned it and sent it to everybody. Nobody knew anything about it. Whatever pitfalls, maybe we could have had some input and maybe changed things a little bit.”
Cable Access channels
Drew spoke up on behalf of the residents who were accustomed to finding the CAB content on Channel 6 on GreatWave Communications or Channel 1024 on Spectrum cable.
“I’ve had a lot of people commenting or calling me because I’ve been on the board for so many years, wanting to know why stuff is not being broadcast on Channel 6 anymore,” Drew said. “I think that’s going to be detrimental to the city. A lot of people, especially the elderly, still depend on Channel 6.”
Drew thinks that somebody from the Cable Advisory Board should be allowed to upload content to the cable channels.
“Once you take it away, it’s gone, that’s it, then you don’t have it anymore,” Drew said. “I just feel, somehow, one of us, or Bob (Lebzelter) or somebody, should come up here, go in there and just upload it. It doesn’t take a genius to upload some of the film that they edit. The old stuff is running on the air, why not just upload what we’ve got?”
“I just hate to see this channel go down the tubes. I don’t think you should give up your public access channel,” Drew continued. “I think that’s detrimental to the city.”
Channel 6 and Channel 1024 are still playing programming from December.
“You can watch the Christmas parade whenever you want,” Lebzelter said.
Sanford understands Drew’s point, but has taken a realistic view of the problem.
“I can see that (there’s an audience we’re not reaching), however, one of the challenges that faces the city, it is the responsibility of the city as far as the IT capital that would need to be spent should something fail with the transmitter equipment,” Sanford said. “If that breaks, then there is no more. There is nothing to upload that and put it on there.”
“I will say that, for those who are not tech savvy, or those who have streaming devices and don’t really know how to navigate them, there is a bit of a barrier,” Sanford continued. “I don’t know how to bridge that gap. It’s a challenge, but there’s old infrastructure in there, and it’s going to be very, very expensive to replace it.”
Kulko, wanting to avoid all confusion on the matter, clarified that Channel 6 and Channel 1024 are no longer being used to broadcast new content.
“I want to make sure everybody gets it,” Kulko said. “The scheduled day on two channels is going away. The way it used to be, that’s not going to come back. I want to make sure everybody heard that.”
