December 10, 2003

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Publication Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2003

Atherton may cablecast Town Council meetings text: Atherton officials are hoping that a local grant will enable the town to televise City Council meetings.

The idea of cablecasting meetings has long been bandied about, but the town has never had the funds to rig the historic council chambers with cameras, or hire a crew to operate them. When offered the chance to apply for a grant from defunct local cable company Cable Co-op to pay for equipment, the Atherton City Council voted unanimously in favor of the idea at the November 19 meeting.

Current estimates put the cost of installing professional video equipment at about $100,000, according to Linda Kelly, Atherton's assistant to the city manager.

The sale of Cable Co-op to AT&T Broadband left about $4 million in unclaimed funds from former subscribers, and that money is being made available to government and nonprofit groups for community access projects, according to Annie Niehaus, executive director of the Midpeninsula Community Media Center. Improved technology would allow a mounted camera to be easily operated by a volunteer, saving the town the cost of hiring staff, she said.

The City Council meetings would be broadcast live on a community access cable channel, and might also be broadcast over the Internet through the town's Web site at some point in the future.

The appeal of watching City Council proceedings from the comfort of home was particularly evident at the meeting, which lasted from 7 p.m. to 1:58 a.m. The nearly seven-hour meeting broke the previous adjournment-time record of 1:45 a.m., according to council members.

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