BIDDEFORD, Maine — The city’s public access television station is running in the red, and city officials are considering a number of actions to address the issue, from reamortizing a mortgage on the property to cutting station staff or using taxpayer dollars to shore up the budget.
During a City Council budget session Wednesday, City Manager Jim Bennett blamed the deficit on poor management at the station, which broadcasts locally on channels 3 and 85.
“There were some bad management decisions that were made there; I will say that publicly,” said Bennett. “If you’re working for a city this size, you should be able to balance your checkbook as a manager.”
Bennett also noted that the City Council gave the station a directive in 2015 to operate within the money it receives from Time Warner Cable in franchise fees, which it did not do.
The city’s public access station operates at 15 Columbus Way, and broadcasts on Time Warner Cable as well as online. It records and broadcasts city meetings as well as a variety of shows hosted by community members.
The current year’s budget for the station is about $271,000, and Bennett said if changes are not made, the current year’s spending will be $18,000 over budget. Bennett said about $7,000 of this was caused by benefit changes after one of the staff members at the station got married.
Bennett deemed the station’s overspending “unacceptable.”
Funding from cable access fees has been on the decline in recent years, and Bennett has proposed a $265,000 budget for the station next year — about $9,000 less than the proposed budget submitted by cable access staff.
Bennett said the council could consider reamortizing the mortgage on the property, which is included in the station’s annual budget, or reducing personnel to help reduce costs.
The Community Access Department has three employees, consisting of a full-time community television director, a full-time community television assistant and a part-time administrative assistant.
Everyone else at the station is a volunteer, like Toni Sipka, who has her own show and praised the paid staff in a letter to the Journal Tribune.
The television director, Steve Pulos — whose name was not used during the meeting — was a city department head until a recent staff reorganization promoted Chief Operating Officer Brian Phinney.
Between $70,000 to $80,000 of the station’s budget is used to pay for the mortgage on the property, an expense the station didn’t have when it was housed at the city-owned J. Richard Martin Community Center.
The building was purchased by the city several years ago when it acquired the West Brook Skating Rink. City officials decided at the time to move the station from its cramped quarters in the community center to the current building and conduct a number of renovations, all to be paid for under the station’s budget.
While acknowledging the need to address the station’s financial situation, city councilors seemed to be conflicted Wednesday as to what to do about it.
Councilor Michael Swanton said he thought cable television would die a natural death in the next few years as Internet programming becomes more popular.
But Councilor Rick Laverriere said at some point the city may have to “bite the bullet” and give taxpayer money to the station as a franchise fee.
“I don’t think we should reduce any services,” he said.
Mayor Alan Casavant said he did not want to make any cuts in station staffing.
“I don’t think we should be penalizing personnel,” he said .
And Councilor Michael Ready said he would not support reamortizing the mortgage.
Ready added that the City Council should have been keeping a closer watch over the station’s spending throughout the year instead of discussing its spending two months before the end of the budget year.
“I can’t tell you how disappointed I am with the way that this has played out,” he said.