Fair TV Pushes for Commission Backed by Charter

chairman Jim Kennelly wants "to keep Fair TV fair," but to do so, he believes the public access television outlet must be backed by the town charter -- or at the very least, a town ordinance.

During its review Wednesday of the Fair TV Operational Committee's charge, which was last revised in 2006, the listened to Kennelly's case for creating a Fair TV Commission -- something akin to Fairfield's Ethics Commission.

"There's a great need for a successor committee [to the current Fair TV Operational Committee]," Kennelly said, who described Fair TV as a "labor of love."

"It's very important that this successor committee be fair," Kennelly continued, "I put before you the outline for a commission, not a committee."

To Kennelly's dismay, First Selectman Michael Tetreau initially suggested that the current committee's charge be "a bit broader" to include other media outlets, like Sound View Community Media.

"We would like to make the charge a bit broader in terms of promoting public television programming," Tetreau said.

But Kennelly pointed out that one reason that the Fair TV Operational Committee wasn't fair was the potential inclusion of other outlets in the committee. According to the chairman, a committee member who reportedly later went to work for Sound View voted against turning on Fair TV's government access channel. The move temporarily lost Fair TV a grant from the Area 2 Cable Advisory Council.

Kennelly outlined his frustrations with running an ad hoc committee of people who either voted against the other members or had little to no experience recording town meetings. Several members have since resigned, leaving Kennelly and just two others to meet regularly over the past few years to keep Fair TV running.

"I've lived through weak committees where there is little process," Kennelly said. "Please don't go down the ad hoc, loosely based route."

He wants instead to see a Fair TV Commission recognized as part of the town charter.

Tetreau sympathized.

"There's no question that Fair TV would not be what it is today without Mr. Kennelly's service and Mr. [Gerard] Speno's work," he said.

"We want to make this a more valued board," Tetreau continued, but he reminded Kennelly that the Board of Selectmen could not just change the charter to include the commission. He added he would check with the RTM to ask for town body's advice.

An alternative to adding the commission to the charter is to create a town ordinance for Fair TV.

The Selectmen resolved to continue discussion at a future meeting. Kennelly distributed a draft of the proposed commission's legal standing, terms of service, duties, and standards of conduct before concluding his appeal.

"I urge you that whatever approach you take that these standards of conduct be applicable."