Bonita may get its own TV channel

Under a tentative franchise agreement between Comcast Cable Communications Inc. and Bonita Springs, the cable provider grants the city a government access channel. That means the city could start televising its meetings soon.

But that won't happen until the city moves its meetings to a more permanent location, City Attorney Audrey Vance said.

Next year, the city plans to move its meetings to a renovated bank building on Bonita Beach Road, just east of U.S. 41. For the past three years, meetings have been held at Bonita Springs Utilities' meeting room on East Terry Street.

"I don't think we will make any money," Vance said of the proposed government channel. "But we will inform citizens, and that is the most valuable thing I can think of. We become richer if citizens know more about how the process works."

Among other things, the agreement would direct Comcast to extend cable lines to every part of town -- eventually including all of the relatively rural San Carlos Estates neighborhood.

But some local activists say the proposed agreement doesn't give the community enough access to the airwaves. Without a community access channel, free speech suffers, members of the Bonita-based Taxpayer Action Group say.

TAG members implored city officials to consider a channel that would feature locally produced fare, said Ron Pure, the group's president. He suspects that his request got turned down because of his group's tumultuous relationship with the city.

"It's unfortunate because a lot of individuals are going to be without that because of their opinion of TAG," Pure said. "They're getting the short end of the stick."

The decision to do without a community access channel was based on its potential taxpayer costs, not whatever the content of its shows would have been, Vance said.

"The expense is really incredible, and the cable people get upset because it takes a channel off their market. I guess the question is, 'Do we want to have our taxes spent for that?'"

Comcast and Bonita Springs have been negotiating the agreement for about six months. Vance hopes the City Council will give the agreement a final nod at its Dec. 17 meeting. If approved, the agreement would last 10 years.

Airing public meetings is nothing new in Lee County. The School Board, the town of Fort Myers Beach and the city of Fort Myers are among those that have air space reserved for their hearings, said Maureen Cestari, director of government affairs for Comcast.

Comcast's attorneys are still reviewing Bonita's tentative franchise agreement, so, Cestari said, she couldn't comment on the 35-page document specifically. She characterized the review as an ongoing "negotiation process."

As it stands, the agreement states that Comcast has no say in what's aired on the government access channel except that it can refuse to air programs that contain "obscenity, indecency or nudity."

The city also could acquire a second channel to air its programming if the amount of locally produced shows run more than six hours a day on the first channel.

The channel will be offered to all basic cable subscribers in the city. No specific number has been assigned for the Bonita channel yet, Cestari said. To fill the air time when no meetings are occurring, the city could run a series of public service items and upcoming events announcements, Vance said.

It's up to Comcast to provide the city with the cameras, the wiring and other equipment to broadcast the city's meetings, according to the agreement.

Televising the government's goings-on is good for all, Councilman Ben Nelson said.

"How many people show up to meetings regularly?" he asked rhetorically. "I would think when it comes to a lot of issues that people really need to be informed."

If TAG members are concerned about their opinions not being aired, the government access channel could be the answer, the councilman said. The group could use the public comment portion of the meetings to voice their opinions before the television audience.