Friday, April 21, 2006

Mayor's Budget... Watching TV

It takes days to pour over the Mayor's budget. But in the last day, I have found one item that shows the new direction this Mayor has taken the City

Broadcast News Video Monitoring Service: $28,000
Add funding from the Telecommunications Development Account
for one full-time or two part-time Student Professional Workers to
implement a video monitoring service in the L.A. CityView Channel
35 Section to regularly monitor, record, and transfer to videotape
any news stories broadcast by local television stations pertaining to
the City for reference by the Mayor and Council.


So, though not costing much, the City will still be paying a full time student worker (or two part-timers) to watch TV. Is this necessary? The connection here to the Mayor's high profile works at so many levels...

5 comments:

Mike Everleth said...

Something I've found very strange since moving to L.A. from NYC a few years ago is just how little I see the Mayor on the local news here. I never see him and never hear any news about the L.A. city government on the TV news, unless it's something really big like this budget proposal. I mean, I think I still know more about what Mayor Bloomberg is up to than Villaraigosa.

About two years ago when I brought this subject up with L.A. residents I was told that that was just because Hahn was a recluse and corrupt, yadda yadda yadda. But I haven't seen any change in TV news coverage since the new mayor came in. I find that strikingly bizarre.

As for this new position being created, well that person won't have much to report.

Bob Timmermann said...

That's just the nature of municipal government in L.A. The city doesn't have a long tradition of mayors who stand out a lot.

Sam Yorty was in the news a lot and was quite outspoken, but Tom Bradley had a lower profile.

I don't know if the people of Los Angeles have ever had time to develop passionate opinions throughout the city about Riordan, Hahn or Villaraigosa.

Anonymous said...

You pore over a budget, not pour.

Anonymous said...

But, have a good day.

AVN said...

$28,000 is a bargain compared to what an outsourcer like VMS would charge.

And it's better than asking the Mayor to watch umpteen hours of local news every day.

Hopefully it lets the Mayor keep in touch with what the people are thinking and saying.

Well, at least what media people are thinking and saying.