City Council Meetings Will Air on Cable TV

Residents will be able to watch government in action when Cablevision of Orange starts live broadcasts of City Council meetings Tuesday.

Consultants have been grooming council members for their debut, referring to tapes made during their last few meetings to point out bad posture and other distracting habits.

“I recognized after watching this that viewers would be bored to death,” said Mayor Joanne Coontz.

The cable company will nonetheless begin airing the council’s sessions, which are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. The show will appear on Channel 3 or 4, depending on the viewer’s home. The regular meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. and all public hearings are held at 7 p.m. the same night.

The cable company, which is owned by Time Warner Inc., briefly broadcast council meetings two years ago but did not schedule them on a permanent basis.

That changed last year when the company’s franchise agreement with the city was renewed amid controversy over adult television shows that were leaking into homes that did not subscribe to those channels.

As part of a settlement dealing with the problem, Time Warner agreed to provide equipment and technical help for airing the council meetings.