RON DAVIS -- Through my eyes

I just can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of Huntington

Beach’s taxpayer owned and underwritten television station, HBTV-3,

bringing the residents of this community . . . are you ready? Cooking

shows.

When the city should be cutting fat, apparently we’re going to be

filming it.

The budget request for HBTV-3 asks for $6,874 for something called a

mini jib, which produces low- and high-angle views, and in the words of

the request, “This feature is particularly useful when doing cooking

programs.” I’ll bet the Cooking Channel is shaking in its jello.

It’s no secret that Huntington Beach claims to have insufficient

resources to maintain and repair our infrastructure. According to the

City Council, we’re so broke we had to pass a sewer fee onto the

residents. Even so, we’re being constantly warned that programs we

consider valuable and important will have to be eliminated. And yet, we

continue to spend $500,000 to $600,000 a year on HBTV-3. (That is not the

cost of merely televising City Council and Planning Commission meetings,

which can be done at a fraction of the cost of the overall station, but

the cost of the entire station.)

Even in good times, one has to question whether a city and city

government ought to be in the television business. Why not the movie

business or the music business?

At last Monday night’s City Council meeting, our council labored over

cuts affecting the police department, fire department, library and

virtually every department in the city. We’re about to shift police

officers out of traffic, out of a regional narcotics task force and out

of the Clandestine Lab Task Force to save something on the order of

$600,000. We’re eliminating fire department positions. We’re going to buy

about $150,000 less books for the library. But, we’re still going to

manage HBTV-3 and produce shows at the station to the tune of $500,000 to

$600,000 annually.

Frankly, over the last five or six years, I can’t think of one single

program or a series of programs produced by HBTV-3 that I considered more

valuable than repairing sewers or sidewalks, or police and fire services,

or books at the library.

In fact, it annoys me no end that for years we didn’t fix the downtown

sewers and suffered the public humiliation of a criminal conviction as a

result of our inaction, yet we produced programming on HBTV-3 telling the

residents of this community what a wonderful city we live in and how hard

working and concerned our City Council is. The simple fact is that

instead of spending $5 million on HBTV-3 over the last 10 years telling us how good things were, we could have used the money to actually make

things better.

The sad thing about last Monday night’s City Council meeting was that

no elected official publicly suggested that we eliminate HBTV-3 and use

the money for storm drains, pot holes, block walls, cops, fire fighters

or library books. What seems to me to be such a no-brainer, wasn’t even

discussed as an option.

In a recent survey of Huntington Beach residents, it was determined

that most of us understand the sad condition of the infrastructure. In

fact, almost 70 % of those surveyed felt “there was definitely a need for

major infrastructure repairs,” but wouldn’t agree to higher taxes to make

the repairs, believing that the city has enough money to make the repairs

“if it would just spend the money more wisely.”

Isn’t HBTV-3 a glaring example of what those surveyed were talking

about? Is it a wise choice to use the $500,000 to $600,000 we spend on

HBTV-3 talking about the problem, or should we spend that money actually

doing something about the problem?

I’m not a fan of cooking shows on HBTV-3, and for that matter, any

shows on HBTV-3. Although, I think making HBTV-3 toast is a pretty good

idea.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He

can be reached by e-mail at o7 RDD@socal.rr.com.f7