Live, from Newport

Tucked away in a windowless storage closet behind the dais in council chambers at Newport Beach City Hall is a growing cable television station that reaches about 28,000 households in Newport Beach.

Production director Dominic Dimare never quite knows when his night will end when he walks into the roughly 10-foot-wide room two Tuesdays a month to operate the city’s robotic cameras during city council meetings, which sometimes drag past midnight as residents and council members debate obscure passages of city code.

“It takes a special type of person to do what we do,” Dimare said.

A year ago this week, NBTV took control of broadcasting its own city council meetings live from Time Warner Cable.

The city has rapidly been building its own cable television station with original programming from the ground up over the past few years.

NBTV produces eight to 10 original programs a month on everything from youth flag football and lifeguard tryouts to local history, all of it from a stuffy broom closet behind council chambers.

Although his day job is in sales for a food supply company, Dimare has worked in his spare time for about 15 years broadcasting city council meetings for cities across Orange County.

With a constant parade of heated local issues such as residents lobbying for the city to crack down on drug and rehabilitation homes in the city, Newport consistently has the most lively, and sometimes the longest, meetings, he said.

Involved citizens abound in Newport, with its numerous citizen activist groups focusing on everything from preserving Newport Bay to expanding the number of soccer fields in the city.

A steady stream of residents line up at the podium during public comment time at the council meetings, sometimes stretching as long as three hours.

In contrast, a council meeting in Buena Park can run 45 minutes, Dimare said.

“It seems like people here care more,” Dimare said. “There’s more controversy here, more issues that people are involved in.”

There’s no 7-second delay during live broadcasts in case a bawdy word slips past the mouth of the councilman or a resident during a heated exchange.

Luckily, such occurrences are rare, said Casi Smith, a part-time videographer, editor and archivist for NBTV.

“It’s public record, so we don’t alter it in any way,” she said.

An independent television producer, Smith does all the live, on-screen titling for the council meetings, keeping track of speakers, votes and issues on the sometimes complicated council agendas. It’s a job that keeps her on her toes.

“Things can move very quickly,” Smith said.

NBTV Producer Marilee Jackson is proud of how far the operation has come in a year. A much-rubbed dry-erase board on the wall of her office at Newport Beach City Hall keeps track of what shows are in production, the longest running of which is Pick-a-Pet, hosted by Newport Beach Animal Control Officer Jamye Rogers. The show has been on the air for almost a decade and is aimed at finding homes for stray animals.

When the Time Warner Cable television van left the city hall parking lot a year ago and took its cameras and broadcasting equipment with it, the city was mostly on its own to continue broadcasting, Jackson said.

“I think the biggest challenge has been making sure our council meetings were seamless,” Jackson said. Nobody knew when Time Warner ended and NBTV began.”

Newport contracted for several years with Adelphia Communications Corporation to broadcast live council meetings, but the cable company filed for bankruptcy in 2002.

After Time Warner acquired most of Adelphia’s assets in 2006, it wanted out of the production business, because of the cost involved Jackson said, so the city had to step in to keep council meetings on the air.

The operation runs with the help of seven part-time production assistants. Few municipalities in Orange County also have many original programs as Newport, Jackson said.

The mini-television studio behind council chambers had to be built from scratch when the city took over broadcasting last year, for less than $100,000, she said.

“None of this existed last year,” Jackson said. “People don’t realize the work involved to make it happen...It’s small, but it’s powerful.”

MUST SEE TV

Here are a few of the shows NBTV produces and broadcasts. Visit www.cityofnewportbeach.org for a detailed schedule of programming or to watch shows online. NBTV broadcasts on Time Warner channel 3 and Cox channel 30:

 Heart of the Harbor: The show, hosted by city Harbor Resources officials, highlights issues surrounding Newport Bay.

 Look at the Library: Library Assistant Mara Cota showcases municipal library services, resources and activities.

 Pages from the Past: In 2005, in preparation for Newport Beach’s Centennial Celebration the following year, city history began to be captured and preserved by NBTV. Local historian Gay Wassall-Kelly hosts this program on little-known facts and revealing memories discovered about long ago times in interviews with long-time residents.

 Profiles of Government: The show features city staff and departments at work and informs the public about how city government functions.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.