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Recommendation to authorize City Manager to enter into an agreement with the Long Beach Community Foundation for a period of three years and commit Public, Education, and Government Funds reserved for Public Access television as a match to secure operational funding, up to $200,000 a year, from the Knight Foundation’s Community Information Challenge Grant. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
For the past several months, the City has been working closely with stakeholders from the community to identify opportunities to restore Public Access television in Long Beach. As you may recall, State legislation enacted in 2006 significantly changed the rules by which Public Access television is funded and administered in California. The primary challenge to restore Public Access television is the lack of funding to support Public Access operations.
Since November 2009, the Technology Services Department has been meeting regularly with a broad group of representatives from the digital media community, including Public Access producers, educational and job training institutions, community-based service organizations (YMCA, Long Beach Community Action Partnership), and the arts and culture community. The team has been developing a modern, expansive vision for Public Access television that transcends the traditional studio-based programming and contributes to the Digital City framework. In this context, a Digital City refers to a municipality that proactively engages in efforts to develop a skilled digital media arts workforce and partner with the business and creative communities to expand industry and job opportunities.
As part of developing the plan to reestablish Public Access in Long Beach, the team developed a unified vision for Public Access that was presented to the City Council in January 2010:
The vision for Long Beach Community Media (Public Access) is an exciting, state-of-the-art creative and cultural network that utilizes partnerships and collaborative resources to...
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