I. POLICY STATEMENT:
City government programming shall be the sole responsibility of the City of Fayetteville at the direction of the City Manager and managed by the Marketing & Communications Department.
The programming policy shall be to provide City residents with direct, non-editorial information concerning government deliberations, services, programs and activities and also to provide educational and public information materials sponsored by the City of Fayetteville. This cable channel is not intended as a political forum or as a mechanism for building support for a particular policy, program or issue not supported by a majority of City Council.
II. OBJECTIVES:
- To provide comprehensive information about programs and services offered to Fayetteville residents by City departments
- To provide information pertinent to Fayetteville residents from other local, state and federal governmental entities
- To widen the dissemination of information on the activities of the legislative and advisory bodies of the City of Fayetteville
- To expand community awareness of local government and its decision-making processes
- To provide educational and public informational materials to City residents through cable cast presentations
- To provide technical assistance to City departments in the exercise of their functions and to assist in the training of City employees
- To improve emergency communications in the event of disaster or widespread service disruption.
III. CHANNEL DESIGNATION:
The Government Access Channel shall operate on cable channel 7 of Spectrum Cable's Fayetteville system. It shall be known as “FayTV.”
IV. TYPES OF PROGRAMS:
- Live cablecast - Live coverage of selected meetings and events will consist of live City Council meetings, advisory board meetings and other special programmed events. The City Manager shall determine which boards shall be covered live subject to budgetary limitations and priorities of the City Council
- Recorded cablecast - Recorded meetings, shows and events, which are recorded to be replayed on cablecast at a later time. Note: Some events will be cablecast live and will also be recorded for later playback
- Staff-originated programming - Programs produced by the City Manager’s Office, to include programs for City departments, issues related to City government or about groups/committees/boards, etc., that are affiliated with City government or which use public dollars. These programs could be either live or recorded cablecasts
- Outside-originated programming - Material that is related to municipal, county, state or federal government that is produced by an outside source that can be purchased, rented or borrowed for cablecast. Also, programs disseminated through satellite down-link that are related to local, state or federal issues may be cablecast
- Bulletin-board information – Character generated messages related to City activities, programs, services and events sponsored in whole or in part by the City of Fayetteville or other governmental units affecting Fayetteville citizens. This service will operate 24 hours a day when other programming is not scheduled.
V. ACCESS POLICY:
All programming cablecast over FayTV must be government-related. Programs may include meetings, activities, programs, services and events of City departments and services or other government entities. Final approval of all requests will be made by the Marketing & Communications Director, who administers the video program for the City of Fayetteville. A weekly program log will be kept to record all programming cablecast during that week. The Government Access Channel is not to be utilized for announcements from the general public. Access to the channel shall be limited to City, government or quasi-government functions and operations. Utilization of the channel for personal gain will not be permitted.
VI. ACCESS PRIORITIES:
Following is a list of general priorities that will apply to the Government Access Channel; the priorities may be altered on a case-by-case basis by the City Manager’s Office:
- Programming of an emergency nature involving public safety or health matters
- Programming of or about meetings of policy-making bodies such as the City Council, etc.
- Programming of various departments and their services
- Programming of county, state, federal government and/or City boards, commissions and authorities and/or agencies that use public dollars
- Programming produced by outside sources that are relevant to local government.
VII. MANAGEMENT OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE GOVERNMENT ACCESS CHANNEL:
Management and programming of FayTV is provided by the City of Fayetteville, administered by the Marketing & Communications Director. Decisions regarding programs or schedules may be appealed to the City Manager.
VIII. POLITICAL PROGRAMMING:
No political programming will be permitted on the Government Access Channel with the exception of providing factual information on any ballot issue directly affecting Fayetteville voters.
Announced candidates for public office shall not be permitted to make personal statements over FayTV, except in the regular discourse of public meetings or within a forum of public debate. Incumbents who become candidates for public office cannot appear on FayTV except as described above during their period of candidacy.
Direct access to the Government Access Channel for political programming by individual candidates, or supporters of any candidate or issue, except as provided in the preceding paragraphs, will not be provided.
Political programming related to candidate forums or public forums on ballot issues may be cablecast with a majority vote of the City Council and only as follows:
- The forum must address ballot issues directly affecting Fayetteville voters; and,
- All candidates for a particular office or sides of a particular issue must have an equal opportunity to participate in the forum; and,
- The forum must be conducted in a dignified, respectful and business-like manner; and,
- No forum sponsor or its agents or affiliates—including, but not limited to political action committees—may publicly endorse or have a stated position on any candidate or slate of candidates during the election season, which for purposes of this Section is deemed to run from the opening of candidate filing for an election to the closing of the polls on election day. This section does not prohibit issue advocacy groups from being considered as forum sponsors.
The City reserves the right to reject, suspend, discontinue, or change the playback schedule of any program at any time without notice to the program’s sponsor.
IX. EDITING POLICY:
- City Meetings – Any City meeting cablecast shall not be edited nor subjected to editorial comment. Meeting coverage shall be from gavel-to-gavel. Meetings may be videotaped in their entirety for later re-cablecast
- Department Programs – Any program videotaped by the City of Fayetteville or on City of Fayetteville equipment may be modified or edited as appropriate except as discussed in Section A above. Editing will be based upon an approved script dictated by scheduling and staffing requirements
- Bulletin Board – Messages programmed into the bulletin board may be submitted to Corporate Communications by appropriate user departments, agencies, etc. Messages submitted should be consistent with the previous policies and intentions of this policy statement and shall be cablecast at the discretion of the City Manager’s Office. Messages may be edited by Marketing & Communications staff to provide clarity, and maximum utilization of pages available may be required
- The City of Fayetteville shall not be held responsible for the accuracy of any information cablecast over the channel that was submitted by outside sources.
X. ENDORSEMENT PROHIBITED:
At no time will cable channel 7 be utilized to endorse, market, or advertise an issue, candidate, specific person, company or brand name of a product for consumer use.
XI. PROMOTIONS:
Promotional announcements for City-sponsored events, programs and activities will be permitted over channel 7. These announcements may include, at the discretion of the City Manager’s Office, the names of co-sponsoring agencies. Promotional announcements for events, charities or outside organizations in which the City has no official interest or sponsorship shall not be permitted.
XII. USE OF CITY-OWNED EQUIPMENT:
City-owned video equipment shall be restricted to authorized City activities and its use shall be restricted to employees of the City of Fayetteville or trained personnel under the direction of the Marketing & Communications Department. Loaning of equipment for personal or outside use shall not be permitted. Utilization of City-owned media production facilities shall be limited to City of Fayetteville personnel or others trained and under direction of the Marketing & Communications Director.
XIII. RETENTION AND OWNERSHIP OF MEDIA:
All videos shall be the property of the City of Fayetteville. One copy of all staff produced programs, meetings and events will be kept by the City for two years. It shall be a general policy not to retain raw video of staff produced programs, meetings and events. At any time, memory devices used during recording may be reused and the original material erased, at the discretion of the City Manager’s Office. Videotapes shall not be considered an official record of any meeting and there shall be no liability for inadvertent erasure or omissions.
XIV. DUPLICATION OF PROGRAMMING:
Requests for copies of FayTV programs should be made to FayTV staff via email or phone and will be fulfilled within a reasonable amount of time. The individual/group requesting copies will be notified when the copies are available for pickup. Cash, Check, or Credit Cards are accepted and payments are made at the Finance Department in City Hall. Checks should be made payable to: City of Fayetteville. A receipt of payment will be provided. The cost per copy will be determined by the City of Fayetteville’s current fee schedule. Proof of payment must be provided to FayTV staff before the copies of the videos are released. If a DVD or digital copy is requested by Council or staff, and is needed in the name of city business, the service is free.
XV. PRODUCTION OF VIDEO OR REQUESTS FOR VIDEO RECORDING:
Requests for the recording of meetings or events should be submitted to the Marketing & Communications Department 30 days ahead of the event time. Requests will be considered in the priority order established for cablecasting of videos unless programming is time sensitive. All video projects done with the intention of cablecasting on FayTV or placement on the City's website should be initiated through the Marketing & Communications Department and have their continued involvement to ensure they will meet City standards and guidelines. Video projects not done in collaboration with the Marketing & Communications Department may not be cablecast or placed on the City's website.
