That decision follows a few turbulent weeks at the station, during which time interim station manager Allen Markowski was suspended from filming or programming activities.
Markowski has been filling the manager position on an interim basis since former station manager Jack Barker left earlier this year.
The position has few hours and little funding – only four hours a week currently, according to officials with the city of Clearlake, which partners with the county to fund and run the station.
During a recent recruitment, the PEG Board failed to find anyone qualified or willing to take over the job, so Markowski – who has been volunteering his time for free – continued supervising the station, said Clearlake Council member Joyce Overton, a PEG Board member.
Markowski also began proactively broadcasting Clearlake City Council meetings live, which he said began on June 12.
However, he didn't have the permission of the PEG Board – whose members at that time were Supervisor Ed Robey, Overton, Mediacom General Manager Shawn Swatosh, former Mayor Bob Malley and Clearlake resident Michael Schenck – to begin the live filming, said City Administrator Dale Neiman.
Yet, at its July 10 meeting, the Clearlake City Council gave Neiman the go-ahead to facilitate live broadcasts of council meetings, which council members said they and the community had wanted for some time.
“We always have wanted our meetings live,” Overton told Lake County News.
Neiman said he met with Markowski at one point to tell him that he should just continue to operate the station as it had been done in the past and not go in any new directions without the board's approval.
While Markowski confirmed he met with Neiman, who told him not to add anything new to the station's operations, he said Neiman said nothing about not doing live broadcasts.
The governance of the station is somewhat confusing. Originally, it was supposed to be a joint powers agreement, said Overton, but it isn't. And although Neiman isn't on the PEG Board, which he said is who Markowski technically works for, it's Neiman – as city administrator – who ultimately is in charge of all city employees.
Even though he's a city volunteer, Markowski is considered a city employee, which puts him under Neiman's authority, Overton explained.
Overton said the PEG Board interviews manager candidates and makes suggestions to Neiman, but the decision is his in the end. She said the county wanted the station set up that way.
On July 16, after Neiman said he warned against any new programming for the station, Markowski was interviewed by Dante DeAmicis in a live question-and-answer broadcast from the council chambers at city hall.
“The board did not approve that,” said Neiman.
According to an article written by DeAmicis about the situation, it wasn't exactly a new idea – he said he had done a similar interview with Barker during his tenure.
Over the following two days both Malley and Schenck resigned from the board, Neiman said, a fact which indicated to him that they were unhappy, although he said neither gave a reason for leaving.
Malley told Lake County News that his reasons for no longer being involved with the board were personal.
So on July 18, Neiman suspended Markowski from working at the station, which is located in city hall, until he had approval from the PEG Board.
Markowski said during that discussion he was questioned by Neiman about why Malley and Schenck left. He said City Clerk Melissa Swanson escorted him to get his things from the PEG cubicle before taking him out of the building.
The following Tuesday, DeAmicis and Hiram Dukes spoke during the Board of Supervisors' public comment period, decrying the decision to suspend Markowski.
Neiman said he was concerned that something would be said or done during one of the live broadcasts that would offend someone, and then the city would be held liable because it owns the station equipment.
“A certain segment of the population feels you should be able to say whatever you want on TV,” he said, while others have rules of decency they want to observe.
Markowski, however, said nothing that went out on the broadcasts was defamatory, and he said Neiman was standing in the way of the direction in which the station was attempting to move.
“We have a right to be there,” he said.
Neiman, who previously worked in Humboldt County, said there he saw a PEG Channel and its content become a serious point of contention between the channel's board and the City Council, which ended up in a fight that ended with the city taking the station's operation over from a nonprofit. He said he's trying to avoid the same thing happening with Lake County's PEG Channel.
He said the county and city have limited resources available to put toward the station, which in the past has been run “catch as catch can.”
Despite the council's approval of live broadcasts, Neiman said he would be more comfortable with having the meetings taped and then rebroadcast to prevent anything inappropriate from being televised
“It's when you get into the free speech thing, it's always messy,” he said.
With Markowski suspended, it meant no one was managing the station, nor was anyone scheduled to tape the July 24 council meeting, Overton said.
DeAmicis reported in his article that the suspension resulted in technical problems both for Mediacom and for Yuba College's class broadcasts on the channel. He said he also was prevented by city staff from doing his normal updates on the station's bulletin board last Wednesday.
Overton called a special PEG Board meeting at 7 a.m. Thursday, during which the remaining board members – she, Robey and Swatosh – decided to have Markowski continue as station manager.
She added that she thought Neiman had done what he thought was right to protect the city.
The board also decided to work on its policies and procedures before continuing with live broadcasts, Overton said. A committee, which includes Overton, Barbara Christwitz and DeAmicis, has been assigned to the task of developing those policies.
Markowski had contended that such policies already existed. Overton responded that the policies they had were in the form of a draft manual used at another city.
Thursday's council meeting, as a result, wasn't broadcast live, nor did Markowski tape it, said Overton.
Another of the board's decisions from Thursday included asking Neiman to draft an agreement for Markowski so everyone will be clear on his duties, Overton said.
She said she believes everyone involved has good intentions for the PEG Channel, which was dormant for a long time before a new investment of energy by a lot of people started to turn the channel around. “It's going the best I've ever seen it go.”
She added, “Patience is what it's going to take for us to get this done.”
John Jensen contributed to this report.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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