Feb. 22, 2002 – The Public Services Commission took no action at its Wednesday meeting on a request from the Legislature for approval to use a public-access television channel to broadcast legislative proceedings.
Sen. Adelbert Bryan, chair of the Senate Economic Development, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Committee, has been aggressively prodding both the administration and Innovative Communication Corp., owner of the territory's two cable television companies, to set up a plan to provide St. Croix with the same live coverage of Senate proceedings that St. Thomas-St. John Cable TV viewers get.
At a hearing last November, James O'Bryan, the governor's public affairs assistant, told senators that the Turnbull administration was not about to share its cable TV government-access channel, but that it was willing to assist the Legislature in getting its own channel on both the St. Thomas/St. John and St. Croix cable systems.
At a Feb. 14 hearing before Bryan's committee, O'Bryan said "great progress" had been made toward expanding to "another government-access channel to meet the needs of the legislative branch." He said plans were on target to link the channel to both cable systems by this summer. At the PSC meeting Wednesday, Samuel Ebbesen, president of Innovative Telephone, repeated what he had told Bryan on Feb. 14: that ICC will do the installation and absorb the cost.
The catch is that PSC has control over the available channel, which is the designated public-access channel not currently in use. Commission member Alric Simmonds, who also is the governor's deputy chief of staff, questioned what the Legislature wanted from the PSC. "In an ideal world, the administration and the Legislature could share a channel," he said.
Ebbesen wondered how to resolve the tension between the executive and legislative branches.
J'Ada Finch Sheen, ICC vice president for legal affairs, said, "We need rules and regulations for time on each channel for public access."
Ebbesen said at the Feb. 14 hearing that the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency would apply for a new FCC license to implement a two-channel, two-way radio duplex system to link the existing government channels and expand into a new system for the exclusive use of the Legislature.
PSC legal counsel Fred Watts said the commission has "no obligation to look into what the V.I. needs from pubic access." The Legislature, he said, has "put us in the hot seat. They are saying, 'You have to solve this problem.'" But Watts cautioned, "The PSC could make a mistake. If regulations are to be in place, let's see the rules and regulation."
PSC chair Desmond Maynard, who is a lawyer, agreed: "They have thrown a hot potato in our lap." He added, "My understanding is the Legislature feels it must have its own channel, and that the government has too much control, so they are turning to the PSC — 'You guys resolve this, and get us what we want.'"
Bryan was not at the PSC meeting. But Sen. Emmett Hansen II, a non-voting commission member, said the channel should be used to cover St. Croix legislative committee meetings, which is not now done, and worthwhile community projects such as spelling bees. "We don't need to clog the airways with foolishness," he said.
Hansen decried the manner in which he said some public-access channels are used on the mainland. "Anything goes, absolutely anything, smut," he said. "An exchange of a public-access channel for a government channel would be a perfect compromise."
