Well...It has been a bumpy ride and it's not over yet.

Dear Supporters of Access Tucson Community Media, 

The City's budget process continues. City Council members have indicated that they'll be finalizing the budget over the next two City Council meetings on May 20th and June 3rd.

If you haven't yet, please move to your computer, to Facebook, to Twitter, to email, to Council Chambers, to say that you want to maintain a center for community voice, for media literacy, for independent production resources-a center to create social change. 

If Access Tucson receives any funding this fiscal year, it is proposed that this year will be the last year of funding. If that is the case, it'll prove to be an interesting year of rearrangement, reorganization and dealing with less. 

Now is the time for re-invention if Access Tucson is to exist beyond this year.

What does that mean? We're not sure, and that demands calling on you-our producers, partners, viewers, our base--the people that care about citizen voice--to figure it out.

Let's re-cap:

At the end of March, the City Manager, Richard Miranda called for de-funding Access

Tucson of it's $303,500 budget and to sale the City-owned property at 124 E. Broadway that we have called home for the past 27 years. This was a surprising blow that we did not see coming and neither did the other organizations affected by this decree. I don't believe that your City leaders anticipated this either.

Each year, the City Manager submits a budget for response from Council Members and the public. This is when Access Tucson asked you to respond to our city leaders by writing letters and emails, signing a MoveOn petition and showing up at the council meetings to voice your support for Access Tucson. These actions inform the City Manager that he needs to change the designations for budget cuts.

You did well. Really! Let me thank those that braved the podium at the Council chambers to make the case; including Access Tucson members and organizational partners from WaveLab Studio, the U of A and the Pima County Library.  All of you spoke eloquently to the need for a vibrant community media channel as vital to a citizen driven center for education and production. Myself and your Board Chair, Leslie Epperson have met with City Council members and their staff to forward our concerns and vision as well.

It made a difference. The City Manager countered with a proposal recommending $150,000 in funding and a hold on selling the building. And here's what Council Member Uhlich had to say in her newsletter after hearing your testimony via letters, calls and appearances at the Council meetings:

"The Manager partially restored funding to the arts, Access Tucson, human services (including economic/workforce development). Councilmembers Romero, Fimbres and I moved for full restoration of the funding and I am confident other colleagues will agree by the end of the budget process. 

In fact I agree with my colleagues that we need to be crystal clear on what resources will be used to cover the $750,000 needed for that restoration. I did note in our meeting that we now spend $400,000 on state and federal lobbying, at least $175,000 on miscellaneous contractual services, $167,000 for various national group memberships, and so on. The City also grants over $100,000 to human service groups out of TPD RICO funds that could still be effectively awarded if integrated with the Human Services competitive process. 

I'm sure other ideas will be brought to the table to work this through. In assessing the future of Access Tucson, we'll need at least a year to appropriately evaluate best options for community and public programming, the building on Broadway and, perhaps most importantly the notable value of the bandwidth we control via the television stations provided through our cable license agreements. That bandwidth hasn't even been discussed and represents an invaluable community asset we could lose without programming investments in Channel 12 and Access Tucson. I'm no expert on this, but cursory research indicates that an analog station (we control two) reaching a population of one million people could hold value in excess of several million dollars."

Lisa Horner speaks to Mayor & Council during Call to Audience.

So what do we do now?

Good question. We are still making sure that our City Leaders know that it is never right to create a small amount of savings towards the City deficit at the expense of citizen dialog, response and expression. It's a bad plan for representative government.

We also stand with our sister channel. The City's channel Tucson 12 is also facing crippling cuts. It make's a difference that we-the citizenry of Tucson-can watch what our City leaders are voting for, what they are moving forward and fighting for--right there in front of us. You get to see your leaders in action on the City channel. I for one do not want to see that moved to an on-line platform that limits the number of live viewers when critical decisions are being made on our behalf.

We still want the small portion of the cable franchise fees collected to provide for both of these services to fund public voice and information as the original cable operating agreements intended.

You are the better-informed part of the public that understands the realities of television production costs-even with the help of volunteers. You get that the funding for facility support, staff and distribution will not be replaced if it goes away.

If it is not funded or---worse, underfunded for a slow death, it means the loss of unfiltered public response and voice. Period. Lights out. Done. 

The equipment, the building and everything, all revert back to City ownership. No one will use the broken parts of community media. No producers, volunteers and staff to create a center for public discourse.

That would be a huge shame.   

Sincerely, 

Access Tucson Executive Director

5/20 Mayor & Council Meeting Agenda  

It's still important and necessary to contact Mayor and Council with your comments. Please send a copy of your email or letter to each Council Member, the City Manager and the City Clerk's office. 

Please send a copy of your message to Access Tucson as well: lhorner@accesstucson.org or fax 520-792-2565. 

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild  

520-791-4201

Email: mayor1@tucsonaz.gov

City Manager

Email: citymanager@tucsonaz.gov

Regina Romero, Council Member

Tucson, Arizona 85745

E-Mail: ward1@tucsonaz.gov

Paul Cunningham, Council Member

Ward Two

7575 E. Speedway

Karin Uhlich, Council Member

E-Mail: ward3@tucsonaz.gov

Southeast Ward Four

Richard Fimbres

Email: Richard.Fimbres@tucsonaz.gov

Steve Kozachik

Email: ward6@tucsonaz.gov

City Clerk's Office

P.O. Box 27210

Tucson, AZ  85726-7210

Phone: 520-791-4213

Fax: 520-791-4017

TTY: 520-791-2639

Sign the MoveOn petition. The deadline for signatures is when the City Council votes on the budget which could be this Tuesday 5/20, Tuesday 6/3 or Tuesday 6/17. So keep collecting signatures and sharing it on social media. 

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