Bridal Veil Falls” is a new video produced locally by Rob Carey at Coastside Video, featuring a new violin-piano duo: Colyn C. Fischer & Shauna Pickett-Gordon.

Colyn has twice won the U.S. Open Scottish Fiddling championship. He teaches on the Coastside, in southern California, and in North Carolina at a summer music camp.  Both he and Shauna compose; this video features three of his original tunes.  Shauna directs the locally based Peninsula Scottish Fiddlers, and Colyn is their coach and headliner. 

The group will tour Scotland in October, performing in several cities. They’ll be at the Alameda County Fair on Sunday evening 29 June, in concert in San Francisco on Saturday 12 July, and at the Oakland Scottish Games on Sunday 13 July. Their next Coastside appearance will be at the Pacifica Farmers Market on Wednesday 23 July. The duo is available for performances, including at house-concert venues.  Reach them at 650-728-0862 or at .

Half Moon Bay Review reporters don’t stay on the job for much more than a year. The last six reporters averaged thirteen months at the Review. This is barely enough time for a reporter to acquire basic knowledge of their beats before they move on to bigger and better things. Couple this with the fact that many are in their first professional reporting job, and it’s clear that they’re at a disadvantage in covering Coastside news.

This analysis is based the bylines in the Reviews online archives, and does not include two reporters who have been with the Review for more than a decade. Mark Foyer covers sports and Stacy Trevenon covers community organizations and events. But neither covers A-section news.

In preparing to write this, I had email conversation about these issues with Review editor Clay Lambert.  He was justifiably proud of the quality of his recent recruits. I also think the quality of the Review has improved in recent years, at least in terms of the breadth and promptness of its coverage—especially its coverage of breaking news on its website. But it’s challenged when it comes to covering what’s happening beyond last week’s board meetings.

Many of the reasons for this are beyond the Review’s control.  As a weekly newspaper in a sleepy news market, the paper isn’t going to be the first choice for seasoned reporters, nor is it a place where top performers will want to hang around. At a board meeting a few years ago, we sat next to a Review reporter who was muttering over and over to themselves, “I hate my stupid job”. Covering our stupid boards is not something you’re going to want to do for more than a year or so.

The Review is destined to always be a training ground. Recent college grads looking for journalism jobs are entering an industry in decline. Small town papers are doing relatively well, and can offer professional experience that new reporters can’t get anywhere else. And if you’ve read a few local weeklies, you know that the Review is a lot better than most. Most folks who’ve talked to Review reporters in the last few years has been impressed with their intelligence and sincerity.

Even the best, most experienced reporters who have been working a beat for years will have problems adequately explaining complex issues to their readers. Inexperienced reporters must take opposing views at face value because they can’t judge the validity of the arguments.

The Review’s reporters are also working harder than ever. The average number of stories per week by Review reporters has grown by 50% in the last four years. Before he left, David Smydra averaged nearly two news stories every working day. And this doesn’t include a lot of breaking news stories on the Review’s website, which has only started in the last two years.

I’m not convinced that anyone else could do a better job of managing the Review’s turnover. But it’s important to consider the limitations that face the paper in covering significant local issues that affect us all.

This is an updated version of an opinion previously posted on hmbreview.com
 
This week’s issue of the Half Moon Bay Review contained a “news” story by recently-hired reporter Mark Noack that described the April 30 Assembly Local Government Committee hearing on AB 1991—a bill that seeks to exempt the 129-house Beachwood/Glencree development from having to comply with our state’s environmental laws.
 
The proposed bill is part of a sweetheart deal that the Half Moon Bay City Council is attempting to consummate for wealthy developer Charles “Chop” Keenan. To date, the City Council has failed to address a number of questions about this deal. The issues extend beyond Half Moon Bay to all of California.
 
I don’t wish to pick on Noack, but the Review’s story on the AB 1991 hearing was less than objective, to put it mildly. I would go so far as to say it was unprofessional---but that would elevate the story to being viewed as an actual piece of journalism, which it clearly is not.

Candidates nominated by the board of MCTV soundly defeated the challengers, Barry Parr, Darin Boville, and Scott Boyd.

I’m not entirely sure how to report this, since I was running in this race.  Speaking only for myself, I was always running with the goal of improving MCTV and not against any particular members or nominees of the board. So, I’m happy to congratulate MCTV’s new board members and wish them well as they take the station into the digital age. I still have a lot of ideas for improving the station and its service to the community, but I’ll save that for another time.

Candidate, votes

Jack Prejza, 62 (elected)
Chris Madison, 60 (elected)
Whitney Brooks, 61 (elected)
Barry Parr, 25
Darin Boville, 22
Scott Boyd, 25

Resolution to amend the MCTV bylaws

Yes, 57 (passed)
No, 22

“Should a film console us with its own brilliance when it aims to discomfort us with its content?” Kenneth Baker San Francisco Chronicle

Jennifer Baichwal’s gorgeous documentary about Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky and his attempt to document modern industrialization gone amuck in China and other hypergrowth hotspots.  Burtynsky is a master at finding beauty in dangerous industrial vistas. The opening tracking shot through the Chinese factory where 23,000 employees make most of the world’s iron is itself worth the admission price.

The film makes no attempt to scare the audience with statistics and charts. Instead Director Jennifer Baichwal chose to follow Burtynsky as he travels the world looking for mind blowing industrial vistas he can capture on film. Burtynsky throws in an occasional comment about his subjects, but for the most part he lets the images and the words of the people behind the images do all the talking.  It’s clear that the workers depicted in the film are profoundly grateful for the jobs that have lifted them out of poverty. At the same time they are fully cognizant and deeply concerned about the impact this rampant industrialization is having on the world they are going to pass on to their children.

Jenny Lau, an Associate Professor in the Department of Cinema at San Francisco State and a member of the Script Committee of the Beijing Olympics will introduce the film and lead the post screening discussion.

More info and a streaming clip at: www.HMBFilm.org

Copies of “A SEAL’S LIFE” are still available
The Film Society still has copies of last month’s film, A Seal’s Life, for sale on DVD at the bargain price of $15.00.  You can pick one up at this month’s screening or send a check made out to the “Coastside Film Society” to PO Box 94037-0588 and the Film Society will mail you a copy.

Fri. April 25, 2008, 7:30 pm
Methodist Sanctuary, 777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay (corner of Johnston)
$6.00 for adults

NOTE: All candidates are always welcome to submit statements to Coastsider.

I’ve been critical of MCTV’s policies about copyright and its management for the past few weeks, but I’ve decided to do something about it.

Last Friday, shortly after I learned nominations for the board were about to close, I nominated myself, as well as Darin Boville and Scott Boyd for the three open positions on the MCTV board.

Things have been crazy over the last week preparing for this, but we’re excited to be running for the board.

I’m going to be writing more how MCTV can be improved and the election process, but for now, I’ll leave you with what we wrote for our campaign brochure. Please leave questions and comments below and we’ll be happy to address them. What would you like to see from MCTV?

Why we’re running

MCTV has accomplished a lot in 20 years, but we need to find new ways to use Channel 6 as more video moves to the Web. MCTV’s new website is a long overdue step in the right direction, but much remains to be done to bring it up to date. At the same time, MCTV needs to open Channel 6 to new programming ideas and more engagement with the Coastside community.

Barry, Scott, Darin are uniquely qualified to accomplish this mission. Individually, they have created the Coastside’s first local websites (montara.org, sanmateo.org), first government websites (MWSD, MCC), first breaking news Web site (Coastsider.com), first videos from the Devil’s Slide closure (Darin Boville), and the Coastside’s first video website (MontaraFog.com).

* Open MCTV to the community with a membership drive, fundraising, and grants to support new community projects.

* Open our schedule with more prime-time access for original programming and new video produced by Coastsiders.

* Open minds by encouraging our viewers to communicate on Channel 6 and on our website.

* Open our door to members and viewers with regular business hours, answering the phone during business hours, and public board meetings that are cablecast on Channel 6.

* Open government meetings to greater public scrutiny by allowing fair use of our videos for use by the public.

I’ve created a new website called the ”Montara Dog Blog,"The purposes of this site are:

To provide a forum for everyone who walks their dog(s) in Montara and the surrounding trails.

To create a loose association of dog owners, linked by e-mail, to share information of urgent interest, such as lost dogs, found dogs, mountain lion sightings, etc.

To create a photo gallery of Montara dogs and their owners, just for fun.

And, last but not least, to encourage responsible behavior on the part of dogs and their owners.

In addition to the blog and photo gallery, the site has a map of Montara’s popular dog walking trails, a page for free classified ads relating to dogs, and useful links to other web sites.

For more details, visit http://montaradogs.com or call Bill at 728-3946.

I made a couple of significant errors regarding MCTV in my recent postings. The errors were entirely mine, but I was working from inadequate information because MCTV had ignored my repeated requests for information. I still haven’t heard from MCTV, but I did discover these errors and wanted to correct them here and in the original stories.

My first error was to say that MCTV’s board of directors is selected by the board, and not by its members. In fact, MCTV does offer memberships and its members do get to vote on who can be on the board. However, with $20 per year membership dues and only $685 in membership revenue in fiscal 2007, MCTV may have fewer than 35 paying members.

My second error was to say that MCTV’s executive director Constance Malach is paid $45,000 for 25 hours of work per week.  My source was MCTV’s 2005 tax return, which was the most recent I had available to me at the time. I now know that in fiscal 2007, according to MCTV’s most recent tax filings, Ms. Malach’s salary was $60,970 for 25 hours per week, a 37% increase over 2006.

I didn’t learn much in business school, but I did learn that if an employee is not behaving in the best interests of the organization, it’s a pretty good bet his compensation program is structured to encourage it.

When you look at MCTV’s budget, you can begin to see why they don’t talk to the community or even listen. MCTV’s not returning my messages, so this is my personal analysis of their tax returns.

Three quarters of MCTV’s income comes from grants from the city of Half Moon Bay and from San Mateo County. The city and county get the money from cable franchise fees and pass it on to MCTV.  Coastsiders pay the franchise fee as a separate line item on their Comcast bills. But it’s not earmarked for MCTV. The city and county could choose to keep the money, or give it to someone else. With the City Council and Board of Supervisors providing three-quarters of MCTV’s revenue, MCTV’s existence depends on keeping them happy.

MCTV’s only other significant source of revenue is what they call “government grants”. This appears to be the fees that local boards pay MCTV for taping and cablecasting their meetings. But it’s unclear why MCTV is unwilling to run tapes of meetings they didn’t produce, since the income from taping doesn’t appear to be much more than the expense of volunteers, staff time, and materials. Running these tapes might free up staff time and equipment for something more interesting.

What MCTV calls “direct public support” appears to be what you and I would call advertising revenue.  And MCTV made about $4,000 on advertising in fiscal 2005.

Most startling is that less than 1% of MCTV’s revenue comes from membership dues. If MCTV had to go to the community every year meet its budget, the way that KQED must for example, you could expect them to be a lot more responsive. If the board of MCTV were elected by the members, as it is at KQED, you could expect them to listen. [CORRECTION: MCTV’s board is elected by its members.]

Darin Boville publishes Montara Fog

The current dispute over the rights to recordings of public meetings goes back a couple of years. If you click on the “Video” menu at the top of the Coastsider main page you’ll see, for me, where this issue all began.

I have a strong interest in open government (my education is in public policy) and had been heavily contributing to Coastsider since about a year after I arrived here in the Fall of 2004. Initially those contributions took the form of still photographs but they quickly evolved to more elaborate projects, such as documenting each of the speakers at the 2006 Board of Supervisors LCP update hearings and writing extensive captions quoting from each speaker. You can still see the photographs in Coastsider’s new gallery area but the captions seem to have been misplaced: http://coastsider.com/gallery/index.php?album=lcphearing2_0

Then came Barry’s March 4th, 2006 post--it is the earliest entry under the video tab, on page eleven.

That was the post where Barry reported on a newsworthy event at the HMB City Council Meeting and used a clip from MCTV’s broadcast of the meeting to inform viewers about what had happened.

MCTV’s response? Their lawyer claimed copyright on the taxpayer-funded video and demanded that Coastsider remove the footage.

This was shocking.

If a citizen wanted to see that footage they would have to find out when it was playing on Channel 6 (if they hadn’t already missed it), and sit through who-knows-how-many hours of tedious meeting footage until they reached the newsworthy portion. And what if they wished to share the clip with others? Too bad--the video is broadcast only once and MCTV doesn’t maintain an archive.

That HMB City Council footage seems to no longer exist. For all practical purposes--by trying to gauge the extent to which that footage was seen by the public--that footage might as well have never existed at all.