Senate Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #2380 Friends of BECON
Requester:	Frank Till		Organization:		School Board of Broward County
Project Title:	Friends of BECON		Date Submitted:		01/31/2000 5:43:53 PM
District Member:	Walter Campbell		Service Area:		Regional
Counties Affected:	Broward, Dade, Palm Beach
Recipient:	School Board of Broward County		Contact:		Phyllis Klenetsky
	600 Southeast Third Avenue		Contact Phone:		(954) 765-6523
	Fort Lauderdale 33301
Project Description:
Friends of BECON (Broward Education Communications Network)is seeking funding to produce and broadcast public policy programs on a regular television broadcast channel recently purchased by the School Board of Broward County. This public programming would include: legislative issues, specifically those related to local concerns, such as annexation, building code, education, culture, environment, etc. Legislative Delegation Public Hearings would also be broadcast, as well as portions of the Florida Legislative Session of local interest. Other programs for Broward County and the State of Florida relating to public policy, elections and the like would also be broadcast. The funding sought would be used for equipping a broadcast television mobile studio for remote teelvision production and operational costs associated with personnel management.
Services Provided/Benefit to State:
This project would provide the first and only Broward-based public television service, instead of the currently reliance on overlapping service from WLRN in Miami-Dade County and WXEL in Palm Beach County. Those stations provide programming primarily oriented towards the specific concerns, issues and governmental actions which relate to those counties. South Florida lacks, but can gain in this project, a critical public information source on the actions of government in and related to Broward County. The project would provide the only true means of access for many homebound Broward seniors, as well as other residents unable to personally attend public hearings and so forth, but who otherwise remain interested in becoming fully educated members of their communities. The state would benefit further from the production expertise of local media experts, as well as the overall stewardship and educational expertise of the School Board of Broward County.
Measurable Outcome Anticipated:
It is expected that this project will provide public, televised programming on public policy matters and public hearings, including matters of specific, localized interest, to a viewing audience of approximately 1.5 million persons.
Amount requested from the State for this project this year:				$2,000,000
Total cost of the project:		$5,000,000

Request has been made to fund:			Operations
Is there Local Government or Private match for this request?					No
Was this project previously funded by the State?					No
Is future-year funding likely to be requested?					Yes
	Amount:	$2,000,000
	Purpose for future year funding:			Recurring Operations
	Will this be an annual request?				Yes
Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request?					No
Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget?					No
Is there a documented need for this project?					Yes
	Documentation:	BECON TV -- SBBC -- Capital and Operations Planning
Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)?					Yes
	Hearing Body:	School Board of Broward County and Broward Legislative Delegation 1/13/00
	Meeting Date:	01/18/2000