Everett Channel Guidelines

Everett Government Television

The Everett Channel is a Government Access Cable Channel for the City of Everett. The channel exists to inform, educate, and involve Everett residents in government, civic, and community affairs. It is the goal of the Everett channel to provide a multimedia program service for the City of Everett, its citizens, officials, employees, and the general public. The channel operates 24 hours a day on Channel 21 for Xfinity users and Channel 29 for Frontier Communications users. You can also find us on YouTube. Everett channel strives to produce compelling content that informs citizens about City issues, resources and services. The channel works to help citizens get the information they need to engage in civic dialogue, to make civic decisions and participate in the life of the City.

Channel Objectives

Everett Channel is committed to enhancing the communication between City government and its citizen by producing programming that informs, educates, enlightens and encourages participation in government activities and decision-making. We will strive to be accurate, fair and useful.

Everett Channel is committed to showing transparency in government. We cover public meetings, such as City Council meetings and Planning Commission meetings, public forums, and selected community events.

Everett Channel is committed to providing information about Everett City government and its services and programs. The channel’s community reader board gives information on city departments, government meeting schedules, and community events.

Everett Channel is committed to partnering with local and state agencies to promote civic, social, and cultural awareness. We broadcast programs from other entities such as Legislative Update and Tulalip Tribe.

Channel Policies

1. Meetings of the City Council shall not be edited for content nor subjected to editorial comment. Coverage shall be provided whenever possible.
2. In rare instances, primarily related to high public interest in a special topic, the Communications Director, in their discretion, may rebroadcast a segment of a meeting or public hearing previously shown in its entirety. In that event, the entire segment on that particular issue shall be cablecast unedited.
3. The channel is not intended as a mechanism for building support for a particular ballot issue or candidate for public office. This provision does not preclude the cable casting of programs sponsored by a neutral third party designed to inform the citizens of election issues and candidates.
4. There will be no discrimination in the delivery of its services on the basis of race, color, creed, national origination, sex, sexual orientation or physical ability.
5. To maximize resources, Everett Government Access Channels will seek out high quality pre-produced programming that addresses the needs and interests of the citizens of Everett and that meets the priorities spelled out in this document.

Programming Priorities

1. Emergency information involving the safety and health of the city;
2. Public proceedings and meetings involving officials of the City of Everett;
3. Programs that explain policies and programs of the City of Everett or that solicit citizen input on these policies and programs;
4. Issues of significance that are being addressed at the neighborhood or community level;
5. Public meetings of other government agencies and programs about public policy issues that are relevant to local government or affect Everett citizens;
6. Programs that feature cultural and historic aspects of the city and its citizens and other programs of general interest to the citizens of Everett; and
7. Public service announcements.

Elections

Candidates for election or re-election to a publicly held office shall not be provided access to Everett Channel or its facilities prior to the election for that office, except in the normal course of their official duties. Candidates may appear on the Everett channel in political candidate forums and video voter guides in which all candidates have equal opportunity to participate.

Copyrights and other Restrictions

Programs containing copyrighted materials may be used in a lawful manner. The ownership and copyright for any program produced by the City shall be held by the City.

Any material which violates federal, state or local law is prohibited. DVDs of public meetings are not the official public record and there shall be no liability for inadvertent erasures or omissions.

Management

The City has complete editorial control over the Everett Channel. Everett Channel is part of the Communications Department. The Communications Director executes policy, establishes procedures and determines programming for the Everett Channel. The Multimedia Communications Coordinator is responsible for the channel operations,  production, acquisition, scheduling and cable casting of programs and production facilities that create programs.