But with a three-incumbent election season approaching, the inference between publicly funded television and even the perception of on-air electioneering for challengers will be too strong to ignore when Drayman brings his proposal forward, some City Council members said.
“I think the devil is in the details,” Councilman Ara Najarian said, adding that while Drayman’s effort to have elected officials respond to public interest on TV had value, “on the flip side, it’s a great campaign piece for the incumbents.”
Najarian had his own television talk show on Armenian-language television for two months, but it was recently dropped due to program cuts, he said. The council’s current ban extends only to publicly funded television programming that is not part of “their participation in meetings, ceremonies, and/or community events.”
In 2001, Councilmen Bob Yousefian and Frank Quintero were both supportive of the ban, but Weaver walked out of the meeting in protest over what he felt was a political response to a show that adopted out more than 95% of its featured shelter animals.
“It was simply about the animals, and they played politics with it,” Weaver said.
Seven years later, politics could still come into play, or at least the fear of it. And that has some anxious to hear the details of Drayman’s proposal and the reaction on the dais.
“If they’re going to change their view now, I’m going to be wondering why,” Weaver said. “There’s a lot of questions to be answered.”
