Legislation Raises Red Flags With West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority
Steven Allen Adams Trending
CHARLESTON -- The state board that oversees West Virginia Public Broadcasting and its educational and journalism programming could be weakened under legislation now before the House of Delegates.
Senate Bill 844, redesignating the Educational Broadcasting Authority as the Educational Broadcasting Commission, passed the state Senate last Friday in a 30-4 vote after having just been introduced four days earlier. The bill is now in the House and awaiting consideration by the House Government Organization Committee.
While its title suggests only the name of the EBA would change, SB 844 makes substantial changes to how the board would function in the future. The bill would reduce the number of board members for the renamed EBA from 11 to nine members, including reducing the number of members appointed by the governor from seven to five and reducing their terms from seven to five years.
While the new Educational Broadcasting Commission would still select its own chairperson and secretary, the power to select a new executive director to oversee the functions of West Virginia Public Broadcasting (WVPB) would be put in the hands of the curator of the Department of Arts, Culture, and History -- a position that could be renamed to cabinet secretary in separate legislation. A request for comment from Curator Randall Reid-Smith was not returned.
The EBA held an emergency meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss SB 844. Reid-Smith said the bills are merely "organizational chart moves."
"All it does is a name change, from the authority to the commission. That's what that does," Reid-Smith said. "The one issue that a lot of people had was that the cabinet secretary would appoint the director of the commission ... it is an organizational change within the org chart of the department."
"It probably goes a bit further than just that," said Bill File, chairman of the EBA. "If you become cabinet secretary, you would basically oversee Public Broadcasting ... the authority would no longer be the employer of the executive director."
According to WVPB's 2023 annual report, more than 35% -- or more than $3.8 million of its funding -- comes from state tax dollars, with more than 18% ($1.9 million) coming from federal sources and more than 46% ($4.9 million) coming from private donations. West Virginia is one of nine states that directly fund their public broadcasting systems.
WVPB is supported by two groups: the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation and the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The foundation handles major gifts, grants and awards, while the Friends of WVPB handle annual membership donations. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting also provides grants to WVPB.
Elliot Hicks, the chairman of the Friends of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, raised concerns about being able to raise needed private funds and sustaining members for WVPB. He said taking away the firewall of the EBA between Public Broadcasting and the Governor's Office could make it harder to receive private support.
"We have to solicit donations from people, and people aren't really willing to give donations to state government," Hicks said.
Some members raised concerns about state funding being pulled from WVPB. Gov. Jim Justice had considered cutting the EBA's funding in 2017 after taking office, but that funding was restored in the fiscal year 2018 budget.
"I think we're kind of duty-bound to make sure that people know -- eyes wide open -- what this means," Susman said. "Randall, is what you're saying is if this bill doesn't pass, the governor's going to cut $4 million out of our budget?"
"I didn't say that, Tom. Don't put words into my mouth," Reid-Smith said. "The governor has never advocated to cut Public Broadcasting."
Drama has surrounded the selection of an executive director for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Eddie Isom, who previously served as chief operating officer and director of programming, was appointed interim executive director of WVPB last August after former WVPB executive director Butch Antolini resigned suddenly.