An agency whose budget was slashed in mid-year 2002, and was recommended for elimination by the governor this year, was rescued by the General Assembly in the new budget.
Gov. Mike Easley called for 2,600 state government jobs to be cut in July 2002, about half of which were unfilled positions, because of the state’s budget gap. The Agency for Public Telecommunications staff of 13 was whittled to 10 part-time employees. Executive Director Leila Tvedt lost her job, and the agency’s future was in doubt.
APT, which produced public-affairs programming that airs statewide on cable systems, was budgeted $1.57 million by the state in fiscal 2002. For 2003, $1.14 million was earmarked for the agency before the ax fell.
According to Kathy Crooke, chief fiscal officer for the Department of Administration, Easley recommended the APT be eliminated. She said the legislature restored its funding for the next two years. The new budget allocates about $1.13 million for the agency each in fiscal 2004 and 2005.
State Sen. Virginia Foxx, a Banner Elk Republican who is a vice chairman on the Appropriations Committee for General Government, said the agency’s fate was not decided in her meetings. “Somebody at a higher pay grade than me made that decision,” she said.
Rep. Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, who serves on the House’s version of the same committee, said the future of APT wasn’t considered in the House committee. “It was not done in the presence of the committee,” he said.
A meeting of the APT Board of Commissioners on April 16 makes only a glancing reference about the agency’s budget.
“There was a period of time when we didn’t know whether we were going to have an appropriation for the agency or not,” said board Chairman Randy Fraser. “Fortunately, we were able to work through that and there was an appropriation for the agency….”
At the same meeting the board discussed the search for a new executive director. Easley appointed his former press secretary, Fred Hartman, to the position, and he began working June 16. Hartman had been somewhat in limbo after returning from paternity leave in January, dealing little with the media, according to a report in The News & Observer of Raleigh.
However, according to the APT board meeting minutes, Fraser upheld another candidate, Jay Holloway of UNC-TV, as “clearly the most qualified and competent person of that group of candidates.” Fraser cited Holloway’s extensive background in television production and his familiarity with APT because he attended board meetings regularly. Hartman was considered the second-most qualified candidate. Both Holloway’s and Hartman’s names were sent to Easley as recommended appointments, with each of their qualifications and the requirements for the position.
Foxx believes the state could do without the APT.
“There’s no reason for it to be a separate entity, in my opinion, from UNC-TV,” she said. “In the scheme of things, it’s not something that we can’t do without.
“My guess is a lot of agencies stay alive for that very reason,” Foxx said. “To keep positions open to give people jobs.”
Chesser is an associate editor at Carolina Journal.