URTV board will vote on ousting member June 15

The URTV Board of Directors will hold a special meeting on June 15 to vote on dismissing outspoken board member Richard Bernier. The meeting will be held in URTV’s studios (31 College Place) at 5 p.m., according to an announcement from Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse.

Bernier has been a vocal critic of the publi- access channel’s management, asserting it is not sufficiently transparent. Recent months have seen a number of controversies at URTV, with critics asserting that the station is in need of major reform. Meanwhile, management supporters say that its operations have improved and accuse the critics of bringing negative publicity to the station at a crucial time.

Removing Bernier will require the support of a two-thirds majority vote of the board.

The meeting is one of two dismissals recommended in February by the board’s executive committee, composed of the station’s officers. The other, of Davyne Dial, also a management critic, was carried out through a vote of URTV’s membership. Dial and some of her supporters have said that the vote was improperly carried out.

— David Forbes, staff writer

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49 thoughts on “URTV board will vote on ousting member June 15

  1. John Smolkin

    I hope they oust the guy. He is just a whiner, a professional protester. How can anyone get anything done when you have a chihuahua constantly nipping at your angles.

  2. “Dial and some of her supporters have said that the vote was improperly carried out.”

    I would say that the membership vote was more than merely improperly carried out, it was illegitimate.

    FYI, Garlinghouse is pushing city council to appoint Dale Joyner to the board.

    http://snipr.com/jkkob

  3. don yelton

    Just watch who gets appointed and that will tell you what the goal is. Dale got on her show and personally attacked other producers there. I guess that is okay with the board? Asheville, anyway you like it as long as it fits the agenda of the power structure.

  4. Sundance

    “I hope they oust the guy. He is just a whiner, a professional protester. How can anyone get anything done when you have a chihuahua constantly nipping at your angles.”

    So you support Pat and the boards idea of getting free handouts from the public, city and county councils via PEG funding without any oversight. It’s perfectly fine if you don’t want any oversight with one little stipulation. URTV members and producers pay for all costs(EVERYTHING) associated with their little hobby along with every penny they have ever gotten previously rather then continually beg and pan handle the citizens of Western North Carolina to pay for it via PEG funding.

    Are you ready to do that John Smolkin?

  5. Sundance

    Wrong Jill…Charter is forced to pay PEG funds (also known as franchise fees)to the city and county. It is up to the city and county governments to decide how it is used.

    Additionally you have freedom of speech via YouTube, internet TV and radio, blogs, social networks and other web 2.0 applications. Corporate media is not trying to destroy it Garlinghouse and her little mindless drones are as they want to pan handle and beg for government funding which is what PEG funding is but do not want to be held accountable or have oversight or be transparent as required to be by their management agreements with the city and county governments.

    Please get your fact straight and do your research completely rather then listen to the white wash job folks at URTV are giving you.

  6. John Smolkin

    Don Yelton, my mother would be surprised that you think my name is illegit. By the way, the URTV board unfortunately attracts some of the same people that populate CC&R;boards of housing developments. Folks retired with too much time on their hands and a personal need to exercise p.o.w.e.r. I am not opposed to the occasional gadfly. But believe me, Dial & Bernier are flatout professional whiners. URTV will function smoother without them. I am pleased the board cares enough about URTV to “fix” what is wrong with it.

  7. Apparently non-transparency is common amongst non profits. Obviously that isn’t a problem for you John, well it is for me. So call me a whiner because of this concern all you want, I call it being a responsible Board of Directors member. The fact that I was run off for demanding accountability should be a concern for anyone paying the PEG fees to Charter.

    BTW Mr. Bernier is one of the hardest working men I know, so that low blow “[quote]Folks retired with too much time on their hands [/quote], is patently ignorant.

  8. Sundance

    and John, you still haven’t answered weather your personally willing to foot the entire cost of your hobby without public “PEG” funding?

    If you and URTV are not going to be fully transparaent to the public and want to silence and run board members off for obeying the bylaws and URTV’s management agreements why should the Public continue to pay for your hobby and allow folks such as yourself to continue begging and pan handling for PEG funds, which is public money and not URTV’s little slush fund!

  9. John Smolkin

    After Bernier is removed, I think things will run pretty smoothly. So on with the show!

  10. Sundance

    “After Bernier is removed, I think things will run pretty smoothly. So on with the show!”

    And I can promise you that will not be the case John Smoklin. The public is not going to continue to let you continue bilk them out $$$ as you and others at URTV have been doing.

    You still never answered the question as to weather you are willing to pay all the costs associated with your URTV hobby?

    Most hard working an honest people pay for there hobbies and entertainment unlike folks like yourself who want a public funds handout without any oversight or transparency.

    I am waiting on your answer John Smolkin :-)

  11. Piffy!

    “does anyone actually watch those shows? I’ve seen a few and they’re pretty bad. ”

    No, not really.

  12. John Smolkin

    Ralph Roberts had a great show that showcased our WNC area. He filmed as he drove and gave a guided tour. Very enjoyable. And Ralph is a local man who doesn’t have a NE transplant hippy agenda. Long live Ralph’s shows!

  13. Sundance

    “Ralph Roberts had a great show that showcased our WNC area. He filmed as he drove and gave a guided tour. Very enjoyable. And Ralph is a local man who doesn’t have a NE transplant hippy agenda. Long live Ralph’s shows!”

    No he just has an agenda secrecy, non transparency, disobeying management agreements with the city and county and URTV’s own bylaws. He is also just like you in regards to standing in line begging with your tin cup for a public funding handout without honoring the agreements URTV agreed to in order to receive public funding, John.

    If Ralph is so fantastic why hasn’t he posted the meeting minutes on the website like he is suppose to after all he is the secretary of the URTV board and supposedly the person overseeing the website?

    By the way John I am still waiting for you to answer the question I asked several times now.

    Are you willing to start paying all the costs associated with your URTV hobby rather depend on public funding via PEG funding, John?

  14. John Smolkin

    Sun Dance, “Are you willing to start paying all the costs associated with your URTV hobby rather depend on public funding via PEG funding…”?

    I’d like an answer, since this subject seems close to your heart. As far as the way things are going at URTV, I think they re going quite well. One obstructionist gadfly gone, another almost gone. The Board has more power to get things done, and PEG will continue to fund URTV. Sounds just right.

  15. Sundance

    Hate to tell you this John but URTV and your actions have put your PEG funding in jeopardy.

    The county has already had discussions about stopping your handouts, and the public is starting to notice the shady dealing at URTV and began questioning the handouts and mismanagement over there. Just keep breaking your bylaws and management agreements with the city and county and run yourself as well as URTV right into the ground. You folks are doing a great job burying yourself.

    By the way John, I pay for my hobbies and habits completely out of my pocket, I do not need a public handouts such as yourself.

    You still never answered weather you were willing to pay for all the cost out of your own pocket to support your D- media hobby? (the D- grade is actually being very generous) Since you still avoided answering the question I’ll take that your answer is no which just shows everyone that you do not serve the public’s best interest. You are just another URTV begger asking for more handouts and that is just all the more reason to shut URTV down for good.

  16. As one of the “obstructionist gadflies” mentioned above, I’d like to address some of the recent “improvements” that occurred because of my presence on the Board of Directors.

    In a notice to the membership on April 28 th, 2009 Joe Scotto wrote:
    “Perhaps what is most disappointing to me at this time is that our compliance with all requests about URTV have been largely ignored and unrealized by the public. We have complied with all of the following requests about URTV’s governance and practices of the Board and Executive Director of URTV.
    #1: They’ve (meaning Dial and Bernier) asked that the oath distributed at the January, 2009 meeting not be administered. It has been retracted.
    (ANSWER): It was not retracted without extreme pressure from the county attorney Joe Connoly, and would not have been retracted had the audacity of it not made it’s way into the media.

    #2: They’ve (meaning Dial & Bernier) asked for compliance with the open meeting law. That is enforced and URTV meetings have always been open to the public.
    (ANSWER) Every meeting since the open meeting amendment was yet again, required to be signed by Joe Connoly hss been met with hostility regarding filming. All the confrontations have been put on YouTube.. There has been a fight about this at all meetings. The most recent being in May when Bob Horn started throwing his “authority” around, demanding where the cameras were situated. Saying this was their meeting and we were guests…(We are not guest, a public meeting is public because the public is paying their f-ing bills). The law says if the filming isn’t interfering with the meeting it can be placed near enough to pick up facial expressions, whispered instruction by the ED and other nuances and body language.

    #3; They’ve asked for filming rights. (meaning Dial and Bernier) Those rights are available.(
    ANSWER) See above…and key in URTV on YouTube to view various confrontations about open meetings being filmed that are STILL ongoing.
    ·
    # 4: They’ve (meaning Dial and Bernier) asked for the Executive Committee minutes. Those minutes were read at our March 2009 meeting. In addition, no action has been taken based on that meeting.
    (ANSWER) No action was taken, because your executive committee meeting was illegal, and you know it….now the public knows it. Also Board minites (skimpy as they are) have not been placed in URTV’s website.
    ·
    #5: URTV, by contract, is subject to a professional annual audit. We also provide the City and County with routine monthly financial statements. (Answer) Joe, when I first ask for particulars of the financial records, you skimmed through them and wouldn’t allow close scrutiny, and it wasn’t till I sent a letter to then Chairman Mark Wilson, that you produced the profit and loss statements. From those I ascertained the declining membership. (close to 400 member drop in in an 18 month period) When I has to see the financial records beyond the P & L , I was “suspended” by Jerry Young. This isn’t the transparency required by publicly funded, non profits under the following statute: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_55a/gs_55a-16-02.html

    Sincerely,
    Your representative, Joe Scotto.——————–>>>
    ___________________________________________
    (ANSWER) I accept the obstructionist gadfly title gladly, because it means I’m not accepted by other board members as a rubberstamping “ceremonial board member”. It’s too bad it had to come to this kind of hardball.

    It’s not over since I’m off the board…in fact I’d say the real issues have only just begun.

  17. Sundance

    Oh and John…since you wanted to follow in your mentors foot steps, Ralph Roberts, and demonstrate your shared ignorance for the word gadfly perhaps you would like to know what it means?

    “a person who rouses others from complacency.”

    I Don’t know about you but being complacent about mismanagement of URTV funds, Bylaws and management agreements with the city and county like Ralph, Jerry or all the board members with exception to Dial and Bernier and Matt who was not on the board at the time, does not look good for your public freeloading on behalf of URTV, does it John?

    So you just keep calling them that all you want as it only demonstrates to the public that they did their job properly and the rest of the board is lazy and incapable of doing theirs.

  18. John Smolkin

    My my Sun Dance, you sure got your back up about this. Could your given name be Bernier? You and that obstructionist gadfly Dial can whine here all you want. The Board is proceding legally. And whether you like the outcomes or not, your voice means next to nothing. URTV will be better than ever after the vote on the 15thwith a path forward without professional protester chihuahuas nipping at folks’ heels. Y’all get a life and move on.

  19. Sundance

    The board is not proceeeding legally and has not since Garlinghouse arrived. You can where your rose colored shades all you want John but facts are facts. The latest violation was the change of the Bylaws. Changing required a special meeting which required mailled notices to be mailed out seven days in advance and that was not done oh and before that Pat and Jerry forgot how to get in the builing…what a pathetic ploy.

    I am confident that come November you will be singing the Blues as that is when PEG funding will be stopped and at some point the lawyers who have been sitting back and watching this from various groups within Buncombe county will pick you and Pat’s mindless drone board apart and put an end to URTV. The handwriting is already on the wall from URTV’s illegit actions. Soon, you will no longer have a place to produce your D- productions at the public’s expense so you better get busy with that tin cup of yours John.

    By the way John you might want to polish and shine that tin cup of your as its very dingy since you frequently use it to peddle those diarrhea lines of lies and non truths that Pat and Ralph have fed you.

    By the way John, what is being done to protect children from the convicted sex offender you have walking the hallways at URTV or the illegal drug activity? Should I contact the SBI about it?

  20. John Smolkin

    “By the way John, what is being done to protect children from the convicted sex offender you have walking the hallways at URTV or the illegal drug activity? Should I contact the SBI about it?”

    A law, Sun Dance, you are so wound up on this. Settle down. And by the way, I do not work for or am I officially associated with URTV. Just a concerned citizen who knows a few of the folks there, including Mr Roberts. And he is a good old boy. Why are you so worked up about this? There are so many other important concerns in our dear town. Perhaps you should involve yourself in some other area.

  21. so many people are being kicked off the board.. every time you turn around,there is another one..
    also,i know these people,and they are good people,who have the best interests of urtv at hart..
    how many were ever kicked off before pat came to urtv ?? what a power trip…
    it is so sad that one power tripper,has been allowed to tare urtv down.. after years of trying to get public access in asheville,now the new bylaws do not even include the phrase public access..
    what improvements will be made next..

  22. Jill

    Sundance. Ive done my research.
    I didnt know what to make of URTV at first. But I found out that its COMMUNITY oriented. The internet is cool, but it’s too big to represent a small city. URTV is something thats here for the people of asheville, and thats something special. Unlike WPVM none of the people making stuff get kicked out.
    What makes it most clear to me is you. I have read the things you have said. You project so much darkness, so much hate. You reek of the bullying sense of entitlement so typical of right wing extremists. The real reason people like you want URTV to close is that you are threatened by the first amendment for which it stands.
    How sad that someone who would claim to dance in the sun can contain so much anger. I think maybe you were never nutured as a child. I’ve prayed to the goddess for you, that she may give you the blessings and love you clearly need.

  23. Sundance

    Oh Jill you should learn what you are talking about first and you actually sound like LiarLady aka GloLady in disguise…lol

    I do not have a problem with public access, etc. However if they are getting public funding then they need to obey their own bylaws and not change them illegally like they did the other week without giving the proper 7 day notification of a special meeting which a change in the bylaws requires. Additionally URTV needs to fully obey the management agreements URTV signed off on with the county and city in order to receive public PEG funding, something they have not done since Garlinghouse became the ED and Ralph Roberts got appointed to the board.

    Jill, receiving funding via PEG funding and then refusing to obey the terms of the agreements attached to the PEG funding is fraud and embezzlement of public funds….period!

    Also Jill:

    “none of the people making stuff get kicked out.”

    Hmmm…I guess you wear rose colored shades also? Several people have been run off and not renewed their membership. URTV has gone from a membership of 800 or so people to roughly 200 or three hundred since Garlinghouse. The numbers speak for themselves and only demonstrate your ignorance to face reality and the facts.

    You have an issue with me because I will not buy into the URTV white wash/snow job and fraudulent fleecing of public dollars by URTV management and a puppeteer board. You want to fix URTV and get me off you back? Honor your management agreements and Bylaws completely, be totally transparent, fully comply with NC open meeting laws and have independent auditors as well as the city and county keeping up and approving every penny you folks spend as you guys have proven from this mess you folks started that you can not be trusted.

    The other way is you can give back every penny of PEG funding URTV has ever taken, stop taking any PEG funding, become a private organization and do your own private fund raising. In other wards start paying your own costs rather then showing up at city and county councils with a tin cup in hand asking for money.

  24. The Piffster

    Jill “What makes it most clear to me is you. I have read the things you have said. You project so much darkness, so much hate. You reek of the bullying sense of entitlement so typical of left wing extremists. The real reason people like you want URTV to close is that you are threatened by the first amendment for which it stands.
    How sad that someone who would claim to dance in the sun can contain so much anger. I think maybe you were never nutured as a child. I’ve prayed to Jesus for you, that He may give you the blessings and love you clearly need.” Wow Jill. Spot on girl!

  25. Tired

    Good points jill. They are a very angry little group, they are all really unhappy that their money making schemes fell apart.

    How sweet that blackwell has URTV’s best interest at heart… too bad you didn’t feel this way when you were trying to make money off URTV’s members, and breaking the rules by advertising a for profit website on a URTV show! Classy.

    David, when are you going to write a book? It seems you could sell at least 6 whole copies!
    Have you noticed what’s going on over at WPVM? You should look into it, the story over there is only 3 weeks old.

    Another week… BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!

    “I don’t participate in your organization, but you should do things the way I say they should be done!”

    BLAH,BLAH,BLAH!!!!

  26. “Good points jill. They are a very angry little group, they are all really unhappy that their money making schemes fell apart. TIRED ”

    Oh so we’re all mad because we couldn’t make money at URTV?????
    What a flaming crock!

    Who would be the most likely person out to make profits? The people wishing and hoping management and the board would honor their agreements with the membership and the City and County? Or those just mentioned who make up their own rules as they go, and who this series of articles has been about. After all, if blatant non-compliance hadn’t been happening Mtn Exp wouldn’t have a story, now would they?

    For the record, I have never been involved in any sort of money making scheme at URTV. Frankly i don’t think there’s any money to be made…it’s supposidely non-profit, for God’s sake. That is what is says in the management agreement, and at the Secretary of State’s office.

    The little scheme Garlinghouse wants to set up as a “second commercial channel” (she mentioned this at the last producers meeting) sounds out of bounds for the 501 c 3 status she is supposed to be adhereing to. Who’s trying to make money?

  27. “‘I don’t participate in your organization, but you should do things the way I say they should be done!'”

    How about just doing things the way the law says they should be done?

  28. So now the comments made at my inquisition about me “trying to make money off URTV’ are starting to make sense. Pat has tied me into her “pie in the sky” second commercial channel” she had planned on doing with a fellow URTV member who has an ISP company with several T-3 lines. He was planning on hosting URTV’s web streaming for free. And was testing the feed back in September, he never stole the feed, was only running a test to see if his coding worked smoothly and played like a normal video on Google video or YouTube….this must be what folks are referring to when the accusation about John blackwell “stealing URTV’s signal”. I knew about the plans because I was in Pat’s office discussing these plans back in September, when she went into great detail with me. I was told the individual was willing to run URTV’s web streaming for free, he had the extra bandwidth just sitting and the feed would run smoothly and VOD would run smoothly also. Well because the outrageous demands made by the E.D. the individual pulled out of the agreement. How I have become linked to this is perplexing and another baldfaced lie. I did refuse to take sides at the time, and was openly supportive of the individual who put in a lot of time and sweat equity only to have it become too difficult to follow through on. That is the total extent of my involvement. No one is going to get away with slandering my name over this failed agreement. The truth will eventually out, it always does.

  29. Sundance

    “I don’t participate in your organization, but you should do things the way
    I say they should be done!”

    No Tired (Ralph)…it’s called stick to and follow all the agreements and conditions URTV agreed to in order to receive public PEG funding in the first place. Facts are facts, you have not followed them. As a matter of fact you have embezzled public funding and committed fraud so why should you continue to receive a free handout? Why should URTV be allowed to continue to operate via public dollars.

    By the way “Tired” you still never answered any of the questioned posed to you on these threads. What’s wrong, have you run out of lies to tell?

    As for John Blackwell, are you talking about Ashevilletv that was sanctioned and endorsed by Garlinghouse only to be taken away after John had developed it at her request at his expense only to have it given to Ralph Roberts (you) her BFF and good old boy who is crooked and only out to fleece the public out of money? Get your facts straight “Tired” and if you want to venture into this discussion again maybe we should bring up one 1Vid again along with Ralph’s other websites as well as “This Is My Band”, Freemont’s website, Dale Joyner’s business and everybody at URTV’s ventures and websites? All of which have been pushed on URTV programs one way or another.

    Get you facts straight “Tired” and stop being a pathological lair.

  30. Sundance

    Well “The Piffster” “Jill” and “Tired” then you yourself should not have censured free speech by oppressing dissenting voices and illegally removing a board member by a method which did not even follow your own bylaws.

    If you want to talk about a person or organization who is against first amendment rights and has a bitter hatred for it I suggest you look in the mirror and at your dictatorial organization URTV. You practiced censorship and that demonstrates your bitter hatred for freedom of speech….those are the indisputable facts which you are still trying to explain your way out of and can not.

  31. John Smolkin

    Sun Dance. A law boy, you are just too wound up about this.Just what is your stake in this? Are you Bernier? I bet you are. All you do is whine.I will bet dollars to donuts you know nothing about real freedom of speech. Lord knows you are certainly able to run your mouth now, aren’t you? The URTV board did the right thing by booting Dial. Shortly, they will get rid of Bernier (you). Then all will be well, thank you!

  32. John,
    The “Board” did not boot me. A kangaroo court was formed, and based on slanderous remarks put forth by Joyner, staff and others I was illegally voted off in an improper, non-meeting, by the membership in a stacked vote situation. I could easily challenge this and win, but going back on that Board is not a prospect I relish. Besides there are much bigger legal issues that are onging at URTV.

    There is a reason folks roll their eyes about that board, and this has been a eye-rolling board for quite a long time before Bernier and myself were appointed to it. When I was first appointed, I was told that this Board was like no other in town, and fasten my seatbelt, I was in for a bumpy ride. Boy howdy, truer words were never spoken.

    Don’t think for a New York second that the Board drama is over with me and Mr Bernier gone….some folks relish drama and the drama at URTV will continue. It’s the nature of certain beasties who preside there.

  33. Sundance

    John I I’m fortunately a lot more versed on Freddom of speech and constitutional admendments then you will ever be. Needless to say that has zero to due with all the facts that URTV, Ralph Roberts and you have tried every lie under the sun get the public off your case. When you kick and board member off, an illegal removal at that, for a dissenting opinion and now you are advocating doing the same with Bernier, URTV and you are censuring a person’s right to free speech. Facts are facts John its a shame that you are simply another Ralph Roberts and Pat Garlinghouse mindless drone who is incapable of thinking independedntly.

    John, are you ready stop fleecing the public and start paying for all the costs associated with your hobby?

    To date you have still failed to answer that question. What’s wrong, could it be that Ralph is incapable of giving you a credible statement to repeat?

  34. 2 out of 3 member elected board members,have been kicked off…now richard is next.. what makes anyone think that it will stop now… as soon as someone on the board starts to see that things are funny,they will be kicked off,and it all starts over.. they can not even keep the board full,because they kick them off,faster than they can put them on..
    what is up with that ?? dose pat think that now that she has gotten her new bylaws(taking all the power away from the members)in place,that every thing will be ok,and all board members in future will dance to the tune as it is called,like these do?? i think she may have a hard time finding 11 people who will all dance to the same tune at the same time.. that has been the case so far..it’s just to hard to dance,with out getting out of step some times,and the next time someone dose,she will need to kick them off..

  35. John Smolkin

    Dayvne, “Don’t think for a New York second…”. Please, girl, there is nothing about New York I’d like to bring into any conversation other than perhaps selection of pizza. That said, I have a higher regard for you after your last post. Sorry if I have mis-judged you in the past. And you are right, there are bigger fish to fry. One note, if URTV board is doing dirty deeds it will eventually catch up with them. Life is too short to spend too much attention on this.

    Sun Dance, you don’t know me…at all. You assume I conspire with Ralph Roberts at URTV? I know Ralph, and he is a stand up guy. I do not have any affiliation with URTV, nor have I ever stepped foot in their offices. I only know you from what you have written here, which does not acquit you well at all. Just what is your stake in all this? You accuse me of “fleecing the public”. Yet you hide behind a nickname. Come out of the shadows and use your real name if you are going to accuse others of wrong doing. If you don’t, you not only know nothing about freedom, but you have no courage.

  36. Sundance

    “Sun Dance, you don’t know me…at all. You assume I conspire with Ralph Roberts at URTV? I know Ralph, and he is a stand up guy. I do not have any affiliation with URTV, nor have I ever stepped foot in their offices. I only know you from what you have written here, which does not acquit you well at all. Just what is your stake in all this? You accuse me of “fleecing the public”. Yet you hide behind a nickname. Come out of the shadows and use your real name if you are going to accuse others of wrong doing. If you don’t, you not only know nothing about freedom, but you have no courage.”

    With all due respect it is you who said the below. they are you own words or do you retract them.

    “One obstructionist gadfly gone, another almost gone. The Board has more power to get things done, and PEG will continue to fund URTV. Sounds just right.”

    Your statement says you approve of the board violating their bylaws, management agreements with the county and city, articles of non profit incorporation, etc…should I go on. Since you support your good old boy Ralph you are simply another pan handling beggar out to fleece the public out of money. Facts are facts John, you can try to twist them however you like but in reality you simply come up short of proving you have no interest in URTV when you continually support illegal activities like fraud and embezzlement of public funding.

    As for free speech I know more about it and practice it more then you ever will. You are the person who is advocating and supporting URTV’s censorship of board members who were only serving the public’s interest (which is what their job was)by asking important questions and when stone walled by Ralph and Pat they did what they should have done and reported it and now you are unhappy with all the press. Well John, quit being a whinny little baby and lay in the bed that you and Ralph sowed together.

    As for my stake its about a power hungry lady named Pat Garlinghouse who breaks every agreement URTV made with the county and city when URTV was founded to serve her own interest and not the public’s, Ralph included.

    Defend Ralph all you want but he is simply and crook and all the evidence shows he is.

  37. Dr. H. Johnson

    During my many years in professional practice, both in the military as a career officer for US public health service and in practice at some of the largest hospitals in the country, I have never witness such ruthlessness, deceit , slander and disregard for rules and agreements as I have observed at URTV.

    So many gave their lives or suffered greviously for our first amendment right to freedom of speech…yet these bullying thugs cast aside anyone who dares to offer dissent on their rubber stamping ceremonial board.

    Congratulations to Davyne Dial and Richard Bernier for their courageous stand for URTV to uphold it’s bylaws, open meeting requirements and agreements with the city and county.

    Dr. H.S. Johnson
    Capt. USCGS Ret.

  38. Johnny_L_House_Jr

    From: Ralph Roberts
    Date: Friday, November 21, 2008, 10:12 PM

    >
    > PS…. Tell me how “Democracy”gets aired on URTV? Is there a
    local
    > sponsor for this program/? If so, then who is it if you know.

    I’m trying to find that out myself.

    > Also, how is the program brought to URTV, DVD? Or did they put a Dish on
    > top of URTV?

    Yes, they have a dish and Curt told me today they had subscribed to a
    network that had Democracy Now and other programs on it and would probably
    run some others now.

    Have you ever watched the show? It’s kinda like AGR except better
    production values. … AGR is back on channel also.

    > I noticed they have locked in on two slots & even pushed back the
    > community board.
    >

    Yep … and here’s what’s happening, I think. Locally produced content
    is
    way down and they getting a little desperate for stuff to put on. You’ve
    stopped, I have not been doing much for URTV lately and you and I were two
    of the major contributors. The bad thing in this is that they are
    replacing our conservative content with liberal and beyond liberal stuff
    like Democracy Now.

    We may need to do more stuff then either of us had been planning.

    –Ralph

  39. Sundance

    oh…lets see, Ralph is upset because the station is not conservative enough for him. Hmmm…question, isn’t public access suppose to be a representation of all view points.

    Now with Ralph being unhappy and saying that “We may need to do more stuff then either of us had been planning” might this be the cornerstone of everything that has been going on at URTV. The removal of board members, the secret meetings, running members and producers off? I think so.

    Johnny…I sure hope you will make sure Ralph’s little letter gets in the appropriate hands with the city and county councils and maybe Mountain X would like this as well.

  40. Johnny_Lee_House_Jr

    Good suggestion Sundance…but the city and county officials appear to be “passing the buck” on URTV. My suspicion is they want it gone, and then they’d be able to keep all the PEG funds URTV gets, and dump them into the general fund.

    That said, where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and the management style that brought URTV to this point of well over 25 articles documenting questionable meeting practices, obstruction, intimidation, retaliation, etc, etc, etc. is the reason for those articles. For someone who’s resume’ states she’s quite qualified to handle the personalities of “people who know their rights” she’s badly bungled this group. Her management style of total control over peoples behavior, or you’re outta here is called bullying in some circles. Someone sure didn’t do a thorough background check into the ED when she was hired. I think URTV’s board paid a headhunter $6000.00 to find her. They should ask for a refund.

  41. Piffy!

    ‘obstructionist gadfly’ is my new favorite term.

    well, that and ‘john smolkin is cullen anderson’

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