Evanston Community Media Center could lose $200,000 in cuts, enough to lay off several employees and diminish its services, if proposed cuts to the 2010-11 budget are adopted by the Evanston City Council in February.
City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz first suggested the cuts in his December budget draft as part of an effort to reduce the city’s $9.5 million budget deficit.
“If there isn’t some modification or some way to work with us to find an alternative method, over 20 years of hard work is going to go down the drain,” said Steve Bartlebaugh, ECMC’s executive director.
The city created ECMC 20 years ago as a non-profit organization to televise public meetings and help community members produce their own programming. Franchise fees collected from Comcast, not tax dollars, support ECMC. The cable giant pays Evanston more than $800,000 in annual franchise fees.
This year ECMC is asking for about 44 percent of those franchise fees, Bartlebaugh said.
He added that the organization received 75 percent in 2000.
Four full-time ECMC employees could lose their jobs if the cuts are approved, Bartlebaugh said. Because they are not government employees, the city will only attempt to find them new jobs after city employees have been taken care of, Assistant City Manager Martin Lyons said.
Several Evanston residents spoke out against the cuts at Saturday’s budget workshop.
The council is set to pass a budget by the end of February.
“I still don’t think we have enough information for me to be able to say one way or another whether or not (the council) supports the proposed budget or would want to restore the funding,” Ald. Jane Grover (7th) said.
Susan Hope-Engel, a local film producer, has been working at ECMC to produce a film commemorating the 125th anniversary of the YMCA. She said the cuts could have a negative impact on the community.
“These cuts will be devastating for the community, particularly for non-profits.” Hope-Engel said. “It’s such a valuable resource to help get their message out.”
Bobkiewicz could not be reached for comment, but City Clerk Rodney Greene speculated ECMC funds could be cut because the city “may not have been getting the service for the bucks.”
Greene said a dramatic reduction in ECMC funding could hurt Evanston.
“(ECMC) does a great service to the community,” he said. “To cut it would be a detriment to the citizens because it does supply a service that the city can benefit from.”Although ECMC could see major cuts, Lyons said spending reductions are being made across the board.
“The media center is $200,000 in cuts out of $9.5 million,” he said. “When you look at it, the media center cut is 3 percent of total cuts, so they were hardly singled out.”[email protected]
