Council Matters Issues Program Gains National Recognition

Denver City Council’s issues roundtable program “Council Matters” recorded a perfect score and took top place, an engaging training video “Democracy for All” designed for Election Judges and coverage of City Council meetings lead a stellar night for the City's Denver 8 TV at a national awards event Ocotber 5, 2007. Denver 8 TV, Denver's Municipal Access station, captured the awards in a national competition sponsored by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) held this year in Portland, Oregon.
 
Denver 8 TV took five top tier awards in total, including the first place award for Council Matters. Denver City Council coverage continued its ranking among the best in the country as it placed second this year. Council meeting coverage has consistently been a leader in the nation for the quality of its weekly meeting coverage for more than a decade.

Denver also earned high marks for Instructional/Training and the Special Audience categories as a disability training program, “Democracy for All”, designed for Denver Election Judges, took both second and third place honors respectively.

The NATOA Government Programming Awards honor the highest quality of municipal government television programming and represent the extraordinary achievements by local governments in the production of quality programming for our nation’s citizens.

Denver was one of a well-represented group of Colorado communities that included many cities in the state, including Arvada, Aurora, Broomfield, Castle Rock, Douglas County, Durango, Greenwood Village, Lakewood, Longmont. Other Colorado jurisdictions also included the Greater Metro Telecommunications Consortium, Pikes Peak Library District and the South Metro Fire District – all producing award-worthy programming. Together, 50 Colorado programs were recognized from among the over 300 nominated programs.

• Council Matters provides the citizens of Denver insight into the Denver City Council, and its members, functions and responsibilities. The show’s goal is to educate the public on upcoming policy and neighborhood topics; inform citizens about projects of city-wide importance, and present varying opinions on current, salient issues. Details can be found at the Denver 8 TV website. www.DenverGov.org/Denver8TV .

Additionally, the show highlights intriguing locations, developments and events occurring in our city’s diverse neighborhoods and Council districts. The program can be seen Monday and Saturday at noon or Thursday and Sunday at 7:00 pm. The show can also be viewed anytime online at www.DenverGov.org/Denver8TV . This month viewers can meet the newest members recently elected to Denver City Council. (watch the current program)

• During this past year’s election cycles Denver more fully incorporated provisions of the Federal Help America Vote Act. The Election Commission purchased new voting machines for this purpose and included them at polling places as Denver also rolled out a new concept of Vote Centers rather than precinct polls.  This video was produced to increase election day judges of disability issues as well as serve as a further demonstration of how to use the machines in a variety of ways to serve Denver’s disabled voter.

• Coverage of Denver City Council includes the weekly legislative session, as well as complete coverage of City Council Committee Meetings schedule over any given month. The programming gives residents their own first hand view of legislation, policy formulation, and work with community, business and city leaders on important civic issues. (find meeting coverage of interest)

The City and County of Denver provides streaming video of Denver 8 TV programming. You can view the channel live as it is scheduled, or you can watch a wide variety of videos on demand, including archived coverage of City Council meetings and many City-produced local shows.

Also among the nation’s best video productions “Denver Decides” 2006-7 Election Programming covering last years State elections and Denver’s special election received honorable mention. (current election coverage here)