Pinole City Council members heard a detailed plan to revitalize Pinole Community Television and voted to direct staff to return with a public‑facing performance dashboard and an annual public forum for PCTV services and programming.

The presentation, led by Fiona Epps, Pinole communications director, outlined a refreshed mission for PCTV: “an engaged, informed, and inclusive Pinole community connected through accessible digital media,” and proposed new programming, membership tiers, sponsorships, and expanded streaming on Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Epps said staff expects a full rollout of the strategy within one year and a marketing push over the next three to four months.

Councilmember John Murphy moved the council direct staff to develop a public performance dashboard and an annual public forum to track community engagement, and Councilmember Toms seconded the motion. The motion carried on a council roll call.

Staff described the proposal as a combination of legacy services (meetings and event coverage) and new products aimed at boosting viewership and financial sustainability. Dave Snell, PCTV coordinator, emphasized that streaming is already available: “PCTV is easily searchable through Roku; you look up Pinole Community TV, it’s got its own app,” and staff will expand awareness so residents can find the channel on multiple streaming platforms. Prajwal Bandari, administrative coordinator, demonstrated a redesigned PCTV website with features to stream live channels, submit content, rent equipment, buy sponsorships and join membership tiers.

Survey data included in the packet showed 60 percent of respondents had previously watched PCTV on cable channels and that 71 percent would watch more often if streaming options were easier to find. The staff presentation estimated PCTV provides roughly $110,000 a year in in‑kind services across city departments and set aspirational targets — staff said it aims to “quadruple” viewership and increase community support by 300 percent — while seeking sponsors, memberships and grant funding to support operations.

Council members and public commenters raised implementation, measurement and editorial questions. Councilmember Martinez Rubin asked what “trusted leader in local news” meant for PCTV; Epps replied she intended PCTV to be a reliable source of local information and described safeguards including human review of content and use of data sources for metrics. Several speakers from the public asked for faster rollout and more robust local coverage; Irma Ruport and Anthony Vosprink urged that long‑tenured PCTV staff be empowered and that scheduling and program quality be improved.

Councilmember Murphy’s direction calls on staff to return with a framework for a dashboard that would publish performance metrics and to propose an annual public forum for residents and stakeholders to review PCTV operations and programming. Murphy said the dashboard and forum would help the council and public monitor progress and decide future funding.

Implementation details in the packet include technology upgrades (master control automation via Telview), volunteer internships and youth engagement, and potential new revenue streams (equipment rentals, sponsorships and memberships). Staff said they will continue to evaluate which lower‑priority services to scale back or reassign to departments to maintain critical civic coverage while building public access capacity.

The council’s direction gives staff a defined next step: return with a public dashboard framework and a plan for the annual forum. Staff and the PCTV team said they would use web analytics, streaming metrics, sponsor and volunteer counts and periodic surveys to populate the proposed dashboard.