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Communications commissioner asks council to address pay equity for STLTV production staff
Summary
Communications Commissioner Donna Brooks Sanders and staff described STLTV operations and urged the committee and administration to address low starting salaries for full-time video production positions that they said hamper hiring and retention.
Donna Brooks Sanders, Communications Commissioner for St. Louis City, told the Budget & Public Employees Committee the communications division operates STLTV and regulatory oversight of right-of-way telecommunications work and that staffing pay levels for full-time video production roles need adjustment.
"The starting salary for these positions is only 38,000," Brooks Sanders said, describing classification and pay issues for full-time production staff. She and producer Andre Holman said those positions require degrees and advanced skills and that the current entry-level pay makes it difficult to hire and retain talent.
What the division does
Brooks Sanders said the communications division operates STLTV, a 24/7 channel on Charter and AT&T U-verse, manages two YouTube channels and streaming apps, and provides marketing and creative services for other city departments. She told the committee the division handles regulatory affairs for telecommunications work in the city right-of-way, manages small-cell deployments (about 450 poles covering roughly 65% of the city) and processes hundreds of right-of-way permits annually.
Pay-equity ask and staffing pressures
Brooks Sanders and Andre Holman urged the committee and Personnel to prioritize pay adjustments for video-production specialists. Holman emphasized the gap between city pay and private-sector or unionized event work: "To have individuals who have spent their time in college mastering a craft of video production come to the city of St. Louis and make less than a refuse truck driver — that is ... something we should address," Holman said.
Why it matters: STLTV provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of Board of Aldermen meetings, committee coverage and government programming that supports transparency and public access. Staff turnover or vacancies would reduce the city's ability to broadcast meetings and communicate with residents.
Ending
Committee members expressed support and asked the division to follow up with Personnel and the administration about vacancies and compensation; no budget adjustment or pay change was adopted at the hearing.
