The ballot question, put forth to the membership by the board at the request of Mayor Daniel Bianchi, would have altered the nonprofit local access television network's bylaws to change the Pittsfield elected executive's ad hoc status to an active voting member.

 

The bylaw change was struck down by a narrow margin among eligible members present at the annual meeting on Monday, which was said to the the station's most well attended in at least five years.

 

PCTV staff nonetheless praised Bianchi for his own contribution to programming in his weekly show "Mayor Bianchi Reports," which was acknowledged as its most watched show of the past year.

 

"This is the first time since [Mayor] Doyle that we've actually had a mayor doing a regular show," said Dave Cachat, programming director for the Citylink channel. "It's been a great show."

 

Also on the ballot were four other seats up for vote on the 13-member board, which has staggered terms of one, two and three years. Re-elected were Pat Gormally, Jeffrey Turner and Karen Roche and voters added new Pittsfield Public Schools Superintendent Jason McCandless. In a subsequent vote of the board itself, the following were chosen to continue as officers: Peter Marchetti, president; Warren Dews, vice president; Paul Durwin, treasurer; and Jeffrey Turner, clerk.

 

In other business, PCTV also honored individual members and member organizations with its annual Cassie and Annie awards for achievement.

 

Cassie Awards, given to "an outstanding member of PCTV who has contributed to the quality of community programming," for each of its three channels, were awarded to Amanda Schuler for Access Pittsfield, Lynn Shortis for Educational Access, and the Pittsfield Fire Department for CityLink.  

 

The Annie Award, which is given for outstanding achievement by a member organization, was presented this year to the Gun Owners Action League for their work producing the "GOAL Show."

 

"I've always admired people with creative talents, like artists, musicians, sculptors," said Gary Wilk of GOAL of his work on the show for PCTV. "I never had any of that. But on a small scale, when you're directing these programs, that's something that I can do to feel creative."

 

Other highlights for the network this year included new coverage of 45 hours of the city's temporary Charter Review Study Committee, along with more than 200 other governmental meetings on CityLink, coverage of all Pittsfield schools through Educational Access  and 6,700 hours of general community programming on Access Pittsfield.

 

"We did an awful lot this year in terms of collaborations, we got a lot of nice grants to work with,"  said Director Bernie Avalle in review.