Philadelphia Community Access Coalition
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MR. BUTCHER: Good evening. My name is William Butcher, and I am a lobbyist, a children's lobbyist. The organization's call Acquired by Children Civic Educational League, located in West Philadelphia.

I would first like to point out that I've been hearing people say the hard-nosed people are the ones that don't want this to happen. They got some motives, they don't want to deal with the truth. Well, let's deal with the truth.

Now, the truth is only a statement that can be proven to be true. I'm going to start first with what City Council has done already. The Council of the City of Philadelphia hereby ordains the Mayor of Philadelphia and the President of City Council are hereby authorized and directed to file articles of incorporation for the Philadelphia Public Access Corporation. That took place back there in 1983, which you're aware of. So it's not up to any hard-nosed people; it's up to two individuals -- the Mayor of Philadelphia and the President of Council. That's the way the law is written.

And right now, all these years with Goode -- which you tried to put him there, all right? But at least Goode did meet with us, and Goode did agree -- whether he lied or not -- he agreed to give us public access, but he wanted to put it in Community College. But what happened, the group that we were approaching Goode split. Some didn't want it there, so Goode left it alone.

Now we talk about John Street telling all you people how he's going to work with you on this bill when it's already been passed. See? Under him, before he got there. Now, when you go to Street, his people say, Well, Street makes his own appointments. So unless you talk to Street, we can't give you an appointment.

Then you go to Gussie Clark -- me, I'm talking about. And they give me an appointment 30 days from the time I approached them. On the day of the appointment, the meeting, they called me and said they had to cancel but they'd reschedule. That was two years ago.

So the point I'm making is, that's what the President of City Council and the Mayor have not done.

Now, here's what City Council has not done. The purpose and responsibility of the corporation, number one, or whatever, is to promote and encourage use of public channels for all citizens of Philadelphia. And out of those all citizens, it's broken down to three groups: individual groups, organizational membership, and non-voting members -- the children under 18. That's who I'm here to represent, non-voters.

They also are supposed to conduct outreach activities to ensure the understanding and to promote the use of public access opportunities. That's the best kept word in Philadelphia, about public access, coming from City Council.

Then this will then foster a cooperative working relationship between the franchisee cable operators and public access user -- and check this out -- and monitor the franchisees. That's what City Council is supposed to.

David, all through your life, I've admired you, but today you are off the path. You talked about Goode on his desk, but there's a lady, one of the aides in your office -- she has a lot of hair, I don't remember her name. I went to your office once to get the oath of office you took by coming into office, I wanted to write it done, whatever the oath was, I've forgotten, but you'd remember.

But this lady, just in general conversation out of your office, said, Oh boy, that cable access, public access is driving my husband and me up to the wall. Your own people know about it. But you going to say, What can we do? or put it off on somebody else, or make it a campaign thing. It's not a campaign thing, it's the law. They broke the law when they did not immediately enforce it -- I mean, incorporate.

Now, let's go back to Pardini sitting here telling us, Oh, my company is willing to give $125,000 a year, whatever. Oh, but what did they do with those five channels for us? He made money off of it, and going to give us our $125,000 a year.

My point is, I don't have no problem with no member here because your hands are tied for some reason. You've been knowing about it. And anytime we come to City Council, they will say, Oh, there's no public interest. Well, how they going to be a public interest if nobody knows?

Now, just to go along a little further, there's something by me dealing with the children, we come up with acronyms. "ABC" means "acquired by children." A-N-G-E-L means "a neighbor giving, earning love." Just little acronyms.

So now we came up with another one, it's called "SOB." Now, what does "SOB" mean? It means "scheming," it means being "obstinate," and mainly "betrayal." City Council, you have schemed. City Council and the mayor have been obstinate. And they betrayed their oath of office when it comes to cable TV. I'm not talking about the other things you and your members have done, David, down the line. But right here, you're in bed with the wrong people.

Now, I'm going to leave a copy of agreement that the cable companies have with the City. I'm going to leave 16 copies for each member. It's in the agreement. My name, my phone number, the address of the organization is on here. The children made this up.

The question: Why has City Council forsaken us? The answer: Because the franchisees will protect them. They said they were going to monitor the franchisee in the agreement in 1963, or whatever it, but here's the way it really reads. Second paragraph:

"The franchisee shall, at its sole cost and expenses, indemnify (which is to protect -- and I didn't know the word before), save, hold harmless, and defend the City, its offices, boards, commissions, employees, servants agents, consultants, contractors against any and all liens, charges, claims, demands, suits, actions, fines, penalty, losses, costs, including but not limited to legal fees and court costs."

And then it goes on. "Judgments, injuries, liabilities, and damages, including, with respect to all other foregoing, but not limited to libel, slander, invasion of the property," etc., etc. Now, you mean to tell you going to monitor somebody that's got your back?

Ed Pardini comes in here, which I know him and met him -- don't know him, but I talked to him on the phones a few times -- and said, Oh, we're willing to do it, but the City, they haven't incorporated yet. So listen. But why would they incorporate if they got Ed Pardini and company to bail them out on anything they do?

Now, being a man of color, meaning of African descent, in my years on earth, I've only seen a couple of things that worked. One was Martin Luther King. God bless him. He was a peaceful man, you understand? Recognized all over the world, got some kind of something, whatever. They gave him a peace prize or something. And that was the Montgomery boycott, where the people boycotted the buses because Rosa Parks came on there with her tired feet and wouldn't give her seat to a Caucasian.

I have nothing against any race, because I look at us as being all God's people. But this is a racist country, okay? And I don't even blame you for being racist. I have no problem with you not liking black people 'cause some of 'em, I don't like. And I don't like a lot of white people too -- no, I don't really dislike nobody.

But the point I'm making is, they went and boycotted the bus company for one year and one month. They refused to ride.

The second thing I want to mention is, we went to the court, Brown versus the Board of Education in 1954, where it was set up where there was no more discrimination allowed in this country in the school system. Done by the NAACP.

So I'm telling you gentlemen today, and you will receive copies each -- the Mayor, President of City Council, and each and every Councilperson will receive a letter stating basically that if this crap isn't resolved in 90 days, there will be a combo. "Combo" means we're going to sue you. Number two, we're going to boycott you. Take your cable off our property. The kids want to cut the lines. I'm saying no, don't cut the lines, tell 'em to take 'em off, get 'em out of our neighborhood until they can come to the table and resolve this 15-year old mess.

And we're going to sue the City first for a minimum of $500 million, a class action suit.

(Applause.)

MR. BUTCHER: What's so big about it? It ain't no big thing to you, Cohen, you ain't got to pay it, baby. Let Pardini and his company pay it. And we're suing them for 1 billion.

(Applause.)

MR. BUTCHER: Do you understand what I'm saying? Because the only thing going to make them move is getting into their pocketbook. And we're firing you guys that handle this now. That old 1983 thing you or whatever it is, you off the books. The way they had it worded, it's going to be reworded where the community runs this. We're going to privatize this stuff basically. You might have some influence, but you will not control the money.

Now here's the last lie they came up with. They say that they gave the City $8 million a year in franchise fees. The way this was set up was, if my bill was $100 and I paid the cable company $100, they would take $5, which is 5 percent, pay their franchise fee to the City. And out of that, the City would give us a place to have our little studios, and the franchisee would give us equipment, which he already mentioned.

Now, they fooled around with the FCC and got it changed, where we, the people, are paying the franchise fee. Because on our bill is $100, we got to put $5 on top of it for the franchise fee. We're the franchise fee and the sucker, too.

So the point I'm making is this: It's time to stop the bull and get down to treating us like we're somebody. You made it in office too long, living the good life, and for Pardini living the good life off of us.

(Applause.)

MR. BUTCHER: So all -- now, in that 90-day thing, you got 90 days to come up and resolve this problem. We'll work with you guys, you can have a little say, but not much.

In this 90-day thing, if we don't hear from the City of Philadelphia and the franchisees within 30 days to say, okay, we're ready to move, we'll hold off the suit, 'cause it gives you 90 days. Then in 60 days, you got to have a plan negotiated by the people, and you can have a say, and franchisee. And then in 90 days, it's supposed to be up and at least documented where it's going to happen.

We don't need to go to polls to vote for nobody saying, I'm going to see that you get it if you elect me, uh-uh. It's a law. See, you made the law, David, but you guys are breaking the law. Do you understand what I'm saying? And we want to hear from each and every Councilperson what their views are. Don't put it on Goode like you did, which I don't mind 'cause I don't think Goode was all that good anyway.

But the point I'm making is, that it's time to cut the stuff now. I called you guys SOBs. All I mean is that you schemed on us, you know what I mean? And you was obstinate with us, and you betrayed. We'll, we're going to be SOBs too. But our SOB is going to be a S-O-B-T. We're going to give another letter to it. So the "S-O" means we're going to be sincere and we're going to be open. And "B-T" means that we are going to bond together.

(Applause.)

MR. BUTCHER: No more splitting us up.

I thank you for the time. I appreciate you in the past, David, but on this one, you're fine.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Thank you. And thank you, panel, very much.

(Applause.)

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