Half Moon Bay: Bidding Results For Public Access TV Station Go to PCT, Ruffle Feathers; Police Bid Update

Updates were given by city staff during Tuesday night's Half Moon Bay City Council meeting on the three requests for proposals issued in the last few months for its recreation and police services, along with its public access TV station serving the San Mateo County unincorporated Coastside area.

Public Access TV Station - City Manager Laura Snideman announced that was recommended over current contractholder Mid-Coast Television (MCTV) (as well as Peninsula TV) as the station to and that contract negotiations would take anywhere between 1-2 months.

MCTV founders Constance Malach and Michael Day both commented to the council in regards to the choice of the committee to recommend Pacifica Community Television over MCTV.

"We did go through and submit a proposal in response to the RFP and I was surprised with the choice of a provider because we don’t believe that the other proposal provides the same amount or level of service for same amount of money you’re spending," said Malach, saying that MCTV had the ability to run live feeds from meetings and provide video on demand, as well as archive past meetings.

"This is not a good plan...I don’t want to see our community come away with less. If you don’t give it to us [MCTV] make them [Pacifica Community Television] sign a contract – I care too much about this and our community," Malach said. "If we lose our channel we’ll never get another local channel back."

"I don't think residents will drive up to Pacifica to check out equipment to cover the meetings," Malach said.

Day said that MCTV filed a protest with the county in regards to their decision.

(Pacifica Community Television could not be reached for a comment at the time of publication. Stay tuned for comment from Pacifica Community Television).

Police The deadline to respond to the police services RFP has been extended to March 4, according to Interim Police Chief Lee Violett, at the request of the city of Pacifica. Violett said on midday Tuesday that the city had not received any bids to date, but he expects two proposals to come in by the end of this week -- presumably from Pacifica and the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. 

"All of these services have never been competitively bid before," said Snideman, who also noted earlier that the city believes that Half Moon Bay was the first in the country to go through a competitive process for the outsourcing of its police services.

"This gives the community a great chance to choose the options they most want in a provider," she said.

The Pacifica City Council voted to give Police Chief Jim Saunders permission to send a to Half Moon Bay on Monday evening.