Page 2 - 2-20-15 Friday's Edition

Features
Community Urged To Attend Meeting
On Transportation
WFLA General Manager Refused To Meet With Black Leaders
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
On Tuesday night, the Hillsborough County Trans- portation Policy Leadership Group held the first of 36 public forums. The purpose of the workshop was to explain plans for the improvement of the local transportation sys- tem.
Approximately 50 peo- ple attended the first meeting held at Mount Olive A. M. E. Church. However, County Com- missioner Les Miller, Jr., is encouraging people to attend the next meeting. It will take place on Tues- day, February 24th, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., at Ragan Park, 1200 E. Lake Avenue.
“This is the second of the 36 meetings planned. We are asking members of the com- munity to come out and give us their thoughts on what they consider important transportation issues in their community.
“This meeting will talk about understanding the is- sues. There will be maps, and different concepts discussed. Every community has differ- ent needs, whether it is a bet- ter bus system, sidewalks, roads, bicycle paths, or what- ever. We are trying to see what people think is impor- tant in their communities.”
Commissioner Miller
said he was not able to attend the first meeting, but one of the things the people talked about was the rail system.
“The rail system may be important to some areas. But,
LES MILLER, JR. County Commissioner District 3
it cannot be all over the county. That’s why we are having these meetings. The needs of the roads in Hillsbor- ough County are extensive of more than $750 million, and we are only spending about $20 million a year. That is why we are having these meetings in the inner city as well as throughout the county.”
Commissioner Miller
said when the issue of in- creasing taxes to fund the transportation was placed on the ballot in 2010, it failed. He hopes that members of the community will attend these meetings and voice their con- cerns about what they feel is important.
The series of meetings will continue in different locations throughout Hillsborough County until the end of April.
The purpose of the meet- ings is to give residents an op- portunity to share their thoughts on how to spend the $6 billion on roads, trails, sidewalks, and transit proj- ects.
A meeting scheduled Feb. 16 with WFLA-TV Channel 8 and representatives from Black community organiza- tions in Tampa over the reas- signments of two African-American anchors was cancelled because the network’s general manager refused to the terms of the meeting.
Representatives from the Hillsborough County Branch of the NAACP, Tampa Organ- ization of Black Affairs and Saturday Morning Breakfast Group were to be at the meet- ing. The president of the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists also was in- vited to attend.
Last month, WFLA, the local NBC affiliate, reassigned Rod Carter and Josh Thomas, which has touched off a firestorm in the African- American community in Tampa Bay as well as for non- Black viewers of WFLA.
Mr. Carter, who was in a highly visible morning anchor slot, is now the Saturday and Sunday evening anchor and does general assignment re- porting three days a week. He was replaced by a Latino male, who was a general as- signment reporter at his pre- vious job.
Mr. Thomas, who was the station’s weekend anchor, was demoted to general as- signment reporting five days a week.
Along with the reassign-
ROD CARTER
ments of the two Black an- chors – who have had consis- tently good on-air ratings – the organizations that wanted to meet with Mr. Alford also are concerned about the lack of African-Americans in man- agement positions at WFLA.
In an email response, Mr. Alford insisted that he would only meet with two people. One of those included Jenise Morgan, president of the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists. The other was James Ransom, board member with the Tampa Or- ganization of Black Affairs.
In a letter to Mr. Alford earlier this month, Ms. Mor- gan called the reassignments “disturbing’’ and cited that WFLA “has made decisions that prompt questions of fair- ness and equality.’’ Mr. Al- ford was asked this week to commit to a future meeting that would include a repre- sentative from the local
JOSH THOMAS
NAACP. He refused to com- mit to the meeting. Therefore, it was cancelled by those scheduled to attend.
The community organiza- tions also are awaiting the re- sponse of Media General, the parent company of WFLA, about this matter, citing the concern of a lack of diversity within the governance of the local and parent corporate structure.
Ms. Morgan noted that Mr. Alford has scheduled a separate meeting this month with members of the black journalists’ group.
According to Nielsen, no group watches more televi- sion than African-Americans, who lean heavily toward pro- gramming that includes di- verse characters and casts. Nielsen is a global provider of insights into what consumers watch, listen to and buy.
More information about this issue will be forthcoming.
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