On March 28th I was told that volunteers were no longer part of FTTV. At that time there only volunteers were a woman and myself. I believe, but cannot prove, that this was done:

1. Because I know too much - as a member of FTTV I was able to notice that plans to tape planning board and zoning board meetings had been shoved under the carpet and
2. Because I’m willing to tell the truth - the notoriety of TUF’s feature “In Their Own Words” stemming from the letter to the editor in the HNT and the article in the Star-Ledger embarrassed Ms. Ashley-Williams and Ms. Ritchie.

Since then there has been some back peddling, now it appears the volunteers will be used if paid videographers are not available. (What I was actually told was that the emphasis was to be to use the paid videographers.) The story isn't over yet, hopefully some of the council members will question the logic of using paid personnel instead of volunteers.

To me the bottom line is when dealing with something as powerful as television more scrutiny is better than less and having volunteers working on the station means more. What would be truly terrifying is if I was excluded from FTTV because of my political views. When I operate the camera at FTTV I make a conscious effort to point it without bias. I defy anyone to show an instance when I have not.

Those are the headlines, the whole and somewhat drawn out story is below.

This section tells the facts as objectively as I am able to convey them. I recognize that no matter how hard I try to be factual my involvement may bias me. Therefore out of respect to Mr. Daly and my desire to tell this as truthfully as possible, if he wants to tell his side of the story TUF will publish, unedited, anything he submits to us.

Almost two years ago I joined FTTV as a volunteer. My reason for joining was chiefly to keep an eye on the station because I recognized its enormous potential for abuse. By the time I joined there were already several volunteers. Initially I participated, in a small way, in drafting the bylaws. As we moved forward I was one of four volunteers who were trained at the Piscataway public access station. Eventually we began to tape council meetings as well as other events that were used for programming. I participated in all aspects of the station including attending all except one of the monthly meeting.

As the station progressed we had trouble attracting and retaining volunteers. This resulted in two things, 1) one of the volunteers was hired as a paid videographer and 2) I became the longest serving member (paid or volunteer) of FTTV. The number of volunteers continued to dwindle until in the beginning of March there were only two.

Twp Manager Ken Daly

On March 28th 2006 when I arrived at the township meeting to help I was told that I could not enter the video both, that only paid videographers were allowed in the both and that FTTV was not longer using volunteers. After making some calls and asking some questions I was able to trace the decision back as far as the Township Manager Kenneth Daly and that the videographers learned of the decision on March 14th.

During the public portion of the March 28th Township meeting I asked Mr. Daly why thiswas done. He replied that it did not reflect on the performance of the volunteers but that he was trying to "tighten things up." When I asked for further clarification he replied that he had already answered my questions. At this writing the township has not yet aired the meeting. When they do I will present the conversation in "In Their Own Words".

In a further discussion with Mr. Daly on March 31 by phone, to the best of my recollection Mr. Daly stated to me that FTTV will still use volunteers but will be emphasizing the paid members of FTTV. When I asked if I could continue to help tape township meetings he said, "No". When I asked if there would still be monthly meetings of FTTV he replied, "Whom will you meet with, yourself?" I replied "Mr. Gallagher, the other volunteer and the paid videographers."

Note: Mr. Daly and I have had a cordial give and take relationship thus the sarcasm of his comment was not out of line and I took no offense. I include it not to vilify him but to represent my recollection of our 15-minute discussion as accurately as I can. Much of our discussion, not conveyed here, was me defending my value as a member of FTTV and expressing my concern about his decision.

Clearly with only two volunteers the township needed to hire videographers to continue the station though it should be pointed out that the primary paid videographer was a volunteer and may be still working for nothing had he not been offered the job. The question remains, "Why would the Township want to pay for videographers when they could use volunteers?" I can think of, but cannot prove, two possibilities.

2) The publishing of "In their Own Words" (ITOW) so annoyed the power brokers in the Township they wanted to separate Phillip Kramer from FTTV.

The final unanswered question is, did the decision originate with Ken Daly or higher?

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