PORTAGE, MI -- Layoffs are being considered at Public Media Network, Executive Director Matt Schuster said, in the wake of Portage voting to discontinue its current arrangement with the organization, which costs the city more than $380,000 per year.

The Portage City Council voted at its April council meeting to authorize the city manager to notify PMN that the city intends to withdraw its membership on or after July 1, 2018.

PMN provides public broadcasting and other services for the cities of Kalamazoo, Portage and Parchment, and the townships of Comstock, Oshtemo and Kalamazoo. PMN also provides services for Kalamazoo County for free and has been negotiating with the county recently to charge for its services, PMN has said.

Schuster, estimating rough numbers, said the city of Kalamazoo contributes about $380,000 per year, Kalamazoo Township pays $180,000, Oshtemo Township pays $150,000, Comstock Township pays $93,000 and Parchment pays $14,000, to be members of a PMN consortium.

Total revenue is budgeted as about $1.2 million for the current fiscal year, he said. Portage's contribution of about $380,000 represents 30 to 35 percent of revenue, he said.

PMN has employees equivalent to 13.5 full-time positions, Schuster said, and its budget for personnel including salaries and benefits is $675,000.

After the expected loss of revenue, PMN is looking at changes to address the change in funding including possible layoffs. PMN is considering other revenue-generating options, and considering using cash reserves to help in the short-term, he said.

"A lot of free services are provided to organizations, and we may not be able to do those for free," he said.

Schuster said PMN provides a needed service in the communities it serves, and allowing citizens access to equipment to learn and produce their own content is important, partly because it allows them to make their voices heard on issues of importance to them.

PMN has received no indication from other municipalities that they intend to discontinue using the service, he said.

Kalamazoo Deputy City Manager Jeff Chamberlain confirmed there are no current plans for the city to leave the PMN consortium.

"We're always looking at our communication efforts," Chamberlain said. "We have no plans to change our relationship with PMN at this time."

Two citizens attended the April Portage City Council meeting where council members voted to discontinue using PMN's services. After the meeting, another citizen emailed members of the council after reading about their decision to pull out.

"If too much was being paid to PMN, did you consider just negotiating how much to pay for this? Any talk about creating similar offerings from Portage, such as now offered by PMN, seems to be just an idle promise with no basis in reality," Daniel Smith said in an email to members of the council and to the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Mayor Patricia Randall and others on the council responded by email.

"Many efforts were made to renegotiate with PMN. The City was interested in the $500 per meeting contract that PMN was considering charging the county," Randall said in an email.

"Many on council have had ongoing concerns with the cost of PMN and the quality of the broadcasts," she said.

Councilmember Claudette Reid voted against pulling away from PMN, and said she plans to work with other officials to make the new direction as functional as possible. She encouraged input from knowledgeable citizens to help inform officials as they move forward.

Currently, PMN televises Portage planning commission meetings and zoning board of appeals meetings, Portage City Manager Laurence Shaffer said. PMN televises and live streams city council meetings, he said.

The city does not intend to have any lapse in televised or streamed meetings during the change, Shaffer said.

The city is not planning to offer other services that PMN currently offers such as equipment rentals or access to produce programs for broadcast. However, the future could include a new arrangement with PMN to televise meetings or provide other services, Shaffer said.

Portage is planning to hire a communications director in the coming months, Shaffer said, and he believes the city can televise its meetings and provide other services itself for cheaper than what it pays PMN now. The city may make additional hires as part of the effort to ramp up social media, produce podcasts, create an online Portage news outlet, in an effort to better inform and engage citizens, he said.

Shaffer said he wishes PMN the best and has no ill will toward it, but it doesn't quite allow Portage to coordinate the message it is trying to deliver to the public. The change is an opportunity for Portage to further its goals of being more open, transparent and responsive.

"We've got a younger set of citizens and they don't take their information the same way I did or my son did," Shaffer said. "They want it immediately, they want it on their handhelds. We can't lament that. We have to respond to that. We have to chase them."

Letter criticizes PMN

A letter addressed to former Mayor Peter Strazdas and Shaffer, dated Oct. 24, 2017, written by a former Portage city council member and former PMN board member Ed Sackley, criticizes PMN.

Sackley, who describes himself in the letter as a champion for PMN for many years, was elected to the Portage council in 2005 and joined PMN's board when Portage signed up to use the public broadcasting services. He ended his service on the council when he decided not to run for re-election in 2013.

In 2015, he was elected as treasurer-secretary of the PMN board, and was later removed from the position.

Sackley's letter, referenced in Portage City Council discussions, says PMN is harmful to the governments that pay for its services.

"The issues surrounding PMN are systemic and cannot be addressed or resolved within its current structure," Sackley wrote. "PMN's governance is severely flawed and not conductive to healthy change."

The letter expands on eight topics, alleging problems in categories labeled unkept promises, financial issues and risks, accountability, legal issues, retirement plan, mission creep, conflict of interest/lack of disclosure, and governance.

The letter is critical of PMN's former executive director, Harry "Hap" Haasch.

The letter says Sackley was removed as secretary/treasurer in January 2017.

Schuster was hired as executive director in September 2017, Schuster said.

PMN sent an eight-page response addressing each of the allegations and strongly disagrees with Sackley's comments that PMN is harmful to government agencies that use its services.

PMN's letter signed by Schuster and PMN Chair Ron Coleman criticizes the way Sackley acted as a board member and said his removal from office as secretary/treasurer was based on a number of factors.

Sackley did not respond to requests for further comment.