Citing legal concerns over the conduct of some of its employees, the Rhode Island Public Broadcasting System said PBS employees will stop taping town meetings on the company’s time.

Instead, towns must find their own volunteers, said David Piccerelli, Rhode Island PBS vice president and chief financial officer.

Piccerelli said the company had to fire one of its employees after he “allegedly spoke out of turn … and was disruptive” while covering a town council meeting in Charlestown “after being instructed not to speak” during assignments.

The policy is being phased in statewide, according to Piccerelli, who said only a handful of communities continue to rely on PBS employees to tape the meetings. Among those communities, he cited Johnston and Cranston.

PBS employees are still taping Cranston and Johnston meetings, but they stopped going to Charlestown, Richmond, Hopkinton and Westerly about a month ago.

Piccerelli said he thought volunteers had picked up the coverage in those towns and said he’ll work to help officials find people to cover meetings.

That’s where town officials are scratching their heads as they labor to find volunteers to fill their own boards and commissions.

PBS staff will continue to train volunteers and lend them videorecording equipment.

The hassle –– and expense –– of the drive to one of the eight PBS studios to pick up and drop off the heavy equipment would also likely act as a deterrent to potential volunteers, said Clifford Vanover. A Charlestown resident, Vanover was trained by PBS and taped some town meetings for public access. “I am not volunteering for PBS. They can forget that,” Vanover said.

“I am not going to drive to Westerly to deliver a CD so [PBS] can save some money on staff.”

Vanover said he intends to post his videos on the Charlestown Citizens Alliance Web site, www.charlestowncitizens.org.

Johnston Town Clerk Vincent Baccari said his town hasn’t been informed yet of any coverage policy changes.

Cranston City Clerk Maria Wall could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Cable and Verizon FiOS subscribers are assessed a 50-cent PEG monthly fee (short for Public, Educational, and Governmental) to fund public access programming. Satellite customers are not charged the fee.

As part of a statewide consolidation “to revamp the public meetings coverage,” PBS is also cutting the public access channels to one Channel 17 and one Channel 18 per service area. The state is divided into eight service areas.

That means, for example, that Woonsocket, Smithfield, Lincoln, North Smithfield, Cumberland, Central Falls, Burrillville and Glocester –– service area 1 –– will have to share the same channels, while South Kingstown and Narragansett –– part of service area 8 –– will share the two channels with Charlestown, Richmond, Hopkinton, and Westerly.

Verizon’s entry into the television market sparked the channel consolidation, said Piccerelli and Eric Palazzo, the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers’ associate administrator for cable television.

Over the years, Cox Communications took over the smaller cable companies that operated within those service areas, acquiring their infrastucture as well.

“What that means is that the line that exists today from the Charlestown Town Council Chambers that goes effectively to our facility in Westerly is owned by Cox,” Piccerelli said. And Cox, he added, said Verizon would have to install its own lines to service the area.

For Verizon “to replicate what Cox has inherited,” Piccerelli said, “it would be virtually impossible to operate.”

“This kind of crept up on us,” Piccerelli said. “We had no idea how Cox’s backbone ran until Verizon came and tried to replicate what Cox was doing.”

As Cox acquired the various cable companies, Palazzo said, it “continued to adhere [to] the original agreements … of providing some of the public meetings.”

Much has changed since then, he said.

“There were some agreements made in the early ’80s, but the times have changed,” Palazzo said, adding, “There is no requirement [for] any live programming of any sort.”

“Whatever gentlemen’s agreements were worked out in the 1980s cannot be expected to be carried out ad infinitum,” Palazzo said.

marmenta@projo.com