C-Span junkies in search of a local fix will have to wait a little longer than expected for the WisconsinEye Public Affairs Network to take root, but the program’s leader insists plans are still on track for the channel to appear next year.

The fledgling network’s president Jeff Roberts said a public hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 15 to further iron out an agreement between WisconsinEye and the state.

WisconsinEye has engaged the state legislature in negotiations for months, but details surrounding a contract agreement remain unsettled. Roberts previously predicted the network would be broadcasting in January, but he now admits the earliest date for a start would be in the spring.

Still, Roberts declined to blame the Capitol for the slow progress toward a contract.

“I would have liked to get it done faster, but so would a lot of people,” Roberts said. “It’s been very difficult to get people together.”

Although work will remain to be done after a contract is reached, Roberts said the process should snowball toward completion once the two sides come to an agreement. WisconsinEye has raised approximately 4 million out of a $15 million goal, but Roberts said the network only needed a few more million dollars to begin broadcasting.

“A lot of that is just waiting on this contract,” Roberts said. “I don’t view funding as an impediment.”

WisconsinEye, which promises live coverage of all branches of state government, is modeled after C-Span, the cable network devoted to Congress. Roughly 20 states run their own versions of C-Span, but WisconsinEye would be the first to operate without state funding. The network is headquartered in an office building on the Capitol Square.

After the legislature signs on, WisconsinEye will need to reach an agreement with the governor’s office and the state Supreme Court. Roberts expects those accords to come much more easily than the agreement with the legislature, however.

“The legislature will be the principle focus of our cameras,” Roberts said. “They have the most at stake.”

The two main negotiators for the legislature, Rep. John Townsend, R-Fond du Lac, and Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, were unavailable for comment Thursday. Townsend told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week he was worried an agreement would not be reached before the end of the year, but Leibham said a contract was feasible before Christmas.

Steve Baas, spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, said the negotiations are a complicated process and added it is hard to pinpoint a timeframe for an agreement to be reached.

“We’re just waiting on the committees, if and when they complete their work,” Baas said.

In the meantime, Baas said the Assembly already broadcasts live gavel-to-gavel, unedited coverage via the Internet, along with access to every bill discussed on the Assembly floor.

“It’s basically a seat on the floor,” Baas said. “It’s a concept we’re familiar with and [have] been doing in a more enhanced way than what WisconsinEye originally came up with.”