By Rick Bentley / The Fresno Bee

‘The Maddy Report,” a 30-minute locally produced public affairs television show, launches at 9 p.m. Saturday on KSEE, Channel 24.

The program is a joint venture of the local NBC station and the Kenneth L. Maddy Institute at California State University, Fresno.

The institute, established in 1999 by the California Legislature, provides nonpartisan analysis of public policy issues. The institute’s Web site says it also provides training for local officials and civic leaders.

Mark Keppler, Maddy Institute executive director and moderator of the TV show, explains that the institute is part think tank, part leadership institute and an encourager of civic participation.

“Part of the mission of the institute is that we want to focus on fact-based analysis of the area where we live. What we are trying to do is focus on the facts. By doing so, we hope to be able to encourage bipartisan solutions to the challenges we face,” Keppler says of the reason for the launch of the public-affairs TV show.

There will be five shows this year. The plan is to expand into the Bakersfield, Sacramento and Redding markets by looking at such regional issues as immigration, air pollution and water.

The initial program, “The State Bond Proposal: What Could It Mean for the Valley?” features Assemblyman Juan Arambula; Assemblyman David Cogdill; Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee columnist; Don Jackson, chairman of The Maddy Institute; Diana Dooley, general counsel and vice president of Children’s Hospital Central California; and Jim Boren, editorial page editor of The Fresno Bee. For more info about The Kenneth L. Maddy Institute, call (559) 294-9119 or go to www.maddyinstitute.org.

The columnist can be reached at rbentley@fresnobee.com or at (559) 441-6355.