Battle for Cable TV continues – SCC vies for 1,900 petition signatures for Nov. ballot by Saugus News • September 7, 2013 • 0 Comments By Patrick Cochran - On Tuesday evening, Sept. 3, 2013, the Saugus Concerned Citizens (SCC) congregated at the Saint John’s Episcopal Church down Central Street from Town Hall to discuss issues that they see with the town’s government, and also to strategize on how to achieve the roughly 1,900 signatures they need for a petition that would add a question to the November election ballot. “Our main goal of what we’re doing here,” said SCC member Rick Fail, “is getting Saugus Community Television back to the public.” The aforementioned petition, which was the same petition that was rejected two weeks ago by the Saugus Board of Selectmen by a 3-2 vote, is looking to revert the recently established Saugus Cable Television Station (SCTS) back to Saugus Community Television (SCTV) by bringing the decision to a vote two months from now. The 1,900 signatures are required 45 days before the election, giving the SCC roughly three weeks to fill the quota. Despite the ominous task, members of the SCC—including Chet Stentiford, the organization’s chairman—feel confident that the petition is what the people of Saugus want and that they will be able to get the required amount of signatures on time. The organization will look to stake their presence at popular areas and events to ink the support and get out their message. The rallying point for the SCC was the night of May 29, 2013, “the date that freedom of speech in Saugus was silenced,” according to Stentiford. “What really started this organization,” said former SCTV Operations Manager Rich Garabedian, “is how I got fired on [May 29].” The SCC referred to the non-democratic way that the selectmen-appointed Board of Directors executed the operation manager’s termination as the breaking point in their disgust for the work of the town government. “We want SCTV to be run by the town, not by the government,” said Garabedian, now a member of the SCC. “That’s why we’re here.” But the SCC does not draw the line at trying to fix what they see as what is wrong with the town’s television network. They also see themselves as a group that can challenge the local government whenever the people’s “rights are being denied,” with a focal point the freedom of speech. “We’ve been painted by the Board of Selectmen as the bad guys,” said Fail, “but we’ve earned our right to be aggressive.” The SCC will continue their pursuit against the current television network and the Board of Selectmen. “We’re not sitting here as an argument group. I kind of initiated this organization…when I saw people being silenced,” said Stentiford. Even if the SCC can obtain the required signatures within the next several weeks, it is only the first step of the process. It will likely be a tight vote against the selectmen and Town Manager Scott Crabtree, who has been very successful in pointing Saugus in the right direction financially over the past year—but only time will tell. “I think we’re playing the field. They’re the ones out in left field,” said Fail.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 06:36:30 +0000
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