Staff Writer 

Tom Hall could be taking a look at Scarborough’s two public access channels in his first few weeks as town manager. Currently, one of the channels is devoted to educational programs, the other to both local political happenings and public access – including candidate and special interest group advertisements. Airtime on the politically “blended” channel is subject to final approval by the town manager, a situation Hall said could create “an issue of censorship,” and some believe already has.

“Every other town typically has three separate channels, one for education, one for politics and another for public access,” he said. “The most important, of course, is public access. That’s the outlet for people’s opinions.”

Several weeks prior to the general election, “Save Our Scarborough” spokesperson and former town councilor Sue Foley-Fergusson said the group’s anti-racino advertisement was denied air time based on former Town Manager Ron Owens’ decision it was inappropriate, Hall said. Fergusson said she was surprised when “Talk Scarborough,” an ongoing talk show for the channel, aired approximately 12 minutes of a “pro-racino discussion” between Town Council Chairman Jeff Messer and the host – a Penn National PAC employee – several time in the days immediately before the Nov. 4 general election.

“You are all aware of the issue regarding using town funds to fund a public access channel that does not give equal access to political positions,” Fergusson wrote in an email to Owens and Hall on Nov. 3. “Casinos No has supported taking legal action if Save Our Scarborough does not receive equal air time with the Penn National PAC, which aired a pretend talk show this weekend.”

Hall said the talk show featuring the conversation with Messer had been aired since it was part of an ongoing series and was not solely devoted to the racino issue.

“Coincidentally, or not if you’re a conspiracy theorist, the racino issue came up,” he said. 

To match the amount of airtime on “Talk Scarborough,” Fergusson requested a 31-second Casinos No advertisement be aired 120 times. After consulting town legal counsel, Hall said he backed Owens’ decision to deny Fergusson’s request and pull “Talk Scarborough” off the air.

“This was all within 24 hours before the election,” he said. “There wasn’t an opportunity.”

“Save Our Scarborough” wasn’t the only one deprived of airtime.

Town councilor-elect Karen D’Andrea said both she and former council candidate Leroy Crockett were initially denied airtime for their campaign advertisements. D’Andrea said she was surprised since she had already seen advertisements for House District 127 candidate John McDonough and State Sen. Phil Bartlett on the channel. 

Hall said changes to public access “guidelines” stipulating what would be allowed on the channel were recently made to permit political campaign advertisements.

“I can’t say why they were denied,” he said. “That’s the kind of stuff the public needs to know.” 

In the end, both candidates were given airtime for a five-minute campaign advertisement, which D’Andrea said was only a partial victory. Bartlett was granted more time, possibly since he did not have a forum comparable to the Scarborough public access channel in Gorham, which is also included in State Senate District 6, D’Andrea said.

“I guess [Crockett and Owens] went round and round about it, then Owens said ‘OK,’” she said. “It was a little frustrating that Bartlett had 30 minutes and we only had five.”

D’Andrea said she would “have to think about” the happenings with the channel as a new presence on the council and Fergusson said Casinos No – which could be filing an ethical misconduct charge against the Scarborough Village group for financial disclosure issues – was not pursuing legal action against the town. 

“At least they got what they wanted anyway,” Hall said. “Otherwise this [situation] could have been very different.”

Hall said he plans on looking into establishing a third channel to separate local political issues and public access messages in the future and establishing “clearer guidelines” for what is aired.

“Hopefully this is not a reoccurring theme,” he said.