December 2001 / January 2002 Edition   Bob Gordon's Posting On October 25th, former Mayor Bob Gordon (host of 'Inside Borough Hall') posted the following message on the Fair Lawn News Discussion Space  I just received a phone call from one of the Republican candidates who just advised me of postings that suggest the Mayor had something to do with the short-lived effort to block my pre-election broadcast of Inside Borough Hall. Let me set the record straight. At approximately 11:30 PM on Monday evening, I checked my voicemail and received a message from Stu Pace indicating that the Borough Manager had instructed him not to broadcast the program. Stu relayed her invitation for me to call her if I had any questions. I called her the following morning to voice my extreme displeasure and to ask for her reasons. She explained that she had heard that only one slate of candidates was being presented and expressed concern over the fairness of that. She also said that she was concerned that the station, as an agency of the municipality, was venturing into politics, which she considered inappropriate. She suggested that the show could be broadcast on a commercial channel such as Channel 70. I asked if the Council was aware of her decision and she said they had not been involved in any of this because she wanted to keep the Council out of a political dispute. I have no reason to doubt that the Mayor and Council were unaware of what was going on at this early stage. Cybercat's comments about the Mayor's involvement are simply incorrect. I explained to the Manager that the reason only one slate was presented was because the Democrats had declined a written invitation to participate. I pointed out that I had even asked the Democrats to reconsider and offered to work around their schedules, to no avail. I also said that I believed her decision was a violation of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, the New Jersey Cable Act and, of course, Acticle I of the United States Constitution. I made it clear that if her decision were not rescinded, I would bring a legal action against the Borough of Fair Lawn. I should stress that while I was angry, the conversation was civil, businesslike and throughout the discussion, the Manager was cordial. We ended the conversation by saying that we would both ""do what we had to do."" I then left for a meeting in Trenton, which occupied most of the morning. At about noon, I spoke with an attorney, described what lawyers call the ""fact situation,"" and was advised that the case sounded like a ""textbook civil rights action."" I also returned a call to Ed Trawinski, who was ready to call the ACLU, and told him not to take any legal action because it would just look like a political catfight. I wanted to make it clear that a Constitutional issue was involved, and I thought the point was best made by filing the lawsuit myself. When I got back into Fair Lawn late in the afternoon and checked my messages, I found that Richard Lustgarten, the Borough Attorney, had interceded and had prepared a written legal opinion that stated that the Borough has no authority to interfere in any broadcast as long as the show does not advocate a particular position, promote a particular candidate or violate decency standards. In a later conversation with Richard, he asked me if I advocated anything in the show and I told him the only thing I urged people to do was get involved in the community and vote. I expressed concern about the Borough controlling the actual scheduling of broadcasts and he assured me that only the FL cable group would have control over that. Based on that conversation, I considered this entire matter closed. So folks, here's the bottom line: as far as I know, the Mayor and Council had nothing to do with this. The decision was a unilateral one by the Manager who had concerns about the legality of ""political"" broadcasts on a municipal station. Those concerns were answered by the Borough Attorney. The Constitution prevails in the Borough of Fair Lawn. If anyone wishes to speak with me about this, I can be reached at 791-3516.