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HomeNewsMamaroneck Mayor Rips Larchmont as Cable Rift Deepens

Mamaroneck Mayor Rips Larchmont as Cable Rift Deepens

Mamaroneck Mayor Tom Murphy essentially told the neighboring Village of Larchmont to hit the bricks when it comes to bargaining with area cable providers over franchise fees.

“It doesn’t behoove me to negotiate with Larchmont if they’re not going to be part of the grander scheme,” he said Wednesday evening.

He was referring to the smaller village’s insistence on keeping all of its collected franchise fees for itself rather than participating in the agreement that has directly funded local community broadcasting in our area since the early 80’s.

Larchmont last month abruptly announced its intention to withdraw from the arrangement claiming the move was intended to increase transparency in the use of the funds. But Murphy says Larchmont has been intentionally vague about its deliberations on the Cable agreement which took place during trustee work sessions most residents were unaware of. “I’ve heard the word ‘opaque’ from Larchmont,” he said” but it seems none of your decisions happen in the open.”

Murphy, representing the Village of Mamaroneck, was chairing the Tri-Municipal Cable TV Board of Control along with Town of Mamaroneck Trustee Abby Katz and Larchmont Village Trustee Sarah Bauer.  Bauer responded that the un-televised work sessions “are open to the public. Anybody can participate,” she said.  Murphy scoffed noting the meetings take place in a small conference room at Village Hall without significant public participation.

At a population of 22,000, the Village of Mamaroneck is the senior partner in the tri-municipal arrangement. The unincorporated Town of Mamaroneck is considerably smaller at 11,000 residents and Larchmont is the smallest member with 6,000 residents total.

In freezing Larchmont out of future negotiations, Murphy told Bauer, “I think you’re going to use our populations to better your deal. I’m not one to give away the gravy.”

Another Board of Control meeting is schedule for March but Town of Mamaroneck Trustee Abby Katz wondered aloud if “we still exist.”

 

 

 

Lou Young
Lou Young
Lou Young is a veteran journalist who has been honored with multiple awards including 10 Emmys. He retired in 2017 after 43 years in TV News and was recently appointed a Trustee in the Village of Mamaroneck, and has restricted reporting duties accordingly.

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Long-Time VOL Resident
Long-Time VOL Resident
December 11, 2021 12:30 AM

Lou,

Instead of citing relative population data, isn’t it more relevant to provide the relative dollars contributed by each of the LMCTV funding matter (which this is all about)?

To all other readers of the Loop (which I love),

The cable bundle (i.e., the source of the funds from CableVision/ Verizon to each of the VOL/VOM/TOM) is going the way of the do-do bird.

And so with it will be the dollars for the three municipalities to fund LMCTV as they have in the past with the cable franchise fees.

The three municipalities need to address an existential threat and only VOL is ringing the alarm; the other two “partners” have their heads in the sand; Ostrich-style.

Long-Time VOL Resident

Ara Nevins
Ara Nevins
December 10, 2021 7:10 AM

When will you address being on retainer for local politicians as a media consultant? I saw the post in another article. Polly and us all deserve transparency on this or your coverage is in question. If you are taking money from political parties, shouldn’t your reports be op-eds with a disclaimer? As a journalist now more than ever shouldn’t we embrace the ethical code? I’m troubled by the silence. Please fix this. Thank you.

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