CYPRESS : Non-Airing of Recall Debate Questioned

Councilman Tom Carroll said he is asking the cable-TV company that serves Cypress to explain why it did not carry an Oct. 12 candidates forum for the city’s Nov. 7 recall election.

“My intention is to bring this up at the City Council’s meeting on Nov. 13,” Carroll said. He spoke with a representative of the company, Carroll said, “but I think his explanation was weak.”

Continental Cablevision did not televise the candidates forum, although the event drew wide coverage from other news media.

Jeff Davis, director of corporate affairs for Continental Cablevision, said in an interview this week that his company did not cover the forum because “we couldn’t confirm that adequate notification had been given” to all candidates and incumbents.

Carroll said he was disturbed by Continental Cablevision’s lack of coverage, however, “because a recall is a legitimate election, and everyone should have as much information about that election as possible.”

Davis said that Continental Cablevision taped a program in which all challenged incumbents and the candidates opposing them were given as long as five minutes each to tell about themselves. That 50-minute program was scheduled for broadcast Tuesday night and will air again on Channel 3 in Cypress on Thursday and Monday at 6 and 8 p.m.

The Nov. 7 recall election targets three of the City Council’s five members: Mayor Cecilia L. Age, Councilwoman Gail H. Kerry and Councilman Walter K. Bowman. The recall movement stemmed from their vote in September, 1994, to allow a carpet warehouse to be built.