SAUGUS – Mike Downing, the host of Downin? Town on Saugus Community Television, said he?ll continue hosting his show despite resigning from the SCTV Board of Directors after a tense meeting last week.Downing?s show, which just aired its 100th episode, features news discussions, interviews with town officials and, to the chagrin of some, parodies and criticism of those same officials.Greg Nickolas and Nathaniel Marsella also resigned after last week?s meeting, leaving just three board members remaining: President Janice Jarosz, Peter Rossetti and Nancy Lemoine.?They were planning on (resigning) anyway,” said Downing. “But just the craziness of the whole thing and the people that (didn?t care) about cable before now all of a sudden do because they want to keep us in check. That meeting just turned into a circus so the next day they turned in their papers. It?s a circus. It?s looney.”At the meeting, Thomas Lucey, a local resident and frequent subject of discussion on the show, requested the board take action against Downing for what he described in a letter to the board from July as “fraud, deceptive practices and multiple incidents of harassment.”One of the complaints in the letter included an incident where Downing and Executive Director Rich Garabedian went to Lucey?s home to ask him questions about messages he sent to Downing on his blog. Lucey?s mother answered the door and Downing and her discussed the messages on video, which was aired in episode 69 in February. Lucey?s mother?s face was blurred out in the episode.?I thought that was just serious harassment,” said Lucey in a phone interview on Friday. “He?s harassing my family and that really bothers me. I get so riled up about this.”Garabedian declined to comment Friday.Lucey said he went to Tuesday?s meeting because his original complaints were never addressed. But Downing said the board agreed he had done nothing wrong.?He said he didn?t get any feedback from his original complaint about me,” said Downing. “He starts up with this again saying if he doesn?t get any resolution he?s going to seek legal recourse.”?I just said, ?You know what? I?m not listening to this anymore,” added Downing. “The board has already said nothing was done wrong. But we have to keep rehashing this and if they?re going to keep entertaining it I just don?t want to deal with it anymore.”On Friday, Lucey said he wants to see Downin? Town taken off the air.?I think the show needs to come off the air and I think SCTV needs to be investigated,” said Lucey. “I?m also going to advocate to the selectmen that they revoke their agreement to have SCTV run any of the town stations anymore.”Lucey also said that Downing was taking pictures of him while he was speaking at the meeting and alleged that he was staring at him in “a threatening manner like he wanted to fight me.”?He was just being a bully,” said Lucey. “He didn?t like what I was saying so he decided to stand up and take a picture of me. The chairman of the board tried to tell him to knock off his behavior and he told her, ?You can?t tell me what to do,? and he stormed out. That?s very unacceptable behavior to me.”Downing, however, said he never made eye contact with Lucey until he mentioned taking legal action, which he then told Lucey was “the best thing he could do.”Downing also said he was taking photos of Lucey to use on his show, and cited open meeting rules allowing photographs to be taken.Jarosz, the president of the Board of Directors for SCTV, said she hopes to have a full board within a “few weeks” in order to resolve the situation.?We have an attorney on staff ? ” said Jarosz. “I?m going to try to get some resolution for Mr. Lucey. Mr. Downing always states his first amendment rights and we have to sort of figure out how it will all work out. I would like to see a full board and I would like to brainstorm to come up with some direction on how we want to handle this.”Downing said he resigned Tuesday because he doesn?t want to be with “tho
