Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich says a bill giving the council and his office seats on Montgomery Community Media's board creates a conflict of interest.

"I'm not totally comfortable with the idea that representatives of either myself or the council should be serving on the board of an organization whose job it is to cover and report on us," Elrich said at a Thursday, Sept. 24, media briefing, as first reported by The Banner.

Elrich said he supports requiring greater transparency from MCM on financial decisions and operations. His objection is narrower: the board-appointment provision in Bill 33-26, which would require the Rockville-based nonprofit to reserve seats for nominees of both the council and the county executive.

The bill's lead sponsor, Councilmember Kate Stewart, said she is amending the provision to make clear that elected officials themselves would not hold the seats. Stewart said the bill grew out of Government Operations Committee discussions about shrinking cable-fund revenue and the realization that MCM operates under different rules than similarly funded nonprofits such as Strathmore.

MCM is the county's only contracted news outlet.

It manages public access television channels and employs reporters who cover county government. County budget documents show MCM is allocated about $2.3 million in fiscal year 2027, down from about $2.5 million in fiscal year 2026. That money comes from cable franchise fees.

MCM CEO Jasmine White said the bill sets a dangerous precedent. She told The Banner that giving the government authority to place someone on an independent nonprofit's board because of funding is fundamentally different from an organization voluntarily inviting an elected official to serve. White noted that MCM's board has the power to hire and fire the CEO and could theoretically shut down the news operation entirely.

In a Sept. 17 interview with Bethesda Magazine, White said she was not aware of any community media center with a news function that has government appointees on its board.

Stewart pushed back, saying the bill includes language requiring MCM to determine content "independently in the public interest and without government interference." She pointed out that elected officials, including Gaithersburg Mayor Jud Ashman, have already served on MCM's board in recent years.

Bill 33-26 would also require MCM to comply with the Maryland Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act, adopt a racial equity and social justice policy, and require board members to file financial disclosures with the county Ethics Commission. Co-sponsors are Council Vice President Marilyn Balcombe and Councilmembers Sidney Katz and Shebra Evans.

Jeffrey Slavin, MCM's board chair for 12 years, said he would support the bill with amendments to protect the outlet's independence. Mark Graber, a constitutional law professor at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, said the bill does not violate free speech law, noting the government can attach conditions to substantial public funding.

The bill was introduced July 28 and expires Dec. 7, when the current council's term ends. The Government Operations and Fiscal Policy Committee, chaired by Stewart and including Katz and Evans, is scheduled to hold a worksession on the bill Thursday, Oct. 8.