For Immediate Release: Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Sidney Katz, a lifelong Gaithersburg resident who ran his family-owned Olde Towne department store and served 16 years as the city's mayor before being elected to the Montgomery County Council in 2014, is the subject of latest edition of the long-running County Cable Montgomery television series The Decisionmakers.
The Decisionmakersis a unique public cable show because its subjects not only talk about their official duties and positions on key issues, but it also shows what parts of their lives shaped those positions. The shows look at the subject's private lives and their early experiences in government and business.
The show on County Cable Montgomery (CCM—Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, channel 30 on Verizon) gives residents a view of local leaders that is not readily evident during formal government sessions or even during campaign appearances. Previous episodes of The Decisionmakers have featured elected officials, attorneys general and law enforcement officials.
The 15-minute show will be broadcast numerous times on CCM in February and March. Upcoming viewing times include Sundays at 11 a.m. and 4:15 p.m.; Mondays at 10 p.m.; Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m.; Fridays at 8 p.m.; and Saturdays at 12 noon.
The show also can be seen on demand at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e3LCBU4DUY.
The Decisionmakers producer and editor Barbara Grunbaum said the series is unique among programs offered on local government cable channels in the Washington region.
"We created The Decisionmakersto be a format where our local leaders would be able to go beyond the press release, the news conference or the sound bite," she said. "In this show, we learn how Councilmember Katz went from running a long-time family business to getting involved in local government, what led to him run for the County Council and even that he and his wife, Sally, get away from the pressures of life by doing crossword puzzles together. He really allowed us to see a large part of his life that constituents would not otherwise see."
The chief videographer for The Decisionmakers was Mike Springirth.
This spring, the next edition of The Decisionmakerswill feature County Councilmember Hans Riemer.
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