Thursday, October 22, 2009

Last Night's Forum

As a member (chair) of Neighborhood Council #4, I was pleased with last night's Commission Candidate forum. About 35 people attended, which was about the same number who attended the Tribune forum, which included the mayoral candidates. (Both mayoral candidates had scheduling conflicts which kept them from attending last night).

We deliberately set out to ensure that this forum could not be construed as biased in any way. Questions by Neighborhood Council members and members of the public were submitted in advance to our moderator, Aaron Weissman. He then gave those questions to the GF High Debate Team members, who decided which questions would be asked. Audience members were encouraged to submit questions as the forum progressed. I handed those off to the debate team members, who once again, determined which ones would be asked.

Each candidate was also allowed to ask a question of each of the other candidates. Rosenbaum didn't even ask a question. He made some comment about levies that made no sense. Aaron tried to get a question out of it, but to no avail. Fred Burow reiterated his take on the budget numbers and Jones didn't even want to discuss it. Donna Zook said she couldn't respond because she didn't understand what he said.

Travis was there for the entire event. See his posting of it here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Typical of Rosenbaum as he has never fully understood any question and has no real answers. He depends on staff and his well inked rubber stamp to pretend he knows something.

Treasure State Jew said...

Sandra, this was a fun and interesting investment of all of our time. I think we were able to really highlight the differences among the candidates, and I think that having the questions chosen by the kids gave a fresh perspective on the issues we face in Great Falls.

I was very interested to see that the kids picked so many questions dealing with some bread and butter city services, namely Animal Control, Police Department and certification of the flood control dikes. It was an interesting evening.

Lt. Col (R) Richard Liebert said...

Well done Aaron and to our young citizens..conducting forums vital and 'Sunshine' is the best antiseptic.....