Friday, January 22, 2010

Oshkosh Council Primary Heating Up

6:02 PM  Justin Mitchell  15 comments

Last night the League of Women Voters hosted a forum for the Oshkosh Common Council candidates. One of the seven candidates will be eliminated following the primary on February 16. If you missed the forum, you can check it out at Oshkosh Community Media Services.


The forum had a bit of agreement among candidates, and tended to sway away from divisive hot-button issues. The result was significantly more discussion of philosophies and leadership style and much less yes/no attention grabbing topic of the minute gotcha questioning. This was likely the result of an absence by ONW and WOSH - I hope the LWV continues with this route in the future.

One of the more prominent themes of the evening was the strong vocal support for sustainability. I hope that in the course of the remainder of the election season, the candidates put some action or substance to their claims of support. In future interviews or questionnaires, the candidates should be asked "explain how you would support sustainable initiatives" or "what types of sustainable actions would you support". Many of these sustainable initiatives take money up front, with the economic payoff observed over 5-25 years. The environmental gains are usually immediate. Further, most communities taking strong action on this subject tie sustainability with development and building codes, adding efficiency requirements, water management design principles, and more. Where do the candidates really stand on these types of challenging issues?

For a reference, candidates with websites that we could locate with a brief search include the following (names omitted did not have a site to provide campaign info):

- Ron Hardy - http://www.ronaldkanehardy.com/oshkosh/

- John Hinz - http://nntbringosworld.blogspot.com/

- Burk Tower - http://oshkoshcommunitymedia.org/Tower.htm


If any of the candidates (including judge candidates) are interested in posting something on MainStreetOshkosh, feel free to send over some info and a campaign pic.

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15 comments:

God forbid that candidates should be asked any questions about current issues facing the city of Oshkosh. Instead, they were asked long essay questions some times longer than the one minute that was alloted for a response.
I would suggest at the next LWV forum that each candidate in advance to be asked to review three books one each on Judaism. Christianity and Islam and answer how these three religious philosophies apply to being a candidate for the Common Council!

i thought the forum went well too. past forums spent loads of time on issues that the council never takes on. this forum had a good balance of stances on issues and the value candidates place on planning and things.

What is with this John Hinz character? I looked at his blog. I don't think we need another Paul Esslinger type on our city council but is this guy for real? Wow.

http://foxtrot-echo.blogspot.com/2010/01/oshkosh-city-council-candidate-with.html

Couldn't disagree more Justin. The LWV forums are way too vanilla. The questions were ridiculously long and as usual don't get to the meat of anything. It doesn't matter that the ONW and WOSH weren't there. They stick to the same format so it was no different in style, just a different face asking the questions. You'd think after this many years and being told by so many people how boring they are, they'd learn, but seems they'd rather stick with a ho-hum presentation.

Why can't the LWV hold a open forum and let the voters ask the questions for once? Are they afraid of democracy?

After looking through the Chamber of Commerce questions, it seems the follow a simliar format - what is your philosophy on economic development and what role should the city play.

It doesn't really matter what stance the candidates have on if a house boat should be there or not. For anyone trying to improve their community through local government means, it is important to know:

What type of role do they hope to play?

What are their thoughts on the city's role in ecomonic development, sustainability, etc

Describe how they support or will incorporate resident feedback and participation

While it is interesting and touchy to have an opinion on deer culling, a more telling question would be regarding citizen participation (the new deer management board, which a candidate could say should have been formed and consulted before any action occured) or regarding the role the council has in government accountability (ie following through with what was approved, etc).

And to the concerns of boringness, some of us involved in the community find this type of thing to be very interesting and even enjoyable. Others don't. This isn't something that pushes for or even cares about ratings.

I'm glad we don't go to game show style with flash and bangs, and would actually rather have the questioning be longer with more time to answer.

Further, talking to almost any candidate, they would all say this is an extremely important part of the campaign - especially for newcomers. That we have this forum and an opportunity to "talk" with the candidates is always going to be a good thing.

The audience can ask questions but they have to be written on paper and submitted. The LWV hen decides which ones will be asked and which ones won't. God forbid we actually ask someone to support their past vote on something or explain their past criminal behavior. Sure positions on issues are important but let's face it. Some candidates have their own issues that need to be explored. Without the opportunity to do that you're hardly seeing the true makeup of that person.

Ex. Remember the run ins Caroline Carver has had with the law? Is that not something the public should be able to hear about and judge her on her fitness of being a judge given those things? That's just one example.

Sure, if those are important topics for you, I'd encourage you to contact Cheryl or Dan with Eye on Oshkosh and have them ask a specific candidate questions concerning their specific past, etc. They actually already do this, and are very responsive to suggestions.

Are you saying that someone with a criminal history like Carver's is not important to you Justin? How can we expect a judge to uphold the law when she alone can't? These types of issues should be important to everyone.

"Let she who is without sin cast the first stone."

Define "criminal record".

I don't know about the "Carver Story" you are alluding to, but to what degree of innocence should a judge be held to? A Felony? What about a judge who embezzled money? What about petty theft? Trespassing?

What about smoking pot in the past - does that disqualify one from judge?

But an additional question would be whether when an individual has served their time, sentence, punishment, etc, are they then "reformed", or forever barred from judicating the law?

I ask these questions not to be argumentative or to defend anyone, I have no horse in the race. I'm just curious.

Read the history of these events in the ONW then let us know if you think they are on the same level as some of the other things you've mentioed. Also you should consider the age someone is when these events take place. Carver was a married woman with children, not some kid in college smoking a reefer. With age we should become wiser and more in control of things, like anger.

Judges should be held to a higher standard. Accordingly Ms. Carver does not seem fit to hold the office, IMHO.

I agree that the League forums are boring and leave much to be desired.

How's this:

Anonymous (all of you strong-willed and confident ones) can suggest 5-6 questions (total) for the council candidates. If any of these question topics of relevance and importance (often hard ideas to be found in content from Anonymous), we'll assemble a questionnaire for our fine candidates to complete for posting here.

Note of caution - that if you thought the forum with live people and funny faces was boring, wait till you read these responses.

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