The Pleasanton Weekly and TV30 will co-host a free public forum for the Pleasanton City Council mayoral and city council candidates from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Civic Center, located at 200 Old Bernal Ave. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
The forum will begin at 7 p.m. with the two mayoral candidates answering questions from moderators and audience members. Attorney Matt Morrison will challenge incumbent Mayor Jerry Thorne, who is seeking re-election to a second two-year term of office.
At 7:30 p.m. attention will be turned to the four candidates vying for two vacant seats on the City Council. The four candidates are George Bowen, a Parkside resident who recently formed the Pleasanton Voters for Smart Growth, a citizens coalition opposed to adding more apartment houses in the city; Councilwoman Kathy Narum, who was elected in a special ballot-by-mail election in May 2013 to the seat vacated by Jerry Thorne when he was elected mayor; former Planning Commissioner Arne Olson; and Olivia Sanwong, a member of the city’s Economic Development Committee.
Those attending the forum will be given cards as they enter which they can use to write out their questions for the candidates. The moderators of the forum, Pleasanton Weekly Publisher Gina Channell-Allen, Editor Jeb Bing and TV30 “Mayor’s Report” Host Tom Morrison will ask the candidates to answer these questions along with others. The candidates will have time for brief opening and closing remarks, but they will not see any questions in advance.
The forum will be videotaped for later broadcast on community television’s Channel 29 and also on the Pleasanton Weekly’s website at www.pleasantonweekly.com.
With these media heavyweights asking the questions, will Gina and Jeb have the right to censor any responses they find are critical of, or at odds with, their own “journalistic” biases?
I’m sure you meant questions and not responses …. Even if it was an attempt at sarcasm, “censoring responses” at a live event sounds foolish and is a real reach if you’re commenting just to get a dig in.
But, yes, as with any forum the questions from the audience will be vetted to keep the discussion on topic and to answer questions that are important to the majority of the audience.