Decatur Metro to Host First Ever Decatur City Commission Online Debate
Decatur Metro | October 6, 2009In what is surely a first in Decatur, if not metro Atlanta, Decatur Metro will host an online debate/forum on this site between the four city commission candidates on Wednesday, October 21st from 8p-9:30p.
DM will use the same live-blog “Cover it Live” program that was employed during the Decatur Book Festival to host an interactive live debate between candidates Fred Boykin, Patti Garrett, James Radford, Kyle Williams and the community.
Here’s how it will work.
Beginning today I will be collecting questions from the community via email to pose to the candidates. Questions can be directed at individuals, district candidates, or all four candidates. Just like in a face-to-face forum, I ask you to please keep your questions short and succinct. (One or two sentences) Prior to the event, I will compile a list of questions from the community (along with one or two of my own) to ask to the candidates over the hour and a half event. Questions will be selected in an effort to cover as many topics as possible in the allotted time in a fair and engaging manner.
However, that’s not the only way for the community to interact during the event. Using the “Cover it Live” software, community members will be able to submit potential follow-up questions to candidates during the live debate. These follow-ups will be sent to moderation and only be viewable by me. Using my own discretion, I may or may not select a follow-up to pose to the candidates. Just know that I’m not going to ask anything that I can’t verify on the spot.
And though none of the candidates even requested this, I’m going to ask that all residents who wish to submit a question provide their full name, a valid email address and their home address so I can verify their identity and residency. In posing the question I will use only first name and street address. For instance “Ann on Clairemont Ave asks all four candidates…”. If you submit a follow up during the event, you will need to provide your first name and street name for your question to be considered.
Candidates will take turns answering questions first, second, etc.
At the conclusion of the debate, I will close the forum. However, anyone will be able to go back and review the entire debate in its totality up until election day. Also, I’ll open up the comments section at that point for anyone that wants to participate in a post-debate discussion in the following days.
So that’s about it for now. A big thanks in advance to all four commission candidates for agreeing to participate in this new, unique event!
I might have a follow-up or two in the days preceding the event, but for now, put on your thinking caps and send your questions to decaturite[at]gmail.com!
Latest from Decaturish
Fantastic idea. Can’t wait. Could you please, please, please do this for the School Board race too? Even more so than City Commission, the School Board elections seem to be more about how many yard signs are where, who goes to school or church with who, who plays sports with who, vs. what are the key issues, beliefs, values, experience, skills, and voting record that distinguish the candidates.
School board would be much more difficult to execute in a similar fashion, due to the sheer number of candidates. Plus I’m pretty time-strapped as it is.
I AM willing to open up a thread where school board candidates could take questions from citizens and whatnot, but it would be much more like a regular comment section and wouldn’t be as much as an “event.” Let me know if that interests anyone.
My understanding is that the School Board contested positions are down to four candidates in two races:
District 1: Garrett Goebel and Marc Wisniewski
At Large: Rob Pope and Valerie Wilson
Bernadette Wilson is running unopposed for the District 2 seat. Everyone else must have dropped out.
So it would only be 4 candidates! Don’t know if they’d be interested in whatever you have time to do but I say go for it!
That’s weird. Why file and pay the fee if you’re not a serious candidate? You can do that for free.
Got me. Makes it a little easier to follow the race!
Heh! Called it. Good idea, DM!
Yes, but did you guess unassisted or did you hear it through the notoriously efficient Decatur grapevine?
I promise on my granny’s corset that I guessed it all by my lonesome! I’m one of those people who’s usually the last to know any gossip, anyway…I just thought it would be a good idea that would’ve surely not occurred to me in a vaccum. And I was right!
Great Moments in Debating History:
1. Nikita Khrushchev’s shoe-banging dramatics
2. “Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy”
3. DM’s laptop fails during the Decatur debate!!!
[just kidding, hope it goes well...]
Plus, none of the candidates will have to fear Nixonesque sweating or lack of handsomeness.
Terrific idea, DM. Not to take anything away from the all-important yard sign game.
DM
I know I should, if I could locate my voter registration card, answer this question, but I don’t know what district I am in or other details about our election districts geography, so it would be helpful to know what candidate is running for what district, and a map of the Districts. And, are any of the candidates running “city wide”.
Rick, here’s a link to the voting district map. FYI…It’s a pdf file.
Boykin and Radford are running in District 1
Williams and Garrett are running in District 2
The “city wide” or “at-large” seat is currently held by Pro-tem Baskett, who was just re-elected two years ago.