On Thursday, October 13, the Chamber hosted a forum for candidates running for three council positions in Black Diamond. The format for this forum was different than the one the chamber hosted last month for the Maple Valley city council candidates.
For the Maple Valley forum, we co-sponsored the event with The Maple Valley Reporter with Dennis Box moderating and gave The Reporter full editorial control over the questions. In the Black Diamond forum, the chamber crafted the questions and sent them to the candidates prior to the forum, a format Dennis does not support. Despite these editorial differences, The Reporter readily provided the time-keeper as well as the live text-streaming. (I always love it when we can disagree but continue to work together.) And as I said in my closing remarks last night, just as Dennis didn't have anything to do with the questions, the chamber doesn't have anything to do with what Dennis will write about the forum . . . . .
So why you ask did we choose to do it differently in Black Diamond?
By having the questions before hand, the Black Diamond candidates were able to articulate a response that would not inadvertently jeopardize their future ability to serve on council by answering questions of a quasi-judicial nature regarding applications pending before The City right now. As with many of our previous forums, Gary Habenicht, whose family roots run deep in Black Diamond and Maple Valley, moderated the forum as he has done for so many of these events for the chamber. Gary has a unique ability to put candidates at ease.
The forum began with each candidate's self-introduction followed by a lightning round of seven questions that included audience participation. The six lightning round questions required a simple YES-NO answer. The questions were posed to both the candidates and audience at the same time with the response given with a simple YES or NO answer printed on a colored card. These questions were not given to the candidates in advance.
- Do you support the idea of a commuter rail (DMU) connecting
Black Diamond, Maple Valley, and Covington to Sound Transit's light rail
line?
- Does the city of Black Diamond
currently support existing businesses?
- Is growth inevitable?
- Do you see a
future for mining in Black Diamond?
- In general, do you support the idea of master
planned developments as opposed to pierce-meal developments?
- Is the current
level of public safety services adequate?
- Is Black Diamond the best town in
southeast King County? (a fun one to relax the candidates a bit)
The lightning round was followed by two rounds of questions drawn at random from the pool of questions sent to the candidates. The third round was a question of the candidate's choosing from the same pool of questions. The fourth round consisted of a candidate-to-candidate series of questions.
Here are the 18 questions in the pool of questions:
- What are your top 2 funding priorities? Please explain.
- Black Diamond's 50th Anniversary Slogan is "Looking Back,
Moving Forward." Take a moment to imagine
what the City of Black Diamond will look like in 20 years . . . . Then share
your vision . . . and an appropriate slogan.
- Many cities are trying to attract
commercial development because that presence means a better, more consistent
tax base that helps provide city services and improvements. Do you want to
attract more businesses? Please explain
and give an example of a specific business you would like to see here.
- What is the one thing the city can do to
support existing businesses now?
- In
regards to retail leakage to neighboring cities: what would you propose to help
keep consumer dollars and retail tax revenues in the City of Black Diamond?
- What is the single most important function of
city government?
- Explain your
understanding of the Growth Management Act as it applies to Black Diamond.
- Is there an alternative to a master planned
development? Please explain.
- What are your plans for keeping The City
fiscally sound?
- In regards to property
rights, how do property rights extend fairly and equitably to both the
individual property owner and a large property owner such as a developer?
- What distinguishes you from your opponent?
- Name one or two characteristic or attributes
that must be forever retained and/or preserved in Black Diamond?
- What will you do to serve the best interests
of The City 'moving forward'?
- As this
community grows, what must be done to meet the needs of the kids in regards to
adequate school facilities?
- Given you
are just one vote on the Council, how would you, or do you, affect change?
- What is the one thing you would change in the
City of Black Diamond given the singular power to do so?
- Looking to the next 4 years, if you could
sign your name to one accomplishment, what would it be?
- What is the biggest issue Black Diamond is
facing in the next year and how would you address it?
Many thanks to all the candidates for fully participating in this event, to all who attended and listened so attentively to the candidates, and a very special thank you to Gary Habenicht. And many thanks to Cheryl Hanson and the Black Diamond Community Center for providing a perfect venue for the forum.
To read how the candidates answered some of the above questions,
click here to go to The Reporter's live text stream coverage of the forum.
View photos here.
Added on 10/14/2011
Filed Under
Black Diamond News,
Chamber Events in Review by Chamber blog
