The Pullman League of Women Voters are hosting an election forum tonight in the council chambers at Pullman City Hall, 325 SE Paradise St., from 7:00 - 9:00 PM.
Unopposed city council candidates will be introduced and opponents and proponents of various statewide initiatives have been offered a chance to speak. Most importantly, the opposed city council candidates for Wards 1 and 3 will have an opportunity to speak and answer questions from the audience. Gary Johnson, PARD's Ward 1 candidate, will not get to speak because he is not on the ballot.
Everyone that supports Wal-Mart needs to attend this forum and support the pro-Wal-Mart candidates. Luckily for us, 3 of the 4 candidates speaking tonight are in favor of Wal-Mart. The media will be there in strength and it will be carried live on public access cable.
Plan to arrive early for parking and good seats. The nationally-renown WSU forces of "free speech, tolerance and diversity" are certain to make a big showing tonight for Judy "Nightmare on Main Street" Krueger and Gary "My Last Name is the Same as the Mayor" Johnson.
UPDATE: If you go tonight, be on the lookout for folks wearing the BREO name tags. Stop by and pick up your own. Let's stand out in the crowd.
11 comments:
Russ and I will be there. We will have BREO nametags for anyone who would like to be identified as a BREO member.
I'm hoping to be there though I'm having some back issues today and am not sure if I'll make it through the day.
I hope to take a brake from work to come down for a bit, see 'ya then.... Will be fun. Will thta "Trolly" be making a stop??? LOL
Sorry I couldn't be there had to run to Spokane tonight - What about a straight recap, instead of the DEvergreen or DNews slant.
Well now, that was some good times; we learned a lot. I took away from this forum 2 major things. #1 Ann Heath shared the information that Pullman is 48% of the average amount of tax receipts per capita in the state. So we are in the bottom half, now that is nice, NOT. Ann Heath wants to address that problem. She spoke of being for grow, but to be fair so did Judy K. I was not impressed with the way Judy wanted she thought it could all happen downtown. To increase our tax receipts by 50% or just even 25 to 30% we will need to add a few more floors to the existing buildings downtown. There are not enough empty buildings to increase that amount of receipts. Then #2 Judy K wanted to have a regulation on the books that would require stores over 100,000 sq feet that they be required to pay a “Living Wage” she never said what that should be. This on the face of it, it is so far out on the skinny branches I can’t see it. One thing I would say remember Richard Nixon and his venture into ‘price controls’, what disaster that was. Then we had Judy bring up the “Trolley” again and she never told us how she would pay for this ‘little project’ when she is cutting out any large retailers that would come with large amount of tax receipts to help pay for it.
I forgot to add Paul Johson was not present but some lady (I did not catch her name they were having problems getting the sound work so all could hear at this point) did read a stament from him, he was out of town for his fathers 90th birthday. The one thing a think I heard was that Mr. Johson had and or was a "mover and a shaker" in the NEA here in Washington. Now that on the face of it is a VERY BIG strike against him, he should try to hide that fact.
The lady speaking for Johnson was Cynthia Hosick. April, myself and Ray were there respresenting BREO.
As Ray said, Ann Heath, Bill Paul and Josh Coke all presented themselves well. Judy Krueger started her opening statement fairly even and well spoken then stumbled and babbeled in her responses to questions. Josh Coke was the rising star by being both informed and to the point.
Thanks everyone - I sure didn't want to miss it. Sounds pretty clear where the lines are drawn :-)
PS: We've had public input ad nausem (easily over 300 hours) since 1980 on the Comprehensive Plans, Map and various preliminary plats etc. It clearly shows what Judy DOESN'T know about how the boards and commissions work hand in hand with the council and city staff. The publics has had lots of opportunities. We may want to get a figure from Mark or Pete at the city to come up with this figure on the Wal-Mart project, just for reference.
I got there just as they were going over the rules. I wish I had gotten to meet the other BREO folks. Personally, I was impressed by Joshua, Bill, and Ann. I found it odd that Judy Krueger's campaign manager, Cynthia Hosick, was there representing Gary Johnson. I really feel this points to these two candidates as being puppets for PARD. I also was concerned that Ms. Hosick said the reason Gary wasn't on the ballot was due to boundary oversights, etc. My question is if there is a boundary issue has it been settled? If not, should he be running to represent Ward 1.
I also felt there was at least one canned question. Judy got to answer first about the 3 ordinances she would like to see passed if elected. None of the other candidates were prepared to answer that, but boy Howdy she was. She had to rifle through her notes to find the answers, but she had them.
Of course the trolley issue was brought up again. Even more scary, Judy thinks Main street should become a two-way street with diagonal parking on the sides. She felt this would increase traffic in the downtown area. I started to a laugh and a couple people next to me looked at me like I was crazy. I guess you aren't supposed to laugh at ridiculous ideas. At any rate, we already have enough traffic congestion on Main. I think this would make it worse.
It was hard for me not to laugh. Yes people, the trolley is still a part of Judy's plan, with her boutique stores and sidewalk cafes. I see no reason to let her get by with this crazy idea.
The forum is being rerun nightly on cable channel 11 at 8-9 p.m. except Sundays. It's quite entertaining, you might want to tape it.
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