Kenmore Undressed

Kenmore City Council Candidate Forum – Form Over Substance

Last Thursday evening I, along with very few other Kenmore residents (50 maximum), attended a City Council Candidate Forum hosted at the Aqua Club in Kenmore’s Uplake neighborhood. I didn’t write a blog post immediately after the forum because, for me, the form of the “debate” drowned out the opportunity for a substantive public conversation about Kenmore’s future.

For a very well written overview of the evening, I highly recommend you read “The Kenmore Crow’s” blog post “Reflections on the City Council Candidate Forum” featured on the Eyes on Kenmore blog. I believe KC accurately describes the structure and substance of the evening. Here’s a snippet:

The structure of the evening was mostly centered around pre-submitted questions, grouped into categories by the moderator, with each candidate being allowed a fixed amount of time (usually 2-3 minutes) to give their thoughts on each issue.

The categories covered at the forum were:

• city budget, taxes, and spending
• traffic, 522, transit, walkable neighborhoods
• environment, air and water pollution
• parks and recreation, St. Edwards, ballfields
• Kenmore Village downtown project, Urban Partners

These subjects were certainly appropriate but the pre-submitted questions were only superficially answered as the format of the evening didn’t allow enough time to explore specifics. One of the few subjects that was hotly debated arose between Patrick O’Brien and the incumbent opponent, Allan Van Ness, regarding rising taxes, spending on the new City Hall and City employee salaries. This exchange was what I expected more of. Instead, this forum was a bit too orchestrated, too tame.

Later in the forum, the candidates were given the opportunity to ask each other specific questions. I thought this was the weakest part of the evening. I felt the time could have been better spent allowing audience members to ask questions of the candidates.

My Biggest Disappointment – Low Citizen Turn-out

I would like to say this: I have to give the candidates an “A” for putting themselves out there to run for public office. I do feel that this forum was a good beginning and the candidates showed some of their strengths and weaknesses. This is, after all, the purpose of public meetings.

My real concern is that so few Kenmore residents attended this important forum. The City of Kenmore is facing a difficult future. The current economic climate has essentially derailed the City’s plans change the shape and feel of our city. I believe Kenmore is treading water when it should be actively attracting new businesses, encouraging the use of alternative energy in our residential and commercial properties and re-thinking what the Kenmore Village should be. If we don’t plan ahead and elect individuals that have a forward-thinking vision of Kenmore, we will remain a town that everyone drives THRU to somewhere else.

As is the case with so many of our challenges in the U.S. today, it seems that the public doesn’t get personally involved until a serious crisis arises. Well, the time has come for more Kenmore residents to take a more active role in shaping our city. That’s only going to happen if citizens elect the right people to move us forward. How will they know who to elect if they merely read the voter’s pamphlet?

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