Commotion queries candidates for boards
Five candidates vying for two seats on the Fort Myers Beach Fire Control District Board of Fire Commissioners and six candidates for three seats on the Lee County Board of County Commission will be answering issue-related questions at the Legislative Committee of the Greater Fort Myers Beach Area Chamber of Commerce “Commotion by the Ocean” forum at Town Hall Thursday, Oct. 14.
The night will start with a “Meet & Greet” with all candidates beginning at 5:30 p.m. The televised candidate forum will begin at 6 p.m.
The forum, which will feature the county commission hopefuls on the dais before the local fire board candidates, will act as a great opportunity to hear what the candidates have to say on the issues. The general election for both legislative bodies is slated for Nov. 2, 2010.
“It should be fast moving and very informative with a number of different viewpoints coming out,” said FMB Chamber President John Albion. “There will be direct questions on how the county commission candidates will be handling some of the Beach issues (Seafarer’s Mall, Estero Boulevard, trolley service, business community issues). It’s important for us to make sure the public has the opportunity to hear the questions and answers based on the issues that we can all expect Beach people to be concerned about.”
The candidates are asked to bring cookies depicting something about them and/or their campaign.
“(The cookies) give the candidates an extra opportunity to say something about themselves or their campaign just through that different form,” said Albion. “Between the cookies, the kids’ questions, the speed rounds and the regular questions, that’s four different ways you can really hear from the candidates. Even the funny questions show how they handle things that are not part of the norm.”
The invited and confirmed Lee County Commission hopefuls as of Tuesday morning are John Manning and Carla Johnston for District #1; Brian Bigelow and Debbie Jordan for District #2; and Tammy Hall and Deborah Jackow for District #4.
The Beach Fire Board candidate invitees include Al Agathen, Sr. and Carol Anne Morris for Seat #3; and Gordon “Flip” Harby, Theodore (Ted) Schindler II and Keith Szyperski for Seat #5.
The Beach chamber panel is expected to be legislative committee members Marilyn Stout, Carl Conley, Marguerite Burns, Roxie Smith, Fran Myers, Ellis Etter, Suzanne Bartels, Ann Alsop, Bill Van Duzer, Jennifer Seaborn and Andrew Cochrane, the chamber’s 2010 chairman of the board. Two Beach Elementary students will ask questions as well. FMB Chamber President John Albion will serve as the master of ceremonies for the event.
The nonpolitical chamber’s Commotion by the Ocean event began in the early 1980s on top of the Lani Kai, after taking it over from the American Business Women’s Association. It has been offered as a public service to the community for more than 20 years by the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Committee.