APB Archives

THE CITY ATTORNEY RACE (Feb 14, 04)

THE STATUS (Dec 22, 03)

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We're ON for February 11!! All three candidates have accepted and the room is
booked! Crank up your questions for the City Attorney to be. Prosecutions
for code compliance, gangs, graffiti, etc.? Where are the people from the
community court doing their service? You know the questions to ask.
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I SENT THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL TO THE CANDIDATES (Dec 16, 03)

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Dear Mike, Deborah, and Leslie,
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Looks like we are all set for February 11, 2004, 6:00PM to 8:00PM. The room is ours until 9:00PM, so if you want to stay afterward and continue the Q&A directly with the folks, you may. After 9:00PM, everyone out of the
building, but you can continue the discussions in the parking lot as long as you like - even to the dawn's early light.
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The venue is located at 4283 El Cajon Boulevard, Room 220. That's the
SDSU Foundation building, second floor. It works like everything else in City Heights, so you won't be able to get in through the FRONT door. The entrance is a bit out of sight, so hold the address in your memory banks, and I'll send along a decent map of the building, parking, etc. for you. Parking WILL be reserved for the candidates; everyone else is first come first served. Parking can be tough under normal circumstances, and with a crowd, it will be tougher. Plan ahead.
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I have a start-on-time fetish, so we'll start on time at 6:00PM, even if
I'm talking to myself. If the forum is going well for the three of YOU and
YOU want to continue past 8:00PM, we'll be amenable. We really do have to end
at 9:00PM.
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I would like to use a format that has been successful here before. We'll
have opening remarks from each of you, questions from the audience, and
closing remarks from each. I hope you don't want a lot of time opening and
closing. The big reason even to invite you is so the community can pose its
questions and hear your answers. We'd like that to dominate the evening.
We've never been bashful about asking questions, so I don't plan to bring any. There'll be no lack of questions from the audience.
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I'll provide pencils and 3X5 cards for each seat in the house and ask the
audience to PRINT the questions. Asking people to compose themselves on 3X5
cards gets a lot more clarity in the questions and avoids wasting time with
meaningless anecdotes or political posturing. I'll ask each of you to field each question, and we'll rotate first, second, third so everyone is equally treated (or mistreated). We'll get multiples of the same basic question, so it will be my job as moderator to group them by topic and pose the generic version that best captures them all.
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How long for each question and three answers? Well, if we set aside 20
minutes for ground rules and opening remarks, then another 20 minutes to close the proceedings, we have 80 minutes for the meat of the meeting. If we allow ten minutes for each question, we get through 8 questions, which won't impress anyone. I'd like us to try to fit each item into say seven minutes, so we can get to nearly a dozen questions. That will feel better to the audience and still give you reasonable response time. Again, if the forum is hot and you want to extend, we will.
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From years of reading speeches to City Councils and other bodies, I've
found that three-quarters of a page of single spaced text takes about two
minutes. Improptu speaking with no notes or preparation is actually a little faster, so you won't be left feeling cut off. Our history with timing is good. You won't be slighted by the clock.
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I urge candidates to give their own answer to each question and not get
into opposing other candidates' answers. That's worked well in the past. The differing views and responses form a natural point-counterpoint of candidate to candidate. We're better informed when candidates advance themselves and
their positions. Frankly, with each question, we'd like you to give us a
reason why we should vote for you. Easy for us; easy for you.
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Feel free to bring your campaign materials. We'll have tables at the
back of the room for them. Our folks do take reading materials, and I think
they read much of it. Basically, come prepared to meet some bright people who
are interested in the City Attorney's work, and come prepared to field some
tough questions. You'll like us. Everybody likes us.
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E-mail me back if you have a suggestion for the format. I'll remind all the candidates about 2 weeks before the forum, then again about a week before. Wouldn't want to miss any of you.
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WHAT HAPPENED? (Feb 14, 03)

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We held a very nice forum for the candidates. It was the longest forum they have held, there were more questions than they had ever answered before, and the questions were all gritty, local, relevant questions about life in City Heights and how the candidates proposed to make it better. If you missed it, you REALLY missed it.
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You might have heard some rumors about one of the candidates acting badly in
the forum. Probably there is a grain of truth in what you heard. Whatever
the actual story was, it's history. The candidates like us. We will have
some influence in the City Attorney's office, something we've needed for a
long time. This was a good session for us and for them.
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