Two Weeks to Vet 39 Council Applicants

By Rudizink

Now that the City Council candidates list has finally (and belatedly) been released into the public domain, our city council is faced with the daunting task of culling the herd, and narrowing the list down to five finalists by the September 27, 2006 drop-dead date, at which point a replacement councilmember will be chosen and sworn in.

Given the extemely narrow window of opportunity between now and that date, it appears that Weber County Forum may very well be the only public venue wherein a truly robust discussion of the qualifications of the 39 candidates can adequately occur. We therefore formally open the door (and the floor) for our readers' comments, recommendations and objections on this topic.

Although at least one of our gentle readers has suggested that we all keep mum on the subject, your humble blogmeister rejects that approach out of hand. As our own gentle Curmudgeon very recently commented, Weber County Forum has become a true citizen-driven community forum -- a place where issues of concern to the townfolk can be freely and thoroughly discussed. Your blogmeister agrees entirely with this assessment, and believes that the present posture of this cyber-place is almost completely in keeping with the objects set forth in our very first introductory WCF article. We thus do not intend to deviate at all from what we have done very successfully so far. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," we say.

So come one; come all. We believe it's the solemn duty of the citizens of the Land of Oz to vet these candidates; and we'd like to retain the "free-wheeling attitude" that we envisioned upon founding this blog.

The only constraints we'll impose on the conversation will be those already set forth in our Weber County Forum Posting Policy, which can be reviewed here, and is also available in our upper-right sidebar. As to these limitations on discussion, our existing policy will be strictly enforced. We want to give all these community minded candidates a fair shake, after all.

Although we've already had some limited discussion of these candidates under the previous article, we've decided to start the conversation anew, and dedicate this thread solely to a discussion of the City Council Seat A applicants and their qualifications. Although we anticipate other news stories will occupy our attention in the days to come, we nevertheless intend to keep this article and thread available on the front page up to and including the September 27, 2006 final selection date. If all goes well, and an intelligent dialogue develops, we're also toying with the idea of forwarding a copy of this article, together with our reader comments, directly to each of our city council members, in advance of the two crucial calender dates. In this connection, we're sure that we won't have to remind anyone to "mind their manners."

Just to kick-start the discussion, we link here this morning's Kristen Moulton and Scott Schwebke articles, which begin, in a rudimentary way, the process of distinguishing these candidates one from another.

Have at it, gentle readers.

This is your soapbox, not ours.