From the notes of moderator John Hansen:
With the election just 30 days away it was no surprise that we had a very full house. We skipped the agenda building and went right to the stump speeches. An advantage of the Forum is that you get to hear candidates from both parties and folks on both sides of the ballot issues.
Bill Gordon started things off with his reasons to oppose the Voters not Politicians proposal.
Sue Shink (D) followed with the reasons to elect her to the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners seat for district 2.
Teri Aiuto (R) promoted her candidacy for State Representative for District 52.
Chris encouraged a yes vote on the Voters not Politicians proposal.
(Stump speeches are very personal and are not paraphrased here. All of the speakers responded to questions from the audience.)
We have not been approached by anyone to speak to the other three ballot proposals so we entertained a few comments on each of them.
Legalizing recreational marijuana. Folks were quite conflicted. Prohibition clearly has little impact on marijuana use but we are worried about attracting young people to the drug through legalization.
The proposal to ‘make it easier’ to vote seemed like a solution to a problem that does not really exist. Do your own homework on this one.
The fourth proposal involves a renewal of the county parks operating issue.
The next meeting of the Dexter Forum will be on Saturday, October 20 at 8:30 AM at the Dexter Wellness Center. In addition to the highly publicized races there is also competition for seats on the Dexter Board of Education. We will have two board candidates on the stump along another candidate for judge.
The Dexter Forum is supported by the Dexter Wellness Coalition as part of the 5 Healthy Towns initiative to “help connect with others in healthy ways”. The purpose of the Forum is to create an opportunity for interested women and men to gather to discuss important issues facing our community. All are welcome on a drop-in basis. The group meets on the first and third Saturdays of the month.
The Forum is co-moderated by Karl Fink and John Hansen.
