Our election plan 2007
This week's column.
As of this writing, the News & Record editorial staff has conducted 15 City Council candidate interviews over a total span of more than 10 hours, give or take a minute.
Candidate interviews are inherently inconvenient, since they consume extra time in each work day that we never had to begin with. There are still phone calls to answer and other meetings to attend. And there are still editorials and columns to write.
The candidates are busy people, too, many with full-time jobs of their own. But every one of them this election has consented to an interview.
I just wish some of them would drink the water.
Despite the worst drought around here since forever and temperatures of more than 100 degrees on several days, not one candidate has sipped one drop of the bottled water the News & Record has provided for interviews. I hope it’s nothing personal.
And despite candidates' cool reception to the N&R's H2O, the interview sessions are invaluable.
What better way to get up close and personal to the men and women who want to lead the city for the next two years?
This is where we've learned, thus far, that District 1 hopeful Tonya Clinkscale voted against the recall of one of her opponents, incumbent T. Dianne Bellamy-Small.
That District 5 incumbent Sandy Carmany questions Mayor Keith Holliday's signing of a confidentiality agreement with a developer.
And that one of Carmany's challengers, Trudy Wade, believes the council at least should have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, yea or nay.
When we committed to go to individual interviews rather than group interviews, as in the recent past, we knew it would be harder. Especially since a whopping 32 candidates are running. But it allows us a chance to dig deeper and learn more during an unusually competitive campaign that guarantees a new mayor and a very different City Council.
The revised interview process is one of several new approaches we're trying this year to make our election coverage more accessible, more relevant and more meaningful.
This year's election provides an excellent laboratory for new approaches because it's the only election on the ballot. Now, we thought, might be a good time to overhaul our elections commentary — to bring the discussion closer to your doorstep, in a form you can easily find and use.
Among the new features we're trying this fall:
Town meetings: In concert with the news department, we plan town meetings in Districts 1 and 3 on Sept. 18 and 20 to seek feedback on the issues from citizens.
The meetings were proposed by the News & Record's government editor, Eddie Wooten, who believes they're a good way to get closer to what real people think and care about. And to get News & Record reporters and editors into the community instead of the community coming to us. I agree.
At these meetings, we'll invite you to share your ideas about key issues in your community. More details on the times and places will follow in the News & Record and at our Web site, news-record.com.
A video mayoral debate: We also plan to sponsor and video record a mayoral debate between candidates Milton Kern and Yvonne Johnson that will be posted on our Web site, where readers should be able to replay it at their convenience.
Video candidate statements: In the general election, we'll also post online brief video statements from every council candidate who chooses to participate. We thought it might help voters to know what they look and sound like, in their own words and voices.
Online questionnaires: Written Q&As that speak to each candidate's qualifications and stances on the issues will be posted on our Web site:
Do Greensboro citizens distrust city government? If so, why , and what should be done about it?
• Do they distrust the police department? If so, how to restore that trust?
• What current City Council member do you admire most and why?
• If you’re a sitting council member, what vote or decision would you change in retrospect?
And more.
A mayoral issues series: Leading up to the debate, editorial writer Doug Clark, who is following the mayor's race for the editorial staff, will pose key questions to the candidates about issues such as leadership and vision.
Doug will write a series of editorials reacting to their answers and we'll also post the full text of their answers online. Two editorials in this series already have run.
A central location: One key theme in this year's coverage is to locate all election information — editorials, stories, questionnaires, lists, maps and videos — in one place on our Web site.
Created in partnership with our news department, the Web page will debut early September and continue to grow as we update and add content.
It's a lot to invest in city elections that have tended to be less than electrifying in recent years. But we believe this year could be different. We’ll see, come Nov. 6.
In the meantime, is anybody thirsty?
Comments (6)
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Allen,
I am quite puzzled by the statement in your column today --"...That District 5 incumbent Sandy Carmany questions Mayor Keith Holliday's signing of a confidentiality agreement with a developer..." My memory of my response is quite different.
We were discussing the big secret development proposed for downtown (not so secret anymore, I guess) and I stated that I knew nothing more about the project than what I had been reading in the N&R. Someone then said that the Mayor had signed a confidentiality agreement and asked if I had a problem with that.
With a big grin on my face, I replied along the line of -- "No, given the council's tendency to leak information, it was probably a wise decision" -- and got quite a few chuckles from those of you present.
Could you please review the tape and/or your notes and clarify this apparent misinterpretation of my response? Thanks!
Posted on August 26, 2007 12:49 PM
BTW If all these downtown projects happen
1) Triumph Center towers
2) 13-condo/hotel
3) 30-story Center Pointe II tower
this is what you could expect Greensboro's skyline to look like. pretty impressive indeed.
http://www.downtownstadium.org/NEWCITYVIEW3.JPG
Posted on August 27, 2007 10:52 AM
Sandy,as I wrote to you in an e-mail earlier today, I have in my notes your reference to the mayor's signing of the confidentiality agreement not being "appopriate." Then I recall the joke that followed about leaks on the council.
Doug Clark, who also was there, corroborates this account.
That said, I'd still like to be absolutely sure we didn't hear you wrong.
As you know, we recorded the interview digitally but have had some technical issues opening the the files. We'll check them as soon as we can, but it may take until tomorrow.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience.
Posted on August 27, 2007 8:14 PM
Allen, this is an impressive complement of coverage on the website. I hope that much of this will leach on to the print version of the paper, where many older folks still primarily get their information. But I appreciate all this effort.
Posted on August 27, 2007 9:35 PM
Allen, please tell me I've misconstrued your statement that the candidate interviews are "inconvenient." I thought they were a major responsibilty in service to the community. You make it sound like a major waste of your time.
I'm also concerned that you say in today's blog that your interview with DBS lasted 90 minutes. If your total for all candidates was 10 hours, that leaves the 14 others about 36 minutes each. That's not much time at all and frankly doesn't seem like equal treatment to me.
Can you enlighten me?
Also, I'd like to echo Joe G's suggestion that this kind of thing needs to be covered in the hard copy as well. In fact, there seems to be an awful lot on the N&R blogs (I"m thinking particularly of Joe K's insightful addition to his piece on gangs) that should appear in print.
Posted on August 28, 2007 6:54 AM
Good point, Joe. We plan to have a sttong presence in both places.
Part of the beauty of online is that it will be a repository, in one place, for all of the things we've done in print. And more.
Posted on August 28, 2007 11:51 AM