Eleven of the 16 candidates running for City Commission participated Tuesday night in a forum sponsored by a group of community churches, with questions provided by various members of the faith community. The event was held at Legacy Church and live-streamed on their Facebook page.
John Fowler, pastor at Southside Fellowship Church, said the event was organized by a group of pastors who meet on different issues in the community.
“We thought if we wanted to invoke any kind of change, we needed to be able to inform the people who come to our churches of where the candidates stand on certain issues that are usually important to people in church,” he said.
The event was moderated by Connor Minouge, a member of the community.
Candidates took the stage one a time in the order they appear on the ballot, and the event was conducted as an interview-style format. Each candidate had 6 minutes for a question-and-answer session with Minouge, then had 2 minutes for a closing statement.
As described by Minouge, questions came from three key area topics: moral legal issues in the City, coronavirus issues and what the commission plans to do in the future, and infrastructure (such as in northwest Owensboro) and population issues (such as drug control).
The entire recording of the event can be viewed here.
Candidates participating were Mark Castlen, Gordon “Gordy” Wilcher, Deirdre Carbon, Dale Taylor, Jeff Sanford, Jared Revlett, Michael Walker, Jay Velotta, Bill Moss, Andy Gamblin, and Bob Glenn.
Candidates not in attendance were Larry Maglinger, Joseph Martin, Walter Lee, Debbie Fillman, and Deanna Endicott-Smith.
There are four seats on City Commission up for grabs.
