(Some) Candidates (Kinda) Answer Questions
The Palos Verdes community finally had a chance to ask questions to all the candidates running for school board. On September 12th, the League of Women Voters (LWV) and the PVP Chamber hosted a candidate forum, and the following week on September 19th, EdFirstPV hosted another forum. The LWV forum was attended by all four candidates, but only two candidates (myself and Alexandria Blumer) attended the EdFirstPV forum (watch the first few minutes of the EdFirstPV video to hear the declination responses from them). The League of Women Voters chose not to live-stream or even record their event, while EdFirstPV did both. Thankfully some private citizens showed up to record the LWV event. I urge everyone to watch both:
Watch the League of Women Voters / PV Chamber Candidate Forum here.
Watch the EdFirstPV Candidate Forum here.
So, what happened?
At the LWV Forum, topics ranged from the bond, to parental involvement, to transparency and accountability. I expected there to be some disagreement on opinions (and of course there was), but I did not expect there to be disagreement on basic facts. Due to the rules of the forum (and the fact that it was NOT a “debate,”) I could not correct some of the unfactual statements that were made that evening. Instead, I created a short series of videos called “Fun with Facts” to correct the record. You can watch those videos here:
The only “saucy” moment occurred during the closing statements when the incumbent school board president Ami Gandhi used her allotted time to attack me personally. I think it was a good opportunity for a teaching moment when I had time to reflect during the closing statements the following week:
Campaign Funding
One of the other topics that came up in the first forum was campaign contributions. The question was regarding the location of the donors (i.e. were they from inside or outside the local PV area). For the record, all my campaign contributions are from local residents, except for some friends, family, and colleagues that I reached out to for support. The un-asked question though, was about the type of donor. I am proud to say that all of my donors are individuals. I have not received any funds from any Political Action Committees, Unions, Political Parties, or Political Committees. That is not the case for some of the other candidates. If you are curious to see which candidates are taking money from partisan political groups in what should be a non-partisan race, you can look up all the records here (check back after September 26 which is the next filing date).
No-Shows
I was disheartened that two of the candidates (Eric Alegria and Ami Gandhi) chose to boycott the second candidate forum. At the end of the first forum, there were still several questions remaining in the queue. The second forum, with only two candidates answering questions, still lasted well over an hour, so the community clearly was still curious about the candidate positions.
What’s next?
There are no more scheduled school board candidate forums. If you have any questions about my positions, please email me. This week, board member Julie Hamill is holding a town hall to allow the community to ask questions about any topic. There will be representatives in attendance both for and against the school bond Measure SOS who will be addressing the audience. You can learn more at www.hamill4pv.com/townhall.
