During the City of Sammamish council elections race of 2007, a suitable and affordable venue for a candidate question and answer forum could not be found, and so no such forum was held.

Many in the community saw this as a breakdown in the democratic process.

Six months out from council elections in November, and a movement is already stirring to avoid such a repeat and ensure a fair and enlightening candidate forum be held.

At last week’s meeting of the Sammamish Kiwanis Club, Vice President Doug Eglington led a discussion of ways in which the volunteer service group could promote and organize a candidate forum in the months leading up to the election.

Eglington said that Kiwanis had co-sponsored council elections in the past.

“We feel that there is a real hunger on the part of the community for such an event,” Eglington said. “The Kiwanis will be trying to get something going.”

Hamstrung by a limited budget but rich with community contacts and support, the Kiwanis tossed around ideas for a suitable venue, such as a church, as well as ways to record and broadcast the event.

In the days following the Kiwanis meeting, Citizens for Sammamish member Michael O’Connell sent an email to city councillors, staff, and residents, urging them to work toward finding an appropriate venue and staging a forum ahead of the elections.

“The right to hold an open forum on subjects of the people’s choosing is at the core of a democratic society regardless,” O’Connell wrote. “If we are to develop a strong participatory democracy in Sammamish then these forums should be held without restraint.”

It has been proposed that the city hall was the best place for a candidate forum, as it is large enough and is equipped with the technology to broadcast the event on Government Access Channel 21.

This proposal has been met with resistance by some councillors, and sent staff scrambling to their regulatory handbooks as to whether or not such an event can be held on city property.

The use of city hall as a venue for candidate debate is felt to place council-appointed staff, such as city manager Ben Yazici, in an uncomfortable position.

If a candidate forum was to be held in the city chambers, it required a reworking of the current policy which reserves the use of the chambers during the evening for city meetings and boards and commissions only.

At Tuesday night’s meeting of the council, a resolution was adopted that would allow the city hall to be used for a candidate forum, at a fee.

The adopted policy said that:

• The city will not play any role in the recording of candidate forums anywhere.

• The will not play any role in the selection of questions, venues, moderators, or sponsoring organizations.

• The city will air, on Sammamish 21 TV, recordings of those City Council candidate forums that meet the following condition.

• Only candidates for Sammamish City Council are covered by this policy. Candidate forums for other elected positions will not be aired on Sammamish 21 TV.

• A candidate forum will be recorded no sooner than 45 days before the election date and no later than 14 days before the election date.

• Candidate forums that meet all city conditions will air at least three times before the election date.

While it does solve the issue of ensuring television coverage for a candidate forum, it does not address the basic problem of the affordability of a venue, and the prohibitive cost of television recording equipment.

In his email, O’Connell wrote “since we the taxpayers fund the city hall and all of the staff salaries, we should be able to use the facility for these sessions.”

He went on to write that the city should open the city hall council chamber for these forums on a scheduled basis to any organization willing to sponsor them, record and broadcast the proceedings in full and without censorship, make the recording available to the public following the current process, and provide support staff to operate the equipment.

At the Kiwanis meeting last week, Kiwanis member and councillor Kathy Huckabay said that she felt that city hall would be the best venue.

Huckabay, who has announced she will not run in November, was very supportive of a forum, replying to O’Connell that “Democracy with a little d is messy, and hopefully we will have the opportunity to hold and broadcast citizens forums in the citizens house.”

She told The Reporter this week that the city’s policy regarding use of the hall was messy and was in need of improvement.

In a reply to O’Connell, Mayor Don Gerend wrote that the city was “striving to facilitate” a candidate forum.

“We do, however, have to pay attention to the advice of the City Attorney as to what we can and can’t do,” he wrote, concerning the availability of city facilities.

O’Connell links the city’s willingness or unwillingness to promote a candidate forum to their support of the democratic process in a larger sense.

“I would like to see an increase in citizen participation in our local democracy and these forums should facilitate this,” O’Connell wrote. “You are well aware that any city sponsored attempt to have power over Sammamish democratic processes will constitute prima facie evidence that indeed you are trying to retain your positions by restricting open dialog. You should not put yourselves in this position and the citizens should never allow it.”

Councillor Jack Barry said on Tuesday it was vitally important that a candidate forum was managed by an independent body.

“Whoever sponsors the forum needs to be free of any enhancements that may favor one or any of the candidates, and, just as importantly, they need to be free of the appearance of favoring any of the candidates,” he said.

He suggested that the Chamber of Commerce would be an appropriate group to organize a forum, and said that the city hall would be the best venue.

“My only concern is with the existing policy that says it we let a group use the chambers we have to charge them a fee,” Barry said. “I think we need to revisit that, to make it more possible for non-profit groups to use the space.”

As to whether or not use of city hall for the forum would suggest favoritism for the incumbent councillors, Barry said that that was a decision to be made by the organizers.

“That is something for the management group (of the sponsor),” he said. “If they decide that holding the forum at city hall would be a distraction, then they would have to find another venue.”

At Tuesday night’s meeting, a very full agenda, including another public hearing on the Shoreline Master Plan, forced council to defer a decision on the fate of Freed House until the next meeting later this month.