Local Politicians Address a Variety of Questions at Candidate Forum

Candidates for the Half Moon Bay City Council, Harbor District and San Mateo County Board of Supervisors met on Sunday for a candidates forum held at Canada Cove from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

The candidates that showed up were: John Muller, Marina Fraser, Harvey Rarback, and John Ullom, running for the Half Moon Bay City Council; Pietro Parravano, Sabrina Brennan, Neil Merrilees, and Will Holsinger, running for the Harbor District; and Shelly Masur, running for the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors.

There were roughly two dozen people in attendance. Each candidate was given five minutes to kick off the forum, which was more than enough time for them to provide an introduction and a bio and talk about their views and issues. They all took advantage of that time.

I found the mix of boards present interesting, however, with nine candidates representing three different boards, it allowed for a fairly broad range of discussion by the candidates and not a lot of real “dig” into just one agency.

If you think about it, with each candidate starting off with a five-minute dissertation, times the nine candidates, the first hour provided no back and forth with the audience at all.

Still, those in attendance did get a fair overview on a wide range of topics.

Then came the Q&A. The audience members were allowed to ask questions of the candidates.

The first question, provided by Cid Young, was directed to the Half Moon Bay City Council candidates: “How are you going to spend the $10 Million that the City was awarded in arbitration with the insurance company for Beachwood? Will you vote to use the funds to pay down the debt of the judgement?”

The next question, provided by Don Freese, asked all the candidates what they would do to attract more visitors to Half Moon Bay.

The next questions were asked by me:

1) Is the $10 million award assured, guaranteed, no way we won’t get it?

2) Seeing as how HMB has its own Certified LCP (Local Coastal Program) and is entirely in the Coastal Zone, with the ability to write its own CDP’s, why didn’t the City issue itself a CDP for the Kehoe Ditch clean-up?

Young got one last question in, just before the buzzer, regarding the Kehoe Ditch: Why did the City cut brush on property they did not own?

Want to know their answers? Just ask me. I found the event to be informative and it provided the public with the opportunity to put a face to a name and hear from those candidates in attendance, which is always a good thing.

I would like to thank Canada Cove for sponsoring the event. They did a fine job from set-up right through to the end with even ice cream and cookies to boot. It was an organized, thoughtful and well-done forum. Makes one wish there were many more.

Each candidate had ample opportunity to express their pertinent background, identify their issues and provide us with their visions, and I am glad I attended.

Another candidate’s forum for the Half Moon Bay City Council will be held on Tuesday, Oct., 30, 2012, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Ted Adcock Center and will be sponsored by the Half Moon Bay Chamber of Commerce and League of Women Voters.

Want to know the answer to one of the questions asked at the Canada Cove forum? Tell us which one in the Comments section and we’ll get back to you with the answer.

Follow us on Twitter here | Like Half Moon Bay Patch here | Sign up for our daily newsletter | Blog for Half Moon Bay Patch here