[Vision2020] Challenge to the candidates: What's up with Weber & Lambert?

Donovan Arnold donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com
Sun Oct 16 00:08:06 PDT 2005


What is wrong with these two statements coming from
the same person?


"As the chair of the V2020 candidate survey
committee,"

and

. . ."I would not vote for either candidate."


This is biased. Although I admire Bill London's work
for the community, I do not see him as the most
unbiased guy in town, he hangs a little to left would
you not agree? I also think his willingness to show
support or not support publicly candidates while
holding the chair of a group that is suppose to be
unbiased illustrates the biasedness of the questions
and process the candidates went through.

Many people are not able to detect biased, like Mr.
Hansen, who could not see it. So it is important that
public forums be unbiased, OR they state up front that
they are biased forums.


"Weber refused because he does not want to use email."

This makes little sense, because he is not using
email, he is just responding to questions, Vision2020
would be the ones to post them. Just like an article
in a newspaper being posted online.

I can however, see why someone would not want to be
first introduced through the computer. More than 65%
of communication is non-verbal. First impressions are
very important. If someone comes across differently
online than in person, I could understand someone
wanting to ignore that forum for first time
communication. I personally  would rather vote for a
candidate I meet in person than a canned response to
an open ended question online. 

"I think it is imperative that every council candidate
be able to use email."

Not me. I think there are many great people out there
that are not technologically savvy or wealthy enough
to own and use a computer regularly enough to use
email.  James Carvil, the mastermind for the Bill
Clinton campaign and arguably the greatest political
mind in recent times, cannot type or use a computer. 

"If not, that means that every communication and
decision will have to have an expensive paper copy
created just for Weber.  That will cost the city
both time and money."

I think to exclude people that do not have access to
modern technology from our city's decision making
process is a form of discrimination. Many people in
this city and in the country do not have reliable
access to computers and email. And we do not have to
use paper anyway, we can always use the telephone and
radio for unofficial communication. For official
communications and actions of the city council, it
needs to be in written form also anyway.

I happen to believe that very few if any of the people
on here that have spoken against Lambert and Weber
would have voted for them anyway--so they lost little.

However, as a member of MCA, and a liberal, I can
easily see it is obvious that the panel of people who
created the questions, the questions, the forum, and
audience they posted to were biased. 

I doubt very much that those of you who stated that
you will not vote for a candidate because they did not
answer a question are being honest. Because if you
are, then that means that you have not voted for any
candidate in elected office now in Idaho because they
have not answered every question posed to them.

I do understand though why Bill London, who asked the
candidates questions and did not get his questions
answered would feel insulted and not want to vote for
them. Just as I felt when Dan Carscallan never
answered my question on his position about the Third
Street Bridge.  Or Aaron Ament never answering me on
his opinion on people of Christ Church. But I am not
telling people not to vote for them because they will
not answer my questions. That is there choice not to
respond. I have not ruled out any candidates yet, and
I I am not going to based on the one time notion that
they did not respond to biased questions from a biased
panel, it is more complicated than that for me. 

Take Care,

Donovan J Arnold




I spoke directly with both Weber and Lambert about
their refusal to respond to the survey.

Weber refused because he does not want to use email.

Lambert refused because he planned to attend various
candidate forums 
and
thought that was sufficient.

Because of their reasons for refusal, I would not vote
for either 
candidate.

I think it is imperative that every council candidate
be able to use 
email.
If not, that means that every communication and
decision will have to 
have
an expensive paper copy created just for Weber.  That
will cost the 
city
both time and money.

Lambert was quoted in the Daily News profile that he
thought the city
actions were much too slow.  He wants to speed things
up, so he wants 
to cut
the opportunities for citizen input.  He also is not
interested in 
letting
the voters know his own priorities, so he did not want
to provide a 
written
record in V2020 of his views.

BL

--- Bill London <london at moscow.com> wrote:

> As the chair of the V2020 candidate survey
> committee, I spoke directly with
> both Weber and Lambert about their refusal to
> respond to the survey.
> 
> Weber refused because he does not want to use email.
> 
> Lambert refused because he planned to attend various
> candidate forums and
> thought that was sufficient.
> 
> Because of their reasons for refusal, I would not
> vote for either candidate.
> 
> I think it is imperative that every council
> candidate be able to use email.
> If not, that means that every communication and
> decision will have to have
> an expensive paper copy created just for Weber. 
> That will cost the city
> both time and money.
> 
> Lambert was quoted in the Daily News profile that he
> thought the city
> actions were much too slow.  He wants to speed
> things up, so he wants to cut
> the opportunities for citizen input.  He also is not
> interested in letting
> the voters know his own priorities, so he did not
> want to provide a written
> record in V2020 of his views.
> 
> BL
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: <josephc at mail.wsu.edu>
> To: "Donovan Arnold "
> <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>;
> <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2005 2:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Challenge to the
> candidates: What's up with Weber
> & Lambert?
> 
> 
> > In spite of Donovan's comments, I repeat my point:
> Candidates for council
> > are obligated to answer any and all questions from
> the public. To say
> > otherwise is to suggest that council members work
> for only a select few.
> > But they work for us all and as such candidates
> for council should answer
> > to us all.
> >
> > I am aware that some questions are biased. In such
> instances, candidates
> > have as an option to explain why they think a
> question cannot or should
> > not be answered. Such a response would provide
> valuable information.
> > Silence provides no information at all, and
> without information no one is
> > in a position to make an informed decision.
> >
> > Weber and Lambert should respond to the questions
> asked by Vision 2020 or,
> > if they feel as Donovan does, they should explain
> exactly why they find
> > the Vision 2020 questions to be biased. Unlike
> Donovan, I just don't see
> > this view as even plausible (note that Donovan
> provided no support for
> > this view either) but I am open-minded. If Weber
> and Lambert can explain
> > to me what's wrong with the questions I am more
> than willing to listen.
> > What I can't listen to is silence!
> >
> > I don't want to find out the views of Weber and
> Lambert on, say, the Third
> > Street bridge option after the election. I want to
> find out now and use
> > this as a basis for determining whether or not
> they are the candidates
> > that I want serving on council.
> >
> > A failure to respond is itself a response. It
> shows that one does not care
> > about the concerns of at least a segment of the
> electorate. This does not
> > bode well for one who wishes to serve the public.
> >
> > Joe Campbell
> >
> >
>
_____________________________________________________
> >  List services made available by First Step
> Internet,
> >  serving the communities of the Palouse since
> 1994.
> >                http://www.fsr.net
> >           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> >
>
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> >
> 
>
_____________________________________________________
>  List services made available by First Step
> Internet, 
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. 
>  
>                http://www.fsr.net                   
>    
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
>
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
> 


		
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