Six candidates for St. Joseph City Commission in the November election will take part in a candidate forum next month.
The event is being put on by WSJM and the Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber and will be aired on WSJM and livestreamed on the station’s Facebook page.
Southwest Michigan Regional Chamber President Arthur Havlicek tells us the organization got a good response to its 2021 St. Joseph City Commission candidate forum. He says the public wants to know where the candidates stand on issues of local interest.
“We’ll be asking a mix of commerce and community related questions, and our goal as a non-partisan organization and this being a non-partisan race, is really to demonstrate who is ready and capable for the job,” Havlicek said. “We approach it like a job interview, we ask questions like it’s a job interview, and really just want to inform the public who is ready on day one to effectively serve a key community in our region.”
Havlicek expects issues like economic development, parking, and short-term rentals will come up.
The candidates taking part October 10 will be Brook Thomas, Michael Fernandez, James Christopher Lannert, Shawn Osburn, Tess Ulrey, and David Yardley. Three of them will be elected to the city commission. With Thomas being the only incumbent, Havlicek says this race has the potential to really shake up city government.
The forum will be October 10 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Shadowland Ballroom. It will be open to the public, but you must get tickets to attend.
You can sign up to attend right here.
You can also submit questions to be asked of the candidates here.
