■ Should there be a debate if candidates are running unopposed?
Should Benicia have an open government candidate forum if its two Council candidates are unopposed? That’s the question before the Council on Tuesday night.
City Attorney Heather McLaughlin wrote the Council Aug. 13, saying the Open Government Commission met with Belinda Smith, a member of the local League of Women Voters, to talk about the forum and debate that normally is conducted during an election year.
The commission made several recommendations based on that discussion, McLaughlin wrote — including canceling this year’s forum, because neither of the incumbent Council members, Mark Hughes and Alan Schwartzman, are opposed in their bids for re-election.
No other elective city positions will be decided in the Nov. 4 election.
However, the panel also suggested the Council weigh in on other forum considerations, McLaughlin wrote, including the date, whether ballot measures should be debated and whether the commission could collaborate with the League of Women Voters on a single candidates’ event.
The Open Government Commission normally is host of a candidates’ forum the Friday, Saturday or Sunday before a general election, so candidates in Council and mayoral races can address any inflammatory statements or misinformation that might have been aired late in the campaigns.
Residents, nonprofit organizations and business representatives get to pose questions, and the forum is an opportunity for voters to hear directly from candidates about their positions on city issues, McLaughlin wrote.
But because there will be no opposition to the two incumbents, the Open Government Commission suggested at its Aug. 11 meeting the forum could be canceled this year. The panel also has recommended the Council review three possible changes to the traditional format of the forum, McLaughlin wrote.
One change would be its date, which the commission suggested should be set earlier because many more Benicians now vote by mail.
Setting the date so close to the election was done to let candidates respond to last-minute negative campaigning that couldn’t be rebutted or answered in a mailer or other response forms, McLaughlin wrote. But by then, mailed-in ballots already have been sent.
Smith told the commission that of 17,451 registered voters, 9,960, or 57 percent, are registered to vote by mail.
“In previous election years, the statistics for the number of votes actually received shows an even greater percentage of votes coming in by mail,” McLaughlin wrote. In 2009, 70 percent of the votes arrived by mail, and in 2011, 69 percent of the ballots were mailed.
“Voters who mail in their votes must mail them prior to the election date, and in many cases make their decisions quite early,” she wrote. “A candidate forum that occurs immediately before the election does not reach this large percent of voters.”
The League of Women Voters prefers an early October event, she wrote, and has proposed having its debate Oct. 11.
Another commission suggestion was to let the panel join forces with the LWV to host the event.
That could affect both the date and the type of candidates’ appearances, McLaughlin wrote. The Open Government event is a forum, and the League’s event is a candidates’ debate, she wrote.
“Some details would have to be worked out if the events are combined,” she wrote.
The LWV debate draws “a large crowd of both voters and supporters of candidates,” she wrote. But it also has become more expensive for the LWV to rent a site and recording equipment and pay for insurance, she wrote.
The LWV also has forums for Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees candidates, and provides an opportunity for people to speak about ballot measures.
“While the city should remain uninvolved in school district-related matters as BUSD is a separate agency, the commission would like to propose including ballot measures in the Candidate Forum,” McLaughlin wrote.
Even if the commission and LWV are unable to combine their events, including ballot measures in the forum discussions “would be highly beneficial for public information,” she wrote.
She added, however, that care would be needed to make sure the city isn’t seen as spending money advocating a particular position on the two measures, one of which would raise the city sales tax by 1 cent; the other would let voters decide whether the city treasurer should be appointed rather than elected.
McLaughlin has recommended the Council consider the matter and provide direction about the commission’s recommendations.
The Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday to discuss labor matters. The regular meeting will start at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.