■ City Council OKs plan to join LWV, Open Government events

Benicia’s Open Government Commission and the local League of Women Voters may merge their election forums, but the two unopposed Council members who are seeking re-election don’t have to participate, the City Council decided Tuesday.

Incumbents Mark Hughes and Alan Schwartzman, the only ones who filed and qualified for the two Council races, said Tuesday they didn’t see any purpose in attending a forum or debate when they had no opponents.

Nor, it seems, have many of the groups that normally invite candidates to speak — both men said they have not been asked to make a debate appearance.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson expressed disappointment that neither candidate wanted to appear at the forum, if only to describe issues to potential voters. “I think it’s a missed opportunity,” she said.

But Susan Street, League of Women Voters director, said her organization is committed to remaining impartial in political races, and that it would not be able to appear unbiased if only the incumbents spoke at their forum, even if they are unopposed.

Though Hughes and Schwartzman have no rivals, their names will remain on the Nov. 4 election ballot in the interest of public information, City Clerk Lisa Wolfe has said.

However, Street said the LWV is interested in letting proponents and opponents debate Benicia’s two measures on the ballot, one of which would decide whether the currently elected office of city treasurer should become appointive, and the other which would raise Benicia’s sales tax by a penny.

Street said the LWV also wanted to have the pros and cons of the state-level water bond debated, and would provide an opportunity for Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees candidates to respond to public questions as well.

In most election years, the LWV has had its own forum as a public service, LWV program chairperson Susan Neuhaus told the Council.

Audience members’ questions are posed to candidates, and their opponents are allowed to respond, too. The event usually takes place earlier than the Open Government forum, and Neuhaus said the LWV has chosen Oct. 11 as this year’s date, in part to accommodate those who vote early by mail.

The Open Government event, governed by city ordinance, normally takes place the Friday, Saturday or Sunday closest to the election, and is specifically timed to give a candidate who believes he or she has been the victim of negative campaign claims called “hit pieces” a public forum in which to respond.

If all the candidates concur, the Open Government forum may be canceled.

Larry Fullington, chairperson of the Open Government Commission, said the LWV “has a lot of credibility. It’s a first-class operation.”

The LWV also knows “how to do a forum,” he said, but explained his panel views this merger as a one-time event, rather than one that would set a precedent.

In this election, he said, “There are no push-button issues.”

One reason the LWV and the Open Government Commission began discussing merging their two events was cost. Street said the cost of renting the Council Chamber and having the LWV debate broadcast is about $900, a price “that’s a lot of money. It’s asking a lot of a nonprofit group.”

She said when other organizations ask the LWV to organize a candidates’ forum, “they pay us.”

The Council finally agreed unanimously to the merger, directing the commission to work with the LWV, and told both the advisory panel and the nonprofit to provide the Council with a report once the forum is done.