October 5, 2009 Spokesman
Posted by Steve Brown
SPOKESMAN - OCTOBER 5, 2009
WELCOME/INTRODUCTIONS
President-Elect pat Dye called the meeting to order at 6:30pm and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by John Woodbery. Tonight was a special evening, a Candidate Forum for Kirkland City Council, co-sponsored by the Rotary Club of Kirkland and the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce. Because of that, most of the normal business of Rotary was suspended for the evening. Pres-Elect Pat did recognize Selis, our international exchange student, and because it was her birthday, the entire group joined in a chorus of Happy Birthday for her. Katherine Kehrli also introduced our new Student-of-the-Month from Juanita High School.
PROGRAM
Pat then turned the podium over to Patti Smith who introduced the program for the evening. As Moderator, she outlined the format for the evening, which would be two minutes for each candidate, followed by questions from the floor, and ending with short wrap-ups by each.
Candidates present included:
Position #1 - Joan McBride, Deputy Mayor, and Martin Morgan
Position #3 - Penny Sweet and Brad Larssen
Position #5 - Amy Walen and Karen Tennyson
Position #7 - Doreen Marchione and Tom Hodgson
Each candidate then spoke to their qualifications and why they were running for City Council, after which each spoke to two questions from the audience tables. Following that, each candidate was permitted to ask their opponent a question, which proved to be very interesting. After a couple more questions from the audience, each candidate was given one minute to summarize and the evening was concluded.
Patti thanked the candidates for their attendance and participation, and they were given a rousing round of applause. President-Elect Pat then took back the podium, thanked Patti for her many efforts at putting together a very successful Candidate Forum, and adjourned the meeting at 8:00pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Steve brown, Scribe