Coeur Group to host forum

COEUR d'ALENE - The first candidate forum for this fall's Coeur d'Alene City Council election has been set and all 12 candidates have been invited.

The two-hour forum is hosted by the Coeur Group, a 9-year-old volunteer group of civic-minded young professionals, which will host the forum on Oct. 2, starting at 5:30 p.m. in the community room of the Coeur d'Alene Public Library.

The forum will also be broadcast on Coeur d'Alene's Cable Channel 19.

According to President Ben Miller, who works for D.A. Davidson & Co., the forum is part of the group's effort to help inform the voting public on the issues and the candidates who are running for local elections.

"We want to emphasize to some of the groups out there that we are completely apolitical," he said. "We don't have a dog in this fight. Our sole intent is to make sure the voters are informed."

Unlike a Political Action Committee, the Coeur Group does not endorse, raise money or campaign for any of the candidates.

Miller said just this week the group mailed out invitations to all 12 candidates in the Coeur d'Alene City Council and Mayor races that will be voted on Nov. 5. Candidates have until Sept. 25 to confirm their attendance at the event.

A subcommittee of the Coeur Group is currently soliciting questions from the public at large to present to the candidates during the forum. Questions should focus on issues that are important to Coeur d'Alene voters.

"What are the issues?" he asked. "I don't know. We believe the issues are different for everyone."

Once they gather the questions, the group will go through them to ensure they are fair to all candidates. Only four people in the Coeur Group will be privy to the questions before the forum.

"That is really the fun part of this," Miller said. "During the school board elections we sat down with about 100 questions before us and went through checking them off until we narrowed them down to about 25."

He said the questions that make the cut will be broad based and apply to all of the candidates.

"We don't want questions that single out one particular candidate," he said. "This is not a debate, it is a forum."

There are three council seats up for grabs and three candidates for each of the council seats. There are also three candidates for the mayor's seat.

The candidates will face 30 minutes of questioning for each of the four seats. Candidates will be given one minute for opening statements and 30 seconds to answer each question. They will also be allowed 30 seconds for a closing statement.

Questions can be submitted by email at: cdacouncilforum@gmail.com.

Miller said three members of the group will ask the questions and moderate the forum. Two panelists are James Noel, a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, and Craig Zanetti, an attorney at Amendola Doty & Brumley.

The moderator will be Peter Smith, an attorney for Lukins & Annis. He will allow some cross talk from candidates and follow-up questioning may be allowed as well.

The public is encouraged to attend the free forum, or tune in to Coeur d'Alene Cable Channel 19.