The Pioneer agreed to host/moderate the forums as planned that most of the candidates could attend on October 11th for the Mayoral candidates and on October 16th for the Council candidates. The Council candidate forum will be held at Rockaway Beach Resort on Wednesday October 16th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.
For those with limited mobility and no access to Zoom – there will be a Zoom Room available please RSVP to editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net – there are limited seats; and to receive the Zoom link PLEASE send request to editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net
SUBMIT QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE – please send your questions to editor@tillamookcountypioneer.net
One of the questions was about the confusion over the candidate events and the forums, and why some candidates were not there …
Both the Pioneer and Mayor McNeilly have weighed in the timeline for planning the forums, the issues and misinformation that have continued to be spread on social media. The Pioneer does these forums as VOLUNTEERS – it’s not sponsored or paid for by any outside entity. The Pioneer is a neutral, nonpartisan, trusted news resource and we have received emails questioning our ethics and relationships with the candidates as well as emails about all of the misinformation.
The 10/5 and 10/15 candidate events were not supported or sponsored by the Pioneer. I found out about them like many others (including some of the candidates) when it was announced on Facebook. I reached out to AAUW and said I’d help with details and logistics, and then I found out that many of the candidates had not even been informed or invited and some simply could not attend. So then I started the process to determine the best dates by inviting the candidates and finding dates that would work for all (or most) of the candidates. Several forums is okay – as some people can’t make it on certain nights, etc. We have all 9 council candidates confirmed (unless they back out) for the Oct. 16th forum; the mayoral candidates forum is to be determined. We needed to divide the forum as having 12 candidates would only allow for a couple questions over a 2 hour period. Thanks everyone for understanding all the wrangling that goes on behind the scenes to make these things happen. I hope that the candidates that are “undecided” about their attendance for the mayoral forum will decide that the most important thing is to be accessible, flexible and collaborative – to do what’s right for the community and voters.
The issue of accessibility of the Rockaway Beach Resort conference room has been brought up – we have an ADA accessible room available at RBR with Zoom coverage that will be the “overflow” and/or for folks that can’t do the stairs. FYI – Rockaway Beach Resort is installing a lift this winter and the conference room will be ADA accessible. And the other candidate events have not had Zoom available – that’s why we selected RBR to host the forums.
Because of the issues with candidate attendance, invites, etc. AAUW withdrew any sponsorship for any Forums in Rockaway Beach.
There continues to be misinformation about “why so many forums?” and candidates “boycotting” them. Those candidates that chose to not attend the official forum are the ones boycotting.
Here is the link to the Mayoral candidate forum held on October 11th, please excuse the audio issues at the beginning – this is the raw footage and we haven’t done any editing – but wanted to get it posted for the community to review as soon as possible:
Below is Mayor Charles McNeilly’s timeline of the planning for the forums as reminder about the issues and misinformation.
From Mayor Charles McNeilly 9/29/24:
Facts matter so allow me to share the Candidate Forum timeline as I experienced it.
1) On Tuesday, September 24th a Candidate standing for election in Rockaway Beach sent me a screen shot from Justin for Rockaway Beach Facebook site announcing Rockaway Beach Candidate Forums on October 5th and October 15th. Frankly this was the first I heard of Candidate Forums. I was not asked about my availability for these events. I am told other Candidates were also not asked their availability.
2) At the request of the AAUW moderator, the Tillamook County Pioneer stepped in on Wednesday, September 25th to organize an ALL (or most) CANDIDATE FORUM. In an email to Justin McMahan and copying all Candidates the Pioneer clarified: “Candidates do not set up or sponsor these forums – which are structured and follow a particular format – and need to be organized/sponsored by a neutral organization. There is a distinction between a sponsored forum and a meet/greet. Are you (Justin McMahan) just setting up “Meet & Greet” events?”
3) Subsequently, the Pioneer gathered ALL CANDIDATES availability and, to maximize candidate attendance, set October 11 for a Mayor Candidate Forum and October 16 for a Council Candidate Forum. There are 12 candidates standing for election in Rockaway Beach so I think this split, although done to optimize candidate attendance, will make for a better voter experience.
According to the Pioneer, all but two candidates have confirmed attendance (one mayoral candidate and one city council candidate), but we expect these candidates to also agree to attendance at the official forums on Oct. 11 and Oct. 16.
Trust me, no one has boycotted anything; it is hard to boycott events (October 5th and October 15th) if you don’t receive an invitation.
An “explanation” from the Mayoral Candidates – Dane Winchester and Rodney Breazile about why they did not attend Mayoral Forum Oct. 11th – posted on Facebook 10/12/24:
An Open Letter to Rockaway Voters from Mayoral Candidates Rodney Breazile and Dane Winchester
Dear Rockaway Voters,
Please accept our apologies for not attending the October 11, 2024 Mayoral Forum hosted by the Tillamook County Pioneer.
Each of us candidates felt strongly that there was a good chance this forum would be presented in a biased manner, and we opted not to support, or be affiliated with that. We hope you understand and were not too disappointed in our absence.
We hope you’ll join us for the ALL CANDIDATES FORUM on October 15th hosted by the Headlight Herald. It is also at a location that is accessible to everyone.
Bring your toughest questions! We are both dedicated to transparency and are prepared to prove it.
To clarify – the Pioneer is the only truly nonpartisan, unbiased media. Several of the candidates purchase advertising in the Headlight-Herald and have provided any support to the Pioneer. The event on October 15th will NOT INCLUDE ALL THE CANDIDATES. They are not dedicated to transparency and this behavior shows a concerning pattern of manipulations and mis-information that has been evident from the group of candidates running as a slate (Together for Rockaway.) The very thing they accused the other indepdendent and incumbent candidates of doing (that ARE NOT running as a group but as individuals) – boycotting the candidate events – is exactly what they did … We will be sending the questions asked at the Forum to the other mayoral candidates for their responses. If we were biased, we would not provide them with any opportunity to communicate with voters. There is no chance that the Pioneer would moderate a biased candidate forum.