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University of Toledo Hosts Mayoral Forums

Students grill the candidates on several hot-button issues

Jack Alferio

Jessica Harker, Associate News editor

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The University of Toledo hosted two mayoral forums about a variety of current issues specifically directed at two student organizations on campus.

The first forum, held Oct. 13, addressed issues surrounding the LGBT community. The second, held Oct. 19, was about the Black Lives Matter movement.

“The main purpose was so that students and the community can come out and meet the mayoral candidates if they hadn’t already at previous events,” said Melaney Goosby, the vice president of the Black Student Union.

LGBT

Jack Alferio, president of the campus LGBT group Spectrum UT, attended the first forum to better understand the candidates’ positions on issues relevant to the group. He thought the forum could have been more direct in which topics they discussed.

“I felt like it could’ve gone better, to be honest,” Alferio said. “I thought the questions were really general and no one really asked questions; it was just a lot of ‘how do you feel’ about the general LGBT community and not really getting to issues.”

The candidates were asked a variety of prewritten questions all relating to their personal opinion about the LGBT community and policies they would enact surrounding those issues.

“I didn’t really know a ton about most of the candidates so it was just scary going into the unknown,” Alferio said. “These people could say something possibly offensive and harmful.”

At the end of the forum, Alferio’s favorite candidates were Mike Ferner and Paula Hicks-Hudson. He liked Ferner because he seemed charismatic and well-spoken, though Hicks-Hudson also seemed charismatic and has more experience in office.

“I definitely went in there thinking, ‘OK, these are my top two,’ and they stayed my top two, but I think it was important to know who I am not voting for,” Alferio said. “I think information is power.”

Alferio said that not all the candidates were as well-spoken and some even made negative and aggressive comments throughout the forum.

“The one guy, Carty Finkbeiner, at one point called his niece’s wife her friend, that was a little weird … people definitely caught on to that, especially if you were an LGBT person in the audience,” Alferio said. “People were definitely not happy about that.”

While Alferio felt portions of the forum could have been better, he said it went well and it was important that the issues were addressed by the candidates.

 

Black Lives Matter

Goosby said she felt the questions for the Black Lives Matter forum were “pretty dynamic and very bold” and addressed a lot of important issues in the movement.

“A lot of the questions were basically what they can do for the city of Toledo as far as employment, education, roads, stuff like that,” Goosby said. “As a politician you have to kind of stay in a box sometimes and as the night progressed you got to see how people really feel about certain issues.”

During the forum, Goosby said one of the main focuses was the issue of police brutality, both as a broad topic and specifically for the Toledo area.

“One of the main issues that I think all the candidates could agree on was the disconnect between the police and the community here,” Goosby said. “They mentioned that it was very hard for the police to police an area that they don’t live in.”

Goosby said she thought the forum was successful, and her experience in helping to organize it with BSU was one she wouldn’t forget.

“It was extremely humbling because the turnout was really great,” Goosby said. “It was also very powerful; it sent the message that BSU is not just a small minority group, we are actually out reaching out to the community.”

Goosby said BSU does not support one candidate over the other, though some community members present felt strongly about certain candidates.

 

The mayoral role

Twila Page, a member of the Old West End Neighborhood Initiative, attended the Black Lives Matter forum. She supported Paula Hicks-Hudson, though she felt all the candidates had a lot of good things to say.

“I am still feeling strongly for Paula, but if we could take one thing that each one of them said and put it into one mayor then you would have a ticket for a successful city,” Page said. “Everyone was in tune as to what we’re looking for in a mayor.”

The importance of these forums, Alferio said, is to be sure that Toledo doesn’t decline in its social progress.

“I think Toledo’s really progressive so I think just keeping someone in office who can uphold our standards is important,” Alferio said. “As long as you don’t reverse things I think we’ll be OK.”

The elections for mayor will be held on Nov. 3.

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Serving the University of Toledo community since 1919.
University of Toledo Hosts Mayoral Forums