Maumee Candidates Get Opportunity To Speak Before Voting Public

BY MIKE McCARTHY | MIRROR EDITOR — All 10 of Maumee’s political candidates enjoyed a rare opportunity to express their viewpoints and expound upon a variety of local community topics before a live audience during the Maumee City Council Candidates Forum held on October 12 at the Maumee Indoor Theater.

An estimated crowd of 175 interested voters were in attendance to hear from three Maumee City Schools Board of Education candidates, six Maumee City Council candidates, an unopposed mayoral candidate and Maumee Fire Chief Brandon Loboschefski, who spoke on behalf of the proposed Maumee Fire/EMS levy.

Maumee school board candidates Allison Fiscus, Andrea Ankenbrandt and Ruth Uhl led off the evening’s program, taking turns at the podium with each candidate delivering a four-minute presentation introducing themselves to the Maumee voting public.

Chief Loboschefski then took to the podium and delivered a 15-minute slide presentation soliciting public support for the proposed 5.6-mill Maumee Fire/EMS levy (Issue 18).

The grand event took place at 7:00 p.m. as Maumee’s six council candidates were introduced by Kristin Meyer, executive director of the Maumee Chamber of Commerce.

Taking the stage were incumbents Scott Noonan and Gabe Barrow, along with challengers Ted Kurt, Aubrey Hornsby, Dave Poeppelmeier and Tracey Elmore. The six candidates are running for three open seats on city council.

Each candidate was allotted a two-minute opening speech and a two-minute closing statement. For the nearly two hours in between those remarks, moderator Nancy Gagnet, of The Blade, asked a variety of questions that each candidate was given one minute to answer.

Assisting Gagnet was League of Women Voters president Ann Fabiszak Payne. The questions were selected from entries that were submitted by the Maumee voting public. Readers of The Mirror were invited to forward their candidate questions to the Maumee Chamber of Commerce, where they were gathered and forwarded to the League of Women Voters for the final selection process and the proper wording.

Throughout the course of the event, several questions were asked of the candidates with each new question being addressed in a six-person rotating format. Under this design, each candidate had the opportunity to be the first person to answer a question, followed in order by the remaining five candidates. The onstage seating arrangement was selected by lot prior to the forum.

At the conclusion of the candidates forum, Maumee City Council president Jim MacDonald was invited to the podium to speak for approximately five minutes.

Following the official program, each candidate had 45 minutes to meet with voters in the lobby of the theater to discuss local issues.

The event was sponsored by the Maumee Chamber of Commerce, the Maumee Uptown Business Associa-tion, The Mirror and the League of Women Voters.

For those who were unable to attend the forum in person but would like the opportunity to view the event and learn more about the candidates, the city of Maumee’s social media director Travis Lattimore, owner of Social Green Thumb, has compiled a video presentation of the evening’s proceedings for home viewing.

The QR codes appearing with this story will lead interested viewers to the four YouTube segments of the evening: Maumee School Board, Maumee Fire/EMS Levy, Maumee City Council and Maumee Mayor. Alternatively, a search for “Maumee Candidate Forum” on YouTube will also find the four segments.

None of the videos has been edited for content in compliance with the standards set forth by the League of Women Voters.