Peoria City Council At-Large Election Quiz Results
As promised, in the posts below are the answers to the 9 questions I asked each of the candidates running for Peoria at-large council seats. I wasn’t quite sure what type of responses I would receive- not to mention how many responses, since I imagine that most elected officials probably feel that bloggers are nothing more than thorns in their sides… especially anonymous ones…
Ten chose to participate: Brad Carter, Donald Cummings, Dan Irving, George Jacob, Kelley Mammen, Gary Sandberg, Chuck Schierer, Ryan Spain, Gale Thetford, & Eric Turner. Those who did not were Gloria Cassel Fitzgerald, Dan Gillette, Jim Montelongo and Patti Polk.
I was curious as to how people would respond to specific and direct questions about some hot issues of late, and issues that concern me. I wanted to look at all of the answers side by side, which is why I published them as I did. I also threw in some general open-ended questions just for fun to get a take on their personalities. Other than a few minor spelling corrections, I reprinted all of the answers as they were written.
The PJStar and the Chamber of Commerce have questionnaires also [here] and [here], but isn’t it so much more fun when you can comment on them!?
The primary is Tuesday, Feb 27. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.
Update: I received this email from Brad Carter- “I am glad to see most of the candidates participated in your questionnaire. However, I see some answered the questions later than others. I was thinking you may want to somehow tell when the questions were asked to show the relevance as to some of the issues that were voted on at the last council meeting.”
Fair enough.
I sent out my questionnaire on the afternoon of Sunday the 18th. Four responded quickly and two inquired about my timeline and asked for a couple of days because of scheduling and job issues. Tuesday’s city council meeting discussed and voted on both the Kellar Branch issue and the Civic Center hotel. Those who responded before the meeting were Brad Carter, Donald Cummings, Chuck Schierer, and Eric Turner.
The other six (Dan Irving, George Jacob, Kelly Mammen, Jim Montelongo oops, Gary Sandberg, Ryan Spain, and Gale Thetford) responded after the meeting, throughout the latter part of the week.
I don’t know if anyone consciously waited to see the outcome of the meeting before committing to an answer or not. I tend to doubt it, but I’ll let you come to your own conclusion.
February 24th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
Thanks for doing this. They can put whatever they want to on their ads but this makes them answer specific questions. Based on what I’ve read and these answers, I’ll be voting for a grand total of 2 of them.
February 25th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Are you going to quiz the Peoria Park District Board candidates? If you are, I propose you ask them why, since the Kellar Branch from War Memorial Drive to where it starts by Det. Marina, will not be used for the trail (it will go through lower Glen oak park, through Springdale Cemetary and through the tunnel under War Drive and I guess up to Harvard and up this steep street to the Kellar Branch) the Park District doesn’t complete this portion. The Park Board and Ms.Noble have repeatedly said that the state grants can’t be used where the rail will remain. Therefore, let’s see how they plan to proceed in this end of the trail without those precious grants. I would think that trail advocates would be demanding that this portion be completed. Strange that they are silent.