Page 12 - May-June-July Life In Naples
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STATE OF CIT Y MAYOR BILL BARNETT
THE
PART 2 THE CAMPAIGN
A s I stated in the April issue of Life in Naples “I am volunteering right
this is the second part of a two part article. now to any group that
All I ever asked for in all of the campaigns will be hosting forums/
that I have participated in which have been debates that I will help
many is a level playing field when it comes to campaign each and every one of
events that involve the candidates. Although the event them that asks me to
organizers generally mean well there are no rule books make sure they are fair
written with guidelines for hosting candidate forums ”for all candidates.
and each forum was a challenge for me. It’s January
and up to now the campaign has been relatively benign. monitor those questions to make sure they weren’t
With the election 10 weeks away and from Park Shore stacked, and, if they were live who selected the people
to Port Royal, property owner associations wanted to to ask the questions?
host candidate forums and debates. Add to that list
The League of Women Voters and the Naples Daily I can smile now that this campaign is over, but there
News and my schedule was full. were some memorable moments that raised my blood
pressure because of the unfairness. I’m not accusing any
As soon as an invitation for one of these events was foul play, but there were certainly some questionable
received I would contact the person in charge and ask calls. I had helped an individual who was hosting an
them what the format was. Some even asked me for event and I had suggested and she had agreed that the
guidance because they had never done one before. Now fair way to arrange the speaking order was to write
you might wonder where I’m going with all of this and number one, two and three on separate pieces of paper,
what’s the big deal but as far as I was concerned if fold them up, and have the candidates draw them
every I wasn’t dotted or T crossed it was going to be an out. Easy, right? One would think that when all three
advantage to one of us. There were three of us running candidates arrived they would draw the numbers out,
for Mayor. It was important to know how much time but that was not the case. I arrived at the event and was
was allotted for our opening and closing remarks, how greeted and shown the glass that the numbers were
was it going to be determined who goes first and does in and was told that one other candidate had arrived
the person who gives his or her opening remarks first
get to go last. How was the seating order determined
because sitting in the middle was strategically an
advantage? Would there be a timekeeper and would
we get a 30 second or a minute warning to let us
know when our time was up? Would there be written
questions from the audience and who was going to
12 Life in Naples | May • June • July 2016
