Talk of the Town - April 2017

Three Forums For City Candidates

Three non-partisan forums give voters a chance to get to know the candidates running for Bay St. Louis City Council and Mayor.  Candidates will also have opportunities to answer questions and state their platforms in a race some believe is pivotal for the city's future. 
- by Lisa Monti

More Shoofly Stories

The 2013 forum at the Community Center, photo by Ellis Anderson

 For the first time, Bay St. Louis voters have a new way to access voting information during this year’s municipal elections.

Serve BSL, a nonpartisan online forum, offers information on the candidates and their take on issues important to the city.  All candidates for city council and three of the four mayoral candidates participated in Part One of the forum by providing qualifications and photos.

In Part Two, candidates for mayor and council have an opportunity to answer a set of questions selected from those submitted by citizens.  Answers to questions will be posted mid-April.  

Talk of the Town
is sponsored by

---

Click here and scroll down for archived Talk of the Town columns

The Shoofly Magazine is the sponsor of Serve BSL, working with civic supporters The Seacoast Echo and the Hancock Chamber.  The project's goal is to create a nonpartisan one-stop shop for Bay St. Louis voters, packed with useful info to make voting easy and convenient.  
​

Click to go to Serve BSL's Forum Overview!

---

Back-to-back live candidate forums are also set for this month.

The Hancock County Democratic and Republican Committees will jointly host a forum April 19 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Bay St. Louis Community Center, 301 Blaize Ave. 
 
Moderators from both political parties will ask Democratic and Republican candidates on the May 2 primary ballot questions during the forum.  Independents and unopposed primary candidates can attend to provide information about themselves to the audience.
 
Voters attending the forum have an opportunity to submit questions to the candidates. Written questions will be accepted until April 14 by going to www.bslbeyondpolitics.com and clicking on the Contact Us tab.

All questions will be submitted to the moderators, who will ask as many public questions as possible during the forum. Questions submitted via the website will be confidential.
 
If you have questions about the Hancock County Democratic and Republican Parties’ Candidate Forum procedures, rules or policies, contact Bruce Northridge at bruce.northridge@yahoo.com, Mark Carter at mark.b.carter@gmail.com, or info@bslbeyondpolitics.com.

---

The Hancock County Alliance for Good Government is sponsoring a forum April 20 for all candidates running for mayor and city council in Bay St. Louis. The forum will be held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Community Center on Blaize Avenue.
 
The Alliance is presenting the forum as a service to the community  “so the candidates and the voters can meet each other,” said the Alliance’s Lana Noonan.
 
The forum will have a moderator and a panel of professionals who will be asking the candidates questions. Council candidates will be first up for the questions, and after a brief intermission the mayoral candidates will answer questions from the panel members. No questions will be taken from the audience.
 
Noonan said candidates are welcome to bring campaign material to distribute to voters before the forum, during the intermission and at the end of the event.
 
The non-partisan community service organization has held forums for state, county and local elections since it was formed in 2010. “It is a service project we do at our own expense,” Noonan said. “Our goal is to make the public aware of what’s going on and to hear what the candidates have to say.”
 
The well attended forums also give the candidates an opportunity to meet large numbers of voters. “We had a packed house last time,” Noonan said of the Bay St. Louis forum four years ago.
 
For more information or to sign up to speak, call 228-493-4358 or 228-363-9395.

---