Southern Oregon Community Coalition.  Thanks to the persistence of Southern Oregon Community Coalition, Mayor John Morrison and City Administrator Martha Bennett agreed to schedule a live, public, on-camera community interview with the 2 finalists for police chief. Insiders and a consultant narrowed down the initial pool of 50 applicants. (By contrast, when Martha Bennett was selected in Spring, 2006, the community met 6 finalists.)

   Community job interview.  The ground-breaking community job interview was held in Council Chambers on Thu, Dec 14, 2006, 3:30-5pm. Tim Bewley, who moderated Town Hall meetings on RVTV, served as interviewer. Tim asked each candidate more than 2 dozen questions submitted by community members in advance, and alternated which candidate answered first. Since the interview wasn't a debate, candidates could--and did--sometimes simply agree with the other candidate's answer (saved lots of time).

   Ballots from attendees.  After the session, televised live, audience members interacted with candidates informally over refreshments. Vote results here are from 14 community members who attended the session and submitted written ballots. Many attendees talked individually with candidates before they voted. Ballots were carefully managed to limit one vote per person.

 

 

Which candidate do you prefer?

1 No preference

14 Total

 

   Who is acceptable to you?  Voters were also asked to indicate if one, or both, or neither candidate was acceptable. This is important because sometimes people say neither candidate is acceptable, and their preference vote says one is less undesirable than the other. Or both candidates could be acceptable, with one preferred over the other. Both patterns occurred in this vote.

 

10 Yes

1 No

3 Did not answer

14 Total

 

9 Yes

3 No

2 Did not answer

14 Total

 

   You can still see this key community job interview and participate in the vote. RVTV is replaying the 1 1/2 hour community job interview for police chief candidates on cable TV, Fri 6pm, Sun 3pm, and Mon 9pm. Feel free to videotape and share with others. See www.RogueTV.org for info on channels and schedule updates. To watch the video online at any time, using free RealPlayer software, click: http://rvtv.roguedatavault.net:554/ramgen/ashland/townhall/police12-14-06.rm

 

   Last month, i submitted a formal public records request to obtain copies of candidate resumes, and City resisted. i informed city attorney that under Oregon law as interpreted by Oregon's Attorney General office, these resumes are public information, subject to redacting ('covering') personal information (like names of spouse and children, etc.). Now, for the first time, you can read candidates' resumes online, on my listserve at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AshlandCouncil/files

 

How Is Ashland's Police Chief Chosen?

   City Charter.  By Ashland City Charter, mayor makes the preliminary selection decision for police chief, subject to Council confirmation or rejection. This is similar to selecting Supreme Court Justices, where president selects, and congress confirms or rejects. (City wants to change this process so that elected officials DON'T make the decision, under a 'new and improved' charter that removes transparency and accountability, scheduled for city-wide vote May, 2007.)

   What's different this time? Due to the persistence of Southern Oregon Community Coalition, candidates were interviewed in public, on camera, with community-generated questions on a wide range of subjects, ranging from Tasers to teenagers acting out to School Resource Officer to handling officers who resist community policing to budgets to homeless to....

   Community ballot.  Also different this time is that you can vote your preferences by secret ballot in this unofficial poll. The votes and my listserve are independent of the corporation known as City of Ashland. Particularly valuable are comments you have about candidates and issues.

 

  He has more experience in Community Policing and a strong advocate of Student Resource Officer position.

  Very impressed by his statement giving priority to safeguarding constitutional rights of the people.

  (No written comments.)

  Great.

  Thanks for doing this.

 

   Your email can be as simple as an answer to the following question in the subject line: Who do you prefer--Terry Holderness or Gary Hicken?

   You can also write comments.

   If you're uncomfortable with the public email on the listserve, you can email me your vote privately at AshlandConstitution@... ; i'll compile and report as a group, as above. To protect your confidentiality, you can also setup a special email address other than the one you normally use, then vote anonymously and publicly directly on my listserve, with or without comments AshlandCouncil@yahoogroups.com.

   Unlike City's listserve, which requires pre-registration and approval of your name and address, my listserve is open to all without membership, without giving your name or address. Posts are moderated to prevent personal attacks, name-calling, etc.; see initial posts for guidelines.

   You can read others' votes, comments, and results by clicking http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AshlandCouncil

   Tentative deadline is Mon, Dec 18.  The decision will be made soon, so don't delay. Official deadline for comments is Mon, Dec 18. Votes and comments after that may or may not be considered. They will, however, still be part of the ongoing public discussion.