Forever Tybee and the League of Women Voters Coastal Georgia are holding several candidate forums in preparation for the Tybee Island City government elections on Nov. 7.
Residents can submit general questions or questions for specific candidates through the organization’s email at ForeverTybee@gmail.com, or mail anonymously to Forum Questions, P.O. Box 306, Tybee Island, Georgia, 31328. The deadline for submitting questions for this forum is at 5 p.m. today.
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Here are the qualified candidates for the Tybee Island elections on Nov. 7.
Series of candidate forums
The first forum, moderated by Susan Catron, managing editor of The Current, will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Sept. 25, at the Tybee Island Public Safety Building, 78 Van Horn Ave. This forum is to question the candidates vying for the three open at-large seats: Barry Brown, John Branigan, Jay Burke, Joey Goralcyzk, Jack Long, James Lucas, Tony Ploughe, Nick Sears and Kathryn Williams.
The next forum comprises the candidates who are vying to complete the remaining two years of council member Brian West’s term, because he has resigned to run for mayor. The debate for West’s seat is slated for 7 to 8:30 p.m., Oct. 2, also at the Tybee Public Safety Building and moderated by Catron.
The final forum is for the mayoral candidates from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 4, at the same location, and will be moderated by Adam Van Brimmer, who covers politics and Costal Georgia news for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. There are only three candidates for mayor: Mack Kitchens, Julia Pearce and Brian West, who was on city council. However, Kitchens will not be participating in the event.
“I’ve already done it twice and I don’t want to do it again,” Kitchens said. “If we’re going to do it, each candidate should be required to answer the same questions across the board. If I’m going to be asked a hard question, I expect my opponent to answer the same question. There’s also not enough time to answer the questions.”
The deadline for questions for both forums is at 5 p.m., Sept. 28.
Forever Tybee has been hosting forums for Tybee Island since 2011 and has partnered with the League of Women Voters Coastal Georgia since 2017. The questions submitted by residents will be separated into categories by a committee. The moderators choose which questions to ask and in what order. The candidates have a minute to two minutes to answer questions.
Sometimes the moderator will have a lightening round in which everyone answers questions, said Shirley Wright, who is the chair of Forever Tybee, but that’s not possible for every question. She said they must balance the fact that they receive a lot of questions, in the past between 100 and 150, with the fact that people can’t sit much longer than an hour and a half.
“It is the one way that the whole community can hear from candidates what their positions are,” Wright said. “And see how potential council members have to respond if they are elected. They have to decide what they think about these new issues.”
The organization livestreams the event and records it, and it will be available on the city website until right before the election.
“Anybody who votes on Tybee will have the opportunity to see each candidate respond to questions they’ve submitted,” Wright said. “See how they differ from the other candidates and then make up their own mind about how they want to go.”
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com.