STURGIS, S.D. – Candidates for city council and mayor answered questions at the final candidate’s forum before this year’s election last night.
The latest update on a lawsuit against the city by three of the candidates was a highlighted question at the forum.
Tammy Bohn, running for mayor, and Justin Bohn and Brenda Vasknetz running four council, filed the lawsuit last week after a judge in February ruled their petition seeking an election to change the form of city government invalid.
The three are now seeking a judge to rule the city manager position isn’t valid after it was established by vote in 2007.
Because of the pending litigation, the three candidates didn’t go into specifics about the lawsuit, but defended the lawsuit. They support a city administrator form of government rather than a city manager.
Current council candidates reiterated their support for current city manager Daniel Ainslie and feel the current lawsuit is poltically driven against him. A majority of the challenging council candidates support the city manager form of government, rather than a city administrator, because under the manager form, there is more power among council and mayor. Under an administrator, the mayor has the power.
The current situation was also addressed in a question concerning the use of Facebook for communication.
The social media giant has been a main platform for the group seeking the elimination of the city manager and that has led to some misinformation being spread. Incumbent Mayor Mark Carstensen joined with other candidates in agreement that social media shouldn’t be the place for public discourse.
Other topics discussed Tuesday night were providing transportation for senior citizens, the possible closure of the Fort Meade hospital and civic duty.
The municipal election is April 12th.
