The 2017 Bellville City Council Candidate Forum was held Wednesday April 26, 2017 at 7 pm at the Cielito Lindo Restaurant II in Bellville. The forum allowed the citizens of Bellville the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates and hear what their vision for Bellville’s future would be as well as what they would like to see accomplished. The forum was jointly hosted by the Bellville Chamber of Commerce and Austin County News Online.com. The forum began with introductions and quickly moved to questions submitted by those in attendance. The video below is of the forum in its entirety with the questions answered by the candidates.
The candidates this year are:
Mayoral Race
Joe Ed Lynn (Incumbent)
Dr. Kori Kelly-Farrell
Alderman Position 2
John Moore (unopposed)
Alderman Position 4
Clay Kistler (unopposed)
Below are the questions that the candidates answered. Each question is listed with the corresponding time of the video to allow viewers the opportunity to go straight to any of the question and hear the candidate’s answers.
Question #1: What, in your opinion, is the #1 task the city should be focused on after hearing the Municipal Solutions Report? (00:00:53 – 00:07:36 of the video)
Question #2: Status of hotel and more business attraction to town? (00:07:36 – 00:13:55 of the video)
Question #3: After reading the 2016 fiscal audit, are there any areas of spending for which you have concerns? (00:13:55 – 00:24:10 of the video)
Question #4: (Specifically to Dr. Kelly) As a city employee, why should I vote for you? What plans do you have for employees regarding their benefits? (00:24:10 – 00:25:17 of the video)
Question #5: (Specifically to Dr. Kelly) Before deciding to run for mayor, how many city council meetings did you attend? After announcing your run for mayor, how many meetings have you attended? (00:25:17 – 00:27:04 of the video)
Question #6: What change would you like to make for the betterment of Bellville and how would you go about it? (00:27:04 – 00:33:22 of the video)
Question #7: How long have you lived in Bellville? (00:33:22 – 00:36:06 of the video)
Question #8: Can anything be done about 18-wheelers being parked overnight in residential neighborhoods? What is the city ordinance, if any, regarding maintaining property appearance? (00:36:06 – 00:38:37 of the video)
Question #9: How much time per week would you estimate it would take to be the Bellville Mayor? (00:38:37 – 00:41:43 of the video)
Question #10: Why are you running? Why for mayor and not the vacant council position? (00:41:43 – 00:43:02 of the video)
Austin County News Online.com would like to thank everyone who came out to the forum. We were humbled by the large crowd that cared enough about Bellville Politics to show up.