The second Sealy City Council Candidate Forum was held Monday April 17, 2017 at 7 pm at the Sealy American Legion Hall. This forum also had the inclusion of the two candidates running for Place 3 for the Sealy ISD School Board. The forum allowed the citizens of Sealy the opportunity to ask questions of the candidates and hear what their vision for Sealy’s future would be as well as what they would like to see accomplished. The forum was jointly hosted by the Sealy 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:
For Sealy City Mayor: Michael Kubricht and Janice Whitehead
For Councilmember, Place 1: Dee Anne Lerma
Sealy ISD School Board Place 3: Sandy Blaschke and Jay Aguado
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.
- Candidate Introductions: (00:00:39 – 00:11:28 of the video)
- Question #1: Is there plans to create an assistant City Manager? Isn’t this counterproductive to the dismal monetary shortfall of the current budget? What are your feelings about this extra position being created? (00:11:30 – 00:15:23 of the video)
- Question #2: Sealy I.S.D. seems to have an open-door policy to out of district students. How is that fair to those who pay taxes in the district? (00:15:34 – 00:17:55 of the video)
- Question #3: Explain what plans the city has and your plans for drainage. (00:18:23 – 00:23:11 of the video)
- Question #4: What is the Merit for Prop 1? (00:23:22 – 00:28:43 of the video) [For those who are unfamiliar with Prop 1, here is the wording that is in the charter now and what it is proposed to be:
PROPOSITION ONE
Shall Section 3.06 C. of the City Charter regarding, City Council Prohibitions, be amended as follows?
Interference with administration. Except for the purpose of inquiries and investigations authorized by this Charter, the city council or its members shall deal with city officers and employees who are subject to the direction and supervision of the city manager solely through the city manager, and neither the city council, the mayor, nor a councilmember may give orders publicly or privately to any such city officer or employee who are subject to the direction and supervision of the city manager. The city council, the mayor, or councilmember shall direct such orders solely through the city manager.]
- Question #5: Give us your vision for Sealy in 10 years; population, tax-rate and the economy. (00:28:50 – 00:35:43 of the video)
- Question #6: What do you hope to accomplish as mayor? (00:35:46 – 00:44:01 of the video)
- Question #7: When is HEB coming to Sealy? (00:44:18 – 00:46:55 of the video)
- Question #8: What are your thoughts on Blue Collar vs. college curriculum? (00:47:06 – 00:54:02 of the video)
- Question #9: What are your thoughts on Zoning? (00:54:08 – 00:59:07 of the video)
- Question #10: Do you feel the district should charge for out of district students? (00:59:20 – 01:01:13 of the video)
- Question #11: Tell us about your involvement in the community. List only the things that you do on a reoccurring basis. Do not list things you recently started doing. (01:01:18 – 01:09:18 of the video)
- Question #12: Sealy I.S.D. has the highest tax rate in the county. Are we where you feel we should be? Should it be higher? Should it be lower? (01:09:21 – 01:11:30 of the video)
- Question #13: Discuss your thoughts on the city charter amendments. (01:11:33 – 01:18:06 of the video)
- Question #14: What do you think can be done to improve communication channels between school board members, school staff and the community? (01:18:13 – 01:20:32 of the video)