[img]2221|left|Ray Charles||no_popup[/img]Instead of being acted out, last evening’s School Board candidates forum for the Blair Hills Neighborhood Assn., probably should have been mailed in – while wearing dark glasses, wearing an elaborate disguise, carrying false identification.
It was not so much a forum as a casual street-corner conversation until the traffic light flashed green again so the participants could hurry into the busy crosswalk.
The scene inside the Community Center at the top of enchantingly forested Kenny Hahn State Park was Distraction Central.
Rather than a carefully planned, remotely organized airing of the differing views of seven contenders for three School Board seats, the messy, ultra casual program resembled an emergency suggestion for a game of Yahtzee when sudden rain forces disappointed picnickers indoors.
A down-dressed card game slapped together with minimal forethought.
There have been better planned walks across the street by late-night carousers.
Looked like something thought up while cars wended their way to the lovely hilltop setting.
As in:
“Oh, this is nice. Why don’t we stop here?”
The mistress of ceremonies noted, unceremoniously, unsurprisingly, that no advance questions had been submitted by an audience that felt detached from whatever was going on in the front of the room.
An evening that should have been writ small – in pencil – so it could be erased with no lingering, damning evidence.
Perhaps the real forum is on another night? Everyone showed up by mistake last evening?
The program offered less drama and 2½ fewer thrills than a completed game of Solitaire.
The main problem with this oxymoronic, abstractly planned event was that all of the candidates were understandably infected by the disjointed We Would Rather Be Anywhere Else mood pervading the room.
It felt like 25 non-astronauts newly arrived on the moon on the first day of hunting season.
Duck.
[img]2220|right|Helen Keller||no_popup[/img]The late Ray Charles and Helen Keller were co-chairs of the Seating Arrangement Committee. Sightings of candidates Vernon Taylor and Robert Zirgulis, seated on either end, were rare and fleeting.
Although Sue Robins, Karlo Silbiger, Kathy Paspalis, Claudia Vizcarra, Dr. Steve Levin, Mr. Zirgulis and Mr. Taylor generally were respectable, it is unlikely anyone’s standing with voters was improved. Esoteric as the notion is, the flat performances were a boon to those perceived to be trailing. Distinctions between and among the candidates were undetectable.
Perhaps for defendable reasons, the ladies and gentlemen were markedly uninspired.
Mr. Zirgulis and Mr. Silbiger found themselves saying “I agree with (the previous speaker).” Or as Dr. Levin once observed, “the same answer for all of us.”
Hardly what voters came to hear.
It was not the fault of the candidates.
Inside of three weeks until the Nov. 5 election, this hashed-together fire drill was unfortunate and eminently avoidable.
Capsule impressions of the contenders:
Claudia Vizcarra – Stronger as she goes. After a few weeks of meeting the public, she is exactly where she wants to be with a far better organized message than she presented in the beginning.
Vernon Taylor – The more you hear him, the more you want to hear from him. A low-key banker and former financial advisor to City Hall, he tells audiences, “You may not know my name or my face…” True. Does he have enough time to close the biographical/information gap?
Sue Robins – Started and is finishing in powerhouse form – with well-researched ideas and opinions on education and leadership. No noticeable flaws. A pivotal point could be her seemingly shy personality.
Kathy Paspalis – Needed to rally, and she has. As knowledgeable as anyone in the room, her earlier timidity about showcasing her practical and lawyer-like skills seems to have evaporated. She speaks with concision, insight and has the resume to support her assertions.
Dr. Steve Levin – No one like him ever has appeared on this horizon. A modest astrophysicist, he consistently has shown an ability to roar through dense bureaucratic underbrush, and with laser-like efficiency, size up an issue and incisively prescribe the cure. You almost expect him to say one evening, “Hello, I am God. I live with my family down the street.”
Karlo Silbiger – More reliable than a new Mercedes on the showroom floor. He likely spends more time probing, examining and solving School Board matters than any of his colleagues. It shows with his presentations, at Board meetings and on the campaign trail. Tell him he has 8 seconds to summarize the three worst problems in the School District, and he will finish in 7.
Robert Zirgulis – Calling himself the Common Sense candidate, he observed smartly last evening, “Things can be studied to death.” Said he suggested solar panels four years ago, and he is perplexed as to why “the District and the School Board sat on millions of dollars for years” until recently. He also walked over to what he self-kiddingly called his dead horse. He stumped, as usual, for repairing the silenced Natatorium, claiming this separates him from his rivals because they won’t talk about it. His is not a majority viewpoint.
