LCO News Planning Tribal Council Candidate Forums

By Joe Morey News Editor

The Lac Courte Oreilles Today group page will host a candidate’s forum on Wednesday evening, June 4th, at 6:30 pm. All candidates are welcome to participate and can expect a professional and respectful forum and interaction with the voters. There will be 8 questions asked every 15 minutes allowing the forum to be concluded at 8:30 pm.

This candidate’s forum will be exclusive to the Lac Courte Oreilles Today page and the 3,300 members of this page, who best represent the actual citizenry of the LCO Tribe. As administrator, I only allow people who are members of this tribe or at least active participants in the community, such as long-time employees or spouses.

The forum questions and candidate answers will then be published in the LCO News printed newspaper and digital newspaper in the week prior to the general election on June 21. The printed paper will be distributed on June 13 and the digital newsletter published on June 16.

The forum structure will be as follows; Every 15 minutes a question will be asked by myself as moderator and the candidates will have 5 minutes to post one response in no particular-order. All questions will relate to tribal issues as-a-whole and no candidate will be asked a direct question. During the 5-minute period, members will not be allowed to post. Once the 5-minute period is over, members and candidates will be allowed to engage one another in a respectful way, for a 10-minute period. Any members make a post or comment during that 5-minute period, it will be deleted, and if they repeat the violation, they will be removed from the group. After a 10-minute engagement period another question will be asked as a separate post and the same procedure will follow until 8 questions have been asked. Members and candidates can continue posting on the previous questions for as long as they so wish during the time of the forum. After 8:30 pm, all commenting will be closed on those questions as to discourage any personal attacks on candidates when they are not online to respond.

There will be rules for the members in their participation. Members won’t be allowed to make any posts to the Lac Courte Oreilles Today page between the hours of 6:30 pm until 8:30 pm while the forum is taking place. Members will not be allowed to ask any questions deemed as personal attacks on a candidate or not related to the question. The goal is to keep this forum a respectable and informative session with our potential next council members. They should all be encouraged to participate and not discouraged in fear of unnecessary attacks and surprise “gotcha” questions. Candidates can be assured the 8 questions asked during the forum will concern current tribal issues as-a-whole.

Members who have a question they would like to see asked as part of the 8-question forum, please post your questions here or private message me with your question.

In closing, I want to extend this invitation to all candidates, and regardless of our political affiliations, I assure you all a fair and balanced debate for all candidates. Despite where you and I may stand in our political beliefs, all candidates will be treated fairly and respectfully in this debate and I will not allow any other members to be rude or distasteful with their comments or questions during the forum.

And one more thing. If you as members know of any candidates who aren’t members of this group, and they’d like to participate, add them to the group and they will be approved.

In addition, the LCO PR Department is planning a live streamed forum on the Tribe's official Facebook page. More details will be announced soon.