Thursday, Oct. 3, a planned Williamsburg City Council election forum for newcomer candidates Fraser Hudgins, Ayanna Williams and Lindsay Barna was canceled due to a combination of candidate unavailability and concerns over advertising of the event.
Former Council member and event organizer Ted Maslin MBA ’80 explained the decision to cancel the debate as opposed to moving the event to a later date .
“Because there are so many other events scheduled this month, we will not be able to reschedule the forum,” Maslin said.
Those who wished to attend the forum were instead directed to the National Night Out, the Williamsburg Police Department’s annual community outreach event, which took place the same evening.
Both Ayanna Williams and Fraser Hudgins declined to attend the event. Lindsay Barna was disappointed in this decision, and spoke about the lost opportunity to connect with the Williamsburg community.
“Overall, I think it’s just unfortunate that the event was canceled and that we lost the opportunity to introduce ourselves to the public, to speak with voters, to speak with residents of Williamsburg about what’s important to them,” Barna said.
Barna also spoke about the unique nature of the event, with participation from local students and reporters further boosting the potential for constructive community engagement.
“I thought this was a really unique forum in the way that it was set out,” Barna said. “So we were supposed to have an editor from The Flat Hat and an editor from WYDaily who were going to be the moderators, and time was going to be kept by WJCC Middle School students, and WJCC High School students were given the opportunity to shadow local reporters and report on the event. So I just thought that level of student engagement and community engagement was unique for a forum like this, and it was really a great opportunity for the WJCC and William and Mary students to gain a better understanding of our electoral process and to actually take a part.”
Managing Digital Editor of WYDaily Chris Six was slated to moderate the debate. He discussed his thoughts on the importance of events such as the canceled forum.
“There have been a number of hot topics that have come up in the past couple of years that I think that we would have been interested in hearing the fresh faces be able to answer,” Six said.
Six added that audience questions would prompt candidates to discuss issues that they might not otherwise voluntarily address.
“On top of that, I think that the fact that we were going to be able to take questions from the audience was going to allow for some topics to surface that we don’t hear about all the time from the constituents or the people who reside in Williamsburg,” Six said.
Former Council member and mayor Clyde Haulman expressed concerns with the poster advertising the event, which did not include a sponsor, but did include the City’s official seal and website link. Haulman believes this might have led to the belief that the city was sponsoring this event, or that the city endorsed the newcomer candidates over the incumbents.
“The appearance of the poster was that the city was sponsoring this,” Haulman said. “So I contacted the city manager and he essentially said, ‘no we’re not, and this is not a proper use of the city seal and website address.’”
Haulman was also concerned that only Williams, Barna and Hudgins were invited to speak at the event. Though current councilors Pat Dent and Barbara Ramsey could attend as audience members, he believes they should have been offered a chance to speak in the forum.
“I just think that when you create a forum, you should create one for all candidates. And, you know, they may choose to be there or not be there, but you don’t set up a forum just for some candidates. Now, you know, if you wanted to do a meet and greet for a candidate, that’s fine. But, it seems to me that to create a public forum, as our conversation was called, and not have all candidates invited to it, it didn’t seem fair to me.’” Haulman said.
Candidate Fraser Hudgins noted that similar concerns factored into his decision to withdraw from the event.
“Out of an abundance of legal and ethical caution and my concerns over avoiding the appearance of impropriety, I made the decision not to participate,” Hudgins said.
Despite the cancellation of this particular forum, Williamsburg voters will have another opportunity to get to know their Council candidates prior to election day Nov. 5.
The next such event will be hosted by the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly and will take place Monday, Oct. 14 at 5 p.m. in Commonwealth Auditorium at the Sadler Center.