At last! LWVN’s Voters’ Guide will be available on Tuesday, October 10th by visiting www.VOTE411.org. Add your address on the first page, then click on the GREEN button, and you’ll have candidates’ answers to each of three questions. ALL candidates for office, whether in contested or uncontested races, were invited to participate. Answers were limited to 500 characters (about 100 words).
To the Mayoral candidates, we asked:
- Do you support the proposed new City Charter? Why or why not?
- What would you do to address the human resources issues at City Hall, to ensure that you (and the City) retain key employees and attract the best candidates?
- The schools are currently struggling to maintain reasonable class sizes and breadth of programming, giving rising school populations. How much of a budget increase do you believe is reasonable each year to fund our schools properly, and why?
To all City Councilor candidates, we asked:
- Do you support the proposed new City Charter? Why or why not?
- Partisanship is at an all-time high in our country: how would you as a city councilor promote civil discourse and engagement on controversial issues in Newton?
- What specific, objective criteria would you use to decide whether any site should be rezoned Mixed Use 4 in village commercial centers?
To all School Committee candidates, we asked:
- Do you support the proposed new City Charter? Why or why not?
- Do you support privatizing any part of school operations? Why or why not?
- If you were to write a school transportation policy, what would be your key components?