The Windsor Chamber of Commerce has announced it will be hosting a candidates forum on Thursday, March 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. for the May 4 special election. There will be five names on the ballot to fill a vacant town council seat.
The vacant seat belonged to Dominic Foppoli, who was elected at-large mayor in the 2020 election, as part of the town’s transition to district elections. Since his seat is an at-large seat and not a district seat until 2022, any qualified local is eligible to run. However, in 2022, the seat will only be open to a qualified member of districts 1, 2 or 4, the three districts that will be up for vote then.
Oscar Chavez, Julia Donoho, Jeffrey Leasure, Rosa Reynoza and Cody Wilson are the five candidates in contention. A sixth person, Thomas J. Tessier, filed the initial paperwork and then withdrew from consideration.
The moderator for the forum will be Pat Kerrigan, an award-winning broadcast journalist and all five candidates have been invited to participate.
According to a statement from the chamber, “the candidate’s forum is being produced purely to inform voters about the candidates. The chamber does not endorse candidates for office, all activity pertaining the forum will be conducted in a fair and un-biased manner showing no favoritism toward any of the candidates.”
Due to the provisions of the order of the health officer of the county of Sonoma to shelter in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19 the forum will be taking place virtually over Zoom. It will be videotaped and streamed live on the chamber ‘s YouTube channel. The forum will also be translated into Spanish.
More information about the forum will be posted in the Windsor Chamber of Commerce newsletter, and on Facebook and other forms of social media as the date gets closer, according to the chamber statement.
