The Chronicle Forum

Last night was the Citrus County Chronicle's candidate forum. This is the big event where 100s of people attend to listen to the candidates speak. The Chronicle claims 500 were in attendance. I arrived just before the BOCC candidates got up on the stage and I certainly did not see 500 people sitting there. Maybe they left after other candidates spoke. Maybe they just came to speak with candidates in person before the questions were asked to them on the stage.

But still, a few hundred people attended and as of this writing, 550 views on the Youtube video.

Regardless... its the most attended event in the county during election season.

However, I walked away from it disappointed. There is an opportunity here for something great... a real debate type of thing... but we just get questions and answers. It is what it is, but I would have loved to see the candidates counter other candidate's responses. Give a minute or so for each candidate to address the statements made by the other candidate(s). Give them a bit of a leash to go back and forth.

As it is, the person who gets to speak last has full control over the question. They can say whatever, even counter the other candidate's points and those who spoke prior to that get no chance to counter. They do alternate questions, so everyone has a chance to go last, but still... would love to see more back and forth on the issues.

When an incumbent says something they want to do, give the challengers a chance to be like "Well you have been in office for X years, why didn't you do this before now?". Or when a challenger says something to criticize a prior decision, let the incumbent address that decision and state why they made that vote or whatever.

Point is... give them a chance to more of a debate rather than a Q/A. We do it for just about every other race we vote on during an election, why not local politics?

In any case, I did not see much last night that I did not already know. We heard the candidates speak in generalities. "Oh we need to cut the budget...", "We need roads...", "Data centers do not belong in Citrus...".. You know.. the talking points. I was probably guilty of this in 2024 as well, so I get it.

But I did not hear a plan from any of them on what they actually intended to do.

Ok great... we need our roads fixed. Everyone will agree to that... but how do you plan to address it? Just go to staff and say "We need more paving, make it happen"? Where does the money come from that. We do not have a money tree outside to pull money off of, so increasing the road budget will be a cut to something else... What is that something else?

We heard them all answer the question about the property tax bill and potential revenue related issues that will bring for Citrus. All of them said something similar... we need to tighten our belts... Ok cool... but what does that look like? What do we cut? We will have a $40m or so revenue shortfall by the time it is fully implemented... What is their vision for what the county looks like when that happens?

A couple said consultants, but which ones? The ones that did the road study to show we had a $750m deficiency in road maintenance? The ones that are doing our space needs study? The ones working on the Comp Plan re-write? The ones who have worked with us on impact fees? All of them? Again, no specifics, just generalizations.

Someone said "there are lots of scales of efficiency we can look at".. Ok.. I can get behind that. Making government more efficient will help reduce costs... but no details of that plan? Just throw it out there because it sounds good? Mind you this is from an incumbent, so I can question why they haven't worked on this already... which is where the back and forth between the candidates would be great.

Another said... "Blaise Ingoglia found $39 million dollars. I think they can cut that money".. Ok.. again.. what is the plan and where do we cut? Just take $39 million off the top and then what?

Yes, I understand they only have a minute to answer a question or 3 mins when giving their closing statements, but going back to the budget questions.. how long does it take to pick out an item from the budget and say "This is what I would cut. This would reduce the budget by $X".

Certainly, all of them have looked at the budget, right?

Overall, I think each person did what they needed to do.

Finegan and Bays touted their accomplishments and experience over their challengers. Worthington showed her poise. Herndon showed her knowledge of the issues. Grogan showed she was someone that the average person could relate to.

Did any of them win over someone who was opposed to them? Did any of them sway someone who was undecided into their corner? We will see in a little over a month.

Be on the lookout for the Chamber forum on Friday. Also, I will have an interview series coming out next week with some more detailed information.