Women’s Civic League to sponsor candidate town hall

ST. CLAIR SHORES — The Women’s Civic League of St. Clair Shores is sponsoring a Town Hall for residents to meet their candidates for City Council in the upcoming election.

The event will be at 7 p.m. on Sept. 22 at the St. Clair Shores City Hall located at 27600 Jefferson Avenue.

There are six candidates running for council: incumbents John Caron, Dave Rubello and Candice Rusie, and challengers Adura Calhoun, Dominic Roy Neumann and Bryan Owens.

Carol Kapusnak, a Women’s Civic League member, said they try to host a town hall every time there is an election and that it has been going on for quite a while. She said there is a reasonable turnout each time, but they’d like more participation.

“A lot of people look at it later because it’s recorded later,” Kapusnak said. “This year, there may be more people because of the candidates we have.”

Kapusnak believes that it is a comfortable atmosphere for residents to ask questions.

“We try to make it very casual so to say so no one is intimidated to ask questions,” Kapusnak said.

Judge Mark A. Fratarcangeli has emceed the event for around 24 years and is also participating in the event again this year. He said it’s been interesting seeing the different candidates.

“And then some that we’ve seen repeat, see how they’ve changed their positions a little bit and adapted to their job,” Fratarcangeli said.

Fratarcangeli called the town hall an informal setting.

“It’s really an open forum to allow everyone in our neighborhoods to find out more about their candidates,” Fratarcangeli said.

The Women’s Civic League drafts the questions for the candidates to answer. Rusie and her sister are a part of the League, but they did not participate in creating the questions.

“We just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any kind of conflict, so no one knows these questions until he asks the questions, the judge,” Kapusnak said.

The event starts with an introductory period for both Fratarcangeli and the candidates followed by the questions tailored by the League and then resident questions. Fratarcangeli will also ask some questions and then the candidates will sum up their stances.

The League will screen questions, Fratarcangeli said, to make sure the questions are specific to the council member position and don’t become too personal.

Fratarcangeli also said he’s emceed events for other types of candidates as well.

“There’s different questions for different job responsibilities, but (it’s) very interesting and it still gives you an opportunity to see what type of person you’re thinking of electing,” Fratarcangeli said.

He said the town halls over the years haven’t been too contentious calling it a “pleasant surprise.”

“It’s more of an information gathering type of situation as opposed to a debate,” Fratarcangeli said. “You don’t have tempers flared, you don’t have people being disrespectful to other candidates. We try to keep it very civil and very open so we can just illicit (a) response so you can make a decision.”

Fratarcangeli said most of the candidates have websites for residents to ask them questions and they will also leave contact information to ask questions.

He encourages people to come out and to join the Women’s Civic League of St. Clair Shores.