FAYETTEVILLE -- A forum went on as scheduled Thursday at the Chamber of Commerce but with only one of the three mayoral candidates in attendance.
Mayor Lioneld Jordan took questions from audience members in a packed room at the chamber. His opponents, developer Tom Terminella and resident Ron Baucom, didn't attend.
In a joint news release, Terminella and Baucom stated they prefer face-to-face interaction with residents to the "low-attended" series of candidate forums.
"It is the candidates' respective beliefs that this forum does not represent the most effective way to deliver their messages to the citizens of Fayetteville," the release states. "The candidates find these forums are attended by a small percentage of Fayetteville voters who, generally, have already decided their votes."
Terminella said the chamber's contracts with the city presented in his mind an unfair forum. He said he would be open to a debate in an agreed-upon location and moderator.
"I'm not going to go to Lioneld's personal mouthpiece, the chamber, where he just awarded them $360,000 for a consulting contract," Terminella said. "Why in the hell would I want to go to the chamber and listen to those people that are his audience? And nobody's showed up to the damn things."
The City Council in its Oct. 4 meeting approved a two-year, $360,000 contract with the chamber for the purpose of retaining businesses in Fayetteville. It also approved a two-year, $300,000 contract with local group Startup Junkie to bring in new businesses. Both contracts make up part of the city's economic development plan.
Taylor Shelton with the Chamber of Commerce said the forums were open and moderator Alex Baldwin picked audience members based on whose hands went up. The questions weren't screened beforehand, nor did the city's dealings with the chamber affect the outcome of the forums, he said.
"It'd be hard to find a way that we could influence the format -- the way we have it drafted out -- to be biased towards one candidate or another," he said. "We have no preference on who is here, who is attending and all candidates were given the same invitation on the same day."
Shelton said Baucom previously confirmed he would attend the forum but Terminella didn't. Baucom couldn't be reached by press time.
Jordan compared the one-candidate forum to a town hall.
"Every candidate's running their own campaign and I'm running mine, and I've always been accessible to the people," he said. "I'm accessible now."
NW News on 10/21/2016