Election season in full swing: Takeaways from Tuesday's candidate forum in Staunton

STAUNTON — It was a marathon evening at Tempest Bar and Lounge Tuesday night as almost every candidate running for office in November's election shared their thoughts on the future of the city and answered questions from residents.

The candidate forum was held by the Staunton Democratic Committee, though the event was nonpartisan and every candidate who attended was afforded the opportunity to speak to a packed house of intrigued voters.

Here's what we learned from each group of candidates on the ballot.

Sixth district race: Jennifer Lewis wants to be the opposite of Ben Cline

With Rep. Ben Cline absent from the evening's proceedings, Jennifer Lewis had the stage to herself to answer questions from the local community and did not hesitate to paint herself as the complete opposite of Cline in the race.

Lewis was asked about Cline's voting record, and she stated that she "would vote almost nearly 100 percent opposite of what Cline has voted." She singled out Cline's votes against capping insulin costs, as well his vote against baby formula bills in Congress.

Lewis also came out and voiced her opposition to the recently-introduced national abortion ban after 15 weeks, as well as her position as a strong proponent of Medicare for All.

More on Ben Cline:Republican primary results: Ben Cline easily takes nomination for 6th district seat

City council race: Ideas aplenty, but civility is the common theme

The city council candidates took the stage next, and it was clear from the outset that every candidate had ideas and thoughts of how to bolster the City of Staunton moving forward. There were questions around green energy initiatives, workforce/affordable housing and the state of Staunton's infrastructure, with each candidate bringing their own unique solutions and issues to the table.

With the idea of green energy, a majority of candidates were in favor of pushing forward solar initiatives. For Erik Curren, solar energy hits especially close to home as he currently works in the field, and he proposed finding ways to install solar panels on city-owned school property. He also spoke to the city adding electric school buses, a trend that has already found its way to Waynesboro's schools. Brad Arrowood said that he wanted to see more solar panels on roofs in the city, but he also cautioned against being an early adopter for burgeoning technologies due to high cost. In his view, solar is a mature technology that has less risk.

Ted Lawhorn pointed out that Staunton's electric grid might be a bit dated, and called for a study into the electricity infrastructure in the city to make sure that a transition to solar would be seamless. This was a point echoed by Yvonne Wilson, who was wary of green energy initiatives until the city's infrastructure could support waste management from solar facilities, and also mentioned the price of electric vehicles as being prohibitive for Staunton residents.

Michele Edwards was also in favor of bringing more solar energy generation to Staunton, and pointed out that they could add vocational training at local schools like Blue Ridge Community College to specifically work with solar energy technology to help employ more Stauntonians. Alice Woods saw opportunity to require or incentivize new businesses in Staunton to install solar panels on their buildings as a way to coax in more modern energy alternatives.

The green energy question highlighted what most of the forum entailed, with unique perspectives and ideas coming from every candidate for issues like affordable housing, bolstering the school's budget, and the city's infrastructure. But through it all, a constant refrain from candidates was a need for more civility on city council.

Curren called the conduct of the current council "embarrassing," and Lawhorn added that much of their actions could be seen as "juvenile." Every candidate on stage spoke to a need for more respect and cohesion amongst council. This was an extension to their responses to a question about partisan politics in local government, where all but one candidate said that liberal and conservative viewpoints don't matter in the perspective of improving the city. Wilson was the lone exception, calling herself a conservative, but still spoke to her willingness to work with others and to "agree to disagree."

As Woods said, "We aren't leaders, we're servants."

More on city council candidates:Six candidates are running for three open seats on Staunton City Council. Here's who they are.

School board race: Getting parents more involved, but in different ways

The very first question asked of the five school board candidates involved their comfort in working with spreadsheets, and that set the tone for a majority of the conversation during their section of the evening. Coming out of the whirlwind budget cycle that saw a fair amount of contention between the school board and city council, it was expected that talk of wasteful spending, teacher compensation and the budget would dominate the evening.

However, the issue of parental involvement was one that particularly stuck out thanks to the viewpoints of the different candidates.

Kristin Siegel pointed out that schools make every attempt to involve parents in their child's performance at school, with online resources and phone applications that allow her to check her child's grades and look at the curriculum being taught in schools. Stephanie Mason spoke along similar lines, stating that she could count on her fingers the number of times a parent had proactively reached out to her about their child's time in school. She also pointed out that there were numerous accessibility and equity issues stemming from internet access, time and other issues that she hoped to address.

Fontella Brown-Bundy agreed with those assertions, saying that parents ought to be involved in their child's education but there was a lack of parental involvement currently at the schools. She also asserted that while parents should be involved, they should not be able to dictate what actually happens within the school. Lisa Hatter believed that there could be more creative solutions to connecting with parents, and also intimated that parents needed to have more access to the goings on of the classroom. In her words, "parents need to be parents and teachers need to be teachers."

That last point was echoed by John Wilson, who is running on platform that includes a parental bill of rights. To him, parental rights don't end in the parking lot, and he cited "teacher culture" as being intimidating for parents to be able to properly ascertain what happens in the classroom. He spoke generally to what he saw as a greater need for classrooms to be open and transparent to parents, and to build a bridge to them.

More on school board candidates:Staunton, Waynesboro will have contested races for school boards in November

—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Takeaways from Tuesday's candidate forum in Staunton