Letters from the Editor: What questions do you want asked at the Feet to the Fire Forum?
The Feet to the Fire Forum is an unusual debate series.
No canned introductions. No scripts. No podiums. No stopwatches.
The format is fluid — more improvisational jazz than note-for-note classical. The inspiration comes from a Sunday morning news hour, rather than a high school debate class.
The goal is to get people talking. Participants sit in comfortable chairs and are invited to dress down. That relaxed atmosphere can lead to candor, which is what journalists mine for in the usually scripted world of politics. Answers go as long — or as short — as moderators see fit.
This installment could be the most interesting yet. The candidates running for the Costa Mesa City Council, where an ideological political fire has engulfed the city for more than four years, plan to debate the issues at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Robert B. Moore Theatre at Orange Coast College.
Candidates Chris Bunyan, Tony Capitelli, Jay Humphrey, Al Melone, Lee Ramos, Mayor Jim Righeimer and Rita Simpson plan to participate. School Trustee Katrina Foley has a prior family commitment and cannot attend.
The panel of journalists — Daily Pilot City Editor Alicia Lopez, Pilot columnist Barbara Venezia, Voice of OC Editor Norberto Santana Jr. and I — plan to pose the questions. Regular panelist Jack Wu, an Orange County Register columnist, is out of town and can’t attend.
The rest of us plan to gather Tuesday night to pen the questions. Though we don’t want to show our hand, it’s safe to assume we’re going to ask about public safety, development, pensions, infrastructure, the proposed charter and political acrimony.
But it wouldn’t be Feet to the Fire without the forum’s main currency: spontaneity.
That’s where you come in. If you’d like something asked, go ahead and email me a question before the debate starts. Put “Feet to the Fire Forum” in the subject line. I’ll go over your questions with the group and see if we can work them in.
At previous forums, some of the best questions came from Daily Pilot readers.
Those who cannot attend the forum can watch it on tape delay on CMTV Channel 3 or listen to it live on KOCI FM 101.5. The debate will be posted in about a week on the forum website, https://www.feet2thefireforum.com, and YouTube.
JOHN CANALIS is the editor for the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607 and john.canalis@latimes.com.
