Three speakers will address a public forum on nonpartisan elections at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Hopkinsville High School gymnasium.
Members of the public will have an opportunity to ask questions following presentations by Margin Patterson, director of municipal law at the Kentucky League of Cities, Dr. Stephen Voss, associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, and Dr. Scott Lasley, political science professor and department head at Western Kentucky University.
The forum has been planned and organized by Nonpartisan Elections Citizens Committee.
Mayor Wendell Lynch established the committee through an executive order on April 6.
Lynch had previously vetoed a city council vote that would have switched Hopkinsville to nonpartisan city elections. He said local residents did not have sufficient information about the impact of that switch.
In his executive order, Lynch called on a 12-member committee to learn and help educate the public in “an unbiased manner” about nonpartisan elections.
The committee began meeting in June.
The public is encouraged to attend Tuesday’s forum.
“The forum will not be streamed live; however, it will be recorded for playback …,” a release from the city states. It will be available at a later date on the city’s website and on its Facebook page.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
