By Gina Channell Wilcox
E-mail Gina Channell Wilcox
About this blog: I am President of Embarcadero Media's East Bay Division and the publisher of the Pleasanton Weekly, Dublin TriValley Views, San Ramon Express and Danville Express. As a 25-plus-year veteran of the media industry, I have experience...
(More)About this blog: I am President of Embarcadero Media's East Bay Division and the publisher of the Pleasanton Weekly, Dublin TriValley Views, San Ramon Express and Danville Express. As a 25-plus-year veteran of the media industry, I have experience in print, broadcast and digital media. In 2004, I left Illinois where I was Executive Editor / Associate Publisher of a group of 14 weekly newspapers and one daily belonging to what is now known as the Chicago Sun-Times Group, to move to Northern California to launch two newspapers and a radio station. To date I have launched eight weekly newspapers (one in Spanish), one daily newspaper, one monthly newspaper, one monthly news magazine, several news websites and an FM radio station. I joined Embarcadero Media in 2006 because of its focus on quality, community journalism and the entrepreneurial spirit of its staff and management team. I have a bachelor's degree in Communications and a master's degree in Business Administration and spend the little spare time I have teaching for University of Phoenix and with my three children, ages 25, 21 and 13.
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The Pleasanton Weekly and TV30 will co-host a free public forum for the Pleasanton City Council mayoral and city council candidates from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at the Civic Center, located at 200 Old Bernal Ave. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
The forum will begin at 7 p.m. with the two mayoral candidates answering questions from moderators and audience members. Attorney Matt Morrison will challenge incumbent Mayor Jerry Thorne, who is seeking re-election to a second two-year term of office.
At 7:30 p.m. attention will be turned to the four candidates vying for two vacant seats on the City Council. The four candidates are George Bowen, a Parkside resident who recently formed the Pleasanton Voters for Smart Growth, a citizens coalition opposed to adding more apartment houses in the city; Councilwoman Kathy Narum, who was elected in a special ballot-by-mail election in May 2013 to the seat vacated by Jerry Thorne when he was elected mayor; former Planning Commissioner Arne Olson; and Olivia Sanwong, a member of the city's Economic Development Committee.
Those attending the forum will be given cards as they enter which they can use to write out their questions for the candidates. The moderators of the forum, Pleasanton Weekly Publisher Gina Channell-Allen, Editor Jeb Bing and TV30 "Mayor's Report" Host Tom Morrison will ask the candidates to answer these questions along with others. The candidates will have time for brief opening and closing remarks, but they will not see any questions in advance.
The forum will be videotaped for later broadcast on community television's Channel 29 and also on the Pleasanton Weekly's website at www.pleasantonweekly.com.
