What you read below is just one person’s opinion of what happened at the Cary Chamber of Commerce’s candidates’ forum. Over 100 attended.
If you attended and would like to share what you saw and heard, please comment below or, if it’s as long as this, send it to McHenry County Blog in an email (the address is on the left).
The candidates in the pictures, left to right,
Park District Commissioner – Mike Renner, Patrick Smith, Phil Stanko.
Mayor – Bruce Kaplan, Mark Kownick
“For Cary Park District, I thought Patrick Smith came off well. He has my bullet vote.
“His ‘use it or lose it’ theme, referring to Cary Park District’s massive land holdings, resonated well with me.
“Renner has been there for 18 years, doesn’t want to buy Chalet golf course, but he doesn’t want to sell Foxford Hills either. Stanko seemed more concerned with environmentalism, which to me is MCCD’s job, than use of parks for recreation and holding taxes down.
“For Cary Mayor, Kaplan said a few things I liked, mainly about allowing the free market to work and reducing regulations and fees.
“Kownick didn’t seem to have any revelations. He seems beholden to the Cary sports organizations (basketball, soccer, etc.).
“I asked the mayoral candidates if they could explain why both of Cary’s TIF districts shouldn’t be immediately abolished.
“Neither had an answer.
Park Board – Mike Renner, Patrick Smith, Phil Stanko.
Mayor – Bruce Kaplan, Mark Kownick
“Former Cary Mayor Kathy Parks relentlessly attacked Kaplan for wanting the free market to work and wanting to reduce fees.
“Another guy relentlessly attacked Kownick for not properly shutting down a business he owned 16 years ago.”
One thing you mentioned here doesn’t match what I remember, the item about Kownick’s business wasn’t that he didn’t properly shut it down.
It was that he misrepresented himself.
He told the Northwest Herald that he was the owner and President of his company for 25 years.
At the candidates night he changed that to the fact that he is owner and President for only the past 16 years, and in that 16 years, he has not filed a annual report with the Secretary of State.
He called it an “oversight” and blamed a lot of other people.
I was sent this link today to a video on youtube.
You can watch it for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKU02APAqn0&list=UUXFbBJeDhOWXVUDzAffOXgQ&index=1