Original Story 5/20/2009: Here is a press release from Helen Manogue of QLC to announce that the QLC/POG Mayoral Debate has been set for May 28,2009:
Mayoral candidates meet for debate
Thursday, May 28, 2009 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
The event will take place in the auditorium of the school at Our Lady of Grace, corner of Willow Avenue at Fifth Street. As at the previous candidates’ forums sponsored by these groups, the debate will be moderated by veteran TV reporter, anchorman, and documentary filmmaker, Bob Bowdon, whose on-camera reporting encompasses interviews with prominent personalities such as the chief executive officers of Citibank and Chase. He was with Bloomberg News for six years and is currently executive director of the Smith Family Foundation, which sponsors a monthly public policy forum that airs nationally on the Dish Network and also every Sunday night at 7 p.m. on Cablevision Network’s channel 18. One of Mr. Bowdon’s documentary films has been chosen for viewing in the Hoboken International Film Festival to be held starting May 30, 2009.
POG and QLC are non-profit, non-partisan citizen organizations that have been active in Hoboken during the last decade and have organized previous candidates’ forums.
Our Lady of Grace/St. Joseph Parish and The Church at Hoboken are joining in the sponsorship of the debate in order to make information available about the candidates in this important June 9, 2009 election.
POG (http://www.hobokenpog.org/) is known for advocating for passage of anti-pay-to-play legislation as well as ordinances requiring electronic access to local government documents. It produced a package of ordinances that ultimately were adopted as city law. The ordinances include requiring competitively negotiated professional contracts and developer contribution disclosures.
The QLC (http://www.qlchoboken.org/) actively supported POG initiatives and was instrumental in forging the western alignment of the Light Rail route in Hoboken, and joined with several other groups fighting to secure 1600 Park Avenue as designated parkland. Recently, QLC worked with Hoboken Heritage to protect portions of the Holy Innocents site from demolition and construction of a mid-rise building. It also participated in the recent successful effort to save the Neumann Leathers building from demolition and in promoting scrutiny of plans before the Hoboken Planning Board for 65-story and 45-story buildings proposed for the Erie Lackawanna train yards in southern Hoboken. In March 2008 the Coalition and its Committee for a Green Hoboken secured the unanimous passage of the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement, a commitment to work for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions throughout the municipality.
