OneSudebury "debate" a charade, Candidate Will Not Attend.

To the Editor:

I received an invitation to a “debate” to be hosted by OneSudbury on June 17 which Michael Troiano intends to moderate.

We have already had debate.  On May 29 the League of Women Voters hosted a Candidates’ Night which was well attended and televised.  It will be rebroadcast for those who missed it, and is available on demand at Sudbury TV.

In addition, The Sudbury Patch has posed four questions to each candidate and will publish the answers on June 12.  Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail asked each candidate two specific questions about the rail trail, and the answers will be made public soon.  All candidates have websites and have written letters outlining their positions on major issues.

OneSudbury is a closed political advocacy group with admittance by invitation only.  Its stated purpose is to elect its own slate of candidates.  Mr. De Pompei, Mr. Poch and Mr. Gozdeck are all members of OneSudbury.

On April 10 Mr. Troiano, in describing this shift in focus from “Lavendergate”
to OneSudbury said “…I’d ask those of you who are ready to get behind a specific
slate of candidates focused on effecting change in the way this town is run to
join those of us who are already there right now.” 

Mr. Troiano is also a fundraiser for Dan De Pompei, a candidate for selectman and has both De Pompei and Gozdeck signs in his yard.  It is unclear to me how Mr. Troiano can credibly claim that he can impartially moderate OneSudbury’s so-called “debate.”

Other issues:

• The event will proceed even if there is only one candidate. 

This contradicts the ground rules of the League of Women Voters, and may violate FCC and IRS regulations.

• Mr. Troiano is the moderator.

Moderators are not only supposed to be impartial, but should also avoid the appearance of partiality. Mr. Troiano cannot satisfy that threshold requirement.

• Mr. Troiano will submit questions from the audience, based on the number of times the question is asked.

It is not clear what this means and it will be impossible to verify any data during the event. Further, there may be a number of questions asking about different aspects of the same topic, e.g., a question about the town center or police station may be about funding, size, configuration, etc.  The ground rules would give the moderator free reign to re-phrase and interpret the questions and come up with his own composite question.

• An “objective panel” of moderators will ask all other questions.

It is not known to me who these other “moderators” are, or how they will be chosen.

• An unknown panel will take questions via Twitter at the hashtag #BOSDebate, and via Facebook in the OneSudbury group.

I, and many others, do not have a Twitter or a Facebook account, and am not privy to OneSudbury’s Facebook page.  There may be others without such  accounts.  Restricting questions to those conduits will exclude questions from some residents.

The event to be hosted by OneSudbury on June 17 bears no resemblance to the legitimate debate hosted by the League of Women Voters on May 29, or any non-partisan debate. 

In summary, I have been asked to participate in an event:

• Planned privately by an advocacy group, OneSudbury, which sought no input from declared candidates, such as myself that do not belong to this group,
• Hosted exclusively by the same advocacy group that includes its own candidates, De Pompei, Gozdeck, and Poch as members,
• Moderated by the leader of an advocacy group who has set his own non-standard ground rules and chosen where, when, and how to promote the event,
• Moreover, Mr. Troiano has taken an active role as a fundraiser for Mr. De Pompei,
• Where the other moderators are not revealed, or not yet chosen,
• And the manner, form, and delivery of the questions are non-transparent.

In sum, Mr. Troiano and OneSudbury have stacked the deck and created an event designed to showcase the candidates they support.  No reasonable opposition candidate would participate in such a charade.

Because of the deficiencies and irregularities noted above, I do not have confidence that the OneSudbury event would be fair, impartial, and without bias. For these reasons I will not attend.

I have asked that Mr. Troiano read this statement at the beginning of their event, should it go forward, so the reasons for my absence will be known to followers of OneSudbury and all residents of Sudbury. 

Leonard Simon