By John Hansen, moderator
School Superintendent Chris Timmis joined us after graduating Dexter High School’s largest graduating class, but less to celebrate and more to reassure that Dexter Schools are doing everything reasonably possible to ensure child safety. He noted that during his career as superintendent he must have sent 20 letters of comfort to parents after school shootings across the country. The group’s pediatricians and social workers have all expressed concerns about the mental health of the children who all grew up in a time of mass shootings in schools (and churches, hospitals, concerts and grocery stores).
And then it was stump time. This is our little feature where we invite the candidates (who have main opponents) who have found us to intervene (3/4″) and give us their original speech. The speeches are not summarized here to avoid ” misunderstandings” and to give you all a reason to attend in person.
Today we heard:
State Senate District 14 candidate Sue Shink (D)
Karl Barr (NP) nominee for District Court 14-A
Carrie Rheingans (D) running for state representative from District 47
We ended with a little discussion about collecting signatures on petitions to run for office. For some offices like the school board and state representative, you can just pay a $100 filing fee and you don’t have to collect signatures. For the city council, the required number is 15 (to the best of our recollection) and for the governor, it must be 15,000. To change or make a new state law, the number is more like 350,000.
The next meeting of the Dexter Forum will take place on Saturday, June 18, 2022 at 8:30 a.m. at the Dexter Wellness Center. We will have another group of candidates on the stump.
