Held at Bemidji City Hall and organized by the League of Women Voters, the forum hosted incumbents Jim Lucachick, District 5, Joe Vene, District 2 and Tim Sumner, District 4, along with their respective opponents, Ralph Morris, Reed Olson and Vince Gross.
Throughout the evening, the group of candidates answered numerous questions from a public audience, such as their views on expanding transparency in county government.
In response, Morris and Olson said they would support efforts to bring cameras into the Beltrami County meeting rooms and record the sessions so they could then be accessible to the public both by TV and online.
Additionally, Olson said the current meeting times are too early in the day to be attended by the public, adding that if he was elected he would work to shift the sessions to a later time.
Vene, who also said he could support more exposure to the public through broadcasts, said a more important aspect in transparency is a commissioner making themselves accessible on a consistent basis and talking to constituents regularly.
Trust between the commissioners and constituents was Gross' most important aspect in delivering transparency to county government, noting that residents of the county rely on the government to make decisions. Additionally, Gross said the idea of broadcasting to the public was 'something to think about,' but wasn't sure about the feasibility.
Sumner, who said improvements in technology should allow for televised county meetings, also described how he would host meetings with township chairs to get an insight into their concerns and then report on those meetings at county sessions.
Lucachick said he worked to explore televising the county board meetings, yet Beltrami opted for a newsletter to be sent out to residents instead. Lucachick said the newsletter contains important information from the county and that he also sends out a personal newsletter twice a year for extra transparency with constituents.
Another question raised at Tuesday's forum was on improving the relationship between the Beltrami County government and the city of Bemidji.
According to Sumner, there's already been collaboration between the city and county and more steps can be done. Sumner said this can be done by both supporting the relationship with Bemidji while also holding meetings with other communities in the county such as Blackduck.
For Lucachick, the city and county already work together regularly through sharing computer systems. In the future, Lucachick said the county can branch out and offer the computer system sharing with other communities while having more face-to-face meetings with city leaders.
"I think we have a fairly good relationship overall," said Olson, who agreed that there needs to be more meetings between county and city government. Olson, who currently serves on the Bemidji City Council, said in his time with the governing body there have only been two joint meetings in four years when there should be two per year.
Morris had a similar response, calling for an increase in more joint meetings between the county and cities, especially with Bemidji.
"They can work together quite well as far as I know," said Gross, who added that he is opposed to using any county funds toward the Sanford Center.
Citing his experience on Bemidji's planning commission, Vene said the county already works in some aspects with the city and that there are more partnerships that can be developed.
Also on the schedule for Tuesday's event was a forum for Bemidji Area School Board candidates. However, two of the candidates, Ann Long Voelkner and Jeff Haack were unable to attend. The third candidate running for a board seat, John Gonzalez, did appear during the forum, though, to give details on his background.
The forum was one of two organized by the League of Women Voters, with the other scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Bemidji City Hall. The next forum will focus on Bemidji City Council and mayoral races.
©2016 The Bemidji Pioneer (Bemidji, Minn.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.