The Town-Crier newspaper will host a televised Royal Palm Beach candidate forum on Monday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in the new Royal Palm Beach Village Council chambers.
The two candidates seeking the Mayor’s Seat on the Royal Palm Beach Village Council in this year’s election have been invited to participate in the forum.
In that race, resident and political activist Steve Avila is challenging incumbent Mayor Fred Pinto. The election will be held on Tuesday, March 19.
The Jan. 29 forum will last approximately two hours and will be moderated by retired WPTV news anchor Jim Sackett with questions posed by a panel assembled by the Town-Crier, as well as those submitted by the community.
All residents are invited to attend the forum. For those who cannot make it in person, the forum will be broadcast on the village’s Channel 18 and streamed live on the village’s web site and YouTube channel.
The forum will be broken up into two 50-minute sessions with a 10-minute break in between. Each candidate will provide an opening statement before being asked a series of questions on local topics.
Residents will be invited to submit questions during the first half of the forum. Moderator-chosen questions from those submitted will be asked during the second half of the forum. Each candidate will also be given time to make a closing statement.
“We look forward to a very informative candidate forum,” Town-Crier Publisher Barry Manning said. “We’re pleased to once again stage this event for the Royal Palm Beach community. Our mission at the Town-Crier is to keep residents informed on important local issues, and crucial to that is helping voters to be informed on election issues.”
The council chambers are inside the new Royal Palm Beach Village Hall, located at the southeast corner of Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach boulevards.
Residents not attending the forum in person are invited to submit a question in advance. Questions can be submitted in a sealed envelope marked “Confidential/Candidate Forum” and dropped off at the Village Clerk’s Office prior to 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29.
The candidate forum is sponsored by the Town-Crier newspaper with support from the Village of Royal Palm Beach, the Central Palm Beach County Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beach County.
