Los Banos candidates’ forum set for Tuesday, Sept. 24 at city hall

Los Banos voters will have the opportunity to hear directly from the candidates in the November election on Tuesday, Sept. 24. 

The forum will be held in the council chambers of the Los Banos City Hall (520 J Street) and will start at 6 p.m., concluding around 10 p.m. Doors will open at 5 p.m. 

The forum will also be broadcast over public service channel 96 via Comcast and live streamed. During the debate, go to of www.youtube.com/@losbanos406 and click on the Live Now tab. 

The League of Women Voters of Merced County is organizing the event, as it did the last time a candidates’ forum was held in the council chambers a number of years ago. The moderator will be Anthony Parreira, a member of the League of Women Voters. 

League of Women Voters of Merced County President Susan Walsh has sent invitations to participate to all candidates running in contested Los Banos elections, including mayoral candidates incumbent Mayor Paul Llanez and challengers Refugio Llamas and Michael Amabile; city council incumbents Kenneth Lambert and Deborah Lewis and challengers Tommy Leyva and Travis Loebig; and, for the Los Banos school board, incumbent Gary Munoz and challenger Luis Castro. 

Candidates will participate on one of two panels.  All city council candidates and mayoral candidates will participate in the first panel. The school board candidates will participate in the second panel.   

The forum will be held in accordance with the format established by the League of Women Voters of Merced County, which was also used in the last Los Banos candidates’ forum and used in other forums sponsored by the league. The format’s procedures include the following: 

The candidates will answer questions that have been developed by members of LWVMC in advance of the evening and, as time permits, questions provided in writing by the audience.  

All questions will be screened, summarized and grouped by subject by members of the LWVMC. Questions will also be checked by LWVMC members to make sure they are not of a personal or abusive nature.  All questions will be read by the moderator.  

All candidates will have their responses timed by a member of the League of Women Voters of Merced County. Each candidate will be given 60 seconds for an opening statement.  After all candidates have given their opening statements, each question will be addressed to each candidate.  Candidates will have 90 seconds to answer each question.  There will be no follow-up responses.   

Questions will be addressed to candidates in random order determined by the moderator.  The panel session will end with the responses to the last question.  There will be no closing statements. 

The timer will time all statements and answers. The timer will state 10 seconds and/or hold up a red card when 10 seconds are left.  The timer will say stop when the time is up.  

Candidates must stop when their time is up. If they continue, the moderator will stand and ask you to stop until you do so.