WSW: The Candidates for Kalamazoo City Commission and Mayor

In November, voters in the city of Kalamazoo will elect a mayor and six members of the city commission. This is the first election since voters approved amendments to the city charter that change the way elections are conducted in Kalamazoo. 

Under the new system there is a separate election of the mayor, and city commissioners will be elected to staggered terms. In the future all commissioners will be elected to four year terms with three seats up every two years. Because this is the first election under the new system, there will be a transition. All seven seats are up for election, the top-three finishers will earn four-year terms. The next three will win two-year terms.

On Wednesday September 23rd the Kalamazoo Gazette held a forum for the candidates running for Kalamazoo City Commission and mayorat the MLive hub in downtown Kalamazoo. The forum was moderated by Gazette Editor Mickey Ciokajlo. The Kalamazoo Gazette and MLive allowed WMUK to record the forum. It is presented here in a special one hour program. 

The candidates’ closing statements had to be edited out of the broadcast version of the forum. But can be heard in the web version. 

The candidates for Mayor:

Bobby Hopewell

Kris Mbah

The candidates for City Commission:

David Anderson

Leona Carter

Don Cooney

Eric Cunningham

Cody Dekker

Grant Fletcher

Erin Knott

SonJalita Hulbert

Matt Milcarek

Shannon Sykes

Jack Urban

Reed Youngs

Two candidates, Jason Milan and Kevin Staten did not participate in the forum.