Comobuz.com publisher Mike Murphy will moderate Monday night’s Columbia school board candidate debate inside Mizzou’s Cornell Hall. He expects a good crowd for the event, which begins at 6:30 at Bush auditorium, inside Cornell. The seven candidates on the CPS ballot are expected to be there. They are, in ballot order, Paul Harper, John Potter, incumbent Christopher Horn, James Edward Gordon, John Lyman, April Ferrao and former State Representative Chuck Basye (R-Rocheport). During Saturday’s interview, host Fred Parry and Murphy criticized the questions being asked at other forums, saying nothing is being asked about CPS academic performance. Mr. Murphy plans to ask about CPS’ 70 percent score on the DESE annual performance review. Murphy tells listeners that 80 percent of Missouri schools ranked higher than CPS. Mr. Parry and Mr. Murphy also discussed CPS superintendent Dr. Brian Yearwood, the Wayne Sells CPS case, Columbia’s trash issue and Columbia city council races:
(AUDIO): Comobuz.com organizing March 13 and March 20 Columbia candidate forums
The publisher of subscription-based news website Comobuz.com is organizing two mid-March Columbia candidate forums. They’ll be debate formats that he’ll moderate.
Publisher Mike Murphy, who has 40 years of experience in the newspaper business, tells 939 the Eagle’s Fred Parry that the current forums are “terrible.”
“I think everyone will agree to that. They’ve (forums) have gone away. They’ve fallen apart, candidates aren’t even showing up, there’s no debate. There are stupid questions. Nobody is just really pulling one off anymore,” Murphy says.
Murphy and Parry say that during the two recent forums for Columbia school board candidates, student performance did not come up for discussion. Murphy joined Fred in-studio for the hour on Saturday morning’s “CEO Roundtable” program on 939 the Eagle.
Mr. Murphy also expresses concerns about the location of a proposed 120-bed homeless shelter near the Business Loop. The center would be built near the city’s power plant and former VFW post, not far from Paris road.
“(Former Boone County commissioner) Dave Griggs pointed out perfectly. The best thing you can do right now is go out on Paris road, go out on Route B and heading south take the exit onto Business Loop. And you’re going to come off there and you know you’re going to be up to 35, 40, 50 miles an hour in no time, speed limit is 35. And that is right smack across in front of where this homeless center is going to sit with no sidewalks,” says Murphy.
Columbia’s city council voted last week to approve a permit to allow for the use of the shelter. City manager De’Carlon Seewood tells 939 the Eagle that the council’s vote allows the Voluntary Action Center (VAC) to utilize the property for that purpose.