Legislators snub Fairfield forum

Something was missing from the final Fairfield Chamber of Commerce legislative forum of the legislative session Saturday morning — legislators.

State Reps. Joe Mitchell, R-Mt. Pleasant, and Jeff Shipley, R-Birmingham, and State Sens. Jeff Reichman, R-Mt. Pleasant, and Adrian Dickey, R-Packwood, were all invited to participate in the forum, but none showed.

Fairfield Chamber Executive Director Darien Sloat said he had received an email from Dickey after the March forum.

“I received an email from Sen. Dickey after the last forum saying they really didn’t care for our format and didn’t know if we had any Chamber member businesses here,” Sloat said at Saturday’s forum. “They wanted us to supply an outline of things we’re going to talk about ahead of time, and this should be focused on business.”

The Union requested a copy of the email, but Sloat declined to provide it.

Sloat said that he responded saying the Chamber would be open to changes in the format next year, but with Saturday’s forum being the last one of the session, the format would stay the same.

Fairfield City Attorney John Morrissey took exception to Dickey’s stance, saying it seems as if voters do not matter to legislators.

“I think they’re ignoring reality,” he said. “They’re looking for a way to go away and talk to people who are exactly aligned with them.

“If they’re saying, ‘Take a hike’ I’m offended.”

Morrissey said he was concerned that this could become a partisan trend.

“If this has something to do with having to have your partisan views on your sleeve before they want to be part of your event, that’s never been what this is about,” Morrissey said.

One of the regular features of the Fairfield forum is the presence of students from Fairfield High School and Maharishi School asking questions of legislators.

“It’s kind of disrespectful not to come,” Fairfield High School student Landon Schafer said.

The four legislators issued a joint statement Sunday afternoon regarding the forum.

“We have become concerned with the focus of the Chamber of Commerce forums,” the legislators wrote in the joint statement. “The focus of any Chamber of Commerce should be to further the interests of small businesses in their local area.

“In the last two forums, over three hours of questions were asked and answered, and to our recollection there was just one question that dealt with any sort of business issue. Throughout the entire forum series this year, there has been very little participation, if any, by our local businesses, retail or manufacturing that the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce serves.

“We have shared our concerns with Darien Sloat at the Chamber; however, changes were not made in the forum that took place this past Saturday. In an attempt to put together a more productive forum, we also spoke with John Sandbothe, the president of the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce, and he agreed with our concerns and what the focus of these forums should be, not what they have been.

“The vision statement from the Fairfield Chamber of Commerce’s website is ‘To lead our business community to greater success.’ That is the same desire that the four of us have for this great community, and we hope that moving forward, the focus of these forums has that as its goal.

“With that being said, all of us had other obligations Saturday morning speaking engagements, conferences and meeting with constituents that were all directly related to our elected responsibilities that prevented us from attending the Chamber forum.

“As you can understand, we are all very busy at the Capitol during the week, then returning to our homes on the weekends to run businesses, spend time with family, and to meet with constituents.

“While we wish more time was available to do all three, unfortunately that's not always the case. Our wonderful constituents are always able to call or email us with their concerns or questions.”

Mitchell confirmed Sunday that he was at an out-of-state conference over the weekend.

Reichman had a conflicting engagement in Wayland, but was online for the 10 a.m. Washington legislative forum.