The Greater Centralia Chamber of Commerce welcomes the public to watch the Centralia Candidates Forum online on Thursday, March 18, at 7:00pm. The forum is hosted by Kaskaskia College and will be simultaneously live streamed via Zoom, on the KC Facebook page, and covered by local media. The recorded forum will also be posted online for future viewings.

The Candidates Forum is an event hosted by the Centralia Chamber to educate and inform voters on each candidates' platform and viewpoints before the election held on Tuesday, April 6, 2021. The chamber of commerce does not endorse any single candidate and all candidates will receive equal time.

"We are happy to partner with Kaskaskia College and utilize their technology and resources to make sure this event is available for everyone to see. Unfortunately, with Phase 4 guidelines, we are unable to have the public in attendance for this event," says Marcus Holland, executive director of the Greater Centralia Chamber of Commerce.

The candidates for mayor are incumbent Herb Williams and challenger Bryan Kuder. The two seats that are vacated by Howard Jones and Andre Marshall are being sought after by Jeff Castellari, Israel Fontanez, Jason Hunter, Rob Jackson, and Kent Jones.

The event will begin with a short introduction by Holland, then the five city council candidates will have three (3) minutes each to present their platform and make an opening statement. After open remarks, questions will be selected and read by local media representatives with each candidate allowed a one (1) minute response. Questions may be submitted in writing before the event to the Centralia Chamber of Commerce. Due to time constraints, not all submitted questions will be chosen. After the questions, each candidate will be given two (2) minutes for closing statements.

The same rules will be repeated for the mayoral candidates, which will begin immediately following the city council forum.

Questions directed toward candidates may be submitted from anyone to office@centraliachamber.com. Not all questions will be read due to time constraints. Questions must be general and may not pertain to any one candidate specifically and will be chosen and read by local media.