IS IT TRUE we were contacted about an alleged transparency and conflict of interest issue concerning the  political panel event at the Pan Hellenic Candidate Forum held at the Boys and Girls Club yesterday evening?  …supporters of Vanderburgh County Commission candidate Sean Selby felt there was obvious favoritism shown by the moderator towards Vanderburgh County Commission candidate Ben Shoulders during this event?
IS IT TRUE Supporters of Mr. Selby have told us that one of Mr Shoulders’ co-workers from Old National Bank moderated the Pan Hellenic Candidate Forum?
IS IT TRUE  This substantiated the claim of his supporters that there was an obvious conflict of interest?
IS IT TRUE when we approached Mr. Shoulders, he substantiated this situation when he said and we quote: “I wasn’t in charge of choosing the moderator and we are both employees of Old National Bank.  Each candidate had the same amount of time for both the introduction and Q and A”?
IS IT TRUE it looks like Mr. Shoulders may have a little “MODERATOR GATE” issue facing him between now and election day?
IS IT TRUEÂ Â Mr. Shoulders should had been more open and transparent concerning this obvious conflict of interest concerning a fellow co-worker at Old National bank moderating the Pan Hellenic Candidate Forum yesterday evening?
IS IT TRUE when Mr. Shoulders discovered that his fellow co-worker was the moderator of the event he should have immediately asked her to recuse herself from this panel?
IS IT TRUE we respectfully request that County Commission candidate Sean Selby will come forward to give his side of the story?
IS IT TRUE this is a developing story and please stay tuned?
I attended the event last night and thought the situation was handled poorly. First of all the organizers of the event introduced all of the candidates except for Mr. Selby who they made introduce himself. They did allow all the candidates to have the same amount of time to give an opening speech and to answer the questions presented by the panel of organizers until it came to the audience questions. An audience member asked two of the other candidates a question and both candidates were allowed to respond. When the question was asked by an audience member to both Mr. Shoulders and Mr. Selby the moderator allowed Shoulders to respond but when Selby tried to answer she, the moderator, twice told him “No”. Mr. Selby even asked her “So I’m not allowed to respond?” and she said “No”. When Mr. Shoulders spoke he at least twice referenced Danielle (who was the moderator) in his remarks about Old National Bank. It seemed suspicious to me why they wouldn’t let Mr. Selby answer the question and I too wondered if it was because of Shoulders working with her that she wouldn’t let his opponent have equal opportunity. It also came as a surprise to me when I saw one of the five panelist carrying multiple Shoulders signs out of the event. It certainly gave the impression that she also is a supporter of Mr. Shoulders and wouldn’t properly give Mr. Selby a fair chance either. I guess this must just be par for the course in the corruption of politics in Vanderburgh County?
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