So when I was on vacation earlier this month, I discovered this column in the Lahaina News: “Ask the Mayor.” It’s pretty neat. People write in with their questions for Mayor Alan Arakawa — things like, What is up with those ugly plastic posts in the center of town? What can I do about wild dogs roaming my neighborhood? — and the mayor takes some time to answer them. We learn about things going on in the community, and at the same time we learn about local government’s response to those things.

I thought, damn, that’s really cool. I wish Humboldt had something like that.

And then I thought: Wait a sec. Hold up. I am the editor of a popular news website. What if that news website made something like that for Humboldt?

So that’s just what we’re going to do! This here is a new feature we’re calling “The LoCO Grill” and our first guest is Eureka Mayor Frank Jager, who has graciously agreed to take your questions.

Here’s how it’s going to work. You’re going to put your questions to the mayor in the comments below. I’m going to take the best of those questions and put them to Jager, and then, sometime next week, we’re going to have a phone conversation in which he answers them. We’ll publish the whole Jager conversation here next week, and also announce a new guest for the week after.

Now, this being the Internet, down beneath this post y’all are going to do what y’all are going to do. I got no quarrel. But the questions that I’m going to put to Jager are those questions that

• concern city of Eureka policy or politics,
• are otherwise concerned with the city’s life and culture, and
• seem sincerely interested in the mayor’s thoughts. Snark is not going to translate, here.

Maybe some general county questions will work, too. I don’t know. We’ll see.

Yeah? Let’s get it going! What do you want to ask the mayor?