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BROOME COUNTY, N.Y. -- Broome County Executive candidate Tarik Abdelazim is inviting the public to get to know him through a series of meetings he's calling "The Peoples Town Halls."

Abdelazim says the six events, starting Wednesday night at the Endicott Visitors Center, will give him a chance to explain his plans for the county should he be elected. He has also invited current County Executive Debbie Preston to attend and take part in a debate. A request that he claims she has continually side-stepped.

Abdelazim said, "At her budget address, she finished her address saying that if anyone has a problem with this to see me face to face, not through the media, so I walked up to her immediately after, she was done with her media events, I wanted to respect that, I approached her face to face, she stepped back and pointed to Bijoy. He said the same thing he's been saying all along, we'll check our calendar and get back to you."

Preston's office released the following statement with regard to the town hall meetings and debate issue that says, "It's kind of flattering that Tarik Abdelazim is following Debbie's lead - except she did it to really listen to the people, while he's peddling yet another Abdelazim campaign gimmick. Debbie was happy to debate about the issues last week at the greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce's event. It was a healthy exchange of ideas."

Preston has accepted an invitation to the Greater Binghamton Association of Realtors' Candidates Forum on October 10th.