Bobby Forch and Maurice Classen---both running against city council incumbent Jean Godden---sent PubliCola copies of their responses to a question from the Downtown Seattle Association on paid sick leave. (Classen and Forch have accused each other of failing to adequately support mandatory paid sick leave, which the city council is currently considering).

So you can decide for yourself, we asked each candidate to provide us with the details of their DSA response, which will be released publicly later this week. Not surprisingly, both candidates' responses could be read as equivocating on their commitment to mandatory paid sick leave.

Here's what Forch had to say:

I support the proposal in principle, and am eager to see the details of the proposal once the revisions are completed. I realize that several companies already offer a form of paid sick leave and there is not a one size fits all solution for all companies, regardless of size or structure.  I'm encouraged to see that several business who could have initially been negatively affected have been brought into the process and some consensus has been achieved.  I hope both sides continue to work together, especially in the areas of implementation and enforcement, so that an agreement that protects workers, the general public, and maintains a fair playing field for Seattle businesses can be accomplished.

And here's Classen:

I support the consideration of a paid sick leave ordinance, but believe that we should include more stakeholders from business in deliberations. I also favor the use of an economic impact study before we adopt any proposal on paid leave. While I believe this is a public health issue and ultimately would be good for our community, we must avoid laying off workers or closing businesses to pay for the policy. San Francisco's model was adopted in 2006 in different economic times (and in a city that is also a county and therefore does not compete with many other cities for businesses), and we should only adopt a proposal that will make our entire city (including businesses) healthier.

Although we haven't seen her DSA candidate statement, here's what Godden told us about her position on paid sick leave:

"I'm way up on the paid sick leave proposal. I was one of the early supporters of it. I think it's a great idea. We do have to work out the details. The compromise that they came up with [which allows restaurant workers to trade shifts instead of taking paid time off] is much better than the original proposal. ... I think we do need to progress carefully because these are bad times, but we've got to get started on it."