Yesterday evening, city council candidates from all districts and at-large positions gathered in the Bertha Knight Landes room at city hall to attend a packed forum focused on issues of gender and racial inequities, hosted by the Seattle Women’s Commission and moderated by Erica C. Barnett. Two candidates were missing: District Four (Wallingford, University District) candidate and transit wonk Rob Johnson—who was at a Transportation Choices Coalition (he’s the executive director) fundraiser—and District Seven candidate Deborah Zech Artis. Like most candidates’ forums, there was a lot lip service thrown around on the issues at hand with some actual substantive policy recommendations mixed in (though two minutes is barely enough time to say anything, let alone layout comprehensive solutions to complicated issues). But folks had their moments (and stumbles). Here are a few tidbits for this week’s Friday likes and dislikes.

On the question of how to address gender pay inequities within city departments (a recent report by a city consultant reiterated the existence of this longstanding issue), District Six (Ballard, Fremont) incumbent council member Mike O’Brien said that he would like “intentional hiring” on the city’s part to get more women into the male-dominated Seattle Fire Department and Seattle Police Department. “When was it decided that a police officer should make $100,000, but a social worker makes $40,000,” he said, after noting that women are overrepresented in social services positions.

At-large Position Nine candidate and former civil rights attorney Lorena González likes tent encampments for the homeless and passionately defended locating them in residential areas (there is significant resistance to Ballard site from the surrounding community). “I’m disheartened by the fact that there is a lack of acceptance [of tent encampments] in neighborhoods. Poverty is not pretty,” she said. “We have an obligation to give them a safe place to be and tent cities do just that.”

Her opponent, Central District neighborhood activist Bill Bradburd, dislikes tent encampments. He wants small cottages instead. And more neighborhood input in the site selection process, adding that Ballard residents didn’t have a say in the issue. Bradburd got no claps for that one.

Michael Maddux, District Four candidate (University District, Wallingford), democratic party activist and bleeding heart liberal, let loose his untethered passion for progressive values, calling the city's homelessness situation a "crime against humanity." He also said that employees should have a private right of action after echoing the calls of the rest of the candidates to fully fund the office of labor standards to enforce Seattle's new minimum wage.

On the subject of police brutality and racial profiling, District Two (Southeast Seattle) incumbent council member Bruce Harrell said “many of you follow my antagonistic relationship with SPD,” going on to note his role in vetting Kathleen O’Toole, the new police chief, and how a “culture change” needs to occur at SPD, starting at the top. Tammy Morales, Harrell’s long-shot opponent (Morales got slammed in the August primary), dislikes Harrell’s alleged politicking on the federal consent decree, saying that Harrell was against the decree before he was for it. "They [voters] want somebody who will stand by their principles, not someone who will wait to the last minute to see which way the wind blows." (Harrell also somewhat endorsed overturning the state ban on rent control, saying city's should have autonomy in addressing their housing issues.)

District Five (North Seattle) candidate and pastor Sandy Brown liked the idea of putting temporary emergency shelters, legal advice, and counseling services in the new North Seattle police precinct station to assist women fleeing domestic violence, and he liked the general idea of having such “one stop shop” services in all neighborhoods.

District One (West Seattle) candidate and former aid to lefty council member Nick Licata, Lisa Herbold likes the idea of a city preservation program to protect existing affordable housing stock from redevelopment and tenant displacement. “We fail to link land use policies with displacement… They [upzones] are also going to incentivize the redevelopment of preexisting affordable housing,” she said. 

On giving city employees 12 weeks of paid parental and family leave, everyone liked the idea. District Seven (Queene Anne, Downtown) incumbent council member Sally Bagshaw said she was surprised King County could do it, adding that Seattle could follow suit if they used the city’s general fund and made cuts in other places. At-large Position Eight candidate and former Tenant’s Union director Jon Grant said he wants a municipal 12 weeks paid family leave program for private sector employees. He didn’t mention how he’d pay for it, but his lefty ally socialist council member Kshama Sawant and District Three candidate predictably and quickly picked up on that threat, saying a millionaires' tax is needed to fund such services.

Everyone also agreed with the notion that Seattleites have a hard time talking about race and racial inequality, but Grant gave one of the more fine-tuned responses (to current social justice undercurrents in public discussion) saying whites, especially those running for political office, have an obligation to be “allies to communities of color,” adding that all of the Community Police Commission recommendations should be adopted.

Oh, and at-large Position Eight candidate and incumbent council president Tim Burgess said he likes the Honest Elections Initiative 122 to publicly finance campaigns, which caught some people off guard given Burgess’s opposition to last year’s similar measure. Burgess did say that he supported the 2013 public financing measure (which voters turned down), but opposed the 2014 equivalent because the fall ballot was already crowded (with stuff like his signature universal pre-K program).

The divide between the antagonistic populists and the 'establishment,' collaboration-oriented, ‘let’s-work-with-everyone’ candidates was apparent last night, mainly in remarks from Burgess, Grant, Bagshaw, and the District 3 candidates: Sawant and Urban League CEO Pamela Banks. In their closing statements, Grant called for “no more incrementalism” on progressive policies while Burgess said that he is “less interested in slogans and rhetoric and speeches” and “more interested in getting things done.” “We can’t be having an us-versus-them mentality,” said Bagshaw, while Sawant ended with her classic line that politicians can not equally represent the interests of both the working class and "big business." 

(See in-the-moment live coverage from other reporters here and here.)