City Council finalist partake in questioning at public forum hosted by Seattle CityClub

The public forum allowed the eight finalists to highlight what issues and topics they would focus on if elected into the vacant council seat. (Photo: Omari Salisbury)

By Lorcan Stokes

Last Thursday, January 18, Seattle CityClub held a public forum at City Hall where eight finalists running for City Council were asked various questions highlighting their capacity for the role and how they would tackle issues within Seattle. 

Since early January, there has been a vacancy in the Seattle City Council when Teresa Mosqueda, a council member who served since 2017, stepped down to join the King County Council. This appointment, or position eight, received 72 applications from people, which has now been narrowed down to eight. The current contenders for this seat are Tanya Woo, Mark Solomon, Juan J. Cotto, Neha Nariya, Vivian Song, Linh Thai, Steven K. Strand, and Mari Sugiyama. The forum featured questions from community organizations based around Seattle and submitted questions from the audience. The Seattle CityClub executive director, Alicia Crank, was the presenter.

"It was great to see diversity on a lot of different levels between the eight candidates. It was also refreshing to see that they all knew each other," Crank said. "There was a camaraderie even in the competition, and I think that's healthy, and you don't see it a lot."

Current Councilmember Dan Strauss held similar sentiments regarding the forum's outcome.

"I was really impressed with the depth and knowledge of all the candidates and their commitment to service for our city," Strauss said. 

Questions for the candidates covered their experience handling large budgets, city budget cuts, BIPOC ownership, affordable housing, upzoning, transportation safety, mental health services, voting history, and more. Each candidate was given a time limit to respond before the forum transitioned to rapid-fire questioning, where they raised paddles with either a "thumbs-up" or a "thumbs-down." 

Following the two-hour event, Cotto shared his thoughts on how it went.

"I think that I showed myself as a community leader, which I think people have known, and I was just really excited about the program tonight," Cotto said. "I thought that it went very well."

Cotto also highlighted an issue close to his heart that he wishes to focus on if elected as the next council member.

"I have a son and a daughter. I want them to be in a safe city, and I want them to be in a city that is thriving. I want them to be young people who are engaged in the community and community builders," Cotto said. "I also want them to understand that as Black people and as Latino people, we are going to have to dig our heels in a little bit and going to have to fight. We face some major challenges in our community, and I want them to stand up and be strong."

Audience members filled the Bertha Knight Landes Room of City Hall to watch the nominees discuss how they would support the city if elected a member of the Seattle City Council. (Photo: Omari Salisbury)

Fellow nominee Sugiyama also highlighted how she thinks she did in the line of questioning.

"I think I did as well as I could have done. I bring a strong skill set from working within the city, being born and raised in Seattle, and being a Franklin [high school] graduate," Sugiyama said. "I feel I've seen a lot of things changing, and I feel like I have a lot of strong community connections that can lend themselves to my expertise and how I would serve and tap into different issues."

Sugiyama talked about the support she has received since she started running for this appointment.

"It was a lot of the community elders, my aunties and uncles of the community that sort of nudged me and said "have you thought about this," Sugiyama said. "Sometimes it takes other people to point out your strengths before you realize, "This is something I need to look into." I was really humbled to have their support and encouragement to throw my hat in the ring."

She also explained the running process in her experience and her hopes for the Council's objectivity when deciding.

"It's a little bit of a skeleton process. They don't really go into details on how they would want to assess a candidate," Sugiyama said. "But I hope with the process that's been laid out with this forum, with this Monday's meeting, they can be objective and look at how can we achieve the best things possible for the city and work together collaboratively."

Cotto also conveyed his thoughts about the Council's objectivity in picking a future council member. 

"I have several friends who contacted me, and they were concerned about the city council process and the process of our charter. They would have liked to have seen a special election, but in Seattle, that's not how we do it," Cotto said. “In other communities, they do, and I think that probably would be more inclusive and give more people an opportunity to vote on such a thing."

On Monday, January 22, a special meeting will be held at City Hall, where the finalists will interact and answer questions and comments from the Council. The Council is projected to decide who will take on the vacant position on Tuesday, January 23.