By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

If you were at the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) Georgetowm campus last night, you saw and heard nine candidates in three races as part of a two-section forum. If not – we have it all on video:

That’s the longer section of the forum, co-presented by three local Democratic organizations – the 34th District Democrats of West Seattle/North Highline/Vashon/Maury, and the 11th and 37th DDs – and moderated by
John Burbank. It was the first in this area to feature the candidates for the two “at-large” positions that will be part of the newly reconfigured Seattle City Council (along with seven geographical-district positions) – you’ll see them on your August 4th primary ballot as well as the District 1 (West Seattle South Park) race. Candidates for both positions, 8 and 9, were questioned at the same time, as you’ll see; from left at the table, Lorena Gonzalez (P-9), Bill Bradburd (P-9), Alon Bassok (P-9), John Roderick (P-8), John Persak (P-8), Jon Grant (P-8), Tim Burgess (P-8), and moderator John Burbank at the podium. The candidates in attendance represented all who had filed for Positions 8 and 9 as of the forum’s start, except for Alex Tsimerman (P-9).

Preceding that hour-plus round of questioning was a shorter round featuring the two candidates for Seattle School Board Position 6, representing West Seattle and South Park.

From left, they are Marty McLaren, seeking a second term, and Leslie Harris.

After the jump (if you’re reading from the main WSB page), some notes (primarily on the school-board forum, since it’s geographically specific) if you don’t have time to listen/watch:

SCHOOL BOARD POSITION 6

Harris’s opening statement – “I work harder than 10 people.” She’s the parent of a daughter about to go to college – “empty nest?” she’s asked. “No, one’s leaving, but I’m picking up 53,000” if elected, she said. “We can do much better.”

McLaren’s opening statement – she touts “continuity and continued progress” if she is re-elected. She too is a parent “with children long out of the house” and a “retired educator.” She spoke of her frustration as an educator when “we just couldn’t close the gap.”

QUESTION #1 – Tell a kindergarten parent why they should send their child to Seattle Public Schools.

Harris – “I have this conversation probably 2 or 3 times a week … the reason is because we need you. Public schools are the foundation of democracy … there are great things happening in Seattle Public Schools … many hands make light work.” She says she’s a believer in option schools as well as neighborhood schools; her child attended West Seattle’s Pathfinder K-8. “We need people to believe in the schools … and make them better.”

McLaren – “Your child would become part of a vibrant, very progressive, excellent education system.” She says she’d ask the hypothetical parent what schools s/he had looked at, and lists some of the attributes of several West Seattle elementaries.

QUESTION #2 – Why can’t later start times be implemented sooner?

McLaren – “It’s a very complicated (situation) … if the community supports later start times, there are many logistics” such as parks, child-care providers, tutors … “Depending on how we do it, it could be very expensive, so we need an excellent process …” She says she knows the “two-tier proposal” is popular but it would cost “$18 to $20 million more.”

Harris – “Science tells us teenagers need more sleep .. science tells us this is the single largest thing (we could do) to close the achievement gap.” She says that a committee made a recommendation but “What’s coming out of (district HQ) is not what the committee recommended.” That’s “not clear and not transparent,” she says. “Sometimes leadership’s a bear .. sometimes you need to say this needs to happen and we need to make it work … you need to say we’re going to two tiers and we need to figure it out” (Applause follows)

QUESTION #3 – It’s a question from a reader who says their kids are not going to have transportation to the TOPS program, and what can they do to fix that?

Harris says it’s an equity issue.

McLaren says she agrees with that but they need to discuss transportation costs/savings. “The issue is that because the state has ratcheted down transportation money … the district is between a rock and a hard place.” She says there are terrible transportation problems district-wide and many need to discuss how to fix it.

QUESTION #4 – Children of color are suspended and expelled at higher rates, and graduate at lower rates – why?

McLaren – “We’re not serving those students nearly so well as we ought to, from the get-go.”

Harris – “What are we doing with (the) data (the district has)?” She says test prepping takes time away from learning.

QUESTION #5 – is so long and complicated you’ll want to watch it on the video – it had to do with teachers, foundations, funding, and “taking back the high road.”

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For the City Council Positions 8 and 9 forum, we only took notes on the opening statements and then focused on camera operation.

CITY COUNCIL POSITIONS 8 and 9

First: Bassok, a Delridge resident, who says he’s running because he’s sick and tired of seeing friends leaving because they can’t afford to live here.

Second: Bradburd, a Central District resident, who says he’s running because “we’ve lost control of growth” and he thinks it’s time to “take back Seattle.”

Third: Persak. a “working longshoreman,who says he’s running because “we have become disconnected from City Hall,” with evidence of that including transportation problems, housing-affordability problems, police reform/public safety, and neighborhoods “losing control of their sense of place” because of development.

Fourth: Roderick, a Rainier Beach resident, musician, and “nontraditional candidate,” who says the city has the same problems it had 15 years ago. He’s “interested in the next 15 years of the city,” hoping to build a city that is a carbon “sink” with a “vibrant culture.”

Fifth: Grant, former leader of the Tenants Union, who says he is running to keep people from being displaced, to make sure more affordable housing is built. He also mentions the police-reform issue. “We can do so much better as a city … we have so much urgency .. that is not being reflected at City Hall.”

Sixth: Gonzalez, who says she grew up in a bilingual home and earned her first paycheck at the age of 8. She moved to Seattle in 2002 to go to law school and is a West Seattle resident who is the only lawyer in her extended family. She is running “because I think we are at a critical point in the history of this city.”

Seventh: Burgess, the only current City Councilmember here, who touts achievements including the criminal wage-theft law, the preschool measure, and says he wants to keep doing that kind of work.

By end of the day, we’ll know the final lineup of who’s running for what, in these and other races (here’s the in-progress lists). Two forums are coming up, meantime, for the District 1 seat – 6:30 pm next Monday (May 18th) at Fauntleroy Church, presented by the Westside Interfaith Network and League of Women Voters of Seattle-King County, and “South Park Shows Up,” 7 pm May 27th at the SP Neighborhood Center.