VIDEO: West Seattle Chamber of Commerce Q&A with City Council D-1 candidates

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Voting begins this week in the general election, with three major open seats in our area – Seattle City Council District 1, King County Council District 8, and Seattle School Board District 6.

At its monthly lunch meeting this past Thursday, the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce hosted two half-hour mini-forums with the candidates in two of those races. We’ve already published our coverage of the Q&A with the County Council candidates (see it here). Here’s what happened when City Council D-1 candidates Maren Costa and Rob Saka shared the stage to answer questions asked by local journalist/broadcaster, and Chamber board member, Brian Callanan. (The Chamber’s new executive director Rachel Porter made it clear first that the organization does not endorse candidates and was presenting this as an opportunity “for our business leaders to hear from those who wish to represent us.)

Below are brief summaries of the questions and responses; as with our usual coverage format for events like this, these are paraphrases except for any words/phrases inside quotation marks.

Each gave an opening statement, with campaign talking points we’ve mentioned here multiple times previously. So we’re getting directly to the Q&A, and focusing on the portions of the responses that were related to the question:

Q: District 1 has a diverse range of small businesses – how do you support small business and entrepreneurship?

COSTA: My twin sister has a small business in West Seattle. The city needs to continue subsidies, help people with insurance, low-interest loans, plus the Downtown Activation Plan needs to be spread around. What’s right for small businesses is right for the city.

SAKA: The number one thing I can do as your elected councilmember is to improve the public-safety situation to make the streets safer for yourselves and your customers.

Q: On the topic of public safety, how can the city address concerns while also working on police accountability?

SAKA: I’m here for a balanced approach – police reform and individual officer accountability … City Council has kicked down the legs of police – but we need them; police need to rebuild and reform – we need to set and enforce the expectations.

COSTA: Need a comprehensive public-safety plan – need a plan for how to hire more police – and we need to turn the culture of police around. We have “way more good apples than bad apples” but when we don’t hold bad apples accountable, we disrespect good apples – that discourages Generations Y and Z from coming to work here.

(In rebuttals, each candidate claimed theirs is the most-comprehensive public-safety plan.)

Q: What specific infrastructure projects/features could improve transportation and accessibility?

COSTA: We need to be connected; what we see are disconnected options – partial transit, bike trails, unsafe streets and sidewalks.

SAKA: In transportation, I’m here to focus on basics – public safety, public parks, public infrastructure – while door-knocking, I’ve heard about the huge need for sidewalks in the city. Concerned about bridge infrastructure too.

Q: The drug bill recently passed by the City Council – how will this impact District 1?

SAKA: Yes, I support that law. Testified in favor of it and collected signatures supporting it.

COSTA: It’s “performative” – if you want to lock up drug users, it’s not going to happen – the jails are understaffed and full – if you prefer diversion, we’re not funding it.

In rebuttal/elaboration, Saka accused Costa of opposing the bill. She countered that what she said is that the bill is “meaningless” until there’s funding for diversion/treatment programs.

Q: Talk about affordable housing and homelessness.

COSTA: We need eemrgency housing, supportive housing, tiny-home villages, million-dollar houses … we have people who can’t afford to pay property taxes, we can’t load everything onto the middle and lower classes, we need progressive revenue because otherwise property taxes keep going up.

SAKA: We need to do a better job of addressing root cause, systemic issues, poverty, lack of access, the city needs to focus on investing in low- and middle-income people – need to make permitting easier – but we’re not gonna “root-cause our way out of this.”

In rebuttal/elaboration, Costa denied Saka’s claim that she didn’t support clearing encampments; she said she did support that when people are connected with services, but “right now we’re just sweeping them down the road.” Saka countered that people are being connected with services now.

A “lightning round” of quick questions to “humanize” the candidates followed.

Dog person or cat person?
SAKA: Dog.
COSTA: Dog.

Pineapple on pizza?
COSTA: Yes.
SAKA: No.

Introvert or extrovert?
SAKA: Natural introvert but conditioned to be extrovert.
COSTA: Same.

Mountains – Olympics or Cascades?
COSTA: Olympics.
SAKA: Cascades.

Favorite book?
SAKA: Book by John Wooden, not certain of title.
COSTA: “The Overstory.”

Astrological sign?
COSTA: Scorpio.
SAKA: Aquarius.

Closing statements:

SAKA: Seattle is at a crossroads – we can’t afford “more of the same.” I’m not here to take anyone for granted.

COSTA: I come from big business; I’m very different from current leaders – will focus on frugality, diving deep, simplifying. We can work together and solve the problems.

WHAT’S NEXT: Ballots go out Wednesday; you can vote as soon as you get yours. Deadline is November 7th. We know of at least one more chance to see the candidates together in West Seattle, a senior-focused forum, 3 pm October 23rd at the Senior Center of West Seattle. The candidates are also on the agenda for the Morgan Community Association‘s quarterly meeting online this Wednesday (October 18), 7 pm.