Challengers in a political race often say "it's time for a change" when stumping for votes, but this year's full slate of City Council candidates are saying something more specific about Seattle and its city government.
The mayor calls the shots and the City Council goes along, several candidates said at a Labor Temple election forum held May 6 -- and it has to stop.
"There's one dominant voice: the mayor's," said Robert Rosencrantz, an apartment owner and affordable housing advocate making his third bid for council. "He roars while the council whispers, but it doesn't have to be that way."
"We've got to break the divide down. We've got to get the mayor talking to the council and the council talking to the people," said Dorsol Plants, an Iraq combat veteran and chair of a neighborhood committee in Highland Park, the location of two sites for a proposed municipal jail.
The issue of the jail, the mayor's proposal to fix Mercer Street, what size Housing Levy to put on this year's ballot and, most of all, poor relations at City Hall were among the topics raised or fielded by 14 candidates hosted by the Metropolitan Democratic Club, including a crowded group of six vying for the seat of retiring Councilmember Richard McIver.
With one exception