Seattle mayoral candidates Lorena González and Bruce Harrell debate business, economy

González and Harrell are competing for the vacant seat of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who has chosen not to run for re-election.

SEATTLE – Seattle mayoral candidates Lorena González and Bruce Harrell faced each other Thursday night in the first of two debates on KONG-TV this month.

González and Harrell are competing for the vacant seat of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who has chosen not to run for re-election.

González, a former civil rights attorney, is the current president of the Seattle City Council and has a seat across the city. She was elected the first Latinx member of the council in 2015.

If she were elected mayor, she would not only be the third woman, but also the first Latinx mayor in the city of Seattle.

Harrell has served three terms on the Seattle City Council, including serving as President for three years at the end of his tenure on the council. He was also brief mayor when Ed Murray stepped down in 2017. It was then that Harrell, who represented District 2 in South Seattle, decided not to run for re-election.

During Thursday’s debate, candidates asked questions about business and economics and their plans for Seattle.

Below are the candidates’ answers to some of the questions asked:

Moderator’s question: What will be your number one priority as mayor?

Lorena González answers: I think it’s pretty clear that the greatest opportunity and challenge for the next mayor is to solve homelessness. Like so many people in our city, I think it is unacceptable that people live in tents in our open spaces. I don’t think people should live outside. We need to work clearly and urgently to get more housing quickly and to make sure we are still thinking about how to build affordable housing across our city. And access to psychiatric care and addiction treatment will be improved across the city. This is the biggest challenge for this city and I look forward to working with our broad community on these issues to make quick and meaningful progress in the first 100 days of my tenure.

Bruce Harrell’s answer: Same mistake. Homelessness. I think we understand, but our approach will be different. I have a sense of urgency. The first thing we do is publish a plan – you see cost per person, cost per unit, you see a dashboard of where we are right now, which is totally unacceptable. A sense of urgency, and when I speak of removing people from parks, from sidewalks, from playgrounds where you can see splashing and these intolerable conditions, I am talking about making and treating our way out of this problem with the same urgency . You have no excuses under the Harrell administration. We will never get to a point where we will say we all have taxes and all revenues to solve the problem. Following my approach, we will exhaust all possible taxes that we can get out of our regressive tax structure and ensure that we increase and use and change a more progressive tax structure. Yes, there is no disagreement, but we have these very wealthy companies too. If we look into the economy of this city, we are a wealthy city so we will also tap into the resources around us and make sure all employees are on deck as part of the Harrell Approach.

Each candidate also answered questions about Seattle’s largest employer – Amazon – and the tech company’s impact on the city.

Moderator’s Question: Given the discussion about Amazon and their relationship with City Hall that the sky is falling, have they just announced that they will be hiring thousands more people in Seattle, and given that, what should the company do to address some of the concerns? that are shared in terms of housing and infrastructure?

Bruce Harrell’s answer: First, they have to pay their fair share of taxes. Second, they need to align their corporate social responsibility goals with those of the city. That would be affordable housing, that would be homelessness, that would even be some of the health initiatives that we will be rolling out as mayors. But don’t let that fool us – if you look at our gross domestic product in this region, we’re doing pretty well, but not everyone is happy about this success. Amazon’s market value is about $ 1.56 trillion, lower than Microsoft … If you look at the wealth these companies have, not only do they have to pay their fair share of taxes, they also have to deal with the problems in the business world Are consistent, and some of them the problems that caused them. So my platform has a lot to do with not only holding them accountable, but also looking at these huge resources around us. For example, some of these companies have their company’s social responsibilities regarding race, data, and inclusive efforts for their employees. So we will focus your efforts on the important issues here in the city of Seattle.

Moderator’s question: Do you think it is good or bad, ultimately because of its relationship with City Hall, if Amazon decides to move more employees outside of Seattle?

Lorena González answers: I don’t think Amazon is considering moving anywhere other than here in Seattle. We just saw they announced that there will be 12,500 new jobs here in this Seattle city. Why? Because we are a beautiful city. Your workers and their future workers want to live and work in this city. So it is vitally important for us to make sure we have a mayor who is serious about paying their fair share of all large, profitable corporations. So let’s be honest – I’m the only candidate on this stage who’s serious. I am supported by working class families because they know I am serious about exposing the reality of the companies that pay their fair share.

Follow-up question from the moderator: But again – I want to ask you the question, is it good or bad if Amazon relocated employees to Bellevue, where they received them, or to Everett or Pierce County?

Lorena González answers: We want our employers to stay in this city especially if they are high road employers so I am ready to work with any employer willing to do the right thing of their employees by making sure that they can unionize by making sure they have access to medical care, child care, and public transportation that don’t clutter our streets and that will pay their fair share to help us build the amenities that make Seattle one great and vibrant city.

Watch the full debate on KING 5’s YouTube channel or below:

The second debate, hosted by the Seattle City Club, will air on KONG on October 28th at 7pm. It is also streamed live on king5.com, the KING 5 mobile app and the KING 5 YouTube channel.

Download our free KING 5 app to keep up with the latest news from across West Washington.

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