The City College Speech and Debate Team hosted a mayoral forum May 2 in the auditorium in which five of the seven Sacramento mayoral candidates answered questions submitted by students.

Incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo, Leonard Padilla, Shawn Eldridge, Adam Daniel, and Muriel Strand spoke in front of approximately 50 students, faculty and community members. The two candidates not in attendance were Richard Jones and Kevin Johnson. (Johnson visited campus on April 12 as part of the Political Science Speakers Series.)

The speech and debate team selected ten questions out of the 400 submitted, and the candidates were given two minutes to answer each question. City College
Speech and Debate team member Robert Bayze moderated the forum, and students O.J. Lefort and Tina Law presented the questions to the candidates. Debate team members say they were excited to hold this forum for the public and be a part of the political process.

“The reason we decided to put together this mayoral forum instead of attending one that’s already being put forward is because we want all the candidates to have the same amount of time, and the same ability to answer questions and be seen by the public,” Bayze said.

Opening statements were given by each candidate in order to introduce themselves to the students, and to present their running platforms.

Sustainability engineer and City College student Strand said the reason she’s running for mayor “is to put sustainability at the top of the public agenda.”
Strand added that we should look to the future, not the short term, but the long term.

“Things need to change. City hall and the perception of city hall, and hopefully I can do that,” said mayoral candidate and corporate trainer Adam Daniel. “I will work hard for you.”

“I want to change the city from the way it operates now, to a different model,” said former bounty hunter and mayoral candidate Padilla, who thinks that the mayor should be more of a leader in the city council. “The mayor should have some discretion as to have veto power over the rest of the city council and ideas and concepts.”

Incumbent Mayor Fargo listed her goals for the upcoming term.

“Things I will be focusing on in the next term will be our youth,” Fargo said. “We will be focusing on levee protection … and also jobs. Economic development really needs to be a key in continuing the diversity of the economy here in Sacramento.”
“I am a political geek,” said candidate and general contractor Eldridge. “I’m a contractor. I have no educational background in politics whatsoever but I spent the last ten years jumping in every chance I possibly can.”

Questions featured at the forum ranged from identifying the biggest problem each candidate will face and how they will solve them, to what the candidates would do to provide more jobs for youth and students in Sacramento.

A question regarding what the candidates will do as mayor to improve public transportation garnered this response from Daniel:

“You could also think about expanding it more into the Natomas area [and] more ways into downtown. You need to promote it.”

If you want to appeal to the youth, he added, you need to tell them if they want to go out on a Friday night and have a couple cocktails and not get into trouble, take public transportation.

During the forum, the participants also took note of one of the missing candidates, ex-basketball star Johnson.

“I’m going to bag on Kevin for just a second, not for him not showing up, not for what he’s doing. Nothing else other than the fact that he is missing out on some wonderful discourse that takes place in these events,” he said.