A forum hosted by the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce during its monthly luncheon offered candidates running for the Kirkland City Council and King County Council a chance to emphasize their stances concerning current problems facing the city and how they diverged from their opponents.

The incumbents, consisting of Kirkland Councilmembers Toby Nixon, Dave Asher, Shelley Kloba and King County Councilmember Jane Hague, touted their accomplishments during their most recent term but also uncompleted projects or priorities that they seek to finish. On top of answering questions dealing with transportation, neighborhood growth and the city of Kirkland’s Proposition 1 measure for the funding of the Aquatic and Recreational Community (ARC) center, candidates also had the opportunity to question their opponent concerning either their experience or their past decisions.

Nixon, a former state legislator and 22-year Kirkland resident, is running unopposed.

“I hope that means everybody thinks I’m doing a good job,” he said.

His focus in the next two years will be on improving public safety by plugging in gaps in service and improving the business climate. Additionally, he said he will work to improve city services in neighborhoods annexed by the city in 2011.

“There’s still a lot of work to do to making that annexation successful,” he said.

Asher, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, opposed by challenger Martin Morgan, also pointed to current long-term challenges related to public safety, particularly the level of fire service in the annexation areas, which he said are not up to standards.

“It’s not going to be easy, it’s not going to be cheap,” he said, “but we have to make the response times where it’s going to be there at the right time for you when you need it, or your neighbor, or your family member needs.”

He also stated that more investments will need to be made in transportation due to the additional burden put on local roads by new drivers.

“We had some pretty good roads here about six or seven years ago, when no one was working,” he said. “That’s not the economy we want, but it’s the transportation system that we have.”

His solution, he said, is to appeal to outside sources for financial support, citing the city’s successful lobbying to get a $75 million interchange project added to the state legislature budget.

“I’m looking for OPM,” he said. “I’m looking for other people’s money… We’re going to need a lot of other people’s money to make this transportation system work.”

Kloba, a former education advocate who was appointed to the council in 2013, said her focus will be on maintaining a “responsible and responsive budget,” as well as offering more affordable housing and providing environmental protections.

“I am so lucky to get to do this job,” she said. “It is at my core, I desire to help people.”

Hague, who holds Position No. 6 on the King County Council and is the cochair of the Eastside Rail Corridor Regional Advisory Council, reiterated some of what she considers to be the county council’s best recent accomplishments, such as being able to preserve roughly half a million hours of bus service after a previous county Prop. 1 failed in 2014 and balancing the 2008 budget without raising taxes, though her “no new taxes” claim was contested by challenger and Bellevue Mayor Claudia Balducci. Hague also discussed her involvement in Kirkland issues, such as working to preserve the 40-acre Juanita Woodlands Park, which was initially planned for development.

“I believe we personally have to maintain opportunities for children and families,” she said. “In terms of my values, I’ve always said that government should be understandable, accessible and accountable.”

District 6 represents the Eastside cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Redmond, Medina, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Beaux Arts, Woodinville and Yarrow Point.

On the challenger side, Morgan, a small-business owner who has run for Kirkland City Council several times, stated that he is running because he doesn’t feel the city listens to the neighborhoods, particularly when it comes to their respective comprehensive plans. He also called the city a “retribution system” that retaliated against him after he lodged complaints about the construction of a building near his house.

“They claim to listen to you,” he said. “But nothing ever happens.”

He also said he would serve as an advocate for the small business community.

“I want to be here to be their voice,” he said.

When asked, along with the rest of the candidates, about whether he’d support freezing taxes or prioritizing the existing budget, he stated he would put a freeze on any new taxes and reduce the size of government if possible.

Morgan also cited the lack of progress on the new fire station, which has been a discussion on Finn Hill for nearly a decade, before it was incorporated into the city.

“I don’t understand how it doesn’t get done,” he said.

Jason Chinchilla, a Kingsgate resident and challenger to Kloba for Position No. 2, also touted himself as an advocate for small businesses.

“I understand what small businesses have to go through on a daily basis,” he said.

Chinchilla, a political science major at Bellevue College, also vowed to oppose any property tax increase while eliminating existing head tax on employees in order to encourage more business growth.

“The problem with raising taxes is that eventually they run out of other people’s money,” he said. “I am unapologetically pro-family, pro-small business, pro-neighborhoods and pro-Kirkland.”

Chinchilla also brought up Kirkland’s plastic bag ban, a major issue in his campaign, which he has criticized Kloba for supporting. When given the chance to ask her a question, he raised the issue of whether or not it reflected on her ability to listen to residents. According to a city-conducted survey, 70 percent of residents expressed opposition to a plastic bag ban.

“The issue at hand isn’t whether paper or plastic is better,” Chinchilla said. “The issue at hand, folks, is trust. When you vote for someone… you give them your trust, and the least that you can expect is for that elected official to [keep that trust]. I believe it is up to city government to make bigger decisions like where do cable lines go or telecommunications, and not micromanage your shopping preferences.”

In response, Kloba defended her vote on the matter and strongly denied making decisions without listening to residents. She offered a recent council decision not to consider removing roads barriers on Finn Hill as a possible solution to reducing fire and medical response times, in response to resident concerns, as proof of her willingness to listen.

During her questioning of Chinchilla, Kloba asked how he would balance the city budget while reducing property taxes. Chinchilla suggested looking to the private sector for possible solutions to transportation issues and insisted that residents he speaks with complain about the negative effect of high property taxes.

“I believe that time and time again the American people have proven that when there is a need they will respond,” he said.

On transportation, Lake Hills neighborhood resident Balducci advocated that the Eastside cities create a regional vision in order to best solve the traffic congestion and accessibility to future transit areas.

“What we really need is to get down to brass tacks on what are we going to do,” she said.

She also argued in favor of better connectivity from Kirkland to downtown Bellevue and Bellevue College. Like Hague, who is running on the platform of being an independent candidate, Balducci stated her past work on the Bellevue City Council with Deputy Mayor Kevin Wallace proves her ability to work with others of differing viewpoints and still accomplish desired goals.

Additionally, she defended her performance as the director of King County’s Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention (DADJ) when Hague brought up accusations of a “party atmosphere,” along with claims of sexual harassment. While acknowledging incidents occurred in the jail, she said no lawsuit was ever filed against them and no money was paid, and they were able to save $2 million for the county by reducing the number of people in isolation cells from 100 to 10 per day.

When questioning Hague about her claim of not raising taxes, she pointed out King County increases taxes every year and has a flood control district and ferry district. Hague clarified that she said she hadn’t raised any new taxes and defended the creation of the flood control district as a necessary response to concerns over the Howard A. Hanson Dam.

On Kirkland’s Prop. 1, which would create a metropolitan park district to fund the ARC, Asher and Kloba voiced their support for the MPD, while Nixon stated he supported the council giving the community the chance to vote for themselves on the matter. Morgan came out against it, saying that residents shouldn’t give the city a “blank check,” while Chinchilla expressed concerns over many uncertainties he sees in the park district.

According to the Public Disclosure Commission’s website, Kloba has raised roughly $17,000 and spent just under $10,000, while Chinchilla has managed to raise $3,700 and has spent nearly all of it. Asher has raised nearly $9,000, but spent only $800 so far. Morgan has not reported any money raised or spent. Hague has raised about $300,000 and spent $136,000, while Balducci has raised $142,000 and spent $73,000.