us need to directly speak with our candidates and engage with them on our issues that we find important this process we hope will be an ongoing process where we not only just meet today and ask questions but even after they're elected we are able to have an ongoing discussion hold them accountable and they can actually know that we're still here and that we have continuing interest in issues that we want to discuss the first the first  in he's running for seattle minnesota court judge position seven and could you please just raise your hand thank you  court the west division district to and we'll just start at the end here so the question is do i support sealing all juvenile records automatically and while it is true that as a court judge i would not be specifically juvenile cases i do have a few opinions on it as a judge i can't comment on pending legislation and i do believe there are some bills in the house right now that concern the sealing juvenile records but let me just tell you a little bit about my history i've been working for the past five years on a bill that would allow people who have non conviction data on their record if you got arrested but then the case was dismissed or if the case w dismissed with a not guilty verdict or something like that i've been working on a bill to allow those people to more easily get that kind of information off their record and the reason why this is so important is because getting housing and getting jobs is extremely difficult for anybody but when you have this sort of prejudicial information on your record it can make it even harder for you and expression when there wasn't a guilty finding now when you're dealing with juveniles you're dealing with even a more vulnerable population because you're dealing with kids who may you have their whole future ahead of and might have made a mistake and so it's something that i do believe that we should look at it something that we should explore a bit like i said you support selling all the cue ball records automatically thank you i would actually say that in general i think that's a good idea obviously there are a lot of things that i come in contact with as a public defender where you have people who had problems when they were juveniles you know they have a lot of different influences on them and things happen and sometimes when those things occur as a juvenile you don't necessarily want those mistakes of your past when you were young and you hadn't had the time to have good influences on you affect everything going down the road and if there is something that's necessary to get to you there are obviously processes that you can go and you can look at those records or down the road a future judge can look at those records but for the juvenile safety and the fact of really having a second chance an opportunity to move on past what happens when your youth you need to seal those records and i think doing it automatically means that example if you end up if you end up with a client you know that is pro se and doesn't have the expense to be able to afford an attorney they might not and so you know how to get those records sealed where it's something that some when else with access to the financial ability or the understanding of being in a community for a long time and not being of an immigrant population you can do those things if it's done automatically you won't have to worry about that you won't have to take some kind of an extra step that makes it really difficult for you just to try to put  but i think it's important that juvenile records do get sealed because it has ramifications upon all of our children your children my children and it's important that a mistake when they're juveniles doesn't carry against for citizenship or for for employment or for education so i do believe there should be a strong process to protect juveniles from indiscretions from trouble they get into but their juvenile troubles the more serious crimes that's a different issue but i think having been a job for twenty three years and trying to make sure in a people's court w you my name is kimmy condo and i am running for reelection to position to court and i know there may be some confusion about who's running against people up here judge bonner and damon she dida running against each other phillip talil and march our running against each other at this point my opponent is not here and i don't see him here i don't know that he's going to be joining us today he didn't join the king county bar for me there so i just wanted to let you know that i agree with judge bonner and judge how there is case law that addresses this issue to some extent and there's been recent legislation with respect to juvenile records and again one of the things that we need to be mindful of is the fact that juveniles make mistakes i've got two relatively young sons and they made plenty of mistakes in their day and i don't think folks should be forced to have a juvenile record follow for their adult life if they're trying to get into school if they're trying to find a job i think we need to take into account what that offense was and perhaps consider sealing those records for a period of time on the other hand there is a public right to know and that's the balancing act that the case law has us look out and so if your suffered losses to fell then you're going to be concerned that that same person may be applying to work for someone in the future and be in a position of trust and handling money and so that doesn't necessarily mean that someone should be prohibited from holding that kind of a job but those are the competing interests that have to be away but i do think there needs to be a process where people can apply to have their records sealed if not permanently for a period of time so that they don't have to bear the consequences of foolish mistakes thank you limited jurisdiction and the drugs that we address in our court are primarily the central nervous system depressants which are the alcohol types of drugs and trust me alcohol is a drug  recently we're seeing an up to in marijuana offenses because there are plenty of driving under the influence cases that have either marijuana alone or alcohol alone or some combination on the drugs that we deal with are those that do show up in talks screens such as you ways such as methamphetamine and very other drugs that may show up if a search warrant is planted i don't necessarily think that we need to in order that we should treat drug problems strictly as a treatment i think that there is plenty of reason and plenty of public policy reasons why we should treat those kinds of crimes as crimes but i think that after sentencing there are people that do need treatment and i don't think that putting someone in jail for a long period of time necessarily guarantees public safety i think what we need to do is balance the need for jail sentences which is what the legislate sure has done in creating mandatory minimums with the need for treatment and the big issue in municipal court is a lot of people need treatment they can't afford it so one of the things that we need to address is who pays for treatment and whether the taxpayers are going to be willing to pay for that treatment for people who are indigent and can't afford that treatment or are can sure and so that's it's a it's a much more complicated issue than it might have appear at first blush but no i don't necessarily believe that treatment is the only or all response to these kind of issues once again we ask you to hold your pov and tell the entire i own and operate a small business a construction business habitat i remodel homes for people in wheelchairs with lifts grab bars ramps that kind of thing building a small business is something i really enjoy doing and i can say that it's an uphill climb no matter where you're from what your challenges are but it's the american dream and everyone should have a shot at it and i would support any legislation any bill that brings that american dream possibility to more people specifically for minorities specifically for immigrants this community in this in this country we don't spend enough time building in this country washington t very happy to be here this is a major major issue and something that we've been working on first of all in the state level to make sure that women and minority owned businesses get the percentage of the contracts that they're supposed to get under federal law we actually have a pretty good law in state level it's simply not followed my office has worked in particular to focus on the department of transportation and the problem with a number of projects not meeting that require much on the federal level we're doing the same thing we're working with a specific group of minority and women owned businesses to put pressure on all levels of government to follow the law optimistic that the department of transportation here in the states going to start doing better on that and i was at a table one hundred event the other night mention that they hadn't been doing that well and part of the transportation was present and they were greatly offended that i said that called me up to say so and i think that once you get out of prison you ought to have those rights restored and you want to have the ability to vote the ability to get benefits the ability to find a job folks have to be rehabilitated in fact there's there's a company in the south to start a business he specifically hires people who have come out as a person because of his experience but it is an unbelievably successful company people can be rehabilitated they need and deserve to get that second chance  have a prison population that is too high unsustainable and we lock up too many people when there are alternatives to incarceration for dealing with crimes that are committed so i think we need to deal with this comprehensively i've worked with a variety of people lock up too many people but once they are locked up they come out we get rehabilitated we have to give them a chance and certainly right at the top of that list is to let the next assize their franchise  hi i'm david keyes i'm the community technology manager for the city of seattle in the department of information technology and i've had the opportunity to work with m m r t i for for all ten of its years and in fact even before that when boonie in the ethiopian community mutual association started their computer lab many fourteen years ago i think to begin to get the message out to be going to train community members and m m r t i has been a great organization and a really valuable one and we're really glad at the city of seattle and the department of information technology to have a chance to have partnered with m m r t i to see them grow and get them to this point ten years later and still growing and still building community i think that m r t i has been a great a great leader in the community in bringing the voice of the east african community sometimes to the city government bringing the community together to be able to hear from each other it's can't take it for granted that places like  training kids and adults how to do video and and getting the messages out we can't take it for granted that they'll be here so it does require us to support it to keep it going you know it's without it i think we don't necessarily get a chance to see what are people in the east african community having to say about taxicabs about health about youth violence and the programs here bring that to life so it brings it to life for for us at the city for other community members and i think it's also having people stories told in people's issues come to light and being able to see that  brings community together and it lets people feel like they're more a part of the community and when they get to hear and see each other's stories and each other's concerns so i keep it up thanks to all those who have contributed produce programs just made things behind the scenes work and let's keep going and i think that we need to address minimum wages based on cost of living in areas where it's more expensive than i also believe that we should have been in a minimum wage increase i have not seen that it supports fifteen dollars being the optimal figure though i believe we need to do some rigorous scientific research to determine the precise hourly wage that vocational schools we need to do more than just raise taxes to pay for the person we need to actually change the way we educate it was actually the mccleary decision that inspired me to run for office in the first place i believe we need to encourage enable families with choices as to where they send their children to school thirteen states that offer a tax credit for contributions to private schools which are then used to help students go there and save the state money and with only a few seconds left i'll just say that's that's my point part first question is will you support a statewide increase of the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour well actually i have a barbell for sea tac so i have a record of being supportive of the minimum absolutely first of all hi everyone it's great to see so many friends i worked on the fifteen dollar minimum wage committee here in seattle incredibly excited that we've got that one hundred thousand workers across the city of seattle that are going to be lifted up out of poverty to fifteen dollars and that's going to put two point nine billion dollars into the pockets of low wage workers over the next ten years so yes i support this last year the bill in the state was for twelve dollars minimum wage i think given the passage of fifteen in sea tac and seattle we should really look at what is the maximum we can get to be able to pass it across the state because with the environment changing i think we have a real opportunity to make a case that maybe it's not twelve dollars what is the right number right maybe it's fourteen maybe it's fifteen if we can get there that all happens be as you all continue to organize you know i'm a community organizer i believe the power is with the people to create that kind of change and i intend to organize within the legislature should i be able to get there thank you i just want to follow up i can be both clearly and search specially mr want to be sorry whether you support a fifteen dollar minimum wage increase for the state i have believe mandate it says that the legislature has to fully fund education because we are forty first in the country for the funding of public education the question to me is you can't it's not just about funding k twelve education you can't do that and cut everything else you can't cut early learning you can't cut higher ed and you also can't cut all the support services so to me it's about how do we raise the revenue that we need at the state i wrote an  at the stranger which you can read on line that is about how we need to fundamentally change our broken tax system in the country because sixty percent of all of our revenue comes from sales and excise taxes it means that the lowest earning people actually pay the most and that is just of site down so not only don't we have enough money but we also need to make sure that the people that are paying those dollars are the ones who have the most amount of money so i say we need to reform the tax system and if we don't use this opportunity that we have with mccleary to do that then we're missing missing the boat in terms of directing the dollars at low income students and communities of color we just have to make that happen and frankly if i get elected i would be the only woman of color in the state senator possibly one of the can get sherry song in there we need more people who are activists representing communities of color in the legislature and i hope to be do well is that we don't actually value every student and give them the things that they need for example hands on skills you know we have said oh everybody should be on the computer  but we think that auto shop and other skills training is too expensive but that doesn't value every child and so that's one of the first things i think that mcclory offers us is an opportunity to correct a lot of the problems that we have in our educational system but taxes are certainly important and i support a comprehensive tax reform that includes basically switching from a business an occupation absolutely in fact that's one of the things that we're campaigning on is that fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage statewide we won that here in seattle by electing the first socialists in a hundred years shyness and want who went on to launch the fifteen now grassroots campaign of which i was the organizing director i went out into the communities to build community action groups to get people involved in the process to build support for the low wage workers and so when fifteen are minimum wage four hundred thousand workers and it's good to hear that my opponent supports a fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage he didn't support it two years ago when sherman said want first ran against speaker chop and put forward a fifteen dollars an hour minimum wage and he did not support the twelve darner a minimum wage that was being put feral so it's not just a matter of supporting it but what is your experience organizing for it are you going to go out there and build community support for it so i encourage people to think about that when you listen to the answers it's not whether or not you support something or you think something is good but are you actually going to go out there and fight for it mr trump since you referred to direct by your opponent could you just answer yeah well basically that's not true i was actually involved in fifteen dollar minimum wage issue through seats as a result of that but if the worst by so many of the labor unions got strong grassroots support as well as the labor organizations they're actually working together to move forward the working people's agenda including the minimum wage and also paid sick dealing with four bills that we passed in the house for wage theft because that's a huge issue affecting a lot of commuters of color i think she actually said that two years ago when the salon first proposed that you were not supportive of the fifteen dollars two years they came up with a proposal fifteen dollars minimum wage and that's what i supported when they asked me to at sea tac which was the first effort to do such a thing i give you documents if you want thank you decision is clearly going to be the fundamental filter on the next legislative session i don't think that there are too many easy answers i think we should all be careful about the easy answers last year the house democrats did have a sustainable budget a step forward it was a one point four billion dollar commitment towards mccleary that's not what we were able to negotiate with the republicans in the senate it is not an easy task to get there i think it's going to be exactly like what we did in our house budget which is a combination of closing tax loopholes and raising some targeted tax watching and trying to protect jobs in our community i live in turkey it is the most diverse school district in the country it has poverty rates that are  made it a huge success the coalition for immigrant refugees and communities of color has been around for at least three and a half years doing these kinds of activities to make sure that the citizens and residents that live within those different communities know about their elected as well as there's also some voter registration information in the back that you can get to be able to be sure to be able to vote you'll have to walk it down to the elections office but you're still able to vote even  and they're going to they're going to be on channel seventy seven they've been taking since the very beginning of the program today they're going to be on channel seventy seven at seven o'clock next sunday this sunday they've got another show watch it i'm sure it's going to be good but  or other questions that the candidates may ask volunteer on the steering committee for this record using call people of color coalition at this event i took up the role of being one of the moderators that asked the politicians to answer our question expectations of this event were actually massively exceeded because we had a great turnout the candidates all showed up there on stage answered our questions their respect over the process i think a lot of people learned a lot  about the process and we have commitments from all of the candidates to come within sixty days of them being elected and address our concerns in more details because we're not going away we're actually going to continue to press on these candidates and make them accountable is been the way government has handled our people especially the seattle housing authority which is a step backwards basically there's no value in churning people out of their homes and and trying to use an idea that somehow they could just get jobs just because there's a bunch of numbers in some report so i support this community and i'm very pleased to be here today thank you very much am paul and i'm a candidate for the thirty seventh district state senate seat and i have been an activist for immigrant civil and human rights for over twenty years i am an immigrant from india i came to the united states when i was sixteen years old and my parents took all the money that they had and they used it to send me hair by myself because they believe that this was the country that i could have the best education and i decided to take my life and dedicated to social justice issues so i formed what was called hate free zone right after nine eleven to stand up for the rights of particularly arab south asians most sons the east african community that was being targeted post nine eleven just because of the color of their skin or their religion or their ethnicity and that effort grew and a freezone changed its name to one america which is now the largest immigrant advocacy organization in the state and i would be so honored to take my history of fighting for immigrants and refugees to the state senate and be able to represent this district there in the state senate let me thank the c i r c c for this event and i think it was wonderful they asked wonderful substantive questions and i know as someone who's running for a judicial office it's hard to let people know what it is about us that we should be looking at but everybody should look into the judges take your time and learn about the candidates and don't just mark that ballot without knowing what you're voting for and thank you thank you for taking the time to do this hi my name my name's brady walkinshaw and i represent the forty third legislative district i was appointed to it last year which includes central seattle the downtown capitol hill wallingford the university district fremont and i'm running right now for reelection i'm on the ballot in november and i'm very i'm a democrat i'm very deeply committed to trying to build a society where we all have opportunity i mean my mother's family to this country from cuba my father's been in washington state in seattle from my father's family for many generations and it's been an honor to serve in the legislature thus far and really look forward to fighting for and working toward a society that is more equitable more prosperous and that we are also taking care of our environment so i am delighted that the community has pulled together this event i am i'm one of three legislators of a latino background in our in our state legislature and i'm really i'm privileged to be a member