There almost were palpable tinges of regret last evening.
It was over.
By the time they crossed the finish line of the final Candidates Forum, hosted by the Raintree townhouse complex, the six contenders for four City Council seats were primed for Election Day.
Each one, from Mayor Mehaul O’Leary to incumbent Andy Weissman, to Scott Malsin to Jim Clarke to Meghan Sahli-Wells to Stephen Murray enjoyed his best outing at Raintree..
They crisply whaled away when their favorite questions were posed moderator Elliott Axelban and his fellow Raintree denizens, the sharpest questioning audience of the season.
When the matter of alternative transportation raised, bicycling aficionado Ms. Sahli-Wells not only was able to showcase her Safe Routes to School project, but Mr. Murray looked down the table, saw how hungry she was to keep pitching, and he ceded his time to her.
When healthcare benefits arose, Mayor O’Leary adroitly revived his ongoing campaign to win a 500 percent pay raise for the five members of the City Council. He told the audience he puts in dozens of hours weekly on City Hall business, which rounds off to a paltry $6.75 an hour on his roughly $100 a week salary.
The comfortable part of following the Weissman campaign around town is that no matter whether an arcane or steaming topic is introduced, he has played a formal or visible role in accomplishing it, the fruits of having served in every government seat available.
Mr. Clarke, like Mr. Weissman, is a versatile government veteran who specialties almost automatically can link to the subject of the moment. One of his principal strengths is securing grants, and he assured Ms. Sahli-Wells ample funding could be found to bolster her beloved bike paths.
The question was: Do you support changes to rules that have allowed former Council members to receive lifetime healthcare benefits?
Mr. Malsin was called on first, ironically, since much discussion of that sizzling subject has swirled about him this campaign.
“You can’t take benefits away from people who are retired,” he said. “That would be unconscionable.”
Noting that his former colleagues recently approved sharp reductions, he said that “we really are pressing our luck to get good people to serve on the Council” now that retirement benefits have been reduced to $112 monthly. His complaint mirrors Mr. O’Leary’s.
Mr. Murray won the end-of-the-campaign award for congeniality, creativity and extemporaneous speaking.
