The Oct. 15 candidate forum at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center opened with a disappointing announcement: Both mayoral candidates had cancelled their scheduled appearances.

Six out of the 10 scheduled candidates managed to make it to the event hosted by the Delridge and Southwest district councils; Current Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin was dining with the governor and council contender Sally Bagshaw had another appointment.

For those council candidates who could make it, few seemed prepared to answer when moderators Chas Redmond and Pete Spalding asked questions about West Seattle issues. When it came to traffic, some candidates may not to have been prepared for questions about parking problems in the Alaska Junction and ferry-related traffic.

Others readily admitted so.

“This is not a question that I’ve thought about,” said David Bloom, council candidate running against Sally Bagshaw, when asked about ferry traffic.

None of the candidates offered any answers drastically different than their opponents’ replies, although Robert Rosencrantz and Mike O’Brien separated over the issue of Seattle’s head tax; O’Brien supported it while Rosencrantz did not.

Current council member Nick Licata and challenger Jessie Israel used their incumbent and newcomer vantage points to sell their own points and undermine their opponent’s. Israel suggested the current council had not worked well enough with county and state government while Licata called Israel’s idea to add 200 new police officers to the city a plan she had just thought up as they were debating.

When asked about budget cuts, all candidates predictably agreed that cuts to human services during this slow economy would not be wise. One, however, took promises to provide human services to the next level.

David Ginsberg, High Point resident and challenger to Conlin, said residents facing homelessness due to “predatory lending practices” could avoid homelessness by basically invoking squatter’s rights and staying at home.

Sarah Nelson, Conlin’s campaign manager and representative for Conlin at the debate, chose to a more guarded reply: “Richard has always had the position that he will never cut social services in times of economic need.”

With most candidates already promising to hold the financial line for human services, transit funding, support for the arts and public safety, the moderators posed a surprise question to the candidates: How would the candidates work with the neighborhood to implement a skate park master plan?

“I think we should be making investments,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien’s opponent concurred.

“Let the city act as the central funding mechanism,” Rosencrantz said.

Nelson, Conlin’s campaign manager, seemed to say skate parks are essential.

“Skate parks are not a luxury,” Nelson said. “They are part of our social fabric.”