Phoenix City Council District 8 candidates held a mostly cordial but at times contentious forum at the Mountain Park Health Center in south Phoenix Wednesday night.
Carlos Garcia, the executive director of the Puente movement prior to his City Council run, squared off against Mike Johnson, a former police officer and a three-term city councilman who served from 2001 to 2013.
“This district has been neglected for a long time. Some may say we need our fair share, I say we need more than that,” Garcia said in his opening statement before a standing-room only crowd of a few dozen. “There’s been a focus on the downtown area and the Baseline area and we’ve forgotten about everyone in between.”
Johnson, who began his career as a Phoenix police detective, touted his lifelong work as a public servant and said that the situation in District 8 was not as bad as Garcia made it out to be.
“I think the southern part of the city as well as all of District 8 has really grown,” he said. “We’ve got a new library, parks, new infrastructure improvements.”
The questions from the audience covered issues such as community participation in the budget and the record number of civilians killed by Phoenix police in 2018. On public health, Garcia said the city needed to do more to alleviate some of the food deserts that still exist in South Phoenix, while Johnson said that City Council is not directly involved in healthcare.
Garcia and Johnson both said the Phoenix Police Department needs to be more transparent, but differed in how directly they criticized it. Garcia called for a citizen review board while Johnson claimed violence in the city has increased in recent years and that efforts must be focused on reducing crime overall rather than just on the police department.
Janey Pearl Starks, who introduced the candidates at the beginning of the forum, said many of the questions submitted by the audience concerned the light rail, but only one was addressed during the meeting. Garcia blasted the South Central Extension, although he has maintained that he would not support the ballot initiative set for August which would effectively kill future light rail construction.
“The displacement piece is something that’s just not in the mindset of the city,” Garcia said. “I think what happened with that project (the South Central Extension) particularly is that they’re thinking of the future South Central Avenue, one that looks like Roosevelt (Row), rather than what the people of south Phoenix want.”
Johnson said he was supportive of light rail. During his time as a councilman, the City planned numerous extensions, but said he recognized how divisive the issue had become based on the meetings he had attended.
Shortly after Pearl Starks declared the end of the discussion, attendee Aaron Maxwell complained that his question, which was directed specifically at Garcia, had not been asked. Maxwell wanted to ask how Garcia could assure people he would represent all of District 8, given how much the Garcia campaign has focused on the Latinx community and police brutality.
Maxwell said that if Garcia only focused on the Latinx community and police brutality, he would be “more so an ambassador than a councilman.”
Despite the discord at the end, Pearl Starks declared the forum successful, given the high attendance.
“We’re a community health center in the heart of District 8,” she said. “Both (candidates) are from very different backgrounds… those backgrounds are who make up a good part of our patient population.”
Contact the reporter at dmperle@asu.edu.
