They were hit with questions on affordable housing, rising taxes, city staff running council, the jet fuel pipeline and densification.
There was even some probing on prostitution in massage parlours and perceived cultural harmony.
But as wide-ranging as the subject matter got at the first civic election allcandidates meeting Tuesday night, the healthy 150-plus crowd at the Executive Airport Plaza hotel would struggle to have left any nearer to deciding who they want on their eight councillor/one mayor team.
One interesting observer in the audience - none other than former mayor/ MLA and councillor Greg HalseyBrandt, not on the ballot this time because he got "frustrated" working with a rubber-stamping council - came looking for inspiration for voting day and, similarly, left scratching his head.
Granted, it wasn't easy for the 16 city council and two mayoral hopefuls at the event - each having just 60 seconds to respond to the sometimes multi-layered questions before they were ceremoniously cut off, often in mid-sentence.
The boomerang issue that is affordable housing in Richmond kicked off proceedings, landing at the feet of former councillor Cynthia Chen, incumbent Bill McNulty and schoolteacher and green campaigner Michael Wolfe.
Chen said the city should work harder at partnering with the different levels of government to attract more funding for housing, while McNulty supports the construction of granny flats and coach houses on older, larger lots as well as continuing to ask developers for financial contributions.
Wolfe, in contrast, had a three-point plan: 1. Hire an affordable housing coordinator; 2. Restrict all development until affordable housing is delivered and 3. Vote for him. "I can't afford a house in Richmond either, so I can be your advocate on council."
The thorny branch of rising property taxes was poked at newcomer Jun Wuyan, social justice advocate De Whalen of the RCA slate and Richmond First incumbent Ken Johnston.
Wuyan wanted to freeze all tax increases, but offered no plan as to how he will achieve that. Whalen told the audience that cost-sharing is the best way to keep taxes at a reasonable rate.
Johnston, on the other hand, dismissed Wuyan's "freeze all taxes" promise as "absolute folly," adding that the city is under pressure to provide more and more services.
Greg Halsey-Brandt may not be running, but his parting words - that the city is being run by senior staff and not council - are still ringing in people's ears, evidenced by a question on how that would change if elected.
Ironically, it was Greg's wife, Evelina, who answered the question, saying council would be able to take more of a hand in decision-making if projects were brought before them at the "earliest time possible," as opposed to when it's too late to change its course.
"I don't rubber-stamp anything," she added.
Outgoing school trustee and anti-jet fuel pipeline campaigner Carol Day said there needs to be more transparency in a city where departments "work in silos" and are cut off from one another.
Former property manager Peter Mitchell and Cliff Wei were asked how they would revitalize the city centre.
"Don't develop anymore - move the city centre to the east," said Wei. While Mitchell pointed out that the city has attracted a lot of development, but not attracted the services that should go with it. He suggested the city create smaller neighbourhood nodes.
The proposal to ship jet fuel up the south arm of the Fraser River and pipe it through Richmond to YVR has been one of the hottest topics in the city for the last two years.
How best to get that fuel to the airport was asked of Chen, former school board chair Linda McPhail and outgoing school trustee Chak Au.
Chen said she didn't have enough information on the issue, so couldn't answer.
McPhail said she wasn't in favour of the plan as it stands and would like to know more about the options. Au favoured the idea of piping the fuel all the way along the highway from Bellingham to the airport.
Mayor Malcolm Brodie's only challenger - lawyer Richard Lee - was asked his opinions on densification of the city.
Lee said the big mistake was made many years ago when a 40 per cent population increase was projected and mayor and council then drafted, on that spike estimate, a plan for developing the city centre.
What would the candidates do to improve and develop racial harmony in the city?
Loo said there should be more opportunities for new immigrants to plug into ESL programs, so they can "become part of the community."
"I also don't think the signs (on businesses) should be bigger in a foreign language than they are in English," she added.
"It doesn't encourage people to learn English and maybe there should be more community programs to encourage people to learn English."
acampbell@richmond-news.com
