Seventeen candidates for City Council seats fielded questions about affordable housing, immigration enforcement, and other topics last Thursday evening (May 22) at a forum at Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall.

Nine candidates for the District 7 seat and eight for the four at-large seats participated in the nearly three-hour forum, which drew more than 100 people and was moderated by Yawu Miller, editor in chief of The Flipside, and WGBH reporter Saraya Wintersmith.

The at-large field
All four incumbent at-large councillors running for re-election attended the event: Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia, Henry Santana, and Erin Murphy. City election officials have also certified nomination signatures for five challengers, so far: Will Onuoha, Marvin Mathelier, Alexandra Valdez, Yves Mary Jean, and Frank Baker. All but Mary Jean were in attendance.

Baker previously served as the District 3 councillor for 12 years. Valdez is the director of Boston’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Onuoha worked as the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Fair Housing & Equity, among other posts in over two decades in city government.

Marvin Mathelier, a Marine Corps Reserve veteran, said his goal is to bring to the City Council the values instilled in him by military service.

Read the entire article as it originally appeared in The Dorchester Reporter here.