With the preliminary hurdle cleared and five weeks until the Nov. 3 election, the final city council candidates from districts 4 and 7 addressed topics including education and accountability at a forum last Friday night.

Incumbent councillors Charles Yancey (District 4) and Tito Jackson (District 7) and their respective challengers, lawyer Andrea Campbell and TOUCH 106.1 co-founder Charles Clemons, spoke at the Jubilee Christian Church in Mattapan. They hit many by-now familiar points in their pitches, colored by a need to energize apathetic voters.

The candidates are still feeling the sting from September’s preliminary elections, marked by just over 7 percent turnout. Jubilee’s Senior Pastor Matthew K. Thompson told the audience that the voting attendance was a “travesty.”

Yancey, who finished second in the first round (chalking up 1,159 votes to Campbell’s 1,982) directly linked the role of active churches to overcoming voter lethargy. After about 45 minutes of songs by church members and a welcoming benediction, the candidates were seated and encouraged to treat the meeting as a forum rather than a debate. Questions posed included the role of black churches, increasing transparency, and building up job programs for young people.

There was no dissent over the importance of providing opportunities for youth employment, with Jackson asserting that “money is a value statement.” Jackson, who has handily carried District 7 since winning the special municipal election in 2011, railed against the income and opportunity gaps for people of color, especially young black men.

Lifting the cap on charter schools is a fraught discussion of late, with a reported 37,000-student waiting list for such schools. The candidates were asked to take a position on the subject.

Campbell, noting that charter schools are under state jurisdiction, refocused her answer on how to better serve the public schools. She suggested convening groups of parents, teachers, and other schooling advocates to assess shortcomings. Prioritizing effective local public schools is the best way to help districts like D-4, she said, which has some of the lowest performing schools in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

Her response prompted a dig from Yancey when his turn to speak rolled around, saying he would “answer the question that was asked.” He was vehement in his disapproval of the charter school trajectory, as they were originally meant to be “experimental.” If schooling becomes more privatized, “it’s going to hurt our children if we don’t put that under control.”

Clemons said some of his children did not go to Boston Public Schools because the schools, in Tier 4, were so poorly equipped. He cited Brookline as an example of a municipality supporting its public schools. Though an “unapologetic proponent” of public schooling, Jackson said he still hopes charter school students do well. It is a question of distributing finances, he said.

As the candidates vie to keep or claim a seat in the council and some sitting councillors push for pay raises, the direct role of a city councillor sometimes stumps the public. To help address the confusion, the forum participants clarified their understanding of the position.

On a basic level, “we do the practical things that are in the city,” Jackson said, adding that they also carry the weight of the budget and holding the City accountable to its residents. Yancey elaborated that the lawmaking duties are also crucial. Councillors are responsible for legislating city improvements, such as crossing gates on school buses, Yancey said.

A significant component of Campbell’s pitch to voters rests on her accessibility, handing out her cell phone number freely to the public.

“You have to be able to find your city councillor,” she said. “You have to be able to call them.”

And they should be the first call for anyone with constituent services issues, Campbell said.

Also touched on were issues of transparency -- the candidates all agreed that authorities must be held accountable, through traditional and creative means -- affordability, and union support. Attendees pushed for a longer forum to allow for more questions, and the the event concluded after about two hours. As the candidates dispersed, Yancey asked again for a more robust turnout at the polls.