Boston City Councillors Michael Flaherty, Ayanna Pressley, Michelle Wu, are shown with forum moderators Gintautas Dumcius of MassLive.com and (far right) Yawu Miller of Bay State Banner during a Monday evening candidates’ forum in Roxbury. Chris Lovett photoAll five candidates for the four at-large Boston city council seats took part to some degree in a Monday night forum at the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Dudley Square where they sought to lay out their plans for helping Bostonians navigate an increasingly expensive future and the struggle for equal opportunities.

The candidates — incumbents Michael Flaherty, Stephen Murphy, Ayanna Pressley, Michelle Wu, and challenger Annissa Essaibi-George — faced no preliminary race this year. On election day, the ballot order will be: Pressley, Wu, Essaibi-George, Flaherty, and Murphy.

Murphy, though present for the pre-forum meet-and-greet, did not participate in the forum. Annissa Essaibi-George, citing a prior engagement, left about an hour into the two-hour event.

Moderators Yawu Miller of the Bay State Banner and Gintautas Dumcius of MassLive posed questions prepared by the sponsoring ward committees and offered by the audience that ran the gamut from affordable housing, to the charter school cap, to the much-discussed council pay raise.

Education was a central issue at the forum, but initiatives against violence, the promotion of social and economic mobility, and addressing disadvantages beyond families’ control also came up for discussion.

On the subject of charter schools, Flaherty said that overall achievement was what he prioritized, regardless of public, charter, or public affiliation. “I want quality schools throughout the neighborhoods,” he said, adding “I don’t care what uniform they wear.” A holistic schooling approach should “replicate” the best of each type of school, and hold them to the same performance standards, Flaherty said.

The three women candidates expressed vehement opposition to lifting the cap on charter schools.

“We only have authority over Boston Public Schools,” said Essaibi-George, a former teacher. “We do not have the ability to grade the performance of charter schools.” Wu said that lifting the cap would allow money to be diverted from public education, and Pressley pointed out that many students are not being accepted by the charter schools they want to attend.

Public employee diversity has been a topic of some controversy during the campaign, with a disproportionately low representation of women and people of color noted in Boston schools and the police and fire department.

Pressley said that “one-off” approaches will not work to fix the problem, and individual protocol changes won’t address the systemic attitudes towards underrepresented groups.

“Whether you’re talking about Boston Public Schools or charter schools,” she said, “one of the reasons why we lose people’s aspirations to want to be a fireman or woman, or policeman or woman, or teacher is that often times these environments aren’t welcoming. The key thing about retention is that we need to be able to wrap our arms
around teachers. They need to be mentored, they need to be supported.”

Apart from an audience member addressing candidates directly and out-of-turn regarding the West Roxbury natural gas pipeline, the forum ran smoothly and briskly.

The candidates expressed strict solidarity on the pipeline, which they all oppose. Wu said the subject was “infuriating,” Pressley called it “outrageous,” and Flaherty declared the high-pressure pipeline near the active blast site quarry “asinine.”

Also given time for discussion were police-public relations, affordable housing and displacement, and hiring standards. Each candidate scolded the media’s treatment of the council pay raise, which is poised to automatically take effect at Mayor Martin Walsh’s compromise of $99,500 number. Wu said the subject “distracted” from council achievements that have put Boston at the forefront of the country.