Kody Christiansen spoke with voters about his campaign. (photo courtesy of the Christiansen campaign)

The transportation advocacy group Streets For All is hosting a mobility debate on Sept. 15 over Zoom for the West Hollywood City Council election.

The group has drawn criticism for inviting only 8 of the 14 candidates running.

Candidates included in the debate were Councilwoman Chelsea Byers, Larry Block, Kyle Brazeal, Jonathan Cottrell, Kody Christiansen, Helen Krieger, Stephen Post and Tanya Tsikanovsky.

Streets For All founder and CEO Michael Schneider defended the group’s position.

“We invited all candidates who had filed as of the date that we sent the invite (July 9),” Schneider said. “We are looking forward to having a productive debate with seven candidates.”

After hearing that not all candidates were invited, Christiansen withdrew from the debate on Sept. 4, after the debate lineup was made public. He said he wanted to give up his spot for another candidate who did not have the opportunity to participate.

“It’s about making sure everyone has a voice,” Christiansen said. “When I withdrew from the event, I made sure I put in the email, ‘please give my place to someone who has not spoken at a forum yet.’”

Streets For All did not ask any of the remaining candidates to fill Christiansen’s spot at the debate.

“We’re sorry to see Kody withdraw from the debate,” Schneider said, but added that the organization will not give Christiansen’s spot in the debate to another candidate.

The six candidates not included in the upcoming Sept. 15 Streets For All West Hollywood Mobility Debate are Tom Demille, John Duran, Chukwudubem “Chiedu” Egbuniwe, Alden “Marlon” Gobel, Kevin Ligon and Joel Zaldivar

After the lineup was released, Egbuniwe said his team reached out to Streets for All to ask them to reconsider including the candidate in the debate.

Egbuniwe was told the organizers would not make any changes to the debate, but he was welcome to complete their endorsement questionnaire.

The city council candidate filed his intent to run almost immediately when the period opened, and he said Streets for All’s decision not to include all candidates was wrong. Egbuniwe said he was saddened and shocked not to be included in the debate.

“They are excluding the one Black candidate out there. There’s never been a Black city council member in WeHo, so they are saying here we don’t really need that voice,” Egbuniwe said. “Six other people were just left off the list, and it was the reasons that were the problem for me.”

Since the city was incorporated in 1984, no Black person has served on the West Hollywood City Council.

Candidate Duran said he was invited to the debate but could not attend because he would be in court working as a defense attorney. Streets for All did not offer Duran any alternative times.

“No consideration was made to make sure that we had communities of color represented at a debate around streets for all and transit,” Duran said. “Those voices need to be part of the discussion and the debate, even if the voices are people you disagree with.”

“Whether it was intentional or neglectful, not having any candidates of color participate in a city like West Hollywood is really a shame,” Duran said, adding that he is one of two Latino candidates for City Council.

Schneider said invitations were sent to candidates who had filed as of July 9, the date the organization sent invites out. But the filing period for the Nov. 3 West Hollywood City Council election did not open until July 13.

“My team looked at everyone who had declared running based on news or social media, and invited those people,” Schneider said. “Perhaps in the future we will try waiting longer, but there’s a lot of prep on our end that goes into hosting these.”

The transportation advocacy organization said they plan on hosting three more debates, and “will also likely make changes to who we invite.”

“It’s great to invite everyone, but at the same time, if everyone comes and there are 12 or 15 people running, it’s very hard to have a substantial debate within 90 minutes and do more than a few questions,” Schneider said. “So we may try and have some qualifier to treat everyone equally.”

City Council candidate Zaldivar was also not invited to this debate, and he said that he felt “disenfranchised and disheartened.”

“I’m painfully aware that our political leaders have already rubberstamped their choices for City Council and that these spectacle debates are geared to that end,” Zaldivar said. “Streets For All could have easily corrected this mistake by contacting the excluded candidates. I have yet to receive word.”

Six-time West Hollywood City Council candidate Demille, who uses a wheelchair, was also not invited to the debate.

“The Streets For All might be very good at discrimination,” Demille said. “They will proceed knowing they are leaving out two candidates of color and the candidate with no legs.”