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The seat is currently occupied by Karin Uhlich, who served on the council from 2005 to 2017 and was appointed to serve the remainder of former Councilman Paul Durham’s term after he resigned earlier this year. She’s not seeking the job for a full term.

Ward 3, which encompasses the northwest boundaries of the city, is the only seat where a former council member isn’t running, and electors will select a new face to represent the ward this year: Democrat Kevin Dahl, Republican Alan Harwell Jr. or independent Lucy LiBosha.

Dahl is a longtime conservationist who led the environmentalist groups ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Audubon Society and Native Seeds/SEARCH. He’s currently the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ senior program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association, and addressing climate change would be a key issue for him on the council.

Hawell Jr. is new to politics and holds many hard-line conservative viewpoints. His key issues include increasing law enforcement funding, filling potholes and eliminating school mask mandates and teaching of critical race theory. He’s currently unemployed and collects Social Security.

LiBosha is a high school math teacher in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Unified School District and a former airborne paratrooper in the Army. She’s served as a union representative for the American Federation of Teachers and on the Complete Streets Coordinating Committee for ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

The mantra of LiBosha’s campaign is to “invest, connect and uplift ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€� in part by making room in the city’s budget for social services.

She wants to “address some of those programs that are underfunded, such as mental health care access and homelessness access.�

“When folks don’t know where to go, and they’ve been unhoused and they don’t have the resources in which to make those kinds of contacts, a program like housing first doesn’t make sense if people don’t know where to go,� she said.

LiBosha also wants to improve mass transportation throughout the city and address “climate change from a social justice perspective.�

“I’ve gone to certain places in Ward 3 where there aren’t many trees, the grass is brown. And then I’ve gone to other places and parks within the same ward, and there’s green space, there are nice beautiful lawns, and there are clean bathrooms,� she said. “I see some inequities in our ward, and those inequities exist throughout our city.�

Dahl’s key issue is addressing climate change, and the candidate wants to help the council maintain its climate initiatives with equity in mind.

“I completely support what the mayor and council has done as far as setting goals. It’s where the rubber meets the road that I’m most interested in helping to push things along,� he said. “We need to prepare for the heat and drought, that’s how climate change will affect our region. And especially protect the most vulnerable people who don’t have the resources to stay cool.�

Dahl says ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is a “key playerâ€� in providing affordable housing options and wants to build upon its existing housing initiatives.

“Frankly, ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has vacant houses and vacant land. The city can use money to buy both, fix up the dilapidated houses, build new houses. We should be producing affordable housing,â€� he said.

While Harwell recognizes homelessness is an issue in Ward 3, he says it should be dealt with through an “advocacy group� with lived experience, because people experiencing homelessness wouldn’t listen to “educated kids.�

In stark contrast to his opponents, Harwell firmly opposes electric buses and alternative renewable energy sources and said, “It’s too expensive.�

The candidate also opposes vaccine mandates and likened them to the Nuremberg Code — a set of human experimentation ethics principles that came out of a series of trials held against major war criminals and Nazi sympathizers after World War II.

Dahl and LiBosha are both supporters of the city’s vaccine mandate for employees, although Dahl believes the city should have gone through a proper meet-and-confer process with employee unions before voting on the measure.

“I think the City Council misstepped by not doing the consultation with the labor union unions before going ahead with that. They should have consulted,� Dahl said. “But working for someone, including city government, is not an absolute right. ... Having this particular vaccination as a requirement for work I think is completely reasonable.�

LiBosha says the vaccine conversation has been overly politicized, and as a council member, she would try to have productive discussions with employers over vaccine requirements.

“I would love to talk to employees who are against the mandate for city employees and have that kind of fruitful discourse. I think that’s important,� she said. “I support it, but I’m also open to having that discourse with the people that are affected by it.�

Voters citywide will decide the winners of three Ward races in the Nov. 2 elections.