The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce held a public forum for council candidates yesterday morning to enable community members to better acquaint themselves with the election's issues.

The public forum, held at Skates on the Bay restaurant near Berkeley Marina, opened with brief speeches from each candidate, followed by a short question-and-answer session.

"We believe in trying to get as much information out to members of the community with the upcoming elections," said Ted Garrett, CEO of the chamber.

The economy largely dominated the conversation and candidates discussed related issues such as the Buy Local Berkeley program.

Sophie Hahn, who is challenging incumbent Laurie Capitelli for his District 5 council seat said that, although the Buy Local Berkeley initiative had accomplished a lot, its full potential to boost local economy needed to be harnessed.

She called upon UC Berkeley and big businesses in the area to make a commitment to local small business owners.

"The big downturn in their business ... was when UC Berkeley stopped buying local," Hahn said. "We need to work very, very vigorously with the university and other big businesses to get them to turn to our local merchants, even if they cost a little more."

Many candidates combined their economic concerns with other issues including land use, parking, public transit, the library measure, the Landmarks Preservation ordinance and homelessness.

District 6 candidate Susan Wengraf said that constituents from her district, which largely encompasses the Berkeley hills, were unwilling to go into the commercial downtown district because of poor public transportation, scarce parking and homelessness in the area.

"My constituents perceive the downtown area as dirty and dangerous," Wengraf said.

Many candidates felt that, while reducing the appearance of homelessness would help give the city an economic boost, the city needed to concentrate on building supportive housing instead of merely criminalizing the poor.

"We need to ensure that we not only have room for million dollar condos in the downtown area, but housing for everyone," said District 4 candidate Jesse Arreguin.

Candidates also discussed homelessness in Berkeley. Berkeley has about 40 percent of the Bay Area's homeless population, many of whom are not actually from Berkeley but come to Berkeley because of the services provided.

"It is a regional problem that has to be approached regionally," said District 2 incumbent Darryl Moore. "But, this kind of transitional and supportive housing cannot only be in the flatlands of Berkeley. The entire city needs to (be involved)."

Tags: ELECTIONS 2008, LOCAL ELECTIONS 2008, CITY COUNCIL ELECTIONS 2008