City of Auburn

Robyn Mulenga is running for re-election to Auburn City Council, Position 5. Before her election to the council, she was the District 2 director of the Auburn School Board for four years. During her time on the school board, Mulenga helped increased funding for two new elementary schools and six replacement schools. She also helped introduce racial equity policies to close the opportunity gap and ensure all students can thrive. 

Mulenga’s city council platform is focusing on reducing homelessness and its impacts. During her first term in office, Mulenga voted against an ordinance that would have criminalized homelessness by subjecting people experiencing homelessness to a citation instead of a fine. This would have resulted in people getting up to 90 days in jail rather than the commonsense solutions of mental health services and affordable housing that Auburn needs. By voting to raise revenues through the business and occupation tax (B&O), Mulenga worked to ensure Auburn will have extra resources to tackle these underlying causes of homelessness. Finally, Mulenga sought to lower permit and development fees for lower-income households to improve housing affordability in Auburn. 

Mulenga faces two opponents: Adeeb Altallal and Clinton Taylor. Altallal is a real estate agent with a bachelor's degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering. He also holds a position as a utilities engineer in the city of Tukwila. He states he is running for council to advocate for change and to make sure everyone’s voice is heard.

Altallal’s campaign priorities are prioritizing small businesses downtown instead of residential units, increasing the size of the city’s pool, and funding the construction of a new community center. Altallal’s platform still lacks detail on how he is going to accomplish any of his priorities, or what his solutions would be to any other issues facing Auburn.

Clinton Taylor is the third candidate running for Auburn City Council, Position 5. Taylor is the CEO and founder of Your Money Matters, a financial mentorship program. He is also a board member of the Auburn Public School Foundation. As of early July, Taylor is not running an active campaign. Taylor has no campaign website, raised no funds, and his campaign has no social media presence.

Mulenga is the best choice in this race because of her progressive record in the city council and her public service and experience.

Hanan Amer is running for Auburn City Council, Position 7, seeking to replace retiring Council member Bob Baggett. With a background as a chemist at Boeing, Amer has demonstrated a strong commitment to community service by volunteering at various local organizations such as the food bank, libraries, and Girl Scouts of Western Washington. Amer's involvement also extends to assisting with tax preparation through United Way of King County.

Endorsed by progressive former state senator Mona Das and the 47th Legislative District Democrats, Amer is dedicated to empowering and engaging community members. Her progressive platform centers around key issues such as reducing homelessness, addressing climate change, and tackling the drug epidemic.

Amer advocates for the creation of more affordable housing in Auburn to provide safe and permanent shelter for the over 300 people experiencing homelessness in the area. She also supports increased access to mental health services to meet the needs of the community. In her efforts to combat climate change, Amer emphasizes investing in expanded public transportation to reduce carbon emissions and pollution.

Taking a comprehensive approach to the drug epidemic, Amer proposes the establishment of a safe injection site, offering a medically supervised environment for individuals struggling with addiction to seek help. Additionally, she aims to increase assistance for those suffering from opioid addiction, aiming to reduce overdose deaths.

Amer faces two opponents in this race: Brian Lott and Ofa Langi. Lott is running on a conservative platform, with a main priority of prioritizing law enforcement and conducting sweeps of homeless encampments - an expensive and harmful policy that doesn't address the root causes of homelessness. We know what keeps us safe: living in communities where people of every color and background have fair wages, great schools, and affordable healthcare. Instead, Lott wants to label everyone without a home a criminal by making homelessness itself a crime, and telling them that they are "no longer welcome in Auburn" if they don't accept services - all without strengthening the social safety net, addressing affordable housing, or any of the long term efforts that are actually needed to prevent or solve the issue.

The third candidate in this race is Ofa Langi, who recently moved to Auburn in 2020 and serves as a pastor at the local Adventist Church. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Langi played a role in organizing COVID testing and food distribution efforts from the church parking lot. 

As of early July, Langi's campaign appears to be inactive. He does not have a campaign website, a presence on social media platforms, an official King County voters guide statement, or any reported funds raised.

Hanan Amer brings a progressive vision and a strong record of community service, she is the best choice for Auburn City Council, Position 7.