Candidates for local and county offices from Auburn mayor to King County Executive spoke Monday at Emerald Downs during an Auburn-Area Chamber of Commerce forum.

City Councilwoman Virginia Haugen, hoping to unseat two-term Mayor Pete Lewis, said the issue on voter’s minds right now is possible flooding of the Green River this fall and winter. She said the city is unprepared for a disaster.

“The Corps of Engineers has let us down,” Haugen said, drawing an analogy with its handling of Hurricane Katrina.

“We don’t want that to happen in Auburn, we are not going to let it happen in Auburn,” Haugen said.

Instead of pointing fingers, Lewis said, Auburn should continue to work with the Green River cities of Tukwila, Renton and Kent on a common plan to ensure that everybody is protected.

“The maps are there, and every single bit of information that comes out is given out as soon as we can make it publicly available … We have to provide for the public safety in our community, and we have worked hard at it,” Lewis said.

Haugen criticized the City for investing $6 million in a downtown redevelopment plan she insists “does not work.”

“We’re in a little bit of trouble if we don’t tighten the belt right now,” Haugen said.

As a former banker who worked with small businesses in Auburn for more than 25 years, Lewis said, he watched Auburn develop even as the state and federal governments and voter initiatives took away more and more tax revenues. Lewis said he chose to bring in new business and make businesses that are already here more successful rather than raise taxes.

Lewis champions downtown redevelopment, including the plans that relate to the proposed Auburn Junction on the four blocks south of City Hall. He said the city got involved with that project to provide a baseline for other development to enter. He said the city needs the revenues that such development can bring in.

Haugen also faulted the City’s handling of the Lea and West Hill annexations.

“We have just annexed 20,000 people, and those people got promised that we would hire new people? Did we hire those people? No. We have laid off people,” Haugen said.

Lewis noted that the Valley Regional Fire authority, which also serves those areas, was formed before the annexations in part to free up funds so the City could hire police officers to patrol the annexation areas.

Records show the City hired six officers at the Council meeting just after VRFA was formed then hired five more after the annexation became official in January 2008, all of them still employed. The city also hired planners and public works and maintenance operations staff. None of the people hired to serve the new areas of the city lost their jobs last spring when the City cut 24 positions as a budgetary measure.

Haugen said her plan for Auburn includes a City Council that will be stronger than any City Council it has ever had.

“They will stop saying ‘yes, yes, yes.’ They will learn to say ‘no’ when they need to say ‘no,’” Haugen said.

Lewis said that the current Council members are the least likely “yes” people he has met. There are disagreements, he and other councilmembers said later, but they have been hashed out in numerous committee meetings well in advance of a Council vote. Those meetings are open to the public.

The race for Auburn City Council, Position 2, pits incumbent Councilmember Gene Cerino, a longtime Auburn teacher and former wrestling coach, against John Partridge, the city’s former fire and police chaplain and a newcomer to electoral politics.

Cerino, 82, said with 12 years on the Council, he understand the procedure and problems the city faces dealing with the county, state and national levels.

“This is a time during which experience will be very important in Auburn being at the table, not an item on the table,” Cerino said, and cited some of his accomplishments:

• His writing of the dangerous dog ordinance. He said the ordinance doesn’t single out any breed but places responsibility for a dog’s actions on the owner.

• His support for the formation of the Valley Regional Fire Authority when it became apparent that the City could not afford to maintain a fire department and expand its size as needed by the city’s growth while also expanding the size of the police department.

He said he supports having an animal control warden available five days a week for at least eight hours a day to respond to citizens needs. This position would essentially continue in place that of the current animal control officer, which exists via an agreement with King County, should the county reduce or eliminate animal control services.

Partridge, 45, presented his credentials as a lifelong resident of Auburn. He and his wife, Shirlee, have raised three daughters, and they represent the fourth generation of his family to live in Auburn. He said he served on his first city advisory committee when he was 17, ran his first business out of high school at 18 and sold it at 23, then used the proceeds to put himself through college.

Partridge, owner of Federal Way-based Partridge Insurance, served seven years as the city’s fire and police chaplain. He is a member of the Auburn Noon Lions Club.

“I have the desire, I have the degree, and I have the devotion desire to take my community service to the next level, my degree being my education, formal business and life experience to meet the needs of the position. Even with the challenges going on in the mayoral race, I am the only chance for a new face at City Hall,” Partridge said.

“As the new guy, I will bring a fresh set of eyes and ears. I will not be tied to special interests, political relationships or promises from the past. I will serve each term as if it is my last,” Partridge added.

He noted that he has earned the endorsement of the Firefighters Union.

The audience also heard from the two candidates for King County Executive — King County Councilman Dow Constantine (D) and former KIRO anchor Susan Hutchison (R).

Constantine served two terms in the State House of Representatives before winning election as state Senator and serving on the King County Council.

Constantine said he:

• Has worked hard and will continue to work hard for performance-based government and for reforming old institutions, which he said will allow the county continue to deliver to people in an era of limited resources. He proudly cited his role in promoting a hiring freeze that cut the Council budget by more than $800,000.

• Will continue to push the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete work at the Howard Hanson dam as fast as possible.

Hutchison said her focus in office will be:

• Economic development, jobs, transportation and fixing King County government so that it lives within its means.

• The state of the Green River levees.

“We have such a risk of economic, environmental and human catastrophe that we have to be moving as fast as we can to shore up our levees, with a focus on the levees most at risk, then moving to others. It has to be done in a collaborative, cooperative spirit, but it has to be done with a sense of urgency,” Hutchison said.

The forum was briefly interrupted by a fire alarm that led to the evacuation of the building. Eric Robertson, administrator of the VRFA, traced the problem to an overheated chafing dish in the kitchen.