Nick Licata at an affordable housing town hall in 2015.
Former council member Nick Licata at an affordable housing town hall in 2015. Licata has now applied for a temporary council seat. City of Seattle

Tonight, the Seattle City Council and several community organizations will host a forum at City Hall for the 16 people vying for a temporary seat on the council. Doors open at 5:30; the action starts at 6.

The citywide seat has been vacant since former council member Tim Burgess became interim mayor after former mayor Ed Murray resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual abuse. Whoever is appointed interim council member will hold the seat until November 28, when election results are certified and either Jon Grant or Teresa Mosqueda is sworn in. It's a short stint, but includes one of the council's most important votes: the 2018 budget.

Groups including the Transit Riders Union, Tenants Union, Block the Bunker, and Neighborhood Action Coalition, are cosponsoring tonight's forum. Tomorrow night at 5 pm, the council will hold a special meeting in the evening where the candidates for the vacancy can address the council and the public can make comments. Council members will then have an executive session (not open to the public) Thursday morning to discuss candidates' qualifications and will vote Friday at 2 pm on who to appoint.

The list of candidates vying for the seat is mostly nobodies and also-rans, but former council member Nick Licata is a likely pick. An organizer with groups that oppose the new youth jail, Kirsten Harris-Talley, has also applied. Two rumored candidates—Gender Justice League Executive Director Danni Askini and former interim council member John Okamoto—did not apply.

Along with the events tonight and tomorrow, you can give the council your feedback on who to appoint council@seattle.gov. You can watch tonight's forum online here.

Here's the full list with links to their applications:

• Nick Licata, who served on the Seattle City Council for 17 years before retiring in 2015. Licata was an ally on many issues to Council Members Kshama Sawant and Mike O'Brien. His longtime aide Lisa Herbold is now on the council.

• Kirsten Harris-Talley, an organizer with Block the Bunker and No New Youth Jail and program director at the Progress Alliance, a group that raises money for progressive nonprofits.

• Abel Pacheco Jr., director of strategic engagement at the University of Washington's MESA tutoring program who ran for city council in 2015

• ChrisTiana ObeySumner, a housing navigator at Harborview Medical Center and a member of the city's new Renters Commission and Seattle Commission for People with DisAbilities

• Ray Armitstead, failed port commission candidate who once pitched housing homeless people on an old cruise ship

• Brendan Kolding, a cop and former candidate for state legislature

• Alex Tsimerman, longtime Nazi-saluting city hall gadfly

• Tiniell Cato, a longshot mayoral candidate who lost in the August primary and who included a recommendation from Tsimerman in her application

• Lewis Jones, a Republican

• Richard Baron, a consultant

• Kaylee McClure, a recent UW graduate

• Brianna McDonald, who owns an angel investor network

• Doug Nellis, who is involved in the local Democratic Party and submitted in his application a 35-point plan that includes banning "the wave" at publicly funded sports arena and making cats the "official City Mammal"

• Jennifer Perevodchikov, a lawyer and former member of the Seattle Public Schools Task Force for Prevention of and Response to Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault

• Robert Radford, a former public school principal

• Wes Tygerson, a Seattle City Light employee