Three more Boulder City Council candidates talked about why they want a seat on the council and how they'd do the job at a candidate forum in the Boulder Public Library on Friday.

The organizers at PLAN-Boulder County have put together four forums so their members can hear from all of the 22 candidates running. Friday's was the second.

The candidates are fighting to win seven open seats on the City Council in November. Macon Cowles, Adam Massey and Rob Smoke participated in Friday's forum. A fourth, Nabil Karkamaz, was also set to appear but had to withdraw because of a last-minute scheduling conflict.

Cowles said he's running for office because he wants to protect the natural beauty and environmental values of Boulder and the Front Range, where he grew up. As a lawyer who represented environmental groups in the Exxon Valdez oil spill case in Alaska, he said he's qualified to fight for the environment.

"From time to time, (wife) Regina and I have talked about, 'Is there someplace we can run and hide from the problems we seedeveloping?'" he said. "Having sunk roots so deep, having been here for 25 years, this is where we're going to make our stand."

Massey said that before coming to Boulder, he grew up in Chicago Ñ "where the values weren't necessarily my own, nor the lifestyle mine," he said. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Colorado, and he said his analytical skills would be a valuable asset to the city.

"I've been endorsed by Jack Stoakes, Suzy Ageton, Richard Polk, Andy Schultheiss and Shaun McGrath, experienced council members with a broad range of views," he said. Smoke said he's lived in Boulder for 21 years and thinks someone needs to stand up against business interests. And, he said, he likes his odds with the number of seats that are up for grabs.

"I woke up one morning and said to myself, 'Hey, you get first prize for coming in seventh. That's better than you get most places," he said.

He added, "I think that today we do have a crisis in government. ... I think we have to make goals of long-term human sustainability come before short-term economic goals." Candidates were asked whether they'd support building a 15,400-square-foot exhibit hall, a 20,000-square-foot ballroom and a five-story hotel tower, which have been proposed for a parcel of city-owned land at the corner of Canyon Boulevard between 13th and 14th streets.

Smoke said he's open to the idea of a convention center Ñ but never at the proposed location, which is also the site of the Boulder Farmers' Market. The people who run the market say it would ruin their business.

"Sometimes when things just on the face of it seem incredibly stupid, it's because they are," he said.

Cowles voiced a similar sentiment.

"We've arrived at a point where it makes sense to us to have a conference center that's appropriately scaled," he said. "I don't think that the place to put it is at a place where something's actually working."

Massey said he's also skeptical of the proposed location. But Boulder does need a conference center Ñ as does CU, he said. Because university officials would benefit from the space, they should help with the project, he said.

"It should be built in partnership," he said.