Birmingham radio station WJLD invited five of the city’s nine mayoral candidates to participate in a debate Tuesday night at the historic Carver Theater. A healthy crowd filled the 450-seat venue and, according to hosts, more than 1,800 people streamed the event live online.

The insults, however, were innumerable.

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said the incumbent mayor, Randall Woodfin, was not mature enough for the position.

“I have been under brutal attack by this man who would sit up here and mumble under his breath, acting as if he is a little boy. No, this is a big man’s job,” Givan said.

She called the Woodfin administration the “Rand-emic.”

Frank Woodson, the president and CEO of CityServe Alabama and co-founder of Central Alabama Redevelopment Alliance, said Birmingham needs a mayor who is not dodging responsibility.

“When the schools weren’t doing good, we blamed the teachers. Y’all remember that. The teachers union got upset. Schools work hard and things go better, now it’s we. People were dying at an alarming rate here in Birmingham —  at the very top in the nation — it’s them and those single mamas and it’s you all in the families, and that’s the problem. But when homicides drop across the nation, we’re winning with a police force that is a fraction of what it needs to be with violent crime still continuing to rise,” Woodson said.

Woodfin said many of the candidates on the stage were more interested in spreading falsehoods about him than improving Birmingham.

“I want your vote August 26 because we are moving in the right direction, and we need to continue that forward trajectory,” he said. “When you have people who run out of spite and for whatever personal reason and don’t have vision, that does not move our city, and it does not give you progress in your neighborhoods. Stick with us on the course that is big picture, that is team-oriented, that’s a vision, and we’re moving the direction of our city forward that works for all people, improving their quality of life.”

Lashunda Scales, a Jefferson County commissioner and former Birmingham City Council member, criticized Woodfin for decreasing funding for neighborhood associations.

“We need to have a third-party forensic audit with this city budget, because we don’t even know where our money is. We know what you publish, we know what you say, but it’s not showing up in our neighborhoods,” she said.

Each of the candidates was asked whether he or she would support repealing the 2016 Mayor-Council Act. The often-criticized state law put the budgeting process under the control of the mayor.

Givan said she would “act with the wishes and desires of the people.”

When given a chance to respond, Woodson said, “We need checks and balances, and we need a council that has more teeth.”

When a moderator asked Scales the question, she said that Woodfin ran on getting the act reversed.

Brian K. Rice, an engineer who has struggled to develop commercial properties in Ensley, said he would support replacing the Mayor-Council Act with a new, more equitable one. However, he stressed he would not support reverting to the pre-2016 statute, which was written in the Jim Crow era.

“A lot of people have been sleeping for 10 years,” Rice said. “Legislation has been taking place, and someone has been looking the other way. I am not a politician, but I am committed to making sure we have enough lobbyists in Montgomery. I want to make sure our City Council has an appropriate amount of attorneys to be able to look at different things. Right now, we have an executive branch controlling the legislative branch.”

Woodfin said the act does not give him absolute power over the budget, and he pointed out that Givan voted for the law as a legislator.

“There is nothing wrong with the process now, as it relates to how I engage the City Council. Notice that there are no city councilors on this stage running for mayor … I have a great working relationship with the council. The reason things are so smooth at City Hall, the reason you all can’t pull out your popcorn and look for a show while we’re fighting and all of that is because I have a tremendous amount of respect for them, and we go through a process together where I get their requests, their needs, their issues for the districts they represent,” Woodfin said.

Watch the entire debate on WJLD’s Facebook page.

It included the candidates WJLD considered the top five. Not invited to participate on stage were mayoral candidates Kamau Afrika, Marilyn James-Johnson, Jerimy Littlepage and David Russell.