ESCANABA — The three candidates running for Escanaba’s City Council and one of three candidates seeking election to the Gladstone City Commission were in Escanaba Wednesday to weigh in on the issues during a voter forum sponsored by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the League of Women Voters of Delta County (LWV).

The evening opened with Brad Mantela, a Gladstone commissioner and the only one of three candidates running for two open commission seats to appear at the forum. Sitting between placeholder name cards for the two other candidates, incumbent Judy Akkala and challenger Brian Godfrey, he fielded questions from the LWV and submitted by the public.

“Only one candidate agreed to participate. League of Women Voters’ policy allows for empty chair forums under certain circumstances. Local election forums are permitted to go forward even if only one candidate appears,” said Shannon Taylor, moderator for the event.

Later, Escanaba incumbents Tyler DuBord and Karen Moore were joined by challenger Rhonda Waters to answer questions, which largely overlapped with questions asked of Mantela.

The hot-button issue of the evening was access to housing, with multiple questions being asked of the candidates related to access to affordable housing, the possibility of rent control ordinances, the possible construction of a homeless shelter, and whether or not there should be limitations on short-term rentals. All of the candidates recognized there is a shortage of available housing in their communities, but each of the candidates focused on different issues to solve the problem.

Moore initially ran for the Escanaba City Council on a platform of increasing condominium development. Her remarks Wednesday continued that theme, echoing her housing theory that providing condos for financially-established seniors would open up housing for families with lower household wealth.

“A major part of our population is over 55. Some of these retired people would like smaller homes with less maintenance. Condos and apartments are a choice for many. Their homes would become available to families. There are many families living in low income housing that are able to afford homes of their own. This would open up availability for our existing low income apartments. We need to encourage and seek out developers for these types of condos and apartments to start the process,” Moore read from an answer she had previously given to the LWV for their vote411.org online voter guide while responding to a question about the development of homeless shelters.

Over the course of the evening, Moore went on to say that she would consider limiting short-term rentals to only those whose owners lived in the city, that she didn’t believe the city “will ever be in the business of controlling rents,” and that the city could encourage and support the development of homeless shelters but that the government should not be involved in “the homeless shelter business.”

DuBord, who currently sits on the council with Moore, shot back against Moore’s fundamental premise that seniors could afford to move into condos in the first place.

“How many of those citizens over 58 are in the median income or lower? Do we ever consider that or do we think everyone over the age of 58 is rich and has a lot of money to get condos and many other things?” he asked.

DuBord opposed rent control, stating that we are in an inflationary economy, which makes owning rental units more costly, and said rules for short-term rentals would need to balance the need for housing with the free market. He noted past city councils had turned away low-income housing developments but the city may want to contact those developers for future projects.

DuBord also noted his past support for homeless shelter or warming center development and suggested the use of one of the city’s public buildings as a warming center.

Waters, who has an educational background in mental health, said she was passionate about the housing issue and that she had learned from City Manager Jim McNeil that the city’s median income was about $36,000 annually.

“The statistics don’t lie. If we’re not thinking about half of our citizens that make less than $36,000, then we’re not helping them, you know, when it comes to affordable housing,” she said.

Waters said she was aware of a local church-run homeless shelter that did not advertise because it felt the city was unwelcoming to shelters. She did not comment on whether or not a rent control ordinance should be adopted and said she would need to do more research into how short-term rentals could be regulated to balance the rentals with housing availability.

Mantela also weighed in on housing availability in Gladstone.

“The biggest thing we want to focus on is getting the volume of available housing up and we’re doing that by promoting the development,” said Mantela, noting he was unaware of anything Gladstone could legally do with regards to rent control.

Another hot-button issue discussed Wednesday was marijuana regulation. Unlike the Escanaba, Gladstone does not participate in the state law allowing retail marijuana establishments — something Mantela doesn’t see changing.

“We are an opt-out city and we are not looking to change that,” he said.

When asked about marijuana, Moore, who has historically held anti-marijuana positions, said she had wanted to put the issue on a ballot and voiced her displeasure about the newly-opened dispensaries.

“We now have seven approved licenses in Escanaba. Will they all survive? Probably not. I don’t think our city needs seven dispensary locations with very few restrictions. Will the revenue be an asset or will added problems be a liability?” she read.

DuBord, who has historically promoted a free-market approach to marijuana legalization, said the dispensaries have not resulted in the “doom and gloom” originally predicted by some in the community.

“I’m not seeing long lines out the doors everyday waiting to get in there. I’m not hearing of major problems or issues within those areas. Some of them even have those buildings (looking) pretty nice right now and redid them. So really, I’m (still in) support of what I voted on and will continue to support that,” he said.

Waters pointed to how the majority of Escanaba residents voted when the law was originally passed that legalized marijuana in 2018.

“I support the marijuana ordinance as it stands. If I was here on this council to vote, I would have supported the city’s majority,” she said.

The Escanaba candidates were also asked about the city’s water rates, which have seen a dramatic increase over the past few years as the city grapples with the costs related to water plant upgrades and the state-mandated replacement of lead service lines throughout the city.

DuBord said the increases were the result of the city not raising rates for many years and then being hit with the added infrastructure costs. Going forward, he hoped grant money to cover infrastructure projects would be able to offset the need for rate increases.

“Right now we are averaging out to where we need to be compared to other communities. Down the road, hopefully, we’ll continue to have the grant money that we can receive and the monies that we can receive; we will taper off and keep you at a set level or slow, increment-level increases that go through every year,” he said.

Moore said that, while difficult to accept, the rates were middle of the pack for the Upper Peninsula. She did not address the future of water rates, but instead focused on grant funding and the water projects themselves.

“The state mandate for lead service line replacements influenced our water rates. Administration devised a plan to comply with these mandates with increased rates being a part of the plan out of necessity. Because our administration was conscientious about this, we applied and are receiving tens of millions of dollars in grants for water and wastewater improvements. We would never have been on the top of the list for these grants without a clear plan for compliance. Our water/wastewater superintendent along with our city manager deserve all the credit for procuring these grants,” she read.

Waters came at the problem from a different perspective: cut other costs for residents.

“I come from a two-person, working-class household and my water bill is high too. I can relate. And I know that we’ve had mandatory improvements, that we have to do, however, what’s the point of clean water if we can’t afford it, right? We have to find a balance. We have to look for ways to offset this cost whether it’s in the utility bill-zone or other ways in our community — help our citizens save some money because it’s a high cost of living all the way around,” she said.

While the majority of the forum was for hearing answers from each of the candidates, all four candidates were given an opportunity to give their top three priorities for their community.

Moore stated her top three priorities were the creation of condos and apartments for middle-income families, attracting industry, and fixing roads and infrastructure.

Waters’s priorities were access to housing, increasing mental health resources to help combat the city’s drug problems, and to expand community policing, where the police are more visible and build relationships in the community.

DuBord’s priorities also included housing — but unlike Moore, he wanted to provide a blend of housing opportunities for individuals and families at all income levels — community policing, and to continue infrastructure improvements. He added a fourth goal of working towards future development in the city.

For Gladstone, Mantela said his priorities were things the city was already working on: making the city attractive for housing development, improving infrastructure, and finding new ways to fund public safety and infrastructure projects.