MARSHALL — Election Day is getting nearer, and candidates running for Marshall City Council were sharing their positions on local issues Thursday night. Marshall residents and a panel of local media posed questions on topics ranging from city finances to economic development.

The panel discussion, held at the Marshall-Lyon County Library, included candidates from each of Marshall’s three council wards. Current council member John DeCramer and challenger Don Edblom are running in Ward 1; council member David Sturrock and challenger Russ Labat are running in Ward 2; and council member Craig Schafer is running unopposed in Ward 3.

Edblom was unable to attend Thursday’s panel due to illness. However, DeCramer and other panelists said Edblom has past experience serving on the Marshall city council. He is also the current chair of the Marshall city zoning and planning commission.

Panels were also held Thursday with Lyon County Commissioner and Marshall School Board candidates, and a question-and-answer session with Lyon County Sheriff candidate Eric Wallen.

Local development — and the city of Marshall’s role in encouraging it — were the subject of several questions at the council candidates’ panel. Right at the start of the panel, candidates were asked what Marshall can do to develop more housing in the city.

Workforce housing was an important need for Marshall, candidates said. But a housing shortage was more than a local problem, Sturrock and DeCramer said. As board chairman for the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, DeCramer said, “I do see this housing need throughout the whole state.”

Candidates said Marshall needed to encourage housing development, and also to keep in mind the needs of rental property owners.

“We have a very diverse housing market in Marshall,” Sturrock said, with many smaller rental owners in addition to larger apartment complexes. “We have to first respect that variety, and the different needs those landlords have.” Sturrock said Marshall has made progress on making the city’s regulations and code applications easier for property owners to work with.

“That helps,” he said. “We’ve made some progress. We can keep building on those.”

Candidates said there were other sides to the problem too. Labat said the number of homes being built in Marshall has declined.

“The housing has become unaffordable. Why is that?” Labat said. “That is something we have to take a look at.”

Labat said there has been efforts to build more rental housing in Marshall, like a recently approved 107-unit apartment complex. Labat said as a member of the city planning commission he did vote against the complex, but only because he didn’t think its location was a good choice.

“We really do need people who have the ability to build a house, and to start construction,” DeCramer said. But there have been positive efforts, like the city working with the apartment project developers, and initiating a tax abatement program for new housing.

“I think one of the big needs . . . is transition housing,” something in between a basic apartment for college students and a first family home, Schafer said. “That’s one of the big needs that (apartment) proposal will fill.”

Having enough housing was another component of promoting economic growth and development in Marshall, candidates said. In response to an audience question, they talked about what they thought the city should be doing to encourage growth.

“A lot of it is trying to make the community attractive” to businesses, Schafer said. Part of that job is having the “shovel-ready” infrastructure to build new businesses and industries, and Schafer said Marshall has been doing that in its industrial park. He said the city has also been working with its building department to try and remove some of the possible barriers to development.

“We need to be flexible to work with each business, what they need,” DeCramer said. That could include space to build, but also access to employees, housing, or amenities, he said. “It is a big task, but we do need to keep it going.”

Supporting Marshall’s existing businesses was another big part of encouraging growth, candidates said.

“What are we doing to help those businesses?” Labat said. Marshall needed to build up its existing resources, although he thought the city could still improve on that.

Sturrock agreed about supporting Marshall’s businesses and resources.

“I think we start by building on the assets we have,” Sturrock said. He said Marshall is fortunate to have resources including international businesses like Ralco and Schwan’s Company, a university, and access to medical care.

Candidates also weighed in on Marshall’s level of city debt. Labat said it was a concern for him. Marshall’s debt was high for cities of its size, he said. “For every man, woman and child, at the end of 2016, we had a debt of $5,500 per head,” he said. While he didn’t have the answers Thursday night, Labat said, the issue was worth considering. “We need to do something.”

Other candidates said the city needed to have good fiscal management, but also pointed out what Marshall was getting when it issued bonds. DeCramer said Marshall had around $75 million in debt. However, he said, “Any time you look at a balance sheet, you always have to look at the other side of the balance sheet, too.” For Marshall, the other side of the balance sheet had around $65 million in cash assets, DeCramer said.

Sturrock said since being elected to city council, he’s worked to have more education and transparency on city debt. For example, the city posts more detailed bond levy information on its website now, he said.

“Part of the education process is making clear that turnover – it’s one thing to talk about (the debt being about $75 million now, but about 60 percent of that gets retired over the next five years.”

Schafer and DeCramer said bonded projects the city takes on are often paid for through user fees.

Those projects — like utility infrastructure and flood prevention — also provide a major benefit to the community, Schafer and Sturrock said.

“That’s development. That’s security, and that makes this community a safe and livable place,” Schafer said.

The question of whether Marshall should have a rental ordinance came up at the panel discussion. Candidates said it was a hot topic, after residents an apartment complex in Marshall were told to vacate because of heating deficiencies. However, they weren’t certain as to how Marshall should proceed.

DeCramer said the Marshall council had talked about the possibility of creating a rental ordinance in the past.

“Really the desire was not to try to do it by enforcement,” he said. There were a lot of questions that would go with a potential ordinance, like how it would be enforced and who would enforce it.

“I haven’t got my mind made up about it, but I know we will be facing it,” Schafer said of the issue. If the city were to pass a rental ordinance, he said, “I think it’s important that it has protections and looks out for the interests of both the landlord and the tenant.”

“It’s tough when you’re a landlord, and when you’re a tenant,” Labat said. The city would need to proceed cautiously to respect the needs of both groups. If elected, he said he would ask city staff to see what ordinances are in place in other cities.

Sturrock also said the city would need to be deliberate about the decision, and be “realistic about what this can accomplish.”