Local candidates continue their campaigns for Meadville City Council as they prepare for elections in November. Each candidate’s platform is based on improving Meadville, though they disagree on the solution to the city’s issues.
This year the two council seats up for re-election are currently held by Autumn Vogel, ’15, and Deputy Mayor Larry McKnight, who were elected in 2019 with a joint campaign.
“We [Vogel and McKnight] were coming out of an effort that was very much larger than us to see some changes in the city,” Vogel said in an interview last week. “We didn’t decide that we as individuals would run until late 2018. We recognized that we needed new leadership to move on some things at the city level.”
Vogel’s platform in 2019 largely addressed the need for a more participatory government, investment in public spaces and issues of housing.
“Our platform has evolved, but it’s very much kind of rooted in some of the same pieces,” Vogel said.
Vogel said that the council has been able to make headway on housing improvements in Meadville, with both a rental inspection program and a housing action plan currently in the works. The rental inspection program received backlash from Vogel’s opponents, as some thought the program to demonize local landlords.
Nevertheless, Vogel continues her efforts on the housing front. She said the current housing action plan will assess housing needs and identify where the city can most effectively play a role.
“The work that I think still needs to be done is very much around affordability,” Vogel said. “It’s hard for people to afford their homes, and that’s not true only in Meadville, but it’s impacting people here.”
McKnight was not available for comment
Republican candidates Bill Lawrence and Marcy Kantz are running in opposition to the current council members.
Kantz, a Meadville native, recently ran for mayor in 2021 through a write-in campaign, losing by a margin of just over 200 votes. The strength of the campaign encouraged her to try again for a spot on the City Council.
Kantz was motivated to run by her disapproval for local candidates.
“I felt that the ‘local’ part had left,” Kantz told The Campus in an interview last week.
Kantz opposes what she sees as outside organizations’ involvement with city government and wants the council to focus on more leadership. On issues regarding the economy, Kantz believes Meadville is facing challenges with its lack of business revenue.
Kantz herself has owned and managed multiple businesses. Kantz opened her gym, Keystone Strength, in 2021 and has also owned a daycare, Keystone Kidz, since 2019.
Kantz’s fellow Republican candidate, Bill Lawrence, has similarly built a campaign on his experiences as a local business owner.
Lawrence is another Meadville native who has owned and managed a gym for the past 25 years and believes the council needs to devote more of its focus to addressing the deficit of Meadville’s budget.
“I don’t know what makes government think that they can keep spending money that they don’t have,” Lawrence said. “You can say, ‘Well, these programs are important,’ or, ‘It would be really nice if our government could pay for x,y and z.’ And I agree a lot of times, that would be nice. But, if you don’t have the money to do it, I don’t see how it makes sense.”
City officials have projected a budget deficit of $616,000 for the upcoming year, according to the Meadville Tribune.
“If the government is spending money on something, it’s the people’s money,” Lawrence said. “So they have a responsibility to spend it in a way that makes the most sense, and not go into the debt we are now.”
Lawrence has often argued that Meadville should be run as a business.
“In a way, they (governments) are a business,” Lawrence said. “You have money coming in and money coming out and you need to make sure that money is being allocated to the right places. And you can’t spend more than you’re bringing in.”
Vogel sees the issue differently.
“Yes, our city’s budget deficit is a concern, but what concerns me too is that I think people take a pretty simplistic view,” Vogel said. “I think it’s very easy for some folks to look at the city and say, ‘It’s a business so you just cut your expenses and raise your revenue,’ but it’s not a business. There’s the private sector and then there’s the public sector.”
Vogel explained that by applying business logic, there are only two options to addressing the financial problem: cutting services or raising revenue via tax.
“And we have, and it’s not a popular thing,” Vogel said. “I know I don’t want to raise taxes anymore — I’m a taxpayer.”
As a means to find other sources of revenue, Vogel said the council has been going after money at the federal and state level.
“We’ve been more aggressive in terms of going after grants,” Vogel said.
Kantz voiced a similar opinion on taxation.
“We can’t tax our way out of the revenue problem,” Kantz said.
Kantz identified fixing the budget as both a short and long-term goal. Kantz proposed that Meadville needs to bring in more businesses to draw out leadership and talent. She believes the city needs high earners to increase revenue.
As for cutting services, Vogel explained that there are some services necessary for the betterment of Meadville.
Lawrence, with his campaign’s focus on the city budget, argued against more government programs.
“We keep wanting to do projects and spend money,” Lawrence said. “I’m saying let’s get our house in order first.”
Another aspect of Lawrence’s campaign is to be an advocate for the entire city, calling for unity of ideas alongside transparency and open communication.
“There’s a lot of business people that have put a lot of money and time into Meadville, donated a lot of these things,” said Lawrence. “They don’t think that they have a place at the table right now, and they’re alienated sometimes. I would invite those people to the table to make sure we’re getting all the input from everyone.”
Lawrence later criticized McKnight and Vogel for the way they hold their meetings. He said that the current council says their meetings are open to the public but lack true transparency.
“They have a lot of meetings during the middle of the day when nobody can go to them,” Lawrence said. “Or meetings at the last minute, announced the previous day. Most people should be at work at that time.”
A more participatory government is something that Vogel said she has worked towards since being elected in 2019.
“It’s hard to articulate this to folks, but there was so much when I first got on city council and Larry and I were in the minority on council —there were so many decisions that were made in our executive sessions and behind closed doors,” Vogel said. “The first time around we were talking about participatory government, and that’s still something we want to continue to deliver on and improve on.”
Each candidate runs on a platform outlining the matters they deem most concerning. For Vogel and McKnight, this means improving Meadville by implementing programs designed to address its needs. For Lawrence and Kantz, this means focusing on the city’s revenue, business and budget.
“I think we all want a clean, safe, healthy Meadville,” Lawrence said. “I think we all have that in common. So issue by issue is going to be different, and how every issue is settled is going to be different.”
