Meadville City Council candidates discussed affordable housing, city revenue and more at a televised forum on Tuesday, Oct. 24. The forum, hosted by the Meadville Tribune at Active Aging, was the last major opportunity for the candidates to debate ideas before Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 7.
The candidates — Republicans Bill Lawrence and Marcy Kantz and Democrats Autumn Vogel, ’15, and Larry McKnight — are competing for two four-year terms on City Council. The forum went live at 7 p.m., and candidates answered pre-submitted questions read by moderators Rick Green and Keith Gushard of the Meadville Tribune.
After drawing numbers for speaking order, Lawrence began the round of opening statements.
“In order for our kids to want to come here, for businesses to want to come here, for people to want to visit us here, we have to revitalize our economy,” Lawrence said.
Both Lawrence and Kantz are local business owners challenging Vogel and McKnight, who are running for reelection after a joint campaign in 2019.
“Since 2020 when Larry and I got elected and got seated on city council, we’ve accomplished a lot to make our city safer, to improve the quality of life for people here, to address our budget deficits and to set all of Meadville up for a prosperous future,” Vogel said in her opening statement.
The first question of the night focused on safe and affordable housing. Green asked the candidates whether Meadville’s residential rental and licensing and inspection program slated to begin in the near future will be enough to provide safe housing to residents.
The program was designed to “protect and promote the public health and safety of City residents by ensuring that all rental properties are inspected for and maintained at code requirements,” according to the City of Meadville website.
In response, Vogel stressed that the issue of affordable housing was something the current city council is working on.
“I think it’s a good start, but I think that there’s also work to be done to support homeowners in creating safer houses and rehabbing their homes and also affordability,” Vogel said. “So that is why City Council this year — we started working with our city staff to develop a housing action plan.”
McKnight added on, explaining that helping landlords through city-funded grants and loans could help people ease into the new inspection program, which could prove costly for some.
“As far as the program in the future, I’d like to see us work with the landlords,” McKnight said. “We have nothing to gain, personally, by this inspection program. This is for the tenants and residents of Meadville. We want them to be able to live in safe, affordable houses.”
Kantz had a different idea, however, explaining that the program is being challenged by a group of local landlords for several reasons, including the fact that they believe the program is an invasion of privacy. Kantz also questioned why the previous inspection program was not enforced.

“I don’t feel that the city of Meadville can afford to be in the business of affordable housing,” Kantz said. “I think we should enforce our current property maintenance code.”
Along a similar vein, the candidates were also asked about an increase in homelessness in the city.
“There seems to be an increase in people claiming to be homeless sleeping in city parks and other city parks and other city-owned property,” Gushard said. “This has caused some people in the community not to be able to enjoy or use these areas as intended. Would you support an ordinance that would prohibit overnight staying/camping on the city-owned property without a permit?”
Kantz, Lawrence and McKnight supported the idea of an ordinance and said that addressing homelessness could be outsourced to nonprofits.
“We allow our nonprofits to go tax-exempt for a reason, and the reason is because they provide social services to our city,” Kantz said. “So I would lean on them but I would be in favor of the ordinance.”
McKnight added that more unhoused people tend to use services available to them in the winter, but that during the spring and summer some people prefer to not have permanent housing.
“It’s safe,” McKnight said of the ordinance. “It’s providing safety for anybody that’s out at night. I would be in agreeance with that as long as … we’re not setting the city up for any retribution from the attorneys.”
The candidates were also asked if the implementation of body cameras for police should be a priority for the city. In December 2022, the city’s police department received a grant of nearly $450,000 to purchase body camera and audio equipment, though the equipment has not yet gone into use.
Vogel cited supply chain issues as the reason why the body cameras have not yet been implemented. She also mentioned the new crime watch program, launched on the night of the forum.
“I’m really proud of the ways in which the Meadville Police Department have been taking people’s safety really seriously and trying to engage people in that process,” Vogel said.
McKnight added on to Vogel’s sentiment, saying that the body cameras are not only important for citizen safety, but for police safety as well.
“It’s right there in black and white,” McKnight said. “There’s no disputing it; I think that’s something that we need. I think it’s going to help both our police officers with safety and our residents to feel more secure with our police department.”
Another priority for the candidates was how to incentivize the young people who live in Meadville — including Allegheny students — to stay in Meadville. Lawrence and Kantz reiterated part of their opening statements, which called for improved relationships between Meadville and its business owners.
In addition to hosting business roundtables, Lawrence seeks to lower property taxes, citing them as a major hurdle in retaining Meadville’s young population.
“Businesses aren’t going to move in if property taxes are so high because people aren’t going to want to move into Meadville because property taxes are so high,” Lawrence said.
Kantz added that too many city programs take focus away from the problem of property tax.
“I think we need to keep our government goals at those goals and not stretch our city too thin with overreaching programs, such as the climate action plan, public outreach, gatherings and events, the rental inspection program and workforce development,” Kantz said. “I don’t think that those are things that the city should be doing.”
Vogel, an Allegheny alumna who stayed in Meadville post-graduation, suggested that getting young people to feel at home in Meadville is one way to convince them to stay and become involved in the community. She cited the Junior Councilperson Program, which gives people in high school a seat at the table with the traditional city council.
“Also working to make jobs that are appealing to young folks, too,” Vogel said. “Liveable wage, family-sustaining jobs that folks can choose to make this place their home.”
One of the final questions asked of the candidates regarded the importance of an open and transparent government. Kantz was the first to answer and claimed that the current council has, in many cases, not been transparent given their reliance on outside committees to help in decision-making.
Kantz also mentioned the specific case of Allegheny College Associate Professor of Communications and Media Joe Tompkins’ involvement with City Council efforts as a lack of transparency.
“Why is it that he’s on an email stream and Larry is missing from the streams or (councilman) Jim Roha is missing; that’s questionable,” Kantz said. “I was told that that was not normal and that no one outside of City Council should be discussing things without everyone present, including all council members. So I believe that was a clear violation as well.”
The candidates shared their closing statements and the forum concluded at just under 1 hour and 50 minutes in length.