By R. R. Branstrom

rbranstrom@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — A seat on the Gladstone City Commission currently held by Steve O’Driscoll, who was appointed in June after Greg Styczynski left midterm, has three candidates vying for it — O’Driscoll, Steve Viau and Mike O’Connor. All have sat on the commission at various points in time, and all three appeared at the voter forum held by the League of Women Voters in Escanaba on Wednesday. Topics discussed were taxes, special assessments, housing, vacation rentals, and even the Soo Line steam engine.

All three candidates expressed opinions that government regulations were too heavy-handed at times.

When asked about how the current lack of affordable and available housing could be addressed, all remarked — in slightly different words — the city at present makes it difficult for contractors, businesses and property owners to get things done because of rules, regulations and ordinances that amounted to barriers to expedient development. Viau said that high taxes were partly to blame.

Posed with the question of regulating short-term vacation rentals like Airbnbs, O’Connor said they should be encouraged to bring visitors to town. Viau said that he wanted to open an Airbnb himself and that it’s not up to the city to stop people from making money if it’s legal within their zoning district. O’Driscoll was the only one who took a dissenting perspective.

“Gladstone needs to get ahead of this problem and put a limit on Airbnbs and short term rentals,” said O’Driscoll, declaring that other communities like Grand Marais and Munising have been destroyed by Airbnbs. “Essentially, you take a family home that’s been in generations of local families, and then that home gets sold for a reasonable price, and it gets turned into a cash cow being rented out for $1,000 to $1,500 a week when the local residents trying to work service jobs in that community can’t afford housing.”

Taxation, always a sore spot, was discussed at relative length during the forum. Noting that there would always be work to be done and cost incurred, O’Connor — promoting himself as the “candidate for change” — suggested that fewer expenses could be had by outsourcing some tasks the city has traditionally done.

“There’s other businesses that pick up trash, so rather than having the city do it, that could be done by another entity,” O’Connor proposed. “The same thing with electric — do we need an electric department?”

Acknowledging that funds were needed for police, fire, parks and roads, he contended that the entire city budget needed to be reviewed and revised.

A major question that continues to hang over City Hall is that of special assessments. The initiative to remove the city’s power to enact special assessments, implemented on portions of the city at a time to improve things like roads, was kicked off by O’Connor and is on the ballot for voters to decide this election. O’Connor’s position is that the city misuses special assessments to “fill a budget hole” rather than charging citizens fairly and proportionately to how their property values would be improved.

On that subject, incumbent O’Driscoll said he would be voting “no” on the ballot proposal, because residents directly benefit from neighborhood work paid for in part by special assessments. However, he also pointed out that he had been against the Act 33 police and fire special assessment; like his opponents, he said that the people should have been given the opportunity to vote on a tax increase.

While Viau said he wanted to “take a look at the money trail” to see why taxes had been climbing the last five years, he called special assessments a “necessary evil.” Part of Gladstone’s issue, in his mind, was “mismanagement somewhere down the line” and/or work being done improperly.

“The problem that I’ve seen is — They did not do a lot of interstructural work under the road, and they tore away good sidewalks and alley that I already had paved within the last 10 years, and the street was in good condition,” Viau said.

A surprise question that arose was about plans for the #730 steam locomotive currently on display along the highway in Gladstone. O’Connor said that to move it would require a big benefactor and probably wouldn’t be realistic for a while, but that he’d like to see it in a permanent cultural center at some point. O’Driscoll said that he was disappointed to learn recently that the city does not currently fund anything to do with the locomotive, and that more participation from the city government to preserve it would be beneficial. Viau, though disclaiming his bias as a member of the Gladstone Michigan Soo Line Steam Engine #730 Authority, said that it may be possible to utilize its current home as a welcome center or picnic area and that the city should consider leasing it to the nonprofit with a reverter clause.

Gladstone residents will be able to choose on Nov. 5 — or sooner, if they’re voting early or have an absentee ballot — whether they think O’Connor, O’Driscoll or Viau should join Judy Akkala, Robert Pontius and Brad Mantela on the City Commission to work alongside Mayor Joe Thompson, City Manager Eric Buckman and other city staff to represent the people of the city. The question of whether to amend the city charter to take away special assessments is on the ballot as well.