T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY From left to right, Lois Ruth, Ken Vergauwen and Mike Ruth, all of Marshalltown, check in to vote in the special election at Redeemer Lutheran Church on Tuesday afternoon. Voters soundly rejected the franchise fee, and Greg Nichols was elected to the Third Ward city council seat, representing the southwest quadrant of the city.

A proposed five percent franchise fee that would have been added to gas and electric bills for residents and business owners in Marshalltown was voted down by a wide margin in a special election Tuesday, and Greg Nichols was elected to fill the Third Ward vacancy on the city council after securing a win over Chris Bennett.

According to unofficial results posted on the Marshall County Auditor/Recorder’s website, 1,753 voters (76.7 percent) opposed the first of three franchise fee related questions on the ballot, while 1,759 (77.1 percent) voted no on the second question and 1,585 (74.7 percent) voted no on the final question. If implemented, the fees would have been added to all Alliant Energy and Consumers Energy Cooperative bills, with 70 percent of the revenue generated designated for road repairs, 12 percent for property tax relief, nine percent for public safety and the final nine percent for facilities maintenance.

Tuesday’s outcome marks the end of a long saga that began late last year when the council attempted to schedule a special election on the matter for March 7, only to learn that they could not do so without a petition. The council then opted not to put the issue on the November ballot and passed three readings of an ordinance change to put the fees into effect — with Al Hoop and Gary Thompson dissenting each time — over the summer. Resident Mark Eaton then collected the necessary signatures to place the issue on the ballot in a special election, and it was held Tuesday with the First Ward voting at the Marshalltown Public Library, Second Ward voting at the Iowa Veterans Home and Third and Fourth Wards voting at Redeemer Lutheran Church.

Eaton said the biggest takeaway from the result was how citizens can affect policy if they go to the polls. With nearly 2,300 ballots cast across the city’s four wards, Tuesday was one of the highest turnout special elections in recent memory.

“It wasn’t just me. It was a lot of people, and a 2,000 plus turnout for a special election is awesome. And I think the people can see, now, the power that they have if they show up and vote,” Eaton said. “My overarching thing is I’m proud that everybody showed up, no matter how they voted. That participation rate for a special election was awesome.”

He added that he didn’t believe the results meant residents don’t care about roads, but rather that the city council should “get its house in order” before coming to ask for more money. The biggest way to address the issue, according to Eaton, is to stop giving taxpayer dollars to private entities for development and use the money for street repairs instead.

“Like (Councilor) Gabe (Isom) says all the time, you need to be proud of Marshalltown. If you’re proud of Marshalltown, invest in Marshalltown. Don’t ask the taxpayer for help. Jump in with both feet just like I do in the rentals that I’m building and the houses that I’m redoing,” he said. “Don’t reach out for the grant from the taxpayer.”

Thompson, the most outspoken councilor against the franchise fees, characterized the outcome as a vote of no confidence in the current city council’s ability to manage money and offered his thoughts on how roads could still be improved going forward.

“I think the first thing is every dollar we can save by not funding nonprofits. We need to stop using (Tax Increment Financing) as a spot abatement tool. We need to get serious about everything we do, and, you know, just become very frugal about everything we do,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong. I think that a franchise fee can help us in the future, but I think it’s gotta be written ironclad (in a way) that actually shows a list of the streets from beginning to end. Let the voters know that there is no gray area that new streets can be built or a street that gets more traffic can be fixed before their neighbor’s street. Let’s write something, and then let’s do it at two percent or 3 ½ percent, something that I can sell to the public.”

In addition, Thompson said he would like to see any future proposal dedicating all of the money to roads instead of this ballot measure, which allocated 12 percent to property tax relief, nine percent to public safety and the remaining nine percent to facilities maintenance.

At-Large Councilor Jeff Schneider, a vocal advocate for the franchise fee, told the T-R he was disappointed in the results but would continue to push forward and look for ways to address the city’s infrastructure needs.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t convince more people that we do have a real need today, and the future needs are even gonna be greater than they are today,” Schneider said. “So it’s definitely a setback. All we can do is look at our budget and get done what we can and work on the growth agenda to try to grow the tax base. That’s kind of the only way out of it now.”

When asked what meat could still be cut off the metaphorical bone when it came to spending, Schneider said “it’s close as it is” and bound to get worse with changes at the state level set to reduce local tax revenues.

“Roads are still a priority in my book. We’re just not gonna have much money for them,” he said. “The city has lots of responsibilities, lots of duties, and we have to stay competitive with other communities to attract people to live here and businesses to come here. So we can’t just focus only on roads. We have lots of other responsibilities.”

After former Third Ward Councilor Dex Walker resigned from his seat at the beginning of July, the remaining councilors explored the idea of appointing a replacement to serve until the November general election, but because the franchise fee was already on the ballot for September, it was determined that it must go to a vote then. Nichols, an IT professional with Jenzabar Inc., received 468 (62.7 percent) of the 746 votes cast, while Bennett, who also works in IT for the State of Iowa, received 278.

Initially, four candidates — Bennett, Nichols, Doris Kinnick and Leopoldo “Sunny” Reyes — submitted letters of interest for the seat, but Kinnick and Reyes withdrew, although Reyes has since filed to run for an at-large seat in the general election.

Nichols was happy to receive the support of the voters in his ward, which covers the southwest quadrant of the city, and he is excited to get to work serving the remainder of Walker’s term, which ends in December of 2025.

“I appreciate the opportunity to serve and appreciate the trust (voters) have put in me. I feel, at this point, that’s just showing that the work has started and I need to get serious and support the people of my community and work to bring us forward,” he said. “I appreciate the support of Ward three voters, and I plan on working very hard to ensure that their trust wasn’t misplaced.”

Commenting on the results of the franchise fee vote, Nichols said it would require some difficult conversations, but he still firmly believes roads and infrastructure should be a top priority.

“There’ll be balancing of budgets. There’ll be some tears and suffering, but we’re just gonna have to make it work with what we have,” he said. “So we just need to get serious and do what we can with what we can. I’ve worked through austere budgets and good budgets, so this is one of the times where you just sharpen the pencil and do what you can.”

Bennett was quick to congratulate his opponent and said he believes Nichols will be a strong councilor.

“I always thought that he was a great candidate, and I was always of the mind that if he won, I wasn’t gonna be mad about it all,” he said. “Pretty much throughout all of it, I kind of realized that he is just a very similar candidate to me, in some ways, just an older version of me, to be honest. So I’m not mad at all and I’m happy for him. I think he’s gonna do great.”

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.