Yepez-Gomez

Barring any major changes between now and the Sept. 18 filing deadline, Marshalltown’s First Ward, which comprises roughly the northeast quadrant of the community, will have new representation come 2026 as current Councilor Mike Ladehoff has announced plans to run for mayor. Marshalltown native and Class of 2015 MHS graduate Marco Yepez-Gomez, who has been regularly attending meetings over the last nine months or so — and watching the livestreams “on and off” on YouTube since 2021 — is officially throwing his hat in the ring to replace him.

Yepez-Gomez, 28, is a graduate of Iowa State University and works as a software engineer at MARSHALLTOWN Company. He describes himself as the proud son of immigrants who came to the U.S. for a better life, and while the 2025 election will be the first time he has sought public office, he doesn’t feel that he’s new to the ins and outs of city council between his frequent attendance at meetings, watching the streams and reading about them in the T-R.

During a recent interview, Yepez-Gomez highlighted the three primary issues that he is running on: expanding housing options, fixing the city’s public transit system and supporting the reconstruction of the downtown area. On the first, he hopes to see “a fresher supply” of houses and apartments at affordable rates for residents both young and old, and public transit is one subject Yepez-Gomez is particularly passionate about as he described a recent experience he had riding a city bus from Rogers Elementary School to Walmart.

“I’m very proud of a lot of things in Marshalltown, and there’s very few things I’m embarrassed about. And one of the few things I’m embarrassed about is our public transit,” he said. “That’s not an attack on employees from our city. I think they’re stretched thin a lot, but it’s something that we have to kind of recognize. I’m not asking for something that’s like a New York transit system or anything, but I think we do have to have at least the very basics running. We can’t have one-hour routes.”

The trip he took from Rogers to Walmart, he said, took him two hours and 15 minutes, and along the way, he saw mothers, kids, elderly residents and veterans riding the city buses. Yepez Gomez has been reading a book called “Human Transit” — which is regarded as an authoritative text on the subject — and hopes to apply some of the lessons to Marshalltown.

“I do see the routes, sometimes they’re redundant where they loop too much, and we’re not taking advantage of what the people who were before us, city planners, where we have the whole north side that’s grid, and grids are perfect for public transit,” he said. “Yet we’re not using straight routes where we can leverage walkability that the city planning of the north side gives us. Instead, we’re looping around and we’re wasting time making routes longer and the ridership less enjoyable.”

On the downtown issue, Yepez-Gomez praised the current council for its unanimous support of the reconstruction project as the first phase nears completion, and he hopes to continue that support if elected in November. As a 28-year-old bilingual Latino, he intends to bring a unique perspective to the governing body just over a year after fellow MHS alum Melisa Fonseca won a special election to replace the late Al Hoop representing the Fourth Ward in 2024.

“I think a more diverse set of voices in the city council is always to the benefit of good policies. It’s just good politics,” Yepez-Gomez said. “I would say, also, there has to be a more diverse voice on working class voices. You look at the U.S. where people are struggling more financially, and you see that also in Marshalltown. You see, in the downtown, sometimes you have people that are just sitting there, and you can guess that they’re unhoused.”

He also referenced the fact that 41 percent of the local population is considered ALICE (Asset  Limited, Income Constrained, Employed), another term for the working poor. As of Friday morning, Yepez-Gomez said he had already collected 76 signatures for his nomination petition — 75 are required to get on the November ballot — but he plans to gather around 100 by Sept. 4 just to be safe.

In addition to the campaign pillars he already mentioned, Yepez-Gomez would like to serve as a megaphone for people who see “bad things” happening at the state and federal levels and place an emphasis on improving public education, Iowa’s high cancer rate and water quality problems in cities like Des Moines.

“We’re just ignoring these issues, and instead we’re focusing on really useless politics where we’re rolling back civil rights for marginalized groups, we’re funneling public funds from public schools to private schools, and we’re ramping up the rhetoric and scapegoating immigrants,” he said. “So I want to be a megaphone for those issues. I know I’m running for city council, but I think it’s important for politicians not to turn a blind eye on critical issues like those. And I don’t plan on doing that.”

To learn more about Yepez-Gomez’s campaign, visit https://www.marcoformarshalltown.com/ or his Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579761450484.