photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

All four Lawrence City Commission candidates and a crowd of several dozen people attended a candidate forum hosted by the Lawrence Home Builders Association and the Lawrence Board of Realtors on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2025.

Before a crowd of homebuilders and real estate agents, a majority of the candidates for the Lawrence City Commission said local government operations are in bad need of repair.

“The first thing we have to do is we’ve got to fix planning and development in the city,” candidate Kristine Polian said at a candidate forum hosted Wednesday morning by the Lawrence Home Builders Association and the Lawrence Board of Realtors.

Polian, the former chief financial officer for the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, said that builders and developers in the community have made that statement for many years, but that she has seen the need for improvement as she’s been researching the city’s processes as part of her campaign.

“There’s a litany of things we need to improve upon,” Polian said.

Candidate Michael Courtney said many Lawrence residents are now feeling the challenges of constrained growth in the community, largely through higher housing prices. He said younger Lawrence residents often laugh at him when asked whether they think they’ll buy a home in Lawrence.

“I really think this town is at a pivot point right now,” said Courtney, an entrepreneur and IT professional. “I really, really do. I talk to so many people who feel this town is becoming unaffordable to them and their families. They are asking questions like ‘Do we have to leave? Can we even stay here?'”

Bob Schumm, a former Lawrence mayor who last served on the commission about 10 years ago, compared the city’s current housing situation to slumps he would occasionally experience as a downtown restaurant owner. He said when business was slow, he often responded with a sale. He said the city needs to consider offering smart incentives to spur single-family home construction, including a waiver of building permit fees until building activity returns to more normal levels.

But he also said his attempts to do some downtown development after he left office has led him to believe city government also needs to increase its urgency in working with people who want to invest in the community.

“I’ve walked the walk through City Hall, and it is a real slow walk,” Schumm said of his attempt to develop an empty lot in downtown. “I mean no one is in a hurry down there, and you are not going to get run over by anybody. It is a very slow walk to get the permits, to get the permissions. Time is money and it really wears you out.”

City Commissioner Bart Littlejohn is the lone incumbent in this year’s election. He too said there are issues that need to be addressed within city government, but also urged the crowd to consider the efforts that are underway to improve the development process.

During Littlejohn’s tenure, the city passed a new development code that is the most substantial change in at least a decade to how the city approves growth and development.

“It is going to take a little bit because that was kind of something that was there for quite a while,” Littlejohn said of a City Hall culture related to development. “So, it is happening, we are conscious of it and we are working on it.”

Here’s a look at other key comments candidates made during the forum, which was held at the offices of 1st Security Title in west Lawrence and attracted about 40 people.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commission candidate Michael Courtney is pictured at candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

Michael Courtney

Courtney said he wants to encourage the community to make greater use of modular home building, which could speed up construction and reduce the costs of new homes in the community. He also said the community needs to become more cognizant of annexation opportunities to the east of the city, given that the Kansas City area is creating more jobs for Lawrence residents than Topeka is to the west.

Courtney said he also wants a new type of employee inside Lawrence City Hall when it comes to economic development. He’s calling for the hiring of an economic development director, a position that has recently been left vacant. That position, though, really should be structured more like a sales executive position that you would find in some private organizations, he said.

“We need somebody who is incentivized to put butts in seats, to get a headquarters or a local branch here, and incentivize that person appropriately based on that,” Courtney said.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commissioner Bart Littlejohn, left, is pictured at candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

Bart Littlejohn

Littlejohn said the community is poised to take a key step forward on affordable housing with the creation of an “affordable housing incentives policy.” He said the creation of that policy, which is expected later this year, will be a prime opportunity for the private sector to present ideas about how to spur more affordable housing in the community.

He also said the City Commission during his tenure has done a good job of working with businesses that want to locate in the community, which is a key step to boosting area incomes. Littlejohn specifically highlighted the high-tech production jobs created by the new US Engineering facility in Lawrence VenturePark, and pending software engineering jobs proposed by Alarm.com as part of a proposed downtown office redevelopment.

“I’m walking the walk,” Littlejohn said. “I’m actually approving things for housing, approving incentives for business and commercial development.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commission candidate Kristine Polian is pictured at a candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

Kristine Polian

Polian said there are times that she thinks city government “over legislates” the process, and doesn’t have enough flexibility to react to changing conditions. She also said the city needs to be willing to change its philosophy on annexation in the community. In recent years, the city has promoted infill development over brand new annexations of vacant land.

Going forward, she said she wants infill development “to be a much lower priority,” and said that “annexation is where’s its at, truthfully.”

“We don’t want to stop infill development, but the general process seems to take much longer, and quite frankly we don’t have time for that,” Polian said. “We really need to grow.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commission candidate Bob Schumm, right, is pictured at a candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

Bob Schumm

Schumm said he is open to broad thinking on how to speed up processes at Lawrence City Hall, including the exploration of whether artificial intelligence could be used to do the initial review of building permit applications.

Schumm also said he wants a mix of development that occurs through infill and annexation, but he said his experience in trying to develop downtown led him to believe that such infill projects cost about 30% more and add about 30% to the timeline of a project.

“I’m in favor of anything that could get built at a cost that is reasonable and a time frame that is reasonable,” Schumm said. “I wouldn’t want to force it. I wouldn’t want to say ‘you have to build here or else don’t build it anywhere.”

The four candidates are competing for two seats on the Lawrence City Commission. Residents have until Oct. 14 to register to vote in the election. Advance voting begins Oct. 15, and election day is Nov. 4.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commission candidate Michael Courtney, left, is pictured at a candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commissioner Bart Littlejohn is pictured at a candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

City Commission candidate Kristine Polian, center, is pictured at candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

City Commission candidate Bob Schumm is pictured at a candidate forum on Sept. 24, 2025.