Candidates for the upcoming city and county elections will appear for a three-hour candidate forum at City Hall tonight. The League of Women Voters will host the event, to begin at 6 p.m. in the Austin City Council chambers in the lower level of the Austin Municipal Building on Fourth Avenue Northeast.

Kristine Allas, voter-service chairperson for the League, will moderate.

The forum will open with mayoral candidates, which includes current, first-term mayor Tom Stiehm, Jimmy Dean Hultgren and Mark Nagle, at 6 p.m. Questions will last around 45 minutes.

Next come council member at-large candidates around 7 p.m.

This council seat represents the entire city of Austin; five candidates are campaigning. They include Jeff Austin, Janet Anderson, Mary Keenan, George Brophy and Marv Repinksi. Incumbent Pete Christopherson will not seek another term.

The final round is expected to start at 8 p.m., and will feature Mower County Board District 1 candidates Tim Gabrielson, Dan Vermilyea and Kathy Stutzman.

District 1 commissioner Richard Cummings, a board member for 32 years, will not run again.

The district represents the rural towns and townships of Lansing, Waltham, Udolpho and Red Rock, as well as Austin’s 1st Ward.

The forum will broadcast live on public-access channel 16. Candidates will be permitted a two-minute opening statement and two-minute closing statement. Questions will be submitted by the audience and moderator Allas.

It will be the first of two election events hosted by the League of Women Voters this cycle.

The second will feature state, county and local general election candidates at the end of October, before the Nov. 4 election.