As I recall, Simone had a ton of endorsers, who were embarrassed to see her end up with only about 30% of the vote. I’m not positive, but I may have been one of them.

John Hieftje was elected to City Council (1st Ward) in 1999. In the Democratic primary, he defeated Simone Lightfoot with 69.91% of the vote. As I recall, the then chair of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party supported him, but this is not a matter of official record. In the general election (1999) he was opposed by Charles Goodman (Libertarian) and won by 87.62%.

In 2000 Hieftje ran for Mayor and was opposed by Stephen Rapundalo (who ran as a Republican); Hieftje took 68.34% of the vote.

On May 7, 2001, the council first considered an “early retirement window”. Mayor Hieftje is quoted in the minutes as having “urged eligible employees to take advantage of the early retirement window to eliminate the need for layoffs”.

On May 21, 2001, the council passed a change to the retirement rules by voice vote. R-201-5-01 passed Ordinance 24-01 (the text of which was not included in minutes but available only in printed form) that established a “special retirement window”. Mayor Hieftje declared it passed by a voice vote (apparently there was no dissent).

On July 2, 2001, the council approved hiring an executive search firm to search for a new city administrator.(R-265-7-01)

On August 24, 2001 the council met in special session to extend the date by which Neal Berlin would retire. Jean Carlberg presided as Acting Mayor because Hieftje was away. Berlin had been scheduled to retire on August 24 but was still involved in discussions with the Retirement Board. The council granted him a recission of his retirement date. Ron Olson was to become interim administrator as soon as Berlin’s retirement was finalized.

John Hieftje was only on the city council for a year or two before he was elected mayor. He might have been around for some of those pension votes, but if so, he was a newbie at the time.

As I recall, he was elected to city council by defeating someone who was favored with just about every party endorsement. Not exactly the profile of someone who was promoted into office as a loyal party man!

If you are bashing Rebbecca Warren for being part of a politically active family (Did she marry Conan just to gain political advantage?) then you must have really not liked Ted Kennedy.

Regarding environmental awards: I guess if you insist then it must be right. The Mich. League of Conservation Voters, the Greater Detroit Audubon Society and the Michigan Parks and Rec. Assoc. all make their awards based on party loyalty rather than the work a person does. Maybe you should tell them.

The mayor was green before you knew what it meant. Check his resume yourself. Way back in the 80′s he was on the board of directors of Recycle A2 and served as the Chair. He was active with the Huron River Watershed Council and served on their board, before he was ever elected to council.

I have been around for awhile too although I am not a disgruntled former employee. I completely disagree about the long ago retirement program. It did clear out the dead wood, it set the stage for the city being able to survive in the worst decade since the depression. And as I recall someone else writing here, the city millage is lower now than it was in 2000.

In case you don’t get out around the state much A2 city govt. is doing a whole lot better than other cities or maybe just look at the county. Their budget problems are 3 times as bad. But I don’t blame county leadership, the state budget has melted down and the state has been cutting the locals for a long time. Now with property tax revenue going down too what should anyone expect.

The early retirement (an inducement bonus) and lowering the minimum vesting was a huge financial mistake that define the budget troubles the city is in today. Hieftje may not have been mayor, but he and the rest of council approved the early retirement at Berlin’s urging. Council was under political pressure to support the buyout or lose union votes. Five year vesting encourages employees to leave earlier and get off the payroll, on the pension fund and the VEBA health care fund. But the city still has to pay those costs that are now off budget. (A little Fraser budgetary legerdemain.) The loss of experienced front line public workers costs the city money in the long (hiring and training) new workers and is bad for continuing operations.

The cost of the pension program is off budget. The long term costs are unsustainable. The early retirement will continue to add to those costs until the city (taxpayers via a millage) can no longer make their required payments. Retirees will eventually suffer and it will cost the city to fight the lawsuit when it comes.

As long as we’re slinging labels around, you sound like a city hall/staus quo/Hieftje apologist and I don’t care if you believe what I have to say or not. I was there and saw it happen.

The growing class of career politicians who feel entitled to hold office because of their family connections is a tumor on our political system.

Republican? meh.

I am sorry but your statements on the above lead me to question the truthfulness of everything you say. I always thought the early retirement program was a huge success in clearing out the dead wood at the city and I just checked with someone who knows and the 5 year vestment was put in before he was mayor.

In your criticisms of the State Representative and Mayor you sound like a true Republican, nothing wrong with that but truth in labeling would help. By the way, I found out the vote for the early retirement program was unanimous including the Republicans on council at the time.

A couple of editorial-related questions: any consideration given to putting Rebekah’s photo above the ‘fold’ and Pam’s below it? Any general policy on that for election/political articles?

His appointments and awards are based more on political loyalty than his so called green knowledge. Anyone who truly believes that knowledge of a subject is more highly valued than political loyalty is naive.