Stories indexed with the term ‘mayoral forum’

Live Audio: Arrowwood Candidate Forum

This is a live broadcast of a candidate forum being held at Arrowwood Hills Cooperative Housing, located off Pontiac Trail, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 19, 2014.

Updated: The broadcast is now over. Here’s the audio file from the event: [.mp3 of Arrowwood candidate forum] Candidates who attended were Ward 1 council candidates Sumi Kailasapathy (incumbent) and Don Adams, as well as mayoral candidate Stephen Kunselman.

Invited have been Ward 1 city council Democratic primary candidates who will appear on the Aug. 5 primary ballot: incumbent Sumi Kailasapathy and Don Adams. Arrowwood is located in Ward 1.

Also invited are mayoral candidates in the Democratic primary: Sabra Briere, Sally Petersen, Christopher Taylor and Stephen Kunselman.

Candidates for the Ann Arbor Public … [Full Story]

Ann Arbor Dems Mayoral Candidate Forum

For about 90 minutes on Saturday morning, the four Democratic candidates for Ann Arbor mayor answered questions on a wide range of topics at a mayoral forum hosted by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party.

Clockwise from upper left: Sabra Briere, Christopher Taylor, Sally Petersen, Stephen Kunselman.

Clockwise from upper left: Sabra Briere, Christopher Taylor, Stephen Kunselman and Sally Petersen.

The candidates all currently serve on city council: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

Questions touched on affordable housing, downtown development, factions on city council, relationships with the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, an assessment of Ann Arbor SPARK, non-motorized transit, commuter rail, and the role of the mayor.

Candidates were also asked to say something nice about each of their opponents – and they did. When Taylor answered the question by describing similar qualities that both Briere and Petersen shared, Briere responded by saying: “I’ve been lumped together!” Distinguishing themselves from the other candidates was a challenge they all faced. The sharpest contrast came when Kunselman said if elected mayor, he would ask Eli Cooper, the city’s transportation program manager, to step down from the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority board, calling the two roles a “conflict of commitment.” The other three candidates disagreed with Kunselman’s view on that.

Briere stressed her listening skills, problem-solving approach and independence, pointing to specific examples of her work on council. “It doesn’t bother me at all that we have factions, but I’m really resistant to joining one,” she said.

Petersen highlighted her experience in the private, nonprofit and public sectors, saying that this gives her a fresh perspective and skills as the city is on the cusp of growth. She pointed to her work toward developing an economic strategy for the city, and said she’d prioritize improving relations with the University of Michigan.

Kunselman told the audience he’d represent the working class, and stressed that he’s the only candidate with policies and politics that differ from the current mayor, John Hieftje, and from Hieftje’s supporters. “I’m offering you a choice of someone that is not in that camp,” he said.

Taylor, in contrast, thinks that the city is on the right track, though he’d work to improve basic services. He also repeatedly pointed to priorities for affordable housing, parks, and efforts to reduce the impact of climate change.

This report includes written summaries of the candidates’ responses, as well as audio clips from The Chronicle’s live broadcast of the event, which was held at the Ann Arbor Community Center. Several other forums are planned in the coming weeks, leading up to the Aug. 5 primary. There are no Republicans running for mayor this year. So far one independent candidate, Bryan Kelly, has taken out petitions. [Full Story]

Live Audio: Mayoral Candidate Forum

The Ann Arbor Democratic Party is hosting a mayoral candidate forum this morning, June 14, 2014 from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Ann Arbor Community Center at 625 North Main Street.

One [click] allows you to skip the intro and start listening live. Remember to “click to play.” Updated: The live broadcast is over. The player will now allow you to listen through the 2 hr 18 min file. The candidate forum starts about 40 minutes into the file. The first 40 minutes is Ann Arbor City Democratic party mingling and announcements.

Campaign yard signs for candidates in the Ann Arbor Democratic mayoral primary.

Campaign yard signs for candidates in the Ann Arbor Democratic mayoral primary.

Expected to attend are all four candidates in the Democratic primary, which will be held on Aug. 5. The four are all sitting city councilmembers representing one of the city’s five wards: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

The Chronicle is using the occasion of the forum to test out Mixlr as way of broadcasting live audio over the Internet. The Mixlr audio player is embedded below.

Social mingling among the Dems is expected to last until around 10 a.m. And at that point the forum will start. We’ll use the half hour before that to test things out.

A comment thread is open. Feel free to use the commenting section to alert us to any technical difficulties: This is a test broadcast and it’s always possible that it will be an unmitigated disaster. We hope not. But we expect that there will be a certain amount of static and possible buffering that make this effort fall short of “broadcast quality” audio.

After the live broadcast, we expect to make the recorded file from the event available for playback at a listener’s convenience. [Full Story]

2014 Calendar of Ann Arbor Mayoral Forums

Ann Arbor mayoral candidate Sally Petersen has included in her most recent campaign email a list of forums that will be taking place, leading up to the Aug. 5, 2014 Democratic primary vote.