A detail from cover art for the book “If Mayors Ruled the World: Dysfunctional Nations, Rising Cities” by Benjamin R. Barber. It was displayed on the shelves of Literati Bookstore in downtown Ann Arbor, where another mayoral candidate forum was held on June 25.

All four Ann Arbor mayoral candidates currently serve on the Ann Arbor city council: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Sally Petersen (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3).

The Ypsilanti mayoral candidates are Tyrone Bridges, Amanda Edmonds and Peter Murdock. Murdock currently serves on the Ypsilanti city council.

There are no Republicans running for mayor in either city for the Aug. 5, 2014 primary. In both cities, the incumbent mayors – John Hieftje of Ann Arbor and Paul Schreiber of Ypsilanti – are not seeking re-election.

The June 26 chamber event will include audience questions as well as an opportunity for candidates to talk about their vision for Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. After the forum, a mixer will be held for chamber members and candidates for local, state and federal offices.

The Chronicle’s live audio broadcast is planned to start around 4:20 p.m. to allow for sorting through technical issues that might arise.

Audio Player: Listen live using the Mixlr player embedded below. After the event, we will provide an .mp3 recording of the broadcast.

Text Box 1: The text box below the audio player provides live notes to listeners – for example, the current topic that candidates are addressing, who is currently talking, or other listener aids. It’s programmed to force the scroll continuously to the bottom of the text notes file – to facilitate hands-free listening.

Text Box 2: The second text box uses the same source file as the first text box. The only difference is the absence of forced scrolling to the bottom.

If your text box displays an error message that reads, “We’re trying to connect to the server,” we apologize. We’re not sure what causes that for some browser/hardware combinations.

Audio files from the event [Tyrone Bridges was unable to attend]:

[.mp3 of welcoming remarks]

[.mp3 of Sally Petersen's remarks and answers]

[.mp3 of Peter Murdock's remarks and answers]

[.mp3 of Sabra Briere's remarks and answers]

[.mp3 of Stephen Kunselman's remarks and answers]

[.mp3 of Amanda Edmonds' remarks and answers]

[.mp3 of Christopher Taylor's remarks and answers]

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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.

The June 14 forum was moderated by Mike Henry, chair of the Ann Arbor Dems, and Jim Simpson, an Ann Arbor public art commissioner who works for Duo Security, a local tech firm. Candidates were given 90 seconds for opening and closing statements, and 60 seconds to respond to each question, with the possibility of a 30-second follow-up. Susan Baskett, a board member of the Ann Arbor Public Schools and Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, served as timekeeper.

Questions were devised by the moderators, and collected from the audience. Henry asked audience members not to ask questions that attacked any individual candidate, but to focus on questions that every candidate could answer.

Henry also encouraged candidates not to engage each other, but to speak to the audience or the moderators. He requested that candidates not filibuster. “We hope for a cordial, fair and informative candidate forum,” Henry said.

Opening Statements

The candidates drew numbers to determine their speaking order. Each candidate got 90 seconds for their opening statement.

[Audio: Opening statements]

Opening Statements: Christopher Taylor

Taylor introduced himself as a three-term councilmember from Ward 3 and a lifelong Democrat. He got his start in electoral politics in 1987 working on the “short but beautiful” campaign for Paul Simon in Chicago. He thinks the city is going in the right direction, though it’s far from perfect. The city is doing the right things. If he’s mayor, he’ll work on two broad issues. First, he’d focus on all the basic services that the city provides – public safety, streets, snow removal, water and all the underground infrastructure. These are things the city simply has to improve. “But we could spend every last nickel we have on these things, and they still wouldn’t be perfect, and the city would be kind of a boring place.”

So if he’s elected mayor, he’ll also work on other areas, including affordable housing. He’s been on the parks advisory commission for six years, and parks should be beautiful and well-maintained. The city can’t stop climate change, but it can do its part and should help residents and businesses do theirs. He supports public transit and non-motorized transit, and an attractive, vibrant downtown. The downtown is Ann Arbor’s core and its jewel, and the city needs to find a way to balance the downtown’s character with its growth. “In 20 years if we don’t recognize the place, that’s going to be a problem.”

Opening Statements: Sally Hart Petersen

Petersen is running in order to bring new leadership and a new plan to Ann Arbor, that will transform economic growth into much-needed revenue to pay for priorities. Those priorities include better roads, more beat cops downtown, and safer mobility for motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and runners. She has two main components that reflect her priorities in this campaign. One is developing an economic strategy to grow jobs in Ann Arbor. She doesn’t know how the city can expect to fill potholes without an economic strategy. An economic outlook report for Washtenaw County states that 12,500 jobs are coming to the county in the next three years. “I want those jobs to come to Ann Arbor – but where are we going to put them?” Her economic strategy will include a plan to redevelop the downtown and business corridors in ways that preserve the community’s character and heritage.

The second component is working more strategically with the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor will always be a fine place to live, work and play because of the jobs and cultural diversity that UM provides. But they don’t fill potholes, and UM’s police can’t enforce local ordinances, she said. UM will have a new president, and Ann Arbor will have a new mayor. “It’s time for a new attitude to really balance the town/gown relationships.”

Opening Statements: Sabra Briere

Briere noted that most of the attendees know her because she’s been coming to nearly every Democratic Party meeting since long before she first ran for city council. It’s difficult to describe in a sound byte why she wants to run for mayor. She wants all Ann Arbor residents not just to live here, but also to thrive here. She’ll be committed to working full-time to meet the demands of the future and the needs of today. Her leadership style begins by respectfully engaging members of the community. She’s used this commitment to listening as the starting point for all the decisions she’s made, and she’s made each decision thoughtfully and carefully and independently.

Real leadership comes from recognizing problems, finding solutions, and never being afraid to admit that maybe your decision was wrong and it should be reconsidered. “I’ve never been even slightly hesitant to see the flaws in the decisions, which is why I proposed revising the downtown zoning.” She was grateful that other councilmembers agreed with her on that. Her ability to rethink, consider and evaluate is a value to this community “because you are all my advisors, and I appreciate that.” As mayor, she’ll continue to listen – not just to her friends, but to everybody.

Opening Statements: Stephen Kunselman

Kunselman thanked the other candidates, saying it inspires everyone to get out and vote when there’s competition – and this is probably the most competitive mayoral race in decades. He thanked his wife, Letitia Kunselman, calling her “the dynamo behind my politics here in Ann Arbor. Without her, I would not have the courage to stand before all of you.” He’s a three-term councilmember, and a strong and effective voice for all Ann Arbor residents. He believes common sense and fiscal responsibility are the basis for governing. He believes in fairness and equity in distributing the city’s limited financial and staff resources, and has been a consistent advocate for investing in the city’s infrastructure, funding the parks, and rebuilding the public safety department.

If elected mayor, he’ll continue to work cooperatively and graciously with other councilmembers, with an emphasis on open and vigorous debate on all issues facing the city. He’s proud to have the trust, support and endorsement of the following Ann Arbor councilmembers: Sumi Kailasapathy of Ward 1, Mike Anglin of Ward 5, Jane Lumm of Ward 2, and Jack Eaton of Ward 4. “I’m confident that as mayor, I will prioritize public health, safety and welfare as you all expect, and as I’ve always done.”

Comments about Other Candidates

Question: Say something nice about the other mayoral candidates.

[Audio: Comments About Other Candidates]

Sally Hart Petersen’s Comments about Other Candidates

Regarding Taylor, Petersen said that when she ran for city council two years ago, she ran against a very popular Democratic incumbent [Tony Derezinski] – she thought of it as running for a seat at the table, not running against anyone. After the election, Taylor and mayor John Hieftje were two of the first people to welcome her to city council. So she felt very welcomed, despite the race. [Taylor and Hieftje both supported Derezinski.]

Petersen said she’s like Briere because they both truly listen to constituents. Briere is genuine in her ability and meaningfulness in terms of really valuing input. Kunselman also has been kind to Petersen on council. She appreciates Kunselman’s sense of humor, candor, integrity and courage.

Sabra Briere’s Comments about Other Candidates

Briere enjoys Kunselman’s humor and integrity, but mostly she enjoys that he challenges people’s pre-conceived notions. It’s extraordinarily valuable to her to hear him bring forward issues that she might otherwise miss. Taylor speaks Latin. For those who enjoy a good turn of phrase and grammatically constructed sentences, “there’s no one better than Chris.” Petersen brings her interests and intellect to the table, but also a genuine sense of personal responsibility. It’s sometimes challenging to remain polite and genuine and interested at two in the morning.

Stephen Kunselman’s Comments about Other Candidates

Kunselman appreciates the stamina, courage and ability to work with others on council and the public. He and Briere go back to 2007, when the two of them and Ron Suarez [former Ward 1 councilmember] were the minority who changed the direction of council. He appreciated Briere standing up for that effort. Regarding Taylor, Kunselman was honored and humbled when Taylor beat him, because it showed that Taylor was reaching out to the voters. [Taylor defeated Kunselman in the 2008 Democratic primary for Ward 3. Kunselman ran against incumbent Leigh Greden the following year and won.] Taylor is very polite, “and when the game is done at the table, we still know that it’s not personal. It’s politics – there’s nothing personal going on.”

Petersen has been a fresh voice, and strives hard to change the tenor of politics in Ann Arbor and the political culture, and he appreciates that.

Christopher Taylor’s Comments about Other Candidates

Taylor said he and Kunselman probably agree on 10% of things that come before council, but “I enjoy sitting next to him a lot.” They have a good personal relationship in that regard, and it’s nice to know that he’s a pal who appreciates the absurdities of the process “and perhaps an occasional colleague or two.”

Taylor described Petersen and Briere as having similar characteristics – both are thoughtful and engaged, and work with constituents. He thought he shared that characteristic as well, but they exemplify it. It’s an important part of politics and the representative process, and they both do it really well.

Responding to Taylor, Briere quipped: “I’ve been lumped together!”

Balancing Services

Question: Candidates have talked about balancing basic services, downtown and other concerns. What does that actually mean for you?

[Audio: Balancing Services]

Balancing Services: Taylor

Broadly speaking, Taylor said, it means there are limited resources “and we can’t overemphasize one set of priorities over the other.” Basic services deserve the lion’s share because they are basic. The city has an obligation to provide essential services to residents and it should do that in a consistent and efficient manner. “At the same time, we’re not a basic place.” So the city needs to do what it can to engage other priorities – improve affordable housing, make sure parks are beautiful, encourage renewable energy to address climate change. Also, the city should expand transit and do what it can for non-motorized and pedestrian safety. Finding a balance is just a matter of allocating resources, staff time and political attention.

Balancing Services: Petersen

This question is really about priorities for services downtown and services for the neighborhoods, Petersen said. That’s how some factions on city council have aligned – pro-neighborhood versus pro-downtown. Ann Arbor needs a vibrant downtown that belongs to every person of every generation: Millennials, retirees, visitors. The city also needs very strong neighborhoods and good infrastructure in the neighborhoods. There’s a philosophy that a strong downtown means strong neighborhoods. “I don’t think we feel that today, when we look at the condition of our infrastructure and our roads.” The city needs a mayor to bridge that divide. If the city has an economic strategy and economic development plan, there can be prudent redevelopment downtown and along the city’s business corridors in a way that raises the level of revenue to take care of the neighborhoods.

Balancing Services: Briere

The only way to balance basic services and change downtown and throughout the city is through good planning, Briere said. One of the difficulties is to see 40 years ahead. Most people do well just to look six months ahead or even two weeks ahead, she noted, but the city has to make decisions that are long term. In some cases, it means rethinking the way that the city has handled infrastructure in the past, to adapt to a changing world. In some cases, it means thinking about the impact of a new development. “I don’t believe there is a difference between making a healthy downtown and making a healthy community.” If it’s not possible for people to live in the community, to walk the streets, to feel secure, to not have water in their basements – “then we have failed to do our job.” It’s important to find a balance.

Balancing Services: Kunselman

When he served as township administrator in Sumpter Township, Kunselman said, he supervised employees there. He still holds his certified water distribution system operator license from the state of Michigan. He’s glad to hear the other candidates talk about the need to focus on basic infrastructure, because for too long, the city hasn’t done that.

He then read a quote from his campaign literature: “Our roads are crumbling, our water mains are breaking, our street trees are neglected – all the while our public works director attends public art commission meetings. Let’s prioritize our infrastructure first.” That’s been the problem – it hasn’t been a priority for so many years, he said. Council votes have steered resources downtown. Staff has been focusing on downtown. He’s been advocating for neighborhoods, and his advocacy is working, he contended. This summer, his street is getting new roads, new water mains and new storm sewer after that infrastructure has been failing for years. It’s time to take that direction to the rest of the city.

Factions on Council

Question: In one of her answers, Sally Petersen mentioned factions on council. If you were mayor, how would you manage that environment?

[Audio: Factions on Council]

Factions on Council: Petersen

It’s about building bridges, Petersen said. Based on her experience in the business world and nonprofit sector, it’s incumbent on any leader to know how to build those bridges to achieve consensus and find common ground when there is disagreement. That makes business leaders successful, and in the nonprofit world as well – especially when funding priorities are constrained. “I personally have not been aligned with either faction” on the council, she said. She researches issues, looks at both sides and sometimes meets with the opposition in order to understand all perspectives and find common ground. “I’m not in the pro-downtown or pro-neighborhood factions – I vote for what I think is best for all of Ann Arbor, and I think my voting record suggests that.”

Later in the forum, Petersen clarified her statement, stressing that she’s very much pro-downtown and pro-neighborhood. She meant to say she wasn’t part of either faction. She’s “not anti-anything.”

Factions on Council: Taylor

To improve relations on council, you need to extend an open hand to everyone without regard to perceived faction, Taylor said. He gets questions from constituents in other wards, and he’ll help them take care of their problem. He’ll work with staff to identify the issue, but he also cc’s the councilmembers who represent the constituent – without regard to perceived alliance – so that the councilmembers can build a relationship with that constituent and help work on the problem. They’re all in this together, working toward common goals. It’s also his practice when drafting a resolution to open up that resolution for co-sponsorship without regard to perceived faction, he said. With an open hand moving forward, perceived differences can be diminished.

Factions on Council: Briere

In her experience, Democrats always break up into factions, Briere said. “It doesn’t bother me at all that we have factions, but I’m really resistant to joining one.” It’s important to look at each other’s strengths and build on those strengths, rather than attack each other’s weaknesses. It’s easy in politics to see other elected officials as your potential rivals, but that’s a very bad move when it comes to making policy. As mayor, she’d continue to work with every member of council and listen to the community as a whole – then make her own decisions.

Factions on Council: Kunselman

As he mentioned in his opening statement, Kunselman noted that he has the support of four other councilmembers. That’s not because they vote as a faction. It’s because they trust him, he said. Trust is the most important thing as a politician – you need the trust of voters, but also of your colleagues on council. “We’re not a social group. We don’t meet outside of council to develop our relationships.” They show up at meetings to vote on agenda items. As part of that, they need to trust each other, to know that they’re working together. None of his emails that have been published based on Freedom of Information Act requests have contained any disparaging remarks about other councilmembers, he said. He’s worked to make sure he’s very open and transparent. He doesn’t work on something then plop it on the table – after the city attorney’s office has been told not to communicate it to other councilmembers. As mayor, he’d lead the effort to be open and transparent, as he’s done as councilmember.

Follow-up question to Kunselman: Is there a trust issue between the folks who are supporting you, and those who aren’t?

“There is a trust issue between me and my opponents here at the table – I think that is very clear.” He’s the only one who’s not striving to have the support of John Hieftje’s supporters, Kunselman said. That’s a big difference in this election. There’s a huge issue of political culture that needs to change, and build back that trust. The current political culture is about isolating those who oppose Hieftje, he said. Kunselman said he’s the most experienced politician because he’s always been challenged in the primaries by opponents who are backed by Hieftje’s supporters. “I think that’s the big difference that we have going into this mayoral campaign.”

From the audience came a quip: “John who?” which earned a laugh from the audience. The quip came from former U.S. Congressman Ray Clevenger who represented Michigan’s 11th District from 1965-67, and is now a Ward 3 resident.

Mayor vs. Councilmember

Question: What are the two most important differences between serving as a city councilmember and serving as mayor?

[Audio: Mayor vs. Councilmember]

Mayor vs. Councilmember: Briere

The mayor sets the tone for the council, Briere said. If the mayor is more cooperative, inclusive and collegial, the chances are better that the council will behave that way, too. The other difference is that councilmembers are very responsive to their constituents – and they should be. But the mayor needs to be responsive to the entire city. She said she has experience working with people all over the city, and solving problems all over the city. “I’m not parochial. I’m not interested in only my peeps, my friends, my neighbors.” She’s interested in the entire community and how to work together for the future.

Mayor vs. Councilmember: Kunselman

The biggest difference is that the mayor runs the meetings, Kunselman said. The mayor is the parliamentarian, and other councilmembers have to trust that the mayor is running the meeting fairly, openly and transparently. That doesn’t happen always with the current mayor, and Kunselman said he’s called Hieftje out for that. He agreed with Briere that the mayor sets the tone, and said he’d be able to set the tone for the council meetings and the community. There are two council meetings each month, and the mayor needs to be efficient, fair, and give everyone the opportunity to share their opinion – and then hold the vote.

Mayor vs. Councilmember: Taylor

The mayor represents the city in a way that the councilmember does not, Taylor said. The councilmember represents one ward, but the mayor has a higher obligation to view a broader set of interests and incorporate that into their decision-making. Also, the mayor serves as head of state, as a secretary of state for the city. The mayor works with other entities, like the state, the county, and the university. It’s important for the mayor to have fluidity, facility and ability to represent the city properly, and advocate for the city properly in these contexts, Taylor said.

Mayor vs. Councilmember: Petersen

Petersen agreed with what the other candidates said on this question. She added that one distinction they hadn’t mentioned is the amount of time spent in city hall. As mayor, her life would be much easier because she’d have an office in city hall and some administrative support. So the amount of time spent in city hall, being a leader day-in-and-day-out, is one of the most important visible distinctions between being mayor and being a councilmember

Affordable Housing

Question: Numerous reports have documented the inadequate stock of affordable housing in Ann Arbor. A lot of people would argue that Ypsilanti and Pittsfield Township provide Ann Arbor’s affordable housing. How would you address the lack of affordable housing within the city limits?

[Audio: Affordable Housing]

Affordable Housing: Kunselman

The affordable housing issue has never been solved in Ann Arbor, and people have talked about it for decades, Kunselman said. The effort to build 100 units of affordable housing next to a luxury hotel at the former Y lot failed. Previously, Washtenaw County bought the single-room occupancy building [on North Fourth Avenue] from the Y, which is now the county annex. At that time, advocates argued that affordable housing needed to be protected.

Kunselman grew up in Ann Arbor. He lived with this mother next to Liberty Plaza, when she was a single mother and he was about four years old. “We’re never going to have that opportunity again, I believe, when a single mother and her child can live in downtown Ann Arbor.” Rents are up to $1,000 a bed in some luxury student buildings. But the city can refocus on the Ann Arbor housing commission, which is what he’s been striving to do for several years. The city has been too focused on trying to do big projects somewhere else, or downtown on the most expensive land. They have to be aware of realities – expensive land won’t be used for affordable housing, Kunselman concluded.

Follow-up question for Kunselman: Why is that a reality? Why can’t the land be used for affordable housing, if it’s a city-owned property?

The reality is the economics of using the most expensive land to build the most affordable housing. It would have to come from subsidies, and subsidies are being cut back – from HUD and the state. This issue has been going on for decades. The city has neglected the Ann Arbor housing commission, which is the largest provider of affordable housing in this community. Now, at least the city is making sure there’s proper financing to rebuild the AAHC buildings and at least provide affordable housing that’s in decent shape.

Affordable Housing: Briere

Briere said she’d continue to do what she’s done since she was elected to the council. The first issue with affordable housing is maintenance. The second is the creation of new housing stock. It’s not just public housing. There are other mechanisms for affordable housing, owned by other entities – whether it’s by Dawn Farm or Avalon Housing. It might be supportive housing or workforce housing. She’s worked pretty much alone, in her view, on improving funding for emergency shelter and the housing commission, which handles public housing. She’s advocated strongly to increase the affordable housing fund with profits from the sale of development rights. That’s one-time money that doesn’t take away from other things like roads, parks or police. It takes money from prospective developers and puts it aside for the city to build and maintain its housing stock.

Affordable Housing: Taylor

Public housing in Ann Arbor has not lived up to expectations, Taylor said, but he is delighted that it’s moving forward with mechanisms to put millions more dollars of capital into the Ann Arbor housing commission to build and refurbish its units. There are additional opportunities on the public and private sides.

On the public side, the former juvenile center on Platt Road is an excellent opportunity for expanded affordable housing, working with the county. [The site is owned by Washtenaw County.] It’s next to County Farm Park, near public transportation, next to employment. There’s a material amount of neighborhood engagement in the process, to figure out how to build meaningful and successful family affordable housing. Generally, “the market is the market, and it’s very difficult to fight it.” The city needs to use FAR premiums to incentivize workforce housing downtown not student housing, Taylor said.

Affordable Housing: Petersen

Petersen is strongly in favor of increasing the stock of affordable housing within the city. It’s clearly a budget priority, and one that the city council has been honoring by directing the proceeds from sales of city-owned property to affordable housing. The city should continue to look for these kinds of opportunities. She reported that she received two emails this week from constituents about what might happen at the Platt Road site. “There is fear of who might live there. Would those people be felons? Who are the people who’d be living there?”

The city needs to demystify affordable housing and bring these issues out in the open so that people can feel comfortable. Petersen has talked to Mary Jo Callan, director of the office of community & economic development. Callan helped her understand that there’s going to be a robust community engagement process for the Platt Road site. That kind of conversation needs to happen more often, to make affordable housing more acceptable in this community.

Follow-up question for Petersen: What was your response to people who are worried about the Platt Road site?

Petersen told them very clearly that the city needs to increase the affordable housing stock. It’s the solution to the problem, not the creation of a problem. Some people thought that if affordable housing is built, they wouldn’t be able to walk their baby in a stroller down to County Farm Park. The new model for affordable housing is to co-locate support services and staff, so that it’s a solution to the problem. She also suggested that the constituents contact Andy LaBarre, a county commissioner who’s taking the lead on this project, so that they can become part of the community engagement process to design the affordable housing, if the county decides to do that.

Business Growth Downtown

Question: A lot of companies choose to locate themselves in downtown Ann Arbor because of the amenities it offers and the talent it attracts. But when those companies grow past a certain point, there are fewer options to stay within the city. There’s been a lot of residential development downtown. What role does the city have to play in terms of encouraging commercial development?

[Audio: Business Growth Downtown]

Business Growth Downtown: Petersen

Petersen has been thinking a lot about the scarcity of large floor-plate office space downtown. What can the city do to allow growing companies to stay in Ann Arbor? She looks at the city’s business corridors, like North Main Street. The North Main Huron River task force did a very comprehensive assessment about river use along that corridor, and it talked about the opportunity to rezone. She thinks the city does need to rezone property along North Main. “It is ripe for redevelopment.”

Petersen recently attended the Huron River Watershed Council’s State of the Huron conference, and heard about other communities in Michigan that build along their rivers. Those communities can expect a 3-to-1 to 6-to-1 return on investments. The North Main corridor and the South State corridors are ripe to redevelop and create more large floor-plate offices, she said.

Business Growth Downtown: Taylor

Taylor thinks it’s terrific that there are so many vibrant and active businesses downtown. They’ve come to use the existing office space, because downtown is wonderful and there’s parking that’s available through the city’s investment. The parking system is an economic development tool that’s been well-utilized. As these companies grow, they need more space. If the market made it practical or profitable for buildings to be constructed that would serve this need, then people who own property downtown would choose to do it, Taylor said. They have not yet done so.

There’s a limited amount of large floor-plate office space in the proposed development by Dennis Dahlmann, at the former Y lot, and Taylor is looking forward to that. If property owners have plans on what they need to build more large floor-plate office space downtown, he’d be eager to listen. “But broadly speaking, I view this as a market problem that the city is ill-equipped to solve just like that, on its own.”

Business Growth Downtown: Briere

The city’s downtown zoning incentivizes residential development, Briere said. It makes building residential properties very easy, but it doesn’t make it easy to build large floor-plate office space or other commercial development. That’s because the community said it wanted amenities downtown. “We were told that in order to have those amenities downtown – which we can consider questionable – we needed lots more people living downtown.” That was the reality the city faced a decade ago, and now it’s time to look at whether “we’re getting what we want.”

Briere’s made sure the city is taking a hard look at the incentive program for downtown development. But when people talk about building along the city’s major corridors, it’s important to look at the impact that additional traffic in those corridors will bring, and whether those corridors are even accessible. One challenge with building along the river is that North Main is a state-owned road and it’s difficult and dangerous to get on to it from any of the adjacent properties.

Follow-up question for Briere: What downtown amenities did she consider questionable?

There are some interesting limits on zoning, Briere replied. Everyone gets a 400% floor-area ratio (FAR), which can be built in any configuration. [FAR, a measure of density, is the ratio of the square footage of a building divided by the size of the lot. A one-story structure built lot-line-to-lot-line with no setbacks corresponds to a FAR of 100%. A similar structure built two-stories tall would result in a FAR of 200%.] But additional FAR can be added by using one of the city’s incentive programs, called premiums. You can get an additional 300% FAR just for building residential. So if you do that, you can get 700% FAR. There’s no incentive to build offices or other commercial development.

Business Growth Downtown: Kunselman

Kunselman said one way to inspire commercial development is to make sure zoning is up to date, which he thought it was. Responding to Taylor’s description of the city’s parking system as an economic development tool, Kunselman said the city’s parking system is subsidized with millions of taxpayer dollars. The Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority has to transfer TIF (tax increment finance) dollars to the parking system because of the debt on the Library Lane underground parking structure, he said. Because of the way that bond deal was packaged, the city borrowed $50 million to get 500 additional parking spaces and four blocks of streetscape.

There’s plenty of land for commercial development, Kunselman said. He said he led the effort to sell the Y lot, which the city sold to Dennis Dahlmann. The development rights for the Library Lane site are listed for sale. He mentioned other undeveloped sites, including the Brown Block [a surface parking lot owned by First Martin and leased to the DDA], and the First Martin lot across from city hall, which is also a surface parking lot. There is property downtown that could be used for commercial development. “It has nothing to do with city council.” The only reason there’s interest in residential development is because the University of Michigan has increased enrollment by 5,000 students in the last decade. That’s driving the market – not anything the council can do, Kunselman said.

Relationship with UM

Question: Is there a relationship that the city can have with the University of Michigan to influence it, or are we just powerless as residents? Is there anything that the mayor or city council can do to engage them?

[Audio: Relationship with UM]

Relationship with UM: Kunselman

Ann Arbor is a company town, Kunselman began. There have been more private businesses leave Ann Arbor in the past decade than have moved here, he contended. Bechtel moved out. Pfizer left and sold its property to the University of Michigan. The university is its own entity, constitutionally created by the state of Michigan. “We have to have a good relationship with them, but they are going to do what they need to do best – and that is to provide education to the masses. We’re dealing with the global economy, in that regard.” The university needs a board of regents that’s aware that if UM keeps buying property in Ann Arbor, it’s “going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.” The downtown will become nothing more than a student food court – and that won’t be enough for the rest of the residents.

Relationship with UM: Petersen

Petersen said the relationship between the city and the University of Michigan is one of her core priorities for mayor. The university will have a new president and Ann Arbor will have a new mayor, so it’s time for a new attitude on town/gown relationships, she said. When Petersen ran for council two years ago, she noticed there was a lot of resentment from the city toward the university because UM doesn’t pay taxes.

The reason there’s no productive dialogue is because the city always starts the dialogue by asking for payment in lieu of taxes, Petersen said. “We need to get over that. We need to stop being angry at the U for not paying taxes – that’s not their job.” But the city does need to work with them on areas of mutual interest, like job creation, transportation, infrastructure and quality of life. City officials need to come to the table with an open mind and to not start every dialogue with a request for payment in lieu of taxes.

Relationship with UM: Taylor

This gets to the “head-of-state” answer that he’d given before, Taylor said – it’s a new day, and the city needs to work with the university on areas of mutual interest. The university is going to do what the university is going to do. They have a separate mission, constituents and stakeholders. “Their interest in helping the city is limited.” So city officials need to work with them and educate them about the impacts on the city.

Last year, UM athletic director Dave Brandon met with councilmembers to talk about the hockey game that was coming to Michigan Stadium on New Year’s Day, Taylor said. Brandon described how great it would be for the city, bringing thousands of people to restaurants, stores and hotels during the winter. In one respect, it was great. But on the other hand, from the city’s side it was all cost. The city wasn’t getting any help from the university for the additional services that the city had to provide. Brandon had no understanding about that, so the city needs to communicate to the university about the impact their actions have. “They’re not evil. They just don’t understand,” Taylor concluded.

Relationship with UM: Briere

Briere thought all the candidates at some point have been affiliated with the university, including herself. She told a story to illustrate what the university thinks about the city. She and Jim Kosteva, the university’s community relations director, attended the same event once, where he referred to the relationship like this: The university is the husband, and the city is the wife. He said that sometimes the husband does something that really irritates the wife – and then he handed Briere a bouquet of flowers and candy “to play make-up.” This is an attitude at the university, she said.

She doesn’t want to educate the university – they are highly educated people. It’s an attitude of the past. It’s true that it will be a new era, with a new university president and new mayor. “But you have to come in knowing what you want. I have no needs from the university. They have needs from the city.” She doesn’t want the university’s money, infrastructure, or property. She wants their brains to focus on the city, and that’s the kind of collaboration she’s looking for.

Ann Arbor DDA

Question: If elected mayor, what would your relationship be with the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority?

[Audio: Ann Arbor DDA]

Ann Arbor DDA: Kunselman

Kunselman said he has a great relationship with the DDA, because they respect each other. He believes the DDA needs to be accountable to the law. The DDA board needs to understand that they are subservient to the city council, which confirms the board appointments.

The DDA is an important institution, and no one on council or running for mayor has advocated for the dissolution of the DDA, Kunselman said. But the DDA has been giving excuses for things he doesn’t believe are true. For example, the DDA is subsidizing the public parking monopoly with public tax dollars. They’re also cash-strapped and deeply in debt. They talk about projects, but those projects don’t get done. The only thing they’re doing is studies.

The DDA also needs to be accountable to the law, Kunselman said. He mentioned a media report that showed how the DDA in the early 1980s returned money to the taxing authorities from which it captures taxes. But just last year, they argued that they didn’t have to give rebates because they had debt – even though the DDA also had debt in the 1980s. The relationship needs to begin with trust, he said.

Ann Arbor DDA: Briere

Briere said she attends as many DDA meetings as she can because it’s important to know what people are saying. The DDA makes budget decisions involving a lot of money. Her relationship with the DDA is cordial, but she doesn’t see anyone as subservient to her. Responding to Kunselman’s remarks, she said: “Sorry, Steve – I’m just not big on hierarchy and I think that whole attitude of ‘I’m the boss’ is offensive to lots of people, including especially me.”

The DDA is a tool for the city, Briere said. It’s not a separate entity. It’s a way to invest in the downtown. She wanted the DDA to understand that investment is planning, but it’s also pouring that money into making downtown walkable, desirable and functional. It’s not easy, because the DDA thinks it’s responding to council demands when it’s actually responding to just one councilmember or another. “The DDA doesn’t have the mission it should have, and it doesn’t have the goals it should have, because it gets distracted by whatever shiny object is thrown in front of it – the same way we do.” The DDA wants to feel meaningful and vital to the city, so they’re trying to do “stuff that I never expected them to do.” Cordial relationships are important, but that’s not the same as having them do what the council wants, or vice versa.

Ann Arbor DDA: Taylor

Taylor anticipated his relationship to the DDA would be collaborative. The board is a set of business operators and residents who are working in good faith with the resources they have available to support the downtown. The downtown is an important part of the city, and he’d be excited to work with them to achieve their mutual goals, Taylor said.

The DDA has done a tremendous job in helping support the downtown change from a shuttered place to a place that’s vital and active, Taylor said. They’re not perfect, and the council isn’t perfect. But they’re doing their best to support downtown. When the city’s alleys are falling apart, the DDA is there to help. The DDA is a resource that the city should recognize, embrace and work with. “I would expect that when treated with respect and openness, that they would reciprocate accordingly.”

Ann Arbor DDA: Petersen

Even before she was on city council, Petersen started to get to know the DDA’s executive director, Susan Pollay, Petersen said. They have a very collaborative, collegial relationship. The relationship between the city and the DDA needs to be de-politicized. She strongly believes the DDA is an economic development tool for the downtown. The city doesn’t really have similar economic development tools outside of the downtown.

The public needs to be educated about the role of the DDA and what they do. The previous night, Petersen attended the opening of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. A retired UM business professor came up and asked her to explain what the DDA does. He’d been here for 30 years, but didn’t know. The council understands what the DDA does, but they need to de-politicize the relationship and educate the public on the DDA’s value. The council also needs to hold the DDA accountable. They are an agency, so they need to publish their numbers and be held accountable. The DDA also needs to take care of more than just Main Street. They need to provide equitable services to all parts of downtown.

Change in Ann Arbor

Question: Should Ann Arbor change, in terms of population growth and density? If so, what will that look like in 10 years?

[Audio: Change in Ann Arbor]

Change in Ann Arbor: Briere

It’s not possible to decide whether Ann Arbor will change – because it’s going to change, Briere said. The challenge is how to control that change. For a city, you have to decide how much change you can handle, where it will occur, what it looks like, and its impact on the community.

For every tall building, we should be thinking about green, open space, Briere said. For every subdivision, we should be thinking about how walkable it is. We should talk about whether it’s possible to reinstitute neighborhood grocery stores, because people want to walk to a shop without having to take a car.

The city needs to move away from the image of suburbia, of giant parking lots surrounding a building, Briere said. We need to talk about how mass transit and bike lanes and pedestrian access will improve the city. Ann Arbor will change, so the question is how to make it livable and enhance the quality of life. That should be in every planning decision – to plan for the future.

Change in Ann Arbor: Petersen

More jobs and density are coming, Petersen said. Ann Arbor will always be a fine place to live, work and play, because the university provides stable employment and a large number of jobs. But the university doesn’t take care of the city’s infrastructure – because that’s not their job.

In anticipation of growth, the city needs to figure out how to upgrade its infrastructure, to repair the sewer system, Petersen said. “Imagine what it’s going to be like to flush your toilet 10 years from now, if we don’t repair the Orangeburg pipe and the water and sewer systems underneath the ground.” The city needs an economic plan to do this, and it doesn’t have one now. The status quo thinking is that the university is the economic engine, so the city doesn’t need an economic plan. But the city’s resources and infrastructure are constrained. The city’s leaders need to drive the economic development in order to support that growth to come.

Change in Ann Arbor: Kunselman

Kunselman said he grew up in Ann Arbor, attending Pittsfield Elementary. His grandparents were founding members of St. Francis Catholic Church. He’s seen a lot of change.

But most disturbing to Kunselman is how Ann Arbor is become more elitist. People are always talking about affordable housing, but what’s getting built is luxury housing. The city focuses on downtown instead of the neighborhoods. And although people talk about how the city is growing, in the last decade it actually lost population, he said. The only growth was 5,000 new students. The only things he can control as mayor are things that happen while he’s in office. “I cannot control 10 years out. I cannot control 15 years out.”

His role as mayor, Kunselman said, would be to leave Ann Arbor as a better place from the time that he’s there. The city develops a lot of plans. There was a North Main plan from the 1980s, which called for a boulevard. As mayor, he intends to focus on today.

Change in Ann Arbor: Taylor

Broadly speaking, density is a good thing, Taylor said. It’s environmentally, economically and socially sound. In 10 years, he envisions a city that is still recognizable. At its core, Ann Arbor is going in the right direction. It’s not broken. He’d like to see things more efficient, with services provided better, with neighborhoods more engaged internally and with the city. He’d like more young people to choose Ann Arbor as a place to live. But generally, the city is going in the right direction and in 10 years it will be OK, he said.

Non-Motorized Travel

Question: What’s your plan to promote and fund non-motorized travel throughout the city?

[Audio: Non-Motorized Travel]

Non-Motorized Travel: Petersen

One of Petersen’s key priorities is safe mobility for motorists, pedestrians, cyclists and runners – because she’s a runner. The plan needs to be very prudent. She’s in favor of bike lanes in major corridors in and out of town. But a bike lane shouldn’t be merely painting a stripe on the road. In New York City, they have bike lanes that are protected by a barrier between the cyclists and vehicles. Protected bike lanes also result in increased revenues for downtown businesses. So if the city wants bike lanes, they need to do it right, Petersen said. It will take time and money, and they’ll need a plan to do that. But it should be more than paint on a road.

Non-Motorized Travel: Taylor

During the Great Recession, the city reduced funding for non-motorized transit, Taylor said. That has recently turned around, and he’s delighted about it. The city is using more state money to support bike lanes, crosswalk design, identification and signs. Every street that’s reconstructed needs to be a Complete Street, safe and designed for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. Buffered bike lanes are an important part of that. He called the bike share program an exciting development. The bike share program is great for a sense of place and for getting around, Taylor said.

Non-Motorized Travel: Briere

Briere said that at the council meeting when the city’s budget was approved, the council approved one of her amendments that increased the funding for non-motorized transit. Long before that, the council passed the Complete Streets policy and toolbox. It addresses the need for streets that serve all modes of transit, as well as appropriate speed. One challenge is increased traffic from all the jobs that have been created. The city needs to talk about how to deal with that. You have to anticipate where changes are needed. You have to be flexible and intelligent about it, Briere concluded.

Non-Motorized Travel: Kunselman

The number one thing is to make sure the city has staff who are focused on non-motorized transit, Kunselman said. “That’s why, if I am elected mayor, I’m going to ask Eli Cooper to step down from the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority [board] and focus on his job as non-motorized transportation in the city. He can’t do both.” Kunselman voted against Cooper’s appointment to the AAATA board, noting that he’s not a resident of Ann Arbor. Cooper lives in Livonia.

Secondly, as a walker, biker and skateboarder, Kunselman wants to make sure that roads and sidewalks are safe. You can’t ride a bike down the road if there are potholes. His stepson blew out his bike tire twice within a week hitting potholes. In terms of fairness, Kunselman wants to make sure all sidewalk gaps that are being funded through special assessments have 80% public funding. Currently, some do and some don’t. “How is that fair to our residents?” Kunselman asked.

Follow-up for Briere, Taylor and Petersen: Do you also believe that Eli Cooper should step down from the AAATA board?

[Audio: Eli Cooper]

Non-Motorized Travel Follow-Up: Petersen

Petersen didn’t agree that Cooper should step down. At first, she thought his board service was a conflict of interest with his job. But in studying these issues, she said it turns out that he doesn’t have a conflict of interest in holding both jobs. So that’s not a reason for him to step down. Performance might be another reason for him to step down, but she didn’t see a reason to remove him from his seat on the board.

Non-Motorized Travel Follow-Up: Taylor

Taylor also disagreed. He said the mayor doesn’t have the authority to do that, because the mayor doesn’t control staff – the city administrator does. Cooper is also “duly appointed, therefore, there’s no authority even for staff to take him down.” [Kunselman had suggested asking Cooper to resign from the AAATA board. Taylor appears to have been responding to the possibility of removing Cooper from his job with the city, or removing him from the AAATA board.]

Taylor thinks integration and communication are good. Cooper’s cross-fertilization as a city staff member and AAATA board member augments both institutions. It’s good for transportation in the city, and good for the AAATA. Cooper’s service in both institutions is a benefit, not a detriment, Taylor concluded.

Non-Motorized Transit Follow-Up: Briere

Briere agreed with Petersen and Taylor, saying she had slightly nuanced reasons. She said Cooper is not the non-motorized transit staff member, he’s the alternative transit staff member. [His job title is transportation program manager.] His job is to look at alternatives to using individual private cars. His expertise is national, and she has no problem with his work, though Ann Arbor is struggling with non-motorized transportation, as are other communities.

Briere didn’t think the council could remove anyone who was appointed to a board or commission unless they have cause – and there is no cause, she said. “For any of us as mayor to consider that cause is ‘I want you doing something else,’ that’s an interesting challenge that I don’t think meets the smell test.” Briere said she advocated for cross-fertilization on the AAATA. She wanted Susan Baskett on the AAATA board because she wanted the school board represented. She wanted people there from the university bus system to represent those needs. She wants city staff there for the same reason. This will help reduce the number of buses on the road, and make the system work for Ann Arbor and its partners, Briere concluded.

Non-Motorized Travel Follow-Up: Kunselman

Kunselman stressed that he didn’t say he would remove Cooper for cause – he’d request that Cooper step down. “I think my colleagues missed that point.” Kunselman also pointed out that his council colleagues voted to appoint Cooper, but he had voted against that appointment. “I think it is highly inappropriate for a city staff person who works under the direction of a city administrator to then become a policy person under the mayor’s office. It’s a conflict of commitment. He can’t serve two masters.” That’s one reason why Cooper isn’t giving enough attention to his job, Kunselman said – because he’s also focusing on the mayor’s policy initiatives.

Commuter & Light Rail

Question: Tell us about your vision for commuter rail and light rail. Also, please touch on the idea of a multi-model station and where it should be located.

[Audio: Commuter & Light Rail]

Commuter & Light Rail: Taylor

Expanded rail service is vitally important to the future of Ann Arbor, Taylor stated. It’s important to reduce congestion, it’s important for the environment and for Ann Arbor’s economy. We need to do everything we can for expanded rail service in Ann Arbor, he said. If that means a new train station, then he’s for a new train station. He’s agnostic as to its location – he wants it to work. If federal rail experts say it’s going to work at a particular location, then he’d support that.

Regarding light rail within the city, Taylor hasn’t yet seen the business case for it. He wants expanded mass transit within the city without using cars – that’s a priority for him. He’s not certain if that will be light rail or another mode.

Commuter & Light Rail: Kunselman

Kunselman loves trains, and he’s traveled with his family on Amtrak to far distant states. However, Amtrak needs a lot of work – and that’s out of the city’s control. Commuter rail is in the hands of the southeast Michigan regional transit authority (RTA). It’s not the city council’s responsibility.

As far as the train station, he was very opposed to using city parkland and a 99-year lease with the university to build Fuller Road Station. “Thank god we got that off the books.” He thinks the train station should go across the tracks from its current location. There will be lots of parking there, and the ability to create a park as DTE decides what to do with that site.

Commuter & Light Rail: Briere

The city doesn’t control where the trains run or when the trains run, Briere said. The only question that the city controls is whether to put in a new train station. She noted that it’s not a council decision – that’s a voter decision. When she and Taylor worked to pull away from the arrangement with the university for the Fuller Road Station, she put into the resolution that if there’s a proposal for a train station, then voters get to decide whether it’s built, she said. Regarding light rail, Briere said most of the city streets are too narrow for light rail, but the city should look at every possible alternative transportation mode.

Commuter & Light Rail: Petersen

Petersen is very much in favor of a new train station. Ideally, she’d like to expand where the current station is located, because she thinks it would be more cost effective. She said she has romantic visions of what a train station by the river could look like, spanning over the rails to the MichCon/DTE property. Consultants are doing a very robust public engagement process now to explore different locations. The city’s residents will vote on it, but there are other stakeholders, Petersen noted. What are UM’s plans for the connector study? The city needs to co-locate with UM’s bus rapid transit. Regarding the RTA, Petersen said it’s not out of the city’s hands. The city is a stakeholder. The mayor, as head of state, will have a voice in the future of the RTA, she said.

Ann Arbor SPARK

Question: SPARK’s annual report claims that they created 13,024 new jobs, $1.5 billion in investment and 547 companies, but another report [required under the Michigan Strategic Fund Act] shows a slightly different story with only 685 jobs, $229 million in investment and 149 companies. You’re all Democrats, but SPARK was co-founded by our current governor Rick Snyder, a Republican. Why do you continue to support it, when the data in these reports don’t match? [The two reports where it's been contended the numbers don't match are these: Ann Arbor SPARK 2013 annual report and 21st Century Jobs Trust Fund 2013 Annual Report]

[Audio: Ann Arbor SPARK]

Ann Arbor SPARK: Petersen

Petersen hasn’t looked at the data from the two reports. The question about whether the data is right or wrong isn’t the relevant question. She trusts that those numbers can and will be reconciled.

Petersen continued by saying that Ann Arbor SPARK is the only economic development corporation in town. She’s on the board of the city’s LDFA (local development finance authority), and supports its contract with SPARK. When some councilmembers questioned whether they should remove a $75,000 contract with SPARK, she was very much against it. The city needs to grow its job base, and SPARK has grown jobs.

“We can nickel and dime on the actual number of jobs, but no doubt SPARK is doing their job,” Petersen said. She said the city got 752 jobs for the $75,000 that was spent last year. SPARK had accounted for those jobs. The larger question is whether the city should be doing an objective audit of these numbers. That’s something to consider. She’s going to raise it with the LDFA board at their meeting on June 17.

Ann Arbor SPARK: Taylor

The numbers that the city receives from any of the entities with which it contracts ought to be held to a rigorous standard, Taylor said. He understands that some people believe the numbers that the city received from SPARK are inaccurate. He would suspect that SPARK has a counter-argument. He’d be interested in hearing a full articulation of both sides.

That said, Taylor sees value in state-supported economic development. He’s not in favor of giant tax breaks or boondoggles, but the city has a role to attract and retain businesses through SPARK, and a role in fostering a culture of entrepreneurship – that also comes through SPARK. Right now, SPARK is the mechanism to achieve these important city goals, and until it’s plainly demonstrated that they’re doing a poor job, he supports them.

Ann Arbor SPARK: Briere

Briere said she didn’t want to pretend that this was her area of expertise. Her problem with SPARK has always been that there isn’t an easy causal relationship between what they do and what they claim to have changed. That doesn’t mean the causal relationship isn’t there, she added – it’s just not easy to see. If the numbers don’t match reality, that’s an issue and the city needs to check on that. The numbers have to be accurate and explainable.

Job creation is a challenge, Briere said. Does a business settle in Ann Arbor and hire more people without SPARK? We don’t know. Does a business grow bigger because of SPARK? SPARK can’t prove it does. That’s what makes this so difficult – because SPARK’s not hiring people. Everything is an incentive or training for new businesses. And those businesses tell the city how much SPARK means to them. “But it’s not a clear box where you can say so many jobs were created, and we’re challenging them to do that.”

Ann Arbor SPARK: Kunselman

Kunselman said the state education fund is being raided to provide state funding for economic development. They say they put the money back, but then why is the public education system in such dire straits? His wife is a public school teacher in Ann Arbor, Kunselman said. The school board just cut millions out of its budget, and is privatizing custodians. Yet the state is taking funds for schools and using it to pay for the LDFA and SPARK. “There’s a relationship there that makes me somewhat bitter.” The state says it puts the money back, “but I don’t know what to believe.” It’s a difficult situation.

The council will have some votes to take regarding this issue, Kunselman said. The LDFA wants to extend its term, and they’ll have to justify that. So that will be a hard vote. He thinks SPARK is somewhat corporate welfare, and gives the impression of capitalist cronyism. The situation needs to be re-examined, and Kunselman said he’d “look to our state legislator out there to help us” – a reference to state Rep. Jeff Irwin, who attended the forum.

Closing Statements

Each candidate got 90 seconds for a closing statement.

[Audio: Closing Statements]

Closing Statements: Kunselman

Kunselman thanked everyone for coming. He noted that one of the four candidates will be the next mayor, and they’d all have to work together. They’ve been working together, regardless of their differences – that’s the best thing for the city. He’s running to give voters a choice. If you’ve been a supporter of the past policies and politics, you have good choices. You have choices that have been praised by county commissioner Conan Smith, and by DDA board member Joan Lowenstein, and by mayor John Hieftje. “I’m offering you a choice of someone that is not in that camp.”

He’s someone who didn’t vote for countywide transit, where there would have been buses going past cornfields. He didn’t vote a “chandelier” for the Justice Center using general fund money. He didn’t vote to borrow $50 million for an underground parking structure that resulted in 500 additional parking spaces and four blocks of streetscape.

Kunselman is running as a common-sense, fiscally responsible Democrat. He lives in a low- to moderate-income neighborhood, not an upscale neighborhood. He works full-time. He’s the only councilmember who lives in a precinct where there’s a mobile home park. “So if you want to talk about affordable housing, if you want to talk about the working class, then vote for Stephen Kunselman.”

Closing Statements: Briere

Briere said she wouldn’t talk about her economic status, but anyone who’s been to her house knows she’s not living in a posh neighborhood. “The idea that we play against each other that way strikes me as absurd, because we’re not here to work for ourselves and we’re not here for any other reason except to represent you.”

Over the years, Briere said, there have been important votes when she’s agreed with the mayor, and important votes when they’ve disagreed. “I want you to understand – I make my own mind up and I don’t belong to a faction. I don’t even appreciate being told that there’s a faction against John Hieftje stuff, because honestly, John is gone. And we should get over him.”

Now we look at the future. She’s not running against Hieftje, and she’s not running to be him. She’s running because she thinks her ability to listen and to create solutions to problems, working together, will help find a better way for Ann Arbor. She’s running because Ann Arbor shouldn’t just be a place to live, but a place to thrive – a place for future generations to live and thrive as well.

Closing Statements: Taylor

Taylor is running because he thinks it’s important that Ann Arbor’s next mayor has the temperament, experience and judgment to work every day to maintain and improve the quality of life for people here.

The city is doing all right, Taylor said. There are areas to improve, and he’d like to work on two things. One is to maintain and improve all the basic services that the city provides – like public safety, streets, snow removal, water. But if they did just that, the city wouldn’t have the character that people love. They need to live up to their progressive values, so he’s eager to work on affordable housing. He’s been on the park advisory commission for six years, and parks are fundamental to the city’s quality of life. Parks need to be beautiful and well-maintained, and he’ll continue to focus on that. Ann Arbor also is an environmental leader, so he wants to help lead on climate change. “We can’t solve the problem but we can do our part, and we oughta.”

People need to get around – things like public transit, non-motorized transit, and pedestrian safety are important. He’ll focus on that. The downtown needs to be vibrant and active. It’s the core of the city, and makes all of the neighborhoods better. It has a character that needs to be maintained. “Finding that balance between the inevitable change that’s going to come, and between the character that we all know and love – that’s the thing we need to focus on, and that’s what I’d be excited to focus on as your mayor.”

Closing Statements: Petersen

Petersen noted that she’s been on city council for two years, but she wanted people to focus on her full scope of experience. She’s lived in Ann Arbor 18 years, and has held leadership positions in the private sector, the nonprofit sector, and now the public sector. This cross-sector experience provides her with a fresh perspective, new resources, new skills and abilities that this city needs now, while it’s on the cusp of growth, she said.

This is why she was elected to city council as a “supposed outsider” and that’s why it makes her the best candidate for mayor. In her two years on city council, she’s undertaken two initiatives that have the potential to transform Ann Arbor. The first is the creation of an economic development collaborative task force. This is low-hanging fruit, she said. “The need for a prudent economic policy has always been there, just nobody has recognized it until now.”

The second thing, she’s done, is moving the city toward an ethics policy. It had been tried before, but faltered because it wasn’t the appropriate approach, Petersen said. She used an approach that was very careful. Her pragmatic business experience helped her understand the appetite that current city councilmembers had to digest something as big as a city ethics policy.

Finally, Petersen has spent a lot of time speaking with constituents at town hall meetings, going door to door, and here’s what she’s heard: People want a mayor who’s open and inclusive, who stands for the homeless and the housed, regardless of ability, who is open-minded, fair, trustworthy and unencumbered by bias. “I will be that mayor.”

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Sabra Briere at the Nov. 18, 2013 Ann Arbor city council meeting.

The field of mayoral candidates in Ann Arbor is somewhat wide open this year, because mayor John Hieftje announced on Oct. 11, 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election to an eighth two-year term in 2014. Ward 3 councilmembers Stephen Kunselman and Christopher Taylor have already pulled petitions to contest the Democratic primary.

Briere will continue her service on the council at least through 2015, regardless of the outcome of the mayoral election. If she prevails, she would remain a member of the council – because under Ann Arbor’s council-manager form of government, the mayor is also a councilmember. On that scenario, the council would need to appoint someone to fill the Ward 1 seat currently held by Briere.

If she does not prevail, then she would retain her Ward 1 seat, having won re-election to a two-year term in November 2013. That was a race she won against independent Jeff Hayner, who received 32% of the 1,747 ballots cast.

With Hieftje stepping down and Margie Teall’s intentions to seek re-election to represent Ward 4 not yet clear, in November 2014 Briere could become one of the two most-senior members of the council. Mike Anglin (Ward 5) and Briere were both first elected to the council in November 2007.

Briere was not opposed in the 2007 general election. She had prevailed in a three-way Democratic primary to fill the seat left vacant by Bob Johnson, who did not seek re-election that year. In the August 2007 primary, she polled 46% of the vote, compared to 34% for John Roberts and 19.5% for Richard Wickboldt. That race saw 920 votes cast.

Briere has served on the city planning commission as the council’s representative to that group for since November 2012.

The other declared candidates for mayor – Ward 3 councilmembers Kunselman and Taylor – announced their intent last year. Kunselman holds a masters of urban planning from the University of Michigan and works for the university as an energy conservation liaison. Taylor, a graduate of the University of Michigan law school, is an attorney with Hooper Hathaway.

Washtenaw County board of commissioners chair Yousef Rabhi announced on Jan. 9 that he would not be running for Ann Arbor mayor.

Each of the city’s five wards is represented by two members on the 11-member council, which includes the mayor. Council terms are two years, so every year one of the two council seats in each ward is up for election.

Kunselman was the first to announce a candidacy for mayor and took out petitions on Sept. 27, 2013 – even before winning re-election to his Ward 3 council seat on Nov. 5, 2013. Taylor followed three months later by taking out petitions on Dec. 20, 2013.

Taylor’s 2008 Democratic primary win came over then-incumbent Kunselman. Kunselman was subsequently returned to the council representing Ward 3 the following year, in 2009, when he received more votes than incumbent Leigh Greden.

Taylor’s two-year term ends in November 2014, so Taylor’s decision to run for mayor is also a choice not to seek re-election to a fourth term on the council. If Taylor does not prevail, he won’t remain on the council. In contrast, Kunselman would retain his seat on the council, even if he is not elected mayor.

The seat Taylor is leaving open in Ward 3 will be contested by Julie Grand, who lost the August 2013 Democratic primary to Kunselman. In a telephone interview with The Chronicle on Jan. 9, Grand said she is planning to run for election to the Ward 3 seat that’s being left open by Taylor – because her reasons for wanting to serve on the council had not changed. If Kunselman prevails as mayor, the council would need to appoint someone to fill the seat left vacant by Kunselman.

Ward 2 could also see an open seat due to a mayoral candidacy – if Democrat Sally Petersen decides to run for mayor. Petersen wrote in a Jan. 8, 2014 email to The Chronicle that she had not yet made a decision on that. She was first elected to the council in November 2012. Like Taylor’s situation, a choice by Petersen to run for mayor would be a simultaneous choice not to seek re-election to her current council seat.

That seat could be contested by Democrat Kirk Westphal, who lost the November 2013 Ward 2 general election to independent Jane Lumm. In an email sent Jan. 10, Westphal said he would definitely consider running for an open Ward 2 seat. A potentially open Ward 2 seat would not be contested by Stew Nelson, who lost the 2008 Democratic primary in Ward 2 to Tony Derezinski. Nelson wrote in a Jan. 8 email that his current professional obligations are too demanding on his time, saying that he would leave politics to the younger generations.

Petitions for the mayoral partisan primary in August 2014 must be turned in by April 22 May 13. The requirement is for 50 signatures from each of the city’s five wards, for a total of 250 signatures.

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From left: Incumbent Ann Arbor mayor John Hieftje and Albert Howard, who is running as an independent. (Photos by the writer.)

The two men answered questions at an Oct. 10 candidate forum moderated by the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area. Issues ranged from the city’s relationship with the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority – which Howard described as a “shadow government” that he would dissolve – to nonpartisan elections, current challenges and a long-term vision for the community.

Howard repeatedly criticized Hieftje for a lack of transparency and fiscal responsibility, and for not focusing on public safety issues. He supported moving to nonpartisan elections, and for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program for the University of Michigan.

Hieftje, who was first elected mayor in 2000, defended his view that the city is one of the safest and most robust in Michigan. He said that he personally has been “extremely approachable” and that the city government itself is open and accessible. He advocated for an expanded transit system, and a focus on quality-of-life issues.

The office of mayor has a two-year term. In Ann Arbor’s council-manager system, the mayor is the eleventh member of the city council, with limited responsibility beyond that of a city councilmember. The mayor enjoys a power of veto over council actions, which can be overridden with an eight-vote majority. The mayor also makes nominations for most city boards and commissions, which then require confirmation by the council. The mayor has certain powers during emergencies, and serves as the ceremonial head of the city. Day-to-day management of the city is the responsibility of the city administrator – currently Steve Powers – who is hired by the city council.

The Oct. 10 candidate forum was held at the studios of Community Television Network in Ann Arbor, and is available online via CTN’s video-on-demand service. The forum included candidates for Ward 5 Ann Arbor city council – Stuart Berry and Chuck Warpehoski. The Ward 5 portion of the forum is reported in a separate Chronicle write-up.

Information on local elections can be found on the Washtenaw County clerk’s elections division website. To see a sample ballot for your precinct, visit the Secretary of State’s website.

Opening Statements

Each candidate was given the opportunity to make a one-minute opening statement.

Albert Howard: He looked forward to the opportunity for viewers to vote for him on Nov. 6 as the 61st mayor of Ann Arbor. There are three issues that are paramount with the current mayor’s administration, he said: A lack of transparency, a lack of fiscal responsibility, and a lack of taking initiative on immediate priorities. He wanted to bring light to the fact that even though the 60th mayor was sitting to his right, the language of Hieftje’s administration – especially in “referendums and addendums” – is not advantageous to the people. There’s more hidden behind this protocol than we know, he concluded.

John Hieftje: The city is doing well, he said, considering that it’s coming out of one of the worst financial climates since the 1930s. Ann Arbor has made it thus far by increasing efficiencies, he said. Unlike many cities, Ann Arbor hasn’t raised taxes – except for what he characterized as a very small increase so that the city could take over sidewalk maintenance. Otherwise, the city has maintained all services, he said. There’s low unemployment and new companies are coming to the city, he said – and there’s very robust job growth in the city’s future, according to UM economists. When you talk about things like local government, you need to look deep down and see what’s actually been going on, Hieftje said. He encouraged viewers to look at the city’s website. “Everything is out there,” he said – about the city’s budget and other information. The city does everything they can to make sure they are approachable and open to all citizens regarding anything that’s going on at city hall, he concluded.

Challenges

What are the biggest challenges that the city faces over the next two years, and how would you act on them?

John Hieftje: Certainly the budget will continue to be a priority – it will continue to be a priority for a very long time, both for Ann Arbor and every city in the state and nation. He said he would not trade Ann Arbor’s budget position with any other city, particularly in Michigan. Ann Arbor continues to do very well and has a solid budget position. As far as basic services, he noted that Ann Arbor is in the top 20% of safe communities in the United States, based on FBI statistics. He pointed to a December 2011 article in the Ann Arbor Observer with the subhead “Crime Is Down – Way, Way Down.” If you look at it over decades, crime is going down – Ann Arbor is one of the safest cities of its size, he said.

Talking about leaf pickup, the city still picks up leaves, Hieftje noted, but not in the same way that it used to. [Stuart Berry, the Republican candidate for Ward 5 city council, had earlier in the forum mentioned that residents were upset that the city had stopped leaf pickup. The city previously designated two days on which residents could sweep their leaves into the street, and they would be collected using converted street sweepers, front loaders and large-capacity trucks. The city now uses a "containerized" approach that's integrated with the weekly compostables pickup.] There were some problems with the previous approach, he said, and almost every city in Michigan has moved away from doing it that way. It was a good decision, he said. In looking back, there were choices that had to be made as budgets were cut, but that was a choice that stood out as a simple one.

Albert Howard: It’s vital that the current administration and the next mayor not hide by using the language of subliminal, subtle signals, he said. The current mayor has had more Freedom of Information Act requests from the media than other mayors. The mayor rarely issues press releases, Howard said, and has never vetoed an action by city council during his administration.   Alluding to Hieftje’s mention of FBI statistics, Howard said that the local 911 dispatchers are the people who handle calls about crime – and they make the determination about whether that crime will be in a particular category. The current mayor must be held accountable for transparency, he said, and for creating statistics that aren’t relevant to the city’s condition.

[That Hieftje has never exercised his veto power is a common belief – one held even by many long-time political insiders. The Chronicle is not aware that Hieftje himself has ever challenged this notion when it's been mentioned publicly – and he did not dispute it at the candidate forum. However, based on city council minutes from early in his tenure as mayor, Hieftje once vetoed a change to the ordinance that regulates the city employees retirement system. The change involved a calculation of final average compensation. The council subsequently overrode that veto. Minutes indicate that the council voted for the ordinance change on April 16, 2001, the mayor vetoed it on April 23, 2001, and the overriding vote came at the council's May 7, 2001 meeting.]

Relationship with the DDA

Are you satisfied with the relationship between the city and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority? What are your thoughts about the DDA’s Connecting William Street project?

By way of background, in 1975 the state legislature authorized the Downtown Development Authority Act (Act 197 of 1975), which enabled cities to set up DDAs with the purpose of protecting and revitalizing their downtowns. The Ann Arbor DDA was established in the early 1980s, and renewed by city council in 2003 for another 30 years. It is governed by a board that’s appointed by the city council, based on nominations by the mayor, who by statute also serves on the board. The DDA is funded by tax increment financing (TIF) – that is, it “captures” a portion of the property taxes in a specific geographic area that would otherwise be collected by taxing authorities in the district. The tax capture is only on the increment in valuation – the difference between the value of property when the district was established, and the value resulting from improvements made to the property. In Ann Arbor, the DDA also operates the public parking system under contract with the city.

Earlier this year, the city council also directed the DDA to embark on another project – now called Connecting William Street – focused on developing a plan for five city-owned properties along William Street, between Ashley and Division. Four of the parcels are surface parking lots; the fifth is a parking structure at Fourth & William. For more background, see Chronicle coverage: “PAC: Downtown Park, More Input Needed” and “Planning Group Briefed on William St. Project.”

Albert Howard is running for Ann Arbor mayor as an independent.

Albert Howard: The DDA is part of a “shadow government” that the current mayor has established, Howard said. The DDA board is selected by the mayor, he said. It needs to be dissolved, Howard said, adding that he would work with city council to shed light on this shadow government that is taking taxes away from the city. The DDA is getting the benefit of the city, but is a separate entity – and it’s not healthy for the city, he said. Howard said that the original architect of the DDA, Louis Belcher, now says contends the way the DDA is currently operating was never the way he intended for it to be run. Belcher stated this on AnnArbor.com, Howard said. [He was referring to the transcript of a radio interview with Belcher conducted by Lucy Ann Lance, which was written up as a post on AnnArbor.com.]

John Hieftje: Responding to a previous statement by Howard, Hieftje said the FBI statistics are reported by the police department at the end of each year, and it’s a duty that’s taken very seriously. Regarding the DDA, he noted that such authorities exist across the state and were established so that downtowns had a way to renew themselves and make themselves vital – as shopping malls became more prevalent. Ann Arbor has done a tremendous job of keeping its downtown vital, he said. It’s probably the best downtown in the state or maybe the Midwest, Hieftje noted, and the DDA has played a very strong role in that. “There’s nothing shadowy about the DDA,” he said. Downtown development authorities exist in other cities and states. Northfield Township has a DDA, he noted – they are very common. All you have to do is visit downtown Ann Arbor and compare it with other downtowns across the state. That’s one of the great things that people cite about the city as a reason for living here, he said.

Traffic & Population Growth

Is the city’s planning for traffic growth keeping up with plans for the growth in population, with respect to parking, safety and other aspects?

John Hieftje: The population has been stable for quite a long time, he said, although he believes it’s starting to grow a little now. [The 2000 census recorded Ann Arbor's population at 114,024 compared to 113,934 in the 2010 census.] There’s been a lot of growth outside the city, he added. But the city is growing jobs, and the community will continue to do that. So the city needs to make a decision, he said – do we want to continue to grow jobs? If so, then there will be increased traffic congestion, pollution and the need for more parking structures. But the answer to that is more transit, he said. The city needs to expand transit – otherwise, the trade-off is traffic, pollution and congestion. It’s a simple equation and something that’s being looked at very closely, he said, adding that it’s something the whole community is engaged in right now. The question is how to expand transit. Is it bus or rail? Everything the city can do to get commuters out of cars and on foot, on a bike, a bus or train – all of those things will help avoid a future of traffic congestion, he concluded.

Albert Howard: A woman was recently riding a bicycle, he said, and was hit by a vehicle – so she was in intensive care. It was because of a local law that was set up by the current mayor, he contended. This woman was hanging on for life, he said. Now, the city has traffic growth and population growth, but what about the safety of the citizens? Howard asked. Did the current city administration conduct an investigation with the state regarding the city’s crosswalk laws? This is now being considered for revamping, he said. The population is growing, but the safety of the citizens is a priority, he said.

John Hieftje: Later in the forum, during his time allotted for another question, Hieftje responded to Howard’s comments. He noted that the woman – who he described as “tragically hit on her bicycle” – was on a road controlled by the Michigan Dept. of Transportation. That accident had nothing to do with the local crosswalk law, he said. If you’re in an intersection and are hit by a car, particularly on an MDOT-controlled road, that’s always been a traffic problem, he said. People need to be responsible for the people in front of them “and put the brakes on.”

Albert Howard: During his closing statement, Howard responded to Hieftje’s remark by saying MDOT is not responsible for the woman being hit. The mayor set up a unique system of crosswalk paths – that was done by this administration, he said.

Nonpartisan Elections

Should Ann Arbor follow the lead of many other municipalities and abandon partisan tags for mayor and city council, particularly to take top vote-getters in a nonpartisan August primary and into the November general election?

For background on this issue, see “Column: Ann Arbor – A One-Party Town” and “Column: Let’s Put Life into City Elections.”

Albert Howard: The current mayor has been in office for 12 years, and the system needs to change. Hieftje has taken advantage of the system, he said, and the system needs to be revamped. If there’s a mayor who’s been in office for 12 years, then something needs to change. A lot of people he speaks with – including a lot of Democrats – describe Hieftje as a “word mayor,” but not an effective leader, Howard said. The voters are consistently unhappy with the majority of things that the current administration is doing. When the system changes, the mayor will change, he said. The mayor is in the system because the system has not changed, Howard concluded.

John Hieftje: Party labels give voters a really good starting place and a good road map to begin assessing candidates, he said. There are basic values that people are looking at in candidates, and party labels are helpful in that. Ann Arbor happens to be a Democratic town, he said, but for most of its history, it was a very, very Republican town. “Perhaps someday it will switch back that way.” It’s been in this cycle since about 1990, he noted, but in the city’s history, very few of its mayors have been Democrats.

Long-Term Goals

Looking ahead 10-20 years, highlight one or two projects that you’d like to support now to achieve your future vision of Ann Arbor.

Incumbent Ann Arbor mayor John Hieftje, a Democrat, is running for re-election.

John Hieftje: With ever-rising fuel prices and rising carbon levels, transit is the thing that the city needs to plan for now, he said. It takes decades sometimes to put proper transit systems in place, and the city needs to work at that.

Not all of the city’s workers or residents will be able to afford a $30,000 hybrid in order to keep up with rising gasoline prices, Hieftje said. It’s vital to look at long-term transit issues. At the same time, the city also needs to protect the environment in other ways, he said. Ann Arbor is known as one of the greenest cities anywhere, and we need to continue to work on that, he said. We need to keep Ann Arbor clean – noting that Ann Arbor has the cleanest urban river in the state. Focus needs to remain on quality-of-life issues, he said, because in today’s economy, that’s what attracts the businesses of the 21st century to the city.  Ann Arbor needs to continue to be the award-winning city that it is by concentrating on the environment, transportation and quality of life – bringing all that together to make it a place where people want to continue to live and visit, he concluded.

Albert Howard: He’d like to see the relationship between the city and the University of Michigan become closer. He’d like to see payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program. He said that the university has $11 billion worth of property. Howard noted that the billionaire Sam Zell, who spoke recently at UM, said the university should consider privatizing so that it would pay taxes that the city rightfully deserves. There should be some closer relationship so that the city will be fruitful and profitable, Howard said.

Open-Ended Question

What question wasn’t asked tonight that you’d like to address?

Albert Howard: The mayor should be accountable for the words that come out of his mouth. Howard would like to see accountability with the statistics that the mayor cites. He’d like to see more transparency – not making the media file Freedom of Information Act requests, not a mayor who’s been in office 12 years without issuing a veto, and not a mayor who only rarely issues press releases. The people want a mayor who is approachable, who goes to town hall meetings and who holds town hall meetings, he said. “This mayor has not had any town hall meetings – he always sends other people.” The people want face-to-face meetings. The mayor is a very intelligent man, Howard said, but he needs to be accountable and approachable.

John Hieftje: Hieftje responded that he’s had open office hours almost every week he’s been in office, except for a few when he’s been out of town. He said he attends meetings for any and every group who’d like him to come. He’s attended several town hall meetings, including some regarding the budget. “I think I’ve been extremely approachable.” If someone can’t come to his office hours, he said he’ll make arrangements to meet at another time to hear their concerns. That’s very vital to city government, he said. The mayor and councilmembers need to be “just what they are – which is your neighbors, the person who’s in the same boat as you are.” He said he learns so much from talking with residents and neighborhood groups. He said he’d be attending another neighborhood meeting the following night. He’s happy to meet with people anywhere in the city, “whether it’s by ones or twos, or tens or twenties.”

Closing Statements

Each candidate had the opportunity to make a two-minute closing statement.

Albert Howard: He said he wanted to talk about the current mayor and the administration that the mayor is responsible for. It’s important to bring transparency, fiscal responsibility and a focus on immediate priorities – the city’s public safety, the proper amount of police and fire personnel and equipment. The administration should be open and accountable, he said. The mayor has to realize that the picture he’s painting is not a realistic picture. The statistics he talks about aren’t realistic. There was recently a sexual assault downtown near campus, Howard said. The week before that, a woman was raped in her bed. The mayor is not being realistic – the numbers don’t match, and the words don’t connect. He needs to be held accountable.

Regarding the DDA, Howard reiterated an earlier point about Lou Belcher, who was mayor when the DDA was originally established. Belcher has  said the way that the DDA is operated now is not the way it was intended to operate. The current mayor needs a reality check, Howard said – and Hieftje’s words are going to catch up with him. The city is unsafe because the priority of the city is not paramount, he added. This can’t be ignored – and a light needs to be shined on it. Howard urged viewers to visit his campaign website: AlbertHoward.org.

John Hieftje: He began by noting that a recent article in the press had the title “Why does Ann Arbor continue to win so many awards?” Certainly that has a lot to do with the way the city is run, he said, and it has a lot to do with being one of the safer cities in North America. It also has a lot to do with the city’s beautiful park system, a vibrant downtown, and the fact that the city is fixing all of its roads and bridges now, with the most robust road repair program in memory underway. That road repair will continue in the next building season, he said, adding that the East Stadium bridges will be opening next month.

So many things are moving forward as we come out of the greatest recession and economic downturn since the 1930s, Hieftje said, and he’s very excited. When you talk about why Ann Arbor wins awards, you also have to look at the people. There are so many people engaged, he said. People at the Rotary Club who plant 1,000 trees each year. People in nonprofits who work hard to make sure the community is providing services to those who need them the most.

Ann Arbor is one of only two communities in Michigan that continues to contribute general fund dollars to pay for human services, and that will continue, he said. The city’s human services funding has not gone down during the Great Recession, he said. The city is moving forward in many different areas. In the last few months, the city has hired 13 new police officers. Hieftje described them as young officers who are eager to work in this city and who are excited about what they can do.

Hieftje noted that Howard had mentioned a couple of recent crimes. For one, a suspect has been arrested, Hieftje said – it had been reported in the printed press on Sunday. For the other sexual assault, some believe that it might not have occurred. [The UM Dept. of Public Safety later issued an update stating that the incident did not occur.] In general, sexual assault is down this year and it was down the year before, he said. We have a very safe city and Ann Arbor continues to be one of the very best cities to live in North America, Hieftje concluded.

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Candidates for mayor in the Aug. 3 Democratic primary: (top) incumbent John Hieftje and (bottom) Patricia Lesko. (Photos by the writer.)

On Thursday evening, the North Central Property Owners Association (NCPOA) hosted a forum for candidates in two Democratic primary races:  Ward 1 city council representative and mayor.

Coverage of Ward 1 candidate responses to audience questions is provided in a separate article: “Ann Arbor Dems Primary: Ward 1 Council.”

Before the forum began, as candidates worked the room – which would eventually be packed with around 60 people – they greeted their known supporters and detractors alike. Patricia Lesko was cheerily blunt with Ward 1 councilmember Sabra Briere, telling Briere:  “Hated what you had to say in The Observer about Lesko!” She was alluding to an article in The Ann Arbor Observer’s July edition, with the headline “Satan for Mayor?!”

Briere was seated in the back row next to John Hilton, editor of The Ann Arbor Observer and a member of the NCPOA. The location of the forum at the Ann Arbor Community Center on North Main Street and its sponsorship by the NCPOA was significant – the site is across the street from Near North, a controversial affordable housing development approved by council in September 2009. The NCPOA had opposed the project most of the way through, but in the end wound up supporting a compromise version of the design.

Development and the definition of downtown was one of several topics raised by questions put to the candidates.

Incumbent mayor John Hieftje’s basic theme was that Ann Arbor was doing fine financially during tough economic times – especially when compared to other Michigan cities. For her part, Patricia Lesko questioned the ability of the city’s current leaders to make tough choices and described her own toughness with flourishes like: “You want a flower girl? Don’t vote for me!”

There is no Republican running for mayor – the winner of the Aug. 3 Democratic primary will not face a GOP challenger in November. Steve Bean and William Bostic Jr. plan to run as independents.

The moderator for the event was David Santacroce – a University of Michigan law professor who specializes in civil rights and health care issues. He laid out the ground rules: (i) five minutes per candidate for opening statements; (ii) roughly 30 minutes total for responses to audience questions – one minute per response per candidate; and (iii) two minutes per candidate closing statement. His only job, he said, was to pronounce names correctly and to read the questions, which audience members submitted on cards.

Margaret Schankler organized the event for the North Central Property Owners Association (NCPOA). Candidates all opened by thanking the organizers and those in attendance.

Opening Statements

Each candidate had five minutes for an opening statement.

Lesko’s Opening Statement

Lesko read from a prepared statement. She began by thanking the NCPOA for organizing the event. She also said she wanted to thank Hieftje for his years of service. She said it was important for those who are running for office to realize that serving on the city council is a “heckuva lot of work.” She contended that she was not running because she disliked Hieftje, saying that she’d voted for him three times. She said she wanted to be the next mayor of Ann Arbor because she wants to see the city government refocus on the basics: responsible spending, services, and infrastructure.

Patricia Lesko, candidate for mayor of Ann Arbor.

Lesko then moved into a biographical description of herself. She’s lived in Ann Arbor for 26 years, she said, and earned her degrees from the University of Michigan. She spent a decade teaching college, and for the last few decades has served as CEO and publisher of a national higher-education publishing group, headquartered in Ann Arbor.

A question she’s heard going door-to-door, she said, was: “Why on earth are you running for mayor?”

Who would want to lead a city where the roads are a mess, where the police and fire departments had been decimated, where the Stadium Boulevard bridges have been allowed to deteriorate for years? she asked. Who would want to lead a city where residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the state, but which still “nickels and dimes” to death residents and visitors alike? She compared the idea that extending the parking meter enforcement hours was good for downtown to a great-grandmother’s recommendation for castor oil, as good for whatever ails you.

The reduced frequency in parks mowing, she contended, suggested to some people that here in Ann Arbor we are trying to recreate the Great Plains.

Summarizing the set of examples she’d given, Lesko described them as resulting from policies and decisions made by Hieftje.

She noted that the city had floated bonds to fund the police-courts facility now under construction at the corner of Fifth and Huron, which she described as “luxury office space.” But the city had not floated bonds to fix the Stadium bridges, she said.

She questioned whether a good leader tolerates unethical behavior on the part of their colleagues. And she called the underground parking garage currently under construction on the city-owned Library Lot “non-essential.” Instead, she suggested that the city should mend the roads that have been allowed to crumble.

She criticized the new $3 entry fee charged at the recycling drop-off station. She characterized the city’s current approach to police and fire staffing as “gambling” with public safety. Lesko said she had the support of the police and firefighter unions because they know that as mayor she would focus the city government on the basics.

She said she wanted to promote environmentalism not just through the implementation of programs, but through the regular evaluation of how well we’re meeting our environmental goals. She cited Susan Collins, who’s executive director of the Container Recycling Institute, as calling single-stream recycling a “poor choice.” [This month, starting July 5, the city of Ann Arbor is switching to a single-stream recycling program.]

She called green energy challenges “great” but evaluating results and meeting goals is the kind of management that is necessary, she said. [Hieftje's green energy challenge calls for the use of 20% green energy by 2010 for municipal operations and by 2015 for the whole city]. Launching initiatives, Lesko said, is something that politicians are good at doing, but evaluating their success is something she’d do as the next mayor of Ann Arbor, she said.

She concluded her remarks by saying that she wanted to form a city government that treats its workers fairly and equitably. She gave an example of a city worker she’d met, a single mother who earns $10 an hour as a full-time temporary employee without benefits, who for the past several years had supervised other staff without the possibility of regular raises. [For background on city temporary employees, see Chronicle coverage: "Living Wage: In-Sourcing City Temps"]

While the city hires people like that single mother by the dozens, Lesko said, Hieftje had more than doubled his own pay.

[In 2003, the Local Officers Compensation Commission recommended that city council pay be raised from $9,800 to $15,000 over two years, and recommended raising the mayor's salary from $18,800 to $40,000. Recommendations of the LOCC take effect by default unless the city council acts to reject the recommendation. A Chronicle search of council minutes did not produce a resolution considered by the council in 2003 to reject the LOCC recommendation. In 2005, the council voted to reject the LOCC recommendation for slight increases in pay, and in 2007 voted against rejecting a recommended increase – thus confirming the LOCC recommendation for a raise. In 2009, the LOCC recommended no change in council and mayor compensation. The LOCC makes its recommendations every two years.]

Lesko concluded that she was running for mayor because she believed that the Democratic Party could talk the Democratic talk and walk the progressive walk.

City services would take center stage with her as mayor, Lesko said.

Hieftje’s Opening Statement

Hieftje also began with thanks all around. He then said that he would tell the audience a little bit about “what he’d been up to.” He’d begun the week on Monday with the Urban Core Mayors. [The Urban Core Mayors is a forum developed in 1992 and includes the mayors of the following cities: Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Bay City, Dearborn, Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Muskegon, Pontiac, and Saginaw.]

John Hieftje, Ann Arbor's incumbent mayor who's seeking another term.

He said that the mayors of the cities sat around and talked about what’s going on in their cities, and he left that meeting thinking the same way he’d thought for some time – he would not trade places with any other city, he said.

The group had discussed what’s going on around the state in cities like Troy, Royal Oak, and Grand Rapids. He’d spoken with the mayor of Grand Rapids, where they’d cut 140 jobs back in January and then had passed a tax increase this spring, which meant that they were able to rehire many of the police and firefighters they’d laid off back in January. But they were only able to open two of 16 swimming pools this year and had cut parks programs dramatically.

The economic situation, Hieftje said, was the worst since the 1930s. Hieftje said that Ann Arbor was doing well to survive the loss of 4.86% of tax revenues, caused by the former Pfizer property being sold to the University of Michigan. Ann Arbor is continuing to move forward, he said, in one of the toughest fiscal environments it would ever find itself. Ann Arbor has not increased taxes, he pointed out. Ann Arbor continues to win awards for quality of life, he said, citing one given by Forbes magazine designating Ann Arbor as the 4th most livable city in the nation.

He asked rhetorically, “Can we make money in the downstairs basement of city hall with a big machine? No, we don’t do that.” Instead, the city used prudent management he said. The word “prudent” could be found in the bond rating reports when the city’s bond rating is made, he said.

On the topic of the Stadium Boulevard bridges, he said it would have been foolish to repair those bridges this fall as they could have done, without waiting for one more opportunity to get federal money that they think is coming the city’s way. He said they’d just heard that $450,000 – it’s only a little bit, he allowed – was coming Ann Arbor’s way and that more was on its way.

He questioned the wisdom of selling bonds to fund the bridge repair. There needs to be an income stream to sell bonds, he said, adding that the income stream for the underground parking garage would be paid for by parking revenues, not property tax dollars.

One of the largest projects in the history of Ann Arbor was still going forward, Hieftje said – the replacement of an entire wing of the sewage treatment plant, which had been built back in the 1930s. That’s a $140 million project, for which about half had already been saved, by implementing modest increases in fees, he said. The increases in fees, he contended, were well below the increases in peer communities.

Hieftje said he felt that people could put up with less frequent mowing, while the city gets through the worst financial crisis in modern history.

Looking at the numbers for police and fire protection, he said, he noted that there’d been a long-term decline in crime rates. If there were an increase, then that would need to be looked at. He then said he wanted to ask a central question: If Ann Arbor is mismanaged and it’s sheer incompetence that has put us where we are, is it sheer incompetence that has driven the state of Michigan’s budget down? Is it sheer incompetence that is driving Troy, Grand Rapids, and Royal Oak to do what they’ve had to do?

Hieftje said he believed that compared to any other city in Michigan, Ann Arbor is doing far better.

City Income Tax

Question: Should Ann Arbor have an income tax? Why or why not?

Hieftje on City Income Tax

Hieftje confirmed the report of Ward 1 councilmember Sandi Smith, who’d spoken just prior to him, that they’d heard more and more people speaking in favor of an income tax. He said he’d never been in favor of an income tax – he has his problems with it, he said. He said he doesn’t think an income tax spread the burden fairly, as it was particularly hard on people who rent.

An income tax would also introduce a new variable into budgeting – in Grand Rapids, their income tax revenues were down about 14%. So a property tax decrease was exacerbated by the additional lost of income tax revenues as jobs were lost during the recession.

Lesko on City Income Tax

Lesko said she agreed with the mayor and with Smith when they said that Ann Arbor is doing well economically. She said, however, that she didn’t know who they were talking to when they said they’d been hearing a lot of pro-income tax voices. The people she’d been talking to, she said, were vehemently opposed to a city income tax. In fact, she said, as she’d gone door-to-door, one woman had grabbed her literature, looked it over and said, “Thank god, no city income tax!”

But what she had told the woman was that as an individual she is opposed to a city income tax. But as an elected official, Lesko said, she will never oppose putting something on the ballot and bringing it to the voters.

A voter referendum should have happened with the bonds that had been sold to build the police-courts facility, she said, as well as the new underground parking garage. [Lesko helped head up an ultimately unsuccessful petition drive to enact a city charter amendment that would have made such a referendum required for all general obligation bonds. Chronicle coverage: "Bid Launched to Amend City Charter"]

She challenged what she said was a contention by Hieftje made during his opening statement that the new underground parking garage is being funded with parking dollars, saying that the parking garage is being funded with municipal bonds backed by the full faith and credit of the city of Ann Arbor. She called the sign that read “Your Parking Dollars at Work” at the construction site “misleading.”

[In his comments, Hieftje had seemed to indicate a contrast between floating bonds without a revenue stream to make bond payments, versus floating bonds where there is a revenue stream – as with the parking revenues that will help make the underground parking garage bond payments.]

Lesko concluded that she did not think a city income tax was necessary, but that she would put it on the ballot.

Downtown Boundaries

Question: The Chamber of Commerce has been talking about expanding the boundaries of downtown. How far out does the “buffer zone” go?

Hieftje on Downtown Boundaries

He noted that there’d been a long process [A2D2] – about six years – of finding a community consensus on rezoning downtown. And recently there had been work to preserve a neighborhood near downtown along the Fourth/Fifth Avenue corridor south of William Street. [At its July 6 meeting, city council is expected to vote on a recommendation to create a historic district in that area.] He said he was a big believer that density should be in the downtown area, the D1 and D2 areas.

Hieftje described a “bargain” that had been made with residents where they’d accepted density in the downtown in exchange for leaving the near-downtown neighborhoods alone. He cited the current support for Zaragon Place 2, a high-rise residential project proposed inside the downtown, as evidence of that bargain. [See Chronicle coverage: "Moving Ahead on Zaragon Place 2"]

Lesko on Downtown Boundaries

Lesko said it was a great question because the city was currently allowing “development by exception” through the use of planned unit developments (PUDs). Buffer zones are called that, she said, because they are supposed to protect neighborhoods where people live. She indicated that the city must grow, but that growth must be sustainable. The city must grow in a way that includes open, honest, forthright dialogue, she said.

She noted that the mayor had said he favored density in the downtown, yet had voted for PUDs. She contended that she was not criticizing Hieftje for that, but simply pointing out that it’s difficult to be consistent, given the way that zoning is currently handled in the city. As far as expanding boundaries, she said, she thought the discussion should happen. It was past time, she said, that the community came together to discuss exactly that topic.

The 35% Question

Question: On your [Lesko's] website, you make the statement that the cost of city government has gone up by 35% since 2006. Where do the numbers come from and what would you do to change that?

Lesko on the 35% Increase

The city of Ann Arbor, Lesko said, had provided the numbers through audited financial statements.

She then briskly moved to the rhetorical question: “What do you do to rein in spending?” The city can’t clip coupons, she said, but what the city could do, for example, was tell the IT department no, when they came and asked for unnecessary purchases. When the police department wants new vehicles, she said, the city council has to say no. Just say no to non-essential staff requests for funding, she suggested. Single-stream recycling was a non-essential request for funding, she said. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to rein in spending, she said, but rather political will.

Hieftje on the 35% Increase

Hieftje began by noting that his understanding was that a press release issued by the whole slate of candidates [Jack Eaton in Ward 4, Sumi Kailasapathy in Ward 1, and Lesko] had indicated that city overhead had been going up by 35% per year. He said that the city’s CFO, Tom Crawford, had said he doesn’t know where those numbers come from. Hieftje said he would have to side with Crawford and was curious as to how anyone could come to that conclusion.

Hieftje said he didn’t think that there was any city in the state of Michigan that had overhead going up by 35% a year. It was not possible, he said, for any city to have $10, $20, $30 or $40 million hidden away in some account somewhere – that’s just not possible. He said he’d refer folks back to the statements of the city’s CFO, and was very curious as to how someone could come up with that number.

Chronicle Analysis: A Theory on the Claimed 35% Increase

What is claimed on Lesko’s website is not a 35% increase each year, but rather a 35% increase since 2006:

REIN IN OVERHEAD: According to the city’s own audited financial statements, since 2006 the cost of running city government has risen 35 percent ($34 million dollars). I have the financial skills and real-world business experience to devise equitable and sustainable solutions to rein in overhead and increase government efficiency.

Among the documents available under the link are the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports for each fiscal year. [2006 CAFR] [2009 CAFR]

Comparing 2006 figures for “governmental activities” expenses to 2009 figures in that category gives the following contrast:

2009  $130,177,876 (2009 CAFR page 14)
2006   $96,870,412 (2006 CAFR page 14)

-

The difference in those numbers is $33.3 million, and the increase is 34.38% – truncating at the millions place before doing the computation would give the $34 million difference and 35% increase Lesko has specified.

The Chronicle asked CFO Tom Crawford how to interpret expenses for governmental activities in the CAFR – is it reasonable to think of that category as “overhead”? The short answer he gave was no. In somewhat more detail, what are governmental activities? Crawford’s discussion paralleled the CAFR boilerplate definitional language:

Governmental activities – All of the City’s basic services such as police, fire, public works, and general administration are included in governmental activities. Property taxes, fees and charges, state shared revenues, and state and federal grants finance most of these activities.

Governmental activities contrast with business-type activities. From the CAFR:

Business-type activities - Business-type activity areas include water, sewer and stormwater systems, parking facilities, market, golf courses, solid waste and an airport. The City assesses fees, taxes and charges to cover the cost of services provided in these business-type activities.

So governmental activities, Crawford said, aren’t “overhead” in any reasonable sense for financial professionals. What does count as overhead, then, if not the governmental activities in the CAFR? Crawford pointed The Chronicle towards categories of expenses like human resources, the finance department and the city attorney’s office.

The municipal service charge, said Crawford is a reflection of “overhead.” Based on The Chronicle’s previous reporting on the municipal service charge, the total amount of cost allocation is in the range of $12 million [From "City of Ann Arbor's Municipal Service Charge Explained"]:

At Monday’s council meeting on the budget, Karen Lancaster stressed that the idea behind the MSC was about cost recovery to the general fund. In FY 2008, the total amount of administrative and overhead costs identified in the general fund budget for FY 2010 and FY 2011 – the current two-year cycle – was about $12 million.

Out of that $12 million, around 75% of it goes to support general fund activities. So it’s only a little over $3 million that is recovered to the general fund from outside the general fund.

So MSC amounts do not appear be on the same scale as the $34 million increase cited by Lesko.

Even if governmental activity expenses aren’t “overhead,” does Crawford monitor performance on that statistic – total governmental expenses – to check how well the city is doing? The key things to look at, he said, are each fund – the general fund, the water fund, the solid waste fund, for example.

So what accounts for the increase since 2006 in governmental activity expenses? Crawford pointed The Chronicle to the fact that the CAFR provides explanatory notes. A roughly $18.5 million chunk of the $34 million difference happened between 2008 and 2009. The explanation in the 2009 CAFR:

• Expenses for General Government increased by approximately $9.9 million primarily due to an increase in construction costs for the new Court & Police addition and for the Police early retirement payouts.

• Expenses for Public Safety increased by approximately $9.4 million due to increased wages and benefits, and increased fleet costs.

• Expenses for Public Works decreased by approximately $1.8 million due to decreased expenses on major and local streets due to the decline in revenue sharing funds.

Affordable Housing

Question: What do we do about affordable housing?

Hieftje on Affordable Housing

Hieftje said that affordable housing was something that Ann Arbor needs, and it is needed across several income levels. Responding the Lesko’s observation that he had voted for some PUDs, he noted that one of them had been for the Near North project, located across the street from the Ann Arbor Community Center, where the evening’s forum was taking place.

As far as replacing the 100 units of affordable housing offered by the old YMCA building at William and Fifth, he noted that they had been very substandard units. He said that their replacement had proven to be difficult. One thing that’s happened in recent years is that the tax credit program that had previously funded affordable housing had dried up in the state of Michigan. There had been a proposal [William Street Station] that would have supported affordable housing with other market-rate units in the same project, he said, but when the financial markets began to take a downturn, that project had not materialized.

One telling number, Hieftje said, is that Ann Arbor and Lansing are the only two cities left in the state that still contribute general fund money to human services.

Building affordable housing on a massive scale, he cautioned, would probably have to wait until the tax credit program came back. There had been proposals made to the county, he said, to do something with county-owned land, and those discussions were still happening. [Chronicle coverage: "The 100 Units of Affordable Housing"]

In the meantime, he said, the city would need to continue to “chip away” at the problem with 10 units here and 20 units there.

Lesko on Affordable Housing

She said that if Ann Arbor could build affordable housing the same way that it had been building “cash box apartments” we wouldn’t be having the discussion. She pointed to Ashley Terrace, at the corner of Ashley and Huron, as such a “cash box” that was in the middle of “going belly up.”

She called for an affordable housing trust fund. She said that an affordable housing trust fund that was funded through construction would provide a base of revenue that could be used to address this issue. [During her turn at the question, Sandi Smith pointed out that the city already has such a fund.]

Based on a study by the city, there were 500 additional units of affordable housing required, but the city had built something like 60 – that was not a commitment, Lesko said. There had to be political will, she said. We need development, she said, but we need the political will to make the commitment, instead of waiting for someone to come help us with funding.

She pointed to other instances where the city was waiting for funding – Stadium bridges and Fuller Road Station. She said she was not content to wait, concluding, “We need affordable housing now.”

Argo Dam

Question: What is your position on Argo Dam? If it stays, is there a need to shift the funding source out of the drinking water fund into the parks and recreation fund?

Lesko on Argo Dam

Lesko began by saying that she lives near Argo Dam, and kayaks regularly between Bandemer Park and Argo Dam. She stated that Argo Dam should stay, but not for the reason that people might think. She observed that the proposed Fuller Road Station was to be located on city parkland. The intention, she continued, is to lease the land, which took advantage of a loophole in the city charter that requires a voter referendum on the sale of parkland. [The city draws a distinction between lease agreements and the use agreements that are planned for Fuller Road Station.]

Fuller Road Station, Lesko cautioned, created a precedent for leasing of parkland. That is relevant to the Argo Dam question, she said, because removing the dam would reveal 10s of acres of new parkland, which could then be leased. So she would not vote to remove the dam, she stated, until that loophole is closed.

We’d been told the dam was failing, when it wasn’t, she said. She called for an open and honest discussion. “You want to take out the dam? Let’s talk.”

Hieftje on Argo Dam

Hieftje said the reason for the study was that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment had pushed the city to repair the toe drains, then the city did not think the situation was as serious as the MDNRE had said. The city had conducted studies to show its position was correct, he said, and the MDNRE had backed off considerably.

He said the city should keep Argo Dam. If we’re going to talk about dams, he said, they should talk about the other dams on the Huron River, including Geddes Dam, which creates Gallup Pond. Argo is much healthier than Gallup as a body of water, he said.

As far as the funding issue, Hieftje said they were going to have to look at that. Argo and Geddes required maintenance, he said, and did not currently generate power. He mentioned that he serves on the city’s energy commission and said that another reason for keeping Argo Dam was for the energy it could generate if it were retrofitted to generate hydropower.

He called for a comprehensive look at all the dams along the river, before looking at removing one.

Just for Hieftje

Hieftje on Hieftje

Question: Why do you feel you’ve earned another two years as mayor? What, if anything, will you do different?

He said that what he thought the campaign of the slate of candidates who were headed up by Lesko was really about was “screaming that there’s something wrong.” He said he was happy to sit down and show people what was going on in other cities and what is going right in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is going through the same ups and downs as other cities, having just lost its largest employer and taxpayer [Pfizer, which pulled out of Ann Arbor in 2008]. In that context, he contended, Ann Arbor is actually thriving.

With respect to bridges, he said, it was worth considering that there were currently three bridges closed in Washtenaw County – 50 in the state of Michigan. We’re going to fix the Stadium bridges, he said. The city could have done that this fall, and in the spring they’d go ahead whether they had federal money or not. Hieftje noted that the safety rating had improved recently, when the beams were removed.

As far as the contention that the city would spend $11 million for its contribution to Fuller Road Station, he said that the city would not be spending anything like that amount of money. The University of Michigan investment is providing the entire local match that’s required, he said. He called it a “bargain” for the city of Ann Arbor, which would be an asset that the city owns. The city will not be leasing the facility, but rather having entities like Amtrak, Greyhound and others use the facility through use agreements.

Just for Lesko

Question: Could you elaborate on the unethical behavior and the mayor’s acceptance of it, which you alluded to in your opening remarks?

Lesko on Unethical Behavior

Lesko indicated that it stemmed from a scandal that everyone read about who opened their Sunday papers on “a fine June day [in 2009],” to find out that while people were addressing the city council, city councilmembers were talking to each other by email. They’d been making fun of each other, giving some councilmembers Golden Vomit Awards, calling a councilmember “the moron.”

“That’s unethical,” she declared.

If you’re a leader and you know those things are going on, she said, you have to face the situation. She quoted J.K. Rowling in one of the Harry Potter books: “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies; but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.” [Albus Dumbledore in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"]

You have to make hard decisions as a leader, she said, and one of the most difficult decisions to make is when you’re faced with unethical behavior by those around you. As far as she is concerned, she said, the episode is in the past, and people would have to learn to work together. It would take someone who is willing, she said, to lead the way.

She noted that Hieftje had called her and Eaton and Kailasapathy “the slate,” but she contended that Kailasapathy had said several things with which Lesko disagreed. She also pointed out that the “council majority” is called that because they vote together usually. There was a slate of candidates who ran in 2008 who were all endorsed by Hieftje, she noted.

Closing statements

Each candidate had two minutes for a closing statement.

Hieftje’s Closing

He began his closing statement by responding to a critique by Kailasapathy, of his frequently repeated assertion that Ann Arbor was doing better than other Michigan cities. She had contended that it was expected that Ann Arbor would do better than Flint and Detroit. Hieftje stated that her critique was interesting because he’d not once mentioned Flint or Detroit, but had instead cited Grand Rapids and Royal Oak, award-winning cities. He agreed that Flint and Detroit were in a different category.

Hieftje reviewed the budget situation. The property taxes from Pfizer had disappeared, he said, yet for the budget that the city council had passed, the police chief had told them it was a workable budget. The budget that the council had passed would allow the police force to be proactive, Hieftje said. The fire chief had told the city council that he could, under the budget passed by council, meet the three criteria that the council had set: (i) keep all the stations open, (ii) maintain response times, and (iii) maintain the ability to get 18 firefighters to the scene to protect the city’s insurance ratings.

Hieftje stated that there are on average only about 12 fires per year where firefighters hook up to a fire hydrant, and the number of fires in Ann Arbor is down about 70% since 1970. He said it was really a shame and his heart went out to the firefighters who are losing their jobs. That could have been prevented if the firefighters had come to the table and sat down with the city as firefighters had done in other cities, he said.

We can’t be standing up for one particular union, he cautioned. He concluded by saying that Ann Arbor would continue to build on the quality of life that we have in Ann Arbor and that he’d compare it with anywhere. We’d continue to win awards, he said.

Lesko’s Closing

Lesko began by alluding to a remark that Sandi Smith had made in her closing statement about stones being thrown: “Boy, Sandi is feeling like somebody from the Old Testament!” She said she found Hieftje and Smith to be very competent and likable people, but it’s not about personality, she said, but rather policy.

In the June Ann Arbor Observer, she said, Hieftje is quoted as saying that she is against everything he is for [The Observer quote came in the context of an article on single-stream recycling.] She said she’d thought about that and concluded he was actually right – she is against cronyism, she said.

She said she is uncompromising when it comes to unethical or illegal behavior. She’s against scripting votes by email, she said. She said she takes very seriously the legal and fiduciary responsibilities that come with elected office.

She said that as the next mayor of Ann Arbor, she’d lead a city where city services take center stage. She stated that she would lead – “I’m not a go-along kind of gal.”

“You want a flower girl? Don’t vote for me. I’m tough,” she told the audience.

These are tough times, she said, and anti-union rhetoric “doesn’t fly with me.” And it is also not acceptable, she said, to allow unions to negotiate the “pants, shirts, and socks” off the mayor, the council and the city administrator.

She’d told the unions that if elected, she’d reopen their contracts, and that they’d said they’d cooperate.

Former Ann Arbor mayor Ingrid Sheldon, speaking to a leadership forum at Huron High School.

Some facts that students learned about former Ann Arbor mayor Ingrid Sheldon on Saturday: 1) She spent the first part of her schooling, through 7th grade, in a one-room schoolhouse on Earhart Road, 2) she thinks a large part of the mayor’s job entails cheerleading for the city, 3) she doesn’t take herself too seriously. This last fact was demonstrated as she pulled items out of a large “gift box” she’d brought, full of things she said would be useful for students in leadership roles – including a pair of yellow pompoms. And yes, she gave a little cheer.

Sheldon was keynote speaker at a leadership conference held Saturday at Huron High School. The event was organized by the school’s Interact Club, a service organization for  teens that’s affiliated with Rotary International. (Sheldon is a member of Ann Arbor Rotary, which sponsors Huron’s Interact Club.) About 40 students attended from Huron, Pioneer High, and several other local schools.

The Chronicle heard about this event via Emily Hsiao, a Huron senior whom we first met in January. Hsiao was one of the main organizers for Saturday’s leadership conference, held as part of National Youth Service Day.

Sheldon’s advice to students was practical: Leaders don’t have to be the people who have all the ideas and energy, she said. They just have to recognize and support those who do. She described a “spiral of leadership” as starting with one small thing you do, then learning about yourself, doing something more, building on every experience. In her own case, she said she started by volunteering with the Ann Arbor Jaycees, then got involved with the schools and finally in politics. A Republican, Sheldon served as a city council member from 1988 to 1992, then was elected mayor. ”I defeated the woman whose picture is in your program,” she quipped. (Next to Sheldon’s bio, where her picture should be, was a photo of Democrat Liz Brater.) Sheldon was mayor from 1993 to 2000.

So what else was in Sheldon’s box of leadership props? The collection included a book of jokes (sense of humor), a clock (punctuality), binoculars (vision), running shoes (keeping up), canned food (a “can-do” attitude), a diploma (education), and a toy phone that played a busy signal (perseverance). This last one was a tough concept to convey, since most students had likely never encountered a busy signal before.

[Editor's note: After Sheldon's presentation, students broke up into workshops, including one on journalism led by The Chronicle. There, we learned from students that, not surprisingly, they get most of their news from online sources. Yahoo News, USA Today and the New York Times were high on their lists.]

We couldn’t stay for the entire event, so we checked in with Emily Hsiao on Sunday to hear how the day unfolded. She reported that, as a service project, they collected 18 bags of trash from the school grounds on Saturday afternoon. They also brainstormed to come up with projects that address social issues – a “fit fair” for kids to learn about health eating and staying active, and an advice website for victims of dating abuse. “It’s amazing how kids can come up with this stuff with just a little encouragement!” Hsiao wrote in an email.

Some of the students attending Saturday's leadership conference at Huron High. From left: Jeremy Cohen (Huron High), David Wu (Saline Middle School), Douglas Yang (Huron High), Hao Hao Wang (Clague Middle School), Angela Song (Clague Middle School), Trisha Paul (Huron High). Standing: Andreas Hailu (Huron High).