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

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

Candidates for the Ann Arbor Public School Board in the Nov. 4, 2014 general election have also been invited: Patricia Manley and Don Wilkerson.

The format of the forum will include opportunities for the candidates to state their positions and to field questions from the audience.

Screen shot of Washtenaw County clerk election results map for Ward 2. Purple shading corresponds to precincts won by Lumm, light blue to those won by Westphal. The two precincts won by Westphal were the lightly voted 2-1 (70 Westphal, 59 Lumm, 5 Brown) and 2-2 (7 Westphal, 3 Lumm, 3 Brown).

In Ward 4, Democrat Jack Eaton was unopposed on the ballot and won easily, with 88.9% of the tally, against declared write-in candidate William Lockwood.

The Ann Arbor Public Schools sinking fund millage won easily with a 13,321 (80.34%) to 3,259 (19.7%) margin.

The outcome makes Eaton the only new member on the 11-member council. He’ll replace Democrat Marcia Higgins. Eaton and Higgins contested the Aug. 6 Democratic primary, which Eaton won in decisive fashion – with about 65% of the vote.

The composition of the council will not change before its Nov. 7, 2013 meeting, which features a very heavy agenda. Eaton will join Ward 4 colleague Margie Teall at the table for the Nov. 18 meeting, but will be officially sworn in on Nov. 11.

Ward 2 featured the closest race, with Lumm’s 2,071 votes (55.9%) still a clear margin over Democratic challenger Kirk Westphal’s 1,549  (41.8%), and independent Conrad Brown’s 71 (1.9%). Lumm’s relative share of the votes was slightly less than the 60% she received in her 2011 win against Stephen Rapundalo, but came within eight votes of matching the number of votes she received in 2011 (2,079).

The $20,875 raised by Lumm during the pre-campaign finance period was twice what Westphal had raised. [Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor Campaign Finance 2013"] Possibly more significant than the total amount raised was the distribution of donation amounts. In recent years, those campaigns with a greater skew toward donations of lower amounts have been winning efforts. This year during the pre-campaign period, Lumm’s average donation was $102, compared to $133 for Westphal.

Ward 2 also had the highest voter turnout of any of the wards, with 3,751 voters participating. That’s 19.83% of registered voters. Even though Mike Anglin was unopposed on the ballot, Ward 5 had the second highest turnout, with 3,418 (15.37 %) of registered voters participating in the election.

Possibly helping that Ward 5 turnout was Chip Smith’s write-in candidacy for Ward 5, which was announced on Oct. 24, just shortly before the election. But voter turnout in Ward 5 is typically strong, compared to other wards. Anglin received 2,112 votes (67.8%), with “Write-In” receiving 1,004 votes (32%). That write-in tally is for the number of voters who filled in the write-in bubble, not broken down by candidate or validated by election officials. The two declared write-in candidates in Ward 5 were Thomas Partridge and Chip Smith.

The percentage of votes received by Ward 5 write-in candidates was similar to that received by independent Ward 1 challenger Jeff Hayner. Hayner received 549 votes (31.9%), compared to 1,147 votes (66.6%) for the incumbent Democrat Sabra Briere. Independent Jaclyn Vresics, who had announced she was withdrawing from the race – but not in time to prevent her name from appearing on the ballot – received 20 votes (1.2%).

In Ward 3, Democrat Stephen Kunselman received 1,545 votes (70.3%) compared to Sam DeVarti’s 618 (28.1%). Kunselman told The Chronicle that on Election Day, for two of the city’s five wards (Ward 3 and Ward 5) he managed to collect enough signatures to satisfy the requirement for his 2014 mayoral election effort. He collected 60 signatures in each of those wards, which gives him a margin of 10 over the minimum 50 in each ward.

As in Ward 5, in Ward 4 the write-in tally of 209 (11%) is for the number of voters who filled in the write-in bubble, but those have not yet been validated. So declared write-in candidate William Lockwood could have received a maximum of 11% of the vote. It’s possible some number of those write-ins were tallied for a joke candidate, Twenty Pound Carp.

Results here are unofficial. For unofficial results compiled by the Washtenaw County clerk’s office, including maps, see: Election Results.

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The deadline for filing a declaration of write-in candidacy is Oct. 25. Responding to an emailed query from The Chronicle, Smith indicated he plans to file the necessary paperwork this afternoon, on Oct. 24.

Smith is a municipal planner in Wade Trim’s environmental design and planning group. He holds a masters degree in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan. [More background on ArborWiki]

Already filed as a write-in candidate for Ward 5 is Thomas Partridge. The only candidate on the ballot for Ward 5 is Democratic incumbent Mike Anglin, who is seeking to serve his fourth two-year term on the council since he was first elected in 2007.

Vresics is a University of Michigan student who is affiliated with the Mixed Use Party. The Mixed Use Party stresses land-use and zoning as key to environmental preservation and legal equality. The website for the party indicates the desire to “create a new zoning code, abolish tax increment financing, legalize victimless crimes, and look for other ways to improve the city.”

So far Vresics is the only potential challenger to Briere, who pulled petitions in February but has not yet filed the required 100 valid signatures. Briere, who was first elected in 2007, has included zoning and land-use issues as part of her focus during her time on the council. Since November 2012, she has served as the city council appointee to the city planning commission.

Also this week, two candidates have filed petitions in other ward races for the Aug. 6, 2013 Democratic primary election. Ward 4 incumbent Marcia Higgins and first-time candidate Julie Grand, who’s running in Ward 3, both filed more than the required 100 petitions on April 29, which were subsequently validated by the city clerk’s office this week.

Ward 3 incumbent Stephen Kunselman, who will be challenged by Grand, had filed valid petitions on March 8.

Several other candidates have pulled petitions, but not yet filed them with the city clerk. Those include Jack Eaton in Ward 4, Kirk Westphal in Ward 2, and Ward 5 incumbent Mike Anglin. Westphal is likely to face incumbent Ward 2 councilmember Jane Lumm, who was elected in 2011 as an independent.

The deadline to submit petitions for the August primary – with at least 100 valid signatures – is May 14. The deadline for filing petitions in non-primary races is Aug. 7.

Eric Sturgis and Sumi Kailasapathy at their June 20, 2012 Democratic primary forum. They are running for a Ward 1 Ann Arbor city council seat.

In the Aug. 7 primary, the two candidates will contest Sandi Smith’s seat on the council. Smith announced in April that she will not seek re-election to a third two-year term.

The June 20 forum included fairly standard opening and closing statements, and other questions that invited candidates to talk about themselves.

Sturgis emphasized the fact that he grew up in Ann Arbor and noted his connection to the Ann Arbor public schools; he liberally sprinkled through his remarks the names of several people who’ve endorsed him, including Sandi Smith.

Kailasapathy emphasized her educational background in political science and economics and her professional training as a certified public accountant.

Broader policy issues covered at the forum included: communication (transparency and dissemination of information); planning and development (African American Cultural & Historical Museum, Near North, 618 S. Main); and transportation (rail station, countywide transit). The candidates were also asked questions about employee health care, public art, medical marijuana, and the public schools.

The forum featured a combination of questions that had been prepared in advance, as well as some questions submitted by audience members on cards during the forum. Mike Henry, co-chair of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party, moderated the forum and declined to read some of the questions submitted from the audience on cards, calling them “unfair.” But toward the end of the event Henry allowed questions to be asked directly from the audience. Anne Bannister, the other party co-chair, was also on hand to help manage the forum.

A kerfuffle over campaign yard signs preceded the forum – as the two campaigns had difficulty reaching agreement on the appropriate placement of yard signs outside the venue, the Arrowwood Community Center. The center is located off Pontiac Trail about a half mile north of Barton Road.

And during the forum itself, the focus of the conversation at times veered away from substantive issues into associations that Sturgis and Kailasapathy may or may not have had with past candidates for office – locally and statewide. One of those past candidates was current Ward 2 city councilmember Jane Lumm.

In a comment emailed to The Chronicle, Lumm offered this perspective: “I was not at the debate the other night, but it sounds like some of the discussion was about who supported whom in past elections rather than exclusively focused on the issues and challenges facing the city. That’s unfortunate. Whether it’s beefing up public safety, or the strategies and decisions on county-wide transit and the passenger rail station, or service delivery efficiency, there are important city issues and that’s where the discussion ought to be.”

The detailed report of the forum below is organized thematically, not in chronological sequence. The report begins with a brief bit of internal Ann Arbor Democratic Party business, and is followed by the broader policy topics and other one-off policy questions. The various who-supported-whom issues are extracted into a separate, final section.

Ann Arbor Dems Business

Candidate forums hosted by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party typically include introductions of other candidates for public office, even if they’re not participating in the forum. Forums often include some other internal party business as well.

Ann Arbor Dems Business: Other Races

Also in attendance at the Ward 1 Ann Arbor city council forum was Erane Washington, candidate for the judgeship on the 22nd Circuit Court that is open due to the retirement of Melinda Morris. [Other candidates for that position include Carol Kuhnke, Jim Fink and Doug McClure.]

Yousef Rabhi attended the forum. He’s running for re-election to the Washtenaw County board of commissioners in the new District 8, against Republican Joe Baublis. Rabhi described Baublis at the Ward 1 forum as a “Tea Party Republican.”

Introduced at the end of the forum was Christina Montague, who’s running for election to the Washtenaw County board in the new District 7. A former county commissioner, Montague will face Andy LaBarre in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary.

Also in attendance were three sitting councilmembers. Mike Anglin (Ward 5) attended, as well as both current council representatives from Ward 1 – Sabra Briere and Sandi Smith. It’s Smith’s seat that Sturgis and Kailasapathy would like to fill. Smith announced on April 23 that she would not seek re-election.

Jack Eaton, who’s contesting the Ward 4 Ann Arbor city council primary against incumbent Margie Teall, also attended the Ward 1 forum.

Ann Arbor Dems Business: Voter Registration

Mike Henry took the opportunity to encourage forum attendees to take voter registration applications with them and to register at least one other person to vote – because one of the best things Democrats can do is grow the electorate, he said. From the audience, Lois Mayfield asked about the Dems’ ability to help register voters, given legislation passed by the Michigan legislature.

Co-chair of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party Mike Henry reports the results of the coin toss: Heads.

By way of background, SB 754 was recently passed by the Michigan legislature, and had been presented to Gov. Rick Snyder for signing on June 19, the day before the Ward 1 city council candidate forum. It requires third-party entities that engage in voter registration activities to have a representative undergo training that is to be organized by the Michigan Secretary of State’s office. Jeff Irwin, an Ann Arbor Democrat who represents the 53rd District of the Michigan house of representatives, opposed the legislation.

In an email written to The Chronicle, Irwin indicated that he felt the passage of the legislation would probably be subjected to a legal challenge, because the Republican majority had claimed it had a two-thirds majority required for legislation to take immediate effect – which it did not have. The record in the “Journal of the House of Representatives” shows the vote on the house floor was 66 yeas to 43 nays in the 110-member house. A two-thirds majority of 110 would require 74 yeas. The “Journal” records Irwin’s remarks following the vote in part as follows:

Furthermore, I did not support the gaveling on of Immediate Effect to SB751, SB754, or SB803 without a roll call vote. It is an insult to the voters that the House Journal inaccurately reflects the level of support for immediate effect. Votes were not counted and a 2/3rds majority for immediate effect was not established through any accepted means of counting votes. Votes were not counted by a voice vote, a rising vote or a roll call. Rather, the supermajority is asserted erroneously and all efforts to count votes are rebuffed.

So Mayfield wanted to know if people who took voter registration forms have to undergo the mandated training. Henry told Mayfield that the Ann Arbor Democratic Party would need to reach out to Washtenaw County clerk Larry Kestenbaum for guidance. However, Henry assured Mayfield that “we’re not going to stop the show.”

About Themselves: Candidate Introductions

By way of introduction, Mike Henry described Kailasapathy and Sturgis as “two great candidates.” He told the forum attendees that a number of questions had been prepared. They’d each have an opportunity for an opening and closing statement. He told the two candidates not to engage each other, but rather to talk to the audience or to him, the moderator.

A coin toss determined the order of candidate responses. Kailasapathy called heads, and heads it was. So she went first.

Kailasapathy noted that she’d run two years ago for the Ward 1 seat occupied by Sandi Smith. [Percentage-wise, the outcome of that 2010 Democratic primary election was Smith's 55% to Kailasapathy's 45%, which was the best showing of any challenger to an incumbent in 2010.]

Sumi Kailasapathy at the Memorial Day parade on May 28, 2012 in the Glacier neighborhood.

She described her campaign platform as resting primarily on a focus on the city’s core services. She believes we need to make sure police, fire and roads are funded fully, before funding other activities. A second main issue for her is that she’s for maintaining parks, not developing or repurposing parks.

She feels she brings an educational and professional background to the table. She attended Wellesley College and completed her undergraduate degree in economics and political science. She then attended the New School for Social Research and completed a masters degree in political economy.

She taught at Eastern Michigan University for 10 years, she said, as well as at the Chinese University in Hong Kong for two years. She switched careers about five years ago and became a certified public accountant, which she felt could help her understand the budget and priorities as well as looking at things from a political point of view.

Sturgis said he’d attended Ann Arbor’s Northside Elementary School, Clague Middle School and Huron High School, and he’s lived in the area his whole life. This area is a passion for him, he said. As he’s gone door-to-door campaigning, something he’s heard from people is that there are kids who walk to school at 6:15 a.m. to catch a bus and there are no lights. Those issues are important to certain communities, he said. Living in Ann Arbor his whole life, and in Ward 1, he knows what Ward 1 residents are looking for, he said. He supports well-funded police and supports the city parks.

Sturgis said he’d like to see Ann Arbor continue to maintain its city parks. A lot of times, he said, Northside Elementary School’s grass isn’t mowed as much as it should be. Cut-through traffic on Chandler near Pontiac Trail is another issue he felt needs attention: “We need a representative from this area who’s going to fight for little stuff like that,” he said.

He said he’d read through the budget carefully, and there are some things in the city budget he’d change. Others he wouldn’t change. He said one thing he’d like to see is to continue to push for recycling, and to try to partner more with the university in getting students to recycle.

He said his commitment to Ward 1 and the area is shown in his endorsement by Pat Byrd [a former city councilmember who served Ward 1 from 1994 to 1999, then named Pat Vereen-Dixon], Simone Lightfoot [current Ann Arbor Public Schools board member] and Letitia Byrd [a retired teacher and long-time community activist who serves on the boards of several local nonprofits.]

About Themselves: Concluding Statements

Sturgis thanked everybody who put the candidate forum together. He also thanked Kailasapathy. Growing up in Ann Arbor, he’s seen a lot of things that friends of his who live in other communities can’t believe. One of those things is the Hash Bash. He also has friends from other parts of the state who’ve never seen two gay people holding hands before. The diversity of Ann Arbor is great, he said. He said he’s been active in politics since he was 14 years old – for 12 years.

He then read off a list of endorsers. These are people who support his campaign, he said, and understand that he will fight for Ward 1 and fight for the city. Not every issue is black and white. We have to look at what’s best for the city, he said. On Dhu Varren Road, there are no sidewalks – and that’s something we have to look at in the context of kids walking to school. He asked people for their vote on Aug. 7.

Kailasapathy offered thanks all around to the organizers. She said she’s lived in Ann Arbor for 15 years. She has two kids who attend Ann Arbor public schools. Her husband teaches at Eastern Michigan University. They could not have expected anything more out of society than Ann Arbor, she said – as a refugee from the Sri Lankan civil war. In Ann Arbor she’s never felt out of place or left out. Her skin color and her accent just don’t matter, she said. She called it “unbelievable” what her family has here in Ann Arbor. So now, she feels she wants to give something back.

At the local level, democracy can be realized in its ideal form – at least in theory, she said. At the national level there’s too much money and special interests, she said. So the local level is “where the tire hits the road” and it’s where you can have a true democracy. She’s really excited, she said, because she’s always worked at the grass roots level, beginning with her work on human rights back in Sri Lanka.

About Themselves: What Principles Motivate You?

Lou Glorie, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for a Ward 5 seat on the city council in 2010, asked the candidates: What principles motivate you?

Kailasapathy read aloud a poem that she keeps with her, which she reads when she feels sad or challenged, and it motivates her. She was a kid when father died, she said, and when she showed the poem to her mom, she cried, because it was the very same poem that her father liked.

Kailasapathy introduced the poem as originally written in Tamil, a language she speaks. It’s a 2,500-year old poem, she said.

The text of the poem:

This world lives
Because
Some men
Do not eat alone,
Not even when they get
The sweet ambrosia of the gods;
They’ve no anger in them,
They fear evils other men fear
But never sleep over them;
Give their lives for honor,
Will not touch a gift of whole worlds
If tainted;
There’s no faintness in their hearts
And they do not strive
For themselves.
Because such men are,
this world is.

Sturgis said that growing up with a single mom, he didn’t get to know his dad until he was 18. He had two loving grandparents and a loving mom, he said, who raised him. What motivates him is helping others and seeing others succeed. That’s why he would volunteer and tutor over at Clague Middle School. He’d be assigned kids who weren’t doing homework and he’d work with them one-on-one and try to motivate them. He said Jean Robinson, a former Ward 1 city councilperson [2000-2002], summed it up best when she said about Sturgis that she’s not met somebody who cares more about others. So what motivates him is seeing others succeed, he concluded.

About Themselves: Constraints on Time

Moderator Mike Henry asked about constraints that candidates might have on their time, if they were elected.

Kailasapathy allowed that she’d probably have to work fewer hours. In January and April, during tax season, she might work 100 hours in a week. She might have to cut that down to 40 hours a week instead of 100. She said she’d need time for her family, too. But juggling and struggling has always been a part of her life, she said. She ventured she might also get less sleep.

Sturgis said when he got this year’s budget book, in a day he had read through all 270 pages in it. Some of the material he’d read more than once. He’s finishing his bachelor’s degree in the fall, he said, so his school schedule gives him time during the evenings. As a city councilmember, it would be his duty to make time to read. That won’t be an issue, he said. Besides school, Henry wanted to know if Sturgis had any employment constraints. Sturgis said he did have employment, but did not have constraints.

About Themselves: Accounting an Essential Skill?

Patricia Lesko asked from the audience: Why do we need a CPA on the Ann Arbor city council? Why do we need someone with extensive financial knowledge on the council? What’s the argument for that?

Sturgis responded to Lesko’s question by quipping, that if people had read a2politico.com, then “We don’t need a tennis coach, obviously!” [Lesko authors that website and has offered a view on the topic. Sturgis is a tennis coach.] A councilmember who is a CPA could crunch the numbers, he said, but added that the city’s financial staff do a very good job. A CPA on council is just “another person,” he said. A lot of the budget amounts to a set of policy statements, he said. Do you think police and fire protection are more important? You don’t need a CPA to decide that police and fire should receive more funding, he said. He felt that that most councilmembers can do the rudimentary arithmetic to know that if you have $20,000 and subtract $15,000, then you have $5,000 left. In the same way, he allowed, he didn’t think that having a tennis coach on the city council is beneficial, either.

Kailasapathy said that you definitely don’t have to be a CPA to serve on the city council. But she felt that she could help in the area of financial literacy. For example, two years ago there was a group working to support Huron Hills golf course as the city discussed the possibility of privatizing it. The city’s contention was that the golf course was not making money. As an aside, Kailasapathy noted that she did not feel that the golf courses are meant to make money. She chose to come and live in Ann Arbor, even though she had no family here, and even though it would have been cheaper to live in Pittsfield Township [located directly south of Ann Arbor]. She and her husband had moved to Ann Arbor, knowing the taxes would be higher, because of the quality of life and the charm of Ann Arbor.

Returning to the issue of the financial condition of the Huron Hills golf course, Kailasapathy reported that she was looking at the financial statements with the line items: revenues, expenses, and then overhead. Adding those categories together yielded a negative number, she said. But as a CPA, she said, she knew that “overhead” is never used to calculate “profitability.” She suggested that the notion of profitability shouldn’t be applied to the golf course, she said, because the golf course is a public good.

Communication: Engagement, Transparency

Mike Henry asked how the candidates would help to engage the public more in decisions and create a more transparent process.

Kailasapathy responded by saying that every contract should be bid out – because that way, the city gets the best deal. She felt that a lot of people find it difficult to understand the budget and the whole budgeting process. By asking the right questions and setting priorities, we can bring more transparency to the process.

She noted that the different millages have to be in their separate funds, but aside from that, she said, perhaps not so many different funds are needed. If the money is in a single fund, it’s possible to prioritize. There are so many different funds, each with its own fund balance, that it’s difficult to answer questions. Taking the fleet funds as an example, she asked if it’s possible to purchase firetrucks from that fund. She feels that transparency means having financial efficiency and talking about these issues – something she feels she can do if she’s elected to the city council.

Sturgis began his response by looping back to a mention by Kailasapathy of reductions to school busing. He contended that in talking to AAPS director of communications Liz Margolis, there are no cuts to school busing in this year’s recently approved budget. And the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority is constrained by federal regulations, he said. From the audience, Patricia Lesko then challenged Sturgis’ contention there were no cuts in AAPS busing this year. [Lesko has previously run for the Ward 1 council position (in 2008, as a write-in candidate) and for mayor (in 2010), but did not win either election.] There was a midday shuttle from Community High School to Huron High, Lesko pointed out, which has been eliminated from the recently approved AAPS fiscal year 2013 budget. Sturgis wanted to know from Lesko: “Are you asking a question?” Mike Henry invited Sturgis to focus on the question that had been asked – about transparency.

Coming back to the topic of transparency, Sturgis called Ann Arbor one of the most transparent governments in Michigan. You can find anything on the city’s website, including the budget, which is very accessible. You can get the meeting agendas, or any document you want. You can email your councilmembers and talk to them. He thinks Ann Arbor’s government is very transparent.

Kailasapathy felt that actual transparency goes beyond what’s available online. She brought up the issue of the future of the Library Lot – the top of the new underground parking garage, now referred to as the Library Lane parking structure – and whether there’s going to be a conference center built there. At that Sabra Briere, one of the current Ward 1 councilmembers, stated emphatically: “There’s not going to be a conference center and a hotel.” Kailasapathy contended that the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority had renewed that proposal. Briere noted that a consultant hired by the DDA had done a review, but the DDA has not done anything yet.

Over the following weekend, mayor John Hieftje engaged in some back-and-forth with residents on an email thread that echoed Briere’s sentiments. Hieftje wrote:

I know that I have no interest in seeing a convention center built on top of the new parking structure. I would guess other council members feel the same way.
…
There is a big difference between them but you can substitute “conference” for “convention” in my earlier emails if you like.

At the candidate forum, Kailasapathy said the whole idea is that this should be coming out of a public discussion. Transparency means that we shouldn’t have agendas and then suddenly something pops up on the agenda. While the underground parking garage was under construction, the proposal to build a hotel/conference center emerged, people put out yard signs advocating against it, and it was defeated, she said.

She said she didn’t know what the future of the top of the underground parking garage would be, but she felt that it should come out of a public process. Her concluding remark generated applause. [The proposal to build a hotel/conference center on the top of the Library Lot had been selected as the best proposal as part of an RFP (request for proposals) review process; the city council voted to reject that proposal at the point when the council was asked to ratify a memorandum of understanding – at its April 4, 2011 meeting.]

Sturgis said he totally agreed with the idea of public process. But he noted that “we have things called public hearings.” That’s where people attend a council meeting, “and it’s called a public hearing – so we’re going to do a little education here.” As an example, he gave the 618 S. Main planned project, where people got up and gave their opinion on the project. From the audience, Sabra Briere then interrupted Sturgis by saying, “I want to interrupt you and I do apologize.” She pointed out that there was a lot of public process before that public hearing on 618 S. Main at the city council meeting. For a lot of people, she said, that’s just the last thing. Sturgis said he was getting to that – the fact that there were several neighborhood meetings and people met with councilmembers. People do have the opportunity to go and give their input, he concluded.

Mike Henry said what he heard Kailasapathy saying is that there are ideas that are on the table, being considered by certain parts of city government that are not always in the public eye. The public has time to respond to those things they know about, but if the public doesn’t know about them, they can’t respond, he said. So Henry asked the candidates if they were comfortable with the way the city handles things.

Sturgis stated that he is comfortable with the way the city handles things. As an example he gave the African American Cultural and Historical Museum. The neighbors were consulted and the plans were discussed with them. There’s always public input and public commentary. He said that his grandmother is 85 years old and doesn’t use a computer. But if she has a concern, she can have email or she can pick up the phone. He does think there’s transparency, he concluded.

Communication: Information, Digital Divide

A question from former city councilmember Eunice Burns came from the audience: What are you thinking of doing to keep us informed about what’s going on?

Sturgis said it’s hard to beat the newsletter that Ward 1 representative Sabra Briere sends out. He has pledged to hold coffee hours at different places – sometimes at the Northside Grill, or sometimes at the Arrowwood Community Center, or different places in the ward. He’d also like to create his own newsletter and send it out. That would keep people informed on the issues, he said, and when there are public hearings.

Kailasapathy felt that it starts at the city council itself. Whatever questions she gets from constituents, she will raise those issues – by answering the questions herself or by getting the information from the city staff and then responding to constituents. She will continue to update her website and keep her constituents informed – because that’s how a democracy thrives. It should not be a top-down process – but rather an informed discussion.

From Burns came the follow-up question: What about Eric’s grandmother, who doesn’t have a computer? Sturgis explained that his grandmother does have a computer, but doesn’t know how to use it.

Kailasapathy allowed that’s a good point: What about people who can’t visit a website?

Mary Hall-Thiam, the Ann Arbor Democratic Party vice chair for outreach and inclusion, followed up on the theme of access to information by asking about the “digital divide.” Hall-Thiam noted that some people don’t have computers, because they can’t afford them, but also because they don’t want them. She asked the candidates how they would involve those people in a transparent government.

Kailasapathy began by saying that what she typically heard when this issue comes up is people saying, “Oh, I wish Ann Arbor had a real newspaper.” That’s a lament she hears often, she said. People feel well-informed as far as world news is concerned, as well as national news – because they read the New York Times. But they don’t feel well-informed locally. She did not know if she had the answer to that question, but it’s a “grief” she hears people express. On the online side, she said, there’s the Ann Arbor Chronicle. But she said it’s sad that Ann Arbor doesn’t have in paper form the kind of reporting that takes time and effort .

Sturgis said when you hold coffee hours and meet with people in the community, that gives people who don’t have or want a computer a chance to come out and express their views. When Briere holds her coffee hours every Monday morning at the Northside Grill, people come out to that – and they rely on that, he said. That allows people to have easy access and to talk to their representatives about what they’re doing on particular votes.

Planning/Development: African American Museum

Mike Henry asked candidates if they supported the proposed work to be done on the African American Cultural and Historical Museum of Washtenaw County, in Ward 1 at 1528 Pontiac Trail.

Kailasapathy indicated her understanding was residents worry about parking issues. If it’s going to be a museum, where will the visitors park their vehicles? There’s an issue of planning that needs to be addressed, she said.

Sturgis reported that he’d spoken to a representative of the museum at the local Juneteenth celebration. That person indicated that it would be another two years before the museum would be open to the public. The plan is for six parking spots on the side of the building. Sturgis said he lives just two minutes from there, and thinks the museum would be good for the community.

His concern, Sturgis said, is that residents were initially told it would be five years – and now it’s been five years. Now the word is that it’ll be two more years. Residents are wondering about the process, he said. But he supports the museum. He noted that there’d be overflow parking in the church parking lot next to the future museum. He’d spoken to the immediate neighbors, he said, and they’d told him they’d been consulted about it and were okay with it.

Planning/Development: Near North

Moderator Mike Henry segued from the African American Cultural and Historical Museum to the Near North Avalon Housing project, noting that they were both “stalled projects.” [The closing on the financial piece of Near North is now expected to take place at the end of June 2012. The project was given city council approval back in 2009 ]. He asked the candidates what they thought about the Near North project, to be located on North Main.

Sturgis said we need to be committed to affordable housing. He grew up with a single mom and started working when he was 12 years old. He knows what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet, Sturgis said. We need more affordable housing, he said. People need to have the opportunity to have affordable housing. If older people want to retire to more affordable housing, they should be able to do that. Sturgis said that he felt Avalon Housing’s Michael Appel, associate director of the nonprofit, does an outstanding job.

Kailasapathy felt that it comes back to the whole development issue. On the site of the Near North project, she said, there were 6-7 units, which were allowed to deteriorate and now they’re to be demolished. From the audience, Sabra Briere volunteered that there were seven houses on the site, with each house divided into smaller units – about 22 or so. Also from the audience, Sandi Smith noted that the Near North project would include 44 affordable housing units. Using Smith’s number, Briere concluded that Near North would more than double the number of units on the site. Avalon had worked with a very aggressive neighborhood to accomplish a goal, Briere said.

Kailasapathy stated that every city needs affordable housing. Diversity is needed, otherwise things become gentrified, she said. A diversity of income groups is needed. But affordable housing should be pursued in a thoughtful way. Neighbors close to the Near North project were concerned about having a big building close to them. The idea of not-in-my-backyard is the reality, she said. But how would you feel if the project were behind your house? Then your position changes, right? We need to keep density in the D1 and D2 areas where the zoning provides for that higher density, she concluded.

Planning/Development: Public-Private (618 S. Main)

The topic introduced by moderator Mike Henry was public-private partnerships. He noted the city had experienced a number of challenges, citing the top of the Library Lot as an example. He asked the candidates to share their philosophy on public-private partnerships and development.

Sturgis said he supported the 618 S. Main project as a good example. The neighbors were for it. The city planning commission and the DDA also supported the 618 S. Main project. His understanding is that 618 S. Main is a private development and the city is not picking up the tab. [The project is receiving support through a brownfield plan that captures taxes paid on the increment between the current value of the property and the value after construction. The project is also receiving a grant from the DDA, based on the same kind of tax increment approach. For Chronicle coverage, see: "City Council OKs 618 S. Main"]

Sturgis said he likes it more when private developers come in. He’s not in favor of development in the neighborhoods – because he likes to keep things “to scale.” He supported the D1 and D2 zoning requirements, he said, but there are times – as with 618 S. Main – when the project might not conform exactly. [The building was approved at the city council's June 18, 2012 meeting at a height of 85 feet, which is 25 feet taller than the 60-foot maximum specified in D2 zoning regulations. The variance was made under the "planned project" provision in the city's zoning code.]

But Sturgis pointed out that there are increased setbacks and a rain garden [so that stormwater infiltrates into the ground instead of going into the city's stormwater system]. Each project has to be considered based on whether it’s good for the city and good for the neighborhoods, he said. He’s not for giving favors to developers. Developers were given favors in the case of the Foxfire wetlands, and he’s not in favor of that, he said.

Henry asked Sturgis to clarify his support for the 618 S. Main project. Sturgis cited the support of the Old West Side neighborhood association, the unanimous support of the city planning commission’s recommendation and the unanimous support of the DDA [in awarding its grant]. He again cited the increased setbacks and the rain garden. With that project, he said, we’re not talking about a 180-foot building [which is the height limit for D1].

Kailasapathy stated that when we actually give away tax dollars for a public-private partnership, it’s a problem. We have a capitalist economy, and if a business can’t survive without “a handout,” we need to rethink whether that project is viable or not. Giving tax breaks makes the playing field uneven. She described herself as “not really a big fan” of that kind of public support.

She reported a conversation she’d had with someone recently who’d remarked on the fact that a lot of taller buildings were being built – but the city’s fire department doesn’t currently have a tower truck. If we run the city efficiently and provide infrastructure efficiently, then if a business person thinks there’s an opportunity to develop housing for young professionals [to whom the 618 S. Main project will be marketed], then they’ll come and develop it. She would think twice about giving away tax dollars – tax increment finance dollars.

Planning/Development: North Main Task Force

Ray Detter asked about the North Main task force that has been appointed, an effort led by Ward 1 councilmembers Sabra Briere and Sandi Smith. [The task force is supposed to "develop a vision to create/complete/enhance pedestrian and bike connection from downtown to Bandemer and Huron River Drive, increase public access to the river-side amenities of existing parks in the North Main-Huron River corridor, ease traffic congestion at Main and Depot at certain times of a day and recommend use of MichCon property at Broadway."]

Detter’s question: What do you think the vision should be?

Sturgis reported talking with city administrator Steve Powers about the task force, and part of the point, Sturgis said, is to find a way to connect Allen Creek greenway to find a way for it to succeed. Currently there’s no money budgeted for the Allen Creek greenway, he said. Personally, he would like to see some development, but also wants to see what the task force comes up with.

Kailasapathy said she would very clearly push for the Allen Creek greenway. Ann Arbor’s value is not measured in how many new buildings we put up. We should try to move the greenway forward, but we should wait and see what the task force comes up with, she said.

Transportation: Rail Station

The Fuller Road Station project has been through a number of changes, Henry noted. Kailasapathy had made some remarks at a recent city council meeting, he said, about the acceptance of a federal grant. Henry asked candidates for their views on the project.

Kailasapathy said her position right now, is that the project is not an “open-and-closed issue.” She makes decisions based on the information she has at a certain point in time. If new information comes to light – new reports, new projections – she’s willing to look at those numbers. She described how Amtrak service through Ann Arbor, on the route between Chicago and Dearborn, was planned to increase from 6 times a day [three trains in each direction] to 10 times a day – and increase of 4 trips a day.

Without actually seeing how it’s going to be possible to turn that into a commuter train – what the fares would be and what the passenger demand will be – right now, she thinks the best strategy would be to add the dual track, and expand the current station in its current location [on Depot Street near the Broadway bridges]. If parking is an issue, she said, parking can be added on the MichCon property. Right now, she noted that the funding is for the environmental study. A report resulting from that study will draw a conclusion about whether the current station is viable, she said. When the report comes out, we should move on from there, she concluded.

Sturgis summarized the recent city council action at its June 4, 2012 meeting as accepting a $2.8 million grant, at no cost to the city. [The federal grant required a local match of $700,000, which had already been expended. So there was no additional cost to the city.] The grant will allow the city to take a closer look at whether the Fuller Road site or the current Amtrak site is more suitable. Where it’s confusing, Sturgis said, is that no decision has been made about whether the recommended site will be the Fuller Road site or the current Amtrak site – but obviously Fuller Road is the preferred option, he said. He wants to see what the report says.

He noted that Ann Arbor is the busiest stop between Detroit and Chicago on the Amtrak line. Concerns about the current Amtrak station, Sturgis said, include availability of parking and the ability to access the station with buses and taxis. As a Democrat, Sturgis said he supports transit. That’s a key thing for a Democrat to support. It’s important for getting people into the city. Right now there’s no “last mile” capability, he said.

Transit should be supported, to get more people into the city and into the downtown so Ann Arbor can continue to build its downtown base, Sturgis said.  Transportation options like buses, taxis and bicycling help residents who can’t drive, he said. Pursuing the study funded by the federal grant is a good plan, he said, and he’s waiting to see if the preferred alternative in the report is for the Fuller Road site or for an expansion of the current station.

His understanding is that 80% of the money for the project will come from the federal government, with the requirement of a 20% local match. That 20% match would be funded from “a whole different group of people,” he said, concluding that “it’s not going to cost [the city of Ann Arbor] that much more money.” [The $2.8 million grant received by the city depended on a 20% local match, which is somewhat typical for federal transportation projects. The "local" match portion can typically be satisfied in a variety of ways – with funds from the state of Michigan, the University of Michigan, or the city of Ann Arbor, for example.]

Transportation: Countywide

Moderator Mike Henry asked the candidates for their views on local control of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, in the context of the current discussion of possible transition to a countywide transit authority.

Kailasapathy said she’d been trying to read up on the issue and she reported that she is grappling with the whole issue. Part of the push is that a countywide approach is better, because it means resource sharing. But on the other side, she said, she receives a lot of questions. She pointed to the discussion reflected in The Chronicle’s meeting report of a working session conducted by the Washtenaw County board of commissioners. She said it reflected the fact that a transition to a countywide transit authority wouldn’t really be “resource sharing.” At that working session, she said, AATA CEO Michael Ford explained that Ann Arbor has an opt-out provision from the four-party agreement, because of the value of the assets that the city of Ann Arbor brings to the arrangement [its millage plus the capital assets]. [Chronicle coverage of that working session: "Differences on Countywide Transit Debated"]

It’s not as if there are two airlines that are flying half full each way, Kailasapathy said, that decide to combine resources. The AATA countywide proposal isn’t really resource sharing, because the majority of the financial support would come from Ann Arbor, she said. She wondered if this approach would be disenfranchising Ann Arbor. She could imagine something along these lines working, if it’s a partnership between equals. Right now, she said, she’s still grappling with it.

Sturgis said that his understanding of the four-party agreement is that the Washtenaw County board of commissioners is the only one of the four parties not to have voted on it. But the board is in the process of that. [The item is likely to be on the county board's July 11 agenda.] As a Democrat, he said, he supports transit. Providing more transportation will bring more people into Ann Arbor, he said, and bring more people into downtown, and help build the tax base. It’s a good thing to continue to work with the AATA. For him, Sturgis said, “the four-party agreement means the four parties agree.” He said he’d like to see the process continue to move forward. He said he’d like to continue to support busing to support Ann Arbor, “this great city I’ve lived in my whole life.”

Moderator Mike Henry asked why not put a countywide ballot initiative up for a vote?

Sturgis ventured that if it were put up for a vote, it would pass – unanimously. “Would I be in favor of putting it on the ballot? Sure.” He felt, however, that if the county board comes to an agreement, then “we’re set, and there’s not need for it to go to the ballot.” [In fact, the ratification of the four-party agreement by all four parties, including the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, will simply set the stage for a possible voter referendum on a funding mechanism.]

Sturgis said he’d vote strongly yes, because as a Democrat, transit is good for the environment and people, and it’s what we need. So as a Democrat he supports transportation.

Kailasapathy reiterated her position that she’s for public transportation and for expanding it. But she felt the proposal needs to be fine-tuned with respect to how much Ann Arbor contributes and how much others contribute. Right now there’s a disparity in the contributions. The devil is in the details, she concluded.

Henry asked Sturgis if he supported mayor John Hieftje’s push for commuter rail.

Sturgis answered briefly: “Yes.”

Kailasapathy wanted to know what Henry meant by “the push.” Henry noted that Hieftje has supported higher-speed rail in the Ann Arbor to Chicago corridor. Kailasapathy indicated that the latest she’d heard is that the Amtrak service would go from six daily trips to 10. She didn’t know if that would evolve into commuter rail service or not, but she was waiting to see the details.

Employee Health Care

The question posed by moderator Mike Henry was: How would you deal with rising health care costs?

Kailasapathy said that the unfunded liability in the city’s retiree health care is a major issue. In fiscal year 2013, she said, the costs are projected to go up by 12%. This is one of the biggest issues the city needs to tackle, she said. The city needs to renegotiate with the unions – because there is no other option. To address retirement health care costs, she said, we need to raise the retirement age. She characterized it as a demographic issue. Twenty years ago, when many cities were planning their retirement model, if someone retired at age 55 maybe they’d live for 15 or 20 more years. But life expectancy is increasing. We need to change with the times and that means raising the retirement age – to 60 or 62 years. If we don’t want the system to break, then we need to have honest discussions with the unions. One thing that could be done is to increase the retirement age, she concluded.

Sturgis reported that the amount of unfunded liability for retiree health care that he’d seen is $200 million. The city doesn’t have that money right now, he said – it’s a long-term problem. What the city has done to address the problem is to continue to allow employees to work overtime, instead of hiring additional employees. The city should also negotiate with the unions, he said. The city and the unions have their different views, and he would like to see the city work with the unions.

But it’s a national issue and affects all municipalities, so it can’t be solved in one year, Sturgis said. There has to be a “multi-faceted plan” and right now the city is taking the right steps by allowing overtime instead of hiring new employees. He feels the city is on the right track. It’s an important issue, he allowed, but we have to be realistic about the fact that we don’t have $200 million unless we cut public safety and other services. [For Chronicle coverage of retiree health care from earlier this year, see: "Ann Arbor Budget Outlook OK, CFO Cautious"]

Public Art

Moderator Mike Henry noted that there’s always tension between different line items in the budget. One area that is the target of frequent criticism is funding for public art. Henry suggested that if the criticism is not addressed, Ann Arbor will “take a hit” in terms of how the city is perceived – and will be less attractive. He asked the candidates for their thoughts on the public art program.

Sturgis said he likes the city’s Percent for Art program. [The program  allocates 1% for public art from all of the city government’s capital projects, up to a cap of $250,000 per project.] He likes that “we use local welders and that stuff.” He would like to see local artists hired, but realizes that there are artists from other places who will give us better opportunities. One great thing about Ann Arbor is the art fairs, he said – people know that about Ann Arbor and they like art. When the city council has considered changes to the public art ordinance on three occasions, Sturgis said, there has been overwhelming support for public art expressed during the public commentary. [The most recent of the three significant council debates on the public art ordinance took place in late 2011 and resulted only in some minor changes: "Art Lobby Averts Temporary Funding Cut"]

Sturgis then noted that during the budget deliberations, Sabra Briere had put forward a great amendment – to eliminate the travel allowance for the mayor and city council. Sturgis said it’s unfortunate that it didn’t pass, noting that he disagreed with mayor John Hieftje and Ward 1 representative Sandi Smith on that issue. [They voted against the amendment.] There’s a lot of little things that we can look at, Sturgis said, but the Percent for Art is a good thing for the city.

Kailasapathy questioned Sturgis’ portrayal of the outcome of the vote on Briere’s proposed travel budget amendment. She thought that the $6,500 had been put back into the general fund. Sturgis noted [correctly] that the vote had been 9-2 against Briere’s amendment, receiving support only from Briere and Jane Lumm (Ward 2).

Returning to the topic of public art, Kailasapathy said “we need to encourage local artists and all that,” but noted that the city of Ann Arbor is not the Smithsonian Institute or the Detroit Institute of Arts. Yet the city has public dollars to use, so we need to ask how we put public dollars to work for the public, she said. We need to have a “for the people, by the people” kind of attitude.

There are so many talented people in Ann Arbor that Kailasapathy would like to see spaces that give people a chance to exhibit their art. It can help revitalize the economy as well as give local artists an opportunity. She would, however, take a different direction on it, she said. Art and music are the soul of any culture and those are the things that beautify life. She would like the city to be more creative and would like to see public art money go into revitalizing the local art community.

Medical Marijuana

Candidates were asked by moderator Mike Henry for their positions on medical marijuana.

Sturgis said that he supports medical marijuana for people who need it. He’s hesitant when federal law and state laws are contradictory. He then asked for help in recalling when Ann Arbor’s ballot initiative passed. From the audience came some incorrect dates [from Sabra Briere, who'd actually worked to pass the Ann Arbor charter amendment in 2004, which was followed by the statewide initiative in 2008.] Sturgis drew laughs with his comment that “I’m going to go with 2004 and 2008.” The confusion effectively served to derail somewhat the conversation on medical marijuana. The size of the majority in the vote, said Sturgis, reflected that people want access to medical marijuana.

Kailasapathy indicated that if medical marijuana dispensaries are legal and they follow the rules, she would not have an issue with them. Sturgis also indicated support for dispensaries if they are regulated and monitored.

Public Schools

A question from an audience member, who is involved in the Northside Elementary School PTO, was relayed by moderator Mike Henry. The sense of the question was: To what extent can the city council be active with the school district?

Sturgis said he’s passionate about Northside Elementary School and the school district as a whole. He cited an endorsement from Richard Dekeon, a gym teacher at Northside. Something that concerns Northside school, Sturgis said, is that when you come up Barton Drive and you come around that corner, it’s not very well marked. The grass isn’t cut or maintained, he said.

That’s his experience attending Northside and what he’s heard from Ward 1 residents. It’s important to work with the PTO – parents are important, he said. He knows Liz Margolis [AAPS director of communications] very well and JoAnn Emmendorfer [executive assistant to the AAPS superintendent], he said. School board member Simone Lightfoot has endorsed him and school board member Susan Baskett is supporting him, he said. He worked on school board member Deb Mexicotte’s campaign, he said. He feels like the city and the school can work together.

Kailasapathy reported that last year or the year before the treasurer of the PTSO had come and asked for help in preparing the tax return for the PTSO. When she’s approached for help, she said, it’s usually on financial issues. She helps those organizations to the extent she can in her own capacity, she said. She described how sometimes city and school issues overlap – for example, when reductions in school busing result in children needing to walk in areas where there are no sidewalks. She felt there would be a lot of common areas for the city and the schools to work together for the benefit of citizens and school children.

Human Services – Camp Take Notice

The last legal day for Camp Take Notice, a homeless encampment in Scio Township, was the next day – it’s located on land owned by the Michigan Dept. of Transportation, which was evicting the group. The question from the audience: How do you feel about Camp Take Notice? The idea was to just let it continue without needing to fund it at all. Mike Henry briefed the audience on the fact that the state is no longer willing to allow the camp to continue at that location. The county has provided some funding, he said. [At its June 6 meeting, the county board authorized a $60,000 grant from the Salvation Army, for emergency housing assistance for Camp Take Notice residents.]

Kailasapathy felt we should be spending more on human services. We should be taking care of our people, and it’s really bad that we don’t have a structured way to address this issue.

Sturgis said he’d like to see a structure in place to deal with the issue, saying he’s worked at soup kitchens and seen what it’s like. We need to help those who are homeless. He then stated, “It starts by not voting for people like Mark Ouimet and Republicans in the state House and Senate who don’t have those same values.” That’s where we have to start, he said, and we need “to re-elect Barack Obama and different stuff like that.” Ann Arbor should take a stronger stand, he said. He didn’t know what we can do monetarily, but he’d like more information on that and thinks it’s something the city should look into.

Working with Others: It’s Nice to Be Nice

The forum actually began with moderator Mike Henry saying he wanted to change the tone from the typical forum format: “Say something good about your opponent.”

Sturgis said Kailasapathy brings a lot of great ideas, one of them being the Allen Creek greenway – which is a longer-term thing, he said. The unfunded liabilities in the city’s pension system is a great point she makes, Sturgis said. He thinks that overall she’d do a very good job on council. They have differences, he allowed, but he personally has a lot of respect for her and thinks highly of her for running for council.

Responding to the direction to say something good about Sturgis, Kailasapathy said Sturgis has grown up in this area, knows a lot of people and knows local issues. She’s heard he’s a good tennis player. He’s friendly, she concluded.

Working with Others: Lumm

Moderator Mike Henry invited the candidates to talk about temperament and how they work with people. Oftentimes the council has to deal with difficult issues. It has become clear to many people in the community that those problems can be solved if people work together. He asked for examples of complex problems that the candidates had solved with others and how they’d found common ground.

Kailasapathy said that in her university teaching career, she’d taught thousands of students. As a CPA, she’s had hundreds of clients, she said. Clients and students cover the whole spectrum of people. She felt that if you’re honest, then people begin to see that you are sincere and honest, and that results in trust. Trust is important, she said. If you think a person will say one thing and then turn around and stab you in the back, that’s not a situation where there’s trust. In her professional life, she felt that being honest is important.

Henry followed up with Kailasapathy by asking if there was a situation where she felt someone did stab her in the back, but she still achieved common ground. When someone does that, she replied, it’s more difficult – when they say something and then turn around and the next second they do something else. Being honest is important, because then other people know where you stand, she said.

Sturgis agreed with Kailasapathy that being honest is an important thing. He said he wanted to come out and say that when he was 18 years old, he supported Jane Lumm when she ran for mayor [as a Republican in 2004]. About that, Sturgis said: “Do I regret that now? Yes.” That was an example, he said, where he was trying to work with Lumm on some issues that he felt were important to Democrats. When he was at Oakland University, he was appointed to the Rochester Historical Commission, he said. There were seven members on the historic district commission – six Republicans and a token Democrat, he said. He was elected treasurer by a 4-3 vote, he said, and was the youngest member of the commission by 50 years. He had to work with the six other Republicans “to get stuff that I thought was good and the Democrats wanted, and I was able to do that.”

Coaching tennis and other sports, Sturgis said, he’s had to deal with parents when he’s made cuts, when he’s had to discipline their kids. When you’re working with people, he said, “you can’t call them ‘corrupt’ … and then expect them to turn around and work with you.”

“If you align yourself in one group,” he continued, that will be remembered. He described himself as an independent who will work with all sides. He wants to see councilmembers work together.

Henry followed up with Sturgis by asking him about working on the Lumm campaign for mayor. There’ve been reports, Henry said, that Sturgis had worked on both the Lumm campaign and the Rapundalo campaign. [That's a reference to a 2011 Ward 2 city council race that Lumm won, running as an independent, after serving on the city council in the mid-1990s as a Republican. Incumbent Stephen Rapundalo ran in that 2011 council race as a Democrat. He also ran for mayor previously, in 2000, as a Republican.]

Sturgis said he was glad that the question came up. He worked for and supported Stephen Rapundalo [in the 2011 Ward 2 city council race]. He said he knew Jane Lumm, and had put a call in to her, but never got hold of her. He’s known Rapundalo for a long time and supported him when he ran for mayor – he’d supported Rapundalo as a close family friend, Sturgis said. Never once had he campaigned for Lumm in the council race, he contended, and he had written a letter to the editor supporting Rapundalo.

Sturgis then turned the topic to people Kailasapathy had supported. He contended that she’d “openly supported” Lumm as well as Ahmar Iqbal [who was a candidate for the Ann Arbor Public Schools board of trustees in November 2011]. Sturgis indicated that Iqbal had ties to the Michigan Republican Party and had given money to George Bush [former Republican president] and Tim Walberg [current Republican Congressman representing the 7th District].

Sturgis said it’s important to be fair and consistent. He’d supported the Democrat in the 2011 Ward 2 city council race – Rapundalo. He supported Lynn Rivers when she ran [a Democratic Congresswoman who represented the 13th District from 1995–2003] and he supported John Dingell [current Democratic Congressman representing the 15th District].

Sturgis was assistant regional director in Port Huron for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, he said. He has supported Democrats consistently, Sturgis said. He likes Jane Lumm and he thinks Jane Lumm is a good person. He thinks some of Lumm’s ideas are good, and he thinks she’s good for the city council. However, he said, he did support Stephen Rapundalo in the city council race.

Asked for her perspective on her 2011 city council campaign and the involvement of Sturgis, Lumm offered The Chronicle the following recollection:

Eric initially reached out to me indicating he might support my campaign (can’t recall exactly when it was). We exchanged a couple of emails, it got a bit confusing and complicated in terms of his relationships with other local elected officials, and ultimately Eric decided to support Stephen. …

I believe Sumi would be a great addition to city council – she is thoughtful, hardworking, balanced and knowledgeable on the issues. She’s also a CPA which, when it comes to budget and finance-related issues, is a big plus.

Responding to Sturgis at the forum, Kailasapathy acknowledged that she did support Lumm in the 2011 Ward 2 campaign. She called Lumm “really amazing” in supporting the core services for city. Lumm asks the right questions and does her homework, Kailasapathy said. It’s important to have diversity of opinion and not have “block thinking” on the city council, she said. Lumm raises valid question. Kailasapathy said she didn’t need to apologize for supporting Lumm.

For Sturgis to call her out for supporting Republicans is “really sad,” Kailasapathy said. A Ward 1 resident had sent her an email that day, that included a list of contributions to Gov. Rick Snyder’s campaign. [Snyder ran as a Republican.] Sturgis is on the list, she said.

Sturgis said he was very happy to address the contribution to Snyder, but noted that Kailasapathy had not addressed the issue of Ahmar Iqbal, who Sturgis again stated had given money to Tim Wahlberg – who Sturgis characterized as “against every women’s rights you can imagine” and has done a “horrible job in Congress.” Snyder’s son and Sturgis had graduated in the same class and were very good friends. Snyder’s son came to Sturgis and asked him if he’d support Snyder. So Sturgis supported Snyder in the Republican primary, he allowed.

Sturgis had supported Snyder in the primary against “crazy Pete Hoekstra, who god help us, we don’t want him.” [Hoekstra is former Republican Congressman representing the 2nd District, from 1993-2011.] In the primary Snyder had also been running against Mike Bishop and Mike Bouchard, whom Sturgis characterized as “absolutely nuts.” [Bishop actually contested the Republican nomination for state attorney general, not governor, and lost that nomination to Bill Schuette.] So he supported Snyder, someone who was more moderate, Sturgis said. For the general election, between Virg Bernero and Snyder, he’d had a Bernero sign out, Sturgis said.

Given a chance by Henry to respond to the question about her support for Iqbal, Kailasapathy noted that Iqbal had run for the Ann Arbor Public Schools board of trustees – a non-partisan position. She had not voted for Iqbal, she said, and she had not donated any money to his campaign.

Working With Others: Favorites

Henry then asked the candidates who their “favorites” or role models are on the city council.

Kailasapathy did not answer immediately, then offered that she did not know that she’d try to model herself on anyone: “Sumi is Sumi!” She eventually said she thinks Mike Anglin (Ward 5) is very good at listening to people and he’s approachable. Sabra Briere (Ward 1), she said, is very good at responding to people and very patient. Kailasapathy felt she could learn from Briere. Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) is someone who will always say what he thinks. What the city council needs is a variety, she said. If we call ourselves a democratic city, we need diversity and democratic discourse.

Sturgis said he had three favorites. The first is Marcia Higgins (Ward 4). He’s known Higgins since he was 10 years old. He has a great deal of respect for Higgins, he said. He felt that another favorite of his might surprise some people – Sabra Briere. Sturgis described Briere as “very knowledgeable.” Briere doesn’t just respond to constituents, but also gives you the information you need, and genuinely wants to help. He said he had a great deal of respect for Briere. A third favorite, he’d put together Sandi Smith (Ward 1) and mayor John Hieftje. What he really likes about Smith is that she’s honest. Hieftje had taken the city out of one of the worst recessions we’ve seen, he said. He respects everyone on the council, he said. But he’ll be an independent voice. He respects Jane Lumm, Stephen Kunselman and Mike Anglin, he said. Everybody deserves respect on the council.

Working with Others: Albert Howard

Moderator Mike Henry brought up an issue that Jack Eaton had raised with a Facebook post. [Eaton attended the Ward 1 forum; he's contesting the Ward 4 Democratic primary with incumbent Margie Teall, reprising their 2010 race.] The Facebook post in question was this:

While attending the Juneteeth celebration at Wheeler Park, I saw “Democratic” candidate Eric Sturgis sign Republican/Independent candidate Albert Howard’s Nominating petition. Makes you wonder.

Sturgis responded by asking, “Isn’t Albert Howard the same party as Jane Lumm?” [Jack Eaton, a Democrat, joined many other local Democrats in supporting Lumm, an erstwhile Republican who ran in 2011 as an independent. Howard contested New Hampshire's presidential primary in 2008 as a Republican, and more recently sought to gather signatures for nominating petitions in the Ann Arbor mayoral Republican primary this year, but did not achieve enough valid signatures. He's currently circulating petitions to run for Ann Arbor mayor as an independent.]

A brief back-and-forth between Sabra Briere and Sturgis drew out the fact that Howard had tried to collect petitions as a Republican for mayor, failed to get a sufficient number of signatures and is now circulating petitions as an independent.

Sturgis explained his signing of Howard’s mayoral nominating petitions. He described how he was approached by four people who were Ward 1 voters who said, “Hey, I’ll support you, I’ll put a sign out, and I’ll come around and help you in this certain area, but you’ve got to sign a petition.” So he asked who he was signing for. After he signed Howard’s nominating petition, he noted that his signature wouldn’t count, because he’d already signed John Hieftje’s mayoral nominating petitions.

Sturgis said he’d told the petition circulator right after he signed that his signature wouldn’t count. Sturgis said he’s all for people running for office – because it’s one of highest forms of patriotism. He’s heard people use the phrase the “Ann Arbor Tea Party” – people who are against everything, Sturgis said. Democracy is about letting people get on the ballot. He supports Hieftje wholeheartedly, Sturgis said. He also knows Howard, he said, because he’s coached Howard’s kids. “I’m sorry I know people in the community,” Sturgis offered sardonically.

By way of background on the issue of a person signing more than one candidate’s petition, Michigan’s election law stipulates that only the earlier signature counts:

168.547a Nominating petitions; signatures by voters, number, counting.
Sec. 547a. If a qualified and registered voter signs nominating petitions for a greater number of candidates for public office than the number of persons to be elected thereto, his signatures, if they bear the same date, shall not be counted upon any petition, and if they bear different dates shall be counted in the order of their priority of date for only so many candidates as there are persons to be elected.

But the Ann Arbor city charter differs from state election law. According to the city charter, a second signature invalidates both signatures:

Circulation and Signing of Nomination Petitions
SECTION 13.9.
…
(b) If any person signs a greater number of petitions for any office than there will be persons elected to that office, that person’s signature shall be disregarded on all petitions for that office.

City clerk Jackie Beaudry told The Chronicle in a telephone interview that as a practical matter, the clerk’s office would not evaluate Howard’s signatures against those of Hieftje and possibly disqualify signatures for Hieftje. The nominating petitions are essentially for two different elections, she pointed out – a partisan primary compared to a the general election. She also noted that Hieftje likely had sufficient signatures, even without the signature of Sturgis. In addition, Hieftje has already been certified for the ballot and the ballots have been sent to the printer.

Asked by moderator Mike Henry at the forum if she’d signed nominating petitions in the mayoral race, Kailasapathy indicated she had not.

Working with Others: Agreeing with Hieftje

Moderator Mike Henry asked the candidates if there were any issues on which they disagreed with mayor John Hieftje – other than the case of the travel budget that Sturgis had mentioned earlier in the forum.

Sturgis said he and Hieftje might not necessarily agree on development – the mayor’s “lines get bigger” when it comes to downtown development. Sturgis is more for keeping development in the downtown, he said. Sturgis said he supports the recommendations of the R4C study committee. A lot of issues considered by the council are unanimous votes or 10-1, he noted. Sturgis said he did not have “a book of John Hieftje votes” so that he could say that he agreed with one and disagreed with another.

Prompted by Henry, Sturgis said he might be a little bit more committed to police and fire protection than Hieftje. Sturgis said he would not cut police and fire protection. He didn’t see many specific issues on which he and the mayor disagreed, so he felt he could work with Hieftje effectively.

Sturgis noted that Hieftje is running unopposed for mayor and is not endorsing either candidate in Ward 1. [As of June 25, Albert Howard had not filed his petitions to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate for mayor. The deadline is July 19.]

Kailasapathy noted that Hieftje is touted as the “green mayor,” but she wanted to push Hieftje to be greener than he is. Conservation is also a green practice, she said. If you have older, historic homes, she said, then bulldozing them down and building a huge structure isn’t necessary. Kailasapathy said she’d really push Hieftje not to just preserve historic districts, but to preserve the character of Ann Arbor. A lot of residents are concerned that if Ann Arbor continues on this trajectory, the character of the neighborhoods and the city itself is going to change. “Ann Arbor’s charm is what it is,” she said – it’s a small town with parks and greenery. So she’d challenge Hieftje to expand his notion of greenness.

Working with Others: Trusting Hieftje

Mike Henry brought the issue back to the question of trust. He asked the candidates if they trusted the mayor and could work him.

Kailasapathy said that the issue is not whether you like someone or not. You have a job and you do it. She described emailing Hieftje and Briere back and forth about the rail system. It doesn’t mean that she and Hieftje agree on everything and it doesn’t mean that she and Briere agree on everything. If she needs to work with the mayor, she will work with the mayor. Based on her professional training, she said, you leave behind your biases and you deal with the facts.

Sturgis said he had no issues working with Hieftje. He said he gives Hieftje a lot of respect. He said if he had been called “corrupt” in the 2010 election, that takes a pretty big person to put that aside. The word “corrupt” is a huge word to use when you disagree with somebody, he said. When you “run with people who call themselves the anti-mayor slate” or support people like that, Sturgis began – but he did not finish the thought. [In the 2010 Democratic council and mayoral primary campaigns, the word "slate" evolved into a kind of pejorative reference used by incumbents to characterize the set of challengers that year, of which Kailasapathy was one. See, for example, coverage from that year: "Ann Arbor Dems Primary: Mayoral Race"]

What’s important is having respect for the mayor and not feeling that the mayor is corrupt, trying to fill his own pockets for personal gain – which is what the word “corrupt” essentially means, Sturgis said. He doesn’t believe that at all, Sturgis said, but rather thinks that Hieftje genuinely cares about Ann Arbor.

Sturgis noted that in Hieftje’s six times running for mayor, Sturgis could count on one hand the number of precincts Hieftje had lost. So the majority of Ann Arbor residents feel like working with the mayor is important, he concluded.

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This column argues for a nonpartisan process for electing councilmembers and the mayor of Ann Arbor – in part because it reduces the potential for lame ducks. It might also encourage more competition and participation.

For a detailed history of Ann Arbor’s partisan system of elections, see Laidlaw’s previous column: “Ann Arbor – A One-Party Town.”

In 1908, the Michigan legislature gave cities the right to conduct non-partisan elections. Since then all but three Michigan cities have chosen to elect their local officials in a non-partisan way. The three holdouts for a partisan process are Ionia, Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.

Here in Ann Arbor, we currently hold partisan primaries in August to determine which candidates for city council and mayor appear on the November ballot – with a party label printed next to their names. Nowadays that’s typically a D or an R, more often a D.

It’s time to ask Ann Arbor voters to decide if they’d like to continue to elect local officials using this partisan primary system. It’s even possible to eliminate local primaries altogether. The city council has the power to place a ballot question before voters this November – a question asking voters if they would like to amend the city charter to convert city elections to a non-partisan process. The council should exercise that power.

What would the advantage be of a non-partisan system?

Background: April Elections, Competition

After the city of Ann Arbor switched the timing of city elections from April to November, the impact of the partisan local election system has been particularly negative. That switch was made in 1992 – by asking voters to amend the city charter, which they agreed to do. Until then, from the time of Ann Arbor’s incorporation in 1851, city elections were held in April, after primaries that were held in February. Those early-year elections were confined to city issues and the elections of city officials like councilmembers and the mayor. For 130 years, there was healthy competition for elected offices in all the city wards.

In the years leading up to the 1992 charter amendment, it was standard for the April city election to include contested races for the council seat in each ward. In 1987, a Republican and a Democrat appeared on the April ballot in each of five wards, for a total of 10 candidates. In 1989, a total of 11 candidates contested the April election – because Ward 3 and Ward 4 ballots included a Republican, a Democrat and a Libertarian. That year, the only ward without a contested election was Ward 1. And some Ward 1 voters wrote in names like Donald Duck and Ann E. Arbor, likely to express their dissatisfaction with that uncontested state of affairs.

Voter turnout for the April city elections was comparatively healthy by today’s standards. Of the roughly 85,000 registered voters in 1989, 19% turned up at the April polls to vote in city council races. In 1987, turnout was about 22%.

The 1992 charter amendment effectively ended that healthy competition and participation.

The 1992 charter amendment moved the city elections to coincide with the dates of the elections for state office – with a primary in August, and a general election in November. Proponents of the change asserted that it would mean the outcome of the elections would be decided by a larger number of the registered voters.

After April Became November

But the result has been the opposite. For example, in November 2007 none of the five city council races offered voters a ballot choice of names, or of parties – because they were all Democrats. Except in Ward 2, citywide turnout that year ranged between 2-4% of registered voters. The Ward 2 race was made interesting because of a spirited write-in campaign, which elevated participation to a “whopping” 9.5%.

Participation in the August 2007 Democratic primary was also low. The three-way race in the Ward 1 Democratic primary led only about 5% of voters to the polls. The other two wards with contested Democratic primaries that year had 6-8% voter turnout. The remaining two wards didn’t have a primary. So candidates in those wards were unchallenged, either inside or outside their own party.

That scenario has become the norm. More often than not, there is no competition for city council seats. When more than one person vies for a council seat, the election deciding that contest is usually the August Democratic primary, when a turnout of 10% of the registered voters in any ward would be considered typical.

Mixing the city elections with the partisan state and federal elections eventually resulted in one-party rule by Democrats. No one has been elected to an Ann Arbor city office as a Republican since 2003. And in 2005, one of those Republicans, elected in 2003, switched party labels to become a Democrat. She likely knew she stood a better chance of being elected as a Democrat.

Arguments for Non-Partisan Elections

Based on presidential elections, though, Ann Arbor seems to be a clearly Democratic town – so what’s wrong with one-party Democratic rule? Doesn’t that simply reflect the prevailing politics of our town? It might. But I think even Democrats would agree that it’s better to have a greater number of Democrats deciding our local elections, in November, rather than the paltry number who typically show up to participate in August Democratic primaries. A three-way race in a highly controversial 2009 Ward 3 contest drew only 12% of registered voters.

In that 2009 Ward 3 Democratic primary, the winner received just 511 votes – only 6 more than the second place candidate, who was actually the incumbent. Having lost the primary, that meant the incumbent had to serve as a lame duck councilmember for three months. If there were no primary election, any sitting councilmember who lost an election would sit as a lame duck on the council for just a single council meeting. Such a primary-free process would be possible if local elections were non-partisan. Ann Arbor doesn’t appear to need primaries to “narrow down” the field, which is supposed to be their function.

The other way councilmembers can be lame ducks is to choose not to seek re-election. Even if they don’t announce it, that intention becomes evident if incumbents do not meet the deadline for filing petitions. It’s a mid-May deadline for the August primary. With the current partisan primary system, councilmembers not seeking re-election become lame ducks about half a year before their terms end. This year, two councilmembers are voluntarily lame ducks until November. If Ann Arbor eliminated its primary system, then the filing deadlines would mean that councilmembers would serve only about three and a half months as voluntary lame ducks.

An Argument for Choice

I have advised the current Ann Arbor mayor and city councilmembers of the simple changes that would be required to amend the city charter so that Ann Arbor would conduct elections like most of the rest of Michigan cities.

It could be done in two ways. The party language could be deleted from the primary election clause so that a primary would be held only if more than two people filed for an office. That is the way the Lansing charter reads. Perhaps a better way would be to eliminate the primary election clause and just determine the winner by who gets the most votes in November. That is the route that Traverse City follows.

It is understandable that councilmembers would not jump at the chance to eliminate the election system by which they were put in office. But they should give the voters a choice to do that. That would be a choice to adopt a new, non-partisan system, or to reaffirm the choice voters last made over a half-century ago, in 1956 when the city charter was first ratified.

By adopting a simple resolution at the council table, the city council has the power to put a charter amendment on November’s ballot, and to give voters that choice. The alternative to council action would be for citizens to embark on the laborious process of getting the signatures of 5% of Ann Arbor’s registered voters on a petition – over 4,000. That should not be necessary, when the city council itself could put the question on the ballot with a simple vote at the council table.

It is time for the Ann Arbor city council to give voters a chance to make a change that could put some life back in city elections.

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Hohnke, a Democrat, was elected to his first two-year term on the Ann Arbor city council in November 2008. Other first-time councilmembers elected in 2008 included Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). Hohnke was unopposed in the November election, but won a close Democratic primary race that year against Vivienne Armentrout, which resulted in a recount that confirmed the outcome. Original vote totals were 1,552 for Armentrout 1,610 for Hohnke. In the November general election, Hohnke faced Republican John Floyd and won that race with 79% of the vote. 

In August 2010, Hohnke won the Democratic primary against challenger Lou Glorie, garnering 71.8% of votes. In the general 2010 election, he successfully defended his seat, winning 69% of the vote against Republican John Floyd (21.9%) and independent Newcombe Clark (9%).

Each ward in the city is represented by two councilmembers. Ward 5 is also represented by Mike Anglin, who will be up for reelection in 2013.

For the Aug. 7 primary, the filing deadline for city council candidates with party affiliations is May 15 at 4 p.m. For independent candidates in the Nov. 6 general election, the filing deadline is July 19 at 4 p.m. More information about the filing process is available on the city clerk’s elections website.

Added after initial publication: Shortly after noon on April 21, Chuck Warpehoski indicated via Twitter an interest in running for Hohnke’s open seat. Warpehoski is the director of the local non-profit, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice. His wife, Nancy Shore, is director of the getDowntown program, which is funded jointly through the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, the city of Ann Arbor, and the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority.

The forum was hosted by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party for all city council candidates in contested wards for the Aug. 2 primary election. The event was held in the context of the Democratic Party’s regular monthly meeting at its usual location in the Ann Arbor Community Center on North Main Street.

Ann Arbor's Ward 5 is the yellow highlighted wedge on this city map. The image links to the city of Ann Arbor's My Property page. Type in your address for definitive information about which ward and precinct you live in, along with other information.

The winner of the Ward 5 primary will face Republican Stuart Berry in the general election on Nov. 8. Currently, only Democrats serve on Ann Arbor’s city council.

Republicans have also filed in Ward 4 (Eric Scheie) and Ward 3 (David Parker). In Ward 2, the lack of a Republican challenger means that spot is almost sure to be decided in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary. For the open Ward 1 seat, currently held by Sabra Briere, no partisan challenger filed. Independent candidates have until Aug. 15, 2011 at 5 p.m. to file petitions to run in November.

The last day to register to vote for the Aug. 2, 2011 primary is July 5, 2011.

In this report, we give paraphrased summaries of responses from the Ward 5 candidates. Summarized remarks made by candidates for seats in Ward 2 and Ward 3 are presented in separate articles.

Other Attendees, Logistics

Before getting into the candidate responses, we’ll briefly describe the June 11 gathering. By way of background, the Ann Arbor city council consists of the mayor plus two representatives from each of five wards, who serve for two years each. That means each year, one of the two representative seats for each ward is up for election.

Saturday’s Democratic Party forum was attended by five out of 11 current councilmembers: Mike Anglin (Ward 5), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) all participated in the candidate forum. Sabra Briere (Ward 1), whose Democratic primary race this year is uncontested, was invited to make remarks at the end of the forum, which she did. Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) – who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, but who faces a Republican challenge in the fall – was extended the same invitation as Briere, but could not attend due to a family commitment.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who was first elected in November 2008, was re-elected last year. His seat is not up for election again until 2012, but he attended the forum.

Party co-chair Anne Bannister called attendees’ attention to other elected officials in the audience as well. They included county commissioner Yousef Rabhi and state representative for District 53 Jeff Irwin – both Irwin and Rabhi are Ann Arbor residents. As the room was surveyed for other elected officials, attendees got a reminder that the boards of the Ann Arbor District Library and Ann Arbor Public Schools are also elected positions. So Nancy Kaplan (AADL board) and Susan Baskett (AAPS board) were also recognized.

Baskett was recruited to keep time – it was rarely an issue for candidates. Party co-chair Mike Henry moderated.

The Chronicle counted around 50 people in the audience.

Opening Statements

Candidates were given two minutes to make an opening statement. We present candidate responses in the order they were given. First chance to respond rotated down the table of the seven participants in the forum.

Opening Statement: Mike Anglin

Anglin thanked those who organized the forum, and as well as those who are supporting the candidates. Grass roots is fundamental to good government, he said. There are so many people in the room, he said, that it’s indicative of the Democratic umbrella. We’re all here with different ideas, where we discuss things, and the more of that we have, the better off we are as a community, he said. We need this discourse.

He said he would speak to just a single aspect of being an elected official due to the time constraints: Why did he enter politics?

He said he had a masters degree in American history and a masters degree in special education. He’d always had a service component to his life, he said. During college he worked in the D.C. public schools teaching kids to read as a volunteer. Later he worked at Boys’ Village in Cheltenham, Maryland. He began teaching in New York at junior high schools. He finished his career in Montgomery County in a special school for handicapped, emotionally disturbed children.

When Anglin came to Ann Arbor, he got involved in politics because he realized there were issues he wanted to be involved with, like the environment. So he’d started working with the Allen Creek greenway. He’d joined the Kiwanis Club – he schedules Route #9 for Meals on Wheels for that organization. He said he is very heavily involved in the community, and he likes to listen to people, because the first job of government is to provide services to the community.

Opening Statement: Neal Elyakin

Elyakin thanked the Democratic Party for bringing everyone together. These kinds of forums are very important, he said, for the democratic process. Why am I here? he asked rhetorically. First, because of civic responsibility, and also because of the expertise he can bring to the city council.

He noted that he and Anglin had a lot in common. They’re both New Yorkers, both from Brooklyn. He’d grown up there riding the trains and the subway. He said he’d become a special education teacher and had been in teaching administration for many years.

His expertise, he said, is in visioning and futuring and looking at process – making sure we’re looking in the same direction and staying in that direction once a decision has been made. He’s experienced in nonprofits and civic organizations, locally, statewide and nationally, which will help him bring people together who are diverse, to build consensus.

He’s served on Ann Arbor’s human rights commission, and with that work has learned about city government and the importance of building consensus, so that you can make a decision, debate the issues, and move things forward. “I am here to help government, I am here to help you be a part of the government.”

Question: Budget – Public Art

The state and the city face budget challenges and constraints. Many governments are going through a cost-cutting process. How would you prioritize cutting items from the budget? Please speak specifically to the question of whether public art in buildings should be prioritized at times when we are cutting police and firefighters.

Mike Anglin: Budget – Public Art

Mike Anglin said if you look at growth areas of the city budget, in just the general fund, which pays for public safety, it’s based on property taxes. There’s a continual drain on that fund, he said. We need to find a way to push more money in that direction. One area he’d identified that needs to be decreased is the amount of “administration” in the city. Administration seems to be growing, he said, but delivery of services is not. We’re getting a higher, broader, and deeper administration, but fewer services coming into the community, he said. So we see police layoffs, when we should instead look at other staff besides safety services, who should be reduced.

Neal Elyakin: Budget – Public Art

Neal Elyakin said the issue concerns decision-making, and he does have experience looking at the macro issues and looking at the process by which we make decisions. Decisions need to be made based on a “futures orientation” – based on what we want our city to be and to look like for all of its citizens 10-20-30 years from now. We need to “stay on those decisions.”

Whether to make decisions based on art or parks should be built into that vision you have of the city, Elyakin said, and how you’re going to get there. We need to list the priorities clearly and stay on message, and on target. That’s part of the process. “How are we going to fix it right now, this second? I don’t know.” But he said he did know that moving forward, the process by which we make decisions will affect the future of the city.

Question: Budget – Areas to Cut

In his response to the first question about the budget, Anglin identified “administration” as an area that he thought could be reduced. Moderator Mike Henry followed up by asking candidates to name one or two areas that they think are prime for cutting.

Mike Anglin: Budget – Areas to Cut

Anglin said we need to watch the IT (information technology) fund. Though it’s important to have an IT department, as it gets larger, it’s important to keep an eye on it. The other area Anglin would look at would be the city attorney’s office. There are 10 attorneys on staff and he felt that we could take a look at that to see if they are all necessary. [The city attorney's office employs eight attorneys, an office manager and  four legal assistants.]

Neal Elyakin: Budget – Areas to Cut

Elyakin came back to the idea of process: The city needs a process to figure out where and what they should look at with respect to city services. Where are the extra people? He said he did not believe that there were that many “extra” people at the city. He said city employees do a fabulous job to help make the city the best it can be. But there needs to be a regular process, he said, that is followed by the city and by the citizens to help develop those priorities.

Question: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Who is supporting you and why do they have confidence in you? Why do you think you’re a better than those running against you?

Mike Anglin: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Anglin said since he’s been on the city council, he’s tried to listen attentively to the public. They are the ones who are paying the bills and who want to make this town their home. So they are the ones who’ll give direction to the government, he said.

Ward 5 is diverse – there are a lot of different income levels. The people who support him are those he responds to “at the lower level of things” – people who are on a fixed income, people who cannot continue to live in the city if we add more and more burdens to them. The city sometimes pushes things that look small to us but are large to the people they affect, he said – for example, the $45/month garbage cart collection that was added to the set of fees approved by the council this year. All these little expenses add up, he said. As for the people who are supporting him, they’re listed on his website – some are county representatives and people he supported in their elections. He said his support was citywide.

Neal Elyakin: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Elyakin said he is new to the process of running for office. There are a number of people listed on his website as supporting him. He said he’s been knocking on doors of his neighbors and others who live in Ward 5, he’d eventually get to all of the doors in Ward 5.

He said he has friends in the city who’ve told him they believe in him and his ideas and priorities. He’s having conversations with residents of Ward 5, regional leaders, councilmembers, state representatives, county commissioners and others who have leadership roles in the community. He invited people to look at his website and learn who’s supporting him as well as his priorities for the city.

Question: Disagreement

Who would you say you disagree with most often on the city council – please be specific. How would you work to bring yourselves to agreement?

Neal Elyakin: Disagreement

Elyakin said that this may depend on the particular issue. He said he could not be specific about who he might disagree with. As you look at the process of decision-making, you may disagree on a piece of legislation, but on another piece of legislation you might be right on board with that person. The beauty of the process is working together to one end, he said.

Consensus is a way to say, once all the information is gathered, and all the input has been collected, that you make a decision, stick with that decision and live with that decision, Elyakin said. Building a consensus in a political environment is just as important as in the private world, he said.

Pressed by the moderator to talk more about disagreement, Elyakin said he would bring up the Library Lot as an issue. [The city issued an RFP (request for proposals) for development atop the city-owned Library Lot, where an underground parking structure is being built. A conference center/hotel project was initially identified as the preferred proposal, but city council called off the process this spring.] It was a process disagreement, he said, as opposed to a disagreement with a person or a group of people. He said he disagreed that the process followed was an effective process. Moving forward, when making decisions like that, we have to make them more intentionally, with a clearer view of what the future will be, he said.

Mike Anglin: Disagreement

Anglin said the city council agrees on 99% of everything it votes on. Where they disagree are projects that start and still have a life after two or three years. If the city has a good IT department, he said, the city could move towards transparency by posting drafts of documents. If a committee is working on something, the committee should post a draft. It would not be the final resolution, and we wouldn’t hold people’s feet to that draft in February if by October the committee has changed its mind, he said.

An intelligent man changes his mind, but a fool does not, Anglin said. He thanked Stephen Rapundalo – a Ward 2 councilmember – for his cooperation on the budget votes. He noted that he and Rapundalo agreed on many things – they worked together on the liquor license review committee. On the budget this year, there was a $90,000 amendment in support of the parks budget. The amendment needed Rapundalo’s vote and he gave it, so he was very appreciative of that, Anglin concluded.

Question: Library Lot

What would you like to see on the Library Lot? [The Ann Arbor DDA is moving forward with a process that would essentially restart a look at alternate uses of several downtown city-owned lots, including the Library Lot on South Fifth Avenue, where a 640-space underground parking structure is being built. See Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor DDA Continues Planning Prep." An RFP process for development atop the Library Lot site was terminated this spring, after a conference center/hotel project was initially identified as the preferred alternative among the six proposals submitted.]

Mike Anglin: Library Lot

Anglin said he would like to see the number of stakeholders increase and wanted to see that the public occupied at least “40% of the voting seats.” A community commons and the library could exist together, he said. People volunteer in massive numbers in the community, he said, giving the Water Hill Music Fest as an example.

Any time there’s an event, people will be drawn to it and that will develop economic strength, Anglin said. They’ll love the downtown and want to come downtown. Don’t put up a big building that will isolate people, he cautioned. We need to get the library to buy in – they’re part of the public. [The Ann Arbor District Library's downtown building is located adjacent to the city-owned Library Lot, immediately south of that South Fifth Avenue site.] The library board needs to weigh in. Individuals from the library have spoken, but the board has not, he contended. It’s important to understand who is speaking for whom. The University of Michigan has no interest in a hotel or conference center on the Library Lot, Anglin said.

Neal Elyakin: Library Lot

Elyakin said it goes back to a process issue. When you think about the process by which we got to where we are today, it was a flawed process, he said. His reading of this over a period of time in the media was that it was a flawed process. We didn’t take into account all the necessary stakeholders in thinking about how we could use that property and the property around it. Entering in partnerships to create an event around what is now a “big hole” – that’s the beauty and power of visioning. You come up with something that the entire community can get behind.

Question: Conference Center

Do you think Ann Arbor needs a conference center anywhere? If so, should public dollars be used to support it?

Mike Anglin: Conference Center

Anglin said he didn’t see the need for a conference center. While the community discussion about the Library Lot was going on, he said, he’d met with the owners of some of the local hotels. Weber’s Inn and the Four Points Sheraton are both offering conference facilities, he said. Between them they had $13 million invested, so the city needed to be very careful in how it invested public money.

For the project at the First and Washington site, he said, the city had started in 2005 working to get the site developed, but if you go by the site, it’s still just a place to park a car. There would be a huge discussion on that site as well, he said, because it’s an environmental issue. [The planned development by Village Green on that city-owned site has already received approval by city council. Called City Apartments, the project is a 156-unit residential planned unit development with a 244-space parking deck as the first two stories of a 9-story, 99-foot-tall building. At its most recent meeting, on June 6, the city council unanimously approved a reduction in the purchase price from $3.3 million to $3.2 million, for the deal that is supposed to finally go through sometime in August.]

Neal Elyakin: Conference Center

Elyakin said whether public money gets used is a decision that comes out of the process of determining what our vision is for what we want our community to look like. Looking at partnerships and how we develop partnerships, there could be validity in coming up with a public-private partnership, but it needs to be wrapped around a vision and the potential for revenue back to the city.

Question: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

How would you characterize the relationship between the city and the University of Michigan? How would you characterize the relationship between the city and Washtenaw County?

Mike Anglin: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Anglin led off his response with an apparent allusion to the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority’s current effort to expand its transit service countywide. He said as services are needed by surrounding municipalities, and as gasoline is getting more expensive, the AATA is expanding into the county because people in the rest of the county also want the AATA’s services. Cooperation is also happening in Ypsilanti with Ann Arbor SPARK, he said, referring to the area’s economic development agency.

All this would ultimately lead to an income tax, Anglin contended, which he would not support, because it would not help the community. But what the county could do is pass a millage on their residents and then they would have that money to pay for services that originate in Ann Arbor. Anglin criticized the fact that water rates charged by the city of Ann Arbor for some of the townships is only 3% more than the cost charged within the city of Ann Arbor.

We need more cooperation, but we’ll get it only if people see a need for it, he said. For the university, he said, a PILOT [payment in lieu of taxes] program should be in place. He felt that the city would probably finally get to that point. He said he was disappointed that the university didn’t help with the East Stadium bridges replacement. It really helps the university to have that bridge there in the middle of the campus, he said. The university should have simply stepped forward, but the city didn’t push very much, he concluded.

Neal Elyakin: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Relationship building is a skill he could bring to the city council, Elyakin said. His conversations with city leaders and state-level leaders showed him that building bridges between entities on the city level and the state level and the regional level will help our city revenue streams. It will help eliminate redundancies, and these things are all mutually beneficial. Part of regional leadership is that this city can become a regional leader in working collaboratively with communities around us, he said.

Question: Economic Development

Describe the Ann Arbor that you would help to create if you’re elected. What are your priorities for economic development?

Mike Anglin: Economic Development

Anglin asked how Ann Arbor is different from other towns – other towns also have small shops and coffee shops, too. What we have that makes us different, he said, is the values of the community that are expressed in the priorities that we’re willing to spend money on. To date, we’ve done a good job, but we’re starting to lose some traction on that. We can bring it back, he said. We have a can-do attitude about this, he said.

Anglin said he agreed that service delivery is very important. You like to live in a town because you like the way you were treated the one time you called city hall. When you call city hall and all you get is transfered around, people hear about that – one bad thing goes around 100 times. When that happens, you have a festering and a discontent in the town. He said he felt like we’re now on a better track.

Neal Elyakin: Economic Development

Elyakin said he felt like he probably sounded like a broken record, but visioning for the city is very important. A multi-year budget process is something we could engage in with citizens in a real sense. We could get more direct input from citizens not just to the city council, he said, but to other city leaders. He’d like to see more permanent solutions – dumping loose asphalt into a hole doesn’t necessarily create a permanent solution, he said. He said he loved the idea of more green development and converting city buildings to be more green. He wanted more accountability in our governance as well.

Closing Statements

Each candidate was given two minutes for a closing statement.

Mike Anglin: Closing Statement

Anglin said he didn’t think the council went for consensus. That a misconception, he said. A consensus is one opinion. And one opinion wouldn’t go very far. We all have something to bring to democracy and the more voices we have, the better the solution will be. He’s a hard worker, he said, and tries to build relationships.

Over the course of four years of service he’s established valuable relationships, Anglin said. Some of those are not in his own ward but apply to the whole city. Working to save Huron Hills golf course, he said one of the most important things that was said was by a little man who never even played golf, but who said that one of the most tranquil times of the day is driving past the course in the morning and at night. We all get something different from this town, Anglin continued. Have your voice heard, because that’s what it’s all about. An example of that was preserving Argo Dam for the rowers. He said he’s always on board to vote for infrastructure.

He likes the idea of a community commons [on the Library Lot site] because it will promote democracy. If you see someone sitting there you could go up and talk to them and find out that they have very different views. That avoids a situation where the same discourse goes around and around like a washing machine. We don’t have a community commons that is the center of the city. With three minutes during public commentary at the city council, you don’t feel you’ve been heard, Anglin said.

Neal Elyakin: Closing Statement

Elyakin said he grew up in New York in a big family and learned early the importance of democratic values living with his relatives. He understood the value of how a city can take care of its less able folks. His family was not wealthy by any means, he said, and they relied on public assistance to make ends meet. So he understood clearly the democracy of the country we live in. It’s there to help all the citizens, no matter what they are or who they are or how they behave or what their needs are.

That came with him to Ann Arbor, he said, after living overseas and learning that some democracies are different from U.S. democracy. He learned the importance of listening to everyone and to what people say. He does believe that consensus can work, because it’s a way of building relationships with people so that we can all move forward in a comfortable way. He’s learned that through his work with nonprofits, through his work as an administrator with the Washtenaw intermediate school district (WISD), with civic organizations in the city, at the state and with international nonprofits.

In his job, he works enormously hard building consensus with families and school districts, employers and neighborhoods, Elyakin said, to move forward with a vision for a particular young man or woman with a developmental disability so that they can be all they can be in their community. He feels he can bring that skill to city council that is good for all the citizens.

Elyakin concluded by thanking the audience for their time and the Ann Arbor Democratic Party for creating the forum. He invited the audience to learn more about all of the candidates before making a decision on Aug. 2.

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The event was a combined forum for all Ann Arbor city council candidates in contested wards for the Aug. 2 primary election. The forum was held in the context of the Democratic Party’s regular monthly meeting at its usual location in the Ann Arbor Community Center on North Main Street.

Ann Arbor Ward 2 is the highlighted magenta wedge. The image links to the city of Ann Arbor's My Property page. Type in your address for definitive information about which ward and precinct you live in, along with scads of other information.

The winner of the Ward 2 Democratic primary will almost certainly be the winner of the general election on Nov. 8. No Republican filed nominating petitions, and no independent candidate has yet filed. Independent candidates have until Aug. 15, 2011 at 5 p.m. to file petitions to run in November.

Currently, only Democrats serve on Ann Arbor’s city council. Republicans have filed in Ward 3 (David Parker), Ward 4 (Eric Scheie) and Ward 5 (Stuart Berry). For the open Ward 1 seat, currently held by Sabra Briere, no partisan challenger filed.

The last day to register to vote for the Aug. 2, 2011 primary is July 5, 2011.

After the break, we report in paraphrase form what the Ward 2 candidates had to say. Summaries of remarks made by candidates for seats in Ward 3 and Ward 5 are presented in separate articles.

Other Attendees, Logistics

We’ll start with this report with a partial picture of what the June 11 gathering was like. By way of brief background, the Ann Arbor city council consists of the mayor plus two representatives from each of five wards, who serve for two years each. That means each year, one of the two representative seats for each ward is up for election.

Saturday’s Democratic Party forum was attended by five out of 11 current councilmembers: Mike Anglin (Ward 5), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) all participated in the candidate forum. Sabra Briere (Ward 1), whose Democratic primary race this year is uncontested, was invited to make remarks at the end of the forum, which she did. Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) – who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, but who faces a Republican challenge in the fall – was extended the same invitation as Briere, but could not attend due to a family commitment.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who was first elected in November 2008, was re-elected last year. His seat is not up for election again until 2012, but he attended the forum.

Party co-chair Anne Bannister called attendees’ attention to other elected officials in the audience as well. They included county commissioner Yousef Rabhi and state representative for District 53 Jeff Irwin – both Irwin and Rabhi are Ann Arbor residents. As the room was surveyed for other elected officials, attendees got a reminder that the boards of the Ann Arbor District Library and Ann Arbor Public Schools are also elected positions. So Nancy Kaplan (AADL board) and Susan Baskett (AAPS board) were also recognized.

Baskett was recruited to keep time – it was rarely an issue for candidates. Party co-chair Mike Henry moderated.

The Chronicle counted around 50 people in the audience.

Opening Statements

Candidates were given two minutes to make an opening statement. We present candidate responses in the order they were given. First chance to respond rotated down the table of the seven participants in the forum.

Opening Statement: Stephen Rapundalo

Rapundalo opened by noting that he’d represented Ward 2 since 2005. He is seeking his fourth term on the city council for two reasons. First, he said, the ward needs continued strong, pragmatic representation. He offered his service on key council committees in support of his candidacy. [Rapundalo serves on the budget committee, the administration and labor committee, and the liquor license review committee. He is also the city council representative to the board of the local district finance authority (LDFA)]. Rapundalo said, “I am the clear choice of the two of us.” There is also some unfinished business left to do, Rapundalo continued.

Like many other communities, Ann Arbor has tried to grapple with financial challenges. As much as the city has tried to trim away the meat, he said, the fact of the matter is that it hasn’t solved the entire problem. That means the city needs to look for other solutions.

Labor concessions are important, he said, and as chair of the labor committee that’s been a goal of his. Also, the city hasn’t really begun to talk about restructuring revenue. [Presumably Rapundalo was referring to the idea of imposing a city income tax on employees who work in Ann Arbor.] He also said he thought the city is losing its touch on customer service and levels of customer service. Lastly, Rapundalo said, we need to focus on revenue and for that reason the city needs to focus on economic development.

Opening Statement: Tim Hull

Hull thanked the Ann Arbor Democratic Party for hosting the event. Ann Arbor is a great place to live, he began. Since his time here as a student at the University of Michigan, he’s appreciated the unique sense of community he’s had here.

But Hull said that Ann Arbor can’t rest on its laurels if it’s going to remain the great city it currently is. We need to provide the level of services that residents need. In difficult economic circumstances, when difficult decisions must be made, fire and police services should be the last to be cut, he said. If elected, he would make sure that the city is fiscally responsible and sets budget priorities based on community needs. It’s vital to preserve the unique character of Ann Arbor – neighborhoods, parks, natural beauty and a sense of community. As a member of the council, he would work to preserve these parks and neighborhoods, pursuing responsible development that respects the wishes of the community.

It’s important to hear residents’ voices, Hull said. Sometimes it seems like the city council is too caught up in politics to respond to community issues. He promised to be responsive to residents’ concerns, and  said he would make addressing their needs his top priority.

Question: Budget – Public Art

The state and the city face budget challenges and constraints. Many communities are going through a cost-cutting process. How would you prioritize cutting items from the budget? Please speak specifically to the question of whether public art in buildings should be prioritized at times when we are cutting police and firefighters.

Tim Hull: Budget – Public Art

Hull acknowledged that Michigan and Ann Arbor are facing a difficult budget situation. When cuts have to be made, the community’s needs should be the focus, he said. We should ask what do we need and what don’t we need, then go from there. Police and fire services need to be protected. It’s important to protect parks, because they make Ann Arbor an attractive place, he said. He said he understands the importance of public art, but feels like it’s more important to keep sufficient funds in our utilities budgets, instead of reserving a certain percent for public art.

Stephen Rapundalo: Budget – Public Art

Rapundalo said that everything should be on the table, and everything should be on the table at all times – it’s an iterative process. But the biggest cost is personnel and that’s mostly in public safety. He did not want to see public safety numbers diminish, or safety and security compromised, but the fact is that the health care and pension plans for public safety employees are totally out of synch with the rest of the public sector and the private sector, he said. Those costs need to be reined in, and the city is on a path to do that, he said.

Rapundalo also said that “revenue restructuring” had not been looked at, and the community needs to have an open debate about that. With respect to public art and parks, those are quality of life issues, but we certainly need to look at putting everything on the table.

Question: Budget – Areas to Cut

In his response to the first question about the budget, Mike Anglin (Ward 5) identified “administration” as an area that he thought could be reduced. Moderator Mike Henry followed up by asking candidates to name one or two areas that they think are prime for cutting.

Tim Hull: Budget – Areas to Cut

Hull said we need to engage constituents in the process in looking at what we really need and where cuts could be made. Some areas that might be good to look at would be various administrative roles, including the city attorney. It would also be worth looking at how the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority fits into the picture.

Stephen Rapundalo: Budget – Areas to Cut

Rapundalo said it’s easy to pinpoint things, but we need to take a more “macro look” and examine return on investment in functional areas. In the areas that Mike Anglin had highlighted – IT (information technology) and the city attorney’s office – the city is getting a good return on those investments, Rapundalo said. IT also helps move the city as a whole in a direction of efficiency. We have to be careful as we look at everything, he concluded.

Question: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Who is supporting you and why do they have confidence in you? Why do you think you’re a better than those running against you?

Tim Hull: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Hull said he was new to the process, but he is going door-to-door in Ward 2. He’s been talking with people of different orientations – students, young and old. Basically his goal is to talk to as many people in the community as possible, he said. He’s talked to people who are currently in office and wants to build a good constituency around his campaign.

Stephen Rapundalo: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Rapundalo said his support is broad – from elected officials past and present, across multiple jurisdictions. A lot of his support comes from people in the neighborhoods – people he’s helped with their end-of-the-driveway type of issues. As for why he’s a better choice of the two candidates, it boils down to two things, he said: leadership and breadth of experience.

Question: Disagreement

Who would you say you disagree with most often on the city council – please be specific. How would you work to bring yourselves to agreement?

Tim Hull: Disagreement

Hull said it really depends on the issue. He said he could agree with councilmembers on some issues, but disagree on others. It depends on what they’re considering. As an example, for public art he might disagree with some members, but agree with the same people on the DDA parking contract. With respect to the DDA contract, he was concerned about giving too much power to a non-elected body. [The contract recently ratified unanimously by the city council and the DDA board assigns full responsibility for setting public parking rates to the DDA.]

Pressed by the moderator to talk about how he would bring himself closer to agreement – in terms of techniques and strategies – Hull said they could have a discussion and come up with compromise ideas.

Stephen Rapundalo: Disagreement

Rapundalo said there’s not any one person he can pinpoint as someone he disagrees with most. Sometimes you’ll have agreement and sometimes you’ll have differences, he said. At the end of the day, there’s always some measure of compromise. There’s always common interest and common goals. The DDA is one area where he’s taken issue with other councilmembers, he said.

Question: Library Lot

What would you like to see on the Library Lot? [The Ann Arbor DDA is moving forward with a process that would essentially restart a look at alternate uses of several downtown city-owned lots, including the Library Lot on South Fifth Avenue, where a 640-space underground parking structure is being built. See Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor DDA Continues Planning Prep." An RFP process for development atop the Library Lot site was terminated this spring, after a conference center/hotel project was initially identified as the preferred alternative among the six proposals submitted.]

Tim Hull: Library Lot

Hull said it’s not what he wants to see there, but rather what the community wants to see there. We need to have a process where the community is engaged in deciding what it wants there, whether that is a park or a conference center, or something else altogether. The previously terminated RFP process was far from ideal, he said. He felt that the public was not as engaged as it should have been. That could be seen from the objections that were voiced up to the time that the council terminated the process, he said.

Stephen Rapundalo: Library Lot

Rapundalo noted that he was intimately involved in that particular issue. [Rapundalo chaired the RFP review committee for the Library Lot proposals.] For at least four years now, the community has been clear that we want to see dense development on that property, he said.

It’s a very valuable piece of property and needs to be developed so that the tax revenues can be realized, Rapundalo stated. What that development should be, he said, he did not know. The RFP put out by the city was completely wide open and did not have preconceived notions. Rapundalo concluded by saying he was quite dissatisfied that the process was prematurely terminated.

Question: Conference Center

Do you think Ann Arbor needs a conference center anywhere? If so, should public dollars be used to support it?

Tim Hull: Conference Center

Hull said the city shouldn’t be picking winners or losers and that whether we need a conference center is up to the private sector. The city shouldn’t be subsidizing it with public money, given that we’re cash-strapped as it is, he said.

Stephen Rapundalo: Conference Center

Rapundalo said the very essence in a public-private partnership is that there’s some contribution from the public sector into it. What that should be depends on the specifics of whatever project is presented. However, the city should always minimize risk going into a project. He said he had some qualification to assess the need, and that there is some unmet need. People want to be able to step outside their meeting door and enjoy the downtown. [In contending he had some qualification to assess conference center need, Rapundalo was alluding to his capacity as executive director of MichBio, a biosciences industry trade association.]

Question: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

How would you characterize the relationship between the city and the University of Michigan? How would you characterize the relationship between the city and Washtenaw County?

Tim Hull: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Hull said collaboration between the city, county and the university is important because they’re all interconnected. Obviously the county and the city coexist with each other, and the university is located in the city, he said. Many Ann Arbor residents have a stake in the university. He himself is a university employee, he said. We should cooperate to reach common goals, but keep in mind our separate interests. We need to open more dialogue. The city should engage the university more in city affairs, in particular students, who feel alienated from the political process. Sometimes the main contact a student has with the city is getting an MIP [minor in possession of alcohol] citation, which shouldn’t be the case, he said.

Stephen Rapundalo: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Rapundalo had to depart shortly before the forum concluded in order to attend high school graduation ceremonies for two of his daughters. He was not present for this question.

Question: Economic Development

Describe the Ann Arbor that you would help to create if you’re elected. What are your priorities for economic development?

Tim Hull: Economic Development

Hull said that what makes Ann Arbor really unique is its neighborhoods and its sense of community, its parks and its services. He wondered who would want to invest in a community with potholes all over their roads. It might not be glamourous, but making sure fundamentals are in order is something we should prioritize. We need to make sure that developers know what the community wants, and we need to work together to build something that’s equitable to all parties, he concluded.

Stephen Rapundalo: Economic Development

Rapundalo had to depart shortly before the forum concluded in order to attend high school graduation ceremonies for two of his daughters. He was not present for this question.

Closing Statements

Each candidate was given two minutes for a closing statement. Because Rapundalo had to leave the forum early, he did not give a closing statement.

Tim Hull: Closing Statement

Hull thanked the Ann Arbor Democratic Party again for putting on the forum. He appreciated what all the candidates said.

Times may be tough, given the state of the economy, but we’ll weather the storm together, he said. We might have to make difficult decisions at budget time, but it will be less painful if we prioritize based on what’s best for the community. As a councilmember, he’ll work diligently to represent citizens interests.

He’ll fight to protect those things that make Ann Arbor unique, Hull said. He specifically wants to see Huron Hills golf course protected. He allowed that he might be young, but he has the resolve and dedication to fight for the issues that matter to voters.

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City of Ann Arbor Ward 3 is the highlighted blue wedge. Image links to the city of Ann Arbor's My Property page. Type in your address for definitive information about which ward and precinct you live in, along with scads of other information.

Candidates for Ward 3 could not exactly square off – there are three of them. Plus, the linear seating configuration (determined by drawing playing cards) separated Ward 3 incumbent Stephen Kunselman from challengers Ingrid Ault and Marwan Issa with a buffer zone consisting of the two Ward 5 candidates.

The winner of the Ward 3 primary will face Republican David Parker on Nov. 8 in the general election. Currently, only Democrats serve on Ann Arbor’s city council. Republicans have also filed in Ward 4 (Eric Scheie) and Ward 5 (Stuart Berry). But in Ward 2, the lack of a Republican challenger means that spot is almost sure to be decided in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary. For the open Ward 1 seat, currently held by Sabra Briere, no partisan challenger filed. Independent candidates have until Aug. 15, 2011 at 5 p.m. to file petitions to run in November. The last day to register to vote for the Aug. 2, 2011 primary is July 5, 2011.

After the break, we lay out in paraphrase form what the Ward 3 candidates had to say. Summaries of remarks made by candidates for seats in Ward 2 and Ward 5 are presented in separate articles.

Other Attendees, Logistics

Before diving into candidate responses, we’ll sketch a partial picture of what the June 11 gathering was like. By way of brief background, the Ann Arbor city council consists of the mayor plus two representatives from each of five wards, who serve for two years each. That means each year, one of the two representative seats for each ward is up for election.

Saturday’s Democratic Party forum was attended by five out of 11 current councilmembers: Mike Anglin (Ward 5), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) all participated in the candidate forum. Sabra Briere (Ward 1), whose Democratic primary race this year is uncontested, was invited to make remarks at the end of the forum, which she did. Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) – who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, but who faces a Republican challenge in the fall – was extended the same invitation as Briere, but could not attend due to a family commitment.

Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), who was first elected in November 2008, was re-elected last year. His seat is not up for election again until 2012, but he attended the forum.

Party co-chair Anne Bannister called attendees’ attention to other elected officials in the audience as well. They included county commissioner Yousef Rabhi and state representative for District 53 Jeff Irwin – both Irwin and Rabhi are Ann Arbor residents. As the room was surveyed for other elected officials, attendees got a reminder that the boards of the Ann Arbor District Library and Ann Arbor Public Schools are also elected positions. So Nancy Kaplan (AADL board) and Susan Baskett (AAPS board) were also recognized.

Baskett was recruited to keep time – it was rarely an issue for candidates. Party co-chair Mike Henry moderated.

The Chronicle counted around 50 people in the audience.

Opening Statements

Candidates were given two minutes to make an opening statement. We present candidate responses in the order they were given. First chance to respond rotated down the table of the seven participants in the forum.

Opening Statement: Stephen Kunselman

Kunselman began by saying that he was serving the second of two terms to which he’d been elected, with a year off between terms.

[When he was first elected to the council in 2006, Kunselman won a three-way Democratic primary among Jeff Meyers, Alice Ralph and himself  – the seat had been empty due to Jean Carlberg's retirement from the council. In his reelection bid in 2008, he was defeated by Christopher Taylor in the Democratic primary. Then in 2009, Kunselman returned to defeat incumbent Leigh Greden and LuAnne Bullington in the Democratic primary. The general election was uncontested in Ward 3 for all those years.]

Kunselman said he was looking for a third term to represent Ward 3, because there’s a lot of work still to be done. He thanked his challengers for making it a race. There’s a lot for residents of Ann Arbor to be concerned about, he said. He’d recently been focused on the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority and its finances, he said. Why is there so much debt associated with the DDA? This is debt that the city owns, he said. The annual report of the DDA – which he said the city council had yet to receive from the DDA, despite its publication in the newspaper in March – shows $140 million worth of debt (when principle and interest is added together).

Kunselman said he wanted to focus on general governmental accountability: Why is the city staff not preparing reports with good information that would allow the council to make good decisions? With respect to the planned Fuller Road Station, he said, the council has been told that the city will be contributing $10 million to the project. And the council has been assured it would not come from the city’s general fund, but no other fund had been identified. If it’s not the general fund, that left only one other avenue, Kunselman said – utilities. He stated that he did not think that the city should be paying for Fuller Road Station out of utility funds.

Kunselman said he’d campaigned last time on the idea of representing a strong voice, a bold vision, an honest ethic and a new direction, and said he felt that he’d lived up to that. He would continue to hold to that.

Opening Statement: Ingrid Ault

Ault introduced herself as a lifelong resident of Ann Arbor – she’s lived in Ward 3 for about 30 years. She grew up in this community – almost all of it in Ward 3 – and she knows it well, she said. She has a long record of civic activity, she said. The reason she decided to take on this challenge, is that there are some areas where the community is not as well represented as it should be.

Ault is the executive director of Think Local First, a nonprofit that supports locally-owned independent businesses. One thing she does every day, she said, is talk to people. She hears their stories and hears what’s working and what’s not working so well. She catalogs that and looks at ways to build partnerships with small businesses. Communication is key. She said that if you talk to members of Think Local First, they will say she’s reactive and proactive. It’s important to support small businesses, she said – it’s one way we can raise revenue in the community. It’s important that we don’t continue to see the erosion of our city services and in particular our safety services.

She said she also brings experience in government, though she’s never run for office. She did work for the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority and said she took on some major projects during the time she served as the DDA’s executive director.

Opening Statement: Marwan Issa

Issa said he’d lived in Ann Arbor all his life. He attended the University of Michigan, and just finished his PhD at Eastern Michigan University. He said he’s not planning to go anywhere else – he’s planning to stay and work in Ann Arbor. His grandfather came to the U.S. in 1970, Issa said, so he’s the first generation in this country.

Issa would like to see a fresh perspective on the city council, a way to look at things from a different view. Those views come partly from his work experience, he said. He’s worked in an educational startup, so he understands how important education and economic development are to the city.

Question: Budget – Public Art

The state and the city face budget challenges and constraints. Many governments are going through a cost-cutting process. How would you prioritize cutting items from the budget? Please speak specifically to the question of whether public art in buildings should be prioritized at times when we are cutting police and firefighters.

Stephen Kunselman: Budget – Public Art

Kunselman said fiscal challenges can’t be handled very well in sound bites. But he felt that the public art program is taking too much money from utility funds, when the city’s infrastructure needs are great. There was an attempt at the council’s budget meeting [on May 31, 2011] to decrease the amount of public art and put that money back into the funds they were taken from. [Kunselman had supported that resolution, but it failed.]

Taking care of infrastructure is a budget priority, Kunselman said. There have been four water main breaks on his street in the last year, he said. One of the repaired mains has broken again – that makes five. But he concluded that the budget process is a cooperative effort among all councilmembers, so no one councilmember would be able to say what’s going to happen.

Ingrid Ault: Budget – Public Art

With respect to budget cuts, Ault said, everything needs to be on the table. Nothing is exempt. Everybody needs to give and take. If it’s not a community effort, it’s not going to work. We need to talk to the unions about making concessions on health care, she said. Ault added that she’s not anti-union, but everybody needs to participate in the process.

Ault said she’s a proponent of public art. There are 3,000 people in Washtenaw County that define themselves as working artists, she said. It’s unfortunate that the first project to be funded through the public art program was not a local artist, she said. [Herbert Dreiseitl, a German artist, was commissioned to design a fountain for the city's new municipal center.] She said that one of the points she talks about all the time is the importance of spending money in the community – it can “reverberate” in the community as much as seven times over. She added that there are 168 parks in the community and we need to continue to support them.

Marwan Issa: Budget – Public Art

Issa said the city needs to be fiscally responsible. When you look at the police and fire departments, he said, it’s hard to cut them. People move to Ann Arbor because of its safety and security. After the cuts, he said, Ann Arbor will have only 0.72 firefighters per 1,000 residents. That’s well under the national average, he said, and that’s not fair to the citizens. Police and fire should be the last things to go. He said he appreciates parks and recreation, but would prefer to save a police officer or a firefighter job.

Question: Budget – Areas to Cut

In his response to the first question about the budget, Mike Anglin (Ward 5) identified “administration” as an area that he thought could be reduced. Moderator Mike Henry followed up by asking candidates to name one or two areas that they think are prime for cutting.

Ingrid Ault: Budget – Areas to Cut

Ault said that rather than talk about cutting jobs, what we need to look at is where duplicate work is being done. Washtenaw County is already doing this, she said, by consolidating the office of community development with the office of economic development. [The proposed consolidation also includes the employment training and community services (ETCS) department.] Thinking about how to be more efficient through collaboration is a better solution than thinking about who we are going to cut, she said.

Marwan Issa: Budget – Areas to Cut

Issa said that before cutting, we need to make sure the city is efficient and effective. Once we’ve done that, then we can look at what to cut. As an example, he gave people with desk jobs who get a gas mileage reimbursement.

Stephen Kunselman: Budget – Areas to Cut

Alluding to Ault’s call for eliminating duplicate work, Kunselman said there’s a lot of duplication at the DDA. The DDA has an attorney; the city has an attorney. The DDA has an accountant; the city has an accountant. The DDA has a planner; the city has a whole planning department. The DDA pays $50,000 for luxury office suites, Kunselman said; the mayor had asked the DDA to move to city hall, but they’d refused. That’s a lot of money that could be saved. Half of the $750,000 bureaucracy at the DDA is paid for by general fund parking revenues, Kunselman said, and it’s time to bring that money home.

Question: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Who is supporting you and why do they have confidence in you? Why do you think you’re a better than those running against you?

Ingrid Ault: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Ault named former city councilmember and current planning commissioner Jean Carlberg as an early supporter. She said she walks her dogs past Carlberg’s house, and would chat with her about things. Carlberg is one of the reasons that she decided to run. She also named Leah Gunn and Barbara Levin Bergman as supporters – both Gunn and Bergman serve on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners.

Ault said she’d also found that people whose doors she knocked on were very interested in what she had to say, and she was interested in what they had to say. She said she was excited to meet those she hasn’t met yet.

Marwan Issa: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Issa said he was new to the process. In talking to people in the ward, he said that many people had encouraged him to run for office. A lot of the support would come as time goes by, he said.

Stephen Kunselman: Campaign Support, Candidate Comparison

Kunselman said he’d not done endorsements in previous campaigns, but would drop a couple of names that day. One was county commissioner Yousef Rabhi – he’d know Rabhi since he was a little kid. And state representative Jeff Irwin was also supporting him, Kunselman said. He also counted Gwen Nysteun, who serves on the city’s park advisory commission, as a supporter.

Kunselman said he had a good strong constituency that represents all the Ward 3 neighborhoods: North Burns Park, Burns Park, Pittsfield Village, Forestbrooke, Turnberry, and even his own neighborhood. [Kunselman lives on Butternut Street, near Packard and Platt.] He noted that he’d served on the planning commission with Jean Carlberg and had run years ago with her tacit support. He said he was looking forward to getting out and talking to people about city services.

Question: Disagreement

Who would you say you disagree with most often on the city council – please be specific. How would you work to bring yourselves to agreement?

Ingrid Ault: Disagreement

Ault said she didn’t really pay attention to how she’s different from others. Rather, she looks for people who can be an ally for certain projects. She said that she and Kunselman had very different ideas about DDAs. Having worked on a DDA [in Ypsilanti] at a time when there was discussion about merging finances with the city, she said she’d done extensive research about what that would really mean. And what that would mean, she said, is you’d get fewer services.

The Ann Arbor DDA had four staff who did a great job managing the parking system, Ault said. We should rely on the DDA to make decisions about the parking system, she said, and the council should not make specific individual decisions about something that’s a user-based fee program.

Marwan Issa: Disagreement

Issa said he would not name specific names. He said he disagreed with the idea of reducing firefighters and police officers. With respect to the DDA, he suggested that the DDA board become an elected body. The DDA was becoming an entity that could do whatever it wanted, he said – it would be nice to reign it in, to make sure the DDA stays on focus.

Stephen Kunselman: Disagreement

Kunselman said he was not in a position to pick on other councilmembers, because they have to work together. But he joked that he would pick on Stephen Rapundalo a little bit, noting that he and Rapundalo were often on different sides. [Rapundalo was seated immediately to Kunselman's right at the candidate forum.]

On basic philosophy, Kunselman said, he had a different view of economic development. He did not think the city council’s focus should be on how to raise revenue through economic development. Instead, he said, the council’s priorities should be on health, safety and welfare. The city cannot do it all, he said. The DDA is set up to promote economic development and that’s what they should do. The DDA has a $3.5 million TIF (tax increment finance) fund they should be spending on economic development efforts. But taking $16 million in parking revenue and performing the same functions as the city, that’s an issue we need to discuss, he said. So he had a difference of opinion with some other councilmembers about the role of the DDA, Kunselman said.

Question: Library Lot

What would you like to see on the Library Lot? [The Ann Arbor DDA is moving forward with a process that would essentially restart a look at alternate uses of several downtown city-owned lots, including the Library Lot on South Fifth Avenue, where a 640-space underground parking structure is being built. See Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor DDA Continues Planning Prep." An RFP process for development atop the Library Lot site was terminated this spring, after a conference center/hotel project was initially identified as the preferred alternative among the six proposals submitted.]

Ingrid Ault: Library Lot

Ault said it’s an interesting piece of land, arguably the most valuable piece of land in Washtenaw County. Developing it in the best possible way makes sense. The ground floor should be mixed use, but she did not care what goes above it. You need to put greenspace in there, she added, but it doesn’t need to be a park. If we want a park, then we could simply reinvest in Liberty Plaza, she said. [Liberty Plaza is an urban park at the southwest corner of Liberty and Division.]

Now that the design review board has been established, Ault said, if we put together a good RFP, and are clear about our wants and needs, the city could receive responses to that RFP that include some great projects.

Marwan Issa: Library Lot

Issa said it would be good for a start-up hub. It could be used as office space for start-up companies – if the city provides a new start-up company with a facility to use, we will have more companies come to Ann Arbor and increase the economic development of the city.

Stephen Kunselman: Library Lot

Kunselman stressed that anything that’s developed on the lot should not have a public subsidy – that’s why he was against the hotel/conference center proposal that had made it to the end of the RFP process. His vision of that block is based on the idea that there is too much public land in the area. He would like to see the Ann Arbor District Library sell its land to a private party, and then build a new library building on top of the underground parking structure on the Library Lot. [The AADL's downtown building is at the northeast corner of Fifth and William, immediately south of the city-owned Library Lot.]

The city should sell the old Y Lot – that needs to get onto the tax rolls, Kunselman said. [The site is a surface parking lot, on the north side of William between Fifth and Fourth.] The idea of mixed-use retail in the middle of the block at the Library Lot he described as a “pipe dream.” The city council should not try to pick winners and losers in the private sector, he said. The community should help design it. Then the city should translate that design into deed restrictions, and sell the land with those restrictions in place, he said.

Question: Conference Center

Do you think Ann Arbor needs a conference center anywhere? If so, should public dollars be used to support it?

Stephen Kunselman: Conference Center

On the subject of public subsidies, Kunselman said that’s simple: No! The city should not be involved in public subsidies for private development. The city has not been successful to date on those efforts. That’s why when he campaigned two years ago, it was based on a new direction. There’s ways of accomplishing things besides going out and fishing with an RFP, he concluded.

He said he’s not qualified to determine the need for a conference center. The private sector can handle that, if there is a need.

Ingrid Ault: Conference Center

Ault said she thought the conference center was an interesting topic from the standpoint that there’s a need for conference space in the downtown – people don’t want to go out to Weber’s Inn. But she rejected the idea of funding it with city dollars. If a project is not viable on its own, then it shouldn’t go forward.

Marwan Issa: Conference Center

Issa said he thought that a conference center is a horrible plan. The University Michigan has a lot of places where people can hold conferences. As far as public funding goes, he said if there were a start-up company and it was a company that’s going to stay here, that’s where public funding could be useful.

Question: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

How would you characterize the relationship between the city and the University of Michigan? How would you characterize the relationship between the city and Washtenaw County?

Ingrid Ault: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Ault said one of the things she does as executive director of Think Local First is look for partnerships. There’s a study that indicates if you shifted 10% of your budget to local businesses, it would create 1,600 jobs and $53 million in wages. She said she’s been talking to city and county officials about supporting local businesses.

Ault said she could give many examples where the city is making short-sighted decisions and hundreds of thousands of dollars have left the community, because of maybe a $300 difference in a bid. The county is a good example of collaboration – it’s built partnerships with other entities, figuring out how to do more with less. We have a long way to go with the university, she added.

Marwan Issa: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Issa said that when you look at the relationships between the University of Michigan and the city of Ann Arbor, “it’s not there,” and needs to get better. It seems like it’s an us-versus-them attitude with the university. When we look at firefighters, the university owns a lot of land, he said, so why can’t we get them to help support the fire department, by funding some of the firefighters?

[Issa's point about university land is related to the fact that UM facilities built on university land receive fire protection from the city. The state of Michigan has deemed that it's not a university responsibility and has used a strategy for funding the university's fire protection through a state grant. But the city of Ann Arbor has long contended that the level of that grant funding is not adequate to cover the cost of the additional protection. UM contributes to the city's fire protection through the location of fire station Number 5 on university property.]

There are a lot of redundant jobs in the city and the county where there could be cost savings, Issa said, but the relationships aren’t there.

Stephen Kunselman: University of Michigan, Washtenaw County

Kunselman said it’s a tough issue, but he felt that the partnerships between the city and the university, and between the city and the county, are going as well as they can go, given the governmental autonomy that each entity has.

We can talk about cooperation and collaboration until we’re blue in the face, he said, but the fact is that UM is not going to contribute to the city’s basic services. The university works under the constraints of the state constitution and the state legislature, he said, and the moment the university starts doling money out to the city for whatever reason – for signals and signs for football games, for which the university has been billed but has not paid – the state legislature will send them a clear message. That message is that the university’s funding would be dialed back. So the university has a hammer over its head. We can’t just sit here and envision a great and wonderful cooperation with the university, he said. [Kunselman is a UM employee, working as an energy conservation liaison. Other councilmembers affiliated with UM include Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), who works as an administrative assistant, and mayor John Hieftje and councilmember Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), who both have served as lecturers.]

The situation with the county is different, he said. There are representatives to the county board of commissioners who live in the city. But for the townships there’s an inequality with respect to the tax base between the city and the townships. When we talk about mutual aid, he said, we look at who has more money in the game – typically it’s the city. So not all partnerships would be in the city’s best interest. It all sounds good, Kunselman concluded, but at the end of the day, we’re beholden to voters who expect us to watch their tax dollars.

Question: Economic Development

Describe the Ann Arbor that you would help to create if you’re elected. What are your priorities for economic development?

Marwan Isssa: Economic Development

Issa said the Ann Arbor he envisions is one where we don’t have to constantly discuss how we’re going to pay for services and what we are going to cut. He said he and his family had been in Ann Arbor for over 30 years and had started local businesses. They understood how that works and how economic development is important to the city. Another component is the University of Michigan, he said, which spends spending billions of dollars on scientific research. The city needs to work with the university, not in terms of asking the university to give the city money, but in terms of how to be a partner. He suggested an ambassador or a liaison to show companies what Ann Arbor has to offer.

Stephen Kunselman: Economic Development

Kunselman said the Ann Arbor he hopes to achieve is the one he grew up in – where everyone is treated equally, we have good roads, clean water, safe neighborhoods, maintained parks. If you have all that, then you get economic development, he said, because you get businesses that are interested in moving to your community. Those are businesses that want to invest because they can see where their money is going. They see the money going into roads to be fixed, they see water mains being repaired, they see police and firefighters present, then they feel like they’re getting a good return on their invested dollar.

Kunselman said he didn’t understand why anybody would want to relocate to Ann Arbor if they drive Packard, Jackson, Dexter, or Miller and have to handle those roads. He said he couldn’t understand – if we put all our money downtown instead of in neighborhoods – why employees would want to live here, where water mains are breaking and street trees aren’t being cared for. Public safety, health and welfare breeds economic development, he concluded.

Ingrid Ault: Economic Development

Ault said we need to remember that Ann Arbor is a living organism and we all need to work together. She said that what she does every day is economic development – she looks for ways to support businesses and to create new businesses. She supports nonprofits, she said, because they’re important to the fabric of the community.

Closing Statements

Each candidate was given two minutes for a closing statement.

Stephen Kunselman: Closing Statement

Kunselman thanked the hosts, the audience and the other candidates. He said he looked for their support on Aug. 2.

He’s a lifelong Ann Arborite. He pointed out that he and Ault had both graduated from Pioneer High School in 1981. His grandparents were founding members of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church on Stadium Boulevard. His grandmother was a police dispatcher in the late 1950s for the East Ann Arbor police department. He lives near Packard and Platt, the “heart of Ward 3.”

Kunselman noted that he served as a planning commissioner from 2004-06 and served as a city councilmember from 2006-08 – he wanted to serve another term, from 2011-13. He ventured that perhaps people had read about him in the news, and he allowed that he did have a strong voice. He has a strong passion for his beliefs about what Ann Arbor is and what it should be, he said.

Kunselman didn’t want to say that his voice is the best, but he does think he’s made a difference. He said he helped defeat the conference center. He said he’d shown how the DDA had failed to be open and transparent with their budget. He’s been there for the city’s police and firefighters since day one and did not feel comfortable laying them off, even while the city allocates funds to public art and the Fuller Road parking structure. All of those things boil down to needing some independence on the city council, he said, which is what he offers.

Ingrid Ault: Closing Statement

Ault said she appreciated the opportunity to be heard – that’s all she wanted. She wanted the process to be clear and open to see where they are the same and different.

Ault wanted to emphasize that she is a very strong voice for this community – she’s immersed in every facet of it. She knows what is going on in the downtown, because she’s worked the majority of her life in the downtown and understands what challenges small business are facing. Her service record for nonprofits ranges from Meals on Wheels, to the Humane Society and 826 Michigan – she’s been there and done it, she said. She’s curious, she said, and she wants to know why people support who they support. A lot of time the people who have the biggest pocketbooks or the most time on their hands have more of an impact on the community, she cautioned. She wants to make sure that everyone has a voice.

Marwan Issa: Closing Statement

Issa thanked the hosts of the debate – it was his first debate, and the first time running for an elected position.

Ann Arbor is a gem, he said. We’re lucky and fortunate. In Ann Arbor, you can come as you are and you will be accepted. Electing him will help the community out, he said.

He’s from the area. He had a father who helped him go through with his education. With the opportunities he had, now he wants to be able to give back to the community. His optimism and experience will give him the ability to take on the many challenges the city has.

The city’s main important voice is that of the residents, Issa said. If they start to feel the city council is inadequate, or is not doing right by the people, we need to make sure people are happy with what’s going on with the city council. He said he’d been researching the city council, and they work hard. But the council’s hands are tied. There’s a reason why we can’t take public art money and pay for cops, he concluded.

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