Stories indexed with the term ‘Margie Teall’

Graydon Krapohl has filed paperwork to form a campaign committee to run for a seat representing Ward 4 on the Ann Arbor city council. According to information posted the Washtenaw County elections website, the committee was formed on Jan. 9, 2014. As of Jan. 15, Krapohl, a Democrat, has not yet pulled petitions with the Ann Arbor city clerk’s office.

Krapohl currently serves on the city’s park advisory commission, and was elected as vice chair of that group on Sept. 17, 2013. He was nominated to the position by mayor John Hieftje and confirmed by the city council in late 2012. He is adjunct faculty with the U. S. Army War College and is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Krapohl’s campaign filing lists Leah Gunn as treasurer. Gunn, a former Washtenaw County commissioner and former Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board member,  is also treasurer for Christopher Taylor’s mayoral campaign. Taylor currently is a Ward 3 councilmember and serves on the park advisory commission with Krapohl.

Gunn has served in the past as campaign treasurer for Ward 4 councilmember Margie Teall, whose term ends this year. Teall has not publicly indicated whether she intends to seek re-election.

Updated at 8:29 p.m. Jan. 15, 2014: Teall spoke with The Chronicle after the Ann Arbor Housing Commission meeting, a group for which Teall serves as the city council liaison. Teall said she’s not planning to run for re-election this year. Teall was first elected in 2002, and after mayor John Hieftje, is currently the longest continuously serving member on the city council. With Teall’s departure from the council in November this year that distinction will belong jointly to Sabra Briere (Ward 1) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5), who were both first elected in 2007. 

In other Ann Arbor wards, Democrat Kirk Westphal pulled petitions on Jan. 15 to run for a Ward 2 city council seat – which will be open as a result of Sally Petersen’s mayoral candidacy. And Democrat Julie Grand pulled petitions on Jan. 14 to run for the city council seat that will be left open in Ward 3 as a result of Taylor’s mayoral candidacy.

Incumbent Democrats Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) and Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1) also have taken out petitions to seek re-election. The only other person shown in city clerk records to have taken out petitions for local office is Eric Sturgis for the Ward 1 council seat. But an asterisk recorded next to his name includes a note that says Sturgis has indicated to the clerk’s office that he does not intend to file signatures to become a candidate. Sturgis contested the Ward 1 Democratic primary in 2012, which was won by Kailasapathy. [Full Story]

Margie Teall (Ward 4) was selected mayor pro tem by the majority of her Ann Arbor city council colleagues at their Nov. 18, 2013 meeting. That was the first meeting of the council with its post-election composition, when it’s required to select a mayor pro tem and an order of succession.

The order of succession to mayor John Hieftje, after Teall, is first by seniority, then alphabetically: Mike Anglin (Ward 5), Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3), Jane Lumm (Ward 2), Sally (Hart) Petersen (Ward 2), Sumi Kailasapathy (Ward 1), Chuck Warpehoski (Ward 5) and Jack Eaton (Ward 4).

Teall’s selection as mayor pro tem came over dissent from Kailasapathy, Lumm, Kunselman, Eaton and Anglin. Those … [Full Story]

A recount of ballots cast in the Aug. 7, 2012 Democratic primary election left results unchanged in all elections in Washtenaw County that were recounted. The recount took place on Sept. 4, 2012 and was conducted by the Washtenaw County board of canvassers.

The recount of the Ward 4 Ann Arbor city council race confirmed that incumbent Margie Teall had the most votes.

The initial count of ballots across the nine precincts of Ward 4 showed Teall with a total of 866 (50.5%) votes, compared to 848 (49.5%) votes for Jack Eaton. In the recounted totals, each candidate lost a vote in Precinct 4-9. In Precinct 4-6, Teall picked up one vote and Eaton lost one, leaving Eaton and Teall with 846 and 866 votes, … [Full Story]

Candidate Jack Eaton has filed for a recount of ballots cast in the Aug. 7, 2012 Democratic primary election for Ward 4 Ann Arbor city council.

According to Washtenaw County director of elections Ed Golembiewski, the recounting of the physical ballots will likely be scheduled for early in the week beginning Aug. 27, depending on the availability of members on the board of canvassers. That would accommodate the 7-day requirement to allow other candidates involved to file objections.

The other candidate involved was incumbent Margie Teall. The final results across the nine precincts of Ward 4 showed Eaton with a total of 848 (49.5%) votes, compared to 866 (50.5%) for Teall. That’s a difference of just 18 votes.

A recount costs the candidate … [Full Story]

All eight candidates in four city council Democratic primary races participated in a forum hosted on July 14 by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party. This article summarizes the responses from Ward 4 candidates – incumbent Margie Teall and challenger Jack Eaton. Other races are covered in separate Chronicle articles.

This year’s Ward 4 race reprises the 2010 contest that Teall won over Eaton with 69% of the vote. Teall has served on the council since 2002 and is seeking her sixth two-year term on the 11-member council – which includes the mayor and two representatives from each of the city’s five wards. Democratic primaries are contested this year in just four of the five wards, as Christopher Taylor is unchallenged in Ward 3. The winner of the Ward 4 Democratic primary will likely not face an on-the-ballot opponent in November – because no Republican has filed and the deadline for independent candidates to file is July 19.

In his remarks on local policy issues, Eaton stressed what he called sensible spending priorities – support for fire and police protection. He framed his thoughts on local issues by pointedly listing out those things he supports, not things he opposes.

Among those things he supports: city parkland – and specifically a possible charter amendment that would require a public referendum on the long-term leasing of parkland (not just sale, as the charter currently reads). He also supports the idea of a park on top of the new underground parking garage. He supports rebuilding the police and fire departments, and spending the city’s street reconstruction tax to repair roads in a timely fashion. If elected, he said he’d support neighborhoods by being a voice for their concerns.

Eaton also stressed some beliefs that could be characterized as classic Democratic Party values – support for labor. He cited his profession as a union-side labor lawyer and indicated that he’d fight against the tools that Republican “bullies” in the state legislature are giving local municipalities to reduce benefits to their union workers.

For her part, Teall cited her own labor credentials by saying she had support from several local unions. She gave an implicit response to Eaton’s focus on fire and police protection by saying that public safety had been a priority since 2002 when she first was elected to council. She indicated that residents could expect to see a greater police presence downtown, as the city has implemented a police recruit program. She identified flooding as currently a top issue for Ward 4, but pointed to the reconstruction of the East Stadium bridges and securing funding for future demolition of the Georgetown Mall as points of progress.

Teall said the city budget is in the best shape it’s been in the time she has served on the city council. The overall theme Teall stressed was a desire to keep Ann Arbor on the track that it started down 10 years ago.

Tracks were part of the one main policy question candidates were asked to comment on – the idea of a new rail station possibly to be constructed at the Fuller Road site. Briefly, Teall thinks it’s an ideal location for a rail station, proximate to the University of Michigan medical center, while Eaton feels it reflects inappropriate spending priorities.

Aside from opening and closing statements, not a lot of specific local policy ground was covered by questions put to the candidates – due in part to a time constraint of about an hour for eight candidates. But the candidates did talk a great deal about issues of transparency and group dynamics on the city council – in response to the leadoff question from forum moderator Mike Henry, co-chair (with Anne Bannister) of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party.

Broadcast live earlier in the week on the Community Television Network was a local League of Women Voters candidate forum that included Eaton and Teall, which is available online.

The deadline to register to vote in the Aug. 7 primary has passed. Oct. 9 is the last day to register to vote for the Tuesday, Nov. 6 general election. Information on voter registration can be found on the Washtenaw County clerk’s elections division website. To see a sample ballot for your precinct, visit the Secretary of State’s website. The League of Women Voters also has an online voter information site – Vote411.org – which includes biographical information on some candidates, stances on issues, and a “build my ballot” feature. [Full Story]

On Tuesday evening, the Ward 4 Democratic Party hosted a forum at Dicken Elementary School so that residents could pose questions to primary candidates for one of the ward’s two city council seats. Margie Teall, the incumbent who has held the seat since 2002, and Jack Eaton, who has been active in politics on the neighborhood level, answered questions for a bit more than an hour.

City council representatives are elected for two-year terms and each of the city’s five wards has two seats on the council, one of which is elected each year. Also in attendance at Tuesday’s forum was Marcia Higgins, the Ward 4 council representative who won re-election in November 2009, defeating independent challenger Hatim Elhady.

Besides Higgins, other elected officials and candidates for office who were introduced at the forum included: LuAnne Bullington (candidate for the 11th District county board of commissioners seat), Ned Staebler (candidate for the 53rd District state Representative seat), Leah Gunn (county commissioner representing the 9th District of the county and seeking re-election), Patricia Lesko (candidate for Ann Arbor mayor). All the candidates are Democrats.

Eaton’s main theme was a need to focus more on infrastructure – those things we need, not the things that might be nice to have. Eaton was keen to establish that his candidacy was not meant as a personal attack on Teall, saying that he expected his supporters to focus on the issues and to conduct themselves in a civil way. His opening remarks were heavy on thanks and appreciation for Teall’s long service on council, particularly with regard to the creation of Dicken Woods, which is now a city-owned nature area.

In the course of the forum, a pointed question to Teall on her biggest regret while serving on the council elicited an acknowledgment from her that she regretted her contribution to the problem last year with city councilmembers emailing each other during council meetings. Eaton was quick to give Teall credit for publicly apologizing in a timely way for her role in the scandal.

For her part, Teall focused on setting forth accomplishments while serving on the council. Those ranged from the longer-term budgeting strategies that she said had helped ensure that Ann Arbor was weathering the economic crisis better than other Michigan cities, to the budget amendment she introduced and the council passed in May, which proposed using $2 million from the Downtown Development Authority, plus more optimistic estimates for state revenue sharing, to eliminate the need to lay off some police and firefighters.

The candidates exchanged different views on basic infrastructure issues like the Stadium Boulevard bridges and stormwater management, to single-stream recycling and leaf collection, to Georgetown Mall, and the transparency of government. [Full Story]