Reflections of the parade.

And though they weren’t campaigning, there were also lots of dogs and cute kids, dancers, beauty queens, scouts, Masons, Baptists, Buddhists, a lawn mower brigade and more. Music was provided by the St. Francis of Assisi band, the drum corps from Huron High, and a few other musical acts – though like previous years, there was no full marching band.

The July 4th parade is organized by the Ann Arbor Jaycees, and it’s a logistical challenge with its own parade of details. We thank the dozens of volunteers who work so hard to pull off an event the rest of the community can enjoy each year.

Before we get to the photos, here’s a reminder that if you’re not yet registered to vote, the last day to register for the Tuesday, Aug. 5 primary is nearly here – Monday, July 7.

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 last day to register to vote for the Tuesday, Nov. 4 general election is Oct. 6.

Now here’s sampling of photos from this year’s July 4th parade through the streets of downtown Ann Arbor.

The July 4th parade is organized by the Ann Arbor Jaycees.

Color guard for the Ann Arbor July 4th parade.

Washtenaw County sheriff Jerry Clayton.

Washtenaw County prosecuting attorney Brian Mackie wears his traditional patriotic tie.

Ann Arbor police chief John Seto.

Democrat Chuck Warpehoski is running for re-election as a Ward 5 city councilmember.

Cute kids in a bike brigade.

Graydon Krapohl, vice chair of the city’s park advisory commission, is running unopposed in the Ward 4 city council Democratic primary. The seat is currently held by Margie Teall, who is not seeking re-election.

One of the youngest campaign workers passed out candy.

Democrat Samuel McMullen, a candidate for Ward 3 city council, puts finishing touches on a parade sign.

Samuel McMullen.

Julie Grand, candidate for Ward 3 city council, exhorted onlookers to enjoy the Fourth of July festivities.

An enthusiastic campaigner for Julie Grand.

Bob Dascola is in a three-way race for the Ward 3 city council seat that’s currently held by Christopher Taylor, who is running for mayor. Other Democrats in that race are Julie Grand and Sam McMullen.

Another cute kid on a bike.

Nancy Kaplan, a trustee of the Ann Arbor District Library, is running for Ward 2 city council in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary. Also running is Kirk Westphal.

Ward 2 city councilmember Jane Lumm is not up for re-election this year, but is supporting Nancy Kaplan’s campaign for the other Ward 2 seat that’s currently held by Sally Petersen. Petersen is running for mayor.

Democrat Kirk Westphal, chair of the Ann Arbor planning commission, is running against Nancy Kaplan for Ward 2 city council.

Kirk Westphal, candidate for Ward 2 city council.

This kid made a break for it, but the hand in the right of the frame was attached to a parent who had longer legs than the escapee.

Democrat Don Adams is running for the Ward 1 city council seat against incumbent Democrat Sumi Kailasapathy. He handed out fruit instead of candy during the parade.

Don Adams’ fruit cart.

Democrat Sumi Kailasapathy, the incumbent Ward 1 city councilmember.

Democrats Sumi Kailasapathy and Sabra Briere both represent Ward 1 on the Ann Arbor city council. Briere is running for mayor.

The Huron High drum corps.

A fitness crew rolled this massive tire down the street to prove their awesomeness.

Democrat Andy LaBarre with his son Declan. LaBarre represents Ann Arbor’s District 7 on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners and is seeking re-election.

The Statue of Liberty gets a balloon ride with a birthday cake.

Democrat Yousef Rabhi of Ann Arbor, chair of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, is seeking re-election and is unopposed in the Aug. 5 primary for District 8. He high-fived his way through the parade course.

Two flags are twice as fun.

Democrat Felicia Brabec of Pittsfield Township is running for re-election to represent District 4 on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners. She is unopposed in the primary and faces Republican Stanley Watson in November.

A unicyclist.

Republican Larry Murphy is running for Washtenaw County commissioner in District 1. He is challenging incumbent Democrat Kent Martinez-Kratz.

Washtenaw County Republicans.

The camera caught this little one looking a little glum.

A member of the Derby Dimes.

Democrat Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor, state representative for District 53. He is unopposed in the Democratic primary and faces Republican John Spisak in the November general election.

Jim Toy of the Jim Toy Community Center.

Democrat Adam Zemke, the incumbent for the state House seat representing District 55. He’ll face Republican Leonard Burk in November, but does not have a Democratic challenger for the Aug. 5 primary.

Miss Washtenaw County Daveaux Riggs.

A martial arts demonstration on the street.

State Senator Rebekah Warren of Ann Arbor represents District 18. She’s running for another four-year term and is unopposed in the Aug. 5 Democratic primary. She’ll face Republican Terry Linden in November.

Metro Delivery Uncle Sam.

Debbie Dingell is running for the District 12 Congressional seat held by her husband, John Dingell, who is not seeking re-election. She faces Democrat Raymond G. Mullins in the Aug. 5 primary and Republican Terry Bowman in November.

A member of the St. Francis band.

One of the antique cars on parade included this watermelon on its running board.

Tea Haus float: “Tea Rexes”

John Hieftje walks in his last parade as Ann Arbor mayor. He’s not running for re-election.

Sabra Briere is one of four Democrats – all current city councilmembers – who are running for mayor this year.

Sabra Briere, who sprained her ankle a few weeks ago, was transported by pedicab.

Democrat Stephen Kunselman, current Ward 3 councilmember, is running for mayor.

Stephen Kunselman is flanked by his twin daughters and other supporters.

Democrat Sally Petersen is a Ward 2 city councilmember who’s also running for mayor.

Sally Petersen.

Sally Petersen’s float included the band Pitch Cocktail and the Molotovs

Democrat Christopher Taylor is a Ward 3 councilmember who is also running for mayor.

Christopher Taylor.

Eva Rosenwald, who is married to Christopher Taylor, greets a supporter.

The Detroit Parade Company’s Bo Schembechler walked near the parade’s end. And those who stayed until the end were, in fact, champions.

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On May 6, 2014, the final court-ordered supplemental briefs were submitted by both sides in the lawsuit, filed by Bob Dascola against the city of Ann Arbor. Dascola contends he’s an eligible candidate and wants the court to order that he be placed on the ballot in the Ward 3 city council Democratic primary. He would join Julie Grand and Samuel McMullen in that election, which will be held on Aug. 5, 2014.

But as the electorate awaits a ruling from federal judge Lawrence Zatkoff, the two sides have continued to lather up. Late last week, Tom Wieder – the attorney for Dascola – filed a motion asking permission from the court to file an amended complaint. The motion for leave to file the amendment describes the nature of the amendments as clarifying the precise source of rights that Dascola is seeking to enforce in his lawsuit [the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and his rights under 42 U.S.C. §1983], and to clarify the basis of the claim for attorney fees, if Dascola wins. The motion contends that the changes to the complaint are minimal and raise no new legal or factual issues. On its face, the motion appears intended to ensure that Wieder can be paid, if Dascola were to prevail.

However, in responding to the motion for leave to file an amended complaint, Ann Arbor city attorney Stephen Postema offers a cutting characterization. He calls it ”procedurally odd” and accuses Wieder of failing to exercise due diligence in filing the motion. In addition, Postema responds to arguments made in Wieder’s supplemental brief, on the substance of the lawsuit. The substantial issue raised by the lawsuit involves the status of laws – like the city’s charter durational residency and voter registration requirements – when those laws have been found to be unconstitutional, null and void by a federal court.

Wieder responded in kind to the city’s brief, writing that the city does the following:

1) Misrepresent the nature of the proposed Amendment; 2) Misrepresent authority on the issue of futility and its applicability to this case; 3) Continue its fabricated argument that Plaintiff claims Charter Section 12.2 was “repealed” by the Feld and HRP decisions; 4) Produce and present to the Court what is, essentially, a Response Brief to Plaintiff’s Supplemental Brief, although none was called for by the Court’s Order; and 5) Present a fanciful “parade of horribles” that will befall the Court, the candidates, “possible donors and supporters,” the public and the Defendants if the Amendment is allowed.

By way of background, Ann Arbor’s city charter includes two durational requirements for city councilmembers – that they be registered voters in the city for a year before election, and that they be residents of the ward they seek to represent for a year before election.

Dascola contends that he meets the residency requirement. He allows that he does not meet the voter registration requirement. But Dascola’s core legal claim is that the two charter provisions were struck down as unconstitutional, null and void in federal court cases dating from the 1970s. The city contends that it can enforce the two city charter requirements based on case law that evolved subsequent to the 1970s cases.

The court ordered an expedited schedule so that the issue might be resolved before early June, when ballots must be printed. Briefs, responses, and replies had already been filed in April on motions for summary judgment and dismissal.

Here’s the complete set of briefs in the Dascola case, including the filings from last week.

• 03.28.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Complaint]
• 03.29.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Motion for Summary Judgment]
• 04.14.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Motion to Dismiss]
  
• 04.14.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Response to Motion for SJ]
• 04.18.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Reply in Support of Motion for SJ]
• 04.18.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Response to Motion to Dismiss]
• 04.23.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Reply to Response to Motion to Dismiss]
• 05.06.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Plaintiff's Supplemental Brief]
• 05.06.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Defendant's Supplemental Brief]
• 05.08.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Motion for Leave to File Amended Complaint]
• 05.09.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Response to Motion for Leave to File Amended Complaint]
• 05.11.14 [.pdf Dascola v. City of A2: Reply to Response to Motion for Leave to File Amended Complaint]

First to file the minimum 250 signatures (50 per ward) for a mayoral candidate was Stephen Kunselman. The Ward 3 city councilmember turned in his signatures on March 17, 2014 and by the following day, the city clerk’s staff had verified 286 of them, according to records from the clerk’s office.

First to file signatures for city council was Sumi Kailasapathy, the incumbent Ward 1 candidate. She turned in more than the required 100 signatures on March 19, 2014, but as of late afternoon that day the clerk’s staff had not completed the verification process. [Updated: On Friday, March 21 the clerk's office verified that 102 signatures had been verified for Kailasapathy.]

Both Kunselman and Kailasapathy are running in the Aug. 5, 2014 Democratic primary.

Other candidates for mayor who have taken out petitions but not yet filed are city councilmembers Sabra Briere, Sally Petersen and Christopher Taylor. Other city council candidates who have taken out petitions and intend to file include Kirk Westphal in Ward 2, Julie Grand and Bob Dascola in Ward 3, and Graydon Krapohl in Ward 4. None of those four currently serve on the council. Westphal would be competing for the council seat left open by Petersen’s mayoral candidacy. Grand and Dascola would be competing for the council seat left open by Taylor’s mayoral candidacy.

However, Dascola may not be able to run, because the city has determined that he does not meet one-year city charter eligibility requirements. Ann Arbor’s city charter requires one year of voter registration and residency in the ward that the city councilmember seeks to represent, before being elected to office.

Krapohl would be competing for the Ward 4 seat currently held by Margie Teall, who has announced she will not seek re-election.

Ward 5 incumbent Chuck Warpehoski took out petitions last year but has not yet filed them.

All candidates who have taken out petitions so far are Democrats. The deadline to file petitions to run for Ann Arbor mayor and city council in the Aug. 5 partisan primary is April 22.

From left: Julie Grand (Ward 3 challenger), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3 incumbent), Jack Eaton (Ward 4 challenger), Mike Anglin (Ward 5 incumbent), Kirk Westphal (Ward 2 candidate), and Sabra Briere (Ward 1 incumbent).

In the Aug. 6 Democratic primary, only two wards offer contested races. In Ward 3, Democratic voters will choose between incumbent Stephen Kunselman and Julie Grand. Ward 4 voters will have a choice between incumbent Marcia Higgins and Jack Eaton. Higgins was reported to have been sick and was unable to attend.

The format of the event eventually allowed other candidates who are unopposed in the Democratic primary to participate: Mike Anglin (Ward 5 incumbent), Sabra Briere (Ward 1 incumbent), and Kirk Westphal, who’s challenging incumbent Jane Lumm in Ward 2. Lumm, who was elected to the council as an independent, was in the audience at the forum but didn’t participate. The event was held at the Ann Arbor Community Center on North Main Street. The Chronicle’s coverage is presented in a multiple-part series, based on common threads that formed directly in response to questions posed to the candidates, or that cut across multiple responses.

This final installment of coverage from the June 8 city council candidate forum focuses on the remarks candidates made that were overtly about the campaign – to the extent that those remarks weren’t included in one of the previous reports on this forum.

The fact that the forum was hosted by the Ann Arbor Democratic Party meant that party politics was an obvious potential topic. State representative Jeff Irwin set that tone early as he addressed the audience with a legislative update. And Ward 2 candidate Kirk Westphal, who’ll face independent Jane Lumm in the general election, stressed that he is a Democrat.

Part 1 of this series focused on the candidates’ concept of and connection to Ann Arbor, while Part 2 looked at their personal styles of engagement and views of how the council interacts. Part 3 reported on the theme of connections, including physical connections like transportation, as well as how people are connected to local government. And Part 4 covered the theme of downtown and its role in the life of the city. Chronicle election coverage is tagged with “2013 primary election.”

The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area will be holding its candidate forums for Ward 3 and Ward 4 primaries on July 10 at the studios of Community Television Network. Those forums will be broadcast on CTN’s Channel 19 and will be available online.

The Campaign

Julie Grand led things off by saying she had truly enjoyed the opportunity so far of “getting out in the community, listening to your concerns, listening to your solutions.”

During her closing comments, Grand added that if people at the forum had other questions about her campaign, they could look at the literature that had been placed on tables in the back of the room. Her website would be live shortly, she said. [Grand's website] She offered to talk after the forum or when people saw her out in the community – as she was not taking any vacation over the next couple of months.

Grand felt she has a strong record of public service to the community – one that she said has been characterized by hard work, transparency and strong public engagement. That’s what she’d continue to do, she said. [Grand is chair of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission, on which she's served since 2007. She has served on several task forces during that time, including one that's currently focused on the North Main/Huron River corridor.] Grand said she is looking forward to the opportunity to continue listening to people’s ideas and working hard for them.

Stephen Kunselman said he’s seeking re-election. Back in 2011, he noted, he’d campaigned on the tagline of a “strong voice, bold vision, an honest ethic and a new direction.” This year, his tagline is “experienced, effective, ethical leadership you can trust.” [Kunselman's website]

Kunselman thanked Grand for throwing her hat in the ring. Campaigning is not easy, he said. He allowed that it’s a good time because you meet a lot of people – but it’s not that much fun. He thanked other candidates who stepped forward, because it really does give the city a broad representation of interest in the dialogue that’s going to be taking place in the next couple of months, he said. He repeated his tagline for this year: “Experienced, effective, ethical leadership you can trust.” He’d be going door-to-door over the next couple of months, he said.

He’s accomplished a lot during his service on the city council that he’s very proud of, Kunselman said, working with councilmembers Sabra Briere and Mike Anglin. As an example, he gave the public art ordinance that was given a major revision at a recent council meeting. The revision to the public art ordinance meant that the city would no longer be transferring restricted monies into pooled funds for public art.

As another example, he gave his service as the council appointee to the taxicab board. When there were complaints about limo drivers assaulting University of Michigan female students, he had stood up to make sure that the police department was addressing that issue, he said. When there was a proposal to close fire stations in the last year, he’d opposed that with others on the council, and added FTEs during the last fiscal year. About the former YMCA site – a city-owned property at Fifth and William – he noted that he’d campaigned in 2011 on the idea of selling it. A broker is now being selected by the city administrator, so that the city can be put back on the tax rolls again.

Kunselman commented on the houses along Main Street – across from the Ann Arbor Community Center, where the forum was held. He noted that the dilapidated houses, which had been part of the demised Near North affordable housing development, had now been demolished. [Demolition had been delayed, in part because the city expected that federal funds could be used to cover the cost, but that proved not to be the case.] Where did that money for demolition come from? Kunselman asked. When he’d been returned to the council by voters, he said, he’d used his experience working in local government. And because of that experience, he said, he’d pushed not for using the city attorney’s office to deal with blight in the community. Instead, he’d said: Let’s use the building department. He’d previously run a dangerous buildings program in a prior position, and he knew that the building department could be effective.

There’s a tremendous difference between playing poker politics and putting the cards on the table for all the public to see, Kunselman said. He gave forum attendees information on his campaign kickoff event.

Jack Eaton said it’s time now to turn attention “from stopping the bad ideas to a positive agenda.” He said it’s important to revisit the idea of protecting the city’s parkland from misuse. “We need to address our infrastructure needs. We need to address our unfunded liabilities. I want to help rebuild our police and fire departments,” he said. He’s running because he wants to be responsive to Ward 4 voters. But he also wants to represent the interests of the entire city. [Eaton's website]

Eaton reported that when he goes door-to-door talking to voters, he hears repeatedly that people really like it when he talks about commonsense priorities. It’s not that difficult to understand that public safety is more important than some of the other things the city spends money on, he said. It’s not that difficult to understand that when roads are in horrible condition, the city needs to address those problems. It’s not that hard to understand that neighborhood flooding should have been addressed a long time ago and we have just ignored the symptoms, Eaton said.

Sabra Briere ventured that she’d been “annoying my spouse lately” because every time she goes through a neighborhood and sees the sidewalks being repaired, she says, “If I have accomplished nothing else, I’ve done that.” She described how the first thing she did after she was elected to the council was to object to the method of paying for sidewalks. At that time, it was an individual’s responsibility as a property owner to pay for the sidewalk adjacent to your property. She was really happy that the community was asked to approve a millage for that, and had agreed to pass a millage to pay for sidewalk maintenance.

“Infrastructure is my big deal,” Briere stated. Her other big deal, she said, was a focus on affordable housing and human services. She’d been working on that “more quietly perhaps than some people might like, but it is making a real change in the budget.” She pointed out that this year the council was able to allocate $100,000 to the city’s affordable housing trust fund, when that had not been done in the last several years. That’s important because it’s a community value, she said.

Briere said she’s really tried over the last few years to be open and available to the public – to benefit from other people’s viewpoints as much as possible. Sometimes she’ll play devil’s advocate, she said – countering somebody’s view with someone else’s view to see how well they can defend it. Yes, she has a website, Briere said, and yes, you can e-mail her. But she pointed out that you can also talk with her – every Monday morning at the Northside Grill at 7:30 a.m. She stays until at least 9 a.m., she said. Some of the candidates and councilmembers at the forum had come to visit her there. She’s there to hear what anybody has to say. If nobody shows up, she has other stuff to do while she’s sitting there – adding that Northside Grill makes “a decent cup of coffee.”

Democratic Party

As a gathering of members of the city Democratic Party, it was not unusual to hear partisan talk at the June 8 candidate forum.

Democratic Party: State Politics

Jeff Irwin – representative for Michigan’s 53rd House District, which includes most of Ann Arbor – led off the morning by filling some time until moderator Mike Henry was able to arrive.

Irwin described how progress had been made on the possibility of Michigan adding LGBT individuals [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] as a protected class under its civil rights law. Based on an NPR news story he’d heard, Irwin indicated that Republican Rep. Frank Foster would be willing to introduce the necessary changes to Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen civil rights act. “This is something we have been working on in Lansing as Democrats for at least a decade,” Irwin said.

Michigan is one of only a few states that does not have that language in its civil rights act, Irwin continued, so Democrats have been working on this issue for years and years, trying to get LGBT protection inserted into Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen act. Explaining why it’s a Republican who’s bringing the proposal forward, Irwin explained: “When those of us like myself get to Lansing and see the Republicans control everything, we realize very quickly that, you know, the best way [to move the issue forward] is to get a Republican to lift up the banner and carry it across the finish line.”

So a number of Democrats had been working behind the scenes with Republicans to try to encourage them, particularly younger Republicans, Irwin said. “… [I]f they want to have a political career in Michigan, that if they want to survive in politics, they need to understand that the politics of this issue is moving so fast that they are going to get run over and flattened if they don’t get on the right side of it.” If the Republican Party wants to maintain its “bigoted position” on marriage, he said, then the Elliott-Larsen change would be a way to mollify that and “save themselves.” Irwin thought a number of Republicans had been convinced that a change to Elliott-Larsen is a good move for the Republican Party in the next couple of years.

And in response to a question from local attorney David Cahill about Democratic Party prospects statewide in 2014, Irwin took the opportunity to heap criticism on the most recent Republican U.S. president. Michigan Democrats are looking at 2006 as a model for how to achieve success, but one part of the 2006 success had been the fact that George W. Bush was in office – something that couldn’t be repeated, Irwin noted, describing Bush as a “buffoon.”

Democratic Party: Candidate Forum

The candidate forum also touched on partisan themes. In particular Kirk Westphal asserted his Democratic Party credentials. Although he’s unopposed in the Ward 2 primary, he’ll face incumbent Jane Lumm in the general election. Lumm is running as an independent, though she ran for mayor in 2004 as a Republican and served in the mid-1990s on the city council as a Republican. Lumm attended the June 8 forum and sat in the audience. She told The Chronicle she had no expectation of participating in the candidate forum, and that she was there just to listen.

In his remarks, Westphal noted that he’s unopposed in the August primary by saying, “I’m the only Democrat running for the seat in the Second Ward – so I’ll keep my remarks brief and mostly focused on personal background.”

Later, Westphal stated, “I’m a strong Democrat,” and went on to list out where he stood on basic issues. He believes in a strong government role in the environment, the arts, transit, affordable housing and in successful cities overall. He wanted to bring those values to the Ward 2 council seat.

Westphal characterized the local government as the face of the community. Some folks think that a local government should play a very small role, he allowed, He felt, however, that the local government captures the personality of the community. He added, “And I’m frankly running because a lot of my wardmates and I have not seen progressive Democratic values reflected in this council seat. And we believe that these values are important to the future, both locally and nationally.”

The other explicit mention of the Democratic Party came from Sabra Briere, who told the audience that she’s sorry there’s no Democratic primary in Ward 1 – saying that’s not her doing.

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Julie Grand at the Oct. 16, 2012 meeting of the Ann Arbor park advisory commission. She pulled petitions on March 11, 2013 for the Ward 3 Ann Arbor city council Democratic primary.

Kunselman pulled petitions on Nov. 3, 2012 – the Saturday before last year’s Nov. 6 general election. He filed 109 valid signatures on March 8, 2013. Those signatures were verified as valid by the city clerk’s office on March 11 – the same day that Grand pulled her petitions for that race.

In a phone interview with The Chronicle in February 2013, Grand said several factors were influencing her decision. She’ll be term-limited on PAC after her current term ends in October, but wanted to remain involved with the city. [Her appointment on PAC runs through Oct. 18, 2013.] She has served on various committees and task forces over the years, primarily as a representative of PAC. Those include the Main Street/Huron River corridor task force, the golf courses advisory task force, and the senior center task force.

The timing was also good for more personal reasons. Her husband, David Grand, has now had time to transition to his job as U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District Court in Ann Arbor. [He was appointed to that position in November of 2011.] And starting this fall, both of their children will be in school full-time, she said. Grand says she enjoys teaching – she’s a lecturer in health policy studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn – but doesn’t want a full-time academic job.

Grand said her tenure on PAC reflects her consensus-building leadership style, with an emphasis on finding common ground. That approach contrasts with the style of her potential opponent, she said, a reference to Kunselman. Grand also felt that she could work well with the other Ward 3 councilmember, Christopher Taylor. Taylor has served as an ex-officio member of PAC for several years. He was re-elected in November 2012 for another two-year term.

Ann Arbor Ward Maps: Incumbents who are not up for re-election this year (orange), who are up for re-election this year (green) and those who’ve taken out petitions (blue). If elected, Grand would join Margie Teall (Ward 4) and Christopher Taylor (Ward 3) as the third councilmember who lives within a roughly five-block stretch of Brooklyn Avenue. (Image links to interactive map)

Her decision to run is not issue-driven, Grand said. Rather, she was raised with an ethic of participating in local politics, and running for city council “feels like it’s the right next step for me.”

This would be Grand’s first attempt to serve in an elected office.

As of Friday, March 15 at noon, Kunselman was the only candidate to have filed for the upcoming city council election. Three other incumbents – Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) and Mike Anglin (Ward 5) – have pulled petitions but have not yet filed. No candidates have filed in the Ward 2 race for the seat now held by Jane Lumm, who was elected in 2011 as an independent.

Ann Arbor polling locations. Image links to Michigan Secretary of State website, where visitors can type in their names and find their exact polling locations.

Choices for most Washtenaw County offices will be easy for Democrats and Republicans alike – because many of the primaries are uncontested. Uncontested on either side of the ballot are races for prosecuting attorney (with no Republican on the ballot at all), county clerk and register of deeds, sheriff, and treasurer. Democrats, though, will have a choice will be between Harry Bentz and Evan Pratt to appear on November’s ballot as candidate for water resources commissioner. ["Who’ll Be Next Water Resources Commissioner?"]

Heavily contested is the countywide primary race for the 22nd Circuit Court judgeship, which will be open due to the retirement of Melinda Morris. Four candidates are competing for that position: Erane Washington, Doug McClure, Carol Kuhnke and Jim Fink. The top two vote-getters in the primary will appear on November’s ballot. ["22nd Circuit Court: Four-Way Primary Race"] The judicial race is non-partisan, so all voters can vote on that race – no matter which side of the ballot they choose for the rest of their votes.

Most of the primary races for the county board of commissioners are uncontested as well. But Democratic voters in District 7 will have a choice between Andy LaBarre and Christina Montague. ["District 7 Dems Vie for Washtenaw Board"]

And in Ann Arbor city council races, Democrats will have choices in four out of five wards. In Ward 1 Sumi Kailasapathy and Eric Sturgis are competing for the seat that incumbent Democrat Sandi Smith will be leaving. ["Ann Arbor Council Ward 1: Eric or Sumi?" and "Ward 1 City Council Race: Filling Sandi's Seat"]

In Ward 2, Democrats will have a choice between Sally Petersen and incumbent Tony Derezinski. ["Ann Arbor Council Ward 2: Sally or Tony?"]

In Ward 4, the Democratic side of the ballot will offer incumbent Margie Teall and challenger Jack Eaton. ["Ann Arbor Council Ward 4: Jack or Margie?"]

And in Ward 5, the seat that will be left open by Democrat Carsten Hohnke is contested by Chuck Warpehoski and Vivienne Armentrout. ["Ward 5 City Council: Studying, Listening" and "Ann Arbor Council Ward 5: Chuck or Vivienne?"]

Long since passed is the deadline to register to vote in tomorrow’s election. But eligible voters have until Oct. 9 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.

Shaded areas indicate Ann Arbor’s five wards. Colored dots denote the address of a donor to a campaign – brown for one candidate and orange for the other candidate. Which ward’s race does this map show? Details below.

The two candidates in Ward 5 raised a combined total greater than any other ward – with Chuck Warpehoski raising $9,558 and Vivienne Armentrout receiving about $2,000 more, at $11,350. Warpehoski’s total came from a significantly greater number of donors than Armentrout’s contributions, but were on average much smaller. Armentrout and Warpehoski are competing for the Democratic nomination and will face Republican Stuart Berry in November. Sitting Ward 5 Democrat Carsten Hohnke decided not to seek re-election.

Raising slightly less than Ward 5 candidates were incumbent Ward 2 councilmember Tony Derezinski ($8,475) and challenger Sally Petersen ($7,947). The distribution of donation sizes was similar for the Ward 2 candidates, and both showed a much higher per-donor average than the citywide figure – $163 for Derezinski and $139 for Petersen.

In Ward 4, Democratic primary voters will have the same choice they had in 2010 – between incumbent Margie Teall and challenger Jack Eaton. This year, they have raised roughly the same amount of money – Teall with $4,685 and Eaton with $4,305.

Ward 1 showed the greatest difference in the amounts raised by the two candidates, as Sumi Kailasapathy raised about 70% more than Eric Sturgis – $4,220 compared to $2,510 for Sturgis. The seat will be open because Sandi Smith is not seeking re-election.

A common theme across all the campaign finance reports is the significant support candidates receive from outside the ward they’re seeking to represent. That’s a trend visible in the maps we present after the jump.

Part of that trend can be explained by the number of city residents who donate money to more than one campaign. Out of the nearly 500 different donors across the eight campaigns, 58 donated to two or more campaigns, and 23 donated to three or more. The Chronicle counted nine donors who contributed to four different city council campaigns.

Many observers perceive a grouping of candidates based on shared basic philosophies – Kailasapathy, Petersen, Eaton and Armentrout on the one hand, contrasted with Sturgis, Derezinski, Teall and Warpehoski. While there’s likely considerable room for disagreement about what the common thread is that ties those candidates together, the multiple-campaign donors bear out a perception of some commonality: Of the 58 multiple-campaign donors, all but three squared up with that candidate grouping.

The three donors identified by The Chronicle as flouting that grouping included 22nd circuit court judge candidate Carol Kuhnke, who gave money to both Ward 2 candidates (Derezinski and Petersen) as well as Sturgis and Teall. Past Ward 2 candidate Stew Nelson gave money to Petersen and to Sturgis. And former Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority board member Ed Shaffran donated to Teall and to Armentrout.

Which group had more multiple-campaign donors? There the nod goes to the group with no incumbents – Kailasapathy, Petersen, Eaton and Armentrout – with 39 of the 58 multiple-campaign donors.

Vignette from the County Clerk’s Office

On Friday, July 27, with the filing deadline for pre-primary campaign finance reports about 15 minutes away, folks in the waiting area at the Washtenaw County clerk’s office got a reminder that the county clerk holds an elected position.

Washtenaw County clerk Larry Kestenbaum emerged from behind the counter, took a seat in the waiting area and chatted with The Chronicle a bit before handing in his pre-primary campaign finance filing. He noted that he always hands in his election paperwork from that side of the counter.

Kestenbaum’s staff then took his paperwork, disappeared into a back office, and a few minutes later, the documents were scanned and uploaded to the clerk’s campaign finance database, available for perusal by the public.

One topic of conversation with The Chronicle was speculation about whether all the candidates for Ann Arbor city council would submit their paperwork before the deadline. Only one of the eight candidates in the contested primary races had not filed by then – Vivienne Armentrout. Armentrout wrote to The Chronicle later to report that she’d emailed the clerk’s office to let them know she wouldn’t be filing that day. When she files on Monday, she’ll need to pay a relatively minor fine – $25. Failure to file for a longer period could get expensive – because the fine is $25 per day.

Even though she did not make the Friday deadline, Armentrout forwarded her data to The Chronicle later that evening, which was used in the analysis for this article.

Distribution of Donations

For all bar graphs with donation distributions, the images are linked to a higher resolution file. The vertical axis is scaled identically for all eight races, to allow for sensible visual comparisons across wards.

Ward 1 Sumi Kailasapathy. The Chronicle counted 58 donors, who contributed a total of $4,220 – an average of $73 per donor, and a median of $50.

Ward 1 Eric Sturgis. The Chronicle counted 29 donors who contributed $2,510 for an average of $86.55 per donor, and a median of $75.

Ward 2 Tony Derezinski. The Chronicle counted 52 donors who contributed a total of $8,475 for an average of $163 per donor and a median of $100.

Ward 2 Sally Petersen. The Chronicle counted 57 donors who contributed a total of $7,947 for an average of $139 per donor and a median of $100.

Ward 4 Margie Teall. The Chronicle counted 48 donors who contributed a total of $4,685 for an average of $97 per donor and a median of $100.

Ward 4 Jack Eaton. The Chronicle counted 39 donors who contributed a total of $4,305 for an average of $110 per donor and a median of $100.

Ward 5 Vivienne Armentrout. The Chronicle counted 83 donors who contributed a total of $11,350 for an average of $137 per donor and a median of $100.

Ward 5 Chuck Warpehoski. The Chronicle counted 127 donors who contributed a total of $9,558 for an average of $75 per donor and a median of $50.

Mapping the Donation Distributions

Maps below are available in dynamic form at geocommons.com: “Ann Arbor City Council Primary 2012 Campaign Finance.” Layers corresponding to each candidate’s contributions can be toggled on and off. The geocoding for the maps (that is, the matching of longitude and latitude to street addresses) is not guaranteed to be accurate for every colored dot depicting a campaign contribution. However, The Chronicle is confident that the accuracy is adequate for claims about overall trends.

Ward 1 Sumi Kailasapathy. Ward 1 is the red shaded area. Colored dots denote the location of campaign donations. Kailasapathy enjoys a lot of support in Ward 5 (blue) as well as in the ward she’s seeking to represent.

Ward 1 Eric Sturgis. Ward 1 is the red shaded area. Colored dots denote the location of campaign donations. The map shows that most of his financial support is in Ward 1, but citywide it’s sparse compared to Kailasapathy’s.

Ward 2 Tony Derezinski. Ward 2 is the light orange shaded area. Colored dots denote the location of campaign donations. Both Derezinski and Petersen draw a lot of support from the southern part of Ward 2. 

Ward 2 Sally Petersen. Ward 2 is the light orange shaded area. Colored dots denote the location of campaign donations. The northern two precincts, where former Ward 2 councilmember Stephen Rapundalo was always strongest in terms of votes, offers little financial support for either candidate this time around.

Ward 4 Jack Eaton and Margie Teall. Ward 4 is the light green shaded area. Colored dots (Teall, brown; Eaton, orange) denote the location of campaign donations. Teall and Eaton’s contributions are combined onto one map. Without additional background information, it would be difficult to guess that the map shows contributions for a Ward 4 race – as the majority of contributions come from outside the ward. The visual perception is accounted for partly by the fact that the middle swath of Ward 4 offers has no residential  areas – because it’s University of Michigan property.

Ward 5 Chuck Warpehoski. Ward 5 is the blue shaded area. Colored dots denote the location of campaign donations. Warpehoski enjoys a lot of support within the ward, but also outside Ward 5 within the city. Outside the city, in Ypsilanti, he’s also received several contributions.

Ward 5 Vivienne Armentrout. Ward 5 is the light blue shaded area. Colored dots denote the location of campaign donations. Armentrout enjoys strong support within the ward, as well as in Ward 2 (orange). That could be explained in part by the fact that Ward 2 councilmember Jane Lumm sent out a fundraising letter to her own supporters on Armentrout’s behalf. Lumm contributed to Armentrout’s campaign as well as to the campaigns of Kailasapathy, Petersen, and Eaton.

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The color guard starts off the Ann Arbor July 4th parade, passing by the Michigan Theater on East Liberty. The theater is offering free admission to U.S. veterans all week.

It was likely the last parade as an elected official for Janis Bobrin, the Washtenaw County water resources commissioner who has served for more than two decades but is not seeking re-election.

This year is unusual because two judicial races are being contested in the 22nd Circuit Court, and three of the six candidates had entries in the parade.

The July 4th parade is organized each year by the Ann Arbor Jaycees. As parades go, it’s a relatively low-key affair, but this year included a rarity for the Ann Arbor parade – a marching band, from Skyline High School. Miss Washtenaw made an appearance, as did baton twirlers, boy scouts, the Masons, and an assortment of other groups representing a wide swath of this community.

Many of those groups are included in the photo essay below. But the photographs also include candidates for office, whose willingness to stand for election is a testament to our representative democracy, which we celebrate each year on this date.

If you’re not yet registered to vote, here’s a reminder that the last day to register for the Tuesday, Aug. 7 primary is nearly here – July 9. 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 last day to register to vote for the Tuesday, Nov. 6 general election is Oct. 9.

The Ann Arbor July 4th parade is organized by the Ann Arbor Jaycees.

The grand marshal for this year's Ann Arbor July 4th parade was Kim Barnes Arico, the new University of Michigan women’s basketball head coach, who rode with her daughter Emma.

Democrat Daniel Marcin is challenging long-time U.S Rep. John Dingell for the District 12 congressional seat, which includes Ann Arbor. Dingell now represents District 15, but boundaries have been redrawn as a result of redistricting to create this new district. Dingell – the longest-serving current member of Congress – did not attend the Ann Arbor parade, but was represented by his wife, Debbie Dingell, and other supporters. The winner of the Democratic primary will face a Republican in November – either Karen Jacobsen or Cynthia Kallgren.

Jeff Irwin, an Ann Arbor Democrat who's running for his second two-year term in the state House of Representatives for District 53, is facing challenger Thomas Partridge in the Aug. 7 primary. The winner of that race will be competing in November against Republican John Spisak, who is unopposed in the primary.

A Jeff Irwin supporter pulls his "float" on a bicycle trailer.

Last year, Adam Zemke drove the car for U.S. Rep. John Dingell's entry in the July 4th parade. This year, the Ann Arbor Democrat had his own entry – he's running for state representative in District 55. He'll face Ypsilanti Democrat Andrea Brown-Harrison in the primary, with the winner running against Republican Owen Diaz, the former mayor of Milan, in November. Diaz is unopposed in the Republican primary.

Supporters of Democrat Andrea Brown-Harrison, who's running for District 55 in the Michigan House of Representatives. She is facing Adam Zemke in the primary.

Rebekah Warren and Conan Smith drive to their staging spot before the start of the July 4th parade. Warren is state senator for District 18 but is not up for re-election until 2014. Smith, her husband, is chair of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners and is running unopposed in the Democratic primary to represent District 9 in Ann Arbor. He will face Republican John Floyd in November for a two-year term on the county board.

State Sen. Rebekah Warren (D-District 18) does not need to contest and election this year – her four-year term ends in 2014.

Republican Rob Steele, an Ann Arbor cardiologist who ran against Congressman John Dingell in 2010, is now campaigning for a position on the University of Michigan board of regents.

Carol Kuhnke is running for judge on the 22nd Circuit Court – along with three others in this non-partisan race: Erane Washington, Doug McClure and Jim Fink. The four candidates will compete in the Aug. 7 primary. The two who garner the most votes will move on to the Nov. 6 general election.

Erane Washington is one of four judicial candidates for an open seat on the 22nd Circuit Court now held by judge Melinda Morris, who is ineligible for re-election because she is past the statutory age limit of 70. Washington and Carol Kuhnke had entries in the Ann Arbor July 4th parade, but the other two candidates – Doug McClure and Jim Fink – did not.

Tim Connors, who has served as a 22nd Circuit Court judge since 1997, is running for another six-year term and faces challenger Mike Woodyard in the non-partisan November election. Woodyard did not participate in the Ann Arbor parade.

Christina Montague, a Democrat and former chair of the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, is hoping to return to the county board for District 7. To do that, she'll need to beat Andy LaBarre in the Aug. 7 primary and Republican David Parker in November. The new Ann Arbor district, formed as a part of redistricting that takes effect with this election cycle, would have been the seat of incumbent Barbara Bergman, who is not seeking re-election.

Andy LaBarre is running for District 7 on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners, facing Christina Montague in the Aug. 7 primary. The winner of that race will face Republican David Parker in November. Walking with LaBarre in the July 4th parade is his wife, Megan.

Yousef Rabhi rides his scooter with the Washtenaw County Democratic Party. For his re-election bid to the county board of commissioners, he is unopposed in the Democratic primary but faces Republican challenger Joe Baublis in November to represent District 8 in Ann Arbor.

Felicia Brabec is seeking re-election to her first full two-year term on the Washtenaw County board of commissioners. She was appointed to the board in October of 2011 and won a special election this May. The Pittsfield Township Democrat is unopposed in the primary but will face Republican Richard Conn in November.

Democrat Evan Pratt, an Ann Arbor resident who currently serves on the city's planning commission, is running for the position of Washtenaw County water resources commissioner. He's endorsed by Janis Bobrin, the current water resources commissioner who decided not to run for another term. Pratt faces Harry Bentz in the Aug. 7 primary, and the winner will run against Republican Eric Scheie in November.

Democrat Harry Bentz of Ann Arbor is vying for the job of Washtenaw County water resources commissioner. In the Democratic primary he'll be running against Evan Pratt, who also lives in Ann Arbor. The incumbent, Janis Bobrin, is not seeking-re-election. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Ann Arbor resident Eric Scheie, who is running unopposed in the Republican primary.

Janis Bobrin, Washtenaw County water resources commissioner, talks with Ann Arbor city councilmember Stephen Kunselman. This will likely be the last parade for Bobrin, who has served for more than two decades. Bobrin, a Democrat, is not seeking re-election. As she traditionally does, this year she walked the parade with county prosecuting attorney Brian Mackie. Mackie is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and does not face a Republican challenger in the November general election. Kunselman is up for re-election in 2013, and walked the parade with the Ann Arbor Democrats.

Jerry Clayton, Washtenaw County sheriff, is running for his second four-year term. He is unopposed in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary, but faces Republican Jeffrey Gallatin in the November general election.

Catherine McClary is seeking another four-year term as Washtenaw County treasurer. She is unopposed in the Democratic primary, but will face Republican Marlene Chockley in November.

Washtenaw County clerk Larry Kestenbaum, a Democrat, is unopposed in the August primary but will be challenged by Republican Stanley Watson in November.

Sumi Kailasapathy with some of her supporters before the start of the July 4th parade. Kailasapathy, a Democrat, is running against Eric Sturgis in the Aug. 7 primary for a Ward 1 seat currently held by Sandi Smith, who is not seeking re-election. No Republican is seeking that seat.

Eric Sturgis, right, is seeking the Ward 1 Ann Arbor city council seat currently held by Sandi Smith. He is facing Sumi Kailasapathy in the Aug. 7 primary.

Sally Petersen, right, is making her first run for Ann Arbor city council, hoping to defeat incumbent Tony Derezinski in the Ward 2 Democratic primary. Unless an independent enters the race, the winner of the primary will be unopposed in November.

Democrat Tony Derezinski, the incumbent Ward 2 Ann Arbor city councilmember, is seeking his third two-year term. He'll face challenger Sally Petersen in the Aug. 7 primary. There is no Republican running in Ward 2. His usual mode of transportation is a Harley, but he rode a different kind of bike for the parade.

Democrat Jack Eaton is challenging incumbent Margie Teall in the Ward 4 city council race. No Republicans are running in that ward. To the right is one of Eaton's supporters, Rita Mitchell.

Democrat Mike Anglin, Ward 5 city councilmember, isn't up for re-election this year, but drove in the parade to support Jack Eaton and Sumi Kailasapathy. Eaton and Kailasapathy are running for council in wards 4 and 1, respectively.

Margie Teall, the incumbent Ward 4 city council representative, is seeking re-election and faces Jack Eaton in the Aug. 7 Democratic primary. She did not originally have an entry in the parade, but mayor John Hieftje offered her the space that the Ann Arbor Jaycees had allotted him – as he was out of town for the parade.

Republican Stuart Berry is running for a Ward 5 city council seat, and in November will face the winner of the Democratic primary – either Vivienne Armentrout or Chuck Warpehoski.

Chuck Warpehoski, a candidate for Ward 5 city council, is running against Vivienne Armentrout in the Democratic primary. They are seeking the seat held by fellow Democrat Carsten Hohnke, who is not running for re-election. Hohnke has endorsed Warpehoski in the primary.

Mike Henry, co-chair of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party.

David Cahill, who's helping to organize the Democratic Party's effort to re-elect Barack Obama, walks with the Washtenaw County Democratic Party.

Erica Kennedy, Miss Washtenaw's Outstanding Teen. (This caption originally mis-identified Kennedy as Lauren Brown, who is Miss Washtenaw.)

A member of the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes.

More skaters with the Ann Arbor Derby Dimes.

Ann Arbor Ringette players on the street.

Ann Arbor chief of police John Seto.

Skyline High School marching band. What's a July 4th parade without a marching band? But in recent years, that's been a rarity for the Ann Arbor event. Thanks to Skyline musicians for stepping up this year!

Drum major with the Skyline High School marching band.

Members of the Skyline High School marching band.

Bob Dascola gets ready for the Backwards Clown Brigade.

This Lady Liberty was an entry for the Ann Arbor Baptist Church – one of the few floats in the Ann Arbor July 4th parade.

Alan Haber, walking with the Gray Panthers of Washtenaw.

Members of the Redford Jaycees Lawn Mower Drill Corps execute choreography that was appreciated by the crowd.

The D3 Fife & Drum Corps marked the end of the 2012 Ann Arbor July 4th parade.

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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.

Stephen Rapundalo and Jane Lumm were adamant in their positions, but appeared in relatively good humor. (Photos by the writer.)

Rapundalo has made the city’s past and future a central theme of his campaign, and the Oct. 26 event amply reflected that. Rapundalo spent much of the evening trying to characterize the city councils of the 1990s, on which Lumm served, as unable to work cooperatively as a group. That contrasts with his own approach and that of the current council, said Rapundalo, which is based on consensus and cooperation, even if councilmembers don’t agree on everything.

Even as Rapundalo appealed to the past in criticizing Lumm – for supporting what he called luxurious labor contracts during her tenure of service – he also criticized what he perceives her attitude to be towards the future. He calls it a “hunker down” mentality, which he says doesn’t take into account the steps the city needs to take to ensure future generations have what they need.

For her part, Lumm tells a narrative in which city government has become, since the time she served on the council, disconnected from the priorities of residents. She wants to restore community input and open conversation back to city government, which she contends is now lacking. At the Thurston forum, she responded to Rapundalo’s criticism about her prior service as a councilmember by saying she welcomed the comparison between “the bad old days” and now. She characterized herself as a fiscal watchdog, who pressed financial issues, even if there was not the same appetite for that on the rest of the council.

Certain aspects of Lumm’s record are portrayed on Rapudalo’s campaign website in a way that could fairly be described as out of context. [A closer examination of Rapundalo's portrayals based on city council minute archival material is included in The Chronicle's write-up of the League of Women Voters forum, earlier in the campaign: "2011 Election: Ward 2 City Council"] At the Thurston forum, however, Rapundalo was right about a point of contention that emerged over whether Lumm had enjoyed a Republican majority on a city council committee. The city council archives show a 3-2 Republican majority on the labor negotiating committee in 1996.

The forum was hosted by the Orchard Hills/Maplewood Homeowners Association, moderated by Peter Mooney, who’s president of that group. Rapundalo is a member of the association, and Thurston Elementary is in Rapundalo’s neighborhood. But if there was a general leaning among the assembly, it seemed to be in favor of Lumm – based on response to a few laugh lines sprinkled throughout the forum.

The format of the event contrasted with many other similar events, in that it featured no rigid time constraints on candidate responses – just a general guideline from Mooney to try to limit responses to around three to four minutes.

Mooney took questions written by audience members on cards and synthesized them into prompts for the candidates. Paraphrased questions and responses below are summarized in the order they were given. [Campaign websites: Jane Lumm , Stephen Rapundalo]

Opening Statements

Each candidate gave an opening statement.

Opening: Lumm

Lumm began by saying it was an honor to serve on the council for three terms in the 1990s. She said she didn’t expect to run again, but felt that city government has become disconnected from the community. In financially challenging times, she said, the city can’t afford everything – it’s about choices and priorities.

Many people believe the city should be targeting tax dollars on getting basic services right, but we don’t see that happening, she said. Instead, she said, the city government had built a new municipal center and diverted precious capital dollars to public art. The council had focused on ordinances addressing issues like pedestrians in crosswalks and vehicles idling too long, instead of more pressing problems. “We deserve better,” she said.

She then described Rapundalo’s campaign strategy as tossing “a bunch of false claims and nasty accusations on the wall in the hope that something might stick.” As an example, she gave Rapundalo’s contention that she’d consistently opposed recycling, the environment and human services. She said she doubted that the local Sierra Club would have endorsed her if she were anti-recycling and anti-environment. She said she also doubted that former city human services director Eileen Ryan would be saying the positive things she was saying about Lumm if Lumm were anti-human-services.

Today, Lumm said, our elected officials don’t seem to be listening to residents, which was shown by a misalignment of priorities. She continued by saying that elected officials appear to think they “know better.” Decisions are made privately, she contended, and then publicly it becomes about “selling” the decision to the public. She said that people who remembered her previous service know that she would work hard to engage all stakeholders to ensure that all options and points of view are heard – that’s just a good government principle that she would restore to city government, she said.

Opening: Rapundalo

Rapundalo thanked everyone for their confidence and support over the last six years of his service on the council. He called it an honor to serve as representative to the council. Rapundalo said that for him, the election is about who can best lead Ann Arbor forward. Ann Arbor is facing some real economic challenges, he said, but compared with other communities in the state, the outlook is not as bad. He attributed that to the fact that the city council, during his period of service, had focused diligently on priorities for the budget, services and infrastructure improvements. It has not been easy, he said, but the council has managed it pretty well. As a result, he said, the city of Ann Arbor enjoys a good fund balance, top bond ratings, clean audits, and earns praise for its quality of life.

He said he has not adopted a “hunker down mentality.” Instead, he said, he’d tried to be strategic in his due diligence in addressing issues, so that Ann Arbor can move forward. It should not just be a question of whether things are okay for today. The question is what needs do we have for tomorrow, he said, and we need to challenge ourselves with meeting those needs.

Rapundalo said he was proud of the council’s accomplishments – replacing outdated and expensive labor contracts, with savings that can be allocated to hiring back police. More and better recycling has been established, he said, parkland has been protected, aging infrastructure has been replaced, and neighborhoods have been protected from inappropriate development. Budgets had been developed that did not raise taxes.

All this had been done, Rapundalo said, because he’d worked collaboratively with his council colleagues to reach consensus on solutions, even though they did not always share the same view on everything. In short, he said, there’s important work to be done to ensure that Ann Arbor remains the economic beacon for Michigan. His strength, he said, is as someone who runs a business that is a high-tech industry leader [the industry association MichBio], has strong analytical and management skills, and demonstrates principled leadership. Rapundalo said he is exactly what the city council needs going into the future.

Huron Hills Golf Course

Question: What are your thoughts on the future of Huron Hills golf course? Should it be kept as it is, sold, or something else?

Huron Hills Golf Course: Rapundalo

Rapundalo began by saying, “That’s an easy one!” From the get-go, he said he’d supported keeping Huron Hills as a golf course. He had never supported or contemplated that it would be sold.

As chair of the golf advisory task force, he said he had worked very hard with others to try to improve golf operations. Over the last three years, revenues have increased, he noted, not just at Huron Hills but at Leslie Park golf course as well. The hope is that the trend will continue. Various adjustments and improvements have been implemented to make that happen, but it takes a concerted effort, he said. He concluded by saying his support is completely behind Huron Hills as a golf course.

Huron Hills Golf Course: Lumm

Lumm said she’s been very involved in trying to save Huron Hills over the last six years. The course has gone through countless reviews by consultants, she said. This last summer, a request for proposals (RFP) went out and Miles of Golf was the only respondent. If the proposal from Miles of Golf had been approved, it would have commercially developed half the property.

Lumm noted that she’d spoken against the RFP – because the plan recommended by the golf advisory task force was, and is, working. [Lumm addressed the city council on the topic at its June 7, 2010 meeting.] Lumm said the situation is being grossly misrepresented. She said Rapundalo is on record as saying the operating shortfall is greater than $500,000. But later, she said, Rapundalo had acknowledged that on a cash-operating basis, Huron Hills is essentially break-even. The public perception is that Huron Hills bleeds money – but it doesn’t, she said. She said she believes in public recreation – Huron Hills turned 90 years old this year.

If Huron Hills were not already owned by the city and were under consideration by the city’s greenbelt advisory commission for acquisition, she said, she felt there’d be no doubt that the city would purchase it. Greenbelt parcels are evaluated based on eight criteria. One of those criteria is its proximity to the Huron River, she said. Another one is the number of passers-by. Huron Hills would score very high on that metric, she said. Of the city’s 12 recreation facilities (swimming pools, canoe liveries, ice rinks), Huron Hills is the No. 3 revenue generator, she said.

Huron Hills serves a municipal function, Lumm continued, pointing out that young people, as well as seniors, play there. Leslie and Huron Hills, on a fully-allocated basis, Lumm said, lose $160,000 and $100,000 respectively. The Miles of Golf proposal was eventually turned down – it was a “lose, lose, lose” for Huron Hills and the city. It would have only benefited Miles of Golf, she said.

The RFP also violated the 2008 city charter referendum on selling parkland. The charter amendment requires that if the city ever decided to sell parkland, then residents get to vote on it. What was happening with the Miles of Golf proposal was an attempt to “skirt that voter referendum,” she said. All sorts of words were used instead of “sale,” she said – “long-term leases” and “development agreements.” That happened under Rapundalo’s watch, she said.

The city got a land appraisal on Huron Hills a number of years ago – that’s not something we should do with our parks, Lumm said. If you believe in protecting city parks, you don’t turn a blind eye to activity like that, she contended. Lumm noted that the city is spending millions of dollars outside the city – through the greenbelt program – to prevent development. So why would we allow development of our own city parks? she asked.

Public Art

Question: What’s your philosophy on public art spending? What changes should be made?

Public Art: Lumm

Lumm noted that $2.2 million has been set aside so far through the city’s Percent for Art program – it’s been carved out of the parks millage, the solid waste millage, the parks capital improvements millage, utility fees and the municipal center building fund. She thinks money like that should be used in a way that any reasonable person would consider related to the source. So she would not support carving out one percent of funds from those various millages for public art. She particularly would not do that when streets and bridges are deteriorating.

Lumm said supporters of the public art program talk about the economic benefits. She said she didn’t doubt the economic benefit – her objection is based on the funding source. She noted that the city of Ann Arbor has a lot of public art – it’s been donated. The city should look at those opportunities.

Another option would be to give voters discretion – they could make a contribution to public art when they paid taxes, she said. She characterized herself as an “art lover,” having served on the Ann Arbor Art Center board for six years. It’s not about being for or against public art, she said, it’s about how it’s funded. It amounts to diverting resources to things that are “nice to have” in financially challenging times.

Public Art: Rapundalo

Rapundalo said he took a very different point of view from Lumm. He said he was in support of the Percent for Art program concept for a number of reasons. He contended there are a lot of myths and misrepresentation of what the Percent for Art program is all about.

Rapundalo contended that the program is “budget neutral.” He said you could think of the public art being “a design element in whatever [capital] project” is already funded by a source – whether the funding source is the streets millage or the parks millage or whatever. That art has to be accommodated in the project, like painting or landscaping within those projects. So the art doesn’t detract from the projects that need to get done.

He called public art an economic development tool. He said he works in the high-tech industry, and people want to be in a community that is vibrant and that offers a lot in terms of cultural arts. So to retain talent in this day and age, in this kind of community, he said, it’s important that we make that kind of investment.

He went on to contend that it’s inexpensive to make that investment with the Percent for Art program. He reiterated that the public art program is “budget neutral.” He maintained that it takes nothing from the city’s general fund, so it can’t be used for fire or police protection. He wound up by saying the public art program builds the vibrancy of the community, and it’s something that people can point to and say, “This is what Ann Arbor is all about,” and take pride in it. It’s a selling point for Ann Arbor for being a magnet for the future economy.

Unfunded Pension/Health Care for City Workers

Question: Rapundalo notes the city has a strong fund balance. But the city has an unfunded combined health care and pension obligation for city employees of $225 million. Thoughts?

Pension/Health Care: Rapundalo

Rapundalo began by saying that the questioner had not looked at the numbers very carefully. The city has assets against that liability, he noted. Percentage-wise, the pension fund is about 90% funded, he said. It was 98% funded as recently as five years ago. The retiree health care fund is about 30% funded – which Rapundalo said was one of the best in the state. It’s inaccurate and misleading to say we don’t have assets against the liability, he said.

The city is actually in relatively good shape with respect to pension and health care, but Rapundalo allowed: “That’s not to say we don’t have our work cut out for us.” That’s why he had gone after the labor contracts, which he said under Lumm’s watch were luxurious. Union members had free health care and very little pension contribution. He said he’d spent the last two years trying to roll back those benefits, whether employees are union or non-union, so people pay their fair share “just like you and I have to.” In that way, future pension fund obligations would not be as great, he said.

Pension/Health Care: Lumm

Lumm said her take on the numbers is 180-degrees opposite to Rapundalo’s. When she served on the council previously, the council had adopted the first long-term financial plan for the city. Any long-term outlook takes into consideration debt and unfunded liabilities. Today, she said, both of those have grown considerably. The most recent actuarial report, she said shows the pension obligation is unfunded to the tune of $45 million. The health care obligation is unfunded by another $170 million.

While Rapundalo talks about cleaning up the mess of 15 years ago (when Lumm served on the council), Lumm said, at that time the pension fund was $60 million over-funded, while retiree health care was underfunded by $50 million. That was a net surplus of $10 million, she said. She felt the truth is in those numbers.

Lumm pointed to a 2005 blue ribbon finance report that recommended addressing the fundamental issue of the pension benefit – but the city is still offering a defined benefit plan, not a defined contribution plan. That’s not sustainable, she said.

The changes that have been made recently by the council have been good, she said, like extending the final average compensation (FAC) period and increasing employee contributions to healthcare. But for Rapundalo to say she was the person who supported fat labor contracts, she said, “That’s laughable.” She said Rapundalo could ask his Democratic colleagues, or anyone who has any institutional memory – she was “a pain in the neck” about labor issues. However, she said, there wasn’t the appetite for it.

Lumm contended she “pushed mightily” on controlling employee pension and health care costs. She said she brought forward resolutions when the council discussed the budget, and she aired those issues not weeks but months in advance to try to get buy-in. She’d started in 1994 and was a pain in the neck about this topic until her last meeting on the city council, she said.

Fuller Road Station, Transportation

Question: What are your thoughts on the proposed Fuller Road Station and high speed transit?

Transportation: Rapundalo

Rapundalo said he’s supportive of the whole concept. He called it a “generational game changer.” Whether people appreciate it or not, it’s here today because the federal government has identified high speed rail in this corridor as a priority and a need, he said. When you combine that with local needs driven by University of Michigan employment, Fuller Road Station becomes an important component of that. In years past, the city has looked at how to move people in and out, he noted, and after looking at many different locations, the conclusion was that the spot on Fuller Road at the base of the university hospital would be the ideal location.

The concept that’s been developed involves two or three phases, Rapundalo said. The first phase would be a parking facility with commuter rail platform. The second phase would include a fully built-out high speed train station. A third phase would be an interconnector hub from North Campus and Plymouth Road southward. It would integrate rail, bus, bike, pedestrians and cars.

The first two phases won’t require any city general funds, he said. Entities like the University of Michigan, Michigan Dept. of Transportation, Federal Transit Administration, Federal Rail Administration and Amtrak have committed to being full partners. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated – the state of Michigan has purchased the trains and the tracks. The pieces are in place and in motion, he said. Other stops along that route – Battle Creek and Dearborn – are getting renovated. Ann Arbor is the busiest Amtrak stop on the Detroit-Chicago route, so it would behoove Ann Arbor be a part of the high speed and commuter rail link, he concluded.

Transportation: Lumm

Lumm allowed that she would sound like the naysayer, but what Rapundalo was describing sounds “utopic.” It’s an “intermodal transit station” – that sounds great. At some point it would be a wonderful amenity for the city, she said, but we need a reality check.

What we’re talking about today is the first phase, which is essentially a parking structure for the University of Michigan, she said. The city has made a commitment of $10 million in order to use 22% of the facility. The university is a wonderful employer, and the city should be partners, she said, but Ann Arbor taxpayers shouldn’t necessarily bear the expense of that project on their parkland.

The project comes with too many unanswered questions, Lumm said. She has yet to see a business plan. What will the ongoing operating costs be? If someone would share that information, she said, that would be great. As far as the claim that it will require no city general fund money, she said, “I’ll believe that when I see it.” She came back to the point that the site is located on city parkland. The project violates the spirit of the 2008 charter amendment. Voters said in 2008 that if the city is going to unload parkland, voters get to weigh in on that. Thinking the project will become a train station anytime soon, Lumm said, is not realistic.

Labor Negotiations

Question: What’s your philosophy on labor contracts? What’s the role of the council versus the role of the administration in labor negotiations?

Labor Negotiations: Lumm

Lumm said the question strikes a nerve, because she knows what she did, and she knows what has been said about what she did. She said she’d welcome anyone who can remember the history, to confirm she had pushed on pension and health care issues, for current and retired employees.

Lumm said she had served on the labor committee, and recently she’d reviewed some of the contracts from that time. She referred to a study that had been done looking at benchmarking health care costs with other communities. The committee relied on human resources staff, the city administrator and the city attorneys – they’d come to the labor committee as those staff members had negotiated the contracts. She said she’d looked at a contract from 1997 – before that contract was settled there were 14 negotiations. She allowed that some things that were being asked for were actually fairly luxurious, but she maintained that the city had held the line on things.

Lumm said  that back when she served, the council relied on professionals to guide it. Today, she said, the council is doing the work that professionals once did. The impression is, she said, that it’s the councilmembers who are doing the negotiating. She said she didn’t think that’s what is actually happening.

Labor Negotiations: Rapundalo

Rapundalo said that before he addressed the question that had been posed, he wanted to respond to some of Lumm’s comments. He noted that when Lumm served on the labor committee, she was on it when there were more Republicans than Democrats. So she had the opportunity to carry a recommendation out from the labor committee to the full council as to what they wanted to see come out of the negotiations. But he didn’t think there’s a record of that having happened.

Rapundalo stated that councilmembers don’t participate in labor negotiations – they provide parameters and the strategies by which the professionals do the negotiations. What has changed over the last five to six years, he said, is that the labor committee has put its foot down and said: The city is not going to conduct business like this any longer.

Rapundalo said that for many years, the police and firefighter unions, which are governed by the Act 312 arbitration law, would “call our bluff.” They’d say: “You’re not going to lay us off; we’ll string this out as long as we can.” But the council had gotten to the point where it said, “Enough is enough.” The city could not continue to cut other areas, he said, without looking at the largest expense, which is personnel. And the majority of personnel costs are in the public safety sector, he said. And with public safety union contracts that had no contributions to health care and minimal contributions in terms of pension, it was not fair.

So the council had said it’s time to connect the labor strategy with the budget strategy, Rapundalo explained. That meant that for units with employees who’d agreed to contracts that had higher contributions to health care and pension plans, budget reductions in those units would be correspondingly less. Most of the unions, “saw the writing on the wall,” Rapundalo said, and accommodated that strategy. Police and firefighters, however, had not, he said.

Rapundalo called it ironic that the settlement that the city had recently reached with the police officers rank and file – with greater contributions by employees to health care and pension – was the same set of conditions offered to them in May and June of this year, before the budget was approved. It was also the same set of conditions that had been offered a year ago. In their minds, he said, their contracts had already expired, so it was to their benefit to continue to work under those contracts that were more generous to them. But the police officers had finally come around, and he hoped now that those savings could be used to re-hire some of the officers.

Rapundalo called it a situation where the labor committee and the council at large had said that it was going to put its foot down, because it’s not sustainable. We’ve been living off those luxurious contracts for many years, Rapundalo said, and the rich buyouts that many people remember, back when firefighters were ending their careers with pensions in six figures, came under Lumm’s watch. At that, Lumm objected that she was not around at that time. Rapundalo insisted, “You supported it, you voted for it at the budget time, period, Jane. … You were there …”

Rapundalo’s contention was that Lumm had served on the council when the terms and conditions had been put in place that allowed for subsequent buyouts. Rapundalo continued by saying he’d spent his time on the council trying to roll back the labor contracts, and it had not been easy, because they were very entrenched. “Folks, you’re paying for these guys’ … food every day! They have written into their contract that you will pay for their coffee. I mean this is ludicrous in this day and age, let alone that they’re not paying for health care.”

The council said that “enough was enough” and had been adamant with the city administrator that it was not going to budge. And this time, if the unions called the city’s bluff, it would not work, Rapundalo said.

Council Minority

Question: (For Rapundalo) How is Lumm held responsible for what took place on the council when she served as a minority? (For Lumm) For residents who are happy with the current majority on the council, why shouldn’t they be?

By way of historical background on city council membership, ArborWiki’s entry on Ann Arbor city council membership from different periods is useful.

Annotated from the Nov. 18, 1996 Ann Arbor city council meeting minutes is the following membership for the labor negotiating committee:

Labor Negotiating Committee
Meets: As needed
Location: Guy C. Larcom Jr. Municipal Building (various rooms)
Contact: Neal Berlin, City Administrator, 994-2650
Sheldon [Ingrid Sheldon, Republican, mayor]
Lumm [Jane Lumm, Republican, Ward 2]
Kwan [David Kwan, Republican, Ward 2]
Hartwell [Stephen C. Hartwell, Democrat Ward 4]
Daley [Elizabeth Daley, Democrat, Ward 5]

Council Minority: Rapundalo

Rapundalo reiterated a point he’d made previously that evening, that there were instances where Lumm was in the majority “whether it be on the committee level, or otherwise.”

The remark drew some sarcastic laughs from the audience, likely because Rapundalo’s phrase “or otherwise” was understood to be a contention that Lumm had been a part of a Republican majority on the council as a whole, which she was not.

A brief exchange between Rapundalo and audience member Tom Wieder included, from Wieder, “Well, stop lying!” and protest from Rapundalo that the reference was to a committee [the five-member labor committee, on which Lumm had served as part of a 3-2 Republican majority].

Rapundalo continued by saying that good governance is about collaborating with colleagues to try to reach a consensus. He said that’s exactly what the councils he’s served on have tried to do – come together based on an understanding of what the issues are with a common goal. The councils of the 1990s, Rapundalo contended, were characterized by petty partisan politics and brinksmanship. It was the same sort of thing we see in Washington D.C., he said, and there’s too much of that in Congress. That’s a recipe for stagnation, he said. “The only way you’re going to get is if you give,” he said.

Council Minority: Lumm

Lumm began by saying she didn’t know where to start. She said when she served there were two Republicans on the council, three counting mayor Ingrid Sheldon. She said there’d never been any Republican majority on any committee or board. She insisted she was not a part of any majority.

Referring to the buyouts in 2000 and 2001, those buyouts had contributed to the increased pension liability, she said. There were subsequent buyouts as well, including the 2009 police buyout, which Rapundalo had voted for. She returned to her point that she had left the council by the time of the 2001 buyouts, even though Rapundalo said she was responsible.

At that time, Lumm said, the council had (without consultation with the actuary) made an early retirement proposal. Two hundred employees were eligible and 200 accepted, she said. Although she was not on the city council at the time, she said, she was curious about it. She was serving on a chamber of commerce public policy committee, so she called the actuary as an interested citizen, and the actuary reported that the city never contacted them.

Obviously, Lumm said, the buyout was far too lucrative – the FAC was based only on the last year’s compensation, she said. She noted that the current mayor, John Hiefjte, had voted for that. But she said she wasn’t around for it. That was a “golden parachute,” she said, and she wondered who wouldn’t take it. “Please don’t blame that on on me, I wasn’t around,” she said.

Commenting on her interactions with other councilmembers, Lumm returned to a point she’d made previously, saying she would float proposals not weeks but months in advance. When Rapundalo talks about brinksmanship, she doesn’t know what he means. “We had a little more diversity on council and we talked about things openly. What a concept! I think that’s a good thing.”

Today, what you see is everybody in agreement, Lumm said, with decisions having been made before the actual council meeting. Now, it seems like it’s more about selling and marketing the decisions. She said she wanted to open up the conversation to the wider community. In the 1990s, there were philosophical differences on the council, but it didn’t get personal. That’s good democracy, she concluded.

Underground Parking Structure

Question: The underground parking structure currently under construction on Fifth Avenue includes foundations that are capable of supporting a 12-story hotel, when the future use of the parcel has not yet been determined. Also, how do you justify building the underground garage when popular opinion is against it?

Underground Parking Structure: Lumm

Lumm said it was not possible to turn back the clock on the parking garage. It was built to support a much larger structure on top, she noted. So going forward, the conversation is more about what’s going to go on top. It’s a very valuable piece of property, she said. So the discussion about what goes on top needs public input, but not in a check-off-the-box kind of way. We’re talking about everybody’s tax dollars, she said, so we need to open things up to all conceivable stakeholders. It’s a vitally important parcel in the downtown area.

There’s one group of citizens that has come up with some guiding principles, which she supported. They want to see a public art component, green space and “it’s not all or nothing … it’s a really balanced set of guiding principles.” One of them is that it should be tax-producing, as well as an enhancement to the Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown location. Another factor is the nearby Blake Transit Center. She said she wanted to see a robust community discussion about it.

Underground Parking Structure: Rapundalo

As far as justifying construction of the underground garage itself, Rapundalo noted that the need for the capacity was identified by the DDA by sitting down and projecting forward 10 or 20 years. The city has lost a number of lots and structures, he said, so that underground garage is really trying to make up for some of the loss.

For last five or six years, the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority and the city council have been adamant in supporting the notion that there’d not only be an underground parking garage, but also a mixed-use development above that. As a result, the foundations included reinforced steel to accommodate something bigger, he said, but not specifically for a hotel. The question of what would go on top was purposely left open, he said.

Reviewing the set of proposals the city had received for the Library Lot RFP, Rapundalo said it was interesting that three had a hotel component, and of those, two had a conference center component. The job of the committee he’d chaired was to shepherd the proposals through a review process and bring a recommendation to the city council. His frustration, Rapundalo said, was that the council was not able to complete that process. [The council voted to terminate the process.]

For what it’s worth, Rapundalo said, the project that the committee had selected as its preferred option was, in its final version, not going to cost the city any money – it was going to be completely private. Rapundalo said he found it ironic that Alan Haber, who’d championed one of the responses to the city’s RFP that had called for parkland, has now come forward supporting something more akin to what the council has always said about the parcel – it should be mixed use with a large public component. “We’ve come back full circle,” Rapundalo said. He noted that the future of the lot is now in the hands of the DDA, which is looking at not just that site, but at other city-owned surface parking lots as well.

Heritage Row, City Place

Question: Explain what happened that resulted in the City Place development going forward – which will knock down seven historic houses – when the Heritage Row plan was turned down.

Heritage Row, City Place: Rapundalo

Rapundalo called the situation very frustrating. He said he was on the side supporting the Heritage Row PUD (planned unit development), which in its initial version would have torn down the seven older houses – which he contended were not “historic,” even though they were old. The first version of the project was to be a “very quaint” brownstone row house-type development, which he described as a very nice project. [At that time, the PUD was called "City Place," but subsequently the name "City Place" would be attached to a matter-of-right project, not a PUD.] After the brownstone version, the PUD then evolved into the Heritage Row project most people are familiar with, Rapundalo said. That one would have preserved the seven houses and also built something more contemporary behind the row of houses.

The majority of council supported Heritage Row, but neighbors took various steps to try to prevent its approval, Rapundalo explained. One tool was to file a petition with the city to force the council to achieve a supermajority of eight votes. The council was not able to muster that supermajority, and as a result Heritage Row failed on a 7-4 vote. So the developers came in and offered City Place, which was a project that was proposed to meet all the zoning codes, but would definitively remove the old houses. Rapundalo called it an “inferior project,” but the council was not in a position to say no, because the project met the zoning regulations. Saying no would have meant putting the city at risk of litigation and almost a certain loss in that litigation, he said.

There were several attempts to reconsider that vote on Heritage Row, Rapundalo said. However, the four councilmembers who’d voted against the project refused to budge on that. In the context of the most recent attempt in the last few weeks, the project had been sold to a new developer. And when the numbers were crunched by the new developer, long story short, he said, the numbers didn’t add up for the new developer. So the Heritage Row proposal was withdrawn.

Rapundalo said that in the next few weeks, he expected that demolition permits would be issued and the houses would come down, to make way for a project that will likely become student housing. Rapundalo called it unfortunate and it saddened him. There were many opportunities to make it right, he said. He said he can’t speak to why some councilmembers chose to prolong their opposition to a project that was at least reasonable. [For the latest City Place news, see "City Place: ZBA Appeal Filed"]

Heritage Row, City Place: Lumm

Lumm said nobody is happy with the outcome. She suggested that the situation could have been averted, if elected officials had moved forward with the review of the R4C zoning districts. A committee was formed, she said, to address questions about this zoning classification. If that had proceeded along a path where recommendations could have been made, it’s possible that the recommendations could have been in place in time to steer things in a direction that everyone was hoping for – Heritage Row.

Now, there’s speculation about whether the original developer had calculated the true cost accurately. Lumm ventured that he would know better than anyone. The new developer contends the Heritage Row development was not feasible. She said she just didn’t understand why those questions weren’t worked out and discussed. She said she hoped there’d now be an effort to get the R4C zoning review completed. The City Place project is student housing in a near-downtown neighborhood and she wondered how viable it would be, but she hoped it would be fully occupied. She said the council “played chicken” too long. She said people should have locked themselves in a room and figured it out. But she allowed it was easy for her to say – she didn’t live through it.

Sidewalk Millage

Question: If the sidewalk millage is not approved, will there need to be cuts?

[This item was presented in conjunction with a question about a possible city income tax, but are separated here, because the two are really two separate issues.]

Sidewalk Millage:  Lumm

Lumm said she was personally not supporting the sidewalk millage. Those feelings have been strengthened by knocking on doors during the campaign, she said. She’d been walking on some nice, newly-repaired sidewalks that residents had paid to have fixed under the recent five-year sidewalk replacement program. By way of full disclosure, she said, there are no sidewalks adjacent to her property.

People Lumm has talked to say they just spent a lot of money getting their sidewalk slabs replaced, and wonder about the coincidental timing of the millage proposal. She said a lot of people are not embracing that idea. Addressing the question of whether something would need to be cut, she called it an “unnecessary add,” because $540,000 had been carved out of the street millage for the public art program, when the sidewalk millage is projected to raise around that same amount – $560,000.

Lumm also called the 25% that is needed for administrative overhead excessive – “That’s insane,” she said. She’d attended a meeting of the Main Street Area Association, where members had discussed the use of the sidewalk millage inside the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority district. Commercial property owners would all be paying the the millage, she said, but based on the original city council resolution of intent for the use of the sidewalk millage, it would not be used inside the DDA district except for single-family and duplex residences.

The expectation was that the DDA would handle the sidewalk repair inside the district, using only the tax increment from the millage already captured by the DDA TIF district. [The council's resolution of intent was subsequently modified to provide the DDA with all proceeds from the millage inside the DDA district, provided that the DDA agreed to take responsibility for sidewalk repair.] The original resolution was discussed by the council, but nobody bothered to discuss it with the DDA, she said.

Sidewalk Millage: Rapundalo

Rapundalo described the sidewalk millage ballot proposal as coming about due to feedback from voters over the five years that the replacement program has been in place. Many people had to replace slabs, go through the rigamarole of hiring contractors, or teaming up with neighbors to find economies of scale, Rapundalo said. And what councilmembers had heard from people was that they really didn’t want to deal with all that.

The 1/8 mill tax roughly translates to $15 a year, Rapundalo explained. From the monetary side of things, it’s less than having to pay $120-130 per slab. One of the reasons the city has the current model of the five-year inspection program is due to the reduced administrative costs. If you chose to ignore the citation from the city and opted to have the city do the work, the per slab cost was more expensive. If the sidewalk milage doesn’t get approved, he said, the city will continue with the current model on another five-year program cycle.

City Income Tax

Question: What are your thoughts on a city income tax?

City Income Tax: Lumm

Lumm said she does not support a city income tax, noting that Rapundalo calls it “revenue restructuring.” She said she hears all the time from the mayor and other councilmembers, like a mantra, that we’re experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. But when times are tough, she said, this is not the time to raise taxes.

There’s a lot more that can be done in terms of government consolidations, Lumm said. So far, we’ve only nibbled at the edges of government consolidation, she said. She said the city didn’t collaborate with the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, the Ann Arbor Public Schools, the University of Michigan, or Washtenaw County when the city built the $35 million maintenance facility [Wheeler Center]. She said when she served on the city council, she’d brought forward a resolution that called for cooperation with those other units of government, if a maintenance facility were to be built.

Until those kinds of collaborative options are explored, the city government should not be thinking about asking taxpayers for more money. An income tax, she said, is not revenue neutral and would be highly volatile. Up until two or three years ago, tax revenues had been increasing at roughly twice the rate of inflation. Suddenly things have slowed, she said, with respect to property tax growth. She called it “a panic reaction,” to appeal to a revenue restructuring plan. She felt there are many more ways the city can be more efficient in providing basic service delivery.

City Income Tax: Rapundalo

Rapundalo allowed that on the income tax, Lumm is right – he’s in favor of having a dialogue about revenue restructuring. He does not think the city can rely on cost-cutting alone. We’ve already cut and cut and cut, he said, and we’re at or near the bone.

Rapundalo said it’s foolish not to examine the revenue side of the equation. That’s particularly true in light of the reduced amount of state shared revenue that cities have received from the state, he said, and given the legislature’s contemplation of eliminating the personal property tax. By way of illustration, Rapundalo said Pfizer was previously a company that was very personal-property intensive, because of high-tech capital instruments it had. If the city lost that personal property tax revenue for all companies, it would have a huge impact and would not be easily replaced.

Before the personal property tax is eliminated, Rapundalo cautioned, it behooves us to think about whether the revenue model that’s in place is the best one: Is the burden fairly distributed among users of city services – property owners and people who just work here? A Headlee override is also an option, he pointed out. [A Headlee override would reset taxes up to their original rate before they were rolled back by the state's Headlee Amendment.] He wanted to stack the different revenue models against each other and ask what they would prefer.

He contended that Lumm misrepresents the income tax as an “additional tax.” Under the Ann Arbor city charter, Rapundalo said, it’s not possible to have both an income tax and property tax. [This is true for the general operating millage levied by the city of Ann Arbor for its general fund revenues, which is currently just over 6 mills. Other property taxes, levied for parks maintenance, solid waste, open space preservation and the like, could and would still persist, even if an income tax were enacted. Rapundalo's point is that the general operating millage property tax (6 mills) and an income tax are, in fact, either-or propositions. ]

Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority

Question: Some say the DDA has so much power, it’s ruining Ann Arbor. What’s your vision for downtown? What are three things you’d do to improve downtown?

Ann Arbor DDA: Rapundalo

Rapundalo said that the DDA had generated a lot of discussion, and a lot of points of view have been brought to bear on the question. He said there are two extreme views. One is that the DDA is not independent enough and the city council is trying to impose its will on the DDA. The other extreme view is that the city council doesn’t have enough control over the DDA. He said that one of his council colleagues has proposed the city get rid of the DDA entirely, and that the city take over the management of the city’s public parking system, which the DDA now operates.

For his part, Rapudalo described the city-DDA relationship as a balancing act. He said it’s important to remember that the DDA is enabled by state legislation, but the city is responsible for the DDA’s assets. So if the DDA were to disappear, the city could get stuck with both the liability and the assets. It’s only prudent, therefore, that the council exercise some control, he said. That control is exercised primarily through the appointments to the board, he explained. At the same time the council can’t be so overbearing that the council prevents the DDA from doing what it’s supposed to do – make decisions that are in the best interest of the downtown. The city council has tried to walk that line, he said.

Rapundalo does not support eliminating the DDA, because he said that would have dire consequences. At the same time he didn’t think the city council should be so overbearing as to “cuff the hands” of the DDA. On the DDA board there are some dedicated people, he said, who have the best interests of the downtown at heart. As a show of good faith, he said, the city had turned over the entire management of its parking system to the DDA, as well as the planning for city-owned parcels. The council is trying to walk a fine line, he said.

With respect to his vision of downtown, he noted that he works in the high-tech industry in biosciences, and works with economic development agencies, including Ann Arbor SPARK. We have to maintain the vibrancy of downtown, he said. He would like to see more density in downtown, either through commercial or residential development. He said he could imagine some kind of mid-sized corporate headquarters downtown. There are opportunities with companies currently located on the fringes, he said.

It boils down to creating more density – to increase tax revenue and to allow for a flourishing retail sector, he said. Up to now the downtown has been able to forestall the introduction of big box stores and maintain a nice mix of local and mom-and-pop type of retail, Rapundalo said. By the same token, the city has never really developed a retail attraction and retention strategy. He’d like to see the city set out some economic development priorities so that they could be coordinated and integrated with the efforts of Ann Arbor SPARK.

Ann Arbor DDA: Lumm

Lumm contended that in many respects, the DDA has lost its independence. Rapundalo has talked about the extreme views – that it should be wholly independent versus the idea it shouldn’t exist. When she served on the council, the DDA was an independent body, but it’s not today. She felt like the city council had subsumed the DDA.

She contended that former councilmembers serve on the DDA board, and she noted that the mayor of course [by statute] also serves on the board. When she served on the council, the DDA board was composed mostly of downtown property owners – their mission was solely focused on the downtown. They were not susceptible to pressure to assist the city financially. But today, the DDA is paying $500,000 per year on a 30-year loan for the new municipal center, Lumm noted. That money could be used on other downtown investments.

She described the DDA as being in a “compromised position” now. She pointed to the contract under which the DDA manages the city’s public parking system – the city receives 17% of the gross parking revenues. She took issue with the idea that the city had “given” the DDA the management of its public parking system. What came with that “gift,” she said, was the obligation of roughly $2.7 million a year provided by the 17% of gross revenues in the contract. That money is needed to fill the holes in the city’s operating budget, she said.

Lumm said that despite Rapundalo’s desire not to “cuff the hands” of the DDA, in many ways the city did that. Now a discussion is unfolding about the possibility that hours of parking enforcement will be extended and rates might be raised. [Extension of hours of enforcement has recently been taken off the table, at least for now.] This was predictable, she said. As the city kept going back to the “DDA trough” saying, “Give us more money,” Lumm noted, some members of the DDA board had indicated that parking rates would need to be raised, if the trend continued.

The DDA board is accountable to all of us, she said, and they need to be allowed to have a laser focus on the downtown. Her vision for the downtown, she said, is a vibrant downtown – who doesn’t want that? The DDA has been stretched beyond what their traditional mission was, she said. The downtown is the core of the city and we need to work collaboratively with the DDA so that it remains a strong economic driver.

Closing

Each candidate gave a closing statement.

Closing: Rapundalo

Rapundalo offered that what attendees at the forum had heard is a fundamental difference in how he and Lumm approach the role of a councilmember. What they’d heard from Lumm was a “hunker down” mentality, where we batten down the hatches and say no to everything. He did not accept that, he said. There are times to say no, no doubt. But time doesn’t stand still. It’s important to ask: What are the needs of tomorrow? What do our kids need? We need to think about those questions now, he said. It’s what defines being strategic and it’s what defines leadership.

In his tenure on the budget committee and the labor committee, he said he has challenged other councilmembers about priorities. The council sets priorities at budget retreats, which sets the tone for everything. The council has done a good job of establishing the things that are important, he said, and figuring out what accommodations have to be made in the budget to make those things happen. He said that Ann Arbor is actually doing pretty well. It has good bond ratings, he noted, which allowed the city to embark on needed infrastructure improvements, when bond rates were lowest and when construction costs were lowest. That was exactly the right time to do some of those projects, he observed.

Rapundalo said he would not sit back and accept the status quo. We should always ask if the status quo is okay. If it’s okay, then great. But if it isn’t, then we had better be working on the next steps, he said. It’s about investing in our future, prioritizing safety, and accelerating road repair and economic development to shore up our tax base.

The conversation has to include revenue restructuring, Rapundalo said. It’s not enough to cut costs, because when you try to prioritize, everybody thinks that everything is important. That’s why we have to talk about revenues, he said.

There’s important work to be done, Rapundalo said. He brings a varied skill set to the table, he said, and will continue to bring his due diligence that he’s always brought. He said he would be fair, equitable and mindful of people’s input and bring that into the decision-making at the council table.

Closing: Lumm

Lumm thanked the organizers for hosting, and Rapundalo for his service, and the forum attendees for coming out on a night when the weather was bad. She said it had been great to hear all the questions and to hear what’s on people’s minds.

She ventured that people likely had a sense of what her campaign is about: refocusing spending priorities to reconnect neighborhoods to city hall. She said she wanted to make sure tax dollars are deployed consistent with residents’ priorities. She felt the city has taken its eye off the ball – that’s why she is running.

She allowed that public art is valuable, but the city shouldn’t sacrifice basic services to pay for it. Although Rapundalo said prioritizing public safety is a priority, she said that over the last six years, during Rapundalo’s service, public safety has been cut by 24%. She said she’s no expert, but she’s talked to experts – people who served at senior levels in the Ann Arbor police department – and they are very concerned. If they’re concerned, she said, so was she.

Lumm said that when she hears that we’ve cut to the bone and around 50% of the head count is in public safety, that tells her there are other opportunities for reductions, too. Maybe the city needs fewer attorneys or accountants, she ventured. The city needs to look at cuts strategically. She called for having the community assist in building the city’s budget. She didn’t think the city government’s priorities are the community’s priorities. She welcomed the comparison between the time she served on the council and now. She said she’d worked hard to contain costs and limit taxes. She was known as a “fiscal watchdog,” she said, and would do that again. She asked people to consider when they felt safer and when the roads and streets were in better condition – now or then.

Lumm said she is running as an independent, but is honored to have both Democrats and Republicans supporting her. She hopes that going forward there’ll be other independents who run for city council, and said that maybe the city council elections can become non-partisan.

Lumm said she feels a sense of unity as she goes door to door, and with the group that has come together to support her. They share the belief that city government must reconnect with the people, she said.

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