 Good afternoon and thank you for joining us today this forum for the mayoral candidates is a an idea of well certainly we talked about in our class it started out as something that would occur in the classroom and as the students began to work on it and talk about it why not a wider wider audience and so I think they've done a great job at building the event and getting the word out we want to especially thank Bonnie Roberts in the Ford School Communications Office for her work and helping to make this happen want to thank close-up for being one of our sponsors and if you're in public policy 456 476 raise a hand just so that we have a few of them spread around and right up front the students have done a great job now they have developed five questions which should take depending on how long our candidates go on it will take they have two minutes which will be explained to them that should take about 40 minutes and then and then there will be an opening on the floor for more questions and there's three students raise your hand and no no right in the second row here they will be taking the cards which you have available to you and if you have a question get it to them quietly and then we can ask that question perhaps later on in the in the event in public policy 456 756 students learn everything about city government they delve deeply into the budget they learn about the issues facing the city the perennial issues and the issues disjure they talk about affordable housing we talk about a wonderful park system our city has we talk about the fortunate condition of our city to be to be in pretty good financial shape coming out of the Great Recession and how part of that has to do with how progressive cities that are part of the information in the creative economy are doing better than cities that are not part of that economy so a lot of good information is covered in the class and the students I think have done a great job this semester in a great job in putting this together so they have developed the questions Isaac Epstein Nick Frost and Katie Henson are going to be our moderators today I'm going to take a seat in the back and turn it over to them the council members will rotate each of them taking a question first and then moving on to the next one to take the question first and so on around the table so I will turn it over to Isaac Nick and Katie right now and just I wanted to repeat that in case I missed it if the folks on the Michigan Daily live stream it's hashtag a to mayor Ford school if you want to tweet in a question hashtag a to mayor Ford school okay thank you everybody for being here the current mayor said that we had five questions we actually have six the first one though is kind of a freebie I have on my sheet please take one minute to tell us about yourself just quick introduction starting with you Sabra council member consulman and I decided it was more comfortable to use the stand so that's what we're going to do but we may give up on that you never know my name is Sabra Briar I sit on City Council I've been on council since 2007 I'm a neighborhood activist that's what got me involved in politics and it's what I still am I have a firm commitment to government that is from the people not to the people and so as a person who believes government comes from the uneducated and engaged populace my task has always been to try to engage the people of Ann Arbor in what we're doing I'm still trying to do that and it's a challenge this is an excellent way to do it and I thank the class for hosting us and I think all of you out there for attending this class because I think that we should all take some public policy classes from time to time I'm Stephen consulman I was recently elect elected re-elected to my fourth term on anniversary Council I grew up in Ann Arbor graduated from Pioneer 1981 attended the University of Michigan graduated with a Bachelor of Science and Natural Resources in 1986 spent the summer of 86 working for the city of Ann Arbor forestry department and in 87 I was a driver for recycle Ann Arbor briefly went back to grad school at the University of Michigan got a master's of landscape architecture a master's of urban planning and from about 1992 to about 2000 to 2003 I worked in local government I served as an environmental planner for six years at Sumter Township which is the southwest corner of Wayne County and then rose up to the ranks of Township administrator I worked for seven elected officials for over 10 years and I think that is really one of the highlights of my qualifications for running for mayor is that I know local government and I understand local government and understand politicians and what we can do and what we cannot do within the limits of law local government is a book of rules and I think it's really important that we abide by those rules okay hi I'm Sally Hart Peterson I'm on my first term on Ann Arbor City Council I've lived in Ann Arbor for almost 18 years I moved here in the summer of 96 from Massachusetts which is where I grew up I moved here with my husband Tim so he could attend the University of what was then called the University of Michigan Business School and I had a five-week-old baby at the time as I said I grew up in Massachusetts my undergrad degree is in psychology from Williams College in Williamstown Massachusetts and I have an MBA from Harvard Business School so while I grew up and was educated in Massachusetts most of my professional career has actually been in the Midwest and between undergrad and graduate school I worked for Cummins Engine Company in Columbus Indiana and then after business school when I moved here with my husband I actually had to go back to work full-time even though I had a baby and I worked for CFI Group which was named for class for now International class for now is a noted business school professor here and I've worked for AB&M or mortgage group and most recently in the for-profit world I worked for a health media in 2007 I became a stay-at-home mom my kids were approaching middle school years so I became very involved in the community and work did a lot of PTSO PTO work and then eventually decided after a couple of years I tried to run for City Council and it's been a great experience thanks I'm Christopher Taylor I came to Ann Arbor in 1985 and like many of us the you know for the University but like many of us you know stayed because I ended up loving the city I am a four-time graduate of University to bachelor's degrees a degree in American history and a degree in law from the law school here I am a lawyer I work at law firm of Hooper Hathaway downtown where my representation mostly focuses on local individuals and local businesses I have let's see if wife and two kids they both go to the public schools at Tappin I've been on City Council for six years now in three terms and my service on council has just been tremendous I've enjoyed it wonderfully the problems and challenges of government are to me intrinsically interesting and I have enjoyed so much working with residents and colleagues on the problems and opportunities problems that confront us in the opportunities that present themselves I'm running for mayor largely because I love the city and because the city is at an important time in its history and it's I think critical that the next mayor have the experience temperament and judgment to work collaboratively with with residents and colleagues and staff of course to to work to improve and maintain the quality of life for everyone in the city it's it's an important place it's a special place and it deserves that careful attention I want to thank you I want to thank you all again for being here could you please tell me what traits you feel are necessary to be a successful mayor and how that relates to your personal leadership style well thank you first of all I think you know experience certainly does come into play and I think that's why all of us you know our council members presently we understand what it takes to run local government so I have as I mentioned my opening statement have a lot of experience working in local government I have experience of working with staff working with citizens and then there's the issue of also being effective in order to be effective you have to be able to collaborate obviously with everyone but you also have to have courage you have to have courage to be able to stand up and take on the issues that might be uncomfortable you have to be able to take on issues that will generate anger among certain people because they don't like the truth and you know I think for my six years on council and for my over 10 years working in local government I have shown that that ability of everyone here on council I do have the most experience I am the most experienced person working in local government and you know and also serving on council not so much the tenure I should say but then there's also the issue of ethics okay and that's where I think it's really important that you know we all strive to be very ethical when we are on council but it's harder to be ethical in local government than to be unethical and I think that's the many years that I've served on council I've always taken a much taken on the very strong hard challenges and have been you know pretty good at accomplishing those tasks I took on county wide transit most recently I spoke about the heroin use that's permeating our downtown that we were not necessarily aware of I took on the taxi cab industry when the rogue limos were traveling around our town and we had some issues with students that were being supposedly sexually assaulted because they were unlicensed taxis so I've taken on some issues taken a lot of heat I think but because of that I'm still here and again I've just been recently reelected to my fourth term so I may have less experience in local governance than some of the other candidates for mayor I do have what I feel is a lot of relevant business leadership experience professional leadership experience as well as leadership in the community I feel like you know I've been here 18 years I know this community really well I've been on the board of the neutral zone I've been president of the PTO and PTSD of my kids elementary school and also my tap and parent as well or tap and graduate parent and been involved in the high school athletics as well and so I feel like those experiences are very relevant to governing the city I specifically think my business background my MBA and my training as an MBA allows me to approach the challenges the city faces from a very analytical perspective I've always approached problem-solving by looking at both sides of an issue before I make up my mind it is so easy to be swayed by a vocal minority or by and not so easy to be sprayed by a silent majority I always want to hear from the silent majority but sometimes it's hard to uncover what what's going on when you don't hear from people and so I you know I feel like my training in business leadership analytical approach to look at problems from a general management perspective and I think that's directly translatable to the role as a mayor looking at the issues looking at the city honestly I think the city has what I would characterize as a business problem I wouldn't try to run the city like I would run a business but I do recognize that the city has a revenue problem where entering a period of great economic growth yet our balance sheet is constrained we've come out of a period of of a decade of cuts and I see growth is coming ahead of us and I think we need a mayor who can translate that growth into better infrastructure and improvements for our taxpayers thanks at the outset my first statement I referenced I think you know sort of foreshadowed the answer to this question and that is a temperament experience and judgment this is I think what a mayor needs to succeed in the city temperament a mayor needs to be able to work well with others needs to be able to collaborate needs to be active in outreach active in listening active in collaboration this is critical to working effectively as a leader in a representative democracy in a dictatorship temperament is is less important to get anything's done but where you have to convince colleagues and staff and and even sometimes residents to to get behind a common app program of common action and to yourself be willing to make compromises in order to affect the public good temperament is crucial on council I've been able to work work well I believe with colleagues and staff and I've also taken affirmative outreach to residents corresponding with with hundreds thousands of them seeking their advice and counsel on issues of importance before the city this is something I think that's terribly important and is something that I would certainly continue to do as mayor with respect to experience I've been on council for six years and lived through the great recession which was certainly a testing time for any elected official that is the worst the worst time of our city I certainly hope to ever experience we went through quite a lot it required a laser-like focus on what is core and important to the city and I would expect that experience to serve me well moving forward and finally judgment it is crucial to listen it isn't crucial to educate yourself and others but ultimately a mayor will need to make a decision that is in the best interests of the long-term and the long-term best interests of the city and it's important that the mayor keep that load star in mind I'm sitting quietly over here so Sally sort of forgot I was here I don't want you all to forget I'm here though because what you've heard is is all our credentials and honestly we're a sterling bunch of folk but when we talk about temperament or judgment or all the other things I want to also talk about independence so it's easy to talk politics in this world and sometimes it's a lot of fun to watch politics happen my task on council has not been to be part of a group or two groups or anything else it's actually been to make up my own mind that isn't without consultation when I got on council I was the first council member to actually actively reach out to the community routinely and ask for advice comment input I meet with my constituents every week I hold office hours but I also meet with them whenever it's more convenient for them this lets me touch what they're concerned about which is so important to me because it's easy for me to tell them what's on the agenda and for them to respond to the issues I highlight it's much more valuable to me to hear the issues that they're concerned about I listen actively not just to the people on council not just the people on staff but to everyone I can and the end result of that is I learn from every person who touches me being on council being mayor these take temperament it takes a passion for government it takes a commitment to being calm in the storm those are things that I bring with me but it also takes a willingness to admit you're wrong and that's something that I am free to do and do when I realize that I made up my mind too early so our next question is sort of directly related to students in the audience we're wondering how you feel that the city can work to increase student involvement in local elections politics and government I think any question about town-gown relationships really interests me it's something that I've been working to improve very early when I started for running for city council two years ago getting students involved first of all it's incumbent upon people in city council I think to search out opportunities with students I spoke actually last September to the central student government and it was a wonderful experience I've been in other meetings of town-gown kind of relationship when we talk about life on campus and life for off-campus living students are living off campus and some of the challenges that that presents for the community and I represent Ward 2 which is adjacent to which includes a lot of the fraternity houses and so we hear a lot of some of the town-gown issues but getting students involved in city governance I think is something that there is a lot of room for improvement I think one of the things that we really need to focus on is trust in governance and open and transparent communication one of the things council member councilman mentioned city mentioned ethics one of the things that I've tried to show some leadership in in city council is taking the first steps toward developing a city ethics policy and the city I'm working right now with the city attorney to develop standards for to develop training for standards of conduct and conflict of interest policy and so I think once we're able to clarify some of the transparency issues then people feel more welcome to be to become more engaging in civic activities and to involve students in the workings of the city governance as well thanks students will be involved in things that interest them and that they believe have a material impact on their lives I think it is important and useful for the city government and for the the mayor to communicate to students that the city has an does play this important role in their in their lives while they're here in town whether they choose to stay or whether they're just here for their degree they're obviously while they're here and living in campus and focused on campus their questions of neighborhood neighborhood security and maintenance there's issues of you know personal safety with respect to police and fire and also as many of them are renters there's also insurance points of interaction with respect to you know the inspection of rental properties these are areas where you know students should know what the city does for them and with them and should be able to participate in in helping on some level I think the what the city should do and ought to do is talk to students about why Ann Arbor is a great place and why they should be interested in civic life while they're here and hopefully while they stay it's so important to Ann Arbor's future that young people find Ann Arbor to be an attractive vital place to to come to the university but also more importantly for my purpose to stay and build a life whether it's as a young professional or young persons with a family this is critical to Ann Arbor's future I think the city government has a role in communicating that to to students I think it's important to that you know they can be communicated all they want but if the downtown is not vibrant and active if there are not cultural and dining entertainment opportunities for young people if transit is not a fully implemented so that they can get around without a car these are things that that students and young people want in a city and it is the city's obligation to work to deliver it so of course it's not about us involving you all in local politics about it's about you all getting involved in local politics and students are not kept out students may not be invited in enough and part of that is that you don't see the relevance of local politics as a student as I have a clear memory that what I focused on was national politics and international politics I cared about foreign wars I cared about whether or not the Congress could reach a decision I cared about what the president said but it took me a while to realize that I should care about what was going on here how are students engaged already in local politics there's a large number of students working on environmental issues they're working on those environmental issues with the city there's another number of students working to help plan the Allen Creek trail system their class has taken that on and they are working with the city and they're working with residents these are opportunities that students like you like the people who may or may not ever watch this show actually take advantage of and that's what we want there are students who are engaged in attending council meetings attending board and commission meetings reaching out and talking with members of the community to find out everything from the things that to me are obvious like how does our recycling system work to what do I do to get this house that I live in inspected because it's really in bad shape our task is to welcome that involvement but also to think about the future of the city like everyone else here including council member councilman at some point I made a decision to be here and having made that decision that this was where I was going to live I dug in and I learned how the community worked what made me make that decision was it's my perception that it was a tolerant open exciting interesting place that respected education and respected my ability to do those things our task is to do that for you as mayor that's what I will be doing I have probably the most seasoned candidate when it comes to elections having just been in five primary elections all contested my last general election I was contested by a student and we had a really good time but this question comes up at almost every election that I've been in and I look at it in a number of different ways but one of which is the students can as I think council member rear pointed out students have a responsibility to get engaged if they want to participate all right it's not our responsibility to grab their hand and pull them in it's their responsibility to come in and ask and participate and they do when they want to so for example I serve on the taxicab board and we have students serving on the board with me and they showed up at meetings at council meetings they showed an interest okay you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink and that's the same thing for students having been a student as well as a townie in Ann Arbor I think in the past I remember our city government providing internships for students I was an intern on the city forestry department when the first summer that I graduated with my undergraduate degree we had a robust forestry department we no longer have that and I know that we do hire summer workers for our pools and in our park system but not to the extent that we did in the past and I think that's one of the things that I would do as mayor is to try to to promote that kind of opportunity to engage students into our local government because when you have that experience when you work in the public sector and you feel good for working for the public that will be an experience that you'll be able to take anywhere okay and it was an experience that I took and basically I've been working in the public sector since I was in since 1986 and can still to this day because now I presently work for the university which is still a public sector but students have a responsibility as well as the public and so just to follow up on that the chair of the county commission Yousef Robbie is a longtime family friend and he was a student when he helped me on my campaign and he's now an elected official so I think it again it shows that students can do it and they can do it if they have the desire so we've had a question related to this on Twitter we've had a couple of people ask if you would be in support of moving the primary from August to a time when there might actually be some students in town so could we just get a show of hands how many of you would be willing to support that believe there are state law issues as to when primaries can be held so we could do that if we didn't hold the elections in November we can't do it because we do hold the elections in November it's not a choice okay so the next question is currently about 40 percent of those receiving shelter services in Ann Arbor are not residents of Washtenaw County what do you think Ann Arbor can do to ensure that we are prioritizing services for county residents before serving what is clearly a greater regional need we start with councilman Taylor thanks so much that's a great question when the Delana Center was built the Delana Center was built for the purpose of providing residential services to folks who are homeless in Washtenaw County at the time much fewer than the 40% figure that you've just cited were served the reason why that has increased is because of the diminution of need throughout the rest of the region but also because of the state's up requirement that in order to receive a certain amount of money that the Delana Center serve out of county residents if we're going to be able to ourselves distinguish between in county and out of county residents in the provision of residential services and indeed in the provision of warming evening warming services we'll need to either renounce the state money through the public sector or perhaps enhanced grants from the city and the county or seek to find those funding sources elsewhere so what can we do about it we will need to replace state funding for the Delana Center if we are to address that issue it's an important one I think it's a conversation that we very much need to have the folks right now you know I've talked to folks down at the at the center church buses from out of the county bring bring folks in need of services to the center for warming and for residential and it breaks your heart because there's no other place in their local communities to to receive these services and so they're brought here this is it's good that these services are available but it is a real strain and it is contrary I think to the intent of the center and the intent of the ongoing local funding for the center that these services be provided to to non county residents it's not contemplated that anyone would be turned away in the dead of night that will never happen if you're out of county and you need a place to be warm in the winter you will be you would be here and you'd be served it would be contemplated however that the next day efforts would be made to work on finding you alternate services in your home jurisdiction this is an interesting question but it's perhaps the wrong question it's the wrong question because it focuses on the people who live outside of washtenaw county as if somehow they were the thieves who are taking our valuable services what they are is people who are hungry and homeless and without services in their home communities the challenge we face is twofold council member Taylor's completely correct we would have to reject state money in order to reject providing services for all comers but we also have to question whether the services that we currently provide meet the needs of the community whether providing a very small center which is what Dolanus is it was intended to house no more than 50 people it now houses 75 and in cold weather it has to provide a warming service for whoever shows up which means everyone becomes increasingly uncomfortable and frankly dissatisfied with the services they're receiving is this the model that we want to follow is this what our community wants this we haven't had that discussion but we need to we also need to talk about the fact that providing funds for those who need them used to be something that our tax dollars went to Lansing and came back to us to do they don't anymore increasingly the city is more on its own than it used to be it's also receiving increasingly less money the city and the county are receiving increasingly less money from the federal government to provide services for the hungry and the homeless it's our challenge but it's a challenge that every community in Michigan should be picking up and not leaving it to our fate to deal with and our bird does care about the people who are have needs but it's not going to be able to do this in isolation it's a regional issue it's not a local issue and those who think that all the hungry and the homeless live in Ann Arbor are wrong we have to tackle this on a regional basis yeah there is no easy answer you know it's almost like asking the state if they would put restrictions on the state appropriation to the University of Michigan to only in-state residents all right as we've watched the U of M go from a large percentage of in-state residents almost down to what 53% you know there's a tie there's no tie to the University so why is there a tie from state funding to the for our efforts to provide housing for the homeless so I think you know we're we're kind of hamstrung there our hands are tied behind our backs because when you accept those dollars obviously they come with conditions but what we also need to think about is that we can't just keep pumping money to downtown Ann Arbor the Delana Center we need to start thinking about diversifying sites we need to start thinking about out-county areas all right there is no homeless shelter in the Ypsilanti area why are there other communities not able to help support those efforts you know Ann Arbor as Mayor John he's pointed out many times is that Ann Arbor is one of maybe one two or three communities in the state that actually provides general fund dollars towards this effort health and human services and it's a very constrained budget and it's not an easy answer for us to engage with I don't as councilmember Brier pointed out I don't think it's right for us to turn people away just because they live somewhere else Ann Arbor is a community of immigrants all right almost everybody comes here from somewhere else my grandparents came here from Adrian and Blissfield back in the 50s others come from other communities but Ann Arbor has a value of at least doing what we can and doing the best we can to support the those in need but it's not an easy answer or it's not going to be easily solved and but the best thing we can do is just keep plugging away at it yeah I have to agree that you know Ann Arbor is a transient community we have people coming in and coming out all the time and in the spirit of inclusion you know I would if I were mayor of this city I would never want to turn anyone away whether we had state funding or not one of the things I've been very pleased about our our council legislation recently we've attributed a lot more money to affordable housing and I think that's that's an important thing that we should keep doing but funding services isn't is only one solution I've spent quite a bit of time in the last couple of months a couple of visits over to the new mission house on Stone Street on Stone Stone Stone School Road it's a mouthful and one of the things that I learned is that there is a group of people who actually don't qualify for affordable housing not because they're low income but because there's zero income and what I think the source of a lot of the problem is really mental illness and addiction and those are things that we need to start treating and find resources at the federal and state level as well as the local level the people that live at Mission House or our former residents of Camp Take Notice have a hard time frankly finding jobs either because of their their addiction issues or because of past felonies and so they're hard to be employed and they're hard to be able to find an income and therefore qualify for affordable housing so I think the solution is to work together with our state and federal counterparts to really focus on how we solve the problem of mental illness as well as how do we help those people find jobs that they can become part of the affordable housing programs as well. Finally I think you know specific to the Mission House it's an agenda item in our planning commission right now I think the city needs to think very creatively about how we can zone that so we can encourage more people to live there. I'm clearly not very good at using the microphone here thank you thank you for your answers and your responses at this time I would like to invite any members of the community who have written down questions on our note cards to hold them up so that our bachelor's students can come and collect them for you. Our next question on economic growth with several years of significant downtown development do you feel there is still a need to increase development downtown and the density why or why not. No I don't think I have a microphone that's working let's see. Okay this one works. I don't think that that's a perfect question either and part of it's because it implies that we should stop having changes downtown because we're satisfied with all the changes that have happened. I don't think that is ever going to be the case. Our downtown is thriving and interesting there's a lot more people on the sidewalk than there were 10 years ago there's a lot more activity after seven o'clock at night on a Tuesday than there was 10 years ago. There's been a lot of change but I think the the upside of that change has been that there's a lot more interesting activities for people to do those activities couldn't be supported by Ann Arbor's residents alone. Those activities require that people come in from out of the city. We could I suppose try to become a sleepy downtown again but part of our efforts has have been to have an vital exciting downtown that people want to come to to cut that off and say no more development downtown does seem short-sighted to me. The real issue is is it the right kind is it giving us what we want. Are we benefiting as a community or is it just growth for the sake of growth. And so that requires planning and thought it also requires a certain level of leadership and a conviction that you understand what downtown should be downtown is not going to serve our wants our needs anymore. It's not going to provide a grocery store. It's not going to provide a big parking lot for us to park whenever we choose for free. It's not that kind of downtown and it shouldn't be because all the things I need I can buy elsewhere and many of them I buy electronically so does everybody else in our community downtown is about providing us with our wants the things we want to do the things we want to see the experiences we want to have if we don't clue into what those wants are downtown will fail and because frankly we're all a little difficult when it comes to what we want there has to be an opportunity for something new to arrive that we want. Whether they're that's for us as individuals who live in this town or it's for our guests from out of the city downtown should change it should grow it should provide us with an interesting place but it should not fail to provide us with places to rest and that's why there's been so much discussion about a downtown park. Thank you. Well first of all that question kind of belies the thought that city council controls development when in fact we don't we just approve the rules all right and we did just change the rules for downtown zoning hence to make it easier for downtown development of bigger buildings. But what drives our development downtown okay I would say it's been student housing okay if you look at the change in U of M enrollment since 2000 when we had 38,000 students to 2013 where we now have 43,710 students that's a change of almost 5,600 students and that means they need beds to sleep in and that's what's been built is a lot of new downtown student housing I've grown up and I've grown up in Ann Arbor with a lot of change I remember in the 70s when basically nothing was going on the 80s was office buildings the 90s you know condos and now student housing all right the big jump in student housing all right but there's been no new office buildings basically built downtown there's no new one north main there's no 301 East Liberty those were done in the 80s all right so in our city population you know back in 2000 was 114,000 and in 2012 it's estimated to be 116,000 so our population as a whole is not changing much other than students and that's what's been driving Ann Arbor you know and that's been one of the concerns I have Ann Arbor has become more of a company town under the guise of the University of Michigan they've been buying up more land taking it off the tax rolls they're you know increasing their enrollment and if they continue with that trend yes downtown is going to be more student housing because that's where the action is we all know that we want to be downtown to go to the restaurants but if you look at the changes council member we spoke about there's no retail there's no department stores there's no bookstores to speak of it's all turning into restaurants to feed students but what happens in the summertime easily 30,000 students leave and that's a lot of restaurants that are going to be struggling to find a clientele so I think you know we've done everything we can as a council we just have to guide that growth with our rules our zoning and hope for that the community and the University will restrain itself because this is a finite resource can you read the question one more time with several years of significant growth downtown do you still feel there is a need to increase development and density I'm going to focus a little bit more on the impending economic growth and relate it to downtown growth is happening and we've heard that property values in Ann Arbor have increased over 6% we've heard that 12,500 jobs are going to be coming to the county in the next three years I want those jobs to come to Ann Arbor but we need to make sure that we have the infrastructure to support those jobs whether they come downtown or they come to the business corridors one of the things well one of the things that City Council has has has said in the last two years in our breakout groups is that economic health is a priority but I quickly found out that in our city budget we have no staffing or funding specifically or solely dedicated to economic development the county does have economic development the DDA does economic development but they do it just for the downtown spark does economic development but they do it for the county so I took some leadership here and I formed the economic development collaborative task force with the DDA and spark to figure out what should the priorities be to take care of the whole city with regard to economic growth and economic development and one of the things that we realized is that yes the downtown is thriving it's a wonderful place to eat work and play the downtown belongs to everybody students millennials empty nesters families and visitors and we need to keep it we need to make sure that it continues to thrive but I can I also look at the business quarters I look at North Main Street and I see that it's very underdeveloped it's kind of an eyesore if you're coming from M14 heading to downtown and I see that as right for opportunity with the right kind of economic policies to stimulate development where we could grow more where we could develop it for multi use to have more office space to have condos and really make that area more symbiotic with the river uses as well. Thank you. Downtown density and activity downtown is good for everyone. It is good for the environment. It's good for the economy and it's good for neighborhoods for people who live near downtown and indeed who are are excited about the vitality that the downtown has to offer. We now have jobs coming to downtown. We have a new tech corridor on Liberty and state. This is absolutely outstanding for for downtown's future and downtown density. The growth of residential the growth of business the growth of retail. Literati and the growth of the restaurant entertainment sector is is all good. At the same time we need to understand that Ann Arbor has a particular character and that character can't be lost because it is important to who we are. It's not sufficient and it's not immutable but at the same time it is something that we need to recognize and honor and preserve. We need a downtown that is moving forward. The math requires that there be downtown development and that downtown development will be broadly speaking a benefit because it will increase economic opportunity and increase vitality and encourage people to come and stay and enjoy our wonderful city. But the downtown needs to be needs to be a downtown that we all that we all recognize. It's the job of of the council and city government and of course the mayor to work to preserve that balance to make sure that that the change that inevitably comes does not come at the expense of what we treasure about the place. The microphones are a great idea. There we go. All right. This will be the last question from our little panel of people up here. So if anyone from the audience has additional questions they want to pass down now is the moment. We're wondering what you think the role of the mayor is in promoting public transportation locally and what are the potential economic considerations and outcomes. You're next. Well that's a good one. I like that one because you use the word locally. All right. And as mayor I think it's important that we stay focused on mass transit serving the masses. As I opened up in my opening comments I was one of the few council members originally to speak out against the countywide transit effort that was being led because that was basically sending you know the idea of sending shuttle buses out past cornfields to Chelsea and the Canton to provide transportation for commuters that lived in wealthier communities communities than Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor does a very good job at supporting its transit system because we have a perpetual millage. We're one of the few communities probably in the state that has a millage that provides for mass transit. I would recommend to say that we probably have a better mass transit system than the city of Detroit because our buses run on time. I would also suggest that we need to you know support that. It all ties into the downtown density. It ties into economic development and it certainly ties into assisting those of lower incomes. I represent the side of town that has probably the largest geographic area of low to moderate family incomes over by Packard and Platt and transportation is extremely important. I advocated for a change in a route that gave us the Packard Road Express so the people can get downtown about 10 minutes faster than they could with the other routes that were taking them out past Ellsworth or over to Briarwood first. As mayor you know again we need to support local transit. We need to make it so that it's making sense and we have to have trust in the system because that's one of the things that we found is that when we start talking about trains to howl and brighten it to communities that have no interest in helping to pay for it or commuter rail to Detroit when we have city of Detroit went from 2 million people down to less than 700,000 or so. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to a broader range of people. In order to support local transit we have to have lots of trust among the electorate among those that are paying the bills to help fund it okay because you got to remember not everybody rides the bus right only probably what less than 20 percent of the people are actually using mass transit on a regular basis but yet we all need to help pay. So as mayor I wouldn't and as a city council member I do have the perspective that a robust transportation system is key to have a strong economy in Ann Arbor. I think that almost goes without saying but as mayor I and again as a city council member I look at transportation as one of those quality of life issues that is a mutual benefit between the city and the University of Michigan and I know as Jim Kastiva's in the audience here director of community relations we've had a few we've had some dialogue about the connector study and what that means to you of them students faculty staff and what that means to the city and it's something that I think we need to explore cautiously together in terms of what that means to providing a robust transportation system again a piece of quality of life that's of mutual benefit to both the University and the city. I also want to speak a little bit as a resident on May 6th I'm going to go to the polls and I'm going to vote either for or against the transit millage and and I want to be clear about how I feel because and I'm saying I'm leaning towards supporting it right now but I'm a little bit still on the fence the reason why I would support the millage for the expansion of the five year plan is because I do believe in the first place that urban core and and making the connection between Nipsel Annie if the township in the city easier and expanding those routes so we have fewer fewer cars on the streets it's better for the for the roads it's better for the environment and it leaves more parking spaces for an operates downtown I also think we need a robust transportation system to help those who can't drive those who are who are elderly or have disabilities and I think we need to expand services for that but I live an award where there's quite a bit of opposition to the transit millage and on April 29th Councilmember Lum and I are hosting award to meeting and we'll hear from the ATA and I want to hear from the opposition I want to hear how the ride leadership is going to respond to some of the opposing questions from my work before I endorse thanks as mayor it will be it is the mayor's task I believe to advocate for public transportation public transportation is an unalloyed good it is good for the economy it is good for the environment it's good for the residents quality of life whether you're a senior whether you're a student whether you're a worker without a car whether you would never drive a bus and never ride a bus in a million years the decreased congestion the decreased parking it is an unalloyed good and I think it is the mayor's obligation to to advocate for it I believe that the since the millage has been raised I believe that more buses more often is is a good and I am a hearty supporter of the upcoming millage I believe that the five year plan proposed by the triple ATA is going to expand services in Ann Arbor for Ann Arbor and will serve our community ably and nobly I think also the mayor has a role in in supporting and moving forward the conversation about expanded rail service to the city expanded rail is something that Ann Arbor's future requires it requires better transit between major cities better and trap better Amtrak service to the city and I believe in order to you know optimize our potential we're going to need commuter rail to the city folks from the from the west from the north coming into town not driving coming into employment centers this is this is great for us all and we should do everything we can to support it there's been some question and controversy about where a potential station might go how it might be funded there's a study undergoing right now for my part I am I am open to where the station lies the federal government is telling us where they believe the optimal location of the station to be I'm not an engineer I'm listening to the traffic engineers I listen to expertise when that space is identified when the federal government says we will help you pay for a station at this location provided that the financing all works and of course it's going to be done at the time and we'll see what the ultimate plan will be the introduction of meaningful rail to our city is going to be a a watershed moment for us and I believe it is the mayor's duty and obligation to advocate for it on council I just say what he said and and let it lie because he's right it is the mayor's obligation to advocate for public transit but there's more than that public transit is not a local issue public transit is a regional issue it's about people coming to Ann Arbor people leaving Ann Arbor it's about the relationships between the various communities in southeast Michigan and it's about the fact that some of us don't live right next door to where we work or where we want to go out to eat or where we want to go to the theater or the opera or the museums the more we can provide alternative transportation to the people who live in our community for their use as they leave our community the better service we're doing for everyone if that also means that the people who live outside our community have better transit here to come to work to come to eat to come to play to come to the museum to go down the Huron River in a canoe to rent a bike well this is also a real good a true good that we should be embracing it is the mayor's obligation to see the big picture to look at the entire issue from 360 degrees maybe 720 degrees because you should look at it from the top and the bottom in all sides and then if you can't support transit then there's something really seriously wrong now one of the issues that's come up is about trust trust between governmental organizations and trust is something you build by positive relationships you don't build it by just assuming it's there you have to actually work at it it requires talking listening collaborating arguing changing moderating in order to develop enough trust that each governmental unit can work together whether it's the University of Michigan a ATA the county or m dot thank you okay there we go that didn't take too long our next question comes from Twitter in December of 2012 the City Council passed a ambitious climate action plan do you think that the climate action plan is feasible and realistic and what will be your priorities in reducing emissions and promoting resiliency as mayor yeah I think some of our activity first of all it was the right thing obviously to pass the climate action plan but as we move forward and we look at how we reinforce that through clean energy excuse me and how we prioritize that we have to remember you know we have two sort of somewhat mutually exclusive goals on the one hand we all want to be clean and green and have clean energy but it is more expensive energy the other hand we need to be fiscally responsible as well and there was also a vote last fall about for example that we should recommend to the pension board that we divest from fossil fuel companies and I actually was one of two people who voted against that because I felt like it was sending the wrong message it would have been purely a symbolic message to this to the pension board it would not have done any damage to the fossil fuel companies but it would have been fiscally irresponsible because if they had taken us up on that recommendation we would have incurred quite a few exorbitant charges to an underfunded pension to an underfunded pension board so what I had actually recommended is to do both is that and I and I've asked the energy commission to come back to council with a record recommendation not to divest from fossil fuels but to invest in clean energy like wind companies I think we need to do both I think the best way to go forward and to support the climate action plan is to keep both of those objectives wanting to be clean have clean energy but also being fiscally responsible I think we need to do both that we need to be very cautious about how we move forward thanks the climate action plan is ambitious and very long term and aspirational and I'm delighted that we have have passed it what the city I think needs to do is undertake you know short immediate steps and keep working toward talking towards longer goals immediately we can I believe advocate for an expansion of the pace program the pace program assists currently businesses in rendering making their homes part of me making their buildings more energy efficient this is something that through this particular program is excellent for for businesses and commercial enterprises we want need to expand it I need to work also to work with our legislators to make it available to local residents we also I think need to seriously explore things such as a community solar to encourage the use of community farms solar farms to expand renewable energy even in sunny sunny Ann Arbor we also have an opportunity I believe you know the city has done a great deal on its own for affordable for renewable energy but so much of the city's carbon footprint you know is is in the residential sector is with the populace and the city doesn't have obviously direct control it doesn't affect building codes of things like that but what the city can do is it can educate and advocate and it needs staff in order to do that there was a request from the energy commission for the the council to move forward to invest in a staff member to advocate and educate the public about how they can best conserve energy how they can best utilize renewable energy I'm delighted to support that I believe that this is something that is a public good that we we need to do for ourselves we need to do for our you know for the people that will follow us working on this issue is a vital importance we can't do it without resources and so I believe that the city ought to spend spend some money to get it done the climate action plan is just one component of our serious efforts with the environment climate action deals with an encouragement of alternative fuel sources but we have other efforts going on I think it's important to note that the University of Michigan students collaborating with the city of Ann Arbor staff have worked together to create a program for rental housing where rental property owners can receive a loan invest that loan in their building upgrade the energy systems whether it benefits the resident or it benefits the landlord whoever pays for the power is no longer relevant and then as the property owner pays back the city it's paid back with interest and it's available to reinvest in the next property it's an excellent idea and it's something that was done with collaboration between the city and the university there's also the pace program which was originally intended to provide support for property owners single family homeowners to invest in their properties and pay back the investment but because of problems at the federal level that has not moved forward with residential properties it has moved forward with commercial properties including large commercial landlords so those are things that are going on now unfortunately a lot of people are not taking advantage of the pace program and that's too bad there's also a variety of opportunities to really look again at who uses energy the University of Michigan has been a very responsible partner but it is primarily something that we spend time on looking at residential properties in the city the city has no program to help fund the cost and maintenance for solar power on individual properties and that's something that I have been advocating for on the environmental commission and will continue to advocate for as mayor I think we really need to have zoning and organization and funding supports available for property owners who choose to invest in passive solar or other forms of alternative energy I think we all recognize that the climate action plan is a statement of values of the city of Ann Arbor something that you know we have held for many many years and probably going all the way back to the 70s with the big environmental movement and the city has taken a lot of steps and I think those steps should be continued I mean we look at our transportation our fleets you know we have trucks that run on natural gas we have the bike share program that the city is partnering with the CSC and the University should be implemented we have you know LED pedestrian lights LED street lights all of which need to be expanded upon and I think I would continue with those efforts you know those are things that we can do as the city is itself we've been trying to work with wind energy and we take a lot of flag for trying to promote wind energy in the city of Ann Arbor because a lot of people think that it's not worth the money but yet we still try we also you know with the city energy office you know the idea that we can operate our buildings with energy efficiency is really important and again I think I would reckon to say that we're one of the few communities that actually has you know an energy staff person to serve with the energy commission but there is more to be done when it comes to distributed energy sources and you know whether or not we can get more solar panels on our buildings as we've done with the farmers market there's an upcoming reception for the solar panels that have been put on the Michigan theater but all of these things are actually very important to me because my job at the University of Michigan is energy conservation liaison I work in the energy management office for the University of Michigan promoting energy conservation as a for our students, faculty and staff because every little thing that you can do to turn off the energy consumption is money saved and less carbon emissions and so I think it's important and we will continue to do so I think all of us will continue to do so to promote those values that are held into the climate action plan. Thank you our final question for the day what is one policy that the outgoing mayor's administration passed that you would like to see changed under your administration? No it's back on you know I guess I think this the this is really a question about the outgoing administration and my and one's views about the outgoing administration I believe that and you know it's with him in the room it's a little embarrassing to say but I think the mayor's the mayor's tenure with the city has been extraordinarily good for the city when he came in in 2000 the city's bureaucracy was was shocking the union contracts associated with provision of services were unwieldy there could be a water main there could be a water main going on it you know broken at 2 in the morning and you need to wait for the guy who's authorized to use the big wrench to come in from Dexter this is was no way to run a railroad and you know under the mayor's leadership this has this has changed the city went down from a thousand employees to you know approximately 750 or so before the great recession we had cuts afterwards but nevertheless we if those changes had not occurred during the course of that tenure we'd have been in desperate state desperate straights I think too that the work downtown and the creation of the the D1 D2 zoning regime for the downtown has poised the downtown for vitality and development back in in 2000 before you know the downtown was more tenuous right now the downtown is thriving and it is a it is one of our primary competitive advantages that sort of regularization of the process I think also is something that we we can not to thank the mayor for I think too that the city is focused on environmentalism is something that has been sort of in the DNA the city for quite some time but has really been institutionalized and made something as you know the ordinary course of business under the current administration I think these are these are all good. I think that there has been and again this is uncomfortable with him here I think there has been a need for greater push to two residents of the things that Ann Arbor is doing I think lots that Ann Arbor does is truly good for the city for its residents for their quality of life in the long term and that not enough people sort of understand the complexity to it why potentially counter intuitive choices are made there's a long game here and it's for the best chances of the city that level of communication that push that responsive that push and dialogue is something that I think if I were elected mayor that I would truly want to focus on and work on. The mayor has been mayor for 14 years. If none of us disagreed with any of the decisions the council had made in those 14 years well then we weren't paying attention. And we were some of us on council for the last seven years that you took a year off yes. So we participated either on the side that won or the side that lost on those disputed issues that's the way politics works. Do I think there are things that the city could do better absolutely and one of those is and remains communication. I'm personally so frustrated with the city's website. It's not the mayor's responsibility to talk about the city's website. He doesn't do the website designing but I have to tell you the website may win awards has won awards and is still a terrible website to try to tell anybody how to navigate. I've been frustrated with the office of communication. It's really good at issuing press releases that don't tell anyone anything valuable. I would like to see that we're doing a good deal more in pushing information out to the public. But in the past seven years that has changed so much that I can hardly complain. We have a much better process now for inviting the community in to talk about development than we did seven years ago or 10. We have a better process now for letting people know when their streets are going to be plowed for that matter when they're going to be repaired. We've done a lot to improve our communication and it's still terrible. So communicating to the residents allows the residents to communicate back to us and that's what we need to improve in our community. Well John I'm going to say things I've already said to you before so there won't be anything new. I've been Mayor John Heaps is probably most ardent critic serving on city council and I'll leave it at that. But when we talk about the mayor's policies I have already worked to dismantle or change some of those policies over the years. I was one of the very strongest critics of the percent for art ordinance which did get amended with collaboration from my colleagues. I was the ardent opponent to countywide transit that again led into the face of Mayor Heapta's efforts to promote countywide transit. I led the effort for the reform of the DDA, the DDA ordinance against significant opposition among council members and John Heapta's supporters. I led part of the effort for against the fuller road station which was nothing more than a parking structure with a bus stop for the University of Michigan. I had been advocating the sale of the Y lot after 10 years we finally were successful in selling the Y lot and I know John was very supportive of that towards the end but it took a long time to get that debt off our books. I sponsored a resolution opposing the appointments of city staff to boards and commissions particularly putting a city staff person on the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. That's where it gets back into this issue of trust. A city staff person who doesn't live in the city should not be representing the citizens of Ann Arbor when it comes to putting a millage on the ballot. That's part of the distrust that I spoke about earlier. But the biggest thing that will be changing and one reason that I'm running is that when you go through a change in political power and back to my reference to how I worked for seven elected officials for 12 years the last two years of that were under a different supervisor and that township supervisor got recalled because of the political power struggle that took place within the community and that political power struggle is taking place here and now. We're going to watch it as part of this campaign and the part of the campaigns that take over the summer. But it takes courage to stand up and to talk about these issues and to stay positive on the issues and stay away from the negativity about the character assassinations. Anything that's probably one of the reasons that I'm running because we need to diversify our boards and commissions. We need people on the DDA that are thinking about the community not just the downtown and I think that's the important thing. We need people on the ATA that are thinking of the community not people in Chelsea and Canton. And that's one of the things that I'm bringing to the table and that's one of the things that probably scares most of John Heap to supporters that there could be change and with that change will be diversification and a focus on our neighborhoods because our neighborhoods have not been getting the attention that they need over these many years. Before I answer the question directly I do want to acknowledge the component of this question that is about the outgoing leadership and I do want to say that in the last 10 years the economy's been tough for a lot of people not just in Ann Arbor but elsewhere and I think the mayor really did lead us through those tough times having to make some tough cuts with some quiet confidence that really was stabilizing for the community. Granted we did have University of Michigan here also offering stable employment so the feeling of that great recession was alleviated through that but I do think the mayor has done a great job in the last 10 years just leading the city with that quiet confidence. That said the one decision that I would I guess is the question of would I undo it or wish he hadn't made and I'll be very candid it was the veto of the repeal of the pedestrian crossing ordinance that was something that again I approach that issue and it came back on to the table with the death of the University of Michigan student on Plymouth Road right adjacent toward to again city council members and I heard an outcry from the community about doing something about the pedestrian crossing ordinance and I looked at both sides I met with the opposition and I really felt like we were on the same page in terms of the goals everyone wants pedestrians to be able to cross the street safely but I think what got commingled were issues of pedestrian rights with pedestrian safety and when I look at the practical challenge of 70,000 people coming into Ann Arbor from outside Ann Arbor every day to work in Ann Arbor moving traffic in and out quickly is imperative but we have to be careful and pragmatic when we talk about pedestrian safety and we need to look at other solutions other than requiring cars to stop for pedestrians waiting on the crosswalk so that would be one decision that I would like to revisit. Well thank you all very much for coming and thank you to the class and to our graduate student moderators students I would like to note that you have the perfect ability to participate here if you're registered in Ann Arbor if you haven't registered you can do so there's an election coming up in the first Tuesday in May having to do with transit something that I'm certainly a big supporter of and many are I would suggest that if you're going to be out of town it's very easy to get an absentee ballot if you want to vote in the August primary get an absentee ballot you can do it from afar if you're not going to be here it's not that hard to participate so many things are are on the web nowadays that you're able to keep up with with events like this just by tuning in so again thank you all very much for coming I can say a word here that I am just really really glad that I don't have to run a campaign this summer take care and again thank you.