Oak Park/City Council - Vote for two Two four-year terms.

The Candidates
On The Questions

Please
provide
biographical
information.

Why are
you
running?

Raymond M.
Abrams

Michael M.
Seligson

Myron
Frasier

Sharkey
Haddad

Sixty-nine years old. On city council since
1985. Resident since 1966. Community
Service Advisory Board, 1972-85. Mar-
ried with three children and five grand-
children. World War Il veteran, Army Air
Corps, 1944-46. Mayor-pro tem, 1993-
95.

Married with seven children. Bachelor of
science and master of business adminis-
tration, Wayne State University; BHL and
MTL, Yeshivah Beth Yehudah Rabbinic
College (Yeshiva Gadolah). Social Securi-
ty Administration, 1976-1986: claims rep-
resentative, field representative, operations
analyst, operations supervisor; U.S. Army
Tank-Automotive Armaments Command
1986- present, lecturer, consultant and ad-
vocate on quality management issues;
elected to Oak Park School Board, 1987-
91; elected to Oak Park City Council, 1991-
95; council liaison to Arts and Cultural
Commission and Library Board; serves on
Ethnic Task Force.

Employed as manager of network techni-
cal training by Ameritech since 1957. Mar-
ried. Four grown children. Southfield
resident since 1980. Appointed to city coun-
cil (1992-1993), served on council finance
committee, neighborhood committee, ad
hoc library committee. Saalfeld Planning
Commission; Men's Club of Southfield;
Karmanos
Cancer Insti-
tute, OaklaTid
region board
chair, NAACP;
Southfield
AARP.

Oakland University graduate. Works as
community liaison specialist for West
Bloomfield School District. Resident of
Southfield for 18 years. Born in Baghdad,
Iraq, and immigrated to Southfield. Mem-
ber and on board of directors of the Ec-
umenical Institute for Jewish and Christian.
Studies. Member, board of directors, Cam-
bridge Village Homeowners' Association.
Co-chairperson, Southfield-Lathrup Mul-
ticultural Coalition. Member, Jewish Vo-
cational Services Community Advisory
Committee; NAACP and Southern Oak-
land County NAACP. United We Walk
Award. Member, race relations commit-
tee, New Detroit, Inc. Board of directors,
Oakland Family Service.

Enjoys serv-
ing the city
and helping
residents
when asked,
if possible.

I am running
to continue my
participation
on a great
team. We on
council have
been reinvent-
ing Oak Park
municipal gov-
ernment in or-
der to ensure
Oak Park will be ready for challenges of the
21st century.

I served on
the City Council in 1992-1993. I am an ad-
vocate of strong neighborhoods, quality
city services, responsible budgeting and
fostering a diverse community. During my
term on council, I worked hard to study
the issues and serve the residents of
Southfield. I brought fresh new ideas to
the table and was able to help keep the
council in focus. In the past two years, I
have watched the council struggle to main-
tain focus. Issues have taken a back seat
to attitudes. Southfield needs leaders who
understand the issues and are willing to
work together for solution&

I arrived in the United States as an im-
migrant from Iraq and I am determined
to give back something to this great
country. I have always been extremely
interested in the political process and
through my educational experience and
volunteer commitments, I believe that I
have valuable skills to offer. As the com-
munity liaison specialist fora neighbor-
ing public school district, I help resolve
conflicts and interpret the school dis-
tricts educational and social-policy stan-
dards. This experience has prepared me
well to work among the many cultures,
races, religions and ethnic groups which
make up Southfield.

The "race" doesn't exist all three incum-
bents are running unopposed.

My vision remains to make Oak Park an in-
creasingly customer friendly city. We're
working on a number of initiatives to make
it easier for our citizens and businesspeo-
pie to deal with the city. Maximize the
strength of our diverse population. We
work continuously to make sure that peo-
ple of all ethnic and racial backgrounds (80
languages are spoken in Oak Park) are in-
volved in the inner workings of city gov-
ernment. Keep Oak Park a friendly, safe
place to live, work and play.

Maintaining financial stability, high-qual-
ity services and diversity. Recent legis
lation has reduced the revenue stream to
many cities including Southfield. With less
revenue, the leadership will be faced with
making decisions on what we can and
cannot afford. The quality of life must be
protected by providing basic services. Oth-
er services must be reviewed and deci-
sions made on how they will be funded.
The strength of Southfield is in its diverse
population. People of many races, ethnic
backgrounds, religions and age groups
are represented in the city, but not in key
leadership positions.

Communi-
cation.
Long-term
financial sta-
bility. Public
safety. Com-
munity satis-
faction and
pride.

Hopefully, we are satisfying our con-
stituents.

Initiatives have fallen into five areas: the
council, management and staff relation-
ship, sharing information, empowering re-
lationships and creating a user friendly city.

I will study the budget to determine how
to maintain as many city services as we
can within our budget. I also will work to
make Southfield attractive to new busi-
nesses. New businesses bring new rev-
enue. I will use the management and
budgeting skills I have learned and prac-
ticed for the past 28 years to help keep
Southfield strong. I will work diligently to
build bridges to all parts of the commu-
nity and seek qualified candidates to rec-
ommend for leadership positions.

The outcry against the proposed Star
Theatre on 12 Mile Road and North-
western Highway exemplifies the resi-
dents' perception that city hall doesn't
listen. If elected, I would campaign to
form resident task forces that would work
with government resources to offer ex-
panded public information and educa-
tion on timely issues.
I would be committed to establishing
more proactive marketing and commu-
nity-relations services. These services
could better monitor the budgetary
process and the city's strategic plans.
Once I'm elected to the city council, I
would aggressively support our police
chief in his endeavors to promote com-
munity policing throughout the city.

What do
you see as
some of the
key issues?

How do you
plan to
address
these
issues?

Southfield/City Council

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