Four challengers face four incumbents for four council seats.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR

Special to the Jewish News

roviding increased activities for students in
after-school programs while keeping prop-
erty taxes low enough to encourage young
and diverse families to move in will be the
challenges facing city council members in the corn-
ing years in Birmingham.
Eight candidates there are vying for four seats, all
four-year terms. Incumbents Archie Damman III,
Russell Dixon, Dante Lanzetta and Scott Moore face
challenges from Toby Renae Brown, Seth Chafetz,
Jason Lewiston and Dianne McKeon. With the
council position comes the possibility of holding the
title of mayor; council members choose among
themselves for mayor.
Currently, the school board and the city coun-
cil are cooperating on issues like curbing sub-
stance abuse and related youth crime, while
working to pass a S98 million bond issue for
the schools. But on a programming basis for
daily after-school activity, choices through the
city are limited to special interest activities,
such as ice skating, golfing and theater, which
tend to attract smaller numbers of students.
"We try but we haven't been successful in
(attracting large numbers of students)," said
Peggy Kerr, programming co-director of The
Community House in Birmingham.

po

And although the downtown streets and coffee-
houses are at times clogged with teens after
school, the city has sponsored events, like Band
Jam, to provide happenings of interest to the
teenagers. One problem is that the Birmingham
district covers an area much larger than the city,
said Carol Marsh, community information spe-
cialist for the school district. Marsh said she
believes the school board and the city council are
on solid ground.
"There is an excellent relationship. On a course
of day-to-day business, there aren't that many touch-
ing points but on the larger projects, we cooperate
very well with each other. We have a tendency to be
supportive of the same agencies," she said. "I think
the communication is very good."
Encouraging diversity also has been a challenge
for the city of about 20,000 people. Since the 1970s

when the population was 26,170 and the city was
known as generally homogenous, the residents have
grown to include a moderately greater number of
people from minority groups and more variety in
religious observance. The change has led to the for-
mation of a multicultural group focused on increas-
ing understanding.
Still, the image of a city with moderate to little
ethnic or cultural diversity prevails in the popular
view. David Gad-Harf, executive director of the
Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan
Detroit, said the city hasn't attracted as many ethnic
or racial minorities as such communities as West
Bloomfield and Farmington Hills. However, he
noted that more and more Jewish families are set-
tling in the city.
"It is a very different kind of community," Gad-
Harf said. "Birmingham has a certain image that is
very difficult to counteract and it has to be
based on something."
Another issue of diversity the city faces has to
do with residents' age. According to the city's
statistics, nearly two-fifths of the population is
older than 65 while another fifth is between the
ages of 45 and 64. One reason is that the 1997
average housing cost in Birmingham was
$225,909 compared with the county average of
S177,997, leaving affordable housing out of
reach to many young families.

Three incumbents face five challengers for four city council seats.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR

Special to the Jewish News

y the looks of it, getting along seems to be
a relatively big issue for those competing in
this November's city council race in
Southfield.
•A primary slimmed the initial field of 10 candi-
dates to eight. The remaining participants in the
final race for four seats are talking about such issues
as bettering racial and ethnic relations and improv-
ing city council/school board relations.
Southfield has grown in population to 75,104
since 1960, when 31,501 people lived there. Today,
Jews live next to enclaves of Chaldeans, Indians,
African Americans, Muslims and Asians, highlight-
ing the importance of building strong multicultural
relationships.
Although there have been no major incidents of a
racial or religious nature, there was at least one inci-
dent reported in the past five years regarding obser-
vant Jews being harassed as they walked , ) shul on
Shabbat.

B

Council members also face the prospect of further -
easing the tension between themselves and the school
board. Two collaborations between the school board
and the city council — the successful joint effort to
pass a library millage and the hiring of a youth services
director for municipal- and school-hosted after-school
activities — have given hope for better relations.
Nimrod Rosenthal, Southfield community relations
director, acknowledged that the city council and the
school board have had their differences in the past, but
that they will set them aside to help the city's youth
and in matters of mutual benefit. In particular,
Rosenthal pointed out the bodies' joint hiring of youth
services director Bill Russell, who has since developed a
strong after-school program for youth in Southfield.
The city council and school board joined together "in
recognizing that there is a need in the community to
provide youth activities," Rosenthal said.
The election on Tuesday, Nov. 2, Will determine
who fills the four city council seats — three four-
year terms and one two-year term — available die
to the expired terms of Sidney Lantz, Myron Frasier
and Sylvia Jordan, all of whom are seeking re-elec-

tion. Only council member Joan Seymour, who is
vying for the city clerk's position with Nancy Banks,
is not seeking re-election. The other five candidates
vying for council seats are Roy Bell, Jonathan
Brateman, Eleanor Cattron Smith, Marilyn Ann
Williams and Robert Willis. E

Its Race On

Southfield voters also will elect a city clerk.
Nancy Banks and Joan Seymour will vie to fill
the unexpired last two years of the four-year term
held by City Clerk Susan Rydell, the former
deputy city clerk who was appointed to fill the
remainder of Mary Bonner's term and chose not
to run for office. The term expires in November
2001. The pay is $79,000 a year plus $40 per
meeting up to $3,000 a year. Seymour is a six-
year member of the city council. Banks has
worked in the clerk's office since 1974, handling
different roles.

‘

ri

,

_

‘..n5tkir. OY.y,.9- 51,3--',.\1`.1.r.,0

ecoenimiss
oboii njiM
i?sw ev5::$3E

•

IN-

cc‘, t JJ

2 j

!.. -W115%*3

'1

b?9',/ca.Dola lasW

05 ,-)C1 lIncf3Ibbi.M 2 fa?"
-
Detroit Jewish News

10/29
1999

17

