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Thursday, July 14, 2016

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

Candidates for City 
Council debate 
on televised forum

Issues include taxes, 
city development and 

transparency 

By ISHI MORI, KEVIN LINDER, 

and BRIAN KUANG

Daily Staff Reporter, 

Summer Daily News Editor

Ann 
Arbor 
City 
Council 

candidates 
appeared 
Tuesday 

evening on a televised forum on 
pressing local policy issues on the 
Community Television Network. 
The forum featured candidates 
from Wards 1, 4 and 5 on different 
time slots. Wards 2 and 3 are 
uncontested this year.

Ward 1

Ward 1 featured incumbent 

Sumi Kailasapathy (D), Jason 
Frenzel (D) and Will Leaf (D). 
Kailasapathy is a certified public 
accountant 
at 
Edwards, 
Ellis, 

Armstrong & Co., a downtown 
accounting 
firm. 
Frenzel 
is 

the volunteer and stewardship 
coordinator for the Huron River 
Watershed Council. Leaf is the 
co-founder of online sunscreen 
company Natural Skin and Hair.

During the 45-minute program, 

the candidates traded opinions on 
a range of issues including traffic 
congestion, election reform and 
balancing the city budget.

A particular topic of contention 

was a redacted portion of e-mails 
regarding the construction of a 
planned Amtrak station. Frenzel 
said that, though he supported 
maximum transparency, he also 
felt that there was a justified 
reason for city staff to withhold 
information.

“I 
think 
in 
(the 
e-mail) 

conversation we need to realize 
what’s the situation,” Frenzel said. 
“We don’t as a public understand 
what that conversation is and what 
it was, why it was redacted. In my 
honest opinion, I know our staff 
to be strong, professional leaders 
in their industry … and I think 
challenging our staff in a public 
forum isn’t necessarily a valid way 
for an organization to behave.”

On the contrary, Kailasapathy 

said she is for greater transparency, 
especially since the documents 
in question will not jeopardize 
national security. 

“We are elected officials; I am 

not going to put this on the staff,” 
Kailasapathy said. “As elected 
officials, we have a duty to our 
residents to be transparent. And 
this, we need to remind ourselves, 
is regarding the location of a train 
station.”

When asked about how to 

balance the budget, all three 
agreed that restructuring current 
city 
spending 
can 
increase 

revenue.

Kailasapathy said the city can 

increase revenue by revisiting 
the 
tax 
capture 
policies 
of 

the 
Downtown 
Development 

Authority 
and 
the 
Local 

Development Funding Authority. 
She pointed out that the revenue 
for these entities increased by 50 
percent over the last four years and 
advocated redirecting that income 
to city funds.

Leaf 
argued 
that 
rezoning 

residential areas and allowing for 
more commercial enterprise can 
create more urban neighborhoods 
and increase tax revenues. He also 
strongly 
supported 
privatizing 

public parking, arguing that the 
city’s current monopoly on parking 
leads to an unneccessary loss of 
revenue. 

In a question pertaining to the 

city’s dioxane plume issue, Frenzel 
strongly 
criticized 
the 
state’s 

Department 
of 
Environmental 

Quality for its failure to control the 
spread of the plume. 

“The 
dioxane 
plume 
has 

been 
a 
known 
issue 
for 
35 

plus years,” Frenzel said. “It’s 
basically a status quo, and that’s 
extremely unfortunate. As an 
environmentalist, we know that 
the DEQ has been understaffed 
and beholden to corporations for 
a long time. I think we really need 
to fight hard to ensure that is no 
longer the case.”

All agreed that Ann Arbor 

should look for other funding 
options 
when 
it 
comes 
to 

See FORUM, Page 8

SINDUJA KILARU/Daily

Ann Arbor community members mourn the loss of Alton Sterling on Thursday in the Diag. 
At vigil, students and community 
mourn police brutality victims

Speakers discuss 

recent shootings and 
perspectives on lives 

as Black people

By IRENE PARK

Summer Daily News Editor

Thursday 
night, 
students 

and other community members 
gathered at the Diag to hold a 
candlelit vigil dedicated to Alton 
Sterling, who was fatally shot by 
Baton Rouge police officers outside 
a convenience store Tuesday in 
Louisiana, and Philando Castile, 
who was fatally shot Wednesday 
in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, at a 
traffic stop by a police officer.

The vigil was organized by a 

group of several University of 
Michigan students, who did not 
represent a specific organization 
on campus but collaborated in 
light of the recent events.

LSA junior Nikole Miller, one 

of the organizers, said she was 
motivated to organize the event 
because of her family.

“When you have men in your 

family, it hurts you,” Miller 
said. “I woke up this morning 
crying. When you feel that kind 

of pain, you know you have to do 
something.”

The 
vigil 
featured 
several 

speakers from the University 
community, who shared their 
perspectives on the recent events, 
life as a Black person and racism in 
general.

A 
few 
speakers 
discussed 

the details of the recent events, 
emphasizing that the shootings 
were 
not 
justified 
and 
that 

there is a deadly pattern in the 
interaction between the police 
and the Black community. LSA 
junior Arlyn Reed, who is also 
a Central Student Government 
representative, said this pattern is 
in part due to racism, and the lack 
of trust between young Black men 
and the police.

“What we should be able to 

plainly see is that this is in part — 
and I want to emphasize ‘in part’ 
— fueled by white supremacy, 
which reinforces the idea that 
Black 
bodies 
are 
inherently 

dangerous and feeds into the 
irrational 
fears 
about 
Black 

people,” Reed said. “What we 
should also be able to plainly see 
is the deadly disconnect between 
the young African American men 
and the police.”

LSA 
junior 
Mariah 
Smith 

shared her experiences growing 

up as a Black person, saying that 
initially she was afraid to be Black 
but she has embraced her identity 
as she grew up.

“To me, being Black meant being 

a slave, being powerless, being 
fearful and being unintelligent,” 
Smith said. “But now, I’m learning 
to embrace my Blackness. Being 
Black means something totally 
different to me now. It means 
intelligent, being strong, being 
powerful, being everything they 
said we aren’t.”

Many people of diverse racial 

backgrounds attended the vigil. 
Some of those in attendance 
who were not Black referred to 
themselves as “allies” of the cause. 
Rebecca Elias, a social worker in 
Ann Arbor, said she attended the 
vigil because she has been fighting 
against racism and the oppression 
of vulnerable people for many 
years.

Elias said that when she saw 

the video of Castile’s death, 
she was outraged by how the 
new generation will grow up 
witnessing the consequences of 
discrimination. She specifically 
mentioned Castile’s 4-year-old 
child, who was present in the 
car with Castile’s fiancée when 
Castile was shot. 

ANN ARBOR

See VIGIL, Page 10

