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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