3 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