Council Members in Open Revolt: Challenge Mayor & Insist Transit Proposal Is Seriously Flawed
by P.D. Lesko
Third Ward Council member Stephen Kunselman has been a pain in John Hieftje’s butter dish ever since Kunselman knocked off Leigh Greden in the 2009 stunner of a primary election. While Kunselman won by a 6 vote margin, Greden lost big overall in a three-way race that saw the 3-term incumbent manage to capture only about 35 percent of the vote. Kunselman ran on a promise to implement a code of ethics for Council. He did so in response to what the Ann Arbor News and certainly Third Ward voters perceived as serious ethical lapses on Greden’s part. Greden was not alone in his misuse of email during open Council meetings. He was joined by several other Council members, primarily those who were recruited to run and who’d been endorsed by John Hieftje: First Ward Council Member Sandi Smith, Second Ward Councilmembers Tony Derezinski and Stephen Rapundalo, Fourth Ward Council members Margie Teall and Marcia Higgins, and Fifth Ward Council member Carsten Hohnke.
Kunselman has not kept his promise to push for a code of ethics. He has, however, become increasingly vocal in calling for transparency in Council deliberations, increased care in evaluating staff proposals, and most recently, in his public support of city-wide transit funded with Ann Arbor taxpayer dollars. Hieftje is pushing a county-wide and regional transit plan paid for with Ann Arbor taxpayer dollars. Kunselman recently called Hieftje’s ideas “a little beyond reality” at an Ypsilanti City Council meeting on January 11, 2012. Kunselman includes in the category of transit ideas that are unrealistic, “commuter rail to Brighton and Dearborn.”
It is not the first time elected officials have concluded that Hieftje’s transit plans are “a little beyond reality,” however. Hieftje has failed repeatedly to convince Livingston and Oakland county
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