Some would argue that Ann Arbor city government suffers from an immense democratic deficit. A2Politico has argued that, in part, it is the result of entrenched voter apathy—apathy, a 2011 report by the FCC suggests, that can be traced directly to incurious and inept reporting on local politics.

Neighborhood and other citizen groups have been formed, and ballot initiatives have been launched in response to a mayor and City Council members who’ve quietly tried to sell off and develop parkland, tried desperately to ram through a downtown convention center financed in part with public money, less quietly tried to outsource the operations of Huron Hills Golf Course to a member of the city’s Golf Courses Advisory Task Force, made deep cuts to police and fire while spending water, sewer, road repair and general fund money on a $1 million dollar piece of public art to decorate the over-budget police-court building, and most recently have been under-handedly spending general fund money, as well as water and sewer money to help finance a parking garage for the University of Michigan on parkland owned by the public adjacent to the Huron River on Fuller Road—all without an up or down vote in favor of the city participating in the project.

A2Politico recently posted a piece about the research of two professors from Columbia University who study whether state and local elected officials craft public policy based on majority public opinion. The two professors determined that Michigan ranks fourth in the nation among states in which elected officials are most likely to shrug at what the people want, then make policy decisions to suit their personal, ideological and political agendas. Dr. Jeffrey R. Lax and Dr. Justin H. Phillips study “how well states translate public opinion into policy. Using national surveys and advances in subnational opinion estimation, we estimate state-level support for 39 policies across eight issue areas, including abortion, law enforcement, health care, and education.” Their paper is titled ‘The Democratic Deficit in the States.”

So what can the average citizen do to get local and state politicos to stop “being overresponsive to ideology and party—leading policy to the polarized relative to state electorates?”

Matthew Yglesias, in his Think Progress blog puts it best: “The way I see it, citizens are sharply bounded in the amount of time and attention they give to politics. Voters know the President…and something about him. But very few voters are up to speed on state senate elections or what the difference between the State Treasurer and the State Comptroller is….For you in your personal life, the lesson is (as it often is) to get more involved with politics on a state and local level.”

This year, A2Politico is going to do a voter’s guide which will be mailed to voters throughout the city. We’ll tell you how the incumbents voted on a variety of issues, and how the challengers would vote on the same issues. In preparation, we want to know what issues are most important to you this election cycle. The poll allows you to choose as many of the issues as you’d like, and please feel free to comment if we missed out on including an issue that is important to you.

If you’re new to A2P, take a few minutes and check out the posts you missed. If you’re a regular reader, chances are you read every one of these, twice. I’ll be back with a new post. Soon. I promise. In the meantime, vote in the poll below the list.

1.  The Politics of Development: If You Think It’s About Urban Density and Affordable Living, Think Again

2.  The Politics of Nuking ‘Em: An Interview With Fifth Ward Council Candidate Newcombe Clark

3.  The Politics of Backstabbing: Who’s Trying to Off Kristin Judge?

4.  The Politics of Cooking the Books: Ann Arbor As A French Restaurant

5.  The Politics of Unscrambling Eggs: Hieftje, Teall & Hohnke Push $6.4 Million For Environmentally Regressive Single Stream Recycling

6.  The Politics of Tyranny: Hieftje Yanks Yard Signs From Lawns of Supporters

7.  The Politics of Taking Credit For Everything: A Look at the Incumbent’s Web site

8.  The Politics of Parking: Revenue Enhancement Versus Turnover, the Cage Match

9.  The Politics of Neighbors: You Don’t Get What You Deserve. You Get What You Negotiate.

10. The Politics of the DDA: Time to Clean House

Unlike our local news outlets, I can’t write an introduction to this that gives the subject the attention it deserves. The reporters at Michigan Radio spent hours this morning gazing into their crystal balls predicting what Republican Governor Rick Snyder was going to say to Michigan residents this evening in his first major post-election policy speech. Then, when the Michigan Radio reporters ran out of ways to say “Let’s guess,” they “interviewed” other media sources who made similar predictions about what Snyder might say. After that, Michigan Radio and WEMU news anchors moved on to interview people about what they hoped Rick Snyder would say in his speech. 

Do you care A2 politicos? Are you planning to make time to listen to Snyder?

I was walking Flash (the family’s new Jack Russell pooch) in the woods this afternoon, and ran into a neighbor who’s quite an active local politico. During the course of our conversation about my run for office, she wanted to know where I stand on City Council drafting resolutions at the prompting of citizen groups that comment on international policy issues. We ended our conversation with a promise to get together to discuss the topic further. She’s not the first person to have asked me this question, or to have expressed an opinion about Ann Arbor City Council responding to international policy via Council resolution. Thus far, opinion among those whom I discussed the issue with has been pretty evenly split between those opposed and those in favor of the practice. 

Those opposed object to local political issues taking a back seat to international politics. City Council and Mayor, so say those on this side of the debate, have an obligation to tend to local issues, concerns and challenges. They see devoting time to international politics as a form of political grandstanding. “People in Ann Arbor,” one politico snapped, “may think the town is the center of the universe, but it’s not.” Local people who want to impact foreign policy, so say these politicos, need to write to their congressional leaders. On the other side of the aisle are Ann Arbor politicos who see city government as a way to move federal foreign policy issues one way or the other. They see City Council as a “voice of the people” who bring the issues to the forefront. 

I’ve decided to put up a poll. As always, one vote per customer. If you’re inclined to leave comments, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the subject in more detail. What do you think? Should Ann Arbor City Council draft resolutions that address international political issues, or should Council keep its nose our of other people’s political business and tend to its local political issues?