by P.D. Lesko

John Hieftje and his political pals have a reputation of ignoring public opinion. Perhaps the most egregious example was a 2008 Council meeting at which petitions with 6,000 signatures were presented to Council to urge them to put the question of whether to spend $75 million dollars to build a new city hall to a public vote. The public’s concerns were dismissed, as were the petitions.

Then the service cuts began in earnest.

In 2010, John Hieftje and his political pals on Council voted to cut fire services despite protests from residents. In 2011, John Hieftje and his political pals on Council voted to cut fire services despite protests from residents, and public protests from the city’s former fire chief. Former Chief Dominick Lanza sent Council members a letter that made it clear further cuts were unwise and irresponsible. Lanza confessed that the city’s fire coverage was sub-standard. Despite Lanza’s letter and the results of a $54,000 report on the city’s fire services that concluded coverage and response times were compromising public safety, Hieftje and political pals voted to slash funding for safety services, demanding repeated pay concessions from firefighters. After the firefighters’ union agreed to pay concessions not once but twice, Hieftje and political pals began to push a scheme to close half of the city’s six fire stations. In summer 2012, Hieftje and his political pals voted to kill not one but two resolutions brought forward by Ward 2 Council member Jane Lumm to increase police and fire staffing levels.

At the 2012 December Council retreat, Ward 4 Council member Margie Teall and Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere argued doggedly in favor of closing fire stations. They argued against Ward 1 Council member Sumi Kailasapahy, Ward 2 Council members Jane Lumm and Sally Hart Petersen and Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin. Teall and Briere were joined by Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor and John Hieftje. Fewer stations, the Borg Queen and his remaining Hive Mind Collective argued, would result in much “better service.”

It has become clear that Ann Arbor voters are getting fed up with paying some of the highest property taxes per capita in the state of Michigan in exchange for reduced services.

In January 2013, Ann Arbor City Administrator Steve Powers sent Council members a memo that included the following:

At this time, I am not proceeding with reducing the number of fire stations.  The fire success statement for the Public Safety priority area: Fire station locations, number, and infrastructure are optimized to meet community needs and industry standards, within City resources. The number and location of fire stations should not be decided independent of the work plan that accomplishes the success statement.

It’s another embarrassing loss for Hieftje and his shrinking Hive Mind Collective—a group of pols whose votes show they would much rather build parking garages on parkland, use General Fund money for studies on non-existent trains, fund perks and gimmes for city managers, and use public money to help their developer friends rather than fix the roads, pick up leaves, maintain the parks or keep public pools in good shape.

In April 2011, John Hieftje, accompanied by Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor, visited the offices of AnnArbor.com for a sit down interview. Hieftje, during the course of that interview, told the news blog, “We’ve been pretty comfortable in reducing police numbers,” he said, pointing out crime is going down and the University of Michigan now has 54 of its own officers. And we’re studying the fire side, looking very intently at it. So we’re pretty comfortable with what we’re doing.” At that time, Ann Arbor officials were floating the idea of eliminating 37 more positions in public safety over the next two years — 25 in police and 12 in fire.

Then in November 2011 long-time Hieftje pal and city labor union basher Ward 2 Council member Stephen Rapundalo was handed a crushing defeat by Independent Jane Lumm. Lumm’s attention to the bottom line, financially, and to detail, has made her hugely popular not only among her constituents but city-wide.

In August 2012, Hieftje lost three of his Hive Mind Collective when Ward 1 Council member Sandi Smith refused to run against Sumi Kailasapathy, no doubt afraid she, like Rapundalo, would be humiliated by an immensely popular opponent. Ward 5 Council member Carsten Hohnke decamped from Council to “spend more time with his family.” In Ward 2, Hieftje drone Tony Derezinski found himself battling an opponent with an MBA, as well as marketing experience. Sally Hart Petersen ran a nimble, savvy campaign, and for some unknown reason Derezinski, who’d raised over $8,500 in campaign donations according to campaign finance forms, spent only around $3,000 on his race against Petersen. Even though Petersen stumbled and committed a campaign finance violation revealed prior to the election, she beat Derezinski handily.

Suddenly, the Borg Queen Hieftje found himself surround by Council members who’d run on the issue of not only protecting safety service funding but expanding safety services to undo the deep cuts with which Hieftje, in April 2011, had bragged to the public he was “pretty comfortable.”

John Hieftje isn’t comfortable anymore. John Hieftje isn’t having fun anymore; he’s stumbling from political disaster to political disaster, a punch-drunk fighter getting pummeled, primarily due to his own arrogance. After the new Council members were seated in November, at the December 2012 City council retreat, when the topic of transportation was discussed, Hieftje pushed trains. Sally Hart Petersen told her colleagues that trains should not be included in plans related to local transit before the locally-funded AATA bus service was improved. She was joined by Jane Lumm, Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin and Sumi Kailasapahy. Hieftje didn’t get his way.

At that same City Council retreat, Hieftje, Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere and Ward 4 Council member Margie Teall argued in favor of closing fire stations. Briere has voted against funding fire coverage her entire time on Council. She has voted repeatedly to cut fire staffing, and even voted against a 2012 resolution offered by by Jane Lumm, which would have increased fire staffing with federal and state grants. Instead, Briere voted to use General Fund money to fund more work on the non-existent Fuller Road train station, which Hieftje wants to build on fragile Huron River parkland.

In 2010 AAFD union leaders stood before Council and told members staffing levels were sub-standard. Briere voted to cut staffing nonetheless. In 2011, less than one year after Dominick Lanza took the job as Ann Arbor’s Fire Chief, he handed in his resignation. Only then, did Dominick Lanza tell the truth. Months earlier, with the same number of fire fighters that Ann Arbor has now, Lanza claimed coverage was adequate, “manageable.” Then, in a March 18, 2011 letter to Council, Lanza confessed,

Current staffing levels are below nationally recognized standards and make the Ann Arbor Fire Department a “one-fire incident department,” Lanza writes. ”I urge you to move forward cautiously, pursue regional fire protection as a way to save and be more effective. Paid on-call and volunteer are not the answer. Your jobs are difficult but I implore you, be strong, make the right decisions, do not further undermine the effectiveness of your fire department.”

In response to Lanza’s confession, Briere told AnnArbor.com concerning substandard fire safety services:  “I feel as if I’ve just been told the truth.”

In March 2012 new Fire Chief Chuck Hubbard stood before Council and said, you guessed it, “more firefighters and equipment would lead to better service.” After Hubbard spoke before Council on March 12, 2012, Briere piped up and said she “recalled the city discussed the issue of fire response a couple of years ago and she remembers being told everything was OK. We were told that two people coming from Station 1 and two people coming from Station 3 could converge on the fire and everything would be covered.”

At the March 12, 2012 City Council meeting, after Hubbard spoke, Briere asked if the information had changed or if the data Hubbard presented was just a different way of looking at the department’s staffing.

Hubbard replied, “The information hasn’t changed.”

The fact of the matter is that Ann Arbor doesn’t have enough firefighters or equipment, according to former Chief Lanza and present Chief Hubbard. Ann Arbor hasn’t had enough firefighters or equipment for years, and more people are dying in house fires as a result, according to a 2011 study done by the firefighters’ union.

Regardless, Hieftje and his remaining drones, Sabra Briere, Margie Teall and Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor, continued to argue that having fewer fire stations would lead to “better service.” In March 2012, Chief Hubbard came up with a plan that proposed “closing Station 3, at 2130 Jackson Avenue, Station 4, at 2415 Huron Parkway and Station 6 near Briarwood Mall. It would maintain Station 1, located on Fifth Street between Huron and Ann Streets and Station 5, located near the Northwood housing area and reopen the formerly closed Station 2, at Packard and Stadium Streets. In the proposed model, the AAFD would retain its staff of 82 firefighters and redistribute its trucks and personnel among the stations, establishing the battalion chief at Station 1,” according to a piece published in the Michigan Daily.

The Michigan Daily reported that Tony Derezinski said he was “impressed by the proposal. I think this is a very creative way of doing this. You are really pulling a rabbit out of the hat … by effecting increased coverage (with) fewer stations.” Five months later Derezinski was gone, replaced by a pro-safety services Sally Hart Petersen.

The public has reacted to the plan to close fire stations angrily in comment sections of local news blogs and at Council meetings during public commentary. In September 2012, city officials took a dog and pony show on the road to “explain the plan” to the public. They got a rude awakening. Comments on AnnArbor.com reflected the public’s nasty mood:

“It is amazing that this discussion of closing fire stations continues while the art fund grows. Boggles the mind.”

“And Nero fiddled while Rome burned………….”

“The city would have plenty of money for necessities like fire safety, policing and fixing our roads (and sidewalks) if it hadn’t squandered over $100 million on the Rog Mahal, Garage Mahal and the Huronal, or run up a $200 million deficit in the pension and retirement healthcare funds.”

“That Chief Hubbard is put in the position of suggesting closing stations and settling for substandard response times is absolutely unconscionable. Public safety is the first priority of a City government. It must precede all else — there can be no discussion about parks, art, affordable housing, monorails or anything else until public safety is adequately addressed. That the Mayor and Council abrogate their fundamental responsibility to the citizens so brazenly speaks to a failure on the part of the press and the citizenry to pay attention. Shame on them, and shame on us. This is smoke and mirrors 3 stations at 4 people equals 12, 5 stations at 3 people equal 15 so there is a reduction in the firefighters on duty of 3. Also add to that the 2 man wonder truck( no water or hose) responding instead of an engine on any given day it drops to 11. I dont work in Ann Arbor anymore because I refused to go along with the city’s desire to dangerously reduce fire fighting capabilities and risk firefighter and citizens lives. I also wonder why the city can spread “propaganda” on this matter but the firefighters have a gag order? Perhaps the city doesnt want educated oposing opinions or factual information out so the public can make an informed decision. This problem could be solved easily if the University paid their fair share of the cost instead of being shielded by the state. Dominick Lanza, Former Fire Chief AAFD”

In August 2012, Hieftje stalwart supporter Margie Teall came 18 votes from losing her seat to pro-safety services Council candidate Jack Eaton. Eaton not only supported protecting safety service funding, but called for “rebuilding” decimated safety services. At an August 2012 candidate event, Eaton said, “The proposal to close fire stations is on the immediate horizon and alarms me.  ”I think that is not the correct manner to address the problems with fire response times.” Even after he lost, Eaton continued to champion the need to rebuild the city’s safety services at public meetings and in the comment sections of various local news blogs.

Powers’ recent memo to Council members in which he quietly drops a plan he was forced to spend months defending to an irate public makes clear that the wind has changed. One Council member said, “Look for a 2013-2014 city budget that is focused on funding services and the restoration of lost services. It’s about time, don’t you think?”

At Monday’s City Council meeting John Hieftje evidently wanted to make sure he understood exactly how deep in his own personal pile of horse manure he was standing. So, Hieftje pointedly asked the new Fire Chief, Chuck Hubbard (below), a 20-year member of the AAFD, “if the city would actually experience better service if it hired 30 more firefighters and increased staffing levels at each of the five stations.”

In April of 2011 Hieftje arrogantly told AnnArbor.com’s editorial board he “was comfortable” with the cuts made to police and the decimation of the fire services. He even went on to claim, “We’re getting some pretty good opinions that our initial response times probably won’t be affected on the fire side.”

AnnArbor.com’s editorial board predictably never checked Hieftje’s facts, or asked him from whom those “opinions” were being solicited. It’s a pity, because in December 2011, it was revealed in a long-awaited consultant’s report on the city’s fire services that Hieftje had once again lied to the public and used AnnArbor.com to do it. The consultant’s report revealed that Ann Arbor’s fire services did not come close to meeting national standards in terms of response times.

So when Hieftje asked Hubbard if more firefighters and equipment would lead to better service—no doubt hoping Hubbard would hem and haw—Hieftje looked stunned when Hubbard instead replied, “Absolutely.”

This was a different cast of characters than in 2010, when newly-hired Fire Chief Dom Lanza stood before Council.

On May 18, 2010, just a few weeks after being hired into the $108,000 per year position, Lanza stood before City Council, his own firefighters, and the Press and told a gigantic fairy tale for the benefit of Roger Fraser, the re-election campaigns of John Hieftje, Fourth Ward Council member Margie Teall, Fifth Ward Council member Carsten Hohnke and First Ward Council member Sandi Smith. And, of course, to protect his own professional hide.

John Hieftje posted AnnArbor.com’s repetition of Lanza’s deliberate fibs to his [Hieftje's] campaign web site to prove that laying off firefighters was no problemo, and that anyone who said so didn’t have the story right. In that May 18, 2010 AnnArbor.com piece, Lanza tells City Council that “the elimination of five positions in the fire department is manageable. He said fire stations will stay open, and the city still will be able to get at least four firefighters on the scene of a fire as quickly as it does today. Lanza also said the city would be able to put 18 firefighters on the scene of a working fire within eight minutes, maintaining the city’s insurance rating. He said it may take adjustments in the fire department’s administrative staff to accomplish that, but it can be done.”

On May 20, 2010, the firefighter’s union issued a refutation of Chief Lanza’s claims that fire safety would not be compromised by the loss of positions. Lt. Craig Ferris told AnnArbor.com, “We’re a substandard fire department right now. We want to get the right information out there. We can’t have someone stating things that aren’t true. When a person stands up in front of City Council and the mayor and says things that are that inaccurate, and in the end are leading to cuts in the fire department, we have to take a stand.”

Ferris and the union claimed that Lanza had misrepresented the facts to City Council and the public. In response, Lanza threatened Ferris with an “investigation” to determine whether the AAFD Lieutenant has broken any rules in speaking out to the press.

Then, Lanza decided he couldn’t take the heat and got out of the kitchen.

Less than one year after he’d taken the job, he handed in his resignation. Only then, did Dominick Lanza tell the truth. Months earlier, with the same number of fire fighters that Ann Arbor has now, Lanza claimed coverage was adequate, “manageable.” Then, in his March 18, 2011 letter, however, Lanza writes,

Current staffing levels are below nationally recognized standards and make the Ann Arbor Fire Department a “one-fire incident department,” Lanza writes. ”I urge you to move forward cautiously, pursue regional fire protection as a way to save and be more effective. Paid on-call and volunteer are not the answer. Your jobs are difficult but I implore you, be strong, make the right decisions, do not further undermine the effectiveness of your fire department.”

Not shockingly, neither Roger Fraser nor John Hieftje would talk to AnnArbor.com in response to Lanza’s tell-all. Never one to shy away from an opportunity to make herself look somewhat addled, First Ward Council member Sabra Briere was quoted by AnnArbor.com in response to Lanza’s admissions as saying, “I feel as if I’ve just been told the truth.”

It’s March 2012 and Chuck Hubbard is, in essence, repeating what Lanza said in his March 2011 letter to AnnArbor.com. Hubbard is repeating what Craig Ferris told AnnArbor.com in 2010.

First Ward Council member Sabra Briere (left)—who has made no secret of the fact that she wants to lead Ann Arbor as Mayor—demonstrated during Monday’s City Council meeting that she is just as dishonest, disingenuous and confused about the truth as Hieftje.

After Hubbard spoke before Council on March 12, 2012, Briere piped up and said she “recalled the city discussed the issue of fire response a couple of years ago and she remembers being told everything was OK. We were told that two people coming from Station 1 and two people coming from Station 3 could converge on the fire and everything would be covered.”

Briere recalled being told “Everything was OK?” In her dreams, maybe, but not in Council chambers.

The wanna-be city leader obviously forgot blabbing about her sudden epiphany in response to Lanza’s March 2011 confession to AnnArbor.com concerning substandard fire safety services:  (“I feel as if I’ve just been told the truth”). Oops.

For that matter, one has to wonder whether Sabra Briere wasn’t paying attention when AAFD union leaders stood before Council in May 2010 and told her that staffing levels were below national standards. Representatives told Council and the public that cuts were slowing response times and putting residents in danger. All of these assertions were confirmed in the embarrassing December 2011 consultant’s report on the city’s fire services.

At the March 12, 2012 City Council meeting, after Hubbard spoke, Briere asked if the information had changed or if the data Hubbard presented was just a different way of looking at the department’s staffing.

Hubbard replied, “The information hasn’t changed.”

Hubbard presented a plan to close fire stations in response to budget constraints imposed on the AAFD by City Council. He also very clearly stated the city should keep open all of its stations and hire 30 more firefighters to meet national staffing and response standards.

The latest absurdity from Hizzoner concerning his preference to funnel money to construction projects, multi-million dollar perks for city managers and generous retirement packages for city employees who work as few as five years, instead of rebuilding public safety services? Hieftje was quoted as claiming on Monday night: “It’s a little unusual because people think of closing stations as a diminished service, when actually this plan would give us better service to more areas of the city.”

Sabra Briere said nothing and nodded in agreement.

John Hieftje sat down to an interview with AnnArbor.com’s “editorial board,” almost one year ago to talk about the city’s budget. The city’s CFO Tom Crawford tagged along, primarily to nod, as it is commonly known around City Hall that Crawford uses his fingers to count, and that certain staffers in the finance department do all the heavy lifting. Third Ward Council member Christopher Taylor also participated in the interview. Taylor, a member of the Burns Park Players, evidently thought it was a open call for actors. It wasn’t until after he’d finished a slightly modified rendition of the Elvis Presley classic “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With Me,” that the “editorial board” members asked Taylor to have a seat.

Taylor, an entertainment lawyer, is a self-proclaimed city finance expert. In an open letter to AnnArbor.com, Taylor explained to city residents that the city’s debt position was, actually, nothing to fret about—despite the fact that it had doubled.

It was later revealed that Taylor had understated the city’s total debt by $215,000,000 and that the debt had not doubled, but had quadrupled to close to half a billion dollars.

In the interview with AnnArbor.com, John Hieftje talked about cuts made to the city’s police and fire departments. Hieftje told AnnArbor.com that Ann Arbor residents had nothing to fret about with respect to cuts made to the fire department. He said: “We’re getting some pretty good opinions that our initial response times probably won’t be affected on the fire side.”

The “pretty good opinions,” it was later revealed by the AnnArborChronicle.com were coming from the executive directors of several local social service non-profits. AAChronicle revealed the executive directors, all of whom earn at least $80K per year, would give “pretty good opinions” on just about anything Hieftje told them to protect the money from the city to their organizations. AnnArborChronicle.com writer David Askins happened to be perched on a commode in the men’s washroom at City Hall and capitalized on an opportunity to “chronicle” a “closed-session meeting” between Hieftje and several unidentified executive directors about “pretty good opinions.”

Alas, a $54,000 December 2011 report on the city’s fire services done by consulting firm International City/County Management Association found that: “The department fails to meet national standards for response times,” and that there is “a significant fire problem within the city.”

In the April 2011 interview, Hieftje also told the “editorial board”: “We’ve been pretty comfortable in reducing police numbers,” he said, pointing out crime is going down and the University of Michigan now has 54 of its own officers. And we’re studying the fire side, looking very intently at it. So we’re pretty comfortable with what we’re doing.”

A2Politico decided to ask Hieftje to revisit his April 2011 comments in light of 82 break-ins in the first 49 days of 2012, a string of unsolved serial rapes and the sudden resignation of Police Chief Barnett Jones. Hieftje spoke to A2Politico by phone from his vacation home in Northern Michigan where he lives smugly off the grid.

A2P: Let’s begin by talking about crime in Ann Arbor. Chief Jones told 150 city residents in a recent meeting that there have been 82 break-ins and home invasions in the first 48 days of 2012, up from 49 break-ins and home invasions over the past two years. Under your administration the city has reduced the number of police officers from 241 to 121. Do you think there might be a connection?

Hieftje: No connection. Not at all. 82 break-ins? Not at my house. You know, Downtown Development Authority (DDA) Board member Joan Lowenstein said it best in that essay she wrote. That crime stuff is just all the old, Republican, conservative naysayers in Ann Arbor talking. It’s Newcombe Clark all over again. [In 2010 at a candidate debate, it was reported that Hieftje angrily told Downtown Development Authority Board member Newcombe Clark, who was running for City Council, "You're trying to scare people." Hieftje played down Clark's comments on recent robberies and concerns about other crimes as "political rhetoric."]

A2P: Chief Barnett Jones also recently talked about the serial rapist who hasn’t been caught. He said: “We’re still living this case. We’re still living this case because this is someone who brought fear to our community, more fear to our community than I experienced in this community in the last six years.” Again, might there be a connection between cuts made to police staffing and the ability of the AAPD to check out the hundreds of tips called in and investigate the rapes?

Hieftje: No connection. Not at all. Serial rapes? Not at my house. Listen, I’ve consulted with Chief Barnott Jaynes very closely on these serial rapes. Let’s talk fear. Council member Jane Lumm scares me to death. Not that I think Jane has anything to do with crime in Ann Arbor. I hope not. Single-stream recycling. Listen, Ann Arbor is America’s best cities for singles. I don’t have all the facts and figures, but some of those singles need to walk around in groups after dark.

A2P: The Fifth Avenue underground parking garage….

Hieftje: Let me say that I never supported that project, never voted for it, never thought building another underground parking garage was the right thing for Ann Arbor….Wait is this Ryan Stanton from AnnArbor.com? It’s not, is it? Let me circle back and rephrase my last comments. I may have, ahem, indeed voted in support of that project under duress. I was being pressured by certain people in the community and on Council. Have you seen [First Ward Council member and DDA Board member] Sandi Smith when she gets ticked off? She’s almost as scary as Jane Lumm. However, I came to see that we had no other choice but to spend that $50 million we didn’t have on a garage we didn’t need. Otherwise, the Circuit Court judges would have had nowhere to go. Wait. That’s why we built the new city hall we couldn’t afford and didn’t need. Bike paths.

A2P: What I was going to ask is that with the rise in crime and with a serial rapist on the loose do you think it might discourage women from using the new underground garage when it opens?

Hieftje: Oh. No, women have nothing to worry about. Again, Chief Joiynes and I consult regularly on the fact that the increase in rapes, assaults, break-in and home invasions in Ann Arbor is nothing for anyone to worry about. Newcombe Clark and the old, conservative Republican naysayers who live here now are really just trying to scare people.

A2P: Residents often complain about having to wait for hours for officers to show up to crime scenes and car wrecks. The head of the patrol officers’ union said in July 2011: “Ten years ago, we used to catch people. Now we just don’t even have the staffing to set up a perimeter or bring in a K-9 unit — we’re so reactive now.” Shouldn’t residents in the city expect pro-active and as opposed to reactive policing? The cops are saying they don’t have enough officers to catch the bad guys and investigate the crimes.

Hieftje: I think one accident is too many, but as we look at all of the statistical evidence, accidents continues to go down in the city. Of course, there’s going to be peaks and valleys, and periods where things seem to be picking up a little bit. But when you sit down at year’s end, I think we’re going to arrive at another year where we see accidents down in the city. [A2P can't make this stuff up. This is a quote from Hizzoner.]

A2P: Chief Barnett Jones is retiring after six years. Fire Chief Dominick Lanza quit rather than makes cuts to the fire staffing he deemed too deep. This might lead one to conclude that the professionals see cuts made to safety department staffs not only unwise but downright dangerous. Lanza has said as much in comments from beyond he has posted to AnnArbor.com.

Hieftje: Over the past years, I’ve become extremely close to Burnett Jaynes. He has worked very hard keeping a straight face while telling the public that these cuts have had no impact on public safety. I told him he should try out with the Burns Park Players. He sings and dances around the truth better than Chris Taylor. All I can say is that with his $20,000 pension, along with the other ones he has from his previous jobs, I think he’ll be quite comfortable in his next position. I’m proud Ann Arbor taxpayers were able to help him out with that five-year-pension-vesting program.

John Hieftje has a mantra: “crime is down.”

On September 8, 2009, A2Politico posted a Whisper about Mayor Hieftje’s email response to Sunset area neighbors concerned about a growing number of daylight break-ins. On September 10, 2009, the Ann Arbor Police Department issued a Crime Alert, and a representative from the AA Police Department met with concerned neighbors. Meanwhile, Hieftje emailed to a burgled resident that: “at this time there is no noticable up-tick in the statistacal data.”

The Mayor went on to pat himself on the back in an email to a resident who wrote about the crime spree: “ As I explained to someone else who wrote earlier today, crime statistics continue on a long term downward trend in our city….”

A2Politico then reported that FBI Uniform Crime Statistics released contradicted Hieftje’s claim. AnnArbor.com picked up the story from A2Politico and posted a piece titled, “Mayor says crime is down in Ann Arbor, but new FBI statistics show crime is up.”

On April 14, 2011, AnnArbor.com reported that John Hieftje said, “Ann Arbor has more police officers than most think. In addition to the 124 sworn officers in the Ann Arbor Police Department, he said the University of Michigan has 54 officers and they’re available to assist the city in emergency situations.”

An official with the University of Michigan DPS said this is response to Hieftje’s claim: “Oh, gawd.”

That claim won Hieftje and AnnArbor.com an A2Politico Weekly Whopper.

With the way Hieftje invents “facts,” it’s almost impossible for our community to get accurate information when he uses the local paper to spread misinformation. Reporting over the past 20 months by AnnArbor.com has earned the news site the disdain of police and fire fighters. So, the city’s Police and Fire Department union leaders have decided to do an end run around AnnArbor.com, and reach out directly to Ann Arbor citizens through YouTube, email and Facebook.

“AnnArbor.com’s reporting is one-sided, biased and inaccurate. We’re not only fighting fires and crime. We’re fighting against a local newspaper that doesn’t provide even-handed, honest coverage of the facts about safety in our city,” said an official involved in the effort to reach out to Ann Arbor citizens through social media and email campaigns.

Both AnnArbor.com government reporter Ryan Stanton and his boss Tony Dearing turned down an opportunity to respond to the allegation of one-sided, biased, inaccurate reporting on the part of their news site.

Keep Ann Arbor Safe has close to 200 “likes” on Facebook. The page was launched by the AAPD Citizens Action Committee. The page, launched on April 27, 2011, is an effort to use social media to educate and reach out to Ann Arbor residents about the ongoing cuts to safety services. There are links to June 18, 2011 letter to the editor posted by AnnArbor.com slamming John Hiefje and Council for their recent decision to further cut Ann Arbor’s safety services as well as June 19, 2011 letter to the editor that accuses Ann Arbor’s mayor of “dumping on employees.”

Support the Ann Arbor Fire Department has over 800 “likes” on Facebook. Like Keep Ann Arbor Safe, the page is an effort to use social media to share news, educate and reach out directly to Ann Arbor residents and combat what officials in the city’s Fire Department perceive as misperceptions and biased reporting by AnnArbor.com. City Council members, such as Christopher Taylor, as well as John Hieftje are regular targets of harsh criticism on the fire fighter’s Facebook page. Even Police Chief Barnett Jones has come under fire.

The AAFD union used YouTube to get its message across recently. The AAPD Citizens Action Committee is the source of an embarrassing email currently circulating in which shocking details of police and fire calls gone wrong, gone waiting, and gone baby gone are revealed in shocking detail. It’s clear that the specifics of the police and fire calls, as well as the statistics provided, were compiled by Ann Arbor’s police and fire personnel. A source in the Ann Arbor Police Department confirmed the authenticity of the incidents contained in the tell-all email.

Here is a sample of the revelations contained in the email message:

Since 2002,

The police department had 191 sworn officers. Currently we have 122. Now your city officials plan to reduce this down to 109 sworn officers. This will be a 43% reduction. The fire department is down from 113 fire fighters to 81 and they want to take them down to 76 or a 33% reduction …Now they want your 911 dispatchers too…

These cuts in service have resulted in:

Police Officers are being sent to priority calls such as: domestic violence, suicidal subjects, fights in progress, etc … without a back up unit and then are told we will send you a back up when we one is available;

On one occasion there were only two officers on duty for the entire city. They were sent to a suicidal subject. As the first officer arrived on scene the second officer was redirected to a fight involving 3 subjects. The officer with the suicidal subject actually had to ask…”How bad are you?….Are you going to kill yourself right now or can you give me 10 minutes so that I can help another officer that is responding to a fight.” Is this really what we want?

Recently, an Ann Arbor woman stepped out of her shower in her home to find a strange man standing in front of her. She screamed, and was able to dial 911. The man fled. A police car with two officers responded to the call. A second car with one officer came to drive through the neighborhood. A few years ago several cars would have responded, a perimeter would have been established, a K-9 unit would have responded and a sweep conducted to find the suspect. Now, we have an officer who comes and writes a report. This suspect is still out there…Simply unacceptable!

More people have died in fires during the last 5 years than in the 15 previous years.

October 2010 there was an 11 minute response time to a fatal fire in which 3 people died. They were my neighbors.

The email contradicts repeated claims made by both Mayor Hieftje, as well as Police Chief Barnett Jones concerning the safety of current emergency service staffing levels, the ability of remaining police officers and fire fighters on duty to perform their jobs well and to serve the community. Since he left his job, former Fire Chief Dominick Lanza has been posting pithy comments to AnnArbor.com, and “praying” for his former staffers in the Fire Department.

The tell-all email is a look behind the carefully arranged curtain put in place by Hiefje, former City Administrator Roger Fraser, and Police Chief Barnett Jones on which is scrawled, “Crime is down. There are fewer fires. Nothing to see here.”

The email campaign is particularly damaging because it is nearly impossible to stop and difficult for elected officials to refute. The text of the email says that 500 emails to Mayor and Council will “make a difference.” In truth, 25 or 30 emails to Mayor and Council are enough to make the group skittish and nervous.

At the bottom of the email, in red, the author asks readers: “Is this really the type of emergency services that we want in this community? It’s your safety. Get the facts.”

The author urges readers to: “Please read the attached information sheets then tell the Mayor and the city council: ‘If you make cuts in our emergency services, then we will not vote for you…… Restore our police and fire services.’

The final sentence in the email asks that readers, “Then please send this to five of your friends who may be willing to do the same.”

To download the entire email, click here.

A2P Notes: This is filed under “Scoops & Scores,” because you read it here first!

The graph, above, is simple to read. As the number of firefighters in Ann Arbor has declined, the number and regularity of fire fatalities have increased sharply. Let’s be clear, “fire fatalities,” as well as “crime statistics” are people. They are our neighbors, friends, and work colleagues. They are sons, daughters, mothers and fathers. A “slight rise in crime,” means more women were raped in Ann Arbor, dozens more homes were invaded, and there were more cases of loss of property and life. More people who live in our city are being victimized. More people who live in our city have burned to death in fires with more regularity than ever before.

A recent “fire fatality” happened in January 2011. His name was Jacob Rachford. Rachford, 20, died at the University of Michigan Hospital from fire and smoke inhalation when his house at 2275 Westaire Court went up in flames, the result of a kitchen fire. Jacob Rachford was a graduate of Community High School. He was a diver at Pioneer High School and enjoyed rock climbing and skydiving. That’s what his Mom told AnnArbor.com. She added, ”He was just my baby.”

Four months after Terri Rachford’s son, Jacob, died in a house fire, John Hieftje told AnnArbor.com that he is “comfortable” with the cuts to emergency services that he has made over the course of the past decade, as well as with proposed cuts. He is “comfortable” that, it appears from the data presented in the fire fatality chart above, more people than ever before are dying in Ann Arbor as a result of the closure of a fire station, the severe cuts made to our fire personnel, and revolving “shut-downs” of fire stations to save money. Jacob Rachford is dead and four short months later, to justify past cuts, as well as currently proposed cuts to emergency services, Ann Arbor’s Mayor told AnnArbor.com he is “comfortable.”

The graph, above, was emailed this morning by the Ann Arbor Fire Fighters Union to John Hieftje and every member of the Ann Arbor City Council. This past Sunday, former Fire Chief Dominick Lanza contributed an opinion piece to AnnArbor.com in which he included staffing data from several cities to show that Ann Arbor’s current fire staffing is well below that of comparably-sized towns.

Charleston, S.C. 19 fire stations

Population:  120,000
Firefighters:  305
Decatur, Ill.  7 fire stations

Population:  109,000
Firefighters:  118

Peoria, Ill.  12 fire stations
Population:  113,000
Firefighters:  196             

Lansing, Mich.  8 fire stations
Population:  114,000
Firefighters:  200

Topeka, Kan.  12 fire Stations
Population:  122,000
Firefighters:  250

Ann Arbor, MI  5 fire stations
Population:  110,000
Firefighters:  86

Lanza goes on to write:

Cuts in fire and police services have led to serious issues. In fire services, it has led to more fire loss and possibly loss of life. In police services, there have been armed daylight robberies of banks, jewelry stores, credit union, etc. Safety services is not the place to cut any further and in the case of fire staffing needs to be increased by at least 20 firefighters to provide adequate protection. Why didn’t I say these things when I worked in the city? I wasn’t asked or given the opportunity by the council or the media. However, now I can.

Meanwhile, to justify a decade of cuts to emergency services, John Hieftje makes up facts for AnnArbor.com to repeat verbatim without verification. On April 26, 2011 in an interview with the AnnArbor.com editorial board, Hieftje was quoted as claiming, “There’s about 12 or 13 times a year, as I understand it, where they even hook up to a fire hydrant, so that possibility is fairly remote.”

An official with the Ann Arbor Fire Department, when asked where Hieftje got that number, told A2Politico, “We don’t note anywhere on on our reports whether we hook up to a hydrant. There’s no record of that anywhere. Plus, we respond with the pumper truck, and often don’t need to hook up to a hydrant.”

When AnnArbor.com caught Hieftje making up other information, instead of documenting then refuting the misleading and factually inaccurate claims, Stanton posted a notice at the top of his piece that, “A factually incorrect statement made by the mayor has been removed from this story.” Removed? Newspapers don’t remove factually inaccurate statements made by politicians. Newspapers reveal, document, refute and report.

An anonymous reader put it best in a comment below the one in which Stanton casually points out that AnnArbor.com, in essence, covered up Hieftje’s false claims:

Dear Ryan,

Is it appropriate to just remove those paragraphs?

My problem is not so much budgets that need to be tightened, but politicians – our mayor and our city manager – misleading the public with inaccurate information. And that information being communicated via AnnArbor.Com and other media.

I think it is totally wrong to just remove those paragraphs and note it in a comment 131 comments later.

How about adding to the article that you did some fact checking and found that the mayor’s comment was untrue?

Or, using today’s technology, strike through those statements and add an explanation that readers can see when they hover over the sentences that have been crossed out.

To just delete an untruth told by the mayor days later is so wrong. The issue IS these inaccuracies.

John Hieftje is “comfortable” that more women were raped in Ann Arbor this year than last year. Hieftje is “comfortable” that there are have been more armed robberies in Ann Arbor this year than any year since 2005. John Hieftje told the media and the public that he sees Terri Rachford’s loss of her son, Jacob, as an outcome with which he is “comfortable.”

Are you? To contact Hieftje and Council with your concerns, click here.