Alrighty.

Uh, I want to first take the time to

thank everyone, the four candidates

running for office and the people of you

who have come here. Um, something that

that's very be near near and dear to me

is the importance of knowing what is

going on in our community. And what I

mean by that is that at the end of the

day, we owe it to ourselves to be well

informed, to know who is representing us

between the different candidates, as

well as to provide feedback to the

representatives to make sure that W 2 in

the whole city is well represented. So

again, I want to reinforce that and

let's please get a round of applause if

I can. This takes a lot of time and I

really [applause]

So, as many of you can see, this is my

first time doing it. Um, so I've taken a

lot of help from Wendy and Pete over

here. They've made my lives a lot easier

as far as putting this together. So, I

figured let's just go over some basic

ground rules just to keep things simple

and respectful. Um, opinions are

welcome. It is your first amended right

to have whatever opinion you want. But

remember, at the end of the day, this is

for you and your neighbors to get to

know the candidates. So, our request is

that have an opinion, but keep it quiet

so that way we can continue through the

discussion. Exactly. Right. Because at

the end of the day, if you're out here

heckling or protesting, while that may

affect them, it's going to affect your

neighbor more. They're not going to be

able to hear what's being said. And I

think we all lose when that happens. So,

we're just asking people up front. Just

be respectful about that. Keep it to

yourself. if you have to, you know, you

want to cheer or something, just keep it

quiet, right? We want to make sure that

people are hearing what's going on. I

really don't want to have to get the

library and staff involved. Don't get

that much. So, let's let's just keep the

vibes respectful. And the same thing

happens for the candidates. Just keep it

about yourselves. Whenever asked a

question, our request is just answer

from your own perspective about

yourself. Uh Pete will step in if he

believes it's an attack on another

candidate. I'm really hoping it's not

even an issue. So, just again,

elementary school rules like we're just

going to be nice to everyone.

Uh, some of you may have seen there is

in fact a recording going on right

there. Wendy will help get that

distributed for people who either want

to rewatch or want to share it amongst

their friends. Um, again, just be aware

we are actually recording things. And

lastly, I do want to note that this is a

community driven process. Due to time,

we will not be able to solicit open for

uh questions. And I know people may

question whether or not they heard that.

We did send I think five or six

different emails for Facebook posts and

put signs up. So if you have something

that you want to provide feedback,

please pull me aside privately. We can

talk about that. But we have done a

curated survey, taken all the results

and tried to at least put together a

sample of questions that best

represented what people were interested

in. Um I apologize if we did not get to

your question. It is not out of

disrespect or lack of interest. It's

just we have to balance time. So again,

want to reiterate this is our best

attempt at capturing everyone's needs.

If you feel like there's something you

want to capture at the end, um some of

the cans will be around afterwards.

You're free to go talk to them outside

of the debate hours or come pull me

aside and we can talk about that. Well,

that's not to disrupt the actual event

itself. As far as the uh way that the

moderation and the event's going to go,

Pete will be reading the questions, give

you a time. Joe here will have a a

little warning symbol just to let you

know when you're running up against the

wall. Again, we're trying to be

respectful. We're not going to cut you

off on a hard cut off. Just finish your,

you know, final thought, right? Let's

let's keep things easy and respectful.

And we're doing fantasy draft rules. So,

one person goes, the next person gets

two questions and so on and so forth.

So, I'll leave it up to you two. You

want to play rock, paper, scissors? Does

someone want to volunteer to go first?

How do you want to decide?

>> You didn't pull you didn't pull names

out.

>> So, rock paper scissors. [laughter]

>> There's a clear bias of the method of

selection. Look, as you can tell by the

bald head, I'm the oldest, most wise guy

in this room right now. And I think we

have to be in good spirit to show some

camaraderie across the aisle.

[clears throat]

>> Sure.

>> So, go ahead.

>> Or just [laughter]

>> ask them one on shoot. So, rock, paper,

scissors. Shoot.

>> All right. Go for it.

>> Rock, paper, scissors.

>> All righty. You get your pick. Would you

rather go first or second?

>> Uh, I'll go first on the first and last

on the last.

>> All righty. All right. Pick us all,

Pete.

>> Okay. Thank you, Ali. Again, I'm I'm

Pete Mooney. I'm on the board. I've been

doing these kind of forms. I had a full

head of hair, which long time ago.

[laughter]

And uh um I'll just get started. Um so

the first question is, could you share a

bit about your background and the

experiences that prepared you to

represent the city?

>> How much time we do? Two minutes.

[snorts] Yeah.

>> And then Joe's got the Sorry, Joe, when

you're ready.

>> Yeah.

>> All right. So, uh excellent. Thank you

for the question. It's my great pleasure

to be here. I'm Christopher Taylor. I'm

the mayor of the city of Ann Arbor. Uh

I've been mayor since uh since 2014. So,

uh I have ran for city council 2008. Uh

as you all know, council is, uh we have

a council manager, former government

here. So, uh mayor's a part-time job. We

don't you know, we we we operate in that

capacity. And so, I'm also a lawyer. Um

I do work at a small firm in the our

downtown. and I'd work on mostly small

business and estate plan. In terms of my

background, I came here for college in

1985. I've got four degrees from the

University of Michigan, showing a, you

know, either a love of learning or a

distressing lack of strategic thinking.

[laughter]

Um, you know, during the course of my

time in law school, rather at the

university, I was president of the inter

cooperative council, which is a set of

at the time 17 student co-ops, housing

co-ops in our city. Um, in law school, I

was president of the of the law

reviewview. Um, and I came back to Ann

Arbor in 2002 with my wife and uh and

one of one and a half of her children.

Um, I've uh run for an run run for

office and served in office in Ant Arbor

because I mean I love it here. Uh, and

you know, you're here, you probably do,

too. We uh we're a community that's um

imperfect in all the ways uh that that

human endeavors are imperfect. Uh, we

have our challenges, but we have a great

thing going on here. uh you know, we've

got our troubles as a community, as

neighborhoods, as a city, as a as a

region. But, you know, I wouldn't trade

our troubles for anyone's. And I think

it's important that we uh that we

recognize that as a community, that

we're proud of the work that that we

have done together. We have built uh a

community that is uh that is welcoming

uh that is working uh a municipal

government that's uh providing basic

services and working hard to improve

quality of life. These are the things

that I've been excited to work on as

your mayor and these are the things that

I'm excited going forward uh to

continue. So, thanks a lot and look

forward to the conversation.

>> Thank you, Yousef.

>> All right. Well, good afternoon

everyone. My name is Yousef Robbie and I

am proud and honored to be here with you

all today. Amazing turnout actually.

Like round of applause for the

organizers of this event. [applause]

So, I'm a local kid. I actually grew up

running around uh the Stab Nature area

right behind you and uh Lesley Golf

Course. Um probably when some of you

were out golfing uh I was out running

around as a kid. Uh and uh Lesie Woods,

my parents actually live just on the

other side of Wesley Woods. So that's

where I grew up right at the end of

Upland Drive running around going

trick-or-treating on Traver uh and

Pontiac Trail and coming up here to go

to the shops uh you know in this area

and then coming to this library as well.

So, I went to North Side Elementary and

Bob when it was the open school. Uh, and

then I went to Kle Middle School, uh,

Hiron High School, and then the

University of Michigan where I studied

environmental science with a

specialization in urban planning and

ecosystem management. Um, and while I

was a student, I got really passionate

about uh, being an activist in this

community and I come from a long line of

activists. Both all my grandparents um,

are active in various different were

active in various different space in

clean to labor movement and in many

other movements. So I as a student got

really involved in environmental

activism and labor activism and anti-war

activism that ultimately led me to run

for county commissioner. I won my first

election by a single vote

for two votes after the recount. I did a

recount. I won two votes, doubled my

margin of victory. Uh and but that

experience taught me from a very early

age that the people are in charge. You,

the residents of this community, you're

the ones that run government. And that

is the ethic that I've kept with me from

that day forward. I served in that

capacity for six years, including chair

of the board for two. I then ran for

state representatives, served at the

state house of representative

representatives, including four years as

Democratic floor leader in the Michigan

House. Uh, and then I came back to the

county commission, serving since 2023 as

a county commissioner and now candidate

for mayor of Van Arbor. I'm excited to

talk about my platform. Thank you all

for being here today.

>> [applause]

>> and stop. If you're okay, I'll do the 30

second sign and stop. Does that work?

>> 15 seconds. Seems like it's over.

>> Yeah.

>> This next question, we'll also have two

minutes for each respond. And I guess I

think you said you go first on this.

>> I think that's we fantasy draft.

>> Okay. Um, so what unique perspectives or

approaches to leadership do you hope to

bring to the city and arborist? I'm one

mayor or a new mayor. What do you

propose to bring your background to this

job?

>> Yeah. So, I'm the only candidate in this

race that has experience at the state

level and local level. So, I'm planning

to bring experience that is uh going to

expand the ability of Ann Arbor to be a

great community. Um, and a lot of my

approach to issues and solutions, as

you'll hopefully hear throughout my

talking today, is that I want Ann Arbor

to be a regional and statewide um, you

know, advocate for change in this state.

We have, I think, for too long, one of

the the things that limit limits us is

that we have thought of ourselves as an

island, as a bubble surrounded by who

knows what, like, you know, there's that

t-shirt uh about Ann Arbor, you know,

the being an island. We're not an

island. We are part of a region. We are

part of a county. And we need to get out

more as a community. I'm somebody that's

built those relationships with township

officials. I'm somebody that's built

those relationships with mayors all the

way down I 94 all the way to Detroit.

and I'm somebody that has relationships

in Lancing that can help get legislate

legislative priorities for this

community passed just like I did as a

state legislator. So that is a unique

perspective that I'm bringing to the

table that I think can help to

supercharge what we're doing here. The

other thing that I bring to the table is

a labor background. My day job is I work

for the labor movement. I'm proud to be

endorsed by many of the labor unions

that represent public sector workers in

this town, including the United Auto

Workers, ASME, which represents our

municipal workers, the uh uh the Bus

drivers union that's also negotiating

for a contract right now, um as well as

the Hiron Valley Area Labor Federation,

which represents uh a large swath of the

unions here in our community. So, I

bring that perspective to the table

because I come from a working-class

background, and I am proud to be an

advocate for the workers of this

community. when we talk about a lot of

the ills that are facing our town. And

by the way, one of the main reasons I

decided to run is because Ann Arbor has

become completely unaffordable for the

working and middle class people in this

community. It has become unaffordable

for seniors. It has become unaffordable

for students. We're pricing people out.

Ann Arbor is becoming a country club

town. Almost like you have to get a

membership in order to live here. That's

completely unacceptable. And we have to

have a voice who's fighting for working

and middle class people, seniors and

students to make that better. Thank you.

>> [applause]

>> Do you have a question?

>> Just read them about each time. That way

it's easier.

>> Yeah, sure. Sure. Okay.

>> Again, the question is, um, what unique

perspectives or approaches to leadership

do you hope to bring or can you bring to

the mayor's office?

>> Sure. Uh,

you know, uh, I've been mayor for for 12

years now. uh and during the course of

that time my uh my my skills and my

deficits you know have been on display

um so what unique perspective do I bring

what skills do I bring um I'm a lawyer

I'm not a fancy lawyer I'm not an angry

lawyer I do small business work I work

with families on estate planning as a

lawyer your job is to listen your job is

to listen to your clients and work with

them in an imperfect world to accomplish

their goals.

And that's the approach I take to local

government. We have a task. We have a

task to serve the community. And in the

course of that task, we have to listen.

We have to understand the scope of our,

you know, of our circumstances, the laws

that uh that that that are superior to

us, the finances that we are working

through. And then we have to try to

reach our common goals and and and and

work hard together. That's what I do as

a lawyer. That's what I do uh in your as

serving, you know, as your mayor. Uh

I'll also say that, you know, part of

the the the work of a lawyer is to be an

advocate and it's to uh look for

problems in advance. it is to work hard

and to understand reality and look to

accomplish those goals. As your mayor,

I've been working hard to accomplish

work on affordability. We all know that

we have a housing crisis in the city.

Even Congress observes that we have a

housing crisis in this in America.

That's how bad it's gotten. But in Ant

Arbor, we're doing something about it.

We've listened. We're working and and

we've acted and within our means, we are

working to accomplish the goal. 1,200

units of new permanent affordable

housing in built or in the pipeline

throughout our city. That is real

meaningful change and it's not it's not

the end of the story. My time is up. So,

thanks. [applause]

Mention we have um snacks. I can't be

sure there's not everybody, but there's

water, there's cookies, there's stuff

back there. So, that's for anybody

anyone who wants it, just go ahead and

grab something. Um, the next question is

about constituent engagement and also a

two-minute time limit on the responses.

And the question is, if elected, how

will you ensure community members feel

heard and can easily communicate with

you? Would love to hear an example of a

time you adapted to perspective based on

community feedback. I think Christopher,

you go first.

>> Sure. So uh

community engagement, listening to

people, working with people, reaching

out and also uh

sitting here and in the community with

an open heart and open ears.

That's part and parcel of the work that

we do and that's part and parcel of my

approach uh to to to service as as your

mayor. Uh we work hard you know all the

time to you know meet with community

groups that want to meet to uh advocate

uh that you know to let people know that

there you know neighborhood issues are

arising. We don't have a a daily paper

and so it is hard to to push out

information but we as a municipal

organization are accelerating our

efforts to make sure that you have from

the city reliable information about what

is happening in your city. Um we work to

communicate that on the regular. Me

personally, uh, you know, also, you

know, if you've watched me as your

mayor, you know, um, I'm not big with

the bullhorn. I'm not here to declin.

I'm generally a quiet person. I'm here

to listen and that's that's what we do

and that's that's what we need to do in

order to make sure that the work that

we're doing in city hall is here for

you. in terms of changes that I've uh

that have been you know something that

I've worked on over the course of time.

Uh you know we're probably going to get

to the comprehensive land use plan. But

I will say that the comprehensive land

use plan is a reflection of that

community conversation and with me

particular

with listening to people. There was a

time when the draft comprehensive land

use plan envisioned four stories in

neighborhoods envisioned quadplexes.

I listened to people in the community, a

broad set of folks. I recognized that

for so many of us that that was those

were steps too far.

Duplexes, triplexes,

those are okay. People can live with

that.

I worked after listening to community

input to modulate the plan and that has

been a result in policy and envision for

the city and I'm excited and proud about

it. I think it's gonna have great

results.

>> Thanks. [applause]

>> Question is about feedback about team

members communicating with you and how

you've been impacted by feedback in the

past.

>> All right. Yeah, thanks for the

question. So, um, as I described

earlier, I've been in elected office in

some capacity over the last 16 years,

and I've been proud of, uh, my track

record of have being not only, uh, a

public official who is responsive, but

one who goes to the community to

actually meet people where they're at.

Uh, as a state representative, we had

uh, what I called Yousef and You

constituent hours twice a month. Uh,

every fourth, Saturday, and second

Monday, uh, anybody could come and share

their views with me as your state

representative. Uh and in those

meetings, sometimes we just had one

person show up and sometimes we had 70

people show up, but each opportunity was

an opportunity to share what I had seen

in terms of your being your state

representative and to hear from you in

terms of what you wanted to see for the

future of your state. And those

opportunities I continued on now that

I'm your county commissioner and I still

do them every month. Turns out people

are slightly less interested in what the

county has to do. So, you know, but I

did tone it, you know, I continued that

on to doing a a monthly constituent hour

um that I I just had one just last week.

Um and people a lot of people show up, a

lot of people have questions. Uh and

these are opportunities to engage with

the community to build uh a broader

understanding of where we need to go uh

as a community. So, in terms of

listening to feedback, I have to say a

lot of the bills that I introduced in

Lancing were actually ideas that were

generated at the constituent hours. A

lot of the things that I've introduced

as a county commissioner were brought to

me at constituent hours, including uh

the ICE-free zone resolution that I

pushed and passed uh as a county

commissioner. We passed the strongest

ice-free zone resolution in the entire

state. Uh to the point where we were

sued by the Trump administration, I was

named in the lawsuit and frankly I'm

proud. I wear that as a badge of honor

that we passed a resolution that was

strong enough for the Trump

administration to take note and we're

fighting them in court. We hired some of

the best attorneys in the entire country

and we're taking them on. And as mayor

of Ann Arbor, I want to take bold action

like that so that we are protecting our

immigrant community. So we are

protecting uh and fighting for our

workers. We are protecting and fighting

for our students and seniors. That's the

Ann Arbor that I want to see and that's

the Ann Arbor I'm going to fight for as

your next mayor.

[applause]

>> So again, this question is a two-minute

response time and it involves um

inclusion in green spaces. The question

is uh what steps will you take to

protect and improve um war 2's green

spaces and parks while at the same time

making them more inclusive to residents

of all ages and abilities.

>> I'm going to first say uh because this

has been in conversation quite a bit in

the context of a lot of of what's going

on at the city. Uh there's been a lot of

conversation about selling off public

land. Um I am here to unequivocally tell

you that as mayor of Ann Arbor, I oppose

the sale of all public land. I oppose

the sale of all parkland. I support

keeping green spaces green and that is

something that I'm really passionate

about and especially as we're seeing

what's happening at the federal level

with the Trump administration selling

off public land. We cannot in this

community sell public land. Once we lose

public land, it's gone forever. We need

to protect our public assets and use

public land for the public good. This is

why we have public assets. And so I'm

very passionate about this. I'm a former

uh city worker myself. Um, I worked for

the city of Ann Arbor Natural Area

Preservation. Um, and so I got to then

work in a lot of the same woods in our

community that I was playing in as a

kid, uh, including staff nature area and

Leslie Woods, uh, which was an amazing

job. And so as a frontline staff person

at the city, I had a basically an

experience that showed me how our parks

could be even better for our community.

And one of the primary ways that I think

we need to approach this is we need to

put more resources into our parks. The

way that we do that, Ann Arbor has

become a very topheavy organization. A

lot of administrators, a lot of

consultants, people at the top. We need

to what I'm calling squeeze the tube.

Less at the top, more workers in the

field that are actually working in our

parks that are actually doing the

maintenance work that it takes to

maintain our park infrastructure. This

is something I'm very passionate about.

As a county parks commissioner, I have

ample experience on how to make not only

parks better for the community, but how

to make them more inclusive. I am proud,

by the way, to be the reason that we

have tens of millions of dollars going

into our non-motorized trail system here

in this county. I was the one vote that

put our road millillage, Washna County

road millillage, to force it to have 20%

right off the top go to the borderto

border trail. And that has resulted over

the last decade in tens of millions of

dollars being invested in non-motorized

infrastructure to make sure that our

parks and trails are accessible for

everyone. And I intend to continue that

on as your next mayor. Thank you.

>> [applause]

>> question involves um green spaces and

making it more inclusive residents of

different ages and abilities. Yeah. Uh

so first uh

no parkland is is going to be sold like

that's just not a thing. We are not

selling parkland. You've you you've

heard you if you've spun lived on Next

Door for a little while. Um if if you

lived on some some of the darker reaches

of Facebook, you may have a different

understanding.

That is not true. We are not selling

parkland. The comprehensive land use

plan does not envision the sale of

parkland. No parkland will be sold. So

what do we do about the parkland that we

have? First off, we treasure it. Um our

park system is amazing.

11% uh of the city land is parkland. It

is the largest scope of of land that we

have uh in for for any particular use.

It's I think there's more parkland than

there is university land in our city.

This is our jewel. Um with respect to

inclusiveness, one of the things I'm

most proud of in the course uh of my

mayorship in the parks is we have

expanded our universal access uh

elements of our parks. We've got a

universal access splash pad in uh in the

on the in the third ward by Centennial

Park. We've got a universal access

working close with Rotary Club uh

universal access playground in Gallup

Park. Uh which and I'm looking to expand

as many of those as we can throughout

our community. We know that so many

people of different abilities uh want to

use our park system because our park

system is amazing. We have uh a a

beautiful neighborhood park within a

quarter mile of everyone that lives in

the city of Ann Arbor. That is our goal.

We have accomplished that goal and and

and I think we as a community need to be

proud of it going forward. What are we

going to do? We're going to continue the

great work that we've done with our

parks. Um working with neighborhoods

through the parks advisory commission

and so forth to ensure that the

neighborhood parks meet our neighborhood

goals. Bottom line, uh, everyone in

Arbor loves the parks and with good

reason. They are here, uh, they are our

treasure. They're our jewel. They are

our legacy, uh, the legacy that we have

received from our, uh, our predecessors

and the legacy we leave for others. And

so, I'm just excited to maintain and

prove them.

[applause]

So, our next question had lots of

feedback from the neighborhood. So we

give a little more time, five minutes to

respond if you like that. Uh the

questions basically address the um the

feedback around the comprehensive land

use plan and the fact that many people

fel felt that overlooked neighborhood

character and might put a strain on

local infrastructure. The question is

how will you use resident input to guide

the process of reszoning and to protect

neighborhood characteristics going

forward? Yeah, I think Christopher your

first.

>> Great. Thank you. Uh, so if you can give

me like two minutes too, let me know

when two minutes are up if you please.

>> Two minutes are up. [laughter]

>> Two minutes. Two minutes left.

>> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So if it doesn't

work out, no worries. Anyway, um,

we have a affordability crisis in our

city.

We housing prices have gone up in Ann

Arbor four times the rate of inflation

since the Great Recession.

Rents have gone up two and a half times

the rate of inflation since the great

recession.

That means that we have economic

segregation in our city. That is the

current condition and that is the

current trajectory.

We also know that because of the the

legacy and and current condition of

racial supremacy of white supremacy in

our community in our country that with

economic segregation comes racial

segregation and for a community like Ann

Arbor that is unacceptable

[clears throat]

and so we have to decide are we going to

do something about that or are we going

to let the momentum continue

and it is the vision of our work on

affordable housing. It is the vision of

our work on the comprehensive land use

plan to put an end to that momentum.

Now, we do this in the context of

tremendous

demand in our city for housing. That's

why we have a housing crisis. The

university expands

students, 10,000 over the past 10 years.

The university expands workers, jobs in

our city, 10,000 over the last 10 years.

What are we going to do about it? Are we

going to let the continue the

continuence momentum or are we going to

work to stop it

with affordable housing? Over the next

five years, we are going to build 1,200

units of new permanent affordable

housing throughout our city. Housing

that is qualified for folks who make

under $58,000 a year, workers of all

kinds. That is going to triple

triple the affordable housing that we

have in our city. Think about what that

means to those people who will have an

opportunity to live here because of the

work that we are doing as a city that

you have helped us with the passage of

the affordable housing village that I

championed in 2020 with others. That's

tremendous. But we also know that that

is insufficient. We are working hard to

protect our renters, expanding renters's

rights because we do know half of our

community is made up of renters and the

power dynamic between renters and

landlords is asymmetric.

And so we have created a right to renew.

If you love your home, you can stay in

your home. We have eliminated junk fees.

We have obligated cost transparency. And

we're not done yet. Renters deserve a

protection. and we are going to continue

with them. But we also know that that's

that's not the end. You're the best.

Thank you.

The comprehensive land use plan

envisions a community that moves us

towards affordability, sustainability,

and equity. And it does that through a

vision of ex of more housing in our

downtown with particularity.

More housing on transit corridors that

can bear more housing. And yes, more

housing in established neighborhoods.

With respect to established

neighborhoods, as we discussed on uh ear

in an earlier question, there was a fair

bit of conversation about how much more

housing is acceptable in those contexts.

The vision of the comprehensive land use

plan as a result of the work that I've

done with members of council and working

with community members is that that

expanded housing in the neighborhood is

going to be

done in a way that fits

We already have duplexes and triplexes

throughout our community. The

comprehensive land use plan and the

implementation of that plan will

relegalize

those homes.

The the land use plan, it enables a

little extra height,

five extra feet to enable greater

architectural interest.

Working with community members going

forward, the implementation of the

comprehensive land use plan is going to

involve a lot of particulars.

setbacks here, side setbacks there, how

much you know unit count, bed count, all

these things are part of the

conversation. These are not

predetermined.

These will be the created, these rules

will be created with extensive community

conversation as it must be, as it should

be because our neighborhoods are

precious and duplexes and triplexes are

not going to ruin neighborhoods. The

people that they bring in will not ruin

neighborhoods. they will be

they'll be your friends. That's the

beauty and vision of the comprehensive

land use plan. And yeah, it's one I

think that will make us over the long

term a a a stronger, more diverse and

more affordable community. Thanks.

[applause]

And again, this question involves the

comprehensive land use plan,

neighborhood character, and feedback

going forward on house res and so forth.

>> Yeah, you have five minutes on this one.

>> Awesome. Sounds good. Um, so I just want

to start by saying, and this is sort of

an answer as well to the question about

public engagement, which I I I want to

address as well. The city of Ann Arbor,

unfortunately, has a track record of

having plenty of opportunities for

people to engage, having big, you know,

public forums, doing surveys online. But

public engagement has two sides. Side

one is listening

and side two is actually doing what the

people say. And unfortunately, the city

of Ann Arbor does the one side. They

give plenty of opportunities for you all

to give input, but then they don't

actually incorporate that input into the

plans that they come up with. What I

have seen time and time again is that

the city of Ann Arbor has deferred to

out of town, high-paid, overpriced

consultants to tell the community what

to believe rather than letting the

community's voice ring true and come

through to the halls of power. And

unfortunately, when a city is run like

that, the decisions that are made do not

reflect the wills of the the wishes of

the community. And that's a problem. My

understanding from the feedback that

I've gotten out in the community is that

a lot of people have concerns with how

the comprehensive land use plan came to

be, there's concerns because some

neighborhoods are not like the mayor is

describing. Some neighborhoods are being

contemplated to be transition areas that

would be five, seven stories buildings,

not the gentle density that he's talking

about. There are neighborhoods that are

going to be different approaches to this

and that is something that people had

feedback on and I don't believe that the

city truly listened to what a lot of

these people had to say. That's

important. I believe in democratizing

density. I believe that we need more

space in this community for people to

live. I believe that what democratizing

density means first and foremost is

empowering the community to have a voice

at the decision-making table. That you

remember I won my first election by one

vote. That means the people run the

city. You are the ones in charge.

So powerful lights. [laughter]

You are the ones in charge. So

democratizing density first and foremost

means let's ask the community what they

want. It also means empowering the

community with the tools that they need

to build density in their own

neighborhoods. There's plenty of

examples of how this city of Ann Arbor

has actually impeded the densification

of our communities. There's a prime

example right over in my parents

neighborhood where one of the neighbors

wanted to build an accessory dwelling

unit in their backyard. He wanted to put

a basement on the accessory dwelling

unit because his daughter has special

needs and he needed to put the utilities

in the basement. The city denied the

request because he couldn't have a

basement on his ADU. That seems like a

frivolous rule that the city doesn't

need to put in place and that they're

putting in place to hamper the

development of more density in our

community. That so they're sort of

talking out of both sides of their

mouth. This is a problem. But at the end

of the day, one of the things we have to

remember is if your goal is

affordability, which is my goal, the

whole reason I'm running is to create

affordability in this community. When

they pass the comprehensive land use

plan, what was said is by m Mr. Taylor

is that this plan will achieve

affordability in 20 to 30 years. In 30

years, I'm going to be 68 years old.

[laughter] In when I'm 68 years old, I'm

going to be looking back on the last 30

years thinking, "Wow, our community has

really gone in the wrong direction."

Because what we need now is affordable

housing today for the workers today that

are living in our community. Which is

why I'm proposing to build publicly

owned, permanently affordable housing

using revenue bonding to supercharge the

development of actual affordable

housing. If we want affordable housing,

we have to build affordable housing.

1,200 units is great. That's a start. I

was part actually of supporting many of

those units that the mayor is talking

about. I voted yes on many of them. But

the reality is that's not going to meet

the demand in our community. Building

luxury condos for the ultra wealthy is

not going to solve our housing crisis.

Trickle down housing doesn't work just

like trickle down economics doesn't

work. And a lot of the approach that I'm

hearing from the city leaders is cut cut

red tape. Get rid of the environmental

regulations, the labor standards, the

community engagement standards, the

design standards. Get rid of them. We

don't we don't need them. We don't want

the citizens to have to come to city

council. We want to go around city

council. We want to go around the

people's voice. Why are we doing that?

The the reason that that resonates with

me is because I served in Lancing with

the Republicans. And guess what their

argument is on how to develop the

economy? Cut red tape. It's the same

damn argument just repackaged

differently so that people who are more

on the progressive side of things think,

"Oh, this is something I want to do."

But that's not what they're actually

doing. They're rolling out the red

carpet for Wall Street to come to our

community and to make money. And at the

end of the day, if we care about this

community, we should be opening up more

density. We should be opening up more

opportunities for people to live, but

doing it in a way that is built from the

community up, not from Wall Street down.

[applause]

So our next question, it shares some

characteristics with the previous

question. Also, it was a lot of feedback

about housing. So um and also the five

minute response time. So Joe, you'll do

the two minutes and that and then just a

reminder, we want to focus on our own

each candidate's own attributes, not

going back and forth. But um this

question is um Arbor faces severe

housing crisis for below median earners.

The impact of much of the new

development is higher cost luxury

buildings and there's a debate about how

much that affects affordability. What

policies or incentives will you champion

to ensure the creation of housing

available to working-class individuals?

I think.

>> Yeah. So, I touched on this a little bit

with my earlier comments, but we need to

supercharge the investment on affordable

housing in our community, affordable and

attainable housing in our community. And

the way that I'm proposing to do that,

by the way, there are already revenue

sources that, you know, are being used

by the city. I think that's great. We

need to keep using those. But what we're

not using as much is this what I'm

talking about, which is revenue bonding,

which basically says we borrow money,

but instead it doesn't increase taxes.

It doesn't take money out of the city's

funds. it marries the borrowing of money

to the actual project in question so

that then the revenue is paid back by

the project that we're funding. And what

that means is yes, you're going to have

to have uh rents at a variety of income

scales to help to make sure that that

payback can can work. But that's

actually a good thing from a social

perspective to have people of different

economic backgrounds living in in a

similar situation. What I'd like to

build is three main top main uh buckets

of housing. One is I want to supercharge

the expansion of the housing commission

so that we are building more uh rental

units that are owned by the people of

this community through the housing

commission. Second, I want to build

cooperatives. I'm also a former co-oper.

I served on the board of the inter

cooperative council and I want to build

co-ops in this community like we have a

tradition of building in this community.

It's just a lot of the co-ops that we

have were funded by federal dollars and

those federal dollars only stipulated

that they had to be affordable for 40

years. that 40 years went up and now a

lot of those are unaffordable. If we

keep co-ops publicly owned and

permanently affordable, then we have

that permanent affordability into the

future. So, I believe in the cooperative

model because it engages the people that

live there in the decision-making

process of how their housing uh moves

forward. The third bucket is land trust.

I love what the Ann Arbor Community Land

Trust is doing. I voted yes on their

proposal uh to build more community land

trust, but I also believe that the city

has a role to play in building land

trust using city properties and that

city revenue bonding. Land trusts

essentially allow you to build a home

that is uh sold at a reduced undermarket

value and instead of increasing with the

market rate once the person buys it, it

is capped in terms of the value of the

house so that when the next person buys

the house uh the they're buying it at uh

that capped rate so it's affordable for

the next person as well. I want to see

the city invest in all three of these

areas. Uh and I'm excited about pushing

this forward because uh really it's

about focusing on again on on the like

what problems are we trying to solve,

right? If the problem that we're trying

to solve is affordability in our

community, then we have to address that

problem. We have to build affordable

housing in our community and we have to

do it frankly 1,200 units is not enough.

We need to do way better than that and

we can do that and we we shouldn't think

of this as a limitation. We can do it.

We have the resources to do it. And the

argument that oh we can't do it. We

don't have the money. We don't want to

do this. We don't it's it's not reality.

In in the 1930s when FDR was the

president and the Great Depression was

just ending, the government put in place

some really cool things that allow for

government to do big things just like

the FDR administration did to help save

the economy, to help build people out of

the Great Depression. And guess what

folks? We are in the middle of a great

depression for the working class. It may

not feel like a great depression because

the wealthiest.1% of America have more

wealth than the rest of us combined

almost. If you see that separation of

wealth inequality in this country, you

will know that those of us on the bottom

end of the income scale are suffering.

We are struggling to make ends meet,

struggling to pay the bills. Whether

it's DTE, whether it's water bills,

whether it's our taxes, whether it's our

rent, people are struggling to get by.

We are in a great depression and now is

the time for government to do big things

to make big investments to build the

bottom up because part of this fight

that I want to talk about in

affordability is not just a fight about

housing. It's not just a fight about

costs. It is a fight about wages. And we

are in a community right now. If you

look around, our city workers have not

been with a contract since January. They

haven't gotten a raise in two years. Our

bus drivers are without a contract. Our

school teachers are without a contract.

Our nurses thankfully just got a TA, but

they're still struggling.

Our public sector workers are not being

paid. Their pay is not keeping up with

the rate that it costs to live in this

community. As mayor of Ann Arbor, one of

the things that I've been criticized for

is showing up to too many rallies. I go

to too many ICE protests, too many no

kings rallies, too many union rallies.

Guess what? I'm going to keep doing that

as mayor of Ann Arbor. And you can walk

and chew gum because I also have a long

[applause and cheering] list of

accomplishments of things that I've done

in my 16 years in office that I am proud

of. I have been able to accomplish a lot

for this community and I still show up

when the community gathers downtown to

protest or when the unions gather to

demand better wages and benefits. I'm

there for both them and I'm there for

you behind the dis when we are voting on

important stuff. So you can do both. And

I plan to be a mayor that's fighting for

the working class of this community to

get paid what they are owed so that they

can live in this community too. It's

about housing. It's about costs and it's

about wages. Thank you. [applause]

This involves um policies incentives to

help build more housing available

working less incomes and middle incomes.

>> Okay. Uh thank you. So uh a fair bit

The notorious conservative Ezra Klene

observed that we have an abundance

problem.

We have an abundance problem because we

do as progressives, as Democrats,

because we put too many obstacles in

people's way to actually get things

done. We are working in city hall to fix

that.

We know that we have a housing

affordability crisis in our city. We are

working within our means, within our

abilities.

Stepping back a little bit, um there is

nothing more reality based than service

as mayor, than local government. There

is room for aspiration. There's need for

aspiration.

But this is where the rubber hits the

road. This is where the the Excel sheet

has to add up.

If it doesn't,

your community is in trouble.

So, taking revenue bonds for example,

taking the massive expansion of the

housing commission, taking the uh the

propagation of co-ops and co-ops

everywhere. Co-ops are incredible.

They're awesome. We have some amazing

co-ops in our city uh for students and

for permanent residents. They're also

all were funded during the Johnson and

Nixon and Carter administrations because

there were particular programs focused

on allowing that. And as with so many

things from the Nixon, Carter and

Johnson administration, those things are

they do not exist anymore.

Doesn't exist.

With respect to the great work being

done by our housing commission, our

housing commission is doing

transformational work right now. 1,200

units of new permanent affordable

housing. This is realitybased

and we are being a we are paying for it

within our means. We are of course

utilizing the rents that people pay

which are income calibrated. We're using

the millage dollars that you have

granted us. [laughter]

We're working with our partners at the

state and elsewhere to get this done. If

you listen to our housing commission

staff, the leaders of our housing

commission staff,

they're not asking,

telling us how they can do more. They're

saying we are doing what we can with

what we have. And until you talk about

getting more dollars in, this is what we

can do.

This is transformational, but this is

what we can do. And that's what that's

what we're working on. I'll also say

that

if you listen to our experts in

affordable housing, and I suggest that

you do, our experts in affordable

housing will say all housing is good.

All housing contributes to housing

affordability.

This is the way that you know we do not

live in a command economy. We live in a

market economy.

And you know despite the ravages and

miseries of latestage capitalism. That's

what that's what we are dealing with.

And our affordable housing experts will

tell you that all housing is good. All

housing expansion, housing supply leads

to lower prices for everyone. This is

what they say

and this is what's actually happening in

the city of Ann Arbor. Rents in the city

of Ann Arbor are decreasing.

Rents in the city of Ann Arbor are

decreasing because we have allowed more

housing.

They're not decreasing far enough.

They're not decreasing fast enough, but

they are decreasing. And this this is

extremely good. And this is a positive

that we are working to expand further by

allowing more housing.

As far as our workers go, I will yield

to no one in my praise and my admiration

and gratitude for our city workers.

But it takes two to get a contract.

and our with respect to ASME their

business agent made it very clear in

word and deed that getting a contract

done on time was not a priority

and further the bargaining group stuck

for months

on their demand for a 40% increase in w

in wages over the last over the next

three years 40% 12 on 12 in addition to

other economic terms I love our workers

I want them to have a fair contract. We

are working on a fair contract, but it

has to be sustainable. We can't borrow

for expenses. We can't borrow for

operations.

We have to make sure that any contract

we sign with this union is going to be a

model for others.

[applause]

>> So, now we're

toward the end. Um, and I think we with

the rock paper scissors. I think we uh

Christopher won's you wanted to go last.

>> That is what I said.

>> Yes. Okay. All right. Um,

>> does that mean you two?

>> I think that's right away.

>> We're doing closing.

>> Yeah. So, okay.

>> Just basically we like to share with the

audience any party message and to

summarize why you feel you're the right

choice for our community. So,

>> could you repeat that?

>> I'm sorry. Yeah. Um, just a quick wrap

up. We're asking the candidates to

summarize why they're the best choice

for an, you know, closing closing

remarks.

>> I just want to start by addressing a few

things that were said because I think

it's important. The comment about our

unions that have been negotiating for

contact 12% 12% 12%. I work in the labor

space. This is how negotiating works is

you come in with a big ask and you

negotiate down. So to sort of admonish

our working people in Ann Arbor for

coming in and asking for something that

they felt was appropriate is wrong quite

frankly. And to add on to that, uh I

found out recently that the reason that

they asked for 12% off the bat is

because that's what the administrator

got. So if it's good enough for the

people on top, why is it not good enough

for the rest of the organization? And I

think unfortunately that's the way that

this [applause] group has been running

for far too long is putting all the eggs

at the top of the income at at the top

of the scale. The people that are the

administrative staff, the people that

are the consultants and not paying

enough attention to the people on the

ground who are actually making our city

work, not paying enough attention to the

people of our community. When I launched

this campaign, I said, why are we

spending millions of dollars on

consultants when we have the 100,000

plus residents of our community? You are

the consultants. You are the people that

we should be putting at the

decision-making table. You are the

people who pay the taxes, who pay the

rent. You are the people that make this

city what it is. We would not be Ann

Arbor and government cannot function but

for the power of the people. And the

whole point of my candidacy, the whole

reason that I wanted to run is to put

power back in the hands of the people of

this community. to put power back in the

hands of the working people, the middle

class people, the seniors, the students

of this community who are struggling to

get by on a day-to-day basis. If you

like what I've said here today, I hope

that you'll join our campaign. I hope

that you will go to my website at

votussef.com. I hope that you'll grab a

yard sign on your way out, and I hope

that you will most importantly vote for

me today or any day until August 4th.

Thank you so much for having me. It's

been a pleasure. Thank you to the

organizers and let's go. Power to the

people. Thank you. [applause]

So, first off, uh uh again, thank you

for the moderation. Thank you for

joining us today on a on a cloudy but

beautiful day. Uh

I'm so excited about the work that we

can do here in the city of Van Arbor.

That's why I am running for reelection.

The project of local government

is to improve basic services and enhance

quality of life for you the residents

who live here today to prepare the

groundwork for folks who will come after

us. That's our task. With respect to Ann

Arbor going forward, we have a couple of

different things that I'll be focus I

hope to focus on affordability first and

foremost. We're going to expand

affordable housing, 1,200 units of new

permanent affordable housing. We're

going to expand renters rights. We're

going to expand housing supply so that

our trades people can live here, our

teachers can live here, our nurses can

live here, our city workers can live

here. We're going to make sure that

renters are protected. Going forward

too, we have basic work that we need to

do. We've invested $220 million in our

roads over the last four years.

Unprecedented investment, unprecedented

improvements, and we are not done. You

may have seen that there's a little

construction going on. We're going to

continue. The roads need fixing. You

cannot fix the roads without fixing the

roads. And we are committed to doing

that. Additionally,

I am so excited about the basic, boring,

beautiful work of local government.

We're going to be picking up the trash,

police fire showing up, recycling,

recycling, composting, composted,

elections, free and fair, parks,

beautiful, well-maintained, close to

everyone. This is what we're doing as a

community. This is what your local

government ought to be focusing on for

you in the messy, unpleasant, but

beautiful, imperfect world that we all

inhabit. I am excited about that work.

I'm excited about doing that work with

you and I hope that they have the

opportunity to continue that work over

the next four years. And so between now

and August 4th, I very much hope to have

your support. Thanks everybody.

[applause]

I want to thank for coming up here

putting yourselves out [applause] there.

A lot of people don't necessarily

appreciate even as a extrovert like me.

It takes a lot of strength to stand up

in front of a room of people and speak

your truth. So, can we get just a loud

round of warm? [applause]

And I did have a request from a board

member if we could get a photo of the

four of us. You two mind?

>> Yeah, sure.

>> So, we'll just stand in the middle and

there you go. Yeah, there you go.

>> Who's the camera?

>> Have a chance to talk.

>> Thank you both. I really appreciate it.

Thank you.