by P.D. Lesko

It’s February, and in another 60 days or so those in the mood to run for mayor and City Council as Democrats or Republicans will have gone to the City Clerk’s office and taken out petitions. Those running as Independents have until August 2012 to turn in nominating petitions. City Council candidates must gather 100 signatures from registered voters in the Ward in which the candidate wishes to run. Mayoral candidates are expected to gather a minimum of 250 signatures—50 from each of Ann Arbor’s 5 Wards. It’s a relatively low bar to get one’s name on the ballot, yet every year for the past half a dozen, incumbents for city and county elected offices have run unopposed. In Ann Arbor, according to the City Clerk’s Office, one of the city’s Wards has yet to produce a challenger to the incumbent, and in two Wards the incumbents have not yet taken out nominating petitions.

Contrast this to the city of Detroit. There, in 2009, some 95 candidates ran for 9 City Council seats. There were also 72 write-in candidates. In Detroit, Council members serve 4-year terms and according to a February 2011 study by the Pew Research Trust, “Detroit’s council consumes 1.01 percent of city general-fund spending, the largest among the cities studied.” Los Angeles has the highest average salaries for council members, $178,789, and San Antonio has the lowest, a maximum of only $1,400 per member, one-tenth of what Ann Arbor City Council members earn. San Antonio, Texas has a population of 1.3 million residents, while Ann Arbor is home to 40,000 U of M student residents, and 70,000 non-student residents.

In Ann Arbor, there is one part-time Council member for every 11,000 residents. In the U.S., the average is 1 full-time council member for every 34,000 residents meaning, perhaps, that the size of Ann Arbor’s City Council could be halved without significantly impacting the quality of the representation. The total cost to taxpayers per council seat in Ann Arbor is in the range of $35,000, plus staff time, of course, which is not accurately reflected in the city’s operating budget. While it’s tempting to say you get what you pay for, it’s also clear that spending exponentially more on council members doesn’t produce better overall leadership or results. In Detroit, each member of that city council costs taxpayers $1.5 million dollars.

If Ann Arbor fielded, per seat, as many candidates as did the city of Detroit, something along the lines of 18 candidates per seat would run (including write-ins). Exclude write-ins and the number of candidates with their names on the ballot would be a more manageable 9 per Ward.

As of February 8, 2012, the following individuals had taken out petitions to run for office on the 2012 August/November ballots:

Mayor: John Hieftje

Ward 1: None

Ward 2 Tony Derezinski, Sally (Sarah) Hart Petersen

Ward 3: Christopher Taylor

Ward 4: Margie Teall

Ward 5: Stuart Berry

Individuals must return their petitions to the City Clerk’s office so that the signatures of the registered voters may be verified. To play it safe, most candidates gather an additional 20-30 signatures. Signatures of individuals who sign more than one nominating petition for a city council race are thrown out. This happened in 2010, and almost resulted in incumbent Carsten Hohnke coming up short signatures. Some candidates gather most all of their own signatures. A look at the nominating petitions turned in by the candidates revealed that in 2011, 5th Ward challenger Neil Elyakin and his wife gathered virtually all of the necessary signatures in just a few days before the submission deadline. Conversely, Third Ward challenger Ingrid Ault had former City Council member Jean Carlberg out collecting signatures for her. Ault, like Elyakin enjoyed the backing of John Hieftje and others in the political machine that seeks to control politics in the city, but both were soundly defeated by the incumbents.

Those who play insider baseball may, perhaps, be surprised to see that Fourth Ward Council member Margie Teall has taken out nominating petitions. There has been a persistent rumor circulating that Teall will not seek re-election. It could, of course, be a sly attempt to make potential challengers believe that there is plenty of time to fritter away before organizing a campaign. It could also be that should the Hieftje/Gunn crowd be unable to find a suitable crony to run for Teall’s seat, Teall will step back in and run, her petitions signed. When Teall was challenged in 2010, Ann Arbor County Commissioner Leah Gunn headed Teall’s campaign, and she was afforded significant behind-the-scenes help from former Third Ward Council member Leigh Greden.

Since being tossed out of office by voters in response to an email scandal in which Greden was revealed to have been playing on Facebook, indulging in vote-rigging and generally acting unprofessionally during open Council meetings, he has worked steadfastly behind the scenes helping his former Council colleagues with their campaigns. It was Greden who counted up former Second Ward Council member Stephen Rapundalo’s vote tally in November 2011, and who was reported as being “dejected” at Rapundalo’s loss to Independent candidate Jane Lumm.

The other persistent rumor that has been circulating is that First Ward Council member Sandi Smith is not planning to seek re-election. Smith has not yet taken out nominating petitions, though she has several months left to do so. Her departure, should the rumors prove to be true, leaves the First Ward with an open seat. There is no doubt that Hieftje and his crowd will recruit a candidate, as he recruited Smith and walked door-to-door with her in 2010 when she faced a stiff challenge from Sumi Kailasapathy.

Republican Stuart Berry ran for City Council in the 2011. He was beaten by Democrat Mike Anglin. Ward 5 voters, overwhelmingly Democratic, would be highly unlikely to elect Berry to represent them. The Washtenaw County Republicans have been urging members to run in local elections, but providing little support to those candidates who have been, generally, underfunded, under-informed on the important issues facing the city, and not well-organized.

There are at least three other candidates whom A2Politico has heard from who have said they are planning to run for local office in 2012. We’ll write more about individual candidates in future posts.