Playing the “Progressive Values” Card While Pushing ALEC-Inspired Scams & Parkland Development Schemes

by P.D. Lesko

Ward 2 Democratic City Council candidate Kirk Westphal moved to Ann Arbor in 2004 and in 2006 was appointed by John Hieftje to the city’s Planning Commission. It was, perhaps, another example of what one local politico identified as Hieftje’s habit of giving out board and commission appointments like candy, often to individuals whose main qualifications include supporting Hieftje’s schemes. Westphal, who combines videography, research and urban planning, was a student in Hieftje’s class at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Westphal’s thesis was a 19 minute video in which he “documents” the successful strategies implemented in the reclamation of downtown Ann Arbor from its status as a crumbling pile in the “70s and 80s.” Not everyone agrees with Westphal’s  analysis. According to just a few of the comments posted to AnnArbor.com stories about Ann Arbor’s downtown it is home to “mediocre, high-priced restaurants,” “outlandishly-priced parking,” “ugly high rises” and “way too many aggressive panhandlers.” There are no panhandlers in Westphal’s video, no pictures of the potholes and crumbling roads. It’s twinkling lights, retail and lots of people enjoying $7 coffees and $30 plates of “mediocre” food. It’s urban porn for political degenerates who just can’t seem to get excited about anything except downtown development.

In answering a handful of questions at the June 8th Ann Arbor Dems candidate forum, Westphal (right) demonstrated an ability to ever-so-earnestly launch personal attacks. In his opening statement, he slammed Ward 3 Council member Stephen Kunselman for using the “DDA as a political bludgeon.” Westphal, alas, didn’t continue his metaphor to its absurd conclusion and explain who—or what—Kunselman was using the Downtown Development Authority Board to pound into a political pulp. Then, Westphal, perhaps unclear that slamming Kunselman in public was a confrontation, agreed with Council member Sabra Briere’s virtually psychotic assertion that she works quietly behind the scenes with her Council pals Kunselman and Ward 5’s Mike Anglin. Briere and Westphal agreed that “quiet conversations” were better than “confrontation.”

Briere, of course, was recently outed by AnnArbor.com as plunging a knife into Steve Kunselman’s political back. A Freedom of Information Act request by AnnArbor.com caught Briere sending what she may have thought would be a series of behind-the-scenes emails to DDA Executive Director Susan Pollay about a resolution co-sponsored by Kunselman that calls for DDA Board members to be term-limited and for the DDA TIF tax capture to be slowed. In one email Briere writes to Pollay about Kunselman: “He thinks he’s the best person to challenge the mayor, because he’s passionate about ‘sticking it to him.’ In other words, making the mayor ultimately responsible for each and every problem. I don’t know what can be done to change any of this, but he loses ammunition when things are very transparent.”

While engaging in a quiet conversation about him via email, in public Briere voted in support of Kunselman’s efforts.

Ironically, just as did Ward 4 Council members Margie Teall and Marcia Higgins, along with former Ward 3 Council member Leigh Greden, who, when outed by the Ann Arbor News for sending nasty emails about Briere in 2008, Sabra Briere refused to apologize for her behavior. His unprofessional behavior via email cost Greden his Council seat in 2009. It was Stephen Kunselman who took it from him, angry that Greden had made unflattering remarks via email to Council colleagues about Kunselman’s mother. In an April 2013 interview with AnnArbor.com, Briere stood by her remarks about Kunselman and what she alleges are his purely political motivations for suggesting City Council might like to impose term limits on the members of the DDA Board.

Then, Kirk Westphal suggested that if there needs to be an “ethics policy” to deal with conflicts, “let’s appoint a committee and make one.”  When Kunselman ran in 2009 against Leigh Greden, Kunselman pounded Greden relentlessly for his serious ethical lapses in rigging votes via email and allegedly thwarting Open Meetings Act laws. Kunselman ran on the promise that he would craft an ethics policy, a promise he didn’t keep. This time around, Kunselman is selling himself as an “experienced, effective and ethical” leader. Westphal’s suggestion that Council craft an ethics policy was, perhaps, another swipe at Kunselman. It could also have been a suggestion that City Council needs an ethics policy, in which case it would be nice to hear why Westphal feels Council needs an ethics policy.

Westphal also took a potshot at his opponent, Ward 2 incumbent Jane Lumm (left), who was in attendance. Lumm, he said, “does not represent the progressive values” Westphal and his “Democratic friends” in Ward 2 would like to see represented by “that seat on Council.”

So which of these progressive values, exactly, has Lumm neglected to represent? Westphal didn’t elaborate. Think Progress not only identifies the need for “progressive values,” but identifies what those progressive values might be. In a March 2013 piece, Think Progress published “What It Means To Be A Progressive: A Manifesto.” We learn that the four pillars of progressive thinking include: freedom, opportunity, responsibility and cooperation. On responsibility, progressive values include:

“…Responsibility to others and to the common good requires a commitment to putting the public interest above the interests of a few and an understanding that strong families and communities are the foundation of a good society.  It means working to achieve greater social justice and economic conditions that benefit civil society broadly.  It demands an open and honest government and an engaged and participatory citizenry….”

In 2012, AnnArbor.com posted an interview with Council member Lumm. In it, she laments the fact that under John Hieftje information is “parsed out,” and Lumm talks about the difficulties she faces when pushing for open, honest government.

While Westphal’s 90 second opening statement at the June 8th Ann Arbor Dem event included twice mentioning he supports “the environment” and “art,” as a member of the Environmental Commission he never spoke out against the zoning of parkland for transit, or the proposed repurposing of fragile river front parkland on Fuller Road for a 900 car parking tower for the University of Michigan. In fact, shortly after it was reported he had decided to challenge Lumm, he was dubbed “Kirk Westphal: the tall downtown building candidate. The Fuller Road Station candidate” in a Tweet by former Washtenaw County Commish Vivienne Armentrout. In her Tweet Armentrout links to the AnnArbor.com article announcing Westphal’s candidacy.

One reason, perhaps, Westphal didn’t see any problem with using riverside parkland for parking is because he favors development of our city’s riverside parkland for commercial purposes. Ideas floated by Westphal have included a “paddle up microbrewery” or a restaurant located on parkland at Argo Pond. A city staffer pointed out that the Argo Pond spot suggested for commercial development by Westphal “near the Argo livery is located in a quiet residential area.” Any commercial development could, of course, require additional parking located on, yep, parkland. While Westphal was pushing to have the Planning Commission on which he serves once again take up the idea of commercial development of riverside parkland, Jane Lumm was crafting a resolution to strengthen the city’s Charter protection of parkland. Lumm’s proposal would have required city officials to bring proposed leases of parkland to the public for a vote.

Her efforts were defeated. The city’s Environmental Commission members, including Kirk Westphal, were mute on the subject. In 2011 Westphal helped craft a Parks and Recreation Open Space (PROS) plan which included this:

Section VI – Planning Process for the PROS Plan: In the section that summarizes feedback from the planning commission, these sentences were added: “Staff should explore all opportunities to generate revenue, including public/private partnerships. A balanced view must include all possible risks inherent with acceptance of private funding.” In the section regarding the Huron River Impoundment Management Plan (HRIMP), an explanation was added, noting that one of the plan’s consensus points was that certain types of limited commercial development should be encouraged along the Huron River, especially in the Argo/Broadway area.

Westphal, the self-proclaimed “progressive,” is in favor of commercial development of “the environment” he “supports,” while Lumm has presented resolutions to tighten Charter-mandated protections of the city’s parkland to thwart commercial development of parkland. Lumm worked to protect Huron Hills Golf Course from being sold, and from having its operations out-sourced to a Hieftje crony whom Hizzoner appointed to an advisory task force charged with figuring out how to best dispose of the rolling parkland. Kirk Westphal, neither in his position on the Planning Commission, nor in his position as a member of the Environmental Commission, spoke in defense (tip o’ the keyboard to Eppie Potts) of that parcel of parkland, either.

Finally, Westphal is up to his “progressive” neck in the ALEC-inspired public-private partnership model that is being pushed by local politicos and their other “fauxgressive friends” to enrich the 1 Percent with public funds pick-pocketed from unlucky 99 Percenters as we Reimagine Washtenaw. The grandiose development scheme includes long-term tax breaks for commercial, residential and mixed-use developments in the corridor, as well as the establishment a tax increment financing (TIF) district (akin to the mechanism that funds the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority) empowered to skim public money from our public schools, libraries, and county government to be used to provide hefty subsidies to private developers. It’s the same scam that Ward 4 Council member Marcia Higgins offered up as the greatest zoning idea ever to get the Georgetown Mall and Lower Town parcels redeveloped into mixed-use meccas. Lower Town is so leveraged with debt, Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin suggested recently, that the weed-filled 6 acre field will remain a haven for field mice and chicory for the foreseeable future.

Calling ALEC-inspired public-private partnerships progressive politics is a lot like calling date rape great sex. While Westphal pushes the public-private model as a model way to develop our parkland, and the best way to redevelop acres of private and 250 acres of public land along Washtenaw Avenue corridor, Lumm has repeatedly voted against the public-private partnership model.

Kirk Westphal’s assertion that Lumm has not represented “the progressive values” he and his “Democratic friends” would like to see represented on Council is Hieftje Hive Mind politics by the book. It’s the train wreck of a campaign Stephen Rapundalo ran against Jane Lumm. Lumm, a former Republican Council member who in 2011 ran as an Independent, supported by both name brand Democratic and Republican backers, has been a fly in John Hieftje’s political ointment since her campaign raised $20,000 and trounced Hive Mind drone Stephen Rapundalo. Lumm has confronted Hieftje about his propensity to launch public personal attacks against those whose opinions differ from his own. She asks questions, and has proposed numerous amendments to the city’s budgets to fund police, fire and citizen services—many of which have been voted down by her fellow Council members who are unclear on the “government provides services” model of politics.

In a recent interview, Westphal described himself as “strongly pro-environment, pro-transit, pro-alternative energy, and a strong Democrat. I hope to represent my ward in that capacity.”

Westphal’s support of regressive attempts to repurpose parkland and to develop parkland commercially, his support of taking tax dollars from schools and giving the money in the form of tax breaks to private developers, is not the record of a “strong Democrat,” or a politico with “progressive values.” Rather it’s the record of a drone in the Hieftje Hive Mind Collective. Kirk Westphal has a record that shows he is prepared to throw our parks under the bus. His support of putting the interest of the few—who want to redevelop Washtenaw Avenue through tax increment financing—ahead of the public’s right to expect tax dollars to be used for the public good, including public schools, parks and libraries, is not the record of a “strong Democrat.” It’s the record of a political opportunist trying to sell the development of parkland as pro-environment—which is exactly what John Hieftje has done for the past 10 years.

Jane Lumm, after submitting 200 signatures to run in 2011, described herself thusly in an interview: “Lumm said her priorities for council would be to add police and firefighter staffing and confront structural spending issues, such as trying to trim legacy costs and pursue consolidation opportunities. ‘In my view, I don’t think we’ve managed the fiscal challenges well.'” Her priorities fall squarely into what Think Progress tells us is the first pillar of progressive politics: “Responsibility to others and to the common good requires a commitment to putting the public interest above the interests of a few.”