Keeping Tabs—Locals to Watch In 2014: Yousef Rabhi

On a path where politics and principles meet. 

AT POLITICAL GATHERINGS, Washtenaw County Commissioner Yousef Rabhi is often the tallest man in the room and at 24-years-old, often the youngest. He is serving as the Chair of the BOC, one of four county commissioners elected by Ann Arbor voters.

His mother, Peggy Rabhi, is a long-time political activist who is just as likely to be sending out emails urging those on her list to action, as she is to be found going door-to-door circulating a petition or getting out the vote.

When the Board of Directors of local economic development boondoggle (say critics, including the media)/job creation engine (says Michigan’s governor) Ann Arbor SPARK decided to invite Rabhi to be a member of their Board of Directors, chances are good the others members never imagined he would press them to throw open their financial records to public scrutiny.

Not only did Yousef Rabhi insist Ann Arbor SPARK’s President and CEO Paul Krukto release the secretive group’s audit statements to the public, he did so in the face of resistance from fellow SPARK Board members—women and men twice and three times his age, people whose influence could make a future in politics rocky.

In addition, he urged County Commissioners to allocate economic development funds by tying the money to measurable goals. County Commish Rabhi is definitely a local to watch in 2014.