UPDATED: Ward 5 Council Member Faces Questions From Public & Council Members About His Ethics
Please note: This article was updated with a correction and a comment from Ward 2 Council member Sally Hart Petersen.
WARD 5 COUNCIL member Chuck Warpehoski is facing questions from both the public, as well as his Council colleagues concerning his open support of the AAATA’s May 6 transit millage ballot proposal. The Council member’s wife, Nancy Shore, is employed by the AAATA as a public relations manager. According to documents released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, all of Ms. Shore’s salary comes from AAATA-controlled sources. Virtually all of the money for the getDowntown program, which employs Ms. Shore, is controlled by the AAATA.
Ward 5 City Council member Mike Anglin makes no secret of the fact that he believes Warpehoski is crossing an ethical line.
“AAATA supports their family, and he’s out there pushing for AAATA to have more funding. How is that appropriate?” asked Anglin of his Ward 5 colleague.
Not only is Council member Warpehoski openly supporting AAATA’s $22 million five-year millage proposal, he recently sent out an email in his capacity as the Executive Director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) which states that the organization is “setting aside” projects to focus its energies and resources on the AAATA millage drive.
“He’s not only talking up the millage himself, he’s using his non-profit to do it, as well,” said Anglin.
IRS regulations permit 501(c)3 non-profits such as the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice to openly lobby on behalf of ballot questions.
However, because the ICPJ is a small nonprofit—its gross revenue over the past three years has not surpassed $120,000—the ICPJ is Chuck Warpehoski, along with a Board of Directors and a community of volunteers.
It was one of those volunteers who forwarded The Ann Arbor Independent Warpehoski’s email announcing the decision that the ICPJ would set aside current peace and justice projects to focus on the transit millage. The volunteer, who has been involved with ICPJ on a variety of committees and projects, was angered by the email.
“This is not right,” the volunteer wrote in an email. “The ICPJ is being used in a way that doesn’t serve the core community it’s supposed to serve.”
While Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin was willing to comment on the record, other Council members refused to comment.
In specific, mayoral candidates Sabra Briere and Sally Hart Petersen did not respond to an email asking them to comment on whether Warpehoski’s support of the AAATA millage—in light of his wife’s employment situation—created an ethical dilemma.
Mayoral Candidates Pitch Ethics Policies
Ward 2 Council member Petersen is the latest in a string of City Council members (all of whom are running for mayor in 2014) who’ve told the public City Council needs an ethics policy. In November 2013, Petersen sponsored a resolution that directed an educational effort on Public Act 317 of 1968—the state’s conflict-of-interest statute.
Council member Petersen’s resolution directed the council’s rules committee to draft standards of conduct for local officials based on Public Act 196 of 1973.
While it has been five months since her resolution passed, Council member Petersen said in an email: “Since November, City Attorney Postema has updated me several times regarding his work to develop the training program in consultation with Carla Miller of Cityethics.org. Council Rules will begin reviewing this week, and the training for Council is now planned for the June 9th work session.”
Ward 3 Council member Stephen Kunselman, in response to The Ann Arbor Independent’s questions about a possible conflict for Warpehoski replied, “No comment.”
Four years prior to Petersen’s 2013 attempt, Kunselman ran for re-election and hammered his opponent for alleged ethical lapses. Kunselman promised to “restore integrity” to City Council and to create an ethics policy for City Council. The Ward 3 Democrat never kept that campaign promise.
In November 2009, Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor—caught up in the 2009 email scandal that triggered an Open Meeting Act lawsuit which the city settled— publicly called for an ethics policy for City Council.
In a November 28, 2009 email to his constituents, Taylor wrote: “CONFLICT OF INTEREST / ETHICS POLICY. The City Council does not have a formal Conflict of Interest / Ethics Policy. The presence of a reasonable, rigorous policy is a part of good government. In view of my legal training and my seat on the Council Rules Committee, I am working to develop such a policy and look forward to working with my colleagues and members of the public to bring it to fruition.”
Taylor never worked with either his colleagues or convened a public task force to bring an ethics policy “to fruition.”
Public Blasts Ward 5 Council Member For Ethical Lapse
Alan Goldsmith, a Ward 4 resident, is partially responsible for the disintegration of 14-year City Council incumbent Marcia Higgins’s political career. For months prior to and during Higgins’s re-election campaign, Goldsmith posted dozens of comments in response to AnnArbor.com stories by reporter Ryan Stanton. In his comments, Goldsmith repeatedly alleged that Higgins had the worst attendance record on City Council. He urged AnnArbor.com to “do your job” and investigate Higgins’s attendance record.
Weeks before the August 2013 Democratic primary election, AnnArbor.com posted a piece titled, “Marcia Higgins facing criticism for missing Ann Arbor City Council meetings.” In that piece, it was revealed that “Higgins was at least partially absent for roughly one-third of all meetings reviewed.”
Former Council member Higgins claimed to he media her meeting attendance was not a problem. She went on to lose the primary election by a 2 to 1 margin.
In response to the news that Ward 5 resident Leon Bryson had pulled nominating petitions to run against Council member Chuck Warpehoski, Alan Goldsmith is once again pushing Ryan Stanton and his news site to look more closely at a Council member’s actions.
In response to a March 27 article posted to the Ann Arbor News website Goldsmith writes, “‘Warpehoski, who prides himself on thinking independently’…If you define ‘thinking independently’ as being in lockstep with the Mayor, the DDA and AATA then yes. Lol. So are you getting any questions about Warpehoski’s conflict of interest with his spouse’s position and how he dodged that?”
Warpehoski is not the first politico to try to steer public money, if only indirectly. In New York, a local paper marvelled at that city’s Council members’ “chicanery.” A Brooklyn Democrat was revealed to have steered $187,000 in taxpayer money to a nonprofit run by his wife.
The Indy contacted Council member Warpehoski for a comment, but he did not reply.
Folks, if you are waiting for Chris Taylor to introduce some hard-hitting ethics ordinance I am afraid that you will be sorely disappointed. In a door-to-door meeting with Taylor, he stated that he did not think that Hieftje’s votes benefiting his employer the University of Michigan violated any ethical standards.
Even though he is a lawyer, Taylor seems to have a very narrow view of the phrase ‘conflict of interest’, either through careful legal analysis, or simply because it is convenient for him to ignore its meaning. Judges recuse themselves in cases where they hold small stock shares in large corporations like GM, even though their resulting opinions are unlikely to cause them large financial harm.
Heiftje’s family was employed as ‘at will’ employees of the UM with the majority of their income dependent upon the good graces of UM and its deanlets. David Samson is under investigation by the NY Feds for voting on proposals that benefited clients of his law firm, a situation where the benefiting parties are, unlike the mayor’s situation, one step removed from his direct profit.
To believe an elected official can cast a vote benefiting (or even not) his employer without a violation of the clear meaning of ‘conflict of interest’ can only be interpreted as Taylor believing that the UM differs in that it is a beneficent entity whose interests always coincide with those of the citizens of Ann Arbor. Of course, this is only an extrapolation; Taylor needs to make his views clearer.
Can he extend this argument to his law firm or does this differ in some way from the UM? If not, it would mean that Taylor as mayor of Ann Arbor believes it is not a conflict for him to vote on proposals directly benefiting his law firm or family, nor after becoming a judge, sitting in cases affecting his relatives.
In the absence of an ethics ordinance I would like to see if the candidates for the upcoming election agree with this bizarre view of conflict of interest.
Thanks for sharing this. I think you’re spot on that mayoral candidates should be asked where they stand on this issue. In addition, I think it’s fair to hold accountable those who made promises in the past and did nothing.
Correction: “Alan Goldsmith, a doctor and Ward 5 resident…”
I am in the 4th Ward and while I work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, I’m not a doctor. Thanks.