NANCY KAPLAN, A current member of the Ann Arbor District Library Board of Trustees, recently launched a run for Ann Arbor City Council to represent Ward 2. Kaplan, a retired physical therapist, was elected to the AADL Board of Trustees in 2010 and again in 2012.

Nancy Kaplan has lived in Ann Arbor for 37 years with her husband Harvey. For many years she taught adult education in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti and retired for a job as the director of the physical therapy department at Glacier Hills Retirement Community.

When asked why she’s running, Nancy Kaplan says, “I didn’t like the idea of an uncontested primary election.”

Kaplan’s opponent for the open seat being vacated by first-term Council member Sally Hart Petersen as she runs for mayor, is fellow Democrat Kirk Westphal. In his November 2013 bid for a seat on City Council, Westphal tried to unseat independent Jane Lumm.  However, Westphal managed to capture just 41 percent of the vote despite endorsements from a wide range of Democratic pols, including Representative John Dingell, Jr. and Mayor John Hieftje.

Lumm, a former Republican candidate for mayor in 2002, raised well over $20,000 for her 2013 re-election. She enjoyed bipartisan support and won with 59 percent of the vote.

Nancy Kaplan sent out a press release about her candidacy that included a somewhat predictable statement about what she would focus on, if elected: “People expect their council member to take their concerns seriously and go to bat for them at city hall. That’s what I’ll do,” she wrote.

During a phone interview, Nancy Kaplan went further into detail about her desire to serve on City Council in a city that is in the midst of political upheaval thanks to voters who are less willing to support pols who push tax hikes and re-elect incumbents whom they blame for crumbling roads.

“This is a really important election,” said Kaplan, “there so much at stake. We’re going to have to decide what kind of city we want, what kind of development, which kinds of services we value.”

Over the course of the past three years, voters have replaced Council candidates strongly allied with what has been dubbed the Maximum Growth Party. Those on City Council who have voted in support controversial development projects that have encroached on neighborhoods which encircle downtown have found themselves targeted by neighborhood activists.

A city-wide coalition of these neighborhood activists has worked together to help elect candidates to local office who favor funding services, such as leaf collection—discontinued to save money—police, fire and customer service.

Ward 1 Council member Sumi Kailasapathy, Ward 2 Council member Jane Lumm, Ward 4 Council member Jack Eaton and Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin have all campaigned for local office with the support of the neighborhood coalition members.

Prior to her announcement, Nancy Kaplan spent several weeks quietly exploring the possibility of a run for Council by meeting with current City Council members.

“I sat down with Jack (Eaton),” says Kaplan.

Eaton has said he is “thrilled” that Nancy Kaplan has decided to run for City Council.

While Nancy Kaplan may be running her first campaign for City Council, she is well-versed in the issues that have come to the forefront during most City Council campaigns during the past 36 months.

She has been producer-host for “Other Perspectives,” a talk show about local issues on Ann Arbor’s Community Television Network. Episodes of her show have focused on many of the issues she hopes to address if elected.

Kaplan says her priorities are well-staffed police and fire departments.

Kirk Westphal, a member of the Ann Arbor Planning Commission, frequently refers to the need to make “disciplined, data-driven” decisions and has said that decisions to increase funding for emergency services should be made based on available data.

On his web site Westphal says:

 

“Prioritize public safety” is a popular campaign slogan, but what do the words mean? Of course, local government has to keep us safe. If the goal is keeping our community on the list of the 10 safest communities in Michigan, for example, and we’ve achieved that, should we spend more on public safety?

 

Former Ward 2 Council member Joan Lowenstein, who supported Westphal in 2013, argues for a less autonomatronic approach to decision-making. She writes in a February 2014 entry on her personal blog, “A Better City”: “Whether it’s the transportation millage, a new building, or crosswalk improvements, be wary of those who rely solely on statistics. It takes social conscience to figure some of these things out. Read up on all the facts and figures, but then feel the love.”

Ward 2 Council member Lumm, who would be Kaplan’s Council colleague, has done just that in her efforts to reallocate funding to rebuild the city’s safety services which Westphal admits have been “cut back fairly drastically over the past decade.” In response to one of Lumm’s resolutions to increase funding for safety services, her proposal was defeated by her Democratic colleagues on Council.

Nancy Kaplan also says she wants to see Ann Arbor have well-maintained streets. She joins several recently-elected Council members in pushing for city streets to be repaired and resurfaced.

While City Administrator Steve Powers recently told local media that the harsh winter is responsible for the large number of potholes and crumbling surfaces, data from Ann Arbor’s street resurfacing program reveal that from 2005-2012 just 37 miles of city streets were resurfaced.

In 2009, Ann Arbor ranked third out of 1,800 municipalities in the state with 189 miles of roads in poor condition. Overall, 55 percent of Ann Arbor’s 342 miles of federal-aid qualified roads were deemed poor, the report shows.

Critics argue that John Hieftje and candidates whom he backs, including Kirk Westphal, concern themselves with development rather than the city’s infrastructure.

As a member of the Planning Commission, Kirk Westphal has supported several development projects that have enraged neighborhood residents. One of those was a proposed high-rise to be built at 413 E. Huron.

Nancy Kaplan points out that she didn’t support the 413 E. Huron high-rise.

“I think the City Council should have voted against it. The community was speaking out loudly, I thought, about their feelings about that building and the damage they thought it was going to do.”

Kaplan added: “What that means to me is we listen to the community and what they want.”

As a library trustee, Kaplan refused to support a resolution against the creation of a downtown park on the public-owned Library Lot parcel on Fifth Avenue. The Library Green Conservancy, a citizen group, has been working for the past several years to convince City Council to create a central park atop the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage, much like San Francisco’s Union Square park.

In discussing how she hopes to work collegially with all of the members of Council, including whomever is elected mayor in 2014, Nancy Kaplan said in an email, “When people know each other on a personal level, it is easier to work on both issues of agreement and disagreement. I would want to get to know the mayor by sharing, for example, regular and frequent coffee times.  The social aspect builds a relationship.

One can understand the others point of view and vote in disagreement while allowing that it is an issue of the topic. Moreover, a relationship allows room for persuasion and the possibility of changing someone’s position and producing an effective compromise.”