Mayoral Candidate Taylor: OMA Lawsuit, Poor Attendance Record on Council
Christopher Taylor: Campaigning as “collaborative”: Four current Council members endorsed against him.
POTENTIAL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: U-M employs Taylor’s wife, Eva Rosenwald, full-time. Accepted $4,000 campaign donation from U-M Regent Mark Bernstein ($2,000) and Bernstein’s wife ($2,000). Accepted multiple donations from local developers.
WITH THE EXCEPTION of Ward 2 Council member Sally Hart Petersen, the Council members who are running for mayor have spent six or more years in office. As a result, each has extensive voting, attendance and legislative records available to the public and the media. The candidates have participated in several candidate forums thus far, but those forums have not focused on their voting records or resolutions introduced. Rather, the questions have been general (“Who are you supporting for mayor?”).
The result has been a mayoral campaign that has been choc-a-bloc full of promises and short on strategies and plans. Of the four candidates, Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor’s campaign stands out among the rest as brazenly amnesiac with respect to the council member’s own behavior and job performance over the past half a dozen years.
The 2008 Ann Arbor News Endorsement
In 2008, Chris Taylor was recruited by political allies of the mayor to run against first-term Council member Stephen Kunselman. Council members’ emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests made by both the former Ann Arbor News as well as Ann Arbor citizens, revealed that there was frustration with Stephen Kunselman’s refusal to vote in lock-step with Hieftje and his allies. (There are 2,700 pages of the emails available here.)
The former Ann Arbor News 2008 endorsement cut down Council member Kunselman as a profane micro-manger whom the paper had endorsed two years earlier, but could no longer support.
The 2008 Ann Arbor News endorsement describes challenger Christopher Taylor as someone who “approaches the job in a professional, businesslike manner that will serve his constituents well and be a positive addition to council.”
In August 2008, Taylor handily defeated Kunselman.
An Open Meetings Act Lawsuit
Six months after Taylor took office, a scandal broke in which he was embroiled that made a mockery of the newspaper’s editorial judgement.
The former Ann Arbor News published a story about the “unprofessional and inappropriate” use of emailduring open meetings, an alleged violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act laws.
The former Ann Arbor News story revealed that Talyor was a willing participant, sending dozens of inappropriate emails during open meetings. The newspaper then published subsequent stories which concluded the emails sent by Council members during open meetings included “vote-rigging” and secret deliberations.
The city was forced to settle an Open Meetings Act lawsuit, a fact that has not come up in any of the half a dozen mayoral forums in which Council member Taylor has participated.
Unlike former Ward 3 Council member Leigh Greden and the city’s Mayor Pro Tempore, Ward 4 Council member Margie Teall, Christopher Taylor chose to fight with the newspaper about the substance and exact timing of his email messages. The newspaper printed apologies from both Teall and Greden, but not Christopher Taylor.
The 2014 Ann Arbor News endorsement states Christopher Taylor: “expresses satisfaction with the quality of life in the city and concerns about maintaining the historic character of the city, yet prioritizes the need to provide core city services – like public safety and maintaining streets and infrastructure.”
During the last budget cycle, records show Council member Taylor posed no questions about the city’s 300+ page 2014-2015 budget to city staff, proposed no resolutions to increase funding for police, fire, solid waste or parks, nor did he propose any budget amendments to increase the number of road lane miles scheduled to be resurfaced/rebuilt during 2014-2015.
While he promises to prioritize the need to provide core city services – like public safety and maintaining streets and infrastructure as he campaigns, his year track record shows a Council member who has consistently voted for budgets which reduced the number of police and firefighters.
Christopher Taylor Key Votes
$31M City Hall Bonds: Not on Council
42 North Maple development: Not on Council
$50M Fifth Avenue Underground Parking Garage: Voted Yes
$700,000 Dreiseitl public art water sculpture in front of City Hall: Voted Yes
Rezone Public Land (PL) for Transit: Voted Yes
Heritage Row development: Voted Yes
Lay-off Firefighters: Voted Yes
Reduce AAPD staff through attrition: Voted Yes
Outsource operations of Huron Hills Golf Course: Voted Yes
Increase time between mowings of city parks: Voted Yes
Lease Fuller Road parkland to U-M for parking garage/transit: Voted Yes
Restore Firefighters: Voted Yes (co-sponsor)
$150,000 public art sculpture inside City Hall: Voted Yes
Pedestrian Safety Ordinance: Voted Yes (co-sponsor)
$125,000 for Climate Action Plan: Voted Yes
$100,000 for warming center for homeless: Voted No
Restore leaf and holiday tree pickup: Voted No
Expand curbside compost collection year-round: Voted Yes
Campaign Finance (Click here to see records.)
As of the close of recordkeeping July 20, Chris Taylor had raised $75,698 in cash, plus $1,077 worth of in-kind contributions. Accepted largest donations from: legal, banking, real estate and U-M connected donors.
Taylor Key Legislation
2008/09:
Graffiti Ordinance (Fines property owners if graffiti is not removed)
Resolution to Initiate the Creation of a Business Improvement Zone for South Main Street Between Huron and William
Resolution to Approve a Business Improvement Zone and Zone Plan for South Main Street between Huron and William
2010
An Ordinance to Amend Section 1:17 of Chapter 1 (Adoption, Contents and Interpretation) of Title 1 of the Code of the City of Ann Arbor and to Add a New Section 9:7 to Chapter 106 (Nuisances – Ban on Upholstered Furniture Outdoors) (Front porch couch ban)
Resolution Instructing the City Administrator to Re-Energize DTE-Owned Streetlights and to Suspend Plans to De-Energize Additional DTE-Owned Streetlights (Taylor voted in favor of budget which called for shut-off of streetlights)
Resolution of Intent to Create a Joint Corridor Improvement Authority for Washtenaw Avenue (TIF district which diverts funding from local public schools to subsidize for private development)
2011
Resolution Authorizing that the Ann Arbor DDA Develop an Implementation Plan to Redevelop Downtown City-Owned Parcels (Gave appointed DDA officials authority to plan for the development of publicly-owned land downtown)
Resolution to Direct the City Administrator and City Attorney to Present Ordinance Amendments Changing the Retirement
Resolution Urging the Washtenaw County Commission to Renew Act 88 Economic Development Millage Benefit Package for New Non-Union Employee Hires (Act 88 millage is a tax imposed on county residents to, primarily, fund Ann Arbor SPARK)
An Ordinance to Amend Section 10:148 of Chapter 126, Traffic, Title X, of the Code of the City of Ann Arbor (Ordinance No. ORD-11-22) (Pedestrian crosswalk ordinance)
2012
An Ordinance to Amend Sections 4:58 and 4:59 of Chapter 49 (Sidewalks) of Title IV (Streets and Sidewalks) of the Code of the City Relative to Responsibility for the Repair of Adjacent Sidewalk (Ordinance No. ORD-12-20) (Sidewalk repair ordinance)
Resolution to Increase Fire Services Authorized Staffing Level (8 Votes Required)
Resolution to Order Election and to Determine Ballot Question for Charter Amendment for the 2013 Art in Public Places Millage (7 Votes Required) (Resolution to put a 1 mill tax increase on the ballot to pay for public art)
Resolution to Provide Local Match Funding for the Ann Arbor Station Project (8 Votes Required) (Allocation of money for Fuller Road train station not yet approved by voters)
2014
Resolution to Establish a Mechanism for Implementation of the Public Art Ordinance