Ward 1 Council Candidates Go Head-to-Head: Bannister vs. Frenzel

by Dave Alexander

This year, Ann Arbor CTN has produced short (2-3 minute) videos in which all the candidates running in the Aug. 8 Democratic primary election have a chance to introduce themselves and their campaigns to Ann Arbor voters. The videos, produced by CTN staff, allowed candidates to make use of a teleprompter. Candidates took advantage of multiple takes to be able to offer up to voters finished campaign videos with high production values.

In Ward 1, Anne Bannister and Jason Frenzel are running in the Democratic primary election. The winner may face Jeffrey Hayner, who pulled nominating petitions to run as an Independent in the Nov. 2017 general election. Candidates for City Council must collect the signatures of 100 registered voters in their respective wards and the signatures must be verified by the Ann Arbor City Clerk, Jackie Beaudry. Hayner has not yet turned in his signed petitions to the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s office.

This is Anne Bannister’s first campaign for City Council.

According to her campaign website, Bannister served as a Ward 1 Precinct Delegate, and has helped candidates run for local, state-wide and national office. She was now Democratic State Rep. Yousef Rabhi’s campaign treasurer while he was a County Commissioner. In 2014, she served as Dave DeVarti’s treasurer in his successful campaign for Washtenaw Community College – Board of Trustees. Her political experience also includes eight years as a Board member of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party.

Anne Bannister was instrumental in exposing her Ann Arbor Democratic Party co-chair Michael Henry’s unauthorized withdrawl and misuse of thousands of dollars in club funds.

In her June 2017 interview with The Michigan Daily, Anne Bannister talked about her support of the deer cull (for environmental reasons): “It breaks my heart to have a cull, but it seems like the science is clear that we, as the thinking animals, have got the dirty job of managing.” She also discusses the city’s need for better pedestrian safety: “What we need is possibly to keep working on seeing where we need to slow the traffic, seeing where we need more rapidly-flashing lights, moving crosswalks to safer locations.”

In her video, Anne Bannister tells voters, “By fueling luxury development….we force many of our long-standing families and their children to move away.”

U.S. Census Bureau data published in 2000 and 2010 show that the percentage of children in Ann Arbor 18 years and younger dropped during that decade from 25 percent to 18.7 percent.

Bannister also tells voters in her video that Ann Arbor needs, “improved street lighting and enhanced pedestrian and bicycle safety. We need crosswalks to be more consistently marked, especially near schools and more police officers for targeted enforcement.”

“Our greatest threat is the Gelman dioxane plume,” says Bannister. She says she wants to clean up the “threat before it reaches over river and drinking water.” Bannister is not the only Council candidate to state that the plume is headed toward the city’s drinking water source. On his literature distributed to voters door-to-door, Ward 3 Council member Zachary Ackerman says he, too, wants to clean up the plume of 1,4 dioxane before it can reach the city’s drinking water.

City staff have repeatedly told Council members it is unknown if (or when) the plume will reach Barton Pond, the source of 80 percent of Ann Arbor’s drinking water. Larry Lemke is a hydrogeologist and director of the Environmental Science Program at Wayne State University. In May 2016, Lemke told the public (and media) at a meeting of the Coalition for Action on Remediation of Dioxane, “As far as 1,4-dioxane transport to the Huron River, it’s probably already there, and it’s going to persist for many decades to come.” Lemke went on to say, it was “unlikely” the dioxane would reach Barton Pond.

Bannister’s CTN video appears below:

Jason Frenzel ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2016 and was appointed to represent Ward 1 in 2017 by Council members to fill a vacancy. Six applicants, including Jeffrey Hayner, submitted applications in a competition for the appointment. Applicants were interviewed by Council during a public interview.

Frenzel’s video begins, “Because of my proven track record of leadership and my grasp of issues facing our city, I was selected to fill the seat vacated by long-time Council member Sabra Briere.”

Frenzel, prior to his appointment to Council, held no positions on any city board, committee or commission sat on the Environmental Commission. For the past 16 years he has worked as a volunteer coordinator with the City of Ann Arbor Parks Dept. (NAP), then as a volunteer coordinator (stewardship coordinator) for the Huron River Watershed Council.

In the video, Jason Frenzel tells voters that his “first priority is Ann Arbor’s efforts on climate change.” In an July 6, 2017 interview published by The Michigan Daily (“Substitute City Council member Jason Frenzel for Ward 1 seeks election”) Jason Frenzel says, “…one of his main goals will be to find greater financial support for climate action plans –– the issue he says is dearest to his heart.”

In May 2017, Frenzel voted in favor of a failed Ann Arbor 2018 budget amendment which would have reallocated money to fund a new Downtown Development Authority (DDA) communications staff member to a program to fund solar panel installation on the city’s parking structures. Frenzel’s mother, Sandi Smith, has been a member of the Ann Arbor DDA Board since 2004.

On his campaign website, however, Frenzel lists as his first priority “Core Services.” He writes, “In response to a slower economy, the City has become more efficient, but some service cuts went too far. As the economy improves, we must be judicious about restoring services. First and foremost, we need to focus on basic services, infrastructure, and safety.”

The Michigan Daily July 6 article also quotes the Ward 1 Council member as saying, “A number of us on council, myself especially, are more than happy to offer the resources needed to our police department to grow into being a stellar department.”

In May 2017, Frenzel voted against an amendment to Ann Arbor’s 2018 budget which would have reallocated funding in order to hire two additional police officers.

The Michigan Daily reported in its July 6 article on Frenzel’s vote in favor of the sale of the Library Lot to Core Spaces, a developer from Chicago. The Ward 1 candidate defended his yes vote to sell the public land on Fifth Ave.: “That while many opposed it, the public didn’t realize the degree to which other people supported it.” His statement was refuted by The Daily which reported, “A 2013 Park Advisory Commission survey, however, showed 76.2 percent of respondents thought Ann Arbor would benefit from more downtown open spaces, like a park or town square rather than a residential building, and 41.5 percent of respondents chose the Library Lot as the best place to build such a space.”

In his CTN video, Frenzel, who has served since Dec. 2017, says, “I’ve worked for years to make sure our city government is transparent and easy to traverse.”

City records show that since Dec. 2016 Jason Frenzel has co-sponsored 16 resolutions and no ordinances. Among his resolutions is his most recent non-binding “resolution of intent.” That resolution, which he co-sponsored with two other Council members who are seeking re-election, laid out a plan to fund Ann Arbor’s climate action goals by using money raised by a county-wide millage to fund public safety and mental health services. That proposed millage has yet to be placed on the Nov. 2017 ballot by the Washtenaw Board of Commissioners.

The Ward 1 Council member’s first resolution in Dec. 2016 was, “Resolution to Extend the Working Timeframe of the Medical Marijuana Ordinance Review Committee.” Four of his 16 resolutions involve appointments of residents to various boards and commissions. None of the remaining dozen resolutions Jason Frenzel has co-sponsored involve improvements in governmental operations or governmental transparency.

The lone 2017 Ann Arbor city budget amendment co-sponsored by Frenzel would have defunded the deer cull in order to fund Ann Arbor’s climate action goals. The proposal failed 8-3.

Frenzel’s CTN video appears below:

When he ran in 2016 and lost, his campaign finance forms filed with the Washtenaw County Clerk show Jason Frenzel raised $9,760 in cash and $4,560 in in-kind contributions. About half of the cash and in-kind donations Frenzel received came from residents outside Ward 1, including from Jaime Magiera, who is currently running for the second time in the Ward 4 Democratic primary election.

Bannister’s campaign finance information will be submitted to the Washtenaw County Clerk in late-July at which time those details will become available to the public.