Three Ann Arbor Council Candidates Return Developer’s Money

by Patricia Lesko

Local real estate developer Dennis Dahlmann gave campaign donations to three candidates running for Ann Arbor City Council who have decided to return the developer’s money. The candidates, Anne Bannister (D) running in Ward 1, Stephen Kunselman (D) running in Ward 3 and Council member Jack Eaton (D-Ward 4) all returned Dahlmann’s donations because of the possibility that the developer will bring suit against the city related to his purchase of the city-owned old Y parking lot on Fifth Ave.

In a corrected/rewritten article published online by the Ann Arbor Observer in 2014, Dahlmann was incorrectly identified as the top donor to City Council campaigns in Ann Arbor. Campaign finance forms show that since 2011, half a dozen local developers and builders, DDA Board members, the owner of the Black Pearl restaurant on Main St., marijuana dispensary owners, as well as U-M Regent Mark Bernstein and his wife Rachel Bendit have donated more to individual members of a group of Council candidates allied with and endorsed by Mayor Chris Taylor than Dahlmann has to Council candidates.

Ward 5 candidate David Silkworth (D) did not receive a donation from Dahlmann.

On June 13, 2017, Dahlmann’s attorney Tom Wieder sent a seven-page letter to Ann’s Arbor mayor and City Council members in which the developer demanded the city repay him the $5.25 million he paid for the parking lot in April 2014, plus $400,000 in damages.

“There are a number of serious legal problems which warrant the complete unwinding of that transaction and returning the parties to their original positions,” Wieder alleged in the letter he sent.

Dahlmann, who is the life partner of Ann Arbor Observer co-owner and publisher Patricia Garcia, is one of several developers who donate to City Council candidate campaigns, according to campaign finance forms examined going back to 2010. The current maximum donation from an individual to a candidate for local office in Washtenaw County is $2,000. Prior to 2014, the maximum was $1,000.

Emails shared with The Ann Arbor Independent show the Ann Arbor Observer’s editor and co-owner John Hilton, as well as the tabloid’s freelance writer James Leonard, sent multiple emails to the City Council candidates against whom Mayor Chris Taylor has been actively campaigning (Jack Eaton, Anne Bannister, David Silkworth and Stephen Kunselman) demanding to know whether the candidates had accepted donations from Dahlmann and whether they intended to return Dahlmann’s donations made to them.

It’s not known whether the Observer’s co-owner/editor and writer asked Council incumbents Jason Frenzel, Zachary Ackerman or Chip Smith whether they intended to return donations from developers who may have donated money to their campaigns.

City Council candidate campaign finance disclosure forms are due to the Washtenaw County Clerk’s office in late-July.

The Ann Arbor Independent contacted Frenzel, Ackerman and Smith to ask whether the three intend to eschew donations from developers.

Dahlmann has donated to Council members Sumi Kailasapathy (D-Ward 1), Jane Lumm (I-Ward 2) and Jack Eaton. Stephen Kunselman served on City Council for four terms between 2006 and 2015. Campaign finance records show that while a Council member Kunselman accepted two $500 and two $1,000 donations from Dennis Dahlmann.

In 2010, 2012 and 2013 Dennis Dahlmann donated $500 to Eaton’s campaigns. In 2015, Dahlmann donated $1,500 to Eaton. In those four campaigns, Eaton raised a total of $27,585 for the primary elections. Campaign finance forms show that Dahlmann was the only developer to donate to Eaton between 2010-2015.

In her 2010 primary election campaign, Council member Kailasapathy did not receive a donation from Dahlmann. In 2012, Kailasapathy accepted $500 from Dahlmann. In 2014, she accepted $50 from developer Ed Shaffran, $500 from Dahlmann properties as well as $500 from Dahlmann’s attorney, Steven Zarnowitz. In 2016, Shaffran donated $95 to Kailasapathy’s campaign, developer Michael Martin of First Martin Properties donated $500 and Dahlmann properties donated $500. In those four primary campaigns,  the Ward 1 Council member raised $17,900.

Dahlmann is not the only real estate developer who donates to Council candidates:

• In 2016, Jeff Hauptman, owner of Oxford Companies, donated $600 to then-candidate Zachary Ackerman. Ackerman raised $8,990 in cash for his 2016 run for Council, $550 of which he donated to himself.

• When he ran and lost in the 2016 primary election, Ward 1 appointed Council member Jason Frenzel (D) accepted a $100 donation from real estate developer Peter Allen and Allen’s wife Sally as well as $500 from Jeff Hauptman. In 2016 Frenzel raised $9,760 in cash donations.

• Ward 5 Council member Chip Smith (D) primarily self-funded his 2013 write-in campaign. In 2015, when Smith ran in the Democratic primary election, he accepted $500 from Jeff Hauptman, $250 from Urban Group developer Daniel Ketlar and $250 from developer Alexander de Parry, President of Ann Arbor Builders. Smith raised $15,518 total, $5,271 which he donated to himself.

• In 2014, Christopher Taylor raised $77,248 for the four-way primary election. He accepted $200 from developer Ed Shaffran, $1,000 from developer Larry Nisson, $2,000 from Jeff Hauptman, and $1,000 from Alexander de Parry.

Ward 2 Council member Jane Lumm (I) raised $18,950 for her 2011 general election campaign. Of the over 200 donations from individuals, Lumm accepted a single $200 donation from a developer (Shaffran). In her 2013 general election, Lumm raised $20,875 from over 220 donors. She accepted $200 from Shaffran as well as $500 from Dennis Dahlmann. In her 2015 general election, Lumm raised $25,035 from almost 300 donors. She accepted a $200 donation from Shaffran and $1,000 from Dahlmann.