In Ward 5, Ali Ramlawi Defends His Seat on Council Against Marketing Executive Backed by Mayor

by P.D. Lesko

Ali Ramlawi was elected in 2018 to represent Ward 5 on Ann Arbor City Council. He defeated incumbent Chuck Warpehoski. Ramlawi’s campaign website says he’s running for re-election “because I continue to believe that an independent voice on council is vital for our community’s interests and goals.” Incumbent Ali Ramlawi, who has lived in Ann Arbor since Sept. 2001, was the first Arab-American elected to Ann Arbor City Council.

Council member Ramlawi, the owner of local downtown restaurant Jerusalem Garden, has sponsored or co-sponsored 100 resolutions in his time in office; city records show that virtually all of Ramlawi’s resolutions have passed. To put Ramlawi’s record into perspective, Ward 5 Council member Erica Briggs (D), after almost two years in office has sponsored 34 resolutions, approximately one-third of which have been symbolic (i.e. Resolution Accepting the Results of the 2020 November Elections and Recognizing President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris). Ward 2 Council member Linh Song (D) who, like Briggs was elected in 2020, has sponsored just 22 resolutions to date.

Among Ramlawi’s 100 resolutions are these:

• Resolution for the City of Ann Arbor to Gather and Communicate Information on Programs Supporting Low and Moderate-Income Mortgages to City Employees and Residents (2022) [passed]
• Resolution to Begin Discussions with University of Michigan (U-M) of Net-Zero Affordable, Sustainable Workforce Housing (2022) [passed]
• Resolution Directing the City Attorney to Review City Ordinances Relating to Police Enforcement (2021) [passed]
• Resolution to Approve a Waiver of Late Penalty Charges for 2020 Tax Payments in Response to the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic (2020) [passed]
• Resolution to Approve Ann Arbor Housing Commission Eviction Prevention and Emergency Response Request for Assistance and Appropriate $200,000.00 (2020) [passed]
• Resolution to Order Election, Approve Charter Amendment of the Ann Arbor City Charter Sections to Establish Non-Partisan Nomination and Election for the Offices of Mayor and Council and Determine Ballot Language for this Amendment (2020) [vetoed]
• Resolution Directing City Administrator to Take Steps to Organize Meeting with State-Lawsuit Intervenors to Explore Requesting Environmental Protection Agency’s Active Involvement with the Gelman Site and its Listing as a “Superfund” Site (2019) [passed]
• Resolution in Support of Creating a Plan to Achieve Ann Arbor Community-Wide Climate Neutrality by 2030 (2019) [passed]

Ramlawi’s opponent, Jenn Cornell Queen (running as Jenn Cornell), is the former director of marketing and communications at Ann Arbor SPARK. She left SPARK in 2021 after announcing her candidacy. Cornell is a part-time small business owner and has been a Board member of the Ann Arbor Ecology Center since 2015. According to the non-profit Ecology Center’s most recent 990 income tax return, Cornell is the Vice President of the 15-member Board of Directors.

On her campaign website, Cornell says she has a passion for the environment. In addition, she has said, “I want our community to be reflective of our values.”

Ramlawi’s campaign website lists priorities that reflect his environmental work on Council: 1,4 Dioxane Plume cleanup, support of climate action as well as A2Zero. Cornell’s campaign website lists no environmental priorities or achievements, just “core values,” none of which touch on the environmental challenges facing the City, climate action or A2Zero.

Cornell has lived in Ann Arbor for two decades, has positioned herself as wanting to bring “progressive” values to City Council and to make Ann Arbor “welcoming for all,” without specifics.

Over the past two decades, under the leadership of two long-serving Democratic mayors (Hieftje and Taylor) and a majority Democratic City Council, an increasingly gentrified Ann Arbor has lost almost one-third of its Black residents and the median income has risen over 100 percent to $88,000. Over the same period in the U.S., the average median wage rose from $42,000 to $53,000 annually.

Cornell has said she thinks there’s a lack of respect in conversations around the council table and she wants to restore “dignity and have civil debates” about ideas. “We don’t always have to agree, but can we work together to find a solution?” she said. “That’s what I see lacking.”

The majority of her opponent’s 100 resolutions have passed, with most having passed unanimously. That being said, Ramlawi has been testy with, and sarcastic to, his equally testy and sarcastic Council colleagues, in particular Ward 3 Council member Julie Grand (D).

In 2020, Grand threatened Ramlawi (“We can find common ground or I can become a seek-and-destroy missile“). In 2021, Ramlawi said at a Council meeting he feels like he’s “under a dark, toxic, political cloud” and that Council is a “hostile work atmosphere.”

In 2021, Council rules were changed to hold council members accountable for personal attacks. The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the rules put forward by Jen Eyer (D-Ward 4), Taylor and Grand as a violation of Council members’ free speech. Then, the same trio proposed (and their Council allies adopted) rules dictating behavior.

Cornell and Ward 4 challenger Dharma Akmon both complain there is a lack of collegiality on Council. Akmon was recently publicly criticized for sending out a “misleading” campaign mailer that was anything but collegial. Critics of the two women say they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of open debate and political disagreement within democracy.

Ward 1 Council member Lisa Disch teaches political science at U-M. She said, “We [Council members] are quibbling over little things, and the fact that it has gotten as hostile as it is, is literally a result of this resentment that anyone dare disagree.”

Council’s own Rules require members to interact with each other respectfully. The Mayor, as meeting facilitator, is charged with enforcing those Rules, rather than individual Council members. Council members have complained publicly and bitterly that the Mayor is a poor facilitator who either can’t or simply won’t enforce Council Rules. Ward 2 Council member Kathy Griswold (D) spearheaded an unsuccessful effort to bring in a professional facilitator to help Council members use meeting time more productively.

Cornell is openly opposed to fulfilling the mandate given local government in 2018 by voters who cast their ballots in favor of Proposal A–making the Library Lot into green space/park. A majority of Ann Arbor voters approved the 2018 ballot question to create a downtown park next to the Main Library.

Cornell has said she “wants to get more meaningful feedback from stakeholders on the block.”

“Would it be wonderful to have a park downtown? Yes. But is that really what we need there in that location?” said Cornell.

Yet, on her campaign website, Cornell says she’s running because “leading with dignity and community” mean “green spaces where people can come together and children can play.”

When Ramlawi ran in 2018, he supported Proposal A–the 2018 Library Lot Park ballot question. In 2018 Ramlawi said: “I think there is a need for a downtown park. There’s been a lot of growth and development downtown and there should be a break from the ‘concrete world’ in the downtown.”

Among Ramlawi’s 100 resolutions is this one:

Resolution Directing the City Administrator to Develop an Interim Plan for the Use of the Library Lot to Support Community Activities (2019) [passed].

Elected officials allied with Mayor Taylor have dragged their feet in open opposition to the voter mandate of creating a downtown park. Like Taylor, Cornell claims there is no money to fulfill the wishes of the voters.

“There are real challenges to the site. Obviously everybody knows that there’s not funding to activate it in the way that was conceived of,” said the Ward 5 challenger.

Cornell’s assertions betray a fundamental lack of understanding of how city staff plan for capital improvements, and how staff request Council’s approval and funding for capital improvements, including for parks.

For example, the City’s Greenbelt Millage requires the expenditure of 1/3 of the funds on parkland acquisition within the city limits. The 2021-2027 City’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes $1.4 billion in city staff wish list projects. The CIP’s Parks and Recreation projects include “Urban Park/Plaza Improvements.” City staff have budgeted $175,000 to maintain and improve Liberty Plaza. The absence of the Library Lot in this section of the CIP is a deliberate, politically-motivated effort to make it appear as though there is “no money” to develop the small Library Lot parcel into a park.

The first endorser on Cornell’s short list is Christopher Taylor.

Cornell is also endorsed by Chuck Warpehoski, whom Ramlawi defeated in 2018, and Ward 4 Council member Jen Eyer. Eyer was a strategist and spokesperson for the anti-park group that lined up in opposition to the 2018 Proposal A Library Lot park ballot initiative. Cornell is also endorsed by Ward 2 Council member Linh Song. Song, along with U-M regent Mark Bernstein, donated around 80 percent of the money for the anti-Proposal A group (Protect Our Future: Voters for a Responsible Ann Arbor).

Ramlawi has no endorsers listed on his campaign website.

Voters will decide between Ramlawi and Cornell on August 2. Click here to locate your polling place.