New Ward 2 Council Member Jane Lumm Scores Spots on Powerful City Council Committees
by P.D. Lesko
City Council committee appointments are out, and it looks as though newly elected Second Ward Council member Jane Lumm worked some black magic to get herself spots on two of the most powerful Council committees.
For starters, Lumm got herself appointed to the Budget Committee. According to an August 2009 piece in the AnnArborChronicle.com, “When first established as such in December 2005, the council’s Budget and Labor Committee consisted of John Hieftje, Christopher Easthope, Leigh Greden, Marcia Higgins, and Joan Lowenstein.” Mao and his Gang of Four re-educated a billion people, but the Chinese Central Committee could take lessons on obfuscation and secrecy from the City Council’s Budget & Labor Committee. In 2009, Greden took a wicked political beating for decisions made while he served on the Budget & Labor Committee (the single committee has since been split). After Greden lost his Council seat and got only 35 percent of the total vote in a three way race, the first opportunity John Hieftje had, he removed himself from the Budget and Labor Committee. Margie Teall jumped ship, as well. Here’s a guess from A2Politico about why they did it.
For over a decade now, new Council members have been told (at least two Council members by City Attorney Stephen Postema) they were barred from meetings of the Budget & Labor Committee because six Council members would make (gasp) a quorum. That would necessitate an open meeting, agenda, and minutes.
Council members were also told that slots on the Budget & Labor Committee were doled out by seniority. Jane Lumm, then, should have had a snowball’s chance in Hell, Michigan of getting seats on both the Budget and Labor Committees—but she did it.
This year’s Budget Committee finally provides for the representation of every Ward’s residents. Council members on that Committee include include: Sabra Briere (Ward 1), Jane Lumm (Ward 2) and (sigh) Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), Mike Anglin (Ward 5), Marcia Higgins (Ward 4). Taylor, was of course, the Council member who earned a Weekly Whopper by understating the city’s overall debt by 50 percent or $250,000,000 in an open letter posted to AnnArbor.com.
The Council Labor Committee is still a problem, as Hieftje has stacked it with political cronies to, most likely, neutralize Lumm: the members include John Hieftje, Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Jane Lumm (Ward 2), Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Margie Teall (Ward 4). As you can see, the voters of Wards 5 and 3 are excluded by virtue of the fact their Council members are not present on the committee. Defeated Second Ward Council member Stephen Rapundalo chaired the Labor Committee, and even tried to mislead voters when he took credit on his campaign web site for negotiating contracts with the city’s unions (a fib he was forced to correct at a neighborhood candidate event when asked directly about his role in negotiations). It will be interesting to see who is politically naive enough to chair the Labor Committee this time around.
The best indication that the Hieftje Hive-Mind-Collective is determined to control the flow of information is the membership of the Council Administration Committee. I’ll tell you the members, and you figure out why Hieftje chose them: John Hieftje, Tony Derezenski (Ward 2), Christopher Taylor (Ward 3), Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Margie Teall (Ward 4). Need clues? No Mike Anglin, Stephen Kunselman, Sabra Briere or Jane Lumm. The Administration Committee sets the agenda for the meetings. There are no representatives from Wards 1 or 5 on this committee. No pesky Council members for whom Hieftje hasn’t campaigned and/or endorsed. In other words, the membership of the Administration should make it clear that Hieftje and his pals are still having trouble playing well with others.
The other indication that Hieftje and his friends simply can’t work well with others is evident by which Council members once again got stuck on the third-class committees that provide no opportunities for political mileage: Steve Kunselman got an appointment to be the City Nuisance Committee Liaison. Who’s the Housing Commission Liaison? Margie Teall. While Sabra Briere tries to figure out how to get political cred from sitting on the Housing Board of Appeals, Fifth Ward Council member Carsten Hohnke has nothing but committee and board appointments that he can convert into mileage in 2012 when he runs for re-election. Hohnke sits on the Environmental Commission, Greenbelt Advisory Commission, Student Relations Committee, and the Audit Committee.
It’s great news that Lumm, a fiscal watchdog, managed to get herself placed on the Budget and Labor Committees. Not only can we expect Lumm to be concerned with prudent management of the city’s finances, but she will also proactively work to go beyond the purely cosmetic changes made to the city’s Pension Ordinance recently in order to deal with the city’s $250,000,000 underfunded pension liability.
Michelle, Hohnke and Hieftje have teamed up to be the “green” team. This crazy pedestrian ordinance was their doing. Hohnke pushed the expansion of the Greenbelt – another topic I wish A2Politico would look into – and all of his committee assignments translate easily into political terms. While Steve K. may have asked for the Nuisance Committee, A2P is right that the average Joe has no idea what that is as opposed to the Environmental Commission. Blight is becoming such a big problem all over the city we need to thank Steve for volunteering to deal with it.
Good for Jane! I didn’t realize that the committees were not organized so that there was equal representation. It’s absolutely the right thing to have one Council member from each part of the city on the budget committee and the same is true for the labor committee and the administration committee. There’s obviously movement in this direction with more that needs to be done. Does anyone know why Carsten Hohnke seems to have gotten only plum committee jobs?
FYI – I asked to be assigned to the “City Nuisance Committee.” This is a inter-departmental staff administration committee that has not had a Council member liaison before. It is responsible for finding solutions associated with blighted properties; I have been disappointed with the committee’s inaction and lack of effort on dealing with abandoned homes that need to be addressed, many of which are in Ward 3. While not a high profile committee assignment, I hope to see the committee more responsive to the needs of the neighborhoods where these blighted properties have been neglected for too long by the city, and that’s what’s important to me and my constituents.
Sincerely, Stephen Kunselman
@Steve, and who better than you to deal with nuisances? 😉 My point, of course, is that while you have to explain what that committee does to folks who may not know, Carsten Hohnke simply lists “Environmental Commission” and floats along on the fauxgressive greencloud of feelgoodness. You took the tougher assignment, and should get more political credit. You won’t, however, and that’s a crying shame.