by P.D. Lesko

Ward 5 City Council candidate Chuck Warpehoski lists his job as the Executive Director of the tiny Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice on his City Council campaign web site as “community service.” It’s obvious that he’s trying to bulk up his political cred. Trying to pass off his paid, full-time job as a “donation” to the community is not exactly a smooth move, but it is certainly not the most egregious stretcher told by Hieftje and candidates backed by the Hieftje Hive Mind Collective. Scott Rosencrans, then a member of the city’s Parks Advisory Commission (PAC), ran against Councilman Mike Anglin in 2009. Rosencrans went door-to-door claiming that Anglin had a terrible attendance record, and that he (Rosencrans) had sat across from Anglin’s “empty seat” at PAC meetings. Anglin’s campaign, using attendance records for PAC and Council meetings archived on the city’s web site, showed that Rosencrans was deliberately misleading voters. It was the beginning of the end for Rosencrans. He went on to be beaten soundly in the primary election, and to step down from PAC.

In late April 2012 Warpehoski (pictured left) got nominating petitions from the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s office to run for City Council from Ward 5. On AnnArbor.com there was a flurry of speculation concerning whether he’d been recruited by Hieftje and departing Fifth Ward Council member Carsten Hohnke. One commenter on AA.com brought up possible conflicts: “Warpehoski is married to Nancy Shore, who is director of the getDowntown program, which is funded jointly through the AATA, the city of Ann Arbor and Downtown Development Authority. Another puppet head for the Mayor’s team. No thanks. I can smell the conflict of interest stink clear across town.”

In 2010 ICPJ took in a modest $120,326 dollars and spent the majority of the money on Warpehoski’s salary along with other various expenses. ICPJ is, in essence, a cottage industry that gives Warpehoski a platform to advocate for peace and social justice education.

And now Warpehoski is using ICPJ as a platform to advocate for transit and, indirectly, his City Council candidacy. In the June 2012 ICPJ newsletter, the ICPJ advocates for the transit plan John Hieftje and his cronies have been trying to drag, push and shove down the public’s throat. Prior to running for City Council Warpehoski published an op-ed dripping with sarcasm and disdain titled, “Three ways to kill improvements in public transit in Washtenaw County.” The piece begins: “Dear transit opponents, even though I’m on the other side of the issue from you, I’d like to offer some advice.”

Comments from readers took exception to Warpehoski’s tone:

“The dripping sarcasm of this op ed does nothing to promote healthy public discussion of the public transportation issue.”

“I know that this opinion is written from a sincere public-spirited conviction, but I regret its negative tone. Mr. Warpehoski should acknowledge that many of us who have raised concerns about the current plan to institute a new regional authority (under Act 196) and transfer AATA’s assets to it are, in fact, transit supporters, not transit opponents.”

There is fierce opposition to Hieftje’s transit plan on the part of the local Sierra Club, as well as from several citizen groups. The primary reason for the opposition is that according to a 2007 study released by city officials in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, six acres of fragile river-side parkland on Fuller Road have been targeted for development, first as a construction site for a 1,000 car parking garage for the University of Michigan, and now as a site for a taxpayer-funded train station for Amtrak. Hieftje’s scheme would make Ann Arbor the only city in Michigan that would draw heavily on local taxpayer money to build a train station for Amtrak.

One probable reason Warp supports Hieftje’s transit scheme is that Warpehoski’s wife, Nancy Shore, is the Program Director of the taxpayer funded getDowntown organization, a partnership between the Downtown Development Authority, AATA and the City of Ann Arbor that pushes, yep, transit. Shore’s pay comes from funding provided by all three organizations. Transit, literally, puts food on the table at the Warpehoski/Shore abode. It should, then, come as no great shock that Borg Queen Hieftje and the Hive Mind drones have thrown their support behind Warpehoski in the race for Ward 5 City Council seat. Furthermore, based on his AnnArbor.com opinion piece, Warpehoski could certainly be counted on to join the Collective and vote in favor of Hieftje’s scheme.

This month, shortly after being endorsed by John Hieftje, Warpehoski used the resources of the nonprofit where he works to further his political ambitions and plant a smooch on Hieftje’s political butter bell. In the June 2012 ICPJ Newsletter, Warp pens a front page feature titled “Moving Forward For Transit: Why We Need Expanded Transit and How We get There.” In that piece Fifth Ward City Council candidate Warpehoski writes: “Our elected officials need to take the steps to move forward to improve transit. City, county, village and township officials all have the ability to put roadblocks in front of the voters to stop us from getting the chance to vote for transit…..”

It’s not a problem for ICPJ to push transit. It’s a problem for Warpehoski to push transit using ICPJ resources. Here’s why: According to officials at the Alliance For Justice, “using the resources for a 501(c)3 to encourage voters to support a candidate who supports a ballot question (in this case a county-wide tax for transit) is forbidden under IRS rules and regulations.” Warpehoski is currently a candidate, and makes his position on the ballot question crystal clear in the piece he wrote for the ICPJ’s newsletter. In fact, transit is an important part of Warpehoski’s campaign platform.

A member of ICPJ took exception to Warpehoski trading on the name of ICPJ to push the transit plans of local politicos and business leaders. The member writes in an email sent to Warpehoski and shared with A2Politico:

Chuck,

I was genuinely aghast to open the June issue of ICPJ’s newsletter and see YOUR article advocating for the proposed expanded/county-wide/’regional’ transit system.

What are you?  NUTS?
(Or are you in the pay of, or otherwise acting as an agent for,  the DDA?)

Please consider meditating lonnnnng and HARD on these:
_  http://www.a2politico.com/2012/01/residents-say-no-go-to-mayors-plan-to-pay-for-county-wide-transit-plan-with-city-millage/ &
_ http://www.a2na.org/current-issues/transit .

In an email sent in response, Warpehoski writes, “I’ve been working on this issue for about four years now, starting with working with (former County Commish and now State Representative) Jeff Irwin.” Warpehoski goes on to explain, “As both an environmentalist and someone concerned about services for the disadvantaged, I am strongly committed to public transit. And no, I am not ‘in the pay’ of the DDA.”

Alas, Mr. Warpehoski most certainly is in the pay of DDA. The DDA provides annual generous grants to getDowntown where Nancy Shore, his wife, works as the Program Director.

Warpehoski’s email assurances did little to calm the ire of the ICPJ member who responds:

Chuck,

Ahhh, I just noticed that you’re running for city council. Yeah, that does explain a lot. You should have no trouble getting campaign funding from AA’s commercial/business community….Ya know, I have been (and will always be) a Democrat for my entire life, but I continue to be astonished at how ‘progressives’ STILL can’t seem to understand just how politically counterproductive and self-destructive is their robotic proclivity for SPENDING OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.

Separate from the macroeconomic _reality_ that “trickle-down, supply-side economics” is actually “deluge-up economics,” BE ASSURED that if Romney wins in November, it won’t simply be because upper and upper-middle class Americans vote their (short-term) economic interests.  (He can’t win on those votes alone).  It will also be because so many middle-middle and lower-middle class Americans continue to be fed-up with knee-jerk ‘progressives.’

In response to the April 23, 2012 piece posted to AnnArbor.com about Warpehoski’s entry into the Ward 5 City Coiuncil race, and speculation that Warpehoski was simply another drone wanna be for the Hieftje Hive Mind Collective, an anonymous poster defended Warpehoski: “Chuck wouldn’t be a puppet to anyone or anything except for his conscience. Saying that he’d be the mayor’s puppet shows no knowledge about the work of ICPJ.”

Any way you slice it, claiming that “Chuck wouldn’t be a puppet to anyone or anything except for his conscience. Saying that he’d be the mayor’s puppet shows no knowledge about the work of ICPJ,” is just classic smoke and mirrors to try to hide the fact that Warpehoski is already on board with one of Hieftje’s most expensive political schemes—the environment, Sierra Club, Huron River watershed, and taxpayers be damned. Warpehoski has accepted the endorsements of two founding members of the local transit “advocacy” group Partners For Transit, Representative Jeff Irwin and Conan Smith (husband of State Senator Rebekah Warren). He has also accepted the endorsements of Hieftje and Carsten Hohnke.

In response to whether the ICPJ supports Hieftje’s proposed transit plan, one ICPJ Board member who asked to remain anonymous responded via email to A2Politico’s questions about Warpehoski’s pitch for transit in the group’s newsletter: “To my knowledge the ICPJ Board as a group does not support the Mayor’s transit plan, or any other transit plan for that matter. The Board does not endorse candidates via the ICPJ Newsletter. That isn’t our mission. We focus on issues such as hunger, peace and justice. Speaking only for myself, I’m disappointed that the organization’s resources were used in this manner.”