A COMMITTEE CALLING itself Partners For Transit (PFT) filed papers to register with Washtenaw County’s Elections Division in 2010; the date the committee was formed is listed on the Statement of Organization as November 18, 2009. The registered address was the Michigan Suburbs Alliance whose director is Washtenaw County Commissioner Conan Smith.

The designated record keeper was newly-elected Ann Arbor state representative Jeff Irwin. The listed purpose of Partners For Transit was to support transit funding in Washtenaw County. This committee asked for a campaign finance waiver, because Smith and Irwin did not expect to raise more than $1,000 in any calendar year.

Shortly after the February 2014 vote of the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (AAATA) Board to ask for a tax hike to pay for a transportation enhancement plan, an amended statement of organization was filed for Partners For Transit (Partners4Transit.org). The names of both Conan Smith and Rep. Irwin were replaced with those of Carmencita Princen and Carolyn Grawi, respectively.

Ms. Princen is a former librarian and currently an executive secretary at the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan. Carolyn Grawi is the Director of Advocacy and Education at the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. PFT’s amended statement also indicated the committee expects to raise more than $1,000.

Under Smith and Irwin, PFT used its website and electronic newsletters to lobby the public to support the AATA’s failed $500 million county-wide transit proposal spearheaded and by Mayor John Hieftje and supported by the AATA Board.

PFT is now being rebranded.

The PFT website suggests a coalition of human service and faith-based nonprofits has come together to lobby the public to pass a tax hike to pay for a proposed “urban core” bus system that would include Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township. This is from PFT website:

Partners for Transit is a coalition of community leaders, religious leaders, environmental activists, local professionals, business leaders, students, and motivated residents dedicated to the improvement of public transportation in Washtenaw County. The steering committee consists of the Ecology Center, Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living, NAACP Ypsi-Willow Run Branch, Michigan Suburbs Alliance, and Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice.

Shilling For The Millage

However, opponents have raised questions about the re-branding of PFT and whether the coalition is actually as broad-based as the group’s website suggests. Opponents have raised concerns that the Ecology Center is “shilling for the millage,” as one critic called it. Such concerns are based on a variety of information and facts.

Between July 2010 and July 2013, the Ecology Center received $148,210 from the City of Ann Arbor. During that same period Ecology Center subsidiary Recycle Ann Arbor received $5.7 million from city coffers under the auspices of a 10-year no bid contract defended by John Hieftje.

The Ecology Center sent out a March 2013 ECOLINK to its members: “Although the case for improved transit is overwhelming, both environmentally and economically, the issue is not a slam dunk, according to Monica Patel, policy specialist at the Ecology Center. ‘Without strong public support, we could see service cuts instead of improvements.’”

Patel goes on to write: “The Ecology Center is working with Partners for Transit—including the Interfaith Center for Peace and Justice, the NAACP Ypsilanti-Willow Run branch, the Michigan Suburbs Alliance and the Center for Independent Living, which serves people with disabilities—to build support for the plan.”

A former County Commissioner suggested that AAATA could funnel money to the PFT Committee through donations to coalition members.

Terry Gallagher is the Communications Director for the Ecology Center. Gallagher wrote in an email that the only funds the Ecology Center has received from AAATA in 2013 came in the form of the purchase of a table at the Ecology Center’s annual dinner. Funds from the dinner “provide general support for the organization.”

The Partners4Transit.org website contact is Martha Valadez, a part-time Transit Organizer for the Ecology Center. Her email is an address at the Ecology Center. However, Valadez is not listed in the Ecology Center’s directory of staff.

When asked if any AAATA funds had paid for Ms. Valadez’s work for Partners For Transit, Terry Gallagher said, “Martha Valadez’s work has not been funded by any funds from AAATA.”

If the involvement of the Ecology Center with PFT is raising red flags, the involvement of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice (ICPJ) is causing even more consternation.

ICPJ, like the Ecology Center, is listed as a member of the Partners For Transit “steering committee.” Ward 5 City Council member Chuck Warpehoski is the ICPJ’s executive director.

“As Council members we oversee AAATA. His wife works for AAATA. What Chuck is doing with his non-profit is a serious conflict of interest,” said one Council member. “Either Chuck doesn’t know better, he’s under pressure from John [Hieftje] or he just doesn’t care.”

According to its most recent tax filing with the IRS the ICPJ brought in $110,373 in revenue and spent $109,511—$88,161 of which went to salaries and benefits, including a $32,937 salary to Warpehoski.

Warpehoski’s wife, Nancy Shore, works for the getDowntown alternative transit program. The bulk of the funding for the getDowntown program comes from AAATA and Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor Independent filed a Freedom of Information Act request to get financial information about the getDowntown program.

Council member Warpehoski is running for re-election and was supported in 2012 by John Hieftje, Conan Smith, Jeff Irwin and donations from many of Hieftje’s political appointees.

Coalition Endorsers With Connections 

Several of the groups listed as PFT “steering committee” members, as well as endorsers come from the tight-knit community populated by political supporters, donors and appointees with connections to John Hieftje. Endorsers include:

• AnnArbor350. This  is a subsidiary of the Ecology Center, though not identified as such on the Partners For Transit site.
• The Michigan League of Conservation Voters. The group’s director Lisa Wozniak has donated to Hieftje’s campaigns, and the group’s endorsements of Hieftje have helped soften the political blow of repeated endorsement snubs by the Michigan Sierra  Club.
• The Aut Bar and Common Language book store are listed as endorsers. The businesses are operated in part by Keith Orr, whom John Hieftje appointed to the Board of the Downtown Development Authority in 2008.
• The Michigan Suburbs Alliance is overseen by Conan Smith and that organization receives six-figure membership dues payments from county coffers each year.
• Wake Up Washtenaw!, a website launched to advocate for “Sustainable, Transit-Oriented Development for Washtenaw County, Michigan,” is listed as a Partners For Transit coalition endorser.

Dr. Laurence Krieg is an enthusiastic supporter of sustainability and alternative transit  who lives in Ypsilanti. He serves on the AAATA Board. WakeUpWashtenaw.org lists Dr. Krieg’s email address as the only contact. Whois registration information shows Dr. Krieg as the site’s registrant and administrator.

The Wake Up Washtenaw and  Partners For Transit websites don’t identify Dr. Krieg as a member of the AAATA Board of Directors.

Dr. Krieg responded to emails asking about the WakeUpWashtenaw “endorsement,” but refused to comment on whether he believed his membership on the AAATA Board ought to be made clear on the PFT site.