001[Music] good evening my name is Trudy Adams and I am a member of the League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor area I welcome you to tonight's forum featuring candidates for Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners districts 2 & 7 the candidates will be on the ballot in the general election on Tuesday November 6th 2018 we are broadcasting from the studio's of CTN in Ann Arbor the League of Women Voters is pleased to sponsor these forums the league is a nonpartisan civic organization that encourages informed and active participation of all citizens in our government the league works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and seeks to strengthen and broaden knowledge about our form of government and democracy while the league does not support candidates or parties we do take stands on issues we
002have studied one of the league's most important goals is to assist voters and making informed choices at the polls and thus we bring you tonight's program our moderator this evening is Diane neering who will explain the format format and get us started thanks Trudy it's my honor the first thing to do is introduce the candidates the first candidate is Kevin Jardine he is running in district 2 the next candidate is sue shank she is also running in district 2 and Andy lebar number 3 is running in district 7 Joe Marin re was invited but was unable to come tonight he is also on the ballot for district 7 the format will be as follows each candidate will have an opening statement of up to one minute each candidate will have a closing statement of up
003to 90 seconds I will ask the question once and these questions have been submitted by the community of the Washtenaw County community each candidate will have 90 seconds to respond the timers Ellen Lafferty and Chris some Samhita thank you sorry Chris our timers for this evening they will be holding up their petals indicating the remaining time and then at the end of the time they will hold up a stop sign and I'm asking the candidates to please stop when indicated so that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate the order of the speaker was determined by a drawing before we began and the candidates are seated in order of that draw we're going to keep things simple an opening statement we'll start with candidate number one the first question will also be candidate number one
004and the closing statement will be candidate number one and there is a very good logic behind this which I will try not to explain to you right I am going to ask Kevin the first question for each candidate will be I'm asking specifically about your district and the rest of the questions will be countywide questions so mr. Jardine Oh an opening statement sorry thank you that's why Trudy's here we will have opening statements first mr. Jardine your opening statement yes thank you very much I'd like to start by thanking the League of Women Voters and also CTN for hosting this event my name is Kevin Jardine and I'm running for County Commissioner district 2 the district in corporate encompasses generally just the the north side of the county I've been a lifelong resident of Washtenaw
005County and graduated from high school at Ann Arbor here on high school best high school here and you know a lot of things have been concerning me about about the community about various aspects of it and my parents have always told me from a young age and so as my church that you need to get involved a community you need to give back and that's why I got into politics to begin with was to to serve and to give back to my community and hopefully as your next County Commissioner I can fulfill that role in community thank you miss shake hi my name is sue Schenk and I'm running for County Commissioner in district 2 I'm running for County Commissioner because I love Washtenaw County I love the quality of life that we enjoy here
006and I want to do everything that I can to promote and protect that quality of life I have been working to preserve open space and farmland for many years and will continue to do so in capacity as Washington County Commissioner I will work very hard and have actually begun working very hard to make sure that all the people of our district and County have the resources they need I will promote small businesses I will be accessible and accountable and I will work hard for you I'm an attorney with a degree in resource policy and analysis and I've served as a Northfield Township Trustee I've served on the board of the Huron River watershed Council I chair the Washtenaw County agricultural lands preservation advisory committee I chair my Township land preservation committee I participate in my
007Historical Society and I will continue working hard for you as a Washington County Commissioner Thank You mr. lebar hi there my name is Andy lebar I am the incumbent County Commissioner for district seven I want to thank the League of Women Voters for holding these forums and for the sober approachable way you do it I appreciate that I've had the honor to represent district seven since I was elected in 2012 and began serving in 2013 this is now my third two-year term on the board and I've been privileged these last two years to serve as chair of the board of the Washington County Board of Commissioners my district is the east side of Ann Arbor District seven primarily on the board I try and focus largely on human service issues as well as the county's
008fiscal picture generally and try always to be an advocate for my district and a voice for my district to the county rather than a voice to the county back to the district I'm excited to be here tonight and thank you again for hosting the forum thank you and now we will go to the first question and this is going to be district specific questions mr. Jardine what are the main and very unique challenges facing your district within the county and if elected how do you plan to address these challenges real question challenging challenging problems for the district that we have right now are really roads in our education right now our roads are most of the roads unless a district are actually all gravel and dirt roads that are not very well kept up and
009on the rest of the roads are not very well maintained either so one of the initiatives that I would like to get going is to actually put better quality materials in with the roads to actually have longer-lasting roads yes it costs more but it costs less money in the long run rather than having to repave roads over and over and secondly the educational system that we have right now in in the rest of the county outside of Ann Arbor is really the funds are being misappropriated and and disproportionately appropriated to where most of the funding is going toward Ann Arbor Public Schools and it's it's very very evidently in in most of the other schools that there's a high concentration of students to to teachers and there's also lower amounts of recess resources to where
010they're having to cut various curricula like the arts and the music programs in various schools and these are things that I would like to take a look at in to try and fix thank you thank you I think we can all agree that the roads need a lot of attention some of the other things that are issues in District two are preservation of a viable agricultural community right now it is very strong there's a lot of pressure on it through by development and that development needs to be development that respects our community and we also need to be continuing to work to preserve farmland and foster small businesses in our district another issue in our district is that there are pockets where people and especially children aren't getting the resources they need their parents may
011be working multiple jobs to try to make ends meet and those kids still need a little help from the outside so that they can succeed and I've been working very hard on that issue there are lots of issues that affect the whole county and I am also working on those thank you Thank You mr. labardi about district 7 so district 7 is located within the city of Ann Arbor proper it's basically the eastern half of the city it has pockets of great wealth and pockets of economic challenge but they are primarily City residents and much of what the county does is not flashy or exciting we don't you know do the zoning or the or the building that that folks often pay so much attention to state government goes from theory to real life at
012the county level we exist to provide those state level services and to do so in a fashion that allows them to get out to our citizens in an accessible way and the citizens in district 7 much like the citizens and throughout the county they have human service needs they have public health needs they have community mental health needs they have public safety needs even within the city where they're provided by the an IRA City Police Department we work in tandem with the Sheriff's Office in terms of dispatch and other things so it's the whole spectrum of services that individuals need within district 7 the challenge I have found as a commissioner is to represent the specific needs of your district as you try and craft the broad policy for the county as a whole it's
013a challenge but it's one that I enjoy doing and that I've found great Worthen in trying the sink question number two commissioners are elected from separate districts but they are also responsible for decisions that affect the entire county in what ways do priorities of your districts constituents differ from the countywide issues what ways do they overlap and when priorities different what will be your process in making a decision to go to the process first I am NOT being elected to the County Commission to represent my views I am being elected by the people to represent them and so by going to the people I will find the right answer of course I have quite a bit of experience and quite a bit of information at hand but it's the will of the people that's the
014important thing to me and I think that those things are going to coincide nicely I don't think that the needs of my district are in conflict with the needs of the rest of the county as mr. lebar said we have human service needs we have mental health needs we have environmental needs we all need to breathe clean air and drink clean water we all need to have access to medical services so while people who live in the city may live closer to some of those services and the some of the people in my district needs some help getting those services out there I think that in general the needs are not in conflict and by talking to the residents of my district I don't think that it's going to be a problem to deal with
015mediating Thank You mr. lebar well I found that pragmatism is a useful tool on the board of commissioners we all have in the nine districts particularly that our residents have and we have to make it work with the whole in the case of district 7 many of the services that folks think of are provided by the city level but when you think about those issues of Public Safety in terms of the sheriff and the prosecutor's office Public Health broadly through our Public Health Department and community mental health they have those needs from the county quite a bit just like every other district and the the challenge there I think is to is to bring those needs to the table to represent the constituents interests and to understand that you have eight colleagues with you all
016of whom have their own constituents their own specific needs we're all charged with that broad goal of ensuring that the county generally is meeting the human service needs and the other needs of our of our residents our citizens that were being good fiscal stewards and that we're being as a group of nine individuals accessible and useful representatives of the people that's a challenge but it's something that again is is is worth doing and doing well and I'm fortunate to have had that opportunity first and foremost most tackle what the two of them just said most of the problems are countywide problems and there aren't very many district specific problems more of the rural areas encompass in in district to have issues with things like transportation millage --is where they're having to pay for various transportation
017millage --is that don't really affect them too much that's one issue that that district who has that other districts don't but then again at the same time there are things like epsilon e has especially in Ypsilanti Township has very large gentrification problems with residents and economical standpoint as well so you you really have to kind of mitigate some of these things now yes I am going to the board as a representative for my constituency but there are a lot of things that can be worked on through that our countywide issues that would not have any any sort of problems with me dealing with them rather than my constituents but the millage rate for district two are some of the things that can be addressed when you go over scrutinizing the budget as well for for
018things that don't necessarily need to be there and we can work on those things as we go along thank you question number three the Board of Commissioners is considering the authorization of two purchases to purchase agreements for the county's property on Platt Road which is in district 7 one with thrive collaborative and the other with Avalon housing the proposal is to develop the site for residential housing including some units for low income residents thrive has a proposal to purchase nine acres of this site for one million twenty five hundred thousand dollars which is considerably below market rate what is your position concerning the sale of this property and what impact do you think it will have on the county in general mr. bubar my question to you first the plat Road development is in my
019district I've been essentially the lead voice on that for almost five and a half years so anyone irritated by the actions we're planning to take should should address them squarely at me here is the proposition with the plat Road site we will have 50 units of affordable housing 30 of those will be affordable at the 30 percent ami level 20 of those will be affordable at the 60% ami level for a period of 99 years that is for affordable housing in this area groundbreaking with thrive we are getting environmental capacity that could serve really as a model for not just our community or the state but frankly for the nation in terms of the efficiencies is providing to get to a NetZero development in exchange for this the rate we are selling is is lower
020than market rate but what we get in return is one the human capital that can be developed in terms of people having those affordable places to live in a world-class environment and to on an annual basis it will return roughly $100,000 to the conex Treasury so over a 40 year period it will pay back roughly the market gap in terms of purchase price and what we'd get on an open market sale which by the way quickly politically you are never going to develop that land without some restriction I can attest to that personally thank you mister D thank you very much no I agree with Commissioner on this one is that investing in our people and investing specifically in people who are having a little bit more trouble as economically speaking is never a bad
021thing and what we need to look at is is where's the future going to be we can't look at that ten years down the road we can't even look at that 15 years down the road we have to take a serious look at where things going to be 99 years down the road in our community and what when we look through and balanced the budgets on things and and figure out our various expenditures we need to look at is this something that that far down the road is this something that's going to be a good investment it has very similar resemblance to stocks when you're when you're investing in stocks you can't invest in stocks for the short term at all you're never going to make a profit but to be able to make a
022profit you have to hold on to stocks for 10 20 30 years and this is something that we have to do with our communities we need to make sure that the investments that we're making in our communities are actually things that will pay off for us that far down the road and like I said before I don't think that investing in in people and investing in in our capitals as as human beings in this in this in this county and in this district are ever going to come back for naught so I think it's a good idea and I and I would be willing to work on that in the future thank you I'm excited about the development there's clearly a need for more affordable housing in this area there have been a number of
023studies that have said exactly that and so I think one of the things that's really impressive about Washington County is that Washington County is not afraid to be a leader and this is one place where Washtenaw County is being a leader we need the affordable housing we're providing it it's going to have solar power it's going to be designed with sustainability in mind it's going to be a very livable development I think to me that's all sounds like very good winds and it's also in an area where there is transportation there are a lot of services and so it's going to be meeting the needs of the people who live there who will be integrated into the community so I say congratulations Commissioner Lebar thank you thank you mr. Jardine you're the first answer for
024this question the Washington County Road Commission is a semi semi autonomous entity governed by the board the County Board of Commissioners and who appointed the three-member Commission the term from one of the commissioners seats is expiring at the end of this year what qualities do you want in a road Commissioner and when the Road Commission makes controversial decisions which they do from time to time what role does a County Board have in addressing constituents concerns with the Commission thank you for the question they D Road Commission has everything to do with with the constituents concerns I mean the entire reason that they're there is to serve the community that they're in now as far as what qualifications you would want somebody you definitely want somebody who's going to be a forward thinker just like said
025housing project this isn't something that you're looking at two and four years down the road if you're looking at going back to a certain area of Road two and four years down the road I don't think that you are doing a very good job in the Road Commission at all you need to be we need to be hiring people in that position that would be looking at different ways of using different materials and that may not be lower cost at the moment but different materials of the roads that would be longer-lasting currently most of the the materials that we're using for our roads are 10 to 20 year materials and there are other materials out there that are 20 to 40 year materials why we're not using those I'm on I'm unsure we go back
026and we patch holes with short-term fixes that we have to go back in two to four years and patch again people that we need in these these positions are people that will look 20 30 40 years ahead and say will this last and how low of cost of maintenance will it it be on things like this we need people who are open-minded but who are also very frugal with money because in the end of the day it's taxpayer money that's going into this stuff for a road commissioner who is not actually an engineer working on the roads but is kind of like the Board of Commissioners but for the engineers working on the roads there it's there their policy directors I would like to see somebody who listens to people who respects people who ask
027questions so that they really understand what what the issues are and who will treat the roads in the right-of-way as the assets to our community that they are if somebody comes from outside of the community the roads are the first and most thing that they see if somebody lives in a more rural area the roads are what they see between their house and wherever they're going so our roads are an important part of our neighborhoods I would want honesty and experience with the issues they don't need to be engineers but they do need to have experience such as rod Green who was recently appointed to the Road Commission he's been active in some Cod so he has a lot of experience in dealing with regional issues and with working with people I also would like
028to see somebody who is willing to be an advocate part of the reason that the roads are so bad is that there's a real lack of state money coming and we need more attention to the roads by the state and so if our Road commissioners feel comfortable advocating for our community we will do better thank you thank you mister Lebar the Republican leadership in Lansing has engaged in pretty high-level buffoonery when it's come to infrastructure for several years and we are paying that price locally we had to run a millage in 2006 for half a mill that passed with over 70% for roads the Road Commission in Washington County does I think a very good job it exists largely as a function of county government to essentially D politicize the process of road development and
029maintenance that has pluses and and and and cons a plus is the depolarization and the in the focus in terms of professionalism a con is it is one level removed from the people in terms of representation I would look for someone like Doug fuller who is our current chair who's whose term is expiring someone with I think roughly 40 years of experience someone with experience leading that road commission and someone who marries the the the dual needs of understanding how the road network will work to provide citizens the services they need and the realities of doing these things in a in a funding environment that is simply asinine in terms of you cannot make up roads and money out of thin air we do the best we can but there are limits thank you missing
030question number five Stan sir first the board is in the process of creating a Washington County Youth Commission in partnership with the neutral zone and corner health center do you support this partnership and what do you think is the Commission's role what role should be in the partnership and how do you anticipate working with the group I think that the Youth Commission is a great idea I could say I wish I'd thought of it myself I'm glad that I'm glad that Jason Morgan brought that to the board it's it's an excellent idea it has to centers for youth for one from Ypsilanti and one from Ann Arbor and so to foster communication between the youth of those two cities is excellent I'd like to find a way to bring in youth who live further away
031from those urban centers because their perspectives are important too I would like to learn as much as I can from the Youth Council I have two daughters in college and I have found that their perspectives are very important to me in learning about what's going on and so bolstered by my knowledge that my kids and their friends and and the people who I've met while I've been out in the neighborhoods have this important experience to draw for me to draw from I am interested in learning as much as I can and involving them as much as possible so really as much as they're interested in being involved in learning about the policy behind the decision-making I am happy to have them be involved with everything that I'm doing on the board thank you mister lebar
032yeah Commissioner Jason Morgan I think had a really good idea with the Youth Council and I certainly voted in in support of it I think if we are going to use it to its optimal level we will have it function as a voice for frankly young adults as they enter civic engagement but also I'm hopeful we will use it as an organ to provide a voice for individuals who are young people of color particularly young men of color in the on the east side of the county to give us a sense of what they face as individuals and as citizens in terms of the challenges before them I think that is something that is easy to relegate to some other time or some other place to deal with but the simple truth is when you
033talk about county government you're talking about life and death services at times when you call 9-1-1 that's a human service need of the highest media yet timing and when you talk about engagement with the the public safety community that's another need where we we have to get that youth voice involved so I'm very much in support of it even if I don't don't haven't had quite the passionate advocacy that commissioner Morgan has for it it certainly got my support and will continue to being a little bit younger myself I I do actually see this as a big passion of mine and I am fully in support of this now one of the things that have gone back to with issues of this is the money of the the county money's really tight money it's really
034thin but I think there are also very very good opportunities of ulterior motives of funding for for projects like this one of my main platform goals is to actually work with the the public school boards to get career preparatory and in home building preparatory curriculum in the schools this is another way of of getting these sort of skill sets out to these kids that go to these these different centers whatever their reasoning may be is to have somebody that's willing to sit down and teach somebody how to make a resume how to fix different household items how to maybe change the oil of your car or how to balance a budget there are different thing ways that we can engage with with our young people to get them ready for the next stage in their
035life and I think that this is a fantastic way of making sure that our kids are not only felt feel welcome in their community and feel like they can be active in their community but also lead them to take that next step in life to become active and productive members of their community thank you this is our last question and mr. lebar your start commissioners are voting in October on a possible pay increase for themselves raising the base salary for this part-time position from the current 15 thousand nine hundred and eleven dollars to twenty seven thousand fifty six dollars by 2020 do you support or oppose this increase and tell us why sure I'm in support and here's the reasons we have devalued public service in this country for roughly a generation be it term
036limits or be a just general denigration of both elected officials and people who work in the public sector broadly if you want to have representative voices at the table you can't relegate service on the Board of Commissioners from a practical effect to simply those who are either independently wealthy retired or sort of young enough and unattached enough in terms of family and work commitments that that they can do it it is something that you can you can be a decent Commissioner and just show up for the meetings and in a few committees here and there if you want to be a good Commissioner that's at least a 20 hour a week commitment on average at times much more we need to compensate folks at that rate that that that allows them to have that opportunity
037so what we did is simply took 45 percent of the county's median income and set it at that level built in over two years which comes out to that twenty-seven thousand fifty six dollars figure some folks will be in support some will not but broadly as a principle if we expect good public service we need to afford people the opportunity to provide it thank you I am completely opposed to it and one of the main reasons is is first of all I think that should be up to the decisions of the county to decide whether or not the commissioners are doing a good enough job that they should deserve to get an increased pay but I also feel there that the citizens are also wise enough to know that hey if we don't have enough
038money to keep funneling funds into our various failing schools or if we don't have enough money to help fix roads or help start up these various projects like the Riverside Park project in Ypsilanti without paying for or without starting at first and asking money for it later then there's absolutely no reason to to double the amount of pay almost of all of our commissioners now if you are going into a public service department I would understand that if that is your full-time job and that is something that that puts Bread on your table now this is a this is a part-time service this is something that is not meant to facilitate your lifestyle so yes a small amount of money is perfectly fine to be giving a commissioner for her services on the board but
039I don't feel this is something that somebody should be able to make a lifestyle out of and at the same time there are various projects that I'm working on myself politically whereas I'm on the various executive boards for the Republican the Washington County Republicans that I do not get paid for things of that nature should not be paid thank you I have spent most of my adult life volunteering very consistently for quite a few organizations some of which I mentioned in my opening statement volunteering gets a lot of things done government isn't really a volunteer job and there's a lot of research and work and meeting that goes into really doing the job of County Commissioner seriously and I think that by trying to make the pay reflect more accurately what a half-time position would
040be that the county government is acknowledging that and is making a commitment to pay fairly this commitment needs to extend to all county employees and one of my commitments to the people of Washington County as I'm running for County Commissioner is that I will support measures that result in people being paid a living wage so that everybody in Washington County starting with the county employees will hopefully one day be paid of living wage because that's not happening right now across the county so I don't know if I would really vote for it if I were sitting I am glad that they are I think that it's hard for commissioners or anybody to give themselves a pay raise I do think it's a reflection of the incredible amount of work that goes into being a county
041commissioner thank you we have to do the closing statement oh wait they do the closing statement all right it's okay so I'm gonna give each candidate an opportunity for a closing statement you have up to 90 seconds and we're going to start with mr. Jardine thank you very much again I'd like to thank the League of Women Voters again for everything that you've done here and everything that you do to continue to inform the public about how important it is get out and vote and make wise decisions I'd like to thank CTN for putting on this this event for us you know I I pride myself in being an out-of-the-box thinker and not voting down straight tenets of party lines and being very open to to listening to people and listening to problems and finding
042a solution that somebody might not have already thought of I have most of my work experience based in sales retail and financial services I have the experience that's necessary for the position and I know that me being in a in in a County opened accounting commissioner position would be something that would benefit the community benefit our County and benefit the the quality of life and the resources that we have here in the district I want to thank everybody for paying attention to this and and to educating yourselves as to who you're going to vote for and being informed voters at the I'd asked for your vote in November thank you very much thank you shake my name is sue Schenk I'm a Democrat I believe investing in our community and our people I've been accessible
043out meeting the residents since last November I've been meeting with community groups and leaders listening to concerns I've been learning about what's already happening talking to people about what they would like to see happen and how do we get there we've been working out policies and real projects to solve the very real issues that are facing our community as your county commissioner I will work hard I will be accessible and I am honest you can just ask my kids sometimes it's even annoying to them actually that's not true it's not annoying to them I'm I really want to do a good job and serve the people of our community because I love this community so if you want to learn more I have a website vote Xue Sheng comm and I also have a Facebook
044page that you could check out it's su shrink for Washtenaw I also have my phone number and email on most of my materials and so if you want to give me a call or email me I'd love to talk to you I'd love to meet with you if you're trying to make your decision and you want to know more thank you very much and I hope that you will vote for su Schenck on November 6th thank you I it's been a great honor to serve on the County Board of Commissioners and I thank the residents of 7th district who have sent me there look I'm a Liberal Democrat in the city of Ann Arbor but I find a pragmatic way to work with whomever is on the board with me on a whole host of
045issues broadly I want to get things done in the 18 months roughly that I've served this chair we got the really game-changing millage in terms of Public Safety and and mental health through we've put in place a County equity policy we're on the verge of passing a nearly half billion dollar quadrennial budget and I'm hopeful that we will finish off Platte Road I've played a good role in many of those successes some leadership some supportive I'm a completely imperfect representative but I try and be accessible and I try and be somebody that will tell folks not just what they want to hear but rather the simple truth is best I can and sometimes they have word for me for that but it's a privilege to serve on the Board of Commissioners it's a privilege to
046be involved with County government it touches human life in a way that other units of government don't and I would say this in this day and age in the state of Michigan it is in many ways a shield that prevents many of our citizens from great despair and distress and keeps them whole in a way that is important from a moral and societal perspective so I hope my residents will reelect me in November and the league thanks the candidates for participating in tonight's forum to those who contributed questions and to CTN for making this program possible these forums will be rebroadcast on channel 19 a number of times between now and the election mm-hmm they are also available on demand for streaming on your computer or smartphone go to our web site lwv and arbor
047org and look for the link to the programs please urge your friends and fellow residents to watch these forums too for additional nonpartisan information on candidates and ballot issues go to PEM excuse me mm vote for one one.org the league's voter resource guide covering local state and federal candidates and current proposals that will appear on your ballot good night [Music] you