Update:Jean Cramer withdraws from Marysville council race after racist comments

Capitalizing on Marysville’s current momentum — from redeveloping the old Mighty Marysville property to improvements at city parks — quickly became a common theme for city election candidates during a forum Thursday night.

But that thread was momentarily marred with shock following a racist statement from one City Council candidate in response to a question about diversity.

“Keep Marysville a white community as much as possible,” said newcomer Jean Cramer, one of five candidates vying for three open council seats in November. The question: “Do you believe the diversity of our community needs to be looked at, and if so, should we be more aggressive in attracting foreign-born citizens?”

It’d come more than an hour into a forum that’d largely been filled with discussion of the city’s progress, including refurbished Little League fields, the planned purchase of the old DTE site along the St. Clair River and a slew of other developments officials cast a positive light on.

Before asking the question, Radio First Station Manager Scott Shigley, who moderated the event, had cited population growth across the Great Lakes region between 2000 and 2015, half of which he said were foreign-born residents.

After the forum, he added it was intended to spur talk over how the city markets itself and attracts talent.

Cramer’s response, however, was the first of the group, and brief gasps fell over the council meeting room at City Hall before forum attendees heard from the other candidates.

The response: 'Upset and shocked'

Incumbent Councilman Paul Wessel said anyone who can find their way to Marysville “should be allowed to live in Marysville.” Council candidate Mike Deising paused before adding, “Just checking the calendar here and making sure it’s still 2019.”

Wayne Pyden, a former councilman who's running unopposed for mayor, and council candidate Shawn Winston also shared similar messages of surprise.

Winston, a teacher at Marysville High School, said he thought the numbers Shigley referenced should be looked at by council to assess if the city was attracting "the best, the most qualified regardless of race."

“I don’t see how anybody has stopped diversity here in town that I am aware of. I don’t know off the top of my head what type of initiatives the city could take to get more diversity," Pyden added. "But in my own heart and my own mind and people around me, people here at the table, everybody’s welcome to Marysville.”

Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Hayman said she took Cramer’s comments personally in her response.

“I don’t even know that I can talk yet, I’m so upset and shocked. My father was a hundred percent Syrian, and they owned the Lynwood Bar. It was a grocery store at that time. So basically, what you’ve said is that my father and his family had no business to be in this community,” she said, recalling her late father Joseph Johns, who served 55 years as an elected Marysville official. The council meeting room, where Thursday’s forum was held, is named for him.

“My son-in-law is a black man and I have bi-racial grandchildren,” she told Cramer. “And I take this very personally what you’ve said, and I know that there’s nothing I can say that’s going to change your mind. ... We just need to have more kindness — that’s it.”

Mayor: Cramer's is a 'flatly rejected' ideology

After the forum, Cramer was asked by the Times Herald if she wanted to clarify her response.

“As long as, how can I put this? What Kathy Hayman doesn’t know is that her family is in the wrong,” she said. “(A) husband and wife need to be the same race. Same thing with kids. That’s how it’s been from the beginning of, how can I say, when God created the heaven and the earth. He created Adam and Eve at the same time. But as far as me being against blacks, no I’m not.”

Mayor Dan Damman, who isn’t running for re-election in the city, condemned Cramer’s comments in a statement of his own following the forum.

"The racist comments by the City Council candidate at the Marysville city candidate(s) forum were as vile as they were jaw-dropping,” he said in an email. “It must be noted that this person has declared herself a City Council candidate for the November 2019 election but has never served on City Council for the city of Marysville.

“Mrs. Cramer’s disturbing and disgusting ideology is flatly rejected by me, our entire City Council, all of city administration, and our employees. The candidate forum was to be a mechanism to learn about the candidates and their viewpoints, thus empowering our electorate to make an informed decision before voting. The only positive result from this clear expression of overt and unapologetic racism is that this candidate’s views were put on display before our voters go the polls in November."

Damman later called for Cramer to step out of the race in another interview.

Cramer did not immediately respond to an email and follow-up message Friday afternoon.

Other issues

For much of Thursday’s forum, city candidates spoke of the things in town that excited them.

Wessel, who’s served eight years, said he was excited to continue working on the city’s vision, as did Deising, a part-time, on-call firefighter and real estate broker.

Winston, too, said, “All of us have a passion for the city. We want it to continue to go forward.” A regular attendee of city meetings and work sessions, he said he’s witnessed the city meeting its goals.

The old DTE property, 301 Gratiot Blvd., was a regular reference point for the candidates. The proposed buy was announced in March by California developer Jeff Katofsky, who’s also working to reopen the St. Clair Inn and Hotel Harrington. In June, he said he was working out unexpected environmental issues at the site, and as of this week, the purchase hadn’t closed.

“There’s going to be a lull. I think we realize that during the planning and discovery stage,” Pyden said. “It’s something we shouldn’t lose site of during that time.”

The DTE site, where an old plant was imploded and razed in 2015, is zoned for planned unit developments, meaning city officials will have a say in what is built there. Officials have said they were pleased Katofksy supported a mixed-use commercial, restaurant and residential development, and something to draw people in and provide a good job and tax base. Hayman said she hopes it fulfills a long-time hope for Marysville to have a downtown. Nearly everyone said they were against industrial use of the property.

Candidates also pointed to other developments, such a new housing project expected on Range Road, as among the things that could help attract people to the community. Some said more housing options were needed.

“Being in real estate business as I am, I guess I don’t see (population decline) because what I see (is people) coming from the metro Detroit area up here,” Deising said, referencing low housing inventories. “As far as keeping the people here … there is a stigma that Marysville has sky-high taxes, higher than anybody around, which isn’t true.”

Additionally, candidates were asked about roads, unfunded city retiree legacy costs and potential solutions.

Both Pyden and Winston cited a more recent engineering study that evaluated potential costs for needed repairs and replacements of infrastructure, expressing some confidence in the direction the council had started to take already.

Some disagreed over whether a millage could help cover future road costs, or whether ending the subsidization of trash pickup could help offset what the city attributed to road funds. Answers also varied on approaching debts for unfunded pensions and other benefits for retired city workers.

All of the candidates said they were longtime residents or natives of Marysville, except for Cramer, who said she moved to the city less than a decade ago.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jackie20Smith.

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