ANN ARBOR, MI - Voters in Ann Arbor's 5th Ward must decide this year who's going to represent them on City Council for the next four years, and so far there are two choices.

In the Aug. 7 Democratic primary, incumbent Chuck Warpehoski, who has been in office since 2012, is being challenged by Ali Ramlawi, owner of the Jerusalem Garden restaurant downtown.

Warpehoski, who is mayor pro tem, also serves as executive director of the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice.

The two shared the stage during a forum on the University of Michigan campus Thursday, April 12.

Both said they support expanding regional transit and putting more money toward affordable housing, though they differed on how the city should use an influx of revenue from a new countywide tax.

They also weighed in on the debate over the downtown Y Lot and the issue of campaign contributions.

Ramlawi on why he's running

Warpehoski on why he's running

Influx of new tax revenue

Ramlawi and Warpehoski are on opposite sides of how the city should use its rebate from a new countywide mental health and public safety tax. It's estimated that Ann Arbor taxpayers will be paying more than $5 million per year for the new tax starting in December, and the city will be getting back more than $2 million per year to use as it sees fit because the city already has its own police department.

Warpehoski and a majority of council members are in support of putting the influx of new revenue toward affordable housing, pedestrian safety and efforts to address climate change such as energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives.

"I campaigned for the millage," Warpehoski said. "I was very active in trying to get it support."

Warpehoski argued the way the city intends to use its rebate is going to support mental health and public safety.

He said the funding for affordable housing is essentially funding for mental health because a part of the framework for affordable housing in Ann Arbor includes supportive services. He also argued the funding for pedestrian safety is essentially funding for public safety.

"And I do think that climate change is a public safety threat to our world," Warpehoski said.

Ramlawi said he supported the new countywide tax for the reasons of mental health, not for the reasons of affordable housing, pedestrian safety and climate action.

He said it's going to be an eight-year millage, so the city should decide year by year how it's going to use its share and put the money toward the most pressing issues facing the city.

"And I think we need to fund mental health even more so, not just what the county will contribute," Ramlawi said, suggesting the city should use its rebate in the next year to fix roads and fund mental health services. "And I'd look at it every year to find out what our most challenging issues were, and decide then."

Ramlawi suggested the city has bigger needs right now than trying to address climate change.

"I mean, I know climate change is a huge issue and I stand behind it. My business practices green practices," he said. "But I think with the money that we have, and so little we have, we need to put it where we can have the biggest impact."

Warpehoski said he thinks there's room for the city to do more and do better when it comes to law enforcement response to people with mental health issues, and jail diversion.

Y Lot and campaign contributions

The two candidates shared their views on one of the biggest issues before the City Council at the moment: the vacant downtown lot known as the Y Lot, next to the Blake Transit Center.

The city is considering exercising its option to repurchase the property for $4.2 million and the council was divided 7-3 on it at a recent meeting. It needs eight votes to be approved.

The city sold the lot to Dennis Dahlmann four years ago for $5.25 million and Dahlmann had four years to develop it, but he didn't follow through, blaming the city. Now a majority of council members want to buy it back so the city can have control over what happens to it next, and Dahlmann is suing the city over it.

Ramlawi is politically aligned with council members who've received campaign contributions from Dahlmann and his associates and are at the moment blocking the city from repurchasing the Y Lot.

Ramlawi and Warpehoski have not taken any campaign donations from Dahlmann.

Candidates at Thursday's forum were asked to weigh in on both the Y Lot and the issue of campaign contributions.

"In terms of donations, I've only run one campaign and I've never been on council to have those donations affect my decision making," Ramlawi said. "I think it's unfair right now to be leveling that question at people who oppose the repurchase of the Y Lot right now, because people have taken money from all sorts of people. And I think if we looked at all these votes and we looked at who voted and who paid and contributed, I think it's going to be really ugly."

Ramlawi said he doesn't think it's good for the City Council to be slinging mud. He said he prefers looking at the facts, looking at the signed agreements, and proceeding accordingly.

"The Y Lot has been mired in controversy," he said, recalling the property's long history and past controversy, suggesting it needs to be part of a master plan with other properties.

"I think the original agreement to sell it to Dahlmann was a bad agreement," Ramlawi added. "I think when you have to stipulate the fact that you're going to be buying it back ... if nothing happens, that tells you right there there's lack of trust, lack of faith. And I think we should have probably not gone into that deal to begin with and now we're faced with more litigation, so that's my two cents."

Warpehoski was on council in late 2013 when the council unanimously decided to enter into negotiations to sell the Y Lot to Dahlmann, who emerged as the high bidder in a competitive process.

Warpehoski recently voted in support of buying back the lot now that it hasn't been developed.

"We've got a site that we can purchase at $4.2 million," he said at Thursday's forum. "It's been assessed at 700 percent FAR for $9.8 million. That difference, if we choose to use it, could go a long way to helping address our affordable housing needs and I think we should proceed to keep our options open with that."

As for the issue of campaign contributions, Warpehoski said every politician is going to say donations don't influence their votes.

"So, the question then is: How do you assess what is the impact of campaign donations on a democracy?" he said, suggesting voters should look to see if there's a concentration of influence.

"When one particular donor or one particular interest group has a disproportionate contribution to one campaign or one faction, that is an indication maybe not that votes are being bought, but that indicates an influence in the political system that you need to look at."

Warpehoski suggested voters also should look to see if there's a differential in terms of access to politicians.

"And this is a bigger issue in Lansing and in D.C. than it is in Ann Arbor," he said. "For myself, I'll meet with anybody. I'll listen to anybody. My mind and my ears are open."

Affordable housing and housing affordability

Warpehoski said housing affordability is Ann Arbor's biggest challenge and it's a challenge a lot of cities face.

"Housing affordability affects a lot of people in our community," he said, adding part of the focus needs to be on very low-income people to make Ann Arbor an inclusive community.

"I want to make sure we've got people in our community from all economic backgrounds," he said. "For people who are very low income, that's going to mean sustaining and expanding our supply of subsidized housing. That means finding the money and the land to provide those units."

Warpehoski said there are a lot of other middle-income people who are being priced out of Ann Arbor.

"And that's where we need to find ways to help address that situation, too," he said. "I'll be honest, we haven't gotten there yet."

Warpehoski said part of addressing that challenge requires adding more housing supply. He noted the University of Michigan's enrollment has increased by thousands of students in the last decade.

It went from just over 40,000 students in fall 2006 to more than 46,000 students as of fall 2017.

Warpehoski said the rent escalation would be worse in Ann Arbor if new housing hadn't been built for those students.

"In addition to that, we have a situation where our second-largest group of employees -- the Baby Boomers -- is starting to retire and fantastically they're choosing to stay in Ann Arbor," he said. "As people have said, it's a wonderful place to live. It's a wonderful place to retire."

Warpehoski said now their children and others are trying to find a way to work and live here, too, and Ann Arbor is also facing a housing supply shortage based on that demographic shift. He said adding more housing supply and adjusting the city's zoning to get the kind of housing the city needs can help address market-rate affordability.

Ramlawi said he's glad the question about affordability was asked because it's a huge problem.

"In fact, I brought it up to our former mayor about 12 years ago," he said. "I saw this canary in the coal mine a long time ago. I'm an employer and the biggest problem we have is finding people who can afford to live in Ann Arbor and work in places like mine."

Ramlawi said the same goes for teachers and hospital workers, so the city does need to tackle the issue of housing affordability.

He said it's a macro issue and there also needs to be leadership from the state and federal governments. He said reforms are needed for the nation's tax codes and lending regulations

He said Ann Arbor needs to establish a constant revenue stream for its affordable housing fund.

"But affordability is not just the cost of houses," he said. "Affordability is also your water rates. It's also increased millages. So, there are other things at play that factor into affordability.

"So, we've only been tackling this on the supply side of things and we're not tackling this on many different levels, and that's why I think it's important for people to be involved in city government, more backgrounds to be on council, so we can tackle this with creative solutions and not just coming at it with supply-side answers."

Regional transit

Both candidates support regional transit. Ramlawi said people spend about 23 percent of their income on transportation, so addressing transportation is part of tackling affordability

"As an employer, I know it's going to be a lot more beneficial for us to be able to attract people who live 20 and 30 miles away who don't have to drive and who don't have to park and pay for parking and the hassles of driving," he said. "So, I have supported all the millages when it comes to regional transportation. I've supported extending the AAATA millage. I've supported the RTA millage."

Ramlawi said unfortunately residents in Macomb County don't support regional transit as much as people here do. That's what led to the defeat of a four-county regional transit plan in 2016.

Ramlawi said hopefully regional transit can be revisited and put forward as a two- or three-county plan without Macomb.

"Get the people who are on board with progressive ideas and thoughts and get something, because we are decades behind," he said, suggesting that's because Detroit is the Motor City and the region is in the shadows of the automobile industry.

"Unfortunately we don't have a federal government right now that thinks the way we think and puts the big bucks behind it," he added.

"This is not a million-dollar fix. It's a billion-dollar fix, and perhaps a trillion-dollar fix when you look at it throughout the country."

Ramlawi said the area is growing and he's thankful he doesn't have to commute to another city for work.

"Every time I get on the freeway, it scares me," he said. "I mean, it's just every day, you look and there's people dying on the freeways and we need to get serious about it and try to do everything locally as we can and support the millages whenever they do come up, and try to push it up the line to our state reps, and get our state reps to get our national government behind it with the big dollars."

Warpehoski said he's wholeheartedly in support of investing in rail transportation.

"Five years ago when the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority was putting forward their millage, I was on the steering committee, Partners for Transit, campaigning, going door to door, trying to improve our local rail, and I've been a full-fledged supporter of efforts to try to get regional rail, too," he said. "I joined eight of my colleagues in support of a council resolution in support of the regional transportation alliance, the RTA millage, so it's something we absolutely need."

Warpehoski said the region is seeing economic losses because of lack of regional rail.

He said the way to look at affordability is to look at both the cost of housing and transportation. Lowering people's transportation costs, he said, helps with affordability, and helps make sure senior citizens and people with mobility impairments can get around.

"It's absolutely crucial and we need to continue to push for it locally and regionally," Warpehoski said.