Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional comments from Linh Song regarding her campaign’s alignment with other candidates and clarification that she says she is not coordinating with Mayor Christopher Taylor.

ANN ARBOR, MI – Linh Song, president of the Ann Arbor District Library board, has announced plans to run for City Council this year.

Song pulled petitions from the city clerk’s office Monday, Feb. 10, to run as a Democrat in the 2nd Ward.

She’s seeking the seat held by independent Jane Lumm, whose term is up in November.

Song must collect 100 signatures and file by April 21 to get on the Aug. 4 primary ballot.

No other 2nd Ward candidates have announced or pulled petitions.

Song’s Facebook campaign page says she will campaign alongside three other Democrats running for council this year: Lisa Disch in the 1st Ward, Jen Eyer in the 4th Ward and Erica Briggs in the 5th Ward. Her page includes a photo of the four of them together.

Mayor Christopher Taylor and his allies saw their 7-4 majority on council flip in favor of a back-to-basics coalition in the 2018 election, and the dynamics on council could change again with five seats up for grabs in the 2020 election.

Song said she and the group of candidates with which she’s aligned aren’t coordinating with Taylor, though, and they’re not running in response to the 2018 election.

They’re individually running for their own reasons, developing their own platforms, and they’re independent thinkers in command of their own policy choices, she said.

They’re each fundraising independently and have different campaign managers, Song said.

Song has a background in social work, community organizing and working with nonprofits.

She wants to represent all 2nd Ward residents, she said.

“We need a council that works for its residents — providing basic services that many expect, while making sure no one is left behind,” she said in a statement.

“I'm eager to bring what I've learned while serving on the Ann Arbor District Library's Board of Trustees; positive visioning, careful planning, and collaborating with staff and community for the work ahead.”

Song cites Ann Arbor’s "housing crisis” as one of the issues she wants to tackle and said she supports more housing.

“I want buildings for people. People need to be housed,” she said.

Lumm, an independent who previously served as a Republican, has been the only non-Democrat on council for several years, last re-elected in 2017.

She said in 2017 she would not run again in 2020 as the city switched to holding elections only in even years.

With the amount of straight-ticket Democratic voting that goes on in even-year elections when state and federal races are on the ballot, Lumm said in 2017 her chances of winning as an independent in 2020 would be "zero."

After hearing about Song’s campaign this week, Lumm said she wasn’t ready to comment on whether she has reconsidered and may run again.

Lumm said when she was running in 2015 she would not run again in 2017, but she later changed her mind.

Song, who was born in Ohio and grew up in Dearborn and Canton, first came to Ann Arbor in 1995 to attend the University of Michigan. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in social work.

She has had a wide variety of jobs and previously served as executive director of the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation and as president of the Glacier Highlands Neighborhood Association and King Elementary School PTO.

She also has been involved with nonprofits such as the Neutral Zone, serves as a Democratic precinct delegate and sits on the boards of the University Musical Society and Avalon Housing, a local affordable housing provider.

In 2018, Song was one of the most outspoken critics of a ballot proposal for a downtown central park and civic center commons next to the downtown library, putting thousands of dollars of her money into an opposition campaign. The library board also came out against the proposal.

Song favored the city’s plan at the time to sell the city-owned Library Lot to Chicago developer Core Spaces for $10 million to help fund affordable housing and allow a 17-story, mixed-use high-rise with a developer-funded plaza.

A slim majority of voters approved the park/commons proposal, halting the Core Spaces project.

Song has argued the downtown library already serves as Ann Arbor’s civic center commons, with meeting spaces, educational classes, community programs and activities, and she doesn’t think that needs to be duplicated.

She also argued in 2018 that designating much of the block in perpetuity as parkland significantly limited future options, including the library’s options.

The library board is still considering options for potentially redeveloping the downtown library, but Song said it’s too early to say how that might play out or tie in with what happens on the Library Lot.

Song, the daughter of refugees from Vietnam and Laos, said she spent part of her childhood growing up in low-income neighborhoods. At a 2018 rally against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, she told a large crowd on the UM Diag about her family’s story of fleeing southeast Asia in the 1970s, saying even a Thai prison camp where her family was held for a time didn’t separate families.

In 2014, Song supported the More Buses campaign to expand local transit services.

She considers City Council a good next step after the library board.

“I’m excited for the work ahead,” she said, adding she wants to bring people together.

She said she was really disappointed when council last year rejected staff-recommended plans for road diets with added bicycle lanes on Earhart and Green roads.

That went against residents’ wishes, she said, and she thinks council should have more trust in the city’s traffic engineers and shouldn’t micromanage staff.

Song describes herself as “pretty much a full-time mom” aside from her volunteer work.

She is married to Dug Song, founder of Duo Security, an Ann Arbor cybersecurity firm that employees hundreds of people and was purchased by Cisco for $2.35 billion in 2018. They have two children who attend Ann Arbor Public Schools.

MORE FROM THE ANN ARBOR NEWS:

Zingerman’s baker, democratic socialist announces Ann Arbor council campaign

LGBTQ activist running for Ann Arbor council, Ackerman won’t seek re-election

First challenger announces 2020 campaign for Ann Arbor City Council

Former journalist running for Ann Arbor City Council

Anti-Israel activist and environmentalist running for Ann Arbor council

Walking and cycling advocate running for Ann Arbor council