Ann Arbor mayoral candidates trade blows in first public debate appearance

With that, Lesko recalled the "e-mail scandal" from last year in which it was discovered that several Ann Arbor City Council members regularly e-mailed each other during public meetings.

Lesko criticized Hieftje for tolerating the e-mails, some of them containing snarky comments about other council members and others quietly discussing business before the council.

"You have to be willing, as a leader, to make hard decisions," she said. "One of the most difficult is when you are faced with unethical behavior by those around you."

Hieftje and Lesko traded blows throughout the one-hour debate, which took place at the Ann Arbor Community Center before a crowd of more than 60 residents. The event was hosted by the North Central Property Owners Association and also featured 1st Ward City Council candidates Sumi Kailasapathy and Sandi Smith.

On Aug. 3, voters will decide between Lesko and Hieftje, both Democrats. The winner likely will face challenges from two independent candidates in the general election.

Lesko shook the mayor's hand at the start of Thursday's debate and told Hieftje she appreciated his many years of service to the city.

"I'm not running because I dislike this guy. In fact, I voted for him three times," Lesko said, garnering a surprised look from Hieftje, who has been the subject of harsh criticisms on A2Politico.com, a personal blog where Lesko likened Hieftje to Satan.

But with pleasantries out of the way, the gloves were off as Lesko critiqued Hieftje's leadership of Ann Arbor for the past 10 years.

"I'm against cronyism," she said. "And I'm absolutely uncompromising in the face of dishonest, illegal or unethical behavior. I'm against scripting votes by e-mail. I take deadly seriously the legal and fiduciary responsibilities that come with elected office."

As the next mayor of Ann Arbor, Lesko said, she would head a city government where city services take center stage and the city lives within the generous means its taxpayers provide.

"But more importantly, as the next mayor of Ann Arbor, I'll lead," she said. "I'm not a go-along kind of gal. If you want a flower girl, don't vote for me. I'm tough. Mayor Hieftje is absolutely right, these are tough times, tough decisions. Anti-union rhetoric doesn't fly with me."

Hieftje countered that Lesko and her unofficial slate of candidates running for City Council are "screaming that there's something wrong" when Ann Arbor actually is thriving.

"I'm happy to sit down with anybody and show you the evidence of what's going on in other cities, not only in Michigan, but around the country," he said. "And then I can tell you about what's going on that is right in Ann Arbor because we are doing much better than other cities in the state of Michigan, while going through the same economy."

Lesko ran through a list of complaints she's heard from residents: The roads are a mess, the police and fire departments have been decimated, the Stadium bridges have been allowed to deteriorate, property taxes are high, parking fines have increased, a parking meter hours extension is being proposed, and city parks are mowed less frequently now.

Hieftje attacked many of Lesko's claims.

"If, as I've heard said, Ann Arbor is mismanaged, if it's sheer incompetence — is it sheer incompetence which is driving the state of Michigan budget down?" he said. "Is it sheer incompetence that is hurting the budgets across the United States?"

One resident asked Lesko to explain how she came to the conclusion that city spending has gone up 35 percent since 2006. Hieftje clarified that Lesko actually has stated on the campaign trail that "city overhead" — which Lesko equates to "total city spending" — has gone up "35 percent per year" since 2005, which is not true.

"The CFO of the city, Tom Crawford, has actually said that he doesn't know where those numbers come from, has no idea how anyone could draw those from the figures, and I guess I would have to side with that," Hieftje said. "Any city in the state of Michigan that has had its overhead going up at 35 percent per year would have been broke about six years ago."

Lesko said she was basing her numbers on the city's audited financial statements. But audit figures Lesko cited in her defense in late May worked out to a 27.9 percent increase in total city spending from 2006 to 2009. City officials also argued it was inaccurate to characterize total spending as "overhead."

Lesko still asserts the city needs more responsible spending.

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to rein in spending. It takes political will to rein in spending, and I have it," she said.

"What we can do ... is tell the IT department when they come to us for unnecessary purchases that 'no, you can't have that money.' When the fleet department wants new vehicles, City Council must say no. Just say no to nonessential staff requests for funding."

Lesko and Hieftje agreed Thursday night they're both opposed to a city income tax, though they don't oppose the possibility of letting voters decide on it.

Lesko criticized Hieftje for the ongoing $47.4 million building addition to city hall, which will house the city's courts and police department. She referred to it multiple times as "luxury office space on the corner of Fifth and Huron." She said the city should have floated bonds to fix the Stadium bridges before taking on that project.

Hieftje argued that the city would need a guaranteed revenue stream before it could put the city at risk by floating bonds. He said the city will fix the Stadium bridges next spring, after one last shot at applying for federal funding.

"I would be concerned about the Stadium bridges, too, and why they haven't been fixed," he said. "But I also think that it would have been foolish for the city to go forward and fix those bridges this fall, as we could have done, without waiting for the one more opportunity to get federal money that we believe is coming our way."

Lesko said she's proud to have support for her campaign from the city's police and firefighters unions, whose contracts she vows to reopen if elected. She said the unions don't trust Hieftje enough to negotiate with the city right now.

"Right now there's no trust in the current administration," she said. "We need their trust. We need their cooperation. We need to deal with the serious problems that are facing our city, the unfunded pension obligations."

Hieftje dismissed an allegation by Kailasapathy that the city will spend $11 million on a new transit station on Fuller Road across from the University of Michigan Hospital.

"The city's not going to spend anything like that there," he said. "We're going to use federal money, and the U of M investment is providing the entire match. It's a wonderful bargain for the city of Ann Arbor. We will have an asset that we will own."

Lesko suggested the city doesn't treat all employees fairly. She told the story of a city worker she met recently — a single mother who, according to Lesko, earns $10 an hour as a full-time temporary employee without benefits.

"For the past several years, she's been asked to supervise staff without the possibility of regular raises," Lesko said. "While our city hires people like this single mom by the dozen, Mayor Hieftje more than doubled his own pay, and compensation for city managers rose as well."

Lesko also criticized Hieftje for approving a "nonessential parking garage" next to the main library downtown instead of paying to fix roads. Hieftje countered that parking revenues are paying for the parking garage, a point Lesko disputed.

"That's not accurate," she said. "That garage is being funded with municipal bonds, which are backed by the full faith and credit of our city. There's a banner that says 'your parking dollars at work.' That's misleading."

Lesko also criticized Hieftje for supporting multiple Planned Unit Developments, projects in which developers are allowed to deviate from the city's existing zoning.

"At the moment, our city is developing by exception, granting PUDs in those buffer zones," Lesko said of near-downtown neighborhoods. "They're called buffer zones to protect the neighbors and neighborhoods in which those folks live."

Hieftje argued the city has made strides in the area of zoning, recently completing a six-year effort that involved rezoning downtown. He also noted efforts he and others on council have supported to create a historic district for part of the Germantown neighborhood.

"I'm a big believer that density should be in the downtown area, in the D1 and the D2 (zoning districts)," Hieftje said. "We've been working in that direction for a long time, and I think that it's something that we should hold onto."

Hieftje and Lesko agreed Argo Dam needs to stay for now. Hieftje said the city maintains the position that there's nothing structurally wrong with the dam.

In his closing remarks, Hieftje said Ann Arbor is headed in a positive direction, despite the loss of 4.86 percent of its property tax revenue from the loss of Pfizer.

"We will continue to build on the award-winning quality of life that we have in Ann Arbor and I would compare it with anywhere," he said. "We will continue to perform better financially than most of the other Michigan cities, if not all."

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.