Four Democrats seeking 11th District seat on Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners

Mike Fried is the former chief of administration for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. Alice Ralph is an architect. Yousef Rabhi is a University of Michigan student and community activist. And LuAnne Bullington is retired from a career in computer information services and education.

The winner of the Democratic primary will advance to the November general election to face Republican Joe Baublis, who was recently in the news after a warrant was issued for his arrest charging him with fleeing the scene of a hit-and-run accident.

Also participating in Tuesday's debate was Commissioner Conan Smith, D-10th District, who is defending his seat against challenger Danielle Mack. Mack did not attend the debate. The winner of the 10th District primary advances unopposed to the general election.

The 10th and 11th districts both cover parts of Ann Arbor. Click here for a map of the districts.

Candidates took turns answering questions Tuesday that touched on expanding the Road Commission, establishing a county land bank authority, police protection, staffing at the county jail, and a host of other issues ranging from transportation to housing to the environment.

Smith, who was first elected in 2004, said he comes from a tradition of public service. He is the executive director of a nonprofit organization called the Michigan Suburbs Alliance.

As chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Smith oversaw the county's efforts last year to close a $30 million structural deficit. The county expects to trim millions more in the next budget cycle as property values continue to decrease.

Smith laid out priorities for his next term.

"Transportation, as I mentioned, is probably my most frustrating place to work," he said. "I've tried to expand the Road Commission, but we still struggle with that issue. We still need to have a metropolitan police force to address the road patrol issues. And we desperately need a human service millage to address those issues as well."

Rabhi said his goal is to work across levels of government with the city, the townships and the villages to reduce duplication of services.

"I believe in our ability to overcome this tough economic time," he said. "I believe that even with a budget that's declining for the first time in 50 years, we can still maintain an excellent level of human services throughout the county. We can maintain parks, we can maintain health care, our mental health care, and we can do that by reining in our government."

Fried said times are tough and money is tight for most people — and the same goes for Washtenaw County government.

"Even so, we can balance the budget while maintaining essential services," he said. "We can help those in need, we can improve collaboration and we can plan for the future. It's not an easy job, but I have the experience and skills needed to achieve these objectives."

Fried served 26 years as chief of administration for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, where he says he maintained quality services while controlling spending. Now retired, he is a trained mediator and facilitator and serves on the board of the Dispute Resolution Center.

"I'm the only candidate for the 11th District who has real world experience working for a county," Fried said. "I managed finance and budgets, personnel, workflow, computer systems and networks. I was liaison to a county board of commissioners, and I have experience serving on a number of state councils and organizations."

Ralph said new territory lies ahead for the county.

"Beyond raw efficiency, we need to focus on the most effective use of funds and other resources," she said. "With resilient policy and attention to core responsibilities, we can work together for local change that is true to shared priorities. As county commissioner, I will confront scarcity and work toward an abundant future."

Bullington said she already donates a lot of her time to serving a wide variety of organizations that are working on serious problems in the county.

"I believe as a prosperous community we have the strength and the responsibility to show empathy and compassion to at-risk populations and people who are adversely affected by this economic crisis," she said, adding that human services programs are among her top priorities.

All of the candidates said they favored the idea of a county land bank, which the county board approved last year, dissolved, and is now bringing back.

"A land bank can help us in a variety of ways, whether that's keeping people in the homes that they're already on the verge of leaving or taking care of blighted property," Smith said.

"Right now there are over 2,100 properties that are in some state of foreclosure," Fried said. "The land bank is a way of helping to preserve properties, of helping to avoid blight."

Rabhi talked about the potential he sees from other efforts he's been involved with where blighted properties were repurposed.

"I work with the University of Michigan's Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum," he said. "We're working on a partnership with the Greening of Detroit to renovate vacant lots to native natural area habitat, water retention — all those issues that are involved. We can bring the community together, we can build partnerships, we can fund this through our partnerships and we can get volunteer efforts to help us raise the communal value, the economic value, of our neighborhoods and stave off more foreclosures from happening."

Plans to expand the Road Commission from three to five members were tabled last week by the county board, but it's an idea that could come back. Bullington and Fried said they didn't think the expansion would make much of a difference. Fried said he hasn't heard a compelling argument.

"Barring new information that comes forward, it's one of those situations that if it ain't broke, don't fix it," he said.

Ralph said she believes the cost of expanding may have prevented a fulsome discussion of the issue, but she thinks it's worth examining ways to improve the county road system. She said the cost of two additional road commissioners would be rather small in the scope of the overall budget.

Rabhi said he supports the idea, but thinks it's wise to hold off for now, given the economic situation in which the county finds itself.

Smith, one of the leading proponents of the idea, said Washtenaw County has always prided itself on the diversity of its transportation network. He said the cost of increasing from three to five members can be little or nothing.

"What's more important to me is that we diversify the representation on that board, that we make sure we have the voices of land use and transit participating in the decision-making about the development of that network," he said.

Candidates shared different opinions on what to do about funding operations at the county jail after the completion of a 112-bed addition.

"I've had concerns with the jail and how we're going to fund it for some time," Bullington said, adding one of her main concerns is who is placed in jail.

"We have a tremendous problem with people who are homeless in this area," she said. "Are we mainly housing people who are homeless? According to Jeff Irwin, he has said publicly that when he toured the jail, he felt 90 percent of the persons in there don't belong there. They belong in other programs."

"Our goal, of course, would be that we don't need so much jail space, but the jail is there, it has been built, and we need to fund it," Fried said. "And we need to fund it adequately, because the worst thing that could happen is not to properly staff it."

Rabhi said the sheriff has been proactive in promoting "alternative programming." He said community service programs can save money to fund the jail.

Smith said the county is looking very keenly at the operations across the entirety of the sheriff's department to find savings.

"We'll find a way to fund the operations, but I think more important than anything else, we need to be really tuned in to how big that jail needs to be in terms of its operation," he said. "We've built the infrastructure. We don't have to staff the full infrastructure necessarily. We need to make sure that we're staffing it not to its most glorious capacity if that's not necessary."

On another topic, Smith said cost-sharing for police services between the sheriff's department and the townships needs discussion.

"Unfortunately, the cost of providing public safety is ever increasing," he said. "And partly that's wages, partly that's the growing population of the townships, partly that's just the fact of inflation around health care costs."

Rabhi said the issue is whether taxpayers in cities such as Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti should be paying for both their own police department and the sheriff's department, and how much of the burden townships should bear.

"I think at the end of the day, Ann Arbor taxpayers should only have to pay for the service that they get," he said, though he sees both sides of it.

"The sheriff has outlined very strongly to me that Ann Arbor taxpayers are getting their money's worth through the jail," he said. "The sheriff's department provides the jail to the Ann Arbor Police Department at no charge. However, if Ann Arbor taxpayers are paying double, we are encouraging suburbanization and we are devaluing the urban core that is Ann Arbor."

Bullington said she'd like to see the sheriff continue to work with municipalities to negotiate contracts that make each jurisdiction pay its fair share.

"I think it's very unfortunate that prior to the time Sheriff Clayton took over, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent in legal fees to try to argue this issue over what the cost should be," Fried said. "It's unfortunate that something like this could not have been mediated. I think the approach that the sheriff is taking now ... has calmed the situation down and that we can reach a reasonable agreed-upon payment of these services."

Smith said the county is not doing an adequate job of providing human services during the continuing recession because of hindering economic conditions. Alongside that, he said, there exists a structural revenue problem due to the way the state finances local government.

"So we do not have the resources necessary to address these complex problems that are so painful to see on a day-to-day basis," he said. "We need to look very carefully at how we prioritize our funding in this next budget cycle."

Bullington agreed.

"We're seeing a big influx of middle-class people who are now needing our help," she said. "We don't have enough money and we don't have the will right now it seems to look at this issue and decide what we're going to do."

Fried said the county should take the lead in working with the nonprofit community to obtain additional resources to improve efficiency and collaboration among nonprofit organizations. Rabhi said he would engage the citizens in tackling the challenges of the economy.

Smith talked about the need for an east-west rail system connecting Ann Arbor and Detroit, along with a comprehensive mass transportation system.

"If we're going to grow economically as a region, we need to be connecting these excellent jobs that we have here to the excellent workers that they have in Metropolitan Detroit," he said. "If we're going to protect our environment and our water, we've got to get some cars off the road."

On the environment, Ralph said she has been working for several years on efforts to develop a greenway in Ann Arbor, despite little governmental support. She said it makes sense to promote open space and greenways.

Rabhi said it's important to be improving water quality in all of the county's waterways and reducing runoff in urban areas. He said he has four years of experience working in natural areas restoration.

"I know the on-the-ground details of what it takes to get the job done for natural areas management, for water management, and for water retention," he said. "I also have 13 years working with the Buhr Park Wet Meadow Project, which is devoted to making sure that urban runoff is no longer an issue for the Malletts Creek watershed."

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