With students’ opinions in mind, the Ann Arbor City Council candidates discussed with The Michigan Daily the important issues surrounding tomorrow's City Council primary election.

Ward 2 candidates emphasize student outreach

While both Ward 2 candidates said the need for increasing dialogue between the council and the student body is crucial to improving the community, City Council member Stephen Rapundalo (D–Ward 2) said he has a record of facilitating such discourse, particularly due to his past work in student government.

“I have quite a record of supporting students and student issues, part of that goes back to when I was student government president,” Rapundalo said. “I’m a little bit more sensitive to student issues than most of my colleagues.”

He added the city needs to improve the quality of its services, but he defended public safety officials in their handling of recent sexual assaults near campus. He added that the perception that there are not enough police officers patrolling Ann Arbor’s streets following recent layoffs is invalid.

Referring to the recent string of assaults, Rapundalo’s challenger, Tim Hull, a programmer at the University’s Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics and a member of the city’s taxicab board, said now is not a time to cut public safety. Instead, administrative and capital expenses need to be evaluated and reduced, he said.

Hull added an important part of his campaign is ensuring students feel involved in the council’s actions.

“I feel like sometimes students feel left out of the city’s affairs,” Hull said. “I feel like sometimes their concerns are neglected because they’re just students.”

Kunselman says race is all about the Downtown Development Authority

City Council member Stephen Kunselman (D–Ward 3) said he takes a firm stance against the city’s Downtown Development Authority, which he said is “running rampant” with spending and has caused the city to incur $140 million in debt.

“They have been spending more public dollars then they have received in the last four years,” Kunselman said. “(The DDA) is projected to do so again as they’re drawing down their fund reserves to an irresponsible low.”

Kunselman specifically cited the decision to construct an underground parking structure on South Fifth Avenue between East William Street and East Liberty Street as a result of poor judgment by the DDA, adding that it financially turned the community "upside down."

Kunselman accused the DDA of trying to force him out of office, noting three of the endorsements held by one of his challengers — Ingrid Ault, executive director of Think Local First — are DDA board members, including City Council member Sandi Smith (D–Ward 1).

“This election has turned into my calling out the irresponsible spending of the DDA,” Kunselman said. “And they in turn are trying to remove me as an elected official.”

He added because the city is in debt, financial cuts to services like public safety were unavoidable.

“Unfortunately, the cuts are necessary because we don’t have the money,” Kunselman said. “We’ve got a yoke of debt burden around the city financial budget.”

While Ault acknowledged that public safety cuts were essential, she said the unions that represent firefighters and police officers need to make more compromises in their negotiations.

Kunselman’s other challenger, Marwan Issa, technology director at Global Education Excellence, criticized public safety cuts made by the city.

“We shouldn’t be cutting safety,” Issa said.