Contested race for Ann Arbor City Council shaping up in Ward 1

ANN ARBOR, MI — Two potential contenders have announced Ann Arbor City Council campaigns in Ward 1.

Cynthia Harrison and Angeline Smith have pulled petitions to seek the seat held by incumbent Jeff Hayner, D-1st Ward, who has declined to say if he’s seeking reelection.

Candidates have until April 19 to file 100 petition signatures to compete in the Aug. 2 Democratic primary.

Harrison, a lifelong Ann Arbor resident and mental health advocate, is running with support from Mayor Christopher Taylor, Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton and Lisa Disch, Ann Arbor’s other 1st Ward council representative.

“As a lifelong resident, my heart and soul are in Ann Arbor and in Ward 1,” Harrison said in a statement. “I cherish what is strong about Ann Arbor, and as a member of City Council, I will push us to continue to be better. I care about the wellbeing of everyone in our community, and I will fight for those of us who struggle to flourish in our city.”

Smith, a Detroit native and principal at Angeline and Associates LLC, said she has been encouraged to run by fellow residents at the Arrowwood Hills Housing Cooperative, where she serves on the co-op board. She’s running a very grassroots campaign and doesn’t have a list of big-name backers, she said.

Issues of interest to her include alternatives to armed police response to certain 911 calls, equitable housing, mental health, financial transparency and fiscal oversight, she said, pointing to her background in accounting.

“I’m looking forward to a positive campaign and I’m looking forward to the potential opportunity to sit at the council table,” she said. “It would be good to represent the citizens here.”

Harrison describes herself as deeply invested in the community, having served on a number of boards, including the city’s Independent Community Police Oversight Commission to which she was appointed last month, the National Alliance on Mental Illness’s Advocacy Leadership Team, the Washtenaw County Criminal Justice Collaborative Council and Fresh Start Clubhouse’s Board of Directors.

Harrison was featured last summer in a Politico article about police reform, discussing her son’s struggles with mental illness and dealings with the criminal legal system.

“He’s a tall, Black young man with mental illness, and instead of seeing him as a kid who is struggling, people feel afraid of him,” she told Politico. “And once he became a Black man with a record, it justified people’s feelings.”

She recently spoke before the Michigan Senate Health Policy Committee in support of Senate Bill 637, which was signed into law last month by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The law calls for creating a community crisis response grant program to help local governments establish or expand mobile crisis intervention services, such as having mental health professionals respond to non-criminal 911 calls about mental health emergencies.

Smith said her decision to run for office arose after she won a seat on the Arrowwood co-op board in July. She’s been a lone voice on the five-member body in terms of expressing concerns about internal control issues and fighting to get access to co-op financial records, she said.

She has shared her concerns about lack of financial transparency with other residents in the 350-unit townhouse complex off Pontiac Trail, she said. Some residents concerned about the situation and lack of ability to afford living in Ann Arbor if they’re ever displaced from Arrowwood have suggested she should run for City Council, she said.

While that’s what inspired her, Smith said she considers herself a longtime political junkie.

“I have followed politics ever since Jesse Jackson ran for president and I joined his Rainbow PUSH Coalition as a teenager,” she said, adding she also has paid attention to local politics in Detroit, where she was born and raised.

Smith said she worked as a University of Michigan accountant in the 1990s but couldn’t afford to live in Ann Arbor. She moved here in 2007 to grow her company providing accounting and consulting services to nonprofits and small businesses.

With Ann Arbor’s strong network of nonprofits, it made sense for her to be here, she said, adding she found a sense of community and connection when she moved into Arrowwood six years ago. Prior to 2016, she was moving from one apartment to another, trying to maintain rent, she said.

She now wants to bring her personal experience and professional skills to City Council and contribute what she can to help Ann Arbor city government, she said. With a master’s degree in public administration, she knows her background lends well to public service, she said.

Smith said she wants to help vet city policy decisions to make sure they’re feasible and can be implemented effectively while staying under budget. With her experience working with nonprofits, she also wants to explore more ways nonprofits can help the city provide certain services, she said.

Harrison, a program manager at the nonprofit Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living, said she has decades of experience as an advocate for people struggling with mental health issues and people navigating the criminal legal system, and she’s an advocate for empowering people with disabilities and making Ann Arbor a more inclusive community.

Harrison’s campaign announcement included endorsement statements from Clayton, Disch and Taylor.

“Cynthia has shown her commitment to criminal justice reform and our community through her actions, as well as her words. She does her homework before making decisions and approaches issues in a thoughtful, knowledgeable way,” Clayton said.

“As an accomplished community leader with a long history of fighting for justice and equity in Ann Arbor, she will represent Ward 1 with courage, conviction and integrity,” Disch said.

“Cynthia exemplifies the values of our city: Integrity, passion and empathy. Her deep understanding of navigating service systems and her experience advocating for Ann Arbor residents will make her an invaluable member of City Council and a great representative for our community,” Taylor said.

Eric Sturgis, a Ward 1 resident who pulled petitions to run for Hayner’s seat before Smith, said he’s not running now and is supporting Smith. She’s a phenomenal candidate with the financial experience needed on council and has great experience with affordable housing, he said.

Harrison has a campaign website at VoteCynthiaHarrison.com. Smith said she’s still working on her website.

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