Real or perceived?

Team Bernero, Team Wood. 4-4 votes. A canceled meeting due to lack of quorum. And a D . Are these signs of an image problem for the Lansing City Council?

Whether this is an issue for the Council or if it’s just a “myth perpetuated by the press,” as Councilwoman Carol Wood contends, the perceived image by the public indicates there’s room for improvement.

At a candidate forum Saturday sponsored by the Lansing branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, all 12 people contending for 1st Ward, 3rd Ward and At-Large Council seats were specifically asked about the issue. And at times, it surfaced in responses to unrelated questions.

“Council hasn’t been the same since I left (in 2007),” Harold Leeman said, who is running for his old seat in the 1st Ward.

More than halfway through the two-hour forum held at Union Missionary Baptist Church, 500 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, candidates were asked what they made of the recent D grade given to Council in a June Marketing Resource Group poll that surveyed 300 likely voters. 

The Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce helped MRG pay for the poll, said Paul King, director of survey research at MRG. “We (MRG) paid for it as much as they did,” King said, but he declined to say what the poll cost.

The Chamber endorsed two at-large candidates, Tom Stewart and Rory Neuner, who are challenging two incumbents, Derrick Quinney and Wood, who voted against tax breaks for the Market Place development plan next to the City Market because no labor agreement was in place. It also endorsed newcomer Joe Manzella in the 1st Ward race and 3rd Ward incumbent A’Lynne Robinson.

The candidates were asked Saturday: How would they improve the Council’s image?

Leeman was the first to respond, saying, “I question anyone doing a poll — who’s paying for it? How many people participated in it?” Leeman added that when he was on the Council, serving with three mayors, “I didn’t make it personal when it came to issues.”

Manzella followed: “I would give the Council an ‘F.’ That’s why I’m running.”

Jody Washington said she is the only candidate who will not jump on the image problem bandwagon, but perhaps acknowledged it exists: “I’m the only candidate who hasn’t trashed Council. … To do that is to play into what’s already going on.” She said in an interview after the forum: “I’ve taken jabs at issues — not the Council. I don’t have a problem with them arguing back and forth.”

But the incumbents on the panel all had reservations about the Council apparently not getting along and denied any personality conflicts.

When the question reached Wood, who is running for her fourth term, she said she “had a number of questions” about the poll and that Council’s image problem, if you want to call it that, is a “myth perpetuated in the press. Ninety percent of the items that come before Council have all been (unanimously) supported.”

Quinney, who is seeking his second full term, said: “I too have concerns about the perception of 4-4 votes.” He added those shouldn’t be an issue “if we can respectfully agree to disagree.”

Robinson, who is seeking re-election in the 3rd Ward, said: “I wholeheartedly agree we (Council members) come with a different vantage point. It’s letting the process take its course. There are a lot of 8-0 votes.”

But Jason Wilkes, Robinson’s opponent in the general election — since they are the only candidates, the 3rd Ward race is not on the primary ballot —  said while “you can debate” the D grade, “There is a lack of professionalism at times on Council.”

Candidates were asked specifically what they make of the Council’s cooperation, but it also came up in several responses to unrelated questions.

When asked about their top three priorities if elected, Neuner said “reform Council” is her first, which came in before “preserving public safety” and “economic development.”

“There’s an epidemic of distrust,” she said of the current Council. Neuner said later in the forum that “the poll reflects what I’m hearing from people” when knocking on doors. “Whether that’s perception or reality, it’s not a grade any of us would want to get in school.”

And 1st Ward candidate Lynne Martinez said, “We have to change the process at City Council,” when asked about how to retain young talent in the city and prevent “brain drain.”

“We can’t go on with 4-4 votes killing every opportunity in this community,” she said. “Everything is in place in this city. We need to manage the issue of: How does City Council behave?”

About 50 people attended the NAACP forum. NAACP representatives posed seven questions from the organization and attendees over the two-hour forum. With all 12 candidates responding to each question, responses were limited to a minute or two. 

Two questions focused on the March 14 shooting of 17-year-old Derrinesha Clay. The first asked candidates if they were aware of the July 5 press conference co-hosted by the NAACP which called for a further investigation into the incident even though the Lansing Police Department has cleared officers of any wrongdoing. A second question asked if the candidates support establishing a citizen review board for such matters, and all 12 of them said yes.

Candidates also were asked their top three priorities for the city; how they plan to keep young talent in Lansing and avoid “brain drain;” their thoughts on Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget as it pertains to “shared resources” among municipalities; and, to 1st Ward candidates only, how they plan to lower crime in their ward. 

The forum carried on without a hitch until about an hour and 45 minutes in when Leeman made his closing remarks. Before doing so, he pointed to the back of the room where Thomas Morgan, a consultant with Byrum Fisk Communications who is engaged to Washington’s daughter, was filming the forum with his camera phone.

“I’d appreciate it if the person with the camera would take it off me,” Leeman announced. “He’s a political operative with Ms. Washington.”

Morgan acquiesced, but a day after the forum, he said in an interview that he was filming because “we need more accountability and transparency in government, not less.” He added that it’s “disturbing” that Leeman “refused to be recorded in public.”