YPSILANTI, Mich.—A group of local activists who set out to give Ypsilanti residents three transformative ballot proposals this November were sent reeling when the city told them that—despite surpassing the 870-signature barrier on each initiative—none of the measures will appear on the ballot.
The Ypsilanti Ballot Initiative Group (Ypsi BIG) collected signatures for initiatives that would have greatly expanded tenants’ rights, allowed residents to vote on proposed increases to the police budget, and made all city election races nonpartisan.
The group was told on July 19 that the tenants’ rights initiative, which garnered the most signatures of all, would not be a ballot proposal based on the city’s interpretation of a state law, but they kept collecting signatures anyway and expected the other two measures to be accepted on the ballot when they submitted signatures at the July 30 deadline—at least that’s what they thought was the deadline.
According to longtime activist Brian Geiringer, who spearheaded BIG and collected the majority of its signatures, the city said it had no legal obligation to turn the initiatives into proposals for the November ballot unless the signatures were submitted and accepted by July 1. Geiringer felt the city’s messaging on signature deadlines was never transparent.
Later, after the city validated enough signatures for the police budget and election reform measures, the city clerk, Tracey Boudreau, missed an Aug. 13 deadline to submit verified documents to the county for ballot printing. She told the media she believed the deadline was Aug. 15 and said, “Election law can be confusing.”
“The clerk [messed] up real bad,” Geiringer said, referring to Boudreau, who did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story. Geiringer also named the city’s attorney, John M. Barr, as culpable for the mishap and said the group would be calling for Barr’s resignation from a position he has held since the 1980s.
“He was obstructive throughout the entire process,” Geiringer said of Barr. “In other places, the city attorney works with people on how to get these things done, but with him, it was the total opposite.”
Ypsi BIG, which formed in February and had dozens of canvassers, is in discussion on how to proceed but doesn’t expect that Ypsi voters will have a chance to see these initiatives on a ballot until 2026 at the earliest.
The initiatives represented what would have been bold, sweeping changes. In a city where 73% of residents are renters, the tenants’ rights initiative was arguably the most important. It would have banned rental application fees; put all city rental properties in a publicly viewable database that listed owners, managers, prices, occupancy status, and eviction history; and, significantly, the tenants being offered a chance to buy the home they are renting should a landlord bring it to market.
The city informed the group that the initiative would not be turned into a ballot proposal no matter how many signatures were submitted (BIG says they had 1,193 valid signatures supporting the measure) because Michigan state law does not allow for a city charter to be amended if a proposal is not confined to one subject. BIG argues all the issues written in the initiative revolved around the same subject: tenant-landlord relations.
Eastern Michigan student Colton Ray worked with BIG and used his experience in student government to help Geiringer draft the language in the initiatives and believes the clerk’s rejection was likely a political decision.
“We were somewhat surprised because it’s not uncommon to see proposals with overarching themes and different components,” Ray said. “But you see it all over. Voters in San Francisco passed a vacancy tax, but landlords fought to keep it off the ballot.”
Geiringer said there may be a push to get the tenants’ rights idea through via city council, as two councilmembers, Desiree Simmons and Michelle King, publicly endorsed the initiative, as did Amber Fellows, who had a surprise win in the Aug. 6 primary over incumbent Evan Sweet in Ward 3 and is running unopposed in November. That would constitute three of the necessary four votes to pass an ordinance, although this would not amend the charter (effectively the constitution of Ypsilanti), as the group originally intended.
Canvasser Shannon Bacheller, who moved to Ypsi from Texas last year, said she always started the conversations with the initiative around tenants’ rights, which enthused renters and even had modest support among homeowners:
“I explained to homeowners that 70% of Ypsi residents rent and even if this doesn’t help you directly, this is a chance to increase home ownership in the city and benefit the neighborhoods,” Bacheller said.
She recounted a story where one resident who signed the police and nonpartisan initiatives but wouldn’t sign the one for tenants’ rights because he said he was “the biggest landlord in the city.” According to Bacheller, that resident was the well-known and controversial Stewart Beal.
The police initiative was inspired by the city amending its budget in 2021 to add three new police officers, Geiringer said. There was no public oversight and then-councilmember and current Ypsilanti Mayor Nicole Brown acknowledged it was a “controversial amendment” even though she supported it.
“They understand they need to be sheisty to get these things through,” Geiringer said, adding that police budgets being approved by voters is not a radical approach and something that is common in townships, citing Pittsfield as a local example.
The nonpartisan initiative was conceived to decide races in high-turnout general elections, not low-turnout August primaries since the city is dominated by Democrats who often run unopposed by Republicans or other parties.
Ypsi BIG plans to make a public statement on its intentions soon.
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