Candidate Profile: Jon Akkari For Dearborn City Council

Jon Akkari

Age (as of Election Day)

29

Position Sought

Dearborn City Council

Party Affiliation

Non-partisan election

Family

My father Nizar immigrated from Lebanon over 40 years ago, and has worked a blue collar union job at a tool and dye maker that supplies auto manufacturers for over 30 years. My mother, Debbie, is a third generation Dearbornite, the child of a career Army officer and line worker for GM, and a proud homemaker. They raised me and my two older sisters, Deana and Megan.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

My brother-in-law works for Dearborn Water and Sewage Division

Education

B.A. Political Science, minor in Psychology, Wayne State University 2010; J.D., Wayne State Law School 2017

Occupation

Attorney

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

None

Campaign website

www.jonfordearborn.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I'm immensely grateful for my upbringing in Dearborn. We have a great school system staffed by talented and dedicated educators and support staff, which prepared me to become the first person in my family to graduate from a four year university and obtain a professional degree. While my story is hardly unique in this city, I found that many of my peers left Dearborn, particularly the Eastside of town, for greener pastures after obtaining their degrees. Longtime residents, like my mother, recall better days in terms of city services and quality of life in Dearborn. Our city is one in decline. We're losing population at an alarming rate, especially when it comes to young professionals. Investment in capital improvement, infrastructure, and public health approaches zero. Recreation programs for our youth have been eliminated. We've closed pools, a health department that served 15,000 low income residents, and the Snow Library branch. Our parks regularly accumulate with litter, including glass and jagged cans that pose a threat to our most vulnerable residents. There can be no doubt that we are paying higher taxes for fewer services. The structural barriers to growth--mainly Dearborn's one-of-a-kind minimum staffing requirements--have always been apparent. The prevailing political establishment in this city has not had the fortitude to tackle that barrier head on. I'm running because I'm willing to make the tough decisions necessary to preserve and grow our city, and to give a voice to the working families that make our community great.
The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Without a doubt Dearborn's minimum staffing requirements. A 3.5 mill tax increase was implemented in 2011 explicitly to finance those requirements, even after the city cut 30% of general personnel positions, closed a library and our health department, and sold off Dearborn Towers. We have never recovered form those cuts. Since then, annual tax revenue has only increased by about $6 million, while annual spending on public safety--two departments--has increased by nearly $25 million. Our narrow conception of public safety was put to the test by rampant pollution in the Southend, the opioid epidemic, the pandemic, and the extreme weather events that are quickly becoming the norm. We failed, and our residents suffered greatly. I will fight for Dearborn to be on even footing every every other municipality in the state and implement demand based staffing, and for a comprehensive understanding of public safety that recognizes the threats posed by pollution, inaccessible healthcare, and housing insecurity.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I am running completely outside the city's established political order. Even many of my non-incumbent opponents have ingratiated themselves with the city's governing political class and, even with the best intentions, would take office with the biases ingrained in the current leadership. That does not mean that I'm unvetted--I am very proud to be endorsed by labor unions and environmental and civil rights organizations. It means I'm bringing a fresh perspective to city government, and that I intend to represent those in town that have been disenfranchised or disillusioned by the city's current leadership.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

Substantive policy aside, the vast majority of the current council has failed to keep open lines of communication with residents and city workers. For example, ZOOM meetings presented a unique opportunity to increase civic engagement in Dearborn to a degree never before seen. Working residents and disabled folks could directly address the entire council in a public forum with ease--and many did. Residents expressed their concerns over pollution, systemic inequality, over-industrialization, and even rat infestations. The current Council's leadership responded by considering ways to limit public comment at meetings, even on agenda items, addressing residents in disrespectful and antagonistic manners, and rushed to return to in person meetings with no hybrid option while nearly every other governing body in Wayne County continued remote meetings.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

Dearborn's pandemic response was an abject failure. Our city regularly had the highest infection rates in Wayne County--twice the rate of Detroit for much of the pandemic. Nearly 13,000 residents in a city of 94,000 were infected, and well over 200 died. And while surrounding communities implemented relief programs for residents at risk of losing their homes or having their utilities shut off, Dearborn lagged months behind. Our city appropriated $200,000 for tents for outdoor dining in the dead of a Michigan winter just two weeks before the Governor resumed indoor dining. That amounts to 115 mortgage payments at $1,500/month. I would have immediately moved to use federal COVID funds for direct relief into the pockets of residents and small business owners to ensure they could comfortably comply with stay home orders and reduce the spread of the virus. I also would have done the same thing as Detroit, and maintain a public database of places of business that failed to comply with mask and social distancing orders for residents to make informed choices as to their patronage.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

The flooding that ravaged our community this year was predictable, and the damage it caused could have been mitigated. This is the third 'hundred year storm' in the last seven years. Climate change has been widely acknowledged for decades, and we have been living with its impact for years. Not just in the form of powerful rain storms, but in the form of mild Winters interceded with polar vortexes that deliver piercing cold and devastating winters, and in the form of weeks long stretches of 90 degree weather in the Spring and early Summer. We saw the storm coming, and nothing was done to prepare for it.

I want to make long overdue investments in our infrastructure, particularly green infrastructure. That includes protecting and expanding greenspaces in the Eastside and Southend to and collection ponds to ensure adequate discharge of rainwater, using permeable concrete in future road work, eliminating on-site parking requirements for houses and businesses, and incentivizing residents to replace grass lawns with rain gardens that render multiple benefits in the form of retaining rain water while beautifying neighborhoods and increasing biodiversity. I also support the creation of a disaster relief fund that can provide a stopgap for residents awaiting federal relief, and the formulation of a disaster response plan to coordinate expeditious removal of sewage and bulk waste from basements and debris from streets, and emergency housing for those who lose their homes from natural disasters.

I also want Dearborn to be part of the solution to the underlying problem of climate change. That means joining 1,000 communities worldwide in officially recognizing the climate crisis and committing to a carbon neutral city government.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

The best advice ever shared with me was:

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?