CM Hayner's disrespectful and offensive behavior is, at this point, undermining both City Council's ability to focus on the difficult work they need to do to implement livability, sustainability and housing abundance across all levels to prepare Ann Arbor for the years ahead and the community's faith in city government. Ann Arbor City Councilmembers are here to serve their constituents, not belittle and insult them. It's quite concerning that he has attacked local journalists and used slurs against community members. It doesn't seem that CM Hayner has a good understanding of the civic responsibilities of city council members. Constituents and journalists, even ones with which he might disagree, are not his enemies.
Hayner needs to resign and work on actual lgbtqia+ centered healing. His refusal to give a sincere apology and willingness to blame everyone but himself, says everything about his character
Leaving this individual in a position of power while fellow cm's openly defend his right to use uncivil and hateful language is going to continue to hurt this community greatly day by day.
Ann arbor has clearly been coasting on its "progressive" legacy for a few decades instead of actively continuing to put in the work that would actually make ann arbor progressive.
This City COULD absolutely do more to remove him but instead, hes politely being asked to leave and a recall was filed against him.
CM Hayner refuses to accept/understand that as an elected official he must set aside his belief that he can publicly shoot his mouth off however and whenever he wants to just because he's personally "free" to do so.
That's a private citizen attitude.
It's unbecoming of an elected official.
He continually chooses to show more anger that he apparently believes is righteous, rather than simply choosing to display the humble contrition deserved by many residents of our city in the wake of his repeated verbal assaults on us.
If he cannot be removed via the application of existing council rules, let's at least get a show of hands on council to see who explicitly supports his privilege (because it sure isn't a right!) to continually distract council and disrupt the hope many of us have for a city government that functions with reasonable and efficacious focus on policy making.
I am very tired of all the bad faith behavior by some of our council members.
CM Hayner has shown no contrition for his poor behavior. Instead, he keeps escalating and blaming others. He can choose to stop and make amends whenever he wants, but has not. Asking him to consider resigning if he is unable to control his behavior is a reasonable and measured response to someone who seems incapable of holding office with dignity.
I object to the double standard demonstrated by the mayor and others on City Council. Granted CM Hayner made some stupid comments to a journalist, but it was a discussion about language and no slurs were directed at the journalist nor anyone else. On the other hand, CM Ackerman committed a felony and hid it for several months and was not disciplined at all. CM Eyer lied about being a small business owner and was accused by six women of enabling sexual harassment. She was not disciplined either. Is uttering a slur in a discussion about language worse than committing a felony drunken driving offense and hiding it? Is it worse than lying and being accused of enabling sexual harassment? The actions of Ackerman and Eyer are certainly unbecoming of a Council member. Any discipline or request for resignation must be meted out equally or any claim of fairness and democracy on the part of this mayor is laughable.
I support this. CM Hayner has not shown that he is willing to do better. Furthermore, he continues to waste The Peoples’ time with his antics. His words are harmful. He is an embarrassment to the community and he needs to go.
This is a purely performative resolution, intended to humiliate CM Hayner, not to heal. A far more constructive action would be something restorative. I am sure CM Hayner would be willing to meet with members of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities to discuss the effect his choice of literary quotations and philosophical musings on language and the use of the n-word has had on them, which no doubt will show a varied impact as evidenced by the letter of a gay male, Charles Lewis as revealed in the FOIA regarding CM Hayner's use of the literary quote containing the f-word, and African-American journalist John McWhorter in his Atlantic article about white people's exploitative and hypocritical posturing over the use of the n-word in philosophical debate. What happened to "progressive" Ann Arbor? This is an opportunity for genuine community debate. An effort at restorative justice with CM Hayner's participation would be truly healing. Instead we have white guilt posturing for political gain.
CM Hayner's disrespectful and offensive behavior is, at this point, undermining both City Council's ability to focus on the difficult work they need to do to implement livability, sustainability and housing abundance across all levels to prepare Ann Arbor for the years ahead and the community's faith in city government. Ann Arbor City Councilmembers are here to serve their constituents, not belittle and insult them. It's quite concerning that he has attacked local journalists and used slurs against community members. It doesn't seem that CM Hayner has a good understanding of the civic responsibilities of city council members. Constituents and journalists, even ones with which he might disagree, are not his enemies.
Hayner needs to resign and work on actual lgbtqia+ centered healing. His refusal to give a sincere apology and willingness to blame everyone but himself, says everything about his character
Leaving this individual in a position of power while fellow cm's openly defend his right to use uncivil and hateful language is going to continue to hurt this community greatly day by day.
Ann arbor has clearly been coasting on its "progressive" legacy for a few decades instead of actively continuing to put in the work that would actually make ann arbor progressive.
This City COULD absolutely do more to remove him but instead, hes politely being asked to leave and a recall was filed against him.
CM Hayner refuses to accept/understand that as an elected official he must set aside his belief that he can publicly shoot his mouth off however and whenever he wants to just because he's personally "free" to do so.
That's a private citizen attitude.
It's unbecoming of an elected official.
He continually chooses to show more anger that he apparently believes is righteous, rather than simply choosing to display the humble contrition deserved by many residents of our city in the wake of his repeated verbal assaults on us.
If he cannot be removed via the application of existing council rules, let's at least get a show of hands on council to see who explicitly supports his privilege (because it sure isn't a right!) to continually distract council and disrupt the hope many of us have for a city government that functions with reasonable and efficacious focus on policy making.
I am very tired of all the bad faith behavior by some of our council members.
CM Hayner has shown no contrition for his poor behavior. Instead, he keeps escalating and blaming others. He can choose to stop and make amends whenever he wants, but has not. Asking him to consider resigning if he is unable to control his behavior is a reasonable and measured response to someone who seems incapable of holding office with dignity.
I object to the double standard demonstrated by the mayor and others on City Council. Granted CM Hayner made some stupid comments to a journalist, but it was a discussion about language and no slurs were directed at the journalist nor anyone else. On the other hand, CM Ackerman committed a felony and hid it for several months and was not disciplined at all. CM Eyer lied about being a small business owner and was accused by six women of enabling sexual harassment. She was not disciplined either. Is uttering a slur in a discussion about language worse than committing a felony drunken driving offense and hiding it? Is it worse than lying and being accused of enabling sexual harassment? The actions of Ackerman and Eyer are certainly unbecoming of a Council member. Any discipline or request for resignation must be meted out equally or any claim of fairness and democracy on the part of this mayor is laughable.
The local LGBTQ community has made the entirely reasonable request that our representatives not use derogatory terms for gay people as insults.
Jeff Hayner is more interested in defending his right to say whatever he'd like.
I support this. CM Hayner has not shown that he is willing to do better. Furthermore, he continues to waste The Peoples’ time with his antics. His words are harmful. He is an embarrassment to the community and he needs to go.
This is a purely performative resolution, intended to humiliate CM Hayner, not to heal. A far more constructive action would be something restorative. I am sure CM Hayner would be willing to meet with members of the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities to discuss the effect his choice of literary quotations and philosophical musings on language and the use of the n-word has had on them, which no doubt will show a varied impact as evidenced by the letter of a gay male, Charles Lewis as revealed in the FOIA regarding CM Hayner's use of the literary quote containing the f-word, and African-American journalist John McWhorter in his Atlantic article about white people's exploitative and hypocritical posturing over the use of the n-word in philosophical debate. What happened to "progressive" Ann Arbor? This is an opportunity for genuine community debate. An effort at restorative justice with CM Hayner's participation would be truly healing. Instead we have white guilt posturing for political gain.