Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 31, 2026. On Monday, October 26, the City of Ann Arbor sued Ann Arbor for Public Power (A2P2), a small local nonprofit. The lawsuit challenges the legality of Proposal E, which A2P2 drafted and the Ann Arbor for Public Power Ballot Question Committee supports. Voter approval of Proposal E would amend the City Charter to establish a municipal electric utility and a process for selecting a utility governing board in 2028.
“A lawsuit just ahead of the election only prejudices voters against Proposal E,” says A2P2 executive director Brian Geiringer. “The City knows there is no time for the court to rule on the legal questions before the vote. It just wants to raise a cloud of doubt around the proposal.”
As of today, neither A2P2 nor the A2P2 Ballot Question Committee have yet been served with the lawsuit. (The timing of such service is up to the plaintiff, in this case the City.) [Update: the summons and complaint were finally delivered by mail on the afternoon of October 31.] “The fact that the City has not even bothered to deliver us its complaint tells us that it’s not serious about the substance of the suit,” Geiringer said. “It doesn’t want a pre-election court ruling, despite allowing for one in its lawsuit. It just wants to throw dirt on Proposal E.”
The lawsuit’s actual arguments are “flimsy and contrived,” Geiringer says. “We’re confident they would not hold up in court.” The lawsuit argues that Proposal E is not an amendment to the City Charter, but instead a more extensive revision, and thus requires a different process for approval. A2P2 strongly stands by the amendment as such. “The ballot proposal is merely an amendment to the existing City Charter that would create a new utility department and board that are designed to operate under City Council’s ultimate authority,” says Ross Hammersley, principal attorney and partner in the Traverse City law firm Olson & Howard, PC. “Unfortunately, the City’s complaint mischaracterizes the nature of the amendments as proposed, because their legal arguments only work under Michigan law if the proposed change ‘disrupts, cancels, abrogates, or makes inoperable’ the existing City Charter. We disagree that the adoption of this charter amendment will result in such drastic impacts.” Hammersley, who is a city attorney for multiple cities in northern Michigan and advises municipal electric utilities there, has consulted with A2P2 and helped draft Proposal E.
In an August 12 letter to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Pendrick raised the issue of revision versus amendment, and concluded that Proposal E is in fact an amendment. “While this initiative petition provides the Board with certain control over the electrical utilities, it does not appear to change ‘in the form of government’ nor does it appear to conflict with other Charter provisions,” Pendrick wrote.
“Even though the A2P2 Ballot Question Committee is being outspent 34-1 by DTE Energy’s front group, we will use our remaining resources to defend Proposal E if voters approve it on Tuesday,” Geiringer said. “The City, for reasons we don’t understand, is doing its best to make sure Proposal E loses, even though over 5,300 Ann Arbor voters signed petitions to place it on the ballot. We trust that voters will see through the City’s machinations and recognize the proposal for what it is: a modest and legally sound first step towards a possible future municipal electric utility that would serve the entire city.”
