STATE REPRESENTATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Served as Democratic Floor Leader, the second ranking Democrat in the Michigan House of Representatives. Tied for longest serving Democratic Floor Leader since institution of legislative term limits.

• Sponsored Public Act 118 of 2019: bipartisan legislation that was signed into law to prevent local governments from taxing residential solar energy systems, protecting homeowners who install solar panels. Ann Arbor was the only municipality in the state that taxed solar panels at the time the bill was passed. 

• Sponsored Public Act 190 of 2020: a criminal justice reform law that was as part of landmark bi-partisan package to create an automatic expungement system in Michigan, allowing eligible residents with qualifying misdemeanor and non-violent felony records to have those records automatically cleared upon meeting eligibility requirements, removing unjust barriers to employment and housing.

• Sponsored Public Act 246 of 2022: an act to force landfill operators to increase environmental clean-up funds as part of a major bi-partisan rewrite of Michigan’s waste recovery laws.

• Sponsored Public Act 140 of 2022: a law to restore worker protections that had been suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Sponsored Public Act 56 of 2021 to regulate intoxicating hemp-derived products such as Delta-8 THC under Michigan's marijuana regulatory framework rather than leaving them largely unregulated, protecting Michigan’s public health and youth.

• Secured $3.5 million in state funding for Avalon Housing to expand affordable housing in Washtenaw County.

• Secured $700,000 in state funding to improve and upgrade affordable public senior housing at Lurie Terrace.

• Secured $250,000 in state funding to support the development of the Grove on Platt Road in Ann Arbor which provided 50 new units of permanent affordable housing

• As Democratic Floor Leader, successfully negotiated the adoption of a Pride Month resolution for the first time ever under Republican legislative control.

• Sponsored legislation to enshrine marriage equality into Michigan law

• Sponsored legislation to: shut down Line 5, make polluters pay to clean up their messes, protect groundwater from over extraction, reduce methane emissions, expand access to home renewable energy, set a 100% renewable energy standard for Michigan’s utilities, and create lead-safe homes. 

• Sponsored legislation to grant in-state tuition to students with DACA immigrant status.

• Sponsored legislation protecting students who report sexual assault from being punished for reporting incidents (later signed into law under Democratic trifecta)

• Sponsored legislation promoting government transparency and ethics, including financial disclosure requirements for public officials.

•Sponsored legislation banning source of income discrimination in housing (later signed into law under Democratic trifecta)

•Sponsored legislation preventing HOA’s from banning solar panels (later signed into law under Democratic trifecta)

COUNTY COMMISSIONER ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Led Washtenaw County as Board Chair in adopting the first balanced four-year county budget in Michigan history and the first AAA bond rating in county history, providing long-term fiscal stability for county government

• Spearheaded the creation of the Washtenaw ID program, making Washtenaw County the first local unit of government in the Midwest to issue county identification cards, expanding access to banking, public services, and identification for residents who faced barriers obtaining state IDs. This program served as a model for other municipalities like Kalamazoo County and the City of Detroit. 

• Oversaw the establishment of the Washtenaw Dental Clinic, expanding access to dental care for uninsured and underinsured county residents.

• Re-established domestic partner benefits coverage for county employees and fought state efforts to eliminate those benefits before marriage equality became law.

• Sponsored updates to the Washtenaw County non-discrimination ordinance to officially prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. 

• Passed an environmentally preferred purchasing policy to direct county procurement to prioritize environmentally responsible products and services.

• Led efforts to establish the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day in Washtenaw County.

• Authored and passed Michigan's first and only ordinance to regulate single-use plastic bags before the state preempted local regulation.

• Leveraged key vote on Washtenaw Roads Millage to guarantee that 20% of the money off the top would be used for the Border to Border Trail, resulting in tens of millions of dollars of investment in this prized non-motorized trail system, and adding requirements in the millage for meaningful investments in walking and biking improvements to road projects. 

• Spearheaded efforts to establish of the county's Resiliency Office and fund the hiring of a Director and Program Manager for the office. 

• Initiated a millage accountability ordinance to improve transparency in how public millage dollars are spent.

• Advocated for the creation of a county housing commission. 

• Initiated and led an effort to repurpose the former juvenile detention center site, for affordable housing. This project is now known as the Grove and represents dozens of new units of permanently affordable housing.

• Co-led the effort to create a County-wide transit system which ultimately led to the expansion of the AAATA service area to include Ypsilanti, Ypsilanti Twp and Pittsfield Twp. 

• Served as Washtenaw County’s representative on the body that helped to create the political framework for Regional Transit Authority

• Passed the strongest and most effective ICE-Free zone resolution in the entire state. Worked with Sheriff Dyer to implement it on day 1.