PORT HURON — Through a certain lens, Mayor Pauline Repp and Councilwoman Anita Ashford have a few things in common.
Both have a long resume in city service. Each has been involved in different leadership capacities in state-level local government associations. They’re both turning 74 later this year. And in local elections, they have a recent history in separate races of being top vote-getters.
But ahead of this fall’s city election, when Repp takes on Ashford as a challenger as she seeks re-election once more, that may be where the similarities end.
Repp, a retired city clerk in her 15th year as mayor, has faced sitting council members in a mayoral race three times before , as well as a handful of newcomers — each time prevailing with voters at the polls. She cites a range of accomplishments the city has seen during her tenure, including over $4 million in improvements to parks and recreation facilities and helping to save the city from a legacy debt of over $100 million in retiree benefits.
“We’ve done a lot over the last 15 years,” Repp said during a recent interview. “And regardless of how you look at the community, (the) poverty rate has dropped, unemployment has dropped. So, when you look back … is it a better place than it was 15 years ago? Yes. Most definitely yes.”
Meanwhile, Ashford has racked up close to two decades total between a stint in the 1990s and her current run. In response to questions from The Times Herald last Monday, she maintained a mantra surrounding broader mayoral goals of integrity, changeability, leadership, and accountability. A first-time mayoral hopeful, she said she’d felt called in her faith to run now despite having two years left on her current council term.
“The more I’ve gotten into this, just absorbing it, the decision I made … I did it not for Anita or my opponent or anybody. It was just for the people,” Ashford said. “I just thought if there was more out there that I saw in my space as a council member all these (years) that I could do, then I knew I was a formidable candidate for this.”
Repp and Ashford were among the earliest city election candidates to pull petitions last February before returning them to the city clerk’s office in April and June, respectively.
The mayor has said she was surprised initially by Ashford’s interest, adding last week she wasn’t sure she understood the timing. Outside of the role that the mayor often serves as a community face, Repp refers to the decision-making power as just one of seven on the City Council dais — an assessment Ashford disagrees with in a similar way as she did on how their backgrounds in service differed.
“You can have the same book, but we don’t have the same content,” Ashford said.
In casting votes on action items as a board, Repp said, “Anything we’ve done over the past years has been done by all of us.”
What does each want to do as mayor?
When asked about priorities on Monday, Ashford did not get too issue-specific.
She recalled the long list of playground and park upgrades in local neighborhoods, adding they still have “families that we have to mold,” and she said there were other improvements that were “going to sustain us as a community.” However, she said it was “kind of premature” to speculate what key-note action items they’d face as a council if she were mayor. Often agendas are set with recommendations on city needs from administrators and department heads.
“We always have this big thing about, ‘We want visitors to come here.’ I want visitors to come here, but I want people to come here and live,” Ashford said. “We’re 29,000. I want to turn the tax base back around with populating our city. I don’t want people going through Port Huron, touching us and saying, ‘Oh, I had a good time, so let me go home.’”
She also said, “I do want to question as much as I can on behalf of the representation of the people. There is a pipeline to me and the people.”
Repp, too, said there was an element in better connecting with residents that was a priority for her, pointing to the engagement process in setting up the Southside Neighborhood Improvement Authority as a recent success.
“It really got me thinking about (how) there’s other options for different things we (could be) more diligent in reaching out for citizen input,” the mayor said. “Not just at the council meetings where the person only has four minutes.”
Repp also pointed to needing to address the region’s shortage of workforce housing, as well as addressing long-term options with refuse collection after widespread complaints about leaf pickup and other issues in years past.
“We had to pass the (last) contract (with Emterra Environmental) because it was the only bid we had ,” she said. “But with the understanding that we would continue to look at options . I would like to really delve into that because we still have, at this point, I believe close to four years left on the contract, three and a half to four years. I don’t want to wait that long. I think it’s important that we at least find out what our options are and move down that path.”
What issues worry them as candidates?
When asked what keeps her up at night, Repp admitted she thought she sometimes worried about ensuring council is moving in the right direction — no matter the issue.
And at times, she said that means listening to what voters want, referencing marijuana establishments as an example. Recreational cannabis businesses, she said, was something she wasn’t as personally keen on, but that city officials had already passed local rules to allow them before an outside ballot committee introduced a separate ordinance in 2020.
“Sometimes you think about what could be better, what could be different. We are in a good position in the city right now financially, but it wasn’t always that way,” Repp said. “I tend to be a worrier, so I worry about everything as a whole.”
In contrast, Ashford said, “I’m not going to worry about anything. I’m going to try to keep my mind and my heart clear so I could hear as much as I can from the people, try to ensure that it’s not about me. That we really connect with the city even on a greater basis than what I have been.”
Confident in running and taking issues on, she pointed back to her faith and her motivation for running.
“It was not so much as a want as it was as being obedient,” she’d said. “It’s like you see something, and you know you can do this and you can do it very well because it’s what you’re good at.”
Does anything excite them about the job?
“It’s certainly not the money,” Repp said with a laugh. Council members make $50 per regular and special meeting they attend, except the mayor, who makes $60, according to the city charter.
“It’s pretty much community service, a public servant at its best,” the mayor said. “I enjoy seeing people happy. I enjoy the little things. I enjoy seeing big projects happen. I enjoy seeing problems solved. But I also enjoy going to somebody’s grand opening or wishing somebody a happy 100th birthday and going to a school and reading to children.”
For Ashford, there wasn’t any one thing in particular that she’d look forward to if elected mayor, though she said she was excited about running in general. Connecting with people, being a leader — the job, she said, was representing citizens and helping to guide councilmembers.
“There’s a lot of things I think should go into that mix than just being a part of a piece of a puzzle,” she said.
How has this race changed the dynamic on City Council?
If Ashford wins in November, she vacates her seat on council.
Typically, vacancies would go to whoever was the next highest vote-getter among City Council in the last city election if that total stands to be 25% of the vote. Otherwise, sitting council members and the mayor take applications and appoint a resident to the vacancy.
With nine people running in total running for three openings this fall , any single candidate reaching a quarter of the votes may prove unlikely. Among those candidates are incumbents Teri Lamb and Bob Mosurak, as well as Mayor Pro Tem Sherry Archibald.
The potential outcome of a council without Repp was a motivating factor for Councilman Jeff Pemberton, whose term also ends in two years, to withdraw his candidacy in a county commissioner race last spring. At the time, he said he wanted to help focus on Repp winning her race and preserving the collaborative work of the current council — something he echoed when asked again this month.
But Pemberton said he’d also feared Ashford would move to terminate James Freed as city manager — a fear others in community leadership have also expressed. When asked, Ashford denied it was a priority.
Earlier in her interview, before talk turned to the dynamic on council, the councilwoman said there wasn’t anyone or any one thing she wanted to necessarily reverse.
“Me running is not saying we’ll stop doing what we do best,” Ashford said. “I recognize the city has changed. … It’s inevitable. You don’t stay in the same place. We have so much happening on a national level that provided us the resources to do all these things. We have a great leadership team at the city, working together, making things happen around here. It’s not my goal ever to be taking something back. I’m into continuous improvement. But … just because there’s nothing wrong doesn’t mean it can’t get better.”
In the recent past, Ashford has pushed forward initiatives that helped declare racism as a public health issue and a measure to support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts , and she’s been heavily involved with the Michigan Municipal League .
Repp said her success in the mayoral race meant keeping both her expertise, as well as Ashford’s on council. She said she thought she was trustworthy, open, and a succinct communicator, and she hoped to continue to serve.
Outside of city operations, Repp has served with mayoral organizations and in leadership positions with the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments, lobbying for local interests in Washington D.C. more than once.
“I think we have a lot of be proud of as a group. I think that it’s a cohesive group that works well together, and that’s very important,” Repp said. “You don’t have to agree with everybody all the time. You certainly should have your own opinions, but when you do need to work together, there needs to be respect among each other.”
Contact reporter Jackie Smith at jssmith@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Same book, different content: Inside the race for Port Huron mayor
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