Three Candidates To Battle For Traverse City's Mayoral Seat

This afternoon marks the deadline for City of Traverse City mayoral candidates to file paperwork and formalize their candidacy for the November election. In anticipation of that 4pm deadline, The Ticker took stock of the field, which includes the mayoral incumbent, a long-time city commissioner, and a newcomer to local politics.

The Incumbent: Amy Shamroe, who won her first term as mayor in the 2023 election, is seeking reelection. Previously an eight-year city commissioner (including six years as mayor pro tem), Shamroe tells The Ticker she’s running for a second term largely to complete some unfinished business from her first.

“I have no intention of being mayor for life, but I did recognize, even at the time when I was elected, that we were in a time of a lot of transition,” she says. “We were coming in to a new city manager, and we had been talking about doing a strategic plan and some other big-picture things. So, I had always intended to run for at least one more term, and that’s why I'm moving forward and seeking reelection now. I think there's a good amount of work that still can be done, and that my experience, both as an elected official for 10 years now and as mayor for the last two years, will be very helpful for finishing some of those things.”

Beyond implementing the city’s new strategic plan, the next mayor and city commission will be tasked with finding yet another city manager following the abrupt departure of Liz Vogel. Shamroe says she’s committed to finding a candidate who understands and is ready for the high level of public attention the position draws.

“I think it’s great that we have such an open and transparent community, but I do think that people don’t always recognize the intense scrutiny that comes with holding a public position as your day-to-day job in this community,” Shamroe explains. “This is a community where, when you're walking through the grocery store, whether you're the city manager, the mayor, or head of a nonprofit, you're going to run into people who know you from your role. It’s a small town, and there are a lot of touchpoints with the public. That’s a good thing, but it can also feel like there's not always breathing room.”

Shamroe says her other big goals would mostly be continuations of what she considers the biggest accomplishments of her first term. Those include making progress on housing and homelessness issues, improving the bikeability and walkability of the community, and fostering stronger relationships and better collaboration between the city and Grand Traverse County.

The Challenger: For the first time in a decade, two members of the sitting City Commission are contending for mayor, thanks to Tim Werner’s decision to challenge Shamroe. A three-term commissioner first elected in November 2013, Werner was the first to file for this year’s mayoral race and says he did it because he saw the city losing direction.

“I feel like, over the past couple years, the city has been a little bit adrift,” Werner tells The Ticker, flagging the departures of both Vogel and her predecessor, Marty Colburn, as incidents that muddied city priorities and tarnished public trust. “I want to work to reestablish that trust, to show folks that local government can be effective, and that we can do the public's work in public. Let’s be a little bit more forward-facing and encourage conversations, encourage people to ask questions, and find consensus.”

If elected, Werner says he’d place a big emphasis on “setting priorities and goals” for the city’s future.

“We haven't really had any priorities or goals since Marty's departure,” he explains. “Yes, we’ve had the strategic plan underway for the past year and a half, and that's a good jumping-off point. But that's a community-wide strategic plan. There still needs to be more of an internal workup from whoever gets elected November. I think it’s only fair for a city manager and their staff to be able to better understand what it is the city commission is actually looking for.”

Also top-of-mind for Werner: “the condition of streets and the pace at which we address them.”

“A resident will come to us with a question about a street, and we’ll say, ‘That's on the list to repair in 20XX,’ but people are left wondering ‘How does this work?’ and ‘Why does my street have to get to be such poor condition before it's addressed?’”

Werner says the city commission could use Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) data from the city engineering department, which assess road pavement conditions on a scale of 1-10. “Maybe we look at those numbers and decide ‘We don't want any of our streets in a condition less than a certain number.’ From there, it’s just a math problem to figure out how much money we’d have to be investing every year to keep all the streets above that rating. Are we, as a community, willing to put that amount of tax dollars toward ? Whatever that number is, let's put it out there and have that public conversation.”

The Newcomer: Undaunted by Shamroe and Werner and their experience on the city commission, political newcomer Jared Moelaart decided to throw his hat into the ring. Though he admits he hasn’t been particularly engaged with local governance so far – he’s never attended a city commission meeting, for instance, and wasn’t aware of the recent situation involving Vogel – Moelaart thinks he could bring a fresh perspective.

“I picked up three nomination packets the day I was at the city clerk’s office: city commissioner, election inspector, and mayor,” Moelaart says. “I just wanted to be involved in the process and assist voters in gaining a voice. But I decided to go for mayor because of the opportunity to lead the city commission meetings. I think guiding conversation around topics that are pertinent to Traverse City residents and employees is how I could help resolve issues the quickest.”

Born in Kalamazoo and raised in northern Illinois, Moelaart has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Eckerd College in Florida. He also holds a master’s-level certificate from the University of Amsterdam in Netherlands, where he completed “The Circular City: Towards a Sustainable Urban Ecosystem” – which he describes as “a three-week intensive summer course focused on applying circularity to resolve civil issues in the downtown economy.” Moelaart also pursued (but did not complete) a master’s degree in food studies from New York University, and has worked extensively in the culinary space, including at spots like The Boathouse, Oryana West, and The Dam Shop in Elk Rapids.

Moelaart relocated to Traverse City in 2020, the same year he says he developed a “passion for making change” thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He’s since been involved with local nonprofits like SEEDS and the Northwest Michigan Community Action Agency, and is particularly focused on issues like food security and agricultural sustainability. Moelaart says he’d like to “bring those advocacy issues to the table at local meetings,” along with other priorities like affordable housing and perhaps even a higher minimum wage for downtown employees.

“Workers of Traverse City can’t afford to live within the precinct limits. What I'm seeing is a spread within Grand Traverse County, where people are moving to Kingsley, Buckley, and Grawn while making the commute to Traverse City for work,” Moelaart says. “I'd like to see a better balance between the needs of our workers and our tourism economy.”

Editor's note: According to the office of City Clerk Benjamin Marentette, Moelaart had not yet filed his paperwork to run for mayor as of end of business hours Monday.

Pictured, from left: Shamroe, Werner, Moelaart