Southfield Mayor November 2 Election Candidate Guide

Voters head to the polls on November 2 to cast their votes for local leaders, ballot proposals and more. 

Get to know the candidates running for local office in your community with 101.9 FM WDET’s Candidate Guides. Surveys were distributed to candidates to complete and you can see the responses for candidates for Southfield Mayor below.

See a full list of races  »

Tawnya Morris

Age:  53

Current job: President and CEO, Abayomi Community Development Corporation

Education: Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University and a Masters of Science in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan. I also received an Executive Education Certificate from Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business in Growing the Minority Business to Scale

About Tawnya Morris: I have been invested in the Southfield community for the last 35 years. I have over 25 years of executive nonprofit management experience, providing programs and services for youth and families to help them live their best lives. In the past 5.5 years, I was elected twice as a Councilwoman and served as Council President Pro-Tem and Council President when needed. I actively led the City Council in a vote to amend the Southfield City Charter, reinstate voter rights and bring primary election voting back to our City. I also wrote resolutions to help homeowners avoid foreclosure and improve city hiring practices. I am a wife. I am a mother of 3 beautiful, smart children. I am a homeowner. I’ve been here raising my family, volunteering in various capacities and serving my community. I value community service and helping others. I am a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Southfield Alumnae Chapter. I always put people first. I present the best vision and strategies to lead us into a prosperous future for everyone, not just for some but for all. I’m running for Mayor because I want a better Southfield.

“I have been invested in the Southfield community for the last 35 years. I have over 25 years of executive nonprofit management experience, providing programs and services for youth and families to help them live their best lives.” — Tawnya Morris

Why are you running for Southfield Mayor?: When I first ran for office in 2015, I was bothered by my opponent’s support of eliminating primary election voting in our city. Even up until 2020, he was still saying the city could save money. I saw this as a form of voter suppression. You can’t put a dollar value on voter rights. Also, my opponent used his nonprofit to take people’s homes through an unfairly adjudicated foreclosure process. My opponent’s refusal to let them buy their homes back or receive compensation for their equity has resulted in several lawsuits against the city of Southfield. I believed it to be a conflict of interest for my opponent to run the nonprofit that took residents’ homes, be on the board of the for-profit that sold their homes and serve as mayor. I believe the city should be doing all we can to help residents stay in their homes, not take them and deny them the opportunity for wealth building and asset transfer to their families.

What is the most important issue facing Southfield?: Infrastructure issues such as roads and sewer, flooding and power outages. We need more residential streets repaired and repaved and we need to assess the quality of work performed.

How would you address that issue?:  I plan to create a Utilities and Infrastructure Commission to hold companies accountable for infrastructure investments and use my engineering background to make sure road improvements are being made correctly.

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? The current mayoral administration strongly supported and argued for the elimination of primary voting in our City, under the flawed premise that it would save money, but it was really about protecting incumbency. I’m passionate about voter’s rights so I believed that to be a form of voter suppression.  You cannot put a dollar value on voter’s rights.

The current mayoral administration pushed to rezone a single-family neighborhood to multi-family, for the purposes of developing apartment-style housing, even though the residents strongly opposed it. I believe in prioritizing the needs and concerns of our citizens. We are elected to serve them.

Finally, the current mayoral administration has had several lawsuits from people seeking financial restitution against the city because of what they feel are unfair foreclosure practices regarding the loss of their homes. I am opposed to the current Mayor’s refusal to let them buy their homes back or receive compensation for their equity. As a city, we should be doing everything in our power to help residents keep their homes, not take them.

Ken Siver

Age: 75

Current job: Mayor of Southfield  

Education: BA from Oakland University; MA and doctorate from Wayne State University

About Ken Siver: I am a public servant; not a politician. Most people know me as Ken. My entire adult life – 54 years — has been wrapped in service to this community as an educator, community activist, volunteer and elected leader. My motivation has always been how to make this a better community; to uphold standards so as to maintain Southfield as a great place to live, work, worship and recreate. My commitment to my fellow citizens plays out as a teacher, founding member of the MLK Task Force and Parks & Garden Club, and through long-time involvement in the Goodfellows, the Non-Profit Housing Board, the Historical Society, Magnolia Neighborhood Association, the Friends of Southfield Public Arts, The BIG RAKE, Rock the Block, annual Garden Walk, My Brother’s Keeper and many, many more activities. I work daily to build community and connectiveness. My extensive experience, knowledge and interactions with various constituencies has fostered great collaborations for the benefit of all Southfield residents.  I am endorsed by the UAW, AFL-CIO, ASFCME, Michigan Building & Construction Trades, Sierra Club, the Southfield-Lathrup Democratic Club, the 14th Congressional District Democratic Party and a host of skilled trade unions.

“My entire adult life – 54 years — has been wrapped in service to this community as an educator, community activist, volunteer and elected leader.” — Ken Siver

Why are you running for Southfield Mayor? I have served as Mayor of Southfield for the past six years and have made a noticeable impact on the city in terms of housing, infrastructure renewal, walkability, sense of place, business retention and attraction, the arts and environmental sustainability. I have an agenda in the aforementioned areas that I wish to complete.

What is the most important issue facing Southfield? There isn’t a single issue. Neighborhood streets need replacement. The Northland City Center public/private partnership needs monitoring. We need more housing – affordable for young families; subsidized senior housing; market-rate condos for “empty nesters” wishing to downsize and young professionals. We need DTE to reinvest in Southfield as they admit many of the power outages we have suffered are due to equipment failures.

How would you address that issue? We will leverage grant funds, shift some of our budget surplus and apply increased state road dollars to do more neighborhood street replacement. As mayor I found the developer for Northland and have cemented a great working relationship with them. Part of our agreement is to build workforce housing and provide several community benefits. We have two projects on the drawing boards to convert closed schools to housing.  One as subsidized senior housing, and the other as market rate condos. We have begun a dialogue with the top executives at DTE and plan to hold them accountable for more thorough tree trimming and equipment replacement. 

What are you proud of accomplishing in your tenure? Victimized by slumlords, flippers and speculators, we put a stop to these elements buying up Southfield at the annual Oakland County property tax auction by taking first of refusal and creating a partnership with Habitat for Humanity Oakland County with funding from the Southfield Non-Profit Housing Corporation. This partnership has provided 27 affordable homes for Habitat clients, demolition of 13 blighted homes that were beyond repair, and 70 restored homes for moderate-income families. (My opponent voted for this partnership in 2016 and for first right of refusal.)  In addition, we have helped over 100 aged, disabled and/or low-income homeowners with home repairs and yard maintenance.  Further, with Habitat eight new homes have been constructed. 

My opponent also pushes a false narrative that I am for voter suppression. I was not a councilman when the City Council voted in 2015 to do away with the local primary election. Nor, as mayor, did I vote to bring back the primary in 2020 by the simple fact that the mayor does not have a vote. I did suggest to the Council that I might want to look at the number of candidates for a particular office that would trigger a primary as in 30 municipal elections 16 of them required no primary or a primary to eliminate one person.

I am most proud of making Southfield more walkable by adding 17 miles of new pathways; working to secure the “age friendly community” designation from Michigan AARP; saving the Northland art collection via private donations; placement of 18 new public art installations in the city; not yielding to immense pressure to have the former Northland Mall site turned into a factory or logistics center and instead finding a developer who would build the community vision of a city-within-a-city on this property; the expenditure of over $228 million on roads, sidewalks, sewers and watermains in the past six years; and leading the city through the pandemic without laying off any city employees, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars of assistance to families and small businesses so that they could stay afloat and securing a COVID vaccination clinic at city hall through a partnership with Ascension Health.