AATA Board: Additional Allocation for Planning

At a special session held in a meeting room at Weber’s Inn on June 3, 2011, the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board heard extensive staff presentations on its budget and the future of the organization as it relates to a possible expansion of its service countywide. The board passed one resolution at its meeting, which decreased the budget for administrative salaries and benefits by a total of $200,000 and made a corresponding increase in line items supporting the effort of transportation master planning – for agency design fees, consulting fees, printing and production and media.

The board tabled a resolution that would have appointed three current AATA board members to an unincorporated board, which is expected to serve as an interim entity that could lead to the incorporation of a formal Act 196 organization. The rationale for appointing only three board members to the unincorporated board – called the U196, with the U standing for “unincorporated” – was based on the idea that appointing four members would constitute a quorum of the current AATA board any time the U196 met. The board decided to table the resolution until greater clarity could be achieved about what the role of the interim U196 would be in developing the eventual governance of a countywide transit authority.

Board chair Jesse Bernstein wrapped up the topic of a future governing body by saying he saw the issue of governance as very much still an open conversation.

This brief was filed shortly after the AATA board’s retreat, held at Weber’s Inn. A more complete report of the meeting will follow: [link]