Michigan firms are taking a beating on Wall Street in Monday’s trading, according to a Detroit News report, following the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on Friday. ”Even Domino’s Pizza Inc., the Ann Arbor company that has enjoyed much success during the past year and a half, saw the value of its shares marked down 7 percent to $23.60.” [Source]
Happy Place posts a series of photos showing “brilliantly smart-ass responses to completely well-meaning signs.” The first photo is taken of a stop sign along Washtenaw Avenue. [Source]
The Detroit News is among several media outlets reporting on an alleged hate crime that occurred against a 21-year-old Muslim woman on Sunday morning in Ann Arbor. The woman, wearing a hijab, said she was in her car at State and Eisenhower when a driver in a black Dodge Ram truck pulled up behind her and starting yelling insults, calling her a terrorist and saying her people should be killed. She told police he pointed a handgun at her. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has asked the FBI to investigate. [Source]
The right lane of Beakes between the Broadway bridges and Fourth Ave. is closed for resurfacing. Traffic is a mess.
Ann Arbor city council meeting (Aug. 4, 2011): In the early part of the meeting, mayor John Hieftje effectively headed off a debate that might have otherwise unfolded among councilmembers on the relationship between the taxes collected for street and sidewalk repair and the city’s public art program. The mayor announced that he’d be nominating Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) to serve on the public art commission as a replacement for recently resigned commissioner Jeff Meyers. And Hieftje went on to say that in September he wanted to take a longer look at the city’s public art program.
From left: Stephen Kunselman and Mike Anglin congratulate each other on winning their respective Democratic primary elections two days earlier. Kunselman represents Ward 3. Anglin represents Ward 5. Both are incumbents. (Photo by the writer.)
That assurance was enough for now to hold off a council discussion of an explicit restriction on the street/sidewalk repair tax – a restriction that would prevent those tax monies from being used to pay for public art under the city’s Percent for Art program. At the meeting, the council approved ballot language for Nov. 8 that will ask voters to renew the street repair tax (at a rate of 2.0 mills) as well as to approve an additional tax to repair sidewalks (at a rate of 0.125 mills).
But no discussion took place on a possible restriction on those monies in connection with public art. It’s technically possible for the council to revisit the issue at its next meeting, on Aug. 15, which falls one day before the ballot language must be filed, according to the state election statute.
If the discussion of appropriate funding mechanisms for public art is pushed to September, it will join another topic the council voted at its meeting to postpone for two months – termination of the city’s contract with RecycleBank. That company administers a coupon-based incentive program in connection with the city’s new single-stream recycling program.
It was a year ago, in July 2010, that the new single-stream system replaced Ann Arbor’s decades-old dual-stream system. Councilmembers questioned the evidence that RecycleBank’s program had any significant impact on residents’ recycling behavior. The measure needed an eight-vote super majority of the 11 councilmembers, and based on deliberations, there were only seven clear votes to terminate. But instead of voting, the council postponed the issue.
The council did take action on a related recycling issue, voting to increase its annual contract with Recycle Ann Arbor, which empties the curbside recycling carts set out by residents. The increase was set for $107,000 a year and was meant to offset diminished revenue that Recycle Ann Arbor was getting under the contract, due to a smaller number of carts being deployed in the city.
In other business, the council gave final approval to changes in employee benefits. It also approved terms of a contract with Steve Powers, who on Sept. 15 will become the city’s newest employee as city administrator. Highlights include a $145,000 base salary and participation in a 401(a) plan instead of the city’s pension system.
Allen Creek was the geographic focus of two items on the agenda. The council approved another extension to the purchase option agreement with Village Green – for the City Apartments project to be located at First and Washington. The council also approved a general expression of support for the idea of constructing a greenway in the Allen Creek corridor.
The council also approved revisions to the proposed Burton Commons housing development, located on Burton Road near Packard and US-23. And receiving initial approval were changes to the boundaries for the city’s five wards.
Highlights of council communications came from Sandi Smith (Ward 1) and Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3). Smith alerted her colleagues to possible legislation she’d be bringing forward in the future that would restrict video surveillance. Kunselman announced that he would eventually be bringing forward possible revisions to the city’s ordinance that governs how its downtown development authority operates.
A highlight from public commentary was praise heaped upon the Ann Arbor police chief, Barnett Jones, by a representative of the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (WICIR). [Full Story]
Skydiving aerobatics over Tecumseh. Parachutes against the gathering clouds and soft landing for all.
The two small, loud white dogs on the corner got loose. One chased me around the block and bit at my book!
Orange tabby cat, Lewis, guarding the corner. [photo]
Second floor of the former Ann Arbor News building – on the south side, facing Washington – being built out and enclosed. [photo]
A group of robed devotees chanting the Hare Krishna mantra loop through downtown, headed north on Main across Liberty. The Violin Monster, in his usual position on the northeast corner, bows his instrument through the din. [photo]
More North Campus wildlife, this time a wild turkey, looking very casual next to the Space Research building. [photo]
Although the city of Ann Arbor’s website previously reflected a different deadline date, city clerk staff has confirmed by phone for The Chronicle that the deadline for non-partisan Ann Arbor city council candidates to file nominating petitions to appear on the Nov. 8, 2011 ballot is Wednesday, Aug. 10.
So with only one remaining weekend between Friday, Aug. 5, and the filing deadline, Jane Lumm told The Chronicle that she was headed to the city clerk’s office to pick up nominating petitions to become an independent candidate for Ward 2 city council. Late Friday afternoon, on her way to the clerk’s office, she said she has not yet made a final decision about circulating the petitions. She continues to mull a … [Full Story]
Guy walking down the street strumming a guitar. Couldn’t hear what he was playing.
Washtenaw County board of commissioners meeting (Aug. 3, 2011): A second-quarter budget update and final approval of a major multi-department consolidation were highlights of Wednesday’s meeting.
Washtenaw County commissioner Dan Smith (R-District 2) and county administrator Verna McDaniel. Smith is vice chair of the board’s ways & means committee, and led the meeting in the absence of the committee chair, Rolland Sizemore Jr. (D-District 5). (Photos by the writer.)
The budget update showed the impact of higher-than-anticipated property tax revenues, which had first been announced in April. Because of higher revenues than originally projected, the county now expects to use only $2.9 million from its fund balance during 2011 – previously, the budget called for drawing $5.3 million from the fund balance to cover a shortfall between revenues and expenditures.
Without the $2.9 million transfer from the fund balance, however, there would be a projected $2.5 million deficit for the year, on a general fund budget of roughly $100 million. Among several shortfalls on the expenditure side, about $1.034 million in anticipated non-departmental lump sum reductions have not materialized.
Expenses for attorney fees are higher than budgeted, but the county’s corporation counsel Curtis Hedger noted that there’s at least one case that won’t be costing the county in the future. It was an allusion to the end of a 2006 lawsuit against the county over the cost of police services. Hedger later told The Chronicle that the two townships still involved in the case – Ypsilanti Township and Augusta Township – paid the county this week the nearly $750,000 recommended by a court-ordered facilitator.
There was little discussion about most of the action items that the board approved. Most notably, a final OK was given to creating a new office of community & economic development – the result of merging three county departments. The new unit, to be led by Mary Jo Callan, will employ about 31 full-time workers, compared to 40 that are now employed in the three separate departments: the office of community development (OCD); the economic development & energy department; and the employment training and community services (ETCS) department. Other jobs within the county government have been identified for all but one employee so far. The consolidation will take effect in 2012.
Commissioners also set public hearings for their Sept. 7 meeting to get input on two millages: one levied under the Veterans Relief Fund Act, and another collected under Public Act 88 to be used for economic development purposes. Because Act 88 and the veterans relief act predate the state’s Headlee Amendment, they can be approved by the board without a voter referendum.
The Act 88 millage of 0.05 mill would be an increase from the 0.043 mills currently levied. It would generate an estimated $688,913 annually. In previous years, it has been used to fund several entities, including Ann Arbor SPARK. The veterans relief millage of 1/40th of a mill does not represent an increase, and is estimated to bring in $344,486 to provide services for indigent veterans in Washtenaw County through the county’s department of veterans affairs.
Republicans Dan Smith and Alicia Ping led the back-to-back ways & means committee and regular board meetings on Wednesday – as vice chairs of those respective bodies, they were filling in for chairs Rolland Sizemore Jr. and Conan Smith. Both Democrats were out of town. [Full Story]
In city council chambers, at my request, city clerk Jackie Beaudry has brought her photo album from an April trip she made to Kazakhstan. For about ten days she served as part of a team of around 400 election observers sent by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe). She observed polls in South Kazakhstan for Election Day with an assigned partner from Russia. Reason I thought to ask to see the album was an edition of Pollwatcher in the municipal center lobby, which has a longer write up. (Beaudry used vacation days, so no city of Ann Arbor taxpayer money was spent on the trip) [.pdf of Pollwatcher Newsletter] [photo] [photo]
Sighting of one of the city’s new yard signs urging cars to stop for pedestrians. No pedestrian crosswalks nearby.
At the Ann Arbor city council’s Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, during communications at the conclusion of the meeting, Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) indicated that he would eventually be bringing forward a number of possible revisions to Chapter 7, the city’s ordinance governing the operation of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority.
Among the possible revisions, Kunselman indicated he would be suggesting that the appointments and reappointments to the DDA board include a public hearing.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At the Aug. 4, 2011 meeting of the Ann Arbor city council, mayor John Hieftje nominated Ward 2 council representative Tony Derezinski to replace Jeff Meyers on the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission. The nomination will require confirmation by the city council at its next meeting.
Meyers resigned in June of this year mid-way through his three-year term, partly over frustration that the mural project he’d championed kept hitting bureaucratic roadblocks. In an interview with The Chronicle, Meyers had suggested that one way to improve the situation is for a city council representative to be appointed to AAPAC – it seems especially appropriate since AAPAC makes recommendations for the Percent for Art budget, he said. [Chronicle coverage: "After Resignation, Who Leads Mural Program?"]
The Percent for Art program is enabled by a city ordinance that allocates 1% of the budget for all city capital projects – up to a limit of $250,000 per project – to the city’s public art program. The Percent for Art program was also a part of the council’s discussion on the evening of Aug. 4, because there is some interest on the part of councilmembers in restricting funds generated through the street reconstruction millage from use in the Percent for Art program. The street reconstruction millage will expire this year, unless it is approved by the general electorate on Nov. 8 this year.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council approved language for the Nov. 8 ballot that would renew the street and bridge reconstruction millage, at a rate of 2.0 mills, which was last approved by voters in November 2006 for five years beginning in 2007 and ending in 2011. A tax rate of 1 mill is equivalent to $1 for every $1,000 of a property’s taxable value.
As a separate proposal on the ballot, voters will be asked if they support an additional 0.125 mill to pay for sidewalk repair. Up to now, sidewalk repair has been the responsibility of property owners.
The ballot language for the street repair millage will read: “Shall the Charter be amended to authorize a tax up to 2 mills for street and bridge reconstruction for 2012 through 2016 to replace the previously authorized tax up to 2 mills for street reconstruction for 2007 through 2011, which will raise in the first year of levy the estimated revenue of $9,091,000?”
The ballot language for the sidewalk portion of the street repair millage will read: “Shall the Charter be amended to authorize a tax increase of up to 0.125 mills for 2012 through 2016 in addition to the street and bridge resurfacing and reconstruction millage of 2 mills for 2012 through 2016, which 0.125 mills will raise in the first year of levy the estimated additional revenue of $563,000, to provide a total of up to 2.125 mills for sidewalk trip hazard repair in addition to street and bridge reconstruction and resurfacing? This Charter amendment shall not take effect unless the proposed Charter amendment to authorize the levy of a tax in 2012 through 2016 of up to 2 mills for the purpose of providing funds for the reconstruction and resurfacing of streets and bridges (Proposal 1) is approved.”
If both millage proposals were to be approved by voters, the money would be collected under a single, combined millage – but accounting for reconstruction activity would be done separately for streets and sidewalks.
The separation of the question into two proposals can be explained in part by a summary of responses to the city’s online survey on the topic of slightly increasing the street repair millage to include sidewalk repairs. Sidewalk repairs have up to now been the responsibility of property owners. The survey reflects overwhelming sentiment from the 576 survey respondents (filtered for self-reported city residents) that it should be the city’s responsibility to repair the sidewalks.
The survey reflects some resistance to the idea that an increase in taxes is warranted. From the free-responses: “Stop wasting taxpayer money on parking structures, new city buildings, and public art. You are spending money like drunken sailors while we’re in the worst recession since the Great Depression.” Balanced against that are responses like this: “I strongly endorse the idea of the city taking responsibility for maintaining the sidewalks and am certainly willing to pay for it in the form of a millage in the amount cited in this survey.” [.pdf of survey response summary]
An amendment to the resolution approved by the council on Aug. 4 directs the city attorney to prepare a change to the city’s sidewalk ordinance relative to the obligation of property owners to maintain sidewalks adjacent to their property.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council approved three separate resolutions in connection with Burton Commons, a 120-unit, 3-story, 5-building apartment complex with affordable housing, planned for a location on Burton Road near Packard and US-23. The original site plan approvals for the affordable housing project date back to 2007.
On Aug. 4, the council approved a revision to the design – the third story on all five buildings will be eliminated, dropping the number of dwelling units from 120 to 80.
The second Burton Commons resolution authorized by the council involves details of a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program that was previously approved. MHT Housing Inc., based in Bingham Farms, Mich., is a nonprofit affordable housing provider that will now be a development partner. In addition, the PILOT will reflect the reduction in the number of units from 120 to 80. And finally, the PILOT requires the project to secure federal or state-aided financing – the original proposal included federal HOME funds from the city of Ann Arbor, but the revised one does not. The PILOT is based on the State Housing Development Authority Act and Chapter 19, 1:651 of the city code, and provides an exemption from all property taxes for the term of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) mortgage, for up to 50 years. The “payment” is a $1 service charge.
The third resolution authorized by the council involved footing drain disconnects required by the project. The removal of the third story from each building, reducing the number of units from 120 to 80, also reduced the number of footing drain disconnects from 26 to 17. The cost of disconnecting 17 footing drains is $200,000-$300,000. The council was asked to allocate five footing disconnect credits, thereby offsetting $60,000-$90,000 of the project’s cost.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council approved a contract with Steve Powers, the newly hired city administrator, who will start on Sept. 15, 2011.
Highlights include a $145,000 base salary to be paid in weekly installments. His relocation expenses from Marquette will be reimbursed up to $30,000. His health insurance will be equivalent to other non-union employee plans. He’ll have 10 sick days accruing annually and 20 days of vacation accruing annually. He’ll begin with 10 vacation days in the bank. He’ll have a cellular allowance and data stipend. He will not participate in the city’s pension program. Instead, he will be in a 401(a) plan. The city of Ann Arbor will match Powers’ contribution 2-1 up to 15% of his annual salary. That is, if he contributes 7.5% percent of his salary to the 401(a), the city will contribute 15%. He will have a retiree health care reimbursement account accessible on retirement, and the city’s initial contribution to that will be $2,500.
The council’s search committee had accepted a staff recommendation to target recruitment in the $145,000-$150,000 range. The committee was presented with comparable data in three different sets: Link to Google Spreadsheet with data from Michigan cities, Big Ten cities, and midwestern cities. Some kind of vehicle allowance appears standard for the comparables used to determine compensation.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council voted unanimously to increase by $107,000 the city’s contract with Recycle Ann Arbor (RAA) for curbside collection of the city’s single-stream recycling carts.
Later in the same meeting, the council considered but ultimately postponed a decision – until its second meeting in September – to fund the increased RAA contract by terminating its contract with RecycleBank for administering a coupon-based incentive program. That would have ended a 10-year deal approved last year by the council. The termination of the contract would include a budget appropriation to fund the RAA contract change, and would require 8 votes. Based on deliberations on Aug. 4, it’s uncertain if those 8 votes will be achieved.
The Recycle Ann Arbor contract change reflected the council’s choice to revisit a decision it had made at its July 5 meeting to reject that contract change. The decision to reconsider the July 5 vote came at the council’s July 18 meeting, which the council then postponed until Aug. 4.
The change reflects a bump from $3.25 to $3.55 per month per cart, for a total of $107,042 annually. The city council had voted on March 15, 2010 to adopt the single-stream recycling program, which began a little over one year ago, on July 5, 2010.
At that time, the city approved a contract with RAA that called for a payment of $3.25 per month for each cart that is deployed in the the city (whether it is set out for collection or not), plus a per-ton payment of between $18.74 and $30.00. The amount of revenue RAA has received through these two kinds of payment was less than projected for the last fiscal year. Specifically, the tonnage payments received by RAA for fiscal year 2011 (which ended June 30) for recyclable material were projected to be $406,332 but in fact only generated $187,560 for RAA – only 46% of what was expected. The shortfall was $218,772.
Also, the city expected to distribute 32,779 carts, but it turned out that only 29,734 carts were deployed, or 9.3% fewer than planned. A staff memo accompanying the July 18 resolution explained the reduced number this way: “… many of the smaller multi-family residential units that were previously using the 11-gallon recycling ‘totes’ are able to share recycle carts, resulting in a smaller number of deployed carts.” In terms of revenue, the reduced number of carts meant that RAA received only $1,159,626 compared to the projected $1,278,381 – for a shortfall of $118,755.
Summing the shortfalls in the two kinds of revenue ($118,755 + $218,772), RAA received $337,527 less than it expected for FY 2011. The increase in the monthly per-cart service fee – approved by the council for all five years of the five-year contract – works out to nearly cover the annual shortfall that was due only to the decreased number of carts: $107,042 versus $118,755.
The overly-optimistic projections were made by the city’s recycling consultant Resource Recycling Systems and RecycleBank, a company that administers a coupon-based incentive program to encourage residents to recycle. When the council approved the single-stream recycling contract with RAA last year, it also struck a 10-year deal with RecycleBank to administer a coupon-based incentive program to help boost recycling rates in conjunction with the single-stream rollout.
Also at the Aug. 4 meeting, the council considered giving direction to city staff to give RecycleBank 30-days notice of cancellation of its contract with the city. The resolution indicates termination would give savings to the city of $149,167 per year on that contract. RecycleBank would be entitled to $120,000 for the depreciated cost of equipment in recycling trucks as part of this program. RecycleBank also has claimed that it would be entitled to an additional amount up to $80,000 due to the timing of the cancellation. The council’s resolution, which it will take up at its second meeting in September, stipulates that city staff are to proceed with termination of the contract only if the cost of termination is $200,000 or less.
Of 624 respondents to an online survey conducted by Sabra Briere (Ward 1), only 11% said they opposed canceling the coupon contract and allocating the funds to Recycle Ann Arbor’s contract instead. Only 13% said that they’d both signed up for the coupon program and felt like it had increased the amount that they recycle. Of those residents responding to the survey, 99% indicated that they recycle.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council passed a resolution added late to the agenda, on Tuesday, Aug. 2, that expresses general support for the idea of constructing a greenway along the Allen Creek corridor.
The single “resolved” clause reads: “That the Ann Arbor City Council is fully supportive of the creation of the Allen Creek Greenway, and hereby directs City staff to continue to work with and to assist the Allen Creek Greenway Conservancy during the Greenway’s development and implementation phases.” [.pdf of Aug. 4 Greenway resolution]
The resolution comes as the possibility is becoming more real to construct the first section of the greenway close to the planned Near North housing project. On May 16, 2011, the city council approved neighborhood stabilization funds for the demolition of three houses as site preparation for the Near North project. Adjacent to the Near North site are additional houses that could be demolished and left as open space, which could become part of a greenway. But based on remarks made at the meeting by greenway advocates, it appears that the first segment to be constructed is most likely to be the portion running through 415 W. Washington.
During public commentary, the council heard that various key property owners like the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Railroad are interested in hearing a clear statement from the city expressing its commitment.
The 18 “whereas” clauses recite history dating back to 2005 when the city council appointed a task force to study the possibility of a greenway. The history recited by the resolution includes a measure approved by the council on July 6, 2009, which rezoned the First and William parcel as public land and set forth the council’s intention that the property (currently a parking lot) would eventually become part of a greenway. [Additional Chronicle coverage: "First & William to Become Greenway?"]
As a point of history, the July 6, 2009 meeting was the same meeting when the council authorized the start of a request for proposals (RFP) process for development of the city-owned Library Lot, which was eventually terminated on April 4, 2011, without selection of a proposal.
Also included in the Aug. 4 resolution’s recitation of history is a Feb. 1, 2010 measure that started a process for re-developing the city-owned parcel at 415 W. Washington. The city had previously initiated an RFP process for 415 W. Washington. An RFP review committee met seven times from May to December 2008 to review and evaluate the three proposals the city had received. The RFP committee offered praise for all three proposals but did not designate any one of the three as preferred.
The committee punted the issue back to the city council, recommending that the council refine the RFP. The council’s Feb. 1, 2010 action did not follow that recommendation, and instead created a working group of city councilmembers, the Greenway Conservancy and the Arts Alliance to explore the re-use of the property.
Like the Aug. 4, 2011 resolution, the Feb. 1, 2010 measure was sponsored by mayor John Hieftje, Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5) and Margie Teall (Ward 4) and was also added late to the council’s agenda. The July 6, 2009 measure was sponsored by Hieftje and Hohnke.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council gave initial approval to minor changes in the apportionment of its five city wards. According to the city charter, city wards must have the general shape of a pie-shaped wedge, with centers of the tips lying at the center of the city.
The council had postponed the issue at its July 5 meeting, but not before unanimously agreeing to alter the timing of the boundary changes, which had originally been recommended by the city attorney’s office to come between the primary elections for city council (which were held Aug. 2) and the general election (to be held Nov. 8).
While the minor changes to the boundaries themselves had not been met with strong objections, the timing had been controversial. So at their July 5 meeting, councilmembers agreed to change the effective date of the boundary changes to Dec. 1, 2011.
The staff-recommended tweaks on the Aug. 4 agenda showed minor differences from the changes recommended on July 5. All changes involve the way the tips of the pie-shaped wedges come together.
In the July 5 version, Ward 5 was bounded by Huron Street to the north and Madison Street to the south as it came towards the city center. In the Aug. 4 version, the Ward 5 northern boundary was dropped to Liberty Street, and to compensate the Ward 5 pie tip extended farther to the east.
In the July 5 version, the boundary between Wards 3 and 4 was aligned to Packard Street. But in the Aug. 4 version, the existing protrusion of Ward 4 across Packard, between Arch and Wells streets, was preserved. And to compensate, Ward 4 was pushed back from South University, with the result that Monroe Street, east of State Street, is a part of Ward 3. [.pdf of staff-recommended tweaks from Aug. 4] [.pdf of staff-recommended tweaks from July 5.]
Because the change to ward boundaries is a change to a city ordinance, the city council will need to give its final approval to the changes at a subsequent meeting, after a public hearing.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council gave final approval to two separate changes to employee benefits.
The first was a change in the pension system for members of its police service specialist union. The council had approved the collectively bargained changes at its June 20, 2011 meeting. And the council had given initial approval to the ordinance change at its July 18 meeting.
Under the old ordinance, members of that union made a 5% post-tax contribution to their pension. That will change to a 6% pre-tax contribution made by members of the police service specialist union. The change will be effective starting Aug. 14, 2011.
The council also gave final approval to a revision to the city’s ordinance that covers how a city retiree’s health care is paid for. The council had given initial approval to the ordinance change at its July 18 meeting. The revision to the ordinance distinguishes between “subsidized retirees” and “non-subsidized retirees.” A non-subsidized retiree is someone who is hired or re-employed into a non-union position with the city on or after July 1, 2011. In their retirement, non-subsidized retirees will have access to health care they can pay for themselves, but it will not be subsidized by the city.
At its June 6, 2011 meeting, the city council had directed the city staff to prepare an ordinance change along these lines.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
At its Aug. 4, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council voted again to extend the purchase option agreement with Village Green on the city-owned First and Washington site, where the developer plans to build Ann Arbor City Apartments. It’s a 9-story, 99-foot-tall building with 156 dwelling units, which includes a 244-space parking deck on its first two stories.
The delay in the land deal – which was originally $3.3 million and reduced by the council at its June 6 meeting to $3.2 million – means that the city’s contingency plan (for the failure of anticipated revenue from the sale to materialize in a timely way) will need to be exercised.
Of the purchase price, $3 million was part of the city of Ann Arbor’s financing plan for the new municipal center, which is currently in the final stages of construction. According to the staff memo accompanying the Aug. 4 purchase option extension, the city council will likely be asked at its Aug. 15 meeting to approve a short-term loan to cover the municipal building construction costs that would have otherwise been covered by the purchase of the land. At a city council work session in April 2010, the contingency plan of taking out a short-term loan – costing $150,000 – had caught the eye of Sandi Smith (Ward 1), who questioned the item in the budget planning for that year.
The additional extension approved Aug. 4 is through Nov. 3, 2011, and comes at a cost of a $50,000 non-refundable payment by Village Green to the city. The extension approved by the council also allows an additional 30-day extension – to Dec. 3, 2011 – to be made by the city administrator in exchange for an additional $50,000 non-refundable payment.
At the council’s July 18 meeting, interim city administrator Tom Crawford had given the city council a heads up that an additional extension to the purchase option agreement would likely be necessary.
The timeline revised by the council at its Aug. 4 meeting was put in place on Aug. 5, 2010 – when the city council approved an extension that called for Village Green to purchase the land by June 1, 2011. However, that deadline was subject to an extension of 90 days by the city administrator – an option which Crawford then exercised.
The parking deck portion of the project is being developed in cooperation with the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, which has pledged to make payments on around $9 million worth of bonds, after the structure is completed and has been issued a permit for occupancy.
According to the staff memo accompanying the Aug. 4 resolution, Village Green still hopes to break ground on the project this construction season.
In a separate item, the council authorized an increase in the contract to $60,000 (previously authorized up to $25,000) with James C. Adams of Ufer & Spaniola, P.C. for legal consulting in connection with the City Apartments/First and Washington parking structure project. The city is to be reimbursed by Village Green for the cost of this legal work.
This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second floor of city hall, located at 301 E. Huron. A more detailed report will follow: [link] [Full Story]
Street closed due to accident. Bike versus stationary car.
Paul Hickman, owner of Ann Arbor-based Urban Ashes, is interviewed on StreetFight about why he advertises with local news sites like The Ann Arbor Chronicle: ”There’s a place for the New York Times and USA Today, but I do appreciate the level of the awareness that is changing back to local resources and local communities that have been washed away by globalization. [That is] a lot of what it comes down to [when] I choose to advertise in the Chronicle over USA Today.” [Source]
Workers south of the railroad tracks trigger lights and create confused drivers and traffic backups. [photo]
