The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners Wednesday night was chaired by Barbara Levin Bergman, who led the board crisply through an agenda that saw most of the items moved all in one go by commissioner Leah Gunn, and passed unanimously without discussion – with the exception of the affirmation for the second year of the 2008/2009 biennial budget. Commissioner Karen Lovejoy Roe did not support that affirmation. [Full Story]
Wednesday’s administrative briefing for the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners lasted less than an hour, with much of that time spent discussing the process for appointing Washtenaw County Road Commissioners and possibly expanding that board. [Full Story]
Discussion of the possible design of a new downtown library building took up much of Monday night’s relatively short Ann Arbor District Library board meeting. [Full Story]
Local students who attended Wednesday’s Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners meeting as a requirement for their civics class sat through three hours that was long on presentations, short on action (aside from a Road Commission appointment). Among the things they heard was an update from Treasurer Catherine McClary on the county’s financial stability, in light of the recent global credit crisis; a presentation of environmental awards; and an overview of the many youth programs supported by the county. It was a civics lesson in the real-world minutia of local government. [Full Story]
At the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board meeting on Wednesday night, more support was heard from many different quarters for the formation of an authority that would run WALLY – the proposed north-south commuter rail line from Howell to Ann Arbor – and for AATA to take the lead in forming that authority. [Full Story]
With barely a vacant seat in the audience at their Wednesday evening meeting, Washtenaw County Commissioners debated how to fund veterans services, while most of the public comment focused on concerns over the transfer of the county’s Library for the Blind and Physically Disabled to the Ann Arbor District Library. [Full Story]
The DDA board met at its regularly scheduled time on the first Wednesday of the month. Topics of discussion ranged from new developments to the DDA on TV. [Full Story]
You can pack a lot into a two-hour meeting if there’s virtually no discussion on any of the agenda items, and the University of Michigan Board of Regents did just that on Thursday afternoon.
UM President Mary Sue Coleman, at the head of the table, talks to regents at their Thursday board meeting. To her right is Rebecca McGowan. On her left are Larry Deitch, Andrea Fischer Newman, Olivia Maynard and Kathy White.
It was hard to find any bad news at the AATA board meeting held Wednesday night – unless it was the misfortune of board chair, David Nacht, being forced to call time on Tom Partridge’s public speaking turn just as Partridge was favorably comparing Nacht’s education and intellect to that of Governor Granholm’s. Even though with each agenda item, Nacht probed for signs of trouble, he was met time and again with positive reports: on ridership, on the fiscal year 2009 operating budget, on the fuel budget, and on his fellow board members’ willingness to take a small step towards helping make WALLY (Washtenaw and Livingston Line) a reality. [Full Story]
“On the low end, mid 60s, to low 70s on the high end,” said Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library, in her remarks to the DDA board. And she wasn’t talking about the weather forecast. Or an age bracket of heavy library users. She was talking about dollar amounts. Millions of dollars. But before diving into money talk, it’s worth noting that some things are free.
For example, one detail not often reported about the noontime meetings of the Downtown Development Authority board is that lunch is provided – to anyone who shows up and would like to partake. Susan Pollay, executive director of the DDA, explained that they started providing … [Full Story]
