Archive for June, 2009

Pizza was served at Wednesday's pre-board meeting rally held by AFSCME Local 2733 in the parking lot next to the county administration building, at the southwest corner of Catherine and Fourth. The union wanted its members to turn out as the county Board of Commissioners considered cuts to the 2010-2011 budget.

Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners meeting (June 3, 2009): Before commissioners met on Wednesday, about 50 people gathered in the parking lot next to the county administration building for a rally organized by AFSCME Local 2733, the largest of the unions for county workers, representing about 700 employees. This wasn’t a marching-while-carrying-picket-signs rally, however. It was more of a eating-pizza-and-talking event, designed to get members to attend the 6:30 p.m. board meeting as a show of support for the unions.

Union workers mingled with commissioners and other county staff to talk about how to deal with a projected $26 million deficit in the county’s budget over the next two years – a topic that was the main item on Wednesday’s agenda for the board of commissioners.

Recommendations made during the meeting by county administrator, Bob Guenzel – which were aimed at balancing the $102 million general fund budget – included cuts to many departments and to funding for local nonprofits, the elimination of 26 positions (including 12 that are already vacant) and a caution that there’ll be more cuts to come.

Discussion of those recommendations by commissioners during the Ways & Means Committee portion of their meeting resulted in approval of four budget-related resolutions. Those resolutions will receive a final vote from commissioners during their regular board meeting on July 8. Meanwhile, the administration hopes to negotiate concessions from the 17 unions that represent roughly 1,000 of the county’s 1,350 work force. All parties agree that the outcome of those negotiations will be crucial. [Full Story]

An illustration by Ann Arbor News artist Tammie Graves shows caricatures of four Ann Arbor city councilmembers – Leigh Greden, Christopher Taylor, Carsten Hohnke and Margie Teall – as little kids, reflecting the childish content of some email exchanges sent during council meetings. The art accompanies an editorial taking them to task for emails that mock the public, each other, and in some cases discuss how councilmembers plan to vote. “It calls into question the council members’ focus on the job at hand. It at least skirts violations of the Open Meetings Act. And it’s just plain rude.” [Source]

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the difficult transition that former NFL players go through after retiring from play. The article cites a 2007 survey of 1,594 retired football players by the UM Health System, which found that nearly 15 percent experienced moderate to severe depression. Eric Hipple, outreach representative for UM’s Depression Center and a former Detroit Lions quarterback, said: “The transition from football to normal life was huge. Virtually everybody who responded to it said they had some problem with making the transition at some point in time – almost 100 percent.” [Source]

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This bus stop was one of several examples of functional public art from other cities that the Ann Arbor DDA has collected. It was pinned to the wall of the DDA conference room during a joint meeting with the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission on May 26.

On May 26, the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission spent several hours focused on developing its plan for the coming year. This included a joint meeting with the Downtown Development Authority about collaboration between the two groups, and a planning meeting later in the day with just AAPAC members to decide which public art projects to include in its annual plan for the next fiscal year.

Though no decisions were made, the meetings gave some insight into priorities for public art in Ann Arbor, who’ll be choosing and funding projects, and what’s ahead for the coming year. [Full Story]

On the Nightclub & Bar website, a post about making Mojitos quotes Justin Curtis Koch, bartender the Mojito bar at Café Habana in Ann Arbor: ”The most important thing is to have a good set recipe in place that your staff follows diligently. If everyone in the house thinks their Mojito recipe is best and they all make them differently, there is no consistency. Drinks will come back, forcing you to remake them and wasting your time.” [Source]

Joel Goldberg

A couple of months back, this column took former Ann Arbor City Council member Steve Kunselman to task for his hesitance to seek advice on moderately priced red wines to try.

It’s even possible that the word “chicken” came into play.

Chalk up a victory. Steve advises me that he’s retrieved his inner wine curiosity, and now makes his presence felt at more than one local store, regularly requesting red recommendations.

I hope his resolve extends to white wine, too. With warmer days here, many wine drinkers dial back their red consumption and begin eyeing some chilled whites to sip on the deck or accompany lighter summertime meals.

The operative word in the previous paragraph: chilled. As in “not cold.” Or, as Cellarnotes succinctly put it, “In general, we tend to drink our white wines too cold and our red wines too warm.” [Full Story]

Map of the previous LINK connector service in downtown Ann Arbor

Downtown Development Authority board meeting (June 3, 2009): The start to Wednesday’s DDA board meeting paralleled the beginning of its recent retreat two weeks ago – the board met in closed session with their legal counsel to discuss pending litigation over the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage. Board chair Jennifer Hall recused herself from the session, as she had at the retreat’s closed session.

Later in the meeting, she removed herself from the DDA’s “mutually beneficial” committee, appointing board member Russ Collins to take her place. More on that after the jump.

In other board business, the theme of the balance between university and city funding responsibilities was reflected in board consideration of two transportation-related issues: (i) a feasibility study for a north-south connector service along the Plymouth-State Street corridor, and (ii) the LINK circulator buses – familiar to some downtown visitors as simply “the purple buses.”  The board approved an $80,000 contribution for the north-south connector, but did not renew the grant – last year around $70,000 – that funds the LINK. The LINK is ordinarily suspended during summer months, but the lack of DDA grant renewal likely means that in the fall the purple buses will re-appear only on their eastern UM loop.

Further, a $12,000 evaluation of the getDowntown program was approved, budget amendments were made to reflect allocations already approved, and a resolution was passed approving final recommendations to city council for the A2D2 rezoning package. The board also heard updates on the DDA’s website and data policy, the Fifth & Division streetscape improvements project, the underground parking garage, and the valet parking service. The valet service has been suspended for the summer after the pilot showed less-than-successful results through the first five months of the year. [Full Story]

The Detroit News reports on the future of the Detroit auto show, and whether it’s worth expanding the annual event, given what’s happening in the industry. The article quotes David Cole of the Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research: ”This isn’t an auto recession; it’s a depression. But it’s definitely cyclical, especially for auto shows. We’re going to come back in a big way.” [Source]

Writing under the name “Mister Gloom,” a columnist on the Daily Kos gives a rundown of the current (and anticipated) candidates for governor in Michigan, a group which includes Democrat state Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith of Washtenaw County’s Salem Township, Republican businessman Rick Snyder of Ann Arbor and possibly David Brandon, a Republican and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Domino’s Pizza. [Source]

June 20 will be the last day of service at Bella Ciao restaurant on West Liberty.

On any given night when the weather allows, you’ll usually find James Macdonald chatting with customers or passers-by at his West Liberty restaurant, Bella Ciao, as servers shuttle in and out of the building to serve outdoor diners. But not for much longer. After running the restaurant for over 22 years, he and his wife Kathy Macdonald are selling the business to local chef Brandon Johns, who plans to transform it over the summer into an eatery that highlights food from local farms and markets.

Bella Ciao will remain open through the upcoming Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, an event spearheaded by James Macdonald that highlights downtown restaurants and features set-price lunches and dinners. Bella Ciao’s last dinner service will be on Saturday, June 20. Johns, with his wife Sara Johns and two business partners, plan to renovate the restaurant and open it in early August as Grange Kitchen & Bar.

The deal closed earlier this week. Kathy Macdonald made the announcement at Thursday morning’s membership meeting of the Main Street Area Association, which The Chronicle attended. In a phone interview later in the day, she said they plan to focus on their other local business, Pastabilities, a pasta wholesaler that sells to area groceries and chefs. She said they’ll be selling off most of Bella Ciao’s extensive wine list as well. “There’s only so much we can bring home,” she said. [Full Story]

Crain’s Detroit Business reports that Grady Burnett, who until recently led the Google AdWords operation in Ann Arbor, has taken a job with the social networking site Facebook, running the company’s global online and inside sales. Facebook is based in Palo Alto, Calif. [Source]

[Editor's Note: HD, a.k.a. Dave Askins, editor of The Ann Arbor Chronicle, is also publisher of an online series of interviews on a teeter totter. Introductions to new Teeter Talks appear on The Chronicle.]

Of the possible opera singers who could appear on the totter, I figure it’s always best to go with the kind that alliterates with the venue: a tenor. But if I ever had occasion to invite a soprano to ride, I suppose it might be possible to relax my rigid instance on “teeter totter” as the name of the equipment, in order to achieve a “Soprano See-Saw.”

But no such accommodation was necessary for Shawn McDonald, who is not a soprano, but a tenor with the Arbor Opera Theater. He’s the artistic director for the upcoming production of Die Fledermaus from June 18-21 at the Mendelssohn Theater. The AOT website includes a full schedule of Die Fledermaus events, including specifics of performance times and ticket information. [Full Story]

The Detroit News has picked up the story about Argo Dam, and the pending decision about whether or not to remove it. The article gives the final word to Jim Wojcik, a member of the UM crew team who coaches for the Ann Arbor Rowing Club: ”It really seems like it’s turned into the rowers against the rest of the world, or at least the environmentalists, on this issue. It’s interesting. I guess day to day I don’t really see the negative impacts of the dam, it’s been here for a long time.” [Source]

Editor & Publisher reports a ranking of online/print publications conducted by The Media Audit. According to the report, MLive/The Ann Arbor News ranks fourth nationwide in the percentage of its market reached via online and print. MLive/A2News reaches 41.5% of the market online, and 74.1% of the market when combined with the print publication, according to Media Audit. The top 3 news sites are the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the San Antonio Express News and the Washington Post. [Source]

This YouTube video, which we linked to in our City Council report, deserves a shout-out of its own. During the council’s public comment session, Libby Hunter voiced her opinion melodically – specifically, by singing an adaptation of “Whatever Lola Wants” (from the musical “Damn Yankees”), which included the line “Whatever developers want, developers get.” [Source]

Boxes containing the informational packets (spiral-bound paper copies) for the June 3 county Board of Commissioners meeting, which includes recommendations for budget cuts in 2010 and 2011. Each packet weighs about two pounds.

Walking into the county administration office last week, The Chronicle spotted several hefty unopened boxes stacked on a table. It turns out those boxes contained some of the information we were there to discuss with county administrator Bob Guenzel – proposals for cuts in the 2010 and 2011 budget, which will be formally presented to the county Board of Commissioners at its June 3 meeting.

At that meeting, Guenzel will be recommending an array of cuts – plus more limited ways to increase revenues – aimed at balancing the county’s $102 million annual general fund budget, which faces a $26 million deficit over the two-year period from Jan. 1, 2010 through Dec. 31, 2011. That includes eliminating at least 26 positions (about half of which are already vacant), a proposed price increase in the controversial police services contract, 20% funding cuts to nearly 20 local nonprofits, and the elimination of funding for the proposed north/south commuter rail, among other things.

If approved, some of the cuts could be implemented this year, rather than waiting until 2010. Revenues for 2009 have come in lower than expected and the county also faces a $3.3 million deficit in the current fiscal year, which ends Dec. 31.

The deficit is linked to dramatically falling revenues caused by plummeting property values. The county gets the majority of its general fund revenue from property taxes – the rate of taxation is restricted by state law, and can’t be increased without voter approval.

This is the first phase of an ongoing process to tackle the deficit. The administration plans to propose long-term structural changes as well, which are being developed and will be presented for approval by commissioners later this year. The current recommendations come in four broad categories: employee compensation, organizational changes, departmental reductions and revenue growth. [Full Story]