Comments on: County Board Hears Protests, Passes Budget

By: Janelle Baranowski

Janelle Baranowski — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:13:30 +0000

Rod Johnson, I too am surprised (as far as I know) no local news outlet has asked the question, “Why were only these two particular appointments tabled to the next meeting?” They were all on the agenda that night. All were recommended for approval by the board. As far as I know, there’s no public debate regarding the appointments; the names are read and then the Board votes.

By: Nicholas Danne

Nicholas Danne — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:02:56 +0000

I wish to complain about the inaccurate representation of my comments. I believe I used the word “shocked” not in relation to Margaret Sanger’s philosophies [that abortion is linked to racism is not shocking] but rather I was shocked to read that 3/5 black women abort, as reported by blackgenocide.org. As a secondary reference, in 2006 the Center for Disease Control reported that black women abort at a rate of 459 per 1,000 live births, a rate nearly 3x higher than that of white women. Because of abortion, it is argued, black Americans have dwindled in number to become the 2nd-largest minority in America, behind Hispanics, and that by the year 2038 — because of abortion — the black vote could become insignificant.
Secondly, I believe I urged the Board to consider Planned Parenthood’s evil “origins”, not its “past”. Henry Ford and Bayer medicine have anti-semitic pasts, but not evil origins. If the Planned Parenthood grant is not racist, it nevertheless strengthens a murderous enterprise.

By: Rod Johnson

Rod Johnson — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:43:36 +0000

Tangentially, I stumbled on Janelle Baranowski’s blog (via a2politico), where she details the ins and outs of her recent encounters with the BoC, and she raises some interesting questions on how people get appointed to County boards and commissions (and how she didn’t). It would be interesting to hear more about that process–as Baranowski says, it seems somewhat lacking in transparency. (While literally reading the phone book seems kind of juvenile, I’m liking Baranowski’s willingness to play the gadfly role.)

Also, kudos to Barbara Bergman for pushing back against the Holocaust comparisons.

By: cmadler

cmadler — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:08:51 +0000

My concern was that mentioned by Irwin: “When the county set up contracts with municipalities that wanted to hire sheriff’s deputy patrols, the county charged an amount that reflected overhead costs for 81 contract deputies countywide. Now, Irwin said, there will be seven fewer contract deputies, but no change in overhead costs for the county.” But revisiting the way the sheriff’s deputy patrols overhead costs are allocated was obviously beyond the scope of this discussion.

That’s a very good point about Ypsi Twp’s record of not paying for things. I live in Ypsi City, and like Ann Arbor, we pay twice and subsidize the township’s lower tax rates. Actually, I’d say we pay three times: once for our policing, once to subsidize their policing, and a third time when township crime lowers city property values. (There’s a misperception of where the crime is happenning: I recall discussing this with an Ypsi Twp resident who didn’t realize that all the then-recent crimes they mentioned had occurred in the township.)

By: Leah Gunn

Leah Gunn — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:53:42 +0000

That is exactly why I am supporting the resolution to reduce the number of deputies in Ypsilanti Township. They have a record of not paying us for services, and the Court of Appeals ruled that they owed us $2M from the lawsuit they filed against us years ago. We have not seen a penny of that money. The reason I am supporting this reduction is not only that Ypsi Twp. is in a financial bind, but because Ann Arbor already pays twice – and THAT is what I said at the Board in response to Cnsr. Wes Prater’s comment about “subsidies”. I am told that the Sheriff can take care of the extra admin. money within his budget. There are not the votes at the BOC to change the police services subsidies, so Ann Arbor City pays and pays.

By: cmadler

cmadler — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:24:02 +0000

“Leah Gunn said she wasn’t comfortable with the contract change, but that she’d support the resolution because Ypsilanti Township is in a financial bind.”

Ypsilanti Township is in a financial bind of their own making. The voters have made it clear that they don’t want any additional policing beyond the very basic — fine, let’s don’t have the rest of the county subsidize services that they’ve said they don’t want.

By: D

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:36:58 +0000

Commish Bergman, The parallel between abortion and the holocaust is a valid argument if you are talking about the baby, not the woman. Abortion is a state sanctioned infanticide. Millions of babies have died. Again, how is this not comparable to the Holocaust? Websters says holocaust can be defined as a slaughter of people. Again, how is this comparison off?

By: Leah Gunn

Leah Gunn — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:48:21 +0000

Also fixed was the issue of weatherization. The CUB BOard approved the salaries the very next day! So, we are on our way to helping people as the cold wweather sets in. All it took was a mention by Cmsr. Bergman.

I would also like to point out that Planned Parenthood has received this prenatal grant for 10 years, and they have delivered over 1000 normal weight healhty babies. As a citizen, as well as a Commissioner, I support all the services they provide, which are vital to women’s health.

Thank you, Chronicle for a detailed coverage of what we do.

By: Mary Morgan

Mary Morgan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:37:08 +0000

Re. #1: Thanks for flagging that. It’s fixed.

By: Marvin Face

Marvin Face — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:24:34 +0000

This link doesn’t seem to work: “.PDF file of county allocations to local nonprofits for human services and children’s well-being”