Archive for January, 2010

The Preserving Traditions blog gives a wrap-up of a recent tamale workshop at Pilar’s Cafe: “After we made our tamales, we sampled some that had been cooked already, along with cortido (pickled cabbage salad) and horchata (an amazing sweet beverage with cinnamon and morro spices, reminiscent of chai but totally dairy-free). Snack time also gave us time to talk – we learned how horchata is made (and wow, is it totally worth $4/cup!) and about Sylvia’s plans to add an espresso bar to the cafe, with horchata lattes and spicy mochas. Yum! Sign me up.” [Source]

Ann Arbor Public Art Commission meeting (Jan. 12, 2010): A portion of AAPAC’s first meeting of the year was spent looking back at 2009 – and their success in December defeating a challenge to the Percent for Art program.

This winter seating will be gone by April, when renovations – including new seating built into the hill in front of the band shell – will begin in West Park. (Photos by the writer. The builder of the snow structures is unknown.)

But while reporting on city council’s vote against cutting public art funding to a half-percent, AAPAC chair Margaret Parker wasn’t feeling complacent: “I think we can expect a similar [challenge] to happen in the future.”

The commission discussed several other projects, including the status of the Herbert Dreiseitl sculpture recently approved by city council. He has not yet responded to queries asking him to modify two additional pieces of art – it’s unclear if those pieces, originally planned for the interior of the new municipal center, will move forward. [Full Story]

Ann Arbor City Council work session (Jan. 11, 2010): Ann Arbor city councilmembers were presented on Monday evening with an outline for the reorganization of the city’s housing commission, a plan that has in large part already been adopted by the commission and needs no further city council approval.

The housing commission is responsible for 355 public housing units spread over 18 sites – or around 50% of the affordable housing stock in the city – plus 1,300 Section 8 vouchers for a three-county area.

Kerry Laycock, the consultant who gave the city council a presentation on the reorganization of the housing commission, gave a slide presentation from the podium using this laptop computer. (Photos by the writer.)

Keys to the reorganization are beefing up the Section 8 program with a dedicated financial analyst and a program manager, and redefining roles of the executive director and deputy director, as well as outsourcing maintenance of the housing units.

Outsourcing maintenance will reduce the housing commission staff by six people – two temporary employees plus four union workers.

Alan Levy, who chairs the housing commission board, told councilmembers that the reorganization had already been approved by a 3-2 vote of the housing commission’s board at a special meeting held on Jan. 6, 2010. [Full Story]

Trenda Rusher talks with Aaron Kraft at an April 15, 2009 meeting of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners. Rusher will be stepping down from her job as executive director of the Employment Training & Community Services (ETCS) department.

As the search gets under way to replace Bob Guenzel, Washtenaw County’s top administrator, two other high-level staff members have announced their retirements.

Trenda Rusher, who has worked for the county for 26 years, is stepping down as executive director of the Employment Training & Community Services (ETCS) department, which serves as the local agency for the state’s Michigan Works! workforce development program. Finance director Peter Ballios will be retiring after 38 years with the county.

Both moves were announced Tuesday morning in an email sent to county commissioners and department heads. Neither Rusher nor Ballios could be reached by The Chronicle for comment.

On Tuesday morning at a joint meeting of the soon-to-merge Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti chambers of commerce, Guenzel told The Chronicle that the county would be conducting a search to replace Ballios. However, at this point they won’t be doing the same for Rusher’s position. Instead, county leaders will be looking at possibly reorganizing the operations that she supervises, he said. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press reports on the status of the first-time homebuyer tax credit, interviewing Ann Arbor real estate agent Kathy Toth: “What we are finding is … people are taking advantage of it. I am a little concerned about what happens after it goes away.” The article also includes comments from Saline homebuyer Neil Moorman, who used the tax credit when his family recently moved to a larger home: “The $6,500 isn’t bad. We will definitely take advantage of it for general savings and new furnishings.” [Source]

UM law professor Richard Friedman is currently arguing a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, and apparently taught chief justice John G. Roberts Jr. and justice Antonin Scalia a new vocabulary word, according to a Washington Post report. The word? “Orthogonal.” [Source]

Several items have made news at UM today: Former UM president Robben Fleming has died at age 93 [Source]; provost Terry Sullivan has been named the new president of the University of Virginia [Source]; and 300 employees are readying to move into the former Pfizer campus, now called the North Campus Research Complex. [Source]

The Detroit News profiles the Ann Arbor firm Advanced Photonix Inc., which is developing new scanning technology that could be used in the future for airport security. The article quotes Richard Kurtz, API’s CEO: “With terahertz technology, we can take a more general outline of the subject and just look for metal or explosives in the chemical signatures. A lot of the research is out of the way, so the next phase will be development and engineering.” [Source]

One of the tables at the Jan. 7 Ann Arbor Public Schools budget forum, where participants discussed options for cutting expenses and raising revenues. (Photos by the writer.)

Todd Roberts, superintendent of the Ann Arbor Public Schools, didn’t have much good news to deliver at Thursday’s budget forum, the first of four that the district is holding this month. Heavily reliant on declining state funding, AAPS faces as much as a $20.9 million deficit by fiscal 2010-11.

And after voters rejected a countywide schools millage in November that would have brought some financial relief, school officials are faced with difficult decisions as they work to close the funding gap between revenues and expenses.

Despite the season’s first significant snowfall, more than 100 people attended the Jan. 7 forum at Huron High School’s cafeteria, a gathering that included parents, teachers, administrative staff, some school board members, students and others in the community. Leaders of groups that supported the November schools millage proposal, as well as those who successfully led efforts to defeat it, also attended the meeting.

Roberts told the crowd that it’s unlikely the state will see a turnaround anytime soon, and their biggest hope is that revenues for schools at least remain flat. “But that’s certainly not a foregone conclusion,” he added. [Full Story]

At the first of four budget forums held by the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) on Thursday night, the 2010-2011 draft budget plan circulated to attendees included over $16 million in proposed cuts, to deal with the district’s projected $20.9 million deficit. But it also included more than $1 million in additional revenue.

The second AAPS district budget forum will be held at Skyline High School on Tuesday, Jan. 12, starting at 6:30 p.m. (Photo by The Chronicle)

Several participants at the forum urged district administrators to look even more aggressively at how to generate additional revenue, whether through philanthropy, partnering with businesses, or other approaches.

So how does AAPS hope to generate extra dollars?

The line items in the budget draft list an additional 150 students in the Targeted Schools of Choice program plus an increase in Options Magnet enrollment of 20 students. Those 170 additional students would generate an additional $1.23 million in revenue, through the per-student allocation to school districts by the state.

At the AAPS Board of Education (BOE) meeting held the night before Thursday’s budget forum, several ways to increase school funding were discussed. Strategies include bringing out-of-district students into AAPS, as well as increasing the number of in-district students who are not currently enrolled in AAPS. BOE trustees heard a presentation Wednesday night on the Options Magnet program as part of that strategy.

Other strategies to increase revenue that were discussed at Wednesday’s board meeting include new partnerships with local community-based organizations, plus a statewide effort to compete for additional federal funding through the Race to the Top program.

Here, The Chronicle takes a closer look at these revenue-generating options outlined at the board’s Wednesday meeting. [Full Story]

The Michigan Mugs & Meals blogger, a vegetarian, reviews dinner at Seva on East Liberty: “Although most restaurants do have a few non-meat offerings, there’s often not much variation from menu to menu between the vegetarian selections. So, going to an all-vegetarian restaurant is like wandering through a lush garden of food delights; the whole menu is fair game! It’s very liberating. I got to experience this food nirvana last night when my husband and I dined at Seva in Ann Arbor.” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press publishes a Q&A with Anuja Rajendra, a former professional Indian dancer and founder of BollyFit, an Ann Arbor fitness-dance studio. Rajendra helped choreography an ice dancing piece for UM students Meryl Davis and Charlie White, who’ll be performing it again later this month to defend their U.S. title and possibly qualify for the upcoming winter Olympics. From the interview: “We just set out to put out the best possible dance without cutting corners, without watering it down. And the public has responded. I’m joyful to see that people are embracing it, Indians and non-Indians alike.” [Source]

The Ann Arbor Summer Festival is asking for votes to pick its movie line-up for the 2010 series. Results will determine the 12 movies shown between June 18 and July 11. There are five categories, with seven options in each category, plus a “wild card write-in” option. Online voting continues through March 1. [Source]

John Dingell, the longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives, spoke at the Saturday morning meeting of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party. Dingell represents the 15th District, which includes Ann Arbor. (Photos by the writer.)

U.S. Rep. John Dingell got his biggest round of applause at Saturday morning’s meeting of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party when he described his preference for health care reform as a single-payer system – a proposal he’s been pushing for decades.

But during much of the 45 minutes spent talking and fielding questions, Dingell described a compromise working its way through Congress that falls far short of that goal.

Dingell is the lead sponsor on the House of Representatives health care reform bill, which differs in substantive ways from the Senate’s version. Those two versions of the legislation will need to be reconciled over the coming weeks.

President Barack Obama is urging Congress to deliver something for him to sign before he makes the annual State of the Union address, Dingell said, adding that it’s not clear if that deadline will be met.

Dingell covered much of the same ground on Saturday as he did when The Chronicle last encountered him at a meeting of the Obama Caucus of Ann Arbor in August. But by now, the massive health care reform legislation is closer to completion – though it’s not, Dingell reminded his fellow Democrats, a done deal. [Full Story]

Former Ann Arbor resident Elizabeth Kostova, author of the best-selling “The Historian,” is coming out with a new novel, “The Swan Thieves,” which will hit stores on Tuesday, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press: “Kostova says she returns to Ann Arbor regularly. Each fall, in collaboration with Zingerman’s Roadhouse, she hosts the Vampire’s Ball, a fund-raising dinner for Food Gatherers, a nonprofit that fights hunger in Washtenaw County. She’s scheduled to read from ‘The Swan Thieves’ at Nicola’s Books in Ann Arbor on Feb. 3.” [Source]

A column in the Washington Post looks at how financial need factors in to university admissions policies. UM is mentioned for its increase in out-of-state students: “Meanwhile, the top public universities are admitting more out-of-state applicants, who pay higher tuition than in-state students and are not eligible for state-funded financial aid programs. The University of Michigan and the University of Virginia were two pioneers in this practice, and today about a third of their classes come from out of state. At Michigan, upper-division students from elsewhere pay about $37,000 in tuition – only a few thousand dollars less than at a top private university.” [Source]