Archive for July, 2011

At its July 5, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council gave final approval to purely technical changes to its ordinance on retiree benefits for non-union employees. For example, the phrase “three years” was revised to read “36 consecutive months.”

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 July 5, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council had on its agenda a motion from Mike Anglin (Ward 5) to reconsider a June 20, 2011 vote that it took in awarding a $1,216,100 construction contract to Hoffman Brothers Inc. The project was to relocate a sanitary sewer south of Fuller Road, and east of the Maiden Lane and East Medical Center Drive intersection.

The motion was seconded by Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) and was unanimously approved for reconsideration. But the re-vote yielded the same result as the vote on June 20, with the council approving the contract on an 8-1 vote. Anglin’s was the dissenting vote.

The project includes moving and replacing an 825-foot, 30-year-old section of 60-inch sanitary sewer pipe. It also includes construction of 525 feet of 24-inch stormwater pipe, as well as construction of 925 feet of new 12-inch water main for service to Fuller Pool. The project will be completed in two phases, the second of which is planned for 2013.

Anglin’s effort to reconsider the motion was based on criticism that the work is being undertaken only because of the planned Fuller Road Station (FRS) in the area – a project  to which he has expressed opposition. [Recent Chronicle coverage of that project: "PAC Gets Update on Fuller Road Station"]

Anglin’s effort came in the context of a memo written to the council by Dietrich Bergmann, a transportation planning engineer, who participated in a 2008 University of Michigan Sustainable Mobility & Accessibility Research & Transformation (SMART) conference on the transportation economy. The memo is critical of several aspects of the proposed sewer work, including the idea that 30 years is old for a sanitary sewer: “The city staff has not provided any evidence that the sanitary drain at the site should be moved, absent going forward with the FRS project. The 30-year age issue makes little sense. I suspect that most sanitary sewers in Ann Arbor are older.” [.pdf of Dietrich Bergmann memo]

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 July 5, 2011 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council received an update from Josie Parker, director of the Ann Arbor District Library. The update included data on the impact of the library’s Fifth Avenue location on the downtown. [.pdf of AADL slide presentation to the Ann Arbor city council]

Highlights of the presentation included the organization’s funding stream, which comes not just from the city of Ann Arbor property taxes. In fiscal year 2010, in addition to the $7,344,364 the AADL received from Ann Arbor property owners, it also received taxes from Pittsfield Township ($1,849,036), Scio Township ($1,252,179), Ann Arbor Township ($804,236), as well as other surrounding municipalities.

In 2010, 1,792,526 visits were made to the library’s five branches – 627,196 of them to the downtown location. In 2010, a total of 62,696 visitors attended library events – 23,612 of them at the downtown location. For those downtown events, 79% of attendees arrived to the event by car, compared with 7% by bus, 2% by bicycle and 12% by walking. Of those who drove a car to the event, half parked either at an adjacent surface lot or at the Fourth and William Street structure, and 31% used street parking.

If one-third of all 627,196 visits to the downtown library location are assumed to be made by people who pay to park downtown, then visitors to the downtown library in 2010 generated at least $200,000 in public parking revenue.

The presentation came in the general context of an effort by the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority, at the direction of the Ann Arbor city council, to start leading a public process to evaluate alternative uses for city-owned surface lots in the downtown area. Immediately to the north of the downtown library location is the construction site of an underground parking garage, expected to offer around 640 spaces. Known as the Library Lot, though not owned by the library, the top of the underground parking garage is one of the pieces of land that the public process is meant to address. [Recent Chronicle coverage: "Ann Arbor DDA Continues Planning Prep"]

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]

On the day after Independence Day, the Ann Arbor city council’s agenda for its meeting – shifted from Monday to Tuesday due to the holiday – is comparatively light. But it features a few items that could prolong the meeting, which starts at its usual time in its usual place, broadcast on its usual channel: 7 p.m. in city council chambers at the municipal center, located at 301 E. Huron St., and aired on Channel 16.

One of those items features a proposal to redraw the boundaries for the city’s five wards. The resolution before the council would change the boundaries during the time between the Ann Arbor city council primary election in August and the general election in November. While the changes to the boundaries are relatively minor and are not the subject of great dispute, the proposed timing of the changes is controversial enough that several redistricting experts may appear at the council’s meeting to weigh in on the topic during public commentary.

And the council reportedly may decide to convene a closed session on the subject, citing attorney client privilege. If the council were to convene such a closed session, it would be the first such session convened since being sued by The Chronicle over a similar session in early September 2010. After publishing a July 2 column – “Ann Arbor Ward Shifts Should Wait” – The Chronicle has established that city staff were aware of the issue with sufficient time for the city council to take action. However, that did not result in resolving the redistricting issue before the primary election candidate filing deadline.

A second agenda item that may generate some discussion among councilmembers is a resolution that would increase voluntarily the payment the city makes to Recycle Ann Arbor for curbside collection of the city’s single-stream recycling carts – from $3.25 to $3.55 per month per cart. The city council had voted on March 15, 2010 to adopt the single-stream recycling program, which began exactly one year ago, on July 5, 2010.

The rationale for the change is that RAA is receiving less revenue than anticipated under the adopted contract. In the first year of the contract, RAA received less money from its cart-emptying service, because there are fewer carts deployed in the city than projected. And although the tonnage of recyclable material collected has increased, it has not increased by as much as projected, so RAA is receiving less revenue for tonnage than expected.

Not on the agenda – and not expected to be announced at tonight’s meeting – are names of the finalist candidates for the city administrator job. However, the council’s search committee is scheduled to meet in a closed session on Tuesday afternoon (July 5) to winnow down the applicant pool to a handful. Robyn Wilkerson, head of human resources for the city, indicated in an email to The Chronicle that she did not expect that names of finalists would be released until Thursday or Friday.

For Chronicle readers who want immediate reports on the votes taken by city council, check out The Chronicle’s Civic News Tickers – brief reports on actions taken by the council that will be filed during tonight’s meeting. [Full Story]

A PBS Newshour report looks at diseases that afflicted George Washington, and interviews Howard Markel, director of the University of Michigan’s Center for the History of Medicine. Says Markel: “His body won more times than not. There’s a million and one things that could have killed him, that could kill any of us, but they didn’t. And that’s the wonder of the human body.” [Source]

Not every local political candidate or elected official walked the mile-long Ann Arbor July 4th parade route on Monday, but it sure felt like a quorum.

The start of the 2011 Ann Arbor July 4th parade.

Some of them – like John Dingell, a Democrat who’s the longest-serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives – are veterans of these events. Others are making a debut of sorts. Larry Murphy, for example, attended a candidate forum just last week where he indicated he hadn’t yet made a decision whether to run for the Ann Arbor Public Schools board of trustees. But on Monday he marched in the July 4th parade, and told The Chronicle that he’s “crossed the Rubicon” and decided to enter the race.

The parade – organized each year by the Ann Arbor Jaycees – certainly featured more than just politicos in its ranks. Kids, clowns, firetrucks, horses, pageant queens, sword fighters, baton twirlers and many others marched the route from State to Liberty to Main to William.

But Independence Day is rooted in our nation’s democracy, and in our ability as citizens to elect representatives to serve us at all levels. So with that in mind, and in keeping with The Chronicle’s focus on local government and civic affairs, we hope you enjoy this photo essay from Monday’s parade. Happy Fourth of July, Ann Arbor! [Full Story]

[Full Story]

Editor’s Note: Laura Bien’s local history column this week relates a familiar tale of a gold rush expedition that did not actually lay claim to any gold – but it’s through some elegant prose from an Ypsilanti teacher-turned-prospector’s diary.

A single personal belonging of onetime Ypsilanti teacher Frederick Boyd survives today: a diary preserved in Alaska. With Frederick, the tiny book crossed mountain passes, frozen snowfields, and part of the Pacific ocean. The book details Frederick’s struggle as a miner in the turn-of-the-century Klondike gold rush.

Beginning in the summer of 1897, Klondike travel agents began advertising in Ypsi papers. This ad is from the Jan. 27, 1898 Ypsilantian.

Frederick had likely read the stories in his hometown paper warning against Yukon hardships – stories that also detailed the luck of a fortunate few. Frederick had a secure job, a wife, and an infant daughter.

On the morning of March 6, 1898, the 33-year-old teacher stepped from the Ypsi depot platform onto an eastbound Michigan Central train. As it began to pull out, he saw his 27-year-old wife Celia on the platform holding their daughter Daphne. Frederick was leaving behind his classroom, his friends, his and Celia’s home, and his hometown. [Full Story]

On the Ann Arbor city council’s agenda for Tuesday, July 5, is a proposal to redraw the boundaries for the city’s five wards. That’s a regular event that can take place every 10 years, after the data from the decennial U.S. census are released.

Yellow cross-hatched areas reflect proposed portions of the city that are now in Ward 1, but would become part of some other ward instead. (Image links to high resolution .pdf file of all affected areas.)

Of course, the city is not the only local unit of government faced with the task of evaluating election boundaries every 10 years. For Washtenaw County, the board of commissioner districts were redrawn after a series of public meetings held by the county’s reapportionment committee and covered by The Chronicle. That initiative resulted in a reduction of the number of county board seats from 11 to nine. ["County Board Loses Two Seats in Redistricting"]

Although it is not the city election commission’s assigned responsibility to handle city ward reapportionment, the commission met on Friday, June 10, 2011 and worked out recommended changes. The changes essentially pare down Ward 1, which over the last 10 years has grown in population relative to other wards.

By comparison to the new county districts, the proposed new ward boundaries for the city of Ann Arbor reflect fairly minor changes. For one thing, the number of wards has not changed – the city charter requires exactly five wards, and further stipulates that they must be roughly pie-shaped, with the slices of pie meeting near the center of the city. The charter also stipulates that the ward boundaries be changed as little as possible from the existing lines. I don’t have a problem with the proposed changes themselves.

However, the proposal before the city council on July 5 is that the ward boundaries should be effective after the Aug. 2 primary election, but before the general election on Nov. 8. Changing the boundaries between the primary and the general election is just bizarre.

Sticking with the same rules from the beginning of the election process to the end – that’s as American as apple-pie-shaped wedges. [Full Story]

Editor’s note: The monthly milestone column, which appears on the second day of each month – the anniversary of The Ann Arbor Chronicle’s Sept. 2, 2008 launch – is an opportunity for either the publisher or the editor of The Chronicle to touch base with readers on topics related to this publication.

A scene from the "Back Page" silent film, made by the advertising staff of the Ann Arbor News in 1936 and screened this week at the Michigan Theater, with an original score written and performed by Steven Ball on the theater's organ. The men are standing in front of the Huron Street entrance to the News building – that entrance is no longer functional, and the News was closed in 2009. (Image links to Ann Arbor District Library website where the film is posted.)

For about a dozen years, I was employed by the local newspaper, The Ann Arbor News, a publication that no longer exists. As one of the editors, I had influence but not control over what was published.

Now, as publisher of The Chronicle, it’s liberating to have the discretion to choose exactly what appears in our pages. But that freedom is somewhat checked by an over-arching decision to focus on coverage of local government and civic affairs.

It’s not a cherry-picking approach to journalism, which selects topics that might draw the most controversy. Instead, it relies on a methodical, relentless depiction of what happens at public meetings, where decisions are made about how taxpayer dollars are spent, or about public policy that affects our daily lives, even if we’re not aware of it.

Much of The Chronicle’s time is allocated based on our commitment to this model. If there’s a meeting of the city council or planning commission or county board or library board …  or the humane society construction bond oversight committee … you’ll likely find us there.

On occasion, we do find time for more playful fare. A recent example of that was a Sonic Lunch photo essay, with fake captions, that we published earlier this week.

I was able to take in another event this week that also reflected the playful side of local media – from 1936. [Full Story]

On Thursday evening, June 30, 2011, the Ann Arbor Public Schools hosted an information session for prospective candidates for election to the AAPS board of trustees. Two board seats will be up for election on Nov. 8, 2011, both for four-year terms beginning Jan. 1, 2012. The two incumbents – trustees Simone Lightfoot and Andy Thomas – have told The Chronicle that they will seek re-election.

Voters will choose up to two from the field of candidates, and the top two vote-getters will take seats on the board.

Thomas, along with two other prospective candidates – Larry Murphy and Ahmar Iqbal – attended the informational meeting. The deadline to file an intention with the Washtenaw County clerk’s office to run for a school board seat is Aug.16 at 4 p.m.

In response to questions from Murphy, Iqbal, and Thomas, longtime board members Deb Mexicotte, Glenn Nelson, and Susan Baskett reflected on several topics: the campaigning and election processes; closing schools; the recent dearth of candidates in local school board elections; dealing with displeased constituents; the time commitment involved in serving as a trustee; the role of board members; skills needed on the board; the use of outside consultants; and countywide enhancement millage campaigning. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press reports that the University of Michigan’s admissions of minority students remains below 2006 levels – the year when Michigan voters passed a statewide ban on the use of race in admissions decisions. “In fall 2005, the year before the statewide vote, U-M had 443 black students and 312 Hispanic students in the entering freshmen class. In 2007, there were 334 black students and 267 Hispanic students. In fall 2010, there were 352 black students and 275 Hispanic students.” On Friday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that Proposal 2 – approved by voters in 2006 and banning the consideration of race and gender when enrolling students at public colleges and universities – is unconstitutional because it … [Full Story]

Damn Arbor posts a music video by local rapper Cromatic, filmed in Ann Arbor: ”Cromatic is representing the west side, the Old West Side according to the chorus. If you see that Taurus wagon rolling down the street in Burns Park, you might want to get behind cover, because it’s probably a drive-by.” [Source]

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Proposal 2 – approved by voters in 2006 and banning the consideration of race and gender when enrolling students at public colleges and universities – is unconstitutional because it burdens minorities, according to an Associated Press report. The article notes that because of Proposal 2, the University of Michigan and other public schools were forced to change admissions policies offering preferential treatment based on race and gender. The ruling was issued on July 1. [Source] [.pdf of court ruling]

Washtenaw County board of commissioners briefing (June 28, 2011): At a briefing this week to preview agendas for their July 6 meeting and July 7 working session, county commissioners focused most of their questions and comments on a proposed departmental merger and trial court consolidation.

Washtenaw County commissioner Ronnie Peterson, right, and county administrator Verna McDaniel before the start of the chair's briefing on Tuesday, to preview agendas for the July 6 board meeting and July 7 working session. (Photo by the writer.)

Generating significant conversation was an item on the planned consolidation of three departments: The office of community development, the economic development & energy department, and the employment training and community services (ETCS) department. Commissioners wanted clarification on the status of the employee count listed out on the agenda: 11 positions eliminated, 3 jobs created, 20 reclassifications, 5 title changes and 1 position held vacant. County administrator Verna McDaniel told commissioners that while that seems like an extensive set of changes, in terms of people, all but one person had been given a “soft landing” within the county’s organization.

Another item that generated interest among commissioners was the second phase of the trial court consolidation project. Phase two will renovate the first floor of the downtown Ann Arbor courthouse to consolidate some trial court operations, as part of a restructuring that included moving the juvenile court from its Platt Road location earlier this year to the courthouse at Main & Huron. The consolidation was made possible in part due to the relocation of the 15th District Court from the downtown courthouse to the city of Ann Arbor’s new municipal center at Fifth & Huron. Commissioner conversation centered around the purview of the board’s space committee (consisting of Rolland Sizemore Jr. and Rob Turner) in connection with the future of the Platt Road building.

The board’s July 7 working session agenda led to an extended conversation about prioritization of the three items listed: (1) the split of the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO) from Washtenaw County; (2) the Western Washtenaw Recycling Authority; and (3) the Ann Arbor Skatepark. Chair of the working session, Yousef Rabhi, did not attend Tuesday’s briefing, but with the consent of the working session’s vice chair, Rob Turner, the order to the agenda items was revised to put the WCHO item last. The rationale was to allow an open-ended time for adequate discussion – commissioner Ronnie Peterson figured he might need at least an hour for discussion on that item alone.

The presentation that commissioners will hear on the skatepark is likely to be similar to the one presented by Friends of the Skatepark at the Ann Arbor city council’s June 20 meeting.

Tuesday’s “chair’s briefing” was in a format similar to administrative briefings used in the past to preview upcoming adendas. Those administrative briefings were abandoned due to concerns expressed by some commissioners about accessibility. The June 28 briefing was conducted in the county boardroom and was video-recorded. It was the second in a series of three such briefings scheduled for the summer – the next one takes place on July 26, starting at 4 p.m., to prep for the Aug. 3 board meeting. [Full Story]

The Michigan Engineering website posts a series of photos from this week’s Girls in Science and Engineering (GISE) program, which brings seventh- and eighth-grade students to the University of Michigan campus for a week of hands-on science and engineering activities. One photo shows middle school girls racing cardboard boats they made on Thursday in the large reflecting pool on north campus. [Source]

WDIV-Detroit reports on the July 1 start of University of Michigan’s smoke-free campus. Not everyone is thrilled – the segment quotes one student smoker saying, “I’ll do my thing until they tell me I can’t.” [Source]

An article published on June 30, 2011 about recommendations from an R4c/R2a zoning advisory committee incorrectly stated that Golden Avenue was rezoned in 2008 to R2A. That section of Lower Burns Park was downzoned to R1D (single-family residential). We note the error here, and have corrected the original article.

John U. Bacon

Today, for only the third time in almost a century, the Big Ten will officially admit another university to the league. Nebraska left the Big Eight conference to start playing Big Ten football this fall.

The Cornhuskers will receive a slice of the much bigger Big Ten TV pie, but that might not be the best reason to join.

To celebrate Nebraska joining the nation’s oldest conference, the Big Ten Network will be kicking off three days of non-stop programming. Now I’m the kind of guy who might actually watch three days of non-stop programming about the Cornhuskers, but you might have other priorities this holiday weekend.

So, I’m here to tell you what you need to know in three easy minutes. [Full Story]