Resolutions Don’t Change Ordinances

In a report on a recent meeting of the Ann Arbor city council, we inaccurately described the council’s consideration of an amendment to an ordinance as considering “a resolution that would change” the ordinance. Ordinances are not changed through resolutions, but rather by voting directly on the amendments. In fact, a possible argument against adopting some resolution might be that it has the practical effect of amending an ordinance – which cannot be done through a simple council resolution. According to the city charter, ordinance amendments require two council votes of approval, taken at two separate meetings – which makes an ordinance change a different exercise from passing a resolution. We note the mistake here, and have corrected the original report.