Pushback? Can you elaborate on this?

Regarding the Downtown Area Citizens Advisory Council re-apppointments, it should be noted that that three of the former members who had initially been re-nominated after their respective terms had expired were not on the final list of those being re-nominated to a seat on that public body and Hizzoner added Hugh Sonk to replace one of three whose re-nominations had been withdrawn by the Mayor.

It should also be noted that seven of the fifteen seats on the CAC remain unfillled and it is not apparent what the Hieftje administration is doing, if anything at all, about getting these filled.

Revelations as a product of investigations from numerous citizens on how the CAC operated and how all seats expired have been a painful source of embarrassment to City Hall. Thanks should go to Ed Vielemetti and Pat Lesko for these investigations of this copntroversial public body.

Look for the Mayor and Stephen Postema to begin revving up the public relations machine for Hieftje administration very soon to help turn back the tide of recent bad publicity.

As I understand this amendment, it was necessary to add eligible expenses to the plan because the original plan included costs related to demolition and clean up of the site which now have been covered by the combination of a $1 million dollar state grant and a $250,000 expenditure by the developer.

The Brownfield TIF for this project allows the developer to capture about $5.8 million dollars of local taxes over 14 years. Before the Council approved that TIF capture, the local news site noted:

“If the city approves the brownfield plan, more than $3 million in taxes would be diverted from schools to help finance the project. Another $1.24 million would be diverted from the city’s general fund and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, nearly $16,000 from city parks, nearly $20,000 from city street repairs, more than $57,000 from Washtenaw County government, more than $15,400 from libraries, and lesser amounts from various entities.” [link]

If completed, the $48.2 million dollar development will receive the $1 million state grant plus the $5.8 million TIF capture. Is there something so compelling about this project that justifies $6.8 million dollars of public funding?