Archive for June, 2013

The Ann Arbor city council has approved contracts with city police unions that award 2% and 1% wage increases.

Re-openers for the final year of their contracts resulted in new contracts with six police department unions, which the council approved on separate votes: Teamster Civilian Supervisors, Teamsters Local 214; Police Professional Assistants, Teamsters Local 214; Ann Arbor Police Officers Association – Police Service Specialists; Command Officers Association of Michigan; Ann Arbor Police Officers Association; and Deputy Chiefs, Teamsters Local 214.

Common to all the contracts are a 2% wage increase starting July 1, 2013 and a 1% increase starting Jan. 1, 2014.

Also common to the contracts is the acceptance of the change in pension board composition, which was approved by voters on … [Full Story]

A .0031 error in the specification of the rate of the FY 2014 tax levy for the city’s park maintenance and capital improvements millage was corrected in action taken by the Ann Arbor city council at its June 17, 2013 meeting. The FY 2014 fiscal year begins on July 1.

The millage rate that was listed in the FY 2014 budget resolution – approved by the council at its May 20, 2013 meeting – was 1.0969 mills. The park maintenance and capital improvements millage should have been listed as 1.10 mills. The corresponding correction from the total millage rate was from 16.4470 to 16.4501 mills. Measured in dollars, the correction is estimated to bring in an additional $14,460 in revenue.

This … [Full Story]

A resolution opposing the proposed expansion of I-94 in Detroit and I-75 in Oakland County has been passed by the Ann Arbor city council. The council’s symbolic action came at its June 17, 2013 meeting. The Washtenaw County board of commissioners passed a similar resolution at its June 5, 2013 meeting. The interstate highway expansion is a part of SEMCOG’s 2040 Regional Transportation Plan with an estimated cost of $4 billion.

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]

The Ann Arbor city council has delayed action on possible changes to its speaking rules, essentially choosing to follow its own existing meta-rule on rules changes – which requires that the council be notified about possible rules changes at one meeting, before taking action at a subsequent meeting. The council is considering changes that would add a period of public commentary to its work sessions, but reduce public speaking time per turn from three minutes to two minutes. [.pdf of draft rules changes] The action that the council took at its June 17, 2013 meeting was to postpone the item until its July 1 meeting.

The procedure for reserving one of the 10 reserved speaking slots at the start of … [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor city council approved two annual contracts for services at its June 17, 2013 meeting. One was a $48,000 contract with Governmental Consultant Services Inc. (GCSI) for lobbying services with the state legislature. The council also approved a $75,000 contract with Ann Arbor SPARK for business support services.

The two items appeared on the council’s consent agenda and were approved as a part of it. Items on the consent agenda are considered routine, and include contracts for less than $100,000.

The contact with the economic development agency Ann Arbor SPARK is one that has been renewed annually since the Washtenaw Development Council and Ann Arbor SPARK merged in 2006. Previously, Ann Arbor had contracted with the WDC … [Full Story]

The annual year-end budget adjustment has been approved by the Ann Arbor city council. The changes to the FY 2013 budget totaled $567,000 for the general fund, much of which stemmed from additional expenses incurred by the 15th District Court. [.pdf of proposed amendments]

The 15th District Court’s portion of that adjustment stemmed from $112,000 in salary increases based on an interest in retaining employees, $203,000 due to a “catch up” payment to the law firm that provides indigent representation, and a back-bill for security from Washtenaw County for two fiscal years for $110,000.

Related to the FY 2013 budget adjustment to account for 15th District Court indigent representation were two other agenda items regarding the law firm that provides that … [Full Story]

Fireworks for the upcoming July 4 holiday will be limited in Ann Arbor to the time between 8 a.m. and midnight – assuming Gov. Rick Snyder signs bill passed by the Michigan House and Senate.

The revision to the city’s fireworks ordinance was given initial approval at the council’s June 3. 2013 meeting. The impact of the ordinance change is to restrict the use of fireworks on July 3-5 to the period between 8 a.m. and midnight on those days. The ordinance change applies to other national holidays as well.

The ordinance change is made possible by an anticipated change to state law, which previously did not allow local governments to regulate fireworks for the continuous 72-hour period for the day … [Full Story]

At its June 17, 2013 meeting, the Ann Arbor District Library board voted to make minor year-end adjustments to the budget for fiscal year 2012-13, which ends June 30. This is a standard action at the end of the fiscal year.

The adjustments entailed making the following transfers:

• $18,000 from capital outlays to the supplies line item.
• $15,000 from capital outlays to the utilities line item.
• $12,000 from repairs & maintenance to the communications line item.
• $4,000 from repairs & maintenance to the line item for other operating expenditures.
• $10,000 from the fund balance/restricted funds to the programming line item.

This brief was filed from the library’s Traverwood branch at Traverwood Drive and Huron Parkway, where the board held its June meeting. A more detailed report … [Full Story]

The Ann Arbor District Library board approved a $112,150 contract with the nonprofit Merit Network to build and maintain a connection from AADL’s Pittsfield branch to Merit’s existing high-speed network. The action took place at the board’s June 17, 2013 meeting.

The board had been briefed at its May 6, 2013 meeting by Eli Neiburger, AADL’s associate director of IT and production. He had described that location at 2359 Oak Valley Drive as a “bandwidth backwater,” with about 2% of the Internet connectivity speed compared to other AADL locations.

The resolution approved on June 17 included a transfer of $120,000 from the library’s fund balance to its communications line item in the FY 2013-14 budget. The board had passed its FY … [Full Story]

Russ Collins, executive director of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, has been named to Indiewire’s 2013 inaugural list of “influencers” in the independent film industry. Collins has led Art House Convergence, an annual conference of art house owners, for six years. From an Indiewire interview with Collins: “Coming together for movies in a social context happens because we’re social creatures. It’s a profound psychological experience, and just like there’s a different impact listening to a musician in real life, so it is with film.” [Source]

The council’s June 17, 2013 meeting could include final action on two ordinance revisions. One local law relates to the regulation of digital signs and billboards. The other law regulates the time of day when fireworks are allowed to be set off. While the fireworks regulation is probably seen as somewhat uncontroversial, the council might be inclined to postpone the final vote on digital signs and billboards – as it has done previously.

In addition to possible final votes on those two ordinance changes, several items related to the 15th District Court appear on the council’s agenda. The court handles all civil claims up to $25,000, including small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, land contract disputes, and civil infractions, as well as preliminary exams for felony cases. Salaries for judges are reimbursed by the state, but the court is funded by the city through its regular budgeting process, with other costs borne by the city or by grants.

The council will be asked to approve an adjustment to the city’s current fiscal year’s budget (FY 2013) to bring it in line with actual expenditures. The general fund total budget adjustment is to increase it by $567,000. And of that, a significant part is attributable to the 15th District Court – including $112,000 in salary increases based on an interest in retaining employees, $203,000 due to a “catch up” payment to the law firm that provides indigent representation, and a back-bill for security from Washtenaw County for two fiscal years for $110,000.

Also on the council’s agenda is the authorization of a contract revision for the current year with the law firm that provides indigent representation. The “catch up” payment stems from the firm’s practice of delaying billing until a defendant’s legal costs are thought to be complete – instead of billing along the way. Because that approach doesn’t give a clear picture of the actual current cost of indigent representation, a new contract with the firm for next year (FY 2014) will be based on a flat fee. That $240,000 annual flat-fee contract is with Nassif and Reiser, P.L.L.C. (f/k/a Funkhouser and Nassif, P.L.L.C.), d/b/a Model Cities Legal Services (“MCLS”). Nader Nassif is a board member of the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority.

The council will also be asked to approve a $160,000 contract with the Washtenaw County sheriff’s office for weapons screening at the Justice Center, the building next to city hall that houses the 15th District Court. The estimated annual cost is based on $25.25 per hour per court security officer.

On the consent agenda – a group of items that are considered routine and voted on as a group – are two other items related to the 15th District Court. One is approval of $30,000 for a Sobriety Court grant program contract with the Washtenaw Community Health Organization (WCHO) to provide mental health treatment to 15th District Court defendants. The second is approval of $65,000 for a Sobriety Court grant program contract with the nonprofit Dawn Farm to provide in-patient and out-patient drug abuse counseling to 15th District Court defendants.

The Dawn Farm item includes a provision that could cause it to be pulled out of the consent agenda for separate consideration. That possibly controversial provision is a waiver of the city’s living wage ordinance for Dawn Farm to provide its counseling services. According to the staff memo accompanying the resolution, Dawn Farm employs 70 people, including 15 employees who are paid less than $12.52 per hour with health care coverage, and 18 people who are compensated at rates less than $13.96 per hour without health care coverage. Those are the rates specified in the city’s living wage ordinance. Last fall the council engaged in a vigorous discussion of a living wage ordinance waiver for Community Action Network (CAN), which ultimately resulted in the granting of a waiver at the council’s Nov. 8, 2012 meeting.

Other agenda highlights include revisions to contracts for six unions in the police department, which include a 2% wage increase starting July 1, 2013 and another 1% starting Jan. 1, 2014.

At the June 17 meeting, the council may also vote to adopt revisions to its own internal rules. Among other changes, the revised rules would reduce speaking times for the public from three to two minutes per turn.

Some other agenda items relate to site plans and brownfield plans.

Details of the meeting agenda are available on the city’s Legistar system. Readers can also follow the live meeting proceedings on Channel 16, streamed online by Community Television Network.

The Chronicle will be filing live updates from city council chambers during the meeting, published in this article “below the fold.” The meeting is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. [Full Story]

In the live updates filed directly from the city council’s June 3, 2013 meeting, and in the meeting report that was published subsequently, The Chronicle reported incorrectly that Tony Derezinski had been nominated for re-appointment to the city planning commission. While his name was originally included in a nomination list, his name was not read aloud by mayor John Hieftje at the meeting. And The Chronicle has since learned that Derezinski is not expected to be nominated for re-appointment to serve on the planning commission. We note the mistake here and have corrected the error in the two previous items. [link 1] [link 2]

Washtenaw County parks & recreation commission meeting (June 11, 2013): WCPARC’s June meeting, the first since the summer season kicked off on Memorial Day weekend, focused on two of the commission’s main responsibilities: maintaining and improving its parks and recreational facilities, and acquiring land for its natural areas preservation program (NAPP).

One NAPP deal that’s been years in the works took a step forward, with commissioners giving initial approval to acquire three parcels totaling 71 acres in Ann Arbor Township, owned by a subsidiary of Domino’s Farms. The deal includes a 54-acre parcel that had received widely varying appraisals, which had delayed the acquisition process. That property will cost a total of $3.25 million – with NAPP paying $928,780 and the remainder coming from other partners, including a contribution by the owner. The other two parcels are (1) five acres at a cost of $100,000, and (2) 12 acres for $215,000, with a possible contribution from Ann Arbor’s greenbelt program. The commission will consider giving final approval to all three acquisitions at its July meeting.

In other NAPP-related action, the commission gave final approval to $1,502,336 worth of NAPP purchases: the four-acre Jarskey property in Scio Township for $57,140, and the 249-acre Ramsey-Lippert-Carr properties in Northfield Township for $1,445,196. Both proposals had been described and discussed at WCPARC’s May 14, 2013 meeting.

Commissioners also approved a staff recommendation to expand NAPP’s stewardship program by creating three new staff positions, doubling the county’s investment in NAPP crews to about $350,000 a year. The expansion is possible because of an ordinance change approved by the county board on Sept. 19, 2012, removing constraints on how funds are allocated between NAPP acquisition and maintenance.

Regarding parks & recreation facilities, WCPARC staff updated commissioners on a new water park – called Blue Heron Bay – that’s located at Independence Lake county park. The water park, fenced off from the rest of the facility with a separate admission fee, has amenities designed for younger children, including spray-and-play features and a water slide.

Another expanded facility – Rolling Hills water park, on the east side of the county – includes a wave pool and spray-and-play installations. One of the improvements that seemed of great interest to commissioners was the new three-story water slide.

Commissioners were also briefed on recent market research regarding a proposed east county recreation center, to be built and managed in a partnership with WCPARC, the city of Ypsilanti and the Ann Arbor YMCA. The study indicated support for a 44,000-square-foot center – smaller than the county’s 51,000-square-foot Meri Lou Murray Recreation Center in Ann Arbor and the 70,000-square-foot Ann Arbor YMCA. The full report will be presented on June 25 to WCPARC members and other stakeholders.

In other updates, WCPARC staff noted that bids for construction of the Ann Arbor Skatepark were received, with the lowest bid of $1.2 million coming from Ann Arbor-based Krull Construction. The skatepark’s original budget was $800,000, including a $400,000 contribution from WCPARC. The city of Ann Arbor is working to amend the project’s scope and find additional revenue sources. [The item is on the agenda for the Ann Arbor park advisory commission's June 18 meeting, with a revised construction bid of $1,031,592, based in part on changes to the project's scope. The total project budget is now $1,224,311.] [Full Story]

Writing in the New York Post, columnist Jonathon M. Trugman criticizes the University of Michigan for “cheating” individual investors. Trugman writes: “Last week the university admitted that it releases market-moving consumer-sentiment data to business partner Thomson Reuters’ high-paying clients five minutes before everyone else gets the information. And the data are given to higher-paying high-frequency trading clients two seconds earlier than that. It’s all quite legal, but it certainly isn’t fair. And if it isn’t fair, then it isn’t a free market – and that’s the point.” [Source]

Washtenaw County board of commissioners meeting (June 5, 2013): In a move that appeared to surprise many commissioners and staff, Washtenaw County commissioner Alicia Ping formally proposed giving notice to eliminate a lump-sum budgeting approach for the county’s court system.

After a lengthy and often heated debate, the board voted 5-4 to give initial approval to the notice, but postponed final action until July 10. Voting in favor of initial approval were Ping, Conan Smith, Dan Smith, Andy LaBarre and Kent Martinez-Kratz. Voting against the proposal were Yousef Rabhi, Ronnie Peterson, Rolland Sizemore Jr. and Felicia Brabec.

Ping noted that her goal isn’t necessarily to cut funding for the courts, but rather to be more transparent about where the money goes. The board could ultimately decide to leave the lump-sum approach in place. Giving a notice to terminate the agreement simply gives the board the option to end it.

Conan Smith, who has wrangled with court officials in the past on this issue, argued that the legislative branch is responsible for budgeting, and the board has abrogated that responsibility by agreeing to lump-sum funding. The board gives up far too much authority over line-item expenditures in exchange for “peace in the valley,” he said. “I want to see something different.” With a line-item approach, the county board could indicate priorities for the courts by allocating more funds to specific areas. Dan Smith also argued in favor of the action, noting that the courts are funded with essentially no oversight.

No court officials attended the June 5 meeting. The proposal had not been on the published agenda.

Ronnie Peterson argued most strongly against Ping’s proposal, fearing it would damage the board’s relationship with the courts. Peterson also felt the board itself hadn’t been very accountable regarding a $345 million bond proposal it’s considering. “So as we blast others, let’s prepare to take a few pellets ourselves,” he said. Rolland Sizemore Jr. warned that the board might be starting a fire that they couldn’t put out. He noted that if court officials decide to sue, the county would be required to pay the attorney fees.

Commissioners initially were set to take a final vote at the board meeting that same night – held immediately after the ways & means committee meeting. However, after a break between the two meetings, corporation counsel Curtis Hedger reported that the memorandum of understanding with the courts actually requires a 12-month notice, not the six months that had been discussed. This turned the opinion of some commissioners, who wanted to take more time to study the issue. Andy LaBarre, who chairs the board’s working session, offered to schedule the topic for a working session as soon as possible.

The motion to postpone final action passed on a 6-3 vote, with dissent from Alicia Ping, Dan Smith and Kent Martinez-Kratz. So the proposal will appear on the board’s July 10 agenda.

That July 10 meeting will also include action related to the county’s major bonding initiative to cover unfunded pension and retiree healthcare obligations, including a public hearing. The first public hearing for the potential $345 million bond proposal was held on June 5. It drew four people who all expressed caution about the possible action, with some suggesting a millage or additional budget cuts to cover the retiree obligations instead of bonding.

On June 5, commissioners also set other public hearings for July 10: (1) for two brownfield redevelopment projects in Ann Arbor – at Packard Square (the former Georgetown Mall), and 544 Detroit St.; and (2) for the annexation of industrial property from Scio Township into the village of Dexter. And the July 10 meeting will include final consideration of a strategic space plan for Washtenaw County government facilities totaling about $5 million. The proposals, which got initial approval on June 5, include creating a plan to redevelop the Platt Road site where the old juvenile center was located. The redevelopment might entail a mix of uses, including affordable housing.

A range of other items addressed on June 5 included: (1) creating an historic district for the Jarvis Stone School in Salem Township; (2) an update on the county’s Head Start program, which will be falling under control of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District; and (3) resolutions of opposition – one against gun violence and one against the long-range transportation plan of the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG). The SEMCOG plan calls for expansion of I-94 in Detroit and I-75 in Oakland County. Some commissioners think that funding should be used to repair existing roads and bridges instead. [Full Story]

A June 13, 2013 meeting of the Ann Arbor city council’s rules committee has resulted in proposed revisions to the council’s rules, many of which affect speaking turns and time – for members of the public and for councilmembers.

The revisions will be considered by the full council at its June 17 meeting, as agenda item 13-0767. [.pdf of marked up rules for June 17, 2013 council meeting]

Among the changes is a proposal that an opportunity for general public commentary explicitly be included in the standard agenda template for the council’s work sessions – scheduled for the second and fourth Mondays of the month.

However, the length of public participation speaking turns is proposed to be reduced – from three minutes to two minutes – across all categories of public input, at both work sessions and regular meetings. Types of public speaking turns that would be limited to two minutes include: formal public hearings; general public commentary; and the 10 speaking slots that can be reserved in advance of a council meeting.

The procedure for reserving one of those 10 slots is also proposed to be revised. Only people who did not address the council at its immediately previous meeting would be eligible to reserve a slot. And of the 10 slots, eight would be designated for those who want to address the council on agenda action items. Two slots would be provided for those who want to address the council on any topic.

Given the council’s two meetings per month, the change would mean that a person would potentially be able to reserve a slot at the start of a meeting once a month. But anyone would still be able to address the council during general commentary time at the end of any meeting. The right to address public bodies during their meetings is provided by Michigan’s Open Meetings Act.

Speaking time for councilmembers is also proposed to be reduced. For each item considered by the council, councilmembers get two speaking turns. Councilmember speaking time is proposed to be reduced by a total of three minutes – from five to three minutes for the first turn, and from three to two minutes for the second turn.

Other changes are meant to give some clarity to the timeline for preparing the council’s agenda. The goal is to ensure that a regular meeting agenda is less susceptible to late additions of items or the late addition of supporting informational material for the items.

Added after initial publication: On the regular meeting agenda template, the time for mayoral communications, which include nominations to boards and commissions, is proposed to be moved from near the end of the meeting to just after the initial public commentary reserved time at the beginning of the meeting.

A rule is also proposed that would prohibit councilmembers from using mobile telecommunications devices while seated at the council table during a meeting.

The rules committee is also proposing to change the meta-rule about how the council’s rules can be changed. Currently, the meta-rule requires that the councilmembers not vote to adopt rule revisions unless they were presented with the changes at a previous meeting. The proposed change is to require only that councilmembers are provided with the proposed rule changes in advance of a meeting – as part of the regular agenda preparation process. Under the existing meta-rule, the council would need to wait until its July 1 meeting to adopt the new rules.

However, based on the rules committee discussion on June 13, the intent is to ask the full council to adopt the revised rules at its June 17 meeting – in accordance with the revised meta-rule on rule changes. Rules committee members indicated on June 13 they’d be content to use another provision in the rules – a 2/3 majority vote to suspend temporarily the existing rules – to adopt the rules changes on June 17.  [Full Story]

Ann Arbor city council meeting (June 3, 2013): At a meeting that lasted until nearly 1 a.m., the council took major steps that will affect the future of services in two core areas: housing and transportation.

On the housing side, a unanimous vote of the council approved the transfer of ownership for city properties managed by the Ann Arbor Housing Commission (AAHC) to the commission itself – an arrangement that’s actually more common across housing commissions in other cities. That step will allow conversion of the AAHC’s 355 public housing units to a project-based voucher system under HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. AAHC will then be pursuing low-income housing tax credits through a ground lease of the properties to a private/public limited partnership. The tax credits are intended to fund several million dollars in needed capital improvements to the existing properties, as well as build 20-30 new units.

Other unanimous votes related to the AAHC’s plan included: a resolution to approve a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for the properties now owned by AAHC – so that no property taxes will be owed; a resolution declaring that AAHC employees are and will remain city employees; and a $200,000 allocation from the city’s affordable housing trust fund to support improvements to Miller Manor.

On the transportation side, the council unanimously authorized membership of the city of Ypsilanti in the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, by approving changes to the articles of incorporation for the AATA. The number of board seats is expanded from seven to nine, with one of the seats to be appointed by the city of Ypsilanti. The transportation authority will go by the name Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority. The board of the AATA and the city of Ypsilanti also will need to formally approve the new articles, but are expected to do that in a straightforward fashion.

While the amendment of the articles of incorporation changes only the governance of the AAATA, the intent is to provide the potential for increased transportation funding. The AAATA could, with voter approval, levy a uniform millage on all member jurisdictions of the authority – now the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. It’s a right the current AATA already has, but has never exercised. Each city itself already levies a transit millage, and transmits the proceeds of those taxes to the AATA. For Ypsilanti, the advantage of a transit authority millage is that it would not count against the state constitutional 20-mill cap that a city can levy – a cap that Ypsilanti has already reached.

Deliberations on those two agenda items – housing and transportation – did not begin until after 11 p.m.

Taking an hour of the council’s time before that was a debate on a change to the city’s public art ordinance. The council unanimously supported eliminating the requirement of an automatic 1% set-aside for public art in the budget for every capital project – known as Percent for Art. But lengthy deliberations unfolded about an additional change: A provision that would allow for the return of previous years’ public art allocations to their funds of origin.

The ordinance revision that had already been given initial approval by the council allowed for such a return just for the FY 2014 public art set-asides. In the end, the council opted for an ordinance change that did not provide for a return of previous years’ public art allocations. That leaves roughly $845,000 in funds that can be used for the public art program as defined in the revised ordinance – one that places the onus on city staff to identify capital improvement projects that might be suitable for incorporating public art.

Another significant item on the council’s June 3 agenda was a resolution encouraging the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority to allocate funding for three police officers. That resolution passed on an 8-2 vote. The council also gave final approval to utility rate increases (an annual item) and a reduction in utility improvement charges imposed on first-time connections.

Other business included final approval of rezoning requests for Parkway Place and State Street Center. The Parkway Place rezoning – at 490 Huron Parkway – was from R3 (townhouse dwelling district) to R1B (single-family dwelling district). The State Street Center rezoning, near the intersection of South State and Ellsworth, was from O (office district) to C3 (fringe commercial district).

In anticipation of the upcoming July 4 holiday, the council took initial action on an ordinance that would restrict use of fireworks to the hours of 8 a.m. to midnight.

During public commentary, the topic of Pizza in the Park was reprised as a theme from the council’s previous meeting. Advocates for the homeless community lobbied for a written commitment from the city that a parks and recreation fee would not be imposed on a church that distributes food and other aid at Liberty Plaza, a downtown city park. [Full Story]