Leading up to the city administrator’s proposed budget in April – for FY 2012, beginning July 1, 2011 – the city council is also holding a series of work sessions on the budget. Their typical scheduling pattern is for the weeks between council meetings. Previous work sessions have taken place on community services as well as the 15th District Court. On Feb. 14, 2011, the council held its budget work session on safety services – fire and police. Also included were a raft of smaller departments – finance, information technology, mayor and council, administrator’s office, clerk’s office and Community Television Network (CTN). One budget work session remains, for the public services area, on Feb. 28.

At the podium is Barnett Jones, chief of police and head of public safety services for the city of Ann Arbor. Seated at the table, from right to left are: Marcia Higgins (Ward 4), Mike Anglin (Ward 5), Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) and Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2). (Photo by the writer.)

On Feb. 14, heads of Ann Arbor’s police and fire departments presented the city council with their strategy for meeting budget reduction targets for the next two fiscal years – FY 2012 and FY 2013. They each presented their strategies for meeting the target on two different scenarios: (1) a 2.5% reduction for each year’s projected expenses; and (2) a 4.0% reduction for each year’s projected expenses.

Police chief Barnett Jones, who’s also head of all safety services for the city, told councilmembers he’d prefer to be “wrassling with a bad guy” instead of talking about the scenarios, but sketched out his reduction strategies anyway: On the 4.0% scenario, two years from now the department would have 14 fewer police officer positions than it does now – the force would decrease from 124 to 110 officers. Of the 14 police officer positions that could be eliminated, 13 of them would come through layoffs. That doesn’t include six additional, non-officer positions that would be eliminated in the department, four of them through layoffs.

Fire chief Dominick Lanza, who announced his resignation the day after the work session was held, sketched out a similar picture for the fire department: On the 4.0% scenario, two years from now, the department would have 13 fewer firefighters, with 11 of those reductions achieved through layoffs.

At the council’s first budget retreat, city administrator Roger Fraser and the city’s CFO Tom Crawford indicated that the 2.5% scenarios depend on unresolved union contracts settling with no salary increases and the adoption of the city’s new benefits plan. But even those scenarios would, in the first year of the two-year plan, result in the elimination of three police officer positions (two through layoffs) and five firefighter positions (three through layoffs).

The 2.5% target is the baseline reduction for all city departments, with higher targets established for a department (up to 4.0%) depending on how many of the department’s workers are on the new city benefits plan. The new plan requires higher contributions from employees for health care and pensions.

Besides fire and police protection, the city council received reduction reports from smaller departments, including a group of units in the finance department, the administrator’s office and the clerk’s office. They also discussed how the information technology department works out of a service fund that is external to the general fund.

Reduction Targets: 2.5% versus 4.0%

During the Feb. 14 work session, part of the back and forth – among councilmembers, city administrator Roger Fraser and chief financial officer Tom Crawford – focused on the definition of budget reduction targets, as well as the different scenarios presented for the police and fire departments.

The work session conversation again drew out the fact that percentage budget reduction targets do not arise from a comparison of last year’s budget with next year’s budget. Instead, the level of activities/services from the previous year is assumed for the next year, so the cost of those same activities/services is projected or forecast into next year. Due to overall inflation, contractually-enforced wage increases, increased energy costs, etc., the costs of the same activities/services, when projected into the next year, is generally greater. Budget reduction targets are thus percentage reductions of the forecasted cost. [For more detail on the calculations of budget reduction targets, see Chronicle coverage of the Jan. 31, 2011 working session: "Ann Arbor 2012 Budget: Parks, Plans, People"]

At the Feb. 14 work session, Crawford reminded the council that all departments had been given the basic task of reducing their forecasted costs by 2.5%. To the extent that employees in departments are not on the new health care and pension plans, they’d been given the additional task of reducing their forecasted costs by up to 4.0%.

Fraser explained how a number of city employees are “enjoying much more expensive health insurance than other employees.” He reminded the council of the city’s alignment between its budget and labor strategy. Asking departments to meet greater reduction targets that are keyed to extra health care costs is part of that alignment strategy. [For more detail on the alignment of labor and budget strategies, see Chronicle coverage of the Jan. 31, 2011 working session: "Ann Arbor 2012 Budget: Parks, Plans, People"]

In the case of the police and fire departments, almost all employees belong to unions that have not adopted the new city benefits plan. So at the Feb. 14 work session, police chief Barnett Jones and fire chief Dominick Lanza presented two different scenarios for their departments: a 2.5% and a 4.0% reduction scenario.

Police Services

Chief of police Barnett Jones walked the council through the strategy he would use to meet 2.5% and 4.0% reduction targets over the next two years. The reduction targets apply to each year. That is, savings identified in FY 2012 are assumed to carry through to FY 2013, and a department’s task for FY 2013 is to identify an additional savings of 2.5% or 4.0%, depending on the scenario. [The city adopts its budget one year at a time, but plans in two-year budget cycles].

Measured in bodies, the 4.0% scenario sketched out by Jones would result in the elimination of  14 police officer positions – 13 of them  through layoffs – in two years. That doesn’t include six additional, non-officer positions that would be eliminated in the department, four of them through layoffs. [.pdf of all budget impact sheets from the Feb. 14, 2011 working session]. That reduction in bodies would reduce the police department’s projected costs of roughly $26.5 million per year by $1 million in the first year, and an additional $1 million in the second year:

Police Services Reduction Strategies
------------------------------------------------------
2.5% SCENARIO

2012            2012           2013            2013
Action          Dollars        Action          Dollars
------------------------------------------------------
LAYOFF                         LAYOFF
2 Dispatchers   162,659        1 Dispatcher     97,810
2 Plc Offcrs    221,332        4 Plc Offcrs    470,272
1 Plc Svc Spcls  90,246
                               REDUCE RANK
ELIMINATE VACANT               1 Lt, 2 Sgt      24,274
1 Telecomm       78,374
1 Plc Offcr     115,521        MAT/SUPP         31,723
1 Plc Prof Asst  79,144
                               Addtl Svngs      22,981

Subtotal Svgs   747,276                        647,060
2.5% Target     666,049                        638,802

------------------------------------------------------
4.0% SCENARIO [in addition to 2.5% savings]

2012            2012           2013            2013
Action          Dollars        Action          Dollars
------------------------------------------------------
LAYOFF                         LAYOFF
3 Plc Offcrs    339,365        4 Plc Offcrs    479,235

                               Addtl Svgs       14,334

Grand Total   1,086,641                      1,140,629
4.0% Target   1,049,330                      1,091,071

-

After walking the council through the impact sheet, Jones stressed that eliminating police officer positions would translate to a shift from other areas into the department’s patrol division, which he tries to maintain at a minimum level. Jones has previously described the patrol division as the backbone of the police department. At last year’s budget work session on police services – when the specter eliminating 12 police officer positions was raised – Jones laid out the contrast between the patrol division and other areas of the police force. From The Chronicle’s report of that May 12, 2010 work session, which also gives some insight into how this year’s reductions might be handled from an operational point of view:

Sixty-four of those are in the patrol division, and 22 are on “special assignments.” Special assignments are as follows: five are on traffic; five are in the critical response unit (CRU); three are school liaison officers; two are transport officers; two are in-service detective officers; one is assigned to LAWNET; one is assigned to AATA; one is a property officer; one is a training officer; and one is a court officer.

If 12 officers are laid off, Jones said, then traffic enforcement would be reduced by four officers. One officer would remain in traffic for licensing, taxi cabs, and investigations along those lines. Those traffic officers would shore up the patrol division in order to spread the workload out among the remaining officers on patrol.

The CRU, Jones said, which represents the proactive part of the force, would be eliminated – the department would go from being a proactive to a reactive department. The CRU includes surveillance, uniformed and plainclothes work, and they make warrant arrests, among other duties, Jones said. Those CRU officers would have to be moved into other areas.

Summarizing, the chief said 12 layoffs meant four positions from traffic, five from CRU, with the other three reduced out of the patrol division. That would leave 61 on patrol. The total number in special assignments would be as follows – in some cases due to contractual obligations: traffic (1); school liaison (3); transport officers (2); in-service detective positions (2); LAWNET officer (1); AATA contract (1); property officer (1); training officer (1); and court officer (1). That’s a total of 13 officers in special assignments. The detective bureau would stay at 13, Jones said, reasoning that “core services have to be maintained.”

Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) chairs the council’s labor committee and has recently begun using his communications time at regular council meetings to provide updates and information about the status of labor negotiations. At the Feb. 14 work session, he noted that if the police officers union were to adopt the new benefits plan, then they would save the positions they’d otherwise lose under the 4.0% reduction scenario. [Under the 2.5% scenario, seven police officer positions would be lost over the course of two years; under the 4.0% scenario, 14 positions would be lost.]

Rapundalo said it’s within the union’s purview to affect the number of layoffs, “if they so desire.” City administrator Roger Fraser was somewhat more circumspect, saying, “We’re just showing the difference, not advocating one thing or another.”

In response to a question from Sandi Smith (Ward 1), Jones said there were no longer any vacant positions in community standards – they’d been filled. The community standards division has a total of 10 staff with a vacant supervisor position, he said. Just a few years ago, it had 15-16 total staff. Jones reported that Richard Martonchik, who works in the city’s human resources department, is looking at how the community standards department does business, and would, Jones hoped, provide a better business model.

Rapundalo asked Jones to summarize the impact on the department under the 4.0% scenario: 19 positions would be eliminated from the police department, 14 of those from law enforcement, Jones said. That would reduce the number of police officers from 124 to 110.

Marcia Higgins (Ward 4) asked if Jones would be able to maintain his minimum numbers in the patrol division with that number of cuts. Jones told her that with the 2.5% scenario, he could maintain the patrol division, but under the 4.0% scenario, the sheer loss of bodies would mean that patrol would be reduced. Higgins wanted to know what the patrol division would look like on that scenario. Answered Jones, “I haven’t quite figured that out.”

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) asked if the layoffs from dispatch could be covered by assistance from other jurisdictions. Jones allowed that in the distant future, that might be possible, but not immediately.

Stephen Kunsleman (Ward 3) said that during the council’s budget retreats they’d talked about “party patrol.” [Party patrol is essentially a special detail that is deployed on certain University of Michigan home football games.] Kunseman wondered if overtime would become a necessity in order to cover police activity like party patrol. He wanted to know if additional overtime would be incurred, and if that had been calculated against the projected cost savings.

Jones said he expected overtime would rise as a result of cutting this number of bodies. He also noted that party patrol enjoyed partial grant support, but that yes, overtime would rise.

Higgins wanted to know where it balanced out: What is the number of bodies you can cut without incurring overtime? Jones said he’d need to study the specific question in more detail before arriving at a number he would say in public. Higgins indicated that they’d need to have that conversation later. “Yes, ma’am,” Jones replied.

In response to a question from Derezinski, Jones said that prospects for federal funding are grim and that the department had moved away from seeking federal grants. Most of those grants require that you hire the officers permanently who have been paid for with federal funds, he said.

Derezinski asked if reductions to the state police force could result in more obligations locally. Jones confirmed that there’s speculation about reductions to state police funding. Since the new governor [Rick Snyder] was elected, Jones said, there’s been speculation. The state police took over the crime lab in Detroit, he said, and he does not think they’ll return operation of the crime lab back to Detroit. There’s a backlog of cases from Detroit because of credibility problems, he said. There’s also speculation about the reduction of funding to the corrections system. And there’s talk of turning patrol of the freeways back over to local agencies and the sheriffs. Another strategy would entail removing state police officers from southeast Michigan and putting them in a backup role. Jones concluded by saying he’s waiting to see what direction the state police are going.

Fire Services

The day following his presentation to the council, Dominick Lanza resigned his position as chief of the fire department after slightly less than a year on the job. He was sworn in last year at the March 15, 2010 council meeting, with an official start date of March 22, 2010. His resignation is effective March 25, 2011.

At the work session, Lanza told councilmembers that he wished he could tell them the situation for the fire department was better than in the police department, but it isn’t. There are a number of additional new expenses the fire department had to reduce in their budget task, including $43,573 due to a budget estimate that was too low from last year and $52,000 in lost revenue that will be assigned to the planning department instead – it’s a matter of complying with the state law on how initial inspections are handled. [The city council approved the change at their Jan. 3, 2011 meeting.]

On the 4.0% percent scenario, after two years the number of firefighters in the department would fall by 13, from 88 to 75. On the 2.5% scenario, nine firefighter positions would be cut. [.pdf of all budget impact sheets from the Feb. 14, 2011 working session] By the specific numbers:

Fire Services Reduction Targets
------------------------------------------------------
2.5% SCENARIO

2012            2012           2013            2013
Action          Dollars        Action          Dollars
------------------------------------------------------
ADDITIONAL EXPENSES

Plnng Dpt       (52,000)
Too Low Est     (43,573)       Too Low          (5,406)
Rplc Gen FS1    (62,715)       New Gen FS6     (62,715)
Therm Imagers   (13,500)
Air bottles      (6,900)       Air bottles      (6,900)

REDUCTIONS         

LAYOFF                          LAYOFF
3 FFs           324,000         4 FFs          432,000

ELIMINATE VACANT
2 FF            216,000  

Subtotal Svgs   361,312                        356,979
2.5% Target     349,870                        348,840

------------------------------------------------------
4.0% SCENARIO [in addition to 2.5% savings]

2012            2012           2013            2013
Action          Dollars        Action          Dollars
------------------------------------------------------
LAYOFF                         LAYOFF
2 FF            216,000        2 FF            216,000

Grand Total     577,312                        572,979
4.0% Target     561,126                        584,748

-

Lanza told councilmembers that a forthcoming study might change the situation. He was alluding to a study that will be done by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Center for Public Safety Management to get an analysis of and recommendations for Ann Arbor’s fire protection needs. The contract, for not more than $54,000, was authorized at the city council’s Feb. 7, 2011 meeting. The interest in a study comes in the context of two recent budget retreats conducted by the council, where the council discussed the possibility of transforming Ann Arbor’s fire department to a staffing arrangement that would combine full-time career firefighters with paid on-call firefighters.

At the budget work session on Feb. 14, Lanza told the council that a lot of the numbers are “guesstimates.” He said that after the study, if the city decides that it wants to go in the direction of a combination full-time/on-call department, then everyone – firefighters and administration – would know. Now, he said, he just does the best he can with the numbers he’s given.

He characterized the current staffing situation – which is budgeted for 88 firefighters – as one where the department has checks, but no money to write them. The previous Sunday he’d implemented the intermittent closing of one of the city’s five fire stations. Regardless of the station that would be closed on any occasion when a closure was necessary, Lanza said it would  have impact on response times, which means potentially more property damage. A station would be closed only on an “as needed” basis, he said.

By way of background, part of what determines when an intermittent closure is required depends on the number of firefighters available on any given day, and the department’s ability to pay overtime.  The department’s firefighting force is divided into three shifts, who work a 24-hour day, followed by 48 hours off. Every 10th day of scheduled work is a “code day,” which works out to a yearly average of time worked by firefighters of 50.4 hours per week.

A fact drawn out by mayor John Hieftje at the Feb. 14 work session is that by union contract, the number of firefighters that can have scheduled time off for any shift is seven. [It's a number calibrated to a firefighting force that previously numbered over 100 firefighters. According to the IAFF Local 693 website, the minimum staffing requirement per shift for the five stations in the city is 18 firefighters. Dividing 88 firefighters by three shifts, subtracting the maximum number for scheduled time off (7), and allowing for coverage of code days leaves little flexibility for staffing, without incurring overtime.]

Tony Derezinski (Ward 2) asked about the possibility of reconfiguring shifts. Lanza said there were a few people who were working a 40-hour week, and one possibility would be to put them back into the fire suppression rotation. Scheduling is a negotiable item for union contracts, Lanza said.

Derezinski asked if the station to be closed on an intermittent basis could be chosen so that it’s near a station in another jurisdiction, so there’d be reciprocal coverage. Lanza indicated that what’s needed in Washtenaw County is a regional approach to fire protection, to ensure that everyone receives the same high level of service.

Non-Safety Services Departments

In addition to police and fire budgets – which together made up 48.9%, of the city’s $81.5 million general fund budget for the current budget year – city council members heard budget reduction strategies from several smaller departments. [.pdf of all budget impact sheets from the Feb. 14, 2011 working session]

Financial Services

The city’s chief financial officer, Tom Crawford, presented the council with the budget impact sheet for the city’s financial services as a group that includes finance, treasury, assessing, risk management, accounting, and procurement.

Savings identified for the first year of the two-year plan include around $60,000 in savings from the new financial system. The group’s impact sheet also includes an additional expenditure of almost $80,000 compared to last year – for a position that has now been reassigned back to accounting. That will be offset by not filling a vacancy in payroll for an employee who’s going to retire.

Another $29,000 of savings is expected from a personnel change next year – an AFSCME union position that is currently held by a Level V employee is expected to retire and the position is expected to be replaced with a Level I employee.

For the second year of the plan, FY 2013, another reduction of a full-time staff position would be required, Crawford said. He’s not yet been able to identify that position, he said, but he would need to do that next year.

Information Technology

Crawford included the IT department as part of the work session presentation. But the 22-person IT department operates with a service fund that’s external to the general fund – it bills other departments in the city directly for the services it provides. Crawford likened the IT department to the fleet services fund – fleet provides vehicles to city departments, and IT provides computers and software.

In discussion with councilmembers, Crawford explained how the brake on IT costs did not come primarily from an attempt to meet reduction targets within that fund – although they did look for direct ways to reduce their costs. Instead, the pushback on IT costs comes from the different departments within the city. As heads of different departments try to meet their budget reduction targets, they might look at reducing people or something else, like IT costs, to remove the next dollar from their budgets.

Crawford told the council he wanted to give councilmembers a flavor of how the IT department works – the budget for the department is over $6 million, which is a lot of money.

One category of IT costs is “multi-year projects,” which are expected to decrease from $552,611 this year to $235,000 in FY 2012 and $160,000 in FY 2013. The $235,000 is primarily for the OnBase document management system, Crawford said, which illustrates the general category of major software implementations included in “multi-year” projects.

OnBase is the last of the major IT software projects, Crawford said, which have in the last few years included systems like the Courts and Law Enforcement Management Information System (CLEMIS) and eTRACKiT. So the line item for multi-year projects is going down. Now, what the IT department will focus on is making sure that the organization is using its software well. That’s an item that shows up as “software maintenance” in the IT department’s budget. In response to a question from Tony Derezinski (Ward 2), Crawford explained that the ongoing software maintenance contracts are struck with the software vendor – it’s not really something that could be bid out separately to a third party. The cost of the ongoing maintenance contract, Crawford explained, is something that’s considered in weighing the merits of the software purchase.

Another category of  expenses for the IT department is “two-year replacement projects.” The typical replacement schedule is every five years for desktop computers and every three years for laptops, but the department is looking at the possibility of extending that schedule to every four years for laptops. The idea is to establish a replacement schedule so that equipment failures don’t wind up costing more money than it would to simply replace the equipment in advance of those failures. In the course of the evening’s conversation, city administrator Roger Fraser explained that the iPad he’d been using recently would be returned to the IT department – he’d been evaluating it as a possibility instead of a laptop. He’d found it useful in some ways, he said, but lacking in others.

Besides software maintenance, the other largest expense is personnel, which works out to roughly $2.5 million year. Crawford stressed that the increase from $2,654,689 in FY 2011 to $2,828,319 in FY 2012 reflected the fact that an employee whose costs were charged out to another department in FY 2011 was coming back to IT.

Mike Anglin (Ward 5) was curious to know what the quantifiable impact is on the city’s operation when the public uses the city’s online tools – there are likely fewer telephone calls and more satisfied customers. Do they have hard data on that? he wanted to know. Crawford said that online tools – like the ability of people to use the city’s online tax payment system – have had a meaningful effect. To the extent that it reduces staffing needs during peak periods, it has had exactly the impact you would expect. Sandi Smith (Ward 1) asked if it would be possible to show over the last five years the savings generated from IT work. Crawford indicated that it’d be easier to do that on a project-by-project basis, and he offered in the near future to pull out some examples to share with the council.

Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3) noticed that the IT department itself was charging itself for IT services. Crawford explained that the IT staff all have computers, and there are also licenses for software use – software licenses are assigned by individual. He also explained that the municipal service charge is assessed to IT, because it’s not part of the general fund.

In summing up the IT presentation, city administrator Roger Fraser described how previously, when someone said, “I need a new computer,” the city gave it to them with no consequence to the department’s budget. Now, there’s instead a conversation – between a “customer” and “a provider.” Sometimes software licenses are removed from a department’s budget, because a unit manager decides they don’t need them.

An example of what Fraser meant was included in the community services area budget work session on Jan. 31, which was reported this way by The Chronicle:

Additional budget savings would result from adjusting water charges to reflect what actual usage is. And they’re eliminating some software licenses. Some of the software, [community services area administrator, Sumedh] Bahl said, isn’t used by the staff that much, “so we’re taking it away from them.”

At the Feb. 14 work session, Fraser credited Dan Rainey, head of IT for the city, for establishing the review team for IT, which includes the district court, the city attorney’s office, and the city’s other key leadership positions. The review team helps establish IT priorities. Crawford said the city’s IT governance model had attracted interest from other organizations as well.

Mayor and Council

The mayor and council have their own section of the budget, which includes mayoral and councilmember salaries. Fraser told them that miscellaneous reductions in FY 2012 of $810 were yet to be determined. It’s assumed that for the following year, in FY 2013, the roughly $8,000 reduction target would not be met, because it would mean a reduction of half a councilmember. [For Chronicle coverage of how council salaries are set – 2011 is a year when they can be changed – see: "Ann Arbor Council Service: What's it Worth"]

Mayor John Hieftje pointed out that there used to be 1.75 FTE staff positions in the mayor’s office and now it’s down to 0.75.

Sandi Smith (Ward 1) suggested not printing out everything in color and dropping it in councilmember mailboxes. She told Fraser she looked at most things online, so she didn’t need paper copies. Fraser noted that while the printing cost did not come out of the council’s budget, it was a good suggestion. He did point out that there’s a balance between providing all the necessary information without flooding the council with too much information. If it’s printed out in color, Fraser said, it’s probably because it’s much easier to understand in color. He assured Smith that he did think this through, but his judgment call would be – if he had to choose – to go with the best quality information.

Administrator

The first item on the administrator’s list was reduced printing costs, with an expected savings of $3,500. Some of the savings were identified simply with the note: “reduced budget to meet required target.” Fraser explained by commenting: ”We’ll have to be frugal.” The line indicating savings in contractual services includes items like membership in the Michigan Municipal League, Fraser said. The reduction strategy includes having those units who actually use the contractual services pay for them. [Membership in the league was not indicated to be cut.]

Community Television Network

Included in the impact sheets was one for CTN, which Fraser indicated was not part of the general fund, but which is also trying to meet reduction targets. The impact sheet indicates an expenditure for a capital investment of $97,431 – to transition to an appropriate digital format. The new format, said Fraser, would allow for live streaming on computers instead of on television.

Clerk

Savings identified in the clerk’s office include the replacement of someone who is retiring with a lower cost employee.

Cost savings were also identified by assuming only two of the city’s five wards would have city council primary elections. [As of last week, the only person who had filed nominating petitions with the city clerk's office was Stephen Kunselman (Ward 3).] Fraser said they’d made a wild guess about the number of wards with primary elections – they figured it might be two, instead of the three wards that were contested last year. The impact sheet for the clerk’s office indicates that a primary election costs about $7,000 per ward to administer. “It’s up to you guys as to how much we spend,” Fraser said. “Get out there and take out your opposition, and we’ll be all set!” he quipped.

Another measure that will continue from last election season is the Friday closure of the clerk’s office for election preparation work. Previously they had done the work on an overtime basis. Fraser said there’d been no complaints about the Friday closure during the last election cycle.

Another way that overtime will be reduced is to eliminate the clerk’s assistant for city council meetings, who comes in at 1 p.m. on Monday council meeting days – she would work just until 10 p.m., instead of staying until the end of the meetings. [Ann Arbor city council meetings rarely end before 10 p.m.] The rest of city council meeting would be covered by city clerk Jackie Beaudry, Fraser said.

The gentle brown S-curve in the diagram denotes a "social street" which is envisioned by the Old West Design Group to connect Washington and Liberty streets as part of a re-development plan for 415 W. Washington. Margaret Wong spoke at council against the idea of a motorized vehicular connection between Washington and Liberty. (Image links to larger resolution file.)

City Council Meeting (Jan. 5, 2009, Part II) This article reports the portion of council’s Monday evening meeting that did not relate to the City Place PUD, which is covered in Part I.

This piece is organized thematically, not chronologically.

• Laptop computers – what do they cost the city?
• Liquor – why do they get a liquor license, when we’ve heard so much negative news about them?
• Easement for public utilities – what, if anything, do the public schools have against electricity?
• Public Art Commission – an unexpected wrinkle in a garden-variety appointment.
• City Income Tax – a previous study to be updated.
• Streets and Snow – includes a ride-along in a snow plow reported by councilmember Marcia Higgins; also Stadium & Pauline and Huron Parkway & Nixon have construction planned starting in the second half of April 2009, to be completed by end of August 2009.
• Waste – commercial recycling and wastewater treatment (can you say “bio-solids”?)
• Public Commentary – against a street, for social justice, and for unbiased reporting on the bombing of Gaza.

Laptops

This resolution was originally on the consent agenda as CA-1, but councilmember Sabra Briere asked that it be separated out for discussion. It called for up to $95,500 to be authorized for personal computer replacements.

Briere called Dan Rainey, the city’s director of information technology, to the podium and asked him to convey orally the answers she’d already received from him by email in response to some questions she’d asked. Rainey gave a cost breakdown for the approximately 25 desktop and 36 Hewlett Packard laptop computers that the money was being used to purchase. The cost per laptop was $1,625, which included a 19-inch monitor, keyboard, mouse, docking station, and monitor stand. For desktops the cost was $931. There was, said Rainey, a $1,307 contingency for unplanned purchases because of breakages.

Councilmember Leigh Greden thanked Briere for eliciting the information and said that it opened a larger dialog that they need to have. To many people, said Greden, the IT departement and its budget and inner workings remains a mystery, because it’s its own internal service fund. As council enters the two-year budget cycle, said Greden, it’s important to take a very close look at IT. He characterized IT as a critical investment, but said that it was also critical to not feel like money is disappearing someplace. Briere followed up by saying that when they make technology buys, they need to buy the best that can last the longest time. She stressed that she was confident in the IT department, but the public needed explanation about where these big-ticket items go.

Liquor

Agenda item D-2 dealt with the transfer of ownership of a 2007 class C liquor-licensed business with dance-entertainment permit, located at 314-316 S. Fourth doing business as Studio 4. Councilmember Stephen Rapundalo, who chairs the liquor license review committee, reported that the committee had voted 2-1 not to recommend the transfer.

Rapundalo wanted to make clear to his council colleagues what the vote reflected: a certain amount of frustration about the number of incidents reported through the media at Studio 4 that seems higher than similarly-sized establishments downtown.

Despite that frustration, said Rapundalo, the conditions for rejecting the transfer consist only of a failure to pay property taxes: the assessor’s office determines whether there’s something delinquent. In this case the establishment had a clean bill of health. The police department looks at Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) code violations, fire code violations are considered by the fire department, and the planning department looks a building code violations. With regard to MLCC violations there were a few cases of minors in possession of alcohol.

Regarding the number of incidents, Rapundalo said in some cases it was hard to discern whether it involved an action inside or outside. [Editor's note: Ann Arbor District Library's online archive of Ann Arbor News articles provides examples over the last year of incidents ranging from shots fired outside the bar to an underage girl found passed out in a booth inside the bar.]

Rapundalo said that the new owner is the manager of the establishment. With regard to the issue of property taxes he has a clean bill of health, reported Rapundalo. He had also provided a plan to address safety, which included hiring private security guards. Rapundalo said that the liquor license review committee had put Studio 4 on notice that they would be diligent in reviewing the establishment.

Part of that diligence, continued Rapundalo, was to develop specific criteria by which to deny these transfers (beyond delinquency on property taxes), which are currently not in place.

After the resolved clause was changed to reflect approval (as opposed to denial) of the transfer of ownership, the transfer was unanimously approved.

Public Utilities Easement

Agenda item DS-8 was a resolution accepting a public utilities easement from public schools for the Miller-Maple transmission water main project at Forsythe and Wines schools. Mayor John Hieftje recalled there being an objection on the part of the public schools to having an electrical conduit installed that was connected to a windmill that generated power – something that city staff confirmed had not been done. Because he was curious to know what the source of the objection was, Hieftje asked that the item be postponed, which it was.

Public Art Commission

At the Dec. 15 council meeting, the following nominations for the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission were placed before council for consideration:

• Marsha Chamberlain re-appointment (Jan. 5, 2009-Dec. 31, 2011)
• Cheryl Zuellig replacing Tim Rorvig (Jan. 5, 2009-Dec. 31, 2011)
• Connie Rizzolo Brown serving out Elaine Sims general public term (Jan. 5, 2009-Dec. 31, 2009)
• Elaine Sims replacing Larry Cressman – U/M Representative (Jan. 5, 2009-Dec. 31, 2011)

Confirmation of such nominations is usually perfunctory. In this case, councilmember Marcia Higgins, seeing that Zuellig’s address was listed as Ypsilanti, asked, “Why is someone from Ypsilanti sitting on our commission?”

The explanation that Hieftje offered was that there was a UM connection, which was important to maintain, because UM had not yet committed in the same way as the city of Ann Arbor had to allocating a percentage of its construction project budget for public art, notwithstanding the many large public art pieces UM had installed.

It was pointed out that a different person was spelled out in the nomination (Sims) as the UM-connected replacement. Councilmember Briere noted that Zuellig was an employee of JJR, as a reminder of who was who. [Editor's note: Zuellig was slated to replace Tim Rorvig, also of JJR. The art commission meets at the JJR second-floor conference room, at 110 Miller Ave.]

Hieftje then said he’d like to withdraw Zuellig’s name. The other three nominees were unanimously confirmed.

City Income Tax and Other Taxes

During communications from council, Stephen Rapundalo made a request of city administrator Roger Fraser that the 2004 city income tax study be “dusted off” and distributed. Rapundalo introduced the request in the context of UM’s purchase of the Pfizer site [which removes the property from the city's property tax rolls, because UM does not pay property taxes]. Rapundalo said he would like staff to see what needs to be updated and bring it back at an appropriate time and manner.

Greden echoed the need for the 2004 study to be looked at again and updated, noting that he’d received emails from constituents on the topic. [Editor's note: Ann Arbor does not currently collect a city income tax.]

Related to taxes – in the form of a kind of exemption – was a public hearing on the application of Edward Brothers Inc. for an Industrial Facilities Exemption Certificate. One member of the public spoke, John Floyd, who said that every time we give someone a tax exemption, everybody else has to pay: either services go down or taxes go up. Overall prosperity, Floyd said, depends on keeping tax rates low.

Streets and Snow

Based on the number of comments on a Dec. 29 Chronicle column about snow removal in Ann Arbor, it is a topic of keen interest to Chronicle readers. Count councilmember Marcia Higgins as someone who’s interested in snow removal as well. In her communications from council, Higgins reported on a Dec. 19 ride-along with a snow-removal crew. She spent 4.5 hours with a crew, and said that she was impressed by the finesse used – from moving tons at a time to just rolling the snow gently without flooding the sidewalks with snow.

Years ago, she said, the city did curb-to-curb plowing, which is no longer the practice. She said it became apparent during the subsequent warming trend that we have compacted snow against storm drains, which results in flooding.

Higgins reported seeing such flooding on Stadium Boulevard, where million of dollars had been spent on storm drain improvements. She wondered if, as we change snow-plowing practices, we are changing the way we build roads. She concluded by thanking the crew: “These guys do a fantastic job!” She said that it was an eye-opening experience to see them drive the truck, adjust the blade, spread the salt, and pay attention to traffic.

Besides possible flooding in connection with snow plowing, Stadium Boulevard came up in the context of improvements planned at the intersection of Pauline Boulevard. Agenda item DS-1 was a resolution to approve an agreement with the Michigan Department of Transportation and amend the project budget for the West Stadium Boulevard at Pauline Boulevard improvement for $1.51 million.

The breakdown provided by Homayoon Pirooz, head of the city’s project management unit, was $850,000 from a grant, $904,000 from the street millage, $250,000 from the water main fund, and $356,000 from the storm water fund. He explained that the curb-to-curb width would be virtually the same, widened only by a few inches.

Bike lanes would be achieved by decreasing existing lane widths from 12 feet to 11 feet, Pirooz said. Responding to the issue of the impact of snow plowing, he said there’s no good solution: “It’s been a challenge forever.” Councilmember Mike Anglin wanted to know if the possibility of locating underground storm water detention tanks had been explored with adjacent property owners. Pirooz replied that for residential properties it had not been explored, and that when the city had attempted to reach an understanding with the commercial owners of parking lots, ultimately there had been no understanding reached. Councilmember Higgins expressed concern about the replacement of three cobra-head street lights with 11 new lights as a part of the project: Would there be an impact on nearby residential areas?

The timeline for the project would have it beginning in the second half of April 2009 and to be completed by the end of August 2009.

The same timeline was indicated for improvements in the area of a second intersection: Nixon & Huron Parkway. Agenda items DS-2, DS-3, and DS-4 related to the Nixon & Huron Parkway project. The agreement with Michigan Department of Transportation and amendment of the project budget was made for $909,174. Council also approved $196,370 for construction engineering services from Orchard Hiltz & McClient Inc. and $39,680 for construction materials testing by CTI & Associates Inc.

Other road corridors discussed at council were not being improved through construction, but rather by adding them to the SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) system, a traffic signal control system that is already deployed on (i) Plymouth Road from US-23 into the city, (ii) Washtenaw Avenue between US-23 and S. University, and (iii) Eisenhower between Main and US-23. SCOOT optimizes signals in real time based on information received upstream from induction loops under the pavement. Les Sipowski, traffic engineer for the city of Ann Arbor, was on hand to explain the system and to offer his observations about its performance: when there was an accident on US-23 causing traffic to divert to Plymouth Road (one of the locations where SCOOT is installed), he could see that from a driver perspective the length of delays was not increased, and that means it’s working.

In agenda items DS-5 and DS-6, council approved $479,339 for expansion of SCOOT to Ellsworth Road and S. State Street and $210,722 for SCOOT on Ashley and First streets.

Streets also came up in the context of re-development proposals for 415 W. Washington. The Chronicle has recently reported on the current status of that process: the review committee has recommended that the RFP be refined and re-issued to the proposers with the hope that they will discuss a joint proposal amongst themselves.

Sue McCormick, public services area administrator for the city of Ann Arbor, plus Scott Rosencrans, a member of the Park Advisory Commission, made themselves available at the beginning of the meeting to answer any questions. McCormick said that what staff was looking for from council is concurrence with the committee’s recommendations, under which staff would revise the RFP. The committee, she said, has expressed a willingness to continue its service.

Rosencrans said it’s not a very easy piece of property to develop. The committee, on which he served, wanted to give council the opportunity to revise the RFP so that applicants can come closer to meeting the recommendations in it. One of those recommendations was that the greenway area (which had been stipulated in the original RFP to include the entire floodway area of the parcel) remain under public ownership. Another recommendation was that there be a connection between Washington and Liberty streets. [In previous coverage, The Chronicle reported that the Old West Side Design Group had used a "social street" to make this connection.]

During the public commentary reserve time at the beginning of the council meeting, Margaret Wong spoke to the issue of a street connection. She appeared on behalf of Allen Creek Greenway Conservancy, and was responding to the 415 W. Washington’s RFP recommendations report.

Wong said the ACGC fully supported the finding statement: “Preservation of floodways as open space in public ownership or control is considered a best management practice for flood risk mitigation, and none of the proposals would be negatively impacted by retaining the floodway portion of the site in public ownership.” The conservancy supported the recommendation of public ownership, she said.

However, she said that it cannot support a vehicle connection between Liberty and Washington, saying that it would disrupt the free flow of non-motorized traffic envisioned for the greenway. The greenway was meant to promote a healthy community by creating non-motorized options for travel, as well as to reveal a neglected creek valley, she said. Part of the goal of the greenway was to remind us why Ann Arbor was sited where it was sited. We should set the bar high, Wong said, and “aim for the most we can achieve, not the least we can get away with.”

Waste: Water, Commercial Recycling

Agenda item DS-10 was a resolution to award a contract to SG Construction Services for $42,444,927 to construct a residuals handling improvements project at the wastewater treatment plant. Earl Kenzie, unit manager of the wastewater treatment plant, was on hand to explain what the project included.

Kenzie explained that it would replace 30-year old equipment that was at the end of its useful life. According to Kenzie, the project would take 2.5 years to complete. Mayor Hieftje elicited an explanation of why methane extraction from bio-solids was not currently feasible onsite at the wastewater treatment plant (although it had been explored and tested). Fleming Creek, Huron River, and the railroad tracks bound the treatment plant’s facility, Kenzie explained, so there simply is not enough space to undertake it. Hieftje expressed his hope that new technology might make it possible to implement using less space. The resolution passed.

Also related to waste was agenda item DC-1, which was a resolution to accept the report of commercial recycling implementation recommendations. This report came from the commercial recycling implementation committee, which was created by the city’s environmental commission to make those recommendations. The environmental commission had accepted the recommendations at its Dec. 4 meeting.

Councilmember Higgins led the discussion by clarifying a procedural matter regarding the “multi-stakeholder oversight committee” to be created “to assist the staff in the development of a solid waste collection rate schedule, which would be adopted prior to the July 1, 2009 start-up date for the solid waste franchise and the commercial recycling program, and that includes, at a minimum, a review of the frequency of pickup, the number of containers per pickup, and the weight of waste material per waste container.”

The original language of the resolution called for the environmental commission to create the oversight committee, but at Higgins’ suggestion it was revised to assign that role to city council. Higgins solicited agreement from council’s two representatives to the environmental commission, Carsten Hohnke and Margie Teall, to take responsibility for the oversight committee.

On the substantive matter of the recommendations, Higgins led the discussion with staff as well, bringing out the key feature of the recommended program (which is intended to increase commercial recycling by 50% and to save money for businesses): it will rely on a franchise system with a vendor selected by the city (Waste Management), which businesses would be required to use. Higgins said that she’d heard from a couple of businesses to the effect that they thought their existing arrangement was more economical than the rate schedules being proposed, and asked what options they might have. Staff indicated that they felt that the vast majority of businesses would have cost savings, but acknowledged that in a few instances it could go the other way. It was identified as a matter to bear in mind going forward.

Public Commentary

Besides Margartet Wong, whose comments are reported above in connection with the general topic of streets, two other citizens appeared to speak during reserved time.

Tom Partridge: Partridge addressed his remarks to the mayor, city council, the public attending and watching. He identified himself as the author of four resolutions passed at last August’s Washtenaw Democratic convention calling for countywide public transportation, the ending of discrimination against seniors and handicapped people, the creation of a universal healthcare program, and for creation of housing commissions through all regions of the state. He asked council to pass a resolution calling for economic expansion in the city, county, state and nation.

Henry Herskovitz: Herskovitz said it’s hard to know where to begin in describing the all-out assault on the “world’s largest concentration camp – the Gaza strip.” Noting that the Israeli military had dubbed their operation “cast lead,” he said it should instead be called the “Hanukkah massacre,” because it happened during Hanukkah and was, in fact, a massacre.

He conveyed to councilmembers (via the city clerk) a quarter-page information sheet that included the ratio of killed Palestinians to killed Israelis, which was 100 to 1. He then addressed the coverage of the Israeli military assault in the media. In discussing one headline, “Israelis move into Gaza,” he noted that it was accurate, because they had in fact moved into Gaza, but said that an equally valid headline would have been “Poorly-Armed Hamas Girds for Invasion by Superpower.” Another headline that began “Israeli weighs goals in Gaza” focused attention on Israel, Herskovitz said, and leads readers to believe that Hamas is the problem. We are supposed to get the who, what, when, where, and why from the media, “But where’s the why?” he asked. Part of the why, he said, was included: “Eight days of punishing air strikes failed to halt rocket fire.” But the why of the rocket fire was not there, he said. He offered that the why of the rocket fire had to do with an illegal blockade that forces people in Gaza to eat grass and eat bread made from animal feed.

Present: Sabra Briere, Tony Derezinski, Stephen Rapundalo, Leigh Greden, Christopher Taylor, Margie Teall, Marcia Higgins, Carsten Hohnke, Mike Anglin, John Hieftje

Absent: Sandi Smith

Next Council Meeting: Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 at 7 p.m. in council chambers, 2nd floor of the Guy C. Larcom, Jr. Municipal Building, 100 N. Fifth Ave. [confirm date]