Stories indexed with the term ‘public meeting’

UM Public Crime Meeting Planned for March 29

The University of Michigan department of public safety‘s March 29, 2012 crime meeting will be open to the public, including university students, faculty, staff and members of the general public. The meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Michigan Union Pendleton Room.

DPS shift supervisors and officers involved in crime investigations, as well as representatives from housing security and hospital security, will be present to review recent major crime activity and trends, current criminal investigations and crime prevention strategies. There will be an opportunity for the public to ask questions, raise concerns or make suggestions, according to a university press release. This will be the final public session for the current academic year.

Ann Arbor Schools Tackle Looming Deficit

This sign in a hallway at Scarlett Middle School could apply to the Ann Arbor Public Schools budget.

This sign in a hallway at Scarlett Middle School, quoting basketball legend Michael Jordan, could apply to dealing with the Ann Arbor Public Schools budget. Superintendent Todd Roberts and other AAPS officials held a public forum on the budget Tuesday night at Scarlett.

Students outnumbered parents at Tuesday night’s budget forum for the Ann Arbor Public Schools, but only (we suspect) because it fulfilled a civics class requirement. At any rate, the 20 or so people who showed up at the Scarlett Middle School media center all got a lesson in the intricacies of public school funding, and a look at how AAPS plans to deal with an anticipated $6 million deficit in its next fiscal year, with the deficit projected to grow to $12 million by 2011-12.

Approaches include possibly floating a countywide millage as early as this fall, increasing student enrollment through online offerings, and lobbying state legislators for additional dollars and to reform the way schools are funded. [Full Story]

Parking Rate Hikes Delayed Slightly

The more you near your destination the more you slip sliding away,

The DDA board heard from the public on the topic of snow removal downtown, including the person attached to this foot, whose holiday gifts included some pullover gadgets with non-slip metal coils.

Downtown Development Authority Board (Jan. 7, 2009) The Main Street Area Association had hoped for a year-long delay in the parking rate increases that were approved by the DDA board at its Nov. 5 meeting. But after discussing that possibility – and the borrowing of $3.65 million from the TIF fund that the year’s delay would require – the board left their original proposal intact. However, it will not be put before city council for final approval on Jan. 20, as originally planned.

Instead, the rate hike, which is part of the same packet of materials as the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage project, will be placed on the agenda for the second council meeting in February. The board settled on this delay when mayor of the city of Ann Arbor, John Hieftje (who serves on the DDA board in that capacity) announced that the council’s budget and finance committee had indicated a preference to see that packet delayed until February. Hieftje warned that if it were placed on the Jan. 20 agenda, it would simply be postponed by city council. [Full Story]