Once inside the Wheeler Service Center on Stone School Road, it was easy to find the city council retreat location.

At its budget retreat held on Saturday at the Wheeler Service Center, city council set out its priorities for the coming year: land use policy (i.e., zoning), economic sustainability, plus improved communication and service delivery.

This, after getting a picture of where the city stands from the city administrator, Roger Fraser, and his key staff: unless expenditures are reduced or else revenues increased, the city will experience a shortfall of revenue against expenditures starting in fiscal year 2010. Staff also outlined some significant projects that the public will start to see implemented or else be expected to help shape in the coming year. Those include increased use of web technologies (e.g., Facebook), more zoning revisions, possible dam removal, and regional coordination of safety services.

Fraser also offered conceptual drawings of a conference center that could be built on top of the proposed Fifth Avenue underground parking garage, and floated the idea of constructing a roof over Fourth Avenue for a bus station to replace the Blake Transit Center. The retreat took place in a workroom outfitted with one of 11 plasma screens that had recently caught the attention of an auditor, because they had been purchased in a manner inconsistent with city guidelines on credit card use.

From left to right: Councilmembers Leigh Greden, Sandi Smith, Carsten Hohnke, Sabra Briere. They are looking at an aerial image of the Fourth Avenue section north of William Street, which city administrator Roger Fraser floated as a possible location for a Blake Transit Center replacement. The concept would be to leave the street open to traffic, but to build a roof over it.

The possible budget shortfalls were quantified as follows: shortfalls of $2.07 million in FY 2010 and $5.41 million on budgets of $87.02 million and $87.59 million, respectively. Key assumptions in these projections are that there will be a 1.25% reduction in tax revenues starting in 2010, followed by a reduction in 2011 by 5.2%. Projections also factor in a 2.5% increase in pension fund contributions for 2010, followed by a 36.6% increase in 2011.

The financial state of the city was characterized by Fraser as influenced by three key factors:

• The city’s property tax revenues are declining due to lower assessed values, Pfizer’s departure, and less new construction.
• Flat state shared revenue, with risk for decline.
• Investment losses in the pension fund may increase the city’s required future contribution.

The challenging picture painted by Fraser was reflected in priorities the council identified for the coming year. One of the top three was economic sustainability, which includes the exploration and thorough study of a city income tax and focus on an economic development strategy. Championing the study of the income tax question was councilmember Leigh Greden, though almost every time the words “city income tax” were spoken, John Hieftje, mayor of the city of Ann Arbor, stressed that he was not favorably inclined towards the idea.

Another priority was to finish what’s already been started in terms of rezoning and master planning of the city, partly because this was seen as related to the question of economic sustainability: One reason that property tax revenues are projected not to keep pace with expenditures is that there’s less activity on the new construction front. One of the initiatives in the area of land use and zoning expected to go forward in the coming year is the A2D2 process (zoning for downtown Ann Arbor). That project has been returned to the planning commission for possible revision in light of feedback from the public.

Jayne Miller, city of Ann Arbor director of community services, said the city was maximizing the proportion of the new combined parks millage dedicated to maintenance.

Improved communication and service delivery rounded out the top three priorities for council. Included in this focus is improved communication about service delivery. Councilmember Margie Teall reported that she was surprised (in a pleasant way) to discover the updates on snowplowing activity available over the web, as well as the availability of emailed updates on a range of topics. It was reported that over 7,000 people have registered for the email update service so far.

Communication was a theme that ran through much of the material presented by staff – in particular, communication in the form of web technologies. Jayne Miller, community services area director, indicated that parks and recreation programs would be exploring the use of social networking (like Facebook and Twitter) to help publicize their activities.

Sue McCormick, public services area director, advised councilmembers that online bill payment for utilities was expected to be available for the first quarter of 2009, along with a printed bill opt-out possibility. That is, if you’d like to pay your water bill online and never receive a printed bill in the mail, you’ll be able to do that. By the end of 2009, city residents might be able to get help from the city’s website using live chat.

Tom Crawford, chief financial officer for the city of Ann Arbor, said that five-year projections were difficult to make. He preferred to stick with 2-year forecasts.

The city’s data center, which serves the city’s web needs, is an example of another theme that ran through staff presentations: cooperation across different organizations. Tom Crawford, Ann Arbor’s chief financial officer, explained that the city’s data center would become a joint endeavor with Washtenaw County, which would help reduce capital investments when the center is moved into the new courts-police facility.

Further, there would an ongoing revenue stream from the county for utilities and rent of the data center. Among the other organizations the data center serves, Crawford mentioned the Ann Arbor District Library and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. With respect to the AATA, their web hosting up to now has been provided by IAS, which has been challenged recently by eviction from their offices. The switch to the city data center could be made as soon as Monday, Jan. 12, which could restore the mobile RideTrak system (real time bus information), which has been out of service since the IAS eviction.

Other examples of regional cooperation came from Barnett Jones, chief of safety services, who described a functional fire service district to be formed using Ann Arbor fire stations No. 4 and No. 6 with Ypsilanti’s fire station No. 1 to facilitate coordinated response on Ann Arbor’s east side. He also described talks with Pittsfield Township about combining stations. This idea was met with great skepticism from councilmember Marcia Higgins, in whose ward the change would be implemented. She cited the traffic from home football games as a challenge to be met by combining stations.

Left is city administrator Roger Fraser with city councilmember Christopher Taylor. They're looking at conceptual drawings for a possible conference center on top of the underground parking garage to be built at the library lot between Fifth and Division streets.

Traffic formed the basis of another example of cross-organizational cooperation: the north-south transit connector study, which is being funded jointly by the city of Ann Arbor, the Downtown Development Authority, the University of Michigan, and the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority. The proportion to be contributed by each partner is currently being hammered out, with Mayor Hieftje arguing for an increased share to be paid for by UM, because (i) the greater part of such a system’s benefit would go to UM, and (ii) the city of Ann Arbor and the DDA should be thought of as a single entity.

The AATA also came up in the context of Fraser’s announcement of two ideas he floated to councilmembers for their consideration, just before they broke into groups to thrash through their priorities for the year. The first of these ideas involved the AATA’s Blake Transit Center, located between Fourth and Fifth avenues, just north of the old YMCA lot. The BTC facility, Fraser said, needs either significant investment in its renovation or new construction. Fraser’s depiction is consistent with discussions on the AATA board’s planning and development committee, which is expecting an AATA staff presentation on the topic. From the minutes of its Dec. 16 meeting:

Dawn Gabay [interim executive director of AATA] reported that at the next committee meeting staff will make a presentation on possible renovations to the Blake Transit Center. Staff has been engaged in discussions with representatives from the City, the DDA, the Ann Arbor Library and the Ann Arbor Chamber of Commerce about redevelopment plans of the entire area surrounding the BTC.

The idea Fraser asked council to think about involved using the public right-of-way on Fourth Avenue, just north of William Street, as a new transit center. The street would remain open to traffic, but a roof would be constructed over the street. Jesse Bernstein, president of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce and an AATA board member, was at the budget retreat on Saturday and offered his view that the current hub-and-spoke route system should be scrapped in favor of a spine-and-rib spine-and-nerve model. [The AATA recently conducted a study on the question, concluding that the hub-and-spoke model best served its mission.]

The second idea Fraser asked council to reflect on is one also associated by many community members with Bernstein: the idea of a downtown conference center. Holding a large manila envelope, Fraser said that he had conceptual drawings that had been developed by someone interested in seeing the parcel developed – it would sit on top of the proposed Fifth Avenue underground parking garage. He said he had permission from the proposer to show councilmembers the conceptual drawings. For The Chronicle, Fraser declined to identify the parties who had conveyed the drawings beyond saying that it was a developer in New York who had local ties. He said if the idea received traction on council, then the developer might be inclined to disseminate the drawings more widely.

Other key initiatives that Chronicle readers should expect to see take center stage in the coming months include public participation on the question of what should happen with Argo Dam, and public participation on the question of area, height, and placement zoning in the area outside the downtown.

Coda: Plasma Screens and P-Cards, Use of Public Funds

The budget retreat took place in a workroom at the Wheeler Service Center. The room was outfitted with a TV screen mounted in the corner of the room near the ceiling. [There's a photograph included in this story that depicts it.] No use was made of this technology during council’s retreat – councilmembers’ priority-setting task was completed using markers and large sheets of paper.

Ann Arbor City Council budget retreat. In corner of the room just below the ceiling is one of the plasma screens that was the subject of recent scrutiny by an auditor, followed up by Tom Crawford, the city's chief financial officer. The screens are used for information sharing at the beginning and ending of the work day, and to deliver training materials.

The screen, however, had received scrutiny earlier in the week by several councilmembers as part of their service on council’s audit committee. On Thursday evening, councilmembers Carsten Hohnke, Christopher Taylor, Stephen Rapundalo, Sabra Briere, and Mike Anglin, along with Roger Fraser, Sue McCormick, and Tom Crawford, met in the fifth floor conference room of the Larcom building for a supplemental committee meeting. The meeting focused exclusively on the topic of the purchase of 11 plasma screens for use at the Wheeler Service Center. Total cost for the screens was $16,252.98.

The purchase of seven of the screens had caught the attention of an outside auditor, because the three separate purchases had been made within minutes of each other using different city credit cards (P-cards). Each of the resulting three purchases was below $3,000, which is a threshold important for credit card use. The relevant city policies are outlined in a report on the audit from Crawford to councilmembers:

Purchasing policy #208 calls for the following:

• All purchases over $3,000 require the issuance of a purchase order and the approval of the Service Area Administrator.
• For “sole source” purchases, written documentation that a specified item cannot be obtained from any other source must be submitted.
• Purchases over $10,000 require living wage and civil rights certifications.

Credit card policy #512 calls for the following:

• Applicable requirements of policy #208 must be followed.
• Purchases must not be split to circumvent procurement procedures

Based on email correspondence, neither audit committee members nor other non-committee members of council were entirely content with the initial analysis and reaction by Crawford and staff. Rapundalo wrote:

I still am quite stunned by the overall incident and the temerity of those who violated known procedures, especially a new process that had just been instituted in the months leading up to the violation.

…

Furthermore, I believe that staff at the Wheeler Center should be apprised of the Audit Committee and Council’s concerns/actions over this procedural breach and insure their understanding of why screens are being relocated and privileges revoked.

The mood at Thursday’s audit committee meeting could fairly be described as somber. At that meeting, Rapundalo wanted to hear exactly how the city went from a building that was equipped with the wiring as a design specification, and constructed with such wiring, to a decision to purchase hardware. McCormick explained that decisions like these would typically be “discharged” to the staff.

Fraser gave the dimensions of the screens as ranging from 32 to 40 inches, “relatively small,” he said. This description was met with immediate objection from Briere and Rapundalo: “That’s not small!”

By the audit committee meeting’s conclusion, councilmembers seemed content that the matter had been adequately addressed. The key fact, for Rapundalo at least, seemed to be the revelation that a crucial piece of information had been miscommunicated: the funds used for purchase of the screens did not come from the Wheeler Service Center construction account, but rather from an operations account. Earlier, Crawford had mistakenly said that the funds had come from the Wheeler Center’s construction account.

Left to right: Sandi Smith and Sabra Briere (speaking).

Roger Fraser sorts through the priority lists delivered by councilmembers' three break-out groups. Goal: identify commonalities among the groups' top five priorities.

Tom Crawford and Sue McCormick. In addition to a pencil, Crawford also owns an iPhone.

Safety services chief Barnett Jones included an update on crime over the last year: an uptick in larcenies, which he said was a national trend due to the poor economy. Factoid revealed at the meeting: Jones has delivered seven babies in the course of his career.

Sue McCormick, public services area director, talked about piloting "zonal" service delivery: a single crew dispatched to an area might be able to address multiple problems (tree trimming, pothole patching, sign maintenance).

Roger Fraser presented this slide, which was presented in 2002, with the final column, Phase IV, (highlighted with a cloud) corresponding to what is now the current time, 2009. It prompted lighthearted commentary from council to the effect that it's a good thing the city's new graffiti ordinance has not yet formally passed.

Roger Fraser wearing a bar-chart pattern.

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]