Town Hall Begins Budget Conversation
City administrator Roger Fraser and a CTN cameraman before the town hall meeting began.
In CTN studios on Tuesday night, the rain was falling audibly on the roof as the city administrator for Ann Arbor, Roger Fraser, used a town hall meeting format to present to the public his recommended budget for fiscal year 2010.
It included a plan for 2011, as well as the overall economic context for the budget. The presentation was essentially the same one he’d given to city council the previous evening, with the key difference being that he fielded questions from the public, instead of city councilmembers – several of whom were also on hand.
Fraser, accompanied also by Mayor John Hieftje, responded to a flood of questions ranging from the strictly clarificational (Why is there a significant increase in the city clerk’s budget from 2010 to 2011?), to requests for Fraser to talk about what the city was doing to curb costs in specific areas (Have you considered changing the city’s health care provider?), to criticism of particular cuts (This town can’t support a senior center?). [Full Story]