A2Politico Notes: This is filed under “Scoops & Scores!!” because you read it here first.

by P.D. Lesko

England’s Queen Elizabeth had her “annus horribilis” in 1992. AnnArbor.com had its own annus horribilis in 2011. First, in late-February 2011 the news blog lost a trio of its most experienced staffers to the Detroit Free Press. Then, in early-March 2011 AnnArbor.com got rid of a large number of  ”community contributors,” and cut its newsroom of 31 by one-third (14 staffers). In a move that bordered on the ridiculous, the news blog didn’t initially report on the newsroom cuts or explain them to readers. A2Politico did thanks to an anonymous tipster. It was weeks after readers clamored for an explanation that AnnArbor.com execs provided one.

While AnnArbor.com did not report on the March 2011 loss of the three staffers to the Freep, there was plenty of speculation on A2Politico, however, concerning the loss of the three, and the financial health of AnnArbor.com.

In response to the 2011 news of the defection of three of AnnArbor.com’s most experienced news writers, one A2Politico reader posited that the Detroit Free Press would try to muscle into the Ann Arbor news market more aggressively, a move that hasn’t materialized.

Later in 2011, Kontent King Tony Dearing told members of the Ann Arbor Democratic Club that AnnArbor.com was “on its way” to turning a profit. In July of 2010, he was similarly cagey in a piece he posted to the news blog concerning the progress the site had made in its first year. He wrote that he was not at liberty to disclose financial information, but that AnnArbor.com’s progress was “encouraging.”

In April 2011 award-winning sports write Pete Bigelow quit AnnArbor.com to cover the Midwest economy at Changing Gears. He has since moved on to AOL, where he writes about the auto industry & transportation. In 2010, along with Bigelow, Lee Higgins won reporting awards which the site crowed about in marketing promos. A2Politico reported on Bigelow’s defection, as well. AnnArbor.com’s trio in charge were mute on the loss of Pete B. and his popular sports column.

In a July 2011 piece marking the site’s second anniversary, there was spin aplenty from the Three Musketeers in charge of the incredible shrinking news blog. Dearing writes:

In two short years, we have become the primary source of local news and information in this community and we rank among the top news sites nationally for local market reach in conjunction with MLive, according to Media Audit, a company that measures media readership across the country.

Research conducted by Great Lakes Marketing also has told us that AnnArbor.com is mentioned more than any other source when people are asked where they go most often for news and information about Ann Arbor. About 40 percent of residents in Washtenaw County report that they visited AnnArbor.com “today or yesterday.’’

And then there were two: Tony Dearing and Laurel Champion. In December 2011 AnnArbor.com CEO/President Matt Kraner left to take a “newly-created” position as president of NJ.com. Kraner’s departure, unlike the loss of the multiple award-winning and popular news writers who left, got a write-up on the site.

Today, some eight months after Dearing’s July 2011 anniversary message, AnnArbor.com has more people hawking advertising (26) than producing news content (16).

The latest “tip” about defections at AnnArbor.com came from a regular who sends along information concerning life on the inside at AnnArbor.com:

Don’t know if you still write about AnnArbor.com, but it’s worth noting that in the last two weeks, sports director Jim Knight has left to go to work for U-M; cops reporter Lee Higgins left to go to Newsday (a new digital team they are forming there) and business director/reporter Nathan Bomey left to go to work for the Detroit Free Press, covering GM. Hearing morale is sinking there as one year to the date almost from when this happened (http://www.a2politico.com/2011/02/a2politico-grillin-the-media-annarbor-com-loses-trio-of-top-staffers/….also hear that when Tony Dearing sent a note out announcing Knight’s departure, Tony said he’d be checking with Mlive to see if he’d be allowed to hire a replacement. guess the .com is now pretty far down on the corporate totem pole.

Almost a year to the day A2Politico revealed that AnnArbor.com staffers Stephanie Murray, Amalie Nash and David Jesse had jumped ship, the site has lost another trio of writers. Former Ann Arbor News reporters Jim Knight and Lee Higgins left in early March. They were joined by Nathan Bomey. All have fled the MLive experiment in digital journalism for, one imagines, higher-paying and less wobbly ground.

Someone needs to tell AnnArbor.com that Knight and Higgins have stepped away from their desks. For good. Their names still appear on the company masthead. Knight (who Tweeted that March 9th was his last day), is still listed as the Sports Director. Higgins is still listed as the police/courts reporter at AnnArbor.com. On his Twitter account Lee Higgins links to his work at AnnArbor.com, but his profile identifies him as a reporter @Newsday.

On March 22, 2012 AnnArbor.com’s government reporter, Ryan Stanton, who had hinted to others last August of a job offer in the works from the Detroit Free Press, Tweeted:

Via email Stanton denied he has plans to jump ship.

It’s unclear whether any of the shoes will be filled at all. Former Ann Arbor News editor (who took a buy-out) Mary Morgan writes in an AnnArborChronicle.com post about the March 2011 layoffs that, “I don’t believe the Newhouses will just give up this market – despite the struggles of AnnArbor.com, they still hold essentially a monopoly in the state’s most stable, affluent community. But this community has been blindsided by their business decisions in the past, and it still stings. Whatever the future holds for them, they owe it to the residents of Ann Arbor to be upfront about what’s coming. Or, in this case, what’s already been done.”

The question, now, is whether, like Nash, Jesse and Murray, Knight, Higgins and Bomey have left AnnArbor.com just prior to another round of layoffs and “reorganization.”

by P.D. Lesko

“I just hope everyone who’s asked to sign a petition gets all the information about the condition of the spaces we’re trying to replace and the cost of not doing anything,” said Council Member Chris Easthope, who’s worked on the plan for a new police-court building for several years.—Ann Arbor News, April 2008

After asking for concessions from hundreds of unionized employees, John Hieftje, Council members Sabra Briere, Tony Derezinski, Christopher Taylor and Marcia Higgins sponsored a resolution to give $10,000 to the city’s CFO, Tom Crawford, who earns $125,000 per year plus his cell phone and car allowances, for his “exemplary work” while interim City Administrator. A member of Crawford’s staff in an email to A2Politico called the bonus “a slap in the face to every city worker who was asked to give pay concessions. It’s shameful.” A comment on AnnArbor.com in response to a post on the news blog about the bonus asked, “How can any valuable lower pay scale employee have any respect for the folks running this show?”

It’s a good question.

Over the past 36 months, the Hieftje administration has consistently found money for bonuses, lump sum payments, vacation day cash outs, pay bumps and perks for senior managers. What the Hieftje administration has not found money for is to repair the mouldering, damaged, basement of the Larcom building, flooded in February of 2011, after taxpayers footed the bill for a multi-million dollar renovation.

The basement space, part of a $4.9 million dollar renovation of the Larcom Building, is supposed to be where police officers have their locker rooms. The state of the officer’s locker rooms, as well as the Larcom basement, was cited over and over by politicos as one of the main reasons why a new police-court building had to be built at a cost of $48 million dollars.

The A2Journal recently ran a little-noticed piece which revealed the fact that the city’s police officers have to report for work each day at the Wheeler Center, located on Stone School Road near Ellsworth, about 20-25 minutes from new police-court building and the adjoining Larcom building.

So why are the city’s police officers dressing in a meeting room in Pittsfield Township then driving into Ann Arbor instead of dressing in the basement locker rooms of the Larcom building? Because eight months ago, in February of 2011, the basement of the Larcom Building flooded, “waist deep,” said one police officer, “with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water from a broken pipe.”

City officials told AnnArbor.com in February of 2011 that the basement flooded with “about one inch of water.” Ann Arbor spokesperson Lisa Wondrash told AnnArbor.com “flooring would have to be replaced.”

The photo of the basement’s central area, right, taken last week and leaked to A2Politico, shows evidence of water damage to the brick walls almost up to the 10th course of brick, some 24 inches from the floor. The photo would appear to contradict Wondrash’s claims that only an inch of water covered the area.

In addition to the locker rooms for the police officers, there’s a conference room in the basement of the Larcom Building. Though the flooding happened eight months ago, needed repairs have not been made by the contractor who was, according to AnnArbor.com, responsible for the accident.

There are credible allegations that the problems with the basement space go deeper than flooring.

Another Ann Arbor police officer, who asked not to be identified because of fear of retaliation, told A2Politico:

“The basement.  It has been flooded 4-6 times. We are not sure exactly how many times — but the Union has asked for air samples and proof that there is no mold.  The Union also asked to hire a private company to come in for testing which the City has conveniently not given an answer to. They are still playing games. We have been told that the basement was dried after each flood and that the contractor had drilled holes in the drywall to “make sure” it was not still wet or damp. We have learned from construction experts that once drywall is saturated (not to mention multiple times) it would need to be torn down to the studs to make sure mold was not growing in any wood framed areas.

The officer goes on to say, “This building has had serious leaks since 1964. The City has only masked the problem time after time — including now.  We have beautiful greenery on the roof, shiny new siding — on top of a toxic cesspool.”

The basement of the Larcom Building, after the public spent almost $48 million dollars to build the new facility and renovate Larcom, is filled with mold, floor-to-ceiling, officers allege, allegations they backed up with photos taken last week. The first photo, left, shows portions of the new drop-ceiling, which litter the basement floor. The next photo shows a close-up of the fallen tiles, covered with mold, along with a portion of the water-damaged floor.

The final photo, below, is of a mold-infested, fallen ceiling tile with a stamped date of 7/31/2010.

Officers fear it may be the same genus of toxic mold that was found in the Larcom Building by a company city officials hired in 2006 to do an environmental evaluation. The only way to know what genus is shown in the photos is to have the mold cultured. Police officials allege city management is “still attempting to hide this and won’t allow any tests be done.”

Before the new police-court facility was built and the basement of the Larcom building “renovated,” the officers reported for work to City Hall and used locker rooms located in the basement of the Larcom Building.

Now, they spend an additional 40-60 minutes per day simply getting themselves to and from the downtown facility. They dress in a meeting room at the Wheeler Center that was, until the officers filed a grievance, not air conditioned and reached 106 degrees in the heat of the summer. The A2Journal reported, “The locker room, which also functions as a meeting room, at the Wheeler is not air conditioned. At one point…when Ann Arbor was under an excessive heat warning, the locker room reached 106 degrees. In the wintertime, it gets every bit as cold as it is hot in the summer. Officers have been told that air conditioning would be too expensive.”

The new police-court building, somewhat hopefully dubbed the Justice Center, is a hulking symbol of what some believe is the mismanagement of the city’s budget and fiscal priorities that would sacrifice services to fund big-ticket capital projects that the city simply can’t afford. The construction of the police-courts building was undertaken at a time when the city’s budget was slipping into structural deficit.The ongoing deficits, ironically, have been closed in part by shrinking the city’s police force, for whom the new facility was built because the police force was jammed into cramped, unkept quarters.

The 103,000 square foot building was sold to the public, in part, as “green,” but a recent class action lawsuit against the company that sells LEED certification alleges that, “What has been created is the image of energy efficient buildings, but not actual energy efficiency.” In 2008 when First Ward Council member Sabra Briere mentioned during Council discussions concerning the merit of the project that the building was not perceived as good looking, Fourth Ward Council member Margie Teall said she thought the building would be “beautiful.”

It’s not surprise that Teall rose in defense of the project. She sat on the 2006 Space Task Force, a committee stacked with politicos and political appointees who, one could argue, went into the job of “studying” whether a new building was necessary with some pre-conceived notions. First Ward Council member Sandi Smith, for instance, was solidly behind the need to spend big for an out-sized building in 2006 and then when she ran for Council in 2008.

The City Hall spin machine has been in high gear. Second Ward Council member Stephen Rapundalo, who has a Ph.D., but who is not an expert in the fields of toxicology or pulmonology, told AnnArbor.com in March 2011, “There is no evidence to support the union’s contention that they have a higher need for health care because of the building in which they were housed.” The news blog didn’t get an expert medical opinion, or consult an expert in environmental safety.

On April 21, 2011, three months after the February flood, while officers were forced to get dressed in a freezing room at the Wheeler Center, AnnArbor.com posted a piece titled, “Ann Arbor Police Chief says he was ashamed of conditions of police endured inside of city hall.” The misleading implication, of course, was that the conditions had been ameliorated when, in fact, the basement locker rooms were still unusable.

In the piece Police Chief Barnett Jones tells reporter Ryan Stanton, “As a chief, my people come first.”

In the same April 2011 piece, Stanton reported, incredibly:

Even though they have a new building, Ann Arbor police officers will continue to use the city hall basement, said Bob Cariano, the city’s safety manager.

Cariano said no employees will be stationed in the basement, but the police lockers and other meetings spaces that city employees will use are located there. He said the city has installed a completely new sub-slab pressurization radon mitigation system to ensure safety, and asbestos also has been removed.

Cariano said officers should only have to be in the basement locker rooms for a half-hour prior to the start of their shift and then at the end of their shift.

Other top city officials don’t disagree conditions were bad. And in fact, that’s one of the reasons cited for moving forward with construction of the new building.

Robert Cariano, the city’s Safety Manager, and a member of the Board of the Michigan Safety Conference, a non-profit organization that provides health and safety education to Michigan companies and cities, did not respond to repeated requests for comment concerning his statements to AnnArbor.com, and any actions the city has taken to ascertain whether there is a mold problem and, if so, what the city has done to address any infestation. Cariano’s boss, Sue McCormick, also refused to comment.

As for Council member Stephen Rapundalo’s unsubstantiated assertions, the pulmonologist who treated former Ann Arbor police officer Vada Murray disagreed with Rapundalo. Murray, a non-smoker, recently died after contracting lung cancer. Officer Murray left a video recording to be used after his death by his lawyers in which he said he believed his exposure to mold and asbestos in the Larcom Building was a contributing factor in his cancer. Murray’s doctor said the exposures are so vast i.e. radon, asbestos and mold—danger factors for officers who’ve worked in the Larcom Building are high.

On Sunday July 31, 2011, Ann Arbor Police Chief Barnett Jones and Mayor John Hieftje hauled out the dog and pony show for AnnArbor.com. In a lengthy piece meant to calm citizen concerns about a the sharp increase in violent crime in Ann Arbor—stabbings, shootings, armed robberies, assaults and, rapes—the two men talked about the fact that crime is down. Joan Lowenstein, chair of the Downtown Development Authority, a mayoral appointee to that Board, was quoted in the piece as saying, “The whole time I was on City Council, that could never be shown, that if you did have an increase, that increasing police patrols would decrease it,” she said. “So I don’t think that cause and effect has ever been shown.” Lowenstein is a lawyer who specializes in intellectual property law (trademarks and patents).

Long-time downtown businessman Bob Dascola disagreed:

“The elements that we don’t want to have to deal with are coming out of the woodwork like crazy,” said Bob Dascola, a barber who has worked downtown for 42 years and serves on the board of the State Street Area Association. “We need to have police staffing on the streets because it helps to keep those things in check. Without them around, these guys are just going to keep doing whatever they want.”

First Ward Council member Sabra Briere, in her most recent e-newsletter to her constituents provided an answer to Dascola that boggles the mind. She writes:

I encourage people to be vigilant, take care of themselves, and report anything they believe is suspicious to the police immediately.  I don’t care if ‘suspicious’ is not related to this series of attacks — anything, such as someone entering your home through an unlocked door, or knocking on doors in your neighborhood in a way that makes you uncomfortable, or following you down the street.

The police aren’t really in the role of deterring crime — I’m told criminals rarely expect to be caught.  Instead, the police are in the role of solving crimes, and that means that, unfortunately, crimes have to occur first. Help our city and our neighbors by letting the police know when you think a crime might be being committed.  911 works.

Ann Arbor residents will simply have to be victimized before the city’s police can be expected to help.

In April of 2011, John Hieftje told AnnArbor.com he was “pretty comfortable” with cuts to police and fire staff—cuts which have, according to police and fire officials, decimated the departments and put city residents in danger. In May 2011, fire officials shared with A2Politico statistical information they compiled that documented a sharp rise in fire-related deaths over the period of time Hieftje has been in office and cut fire coverage to well below the national standard of 1.75 firefighters per 1000 residents. Currently, Ann Arbor has just .75 firefighters per 1,000 residents.

Police staffing has been cut from a high if 225 when Hieftje took office to 119 today. Twelve more officers are slated to be let go in 2012.

On July 31st, John Hieftje told AnnArbor.com: “he doesn’t think the city has cut too far, but he also doesn’t want to see police staffing levels go any lower. Council’s challenge is to avoid having to make any further cuts to public safety. That’s my goal and council members that I’ve talked to are totally in agreement with that.”

However while Hieftje was telling AnnArbor.com that he doesn’t want to see police staffing levels go any lower, notes from meetings held since April 2011 and recently leaked to A2Politico, show that a group of city and county employees, including Police Chief Barnett Jones, Sheriff Jerry Clayton, as well as the city’s CFO Tom Crawford, began meeting in April 2011 with county staffers, with the knowledge and approval of Hieftje and the four members of Council who serve with him on the Labor Committee, to further reduce police staffing by axing all of the city’s police dispatchers with a plan to move the work to the County.

The City Council’s Labor Committee is the same Council committee has done little to stem big spending on perks for city managers, such as the recently revealed $1.1 million dollars spent on cell phones, texting and data plans for a handful of managers, as well as spending close to $20,000 per month on car allowances for city managers who live in Ann Arbor, and who have desk jobs.

The County Collaboration Meeting minutes, leaked to A2Politico show that Ann Arbor CFO Tom Crawford and Robyn Wilkerson, who heads Ann Arbor’s Human Resource Department, were given marching orders by a small group of City Council members, including John Hieftje, Fouth Ward Council members Margie Teall and Marcia Higgins, and Second Ward Council members Stephen Rapundalo and Tony Derezinski to lay off more police staff in preparation to combine the city of Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County police dispatch units. All 21 of the city’s police dispatchers would see their jobs eliminated.

The meeting notes show that the County Collaboration group consists of Kerry Laycock, Diane Heidt, Mark Ptaszek, Greg Dill, Nancy Niemela, Richard Martonchik, Barnett Jones, Tom Crawford, Robyn Wilkerson, Dieter Heren, Jerry Clayton, Greg Bazick and Marc Breckenridge. Sheriff Jerry Clayton was the only elected official who participated directly; no members of the public were included.

Notes from the April 20, 2011 meeting show that the group’s members were told by Ann Arbor CFO Tom Crawford that the “city is in no matter what.” Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office staffer Greg Dill is quoted as saying, “City Council  A2 response was favorable (labor committee only [5 out of 11 have been told].”

At the same meeting, Tom Crawford and Ann Arbor City Attorney Nancy Niemela later assure the group that they “may not need full council—may be a memo approving contract.” Niemela tells the group that the “labor committee [is] enthusiastic about the idea and are all set to move forward.”

In other words, the Ann Arbor’s CFO and a city attorney are assuring the group that entering into a contract to co-locate dispatch services for the Ann Arbor Police Department, as well as dismissing all of the city’s dispatchers, disposing of city assets such as equipment, and deciding what rent, if any, the county will pay, may be made without the permission or knowledge of all 11 members of the Ann Arbor City Council, and without a public hearing.

On the page of documents titled “County Collaboration Agreements/Timeline” and dated June 8, 2011, the group prepares to inform the public. On the to-do list includes, “Tom [Crawford] will bring issue up on public agenda soon.” The list also includes using local media outlets and individuals to sell the idea to the public prior to Crawford’s bringing up the issue to the entire Ann Arbor City Council.

In the notes, the group makes plans to “follow up with Mary Morgan [publisher of the AnnArborChronicle.com] and Lucy Anne Lance to schedule interviews for Sheriff Jerry Clayton and Barnett Jones. On the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s web site, there is a link to the interview with Lucy Anne Lance (an employee of the City of Ann Arbor who moonlights as a local radio talk show host). The blurb about the interview includes this quote from Jerry Clayton:

The successful co-location of dispatch center staff allowed us to explore other municipal shared-service models and really focus on collaboration opportunities that would benefit our community. Executing a contract with Ann Arbor would allow us to follow in the steps of other counties such as Livingston and Genesee that have saved costs while maintaining service delivery to citizens.

The blurb ends with: “You can hear the Sheriff and Chief discuss this possibility at length with Lucy Ann Lance.”

The co-location of dispatch is not, of course, a “possibility” as much as it is a policy decision that was made in private by a small group of Ann Arbor City Council members on the Labor Committee prior to April 2011 without the knowledge of the public, the inclusion of their colleagues on Council, or a public vote. The plan, then, to have Tom Crawford bring the “idea” back to full Council for “discussion” is farcical.

Sheriff Jerry Clayton confirmed that he took part in the meetings. He talked about “community leadership” and his desire to look out for the public safety of all of the county residents. However, he made clear that no County Commissioner had asked him to initiate the talks with Ann Arbor to contract for dispatch services.

“The city engaged us in discussions,” said Clayton.

When asked why the group had met months before the talks went public in June, Clayton said he wouldn’t go public with any initiative before he had “dotted his i’s and crossed his t’s.” Clayton also stressed that is his opinion, combining the dispatch services was not a “done deal.”

However, County Collaboration notes from June 2011 state that Ann Arbor city attorney Nancy Niemela would begin a draft of the contract between the county and Ann Arbor for the co-location of dispatch services—again without the knowledge or approval of the entire Ann Arbor City Council, then interface with the county’s corporate counsel Curtis Hedger.

When asked about DDA Chair Joan Lowenstein’s assertion that there is no connection between a decrease in police and an increase in criminal activity, Clayton said,  ”I think the reduction of police officers county-wide presents a challenge to policing. Any time anyone in the County reduces the number of police officers, it concerns me. That’s one less person that’s available to provide the services.” When asked if a greater police presence deters crime, Clayton said, “Only if you have officers who are appropriately trained, equipped and led then those officers will decrease crime.”

On July 30, 2011 a member of the AAPD forwarded an email to A2Politico in which the individual writes:

Last month, our City Police dispatchers were summoned to a meeting with Deputy Chief Bazick [A2P notes: Bazick is a member of the County Collaboration group]. Two dispatchers were given immediate pink slips and the others were informed that as of January 2012 – all 21 City Police Dispatchers would be laid off because Washtenaw County dispatchers would be taking Ann Arbor calls. I will forward you an email that was drafted and disseminated by a contingent of citizens who understand that this will be detrimental for Ann Arbor . Please forward it to anyone who may be interested. Ann Arbor tax dollars will be used to subsidize higher volume – Ypsilanti calls and Ann Arbor citizens will lose their professional dispatchers with historical knowledge. Many of our dispatchers have 15-20 years on the job and are instrumental in solving Ann Arbor crimes and problems. Ann Arbor citizens are going to lose this personalized attention.

The Washtenaw County dispatchers/911 operators often work 16 hour days back to back. Washtenaw County plans to hire some of our dispatchers back – but all under County direction, supervision, starting pay etc. The Sheriff and Police Chief  attended a meeting with our dispatchers and committed to nothing. Both said that they had no actual plan and did not know where the Deputy Chief had come up with the January 1st 2012 lay off date. Since then, one of the dispatchers FOIA(ed) the notes from meetings where this dispatch turnover has been planned by County officials, Human Resources, the Sheriff and the Ann Arbor Police Chief. The notes reflect that this was planned quietly and secretly. The Sheriff and Chief were both instrumental in the planning of the elimination of our dispatch unit. So, both of them were FULLY aware of the planned events that they claimed to have no knowledge of.

Last week, we began to put signals and documents together that indicate that there are plans to eliminate the Ann Arbor Police Department.

Clayton said that he has never been approached by either Ann Arbor politicos or members of the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners with the idea of having his sheriffs take over the policing of Ann Arbor.

“I wouldn’t endorse it. I have no desire to have county officers police Ann Arbor,” said Clayton. Then he added: “But if city officials approached me, I would be obligated to sit down at the table and talk about it.”

Ann Arbor Police Chief Barnett Jones concurred with Clayton that there are no plans to eliminate the Ann Arbor Police Department. “I have no plans to eliminate the Police Department. I have never brought this up and no City Council member has ever brought this up to me.”

It is clear one Ann Arbor City Council member had no idea the meetings were going on. The letter from the AAPD staffer (above) was also forwarded to a neighborhood group listserv to which Council member Sabra Briere and Fifth Ward Council member Mike Anglin are members. Briere responded almost immediately to the group:

From: owner-neighborhoods-alliance@xxxxx  On Behalf Of Sabra Briere
Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2011 2:46 PM
To: neighborhoods-alliance@xxxxx
Subject: Re: NA police services

I have a meeting with the Chief of Police tomorrow.

Sabra

Whether the co-location of dispatcher services will save money in the long run or not, the more troubling issue is that the course of city policy is being dictated by a small, insular and secretive group of Ann Arbor Council members, including John Hieftje. They’re doing it in committee meetings where minutes are not kept. The Labor Committee, in communicating through Tom Crawford that the “city is in no matter what,” is over-reaching the limits of what the Charter indicates the members of the Committee may do. In suggesting that the change in police staffing may be pushed through without a vote of the entire City Council and a public hearing, city staffers Tom Crawford and City Attorney Nancy Niemela demonstrate shocking diffidence toward public process and the city’s Charter.

The members of the Labor Committee, including it Chair, Ward 2 Council member Stephen Rapundalo, who is running for re-election, and John Hieftje, owe the public an explanation as to why the five of them presumed to direct city staff to negotiate contracts with the county, negotiate rents, negotiate the disposal of city assets and potentially bust one of the city’s unions, all on behalf of all of a majority of Council and the public without the benefit of a public discussion and a public vote. The Labor Committee clearly subverted the City’s Charter as it outlines the powers of City Council and its committees, as well as Council rules which do not give individual committees the power to circumvent Council as a group to get policy implemented.

The public deserves to have an open, honest discussion about whether the co-location of police dispatch services is in their best interests and in the best interests of the city. The public also deserves elected officials who don’t presume to conduct the business of the public like corrupt Third World despots.

I don’t read newspaper sports writing very often. It’s a little too breathy and panting for my tastes, usually. Pete Bigelow’s writing could be an exception. Last week, Pete Bigelow gave his notice at AnnArbor.com. He’s a sports writer, and when he wrote a well-crafted column it was sports writing that was as thought-provoking and insightful as news writing gets. This year, in the Associated Press news writing competition, Pete Bigelow earned a first prize award (shared) for his coverage of sports at the University of Michigan. The Associated Press is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers radio and television stations. Newspapers nominate their own content for inclusion in the AP award competition. For some crazy reason, AnnArbor.com reported its writers’ 13 AP awards after A2Politico did, and buried the coverage in a little-read section of the web site titled, “About Us.” The short snippet got just 8 comments from readers.

One of the comments questioned the criteria on which AP awards are judged and awarded:

abc

at 11:11 AM on April 11, 2011

At least one of these ‘awards’ neatly begs the question, “What is the criteria these articles are judge on.” Below is one article that won an award.
___________________

An Eastern Michigan University student died Saturday of injuries suffered in an early morning fire that gutted a rental home on South State Street in Ann Arbor.

The student has been identified as 22-year-old Renden LeMasters of Dexter, according to a statement from EMU. LeMasters was a senior in the College of Technology.

LeMasters was one of three people treated for injuries in the fire. Another man was released from the University of Michigan Hospital today and the third person, a woman, was in critical condition.

“This is a tragic loss,” EMU President Susan Martin said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Renden’s family and friends at this difficult time.”

This story will be updated.

A longer version of the story (tip o’ the keyboard to Ryan Stanton) was entered into the competition by AnnArbor.com, and its author, former AnnArbor.com staffer Stefanie Murray, was awarded a second place AP award for the breaking news piece, “Fire kills 1, injures 2.”

Murray, along with higher education reporter David Jesse and Amalie Nash jumped ship at the end of February to go and work at the Detroit Free Press. AnnArbor.com posted a job announcement at JournalismJobs.com to find a replacement for Jesse, who had covered higher education/K-12 education for the Ann Arbor News, and who had launched his career in 1997 at the Watseka Times-Republic, in Illinois, where he was the sports reporter (tip o’ the keyboard to David Jesse). The trio in charge at AnnArbor.com required applicants for Jesse’s job to have just two years of reporting experience.

There’s no shortage of education reporters looking for work, but it would appear that AnnArbor.com’s executives are not prepared to replace David Jesse with someone of equal experience. Why? Most likely, money is the reason; they’re cutting corners to pinch pennies.

A2Politico got another tip this week that AnnArbor.com’s new News Director, Paula Gardner announced two new hires at the news site. This is her email to AnnArbor.com’s staff about the hires:

I have some good news to share about our editorial team at AnnArbor.com: We’re gaining two reporters. Both Heidi Fenton and Lizzy Alfs have accepted reporting jobs with us. Heidi will start in early June, after a stop at the Poynter Institute, and Lizzy will start during the first week of May. Heidi is graduating from CMU and has been working weekend cops in Grand Rapids, following a successful internship there. She’ll form the 2nd half of our criminal justice team. Lizzy is graduating from UM this weekend and was an exceptional intern at AnnArbor.com last summer, continuing as a freelancer for business as her schedule allowed during the school year. She’ll join the business team. Both of these hires bring extraordinary new talent into our newsroom, which already operates at a very high level. Our success is a result of the team we have in place, and I look forward to what Lizzy and Heidi will add to our reporting mix. Please join me in welcoming them (and figuring out where they should sit!)

The tipster, an industry insider, pointed out that the Ann Arbor News rarely, if ever, hired college graduates fresh out of school. Kyle Feldsher, who now covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com, was hired straight out of college last Fall. With the latest hires of Heidi Fenton and Lizzy Alfs, this means that over half of the reporters at AnnArbor.com have been hired right out of college (and, one imagines, paid salaries that are significantly less than would be required to lure an experience reporter). When AnnArbor.com launched, the site had reporters from the Ann Arbor News, and all of the others had experience at daily newspapers.

“The quality of the staff is really sinking,” the tipster writes, “In a city as popular as Ann Arbor, they [AnnArbor.com] can’t find one experienced reporter to come work for them? I’m not saying these hires may not be good—certainly talented people are coming out of colleges right now—but a reputable publication needs experienced people.”

What does this mean? Quite simply, that much of AnnArbor.com’s reporting is on par with that of The Michigan Daily or the Eastern Echo. New reporters work for $30,000-$35,000 and are, well, rookie reporters who produce rookie reporting. The tipster ended with this astute observation about Paula Garder’s email: “I also find it laughable to label any just graduated green reporter as extraordinary talent.”

However, Paula Gardner works for AnnArbor.com, where one-third of the reporting staff was let go, and executives there claimed it was so the site could “focus on local news,” according to Tony Dearing’s implausible explanation. This is AnnArbor.com, where the company is top heavy with executives, a Marketing Director, a new Technology Director and more sales staff than reporters. In a nod to the absurd, Dearing, Kraner and Champion kept their personal assistants, and axed reporting staff and lead blogger Ed Vielmetti in March of 2011. This is AnnArbor.com, the company that claimed in a recent advertising campaign to have 35 staff journalists when in fact, there are only 19 staff journalists listed in the company’s staff directory.

Pete Bigelow’s defection is another sign that the AnnArbor.com “experiment” is coming to end of the road. The paper has lost 40 percent of its daily print subscribers since July of 2009, and making unsubstantiated claims that its “product” reaches 69 percent of Washtenaw County residents over the age of 18, over 325,000 people. The AnnArbor.com media kit is a desperate effort to bamboozle unsuspecting local advertisers. Since July of 2009, while circulation has dropped substantially, advertising rates have climbed. Evidently, the trio in charge of AnnArbor.com believe that there are always gullable business owners willing to pay more to reach fewer people.

In 2006, when New York Newsday boss Dennis FitzSimons cut one-third of the paper’s editorial and reporting staff over three years, the remaining newsroom signed a letter of protest against their boss. “€œIn its six years of ownership, Tribune has damaged Newsday as an instrument of public information and accountability and, for that matter, as a business,”€ the letter said.

At AnnArbor.com, remaining staff such as Nathan Bomey, Paula Garder and Jen Eyer have recently accepted “promotions” and their promotions have been treated to full coverage on the site, promotions there get more glowing, breathy, panting coverage than writers who win AP awards. Meanwhile, an inside tipster has been sending A2Politico emails pointing out the damage Tony Dearing, Laurel Champion and Matt Kraner have done to AnnArbor.com as an instrument of public information and accountability.

Two weeks ago, AnnArbor.com “reorganized” its newsroom with much the same results as Ann Arbor’s oft-touted (at least by the city’s politicos when running for re-election) “reorganization” of city government. Mayor and council members stick feathers in their caps, and call it macaroni. In reality, fewer people are doing the work and, in essence, services get cut. Since the departure of AnnArbor.com’s higher education reporter David Jesse, coverage of the higher education beat has been primarily confined to reprinting U of M press releases. Here’s a sample of the higher education news from AnnArbor.com since Jesse’s jump to the Freep:

• “U of M Health System Offers Free Pap Test”
• “Robert Frost, University of Michigan Professor, and great-grandson of the poet dies after lengthy battle with cancer”
• “University of Michigan Band Alumni Association Concert Band seeking additional musicians”

Then, there was this gem:

• “University of Michigan vice president for communication to take new post in the office of the vice president for research”

The VP for communication is, of course, David Lampe, whose recent appointment to AnnArbor.com’s editorial board a few days earlier prompted negative national media coverage of what some consider a clear conflict of interest on the parts of AnnArbor.com and Lampe. At AnnArbor.com, in response to the announcement of Lampe’s appointment, “Jim” posted this:

David Lampe spent a good six months fighting The Ann Arbor News at every single point of our academics and athletics investigation. He is a well-paid professional spinner for the biggest organization you cover….

Poynter media analyst and blogger James Romenesko, in his piece about the appointment of Lampe to the editorial board, identified “Jim” as Jim Carty, the former Ann Arbor News staffer who lost his job when the paper closed in July 2009.

When AnnArbor.com Kontent King Tony Dearing responded with a defense of the appointment, “Jim” went on to write:

“The idea you would put him [Lampe] on your editorial board would be nothing less than mind-boggling if it weren’t for everything we’ve seen over the past year-plus. Pretty much epic fail on every front at this point, Tony.”

Then, Lampe moved over to the position of vice president for research, and AnnArbor.com’s K-12 reporter Kyle Feldscher thought that might have been because Lampe had been recently appointed to the editorial board of the local newspaper. You think? To date, AnnArbor.com has done a horrid job covering the obvious connections between MichBio (The Ann Arbor-based life science association that Council member Stephen Rapundalo heads. Rapundalo sits on the LDFA that funnels money skimmed from the AAPS to Ann Arbor SPARK), AnnArbor SPARK (where taxpayer money is being pumped into life science start-ups most of which fail and those of which that don’t, are leaving the area and the state) and the University of Michigan whose faculty are being encouraged to launch those life science starts-ups. (U of M benefits from the patent revenues whether the companies are located in Ann Arbor, Michigan or not).

How much patent revenue money U of M has taken in thanks to taxpayer money invested in life science start-ups of Michigan faculty through Ann Arbor SPARK is a story AnnArbor.com will never do. AnnArbor.com business reporter Nathan Bomey did a story about the fact that SPARK start-ups that are succeeding and attracting investment are leaving the area, after Michigan taxpayers invest millions on the promise of “job creation.” That story missed the obvious connection between U of M, patent revenues and SPARK.

Feldscher, a K-12 reporter, checked out his suspicions about Lampe’s move with University of Michigan spokesman Rick Fitzgerald, naturally. Feldscher writes,

Lampe recently became one of two new members of the AnnArbor.com editorial board. Fitzgerald said Lampe’s addition to the AnnArbor.com editorial board played no part in the decision.

“Not at all,” Fitzgerald said. “Certainly not from the university’s perspective.”

The story ends there. Seriously.

Tony Dearing claimed on AnnArbor.com, and CEO Matt Kraner told Crain’s Detroit Business that AnnArbor.com had gotten a message from the Mother Ship (the “community”) about what the “community” wanted to see on AnnArbor.com’s web site and in the pages of its newspaper. As a result of that message it had been necessary to slash the number of paid community contributors (bloggers) and paid staffers, so coverage for the “growing site” could be “more local.” Needless to say, there was general incredulity among journalists and “community” members.

Shortly after the trio running AnnArbor.com had told national media that they were pleased with the “growth” of their site, and that the “community” had helped them divine what should covered, the phone surveys started. A2Politico got tips from several people who had been surveyed.

Yes, AnnArbor.com’s trio in charge who claimed to know exactly what the “community” wanted, are now conducting phone surveys of their “community” members, asking what they want. The questions were predictable: “Are we doing a good job?” “Do you want better local news coverage?”

They probably didn’t ask, “Do you like the color of Executive VP Laurel Champion’s new Mercedes?” “Does the fact that we can’t seem to get ahead of this ‘reorganization’ story leave you wondering if we ever tell the truth?” They should have, however.

The individuals who tipped A2Politico about the phone survey by AnnArbor.com were blunt in their assessments (or at least told A2Politico they were blunt). In response to “Are we doing a good job?” the respondents were of the opinion that AnnArbor.com was not doing a good job. “Do you want better local news coverage?” Respondents: “Duh.”

I like to imagine the special phone survey U of M President Dr. Mary Sue Coleman got from AnnArbor.com. It consisted of just one question: “Do you consider it a conflict of interest for a senior U of M executive to sit on the editorial board of the local newspaper?”

Coleman’s response could be issued as a press release by U of M, then “reported on” by AnnArbor.com for inclusion in its higher education coverage. The title of the story? “Why Not At All, Dear.”

The results of AnnArbor.com’s recent phone survey of the “community” about how they’re doing, and what people want to read will probably not be reported on by AnnArbor.com. If it were, that would be an indication that someone over there was actually listening to what the “community” has been saying for the past 18 months.