by P.D. Lesko Ann Arbor City Council is, once again, on fire. When Ward 3 Council member Steve Kunselman proposed a change in the fee schedule related to permits for bonfires and controlled burns of prairie grass areas, Council marm Sabra Briere ahemed herself into the conversation to point out that Council rules require amendments [...]
by P.D. Lesko “We keep seeing the same names.” “It’s like there is some ‘professional class’ of board appointees.” “We need to draw from a larger group of citizens.” “I want to open the door for a closer examination of the appointment and confirmation process.” So the debate went on at Ann Arbor City Council’s [...]
by P.D. Lesko There are five solid votes on City Council to bring to heel the members of the Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors. Those are the votes of Sumi Kailsapathy, Jane Lumm, Sally Hart-Petersen, Stephen Kunselman and Mike Anglin. The resolution needs six votes to pass, however. The DDA Board, comprised of a bushel [...]
by P.D. Lesko At the moment, Ann Arbor City Council members are trying to assert their Charter-mandated authority over the Board of the Downtown Development Authority like a parent trying to discipline a hopelessly out-of-control toddler in the midst of an epic temper tantrum. John Hieftje stars in this drama as the ineffectual parent, the [...]
by P.D. Lesko Today, Jack Eaton announced his candidacy first via email to a loosely-organized group of neighborhood activists, city and county politicians. He wrote, “I wanted all of you to hear it from me, because so many of you have encouraged me to do this.” The email listserv came alive with electronic cheers. One of [...]
by P.D. Lesko Ann Arbor voters have been surly as of late. They want the potholes filled, their leaves collected, and their safety services funded. They don’t want their parkland used for parking. They don’t want to pay $45 million to build a train station. They don’t want Huron Hills Golf Course operations outsourced. They [...]
by P.D. Lesko Dan Rainey, the City of Ann Arbor’s IT Director, raked in a six-figure salary as one of the highest paid employees in the city. Now, he’s off to work for former Ann Arbor Director of Public Services, Sue McCormick. Shortly after former City Administrator Roger Fraser took his pension and decamped for [...]
by P.D. Lesko Usually, employees get fired for filching money or abusing an employer-issued credit card. Except in Ann Arbor. Auditors past and present, in fact, have sent the city’s Audit Committee letters of warning about sloppy financial controls, employee misuse of expense claims for reimbursement, and abuse of city-issued P-cards (credit cards) for years. John [...]
by P.D. Lesko We begin with a fairytale: Once Upon A Time there were five Ann Arbor City Council members named Sandi Smith, Carsten Hohnke, Leigh Greden, Stephen Rapundalo and Tony Derezinski. They all unquestioningly supported Ann Arbor’s Percent for Art program. They did this while funding a $1 million dollar brass sculpture, which their subjects [...]
Ward 1 City Council member Sabra Briere recently voted to kill a resolution intended to protect parkland from de facto sale through leasing—a strategy being used by John Hieftje and his Council pals to try to “repurpose” a several acre parcel of fragile river-front parkland on Fuller Road. First, Hieftje wanted to lease the land [...]
