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 to be written. The sound of eyes rolling was auditory. Briere, who sits on the Council Rules Committee, found herself overruled and Kunselman got his fee reductions for people who have bonfires and who want to do controlled burns. In the course of the raging debate over the proposed $50 fees, Ward 4 Council member Marcia Higgins, who also sits on the rules committee, suggested that, perhaps, Ann Arbor needs to impose a $50 permit fee on citizens who use fire rings and the Chimineas. It’s not clear Ms. Higgins realized what she was saying, because she talked about all of the complaints she has fielded from her constituents. Marcia Higgins, who has a well-earned reputation as one of the least responsive members of City Council, is known for rarely answering her email or returning phone messages. It wasn’t immediately clear how constituents had contacted the Ward 4 Republicrat. Perhaps by smoke signal?

Then, it was on to Ward 2 Council member Jane Lumm’s annual runway show for the fall leaf collection. Lumm, peering over her half glasses, reminded her Council colleagues that the amount needed to reinstate leaf pick-up amounted to about 4 percent of the $10 million dollar annual Solid Waste millage. She also pointed out that the City of Ann Arbor charges itself $362,000 to collect its own leaves, more than would have been necessary to relaunch collection for the citizens. Alas, no one suggested the Uber-Environmentalists on Council, including the World’s Greenest Mayor and his Little Green Sprout, Ward 5 Council member Chuck Warpehoski, whose fretting over the environmental impact of Lumm’s proposal was palpable, should bag up all of the city’s leaves and save us all the $362,000 budgeted for the job.

Warpehoski and Hieftje were extremely concerned about possibility of more leaves in the stormwater system—more concerned about the possibility of more leaves in the stormwater system than, say the 1,4 dioxane that is already in the city’s aquifer and headed toward the source of Ann Arbor’s drinking water. The county’s new Drain Commish, Mr. Pratt, sent a letter to Council members in which he officially fretted about the impact on water quality reinstating leaf collection might have. It’s unclear whether Pratt is also sending letters to Ann Arbor City Council fretting about the fact that the county has no comprehensive surface water monitoring program. There’s no money to do it, county officials claim. Yet, in 2009 the county received part of a $1.7 million dollar grant from the EPA to the state to be used for water management programs. The Huron River Watershed Council received over $185,000 of the total $1.7 million dollar grant from the EPA. In bordering Wayne County, the Water Quality Management Group provides water resource management to that county’s municipalities. In Oakland County, the Health Division regularly monitors surface water.

The lack of a comprehensive and strategic program greatly inhibits the overall assessment of water quality in Washtenaw County.

According to data compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the county’s water sources contain over twice the number of contaminants found in water sources state-wide, starting with a 1,4 dioxane plume that is creeping toward the Huron River. According to the city of Ann Arbor web site, “Laboratory studies show that exposure to 1,4 dioxane over a lifetime causes cancer in animals. 1,4 dioxane may likewise cause cancer in humans. Laboratory studies show that repeat exposure to large amounts of 1,4 dioxane in drinking water, in air, or on the skin causes liver and kidney damage in animals.” Data gathered by the state and the EPA reveal that Washtenaw County, including Ann Arbor, has one of the most impaired watersheds in Michigan, with 15.3 percent of the total surface water not meeting Clean Water Act standards. In Wayne County, one of the dirtiest counties in the country according to the EPA, 17.22 percent of all surface water fails to meet Clean Water Act standards.

Someone needs to remind Commissioner Pratt, the World’s Greenest Mayor and the Little Green Ward 5 Council Sprout, that leaves are the least of our worries so far as the local watershed is concerned.

The leaf collection debate, which lasted almost 85 minutes, at one point almost caused Marcia Higgins to have a stroke because, as she snapped at the group, “this is only the first amendment.” John Hieftje, ever the savvy expert in the application of Riggoletto’s Rules of Order, cut off the Mayor Pro Tem and announced that Ward 2 Council member Sally Hart Petersen still had one (insert thought bubble here: “mutherfracking”) turn to speak left. Marcia Higgins, never one to catch up on constituent emails when there are reruns of Ward 1 Council member Sabra Briere speaking at length about nothing in particular to watch on CTN, folded her arms and glowered as Petersen promised to “be brief” then gave an impassioned plea in support of citizen services.

In fact, the comments and body language of Council members during the debate to reinstate leaf collection were an almost too-good-to-be-true window into the nice house where, it is becoming increasingly obvious, fewer people are home than ever.

Sally Hart Petersen, delivered an impassioned speech to her colleagues in which she argued “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Petersen was responding to Ward 3 Council member Christopher Taylor. It was he who suggested that a city with a $350 million dollar budget, 800 employees with a collective 25,000 years of higher education between them will never be able to collect leaves the right way.

“We um just um can’t um get it right,” umed Taylor, an entertainment attorney and CEO of Interlocutors, LLC.

To be fair, Taylor has a point. There are so many things Ann Arbor city government just can’t get right. Oddly enough, Taylor continues to vote in support of most all of them. He has voted for employee contracts that do little more than increase the nine-figure underfunded employee pension and healthcare liability. He voted to give a bonus to the city’s CFO Tom Crawford who, most recently, blamed his own blundering ineptitude as the reason the City Attorney didn’t know he shouldn’t collect a car allowance and ask to have his mileage reimbursed. Christopher Taylor has rarely seen a developer subsidy that he didn’t support, and  has voted to slash emergency services with the regularity of Geritol.

Sally Hart Petersen’s eloquence was, um, lost on Christopher Taylor. Her eloquent urging that city staff must keep trying to use extremely difficult strategies—such as planning ahead—in order to do a better job of collecting leaves was lost on most everyone. Petersen’s comments were most especially lost on the city staffers whose facial expressions made it plain that they would rather have $50,000 for a solid waste consultant shoved under their fingernails than listen to some Council Chick urge them to plan ahead.

Ward 4 Council member Margie Teall’s sum contribution to the leaf collection debate was to remind everyone that the deciders (including her) had decided three years ago that leaf pickup wasn’t necessary. Well, Teall had another tip. For those of you deciding between whether to throw your Christmas tree into the Huron River or into a neighbor’s yard, Ms. Teall has a suggestion for you: leave it in your yard for an unspecified amount of time and then “chop it up and put it into your compost.” This, of course, works well when other items composted include large car parts and small pets, both of which break down significantly more slowly than logs. After four or five years, the four or five Christmas trees will not have broken down completely, but any semblance of a cordial relationship with your neighbors whose yards adjoin yours will have broken down very nicely.

Sabra Briere asked city staffers to remind “us all” why “we” decided to discontinue leaf collection three years ago. Queen Sabra then spent a few minutes waiving to the camera and talking about “us” and why “we” couldn’t support Lumm’s proposed amendment.

“I bag my leaves,” repeated Briere.

Marcia Higgins put something in her mouth that looked suspiciously like a horse tranquilizer. She was still awake as Briere took well over her alloted two minute speaking turn to explain how she bags her leaves.

“It’s a burden,” explained Briere, but “I bag my leaves.”

One was left wondering how long it would take Briere to break down in Margie Teall’s compost pile.

Ward 5 Council member Mike Anglin spoke slowly and used simple words to explain that retired people on fixed incomes have less money than, say, people with more money. Paying for leaf bags and for a service to haul away leaves is, Anglin explained, tough on retired people on fixed incomes.

“We need to provide services to these people,” said Anglin. “They’re asking the city for this help.”

Anglin’s logic was lost on Ward 3 Council member Stephen Kunselman. After asking that burn permit fees for the eight people who pulled permits to do prairie grass burns last year be reduced from $180 to $50, Kunselman announced that he couldn’t support Lumm’s proposal.

“We can’t fund services for just one class of people,” explained Kunselman with a straight face, evidently unaware he had just spent 35 minutes arguing in favor of doing just that in asking that burn permit fees be reduced not across the board, but in just two categories.

Ward 1 Council member Sumi Kailasapahy pointed out that city governments exist to “provide services to the citizens.”

Then she argued that economy of scale was reason enough to reinstate leaf collection. Her questions also forced city staff to confess that the city’s single-stream recycling operation is collecting less material and turning less of a profit than projected because no one anticipated surrounding communities would build their own single-stream facilities and then compete with Ann Arbor for business. The materials recovery facility has gone from virtually around the clock processing to one 12 hour shift.

In the end, Council member Lumm’s annual effort to have fall leaf collection and Christmas tree collection funded again were unsuccessful. The vote was 7-4, with Kailasapathy, Petersen, Lumm and Anglin voting in favor of the proposal.

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 a six-figure job with the State of Michigan, McCormick decamped with her pension for a six-figure job with the City of Detroit. Former Ann Arbor Police Chief Barnett Jones “retired” with his pension to a six-figure job as the Police Chief of Flint and a six-figure job with Sue McCormick at the Detroit Water and Sewage Department leading the office of (seriously) Integrity and Security. That bit of double-dipping resulted in front page headlines in the Detroit newspapers. After the scandal broke, the Michigan Department of Treasury, where Roger Fraser works (Fraser recommended Jones for the Flint job to that city’s Emergency Financial Manager), inserted language in future EFM contracts that says “emergency financial manager appointees can not engage in other employment, unless approved by the EFM.”

As it turns out, Dan Rainey will fit right in with McCormick and Jones at the Detroit Water and Sewage Department. Ann Arbor’s most recent audit  revealed that while Rainey’s Department had $150,000 dollars allocated to projects such creating and implementing a disaster recovery plan, in the event that the city’s computer data were lost, no such plan had ever been created or implemented. The IT Director sat on the allocated $150,000 for over two years, according to the city’s March 2013 Revenue Budget Performance report. In fact, a list of special projects were funded, including money for contracted services, but never completed under Rainey’s tenure:

Jury Management System ($5,000 allocated)

Disk Array/Disaster Recovery ($150,000 allocated)

Project Management Business Improvements ($17,000 allocated)

Barton Canoe Livery Asset Management System ($25,000 allocated)

Kiosks ($55,000 allocated)

Tax Assessing Software Upgrade ($20,000 allocated)

Then, there are the contingency funds. Under Rainey, the IT Department sat on hundreds of thousands of dollars in “just in case we want to spend it money.” This money includes a $65,000 contingency fund for software purchases, a $60,000 contingency fund for “business intelligence,” and a $50,000 contingency fund for “intrusion prevention.” This bit of mad money is particularly amusing given the fact that the 2012 audit dinged Rainey and his department for not requiring computer passwords to be changed regularly, and for neglecting to set up computers so that screens lock when employees leave their work stations. The IT Department’s budget includes $75,000 in contingency funds for a Water Data Mart project that wasn’t done.

In 2009, Rainey, ever the generous ITsar came to the attention of A2Politico when he “volunteered” taxpayer-funded IT services to his professional association which needed it website redesigned, a project that can cost a company anywhere from $20,000-$100,000. In 2009, A2Politico posted this piece:

Looking though the City’s web site where recruitment listings are posted, evidently, has the draw of a great garage sale to some people. You never know when you’re going to find something fascinating. According to someone who regularly enjoys a good rummage through the City’s online resources, on August 28th, the City of Ann Arbor posted a job for an unpaid intern to work on the redevelopment and launch of a new web site. The unpaid intern would report directly to the City of Ann Arbor’s Chief Information Officer and IT Director Dan Rainey.

No news scoop there. Unpaid internships are de riguer in this economic climate. Heck, AnnArbor.com relies on loads of unpaid “contributors” to produce their editorial content. Unpaid workers are in, Sweetie.

Back to the City’s unpaid internship. The job advertisement begins innocently enough:

“The City of Ann Arbor is committed to providing excellent municipal services that enhance the quality of life for all through the intelligent use of resources while valuing an open environment that fosters fair, sensitive, and respectful treatment of all employees and the community served.”

So far so good. Then the intelligent use of resources hits the fan, as it were.

The August 28th job description continues: ”We currently have a great opportunity for an Information Technology Intern for fall semester 2009. This is an unpaid internship.The primary project will involve redevelopment and launch of a new website for the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX) organization (www.mixnet.org), a national group of public sector Chief Information Officers. Reporting directly to the City of Ann Arbor’s CIO, You will be given lots of support and direction with this highly visible project. This is a great way for you to showcase your talents and get some great exposure to various public and private sector organizations.”

Ann Arbor’s CIO Dan Rainey, who oversees an IT department that is budgeted to cost taxpayers $7.4  million dollars in 2009, is seeking to hire an intern to redevelop a web site for the Metropolitan Information Exchange. There are several obvious problems with Rainey’s scheme, not the least among which is that employing an IT intern under the auspices of the City of Ann Arbor to do work wholly unrelated to the city’s IT needs amounts to cheating the taxpayers. The intern will use city resources (office, computer, software, phone, office supplies, etc….) to do the work and CIO Rainey, who earns $160,000 in salary and benefits, will supervise the intern’s work on behalf of MIX.

After A2Politico revealed the CIO’s scheme to “donate” IT services to MIX, the announcement for the internship was quietly removed from the city’s website.

Then, there’s the IT Fund. Certain city departments and even millage funds are being assessed proportionally higher IT Fund charges, specifically the city’s Park Maintenance & Capital Improvement Millage Fund, the Parks & Rec Department, the AAPD and the AAFD.

In 2012 Argo Canoe Livery paid $10,320 to temp. workers, employees who rent canoes, sell concessions, teach summer camp classes, and tend to the equipment. That same year, Argo livery was charged $12,041 by the IT Fund. Gallup Canoe Livery was charged the same amount by the IT Fund. The Ann Arbor Senior Center, threatened with closure for the want of operating funds, was assessed $18,825 for the IT Fund, or 10 percent of the Senior Center’s $188,000 annual expenses. The Field Operations Department oversees Parks Operations, which spent $180,360 in 2012. Of that amount, $57,713 was turned over to the IT Fund, 33 percent of the total. According to comprehensive  budget documents posted to the city’s website, in 2012 taxpayers spent $12,129 for chemicals and $14,716 for water for Fuller Pool. Fuller Pool pool was also assessed $11,700 for Rainey’s IT Fund. Mack Pool paid $18,814 for electricity and was soaked $17,391 for the IT Fund. The Leslie Golf Course spent $12,639 on water, $26,502 on retiree medical insurance and was chipped for $36,824 for the IT Fund. Huron Hills Golf Course was assessed a whopping $60,000 for the IT Fund in 2012.

The Park Maintenance & Capital Improvement Millage Fund, which raises about $5 million dollars per year from taxpayers, is paying high IT Fund assessments, as well. In 2012, the Maintenance & Capital Improvement Millage Fund was assessed over $167,000 for the IT Fund. The Open Space & Parks Acquisition Millage was assessed $10,412 for the IT Fund, but the Natural Area Preservation program was charged $67,959 for the IT Fund, 25 percent of NAP’s $268,069 expenditures. Neither the Street Repair Millage Fund nor the Art in Public Places Millage Fund paid anything into the IT Fund in 2012.

Like the parks millage, the Parks Department is expected to pay a relatively high IT Fund assessment in 2013, $179,000. Conversely, the City Attorney’s Office is budgeted to pay $152,800 to the IT Fund and the Solid Waste Department is budgeted to pay $143,000 to the IT Fund, respectively, in 2013.

The Downtown Development Authority, on the other hand, is budgeted to pay no IT Fund assessment in 2013 and paid none in 2012.

Like the city’s parks, preservation and open space programs, safety services are assessed significantly higher IT Fund charges than other departments. Ann Arbor employs 124 police officers. The Police Department paid $1.32 million dollars to the IT Fund in 2012, $100,000 more than the AAPD is projected to pay to fund retiree medical insurance in 2013 and $300,000 more than the AAPD is projected to spend in 2013 on medical insurance for its active patrol officers. The Ann Arbor Fire Department, with 90 officers, was assessed $338,000 for the IT Fund, or triple what is budgeted for maintaining and repairing the city’s firetrucks in 2013.

What can be done? A Council member suggested that it’s time to “go after fund balances” such as the “contingent” money that sits in the IT Department’s budget and other city funds. Stephen Lange Ranzini is the president of a local bank and, for the past 12 months has been vocal in his support of emptying what he calls the city’s “buckets.” In December 2012 Ranzini wrote this in response to a piece about budgeting by city officials: “Some (city) funds are overstuffed with cash (for example the 1% for art fund), overall the city has over $100 million of cash trapped in various buckets not restricted by millage or the source of the funds but “restricted” *only* by vote of city council, while the mayor and city manager assert that the general fund *only* has $15 million in cash and therefore doesn’t have enough funds to properly staff the fire fighters and to keep all five fire stations open. Overall the city’s many funding buckets earned over $30 million last year, but we have “no money” to find basic priorities like fire, police and roads! Drain the buckets!”

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.

By Chris Savage

The Peter Principle: In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

In February of this year, Roger Fraser resigned after nine years as Ann Arbor City Administrator to assume the role of Deputy State Treasurer for Local Government Services working under State Treasurer Andy Dillon (though, as of this week, he still is not listed on the State Treasury website.) In this position, Fraser is responsible for helping to oversee the implementation of Public Act 4 – The Local Government and School District Responsibility Act of 2011, also known as “The Emergency Manager Act.” The new law, passed this past spring, expands the power of Emergency Managers, formerly Emergency Financial Managers, permitting them to essentially sweep away the elected leaders of municipalities and school districts and become one-person governments or school administrations. You can read more about the expanded roles of the EMs HERE.

Since taking his new position Fraser (left) has been a very busy man. For example, when the City of Jackson was reaching out for help to avoid bankruptcy, Roger Fraser was in the thick of it, eventually deciding that Jackson did not warrant an Emergency Manager despite having a score of “9″ on a 2009 financial stress test. By way of comparison, Detroit, a city widely thought to be a prime candidate for an Emergency Manager, had a score of only “7.” This week he is a featured speaker at the Michigan Local Government Management Association’s annual summer workshop in St. Joseph, where he will appear on a panel with Benton Harbor EM Joe Harris.

Fraser described his role before taking the job in this way:

“The local government operation there really has a lot to do with overseeing how cities are doing with their finances. The most particular thing they do on an annual basis is to look at debt load and whether or not you have appropriate budgets to pay for debt…What I did basically is say, look, here’s my background, here’s the financial load that you’re taking on, you don’t have a whole lot of people in your organization that have the local government experience, and they determined that they liked what I had to offer.“

That last statement is rather ironic, though most people in Michigan would never know it, though they should.

The day after the 2010 election when Rick Snyder was the new governor-elect, he put up a transitional website where he had this “Letter from the Governor-elect”:

Fellow Michiganders,

Welcome to the Reinvent Michigan website!
First, let me sincerely thank you for your support in my bid to be your Governor. We are beginning an exciting adventure together, one that will move us forward on a path for success and a new Michigan.

Reinventing Michigan – together – is our first and top priority. I am eager to begin working through our challenges and I know you are, too. We have serious issues to address but the people of Michigan are equal to the task. I’m confident that all Michiganders, pulling together, working as a team, can help me get our beloved state back on track.

This website is for you. As you know, I’ll need a new team full of people with fresh, new ideas and a “can-do” attitude to accomplish the goals you elected me to achieve. Reviewing applications submitted here is one of the ways I will choose that team.

We have a big job ahead of us. I need the best and the brightest, the most dedicated and the hardest workers. Together we can and will Reinvent Michigan. Let’s get started.

Thanks for everything you do.

One of the people picked for the “new team full of people with fresh, new ideas” was Roger Fraser. A member of the Ann Arbor SPARK Executive Committee, a group where Snyder was once the chair of the Board of Directors, Fraser was one of at least two SPARK members selected to be part of Snyder’s administration. But how good was the choice of Fraser for this new position? Was he the right choice to “look at debt load and whether or not [cities or school districts] have appropriate budgets to pay for debt?”

The answer, arguably, is absolutely not.

As has previously been reported at A2Politico, for years Roger Fraser told the Ann City Council and the City residents that tax revenues were going down. This turned out NOT to be the case, earning him A2Politico’s “Whopper of the Year” award. Additionally, during his nine-year tenure, Ann Arbor’s debt increased by nearly a half-billion dollars.

In just eight years, Fraser has plunged Ann Arbor almost half a billion dollars into debt, when debt for capital projects and the unfunded pension liabilities are combined. Under Fraser’s administration, the city’s debt load has quadrupled and debt payments have skyrocketed, as well. It’s not the total amount of debt that’s the problem. Ann Arbor could take on loads more debt, legally, as Third Ward Council member Christopher Taylor pointed out in an error-filled email “explaining” the city’s debt—a move that earned him an A2Politico Weekly Whopper award. It’s that the pension/debt payments must be made from the city’s operating funds. Fraser, with Council’s blessing, has taken the city into more debt than the city’s operating fund can accommodate. As a result, citizen services have been cut and backdoor tax hikes have been levied in the form of fee hikes for water, sewer, solid waste, etc.

Bonded debt for capital improvements during Fraser’s time as the City Administrator increased by $221,870,000. In addition to that, actions taken by Fraser were directly responsible for much of the fiscal hole that Ann Arbor is currently in. For example, he advocated for the use of an early retirement program for City employees in 2009 at a cost of $6.7 million. At the December 2009 City audit committee meeting, Karen Lancaster, Accounting Services Manager, told the committee that most of the $8.4 million deficit in the 2009 general fund was due to the early retirement program.

Also, when Fraser took his position in 2002, the City’s pension plan was overfunded. However, when he left it was underfunded by nearly 10 percent, substantially more than at any time over the past decade. Part of the reason for this underfunding was that, during this time, the City transferred funds from the pension plan to the City’s retiree healthcare plan (VEBA) to cover the influx of new participants resulting from the early retirement program. Because of how actuarial calculations are done, this shift of funds was not immediately apparent in the City’s accounting reports. However, the net effect was to move the financial obligation down the road to be paid by future taxpayers.

The shifting of funds from the pension program to the VEBA accounts had another unfortunate impact on the City’s budget. In 2009, an audit revealed that the amount moved out of the pension plant into the retiree healthcare account exceeded the legal limit imposed by the IRS by $17.1 million. This money will be paid back to the pension fund in annual payments through 2013, essentially putting an additional burden on the City’s finances.

It’s important to note that the issues with the funding of the VEBA program were addressed by a Blue Ribbon committee in 2005 that made a number of recommendations in their final report regarding the composition of the boards of trustees of the retirement and VEBA programs as well as specific changes to the programs themselves. They specifically recommended that the pension program be funded in excess of 100 percent (it is currently at just over 90 percent (pdf).)

Although the funded status of the Retirement System, that is, the ratio of valuation assets to liabilities, is in excess of 110%, the contribution rate is likely to increase over each of the next four years if the investment returns are less than the assumed investment returns.

While the dedicated millage makes the long-term viability of the retirement system, with its current census composition and an assumed rate of investment return, reasonably sustainable, the Committee believes that funding to an amount greater than 100% of liabilities is prudent given general market volatility.

None of these recommendations of the Blue Ribbon committee was ever adopted and, in 2008, a Citizen Trustee on both boards, Robert Pollock, Jr., resigned as a result.

Another example of questionable fiscal oversight by Fraser during his tenure involved sloppy record-keeping and hiring practices. In the 2006 state audit (pdf), the auditors dinged the City for a number of items. For example, they recommended the implementation of a fraud risk management program to root out fraudulent City transactions. The also recommended adopting a policy of doing background checks on employees in sensitive departments like accounting and information technology (computers and computer networks). They also pointed out that the City was inappropriately spending monies in excess of budgeted amounts without formal approval or adjustment of the budgets involved. Most importantly, they found multiple irregularities involving the use of City credit cards. Roger Fraser himself was involved in some of these irregularities according to documents obtained in an FOIA request by Ann Arbor resident and CPA Karen Sidney.

In 2008, the state audit (pdf) found inappropriate purchases of eleven flat screen televisions and associated equipment by Maintenance facility staff using City credit cards and in the 2010 audit (pdf) irregularities were found in the use of City purchasing cards. In fact, they appeared to be in violation of the law.

2010-1 USE OF CITY PURCHASING CARDS
During our analysis of internal controls over the purchase card process we noted that the City does not appear to be in compliance with established administrative policy and financial management procedures or applicable laws of the State of Michigan. It was specifically noted that five of the twenty transactions sampled contained no purchasing card statement listing the details of the transactions that occurred during the month. The receipts detailing the purchases and the appropriate business purpose pertaining to these statements were also missing. Credit card payments are made by the City on a monthly basis so the City has paid for these transactions without ever reviewing the statement or any supporting receipt to authorize the purchase and determine that there was a business purpose for the transaction.

There’s no question that many, if not most, cities in Michigan are facing financial problems these days. The economic downturn has impacted our state more profoundly than most and budget deficits are being dealt with all over the state. The imposition of an Emergency Manager (EM) under the new rules set forth in Public Act 4 is the final step, in most cases, in ensuring that cities do not go into bankruptcy. The Snyder administration’s 2010 budget makes matters worse for local municipalities and school districts because revenue sharing (tax monies being sent back to the municipalities) has been reduced and funding for schools has been slashed to pay for an 86 percent tax break for businesses. The role of the EM, whose efforts are overseen, and in many cases, approved by Treasurer Andy Dillon and Deputy Treasurer Roger Fraser, is to put the municipality’s financial house in order.

However, the choice of Roger Fraser for this very important role stands out as highly questionable at best. The fact is that the City of Ann Arbor was nearly a half billion dollars more in debt after his time as City Administrator. This should be enough to raise some red flags. However, when you dig into the details of how these debts arose, the red flags begin to flap more vigorously. The shifting of funds, sloppy record keeping and irregularities associated with the use of credit and purchasing cards, some by Roger Fraser himself, call his credentials into serious question. Under Fraser’s guidance, the City of Ann Arbor was guilty of some of the very actions that the cities of Benton Harbor and Pontiac, both of which now have EMs, have been criticized for.

When Rick Snyder was elected governor of Michigan, he promised to bring in a “new team full of people with fresh, new ideas.” One of these people was Roger Fraser, an associate of his during his time as the leader of SPARK. He has put a man with a questionable past regarding the financial oversight of Michigan’s sixth largest city in a position of responsibility for the financial well-being of Michigan’s most hard hit cities.

The Peter Principle says that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” The more you consider Roger Fraser as Deputy State Treasurer for Local Government Services, given his track record in Ann Arbor, the more it seems that he has become the embodiment of the Peter Principle in the state government of Michigan. He’s the last person Michigan residents should have expected to see evaluating which cities in our state will be taken over under the auspices of Public Act 4.

On February 3, 2011 A2Politico posted an entry that explained why Ann Arbor streets were being plowed so much more slowly than those tended to by the county and surrounding cities. In short, Ann Arbor’s Director of Operations, Sue McCormick, who directly oversees the plowing operations, had allowed the first five snow plows sent out at 7 a.m. to be dispatched to a small area of town, Ward 2. Coincidentally this is the Ward of the City Council member, Stephen Rapundalo, who had been quoted in the press thusly in January 2011, “Stephen Rapundalo (Ward 2) reiterated the view, which he’d expressed at the December 2009 budget retreat, that the quality of snow removal in the city is ‘abysmal.’”  While in Ward 2, the plows were not clearing major roads, but rather many of the dead end streets and cul de sacs of the high rent Ann Arbor Woods section of town Rapundalo represents. The result? The Old West side didn’t see the front bumper of a single snow plow until 3 p.m. of the afternoon after the storm, according to data posted by city officials to the snowplowing web site.

Like a certain Egyptian despot, and a Republican Wisconsin governor , both of whom believe blocking Internet access to political sites they don’t like is in vogue, Ann Arbor city officials had blocked access to the A2Politico web site from city web servers. As a result, Ms. McCormick was unable to read the February 3, 2011 A2P entry, so she had one of her assistants dash off an email asking for a copy of the content in readable format.

It seems important to point out that Sue McCormick doesn’t live in Ann Arbor, so while you’re snowed in or fishtailing around town because the streets are being plowed with the efficiency of a horse drawn wagon filled with retired but still relatively alert and sprightly Baby Boomers wielding plastic snow shovels (think Ward 2 Council member Tony Derezinski), it’s really not a problem for her. She’s at home, 60 miles to the west, supervising city snow removal from the comfort of her sofa, sipping tea, and watching re-runs of the Shopping Channel.

It was then left up to City Administrator Roger Fraser (pictured left) to explain to the public and City Council why “county primary roads around Ann Arbor were cleared earlier than the city’s streets.” This public not my mea culpa came on February 22, 2011. It should be noted that Fraser’s admission came just one month after Hizzoner was chronicled by the local AnnArborchronicle.com as bragging that “snow removal is twice as good as it was back in 1999.” John Hieftje’s hyperbole brings to mind former President George W. Bush praising then FEMA chief Michael Brown. “Frasie,” one can imagine Hieftje crooning, “you’re doin’ a heckuva job. The City Administrator’s workin’ around the clock to get those streets plowed.” Roger Fraser does not live in Ann Arbor, but rather supervises Ms. McCormick’s work on city snow removal from the comfort of his sofa, sipping tea, and watching re-runs of the Fox hit show “Lie to Me.”

After a sharp increase in citizen complaints, accidents, heart attacks, heart burn and the amount of time between the end of a snow storm and the plowing of Ann Arbor 200 miles of  snow-covered streets, Roger Fraser had to explain why that one of the richest cities in Michigan that collected more than $80 million dollars in property taxes in each of the past two years, in a state that gets, on average, over 52 inches of snow per year according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is doing a poor job at snow removal. It’s not his fault, however.

Here’s why Ann Arbor can’t get the streets plowed, according to the City Administrator as chronicled by AnnArbor.com’s government reporter.

1.  ”Lack of an accurate forecast is part of the reason why the city wasn’t fully prepared, Fraser said.”

2.  ”The city purposefully has avoided investing in more heavy duty plow equipment that could help the city respond more quickly to such a severe weather event.”  (The city? Isn’t he in charge of “the city?”)

3.  ”Fraser said snow was falling at a rate of about 1 inch per hour, making it very difficult to keep major streets cleared.”

4.  ”This was one of the wettest snows that we’ve had in a couple of years, and when you have that wet volume of snow, it does strange things to particularly lighter plow vehicles,” Fraser said. “You can’t control in that kind of condition.”

I was amazed. Like Hieftje, who can remember the quality of snow removal back over a decade and conclude that snow removal is “twice as good as it was in 1999,” Fraser could remember all of the major snowfalls over the past two years and the moisture content of each snowfall.

Alas, Mr. Fraser’s claim that snow removal in residential areas is progressing slowly because the storm was “one of the wettest snows on a couple of years” was completely false. In fact, it’s a Whopper. AnnArbor.com’s political reporter Ryan Stanton once again simply repeated the City Administrator’s claims, but didn’t fact check them. So, A2Politico did.

Paul Gross received his degree in meteorology from the University of Michigan cum laude in 1983. His book, Extreme Michigan Weather, The Wild World of the Great Lakes State - the first-ever written about Michigan weather – delves into the mysteries of extreme Michigan weather, explaining how the state’s harshest extremes and biggest storms come to be. Gross was named to a three year term on the American Meteorological Society’s Board of Broadcast Meteorology in 1987; named chairman in 1990; chaired the 1990 and 1996 AMS Conferences on Broadcast Meteorology. He was appointed to the AMS Committee on the Station Scientist in 2005, and served as chairman 2006-present. Gross has worked forecasting the weather at WDIV-TV Detroit, Michigan, since 1983. He is also one of a handful of AMS members who have been awarded status as certified consulting meteorologists.

On February 23rd, I sent Paul Gross this email message:

Just a quick question. I’ve heard this past 2/20 snow storm was the “wettest” we’ve had in a couple of years. Is this, in fact, true?

Gross replied with this email: