by P.D. Lesko

MEMBERS OF THE Ann Arbor Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force proposed changes to the city’s snow removal ordinance which would drop the one-inch threshold for the removal of snow and ice. The proposed changes would require city residents to clear sidewalks, as well as AAATA bus stop loading areas, as well if those loading areas adjoined private property.

At the Mar. 2 City Council meeting, Linda Diane Feldt, Chair of the Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force, told Council members of the one-inch threshold change: “This was identified as a top concern.”

At first reading, the proposed ordinance changes passed by a vote of 9-2 with Jack Eaton (D-Ward 4) and Jane Lumm (I-Ward 2) dissenting.

At the Mar. 2 City Council meeting, Eaton said: “You can have a clear sidewalk right up to the curb and then encounter a street that’s got three inches of snow because we don’t plow until there’s four,” he said.

Similarly, Lumm said during the lengthy debate about the proposed changes: “It doesn’t seem fair and reasonable to expect homeowners to shovel their sidewalks every time there’s even a trace of snow.”

It was after the Mar. 2 Council meeting that the snow and ice hit the fan.

City Council members have said communications from constituents about the proposed snow removal ordinance changes have been crystal clear: retain the one-inch threshold.

Sabra Briere (D-Ward 1) recently told the recipients of her email newsletter that she had crafted an amended snow removal ordinance in response to  feedback from constituents.

City Council established the nine-member Pedestrian Safety and Access Task Force to “explore strategies to improve pedestrian safety and access within a framework of shared responsibility through community outreach and data collection. The task force will recommend to Council improvements in the development and application of the Complete Streets model, using best practices, sound data and objective analysis.”

Members of the task force include resident volunteers: Vivienne Armentrout, Scott Campbell, Ken Clark, Neal Elyakin, Linda Diane Feldt, Owen Jansson, Anthony Pinnell, Sarah Pressprich Gryniewicz and Jim Rees.

The Task Force members’ own communications show that some in the group are up in arms at efforts to remove the language that requires residents to shovel when less than one inch of snow falls. Emails between members of the task force show that while the group was formed in Dec. 2013 “to make recommendations to the council,” individual members have taken oppositional positions to Council members who have rejected the group’s recommendations. Indeed, emails between the task force members show the appointed officials plotting to manipulate scheduled public hearings by rallying support for their recommendations.

In a Mar. 13 email to the task force members, Chair Linda Diane Feldt writes about the one-inch snow removal threshold changes proposed by herself and others on the task force, “In any case, we will need to fight for this one. I’m sorry that this is true, but that is the reality.”

Task force member Anthony Pinnell responded to the Mar. 13 email from Feldt with strategies to manipulate the Mar. 16 public hearing: “I’ll be touch this weekend regarding speakers, focal points of speakers etc.”

On Mar. 15, task force member Owen Jansson sent an email to mayor and Council members: “The proposed Task Force revisions are more than fair, do not impose an undue burden on anyone, and should now be given final approval as written and proposed to Council by the Task Force.”

“Great letter, Owen,” replied Linda Diane Feldt.