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A2Politico
These Council Members Handed Howard Lazarus His Golden Parachute in 2016, Then Pretended They Didn’t
by P.D. Lesko
The only reason former City Administrator Howard Lazarus is several hundred thousand dollars richer is thanks to an open-ended, 2016 contract negotiated by someone among the attorneys employed in the City Attorney's…
A2Politico: Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish—On Feb. 20, 2020, the Ann Arbor News Will Turn Off Commenting
by P.D. Lesko
On February 18, 2020 MLive's Vice President of Content, John Hiner wrote, "I’m writing today to announce a significant change to the MLive.com website experience: At 6 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, we will permanently…
A2Politico: Please Don’t Interrupt Your Councilmember While He’s Ignoring You
by Patricia Lesko
Ann Arbor's mayor, Chris Taylor ("Mr. Congeniality" according to a 2015 article in the Ann Arbor Observer), has been singing and dancing around Wards 3 and 5 on behalf of his City Council candidates Zachary Ackerman and…
Ecology Center/Recycle Ann Arbor & The Landfilling of Our Recycling
by Patricia Lesko
I recently received a long email with the Subject line: City of Ann Arbor Action - MONDAY NIGHT!! from someone named Doug Selby. In his email, Mr. Selby urges me to attend the next City Council meeting to pressure Council…
City Vendor Records Reveal Handful of Board/Commission Members Paid $1.33M
by Patricia Lesko
NextDoor is a city-wide listserv where neighbors can post everything from requests for babysitters to football tickets for sale. Neighbors have also taken to posting information about local city government. In Feb.…
A2Politico: Doing Less for Longer—A Politician’s Dream
by P.D. Lesko
KIRK WESTPHAL CAUSED the political firmament to tremble (convulse, really) when he was just rumored to be prepared to pitch the idea of changing the length of City Council members’ terms from two to four years. The…
A2Politico: But, Soft! What Hare-Brained Budget Allocation Through Yonder Fiscal Prudence Breaks?
by Bryan Kelly
IT IS OPEN season on the public purse. Budget negotiations for the 2016-2017 fiscal year are nigh. The City Administrator’s plan has been submitted to City Council. In the current forecast, a $1.7 million deficit in the…
A2Politico: BAMNing for a Soupçon of Minority Enrollment at U-M? Sacrebleu & Maize
by Bryan Kelly
SO IT’S COME to this: protesters from BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), the radical Trotskyite organization with a heart of gold, “bulldozing” through a barricade at a Board of Regents meeting at the University of Michigan to…
A2Politico: Some Modest Suggestions for the Downtown Development Divas
by Bryan Kelly
AFTER MONTHS DORMANT, Ann Arbor officials have rekindled the effort to market for development the Library Lot, a parcel of land about the size of the parking lot that used to be adjacent to the downtown library.
I have…
A2Politico: Ann Arbor—the Bicyclists’ Medina
by Bryan Kelly
IN LAST WEEK’S issue of The A2 Indy, my physically fit colleague Brent McDermott published a column dubbing Ann Arbor “a Mecca for runners.” Few may know that our city is, at the very least, in the running for a…
