Browsing Category
Gov
Since 2011 City Administrator Steve Powers Has Cut Spending On Automobile Allowances
While spending increases on meals out, travel, luxury lodging and cell phones, monthly car allowance costs drop significantly from a high in 2010.
UNDER FORMER CITY administrator Roger Fraser in 2009 and 2010, according to information…
A2POLITICO: You Want What? “We Can’t Possibly Fix All The Roads.”
by P.D. Lesko
THE LAST TIME Julie Grand ran for City Council, she told a room full of voters at a Democratic candidate forum: “And I don’t know that we can get every road paved in the neighborhood. I don’t know that we can fix all of the…
Ward 2 Council Member Petersen Announces She’ll Run For Mayor: Move Mirrors Hieftje’s Path To The Gavel
ANN ARBOR CITY Council member Sally Hart Petersen announced in a press release sent to the media on January 14 that she plans to run for mayor. Petersen, elected to represent Ward 2 in 2012, unseated former state legislator Tony Derezinski…
Perchance To Dream: MLK’s Dream Took on Poverty and War Along with Racism
by Drew Dellinger
WHEN MARTIN Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, he did something extraordinary for a speaker mounting a challenge to the existing order: he positioned those in his movement not as outsiders and dissidents,…
Op-Ed: Expanding Social Security Is Crucial to Addressing Inequality in America
by Steve Rosenfeld
IN COMING DECADES, America will face an economic crisis of epic proportions as tens of millions of citizens lean toward poverty as they reach their senior years. What is done about it will define what kind of country…
Member Of Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority Board Of Directors Insults Residents And Criticizes Council Members In Public Rant
Please note: Kathy Griswold is the Chair of The Ann Arbor Independent's Editorial Board.
JOAN LOWENSTEIN, A long-time member of the Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors launched a website titled A2BetterCity.com. On her…
AAATA CEO’s Salary Cut While Pay For Other Managers Increased Between 9-11 Percent Over The Past 24 Months
In 2011 AATA employed 8 managers who earned above 90K. In 2014, 9 top-level managers earn six-figure salaries.
IN SEPTEMBER 2011, former Ann Arbor News government reporter Tom Gantert reported in the Michigan Capitol Confidential that,…
News Reports Contradict City Administrator’s Claim That: “Snow emergency has been called once in the past 25 years.”
ANN ARBOR’S CITY Administrator Steve Powers, in explaining why a snow emergency had not been called in order to facilitate faster more efficient clearing of the 11 inches of snow that fell between January 4-5 claimed “a snow emergency has…
EDITORIAL: Ann Arbor State-Level Representatives’ Roll Call Vote Attendance Records
THE MAJORITY OF the new and returning members of the Michigan House of Representatives can boast perfect attendance records with respect to the 534 roll call votes taken between January and December 2013. Michigan legislators earn $71,865…
EDITORIAL: Neighborhoods Versus Downtown
OVER THE PAST decade, the city’s Mayor and Council members whom he has endorsed, and with whom he has allied himself, have neglected to tend to the basic infrastructure needs of Ann Arbor’s various neighborhoods. Roads and sidewalks have…