Ann Arbor City Council

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…

Using a tax increment financing scheme, since 2006, over $5 million dollars have been diverted from the cash-strapped public schools and given to Ann Arbor SPARK officials. WHILE ANN ARBOR  Public Schools officials, parents and students…

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…

Dear Mayor and Council, The Mayor, with the help of a couple city councilors and Mary Jo Callan, assured us at their January 6 meeting that Ann Arbor city government is functioning just as it should. However, Ms. Callan was nodding…

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS are preparing themselves for the Battle of the Budget. There is a $450,000 “surplus,” over which Council members are expected to compete. This petty cash, as it were, distracts from the reality that Council members must…

Please note: This piece was corrected to reflect the fact that Ward 2 Council member Sally Hart Petersen was not seated on Ann Arbor City Council until November 2012. THE ANN ARBOR INDEPENDENT recently reported that 76 percent of city…

Friends say: He’s measured.  Collegial. A leader. Detractors say: He’s a DINO. Anti-everything. Bad for Ann Arbor.    Jack Eaton speaks slowly, so slowly that sometimes you wonder how he doesn’t nod off in the middle of a sentence.…

POLITICAL INSIDERS are playing a game called: “Pin the Campaign Button on the Ann Arbor Mayoral Candidate.” They suggest that the person next elected mayor will serve a long time, thanks to voter apathy and an incurious media (present…

Over the past 190 years, only two women have served as mayor of Ann Arbor. Can Sally P. be #3? Sally Hart Petersen ran a clever campaign to defeat two-term incumbent Tony Derezinski, a former state legislator. Mostly though, Sally…

WARD 2 COUNCIL  member Jane Lumm ran for re-election in 2013 on a a platform that included improving the transparency of city government. She was not only talking about the need for city government to do a better job of sharing information…