Ann Arbor City Council

by P.D. Lesko At the Jan. 5, 2015 Council meeting, speakers at two public hearings urged officials to lower the maximum height in a zoning change proposed by city staff to accommodate a property owner whose 1.6 acre parcel borders a…

by P.D. Lesko FROM SETBACKS TO obscure acronyms such as D-1 and D-2, it might be tough to understand how 11 adults could possibly have anything to snipe at each other about while discussing zoning regulations. However, on Jan. 5, the…

Julie Weatherbee—U-M IT Systems Trainer, wiles away Monday evenings on Twitter commenting on City Council mmetings. Julie Weatherbee is, in turns, clever, funny, acerbic, rude and politically nerdy. Twice monthly, she watches City…

by P.D. Lesko At their annual retreat last week, Ann Arbor Council members shared what they want Ann Arbor city government to focus on, and how the members, who are politically divided, can work together to get the job done in the coming…

The Dec. 1 City Council meeting included members grappling over their own rules, a failed floor motion to put Council’s only CPA on the group’s Budget & Labor Committee and a lengthy debate centered around limiting members’ speaking…

IN A 7-4 VOTE City Council members decided to disallow the use of social media during meetings: no Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat or Pinterest. Council members’ emails sent during their public meetings are subject to a variety of rules, as…

CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS fell down on the job between 2011 and 2014. The job performances of City Administrator Steve Powers and City Attorney Stephen Postema went without review. The Charter calls for Council members to evaluate only two city…

Recent research carried out by two professors supports the following conclusion: “...policy makers in D.C. respond primarily to economic elites and groups representing organized business interests.” * Our own city and county officials…

An Open Letter to City Council, DDA and AAATA Boards  In the photo below is the view of the boarding location (de facto bus bay) for AirRide on Fifth Street across from the Library. Note the new $8.1M Blake Terminal in the background and…

AT ITS MOST recent meeting, the Ann Arbor City Council once again showed a deplorable lack of respect for transparency, process and the public, as did City Administrator Steve Powers. At the September 2 meeting, an item to approve $75,000…