Ann Arbor City Council

THIS AUGUST, VOTERS will go to the polls and choose from among candidates running in the City Council Democratic primary elections. In Wards 1, 3, 4 and 5, incumbents’ and challengers’ websites are up and populated with a variety of…

by P.D. Lesko A PENDING LAWSUIT against Ann Arbor for its Footing Drain Disconnect program begun in 2001 has the potential to cost taxpayers tens if not hundreds of millions in damages. Ann Arbor’s City Attorney once predicted the suit…

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…

by P.D. Lesko IN JANUARY 2015, City Administrator Steve Powers told Council members that Building Dept. staffer Ralph Welton had resigned. Council members took that to mean that Welton had left the employ of the city and its payroll.…

THE MICHIGAN ECONOMIC Development Corporation (MEDC) has a program for Michigan cities called Redevelopment Ready Communities (RRC). It is a voluntary certification offered at no cost to the communities that elect to participate. According…

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…

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…

IN 2009, DAWN Gabay, then interim executive director of the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) sent a letter to an MDOT official urging MDOT not to lease 23 outdated rail cars from a company owned by Louis Ferris, Jr. Ferris had…

by P.D. Lesko At 8 a.m. on a chilly Mar. 5 morning, Ann Arbor City Council member Jack Eaton (D-Ward 4) and Council member Mike Anglin (D-Ward 5) waited in the lobby of Ann Arbor City Hall for the City Clerk's office to open. Both…

by P.D. Lesko LET’S START WITH the good news: Ann Arbor Mayor Chris Taylor is reaching out to residents and trying to keep in touch about important matters such as city government, transit and public safety and the environment. It’s a…