Monday, March 4, 2019

Ann Arbor City Council Preview: March 4th, 2019

For those of you just turning in, this season of #a2council is great. It's full of emotional highs and lows and tons of plot twists. You should really be watching. Tonight's meeting could be a great place to start watching. The meeting (agenda here) starts out with a pretty light consent agenda with only 8 items. Highlights include a street closing for Take Back the night on April 3rd.

There are two spicy items on the agenda tonight. The first is PH-1/B-1. This would amend the rules for membership in the Independent Police Oversight Taskforce. Specifically it would add the bolded text below:

Persons who are current employees of the City or who have been employed by the City, including active or former police officers, within 5 years of nomination shall not be eligible for appointment. The requirements in the preceding sentence may be waived by a resolution approved by at least 7 members of City Council for current and former employees who are or were classified as temporary employees and who received fewer than seven pay checks in any year from the City.
This is the night's only Public Hearing. Police oversight is an issue that many people are very passionate about so I imagine that there could be some heated audience participation here.

The night's second hot pepper emoji is the first only reading of DC-3, a Resolution Regarding the City of Ann Arbor’s Spending of Proceeds from the 2017 Washtenaw County Mental Health and Public Safety Millage. By way of background, here's what I wrote about the Washtenaw County Mental Health and Public Safety Millage in January:

My tl:dr is as follows: under the Mental Health and Public Safety Millage, communities that have their own police force (e.g. Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti City, Pittsfield Twp., etc.) get a portion of the money from the mileage back as a rebate. Previously council passed a ordinance/resolution saying that if the millage passed, they would use the rebate for pedestrian safety, affordable housing, and climate change (I think). The new majority on the council does not necessarily like this plan...
You can expect some sparks to fly between the councilmembers tonight during the discussion of DC-3.

Gentle reader, what are you most looking forward to at tonight's #a2council meeting? Make sure you tune in tonight at 7 to watch CTN's live stream and follow the blow-by-blow action on #a2council hashtag on Twitter.

EDIT: I made some minor edits reflecting that DC-3 is a first and only reading of the resolution. Also, I updated the quote text to reflect the fact that the previous council passed a resolution, not an ordinance, to dictate how to spend the millage proceeds.

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