It's #A2Council Night in Ann Arbor. Here's the agenda, and here's the episode of A2AF on tonight's agenda.
The evening kicks off with a modest 11-item consent agenda. The first 5 items are street closures. CA-7 is the contract for the State Street Reconstruction. It's exciting to see this happening.
There are no public hearings on the agenda tonight though there are two ordinance second readings. The public hearings for these items have already happened. B-1 is on the increase in water rates and B-2 is on the increase to stormwater rates.
Further down the agenda, the first 5 resolutions are on appointments to various boards and commissions. DC-6 is a resolution to begin to discussing workforce housing with U of M. I'm a little dubious about this. There is a lot more the city could be doing to increase the amount of housing in Ann Arbor. Specifically, TC1 could be applied to more corridors (Maple/Stadium, Packard/Platt, Larrytown, Plymouth, Washtneaw), the city could end exclusionary zoning (reducing minimum lot sizes, reducing setbacks, allowing quadplexes to be built on all residential lots). I'm also a little wary about something that would tie housing to work. I also feel like #a2Council is in a uniquely important position to impact the housing supply in Ann Arbor, and asking UM is kind of passing the buck.
DC-7 is a resolution supporting abortion access. DC-8 is an employment agreement with Milton Dohoney, Ann Arbor's new city administrator and former interim city administrator. DS-1, DS-2, and DS-3 are fee adjustments for community services, public services, and the fire department, respectively.
And finally we get to DS-4, the resolution to adopt the FY23 budget. There is a lot of stuff in here. But one thing I want to talk about is are amendments 1 and 3, which both have to do with how to appropriate Marijuana Excise Tax revenue. These two resolutions have the bulk of the Marijuana Excise Tax Revenue going to a deflection program. Molly and Jess go into a lot more detail about this on A2AF, so please listen to their thoughts. Rather than seeing this money go to part of our criminal legal system, I'd much rather see this being spent on reparations for people who have had marijuana convictions in Ann Arbor or treatment options that do not involve the police or courts.
And that's all there is. What items are you most looking forward to seeing? Hopefully we will see you there. The CTN stream starts at 7 pm. Make sure you follow the action on the #a2Council hashtag.
No comments:
Post a Comment