This is a recording I made of a Zoom audio meeting held on Tuesday, July 9, 2024 by the Ann Arbor Council Administration Committee. Video was not made available.
Council Administration Committee members audible in recording:
- City Attorney Atleen Kaur
- Mayor Christopher Taylor
- CM Jen Eyer
- CM Travis Radina
- CM Chris Watson
The following members were absent
- City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr
- CM Erica Briggs
This is the Legistar link for this meeting: https://a2gov.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1145607&GUID=A7F1446D-B92F-46E4-A8D4-FFC4592EEDC1
City Attorney Kaur presented updates from City Administrator Dohoney about:
- An art donation from UM for City Hall
- Plans to issue an RFP for a consultant for the reparations study requested by Council
- Planning for an Unarmed Response Program
- The City is searching for a new Transportation Manager
City Attorney Kaur presented updates from the City Attorney’s office:
- Council Training and Travel: Deciding the process to spend $5000/year per Council Member for travel expenses. This was approved as part of the FY25 budget at the May 20, 2024 Council Meeting. https://a2council.com/ann-arbor-city-council-may-20-2024/
- Council Communications Preferences: Deciding the process to spend $100,000/year on mailers for the Mayor and Council Members. This was approved as a FY25 budget amendment at the May 20, 2024 Council Meeting. At the Admin meeting of June 11, 2024 (https://a2council.com/council-administration-committee-june-11-2024/) plans were discussed to send every resident of Ann Arbor three mailers/postcards – one from the Mayor, and one from each of the Ward Council Members.
- At this meeting, City Attorney Kaur presented the opinion that for efficiency there should be one mailer. She will be working with City staff to develop a template with space for the Mayor and two Council Members.
- In apparent opposition to the idea of a single mailer, Mayor Taylor presented a hypothetical situation: “I appreciate the desire to, you know, to reduce the number of mailings, but I certainly, you know, Jones and Smith are at each other’s throats, and now Jones and Smith are, you know, on ‘Team Mailer’. Like, ‘here you are together’, and maybe the Mayor, you know, is cranky with both of them. And now they’re all together on this mailer.” (timestamp 30min50sec)
- For more about the travel and mailer expenses approved by Council, see: A2ELNEL: Ann Arbor Budget: Council Cashing In