Page 12-Wednesday, November 29, 1978-The Michigan Daily
CONSIDERS ZERO-BASED BUDGET:
Council studies planning options
By JUDY RAKOWSKY
With the Headlee amendment and
declining federal support pinching Ann
Arbor, City Council delved into long-
range policy goals and zero-based
budgeting at Monday night's meeting.
Usually, the city administration in-
dependently formulates the budget and
then refers the product to Council for
revisions and approval. The process is
not completed until May, but City Ad-
ministrator Sylvester Murray changed
the procedure this year to accom-
modate Council's policy priorities in
light of the shrinking fiscal pie.
COUNCIL HAS never altered the
administrative budget recommen-
dations by more than five per cent.
Council has previously expressed
concern over the city's traditional ap-
proach of basing the budget on that of
the previous year, rather than
evaluating each expenditure. City of-
ficials are now looking at zero-based
budgeting to overhaul the process and
afford greater efficiency for every
dollar appropriated.
At Monday night's meeting, Jim
Cleveland and Kenneth Kaven of
Management Analysis Center Inc. - a
Washington-based consulting firm -
explained zero-based budgeting to
Council.
ZERO-BASED budgeting calls for
reappropriating the entire budget each
year after careful evaluation of return
in services taxpayers get for their
money. The consultants pointed out
that the process can be tailored for
examining each department, program,
or program component in Ann Arbor.
Mayor Louis Belcher said he would
like to "do it in phases over five years"
and begin clarifying policy objectivs
this year. Belcher acknowledged that
instituting the new method "means a
lot of thinking and work, and that we
must justify (a program's) existence
and operation every single budget
year."
Councilman Earl Greene (D-Second
Ward) said starting each year at zero
may mean that a lot of time will be
spent "spinning our wheels" and it
"will generate a lot of paper" which
may be remedied by meetings among
department staffs and improving
communication. He said he wa concer-
ned about the expense the extra work
would likely involve, largely due to in-
creased staffing.
BELCHER SAID the city may find it
cheaper to subcontract jobs and cut
staff to avoid cutting services. Coun-
cilwoman Leslie Morris said she would
be opposed to such actions, and
suggested that the city turn to incen-
tives for increased productivity in non-
monetary ways such as allowing staff
other than department heads to attend
conferences. She said the arrangement
of city staff should be examined to see if
it functions at optimal efficiency.
Belcher said he wanted to avoid too
much Council involvement in the day-,
to-day workings of city government.
To relieve some of the suspicion
citizens have about government,
Morris, Greene and Councilman David
Fisher (R-Fourth Ward) all advocated
early examination of the budget' to
allow for more citizen input. Morris
also suggested a return to the com-
mission form of government which
preceded the apolitical administration
model.
Under the commission structure,
citizens are assigned to keep up with
the workings of each city department.
That way citizens can find out what is
going on from people like themselves
who are informed and whom they can
trust, Morris said.
COUNCILMAN Louis Senunas (R-
Third Ward) said, "As intriguing as it
may be to get citizens into the process,
the problem we all have in ordering our
personal priorities is that the city only
controls 25 per cent of the taxes it
collects." By the time fundamental
services are provided, such as police,
fire, refuse collection, Senunas said
only 15 per cent of the budget remains.
A call for a link between the capital
and operating budgets was issued by
Councilman Kenneth Latta (D-First
Ward), who said, "We need to associate
departments' activity with the annual
audit." He added that the mechanics of
city government are "more orientated
to work load than to accomplishmen-
ts." This problem, he said, renders
many departmental statistics
unusable.
In response to Latta's point, Murray
said, "We do have a grey area between
performance and workload." He ab-
solved blame for the disjointed
relationship between capital and
operating budgets by saying that the
capital budget is devised by the plan-
ning department while his staff for-
mulates the operating budget.
"Most of the implementation and in-
formation is done by people who could
hide the way money is spent," Morris
said. She added that it is very difficult
for any first-year Council member to
have a meaningful role in the
budgetary process.
Senunas said that starting from
scratch each year will better enable
members of Council, which has a high
turnover, to understand the budget.
Mayor Pro Tem Gerald Bell recalled
that on two occasions in the past, Coun-
cil came together to make long-range
decisions and worked cooperatively
between political parties. "We may
have had differences in how to get
there, but we had similar long-term
goals."
Israeli official says
Arabs treated equa
(continued from Page 1) law is applied in Israel as go
"Esmail supporters tried to take ad- other western democracies."
vantage of these legal proceedings and "Those arrested are not
unfortunately committed themselves to rights. Israel exercises due pr
Arab propaganda," Shefi said. law,"Shefiadded.
American observers were present at Shefi said that Arabs and Je
the trial and wrote an article saying equal under the law and that bol
that it was conducted democratically." 'civil rights, but did not deny tha
DURING THE interview Shefi said, abuses have taken place against.
"There is no question that the rule of "THE COMMANDER of th
Bank was dismissed by the
Malcolmson signs government for allowing somes
to enter a school and throw
statenent grenades. I can't think of anywh
University architecture Prof. Regi- in the world where a general w
nald Malcolmson is among the 20 dismissed for this."
authors and signers of a new Shefi said when abuses are br
"statement of the principles of contem- the Israeli government's ati
porary architecture" who were given everything is done to resolve th
special recognition at the International ter.
Union of Architects' 13th congress
recently in Mexico City, the Univesity
ly
od as in
denied
ocess of
ews are
th enjoy
at some
Arabs.
he West
Israeli
soldiers
smoke
ere else
Mould be
ought to
tention,
;he mat-
announced.
Framers of the new
declaration-known as the "Charter of
Machu Picchu" because it was signed
in that Peruvian city last Decem
ber-were awarded the internationa
union's Jean Tschumi Memorial Prize
honoring their voluntary contributions
The prize, named for the late Swiss ar
chitect, also honored the rector o
Frederico Villareal University in Lima
Peru, where the authors of the charter
first met to discuss the project.
-r--ttd-c s---r-c
I
Mountaineering#6.
ri
ountaineering is an
oral tradition. Over
the years, it has
been passed down
from teacher to
pupil, father to son, package
store owner to customer. As a
result, a folklore - a mythol-
ogy, if you will - has formed
around the mountains of
Busch.You, being a student
of mountaineering, no doubt
wish to acquaint yourself with
these truths and half-truths,
thse stories both accurate
and apocryphal. A wise deci-
sion. And, as luck would have
it, this ad is just the ticket.
One of mountaineering's
earliest legends is Bennington
Baxter-Bennington. Adventure,
international bon vivant and
inventor of the phrase "your
check is in the mail"' it was he
who perfected the finer points
of expedition financing. While
other mountaineers resorted
to such bizarre extremes as
gainful employment, Benning-
ton subsidized assaults on the
Busch mountaintop with cre-
ative economics. An amalgam
of paper schemes, franchised
dreams, dummy corporations
and corporate dummies kept
him inclover for nigh on 20
fiscal years. Asked at th
culmination of his *
paper scbeesfranehised dreas
dumisept him in clover
i -0
U Y
la
of
.._. . 0 -. . . . . n. . _ ..
;?l i
"eoete eeigwsoeseveralo te
were bending the slide rules.
*0
t- !
r. ,
.tea .. . .. .
ED
"I can make you a mathe-
matical model, baby" Talk
about your wildlife!
But when looking for
sheer courage, W Dexter
Poole must rank in lore
.;
among the top mountain-
eers. Fond of saying "The
road to truth goes through
bad neighborhoods'Poole
enjoyed skirting with
danger and approached
mountaineering as a test of
survival skills. In his most
famous challenge, Poole,
equipped only with 30 water-
proof matches and a major credit
card, parachuted into a remote
area known as Cleveland. He
was up to the task. Within 24
hours, Poole was bask-
ing under the hot sun of
Antibes, downing the
smooth, cold, refreshing
mountains of Busch Beer.
A credit to his
colleagus
and a col-
league on
credit. w
~~nybecomes waterroa
legend a r dra.or
hendf yrnta-
most beapart
That
is (one) a matter of subjective
judgment and (two) in a con-
stant state of flux. Keep in mind
legends are created every day. Jo
when you flex your mountain-
eeringmuscles,be
true to the tradi-
tion. At best, t°°
fDems, with
'Kenworthy,
looking to
rAprif race
(Continued from Page 1)
decision on his candidacy Dec. 6, but
said, "I'm leaning at this point toward
running."
Thomas said he will not force a
primary if the Democrats can "coin
up with a candidate who canpesnf
the ideals" of the party, and right now,
Thomas seems unimpressed with
Jamie Kenworthy.
"I was aware that Mr. Kenworthy
was interested in running" Thomas
said. "At this point, I'm not satisfied
with any of the people who are run-
ning."
MANY DEMOCRATS said privately
that they are politely trying to
discourage Thomas from running. One'
Democratic source said that Thomas is
a novice politician "who doesn't know
what he's getting into," and that he
unrealistically hopes only to rely on
Ann Arbor's black votes to get him elec-
ted.
The Republicans, meanwhile, aren't
too worried about April. The GOP will
go into the election with an incumbent
mayor and three incumbent coun-
cil members. Louis Senunas in the
Third Ward and Mayor Pro Temn Gerald
Bell in the Fifth will both seek reelec-
tion, and Councilman Ron Trowbridge
in the Fourth Ward will resign his post
in time to allow the Mayor to appoint
his successor.
Trowbridge announced his decision to
leave the Council after his primary
election loss for the State Senate
nomination. Trowbridge, who will
begin coordinating the lecture series
for Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Mi.,
said yesterday that he will resign his
Council seat sometime in January at
the earliest.
BELCHER IS expected to appoint
Ann Arbor attorney E. Edward Hood to
fill the Fourth Ward vacancy. Hood
would then run as a Republican
incumbent for the seat in April. Hood, a
38-year-old University law graduate
and former member of the cable-
casting commission, said he is "inter-
ested in running in April" whether he
got the appointment or not.
The Fourth Ward is traditionally con-
sidered the "swing ward" in the city.
And while the Republicans will have an
appointed incumbent hoping to keep the
seat in the GOP FOLD, Democratic
party sources said the Democrats are
having trouble finding a candidate.
"Once again, it boils down to a race in
the Fourth Ward," said Councilman
Bell. "It boils down to the Fourth Ward
candidates."
Traditionally, Democrats carry
Wards One and Two, while Republicans
carry the Third and Fifth Wards. The
party that wins the Fourth "swing"
Ward Council seat in a mayoral election
year usually wins the mayorship as
well.
THE APRIL elections will also have a
new twist - Ann Arborites will be using
a punchcard voting system for the first
time, and under a new city clerk with no
experience in punchcard.
Mayoral elections in Ann Arbor are
habitually close races, and the city has
had bad experiences with fouled-up
elections in the all-too-recent past.
Wheeler won the mayorship in April
1977 under an untried preferential
voting system that was subsequently
thrown out in court. Preferential voting
allows voters to pick a "second choice"
candidate in a three-way race. Wheeler
lost in the first vote count, but since the
winner of that election did not receive a
clear majority, the second-place votes
were tallied. Wheeler nosed out his
Republican opponent with second-place
votes in an election that the GOP never
career to reflect upon the se-
cret of success, Bennington
revealed his first rule: "Keep
all your assets liquid'
Another frequent subject
of mountaineering lore is
the wildlife. Numerous
tales abound, but perhaps
the most famous story is
that of the 1973 Muncie
Mathematics Convention. All
75 prodigies, whiz kids and
befuddled geniuses initiated
an after hours expedition.
It began harmlessly enough.
But soon, the Busch moun-
taineers reached the Mobius
Strip, a racy nightspot catering
to highbrow hij inks. Before the
evening was over, several of
them were bending the slide
rules. Others were smoking big
cigars and telling every woman
in sight they were agents with
an eye for figures, claiming,.
r,
of history.
At least,
youll be a a-
near-myth. i_
A..
bi
EL
l
dountaineering is the science and art of drinking Busch. The term originates due to the snowy, icy peaks sported by the
bel outside and perpetuates due to the cold, naturally refreshing taste inside. The above mountaineers and these scenes
their exploits are legendary, any similarity to actual people, living or dead is purely coincidental.
"'.
I
i