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NEWS
Thursday, May 5, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
City Council passes budget
despite resident comments
$370 million budget
represents $10
million decrease
from previous year
By BRIAN KUANG
Summer Daily News Editor
Ann Arbor’s $370 million bud-
get for the 2017 fiscal year was
subject to a public hearing at
Monday’s City Council meeting at
Larcom City Hall. At the meeting,
city residents also expressed their
opposition to two local develop-
ment projects for fear of damaging
wetland ecosystems and increas-
ing flood risk to adjacent areas.
The
2017
budget
includes
an approximately $10 million
decrease in expenditures as well
as the addition of seven full-time
employees, increasing the total
city staff from 722 to 729. The bud-
get additionally includes $35,000
to study non-lethal alternatives to
the city’s controversial deer cull
and $50,000 to implement recom-
mendations for police oversight
reform that were approved in
March.
Many residents commented on
specific items of the budget, rang-
ing from calls for improving the
city website to improve accessibil-
ity to City Council documents to a
proposed organic waste disposal
program.
The $35,000 provision for a
study on non-lethal deer manage-
ment options drew attention from
a number of public commenta-
tors opposed to the deer cull, who
reaffirmed their opposition to the
city’s annual lethal deer cull.
When Ann Arbor was plan-
ning its deer management strat-
egy from 2014 to 2015, non-lethal
options were considered but ulti-
mately ruled out for lack of sci-
entific basis. The lethal cull of
63 deer was a controversial and
polarizing decision for many city
residents.
Robert McGee, an Ann Arbor
resident opposed to the cull, called
for the city to continue to uphold
its promise to explore non-lethal
deer management, offering to
start a fundraising drive to cover
the costs of such a study for the
city.
“Let Ann Arbor once more be a
leader,” McGee said. “Let’s unite
this community behind something
positive, and let’s benchmark non-
lethal methods for deer manage-
ment in the state of Michigan.”
Residents also voiced their
opposition to the proposed Wood-
bury Club Apartments project on
Nixon Road. The project was orig-
inally proposed to Council in 2014,
but its approval has been repeat-
edly postponed due to opposition
from residents over concerns that
the project would damage sur-
rounding floodplains and increase
flooding risks in adjacent areas.
Eric Lipson — a local attorney
challenging incumbent Graydon
Krapohl (D–Ward 4) in the 4th
Ward City Council race — said
new development should not take
precedence over the safety of
existing residents, which would
be threatened by the Woodbury
project.
“Just for the sake of tax base,
we are allowing ourselves to flood
those other people who’ve been
paying taxes for years and years,”
Lipson said. “Now we’re going
to build on the floodplains … it’s
going to come back and bite us.”
Noting that a public meeting to
finalize the apartment plans was
held in 2014 without proper notice
to all relevant local stakehold-
ers, Councilmember Sabra Briere
(D–Ward 1) motioned the issue be
postponed with the unanimous
support of the body until a new
public meeting could be held with
proper notice to nearby residents.
ANDREW RABAH/Daily
Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor attends a City Council meeting at Larcom City Hall on Monday.
this myth that government is always
the enemy; that forgets that our
government is us — it’s us,” Obama
said. “That attitude is as corrosive
to our democracy as the stuff that
resulted in lead in your water.”
Obama then stressed the residents
of Flint are being heard, reassuring
them the American people as a whole
are paying attention to the city.
“I want all of you to know I am
confident that Flint will come back,”
he said. “I will not rest, and I’m going
to make sure that the leaders, at every
level of the government, don’t rest
until every drop of water that flows
to your homes is safe to drink and
safe to cook with and safe to bathe
in — because that’s part of the basic
responsibilities of a government in
the United States of America.”
Rep. Dan Kildee (D–Flint), Sen.
Debbie Stabenow (D–Mich.) and
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver spoke
before Obama gave his remarks. All
three expressed their gratitude for
Obama’s work to help the citizens
of Flint and his decision to visit
and learn more about the crisis but
acknowledged there is more to be
done.
Weaver said while many positive
steps have been taken to make the
water better and safer, major health
concerns still exist in Flint.
“I hope after the president’s visit
here today everyone will see the
priority of helping to fix Flint,” she
said. “It has to be a priority: fixing
Flint. We are moving in the right
direction on the road to recovery,
and we all know that Flintstones are
resilient. We didn’t deserve what
happened here, but we do deserve
the resources to fix it.”
On Jan. 16, President Obama
declared a state of emergency for the
state of Michigan, ordering federal
aid to fund state and local emergency
response efforts to aid the Flint
community. This followed a massive
increase in national media spotlight
on the crisis after Hillary Clinton
mentioned the issue in a Democratic
debate in January.
Obama
has
taken
additional
measures in response to the water
crisis in his expansion of funding
for Medicaid, Head Start — a
federal government organization
that prepares children from low
socioeconomic
backgrounds
for school — and local Health
and Human Services centers, in
addition to water testing by the
Environmental Protection Agency,
according to the White House.
Prior to Obama’s remarks, Snyder
also addressed the crowd, facing
a vociferously negative response.
Snyder apologized for the crisis
and promised to work to resolve it,
recieving boos from a majority of the
crowdmembers.
“Let me begin by saying I
understand why you’re angry and
frustrated,” he said. “I wanted to
come here today to apologize … I
want to work hard to fix that.”
Citing criminal negligence of
government officials in response to
the crisis, several groups of protesters
have called for the resignation of
Snyder over the past six months.
Both Secretary Clinton and her
rival in the Democratic nomination
Sen. Bernie Sanders (D–Vt.) have
also called for Snyder’s resignation.
On April 20, Michigan Attorney
General Bill Schuette charged three
Flint officials in relation to the crisis,
excluding Snyder.
Protesters with the Flint Lives
Matter movement gathered across
the street from Flint Northwestern
High School hours before his arrival,
calling for an increased federal
response to the crisis.
Flint resident Gary Byas, who
participated in the protest, said he
wants the government to provide
funds to replace all of Flint’s lead
pipelines.
“We want to get clean water, to
get water rates lowered, to make
sure they are putting in new pipes
instead of trying to coat them,” he
said. “We have rusty pipes — why
are you trying to coat them? When
they are rusted out from the inside
out, it’s not doing much good. We
need replacement of the pipes, and
that’s why I’m out here — to get the
right amount of money to replace all
the pipes.”
During
his
time
in
Flint
Wednesday, Obama additionally met
with community members, local
and state leaders — including Snyder
and Weaver — and federal officials
handling the response to the water
crisis.
In
response
to
community
fears and skepticism of the safety
of filtered water, Obama assured
residents that the filtered water is
safe to drink for all people who are
above the age of six, excluding those
who are pregnant. To emphasize
his point, Obama drank a glass of
filtered Flint water both durin his
meeting with community leaders
and in the middle of his remarks.
“So although I understand the
fear and concern that people have,
and it is entirely legitimate, what the
science tells us at this stage is you
OBAMA
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