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Thursday, May 24, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS
LEO calls for a close
in campus wage gap
Dearborn and Flint
push for higher wages
By ALICE TRACEY
Summer Daily News Editor
Steven Toth, a chemistry lecturer
at the University of Michigan-Flint,
loves to teach. According to Toth,
his teaching experience at U-M Flint
has been incredible, and he enjoys
working with students and faculty
there.
But Toth is considering leaving
his job. He holds a doctorate in his
field and teaches more students
in the department than any other
instructor,
including
tenured
professors, but earns $28,000 a year.
“I’ve been working at U-M Flint
now for many years, and just at this
incredibly low salary, I haven’t been
able to pull myself up at all,” Toth
said. “I’ve been barely able to pay
off my debts. I haven’t been able to
afford a house. I can’t afford a nicer
car. I can’t go on any vacations. We’ve
been putting off starting a family for
years because we can’t afford to have
children.”
Toth
is
a
member
of
the
Lecturers’ Employee Organization,
which represents about 1,700 non-
tenured faculty members across
the three U-M campuses. Contract
negotiations between LEO and
University administrators are still
underway; the two parties convened
Friday at a regents’ meeting in
Dearborn, focusing on gaps in
lecturer salaries between Ann Arbor,
Flint and Dearborn.
Lecturers in Ann Arbor are
paid significantly more than those
in Flint and Dearborn, and the
administration’s newest proposal
would maintain that disparity by
raising the minimum salary after
three years to $45,000 in Ann
Arbor, $37,000 in Dearborn and
$36,000 in Flint. Annual increases
and equity adjustments would also
be higher in Ann Arbor. Though
LEO organizers are not yet satisfied
with the proposed raises for Ann
Arbor lecturers, they are particularly
unhappy with the University’s offers
for the other two campuses.
City Council
continues to
discuss “Y lot”
By ROB DALKA
For The Daily
The Ann Arbor City Council
voted 9-2 in favor of the new 2019
fiscal budget Monday evening. The
decision came after debate of the
various new amendments including
Amendment 1, which proposed to set
aside funds to finance and effectuate
settlement of the litigation related to
the former “Y lot” at 350 S. Fifth Ave.
In another installment of the “Y
lot” saga, the council voted to set
aside almost $1.3 million from the
general fund to cover settlement,
bond insurance and closing costs
in addition to taxes. The settlement
comes between the city of Ann
Arbor and local real estate developer
Dennis Dahlmann.
Dahlmann sued the city in an
effort to keep the lot after the city
had decided to repurchase the
property for $4.2 million. The lot was
originally sold in 2014 to Dahlmann
under a contract that stipulated he
would redevelop the site within
four years and build a new mixed-
use building with part dedicated to
affordable housing. Dahlmann failed
to do so, thus prompting the city to
repurchase the lot. Dahlmann claims
the city made it impossible for him
to build and filed a lawsuit for legal
ownership of the lot.
Councilmember
Chip
Smith,
D-Ward 5, who introduced the
amendment in the meeting, said the
council was undergoing this action of
settlement to eliminate any risk of the
lot being lost in litigation and ensure
it is used to build affordable housing.
“My concern is that we could end
up in a worst-case scenario, in which
the property could be flipped to any
developer who then could build a
market-rate development, with the
limits allowed by zoning,” Smith said.
“Under that scenario, everyone in the
community, I believe, loses.”
Councilmember
Jane
Lumm,
I-Ward 2, was opposed to the
amendment as she saw it as an
inappropriate use of a budget
amendment.
During the middle of a fiscal year,
a decision to allocate funds to pay a
settlement that was not otherwise
budgeted – like the proposed
allocation – would take eight votes.
However, during a budget meeting it
only needs six votes to be included in
the next fiscal year’s budget. Lumm
had strong words against this motion.
“(The
amendment)
uses
the
budget as a tool in a little game rather
than what it should be: a document to
reflect the priorities of our residents,”
Lumm said.
Council passes
2019 city budget
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