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Thursday, June 28, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
NEWS

Ward 1 reps sue city 
over $10 million deal

Councilmembers 
claim Mayor, City 
Clerk violated charter

By ALICE TRACEY

Summer Daily News Editor

Ann Arbor City Councilmembers 
Sumi Kailasapathy, D-Ward 1, and 
Anne Bannister, D-Ward 1, have 
sued the city of Ann Arbor, Mayor 
Christopher Taylor and City Clerk 
Jacqueline Beaudry over a $10 million 
deal regarding the development of 
Library Lot. The contract, signed by 
Taylor, Beaudry and Chicago-based 
developer Core Spaces on May 31, 
hands over the development rights 
of Library Lot, a parking area next to 
the Ann Arbor District Library where 
Core Spaces plans to construct a 
17-story high-rise called the Collective.
Attorney Eric Lipson filed the 
lawsuit on behalf of Kailasapathy and 
Bannister June 18 in the Washtenaw 
County Trial Court. The lawsuit 
accuses Taylor and Beaudry of 
violating Ann Arbor’s charter by 
signing 
a 
development 
contract 

without first consulting City Council. 
The council voted 8-3 to sell Library 
Lot in April 2017 to Core Spaces, but 
the purchase was not finalized until 
this year. The lawsuit claims the May 
31 contract finalizing the purchase was 
not presented to City Council.
According to Kailasapathy, the 
Ann Arbor City Charter requires 
purchases or sales valued over 
$25,000 to be approved by at least 
eight councilmembers. She said the 
language of the charter is clear and 
she therefore feels confident about the 
strength of her and Bannister’s case.
“In plain English, it says a contract 
has to come, and there’s no way they 
can say there was a contract 13 months 
before because there was no contract, 
there was a resolution,” Kailasapathy 
said.
Kailasapathy claimed she and 
Bannister sued the city to protect the 
interests of their constituents. Ann 
Arbor voters trust the City Council 
to 
represent 
their 
interests, 
Kailasapathy said, so the council 
must get a say in financial decisions.

Argus Farm Stop 
pioneers new 
business model

By SONIA LEE

Daily Staff Reporter

Argus Farm Stop, an Ann 
Arbor small business focused on 
providing sustainable food for 
the community while supporting 
local Michigan farms, has proven 
a successful experiment in helping 
both consumers and producers in 
the communal food system. 
Founded by Ross M.B.A.s Bill 
Brinkerhoff and Kathy Sample in 
2014, Argus Farm Stop is a grocery 
store and cafe styled as a farmers’ 
market. The market applies a 
new business model, allowing 
customers to buy produce, dairy 
products 
and 
meats 
directly 
from local farmers. With the 
knowledge that farmers’ markets, 
while having good intentions, are 
often inefficient marketplaces for 
both consumers and producers, 
Brinkerhoff and Sample found a 
need in the Ann Arbor community 
Argus could solve.
“We knew a lot about local 
agriculture because we always 
shop at the farmers’ market,” 
Sample said. “We knew that 
farmers’ markets are a really hard 
way for farmers to sell their stuff. 
It’s a great community thing, but 
it’s a really hard way to sell because 
on a nice day they might rather be 
out on their farms.”

Brinkerhoff and Sample were 
inspired to start Argus after 
visiting a similar market and cafe 
in Ohio. Part of their business 
model included allowing farmers 
to 
make 
deliveries 
of 
fresh 
produce, meat and dairy products 
to the farm stop at any time on any 
day, softening time constraints 
attached to traditional farmers’ 
markets, as well as eliminating the 
need for a middle man.
“We were down in Wooster, 
Ohio, and we saw this store called 
Local Roots that had this new 
model that was an every-day 
farmers’ 
market,” 
Brinkerhoff 
said. “Where the farmers could 
just drop off their stuff and go back 
to their farm. We came back to Ann 
Arbor with the idea and talked 
to lots of people, and there was a 
consensus that there was a strong 
need in our community to further 
make local food economically 
sustainable 
for 
farmers 
and 
available to consumers.”
The business model prioritizes 
bringing a majority of profits back 
to producers. Argus maintains 
itself as a low-profit limited 
liability company, which makes 
this model sustainable, Sample 
explained.
“If they [local farms] were to 
sell through a traditional retailer, 
like a grocery store, they would 
get around 16 cents on the dollar of 

Ross grads launch 
local food market

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) 
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ALEC COHEN / DAILY
The Argus Farm Stop is located on West Liberty Street in Ann Arbor.

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