as safe storage of guns 
and how to work with 
families with high-risk 
teenagers, 
without 
taking 

away guns. In addition, given 
that 2018 was the worst year 
for gun violence in schools 
on 
record, 
Cunningham 

expressed the need for further 
inquiry into whether existing 
safety measures in schools are 
effective.

For Cunningham, working 

as a doctor in the emergency 
department 
only 
further 

highlights the need to focus on 
firearm injury prevention. 

“One of the things that’s 

specific about taking care of 
patients who have been injured 
by a gun is the lethality of the 
bullet is such that there’s not 
as much you can do after the 
event,” Cunningham said. “We 
take care of people who have 
had horrific injuries, but I want 
to do work so we not have them 
in the ER in the first place.”

To include non-academics 

in the project, FACTS created 
a 
practitioner 
advisory 

board 
composed 
of 
health 

practitioners, gun owners and 
stakeholders, 
pastors, 
and 

others involved in the gun 
violence prevention effort. 

Tom O’Connor, who also 

serves on the board of directors 
for Gun Owners for Responsible 
Ownership, is a member of the 
advisory 
board. 
O’Connor 

highlighted 
the 
importance 

of the firearm injury field, 
emphasizing that gun owners 
should be engaged in the 

conversation. 

“With 
rights 
come 

responsibilities… My personal 
belief is that if gun owners 
don’t step forward and support 
solid research and common 
sense solutions to reducing 
gun violence, you get policy 
responses 
that 
don’t 
work 

and might not make sense,” 
O’Connor said.

FACTS also hopes to create 

an active field that will outlast 
the five year duration of the 
project, prioritizing the need 
to train future firearm injury 
researchers. School of Public 
Health PhD candidate Amanda 
Mauri is involved in the FACTS 
policy taskforce. She explained 
being with the project has given 
her a network of individuals and 
experts with similar interests. 

“What FACTS has really 

provided me is this great space 
to interact with the existing 
renowned researchers within 
the firearm space,” Mauri said. 
“I can also connect with other 
trainees who are interested 
in firearm-related work both 
within and outside of Michigan, 
from the Masters through the 
Post-Doctoral level.”

Mauri 
also 
noted 
the 

University is well-positioned to 
lead this growing field due to its 
existing infrastructure.

“We have some of the most 

established firearm researchers 
in the U.S. The Injury Center 
is one of the most established 
ones in the country,” Mauri 
said. “This is a historic moment 
for firearm research in that we 
can finally start adding to the 
evidence base.”

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 — 3A

that have been brought to our 
attention regarding protesters 
who have been interfering,” 
Lumm 
said. 
“They 
haven’t 

been peacefully demonstrating, 
they 
have 
actually 
stopped 

and prohibited our contractor 
White Buffalo from performing 
their culling contracted work 
on properties that have been 
identified for culling.”

The city hired Connecticut-

based White Buffalo Inc. to 
execute its deer management 
program in 2016. Since this 
year’s cull began at the start 
of the month, the company’s 
sharpshooters 
have 
taken 

up positions on public and 
private land around Ann Arbor, 
including land owned by the 
University of Michigan, and will 
remained stationed there until 
Jan. 27.

Protesters from groups like 

Friends of Ann Arbor Wildlife 
in Nature and Ann Arbor Non-
Lethal Deer Management have 
held 
demonstrations 
by 
the 

sharpshooters’ perches.

Lumm said the protesters 

have worked to disrupt the cull 
and make the city-hired hunters 
less effective.

“The protesters are preventing 

them again from conducting this 
work effectively,” Lumm said. 
“The taxpayers are on the hook 
paying for this contract and the 
result has been that they will not 
perform the work that they have 
been contracted to perform.”

Lisa Abrams of FAAWN said 

the group’s protests were lawful, 
and thanked the councilmembers 
who 
voted 
against 
Lumm’s 

resolution.

“The fact is that our protests 

have been peaceful,” Abrams 
said. “We have been on the 
sidewalk every single time, or 
we have gotten the permission 
of private residents to be on their 
private property, so every single 
time we have been peaceful 
and we are expressing our First 
Amendment right to free speech, 
and thank you for protecting that 
so we are not living in a gestapo 
state.”

Mayor Christopher Taylor has 

repeatedly opposed the deer cull 
and was the lone vote against it 
when the program was adopted 
in 2015, but he said his opposition 
was not the reason why he did 
not support Lumm’s resolution.

“Civil disobedience involves 

disobedience 
and 
occasional 

violation of the law,” Taylor said. 
“We have protests in the streets 
without permits on occasion and 
I don’t want to get into a situation 
where nonviolent protest results 

in legal action.”

In an email interview, Bernie 

Banet of Washtenaw Citizens 
for Ecological Balance, a group 
that supports the city’s deer 
management efforts, said the 
protesters purposefully tried to 
impede the success of the cull.

“The small band of ‘protesters’ 

seeking to protect deer have been 
very 
successfully 
interfering 

with this year’s culls, from 
what I hear,” Banet wrote. “By 
congregating at the cull sites 
and, 
they 
claim, 
exercising 

their free speech rights they are 
successfully scaring away the 
deer. That is, in my opinion, their 
transparent intention, not simply 
to protest. This effect on the 
planned culls can be construed 
as illegal interference with a 
lawful 
animal 
management 

program.”

Banet criticized City Council 

for failing to pass the resolution.

“This does not bode well for the 

City going forward being able to 
protect its residents and its parks 
and neighborhoods from the 
impact of deer overabundance: 
collisions with deer on the roads, 
tick-borne illnesses facilitated 
by a dense deer population, 
interference 
with 
forest 

regeneration, and destruction of 
plantings throughout the city,” 
he wrote. “A better balance 
between the right to protest and 

a government’s right to protect 
its citizens from an animal 
menace must be found.”

Councilmember Jeff Hayner, 

D-Ward 1, voted against the 
measure. He said he did not want 
to discuss his personal beliefs 
regarding the cull but defended 
the protesters.

“I really believe that the 

opposition 
to 
this 
cull 
is 

legitimate,” he said. “… They feel 
that it’s not the right thing to 
be doing to send guns into our 
parks, that it’s not necessary, 
that we should live and let 
live. I think that these are very 
valid arguments, and the idea 
of banging pots and pans and 
shining lights and yelling and 
exhibiting other forms of civil 
disobedience, well, it’s been 
famously said that the riot is the 
language of the unheard, and I 
believe that these people do feel 
unheard.”

Councilmember Ali Ramlawi, 

D-Ward 5, said one of his primary 
obligations as an elected official 
was to make sure residents’ tax 
dollars were not being wasted — 
a responsibility that included the 
money spent on the cull.

“I’m all for civil disobedience, 

but I know it comes at a cost,” 
Ramlawi said. “You break the 
law, you break the law and you 
suffer the consequences of doing 
so.”

agreement in late December.

Will Hathaway, a member of 

the Ann Arbor Central Park Ballot 
Committee, commended the city 
for moving to settle the citizens 
group’s lawsuit.

“This 
action 
will 
help 

disentangle 
(the 
city) 
from 

the idea of selling Library Lot 
development rights to a private 
corporation,” Hathaway said. “It 
is time to look forward to the idea 
of an urban park and civic center 
on the library block. Creating a 
consensus vision will take some 
work and time. All of us want a 
resulting public space of which we 
will be proud.”

City 
Councilmember 
Jane 

Lumm, I-Ward 2, said she was 
glad the resolution to wind down 
the lawsuit was on the agenda.

“Whenever there is litigation 

against the city, especially when 
it strains from our citizens, 
our hope is that the litigation is 
ultimately settled in an amicable 
agreement,” 
Lumm 
said. 

“The passage of Proposal A in 
November is a clear statement 
from residents that the sale of the 
Library Lot development rights 
to Core Spaces is not what the 
majority of residents wanted for 
the property.”

City Administrator Howard 

Lazarus informed the developers 
that the city was abandoning the 
deal in a letter on Dec. 31.

“The 
charter 
amendment 

prevents or impairs the city 
from carrying out the sale of the 
development rights on the Library 
Lot,” Lazarus wrote. “Because 
this situation is obviously one that 
cannot be cured, the agreement 
with Core Spaces is terminated. 
We will arrange for the return 
of the deposit paid as part of 
this transaction and await your 
direction on where and how to 
send it.”

The 
letter 
directed 
Core 

Spaces to send any further 
correspondence to him and City 
Attorney Stephen Postema. In a 
statement issued Jan. 2, Andrew 
Wiedner, chief acquisitions officer 
of Core Spaces, criticized Ann 
Arbor’s decision to dismantle the 
agreement.

“We strongly disagree with 

the city’s position as stated in 
the letter,” Wiedner said. “We 
are evaluating our options and 
will be responding in more detail 
shortly.”

At a City Council meeting 

Dec. 17, Core Spaces attorney I.W. 
Winston cautioned the city to 
take steps to avoid provoking legal 
action.

“I do think that there is an 

opportunity to have discussions 
and I would hope to have those 
in a different form in the future 
to see whether the issues that 
separate us can be resolved 

without high stakes and very 
expensive litigation,” Winston 
said.

Had the Core Spaces deal 

gone through, $5 million of 
the proceeds would have been 
allocated to the city’s affordable 
housing trust fund. Monday night 
at City Hall, Ann Arbor resident 
Robert Gordon pointed out that 
the collapse of the sale meant the 
city lost money that would have 
benefitted people struggling to 
afford the city’s high cost of living.

“We 
have 
a 
significant 

challenge ahead of us,” Gordon 
said. “It’s one thing to have good 
faith disagreements about the use 
of property in downtown Ann 
Arbor. It’s quite another to ignore 
the needs of the lower income 
people of Ann Arbor. Let’s look 
out for them. That’s a big part of 
your job.”

Aside from legal costs, the city 

is still facing nearly $250,000 
in fees for its failed deal with 
Core Spaces. Tom Crawford, the 
city’s chief financial officer, told 
MLive Ann Arbor would have to 
pay about $220,000 in fees to a 
real estate broker that helped the 
city solicit different development 
proposals for the site in 2015.

The Library Lot has been 

the subject of another legal 
challenge prior to the Ann Arbor 
Central Park Ballot Committee’s 
complaint.

In 
June, 
former 

Councilmember 
Sumi 

Kailasapathy, D-Ward 1, and 
Councilmember Anne Bannister, 
D-Ward 1, sued the city, Taylor 
and 
City 
Clerk 
Jacqueline 

Beaudry for a breach of protocol 
in the process of selling the 
Library Lot. The lawsuit alleged 
that when Taylor and Beaudry 
signed the contract with Core 
Spaces, the document finalizing 
the sale was not presented to City 
Council. That was supposedly in 
violation of the city charter, which 
requires that a minimum of eight 
councilmembers approve sales 
worth more than $25,000.

During a hearing in early 

September, Judge David Swartz 
of the Washtenaw County Circuit 
Court heard arguments in the 
case and said he would issue a 
written opinion, but has not done 
so yet.

Lumm said she hoped the city 

would find a way to settle all the 
legal issues pertaining to the 
Library Lot quickly, noting that 
the Ballot Committee’s lawsuit 
was more or less a moot point 
after Proposal A’s passage.

“The purpose of the litigation 

obviously was to stop that sale, 
and that now being done, an 
agreement 
and 
court 
order 

confirming that the sale to 
Core will not take place is the 
simple, natural way to close the 
book on the issue,” Lumm said. 
“Hopefully we will also be able to 
close the book on the other related 
litigation soon.”

DEER CULL
From Page 1A

LIBRARY LOT
From Page 1A

of victims of sexual assault.”
Rick Fitzgerald, assistant vice 
president for Public Affairs said 
that the University decided to 
implement the interim policy 
and will be gathering feedback 
on the effectiveness of the pol-
icy.
“We understand that this new 
element in our policy can be up-
setting to those involved in the 
process,” Fitzgerald said. “We 
believe questioning by students 
is less traumatic than question-
ing by attorneys and also re-
moves concerns that a student 
may not be able to hire an attor-
ney. Also, our process remains 
an administrative procedure, 
not a court hearing.”
The ruling was made in re-
sponse to a lawsuit filed by a 
former University student who 
claimed the University does 
not provide due process for 
male students accused of sexual 
misconduct, which the lawsuit 
attributed to gender discrimi-
nation. The lawsuit alleges on 
March 12, a female student 
reported to the Office of Insti-
tutional Equity that she and a 
male student had engaged in 
non-consensual sex about four 
months prior. 

As the lawsuit reads, the male 
student alleged he and the fe-
male student had continued to 
talk with each other after the 
incident via Snapchat and occa-
sionally ate together within the 
campus’ dining halls. He also 
claims the female student had 
sent a text message suggesting 
the two should have sexual in-
tercourse once more. The stu-
dent said he declined this offer, 
telling her the nature of their 
relationship was one of a casual 
friendship.
The female student filed anoth-
er complaint pertaining to an 
infraction regarding a no-con-
tact order established in April. 
She claimed she saw him at a 
University dining hall where he 
remained after the alleged en-
counter. However, the male stu-
dent provided Mcard documen-
tation proving he was not at the 
dining hall at the said time.
The lawsuit also cited that 
because of these allegations, 
the 
University 
forcibly 
re-

voked the student’s access to 
his transcripts, impeding his 
enrollment in a graduate engi-
neering program. The lawsuit 
challenged the University’s in-
vestigative procedure and the 
initial withholding of the stu-
dent’s transcripts.
The University released the 

male student’s transcripts in 
mid-June, about a week after 
the lawsuit was filed, yet the 
battle regarding due process 
remained until about a month 
later.
The decision, mirroring a pre-
vious 2017 case at the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati in which the 
court ruled an accused student 
must receive some type of hear-
ing in cases formed by word 
of mouth where credibility is 
in question, evoked an appeal 
from the University itself citing 
similar grievances found in the 
Roe petition. However, Sand-
berg claims the University has 
taken the ruling a “step further” 
even after their appeal.
“The Sixth Circuit ruled that 
the University must require 
cross-examination by the ac-
cused or his agent,” Sandberg 
said. “So, the key is that they 
said ‘or his agent’ which would 
be a personal adviser or a law-
yer, which is how it is done 
within criminal and civil cases. 
Currently, at other schools it is 
done by a lawyer. To have it be 
done by the accused rapist is 
unbelievable, I don’t know why 
(the University) felt that it was 
a better way to go about cross-
examination by the accused 
rapist themself.”
As a student going through the 

Title IX investigation process, 
Sandberg said the act of simply 
reporting is exhausting.
“I am currently in a Title IX 
case in another school,” Sand-
berg said. “My case currently 
doesn’t require cross-exami-
nation. But, it is already very 
stressful — it is so much to deal 
with. A lot of people don’t real-
ize how difficult these Title IX 
cases are, they just think about 
the accused. For the person 
who is the complainant, it is an 
exhausting process.”
LSA sophomore Rebecca Har-
ley, a volunteer at Women at 
Risk International, a nonprofit 
providing support for women 
and children of abuse, believes 
this ruling will create further, 
unnecessary mental trauma in 
already difficult and lengthy 
situations as described by Sand-
berg.
“This new ruling could create 
further trauma for survivors 
of sexual assault,” Harley said. 
“Being in the presence of your 
attacker could resurface the 
trauma of the incident. This is 
an unnecessary risk that falls 
solely on a person who has al-
ready undergone severe mental 
and physical suffering.”

City 
Council 
moved 
to 

amend an ordinance limiting 
the unauthorized use of Ann 
Arbor’s official seal at a meeting 
Monday after the American 
Civil Liberties Union called 
restrictions requiring mayoral 
permission unconstitutional.

Mayor Christopher Taylor 

said the city attorney’s office 
worked to craft an ordinance 
to respond adequately to the 
ACLU’s concerns.

“This 
is 
an 
ordinance 

that 
complies 
with 
those 

objections,” Taylor said. “It’s 
our goal, of course, to avoid 
confusion in the suggestion 
of affiliation or sponsorship, 
but it is also our goal to make 
sure we comply with the First 
Amendment in all obligations, 
so I’m glad that this is moving 
forward and I think this is an 
effective change.”

In 
July, 
City 
Council 

passed a resolution banning 
unauthorized displays of the 
seal, with violations incurring 
possible fines of up to $10,000.

In November, Dan Korobkin, 

deputy legal director for ACLU 
of Michigan, and Gayle Rosen, 
co-chair of the Washtenaw 
County 
ACLU 
Lawyers 

Committee, sent a letter to the 

city criticizing the measure, 
saying it violated constitutional 
protections for freedom of 
speech and calling for Ann 
Arbor to repeal it immediately.

“The City Seal and Flag 

Ordinance is unconstitutional 
on 
its 
face,” 
they 
wrote. 

“Unlike commercial products, 
a city seal and flag do not 
enjoy trademark protection. 
As a content-based restriction 
on free speech, the ordinance 
is subject to strict scrutiny 
and 
cannot 
survive 
that 

rigorous test. And requiring 
the 
mayor’s 
permission 
to 

display the seal or flag is a 
classic unconstitutional prior 
restraint on speech.”

City Council enforced the 

ordinance in the case of Ann 
Arbor resident Ed Vielmetti, 
who was notified to cease 
and desist after using the city 
seal on an Ann Arbor page 
on 
localwiki.org 
about 
the 

seal itself. Vielmetti called 
the letters he and the parent 
organization 
of 
LocalWiki 

received “threatening.”

Vielmetti 
spoke 
at 
the 

meeting Monday, saying he 
appreciated 
City 
Council’s 

effort 
to 
narrow 
the 

prohibitions on using the seal.

“The letters, although they 

were not a ticket, were very 

clear threats of a $10,000 fine,” 
Vielmetti said. “So I thank 
all of you who voted for this 
amendment, and I will thank 
those of you who will change 
your vote next time.” 

Councilmembers Jack Eaton, 

D-Ward 4, Jeff Hayner, D-Ward 
1, and Anne Bannister, D-Ward 
1, voted against the amendment 
to the ordinance.

The 
changes 
to 
the 

ordinance strike the permitting 
provisions while specifically 
allowing Ann Arbor to obtain 
an injunction to stop “unlawful 
use of the flag and/or seal.” 
While debating the resolution, 
Hayner 
asked 
Matthew 

Rechtien, senior assistant city 
attorney, about a theoretical 
situation in which an elected 
official used the city seal on 
social media.

“If I was a councilperson, 

which I am, and I had some 
kind of social media account 
and I presented myself in front 
of the city seal and I said, ‘Vote 
no on this, vote yes on this, 
vote for this person, don’t vote 
for that person,’ would you 
consider that a violation of the 
council rules?” Hayner said. 
“Would you consider that using 
the city property?”

Rechtien refused to answer 

Hayner’s hypothetical, saying 

he would need all the facts 
before offering legal advice.

“I’m just not going to get into 

judging a vague hypothetical 
here on the record in a council 
meeting,” Rechtien said.

Councilmember 
Zach 

Ackerman, 
whose 
Twitter 

header was the city seal, said 
he thought Hayner’s question 
was in reference to him.

“I realized now my cover 

photo on Twitter is the seal 
of the City of Ann Arbor, 
and I think Councilmember 
Hayner may be alluding to 
that and I would just say if you 
take objection to that you’re 
more than welcome to just 
call me and I’ll change it if it 
makes 
you 
uncomfortable,” 

Ackerman said. “I haven’t once 
thought about it until this very 
moment.”

Councilmember 
Kathy 

Griswold, D-Ward 2, said she 
regretted that City Council had 
passed the original ordinance 
at all.

“The fact that we wasted 

staff resources to write this 
ordinance in the first place 
and 
we 
are 
now 
wasting 

staff resources to talk about 
whatever conversation we’re 
having tonight troubles me and 
I apologize,” Griswold said.

TITLE IX
From Page 1A

GUN SAFETY
From Page 1A

City Council moves to amend seal 
ordinance after criticism from ACLU

LEAH GRAHAM
Daily News Editor

Read more online at 

michigandaily.com

