Ann Arbor City Council
convened Monday evening
to
discuss
a
range
of
policy topics ranging from
municipal
staffing
levels
to permit fees for medical
marijuana facilities.
The
council
discussed
CA-4,
a
resolution
to
increase the amount of full-
time city employees. The
resolution would increase
the
budget
to
include
funding
for
new
staff
members,
which
caused
discussion
across
the
council.
Councilmember
Jane
Lumm,
I-Ward
2,
discussed how she believed
adding
another
full-
time city employee was
unwise from a budgetary
standpoint.
“For
fiscal
year
20,
we
added
14
full-time
employees
to
the
city
budget, and over the last
three years, we’ve added 30
FTEs,” Lumm said. “That is
a huge number...It roughly
represents
three
million
dollars a year additionally…
Adding FTEs during the
year and outside of the
budget
process
is
poor
budget discipline at any
point during the year, and
it’s especially poor process
when we’re three and a half
months into the fiscal year.”
Lumm went on to discuss
how seeing the budget as
a flexible document is a
bad habit for the council to
cultivate.
“We rarely used to do
it, now it seems we do it
frequently,”
Lumm
said.
“Instead of a firm, binding
document,
the
budget
has become a suggested
starting point that council
just adds to during the year.
Emergencies are one thing,
but adding resources for
normal business activities
this soon into the fiscal
year is not the kind of fiscal
responsibility I believe we
need to maintain.”
Councilmember
Jeff
Hayner, D-Ward 1, agreed
with
Lumm’s
concerns
about
budget
flexibility.
He also argued that city
residents didn’t specifically
indicate a desire for these
new positions.
“We reach out to
these communities and
we ask them, ‘Would
you want us to lower
your
revenues
next
year or do you want
more service?” Hayner
said. “They say they
want
more
service.
That’s
great,
and
I
think that’s great that
the city is going to
provide that service...
But I’m not so sure
they knew that they
were going to get a
sustainability person.”
Overall, the motion
carried, authorizing an
increase in community
service staffing.
The
council
went
on to discuss a new
permit fee for medical
marijuana
facilities.
The ordinance would
establish
an
initial
$5000 fee for suppliers
of medical marijuana
when
obtaining
a
permit,
and
a
subsequent
yearly
$5000 renewal fee.
Councilmember
Ali
Ramlawi,
D-Ward
5,
discussed
how
this
provision was a part of
the process of legalizing
recreational marijuana use,
and expressed his desire for
the fees to fund programs
targeting social injustice.
“I
sponsored
the
ordinance
allowing
recreational
marijuana
to take effect November
1st, this is just protocol
in allowing that to follow
through,”
Ramlawi
said.
“The fees that are associated
with
the
permitting
process will go back into
administering the program,
I just hope that future fee
that we collect give us the
latitude to put money into
social programs associated
with the social ills and
social injustice that come
along in everybody’s life.”
Hayner
expressed
concern
with
the
high
fees, citing they may act
as barriers to entry in
the market for supplying
medical marijuana.
“There’s
some
equity
issues
with
these
fees,”
Hayner said. “That seems
for small business owners to
me, five grand just to ask for
a permit and then five grand
to renew it…it just seems
like a large amount.”
He went on to express
concern that the fees were
unfairly
high,
and
did
not provide an equivalent
benefit to permit-holders.
“Does this not have to
be commensurate with the
service provided?” Hayner
said. “What is it that we are
doing for that five thousand
dollars?”
The
motion
passed,
authorizing the permit fees
for suppliers of medical
marijuana.
ANN ARBOR CIT Y COU NCIL
2 — Tuesday, October 22, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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Ann Arbor residents discuss issues at the Ann Arbor City Council meeting at City Hall Monday evening.
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City Council talks fees for medical
marijuana, full-time staff increase
Councilmembers discuss matters of budget concerning municpal employees
MADELINE MCLAUGHLIN
Daily Staff Reporter