Stewart Nelson

Last night I attended the State of the City message delivered by Mayor John Hieftje and City Administrator Roger Fraser. Mayor Hieftje eloquently described the various awards the City has received in the past year. Mr. Fraser reviewed budget numbers for last year and for the coming fiscal year that starts in July. I will not bore you with the accounting detail, but according to our Administrator we can look forward to a balanced budget again for FY2009.

During the presentation, Mr. Fraser and the Mayor fielded numerous questions. Listening to their responses, I was amazed at their dexterity in avoiding controversy by giving answers to questions that were not asked instead of answers to those that were. I am sure I will never be able to develop that skill, so if that is what you are looking for in a city council member, I am not your guy!

Many of the questions centered on how the City council could just vote to spend $47,000,000 on the police-court without feeling any responsibility to “put the question” to the voters. Several answers were offered by the Mayor and Administrator:

1. As we are not going out for a millage, we do not need to have voter approval.
2. We live in a system of representative democracy, whereby we delegate to our elected officials the authority and responsibility to make the tough decisions for us.

The reality is that answers are correct but for some other question.  The only answer to the question posed by the group was that they did not look for voter support because they knew it would not pass!  Our City Administrator also understands that the only issues that stand a chance to pass muster with the cash strapped Ann Arbor voters are warm fuzzy issues like public safety, green initiatives, retiree healthcare plans for City workers, parks and public transportation.  If tapping the City piggy bank for a $20M down payment leaves us short of funds in the future, it will be put back to the voters disguised as an item off the warm and fuzzy list.