The Mayor

Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje discussed the city's budget challenges at a town hall forum Wednesday night. One of the biggest hurdles, he said, is Michigan Public Act 312, a 1969 law that provides for compulsory arbitration of labor disputes in municipal police and fire departments. "One of the things that mayors across the state are lobbying for and the Michigan Municipal League is lobbying for is a change in Act 312 at the state level because it is extremely difficult to work with the police and fire unions to get anything back. Sometimes they'll get a wage increase and the arbitrator does not have to take into account the ability of a community to pay and that's one of the key points. So we're pushing on that in Lansing. I don't know if there's going to be any change, but it would help communities across the state to sort of level the playing field when it comes to union negotiations."

Uno, Dos, Tres

Three of the top officials for the city of Ann Arbor happened to be standing near each other before a meeting I was at earlier today. From left to right are Jayne Miller, the city's community services administrator, City Administrator Roger Fraser, and City Council Member Stephen Rapundalo. All three have played key roles in the city's RFP process to solicit proposals for development on a 1.2-acre city-owned site downtown where the Downtown Development Authority is building an underground parking structure. A new development – possibly an urban park or a new hotel and conference center – will go on top.

City Council Retreat

I bunkered down in a small conference room with the Ann Arbor City Council for eight hours on Saturday and listened to City Administrator Roger Fraser offer a grim financial outlook for the city, which must trim its budget by 30 percent over three years – starting immediately – to confront falling property tax revenues and declines in state revenue sharing in Michigan. The words "reduced" and "impact" projected onto the city administrator's head in this first photo are indicative of what's ahead. The guys in the middle photo are firefighters who watched on as Fraser talked about the need to immediately lay off 14 firefighters. The last photo says it all.