Mission Statement
Advance Ypsilanti is a group of citizens with a deep love and respect for the history and future of our city. We believe the electoral process can effectively promote forward-looking ideas and candidates to successfully achieve a healthy and thriving future. To this end, we will identify, develop, and utilize resources to help voters, elected officials and our community’s leaders ensure Ypsilanti’s quality of life.
an excuse to tinker?
Time for Patience
The city voted to put a commission together and examine our city charter for any needed changes. On the surface, this seems like a good idea, right? A little self examination (and tinkering) is always in our best interests…except when it’s not.
A little back story: The city charter is like our city’s constitution. It is the larger framework within which our city council, mayor, city manager and staff operate. It determines the rule and boundaries of our various commissions, ordinances, and processes. It is a very important document.
It also contains many threads very painstakingly woven together. If you change one part of it, other aspects may be impacted as well. Simply being unsure of how something works is no cause to start tinkering with it. Remember that modifying this document will ultimately affect all citizens either to a greater or lesser extent.
AY PAC talked to many people after the election. The people we talked to who had voted for initiating the charter process seemed to have a general sense of wanting to take a good look at things. They did not have a driving change on their mind. They just thought it was a good idea in the broad sense.
In other words, no general consensus is out there demanding a specific change to our charter. There is not call from the city to make any one or several changes. Just take a look, is what we heard.
Now to the larger picture, these are wild times politically. You don’t have to be a news hound to realize that extreme viewpoints are taking over the political process/discussion, hopefully temporarily. All over the country, in all levels of government, unreasonable people are pushing unreasonable changes. These unreasonable people and changes are not healthy for any community, let alone our little city of Ypsilanti.
Due to no identified need expressed by the citizens or their elected representatives, and in light of the overarchingly dangerous political climate, AY PAC has the following recommendation:
Don’t make any changes at this time. Our Charter is a strong and effective document as it currently stands. Help people to understand what it says and what it does. Then leave it be and let’s focus our attention on the current and future needs of our city, like the budget and saving important city services.
posted by B. Bashert
“If you improve or tinker with something long enough, eventually it will break or malfunction.” – Arthur Bloch
vote local
We have already communicated our support of the Charter Amendment for Public Transit and why we urge you to vote YES to Keep Ypsi Rollin’. On the other ballot proposal, we recommend a NO vote on the General Revision and establishment of a new Charter Commission. There are no compelling reasons to change our charter and many reasons to retain the charter in its present form.
Top 5 reasons we think the existing charter is effective…
- Keeps boards and commissions independent to truly serve as advisory bodies. (Inclusion of council members only if service is required by State law.)
- Established an independent Board of Ethics to enforce standards of conduct for elected and administrative officials. (Of note is that “No member of the Board may hold elective or appointed office under the City or any other government, and no more than three members of the Board may be members of the same political party.”)
- Established a Human Relations Commission whose charge is to “endeavor to increase mutual understanding among the residents of the community and eliminate discrimination”.
- Prohibits nepotism such that “relatives of any elective or appointive officer, City Manager, or department head with respect to that department, are disqualified from holding any appointive office or employment during the term of which said elective or appointive officer was elected or appointed.”
- Four year terms for Mayor and Council that reduce the cycles of political volatility and enables elected officials to make decisions with an eye to the longer view.
The preamble to the Charter of the City of Ypsilanti enunciates the following ethical principles as the basis of governance: public office as a public trust, independent and objective judgment, accountability, democratic leadership, respectability & fitness for office. We believe it sets forth an expectation for self government that is broadly held by our fellow citizens and one that we should continue to enforce.
posted by J. Gawlas