playin’ it old school
Ypsilanti City Council Plays Politics with Commission Nominations
Mayor attempts to halt effort: Stymied
In a stunning move June 1, Council blatantly politicized the basic process of volunteer commission positions by postponing nominations until after the upcoming elections. It was unclear as to whether they intended postponement to last through the primary or general elections.
Council member Bodary proposed this and it was heavily supported by (you guessed it) Murdock and Robb. It passed 4-2 with Mayor Schreiber and Councilmember Nickels voting against. A rather confusing supportive vote from Richardson rounded out the night.
By linking the commission positions with the upcoming elections, they made clear they were playing politics with these volunteer positions.
AY PAC commends Mayor Schreiber and Council Member Nickels for their strong stands and statements against this vote. They both pointed out the names held up (Rod Johnson, 6-year chair of the Planning Commission and John Bailey of the Zoning Board of Appeals) had good tenures and were highly qualified. Coincidentally, each has previously run for council against sitting council members.
Is the message that council wants to send something like this: Don’t challenge city council, sit quietly and don’t make noise or we will pull you from your position.
Or is the message more like this: We want to put our own people on the commissions, so just hang around until it is convenient for us and then we will dump you.
Commission positions are voluntary. Members and chairs serve for no money, and give vast amounts of time to work on these boards. Ypsilanti has more than 70 individuals currently serving on various boards, commissions and subcommittees. All of them work out of a personal commitment to their committee’s responsibilities. These include planning, zoning, historic district, DDA, human relations, ethics and others.
Who is next? If council feels free to treat long-standing, well respected members of commissions like this, all volunteers serving the city can look forward to this sort of cavalier treatment. So now it is not commitment that determines appointments but allegiance?
Who would you rather serve? The mayor who defends you or the councilmember who threatens to bring you down? With the upcoming mayoral race, this is the question all voters and committee members need to ask themselves.
Thank you, Mayor!
posted by B. Bashert and J. Gawlas
Shock-O-Meter Rating (4)
busy doing nothing
Stagnation with Representation: Call to Disband
The Murdock/Robb/Bodary secret subcommittee to work on Water Street has not met in six months. Neither this subcommittee nor these individuals have put forward any ideas, leadership, or guidance on this issue. They said they were needed to lead. They introduced their own appointments to this council subcommittee. And they did nothing when the opportunity was given to them. Worse yet? These individual Ypsilanti City Council members have surprisingly stood in the way of any progress.
Maybe they’ve been pursuing this vague idea that somehow using no zoning, tabling or deferring zoning recommendations, even stifling discussions of zoning, can effect an outcome. Well, actually now as we think it over, it is apparent that no such idea (not even a vague one) exists. Wouldn’t we have heard of it by now, if there was?
We call the question. AY PAC says it is time to disband the committee altogether and put an end to this charade. Stagnation with representation is not helping this issue move at all.
Ypsilanti needs leadership on Water Street and we need it now. Council members must stop stalling and put some vision into place, identify who can be effective and do it soon. We cannot afford for this to continue.
Subcommittee Created: 08 Apr 2009
Subcommittee Accomplishments: 0
Subcommittee Meetings: 1?
posted by B. Bashert