Today we are talking about the next City Council meeting, coming up Tuesday, January 19th. Want to see the agenda for yourself? We have the technology.
We discuss quarterly reports on sustainability, equity, and community budgeting; healthy streets with a callback to the 12/19 episode, and waste management with a callback to the 1/2 episode; along with a quick First Amendment Check. We get into the difference between policy and process, the difference between governance and politics, and how decisions get made in the City. And we're making an exception to our podcast's "no shenanigans" policy just for today.
At the end of the episode, Ariah Shugat returns with an update on her project getting phones and power to homeless folks, and an ask for our listeners.
Two quick process notes: we record a few days before the Council meeting, which means there's always a chance something new will make it to the agenda between the time of recording and the actual meeting. Also, we got some factchecking from our listeners from our section on township island annexations. We couldn't fit it into the episode, so here they are: Regarding township island annexations, Ann Arbor actually does not currently have any mechanism to require annexation when a township islands is sold. Annexation does not necessarily happen with sale, unless the new property owner wants to connect to city utility services, then they have to annex. Also, the agenda item we discussed wasn't about annexing new islands, it was just zoning for parcels that had already been annexed. The City does not currently have any new petitions for City initiated annexation in progress.
Warning: there are some swears in this episode, but we promise it's just because we're really big fans of the First Amendment.
Come check out our episodes and transcripts at our website, annarboraf.com. Keep the conversation going with fellow Ann Arbor AFers on Blue Sky and Facebook. And hey, if you wanted to ko-fi us a few dollars to help us with hosting, we wouldn't say no.
