NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BUILD A NEW POLICE STATION/COURTHOUSE

Some economists say we are heading for a recession and we are seeing more for sale signs on our neighbor’s lawns then ever before. Last year over 115 Ann Arbor households saw their homes foreclosed and the rate is increasing this year. We are all experiencing increased gas and heating oil prices; health care and food prices are also escalating.  Combine these with a stagnant income for the middle class and increased unemployment rates; and Tom doesn’t see a very good near-term economy.  In the past 10 years we have seen the city police officers drop from 195 to 153 and the closing of fire stations.  Given all these indications of an economic downturn Tom is afraid if we go ahead and build the building now we will be laying off more Ann Arbor City employees and decreasing necessary city services in order to pay for it’s construction. 

Tom would like to postpone building the new facility until the economic future looked brighter.  A solution might be to renovate the existing City Hall’s basement, first and second floors to accommodate the long overdue police station renovations for a cost of about 10 - 15 million. Tom’s plan would be to move all city hall employees, who do not have direct contact with the public, across the street to the City Center building.  This would free up space for the police department to expand.  Also, Tom is not convinced that the city has exhausted all opportunities with our County Commissioners and Judges in regards to staying in the Washtenaw County Building until the economy becomes stronger. Tom understands why the Commissioners and Judges are unhappy that the city did not build the police station and courthouse when they had the chance in 2001. Tom would hope that the commissioners might grant the City an extension during these financially unpredictable times with our depressed economy. In the next 2-3 years, when the economy looks brighter we then could dust off our 4 million blue prints, take into account that our police facility has been renovated, and begin construction on the new Courthouse building.  To spend 47 million at this time with an uncertain economy and decreasing state funding on the horizon would be premature.

I am against selling any of the Huron Hills Golf Course Property

HURON HILLS GOLF COURSE

I have lived in Ann Arbor all my life and when I drive on Huron Parkway I always enjoy the seasonal changes of the vast open land leading to the river. That view is priceless and for that reason alone, should never be sold.  I am against selling any of the Huron Hills Golf Course property. The Ann Arbor City Council needs to look elsewhere for revenue to pay for the 47 million-dollar addition to City Hall (which I object to as well).

The city seems to always be willing to expand the city’s greenbelt boundaries but wavers on protecting green in the city limits. It seems to me that the city is eager to have a developer build a building on any open space the city owns. People of Ann Arbor love green and it will be my job as Mayor to remain consistent to my pledge to keep the Huron Golf Course just the way it is. 

Even though a resolution was approved that City Council will not contemplate selling the two municipal golf courses for private development, I don’t feel that this is a strong enough commitment. The Huron Hills Golf Course needs to be lumped into the same category as our other recreational facilities (swimming pools, recreational fields and ice rinks) and either subsidize the costs or readjust user-fees to enable them to be self-sustainable. None of these other activities are in danger of being eliminated because they offer a service to the community and the City seems to accept that they will not be profitable.  For example, Mack Pool loses $100,000 a year but is not in danger of being eliminated. 

With my business experience, I will try extremely hard to convince council members and the park department that we need to be aggressive in our business approach to make any facility, run by the city, break even and pay for itself. Our intent will be to not show a loss in anything the city operates.  We don’t need to pay a consultant $40,000.00 to tell us we need to adjust our rates, advertise and sell alcohol (just as an aside, we do not allow alcohol at any of our city parks or ball diamonds so why are we promoting it at a golf course) at the Golf Course to make a profit. As a business person you are constantly thinking of new ways to generate cash flow, if you don’t, you may be out of business.  If we had a new resurgence of attitude, that implemented a strong marketing and promotion plan for Huron Hills Golf Course, we would profit even without alcohol. It would have been great to have the $40,000.00 we wasted on a consultant to be used as working capital.

CONSULTANTS…CONSULTANTS…CONSULTANTS

WE DO NOT NEED TO BRING IN A
CONSULTANT EVERYTIME WE HAVE A PROBLEM.

To Tom, hiring a consultant is usually abrogating our responsibility and just enabling us to say, “The consultant told us this is what to do, so that is what we did.” It’s a nice way to cover your self but I would hope that those in the decision-making process would stand up and be counted.  In the past few years the City has hired consultants to study:

• The Golf Courses - cost the city $40,000.00… we learned that we need to sell alcohol, establish competitive prices and market and promote our golf facilities.
• City Employee Morale – Cost the City over $100,000.00 … Over the course of three years the City asked their employees twice just how happy they were working for the City of Ann Arbor. On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), on both occasions the employees voted a 1. To my knowledge the city has done very little to help improve city morale.
• Police-Court Building - cost the city 4 Million.  The City over the years has wasted millions of dollars paying for designs they never used. In 2000 the city paid an architectural firm to design a city hall addition on the west side of city hall. That design was never used because there was no money to pay for it. Why don’t we utilize our top U of M student architects to design our city buildings as class projects, at little (or no) cost and then have them evaluated by professionals for viability and cost.  For some buildings we could even have citywide contests and perhaps find a design that way. 
• Some time ago our City Administrator hired a consultant to help him reorganize the city, so we got another layer of management with a 6 figure salary.

 We hire a professional city manager and professional department heads and they should be able to tell us what needs to be done.  If they can’t, then maybe we need to rethink the whole hiring/search process. Tom feels that it is usually better to promote from within than going outside the system. When we hire someone unfamiliar with Ann Arbor, and it’s governmental practices, they have to learn the “Ann Arbor Culture” and what the history of the department is.  Not only would the new department head, whom is promoted from within, become more rapidly acclimated but, also, those in the department who have made a long-term commitment and contribution will have a chance to be rewarded for their service.  One caveat to the hiring of consultants is that sometimes the city is faced with complex situations that require specialized knowledge and skills.  In these situations then we should hire consultants.  It is not necessary to hire a consulting firm to ask are you happy working here or how do we increase the usage/profitability of a golf course.

Our Hands On Ann Arbor Program, if instituted properly, will enable the city to spot talent at an early age.  When our Hands on Ann Arbor participants have graduated from college some may want to return to Ann Arbor and work for the city.  If so, they are ready, from day one, to step into their position and make contributions because they have had prior experience working for the city and are ready to take on the complex programs that the city has.

LOW MORALE FOR CITY WORKERS

Tom would be out of business if his 70 All Star Driver Education employees had the same results as the City of Ann Arbor employees had in two “cultural surveys”.  On a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best), the morale in the 2005 & 2007 surveys for the Ann Arbor City employees was a 1.  The majority of City Council members believed that the reason for the low morale was due to the reorganization and the elimination of over 200 city jobs since 2000.  Since 2005, the city has spent over $100,000.00 with a consultant firm to find out if the city employees are happy. Jim Williams the president of the city’s largest union said “the city leader’s attitude toward workers is…if you don’t like it here, go find another job” then he went on to say “That leads to this type of morale, it starts at the top.” If Tom Wall were Mayor he would create an environment where city workers felt appreciated and valued. Every other month Tom would visit each department and talk with the employees. This would give him the chance to take the pulse of the workplace, show his support and give the City Employees an opportunity to talk to him. So many times solutions to their problems could be nothing more then opening up communication barriers. It is a proven fact that in business if your workers are not happy your productivity in the work force can’t possibly be at full efficiency. We need to communicate better with our city employees.