UPDATE: Click HERE to read entire BOC/WCSO Memo as well as a resolution

Hey everybody,

welcome back to the outreach notebook for Sunday April 17, 2022. Happy holidays to those celebrating this weekend and beyond: Ramadan Murbarak. Chag Pesach sameach.  ਨਵਾ ਸਾਲ ਮੁਬਾਰਕ [Navā sāla mubāraka; April 13]. Happy Ridván [beg. April 20]. हैप्पी राम नवमी [Haippe raam navamee; April 10]. Happy Easter. ¡Felices Pascuas!

It’s been nice gathering with family and friends 🤘

Before we get into the county budget, there is an #A2Council meeting this Monday April 18. Some items of note #eastannarbor is following:

• our new city administrator Milton Dohoney will be presenting a proposed budget for fiscal year 2023. As of this writing [4/17, 6am], the item linked to in previous sentence is currently void of content.
• There is also a resolution to support the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America [NACA] as a resource for homeownership assistance. Jess over at Ann Arbor AF has a great response to the proposal and its implications. You should check it out. Here is a link to the white paper outlining the need and analysis of potential benefits of NACA support for local aspiring home owners by Ann Arbor resident Brian Chambers
• #eastannarbor hot take: homeownership is at the core of our capitalist system of wealth distribution. While efforts to expand access to it are commendable, in the scheme of things, what we really need to do is to make sure we orient ourselves to housing as a right, not as a commodity, and to diversify our opportunities for wealth creation.

Our friends over at Damn Arbor are likely to cover some of the above issues as well as others tomorrow when they post a council meeting preview.

ACTION ALERT WED 4/20 5:30PM

This week will mostly be dedicated to community participatory budgeting at the county-level. The Washtenaw Board of Commissioners will meet this Thursday for a working session, in part, covering the public safety budget as well as an equalization report. The latter of these will show us where property tax revenues are at across the county as well as what if any new resources are added to the general fund budget.

What is Community Participatory Budgeting?

This is a budgeting process in which staff and elected officials of a municipal governing body reserve a portion of the budget for disbursement decisions to be made by residents involved with local grassroots organizations. In this case, one of the organizations is the Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice whose leaders announced last fall a campaign to mobilize local residents to the county budget-making processes in 2022 that center racial and economic justice in resource allocation across the county.

Thus far the group has conducted research into county policies and practices governing the current manner in which decisions are made regarding its budget. Group members have also been having preliminary discussions with residents of all ages, mostly in Ypsilanti, Ypsi Twp and Ann Arbor areas, to identify issues to be addressed [full disclosure: yours truly is involved with the organizing committee put together by ICPJ staff and activist members].

Here is a video that explains in more detail how we can go about implementing this practice with county officials and describes some of the ways residents can be empowered to make decisions that directly impact resources coming into their communities.

How can you get involved and support?

You can contact commissioners with info living »> here to express support for the principles and practice of community participatory budgeting via email, phone or by speaking at public comment during the working session [530pm 4/20] for 1 minute or at the regular meeting [7pm 4/20]. Here is the info for attending the meeting in person or virtually: Remote Participation via Zoom: https://washtenaw.me/BOCZoom,
Remote Participate via Phone: dial 1 (312) 626­-6799  
Webinar ID: 860 0810 5839, Passcode: 500953

What could I write about or say to commissioners about participatory budgeting?(Sample Email Text to County Commissioners / Staff. You could use this in any way you see fit. This doesn’t have to be a form email, but instead could give you ideas where to go in letter writing or speech making to persuade decision makers to make this process a priority for 2023 county budgeting)

Dear __________,

I hope that you are well. With Spring around the corner, it is a great time to think about the seeds we plant to grow new ways of operating – that center racial and economic justice and equity. It’s in this spirit that I would like to set up a meeting to discuss community conversations about the Washtenaw County Budget.

You might have heard that the Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice and a collaborative of Washtenaw County organizations and individuals are mobilizing an effort for greater resident participation in the budgeting process. Starting with the quadrennial budget, we want to raise the expectation of all in our community that residents should be actively involved in decision-making. We are particularly attuned to engaging those who have been historically marginalized from decision-making – Black, Indigenous, Latinx residents, youth, those who have been incarcerated, people who are unhoused, and workers who might not have time to sit through long public meetings.

We’re currently working with small groups of residents to identify community needs and to envision how we can support one another to make those dreams a reality. We are organizing a grassroots participatory budgeting process that will support the County Commissioners to make decisions informed by resident priorities. If you aren’t familiar, here is a video on participatory budgeting that illustrates what we can do.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and/or feedback re: how to make this a priority for 2023 county budgeting. Thanks in advance or your time and feedback.

Best wishes, __________

ACTION #2: SHERIFF SURPLUS BUDGET

#eastannarbor friend and West Willow Community Advocate Alex Thomas [he is also involved in the ICPJ participatory budget project] has been drawing attention to aspects of our County Sheriff budgeting practices that are byzantine in nature and often overlooked by county staff and officials alike. One of these practices is outlined in an MOU now confirmed to actually exist by Thomas who FOIA’d the county for this information.

The image below is an incomplete screengrab of the entire MOU + a companion resolutions both of which you can now read here.

The MOU in question states that any surplus budget the Sheriff gets he can use at his own discretion. Since the Sheriff already has a large plurality of county resources at his disposal and also does not have an office set up for public input, Alex believes those dollars should be returned to the county general fund and that further they should be set aside for the community participatory budgeting process we are proposing above.

We at #eastannarbor strongly agree with that the money should go to the people for the participatory budgeting process.

What do you think?

Contact your commissioners an let them know. Drop a line to Sheriff Clayton here: ClaytonJ@Washtenaw.org

UPDATE: Click HERE to read entire BOC/WCSO Memo as well as a resolution

We wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t been there. This is Phil Connors, reporting for #eastannarbor. See you all next week!

Miscellaneous items of note when researching today’s content above:

IMAGES FROM OTHER COUNTY MUNICIPAL MEETING AND BUDGETING ITEMS: