Outreach Notebook May 15, 2022

Hello and welcome back everyone in #eastannarbor and beyond. We’re keeping things medium today because the topics that will be discussed have taken us on a rollercoaster of anger««»»despair this past week. That’s not a healthy combo. If we keep it medium and have medium expectations, then we’re less disappointed in the outcomes that are always, *always* less than our needs for resources and justice.

Ok, let’s try that again…

Hello and welcome back everyone in #eastannarbor and beyond. This week in our outreach notebook we will briefly discuss budget amendments 1&3 from the 2023 proposed A2 budget, promote the Washtenaw GDC mass meeting for this coming Saturday 5/21 at 1pm [RSVP for location; full disclosure, yours truly is a solidarity supporter of our local GDC and working on full membership], Update On County Participatory Budgeting Process, Some photos and brief recap of our experience at the A2 Planned Parenthood rally on Sat 5/14, and finally we take a look at the [im]possible [sic] connection between Destroyer’s current touring band and local musician MC Trashpedal [née: Ian Fulcher]

We are unsure which subheading to use and think we’ll leave it to you à la Rocky and Bullwinkle OR Choose Your Own Adventure™

Repairing The Damage Of Historical White Control Over Black Bodies OR

Amendments 1&3 on the agenda for the 5/16 meeting of Ann Arbor City Council.           [#1 Co-sponsors Nelson, Ramlawi] [#3 Co-sponsors: Briggs, Disch, Grand, Radina, Song]

Amendment #3 has 5 co-sponsors [Council needs 6 affirmative votes to pass allocations during budget approval season; other times of the year they need 8 votes to make budget allocations/ reallocations], and is therefore likely to pass.

Here is the text of the amendment with a few portions highlighted:

(1) These are each either one-time expenses or if they will be ongoing, will need a dedicated stream of funding to sustain them.

(2) This group of CMs is choosing to put a majority of the dollars toward another court diversion program they are calling “Deflection Pilot Program,” with no specifics on the proposed model or how this program will operate in the language of the resolution.

(3) We’re told this money will be used to make a plan for use of the first floor at the soon-to-be Ann Arbor Housing Commission/ Avalon Housing/ Artspace development at 4th and Catherine. Not a lot of money, but is a good idea to have this set aside and to plan to set aside more dollars in perpetuity for the BIPOC business development program there.

(4) We included this only to ask how many kids will benefit and at what level will they benefit?

Let’s focus on number two (2) above. This is an allocation that was originally framed as a diversion program to be run out of the city prosector’s attorney’s office and is now being rebranded as a “deflection” program which means that the deputy city attorney will not have anything to do with the administration of the program.

But will the program have police involvement??

Since the amendment language is so vague on specifics, we are left to wonder what shape will this deflection program take. So we did a little reading and found a post about model laws from the Legislative Analysis and Public Policy Association [LAPPA]. LAPPA’s mission is “to conduct legal and legislative research and analysis and draft legislation on effective law and policy in the areas of public safety and health, substance use disorders, and the criminal justice system.”

Is this what will be implemented? The goal here is to “lessen the burden on the criminal justice system.” How will they achieve that? By increasing “proactive policing” policies to “assist” people to get access to resources?

Whether it will be a program based on the model law above or take some other form, if this language is approved, the program is going to be left to staff to make determinations.

Beyond speculation, the larger question is should we be using marijuana excise tax dollars* to fund programs where white-built power structures [courts, police, nonprofit industrial complex, public social services] control the resources and terms under which those resources are used to the benefit of residents who are struggling to survive within our capitalist system of resource distribution?

*dollars which should be used to repay victims of our criminal justice system under the old marijuana laws. Or given to black residents dispossessed of their property through exclusionary mortgage lending practices and historical housing discrimination by both the federal government and the private sector.

Q: Is there any opposition on council to this allocation?

A: No.

What is to be done? Well, what should happen is that council uses that ~$570K for a direct payment program to residents in 48197/98 zip codes who received fines and served time in jail/prison under the old marijuana laws in our courts.

What do you think?

What can you do? Write council and mayor at CityCouncil@a2gov.org and/or speak at public comment reserved time during the meeting tomorrow which begins at 7pm Monday 5/16. Call the clerk’s office starting at 8am the day of the meeting to sign up. Here is a document that describes how to sign up for 3 minutes of public speaking time [you should note that you are addressing agenda item DS-4 to improve your chances of getting one of the 10 speaking slots].

Next we have the Washtenaw General Defense Committee’s open public mass meeting happening at 1pm on Saturday May 21. RSVP for location.

Our local GDC is made up of folks dedicated to the idea that we must upend the capitalist system of resource distribution. The reason we support their work is not only because of the anti-capitalist focus, but perhaps more so the means by which they are organizing in our community through mutual aid, deep relationship building.

You can read more here about the GDC. Here is a draft agenda for next Saturday’s mass meeting:

We also attended the Planned Parenthood rally in Ann Arbor at the Diag yesterday afternoon. A friend remarked: “I have never seen this many counter protestors at an abortion rights rally…ever.”

The prognosis is not good for women’s control over their own bodies and health care. This summer we need a miracle or we need the Democratic Party to unite against this and pass legislation that makes abortion a right, nationwide. Until then, we will have to find alternative pathways for care and implement harm reduction measures to support women to be safe and healthy under legal circumstances that are not stable.

We have a 5 minute video of the back and forth between rally attendees and counter protestors from religious right organizations. Not sure we will share that yet and still need to review the footage. In the meantime, here are some photos we took at the event:

County Participatory Budget Update

We are still reaching out to, speaking with folks from community groups as well as commissioners about how we can partner with commissioners and staff to make a portion of the budget available for residents, who are the recipient of services for which the county pays, to have direct input in how these dollars are spent.

We are still waiting on more information about the public safety budget and surpluses they have been accruing from our general budget for the last several years under Sheriff Clayton’s leadership.

There is another set of county commissioner meetings this week on Wednesday at 530pm [Working Session] and 7pm [Regular Meeting]. There will be a report from the commission on aging during the working session and during the regular meeting. During the regular meeting there are a few opportunities for public comment. For example there are three public hearings: 1) to recieve comment on a proposed brownfield plan for 3874 Research Park Drive in Ann Arbor 2) to recieve comment on the Washtenaw Urban County 2022-2023 Annual Action Plan and 3) to recieve comment on the proposed 2022 Washtenaw County Millage Rate. You can participate virtually by zoom or in person at 220 N. Main St in Downtown Ann Arbor.

Finally today we turn from local politics to local music. Specifically we ponder whether there is any connection between local musician MC Trashpedal and Destroyer’s touring band. We attended the Destroyer show at the El Club in SW Detroit and have this piece of evidence to submit:

While Mr Trashpedal was not available for immediate comment their originator, Ian Fulcher, commented on facebook:

Well, either way we noticed that during Destroyer’s set whoever was playing that horn gave the music additional layers of sound reminiscent of Fulcher’s outing as one-part of Drafted By Minotaurs. Check out the sounds here.

Well, that’s it for this week. Thanks for reading and for your participation in local civics and community. Want to read Outreach Notebook on #eastannarbor every Sunday?

We would’t be here if you hadn’t been there™  See you all next Sunday!