Ann Arbor Council of the Commons Meeting 4/6/23

001here uh Chris this is your first meeting so congratulations and condolences well welcome to your new uh at uh at city of Ann Arbor we appreciate your um your efforts this evening uh we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order the goal is to be done by nine o'clock uh or earlier tonight um and we'll go ahead and do a roll call uh Chris we do need your help with the Roll Call um and so we all have to acknowledge our name and municipality that we're located in um can you help us yes not a problem uh I'm sorry with commissioner Zemke uh Adam Zemke here in Ann Arbor commissioner Ralph Alice Ralph here in Ann Arbor commissioner Cornell I'm Jen Cornell and here in Ann Arbor commissioner she is no longer on the

002commission eventually officially my apologies uh commissioner Wilhelm uh here in Ann Arbor and commissioner Albert I believe Bieber Avery yes I'm here in Ann Arbor commissioner heading okay commissioner um Borg okay yeah Borg store from present in Ann Arbor commissioner hammersh mint yeah here in Ann Arbor uh commissioner Mitchell you're in Ann Arbor okay and with that I believe we are in the Forum oh um oh I apologize commissioner Briggs yep you're in Ann Arbor here we go do we have anybody else we miss uh Alice we get you yes we do okay excellent all right as Milt Milton is not here is it he actually a member of this group yes you could call his name he is absent okay commissioner Milton is absent sorry Mr honey is Lisa part of this group Lisa

003dish she is not yeah no I've replaced her as the council the other Council liaison foreign and go into the approval of the agenda we do have an agenda that Chris posted and uh did some updates too uh you can see that on legendstar any questions regarding tonight's agenda yes uh I think if generally we have had an item on the agenda called members time that seemed to disappear how come and you would like also that in pardon me I was going to answer your question okay go ahead and I can answer both at once okay then we had had correspondence particularly from Dan uh Rubenstein they're very interesting and it seems that we should have a way to acknowledge and and undertake the response to correspondence so correspondence comes it seems like that should

004be an item on the agenda and I want to have a moment in the time in number seven about their current activities for their Earth Day so uh Alan just uh for your reference uh in terms of the member time we did restructure the agenda I think around December of last year and uh in that restructuring Alice and I uh indicated that our goal was to try and reduce the um amount of time individually for these meetings and so we we focused on the work groups eliminated the member time and uh and streamline the agenda and so that member timepiece has been has been out of there for a little while um you know you are certainly and I think you have indicated a couple of attachments for the work stream updates and so you're

005welcome to comment on that but we we've not had that member time for a little bit here um regarding the uh Public Communication you can see certainly in the agenda Dan's comments have been included uh they are under uh the public comment written Communications we've had written Communications from other members of the public as well and um you know the uh I think it's important that we keep those consistent that regardless of who writes in they end up in the written comments uh and are attached uh encryst did a nice job incorporating that in tonight so those are Dan's comments are written in and and you can take a look at them obviously but I don't know that we want to give them uh any more public comment other than other members of the public

006I think it's important we keep consistent there I don't know it seems that there are some good ideas in there that we should address I certainly will be exactly thanks Alice all right any other questions on tonight's agenda okay could we have a motion to prove motion to approve the agenda is presented all right Alice thank you and seconded by Rita all in favor say aye all right any opposed all right motion carries agenda as presented uh approval of the minutes from the last meeting March 2023 those are attached thank you for doing that Chris any questions at all about March's meetings meeting minutes sorry I reviewed them they looked fine to me I would move their approval I don't know if there's other discussion about it thanks Steve well I would ask that we

007have in there the uh report from the activation committee that is simply received but it has not been discussed or approved so it is in there but we still have not recognized in what state it is in there but maybe we will do tonight yeah Steve's motion to approve since that's what starts our discussion if any oh sorry for sure support uh Alan just so you know uh I mean the media that document is attached we didn't take action on it yet we're working on um working with the parks department in a collaborative approach um but uh but it was it I think we had very good discussion last time and I don't think we called for action on it at the particular time in part because it was distributed uh very uh shortly before

008the meeting that's pretty hefty document so I I agree that we had a very robust discussion but um I don't think we intended to take action on in the median minutes reflect that all right so we have a motion on the floor and a second uh all in favor of approving the meeting minutes from last time say aye I write any opposed excellent motion carries uh so we're going to go ahead and move into uh the next agenda item which is um public comment uh Chris Tui members of the public of raise their hands ask him to speak uh yes we do all right now they Advance them in yes uh before I start all public speakers will be given three minutes to speak and I'll give you 30 seconds Head Start before your time

009is up thank you Chris okay now I'm promoting the number ending in three two six you may now speak hello this is uh Jeff Crockett can you all hear me we can just thank you great well I'm just very pumped up and excited I I think that the job that was done um uh by you and I'm a Rita along with others uh the draft scope for RFP the center of the city design and design process was exceedingly well done thorough uh based on um experience from other communities uh looked at the past the present and the future I'm particularly excited about you know the activation suggestions and I understand that it's simply a template that's going to be handed over to the parks department and those who have other comments to make and certainly

010will certainly have a number of opportunities to do that um I do want to report that we've got some exciting developments um uh we have basically our near toward the installation of murals uh on uh near the Community Gardens I've been work we've been working the library green conservancy's been working with Derek Deli Court to come up with a contract that will happen soon we have uh working on a contract with the artists treetown murals Mary defaults it's going to be beautiful and it's going to change the perception perception of how that space is is going to be viewed I am just hoping that after this installation that sometime under a future meeting there'll be serious consideration to at least removing the parking from that one area next to the gardens and the murals and

011consideration of putting in seating uh which we think is the only true way to sort of provide shirts or reactivation um I do want to thank though there are numerous people that I think need to be thanked uh and I'm hoping at some point Jen and Erica will take some time to list the people at a city council meeting I mean not just Adam and Rita but we have Frank Wilhelm Alice Roth uh odile Haber has been working uh and Allen has been spending a ton of time planning for the April 22nd Earth Day event uh Megan Sims has been involved she's got Earth radio a fantastic uh future soul band out of Grand Rapids who will just knock your socks off we have uh Ralph McKee a blues band will be there uh but

012we've also hit input from people around the country I mean there's any Row from North Carolina all the time to basically um I'll I'll just wrap up what I'm hoping there are a lot of people to think I'm just hoping that these people get proper recognition sometime soon thank you very much thanks Jeff yeah is my time up I assume yes okay thank you thank you Chris any other members of the public just stay okay yes I'm sorry to interrupt um Jeff Henny is in the panelist area right now he needs to be promoted to the commission heads up I'm sorry I'm not seeing his name on my screen Jeffrey honey yes um there you go excellent all right thank you for doing that Chris yeah sorry sorry for being late I I got derailed

013with family stuff that's okay Jeff Jeff you want to just uh real quick before we continue with members of the public probably would be a good idea Jeff if you could just indicate where you're calling it from uh Ann Arbor Jeff Henny and Arbor excellent thank you all right well let's let's keep going now the next one the next public speaker will now be Robert black you are allowed to speak can you hear me Chris yes I can thank you uh welcome Chris welcome aboard this is a great group I'm glad you're here and congratulations Jen for your move to the Art Association that's powerful and beautiful we need more art in the world anyway um I'm happy to see you guys again after all these meetings I've been with you and uh I want

014to Echo Jeff's comment about the RFP progress it's fantastic it's very thorough and Adam led the job very well the inputs from others Rita's input and collating different parts of it and all of that have made it a very powerful document and so I encourage you to continue that and build the alliances with it that you need with parks and city council um also being a colleague with Jeff Crockett on the initiating committee has been a real joy for me in working alongside Amy Rowe in North Carolina on graphics and other things uh we've been contributing a lot from the initiating committee to this group and the efforts here uh largely to work on activating activation events and that kind of thing so my my thought to you is to encourage you to look at

015the role of the initiating committee as some kind of an entity that will serve the Council of Commons and that you acknowledge that and use it to your advantage either to absorb it into the group in some way as a subcommittee not unlike the Green Team and that you also find its relationship not only with the council the commons but with Library green Conservancy to the extent you can put this together as an online group as I've spoken with at every meeting you will be much more effective at raising money in building the Coalition of public support that you need the other things that are really important and Powerful is the the activating events in the the park the library Liberty Lane excuse me Liberty Plaza project has been really powerful with Jessica black involved

016but we could connect more to that the next big event is Earth Day on April 22nd there's an event at Leslie Science Center on the 23rd but this one that's coming up as Mr Crockett mentioned is really powerful and a chance to really engage the community on many levels for Earth Day so I'd encourage you to look at that and how you could support that and have it literally become a part of this group and not just done only by the activating committee 30 seconds same thing with the murals I've talked to um Mary tiefos a couple years ago on this too and Her Image will be something that will be really powerful as a community outreach so I'd encourage you again to try to participate with that and make it part of an integrated

017Coalition of support from these three entities Library green initiating committee and counsel the comments I wish you good luck tonight and have a powerful meeting thank you thank you very much Robert all right Chris any more uh public speakers this evening yes we have Danielle Adams okay okay Daniel I will now promote you you have three minutes to speak good evening uh Daniel Adams 1016 Daniel Street um I called in tonight because I was informed that during the meeting tonight there would be a Folsom response my email from earlier this year pointing out uh among other things the startling fact that the city's putative partner in this so-called public-private partnership had committed only a tiny fraction of its resources to the issuance of the badly overdue RFP I think it's telling um and that's putting

018it mildly that Library green has failed to commit the full strength of its resources to the success of the very project that was created to to effectuate and and to complete before the city's Bicentennial um that of course was true until I emailed the council pointing out this inconvenient fact and I think it's telling that Mr Haber tonight would rather discuss public comments other than mine rather than address the merits of some of the uh the troubling facts that I pointed out in that communication and I'm hoping that the council tonight and particularly the members of Library green who are responsible for the financial condition of that of that entity again the city's putative partner in this project will speak to that organization's financial situation why the the organization failed to commit its resources to

019the project earlier than it did which by the way has cost the project unknown number of months of time and delay to the extent that Library green could have committed that money earlier than it did earlier than this year that's that's just more time that's been wasted we are now a year away from the bicentennial we are now many years away from the passage of proposal a and at this point the reluctance of that organization to come forward with both resources money and also be transparent in in how it's raised money to date how it plans to raise much more money in the future than seventy thousand dollars we're talking many millions of dollars tens of millions of dollars perhaps we don't know because we still don't have designs I'm hoping that these issues will

020be addressed tonight um that's all I have to say for now thank you very much thanks for calling in Dan thank you any other members of the public um no okay very good we'll go ahead and close public comment then um and we don't have any guest speakers tonight we are going to move into the working groups um we have two working groups as everyone knows one is on future space design which covers uh the RFP fundraising planning we have three agenda items that fall into that category actually I guess there's of Chris I think we may have had a agenda uh um issue here but um but one of the items is related to and you saw this pop up about a week ago on the agenda this is related to the working group

021recommendation around the RFP that's one item and then uh console number uh Haber also sent out uh and we included in the agenda today a couple of items for discussion that uh that council member Haber can um can bring about so and those those are related to the CPA Parks infrastructure case study uh and uh and also an item related to some ideas so if it's okay with folks we will go ahead and look at the RFP scope proposal that's an item that the working group has been working on for quite some time and um Chris are you able to pull that up for us just so it's uh easy rather than one of us try to do it let's do it I'd like to say Adam that that other information about uh parks and

022uh and reimagining the commons was only for information very interesting websites I hope people would look at at their Leisure it wasn't particularly for conversation right now because we got enough to do so that was just forwarding for information maybe there should be a way to designate what's for information and what's for conversation excellent thank you for that Alan Alice did you have your hand up for those items or for something else I think I did but I just in the Interruption okay Chris did you want to pull up the RFP scope worker I I can always do it as well can you just give me one second as a if you can pull it up yeah wow that's fine I can pull it up here thank you very good can everyone see my screen

023yes excellent so this is a um so the you know we had a working group we've had a working group on this subject for quite some time and um uh the members of the working group uh per a lot of the uh a lot of the discussions we've had have included um in this particular case myself and Alice Alan uh Frank Rita and then we've also included um as we did with the activation we've pulled in folks from the outside as well uh those individuals did include uh Robert black and they also included um uh Jeff Crockett they were willing and eager volunteers to participate in this process um and uh we took a couple of documents that Heather safirth uh put forward uh and gave us uh previously one was the city's standard RFP

024template uh and there are a lot of elements of that RFP template that are uh that are form based and they're really not for intended for alteration we stayed away from all of those but we did focus in on uh on an element that is uh entitled the scope this is something that um many folks worked on uh at uh as part of an RFI process and so um we Revisited that RFI process and uh and worked on creating a scope and so we went through a process by which um uh and I'll outline this and spin certainly any of the other working group members should feel free to comment on on uh how we how we went through this and and the process and feel free to raise your hands uh as well so

025um you know what we did was we started off by pulling up the two documents we looked at the old RFI we looked at all the inputs that uh uh center of the city council of Commons members provided we looked at the RFP template and then we asked a series of questions around what was missing um what a little more you know to try and gain some organic feedback and uh after that we asked every member to submit their own organic response what they would write if given a blank template for the scope we asked everyone to stay out of the standardized portions of the RFP because that is intended to be written by a city staff and per our previous discussions with the parks department that is what their intent is and and we

026want to honor those discussions but but in the areas that are customizable and still focused there is an agreement that those would have some input and so you know that is the area that we focused on um we asked for this sort of organic approach and uh then uh Rita did really uh um an amazing uh job with trying to identify uh areas of consistency in areas uh where there were gaps and created a spreadsheet that that really tried to build those out and I took that spreadsheet and uh tried to consolidate based on uh the uh the uh version that I had put forth and so and I I really tried to to look at areas of difference and areas of similarity and wherever possible try and and weave things together we then went

027got back together after we uh created a straw man document based on that and uh and went through and amended that straw man document a document uh as a whole and and uh there were some changes that were made there were not a a large amount of changes but also not a small number of changes either and uh and I think that the easiest way to describe this and certainly Frank Alice or Rita described you know if you think I'm misrepresenting this please uh chime in but you know we really sort of took a majority vote look at each of the uh each of the areas of the um the changes and decided on if if we were on or if we were off well we delete what we add Etc and I sort of

028took an up or down majority rules approach uh following that um I rewrote the draft that you see before you and sent it back onto that working group and um asked that folks take a final look at it and decide if they're gonna support if this is a majority opinion of the working group or if not we did receive a number of affirmative votes way more than a majority in favor and then Advanced it to this group to take a look at here I don't know Frank Rita Alice Ellen if you would like to comment um you know please feel free Ellen you do have your hand up uh if there are others please feel free and then we'll go ahead and run through it all right just on the process please uh at this

029point in time then we'll get into the substance in a minute yes well on the uh process I'm not so enthusiastic about this process because the effect was might call it majority rule or whatever a great deal of the content of what has been in this endeavor since its beginning has been line by line word by word canceled out and I do have as I think people know some amendments to make sure that that is an intentional cancellation or simply an Omission that the commons as a concept can be reintroduced into this document because it is essentially been removed and why that is why the Civic Center building was crossed out even though in our last consultation it was back in and why the center of the city Commons was removed even though at the

030beginning of our conversation I thought that was back in so I don't feel that the process really reflected our own conversations or that in summation that it adequately reflects the vision of what is possible there and is not far too limited and so I have amendments to alter that when the time comes to actually look at this line by line beginning with line two okay thanks Helen uh council member Briggs okay uh all right well let's go ahead and take a look at this then uh and uh Ellen if you could take your hand down just so we've got it down sorry I sorry I was thinking I was talking about it just raised my hand unraised my hand can I um yeah please feel free yeah yeah so um thank you so much for

031um explaining that process I guess one piece that I was surprised about um it sounds like this was kind of done by the the working Committee of the Council of the commons um has can you discuss what input City staff and park staff has had into this document at the point none yet um other than we started with the uh the RFI that Heather had really Consolidated so the the goal of uh tonight's discussion really what we wanted to do in the working group was to advance this to this body and do a check-in before we have a discussion with uh City Park staff we're working on getting one of those set up we've been trading emails around some dates but have not solidified that yet uh at least one that worked with schedules so

032tonight we sort of wanted to advance this and get some feedback from this body before we uh went and talked with Park staff it's by no means done but but uh we didn't want to uh simply go there before checking in here I guess um that's good to know I mean I would say this is very atypical in terms of how an RFP might be developed in the city um don't know how close this you know having not had staff feedback into this process um or the the content here um I mean not that I haven't you know overall I think it's it looks great um I'm impressed with that what everybody's put together but I guess I uh my point is just that um we shouldn't get to [Music] um yeah I would really

033want to see what their input is on putting out the RFP I would think that the parks department would have a quite a few comments on this yeah I I totally I I don't disagree at all council member Briggs and uh you know I think our our thought was we didn't want to get um we didn't want to get too far down the road given that we don't have the uh really as a working group we don't really have the authority uh over the council the commons and so um we wanted to uh we wanted to advance something to this group for discussion make sure there was at least an idea that this was the right direction before we went to the park staff we agree that Park staff is probably going to have um

034pretty substantial input and uh we have I think I think we've had pretty good discussions pretty constructive discussions with them around that process so I I don't disagree with you at all we just didn't want to get ahead of this group uh Alice you have your hand on yes um I um wanna and this I believe that the work we did in the working group which is the appropriate place to just kind of hash things out um was as a result of that first presentation that Adam made to the parks advisory commitment Council or committee um and it was sort of informally um agreed that we could kind of take a stab at it and then that would help um Advance the parks's the parks um engagement with the RFP and the request for in

035the scope of the work that would give them some information from us and while they were working on other projects that couldn't be put aside just for this so the timing was was an important issue too so that we could give them a jump start on what we we're thinking about and that they could look to as an input for what they will do thank you Alice any other thoughts or comments questions on the process we'll go ahead and uh and just start by going through the document then if that's okay and I don't want to ask for a formal vote on this tonight I I really just want to I want to get a feel for where folks are thinking you know have a a little more inclusive discussion see if there are things

036that that um folks find glaring or off and then we do want to take it to the city staff because that really is the the step that is going to integrate it into the formal process and so uh Alan I'm going to Grant you just a little bit of leeway here if you want to have another comment around that around the process before we get into the discussion around the document if it's around the discuss the document I'd like you to just hold off hey you said we were going to the document so when we get there all right very good so I'm going to go ahead and try and take this um section by section uh so that uh that we have some chunks to bite off here you know this first item uh

037like I said we started with uh the the RFI document that was created by this body uh back in and there are uh there were as a lot of really good work by uh Heather Seifert at the at the time to try and write this and put it forward in a way that uh that the city staff would normally issue a request for proposal or information from Adam could I just mention so that everybody understands that this is attached to our agenda so anybody can see it and get it um get to it if they like if they need to look at it more closely it is yes it's on the agenda I pulled this document up from that agenda in fact so this first area you know is really just a request outlines the

038uh the areas the geographic areas of the city they're in question here it does include a link to a Google based map and uh and tried we really tried to be very clear around what it was what we were looking for there are some standard language that Heather had Incorporated in regarding the RFP and and the um the lack of guarantee for any Ward or contract uh there was a background here in the background originally of the RFI was a little bit shifted a little bit differently we had some thoughts that that were incorporated into this regarding um both some some language around how this particular site the center of the city came to be with regard to proposal a in the city Charter Amendment um you know and and really the land that is

039bound as part of that City Charter Amendment uh between Fifth Avenue William Division and Liberty streets including the the public uh publicly owned spots of Liberty Plaza the surface of Library Lane and uh library and parking structure and Library Lane itself as well as the uh the areas of Kemp house and so this is all part of the center of the city um and uh and we really tried to identify that that was a lot of carryover from the RFI we did incorporate a couple of uh historical elements that go beyond this which we thought were important um related to Downtown Commons and and sort of the history behind why or what Ann Arbor had had historically around downtown Commons both in front of the original courthouse and the corner of Huron and Main Street

040with a second Washington County Courthouse is really the one that most folks reference um and then also the jailhouse Square which is in front of the current uh downtown post office on bordered by 4th and Liberty and uh Fifth and so uh you know we really referenced their some elements around the Downtown Commons that were important historically in the city um we then went went and sort of brought back into this idea around the future of the particular site we're dealing with focused more in on that element uh passage of the resolution by city council to establish the center of the city task force in 2019 and the charge including some links and also the appendices of that center of the city report it's a lot of really great information in there as I know

041many of us have really gotten into and uh so we wanted to call that out as a point of reference for any prospective vendors we then highlighted the fact that the city council one of the recommendations of the center of the city task force was to create our body here the Council of Commons and highlighted that aspect uh for for reference um so uh with that we went into a section that we entitled Community Values and this was really uh an intent to show that uh that uh there is a um that a long historical support around neighborhood parks in the Ann Arbor always does very well when presented to the voters but an emerging concern around taxation requests which I think is an actual accurate reflection of what we have seen both related to

042this site and related to spending in this site and also related to spending around Park areas around the city in the neighborhoods Etc and so we wanted to reference that we also wanted to reference the fact that we had spent considerable time looking at other communities different governance models Etc uh that uh that in heaven for formed our thinking and our thought process and sort of indicate to prospective vendors that um that this may be not in the same traditional governance sense that Ann Arbor has utilized for neighborhood parks provide some context there um we went into a third section that we uh looked at the site details uh included a picture from Google Maps there and a link same link as before uh to the uh area that we're talking about here bounded by

043Liberty fourth uh William and division streets including the sites particular um Heather had done a really nice job in this area including in some of the elements related to protected bike Lanes Etc and also including even the parcel numbers so we've got the parcel numbers factored in here and and there is a clickable link to a map of Liberty Plaza this is really for um activation purposes but probably is helpful to a vendor um and so we included that as well there's also an element around chem files which is uh you know obviously part of the center of the city but also a very unique parcel from historical perspective from a use perspective and so we incorp incorporated some um distinct elements that were related to that we basically overall in that first and second

044section intended to be very clear with any particular vendors as to what it is that we were looking uh to explain to them around the site the third section is focused on what we're asking of them and so you know we specifically asked for a final design and design process that is transformative adaptable and inclusive one that physically uh Bridges the gap between today's configuration of multi-parcel spots obviously we've talked about that throughout the first section first and second section of the documents but also metaphorically Bridges the gap between the history and what could be trying to look to the Future especially as we do approach the bicentennial um we really tried to indicate that we are not wedded to a particular fixed use in our feature and that there is a lot of adaptability

045that was really important to us those were things that came about you know and a lot of that research that that Rita spearheaded around comparable communities and activation and uh and that you know we really favor that this space needs to be inclusive to all members of the community you know they shouldn't have to buy a coffee in order to go sit outside uh in in downtown Ann Arbor that there should be an opportunity to um you know for for anyone of any income to participate and enjoy open space um we deliberate we were deliberate in our words uh in the second paragraph uh in second section related to thinking outside of the standard quote-unquote box as a way to engage the community um we used could and should in underlined and deliberate Fashions to

046indicate differences um and uh in this first area at the bottom page three we indicate considerations that could meaning they don't have to but were were high points as to uh potential considerations uh multiple multimodal Transportation adaptable spaces relaxing Green Space water features active play areas permanent semi-permanent shading electrical electrical connectivity reconfigurable seating and tables potential public restrooms displays of public art and is seen as a natural Gathering community space supports economic and environmental sustainability etc those are the coulds we we were deliberate in that term in particular because we did not want to limit any designers from thinking outside the box um and uh and there was also a lot of enthusiasm to guide the conversation as well so we then indicated that there are certain things that should be delivered as part of

047this process one is cost estimates we're on the proposed design design process elements that was important to us obviously we have to have a product to guide this work so we need to understand what the cost is going to be there engineering considerations run existing structural elements including a necessary assessing of uh pre-existing problems don't anticipate that to be the case because one would assume that the parking structure um that is under the library service lot and the areas around Liberty Plaza in particular are in good shape they appear to be but we don't have any idea so we wanted to address that um methods to use uh publicly owned spaces to enhance the vibrancy of the entire block including any necessary easements that really speaks to the fact that these Parcels are not really

048aligned with one another yet and so we need to figure out a design firm a design proposal needs to indicate how we're going to create easements how that could work in partnership with other block Partners we also spoke to and this was then a continued conversation with this group The identification of public and private funds to be plated braided and Blended to support the construction ongoing maintenance costs it's an important thing obviously we indicated uh a reference to the governance and active planning draft document that we brought up last Council the commons meeting and then certainly the ability for the site to be accessible all year round Ada accessible in particular as to speak to our inclusive approach and you know this was this last item is a carryover from the the RFI related to

049the bicentennial as being a focus for this project um we were very um deliberate in our language regarding Community engagement um because it was really important to everyone here and I think this is I carried through from the RFI as well that this process be very open in the community and that it not be limited to only those who are really taking the opportunity to participate we really want to reach out to the community and gather input from individuals who may not necessarily be regularly participating in uh in the local political process and so we were very intentional with our language uh that uh that highlights this in both paragraph one and the bullet points around paragraph two um we did then get into in this last paragraph and section here on bottom page four

050a number of organizations and groups that were active in the space giving the designer or designers some ideas of organizations to look to in addition to the community and so we wanted to both incorp incorporate and be deliberate in our intent with indicating that community members who are not as engaged should be part of the process we expect that any respondent will have a plan to incorporate those members but also we wanted to indicate that there are a number of organizations and groups boards Etc uh you know anywhere from non-profit and um government government-based boards through organizations that represent different constituencies including faith-based groups advocates for those experiencing homelessness advocates for persons with disabilities youth-based groups Etc that should be part of this as well so we wanted to give some direction around at least

051some ideas for for designers to look at um other than that there this language here in section four and five are standard City language didn't really alter anything there and that is sort part of the end of the document here in terms of where we landed I don't know Frank Rita Alice Allen if you'd like to add anything in in terms of um Allen I before you offer your amendment I know you want to offer your amendments here uh I'd like to just focus first on the existing document and see if any of you four would like to comment on the elements where we arrived the process Etc read I see your hand up so go ahead um thanks for that review I agree with how you presented it and I would say what what

052is missing now is the context of how it fits into the rest of the RFP you know so which would involve I have forgotten those details now but it's the kind of thing where it calls out to Consultants to respond to these elements that we've outlined and so I think that's that's the thing that that um is from myself is helpful in centering this particular document to know that there's more out there that that has to be coordinated so in order to move this to a next phase yeah and I I think that's going to be a really important discussion I I know there is probably a standard operating window uh for that with the with the city I think that's the message we got from uh from Heather previously and I know that's gonna

053but you should bring that up during our discussion with the park staff uh as well with Josh and and uh Derek um so I think that's a good good uh question to reference Frank yeah I just want to I guess uh Echo what you presented is what the working group uh felt uh strongly about and uh I I even going through it now I'm picking up some emphasis points that I I either didn't catch or forgot but it was a good review of um the collective effort that we put into this document thanks Frank all right Alan would you like to add anything in before I know you do want to offer your amendment I want to give you time to do that um and um would you like to say anything more about the

054document as proposed before you offer any Amendment well yes I I'm when this campaign began for the Ann Arbor Community Commons it derived from I'm a historian from beginning to read the history of the commons initially by Peter Linebaugh called the Magna Carta Manifesto that was published in 2008. that demonstrated that many of the conflicts in society were about the privatization of what were public goods public resources and that that was a continuing struggle and it helped me begin to see many of the things I was involved with in my political life now of many decades around the commons and then I read other things and saw that all over the world people are experimenting with a shift in the way community resources are organized to be self-managed and that the Nobel Prize Was Won

055by a sociologist from Indiana and demonstrating that when when commonly pooled resources are self-managed by the people who use them rather than either by the government or by private Corporation they are better managed more productively happily for the people and if that was demonstrated in the study of thousands of Commons all over the world and it won the Nobel Prize so in some way and I met this woman or Eleanor Ostrom and in some way I felt that we really in Ann Arbor is an Innovative Town should begin to see our public space particularly the center of the city and how we got focused on that is another question as a Commons as a gathering of public resources that are managed by the people who use them and that was what was presented in 2009

056when I first spoke at the city council on this question with the adjunct that this greatest question we've Grace now is how to develop a culture of peace and non-violence for the next Generations and that whenever there is public land or a decision to be made that question of how this contributes to the creation of a culture of peace and non-violence is part of the picture that's what I began with in 2009 and I've been fairly persistent and felt that the commons as a form of organization not just as a neutral word is very important and I feel that and one of the recommendations out of the task force was people need to self-educate about what this Commons is that it's not just a blank space it's a space that has a culture and a

057character reflected in their Mutual benefit Mutual responsibility mutual respect and so on so I've gone through all that so what I found was in reading this document that that sense of the commons as a way of people relating and developing Community was almost completely cut out and the Amendments I want to propose reinsert that idea not to make it a a fixed idea because it is something that we have to create but a part of the exploration of how we developed the center of the city is a hard place of the city that is really unpaving the parking lot to put up Paradise a Kona white light all the ideas of creativity and essentially in the city that we can have so that all my recommendations or amendments that I will say again are from

058that perspective that the commons is important education about the commons is important and public space of many functions including indoor functions are important that's what the Civic Center was conceived of in the initial uh proposal a and those things were unfortunately for whatever reason cut out now if they're cut out in principle that you would prefer that this space be run by the parks in the traditional way then vote no against the commons but I don't believe it I believe that people gravitated to this because they sense it is a different way of organizing resources that better builds community and so I would like to see us in the various ways we can reinsert the notion of the commons and the exploration of how it is done the teaching that is necessary to learn you

059know how we you know self-manage our own resources so that's my preface Ellen real quick here before you get too far into this because you I think you overstepped on the the tech uh the technical definition of preface there a little bit no but you know give me a break yeah I I will I create some latitude here I do want to indicate though uh you know there was a discussion in this working group regarding a Civic Center building in particular and the keyword being building um and there was uh I I offered up the question um because I think we need to have that uh discussion and there was not necessarily interest uh or there was a concern about making that as a called out element to its potential cost there was no resistance

060to the idea of around Civic Center purposes or anything like that so I don't want you to represent the the um I I have preferable wording that maybe you'll be happier with when we come to that part in the in the going through the text okay so why don't we uh uh why don't we go ahead and take a look at your uh language as well I'm happy to pull it up I am just going to indicate uh before we before we get into uh Alan uh some of the uh ideas you're offering I'm actually not asking that we take a formal vote on this tonight and what I'm asking for is that we get a general idea of consensus but we feel okay about talking with the park staff uh in this direction I

061think that's uh that's the key thing from a tactical perspective that we need to do uh I didn't want to advance this document to the park staff before we had some eyes on it from this group I didn't think that was right so um so that's really the goal for tonight in my opinion unless there is any um any opposition to that process my last line was made okay all right so real quick Alan before you get into ideas that you'd like to offer to be included I'd like to see if there are any other questions from members of the council who are not members of the working group any questions on process I think Sarah you're up first then council member Briggs thanks um this is a lot of work so thank you guys

062um for doing this I don't I guess my question is if we have specific a very minor feedback how do you want that do you want me to say it now do you want me to listen how minor it is pretty minor like for example like I clicked I clicked on that includes link and it maybe something's wrong with but it just brought up like a map it didn't bring up anything because you brought up like a Google map and I think it would be helpful to show a map that actually calls out these three or four spaces I think somebody like Jeff I think maybe made one at one time I feel like we have this map this Show's like this is Liberty Plaza this is Library playing this is the library lot this

063is comp house like on the map because there's so many different properties like I just think that would be like sort of a helpful like okay these are the spaces that you can see like how they're um like two more things that are like that dude keep going I think this is good we're recording this so we're gonna reference it and we can make adjustments so thank you um this is so this is super minor but you talk about the Denali lofts in like the thing with and it it's Lofts not Loft and I noticed further down this is so piggy I'm so sorry but you said this further down it's like a Condo building and I think like since that's the first mention I'm just trying to think of somebody who like is not

064super familiar with this city like not I wish I knew what page it was on um no it's up it's further up it's like it's the like there's a section where you talk about like the different things that are on the Block uh right the block yeah so the block includes blah blah like if it was like Denali Lofts condo complex or something like that just because people might be like what is that see very minor and then um I don't somehow I think we need to make reference to the fact that we're about to start a comprehensive planning process because particularly when I think about the community engagement aspect of this I'm I worry as always about people being over engaged and having that sort of fatigue so if there's any way to link

065up like the comp plan is going to be going on for a while it's hopefully starting soon but hasn't started yet um so like there I think there should just it would be great if there was some sort of synergy between the two teams so I mean even just highlighting that we're starting that like I think we can at some point we'll be able to name the consultant we should take advantage of that process um what what is this planning process you referring to something I don't understand I'm sorry the city's doing so the city is doing a comprehensive a whole like City it's called a mass it was used to be called a master plan now we're calling it a comprehensive plan we're finally doing that whole update for the entire city so that

066includes it's like the land use portion of it mostly um but it's city-wide so there will be like a massive engagement um talking about zoning and land uses and City values and stuff like that which brings me to my final thing I think it would be helpful to also sort of explain you know like these aren't like the library lot is not zoned apart it's zoned I think public land and so you know there is sort of this tension of like part of these spaces that compose the commons our parks and part are not and I think that that's something that this you know whoever applies for this needs to consider and then whoever wins this needs to sort of like suss out like how do we how do we sort of like reconcile those

067things because there are different funding strategies essentially so yeah that's it those are really good ideas thank you for that feedback thank you for all of your work on this yeah this is this is good like this is why we wanted to bring it forth here uh council member Briggs and then Mr polkstorff yeah yeah um thank you um I just want to offer some just real General thoughts and I can send a specific language later if there's um interests um I thought that it might be um there's a few different sections one is the community value section um which I think is I would there's some language in that that's um I think fairly factual and then the second paragraph Just moves into um a little a little less factual based language and so

068um I would suggest I can send some recommended language later just maybe shifting that a little bit to talk more about how conservancies work um and kind of that model because that's been a lot of work that the the commission has worked on previously in terms of comparative communities so I can send some language along that the committee could take a look at and um might be able to be integrated before it go to staff um the another component is um in the section I'm kind of bouncing around here but um there's a section um under request um at the I guess that's at the very top um yes sorry the first section so um discussion about a tiered cost specimen which I think makes a lot of sense um one thing to discuss with

069staff might be just the benefit of identifying how much funding we've actually have for this project right now so that there's a way for Canfield you know those who are responding to provide a threshold of you know provide us something within that cost estimate I worry a little bit obviously the public engagement portion of this um is where things get the most expensive and we have a very long list there so um that's what could really increase the cost of this process so I think just identifying what our funding is is important and then further down I really liked how um it this is separated into kind of the the could and the should be um sections I thought that was a really nice way to handle it um I thought something that in terms

070of the should language there's a little more clarity around the idea that this could be I think this is alluded to but just face implementation um because we may have funding coming you know if we get through this process we may have funding that becomes available for different parts of the site at different times um and so just it would be nice to have um a final design that is cohesive but also works well um if different sections of the site get redeveloped at different times um and then this is the super very small thing um consistency in the the capitalization of city with one thing uh I think we could take care of those that sounds good and then um I did have to I know Alan's gonna be talking have the opportunity to

071see kind of a list of things that he was interested that you're interested in um discussing Alan and I I wonder if um we could have a very long discussion if we ended up going bullet point through bullet point about those recommendation um potential amendments and so I would hope that when we enter that part of the conversation that we might be able to um group them together in terms of a sense of whether or not we really want to do a um that level of amendments into this document right now Eric I don't want to cut you off um Alan I think what we'll do when we pull up your uh suggested changes is I'll pull them up and you can walk through them and I I think Erica is right if we can

072try and group things together to see where everyone's head is at um I think that would probably be helpful is that okay well I'll be glad to as you walk through the uh six pages I'd be glad to walk through the 18 amendments so you see in total what I am dealing with and then you can maybe group you know what aspects of this can be dealt with together there there is one regarding the notion of the commons that has several Dimensions there's one regarding Community Values which is a little different but related so I don't know I'm glad to go through and you can see what grouping you want we'll get to that in a minute then so Alice I thought you had called on me a point of order yeah I'm sorry you

073and you you know I I didn't see your hand uh still raised it the technology bumped you down my apologies go ahead um so I'm can I indulge also in some preferatory remarks before I get to my my comment um first of all thank you I think this is a good document a good place to start the discussion obviously we're having a good discussion um my other Preparatory comment is that I look forward to the ideas around the words to kind of breathe life into some of those ideas that that Alan was just describing I think that's important to talk through and and think about that the comments I wanted to make were sort of from the The View as the the pack liaison and I think the language or the questions that I'm assuming

074that the the colleagues will have is around Liberty Plaza and Kemp house and um the idea that like how to change the use to the extent that the use is intended to be changed of those Parcels um with regard to Liberty that's been a long discussion within the within the city and just like the basic raw sort of governance structure what is envisaged um and in the RFP I don't know that that's it's really it's it's not spelled out um I think we kind of point the way there's a lot of uh homework that the responsible bidder will have to do to really understand the Dynamics there and the use of that land and then also with regard to Kemp house because I I mean even Pac we don't we don't we don't even mess

075with Ken's house um they're really operating their own their own operation there and it being a historical site and so forth so those I think some of the questions that the parks colleagues are likely to have will be in that direction as to sort of what are we expecting to receive back um from like I say a responsible bidder on this with regard to those topics I think that's fair and I think we can also uh provide some sort of indicative descriptions uh in particular related to kemphos um maybe we can talk offline about what's in the language might look like um but I I totally hear you on that super thank you yeah yeah thanks uh Alice you're up next I have to kind of I it was when uh Sarah was speaking um

076I really some things really resonated in listening to everybody else so I have to shift back um there was a mention of the fact that uh the center of the the library lot is designated as public land well so is Liberty Plaza and so is Camp House no yeah hemp house and uh the library and so forth there's a lot of public land and Sarah also mentioned the comprehensive plan that is coming in that it's it is does emphasize land use so Parks all parks are public land um they are designated as Parks as part of the public land that's a technicality but it it causes a lot of confusion as to who owns it and who doesn't and who manages it Parks has designated some public land properties that are managed by other than

077parks and managed by if you will a group of commoners um but um but uh I did want to point out that the owners ownership is public and that makes us owners in an indirect way already so I think that the ownership is a sort of a straw man and I I think we've covered a lot of the things that need to be covered in this RFP since it's not a suggestion for a whole new Society it's it's a suggestion for a place where ideas and people are welcome um so that's what I wanted to say Sarah can we'll have to share a little bit of the responsibility for my having brought these technical things up but no I appreciate that you're right it's all the same zoning I think I'm more I'm more meant

078like yeah like it's Parks but then Library Lots not under parks and I think that's an important exactly it's it makes it more complicated than it it appears at first so that's what I wanted to say at this point um that and I I also would like to say that um well I'll I'll save that for another time and thanks thanks and I I Alice to your point and Sarah obviously to your comments earlier like it does like we can work on the the language to indicate this comprehensive nature but also clearly differentiate between the parks uh versus the uh city office of strategic planning governance differences I think that is uh you know it's obviously something we have called out directly in the activation uh draft as well um we should probably be very

079clear about it here as well so it's an excellent excellent differentiation any other comments before I want to I do want to give Alan his due here around uh his amendments and we're going to try and walk through those um but any other comments regarding the existing document as written because this meeting is recorded we have the ability to go back and make some changes we're going to try and do that as best we can and uh and then go from there okay all right hearing none then I'm going to go ahead Alan I'm going to pull up your document give me just one minute here uh to switch over to the um see here Ellen I know you sent me this so I'm going to take some um uh some the liberty of actually

080um putting it into something I can share on the screen here is that okay that way you don't have to pull up that yeah that's that's what I hope if it could go up there or next next to the draft that we're working on yeah I I hope that this could just be distributed to everybody so they could see it as a whole and then it'd be easier to reference but however you can do it okay give me just one minute here okay okay I think uh split the screen somehow so that we could see what it is that I'm yeah unfortunately I cannot split the screen um it might be simpler to keep well I don't know we can just start and see how about how about we do this Alan uh everyone can

081take a look in the agenda and see the um see the uh document that was referenced and so you can certainly pull that up and we I think it is a good idea for the public to be able to see your amendments here so um I hope that we find a way an easy way to distribute those so they could have been easily seen ahead of time but however so could I begin yes plea please do and and try and group them uh in in some elements that uh that were there aligned okay yeah well and I don't want to about I I just let me work through this the same you work through the the reference document so the First Essential that I feel should be altered is that this has always been called

082the center of the city Commons by those who work with it so that's what we should call it in our last discussion that's what it was agreed and somehow that comment that center of the commons part of the center of the city got dropped dropped out in the last draft that uh it was made so I want us to be to call this the center of the city Commons is what it is that we are dealing with as the name of the space and uh so that's number one and that appears in several places where we reflect reference the center of the city and I just want that to be referenced the center of the city Commons this is a Commons and then the second edition I just go through we mentioned the first recommendation

083which was uh for the Council of the commons was actually to begin that formation it was not a final formation and the uh and then the recommendation to begin planning but I add another paragraph to reference to two other recommendations that are particularly important that to convene meetings of all the partners on the Block and uh to the that was the second one to remove the ground level parking that should be clear that that is the intention from the beginning the city council the Council of the task force and the city council adopted and to integrate this into long-term development as a priority in the city master plan and I Erica indicated that's now called the comprehensive plan but whatever it is this element those three other recommendations should just be referenced that somebody that

084a a proposal vendor I guess they're getting called and to know those other recommendations particularly around yeah the notion of Partners on the Block because later on I add on who to name more specifically those those partners it's very importantly a third air amendment is in the Community Values which I felt was uh looking to uh negatively at the limitations of City financing and I would have us add what I have said a hundred times in this whole process the resources available for the center of the city Commons development are indeterminate Ann Arbor is a rich city in Michigan and in America in the advocacy of this project the initiating view has been make it beautiful and inviting and the money will be there this is a generous City philanthropic proud and noticed in the

085larger World design something beautiful for the people that it will feel like home from wherever you came and the people will contribute money and many resources and talents will come from the bottom up and all around as well as from the top down and far away I think we need that paragraph because that is really the basis on which we're going to raise the 50 million or whatever it will eventually be that that Dan Adams talks about yeah we don't have a an access to well we got to have that view of beauty as drawing the funds and let's keep going here okay okay then there there's a references to of the site and it's thought we talk about the Main Street District the State Street District but this is called the Midtown district and

086we should emphasize that because in the initiating committee at least we are looking on how all the businesses around there can begin to see themselves as a Midtown District at which the commons is a a reference and Gathering point so the Midtown District should be included in in there okay then I added in as I said the to identify who actually are the potential block partner Jerusalem Garden certainly should be mentioned the first Martin Corporation whether we invention spark in the uh continuing education for Women program in this first modern building I don't know I would attempt to but anyhow the music business is on the corner yeah that has always been a there's a place where years the reading room there's rental housing and apartments the intercooperative council is an essential part of that

087as we're looking for cooperation and the and the University of Michigan Credit Union but in that mention of the block we should also mention that the credit union the Martin Corporation the library are all considering building changes that should be in the mind of somebody who has seen how to you know engage this block it's a block in transition um okay then we had in the other in we're on page three now or what I had is Page Three is what what are the uh the expectations and I would say that the top one well I certainly appreciate Intermodal Community Transportation the top one is what the cities the city itself said safe welcoming and fosters a culture of peace and non-violence that's when the task force report that was approved by the city council

088that really reflects the character of what we are trying to create in the center of the city if I can proceed then I have a quite a incidental comment about you think outside the box but basketball is a thought is thought too far there's not big enough space it's too disorienting on experienced with basketball in the People's Park in Berkeley it's great but we don't have enough space for it yeah so I think we shouldn't really direct people in that way when we talk about other things we would like uh potential potentially on some things yes maybe but on a water feature we want a water feature we want these people who are doing it to give us a water feature and we want and I think I think we want an active play Space

089so that potentiality potentially should just be removed and we should say this is something that we want okay let's keep going okay now now let's see where am I am going to number 10. oh wait wait no no we went we we go back another potentially yeah you had several others oh yeah restroom I think restrooms are really important how we do that it's a limited space I don't know but we should the composting toilets in the sense of a full circle of the life system is important and I think as a demonstration place the common should have composting toilets and we should ask the people to explore that there's an excellent book called humanure uh looking at all sorts of composting toilets Arrangements including for places like our Commons now then then this comes

090the question of the public building that I thought we had left in the last draft that we agreed upon but when the when the markings came out Rita said no cross that off and it should not be cross-sucked I would say all right I'm sorry I'm sorry but I'm just going to say a point of order this is we have a commission member who's been speaking for seven minutes now um well we had we had a chair who's been speaking I'm glad to stop and go through the rest of this later we could talk about what I've already spoken so far and then we can deal with the rest I only got uh eight more Alan Let's uh I want to uh I want to be conscious of trying to give you some opportunity to

091talk here but I also want to be conscious at the time we what I don't want to get into is an explanation around every point we will send out the document to everyone I think you've already done so we'll post it publicly I I did it properly I sent it to uh Chris Christopher to and to you and to Alice to have it distributed and I don't think it ever got distributed well you sent it this afternoon so no that's right okay I'm committed to send it sooner I want to give you another five minutes and then we're gonna we're gonna try and we're not taking a vote on this tonight okay we're not taking a vote of this let me go do it so yeah on the Civic Center building I I suggest to

092go back a little bit so I can examine location options cost and feasibility of a year-round Civic Center building or four season space Arrangements allowing for such functions as in those eight functions that are listed there are things that often have been mentioned in terms of what we need as a Civic Center a visitor center Gallery Cafe and so on I don't need to reiterate them but they should be part of what this professional group is helping us think how can those functions be met in a building or in the new Martin building or in the uh of course basis building or in the noble house okay let's keep going all right we did we did talk about this building in particular extensively okay so that so now I'm keep I'm keeping the functions and

093leaving the building as an option the creative people could figure out what to do with it okay okay uh there should be in there maximize geothermal power in particular because the capacity of geothermal from the basement of that parking lot is very positive but emphasize it the whoever the developers are they should look up 820 priorities for uh 2030. and uh I'd like to add another point of order okay these are these are available to the to anyone including the public we look at we are not taking the vote tonight and we have heard many of these things before in other meetings uh it what we are so we are have developed is not a finished document we are not voting on it and I think we should take a look at the first words

094of of each one of these things and and move on yeah Alan I I I'm gonna uh say that we need to like I said I want to give you two more minutes and see okay I will try and deal with this as quickly as I can on this report from the activation committee that branding this as the center of the city and omitting the commons is not acceptable at all that's not the brand yeah and two further sections are one to describe the form of organization that could be commonly pooled resources what is a common is an organizational form and that was referenced further it is not a amalgam it's it is an organizational form that we need and what is the kind of of Education of of self-managed resources that we need that

095is something also that should be referenced uh I would add up besides uh letting people know that Library green is a 501c3 and giving the correct name of the Ann Arbor Community Commons initiating committee that we should have an invitation or or a an intention of Education around materials as to what is the commons Peter linebaugh's uh book on magnitude pesto and several others David Bowie's book is thinking like a commoner particularly Eleanor ostrom's work on governance of the commons it is reference I wish it would be and should be pointed out in the appendix but we should reference that so it would be another special attention what is the education needed to engage the question of the commons and so what was those four as well as the David Bowie three is those are

096David Bowie website which is just amazing and uh enthusiastic well in your time all right okay cool okay I think I got there I'm done I got my 18 in there I and we're not voting but I hope people recognize that the commons is really what this is about if you think this is not what what it's about we will have a discussion about that Beyond this because I cannot believe that people would vote to exclude the comments as a functional part of this Ellen yeah we heard it yep we got you all right okay so I'd like to see if there's uh if there are any comments related to any of these we have offered up uh ever to everyone the opportunity to offer up uh changes to the original document we're going to

097take into consideration those uh and so I'd like to do the same with any uh areas here uh and then I do want to explain from a process standpoint how I'd like to approach this to make sure we have something to take the city staff so first things first any ideas here that are in support or concerns around any of the ideas Allen has offered forth uh it doesn't guarantee that any of them be incorporated but certainly want to capture folks thoughts Rita go ahead I agree with uh indicating the block being in transition and I think the exploring the potential for geothermal is a good idea possibly exploring the space as a resilience hub that's all thanks Rita Jeff yeah I I want to uh although uh sometimes I have some reservations about uh

098the the extent to which Alan proposes uh uh things I I do support his idea of a comments I do think we do need to Inc stay with that and Define it some uh so that we uh we we all understand what we're talking about but I I do think this is more than just a downtown park I respect the concerns of people who who are worried about uh the commons interfering with the possibility of getting a park put in place and maybe that's a strategic or tactical issue but I I I want to express my support for Alan's focus on the comments yeah thanks Jeff Rita this is something else mistake sorry no worries okay and I will say we did not without it was not without debate that we talked about idea around

099Commons is a term versus commoning uh and there's a lot of concern about confusion regarding a movement versus a space we did have a a pretty lengthy discussion around this uh as well and there was overwhelming support that we did not want to create that confusion for the designers uh Erica and then um our council member Briggs and then council member Cornell I appreciate the um perspective that the uh the committee took on this I think that was the appropriate approach I um you're putting an RFP out for a design process and we need to make this simple thank you councilmember Cornell yeah I think I'm just gonna echo or build on what Erica said some of this feels really overly prescriptive and the RFP calls for um you know a lot of community engagement

100and I would just caution this group to to not to not presume to understand you know what the community actually wants and to to put so much of this I liked the fact that the RFP was you know gave really solid guard rails you know within which to work um and this just this just feels really um myopic and some it makes assumptions around what the public might want for this space and and I'm not comfortable with that so I just want to go on record is that Jen do you mean these amendments or do you mean what what we presented earlier no no I think what you presented earlier was was great I'm I am fine with proceeding with the RFP as it is um I think these amendments are just super overly prescriptive

101for where we are and I think would stifle um some of the responses we might get back from firms who would you know be willing to do this work um and I do think that it also sort of makes assumptions on what the public at large in our community engagement process would look like by you know baking all this in at this stage I will indicate I agree with you council member Cornell I think uh that uh the idea behind having a sort of a broad um forward-thinking um open-ended approach is going to yield us with a lot of results where as if we try and narrow we will cut out opportunity so uh Frank I I just wanna echo my support for Jen's comments and uh Erica that and I think the group and

102individually we've discussed this with um Alan and I I think what we we all want is to create something that has the potential to be these other things but not to over prescribe these other things at this stage uh if we don't succeed in getting the physical space um as a public asset than all these other wonderful ideas you know will not be possible so uh a building the commons Etc I think those things are only possible if we are successful in getting this scope completed getting the design study started and see where this takes us let's not over prescribe it at the front end thank you Frank uh and I see Jen and Jeff both up their hands up I think that's carry over from last time Frankie beer is up to so um

103unless there are any other comments um what I'd like to propose then we have this meeting is publicly available um we've uh recorded uh all of these comments uh I'd like to I'm going to review them uh afterwards and I'd like to have uh uh the committee um grant me the ability to take into consideration any comments that seem to have majority support reject any comments that don't seem to have majority support and make some amendments I will send it back out for public posting and then I'd like to have a conversation with the staff at the parks department utilizing that document is that something the community is willing to grant me um the ability to do uh going forward I didn't quite get it I didn't quite get it what do you mean by

104majority support I didn't quite understand what was proposed closed captioning not available if there are changes make them as as what seemed to be the direction of the committee well if the direction of the committee is no I do not approve Alan real quick I didn't actually call on you yet Steve still has the floor so Steve I was just answering your question yeah I I appreciate that I guess my um larger comment is I just want a chance to read more fully those comments I thought I I followed along with Alan's discussion but I haven't had a chance to read them I agree with the comment I kind of like the flavor of a lot of the sentiment there I don't know that I agree with all of the granular changes um and I'm

105also inclined towards what council member Cornell mentioned in terms of not over prescribing uh with regard to the space but kind of giving the hints um to the to the bidders as to what what they ought to consider so I want to I I think I'm in favor of what you described Adam I think you're taking a lot of the responsibility on yourself to try to sort of distill the discussion and make some modifications to get to a document that we can then float to the parks team Park staff with a straight face um I guess like I said I want a chance to read the comments and read the the whole proposal kind of with its with this discussion tonight in mind um the other comment I'll make is that are we 100 sure

106that it's just Parks or is there DDA is there anybody else that needs to be sort of ground floor with this document so with that I'm sorry for talking so long but those are my thoughts on that no that's okay and I I think what I'd like to suggest based on what you just said Steve is certainly want to give folk because they are everyone is seeing this these uh Allen's amendments tonight um I'd like to see Chris if we could uh uh um pass these these amendments out and also uh you know when I give maybe through the weekend we'll take a look see if there's any uh Reflections Steve and others as you take a look at them and see if you'd like to send any comments back you can do that and

107I can send another document out we could post those both publicly so that we don't have any transparency issues Chris is that something you can do yes so to um what I'm going to do is I'm going to create that into a PDF and upload it um to uh agenda making it so that everyone can see it okay that's great thank you very much for that so we'll do that we'll do two things we'll we'll upload Alan's amendments to the agenda uh and Chris Tudy has those so you can take her there and then we'll give you through the weekend you know on Monday uh through Monday to uh take a look and see if there are any feedback around those and I will make some adjustments at that point in time send out a

108revised document let us know uh uh let's put it this way yes we don't want to be in violation of any Oma so we won't communicate on the document but if there are uh if uh you know hopefully that will be a reflection of of where um you know where we're at based on the amendment so um and and Steve to your second Point regarding staff um one thing that we did talk about with Heather previously was and she had worked out within the city uh departmental uh interface was that this the parks department would be the ones leading it so I do give them their their due at uh you know coordinating however they choose within the city structure you if you had described or you were going to write out exactly what you

109thought was going to be the process when we get review of what comes what parks is working on how Library green gets involved in the review of this or that that whole process after what we send to them how do we hear what comes back and what is the process of actually reviewing the uh the responses to the RFP so that in the discussion of part with parks that should produce some sort of working plan that's in the work somehow in your conversations yeah I mean I think it's fairly open-ended right now considering uh the last conversation we had with parks and this was a little while ago any agreement at that point in time was we would take a look and take a First Step at the scope and then come back and so

110what that process is going to look like I think we'll come back and ask them um you know but we have not gotten to that point no I will keep you posted Alan thank you Alice once again too much has been said between the time I thought um but I think the one point that Steve made and others have made Erica and uh is that there is a time for the granularity and that would be in the time when we haven't a successful bidder for the RFP and they are developing the process for engagement and for the design of a space that might meet the resulting agreement about uh what kind of things we want this is way too granular if I'm and so I I just have to say also that there are some

111there is some wording which I which I would not want to accept at this stage and the word Commons is part of it um in that before the um proposal a was considered in past the name of the um RFI response that um I authored and Allen signed the the last change that I wanted to make was not to have comments on that um I mean the title of that and that title is now owned by the city and so they would first perhaps need to agree to The Branding of that um because the proposal that I wrote went to the city it is city property and therefore there are some intellectual property um questions in in that but mainly this all of this could come out easily in the public engagement and none of

112this is in stone we probably will give up a lot of control over this once it goes to Parks but we will not give up all contributions so um that's all I want to say now and I'm pretty tired all right thanks Alice all right uh Ellen do you have anything last comments to add I think we've got a direction on this at this point yeah well since nothing is written in in stone I don't have any stones but yeah well Alice what you just said where we began was the a2c to Ann Arbor Community Commons Alan I don't want to talk about it I'm sorry okay you know the point of this was to talk about the RFP so let's uh wrap it up then I think we've got good direction so Chris is

113going to post Alan's comments uh or Alan's uh amendments here so they're publicly accessible take a look uh and then I'm gonna make some uh you know um changes to the document based on where I think folks are at in our public discussion this evening and then we will try and start talking with Parks um as quick as possible here and uh that will be a topic for uh the next agenda of this group uh in addition to some working group agendas in the interim so I'll pull ahead and pull this down and I think um we can move on to Ellen you already indicated actually you already spoke to the other uh documents as reference points those are in the activation working group area there were two some interesting things I just scanned them

114uh Alan if you have one minute if you'd like to summarize either of those two documents or just pass them as points of reference it's fine as well yeah I know it just just passed them on reimagining the commons beautiful Innovative projects in places all over the country and the first one I sent about Parks there's a lot of good ideas and I think we immerse ourselves in those it's all it's good for us to see what other places are are doing whatever they whatever they yeah call it so I didn't have any further I did want to though in the activation part if we if we can move for a moment to our next uh yeah working group the Earth stay is coming up yeah Jeff Crockett gave a very nice description we got

115some great music we'll have some excellent speakers we're going to have exhibits of organizations what they're doing for the earth and the climate and good stuff I would hope that the initiative the uh the initiating committee is sponsoring this I would hope that this is our function in some way that the Council of the commons would say this is a good idea and encourage the city uh Council and City staff and to all come and make this really a community event concerned with the Earth we share and the environment and participate in another way people and so I would be very happy if we would just say yes to the Earth day and be able to pass that on Hope is a city a newsletter could put a notice of it in often the parks

116uh people put in notices of what's going on in the parks around town but they sort of leave out the center of the city Central Park even if it's not so administered and now this is opportunity sort of activation to get the city agencies more engaged so I could I think I sent to Chris he had the current leaflets on the uh on the earth day that he could post up but anyhow it should be a good program I hope everybody will come and I hope we could say a yes to it that could be passed on to the city council and City staff and make this uh center of the city this will be the 10th 10th time we've done this in in the Commons Library lot area since 2014. thanks Alan all right

117um so with that we're going to wrap up the activation there are a couple of linked items in that agenda item um the next item is in the next agenda items we've already got one which is just to have um the results of any of these RFP discussions that come back from Park staff are there any other items that uh that we'd like to touch on I know I have been working to reach out to a couple of other community uh other community communities rather who we have worked with or spoken with about coming to speak as some guest speaker similar to how we get with David Cullen at the city of Detroit but there are certainly other opportunities for that too are there any other ideas here that we'd like to have included in

118that well actually the the question was raised about what is the organizational form of this Gathering of resources and so I would like that on the agenda of what is can be the organizational form I did talk with Lawrence uh the County Deeds man the castenbaum about how a Commons would actually be formally organized and I think that's the question of how these very disparate properties can be brought together in a unified administration of management on the agenda all right Alan thanks Steve and then uh councilmember bricks uh this is my second to last meeting so the next meeting is my last uh and that's because my term on the parks advisory commission is uh over my last meeting there is on May 16th so we think we have identified the lucky winner from Parks

119advisory commission who will take the role of liaison um uh Rachel skyless has actually been observing the meeting here this this evening in the sort of in the in the lobby if you will um and she didn't get scared off yet even though despite you know us showing what we really are like as a as a committee and when I first got on this thing because the opportunity came up within Parks um for the this liaison uh I volunteered right away because I thought this would be the most Ann Arbor thing ever and having been born and raised here uh I felt like that would be something I did not want to miss and this has not disappointed um I thought it's been a very good discussion and and honestly it's a difficult discussion because

120it uh it's a topic that doesn't have a lot of easy answers it's a complicated site it's got it and so I think it's really been worthy of our um time and energy to get it from where where it was to where it is now and so um I'm I'm happy to have been part of that Journey but like I say I'm I'm out of here like this whether I like it or not my role is expiring so I would put that on the topics for next meeting um just because I'll be stepping out and the new one will probably be stepping in and so to sort of make that transition um uh part of the discussion so what you're asking for is a celeb celebratory uh evening to celebrate Steve uh specifically second that

121that motion yeah very good we can arrange that all right councilmember breaks you have the last word here and then we're going to move into public comment and a journey very good thanks for all your service here Steve um I I did want to let folks snide on if we need to have this as the next agenda item but um we did receive a memo back from um from City Administration regarding the food truck um memo uh so check memo responsive back to the recommendations um that city council had made and and the commission had made earlier so just wanted to let folks know that that's um will be distributed probably directly out to the commission um at some point attacked the next city council agenda um and I would actually like suggest I I

122don't think that that Allen's recommendations for the discussion around management of the face or the commons is necessarily appropriate we have a I didn't understand what you were just saying relax yeah I I Alan had made a recommendation for next agenda item around management of the spaces of Commons I think that'll I think that'll um management the space will come out later okay okay very good all right thank you very much councilmember Briggs for all that um we're going to move into uh public comment uh Chris do we have any other members of the public who got their hands raised yes Robert black is just racist hand Robert you'll be given three minutes you are allowed to speak thank you thank you it's echoing I think again yeah Robert I think you've got your uh

123you probably have uh your mic on and your computer on with the volume that is typically what causes that issue it is and try it one more time here um if I speak more quietly no unfortunately it's it's definitely I've done this before so I've experienced this problem you are um and uh it is certainly you've got two devices on no I just have one one just one so why don't you call that in we'll we'll get to any other speakers and once you hop off and we'll get you at the last word thank you [Music] okay Chris any other members of the public okay uh Daniel Adams you'll be given three minutes this week thanks Dan uh good evening Dan Adams again 1016 Daniel Street um before I begin I want to acknowledge the

124effort that went into the RFP document and especially the contributions made by volunteers City staff um even folks that I don't agree with on the merits of the project I think those those efforts deserve to be acknowledged and respected um I say that because I think I need to speak you know plainly about what I've heard tonight about the stakes of the RFP that you're discussing I think they're significant um the costs of treading water here are going to continue to incur grave damage on the city and City residents who might have benefited from the Investments that could have been made absent the intervention of this project so my email to the council from two months ago requested an update on the Project's financial status including a summary of the library green conservancy's fundraising progress

125fundraising plan and financial support for the RFP I think this is a reasonable ask given the stake to this project and the public commitments that are going to be made to fund it I didn't hear that tonight and I'm asking again that the next meeting include that update there are Library green officers on this Council we ought to be able to hear that the public deserves that with respect to the RFP this body had two years to deliberate and get this document ready to issue you have a working group task to that objective and you should have been ready to issue the document the moment you had the resources to do it but it's clear from tonight's dialogue that you're not um much of this meeting has been spent reviewing and even debating branding choices

126in the draft document that hasn't even been socialized with City Park staff meanwhile the project itself is years behind schedule has no funding source and the city is continuing to burn millions of year in Revenue that could be plowed into various city funding priorities including housing support for the homeless all kinds of things that we need money for and don't have I don't understand the lack of urgency especially from the library green members on this Council who were champing at the bit to plan and build this project in 2018. I wish these folks had the same level of energy that they had plowed into defeating the course basis project into creating this park and issuing this RFP the rfp's community value section reflects I think an acknowledgment the first one to my knowledge of the

127harsh Financial realities that this project faces that there is no money in the Parks budget nor political will within the community to pass a large supporting millage to to build this project I think those are true statements the omission of Library greens fundraising capacity is also I think a tacit acknowledgment that they are not on any time scale this project I think if these statements are true then you are as an Advisory Board of the city council obligated to inform the city council and the public of these facts objectively clearly and plainly without false optimism meaningless euphemisms like activation and pleasant sounding bromides let's be clear about what we're talking about the statement that we are taking a deliberate activation focused approach within the center of the city that is nonsense and I mean that

128literally I don't know and I'm not meant to know what it means thank you Dan any other members of the public Chris okay we're going to try uh Robert black one more time hopefully the echo has been fixed Robert Robert I think I fixed it okay um kudos to council member board store thank you for your service and I trust that you're the next liaison that comes in will continue the kind of respectful dialogue that you create and I really appreciate that um just also to say remember this is called the Council of the commons and so you refer to comments twice a couple times or two two times in Ann arborist history there's a Downtown Commons you could you could explore this there's already a sentiment from this council member behavior and council member

129Henny that the commons is an important future tradition if you look at one of the other RFI responses which I helped put together and Champion it talks about learning from the past and then the present and the future there is a trend already to the Future that has to do with this idea and I think you could include some language that at least sets the stage to move into this discussion okay the second thing is um there was a bullet delineated uh from uh section three deliverables unanticipated results that Heather's safe Earth Miss safe Earth has actually included in here from the early language that was stricken from here and it said includes a year-round Civic Center building if feasible and what I heard councilman Crown chair Zemke say broad thinking open-ended approach to not

130cut out opportunities don't cut out the opportunity of the possibility of a building look at 23 as a task force report it says we have heard enthusiasm for a Civic Center Commons building they would host activities such as Commons decision making space Cafe Community Theater Auditorium celebration room art gallery and Studio Visitor Center on and on do not preclude that it is only the city and you have no resources that's a that's an old Paradigm that no longer applies here um I know there are many people who have money in this town that would support this if you have the right Vision um and also council member um Amber Schmidt I really appreciate your planning professional approach here and same thing with council member um Alice Ralph um during this this session in section two

131site detail of the block I provided an example of a professionally rendered block on Google Earth Pro that does exactly what council member Hammerschmidt was saying and I think if you add that graphic correctly this version shows the bike paths on it the one that's in there is unprofessional it's not Ortho corrected I would not use it as a professional therapy sequence and then lastly I just want to reiterate the fact that activation is occurring on this thing and to the extent that the Council of the commons is championing the activation Earth Day for example you've heard some good things about that join in and see I wrote a song last year that was sung there and it will be sung again this year find a spirit in this place that you can see in

132activating the commons and then also join with with Mr Crockett and the group to foreign and let's get some activation going that'll that'll bring the spirit of the community together here so thank you Bravo and your good work tonight thank you thank you Robert any other members of the public Chris [Music] okay um nope no there's no more excellent thank you so much Chris thanks you for your facilitation of our meeting this evening your first one welcome to Ann Arbor uh in the most Ann Arbor way to quote uh steep workstorff tonight so um I think we've got a good uh tactic uh if uh Chris will post uh for the public Allen's amendments uh and then I will start on Monday um making any edits to the document based on our recording this evening

133so uh thank you very much to everyone who participated this evening thank you for the time we're pretty close to time we have a motion to adjourn all in favor say aye aye excellent any of it posed thank you so much everyone have a wonderful evening uh and we'll talk soon thank you