This is an experiment in a new way to report on City Council meetings by including references to the video.
When public access City Council telecasts began during the 1980s, sarcastic titles included “Monday Night Football” and “The Gong Show” and “Send in the Clowns.” Cynics maybe should consider how they would come across if given their own seat at the table
In our trial run, we will report briefly on the various decisions and steer you to the video discussions. Please share any feedback on this idea at mwtsaginaw@yahoo.com.
MONDAY NIGHT LIVE. (Starring: Mayor Brenda Moore, Mayor Pro-Tem Annie Boensch, and Council members Monique Lamar Silvia, Michael Balls, Bill Ostash, Priscilla Garcia, Michael Flores and George Copeland. Reggie Williams has submitted an excused absence. Featuring: City Manager Tim Morales and City Clerk Janet Santos)
3:20 — Police Reform
Chief Robert Ruth introduces the most recent of his new officer hires, Saginaw’s own Asia Greene. Virtually unspoken is that ever since he took the reins eight years ago, a priority has been efforts to more fully integrate the department. His predecessor, Gerald Cliff, repeatedly had lamented difficulties in recruiting minority candidates. This changed with the 2015 transition.
7:00 — Rare First Ward Investment
Tarsha Works plans to restore the former Juneteenth Center at Fifth and Farwell as offices for her consulting company, featuring personal development coaching, also for business startups. She is featured in a separate feature article.
26:40 — American Rescue Plan Act
ARPA emerged in May 2001 in the form of federal aid, intended to help local units begin recovery from hardship tied to COVID-19. The City of Saginaw received $52 million and the County Board, $37 million. City schools have received $60 million under a different title, ESSER. Suburbs and outlying communities are receiving smaller sums.
These monies have been compared to stimulus and to block grants. They are newsworthy because the sums are one-time and unusually large, with fewer regulations than normal.
Starting at 26:40, Christina Jones is the first of four Houghton-Jones Neighborhood Group leaders who speak to being excluded from ARPA allocations. Responses begin with Remarks from Council at 52:30. At a key point, Morales indicates nearly $2 million remains unspent. Monique Lamar Sylvia speaks at length several times on feeling misled about the $2 million possibly being held back for other purposes. She does not name Neighborhood House, but that may be the source.
1:40 — Marijuana dispensaries
Also featuring the new planning assistant, Cassi Zimmerman, previously with Saginaw Future. In the end, we did another separate news report on a 4-4 vote that could be mostly symbolic in the big picture.
