When you are on City Council, you are plagued with low self-esteem because no matter what you do, the odds are you are going to make at least half the people unhappy.

After the much-publicized “Ypsitucky” debacle last week, I was flooded with emails from constituents suggesting that Council has more important things to worry about other than names for festivals in the park. As result of all these emails, the low self-esteem flared up again.

Council did tackle some very important issues last Tuesday. Needless to say, they were not covered by the local press.

City Council passed on first reading an amendment to its purchasing and contracting ordinance adopting buy local / hire local policies. In addition, Council strengthened its Living Wage and Prevailing Wage requirements for people contracting with the City and for developers receiving tax abatements such as Brownfield credits and OPRAs. Council chambers were packed with local union members and representatives who spoke in favor of this action. Where was the Ypsilanti Citizen on that one?

City Council also adopted a $14M budget for Fiscal Year 2009-10 that included no cuts to public safety, maintaining Police and Fire service levels. This budget included establishing an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Fund to retrofit City-owned facilities and street lighting to save money and promote a greener Ypsilanti. Where was WEMU this time?

Finally, City Council began discussions on the dramatic revamping of the City’s two DDAs that would consolidate them into one that would administer the two districts. The Ann Arbor News failed to notice this happening, but at least they put together a blurb about the search for a new director.

I really shouldn’t be too thin-skinned here. At least the Ann Arbor News is losing interest in Ypsitucky and focusing on more pressing local issues like the emailing going on at Ann Arbor City Council meetings. Thanks guys. We needed that.