Ann Arbor Symphony comes to Ypsilanti

Historic concert to be held at Pease Auditorium

Head to Pease Auditorium at 8 pm on Sunday, April 15th for an Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra concert with a special Ypsilanti flavor!

Eastern Michigan University professors Willard Zirk, French horn and Joel Schoenhals, piano will solo on Mozart’s Horn Concerto No. 1 and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Zirk has played principal horn with the A²SO for 24 years and will retire after this concert.

The talented Ypsilanti High School Brass directed by Matthew Kazmierski will open the concert with a fanfare. Local Ypsilanti residents Barbara Zmich and Kathleen Grimes will also be performing.

Reserved seats for Intersection: The A²SO in Ypsilanti are $16. General admission tickets are $11 (or $6 for seniors, students and children). Tickets are on sale through the EMU box office at 487-2282 or www.emich.edu to purchase tickets. Contact Amy at amy@a2so.com with any questions.

Ypsi students show off winning car

Fresh from winning third place in the Detroit Autorama, the Ypsilanti Public Schools Regional Career Technical Center’s Auto Collision Class displayed their handiwork outside Ypsilanti High School, March 29, during Parent/Teacher conferences. The 1967 Edlorado is cherry red and waiting for a buyer! The class is hoping to sell the vehicle to help fund their next car project. Details contact teacher Bill Burnette, (734) 482-8485.

City Clerk Resigns

(March 27, 2007) Ypsilanti City Clerk Rebecca Bintz submitted her resignation on Monday, March 26th. Bintz had been on the job for two months. Bintz came under fire for the alleged use of a racial epithet while at work.

Mayor Paul Schreiber (Dem) announced that Bintz had tendered her resignation during a special council meeting held Tuesday morning at 7:30. Schreiber told council that Bintz’s resignation would not be effective until it was accepted by the council. Schreiber indicated that he thought that would happen at the April 3rd meeting of City Council.

At the beginning of the meeting Schreiber asked newly hired Deputy Clerk Frances McMullan to introduce herself. McMullan began work last week on March 19th and is the only employee in the Clerk’s office.

McMullan previously worked for the City of Ann Arbor for 16 years. She has held a variety of positions including work in the Ann Arbor Building department and the Clerks office where she was an election worker and also was the recording secretary for city council for four years from 1997 to 2000. Her last job was parking referee for Ann Arbor. McMullan lives in Ypsilanti Township and is a graduate of EMU.

New City Clerk under fire for racial remark

(March 26, 2007) Newly hired Ypsilanti City Clerk Rebecca Bintz, is under fire for allegedly making a racially insensitive comment. Bintz, who is still in her probation period, was hired in December by Ypsilanti City Council and started work on January 22, 2007.

Just two months in her new position, it is alleged that Bintz used a racially charged word after an incident at city hall with an elderly customer who had come in and asked for city records. It is alleged that Bintz did not direct the word at the customer. It was after the customer left that Bintz is alleged to have used the epithet.

Bintz, who makes $60,000 a year, has not returned repeated calls from YpsiNews.com for comment on this story and the allegations.

On Saturday, Mayor Paul Schreiber (Dem) was asked about problems in the Clerk’s office. In a telephone call with YpsiNews.com, Schreiber said that, “Ms. Bintz has been a good employee and any decision about Ms. Bintz’s status is up to the City Council or Ms. Bintz.”

YpsiNews.com has learned that Schreiber met with Bintz twice last week. Schreiber would not confirm that he met with Bintz about the allegations saying that the subject of the meeting was personal.

On Saturday, Schreiber was specifically asked if he asked for Bintz’s resignation and Schreiber replied, “I will neither confirm or deny that I asked her and that is all I am going to say about this issue.”

Council members Lois Richardson (Dem, Ward 1) and Brian Robb (Dem, Ward 3) were contacted and asked if they were aware of the allegations against Bintz. They both said they were unaware of any problems in the Clerk’s office.

Richardson said she was “surprised to learn there were problems in the Clerk’s office or with Ms. Bintz.” She said that Bintz had been there just over a month and in all her dealings, Bintz had been easy to work with.

City Council has scheduled a special meeting for 7:30 Tuesday morning, March 27th. Schreiber was asked if anything else was to be discussed at the Tuesday Special Council Meeting besides the water bonds that are already on the agenda and Schreiber said no.

Under the rules of the City Charter, the City Council hires just two employees, the City Manager and the City Clerk. It is the City Manager, not the Mayor or Council, that is responsible for the hiring of all other employees and for the daily operation of the city.

City Manager Ed Koryzno took a medical leave of absence on March 9th. Bintz was cast as the new interim City Manager on March 12th under provisions of the City Charter. Sources inside City Hall had indicated that Bintz was not happy about being appointed Interim Manager. Citing her unfamiliarity with the city and that she was the only employee in the department, the next day Koryzno appointed Building Inspector and Building Department manager Charles Boulard as Interim City Manager. Koryzno is recuperating at home and is expected to return to work May 1.

Bintz was hired in July 2002, as Rebecca Lightner, to be city clerk in Bangor, Michigan. Bangor, population 1,933, is on the west side of the state. Bintz started at $28,500 and was making $33,000 a year in Bangor when she left her job four years later.

On the Van Buren County website they tell the story about Ed Cable an African-American living in Bangor, Michigan. Cable was a barber and businessman at the turn of the last century. An inappropriate racial comment was printed in the Bangor Advance newspaper before 1910. Cable responded by writing a letter to the paper. At a time when many would be afraid to speak out, Cable did and his letter was published the next week. Today, local preservationists are working to save and restore Cable’s home.

According to the 2000 Census, Bangor is 75.8% white, 12.7% African-American, and 12.2% Hispanic. By contrast Ypsilanti is 61.4% white, 30.6% African-American, and 2.5% Hispanic. (Hispanic is not considered a race by the Census Bureau which is why the numbers do not add to 100.)

Fairdata2000.com reports that Bangor has 798 registered voters. According to the Washtenaw County Clerk, Ypsilanti has 12,247 registered voters.

During the interviews with Ypsilanti City Council, Bintz cited her broad experience with a diverse community as one of the assets she would bring to Ypsilanti and why she would make a good clerk.

Bintz said during her interview that when she started working in Bangor there were four other people on her team. By the time she left, there was just one person in her office, Bintz.

See video of both of Bintz’s interviews with City Council. Her first interview was October 31, 2006. (Begins at 1hr:43min:20sec) Bintz’s second interview was December 12, 2006. (Begins at 3min:30sec)

This is not the first problem to befall the Ypsilanti City Clerk’s office. The City Clerks office has been beset with problems over the last several years. Every employee that has worked in the Clerk’s office in the last two years has either quit or transferred to a different department.

The Ypsilanti City Clerk’s department consists of just two people. Bintz and Frances McMullan who was just hired as the Deputy Clerk. McMullan started her new job March 19th and has been on the job less than one week. Prior to that, McMullan worked for the City of Ann Arbor.

McMullan will be preparing for her first election as Deputy Clerk when the Ypsilanti School Board election is held May 8th, just seven weeks away. The school board election is a joint election between the City and the townships of Ypsilanti and Superior.

Ypsi’s The Rocket to be profiled by Ikea

(March 27, 2007) Brian Robb at East-Cross.com scooped YpsiNews.com by announcing that The Rocket, downtown Ypsi’s funkiest store, will be profiled by mega store Ikea in April.

Ikea profiles small businesses that “think Ikea” which means they use Ikea products in their business. Hats off to Paul and everyone at The Rocket for helping to promote Ypsilanti. I hope their ISP is prepared for the increase in traffic. If you think 1,000 people at a store opening is huge, wait until you are on Ikea’s website.

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