ANN ARBOR, Mich. — With Election Day on Nov. 3 just days away, the City of Ann Arbor has gone to court seeking to have Proposal E, the citizen-led measure aimed at a city-owned electric utility, declared invalid.
Proposal E would create a new board charged with steering the launch of a public electric utility. A second vote would still be needed before such a utility could take over from DTE Energy as the electricity supplier for the city.
The city argues in its complaint that the measure changes the basic structure of city government, which would make it a charter revision rather than the charter amendment the organizers filed. The suit points to a new division that the city would not fully control and to decision-making power that would move from the city to the board.
The filing follows an earlier challenge from a coalition funded almost entirely by DTE, which tried to keep the measure off the ballot by attacking how petition signatures were counted. That group lost in circuit court and again at the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Earlier this month the City Council voted to oppose Proposal E. Mayor Christopher Taylor argued then that voters should not decide until the real costs are known. A line urging residents to vote no was removed before the final vote.
Ann Arbor for Public Power, the group behind the measure, called the lawsuit political. Executive director Brian Geiringer said he expects the proposal to pass and that the group will push the council for a second feasibility study either way.
Section: More Ann Arbor MI politics news
Filed under: Ann Arbor MI Politics News
