The Ypsilanti Courier
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Just the facts ma'am
PUBLISHED: April 5, 2007
Editor's Note: This is the next installment of The Courier's new, semi-weekly series of columns written by city of Ypsilanti council members. Council members will cover a variety of current issues facing the city of Ypsilanti.
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Anyone who watched Dragnet will remember Jack Webb and Harry Morgan trying to get to the bottom of things. Get the important details, weed out the rest, and find the truth.
I find that two different spheres of my life also have this need to get to the truth, my day job at EMU, and my work as an Ypsilanti City Council member, for Ward 3.
At work, I do a lot with computers, faculty, fellow staff members and even with students. I have been involved with research grants, and while I don't "teach" in a traditional sense, I do conduct a lot of workshops and help a lot of technology users in one-on-one settings, and hopefully help them come to know how to do things, or do things better with technology.
Being this close to faculty, having been involved in some research grants, and working slowly on my Master's degree in educational technology, I've come to appreciate the use of facts to support arguments. Those facts might be things that are uncovered in your own research, or they might come from the research of other people at other institutions.
Now, when I find myself reading something or listening to a speaker, where someone makes a claim and does not provide any supportive information, I start to be skeptical. An example, one of the newsletters we get on Council is the Michigan Municipal Review, published by the Michigan Municipal League, www.mml.org.
In the January/February article on traffic signals, the author made the following statement, "The reality of 'stop and go' traffic signals is that crashes and casualties typically increase following their installation. Studies in Michigan and elsewhere confirm that total crashes increased 30 percent or more following installation of new traffic signals."
However, the author gave no evidence to back up his claims. Which studies? Studies done by what organizations? What studies or reports was he drawing from, that I, as an elected official, could also get copies of, to improve my education on the subject? When were these studies done? Have differing studies been done in communities of differing sizes?
While I have no reason to disbelieve the author, he also gave me no way to educate myself on the subject, to confirm his sources or to determine if his inferences were appropriate for traffic issues in Ypsilanti. He had only gone half way to helping me. I only use this as an example of the questioning I sometimes bring to bear on a subject before I reach a conclusion of my own.
If you've read this far you're likely thinking to yourself, "Where is Filipiak going with all this stuff?" and rolling your eyes.
I know. I've seen my son give me that look. All of this is leading up to messages on my answering machine at home. Huh?
Lately, I've been getting messages at home from people calling to complain about the "income tax" and to express their opposition to it. Some of them have also included exact quotes from fliers that have been distributed around sections of town, about the negative effects an income tax might have.
I appreciate the calls and the time people have taken to contact me, but it bothers me that the information they have in hand is so one-sided and makes claims without providing any proof. So, like much of the dark side of politics, it plays to people's emotions, without educating people, and that does us all a disservice.
It's true that council has been talking for years about the possibility of an income tax, and we are fairly certain the question of whether or not to implement one is going to be on a ballot this year. Beyond that, not much else is decided about the mechanics of how it might work, how much might be exempt or when it would start. It would take me another three pages to expand upon and explain all of the issues surrounding this issue, but that's for a different day.
We on council are here because of you, because you had the faith that we would do the right things. We need to keep hearing from you. We need to know what your ideas are for helping to move Ypsilanti forward. There will likely be a huge campaign over the next several months to sway and/or educate you on the fiscal issues we, as a community, are facing. Please take the time to educate yourself, or to ask any of us on council to help you understand the issues, if you feel you need more information. The whole question of whether or not the city of Ypsilanti will have an income tax in the future rests not with council, but with you, the voters. City Council can not enact an income tax. We can, however, put together a ballot question and provide factual information that might help you make your decision in a more informed fashion.
Oh, and you know how I started my column with a quote, "Just the facts, ma'am?" Well, it's not really a quote from Dragnet at all. As it turns out, Jack Webb's character never actually uttered that phrase. It has gotten into our collective memory though, and we all believe it to be true. But if you do a little research, you discover it's not (www.snopes.com/radio/tv/dragnet.htm).
We all need to do our research, get our facts, and make informed decisions.
I'll help you, if you help me.
Brian Filipiak is a city of Ypsilanti Councilman representing Ward 3. He can be reached at bfilipiak@cityofypsilanti.com or by calling 485-3054.
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