Can we assume at this point that none of these people want to be re-elected?

Unless they can show that this will cost the city ZERO dollars, I see no reason to continue to support these people.

funny how the discussion is more about the preservation and use of the building and not what it iwll cost the taxpayers for the move! But good luck to the new tenants getting to deal with building and zoning to get it up to code! I would pay to watch that!

I'm pretty sure that artspace would need the building in working order first before they took control of it. So that would mean a renovation of city hall and the adt building, but don't fear, if good old jack can tell us Camp Dearborn is profitable, this should be too.

Wait, we're selling selling city hall? I haven't heard of this effort before today. But I find the most comical is the letter of intent to sell the property "would specify that the city is selling the building as-is condition, given that it is in need of significant repairs to its roof and parking structure."

What? If my mom's front porch had a dent in it, or if our roof had shingles missing, we'd get a notice from the city to fix it asap. It's amazing how our public officials hold themselves accountable.

Earlier reports said the school administration had to move to the building as well to make it "cost effective". The district denied they had made a decision about moving. Haven't seen any news about them discussing the move in an open meeting, but does the action by the city mean the school district has agreed to move too?

What the mayor wants - the mayor gets. Can the convention center be far behind??

THIS STORY IS 5 DAYS LATE TO BE A REALLY GOOD APRIL FOOL'S DAY JOKE!!! WHAT IS THE MAYOR TRYING TO DO? WHY DOSENT HE JUST CHANGE OUR NAME TO "WEST DETROIT". WHY DOSENT HE HAVE A CONTEST TO SEE WHAT ELSE HE CAN SELL. AND THE WINNER WOULD WIN ONE OF THOSE BEAUTIFUL CABINS AT CAMP DEARBORN....
BOB

This is the stupidest idea yet, from the most incompetent mayor this city ever had. This idea is a prime example of why he has had to declare personal bankruptcy, and never had any success at earning income outside of government jobs given to him based on his name. This idea does not even make sense.

Mr. Bazzi said "All we get is negative press and we have to turn that around" The reason all the bad press comes is because of the horrible decisions City hall has made. An outcry from the people start once something such as this is presented to the public. Closing pools, libraries, denying businesses to invest in our city has the people furious and then the media gets involved. Investing in outsourcing 'assesment' businesses to evaluate OUR city and ready to move forward with remodeling Dunworth and Fordwoods, when we have NO money is besides me Is the Mayor lying about having no money because seems all these assessments and investments HE wants to make cost money....NOW the Mayor wants to sell City to an Artspace company...Really? I wonder if 5-10 years down the road we will hear about him taking kick backs, these 'projects' he wants to invest in are ridiculus! Come on Mayor....Serve your people and do your job. This is a funny statement from the Mayor, "We’ve identified a lot of deficiencies in this building," O'Reilly said. "The purchaser would have to bring it up to code." So....did he just admit that city hall is not up to City Code? Its ok for City hall to not be up to code but if any resident has one thing out of place, you better believe a citation will be on that door...hmmm makes ya think, what else the Mayor ignores or doesn't follow...

I just sent an email to the mayor asking him - just how much it will cost the taxpayers for a new city hall. He must know if he put this motion before the council, well we shall see what he has to say.

The city is moving fast on this, Its scary how we don't hear much about this.

There are so many problems with this I don't really know where to start. Luckily, many of you have already identified them! The fact that this passed 4-1 is baffling. Does anyone know where O'Donnell and Hubbard stand on it? Also, since when does the Mayor and the Council jump to action when an organization expresses interest in purchasing City Hall? I think there is much more going on here than we are being told and the council holding closed meetings to discuss it does not make it look any better.

I am so sad. In the history of Dearborn, I have never met anyone as dumb as the Mayor. Pretty soon, we will have someone looking over our spending and budget. We will be the sister to Detroit. My happiest day would be when I sell my home and move out of Dearborn. Art - pretty soon we will be painting our sidewalks. Hell the city cannot get people to cut grass and clear trash but we are selling our historic city hall. Good job. love you for that.

Residents of Dearborn - This is the final straw! We need to take our city back from this mayor and incompetent city council (less Tafelski). This is the craziest idea that I've ever heard. Unfortunately, I don't think that there is a City Council meeting until late in April. We all need to show up at that meeting no matter what our political party or persuasion to let these folks know that we've had enough of these types of actions. Major decisions like this being made behind our backs! We need to put an end to this and take our city back from these politicians!

Another move by the City of Dearborn, but maybe this is not that bad, who knows? The City does not communicate to its citizens in a clear and consist way. I wonder why we don’t know the bases for this.
There are so many factors that could we should look at before making a judgment or the City making a decision. What is the selling price of City Hall? What is the purchase price of the new building? Is Dearborn Schools administration coming into the new building? And are they paying rent? How much would it cost to get City Hall all set up for “the new times” with computer networks, phone systems and everything else needed for the City to operate with the latest technology? Are all these necessary improvements in place in the new building already? Maybe it is not a bad idea to move?

For once I'm in complete agreement with Dearborn Taxpayer. This idea proposed under the cover of darkness should be the final straw. Everybody needs to go to the council and ask what the HE double hockey sticks is going on in our city. This is idea is compleatly bizarre. How does an idea as looney as this even get four council votes, does anyone rember how much money we lost on oreillys last development plan on Michigan and Schaefer -Montogemery Wards. No way this makes any sense. The city cannot afford to rehab their old building but a bunch of artists, who can't even afford rent will? Huh! Furthermore why did oreilly not inform the public about this proposal, that's the reason we pay Marry Landrouch $100,000 a year. As for Deborah Walling the worlds most losing attorney anything she says I would do the opposite. Has she ever one a case in her entire life? As for This Bewick, another Dearborn slappy living off his dads name,since when is a city hall a magnet for shoppers? Who waits in line for a building permit and then says you know what I need to do ,I need to shop! Why can't Dave Norwood and his no show job of Director of sustainability find a way to sustain our city hall. I'm totally shocked by the brazen stupidly of our council and the absolute disregard our bizzaro mayor has for our citizens. This plan even trumps the second stupidest idea that Dearborn needs another convention center

Selling City Hall??? Is this a joke? This mayor is truly out of touch! Whats next, Sell the Ford Community and Preforming Arts Center and Lease out the Police Station? Next thing you know, there will be parking meters on residential streets!

Can someone remind the mayor the Dearborn Towers just sold for 6 million dollars. He could use that money to fix up and preserve city hall.

Mark up the Terry Jones case as another boondoggle created by our mayor, and another legal case patheticly executed by our pitiful city attorney Deborah Walling. At this point who would even trust these two clowns to write a lease let alone sell off historic city property to a group of painters. We need to slow this thing down and think it through.

Too bad that the only ones with that power to slow down and think it over are the same ones who want to sign over the deed.

Suzy Sunshine - The $6 million from the sale of Dearborn Towers was already spent in the 2011-2012 budget - BEFORE it sold.

OH MY GOD!!!...This is O'Reilly at his best---which in translation means REALLY BAD! This whole idea is surreal...a bad dream only to realize it is a reality! HORRORS!
How can we ever take anything from this administration or council as being forthright and honest. Besides the undue financial burden that this hair brained idea will place on the taxpayers backs, did anyone notice what this arts space has said it is relying on?...Yes...GRANTS. Who do you think provides grants? Yes, governments provide grants. And who provides governments with the money to provide grants? Yes...the TAXPAYERS...YOU and ME! A double whammy! I agree with the above writer who asks---how far behind Detroit can we be? Forget the Emergency Financial Manager for Detroit---we need one in Dearborn!

Governments produce nothing; they consume hard working tax payer moneys, without much accountability.

1) City was crying broke, needed to cover a 20 million + deficit, so they layoff at least 1/3 of city staff, make many employees take huge pay cuts, and silently give 6 digit pay raises to all department heads.

2) City fleece's/ bamboozles taxpayers for more money to cover library, pool closings, etc....but on the city website doesn't guarantee the funds will go to those projects.

3) City behind the scenes is setting up a SAD of Special assessment now to cover pools, so the money voted for in the millage was BS.

4) City is building a multi-million dollar train station for what?

5) City is going to sell City Hall to an Art Studio, when it just cried poor, downsized it's staff, gave 6 digit pay raises to its department heads and now it's going to spend 20 million plus on a building that's 87,000 sq ft? I thought the city down sized and was broke. (scratches head)

6) When the Performing Arts building was initially approved by city voters it was only suppose to cost around $23 million, but wound up costing over $60 million and what do we have now? A building that the city can't manage, doesn't fully utilize, and costs $500,000 a month just in utilities to run. Why the hell didn't they build city hall into the performing arts building back then?

I have two words " Rogue Government"

The main question about this Artspace company is.Have they done there research for this location? Is there a demand for Artists to rent this space out, show there work, money to come in, profitable, attract people here etc.Goodwill has all these numbers available and we have denied them 3 times already.But the Mayor is moving toward the sale of City hall so the Tax payers can buy him a new office down the street? Why not keep the building, have them buy the building down Michigan that the Mayor wants.Does Dearborn own that building down by the Library? This is a problem with a lot of facilities in Dearborn, no preventable maintenance is done properly, A $40,000 mistake was made in 2011 because proper preventable maintenance was not done correctly at Crowley pool. Come on, for a city that is struggling to keep families here and businesses here the mayor should be focusing on building up Dearborn with legitmate businesses and working on what we already have here in Dearborn. Dearborn was one day a great city to live in. Invest the time and money in progressing the people's wants within the city lines. Nothing against Art, but come on we have all kinds of Museum's right here in Dearborn,one that is on the chopping block to be closed. Art work is nice, but will it survive and bring in traffic to Dearborn. My opinion is no. The Mayor has made many decisions in the last few years then this city can afford, lets not have him make another screw up that will cost this city more money.

Silvio spot on!!

"Supporters of the sale of City Hall said believe that Artspace will bring new business and a revamped image to west downtown."

Are they Fricken Kidding US What supporters? The handful of blind counsel people that voted for this future financial fiscal.

I can see it now.

I envision myself planning a shopping spree at Old City Hall, with all the extra money left over, from BS Taxes and special assessments (SAD), then spending all that money in Downtown East Dearborn, because of the new Mega Magnet Art Gallery.

I know this is just a bad dream and I am going to wake up from this nightmare soon.

I foresee a future abandoned building! Who is Artspace really? In what other communities has something like this been done? I am so happy we moved 11 years ago!

You are all asking who is artspace, will there be an abandoned building etc. Google people. http://www.artspace.org/about/ This group started in Minneapolis in the 1970s and has set up nationally. I live in the neighborhood near city hall and have been following the story of artspace looking for a building for a long time now. I am anxious to have artists in the neighborhood. U of M-D will be building dorms, artists not only working but living in the area all sound like good news to me. Dearborn should finally be seen and marketed as a college town. This group would host events bringing people to the area. I think city hall would be a beautiful space for them with the large windows letting in light. I have not seen the financial info which should be shared with citizens. How much is city hall being sold for? How much will the ADP building cost? In newspaper articles in recent months I've read that they expect the price of the ADP building to be lowered and were waiting for that to happen. Let's also remember that the city has a building fund as does the school board. The money should be coming from those funds, not any other department. I agree with much that has been said in the comments, I just hope we can be open minded, not something Dearborn has a reputation for.

While it's really all been said, my really big issue is that the city 'thinks' (I know - they don't really think) that they should be allowed to sell their property is an 'as is' condition. When ANYONE else in this $@^&#* city wants to sell theirs, they are CONSTANTLY hassled by REPEATED inspections from different inspectors each time (and charging for each inspection I'm sure).

I am so glad that before the end of the year, my residence AND my business will be out of this @#%@*% city.

I can buy the argument that City Hall needs a lot of investments to be functional in today’s tech world, and that major repairs are needed, but this is not the way to “hit the city taxpayers over the head”
The questions and answers that should have been communicated to the residents include:
Who is Art Space?
Where are other Art Space buildings? And how successful are these?
Have the City or Art Space done a feasibility study on having City Hall converted to an Art community? And what is the result?
What is the selling price of City Hall? And have Art Space proposed and presented a plan for conversion, renovations of City Hall to studios and galleries? And what is the investment Art Space is committing to?

What is the cost of the new proposed building? What additional cost is budgeted for renovation, making it feasible for City administration to move in? And what is the cost for the physical move?
Will Dearborn Schools administration move to the new building? And what is the budget and renovations for that move?
What is the time line for the proposed move?
These are some of the information that should have been given to the residents; we have a City Communication Department that should have gone out and talked to people in open meetings and all other ways of communication by social media, press releases and other means of communication. Remember, City Hall is the heart of the city.

What? Keep it up to the taxpayers of Dearborn to vote for this sale. This is our right if we want to sell city hall since its going to cost us the tax payers a boat load of money just to move into the ADP building. This about all the fixing the ADP building is going to need and all the new furniture, computers, desks, and so on. They should take time and sit back, listen to other ideas before they make this decision without our permission, even though we the tax payers are footing the bill for the move.

@ Peder

One thing I will agree with is the City of Dearborn needs to be transparent, in large and small financial decisions, they are suppose to represent the majority.

The City Hall has had so many Multi-Million dollar failures that have been pushed under the rug that most of the general public will never know, until we end up with an emergency manager.

What the is wrong with the current school administrative building?

Most of Dearborn's citizens are blindly accepting more debt, without looking at the past accumulated debt and getting starry eyed about a rosy picture being painted.

The main problem and mentality that cause our current Depression is and was debt that people, government, and corporations could not pay for, then defaulted on.

But I guess if people think it's OK to spend, spend, spend, then default on debt and scam the system then sell City Hall and expand.

If City Hall would have conserved and saved money, in the past, then they would have had plenty of money to buy this building and make the move, but the fact is they are extremely poor money managers and spend more than they have, thus the current deficit.

So I ask fellow citizens, in times of huge debt and financial crisis do you personally spend, or do you tighten your belts?

There have been several articles in the Press & Guide about Artspace and those of us in East Dbn have recieved mailings from the EDDDA about the search for a building for artspace to locate. They looked at several spots and city hall was their top choice. From there it' s up to the city to decide whether to sell or not. Remember these artists will live in the city too. Surveys were done of local artists to determine if there was enough interest to make it work. Whether city hall is the best location, I don't know. I do know i'll be hanging out the welcome banner to the artists.

Maybe O'Reilly is not planning to run again and is pushing his agenda thru before his time in office runs out. If this has to happen, I wish there was a building for city hall that looked like a city hall. Dearborn is home to Greenfield Village, it's a historic city and the city hall should reflect that. The ADP building is just another dumpy looking office buildiing with no character. At some point soon, they are going to have to roll out some figures on the price tag for city hall, for the ADP building and for the amount of $$$ required to turn ADP into city hall.

One thing that's confused me, is if the ADT building is so great, why doesn't art space want it?

Remember these people at election time. This mayor and his RUBBER STAMP council have got to go!

Kent Gartner has a great point