Progress. Councilmember Bradshaw the third president is a member Leticia Johnson. Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero present. Councilmember Mary waters present.
Councilmember Angela we feel Callaway councilmember call me on the second year. Council President Pro Tem James Tate, your council President Mary Sheffield President, Madam President, you have a quorum. Thank you. And councilmember Calloway did indicate that she would not be present today so her absence is excused. And member Johnson is here as well. Okay. All right. We have our first hearing for the Detroit zoo and all of our representatives can join us here at the table. How you doing today?
And when you guys are prepared and seated, just make sure your microphones are on and the floor is yours to begin.
Getting a presentation for.
Your screen
right? Yay. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm Hayley Murphy. I'm the CEO of the Detroit Zoological Society. I wanted to start out by thanking you all for your current and past support. We're also grateful for this partnership and your leadership in this budget process. As you know we celebrated our 95th year this year so super exciting. Landmark and it's on our honor to steward this iconic institution into the next century. I'm gonna go through 2023 Like going to the next slide. Great by the numbers 2023 We made $15 million in revenue. So great year for us earned revenue contributed 52% of that budget. So that's mainly our gate revenue public support, which is our millage contributed 30% and you'll see that we have a little over 42,000 active member households and the breakout is there Oakland County is 51% Wayne is 27% and Macomb is 21%. So we're very happy with those numbers and that the zoo is being utilized to its full potential. We had 1.2 to 5 million visitors last year. Still trying to come back from the pandemic. We're not up to our normal abroad around 1.4 million, but we're getting there. Our economic impact is around $168 million to the region. And we saw gas from every Michigan County and every state in the United States last year visited the zoo. We also are currently classified as one of the 10 largest cities in the United States. So something to be really proud of for this region. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Andrea Matthews here for an update on our programming. Good
afternoon, the Andrea Matthews, Vice President of Diversity and Community Engagement for the Detroit Zoological Society. I'll talk briefly about the educational programming first at the Detroit Zoo. As far as teachers and schools and 2023. We engaged a little over 8000 Detroit students and teachers. Some of those programs included day at the zoo and we also have a partnership with Detroit Public Schools community district and specifically the cultural passport program which allows all first graders in the Detroit Public School District to come to our campus. As we look at Career Pathways, there are several programs that we have so the conservation student internships, known as CSI provide four year paid internships for students in grades nine through 12. And then we also have programs with the Detroit National Academy for young women and University Prep science and math high school specifically with dia there's the biomedical science of Veterinary Medicine, career pathway and then with UPS Emory University Prep science and math High School, this zoological and aquarium studies pathway and then when it comes to community, we have nocturnal it ventures which offers again an evening of respite to anyone who's dealing with homelessness or trauma. They come out to view our campus it is completely free of charge to them. And then we have additional partnerships with cuts, Mac development and alternatives. For girls, all city of Detroit organizations. On the next slide, we'll talk about the bailout Nature Center which is our other campus right on Belle Isle. It offers free admission as well as free programming in 2023. We had over 100,000 visitors to the bailout Nature Center. We also had our nature Tots program that welcomed over 7000 toddlers and their caregivers. And then we had over 2000 participants and special programs being held at the bailout Nature Center. And then when it comes to additional educational programming at the Bell Nature Center as far as teachers and schools, the Bella Nature Center engaged over 6000 students and teachers in 2023 and then they also launched the big bailout lesson, which incorporates students who are deaf or hard of hearing from Detroit Public Schools community district. There are additional pathway programs with the bellow Nature Center as well. So the environmental stewardship internship environmental stewardship internship has opportunities that have been provided for over 100 Detroit students and then they also have partnerships with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the US Forest Service, the US Coast Guard, the Sierra Club and Comerica as it relates to community, there's an excellent partnership with the downtown boxing gym. They do our neighborhood nature Explorers program, and then they're also over 600 preschool and elementary school experiences with brilliant Detroit. And then on the next slide, we're excited to share some of the community engagement that's going on. On dream night which will be June 7 of this year. We will invite families to our cost free event and this is specifically for families who have children who are who have chronic or terminal illnesses, they'll be able to come out for again an evening of excitement they get to see and participate with their favorite animals as well as fun activities and again, it's completely free of charge to all the participants. We also have our senior days twice a year so June 5, and September 11 for 2020. For all Tri County seniors ages 62 and older, plus one additional guests receive free admission and parking to come to the Detroit Zoo. We also offer our sensory friendly evenings and those will be June 26 July 7, and August 30 of those evenings provides special accommodations to make sure that everyone who attends can enjoy the zoo regardless of their abilities or what type of sensory challenges that they may have. And then finally Tri County green schools will be on April 23. We will host over 2500 Students for a celebration of environmental stewardship on our campus.
Thank you D'Andrea. I'm going to talk touch briefly on some of our events we have more than this but these are the big ones bunny belts coming right up around the corner. huge celebration usually kicks off our busy season. green fest is April 20. dinos are back so proud favorite, especially with the kids and then sunset at the zoo is June 21. We also of course we're a zoo. So we do a lot of animal rescues and we've had some significant bursts and 2023. I would point out that we also are consulted many times to local law enforcement animal shelters, Animal Control to assist in rescues. Even if we can't take the animal in we lend our experts to the cause. So a great year for the zoo as far as conserving the endangered species. And we had some new animal arrivals including a new gorilla family. And so we sent our Bachelor boys out and brought in a breeding group of gorillas for the first time in the Detroit zoo history. So we're really excited about that. And you can see the list. I won't read them all of animal rivals that we've had come to live here in Detroit. Hedra I'm going to turn over to Robbie.
Right hi everybody Robby Shoemaker, Chief Financial Officer for the Detroit Zoo. Illogical society. Thank you so much for having us here today.
We have two requests this year that we submitted to the mayor's office as part of the budget cycle.
First requests related to our operating stipend that we have received from the city annually for quite a few years. Now. This is the cost to secure and insure the all the buildings on campus and the 125 acres here that are city owned assets. Previously, we've been receiving $570,000 a year for those services, and we requested an increase up to 1.2 million. As you'll see in the presentation the actual cost to secure and insure the property is around 2.5 million and we actually just finished up our 2023 financial reporting process it actually was closer to 2.6 million. So this increase up to 1.2 will be greatly helpful. As you can imagine a zoo has very unique security needs, both from an insurance standpoint, from a guest facing standpoint and with animal safety and building monitoring system. So again, very grateful that this appears that this was included in the mayor's initial budget. And we're again grateful for the city support here.
Our second request is a capital request. And this is another is another area where we're really grateful for the City Council in particular support here. Last year we came to you with a $1 million asked to help with a dire water infrastructure issue. Right in the middle of our campus along Mall Road between our reptile habitat in between camels. We're grateful for that swift action of city council to help us get that funding and we're happy to share that the million dollars was put to use. We were able to shore up the water underground infrastructure pipes are in fantastic shape. Now there are no standing water notice to the animals and no risk to our guests, which is fantastic. But really that is just the tip of the iceberg as it relates to some of our underwater infrastructure challenges. We estimate that there's roughly 18 million and repairs that need to happen through the central part of our campus in order to get our infrastructure where it needs to be. And again, this is failing sewer pipes, water main and lines pavement in that area. And again, these are areas that are very difficult for us to fundraise for. It's one thing when it's a new draft habitat or for baby animals but it's a difficult area for us to fundraise for. And it's again a rising cost for us. And we're making the request of $2 million from the city to help contribute towards that. And again, we're working with all partners that we have to try and line up funding in order to get us to that goal of 18 million. We do have another slide after this man if you want to roll forward. So I'm not going to go through this in detail. But this is a map of the underwater infrastructure on the Detroit zoo campus. And you can see all of that pink and orange are the lines that are either exceeding life expectancy or sewer lines up to 100 years old. Again in the green and blue you can see that there's been quite a bit of work that has been done. But the area that we're talking about here with this 18 million is in the kind of this bottom central part of campus where there's a lot of that pink and orange together. And again, all dire infrastructure. We did actually have a sinkhole open up on campus. middle of last year just on the edge of our property. And that's all tied into this infrastructure here. we have a good idea of what's going on under there, collapse pipes 95 plus years old, and again, infrastructure that if we don't take care of it will have kind of dire impact on both animal health and safety and guess health and safety.
That's our presentation.
Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you all for being here. And thank you for the presentation. I wanted to ask about just the, I guess inclusion of Detroit residents to the zoo. And I see that Wayne County makes up 27% of the active member household. So what are we doing to try to increase that number? And then a part of it also is just the overall kind of low income ability for individuals who cannot afford memberships who may try to come down to the zoo and want access but looking for some type of discount. Can you speak to that? I know that there's a $10 Tri County reduction on the membership but just people who may not want a membership or have one What are we doing to include or to consider those who may be low income as it relates to access to the Detroit Zoo?
Sure. We're always looking for getting people to the zoo and and community partnerships. You mentioned the membership we do do a discount for that. We have a dynamic pricing model. So the lowest price is $14 a day which is really reasonable for an institution of our size. We're also working with Tri County schools to do a student discount to get students in at a much reduced rate for those field trips. We have the zoom to the zoo program, which is pretty popular. It's buses from downtown right to the zoo a free ride reduced admission. Free carousel ride. So in addition to bus ride, and free drinks, but we are always looking at ways that we can grow our equity of admission with community partnerships. We partner with a lot of the community. Community districts with free ticket and calm ticket packages so they get the rec centers all the Detroit rec centers get free tickets. We're looking at other programs where we can increase that reach all the time.
Okay. And then the second question is around your senior you mentioned you have I think, did you say your senior days, twice a year? How are you marketing that and getting back to the seniors here in Detroit and then also what I've realized with our seniors is that transportation is the number one issue and they will love to come, but how do they get there? So has there been any type of talk or effort around maybe some type of, you know, partnering to provide a shuttle service or something even if it's once a year? I don't know. But they will love to come but they don't have an a way to get there. Yeah,
and we appreciate that. That's a problem throughout the whole county with transportation getting out to the zoo, and we were constantly looking at avenues like the zoom to the zoo partnership that we have. We do we have one bus that we use for school kids, but it's not enough to send to every senior center. So we do work with those senior centers to try to enable them to get there. Many of the council council members here I have worked with us to try and get their seniors in their districts to the zoo on those special days. But yeah, we don't have a bus service per se at the zoo, but we're just trying to work with our partners to trade try and get some reduced fares.
Okay, well, I would love to partner with you and seeing your buildings in district five to make sure that they have access to the zoo and I'm not sure you said you only have one bus service but maybe we can look at how we can provide support maybe within your current budget or in the future, how we can explore a different ways to provide that service. So if we can add this portion to the executive session as relates to senior turns per se, senior transportation to the Detroit zoo, there's a motion to do so please. All right. Thank you Hearing no objections. We were at that portion to the executive session. And we did submit questions in writing. I'll make sure that you all have a copy of that. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right. We will move now to questions from my colleagues and we will start with councilmember waters.
Thank you, Madam President. No questions. All right. Council
member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President. And good afternoon. Great seeing you all. I just wanted to ask about so we did host seniors from District Four at the zoo on one of your senior days and I think more seniors want it to come. And so I'm wondering if you all have greater accommodations or plans to accommodate more seniors that may be disabled.
You want to take that? Sure.
So we we did host almost 8000 Seniors between our two senior days last year and we're always looking to expand and reach out to more seniors, more centers, and particularly those that already have transportation, bus services and things of that nature that makes transportation more easier. As we as it relates to accessibility. We do offer our ECBs electronic conveyance vehicles, shares when they're on site. We're always improving our physical accessibility on campus as well. For example, we have five different locations on campus. They have adult changing tables and things of that nature to try and make it much more accessible to those guests who are coming to our facility.
Thank you. And I think we realized that having a group of seniors go to the zoo on senior day where we were providing a vehicle may not have been the best idea because the assessable equipment that you do provide is taken up very quickly by so many other individuals and so we'll certainly keep that in mind. Moving forward, the other question that I have is I know we recently had a conversation relative to the water infrastructure challenges that you're having. I'm wondering if you all were able to make any headway or get any information from FEMA to provide support Yeah, we
are working with our occupational health and safety person who deals with FEMA, really trained through the federal system through ACA, which is our accrediting body. It's very difficult to get FEMA support for infrastructure at the zoo without a major. I don't want to say it catastrophe. And so we are looking at all those avenues to the mainly through support from the ACA safety Summit, which is a accrediting body, like I said for zoos and aquariums who deals more with FEMA on on a large scale to see what avenues might be open for us.
Okay. All right. Thank you and I committed to having that conversation with them. We are hosting our meeting with them on Monday. So I'll make sure I follow back up with you all. After that. That'd be fantastic. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Ranking Member Johnson prototype.
Thank you, Madam President. And thank you for being here. Dr. Murphy as well as your team. I do serve. I have the pleasure of serving as the board member from City Council on the Detroit zoological society's board and very pleased and proud of all the work that has been done over the years. Certainly your expertise coming into the Detroit zoo has been tremendous and your leadership is well. You've put a team around you that I think is second to none. So awesome job. For you all to you all. Kudos. I don't really have any questions. I just want to really support the need for the funding that has been requested. I've seen the sinkholes have seen the challenges that it results and when we look at the fact that
The Detroit zoo, while it may be outside of the city of Detroit, it is our asset and it is a shining asset and it continues to get kudos from around the world
for what it does for animals. And it gets major kudos for us on what it does for us. As humans, you know here in this metro area, when we look at the the opportunities that have been provided for seniors students, when you look at the fact that the zoo has been on the forefront of green technology, if you will, we've got to, we've got to make sure we invest in our asset, um, to see that that map and I've seen it before, but to see that map with all of that old infrastructure and last year we had a sinkhole. This year we've got a sinkhole. It's not going to stop until we make very key improvements. And this small amount of money when you start looking at the overall need, I think will help get us there. So I'm going to certainly request that the request for the security and insurance goes into the Executive Session. And then conversely, also the request for the Water Infrastructure Improvement goes into the executive session as well. So we identify how to make that happen. I know that some folks are going to watch and I'm gonna say what do you guys Detroit zoo receives a millage? Why can't you just do this with your millage? This is your opportunity to explain why doesn't the millage fill in this particular blank? Yeah,
you want to take that? Absolutely.
Yeah. So we're grateful for the millage and we're grateful for the support of the city and ultimately it makes up about 30% of our operating budget. Four years. ago, we went through everything that happened during the pandemic, we had to do that analysis of what is the bare minimum that it takes to operate the zoo. Really, the millage helps fill the gap from that bare minimum of Operation up to where we are today. That doesn't leave a lot of room for things like infrastructure improvement and things of that nature. So every dollar that we operate, and we try to bring to the bottom line, we make it a point to put that right back into capital and right back into our grounds and into our infrastructure. And again, an $18 million item like this, when traditionally where we can accommodate three to $4 million a year of of capital. It's just a massive number for us. And
as we talk about the investment that we placed from the budget of a million dollars last year, in terms of capital capital improvement, that was the first time that the city has placed capital improvement dollars into the Detroit zoo since
2006, I believe. Yeah. So
again, just want to really emphasize the necessity for us to continue to support our asset. That is, I think above and beyond gives us more than we give it so we appreciate the work that you do, and continue to be a partner. So as mentioned, I did ask for those two items. To move for those who wish to go into Executive Session and look forward to ensuring that we continue to support our assets. Thank you so much for the work you do
they make a motion, any objections? Hearing none that action will be taken thank you both Tim Member Santiago and Miro.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon. Good to see you all. My Pro Tem made the motion that I would be happy to make as well so very supportive of that. The one question that I have are, or really the question and IDM there's concern around transportation to getting people to the zoo. But has there been any programming getting zoo animals to the community maybe up to a while to encourage folks to see it at home and then to take them down the street to the zoo.
So we have we do have animals that Belisle, they're not the giraffes, obviously because it will be really hard. What you're talking about is classically called an ambassador animal program. We do have Ambassador animals at the zoo and those are penguins and giraffes that people can get up close to with feeding programs. We do not have a visiting animal program because the welfare of those animals is sometimes very difficult to meet the welfare standards. And that is a shift that's happening nationwide around animal welfare and Ambassador animal programming. As you may or may not know the Detroit zoo leads the charge in animal welfare for the industry. And so for us, that will that would never be something we would embark on because of the welfare concerns around those animals. But we are looking at my vision is a zoo without borders. So how do we take our educational programming out into all of our surrounding communities so that people don't always have to get to us to see and feel what we do from an educational standpoint for the Environment and Conservation.
They're the Chair thank you if that makes sense. And I respect that thank you for caring for the animals in that chucking them along the city. I'm sure it's probably not fun for them. So I appreciate that. You mentioned that tickets are given away to various recreation centers. Would you happen to know how many tickets you give out each year for students?
So in prior years we've given anywhere between 4006 1000 students. Okay, sorry, tickets between four and 6000 tickets
through the chair. Is this specifically for Detroit schools or is this? This has
been specifically in the city of Detroit around through the community centers and recreation centers. Okay,
thank you, and through the chair, my office and I i team and I had a really wonderful team outing last year at the zoo. I highly recommend my colleagues or anyone that wants to spend some time with the zoo to coordinate it's a really wonderful tour, and we had a lot of fun and we loved seeing the animals. So thank you so much for what you do. Thank you Madam President.
Thank you so much. Member Young.
Thank you, Madam President. Your presentation was awesome. You had me Hello. No questions.
Member Benson.
I thank you. Thank you all for being here and what you do for Zoo. I concur. With my colleagues and I do support the city paying what it's obligated to pay. And so if we say we're going to do this, then let's do this. So I support that. I'm also just looking at the prices and I go there on a regular basis for us. It can be a pricey outing for my family. And so we've invested in the annual pass family pass which will also be pricey for those who just don't have that type of cash flow. And so with the millage and coming up again, and I'm going to continue to advocate for this to rethink how much you go to the voters for so now at point one, maybe point 115 Maybe a point one to five, can help just drive down that cost. And so just by comparison, if you look at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago $43 for an adult to attend. That's expensive $20 If you're a resident of Chicago and so that's a significant reduction in the costs. And so just looking if you could look at something like that, and I believe it No, we're about $16 I believe per person. Doesn't sound like much but for a family of four family of five parents who may be making 16 $20 an hour that can still be a cost prohibitive. excursion, but the access in the exposure is so critical for young people. I would just like to see more exposure, more opportunities for low income families. And since we here in the city of Detroit have a huge population that fall within that economically challenged area. I just really like to see some more thought into how we can be further reduced at subsidized price to welcome it to allow more families to go and what could we do with that be an extra quarter of a man I mean, so just think of it that way. What can we do and what is your polling gonna say about that? So that's my advocacy is to continue to try to make it more accessible for families by driving down that cost, even though I know is heavily subsidized. Thank you. Thank
you. All right. Thank you, member Benson. All right. That will conclude our questioning and we appreciate the presentation Thank you. And if there was nothing else further to come before us, we will conclude this hearing and again, thank you for the great work that you're doing. And we will be in touch. Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Have a great day. All right.
We have with us director Ray bronze, so we can proceed. Now directly to our BCA hearing.
Alright, Director brown Good afternoon.
Good afternoon, council members. And thank you for this opportunity. Council president. My mother's birthday was March 11. She's 95 Happy Birthday My 95 It's beautiful. Smile and thank you for this opportunity. I also want to thank a couple of people who have been very valuable to me in this work that I do to me the Davidson my administrative assistant system, a procure for my inspector from BC J to Filson. From PMDD. Hello sharply and from law, Jonathan DeMars. I mentioned them because we work collaboratively to ensure that the work that the BCA gets done, gets done and I lift them up because I'm not sure that we often talk about how we work collaboratively to get work done. So I wanted to lift that up. So the BCA continues to be responsible stewards and fiscally sound for our budget.
We've had more attention brought to us in the last six months than we've had in the 10 years I've been here.
more citizen complaints about BCA. We had MediaSpace problems, new BCA members and we had to get our fee schedule adjusted. But through it all. We've managed to persevere and keep going I've had I have responses to questions that I was provided. I will just read the responses and discussion format. The first response is the BCA does not have any new expense initiatives to implement in 2020 by and we do not have any new capital funding requests to implement and 2020 by
the BCA operational reform and savings proposal is to monitor professional and contractual services and other services under our general fund to ensure we are managing with fiscal integrity. We do not have any new initiatives or proposals for 2025. Our target metric for 2025 will continue to receive and complete BS BC cases we are currently on track to be over 100 cases for this fiscal year. And complete these BCI investigations are each on case on the docket to be heard within 30 days. We are currently 21 days. We are also on track to meet and exceed our goal of 15% in terms of new cases coming in the BCA has one vacancy that is the administrative to assistant. There was no difficulty in replacing that position the person left on returning to leave and then come back. We're working with HR to fill that position. Fiscal 25 revenues have been right sized to reflect historical actuals and was based on fiscal 23 When it 23 and 24 actuals. So in other words, we're trying to make sure that our budget and spending is in line and tight. Fiscal Year 25 operating expenses have been right size to reflect historical actuals and was reduced based on the 2023 24 actuals. This school year 2323 axles with just above the 24 adopted and 24 axles. Are you today in line with our increase? fiscal year operating supplies have been right size to reflect historical actuals and we was reduced on fiscal year 2023 Year in and 2024 actuals fiscal year 23 axles were significantly lower than the 24 adopted and 24 actuals are in line with our decrease. And finally, we've had conversations about the community appeal. But community appeal is very important to the work we do that allows citizens to be impacted in development in our city. The BCA is the last step in the process before an applicant pulls their permit. The importance of that community appeal is so that the citizens can be heard. I support that.
I provided you all with a report on the average cost of community appeals which is about $31.95 cent. I have two recommendations to fund this. The first one is I believe we received Michigan marijuana tax revenues and Detroit got about $2 million. The BCA was significantly involved in making sure those facilities were our operation. I suggest recommend I'll ask that we take about $5,000 out of that and put it into a pond to take care of the community appeal.
The second recommendation is we can absorb that cost and our budget. We can create a ladder take about $500 a year and that will cover the costs each year. If we do that, I would request that we have petitioners by a hardship request so that we can track and understand the needs.
Finally, again, that cost is $30. That's the minimum. I believe that is something that we can work with and I hope these two suggestions are something that you all can work with. Finally, I want to thank Felix Akua and Malcolm Walker from the budget department that helped me complete this report. That is it. Council members. Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you so much, Director O'Brien and we will go straight to questions from my colleagues. We will start with councilmember young
Thank you Mr. Ramos. Good to see you sir. I just want to ask you what technology are you using to improve land and planning and to improve the quality of the services provided to the citizens and businesses?
We use BCWS excel program which allows people to go directly through the kiosk, their computer that bone and apply for a BC permit because they process our applications. That excel program is the technology that we're using and it's effective. It's people are getting used to using it, I still get handwritten applications. And I usually what I'll do is just make sure give them a call and say you know we do have a program that you can use to improve the technology. But that Excel program is what we're using and the BCA staff is trained on using that program. Um,
is there been any sort of way in terms of being able to include artificial intelligence at all to be able to help with the low that you have to help the burden at all as they have been discussed in terms of using that?
No, you're out artificial intelligence, I'd have to talk to it out get out of here person will tell you to to you
said no. I'm not trying to tell you a department.
That would be it question and I would hope that that will be incorporated into the whole city and not just one
No, no, I'm not talking about first fear. And I was wondering, like if you weren't add some finances to help with that. You want to do No. sighs I put it inside your budget for you. All right. I appreciate you. Thank you.
Okay, thank you member Yeah. Remember, why don't
you? Um, okay. No, yeah. So, um, do you do you have anyone to assist you in monitoring? You know, and an overabundance of poker and marijuana shops in a type of community liaison that you have
know how you must centrally
BC does the monetary we don't. All we do is the appeals. We don't don't get into monitoring. They're gonna back to be seed or planning development or the law department but not us. But
all right, just follow up to that question. But when they come before you to get approved for zoning, is there a way for you to check to see at least this BC then provide you with information they say, Well, okay, that's we have X number in this particular area, when you're trying to make a decision. Yes. Yes,
they do. They provide us with detailed information in terms of the other facilities that are like that, the distance from neighborhood whether you the distance or the you need to have a wall up all of that information is provided by BC, and planning and development. And when I mentioned in the beginning that we work together, we meet weekly to discuss cases to ensure that they're completely ready to go before we bring them before hearing.
Okay, all right. So then finally, I will ask you tell me about quorum and staff.
Again, we're staffing we're good. We're working to bring that other person on we could do everything with before. We we are okay with our quorum right now all about board members have been showing up. We are still too short. And we know who that is. And we're working on that but the we have not had an issue with quorum since we started with the nine board members.
All right. I like that. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Waters. Member Santiago Rivera.
Thank you madam president through you. Hello. My brief questions are looking at the applications on the BCI section at the city and the city website. i We only saw that they were in English or they provided in Spanish or Arabic or other languages.
We can do that. I will work with the appropriate departments and we're yes we will work we will get that taken care of. Okay.
Thanks, Director. Just want to make sure that we are creating accessible paperwork throughout all of our services. So thank you for that. My only other question is besides the $5,000 suggestion coming from tax collected from cannabis sales, is there anything else that you need? You don't have any capital projects are good on staff, anything else that we can support you with?
The we're good? Okay, can I continue to say that we're working to upgrade our paperwork, we got paper files, and I'm going to be talking to the appropriate departments to do a study to figure out how to bring our work into technology I'd like for people just go to the type on my computer and pull up the information right now. It's paper files. Hopefully next year or next budget year, I will be able to come and have a budget what that means what that looks like in a plan of action.
Okay, to the Chair. Thank you. That sounds like maybe a consultant to be brought on. Yeah,
I've been told that that's what we would need to do is bring a consultant in based on what has been done in the past but departments that have been going from paper to technology.
Okay, sounds good. But
we're gonna hold off on AI. I hear you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Member Santiago Amuro. Does the BVA members receive a stipend? Yes. But what is the stipend that there'll be
$300 per meeting or meeting and
how often do they meet in their length of time roughly.
We do three cases average and we meet a day. We meet every Monday except the first Monday. Okay. No holidays. Yeah. There is something that I left out of my notes. An increase but a board members Yeah, that's what I was. Getting. Yeah, I you know, and that I'm gonna get fussed at because I forgot but increase is probably due the staff is okay. We get the increases during the evaluations but a board increase whatever you all feel is appropriate, would be acceptable.
So that was my my line of questioning just to get a better understanding. And when was the last time we've actually increased the stipend for the BCA has it been at 304?
Yes, during I think it was in my first term, which would have been about six to eight years ago. I will look that up and get that information to you. I think that was the last time we had not asked for an increase since then. And this would be a good time to do it.
Okay, if you could, whatever information you have, and I think you know, instead of us just coming up with the number maybe you could provide some direction as to what you think the appropriate amount would be for an increase and we can add that to our executive session and talk, you know, talk further at that time. And then I know district five we are looking for an appointment because Robert Thomas was moved over to add fire he actually moved out of the district. Yes, he's no longer a district five things have shifted. That happened to us kind of out of the blue so we are actively looking for our district five appointment, but that happened pretty quick. When he transferred out and moved out. He starts at large, right? That's correct. So to
at large, I seated Scotty Bowman and Robert Thomas.
Gotcha. Okay. All right. That was Oh, my only other question was under page B 51. One it talks about the goals for this year. It talks about providing technical assistance to the BCA applicants to ensure that they have a thorough understanding of the application process and the ordinance. Can you speak to how that is working in?
Yeah, when an applicant applies to the BCA. I call them. Make sure that they understand what's in the BC letter. Make sure that they understand that they have some approval criteria questions that they need, make sure that their contact in the community because the community is involved a lot of times the petitioners don't know that until I let them know that. So that process is going very well. A lot of the petitioners council members say when they come to BCA, that's the first time that somebody actually talks with them about the process. You know, so we try to make sure that everybody understands and
we even
for our BZA meetings we now have a public copy of the docket for the day. Because I know there's been a lot of questions about community being able to see the information, so we probably provide a copy for them to see. And also our offices is pretty open. If people want to come in and review files, we're pretty open with that. letting that be known because I know it's been said that, you know, people have a hard time getting information from us. We are very I am very open. Very open.
Okay. All right. Thank you man. I have a motion to add the BCA stipend to Executive Session. All right, Hearing no objection, that action will be taken. Brought him on. Before we move on. You had a poll.
I just wanted to piggyback on what Member Santiago Romero said the automated system is there. Can we add that to the executive session because, you know, just knowing what the cost would be? I mean, that would be great.
Yeah, I would be happy to Okay, motion. All right. make that motion. Sure. All
right. Hearing no objections, we will add that as well to our Executive Session. Oh, Tim.
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Director ribride. Appreciate the work that you and your team on a daily basis. I know last year, I believe you file recall correctly, you indicated that there was a concern security concern for some of your members, following some of the meetings. Does that still is my recollection, correct?
You You are correct. That is no longer an issue because we're back in the auditorium. But those issues were when we were out in the community. We meeting it was we didn't have any way up. Even at the police station, we didn't have any way of ensuring that when the board members left that there was any action so but here in the city county building, they're secure. They go down the back elevator and then go out and away from the public. Okay. All right.
Thank you. And then it was my first time hearing about the requests potentially to take 5000 out of the tax that we received from the cannabis related businesses. And I know there's a lot of different ideas with do with those dollars $5,000 not a it's not gonna hurt too much, and especially out of overall about $1.9 million. But if we're talking about $5,000 is that $5,000 This fiscal year and then 5000 next year that 5005 year this was gonna ask how long was that was covered Beaumont? How long you answer the question, how long would that 5000 cover for?
About $500 a year? Okay, so for five years, and that was just the number I came up with when I heard the other day and actually, ombudsman Simpson put a bug in my ear that that this money was was was coming. And again, I'd say because we were heavily involved in the operation we have the UPS won't use the word right, dibs on deals all across the board.
I will I will unashamedly say that I would like for the lion's share of those dollars to go back to investing into the industry to allow for industry that again, can still looks like the population that it serves, regardless of how people feel about it. It is a legal industry. It's an industry that we fought for. It's an industry that if we don't get air quote, right, it won't right size itself so we have to do something to make it happen. So good to hear that. That $5,000 will take us five years. It's good to know. All right. I'll leave it at that. Thank you again for your work.
Thank you. Thank you bro to remember Doha.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon to you sir. First, I will say we are one of the other districts that need a member. Yeah. We had working together and we are and we've had someone in mind. But then I found out they cannot do two meetings on Monday. And so we are you know, searching for folks and it has been an open and fair process. I know there's a member that currently sits on there now. And so we'll be submitting a memo shortly. Just to work on extending what they have now. Just ensure that quorum exists.
That's important. Yeah, I did put that in motion because the law department came to me and said that they were not going to let him sit and I knew that that would cause a problem with quorum, you know, until we get the nine seated. So thank you for taking care of that as quickly as you did.
No, absolutely. And, you know, and that's not to say that he that person will not be the selection. But we have been going through the interview process. And we will just want to ensure to your point that that quorum is going to be met and whoever our appointment is going to be is going to attend the meetings on a regular basis to ensure that there is some representation particularly from district seven. My question kind of revolves, I know we added two members and I don't know if he went over this already. We added those two members have their have their stipends already been budgeted into this budget.
Yes, yeah, we put that in. Before we had the conversation about adding the nine. So we so that's taken care
of. Okay, and just making sure the continuity exist in that. And my other question is, has there been some thought even just around chain training, or additional training, so particularly on maybe issues and policies, so for instance, so we pass tons of ordinances here relative to zoning every week, and one that was significant? Well, five, that that I put forth, and I don't remember Benson has some relative to hookah lounges. Do we? Do we update our members on that as some training or just some new handbooks? So they can look into Florida ordinances and know that certain things may have changed that they may not be familiar with? We
do 23 times a year, okay to ensure that keeping up with those changes is daunting, but for us so you can imagine what the average citizen does what we do training three times a year with the departments and we usually bring in Michigan Association of planning or some other professional organization to help us understand what's happening currently, also, what's going on in the city.
And I'm glad to hear that I know again, we changed ordinances around here like we change clothes and some people sometimes but it's good to hear that that training is this though, for folks to be able to get that information, particularly the the average, you know, the average citizen because they reach out to us and so our office about something and they'll say I don't know why BCA approve that, and you say, well, there's been a change in the ordinance, right, or why they didn't approve it. And there's been a change in the ordinance. So I appreciate that. And the continued partnership and just the outreach and the communication relative to issues as well. So thank you so much for everything you do, sir. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
All right. Thank you councilmember Doha member Benson.
Thank you. And Mr. Rob, thank you for all that you do and your team down there. I'm just looking at this is page B 51. Tech five, and maybe I missed this, but looking at a reduction in your revenues from 2024 to fiscal year 25 minutes steady increase again, just can you speak to that decrease slip and decrease actually, and then the tick up again,
it's it's working with the budget department to make sure what we have budgeted and what we're spending are in line. So we had a lot. We have budgets where we have more money and didn't spend it all. So what we're, what you're seeing is the adjustment and the fix so that we're more in line with what's coming in and what we're spending. Right. So
what you're saying is that you over. You overestimated what your revenues would be in the past or you underestimated your expenses.
I think a lot of it, for example, we it took us almost two years to get our contract straightened out with our court reporter. So we did we didn't know what the cost was it you know, it fluctuated some of our legal news payments were everything is up to date now, but some of our legal news payments were so far behind, you know, so it was more or less of this, working with the city to make sure that bills were getting paid because the money was sitting there but the bills weren't being processed quickly enough to meet the budget,
but I'm speaking directly about your revenues. And so the revenue saw significant decrease, but then a steady tick up. So was there an overestimation in the amount of revenue? Is that why there's a decrease of $20,000 we 19,000
up to the last couple of years, we had estimated 80 to 90 cases each year, the last couple of years, we begin to exceed that and come to about 100 This year we're going to be at 100 So the difference is that development is happening. And when development happens, we get more work. So we're now estimating 100 to 110 cases, which is more in line with what we are doing right now we're at about 30 cases, which will put us in line to be at 120 at the end of this fiscal year.
So what I'm still seeing a 20% reduction in revenue according to this fiscal year 25 fiscal year 24 $110,000 in revenue for fiscal year 25 91,000. But I'm also hearing that you're expecting an increase in cases so that's just my finish. Is this an underestimation for fiscal year 25. From because it was a two was 110 last year that's adopted, now proposes that you're going to be bringing in 91,000
we base that on what we did last year. Last year, we only had we didn't we didn't even hit 80. But the pace were on now is to be 120. So we actually look at actuals each year.
So when you overestimated last year, that's correct. Okay. Okay. My question. Thank you. And then this goes back to remember Dr. Hall's question when it comes to training. What about travel? are we sending our BCA members to the annual American Planning Association conference so they can meet their peers and hear what's going on around the country. We
have money in the budget to do that. Nobody had the time this year the board chair was trying to go it's a matter of timing and being able to get people's schedules for that
without staff the staff attend.
Again, we the training, I'm a member of the APA sir so I'm a member but I haven't gone to any of the conferences but we do bring in Matt to do our training. So we're getting that that that type of training but no, the staff and and again, you know, the significant amount of time that it would take to be off. We we don't take much time off. Okay. We meet pretty much
though. Yeah, I'm going to strongly advocate that since it's great to bring people in, but that continues on with an echo chamber. We need to get people out. They see what's going on around the country and see what other municipalities or communities are doing as well. Interesting. Maybe we are best practice or maybe we're not. But just and we got nine professionals who are BCA members and you also have staff. So I'd like to see you focus on getting people to that conference, or the conference around the country just so we can see what's going on. outside of Detroit outside of the Midwest and see other people doing Thank you.
I can miss. Thank you. Member Benson member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon. My first question is relative to the professional and contractual services in your budget. Can you speak to what that is what that looks like? Professional
and contractual? Are the board members and the legal fees for the legal news? The professional services are the court reporter. Okay, we're moving to get everybody. We're trying to get everything under professional and contractual. So it's just that one line item but we just got the contract, or the court reported within the last couple of months so we should be seeing everything under professional and contractual within the next couple of months.
Okay, thank you. So let me I want to go back to the community appeals fee request. So you indicated that it's approximately $500 a month, what are you what are you associating the $500 costs with that, that you that is above and beyond what you have available and accessible to you within this budget.
Each case, regardless of what it is cost $1,500 to process from beginning to end. When I looked at Community appeals, we looked at the mailing costs and the printing costs. The average mailing and printing costs for the 1234566 cases that we we have currently is $31.95. So it averages out to about $300 And we're gonna get more cases which is why I said up to $500 so that it's really to cover the melee and the printing everything else we can absorb.
Okay, all right. I think I understand that. And so $500 a year, no one has put this into Executive Session. Right. Okay. All right. Madam President. I'd like to make a motion to add the community appeals fee to Executive Session. Right.
Are there any objections? Hearing none that action will be taken. Okay,
thank you. That is all that I have. Thank you, Madam President.
All right. Thank you, member Johnson. All right, that will conclude all of our questioning and we thank you, Director O'Brien for your presentation and all the work that you do and we will go to our public comment. How many callers do we have today? Madam
President, there are nine callers with their hand raised.
Okay.
Our first caller
the first caller is ADOS Detroit. One moment and I'll pull up the timer.
first caller is ADOS Detroit.
All right, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Good cheer me It hurt.
All right. One second. I'm not sure if we can adjust the audio.
Good afternoon. Carolyn. Carolyn Hughes may be heard.
Yes, we can hear you. Yes.
I heard some interesting things today at the table. For one thing for the for the zoo. They made 50 million in profits. Is that what they made? And how much of that does
Alright, Miss Hughes. This sounds like you cut off I'm not sure if you muted your microphone.
I show her is still present in the meeting, Mr.
President. All right, Miss Hewes. Can you hear me Miss Hewes? Are you there? All right, let's go to the next caller and then come right back to Ms. Hughes.
Yes, Madam President. The next caller is William M. Davis. Good afternoon, Mr.
Davis.
We mm David's good at nog Rafi hurt.
Yes, you can.
I think I was. Earlier I was looking at the Office of the Auditor General. You know, I think that perhaps you know, a report should be generated regular as it relates to ghost employees and misappropriation of funds. You know, especially what's been going on with the board of police commissioners, which is tragic. In fact, I get calls from all over the country about what's going on with the with the police commissioners, especially with the commissioners in District Four and District Six, you know, so and also if the zoo was making a profit of millions of dollars sitting that be going to and helping with the city of Detroit, oh, is that offsetting some of the other expenses because you know, perhaps it's so much that they basically, you know, took the zoo years ago, you know, that should be monies that can help replenish some of the general fund. But I think we need to especially to be looking at a lot of stuff that's going on in the city and making sure that the Detroit residents is getting a fair return on our money. Far too often. It looks like there's a tendency to give contracts to too many outsiders. I mean, outsiders, I mean, people outside to say Detroit, we should be making sure that more businesses are generated and grew, you know, grown in the city of Detroit, instead of always enriching our neighbors and sometimes even people outside the state of Michigan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Davis.
The next caller is Betty a
Varner. That afternoon as foreigner
Good afternoon, Madam President and to all within the sound of my voice. And Betty, a burner president of DeSoto Ellsworth black Association, and I'm happy to say today at four o'clock, my members and myself we're going to have our first meeting with the city administration. We are part of the they're calling it the task force study for the pinko corridor, the revaluation of the Bangkok corridor from Finkle and limonoids to Bangkok and work on me. I am very proud of that it has taken a long time for us to get to this point. So Happy, happy, happy and asking the council to please continue to support my organization. When the process gets to the council, please support the pinker corridor project. Please support our deeba community park in the memory of our late vice president Gwendolyn the near also asked thing that when you receive the emails from myself or my secretary, please take the time to read our emails we are looking for help. We are starting early to try to get participants and to get donations for our last Detroit resource event. This will be our third annual event we provide free haircuts hair braiding for you bite councilmember doll, he got his office, they donated backpacks last year we want to donate school supplies have a bouncy house. You want it bigger and better. We want this to be a soft opening of our park. We need a DJ so any help that you can give us a B appreciate it. Thank you. All
right. Thank you Miss Varner.
The next caller ends in 337.
I call her 337.
Good afternoon can I be heard?
Yes, you can.
All right. Thank you. This is Pat Bosch resident of district three. I'm commenting about the board of zoning appeals request to add these two community appeals it seems to me that with the $5,000 that was made mentioned from cannabis taxes, that that would be a equity way of covering costs because community appeals, I believe, contrary to much, Mr. Ray Brown said are not increasing. Just because there were a few I think he said six cases in the 30 years that I've been doing community work. On an average, we have only submitted about two or three maximum over 30 years period. And even though it sounds like an insignificant amount, the mailing and the costs of printing should be absorbed from the budget surplus. But to penalize community that are trying to protect their quality of life does not seem possible. Does not seem ethically correct or democratic. Plus, I would like to clarification to the chair. I thought Mr. rebrand said the average cost of a community appeal would be 500 A month or was it budgeted 500 a year I was not clear on that. And so through the Procare I would appreciate that clarification. Thank you. Remember,
was it a year and that was standard, right? That's just how much it costs. Yep. So that's per year. Miss Bosch Thank you, member Johnson for your help. All right this per year and if you have any additional questions that you did not get answered, please send it to us and we will make sure we get it over to Director Ray O'Brien as well. Thank you so much. Our next caller please.
Sorry, madam president. The next caller is Ruth Johnson.
All right, Miss Johnson. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. This is Ruth Johnson from Community Development advocates of Detroit. I first want to just express my disappointment and concern about how public comment periods are being handled during this year's budget hearings. I believe it's an undue burden and a possible barrier for people to participate in the decision making that affects them their neighborhoods and their communities. I had a little difficulty because when I logged in at three, I was already going forth and not having a cut off. Start a specified time or cut off for public comment for raising your hand whether you're in person or electronically is problematic. As far as the BCA, I agree with Miss Bosch around the cost of mailing and publication is unjust. There's no other thing that we do there user fees we like if you want to start a business, but to have access to justice and having to have to pay a fee and this is a proposed Camino community appeal fee so it's it hasn't been decided as far as I know. Our members. I've also had encountered problem with the lack of training or understanding or application regarding the criteria for community appeals and getting documents and informations from BC and from the board of zoning appeals so they can protect and promote their rights as community members so I would ask this council to make sure that we are properly budgeting not just to cover those fees, but also to make sure both staff and the commissioners are properly trained and have the resources and tools they need so that they can have adjust their system for community members who are fighting valiantly to maintain the quality of life in their neighborhoods. Thank you.
All right, thank you so much. Miss Johnson.
The next caller ends in 167.
Afternoon Hello, yes, good afternoon. Oh, yes.
My name is Vanessa peak. From what I've heard there's sufficient money in the busy budget to cover the cost of community appeals. We residents should not be charged for community appeals, and traveling to my home I pass by to get to my home I passed by liquor stores marijuana dispensaries, a hookah establishment and a strip club, all of which are less than point two five miles from my home. I would not like to see money for you for from the marijuana establishment to be used to cover any costs. As it relates to the BCA. I feel that this represents a conflict of interest and no money. No money is associated with marijuana should be used to support anything as it relates to the BVA. I want to strongly emphasize I believe in as much as the BCA are hearing cases as it relates to marijuana. It in my opinion is a conflict of interest. Thank you for your time and consideration.
All right, thank you as well.
The next caller IDs in one to four caller
124 Good afternoon
Oh yes. Good afternoon, ma'am. Be heard.
Yes, you can.
Okay. Well, I agree with pro tem. I don't think we need two more members on the board of zoning appeals but what we do need are members who have the time and are able and willing to do the job which is not just to sit at a possibly long meeting, but to read and digest and study all of these submissions. And in order for that to happen for it to feel like a fair process for everyone. I think that this body needs to reexamine the rules. There is a problem accessing documents at the BCA F sometimes you go downtown and their offices are closed at noon. How can anybody access the documents that they were not posting their minutes on their website? And so if you can't go down in person, that's a violation of the Open Meetings Act. Also for a hearing that I participated in, there was an information available to community members. And after I contacted the BCA staff person, they told me that the petitioner said we already had it. No, we didn't. So something needs to be done for this is a more fair process for all and the information is available for all and also Mr. Tate when you said you work with the BGA on a daily basis. What did you mean by that? I'm really curious to know. I also agree that the way the public comment is happening I remember under President Jones and happened after every budget hearing. This doesn't feel fair. And I don't know how it is that President Jones could accommodate people after the budget hearing. I remember even charity, Dean was surprised at how things were happening. And she said when she was the head of Creo she stayed to answer questions. So it's just this. This is enough time.
Thank you so much Miss Borg And just for clarity. There was never a time that it was for every single budget hearing. The most we've had was one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So just wanted to make sure that that was for the record as well.
Madam President, the next caller is Tyson Gersh.
All right. Good afternoon.
Hi, can
you hear me? Yes. Great. Thanks. Um, I kind of wanted to echo a little bit of what the previous caller said. I do think that there's some issues with the structure around the BCA policies. My neighborhood just engaged in 15 separate appeals against decisions by the BCA and like the way that it's currently structured. The community appeal option which is sort of this internal process where if the community disagrees with the decision, they can appeal directly to the BCA that's only available to decisions made on land use variances but does not apply to decisions made on dimensional variances. So if something happens you know, for our example, there was a building while there was seven sites something like 53 variances approved in one sitting for structures that were more than twice the allowable density, and our only option was to go straight to circuit court, at which point the BZ argued that we didn't demonstrate that we were aggrieved because we didn't say all of that in the 60 seconds we were given to speak, and none of the letters that we sent in advance were acknowledged. None of this BZ a built in online Smartsheet forms. That specifically state on the BCA website will be acknowledged during the hearing. None of those were acknowledged. And they refused to include any of that stuff in the record. And then they tried to knock us out claiming that we weren't aggrieved and even the circuit court judge said no, this is, you know, you're violating due process. Here like these people have a constitutional right to speak on this matter and 60 seconds is not enough to demonstrate all of this, especially when we get to this date. I have never seen the full floor plans of the development proposed. I think City Council really needs to reevaluate the BCA rules and procedure and practices.
Alright, thank you, Tyson. The last caller is Ruben X, Mr. Rue. All right. Good afternoon.
I know Good afternoon. Is the app known in Detroit City, after it's been exposed to Detroit city got Detroit voted Trump houses you're still in the kids money. Now when I suggested X, put it out there to 20% of the annual budget needs to go to the Detroit youth earmark allocated for them off rip ya just ignored that. So now I'm gonna come with some facts. And Daisy take Jr. I don't know how in your little s nine nine that you thought that Mr. Rule was about some social media clicks and hits and likes and all that nonsense. Much more than that, man. I feel the Saudi deeply insulted that you would even insinuate some stupid like that, like all the insinuations you'd have made about me doing misleading the public has bad information, things of that sort. laughing and joking snickering with Mary Sheffield, talking about voter trap houses talking about ICT data fraud and justice book and he should call me now the reason I saw on social media. So as documented for Nene when she comes a day so no, Mr. Rules stood, kept his word stood up for her and what she wanted what she asked for requested. Because hers is the legitimate acts and request. He wants you all to stop seeing her mother killed itself. And I'm Brad Witter. So you in a way you gotta go Mary gotta go. Everybody that voted no on me. presenting information gotta go now as president legal precedent here in the United States of America, from Superior Court Judge Connecticut as calling for a special election Manasa T dollar fraud is determined to have occurred in our election legal precedent. You're usurping our 14th and 15th amendment rights to the United States constitutional rights goes.
Right, thank you.
Okay. The last caller who raised their hand. Oh, Mr. Foster, just lower his hand. There are no more callers, Madam President.
All right. All right. Thank you, Paris. So that will conclude our public comment for today and we will proceed with budget hearings tomorrow starting at 10am. And if there is nothing else to come before us today, is there a motion to adjourn? All right. Maybe gives a jar
