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Detroit City Council Formal Session
Unknown Speaker
08:00I wait for a couple more memory, but
Speaker 1
08:10I might just get going right.
Speaker 2
08:17All right. Good morning, everyone. We will now call to order our formal session for Tuesday, February the 11th, and Madam Clerk, please call the roll
Unknown Speaker
08:24council member Scott Benson.
Unknown Speaker
08:29Council member Frederick duha, the third
Unknown Speaker
08:34council member, Letitia Johnson, present
Unknown Speaker
08:38council member Gabriella Santiago Romero
Unknown Speaker
08:43Councilman Mary Walters, present
Unknown Speaker
08:48council member Angela Whitfield Callaway, present
Unknown Speaker
08:52council member Coleman Young the second
Unknown Speaker
08:56council president Pro Tem James Tate
Speaker 3
09:00and council president, Mary Sheffield, present, you have a quorum. President, Madam
Speaker 2
09:05President, all right, there being a quorum. Present, we are in session, and we will start with our invocation. We have joining us. Pastor Marcus Jennings of new St Mark Baptist Church that is in person and will lead us in our invocation for this morning.
Unknown Speaker
09:22Thank you so much for being here.
Unknown Speaker
09:27Just need to press the bottom of the mic.
Unknown Speaker
09:30Good morning. May we pray
Speaker 4
09:34God, our Creator and merciful ruler, come before you with reverence and adoration as we invoke your Divine Presence, as we contend with the diabolical destructiveness at the national level that impacts our local communities, we pray for the courage to withstand and the wisdom to strategize. May the business of our beloved city be conducted with a sense of loving compassion, mutual respect and communal consideration. We ask your blessings upon the leader of our council, President, Mary Sheffield, and all of our council members as they fulfill the divine call of servant leadership, may your presence in today's meeting result in peace, productivity and good will. May you cause the good works of our hands to prosper all glory unto the God of diversity, equity and inclusion, and the one who is able to keep us from falling. Amen
Speaker 2
10:49saying thank you so much to the pastor for taking the time to come in person and being with us today. We've also been joined by Member Santiago Romero, and we have two presentations. We're going to cut off our public comment after our first presentation we have with us, cast technical high school football team, Id 2024 division one state champions.
Unknown Speaker
11:17Yes, yes.
Speaker 2
11:20So on November the 30th, cast technical high school football team solidified its place in Michigan high school sports history. And a showdown at Ford Field, the technicians emerged victorious against Hudsonville, securing the 2024, division one state championship with a 42 to 20 victory. Our our cast technicians are four time. Mhsaa division one state champions, four time. 2011 2012 2016 and now in 2024 uh, they have taken it again. If you want to congratulate all of the players, the coaches, the assistant coaches, family, friends, the entire student body for this big win for Cass tech, if you all can just stand so we can recognize you. We appreciate the hard work.
Unknown Speaker
12:22Peter, beautiful. And
Speaker 2
12:24of course, we will walk on down our principal Lisa Phillips, the athletic coordinators, Stephen Hall and Tanya Woodward and the head coach, Coach Marvin rushing as well.
Speaker 5
12:42Yeah. You Well, thank you, and good morning and
Unknown Speaker
12:49all praise to God. But I
Unknown Speaker
12:52want to say thank you to the council
Speaker 5
12:55president, Sheffield Callaway, everyone who has done so much for cast tech? See, you do a lot for the city. You do a lot for dpscd, but you do special things for our school. And we want to say thank you for all of the rallies, for all of for teaching at Cass Technical High School waters, for honoring people individually, and just showing us so much love. You don't have to do it. You could just say, come and get this award. See you, but you go far and beyond the call of duty for the young people in the city of Detroit. So I just want to say thank you. On behalf of cast tech and everybody, all the kids in DPS, because we're from everywhere, but these guys here, four times, yes, on a field, that's it's a field, but because they have determination, thank you to my boys, young men, and our coach, so I'm going to let them talk. Thank
Speaker 6
13:53you, President Sheffield City Council for honoring us to be here today. I mean, honest, this is really, amazing to be here on 11th day of Black History Month. Yes, you know, I think that makes sense why we're here today. We would not be here if not for the amazing young men behind us. They really represent the citizens of the city of Detroit, the grit, the work ethic, the belief, the vision of tomorrow. So the last thing I'll just say is our motto for the year, I think really reflects again today, being Black History Month. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We chose to go together, and that got us here today. Thank you, right?
Speaker 2
14:39Do we have any of the students here and from the team that would like to speak as well
Unknown Speaker
14:47the captain? Oh, we want,
Speaker 2
14:54we want to hear from one of the students. Maybe there's a captain or someone that can speak. There we go.
Speaker 5
15:05Donald is our freshman quarterback who took us to
Unknown Speaker
15:09ninth grade.
Speaker 7
15:14I just want to say thank you to all my coaches, Miss Phillips coach rush with their, you know, expertise. They brought us here today. And the work during the season, it was hard, but, you know, we dug it out with the team. You know, each day, getting out, working, working out. If it was early in the morning, late at night, we go to practice, work hard, bond as a team. No, early in the year, it wasn't really how we wanted to go, but we kind of really bonded as a brotherhood and bird all together, going at the end of season, brought to state championship home, cast it. Yeah,
Speaker 5
16:03Jessica, Jessica, you mentioned it, but we are the city champs as well as the state champs. Okay,
Speaker 2
16:12beautiful. All right, and so we do have Spirit of Detroit awards that we'll give to all of you all as well, with the coaches and staff as well. We truly believe, on behalf of the City Council, that you all embody with the Spirit of Detroit is all about we are extremely proud of you all, not all, not only what you're doing on the field, but also off the field in the classroom, I know that you guys are excelling as well. And so we do have spirit Detroit awards that we'll pass out to each of the players that are here today and colleagues that we can come down and join for a group photo as well. Well,
Speaker 8
16:45I guess it's kind of like I, you know, I can never, ever resist, I can never resist an opportunity to say good morning to to my cast technicians and and I just want to thank you all once again for always delivering on behalf of the City of Detroit, because you guys show up academically and you show up with sports. And we want to thank you for always, always representing us in such a very, very positive manner. And I was excited too. I was out there in that parade with you all in that cold. We had a great time. So thank you all so very, very much. Yeah,
Speaker 2
17:30alright, alright. So we will, we will come down. And you all are continuing to prove that you are second to none, as you all say, right past Technical High second to none. So we will come down out and do a group photo with everyone, and we'll make sure You get your award.
Speaker 9
18:38One More. I do one more.
Unknown Speaker
19:14Very proud, congratulations, congratulations, well deserved. Well deserved, congrats to you. Congrats, congratulations.
Unknown Speaker
19:40I once everybody,
Unknown Speaker
20:01once everybody, once they get them all together,
Unknown Speaker
20:08yeah, once, once you gather everyone, I come out.
Unknown Speaker
20:13Thanks for the flowers.
Unknown Speaker
20:16Very thoughtful. Got the letters on
Speaker 2
20:20Morning. Did the guys get one?
Speaker 2
20:37All right, we will proceed now back with our agenda. Want to recognize the clerk will note Member durha and council member Pro Temp Tate has arrived as well, and council member All right, we will now move to our presentation for bracket up Detroit, and that will be on behalf of council member callaways Task Force for youth engagement, you all can join us.
Unknown Speaker
21:03Thank you. Yes, ma'am, thank you. And
Speaker 2
21:05if we can also cut off public comment as well. All
Speaker 10
21:14right, 
good morning. Good morning. Thanks everyone for having us. I'm Derek Aguirre. I am the CEO of rack it up Detroit, a nonprofit organization based here in the city, and I'm joined by Yasmine little, who's a graduate of our program, a good friend of mine, and a great example of the potential of young people with support provided by organizations like ours. So we're going from football to squash. We use the racket sport of squash, and that is a great example of the diversity of talent in this city. And I'm proud to tell you more about our organization today. Thank you to council member Calloway for inviting us. We are based in district two, and really excited to be building ties with the council and broader in the city. Our mission, if we could advance to the next slide, please. Our mission is to support and empower Detroit youth so they can achieve their full potential through a long term demanding and inspiring mentoring program of squash, academics and community service. Next slide, please. We're founded in 2010 so we're 15 years old, modeled after a program that was successful in Boston. We launched and ran our 
program for 12 years at Northwest activity center. There are 2021 similar programs across the US. We use the racket sport of squash as the hook, but education and personal success are the real purpose. Next slide, please. So what is squash? As I mentioned, it's our hook. It's a great sport that's played across the globe. It's among the healthiest sports you can play. It's linked to educational success. It is for everyone, boys and girls, all body types, everywhere in between, and everyone's going to learn more about it because it is Olympics bound in Los Angeles in 2028
+4
good morning. Good morning. Thanks everyone for having us. I'm Derek Aguirre. I am the CEO of rack it up Detroit, a nonprofit organization based here in the city, and I'm joined by Yasmine little, who's a graduate of our program, a good friend of mine, and a great example of the potential of young people with support provided by organizations like ours. So we're going from football to squash. We use the racket sport of squash, and that is a great example of the diversity of talent in this city. And I'm proud to tell you more about our organization today. Thank you to council member Calloway for inviting us. We are based in district two, and really excited to be building ties with the council and broader in the city. Our mission, if we could advance to the next slide, please. Our mission is to support and empower Detroit youth so they can achieve their full potential through a long term demanding and inspiring mentoring program of squash, academics and community service. Next slide, please. We're founded in 2010 so we're 15 years old, modeled after a program that was successful in Boston. We launched and ran our 
+1
program for 12 years at Northwest activity center. There are 2021 similar programs across the US. We use the racket sport of squash as the hook, but education and personal success are the real purpose. Next slide, please. So what is squash? As I mentioned, it's our hook. It's a great sport that's played across the globe. It's among the healthiest sports you can play. It's linked to educational success. It is for everyone, boys and girls, all body types, everywhere in between, and everyone's going to learn more about it because it is Olympics bound in Los Angeles in 2028 Unknown Speaker
23:07Next slide please.
Speaker 10
23:10So while squash is out front, when you learn about rack it up Detroit, it's important to know that this program is long term, holistic intensive. It's not simply a sports team. It is not a drop in program. We are combining education, mentoring, college and career exposure, community service and cultural outings, along with the fitness and health benefits of squash all in one place. It is long term. It starts in fifth grade, and students can continue all the way through high school and even into college and careers. And as I mentioned, it is intensive. It is year round. The families are connected to the program just as much as the students. Commitment of three days per week for every young person is required, and it feels like a family. I think most of our participants would say it doesn't feel simply like a program, but a community and a family. We are rooted in Detroit, as I mentioned, 12 years at Northwest activity center made us who we are. We're grateful to all the folks there who supported us and incubated our program and empowered us to build our own headquarters, a 19,000 square foot facility in northwest Detroit on outer drive. We've been in it for three years, and really proud of what we've been able to do as with that facility as a launching pad and also as a representation of how our program is connected and rooted in our city, is that we have hired graduates and parents on our staff, and that is a trend that will only continue to grow as more and more young people come through our program. Next slide, please. So we have an after school program that runs throughout the school year, summer programs that run throughout the 
summer, a graduate Success program, it is year round that's supporting students to succeed in college and careers and community facing programs which make the facility and the organization more accessible broadly. I'll talk more about those in a moment. Next slide, please. Our program grew from about 40 young people to over 200 served annually in just 15 years, and we've seen when a student sticks with our program, 100% of them are graduating from high school, and 100% are getting into college. Thank you. And we we also know that if they stick with us and they go to college, our students are proving more than twice as likely to earn a degree within six years, and most of our participants are first generation college students, so that's showing a clear impact of the long term support our program provides also worth noting, because we're celebrating the achievements of young Detroiters. We've had eight of our graduates go on to play college squash, including three captains at schools like Denison University, Hobart College, Chatham University and St Lawrence University. And I'll let Yaz tell you more about her success on the collegiate squash front in a moment. Next 
slide, please. It is an eight year journey. Students start in fifth and sixth grade, and can continue all the way through high school, into post secondary success. And these next four slides, we can sort of move swiftly through. You'll see that at each age group, there's something new and interesting happening, starting with individualized tutoring focused on literacy and closing academic gaps, moving into helping young people select and get into their first choice High School, we just had 14 of our 28th graders get into Detroit Public exam schools thanks to the support of our staff as they advance into high school, we focus on career development and leadership development, and finally, in their 11th and 12th grade years, we're intensively supporting them to apply to college, find financial aid, support their families through that process and to transition successfully when they go off College. Next slide, please, as I mentioned, owning our own facility in the city helped us to feel we had a responsibility to broaden our reach. We have weekly community squash nights that's open to anyone in the community. It's every Thursday from 645 until 8pm I hope anyone in this room or on the Zoom will join us. You don't need to tell us in advance. We'll teach you how to play and we'll provide the equipment. We are now bringing students over during their gym classes from Renaissance High School and other high schools in the area to introduce them to the sport and to provide a fun field trip. We have community resource fairs twice a year that are drawing over 200 community members, a back to school rally and a community access fair that are adding additional resources to the community. Next slide please. Lastly, before introducing he has mean, these are what we see as our needs. We have 14 full time staff and a significant budget. We own a facility and three vehicles, and we have to raise every dollar we spend every year, and it's an uphill battle. So funding is key. We follow every lead. If you have any thoughts about where we might seek additional support, we're all ears. Volunteers on the squash court and in the classroom as tutors are really the lifeblood of the success of our program, and we always need more folks to help out, partners and resources organizations that we might collaborate with and leverage their expertise and resources that might benefit our students. Again, we are all ears. And lastly, our program is available to the community. We're really geographically concentrated for logistical reasons, but anyone in northwest Detroit that thinks they might want to learn about our program. Can go to our website. It's listed on the slide, and it's rack it up.org to learn more. And now I'm very excited to introduce Yasmeen little I've known Yaz for probably 13 or 14 years. She joined our program in middle school knowing nothing about the sport and having an incredible attitude of adventure and openness to new experiences, and she took it to the greatest heights. She spent seven years in our program and played college squash at Denison University. And I want to just highlight there's a lot of concern about the brain drain in the city of Detroit. Folks have access to opportunities and leave take those talents elsewhere. Well, Yaz has returned, and she is in a leadership position here in the city of Detroit, doing great work. And I'm really honored to introduce Yasmeen little,
+1
summer, a graduate Success program, it is year round that's supporting students to succeed in college and careers and community facing programs which make the facility and the organization more accessible broadly. I'll talk more about those in a moment. Next slide, please. Our program grew from about 40 young people to over 200 served annually in just 15 years, and we've seen when a student sticks with our program, 100% of them are graduating from high school, and 100% are getting into college. Thank you. And we we also know that if they stick with us and they go to college, our students are proving more than twice as likely to earn a degree within six years, and most of our participants are first generation college students, so that's showing a clear impact of the long term support our program provides also worth noting, because we're celebrating the achievements of young Detroiters. We've had eight of our graduates go on to play college squash, including three captains at schools like Denison University, Hobart College, Chatham University and St Lawrence University. And I'll let Yaz tell you more about her success on the collegiate squash front in a moment. Next +5
slide, please. It is an eight year journey. Students start in fifth and sixth grade, and can continue all the way through high school, into post secondary success. And these next four slides, we can sort of move swiftly through. You'll see that at each age group, there's something new and interesting happening, starting with individualized tutoring focused on literacy and closing academic gaps, moving into helping young people select and get into their first choice High School, we just had 14 of our 28th graders get into Detroit Public exam schools thanks to the support of our staff as they advance into high school, we focus on career development and leadership development, and finally, in their 11th and 12th grade years, we're intensively supporting them to apply to college, find financial aid, support their families through that process and to transition successfully when they go off College. Next slide, please, as I mentioned, owning our own facility in the city helped us to feel we had a responsibility to broaden our reach. We have weekly community squash nights that's open to anyone in the community. It's every Thursday from 645 until 8pm I hope anyone in this room or on the Zoom will join us. You don't need to tell us in advance. We'll teach you how to play and we'll provide the equipment. We are now bringing students over during their gym classes from Renaissance High School and other high schools in the area to introduce them to the sport and to provide a fun field trip. We have community resource fairs twice a year that are drawing over 200 community members, a back to school rally and a community access fair that are adding additional resources to the community. Next slide please. Lastly, before introducing he has mean, these are what we see as our needs. We have 14 full time staff and a significant budget. We own a facility and three vehicles, and we have to raise every dollar we spend every year, and it's an uphill battle. So funding is key. We follow every lead. If you have any thoughts about where we might seek additional support, we're all ears. Volunteers on the squash court and in the classroom as tutors are really the lifeblood of the success of our program, and we always need more folks to help out, partners and resources organizations that we might collaborate with and leverage their expertise and resources that might benefit our students. Again, we are all ears. And lastly, our program is available to the community. We're really geographically concentrated for logistical reasons, but anyone in northwest Detroit that thinks they might want to learn about our program. Can go to our website. It's listed on the slide, and it's rack it up.org to learn more. And now I'm very excited to introduce Yasmeen little I've known Yaz for probably 13 or 14 years. She joined our program in middle school knowing nothing about the sport and having an incredible attitude of adventure and openness to new experiences, and she took it to the greatest heights. She spent seven years in our program and played college squash at Denison University. And I want to just highlight there's a lot of concern about the brain drain in the city of Detroit. Folks have access to opportunities and leave take those talents elsewhere. Well, Yaz has returned, and she is in a leadership position here in the city of Detroit, doing great work. And I'm really honored to introduce Yasmeen little, 
Speaker 11
29:35Hi, how are you guys? Thank you for that introduction. So yes, my name is Yasmin little, and I'm a ru grad 2019 from rack it up. And one thing I can really say about rack it up is I was in a program for a little over 10 years, close to a decade. I'm currently a part of the graduate Success program, as I still keep in touch with them, ask them questions. But one thing I could say about rack it up is that, honestly, being a small girl growing up in the city is so many different routes you can take. I'm grateful for my village, but rack it up. Came to my school. I went to McDowell on how to drive. They came and I'm like, What is squash? I didn't basically did everything. What is this? I took a chance, and it was one of the best things I could have ever did. It showed me that there's more to life than what I was just used to or what I was seeing. You know, being able to travel to over 30 different states in the city, having one in a lifetime, opportunities such as, like, one that I remember, notoriously, was going on to the leadership tour where I met like, you know, city officials like Cory Booker and Kamala, and just showing like, oh, there's really more to life not to traveling, you know, meeting new people from different walks of life and cultures, and then ultimately getting me recruited to the school that I went to to play squash for. I was team captain twice. Great for years. Rack it up really helps, you know, young youth in this community, um, and I'm just, I'm so thankful for it. Now I currently work with the General Services Department. I am the Digital Media Specialist over there. And just even that, just even, like, letting me know, like, oh, you know, the city has jobs. I'm like, Really, okay, and then I took a chance, and I'm here, and I'm just so thankful. Yeah, I've been in it since I was 12. I'm currently 24 so it's been a long journey and working with you guys. But yeah, that's it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
31:36Okay, would that conclude the presentation? Yes,
Speaker 10
31:38thank you so much again for the opportunity. Okay, thank you so
Unknown Speaker
31:41much. Please don't. Weber Callaway,
Speaker 12
31:44thank you Madam Chair, thank you mister choir. Thank you for having a vision for our students. Sometimes we can live in the city and lose hope, and sometimes we forget about the most important, Jim is our youth, and our city charter requires us to take care of our youth, and we've not done the best job, but we're getting better at it, and one of your programs is so important to our youth, not just in that area, but across the city, and I like to see an East Side location, so the students who are living on the east side don't have to worry about transportation To the west side. That's what I'd like to see. And I'm hoping in this budget we can support you in some kind of small way to I'm going to strike that some kind of way, because there's nothing small about what you're doing and what you want to do and what you've been doing. So I'm hoping that in our budget we will find the resources to upgrade your program so we can continue to expand it, because it is a brand new state of the art facility. And the first thing that you see when you go in there are study rooms. You don't see the squash courts. You see spaces where students know this is an academic educational environment. Then sports. You go to the back of the building, and that's where you see squash. When I came in there, I'm like, where are the courts? Is academics, first, healthy snacks first, because you cannot study and retain any information when you are hungry, and we know that. So I appreciate the way that you all have set up the building. It is academics, environmental setting first, and then you move into squash. You make sure they have tutorial help you make sure they get that homework done. There are academic standards and requirements for it, for them to even participate. So I want to thank you Miss little. I want to thank you Mister gwyer, and I am going to ask that this council remember your organization, rack it up. You have not coming, asking for anything. I'm asking to help you expand your program, because the students on the east side to Zaim the same opportunities and access as the students on the west side. And I know my colleague to the left, member Johnson, she always says that and member and member Benson, so I appreciate you, and I do plan to do whatever I can to support you and to miss little Thank you. Thank you for coming back to the city. You made that commitment, and you kept your word, young lady. So thank you, and thank you for your 12 years of commitment to academic excellence and also to squash in the program you just didn't benefit. You came back and gave so you are a prime example of what we older people should be doing. When you glean something, you give something back. So thank you, Mr. Choir. I'm not going anywhere, and you have my full support, full support, because I know what you're doing over there. And I would invite every one of my colleagues. I'm going to come. I'm coming on a Thursday. Is that senior night for senior citizens? I'll come on a Thursday, and I'm going to come and learn how to play squash. But I would invite all of my colleagues to go over there and just take a look at the facility that they built from the ground.
Unknown Speaker
34:57You're challenging them to a match. Is that what that was?
Speaker 12
35:01Oh my gosh. Mr. Quiet. But anyway, I invite my colleagues to please go over there, take an afternoon and just drive over there and see what they're doing over there. And what time did the children they have the most beautiful busses. I mean, just the bus ride, their state of the art transportation for the students. And I was there when the students were walking across the street to get there, breaking down the door to get in there. So it's something going on at that location, and it's just not squashed. It's a family environment. And I thank you. It's because of you, Mister Aguirre and your team and miss and you miss little. So thank you so much. And I'm hoping my colleagues will ask questions if possible. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you. Thank you, Mr. Choir.
Speaker 2
35:42Thank you so much. Any additional comments? Questions? Yes. Council member, Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, good morning. Just wanted to say thank you for the work that you're doing, and encourage my colleagues to go to speak to the students I have been able to stop by and speak at one of there's not only food and rack it up, and tutoring. There's also opportunities for educational engagements. And I was able to talk about our job. Had my chief of staff with me, share about our roles. I introduced my whole team and what they do, to give some some some insights to what you can do. Because I know when I was growing up, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Just wanted to do good, you wanted to help and give back, and didn't know what that looked like. So encourage folks to not just go and play, but also talk to our students, talk to them about our careers, our journeys, and how you can also do the same. And I said it then I'll say it again. We hire through duty. YT we do a really, we do great work with internships as well. So I want to go, if you can go back talk to some of your friends there that might still be there. I want to know that there's opportunities here in the city also while you're students. So thanks for having me. I had a great time. And thank you for your work. It is incredibly important. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you so much. Member Santiago Romero, Council Member Johnson,
Speaker 13
37:01thank you, Madam President, and good morning. Thank you for the presentation. This is new to me, but very exciting. I always believe that when we introduce our young people to new experiences, somebody's going to latch on and they will excel, as Ms, little did. And so I'm really glad to see that I would definitely encourage you to connect with the schools, to go into the schools and have that conversation and that introduction. When I was in high school, I graduated from Kettering on the far east side, I remember having an Air Force recruiter come to our school frequently, and so many of us ended up joining the Air Force, and so opening the doors, connecting them with the experience with squash, I think, is a phenomenal opportunity. I have a location on the east side where you may be able to co locate initially, and then we can definitely work with you to expand into your own facility so we can talk about that offline. But thank you so much for everything you do and connecting with our young people and engaging them in something new, something different, and making sure that they are healthy and whole as well. Thank you.
Speaker 2
38:10Thank you so much. Council member Johnson, that's it, and thank you so much for being here. Have you all had the opportunity to connect it all with the Community Education Commission and some of the work they're doing with after school programming and goal line. I had the opportunity to visit that facility recently, and I know they have plans to expand out of Northwest they're in northwest Detroit as well. Remember Callaway. They have program. Used to be
Speaker 10
38:34neighbors at Northwest activity site. It's been a while, though, since we've connected. Okay,
Speaker 2
38:37because I know they they definitely are trying to expand and do some bussing and some additional after school program, but I think there's some synergy there and so, but we're here to support looking forward to ways that we can better support the efforts. And thank you all so much for being here and the work that you all are doing. Alright. Alright. Thank you. Alright. That will conclude the presentation for this morning, both presentations for this morning and we will now proceed to our agenda, the Journal of the session of January the 28th will be approved. There being no reconsiderations or unfinished business. We will proceed to the budget, Finance and Audit standing committee for the budget finance, Finance and Audit standing committee the
Unknown Speaker
39:26middle of a memorandum.
Speaker 2
39:28The one memorandum will be referred to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations. Standing Committee three reports from various city departments. The three reports will be referred to the internal operations, standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee two reports from the mayor's office. The two reports will be referred to the neighborhood and community services, standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development. Standing Committee submitted a memorandum. The one memorandum will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee,
Speaker 14
40:0713 reports from very C departments. The
Speaker 2
40:1013 reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee. We will now move to the voting action matters under other matters, not as Madam President, under communications for the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies,
Speaker 14
40:25there are no animals. Madam President, all right, we'll call
Speaker 2
40:28for general public comments, and everyone will have a minute and a half for public comment.
Speaker 2
40:40And again, we want to encourage that this remain a respectful portion of our session today, and we will proceed with public comment. Miss Jennifer Bentley, I'm sorry, that's okay. Jennifer Bentley, followed by Malik Shelton,
Speaker 14
41:00good 
morning. I'm Jennifer Bentley, the Deputy Inspector General. Mr. Maribel wanted to be here today, but he's with his wife, who is having surgery, so he asked me to come on his behalf and read a statement regarding the proposed purchasing ordinance amendments. I think your honorable body for the opportunity to speak on this important amendment, the O, I, G, s, charter mandate is not only to detect fraud, abuse, waste and corruption, but to prevent the same the review of the purchasing ordinance amendment was our first ever policy inquiry. We believe that genuine efforts were made to ensure that these amendments do not create an added risk of waste, abuse, fraud or corruption in the procurement process when we share our concern, when we shared our concerns, Council Member Durham, his staff, along with the OCP director, Sandra Stahl, met with the OIG to discuss the proposed terms and to consider a few points that our office raised. Our concerns were considered in the revisions to the amendments and were included in the proposed ordinance for discussing today. We understand these proposed amendments are intended to streamline the purchasing process and bring the city up to date with modern practices used in comparing in comparably larger cities, as we have determined that the amendments do not increase the risk of waste, abuse, fraud or corruption, and securing and renewing contracts the OIG supports making these changes to the city's process. Thank you,
+1
morning. I'm Jennifer Bentley, the Deputy Inspector General. Mr. Maribel wanted to be here today, but he's with his wife, who is having surgery, so he asked me to come on his behalf and read a statement regarding the proposed purchasing ordinance amendments. I think your honorable body for the opportunity to speak on this important amendment, the O, I, G, s, charter mandate is not only to detect fraud, abuse, waste and corruption, but to prevent the same the review of the purchasing ordinance amendment was our first ever policy inquiry. We believe that genuine efforts were made to ensure that these amendments do not create an added risk of waste, abuse, fraud or corruption in the procurement process when we share our concern, when we shared our concerns, Council Member Durham, his staff, along with the OCP director, Sandra Stahl, met with the OIG to discuss the proposed terms and to consider a few points that our office raised. Our concerns were considered in the revisions to the amendments and were included in the proposed ordinance for discussing today. We understand these proposed amendments are intended to streamline the purchasing process and bring the city up to date with modern practices used in comparing in comparably larger cities, as we have determined that the amendments do not increase the risk of waste, abuse, fraud or corruption, and securing and renewing contracts the OIG supports making these changes to the city's process. Thank you, Unknown Speaker
42:28right. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2
42:33Malik Shelton, followed by Ruben Crowley, followed by Charles Myers.
Unknown Speaker
42:40I would encourage the residents
Unknown Speaker
42:44and the taxpayers
Unknown Speaker
42:47to read
Unknown Speaker
42:49the study, the 90 page study by the
Unknown Speaker
42:53United States Commission on Civil Rights
Speaker 1
42:57entitled The impact of illegal immigration, on black Americans and on black workers in particular, I would also encourage residents or anyone else's interest to read the studies done by The late
Unknown Speaker
43:18us. Rep
Unknown Speaker
43:20black, excuse me, Barbara Jordan,
Speaker 1
43:24who chair committees on this very issue, on legal immigration as well as illegal immigration, the facts are cold, the facts are objective, and the facts are there. How they how it negatively impacts the lives of black Americans. No one would like it if it was to come to this council and see me sitting in one of them chairs, he said, What are you doing here? You didn't go through the process. You just You just showing up. This is illegal. This is unlawful.
Unknown Speaker
44:02Well, illegals that come over here,
Unknown Speaker
44:06they have to go through the process.
Unknown Speaker
44:10They have to go through the process.
Unknown Speaker
44:14Thank you, Mr. Shelton,
Speaker 15
44:25well, well, well, you can begin my time. Scott Benson, be quiet. Scott Be quiet, I'm about to tell you about a murder cover up by the homicide unit for the Detroit Police Department. Marco presage, Captain Palmer, Captain Derek May, now commander of a second precinct, has to plan to cover up the murder, murder of Kenisha COVID. Now I say this because my investigation now into it has went off into another realm. The homicide unit of the Detroit Police Department is corrupt, and I'm talking about these two individuals in particular, and everybody that covered up, the cover up, or the cover up or the cover up, and y'all included now, they committed a cover up Kenisha Coleman's murder. Charmaine McLeod did it. I said it. And the reason is based on factual evidence. There's a seven and a half to 10 minute time period when she left that house and went to work. Her grandmother dropped her off before her grandmother got to her grandmother's house, which is seven and a half, two minutes away, tops, she got a call from Charmaine saying she needed to get picked up because Kenisha shot herself. Except for there's one, one major, major, major problem. How the hell did she know? I All
Speaker 2
46:04right, thank you, Mr. Crowley and Charles miles, followed by Miss Williams.
Unknown Speaker
46:12All right.
Speaker 7
46:14Well, I'm here again, still fighting for my property.
Unknown Speaker
46:20Properties, I should say
Speaker 7
46:24I submitted receipts to you all couple weeks ago, and it's no response. The Mayor's office is saying now that we need attorneys. So I don't understand why I need a attorney. After all these years of showing you these receipts and all this miscellaneous payment issues that's been all redesigned and I don't know what to call it, but you guys seen the receipts, and you know that these taxes been paid, and you called yourself helping me try to figure it out, but nobody responded. But now I need an attorney, and I don't understand. It's just clear facts that payments was made and mistakes was made, or either you did it on purpose, the city of Detroit and you guys are definitely can responsible for this issue. So I would take it that you I would ask that you take a look at it.
Unknown Speaker
47:46That's all I can say. All right, thank you. Mr. Miles,
Unknown Speaker
47:52Miss Williams, hello everyone.
Speaker 8
47:54Um, I've been speaking about homeless people in the shelter, but, um, this a person in my shelter. She's in my room, she's illegally here. And how is it possible that she's here and she just got received a housing voucher? That's impossible when I've been in the system over going on two years, and this woman have SSI or S S E, whatever it is you have to put in time to receive this. She's not even from this country. So how is that possible? This is unbelievable, the high level of corruption that's going on in these facilities. So you have a fake ID, you able to take money out the system. You able to record me illegally. Stalking is illegal,
Unknown Speaker
48:46and it's I just
Speaker 8
48:49can't believe it. Like you said, the graduation I seen, the pitch I seen, it's on Detroit Police Department line they cite, and you saying that you are not aware of what's going on. That's very unfortunate, because I didn't heard you say this on several occasions, Madam President, concerning police officers in this in 26 facilities, but especially my facility, it's just not acceptable. And have I seen the graduation and pictures that I seen them people that's in my facility. So how is that possible? Somebody need to do something about this illegal corruption. You are here to cover us. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
49:31Thank you, Miss Williams
Speaker 2
49:34and Goulet, followed by Jacqueline Miller, morning.
Speaker 12
49:42Good morning, members City Council. My name is Anne Goulet. About two weeks ago, I sent a hard copy of this letter. I'm bringing it to you today, to Mayor Duggan and to the city council, care of President Sheffield, that this letter actually outlines four possible concrete organizational actions that Detroit government could take to significantly improve Detroiters quality of life and the efficient and effective use of taxpayer money. And I emailed this to each of you last week in response to an email that I was copied on from another Detroit business owner to city council, outlining a variety of tenant, landlord, life safety, human health, public well being and financial dispute concerns. And I'm not going to go over what those suggestions were. I'd like to turn over this letter to City Council today, and I'm appearing here today to inquire what steps I can take to present my qualifications and to advance these suggestions to the correct agencies or committees within Detroit's government.
Speaker 2
50:53All right. Thank you so much, and if you said that that was sent to us via email, I will make sure that our team responds to you and let you know the appropriate direction to move forward. Okay, thank you. Make sure all of the council will also get a copy of your of your presentation as well. And would you like me to leave this with any Yep, um, she's right behind you. She's waving her hand, and we can make copies, and make sure everyone has a copy of it. Thank you. President Sheffield, okay, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
51:22Okay. Yeah, Miss Miller.
Speaker 16
51:26This may seem trivial, but I noticed on on the first on page two of the page two, that you have Detroit City Airport is the Coleman, a young Municipal Airport. And I would like, you know, just to acknowledge that his name should be there. And also I see where you find you're having the public hearing regarding the for the you, for the minors, as far as like substance, like alcohol, marijuana. I was the one that brought my grandson down Caden last year to speak. So I'm glad to see that on there. And also for Miss Letitia, my neighbor, my council person, I'm glad to see that finally. Well, I shouldn't say finally about the people with the stellanis MAC plant I see here where you want to have a memorandum done to relative to civil rights. I grew up on Veno talk between Mac and can feel so I know pretty much all of those elderly or aging people over there. I grew up under them. They were my village, so I'm glad to see that, and I thank you all.
Unknown Speaker
52:40Thank you. Thank you as well.
Speaker 2
52:44Ramon Jackson, followed by who Dale Gibson, residents
Speaker 15
52:48from Detroit on March 5, we be, we would be going, leaving Detroit, going to Washington. 100 of us to demand a congressional hearing about election fraud in Detroit, please understand that you cannot get fair, adequate resources if you do not have righteous people in office. These people are cheated in through the election, and as soon as we understand and understand that from their actions, their inactions, towards all the things that we keep coming to them with. March 5, we will be going to Washington. It's free of charge, free free room and board and everything. Come stand with us so that we can demand and get to the bottom of these people in office that don't represent us. Y'all not about to stay in here doing what y'all doing. I'm telling you all that. Scott Benson, I see a thing in a in this agenda talking about, you talking about some misdemeanor laws, or in Detroit, you as a corrupt politician, you shouldn't be talking about no law. If the laws was enforced, you wouldn't even be sitting there on this council. Y'all is not going to sit there and continue to do what y'all doing. We know y'all got cheated votes in these elections. We're not playing it, but we don't stand with no immigrants here in Detroit. Get from immigrants out of Detroit. They don't stand with us. Mexicans don't stand.
Unknown Speaker
54:17All right, all right. Thank you.
Speaker 2
54:21Mr. Uh. Gibson, you are next, followed by Mr. Foster
Unknown Speaker
54:28Yes, it's amazing how
Speaker 17
54:33you guys look out for racket up Detroit or white man, but you can't seem to solve no black people problems. We live in a city where we are the majority, but we don't run the majority of our business. Y'all, y'all get a license and permits two heirs, and you willing to help rack it up. Detroit, black men and black women got great ideas. And secondly, it seemed like me and the brothers, we the only one concerned about this lady that's homeless, that y'all fail to help out her two kids froze to death, that not to make Ramirez, why won't you? Why won't you have a press conference in real life time, like you did for your constituents? But on the other hand, your constituents is a small percentage in Detroit. Look at all these ain't no immigrants in here, illegal immigrants talking about nothing. They get help. You got a lady here since saying she's homeless and immigrants, got section eight already. And you guys, you guys, is happy with y'all, sir, and y'all start a meeting out by praying, and y'all do the devil's work, and y'all got billions of dollars. What are y'all praying for? Who do y'all represent corporate America, or the majority of black people, people we tied up. Y'all got room for us in the county jail, but you ain't got no room for us in business, huh? Don't just look at me. Just don't look at me. I shouldn't have to go through no portal. Then Gilbert didn't go through no quarter. Mike Ellis, kids don't, don't sit in no parking lot dying. The Gilbert's family, they don't sit in no the force. They don't send who y'all get these bonds and tax relief to. Thank you so much. Praise God. Won't he do it all the time, right? Really quick, um,
Speaker 2
56:09just want to make sure I know you may have mentioned that the family that was here was the family that was at the casino. I know two children unfortunately lost their lives, but I don't want to correlate them coming down here and that's being responsible for that situation. I definitely send my condolences and prayers to the family. I know there's going to be a press conference today to address that issue. But again, anyone who comes down here for housing, we definitely direct them to the appropriate department, which is the housing services department and or we physically ourselves call to try to help place people in housing. So just wanted to make sure that I mentioned that, just so that it was not a correlation between the two. Council member waters, excuse me. Council member waters,
Speaker 8
56:57thank you, Madam President, it's too bad that the gentleman walked away because I wanted to specifically say that anytime that we know that families need help, we have gotten so many people placed in homes and shelters. Anytime that we find out in my office, we help people. So for him to say, well, you all allowed you did nothing to help. Well, how do you help if you don't know? So I wanted him actually to explain himself, basically accusing this body of not helping somebody find a place to live, and instead, those two babies ended up dying in the cold,
Unknown Speaker
57:41because that's very serious,
Speaker 8
57:46and for people to say things like that and then walk away.
Unknown Speaker
57:50So I wanted to address that, Madam President,
Speaker 8
57:54I know that we do all we can to make sure that people place whom we know, but we've gotta do a better job, too, of identifying people who are out there who need help. And that's why I'll be introducing a resolution calling on everybody, especially people who out there all the time writing tickets and parking enforcement. They're out there writing tickets all the time in the cold, we'll be asking that they go above and beyond their current responsibility and help us to identify people. If you see somebody sleeping in the cold on the ground or or in their cars, especially when you see some children turn it in so that we can help. We can find a way to help people. We need to do a better job of that. Thank you, Madam President,
Unknown Speaker
58:46alright. Thank you member. Watson. Proton tape,
Speaker 18
58:48thank you. So I just want to make it very clear that I spoke to the gentleman, reached out to him, and remember my team as well, who came up here and criticized Council and said that we praise God, but we do evil things. And the interesting thing is that when I asked the gentleman to enter into the portal, it was reluctance to do so. So this is not just a brother, brother kind of thing. We gotta go through a process. This is government contracts. And so when you walk folks through the process, if they choose not to do it, that's their choice. But this, we are bound by ordinances and laws that determine the way that our process takes place. Now, if you want to work with us, we can work with but if you just want to just slam us all day, that's fine. That's fine. We're still going to continue to do our job and do it in the best way we can. You have individuals who come down and say that we are not duly elected, and these are folks who are trying to get elected themselves and using this as a platform to try to campaign. And yeah, we'll say it out loud, just like they can, and that's the truth. All you got to do is just look at the facts. And some folks have been thrown off ballots as well, and because they've been thrown off ballots, they then try to blame us for that. That's not the case. That's not what we do. What we do is city council, legislative duties. We sometime agree, and sometime you don't agree, but to label what we're doing is evil, bad, and all those other things because we don't agree. That's where I won't say lines across because we all have freedom of speech. But the reality doesn't meet the rhetoric. So I again, if an individual would like to challenge my election in the past, I feel free. I asked them to do so and show evidence that I or any of these council members are not duly elected. But don't just come here to public comment and say, take it again to the courts. Take it to individuals or entities that can actually hold those folks who did illegal things to come. And when we start talking about immigrants, we have to always make sure that we keep in mind that immigrants come in all shapes and sizes and colors as well. In different countries, it's not just Mexicans and and Arabs. You have Africans as well. In district one, we have a high percentage of African and Caribbean immigrants have come over and we were all in we're all working together in our community, and doing so in a way that makes sure that our community is the best community they can be. That doesn't mean that we shy away from responsibilities from those who have been born and raised in this city in this country, but we also have to make sure that we take care of our jurisdictions that we're in, and that means taking care of each and every person that we can that we are held responsible for. So it's ridiculous what we're in a situation where we have folks who are, it feels like plants, because that's not what the general population is saying in the city of Detroit. But we got plants who come down to city council to drop all this nonsense, um, try to
Unknown Speaker
01:01:54try to pull your way. I don't
Speaker 18
01:01:56need to file anything, excuse me. Candidates who want to come down and use this as their platform, because they can't get right any type of momentum themselves elsewhere. So they come down here.
Unknown Speaker
01:02:11The officer leaves for him. That
Speaker 18
01:02:13being said, Madam President, I think I've made my point. Out of out of the
Speaker 2
01:02:17auditorium. Excuse me, out of the auditorium.
Speaker 18
01:02:23Someone include me, but I'm still standing and sitting here.
Unknown Speaker
01:02:27Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, all
Speaker 2
01:02:30right. Thank you so much. Council President, pro temp Tate, Mr. Foster, followed by Cindy Dara, that was be our last two in person. Good
Speaker 19
01:02:42morning. To the president. I think Mr. Foster made it very clear that he wants to work with you guys. I don't know what the response is on that, but with our civil rights, they're depleted. We are no longer fighting for civil rights. We're fighting for human rights, and our freedoms are not free, they cost. And it's important that legislation know that they have the purse. When legislation do not use the purse, then citizens and community bear the burdens. Now here are some of the citizens who had to bear the burdens for themselves. I think it's important in Black History Month, Martin Luther King had to sit in Birmingham Jail for his civil rights. He had Rosa Parks, but we had to catch a case for civil rights. He had Malcolm X Assata Shakur, and then George Jackson, not to mention Nelson Mandela. So when we talk about leadership, it's about doing these things that you believe in without the impunity. And I think that's important. You know, a lot of you guys could go around and say what they doing in the community and everything else, but they doing it with impunity. And so we have to do better with that. Um, just yesterday, I spoke here for the last three years about homelessness, about children and the people in charge of it continue to get elevated. This didn't happen in the community. It happened in the Downtown Development Authority. Two children frozen dead in a transportation car. We have to do better. It's all legislate.
Unknown Speaker
01:04:22Thank you, Mr. Foster and Cindy Darragh.
Unknown Speaker
01:04:24Cindy Dara,
Speaker 20
01:04:28I'd like to know some questions I asked the police commission last week, are you involved with Israeli intelligence, either teaching our police, or we're doing something with them, and they said no, and I, I just wondered about that. So because I'd heard it quite a few times here, I'd like to know why you allow media and services to belittle your council, as well as the people that come down here and bother to park and come down and speak in person, and you can't even see them. One of them, I think Ramona is running for office. I don't see why they can't have a camera person down here. I don't see. I want to know, do you read your transcripts before you settle these lawsuits with the police? Because Joanne Warwick, they're trying to charge over $6,000 for a transcript that I think that has already been made for the city. They should be looking at these transcripts before they make their policy. You should be so are you? Why is it that our government seems to push the people out instead of bringing them in and figuring out how we can work together? And I have trouble with your, your I got knocked off. You can't I've sent you an email, but the way you sign in is only the hand comes up as soon as the meeting comes on, and then it goes off and you can't find it. You got it.
Speaker 2
01:06:19Sorry about that. Mr. Miss Dar, thank you and we, that's why we made sure, we made sure that you were able to speak in person today.
Unknown Speaker
01:06:28Okay? Thank you mister.
Unknown Speaker
01:06:32Thank you Miss, darling. Alright.
Speaker 2
01:06:42Thank you so much. Miss Darr, that's why we wanted to make sure you were able to speak here in person. So thanks for coming down, and we will now go to those who have joined us virtually.
Speaker 21
01:06:54Morning, Madam President, there were 28 hands raised on room before you public Comment and the first caller, Galaxy S 22 ultra applause.
Unknown Speaker
01:07:24All right, proceed, please with that first caller.
Speaker 21
01:07:28First caller is Galaxy S, 22 all trust, okay.
Unknown Speaker
01:07:36Good morning. You.
Speaker 2
01:07:47Good morning. Galaxy S 22 Good morning.
Unknown Speaker
01:07:57Okay, Ari, let's come back to this Caller, please. Okay.
Speaker 21
01:08:00The next caller is Melissa love.
Speaker 22
01:08:04It is my right to fight for my identity back. It is my right to win. I'm Melissa love did not vote for the November 2020 election, nor walked in and voted for the August 2020 2024, election. I am demanding damages. Y'all the city of Detroit have stolen our resources, and I demand it back. It's time for the righteous to take over the wicked, evil things in the city of Detroit for God's glory. Yes, the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy, but God have authority and dominion over every creeping thing. I am a true child of God, and no weapon formed against me shall prosper. Y'all have been exposed, and justice will be served. I am homeless. I've been living in my car with my six kids and no heat. I have not had no resources. Wayne Metro only help you one time. What are y'all got? What are y'all going to do about it? I am the evidence. I will continue to fight for my identity back. Thank you.
Speaker 2
01:09:09All right. Thank you. And again, if you would like to reach out to my office or also any of your council, your council at large offices, to assist with your housing situation, please do so. Would love to try to connect you to the resources that are available. Okay, our next caller please. Next
Unknown Speaker
01:09:26caller is to hear Ahmad,
Speaker 12
01:09:31okay, this diabolical mayor, Mike Duggan, who hasn't offered his condolences to the family or our community and the loss of these children in this family, Mayor Mike Duggan and most city council members who rubber steps his diabolical housing and billionaire giveaway policies are the cause of this tragedy that we see. The system is broken. This session should have began with a moment of silence for these children and their mother, a billion dollars in agri funds wasted on billionaires sent to Detroit, two children of a homeless family and citizens of this city, city have to endure This tragedy. We, the people, demand any and all city money and budget go to free housing and housing restoration all landed homes given to the families and people whose homes were stolen and Doug is $100,000 illegal foreclosures and $600 million rip off. We demand you make it a budget priority to get everybody, children, women, men, families in a permanent free houses from the main bank immediately today, be they on the streets and cars, parking lots, abandoned homes, restaurants, churches, casinos, other people's couches.
Unknown Speaker
01:11:09Thank you, Miss Ahmad,
Unknown Speaker
01:11:11the next caller is we see you.
Unknown Speaker
01:11:22Good morning,
Speaker 23
01:11:25good morning and through the Chair, good morning and through the chair. May I be heard. Yes, you can. Thank you. Thank you Miss Ahmad for showing some passion for dead children that come before this body. And now you all say, I don't have anything to do with that? Yeah, you do. Why don't you call HRD down? What's the woman's name that you all give all of this power and authority to to manage all of this money who you know, I'm not sure if a lemonade stand might be over. What she should be doing. Yeah, people, this should not have happened. This woman and her children came before you. What do you mean? You didn't know about it. You knew about it. Things are not operating in this city as they shoot. And when we look at the report that miss that the council president mandated or asked for, you, find that all of the money has been spent in two districts, one of them being Miss Romero's district, along with court town. So so we don't matter. The only two districts that matter are these. Are these districts and then, and I need those to come here. We need those to come down here and look after what is going on and what's happening with our funding. Yes, you all should take a long look in the mirror. You're a minstrel show or the mayor. This is not and should not happen. And a first class city, and this United States, as much money has come to this city. This should not
Speaker 2
01:13:04happen, right? Thank you. And again, I just have to state because I think it's unfair and it's very dangerous to spread information that is not accurate. There is no indication there has been nothing released regarding the names of this family and that they've been down to council to seek help. That is not correct. Again, I definitely send art. We send our condolences to the family, and we will do a moment of silence for the family. There will be an announcement today at noon with the mayor, as well as housing services leaders throughout the city to talk about the state of housing and direct some information and resources to those who are listening, but to state that this family specifically came down here, and because of us and our inaction, that situation took place is actually, is not it's not correct. And I just want to make sure that that's clear, because I know all of us, every single person on this count, at this day, is here is doing the best that we can to direct people to resources when people come down. Now, do we have a housing crisis in Detroit? Do we have to have more work in the area of housing? Most definitely, we know that. But to to to indicate or suggest that it was because of us that this, that this situation took place, is just not true, and I just want to make sure that that record is reflected that it is not true. Okay, thank you our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
01:14:26The next caller is William M Davis,
Unknown Speaker
01:14:30good morning. Can I be heard?
Unknown Speaker
01:14:32Yes, you can. Mr. Davis, go right ahead.
Speaker 24
01:14:35I would like to start off by saying the city of Detroit has gotten some very bad press recently for two major things that happen. One is the tragic death of those two children in that van downtown at the casino. And more needs to be done, especially as it relates to housing in the city of Detroit. 12 years ago, there was more home ownership, black home ownership in the city of Detroit than is today. There's been a whole lot of economic decline for some people in the city of Detroit. I know some people are much richer and some people are much poor. This is sad. Also, another article deals with the fact with the search for the chief, new chief of police. And if I was on the board of police commissioner, still I was voted. I would have voted for Todd Patterson. But the troubling thing is that there was a search done, and over $70,000 of city money was spent, and they did not come up with no they did not do a cursory search. They did not do anything that warrants $70,000 y'all need to investigate. How could they do a search and have most of the people on it that they came to recommend to be go before the Board of police commissioners? Have? You know, was very problematic. You know, a lot of money is wasted in this city this you know, we have retirees and need help, but y'all are giving away money to questionable contracts. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
01:16:04All right, thank you. Mr. Davis,
Unknown Speaker
01:16:08the next caller is Betty. Ava.
Speaker 25
01:16:12Good morning to all within the sound of my voice, my condolences go out to the family or the loss of the two children. It is just so sad that in a city that we have that we have these type of incidents. I can't remember the young lady who just spoke. I don't know if she was in person on the phone, she said she had six children homeless. I'm hoping that she don't fall through the cracks, that somebody follows up, make sure to get her information and track her down and make sure that she gets the help that she needs. It is just so sad for to to have children, to, you know, to to just die because of they don't have a place to live that is safe. It's just so sad. And we have a lot of this problems in our city. There are people who are living in homes that can't afford. DTE, those high rates. It's just sad. And yes, they have programs where you can go for help, but if you're not in a certain income base or whatever, they don't help you. So now you got people heating their homes with stoves and and the carbon monoxide and the fires. It's just sad. We gotta do better, and so normally I'm talking about my community, but my heart is full today.
Unknown Speaker
01:17:49Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
01:17:52The next caller is Marguerite, Scarlet Matt,
Unknown Speaker
01:17:57Good morning, Miss Maddox.
Unknown Speaker
01:18:00Morning, Good morning.
Unknown Speaker
01:18:10My experiences
Speaker 26
01:18:16that people, people need To know that the know
Unknown Speaker
01:18:36What still
Unknown Speaker
01:18:49peace, we Are
Speaker 26
01:19:07my question will be
Unknown Speaker
01:19:24My side
Unknown Speaker
01:19:32of the
Speaker 26
01:19:39street, a ticket.
Unknown Speaker
01:19:49Police,
Speaker 26
01:19:51but did you not give them a ticket?
Unknown Speaker
01:19:58They said,
Speaker 26
01:20:01so? Hopefully, hopefully,
Unknown Speaker
01:20:10when you ride Avenue
Unknown Speaker
01:20:22day, a
Speaker 26
01:20:29new witness. You and I was one
Unknown Speaker
01:20:54of the witnesses,
Unknown Speaker
01:21:24is, yeah,
Unknown Speaker
01:21:49and with everything
Speaker 26
01:21:55to figure out a way to
Unknown Speaker
01:22:03to make
Speaker 26
01:22:06sure that we are following the guidelines
Unknown Speaker
01:22:15of every
Speaker 26
01:22:21American. To housing, oh,
Unknown Speaker
01:22:43yeah, thank
Unknown Speaker
01:22:46you very much. All right,
Unknown Speaker
01:22:58thank you so much. Ms Maddox,
Unknown Speaker
01:23:01the next caller is Rachelle Stewart,
Unknown Speaker
01:23:06alright. Good morning, Miss Stewart,
Speaker 27
01:23:08good morning. Good morning. President Sheffield and rest of the council. I'm Rochelle Stewart, and I'm calling you please double D that public transit is a crucial need for our city and its residents, and to ensure this better future for all of us, we must prioritize public transit, especially in this year 2026 as you know, since 1997 the budget for DDOT, just local funding, has went down tremendously. And if you add in the federal state, it goes lower. So in order for us to become a major player, we're the lowest funding transit system in the nation. But with more funding, Detroit could get more busses, routes, increase frequency, increase cleanliness, safety and upgrade stops with shelters and benches. It will reduce residents loss of jobs, and it increased city tax losses, but opportunities that will lift Detroiters out of poverty. Statistics and predictive predict that the public transit spending will generate broader and economic returns. And in the end, you increase wages for everyone. Across the board, and DDOT, you have better mechanics. You will not lose them. You'll have lifetime legacy DDOT employees, and that's what we need. But we need to get this system up to par, more than this 70% that we have. And I asked you, please double D dot and in your vote, please vote better than for cheaper police. He is deserving of it. We didn't have to go for a search. We already had.
Unknown Speaker
01:24:45Okay. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
01:24:47The next caller is phone number ending in 299,
Speaker 28
01:24:56good morning. Good morning to council members and to the city of Detroit. My name is Joyce Moore with Virginia Park community coalition with the coalition within the boundaries of the Virginia Park community. Six weeks ago, I asked clearly that I contacted our nonprofits need an overseer. The example that I set forth today is clearly that I still do not have a boiler or hot water tank because I asked the question, why are you installing all this flexing in my house? And the whole point is, is that I have an exhausted because I have a chimney. There was no need, and this is no need. So we started all over again with DTE. We started with the city of Detroit. We should weigh mental, so I'm not upset. I'm saying something is wrong. Our money is being misused and spent when we have so many people in need. So I'd like us to go back and look at it. We figure out a way to have overseas of these contracts and these nonprofits because our money is being simply misused. That's really about all I have to say. But I need your help to get this border and a hot water tank into my home. Thank you for your time. I yield mine. Joyce, more. Thank you.
Speaker 2
01:26:02Alright, thank you Miss Moore, and we will work with you. If you just give us a call, Miss Moore, we will try to see how we can support you as well.
Unknown Speaker
01:26:11Alright, thank you our next caller, please.
Speaker 21
01:26:13The next caller is Samsung, SM, p2, 7u,
Speaker 25
01:26:20okay. Good morning. Maggie, Herb, yes, you can. City council. I want to speak on a young lady that lost two children. I've been casinos, sleeping in her truck because evidently, I guess, she didn't have a place to live. But what they're talking about possibly charging her? I don't feel she should be charged at all. She was doing what she can do. She went up to ninth floor, but it was cold outside, and lost two children. I believe was two. I don't believe that she should be punished. She should not they should not press charges against her. Now, like I said, I don't know if she been down there to you all or whatever, but charges shouldn't be brought against her, because it's bad enough you lost your kids. So that's all I want to say this morning, and I sent condolence to her and the passing of her kids, and hopefully she can get into a house now. So if you are probably reach out to her and see what help she need. To put her into somewhere where she be warm her and her kids until she can afford to get a place. I'm done. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
01:27:49The next caller is phone number ending in 199,
Unknown Speaker
01:27:57yes. Question.
Unknown Speaker
01:28:03Good morning. Yes, we can hear you.
Speaker 28
01:28:06Yes. Thank you so much for taking my call. I would like to address my public comment to President Mary Sheffield, who, I might add, I think you're doing an excellent job. I would also like to address my comment to Mayor Duggan and Councilman Fred durhall. I'm a city of Detroit retiree who is affected by the bankruptcy in 2014 a lot of Detroit retirees, including myself, have made great financial sacrifices that are presently struggling. It has been mentioned that a general retiree, police retirees and fire retirees are to receive a one time 13th check averaging 400 to $600
Unknown Speaker
01:28:57presently
Speaker 28
01:28:59and for the past 11 years, all retirees affected by the bankruptcy paychecks are still paying for the bankruptcy this one time, 13 check does not cover what we have. All are presently sacrificing. But as my grandmother would say, every little bit helps. I would like the council to please keep all retirees informed in writing as to when this 13th one time amount will be issued. Thank you so much for taking my call.
Speaker 2
01:29:36Okay, thank you so much. And I know I would like to respond. I know Member durha and member waters also have a task force that's meeting that's forthcoming. So council member durha, thank
Speaker 18
01:29:45you, Madam President, and to our caller, we will be looking forward to updating you. Our next retiree task force meeting is March the seventh, and we will have an update on the 13th check. And I do think it's a great idea to send a correspondence to our retirees letting you know when that check is actually coming. But please stay tuned March the seventh, again, we will have our retiree Task Force, which is co chaired by member waters and I, and I could not agree with you more. 13, check is something, but it does not make up for what so many of our retirees sacrifice to help this city in this resurgence, and so that's why we put that task force together. We look forward to possibly providing other opportunities where we can help our retirees, but I agree it is difficult to ever make our retirees absolutely whole, but we will do our best to let them know that we care and try to soften the blow. Thank you, Madam President,
Speaker 2
01:30:50all right, thank you. And just also want to echo really the concern in our effort to try to do something for our retirees. I know that this is not going to solve all of the issues and challenges that you all face, but it is one way to acknowledge that we can do something for you all. Also want to mention the retiree Fast Track program that our office is currently working on. This actually came from the concerns and suggestions of some retirees that you know, if we can't give out actual money, that maybe we can be prioritized in some of the existing city programs, and have a fast track option that is similar to what happens with our affected homeowners. We have a program called the special benefits program that gives a preference to those who are over assessed. And so this fast track program essentially would do the same thing for retirees, that will give them the option to have a fast track through some of our existing city programs. So that is something that we're working on, and please stay tuned in. The lookout for that program as well. And if you have any additional questions that we can support, please do not hesitate to give our office a call. Okay, thank you so much for calling in. In our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
01:32:07The next caller is Casey P
Speaker 29
01:32:11Good morning. Can I be heard? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. This is Casey Peller. I'm a resident in District Four and the policy manager at Detroit disability power following in this morning, first in support of agenda item 20.49 the resolution supporting DDOT reimagine funding and implementation. It'll echo Miss Rochelle is comments earlier to double DDOT. We definitely need to boost our transit system so that all residents can have opportunity and access opportunity within and outside of the city. Secondly, this morning, I want to uplift that today is the four year anniversary of the founding of the Office of Disability affairs. Thank you all for the support that you provided to that office through the budget and through partnerships and over the past four years that they've been in existence. And again, we're asking that this year you allocate the full $1.4 million to fully resource that office in completing their mission of increasing independence, opportunities, community participation and safety and wellness for people with disabilities in the city of Detroit this year, that $400,000 gap that would bring them to that 1.4 million we're asking specifically for two new full time roles for program coordination and interdepartmental ADA coordination to truly create that one stop shop that it was designed to be, as well as some program funds for their accessible housing campaign and accessibility training and tools for city meetings and public information so that all people can access the information that is here at this table. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 21
01:33:50The next caller is, don't allow price gouging on za transcripts.
Unknown Speaker
01:34:00Can you hear me?
Unknown Speaker
01:34:01Yes, we can.
Speaker 30
01:34:04Okay, well, your religious person talked about diabolical things happening on the national level, but he seems to ignore diabolical things going on here at the local level. I want to, like, spending all millions and millions of dollars bulldozing Detroit and yeah, Mister Tate, you guys are obligated to fund a proper health department under charter section seven, dash, 201, where's that? I haven't seen that fully implemented since I've been back in 2014
Unknown Speaker
01:34:42also,
Unknown Speaker
01:34:4718.2.
Unknown Speaker
01:34:49You're spending money $204,000
Speaker 30
01:34:52on a house in a prospective solar area. Yet there are people losing their homes, but through this condemnation for way less than that, people who live there, and so they're being treated horribly. I talked to one lady. She said she cries every day, and the city is bullying her to take a deal. How come she's not getting 204,000 so that she can get a five bedroom house and have all her grandchildren over? So the other thing about the BCA transcript, the the news flash, the BCA does not provide the court reporting service, so you cannot charge us these outrageous fees under charter section 9507, and there are more errors in that memo, and so please stop gouging residents And okay, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
01:35:41The next caller is Joyce Jennings,
Unknown Speaker
01:35:46good morning.
Speaker 31
01:35:48Good morning. Early this morning, I received contact from my cousin Willie may Gaskin, which many of you that are elected in office know my 90 year old cousin. I start receiving pictures. Those were our family members who passed away, and I'm going to respectfully let her acknowledge in the mother who lost the actual identity of the children. But as I have listened down through the years, I have come down to city council, mayors, meetings and other referral services. We have money for housing. We have resources to prevent people from being in the situation that sadly they ended up being in. However, when we come before city council and we see votes of our tax dollars being given away to millionaires and billionaires who can afford to fund their developments, money that should go toward housing and resources to make sure that we can all live well and abundantly in Detroit, to Try to single out a certain situation, as though you had no knowledge, if you are aware of other situations where people are asking or seeking permanent housing, a shelter is not a permanent solution. When you bulldoze houses that could be rehabbed, that's a permanent solution. Let's do what's righteous, because the blood, the deaths of those children falling.
Unknown Speaker
01:37:28All right. Thank you. Our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
01:37:30The next caller is Steven Boyle.
Unknown Speaker
01:37:34Steven Boyle, good morning.
Speaker 32
01:37:35Good morning. Council, I'm asking for the doubling of DDOT dollars in the budget this coming year. We sadly are woefully inadequate with the funding on DDOT. I'm looking at this graph prepared regarding the the operating budget, budget inflation adjusted, from 97 to 2021 I see that the last year there, there was a spike in federal funding. However, I know that's going to disappear this coming year, so I'm really concerned that we're continuing to see this slide. And it was a very drastic decline around the bankruptcy years, and we're not recovering from it. It's continuing to fall and we're we continue to put so much emphasis on finding crime. Let's start creating solutions and give people access to being able to find the solution that brings them up. It doesn't work for us to continue to say, well, you're you're just disfavored. One thing I do want to acknowledge is that there is a homeless Union, and the homeless need to be given pathways to find themselves out of the conditions that they're in, and they need to be more publicized. I can't tell you how many people I see on the bus that I talk about uchc, and they have no idea who they are.
Unknown Speaker
01:39:11Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
01:39:14The next caller, Scottie Bowman.
Unknown Speaker
01:39:20Scotty Bowman, good morning.
Speaker 33
01:39:21Good morning. Honorable council members, I'm here with two hats. First, as a district four community advisory council member, I remind you that we resolve to oppose rezoning of a residential neighborhood in the Jefferson Chalmers area to build a pumping station. Better locations are available now. My native Detroiter hat, I oppose the spending of a single penny of taxpayer money on a plan to demolish any part of the iconic Renaissance Center. The alternative spend all suspend, as in a moratorium, all subsidies of new office or lodging constructions downtown until there is sufficient demand to fill the rent set. Finally, the land bank needs to be reformed or dissolved. I have heard many complaints from community members concerning their lack of transparency and accessibility. I yield.
Unknown Speaker
01:40:34Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bowman,
Speaker 21
01:40:38the next caller is Bobby Johnson,
Speaker 3
01:40:47good afternoon. Now it's very sad that these two young children have died, but I see we're giving a resolution to give 94 properties away
Unknown Speaker
01:41:00to
Speaker 3
01:41:02the ACC the Chaldeans Chamber of conference for $653 per property. Why we're buying eight properties for a million and some dollars? There's no way that's insane that we would give our property away, where you can give this to block clubs and start a land trust where block clubs can buy these properties, and let single mothers, let people in the community come and stay there. We're giving away 94 properties from the land bank, which that property we have already given away. Those are Detroit property. We have children dying. We have all people, elderly sitting up there heating their houses with stoves, kerosene heaters, because they can't afford it. DTE is going up. We're giving 10 to 30 year abatements on money, tax dollars going to downtown, and we can't seem to get it right for our residents. In this budget we were promised a long time ago a recreation center. It's been almost it'll be three years
Unknown Speaker
01:42:23since. Thank you council member Young. Thank you
Speaker 6
01:42:25Mayor press. I just want to say to Miss Johnson, listen, I'm going to take all the issues that you said very seriously, but I just want to say it's very good to hear from you again. I have heard from you in a long time. I didn't know if you got raptured or got beamed up on the Starship Enterprise, so I just want to say it's really good to hear from you, and I'm glad that we can hear you. We look forward to hearing you more often, but I just want to say I look forward to being able to work with you and work on those issues. I just, but I just wanted to say that, you know, kind of an early, Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
01:42:53Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
01:42:56Okay, our next caller,
Unknown Speaker
01:42:59the next caller is Miko a Williams,
Speaker 6
01:43:03Hi, good morning. Yes, I support DDOT. Please reform DDOT immediately and sign off on the reform DDOT, the double D dot initiative. Shout out to all the transit activists. Yes, the mother with the two children. She should not be charged. But I just don't blame don't don't do no press conference or anything. You know. Y'all have known that 70% of women and children in the city of Detroit are homeless. Have nowhere to go. There is no homeless shelter. There is no women's shelter. Angela Yee was supposed to have her shelter. That's not up. Julie Snyder, you haven't summoned her. You gotten all the information the former David Bowser helped you all, and you have not provided. Miss Moore keeps coming down. She says she's still homeless. She still ain't got sufficient housing. And no, it's not just your fault, Council. It's Wayne Metro's fault. It's the United Way's fault. It's the archio Detroit's fault. It's the Detroit Regional chambers fault. It's Mayor Mike Duggan spauld. It's also other people's fault of the corporate community that takes from our money. It's the illegit fault that has the arena workers homeless and broke. It's the fault of greed. It's the fault of corporate racism, systematic racism. It's the fault of all these factors that you all fail to realize that responsibility lays at the feet of this body. What is the body going to do to fix it today? Okay?
Unknown Speaker
01:44:38Thank you so much. Miko,
Unknown Speaker
01:44:41the next caller is Tara.
Speaker 3
01:44:47Good afternoon Council. Tara Brown, speaking, I wanted to call about the fact that, you know, we keep making national news here in Detroit, and lately, it's constantly been about housing in 2023 it was my eviction. In 2024 it was Sherman Butler being murdered by a bailiff. Then it was the gentleman who got killed by his landlord who was a former Detroit police officer. Now we have two children in Detroit who have essentially frozen to death and died because they did not have housing. We've lost two babies for a lack of housing. And I can appreciate the fact that it's election time and you all want to get the stink off of y'all and say that it's not your fault, but the decisions you all make at this table lead to things like this happening. And Mary waters is the only one that I can really point to whenever there's a crisis or a discussion about housing. She's there front and center. The rest of you all, I don't know where you are when I go to a mission meeting on occasion, Mary or not. Mary Sheffield, I'm sorry. Mary waters has staff going. I'll leave. I was waiting on my mom come out the pharmacy. I realized that it's not just the fault of you all, it's DHC, Imma. Just keep spinning all these nonprofits in Detroit that are accepting money and people are not getting housed. We need oversight in the shelter. Did anybody consider maybe she didn't feel safe, and that's why she was in her car living again? We can't let this continue to be happening. It is a state emergency. Housing in Detroit is a state emergency, not a crisis. You
Unknown Speaker
01:46:29all right, Ari, our next caller, please.
Speaker 21
01:46:35Okay, I was muted. The next caller is call user.
Unknown Speaker
01:46:42Can that be? Heard. Yes,
Unknown Speaker
01:46:44we can hear you.
Speaker 27
01:46:46Good afternoon. I am extremely disappointed with all of you, all in city council, that you can allow someone that is a child to pass away when you go home to your nice home and advertise your nice clubs while running for the city of Detroit, madam, I've been telling you that we get retaliated against every time we bring issues to the city of Detroit, I have to light up a stove momentarily myself to stay warm, and yet, anytime I bring this to council, I'm given least violations and told what days of the week I complain. But whenever I complain, I always show evidence, video, picture and audio. You all refuse to make a law to stop the bullying when it comes to being unhoused, to stop building and safety. And I'd also like to make you aware when you are disabled, and you apply for these different apartments, like the ones La Jolla and Campbell street apartment, you are denied On the basis of your disability and discriminated based on
Unknown Speaker
01:48:24right. Thank you. Ms Shea,
Unknown Speaker
01:48:25the next caller is Karen hammer, Good
Speaker 34
01:48:29Morning. Regarding your budget priorities, support the Double D dot funding. Raise it to 200 million through 2030 to hire bus drivers mechanics increase accessibility for the disabled, seniors, students and those who prefer not to own a car after decades of underfunding. ARPA funding could have been applied before now, but the city administration has resisted this. Detroiters need reliable transportation alternative to cars. It's sustainable reducing greenhouse gasses, it's economic for residents, and contributes to a much needed regional transit system, which most major cities enjoy also the city administration repeatedly has resisted right to Council funding when homelessness is today on the rise, free legal advice to renters reduces illegal and whimsical evictions. Fully fund the right to counsel with ARPA and general funding money, no strings attached. Last immigrant rights are black rights, both need legal protection against discrimination and legal pathways to work and thrive in Detroit, we cannot undermine,
Unknown Speaker
01:50:06right? Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
01:50:08Our next caller is Frank Hammer. Good
Unknown Speaker
01:50:12morning. Frank Hammer, Good
Speaker 35
01:50:16morning President Sheffield and city council, the theme of this year's Black History Month is labor. There's no more fitting way to commemorate black history and labor than by celebrating today, which is the 88th anniversary of the historic Clint sit down strike. February 11, 1937 was the day General Motors signed the first contract recognizing the United Auto Workers, the UAW as the sole bargaining representative for auto workers in Flint, Detroit and across the US. It was during the Great Depression that the auto workers shut down car production by audaciously sitting down and occupying three GM factories for 44 days. Black workers were part of that heroic struggle, including Roscoe Van Zandt and JD Dotson. Today, union members and workers in general are under attack, especially as Trump man and his billionaire cronies, Elon Musk, Trader Joe's, Starbucks and Amazon are all part of a court action demanding that the National Labor Relations Board, the NLRB, be declared unconstitutional. It was the NLRB that enabled the flint GM workers to win their rights and millions of workers ever since today, it's time for council and Detroit unions to join in defense of the Government Board and trusted with protecting those rights. Thank you.
Speaker 21
01:51:54The the next caller is on out.
Speaker 36
01:52:01Good morning. Good morning. My name is John Dowd, and I am resident of the great city of Detroit. I would like to express my full support for America's community Council's proposal to grow and expand their services. ACC does so much for the community, and has been for decades, the community relies on them as a good partner for our neighborhood. I truly believe that we need ACC presence now more than ever in this difficult economy, ACC provides such an array of much needed services, including their youth centers programs and their substance abuse awareness program as well as behavioral health and WIC services, among others. Not only that, their pantry of plenty provides food to hundreds and hundreds of families every week that don't always have the means to feed themselves. Granting this proposal would definitely provide ACC and enhanced presence in the city, and an increase in services is sure to greatly benefit the community. Thank you for the time.
Unknown Speaker
01:53:07Thank you
Speaker 21
01:53:10and the last caller that raised their hand before you would cut off public comment. Galaxy S 22 ultra
Speaker 2
01:53:20Hello. Yes, we can hear. You hear me.
Speaker 37
01:53:25Yes, we can hear Yeah. I was just, I'm, you know, y'all know who this is. This is the Holloway I call down there over and over for the same thing the lady was talking about. They Leticia go, have somebody from Christ to come out. We've been hearing this, and when they do come out, they cancel when they supposed to come out. So we they keep it. They keep giving us the banana and the tailpipe. Then they turn around and say, they go get more money over there, and they go give it to phase three, when they should have finished fix fixing up phase one, because we've been in hell, and that's that bull crap for years, and now they didn't clean it up. But it's in our system, you know, and it's sad that the worst thing we could've did ahead district city council, because everybody has got their own district, and nobody want to fight together as a team. I didn't talk to my my city council person, Chef Letitia, over and over about certain stuff, and it's the same old, same old. We keep I keep getting up. Bs, you know, I'm saying they go do it. We go do it and not go do nothing. It's sad that the city is like it is. My condolences to the family that lost them two kids. I lost two kids, and if you ever lost a kid, you know what you you will feel the same way they feel. It's a hurting feeling to lose your kid when we should have been fighting and build up. Alright?
Speaker 2
01:55:02Thank you so much for calling in. And that will conclude all of our general public comment for this morning, and we will not proceed to our agenda for this morning, understanding committee reports for the budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee under unfinished business. Council
Speaker 3
01:55:23Member durha, an ordinance noting a roll call nine, item 16.1,
Unknown Speaker
01:55:28Council Member durha, thank you, Madam
Speaker 18
01:55:29President, I move to take from the table an ordinance to amend chapter 17 of the 2019 Detroit city code finance. Article Five, purchasing and supplies by amending Division One, goods and services. Subdivision a, generally by amending section 17, dash five, dash one, definitions and amending sub subdivision B, purchasing of city goods and services by amending section 17, dash five, dash 13, non major purchases, solicitation of bids, comparison, comparison of equalization credits in bids and application of equalization credits for bids required clearances. Required clearances for construction projects, prohibitions related to construction workforce development and construction Workforce Investment businesses, exceptions and section 17, 516, policy requiring purchases of goods and services from cooperative purchases resources, preference for purchasing goods and services for from cooperative purchases resources and adding section 17, 517, policy requiring use of Detroit certified businesses in certain circumstances. And section 17, dash five, dash 18, report to major and city council, and amending subdivision D, approval of contracts and certain requirements for water and sewers department by amending section 17, dash five, dash 91 city council approval required for certain contracts, monthly report on certain contracts, Emergency procurements, city council notification and approval required to streamline the procurement process for greater efficiencies and to create opportunity laid on the table. October 29 2024
Speaker 2
01:57:07hearing, no objections that action will be taken. Council member durha, thank you, Madam
Speaker 18
01:57:10President, I move that the ordinance be placed on the order of third reading and considered read question,
Speaker 2
01:57:19can we finish putting on the order, third reading, first hearing, no objections that action will be taken. Council member door Hall,
Speaker 18
01:57:25thank you, Madam President, I move that the ordinance be passed as submitted with discussion, with discussion,
Unknown Speaker
01:57:29okay? Council member Benson, all
Speaker 38
01:57:32right. Thank you to yourself, either to the chair or the administration just looking on page 19 of the ordinance, Section 17, tac five, tax 17 policy, and there's a director requiring use of Detroit certified businesses in certain circumstances. Just want to make sure that I'm clear on how this works. And often in my office, we like to support and purchase food and drinks. But oftentimes there the vendor may not be they may not be a vendor of the city. This looks like it's trying to make it easier for that. I'm just concerned about the stipulation regard requiring 10 firms be certified so that we can purchase from a food or beverage vendor,
Speaker 39
01:58:22yes, through the chair. The intent of this language is to show our intent and encourage the use of Detroit certified firms for micro purchases for food and beverages. However, we understand that currently, there are very few such firms certified, and we didn't want to restrict those types of purchases to the one or two firms that are certified. And so if approved, we would work with the Creo office to make great outreach and marketing efforts to ensure that there are sufficient eligible vendors. And then, as you say, the reason it is not a strict requirement is because there are times that there are unique circumstances or it needs to make purchases that are outside of that requirement, as you mentioned,
Speaker 38
01:59:03okay? And then, will these businesses be required to have a green placard so we can certify that they're clean and healthy through the dying with confidence? Ordinance,
Speaker 39
01:59:14oh, Councilman Benson, I believe that might be a question for the department that oversees those requirements.
Unknown Speaker
01:59:23Oh, just wondering. Thank you very much. Thank
Unknown Speaker
01:59:26you council member young,
Speaker 18
01:59:28Through you, madam president to member Benson, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I have my hand raised.
Speaker 6
01:59:33I'll make it super quick. I just want to I appreciate Thank you council member Young, thank you, Mayor President, and thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate you, sir, my man Curtis, all good to see. I just want to ask you really quickly, do we know why there hasn't been a whole lot of Detroit businesses that are certified, and does it have anything to do with prompt payment once they go through the process of getting the contract? Because but what I hear from people is, we go through this process, a whole lot of birds, a whole lot of hoops. We jump through all of them. We get the contract, we do the work, and then we don't get paid on time. Has there been improvements in that at all? Is that no longer the case? Can you just kind of, you know, just kind of, let me know where we are with all that, sure? If it's not a reason, you know, that's fine, too. I like to be right about it. I'm just asking. Just asking sure
Speaker 39
02:00:24through the chair. That's a great question. I think I want to answer it in a few different phases. First, regarding why there aren't as many food and drink businesses certified. You know, the the Creo department does the certification process, and would be better able to answer that. However, I believe that right now there's no requirement to be certified, a lot of these are very small purchases and and so I think once there's an incentive to be certified, we would see a lot more regarding prompt payment and the delays that vendors experience in payment, there could be so many different reasons. I will note that you know, for, let's say, federally funded contracts, there are, there are lots of approvals required in reviewing those invoices, making sure that they hew exactly to the contract. Requirements, to make sure that we don't we don't run any financial risk of losing those funds for improper payments, and so that can cause some additional time. And so for ARPA contracts, for example, we have worked to put in the system net immediate payment terms. That doesn't mean that you get paid the day that you submit an invoice. It means that the system does not add any more delay, so once it goes through all the approvals, it will process immediately. That's one of the improvements that we made in partnership with the grants and finance office. Some other things that we have done is that if you are a certified Detroit small business or Detroit micro business, we have allowed immediate pay terms, and we also make this allowance for nonprofits who generally don't have those certifications when requested, and then other reasons why a payment may be delayed. It could be, you know, sometimes. So we have invoice requirements, they have to show the nature of the services, the data service, the correct purchase order number, the correct contract number, and all the documentation that's required. And so if those details are not there, or if it's incorrect, it might take some time to correct before the invoice can be paid. And then finally, sometimes through misunderstanding of the procurement process, a service or good may have been ordered and sometimes even delivered before we got a purchase order in place, or sometimes not follow the correct procurement process. And so that might also cause delays in getting that purchase order in order to be even even able to upload an invoice. So, you know, these are all different types of delays that may happen. One of the big things that we're doing in this ordinance amendment is raising thresholds for some of these smallest dollar purchase thresholds, so that for anything under $5,000 those purchase orders can happen very quickly. This might be a single event catered by a local business. It might be a single order of promotional items. It might be a single short term consulting service so those could go much faster.
Speaker 6
02:03:39No, that was you really kind of answered the question, but you said that they're not required behavior that kind of really answered but I just want to say this, and I'm going to be done here, because those are really good things. It seems more on the administrative and making sure that you're in line with the federal government, we see a policy position on our end in terms of doing things. But I just want to ask, Has there been any sort of technology that you used, whether it be artificial intelligence, to be able to streamline that process, or whether it be smart contracts, and so that's basically a self executing contract that's on the blockchain. I mean, has that been discussion to kind of help that efficiency? I mean, to kind of explain it's kind of like a vending machine process, you know, say, you type in the number, you know, you know, you get the certain Rice Krispie treats, or whatever is you're trying to get the vending machine, but it's already programming the system, so it saves you for having to reduplicate those steps. And it's on the blockchain which is public, and so it's transparent in that regard, has there ever which is like a digital which is like a digital ledger? Has that ever been discussed at all with you or so
Speaker 39
02:04:40I love this question. I will note that this ordinance amendment is one of a whole comprehensive strategy that we're employing to improve procurement in City of Detroit. One of the things that we are doing concurrently is that we have re bid the E bidding system right now, Oracle is very challenging, and so we're in the final stages of making a final decision, and both of those vendors have talked about the use of AI, and I want to make a note on AI. We want to be a welcoming city to AI, and at the same time, be very thoughtful, because of the, you know, the risks that AI could pose, but AI to match up the services that a vendor provides with the commodity categories that we use in putting out a bid. So right now, sometimes there are mismatches, and that vendor self select what category they want to provide goods or service, and if they sometimes they don't make a selection. Sometimes they make a very odd selection, like we had a bus company that selected, I think it was like animal food. It was a very odd mismatch, and so they missed the invitations. But with some of the AI proposed, they could be looking through the text of a document to match up potential opportunities. So that's just one example, but we are excited about moving to a new E bidding system that could lower barriers, make it easier to respond to our bidding opportunities. So this is, this is a whole package of improvements that we're seeking.
Unknown Speaker
02:06:15Thank you. Thank you. Members,
Speaker 2
02:06:18right? Thank you. I see a few hands member door, followed by member Johnson, followed by council member waters, thank you, Madam President,
Speaker 18
02:06:23I'll go last if that's fine, and I'll defer to the other members. Thank you, okay. Council member Johnson,
Unknown Speaker
02:06:28thank you, Madam President.
Speaker 13
02:06:31Directors talk. Can you speak to the impact these these amendments will have on smaller businesses? Last week, we talked about a tailoring be it that went out, and I actually reached out to an entity in the district. They are signed up to receive the information, and I'm still trying to figure out if it slipped through the cracks, if it went to their spam or, you know what the challenge was as to why they did not bid on it, because this is what they do on a daily basis, and they have an East Side and West Side location. So I thought it would have been perfect for them and easy for officers to be able to go to their facility. And I don't know the details about how it works, but because they had an East Side and West Side location, I was really interested in what challenges they had with responding. So can you just speak in general to the impact to smaller businesses and potential ease of use for the process to bid on different items with the city of Detroit?
Speaker 39
02:07:34Yes, thank you for that question through the Chair. I just want to make a small note that that tailoring contract is actually a born and raised Detroiter who now operates a business in East Point as a minority owned, women owned business. So just noting that, but to that very important question about what benefits are there for small businesses with these changes? So right now, any purchase that is expected to be $10,000 or more goes through a formal solicitation process on Oracle, and we have seen all kinds of challenges vendors experience, such as they get an email notification and click the button that says, Yes, I'd like to participate, but don't take it any further than that, or they get into Oracle but don't upload the proper attachments, or
Unknown Speaker
02:08:27they miss it all together because the contact is not updated
Speaker 39
02:08:31for who received that notification. Now with these simplified solicitation procedures, we could make phone calls if it's if there's only so many our washes, for example, that are in the city of Detroit, we can make phone calls. We could compare list prices. We could email out the solicitation and have them email responses. And that really reduces the administrative capacity that these small, especially the brick and mortar retail operations, would need to have to respond to Oracle formal solicitations and so same with the tailoring that contract amount was higher, but we could do a pilot version, just to try out and for a contract amount under $50,000 and make phone calls or email to a list or use all the certified companies that have signed up for that category of clothing or uniforms and email to that entire list where, right now we can't do that. We have to use our formal e bidding solicitation system. Thank
Speaker 13
02:09:31you for that. I think that's extremely important, because so many of our small businesses that do exceptional work have concerns or challenges with the administrative side of their business, and so I think this will be extremely helpful for them to be able to respond to an opportunity and then on the back end, do all of the paperwork if they are selected, as opposed to them doing all of the legwork up front, getting frustrated when They don't receive numerous opportunities that they apply for and then no longer responding to the bid opportunity. So I think that's a great amendment to this particular ordinance. Thank you. Thank you. Madam President, thank you. Council
Unknown Speaker
02:10:14member Johnson, member waters.
Speaker 8
02:10:17Thank you, Madam President, um, good afternoon, Director, Shaw, good afternoon. Um, I just want to ask, you know, we, we do register a lot of people during the annual summit, you know, as chair of the manual of the business Task Force, um, during the summer, we register a bunch of people. Um, we do workshops ourselves, registering a bunch of people, are generally excited about the opportunities. How long does it take then for them to become certified? Or is it the money that holds them back all the various fees, you know, because, because we're going through all of this time and time again teaching people how to get into the system, you know, Oracle and so forth, so they all set up, but then we still don't have as many people doing business with the city that should is the fees that hold them back, that that whole certification process
Unknown Speaker
02:11:16well? So
Speaker 39
02:11:18I'll give a complicated answer to that question because it's a little complex. The certifying agency is creo. We partner with Creo on our outreaches. And I do want to distinguish getting certified as a Detroit based business from getting registered in Oracle right now, we work in a closed system where our invitations only go out to the to the suppliers that have registered in our system. Both of the two finalists that we are working with would be an open system, so if they have registered with any entity that is part of that system, it will go out. And so that will be very helpful. In addition back to the Creo question and the certifications we have worked very closely with Creo to link up their application to make sure that you don't go through this process of getting certified and making a payment without registering an Oracle and getting the bid opportunities. So that's one step we made. We're also building automated systems so that that Creo certification data can be in Oracle and then one early step we made was Creo had their own directory of commodity categories, and we had our nomenclature for commodity categories, and they didn't link up. Now we're on the same so if we call it trash out services, they'll call it trash out services. We call it construction, they'll call it construction where it didn't match up before. So all of these things we are working to help make sure that those outreach efforts that we partner with you on and are will actually come to fruition. And then once we raise the threshold for informal solicitations, we can make use of Creo lists, as opposed to being limited to, you know, whoever has self selected a commodity category in Oracle.
Unknown Speaker
02:13:15Okay, well, I look forward to
Speaker 8
02:13:18some additional work on it, because, you know, people get excited about the whole thing, and then it's kind of like they just Yes, it hit a bump in the road.
Speaker 39
02:13:28I can give you examples of we have so many promotional items vendors in the city, local, minority owned, and they drop off samples. They mail us samples, they show up to our outreach events. We put out that promotional item bid multiple times to try to get more vendors. The recreation department, for example, was very excited about using local vendors. And then we ended up with, you know, very limited response compared to the extensive outreach efforts that we made. And so having informal solicitations at least up to $50,000 they could get their foot in the door on, you know, not the tiniest ones, but, you know, some sort of seasonal contract.
Speaker 8
02:14:07And I just want to lastly say that I certainly appreciate the fact that you you've been open, because there are times it's smaller people businesses in the community will say to me, you know, hey, you know, can I get a small contract? How do you help me out? And I send them to you, and you have found a way to work things in for them to so that they can feel as though that they are part of what's going on here in this city. And that's what I want to see more of I want to see more of our smaller businesses getting opportunities here in the city. But you know, that's no secret with me. You know, because we come to you all the time, and I know that you you do things where you can within the law and and hopefully this new process here will help us do a little bit more and we can continue to improve. Yes, yes. All right, thank you, Madam President. All
Speaker 2
02:15:09right. Thank you, Council Member. Waters, just quick question. I'm not sure if this is accurate data, but maybe you can clarify. If not, I would like to request the information for the city's overall procurement budget, roughly, how much do we procure with Detroit based businesses? I was told 5% Oh,
Speaker 39
02:15:25no. So in FY 24 roughly, yeah, enough. In FY 24 it was already over 30% with certified Detroit based businesses. And if you just look at vendors who have a Detroit address in our system, it's actually 60% because nonprofits don't get certified, and then it's 25% with Detroit headquarter businesses,
Speaker 2
02:15:46okay? And that was for fiscal year 24 Yes, okay. Thank you for the clarity. Council member, Santiago Ramiro, thank you, Madam President, through chair director, hello. Just a few questions regarding process I've made I mentioned this before, when I first heard this ordinance, for me, I had concerns around giving away power the city has, a city council has. But do you want to be clear, the power that we still have, the oversight that we will still have in the transparency that's embedded in this? So if you wouldn't mind sharing about the reports, letting us know who will be writing this and when we can't expect to review this?
Speaker 39
02:16:23Okay? Yes, thank you for that question. We have put in a number of additional transparency and accountability measures that were not in the ordinance before. So one of them is that there is explicit language that prohibits splitting a purchase into multiple purchases to stay under a threshold. So if you were going to buy 50 widgets, we can't split it into 25 and 25 just to stay under a threshold. And then additionally, we will be sending monthly reports to city council of every contract approved that is between the old threshold and the new threshold. And I want to note that the $25,000 threshold was established in 1999 which in today's dollars is $47,000 and very close to what we're proposing as the new threshold today, of $50,000 those contracts will be sent to council on a monthly basis. For transparency, we have a delegated approval threshold up to $150,000 or $250,000 for certified Detroit businesses, in which we would provide information to city council in advance of any contract being finalized that would include the vendor name, what is being purchased at what amount or how long, the number of responses received, and any certifications, if any, and then council would have the ability to revoke that delegated approval and send that contract through the normal, standard contract approval process. But the reason this expedites is that while we're going through this multi week council approval overview oversight process, we can be working on the most time consuming pieces of getting a contract together so that they can meet at the end faster. Thank
Speaker 2
02:18:03you. Last question is around demolitions. So what does the process look like for demolitions? Nothing
Speaker 39
02:18:09will change regarding demolitions, emergency demolitions, you will see those as you know, those are under the council approval threshold. Those will not change. And demolitions, because of their costs, will be above the those smaller purchase thresholds.
Speaker 2
02:18:25Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank you right. Council. Member duha, oh, I'm sorry. Member Callaway, member council, thank
Speaker 12
02:18:33you, Madam Chair, just real quick. Director Stahl, have we reached out to LPD? Because I know Mr. Whitaker had expressed some concerns. He was in my office last week on another matter, and I just simply inquired about his position on this. He's expressed concerns. So have we addressed the concerns that mister Whitaker mentioned? I don't see him today. I don't know if mister Corley can speak on his behalf. He definitely just had some concerns, and I don't know if he shared those with you or not. Director Stahl, through the chair, yes,
Speaker 39
02:19:05through the chair. We met multiple times with LPD, with Councilman der Hall. As you as you know this count, this ordinance amendment has gone through many, many revisions, through the feedback of both LPD and the OIG, taking into consideration their suggestions and making sure that it was clear and had the accountability that we would all want. And I think our CFO, in fact, wanted to make sure that we were encouraging transparency and accountability and stewardship. If there are additional questions that LPD has. I would love to hear them and be able to address them. I believe Mr. Whitaker wanted.
Unknown Speaker
02:19:49Well, I won't, I won't put words into his
Speaker 12
02:19:52mouth. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Director Stahl. I'm just, you know, of course, I support the ordinance, but I still would like to hear from LPD. He was in my office last week and just expressed some concern. So I don't know, Mister Corley, you weren't in my office. I don't know if you could really speak on his behalf, but Mister, mister Whitaker was in my office, and he said he had, you know, I don't know if the word was concerns, but it was bordering concerns.
Speaker 2
02:20:24Thank you. I think Mr. Whitaker, Director, Whitaker is out of from my understanding, right? Thank
Speaker 40
02:20:29you, Madam President, thank you. City council. Good afternoon. Customer call away. We did have several meetings with CFO and Miss Stahl in particular. We did meet with sponsor ordinance, of course, member door Hall and his staff. And of course, they were very diligent. You know, on this ordinance, I think we feel better. I don't want to speak for Mr. Whitaker, but I know, from my perspective, first, they were starting out with a higher threshold. It was like 75,000 whatever. And we really appreciate them coming down to the 50,000 because, as Miss star indicated, when you look at inflation on the initial 25,000 that's around 50,000 and when you look at other cities, and counting on Wayne County, they went up to, I think, 150,000 and our 100,000 so I think, I think it's reasonable to go from 25,000 threshold to 50,000
Unknown Speaker
02:21:28we had some questions
Speaker 40
02:21:31in but Japan started last week. They answer those satisfactorily. We asked the question, though, so what would the impact of this ordinance be on the staffing? And the star indicated that she can elaborate more, if maybe, but she indicated that it kind of frees up your staff to do more outreach, that type of things. I thought that was satisfactory, so I don't know. Mr. Hurts myself. Heard might have some more, but I think in general, they answer questions.
Speaker 41
02:22:02Chair, I think one of the concerns that we had was with regard to Council's ability to hold a contract, and though they instituted a provision in which they will provide to you a report in which you will have an opportunity to hold it, I think it would require a majority of the members seated at the time to hold that contract, but we're not sure as to how much time you have to hold it, and we're not sure as to whether or not you will receive what is normally the teeter report with regard to some of those contracts that are that may be held. And so there's some issues that we would like to get some clarification on how much time you will have to review and approve, and whether or not we at LPD will receive the information to be able to inform you as to what those contracts are. Okay
Speaker 39
02:23:00through the chair. I did want to respond to that we did have. Thank you for reminding me we did have conversations with the LPD members who work on the teeter report and have committed to making sure that they have enough time and we have the an amount of contracts that they can have a teeter report ready for review when those contracts hit Council.
Speaker 2
02:23:24Okay, thank you member Calloway, Council Member door Hall, we had another council member Johnson. Thank
Speaker 13
02:23:31you, Madam President. I'm not sure that attorney hurts. Question was directly responded to relative to the amount of time that city council will have to hold a contract, or how long it can be held,
Speaker 39
02:23:45right? So the intention is that this would be an expedited process for these contracts that are 150,000 and below, so council would have one council cycle to vote to revoke that delegated approval. And so any and we've worked out, I think, a pretty clever idea was law on how to make sure that that can fully get done in one council cycle, which is not laid out in the ordinance, but up to, I believe, council to determine how specifically you could do it. But what they've proposed is having so we would submit the list and a draft resolution with enough time for LPD to provide that teeter report for when it's when the list of contracts is reported, and then when Council is making the recommendation and voting. We would provide a checklist of those contracts so that during session they could just be checked off for any that need to be revoked. So that's one way that it could go and meet that cycle time.
Speaker 13
02:24:51Okay, thank you. So it sounds like it will happen during within the committees.
Speaker 39
02:24:58I can't I think the I'm getting into outside my
Speaker 18
02:25:04jurisdiction through you, if I may, Madam President, respond through you to member Johnson. The intent was to allow council to have the discretion on how they utilize it and when we're talking about the to the next formal session, prior to or after it has been submitted, which generally occurs on a Tuesday. But from my understanding, and we kind of wanted to leave that open, Council also have the ability to call a closed session to discuss it and then take action following that. So we didn't want to buy it or make it, make it by in that particular way. We
Unknown Speaker
02:25:45didn't want to set limitations on council saying you only have a week.
Speaker 13
02:25:52Member Johnson, Madam President, thank you. So through you to member Hall. So during recess, when we hold contracts, we can hold a contract for a particular time period. So if it's held until we come back from recess, when we hear or review that particular contract in committee, then if the committee decides to hold it further than it, can hold it. So are we articulating that it is the same process. What help helped me to understand this
Speaker 39
02:26:24through the chair. It is similar to, but not the same as, the recess process. If delegated approval is revoked, then it would come back to us to complete the contract, make sure we get all the insurances and clearances and affidavits, we would submit it through the regular council approval process, and then if Council still deemed it appropriate to hold it at that time, you could continue to hold it.
Speaker 2
02:26:51Okay? Thank you. Thank you. Madam President, Madam Chair. Thank you. Member, member Johnson, Council Member
Speaker 12
02:26:56Calloway, yeah, to that point, so we routinely hold contracts during recess, least I do speaking for myself. And so how is that process going to be impacted? Because when we hold a contract, we have until four o'clock. I think on the Wednesday, we get the contracts between Monday and Tuesday. I think we have to make a decision by that Wednesday at four, then no action is taken until we return from recess. So how is this process going to impact what we do right now so I can have an understanding, so I'll make sure that my right to view contracts and to hold them is not being impacted.
Speaker 39
02:27:37That is a great question. I want to note that 98% of the contract value approved by council will will see no difference with this procurement ordinance amendment. So the majority of the contracts that go through recess will process exactly the same for up to $50,000 we would now have Administrative Approval so you would get the monthly report for those and then for contracts that are in that delegated approval process. I think I would need law to weigh in on that question. But that is a great question.
Unknown Speaker
02:28:17Attorney Anderson, you want to come down. I
Unknown Speaker
02:28:26through the chair, Attorney Adam Saxby is available.
Unknown Speaker
02:28:30I'm sorry. What did you say?
Unknown Speaker
02:28:33Okay, oh, okay.
Speaker 42
02:28:37Good afternoon to this honorable, honorable body. Adam Saxby, law department, I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?
Unknown Speaker
02:28:47Member cowboy, did you want to repeat it or Okay,
Speaker 12
02:28:50I'll try to repeat. Thank you. Madam Chair, my question to Director Stahl was through the chair, was we we hold contracts during recess, and the contract does not come back before Council. We don't see it again until after recess. We have up until I do believe we will receive the contracts on either that Monday or that Tuesday. We have to make a decision whether or not we're going to hold that contract by four o'clock that Wednesday. So we only really have 24 hours, maybe 48 hours, to read the contracts and make a decision in terms of whether or not we believe that this particular contract should be held during recess. How is that particular process going to be impacted by this ordinance?
Speaker 42
02:29:38Thank you for the question through the chair to council member Calloway, if I'm understanding the process correctly, as you laid it out, that I think it may be helpful to read the provision that specific specifically would govern this process. The City Council may revoke the delegation of authority of this particular section for any minor purchase when within seven days of provision of the minor purchase information, city council acts by a majority of city council members present to require city council approval for the pending minor purchase. And what that means is, if City Council were to act by a majority of those present, which is smaller than, than the than those sitting then it would go through whatever the normal process is in that situation, and whatever the normal that that's the legal side of it, whatever the normal process is in that situation would then govern. And I would defer to Director Stahl as to what that might look like, but the intent of the language from the legal side is to then allow counsel, when they revoke their authority, their their delegated authority, to put it back in the normal process that would tip govern in that situation. I hope that answers the question,
Speaker 39
02:30:59and through the Chair, I might suggest that, because Council grants recess approval via resolution, if there are details that we might want to hammer out, we can make sure that those get hammered out in those recess resolutions. Okay,
Unknown Speaker
02:31:17all right. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Director.
Speaker 2
02:31:19All right, thank you. Member Calloway, Council Member durha, thank
Speaker 18
02:31:24you, Madam President. And first, I want to say thank you to all of the members sitting here. You have definitely provided valuable input to this ordinance. We started this ordinance sometime early last year and had discussions a little bit about it before that, I am a firm believer that when we push legislation for it should be inclusive of everyone's ideas, and so I do want to thank the members of this body for your input and your team's input. We've had many meetings. Definitely want to thank my team, my legislative director, Doctor as my ishaism, as well as director Stahl, who worked very hard on this ordinance, particularly with the law department. Want to thank the weigh in from the Office of the Inspector General as we talked about transparency, what that looks like. How do we ensure that the change of this ordinance will also be able to prevent any malfeasance that may occur and definitely. Thank you. To LPD, we've had multiple meetings as well to iron out what was some issues relative to delegation. So even what you're seeing, it sounds very complicated, but we wanted to make sure that council still had the ability to weigh in on one of these purchases if they did not feel that it should go through, and we put that mechanism in there, and that's particularly here in the city of Detroit with our procurement ordinances. This is the first time that we're seeing that we're creating a streamline but most importantly, we are now starting to cut red tape here in the city of Detroit. It's entirely too hard to do business here in the city of Detroit, and as you talk to smaller businesses, they're very supportive of this, because now it will open more opportunity for them to be able to compete for some of the contracts that larger companies and businesses usually competed for. And so I'm happy to see that through this process. I'm happy to see the increased account accountability and transparency. And again, I want to thank all who were involved, and we just want to continue to push forward and make it again better to do business here in the city of Detroit. And that concludes my comments, Madam President, and I have already the ordinance to be passed as submitted.
Speaker 2
02:33:47It's one more quick question, just regarding outreach. I know director star, you may have mentioned that you were going to be calling physically calling. Did I hear you state that's going to make sure I'm clear that you will be calling Detroit based vendors, or just vendors in general when it comes to opportunities, instead of just emails being sent that you actually be calling
Speaker 39
02:34:05so where appropriate. So in formal solicitation, we wanted to allow for that possibility. So if we don't get, you know enough response for car washes or for parking structures, we could make that phone call for those purchases under $50,000 and especially for those that have list published, published list prices. Okay,
Speaker 2
02:34:30so you and you would just do the outreach on your own. It's not a list that you'll be calling from. How do you get? How do vendors get on that list that you can actually be doing those direct call outreach to that's
Speaker 39
02:34:41a great question. It would be a combination. We would do our own market research. We would get information about supplier, possible eligible suppliers from the department. We would check the Creo list of certified vendors who have signed up for that category. And then we would check our own Oracle registered list of vendors, okay,
Speaker 2
02:35:02okay, just want to get clear around that that's important. So I'll be reaching out to you to see how we can support, if any, oh, one in that regard. Okay. Member Doha, you've already moved it for approval. Okay, any other discussion, concerns or questions? All right, Hearing no objections. That action will be taken.
Speaker 18
02:35:20Council member Dural, thank you, Madam President, we already moved the orders be passed. There being a
Unknown Speaker
02:35:25roll call required. The Clerk, please call the roll. Council President,
Unknown Speaker
02:35:29pro tem James Tate,
Speaker 3
02:35:32yes. Council member Mary waters, yes. Council member Angela Whitfield, Callaway Yes. Council member Coleman, you on a second Yes? Council President Mary Sheffield, yes. Council member Scott Benson, yes. Council Member frederhauser, yes. Council member Letitia Johnson, yes. Council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, yes, nine yeas. That motion passes. Madam President,
Unknown Speaker
02:35:58the ordinance is approved. Council Member durha, thank you,
Speaker 18
02:36:01Madam President, I move that the title to the ordinance be confirmed, Hearing
Unknown Speaker
02:36:06no objections that action will be taken
Unknown Speaker
02:36:11under resolutions. Council
Speaker 3
02:36:13Member durha, four. Resolutions. Line item 16.2 rule 16.5 Thank you,
Unknown Speaker
02:36:21Madam Clerk, Council Member Durham,
Speaker 18
02:36:23thank you, Madam President. I will be moving for approval line item 16.22 through 16.5 these are budget related calendar and scheduling items, but we'll move these for approval with discussion.
Speaker 2
02:36:40Okay, all right. Motion has been made to approve with discussion and just kind of noting the dates we know that February the 28th line item 16.2, indicates that the mayor will present his budget on Friday, February the 28th at 1230 in the committee of the whole room, and then also the standing committees will be changing their meeting dates, starting on Wednesday, March the 12th through Monday, April the seventh. Committees will now start at 9am those that are starting at 10 will start at nine, and then the other committees that are starting Oh. I think this, the afternoon meetings will stay the same, but everything will be limited to one hour. So just the earlier meetings will start at 9am and everything will be limited to one hour. Yes, that starts on Monday, March the 31st excuse me, Monday, Wednesday, March the 12th through Monday, April the seventh, during our budget deliberation process.
Unknown Speaker
02:37:48All right, any other discussion? Thank you,
Speaker 18
02:37:50Madam President. Member Hall. Thank you, Madam President. We articulate those times, but just wanted to open it up for discussion before we specifically talked about those times. Just allow for discussion. I know prior to it coming to committee, there may have been a little bit of an appetite to change the budget, budget scheduling, and just wanted to, you know, open that up for discussion, if any of the colleagues wanted to weigh in, we did pass it through committee, noting that we were keeping the same scheduling that was already proposed. But I do think it is a good idea, and wanted to put on record to member Benson's point, who articulated a change in the future for a future council to allow for more time to be able to review the budget. We just thought for this particular budget, folks have already had things that were already scheduled, which would be difficult to do that, but if the opportunity presents itself in the future, again, I do think that is a great opportunity to have more time to be able to review Thank you, Madam President.
Speaker 2
02:39:01There's no further discussion. Member door Hall moved for approval, 16.2
Unknown Speaker
02:39:0916.5
Unknown Speaker
02:39:12are there any objections?
Speaker 2
02:39:16Hearing? No objections. The four resolutions will be approved
Speaker 18
02:39:19request a waiver for line item 16.2 through 16.5
Speaker 2
02:39:24Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to those four items for the internal operations standing committee from the law department,
Speaker 3
02:39:32Council Member Johnson to resolution line Item 17.1 and 17.2
Unknown Speaker
02:39:40council member Johnson, thank
Speaker 13
02:39:42you, Madam President, Move for approval. These are two note, two settlement requests.
Unknown Speaker
02:39:53Okay. Are there any objections?
Speaker 2
02:39:57Hearing? No objections. The two resolutions will be approved
Unknown Speaker
02:40:03from the Office of Development and grants.
Speaker 3
02:40:05Council member Johnson, a resolution line item 17.3
Unknown Speaker
02:40:11council member Johnson, thank you,
Speaker 13
02:40:12Madam President, Move for approval. Line item 17.3 is a request to accept the redevelopment ready communities. Fellow grant,
Unknown Speaker
02:40:23any objections,
Speaker 2
02:40:26hearing, none. The one resolution will be approved
Unknown Speaker
02:40:32under resolutions,
Speaker 3
02:40:33Council Member waters, three resolutions, line item 17.4, through 17.6
Unknown Speaker
02:40:42council member watts,
Unknown Speaker
02:40:53thank you, Madam President, Move for approval.
Speaker 2
02:40:57All right. Motion has been made for approval, and this is to continue the skilled trades Task Force for 2025 also the literacy Task Force for 2025 and the Veterans Task Force for 2025 Hearing no objections, the three resolutions will be approved
Unknown Speaker
02:41:18under resolutions the
Unknown Speaker
02:41:23Yes. Council President,
Speaker 3
02:41:26Mary Sheffield, line item seven, 17.7, they are waiting resolutions, which are, by the way, attached to the river referrals under new business. So these two line items, we are no longer awaiting the resolutions, Madam President, we do have them, but that's for council member Angela Whitfield Callaway, two resolutions, my item 17.7
Speaker 2
02:41:47so we're going to actually remove the line item 17.7 because we have them under 22.7 and 22.8 so let's just remove this item, and then we can Take up the other two items, their motion, motion, Hearing no objections. We will remove line item 17.7 from the agenda, and we will take up that item when we get down to 22.7 and 22.8 Okay.
Unknown Speaker
02:42:12Thank you, Madam President, thank you
Speaker 2
02:42:15for the Planning and Economic Development standing committee from the City Planning Commission Council
Speaker 3
02:42:20President, pro temp Tate a resolution, line item 18.1
Unknown Speaker
02:42:27council president, pro temp Tate. President,
Speaker 18
02:42:28I move approval. Line item 18.1 which is the 2005 2006 Community Development Block Grant, neighborhood Opportunity Fund, program, schedule for Hearings and Appeals.
Speaker 2
02:42:43Right. A motion has been made. Are there any objections? Hearing? No objections. The one resolution will be approved
Unknown Speaker
02:42:54from the planning and development department
Speaker 3
02:42:56council president pro tem James Tate, two resolutions noting that nine item 18.3 was postponed from last week formal session.
Unknown Speaker
02:43:06President Pro Temp Tate,
Speaker 18
02:43:07madam, President, I move approval of the two resolutions,
Speaker 2
02:43:12a motion has been made for approval for both 18.2 and 18.3 which are both um, I transfer property in city sales. I just wanted to note on 18.2 the amazing work that ACC is doing. I had the opportunity to go down and tour the facility and just see the amazing services that they provide to the community and their vision of what they want to do with the expansion as well. So glad to see that this is moving forward and member Callaway, yes,
Speaker 12
02:43:44thank you, Madam Chair, and all day for Korea's right here with us, as you indicated, they do amazing work over there have been doing that work on John R and Seven Mile, four decades, 60,000 pounds of Food every Thursday, my team has volunteered there free mental health services and clinicians, winter apparel, blankets, anything that any family member would need. You can get it right there, everything, medical support. They have a pantry. It's just amazing services to the community. You don't have to live in district two to come and get the services. Is access to everyone in the city of Detroit. There's no there does not have to be a thing called homelessness. They will provide you with resources. You don't have to be homeless, you don't have to be hungry, you don't have to walk around with the hoodie, pretending it's a coat. You can go right over there on West outage, not west out of drop, West Seven Mile Road, 62 West Seven Mile Road. And I also, they have a brand new gymnasium for our children over there, and you've seen it, madam president, 300 kids enrolled in their youth program. You know who goes over there to get that food? 60,000 pounds of food folks who look just like me. The line is wrapped around the building. I've been there, I've seen all the wonderful things that they've done. Black and brown people are reaping the benefits of this program, and I'm going to take this opportunity to provide that website, because we have quite a few people called this morning concerned about the family. Our hearts are breaking. We're grieving anybody who is losing their lives to homelessness or being out in the elements. We understand that. But this is an organization located at 62 West seven model can provide those services help you with any homeless issues that you're having, if you're under house or not house at all. I ask you to go over there. The website is my very simple my acc.org,
Unknown Speaker
02:45:48my, m, y, A, C, c.org,
Speaker 12
02:45:52and I'm telling you, I I'm just excited about they're expanding their their footprint over there. They're doing more than anybody else in that area, and I appreciate you, O'Day. I appreciate your organization. I appreciate your godmother, and I'm glad you did not decide to take that organization to Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham, or anywhere else. You are committed to that area, and I'm glad, and that's why we are committed to you. Thank you, Madam Chair,
Speaker 2
02:46:17all right, thank you so much. Member Callaway, and thank you, Mr. O'Day, for all that you do. And then also, I was very impressed with their mental health services as well that they provide. I didn't realize how much they do over there with mental health as well, so But thank you, and thank you for allowing me to go tour. All right, any additional comments or questions concerns? All right, hearing none. Any objections to the two resolutions. Hearing, no objections the two resolutions will be approved. Madam Chair, yes. Request a waiver on both items, online item, 18.2 okay. Any objection to a waiver. Hearing, none. A waiver will be attached to 18.2 for the public health and safety standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Speaker 3
02:47:10Council Member Santiago Romero, five resolutions noting that line items 19.1 through 19.5 or post calls from last week formal session, Contract Number 6006893, 100% bond funding to provide proposal and demolition release s, group s1, contractor in the city, contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $2,709,807.45 cent construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6006895, 100% bond funding to provide proposal and demolition release s group s3 contractor salabine, Truckee and excavating incorporated total contract amount $3,134,873.88 cent that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6006894, 100% bond funding to provide proposal and demolition release s, group s2 contractor, salivating, trucking and excavating. Incorporated total contract amount, $2,000,676 $385.75 cent construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6005453, dash, a one, 100% Construction Code funding, Amendment One to provide an increase of funds and a change of scope for services to complete office space renovations on k max for floor contractor, Detroit building authority. Total contract amount, $686,335.39 cent. That's for BC. Last contract is contract number 6006806, 100% city funding to provide tailor services for Detroit police uniforms. Contractor Sonia designs custom couture LLC, total contract amount 100,000 that's for police. Council Member Santiago Romero, five resolutions. All
Speaker 2
02:49:29right, thank you, Madam Clerk. Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, motion to approve 19.1 through 19.2 all right. Motion has been made for 19.1 and 19.2 are there any objections to these two items? Objection member, Santiago Romero,
Unknown Speaker
02:49:54the clerk will note. Clerk
Unknown Speaker
02:49:55will So note. Madam President,
Speaker 2
02:49:59hearing no further objections. The two resolutions will be approved and Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, motion to bring back 19.3 in one week. There are still some questions from some members. Would like to bring this back. To give some more time. Any objections to bringing line item, 19.3 back in one lead, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you. Motion to approve 19.4 and 19.5 All right. Motion has been made for approval, and I know we're going to do discussion 19.5 was the tailoring services that we discussed last week. And if we have someone on, I know some information was sent as well regarding this contract. Mr. Washington, do we have someone
Speaker 4
02:50:56on? Yes, good afternoon, Madam Chair and committee, we do have group is that council Online? I Right.
Unknown Speaker
02:51:19Did you say group exact counts,
Unknown Speaker
02:51:23yes. Madam Chair, I see she's been promoted.
Speaker 43
02:51:29Good afternoon. Lawan counts, group executive of construction and building operations.
Speaker 2
02:51:34Okay, all right, are you able to speak on the Sonia designs custom contract for the tailoring services. That's the questions that we have.
Unknown Speaker
02:51:43Oh no for
Unknown Speaker
02:51:46Madam Chair,
Speaker 4
02:51:48yes, my apologies. I got mixed up with construction demo for this. I for the tailoring contract. We have commander Stacey Alvarado,
Unknown Speaker
02:51:55okay, thank you. You
Speaker 2
02:52:18okay, they just need to accept the request to be promoted and
Speaker 4
02:52:26Madam Chair, we also have Chris Jones for procurement online.
Speaker 2
02:52:33Okay, we will promote Chris Jones as well. Just wanted the you to briefly touch on the memorandum that was sent to us regarding this contractor, Sonia. I don't want to state her whole name, but the contractor is a Detroit born and raised entrepreneur who is now trying to be certified as a Detroit based business. So if someone can just speak to the memo that was sent to clarify this particular contractor, i
Unknown Speaker
02:53:05Hi, Chris Jones. OCP,
Unknown Speaker
02:53:06yes. Mr. Jones,
Speaker 44
02:53:10yes. I was told by science designs that she was trying to get certification for, I think she said woman owned and minority owned, I think she was referring to the Wayne County area, not specifically the city of Detroit, because she's located in East Point.
Speaker 2
02:53:28Okay, and then Can you just speak to some of the concerns that were raised last week regarding how the bids were solicited, the advertising, etc, for the effort for you all to try to secure a Detroit based contractor?
Speaker 44
02:53:42Yes, again, this, this particular bid was sent out three times, actually. And we used we used Google, we we cold call, we sent it over, we sent it to over 330 companies, and we did as much out outreach as we could to try to locate someone that's, you know that in Detroit that was willing to bid on this project.
Speaker 12
02:54:07All right, I will see if colleagues have questions yet. Council member Callaway, yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for your outreach. Your outreach went beyond, did not make a stop, to the avenue of fashion. I have three tailors on the avenue of fashion. I have the Bartel brothers, and they heard about this contract, and I'm so I cannot support this contract, knowing that we have all these tailors in the city of Detroit. I mean, we have the avenue of fashion, and they tailor gowns. We have a Bridal Salon, salon now they have a seamstress. So I just, I'm hoping that we could put this out for bid again. So people who live in Detroit do business. In Detroit have been doing business. Have been doing this kind of work for years. And then while we were here last Tuesday, someone sent me a text, and you know, she's a seamstress and a tater in Detroit. So I'm hoping, whatever the process is, to rebid this, so people who live in Detroit, do business in Detroit, and have been doing this kind of business for years will have an opportunity to know about this contract. We did look at the information that you sent us, Mr. Jones, but none of those businesses were on that list that you sent us. And I think that list probably had 100 or so people on that list, but none of the people from the avenue fashion were on that list. I spoke to Mr. Ruth as partel this morning. He didn't know about the contract, and so I'm just very, very concerned there are 330 served on the list. Is a comprehensive, comprehensive, big list. And a lot of these serve, you know, talking about Virginia Beach, Lavonia, Madison, high Smithville. Phil, very few, sir, that I can see in Detroit, Fort Lauderdale. I mean, we wouldn't send our uniforms to Fort Lauderdale, would we? So, you know, you send me this list, and we went over the list. So I'm asking that we go back to the drawing board and give Detroiters an opportunity to bid on this. It's not a huge it's not it's not a huge contract. It's not like lucrative. It's only a couple $100,000 for two years? No, it's not even a couple hundreds, $100,000 for two years, which is $50,000 a year. So we're not talking about a super large contract. But I cannot support this, and I'm I'm hoping that my colleagues will allow my office to do is to deal due diligence and work with contracts and procurement to get some of the folks who have been doing this kind of work for years in our city and who live here. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Speaker 2
02:56:47Thank you member Callaway member Johnson. Thank
Unknown Speaker
02:56:50you, Madam President,
Speaker 13
02:56:53to member callaways point the tailor shop in District Four actually has a an establishment in district two as well, and so that's what I was referring to, them having a location on the east side and the west side to be able to accommodate officers and make it easy for officers to get to them for measurements. I did reach out to find out. I did see them on the list. So their east side business is on the list to receive the be it, but I haven't gotten confirmation that they actually received it. And so that's what I was trying to clarify and to understand. Because if we have all of these entities that are on this list, and we only received the a response from this particular vendor that That, to me, is the most challenging part about this, be it just recognizing that only one person responded and 330 people received it. So I do have reservations with this as well, and just wanted to note that I did some outreach as well, and just trying to make it easy for everybody, for the officers, for to support Detroit based businesses and Detroiters. So thank you. Thank you. Madam President,
Unknown Speaker
02:58:18Madam chair member, Callaway. I
Speaker 12
02:58:20don't know if you can answer this. Maybe someone from contracts and procurement through yourself, what is the process to bring this back and rebid it?
Speaker 2
02:58:33Mr. Jones, were you able to hear member Calloway regarding rebidding this contract
Speaker 44
02:58:41through OCP. It's, it's whatever the council desires, as far as approval up or down, and OCP will take their, take their actions after that point.
Speaker 12
02:58:53Um, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, thank you Mr. Jones, I um, moved to, if possible. I don't know if my colleagues have any other comments, but I don't want to see our officers having to go to, you know, grass, it in East Point, probably in a, you know, in one of our vehicles, which taking them out of commission. They're in a whole nother city, doing, you know, getting their uniforms when they should be in our city, fighting crime in those uniforms. So I'm hoping that my council, my colleagues, will agree that this should be rebid and the the organization or the company that Leticia remember Johnson brought up, they have a location on the east and the west in the city of Detroit, which is far more convenient. So I don't know what, you know, what the motion should be made? Because it should be rebid. Yeah,
Speaker 2
02:59:38so the motion was already made to approve. So we're just still discussing discussing. Right now, I think what will have to happen is it will have to be voted down for them to go back out just to discuss. Okay, I thought it was a motion to approve and discuss. It was just discussed. Okay, so we're still discussing council member Durham.
Speaker 18
02:59:59Thank you, Madam President, and just through you to the Department if this is to be voted down today, what does that look like? How does that affect DPD service right now for them to be able to get these uniforms tailor? How long will the procurement process eventually take going through this second time,
Speaker 12
03:00:28through the chair councilman, as far as if this were to be turned down and to go back to OCP for the bid procedures, the department will still be able to provide uniforms. We do have tailoring services as part of the sewing fees in other contracts that provide the uniforms directly. This is a contract strictly for the tailoring services to provide the tailoring services to uniform items that the department already has in our possession.
Speaker 18
03:01:06And so if this was to go back today, we would we would see no change, potentially in issuing new uniforms. But what would be the delay for officers who needed tailor
Unknown Speaker
03:01:20through the chair, there would be no delay. Thank
Unknown Speaker
03:01:24you, Madam President. All
Speaker 2
03:01:26right, thank you. Member der Hall discussion council member Benson. All right.
Speaker 38
03:01:29Thank you. And just there may be an opportunity, if this is not making through today, to re look at this contract. The parameters around the contract may not work for those who are doing these services, we may need to look at something that actually works for both party to win win, and not just to win for the city, which what you don't want to do is invite our small black businesses to the table, which is something the city's done in the past, and then put them under because the stipulations and parameters within these contracts do not work for small businesses and they don't offer protections needed. So I'm hoping that if this does go back or does not get voted up today, that we look at how we can ensure that the contracts we put in, especially on this one, work for everybody, should be a win. Win. Thank you. Thank
Unknown Speaker
03:02:19you. Member Benson. Member Pro Temp tape, thank
Speaker 18
03:02:21you, Madam President. Member Benson, I'm glad you mentioned that it was something that was on my mind as well from last weekend this week, because I thought I saw something that indicated that if paid within a certain period of time, they would have to actually give a 5% discount on their services. And that is definitely challenging for many of our small businesses within the city of Detroit correct me if I'm wrong, if I'm repeating information that I saw incorrectly. The other piece, I do know that, in terms of the travel, what I read indicated that the vendor was to be available for a certain period of time every week, I believe, a number of days per week at DPD facilities. So from my understanding, is not so much officers traveling to them, but the vendor would travel to where the officers would be, and had to be there for, I believe, maybe four hours a day. Again, I don't have that document in front of me, but correct if you can walk through that just so we can understand a little bit more, or the public can understand a little bit more about this particular contract. Don't want to send too much sit too much time on it, but wanted to make sure there's some clarification and better understanding of what those parameters are. That could be a bit a bit challenging. I uh,
Speaker 44
03:03:43through the chair, uh, Councilman, um, I don't have the uh, I don't have the request in front of me at this moment, is something I can definitely follow up with you with. So
Speaker 18
03:03:53make sure you bring that document next time you come to the table. That's very helpful. We talk about this item.
Unknown Speaker
03:03:57Thank you. All right,
Speaker 2
03:03:59thank you. Pro Tem, all right, so this was a motion for discussion, correct? It was a motion to approve, okay, so there was a motion to approve line items, 19.5
Unknown Speaker
03:04:1719.4 and five. Medical,
Unknown Speaker
03:04:1819.4 and 19.5
Unknown Speaker
03:04:22are there any objections to these items?
Speaker 12
03:04:26Madam Chair objection. Callaway objects to line item, 19.5
Unknown Speaker
03:04:31okay, you can if the clerk would know.
Speaker 3
03:04:35So No madam president waters the clerk would know. Clerk will so no President
Unknown Speaker
03:04:40Sheffield as the No on 19.5
Unknown Speaker
03:04:45member Johnson, no, 19.5
Unknown Speaker
03:04:50member Santiago Romero, no, 19.5
Speaker 2
03:04:55All Right, hearing no further objections. 19.5
Unknown Speaker
03:05:01does not pass, and the
Unknown Speaker
03:05:1119.4 is approved.
Speaker 2
03:05:16Any objections to a waiver on 19.1 in 19.2 Hearing no objections that action will be taken moving to new business from the mayor's office.
Speaker 3
03:05:28Council member Coleman Young, three resolutions, nine items, 20.1 through 20.3
Unknown Speaker
03:05:35member Young,
Speaker 6
03:05:38thank you, Madam President, I move to approve line items, 20.1 through 20.3
Speaker 2
03:05:45any objections? There are various city events Hearing no objections. The three resolutions will be approved
Unknown Speaker
03:05:56from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Speaker 3
03:06:00Council member Benson, 25 resolutions, line items 20.4 through 20.8 noting madam president that line items 20.4 through 20 point 20 are all various contracts for the construction and demolition department, and that was taken to line item 20 point 21
Unknown Speaker
03:06:22i which is contract number 6004227,
Speaker 3
03:06:27dash a one, 100% city funding Amendment One, to provide an extension of time only for preventative maintenance service and maintenance for the diesel exhaust extracting system at fire houses, contractor Boston Enterprises Incorporated, total contract amount 90,000 for fire contract number 6006019, dash a one, 100% city funding Amendment One, to exercise one year renewal option for emergency ambulance coverage. Contractor, part EMS medical services. PLLC, total contract, amount, $1,146,684 that's for fire. Next contract is contract number 6006021, dash a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One, to exercise one year renewal option for emergency ambulance coverage. Contractor, superior air ground ambulance service incorporated total contract amount $1,180,410 just fired. Next contract is contract number 6006020, dash A one 100% city funding Amendment One to exercise one year renewal option for emergency ambulance coverage. Contractor, a mirror pro EMS of Michigan LLC, total contract amount, $1,172,508.48 cent. Next contract is contract number 6006850, 100% grant funding to provide refurbishment to the DPD bomb disposal vehicle contractor, McQueen equipment LLC, total contract amount, $349,988 desk for police. Next contract is contract number 3080927, 100% capital funding to provide 87 Dale pro rug, laptops for police vehicles, contractor staples, contract and commercial, LLC, total contract amount $182,091 that's for police. Next contract is contract number 6006280, 100% city funding to provide mass notification system, contractor on solve LLC, total contract amount 240,000 that's for police. Last contract is contract number 6006889 100% FTA grant funding assignment and amendment one of 6004624.
Unknown Speaker
03:09:11As the new contract 6006889,
Speaker 3
03:09:16to assign contract to new supplier and change contract number for light duty, fleet vehicle purchases and ancillary services. Total contract amount, $2,406,606 that's for transportation. Council member Benson, 25 resolutions.
Speaker 2
03:09:37All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Council member Benson, Move for approval. Right? A motion has been made for approval. Any discussion on these items? Okay? Council member, Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, for item 20 point 11. Just have a question for our construction demolition director. This is a public school. Want to know if there are plans to refund the city for demolition. Mr. Washington, can we please have someone come on please
Unknown Speaker
03:10:10yes to the chair. I do see
Unknown Speaker
03:10:12director councils online. Still okay?
Unknown Speaker
03:10:17We'll promote director counts. I
Speaker 21
03:10:28comments, Director counts is still a panel if she sits in her camera on
Unknown Speaker
03:10:35Madam Chair,
Unknown Speaker
03:10:39I'm sorry.
Speaker 2
03:10:42Okay, thank you. Director counts. Council Member Santiago Romero has a question for you through you, Madam President, to our director, good afternoon. I have a question regarding 20 point 11. This is an emergency demolition for the Detroit Public School on random maker. I would just like to get some insights around any repayments for demolition and why we chose to demolish instead of DPS
Unknown Speaker
03:11:11through the chair. So this training says, Sorry about
Speaker 43
03:11:16that, this particular property we have performed the emergency demolition about a year and a half ago, and there were three structures that were left. They were the portables, like we refer to them, and those were not addressed well, they became a serious hazard, and buildings and safety deemed them to be an emergency situation. And so we went in and took them down because they were deemed to be an emergency. We do have a very good relationship when it comes with DPS, CD, and so we did reach out to them about the pending emergency order that was issued on them. They agreed to reimburse us for any expense with associated with that emergency demolition, and they've agreed to there's actually another, there should be another one here as well that they are paying for in addition to this one. And historically, dpscd has reimbursed us relatively quickly for the cost once we have submitted invoices to them.
Speaker 2
03:12:19Thank you, Madam President. Thank you Director. Thank you council members Callaway,
Speaker 12
03:12:24thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, Director, Council, you're saying that DPD, DPS, CD, reimburses us,
Speaker 43
03:12:34yes through the chair, yes, they do 100% of the time through the Chair. Yes, they do
Speaker 12
03:12:39in how many days or how many months? It's
Speaker 43
03:12:43usually within 30 days. Okay, all right,
Speaker 12
03:12:46because they got $1.2 billion in our funds, and we just, we can't be the bank or DPS CD, they have just as many resources as we have as a city, and I know that we have to demolish these properties to keep the residents safe in the neighborhoods where those blighted properties are located, but we should hold them more accountable. It's their responsibility to maintain those buildings, not ours. Those are their buildings. I have two schools in my district. I think there's one at finklin Myers. I think is might, I don't know if it's been but it's in horrible condition. The windows are open. The elements are going inside. I think we had somebody who fell through a roof doing some construction worker repair work. So these buildings are in very, very poor condition. The neighbors complain about it all the time, to the school and to the city. So I'm glad that we're getting off, you know, compensated for the money that we put out to demolish the buildings on behalf of the school dress district to make our community safe overall, but they did get $1.2 billion in opera dollars. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank
Unknown Speaker
03:14:01you. Council member Calloway,
Speaker 2
03:14:04all right, any additional questions or comments? Concerns for these items? Okay, hearing no additional concerns. Any objections. Objection, Madam President, members, Santiago, Romero, items, 20 point 12 through 20 points 20.
Unknown Speaker
03:14:29If the clerk would know, Madam
Speaker 3
03:14:30President, for clarity, from you to members Santiago Romero, you said, 20 point 12 through
Unknown Speaker
03:14:3920 point 2020, Point 20. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 12
03:14:42Member Calloway, Madam Chair, the same 20 point 12 through 20, Point 20.
Speaker 2
03:14:51Any additional objection? Waters? Member waters,
Unknown Speaker
03:14:5412 through 2420,
Unknown Speaker
03:14:58thank you for note. Clerk will So note. Madam President,
Speaker 2
03:15:01there are no further objections. The 28 resolutions will be approved.
Speaker 38
03:15:07Madam Chair, of course, aware of last 2021 through 20 point,
Speaker 38
03:15:162820 point dpdfd.
Unknown Speaker
03:15:22Madam Clerk will be able to hear member Benson,
Unknown Speaker
03:15:2620.1 through 20.3
Unknown Speaker
03:15:3020 point 2121
Unknown Speaker
03:15:33of my apologies.
Speaker 2
03:15:35Any objections to a waving items i All right. Hearing, no objection. A waiver will be attached to those items. Madam
Unknown Speaker
03:15:47President, request waiver from line item 20.7
Unknown Speaker
03:15:53any objections to a waiver for 20.7
Unknown Speaker
03:16:02hearing, no objections that action will be taken
Speaker 2
03:16:06from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Speaker 3
03:16:09Council member young for resolutions nine items, 20 point 29 through 20 point 32 noted that they are all for the General Services Department. First up is contract number 6006866, 100% me DC funding provide construction engineering and inspection services for the Joe Louis Greenway project contractor a calm Great Lakes Incorporated. Total contract amount 2,500,000
Unknown Speaker
03:16:38next contract is contract number 60069481, 006948,
Speaker 3
03:16:42100% me DC funding to provide construction engineering and inspection services for the Joe Louis Greenway project contractor DLC, Michigan incorporated total contract amount 1,500,000
Unknown Speaker
03:16:57next contract is contract number 6002617,
Speaker 3
03:17:01dash, A, one, 100% IPA funding Amendment One to provide extension of time only for fire apparatus vehicles, contractor R and R, fire truck repair incorporated total contract amount, 29,000 No, pardon me, $29,224,422 nine, $224,422
Unknown Speaker
03:17:23last contract is contract number 66863,
Speaker 3
03:17:27100% city funding to provide special event equipment on behalf of GSD contractor, total access events, total contract amount, 900,000 council member young for resolutions.
Unknown Speaker
03:17:43Thank you so much. Council member Young,
Speaker 6
03:17:44thank you, Madam President, I moved to approve one item, 20 point 29 Yeah. 20 point 29 approved. 20 point 32
Speaker 2
03:17:56all right. Motion has been made. Any discussion, discussion? Madam Chair, Council Member Callaway,
Speaker 12
03:18:01thank you, Madam Chair, regarding line item, 20 point 29 This is a $2.5 million contract. Is there anyone on from GSD? I ask. I also put my ask in writing regarding how much money has spent? Has been spent? Joe Louis, Greenway and city state, county, federal government, ARPA, ARPA, M EDC and grants. I just want a total figure. How much is this Greenway charging? I mean costing us?
Unknown Speaker
03:18:35Mr. Washington
Speaker 4
03:18:37chair, we have larae Smith and Jarell Harris online. I
Unknown Speaker
03:19:12All right, good afternoon.
Unknown Speaker
03:19:17Good afternoon.
Unknown Speaker
03:19:19I'll defer to my colleague, Larry Smith,
Unknown Speaker
03:19:21okay, perfect. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
03:19:25Good afternoon. Good
Speaker 2
03:19:28afternoon, Miss Smith, were you able to hear member callaways question?
Speaker 45
03:19:32No. Could she please repeat, repeat the question? I'm sorry.
Speaker 12
03:19:37Okay. These are questions that I also sent in writing last week after formal session last week, I just wanted a for the people's information and for our gratification. What is the total cost of the Joe Louis Greenway, City was the dollar amount state? What's the dollar amount? What has the county contributed to this? This development, the federal government, ARPA, M, EDC grant, and any and all other sources, how much is it costing us? And I asked for the breakdown.
Speaker 45
03:20:17Give me one second I have that in an email. So give me one second to pull up that information. What I have is to date, eight, $80 million has been spent. There's an allocation of $195 million and give me one second to find the email that gives that breakdown for me, I
Speaker 45
03:20:52um, so I see 21 million in UTG funds, $3 million From, I think is a Wilson fund or grant. MD, MD, nr, ARPA, $60 million M, EDC, $40 million county ARPA, $20 million city ARPA, $8 million and there are some earmark funds from tap for $6 million
Unknown Speaker
03:21:21bridging neighborhoods, $883,000
Speaker 45
03:21:26and then they're looking to raise some more funds and apply for some grants. And then I see a special Michigan grant, Greenway infrastructure at $1 million
Unknown Speaker
03:21:38okay, that's over 195
Speaker 12
03:21:43mill. You said 195 mill. And I don't have to, we can talk about it later. I just send the questions in. But I just wanted a total, not a total, figure with the amount itemized, city, the state, the county, the federal government, ARPA, M, E, D, C, grants, and you mentioned, Wilson, and you mentioned $833,000 So you know it's it's a lot and I just wanted for my own edification, the total.
Speaker 12
03:22:52Staff, what an itemized way is it costing us to build
Speaker 45
03:22:58the Joe Louis Greenway, and I'll send you the questions
Unknown Speaker
03:23:01again. Miss Smith and Mister Harris,
Speaker 2
03:23:03all right, we'll make sure we get those answers over to you. Thank
Unknown Speaker
03:23:06you. Thank you, Madam Chair, right? Thank you.
Speaker 45
03:23:08Member cavalla. Member young Thank you, Mayor, President. Miss Smith, you Yes,
Speaker 6
03:23:14I'm still here. No, excellent. I was hoping it always good to see you. Listen, um, do you have any economic projections of what this Parkway will mean, this Greenway will mean to the city of Detroit? I know Atlanta, they have spent, I think it's like a $4 billion that is transforming that city. And so, do you have any economic projections? And do you have an investment projection? So for every dollar that we invest in this Greenway, we potentially could get $1.60 or whatever back in terms of economic development projection, you know, I know projection math is not brilliant, but in terms of just projection wise, do we have an analysis of that at all?
Speaker 45
03:24:03Because I think that that will kind of help people to understand why we're making these investments. I don't have that information off the top of my head, but if you
Speaker 6
03:24:13want to send a memo, we can make sure we get that information and get it sent over to everyone. Yeah, I think that's something that needs to be had about
Speaker 2
03:24:20this discussion. So okay, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Madam President, thank you. Any additional questions? Right? Hearing, none member Young has moved these for approval. Are there any objections?
Unknown Speaker
03:24:38Right Hearing no objections.
Speaker 6
03:24:40The resolutions will be approved. Yes, I would like to request a waiver on line item,
Speaker 2
03:24:4720 point 2920 point 30 and 20 point 32 and I'm going to just object the 20 point 32
Unknown Speaker
03:24:56and if there are no further objects. Madam Chair,
Speaker 2
03:24:58yes. Object to the waiver online item, 20 point 29 Okay, so 20 point 29 and 20 point 32 their objections to waivers, yes,
Speaker 38
03:25:10and the other items, no objections. A waiver will be attached. What's the
Unknown Speaker
03:25:15waiver?
Unknown Speaker
03:25:16Online items, 20 point
Unknown Speaker
03:25:1713 through 20 point 18.
Unknown Speaker
03:25:21Demolition.
Unknown Speaker
03:25:24Any objections to a waiver?
Speaker 2
03:25:28Hearing, none the clerk would note a waiver for those items.
Speaker 26
03:25:31So note, Madam President, okay, from the law department.
Unknown Speaker
03:25:39Council member Vincent, an introduction of an ordinance.
Unknown Speaker
03:25:42Line item, 20 point, 33
Speaker 38
03:25:46council member Vincent, Madam President, I move that the
Speaker 2
03:25:49ordinance be read twice by title, ordered printed and laid on the table,
Speaker 38
03:25:55Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Discussion member Benson, thank you. This is the code of conduct ordinance, something that my office been working on for a number of years, as well as he died. Just really looking forward to providing an environment for all of our transit riders that is safe and welcoming to everybody, not just a few. And if we want to be a world class city, we have to have world cast transit system. We've also heard the concerns of the practitioners and of the advocates of transit, and we have removed during committee yesterday, number 28 which was a picketing and demonstrating line item, so that is no longer part
Unknown Speaker
03:26:41of the ordinance, as requested
Speaker 2
03:26:43by the advocates for public transit. Thank you. All right. Thank you council member Benson
Unknown Speaker
03:26:50from the law department for the scheduling of a public hearing.
Unknown Speaker
03:26:55Council member Benson, or resolution set in the public
Speaker 2
03:26:58hearing. Nine item, 20 point, 34 motion to approve TBD.
Unknown Speaker
03:27:04All right. Motion has been made for the scheduling of a
Unknown Speaker
03:27:06public hearing. Are there any objections
Speaker 2
03:27:10hearing? No objections that action will be taken
Speaker 3
03:27:15from the Office of Development and grants. Council member Benson, six resolutions,
Speaker 2
03:27:19nine items, 20 point 35, through 20 point 40. Council member Benson, motion to approve. All right. Motion has been made for approval, and this is to accept and submit various grants. Are there any objections?
Unknown Speaker
03:27:39Hearing, no objections. The six
Speaker 2
03:27:41resolutions will be approved request a waiver in line of 20 point 38
Unknown Speaker
03:27:47Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached
Unknown Speaker
03:27:50to 20 point 38 from
Speaker 3
03:27:54the Office of Development and grants. Council member young
Speaker 2
03:27:58to resolutions line items 20 point 41 and 20 point 42
Unknown Speaker
03:28:04council member Young, thank
Unknown Speaker
03:28:06you, Mayor, President moved to approve line of 20 point 41
Speaker 12
03:28:11a motion has been made for line item 20 point 41 discussion council member Callaway the same. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, regarding line item 20 point 41 a $5 million grant from deep m.to clean up the freeways around here. I remember when I first took office on October the eighth, 2022, several of my store wars, several of my neighbors, several folks who live in the community of the large freeway service drive. And my colleague to the left at large member waters, you were there. We cleaned up the large freeway service drive going south and going north. And I'm here to tell you, member waters, thank you so much. The area is still clean. And I do believe, because of that project that we took upon ourselves, October the eighth, 2022 it drew a lot of attention to just the amount of trash that is really on our service drives. We collected 44 bags of trash that one day, and you were there. Member water, so I'm hoping that we were getting this $5 million grant, and it was inspired by our efforts in district two on
Speaker 2
03:29:27October the eighth, 2022 Thank you Madam Chair, and thank you member waters. Thank you. Member, Callaway, any objections to line item 20 point 41
Unknown Speaker
03:29:42Hearing no objections. The
Speaker 2
03:29:43one resolution will be approved favor. Madam Chair, all right, carry no objections. The waiver will be
Unknown Speaker
03:29:50attached to 20 point 41
Speaker 6
03:29:53council member young Thank you, Madam President, I have talked to the Department of General Services. They are waiting approval from the state to change this grant from being a study to be used to build the sea wall in Jefferson Chalmers area. So I would
Speaker 2
03:30:11request that we have a one week green pad. This item isn't ready to go yet. Okay? Any objections to postponing 20 point 42 for one week? Hearing no objections that action will be taken from
Speaker 3
03:30:29the Department of Public Works council member Vincent,
Unknown Speaker
03:30:33two resolutions,
Speaker 2
03:30:34nine items, 20 point 43 and 20 point 44
Unknown Speaker
03:30:39council member Benson, Move approval.
Unknown Speaker
03:30:42All right, any objections,
Unknown Speaker
03:30:48hearing, no objections.
Speaker 2
03:30:50The two resolutions will be approved.
Speaker 3
03:30:55From the Department of Public Works city engineering division.
Unknown Speaker
03:30:58Council member Benson, a
Unknown Speaker
03:30:59resolution, my item, 20 point, 45
Unknown Speaker
03:31:04council member Benson, motion to approve.
Speaker 2
03:31:07A motion has been made for approval. For approval. This is for a vacation. Is there any objections? Hearing no objections. The one resolution will be approved from
Unknown Speaker
03:31:24the Department of Transportation.
Speaker 2
03:31:27Council member Benson, a resolution line item 20 point, 46
Unknown Speaker
03:31:33council member Benson, Move for approval.
Unknown Speaker
03:31:37Motion has been made. Are there any objections?
Unknown Speaker
03:31:42Hearing no objections,
Unknown Speaker
03:31:44the one resolution will be approved Mr. Waiver,
Speaker 2
03:31:48and Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to that item
Speaker 3
03:31:53under resolutions? Council member Whitfield Callaway, two resolutions,
Unknown Speaker
03:31:58nine items, 20
Unknown Speaker
03:31:59point 47 and 20 point 48
Unknown Speaker
03:32:03member Calloway, thank you, Madam Chair, motion to approve both.
Speaker 46
03:32:09Right motion has been made for approval. Are there any objections
Unknown Speaker
03:32:12to the two resolutions.
Speaker 2
03:32:17Hearing none the two resolutions will be approved. Waiver on both Madam Chair, waiver has been requested, and if there are no objections, a waiver will be attached to both items
Unknown Speaker
03:32:29under resolutions. Council
Unknown Speaker
03:32:31Member Santiago Romero, a resolution,
Unknown Speaker
03:32:34line item 20 point, 49
Unknown Speaker
03:32:37Council Member Santiago. Romero,
Unknown Speaker
03:32:40motion to approve.
Speaker 2
03:32:43Motion has been made for approval, and this is to support the
Unknown Speaker
03:32:46DDOT reimagined,
Unknown Speaker
03:32:48and if I could be added, if
Speaker 2
03:32:50possible, members. Santiago, sure. Okay, the clerk would note, so note. Madam President,
Speaker 18
03:32:56any other, any objections to 20 point, 49 member dura, thank
Speaker 2
03:33:01you, Madam President, I'd like to join Member Santiago Romero on that as well. Madam President, I could make this in the name of the Council of my colleagues, which shows true. So this is a resolution in support of DDOT reimagines, we have heard from our transit advocates asking us to invest more into the system. Many of us have driven the bus. We understand the need for more transportation. This resolution is to continue to encourage our D dots the city to work together to fully fund and implement the d dot reimagine plan, right? There are no objections. We can put this in the name of the council,
Speaker 46
03:33:39and there are no objections. The one resolution
Unknown Speaker
03:33:43will also be approved.
Speaker 2
03:33:48All right, moving along to our referrals
Speaker 3
03:33:52for the internal operations standing committee, Madam President, before you get the line items 22.7 and 22.8 were actually to replace the remove item and internal operations from earlier.
Speaker 2
03:34:07So those two items should be walked on to new business to vote. Is there a motion to move line item 22.7 and 22.8 to new business,
Unknown Speaker
03:34:19Hearing no objections, that action will be taken
Unknown Speaker
03:34:24from then the eight reports will be referred
Speaker 2
03:34:28to internal operations. That's correct, Madam President, there will be
Unknown Speaker
03:34:33okay. And then for the Neighborhood and Community
Speaker 2
03:34:35Services, standing committee, three reports from various city departments. Those three reports will be referred to Neighborhood and
Speaker 3
03:34:43Community Services standing committee for the planning and development standing
Unknown Speaker
03:34:47committee, three reports from various city departments.
Speaker 2
03:34:52The three reports will be referred to the Planning and Economic
Speaker 3
03:34:55Development Planning Committee for the public health and safety standing committee,
Speaker 2
03:34:59eight reports from various various city departments. The eight reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee. And I know you have a referral as well. Council member, Santiago Romero, Yes, Madam President, would like to refer the d dot annual. This is their quarter four updates. This is just to be referred to PHS, right. Any objections to refer this item to public health and safety standing committee for referral
Unknown Speaker
03:35:38hearing, none that action will be taken.
Speaker 3
03:35:41And Madam Clerk, if we could take up the two items for member callaways resolution,
Unknown Speaker
03:35:47yes, we came. Madam President council member
Speaker 46
03:35:49Angela Whitfield Callaway two resolutions, motion to approve.
Speaker 2
03:35:58Motion has been made for approval. Are there any objection? And they are for the human sex trafficking task force and also for the youth and Civic Engagement Task Force, Hearing no objections. The two resolutions will be approved under the consent agenda. There are no items. Madam President, all right, we will call for member reports before we proceed, if we can just take a moment of silence for the family who had some difficult times, and the two children that did lose their lives unfortunately. So we could take a moment of silence. I know there was a press conference that just took place that calls for review of services, our housing services here in Detroit, and so we want to take a moment to pause to remember them and to all of the families in Detroit that may be dealing and struggling with housing instability, so we can take a moment of
Speaker 46
03:36:58silence to honor and send our condolences to the family and friends of that family. You
Speaker 2
03:37:12I thank you, and we will continue to provide the housing services information that we have, and continue to work on as much as we can, providing safe, stable, affordable housing to everyone that we can here in the city of Detroit. All right, we will move to our member reports, and I will start with you. President, pro Tempe,
Speaker 6
03:37:44okay, Council Member young Thank you, man. President, I just want to say Happy Valentine's Day to all my colleagues, which is why I gave them all flowers today, and Happy Valentine's Day to all the women in the city of Detroit
Speaker 2
03:37:57and everyone, Happy Valentine's Day from COVID.
Unknown Speaker
03:38:01Young number one,
Unknown Speaker
03:38:02alright. Thank you, Council Member. Young.
Unknown Speaker
03:38:05Council member waters,
Unknown Speaker
03:38:08alright. So thank you, Madam President.
Speaker 8
03:38:13On this week, Thursday the 13th, this coffee conversation at room T for I don't say something, okay, okay, brew T, full coffee. And is that? 2420438, from the Plymouth Road. That starts at 8am 20438
Unknown Speaker
03:38:40Plymouth Road on February 19, there is a
Speaker 8
03:38:47field training meeting, and that will be at the conferences of meal rights. I Planning Center on American street, and that's the 19th from 4pm to 6pm
Speaker 2
03:39:04February, 19, 4pm to 6pm Thank you, Madam President, thank you. Member waters, Member Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, for my member report. Want to share for District Six residents that tomorrow, Wednesday, February 12, at 6pm we're going to have our third annual building power training series focused on our city budget, where we will be at the UAW local 22 that is, if the weather is not too bad, please, if you're interested in joining us, be on the lookout. We do understand that there's no one I'm talking with my staff now about how to do this safely, but save the dates. We will be at the UAW local 22 for now, and this would be a great opportunity to learn about the city budgets, how to advocate for it during the budget process. We have our monthly office hours with the property assessments board a review. They're going to be a bridging communities on Monday, February 17, from three to 5pm please stop by with any questions, and for some fun, we're going to have our second annual less. Let's get d6 we're going to be at roller Cade on Thursday, February 20, at 6pm the first 250 residents that arrive will get free skates, food, drinks. Hope you can join us for a fun night in the boy team
Speaker 38
03:40:22community. Thank you, Madam President, thank you council member, member Vincent, alright. Thank you just number one. Want to say thank you to everybody who's provided condolences and well wishes for my family during this time of grief, as many of you know, my father in law passed last week, which is why I took the week off. And it's just really good to see these type of well wishes and outpouring of support for my wife and my family and so just really want to say thank you from my family to all of those who took the time to provide those well wishes and support. And Mister Cunningham, who brought a plant yesterday and gave that to my wife, really appreciate that level of support as well. And this also just really reinforces the need for families to plan now seeing this first hand, this is the first time I've lost a patriarch or matriarch in my family. And so you just really see how important it is, even beyond the grief and the trauma, is the planning and preparing for this type of transition and for the estates. And so the city now provides free estate planning and will preparation. Please take advantage. It is critical that we create a situation where we can transfer wealth from our families and not have to go through probate things of that nature can be very costly, and so what you want to do is be prepared, and no one has been able to win that race. We all eventually make that transition to a better place. Be prepared for yourself and your families and you have no idea when that time is coming. Everybody wants it to go on as long as possible, but please be prepared and utilize these free services from the city of Detroit, because an estate plan can cost you several $1,000 will several $1,000 and so
Speaker 2
03:42:20once we're doing these type of services for free, please take advantage. Thank you.
Speaker 12
03:42:26Thank you. Member Benson, Council Member Johnson, no report. Council member Calloway, thank you, Madam Chair, thank you so much. Want to thank everyone who came out yesterday to our monthly coffee and conversation was held at the Johnson rec center on Chippewa. We had the Deputy Secretary of State there. We have Rico Rosal. They're sharing valuable information. We have Miss Torrance there from d.it was just great having everybody come out. We had a full house. People were saying I people weren't going to come because it was the day after the Super Bowl. Well, they came, and so we had a great morning. Yesterday. I want to thank senor mondox, was the director of the Johnson rec center, for always being so gracious and generous with us using that space also today at the Northwest activity center, 18 100 Myers. It started at 10am DTE will be there to address any concerns that you have as a customer. They will explain your bill to you. They will help you with energy assistance. It will help you come up with payment plans, and that is today, DTE at Northwest activity center, from 10am to 3pm so you have time to get over there. The Detroit reparations task force will host their next public session at the Northwest activity center, 18 100 Myers this Saturday, February 15, from two to 4pm they are asking everyone to come out. When you come out, you'll learn more about their accomplishments. And also, there will be a special presentation from our own Detroit historian, Jamal Jordan, a d2 resident, again, he will be the special presenter this Saturday from two to 4pm at the Northwest Activity Center, and is sponsored by the Detroit reparations Task Force. Join us on Monday, February 17, from 536 30 we will host our Detroit district two virtual community webinar, and we will have as our special guest speaker, Wayne County Treasurer, Eric Sabri and you can also go to our social media site, or you can call our office at 224, 4535 for more information. Also continue to walk two miles a day. That's a little over 4000 steps a day. Coleman, a young, join us in this walk. It's a 56 mile challenge. I'm challenging you. Member young, we're just going to go up and down the hallway. We talked about it last week. Are we going to go over to the Renaissance Center. He said he needs a golf cart, but I don't think you're going to need a golf cart. Member young, but it's just two mile it's two miles a day. We're going to do it till the end of the month, and on maybe you'll join me here. Member young, we're going to be on the track at the Detroit University, Detroit Mercy campus, on the 26th of February. We'll be indoors, and they have a beautiful track in their fitness center, and that on the 26th will be 515, to 615. You don't have to live in district two to participate in this 56 mile walk. It's just two miles a day, a little over 4000 steps a day. Lastly, we are holding our navigating the city budget. Actually, is the people's budget. February 27 from five to 7pm it'll be held at the street than a dark Community Center at 18, 405 Livernois Avenue, and we're going to be discussing the people's budget. And the question is, what's in it for district two residents and taxpayers? And lastly, on March the 10th, from eight to 9am will be at the Americas Community Council. We have mister for Curie here today, 62 West Seven Mile Road for coffee and conversation. And anybody who's in need of any type of resources, whatever it is that you you need, clothing, food, shelter, please visit 62 West Seven Mile Road. And as the President of the Council mentioned earlier, they have outstanding mental health service, behavioral services, and it's all free of charge. So we're asking everyone, if you're in need of anything, it may not be you. You may have someone in your family or neighbor who has need of these services, please visit 62 West Seven Mile Road, and they will also have project Clean Slate there, the Detroit land bank there, that is March the 10th, from 8am to 9am also, lastly, I did my two mile walk on the campus of the former Michigan State Fairgrounds. Had an opportunity to visit the Jason Hargrove Transit Center, and lo and behold, I go in there, they're about 18 people. They're sleeping. I know why, because it's about 13 degrees outside. Was about 90 degrees inside the structure. So I'm hoping that there can be some type of partnership, Madam Chair, with the transit center, slash d dot and some of the shelters that offer services to folks who don't have
Speaker 2
03:47:15shelter. So thank you, Madam Chair, that completes my long report.
Speaker 6
03:47:19Thank you so much. Council member Callaway, yes. Member young, I just want to ask, I won't get back to you about that 56 miles you need a pedal bike assist or something like that. I just want to ask you, but, but the issue about Jason Hargrove, did you call housing services at all? Because I know that they're real open in terms of the place that people were homeless and things that nature and I helped the family, actually, when I was I was at a McDonald's, and I was talking to people about going on the city. There was a person that we found out living in their car, and we actually helped them. And so I was wondering, did you do that at all? No, but we will
Unknown Speaker
03:47:53today. Yeah, they're there.
Speaker 8
03:47:56That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mister. Oh, I just want to say to remember young number one. Thank you so much, beautiful.
Speaker 18
03:48:13Thank you. Council member young All right, Council Member Durham, thank you, Madam President. And just want to remind everybody about our snow removal program. Last year, close to this time in the budget, we expanded the budget and put in the budget for snow removal for our senior citizens and our disabled residents. If you are a Detroit senior or individual with a disability, you may qualify for free snow removal assistance through the serve Detroit snow removal program. This service is available to seniors who live alone or residents who cannot physically remove snow from their property. You can contact 313-224-4415,
Unknown Speaker
03:48:55again. That number is 313-224-4415,
Speaker 18
03:48:59to see if you qualify, and if you'd like to sign up to become a volunteer with the serve Detroit program to help our residents, our senior citizens, in need in the community, you can contact that number as well. Do want to remind folks that this Saturday, February 15, from 10am to 2pm the Healthy Homes Foreclosure Prevention Day. Part two will be at the carpenters and mill Rights Center in district seven, located at 11687, American again, that's this Saturday the 15th, from 10am to 2pm this event is here to help residents avoid foreclosure as well as access resources like the hope application assistance and have support from the Department of neighborhoods and also other wraparound services. So please join us this Saturday, from 10am to 2pm at the carpenters mill Rights Center, you can call 866-313-2520, to schedule your appointment and also get a free Lift service if you have issues getting to the carpenters and mill Rights Center. Again, that number is 866-313-2520, finally, our 21st policy session is going to take place on Monday, February, the 24th, from 6pm to 7:30pm.
Speaker 47
03:50:20At the Edison Library, located at 18400. Joy, bro. And we.