Budget Hearings - Office of the Ombudsman, City Council and Divisions
2:01PM Mar 27, +0000
Speakers:
President Sheffield
Keywords:
ombudsman
complaints
residents
city
detroit
waters
madam president
department
people
report
caller
neighborhood
office
executive session
meeting
good morning
district
questions
funding
freeways
Morning everyone. We will now call to order the expanded budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the purposes of our fiscal year 24 budget hearings, and if our clerk will please call the roll.
Councilmember Scott Benson. Scott Benson. I have some I referred to how the third house a member Leticia Johnson, present councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero. Present. Councilmember Mary waters present. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway. Councilmember call me young the second. Council President Pro Tem James State Council President Mary Sheffield. Present. Madam President, you have a quorum present.
All right there being a quorum present. We are now in session and we will go into our first budget hearing the office of the Ombudsman in join us at the table
the clerk would no member Callaway has joined us. Quick shout out thank you.
Thank you.
Morning, Mr. Sampson. When you are ready to proceed, the floor is yours. Just make sure your microphone is on.
Good morning Madam President. Morning. Good morning. And I would like to thank this honorable body for the opportunity to present this ombudsman administration seventh annual report. I would also like to take take a moment to thank city department heads and employees that have worked so diligently to assist us in our complaint resolution and policy implementation. I would like to give special recognition to our first responders without their presence and their commitment. The work that we do would not be possible. Also want them to know that through formal recommendation, we strongly advocated for their pay increases. As the ombudsman the head of an independent oversight agency, I believe it is important to be as balanced and as objective as possible when providing a critique of service delivery. For our citizens. identifying common ground with the administration that can be reached through good policy and programs that improve the quality of life of our residents is important. This is why we applaud the blight removal efforts of the Joe Lewis Greenway project and the Blight to beauty program. This is why we brought together 72 community leaders from across the city to learn about the program and to see the presentation from attorney Crowley. We also pulled together 175 community leaders to educate them on the DWSD Lifeline program, pulling together community leaders so they can better inform their neighbors of what the city of Detroit can do to help if they are in need of these services. However, there's a lot of work to be done before we can say that we have arrived as a city our neighborhoods are still riddled with blight. And so it concerns me when we pivot towards the freeways. In my humble opinion, touting a cleanup effort of the freeways while some Detroiters cannot stand the sight of what they see from their front porch is wrong to me. To me and the residents that I asked on a daily basis, it represents a disconnect between the people and the government that serves them. I want to be clear, no one wants trash on the freeways. And this is not a new issue. As a matter of fact, the previous ombudsman to rain brown pointed this issue out nine years ago. If the residents were asked to choose between clean freeways and clean neighborhoods, I'm certain that their answer will be both. But in all seriousness, we need seriousness we need to keep our eye on the ball because our residents deserve blight free neighborhoods. Remember, the residents were told that every neighborhood has a future let's work together as we have been to ensure the future is bright. Even after demolition of 1000s of structures, blight continues to be a constant reminder of how far we have to go. But that is not what keeps me up at night. When I think about the future of our great city. In order to establish service delivery properly on a level that is acceptable to our residents. We have to increase our tax base. Right now. We rely on and lean on federal funding to shore up areas where we may be deficient what happens when that federal funding runs out? Do we go back to saying there will be limited home repair programs and now you need to take out a 0% interest loan again. Because that's what we said before we received a sizable infusion of cash from the federal government. Now, this administration, not mean has established a measurement for its success by stating that it should be judged by the increase in population of our great city. We can debate how successful we have been at accomplishing that goal. Why is this important? There's a direct correlation between increasing the population which in turn increases our tax base and our ability to provide the services our residents need and deserve if we have struggled to increase the population, and I believe we have another way of increasing our tax base is through major development. Several major development deals have been rolled out within the last couple of months and I'm sure they will continue to come. But is this development something that all Detroiters can take advantage of reap the benefits of or do many Detroiters feel as though they're being left out and left behind? This is why there's such opposition to tax breaks for developers and corporations. Because the average citizens feel it feels as though they can't catch a break. Understand the importance of development and how it can benefit us but progress as progress is made downtown we need to ensure that Joe citizen is not excluded. At this point, I'd like to turn your attention to Section One of our annual report entitled recommendations. I like to walk you through them. The corporate Transparency Act slash LLC regulation quite often when we encounter a blighted property that appears to have been discarded or not maintained. There's a limited liability company associated with said property. Difficulty and unmasking and identifying the true ownership has become a challenge in relation to holding the perpetrators accountable. We have seen individuals hide behind the shield of an LLC as it relates to mortgage and deed fraud. Going forward, I hope we can take advantage of this tool. The corporate Transparency Act takes effect January of 2020 for an annual performance review. For trash removal contracts. We are recommending additional contractual language that will ensure accountability and the implementation of an annual performance review process. This will give both the residents and the city the ability to address any performance concerns they may have without being at the mercy of a lengthy contract. Vending ordinance expansion and creating opportunities for small businesses are our citizens are resilient, creative and hardworking. It is our belief that the current vending ordinance needs to be amended and expanded to create more opportunities. The city is full of business owners that have an entrepreneurial spirit, but are limited as to when and where their products can be purchased. These changes will create more opportunities for vendors. It will increase revenue generation via income taxes and fees associated with code enforcement through the building safety engineering and environmental part department. If the ordinance is not amended a permanent location for vending should be identify established and promoted GSD General Services Department forestry division quarterly report. We are recommending that quarterly report the issue to city council, the ombudsman and the Auditor General. All matters concerning forest you should be addressed in the quarterly report, including but not limited to, data concerning tree removal tree trimming property damage by city and or land bank on trees and tree planting. Efforts by organizations affiliated with the city. The capacity to perform the services and related contracts should also be a part of this report. But disease tree falls on the home of a resident in most cases the city can rely on immunity however residents in most cases are left without recourse. Before I finish, I would like you to turn your attention to the last page of the report which I'm really proud of Linda stand up whereas Linda she's always handling business okay. But I'm really proud of this because it it marks and highlights some of our outreach efforts over the last year and some of the data associated with that word. And a lot of it I did on one leg I might add in conclusion, as we attempt to grow our tax base and expand development, let's make sure that we are putting the interests of the average Detroiter first, these are the residents that have endured a bankruptcy and never left suffered through inadequate services and ultimately is their tax dollars that allow us to move our city forward. On behalf of our residents, property owners, business owners and all persons who have contacted the ombudsman's office, I submit this annual report. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
Thank you so much Bruce. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for the work that you do in your entire office. A shout out to Miss Linda, the entire team. You guys do an amazing, amazing job. We partner with you guys several times when community events and outreach so just keep up the great work that you are doing. I will submit some questions in writing but the first question that I wanted to ask is regarding I see that on page one be seen it has the highest amount of complaints and also throughout the package that you submitted us the different various complaints that are coming through your department. Can you speak to how you are actually resolving the complaint? So your your percentage as relates to closing out some of the complaints and issues that are actually reported to the ombudsman's office.
Yeah, thank you, council president through the Chair. First and foremost BC is our frontline for code enforcement. So when years past DPW will deal with environmental issues no longer BC is handling that as well. So all things code enforcement run through BC, which accounts for the inordinate amount of complaints we have from BC with that being said we have to work very closely with them. I'm constantly talking to Director Bill about different issues and all of our complaints that need to be resolved. Now in this packet, when I produce the annual report, we produce that report as it is we do not talk about what we anticipate or anything like that. Right now the resolution rate is 68%. Now typically when I come before your honorable body, I like that resolution rate to be closer to 80%. We in my business, you will encounter departments for whatever reason, that feel as though they don't need to be as cooperative as they should be. And I'm sure as council members you've encountered some of the same. With that being said, one of the two departments that I'm referencing is already coming into compliance and within the next 30 days. We'll add that number up to 80% by bringing on other department whether they like it or not.
So you said overall 68% Do you have it broken down by department so that we can see what's your oh we can Yes, sure. How's our rate by department?
Absolutely. Council President it's not in this report, but we can break it down as a response to your to your question.
Okay. And then how are you measuring? When a case is close? What exactly does that mean?
A couple of things. It can happen a couple of ways. One it the resident tells it's to have the department response or when the department responds prior to or after. So as long as we have a response from the department or we can physically see some are things you can see some are not but if there's something that we can see that has been resolved, we close it out a response from the department will warn us close in or out and or if the resident tells us because they'll report back and they'll say Okay, thank you. This is taken care of. So those are all the ways we determine whether a complaint should close out. Okay.
All right. And then can you just lastly, talk a little bit about your budgetary and staffing needs for fiscal year 24?
Yes, thank you, Madam President. So we've been consistent with our request. Right now we have a FTAs. We're looking to increase that to 10. The difference between what we have requested versus what has been recommended by the mayor is 260k 260,000. So that's two positions and operational funding that will equate overall to 260k. We've been consistent and this request is not a new request because we believe it is what we need to be successful. Right now. I'm somewhat limited and how thin I can spread myself. So if I have policy matters that need to be attended to outreach tasks and be done complaints that need to be resolved, something typically suffers or I don't, I'm not able to give it the attention it deserves due to a lack of staff. And so the additional two FTEs will be greatly appreciated.
All right. Thank you. And I know I've had the opportunity just to talk with you offline about the two additional FTEs and I do support adding that to the office. I'm not sure if other council members have questions around it. But I would like to add this portion to the executive session, which will be two additional FTE s which equals the $260,000. Is there a motion to add this to Executive Session? All right. Hearing no objections, we will add that to our Executive Session. Again, thank you for the work that you guys are doing and I will turn it over to council members now for questions. And we'll start with President Pro Tem Tate.
Thank you Madam President. I don't have any any questions. I always look forward to this document to get a assessment outside of what we do in our office and the communication that we have with residents and also to be able to measure what we see in district one with the city overalls and this is always a very good it's a great guiding document if you will, in terms of the issues that we need to keep our eyes on. So no additional questions outside of again the the $260,000 ask that was important. That was going to be my question that we moved that to Executive Session. Continue to do the great work. Mr. ombudsman, you and your team. Appreciate all of your willingness and your assistance in helping residents of the city of Detroit and keeping them.
Thank you, council president.
Thank you, Member Santiago. Thank you, Madam
President. Good morning. Mr. Simpson. Agreed. Thank you so much for your work and my question was also going to be about your budgetary request. More than anything, would just like to be able to sit down with you. There are a number of complaints that I see here from District Six for a number of areas of issues. And I can get a sense of where those are coming from. Very clearly. So we'd like to be able to spend some time with you. Once budget season is over to review the data to go over any other recommendations that you have, and to also sit down with you regarding your recommendation of amending the vending ordinance to create opportunities for small businesses. Very interested in discussing this and what that's gonna look like to actually implement your recommendations and not just have them sitting on in this book in this report. But in just one quick question, understanding that you need these resources to do your job. Well. Thank you for the data in the recommendations that you've sent over. I do want to review those with you but I am wondering if you have if you encounter any other barriers as your office and what those are, what kind of resources, what kind of resources do you need? What kind of engagement would you need in order to increase your compliance and cooperation and success in your work?
Um, thank you, Councilmember Santiago Romero. So let in that question. Well, first, I will say more than willing and happy to sit down with you about any of the complaints and the data associated with District Six and our recommendations. Secondly, one barrier that we've sort of touched on is additional funding right and staffing. Asking or requesting departments to be as responsive as we need them to be. Depending on the department is not hard or it can be difficult. Every department is dif different. And the heads of the said departments change over the years so that's a moving target but we always meet it. We do have the tools necessary to bring them into compliance, which is why I'm confident within the next 30 days. We'll bring that 68% number we don't the numbers are what the numbers are. You know, I? I see people present numbers all the time. They say, Well, we resolve this complaint resolve this complaint and my question would be to them, then why do our communities look the way that they look? So we don't this this report is meant to be a snapshot of what is going on in the city. So let me give an example both good and bad. The land bank A lot was made about the fact and has been referenced that they are reducing their inventory. So we saw a reduction in our land bank complaints. If you look at the report from last year versus this year as essentially the difference in the report. Their customer service has got a little better. So it is directly related to that reduction as well. So we will make sure that any department is that needs to be brought to compliance are. Thank you.
Thank you, man. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Councilmember customer waters. And we've been joined by President potentate Of course he already spoke. And councilmember during the morning member waters. Yes, ma'am.
Thank you. I'm so good morning.
Good morning.
Um, tell me about the technology that that you use and have you improved any of that so that we can better track issues, complaints, etc.
Thank you for your question. Councilmember waters in 2017. A couple of years after my appointment, we identified a new tracking system, case tracking system that will allow us to, to appropriately log and track each of our cases. So we provided that new technology in 2017 is sent to show the effectiveness effectiveness of weighing sweat which is what is called it is a system that I use the IG uses Creel uses, and the board of ethics I believe is soon to come on board. We identified that technology and this is quite effective in terms of mapping. That was the one thing that was missing but our IT team formally headed by Ms. Niblock when she had it she made sure that we had a strong GIS function. So any of the complaints that we need Matt to see exactly where they're coming from, as you have in this report. We were able to work with GIS to map those. So between windswept and GIS we're able to properly track map and identify our complaints.
So in that same vein in terms of technology, do we have any specific data, say single mom, men or senior citizens? Is it broken down that way? Or it's just general?
No, we don't track the data that way. Remember waters? Right.
Thank you. So what opportunities exist to augment the operations of the ombudsman's office, through partnerships with the city entities that will result in both cost savings and better service for citizens?
Great question. Thank you. Remember waters a couple of them. I actually referenced I think when I became aware of the DWSD Lifeline program, which I referenced in my speech. I know Detroiters I've been waiting for decades to have a clean affordable water so when I saw a program that that took care of the affordable part and said that, hey, we're gonna subsidize a large portion of your bill if you're unable to pay it. We promoted that we partnered with DWSD to promote that. We did a lot of the heavy lifting and gathering leadership from across the city over 175 community leaders and we want to meet and touch everyone will be brought to leadership together so that they could disseminate the information appropriately. I also referenced blight to beauty which I believe is a wonderful program because it's speaking directly to blight that huge chunk of the pie chart that you see within our complaint. Right now. Attorney Crowley is I believe doing a wonderful job. You know, in terms of dealing with major thoroughfares and corridors, but as she progresses, we tried to put something in there for her so one of the recommendations as a tool that we may potentially be able to use if we can uncover and unmask some of these LLCs who the person is behind them, I think that's I mean, that's that's something that we would love to do first. So those are the types of park partnerships that we look forward to fostering and working with the administration on.
And also in terms of partnership, do you Yeah, I've heard you say you partner sometime with the council president, you partner with other members.
Absolutely. Council member waters. So a few weeks ago, we sent out a notice to every member asking specifically for that the opportunity to partner with you and we've already scheduled a few of those events. So he's to everyone. We said hey, can we can we clear coffee hour can we come to whatever the event is that will allow the citizens to see our services and for us to assist them in real time if we can
just for the record? I'm not hating or anything. Just so you know, Madam President. Okay.
None taken whatsoever. Thank you. Councilmember waters member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President. And good morning, Mr. Simpson. Good morning. We certainly do appreciate all of the hard work that you and your team does. I appreciate the commitment to ensuring that we improve the quality of life for our residents and our neighborhoods. And so I share your passion there. And I don't have any additional questions. And if I come up with any I'll make sure I send them to your office but just wanted to say thank you for that. And looking forward to hosting our coffee hours with you in April. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, Councilmember Johnson, member Benson. Thank you,
and thank you for being here. ombudsman Simpson, this is a great report and always look forward to getting this information and we've had the opportunity to partner actually go door knocking with you all in the past. And hopefully it's a basketball injury and restart and rekindle that. type of outdoor relationship. And so looking at the section one, the ombudsman complaints by department, and you spoke to this has to do pro Tim, and I think that this would even be more beneficial if we were able to have a list of the years and just see the differences in the departments and how they've changed year to year that that will be helpful because it also helps me track the complaints that we get into the office on what you're seeing as the complaints that come downtown versus what we're seeing as our complaints that we get into the district and so just wanted to state that will be a helpful addition to the report next year. But this is a this is excellent. It's very helpful and very timely. So thank you and to your staff as well do a great job or response.
Thank you, member Benson. I have my jersey as far as basketball for right now is hanging in the rafters. I am retired I've accepted my my status as a retiree in that respect. So it was almost a year ago today that I tore my Achilles and fully hit well not fully but I'm healed enough to start doing that door knocking again. We will do that we did it during a pandemic. It was something that we thought was important because we were so disconnected and everything was virtual, but there was nothing that prevented us from coming into the neighborhood going door to door to say, hey, here's your ombudsman. Here are the services we provide. We're here to help. And so we're going to do that. Again. As part of our outreach effort. I look forward to increasing the output that we've done as far as outreach is concerned. And that information again is on the last page of the report. You can see both virtually online in person. Through meetings if we took time out to go and meet with our seniors, we visited 15 senior citizen builders just to let them know that they're not forgot forgotten, and oftentimes, they don't get a chance to see their official city officials. And so we're going to continue to do that and I look forward to working with you and we will incorporate that information in the next report.
All right, thank you and then just lastly, looking at your spreadsheet expenditure by category and a supplemental request, probably the 260 is a $36,000 Ask, and just what more specifically would be included in that? Yeah, so
I believe this council member Santiago Romero asked What challenges do we have we always need to make sure that our legal line is appropriately funded. Any good attorney that we have to lean on in order to deal with legal matters both externally and internally will cost and so we don't want that to be a chink in our armor. So that is a hefty portion of it. Remember,
thank you, Madam President and good morning to the ombudsman. Your basketball career is over. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. But But I do want to say thank you and I appreciate you. You know, this past summer you are pretty good with a nail gun. I know that and a hammer. But But spending time in district seven boarding up houses we were cleaning up train tracks, all of that together. And that's just so much appreciated. I can't tell you how much that meant to those residents of that community and it was great just to have the ability to partner with you. We rode through the district up and down those streets, take an inventory of abandoned homes and blighted homes and you really roll up your sleeves. And I appreciate that. You know at times you're right. A lot of folks say they don't see their city officials and we try to have the best presidents we can and district seven but to have other officials come and partner with us is so important. So thank you for that. I really don't have much to ask you, as been put into Executive Session. I did want to talk just briefly about an update relative to you know, working together with the ag and the IG on a funding plan. I know you guys have a workgroup that is going on right now. Can you give up just a brief update and some thoughts behind that on proportional spending?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Constantly. Ridore Hall Thank you. First and foremost, it was a pleasure to engage in that that cleanup and district seven shout out to General Services and BC will both work diligently. I did a lot of heavy lifting in order to you know, make that that particular street and that community safer. Cleaner. And I mean, when we found it was it was in bad shape, but when we left it, it was something that the residents could be proud of. And, you know, we we look forward to duplicating the effort like that. I know that you have some other locations on your list that you would like to see cleaned up. I'm aware of that we can talk about that offline. But going to the proportional funding working group is what you are referencing. We have put together a set of recommendations that will be coming to your animal body as it relates to proportional funding. One of the obstacles, if you will, is the consistency and funding for independent oversight agencies. So the IG AG, myself and the board of ethics have all come together. Again to make those recommendations. To follow through on what the charter requires in Section Eight desk 214 as it relates to proportional funding, an ordinance that establishes said proportional funding. So we're excited about it. We've worked hand in hand with the administration to come up with those recommendations, which I think is important. So the law department was represented. CFO rising, was present. Mr. Watson was present we worked with everyone to to make sure that we were meeting our mark and doing it responsibly. So I look forward to seeing it implemented and I want to be clear on something else for most of us who are involved in the working group. It by the time it's implemented, it's something that we may or may not be able to take advantage of. So it's not personal for the next ombudsman and next IG next AG. They if we can help them not have that particular obstacle. We want to do that and leave the city in better hands than what we found it in our respective oversight. capacities.
And I appreciate that. I look forward to hearing some of the progress on that working group. I know we will see in BFA relative to proportional funding. That is all the questions I have but I do want to give a special shout out to your team as well as Linda Wesley, who is always there as well and coordinates with our office as well as your entire team. You have a great team so again, look forward to seeing you this summer stay off the basketball, please. Yes sir. NACHA game that's a game. That's what I would take up golf take Oh, god, that was my recommendation. But I appreciate you and thank you for all you do. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Councilmember Callaway,
thank you. Good morning, Mr. Simpson, and good morning to your team. Um, questions. Be seed had 1700. I'm on page 117 197 complaints. What's the itemized list of the complaints?
So historically, for anyone who's interested watching thank you remember category. We have produced a report that is much more voluminous. It used to be about yay thick and it would have all of those complaints. You will have all of those complaints and they will be uploaded online. So as opposed to printing out a thick, thick, voluminous report, we condensed it, but that same information is valuable. It's important. We've had people in the past inform us that they've used that information, whether they you know, whatever the issue was that they had they were able to show Hey, no, I made a complaint about this and this was or was not addressed. And here's how it affected me if they have to defend themselves in their position later. So it's valuable information. It is something that increases transparency. And so it will be a part of the report that is loaded.
Mr. Simpson, what's the majority of the complaints coming for? For BC?
BC is mostly blight. Mostly by again bc it is first line of code enforcement. So you're going to see a hefty amount of complaints coming in from him again.
And then Thank you, Mr. Simpson, and then for my district district two. I was looking at the number of complaints and I didn't see I mean, you know, we can talk about it later mighty item launch, an itemized list of majority of the plank complaints coming from district two. I'm looking at your top complaints by zip code or illegal dumping. It doesn't have a page number but it is in section four. I don't see two zip codes there. And I know we've a lot of illegal dumping and 40 235 and 42 one and those are the largest districts in my area. I don't see them listed. So are you saying you didn't get any calls from those two zip codes for illegal dumping?
No, that would be incorrect and if it was oversight or left out? I'm not saying that at all.
Yeah, I'm on page, right, this page after section four. So that would be 40 235 and 40 221. Not on that report. Yeah. So there's no illegal dumping in those two zip codes. Or they didn't call you to complain?
Again. And again, I'm not saying either of those things. I live in district two as well, as you are aware, and if that information is not in the complaint in the report, certainly it was oversight that will be corrected and we can have those updated numbers for you. So that you can see exactly how many illegal dumping and or other complaints were made for those particular zip
codes. Okay. And then my last question, we have 517 complaints in district two, what were the majority of those complaints because we work as a team and I just want to be able to support you and your efforts. And of course, you know, I would love for you to support me and my efforts which you have done since I've been in office, but you say 517 And that's like the third or fourth highest in the city. That's on what's not listed but it's on Section two
is curious.
And then while you're looking, all of us like clean freeways, clean ramps, and clean neighborhoods, and I don't mind cleaning ramps every now and then Mr. Simpson and I believe because of my efforts on October the eighth with Mary waters. Member at Large we got the city to enter an agreement with MDOT a $650 $650,000 contract to help us keep the freeways clean. So I want to thank my my colleague to the Left Member waters for helping me in that effort. So I believe that triggered that and the whole conversation about clean freeways and clean ramps because that's a snapshot of our city. When people are coming into the city. They don't necessarily go into neighborhoods, they're traveling the freeways, and that's an indication of what's occurring in the neighborhood. So I just wanted to make that point. But back to my original question. In District Two, there are 517 complaints. What are the majority of those complaints? So I can support you in your efforts with addressing them?
Remember, Callaway we can provide you with a detailed breakdown of what those complaints are. I have no problem doing that. Also as it relates to the freeways. In our address or our speech, we stated that if you asked a resident which one they would choose between clean neighborhoods and clean freeways, they will tell you both. I believe they deserve both. But what I don't think is appropriate is for us to tout that cleanup effort when there are so many residents within their respective communities who are not pleased with what they see internally. So the people that are coming and going, we want to take care of them too. But I'm also interested in taking care of the people that are here. Not just coming and going so I think everyone deserves a clean freeway and a clean neighborhood. And I also stated that we should work together to achieve both of those things. So we are on the same page. Just saying it in a different way.
I think we're saying is similarly okay, but again, I'll reiterate that clean freeways is practically a snapshot of what people will see when they're into the neighborhoods because usually of dirty freeway and dirty ramps, when you go up in neighborhoods, that's exactly what you're going to see. And so that effort on October the eighth yielded 40 bags of trash. So thank you, Mr. Sampson. I look forward to getting the bid down for what's happening with the 517 complaints in district two. And I'd also like to know the illegal dumping cause that you've received for 42 to one and 40 235 which is not listed in section four. And thank you so much for all the work that you and your team continue to do. Thank you Madam Chair.
Thank you, member waters.
Thank you, Madam President. So, Mr. Simpson, I just want to ask you, so you have about 59 complaints about the regarding the land bank.
I just want to know if you could just cite a couple of those and then I want to know what your thoughts are on the land bank.
So as far as as far as Thank you member waters as far as the land bank is concerned. The complaints that we see we receive they have a lot of undesirable property. And with that being the case is going to generate complaints. In order to maintain those those properties. We don't want residents living next door to those properties that are blighted and so that in itself generates a lot of complaints whether you're talking about a vacant lot that hasn't been cut or you're talking about an actual structure that is blighted, may be open etc. Those are the types of complaints that are generated as it pertains to the land bank now, my thoughts overall. In years past, I've been highly critical of the land bank as it relates to something such as their use of the nuisance abatement program. If you look at our past reports, what we said was, it's not proper for the land bank, which at the time was contributing very heavily to the amount of blight in our neighborhoods to turn around until a homeowner, Hey, your property is blighted and we need to enact nuisance and abatement. So that's just one recommendation where we strongly oppose their position and some of the programs that they have. I do think it is good that they're reducing their inventory. I did catch your interview the other day as it relates to the displacement of an individual. We don't want to see that happen. I'm eager to see what the what their report land banks report on that matter what the yields. I did have a conversation with Director Daniels as it relates to that. So you know, we want to make sure that everyone is doing what they can to improve the quality of life of our residents land bank included. So that's our position on also, if I may look forward to working with you. I had conversation with your staff on Saturday, about what could be done to fix some of the issues that you identified. Oh, well, thank
you, sir. We look forward to working with you. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. All right. That will conclude our questions at this time. Do you appreciate the work that you do? And looking forward and responses from various memos? That have been sent to you?
All right. Thank you to your honorable body. And thank you madam president.
Thank you sir.
Our next hearing is for the City Council budget. And Mr. Whittaker and Mr. Corley, are you all going to who's going to do the city council's budget hearing? The Watson
Morning, Madam President morning, Monday city council. So we're taking your lead in terms of Do you want to just put in into his a recession or if you want to take up any questions or issues that council members may have regarding City Council's budget. Okay,
is there questions comments? I saw member Callaway first and then member Doha.
Yep. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just would like to make a motion to move. This I had asked about this last year and and neglected to put it in an executive session. But I'm requesting a million dollars for Dysport disparity study for Creo to fund a study for the utilization of minority business for city contracts. I mentioned it last year but again, I neglected to ask for the amount to fund it. So again, I moved to put in an Executive Session. Funding for a million dollar disparity study for creo.
motion has been made very No objections that action will be taken. Thank you. Members, your hall.
Thank you, Madam President. And good morning. Just wanted to first make the motion to put this entire budget into Executive Session, noting that there have been discussions with the CFOs office about the increase in council members office for staff as well as other resources. So I'd like to make a motion to put this entire budget into executive session and into Executive Session, a $100,000 increase per council office. So two separate separate motions moved the first motion.
Okay. First one is to ask city council to Executive Session Hearing no objections that action will be taken. And member Door Door Hall second motion was to add an additional $100,000 to City Council staff, the offices any objections? Hearing none that also will be placed into Executive Session. All right, anything additional for City Council? Mr. Coralina. Mr. Whittaker? Do you guys have anything? No, ma'am. All right. So before we proceed to public comment, did you want to update us on I know you sent out a spreadsheet this morning that has everyone's items.
Madam President this morning since city council, our first draft of these sessions spreadsheet there's about 114 or 15 items. At the present time, there's about $4.2 million at one time costs if Council agrees to add to the budget, and it's about 2.2 million in recurring items. However, there are a number of host of items that have yet to be examined and for council members to add a number to them. Please do so as much as you can. Between the day and tomorrow. Tomorrow at two o'clock is the start of Executive Session. And of course, depending on how long tomorrow goes and foremost session, you know, you may want to push that back a bit or so. But um, also, you know, as you review these items, you know, there may be some that you want to remove. There may be some that you want to put into the closing resolution, you know, rather than putting numbers to them, but as much as you can add numbers to them between now and tomorrow afternoon, please email me and of course costs that's the bottom of them, but at least to kind of get an idea of where we going with the one time cost versus the economy. So
thank you.
Alright, thank you so much. Mr. Corley. There's nothing additional we will go straight into our public comment and we have Pamela Brown who is in person we don't you don't have a card. That's okay. You could follow behind Miss Brown and everyone will have two minutes for public comment.
You morning. Good morning.
I'm here in regards to the ombudsman's office. I just want to state how great assistance they have been in my community. I'm from District 1482 to seven. There has been six homes has been torn down from 2018 to current with the assistance of Mr. Sampson. I've had also many complaints and regarding our neighborhood regarding a semen company I'm sure Mr. Tate is very familiar. I've been to several meetings and regarding this CMAT company that is just a horrible eyesore in our community. Mr. Simpson has put forth effort to reach out to assist me with that. And BC was supposed to do a soil test whatever, three four years ago never heard anything back from them. regarding that. Mr. Simpson is still trying to diligently assist us in our neighborhood to get that company cleaned up, cleaned up. I spoke with someone I think her name was Cynthia Rogers from BC and she told me they're constantly getting ticketed, but nothing else is being done. And it's a horrible eyesore for Greenfield and I 96. And just like I'm constantly making requests to have someone look at it to help us in our community, to no avail. The last time I met was over at Northwest activity center and Mr. Tate referred me to to his social helpers or whatever you want to call them and they still have not yet contacted me again to give me an idea of what's being done and regarding dynamite see met company on the corner of i 96 in Greenfield
it's just horrible.
We have O'Shea park across the street from the freeway they you've missed it all the money to Phil fix the park for the children, but we have this horrible eyesore with dirt see met and all sorts of things. We don't know what's in it. It could be a health. Okay.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you apologize for members of my staff not getting back with you. But to have someone who's going to come down and get your information again, we're back on and we have in fact been following the issue and I know for a fact that they have gotten a number of tickets, some of which are personal because I called myself and they pay them off. And it's just wash, rinse, repeat. So we're gonna work through with you mainly your testimony to help take it to the next level.
That would be a total blessing. We've been in the neighborhood my parents bought their home and took that 1919 72 So I this my mother is er, I had to get her out of the neighborhood but I came back to the neighborhood and I've been there for 14 years and it needs something needs to be addressed.
Yes, ma'am. So we're I'm going to have someone again, come over and speak with you get your information and let you know where we are what we've been doing since we have jumped on this issue and then gather your information so we can help again added to the process and hopefully that will help take us to the next level. Thank you very kindly Thank you. Have a wonderful day everyone. All right. Our next public comment it Ronald Yes.
Good morning. I just wanted to just support the abasement, just a knowledge on regular on record as a citizen here of the work that he actually does, and the value of elected officials coming into the communities knocking on doors being visible, and bring him visible results. That's all I have to say about that today. Please support him. Give his budget he only asked me to give him for even more money so they attend to be visible in the communities and be effective and hold accountable.
Thank you. Thank you, Ron. Oh, all right. We will turn it over to virtual public comment.
Madam president we currently have 16 Hands raised the first public comments caller is Daniel Hall.
Good morning, honorable City Council of Detroit. I am calling in and today to strongly request that our city Ombudsman's budget is approved. When I think of the ombudsman's office, I think of a mortar and I think of bricks and he definitely holds things together in our city. Whether there's a miscommunication or just maybe an oversight for the last five years, worked with our City Investment department and community activities such as community cleanups and partnerships, Turkey give aways and just have seen the advocacy and the passion is there and they have been nothing but pure support. There has never been a time the Ombudsman's Office has said no or I don't know but rather I will find out if they did not know. As we know our city is a very large city. Many neighbors are often they often feel overlooked and unheard. And because we are all human sometimes it's just impossible to get issues resolved as expeditiously as we would like to be. Sometimes there's not enough time in the day. But with the help of our city on bus man, Mr. Simpson and his dynamic team, his dynamic team, and if you have never worked with them, they bring 1,000% positive energy every single time we're able to resolve issues. We have seen passed an improvement through our policies and our and our compliances questions have been answered and resolved. Therefore I respectfully request that the Ombudsman's budget is approved to continue to cost improvement for our beautiful and beloved city, Detroit.
All right, thank you
Madam President. The next caller is Steven whoring.
Can I be her?
Yes, you can.
Okay, awesome. Um, I want to say that out, but may not this is probably one of the few effective city departments they definitely felt a lot of people like talk with, but I think there needs to be a second summit specifically for v dot smartbus has their very own bucks, man. And I also kind of want to go off topic. As I've mentioned before, I was very disappointed that I mean, they didn't even the administration didn't even consider the minimum deedat budget asks the 80 million, but even that I think it's too low. I think it should be a minimum of 150 million, because I mean, this is just getting deplorable. I mean, even from the drivers pay the waiting times just to average thing. I mean, and tonight at the mayor's budget meeting, there's going to be a lot of transit out there kids. And I'm also trying to get a few drivers who moved to Ann Arbor to explain why they did and the working conditions of the drivers in need out which is I'm sure you've heard very disturbing, so it would definitely be great to add some more money to the outputs man office and firearm one specifically for DDOT in transit.
All right, thank you.
Madam President. The next caller ends in 568
Hello,
can you hear me? Yes, we
can. Good morning.
Good morning, madam president Sheffield and I just want to visit the law store and I just want to speak on the ombudsman. Here. They attended one of the I'm from East Village Association, and they attended our meeting and to the surprise of most of the residents, they didn't even know that we had an investment. We had an adversary there to intervene on our behalf. And I was so thankful that they were there to answer the questions and to bring the resources that he brought and I'm just amazed and delighted. I knew of them ombudsman because I've dealt with them before and his amazing team. And what I really, really appreciate is that they're one of the offices that you can call and get an answer. Somebody will answer the phone and they will address your issue and I appreciate that. And I want to talk about the I want to ask about the neighborhood door knocking when that happens. ombudsman Simpson and Linda Will you please contact contact me at East Village so that we can be a part of that because I residents need to know more about about you and more about what your office what your positions are in the city. And best that's really what I wanted to say. I'm thankful that he's there. I approve of the budget. I'm hoping that he gets it and then we'll see more of him. But thank you so much for for taking my call.
All right, thank you as well.
Madam President, the next caller is we the people of Detroit.
Morning, Madam President and to the honorable Council. This is Monica Lewis Patrick with we the people of Detroit. And I just had to call in to express our support to the ombudsman, not only for his leadership and but just as others have stated, his staff has been exceptional. And my evidence to that point is the role that they have played around the water issue, really helping us convene conversations hard conversations with the water department and making sure that community voice was at the table, being able to bring more clarity and things that I think provided a complete communication loop between Wayne Metro and the water department. Case in point being is that the water department and Wayne Metro did not realize that there was a big delay that was created in terms of the point when people registered for the Detroit lifeline. And then the point in which Wayne Metro process the application, and then the delay that happened within the time that those applications were given to the water department. And so the water department was able to then because of that evidence being brought forward to work with Wayne metro to give them a direct line to being able to put people in the queue so that they wouldn't be shut off on water. And many things are still being worked on. Because we know it's not a perfect policy. And we know there are things that need to be improved upon, such as the conservation component, but if not for the ombudsman and not for his dedication of staff. Those persons have been critical in moving the needle and hopefully turning the page for the residents. of Detroit as it relates to getting access to clean, safe and affordable water. And so we definitely know the significant amount of time that his staff is dedicated to just this issue. And so I would have to join with others and saying please make sure that those dollars are dedicated to make sure that that staff can continue to help us keep All right,
thank you so much.
The next caller is William and Davis. Good morning. Can
I be heard as you can? Well,
this is an unusual comment from me. And I strongly support the ombudsman's office. You know I wear many hats, especially when I was a police commissioner, I would go around not just district seven but all over and I see that our ombudsman was actively in the community doing stuff, since you can see his face any and everywhere. Actually. sleeves rolled up actually working. You know, I think his office does an outstanding job and that if he wants to more people he probably needs three more people and you should do what you can to help him because I don't usually say nice things about some people because some departments like the land bank needs to be eliminated. But you know, the ombudsman officers need to be built up. I also like to say that we have a problem in the city of Detroit and the problem is Mike Duggan, you know in the last few years over 1046 City, Detroit retirees pensioners have died. I think it the vast majority of them was white. You know that wouldn't be but since the vast majority of black and brown, the mayor does not care. I think he does not care because he's from a prominent Republican family. He's the son of a Ronald Reagan appointee. He's a multimillionaire and he does not care about people that are not millionaires and billionaires. I think he is the biggest lobbyists in the state of Michigan. But millionaires and billionaires he needs to lobby and do more. To help the city Detroit retirees that this whole bill back a recovery for the city of Detroit is on our backs, and it's on our backs. We see it every month. So we think that the city should do more to help city Detroit retirees. Thank you. Thank you
Madam President, the next caller is Ken Winston.
Good morning Miss Winston.
Morning, Mr. Winston. Yes,
Madam President, would you like to move to the next caller? And we can come back to miss Winston? Yes. Ma'am. The next caller is Betty a Varner.
Good morning. My name is Betty a burner. I'm president of the soda Ellsworth black Association, and I'm in support of Mr. Bruce Simpson down Budzma and his team and getting what they need to continue to do the great work that they are doing. He attended him and his team Miss Linda Wesley attended one of my black club meetings DeSoto Elsweyr black Association. He answered all the questions gave us some good good information. The majority of the members didn't even know what the ombudsman department what they did. And so they were very patient. There was a certain allotted time for the ombudsman and he talked at the end of our meeting, he stayed and and mingle with the community. He's, he cares about people. And so I'm in support of him receiving exactly what they need. Also, we have a dumping problem in our area, and they are working with us in regards to our dumping problem. We still have the problem, but they continued to work with us. So I'm very supportive of their batsman team. And I also want to say I'm putting on my advocate hat. Please do not forget the seniors and people with disabilities in regards to our challenge of staying in our homes. We need our homes to be handicap accessible. We need ramps rails other things in our homes to make them safe, including the walk in showers. They use walk in showers are very expensive. We're on fixed incomes and we can't afford it. Thank you for this time.
All right. Thank you Miss Varner.
Madam President, we can go back to Miss Karen Winston.
Okay
good morning Miss Winston. Once was Wednesday, going twice. Let's come back to miss Winston again please.
Okay, the next caller is Carol Hughes.
Good morning misuse.
The morning honorable body. May I speak? Yes, ma'am. Carolyn Hughes. I am in full support of fully funding the ombudsman. It is a charter mandate, as well as fully funding the Inspector General and the Auditor General and the board of ethics. We have an ethical problem here and I think that's what the LPD was trying to address this morning. With Miss Santiago more per Public Safety and Health meeting. We get answers at the table. That are not that I mean that they don't answer any questions that are asked and then when they give you some information, you don't use it. Like the $20 million in the sidewalk protocol program. We are paying contractors for proposal in work that they can't do because there's a shortage of sidewalks. So now we're going to again put $20 million in the sidewalk program that's unethical. And it sounds unethical and it is unethical. This is our $230 million and we don't want it in a sidewalk program. We want to buy things and spend our money on what we need. We need low income housing because of what you all have done with the pricing out of the Detroiters and and I need you to also define what a Detroit or is is not someone who comes in on a Greyhound bus what they pass a stay over is someone who has been here and been here for some years. I find that the funding is not going to the right people. It's going to the people who don't deserve it. But I again want to fund fully fund, the ombudsman office. It serves a purpose. It is also charter mandated and I would like for the council to review the charter because maybe you don't understand your your responsibilities, but you need to understand the seats that you sit in, require something of you and again thanks, council woman waters for looking into the land bank and please don't refund the land bank. Thank you.
All right, thank you.
The next caller is Reverend Cynthia Lowe. Hear me?
Yes, yes, I can. Good morning. Good
morning. materal Council I'm represent the mobile phone review committee unity outreach of Detroit and I am in complete support of giving the ombudsman's office, their full funding. They have been such a blessing. They do a lot of work in the community. Many people don't know once you get on their mailing lists. They send you all the information about what the city is doing. It is very, very helpful. And I also want to add a personal note. They came out to the black club meeting. I'm a member of bright area community council. I'm the secretary there, and I'm missing the fact that on my street Thornton is going a pile of garbage on the front burner of the first house. It had been there for months because the city is having a problem the contractor I talked to miss Wesley talked to Mrs. Simpson and it did take about a month or so. But they got it removed and I just want you to know how much that means to our street because when you turn on our streets or houses that too bad looking, but there's this great big pile of garbage and it was at least four feet high and it covered the whole front berm. It is so important that we cleaned up our communities. I'm disappointed the freeways too I really am. But I really liked the fact they clean that up and it made the whole street look better. And I just want you to give them the money. So you get extra help. And I give a real shout out to Mr. Simpson and Miss mental mastery. And that's all I have to say.
All right, thank you so much.
Madam President. The next caller is Cindy Daraa.
Good morning, Miss Dara.
Good morning. I'd like you to reopen a place to take the garbage to the like we used to be able to take you to Russell and another place in the city. Our toys I think the street if you did that people like myself we have picked up and some of the people in the neighborhood would have a place to take some of this garbage so they can help out. And if you reopen that right now you have to pay to jump and used to be we could take 1000 pounds to the incinerator a day if we were City resident. So as long as that can keep from being misused, and maybe that's why they stopped it. I'd like the ombudsman and work on that. And to make sure that we don't keep bringing in there's a cement crushing plant that they some people want to build in Corktown and we've already got maritime fluting there and there's some Lance's on the east side. I don't know we need to do something about how we're going to stop bringing polluters and and then saying we're gonna give them filters or give them a ticket that they'll pay rather than clean up. Because it's cheaper. So also, the ombudsman. I used to be a social worker. I found out some information from a friend who had sold Obama phones and had a mother that was on Medicaid. So I found out their information and went over and I told this friend who was wearing his mother's glasses because he doesn't have enough money he's driving a car with no insurance no plates that are right. And and because he can't afford it and and he doesn't even know that he's got a right to be on Medicaid. So we need to have like a welfare type of information thing out of the ombudsman's office too. So put some more
All right thank you,
the next caller and then 711
Good morning Peace and blessings to you all. As well as anyone who is listening. My name is Malik Shelton. I'm in favor of supporting the ombudsman. But I think that is funding should come from an outside source other than the City Council, which holds the purse strings to his budget. Also, I think that his employment should be outside of the control or outside of the discretion of the city council was well this was this is because it's really a no brainer is it would be difficult for an ombudsman to go and investigate the council's when they have when it's when when Ombudsman has to come before the council. Which budget was also at the council's mercy in terms of its employment. This also goes for the Detroit Inspector General's Office and the city of Detroit. I liken it to a bucket with a bunch of holes and where the resources are the water is just pouring everywhere and it's not staying where it's supposed to be. You know, I just found out that the city of Detroit is getting over $200,000 to non public. It's with my nonprofit bought invest Detroit in order for invest Detroit to administer as well as to pay their staff but an allocation of our community development block grant money. This is insane. To also find out that the Detroit Public Library lost $500,000 That it was stolen from them when Bells was broken. And they still haven't nailed down the source of the deburring but that the $500,000 is Miss.
Madam president the next, Madam President, the next caller is Michael Lamont Cunningham Jr.
Mr. Cunningham Good morning.
Good morning honorable body. Linda Wesley used to help a lot of people that I talked to and her constituents for Brenda Jones council president Brandon Jones. She's always been helpful and she's helpful now in regards to the ombudsman's office. I think they should be fully funded as much as possible. The the honorable ombudsman that we have here in the city of Detroit he's excellent. We sat down and talked transit. And Mrs. Wesley scheduled the appointment but I mean, he they do good work. I just I want to veer off a tad bit. I wanted to say that counsel Mary waters event with Miss Anthony was very first class. It was truly first class. It was a nice event. And the honorable Miss Anthony was very, very nice to everyone. Very humble. Shots yields a lot of power. But again, thanks for the Honorable Mayor waters for having that event. Also, I don't know what I have to do to get you guys to give out free bus tickets and validate parking for those who have a hurdle in front of them to get coming down city council meetings or mayor meetings. At the mayor's meeting. He had the underground parking for free and I liked it that thanks to Mr. Mayor for that, that part, having free parking for the city. At large mirror your meeting last month or the month before? I'm not I don't remember. But thanks for that. 313-444-9114 forced subservience cutting in and yes there will be a lot of people. Activists with transit tonight at 5pm.
All right, thank you Mr. Cunningham.
The next caller is Detroit affordable housing and homeless Task Force.
Good morning. Honorable council members. First I want to thank you for your hard work on the budget. We want you to to pay close attention to the tiny home situation with Miss Tara Brown. She's been the evicted by cc s s and this Reverend Fowler on she has paid her rent. She's got three more days before they this woman. This Reverend is evicting her I talked personally with Reverend Fowler. She had no reason why she was she could tell me no reason why she was evicting Ms. Brown. His rounds has her money in escrow. She's been paying on time for a tiny home and she loves it. I saw it on w x, y and z. And I call it Reverend Fowler. Wherever Impaler had no explanation except to say that she doesn't believe the woman lives there. She says she's not there regularly. Now I don't need somebody watching my house telling me I'm not hitting their regularly loans. I paid my rent. So it's something very fishy going on. And something personal that Reverend Fowler has against Ms. Tara Brown and I don't think we live on plantations. The second thing that I'm wanting to do is uplifted the ombudsman. He is awesome. I was on the emergency water plan. emergency water help for way Metro for two years, two and a half years. I kept calling them they told me they didn't have plumbers this was for the emergency for COVID. They kept telling me they have no plumbers. I called them for two years. I said I'm on the list what's happening. Finally they said okay, we got the plumbers. I said, Well, okay, so what's happened and they said we don't have the funding. I said you just got our money. I call it the following week. They said no, I said no. Did you give them our poor money? They say yeah, we got the money. We spent it all and and we closed the program. I called the ombudsman and got the emergency plumbing repairs that I should have gotten all right.
Thank you,
Madam President. The next caller ends in 893
Good morning caller 893.
Good morning. Council President. Mr. Sampson thank you for all the good work you do. I live in Russell Worth area area called for a tool for and I've been trying to get the city to do something about some abandoned property next to my property for years. It's been vacant for several years. And we contacted Mrs. Your office, Mrs. Wales responded back to us. And she gave us the date and time at this meeting. So I just want to know if you could do something about this property is at 43 away Courtland is really in disarray is then condemn and is abandoned, and it's really in bad shape. So hopefully, thank you for everything that you do. And we will contact Mrs. Wesley. Mrs. Wales, I'm sorry, back at your office. Thank you very much.
All right, sir. Thank you.
Madam President. The next caller is black Moses.
Good morning Detroit man born within earshot. Of course, the buzzer has job here in the city of Detroit. The city that we all love and I love dearly is a key component to what it means to be here in the city of Detroit. Being as how Mary chef bill you haven't published given instructions to the city clerk to publish notice to referendum based on the ballot matters that are contracts with authorities. I was just wondering what websites any website and I noticed that there's an agreement here, it's signed off on by a king Barry, John manglik. There's no date on the document and there also is no signature on the city Corporation console. Nor to console go to corporate, the Council for the Detroit building authority. Now I'm wondering why this document is here in the back way, way deep on the city website. Just like you don't like to publish notice as your predecessor is, well, you haven't published any of these notices. To referendum. So now you violate my voting rights and the voting rights of the other hundreds 1000s of black individuals here in the city. Assets this much for me to have the right to vote by you denying me the opportunity to vote by you not doing your duty and responsibility falls squarely on your head to notify the city clerk to either place matter or ballot for widely circulated news per paper published and notice court and pays no less than a quarter of a page you haven't done yet. And then you're going to come behind me and say you want to set the record straight. Well Let the record reflect that oh, you city council people should demand the right that to vote on that and have it placed on the ballot or even published notice
All righty. All right. Our next public comment.
Next public comment is Karen Winston.
Good morning, Miss Winston. Miss Winston Going once. Going twice. And Miss Winston. We are going to proceed if you can just submit your comments to our office or the clerk's office. We'll make sure that it's a part of the record. Any additional public comments
um Madam President Bruce Simpson is online.
A okay he just spoke Alessi does he have anything additional he would like to stay? Because he just was here with us.
Hi, council president. This is Linda Wesley. We received a public comment and I wanted to read it on behalf of Miss Moore. If I may. Yes, ma'am.
Go right ahead.
Thank you. I am glad I had the opportunity to meet this young man ombudsman Bruce Simpson. When he presented at our AARP meeting. He graciously accepted an invitation to come and speak at our community black club meeting. Most including me, did not fully realize the service that the ombudsman Department provided. This department is the balance between the community and the city and will encourage and allow residents to report issues and concerns without repercussions. Again, please continue to fund this valuable department. You Lois Moore, president of binder black club, and the Farwell Community Association. Thank you very much, council president.
All right. Thank you as well miss Wesley, and that will conclude our public comment for the morning portion of our hearings and we have a two o'clock for the mayor's office and we will stand in recess until our 2pm budget hearing for the mayor's office. Thank you