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Budget Hearings - DDOT, Board of Zoning Appeals
Speaker 1
Guess 35% or minorities? We have a single woman that is working. Most of the individuals are all local from the local area.
Speaker 2
Okay. Oh, sorry. I should have addressed essay question and Mr. To Mr. Coolock. I was sorry about the gentrification aspect. Is that something that's been included in this process? And then after that, I'm done. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 3
Yeah, to the chair. No, the LBD cbcf has not done an analysis of this for this project.
Speaker 4
Thank you. Clark window. We've been joined by member waters. Good afternoon, somehow. Thank you Chair recognizes Member Santiago Romero.
Speaker 5
Thank you, Mr. Chair, given that we don't have the amount of time that I would like to discuss this and ask questions. And we're about site percentage. of people that are under purchase agreement. And this is still in this is currently in the works. I'm going to ask to bring this back in one week. This is in my district. I have not heard from developers. And I have some questions around price and the need for the uneasy so if there is no urgency around this I'm hoping to bring it back in one week. To to the developers that would mean that if this was to be approved, it would be in about two or three weeks. But if there is no urgency around this given that this is already underway, I'd like to bring this back to reach out to you to ask a few questions.
Unknown Speaker
So the developer from member Santiago mero. urgency.
Speaker 6
I would say that, if I could speak down if it's okay. I just want to make sure I chime in here. I think the biggest urgency is we filed their applications a year ago. I'm the developer I was a developed Ross at North cork 1011 And we did sell units for the first time market right without subsidy below $300,000 in that neighborhood. So we applied a year ago and part of the reason why we have these pre sales is because the buyers are under the assumption that we have any z since the fall the prior process before we had to go to city council. I don't know when that was changed. So that's all I would say as far as urgency goes, is that we would definitely not have those sales. I would affect the market ability if we were not able to get a subsidized state income taxes for 15 years, the buyers
Speaker 4
pardon me really quick number Santiago. Ramiro if I may to the developer, you're planning to have a pre sale next Wednesday.
Speaker 1
We are, you know, actively involved in sales on a daily basis. We do have a lot of interest and when we did go through the uneasy formation of the district was one of the reasons we had a contingency with the Land Bank Authority that if we couldn't get through the NEC, we weren't going to do the project. And this is really important to us and the DGC and the Land Bank Authority really wanted this project in this neighborhood because there just isn't any density whatsoever or anything of this type and it's it's basically forms a nucleus for the neighborhood to grow from and we've taken a lot of risk and this is really significantly important to us and this development.
Speaker 4
For me Member Santiago Romero, but what I do respect the question wasn't necessarily answer is there a presale next Wednesday because we're talking one week and I can understand you've been dealing with this for a year, but I don't think one week is going to kill you. And so with that being said, you know, we asked about the urgency relative to Was there some timeline and I posed that question to Mr. Gulati. Was there some timeline that we have to do legislatively in order for this to come through? Because I do you want to afford the member whose district it is, by the way, the opportunity to be able to ask questions for development within our district.
Speaker 3
Yeah. That you would share. Yeah, I mean, I think Council has a right to bring it back in a week and then if a council approves it has to go to state budget department for review and approval. So there's some red tape built in there already. The there was some confusion by the developers of was this already approved or just some delays with the certificates to the clerk's office so they've had some delays and they think they've pre sold some based on the NEC but hopefully, I would recommend you bring it back. In a week and then vote and then and then and then the developer will have to deal with their potential buyers and communicate, you know, the status of the situation. Thank you, Mr. Goodlatte. Good luck.
Unknown Speaker
To Member Santiago Romero chair recognizes
Speaker 5
Thank you Mr. Chair, I will make a motion to be for my motion. Just want to make a state for statement for developers to please not sure that you have an easy if you don't have it yet. We have a number of questions that you want to ask prior to approving those and that is within the council's right to do so. So just to me, it just makes sense to not over promise something without it being approved. First with that, Mr. Chair, I'm going to ask for a motion for the motion for one week bring back
Speaker 4
there was a motion on the floor to bring back line item line. Yep, no problem line item 6.3. In one week, there's discussion on the motion.
Speaker 2
Yes, I just I just want to know if it was okay for Romero if I can just add that as analysis be done on gentrification impact of gentrification potentially from this project in the area.
Speaker 4
Okay, we have one motion on the floor. We will deal with member Santiago Romero's motion first and if you'd like to make a motion for a member memo after that, yeah, member young you are definitely within your right. So there's a motion on the floor to bring back line item 6.3. And one week, are there any objections? Hearing none, that action shall be taken. Chair recognizes Vice Chair Yeah,
Speaker 2
thank you, Mr. Chair. I like to make a motion that an impact study be done on the potential effects of gentrification in that area. And I will help you do the LPD LPD in the law department as well
Speaker 4
as a motion on the floor. Is there any objections? Hearing none, that action shall we take? And line item just for the clerk show? No. 6.3 Shelby. Thank you. Moving to the left is the policy division line item 6.4. Submitting resolution or authorization for the repeal of public act 436 at 2012 This is member Callaway who has requested that the LPD legislative policies envisioned drafted resolution to repeal public act 436 of 2012 to Mr. Coralee. line item 6.4 To have a motion to open up for discussion. Motion. Miss Corley.
Speaker 7
Thank you, Mr. Arens here, I believe Mr. Keller Philip Keller, from our LCD is President to speak on this.
Speaker 3
Yes, Philip Keller LPD. This is a resolution to repeal the state statute authorizing emergency management there was questions from the committee last week regarding, you know, whether the repeal of the statute would revive the public act 72. So, there's language included in the resolution now that clarifies that it would not the other questions were regarding whether the legislature has plans to replace the statute with another emergency Emergency Management statute. As far as I've seen the information the only the only thing publicly available is that they're in negotiations, but it would likely be valuable to to hear from, for example, Detroit City Council Flint City Council, cities that have been affected by emergency management. If you'd like to make suggestions to the Michigan Legislature,
Speaker 4
really quick on pardon me. Clerk will know we've been joined by council president Sheffield for some time now as well. Madam Clerk, thank you. So Mr. Keller is his resolution and already to go based off of the concerns that members have had? Yes, it is. Okay. With the swimming there's no questions. Do we have a motion to send line item 6.4 to formal with the recommendation to approve motion? Hearing no objection line item 6.4 will be sent a formal with a recommendation to approve. Next we'll move to line item 6.5 Submitting a resolution of authorization or urging federal regulators to secure Detroit financial institutions. Council member Mary waters requested that legislative policy to vision and draft a resolution to regarding or regarding this security of the financial institutions in Detroit to have emotional audit opened up line item 6.5. For discussion Boson pay to the law department. I know we have more water sitting at this table. However, you can allow her to address it, but to the law department.
Unknown Speaker
Where are we at with this resolution to form and so I'm sorry, I said the law department LPD
Speaker 7
which is here Mr. Hurd is here to speak to it. Mr. Hurt
Speaker 8
Good afternoon to the mid committee members as Marcel hurt legislate Policy Division. As you indicated this was a request from councilmember waters with regard to the recent collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank and as well as the Signature Bank, it's basically requesting that the federal regulators that regulate banks, the FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board and the National Credit Union Association, do a thorough review of the regional banks in the city of Detroit to make sure that they are financially stable.
Speaker 4
Okay. Any questions from members? Chair recognizes my sphere. Yeah,
Speaker 2
thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate I just want to ask you for my understanding the reason why Silicon Valley Bakey Signature Bank failed was because they wanted to be it was a part of, I think, a 2018 or 19 law that passed that exempted them from regulation like the other getting.
Speaker 4
Yeah, and I hate to cut you off in the middle of your question. Madam President being informed that we do have to call our 2pm to order and so we wrap up so not fun. I gotta let her call it so I'm going to recess our standing budget Finance and Audit sub chair.
President Sheffield
Right and we will open up the expanded budget Finance and Audit Committee the carpet, please call the roll.
Unknown Speaker
Councilmember Benson. Councilmember door Hall, the third president to member Johnson. Council Member Santiago Romero. Council member waters, resident council member Whitfield Callaway. Councilmember young the second. Your council president pro tem Tate. Council President Mary Sheffield.
Unknown Speaker
Madam President,
Speaker 9
I don't see a council member there so therefore you do not have a quorum present.
Speaker 4
We will call to order the budget financial audit subcommittee standing committee for Wednesday, February I'm sorry, February. I'm sorry Wednesday, March 22 23. With a piece called a row.
Speaker 10
Tell someone to do while the third president. Councilmember young the second Here. Councilmember Santiago Romero. Mr. Chair you have a quorum present.
Speaker 4
Thank you, Madam Clerk. And again, I have a motion to reopen line item 6.5. For discussion. Motion. Okay. Noting member Jung was in a member Vice Chair. Yeah, it was in the member middle question. I will ask that we keep that question very brief and the answers as well as we are now in our budget hearing we're behind and we have members of the public who are here as well as department heads. So chair recognizes Vice Chair. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Thank you. I just wanted to ask, I think the reason why a Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed was because there was a change in how they were being regulated compared to the larger banks, in terms of how they will be they want to be regulated more like a community bank. And because of that, that's why they've had these bank failures that they have because the lack of regulation of these financial firms. So the I think this is a good thing. But I one of the question I want to ask is, Is this is this are these bank failures? just limited to those banks? They were regulated differently because that changed or is this an overall picture of the financial system?
Speaker 8
Through the Chair, it's really unsure as to what it is. I know that currently the banking industry is in some type of questionable turmoil, and they're looking at whether or not there'll be more failures with regard to other banks. And I think the reason for this request was that the regional banks which are the smaller banks that served the city of Detroit, Comerica being one of them as well as some of the other smaller banks and financial institutions may have some stability issues and these are the the federal regulators that would be able to determine whether or not their stability is intact.
Speaker 2
Okay, and there's one other thing that you left out the SEC, are they not involved in this Security Exchange? Commission? Would they not be involved in the regulatory process? Well, not with regard to smaller banks. Right.
Speaker 8
Right. These are these are banks that are I mean, the Congress has put forth these three different agencies to actually regulate these banks. There may be some overlap with SEC because they are financially. There are institutions that that trade shares and things of that nature. So maybe some overlap, but these are the federal regulators that are responsible for actually regulating the financial stability.
Speaker 2
Yeah, I thought I'll talk about the high frequency trade I thought was good. We were gonna talk about that. These are small and banks often they get involved in that. That's all Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Speaker 4
Thank you remember, Vice Chair. Thank you, Mr. Herr with that. Do I have a motion to send line item 6.5 The former with the recommendation to approve motion? Hearing no objection. line item 6.5 will be sent to former with a recommendation to approve. Next we'll go to miscellaneous members will know line items 6.6 To line item six point 32 are just very old memo various memorandums that have come from members related to budget questions during our budget hearings. And some of them go into the close and resolution and to Executive Session. So what I will ask if we can take line items 6.6 through six point 32 together, budget. Hearing no objection. That action shall be taken. Next line item 6.6 to six point 32. I am asking and requesting for a motion for a two week bring back to allow us to get through the rest of our budget hearings. And also actually need to do this first part of meeting line item 6.6 to six point 32. Do I have a motion to assign those to LPD motion? Hearing no objection that action shall be taken now. Can we bring back? Do I have a motion to bring back line item 6.6 that six point 32 In two weeks motion, Hearing no objection, that action shall be taken line items 6.6 to six point 32 will be brought back in two weeks at the clerk shall know.
Unknown Speaker
The clerk and next
Speaker 4
we will move to member reports. Chair recognizes Member Santiago Romero.
Speaker 5
Thank you, Mr. Chair, no member reports but would like to ask if you can motion to the clerk that I came back to the table since we had to. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Speaker 4
The clerk will note that we've been rejoined by Member Santiago Romero. The clerk will saw no member reports chair recognizes Vice Chair Yeah, no. Okay. All right. No, remember report for me as well. With that. Do we have a motion to adjourn today's standing committee motion? Okay, Hearing no objection that action shall be taken. We stand adjourned at the call of the chair.
Unknown Speaker
Oh YEAH.
President Sheffield
All right. Good afternoon. We're gonna call to order our 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.
Unknown Speaker
Councilmember Benson
Unknown Speaker
average night. Councilmember door Hall,
Unknown Speaker
the third president.
Unknown Speaker
Councilmember Johnston
Speaker 5
councilmember Santiago Romero. Present
Unknown Speaker
councilmember waters present.
Unknown Speaker
Councilmember Whitfield Callaway. Thomas, Councilmember young the second.
Unknown Speaker
Council President
Unknown Speaker
Pro Tem Tate. Council President
Speaker 11
Mary Sheffield present. Madam president you have a quorum.
President Sheffield
Thank you there being a quorum. We are in session and we're going to go straight to our first hearing which is deedat, the Department of Transportation all of the representatives that are here, please join us at the table. And we've been joined by member Yang or persona. Thank you, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
No.
President Sheffield
Director, are you sharing your presentation? One ally? Okay, listen, you haven't Okay. Perfect.
President Sheffield
All right. Good afternoon, Director Oglesby. When you are ready to begin the floor is yours.
Speaker 12
Fantastic. Well, it's a pleasure to be here to present our FY 24 a budget and as you can tell, I brought the chief with me just in case it gets out of hand. So first, let me just start with a summary and then I'll get into the PowerPoint. But I just want to take two minutes to sort of summarize the numbers. FY 2024 budget that you have before you today reflects funding for 977 FTE positions, and an overall budget increase of 28 point 3 million. We're leveraging federal transit grants to preserve and improve service. The total proposed budget requests for DDOT FY 2024 is 1.167 point 3 million, which includes DTC is requested for 4.8 million for the Transit Police hence why I have my man here. D that's a general fund contribution of 74 point 4 million and DTCs general fund contribution is about is 6.5 million for FY 24 Dots budget is a net increase of 28.3, as I mentioned, primarily driven by the following an anticipated decrease in farebox revenue of approximately 3.4 million an increase in general fund contribution of 8.5 million, an increase of 23 point 4 million for Gatsby 68 pension obligations. This represents noncash change of budget allocation, which was formally budgeted non departmental inflationary costs increase of approximately 800,000 for daily operational supplies, things like poached tires, and chemicals and the like. slightly lower reimbursement for act 51 local bus operating systems revenue approximately 1.3 million in insurance increase of 300,000 by a decrease of salary and wage expenditures related to an anticipated FTE vacancy savings, and the creation of 32 paratransit full time in house positions, offset by a reduction of 15 positions. In Vehicle Operations risk management departments resulting in an overall increase of 17 budgeted positions DDOT also budgeted 13 million for preventative maintenance within DDOT capital grants I'd like to go to the PowerPoint. Next slide please.
Speaker 12
Little 
bit about diba DDOT by the numbers. I just wanted to show this to give you an idea of the size of our organization 292 buses. We have right now it's at 74 paratransit vehicles and growing 9 million riders a year. We have 37 fixed route and 924 our routes next slide. This charts an important chart because it shows our fleet size as I mentioned but you'll notice from 280 to 92 because we have for electric vehicles, right the pilot program vehicles but we still include them the ontime performance is 70 was 73% and you'll see 64% there but that's a bit bit misleading because what we did is we adjusted our standards to industry standards. So it's not a true reflection of a major decrease. But overall our goal is to bring what you see up to 85% which is the industry norm. Next slide. I want to show this slide this is service delivery. Lately we've been getting some compliments on our service. And the reason why is if you look at the top line that shows the scheduled work, the blue line below actually shows the work the actual service that's taking place so we're on or near 90 to 96% of scheduled work that's very tight. That's due to the hard work of our supervisors and our operators moving forward coming to work and taking advantage of that incentive pay. Next slide. This is a snapshot of our ridership. This just basically shows that from 2021 to 2022. There has been a slight increase, but of course not as much as we'd like and we're anticipating as we move forward and we get more operators that will grow. Next slide. I think this is an important slide this goes to show that 
we have been working hard to bring operators on board we had a major push I'll go over some of the items that we did I know that was a question from this group. And if you take a look at this closely what this basically shows is that we hired 179 operators, we have active badged and actively badged and retained 53 Of those, that means that 26 of them were departed, they were either terminated or resigned. 100 of the trainees departed for various reasons from discharge to resignation, and quite frankly, not understanding the ultimate format of being an operator. I'll give you a prime example. I had one operator that didn't want to be here anymore one trainee and when I asked them why they said it was because they didn't understand that it required a schedule. So what takes place sometimes is that you know, you have things like right, Uber Lyft, things like that, and some people rather go down that road. Next slide. A lot of you are aware that we created a orderly incentive for the bus operators to meet minimum bus driving time thresholds. This has been working, absenteeism is down 
and a lot of people are taking advantage of it. The first quarter that we did it was a learning process. And I'm proud to say that the reason why the previous slide that I showed you where service is where where it is today, is partially because of this. We're taking a look at this as we move forward especially as we talk to the Union about potential increases that could take place this is one of the locations that we would definitely focus on. Next slide. There's a lot of crest questions about recruitment. There are a lot of people that have a lot of opinions on what needs to be done. So I figured we would put in front of you what we have been doing social media, YouTube billboards, focus groups, for actually we have focus groups also but Focus Home radio blitzes, transit talent, publications, indeed search engines, it goes on and on from job fairs, general advertise and community meetings, Detroit at work, Facebook, live media, I put this list up to show that we have been working diligently and will continue to do so. And I anticipate that if we can get these 
wages where they need to be and we're doing this simultaneously. We're hoping that we have a flood of potential operators come through the door. Next slide. I think it's important to put a little one slide about the Transit Police because there's a lot of discussion about safety, and whether we're taking safety seriously as a matter of fact, I think these are very telling points. There's a reduction in robberies, larcenies and assaults 36% reduction in coach disturbances. 19% 41% reduction in Teo assaults and 13% reduction in medical emergencies. There's some additional information below as far as the numbers, but we have wellness checks, conducted. Police call for service answered felony arrests made misdemeanor arrests made parking tickets and miscellaneous ordinances. So I just wanted to make sure that people understand that we are really looking at safety first, not just for the rider, but for the operator and we let the operators know that we're by their side. Next slide please. DDOT reimagined. Where are we? The very first round has already taken place. We've talked to the community. We've talked to the riding public, the stakeholders and the bus advocates to give their input as to where we think the overall system should be and how it looks. The next steps are to bring back the results of those which is which is laid out out here. Within the next month. DDOT will kick off phase two of community outreach and collect feedback on the draft reimagined plan, including a new public pop up bus. We're going to take a bus we're actually have one now we're going to clean it out and turn it into a working area for people to give their input and we'll drive it around to where the people are. If they can't come to us, then we're going to go to them. We'll also meet with the riders advocates and stakeholders and others on this draft plan. We'll have a mobility toolbox next slide. We'll focus on attracting and retaining operators. But I will tell you we've already started that outside of this project quite some time ago and we're in a hard push they have a hard push there. One thing about the capital plan is it has something I think I presented to before called Connecting corners. regional hubs which are really where the Connect tends cross. We'll have a really nice layout of bus shelters, better, better markings in some other bells and whistles. We'll also be looking at potential BRT to see whether that works for us. Is there a corridor that we can run Bus Rapid Transit as a matter of fact, there's one that staffs looking at that could potentially be a bus rapid transit corridor as a as a pilot program. impossibly all electric if we can get the vehicles and if the timing works out, but if not Bus Rapid Transit is done with a 60 foot articulated vehicle and we already have those will be coordinating that program and have been currently doing it with the DPD. As the city moves forward with safety enhancements, we talked to RTA, we're sharing information with them, and we're looking at potential they're looking at potential low income, cash free payment, and all door boarding. And I look forward to the outcome of that and we'll be presenting that directly to you also. The goal would be to begin the implementation in 2023 or the I'd say the second quarter of the fiscal year of 2023. Fall Winter. Next slide please. This is just a snapshot. This is not the total KPI but this is what the scorecard is currently how it's being tracked and how it's going to look this is just one portion again a snapshot of the weekly trips it shows the providers people's mo Del Rey and Shaka how they're performing. And later in there. There's more to this that actually evaluates how they're performing in the various areas again, since I have a short period of time, I could come back and really get into this in depth when the time is right. Currently, the RFP process is in place there were 20 companies that put in the pre bid that currently reevaluating the proposals. They should be done in the first week of April, and then there'll be coming to city council. Another tidbit, or another note, if you will, is that we are currently tracking at approximately 1000 actual trips per day.
+2
bit about diba DDOT by the numbers. I just wanted to show this to give you an idea of the size of our organization 292 buses. We have right now it's at 74 paratransit vehicles and growing 9 million riders a year. We have 37 fixed route and 924 our routes next slide. This charts an important chart because it shows our fleet size as I mentioned but you'll notice from 280 to 92 because we have for electric vehicles, right the pilot program vehicles but we still include them the ontime performance is 70 was 73% and you'll see 64% there but that's a bit bit misleading because what we did is we adjusted our standards to industry standards. So it's not a true reflection of a major decrease. But overall our goal is to bring what you see up to 85% which is the industry norm. Next slide. I want to show this slide this is service delivery. Lately we've been getting some compliments on our service. And the reason why is if you look at the top line that shows the scheduled work, the blue line below actually shows the work the actual service that's taking place so we're on or near 90 to 96% of scheduled work that's very tight. That's due to the hard work of our supervisors and our operators moving forward coming to work and taking advantage of that incentive pay. Next slide. This is a snapshot of our ridership. This just basically shows that from 2021 to 2022. There has been a slight increase, but of course not as much as we'd like and we're anticipating as we move forward and we get more operators that will grow. Next slide. I think this is an important slide this goes to show that +1
we have been working hard to bring operators on board we had a major push I'll go over some of the items that we did I know that was a question from this group. And if you take a look at this closely what this basically shows is that we hired 179 operators, we have active badged and actively badged and retained 53 Of those, that means that 26 of them were departed, they were either terminated or resigned. 100 of the trainees departed for various reasons from discharge to resignation, and quite frankly, not understanding the ultimate format of being an operator. I'll give you a prime example. I had one operator that didn't want to be here anymore one trainee and when I asked them why they said it was because they didn't understand that it required a schedule. So what takes place sometimes is that you know, you have things like right, Uber Lyft, things like that, and some people rather go down that road. Next slide. A lot of you are aware that we created a orderly incentive for the bus operators to meet minimum bus driving time thresholds. This has been working, absenteeism is down +1
and a lot of people are taking advantage of it. The first quarter that we did it was a learning process. And I'm proud to say that the reason why the previous slide that I showed you where service is where where it is today, is partially because of this. We're taking a look at this as we move forward especially as we talk to the Union about potential increases that could take place this is one of the locations that we would definitely focus on. Next slide. There's a lot of crest questions about recruitment. There are a lot of people that have a lot of opinions on what needs to be done. So I figured we would put in front of you what we have been doing social media, YouTube billboards, focus groups, for actually we have focus groups also but Focus Home radio blitzes, transit talent, publications, indeed search engines, it goes on and on from job fairs, general advertise and community meetings, Detroit at work, Facebook, live media, I put this list up to show that we have been working diligently and will continue to do so. And I anticipate that if we can get these +1
wages where they need to be and we're doing this simultaneously. We're hoping that we have a flood of potential operators come through the door. Next slide. I think it's important to put a little one slide about the Transit Police because there's a lot of discussion about safety, and whether we're taking safety seriously as a matter of fact, I think these are very telling points. There's a reduction in robberies, larcenies and assaults 36% reduction in coach disturbances. 19% 41% reduction in Teo assaults and 13% reduction in medical emergencies. There's some additional information below as far as the numbers, but we have wellness checks, conducted. Police call for service answered felony arrests made misdemeanor arrests made parking tickets and miscellaneous ordinances. So I just wanted to make sure that people understand that we are really looking at safety first, not just for the rider, but for the operator and we let the operators know that we're by their side. Next slide please. DDOT reimagined. Where are we? The very first round has already taken place. We've talked to the community. We've talked to the riding public, the stakeholders and the bus advocates to give their input as to where we think the overall system should be and how it looks. The next steps are to bring back the results of those which is which is laid out out here. Within the next month. DDOT will kick off phase two of community outreach and collect feedback on the draft reimagined plan, including a new public pop up bus. We're going to take a bus we're actually have one now we're going to clean it out and turn it into a working area for people to give their input and we'll drive it around to where the people are. If they can't come to us, then we're going to go to them. We'll also meet with the riders advocates and stakeholders and others on this draft plan. We'll have a mobility toolbox next slide. We'll focus on attracting and retaining operators. But I will tell you we've already started that outside of this project quite some time ago and we're in a hard push they have a hard push there. One thing about the capital plan is it has something I think I presented to before called Connecting corners. regional hubs which are really where the Connect tends cross. We'll have a really nice layout of bus shelters, better, better markings in some other bells and whistles. We'll also be looking at potential BRT to see whether that works for us. Is there a corridor that we can run Bus Rapid Transit as a matter of fact, there's one that staffs looking at that could potentially be a bus rapid transit corridor as a as a pilot program. impossibly all electric if we can get the vehicles and if the timing works out, but if not Bus Rapid Transit is done with a 60 foot articulated vehicle and we already have those will be coordinating that program and have been currently doing it with the DPD. As the city moves forward with safety enhancements, we talked to RTA, we're sharing information with them, and we're looking at potential they're looking at potential low income, cash free payment, and all door boarding. And I look forward to the outcome of that and we'll be presenting that directly to you also. The goal would be to begin the implementation in 2023 or the I'd say the second quarter of the fiscal year of 2023. Fall Winter. Next slide please. This is just a snapshot. This is not the total KPI but this is what the scorecard is currently how it's being tracked and how it's going to look this is just one portion again a snapshot of the weekly trips it shows the providers people's mo Del Rey and Shaka how they're performing. And later in there. There's more to this that actually evaluates how they're performing in the various areas again, since I have a short period of time, I could come back and really get into this in depth when the time is right. Currently, the RFP process is in place there were 20 companies that put in the pre bid that currently reevaluating the proposals. They should be done in the first week of April, and then there'll be coming to city council. Another tidbit, or another note, if you will, is that we are currently tracking at approximately 1000 actual trips per day. Speaker 12
We're getting about three complaints per day which is less than 1% of the trips generating complaints which is low. In some of those complaints, their various levels. Some go all the way from scheduling to some some more issues that may need more attention and OTP or on time performance is up five to 7% versus the previous provider. I want to dare say their name.
Unknown Speaker
The the
Speaker 12
next next slide, service restoration. This is important to show just to show that we have been working behind the scenes and doing a lot of adjustments in April 20 to 25 or 2022 April 25 2022. We put back Claremont and tyerman. And then in June 27 to 2022. We increase frequencies on Woodward, Gratiot and Jefferson and then this next pic that's going to be taking place in April, we're putting additional morning and later evening service in the following location. So again, within the month or so there should be a drastic increase in service. We're just hoping that there's a drastic increase in people coming through the door wanting to work or else our overtime is going to be going up a little bit but we're going to be putting continue to add service and simultaneously try to get more people through the door next slide. By electric bus pilot test, I just wanted to put this up here the current buses that we have our Proterra buses there are four we're going to be getting four more because we want a low note of new flyers. I'm excited about that because the new flyers are actually similar to the similar to the actual buses that we have on the street today. Bro Tara is a is one of the leaders or I might say I might say was one of the leaders and in the industry because I've read an article that they may be having some bankruptcy issues. So what this does is this goes towards the importance of a pilot program and I move forward and got 15 to 20 of those vehicles. We'd be standing here today and I'd be answering why I did that after I was told do it. So I just go back to say pilot programs a very, very important infrastructure investments that we have at Rosa Parks Transit Center, Shoemaker terminal. Those are underway and we're actually considering hydrogen electric buses and one of the end and doing a pilot there because there are potential benefits. If you you do know and I think I have it on the next slide. Yes. Next slide, please. The next slide simply shows that we do have a zero emissions transition plan. It is a bit fluid because we haven't gone all the way out to 2050. And it has to you have to have that in order to apply for a loan or grant. So we have the amount of buses that we need to purchase each each chunk of years moving towards 2050 We have how much money has the beacons included in upgrades of the stations after the they're installed? And then the locations of Gilbert Gilbert Coolidge and Shoemaker so we we have a methodology, but we can't move forward with making a large purchase until we make sure that the vehicles are available and can perform like a diesel bus which is typically 12 years of 500,000 miles and they can off of one fill. You can get 200 miles out of a diesel vehicle so we're trying to match the see if the electric equivalent will do the same. Right now. It hasn't matched and it looks like in order to run electric buses, it would be a two for one. So we'd need a lot of electric buses. We're hoping that as we move towards the end of this or towards the middle of the timeframe that the that the vehicles actually catch up to the need of the of us DDOT. With that I'll end with a beautiful picture of an event of my buddies. I know they're probably in here. But these are the people who make it happen. I I'm in charge yet. These are the people that let me know what is needed. And a lot of the things that we did, including the electric vehicles were driven by them so I just wanted to put it up there and give them a shout out. And with that, I'll conclude my presentation and you can ask questions.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much director for that presentation. All the work that you do and I just want to say personally, I do appreciate how much you do respect the voice of the community. You know, everyone may not agree but I do see that you are very intentional about respecting the voice the concerns and issues that had been raised through these various community engagement series and I've attended a lot of them and you actually take notes you go back and you try to incorporate their request your overall plan and proposal. So just wanted to give you a shout out for that into all of the advocates that are here as well, too. We hear you I hear you and definitely stand with you on a lot of the issues that are raised. I know there'll be several questions and I do want to just colleagues quickly add this to Executive Session because so we won't be able to address everything today. And so if there is a motion just so that we can add DDOT to executive session before we begin our questioning. All right. Hearing no objections we will add D that budget to executive executives and we will start our line of questioning with councilmember Johnson.
Speaker 13
Thank you, Madam President. And good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for all the work that you're doing. And as council president said, being responsive to the community. And so I hear you Director Oglesby. When you talk about, you know, really pushing to increase the number of operators that we have talked to us about pay. I know there has been a number one concern of a lot of the transit riders as it relates to being able to attract more talent so can you talk about increases in pay? What what does that look like what the pay scale currently is?
Speaker 12
Okay, so as far as pay, my response to that is they're not getting enough. I think we all know that. The good news is that we're not pretending like that. isn't the case. We are working diligently move towards a solution. Though I can't get into detail. I can tell you that we are talking to the union and trying to come up with a solution. I know a lot of people are trying to find out how much are you talking about? I actually can't reveal that. But what I can say is that the discussions are going very well. We're looking at PE and we're looking at other items that could potentially be included that could result in PE and I have no problem saying the the incentive because the incentive was put in place only for one year. So you know, looking at that looking at those numbers. I anticipate that when it's all said and done, we will be where the industry wants us to be. So we're really pushing hard there. The union is very vocal as to where they think we should be. There's one thing that has been said which is we don't want to be number three anymore. So even if you bring us up and we're number three, we're not happy we want to be one or two. I want to be one or two. So I think we're all on the same page. So you know, they get a nod for me and we're really just trying to work out how to do it. From a financial standpoint, I believe the cost will not be the problem. We're going to negotiate. We're going to come to the right, the right numbers, and we're going to move forward and I hope to come back and look at you and say the breaking down the doors. Because I will tell you on another note we did increase the pay of the police officers. And when I first came here, the discussion was we're losing them left and right. But once we fix that pay problem, they're busting down the door. And I hope that that trend takes place and continues with the operators.
Speaker 13
Okay, excellent. Look forward to be more competitive in our wages so that we can improve service and increase service. So my second question is really around how you all assess bus routes. So I had someone bring to me a concern as it is or a concern relative to getting to the northwest activity center. That's not even in my district is far away from my district, but it's really more of a general question. Because the city is doing so much right at the Northwest activity center and other recreational facilities throughout Detroit but the Northwest Activity Center is a tremendous hub, particularly for people on the west side, but I think for people throughout the city, and there are some challenges getting to that facility in particular, when we have all of these job opportunities and COVID and you know, just a number of things that happen at that particular center. But in general, how do you assess bus routes and determine whether or not you need to add on a bus route?
Speaker 12
So right now, as you know, we're kind of coming out of the concept of just trying to survive. So now that we've taken that next step, that's part of DDOT reimagined, that's talking to the people. I have a full planning staff that's on board that talks to the community. As a matter of fact, I have one person that's an outreach per person that has reached out to folks in the activity center area and through DDOT reimagined, there was input as to how the service should be once we go back out and do another round. We'll make sure we've touched there too. If they are not included in the potential increase of service and I say this to all locations, then they have an opportunity to voice it. And we can do an assessment to see whether potential ridership is there. DDOT reimagined is simply a comprehensive operational analysis to take a look at how the service looks today versus how it needs to look based on writer advocacy advocacy and and operator input the operators are given input to mean it's unbelievable how they're giving us information as to where locations need more service and where they don't. All of that's documented is actually put together in a draft. I'm sort of except bring it to you. So I hope we get to sit in front of you and bring it to to this console first. So to say this is where we are as a jumpstart and then continue but all opportunities are on the table. All of them all locations.
Speaker 13
Just very quickly. Does that also include adding a bus route?
Speaker 12
Yes, it includes adding bus routes and includes adding service and includes deviated routes. It includes taking a look at a route that actually doesn't have service, but providing service in the area still, where people will ride the cert the way that the system is set up. Now it's been the same way for a long time. You can depend on the Connect tense, right? But we need to make sure that we turn that same dependability into all of our routes. So that's really what this is. It's a it's a big undertaking. It hasn't been done here. And I'm excited that I think the outcome is going to show that we'll have the game plan. Then I'll be coming back to you about money but that's that's another day. But we'll have the game plan.
Speaker 13
Sounds good. Well, thank you so much. I do have some additional questions that I'll send over to you. Thank you. Thank you, George. Thank you, Madam President.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you member Johnson member waters.
Speaker 9
Thank you Madam President. So good afternoon. Good afternoon. I just want to kind of take off on something what member Johnson said as relates to say route reorganizations, for example, and it plans for shadows or rapid transit partnerships with other transit systems such as smart and eccentric.
Speaker 12
Um, whenever we move forward with with with adjustments, especially with DDOT reimagined, we're working together not only with smart but RTA. So we did a presentation already to both organizations as to this is what we're doing this is our plans and gave them an opportunity to give input and see if they wanted to do some adjustments to work with us. So we are working together. And we're and that's part of the announcement when we do DDOT reimagine we bring it to you it'll show some changes and and as far as shuttles you're probably talking about micro transit, which is providing transportation between what you have that's on the table also that's been looked at. For a long time, folks thought that micro transit didn't work as a matter of fact, as a matter of fact, during COVID Micro transit was sort of tested, but it was for a COVID testing where it was getting people from one location to where they work, but the same concept could potentially be used to provide transportation between the routes that are already existing, and that coupled with the scooters, and the bikes will be the enhancements. So all that's being looked at together.
Speaker 9
Certainly that sounds pretty exciting. And it could certainly be used here. Um, with regard to contractual and professional services. Have you made efforts to engage Detroit based minority owned businesses
Speaker 12
when it comes to contractual efforts? What we do is we put together the scope and we let procurement run with it. And they obviously are focused on Detroit based organizations. The department itself doesn't really drive that party.
Speaker 9
Right. I would think that you drive but I would imagine that you probably meet people out there sometimes and you encourage them to to register with, you know, so that they can partner with you. I don't see anything wrong with that. There's
Speaker 12
nothing wrong with it. And you're correct. Sorry to interrupt you that is that does take place as far as Jen generally, but if there's an RFP out there, I can't do it because it'll go against the guidelines but outside of it. I know I can't do it. Either when I'm with you, so you understand what I mean. So so so within within the context of what's available, I can assure you that wherever I am, there are plenty of folks that come up to me that have the ability and the skill set and I always guide them to our listings and where we are and have a full conversation as to where we're going in the future. Some of the things that we're trying to do for our baby, a prime example we have, we have bus barriers, and they're the best in the business. But there's rumor out there that there are a whole bunch of other other sort of non not big companies have some answers to it. So I'm waiting to have somebody knocked my door down with it. So no, we don't close the door on anybody.
Speaker 9
All right. Well, thank you. That helps. Thank you, Madam President.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Member waters councilmember Santiago, Santiago Romero. Excuse
Speaker 5
me. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, everyone. Good to hear of the efforts that you're making towards our bus system. I have too many tabs open excuse me as I find my notes here they are. So our current budget is around $74 million. It's come to my understanding though, that's pre COVID and P and pre bankruptcy. Our budget was around $80 million. So I'm wondering if there's been discussion to bring us back to pre bankruptcy, budgeting and what it would take to get us there because it seems like there are still needs that we have. What's going to take us what is it going to take for us to get back to 80 million for the department.
Speaker 12
You're talking about the general fund contribution. So you said budget I know budget general fund contribution I'm going to hand that over to the financial folks. Okay.
Speaker 14
Madam President, Danny Johnson, associate Budget Director through the narrative Member Santiago Romero. That's a complicated question because one of the things that drives the the budget for DDOT is the fear itself. As fair revenues recover, that that is intended to give relief to the general fund. One of the complications is that the general fund has a lot of things drawing on it at this time. So, you know, I think that's a conversation. We're just going to have to keep having to determine that but at this time, what we do is we tailor the budget to the needs that DDOT has articulated. They've given us their program plan, their staffing plan, and the dollars that they believe they need and we've allocated that accordingly.
Speaker 5
Understood, thank you. I also have a number of questions, but given that we only have two. I'll share this last one. This is more of an idea, a hope, something that I hope we can work towards. But there are a number of cities that provide about one month of free ridership with the notion of it helping decrease our carbon footprints and also increase ridership. I was in Denver last year, where they had the free bus system. It was awesome. They were together with local trolleys, local smaller my girl car providers, and that worked really well. And it actually got me excited about riding the bus, wondering what it would take for us to get there. Director you love a good pilot idea as well. Can we pilot something like this to see if this encourages ridership. I'm picturing working with local businesses to help them encourage their customers to ride the bus as well. But this is an idea that I've seen be very successful in other cities.
Speaker 12
Okay, I wasn't expecting that one. But let me let me respond by I am familiar with what you're talking about. And I can also tell you that I can guarantee that if we provide one month worth of free service, there will be an increase in ridership and guarantee that I don't know what that has to do with the carbon footprint but people will be on there. There's a couple of things that to take into consideration when you do a program like that. One is how do you measure what's the measurable if I provide free service for one month, how do I measure that the carbon footprints even better that's kind of similar to me doing my due diligence, and buying a Prius and then Melbourne drives up next to me and a Hummer. That That doesn't help. Um, so really, that's something that really did look I like the idea and I'm familiar with with Denver. As a matter of fact, I have a couple of i because it was also done in Kansas City, but it was done for a different reason. It was done for equity, not because of sustainability or the green footprint. But the Denver's freeride was part of a statewide state funded clean air initiative, so they had some money that was thrown towards it. The one month implement implementation made it challenging to assess the impacts of the air quality and the vehicle maintenance traveled similar to what I just I just said before. Also, another thing that would have to be taken in consideration if it's free for fixed route, it has to be free for paratransit also. So we'd have to prepare for the increase in ridership there because I can already tell you that's going to happen or the increase in requests. And sometimes I'm a little leery of doing a pilot like that for one month because there's nothing more permanent than a temporary situation. And once you start it just bicycles, but I think that there's a lot that we can look at to decide whether it can happen. I'd have to focus on how to measure it, but it's definitely something that we should look at.
Speaker 5
Thank you through the chair, ci director, thank you for that. I appreciate that. I I myself want to know how to ride the bus and be comfortable with it and come on down. I actually already reached out to true to help me do a ride along so I'm right there with you. But I for me the the main benefit that I see is the increase in ridership and comfortability and familiarity with our bus system and encouraging residents to take it. I also don't know how they measure the reduction of carbon footprint. I can only assume it's if you're using the bus, you're not driving your car. Maybe we can reach out to Denver to see how they measure their own success and marine their footprint. But thank you for considering that and we'll be reaching out to you with a number of other questions. And then we also I believe have you scheduled coming soon to PHS to provide us more updates on what you're working on.
Speaker 12
Fantastic. And through the chair. If I can add to that I don't think after Paul Denver because the consultant that I have on board actually did their study. Oh, perfect.
Speaker 5
Okay, thank you, Director. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. That's a member of Vincent.
Speaker 15
Thank you. And thank you all for being here today and especially give my thank yous to the drivers who are out there, making sure that people even during the toughest times, are getting to where they need to be and then they're still there and making that happen. So I really want to say thank you to them and appreciate your service. One of the things that we hear at this table on a regular basis from our advocates is the fact that the buses are not arriving at the bus stops on time. I know that we have a metric regarding pull in pull out and the timeliness number but the actual service being delivered to the bus. What is there a difference there? Is that the same metric and why the perception of a low on time rate versus the metric that we're seeing there shows that were about 92%.
Speaker 12
So the metric that I showed the slides was service delivery. The other slide that I showed you was on time performance in which it was from 73 to 64. So there was an appearance of a drop but then I indicated that the way that we measure it has changed on time performances is always a struggle, especially when you just don't have enough operation provide the service and you're in you're filling a lot of it and with overtime, but that is one thing that we are working on. And again like I said our goal is to get it up to 85%. And with this next pick in April we anticipate that will climb up higher and higher and by the end of the year, I'm sure we'll be at 85% and folks will start seeing a difference and on time performance. In addition, we have roads supervisors out there to make sure that the buses show up at their time points. And they're the ones that we're we're really trying to make sure they have all the tools to do their job up to and including new vehicles. And I'm hoping that as we kind of move forward with adding the tools for folks to do their job you'll be you'll be able to see on time performance, definitely go up.
Speaker 15
Okay, and certainly that would be a 21% bump over one year or maybe over two years. I mean what would it take to achieve that you said more drivers but that seems like a pretty significant increase.
Speaker 12
Well, more drivers more service, changing and scheduling. We take a look at the scheduling we have full runs we have split runs it's a it's an art that the planners have mastered that I wouldn't dare try to explain to you but I'll bring them here and let you let them explain it. But there are multiple things that make sure on time performance takes place. And training training of the operators is one of the biggest pieces to let them know that it's very important to be on time. We take a look at behavior we have very good behavior with on time performance or operators we have some that are a little more lackluster ways to drag the line if you will, where you can be not not behind and then speed up and then be right on time at the end of the line. And it looks like everything's fine but the service all the way through wasn't the greatest. So we're take all of these things. Okay.
Speaker 15
Then the ability to turn mass transit the bus from the option of last resort to an option of first resort and so I know many people don't look at the bus as being a primary option for transit. What are we doing to get there as well and that similar something that my colleague just spoke to really want to see how do we get more people to view the bus as a first option versus
Unknown Speaker
the last option?
Speaker 12
That is the reason why we brought on DDOT reimagined in a comprehensive operational analysis. As a matter of fact, I think you influenced a lot of that by bringing that to us some time ago and that's why we are going through the process that we're going through to be able to present what the solution is. It's everything. It's making sure that the bus is on time. It's making sure that the bus is clean. It's making sure that the operators respectful it's making sure that the riders respectful. I've just talked to the operators they told me to make sure I say that it publicly and and I think it's all of these things and that's why it's so important to make sure that we have the stakeholders in the bus operators and just everybody included in the decision making and then that is where you get to a point where transportation is the first mode first we have to get back to basics and give you standard service and then we need to enhance that service. So deedat reimagine has. This is what we can do to enhance service and then the next phase which is incorporating baked in is blue sky. High level. What else is needed that people have thrown out there let's start doing some of that innovate those innovative things, including micro transit and the like. So I think a lot of your answers will be answered when we bring the first round of DDOT reimagined and then we can get into more detail of specifically what you're talking about.
Speaker 15
Okay, and just lastly, just want to say and I asked for a code of conduct for riders, I ride the bus, and I know what the drivers have to put up with. And so for me, it's really critical that we create an environment where the drivers feel safe and they're respected and that people understand what the expectation is for their behavior. Once they get on the bus and I believe that, like you said, would help change option, the bus experience and get more people on board. Also want to continue to advocate for three tier bike racks on the front of the bus. I know we did a two tier I've seen others municipalities and services that do three tier on the bike rack so hopefully we can get to that point as well. Thank you, madam president
Speaker 12
through the Chair, I can address some of that just help you out. So so we are looking at the three tier bike racks. We are as far as the Code of Conduct I believe we have a code of conduct but we're going to it's posted but we're going to take another look at that also. And we may take it to the next level. We're talking to smart right now to possibly partner with some type of version of a training or institution where can sort of teach the riders how to ride. Right we're working so hard on teaching the bus operators how to do their job. I think we need it to be on both sides. So we're taking a serious look at that.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Miss Robinson member Doha.
Speaker 4
Thank you Madam President. Good afternoon to you all. Want to ask you an important question that's on a lot of folks minds. I urge you to touch on it very briefly in there. And that's page 20 dash nine appropriation 27200200310 Otherwise known as ADA transportation services. paratransit. Obviously, we switched vendors and contractors, and I know you didn't go in depth because it would take a that's a deeper dive and a deeper conversation. But I can ask that question it to to get a little bit deeper. How are they performing now? What is the what is performance look like? And are we say still saying some of the same concerns aka you know, a rider drop someone off in a place that they didn't ask to be dropped off and I left them there are we looking at you know, they didn't strap the wheelchair down correctly in the wheelchair slid and, and someone else got injured? Like Are we still seeing some of those same problems? And I know it's been a short time to be able to evaluate performance. But I know you've been around many cities and municipalities around the country sir. Are you starting to see a change though in the service? Relative to paratransit?
Speaker 12
The answer that question is yes, we're starting to see a change. It's a drastic change but not drastic enough. One of the reasons why is because the 30% of the contract locked down we can kind of make sure that that sticks to the the contract that was approved, but the makeshift way that we do it, I won't say Cabbage Patch, but the way that we actually took various providers and threw it and put it together the way that it is the services that are from the standpoint of people calling in. But it's not where we want it to be because ultimately once we're done with the RFP process, and we liked that 70% And there'll be a structure and a requirement, especially with the age of the vehicles right now, the vehicles are sort of the same vehicles that they've seen. I was surprised that people are still happy because it's showing up that you know, they getting rights on time the the most important part for me is that the customer service process is very good. The complaints do take place, but they're called back right away. Their people are respected. And we're focusing on that I purposely I personally walked in and sat in and listened to phone conversations. So the customers base a majority of the customers are saying wow, this is a lot different. I'm proud and happy to hear that because this isn't even close to what we're getting ready to do. We're getting ready to bring it to the next level and provide premier paratransit service just like we're aiming towards premier fixed route service. So we got the complaints are better. Again, we're tracking trips per day, but we're really doing it based on filling pieces based on the availability to various providers. So you know I have a 30% standard with people. And then we have Moe Del Rey and checker and we just recently brought checker on and they're taking a percentage of the routes and our dispatchers are dispatching them out. That's the big difference. So they're getting to where they need to go. I just want to start sending via better vehicles and a little more better trained individuals and that's part of the whole training process that we're going to be putting in place. We can really focus on that seven year send training once we have a solid layout of who actually is going to be providing the service and it could be the same folks.
Speaker 4
And then obviously that was a big fear we were worrying about worried about what capacity would be if we were only operating at 30 or 70% as opposed to to 100%. And so I know we're looking forward to getting through that RFP process. So we can ramp up and start to take those steps forward. We'll be in contact with you. Obviously you been to the disability Task Force, and you speak with a lot of members of the disabled community. So I appreciate that. And I think that'll be a good a good step for my second question. revolves infrastructure capital improvement you mentioned and touched on that briefly as well. I get a lot of calls about bus shelters. You know, what does that look like? You know, other cities and municipalities that are major cities or municipalities have bus structures. So folks are not standing out on the bus stops in the rain or under other buildings. And so what specifically does that look like? I know we just passed the supplemental and not too long ago. But even coming into this fiscal year what will be the change that Detroiters will see relative to the infrastructure that we have to ensure that riders have a better experience?
Speaker 12
So there are multiple capital projects that we're moving forward with I will focus on the bus shelters but we do have a lot of things going on. But let me just focus on the bus shelter portion. So bus bus shelter, as your recall, when we move forward. At first I was armed with an upper replacement than just projects because of the funding but ultimately, the people spoke and when they spoke the number one thing that everybody wanted was shelters. So we set the funding aside and we I believe the number was something like 300 shelters, we only have 200. So the thought is eventually we'll stop growing them right and expanding them. But we've already moved forward with the bus replacements process. It's underway, and we're trying to get those first 100 in as soon as possible. It'd be a major, major difference and a major change. If we can pull this off, especially by the end of the year. We're going through the process to order those and get them it takes about eight months. So we're really trying to ramp this up. That's the first 100 and then right afterwards, we're gonna start kind of spreading them out until we get up to the replacement of the of the existing while we simultaneously see what the outcome of be that reimagined is because there may be a situation where there's additional routes and there needs to be bus stops and then we start adding to that that's the reason why we budgeted for about 300 350 of them. So we're hot on on the trail on on that. Other Other ones are that the terminal replacement project that's for the operators to get them out of the current location Gilbert. We're trying to do some type of refresh with the central administrative building. We're doing the additional electric buses that I mentioned, and those are sort of sort of our bid and of course, stay fair. That's coming along, as you all know, and we are focusing on the transportation part to make sure that it's top of the line. I don't know if I've been before council to do a presentation on that but if you see what the inside of that is going to look like it's it's phenomenal. And I put it up in the drivers lounge I'm sorry, the operators lounge and they are just looking at this thing salivating wondering what we're going to pull it off so and so
Speaker 4
they just quick connected to the question that I asked Are we are we funding? Do you have enough funding to adequately get enough shelters that we need to be competitive with other cities and municipalities around our region? Or would you say that there may be some additional funding needed to really get to that benchmark where we're competitive?
Speaker 12
Well, we're trying to find out what that benchmark is right now. We're doing it the old fashioned way, which is looking at what we have replaced them which would be phenomenal for everybody. And then said we sort of created a benchmark of an additional 150. But that may not be enough. Part of DDOT reimagine has been a social include that. So once we're done with with the routing and the additional layout, I'll be able to tell you specifically what funding we have allocated and what is needed, but we're not there yet.
Speaker 4
And I would just quickly say this, I know we've added this entire budget to the executive session, but I'd like to add to the closing resolution and make a motion to find funding to increase the number of bus shelters that we have around our city. Again, when I get calls and I've met with riders United I've met with you know a lot of folks who have a lot of skin in the game have to transportation and who are advocates staunch advocates. We talk about bus shelters talk about that rider experience we talk about protection because that also provides safety as well when we talked about children golden a morning or folks, women getting ready to go to work right that that is something that is very important to me. So like to make that motion, madam president to put in a closing road resolution to find more funding to increase the number of bus shelters in the city of Detroit.
President Sheffield
motion has been made, Hearing no objections that action will be taken.
Speaker 4
Thank you, Madam President. And finally, I would just say again, I appreciate the open dialogue that we you have with our office when we contact you relative to constituent issues. I appreciate an echo madam President's comments again. I met with Rajesh tonight and they said some great things about you. I'm not going to tell you all the bad things they said actually, but But I will tell you, you know, they said some really great things about you and similar to other departments. You don't really get that a lot. Folks who are connecting with the folks who hold them accountable or responsible. So I will tell you, I respect that and I appreciate that. I want to put that on record. Thank you, Madam President.
Speaker 12
Thank you through the chair. If I can just add one thing I appreciate your kind words. Without them there wouldn't be me so the people that ride the system know what's going on out there. We keep the finger on the pulse and we make sure we keep it moving and that's my motto. I'm gonna stick to it to the shelter portion of it. Not only are we just looking at the shelters, but I know I skimmed over the mobility hubs and all that, but with the shelters at those locations, there will be the opportunity to put real time technology there for those that may not have a the type of phone i lawns that are there for a safe for safety purposes. And just to let people know that there are various types but they operate via solar panel or if you don't feel safe you hit the button and the light comes on. I mean, so we are really looking at all of the options. And that's part of that funding also.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, and I appreciate that. Thank you Madam President.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you member Doha member. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Thank you Madam President. Miss obviously my guy how you doing? Good to see you, sir. Always a pleasure. Listen. I want to ask you first and foremost about how are you working with the state of Michigan? Are you working on your own with a mobility wallet?
Unknown Speaker
The mobility wallet that's through RCA?
Speaker 2
Yeah, well, is that so? Is that something that you're doing with the RTA? Okay? Okay. And in my in my next question was I wanted to ask you, um, you talked about rapid bus system. Um, one, is that something that you're funding? Are you going to come before this body and ask for more money? Do you have an ask of how much that would cost now? And honestly, are you waiting for them to pass a millage for them to be able to have the expansion of rapid bus transit like they did previously? 2016 before it failed?
Speaker 12
Well, I'm not familiar with the M word. So I don't think I'm coming to you with a millage. I will tell you that when it comes to bus rapid transit, we are working currently working right now with the safe streets and when taking a look at what is needed because we have to work with DPW. If we're going to go with bus rapid transit bus rapid transit can either be picking up in the middle lane or on the side lane, or both right when I say bus rapid transit. I like to kind of put the quotes of BRT or bus BRT Light, true bus rapid transit, a dedicated lane. That's not what we're we're probably going to be doing but we have enough space to be able to have dedicated lanes in certain locations. So So Well, I think the best way to do this is to pick one corridor and do it as a pilot, which like I said, once I do one approach, I have to do all seven, but that really it'll show whether Bus Rapid Transit is the way to go. I will tell you it's a simulation of light rail just on the street. There are a lot of places that do it. Indigo is doing it, I've seen Marta's doing it. So it's something that I think would work here and it would be acceptable here so we're really pushing hard to make make that happen. But
Speaker 2
do you have the the financial ask how much that would cost? And then secondly, have you also looked at using abandoned as well as part of your bus rapid
Speaker 12
transit? Yeah, yeah. No, we haven't looked at the automated piece yet. But I we have thrown the idea out and we're gonna talk about that. We want to want to crawl before we start running. So we're looking at bus rapid transit from a funding standpoint. It is quite possible that other than purchasing vehicles, and again, there are various ways to handle this. If I was going to do it with all electric vehicles, I could go to a low note program that's out and ask for 20 electric vehicles and then the funding there that way. But if you're going to do BRT, and there's various ways to do it looks good with a 60 foot Arctic, but you could do it with a 40 foot. So I did, I did it in Boston that way with the silver line. I don't think there would be a huge cost for the pilot. I think after when we learn, then we multiply it out then we becoming before this a canceled sort of present costs and what we need
Speaker 2
Okay, so, so easily, you don't have any you're not asking for anything. Well,
Unknown Speaker
if you have an extra million dollars in your pocket,
Speaker 2
well, what else will we find a budget that's what I'm asking if you won't that like tell me so I can make the request. Otherwise,
Speaker 12
it would be our T? I'd say no, because I don't want to jump ahead. And if we did have additional money, I wouldn't put it into this. I put it into something else like money for the operators.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Well done. Thank you. All right.
President Sheffield
Thank you. So just wanted to go back really quick for my questions. And I have some I'm going to submit in writing but regarding the incentives or the incentivized bonus pay for the drivers. So I know we've done this in the past and I'm just getting this attendance space. So I'm just curious out of the roughly 400 or so bus drivers that you have how many are actually reaching those benchmarks to receive the bonus that we are providing sort of 60 Okay, okay. And then so in this proposed budget, and I was just looking at the notes from when americaine he said, city is seeking a $15 million budget increase for DDOT we to recruit and retain and retain bus drivers. And so is that 15 million going to this 1000 quarterly incentivize payout. I want to make sure I'm clear as to what this particular fiscal year 24 budget does to address the pay.
Speaker 12
I'm going to defer to finance on that. Okay, I don't want to slip and say a number and negotiating and then they know it and work it backwards. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 16
Is that Mr. Donaldson? Yes. Was there
Speaker 14
sorry, Danny Johnson, associate budget director. I'm gonna apologize. Could you repeat? Yeah,
President Sheffield
I guess I'm just trying to get a sense of the exact amount in fiscal year 20 fours budget that is allocated to the incentives or the quarterly incentives for the bonuses for the drivers for the pay increases, right in fiscal year 24. So
Speaker 14
the the it's sort of a two part answer. So bear with me for one moment, Madam President. The first part is that yes, that part of that is built into the DOT's operating budget. It's part of the personnel costs in their budget. The other part is what we call the Workforce Investment Fund that is in the non departmental budget. It's not in beat us budget, and that is where we've placed money to
Unknown Speaker
scrape
Unknown Speaker
we'll
Speaker 14
kind of get into this in the non departmental budget hearing. Where because it's a little complicated, but that fund would involve transferring funds from there to DDOT. Once we know the true costs needed to do the continued incentives, as well as driver pay increases, but until those things are negotiated and finalized, those funds are held in the non departmental department.
President Sheffield
So for the driver pay increases, though that won't that wouldn't take place into negotiations are done, which you say it wouldn't be until next year. 2020. I didn't say that. I take that back. I have had a conversation. Not
Speaker 12
do that. To me. There's too many people watching. We're trying to do the chair. We're trying to get that done as soon as possible. So that is not we're not looking at next year. We're looking at we're talking as soon as Friday to the union to continue to have discussions. So this two different things.
President Sheffield
Okay. So again, just making sure I'm clear, so 2024 We could possibly see an agreement that would not just provide bonus attendance based incentives, but actually salary increases overall increases that are not based on attendance for DDOT bus drivers. Is that what I'm hearing that is possible, okay. And you're saying that that amount is not reflected in a budget because we don't know the true cost.
Speaker 14
It's reflected in the FY 24 budget. It's reflected in the non departmental department 35 in the budget book, that's where those funds are held in till we finish the negotiation and have a final number. We will be placing in the administration's closing resolution authorization to transfer those funds to DDOT. When that is no
President Sheffield
Okay, so, okay. And we I guess I just have more questions just to make sure I'm clear as to what that number is because I have seen emails regarding how much it will cost to bring up deedat to think it was 26 or something per hour. So I guess I know you guys are still in negotiations, but I just want to make sure I'm clear as to what that number is. And of course, definitely want to push I think attendance based incentives are good, but the overall goal for me, of course, is just increasing salaries for deedat bliss drivers. Can you talk a little bit about training I know you touched on it, but I didn't find it in the budget where it is reflected as it relates to building the morale of DDOT bus drivers. I know the first thing to do of course is to increase pay, but just want to hear a little bit more about overall training for customer service, how to interact with the you know the riders just overall training for our drivers.
Speaker 12
Yes, it is included in the budget training is included. I'm not sure if from the detail that's here, but I can tell you that you tell me where's your section as you remember, I had the previous consultants and I set the money aside through the chair, would it be an administration center. So through the chair in the administrative cost center, I put the funding in for continued de escalation training, continued training of the supervisors. We do not have the company of who would do it. I'm going my intent is to go out for an RFP. And see before when we went out for an RFP, there weren't too many local companies. So I'm doing an advertisement now that I'll be going out for an RFP for training, and there'll be opportunity for all organizations or companies that can do the work, but it is included. Okay. All right. Cool.
President Sheffield
I do have additional questions that I will submit in writing, and I think member waters so she stepped out she did have a question. Yes, Member Santiago. Amir.
Speaker 5
Thank you, Madam President. I like to make a motion to add to our closing resolution language around a pilot's for DDOT to provide one month of free ridership, just working towards that goal together. That's my official motion. Okay.
President Sheffield
Hearing no objections to the motion. We will add that to the closing resolution. And member young
Speaker 2
Yes, I want to ask you about kind of piggyback off of President Sheffield's for the chance to do it all the way back off of mentorship, his question about salaries and increase in salary I wanted to ask you, does the increase of those salaries does that also match the number of routes that you to add? And the how many do you know how many routes that's gonna add? And what I mean by that is you're increasing the salary by so much does that include the drivers that you currently have for the routes you are currently on? Are you also increasing that amount of money for routes that you have now and also routes you plan to add? In the future?
Speaker 12
So so there is a direct correlation, but not that way, but there's a direct correlation to it. The increase will produce will hopefully produce more operators. So it's number of operators really is what we need to talk about. So if I increase it by 50 if I if I get 50 operators slapped to me right now you're going to see an instant change. We need that 100 123 operators to see the full change. That's where the funding portion comes in that we'll be able to recruit will be able to have people say people that left us some went to other organizations come back. And we're also looking at other opportunities to like giving an opportunity for those who have retired to possibly come back. So we're looking at all options on the table, but ultimately, the goal is to have us well beyond pre pandemic. I mean, again, I showed you something that showed that I'm providing the same service miles with 100 Less operators. Could you imagine if we had 100 operators with the efficiency that we're running at right now, service will be through the roof. I mean, we'll have so many buses going around, they'll probably be empty, and then that's when we start pushing for people to get on the bus. Right and that's when the ridership goes, sort of a build it and they will come sort of thing.
Speaker 2
Okay, so inside as I'll make sure I've got clear so what you're saying to me is that this amount of increase that you're having will is not forgot we'll make sure we're getting it right. It's not just for the bus driver, the operators that you're gonna have for the existing routes where you don't have the number of operators, right. It's also going to be including that Detroit reimagined program that you're talking about many routes, you're also going to be able to have the operator necessary for those routes that you're going to add. So this all factored in when you're asking for this amount of money.
Speaker 12
That's correct. If we for example, if we're currently operating, it's up to top of my head 350 active opera, right CEOs, and I get it up to 510. It'd be like night and day. So you have active then you have CEOs that are not active, let's say at 400 Approximately, and then putting that additional in there. If I get that the goal then would be provide transportation for the additional folks on board and then get the additional 100 That I can't that may be sort of non performers to to do what we need to do. Right, which hopefully will take place after we're done with this negotiations. We'll have an instant shot the arm in public transportation,
Speaker 2
it is 37 routes now, how many routes do you plan on increasing with the trade? reimagined?
Speaker 12
We'll present that to you. Okay, yeah, that I want. If I get into all that, that'll be so long but in short, the goal is to the goal is to not only increase but to make current routes efficient. There's a lot to it. I really look forward to bringing it to you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you and we have about 15 Hands online and several people here and we're already pretty behind so I want to get straight to public comment is someone from I'm gonna do public Hemet comment now seeing that a lot of people here are four deedat before we move to our next hearing member waters did you want to make your motion now or you want to Okay, make sure your microphone All right.
Speaker 9
Thank you, Madam President. I just want to make a motion to place and oppose a resolution to find the fund that take control of the Occupy program from the Detroit land they
President Sheffield
call them resolutions. Yes. Okay. All right. motion has been made to add that to the closing resolution, Hearing no objections that action will be taken will go straight to public comment. Individuals that are here. We'll start with those first Are you willing to have a minute for public comment? And we're going to start with Cunningham. Followed by Cindy dhara.
Speaker 17
Brother Cunningham Hello everybody. 313331344491144 servings Kenny. I'm on Facebook. I want to thank you for the input meeting. Director Oglesby. You said he was gonna put a phone call in and he called me asap and then took care of it the next day. It wasn't everything I wanted, but it was it was suitable and I do appreciate that. He is He likes the people he matched with like Dan Durkas you know, he's he likes to be out there with the people talk to the people listen to the people, a man of the people. A lot of improvements need to be made but I do appreciate him. And thank the city council for being concerned in the mayor's office for DDOT. I'm out here every day. And I get a lot of complaints and I send them directly to you if I can city council. So again, I thank you and hopefully there's some improvements the worst of buses are the more Uber Lyft and taxis make money but let's get it better. We appreciate
President Sheffield
you. Thank you Mr. Carnahan. Cindy dhara Renard miszewski.
Unknown Speaker
For now, my friend
Speaker 18
Tim bortner. He rides the bus and he complains that he's waiting so long, it's down at the Fort Street and shapers are those around there and said the signs get torn down with the schedule that our people take all their schedules, and I think it'd be good to make sure you have a good phone number that people can call a little bit later than they can right now. I think they call it five. So the same thing was smart to get information about or to make a complaint. And going back to the any Z's that those neighborhood opportunity zones, I still think that if those are limited to certain places, you don't want to use those and good for billionaires. And I really don't like the idea of using the historical buildings and giving them historical buildings where they might be getting 30% tax Great.
President Sheffield
Engineers Dr. Renard miszewski. do much and Bernard miszewski followed by Joel Batterman.
Speaker 19
Good afternoon, Madam President and members of council. Last year, you've learned to community budget hearing processes through public comments and actions organized by transit advocates across the city. Including directly asking residents that increasing funding for DDOT is a top priority effect a huge priority amongst residents. The city has made national headlines and negotiating bonus pay for operators. I believe the city again can be a leader in this national operator crisis because this is national by emphasizing operational investment in other words, increasing investment in our drivers to higher wages, benefits and our safety needs with a path of job growth as well to listen to the people in honor to work that our operators to day in and day out risking their lives to ensure access to jobs, education, social services, community resources, healthcare needs, to worship and just for general access to our city. We need to make investments that will allow for paths for in house paratransit service and most importantly investing in riders with low income fare program. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Bernard. Appreciate you. Joe Batterman
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon.
Speaker 6
Oh, Joe Batterman 2520 West Euclid. Community engagement with transportation riders united. I want to stress that the 74 million in general fund contributions that the mayor's budget proposes for DDOT is still well short of where we need to be in order to deliver adequate transit for residents. It is an increase from from last year but the bare minimum that transportation riders United sees as necessary for the coming year is 80 million to restore the level of service that we had before the pandemic and ideally go go beyond that to provide the the frequent service that residents deserve and to raise driver salaries so that we're able to address the operator crisis. Thank you. Thank you. Lucas. necess
Unknown Speaker
Lusky
Speaker 20
Hi there, I'm lucasville second you know, my heart may live here in Detroit. My body lives in Farmington Hills. I'm a frequent writer of smart less frequently DDOT but when I do ride usually when smart bails me on Woodward. I am impacted a lot by the canceled runs. Again, nowhere near as bad as smart but it's still a problem and needs to be addressed with better compensation. For the operators and that the fact that $15 An hour is the starting wage, you could make that work and at a restaurant, it does not reflect the hard job that the operators have. And it is nowhere near a living wage. It's roughly half what MIT would say as a living wage here in Metro Detroit. It's also roughly half what is given to drivers in Ann Arbor, or they provide much more reliable and frequent service. So you know, it shows you value the police you gave them a wage increase, do the same for the drivers because they keep the city moving and they need to be treated better. Thank you for your time.
President Sheffield
All right, thank you. gholston. Last name gholston Dhawan gholston. All right. And then our last speaker here will be Meghan Owens.
Speaker 21
Hi, Council. My name is Dwayne gholston. I'm a Detroit are born and raised. Community Organizer currently working with tribes Asian writers united and marriage and worries on wheels Metro predominantly to Detroit. Wow. I don't have a car myself. I don't have a license. I don't know how to drive. And I don't have a desire to. But I believe those things shouldn't be a determining factor in the quality of my life or any other person living in a major city. To me at the time. I've seen limitations when it comes to my employment opportunities. Because of the lack of wide reliable transit, public transit. Public transit is good for everyone. It shouldn't be thought of as a charity for those not fortunate to have a car. Our city can't compete with other major cities without a well funded transit system. When public transit is better funded is of more use of people and will see an increase in ridership. We also need to see same day service for paratransit and a return of New Freedom Program. paratransit public transit is for everyone. We need to make sure that even our folks that are disabled aren't left behind. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. And Megan Owens.
Speaker 22
Hello, and thank you for the opportunity. Megan Owens, the Director of Transportation riders united. We appreciate the opportunity to meet with many of you. You've heard from a lot of residents and riders around the around the city, just how important transit is just how essential increased funding is especially for boosting the pay for our drivers. So the Pete key piece I want to focus in on the key question for you is the the general fund contribution. I guess it technically is from the non departmental budget, but as Joel said, the 74 million that the mayor proposed we feels it's a step up but it's still too small, too conservative. We really like to request a full 80 million so we can move beyond just stopping the bleeding as the director said they're focused really hard right now to to get back to basics to make sure every Detroiter can depend on the boss to be there. When it says we've got we're really excited about some of the plans moving forward, but rather fix the crisis. Thank you. Oh, and I've got a I've got a handout. You want to Okay, thank you. Great, you
President Sheffield
will make sure everyone gets a copy. Thank you all for coming down. We're gonna go to our virtual callers. Now.
Speaker 23
Madam President, we have 17 callers online. The first caller is called in user one
Unknown Speaker
can you hear
Unknown Speaker
me? Yes, we can.
Speaker 24
Good afternoon. I would love to see more increase with the smart transportation being able to pick back up at their regular times. On Michigan Jefferson and work for 54 6200. So therefore, people are not just left stranded who may have to leave out of the city to go to work, school, etc. Instead of having to rely on DDOT. I like for Miguel Oh Goosby to answer when is the opportunity to allow smart to come back and start picking up on those main lines of Woodward, Michigan. As well as Jefferson. I was at Northland waiting for a Dexter where I had to wait over two and a half hours. And this is ridiculous. Where is I seen?
President Sheffield
All right, thank you. And we're going to take note of the question and go through all of the comments and then we'll respond. Our next caller please.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Karen Winston. Hello,
President Sheffield
yes, good afternoon.
Speaker 25
Good afternoon to you. I will speak about the transit in 1992. Mr. Mister all this be as well as Mr. Dugan, Mr. John Nagler a few other people they all work for smart. So we should we should
Unknown Speaker
be.
Speaker 25
He pretty avidly you know prepared to make the transition and go ahead and then put together this mass transit that we had, you know, we had a better system in the 50s than we have right now. So yeah, we should be ready. We it shouldn't take a long, long, long time. You know, to get this thing rolling after 6070 years now. We ordered bus shelters last year, and they should be in by now. So, because the one got wiped out on McNichols and I think is Marygrove right on the end is still hasn't been replaced in the 50s. We also had heaters we had heaters in in the 50s. So we can get solar power and we can get some heat in these shelters. We got to get to shelters backup. Thanks.
Unknown Speaker
All right. Thank you.
Speaker 23
All right. Our next caller is Robert Pulaski.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon. Can I be heard?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, you can.
Speaker 26
Perfect thank you so much. This is Robert Palacky representing the Regional Transit Authority systems Advisory Committee. I'm also a member of what transportation riders united and I'm calling it from South Gate Wayne County. So to echo some of my colleagues and friends and advocates for transit, have been a longtime transit advocate. And this is the most interesting time for DDOT especially when it comes to $74 million proposed out of the Mayor's budget. When we talk about new safety technology efforts for the system. It's already been implemented but still being worked on. We also need to focus on the increasing salaries for our drivers. Our drivers are the backbone of our system. We all know that the police are the most essential key to our city coming from certain residents, but also remember that our drivers are the most thing that keeps the city rolling. It brings jobs it brings economic development and it brings a sense of freedom. It is time to start making the changes and start paying our drivers what they deserve. Let's focus on the future. DDOT Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Rochelle Stewart.
Speaker 27
Today at the new car consequent director OLS we My name is Ursula Stuart from Detroit people's platform transit justice team. I'm asking the council to increase the DB budget for raises for the DDOT employees. Funding for paratransit in house service. Funding for the low income fare program that will expand transit discounts for returning citizens low income families and individuals, homeless persons and veterans. At increased frequency for neighborhood routes. An increase of $120 million will support these badly needed programs. I ask Council to take these recommendations in its consideration. We as called the Motor City should be a city transportation system that other cities look to duplicate. So let's get deedat to be a well to transit system, as we know it should be a thank you and you all have a blessed day and Please increase this budget is badly needed.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you our next caller Steven hollering and I'd be
Unknown Speaker
heard Yes, you can.
Speaker 28
Okay. I was disappointed to find out the budget was 74 million I was expecting at least a bare minimum of 80 million I would say more but as I said before the current driver pay it's just beyond the sweet spot it makes no sense that bus drivers are making the same as fast food workers and lifeguards. They should at least have a starting wage of 25 per hour in my opinion, and it is not an ask to increase the budget. It's a demand. I also want to say I do not support the low income pair program. I mean $10 million is a lot of money that could be used for a lot more and in my opinion, it might be actually a good idea to explore a veterans care program or their program for Section Eight. But you know the current one it just seems like a typical Detroit people's platform proposal.
Unknown Speaker
Right Thank you
Unknown Speaker
our next caller is Patty fedewa.
Speaker 29
Hi, my name is Patty Fetullah. I'm a longtime transit advocate. And I just want to thank you for listening today and I've seen this year in year out the budget season it sounds like the that's going to take care of everything and all the problems are going to be solved but you know ever since the mayor has been in office, we keep having the same problem. We don't have enough drivers to get worse during COVID And here we are. We were supposed to things were supposed to turn around this last budget season you know July 1 things are supposed to get gather the previous January. It just keeps getting kicked down the road and we're having the same situation again. Here we are, you know a year later, we're still paying people half of what is being paid to our bus drivers where they can actually hire bus drivers. We need to have some parts of the budget process where we actually enforce what's being said and promised to us. I don't know if that's weekly meetings with council and DDOT. I don't know if it's certain earmarks that are put into the budget. But it's the mayor just keeps kicking the can down the road and I'm very concerned about the lack of enforcement.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Casey N.
Unknown Speaker
May I be heard?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, ma'am. You can.
Speaker 30
Thank you. This is Casey masseter over I'm McCormick in District Four. I'm also the policy analyst at Detroit disability power. And today I'm here to voice support as many others are for a budget increase of $80 million dollars up to $80 million for DDOT. This increase would be for a few different things as some have mentioned for operator pay increase is we're sure about 100 drivers still and second. I know you're all aware of the second RFP process that's going on with you right now for paratransit contractors. And it's been clear throughout this whole process that you know, huge problems can come up when contracting out all of the city paratransit services. So we're interested in the city conducting a study to analyze the potential of bringing paratransit operations completely in house to kind of see what a potential timeline budget and process would look like. Again, thank you and I support that $80 million for DDOT.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Betty a Varner.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon.
Speaker 31
This is Betty a buyer now. I'm here to support a increase in salary for drivers. I'm hoping that the negotiation will make this salary compatible to other bus services also, I support they should be receiving an increase in their other benefits. I'm hoping that part of the negotiations will be that they there be some type of safety plan for the drivers and for the people who ride the bus. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
All right. Thank you
Unknown Speaker
our next caller is Alyssa Bo's.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon. Can
Unknown Speaker
you hear me? Yes, we can.
Speaker 32
Hello, my name is Alyssa and I'm here with Detroit disability power. 10s of 1000s of Detroiters rely on bus services. The City of Detroit is running less service as a percentage of pre pandemic levels than any city of its size in the United States. There's also a shortage of operators in Detroit. In part because of the wages starting at less than 15 An hour or some of the lowest of any transit agency in the country. Detroit must increase DTO T funding to a minimum of $80 million from the city's general fund. This increase is critical to addressing the shortage of bus drivers who must be paid a living wage, and it will increase the city's ability to service more bus routes. We are also requesting a study of in house paratransit that must result in transparency as to what a realistic timeline budget and possible processes for transitioning all paratransit operations to the city would look like. paratransit operators must be informed with training by disabled residents and how does best serve disabled Detroiters?
Unknown Speaker
Hey, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Marguerite Maddox and Scarlett
Unknown Speaker
yes do I want to see more.
Speaker 33
Drivers Yes. And our DC feeding the pre birth combat I would would like to be a hair
Speaker 33
the schmuck will vote the server began. Ah I have to do to get the
Unknown Speaker
lumbers get low and I love he married the drivers was the time Thank you. I'm done.
Unknown Speaker
All right. Thank you Miss Maddox.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Carol Hughes.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon Miss Hewes.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon. May I be heard?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 34
Thank you to the chair and the council. You've heard a lot from the citizens about what we need and we need the bus drivers to get a nice bump and pay. I would venture to say that they're some of the most important employees of the city because they carry around the most important cargo that they can carry. Around and that's the citizens. I also believe that we need to look into the concerns about the cleanliness of the buses. I hear a lot about opera money. I hear a lot about opera funding going for parks and we need to spend the extra money where we need the opera money you have $230 million in surplus, we need to fund the library. We need to fund buses with the clean buses. So regardless of what the marijuana is, the buck stops with you because you hold our purse strings. And so we have spoken to you as a community and we have revealed to you what we want from this budget. Please add here. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Great, thank you
Unknown Speaker
our next caller is William and Davis.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon, Mr. Davis.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon. Have you heard?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, you can.
Speaker 35
Okay, I'd like to start off by saying in the 1990s I was working in the ones from the wastewater treatment plant. I was making over $20 an hour I was a very strong active union negotiator. But you know, the main question I have is the T O's if any of them are retired and you come back to work we were they were the city penalize them by their pension or can they come back to work without being penalized? Cuz I know some city retirees have gone back to work, you know, working for the city in different capacities, and I've been screwed over. And you know, far too often this city council, especially this mayor, who I think was a white racist who only cares about rich white people, you know, tend to screw over retirees. So I want you to ask them a question. If a say the retiree to come back to work, whether it be able to not have their pension cut, or any few benefits they do have. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Right Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Claire Noack Boyd.
Speaker 11
Hi, I'm Oh, can I be heard?
Unknown Speaker
Yes, you can.
Speaker 11
Awesome. Okay. Hi. My name is Claire Novak Boyd. I'm with true I'm a resident of Hamtramck, which is also served by DDOT. And yeah, just joining the many voices here saying that I would like to see more money for DDOT. A minimum of 80 million. Yeah, in Ann Arbor. As Lucas noted earlier in Ann Arbor, the starting wage is I think, something like $27 an hour for drivers. And they just don't have these issues running service with reliability that we have DDOT deserves that the drivers deserve that. My neighborhood where the bus is scheduled to run once an hour and can't always pull that off. We deserve it. The city deserves better pay for DDOT drivers and I encourage you to budget for it. Thank you
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is black Moses.
Speaker 36
President Mary Sheffield, I just had a conversation with Brian wait. Me and you probably need to have a discussion or you need to talk to Brian White. Because I did a deep dive this morning. I wanted to know what was going on. With the closed session. They told me they couldn't tell me legally what was going on. So then I had a question when I did notice it's going to be published because you were supposed to be talking about the bonds and liberating discussing about the bass. So I asked normally the notice is going to be published. So they gave me a roundabout answer. So I did some digging it falls squarely on your shoulder. The reason why there has never been any notice sent down to the clerk's office is because you have not held any votes on whether or not it should be published or go to the ballot. This falls squarely on your head you are the one responsible for my constitutional rights being violated. Because you ain't held the vote and the council members ain't got enough sense to ask you why are we not voting on it? So now I want to know going forward. When are the notice gonna be published? And when is it gonna be?
President Sheffield
Thank you so much, Mr. Crowley, and just for the record, we have follow our proper notification requirements to date. So just to clear that up for the record. Thank you. Our next caller please.
Unknown Speaker
Our next caller is Siri Simpson.
Unknown Speaker
Hello, am I being heard?
President Sheffield
Yes, you are Miss Siri. Good afternoon.
Speaker 10
Good afternoon, Madam President. I'm not to go back in history on you guys. But you know, the reason that you gain my vote initially was because you were the only candidate at that time that actually went to Rosa Parks and talked with bus riders. I've been in the movement to improve transit for a long, long time and I would like to refresh the council and the.on the Michigan Public act 135 of 2010, which is complete streets legislation, which is supposed to provide appropriate access to all legal users in a manner that promotes safe and efficient movement of people and goods whether by car, truck, transit, assistive device, foot or bicycle.
Unknown Speaker
This
President Sheffield
All right, thank you Miss Siri and please just reach out to our office so we can get the rest of your comments to make sure that they are addressed as well.
Speaker 23
Madam President, the last caller whose hand was raised before public comment was cut off is phone number ending in 711.
Unknown Speaker
Okay
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon, Lynne Shelton if you really this is for council. If you really believe that the city administration has fulfilled all its obligations pertaining to the notices
Speaker 37
or bonds then why don't you allow myself and Ramon Jackson either one or both of us together to address the council and the residents uninterrupted? For 15 minutes I've been trying to go to Mr. Draw Hall as well as the counselor. I keep getting spun around like a Frisbee. I put in the former request. Now the City Clerk's Office is telling me they have no record of it. They don't know where it's at. I need to come down and put another one in. If you truly believe that President Ray Sheffield. Let us come forward. You can bring John aglet the law department, comrade Malik or whoever else you want to bring. You can't bring LPD division because you don't want them all parts of it because they know what's going on.
President Sheffield
Okay, all right. Thank you so much. Mr. Shelton. That will conclude our public comment. Right. Okay. Director, did you want to address anything? I know it was a lot. I think the main thing was I think regarding smart picking up on main lines, bus lines.
Speaker 12
Yeah, I don't have control this smart system, but I can reach out to them on those concerns. I did also hear something about a question of whether it retirees came back with it be penalized? The answer to that is what we're looking at the answer that would be no there are various ways to be able to hire other hire them back on or another position which HR would be able to do so they would not be penalized? Like you said there was a lot. We addressed a lot of it though, already. So I feel free to send me any list of questions and I'll respond.
President Sheffield
Okay, looking forward to it. And we did add this to executive session to continue to get questions responded to and to have further deliberations around some of the issues raised so we appreciate you guys being here. Thank you so much for your time and that will conclude our hearing for DDOT. Thank you so much. And we are hour behind it. So we're gonna go into our next hearing for BCA and colleagues. If there's no objection if we can limit to one question per council member and again if there's additional questions we could put them in writing and also discuss further at Executive Session.
Unknown Speaker
Are you doing very good?
President Sheffield
All right, Director O'Brien whenever you are ready to proceed his doors
Speaker 38
pretty soon to discuss Thank you. I should know that I do this every week. The borders Arnie budget began with some remarks. In Michigan. The open meetings law is designed to ensure fair and transparent access to public decision making. These were primarily adapted or updated between the 19 and 1970s as such, they generally were written to promote engagement in a world where computers didn't exist. Current papers were the chief method of conveying information and remote interaction wasn't possible beyond a telephone call. But this reason, our law is completely silent on the use of technology for public hearings. These laws generally require adequate public notice of a meeting and require the ability for public to participate. We are allowed to use email and the extent to which email interactions constitute a meeting. These more modern laws are actually make modern technological public meetings more difficult because these laws place limitations on two or three way communication by email Michigan is silent on technology and allowing local governments significantly weigh in ability to conduct hides. We can interpret our codes to require in person meetings and still have the necessary tools to conduct our meetings. The implication for local officials is the open meetings law set a baseline of public engagement but do not limit additional engagement above the baseline. There is no state in the country that prohibits local governments from adding methods of public participation beyond those that are expressly expressly required. Specifically, even those states that require members of the body to be in person and require the ability for the public to be in person. Council members I've been working with Senator wall no and Lansing to update and amend the current Open Meetings Act to allow for specifically to allow for public bodies, city council permissions and boards to be able to use the technology and not require board members to be an person in attendance the technology is of such that we show during the pandemic that we can do it. It increased community participation. So I'm asking that as the Michigan Senate continues to look at this, that we the city council and our boards and commissions support any legislation that would allow this to exist. Secondly, after a view after a review of the workflow, time spent reviewing and preparing cases and visiting sites as well as hours spent hearing cases, we propose that an increase of the compensation for BCA board members the average case intake has been 10 to 12 cases per month. In addition to advanced preparation for hearings on the day of the hearings, the average time commitment for BCA members is six to eight hours. Board members weigh the complexity of the ordinances that issue new laws that impact development and citizen concerns regarding development and neighborhoods. Detroit's development activity is brisk, and I'd venture to say this upward trend will continue and anticipation of increasing compensation for board members. I have worked with the budget department to ensure that funds are available. We are requesting an increase in the compensation for board members in $250 per diem to 350 to $300 per diem. There are currently seven members on the board. The current total compensation costs is 17 $1,750 per meeting, the requested total would equal $2,100 per meeting. We are currently scheduling approximately three meetings each month. The authority for board member compensation stems from the state statute specifically the Michigan zoning Enabling Act, the Detroit city charter and the zoning ordinance. I have attached a resolution for your review and listen. And lastly, board members of the board members have raised concerns regarding their safety after a hearing once they leave the building and when someone finds their contact information through social media and began to contact board members. I've been monitoring your conversations around City Council safety and we request that any conversation include that type of protection for board members also. With that, council members, I thank you for this opportunity to speak with you today. And I am here to answer any questions that you may have.
President Sheffield
Thank you. And for the sake of time I have questions I'll submit in writing. Just one quick question regarding the resolution. In their request for the increase per diem. If we were to support this, is this already currently in the budget looking to add an increase to support the per diem? How would
Speaker 7
the chair that is an additional cost that is not in the budget?
President Sheffield
Okay. So that would have been additional reoccurring costs is 2100 per meeting for the remaining of the fiscal year. Basically,
Speaker 7
you're 20 250 is in the budget $300 with a $50 difference is not in
Unknown Speaker
the budget. Okay? Okay. So that's what the request
Speaker 38
right so we are currently 250 We want to increase it $50 to $300.
President Sheffield
Alright, so I just want to add that portion to the budget if they're done to the budget excuse me to the executive session if there's no if we're gonna have a motion to do so motion. All right, Hearing no objections we were at the increase for compensation for border review, excuse me board members for the BCA two executive session. And I will submit the rest of my questions in writing member Waterson.
Speaker 9
Thank you and Madam President. Along that line. I want to add the two additional members to Executive Session okay. Is that including your motion? Okay. Yes. The two at large members to executive session as well. You know, I thought we had cleared this up last year. But But I'm pleased to see the memo that came through from from LPD that that supports what we want to do so. Motion.
President Sheffield
Motion to add the two at large members to executive session before BCA Yes, very No objections that motion is a full
Speaker 9
Alright, that's all I have. I'll leave it. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you remember again.
Speaker 2
Thank you, Madam President. Good to see you. But all the pleasure. I just want to ask you really quickly. Zone Detroit's. I've seen that we've actually gone through the analytic or the recommendations report. How far are you in terms of implementing those recommendations and how much will that cost you because I heard it's like, what you're doing what you need to do to complete it is more expensive than the money you actually had.
Speaker 38
But found Detroit is not AutoZone.
Speaker 13
That's the City Planning Commission. went next door All right. Thank you member, Council Member Johnson. Thanks for president and good afternoon director Ray Brown. So I am actually concerned about the safety that you uplifted. I remember when serving on the board of zoning appeals there were a few incidents that I can recall where someone threatened a petitioner and then the board members were a little concerned about you know, leaving out of the auditorium. Immediately after the hearings were over until I remember we would sit and wait and give time for individual leave. Have you entertained or even considered asking for GPU on the days that you meet
Speaker 38
up? Thank you. Member Johnson. We have just started discussing this. When I heard the discussion amongst you all recently. We had a recent hearing where a board member was contacted and I was trying to find out how they were contacted and it was through social media. The issue is after they leave the building in the building were protected. If you get in the building, then nine times out of 10 it's not an issue. It's once they leave the building. We do encourage them to leave out of a certain door. But that doesn't mean that it might not be anybody out there waiting for them so that I believe that. That discussion, as long as it's open we can all come up with something that hopefully will allow us to be able to do these these functions without threat from being threatened.
Speaker 13
Thank you for that. So I do remember so we all I believe parked in the same location where current board members Park and that was a concern like getting over to your car not knowing who might be there. In so I would love to you know, maybe work with you as it relates to that just acknowledging the concern the safety issue. But I also would like to add that specific discussion into executive session. So Madam President, I'd like to make a motion to add BCAAs safety in general. So we'll just talk about it during Executive Session.
President Sheffield
She was just referencing maybe just adding a whole budget. She heard you. But if you want to add this specifically so we can remember that. Yep. So member Johnson motion is to add the safety and security of BCA members to Executive Session, Hearing no objections that will be added. Thank you. All right.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Madam President.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, member Benson.
Speaker 15
Thank you, and thanks for all the work that you all do. On the BCA you all are very our working group of individuals and I appreciate that require an increase of $50 just for me. How long has stipend been $200 And where did the number of 50 come from?
Speaker 38
2016 was the last increase and we went from 199 to 250. Now no math to it. It's just the board members asked me to consider it and I said yes I would. I can say that we along with only one other board gets compensated so we have the standard.
Speaker 15
So in the number 15 What do you decided to use it that was the act that
Speaker 38
was basically this well, basically the same increase I did last year. They they appreciate I mean, I'm sorry the last time it was 50. Well was a bit went from 199 to 250. So about $50 I wanted to stay within budget I didn't want it to be a ridiculous ask but I will say that I'm the the board members pay for their own parking, you know, so this $300 stipend covers their ability to do this job and park and come down here and do what they need to do. So a I have compared to other cities of our size and we are in the top range of cities that meet a lot of borders. zonings only have meetings once or twice a year whereas we meet several times a month.
Speaker 15
Okay, and then how's the training gonna rub busy members are they getting requisite training and staying up to
Speaker 38
date with training three times a year. We bring in in national, the Michigan Nonprofit Association or Michigan State University and then we do in house training with the departments that helps us to stay on point with the ordinance
Speaker 15
or any American Planning Institute trainings, all of all
Speaker 38
of those American Planning Institute Michigan Nonprofit
Speaker 15
conferences. Are you seeing them any of them after the conferences
Speaker 38
we have set aside for conferences I'm asking the board members to I've given them options to choose do not cover them. I look at the APA for this year. A couple of them I have looked at some opportunities at Michigan State University but there is money in the budget for them to have that type of training. In addition to the overall training that we do put the board Okay, thank you.
Speaker 15
I appreciate the ask for the stipend increase and I would actually be supportive of a higher increase. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Thank you member Benson. Did you know you said you wanted to add something ambition, or you
Unknown Speaker
just had a quick question at a meeting space do you have what you need? Yes, we
Unknown Speaker
do. Okay, good. Finally.
Speaker 38
All right. Well, the auditorium was working out. We got a schedule where we're not. We're on Mondays and you don't have any meetings on Monday and we're usually out of the backlog. So that has worked out very well. The sound system is working well. But us it's it's very good. And we appreciate that. Great.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, man. President.
President Sheffield
Thank you member draw.
Speaker 4
Thank you, Madam President. I don't really have any other questions, but I'm just trying to remember I think prior to the bankruptcy BCA members made about $450 I thought that was the stipend I could be incorrect.
Speaker 38
But before the $199 That was something like $89 it has never been more than the $250 Okay, so that that could have been some other board but not to blame.
Speaker 4
And if I'm if I'm looking at correct, you're asking for $50 We're talking to seven members. Right? So as Mash $4,200 in additional 4200 That's 47 times seven Yep, seven and then if we were to add nine obviously they increase the piece a little bit more few 1000. Okay. All right. Just wanted to clarify that. Thank you, Madam President.
Unknown Speaker
All right, thank you. Yep. Member Lago Amuro with and I'll come back to you. Thank you, Madam
Speaker 5
President. Good afternoon. For my question. Looking at the applications appeal forms online. I only saw the forms in English. Are they in Spanish and Arabic somewhere? Am I missing that?
Speaker 38
I'm not there. We I'm working with Rose love and her team to actually do several other things in terms of making the website more user friendly. We want to have a computer downstairs in the office where people can come in. We want people to be able to log in from their computers at home. A lot of this stuff is in my head. But yes, we are working on that. I've been made aware that I just need to ask, you know if we want somebody to do interpretation at our meeting, so a lot of these things we are putting into place.
Speaker 5
Thank you. Through you, madam president. Good to hear. One ensure that we have language access across the board. And I'm not sure what your process is. For Hearings and Appeals. But just asking, you know, would you need language services beforehand, that way you're better prepared and you can reach out to Creo for the services I think will be will work really well.
Speaker 38
Yeah, thank you for that. I will definitely remember that. But that reminds me of a case that we had just this past week where there was an issue. And usually what I do is I call them up and walk them through the system myself and that and the reason I do that, a lot of times when people get to the BGA that's the last stop and they're frustrated, you know, and they appreciate that handholding. But Korea would help me because I only speak English. And usually what they what we have is have someone on the phone with them. That can help I'm going to definitely look into Creo that would help us to do a better job at servicing.
Unknown Speaker
Agree. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
President Sheffield
Thank you, Council Member member young past. All right. All right. That is all of our questions. We appreciate you Director. We did add a couple of things to Executive Session. So we'll be in touch with you.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, thank you very much. Yeah,
President Sheffield
that will conclude our hearing for today. But I'm President Can I just add the entire okay, too busy. to Executive Session, please. There's a motion to add the entire budget of the BCA to Executive Session. Hearing no objection is that action will be taken. That takes us to the end of our day for budget hearings. We've already concluded our public comment for today. And so we will stand in recess. Our budget will resume budget hearings will resume tomorrow at 10am. If there's nothing else to come before us, this meeting
Unknown Speaker
is man, your journey.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, thank you. I thank you so much. You have a good evening, Dr. Powers. Thank you, ma'am. You also okay. Thank you. The meeting will stand adjourned.