all right. Good morning, everyone. We will now call to order our formal session for Tuesday, October the eighth. And Madam Clerk, please call the roll
councilmember Scott Vincent, Scott Benson, I councilman, Fred Doha the third present council member Letitia Johnson, present council member Gabriel Santiago Romero, Council member Mary Walters, Council Member, Angela Whitfield Hadaway, present. Councilman Nicole the second. Council President, pro Tim James Tate and Council President Mary Sheffield present. You have a quorum. President, Madam. President, all
right, there being a quorum. We are in session, and we will start off with our invocation. And we have joining us, Kimani who will Kimani Jeffries, who will do our invocation for this morning. Good morning.
Morning, Madam President, council members, good
morning. Thank you so much for being in this morning. Go right ahead.
Thank you, Father God, we
just thank you for this morning. We thank you that this is the day that you've made. And so we have something to rejoice about. We have something to be glad about. We know that if you created this day, you put us in this day, it's a brand new day that we have not seen before. And so since you put us in this day, we know that we have purpose. Every single person under the sound of my voice has purpose. The City of Detroit has purpose in this nation, in this world. And so Lord, we just thank you for our elected officials. We thank you for everybody, even in the audience that you have given us inspiration, Lord, you've given us gifts, and you've given us that purpose to go forth into this world and to do Your will. So as we go into this meeting, we just ask that your presence be here where the presence of the Lord is, there is liberty. And so we just thank You that You've come and you allowed us to have all of these gifts, to have this purpose, to make a difference in this world. And Lord, we just ask that the city of Detroit, Lord, will be a place where your presence is, and where your presence is, there's fullness of joy, and at your right hands, there's pleasures forevermore, Lord, so let Detroit just be a place where people will look upon and say, heaven is truly in the city of Detroit. Let us continue to prosper. Let us continue to go forward and do good works, and we thank you for all of these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. Thank you so much, Kamani, for that beautiful prayer. Thank you so much, sir. Thanks for the opportunity. Alright, thank you. Alright. We have a special presentation. We have the privilege of recognizing the Umoja Debate League who are with us. Let's give them a round of applause. So excited to have you all here, and if we can bring down Mr. Mr. Juwan Howard to come down to represent the team. If you all have not had the opportunity to see the emoji debate team in action, you are truly missing out to see the talent and the gifts that our young people have, and to see you all take the time to cultivate that talent and give them the skills that they need to become leaders of today and tomorrow. So we appreciate you. We want to celebrate you and honor you. You've only been doing this for three years, but your organization has grown tremendously and are doing amazing things with our young people here in Detroit. So I'll read briefly a little bit about the Umoja Debate League. It was founded in 2021 you were 23 years old at the time. Juwan Howard he this is a nonprofit organization that uses debate as a vehicle to teach Detroit youth ages 11 to 18, transferable life skills such as critical thinking, confidence, conflict resolution, increased literacy and self expression. They provide youth with the opportunities to articulate their thoughts and ideas to an audience and develop interpersonal skills within a team environment and become transformational leaders through debate, students are able to discover themselves and grow into phenomenal public speakers and that they truly are. I have the opportunity to see them, and those kids are dynamic. Umoja has three programs. They have a summer debate camp in partnership with the University of Detroit, Mercy School of Law. They have a community engagement at Umoja village and then a after school debate program. The after school debate program is for middle and high school students, and currently has 27 schools in Metro Detroit that compete against each other. This year, the Umoja debate team had the privilege of traveling to Ghana. Let's give them a round of applause for that. That's huge. And the two teams were from Bates Academy in Henry Ford High School. They went to a 10 day cultural immersion trip and had the opportunity to debate out in Ghana. Umoja village is also has an outdoor community space that was built for and by the community in 2022 emoji debate, Lee purchased three blighted lots and built what is now the Umoja village that features a community garden, a a free little library in a stage for the community to hold meetings and children to debate. A moja Debate League strives to create a pipeline for Detroit's next generation of lawyers, of leaders and community change makers. So Juan Howard into the entire team, the city council wants to commend you. We see you the work that you guys are doing for our young people in Detroit, empowering them to be the best version of themselves, and for you to be so young and taking on this responsibility really represents and embodies what the Spirit of Detroit is all about. So congratulations. We appreciate you. We honor you. And on behalf of the Detroit city council, the council president's office and the entire Detroit City Council, present to you in recognition of exceptional achievement, outstanding leadership and dedication to improving the quality of life, a Spirit of Detroit award and and we would love to hear from you, Mr. Howard, just press the mic up.
First, I want to say thank you to Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield and the entire city council for this honor. Detroit is something, a place that is near and dear to my heart, on the west side, in particular of Detroit, but the entire Detroit is very near and dear to my heart, and that's why I started this organization three years ago. What started off as a simple idea in my notebook has turned to something that is powerful and hopefully an asset for our entire community. When I chose the name Umoja, Umoja means unity and Swahili, I want to be very, very intentional about choosing the name that was reflected with what I felt our communities needed at the time, and that leads me into what I'm most proud of, of Umoja, which is our team, the staff, volunteers, the partnerships that we have with principals, school districts, community organizations, elected officials, have all helped us sustain and grow this program beyond my wildest dreams. And a special shout out to my executive staff, who are all under the age of 27 Wow. This includes Jada Morgan, Brandon, Harrison Taylor, James Leah Webb, Ariana Hemphill and Ashley Reed. Again, yes, please.
Downstairs, beautiful.
I want our team to continue to be an example of what it means to retain young talent in this city. Um, it's very, very, very important for young people to see other young people striving to make change in the city, and I hope we continue to serve as an example of that. So thank you to the entire team.
And speaking of Detroit and just collaborative spirit that we have where we moja sometimes lacked resources, we've always been strong in partnerships. There's never been a time where we have not been able to do a program or an event due to the resource and partnerships that we've been able to cultivate here in this city, and that speaks to this city's elective effort to want to be better and continue to strive to build a better Detroit. So thank you Detroit for that. And our motto here at umoge is that people that are closest to the problem, oftentimes closest to the solution as well. And through that, we have a culturally relevant and community relevant curriculum that we run. And what this means is that our kids from sixth grade to 12 debate City Council ordinances. That means that they have speeches they have to give on zip code improvements of their areas, not what we tell them or what they tell us that they want to see happen. And so with that, we understand the importance of creating a pipeline for civic engagement, community engagement, advocacy and critical thinking. And I truly believe we are creating a pipeline for the next generation of lawyers, leaders and change makers. And to be honored by this great city is no small feat. We do not take it lightly, and so we thank you. We know Detroit has a lot of brilliant youth. Detroit has brilliant youth. There's no if ands or buts about that, and we're happy to serve as a platform for them to showcase that brilliance. So again, on behalf of myself, our entire board of trustees, the parents, the youth, the entire Umoja village community, we say, thank you again.
Hey, thank you. Thank you. All right, before you leave, we're gonna do pictures as well. Um council member Callaway, good morning,
Mister Howard, and thank you for being a son of district two. It is my honor and privilege to be your Councilwoman. Thank you for spreading your footprint across district two. Thank you for inviting me to a couple of my first events when I took office, we cleaned up Puritan and I helped to paint that little library. So thank you so much for all that you're doing. Thank you for still residing in district two, coming back when you couldn't have lived anywhere you chose to come back to district two. I appreciate all that you and your team are doing. You are an incredible young man, and in 2022 when I first took office, I did establish the youth and Civic Engagement Task Force, just based on my interactions with you. And it is official that is an official task force here with the city of Detroit. So continue to do what you're doing and continue to live and spread your footprint across district two and this entire city. Thank you, Mr. Howard, thank you.
Thank you. Member Callaway, Council
Member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President, and good morning. Thank you so much for your commitment, your dedication to giving back to the community. All of you. It's extremely important to uplift the voices of our young people, and so I'm glad you've stepped into that role, and you're leading to do that work. I also want to say, even though you're on the west side, I want to say a special thank you for not only inspiring and encouraging the young people that are involved with your organization, but also helping to inspire a former team member of mine, Carlina Toomes, who also started a nonprofit organization. Although she lives on the west side, she spread her wings throughout the entire city of Detroit, and I know she looks to you for your leadership in everything that you are doing with your organization, to emulate that. So we feel you on the east side as well. So we appreciate you and just continue doing the great work. I think it is exceptional to have you leading this organization and taking it upon yourself at such a young age to do so. So continue the great work. Continue to just be a beacon of light for the city of Detroit and uplifting your voice and the voices of young people throughout this entire city. Look forward to continuing to see your growth throughout the city and connecting us with the young people that you are engaged with. So greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank
you so much. Thank you.
Thank you. And we do have some of the students that are here who are part of the league, if you all want to stand and be recognized, and I'm sure you all represent various students, beautiful, so nice. And I think when I came today, they were actually debating the animal health industry upstream ordinance as well as reparations. When I came and to see these young kids in action, I'm telling you, it is phenomenal. I think everyone should take the opportunity to go out and watch them. To me, it's really about the exposure that they have at such a young age. If I was in high school and had that ability to start debating and formal, you know, formulating opinions and just practicing taking a stand, and the confidence that you gain is just so invaluable. So thank you for doing that is so important. And for you, as I say, for you to be so young, you're under 32 and you're pouring back into our young people is phenomenal. So you represent the Spirit of Detroit. You all do. We honor you all. We thank you for the great work that you're doing. And congratulations. Thank you so much, colleagues. We will all go down and be a photo, a group photo, yes. Okay. And
also wanted to mention Raymond Simpson on my team as a board member, he talks about it all the time. Yes,
gotta take your
time. Yeah, it's got to Kayla, this is the wrong you're slipping up, bro, slipping up, man. There.
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don't You ready, Yeah.
Oh, all
right. I Alright. Again, we want to congratulate mister Howard and his entire team for being here. Thank you for all the work that you all do. Let's give them another round of applause. We'll hold your debate team, and we will proceed now with our agenda for this morning, the Journal of the session of Tuesday, September the 24th will be approved. There being no reconsiderations or unfinished business. We will proceed to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the budget Finance and Audit standing committee
two reports from various aid departments.
The two reports will be referred to the budget, Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations. Standing Committee,
three reports from the law department.
The three reports will be referred to the internal operations, standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services.
Standing Committee seven reports from various C departments. These seven
reports will be referred to the neighborhood and community services. Standing Committee for the Planning and Economic Development, standing committee
five reports from various E departments. These five reports
will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development, standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee, 20 reports
from various city departments.
The 20 reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee. We will now move to the voting action matters under other matters, there are no items, Madam President, under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies,
there are no items. Madam President, alright, we
were going to call now for general public comment. Everyone will have a minute and a half for public comment this morning, and we will start with those who have joined us in person. Miss. Betty Lyons, you will be first.
I'm again asking for this 600 Oh, how many seconds do we have?
A minute a minute
you have a minute and a half 90.
Alright, okay, this 600 over $600 million overpaid property tax belongs to Detroit residents with penalties and interest added, which is only just mister Whitaker. I'm still waiting for the proof of notification of this thievery by satanic Dugan and Dana Nessel. This country so evil and perverted, breeding dogs and cats to the point of overpopulation and killing unborn babies decreasing human population having more feelings for animals than a unborn child that is sick and Miss Romero, you are the same mole spirit as Margaret Sanger in destroying these beautiful children. I was given that picture last week of an aborted baby. That is, I can't say how it had me feel. I've never seen a picture like that. And for you to support that is unconscionable violence the American slave owner on record, the most heinous in history. And the treatment of the human Hitler did nothing compared to what the American slave went through. And this is something we keep talking about, the so called Jew and we white watch what was done to the black slave. All
right. Thank you so much. Miss Lyons, and we will move now to miss Tanya. G
Good morning, city council. I have some questions. My first question is, why is land bank allowed to draw up legal proceedings to have or force residents from their private property. My next question is, why are land bank able to request expedited, quiet title for foreclosure on private property? Why are the land bank
issues
when they put a notice in for the public, why is it in Detroit legal news? Why is it not in Detroit newspaper, Detroit Free Press or Michigan Chronicle, Detroit legal news is a private newspaper. So if you're giving residents only six months, and they are reading the news. Nobody has Detroit legal news. It costs to have Detroit legal news, so that's an unfair practice. That's unethical, right there to redeem the property. I have another question given from one of my sisters. You guys just we have a new policy in place, and I'm assuming it's from land bank. I don't think it's from City Council. This new policy address that you all are allowing businesses to purchase lots and private property. Now, how does that affect us, if the businesses are buying these properties, and for how long? What does this say for the city of Detroit and the residents? We need to know that.
All right, thank you so much. Miss Tanya G I appreciate you coming down with your questions. If you don't mind, we will get your information and make sure we get all of your questions addressed and then also connect you with your council person. I'm not sure what district you reside in, it Okay, so we will connect you with Councilman Benson's office and make sure that your questions were addressed. But thank you for coming down.
Good morning, Madam President. Jay Gregory, love J Gregory love on behalf of district five Community Advisory Council and the i 375 coalition, the i 375 reconnecting Communities project is one of the most controversial in the last 50 years. The reality is that this project disconnects the Lower East Side by severing the main artery to the heart of the medical center. The Jefferson Avenue artery is a direct lifeline and direct route that minimizes response time. M dots plan will exhume the spirit of my family's hopes and dreams that were buried under i 375, historic Paradise Valley and black bottom were lost in time. MDOT is experienced at building roads, not cities. The i 375, coalition advocates that each of you utilize your voices to ask the city's planning department to see the framework for this project, hold their feet to the fire as this ill conceived project will have devastating consequences, cost lives and add response time to the medical center raising i 375. Will not reconnect communities. It will sever the artery of life. Jefferson Avenue, which leads to the heart of the DMC ingress and egress from the southeast corner of the business district, will be cut off. Undoubtedly. It will cause dust, noise, detours for years during construction shut down businesses. Restorative justice will not be achieved by exhuming the best history.
Thank you.
Thank you so much. J Gregory, love Melanie Markowitz, good
morning, honorable council members and staff, thank you for having me here for public comment. My name is Melanie Markowitz. I'm a Detroiter in district five. I'm also executive director of Greektown neighborhood partnership and a member of the rethink i 375 coalition. I stand before you today to implore each and every council member and staff to get involved in the planning of this project. We need your representation and your input and your guidance and your leadership as this process moves forward, this is a generational project which is going to impact Detroiters for generations. We're going to be living with this infrastructure for the next 50 plus years. So it's really important that we get it right at present. There is no plan for construction mitigation for the historic communities impacted, Greektown, Eastern Market, Lafayette Park and others, it has the potential to put large communities out of business, deeply impacting the tax revenue for the city of Detroit and for Detroiters across the entire city. Aside from no plan for construction mitigation, they're planning a road without knowing what kind of activities we want in this place. As an urban planner, generally, you want to plan about what kind of activities we have, what kind of development we want to see, and then we plan for the infrastructure to support that vision. Right now it's being designed without that vision in place. So we'd really like delay so the city of Detroit can complete their framework plan, land use plans, zoning plans, so we know what the is moving forward. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much. President Pro Temp Tate, thank
you. And MS Markus, just want to make sure that everyone's aware that the mayor will be having a charter mandated meeting this evening, eight on Tuesday, September 8. That's again this evening, 7pm until 8:30pm so it's one thing to tell us. We also want you to make sure that you voice all of your concern with the mayor and this administration as well, because we are all working on this together and responsible for taking care of this issue collectively, together again, that is tonight, from seven to 8:30pm it is in person. It is in district five, a Zion hope, Missionary Baptist Church that is located at 4867, Van Dyke, again, that is tonight, 7pm until 8:30pm hopefully we'll hear you and see you there as well tonight. Zion, hope, missionary, Baptist Church, 4867, Van Dyke,
thank you pro tem, you took my memory report.
Ah,
we still there. Yeah. No, no, no. Thank you. Thank you pro tem, okay, we will continue now with mister Troy Guinea followed by we're going to cut off our public comment as well. Followed by Julie Simma,
good morning, Troy gunyard from Troy stone and a proud resident of city, Detroit. I am here on behalf of line items, 1018, 1912, and 20 point 12. I would like to, I would like council president and honorable body to to know that we support efforts to address the predatory touring practices that don't involve police authorized tours when, when a non police authorized tour shows up to an accident scene and persuade a vehicle owner to allow them to tow their vehicle way, this causes the citizens to be overcharged, and at the same time, our company called get canceled that we're actually responding to all police authorized tours, follow the rates that are approved by this body, and we'll continue to do that. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this body today.
Thank you.
Thank you. Miss Julie Sema, followed by Ronald Foster, good
morning our body. My name is Julie Simon from 70s towing. I just would like to say thank you for all the efforts that you guys have been doing in regards to the towing. We also would like to discuss Furthermore, as far as the towing rate commission and what we can do to help one another out. As far as moving forward and simplifying the process for both parties, we're asking that the rate increase does get approved sooner than later, because we've been working diligently without an increase. And the other thing I'd like to discuss is having our rates approved for the dollar amounts that are being issued for our POS myself, as well as other toll companies that are currently working for the city of Detroit have not been getting paid. So if we could get those approved, we greatly appreciate that. Thank you very much. Have a blessed day.
Thank you. You as well.
Ronald Foster,
good morning through the President. First thing I wanted to just highlight and say, I am grateful that city council making some efforts to go to the neighboring cities and to preserve this democracy that we have here. Secondly, I seen Scott Benson, Council Member Benson and his efforts in Hamtramck. Think that is admirable for him to go over and speak with those council members as well. I think Mr. Der Hall done a great job in district seven. I see he made an announcement there, and just want to say he done a really good job in district seven, and what he's brought here. On my way in this morning, I noticed protests outside. Protest represents the people, and when people are protesting and petitioning government for some form of redress, it's incumbent upon government to address those people. And so I think that there should be a new ordinance or something in there where protesters are anywhere and the threshold is met, that it should trigger a government, official or representative government, to go out and create some form of engagement there. We cannot just have people protesting and doing things without engagement. The protest is a request for engagement, a petition. And so whether I like what they petitioning for or not, I think it's important that we support the First Amendment right, which is freedom of speech, and provide opportunities for people to petition their redress agreements. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. Foster and we will now go to those who have joined us virtually.
Morning, Madam President, for 30 hands. Raise their hand before you cut off public comment. First caller is Cunningham.
Cunningham, Good Good morning.
The Honorable Martin Luther King, Jr, the worst form of inequality is to make unequal. Things equal. Good morning, all 313444911431344491143134449114,
that number was made so you can remember it and equal. I'm sorry, expensive vehicle repairs is the name on Facebook, again, expensive vehicle repairs. Click people on Facebook and put a space in between each word, expensive vehicle repairs. Also via cell phone, we chatted via text the honorable Councilman dirhall. Something was supposed to happen that day, but I guess it might have slipped his mind, but hopefully Councilman der hall this week, when your staffers can reach out, I'm asking everyone on the side of my voice to ride the coaches, ride the busses. The Jefferson is the best one. Ride the other busses, and the worst on the weekends and after 5p m5, 6pm in the evening, afternoon, I still need to get purchase more bus tickets. Thank you, Council President, for donating bus tickets. Hopefully other council persons and people on the side of my voice can either donate funds or gloves, hand warmers, bus ticket money so I can touch those at the bus stops and those that need it, as I've been doing for years.
And if the clerk would know, member waters has joined us as well. And thank you so much, Mr. Cunningham and Member Santiago, I never recommend Member Santiago. Romero has been here as well. Okay, so no, Okay, our next caller, please.
Next caller is Shoshana Shakur,
all right, good afternoon. Good morning. Hear me. Hello, yes, we can hear you. Good morning. Okay. I
am Shoshana Shaku, an advocate for the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. I speak to Detroit homeowners on a regular basis. Many of them, like our beloved ancestor, Fannie lou hanger before them, is sick and tired of the injustices that are inflicted upon them. These homeowners and taxpayers are tired of the over assessment of their property that leads to over taxation that leads to foreclosures on many of their homes. About a week ago, I spoke to one tearful Detroiter, real life human being whose home was sold in the auction. I also recently spoke to another distraught homeowner, a real life human being whose taxes are going up $700 most likely due to over assessment, and she cannot pay the increase. Council members, we are pleading with you today to stop this injustice of over assessment and over taxation by starting with fast tracking the completion of the independent evaluator study, which, by the way, seven months late, canceling nominations for Board of Review, candidates who have not completed the state tax Commission's Michigan certified assessing technician courts and three to nominate candidates endorsed by the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, a Great group of Detroit residents who have robust, quantitative experience and who will have the compassion and sense of justice to stop this madness and over assessment
and all.
Thank you so much.
The next color is William M Davis,
good morning.
Good morning. Can I be heard?
Yes, yes, you can.
I still think, as I often say, that the city of Detroit, city council, Mayor's office would have you should do a greater effort to reduce the amount of lawsuits, and should do a greater effort to maybe stop paying for people to violate the city rules, to falsify official documentation, and overall, this reduced the number of lawsuits. Far too often I see that there's a number of questionable lawsuits and actions y'all take that y'all should not be representing people that falsify or do things that's questionable to violate policy and procedures. You know, because as a city chart retiree that my pension cut, my health care stolen, and watch the city Detroit assets being stolen like the DIA and a number of things that especially the Detroit water sewer department that is worth billions of dollars, they went through a fake bankruptcy where our assets were stolen. So I think y'all should do a greater job of reducing the amount of money that's going on for these lawsuits. Thank you
all right. Thank you so much. Mr. Davis,
the next caller is Stephen Harring.
Mr. Hari, good morning.
Well,
I first want to say the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. You know a lot of stuff they say has been weather misleading and not exactly the way it worked. I mean, there definitely has been over taxation, for sure, but you know, the way to prevent it or to compensate, you know, the way the coalition has said that has been incredibly misleading and against the Constitution. But second, I want to speak on the i 375 removal, you know, I'm in support of them removing it. You know, I understand some of the concerns. It's a very sensitive issue, but, you know, just keeping that freeway that's not going to do anything to honor black bottom, you know, if we get rid of it and leave enough land, we can at least build something that, you know, be really good and can really honor black bottom, or what was there before. You know, this highways. These highways are cancerous to our city. You know, they destroyed our city, and you know, we need to do everything we can do to get rid of them. And you know, the design, it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than when it was first introduced. You know, I definitely think there needs to be more community engagement. I know MDOT is horrible with that, but overall, I'm in support.
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is Karen's iPad.
All right, good morning.
Helen,
yes, good morning. Good morning.
Good morning. Um Yeah, a couple things you know, without mentioning anyone's name, you know, people all of a sudden know a whole lot about Detroit and don't know anything about Detroit and are very opinionated, you know, reference to other people. But less than five years ago, I couldn't get a repairman to come to harbor town to repair a furnace. They said, We don't come to Detroit. Now, you can't push these out of Detroit. So you know they're spinning on dime, and why? I don't know why. I know why, but you know everybody's looking the other way, but as as our you know representative, you know we've we've elected you guys. You're not only a liable for you know, your what you allow, but you also liable for what you talk about a mission. You liable for that too. So when you don't do something you should do, you should have done it, you know. So just because you can't do it doesn't mean you're not responsible. SO emissions are also part of what you got to do. Now, in reference to Mr. Davis, what I'm looking at is payments from these lawsuits have to be reduced by employees personal insurance. So the city shouldn't be taking this whole hit, you know. So I'm reading this is section 35 dash two, dash 106, city code. Well, let's see city that would be reduced by their insurance. So somebody needs to look into that, you know. And then when they pay so much, their insurance is going to drop them they're not going to be able to work. This is anybody you're constantly paying in, you know, for being identified. So you know, we got to look through you're going to be liable if you keep letting these guys do this. So you need to do a little more research,
right? Thank you so much.
Our next caller is kimley Naylor, you
may I be heard? Yes, you
can Good morning. Good
morning. This is Dr kimley Naylor. I am a member of the rethink. I 75 and also a local advisory council member, and I wanted to just bring attention to us putting great focus on the planning of this project I heard last week as they're talking about selling bundles of properties in brightmoor community, and Councilman Tate clearly said he wanted to see a framework before we start selling off bundles of land so we know the residents are taken care of as well. I think the same mindset should be given to this project that there is an appropriate framework for the land use afterwards, so that we know we're building a road that's going to support what is to come. And I'm just asking all of our council to please support your local community their interest and know what they would like to see. It's not just reflecting on what happened with black bottom. We can't restore that, but we know we can have equity in this process of rebuilding that area that can be reflective of African Americans who've lived in this city for years and that were stripped of their opportunities. I am a descendant a family who lived in that area, and I think it's important that we have some type of restitution. I also would like to see more conversation about the restorative justice in this MDOT project, as it was in the beginning and now everything is only reflecting reconnecting communities. I think all should be inclusive, so we build a bright future for Detroit. Thank you. Thank you so
much. Next call, caller is, we see you
and through the chair. Carolyn Hughes, may I be heard? Yes,
yes, yes, we can hear you. Okay, that
was the last caller hit it on the head. We We have been mistreated, and things have happened to us, and we need redress. Even in Texas, we need redress we don't we need help for you from you and Mr. Tate, please don't hide behind the mayor. You have direct access, and we are Situ in that chair to do that job. But it seems that you know, and Mrs. Winston is absolutely right. You are liable. There's 10 dot 13. There's a special revenue fund for the the police department that they've been using, but they have 1.6 million for ammunition. How much is in this, this special fund that they have, and why can't we have access to it? As the general fund arbitrators, they, we pay them, they and then they just take the money and do what they want, and you allow it. 18 five is a very important issue. We need the health department to weigh in. There is a bird flu pandemic, and now you want to introduce birds, ducks and all kinds of animals to people who have cultures in our neighborhoods that are different than ours. It's unconscionable. Thank mister Howard for what he's come back to do in the community, and I pray that people of his caliber, run for office so we can remove you. Thank
you. Thank you.
Next. Color is Bernadette tuahani,
may I be heard?
Yes, you can Good morning. Hi. My
name is Professor. Bernadette atua hane. I'm
coming today to talk about the property tax reform ordinance in February, we were supposed to have the independent evaluator making the assessment ratio study, and the Duggan administration has been dragging its feet, and so we're in October, and we still don't have the assessment ratio study. But what's really breaking my heart is now I've just discovered that city council is also not implementing the property tax reform ordinance. The ordinance is very clear, before anyone is reappointed to the Board of Review, they have to take the MCAT course and pass the test. But we have learned that there have been two city council people who have re nominated, people who have not taking the test in violation of the law we just passed in November and came into effect in January, you know. And so my heart is broken. It's one thing for the Duggan administration to be not implementing the property tax reform ordinance, but it's another thing for City Council itself to not be following the letter of the law. And this is such a common sense thing the Board of Review, I've gone before the Board of Review several times for the past six years to argue these appeals, and they do not have the quantitative skills to prevent the stand up for Detroiters and prevent unconstitutional property tax assessments. This MCAT course is just a basic requirement that we should all be behind. Why is City Council nominating people who have not taken the course? My heart is broken, alright? Thank
you, Professor buena. Appreciate you calling in, and we'll continue to work with you on getting a status of who has and has not taken that course. I think there may be some disconnection between getting that information over to us from the Board of Review when we do make these appointments, and so would love to work with you and the coalition on making sure that that is addressed as well as we know that the independent evaluator is currently conducting work as we speak, and looking forward to having a meeting, which we do have planned, with your group and others to get an update on on the progress of that independent evaluator. Alright, thank you so much for calling in. Yes, member waters.
I just want to ask, I specifically recall that we said that we thought it was a good, a great idea for people to take the classes, but if they couldn't pass it, because some people don't test well, that we would not hold that against them. That was my ration. I
remember you mentioning that. So are
we now saying they have to pass it? I mean, I hope they do, but I'm just saying that you Hello,
yeah, I will pull back up the ordinance, and like I said, I'll look into it again. I do remember having conversation with you about that. That was something that you were very adamant about, yeah. So okay, we will look into it. All right. Thank you so much. Member waters, all right, our next caller, please.
Our next caller is Betty avonner,
good morning to all within the sound of my voice. My purpose for today. One of my purposes for the day is to talk about the senior accessibility home repair fund. There's city residents who are seniors and people who have disabilities. We thank you the Council for allocating monies from the budget you approved in year 2023 to make our homes handicap accessible, including walk in showers. I spoke every day that y'all met about the disability population and the seniors we needed help so that we could stay in our homes and be safe. My conversation was always about walk in showers. Now it seems appears that the Detroit accessibility program is where that money is being spent. It appears we have asked that the council please give us a status these two different programs, some of us have went to, called in to council member water's office and put our names on the list, and we stated we wanted walk in showers. Nobody's talking about walk in showers now, please give us some information.
All right. Thank you. Member waters,
thank you, Madam. President. Ms Vernon, let me tell you, I am see a fighting for walk in showers. The housing revitalization department decided that walk in showers were too complicated to do, too expensive to do. And and and people have been calling in everywhere, including Wayne Metro, screaming out for those walk in showers. HRD did commit to me that they would do something that that will assist seniors in getting into the showers. They didn't say would be walk in. She called it something else. I'll find out the name of it, but she said it would help so, so stay tuned, and maybe my colleagues know knows what it's called. I can't remember what it was called anyway. Thank you Madam President, all
right, thank you council member waters, Council Member durhall.
Thank you Madam President, and Miss Verner. I share some of the sentiments of member waters as well. We've had discussions with HRD on how to expand that program and also talk about the eligibility for that program. So we are we're going to be connecting you with HRD to have a discussion with them about eligibility. But as far as the walk in showers, again, we'll get more updates and continue to work to try to expand that as well and try to figure out some fix or find out if there are other entities that provide grants to do the walk in showers. I think at the inception of building out this program, which, by the way, is the first time that the city has done this, it will take some time to be able to expand it how we want to, I think we thought that walk in showers may be a good idea, and then found out it may be a little bit more difficult and cost prohibitive and cost a lot more particularly on a grand scale, but we are further in those conversations and member waters and I are definitely advocating for that, and we'll get you update on that. Thank you, Madam President,
all right, thank you. Member durha, Okay, our next caller, please.
Next caller is Amy Perez.
Good morning. My name is Amy Perez, and I am the Research and Policy Program Manager for the Detroit Food Policy Council. I'm also a 25 year resident of District Two and what grew up in district one. I am in support of the agenda items, 18.5 and 18.6 the animal keeping ordinance. This ordinance represents a great deal of work from city staff, stakeholders, animal keepers, in order to create an ordinance that takes into into account the needs of neighbors, the needs of animal keepers and the needs of the city at a whole, as a whole, this ordinance would increase the city's food security by allowing people access to locally raised eggs and meat, and this will be done in a very safe manner. I understand the concerns about bird flu, but currently, there have been 10 cases of bird flu reported in the last 10 in the last two years, and that was throughout the entire country, per the CDC, again, this is and I also submitted to all of your offices last week a letter signed by more than 600 Detroiters from every district in the city supporting this ordinance. We know there are more than that that are actually in support of this, and we just urge you to please set in this ordinance so that it can come to a vote and all this hard work can come to fruition. Thank you very much.
All right, thank you.
Next caller is Tahira,
yes. Good morning Council with the just to hear our mail with the
property can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Miss my okay with
the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. You know, I just heard with member water said about the fact that these people haven't passed the test yet. This is the law member waters one, the one that you all passed, okay? And so we want them to go by the law. We have been unjust. This is an injustice. We all have Police telling us, well, it's hard for me to take I don't take the test well, and then we go ahead and let them be police officers. We need competent people, because that's the problem with this assessment. We don't. We have incompetency here that's costing us 100,000 homes and $600 million also, they still have a chance to take the test. We got two, 200 chances. November is one. Is one in November and one in December. We are tired of excuses. Now, you know, I can do your kids. You don't give them another chance, you don't do it. You out of here. And that's what we want. We want you to take this seriously. There are people who did not that, that were not allowed to appeal it by the deadline, okay? And that's because the assessment was drugged through you drug your teeth and people weren't able to appeal to the board of reviews. So we want you to get this right. We don't have time to play anymore. We want our money back, and we want our houses back. Thank you.
All right, thank you. The next color is phone number ending in 169
Hello, can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, thank you. Um, I just wanted to say to everybody listening today, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for praying for brother ham. Thank you for those who continue to pray. Um, I get all the information about these zoom meetings from Brother Cunningham's Facebook page. Um, I also got to see the Honorable President riding the busses, and I just wanted to say thank you for riding the busses. I see Cunningham all the time giving out bus tickets, and in the winter time, he gives out tons of hand warmers. Um, city council, I really thought Cunningham was getting the salary for doing this kind of work. Um, people at home, I really thought Cunningham was getting a salary for doing this type of work, but he doesn't. He really does it from the heart, and that's all I wanted to say.
All right, thank you so much. We appreciate you, sir.
The next caller is Michael Thomas Hart,
can I be heard?
Yes, we can hear you. Good morning,
good morning. So my name is Michael Hart. I am a lifelong resident of council president Sheffield's district five, and I am calling with the Coalition for Property Tax Justice to demand that city council implement the property tax reform ordinance by doing three things. First, fast tracking the completion of the Iao independent evaluator study. And I just wanted to say too I heard you council president say a bit earlier that the meeting was on the books between Iao Alvin horn and the coalition, that meeting has had significant scheduling conflicts, and Elvin horn has made it very difficult for us to get that meeting on the books, and so there is not currently a meeting set up between those three parties. And so we would really appreciate it if you could prioritize that and get Mr. Horn to get that meeting on the books. And the second thing we need to do to implement the ordinance is to cancel those Board of Review nominations and replace those nominations with candidates that the Coalition for Property Tax Justice has endorsed who are both, of course, Detroit residents and have that robust quantitative experience. I can't emphasize enough how important this issue is. Detroiters expect that the Board of Review is working for them and working fairly and promoting equity in their work, and if Board of Review members can't, you know, properly assess whether or not to grant an appeal, then they can't do their work. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is calling user one.
All right, good morning,
good afternoon. Can I be heard?
Yes, you can,
Madam President
and Pro Tem Tate, I want to bring something to your attention that is very serious. If someone calls or send email to property maintenance for their building to be inspected, if windows are falling out on people like their hallway windows, or they're getting stuck in elevators. Are you aware that they are telling people how often someone calls on public comment and communicate to each of you all offices putting us at risk of retaliation. I had experience with that on Friday. I've been trying to get with someone in your office, but no one has been available. This is very dangerous for those that are citizens. We should not be subjected to this kind of retaliation, because we bring facts with pictures, videos and audio tapes. One thing, you can rest assured, I never complain if I can't back it up. Never. And I'd like to know what are you going to do about it? Because it's quite serious. I know it'll probably cut off, but I would love to talk with you of me being disabled and being denied to safely take out my garbage without having to look at
all right. Thank you so much, Miss Shay, and we'll continue to work with you and appreciate you calling in this morning, Miss Shay,
the next caller is Renard. Manski,
good morning. Can I be heard?
Yes, we can hear you.
Okay, in part of my voice I'm still recovering. My name is renardsky, a resident of District Six and then organized, proudly with the Detroit people's platform on behalf of my colleague, Jamie Jr, who can't join us today, and our partners at warriors and wills and Detroit people's platform, and overall, with the disability community, want to thank this body for consideration of line item 20.13, which is resolution supporting the city's transition to zero and clean emission vehicles. For paratransit passengers in our city who deserve the same consideration for climate justice as our fixed line, which is the regular busses, are being converted over to clean energy as well. The city is looking like a leader across the country in terms of creating a sustainability and a climate justice, you know, policy and set of actions and solutions to our city as well. We have a long way to go, and so we really are able to have a clean air and clean environment that our residents, all of our residents, deserve, but to acknowledge the disparity between the efforts of fixed line and paratransit in terms of clean energy conversion. I'm glad that this council recognizes that and is looking towards a solution, and that's what Detroit should not always has been about is creating solutions for our residents. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Bernard.
Next caller is Allison.
Hello.
I'm Allison putt public policy and advocacy strategy manager for with Detroit people's platform, we have several deep concerns about the draft Fast Track pilot ordinance, which supposedly encourages quote, unquote, affordable housing, but we worry we'll end up creating housing that is not affordable to over half of Detroiters who make less than $37,000 per year. Our concerns are as follows. One, the incentive structure encourages but does not guarantee that units will be priced for the lowest income brackets, where the greatest need for affordable housing is in Detroit. Two, the only regulation that is cut by this quote, unquote, Fast Track is to cut through city council approval and public input, residents and their elected representatives are not red tape to cut through. We are a vital part of local democracy and should have input on how our tax dollars are spent on housing built in our neighborhoods. Number three, there is no guarantee that units will be built with more than studio or one bedroom capacity, or that any of them will be accessible. We need housing for families and households with special accommodation needs. Number four, the ordinance limits the capacity of the units to six people. Our families, regardless of their size or how many generations live in the same household, deserve quality, affordable, accessible housing. Detroit has lost nearly 100,000 black residents in the past 10 years. This ordinance, as drafted, could push out more households.
Okay, thank you so much.
Next caller is Theo pride.
Theo pride with Detroit people's platform. Good morning to this honorable body. I just wanted to bring the council's attention, if you haven't seen it already, that the ocfo for the September revenue estimating conference gave a report providing more evidence of the economic prosperity myth in Detroit by showing that the benefits of economic development are not going to working class black and brown Detroiters, but rather to white suburbanites. The data showed outrageous levels of racial and economic inequality. It showed most Detroiters, 63% are at the bottom of the economic ladder and have experienced nearly zero class mobility from 2018 to 2022 so economic development has not been able to move people out of poverty. The data also show black and brown Detroiters are much poorer than their white counterparts, as almost half of white households are upper middle class or higher, making over $82,000 a year, compared to only 18% of black households and 17% of Hispanic households. These numbers don't look like economic success to Detroiters. It looks like economic injustice. We need a racial equity tool, just like every other city in the country, to set the standard of how we measure prosperity and how we talk about prosperity only then can we create economy in Detroit that truly benefits everybody? Thank you. Okay, thank
you so much.
The next caller is Marguerite Maddox Scarlet,
Alright, Miss Maddox,
good morning. Good morning, Mayor. The
Yes, You can.
And
they put that
there is
a difference between welcome houses. Housing because I am one of those who considered
loyalty. Is
considered low income. Low income families that are low income. So
yes, no income, yes, so please make sure and my my last Fact is, yesterday, my brain and we
heard a loud room near the last large area, and I do not, do not know what was going on that And we need to figure out
the Emergency Vehicle silence.
All right, Miss Maddox, it sounds like you are breaking up now we cannot hear you. Okay, okay, there we are. We can hear you.
Okay. Thank you. I
that have
not the best, the best.
All right. Thank you so much. Ms, Maddox.
Next caller is Samsung. SM, good
morning. My name is Ruby, right. Good morning. City council. I wanted to touch bases on the Detroit home repair funds that I was once approved funding, and they say that they ran out of money in January. If I'm not mistaken, I believe City Council approved more funds back in June, and I've been trying to call that number, not getting any answer or anything. So I'm trying to find out, because my car repair was in one of them, my transmission went out on my car in June, and I was wondering if is any way that I can get back into that, because I was on the list, like I said I was. We got the letters, I am, some other people residents. So I was wondering if I can get back in touch with them, because they're not answering the phone I was on the letter that was saying, also I just wanted to bring up my granddaughter called me yesterday. She's in that way of the hurricane in Florida, and she was trying to do a fundraiser through cash app so she can try to get back home to Detroit, and it is dollar sign, A, R, i e, L, L, E, R, R, I L, E, y, y, if anybody can assist on Cash App, my granddaughter and her two year old and her baby, four month old, her other family to get back to Detroit, I would very much appreciate it if they would go to Cash App.
Okay, thank you so much.
Next caller is phone number ending in 534,
all right, good morning.
Uh, good morning. May I be heard?
Yes, you can excuse me. Um,
okay. Uh, well, wow. The Umoja Debate League, that is one of the best things I have seen at Detroit city council so far. I say congratulations to them. And I urge this body to deny item 18 point 10 on the agenda today, which would be a $6.9 million ARPA expenditure American rescue plan act, money designed to help people out who suffered during covid to be given to the Fisher 21 loft project, allegedly in support of affordable housing. Now this seems like really a conflict of interest that escapes the current ethics rules that this body would be given this much money to one of the developers is Richard Hosey on the board of the land bank and the chair of the Detroit Housing Commission Board. And this group has already come to the city council asking for about every tax benefit package under the sun, and frankly, if they were still short $6.9 million their project should have been denied. Now, to put things in perspective, this comes out to over $109,000 subsidy for each so called affordable unit. I'm sure all the people the land bank takes property from would love to get that kind of subsidy. This money would be way better spent giving it to the emoji debate club
and All right, thank you so much. Miss Warwick,
the next caller is election integrity. Roux,
all right. Ruben Crawley, go right ahead. Mary
Sheffield on April the 25th 2024 you were not in attendance when Janice Winfrey, Chairperson of the Detroit Election Commission. You're on the Detroit Election Commission, she told the truth about the sending of the findings on allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report to all the council members, the law department and the mayor's office. Well, upon further investigation, during a deeper dive, I discovered that to be a lie, she never sent the report, and you have a sitting council member district six, Gabriella Santiago Romero, who's on public record July, was told in public record as well, but on public record saying she received a report on May the ninth, 2024 but on maybe 22nd 2024 when I supplied it to The three council members, Fred Dora Hall, Coleman, young Patricia Johnson, they hadn't received a report. Mary, your office hadn't received a report. Either. Miss waters your office had received a report, nor. Angela callaways office had received a report. Now, Mary Sheffield as a chairperson, I mean, as a member of the Detroit Election Commission and the city council president, you should look into that now. Miss waters. Mary waters, Councilwoman, please weigh in on this matter. She she's told us
all right, thank you.
Our next caller is Candace Jones.
Good morning. Candace Jones,
and it's Jones, good morning,
and it's Jones. Are you there,
right. Candace Jones, all right, all right, let's come back to miss Candace Jones, please.
Next color is iPhone.
All right, iPhone, good morning.
Good morning. Name is Robert. Show I represent justice for being a tow environmental group. I'm not going to waste a lot of time. I don't think a minute and a half is long enough, first and foremost, but I've been sitting here listening, as I often do, and just a couple things came to mind, and I'm going to make a request when I get to stating what I want to state, but I've asked questions, and I've never gotten any rebuttal from anybody on the council, other than when it was something to defend their own well, We can't do it because of the administration things that nature. There's been meetings held about this air quality situation over here at this delantis facility, which I know you're all aware of, and they've done all these PR things and spending all this money to educate people to say, hey, you know, well, we're doing this, and it's going to be blah, blah, blah, but the majority of the conversation was that, but one of their own doctorate engineers, whatever title they have, sat and said in the back of the room, in front of all of us, at least the ones who were there, that there's nothing that they can do to stop the People this close to this facility from getting something regardless of what they put over there. And I've talked too long with my final seconds, I would like to use them as a moment of silence for all the people in the city of Detroit who have been disregarded and, you know, just ignored in the process of spending their tax dollars and representing and supporting certain people. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
The next caller is mik a Williams,
good more Williams, Hi, good morning.
Can you hear me? Please? Yes, we can, yes. So there was a story in the Detroit Free Press about the section eight vouchers and wait list that has totally been I don't even know what to say, because the story was so heartbreaking to have a mother and her children now facing homelessness because the section eight has been on the wait list that will not be honored. And because of federal resources being so slim as they are, those people will not get section eight. No one can get section eight or not even so much as a voucher or even assistance to keep a home. I'm pledging this council to please do whatever it can to fight for resources or to also make available, um, assistance for these families so they don't end up homeless in the winter. Uh, policy creates the conditions that we're in. Let me repeat that again. Policy, the policies that you make, the policies that you're writing, or the policies that you're considering, they make the conditions of what we're in, and what we're seeing is the after effects of those policies, even from years ago to right now, when you got people coming down here begging you to do something to get them in the house or get them somewhere in a shelter, the shelters are full. We have literally nowhere to go, and people are being put out of their houses because they're being asked for $1,200 or more that they don't have. And then when we don't have low income housing, that makes everything a little harder.
All right, thank you. Mika Williams
and the last caller who raised their hand before you caught up with Clint Thomas Lewis, all
right, good morning.
Good morning, Thomas, you have the floor for public comment.
Good morning. I appreciate this opportunity to speak. I am attempting to appeal to your sense of justice and your sense of duty. I'm here on behalf of the Coalition of Property Tax Justice, and I can't emphasize enough how important it is to complete the independent evaluation study. It's over seven months late earlier, there was concern as to whether or not the state board had to be passed. Section 44 dash four, subsection five, paragraph d states order review members shall complete and pass the state tax Commission's Michigan certified assessing technician course before assuming duties as members of the board. But having said that, also want to point out I just don't get the sense of urgency when it comes to this ordinance. And I want to draw a comparison, if there were a major event going on downtown and they wanted to have a curfew, I guarantee you it'll be backed up by the police. And my point is, we have an ordinance here, and it's backed up by just a few people with very little will thank you for your time.
Alright, thank you. You're welcome.
Alright, that will conclude all of our general public comment. We thank everyone for calling in and also taking the time to come down for public comment, and we will now proceed to our agenda for this morning, under our city standing committee reports for the budget, Finance and Audit, standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Council member durhall two resolutions, line item 16.1 and 16.2
council member, durha,
Madam President, they will. I'm sorry, yes, no problem. Contract number 6006573, 100% city funding to provide equipment rental utilizing the source wheel agreement. 040924, dash URI. Contractor is united rentals North America. Total contract amount 1,050,000 that's for citywide. Next contract is contract number 6006411, dash a one, 100% city funding Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for the rental of heavy duty vehicles and supporting services. Contractor, hurt, rentals incorporated total contract amount $4,802,540 that's for Citywide Council Member durhall. Two resolutions.
President. Move for approval for line item 16.1 and 16.2
right? Any discussion on these two items?
Discussion council member Callaway, yeah. Line item 16.1 Madam Chair, do we have anyone on to answer a few questions about the source? Well, cooperative in Minnesota. And why are we in Minnesota for this service? From what I understand, this is in Minnesota, and I'm not sure why we are in Minnesota for this service.
All right, Mr. Washington, do we have someone on? And this is for 16.2 member, Callie, yes, no, 16.1 I'm sorry, 16.1 source, well, okay,
thank you. Mr. Washington,
do we have someone
on? Yes, good morning, madam. Chair and council, we do have our need A Clark online.
All right, we'll promote I
have we promoted the individual, Harris, Mr. Washington. What was the name? Again? Anita Clark. Anita Clark,
I do see DeAndre Barry's online. He's under DeAndre b Okay,
DeAndre Barry as well.
Okay, both have been promoted. I
All right, good morning. I'm going to turn it for four over to member Callaway for her questions. Go right ahead. Member Callaway,
thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a company or organization in Minnesota, created under Minnesota laws. And I want to know what is the agreement? What is the source? Well, agreement. I don't see the length of time beginning and end. I see a three year contract. And have we had other contracts with this service in prior years,
good morning through the chair DeAndre Barry office of contracting and procurement. The Source Well, cooperative agreement is a state of Michigan, state of Minnesota, local government, unit and service cooperative, which was created under the laws of the state of Minnesota, other states are allowed to use cooperative pricing, and we are using utilizing that cooperative pricing through United rental, which is in Detroit. I
i Thank you through the chair. What's the purpose of this agreement? What if the United rental is in Detroit? Why are we using is source wells a third party? Why are we the company is in Detroit? United rentals? I'm looking at it. Why are we going to Minnesota to rent through Detroit, rent through the United rental, which is already here in Detroit. I'm trying to understand the purpose of the source. Well, agreement, excuse me, sir, through the chair that is governed by Minnesota laws created in adherence to Minnesota laws. Why are we in Detroit, going outside of Michigan to use a company from Minnesota that's governed by Minnesota laws created under Minnesota laws, in compliance with Minnesota laws to rent from a Detroit based company? I'm just trying to understand it.
We get the lowest basically, government contracts
to respond to the chair. It's the pricing that we're using. We're getting the lowest pricing because state entities have cooperative agreements which allow them to share group pricing so that we could take advantage of economies of scale
through the Chair. I'm not understanding why we are using Source well, which is governed by, created by and under Minnesota laws. Can we not achieve the same thing without going to Minnesota source wells? And then my other question was, have we done business with source well before, in the past? Are there any prior agreements or contracts with source well out of Minnesota
through the chair. We, we currently piggyback off many contracts offer, source, well, um, currently, at the moment,
okay, I'm not
understanding due to the government pricing that's that's offered. Okay, this is hard to like my deal.
Okay, so in this regard, through the chair, in this regard, in this matter, right here, it's better to go to Minnesota to get better rates to do business with the Detroit based company.
We're not going to Minnesota. We're just taking advantage of the pricing that they're making available to us.
Have we through the chair? Have we had prior source well contracts in the past?
Yeah, yes, ma'am, several, several
and we are benefiting. The city is benefiting,
yes, because it's lower pricing, because it's a cooperative. There are many municipalities that take advantage of this. Okay,
I would certainly want to know how many prior contracts, when at the contracts commence, and this is a three year contract. Are we currently under contract with source? Well, now, yes, we are for this particular for United rentals.
No, I I'm sorry, actually, yes, we are piggybacking off of their agreement for the pricing.
I won't support this. Thank you, Madam Chair, further
discussion member, Benson, thank
you. Just through yourself to the administration, typically heavy equipment and tools would go through NCS, and just for edification of myself and the public, why are these contracts going through budget? I
uh, through the chair. This is a citywide contract. So citywide contracts go through the budget department, right? Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Member, Benson, any additional questions or comments. All right, hearing none. A motion has been made to approve 16.1 and 16.2 are there any objections? Objection?
Madam Chair, Council Member, Callaway, online item 16.1
The clerk will note. Clerk will start No. Madam
President,
all right. Hearing, no further objections. Both of those resolutions will be approved. Madam President,
request a waiver for line item 16.2
any objections to a waiver on 16.2 hearing, none that action will be taken for the internal operations standing committee from the mayor's office.
Council member Johnson, a resolution. Line item 17.1,
member Johnson, thank you, Madam
President. Move for approval. This is to appoint Hassan Bay dune to the downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone.
Motion has been made. Any discussion, any objections. Objection members, Santiago Romero, the clerk would note, clerk will So note, Madam
President.
Objection council member, Callaway,
the clerk would note, clerk was so no. Madam
President.
All right, hearing no further objections. The one resolution will be approved from the law department. Council member
Johnson, eight resolutions. Line item 17.2 through 17 point 11.
Council member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President. Move for approval on line item 17.2 through 17.9 these are various lawsuit settlement requests and requests for legal representation and indemnification.
Right. Any objections. Hearing, no objections. The resolutions will be approved under resolutions,
Madam President. Members,
we stopped at 15.9 17.9 so we can start under grants.
Council member Johnson, to resolutions. My item 17 point 10 and 17 point No. Madam President, my apologies. My item 17 point 10 is the only one from the OFC office.
Okay. Line item 17 point 10. Council member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President, Move for approval. This is a request to accept a donation of 28 conference room chairs.
All right, Hearing no objections, the one resolution will be approved.
Madam President, yes, I'd like to request a waiver for line item 17 point 10.
All right, Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to 17 point 10 from the Human Resources Department, Labor Relations Division. Council
member Johnson, a resolution. Line item 17, point 11. Council
member Johnson, thank you, Madam
President. Move for approval. This is the implementation of the 2023 through 2027 labor agreement between the city of Detroit and the employees represented by seid local 517,
M motion has been made. Any objections, hearing, no objections. The one resolution will be approved, yes, just
a point of clarification on line item 17, point 11 is this? Is it seid, or is it SEIU? Are they one of the same?
SEIU? Um, because I think that's a Scriveners era in the the the text underneath says, SEIU. So this definitely should reflect Madam Clerk, SEIU, Madam
President, that will reflect in a record the correct spelling,
right? Thank you. Member Callaway, under resolutions.
Council member Johnson, a resolution. Line item 17, point 12.
Council member Johnson,
thank you, Madam President. I'm not sure if this should be in member Benson's name. This is the appointment of Danielle January to the property assessment Board of Review for district three. Move for approval. All
right, if we can just move for discussion. Discussion. All right. Thank you so much. And if we have Mr. Donald hill here in Mr. Horn and Mr. Donald, if you can come up just to briefly talk about what was mentioned during public comment regarding the board, Board of Review members having to complete and pass the state tax commissions certify assessing course prior to the appointment. And if you can just give her overview of have these members, or has this member taken that test, and how are we going to monitor this moving forward? This is a new forward? This is a new ordinance, and so this is new for all of us, but just want to know how this process will be monitored as well.
Absolutely Willie downwell, Director of property assessment, Board of Review, what was placed in the ordinance that board of members would have a Michigan certified assessing technician certification, a little low, Mister, I'm sorry, would have a at a minimum, a Michigan certified assessing technician certification. While that certification may be somewhat relevant to what a board member needs, it's not everything. There is more critical information that they need to learn and understand as part of the process and understanding the job and responsibilities. So what I've been doing is working with, excuse me, the Office of the assessor, to help work through and create a balance that I think would be more amenable. We've shared this information terms of what we were doing with the council president's office, but had not finalized what that process is yet. So at this point, I just want Mr. Horn to just kind of speak a little bit more about what that is, because the person that we're working with is actually on his staff. Okay, Mister horn, good
morning. Madam
President, members of Detroit City Council. Alvin horn, Deputy CFO and assessor for the city of Detroit, at the request of the director for border review, we have instructed our our certified trader, we do have a state certified level four trainer on staff to create a class outline that would be appropriate for the duties of the Detroit board review. I would point out to the members that there are four designations through the state tax commission, three of them the Michigan certified assessing officer, advanced assessing officer and master assessing officer deal with valuation issues. The Michigan certified assessment technician does not deal with valuation issues. The Detroit board review is responsible for evaluation decisions in the city of Detroit, while certainly certification of any type is preferable that particular certification does not give anyone any proficiency in Maris evaluation. So we've instructed our training coordinator to create a class outline, which will be submitted to the state tax commission, by the way, that would be far more appropriate for the duties of the Detroit board review, which is to handle appeals evaluation issues in the city of Detroit. Thank you.
So it sounds like that hasn't happened yet, and we've already done my appointment. We have member Benson's appointment, and I think member waters has just done her so being in alignment with the ordinance, maybe. And this is not to, you know, just, I mean, we we move forward and, you know, this is a this is new, this portion of the ordinance. And so I guess, should we hold off on reappointing into that process is is in place for to allow them to at least take the test through
the chair. My apologies, ma'am. I wasn't clear. The outline is complete, so we have completed that outline, so we're prepared to begin that class work. Okay,
so who's going to implement it to ensure that the board members actually take this test? And that really should happen before they come before council for appointments.
So the process, again, is in place, and we're working to begin that training. The idea is that we will work through and get the training done. I ideally Council allows shortly after the beginning of the year, because there may be one or two new appointments to the Board of Review, and versus doing it now and and going through the process and having to do it again within two months, the best time in terms of use of time would it would be for it to be done in January, all of the appointments with right all, with all the appointments being done at the same time, this is a transitional period for the board because of, again, the term for all members end at the same time. So again, with new appointments that may come, that may that are coming, then we need to make sure that everybody is learning the same thing at the same time and doing the same thing at the same time. So
we may need to look at possibly amending the ordinance, because the way it does right now is that before we even are able to reappoint, that they must take this particular test prior to the appointment. And so, you know, I know this is newly being implemented, and that's something that we need to work on, to possibly amend that. It happens all at one time, and we need to probably discuss that as well
understood. Okay,
as Madam President, yes, let me just say for the record, we appointed our person last week, and she is certified. Okay,
great,
if I may, through the chair. Also, Maria Muhammad carries the MCA, and I want to say Miss Robinson also carries mcao. So again, we're working with say, say, what that is so that, I'm sorry, Michigan certified assessing technician. I'm sorry. Michigan certified assessing officer, okay, so actually, she's certified as an assessor. So Miss Robinson and Miss Muhammad are certified as assessors and not technicians. Miss, Miss padman is a Michigan certified assessing technician,
okay, alright. Member Benson, alright. Thank
you, and I appreciate the need to have our Board of Review members as up to date and proficient with the the laws in the profession that they are helping to support our residents. What I don't want to see is the ordinance or a test become an exclusionary tool versus an inclusionary tool, because I'm looking for someone to advocate and advocate on the based on the norms and mores of the residents of the Third District, which Miss Danielle January does. I'm hoping that we're not using this as a tool to be exclusionary against residents who are here to help their fellow Third District residents,
if I may, through the chair. So I'm going to stay state a couple of things relative to appointees when they're coming before this body, I spend a lot of time with everyone on the board all the time, and when they come before you, they're literally coming with my recommendation. And there has been times in the past when there has been board members that didn't make it because of my recommendation, because of the concern of making sure that there is a body that exists that is hearing the needs of the community and doing the job the proper way. So it is important that when you're looking at the person and creating and adjusting possibly ordinances, that we consider all the practical things that needs to go into this process. I'm going to go back, I'm going to say this and be done. I'm going to go back a little bit to me to get a hole and I asked for an additional year before implementing the ordinance to work through certain things. The ordinance was passed. I've done all the things necessary to make sure that all the work needed to be done at the even the absorbent cost that we had to bear to make sure that things were done. I'm just asking for a little levity to make sure that we have the proper people and pay in place to do the proper job for the needs of the community. Miss, January is one of those individuals
discussion.
Thank you, Mr. Don well. Member Benson, and I just
want to concur with the words of Mr. Don, well, since I've been here, we've had three members of the Board of Review. That's a direct result recommendations by Mr. Don, well, I'll
leave it there,
Madam President. Member waters, let me just further echo, Mr. Dunwood knows how I feel about it. Plus we want people to be able to do their job and have the appropriate certification and education and so forth. However, please do not send a person to us that you know, and I don't believe that you will, but I want to say this, who who are talking down to people who need the help, who are being rude, nasty to people who need the help, you know, not being sensitive to people who need the help. I that I cannot tolerate. So I just, I just want to say that, because I feel very, very strong about that
through the Chair, if I may, I won't say to I'll just say that some council members know how I feel about that and what has happened with previous appointees.
Okay, all right, anything additional and Mr. Horn, while you're here, can you please provide us an update on the independent evaluator, the contract that was approved in the work that they're doing to date,
through the chair the International Association of assessing officers was was selected as the independent evaluator. They have all the data they've requested. They are, by contract, required to provide a report to this honorable body and to the city's chief financial officer in about seven weeks, once that reporter provided and it will be provided simultaneously, so everyone's going to see at the same time. So I'm not going to get a sneak preview. No one else will. Once that report is provided to this honorable body, then they are required to appear before this body and answer any questions you or the public may have. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. There are no additional questions, comments, concerns, nope. All right. Thank you so much for being here. You all and we will continue. Council member Benson, I think, has moved this for approval. Line item 17 point 12 for approval. And this is the appointment of Don Yale. Is their last name, January? Oh, that is correct. Okay. Okay, yield January for discussion our motion to approve that for approval by the chair. Okay, I thought she mentioned it was under your name, so that's why I said member Benson, Council Member Johnson, has moved this now for approval under member Benson's name. Any objections? Hearing, no objections. The one resolution for the appointment to the Board of Review will be approved. Question waiver, any objections to a waiver, hearing, none that action will be taken. Thank you, colleagues under resolutions,
Council Member Benson, on behalf of council member waters a resolution, line item 17, point 13, all
right. Council member Benson has moved this for approval. This is a resolution calling on the US Congress to reauthorize and improve the workforce, innovation and operating Opportunity Act. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections. The one resolution will be approved for the Planning and Economic Development standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement council
president pro tem James Tate, two resolutions, line items, 18.1 and 18.2 first up is contract number 6004032, dash, a two, 100% ARPA funding. Amendment two, to provide an extension of time and an increase of funds for housing resource. Website, contractor XG Incorporated, total contract amount $2,262,400 that's for housing and revitalization. Next contract is contract number 6003722, dash, 831, 100% era P funding, amendment three, to provide an increase of funds for emergency Rental Assistance Program. Contractor, United Community Housing Coalition, total contract amount, $6,899,789.91 cent. That's for housing and revitalization. Council. President, pro temp Tate, two resolutions,
right? Thank you. Madam Clerk. President, pro temp Tate.
Madam President, I move approval of line items, 18.1 and 18.2 please.
Any discussion on these two items? Discussion? Madam
Chair, member Callaway is Thank you, Madam Chair. Is there anyone on on from housing and revitalization to tell us exactly what we're getting for $2.2 million an additional 440 $800,000 for a website. And the website is being created by a contractor in San Francisco, California, this is our for dollars.
So Mr. Washington. Do we have someone on?
Yes, Madam Chair, we have Keegan Mahoney and Sonia Clifton.
Okay, we will promote both of those individuals. You.
Good afternoon. This is Keegan Mahoney with the housing and revitalization department through the chair. The website in question is affordable housing portal called Detroit home. Connect, it can be viewed at home. Connect, dot, Detroit mi gov, this has been a really valuable tool for the housing department to communicate affordable housing opportunities where there are publicly funded affordable housing units, those developments and those units are posted on this website. It allows for property managers and developers to customize those property profiles to have accurate, up to date information about affordable housing offerings, and it allows residents to filter search look through those affordable housing opportunities. They can create an account on the website to favorite and like properties so that they can track them to monitor availability of units, as well as sign up for proactive communications from the department and property managers when leasing process is open, when wait list process is open. So it's a really kind of real time dynamic tool to connect residents with affordable housing. We'll note exig Inc is a company that that works nationally on affordable housing portals with different governments across the country, while they're headquartered in San Francisco, their staff are located across the country. One of our core project members is based here in the city of Detroit. So we do have a local contact who is working on the Detroit instance of this affordable housing platform
through the chair. If this website does all that you're claiming it does, then why do we have people who come here every single day saying they can't find housing or they're homeless. I'm not sure this is worth I'm not sure we're getting the bang for our buck. This is ARPA dollars, $2.2 million on a website, and how are we going to sustain it after the ARPA dollars run out? So I think this is a, I think this is a misuse of our dollars, and we still have a homeless issue in this city, and this website is not helping. It's not helping. I looked at it. It's it's lackluster, to say the least. It's lackluster. And I would certainly want to know, get some details. How many people are really visiting the website? Is it really worth $2.2 million an additional 440 $100,000 I just, you know, I think it's too expensive. I think it's a misuse, a poor use, of ARPA dollars, when this close to $3 million could be used to really address our housing issue here in the city of Detroit, not through a website that I believe is being underutilized. Thank you, Madam Chair,
thank you so much. Member Callaway and definitely share, share similar concerns regarding this site. And I'm not sure. Mr. Mahoney, if you can just speak a little bit to are you all tracking how many people are actually going to the site, and how are you measuring the success. So how many people have actually went to this site and then were placed in housing? And then the last question is just around, how this interfaces with the housing services hotline, because a lot of people just call that number and are directed into housing. We've invested millions into that, and so just curious how that is all working in coordination as well.
Yes, to the chair, the one on the question about usership, we do monitor usership of the site. Over the past three months, you had 23,500 users to the site that's averaging about 7800 unique visitors to the site during that time period. That number continues to steadily grow as the tool is communicated through a variety of forums, including housing navigators, both city net housing navigators, as well as nonprofit partners who use this site to help place their clients in housing, as well as through the city's communication channels to get the word out. So we're seeing steady increase in that usership number, which is quite robust as as it stands. To talk about the integration with the 866, phone number that has been a big success, that has contributed to increased usership of this website. There's strong integration between those two things both when people call looking the 86866, number looking for affordable housing, they're given the option to enroll in those direct notifications through the website for when affordable housing leaving processes open, and the housing navigators that are employed by the city of Detroit and access through the 866 number utilize this tool to help place their clients in regulated affordable housing.
So do you know how many, and I'm not sure if you could track this, but how many people have actually been placed in housing due to this site? As far as going online, I know you said a lot of people visit the site, but how successful is the actual placement of housing?
Yes, so that is in the current version of the website that is not something that we can readily track. When the application happens the actual application to the housing that occurs outside of the portal. As part of this contract amendment, we are adding some additional functionality to the site that would incorporate a common application directly into the site itself, so it would be a one stop, transparent, easily accessible place for residents to apply to city funded affordable housing and provide increased access and transparency around the lease up process, which, again, at this moment, the version of the website. It when it when residents are notified that units are available, that application happens directly with the property manager, not through the portal itself. And this amendment will change that. Okay,
so today you're not able to essentially give us any data as to how many people you could we would think are actually being helped or housed due to this website, aside from the number of people who've actually visited the site, it sounds like is that the only it
is about bringing transparent information to residents about affordable housing offerings and the timelines and process for applying to them once those applications are filed. So whether those were sourced through home Connect is not something we're able to track.
All right. Member Callaway,
thank you, and that is the problem is deficient, and we add functionalities, then that's going to be more money. So it's really not helping our residents. Is providing information, but it's not connecting the residents to housing because you can't even track it. How are you tracking your benchmarks? You're not because the capability in its present form can't do it. So what's the purpose of the website? If we are not really connecting people to housing or we can't track it, we don't know if it's successful or not. So I'm not understanding why we're we're spending millions of dollars with this company, and we don't even have benchmarks, no matrix, nothing to show that it's working or it's effective. It's a waste of our for dollars. All
right. Mr. Mahoney, Honi, would you like to respond or through
the chair? I would disagree with that categorization. It certainly is increasing accessibility of information into publicly supported affordable housing. We are tracking metrics around unique page views in the website, as well as enrollments in accounts and into the proactive communications about real time leasing updates. We're getting really strong feedback, particularly from nonprofit housing navigators, into the value of the tool and helping their clients find and access affordable housing and through the additional functionalities of the portal that we're pursuing through this contract amendment, a lot of the deficiencies that you reference in terms of being able to specifically track whether users on the website are getting placed in affordable housing will be functionality that will be enabled through this through this amendment. So we are absolutely want to, want to see that functionality, and are pursuing that
through the Chair. Mr. Mahoney, how long is that going to take? Because that should have been part of the functionality when we entered into the original agreement. It looks like in 2021 we're not tracking and then you mentioned a number through the chair, 23,000 23,000 residents, you said, and of that, 23,000 residents, did you say 7000 were housed, or were connected to housing. What were those two figures? I wrote them down. You said, 23,000 and of that, 23,000 you said, 7000
through the chairs. 23,500 unique users, visitors to the site over the past three months, which breaks down to 7833 on a monthly basis,
through the Chair. Mr. Mahoney, what is a unique user.
So that means it doesn't that it's an individual web user logging into the website. So if one household repeats, is a repeat visitor to the website on multiple occasions, that's counted as one user,
are through the chair? Are all of these 23,000 users, Detroit residents, or folks outside of Detroit looking to move into Detroit and access affordable housing? Or do you have through the chair? Do you have the capability to track that
we do not have the capability to track the location of those IP addresses.
We do not know,
no so we don't know who's really using it. We don't know if these 23,000 unique, I'm sorry, 23,500 unique users are actually Detroit residents looking to access affordable housing in the city. We don't know that
anecdotally through the chair. We know that the majority of the overwhelming majority of people who sign up for the website again to have used some of those enhanced features, like saved filtering and searching capabilities, are Detroit residents. The majority of the callers to the 866, number that use the resources on the website to get connected to affordable housing are Detroit residents, but we do not track IP addresses for those unique users.
It's not reliable data. In other words, and I think this is a very expensive website, a multi million dollar website that's delivering not so stellar results in my opinion. Of course, I'm not going to support it, and it's a very poor use of our dollars, and we still have a huge housing issue. And I don't think that people who really need the housing even know about this website. How do you promote the website? How do people know about it? And then my next question is, and my last question is, how it will it be sustained, or is it just going to go to go away after our dollars are have expired? So we were investing in the website. How is it going to be sustained and maintained after our for dollars are expired? Thank you, Madam Chair,
thank you. Member Calloway, Mr. Mahoney, to
the chair, to the sustainability question. So we are currently working with do it and OCP to prepare for this the scope of work that that would exist following the ARPA period, we anticipate more of the capability to host and maintain this resource will be done internally with City of Detroit existing resources. We anticipate continuing to require some technical support, additional contractual support to to augment those capabilities. But the goal is to move this now that it is built, and we've invested in the creation of the site and the technology that as it turns to a more maintenance function and stewardship function that those are brought into the city of Detroit, so we're exploring that with with the DO IT team currently.
Through the Chair, I'm very just satisfied with the responses, but you're doing the best you can. Mr. Mahoney, I think this is a very expensive pool using ARPA dollars. And again, I will stand by what I said. We could better use this almost what over close to looks like if we add this amount. Is it going to be posted, $3 million for a website that still lacks functionality to serve our purposes and to serve our constituents. So I cannot support this multi million dollar website coming out of San Francisco, although they have a liaison here in Detroit. That doesn't make it better. In my opinion, I think this is a waste of ARPA dollars. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. Mahoney. Thank
you so much. Member Callaway. Council member young
Thank you, Mayor, President, Mister Mahoney, always good to see you, my man, listen. I just wanted to say something to you real quick. Where is your artificial intelligence here? Where is your technology to be able to use to streamline this process? They actually have something called the applicant tracking systems that can automate, streamline this process. You know, for for app, you know, for people who are applying for these type of things, you can look into this type of data. Are you using that at all?
And why not? We currently are not the there is a plan to there's a lot of work happening to look at how AI can be used for purposes like like this, in connecting residents to public benefits, including publicly subsidized affordable housing. It's moving really quickly. There's certainly opportunity to take advantage of that technology to realize additional functionality and additional efficiency here. But it's, it's very much something that is emerging. Yeah,
I was getting ready to ask you, secondly, because I don't know if it is there, you could do something with the algorithm. And when I was talking about algorithm is basically a step by step process in order to achieve, a step by step method to achieve a goal, like baking a cake. And so I don't know if you could use that in order to achieve your goal. I don't know if, when people go on the actual site, there's so many data points that you could be able to receive, and you use the artificial intelligence collected, kind of like when people go on Netflix, you know. I mean, there's so many data points that people are learning from just from them being on the site. I'm assuming that from those data points, if you had artificial intelligence, you could collect the data that a member Callaway is asking for and more. I mean, I know you could have to have a question about privacy, what do you do with the data, and how do you protect people things that nature? But I think this is a way in which we kind of address that, where it can be efficient, it can be effective. You can answer the questions. It's right there in front of you. Has there been discussions about that long term
through the chair, absolutely. And I should note, we do currently do that in a manual way. So when residents use the sign up for accounts, it asks for information about their housing preferences. So we can see if people are looking for a two bedroom, if they're looking for a three bedroom, if they're looking for an accessible unit, as a lot of different characteristics, and we can then take that information and use it to inform how we're investing in and pursuing affordable housing development activities, to make sure that our investments are aligning with with the needs that that residents are expressing through this tool.
Excellent. My final question I wanted to ask you, has there been any conversation at all at reaching out with I don't know if you reach out directly, but maybe through a third party. You know, we go to the Congressional Black Caucus a lot, and when we go to congressional black caucus all, there's a lot of people who are African Americans, who are within the technology space, and we have the conversations about being able to reach out terms of diversity and things that nature within the city of Detroit. Is there a link, or is there a connection, or is there any sort of reach out with an either a national national league or with the Congressional Black Caucus, in terms of being to attract those type of vendors? Because I run into people all the time who tell me that they're in this space and they have the capability to do this, they just don't have the opportunity, or have any of those discussions. I know I'm kind of going way ahead of the game here with any kind of questions in terms of that at all, in terms of how we're doing it. So not only are we technologically advanced, we're also diverse. At the same time,
we'd be happy to connect and identify those resources as we're considering the future of this portal, we're very actively looking into how to build the partnerships and the relationships to continue to operate, improve and sustain this important resource. Miss Mahoney,
thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor, President, I'm done. All right.
Thank you so much. All right, a motion has been made, and for 18.1 in 18.2 are there any objections? And if you can show me as a note on 18.1
clerk will So note. Madam President, Madam
Chair, yes. Callaway is a no on 18.1
the clerk would note, clerk will So note.
Madam President,
objection member, Santiago Romero, 18.1
clerk would note, clerk will So note. Madam
President, all right.
There are no, no further objections. The two resolutions will be approved.
President, yes. Pro Tem, request for a waiver online item, 18.2
please.
All right, any objections to a waiver for 18.2 hearing none that action will be taken from the City Planning Commission Council. President
Pro Tem James Tate, an introduction of an ordinance. Line item 18.3
President Pro Temp Tate,
when a president a move that the ordinance be read twice by title or printed and laid on the tape,
right? Are there any objections hearing? None that action will be taken from the City Planning Commission council president
pro tem James Tate, a resolution setting the public hearing. Line item 18.4,
President Pro Tem Tate,
the president, moved to set a public hearing for a day to be determined for this ordinance.
Amendment right hearing,
no objection a motion, the motion will be approved for the scheduling of a public hearing from the City Planning Commission
Council. President Pro Tem James Tate, an introduction of an ordinance. Line item 18.5
President Pro Tem Tate,
Madam President, I move that the ordinance be read twice by title, ordered printed and laid on the table.
Hearing no objections that action will be taken from the City Planning Commission, council
president pro tem James Tate, a resolution setting the public hearing. Line item 18.5
Pro Temp Tate,
line under 18.6 Madam President, I move approval for a date to be determined,
okay for a date to be determined? Yes, hearing, no objections a public hearing, the resolution for the scheduling of a public hearing will be approved from the Office of Development and grants
also President Pro Tem James, take a resolution, line item 18.7
pro Tim Tate, Madam
President, move approval of line item 18.7 please,
right. This is a grant application for the inflation Reduction Act, community change grants program. Any objections, hearing, none the one resolution will be approved.
Question, waiver. Line 18.7
hearing, no objections. A waiver will be attached to 18.7 from the housing and revitalization department council president
pro tem James Tate. Three resolutions, line items, 18.8 through 18 point 10,
President Pro Tem Tate,
madam, madam president, move approval of line items, 18.8, through 18 point 10, please.
All right.
Any objections, hearing, no objections, the three resolutions will be approved, and if I can have a waiver for 18 point 10, request
a waiver from line item 18.2 please,
right Hearing no objections, the waiver will be attached to 18 point 10 for the public health and safety Standing Committee from the Office of contracting and procurement. Council
Member Santiago Romero, 14. Resolutions, nine items 19.1, through 19 point 14 noted that line items 19.1, through 19.6 are for the construction and demolition department. First up is contract number 6003852, dash, a two, 100% blight funding amendment two to provide an extension of time only for environmental supportive services, contractor ATC group services, total contract amount, 1,375,000 next contract is contract number 6003854, dash, a two, 100% blight funding, amendment two to provide an extension of time only for environmental supportive services. Contractor, environmental testing and consulting Incorporated. Total contract amount 1,150,000 next contract, number 6003855, dash, 821, 100% blight funding, amendment two to provide an extension of time only for environmental supportive services. Contractor the manic and Smith group incorporated total contract amount 1,375,000 next contract, contract number 3073044, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the commercial property. 701710, West Warren contractor, home rich, wrecking incorporated doing business as home rich, total contract amount, 63,400, next contract line item, 19.5, contract number 3076398, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the residential property. 7692, Concord, contractor, Detroit, next incorporated total contract amount $21,823, next contract, contract number 3077963, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the commercial property, 4244, Joy roll, contractor, Sal and bean, trucking and excavating incorporated total. Contract. Amount, $62,531.33, Cent. Next contract, Contract Number 6006577, 100% CIP funding to provide professional engineering services to support the Capital Improvement Planning Program, Project CS, 1987, contractor, a calm Great Lakes Incorporated. Total contract amount, 11,564,000 that's for DW. SD, next contract, Contract Number 6006459, 100% opera funding to provide water system improvements at various locations in the city of Detroit. Contractor LGC global incorporated total contract amount, $16,752,023 that's for DWSD. Next contract, Contract Number 6006157, 100% opera funding to install a fire incident alerting system and four new DFD stations located throughout the city. Contractor bricks incorporated total contract amount, $175,800 that's for fire next. Contract line item, 19 point 10. Contract Number 6006276, 100% city funding to provide warranty and maintenance for the fire station incident alerting system. Contractor bricks incorporated total contract amount, $431,800 that's for fire next contract, Contract Number 6004598, dash, a one, 100% special revenue. Special revenue funding Amendment One to provide an increase of funds for towing and recovery services for police authorized tolls contractor Bobby's TCB towing service incorporated total contract amount, 489,400 $489,445 that's for police. Next contract, Contract Number 6004594, dash a one, 100% special revenue funding Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for towing and recovery services for police. Authorized tolls, contractor Troy's towing incorporated total contract amount $490,995 for police. Next contract, Contract Number 6004592, dash a one, 100% special revenue funding. Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for towing and recovery services for police. Authorized tolls, contractor seven DS, towing and storage Incorporated. Total contract amount, $349,185 that's for police. Last contract is contract number 6006661, 100% city funding to provide Class B uniforms for the Detroit Police Department. Contractor nine uniform company total contract amount 400,000 that's for police. Council Member Santiago Romero, 14 resolutions,
thank you, Madam Clerk. Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam
President, motion to approve 19.1 through 19 point 10.
Right, a motion has been made for 19.1 19 point 10. Any discussion. Discussion.
Madam Chair.
Council member Calloway, thank
you, Madam Chair. Line item, I'm always concerned when we have to demolish privately owned buildings and we're not able to recoup what we're spending to demolish these buildings one company in particular, line item, 19.6 Solomon, I guess that's the name jazzar or Jazer in Dearborn. I did a little bit of research. I believe they could probably pay to have this building demolished. I think they have the resources. The company is at LLC in Atlanta, but the resident agent is in Dearborn, so I'm really concerned that I don't know if I obviously we don't have the ability, or we're not looking into doing a better job of recouping our dollars on the front end and holding these business owners, these property owners, liable and responsible for the condition of their buildings. And then when it gets to unsafe condition, then the city has to take it on and demolish it so we don't find any bodies or crimes are not occurring in these buildings. But some of these business, some of these commercial, commercial property owners, are very well capable and have the resources if we do a little bit of digging to demolish these properties out of their own pockets and not leave we the taxpayers with the bill, and then we can't collect on it, so we would just do a little bit of due diligence. We'll see that some of these commercial property owners can very well demolish these properties out of their own pockets and not hang us or leave us with the bill. And particularly I'm, I'm referring to line item 19.6 I did my own research, and I do believe this company can tear down this building. Well, pay force is demolition. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much. Member. Callaway. Any additional discussion on these items? All right, and just really quick for 19.8 I know that there was a request from LPD for a correction letter regarding the source of funding to Madam Clerk or to member, Santiago Romero. Do we know if that was received? I know this is not ARPA funding. Is CIP funded for 19.8
Madam President, I do know that we did receive this morning a correction letter at this point. I can't verify if it's for this exact one, but I can check to see I'm sorry I can't hear you, Madam we did receive a correction letter this morning. Madam President, but I can't confirm at this point if it was for this particular contract or not. I can verify it though. Okay.
Madam President, correct I was I also received the correction letter trying to verify if it's for for this item.
Madam Chair, yes. Mr. Washington,
yes. I do believe I forwarded on Monday of yesterday as well, but I can recirculate it back to the body. I do have
it okay, just wanted to make sure it was received to state the correct spending source for 19.8 All right, thank you, Mr. Washington. And any objections to 19.1 through 19 point 10. Objection member Johnson. Member Johnson.
Objection to 19.1 19.2 and 19.3
The clerk will note, clerk will still note, Madam
President. Member Callaway, yes,
thank you, Madam Chair. Objection line item, 19.4 19 point five, 19.6 and I think that's it. Madam Chair, thank you,
right? Thank you for clerk would know. Clerk will So note,
Madam President,
there are no further objections. Those resolutions will be approved. Madam President, yes. Request a waiver for 19.7 through 19 point 10. Waiver requested for 19.7 and 19 point 10. Any objection?
Objection? Madam Chair, all
right to both. Member Callaway, yes. Madam Chair, okay, so that motion does fail for a waiver in member Santiago Ramiro, Madam President, just for clarity, I requested the waiver for 19.7
through 19 point 10.
Okay, 19.7 through 19 point 10, correct. So just remember Callaway, connecting to all three, directing to
Madam Chair. I didn't hear the other ones read, I'm objecting to line item seven, 19.7 and 19.8
Okay, the clerk would note, clerk was so note, Madam President,
so 19.9 and 19 point 10. Those resolute, those waivers do pass. Member derhoff, thank you. Madam
President, request waiver for 19.6 which is in district seven.
Any objections to 19.6
objection? Madam Chair,
okay, the clerk would note. Clerk will So note, Madam
President,
so that motion does fail for 19.6 All right. Member, Santiago Romero, if you want to continue motion to postpone 19 point 11 through 19 point 13, there were questions from a colleague. Right discussion. Pro Tem Tate,
thank you so much. I did have questions on this particular item, I know that there was an analysis, and my team has been working with the department during this meeting to obtain information. Don't want to point fingers as to why the information has not been provided, but still have some questions myself I would like to go through based on the analysis that was mentioned in the responses. So we should certainly give me and my team an opportunity to thoroughly review the analysis as well as the full breadth of the request in this these particular items, all
right, thank you. Pro Tem, I'm Hearing no objection. We will postpone 19 point 11 through 19 point 13. Member, Santiago Ramiro, for one week, thank you. Motion to approve 19 point 14. Right motion has been made for approval for 19 point 14. Any objections? Hearing, no objections. The one resolution will be approved request a waiver. Madam President, Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to 19 point 14, from the Department of Public Works, administration, Council
Member Santiago Romero, a resolution. Line item 19 point 15. Council Member
Santiago Romero, motion to approve. All right, this is a petition from the Detroit Metro Sports Commission to install banners around Ford Field and other streets for the Detroit bowl game. Any objections to the resolution? Hearing no objections. The one resolution will be approved from the Department of Public Works.
Council Member Santiago Romero, five resolutions, line items, 19, point 16 through 19, Point 20.
Member Santiago Romero, motion to approve. These are all various petitions for encroachments. Any objections? Hearing, no objections, the five resolutions will be approved, moving to the new business portion of the agenda from the mayor's office.
Council member young six resolutions, line items, 20.1 through 20.6
council member Young,
thank you, Madam President, before I want to make a motion, I would like to make a motion to remove line item 20.3 the petitioner has requested to withdraw this event. So our motion to remove line item 20.3
All right, Hearing no objections, we will remove 20.3 from our agenda. And member Young, thank
you, Mayor, President, I would like to move to approve line items, 20.1 20.2 20.4 20.5 and 20.6
right. A motion has been made. These are all various city events with departmental approvals. Are there any objections to these resolutions? Right, hearing. No objections. The five resolutions will be approved.
What's the waiver line? 20.6
any objections to a waiver hearing, none. A waiver will be attached to 20.6 from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Council member young three resolutions, nine items, 20.7 through 20.9 for subcontract number 6002430, dash a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One, to provide an extension of time for rental and purchase of agricultural and construction equipment contractors. Southeastern equipment company incorporated total contract amount, 350,000 that's for general services. Next contract, Contract Number 6006527 100% city funding to provide forklift maintenance and repair services. Contractor, bail, forklift incorporated total contract amount, 240,000 General Services. Last contract is contract number 6006700, 100% on percent ARPA funding to provide beneficiary agreement for historical sites and facilities support contractor, gamma lambda, Community Development Corporation, GLCD, aka gamma lambda, Chapter of alpha. Phi. Alpha incorporated total contract amount 200,000 that's for general services. Council member young, three resolutions.
Thank you. Council member Young, thank you, Madam
President, I moved to approve line items, 20.7 through 20.9
All right, a motion has been made for approval. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections, the three resolutions will be approved. Madam President, yes.
Mr. Waiver alone, 20.9
you had a waiver same way? Yeah. Wanda, 20.8 motion has been made for a waiver on 20.9 hearing, no objections, that action will be taken and member Young has a request for a waiver for 20.8 Hearing no objections, that action will be taken from the Office of Development and grants. Council
Member Santiago Romero, a resolution line item, 20 point 10.
Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you. Madam President, this is to accept the grants motion to approve. Are there any objections? Hearing none. The one resolution will be approved request a waiver. Madam President, Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to 20 point 10 from the Office of Development and grants. Council
member young, a resolution line item 20 point 11.
Council member Young,
thank you, Mayor, President, I move to approve line item 20 point 11.
Right? This is a grant for the outdoor recreation legacy partnership. Any objections. Hearing, no objections. The one resolution will be approved.
Request a waiver online on 20 point 11.
Hearing, no objections, a waiver will be attached to 20 point 11 under resolutions.
Council Member Santiago Romero, two resolutions, line items 20 point 12 and 20 point 13, noting that line item 20 point 12 was postponed from last week formal session. All
right, thank you, Madam Clerk. Council Member Santiago Ramiro, motion to discuss 20 points 12. Madam President, okay, discussion. We are back to discussing tow rates. I believe there was some work that was going to be done to try to address the concerns of residents really being targeted by third party towers that are beat that are charging them just extreme amounts of money. So not sure if you have any updates on presidents to finding those solutions? Yep. So we are working on, as I mentioned before, an actual ordinance, which will take a little bit more time than us postponing this item here at Council. And so I am okay with moving forward with this to date, unless other members have issues with it, but we are working on a long term solution, which would be a policy change. We did submit a memo today asking that a ordinance be drafted. I've had some initial conversations with DPD as well, and so we're looking forward to codifying into law a process that actually clearly states what residents rights are as relates to police authorized Tony, so I'm okay moving forward. I'm not sure if members have any additional questions or concerns for this item, but we are still working on a long term solution regarding that issue. Madam President, through you to you. Thank you for that. I appreciate that, because for me, my one issue still is that outstanding issue that that we can't address today, but feel comfortable moving this forward. I know that we have folks that have been waiting for these rates to go up, which I am in support. I supported the process, and I will do so again in two years, but today, I would not feel comfortable supporting the approval of those rates, because we still have yet to address the issues with residents. My hope is that we have that solution in place in two years. We go through the whole process again, and I feel comfortable approving the rates in two years, and when I make a note, thank you to the toll rate commission, who has reached out for me to do a ride along, I will be happy to do so. So for me, just really want to learn more and be better prepared for next time. But also feel comfortable, if my colleagues feel comfortable moving this over today, for us to do so. And just to be clear, though we approve it today, it doesn't go into effect until What's the date? It's correct, Madam President, I'm forgetting the dates. But it would not be, frankly, until July one. Okay, so fiscal year, July of next year, though, even if we were to wait and do it a month from now, it still will be July one. Okay, okay, so if that, if that's the case, then I don't, you know, mind taking a little bit more time on this. I don't know if we need to hold it here at formal, so after we send it back to committee or, you know, removing because if you maybe give us a cup, it's going to probably take a couple of weeks to really get a hold of what this ordinance would look like. And if we were to approve it today, and it doesn't take place until July, anyway, that can give us a little bit more time. It's good. It's good. Speed.
Good afternoon. Laura Goodspeed, Auditor General and chair of the 2024 towing rate Commission. The only comment I would have is it does have some budgetary implications for particularly the Detroit Police Department. So I just would ask that you consider that as you decide to either, you know, vote on it today from a
time perspective, timing perspective. Can you explain that? Well,
because the rates, to the extent that DPD may be incurring more additional tolls, those fees, those administrative fees, first of all, do impact their their revenues as well as their expenditures. And so we are entering to that budget season. Departmental budgets are due by the beginning of November, so I just want to mention that it does have implications for Detroit police towing and their empire unit operations. Alright.
Thank you Miss good speed. Council member young, not sure if anyone has any additional council member young,
yeah, I just wanted to ask one. Thank you so much. Good to see you. Miss good speed. I just wanted to ask you one, we are increasing the amount of money that we're providing in these contracts. Or, I think we already, if not we already did for some of these tolls that offset that costs that you're talking about through the chair, without us passing these toll rates
through the chair, the contract increases that were before you are really separate from these proposed increase rates. Again, these proposed rates would take place effective July 1, 2025 the contracts before you, my understanding, was to provide a mechanism for the P, A, T, S, the police authorized towards to be paid for the work that they've done as the work, also the work that they're planning to do at the current rate. There's
just a lot of issues that I have in terms of raising these rates right now with the towing system that currently exists, there's some performances of things I like to see as well. Dr powers, and then this is my final question, is it inappropriate for us to put items to be determined here, so we could do that if we so chose to do that here, or would they do to the committee?
Those are only two options. Those are only two options. We can't, we can't like TBD, like you do in committee, right? I just want to make sure. Okay, that's all
your capital. Member, sending it back to committee. Yes, okay. Is there any objection on sending this item back to committee? All right, Hearing no objections. We will send line item 20 point 12 back to the public health and safety committee,
through, through the chair, the members, the commissioners on the Tollway commission, would have also asked, Is it possible for us to make our presentation to the Council of the whole we believe that there's a lot of good information in that presentation, and they've asked If I would see if that's possible to
do. Yep, we'll work with you, Mr. Speed to get that schedule. All right. Thank
you. Okay,
welcome
all right. In line item 20 point 13, motion to approve. This was moved for approval resolution in support of purchasing low emission wheelchair accessible vehicles to enhance paratransit services. Are there any objections to 20 point 13? Hearing? No objections. The one resolution will be approved under resolutions, Council
Member Benson a resolution. Line item, 20 point 14,
Council Member Benson motion. Motion has been made for approval. This is a resolution in support of House Bill, 4491, as introduced in the Michigan legislature on May 14, 2024, any objections. Hearing no objections, the one resolution will be approved.
Buster, waiver in line 20 point 14,
alright, Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to 20 point 14. And before we move to our referrals, we do have a walk on two, walk ons three, walk on actually, that we need to address. So council member young want to move yours.
Thank you, Madam President, I just wanted to, I like to move line item 20 point 24.5, to new business to be voted on today. The contract supports Halloween, the D event, with the festivities covering the procurement of candy, games, arts, crafts and other necessary supplies. So I'd like to make a motion to move line item 20.4 no 24.5 to new business.
Right? Any objections? Hearing, no objections. This will be added to new business and member Young,
thank you, Mayor, President, I like to move line item 24.5 Move to approve. Line on 24.5 for discussion. No, just move to approval. So
I just really put discussion. Oh, you want this guy discussion point five regarding the program supplies and the contractor not being based in Detroit, and this is simple supplies, like candy goods, etc. I don't know if mister Washington can just come briefly to speak on this contract. The director Perkins is available on Express LLC,
Yes, Madam Chair, if we can promote larae Smith as well as Tony limit.
Okay. I
Good afternoon. Lori Smith, representing General Services Department,
all right, Miss Smith, if you could just give a little bit more detail this. You know, it's not going to committee, so I don't have an overall teeter report for this, but just the bidding process. Why this was not going to a Detroit based business scene that we're talking about? I think you said, art supplies, candy, etc. So if you can just briefly speak to the contract before us, please.
Actually, let Miss Tony speak if she wants to speak first on behalf of OCP.
Thank you so much. Miss limit, good afternoon.
Good afternoon through the chair. Tony stewart limit, Deputy Chief Procurement Officer for the office of contractor procurement. So we did put this out for bid. It was open to anybody from all over the city of Detroit as well to participate. We did not receive any bids from any companies that are located in the city of Detroit to provide bulk candy. We are awarding multiple contracts for the program supplies. This was the only vendor out of the five companies that submitted that provided bulk candy sales, which is why it is coming before you now, because Halloween is so close, and in order to get the actual candy, we need to put the order in now To be able to have the successful Halloween and indeed.
All right, thank you. I just, it's just, I can't believe we don't have a Detroit based business that can provide this type of service for I mean, we're talking about funding for Halloween and indeed. So how long was it out for? Be it you said, you said, No, Detroiters applied
through the chair. That is correct. We've had companies that have applied in the past, and we were expecting them, but they provide, like the Tootsie Rolls, none of the larger type candy in bulk. And so this year, they did not submit we did reach out to them, and they do not have the capacity to provide us with the larger amount of candy that we're requesting without hindering their regular services to local residents. Okay,
all right. Thank you. Ms lemon for that information. Any additional questions on this contract discussion council member Benson
is $80,000 a year in candy. How do we distribute that? How do we how does that go out? How do we know where this is going? That's a lot of money in candy, which obviously is a lot of candy this. How do we put that out into the ecosystem?
Through the Chair. I'll turn it over to Loray to discuss how the General Services Department and the Department of neighborhoods distribute that.
So your question is in regards to sorry through the chair. Your question is in regards to how the candy gets distributed.
$80,000 a year worth of candy, lots of candy. Yeah, there, there
are lots of we support all the, if I'm not mistaken, all the police departments, the rec centers, all of those activities that pass out candy during Halloween. And so we support and provide candy for all those, those departments and in services. And
are we providing higher quality candies, such as chocolate versus just hard rock candy?
Correct? We do that is the goal. Yes, I just want
to make sure our youth deserve that.
I think Miss Tony had her hand up. Sorry.
So through I was going to say yes, that was one of the requirements we're looking for, like the larger candy that's coming, as opposed to what we received in the past, which was the Tootsie Rolls and the fruities that many of the kids are not very pleased with
Okay, so we are receiving chocolate, though, correct through
the sherry to council member vesting, yes. Alright, thank you. Just want
to make sure it's important that if we're going to invest in our children this way, we invested a higher end, that they understand that they are deserving of that higher quality. And while rock candy is nice, I'm sure chocolate is better, and I'm sure that you appreciate that. I'm also hoping that we're thinking about the health refined sugar not the most healthy way to to support not good on the teeth, either. So I'm hoping we're also thinking down the line about how we can help those families when it comes to teeth health. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Member, Benson,
I'm president.
Oh Tim Tate, thank you,
Madam President. Just quick question was Janko distributors, located on Grand River, one of those entities that typically biz but did not this year.
Um through the chair to council member Tate guest Janko was invited. They were a previous company that provided us the Tootsie Rolls and fruities that they had available. So they did not submit a bid this year. We did reach out to them. They did not have the capacity
for the record. The kids I've talked to do like fruities. They like fruities. They don't like Pop Tarts or the Little Rock cannon candies they like, fruities, personal commentary
and chocolate. Thank you.
All right. Any additional questions or comments on this contract? All right? Member Young has moved before approval. Are there any objections?
Objection? Madam Chair, the clerk would know council member Callaway.
And if you can also show me as a no on this item as
well, clerk will So note, Madam President,
any further objections, hearing none. The one resolution will be approved. And we have an additional walk on? Yes. Thank you
members. I want to thank you to waiver online. 20.5 24.5
waiver has been requested for this contract. Any objections?
Objection,
okay,
so that motion does fail, and we will move along to the walk on for the City Clerk's department. Madam Clerk, if you would like to move this one as well,
yes, Madam President, we have before us a walk on request for the City Clerk's Office for contract number 6006737, it's 100% city funding to provide election voting boost for the elections department. Contractor is Miller consultants and elections. Slash election source, total contract amount is $169,200 and that's for Department of Elections. Madam President, if there are any questions, when you move it, we do have Chris maduka on the line to speak on this contract. All
right. And the reason for this request is to ensure that the clerk's office has sufficient voting booths across all 14 early voting centers and 400 polling locations, especially in the event of voter surge. This will also help alleviate any potential lines discussions. Yes, just want
to verify. So this is just the partitions the protection to provide a level of privacy during the voting process.
Let's get clarity. I think this was for additional voting booths, from my understanding, but we have someone on from the clerk's department who can give us some more information. I
I can promote Mr. Manduka.
Good afternoon, everybody.
All right,
good afternoon. If you could just clarify what exactly we are purchasing here for the City Clerk's Office. Through
the Chair, we are essentially trying to purchase additional voting booths to ensure that we have short lines, or shorter lines for the elections. That's essentially what it's for. Early vote centers, the polling locations on election day, just more voting booths to deal with surge capacity.
So voting booth so we're talking the partitioned only machines as well inside those boots, or just the actual privacy barriers.
Just the privacy barriers,
okay, thank you member. Young.
Thank you, Amanda. I don't know if this is directly to you. I support this. I think it's a good thing. I just think with more voting booths and dealing with surges, you're dealing with more people, what does safety look like in these places? What's security look like here
through the chairs for the election day. We're going to have contractor security as well as DPD during rolling throughout the city on election day. So there will be security, like I said, at various polling locations, as well as Huntington place and just about early vote centers as well as the Department of Elections, but yes, there will be security at all locations.
And from my understanding, you're also partnering up with the Department of Homeland Security as well. My understanding, yes, that is correct. Okay, so make sure. Thank you,
right. Thank you so much. And if there are no additional questions, um, you need to move this for approval. It was never, it was never moved forward, yep, so we need to move this on to new business. Okay, yep. Motion, so member Johnson has motion to move this to new business. Hearing, no objections, that action will be taken, and if we can now move this for approval, motion to approve hearing. No objections. The resolution will be approved.
Thank you.
Thank you. And lastly, we have a referral request for a public hearing. Is this, you pro tem Yes, ma'am president, pro temp Tate, yep. Thank
you, Madam President, walk on for referral to committee, request for public hearing to establish a commercial a redevelopment district for 2930, East Jefferson LLC.
Right motion has been made to walk on to new business for a referral and Hearing no objections that action be taken. Yes,
just why the need for the walk on versus the traditional pathway.
It wasn't submitted. Thank you. Okay.
And lastly, there is a memorandum from my office regarding the request for an ordinance to be drafted. We would like to replace this memo with line item, 10.8, 1018, and so is there a motion just to replace this updated memo with line item 10 point 18? Do I have to walk this on? Dr powers, I want to replace this memo with a 10 point 18. This is updated version of that item. Do?
Okay, is there a motion to walk this item on to new business? So move all right, Hearing no objection that action will be taken. And I guess is there a motion to substitute this item for line item 10 point 18. We just remove it. Okay, we can remove line item 10 point 18.
Motion to do so. Move,
Madam President,
please, right, here are no objections. We will remove line item 10 point 18, and the new memo will be referred to the committee. All right, I think that is all of our referrals. So we will move now to the president's report on standing committee referrals and other matters for the budget Finance and Audit
Committee, submit a little memorandum. The one memorandum
will be referred to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations standing committee,
two reports from various city departments, learning the light and 23.2 was moved to new business for a vote. All
right, the two reports will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee,
two reports from various city departments, noting deadline, items, 24.5, rules, new business profile,
alright. The six reports will be referred to the Neighborhood and Community Services standing committee for the planning and development. Standing
Committee to reports from various city departments.
The 10 reports will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee
13 reports from various departments.
The 13 reports will be referred to the public health and safety Standing Committee under the consent agenda,
there are no items. Madam President, right? We
will call for memory ports, and we will start with council member Calloway.
Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Real quickly. Monday, October the 14th, at 8am I'm hosting our monthly coffee and conversation. It will be at the Mount Beulah Baptist Church, located at 20056 cherry lawn. Again, that is October the 14th, 8am mount Beulah Baptist Church, 20056 cherry lawn, also on October the 14th, from three to 4pm you're hosting a virtual meeting on how to register and do business with the city, with the Office of contracting and procurement, we will cover Detroit supply schedule four facilities. Again, that is October the 14th, from three to four, and then join us again on Monday, October the 28th from three to four to discuss schedule seven, moving, including the relocation of goods and furnishings, and this is also being co hosted by the Office of contracting and procurement. On Monday, we are hosting our virtual community call at 530 it lasts for one hour, and we will have the Wayne County Treasurer, Eric say Bree on the call and the property assessment Board of Review, again, that is October the 21st at 5:30pm it will last for one hour, and then join us, my team, and I on my team, and me on the avenue of fashion, or our 2024 Fall Fest from one to 7pm and that will be October the 26 important more information about anything that I've said. You can call my office at 224, 4535 and lastly, a huge shout out to Rico razo of the housing and revitalization department for the excellent proposal for lead based paint and capsules encapsulation. I am very, very excited about what he's done with the program at our urging, and will assist Mom and Pop landlords again to get certification to make sure their homes are safe for young children. I'm very, very excited about the prospects of this program. The money is in the budget, and he has moved in the right direction. We're getting the program activated. Had an opportunity to meet him and one of my team members at a home on Fairfield in district two, and it's it's a wonderful program, and I'm excited about him taking action and moving the program for so thank you. Huge shout out to Mr. Rico Rosso. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you council member Callaway, Council Member durha.
Thank you, Madam President. Just want to let members of the public know that our next coffee hour will be held Friday, October 25 from 9am to 11am at the end harmony Cafe suites and more, located at 12041, Dexter Avenue. Again, that is happening Friday, October the 25th from 9am to 11am at the in harmony cafe in suites. Please come out to our coffee hour. This is the opportunity where we can engage with residents, take your questions, take your concerns, and just provide some conversation and dialog of what you like to see happening at the council table. Also want to inform the public that our next policy session will be Monday, October the 28th from 6pm to 7:30pm unfortunately, we had to reschedule our last policy session. So this is the Reschedule date. This is happening again, Monday, October the 28th from 6pm to 7:30pm at the Edison Library, located at 18400 Joy road. Again, 18400 Joy road. And this is our 18th policy session that will take place from 6pm to 7:30pm on october 28 and the conversation will be about housing other than that. That concludes my report. Thank you, Madam President.
All right. Thank you. Member durha, Council Member Benson,
thank you. Just want to remind all of my colleagues that my office will be hosting the benchmarking lunch with City Council staff members. Hope to see everybody there. The benchmarking ordinance is what dictates that buildings of a certain size have to declare their energy usage annually. We want to make sure all of my colleagues are aware of which buildings in their districts qualify for that. I'm sure you'll be getting questions soon, once this ordinance is implemented, and we start seeing the data come in, just one staff and my colleagues to be aware of what's required, who's required to do it, and what they can expect to hear from their colleagues, we will be providing lunch, and hope to see every office represented at that lunch and learn. Thank you. All
right. Thank you. Council member Benson, Council Member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President. Just want to remind district four residents that on Saturday October 12, we will have our fall shred day from 10am till 2pm across the street from the ninth precinct on Gratiot. Again, that is Saturday October 12, 10am until 2pm I also just want to give a special shout out to the housing and revitalization department for coming out and knocking on doors to help share information about the private sewer repair program in a couple of neighborhoods in District Four. And lastly, just want to welcome Clara funeral home to district four major. Clara has his fourth funeral home and looking forward to having the ribbon cutting service on this coming Sunday. That is Sunday, October 13, at 3pm the location is 15251, Harper Avenue, so just want to welcome him to the district, and also want to say thank you and welcome sound mind, sound body to District Four in their official new location on Marang. So we'll have a very busy weekend this weekend in District Four. Thank you, Madam President.
All right. Thank you. Council member Johnson, Council Member waters.
Thank you, Madam President. I want to ask that families mark their calendars with children for October 31 we'll be doing a harvest Fest at the Eastern Market shed three. That's October 31 harvest Fest at the Eastern Market and shed three Thank you, Madam President,
all right. Thank you. Member waters Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, I welcome all District Six members to our office hours on Monday, October 21 we're going to be at equity Alliance from three to 5pm with our health department, and want to ask everyone to join us for our next building power training series, where we're going to talk about emergency preparedness. We will be at the arc of deliverance in Midwest on Thursday, October 24 at 6pm the first 20 folks at a time you're going to get an emergency kits. So get there early, and want to invite everyone to the next evening community meeting, which is going to be next Tuesday, October 15, at Pope Francis Center at 7pm and District Six residents in 42 and seven, please save the dates. We are going to be at Kemeny rec center on October 16, at 6pm to discuss the slow streets project, and folks over at West Warren, we're going to be at equity Alliance on November 7, at 6pm to talk about the streetscape improvements there. Thank you, madam. President, thank you. Council Member Santiago Romero president, pro temp Tate,
a negative report. Ma'am.
All right. Council member Young,
thank you, Madam President. I want to let everybody know that October 16, I'm going to have a virtual meeting with police chief James White. There's going to be a virtual meeting on October 16. Please call our office at 313-224-4248, that's 313-224-4248. That's 313-224-4248, for our special guest police chief, meeting with Jake, with James White on Wednesday, October 16 from five to six. So that's Wednesday, October 16 from five to six, and please to register to call. Call 313224424, 3224424, and everybody know that also, I just want to say I was canvassing Thank you. I want to thank member Tate for allowing me to canvass his district. I was canvassing with super majority that was really good and exciting. We get a lot of good things. And I also had the honor and privilege of being able to present a spirit Detroit award to Letitia James the Ag from New York. So that was a real honor and privilege at the African American leadership awards. So I just want to say, I want to thank you al Thomas. I also want to thank tashana Gill for allowing me to be there. That was a great experience. Thank you, Madam President. That ends my member report.
Thank you so much, and we know that. I think there was a proposal that day too from LBJ Williams. There was yes. So congratulations to them as well in that beautiful announcement and proposal. Yep. Appreciate that. Yep, yep. Alright, just a reminder that tonight the mayor's charter mandated meeting is at Zion hope, Missionary Baptist Church on Van Dyke tonight at 7pm in district five, again, the mayor's charter. Mandated meeting is this evening at Zion hope at 7pm I also like to mention that the right to council will have a community outreach Expo on October the 10th at Hillman rec center from 10am to 2pm this is an opportunity to come out to learn more about right to counsel and to connect one site with attorneys that is this Thursday or October the 10th. This Thursday, for more information, please contact our office and our annual covering the community event will be held on Saturday, October the 26th at the Velodrome from one to 3pm this is our annual coat, hat, gloves, scarves, giveaway for our kids in Detroit to cover them for the winter season. Please join us on Saturday, October the 26th from one to 3pm for more information, please contact our office. These are all brand new coats for our young kids to receive for the winter months. Lastly, I wanted to thank the DGC for the Detroit legacy business town hall that we held this past week. We had an amazing event virtually so many businesses in Detroit that we did not know about came out virtually to attend to get more information on the legacy business program. If you know of anyone who is a legacy business in Detroit, that means you have existed for 30 years or more, please contact our office as we are. We are in the process of formulating a program to support your needs. So we would love to hear from you again Detroit legacy businesses. If you have been in Detroit for 30 years or more, please contact our office so that you can be a part of the formulation of this program as we are trying to address all of the needs that our legacy businesses have here in the city of Detroit. And that will be all of my memory ports today, and so we will move back now to the agenda under adoption without committee reference.
There are no items by the President.
Under communications from the clerk, it will pull
on the pool, on the approval of citizens by the mayor.
The report will be received and placed on file under testimonial resolutions and special privilege. Yeah, no items by the President, all right. And just a reminder, we do have the legislative retreat, and so all committees will be canceled this week and will resume next week. So looking forward to seeing everyone for our legislative retreat, and if there is nothing else to come before us today, yep, this meeting will stand adjourned. Hey,
