Good morning everyone, and welcome to the expanded budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the purposes of our budget hearings. Mr. Clerk, if you can, please call the roll
Good morning. Council member Scott Benson. Council member Frederick Hall, the
third member duh Hall, did indicate he would not be present for this hearing.
The clerk will So note. Council member Letitia Johnson, present. Council member Gabriel Santiago Romero present. Council member Mary Walters, Council Member Angela Whitfield, Callaway, Council Member Coleman Young, the second member Young is on this one. Clerk will So note. Council Pro Tem James Tate here, Council President Mary Sheffield, President
mentioned President Sheffield mentioned that she would not be present for this particular
hearing, and clerk will So note, Mister Pro Tem, there's a quorum. Thank you
so much. Today is Friday, March, 21 2025 good morning to all. Thank you for being here. Our first budget hearing of the day is for human resources department, and we will allow you an opportunity to introduce yourself, director and your team. And you may feel free to begin your presentation. Can you hit that button in front of you by the mic until it turns green there? Okay, thank you. That
better. Okay, good morning Council, pro tem and members of city council. It's an honor to appear before you today to present our fiscal year 26 budget request which supports the continued transformation of the city's Workforce Strategy and talent infrastructure. I i am Denise star human resources director for the city of Detroit, and I will have my team introduce themselves.
Good morning Ursula Taylor, Human Resources Deputy Director,
good morning Kimberly Hall, Wagner, City of Detroit's chief policy and planning officer,
good morning Iris where chief learning officer,
good morning. Darrell Conrad, I'm the Chief recruitment officer.
Good morning. Valerie Colbert Olsen, wedding labor relations Interim Director.
Thank you. This team plays a critical role in executing the city's strategic workforce priorities and in positioning our department, and, by extension, the city for continued success. I know the time is short, but I wanted to briefly highlight how the city of Detroit continued to lead on the national HR stage. Last fall, we were honored to receive the prestigious UKG Aspire Innovation Award at the UKG national conference, the award recognized our successful implementation of an innovative performance evaluation system, significantly enhancing transparency, accountability and leadership engagement. This accomplishment was possible thanks to talent development and Performance Manager Ola Remi ka Fauci, whose passion and proactive effort led him to nominate the city for our implementation of the UKG performance management platform. Ola remys enthusiasm for HR excellence has brought well deserved recognition to our collective efforts. I'd like to publicly thank Ola Remy for taking the time to showcase our team's dedication and collaboration to the world. Special. Thanks also goes to Melanie Williams, our h i h, R I S manager to in the entire HR information systems and talent development teams. The HR department serves as a strategic business partner to every department in the city, ensuring that we hire and retain top talent, support performance excellence, build leadership capability and sustain operational efficiency through data, process, design and technology. The mission of our department is clear and compelling to attract hire, develop value and retain top talent. This mission is the lens through which we evaluate every budget investment, every new initiative and every policy decision. We are driving a cultural transformation centered on workforce excellence, service delivery and employee empowerment, we successfully onboarded 3000 new employees in the past year. 25% of these were internal employee promotions, and 20% were ARPA related. These included high volume mission critical roles such as 400 plus bus drivers, 200 firefighters and 400 seasonal workers who support vital public services during peak periods. We continue to align our recruitment strategy with major priorities supporting departments such as mobility and innovation, housing and revitalization, law department and the community violence intervention initiative. This reflects our capacity to flex as new and innovative opportunities are introduced. A standout example in our ongoing partnership with Detroit at work through the Skills for Life program, we enrolled 850 Detroiters and successfully transitioned nearly 300 into active employee roles that support blight removal and community beautification. This isn't just workforce development, it's economic inclusion and neighborhood revitalization. Our focus for fiscal year, 26 will be on pipeline development, especially for our hard to fill and technical roles. We are building stronger pathways between high schools, community colleges, faith based organizations, district neighborhood meetings and civil service to make city employment more accessible to local residents. Our team continues to prioritize employee experience and engagement. This year, our employee engagement survey showed a seven point increase in favorable ratings, up to 74% this reflects our investment in listening to and acting on employee feedback, we launched a citywide milestone Service Recognition Program celebrating employees years of service with thoughtful acknowledges that manager them. We expanded our employee resource groups to support community innovation and voice within the workplace. We currently have nine ERGs that play a vital role in helping us shape our policies, events and new programs. Our employee well being program saw a 21% increase in clinical service usage and nearly a 50% increase in overall program engagement with offerings like life coaching, a custom web app, and our first citywide safety and well being resource fair, we are promoting a culture of care and safety citywide. We have become a premier engine of organization, organizational growth and learning across our enterprise. Over the past fiscal year, we have made significant strides in embedding a culture of continuous learning across city departments. We successfully transitioned UK G's Time and Attendance training from the ocfo Project Management Office to talent development, reflecting a shift in accountability and execution to our internal team, our Executive Leadership Development Program has continued to evolve. The third cohort graduated with a strong success rate, and the fourth is already underway. These programs are not generic leadership offerings, they are built with intention, incorporating executive coaching, peer collaboration, data analysis and strategic thinking. Through our Scholars Program, we have expanded our tuition discount partnerships to 20 colleges and universities, providing accessible education pathways for our employees. This is a clear example of how we are using partnerships to promote internal mobility and increase the city's value propositions as an employer. New programming such as executive coaching, Team mediation, strategic planning retreats and team building offerings have brought tailored professional development to departments including do it GSD health, dpds, 911, call center and others. These services are not a one size fits all. They are custom designed to solve specific organizational challenges every course, retreat, communication and platform reflects an intentional focus on belonging, access and inclusive leadership. We also leverage artificial intelligence to personalize learning pathways and provide smarter feedback mechanisms. We awarded 155 certification certifications through role specific training, a major milestone in our ongoing focus on companies, competency based development. Looking ahead, we will continue to push boundaries with hybrid learning academies, cyber security training, leadership dialogs and a robust train, the train training, the trainer certification program, our new learning management system, which is a module within our current UK G platform, is scheduled to roll out later this fiscal year. We continue to set the standard for transparent and productive labor engagement. We negotiated seven successor agreements last year demonstrating a strong commitment to labor harmony, consistency and fairness. These negotiations included extensive, extensive collaboration with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, benefits administration and our classification and compensation teams. In fiscal year 26 we are actively engaged in additional successor negotiations and continue to promote operational efficiency in unionized environments. We are investing in manager and union training, including modules on collective bargaining, bargaining, Grievous resolution, labor law, compliance and communication. These programs help us and help us avoid unnecessary conflict and and support a more aligned workplace. We continue to focus on focus on operational excellence. This year, we automated our onboarding process using UKG, which now seamlessly connects the pension office benefits. Do it in our I nine verification into a single streamlined experience for new employees. This work has cut onboarding times by days and enhanced first impressions for new employees. We've also launched an automated employee probationary evaluation system This ensures performance expectations are clearly communicated at the onset of your employment and monitored result resulting in better accountability and development
this next year's vision includes full automation of our merit award process, payroll integration of deferred compensation plans across all vendors in the implementation of a new Data analytics platform to inform policy and management decisions. From a compliance standpoint, we finalized implementation of the earned sick time Act, which is referred to as esta and are now working with law and legislative policy on ordinance revisions to ensure alignment with federal and state requirements, as well as working with them to identify any amendments that may be needed to align our city ordinance with our city ordinances with esta we also provide real time policy guidance to departments ensuring legal legal compliance and proactive issue resolution. This work often happens behind the scenes, but it is vital to effective city operations. We achieved 80% participation in last year's merit planning process. This was a huge leap from prior years. We're committed to equitable performance based compensation into increasing transparency in how employees advance and are rewarded. We also rolled out savvy student loan support and perk spot making financial wellness and discounts accessible to all employees and now to all retirees. In December, we met with over 400 retirees to introduce the new perk spot benefit. This is what we do. This is who we are. Without the dynamic and highly skilled talent in the Human Resources Department and the HR leadership team before you today, none of this would be possible. A special thank you to our teams who work collaboratively each and every day to ensure that we are always focused on serving and supporting our employees. The groups are Employee Services, employee engagement and well being, talent acquisition, talent development and Performance Management, classification and compensation, our HR operations, HRIS, policy development, labor relations, administration and Benefits Administration. Speaking of benefits administration, we would be remiss if we didn't pause to honor the profound legacy of Jeremiah gross, senior one of our long term leaders in the city of Detroit human resources department who passed away late December with nearly 25 years of service, Jeremiah significantly shaped the comprehensive, affordable health and dental benefits enjoyed today by over 10,000 employees and their families. Jeremiah unmatched expertise, Compassionate Leadership as the benefits administrative General Manager and his unwaving dedication continue to inspire us today. We remain committed to building upon the strong foundation. He said, council members, in closing our our FY 26 budget request is grounded in a vision for a stronger, smarter and more strategic workforce. Every dollar requested is an investment in employee capacity, operational excellence and long term service delivery for the residents of Detroit, we're asking for your continued support to expand our use of technology and automation, scale leadership development city wide, strengthen recruitment pipelines for vital resource for vital services, improve policy compliance and compensation transparency, deepen our engagement, wellness and equity strategies. This budget request is about future proofing our city workforce. It is about continuing to build and sustain a public service environment that attracts the best talent, retains high performers, and drives results. We thank you for time and your thoughtful consideration in your ongoing partnership, and welcome your questions.
Thank you so much, Director, star, and you know, thank you for that tribute to Jeremiah, as well as a human being, he was phenomenal. That's even just moving away the staff and the leadership portion of what he does. It's a great human being so and we certainly will be missed. Thank you for that. All right, we're going to go and start with questions. We're going to start on the left side. Member Johnson,
thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to Director Starr and the Human Resources team. We appreciate you all the work that you do. I know you all come before the internal operations committee with a lot of the research that you do for increases in pay and things of that nature. I do want to ask about our first start asking a question relative to just citywide employees in general. Sometimes I do get concerns or complaints about staffing and whether or not someone is available to provide assistance in person, and I'm wondering if you all have done any research on in person versus remote work, I know that that is something that had been uplifted during the pandemic and encouraged to keep everyone healthy and safe as we have transitioned out of the pandemic, have we taken a look at the impact that in person versus remote Work has on the services that the city can provide
through the chair. I make some comments about about that, and then I'll ask if any of my colleagues would like to build upon that. So we actually started flexible work pre COVID, and at least Human Resources was very grateful for that, because we really had to make sure that we could file everyone's unemployment for the Work Share employees. And there were others you know, that we had to file unemployment for, and that was a real heavy lift. Had we not been on the flexible work, it would have been a much more difficult task, as people had to work from home, and we have less than 10% of our population that is actually on flexible work. We you know, police officers, firefighters, EMS, bus drivers, recreation centers and flexible work does not mean that you're working from home every single day. I know that council member Callaway had asked us to put together a not a study, but a summary of how many people are actually working from home. We do keep track of it. They sign agreements. They can be asked to come into the office within, I think it's a three hour time frame. And I think a balance of you know, can a person work from home? I know there's some groups that, from a customer service standpoint, that are only on the phone answering calls. There are software that has been purchased for those individuals. And I'm speaking to the water department that they primarily end up working, you know, from home, because it's a 24 hour operation, and they have software to make sure that the productivity is there. If a department has any issues with productivity, they're able to end that agreement. And instead of, you know, three days in the office they, you know, they could require five to make sure that employees are performing at the highest levels. I'll open up to any of my colleagues that might want to
All right, thank you. So the expectation is that the department would identify if there were any productivity challenges and adjust the flexibility within their schedules.
Yes, how the process starts is that the employee requests the time they fill out an application for it, then the supervisor and their manager, along with the director, have to sign off on whether that position would be one to even be considered for remote work.
Okay, thank you. And the other area I want to touch on is about the well being services. I think last year I said I wasn't aware of a lot of the programs that you all have mentioned, and so I've tried to lean in a little bit to get a better understanding. And have personally attended some of the sessions around well being, because personally, I know I need to work out, I feel like I have to work out, but I can't always find the time to work out. And so I went through one of the well being sessions and decided, Okay, I'm going to bring some elastic bands to the office where I can use that in my office when I'm trying to grab something to eat or, you know, just trying to slow down and make sure that I'm taking care of myself. Because I do recognize that if I don't take care of myself, I can't assist anyone else. And so within that school of thought, I'm wondering if we track or if we can encourage more of our employees who interact with residents and the general public to do more well being activities to make sure that they take care of themselves. And I think we receive a better service, a greater service, just as the general public. We hear many times that people talk about, and I don't want to talk about DDOT bus drivers, but that's what we hear about that some of them have bad attitudes, and I'm just wondering if we can encourage them a bit more or other departments that interact, whether on the phone or in person, with residents and the general public, to go through some of these trainings and Just to make sure that they're taking care of themselves before we ask for them to provide excellent service to residents and the general public.
Okay, I would ask through the chair, ask Ursula to address that sure through
the chair, first of all, thank you for taking advantage of some of the service offerings under our employee well being program. And that's an excellent idea. And one of the things that we have done is leveraged teams within the our various departments. Not only have we leveraged our employee resource group. There is an employee well being resource group, but we also leverage our champions within the department, and that's one of the reasons why we have also become committed to taking the resources, especially to our frontline employees. We've We've launched resource fairs within the Department of Transportation. We've also launched a citywide resource fair within the kmac building, giving employees an opportunity to see firsthand some of the surface service offerings where we are actually participating in various events and activities, just to ensure that we're communicating and sharing the wealth of information that is available to employees. One of the things that we launched, in addition to just resources being available, is an app under the new contract, and thank you all for authorizing and approving some of the extended services, a life coach. And so when we, when you talk about driving accountability, sometimes you know you may not necessarily be as motivated. And so we have a life coach that all you have to do is call an 800 number. There are services that are available free of charge to employees to encourage you to develop goal setting. There is also an app that gives you a wealth of resources around well being that on the go, that you can look at that app and do a podcast, or you have the ability to to develop action plans specifically for yourself. So there are additional mechanisms that we've brought forth for our employees to be able to stay engaged. You know, especially when they're on the front line and don't have the opportunity or the time to necessarily participate in a one on one session, they have that ability. And we're also proud to say that director fear razzo has also agreed to be the executive sponsor for our employee well being resource group. So collaborations with the Health Department gives us the opportunity to just continue to put the word out there that these services are available to our employees.
Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for all that you all do. I think you do a phenomenal job in the human resource department and bringing on more and more benefits for City of Detroit employees. So we do greatly appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Mr. President.
Thank you so much, ma'am. I'm member waters. Good morning.
Could you kind of walk me through
the assessments that people have to take when they apply for jobs and are their say, pre tests or assessments that's given in advance. I mean, not necessarily, but gives them an idea of what could be expected. Or is it just the assessment period? Nothing to just kind of prepare them. No. So
I will give a brief answer, and then I'll turn it over to Darryl Conrad, who actually administers the testing. Not all positions in the city have tests, but when, and you know, you have your job application, and that will tell us what skills that you need to have to in order to perform the, you know, the job. So if, let's say it would be a secretarial position or administrative support, there would be that Microsoft Word or Excel and so to you know, to show that they have what level of proficiency they might have, that might be a test that's given for firefighters. You have to pass a physical agility test and also a a computer based test as well. That would give indications that you would know directions and and things like that, and that also, there are interviews that is considered a test as well to go through a interview process with the hiring manager and a recruiter with that that's my brief explanation, but I will turn it over to the expert, Darryl Conrad.
Good morning and through the chair. I think Denise covered it quite well. We do. We have a test development unit. They specialize in creating assessments. We've done quite a few
variety of assessments, from
computer based tests of knowledge. We've done physical agility tests, we've done demonstrations, we've done writing samples, we've done speaking tests, we've done hearing tests for dispatchers. And then what most people are familiar with is our interview. We work on about 17 different competencies to create an interview guide for each position. It's in line with what we call content validation through a subject matter expert that's actually doing the job. So we can make sure that we pick the best people. Beyond that, we do criminal background, we do drug testing, and there's various sorts of mechanisms of license checks and things of that nature to ensure that we get the best qualified candidate.
Oh, so the assessments are one and done. Not a second bite at the apple.
I'm just just caring. I'm sorry I didn't hear
that the assessments are one and done, not a second bite at the apple.
So first of all, there sometimes is a series of assessments. Okay? We find in this market, though, when people are not used to taking assessments, that you could have a computer based assessment and an interview. So we call that subjects and weights. So you have to, you have to meet a couple of criteria before you can be considered for the job. The other thing that you would have to do is go through the background screen. One and done is not necessarily true. You would have to wait 90 days in between an assessment and you can retake it. So if you fail an assessment the first time after 90 days, you can retake
it. Okay, that's what I need to understand so. So thank you, um, my other question is just centered around
breast cancer,
education, awareness, and I know that you and I briefly discuss about rolling something out here with employees. And so are you able to share where you are with that you haven't finished it? October will be here in a minute,
through the Chair, I know that our
wellness committee, that is comprised of Benefits Administration and the wellness team that was talked about earlier, they are working on something and for October. So as soon as we have that
as a as a breast cancer survivor and a strong advocate, I certainly would like to know who they are, so that we can plan together. Thank you. I will get that too, all right then, thank you, Mr. Chairman, thank
you, Mr. Clerk, if you please note that we've been joined by member young Bucha.
Oh, I'm sorry also member
waters.
Let y'all work that out later on.
Remember Santiago Romero, thank
you, Mr. President, good morning, HR team. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for the work that you do. We very much appreciated. A question I have is, my staff have discussed the idea of unionizing. Would this be something that HR can help with
through the chair? I will have Valerie COVID address that
through the Chair, good morning.
The Public Employment relation act is what controls public employment in this for not just through the state of Michigan, any employee can contact the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, and they will provide them with information as to what they need to do to constitute or form a union. That is not something that would an employer would do. We they can, at that point in time, reach out, and many do reach out to established unions already within the city of Detroit. Many employees do show a level of interest, and they sometimes accrete into existing unions. But unionization is something that is controlled by the public employment relation act and also through the Michigan Employment Relations Commission.
Thank you. I appreciate that guidance because I know that I can't as much as I would love to support I will be here to support them when they've gone through the process. So thank you for sharing how they can begin that process if they would like to move forward. Thank you. My next question is regarding discrimination cases we often hear, and we've been in emails before, of staff, of residents feeling as if, or even tenants feeling as if they've been discriminated by a landlord in the city or by the city of Detroit. We do have chapter 23 I've read the ordinance that tells us how we are going to protect does not say how we're going to do so. So wondering how we've gone through discrimination processes so far, and what that looks like. And I'm sure you know, we're looking at revamping the ordinance so that we have a clear process to put some teeth to really help us with discrimination cases, but wondering how we've been doing the work so far
through the Chair, I'll ask Kim Hall Wagner to address that Good morning, good morning, as
a former Creo director, most of the complaints that you would be speaking of would be handled through creo. However, we do handle the employee related complaints. We will partner with Creo to provide responses, perhaps to coordinate training, but primarily for the roles that you're speaking of, tenants and the general public. That would be something for Creo to respond
to. And we had Creo here yesterday, and there still really was, there really wasn't a response. So I think that's the answer. It's not there, right? Which is why we're looking at revamping the ordinance so that we do have a process, because we need to make sure that when somebody is is claiming discrimination, that we take, take it very seriously, we give them due process, and that there is a solution at the end, I have many other questions that I will send over in in writing. Thank you to my staff and interns that are writing these down for us. We'll send those over by memo, but thank you so much. Thank you Mister President.
Thank you member Callaway. Thank
you Mister Chair. And good morning everyone. Thank you for the tremendous work that you all do, very responsive. You know, I have an HR background, so I'm always asking questions, since I've been out of that field, since I've been an elected official to this office. But thank you so much for your service all year round. I do have a question and about the six weeks paid parental leave program. How's that working? Because I've got nothing but tremendous positive feedback from those folks that I just see in passing, and they thank us for passing that, that law, whatever it was the program, getting it, getting it approved in my very first year in office. So how has that been working? What has been the feedback
through the Chair? I'm going to ask Ursula to to answer, but I will tell you that the employees really do love it, and they're, you know, I, I don't know the numbers off hand, but we, we can give those, but I will let Ursula dress or
through the chair again. Thank you all for your support in passing that one of the things that we have received is 100%
thanks for the support we've had over 331
employees that took advantage of the program, and we continue to provide information sessions to ensure that employees are aware that they do have this benefit as an opportunity. And so again, we thank you for the support.
Thank you to the Chair. Thank you so much. So you're saying 331 employees have already taken advantage of the paid parental program, and it's only been, I think it's going into its third year, if I'm not mistaken, second year. Okay, so January was the second year. All right, okay, so I just did a little research. So January was the second anniversary of the city's paid parental leave program. Kudos to you. Thank you so much. And I thank my colleague. To the left member, Benson. He had been wanting it, and we partnered, and we got the support of our colleagues. So we're so happy we were able to get that over the finish line. So thank you. My next question is, it's all about children and families. For me, that's what our charter requires us to do. So the state of Michigan has a program and director star, you know, I've been trying to get child care and support and vouchers since I've been on this council, but the state of Michigan has a program to assist families with child care costs. It's called the my try share. It's a voluntary program in which the state of Michigan will pay 1/3 of the cost, the employer will pay 1/3 of the cost, and the parents, the family, will pay 1/3 of the cost. This program will dramatically reduce the child care burden for the parents. And I see the families in my head, and I know the ones who work for the city, and a lot of them are single parents with children, and I was just on the bus with Miss Tiffany. Miss Tiffany is a single parent with five children. This would help her, if she's driving the bus, we know how much she's making per hour, right? And if all of her children are not in school full time, some of them are in child care, and she's having to foot the cost and is having to come out of whatever her earnings are as a bus driver. This program, again, will dramatically reduce the child care burden for the parents and allow for a better quality of life. Has the Human Resources Department considered the my try share program for the city of Detroit employees, that's question one. If so, what is the estimated cost to the city of Detroit if such a program was implemented? And thank you
to the chair. Kim g1 Okay,
good morning for the chair. Yes, we are definitely looking into that program. The challenge will be, there will be some benefit. There will be some employees. Absolutely. Tiffany sounds like she would meet that criteria, because there is an income eligibility component. And so what we're looking to do is to measure that income level component, find those employees and start looking at the data. We want to research what that demographic could look like, so that we could try to cost it out and get some idea of what that cost would be. So we're going to start that process of trying to data mine and then do some predictive analytics in terms of who would, you know, participate, because that's the biggest thing we'd have to know what our demographics are, who might participate in this, and so we're going to use some predictive analytics to help us get there, and then we will be partnering with this honorable body and your office to try and launch that within the next fiscal year. Yeah, I'm hoping so, and I'm going to put this into Executive Session.
It's necessary. It's happening across the state, and I don't know why it hasn't happened here yet. And if you build it, they'll come. If you if you offer it, they'll accept right? If you let folks know who are struggling, coming to work every single day. And we know from almost a year ago, when we had strikers here, folks who were on strike, protesting their situations, their their employment situations at the casinos. Everyone who stood up saying they're working two jobs, and most of the folks were black women. So I look and I listen and I remember, so those they need help too. They don't work for the city. They work for the casino, but those same women who were represented here are working for the city. We know. So if you build it, ma'am, they'll come. If you offer it, they'll accept it. But right now, we're not offering anything. And these same women are struggling. These parents are struggling. Some single fathers raising children, we know that's that's a growing population as well, right? And even some two parent households are struggling. So I'm not just saying that it's the single family who are struggling, because some, you know, with the father and the mother there are struggling. So I'm going to make a motion to put the my tri share program into executive session, and let's see if we can get this across the finish line, because we did it with the pay parental leave program. And I do believe the will is there to get this across the finish line before the end of 2025 and once you put the announcement out there and do whatever we have to do to announce it and promote it, advertise it, I would be, I'd be surprised if nobody would, you know, reach out to you and say, You know what, I could Use this program? Can you provide some more information? So again, that's a motion to put this into executive session. Mr. Chair, there's
a motion on the floor Colleagues, any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken. Thank
you, Mr. Chair, and I have just two other questions, and I'll send them to you. And thank you so much for all the support that you give my office and you give all the other departments in the city. Thank you so much and continue the good work. Thank you.
Got a few questions. One is, first of all, thank you again for the work that you all do. People facing jobs here in the city of Detroit, talk to us a bit about the in service training, ongoing professional development that they have strictly in that area. And I'll tell you, you know, I, like many others, you know, have challenges when you end up having to call sometime to various departments want to get that white glove treatment. Usually, when you're calling, you're calling because you're stressed out about something, and you need some someone to give you a little bit more encouragement, a conversation that will be less Curt, but one that's more compassionate, dealing with the human element. I've talked about that as well in some of the other budget hearings. Can we talk a little bit about what we do on an ongoing basis to ensure that that's taking place, and how do we how do we analyze it and check it right? Are they like, you know, back in the day, they had secret shoppers, so to speak. Do we have the secret shopper that makes the phone call or shows up at the desk to see if the training that we're putting out there, if we're doing so that on in service training that ongoing professional development do have, like a secret shopper or secret caller that will test the system, see if it works the way that we are anticipating it to do
through the chair. I will answer, I'll answer the secret shopper one, and then I will turn it over to Dr ware. Could talk about the internal training that we do to support all the departments. From the customer service standpoint, I will tell you, DDOT recently rolled out a secret shopper and you know program, and he has identified 20 plus individuals that will be secret shoppers to help improve the level of service that you know and experience that our residents and riders have, and so departments are Introducing the secret shopper type of feedback from their customers. And you know, and I know that BC had some special training, and that they continue to do, I believe, and we support the departments on special initiatives for customer support and training so that our employees are equipped with the tools in order to de escalate or to be able to service our residents and customers the best that we can with that through the chair. I'll turn it over to Dr ware to respond as well before
we go there, though, doctor, when we talk about even just DDOT, are we talking about secret shopper on the phone or secret secret shopper in person? Because I think both are complaints that we get with within city council.
Through the Chair, I am aware of the secret shopper on the bus because I had, I know some individuals who have applied for those positions that are internal to the city, that are actually city employees, that they have solicited to be this some of the secret shoppers. I'm not sure if they're doing it on the phone. I believe that they are especially when it comes to the paratransit. I could ask Director Kramer to, you know, get back with you on that or find out more information about that actual program.
Thank you so much, Doctor. We're
good morning through the chair. I really appreciate this opportunity to share what we're doing when we talk about learning and development, specifically the direct interface with residents. That's one of the things that we anchor. Everything that we do we don't miss lose sight of the fact that the training we provide is to improve that interaction and how we show up as employer employees to residents, we initially start and all of our processes are anchored in our core values, and we have career paths as well as specific training to address those things. Over the last year, we've seen a rise in need for customer service. So rather than develop just a blanket customer service program, we are moving from department to department to specifically address what customer service looks like, because it can be very different if you are in municipal parking and how you face customers versus if you're on the telephone. So we've been working directly with departments as it relates to having feedback of that connection to understanding one of the primary goals of my team is to not just listen to that feedback, but we go out and we will ride the bus, we will attend community meetings and interact or visit departments to really experience what's happening as customers come to a counter, or as calls come in. We've been working to do that. One of the things that came out of some of the feedback we received is we developed a curriculum around de escalation training, and most often people think about DPD or public safety, but we see a rise in the need of people to have de escalation skills as they talk to people on the phone, as they engage with them over the counter, and we continue to anchor all those things in our ongoing drive for individual development plans. And I would like to specifically distinguish them from a pip. When people talk about PIP, they talk about performance improvement, because a problem is has occurred. We request, and we're driving, and we've seen an increase in IDPs individual development plans, where we focus on building the skills, not because you're in trouble, but just to improve the service that we provide. And initially we started our certification program, so we had an record number of completions of 155 their role based, so they're focused on the number one was administrative assistant. There are often a primary contact, and they set the tone, as well as leadership development courses and leadership coaching, because, again, those individuals set the tone. We have a LEAP program that's available to all employees, that's a 10 course program that, again, is intentional in helping to shape the culture that would improve that relationship and interaction that residents experience, as well as the ones that we experience internally, as both employer and a municipal government and individual responsible for the entity. So I hope that kind of answers that we have a full catalog, and I'll be more than happy to sit with each of you to walk through that, and I do appreciate that many of you have made space for your direct reports and individuals on your team to participate as well.
Thank you for that, and it shows the different layers that that we have, but it sounds like a lot of it is available and optional, as opposed to mandated. What? What would it take to get it mandated via department? I mean, even if it means City Council as well, let's be honest, we have a lot of people facing opportunities. I like to look at them as on a daily basis. But what, what would it take to mandate certain checkpoints? You know, every year you must, you must go through this training. You shall go through this training. There's a number of shalls that you have to do in order to stay employed with the city of Detroit. And to me based on the feedback that I've gotten and as well as again, experiences. Because I don't always call to say I'm council member James Tate, it's I'm a citizen. First, what would it take to get a shout that we that you shall every year go through this training doesn't have to be five days, but training people facing every department city of
Detroit, can I start and then defer to you, Director?
So through the chair
I in my presentation, I mentioned performance evaluations, merit increases in the performance evaluation process, which is now automated, where you every employee really should have a performance review on file, and in that is, you're given goals at the beginning of the year, and you could mandate certain types of trainings for your staff different departments. Mandate it for their departments, or, you know, teams, if you have an individual that needs, let's say, additional customer service, you could, you know, say you need to take at least two to three courses through the talent development organization and human resources, and then we provide the certificates, which would then be uploaded onto the employees file, so there would actually be documentation to support that they've taken the class. And so there is an avenue that we can connect and Dr ware, and you know, could connect or someone from our team,
I appreciate again, it leaves a lot of it voluntarily, voluntary, and sometimes you don't know you have the problem. You're thinking the problem is on the other side of the phone. It's really you. So would like to talk to you a little bit more about that. So I'd like to place someone, if you could please move for me. Like to place a ongoing annual customer service training for people facing employees with the city of Detroit motion. There's a motion on the floor. Colleagues see no objections, that actions shall be taken. And I'll, you know, we'll fine tune it as we go along the way. But something in my head, in my heart. The other thing, the other thing is on my head, in my heart. You know, I read and seen multiple reports about the challenges of the younger generation and the challenges of retaining and attracting I know one department, as we talked to them, as I talked to them offline, they mentioned they have a burnout room to make sure that they figure out how to make things a little bit more fun and lively in between. That's totally different from the time that I began the workforce. There's some things that we now have to look at me work from home. That wasn't a thing when I started the workforce. It was, if you can show up. You show up knowing that things are different quite a bit now in terms of employment, what are we seeing citywide in that aspect, in that area of our younger members of the workforce joining the city of Detroit, and what are we doing to retain them beyond just, you know, paying more and and, you know, maybe even days off. Maybe that is it, or working from home. But what are we doing to attract and retain our younger employees that, you know, traditionally, not traditionally, but what we're seeing increasingly, data to show that it's very difficult to do both those those things on a consistent basis
through the chair. I'll answer a brief answer and then turn it over to Ursula to talk about our employee engagement survey. So we do we ask for feedback from employees, to try to gather, you know, what types of things interest and you know that's why some of the programs that we have developed, you know, in the employee engagement area are ones that are helpful to us and helpful to the city in retaining because the employees feel more engaged
through the chair. That's a great answer. I'm sorry, a great question. And one of the things that we have continued to do is look at and analyze our data relative to the various demographics within the city. And if you look at the Democratic graphics of our workforce, there is a pretty even balance in terms of Gen, Gen X, millennials, the various generations within our organization. And so we do do onboarding surveys as well as off boarding surveys to gain insight as to what are some things we can do internal to the city to retain employees, as well as when they do make the decision to off the board, why are some of the reasons that they are leaving and So there's a various mix, you know, there's always the desire for growth development and opportunities with the city, as well as enhancement of some of the various service offerings. And so with the automation of our onboarding process, it's giving us the additional insight that we do need to be more strategic and focused on the various generations and other demographic data sets, and so we'll continue to launch things like state interviews to connect with employees. We've done some focus groups within departments, just to continue to have various listing approaches to see what are some of the things that our employees need, and what are some of the things that they're looking for and for them, one key component is a connection to community, and so that's why one of the things that we're doing under our engaged our engagement strategy, is to look at how can we connect employees through community, by developing a volunteerism program, and so that's one of our goals that's on the horizon. We've done some interest surveys just to find out what type of community engagement are our employees interested in? And so that different type of data is giving us the information that we need to continue to retain employees, so that not only do they have a connection to their role, but also a connection to community and in the residents of the city. Got it
all right. Thank you so much. Member, young,
good to see you all here. Mr. Director. Star, always a pleasure. I had to tell you there would be times where in my office, my staff would be going through like DEF CON one emergencies, and I would leave to go to session, and when I come back, they said they talk to you, and they all work itself out, it'll be like an amazing process. So I just want to tell you, you have no idea how exalted You are in my office. So thank you for the work that you do. I just wanted to ask you really quickly. I wanted to start with it was my understanding that there was that HR had gotten rid of all the DEI programs, and if that is true, was there a cost benefit analysis done of that before that actually took place? And why did that actually take place?
Through the Chair? We have not eliminated any the DEI programs. We still we have our ERGs. We have nine of them. I am not sure where you know that was heard from, and I'm
glad to hear that's not true. That was just what I heard. I just kind of heard from people telling me that all the DEI programs within the city have been eliminated. And so I was just wondering why that is and how it came about to be okay, because I had, I had a whole speech ready by my father and the history and all that I have to give that. Okay, great. Um, I also wanted to ask you, I was reading here about this, and you were talking about artificial intelligence and how this is helping. HR, I just wanted you to kind of explain exactly what you're using this programs for. Is it for onboarding? Is it for hiring? You know, I know there's machine algorithms, machine learning algorithms, that can be used for that. Is that what this program is for? Exactly? How is this being used, implemented
through the Chair? I'm going to turn it over to Dr Weir. I actually took one of the
pilots where you can actually,
as a supervisor, do some testing and put yourself in a scenario and trial how that conversation might go. And I can't, off the top my head, remember the name of the program, but it was very interesting, and it did help me to recognize that, you know, some of my blind spots, and can help you to have a better outcome in the conversation that you might be having, let's say, with an employee when you're trying to coach them to you know a better solution. So, but with that, I will turn it over to Dr ware. Thank
you. Through the Chair, we are currently using skill gem. It is a product driven by artificial intelligence to the degree that there's so many variations, I'd like to provide some clarity and that what it does. It's not a chat GPT or a virtual headset or goggles virtual reality, or is it augmented? It is a program that's built and anchored in your computer which gives supervisors and managers an opportunity to coach and go into a dialog based on serial nerd scenarios that we create, and it responds real time and adapts to your responses, and they give suggestions on better ways to respond. The features that make it so really cool is that the avatar, for lack of a better term, or the individual that appears to you that you're coaching. That individual has a lot of humanistic mannerisms. It becomes impatient. It asks you, you know, what's taking you so long? And it provides a lot of real challenges that the typical role play in a classroom does not. It also eliminate eliminates a lot of risk, because we know that sometimes in class, when a role model. Happens. People say things that they normally wouldn't, and one person might walk away, still taking that comment personally or reading more to it. This provides very clear and concise feedback. You can replay yourself back to see exactly where you've made should have made a different suggestion. And one of the other features that it provides, too is based on your responses. You can get a look into how that person feels based on your response. So often, when we're in a meeting or have a discussion, you walk out of the meeting, you have a whole nother dialog, and you say that didn't make sense, you call a friend, and it shares that part of the conversation as well. So it provides a really broad review without the risk of any ill conversation or poor feelings, and it tells you and gives you suggestions on ways to to improve. And that, of course, is currently being used as a part of our executive leadership development program, and we plan to roll it out as a manager boot camp and a smaller version for individuals who are interested. So
this is basically just to improve the employee experiences, which, well, it basically to improve their skill set and their ability in the workplace. This is not, you don't plan on moving this in terms of automated tasks of that nature. This is just primarily, just going to be used in terms of training people and being able to, not only one for them to be able to improve their skill set and their talent, but also, would you also say that it's kind of like the I think the the catch phrase now is onboarding, where, basically, you know, you're trying to help people improve their employee experience as well.
Well, it'll, it'll improve the employee experience in that interface and that as the user and employee for the city of Detroit, I'll learn ways to better communicate suggestions on ways to improve the relationship with people that I interface with, but it will not change the onboarding experience is used as a training tool, okay? So
just primarily a training tool, it can also have that same effect, but it's not what it's there for. That's more like a serendipity that's not the main or a secondary purpose, not the not the primary. What you're telling me, yes, sir,
that's it. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. All right? Thank you. Thank
you. Member Benson, alright? Thank you very much.
Thank you all for being here. Just want to say in this reinforce the kudos for my colleagues on the paid leave program is fantastic. And every time I hear or see a young family who works here, hey, did you take advantage of the program? Yes, I did. This program is fantastic. I took advantage of it. My husband took advantage of it. So we're just seeing people who really, really appreciate it. And it's not just for any level. It's not just the directors, it's not just for middle management, is for everybody, and just so proud to see that I know to the number of years, and glad that everybody stuck through the fight, and we have people who really believed and bought in to this program. And I'm just so happy to see this is just another tool in our toolbox of how we can help with retention, and how we can help with our young families, to let them know that the city cares, and to show people that, hey, the city of Detroit is family friendly. If you want to come work for an organization that's family friendly, the city of Detroit is that organization. And with everything that we see around the country right now, it's good to have a safe space where you know, as an employee, your bosses have your back. Just want to say thank you for that. Thank you my colleagues, and especially member with Phil Callaway, for helping to get that over the finish line. Looking at your metrics of success in the budget book, you state that 55% of the unions do not have a ratified contract now, as a lay person, don't know if that's good or that's bad. What where do we stand against other? Where do we benchmark ourselves against other municipal offices of similar size, larger size, smaller size. Is that a good number? If it is, how did we get there? If it's not a good number, what are we doing to improve that number to get us to 100%
okay, through the Chair, I will let Val Colbert address that
the chair, I didn't hear the last part of your question in the 55% I didn't get what that question was. I'm sorry, in
the metrics, in the in the budget book, you indicate that 55% of our union contracts, or our unions do not have a ratified contract? Is that a good number? I don't know. Doesn't say that's a or that stands as far as benchmarking against other municipalities. Is that good? Maybe it is. I don't know if it's not. What are we doing to improve that
we are currently through the chair. We're currently in contract negotiations with a large part of our civilian workforce. Right now we're at the table with ask me, we're at the table and ask me, has not only their supervised, non Supervisory group and their Supervisory group, but they do have smaller, smaller unions that have individualized union contracts. But once the master agreements are settled, they those terms fold into those smaller agreements, and then there may be some changes or or issues that are negotiated for operational needs specific to that group. For example, we have a contract that has asked me, but it's for our crossing guards. We have a contract that is asked me, but it's for our seasonal employees. However, they're all at the table while we are negotiating the main master agreement. So as it relates to it's just really the timing of which the contracts have expired. So we had a number of contracts that expired in 2023 that are completed. We have contracts that expired in January, June of 2024 we're at the table now very close to completion to several larger of our contracts. So it's not unusual to have at this point in time when several of our contracts expired in 2024 to see that kind of number, we have some contracts. We stagger our contract expiration. We have contracts that expire next year and the following year. So it's not unusual to see that. I don't think that that's anything that is probably out of step with any other large municipality, because it just always seems like you're in bargaining because you are in bargaining because you are staggering when contracts are will expire. And you do want to make sure that your civilian contracts expire differently than when your public service public service contracts expire too. So no, I don't think that it is something that is unusual. It is a lot of hard work, of course, to to sit at the table and negotiate the contracts, but we have very eager labor partners, and we're getting the job done.
Okay, thank you. That's good to know. Then, just looking at the the workforce development opportunities that the city of Detroit offers, which is huge, the tuition assistance, the coaching, so what percentage of our employees are taking advantage of these workforce development opportunities. And what kind of return on investment are you all seeing, if you're not measuring in financial I mean, what kind of qualitative return on investment are we seeing and measuring to say this is successful, this may not be working. We're doing better. We've got more employees with degrees, with some type of certification, how we're measuring that
through the Chair, I will ask Dr Weir to talk about our partnerships with the universities that
we have
through the chair, as we discuss the partnerships. Currently, we have a state of 20 colleges and universities that offer tuition discounts to employees as well as their family, immediate family members, and we have had a lot of success. We have challenges in reporting and that in order to maintain those relationships, the relationship is directly with the employee and the college and university. So we struggle with having information because of privacy issues, but there's not a time that doesn't come back. I guess a couple times a year, we'll get an email from an employee who says, Yeah, I completed my degree. I really appreciate what you've offered. And we meet regularly with the colleges and universities, and we'll get some basic numbers that how many people are impacted, but we don't get higher statistics that I could set my head on because of those privacy issues. When we talk about whether or not the other processes that we offer are working, we use both qualitative and quantitative. We rely more heavily on the qualitative, because it's really easy, like our numbers have doubled, and we sustain those numbers, but it's really easy to look at numbers and say, You're doing a great job, but we really don't know if it's working, unless we get feedback from employees, from their leaders. And so those are the measures that we look at in order to pretty much calculate and build them into a report. We are still struggling with an LMS, so we have just finished the pilot, and that will give us the ability to quickly report and analyze we do have hard data, and we could provide that. It'll be a little time consuming because we still do everything manually, but we expect that we'll be able to generate that information a lot quicker with an LMS. We do have the ability, based on individual feedback from employees, from their managers, and for repeat courses, we currently, most recently, to our surprise, we offered a language course, or Spanish, and to our surprise, we had 180 people show up in the class. And often we'll get large registrations, but to have 180 people in a single session. Those are the things that I think I count more than some of the other basic statistics that I could run to kind of make us look good. So those are some of the things we're looking at, qualitative and quantitative. We'll have a stronger quantitative and qualitative once we get the LMS up. But what we have more than happy to
share. And then when you think the LMS will be up, we are probably
then doing demo. Now our goal is to have it up by the beginning of fiscal year.
Okay, so then we should be able to get some LMS data mid July, late July.
Ooh, that's aggressive. So we want to, we
have to load the day.
We'll load the data in into the system, but we can, I work with you directly to get you the information that you like to see, and then we can share it with the other members.
I'm okay. I'll be patient and wait for you guys get your system up and running so we can get those type of reports back. But I'm just trying to manage expectations. So sounds like maybe August or September is we were thinking about getting some data back
if we could say September because we have August 15 is the cut off for performance evaluations, and our team is often very consumed with responses and support in that area. If that's okay. Okay,
so I'll put in a memo request some reports in September with the data on how we're doing qualitatively and quantitatively. Then this Lastly, I want to say thank you to Director star as well as HR department. You all have bought into our bikes for employees program, and that's huge. And just seeing the ability of some of our young families, single mothers who had challenges getting to work to be able to take advantage of that program. My favorite story is the the young mother who had two kids and no way to work, working for GSD, we got her and a an E bike, cargo bike, so both of her kids now go to school in the back of her bicycle, and she takes her bike into work, and she's on time now, and now has the security of knowing that she no longer is in jeopardy losing her job based on not having reliable transportation to work. And so you all being a part of that program is huge. Just really wanted to thank you for doing that, and we continue to expand that, and looking forward to the next solicitation for Detroit city employees to participate in that bicycle program. Really want to make sure that transportation is not a barrier for our employees, and this, once again, the city helping create and support a program B for E, where we provide creative solutions to challenges if you can't afford the car bicycle, get you to work safely and on time and support your family as well. So that's huge. Just we want to say thank you for that.
You chair. You're welcome. When my assistant was reading the communication that was being sent out, she said, I wish I lived in the city so it's it's going to be a successful program. This
is why residency has its privileges.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, thank you so much. And director star, thank you and your team for being here. That takes us to the end of your budget hearing. I look forward to receiving the responses to the questions that have been provided and again, thank you, Mister
Chair, thank you for all of your support Council.
Absolutely great job.
Alright, we will now as human resources exits, we will welcome Employment Solutions for their budget hearing.
Mr. Corley always feel free if you have any questions, you know the floor is always yours, sir. You
Good morning, all
Employment Solutions. You all got here early. Look at that showing showing us how to do it. When you're early, you're on time. When you're on time, you're what? Late. Alright. So we appreciate you being here. Please introduce yourselves for the record, and you may proceed when ready.
Want to hit your mic director,
thank you Good morning. Does anyone need extra copies? We brought a couple extra. Just leave those there. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you. Just as some background, I am Terry Weems. I'm the Executive Director of Workforce for the city of Detroit, and Detroit at work. I have Dana Williams here, who leads DSC, who is the fiscal and administrative agent for workforce for the city of Detroit, and Stephanie Nixon, who is the guru for workforce for the past 90 years, although she's only 22 years old, you're welcome. She runs all of our programming. So as a reminder, we are Detroit at work. Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation is the nonprofit organization that administers the funding. Think we have some slides here, and I'll just keep going while those slides make their way to the
television.
As a reminder, our primary source of funding comes through the Department of Labor. DSC has a board that approves its budget and generally those funds that come through the Department of Labor through to the state and then get administered to the 16 Michigan Works agencies across the state of Michigan. DSC board also reviews and or overviews their procurement. We're here today to review Detroit at works asks of the city as part of the city's budget process. Next slide, we can pause go one more slide again, and just as a reminder, D, E, S, C is subject to regular federal, state and local monitoring, and most recently received a clean audit opinion for their most recent audit cycle.
Next slide.
This largely just shows our footprint. I think most of you are familiar with this. Our Career Center Network has locations across the city intentionally located to ensure that residents have access. We've color coded these for you so that you can see that in green. For those of you who may be color challenged, that's two, eight and nine. Those serve between two and 5000 residents annually. Intensively. More people come to our Career Centers, but from an intensive perspective, like being assigned a coach and so forth and so on, two to 5000 folks, excuse me. And then in yellow, that's one, three and four, about 1500 people annually. And then in orange, that's five, six and seven, about 500 people. We do a variety of things to try to increase our reach. On the east side, Council Member Johnson, we hold several job fairs. President Sheffield, we've done lots of the same at Collingwood and similarly, Council Member Santiago Romero, we've targeted our Bagley location and make sure that we have all of our materials in multiple languages in the bright more near neighborhood. In response to council member Tate's request, we made lawn signs directing Detroiters to their nearest location. We'll continue to do those types of things to draw more attention to our career center footprint. We also have youth centers. These haven't traditionally been advertised as much because our service providers are required to target opportunity you those are youth that are at risk. We heard from member Callaway last year a desire to advertise more. We agree, and we do a lot to promote our duty YT program, but we're in the process of developing a Detroit youth at Work website, so we're really excited about that, and we're also partnering with Wayne State and Wayne Community College District to prepare some information for young people so that they know what their options are after school. Our goal is to make sure that all young people have a plan when they leave high school. I'm also want to just thank member Benson for in his task force who raised the need for tutoring, we've been able to increase tutoring across our youth centers, so we appreciate that, and we're happy to report that over 500 youth have increased their skills. Next slide just a reminder of what we're required to do from a workforce perspective. We're required to operate Career Centers. We're required to operate certain programs. We're required to refer people to training and to provide Employer Services. We go beyond that. Thanks to city council and our philanthropic community, we operate several innovative programs like jump start, and we appreciate member young for sponsoring that program, and many of you sponsor the G, D, y, t program. We really, really appreciate that without that additional support, we would not be able to do what we do beyond the requirements. I know. We're partnering with Member durhall and the returning citizens Task Force on an employee resource fair so we target special populations, including seniors, veterans and so forth and so on. Next slide, I will move now to funding streams, and I'll have Dana Williams take it over
Good morning and through the chair again. My name is Dana, and I have the honor of leading DSC here you'll see that Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation has had a diverse set of funding sources over the years, everything from federal formula funds that are really the foundation of our system to federally competitive applications where we seek additional dollars for special programs. Of course, the city of Detroit funding corporate and philanthropic investments, and then, most recently, arpa. Next slide please. So our fiscal year 26 budget is estimated to beat $66 million and that is consistent with last year, what it would have been without arpa. The funding allocations are also similar, so you'll see there Career Services and G, D, y, t, supportive services, youth, a little bit of admin, and of course, training in some of those areas, we've done some remixing to make sure that we're prepared for the needs that Detroiters will come with us, but all in all, consistent with last year, had it not been for ARPA as well. Next slide please. And so here we just wanted to do a simple breakdown as well of those primary funding sources that come from the city, that staffing grant there the first one, it enables us to have personnel and resources to work directly with our economic development partners and to do the additional marketing and outreach that we know is so critical to our system. We have the Creole Workforce Development Fund, of course, that was set by the executive order, so that we're preparing Detroiters for the future of construction and jobs that are available in that career pathway. And then, of course, lastly, G, D, y, t are very large and very special youth employment program that's so important, as Terry mentioned, as we continue to focus on opportunities for youth, they are the future of Detroit. And so that is very important for us as well. And so I will now through the Chair, if I will pass it off to my colleague, Stephanie Nixon, who's our chief program service officer, to walk through some of the outcomes in the programs of these funds. Stephanie,
thank you, Dana, thank you. Good morning and through the Chair. I'd like to begin by sharing the benefits of our staffing grant. Next slide please, as you know, DSC supports the staff of the mayor's Workforce Development Board who are responsible for developing, growing and scaling programs that connect Detroit residents and with Detroit employers. Part of that responsibility is to coordinate job fairs, and we thank you for those of you who have partnered with us and supported us in those job fairs and of course, requests from employers Next slide please. Now this slide illustrates the number of employers that we've partnered with. All here have committed to an agreement that benefits Detroiters, and at this point, we have referred over 44,000 residents to these employers, with over 14,000 Detroiters hired. You can see to the right, we have five new partners in this work, so we're excited, and this grant helps secure this kind of work. Next slide please. The staffing grant also helps us to pay for marketing. We have websites, we have media events, and I'm sure you've seen our our billboards around the city, where we promote the number of jobs that are available. This staffing grant allows us to do that to ensure that Detroiters know exactly what Detroit at work provides for them. Next slide, please. And for job seekers, our billboards are as diverse as our communities, as you can see, they come in multiple languages. We want to make sure communication is open and clear to all communities of the services that we provide. Next slide, please the executive order our Workforce Development Fund I'd like to speak to that. That Fund was established to support programming designed to increase the pool, pool of qualified Detroiter applicants for jobs in the construction trades. The revenue is a million dollars. This this grant supports. They're aligned with all of our demand occupations. They support participants and organized labor training programs, our relationships with our unions are supported through this grant. It uplifts foundational skills. A lot of our customers need reading and math support in order to deal with the rigor of a lot of the requirements for apprenticeships, and then we also support wraparound services so things like transportation tools and lack of attire can stop their productivity and inhibit them from being able to participate. We want to make sure those barriers are removed. Next slide, please. This grant helps to support individuals in these kinds of trainings. We do braid our resources. So this grant helps us with other funds to ensure that individuals have the opportunity for the kinds of trainings and the skilled trades that are high demand, as you can see to the right, over 45,000 Detroiters have participated in training, job placements, 3400 over 3400 to this point at an average wage of $31 an hour. And as you as you all know that can make a difference in a family. So this is it really important work, and we're really proud of it. Next slide, of course, G, D, y t, that's our baby. You guys support us. We really appreciate that. Next slide here just shows some numbers. Over 8600 young people were placed last year, across multiple experiences, we plan to place more than 88,000 I'm sorry again this year, and we appreciate all of your continuing support with G, D, y t, Thank you.
Oh, that concludes, okay,
oh, that concludes that thank
you all so much for the presentation and all the work that you all do is truly an honor to work with you all you do a lot in the community. We're always trying to bring employment opportunities to people and reach people where they are, which I think is important, outside of the career technical or career centers that you all have, having the ability to move the mobile bus into the community and set up shop throughout our city, I think is important. So if you can talk a little bit more about the Detroit at work career centers, I know you expanded them now to nine total, just wondering how great I know you've talked about the footprint of the the activity, of how many people come in each center. But how are we gaging the success that people are actually coming in and leaving with the job or being referred or entering into some type of training? I do know people who may say they they go and then the outcome may have not been the best. They were necessarily placed in train or did not find a job. So I know we're monitoring the the volume of people that are coming but what is the actual measurement of what we're achieving when people come in?
Yeah, that's a good question. So we regularly, regularly monitor and survey our system. And I think our last survey results were a quarter ago. And I want to say, was it 80 some percent of our customers say they're satisfied with our services. I do know that there are folks who come in who are not who were unable to get into training or unable to get a job, and there are a variety of reasons for that. When it comes to training, there are often education requirements that are required in order to get into training. And so we have a variety of programs that will help people skill up. And I think it's frustrating for some residents that they need to go through that process in order to ultimately get into the training of their choice. There are things that we can do to sort of alleviate that, including helping them land someplace else. But I think if I have a goal to do X, and I don't have the skill set yet to get to x, that's just a difficult conversation to have. Similarly, when folks come in and want to some support to get a job, we have lots of job offerings. We have more jobs than we have people who want those jobs. And so I think that often it's a delicate balance to make sure that the people who that skill sets line up. And we're we're having the really good conversations with people to help them understand what they need to do to increase their chances of becoming employable. We're having conversations with employers about reducing, you know, ban in the box, and potentially reducing requirements around drug testing and so forth and so on. You know, there's a delicate balance there with making sure that our participants understand what they need to do to become employable. So we're having those conversations, okay?
And I know that sometimes people need an extra push, they need accountability, they need an extra call. You know, they have the heart to want to do it, and they may need the additional training from an educational skill standpoint, so once you're referring them to that end, I know jumpstart was really that kind of mentorship opportunity. But are we doing that within the career centers as well the coaching and the kind of we worship and follow through? Absolutely.
Do we call our customers multiple times, multiple times. And so I often get calls from residents saying, you know, I didn't get a call back. And I go back and I look in the system, and I see in our notes that we've actually called the customer five to six times. What we realized was that often people are not answering the phone. That is a real problem. So we recently changed our phone system so that people can recognize that Detroit at work is calling them. So I mean, that was a really simple, easy fix. In response to that feedback, I think that that should help going forward, that you know, you don't miss the call when you see Detroit at work, please pick up, as opposed to some random phone number that no one recognizes. We're also looking into multiple ways of connecting with people. You know, over the years, it used to be a phone call, and not so much anymore. And then email was the preferred mode of communication, and again, not so much anymore. People are not reading email. We're even thinking about, you know, how we might reach out through Tiktok or Snapchat or like, whatever the best way is to communicate with people multiple modalities. That's currently what we're thinking through.
Okay? And then with the expansion of the nine centers, just curious, based on the volume in those centers, is there a need at all for any type of additional expansion of additional
career centers throughout the city? I
will let my colleagues
personally I think, no, but I'm going to ask Dana to answer that question. Then I've got some thoughts too, but I don't want to dominate a conversation.
That's a right to your boss.
Good morning again. So through the chair. That is the exact work that we're doing right now. One of the reasons why we brought you a little bit of insight into the busiest versus the maybe less busy centers was because we're doing that analysis currently. We want to make sure that we're in the right places for Detroiters to find us, and it might be that in some neighborhoods they want to go to the website, and in other neighborhoods they want a building. And so we're really doing that analysis right now. In addition to the physical, kind of formal partnerships where we've procured providers to deliver those services, we're now thinking about, what if we were just in a library? What if we take advantage of our rec centers. What if we do pop ups at some of our businesses, and that's not only going to pass helpful residents, but also be savings for us as the future where we can deploy those resources elsewhere? So that is the exact thing that we're doing right now. Okay,
yeah, and I wanted to add this into the Executive Session, is being creative and how we can extend these to more areas, at rec centers, libraries, even churches. I know I met a Church recently that was interested in providing some workforce development training within their within their church. So, yeah, if we can add this portion, the expansion of Detroit at work career centers to Executive Session, okay, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. And then my last question is just around the ARPA funded programs like these skills for life. I know Jump Start was mentioned, and I think Community Health Corps was under you all or no? Okay, yep, so have you all identified maybe, what was the greatest need? What program was the most successful in how we are going to possibly continue any of these programs now that the ARPA funding is,
you know, and I can take that question, I'll be very honest, there was, I don't think that there was an expectation that these programs would be continuing post arpa. I think that there was an identification of how to use short term one time funding for short term one time opportunities and innovations. We're going to leverage what we learned from those programs to embed them into pre existing programs. So as an example, while I don't think that there is funding to continue to support the Skills for Life program. I think there are lots of opportunities for other employers to consider that same type of model, right? Most employers have some sort of training reimbursement. They support furthering the education, right? And may even allow folks to go to school, take classes and work at the same time that's already happening. What we are proposing is that maybe more employers do that for the education, for the high school diploma piece, right? So if you're doing that, and you're supporting that work for a college education, how about do it for the high school or GED? So those are, those are ways that we can scale that type of program beyond just the city of Detroit, without duplicating the program or having it continue. You know, with with resources here at the city, Jump Start is another one that was an effort to really jump start and get more people into the workforce, and it absolutely did that for a short period of time. It is not something that's meant to happen going forward. However, what we are learning from that model is having this additional coaching for this population that needs it most. This was the hardest to serve and hardest to reach population, people who were deeply disconnected from workforce and chronically unemployed. We learned a lot about how to engage them and how what additional supports are needed. So we plan to bake that into our system. We learned more about how to be efficient with how to, you know, maybe provide some more cohort models to encourage collaboration amongst classes and, you know, team building, and, you know, support, and that that peer to peer support, so all of that sort of stuff we're going to bake into our services going forward, but without that traditional model that we were able to enjoy with actually paying participants to participate.
Okay, all right, that's kind of, you know, somewhat bittersweet to hear. I know how impactful Skills for Life was in jumpstart just curious too, roughly, how many people are enrolled right now? Roughly, or have been enrolled in, like skills for life or skills for
life? About 800 people, okay. Enrolled in jump start. 1800 people, okay. Enrolled in learn to earn. I want to say about five or 600 people. I may have that number wrong, but I'm pretty, pretty certain about the other ones. Yeah, we had 1000s of people enroll in the programs. I think overall, there were about 8000 starts across all of those opportunities with at least like five to 6000 positive outcomes.
Okay, yeah. So I just want to make sure that the transition, that those individuals are properly transitioned into something not that you know when the program or the funding ends, that they lose the training and the the support that they were receiving. So definitely, we'll work with you. I know that's a heavy lift for you all to try to transition that many people into new programs, but that was some support that I think you know, Detroiters needed when it comes to workforce development and getting people employed in Detroit. So I actually want to add those three programs to our Executive Session. Probably will have some wording in the closing resolution around how we properly transition and support those existing programs. So movement of President, all right. Hearing no objections. You had a question before we move forward, what were those three programs? Skills for Life, Jump Start and EARN. EARN. Yeah, learn to earn. Okay,
no, thank God you can still no. Okay, okay, well, I just want to make sure you didn't do it, because if you didn't do it alright,
Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Thank you all. Pro Temp Tate, thank you Madam President,
and thank you for being here, madam group, exec, CP, Madam CPO CEO as well. You all have been tremendous in terms of the help for our residents. And that's one of the challenges of the ARPA dollars. You know, you kind of honestly, you get used to it, but it shows the benefit of it. And sometimes, you know, folks criticize us about where we put those ARPA dollars, because you can't necessarily see them immediately, but you're able to now see the fruits of it. So thank you for using those dollars wisely, and we are going to try to figure out how to do as much as we can with the funds that we have today, currently. But I like the fact that you appreciate the fact that you are infusing lessons learned from the programs that we may not be able to fully fund in the way that we were able to do so with arpa. Also appreciate it was just like music to my ears when you say that you're changing the way that the phones identify, or the phone identifies who's called, caller ID. I mean literally every couple of minutes. The other day, my phone was blowing up and madam president was asking, what is going on? Potential spam. Potential spam. That's what I kept getting on my phone right over and over and over. So there's no way I'm going to answer that call if it says potential spam. And you may have been part of those potential spam phone calls, but now just changing the way that you approach just caller ID is is showing that you actually care. And that's the that's the human aspect that I think we all are always asking for when we deal with humans. So again, thank you for that. Again. More praise. Appreciate the fact that you all have worked with us in terms of trying to get our folks over in brightmoor, employed and upskilled. I don't know if you heard earlier, but I did a motion to include a executive session item that would create a pilot program for our residents in brightmoor that would upskill work to employ them, as well as provide additional training. So would like to talk to you offline about what that looks like. It will definitely include some elements of these three programs that don't exist, that may not exist anymore, but isn't a much smaller scale and better defined, but needs some guardrails and guidance from you on what that would look like. And I say that because, again, we have this framework in brightmore that is on the verge of being enacted and going into effect. And we have folks in the area who are making 2026 in terms of the average, $26,000 a year. And you mentioned that the programs that you put together in terms of construction, they are averaging $31 an hour, $68,000 a year. That's a major Delta. $42,000 delta that they have an opportunity to improve their family's lives, improve their homes, improve their opportunity each stay in the neighborhood that they have worked so hard to be a part of. So I know we have the number for construction. We know that they typically pay a pretty good dollar. Do you have any averages for other areas of employment that you can provide us today?
We do. I don't have them on me, but I do know that in general, you do have a couple. I know in general it's 2120 21 $22 across all industries. But go ahead, Dan,
and for those who go to training through the chair, it is, on average, $24 an hour. And that's across all of our target industries, though. So that's construction. It manufacturing. If you go through and get an additional credential, you could earn as much for our perspective, $4 more per hour.
Okay, well, we're gonna again, that changes lives as well. You know, just that, that increment there, and
if I might just through the chair, because you bring up a really great point. And I think President Sheffield kind of touched on it before, through the ARPA programs, so many people got trained and credentialed. That's something that you can't take away from an individual. That education piece of it, so that that part really, really changes lives.
I saw, I see here, and you know, folks have been able to participate in the
workforce centers that you all have
got the exact title,
one more time, the Career Center. But I did see that there was a there it is. Yep, I do see that there is a we don't see many of the work youth centers in the far northwestern part of the city. Can you talk to us about why and what's being planned? And if not, I would like to motion that we have one in the far northwestern part of this. Take them, particularly district one
absolutely through the chair. Those sites are often administrative sites. So those those providers work in schools. So what I can do for you is get you a list of the schools that they work in that are in in the area that you're identifying. But yes, many of the providers actually go to the schools for the in school population and work within the schools. So that shows you where their central offices are. Some of them serve young people there, and then many of them actually go out into the community and serve into young people at the schools. So I can share with you the closest ones that we serve in that community. Gotcha make sure you get that.
All right, and
for now, those are the questions that I have. I'll submit the rest in writing, but again, please be on the lookout. We're going to be making some phone calls. Just want to thank you again for the lawn signs, and we're going to look part of our plan is going to include more lawn signs. We have more neighbors in the community who are more than willing to allow for those small billboards to be placed on their lawns so that we can help circulate the message in the community. So we've got to think a little bit more again out the box like you have with the caller ID. So thank you again, and look forward to continued cooperation and work together. Thank you. Thank you my president. Thank
you pro tem council member, young
Thank you, Mayor, President. It's good to see you as always, but my heart is broken about the Jump Start program being the sponsor. I really want to keep that going. I was going to make a motion put more money into the program, but I got beat out. No, it's fine. I'll just I'm really just saying this because I'm really, I'm really proud of being associated with that and what it is done. Can you just kind of tell us, though, just in spare no detail, I really kind of stretch this out in terms of what this program has done for the citizens, you know, by the numbers and who have this benefit, the city is all yes
through the Chair. First of all, thank you. Member young for sponsoring the Jumpstart program. When we started the Jumpstart program, we anticipated serving about 1100 people. We had a little bit of a slow start, but then, I don't know what happened, but over 1800 people expressed an interest in the program, and we came back to you, and we had to ask for more money, and thank you for offering that. Because the interest in the program was huge, we anticipated that we would be able to help about 600 to 700 people get a job. And so far, we're at 1200 over 1000 people have gotten a job who otherwise wouldn't, didn't have one. You know, for at least six months, we're in the process of really canvassing the group to kind of understand, you know, truly what the impact is how many people out of that population were out of work for two years or more, right? That's when you're going to really understand the impact. But everyone was out of work for at least six months. This program drew in 1800 people into the workforce and got nearly I think it's 1100 or 1200 people jobs that that's the core piece of it. In addition to that many people, you asked me to stretch this
out, just one last point on it. Many people got training. I don't know the numbers off the top of my head, and I know it's over 500 and many of those people also got a credential, something that can never be taken away from
them. And I also think the Fed, they were paid as well. Yes, correct. You speak like, how many people paid out as well? So that exact number was bigger.
I don't have the exact figure, but I know that everyone who participated in the program and was compliant, so we made sure that we put some checks and balances in place. The way it worked was for the first six months of the program, people got $600 and then graduated to $400 for the next six months, and then $200 and the thought there was you needed a little bit of a jump start if you weren't working initially, to help pay bills and so forth and so on. And then as you got a job, you should need less and less supportive services. What we found was that people needed more supportive services and for longer periods of time, and so we were accommodating. And we also found that there were some people who needed that extra compliance check as well, so we were very conscious to make sure that we were spending money appropriately and wisely and benefiting people who were really serious about taking that jump start and changing their lives. No,
that's excellent, and I appreciate that. I also want to just ask you, um, it seems to me, from what I was hearing from you, that because we didn't have the money that you were going to con, you're going to take these programs and kind of give it to the private sector, or contract these programs out to the private sector for them to be able to do that. Do I kind of have an understanding of what I meant when you say you want this to be replicated?
I'm sorry, yeah, not, not, not jump start. So I'm talking about programs like learn to earn Okay, and skills for life, where we still want to encourage people to get their high school diploma. And Detroit at work will continue to support those activities. We just may not be able to pay people to do it. So we're going to continue to offer a GED program and a high school diploma program. What we did not correct, correct in
Are you also working with or is this something that you might be doing or encouraging other people to do, in terms of one of the things I think that's really helpful is apprenticeship program. Apprenticeship programs, and not just in the construction trades, but also in the tech field. And I know you talked about partnerships. Is that something that you're going to be focusing on with this, or is that something that you also would encourage someone in the nonprofit community to be able to do because, because I'm looking at we continue to struggle with our local hiring requirements of 51% and so I just want to know what kind of innovative approaches you had to be able to deal with that. And is apprenticeship programs. One of that apprenticeship
programs are certainly part of that. We already support apprenticeship programs. That's a big emphasis and focus of the state as well. So the state certainly encourages us to focus on apprenticeship programs as well. Okay,
and that's also means partnering up with new lab as well for their program for the Okay, become coders. I didn't
mean to cut you off. No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut
you off. Mentioned to you that we are actually exploring even non skilled trade apprenticeship programs. To your point, apprenticeship is simply a model. And as long as an employer has a structure wherein they can pay people and they can work and learn, there's a possibility to develop an apprenticeship there. And so a lot of our education with our employer community is around that, because apprenticeship really is the way to go. We know that people can't afford to stop working to learn, and so wherever we can bridge those two things together, is our ultimate goal, as Terry was mentioning, with a skills for life or a learn to earn model in the future.
Okay? Thank you so much. I appreciate exit presentation. As always, I would like to put the like to make a motion, put to put the apprenticeship program in Executive Session,
right? Any objections? Hearing, really, okay. Okay. Hearing,
hearing, no objections.
Hearing, no hearing, no objections. That motion will be approved. And I just wanted to thank Council Member waters and council member young for sponsoring the Jump Start program. Thank you. And also, just to clarify my motion was not to add funding, it was just for the closing resolution to urge the continuation of those services, kind of what you spoke about, just the need to continue those services. So if the sponsors of those programs want to add funding I fully support, but my motion was just to add support in the closing resolution. Okay, Council Member waters, well,
thank you so much.
My goodness, um, yeah, and I'm happy that that you find the Jump Start Program quite rewarding. It is co sponsored by member young and I, and this documentation that shows that the other thing I want to say is that it was just about a week ago people were begging me, oh, no, we don't want to lose the Jump Start program. We don't want to lose it. And so I told them I did not know if, in fact, we can save it, because I knew what it was based on. So, Madam President, thank you for adding it to Executive Session. That is something certainly that we might have to try and work out. I did send you a memo
via East grind regarding apprenticeship program. Oh,
so it's up in East grab. The public has view of it, and I was going to add it to the executive session, which means, because, you know, I chair of the skilled trades Task Force, and labor is begging for it to return here at the city. So that's going to be what I'll be pushing for to have the apprenticeship program that supports skilled trades return to the city. So maybe my motion should be an apprenticeship program that supports skilled trades. Okay,
that's my motion, Hearing no objections that action will be taken.
Last year, I gave you $250,000
budget because I wanted to see just a website, and I didn't care who built who built the website when it was all said and done. Of course, the literacy Task Force wanted to build it, but, you know, there was no way that they could do it and and so forth, you know, so, but you did say that, that you guys could probably get it done. It was a be a one stop shop, because we do have literacy issues here in this city. So I want people to have all the access. And the purpose of the website was just to at least be able to list all of our participating partners in this city, so that people will know, but when they click on the city's website, there's a connection there that will take them to the website that would give them all of our literacy providers here in the city, and will help to navigate that whole system for them, so that that was the whole idea. So the money went back into the general fund. Is that what happened?
It did through the chair. And that is one area where, you know, I'm slightly disappointed we were not able to deliver in that area. But what I will say is that we had a lot of really good discussions with your task force. We understand the need. What we did was we came up with a lot of good ideas about how to move that forward, and involved a lot of great partners. What we did was we outlined, first of all, the need, clearly understood the vision. We had a few key, I don't want to use the term barriers, but key questions that really needed to be answered. One was around, who vets the if we build this inventory, who's responsible for vetting the training programs? We had another question around, not not only initially, but sustainably. We had another question around, where does this sit? Long term, should it sit on a site that is hosted by Detroit at work, or the city or someplace else? And again, where does that live? You know, beyond today, we also had some questions around who continues to vet the service level. There were a lot of really good questions that came about from your task force and us, you know, kind of brainstorming together. So what we did was we summarized all of that activity, all of the great work that was done by the task force, all of the really good questions that came about, and we shared a proposal with all of city council and the offices with those recommended next steps. And the recommended next step was to have more collaboration around key partners, including the IT department, our department, and your task force, and other task force that were focused on education to really sort of brainstorm around those key questions, because we really appreciated, I think it was $150,000
that was appropriated for that 250
received one, yeah,
I think in the, I Think in the ultimately, it came down to one, okay, yeah, that's what that was, what came in the in the final resolution, yeah, okay, but we couldn't see beyond, beyond the initial work to set things up, how that was going to live going forward, so I think we needed a little Bit more brainstorming on that
piece of it. Well, I can appreciate that, but I don't know how that really stops the website. I don't know how that really interferes with putting a website up where the citizens can have access to information. That's That's what I really wanted to see it's very difficult to do literacy in the first place, especially when it comes to adult literacy, because a lot of people don't even want you to know that they need the help. And that's why I've been trying to find different ways to to at least say, Here, call up these organizations. They offer it, you know, without having us go out and community says, Well, do you need the help with them? Not wanting to tell me, right, so that's that was the idea for the website. And by the way, the idea to put it in workforce development, frankly, in your shop, came from the mayor, had a conversation with him about the about the website, and he was like, oh, that's where you should put it. So I just kind of want to that, you know that? So I don't know what does that mean for the future of the website, because I haven't given up on it through
the chair. Neither have we. We haven't given up on it either. This work stream is continuing, and I do know that there's a group that is currently working on developing this inventory of digital resources right now,
is that right? That's correct. Okay, all right, then, thank you. Thank you, Madam President,
thank you council member waters, Member Santiago
Romero, thank you, Madam President, good afternoon. Thank you for being here and for the work that you do for Detroiters. It's much appreciated. Wondering what your efforts look like to support DGC and Creo to ensure that they're meeting their workforce requirements. Do you collaborate with them at all to do so? Yes,
very much. So, yes, we do. So we're very focused on making sure that we've got pipeline. We do that in a variety of ways. The I think most effective one is our relationship with dpscd, where we have co teaching models, where we invite our union labor to come in and deliver their curriculum to students so that students can learn and grow into apprenticeship opportunities. We're regularly doing specialized training programs with our developers, where appropriate, Fast Track sort of programs.
I mean, I'm happy to elaborate, yeah,
thank you through the chair. So we do a lot of work in partnership with creo, not only on the Workforce Training Fund, but also just generally in economic development activities. They are the, as you know, the monitoring and compliance arm, and we tend to be the activation arm. And so we have a weekly conversation with the business and attraction team at the Detroit economic growth Corporation, where we talk about those businesses that either are prospects for coming here to the city and what those talent needs might be. I think you all know the first question is, is there a land or a building? And the second question is, are there people? And so we're brought in very early to those conversations and really help to co design what those proposals look like. So that is happens on a monthly basis. And then, as an extension, the DGC also does, in partnership with the district business liaisons, does weekly visits to businesses that are already here in the city, and we now go with them on all those visits. And so when they bring up any sort of talent challenges, we can often solve them on the spot, or at least bring them back into our shop. We're tracking them accordingly, and then we'll follow up directly with those businesses. Then, kind of as a third arm where there might have been an employment tax clearance or other staffing plan, a community benefits agreement, those sorts of things. We partner very closely with creo, with HRD, and specifically the jet team, to make sure that we're delivering on all those agreements as well. What complements all of those things are the Detroit at work priority hiring agreements, which essentially describes what these employers are committing to when they come to the city and are continuing to operate here. So that's things like prioritizing Detroiters in their hiring, having a G, D, y t student over the summer working with us on career fairs, and to utilize the Detroit at work brand and our Career Centers to do some of their marketing and outreach. So all those sorts of things are done in partnership with creo. And then maybe even more specifically, as you might know, a part of the workforce training fund dollars go to support a staff member in Creo who actually is really dually partnered with Detroit at work, who does a lot of the specific construction outreach to both the developers as well as the residential contractors and larger commercial contractors as well. So there's a really nice partnership between us and them, and
just through the chair, that's what the staffing grant really helps to support that too.
Okay, thank you. I appreciate that, and it's a lot of work, and we're still hearing that we're getting about 30% of Detroiters that are attending or attaining these jobs. Any idea why? And it's not beyond no efforts. What are the challenges? What are the barriers that you're seeing to get Detroiters to obtain these jobs?
Transportation, we can talk generally about, really, what we call, unfortunately, the top three barriers, right? So one is housing, which you all know certainly better than others. The second would be transportation, just generally here in the city, whether it's a car or public transportation, whatever it might be. Then third is childcare. Again, not new to any of you. You've all heard all three of these, and unfortunately, they're now called the Big Three. What? What? We're hoping to continue to work on our solutions to those I think we've got a lot of great short term things that we can do for people. We can do bus passes and short term lift rides and even help people fix their cars. But that's not necessarily the long term solution. We can pay for a month of insurance, right? Those kinds of things. We can connect them to the city housing department, or find we can call, you know, developers in the city like rod Hardman and somebody else who's got an affordable housing project going up, and try to get people in so people in, but that's still not the long term solution. And so what we're hoping and executive Weems, I don't want to kind of take your thunder here, but she now sits on the state's barrier removal committee for employment, and a grant has actually just been released by the state, to focus on this work. So we're right now really being innovative in what we think are the long term solutions to those kinds of things. So look forward to continuing to talking with all of you about what those could be. Excellent.
Thank you. That's incredibly helpful, because I know that we're trying, and we're still not getting there. So why is it that we're not and what do we have to do to do so? So thank you. That's very insightful. And would you happen to be on the commission for community action, economic opportunity through the states, or which committee
I asked me, was she just talking about Miss Weems?
Yes. Oh, you. You just got which I sit on,
the state barrier committee, the state barrier so I'm on the state's workforce board, and I sit on the I chair now the barrier committee for the state, you chair?
Okay, excellent. I just got appointed into the community action and economic opportunity board. So good to know who else is a part of these conversations with the state to be able to address the barriers, to begin to remove them. My second question is, again, not for the lack of trying, of investing in hard skills, in investing in our Detroiters. I'm wondering what it looks like when you are working with someone that has the hard skills that can be an app developer that can do this work, but that is lacking, what I think is soft skills, what I what seems to be like communication, what seems to be just people skills, and it's hard, right? It's, it's, we're all people. We all have feelings, and we got to sometimes check those at the door before you go into work. I'm wondering, for the Detroiters that might be lacking the soft skills, that may not be able to move to the next level, not because of the lack of hard skills. What are we doing? Do we provide them feedback, and do we tell them during your interview process you said X, Y and Z that may have not landed right or moving forward. Work on listening skills in these ways. Bless you. You know, are we having these conversations afterwards? Because I just want to make sure that residents don't feel as if they are being discriminated against by not being able to move forward. And we've done our job to make sure that that's not the case, and it's not but I'm looking at maybe, is it more support that our residents need, and what does that look like? I
think that you're right through the chair that is absolutely a need, and this is a great example, I think, of where we're taking the learnings from some of the ARPA funded programming and taking it beyond. So I'll start with skills for life. Skills for Life was the first program where we introduced this initial what's it called, first program after stellantis for career readiness, career readiness training. So and thank you for reminding me we actually did this. When we supported stellantis, we developed this career readiness training. It was a short term training to help people understand how to show up for work, be on time, conflict resolution, you know, personal management, that sort of thing. We expanded it when we started the Skills for Life program, and we got tremendous feedback from participants. Before you start work, you're going to go through this program. And learn how to show up for work. And then, when we started jump start, we expanded it even further to a couple of weeks of actual you before you as a part of this program, you need we, especially since you out of work for six months or more, we want to make sure you understand how to show up for work. So learning from that, and given the feedback that we've gotten from not just participants who say this was really valuable, in fact, it might be helpful for us to get a refresher. We're hearing from some of our participants on you know how to resolve conflict at work and so forth and so on. We're also hearing from employers, from a retention perspective, that this is an issue with employees, you know, not really understanding how to show up for work, correct? Yes, so, but put a pin in. I'm gonna let you finish. And so what we're now thinking about is how we expand that and offer that for all Detroiters, and maybe even as part of a training prerequisite for some training opportunities and for some job opportunities actually requiring it prior to going into training, not as an additional sort of, you know, hoop To jump through, but because we're finding that it's beneficial and that employers are saying that it's necessary. So I'm going to stop and see if you have anything to add there,
um, through the Chair. I just wanted to add that it is so pervasive that, you know, I call these the grandma skills, right? These are the skills that the grandma should have taught you. Yeah, um, but not everybody had that exactly, um, that everybody had an abolita. And so what we're finding is that we want to really execute it through the system, and again, to do that on a wider basis. I mean, it's to the point where we're now considering it another barrier. It's really personal management. It is mindset shift. It is self efficacy. We're dealing with some very transformational self management techniques that we know Detroiters need. We used to just call them soft skills. Yes, you have to work on time. Here's your resume, right? Here's how to interview. It's more than that. And as Terry mentioned, just to put an emphasis on that, that is what we have learned through jumpstart and so Stephanie, my colleague here, can certainly talk about how that will show up in the career centers. Or we certainly could talk about that with you at a later time as
well. And if I might not to beat a dead horse, but two more things that I just wanted to bring up, we're actually thinking about creating a credential for it where employers would recognize like, hey, if you've been through the Detroit at work career readiness program. Yep, I value that. I've seen the difference. And two, we're also considering how we embed this in our career coaching model going forward. So several years ago, we did a lot of work to redesign our system. That's how we got to nine career centers from three, one of the things that we did at that time, from us, from a person to person perspective, is we introduced this element of human centered design. Stephanie was a big part of that. How do we how do we treat people? How do we deal with trauma, trauma informed care, right? We we change the colors of our career centers to ensure that, you know, they were calming and not red and bright, but more greens and blues, right? So we did all that work, and the next level of human centered design or redesign for us is going to be the self advocacy piece and this personal management and this self empowerment, right? As opposed to waiting for someone to sort of do No, we need you to participate in your own learning and own your own, you know, path. So I don't want to beat a dead horse. But this is something that's near and dear to, I think all of us, yeah, feel that very strong it really is.
And if I can through the chair, we want to make your completion of that workshop part of the prerequisite to going forward, because we're looking at doing a curriculum that's over at least over two weeks, that's rigorous, and if you can show us you can be there on time and be compliant, then we even feel more comfortable forwarding you to an employer or forwarding you to a training program. If you cannot, then we need to do some more work. So it really is, what do we do on the front end to ensure, to better ensure, because you never know what happens when a person shows up. But things like mock interviews, videotaping an interview, you know, and letting the individual see themselves in the interview. And that's what you do in a safe space. So you can say, See, I did that for myself, and hands everywhere, I'm like, What am I doing? You don't realize what you do in an interview. That might be distracting. So those are the kinds of things that we want to share with our customers up front, and when we set expectations around this is why we're doing it, and this is why it's important they feel better about engaging. So we want to make sure that we set expectations for them up front, when they sit down and they agree to participate. These are the kinds of things that you're going to be exposed to. These are the expectations. And we're not going to send you forward if you can't maintain some of the standards that we set for you here. And that's just really a part of preparing individuals for the workforce and not setting them up for failure.
Thank you through the Chair, thank you. I really appreciate this. It's obvious you're thinking about this very intentionally, and I'm glad you mentioned trauma informed care, because I do believe you know, maybe you did have a grandma that taught you these skills, and it might be the trauma that you have experienced just living your life, dealing with the employers, dealing with with racism, dealing with the kind of things that many people of color do. And just want to make sure that we can recognize that and and work with it, not push it away and and and be able to to build the support around that. So thank you so much. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you council member, member Benson,
thank you, and thank you all for being here today and the work that you all do when the reception that you all get at this table is just evident of how important and how impactful it is to the residents of the city, Detroit. So I got a couple questions, but before I go there has got a number of kudos that I need to give out. I want to start with just concurring with the pro tem with regards to your workforce training fund. Results, 3172 an hour and so Alice. Stability is a metric that this body my office sponsored, a resolution that this body supported and passed, asking Detroit at work, urging you all to actively seek out and encourage Alice stability type wages. You all have achieved that. And so if you look at Alice stability, a two person household with two children and child care needs $125,000 annually to have just a stable quality of life, Nothing extravagant. Yeah, we're not taking trips to Turks and Caicos every year, but what we are doing is able to put our children into a quality childcare, provide quality food, quality housing, and have a 7% savings, which then means you can take an annual vacation, modest one, maybe up north, maybe down to Ohio, something in the tutor. But your lifestyle, and you are hoping to create that, and that's a lifestyle with children who are being educated and who are being cared for. And that's the type of lifestyle our residents need right here in the city of Detroit, and you are helping to provide that So number one, kudos there. I want to just concur with what my colleagues said about that earlier. Number one, thank you for that. Number two, and this was also a revelation. Immediately, I was unaware that the tutoring program had taken off, and you will provide five tutoring for 500 students. And that was a pillar, is a pillar of the wealth generation task force report. So I'm going to go back and report to them that Detroit Employment Solutions, Detroit at work, is implement, has implemented that program, and it's building results. I'm going to be interested to see what type of metrics of success, if you saw any improvements from those youth who are participating that program. That's huge. And then number two, when we talk about child care, the wealth generation Task Force, it's education pillar again, to stay out of the state school system, but be supportive is how do we support early childhood education? And as as has been said, and we have an office early learning here, we've had fits and starts, and we're really focused on that. And what we don't have, we haven't invited you all to the table as stakeholders, and we need to do that, and so we're going to be asking you all to come to the table. We've got a number of stakeholders now, got the foundations who are really interested, and others who really want to focus on, how do we get that ecosystem of early childhood education, the u5 to get them prepared to go to kindergarten, and that is huge. And the biggest obstacle to a stable environment for early childhood education is salaries you cannot continue to have and foster that environment without Alice level salaries. And unfortunately, we just don't believe that early childhood educators deserve that level of salary. And so we're working on that. The the Federal Reserve Bank has indicated they're really interested to be there as well, and so, but we know the work that you all do, you can help us get across the finish line. And so I'm really going to be excited to get you to the table there. What I really then now want to talk about workforce development and development incentives. So a couple years ago, you all really created that nexus where we say, You know what, let us help become the workforce human capital providers for these developments. If you're going to come and ask for a tax incentive for us, let's make sure that our residents are working there. The usual refrain some years ago was, well, you guys have to give us talent. You're not providing us with the talent. You can't just throw us bodies and expect them to work here. That's fair. You all said it's fine. We'll accept that challenge, and what we're going to do is make sure that if you all partner with us, we'll get you that human capital, because we'll train them and put them there, and the Chrysler stellantis plant is a perfect example of that. How is that going? What metrics are we using, and what's been our return on investment in that for your program for the city?
Yeah, so I can answer that. I think we demonstrated or showed to you that we had, I don't know what how many priority hiring agreements, 2022, priority hiring agreements, with about 40, plus 44,000, people being referred, and 1400 people hired. I'm sorry. I say 114,000, people. I'm sorry, 14,000 people. Yeah, so I think those are the metrics that we sort of review. I will be honest with you. One thing that we will start to measure is retention. We have trouble sometimes understanding from employers once we've had that relationship and we do our part, there's that, you know, great job. Work done is really making sure that we follow those people throughout their journey, that that is tough. We don't have the resources to do that for 14,000 people, our requirements are not beyond a year for those who are registered under some of our federal programs, and frankly, a lot of people just are not interested in reporting back to us. So, you know, we just kind of lose touch there. But I'd argue that we have metrics that demonstrate that this is working, that it is effective. I think that the city and City Council were brilliant, frankly, in developing this kind of relationship. It has worked in getting 14,000 people jobs. So I think that those metrics kind of speak for themselves. And
through the chair, there are some specific examples of that you mentioned, stellantis, that's certainly one. Others I would mention are major rel they continue to be a good partner of ours. Another is JP Morgan Chase. They're facing excellent Chase
actually moved there. I'm sorry, go ahead they. I mean, they came here and created a call center here, you know, and want to do more of it. And other employers are looking to do the same thing, yeah. And for Chase,
to be honest, they took the model to other cities and tried to replicate it, and told us that they could. So Detroit is special, and that's for a lot of reasons, but we certainly value those kind of partnerships. So we have other examples of those, member Benson, so the model is certainly working through all those opportunities for economic development.
And then I hope we're documenting this and providing this into reports. This is the first time I'm hearing at that level of success. And so just beyond this table, hearing this, this is something that needs to be discussed and broadcast so that others know of what we're able to do here, and if you're saying that you could not, they couldn't replicate that someplace else, then there's something special that we're doing here, and it may be our residents also, maybe your leadership as well. So I would take that pat on the back and do a couple of back flips around a victory lap to show what we're doing and why people need to be here, and then I've got a number of other questions, just because workforce development is just, I love I think it's fantastic that you are helping to build our general fund, and the impact that you have on the residents quality of life helps us pay for police, fire lights as well As recreation centers. But also, when I'm looking at the future and if people are taking these jobs, and then we talk about retention, the retention at the job, but then there's also the retention of keeping residents in the city of Detroit. And so my favorite experience was when we when we were just starting this job, and we got, we got a flexing gate and flexing a starting at $12 an hour with benefits. That's far removed from where we are now. It's good to be here at the ground floor and see that we're now on the 15th floor, versus where we started. But the quote that came back from the young man who didn't graduate from Osborn high school when got his GED was 19 years old, and then he said, I'm making $12 an hour. I can't live in the city of Detroit anymore. I just make too much money. I'm going to move to Macomb County. So in his mind, his Alice stability meant that I have to leave the city of Detroit. And so what I don't want to see is us do all this work, invest all of this human resources into our own human capital, and then that human capital will say, we in the city you all just can't provide me the lifestyle I need. And so I'm hoping that you all, you all the first line there, can help us ensure, encourage, advocate for those that you work with to stay here in the city of Detroit. They're moving into this Alice stability. They can pay their property taxes. They can buy things here in the city of Detroit. They can keep others employed. Is critical that they help us continue to build the city of Detroit with middle class families. And you are all are creating those middle class families. So please, implore you, encourage and advocate for people that you're supporting to stay here in the city of Detroit. And I've got a number of other questions I'm going to put in writing. I just want to say what you all are doing is fantastic. And then lastly, you all are also participants Detroit at work with the B for E program. And so just really excited to see your employees buying into the fact we don't need to have a car. We can get to work on a bicycle year round. And so when we talk about barriers of transportation, bicycles are a solution, and your employees have willingly bought in and a volunteer to participate, and are willing to pay a small amount to have a quality bicycle that before he provides them. So just want to say thank you all for that. If I'm not mistaken, someone in your leadership team may have taken advantage of the paid paternity leave as well. I just wasn't sure that's a fact. The paid paternity leave, maternity leave, parental leave. No, I don't think so. No, okay, I certainly will ride a bike and ride a motorcycle. Do you mean
we operate outside of the city? So DEC has our own paper insulin, okay, but we certainly do follow Dr Starr and her team as well, in in the offerings that we have. So then
it's expanded over to over to us. It has leveraging
success. Has 1000 mothers.
Thank you. Thank you. Member Benson, member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President, and I know there are three two more colleagues behind me, so I will just ask one question and submit the rest of my questions to you all in writing. I do kind of want to go go back to what Miss Williams talked about a short while ago in regards to member Santiago Romero's question, I've been having conversations with our district business liaison, and we're finding that there are some smaller businesses within the district that are having challenges with staffing. How can we leverage Detroit at work, DSC, to help them feel those staffing challenges. And we were talking about, how do we get residents from our neighborhoods to be able to apply for those businesses? And going through that process, how are we connecting them? So when I look at the job fairs and we've been supporting and working with the pain pulling school for the last several years on doing a job fair in June, and I see larger companies, right? How are we providing support to the smaller businesses within our neighborhoods to help them with staffing?
Thank you for the question. Member Johnson through the chair. So a couple of recommendations I would have so one that district business liaison should connect with their colleague, Mara and get those businesses on our retention visit list. There's no reason that list is comprised of businesses of all sizes, all the way from Motor City match grant recipients to the large corporations that are here in the city, and so that's the first place they'll have a chance to meet with the Detroit at work, either business service representative or other person on our employer engagement team, and they can talk together and problem solve right there on the spot. The second that I would offer for you is to continue to work with that Career Center, paint Pulliam, actually has a very good business services team, and it feels like we might be able to do something even special for the outreach of the commercial corridor in that area, to make sure that we're including those businesses we've done in other neighborhoods, as much as door knocking campaigns down the commercial corridor, right? Hey, we're having a career fair next week. Come on out. Hire Detroiters in your neighborhood. And likewise, for the residents who are there as well as Terry mentioned that we've done in brightmoor with some door knock door hangers. We've done the same thing in other neighborhoods too. So we can get creative with you on some of those solutions.
Thank you for that. And we've we've canvassed to get the residents out. I think one of the challenges that we see with the smaller businesses is having the time to be able to come to a job fair to to connect with the residents that are coming. So we'll certainly follow up with you on that. But thank you. Thank you, Madam President, right? Thank
you. Member Johnson, member Callaway, thank you. Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll be as brief as possible, and I'll just submit my questions for the sake of time. But you talked about, did you call it the Detroit youth at work? What was the proper name of it? Did I miss it? No, it was Detroit. Okay, so I'm really excited about that. I have a youth and Civic Engagement Task Force, and I interface with youth every single week. I was just at Pembroke Academy this past week, and come to find out, that's where, I think her name was, Miss violet Louise louiso. She was a civil rights activist, and she was killed by the Klan, I think, in Alabama when she went down to register folks to vote. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing her name correctly or not. And little did I know that Pembroke Academy right there, I think it's on Mansfield is oh, here we
go. It's blessing to have good staff.
So I was just blown away. I went to the to the schools. It's a charter school. It's called Pembroke Academy, and her name was Viola louiso. She was a prominent historical figure and civil rights activist. And I'm saying this because it's National Women's History Month. She immediately joined Dr King's call to action and travel to Selma, Alabama, which is what I said, to march for civil rights and voting rights, she tragically gave her life in the fight for freedom. And it turns out memorial services were held at the school at Pembroke Academy in district two, and it was called Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and grade school, and the gym was the chapel, and the principal just happened to find some articles, and I'll let my probably see this, but on the second row is Martin Luther King, wow. So he traveled to Detroit in 1965 for the funeral, and the children are now playing in the gym with all the beautiful religious stained glass right there, and not one of the panes in the windows have been broken. They're all there in beautiful condition. And this is just amazing. So we're going to see about making sure that that property has a historic designation attached to it. But she was utilized, she was eulogized there. Her funeral was there, and you wouldn't know, because now it's a school, yeah. So anyway, I said that because when you mentioned the Detroit youth at work, I just lit up. So I certainly want to get more information about that. And when do you plan on launching the website? It'll be later
on this year. So we want to make sure that we are engaging with the right people, to make sure that the information that we're providing is not overwhelming to students and right and appeals to them. So there's, there's a piece of this that is the website that, frankly, through the chair, is more for parents and for youth. We probably need to get more to an app,
yeah, okay, and then maybe you can have some youth from my task force to maybe help you develop it. We have some very savvy, sophisticated youth who could probably build your website. So I you know if it's going to be related to them, it's going to be accessible to them and their parents. The parents are probably going to ask the student to help them navigate it. So you might as well get some youth input when you're building it. So that's just a thought. Okay, the next thing I want to talk about now. We'll submit all of my questions. We talked about that mobile, the truck. We talked about it last year. I think it was waters and Sheffield, the three of us, we talked about it. And you know, I'm going to bring it up again. We got to take it to the people. I know you have those nine centers, and I know one is the Northwest Activity Center. I'm there all the time. You got a lot of good services, photo ID, transportation services, childcare resources, Career Service, expungement, resume writing. Then we don't talk about that, marijuana use. I want to know what that's all about. But you offer wonderful services, wonderful services. What about mobile what taking it beyond those nine centers? You gotta go where the people are. And sometimes they don't come to the center because they gotta have transportation in the first place to even get there. But if you took it to where they are, like, if you bring it to where the guys are playing basketball, you know, Palmer Park, Tyndall, Bo they're everywhere up and down Davidson. There's a huge basketball court right there. If you go over there right now, it's probably got 50 guys playing basketball. You pull that truck up, play that music, it's going to attract them, and we're going to give them a job. And then they go back to the basketball court. It's right there between, I think, Dexter and Livernois on Davidson. We know, if you know what I'm talking about, over there, it's probably 100 guys playing ball, because that sun is out there. I'm just, I'm not going to get away from this. We need that mobile unit for workforce development, and it needs to go to high schools as well. So now, because we're now, we're pivoting just a Tench, we're reaching out to youth. We need that. We need to go to the school and then the kids, when they graduate, they may not all want to go to college, but they'll have a job, they'll have an opportunity. Let's don't wait until they graduate and then try to get them back into the system. And now we're searching for them. Let's make it available right there, accessible at all the high schools pull up in the truck. You don't go to every single high school. You can start in district two, I'll give you. You can go to Loyola, you can go to Mumford, you can go to Renaissance, you can go to Mary grove. I got the high schools for you, and they're right there, all within just a couple miles of each other. So if you want a place to to pilot the program, I invite you to District Two, and let's start at Mary grove. Let's start at Mary grove. They that is a from the crib to college campus now, from the crib to college, and that's what they are touting, and that's what they are announcing. That's what they do over there now. So let's talk about that further. Let's take the programs to where the people are, and let's start them at the high school level. Now that you're going to launch this website for you, let's really give it some teeth. Let's really give it some some backbone, and not just have a website. Let's take it to where the where the students are, and let's have that truck set up at these high schools and that, what about the truck? I think you said you had a truck. Is it operating? Did you use it at all in 2024 because you all knew I was going to ask about it. If not, I know President Sheffield was, I was waiting to her to ask. So we're asking together, the three of you the chair before Callaway.
Because, amen, yeah, we
appreciate everything that you said. So I just want to, I want to, I want to address a couple things. The first thing is, we are doing a lot to get into a lot of different areas in the neighborhood. So beyond our nine career center footprint, we are visiting churches, we are visiting rec centers, we have job fairs in a lot of different areas, because we're expanding and we want to be where people are. We get lots of calls about, hey, can Detroit at work set up a table here, or be here, be there. We're there. We're everywhere. So there is an opportunity for us to get to more than just the nine Career Centers. Second, I have a goal to get into every single high school in the next year. That is the goal. I said earlier, that we want every young person to have a plan when they leave high school. And you're right. That means before they leave, our plan for the next year is to work on how we can get in front of young people to help them understand if their pathway is college. Let's help them with Detroit promise, if their plan is to get a job straight out of high school, do they know where we are and how to connect with us if they want to get some sort of credential to increase their earnings, how do they do that, either through training with us or with WC 3d or Wayne State, or any of our community colleges in the area, that is what we're doing. And so in order to do that, we believe we need to get in front of all of these young people, and the best way to do that is in schools. So that is our plan. We'll, you know, that's a lot of work, but, but that's, that's our goal. Get
you some support. I have the youth and Civic Engagement Task Force, and it's chock full of volunteers waiting, wanting, desiring to work with young people. So I can help you in that regard. And then I'm excited about that, that that that's wonderful, the marijuana use program. What is that all about? I see that as one of the services that you offer at Northwest activity center, it says marijuana use program.
I'll be very honest council member. I'm not as familiar with that program, but I do know that we're doing lots of outreach and education around marijuana use in general, and helping people understand that for certain occupations, marijuana use is not going to be tolerated. And what I really appreciated was, a few weeks ago, I went to a skilled trades event that council member waters hosted, and that conversation came up, if you want to be in certain occupations, you know you're gonna have to develop the discipline. Come on for, you know, to do what you need to do to be able to, you know,
compete for those types of jobs
going into an interview, and you got to tell them this, and then I'll send you my question smelling like marijuana, you will not get that job. I was alive to have that direct conversation. I don't care if it is legal. It's not federally legal. It's legal in the state of Michigan, of course, now we're taking advantage of it in Detroit, but a lot of folks don't know you're not going to get a job going into an interview smelling like marijuana. You are not so you know. And they think it's cool to do it before they interview, so it can kind of calm them down a Tench, but you have just ruined your opportunity to get a job. So I'm hoping you all are having those serious conversations. Have those serious conversations. You got part of the career readiness. You got to, you got to, because, you know, they're all, you know, all calm down and cool, but you are not going to get a job because you too calm down and cool. And we know why you are. So anyway, I will give you my questions. I definitely want to walk with you, work with you on the going to the high schools. That's so important. And we have wonderful high schools across the city, not just on the west side, but on the east side too. And they all are desiring of opportunities before they walk across that stage, they need to know what they're going to do, because a lot of them are not going to college right away. They may take that year off, two years off, I don't know. So I would like to work with you personally. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all so much, and continue to do your good work through the
chair. I really don't you said a lot of great things, but the one thing I wanted to make sure that you're aware of is we're having really good conversations with colleges and universities. One of the things that we realized was that there are a number of young people who are getting accepted into colleges and not showing up, not showing up to college, not showing up, they're accepted and not showing up. That's why that we wonder why. So we're partnering with WC 3d and Wayne State right now at the moment, to solve that problem. So and that's part of the reason why this strategy around youth was born, is to figure out, like, how can we close that gap? Is it funding? Is it interest? Is it is it a barrier? Like we can, we can solve for some of that. So I just wanted to mention that. And then your original question was around the mobile unit, yes, and I want to just share that we do not have the mobile unit anymore. Okay, it has not been out, and last year we shared that it, yeah, it broke down. It, it broke down. It was in desperate need of repair for a number of years, and we rode that bus to the wheels. Literally,
Madam Chair.
So sounds like an executive. Session issue. You got to have it. Well, you've seen it on the streets. I've seen it. You put it in lectures you did and
Okay, so what happened? Well, and so what? What we recommended, though, was rather than a bus that requires a CDL driver that you know over time, it takes vans, and maybe multiple vans would be a great solution. We could do the same types of things. We could still play music. We could we can do all of those sorts of things.
Okay. Madam Chair, okay. Does this need to go into executive Well,
I think that's something for us to continue to think about. We hear what you're saying that you want us out more. We can do that in a variety of different ways. I can put a Detroit, you know, decal on my truck if you want Joseph don't
this is a very serious matter. So what we're going to do, we
want to hear you that we want to be more in the community we are, but we can, we can make sure that that's a bit more visible. Okay, so
what I'm going to do is I'm going to because I know that the appetite is here, the support is here. While we're talking about this, we know this is a very serious issue. So I'm going to make a motion to put four advance into Executive Session for your department, because we have to take the job opportunities to the neighborhoods. They're not going to always come to those nine centers. Yeah. So that is my motion, Madam Chair, and
if me and member waters can join you on Yes, ma'am. Okay. Absolutely right discussion. I see two hands. Was that member durha followed by member Young. Thank you, Madam
President. I'd love to join you on that as well. But additionally, I'd like to add to the four advantage, member Callaway, if you can amend your motion to add also for FTEs, because they are only three ladies, they're fabulous. They're Charlie's Angels of the city of Detroit. But additional staffing as well in those vans will probably allow for a greater outreach in the community. If you could add that to your amend your motion and add that to Executive Session, member council
move Madam Chair, okay, did you have a question in the motion? Yeah, no, I had. I wanted. Let's finish the motion are Hearing no objections that will be added to Executive Session. Member young
nothing. I just also want to ask you, did you also want to include member Calvin, because I don't, I don't want to be on the motion, but did you also want to include, no idea on the track here? Um, but I wanted to ask you, do you also want to include preventive maintenance? Because I think that's part of the reason why I kind of broke down the first place. Down the first place was because of preventive maintenance. Did you want to include that in your executive session as well? Separate
motion? I don't know. It could be a part of the through the chair, that could be part of the motion as well the maintenance and the upkeep of the vehicles. Okay,
alright. So we will make sure that that is added if there are no objections to executive session as well, and I'm sure we'll have much more detail about this when we get to Executive Session. So all right, Council Member duha, thank
you, Madam President, good afternoon to you all again, the Charlie's Angels workforce here, there's, I know there's been a couple things put into executive session relative to skilled trades. And one of the things that I want to talk about today is that 51% I brought it up with Creo as we talk about a lot of development projects that come here to the city of Detroit, and us meeting that 51% benchmark to higher Detroiters, if not, they're fined. And then that money goes through Creo and then goes back to DSC to go into workforce training programs. My question is, as we utilize those dollars, and I hear you talking about, I think you guys are doing a phenomenal job going to the high schools, has there been any talk about going even earlier? And let me tell you why I asked that question. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but unfortunately, I became a public servant because that's what I was around since I was a little kid, going around with my dad, and also just being exposed to many others who have been in public service. And I think the same type of mindset goes into folks who get into our skill trades or either even other career paths, G, D, y, t, absolutely amazing. But I like to see even a greater focus on skilled trades, on an earlier, you know, earlier start. I hear from a lot of older folks that used to say, when they were in school, even middle school, they used to do wood shop, they used to do draft, you know, so many other different things. And I think that has kind of disappeared a little bit over the years. We've got one of the largest retiring populations. Baby Boomers are now gone from a lot of our skilled trades. And so there's going to be a gap that we need to fill. And in order to fill that pipeline, I think you've got to start, and this may be just my opinion, but I think if you got to start even a little bit earlier to get that interest going. And so can we talk about, like, elementary school, middle schools as well, and just the impact and getting to into some of those schools earlier?
Yes, through the Chair, I share that opinion. I 100% agree. And I'm so glad you actually said elementary school, because recently, I've been having discussions with folks. For anyone who doesn't know the education is just a passion of mine. I was involved in a conversation that supported data around bringing that information or awareness down, not just to middle school, but to elementary school, and particularly when it comes to women in skilled trades that's incredibly important is to make sure that elementary school students can see themselves in those types of positions in the future. That that's going to be absolutely critical if we want to get more women into those professions. So I agree with you that that's a conversation that needs to be held at the elementary and middle school level. What I will acknowledge, though, is that workforce does not our workforce dollars do not support elementary and middle school learning. It is really focused on Career Exploration at the 14 year old level and up. So when we talk about youth, we're talking about 14 year olds to 24 year olds. And that's unfortunately, just because that's the way that the funding is designed, and it's meant to sort of create that separation between the K through 12 space and the workforce space. But that doesn't mean that we can't partner with schools to ensure that we're doing that career exploration earlier and earlier. And so we've got a great relationship with dpscd and a growing relationship with the charter schools across the city of Detroit, and those are conversations that we're having about how we can help support them in having those career exploration activities earlier. And
I would say, as a father of 218,
and one two, particularly the two year old, takes that plastic hammer and bangs on everything he might want. To put him in the pipeline a little bit earlier. But you know what I can say is, by the time they're 14, and what we're starting to see, you know different from when we grew up, social media. Everybody's glued to their cell phone or their smart device, and so interest is a little bit different. But if you catch them on the earlier ages, and now they're showing these studies about kids who don't are not allowed to take their smart device to school, they're a lot calmer. Their demeanor is different. Learning is the environments a lot different. I think we've got a real opportunity. So I want to place into Executive Session. I want to make a motion to place into executive session to expand all of our employment programs, ddy, t you know, youth, Bill, all of these great programs that we have and make it earlier than 14 years old, expanded into our elementary schools as well as our middle schools and dpscd and our charter school. That's charter schools. That's my motion
objections, that action will be taken. Thank
you. Second piece is, as I talk to a lot of our skilled trade unions and our labor unions, when we even talk about apprenticeship programs, they're great, but the but the issue becomes, is there's no connectivity, really, with what the developments are that we are having going here. So for instance, if you're a first year apprentice, they want to place you on a job, but this might just be a two year type of job, and then you've got to jump around to get the other two years for a four year apprenticeship. So you may have to go to the western side of the state to be able to get the additional two years. We're missing a mark and an opportunity to connect kind of a seed, to sell type of concept where folks come in and as an apprentice, right? And we've already known, based off of the master plan, based off of talks with the DGC, what projects are in the pipeline, and we can coordinate to put those folks in there and those apprentices in there so they can gain the experience they need to become journeymen. And so I like to make my second motion to put into executive session a study to create a coordinated pipeline between our skilled trade programs and the DGC and etc, for projects that are coming in front of the city of Detroit. Okay?
Hearing, no objections that action Did you have a hearing, no objections that action will be taken.
Thank you. My second question is to talk about another population here in the city of Detroit, our returning citizens, which I think a lot of you, have been instrumental. I've had talks with you separately about how we increase our outreach. How do we really connect those folks to the job? Yes, here at the city of Detroit, we ban the box here as a city. We cannot force private entities to do so, but there are a lot of returning citizen friendly hiring employers here in the city of Detroit that want to gain a greater access to residents who are looking for jobs. Can we talk a little bit more about a concert, a concerted effort to connect our returning citizens, returning citizens, because we've got one of the largest populations in the state. They say, Southeast Michigan. That's aka Detroit. Can we talk about that region, how we are going to try to work and increase getting folks connected to those jobs? Sure,
through the chair. I'll start, and then I'm going to turn it over. Turn it over to Stephanie Nixon. So this is one of the special populations that we really focus on, very heavily. We have for a number of years, been blessed, frankly, with special funding to support returning citizens, including in some years, we actually get to them before they are released to ensure that we provide them with some training opportunities and in the key to and I'm sure you're very aware of this, because you're the chair of the returning citizens Task Force is ensuring that they have a job. And I'm really happy that we're going to be partnering soon, in April, on a resource fair to further that that that goal, but we have two programs right now that are focused on returning citizens, and I'll let Stephanie Nixon talk about those
yes through the Chair. Yes, we absolutely that is a priority. And I've had an opportunity to sit with you and talk with you about the importance of making sure that individuals who are just as involved have a space when they come back home. So one of the programs is pathways home four, and it is a special program where we work directly with the county jail. So in the new facility, we're actually training inside of that facility. So when people return to the community, they have credentials, they're work ready, they have resumes, they have IDs and the things that they need so they can go right to work. So we're really that is a that is a new program, is first time we work with the county in that kind of work. So we're excited about that. But to your point around what do we do to ensure that employers understand and we connect employers with that population, many individuals, particularly those who've been long term incarcerated, are ready. They come they come home. They've learned their lesson. They've gone through the rigor of just kind of making bad choices, and they make the best employees. So we sell those skills, and we sell those skills to employers, and what we do with our with the participants, is we teach them how to sell themselves. They come out of incarceration, and they are defeated. And so what are some of the things that you learn there? There's transferable skills. They come out of that environment, and you there's a way that you can communicate your experience. You know, I learned my lesson, I paid my dues, and I'm ready to contribute to society. So those are the kinds of skills in the development. When you talk about self efficacy, that particular population really, really needs support there. But on the other side, employers, we have what we call transitional work experiences and that supplemental work where we will pay the wages to for for the individual to work with the company for a period of time. They get an opportunity to learn and to become work ready and to experience that. And then the employer sees that this person is valuable without paying that wage. So then they say this, this is somebody that's worth the investment, and I want to hire them permanently. So that's been a program that really, really works with that population, because oftentimes, if you don't have experience, you're coming out of incarceration. Some employers say, I don't know, but if we say we'll pay the wage, we'll pay the full wage, we pay $20 an hour for an individual in a transitional work experience, and then the employer says, I want to invest and they hire them. So those are just some of the barriers. Of course, they have different kinds of barriers. You know, housing, making sure that housing is huge. You have a lot of people coming out of incarceration to homelessness, you know, they don't have a place to be, and then, and then transitioning back into the family. You know, there's a lot of individuals that the family feels like, you know, they're just not as supportive as they need to be. So we need to make sure that they have a safe place to live, that they have transportation ID, and then they have support. They understand the importance of what they have to bring, and they're able to sell that. So when you start so those are a couple things we're dealing with, the job seeker, who's the the person who's coming out of incarceration, and then we're showing the employer that this is a valuable workforce, and you need to invest. And we invest first so that they can see that it's important to us that they give these people an opportunity. So those are just some of the things that we're doing. There's another program. It's, it's, it's a we're in a partnership with the the Midwest Urban Strategies, and we work with individuals now. These are younger individuals. These are 18 to 24, year olds that are justice facing. And then we work with them around sometimes they haven't been incarcerated, but they have been. They are targeted. They're individuals who've been tracked and probably are susceptible to the next step. May have them incarcerated, so we try to catch them before they go in. Their behavior is at risk, is high risk, so we work with them, and then we also work with those who've been incarcerated and released in that age range. But transitional work experience has been great for us, and it really gets that population opportunity to kind of test the market and employers to see that they're worth the effort.
Yeah, and I like that, you know, even in our conversations, and these are some great tools that we have. But I also think at times, a lot of folks don't know that they're out there, and that's because of not because of you, because obviously you have budget constraints of what you can do marketing wise, and what you can put out there and get your reach in. You know, we hear about the partnership with the the county jails, but I had a conversation with Director Heidi Washington, who's over the Michigan Department of Corrections. I served on the corrections subcommittee when I was in the state legislature, so it's been a real passion of mine, they had programs like vocational village, right, which is an amazing program for the state. But when those jobs were there, they were connecting folks that weren't. They were Connect. They were giving folks skills, but there weren't necessarily the type of jobs they got the skills of when they came home. So for example, the skills that some of our returning citizens who were in mdlc, and they were a little bit closer to home, and they were reaching their ERD, their earliest release date, they had them going into skilled trades like Pest Control instead of welding, instead of carpentry. So you have somebody talk about pest control by the time you get home, and maybe you have home invasion on your record. There's no pest control company that's going to hire you to go into somebody's home, and because we don't ban the box on that level. So then they do the background check and they see that. But connecting those dots, I think are really important, and I think we need a greater reach into mdlc. So I'm also going to make a motion to put into executive session to expand the marketing budget and create a partnership with the Michigan Department of Corrections
right Hearing no objections that action will be taken. And finally,
I think, thank you, Madam President. And finally, I think you touched on one of the most one of the most important components, housing. Yes, we are doing things to ban the box, but that's not necessarily the case on housing. It's difficult to find housing when you come home, you live with your family, because you got to have an address to be released first of all, and that might last two to three weeks, because their family hasn't seen you for 10 to 15 years, and things have changed significantly. But as we talk about jobs and housing, I think there is a greater there's a great opportunity to connect both, particularly as we talk about a push for workforce housing here in the city of Detroit, or some recent creation tools, like the pilot Fast Track program where we are looking and focusing on how we build and expand housing, particularly workforce housing, here in the city of Detroit. So my next motion is going to be able to create a program that connects workforce housing, as well as employment, with the public private partnerships that exist here in the city of Detroit.
Member Durham, discussion,
remember wise you want to jump your mind. I've done that already.
Oh, okay, I didn't, I didn't know that that
that was when I want to say when HRD was here, or something like that. Yeah, but, but I said work for Workforce Housing Fund.
Okay, so it was that for returning citizens. It's
for anybody, okay? No, it would just work for us. You're specific in talking, yeah,
apartment, I want to clarify. I want, I want to create a program that's a joint program between DSC and HRD, okay, that connects employment and housing together, okay? And I'll go a little bit deeper. The idea behind that is for our returning or just as impacted, friendly hiring employers, there's an opportunity for them to even address the housing issue that may exist if we are able to identify the need and identify affordable housing that can be connected to their employment so that so that Is my motion,
separate, yeah. Okay, okay, Hearing no objections that action will be taken.
Thank you. And again, so I'm not still in the workforce housing idea member waters. I want to, I want to connect the two, though. So we're building a pipeline, so when you come home, you know you have a job and you know you have a place to live. So that that was kind of my point. But other than that, thank you for the work that you do. Look forward to seeing you at our fair very soon and having further conversations with you offline. Thank you, Madam President,
all right. Thank you so much again for the presentation and for all the work that you all do, looking forward to working with you all Yes. Mr. Corley, has his hand
raised. Thank you so much, Madam President, real quick. So the slide, um, that talks about city funding, and you're saying about, you know, for 26 two down to 26 it's about 8% of your overall funding. And of course, you got money in HRD and creo. I looked at your financial statements, and I didn't see that funding in your financial statement. So are you just having access to those dollars, like for the D, D, y, t, summer jobs, the 2 million that money is housed in H, r, d, but you're just having you have access to those dollars to help administer the program, because I did not see that in your financial statements.
So through the chair, those are, even though they're, I don't know, know how to ensure I make the term right. Those dollars come to the ESC. They actually are delivered to desc. So the contract that DESC has is with HRD, so the funding comes to from them to DSC. It is most certainly included in DSC budget and actuals
Okay, so probably want to make it clear in your financial statements, because in your financial statements, you just show in your revenue side, federal and state grant dollars. There's not a line that designate city funding. I see because, because, truly, you are getting a city subsidy. Yes, you know, and that's not clear. So, so,
okay, yes, so thank you for making that clear. Those dollars actually do come over to DSC. They are 100% used for G, D, y, t and or the staffing and, or the executive workforce or workforce fund contract Correct? Yes, yes, and those contracts come to city council, absolutely, yes. And that's why we're here today, because we're hoping
Madam President, yes. Apologies. Donnie Johnson, deputy budget director, I do want to clarify a small bit about that, which is the G, D, y, p program is, since it's via a contract, the DSC is a service provider to the city, so that is not a subsidy, so that will not show as a contribution. It is a payment for services rendered. So DSC delivers a service which is managing the Grow Detroit young talent. There are subsidy contributions, though, just a little bit of a nuance to that. But I do want to make sure that
that is clear in our financial statements, though they are reflected so I can, we can probably help you under the fact where they are. I'll be honest, I don't know where it shows up on the city side, but yeah, we are contractors for purposes of those grants.
Okay, all right. Well, thank you all for being here. Thank you for the work that you all do that will conclude this budget hearing, thank you, and we will be in touch. Thank you. Thank you much. Okay, colleagues, we are supposed to have a 1pm. There's a desire to have a quick 30 minute break. We still do have public comment, though, as well, so we will limit public comment to a minute, if that's okay for now, we do also have another opportunity for public comment. If so, we will do public comment, and then we will pause and do a 30 minute break for people to grab food and then come back for our remaining two hearings.
Pro Tem has the courage just
Alonzo, you still here? Yeah, we're going to do public comment 30 minute break and then come back. Okay, alright, and I'm going to limit public comment to a minute for now,
Detroit Employment Solutions and Detroit at work need to be questioned under oath and under penalty of perjury. They have set a bunch of likes today, like 80% success rate. I don't believe it, like I charged on to for the to help for them. Back in 2017 they never followed up with me, like I graduated from the program they sent me to, and then they forgot about me, and then I've tried again and again, like Mayor Duggan said in 2023 you know his speech, I went to Detroit world for help again and again, they insulted, belittled, disrespected, my ability. And now, oh, and good job Santo Romero making excuses for them, like, oh, they lack soft skills. You're gonna tell me that like of the 1000, 2000 people in this city who have the skills to be software developers, you're gonna tell me that all of them lack lack soft skills. I don't believe it. Last month, 20 black men and women graduated from Grand Circus they had previously graduated from the Apple developer Academy last year.
Thank you so much. And if we can make sure the timer is on Paris, thank you, sir, and we will continue to those who joined us virtually.
The next caller is
we see you. Thanks. I know my stomach riding too.
We see you. Good at Good afternoon.
Good afternoon to the
chair. May I be heard? Yes, you can. Thank you.
Yesterday at the at the table, you added something to the budget for PLA I'm not sure how a department can function and be called. Have a have a director when they only have one employee or zero employees. And what did we budget for? How many employees did we budget for? For PLD? $21 million was transferred from PLD, and I'd like to know how that was transferred when they have not fulfilled the contract that they had. And why would we extend the bankruptcy by entering into another and not even addressing it with the citizens just added at budget time. That is, that is unconstitutional and unconscionable. Actually, DSW was going to be at the table today. I would like to ask Mr. Brown, why do we have a reservoir that was $3 million but we don't know what is what materials are coming into our house, even though it's been paid for several times. Thank you.
Thank you. And Paris, how many callers do we have? Just people want to know? Madam
President, we have six callers that are
online. Okay, thank you. Go ahead. The next
caller is William M Davis.
Okay. Mr. Davis, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Could I be heard? Yes, okay, starting off with the human resources. I think human resources was better back in my day than it is now. Do y'all know if y'all have a plan yet for like, regular civilian, you know, employees, if they could loan or give some of their sick time to other fellow co workers, in case they're having problems or, you know, they've exhausted their sick time. I know police and fire have a plan that should be available. And also, the second group that was talking, I see you didn't say anything about having any facilities to help young people in district seven, even though we have the most young people of any district. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Davis, the next caller is Betty a Varner. Ms. Varner, good afternoon.
Good afternoon to all within the sound of my voice. First, I want to start off by saying the workforce program is a great program, and I have reached out multiple times, wanted them to come, asking them to come to events that my organization, that the DeSoto Ellsworth black Association, has given in their neighborhood and community, and we have not been successful. And so if there's anyone within the sound of my voice can help make that happen for my organization, we would be very much appreciated, because they spoke about being in the community, but we haven't been successful, and because of the time frame today, just please allocate moneys to the programs that I normally talk about, the Detroit home Accessibility Program and the senior and disabled program, and allow monies to help the neighborhood.
Right? Thank you. Ms Barner, the next caller is Stephen Holling,
Mr. Hari,
thank you. So how HR really works today. You know, I feel like HR has gotten so bureaucratic in both the private government sector. You know, fortunately, you know, I own my own business. I run a small business, which, obviously the hiring practices are a lot different. But, you know, they could really cut the process, you know, four phone interviews for, you know, entry level job is kind of ridiculous. You know, I never applied for a job at the city, but I have it other government agencies years ago, and, you know, still pretty bureaucratic. So there needs to really be a over an overhaul with HR and however that scandal their wines, that's the rest of my time.
The next caller is Mr. Ronald Foster,
good afternoon. Just first thing, very happy to see harmony house cafes hosting a lot of community visit data at a full house. So that's important to know. Secondly, when it comes down to small business and employees, are any of these organizations going to bridge the small business with Health Choice? The Health Choice, I think, is very important for all small businesses. Thirdly, if blacks, if it was still legal for blacks to be at the back of the bus, I still would not be following that law. Only follow just law. So the fact that things are legal or illegal goes down to what the people voted here for. Fourth they say the worst day to buy a car made is on a Monday. That's because majority of auto industry workers use substances to counter their pain as hard laborers, and so you have to change your perspectives on every aspect of how we are governing.
The next caller is Cindy Dara.
Cindy Dara, good afternoon.
I was in Jump Start, and I wasn't a success, but I never liked most of the jobs they were offering I wanted. I would like to tutor kids and math and stuff. There's certain jobs I would like, or advising people on maintenance. But I want to say that Yvette sample was working at TMI. That's too much incarceration or too much illiteracy, and I ran into her. We used to work together at Miss Turkey when she was mill right, and she became the head of the whole apprenticeship program for the city of Detroit. That's when you had department that actually hired people instead of deciding how you're going to so called, send them over to contractors. You need to have public employment. Capitalism will never and small businesses, they were a hard time staying in business. So
Madam President, the last caller for public comment is Mr. Rueben
Crowley, good afternoon.
Mary Sheffield, you gave up one minute. So Imma, direct it all towards you now. Fred Doha, look to your left. You see Fred durhall down there. He cheated in, cheated in absentee Valley crawl committed by Gina Avery Walker and Dennis Murphy over at the Department of Alexis. Now you it's some special project. It's slated to be over next to Saint Suzanne's Marvin Walker is a beneficiary partner, confidant of mines. Time for that when we going to talk about your daddy, because your daddy been spreading rumors about me, and he didn't weaseled me out of $2,500 it was a bill Ralph Williams owed of 4800
I cut it down to 4500
and then your daddy said he was going to pay it for him. Your daddy told me only had 2000 in his account, he's a lot.
Madam President, that concludes public comment. Right.
So, what we will do thank you that ends public comment. We can come back at 130. So two o'clock is everybody comfortable. We're coming back. at two.
