All right. Good morning, everyone, we will now call to order the expanded budget, Finance and Audit standing committee for the purposes of our budget hearings for today and Madam Clerk, please call the roll
Good morning. Council member Scott Benson I council member Fred deer Hall, the third council member Letitia Johnson, present council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, Council Member Mary waters, Council Member Angela Woodfield Callaway.
Member Callaway indicated that she would not be present
The clerk will note. Council member Coleman Young, the second Council President, pro tem James Tate, your council president, Mary Sheffield, present. Madam President, we have a quorum.
Okay? There being a quorum? President, we will begin our budget deliberations. I know Mr. Corley, you like to open up with some opening remarks, just to kind of set the tone for the next couple of weeks, so go right ahead. Thank you,
Madam President, good morning City Council.
This is a very important process for city council to undertake. Is the budget process. There will be about 46 budget hearings starting today, and the hearings will end on March, 31 and really appreciate all of the attention to these important budget hearings. So thank you so much. Thank
you so much, Mr. Corley, and we will start off with the auditor general's office and so Ms. Laura Goodspeed, if you can, please come up and the rest of your staff And team. You
I just make sure the bottom of the microphone is on. By pressing it, it should turn green. And when you are ready to proceed, go right ahead. Good
morning, honorable City Council. I'm Laura Goodspeed, Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General. My name is Mark logrich, Deputy Auditor General, Office of the Auditor General.
Good morning. My name is Kevin assati, Chief Auditor Office of the Auditor General.
And this is the Office of the Auditor General's fiscal year 2026, budget hearing. It's our presentation to the expanded budget, Finance and Audit standing committee.
Just give a moment.
And so today, we'd like to take a few minutes
to just talk about who we are, what our charter mandated responsibilities are, and what we are currently doing, as well as some items that we need to begin to do. We'll talk a little bit about the mayor's fiscal year 26 proposed budget, and spend some time talking about our request, our proportional and targeted, equitable funding budget, and then bring give your status of our office renovations. So we are the oversight agency, and I think it's not by chance that we are the first ones to kick off this budget presentation season. We are the first oversight agency in the city of Detroit, having been established in 1937
so we've been here for 88 plus years.
We are independent. We are objective. We're systematic in terms of what we do and how we approach our work. We are professional, we're disciplined, and my two favorite words is we add value as Mark pointed out and reminds me, sitting before you, you have over 100 years of public and private sector experience combined in the three of us in both accounting and auditing and financial activities, Our staff goes through a mandatory of a minimum of 40 hours of continuing professional education requirements annually. We currently are budgeted for 21 full time employees. We do have two vacancies that we expect to feel before the end of this fiscal year. Our staff is comprised of three administrators and 18 staff members in the auditor operations, Chief Auditor, we have three audit managers and three audit supervisors and 11 auditors. Our staff is highly credentialed. 100% of our staff has undergraduate degrees. Over 60% of our staff have master's degrees. We have CIA certified internal auditors, and I'm happy to show to state that we have three auditors that in various stages of completing their CIA certification. We have two Certified Public Accountants, Mark and myself, a Certified Information Systems Auditor, as well as a certified risk management auditor. Just a little bit about our demographics, over 63% of our staff are union members. We belonging to both the ask me our professional union, our supervisors as well as our staff. Auditors belong to the sing the senior accountants, appraisers and auditors. Union by seniority. Again, we're not only have a lot of experience, we have a well seasoned staff. Over 40% of our staff have been with the city of Detroit more than 10 years, and I'm happy to say that 37% of our staff are Detroit residents, including myself,
our charter. We get our powers and duties, and we're authorized under Article 7.5 of the city charter. So I go through various requirements. The first is our audit our requirement for our internal audit operations to make audits of financial transactions, the performance and operations of city agencies. And it's based on an annual risk based plan. And I'll go through the criteria that we use. We focus on high risk agencies and activities. Then the next action is, once we complete those audits, is to report to this honorable body and file a copy of our reports with the mayor, as well as publish them to the residents of Detroit. Our performance operational audits are typically a broad, diverse range of areas that we cover, including financial reporting, compliance, information security, operations, risk management and more. The performance audits are an assessment of operations or functions. We look at the systems, the processes and the procedures, and then we try to assess the efficiency and effectiveness andor compliance with legal and other requirements. Some of our audits are based on council requests, and they may be limited in scope. Our risk based audit plan. You've asked, some of you have asked, How do we create our audit plan? What is it based on? We look at seven metrics. We look at the number, the value of the total amount of adopted revenues, the adopted expenditures, the number of staff, the type of fund the agency is, whether it's the general fund versus enterprise agency, the type of request, whether that audit is based on our audit risk plan or it's a council request. We look at the date of the last audit and whether or not the agency or department is faced with emerging issues. And so we rank each of these seven metrics on a scale of one to 10, and then we look at the result and determine of those medium high, low risk agencies, which a which agencies were going to audit. Some of our major audit challenges that we currently face is the growth and integration of enterprise wide data and information systems and those interfaces into our major systems, like Oracle and Ultra Pro our HR systems, we're faced with the proliferation of department specific software that may or may not interface with our enterprise wide data systems. Our audits very often are cross functional and include multiple departments. 90% of our audits will always touch the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Since those financial activities have been centralized into the ocfo, we're often faced with delays in receipt of documentation, and have in the past used the power granted to us by the Charter, which allows us to issue subpoenas for data. We recently have been faced with scope limitations, and the scope limitation is where there's simply a lack of documentation for us to complete our audit, or a lack of access to certain systems, or a lack of institutional knowledge within the department about how that system operates. Just like to share with you our current status of our operational audits. And if you'll notice, the red line is the status as of March 2024 so I presented the same chart last year. We're still in the process of completing these audits with respect to the opera neighborhood beautification initiative, we expect to report out on that initiative before the end of April this year. The Board of police commissioners, we have finalized all of the field work and in the process of drafting the report in terms of our comprehensive citywide employee audits, which comprise of employee pre onboarding and position control, the human resources, Employee Services and citywide payroll, and These combined audits look look at the experience of employees from higher to
termination,
we are all into field work in the in terms of the employee pre onboarding and the HR Employee Services and in terms of the citywide payroll. We are we have finalized much of the field work. We expect to have multiple reports with respect to the city's payroll, and expect to have it the first report out before the end of this month, March. Our drug law enforcement fund. Again, we're all into field work, and in terms of the forensic audit of property tax assessments, we did publish the second report last year, and so the purple bar shows that we're in the wrap up phase, and that is just exiting that part of the audit. We published the third interim report just last week, and it was referred to the BFA last week as well. We've asked to hold withhold having that public audit hearing until after this body completes your budget hearings. Do a glimpse at our 2025, to 2027, two year audit plan. It is very robust and very aggressive, and it will depend in part on this body's response to our request for additional funding, which I'll cover later. We hope to we plan to conduct five performance operational audits. And keep in mind, these are the very complex, comprehensive audits. They usually take one to two years to complete at a minimum. We will be conducting a follow up performance audit, we will conduct three ARPA audits, three investigations and one accounting procedures report. And I'll talk a little bit about the investigations and accounting procedures report. Those are currently two activities that are required by the charter that we currently have not conducted in the past few years. Our charter also requires us to make a public report of the financial position of the city after the close of each fiscal year. As you are commonly aware, the annual comprehensive financial report, or act for this is a report of the financial position and the results of operations of the city that's conducted at the close of each year, and the single audit, single audit report focuses on our federally funded programs, including the opera initiatives and other grant funds from the US Treasury. Our external audits are performed by an independent external company, plant Moran. P PLL, see. Plant Moran published our the reports relating to fiscal year ending June 30, 2024 well before the deadlines, those reports were published timely on december 2120 24 both of the reports had unmodified audit opinions, which means that there were no material weaknesses or misstatements relating to our financial statements. The audit of the fiscal year ending 2025 contract. This is the last contract of the year, the last year of the current contract with plant Moran. We will be putting our external audit requirements out for competitive bid in April.
Other activities that we are
involved with, we participate in the revenue estimating conference, which takes place in September, February and May we also support, and we're happy to support, the legislative policy division as they prepare the budget dailies and the questions for these budget hearings. Our methodology as it relates to the revenue estimating conference involves reviewing prior audit work papers, obtaining the reviews and understanding financial information related to the revenues from our economic outlooks, the Office of Budget estimates as well as LPD reports. We look at and collect relevant newspaper articles, and most of all, we perform our own independent financial analysis, looking at trends and based on the data that we have been collecting over time.
Another charter mandated responsibility is to settle all disputed claims in favor of or against the city, to the extent and in the manner provided by ordinance. The ordinance states that all claims of whatever kind against the city shall be first submitted to the law department, except claims involving by the city employees, or against DW SD, or claims, where for undisputed services, labor and materials. So citizen has a right to the to file a claim against the city for all kinds of claims except the ones listed here, if the claim is denied by the law department, the claim it has the right, according to the charter, to appeal such denied claim to the Auditor General. However, the state of Michigan's governmental liability for negligence grants broad exceptions to or regulates the type of activities that may be brought against Michigan municipalities, and it grants broad exception To the claims that can be awarded against municipalities, ie governmental immunity. It has been brought to our attention that the city of Detroit charter, nor its ordinances does not give the Auditor General, nor any representatives of the Office of the Auditor General, power of the authority or authority to act contrary to state law. In other words, we do not have the authority to award any claims that are were denied by the law department based on governmental immunity. However, the citizens continue to have the right to appeal those claims to the Auditor General. In these cases, we will notify the claimant of our legal limitation and of their right to file the case in a court of competent jurisdiction to handle such claim the this slide just talks about the types of claims that have come before us. In 2024
we had a total of 29 claims, $492,000
the majority of our claims, 89% or 90% of our claims relate to property damage, 492,000 and it's notable that 92% 92.6% of those claims relate to tree damages. And I know council member Tate has asked for additional documentation and status of just the number of amount of dollars that have been spent to support the citizens that have issues with dead and disease trees on private Property and but it's notable to see that the majority of the claims that come in and that are appealed and denied for governmental immunity does involve damages to personal property for trees,
this is just to give a summary of the activities that I, as chairperson of the towing rate committee, participated in in 2024
five commissioners were seated in February of 2024
and our responsibilities under the ordinances was to review the administrative towing service and storage fees for police authorized towing. We are required to perform this every two years. We are required to submit our recommendations to city council By October, 1 of the year of review since its establishment, as far as I can understand, the TRC was last convened in 2012 the current rates that are still in effect have been in effect since April of 2013 we convened The 2024 toy rate commission in February of 2024 we presented our proposal, proposed rates to city council in September, and the new rates were adopted by this very honorable body in February of 2025 those new rates will take effect July 1. 2025 we will convene the TRC in 2026 to review rates by October 1. It will be my responsibility to ensure that we comply with the requirements, and that is to review the touring rates at least once every two years. So other activities of the Auditor General includes being a member of the fire cost recovery Review Committee, the police cost recovery review committee, as well as we are members of the Risk Management Council, I do want to point out that we're currently reviewing our responsibilities under the fire and police cost recovery review committees, as well as some other activities that are in the charter and related on ordinances, and reviewing them based on a recommendation from our peer review in 2023 to really look at those activities to determine if they're compatible with or not compatible with our responsibilities And our standards as independent, extra independent internal auditors.
Now I'd like to turn our attention to the mayor's fiscal year 2026 proposed budget. The mayor is proposing that we remain status quo in terms of our full time employees, currently 21 and a modest increase of $109,000
or 2.1% increase.
The components of the increase it really relates to the majority is personnel cost, non personnel costs associated with the personnel increases, and by contract, our actual cost will decrease by $56,000 again, noting that this is the last year of the current contract with plant Moran. The mayor's proposed budget is basically status quo. It supports our existing internal and external auditing activities. But I will point out that this budget, this proposed budget, is neither proportional nor equitable nor adequate for us to complete and do all of our charter man. It mandated responsibilities. Next
slide, I'd like to talk a little bit about the proportional funding ordinance and the resolution that was before Council of the whole yesterday that has been referred to the budget, finance audit Standing Committee, and is on the current agenda this afternoon, the 2019 charter required that the city of Detroit establish a proportional method of funding for its oversight agencies. Therefore oversight agencies, the Office of the Auditor General, the board of ethics, the Office of Inspector General and the office of the Ombudsman. It took the city and city council over 10 years to finally pass the ordinance, and I want to thank the city council for passing the proportional funding ordinance in July 30 of 2024 there's several sections of the ordinance, but I'd like to focus On section 17, dash two, dash 72 which requires this city council to adopt a funding formula by resolution. This resolution, as I just mentioned, is on council members do a whole BFA agenda today, and it really requires. It states, whereas the target proportional and equitable funding percentage should be calculated by dividing an agency's target equitable funding amount based on the projection of our proposed organizational structure and non personnel operational costs by the prior year general fund adopted budget. The formula should be based on a percentage of the city's total general fund budget. And the intention of that is to create an objective and equitable method to ensure that the oversight agencies are able to effectively carry out all of our vital charter mandated duties, and being free of uncertainty regarding our annual budget appropriations, you may ask some way as why the prior year general fund Budget is used as the basis for the calculations. It's because it's a legal number. It's very transparent, highly visible, and it rarely changes. The proportional funding formally is necessary for the oversight agencies to again be able to carry out our duties consistently without the uncertainty of changes in our budget. We have never been adequately funded, and our funding levels are well below those of comparable cities.
We have presented to each and every council member, our target, equitable funding, percentages and amounts. Our fiscal year 25 our current budget that $5.3 million as you can see, the proportional, equitable percentage is point three 6% of the current year budget
We have
investigated and structured and amongst our administration, we have determined that in order for us to carry out a full charter, mandated responsibilities, we need a full staff of 25 a funding amount level of $6.8 million which equals a targeted equitable funding percentage, a point four 6% and that is less than one half a percent, less than a half of a percent of the general fund budget. I want to point out that our numbers include the cost of the Act for which is sizable, the actual cost around $1.9 million and so that is included in our target equitable funding percentage.
This is an overview of our fiscal year, 25 adopted budget, versus the mayor's proposed budget versus our target, equitable funding in 2025 we are funded at point three, 6% and the mayor's budget, again, is status quo, modest increase to move the needle, 2.37% but we're asking for your consideration and funding at the TEF level, a point four, 6% it would mean an increase of $1.4 million The bulk of that money goes to a personnel cost to support the additional four FTEs that we are requesting. There is a modest increase in the act for cost, and that, again, is will be going out for bid in April. And then we've asking for some increase in our professional and contractual services. Those services include outsourcing other accounting, specialized accounting and auditing activities, such that includes some forensic accounting as well as data analytics, where we don't yet have the necessary skill level to conduct some of those heavy lifting in some audits,
you may be wondering, what will you Get? What will we do with this additional funding? What is our vision for where we want to be as a fully funded oversight agency? So our objective is to implement an enhanced risk management team. This team will allow us to complete and comply with the other charter mandated responsibilities that we currently don't do. We don't have the resources, necessarily, to make annual financial analysis of agencies that are not selected for audits in the current year. So if you go back to the previous slide, we have included these analysis in our project plan. We have not had the resources nor funding to investigate the administration of operations, to do these additional investigations, and we've not had the funding or staff to make reports of the city's regarding some accounting methods. We've done that to some extent, as it includes in our audits, but our charter mandates require us to do more in these areas. What is the impact of that TEF funding? Glad you asked. It will allow us to complete again those financial analysis of agencies, not audit. So it complements the activities that for the other agencies where we're not performing those very complex and performance audits, it will allow us to respond more timely to your request, council city special request andor emerging risk and other pressing audit needs that we can do very quickly, very timely, through investigations and analysis, it will allow us to partner more strategically with the city's Risk Management Council to enhance the city risk management strategies. Our audit software already incorporates the city strategic outcomes. Our audit software test two sides to we have an operational audit side as well as a risk management side. We've not yet been able to utilize the the risk ops side of our software, again, due to the limited resources and funding, it will allow us to consider the city strategic outcomes in all of our risk assessments and auditing activities. And these are the five outcomes that the city has incorporated, even to in every budget, as you will note, and have seen every budget dollar, every dollar that is budgeted and expended can be tied to one of these five outcomes. It will allow us to partner more efficiently and consistently with do it to strengthen our Information Technology reviews and all the audits I like to just take a moment to let you know about a notable achievement. I'll give it to the do it and the payroll department. But as we were performing our city wide payroll audit, we realized that our major contracts, our enterprise wide contracts, all people and Oracle did not have
clauses and
clauses to help the city or be notified and provide a response to when their systems may have a breach, in terms of a breach and exposure to our personal information. And so, based on our recommendation, the city, the law department and do it has undertaken a task to ensure that every contract that has our personal data has a indemnification clause that allows that requires the vendor to notify us and to provide such services as monitoring. I'm happy to report that going forward, all software contracts will have these clauses, that is a great example of the value add and the work that we do and the response that the departments have as we're performing audits our TEF organization, again by by providing us with the additional four FTEs and the 1.4 million, we can launch this team of enhanced risk management that can again focus on those, focus on those investigations and
analysis. Thank you.
Won't go through the benchmark. I see, I've got a time. I just want to point out though, that Denver, of their 99 FTEs, their audit staff, they have a staff of 49 FTEs that specifically work on audit services, and their budget is 7.9 million. Office renovations. Yes, I realize that I'm saying it's a status as of tomorrow, which is true, because it won't change, um, briefly, we started our funding request for renovations way back in April of 2024, fast forward to 2022 2020 in April of 2020. In 2024 the project was funded, and we began to finalize our floor plans and contract with Detroit Wayne joint building authority. As of today, the interior office space has been completely demolished. Construction has started until the walls are going up. Network drops are being put in. And based on our conversations in urging with do it, we have purchased our furniture and technology to avoid any potential impacts from tariffs. In terms of the funding status, our original request that was approved was $600,000 we have finalized our contracts, and the total cost is $814 we have been working with the ocfo to secure the additional $220 in in funding. That amount is included in the proposed fiscal year, 2024 2025 supplemental appropriation transfers request that was before this body and will come back before the body at next week's Council of the whole just a few before and after. Before we had single person offices. We only had 11 desks, and at the time when we started to request 16 auditors, our new work spaces are open and modular, and I'm happy to report, we planned our office layout with the expectation that we will be fully staffed at 25 so it'll accommodate all 25 of our FTES, Thank you. Our old conference room was not functional. Our new conference room is very functional, and it provides us the training room so that now we don't have to search around the kmac building to help have training for our auditors. And just to recap, to put it in perspective, I'm first requesting that this honorable body put our entire budget into Executive Session. I'm asking that you consider and fund OAG at our proportional target, equitable funding percentage a point four, 6% of the prior year general fund budget. I'm asking that you approve the resolution for proportional and targeted, equitable funding, not just for our office, but on behalf of the other oversight agencies as well. I'm asking that with that, that you increase the funding for our office by $1.4 million I have received many of the questions and will be preparing a response in writing, but I am available now to answer some of your questions. And with that, I want to thank my staff for their hard work, and I want to thank this honorable body for allowing us to present our fiscal year 2026 budget. Thank you
all right. Thank you so much. Miss good speed into the entire team. Thank you for the work that you all do. Just want to say that it was a privilege to work with you. Our office did sponsor the proportional funding ordinance and spent a lot of time working with your office and all of the oversight agencies to make sure that that ordinance was approved, in the course of support of all of my colleagues to get it done. And so definitely want to first move your budget to Executive Session. I know that the resolution, as was mentioned, is in committee, and so hoping that we can move forward with that, to have a better understanding of not just this department, but all of our oversight agencies, what that formula will be for proportional funding. So we will move that to Executive Session. So move all right, Hearing no objections. We will do so we submitted several questions, one you already answered. I wanted to get a better understanding of one of your strategic priorities was to include the enterprise wide risk management, but it sounds like your increase will address that. But can you just talk to on page 10, some of your major audit challenges that you spoke to, how this additional funding will address some of these challenges that you spoke to, that you're dealing with regarding department specific software, enterprise wide data, information systems, delay and receipt of documentation, all of these various challenges. How are you going to resolve those? And will this increase in funding accomplish any of that?
Thank you through the chair, yes, I can give you a current example, a specific example we have encountered, as I mentioned recently, what we call a scope limitation. With certain audits, the city is increasingly adding new software. Software is changing. So as we began an audit, we have a need to maybe expand the scope of that audit. We want our reports and the work that we do to be timely. That's one of our standards. So going through so we have a need to maybe increase the scope of our audits, maybe procure additional support, again, in terms of those skills that we don't necessarily have, like data analytics, cyber security, there are auditors that specialize in those higher level, complex auditors. So having the funding available to us, particularly that additional funding in the professional and contractual services will help us procure those services without being limited by the budget. That was the intent. That was one of the reasons we've asked for that increase. The having the additional staff and performing those investigations will allow us to get in to see problems and work with those departments in terms of being more timely and helping working with those departments to be more timely. Okay,
okay, thank you. Miss good speed. I know we don't have much time for the rest of this hearing, so I will submit the rest of my questions to you in writing. And again, thank you for all the work that you all do, pro temp Tate. And if we can all limit our questions to two for right now, if possible, and we will proceed Absolutely. Thank
you, Madam President, thank you, Director. We appreciate you so much all the work you do as thorough as you are and have been as well as your team over the years. So I just want to say that personally, thank you as council member, looking at you, mentioned about the trees, and I was very intrigued about that. 92% if we can go to slide, 1696,
excuse me, 92.6%
of all property claims,
those are for trees. Trees. I'm surprised that it's not water. With all of the water challenges that we've had with personal property damage. Do you think? Do you know why we haven't received as many regarding a water related property damage.
I can only surmise that many of those claims are settled, and that's the claims that come before council member Johnson. So if they're settled, that the law department settles them, they don't come before us. We only get claims that the law department denies and are appealed, because I
get a lot of folks who are complaining about water related property damage, and I don't know they actually received the settlements. I haven't
Do you know it from, I would, I would begin to inquire if they're filing claims against the city of Detroit, against the law department, because that's where it has to start. And so I don't see, I don't recall in the 29 actually, any claims for Water Damage, so I would be curious to know how they are going about resolving those whether or not they're working directly with the water department or through this honorable body to get those resolved. Thank
you. And then we'll start to peel back some of those layers, and I'll make a note of that. Yeah, thank you. The other is, has there been any situations where you have, based on an audit that you and your team have performed, have had to refer that entity or individual department fill in the blank to another oversight agency. Absolutely,
we have routinely referred
cases to the Office of Inspector General. I can say that for the last two that we've referred one dealing with demolition contractors, those contractors have been disbarred. Some have faced criminal charges at the state level that was based on work that we did, and when we find that it's may involve some criminal activity fraud, we will refer those to the Office of the Inspector General part of the Inspector General has been involved in investigations regarding the board of police commissioners, so we've worked together on on these cases.
Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to the responses that you received, especially the ones from LPD had a lot of the few of the same ones. So thank you again for the work that you all thank you for your
leadership as well. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank you proton council member young,
always good to see you, but I don't have any questions, but always good to see you exit presentations. Always. Madam Clerk, you acknowledge me.
So noted. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Member
young and member Doha, Member Santiago Romero,
thank you. Thank you, Madam President, through you to our ag, good morning. Thank you for your thoroughness and thank you for the work that you do. Very much appreciate our partnership. I have a question regarding plant Moran wondering, because I don't recall, do they go through the regular bidding process, since you're an independent agency, how do you contract out your your partners through
the chairs? Very good question. Yes, we are required to put that contract out for bid. This last contract was originally a three year, two year, three year contract with two option years and then through during COVID, we negotiated a extended contract for reduced cost. We expected that bid will go out and will, as I said, in April. It is a very competitive bid, very robust. We work with the ocfo, but we determine the scope of services as it relates to our standards and the requirements for external auditing services.
Thank you. Appreciate that insights and my final question. A lot of the questions that I had were answered in the presentation. So thank you. It was around the value add of additional staff and the goals that you're trying to meet. But I am interested to see that Denver very equal. You know, 100 plus 1000 more residents than than we have here. Their budget is at seven point million. What value add? Do you see that in Denver in their office. Do you have some, some kind of insight into what their operations look like, and how they support the city there, and what it could look like here in the city of Detroit if we were to invest that much into our auditor general's office as well
through the chair? No, I don't have any additional insight as to what necessarily is included in the audit services. But in total, all of the when you look at the larger activities, Denver, Philadelphia and Portland, those audit activities actually include other audit activities. I noted that Portland, the ombudsman office is a part of Portland, many audit activities have combined services where the Office of Inspector General falls under the Auditor General, and vice versa, because the work that we do is somewhat similar, not the same, but similar. We follow mostly the same standards, and then again, in Denver, Philadelphia and Portland, they include some management and administrative activities. So I will try to get more information as to what set them apart with 49 FTEs and 7.9 million, I also can say that some of the larger agencies have specialized auditors on staff. They have an IT auditor. They have and those auditors are expensive. They may have auditors. I know one one activity which city is it has, has dedicated data analyst, and that's all they do. Yeah, as we move to do conduct more analysis, now that we have our enterprise systems Oracle, which has AP and accounts payable, we need to do more data analytical driven audits, we can get a lot of information from those types of audits and complete them timely. So that's where you see additional dollars to support those really specialized auditors
to the Chair. Thank you. That's helpful. I'm someone that really thinks about process and systems and how to make those easier, how to work smarter, not harder, and how to combine efforts wherever necessary. So those insights would be helpful to see what the next phase of our independence departments look like. Because, as you mentioned, you work together. I mean, you came together asking for proportional funding because of the work that you do. So looking forward to continuing to think through what it can look like, to reimagine how we do our work so that we're able to produce more. Thank you, Madam President, thank
you council member, member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President, good morning. Thank you for the detailed presentation. Certainly do appreciate that. And so going back to council presidents question relative to overcoming some of the limitations that you identified, I'm wondering if there's an opportunity, or if you all currently utilize a i to gather some of the information that you're trying to ascertain from Various departments
through the chair to council member Johnson. I'd like to defer that to Chief Auditor Kevin asadi. Kevin heads our audit board steering committee and works with do it great.
Thank you, Laura and through the Chair, good morning. Yeah, to answer your question, we are working we have a monthly steering committee with our audit board software, which is our automated process that we use electronic work. Mimi would do it. We do have audit board does offer an AI opportunity. We currently don't utilize it at this time, just because we want to be a compliance with the DO IT policies and procedures, which hasn't allowed us, we do communicate with them, I said, every month. So when the ability to use AI for our audits and the software does allow the usage of audit board AI, we will plan to implement a policy and also to train our staff to use AI as part of our audits. Great, if
I just may piggyback on that. So we always like to be first with things that go on in the city. Our partnership with do it, we have provided them with our vendor software audit board details. They have reviewed it. We're just waiting for do it to release the new AI usage policy in the city, I'm told they're very close. You know, they had rolled it out and pulled it back. I'm told that they're very close. They joined that and once that happens, I'm fully confident that we will be able to move forward our the AI software, the AI capabilities in our software will allow us to look at the, say, findings and conditions across the departments. We have a database of issues that we've been collecting, so it will help us look back and in order to look forward, to combine those conditions to see where we need to go. Yes, excellent.
I'm looking forward to that because it may help to streamline your processes as it relates to getting data from departments if they allow that access right? Because I'm not sure potentially having a team member to gather all of the information that you're seeking may be time consuming, and perhaps that's why it's a little challenging with getting that information. But if the technology could just access the information that you need, I would imagine that would not only help the departments, but also help you with facilitating the audits. All right, excellent. And my other question is, relative to just the pace at which the audits are able to be done because of your staffing levels, I was looking at, looking for BC, an audit that was done a BC. And the the most recent one that I found, and maybe there's another one, was from 2009 2010 and the reason I inquire about BC is because a lot of times we talk about
different ways to
address
housing and enforcement. And how are we preventing demolitions? And you know, things that we can do that help us to retain the housing stock that we have, enforcement, eliminate speculation, all of those things, and I think BC plays a very pivotal role in those thoughts and thinking long term. And so I would love to see a more recent audit done of the department that may give us some insight on how we move forward with addressing some of the issues that we raise almost on a regular basis around here. But what would just like to know what your process is in determining which departments you audit,
as I mentioned, we have those seven metrics to score each department and you mentioned the last audit, that is a very key metric. So departments that we have not audited over 10 years will get a 10 so that bumps them up. BC is one of those departments we have not audited, necessarily, the Detroit demolition department. We audited demolition when it was a part of the land bank, as you can imagine, because of the revenues and the expenditures, certain departments will always rise to the top Detroit Police Department, but we, you know, when I think about the Detroit Police Department, we have two mandated audits that we need to complete, which We are. One is the drug law enforcement Fund and the other is the Secret Service Fund. So those will be taken care of, but the date of the last audit is very key in terms of the, you know, departments getting a higher score and moving to the top of that risk based plan and emerging issues. That was one that we added because we want to make sure we address that not only look at departments, they need to be audited from a historical standpoint and all the other revenues and expenditures, but what are the emerging issues? So for example, housing, we know that's a emerging issue. It's a issue that is before this body quite often. And so our goal is to, in the past, we would perform performance audit of the entire department. Our plan and our goal is to identify those high risk agencies, but focus on maybe a specific division or specific program. So there's still performance audits, but there will be more limited in scope that will allow us to be timely to address the issue, especially if we've got an emerging, emerging issue, and provide information to this body and council more timely. So that's on my mind. My deputy keeps saying, Laura, we got to get them out. And we also are learning more within the internal audit profession, there is the movement. It's called Agile auditing, and it's similar to what we do in scope. We audit an area, we produce, as you notice, we have multiple reports throughout the audit. The forensic audit is the third interim report, so it's a lot that allows us to address maybe and target a specific process or procedure within that department, and to report out again again. Our recommendations need to be timely as well as value add, and so that's our goal. Thank you. And
just to comment on what Pro Tem asked about relative to water claims, I know most of my constituents file a claim with either the water and sewage department and the Great Lakes Water Authority, and not necessarily with the law department. So you may be seeing more claims coming through
well that you know that? Well, I'll have to look into that, because, according to the charter, those are claims that specifically cannot come before the Auditor General, cannot be appealed to the Auditor General. So now that you mentioned that, that may be why we don't see them.
All right, thank you. Thank you, Madam President,
thank you. Member Johnson, member durha, thank you, Madam President,
good morning to you all. I don't have any questions for you. I'll be seeing you in a few hours anyway, and we also have the opportunity to see you on a frequent basis, more so than a lot of our colleagues. So I'll reserve our questions and we get them answered. I would just say I'm happy to see that the Office renovations are going through and taking place in the smile on you guys faces, as opposed to last budget cycle. So I think that's a I think that's a good thing, but again, please keep up the great work I do. I do, think It's understated some of the work that you do to ensure that we are maintaining fiscal stability here in the city of Detroit, and I've seen you guys progress since I've been here and elected and the inefficiencies that existed, and even challenging other departments to fix their inefficiencies, which they have. I think that's a great thing. So shout out to you, as well as plant Moran, who has been doing our audits as well, and I think it's making our government more efficient. So just wanted to thank you personally and publicly and tell you guys that Thank you, Madam President,
thank you. Member durha. Member Benson,
thank you. Thank you all for being here and no questions. Appreciate the work that you all
do. Thank you. Thank you. Member
Benson, all right, thank you so much again for being here. We did move your budget into the executive session and looking forward to the continued discussions. Thank you much. All right, colleagues, we will now be going into our next hearing, which would be the Detroit Historical Museum.
And those who are with us can Please join us at the table you
yep, there are so you can grab those for us. Please. You
Good morning, and you can start when you are ready. Just make sure the green is on the bottom of the microphone that indicates that it's on, and you can proceed
absolutely Well, good morning. It's great to be with all of you again today. I'm Elana roo as you know, President, CEO of the Detroit Historical Society. With me today is our CFO, Matt Greeno, and now almost exactly a year in our Vice President of education and outreach, Rodney, David deal. So it's great to see everybody. I think each of you has been to the museum in the last year. I know most recently, last week, we had the wonderful legacy business awards luncheon, and we were so honored that you chose to host that at the museum. That was just a fabulous event. And Council Member Santiago Romero was with us recently when we had the launch party for the Detroit Monopoly game, which was fun and epic. So this is the seventh year that I've come before you as CEO of your museums, and I know because you've told me that you know what we do. You appreciate what we're doing here and our importance to the residents of the city and our region and the whole state and, you know, actually, really the whole country and the world. When I took over as CEO here in 2018 you know, I knew that this was a financial turnaround situation. I quickly learned that the society had been historically underfunded and that something significant would need to change to ensure that 100 years from now, we would still be here, and that the city's priceless artifacts would remain safe. I've shared with you over the years our plans to strengthen our financial situation by shoring up our earned revenue streams, tightening our expenses, increasing visitorship, by continuing to provide world class exhibits and experiences for visitors who come to us in person and visit us online from all around the world, and honestly, we continue to make progress in all of those areas that, as Matt and Rodney will help me share with you today. In the last 12 months alone, we had 20 new exhibits at our museums. So anyone who tells you like, oh, been there, done that, you know. And you know because you come and see our exhibits, and we appreciate that. You know, we have the privilege of sharing more stories of more Detroiters, both from history and then also history as it's being made. And you know, since I brought Rodney and board is our new VP of education and outreach. We have connected with more Detroiters of every age from every single one of your districts and beyond, covering, really the whole metro Detroit area. And we're doing so in new ways, with new programs and activities. It's very exciting to us, and I think this is where we're at our best. We're also creating exhibits outside of our walls to try to take advantage of those 300,000 artifacts, only 5% are ever on display. So we have partnership exhibits like the one we have right now, at the Book Cadillac hotel, at the book tower and at the city lofts. We're telling stories that no one else can or will, because we are the only keeper of Detroit stories. So a quick few highlights of the past year, and I know we were asked to keep this to 10 minutes, so we are going to try hard. So you might recall, last year, I announced that we were the first Detroit area organization of any kind to become a certified Autism Center. So 100% of our staff are trained to better serve our neuro diverse visitors and volunteers, and this year, I'm excited to let you know we're going to be building sensory rooms at both the Detroit Historical Museum and the Dawson Great Lakes museum. Our exhibitions team hasn't missed a beat in creating wonderful storytelling exhibits. Currently in our community gallery, we have a remarkable exhibit about black architects. We also featured wonderful exhibit in partnership with the Jewish Historical Society called Life on Hastings Street. We helped the women of the links celebrate their many good works and years of service in our area, and we told the story of Detroit's Chinatowns with tours given to groups of Chinese visitors in Mandarin. Earlier this year, we were selected by the Kresge Foundation to help them tell their centennial story of the company and the foundation. We told the story of Detroit Diesel in partnership with the Penske Corporation, and we opened a new permanent exhibit called city of champions that will tell Detroit sports stories. So we started featuring the pistons early in the year and rotated to the Detroit Lions just as our historic season opened. We also told the stories of Hudson's Bob Seager, the 84 world series champion tigers in the black bottom archives. This year, we also completed phase two of our significant refresh of that main tour exhibit for Detroit's third and fourth graders. Used to be called frontiers to factories. Now that's origin, origins life where the river bends. And we again worked in close partnership with the first peoples tribes in our area to ensure that we were appropriately telling their ancestors stories. And of course, we celebrated the success of our hustle program with you, that included nearly 800 crowdsource nominations. We featured 34 stories of black Detroit entrepreneurs, and their stories are part of the collection now in perpetuity, and I'm excited to announce that we'll be launching hustle two later this year, and we cannot wait to work with you specifically to ensure that your districts are really well represented again with this groundbreaking exhibit, which has been award winning also. So it's been a great, remarkable year for the museums, and I'm excited to ask Ronnie to take a few quick minutes to just update you on his work in the education and outreach. Well,
thank you. President ilahana, good morning city council members. It's an honor to be here. And before I start talking, I just want to say I really honor the work that you guys are doing. It's good to see this refreshed Council. Thank you for your service. Okay, so one of the education outreach departments most important achievements for this academic school year is the Detroit Historical Society's part community partnership with the Detroit Public School System district. This is a we have an MOU that signed, and this is a free engagement that we offer to Detroit public schools. So this partnership, over the last six months, we have pushed onto high school campuses across the city to engage students in Detroit focused research projects about the past as well as the present, according to my internal examination of past educational programming at the Detroit Historical Museum, this 2024 25 school year is the first time in Detroit, at the Detroit historical museum that we have partnered with dpscd to expand our educational programming to include students research within their respective communities and the city at Large based on the past and present. This is rewarding, because the collective feedback from the students is, this is our museum. So a few months, several months ago, when I started this new school year at the Detroit Historical Museum, we had Constitution Day, which is a new program that I brought and many city council members tried to attend. Councilwoman Johnson did attend, and it was a great program. This year, the MLK Day Program was student led, and this is the first time in the Museum's History that students were there actually engaged in research project, as opposed to performing like singing in a choir and things of that nature, because those type of performances have occurred. But this year we have them academically engaged in the work that we're doing on the shoulders of giants. It is a annual it is an annual program during Black History Month that usually includes, historically, one Saturday this year, we expanded it to two weekends. And so we had Davis aerospace High School as well as a charter high school from Detroit. Students actually pushed in and portraying African Americans from the past as well as current. And what's interesting, Coleman Young, we had your dad portrayed. And so it was interesting how students, when you talk about the good work our students are doing and why this this museum is so important to them, they decided to look at your dad outside of his framework as a mayor, but tapped into his Tuskegee Airmen experience, which I thought was pretty powerful. So yes, we also brought in funding to support Head Start students. So now we are actually engaging four and five year olds at the Dawson Great Lakes museum on Belle Isle Island, which is which have been it's been a treat. It's been a real treat. And because of the students interests and in our museum, I have on my radar now to bring a student council to the museum to further engage how our educational programming can support them and give them a larger voice in the work that We're doing.
And that is for me.
Thanks. Rodney, before I hand it over to Matt to go through the financials, I thought y'all might appreciate a millage update. So as you know, for the last five years, in partnership with our friends at the right we have been pursuing this millage. We have been, I would say, tenacious and creative and very patient, but we are still not quite there. As you may have heard, our bills passed finally through the House and Senate, blessed by the leadership of both Wayne and Oakland County, poised to be signed by the governor, only to be held up by a simple clerical error in the final hour. So our bills are three of the nine that are held up right now, being held hostage by the Speaker of the House, and you know, it's it's been frustrating, but we remain optimistic so that you know, politics, it's really not for the faint of heart, but I am optimistic that once we're able to be in front of the voters, which we still plan to be August of next year, we will achieve our millage. Our latest round of polling confirmed that for us. And once we're able to achieve that, honestly, we will be changing the trajectory of these institutions for all time. And you all, because you have been so supportive, will be able to you know, know that you had a significant part in that so I want to thank each of you for your support in that effort, especially council members waters and Benson, who have been advocating for us consistently, for our institution. So thank you very much. But even though a millage might be in our future, you know, we're just not there yet. You know, the goal posts keep moving for two years, we did receive transitional funding from the state, which really helped us keep the incredibly talented and dedicated professionals on our staff team. With that funding, we were finally able to right size our staff and undergo a critical compensation study that you know is ensuring that the bright professionals we've hired are fairly paid and they will not leave us for more pay elsewhere, and actually our retention rate for professional staff this year is near 100% the transitional funding also allowed us to provide those 20 impactful new exhibits at our museums, which has helped us increase our visitorship to well above Pre COVID numbers, it helped us to continue to innovate our educational programming and to bring us back up to some semblance of appropriate reserve levels. You'll recall before that, we were nearly completely out of money. So this year, though, the state did not earmark any additional transitional funding, even though our request is already in for next year, we, you know, we don't know what to expect, and we are really concerned that there won't be state funding for us at all in the future, and we're still, you know, a year and a half away to receiving any millage dollars. So we're, we're proud, obviously, to be caretakers of the city's two museums and the collections Resource Center, which houses nearly 300,000 artifacts. These three buildings cover over 250,000 square feet, and I ended it up because I never did before. They are, collectively 221 years old, so they will continue to need upkeep, and some projects just can't be put off. I especially wanted to elevate with you today issues with the collections Resource Center at Historic Fort Wayne, the series of three buildings at the fort were built in 1942 it's where the collection is stored, and there are significant issues with the electrical system there, as well as ongoing threats just to do to the age of the buildings, we are, frankly, one flood or power outage away from disaster, and if that should happen, really any level of it, we would not be able to, in a current financial situation, cover that on our own. So I really implore you to help us continue to have capital funding to support these buildings that the city owns. You know, honestly, without an appropriate level of funding, we might be forced, once again, as we did during COVID, to cut our staffing, you know, down to the bone, delay the deferred maintenance and delay major exhibit updates. Obviously, it's a step in the wrong direction, and that's really not where we want to go. So with that, I'd like to ask Matt to walk you quickly through the financial slides. I know you have all of it. We're not going to walk you through, you know, each of it. We're just going to hit some highlights right now.
All right, good morning. I did want to touch on a couple of points in our budget request for the next cycle that underscores our request for increased operational support. First of all, in the revenue area. You know, our foundations, they're expected to be solid in this next cycle, but to be honest with you, foundations overall, have been impacted by the riverfront Conservancy's financial scandal that certainly has impacted us. A lot of our funders have said, well, we're helping them out right now and come back to us later, our corporate giving, I think, will really rebound in fiscal 26 with the hustle to exhibition and programming. The first hustle program was very successful, and our corporate funders were very, very pleased with the outcome. The one thing that has changed since our original submission last fall is concerning federal government grants in light of the certain or the uncertainty these days, we just, we've just taken them off the table. We're not sure whether or not we will receive funding from the NEH IMLS or the NEA, and that's just a reality right now in this climate. The good news is that earned revenue is really the success story here earned revenue is admissions and programs, tour feeds from rodney's team, facility rentals, collection fees and our very successful museum retail. And we've had several years in a row where we've since COVID, where we've had a positive trend. And in fact, we expect in our next budget cycle to hit at least a million dollars in our revenue, and to give you a perspective, that's up from about 600,000 in fiscal 19, part of the reason why we've been successful in this area is due to our staff, especially in programs and educations. Adding my colleague, Mr. Deal here, has made a difference not only in our mission, but also in our revenue. In turning to operating expenses. There's really only two things to talk about, staffing and building operations. Our staff is certainly our most important asset. It's the largest portion of our operating expenses. We currently have a staff of 70, and that includes 20 staff that are residents of the city of Detroit, but this is a vulnerable area. For instance, this year, our healthcare premiums went up 13% and now represent almost a half a million dollars in annual expense. And that's even with us pushing more increasing deductibles, co insurance and premium sharing, and then the competitive wage environment. You know, we're feeling, definitely the pressure to retain this quality staff at all levels, and that's impacting that budget area, the one thing about increasing the operational support from the city, this would help us avoid any furloughs or reductions, especially in the area of collection management at the CRC, we made great strides in digitizing and inventorying the collection. Alana always makes fun to me, because I throw out this statistic. Two years ago, we had 23 terabytes that have been digitized. Now we're up to 27 terabytes. Moving four terabytes in two years. Is really just a sign of the efficiency and the efficacy of the staff out there at the CRC. The other area that's that's our biggest expense, is building operations. You know, as Alana mentioned, our buildings are getting older. 2026, marks the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Detroit Historical Museum in 19 51/65. Anniversary for the Dawson great lake Museum. In maintaining these buildings, both day in and day out and with capex spending, it's vital that we take care of these city owned buildings and the collections that they hold. And one final note, I do want to thank Council Member Benson for putting us in touch with Honeywell. Honeywell is working with the city. They worked with us. They've given us a comprehensive assessment, and in fact, they've already helped us realize over $30,000 in utility bill savings this year. The one thing I did want to wrap up with is talk about capex. We are requesting continued support, just so that we can maintain and refurbish various aspects of the building and the permanent exhibits. And I want to remind council that we were unable to spend 600,000 of the million dollars that was allocated in fiscal 24 due to delays associated with the MOU we didn't receive payment on our fiscal 23 projects until last September of 24 and then fiscal 24 projects were paid in October. So some of these things have just been pushed down the road because we were not able to complete them. And so just to wrap up, I want to just comment on the fact that because of transitional funding, we do have an operating reserve. It's going to cover our deficit budget, bringing us to the millage effort. But if we want to preserve some of that reserve, we really need additional support from the city until we get to the millage vote. Thank you very much. Thanks, Matt.
To put a fine point on what Matt said, the current political climate has all cultural institutions worried right now about funding, and we have heard from more than one foundation partner that they're giving to us was decreased because they needed to step up and in the riverfront conservancy following the malfeasance there. So, you know, we're working hard to raise the funds, but we're in a precarious position here. So, you know, we're your museums. We are asking the city to help us during this pivotal transition time, just to get us across the finish line with the millage. We know this is more than we've received in the past, but these are, you know, I think, really exceptional times for us. Over the course of many years, we have actually been receiving, as you know, less than half of the allocation of the Charles Wright museum. We believe you deserve every dollar that you invest in them. They are our closest partners. But we also believe that, since we are the only keepers of Detroit's history and that we oversee operations at three buildings, that we should have somewhat of an equal allocation, especially during this critical time. We're doing every single thing we can to uphold our mission. But we really need your help to safeguard Detroit's priceless collection and the buildings that house them. You know, finally, we feel like the your the return on your investment will really be measured in the lives that are enriched by the history that we preserve and present, and by the real economic impact that a vibrant downtown Cultural Center has on a city through Midtown, through the jobs that we create and the tourist dollars that we attract, and through Our commitment to reinvesting our funds in this community. You might be, I think, happy to hear that from our hustle nominees last year, over 800 of them, we have spent almost a million dollars in support, you know, with them as vendors, new vendors of ours. So, you know, we're really trying to give back to the community as well. So we're just so proud to be the stewards of your history, and we appreciate all of your support, and we're happy to answer any questions that you have. Okay,
thank you so much. And again, want to thank you for hosting our office in the DGC for the legacy business awards. It was a beautiful event, and we were definitely pleased with your staff and just the entire event. So thank you for hosting us. Several of the questions that I was going to ask you definitely covered regarding the political climate in what you are were thinking as far as funding coming from the federal government, and then also giving an update on the millage. So thank you for addressing that. From my understanding, there was $2.2 million in fiscal 2020, 25 plan for capital projects, an additional $1.2 million in ARPA funds that were supposed to be received by the museum. Was that received and was it used at all for any capital projects? So the ARPA funds,
excuse me, the ARPA funds are separate bucket, and we're managing that. We're actually we've gone through all the design phase and the approval phases and whatnot, and we're looking to implement this spring. And hope that the project, in this case, the project is the windows in the 1951 Detroit historic Museum, and the soffits those windows will be replaced with the ARPA funds, and it's looking like there won't be much left over from that project. It looks like they will require just about all of the 1.2 million to complete the project. Okay,
so just want to make sure you did receive it and you're on track to spend it in the submission.
Yes. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you for
that. That's a project we never thought, no one ever thought we'd be able to replace those 1951 windows.
Okay? And then I heard a lot about the youth, which I think is amazing, dpscd and the partnership that you mentioned, I am always going to be advocating as well for more recreational opportunities and more access for our seniors. And so can you speak to what initiatives you have to engage and get our seniors into the museum as well, to have, you know worked with zoo, who's going to be for before us today, where we now have bus rides, where they're picking up seniors, taking them to the zoo. And so just curious, what's the outreach for getting our seniors there? And what classes, what tours, exhibits, what programs do you have for our seniors? Seniors
are on our radar. Play Detroit is a recreational center on the east side of Detroit. I just recently met with the executive director there, and so we do have, we are in talks to bring more seniors into Detroit Historical Museum as well as the Dawson Great Lakes museum. So nothing currently exists. No, no. They are coming. Yeah, but just not in large volume. Okay, in attendance. Okay, they are coming. We
specifically recruited a new trustee. You might know, Ron Taylor, who's the CEO of the Area Agency on Aging, just for that reason, and so he's really excited to help us coordinate with all the senior centers, and, you know, work towards having a regular influx. I mean, there's seniors in the museum every day, but I you know, to your point of, you know, a coordinated effort to get them there,
for sure, and that's always going to be transportation, which, you know is the issue, but would love to work with you guys on that. And then I'm not sure if you all have a breakdown of how many Detroiters actually have memberships at the and how many Detroiters annually frequent the museum. So
we have 3300 Detroiter members right now. And just to remind the council, our Detroiter membership is free to all residents of the city, and so we encourage them to come in. And of course, then they're they're part of our communication in terms of opportunities and tours and programs and whatnot, the number of visitors that we have? That's a great question. I can get back to you on that. I know that we have ZIP Code sorts, and I know that we're kidding, visitors from all zip codes within the city of Detroit. I just don't know what the number is.
So okay, and we put that in one of our questions. So we'll make sure we get that, hopefully right. We just want to encourage and get as many Detroiters our museum, we're fun to get as possible from Detroit. I think
the hustle really showed us that, because people told us, you know, that they weren't necessarily feeling like we were their home. And that following that you know, that activity and those exhibitions that you know, those folks came in and drove to take advantage of that Detroiter membership. Okay,
all right, thank you. And just wanted to if there is a motion to add the 975,000 in capex funding to our executive session to allow us to further discuss motion. Okay, Hearing no objections that will be added, and this is one time funding, a one time allocation of the 975,000 that's being requested. Yes, that would be for the Thank you, Mister All right. Member, Benson,
thank you all for coming today, and thank you, Madam President, for putting that budget in there. Let's start with the motion to put the entire budget into executive session so we can have that conversation regarding operations as well. Okay?
Hearing no objections, the entire budget as well will be added. Alright?
Thank you. And then just want to say what a pleasure it's been to work with you all trying to get to the finish line regarding our millage. And we'll get there. And I know that, as you said, politics often is not for the faint of heart, but the the tenacious will prosper, and we'll get there. Um, can you just talk about, um, Plan B. We're looking at a $5 million revenue stream beginning in fiscal year 27 with the millage. What's the plan B? If we don't see, we
don't get a millage, yeah, well, so we've started to do that difficult modeling. I mean, it's really interesting place to be strategically, you know, we're, we're due for a new strategic plan. And how do you plan, you know, so one, it actually would be an additional ten million a year, you know, for us post positive millage. That's if we are able to achieve point two mills in both Wayne and Oakland County, you know, without it, it is a really different story. I think that, you know, Well, Matt, Matt and I have been doing modeling, and really the only thing that we change can change significantly is, is our staffing structure, and that would just be heartbreaking. We have the brightest team right now. I mean, really remarkable. You know people who are putting together our exhibits and our programming, and you know all of the behind the scenes things, so that's where we sharpen our pencils. You know, I think a scenario post 2026 without a millage would probably result in reduced hours of the museum being able to be open. And you know, we're talking a lot with our foundation partners, who are certainly supportive of us getting the millage, but also realizing, you know, that they would never be able to step up. You know, although they would support us more, would never be able to step up to the level of a millage. So we're just starting to have those difficult conversations, and our board is working with us to model what that might look like, right? And
I just want to say thank you to my colleague, member waters as well, for being such a huge advocate and being in helping so much with the millage as well, but also just looking at the deferred maintenance that we have, at all the buildings that you manage, the city assets that you manage with regards to the the Dawson Great Lakes Museum, you've done some great improvements to that facility as well over the years, but also just to what we have at the for the the archives, I've had a chance to tour that facility. And this the value of those archive I don't think city we as a as as the governing body, understand the the financial value that sits in that space. And if there were a catastrophic failure, or even a small failure, a simple leak in the roof over a period of time could really damage and ruin the value of those archives. Can we just talk about what it would actually take to get that into it working, just bring it back up to code to ensure that we're able to protect those assets. Moving forward, we
actually received a federal grant this year. It's actually a climate change grant that had us, you know, that allowed us to look at the the situation there. So we, you know, have come to realize that we have the largest collection of historic artifacts that are stored in a wood frame building on the banks of a river, you know, not the best situation. And the good news is that through this study, it was with Burro heppold that they told us that really, due to the, you know, flood plains and all of that analysis that flooding isn't going to be our biggest risk, but the buildings are decaying. And, you know, we we need a lot of money to shore up the electrical system, but this is something that long term we're really going to have to deal with. We need the city's help. Obviously, it's the it's the city's collection and the city's building, they gave several options that we would love to sit down with someone we're just not sure who. So maybe you can give us that advice to look at what the recommendations were. So one recommendation was that we would keep the buildings as is and shore them up as good as you know, as well as we can, but then also build adjacent to, you know, a new building adjacent to it, and the costs related to that, but ultimately, their, you know, their strong recommendation was that we move the collection in its entirety. And so that would require, it's mind blowing, you know, it's exciting and terrifying at the same time. You know, when you think about moving your house, think about moving 300,000 artifacts, and we're still working really hard to to actually complete inventory, which we would have to do first. So that's in the 10s of millions of dollars to find, you know, then find or build a 250,000 square foot building, so, but we went for this grant because we feel like we've reached a point with this building that you got to decide, how much more can we keep investing? How much more does the city want to invest in a building that, over time, is just not going to, you know, stand the test of time, like 50 years we, you know, from now we can't still be there, and so is this our moment to deal with this? So to us, we wanted to do the legwork now, because this is a post millage issue. I think we're fine for the next couple of years, save, you know, anything significant happening? But this is the thing that keeps me up at night, is, you know, we are the stewards. You are entrusting us to keep these artifacts safe, and they are so incredibly important to the patronage of the city, so we take it really seriously.
All right. Thank you. I just want to just reinforce that to my colleague and to the listening public. The fact that you are managing our asset is huge, but it also means that we need to be making these significant investments back into our assets, or at least identifying the resources to help you do that. And so thank you for that management. But we also have to keep talking about this. The deferred maintenance on our assets is going to catch up to us, and we need to continue to make that type of investment. And then in this last leadership, we want to thank you all for what you're doing and how you're doing it with the history of Detroit, and just really be encouraged that we're working on that millage and we're going to get there. Just want to again. Thank my colleague, Mary waters for this. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you. Member Benson, member durha. Thank
you, Madam President. And don't have any questions for you, just that looking forward to being very supportive of you. I know it's been very difficult in Lansing over these past months, and to get to the finish line is frustrating, but I'm optimistic that we'll be able to get that over the finish line, and I know from our standpoint, we will be working and reaching out to Lansing to ensure that can get done with the relationships that we have there. The only thing I do have one question. Actually, I was watching, and I tend to do this, I watched a lot of the old historical society videos, archives that you have, and it's interesting to see, you know, one I watched recently was about the Renaissance Center. Then I watched one even about the new mayor, Mary Young council member, Young's father and I just found that those are just so interesting to be able to have our history right there. Now. They're on YouTube. They're not necessarily easily accessible. My question is, is there the ability, or has there been any thought about putting these out there to the public, where it's evenly more where it's more accessible, even I don't know if they are on the websites? Yeah. Are they on your website?
Yeah. So actually, all of those YouTube videos are linked there too. So we have the Encyclopedia of Detroit. So if you go to detroithistorical.org and we will be we're just weeks away from launching a new website, so it'll even be easier to find. But you can search literally anything you know by using keywords. And so that's where there's a research tab. And so when you go in there, you can look up, you know, Mayor Coleman Young, and everything about him will come up, including videos, images, articles from the newspaper, everything that you would ever want to know. So, and we, you know, I don't know off the top of my head what our hits are, but we, we are, you know,
very popular. Yeah, the YouTube channel is very, very successful already, but I'm really excited about and thanks to support from the city, we've been able to totally revamp our website so they'll make it easier for people to get to those videos through the website. But we've had, I think, 2024 we had over 200,000 views of the YouTube, the various ones from ships to, you know, training films that used to be done by the city that are just amazing. And one of the most favorite things that we do at Christmas time, we'll typically are open the Sundays in December, and we will run a loop of all the holiday related films in the auditorium for people to come and just sit down and and, you know, rest for a minute, and also watch some things from our archives. So, yeah, it's a great resource,
and you probably got a lot of those views from me, because those are things I tend to watch. I love history. But you're saying the website is, you guys are working on a new website, but it's going to be easily. Yeah, it'll
be easier to find than it is now. It's not, you know, it's not too tough, but you know, we are seeing, if you search Detroit history, we are what comes up first, so we're looked at, you know, kind of primary source material. And we actually make a decent amount of money. We reach out from, like the History Channel, National Geographic, other, you know, organizations, people writing books or doing documentaries that pay us for, you know, use of our photographs and video, which is pretty cool, too. And
I would also say, and I know President Pro Tem has brought this up in the past, about this table that used to exist in this room, but I know it's gone. But I use that. I use that as a preface to say, even through a search of the videos, it would be interesting to see more history about this actual body. Sure it exists. I think a lot of focus always exist on the mayor, which is, which is great. But even our legislative body here in the city of Detroit, and even some of our other you know, agencies like, you know, border zoning appeals or Board of Review, where I think that educational component and model really is important, so folks know how their government works, how far their government has come. So just, just a suggestion, because we'd love to and that can start now. I mean, that's something that we could start now. When we talk about looking 20 years down the line, I'll be about 60 years old, or, God willing, it's important to know that we're making history today. Well, you are things that we're doing, and it should be documented, but I appreciate all that you do. Spend a lot of time at the historical museum with my daughter as well. Who loves it? But please keep up the good work, and we'll continue to work and fight for you guys. I
did if I could. Wanted to let you all know, county exec Warren Evans reached out to me about a year and a half ago to talk about a legacy project that he was interested in, and that is creating an exhibition focused on the history of Wayne County as a whole, and at the 43 communities in Wayne County. And so the county is actually funding this. And what you talked about is, is part of that. So, you know, we already have the Encyclopedia of Detroit, but we will be launching, starting in June, a series of exhibits in The Guardian building. We're going to take about six or seven communities at a time. Detroit is one of the, you know, in the first grouping of those, but over the course of about 18 months, we're working with the all of the local historical societies in Wayne County to tell their stories, and a particular interest of of his was just what you talked about, you know, on the governing bodies and making sure so, so it's really already happening, because he had brought that up. The problem with that is, like the there's no end to the history, right? It is just such a huge project to talk about every department and everyone who's been in there, but it's really exciting. We were able to bring on two staff members who are working solely on that project. So we'll make sure you get invitations to all those openings, so you can come and check that out as well. So
thank you, and that kind of connects us to an idea. You know, even when we talked about our secondary street signs here, and the possibility of having those QR codes attached, I think having that presence where folks can remember, here's because a lot of the young folks that are coming up now, or folks that are younger than me, let me say that are coming up now. I don't even know who some of these figures are, and they see the signs right, and but they but they don't know who they are. And I think if we have the ability to connect those dots, even for the younger generation, we'll provide educational opportunity for them to really know their city. And so I'd be interested to talk to you offline about that. Let's do it of how we can look to connect those things as well. Okay. Terrific. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
Can I say something to respond to council member Fred we actually had a student portray Irma Henderson in our on the shoulders of giants portrayals exhibition last month. So I thought that was pretty cool that, you know, someone did the research and actually found Elmer Henderson, so she was featured in our D 67 gallery. I'd
be interested in seeing that. I will, I will get that information from yourself. So it was,
it was a one day experience. So tell
them all about but
we're connected. All
right. Thank you. Member Pro Temp Tate,
thank you, Madam President, and thank you all for being here. Thank you for your leadership. Don't have any questions that appeared that member deer Hall looked at my cheat sheet, all the information, all the questions I had, including YouTube, was was it was already asked outside of the one. I mean, right now is a time where we're able to drive and educate folks about a number of different issues through social media and YouTube. Many of those views have been me and my wife as well as we watch and learn about Detroit's history. Is there any effort at all to potentially increase the subscriptions? I don't know what the threshold is for. You know, being able to get paid by YouTube as a result of being a content creator. I have not gone through that direction myself. But, you know, always looking for new revenue streams, whether it's 5000 10,000 whatever that number is,
you never know. I mean, I think that's, that's probably a paid staff position in itself, right? I mean, we, we're doing a great job with traditional marketing right now. We do a lot on social media, but I don't think that's something we've explored yet.
So thanks for this suggestion. Okay,
well, now just good job again. Love watching the videos. To know a little bit about hit, a little bit more about the history of the city of Detroit, beyond my current knowledge, and to hear some of the debates that were happening 3040, years ago, that are still happening today. And not to say that that's a good thing or a bad thing, is just, maybe just human nature, one of which hearing the downtown versus, you know, neighborhood conversation that has been even when I remember young dad was in office that was part of the conversation. So busses, same thing. It's just again, amazing to see how what's old is new, and we've got to figure out how to get me on some of those challenges. But it also shows us as well how we have been able to accomplish numerous things through cooperation, resource and service delivery. So again, thank you for the work that you all do and being able to allow Detroiters to feel proud about our history. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank
you problem council member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President. And good morning to you all. Thank you so much for the presentation the information. Really excited to see Mr. Deal touching all of our young folks and really just residents throughout the city of Detroit. Mr. Deal lives in District Four, so I get to claim speak about him and his work a little bit more, and just really happy to see the engagement, especially with our pre K through eight schools. I've been visiting some of them, and they need a lot more support. So it's great to have them be able to go to the museum and see historically what Detroit has been, what Detroit is today, and even being able to kind of experience the NFL Draft, because I know you all were tied and connected to that as well. And so I really want to ask about the partnership exhibits. So you mentioned some venues downtown where you provide exhibition type items for them. Do you have anything similar in our neighborhoods where our residents can go to and maybe experience Detroit's history in their neighborhood, right?
Well, we certainly love that idea. Probably the closest thing that we've had is our invoking the spirit outdoor exhibit that was in Lafayette Park, which is still there, that was intended to be just a year, but it's a trail people can take, you know, in the park there with QR codes, and where you can call a number and listen to oral histories, that sort of a thing. But I think, you know, anything that we can do to help share our, you know, all of these amazing, you know, items that we have in the collection, instead of them staying on a shelf is, is great. So, so far, it that's manifested with businesses, who are, you know, oftentimes celebrating an anniversary of some sort, or something new is happening there. So we're coming in and partnering with that company to, you know, help tell the story of, you know, how it used to be there, that sort of a thing. But I would, you know, love to explore. If there's, you know, a place, it might be in the libraries, you know that we can bring artifacts, and we certainly do that. We loan things out all the time. We work with community organizations to do that. But that would be a great goal, to have something like that, you know, in each district. And if you would like to take the lead. Let's talk about that. Where can we start?
I'd be happy to and that's what I was just thinking. I'm sure we could all identify institutions within our districts that can help share the story of
a public lobby or something like that. Absolutely, yeah. We kind of make many museums, absolutely,
yeah. And then you can get your 300,000
items off the floor or wherever they are.
And then I wanted to ask about the millage. Do you all anticipate that the millage, when it passes, will help to cover capital expenditures as well as operating expenses?
Well, I mean, it certainly will completely change, you know, our organization, so I would say yes to a certain extent, although, you know, at least in our conversations with Oakland County there was there, they were pretty definitive that they didn't feel that the millage dollars should be used on capital so or endowment. So it was more, you know, operational and expanding exhibits, you know, that sort of a thing that said, you know, money is fungible, and so we and we will obviously continue fundraising. And so, you know, if that helps, the other thing I'd like to say, though, is that millage or not, these buildings will always belong to the city, and even though we may have the, you know, the funds to cover them, we would hope that we would always be arm in arm with the city to determine what's best for these buildings in the 250,000 square feet, and make sure that we're doing the right thing and that the city is involved. You know, in some way, I think it's important to the voters, especially in Oakland County too, that there's, you know, if I'm being honest, there's sort of a feeling of, like, you know, the city can't be like, Okay, you guys are paying for it now. We're done, right? Like, there, there still needs to be city involvement. And so that could, you know, be part of, you know, part of that could be continued support for at least some capital projects.
Okay, excellent, great. I think that might help streamline things as we go through future budget processes. So all right, excellent. The last thing I'll leave with you as member door Hall was talking about our communities and the history within our our communities. One of the things I recently found out in District Four, the Jefferson Chalmers community, the historic channel, is actually featuring a speakeasy in a woman's home. She didn't know it existed. And so it's, I believe it's going to air next month. And then I recently learned that another resident in Jefferson Chalmers, because of unfortunate basement backups, a wall collapsed in her house and it leads to a tunnel somewhere. Yes, yes. So we're seeing more and more of that in neighborhoods in District Four, and so it's all very interesting, and would love to kind of highlight and feature some of that. Well, we'd
love to capture the oral history of that person and make sure we get photographs. I mean, that's history being made now, right? The uncovering of history. That's so cool. We love that. Awesome.
Thank you. I know who to reach out to. Thank you, Madam President,
thank you. Member Johnson, Member Santiago Romero, thank
you, Madam President, through you to our incredible historic museum staff. Really appreciate the work that you do. Have so much fun at the museum with you. All questions around visitors has been asked. Interested in seeing what that looks like. Have more questions regarding the MOU. I know that there's a delay. It's six months. Is there thoughts about expanding that? Because I agree the children's programming is really important. So just wondering if we plan on expanding that MOU, and what the delays were for the MOU? Well, the
MOU was finally signed. It was, it was held up, you know, it was an interesting process. It was really, it was legal issues. So it was very different from our original MOU, and we were, you know, treated in it as a contractor, like we were some outside company, not like part of the family and our board, you know, I have a lot of amazing attorneys on my board, and so we wanted to make sure that it was right. And it that took some doing to make sure that it was an accurate representation of the relationship that we actually have as caretakers, not as some, you know, kind of random. I mean, no one else can do what we do. So that was, that's really what the holdup was, you know, ultimately, though it's been signed, and I think it, you know, it's it changed some things. There's some things that, some financial obligations that we're responsible for now that we were not in the past. But I don't know that anything else about it substantive needs to change. You know, you know, I think we're happy with it now. Perfect. Thank
you. And I appreciate the exhibitions that are that the new ones thinking through the highlights. This behind the scenes is awesome. The JJ Westcott is in District Six. It's incredible. I'm wondering, what if there are any thoughts or plans that I know that more programming will require more staff, or to could keep the staff that you currently have to provide more of that programming, which is the most important piece, I would say, one of the most important pieces of our museums, what they can produce and provide? Have we thought about beyond exhibits, beyond history. In artifacts like these, the DIA will do things like the DIA after dark, where they have music, performers, speakers, poets, they have a cafe. Have we thought about expanding or thinking about our museum space differently in those ways, where we can have more people come and enjoy the museum just beyond the exhibits that you have, and having them interact with it in a different way.
Yeah, well, absolutely. So I'm going to make sure you all get invitations to these. But so a good we love to do this, and a good example of this is our Tales from the D series. So this is a series of documentaries that were locally produced about Detroit musicians. Our next one is on the 21st it is an amazing party, you know, fully sponsored. We sell tickets to help, you know, cover some of the expenses. But we showed the documentary in the auditorium, and then have a live band playing with bar and food and everything, and so that's happening quarterly. This Saturday, we have an auction of photographs of Bob Seger in a similar sort of party kind of atmosphere. I mean, I think post COVID. Everybody was a little worried about, like, you know, people are going to come back at all, and then, obviously, cost money every time the museums open. So we don't want to be open at night and then no one show up, and we're losing money, but we're, I think we're finding our sweet spot, and a lot of it has to do with Detroit based music. So this one on the 21st if you guys can make it, it's jazz, it's Dennis coffee, and he's amazing. And so to your point, we love that. I mean, as much as we can, the better. And really looking for unique partnerships that way. Actually, tomorrow is 313 day, and we have a woman coming in and in the streets of old Detroit, she's going to be making craft mocktails. So, you know, we agree on the same page of that. Love that. One
thing I did want to add is that we still have, we maintain a really steady stream of free public programming throughout the year, starting with MLK in January all the way now, thanks to Mr. D, we've got Constitution Day. We have on the shoulders of giants in February, treats in the streets, which is a free public event in October, around Halloween, the Noel night in December. I mean, so there's the concert of colors, just a good, steady stream throughout the year. We try to feature at least one free day a month and some free evenings. We've gotten sponsorships for that, and that's been instrumental in drawing people that we might not normally get to see, because especially in this budget climate, with people's personal household budgets the way they are, it gives them a chance to engage with us at a different level, in a different way. I
think you'll also see so you may or may not know, you know, the Detroit Cultural Center Association is sort of a spin off of Midtown Detroit, right? Just covering these 12 institutions and this new plan for the outdoor enhancements, and I'm the the first chair of the board of the newly formed DCCA, and one of the things we're talking about is shared programming, and a lot of that runs into the evening and on weekends, and it's family stuff and young people stuff, and so you're going to be hearing a lot more about that in the coming year. Thank
you through the chair and assuming a millage will be very supportive of these expanded programmings. So let's keep pushing for that. And I definitely want us to see, want to see us doing more programming, programming, highlighting our people, the diversity of our city, the stories of our immigrants all over the world. I know right now is a is a scary time in our politics, but it doesn't mean that we have to hide away from who we are. Quite frankly, we should embrace it, push it forward, and I think institutions like these can really help highlight and remind all of us that we are all together in this and that we have always been fighting against the divide and conquer politics, and coming together is so incredibly important. So hoping that they can continue to support you, to continue to tell those stories. Thank you, Madam President, thank you council member, member
COVID, thank you,
Madam President. First, let me say thank you so much for keeping my father name and memory legacy press, and I was going to support this anyway, but now that you did this, you know you have me Hello, but I'll definitely going to support this now I appreciate that, and also you. You definitely understand the assignment. Some people don't. I also want to say thank you. I look forward to the pot to whami in Native Americans coming before the neighborhood community services committee to present their banner? Because I understand a land transfer being made for the Native American burial grounds that are at Fort Wayne. So that's going to be a real interesting piece of history that's going to be done as well. I just wanted to ask you, first and foremost, kind of piggyback off of Romero's questions, at a time when we are having not just people of color, but really the history under assault federally. What are your dei programs within the museum? And then secondly, I also wanted to ask, what are you doing in terms of apprenticeship programs for are you working with schools to become curators, to become preservers of art, to be in this business? Kind of tell me that. And is that included in this budget? Um,
well, so, so first you know museums are remain, I think, worldwide, one of the most trusted institutions. And we just had a leadership team meeting where we talked about this yesterday. I mean, we're we're not just recommitting, we're doubling down. This is, this is who we are. We were talking about the hustle too. And, you know, should, should we be worried, you know, is, should we be changing the language? And, you know, we all can show like, Are you kidding? Like, absolutely not, right. This is, this is what we were built for, and we are the only institution charged with telling everybody stories. And so, so that means everybody, and so, so we take that very seriously. You know, we have a commitment that every single exhibition that we do is, you know, has a lens of diversity on it to make sure that we are not leaving stories untold that should be part of that narrative, and that that remains very, very important to us. So I'll share too. We had a had a conversation with other, the leaders of our other cultural institutions, and we were talking about new required language or things you cannot say in federal grants now. And it is, it's, it's appalling and devastating, and we, I think, collectively, will just not apply, right? I mean, like, we're at that place where we can't, we're not going to change who we are so we can get the money, like, that's just doesn't feel right. And so, so you know that, you know this is the DIA and the right, obviously, in us, and so we were taking a hard line on that, and we know who we are.
And what was your other question about
the program? Yeah, so we have a pretty robust program right now of interns. It's intentional, it's it's really worked out for us, because actually, some of these interns have joined as full time staff. And last two years ago was our first year where we had a high school student from Detroit that was part of a summer program out at the collection Resource Center. It went very well. We repeated that again last year, and I anticipate we'll continue to do that beyond that, that level, I'm not sure what's in the works. It really is a matter of funding, to be honest with you. I mean, this budget assumes it will continue to support the internships that we've already got in place, and we certainly would like to expand it. But it just really comes down to funding.
It's a critical concern for for our museums that, you know, just finding young, you know, students who are interested in history and and especially finding young students of color who you know, want to go into this field. And so part of the Detroit Cultural Center Association, we have been talking about trying to create some you know program to collectively, you know, create something that would be attractive to, you know, maybe we're sharing jobs with the other institutions or something. So it's, you know, going forward, the museum field is something that, you know, we're going to do everything we can to get more folks focused on and
I would like to share. I was at Renaissance high school last week, and I had a student address me by name and call me over to a group of students. And so he introduced me as, this is Mr. Deal. He's the man that had us a part of the MLK Day Program. So creating this student advisory council is going to play a very important role in spreading the word and building a culture around Detroit High School schoolers actually participating in a lot of programming at the museum throughout the year.
Okay, that's excellent. And again, I'm kind of taking from my member, Romero again, but I wanted to be a little bit more depth, there's been a lot of conversation about immigrants. You know, whether they are undocumented or whether they are here legally. I know they, the federal leadership talked about the deportation of Haitians. Haiti is important for two reasons. One, because they were actual Haitians that fought with the Americas during the Revolutionary War. Secondly, the reason why, part of the reason why the Louisiana Purchase took place was because of Haiti standing up to France at that time, and because they were in so much debt in the in the slave colony. That was at that time, the Hispaniola and Saint Domingo, if I'm not mistaken. But at that time, he actually had to sell that land to be able to finance the French, to be able to send people over to stop the Haitians, because they were beating the bricks off the French and the British as well. And so that's where the Louisiana Purchase took place, because he had to sell that they meant New Orleans to be kind of a French, you know, Riviera, you know, a colony in America. And so I think it's important for us to understand that history, when we're talking about what they mean to America actually being what it looks like today will not happen without sacrifice. I also think in terms of the Latino community, I think it was the immigration control reform act of 1986 that was passed in this state that basically gave amnesty to our undocumented workers because they were so important to the workforce. These are the folks that build our houses, watch our children, farm our lands. I think the USDA said 42% of undocumented workers are the ones that are in the farming industry. And I think there has been a real overall assault on these communities, and we don't understand the history and their contributions. Now, I was wondering, is there any plan to be able to talk about those history, that history and those contributions, and what they've meant to Detroit, because that's the kind of history that we don't talk about as well. We we have to have conversations about black history too, and things that nature and I understand you can't talk about some stuff because some stuff is a little more, you know, controversial than others. But I think that these are conversations that we don't have. The Asian community in Asia town and what that was like in Detroit, and why they came over here, the Jewish community, and why they were running away from persecution while they came over here, the Irish community and the potato family, why they came over here. So I think these are things that we need to really kind of understand, just so we have a better understanding of each other and how this is and what we contribute. And I think that people are a little bit more understanding of that. I think we can be a little bit more. I think we can be a little bit more. I don't want to say the word tolerant, I think, more empathetic towards our experiences and who we are, and understand the contributions that we make to what is Detroit? What is America? Has there been any discussion about that?
Well, we do tell immigrant stories in our origin story, but, you know, it's we certainly can do more. I mean, I, you know, I made note of the the Haitian story here. And you know, where we don't, we didn't currently have a plan. This is how we come up with ideas, right? Somebody says to us, like, Hey, have you thought about that? And then, you know, we get together and think, like, that would be great. I will tell you, we don't shy away from difficult narrative. I mean, history is history. And so we're there to not opine on it, but to give the facts and, you know, and let people make their own decisions. And so, you know, it's, it is our job to try to cover all of these stories. We know. When I first started, and I asked our exhibitions team, you know, what do you guys need? What that you don't have? And they just said, more space, you know, so So doing things, and, you know, having exhibits that are online as well, and being people, allowing people to be able to dig deeper, that's a way that we can do that. But I'll talk to the team about the Haitian story. I don't disagree with you that it's, it's very timely. I think what's happening today. You know, we're also responsible for collecting the stories of what's happening now, so that 100 years from now, people will know what it was like to live during this time, and that's a big part of this. So we have to be aware of that and look into it. Yeah. I mean, I
just think the stories of, you know, Toussaint l'ore and Jean Jacques desserling and Cecile fodman and do Bookman is something that should be heard, that people should know about, understanding what that meant to literally how America is formed. I think that's something that's very important. And please just let me know, like, what the price point is in terms of this and and also the price point of how Inflation affects what you're trying to do. Because I think that this is something that's important. I'm going to support this, but I just think those details, if you're going to send me any information, will be better suited for me and and again, thank you for the new exhibit on my father and the Tuskegee Airmen. I got some stories to tell you about the about that, about him applying for his wings and not getting it, and what he said, I can't say it publicly, but I appreciate that. Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much, Council Member young, and that will conclude all of our questions at this time. And we appreciate you all for being here and looking forward to discussing the additional request that was submitted to us during our Executive Session. Okay,
if you all have not been to the collections Resource Center,
we would love to host you. I think it's really important that you see it, because you really can't imagine, unless you're in that space you know both the you know, the magnitude of the collection and then also the condition of the building. It's something you kind of need to see to understand, so we'll try to coordinate that. Okay?
Thank you so much.
Thank you guys. So much. Appreciate your time. Thank you for being here. All right, that will conclude our morning sessions. We will stand in recess until 2pm to for our remaining budget deliberations we will now stand in recess. You. S.
