Detroit City Council Formal Session pt. 2, 3/4/2025
7:10PM Mar 4, 2025
Speakers:
President Sheffield
Keywords:
youth protection
tobacco enforcement
vaping detectors
school safety
ordinance approval
smoke detectors
city council
school board liaison
bus shelters
animal shelter staffing
para transit services
contract funding
public health
economic development
confidential reports
Across the country is adult decision making that's impacting, sometimes in a negative, harmful way, to our youth. And so I explained that to them yesterday, and I said, even though it's legal, it's not always good for you. Cigarette smoking is legal. You have to be 21 to smoke, but they're smoking. They're underage, they're smoking, smoke, marijuana, vaping, doing all kind of things, drinking alcohol, becoming alcoholics by the time they're 14, because it's legal, they have access to it. So I told them to forgive some adults, including myself, who made decisions that have not always been in their best interest. Thank you, Madam Chair, thank
you. Member Calloway. Member waters. I
Well, first of all, I want to, I want to thank the two sponsors of this ordinance. Uh, secondly, I guess I, I've been just kind of pulling my hair out trying to figure out, how do I stop my nephew from going to that gas station down the corner, on that corner, purchasing that they and them selling it to him. Okay, will this help stop it? I mean, I have to catch him in order for them to be punished, right? So, I mean, I'm going in there to confront them before. So I'm saying, is I, how would this ordinance help us to to monitor them just a little bit closer and stop them, please. Does that need to discussion?
Member Callaway. Member, Vincent. Member, Vincent. Member Vincent, go ahead. It
won't. This is not designed for that. This is a tool in our toolbox that is enforcement, that's speaking with law enforcement, speaking with BC, and we've done that, and we've shut down locations which illegally sell tobacco products and locations which illegally have sold marijuana products under the guise that it was Abaco shop. So we shut those down. So that is being done. It's about the enforcement of it, but this is just a tool to help with messaging, and so our youth just don't see the messages that tell them that this is normalized behavior to go ahead and do this, and United States Supreme Court has held in Denver area education telecommunications consortium versus the FCC, that the government has a compelling interest in protecting Children. So this is just a tool and toolbox, and it's about our children. So adults, if they choose to do so, that's on them, but we need to ensure that we protect our children and provide messaging and safety nets for them as well.
Okay, so, Madam President, methods, yeah, okay, yeah, that that issue, yeah. I knew. I understood that it was about about our children. I just get so frustrated with these gas stations and so forth who have no respect for our city, and they're selling these kids things I you know, even when I've gone in and confronted them, of course, they lie, um, but our but our kids are getting hooked on vape and I'm at a loss, because I don't know how to stop it. I don't know what to do. You know, you have to catch some kids sneaking around the schools, or, you know, having it go run into the bathrooms and catch them smoking. It is crazy, so, but, but anyway, I understand it's a tool and and some tools are better than no tools, and so I do appreciate it. I just want to say that, but I I was just kind of letting out some of my frustration about not being able to catch these rascals. So thank you, Madam President, thank
you so much. Member waters, yes. Member Callaway,
Madam Chair, and to member waters, point of frustration. I get it, and I thank God for this ordinance and the work that member Benson was doing before I enjoyed this council, he was talking about vaping through you member council president Sheffield to mister Whitaker, I know that we I know the city council where the city doesn't have any like jurisdiction or control of our schools, per se. But my question is, can we require them, or kind of work with them, to maybe have smoke detectors in the bathrooms, because that's where the vaping is going on. There are special devices now that where I've been reading that detect baby they detect and that's going to help member waters and her nephew and other kids. He's a young man who's probably gotten hooked. I'm hoping he's not, but her frustration sounds like he's getting hooked onto something that's detrimental to his health and his mental state and his ability to, you know, matriculate through school. So I'm wondering, Can we do anything to maybe work with DPS CD to get the special smoke detectors installed in the schools and maybe support them in some type of funding, type of partnership, because that would definitely help, because it goes off the moment it detects the slightest amount of vaping smoke. Thank you. Madam Chair,
Director Whitaker, Madam President, I believe that the city's building codes affect the school buildings as well. So to the degree that there are smoke detectors in the bathrooms. Now that meet the city code, the schools would have to comply. It used to be, I haven't heard Council discuss this before, but it used to be a strong liaison relationship between city council and the school board. I don't know if you have designated a liaison between the school board and council now, but that's certainly a route that you could take so that the dialog that you're having here can be heard directly by the school board, who has obviously governing authority over the over the schools. But I would suggest that that any ideas that you have in that regard, just they have to be open to it. You indicated what superintendent Beatty said in the article, that they're desperately trying to get their arms around it. So any any suggestion that you might have that might help in that regard, it should be open to it. But going through your liaison will be one way to make sure that your that your feelings are heard. And you know, preparing a resolution to the school board is one way. But obviously you don't govern the schools, but you can have your your message heard through a variety of ways. And those are two quick ways that you could do to have your cinema served by the by that body. Okay,
before you leave, through the chair to mister Whitaker, I'm going to have a memorandum to you asking you to have your staff draft the resolution with based on what I've said, just the possibility of having those, these special, specially designed smoke detectors that only detect vaping smoke, and they it does it quickly. So through the chair to you, Mr. Whitaker, I'll give you a memo task me with the responsibility with drafting a resolution or some type of communication to the to Mr. Beatty and maybe the the Board of Education this point on this point only. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll have that to you today.
Madam President, remember Johnson. Thank you, Madam President, as the liaison to the school board, I'd be happy to continue to uplift this. I know member Benson and I have, on separate occasions, work with the school board to shut down facilities in the city that have been known to sell to minors. Thank you. Okay,
thank you. Member Johnson, all right, we will continue now. She said
she was going to follow up with the memo,
motion, any objections
for a motion for the assignment to OPD Hearing none that action will be taken. Thank you. All right now we will move to council member Benson, joined by council member Callaway
Madam Chair, we move the ordinance be passed as submitted.
There being a roll call required with the clerk, please call the roll Council President Mary Sheffield, yes. Council member Scott Denson, yes, Council Member Frederick Hall, the third Yes. Council member Leticia Johnson, yes, Council Member Gabriella Santiago Romero, yes. Council president pro tem, James Tate, yes. Council member Mary waters, yes. Council member Angela Whitfield Callaway, yes. Council member Coleman, a young to second Yes. Madam President, nine games that motion passes,
the ordinance is approved.
Thank you, colleagues, Crystal waiver,
we
joined by council
member Calloway, and we move the title to the ordinance be confirmed, hearing, no objections
that action will be taken. And there was a request for a waiver as well. Are there any objections to a waiver? Hearing, none that action will be taken, and I'm going to turn the chair now over to pro temp take Thank you,
madam president from the mayor's office.
Council member, young, two resolutions, line items, 20.2 and 20.3
member Young,
thank you, Mr. President, I move to approve line items 20.2 and 20.3
there's a motion to approve line items 20.2 and 20.3 any objections, seeing none that action shall be taken. Resolutions are now approved from his request for a waiver online, 20.2 colleagues, any objections Seeing none waivers should be attached from the Office of contract and procurement.
Council member Benson, a resolution noted that this line item was postponed from last week formal session. Contract Number 6006812, 85% 85% grant and 15% city funding to furnish 117 bus shelters. Contractor, grass co International, Incorporated total contract amount, $1,883,825 and that's for transportation. Council member Benson, a resolution, motion to approve. Member
Benson, motion to approve. Can I get a discussion? Please? Discussion? Thank you so much. This was brought back partially. I know I had a question about a particular location, Grand River and loss, or have not received that particular information. Mr. Washington, thanks for joining us. You have anyone who can provide us with that info on if, in fact, we're going to get the bus shelter that we were promised at that location two directors ago.
Yes, through the chair, my apologies. We did forward that to your team yesterday, and I believe as well earlier this morning. But we do have Jonathan holmdor from DDOT, who can also address.
Okay, then I'll say that I'm the culprit and not knowing the information, but I received it right now. We can pull them over. Please. Can we see
yourself? See yourself on the screen? Please introduce yourself for the record
through the chair. This is Jonathan 100 Capital Projects Manager, DDOT. All right.
Good afternoon. So we brought the item back, and I had a particular question myself, what did that memo, the report, indicate? But I missed
through the chair Absolutely. So there's, there's quite a bit of information on that, on that report. The first of all, that bus stop in particular was included in our 100 bus shelters project. It's, I mean, obviously we're still looking through locations, but that one is not lower on the list. We have it on the list. And I will mention that we did have a conversation with m dot and DPW. Most of that conversation involved signal timing with the traffic lights. But as far as DDOT is concerned, I did request some information on protective devices that we can use, and we're awaiting some information on potential protective devices that we can put at MDOT right away. In terms of moving the bus shelter, we are also looking into moving the bus shelter onto the sidewalk, hopefully further away from the traffic and potential danger to our riders, which we're, of course, always worried about, and trying to make sure that we keep our passengers safe.
Yeah, okay, thank you, and maybe I did miss it. You say that that location is, in fact, on the list
through the chair. Correct. The location is on the list.
Okay? And I heard something about priority. Did you say it is low, high? And get my hearing so apologies, but what did you say regarding the priorities on that particular location
through the Chair. I'm not sure I mentioned anything particular other than that. It's our priority to ensure that passengers are safe. This location is on the list, and we're ensuring that it stays on the list. Okay,
all right. Thank you so much, colleagues. Any further Seeing none there has been a motion to approve. Line item 20.4 any objections, seeing none, that action shall be taken.
What's the waiver? Line 20.4 I'm
going to hold off on that. Give me an opportunity. Question. So objection, pro temp, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much from the Office of contracting and procurement. Council
member young a resolution noting that this line item was postponed from last week formal session. Line item 20.5 contract number 6006843, 100% city funding to provide direct hire staffing for the DA CC, director of the Detroit animal shelter and a veterinarian. Contractor, diversified Employment Services Incorporated. Total contract amount, $253,428 that's for general services. Council member young, a resolution.
Member young, line item 20.5
Thank you, Miss Prezi, I like to move to approve line item 20.5
there's a motion to approve line item 20.5 colleagues, discussion with discussion. Member Callaway,
thank you pro tem. I ask that this be brought back, because I just didn't think we're doing a sort of job with trying to find veterinarians in our own city. I shared three veterinarian hospitals that are located in district two. There are more across the city, and I did have an opportunity to share that information with Director Perkins this morning, we had a wonderful conversation. So, you know, I'm not going to ask that this be brought back again, but I just want human resources to just look beyond the conventional, traditional way of, you know, posting, job postings, we have to kind of think outside of the box and do a little bit more outreach in our own community. I had recommended. I can't do all the work. I can bring the recommendations, but I don't have the staff to go and visit all the veterinarian hospitals that are in my district, but I certainly indicated that they might be willing to provide services on a rotational basis in our emergency type situations. That's la Fon, which is on eight mile, right around Sheffield, Gardendale, Hurley, and Saint Francis, which is on Woodward and seven miles. So we have those are just in district two alone. So I just think we have to do a better job, a more concerted effort, to look at what's in our city, we have resources. We just have to access them. So I provide this information to Director Perkins, and she's going to share it with HR, but sometimes we have our resources and answers to our questions right here in our own backyard. So those are three better areas that might be willing to provide services on a rotational basis, so we're not in a desperate type of situation where we find ourselves today. So thank you.
Thank you. Any further colleagues? Line item 20.5 Seeing none. There's a motion to approve. Line item 20.5 any objections? Seeing none, that action shall be taken. Mr. President. Member young, I'd like to request a waiver online 20.5 as a request for a waiver online, out of 20.5 any objections, seeing none, a waiver shall be attached from the Office of contracting and procurement. Council
Member Santiago Romero, a resolution, line item, 20.6 contract number 6005361, dash a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One to provide an increase of funds for 88 complimentary para transit services. Contractors, deal, Ray United action. Council total contract amount, $6,705,672.35
cent. That's for transportation. Council Member Santiago Romero, a resolution,
line item, 20.6 Council Member Santiago Romero, motion to approve. Motion to approve by November 2026 colleagues, any objection, seeing none, that action shall be taken. Request a waiver. Mr. President, request for a waiver. 20.6 colleagues, any objections, seeing none, a waiver should be attached. Under resolutions, Council
Member waters a resolution, line item 20.7
member waters
motion to approve,
as a motion to approve, line item 20.7 Colleagues, any objections, seeing none that action shall be taken for the President's reports on standing committee referrals and other matters for the budget Finance and Audit standing committee, two
reports from various city departments, two
reports shall be referred to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations standing committee,
14 reports from various city departments.
The 14 reports shall be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee, two reports from various city departments. The two reports should be referred to the neighborhood and community services, standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development, standing committee,
six reports from various city departments. Six reports shall
be referred to the Planning and Economic Development. Standing Committee for the public health and safety standing committee
12 reports from various city departments. The 12 reports should
be referred to the public health and safety Standing Committee under the consent agreement. Excuse me.
Agenda, there are no items, Mr. President. Seeing,
there no items, colleagues, is there a motion to suspend motions? It's a motion to suspend member reports, any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken
under adoption, without committee reference. There are no items, Mr. President, under communications from the clerk, a report on approval proceedings by the Mayor.
Thank you. The report shall be received and placed on file under testimony resolutions and special privilege.
Council member durha on behalf of council member young a resolution, line item 31.1
member young, Mr. President, that's council member, young, a resolution nine item 31.1 Okay,
remember young, line item 31.1 sir,
thank you. Mr. President, I moved to approve line item 31.1
there's a motion to approve line item 31.1 any objections? Colleagues, seeing none, that action shall be taken. Madam Clerk, I know that in Planning and Economic Development, we did move to remove the privilege and confidential designation for the law department's report, but it does not show up on this agenda.
Mr. President, yes, ma'am, um, to my knowledge, that request for that item was requested, yes, and it was never received to us in order to place it on the agenda, we never received anything from the law department.
Well, we did it in committee. So was there, is there another act that we should take? We verbally made the motion
at this point, Mr. President, I will refer to Graham Anderson,
Attorney Anderson, through the
chair. I believe the question is regarding the resolution to a privilege, the rents on memo, if I'm correct, correct
from the front, specifically from the law department,
yes, through the chair I he, I did not receive the official resolution, but we can still make it happen. But we need a resolution to move forward with that, for the body to vote. We
need a resolution today to to make that happen, we cannot verbally through you, or to you or to Dr powers, because, again, that was the desire in the committee, and it was not communicated. I said we had to do anything else that was liberal. Yeah, we approved it in committee, and the expectation would be that it will come before us today
through the chair there may have been a miscommunication that there was supposed to see we council should have a resolution to vote on for this, and I apologize if that miscommunication was my fault. I apologize for that, but we would not be able to at this time of hour. I'm sure everyone's ready to get out of here, but I'm sure we can have a resolution for next formal session for this body to vote on for that waiver of privilege. I don't know if there's this time of the essence issue, if that's acceptable, but I am. I
mean, there's no other way that we can do this, so we're going to have to do but again, want the desire of the committee to be known that the goal was to make sure that every document that we had, every report that we received from the various departments and entities we wanted sunlight on, and there was nothing and we mentioned that in the committee, it didn't appear that was truly something that would be detrimental to any negotiations or the City at all, so we look forward to seeing that resolution for
approval next week for the chair. Wonderful. Thank you proto, thank
you so much. Seeing there's no further business to come before this body. Colleagues, is there a motion to adjourn? So moved, seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.
Quick question, do we have? CBG, I G. Today, I don't
