Yeah, please. Oh, you want to do it? You Okay? There we go. Oh, great. There He is, wonderful.
Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the expanded budget Finance and Audit standing committee for today. Friday, March 14, 2025, Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll
Good morning Council Member Scott Benson, Council Member Frederick Hall, the third present council member Letitia Johnson,
Council Member Gabrielle Johnson is on her way.
Clerk was on note. Council council member Gabriel Santiago Romero, present council member Mary waters, present council member Angela Whitfield Callaway council member, COVID young the second Council pro tem, James Tate here, council president, Mary Sheffield,
Council President, is on our way as well. The clerk will send out. You do have a quorum, Mr. Pro Tem, thank you so much. We have a quorum, which means we're now in session. I want to first start off by thanking the health department for being here. We're going to go through the public comments, excuse me, the public hearings today. Want to just talk a little bit briefly about public comment as we move forward, but allow the public hearing to take place first, and then we'll go from there. Allow other members to arrive. Welcome again. Ch O, R ferrazzo, looking forward to your presentation. The floor is yours. Ma'am. Thank
you very much. My name is Denise ferrazzo, and I'm the Chief Public Health Officer for the City of Detroit Health Department. Morning everyone. My name is,
good morning. I'm Dr Iris Taylor, and I am the administrator for clinical services.
Thank you. We are here to present the FY 26 budget. The presentation should be on your screen and you have hard copies at your desk. So the mission of the health department is to address the public and population health priorities of all Detroiters. And our vision is to create a healthy community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. And this is the team here that is putting in the work 285 FTEs, and they are passionate. They lead with an outstretched hand, and they give of their time and their talent and their resources to the city of Detroit. And really it is an honor to it's an honor to lead and to be by their side. We offer maternal health services to improve the health and well being of women, children and families, as well as vaccination for all ages. Our services include mental health, behavior health, which includes our outreach, education and education and training, reproductive health, food safety, vision and hearing screenings, along with many other resources to support the public health of our residents. We're located all across the city of Detroit, with our main office at 100 Mac and midtown, our new satellite services that we offer at the Samaritan center on the east side. We are also in the neighborhoods, with the launch of our neighborhood Wellness Centers at local churches and also our WIC clinics. Again, we are located all across the city of Detroit. Now I want to spend some time just talking about the work that we've done over the last year, and we have been busy, and so I'll just highlight a few of our accomplishments, and then I'll spend a little bit more time on the the next couple of slides. First, we opened up our second location at the Samaritan center this past August. This is part of our strategy to go out in the community meet people where they are, and we wanted to get on the east side. So this is a photo of our ribbon cutting. We were pleased to have council member Letitia Johnson present, and we are just so again, so thrilled to be out in the community. We implemented the rise to care initiative. We know that there is transportation is a social determinant of health, and we wanted to provide greater access for our families, and so this program ensures access to prenatal, postpartum and pediatric appointments for free. We also installed, installed harm reduction wellness stations and vending machines throughout the city to provide greater resources for our residents. We partnered with council member Scott Benson to implement the dining with confidence initiative, and this provides greater transparency in the inspection process. We opened seven neighborhood Wellness Centers at local churches, and we are providing health screenings directly for our residents. We offered a new program, it's called too cool for drugs, where we engaged over 1400 youth providing anti drug use and education on the negative effects of vaping marijuana and also illicit drugs. We are in the schools, and we are providing direct education to our students. And finally, we completed over 6300 survey responses as part of our community health assessment. We launched in April, the data collected. The data collection efforts were completed in December. We finalize the focus groups, and a finished report will be completed and distributed by the end of June. So let's talk about rides to care. As I mentioned, transportation is a social determinant for health, and on November 18, we launched rides to care. Again, this is a free service for our moms who are pregnant, and also for anyone who takes care of an infant up to one year of age, they can receive free transportation to and from their prenatal doctor visits, plus a full year of postpartum visits, and also one year of pediatric visits for the baby. Now we launched in November. So far, we have scheduled over 5300 rides. This is phenomenal. This means that our families now have access, and this gives them a greater chance of having the ability to thrive. And this has been offered to over 664 Detroiters. Again, we're really pleased with the outcomes of this program. You may have seen these little purple newsstands pop up all across the city of Detroit. These are our harm reduction wellness stations. Harm Reduction sounds exactly what it sounds like. It's reducing harm associated with the use of drugs, and so we have, we're going to be installing 50 harm reduction wellness stations and also vending machines. They're going to be placed at gas stations, at motels and also community based organizations, and also two of our DDOT stations at the Jason Hargrove and also Rosa Parks. Inside of these kits, we'll have Narcan free Narcan test strips for fentanyl, medical deactivation bags, HIV test kits, so you can test in the comfort of your own home, condoms and also pregnancy test. This is part of the opioid settlement dollars, and again, we are really pleased that we're offering this to our residents, the dining with confidence program. Thanks to city council, you all approved this, and we launched this in October. We're using green, white and red placards to indicate food establishments compliance with the food the Michigan food safety code. So far, we've conducted over 1200 routine inspections, and I'm pleased to announce that over 1100 green placards have been issued at the time of routine inspections. So again, this program allows greater transparency in the inspection process. And now Detroiters, Detroiters, that's okay. That's all right. Detroiters can feel confident when they dine in at any of our restaurants, and I can assure you that the health department is holding every restaurant owner accountable and making sure that they are adhering to the safety guidelines and the regulations that are set by the state as well as the Detroit Health Department. We launched the neighborhood Wellness Centers just a few months ago. Again, it's part of our strategy of getting out into the community, meeting people where they are. And we are in faith based organizations. We are providing free blood pressure screenings, diabetes screenings, and also cholesterol screenings, directly to our residents. In fact, this was a question that came up about two years ago at a at a hearing, I think council member Hall, you asked, What are we doing for screenings? And so now we are launching this program, and it has been very successful. And finally, our two goal, it's too cool for drugs program. This is part of the marijuana tax revenue. 2% of the marijuana tax revenue supports this program. We launched it in November 2024 the program has engaged over 1400 youth again through anti drug, drug education, so drug prevention, including topics on vaping marijuana and other illicit drugs. And I wanted to include this slide because we really feel strongly that there is no wrong door when you come to the Detroit health department, whether we're meeting you at in a community where we're whether we're offering you screenings at a local school or we're in a church, you can come to the Detroit health department to get access, and we can give you referrals to other services within the city of Detroit, and again, there is no wrong door. So now we will get into the FY 26 budget. Our total budget is $51.8 million 17 point 6 million is for our general funds, which includes our administration, our operations, environmental, clinical services, marketing and communications. We do have federal grants in the amount of 14 point 4 million, and that is for the Ryan White and also ending the HIV epidemic. We also have our state block grant that's $19.6 million that includes our WIC program, vision and hearing lead emergency preparedness and our children's special health care services. And we do get service fees and revenue from our license renewals and permits for environmental health. And I do want to note 66% of our total budget is grant funded, and that's about 184 FTE. So we rely heavily on our grants, and just based upon our political climate, the state of Michigan, the health department, we have not heard of any information regarding take backs or spending stops for any state or federal grants, but I can assure you that we recognize this could change at any time, and we are certainly developing contingency plans to address these potential cuts and also impact on any operations. This is the FY 26 budget by appropriation, as I mentioned in my earlier comments that there are 284.5 ft ease, and that is split between our administration, our environmental health and food safety, our resident services, which is maternal child health, community health services, our grant operations, violence prevention, again, for a total of 284.5
our staff cost is 24 million. Our non staff cost is 27 point 7 million. For a total cost again, of 51 point 8 million. Just want to touch on a few highlights that the mayor addressed just a week ago, our community violence intervention one time, ARPA, this is a program continuation of 4.3 million, as I have mentioned several times before. In fact, this is my sixth budget hearing. I will say it again that violence is a public health issue, and this work has really been successful over the last two years with CVI as well as ceasefire and the Health Department will continue to be supportive of of this work. Ride secure, as I mentioned, is 1.2 million. This is the second year of this program. We are still requesting an additional 3.3 point zero FTEs, $1.2 million is inclusive of 180,000 for staff. Call Center is 250,000 Uber health that's booking, the rise is 400,000 marketing is 150,000 again, for a total of three FTEs, and those FTEs will provide coordination and operation support the youth substance prevention to cool for drugs programming last year was 40,000 this year is 63,000 and again, that's 2% of the total marijuana tax revenue. And that program will be just our funding will be to continue operations for this program. And finally, the opioid crisis response for FTEs, we are requesting two senior community service assistants and also two coordinators, and they will be instrumental in expanding our community level opioid education. If you note that opioid crisis positions, the four they're in the health budget without dollars, and they'll be funded by the prior year surplus in the opioid settlement appropriations at the start of FY 26 I want to reiterate that we can't do this work without the support of all of our staff, as well as the leadership team that is here with me today. We are again, very passionate about the work that we do, and we continue to advocate for our residents. And with that, we'll open it up for any questions.
All right, thank you so much. It is crazy. It's been six budget hearings. I remember the first one, you came in the thick of COVID, right? That was, that was a time for all of us and to see all the work that you and your team have done over the years. Certainly appreciate you and your leadership and your team. So want to give you all a shout out for that we will start with. I also want to say for me, thank you for the assistance that your team has provided with the protective crown as well Mental Health Initiative. I know we still have and campaign to get you all the survey results and still figure out where we go from here, but you all have been stellar in terms of the assistance provided thus far. If you can talk just a little bit about what else the health department does as it relates to mental health, behavioral health, a lot of times, people say the city is not doing anything, and we have a responsibility to be in the space, but we can't do everything. But want to give you an opportunity to tell the folks who are watching, what are we doing in the area of mental and behavioral health?
Thank you for the question. I don't know. It's disappointing to hear that the city doesn't think that we are doing enough for behavioral health. So let me set the record straight and just share the great work that my team is doing for behavioral health. We provide outreach, education and training, so we don't provide direct service, but we do rely on our community partners, like d1 and they're doing an incredible job to provide mental health support. We engage in street outreach, so we have teams with lived experiences, and they're going out into the community to provide education to the community. They're normalizing mental health, they're having substance use conversations. They're reducing the stigma, they're raising awareness, and more importantly, they're connecting residents to essential services. So if they're in the community and they see something, they are providing, again, direct referrals to our community partners. We also provide individualized support to residents by assessing the diverse needs of the individual and their families. We're partnering with dpscd and youth based organizations to educate youth to address mental health and also substance misuse. We're also coordinating training and workshops. We are in the community promoting inter departmental staff development. We are also connecting grieving families. Are connecting with grieving families, and we're providing services directly to them, so we're doing a whole lot, and I'm really proud of the team and the work that they're doing in our community. Thank you
so much, and I've got budget questions we only sending your way, but you mentioned the harm reduction wellness stations, which I think are very unique and certainly needed, but I think that there's a lot of folks who don't understand fully how they can utilize them. When I talk to some folks, I've had Dr Dudley, of which, who I'm sure you're very familiar with, had her at a number of at a few meetings that I've been at, and asked her the question when it comes to the Narcan and some of those other items that are inside of the harm reduction wellness station. Should I just have it? Just in case there's a lot of people who believe that, well, I don't need it. I don't know anyone in my family who have a challenge as it relates to substance abuse and drug use. Want to give you this opportunity to talk about the necessity, even if you don't think you have someone, it's almost like a first aid kit. You don't want it. You don't want to use it, but just in case, it's available. So giving you an opportunity to talk about the true benefit and effectiveness of having these types of stations available for free. For folks,
yes, absolutely. And you know this is all about access, and you said it best, it's almost like having a first aid kit readily available, and you never know if you're going to need it. I have one or two kits in my car, just in case. In fact, we just heard a success story last week. One of our own employees at k max, she grabbed one just to have it in her car, and then her cousin was having an experience, and she needed to use it on her cousin, and she did, and she saved the life of her cousin just because she had access to Narcan. We know in the city of Detroit, we do have a it is an opioid problem. It's an opioid epidemic in the city of Detroit. And if you have access to Narcan, you can save a life. If you don't have Narcan, you can come to the Detroit Health Department. We can give it to you. We can train you, provide classes.
But how much is all of that? How much is all that by chance? How much
is training absolutely free. There's there's no money. It doesn't cost anything. Again, we want to save lives, so we just launched this initiative just a few weeks ago. You go on our website, you can see a list of all of the locations, but they're at gas stations, they're at motels again, and they're going to be at the DDOT stations, in the harm reduction wellness stations, not only is it there Narcan, but there's also fentanyl test strips, there's medication deactivation bags. So what that is, is, when you are done using your prescriptions instead of discarding them in a, you know, in a place where you shouldn't discard them. You can open up the medication deactivation bag, put your pills inside with a little bit of water, shake the bag up, and the pills dissolve, and then you can discard it appropriately. In the harm reduction stations. There's also HIV test kits, where you can test in the comfort of your own home, again for free. There's also condoms and also pregnancy tests. Again, this is a benefit that we offer to our residents through the Detroit
Health Department. And how often are those stations refreshed? Sure, so
we have a team that drives around and they look to see if they need to be refreshed, but usually it's once every couple of weeks. Again, we just launched the program, so we'll see. But again, it has been successful so far. We are going to have a press release probably within the next week. And again, this is free, and there will be 50 wellness stations again across the city.
Thank you so much. We are going to start off with member durha, Member Hall. Thank you,
Mr. President, and good morning to you all first. Let me say I appreciate these fierce, dynamic ladies in front of us. One thing I can say is that what we have stated from this council table each and every budget year, it seems as if you want to reflect some of what we have suggested as well, and you know, putting together initiatives and just being really imprinted in the community. So thank you so much to all of you who take the time to, you know, get and kind of reflect again what we want to see from this council table. My question revolves around community violence intervention, of course, chair and CO chairing the gun violence task force. We talk about the social determinants of health that are related to gun violence. And I know in this budget, I'm going to be making a motion very shortly to put this into Executive Session. Just kind of wanted to ask about, kind of your thoughts of how, how better we can tie that in and put the word out about the social, social determinants of health that lead to gun violence. What could we be doing more from our standpoint at as a city? I know we're funding CVI, but even putting the word out there kind of a campaign to let folks know what leads to gun violence.
Thank you for your question. And through pro tem, we're already putting in the work. So I can't really speak to CVI programs, but I can speak to cease fire. We have just launched a media campaign. In fact, if you look at our Facebook post from, I think, three posts ago, we're talking about how CV, or how ceasefire is so important in the community, ceasefire addresses the symptoms of crime and violence, and they focus on three key areas, so that's prevention, intervention and also providing basic, basic needs support. So we're providing food and housing and service provider referrals and also mental health support. We also conduct call ins every couple of months. In fact, our last call in was in November, and we met with 30 Detroit residents, and we enrolled them into our program, and they're getting mentoring, they're getting access to jobs, and that is because of our cease fire team. And I'm really, again, proud of the work that they're doing. What you can do to help the health department is to continue to uplift the phrase that violence is a public health, public health issue, and the health department is certainly leading in this area,
and we and we appreciate that, you know, I think you know, from our end as well we see and you know, you see it as well. They put in the work our CVI groups. They put in the work every single day. And I think folks think that they just go out there and say, Hey, Put your gun down. They're really working to address social issues. They're really working to address mental health issues that may be contained or that that folks may be struggling with. And it's, it's really more deep rooted than folks would understand and and so in my idea of putting a city wide campaign, which you guys are working in you guys are doing. But even just keep pushing on how, you know, how we can really get that word out there, you know, even in our schools, right? I remember growing up for me, they had the DARE program, right? And the DARE program was like, deep in those schools, and this is what happens, or this is your brain, and this is your brain on drugs, and they show you the, you know, scrambled egg or whatever. I might be showing my age a little bit now, but those programs are really instrumental to the development of young children who are coming up through those schools. And so I think my idea is not more so what you guys are not doing, but how do we find a better way to have a further reach? How do we have a better way to connect, even in our schools, right to talk about these are the things that lead to gun violence, and we address them at an earlier age as well. So I appreciate you guys work on that. I will say that, Mr. President, I want to make a motion to put the CVI budget, community violence intervention budget for the health department into executive session with a funding of two additional funding of $2.3 million All
right. Thank you so much, colleagues. There's a motion on the floor. Any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken.
Thank you, Mr. President. And next, my question kind of is relative to this, and I'm not one to steal anybody shine. I know Member Santiago Romero has been very adamant about this, someone who has been pushing boots on the ground as well, to talk about an Office of Violence Prevention, which I think is really needed here in the city of Detroit that could serve as a one stop shop to folks, for folks to have resources, whether it's CVI, or whether it's addressing those social determinants of health, or whether it's even addressing other issues like access to, you know, city departments. I think a lot of times when we think about gun violence as well, we can talk about the social determinants of health, we be remiss if we don't mention poverty. We be remiss if we don't mention the circumstantial component that leads to gun violence and leads to crime, for that matter. And so I just want to kind of talk to you about your thoughts of, you know, Office of Violence Prevention, you know, and then it being kind of seated in the Health Department. And the reason why I'm wrapping my mind around this, just to preface it, I know we have an Office of Disability affairs. We put it in creo. There have been talks that if an Office of Violence, Office of Violence Prevention is created, then it's created under the Mayor's office. However, we don't have the purview not to even create one in the health department, but because of the organizational chart in our charter. But I feel more comfortable with it if it is in a health department, because it is, how do I state this? It would be less political in that sense, and more health driven. And so just want to talk to you about your thoughts relative to that
Sure. Thank you for the question. And through pro tem, we are with you. In fact, several big city health departments across the the entire country have offices of violence prevention, Detroit does not. And so if city council and the mayor are supportive, then we would be happy to implement Of course, it would take a lot of research and time to determine the best approach, but it's certainly the right time to have that conversation. Thank you.
Thank you. And not still in the shine. But I'm also going to make another motion with the with me highly expressing that member, Santiago Romero is a fierce advocate for the Office of Violence Prevention, but I like to make a motion to put into executive session the possibility of funding for an Office of Violence Prevention here in the city of Detroit, alright, colleagues,
there's a motion on the floor. Any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken.
Thank you, Mr. President, again, thank you all for what you do and for helping our community and helping bridge the gap for health related issues as well as other issues here in the city. Thank you, Mr. President, thank
you and Mr. Clerk, I failed to know that we've been joined by member Johnson, Good morning, ma'am. Michael sunup, alright, member cowboy, who is yours? Ma'am, good morning. Thank
you. Mr. Chair, good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for all the amazing work that you and your team do all year round. And it's a pleasure to serve with you on the authority, the Board Authority, we get to see each other quarterly. Yeah, so it's always good to see you. And we know that they have that new food truck out there, that wellness truck. I've seen it. Have you seen it? I've seen it. Okay, so we need to talk about that at another time. And thank you, Dr Taylor, for reaching out to me regarding the RX program, and I would like to see it rolled out perhaps next year. I absolutely was hoping to put it in the budget this year. But after talking to you about the program that we have engaged in this year, which is the RISE program, and you've serviced over 15, I think 5300
visits to the doctor,
that's wonderful. That's a lot of a lot of progress. So I'm just going to give a little bit of information about the RX Kids program for those who don't know about the program, aren't aware of it. It's a groundbreaking program to fight childhood poverty through direct cash assistance to families during the critical first year of a child's life, the program will give a mother $1,500 before the birth of the child, and $500 a month for the first year of the child's life. It has been successful in Flint. It has been successful in Kalamazoo, and we're hoping to work, continue to work with Dr Mona Hanna, with getting it here in the city of Detroit. She is the doctor, pediatrician, activist scientist, who exposed that children in Flint were being exposed to lead in the drinking water. And we know what happened as a result of that. If anybody has not read her book, it's called what the eyes don't see. It's an amazing an amazing read. This innovative approach empowers mothers to make the best decisions for their children. The estimated total cost would be $50 million private foundations and charities cover 70% of the cost of the program, 70% so I really want you all to to to write that down and remember, because I'll be back here next year, and I'm absolutely going to be seeking solid commitments in terms of funding. Because if this program is working in two other populated cities, like Detroit and the young parents, the mothers and the fathers are having that extra money in their pockets. They're not so concerned about how they're going to buy formula, how they're going to buy diapers, etc, then we should do no less here in the city of Detroit, when we know we have more children than Flint and Kalamazoo probably combined. So with with the private foundations covering 70% of the cost to to roll out the program, the city of Detroit will only have to cover 30% of the cost, or approximately $15 million we know it's going to be far less than that, because we know we're going to have other people contributing to the bottom line with the Health Department support and implement this program, if not this year, perhaps consider it next year, knowing that it's successful and it is going around the State and probably going to hit other states as well.
Who approach him, President Pro Tem. We are very much committed to the reduction of infant and maternal death and ensuring that there are healthy births in the city of Detroit, and with this program and other programs that we've implemented, we wanted to get one year's worth of data that supports where is the best use of resources, that limited resources that the city has, where is the best place to invest those resources. And by next year, hopefully we'll be able to have that data that drives what that decision making should be. Yeah,
well, I'm going to thank you. Dr Taylor, I will definitely be keeping my eyes on the program, because we know it's going to be rolled out in other cities across the nation, but I don't want Detroit's children not to have the benefit of the program when 70% of the program is going to be covered. So thank you for that, and we'll stay in touch. I thank you for all the work that you're doing in the public school system with the youth. I have a youth and Civic Engagement Task Force, and hopefully one of you can come to one of our meetings with our students. We have a huge turnout. They're very, very committed to the cause. We talk about civics, we talk about government politics, but we need to talk about help too. So I'm not an expert in that area, so I'm hoping maybe one day, you guys could join one of our task force meetings, and you'll be amazed with the students that we attract. I'm just in district two with the students, but it could go citywide. So thank you for the education. Thank you for the too cool for drugs. Everything that you're doing to engage our youth, because it starts right there. They start abusing drugs at a very, very early age, and the ages are getting even earlier. We're talking seven and eight year olds having to be taken to emergency because they've been vaping. They probably have a parent maybe left the vaping device out, I don't know, for a older sibling, but our children are being exposed to marijuana and vaping and nicotine and alcohol and cigarettes at a much earlier age than ever before. So thank you for your commitment, thank you for your outreach, and continue to do what you're doing in the public school system. Have you thought about and this would be my last question, have you thought about the charter schools? Because there are more students in charter schools than in DPS CD, and I'm a retired DPS CD employee, so I know for a fact, and Dr Taylor, your work with the school system, we know for a fact that there are more students leaving dpscd and going to charter school. So whatever you're doing in dpscd, I hope that you'll consider reaching our charter schools as well, because that's where the majority of our students attend school, our charter schools. And thank you so much, yes,
and thank you to or through Pro Tem to cool for drugs is not only for DPS CD schools, but it's also for charter and parochial schools as well, and we are hoping to expand this program even further. I agree with you that the age is getting much earlier and earlier, and that is not okay, and the health department will certainly intervene, and we appreciate the 2% marijuana tax revenue because it is directly impacting our students.
Thank you. Member Johnson,
thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning everyone. Although I was not sitting in the seat, I was listening to the presentation. So thank you so much for the shout out for and for opening the satellite center in the Samaritan center. Can you speak to the impact that the center is having in the community and kind of talk, I believe it was open because of what's happening in that immediate community. So can you speak to how it might help to provide data and information relative to the environmental impact that residents have spoken about, relative to the stellantis facilities in that area.
Specifically, Samaritan provides to President Pro Tem, excuse me for acknowledging you the Samaritan centers provides not only increased access because we wanted to be equitable on the east side in those particular zip codes, but it also gives us an opportunity to say that in a second site, what is an expansion of a second location of the health department and what are kinds of services should be provided? So we're also in the process of seeking out through the community of what they perceive needs should be on that side, so that we may begin to tailor the program and services delivered to be more specific. So we're in that process.
Excellent. Thank you for that, and I would love to connect you with the community leaders in that area, because there has been a recent request of doing a health assessment, a health health assessment to just understand. And unfortunately, there wasn't one done prior to the development of the facilities, because it's difficult to identify the baseline and then to look at the health impact, if any that the residents in that immediate community are dealing with. But I have had a number of people just share with me different ailments that they've had as of recent but would love to connect you with them, so you can hear directly from the folks that are in that immediate community. And then my second question is, and I was going to do what member der Hall did as it relates to the CVI groups. There is one CVI group that did not meet the metrics for the city as it relates to reducing crime, and that was a CVI group that served, I believe, both districts three and four, and I know that there is another group that's standing at the ready to provide that assistance to really help to reduce crime in that those areas. Can we speak to whether or not that sixth group is still involved in the CVI work? I'm not sure if that's something that you all know about, but want to get some additional information there to support, of course, the request for additional resources to make sure that we bring them back online
through Pro Tem to council member Letitia Johnson, I will work with the city to get that information for you.
Okay, all right, thank you. And we've already put it into Executive Session. I just want to be sure that that brings the sixth group back online in that area, recognizing that the CBI groups were initially identified and the areas identified based on crime and crime statistics. So thank you. Thank you Mister Chair, thank
you member Johnson, member Benson.
Thank you. And then just number one, thank you all for everything that you do. Having a robust health department is not something that the city has always had, but you can tell the difference when you do have a robust health department that's run by the city of Detroit and not just being supported by the county. Having you all here focused on Detroit residents and our unique individual needs is hugely important, and it takes a huge team and obviously tons of different funding sources, but you are managing that well and getting those resources back into the community. I want to really acknowledge you for that. Number one, want to say thank you for your creative way that you've implemented the resources from marijuana tax revenue for too cool for drugs, because when we started this process, that was not a program, and the thought was that those revenues will be given over to D win, and then they would run that. But the health department stood up and said, We're going to take care of this, and we're going to make sure that our children with our unique needs are served by a city department that's focused on their health. I really want to thank you for that. Then, just looking at these metrics, you touch 1400 youth within four and a half months, 1400 youth within four and a half months, that's huge. We're touching close to 300 youth a month when it comes to youth substance use prevention, and so just want to acknowledge that as well. And at 63 no excuse me, $40,000 which was the budget based on our first year of revenue. So once again, taking the lead and being the tip of the spear, and we are the only community that does that in the entire state of Michigan, the only one. So once again, tip of the spear leading the way with that. Said, I'd like to see more that goes towards that. And so I've had a conversation with the author, the originator, and the person who's led this pro Tim James Tane. I want to acknowledge him for this, and I'm going to ask for a motion to increase the amount for tool for drugs from our tax revenue from 2% to 5% this year. I'm hoping to get an actual ordinance change in the future. So my motion will be to increase that revenue from 2% to 5% which the revenue being estimated at $3.1 million this fiscal year. That would increase it from 63,000 which will be statutory, to 155,000 which would be that additional bump, which means that you can touch more youth. That's my motion.
There's a motion on the floor. Any objections, seeing none that action shall be taken.
In addition, in a conversation with pro tem as well, looking to expand the umbrella of substance use prevention from not just youth, but to the family. And we've had this conversation as well. And so looking for that, and this will be a motion to place a change in the scope of substance use prevention, utilizing our marijuana tax revenue from just youth focus to family focus motion, and that will be a closing resolution.
There's a motion on the floor, colleagues seeing no objections, that action shall be taken. Thank you. And
then having conversations with other stakeholders in this space. Everybody's very excited about what Detroit has done. But we also have a very big dog in this space who has over who has a 10 digit budget over a billion dollars, and that will be d win. And so typically, they're seen as the person that you go talk to to take money. We're actually bringing something to the table. So I like there to be some conversations with D win about how we can better leverage the entire stakeholder community into substance family, substance use prevention. And so my motion will be to place that in the closing resolution, as
well as a motion on the floor colleagues any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken.
And I've had a conversation with our former Chief of Police to let him know that we're making that we're making that motion today, and hopefully there'll be some conversations soon between both entities to help leverage that to do better when it comes to this. If we're going to be into this space making money, then we need to have a robust safety net for our families and our youth to make sure that they're not being negatively impacted. And we've seen that negative impact, and so want to make sure that we're doing things to help support and sustain our youth and protect them moving forward. So thank you all for that work, and hopefully these resources will help to do that next. I've got to just say it was a very long and hard fight to get dining with confidence approved, and thank you to my colleagues for doing that on our second time at this table. But you got looking at these numbers, over 1000 placards displayed, over 1000 inspections since its establishment in October of last year. What are you thinking? Are the results? How is this looking? But also very concerned, I'm seeing a reduction in our food code enforcement FTEs, when we're really ramping up and being far more just thoughtful and more public. Can we talk about transparency? This is really just elevating food health, food safety to everyone whenever I'm in the community, still have yet to have anybody say we don't like that level of transparency. Councilman, shame on you for prioritizing our health to ensure that our families feel confident. Where we go buy food in our communities, and typically, downtown is going to be okay, but it's our neighborhoods where we don't have high levels of income, we don't have high levels of efficacy, and we and we don't have people who care what they feed to low income families, and this helps to educate people and prioritize food safety and safe food being served to our our low income families who don't typically feel they have that same level of efficacy and control in their space. So we just talk about that.
Thank you for the question, and through pro tem, we are very thankful for your support and grateful for your leadership, to implement dining with confidence. It was just what the city of Detroit needed. And I, too, I love going to a restaurant and seeing that green placard. It gives me confidence as well, knowing that I don't have to be concerned whether my food has been prepared in an inappropriate manner. The reason why there was a reduction in the three FTEs was due to vacancies. We could not get these positions filled. So I'm actually not concerned at all about our level of of our ability to maintain the cadence that we have been maintaining over the last couple of years. It is really hard to fill those positions. We have gone to multiple health fairs. We've gone to universities, but it hasn't worked. We continue to work with our HR department, but again, we've already gone through 1100 inspections. We are just looking at the calendar. We are right on schedule. One of the things that we know how to do in public health is to do a lot with a little. So we're going to continue serving our residents, even though there has been a slight reduction in our FTES. All right, thank
you, and I appreciate your willingness to do a lot with a little. We're always asked in the public space to do that, and now you're seeing it at national level, with huge reductions. At the federal level, people looking in often think, Oh, they're just public servants or just civil servants. They don't work. They don't work hard, they don't care. Boulder, Dash. We do care. We do work hard, and we're often overworked. And I appreciate your willingness to go back in that space and tell people, let's keep it up. Let's keep our head down, let's keep our nose to the grindstone and keep working. I'm going to make a motion to keep those FTEs there and just ask and to continue to work to get those filled, to ensure that you have that coverage you need. No matter what, it's always good to make sure that you have FTEs covering, even if you think we can keep going, but let's try to keep a manageable workload so we don't overwork and burn out the ones that you do have further putting you into the hole. And so I'm going to make a motion to increase by 167,000 food code enforcement to ensure that my number was four inspectors were down according to the to page B, 25 TAC, 22 it was for Environmental Health and specialist two that were down. And so my my motion is to increase that by four which, which includes $167,000 reoccurring cost to the general I think they're paid for by the General Fund, to the general fund. That's my motion.
There's a motion on the floor. Colleagues, any objections Seeing none, that action shall be taken.
And so then I'm just going to end with this. You all are doing an excellent job. It's good to have a robust, committed group when it comes to a health department. I'm just glad to see you all your willingness to lean in when we started the conversation regarding to regarding dining with confidence, it happened just before COVID. And so we're looking at conversation started in 2018 and finally we're realized in 2024 but it just shows that public policy doesn't happen quickly. But if you're committed and and we had a loss, but if you're committed and dedicated, you can get it done, and you can add the value and bring health to our communities. And oftentimes, low income people of color are overlooked, as in, we're low income, which means we're low quality, which is not the fact low income does not mean low quality, and we deserve the best, just like everybody else, and this is the kind of service that you're providing. And I really want to say thank you for that, and continue to do that.
Thank you. Thank you. Member, Santiago Romero,
thank you, Mr. President. Through you to our director, good morning, wondering if we could get some updates on the Detroit ID program. Want to make sure that you have the funding where we currently are at with residents accessing the program and wondering if you have all that you need to continue the program. Thank
you for the question. And through Pro Tem and to council member Gabby Santiago Romero, absolutely, the program has been very successful. We launched it in September 2024 we relaunched the program. We have distributed 4300 cards. Excuse me, 40 304,300 cards. We have two operations at the Detroit health department and also patent Recreation Center. People are using the program, they're getting access to the services that they need, and I feel really confident that we have what we need to continue the program
through the chair. Wonderful. That's great to hear. Also wondering what training looks like and expansion of the acceptance of the card. We have heard that sometimes the police won't accept the card. Also, most recently, a report of someone using their card at the Fourth Precinct and the police officer just so, you know, we just had a meeting about this with police this morning, but want to talk about how we're all working together to prevent these things from happening. The police officer then called ice, and we want to make sure that the Detroit ID program is not a proxy to an immigration status. So wondering, one training what that looks like with other departments making sure that we are trained up, that this is accepted by the city in all departments, and also, are we expanding the acceptance to local banks, clinics, things like that.
Thank you for your question and through pro Tim, absolutely, we certainly are interested in expanding our training. We did not, we were not aware that there was a problem with acceptance. So be happy to sit down with you to hear more about what had what has taken place, even as early as this morning, the Detroit ID card has been around for a while, and we certainly need to reintroduce to city departments and other community based organizations, one of the directors who's here with me today, Yolanda Hill Ashford, she's been spending her time going out into the community and speaking to local banks about the acceptance of This card. So happy to speak to you outside of this meeting, to hear your thoughts. But again, we're certainly happy to expand our training and to make sure people are aware about this great program.
Wonderful through the chair. Appreciate that we'll set up a meeting with the immigration Task Force. It would be wonderful for us to get a list. I know that that was before there was a list of even the benefits that we had with with certain businesses. So thank you for that. Want to now switch over to environmental protections so you have been in conversation with community about the health departments, supporting, with monitoring, with helping us collect data, wondering where we are. Is this something that you think at one point we could have staff in the health department, or will this be more of a private partner, a private public partnership, which is what it is now moving forward to make sure that we have the capacity to monitor our environment
group. Pro Tem and to council member Gabby Santiago Romero, absolutely, I think this is more of a city wide initiative. In fact, the city will ensure that an air quality monitoring program is available in every district and in every city council district, and it'll be fully implemented this year, and we will make sure that we are working closely with those city departments to make sure that not only the monitoring program is implemented, but we are gathering data. We have been working extensively with community based organizations specifically on the area of asthma, because we know that there are lots of families that are impacted by asthma. We also have a program dedicated to asthma at the health department, through our children's special health care services, anyone who has chronic asthma, we pay for their medical prescriptions. We pay for transportation to their doctor's appointments up until the age of 26, years old. In fact, that program covers 2700 other chronic illnesses and diseases. It's a program that we constantly talk about, but hardly anyone takes advantage of it. So again, if any residents listening, if your family has chronic asthma, which means that you have one aspiration per year or one asthma attack per year, you are eligible for this program. So we've been constantly communicating that message, but also to our community groups. They have really pushed us to to speak about asthma. May is Asthma Awareness Month, and so Nikita cargans, who is the director for marketing communications, her team, will be spending the month of May educating our community about asthma and how they can prevent it from impacting their their family and their community, but happy to continue working with you on
that. Thank you. I appreciate that. Finally, before I make motions for closing resolutions for and something else for potentially Executive Session, there's a lot of changes happening at the federal level. A lot of cuts are being proposed to Medicaid, Medicare. People are scared. I'm being asked, What are you doing as a city council member to solve all these problems? I know that we can't, but is there a possibility for the health department to utilize our neighborhood wellness centers to expand services that are more preventative, that might have been things that Medicaid did provide in whatever ways that we might be able to do. Have you been approached by the public now for us to think about how we can really meet the needs that are going to be coming down, because we know we are the ones that are going to be dealing with it here locally. So just wondering what the plans are, if there have been any discussions right now and how the health department can support the public if these changes were to come,
absolutely through Pro Tem to council, Council Member Gabby Santiago Romero, absolutely this conversation is not happening just at the Detroit health department, but the state level, and also just nationally. In fact, I had a conversation with several other big city health officers, and we're all developing contingency plans because we're not sure what's going to happen next, but I will assure you that this team here, we are not panicking. We are preparing the team right now. We're looking at all of our essential services to figure out if there are federal cuts, what are some of the things that we have to do under public health code, and what are the things that we may not need to do any longer because of federal cuts. And again, the majority of our budget is funded federally, but also funded through grants. So we are concerned, but we are preparing. I really don't want the public to to be too concerned about the level of of care that may be impacted through the health department, because we, again, we continue to advocate for our residents no matter who is in office. Wonderful.
Thank you, Mr. President. I would like to add to the closing resolution is member Hall mentioned as the Chair of Public Health and Safety and as a social worker, had been really pushing for alternative solutions to safety and for us to think about it creatively. So thank you for moving those, those those items, forward Through you, Mister President, remember durkhall The 2.7 is that so that we get closer to the gap. Because I was going to move 3 million. Happy to move the remaining 700 but just want to make sure that you're essentially trying to just close that gap correct, because I'm also happy to move the rest of it as well through
you. Miss Mr. President, to members. Santiago Romero, I mean, I'm fine with moving the 700,000 I think we had 2.3 and our calculations, we wanted to have the opportunity. And stating, I know the mayor put, think about 4.5 million into it. That does not include bonuses, that includes the sustainability, at least for one more round of it. It was our intent, because we know it's ARPA funded, and we are waiting on a public safety Trust Fund, dollars that hopefully will flow from Lansing a little bit faster, if they're listening to us right now, but, but, I mean, I'm comfortable with the the 700,000 even being added additionally.
Wonderful. Thank you. So Mr. President, would like to move $700,000 to Executive Session, to round up $3 million for the CVI program.
Colleagues. There's a motion on the floor. Any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken. Thank
you, Mr. President. And to the closing resolution, would like to add established in an Office of Violence Prevention. We're waiting for resources, and just so the public knows, I'm working very closely with Tricia Stein and working with national organizations to provide the city additional technical assistance so that we're able to see what it is that we are providing. And to a director's point, the city provides so many resources and programs that the public just doesn't know. So we're working on establishing a care guide. You know where to go to if you need mental health services, where to go to if you need something that's preventative, where to go to if you're experiencing violence. So hopefully this will come out soon, so that the public can can utilize it, but working together to also establish an office under the Health Department, so that we're working together. So we'd like to add that to the closing resolution establishing an Office of Violence Prevention under the Health Department.
Is that a motion? Ma'am, yes, sir, there's a motion. Colleagues on the floor. Any objections, seeing none that action shall be taken. Thank you, Mr. President, thank you. All right, before you leave, like to call up Doctor powers, there's been a question about public comment and when public comment should take place, how frequent it should take place. And wanted to get some guidance from Dr powers.
Member Tate,
yes. Member Callaway, yeah.
Thank you. I brought the matter to the attention of Dr powers this morning, as it was brought to my attention when I was in DC watching the budget deliberations and according to the rules, and she's going to speak to it, and we've already discussed it, but I want folks to know I brought it up according to provision 9.2 point one point 3.1 public comment during budget departmental hearings. Each departmental budget hearing will include an opportunity for public comment following the department presentation and deliberation by council members. And that's not been the case, but I'm hoping moving forward, we will abide by our our rules. Thank you, Mr. Chair, thank you.
Can we get Dr powers on the screen? Team?
I'm here, sir. All right, there we go on the big screen too. But you look fabulous. Let me just say, You look fabulous. Look fabulous. So I will. I'm a man enough to say when I'm wrong. And I there was a caller who called in and indicated that we were supposed to go one by one by one. And I said, Nope, that's not what it says. And I was wrong. I appreciate that caller texting you, not me, but saying that to say, again, I'm one who is not too big to say I was wrong about that, but I also understand that there are rules and there are opportunities for us to alter the direction that we go in. But wanted to just have a bit of a conversation with this body about the way that we want to proceed as we move forward. I think it is still imperative that we have streamlined, efficient, productive budget hearings after this long day that we have and we're and I got a lot of lot of tough decisions that we have to make, I'm ready to dive into executive session, but we got to first get through these, these budget hearings. So Dr powers, if you can kind of give us the, I know member Callaway did give us the section in the rules, but want to turn it over to you now as the rules chair for the last four years, or three years.
Dr powers talk to Yes, sir,
yes, sir. Member Callaway did, of course, state the rule correctly. That is exactly what is in the current version of the rules. And I must say, however, that there's been a great deal of variation in the way the public comment has been taken during budget hearing. Sometimes it has occurred after each budget hearing. Sometimes it's occurred once in the morning and then once in the afternoon. Sometimes it's only occurred once so you um, following this rule would most certainly give the same opportunity for the public, for each of the public of the budget hearings. However, I understand completely how much longer it may take for the public to comment after each of the public hearings, but that is entirely up to the body to decide as to how they wish to proceed, however it is in the rules. So you will have to deal with that particular rule if you if you choose to do it in some other way. Thank
you. Dr powers, just really quickly. I know there's also in the rules and opportunities to suspend the rules, and we don't use that very often. It's always a situation where we want to identify ways to be more efficient and me born productive in the event that we move forward in suspending the rules. So Dr powers, if you could talk to us a bit about what suspension of the rules, if that's allowable, what the parameters are surrounding it, if you can talk about that briefly before we go into debate with colleagues,
certainly, sir. In order to suspend the rules, you would need a two thirds vote of the members. In order that would only suspend it for that session. For the next session, you would have to suspend the suspend the rule again, and when I say of the members, it specifically reads, upon a two thirds affirmative vote of the members present, the council may suspend the rules. So it's not two thirds of those serving, it's two thirds of those present. So that that would be the process, two thirds of the of the individual council members present could vote to suspend the rules, and then that particular rule, and it would be suspended for that session,
okay? And then lastly, Doctor powers. When you say session, does that mean the day the meeting,
sir, I'm sorry, the meeting,
each, each hearing, each budget hearing is what you said we would if the direction of this body, the will is to suspend the rules to allow for whatever that looks like either end of the day. I know I've also heard, potentially continuing how we've done it in the last couple of years, where there's an am and a pm as well. Are you saying that we would have to do that after every budget hearing if that is the direction that we would like to to go in?
No sir. I'm sorry if I gave that impression. What I meant to to imply is that, for for example, motion to suspend, uh, rule 9.2, point one, point 3.1 for this meeting. And the meeting, of course, is from usually 10 in the morning until the what three or two in the afternoon. So that's the length of the meeting. So for that meeting, that day, you could suspend the rule. It would not have to be done for each individual budget presentation. Okay,
thank you so much. Remember caller coming to you, but want to get additional advice from Mr. Whitaker, then you will be the last step.
I just wanted to point out that what you're having now is budget hearings. These are not public hearings, and I think there's a distinction, and a rather important one, there will be a public hearing on March 31 at five o'clock that is to deal with all matters related to the budget, the courts, the public, an opportunity to have a vigorous discussion about about the budget. But these are hearings designed to inform council so it in, it allows you to make prudent decisions as it relates to to your handling of the budget. So these are not public hearings. These are, these are Council hearings, and there is no violation of the law as it relates the only, the only law that applies here is the Open Meetings Act that requires public comment, and you're recording the public comment in every meeting. You've only done it once, but it violates your rules, but it doesn't violate the law.
Thank you so much. And again, for clarity, if we were to suspend the rules, that would not be a violation of the Open Meetings Act, which is a violation of the law. What that would do? Would basically, like the bZA allow for us to suspend the rules that we have internally, but no violation of the law. All right? Thank you so much. If I just want to go to Dr powers. And then I said member Callaway, and I'm gonna go on this side of the of the of the table, Dr powers,
I would just expand a little on what Mr. Whitaker said to the extent that there have been years in the past when all the departments were not brought in for their departmental hearing, their their budget hearing, and so to that extent, it has always been Council's discretion as to whether or not all of the departments are brought in or as it was truncated in the past in some years. And I'm sure Mr. Corley remembers when it got truncated. So to that extent, these are all, all of these activities that are involved in these hearings are determined by Council.
Thank you. Dr powers, I'm Calloway.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair to I think to Dr powers, so when a person calls in for public comment during these budget deliberations, there's a certain amount of time that they get from the beginning, right? I think we give them what a minute, two minutes, minute and a half is that at the discretion of the person sharing the hearing or the inspiration would be in place, even if you had 10 people, and you give them a minute and a half, you know you're not talking even 20 minutes. So I think we I think the folks who've been complaining, I've watched all the they've been doing it for years, and until this was brought to my attention, I wasn't aware of it. But now that we are aware of it, and we know that a rule covers this part of our our budget hearings, I would hope that we would abide by because this is, this is our most important function as a city council, is to oversee the budget deliberations for 2.6 $2.7 billion budget, which is the people's budget. It's not our budget, per se, is the people's budget, and they have a right to call in after each budget session, because we have it in the rules, it's not going to take up any more time that is already taken up because they have to wait till three o'clock to even speak. And I don't think that's fair to them. I think when I'm sitting on this side, I'm thinking, it's okay. It felt okay. But when I was in DC this week and I actually watched it on my tablet, it didn't feel so good the way that they are are those who are calling for public comment were pushed to the end. That's not fair to them. It's their budget. And if we have a rule that says they have a right to speak, not sorry, an opportunity for public comment following the department's presentation deliberation, we owe that to the people they pay us to do what we're doing, and we only do this once a year. So if I'm inconvenience until five o'clock, six o'clock at night, I'm okay with it, but to sit on the other side of this table and watch it as a spectator, it just didn't look right and and the way we talked to them, I saw it and I heard it, and pushing them to the end, and they were continuing to complain. I'm I wrote down eight complaints about not being heard. So I'm hoping that we will follow our our rules, a very simple rules, not the most expedient, but it's proper. It's proper and it's efficient. They're in the rules. And I'm hoping we'll abide by our rules. And you know, as we go through these budget deliberations, thank you, Mr. Chair and thank you, Dr powers and Mr. Whitaker,
thank you. I just want to make it. Want to note that these rules were created by council, and these rules can be altered by council as well. This is, again, not this Open Meetings Act, which is a law and that is a much higher threshold for us, but this is internal rules that we are creating. I know you're aware, but just make I'm talking to the public. I'm talking to the public. Want to make sure that the public understands the difference between our rules and the Open Meetings Act. It is a difference the law versus our internal rules. Member Durham, thank you,
Mr. President, and you know, I'm not too big to say when I'm wrong as well. I think we stated that the other day, but I was talking again more so just in terms of a public hearing, we are required to, by law, to have public comment during a public hearing, our council rules state, and I don't know verbatim if it's a if it states that there is an opportunity, does it? I don't know if it says Opportunity. Opportunity is not something that is concrete as well. Opportunity to me suggest, at the call of the chair, if the chair so desires to do this, or this body so desires to do that, the opportunity is present, to be able to present that, not stating that public comment, even in our rules, public comment must take place after every budget hearing. It is, it is up to an opportunity, and I think the decision of this body relative to even what these rules state, because, again, in our rules, it is not mandating that we take it after every budget hearing, just as some of us do in our committee. Some may give one minute, one minute 30 seconds. Some folks may give two minutes for public comment. Some folks may choose to take public comment, which I've done as chair of my committee after a presentation. So I don't know if it explicitly states that we must do it after every budget hearing in our rules, but what I would state to you, Mr. President, is that I do think the opportunity for public comment is there at the end, we're at least taking public comment once. I do understand the frustration of folks wanting to come after each budget hearing and give that public comment, but we will be here to about six or 7pm maybe to you. Member Calloway, but order, but through you. Through you, through you. Mr. President, direct comments through the chair, through you. Mr. President. We want to make sure that everyone is hurt, and I think, you know, I don't want the message to be put out there, or any possible disingenuous comment to state that we don't care about what the public has to hear. That is not the narrative that we do here. We always take public comment, we listen to folks. We take that feedback back as well, but we also want to be ensure, or ensure that we're able to complete our budget process on time, and that, you know, just to be frank with you, the folks that are coming presenting the budget, they don't work for us, and they work for the residents of City of Detroit, but they are not members of the Detroit City Council. Yes, we may want to sit up here six, 7pm every single day as well, but we want to be able to, I believe, have a process that is open, a process where we can get the information in and, frankly, deliver our budget on time. And so that is my concern. If we're still able to do that if we change this, if we change this process up, and we know if that is the case even through you, Mr. President, the member Callaway, because I know she chairs the rule, Rules Committee, if we're able, if we do that, then maybe we ensure to cut that time down that we put in the rules and state that each public comment must remain germane to the actual budget hearing, because we all know, as chairs of the committee that we sometimes hear the same public comment over and over and over again and is not germane to the topic at hand. So that is just another suggestion, if we are not to suspend those rules Through you, Mr. President, to member Callaway, I'm okay with that, but I would ensure, I would want to ensure that it remains germane to that topic and succinct, so we're not just, you know, hearing the same thing over and over again. Thank you, Mr. President, okay.
And I think it also should be stated that even if we were to do public comment after every hearing, that does not require the departments to stand before us and receive and go back and forth with the public comment. So, you know, there's all that is again, the these are city council rules. This is not open meetings acts. So this gives us the discretion to operate in the the direction that this body feels and deems is necessary to do so before we go to colleagues. Mr. Whitaker, I saw your hand. All right, thinking on the same page, alright? Member Johnson,
thank you, Mr. Chair, to the point that you just raised, can we say thank you to the health department so they don't
know his body. I didn't want, I didn't want to move this conversation unless this is what the body
well, even if we decided to have public comment after this hearing. It is a necessary to hold them is that the will is
that the will of the body is the chair discussion, this discussion on that
point just on. I know we don't do that, but I will wait till afterwards to have that conversation about that.
All right, thank you, Mr. Chair. So my thought is actually just relative to what member durhall just mentioned,
if we are
abiding by the rule, hard and fast rule that the comment is relative to the budget hearing that was just presented to us, as we do our public hearings. Um, because I think what we've what we've heard, with the exception of maybe two people who call into public comment, their public comment, is very general and not relative to the budget hearings. I would actually like to see perhaps a morning and an afternoon opportunity for them to comment, because then, if someone is not able to stay with us the entire day, they still get an opportunity to express themselves, to provide any comment relative to the hearings that we have for that particular day. But if we would like to keep it as every department after every department, I think it should be focused on responding to the particular budget presentation that was provided to us. Thank you, Mr. Chair, thank
you and Health Department. Thank you again for your patience, for your patience. Don't leave just yet, Mr. Whitaker, and then I'm going to miss member Benson. We'll go to member Benson.
Oh, thank you. So just wanted to say a couple of things. Number one, I'm glad that we're having this conversation today, and I'm also glad the health department gets a chance to sit here and see how we as a body operate as well. You can see the inner workings of how Council works. And I would suggest that anybody that during public comment, any department, either stay in its entirety, or at least leave a representative so they can hear those public comments that will be directed directly to that body. Don't have to have everybody, but there should at least be somebody who could take that kind of information back. I will say that the rules. Took a look at that briefly. They do say will. And so basically the same as shall. So we should be doing this. I would also suggest that we don't need to do a 92nd public comment, or 100/22 we could do a 32nd public comments. I'm also of the of the the impression, and listen, that we should have very efficient time. And right now we're at 90 minutes or already over for our second session. And so keeping things to 60 minutes, we should be as efficient as possible. I think a 32nd public comment would be and I would also suggest that if we're going to change public comment to needs to be germane, that's a public hearing which is a rule and a law. I think that we should keep it as unless we change our council rules that we could we shouldn't change horses midstream here. And just say, you have to be germane. You get 30 seconds. You can speak on whatever you want to, but it keeps it efficient, and it keeps it moving. And I also, I have never voted to suspend the rules, and I wouldn't do it here either, but I'm also not, I'm also one of six today that it would take four to suspend the rules. And I would also say that we've suspended rules for things I thought were far more impactful when it comes to the operations of the city, not just hearing from people. This past year, we've suspended the rules to allow for an ordinance that was not approved form, and we've done that multiple times, which, to me, is far more impactful when it comes to suspending the rules. If you're saying we are going to put on our own books a law that is not a not deemed to be legal by our own law department, that is far more impactful than saying that we're going to change that we're going to suspend rules to allow for public comment or not do public comment after everyone. So I want to make that clear as well, and I have never supported suspending the rules, and I wouldn't do it in this situation, either, but I do want to make it clear that we've done that as a body, and we've done it for something I believe be far more impactful than this situation here. Thank you.
Thank you. Member, durose, thank
you, Mr. President, and I want to make something very clear, I am not stating even to the public, I am not in favor of having public comment after every hearing. I know there are folks who have a lot of questions, and I know even from this council table, we have pushed out here and asked folks to be engaged in this budget process, including myself, and we want to see that. I guess what we're talking about today is, what does that framework look like? How long is public comment? It's not something that's required, which was put forward, and this is why we're having this in this discussion, is not something that was stated that it is mandatory by law for us to do, but if that is so in our rules, and that's something that we decide. You know, again, I don't mind that, but I would like for it to have a framework. Additionally, what I'm saying is, to your point, through you, Mr. President, to member Benson, we're talking about changing course. Then we are changing course midstream here, because last budget season, we did not take public comment after every single budget hearing. And I state that for a particular reason. If that's the case and that's something that we want to do, it's great to know that up front, so LPD can prepare when we talk about scheduling that. CPC, when we move our budget hearing scheduling for we know what kind of timeline we're working at, working with fair for the departments who are coming in front of us who are going to be the ones presenting, knowing when their time is actually going to be. Because even without public comment after every budget hearing. Sometimes they're sitting here 30 minutes to an hour just to wait for their presentation. So if we're going to talk about a level of consistency, maybe that's something that can be changed when we talk about following budget hearings. But here, if this is what we're going to decide to do, I think we should do it as a as efficient as possible. Lastly, I would say that if we are and for the reason of after every budget, Psych budget hearing, having public comment, most folks who are going to get on there, if it is germane to that topic, are going to ask a question, and those questions, because we don't work for those departments, I think we have to keep in mind that those departments are going to have to sit at that table to be able to respond to some of those questions, unless we just state that they gave their question during that after that budget hearing, and we just say, hey, well, we'll try to forward that information to the department to get you an answer. So that's kind of where I am on it. Mr. President, and I will also state, noting that we are having this conversation. I think we I would like to make a motion to call the question.
Mr. Chair, if I may interrupt, I'm sorry.
Remember deer Hall? Do you mind if, Dr powers turns in before you make your motion, I never mind when Dr powers chimes in. All right. Dr powers okay.
I don't want to add a confusing element into this discussion, but
however,
in terms of parliamentary authority, there is a hierarchy. And of course, state law, the charter, Roberts Rules of Order, your rules. And then comes tradition. And if you have established a tradition of doing something in a particular way that also has to be taken into account. So I just wanted to say that, and I also wanted to say that there's nothing in that rule that says people have to comment only on that particular departmental hearing. So apologies for the interruption. Mister der Hall, but thank you. Alright. Thank you
so much. And remember, duh, we're going to come to you and you're going to wrap this up, because we gotta move forward. Mister Whitaker, and then member durha, then I'm going to we're going to move forward.
I do have to say, if you're restricting comments to only relate to the period you're going to have to have an additional public comment to allow people to speak about anything generally,
got it,
if I may, respond to that. I don't know how you can. I mean, you can say you can only talk about this public hearing, but there's nothing here, like in a I'm sorry, budget hearing, there's nothing in here, like a public hearing that says you can only talk about the issue of the public hearing. So they require rules change, right? It requires a rules change. A number of things that you're talking about require a rules change. So I'm just saying they can talk about whatever they want, because there's nothing to restrict them for a budget deliberation, budget hearings. All
right, thank you so much. Dr power, thank you all for the debate. I've heard that there's a motion to end debate, motion. All right, there's a motion in the debate. Any objections, seeing none that that action shall be taken. Colleagues, what is the motion? What is the will of the body moving forward?
Abide by the rules? Mr. Chair,
is there a motion,
as indicated in our city council rules
of order?
Okay, there's a motion to abide by the rules that are currently on the floor with the discussion, and I'll say that I would be in support of having an am and pm, simply similar to how we have done in the past, the past three years that we've had these hearings. And again, we start going back down to tradition as well as efficiency. So that would be my but I can't move it because I'm the chair is there. There's a motion on the floor. Discussion with the further
discussion this will be quickly. So there's a motion to go by tradition, I would still suggest would be a motion to suspend the rules and then immediate motion to establish an am and a pm. I
hold on. If those are two different motions, there are, there will be two separate Yes, that would be if the first one passes, then that one would not is, I'm just
made Yes, just for food for thought during the discussion. That
mean you will support what I was just saying. Yep. All right, cool. That was my discussion, first one with further discussion. Member Durham, thank
you. And through you, Mr. President, if we were if that motion were to be made to suspend the rules and then possibly fails, then remember, callaways motion obviously prevails, because that is abiding by the rules, which is something as already said anyway, correct? And so I would through you to member Callaway respectfully asked her to withdraw her motion so I can make the motion and then we can vote on that relative to the rules. Okay,
you want me to make a motion to withdraw the motion already made regarding abiding by our rules, to do what I'm sorry through the Chair. Mr. Chair,
through you. Miss, through you. Mr. President, the member Callaway, I'm going to make a motion to suspend the rules. If that is to fail, then we're abiding by the rules anyway. That that was my point.
Okay, I'm not sure if I'm clear on it. What's wrong your motion? Why am I withdrawing my motion through the chair, not understanding
the request the way I heard it, if you withdraw your motion. So we already have our rules in play right now. Period now it's been brought to our attention. So if all motions fail, then that's the we revert back to where we currently are on the rules. It's now on the record. We will determine it. So it's not necessarily the the need to move forward as the first motion, that probably would be little bit later, because it's already solidified, and
if I may, sir, yes, ma'am, Doctor power, really there. There is no need to make a motion to follow the rules, right? So technically, that's that Motion's out of order because it's not needed. So the other motions should be dealt with, and if any of those pass, then the the other motion would not come up, because there's no need for it.
Okay, so through the chair to mister Doctor powers, just withdraw the motion, because we're already supposed to be okay. So I withdraw the motion to abide by the rules governing public comment during budget departmental hearings. Thank you, Mr.
Chair, thank you. That motion has been withdrawn. Is there a motion on the floor colleagues, motion to suspend the rules? Mr. President, there's a motion to suspend the rules. Any objection?
Objection council member Scott Benson, objection
member, Callaway. You need a point of clarification in that motion, sir,
I do apologize. Motion to suspend section 9.2. Point one, point 3.1 of the city council rules is that it Dr powers,
yes, sir, that's it all right.
Thank you so much. Any objection?
Objection council member Scott Vinson,
objection member Callaway. All right.
Michael, so now, thank you so much. What? What's the count? I know we have to have a super majority. June, 3, June, 8, it passes. I want to make sure that someone else says it, other than me, because I don't want anybody saying I'm doing anything wrong. Doing anything wrong. That motion fails. I mean, our motion passes. I apologize that motion passes. All right. Is there further motion? Colleagues? Thank
you, Mr. President. I also make a motion to member Johnson's suggestion as well, that we include a am public comment session as well as a PM public comment session during the budget hearings to allow for the public to be able to weigh in in the morning and the afternoon.
There's a motion on the floor for further clarity. Remember deer Hall. Are you meaning right at Are you meeting after the final budget hearing for the am hours, and then after the final budget hearing of the pm hours, correct? Mr. President, all right. Thank you so much for clarity. There's a motion on the floor Colleagues, any objection Seeing none that action shall be taken. And then further, I know we did talk about having the department here and round with seeing that we're not doing it after each department, I think that one is probably null and void now to have every department sitting before us. So thank you so much for watching the sausage being made, and we appreciate the work that you all do once again. Thank you so much. All right, this now we'll close out the budget hearing for the health department. We'll now like to bring forth the Mayor's office
member Durham and Mr. President, just to take a matter of personal privilege, if I may. I still think after the budget hearings, I still think after the budget hearings that we could possibly ask maybe one or two members from the folks who are presented, because generally we only do one or two departments to possibly stay if they can during that public comment, to be able to answer some of the questions that folks may have during that general public comment, at least someone for the department, if they're able to weigh in that have not be here physically by the time we get to public comment. Maybe weigh in virtually. Mr. President,
yeah, if that's a motion, I would certainly object that one. Only because folks, everyone has an opportunity review online or watch it. I just think it kind of elongates our process even more so. But I'm saying, just from what I heard, I would be in opposition to
that. To you, Mr. President, I'm not making a motion to require that. I'm stating that during those budget hearings, we, you know, just as you would do in ped sometimes ask the folks to stick around and maybe make the comment that's at their discretion. Yes, sir. However, you just asked him a lot for the opportunity I got for them when we get to public comment after the hearings, if they wanted to chime in, whether virtually or publicly, they could. So
ultimately, giving them an opportunity to to chime in, but not requiring correct thank you so much. Member, Johnson Dorsey, your hand? No, okay, all right. Thank you so much for joining us. Today. We have the Mayor's office. We will now begin the public hearing for, excuse me, the budget hearing for the Mayor's office. If you can, please introduce yourselves for the record.
Thank you and to this body. I want to say first thing, good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to present. We will like to start with introductions, and I will pass it to my right. Good morning.
Thank you. Good morning, honorable body. It's so good to see you all. Malia Howard, Deputy Mayor,
good morning. My name is Aaron Harris, director of Department neighborhoods morning,
good morning. Tricia Stein, Mayor's Chief Strategy Officer, good morning.
All right morning. Deputy Director Hilton contain Homeland Security, emergency management,
or anybody else want to chime in? Good
morning. Deputy Chief of Staff, Timothy Stark, all right, good morning. Good
morning. Andy COVID, Deputy Chief operator, good morning.
All right, sir, you may begin, or whoever would like
to begin, I will kick it off again. I am Ray Solomon, second currently the Chief of Staff for the city of Detroit Mayor's office. Is about a week and a half now, but we are here to do our presentation for this past years and upcoming budget the Mayor's office. Priorities have been sustainability, mental health, co response, community violence interventions, customer service and also community outreach initiatives through department of neighborhoods, and we also continue business and economic development. So with your support and partnership, we'd like to thank you, and we will also move forward with servicing the residents of the great city of Detroit. We will start our presentation with Aaron HARRIS from the Department of neighborhoods. Great applause.
You may proceed. Okay, all right. Thank you. Go to next slide please. So Motor City makeover, we do this every year. Is the first three Mondays in May, we have 600 community Beautification and cleanup projects across the city. We've given out 90,000 flyers and vegetables given out to all our residents who apply. Over 2000 volunteers participate in Motor City make over weekends, and 700 trees were distributed Next slide. So Halloween in the D we had a total of 1 million plus pieces of candy distributed 700 volunteers. We're at 11 police stations, seven fire homes, fire houses and 11 recreation centers. Next slide for our volunteer engagement, we've had 30 community slash corporate volunteer projects, Beautification and cleanups around parks, schools, churches and neighborhood gardens. More than 600 volunteers from Detroit and Metro Detroit areas and other states. Next slide, senior, disabled and resident snow Assistance Program, we provide a service to some of the most vulnerable residents without able bodied individuals in the home. Over 250 residents enrolled in the program across districts, over 150 volunteers and we service this year, 147 homes were paired with a volunteer. Next slide,
our Youth Affairs teams is
led to ignite the passion and potential of Detroit youth. We have a down shadow program. It starts March 21 and it runs until April 18. That's our first cohort this year. Students are paired with professionals within the city of Detroit departments to learn about a variety of career opportunities. Over 30 students registered in our pair for shadow day, 15 plus departments registered and students also participate in community cleanups and volunteer projects. And lastly is our registered block clubs. So we register our block clubs with Department of neighborhoods online district managers attend their monthly meetings, and we have 675 block clubs and neighborhood associations that are registered so far. That's it.
Good morning again, honorable body. Hope you can hear me. Thank you, sir. So for community violence intervention, this program has been prolific here for us in the city, amazing decreases in crime and the intervention of youth has just been astonishing. So I do want to say that first and foremost, before the slides, but $11 million in ARPA funds for community groups that each serve a CVI zone. CVI zones cover most of the chronically violent areas of the city. On the map, you will see the five current CVI teams. It shows those zones and hot zones that were prolific in shootings and homicides, the groups that have been bringing down community violence can earn performance earn performance grants that extend, that expand the CBI work began in August, 1 of 2023 performance is measured quarterly based on the numbers of reduced homicides and shootings. On this slide, you will see the people's Detroit People's Community, led by negas vu. New Era community connection with Zeke force, Detroit with Zoe Kennedy, Detroit 300 with Eric Ford and Detroit friends and family with Ray wines. Next slide, each group defines their own CVI zone and violence prevention strategy, while strategies very by group, many have focused on identifying, building relationships with and mentoring individuals at risk of involvement in violence. Next slide, please. Zones are seeing violence decreases ranging from 24 to 61% in program, in the program second year and the first quarter of the second year, the five groups saw larger reductions than in the non CVI area trends in the same quarter, two groups saw significance violence reductions, which were the Detroit, which was Detroit People's Community, again with negative Food and Detroit friends and family with Ray Winans, the five groups with the best strategies were awarded a full second year and will continue in year three. Successful groups utilize incredible messengers for conflict mediation and ongoing engagement with those most at risk. And as you know that they are again focused in the neighborhoods, but also focused in our schools. And so with that, I will pass it over to Miss Tricia stern the Office of Sustainability.
All right, hello again. So I'm here to give you an update on sustainability, and it's fascinating. It's just been two years ago since I came here and talked about all the aspirational plans that we had, and so I'm excited to talk about our four focus areas. This is really the what grounds the work in the Detroit climate strategy, which has been shared with your offices. So they're really four top priorities. And so I'm going to go through those. Let's start with the clean energy. Go and go to next slide. Malik, if you don't mind, thanks to City Council's support of the solar neighborhoods with phase one and phase two, this first priority of clean energy being developed in 165 acres across the city. This is mostly vacant and blighted land that we are now transitioning into productive use, and it will be 31 megawatts of clean energy, and this will be renewable energy credits that the city can take credit for, and putting this back into the grid, we will be able to meet the GHG reductions that city council has also approved by ordinance and and be able to benefit The environment, benefit the neighbors. So let's just talk through the the neighborhood meetings that we've had with phase one is completely done. So we had a level of of meetings for them to weigh in on what the design is, not only around the neighborhoods, but inside as well. So some have said that they want to do agrivoltaics and grow food. Some want to have Meadows. And so there's a whole variety, but it really is by the Department of neighborhoods and planning leading that effort, and the neighbors get to design, and we're halfway, oh no more, to two thirds away through phase two. So we're coming very close to the end, and we'll celebrate those and show what the designs, what the neighbors have picked. And then we've also started with the Energy Efficiency home upgrades. And so there's 165 homes in phase one, and then there is an additional 104 homes in phase two. So phase one, we've done 60, over 60 assessments already. So it's a full look of 365, 360 view of the home and and see if it's and if it's new windows, insulation, a roof, and so that work will start next week. So more to come on that and can share with you. But we're putting that benefit in the house, house, homes that surround the solar neighborhoods. And then also, we're being able to use DTE Energy Efficiency assistance program for those that qualify for income based to leverage additional money. So the 4.8 million is in the solar contracts again that were approved, and then it's leveraging an additional $2 million so I'm very excited about that work. The next slide Malik is to take a look at the this is just one of the neighborhoods in phase one, current condition of what the neighborhood looks like, again, a lot of vacancy and overgrown and blight. And then this is the design that the neighbors picked for the Van Dyke Lynch neighborhood, with the trees, the flowering trees and the evergreens around the solar array. Next slide, just talk through a couple of a second priority in the climate strategy, which is moving to clean mobility and putting in EV chargers. There's been 20 EV chargers installed at rec centers over the last year, and we're going to that was done by the construction and demolition department. We are going to continue that work and make them publicly available along corridors. And we owe President Pro Tem Tate more information, and we are gathering that. I'm going to share a little bit today, but more to come on Monday, and to prove the use case and to show that there is demand. And again, we're working with the Department of neighborhoods to identify businesses. We've grabbed the traffic patterns along corridors with DPW data, so really interdepartmental work, and then we also have funding available. So last year, council approved $1.2 million of funding that now is going to be leveraged in federal dollars that we do have a signed grant agreement with CFI to be able to leverage that there's additional money in the supplemental which you all still are evaluating that can leverage CFI, and then there's ARPA funding to build that out. But just to share some real quick data, is that there has been an increase over the last 11 months for ownership of EV chargers. So our EV cars, excuse me, over the last 11 months, it's a 17% increase in ownership in the city of Detroit. We took a look at it last April, and then we took a look at it in March, and then this is part of the data that we will share with with the body, but through President Pro Temp Tate on Monday, and then also, there's been a 54% increase in EV ownership across the state, so layer that on, and also the use at rec centers and other chargers, just to show our data and prove that there is A use case there for the city to fill in gaps and to be able to prime the prompt for more EVs in the city. Next slide through achievements urban farming. So we have, through our Director of Urban ag and director of sustainability, we have very been able to provide TA for urban farmers to be able to work through the process of purchase and permitting urban farms, we also have, through the Department of demolition and construction, started to Put energy efficiency upgrades on our municipal buildings, this includes H back updates, occupancy sensors and smart lights. So we've had a 3.4 megawatt hour and electrical savings because of these efficiencies already and more to come. Thanks to city council approving the contracts last year, we've increased on 90,000 homes have weekly recycling now, and so are recycling across the city has increased. And then we are doing a low to no vehicles, particularly for our police pursuit vehicles, and be more energy efficiency in our vehicles. There's 112 both from last year and this year that are being deployed across the department. Next slide. So two years ago, I was here, it was our director's very first day, and I announced that, and there was a director, and we said, we're working across departments, and now, because of your urging and your support, we have a full team on the sustainability of focus on the climate strategy. So I listed them. A few are shared with Omi because there is some cross departmental goals that they lift up through communications and research. We also are sharing resources with HRD, doing the energy efficiency in the homes, and then our solar project manager, and then grant funded positions as well. The cross departmental work still continues, so I kept that in there, because it is important that this doesn't just live in one department and one unit. It is across departments. Next slide, just some upcoming efforts, is really still focused on our vulnerable population and making sure that we have city wide resiliency through community preparedness, supporting urban farmers and the food waste and helping business owners report their energy and water use. From the benchmarking I'm going to flip now to mental health and just do a couple of quick updates. This is a cross departmental between HRD, the police department, the fire department, and D win launched in 2019 as a
proof of concept in just one precinct, and then Chief white reset it in 2021 and lifted it up, and now chief medicine is is really putting his mark on it and making sure that it is a cross departmental for those that are dealing with chronic needs of around homelessness and substance abuse. So we're really working together as a collaborative. And the next slide will show that that we are building out that team at DPD. We have 22 non sworn personnel. These are funded through the end of next fiscal year. So 630, 2026, with ARPA funds that building out the behavior health specialist who co response, co respond, with trained officers. We have 911, embedded behavior health specialist who can de escalate calls and also refer calls to services and work with D win for their mobile services and then homeless outreach, again, really working in a coordinated fashion. The next slide will show that this really is an inter departmental you just heard from the health department. They're a big piece of this. With the naloxone distribution and education efforts, training is a foundation of this. We have 1100 DPD and EMS who have been trained in behavioral health emergency partnership. This is an M Cole standard now. So this is all based on again, co training to de escalate and to meet people where they are and get them to the resources they need. We've increased 24 hour street outreach. We're going to make sure that we have the requisite teams based on the need that there is, and then continue to expand our shelter beds and case management, again to and then, of course, the opioid settlement dollars is to ensure that we have recovery housing and then the Quick Response Team and happy to answer any questions about that, and next my friend, Hilton Kincaid,
good honor. Body again this Good morning. It is good morning. Thank you. Through the Chair, we at Homeland Security and Emergency Management continue our efforts to prepare the city for everything from a tornado to a terrorist attack, anything in between. In so doing, we have to maintain communications with all of our partners, just in case we need this assistance. And as you can see on the slide there, we use several different tools to make sure we can properly communicate with our partners, everything from the my Sims, our state reporting mechanism, the siren system that we put up, the early warning siren system that we test every Saturday, first Saturday of the month, as well as the wireless emergency alert. That's where you use the cell phones for the we and things like that. And then our radios that we coordinate with other departments, be it police, fire, DPW, all those departments that need communication, because we found in dealing with our coordination of large scale events, communication is always the key. We also use this bid P that allows us to talk to Borders clear across the country, if we have to, and then the excess and the critical infrastructure bulletins and those things we utilize to make sure communication is when we have these urgencies or exercises that we need to deal with. Also part of making sure we're prepared is the planning and exercise that we do. We write emergency plans, everything from the city wide evacuation plan to the overarching emergency operation plan. Once we write those plans, we do have to test train drill and make sure we exercise those plans from our exercises. We make sure that what goes right, we continue what goes wrong, we do after action reports and improve those processes. We also want to make sure that during an emergency is not the first time we met the director of this function or that entity. We want to make sure that we know these people and we're all speaking the same language before the emergency occurs. That's why we have the Incident Command training that we do. We also deal with the community for our community emergency response training to make sure the people in the community are the first responders until police fire or we get there, the people that are actually living there are the first responders. So we do several things to make sure our emergency plans and preparedness are up to date. Our plans are updated massively every four years if there's something that changes during the course of that time, we make those changes at that particular time. Next slide, mutual agreement, as you see when Wow got louder. Sorry about that. We have a lot of agreements with our external partners to make sure we can function, just in case something gets beyond the capability of the city of the city itself, we want to make sure we can reach out, just like when we had the flood recently, everybody saw on TV, we would reach out to all our partners from Macomb Wayne, you name it, they showed up with their votes and their facilities and their tools to make sure they assist us. These are agreements that we have with all these external partners all the time, we would do the same for them if they needed us to come and assist them. These agreements are very, very important, and we have several. I just have a couple listed there, and one of my favorite is the Homeland Security Advisory Council that's chaired by myself, the FBI, the state police as well as Detroit police. We have these meetings Quarterly. We started them several years ago, and when I was a police officer, we used to like to say the FBI would take information, but wouldn't share information. Nowadays they're sharing good information across the board. So our private sector really appreciates the information we give them. They can ask questions. We let them know what's going on, and this Homeland Security Advisory Council has been very effective and very useful for all of us, so that nutshell is what we do to make sure that we're prepared and protected from everything we need to be dealing with in our region here. Thank you.
Any questions,
and that concludes our slides and open for questions. Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Clerk. If you please note that we've been joined by member young, Good afternoon, sir. All right, we're going to start with you. Remember? Young,
yeah, and I get to go up sweet um, sir, I just had a question real quick about Homeland Security. There was an incident, I believe it was January. It was Harpo, and basically they had a rock metal band that was playing. But this rock metal band were, like Avid white supremacists and Neo Nazis. I just wanted to know is that being tracked at all? It turns out, do you get updates? I know, I know we were first been right. So it's not you can't stop people from being able to play. And the people that actually were at Harpo that owned that facility didn't know about it, found out about it, and then canceled that event. But I just want to know is that type of stuff tracks what? What are we doing to be able to combat that? Because that's not the first time we've had these type of incidents happen. I think it was in 2019 they also had some white supremacist and marched down Jefferson with arm, not too long ago with firearms, and they were waving them around and yelling racial efforts at people randomly as they were crossing into Hart Plaza. What are we doing to be able to stop that or combat that? What kind of intelligence updates do you get in terms of this type of behavior, and is this something that's pervasive, or are these one off events
through the chair? These tend to be one off events, but they're happening more frequently. As far as information, we have three entities where we get this information from, actually four on a certain basis. The fourth one is the Detroit Crime Commission. They vet a lot of events, but we have a event calendar, and this event calendar tells all the things that have been gone, that have gone through and asked for permits for various events our Detroit C tech counter terrorist threat analysis team, they vet all of these events, events on the daily basis, as well as the deck Detroit, southeastern Michigan information Intelligence Center, as well as the FBI. So I get information from three different entities regarding any event that's coming to Detroit or adjacent to Detroit. If we think it's something going that's going to be adverse or somebody's going to do some degree down here, we make sure that police state, a federal everybody is aware and we're prepared to respond to those those situations in advance. So the intelligence has gotten a lot better. When we started, we didn't have this great system, but I think it was back when Trish Stein was still at DPD, when she asked for intelligence specialists, and we were able to get them. We had five at the time. Now we have 21 just in Detroit alone, that vet events all the time, critical infrastructure and things of that nature. So we try to stay ahead of that, additionally getting information from our federal partners and state partners as well. So, and like you said, the First Amendment says they can do certain things, but that puts us on notice, and we prepared to respond if we have to. Okay,
I'm gonna steal that word. I
really like that, but so we do have, like response teams that are there in case something happens or something goes on. We are on top, top of this as much as you possibly can. Okay, I just want to make sure. And then my second and final question I wanted to ask was about the solar farms in terms of all around the country. Agro vortex is something that's very popular where not only you have solar farms, but you also have agriculture. And I know that we recently just had a Department of Agriculture be added. And I think the reason why that's important is two fronts. One, I think it's important that people be able to farm and grow their own food. But I think secondly, at a time where people are really hurting with inflation, when the cost of eggs, I think, has been up at one point in time the highest it's ever been. You know, a year over year, I think it's important for us to be able to have access to healthy food. Is that part of that strategy, or is that the next step in terms of solar farms? Or are you just trying to establish what we have now, currently, and then you want to move on to that in terms of a partnership with the Department of Agriculture later on down the line, yeah,
through President Pro Tem Tate to member young, absolutely, that's part of the plan, and it is part of sustainability and working together and we let the neighbors decide. So two out of the five have decided that they do want agrivoltaics, so they will be food grown amongst the solar panels. Then I also we've been talking to the director of sustainability and the urban ag director, and talking about, then vacant lot and member Johnson last summer. So we're coming back to this conversation and then do vacant lot of activation around the solar areas and expand that out and do urban farming and do pocket parks and do rain gardens for to help with floods and water mitigation. So it is absolutely part of a concentrated, coordinated plan.
Do we? I know it's not done, but I'm probably doing that the best. But are we? Is there a plan for, like, a feeding program for that? Are we tracking, like, you know, how people are being fed, how many people be is it something that's more designated to that particular area, or is it something you want to do in that particular area at first and then kind of expand it throughout the city, using these places centers for that. I think you kind of combating two things, and combating food insecurity, you're also combating food affordability or the lack thereof.
Absolutely. Yeah, again, through President pro tempore, tempt page, member young we are working on the plans right now and partnering with with farmers, particularly around agrivoltaics And then in their distribution plan. So if you could, we'll come back. I know that you just met with the Urban ag director, and so come back with those plans and what it looks like. So we are working on what the partnerships look like and how to get them then their distribution to the neighborhood, which I know is something that certainly the members that are hosting these dollars have have urged us to do, and so that's what we're working through, and then figure out what what it looks like. So we'll bring those plans back to you.
Thank you. I appreciate you. Look forward to thank you. Thank
you. Member Callaway, no questions, all right, we'll go to member Santiago Romero, thank you, Mr.
President. Through you to the Mayor's office. Thank you all so much for being here, and thank you for the work that everyone is doing to address the flooding that happened in southwest Detroit. My questions are regarding emergency preparedness, so wondering if there are resources that we can set aside to do and I see that we have. I community training opportunities we have the certs. Uh, through this process, I think we all realized how many assets there are in community, community organizations, nonprofits, other businesses. Could we work together once this has all settled to review what's been done, to continue to plan, because I believe that we could easily activate Spanish speakers, volunteers, organizations to come out if this was to happen again, and until we influx money into our into our infrastructure, this could potentially happen again. So wondering if we could pilot this work this out, because this should happen in other places of the city. I already asked our water department director if we can get a map of where else in the city those kind of transmissions are, because that means that people there are at risk. So we should know where, where the risk is for flooding, where the risk is for whatever the case may be, make a plan with community so that we're better able to respond. So wondering if you have resources that we could utilize to begin these plans, and if you can go through this process together once the dust has settled, so that we're able to evaluate what we've done. And how do we how we can better per plan in the future,
I'll jump in through through the chair. Absolutely, we have learned a lot through this process, and the community have been a tremendous help with constant communication your office. We've been on the ground together. The short answer to the partnership is yes, we do need to figure out a way to do that better and make that stronger. And also, I will join homeland after we the dust settles and have a conversation about how this maybe Task Force even looks moving forward. But absolutely, your team and whomever wants to be included will be included, but we've learned a lot in a short period of time. A lot of great things have happened in a short period of time, but also a lot of things we had to learn from at the same time. So short answer is yes.
Thank you. Thank you. Through the Chair,
as I said earlier, that is our natural process. Whenever anything happens, review and an after action report is just you can't it's so valuable as matter of fact, I've already began speaking to your chief of staff, Mr. Day. We're talking about a couple of different things, how to better utilize 365, so we can send out community information immediately. How to get more people registered, how to how our office can spend more time in that area because all of our equipment, our mobile unit, it says Homeland Security, City of Detroit, Homeland Security, but we need to embrace that community, let them know we're there to help. We're not the federal Homeland Security. So we've already talked about how we can make take that information and wrap that around the community, so they'll understand who we are, what we do, and will embrace us, as opposed to being concerned about who we are. So and we've already partnered with you a couple of times for our preparedness fairs down there that we're going to have another one this year as well. So we're totally ready to do that. I think you're 100% right, and after action is always what we want to do, and I'm glad you're open to that. So thank you.
The next set of questions, I will focus on mental health. Thank you so much, Tricia, for the work that you do. I truly appreciate the Collaborate, the collaborative efforts that we have. Wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit around nurse navigation as well. So an additional resource that we approved wondering where we are in the process of establishing that last time we tracked, you were excited, but not sure exactly where we are in the timeline. Of utilizing that, we believe that it can help us create more of a holistic approach of supporting people. So wondering where we are with the nurse navigation program. Yeah,
thank you for the question through the chair to members. Santa garu, this is an added piece that we have been talking about for a while to to have a full spectrum of capacity building, particularly on our 911, communication center, and so be able to have connections to making appointments and having a nurse and being able to do a virtual assessment and having, again, an additional alternative response for folks in need and in crisis. And so while I'm not as intimately involved in the implementation plan, because ours is a functional oversight, and ensure that we are helping with gaps and identifying our resources and getting that, I will work with DPD to get a full implementation plan and figure out what the timing is, but I certainly was involved in evaluating the scope and evaluating putting it out for bid. I was not on the evaluation. I want to be clear about that. But then thank you for the support, and very excited about this resource, and so it will focus on physical health, and then first, and then work in behavioral health as well.
Thank you, and I do hope that we're able to work together with the national organization that we're connected with to help us really share our story, of the work that we have, what we're doing, and all the resources that we are providing Detroiters. I think that's really important. Mr. President, I have one very quick question. I believe we are piloting a compost program, wondering where we are if we are piloting a compost program, I think this might be even just a community led pilots. Would you have any sense of where we are with that? Because we just got trained on on being recycled ambassadors. So want to hear more about where we are with the compost?
Yes? Sure, yeah, through the chair to member sector mayor, we are piloting it, and it is being led by our Director of Urban Ag, and so we were able to get some grant funding to launch that and really see if it is a proof of concept, and figure out how we can roll it out and learn from that. So I would love to connect you directly with them, so you can ask them questions, because they do it every day on a day to day basis. But it is something that we are trying to figure out. Of what it how it fails. As I showed you there, we got more homes recycling now in the city of Detroit, which I think is a process that we can continue to move to. So that's part of the proof of concept for composting. And so in leveraging the grant dollars to figure it out before then we make a more formal request to do that additionally. So more details to
come. Thank you. Just wanted to let the public know as well that we have a pilot program that's exciting. Thank you, Mr. President, thank you. Thank you. Member Johnson,
thank you Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Everyone. Great to see all of you, even the folks in the back that didn't introduce themselves, who we work with, who we work with, more frequently, doing all of the work that you all are leading. I do want to go back to member Santiago Romero's first question, relative to disaster recovery. So we just recently created a task force, a disaster recovery Task Force, co chaired by myself, member waters and Member Santiago Romero. And I appreciate all of the relationships that have been developed. And I'm really trying to pull together a plan on who's on first in City Hall as it relates to addressing disasters, and some of that may already be here, but just based on my external view of what took place in 2021 it kind of looked like everybody was cramming to do the same thing. And so I'd really like to develop a plan that says, okay, the Department of neighborhoods is reaching out to the American Red Cross to get them online. The city council office is reaching out to the community and just giving them an update of what's happening and who to call and whomever is doing whatever. But want to get a better understanding of where all of that stands, just in general, because we can have various types of disasters that happen in the city of Detroit, I think there is a threat for a tornado south of us, maybe southwest clips in Chicago, but a little more south today, If we were to have a hurricane or 10 a tornado, another water disaster. How are we plan to how are we currently planning to respond to that? And really just want to get your buy in and your investment in creating a disaster recovery plan and looking forward to it, helping to guide and direct disaster recovery dollars that come to the city for a particular disaster. So director Ken K can you just kind of speak to that?
Yes, ma'am through the chair. So it's two parts of that. The first part that we deal with initially is the emergency response. The emergency response, it's always incident specific, what the emergency is, whether it's a tornado, whether it's something terrorist attack, whatever that is, we receive this information either through intel that something is potentially happening, or we get it through public safety communication, be it police and or fire, they're directly connected to the Weather Service, National Weather Service, who we work with greatly. So when we get information, something's coming, we start preparing for that right then and there. If it hits, we make sure we send out the code red or the 365 to the departments that need to be notified, whether it's a lot of down wires, power outages, floods, it doesn't matter. So like the response you saw in southwest Detroit, we got boats from everywhere. The first goal is the emergency response and the safety of the people to minimize loss of life, property and data after that is the wraparound, it's the recovery, it's the determination where we have to declare a disaster, local, national, state, presidential, that's when we start the recovery process. We do what's called a damage assessment. We have a large damage assessment team. They do initially, what's called a windshield assessment of the damage, whatever it is, whether it's the flood, whether it's power outages, whatever the case may be, once they do that windshield assessment, we turn that over to the state, and they bring in FEMA, and it kind of just snowballs from there, we'd be more than happy to work with you on some type of disaster recovery, because we don't know what's going to happen with What's going on nowadays. So we should be prepared to do things more locally than reach out. But currently, that is the process to make sure we get people safe first, then we start the wraparound services to make sure we can recover. That's just how the process goes. So I can be I can talk all day about it, because I love this stuff, but that's basically the steps that we follow. And I can be more detailed anytime you want me to be. That's great. Thank you. And
through the Chair, I'll add the after action plan we spoke of will help with that. Who does what right? Does Department of Neighborhood reach out? What does homeland do? So absolutely, we can. We can follow up and start meeting for future plans.
Thank you. I do appreciate that. And I will say director Kincaid, I signed up for alert 365, probably two years ago, and I make sure that it's in our E blast almost every single month, encouraging people to sign up. I did receive the alert when the situation happened in southwest Detroit. So I do see it being used more frequently. I've gotten Be on the lookout for a missing person. So thank you so much for that, and really getting that out to departments for it to be utilized more frequently, for residents throughout the city to be aware of what's going on. And my other question is relative to CBI, so I brought it up with the health department, and we put something into executive session to address it. But I really want to talk about where we are with the sixth group that was no longer funded. There's clearly still a need because of the crime statistics that we see in that area. So are we addressing that at all?
Through the Chair to council member Johnson, yes, ma'am, we are. So currently, and I believe, you know, currently, through the house, this week, we have House Bill, 4601 and 4602
for our
public safety trust fund. And so as we move through that process, that was not us, really, as the state moves through that process, and the House and Senate, those guaranteed dollars will be coming back into the community once that's passed and signed by the governor. But right now, we did, we've gone through and re examined and interviewed future groups right once that plan is passed, Team Pursuit would be the team that would be on the ground in that part of District Four. And so I know that they are working with other groups, right? So I know other groups are in that space, helping to try to pick up the slack until that happens. But once we get this through, I would have to say that next week or the week after, it should be in committee, and they'll start discussing it, but your advocacy will be greatly beneficial for us in Lansing to help move this through. And so we would love your support in those efforts, and definitely we will keep you up to date and let you know when those sessions are being held. So if you want to come in or come up or come in for public comment. We would truly appreciate your help. Okay,
thank you, and I certainly will help to advocate for that. But I also know that we have some dollars, I believe, surplus dollars, that are being earmarked for the current five CVI groups. Why not the six I'm
going to pass that off to my colleague, Miss Andy Taverna, and she can provide some clarity with that as well,
through the chair, through the chair to Councilwoman Johnson. So we operate the CVI program based on the data and outcomes that we see. We measure every quarter the homicides and non fatal shootings within the CBI zones compared to the citywide trend. And what we're looking for, of course, is for the CVI groups to achieve a greater reduction in violence than the citywide trend, to show that the program is effective. On the basis of that data, we opted not to continue the group that was the contract of the group that was originally serving that area as Deputy Mayor Howard indicated we issued an additional Notice of Funding Availability, sought competitive applications for additional CBI groups. We do have one selected who would be ready to serve that area. We feel that it's incredibly important to continue the five existing groups who have their staffs fully built out. They have subcontractors offering specific services. They have relationships that they've established over the last two years in their communities. If we let the funding for those groups lapse after this July, folks would lose their jobs. We would lose everything that we've built to date. So that's why we prioritized continuing with the five existing groups, and then again, as the deputy mayor indicated, really focusing with all of our effort on Lansing so that we can have a long term, permanent, sustainable source of funding to allow us to both continue and expand.
Thank you for that.
Let me share something with you all in this particular area where the sixth group was, we know crime is still happening. I have visited two schools in that area, not high schools, pre K through eight. There was one of the schools in particular was on the news about a month ago. The situation that occurred, it didn't happen in the school. It happened outside of the school, but it was relative to students from the school who then reached out to their siblings from high school, and an incident occurred involving a gun. So the new principal reached out and asked for a team of us to come in to figure out, how do we address this? That is the reason that I'm saying, okay, the sixth CVI group needs to be on the ground in place ASAP, and I'm not sure how quickly the funding is moving within the state, but we need to identify some resources here, just to make sure that the momentum is not lost, to make sure that the community is still supported. The way these the other five areas, are being supported, is drastically important today, yesterday and tomorrow, we've already put it into Executive Session for us to have the conversation about the funding, especially since another group has already been identified. And I do know that there are some individuals that were working with the prior group that are working with the new group that you identified, but I think it's extremely important that they receive the support in order for them to continue providing the work in the community that is so desperately needed in that area.
Through the Chair to council member Johnson, absolutely, we will work with you so once, when all this comes up, when we get to Executive Session, we will make sure that we are working with you diligently to see if we can get this done as quickly as possible. Thank you. And I do understand the concern, so it's but we want to make sure that we are sustained completely and fully through DPD to these groups to provide this ongoing and heightened, right this elevated CVI program, but to your point, I understand your concern, and we will be there to help you.
Thank you. And just a brief comment, the Chair of the Board of police commissioners was there at that meeting, and they actually shared how long it took for DPD to arrive on the scene at that particular situation, so we're working through that with the chief as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Member Johnson, member Durham. Thank you and good afternoon to you all. Don't really have much for you today, but did want to talk about the efficacy of the serve Detroit program, obviously sitting at this table last year, and I'm looking at you, even though you're the chief of staff now, Mr. Solomon, I know moved on to higher, higher levels, but I know you're very involved. We're very involved in that. When we talk about how that has served. What are those numbers looking like this past year? And do we think it's a need to put more funding? I know what's in your recommended budget as Chief of Staff, so I'm not trying to put you between a rock and a hard place, but when we talk about a I know you won't let me. I know, as we talk about just expansion of the program, do we think we have enough funding to be able to expand the program to other ideas, such as, you know, a grass cutting for the summer, and I don't want to say leaf raking, but those are just other services. Let's state that
so through the chair to council member durha, first, I will address the success of the program, and again, thank you to you this honorable body for the funding that was set aside and put into the program for seniors that just don't have the help for shoveling themselves out of a snowstorm Like we had this year, great program. I believe the last time I looked at the numbers, we were up to 150 served the last bad or heavy snow that we had. So it is definitely a need. It is a great program out of the Don's team, Tony Stovall is the one that kind of knows that the intricate numbers, and I would just say, we would just speak to that it is a great program, and it is definitely needed. And you know, our seniors, any type of help that we can lend, we will be there to beef up the program however see fit. But the snow remove has been a great program. We were able to add a two library with the expansion. But, you know, it is a great program, and we look forward to this summer. So with the two library, we'll be able to help those black clubs with associations with two rentals
Through you, Mr. President, I was very smooth my brother, so
make a motion. I
know he was doing this for a while, so I'll make a motion to put into executive session the expansion of the serve Detroit program. But I appreciate that, Mr. Chief of Staff,
appreciate that. My other question kind of just remember, duh, was that emotion? Oh, I'm sorry, yes, I made a motion. Pardon me, Mr. President, no worse, no worries, there's a motion on the floor. Colleagues, any objection Seeing none that action shall be taken. Floor is yours, sir.
Thank you. My other question just kind of revolves around as we talk about sustainability, we talk about the solar program, you know, I have to ask about this, as we look at roll out going into these final few months of this year, because this year is just blowing by. Engagement wise, what are we looking at? Engagement wise, still being to engage some of the other communities relative to solar, to ensure that we are able to fully roll out all phases
through the chair to member der Hall, absolutely, we've had some very good and spirited conversations on this, and we need to continue to lean in. And we are moving forward with the equity fund. That was a commitment that the mayor made. So we have put forward eight properties that folks that were in the areas that did not get chosen but wanted to sell their home, and then there's nine more going up in the near future. So that's one commitment that we made that we need to continue. I think that there's also some lessons learned that we have done through the energy efficiency rollout, that we've learned about the EA EEA initiatives through DTE. This is money that is available to residents who qualify that can get energy efficiency work if they were not chosen as solar. That's something that, as the director, the newly minted director of Department of neighborhoods, and I talked about this week at the solar meetings, to figure out, how do we roll that out and continue to prioritize the areas that were in the finalists, but maybe not in phase one and phase two, and then we got to figure out if and when it makes sense to do a phase three, which is what we've we've talked about in, and figure out the timing. The mayor has said that under his term, he doesn't think that it, it probably will work this year, but hopefully we've set the stage and that it will work in in future terms. But that's something that we need to talk about and figure out what the appetite is and what the timing is.
Thank you. Thank you. Tricia, Miss Stein, and I appreciate your your willingness, your hard work. I know you've been pushing hard on this. Would love to see a phase three for this. With that, I'm going to make make a motion to put into executive session the expansion of a phase three for the solar also add that to the and add that to the closing resolution. And finally, Mr. President, not the motion again. I will make
it happen for you.
There's a motion on the floor, which most you want to do first, because you it sounds like you combined, too, sir. Yeah. So the
first motion is is to put into executive section session the expansion of a phase three for the solar project, Solar Initiative.
All right, there's a motion on the floor. Colleagues, any objections, seeing none and action shall be taken. Member durahall,
thank you. And the next motion is to put into the closing resolution from Council urging the Mayor's office to expand to another to a third phase. All right,
there's another motion on the floor. Colleagues, any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken. Withdrawal. Thank you,
Mr. President. Finally, this is more so of a comment. I do want to give a big shout out to the Dons. You know, I am very fortunate in my district. We have some great dons, Alexia Davis, prior to her, Mona as well as the deputy dons. And I'd be remiss if I didn't say that they work very hard. We see them at every community meeting that we have there. They are the first line of defense. Even working with our offices as my community liaisons, are taking constituent complaints and bringing them back to the departments, but I often think that they will be better served as well as Department of neighborhoods be better served with more staff to have the ability to have a further reach, deeper reach into the community, to be able to help resolve constituent complaints, to be able to help further talk to the departments as well. So Mr. President, I'd also like to make a motion to put into executive session, and we'll get the amount, but I think we're looking at about 1.1 million just to give LPD has to expand the Department of neighborhoods to at least include an extra one, I think it's about 1.5 or one 150,000 I believe it is, or whatever the number is, to expand an additional FTE for the Department of neighborhoods and or the opportunity to expand each district's services.
There's a motion on the floor with discussion member durahat, for sure, looking forward to that robust discussion. Mr. Court, thank
you, Mr. Chair, just to make sure I understand council member Hall, are you saying add one FTE for each district?
Correct? I'm looking to add about one FTE, one FTE per each each district. I think the amount comes up to close to about 1.1 million, particularly as we talk about fringes, because we do have to account for whatever fringes are. And I know to council president pro tems point, we're going to have a further discussion on this. You know, here, just often from this side. But the reason why I said I've been very pointed each year at this council table to expand council's office budget by at least 100,000 to the tune of where we are about 1 million now, because we were a little bit behind, and I'll have resources at some of the other departments, but I do think as we look at constituent services across the city of Detroit, it is my hope that we'll be better served, even in The Department of neighborhoods with that model, just as we used to have neighborhood city halls that were planted in each and every one of the districts in the corner of the city, to be able to expand further reach, I can speak, and I'm not speaking for any other district, but I can speak For my particular dimes who work very hard at times they are working Monday through Sunday, and to be able to lighten that load a little bit, I think, is something that we can do and work more collaboratively with the council office, offices and the community liaisons on constituent related issues, and kind of bridge that gap, because the fact of the matter is, a lot of times folks in those districts don't care if the council members are solving those problems as well as the Department of neighborhoods, they just want them soft. And so we've got to find a way to better connect and close that gap, and I think staffing will help. So that is just my point behind a little bit of commentary, Mr. President, I know when it gets to Executive Session, you are going to have a lot for me on that one, and I look forward to that dialog. Thank you.
Thank you so much. I think I went to you already. Member young, I have not gone yet.
No, I was just going to say I agree with that. No, I
haven't. Oh no, sir, no, sir, not yet, not yet. Haven't opened up the floor yet. Yep. So I just want to make it very clear this, my need and desire for a conversation has nothing to do with my relationship with our dogs. We have great relationship. They do hard work. Do great work. So, but I just think that when we start talking about the makeup of, you know, these departments, the Department of neighborhoods, included in the districts, just need more robust conversation to identify how those dollars are allocated, all across the board. So saying all that to say again, thank you all, and I know we still have to have a conversation about EV as well. In the past, have not had an experience with an EV, but had not the greatest. And I have a hybrid this time this year, plugged it up when those very bitter cold days, the electric part didn't want to shift on at all multiple days, so had to go old school. I was thankful to be able to go old school. But if we're, I mean, we have dove in all the way in, in EV, EV technology, and so I just would like to see if my experience is an anomaly, and speaking with other folks, it doesn't sound like it is. So I'll reserve those questions because we're gonna, I'm gonna actually have a meeting with you, because we're doing emails going back and forth, email responses elicits more questions. So I don't only touch that in this hearing right here. We'll have that offline. We've got a couple of contracts that are coming our way still. But again, thank you for being forthright with the responses. And we're going to dive into that. I've been talking a lot about bright more. This is not my first year talking about bright. About Brighton. Sorry.
President Pro Tem, just not to cut you off really quick. I believe a motion was still on the floor. I didn't want to interrupt you in
the middle. Oh, I'm sorry. It was my turn.
I've been messing up all day. President Pro Tem, please restate your motion, sir, my apologies this. I think the final motion was to because Mr. Corley, we were in discussion. He was just clarifying the amount, but the amount we were the motion was to add to Executive Session $1.1 million of funding for the Department of neighborhoods to expand the number of FTEs, FTEs and services that they have got you
sorry about that executed. There's a motion on the floor. Colleagues, any objections, seeing none, that action shall be taken. All right. So, as mentioned, I've been talking a lot about Brighton. This is not the first year, and we've made some progress over the years. Framework. We've got blight, mediation, mitigation that has taken place over there lots of movement that's happening. And now we have storm water. I mean, there's a lot of things that are happening in bright more excited about it. Still have a long way to go. The challenge that we have, more than anything, I believe, is the financial opportunities that folks have, and the average income in brightmoor is stated to be around $26,000 and that's very difficult for any family to live on. Now people will find themselves in that situation for various reasons, but our job, of course, is to try to lift folks up to the best of our ability, to help lift folks up. I mean, help lift folks up out of that situation. And I believe that this framework is a great opportunity for us to revision what bright more looks like with the community. And we've had these meetings over a series of months, we now have come to getting close to the end where the final draft it will be created as a result of a constituent feedback. My concern is the connectivity, and as I've mentioned in the other hearings, how do we get from framework study slash plan to actual execution and understanding that, I mean, reality is, at least this particular administration will not see the end of this, because this is going to be a multi year process to get us to where we all, as the community and all those who are sitting in this committee of the whole want to be the issues that for me is we've got to start now before we start lifting any dirt, moving any bricks, doing anything to start try to get our residents in the area at a point where they're more resilient to those changes that are going to come. As soon as anything moves, everything goes up, you know, in terms of cost, rent goes up, etc, etc. So I'm looking to see how the Mayor's office, who everyone reports to, is helping to guide the process, and not just leave it to the planning department, not just leave it to these individual departments to kind of do their thing, but in terms of coordinating to ensure that we are ahead of things, because by the time again, once we start moving bricks and coming up with plans, is too late for the folks who live there, and that is a real fear for the residents who live in that sparsely populated community that we all want to see much more densely populated, but done so in a way that is in line with the will desires and needs of the community, balancing that with the will desires and need to have a neighborhood that is thriving more so than it is today. So trying to get some feedback from you all on how the Mayor's office is going to help coordinate, getting this, this plan, the study, from where we are now to actual implementation phase, understanding that we've gotta work on, work with the people, on the people first, before we start Moving anything.
So to I'll go to the chair. I'll start with the opportunity that I hear for workforce development, to go in and do some outreach, job fairs, the amount of training programs that the city has set up that could could make a better financial situation for a household in the area, I would actually reach out to your office department neighborhoods and maybe start that conversation going from planning to implementation. I know the team is meeting two three times a month to figure that out. I would rather get that information from planning and do a more formal docket and have meetings with you to give you a plan on that, but immediate first steps, I do want to start with workforce development to see what programs individuals can get into in that area so we can help them financially. Okay.
Next week we can all get together, absolutely okay, sounds like a plan. It had
to be Monday for me. If that's if that works for you. If not, I have, I have a team, right? I have a team.
We'll get it on the books. We'll figure
it out. We'll make it work. Because, again, this is a long term process that we absolutely have to drag out, because if we do it immediately, there's immediate harm that's going to happen to folks. We've got to be very strategic about it. So thank you for that commitment. The other we got the animal keeping ordinance across the threshold last year after 10 plus years of plugging away at it, as member Benson indicated, sometimes it takes a while, and we finally got it across the threshold. We had a lot of folks who are concerned about chickens, ducks and honeybees overtaking neighborhoods. Haven't seen that yet. Of course, it's winter and seasons are changing, but the bigger concern is that we don't have a fee schedule for animal keeping that has been provided to this body yet. And you know, as we've talked about here, the cost of eggs, the cost of food in general. The whole goal was to ensure that residents had an opportunity to legally be self sustainable. And we keep hearing that phrase. Keep hearing that phrase. The ordinance went into effect January 31 we approved it all the way back last year. We still don't have that fee schedule so that we can allow people to do what many of them were doing before, but want to do legally. How can we speed up this process to, you know,
get this going in earnest.
First of all, Mayor Pro Tem Tate, as you know, I try to take care of business, and when I can, I will let you know immediately. This is the first time hearing of this, so I will find out who at the law department. Now that we're following the ordinance and the resolution, get a fee schedule set up so we can go through public hearing and comment and such, and get it into place. So just, let's say I've taken that on now, and I will follow up and figure it out. I also want to get on your calendar next week so that we can go through the EVS, and then I will have a full report to you when we do. And
I want to make it very clear that you do have some folks who've been working on it. It's just a matter of, got to pull this person together. Got to pull that people. So it's just now we need, we need some finality. That's my job. All right. You're the puller. Pull folks together. Thank you so much. I've got some other questions here. We're going to raise as well via memo. I think member Young had a motion that you had
no I had a question, but I forgot it.
Okay. All right, we want to thank you all for being here. Appreciate the work. And here's the last thing I want to say, colleagues, I think we need to appreciate this moment. This is our as this configuration of Council and Administration our last budget, we've done this. Yeah, yeah, some of us have done it, quite more than others. But for this configuration, this is our last budget, and it is a very important budget, and over the years, at least in this the last four years, because I want to make sure that it be honored this particular session of Council, want to thank you all for the assistance and work that we've all done together. We still got a lot of work to do. Some days we're happy, some days we're not happy at each other, but the ultimate goal is to make sure that we do what we need to do on behalf of the residents of the city. So look forward to looking to working with you further, and getting through this budget, as I would say, smoothly, as we did last year, even despite the challenges that we have in front of us. So thank you. Thank you. Yes, yes. And then also, since I, I'm the chair that chair privileges, want to give a shout out to Alexa Bucha. I didn't, I didn't say that yesterday when she was here, brand new director, and she inherited a lot of the things that we discussed. So I should have acknowledged that yesterday, and I think she did a great job as the director, just coming on board a couple of what months ago, and to take on all of these things, she answered extremely well. It was very clear that she was well versed. So though she's not here today, not my brain wasn't working yesterday, but I thought about it last night, it hit me, but I wanted to give her a shout out publicly for the work that she has has done. Alright, thank you so much. Alright, we shall now open up for public comment. If there's anyone from the public would like to speak, please raise your hand now, going once, going twice, going three times the collection of public comments, if now concluded, Alright, is there anyone from the public in the Committee of the Whole who would like to speak? I didn't see any hands. Alright, we're going to go online. Alright. How many callers do we have? Sir,
good afternoon, Mr. President. There are five colors with her hands raised for public comment. And the first caller, we see you,
alright, we're going to give everyone one minute for public comments. One minute for public comments during this am period. Let's get that clock up. Alright. Caller, the floor is yours. We have a one minute
Good morning and through the chair. Carolyn Hughes, for this public hearing, may I be heard
Good afternoon. You are. You can be heard for this budget hearing, not public hearing.
Well, it's a public budget hearing. We don't care what the definition what you're talking about. It's a public hearing. Mr. Whitaker, I you guys, we have a right to ask questions of the people who we pay, and this is the time for us to ask questions of those people. The health department, they're all in on violence and public health, but how about the sexual health of the people in the city, we have the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases. She never talked about that. Measles is on the rise. She never talked about that. You know, you know what the gentleman who said all these inter departmental people were coming together, let me tell you. Reagan said the most terrifying thing that people can hear is your government is here to help. I believe it
glad we were glad we're quoting Reagan
member durha. Thank you, Mr. President. Just before we proceed, I do want to state this for the record we talk about this budget hearing, by the way, is not we're not doing the public hearing on the budget. And the complaints that we hear is that there are no opportunities for folks to ask questions, but then when we open it up, all we do is slam on what the administration is not doing, what Council is not doing, what the city is not doing, and the opportunity to weigh in and give your thoughts pertaining to that budget. We utilize that time to just do the same thing that we do during general public comment. So I just wanted to state that's an example of that, where, if you want to see and participate in the budget and have you know ideas and saying, Hey, maybe this should be in the budget. Maybe this department should do well, or you want to ask specifics about the budget. The time of public comment is being burned up by but by criticism. So I did. I just wanted to put that on the record. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank
you so much. Next Caller, please.
The next caller is Cindy Dara.
Cindy Dara, the floor. Yeah, I think
that petitions are due, and I heard in April, if you want to run for council or mayor, and I'd like Carolyn Hughes to run for council, I don't know, Carolyn, What? What? I don't know what district you're in, or maybe you could run for mayor. I'm not sure, but, and I I tell you, for I think it's insulting when people that come before you and then you for your public hearing and they leave because they don't care about what we have to say. They're not there to even hear the public. That's ridiculous, ridiculous to me. And I, you know, I I'm not satisfied with the people so far. The person I'd like for mayor is Calloway. She's the only one that seems to really meet my values. And it's really absurd that freedom of speech.
Thank you so much. And will the clerk know that we have lost the quorum as a result of member Callaway leaving? I tried to ask if she was coming back, so I don't know. I don't know. Hopefully she will, but we've lost the quorum. Which will she was going to the restroom? I heard that, but I asked the question, are you coming back? And I was ignored. So, you can't deliberate correct that would that would prevent us from having the next public hearing, which starts at one o'clock so we can listen to public comments right now. Next Caller, please.
The next caller is Mr. Ronald Foster. Ronald
Foster is yours. Good afternoon.
Running a little late. Birthday weekend, so enjoying that. But I did want to say I watched the health department. I want to say that I agree that she's been doing a much better job these last couple of years, but I think as a community, we have to limit some of this criticism and try to find common grounds during this transition. You know, everybody have new positions and new things now, and we just have to focus on, how can we work on getting the best things for our community and uplifting our community? They say best part of waking up just fold just in your cup. Well, I don't drink coffee often, but when I do, it's black, very little sugar and cream in there. And so I like the direction that we're going, but we have to hold black people accountable as well, not just put them in positions of authority, but starting fresh from where we at today. We have to have accountability across the board. Good, but
thank you so much, Mr. Clerk, if you can, please note that we've been rejoined by member young, which allows us to continue and move forward. Thank you. Next Caller, please.
The next caller is not Karen, alright.
Caller, the floor is yours. You have a minute? General public comment,
hello, hello. Yeah, thanks for the 60 seconds. I agree with Cindy and Carolyn Hughes, would be an absolute candidate to assume a position of in a position to help the public and maybe even listen and allow actual inner, you know, interactions. Because from where we sit, you know, we we seem to be distanced, seemingly purposely distanced, from having an opportunity to express whatever our views are. And we have that, we have that right to express our views if you don't like it, that's fine, too, but you have to get a tougher skin when you're in a public position. You know, I'm a 30 year studio Detroit retiree. I worked and retired after almost 30 years. But, and we have a lot of ideas. Past retiree employees have a lot of ideas, but you guys seem bent on, you know, shaping the way you seem fit, and that's fine. Thanks for the 60 seconds. You're welcome.
Get those petitions ready. You got some support. Next Caller, please.
Last caller on the Zoom is Betty a Varner,
miss. Betty a Varner, the floor is yours. You have a minute general public comment?
Good afternoon. Betty a barn, the president of DeSoto black Association advocating for the senior accessibility program. We are still in need of those walk in showers. It is very dangerous for seniors trying to get in these traditional bathtubs, and also for the Detroit accessibility program that services needed. Also, we need work done on the outside of our homes, our sidewalks, etc, uh, proper lighting to keep us safe. Also, the work that can be done on the inside of the homes. And in regards to, I think it's the handrails or whatever they were speaking on with the bathroom. Those self adhesive ones are dangerous. We need the ones that are screwed into the wall because I've had them in my home and the things have just fell off by the self and that can be very dangerous for a senior. Thank you for this.
Thank you so much. Miss Varner, Alright, the next caller, please.
Mr. President, that was the last that's
what I thought. Thank you so much. Ari, Alright, so we've reached the one o'clock hour, and I know that we do have media services that are here before us today. Colleagues don't know if there was a desire, because I believe that there was a desire for a break, but there's also a desire to move forward. So as the Chair, I'm going to open it up and see what direction we would like to go in short break or push through Mister Chair. Yes, ma'am, I
think a short break would be prudent for us to grab lunch. Let's take a break.
Okay? Is that the will of the body?
Alright? What time would we like to come back? We want to make sure we honor their time as well. They they're here at one o'clock. Is the hearing determined it was going. We determined in advance it was going to be. This is part of the challenge that we have with having public comment, stack, stack, stack, and we get even worse if we were to do that after every hearing. I think this is a perfect example of why we should bifurcate the public comment so colleagues, how does if, if that, if the will of the body is to recess a 30 minute recess member.
Remember, Dr Hall,
thank you, Mr. Chair. And I know it is up to us and the will of us, just want to double check with them if we possibly could. I know, again, that's that's up to us with our hearing, but want to make sure that you know, since they're here with 130 hindered anything that they have gone. Remember, Vice Chair. I mean, remember, young, remember, Young.
