Detroit City Council Formal Session (missed last 30 min)

    5:48PM Feb 25, 2025

    Speakers:

    Keywords:

    Detroit City Council

    reparations task force

    ballot initiative

    historical harms

    affordable housing

    homelessness

    property taxes

    public comment

    community land trust

    solar initiative

    legal scrutiny

    economic development

    transit justice

    public safety

    budget season.

    Detroit City Council

    child poverty

    homelessness

    reparations

    environmental justice

    immigration visas

    civil engineers

    Board of Review

    audio-video services

    property tax reform

    media services

    contract approval

    public comment

    city funding

    economic impact.

    Plan B

    contract approval

    digital operations

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    staff work-life balance

    sole source contracting

    local participation

    economic development

    Board of Review

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    DDOT partnership.

    Pastor Gomez, online. Paris, you

    needed something, Madam Clerk, I just wanted Paris, we need a copy of the ballot as well. She means the ballot. Paris, yeah, a copy.

    Alright. Good morning, everyone. We will call to order the formal session for this morning. Tuesday, February the 11th. No Excuse me. Tuesday February the 25th

    on way back, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Council member Scott Benson. Scott Benson, I

    council member Fred duha, the third council

    member Letitia Johnson, present

    council member Gabriel Santiago Romero,

    Council Member Mary Walters, present

    Councilman Angela Whitfield Callaway,

    Council Member Coleman Young, the second here,

    council president for Tim James Tate

    and council president, Mary Sheffield, present. We have a quorum. President, Madam. President, okay, there being a quorum present. We are in session. We will start off as always, with our invocation. This morning, we have joining us, Pastor Smith of promise, land ministries, joining us virtually.

    Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Good morning. Good morning. How are you good? Thank you.

    First of all, I want to say thank you, Madam President, for inviting me to be with you this morning. And then secondly, I want to thank the rest of the council members for restoring the pride in our city and for your outstanding leadership over our city. And for all this, I say to each of you, well done. Let us pray gracious and Eternal Father. Lord, take us out of these limitations of our natural physical bodies of flesh and blood, and Lord, bring us into the I am of God, where all things are possible and where there is an extreme understanding of your divine will and your Divine Presence, Lord, we are Your servants. So we pray this morning that you'll fill our minds with your thoughts, that you'll fill our souls with your desires, and that you'll fill our hearts with your divine will. Lord, you said in your word, ask and you'll receive, seek, you'll find knock and doors will be open unto you. You said, everyone who asks receives. So, Father, it's in the name of Jesus Christ. They were asking you this morning that you will fill our hearts with an uncompromising spirit of oneness, where we can work together with a passion to not rest until every inch of our city has become productive and profitable and to not rest, until our city has become the safest city on this planet for our seniors and for our children and Father, we pray that you'll let us not rest until every citizen, both male and female, can share equally in our city's prosperity, financial success and the business opportunities, all this we ask in Jesus name and every heart said, Amen.

    Amen. Alright. Thank you so much, Pastor Smith for that invocation and looking to see you soon, sir. Have a blessed day, and thank you for joining. All right, we will proceed with our first presentation, or only presentation for this morning, we have an update from the Detroit reparations Task Force. And those who are here who would like to come and speak and represent the task force, please join us at the table. Think we have Jack Ford and Chica who will be speaking on behalf of the Detroit reparations Task Force

    didn't come up in okay. Good morning. Good morning to this Detroit City Council. Thank you for having us. I'll say I'm not. TK, he's sitting behind me, but we are coming today to give you a presentation and update on the Detroit reparations Task Force, since we were in panel now nearly two years ago, and we wanted to give you an update on our work and hopefully provide you some answers, question answers and questions. But the purpose here is to provide the updates on the progress of our task force and give you an idea of what's to come and a recap of the vital work that's been done in the last last year, specifically the ballot initiative that was placed on the presented before Detroit voters was inspired by the works of such a Joanne Watson, who unfortunately passed away, but we miss her dearly. John Conyers reparations, Ray Jenkins and Keith Williams, the votes from the 21 ballot initiative passed with an overwhelming support of 80% during that particular election. And Detroit is the only city in the country that has a mandate from the people for reparations through a ballot initiative. Again, we were seated in February of 2023 our work has been arduous in having to vet out what was important and get the input from Detroit voters. We've had a few obstacles in terms of hiring staff and getting our infrastructure together. We were somewhat set behind with the passing of Mother Joanne Watson, but after a few member changes, we have jailed and have really gotten into our work. We welcomed in our Executive Director, our project manager, Mr. Evan Daughtery, and have opened up office space. The new members of our task force have been fully seated, and we are now at the original number that the task force intended, of 13,

    now referred to. Yes,

    good morning. I'm Yolanda Jack. Thank you very much, Doctor Robinson, some of the key points that we can speak to in terms of the work that we've done. We have a office and meeting space at the cast comments in Midtown, and the office is at 4605 Cass Avenue, right near Wayne State campus. The office hours we meet there, the office hours at the building is Tuesday and Thursday, from noon to five, and people can come with any requests or concerns as it relates to getting in contact with Us Weekly. We meet in person for two hours on Tuesday evenings. The DTRF has weekly meetings, as I say, every Tuesday to work on the report and to frequently and to frequently, have hosts, host guests that come in with relevant expertise. We have monthly, quarterly Saturday work sessions to finalize the recommendations and our outline for the report. And in addition, in April and May the DTR of last year, continue working on the connections through expertise of partnerships, university partnerships, and subject matter experts, including the black bottom archives and oral histories. In collaboration with Allied Media, the April session featured black historian Marcia black on the black bottom neighborhood. And we have related a relationship with Columbia University, which created of document which harms, report which addressed this, racial inequities, inequalities in America. United Nations, Sustainable Development Goals, audit of the US black communities report in Detroit, Michigan, there are, there were a lot of deficiencies that were discovered in terms of historical deficiencies, as well as how they have been maintained over the decades, and in some cases, the centuries of the institution of the city of Detroit, the U of M harms report has also was created and completed in 2024 and there was another resort, which was another research partner for the DTRF. And we continued having weekly meetings with U of M research and to discuss the issues of housing policy, policing, quality of life, education, economic development, and both the Columbia and University of Michigan harms reports were presented publicly at our meetings and distributed.

    Given the time frame for the presentation, we have provided the city council with a full report that has additional information, but at this time, I think we'll stop for any questions you may have or information, additional information you may need. Okay,

    all right. Thank you so much. And I just wanted to publicly thank all of the members of the reparations Task Force. I know that things did not start off at the pace in direction. I think we all want it, but nonetheless, we are here today, and we have a committed body of individuals who are serving Detroit no pay, just because they believe in reparations and they believe in what the voters voted for, which was for us to have a committee to address the issue of reparations. So I just want to publicly thank you all for your dedication and your service to upholding this task force and continuing the work. Can you talk a little bit about just maybe some of the overall kind of recommendations maybe that you've been hearing, I know the report isn't done yet, but maybe what has been the majority of kind of the consensus and or constant theme that you've been hearing from input meetings from residents around what Detroiters are interested in seeing as it relates to reparations, our

    initial goals were to identify the harms, to get an accurate historical account of harms that have been suffered by black people during their citizenship in the city of Detroit. And so to that end, we've been honing and focusing on those issues that both have historical value but also contemporarily can provide a bridge for there to be understanding and future support for any recommendations that we might put forth in these changing political and economic times. It has been somewhat of a challenge for the task force to not just come up with a recommendation, but the general consensus is that voters wanted to see something in the not too distant future, but with all the different changes and political maneuvering that's going on initiatives that legislative work that's being done to prevent future reparations. We're still working with the University of Michigan in particular, to try and just identify some initiatives that can be put within the purview of Detroit City Council and not necessarily rely on, I guess, approval or consensus from outside bodies. But again, the landscape is just changing so rapidly, which is why we're trying to bring the work forward. And I don't know if I mentioned earlier, but given the work and the arduous nature of it, we are going to be asking for an extension for the delivery of the report to be June of 2025 we have brought on board attorney Desiree Ferguson, who is a noted civil rights and affirmative Action attorney. Work with various organizations, namely the national, National Association of Black lawyers, that's it, right? So we've engaged her work, and we will also we're working on establishing a relationship with economic consultant Julianne Malvo to again, help us vet through some of the numbers and economics of what reparations would look like in the blackest city in the United States. Thank

    you for that. And then I see Edith Ford just joined us as well. Hi, I just wanted to just make sure your microphone is on. Let's press the bottom of it should turn green. Hi,

    I'm Edith Ford. I'm from district five, and I just wanted to mention some of the things our our neighbors and residents have asked for one cash reparations, monies for businesses, training for businesses, and changes and review of cities policies and laws to assure that they are

    equitable. Okay, thank you for that. Oh,

    and housing. One last thing, affordable housing. Yep, definitely.

    Okay. And then, can you just speak to Mr. Robinson about any correlation, any collaboration, I should say, with i 375 I know that the reparations task force comes up a lot when we talk about the reconfiguration of i 375, and the harm that was done there, and possible opportunity for reparations, I guess, in that, in that project. So if you can briefly mention that as well, we

    are we looked at that, and there was a lot of discussion in terms of the work that was done towards understanding the potential harms that are upcoming for the rebuilding, etc, of 375 we also want to look at what happened decades ago in terms of the what created 375 how they destroyed black bottom. So it was not only the creation of 375 but the what happened to break up those neighborhoods that were there prior to the establishment of 375 so we're looking to see what work will be done. Will there be any remuneration? Will there be any restoration of ownership of land? What kind of works will be done in terms of that? So this some of research and questions that we have regarding that and the the citizenry was very clear that they want to understand what will be done, what specifics will be done in terms of remuneration, in terms of restoration of ownership, or anything from that level, right?

    Thank you all right. Any questions or comments from any of my colleagues, Council Member young

    Thank you. Good to see you morning, Rob dad, good to see you guys. I just want to ask you just a couple of quick basic questions. I just wanted to ask you one, from my understanding, from 1900 to 1929 there was a process called White capping. It took place in the Midwest, and basically what happened is you would have people who would come in and they would kill Black people, they would Lynch them, and then take their land. That's part of the reason why black people went from, I think, a 13% ownership in farmland to about 2% now, maybe 1% maybe a little bit less than that. Has there been a discussion about that at all in terms of that process in Michigan or and how that, you know, correlates to the city of Detroit, and how you would address that at

    all, not specifically that particular not specifically that particular activity so much as it relates to the overall losing of home ownership, land ownership, the ways that it was taking up, not necessarily the specific ways, but all of the ways, generically. And then think about how we can have a overarching plan to think about redistributing ownership and profits that came from those lands,

    and within that same context, the systematic racism that has existed within local and state legislation, it also makes it difficult to vet out and identify as a harm. And you have to sort of look at it from the reverse if we the harms that we include in our recommendations, of course, will be under public and legal scrutiny, and so when we identifying harms like the distribution of land, a lot of that process was legally done. Land covenants, for example, were legal in the state of Michigan until 1977 I mean, so identifying specific harm, and then I guess presenting it from a lens of harms to a particular group, group identification of harms and benefits that's going to be remain still a difficult part of Our work and framing and articulating in such a way that we specify and stay within the bounds of the definition for reparations. Is

    that just public policy, or is that also Supreme Court decisions as well?

    It's both, I know it's really enshrined in both back

    then, and is it also because of the students prepare a missions exactly.

    I mean, now, yeah, there's still remnants of that in the Michigan Constitution as well as the United States Constitution. Of course, a lot of information we found falls under state sovereignty, so in many respects, some of these Supreme Court rulings don't necessarily apply unless they've been specifically highlighted and ruled on. State law stands, but that's still somewhat of the work we have to get into and will be included in the final report.

    Did was there has also been, has there been a discussion about a genocide? Because my understanding, there is no statute limitations on genocide. And I think that white capping was part of it. I think make sure I get the numbers right. But I think if you're talking about the trans landed slave trade, is about 50 million to two 50 million that were killed you're talking about America is about 3 million on the low, 20,000,020 5 million on the high. So depending on what analysis you look, has that been part of your analysis overall, in terms of, you know, white capping, and has that something that's been looked at throughout the city of Detroit? Because you can see that because one of the first slave uprisings happened here in 1833 with the thorn and Lucy Blackburn. And then you could go to 1943 with the with the uprising there, to 1967 which is police brutality. We all know policing derived out of slave catching. So I just want to, has that been part of that analysis, all to kind of get around the legal struggles or issues that you would have at all? Um, well, the the that's setting up. That's setting a really high a new president. You know, never in the history before we've ever had someone who was not who was denied compensation. Did experience the genocide? Yeah, you haven't applied that to any other group of people. We've

    looked at various instances and applications for the overall institution of slavery. But that's another subject matter that is intertwined in legal precedent and legalities here in the state of Michigan. But To that end, we also, as I said earlier, we're trying to make identify historical harms that have contemporary relevance and can be added into the equation of reparations in the 21st century. I mean, so you know which particular instances of slavery we're looking at, and how we connect that to harms that are still going on. And another task of, yes, yes, sir, yes, sir, and then the 14th Amendment to the equal protection under the law. There's still a lot of contradictions that exist to this day with the application of law. But again, to that end, we're trying to make sure that we keep it with just, not with just in the definition of reparations, but that we also again, keep it within the purview of something actionable for the Detroit City Council and the voters to agree to go ahead. Miss Ford, yes,

    I don't know about white capping of farms in Detroit. But one thing that I am very familiar with that happened in Detroit was covenant deeds. For example, my family came here in 1917 the house my grandmother bought when they moved, were trying to move out the black bottom. She had to pass for white and take her white father with her, and I have the covenant deed at home and several others that I have helped trying to open businesses on Mac Avenue. It says that those buildings or those houses could not be sold to whites. Also, when blacks start moving in the neighborhood, they were attacked. And one example we're all familiar with is Osana sweet on garland. So I'm sure there are many incidents of that. I know when my grandmother started moving in, my grandfather's chocolate brown so when he moved in, when they moved in, they were attacked, and she had to call her father to come out there and squash that. So I'm sure it's plenty incidents probably not recorded, because, of course, the police wouldn't have done that, but people had violence placed upon them when they were trying to move and just leave.

    God, I think he was no thank you. I think it was the I think it was the actual case that invalidated that. It started here. It was the sipes decision. I think that famous decision, if I'm not mistaken, those two cases kind of got merged into one. So I understand what you're saying. I also just want to ask you, I'm assuming you also gleaned from what other cities have done, Sacramento and Evanston, in terms of what they have done in terms of implementing reparations. And I just wanted to ask you, Are there anything, or is this going to be anything similar to that? Or do you think this would be something that would be a departure,

    as I said earlier, the Detroit initiative is unique because it's the only one in the country that's been derived from a ballot initiative. A lot of the other reparations proposals have been generated from state legislations and other grant monies, etc. And I think it's also worth noting that, if I'm not mistaken, the majority of them are in I've been caught up in court litigation and been challenged on a number of level, group identity and providing race specific recommendations or reparations has become a big issue now, and now we have the federal government being the biggest opponent to such, but we are watching, and you know, in some of our public sessions, we've had to inform voters or community members that there's, there's been some distribution, like in Evanston, Illinois, but right after that first cycle, they were caught up in they've been in court and litigation. So we are trying to, again present recommendations to this city council that will hopefully have little legal scrutiny in terms of its application and beginning, but again, just Detroit on face and the perception of benefit and group group gain of economics, that's going to be something that in this political environment we're trying to navigate and Be aware of as we make recommendations

    to the voters, Judicial Watch.

    That is my last question.

    I just wanted to ask

    you, um, reparations based on race, reparations based on lineage, or reparation based on historical event. Yes,

    there's been discussion about all of those, and how people are able to qualify what those requirements are. There's been a considerable amount of discussion that's still being that's still ongoing. We're because, no because we want to make certain that they passed the threshold of being able to go beyond being something that's ethnicity based or something like that. So we really want to be mindful of not only how we are impacting those who are able to qualify for reparations, but moving forward, those who will benefit, in addition to those who qualify for past harms. I think

    that might be a lineage based might be a way to get around the racial aspect. These

    are one of the concerns as well. So we, we've been these are the things that we've been looking at, the fact that you have an opportunity to do use one particular criteria, but then there those that particular criteria brings up its own other limitations. So we're being very mindful and considerative of all of the ways that members of our community can qualify for reparations, be able to receive, and then how they're implemented that might only, not only benefit individuals or specific families, but might be something that might be beneficial for the city or for citizenry at

    large. Yeah, trace the DNA right side with census form you don't use 1870 but we've asked me to say, Miss Jack, thank you so much. I appreciate your service. Miss Robinson, thank you, that is all. Thank you for your service on the reparation Task Force. That's all my questions. Thank you, Madam President. On behalf of President, Council Member, Thank you.

    Member, Calloway, thank you so much, Madam Chair, good afternoon, everyone. I haven't I have had the opportunity to attend quite a few of your meetings, and I've been east, and we've come back west. So I want to thank you for your service, your dedication and your commitment, and you know, hasn't been easy, but you have weathered the storm, very proud of the work that you're doing and you're continuing to do. I want to hear more about the model city, Evanston, Illinois. I keep reading about that, I keep hearing about what they've accomplished, and whether or not that is one of our goals coming from your your reports. And then we talk about often restrictive covenants indeed. That's what they're called. They're called restrictive covenants indeed. And we don't have to go far. We know for a fact here on right around cherry long Mendota area and West Eight Mile Road in district two is called the Burwood wall, and some black folks call it the Wailing Wall. It was erected in 1941 to separate the black community from the white community, not for black people to get mortgages, for the white people to get mortgages, right? So you put a wall up and you say it's a different community, and that's why that wall was erected so the white folks could get easy access to mortgages, so they wouldn't be considered living in a black neighborhood. So I would invite everyone to go over to the Burwood wall, just take a look at it. It's still there. Has a beautiful mural, and now has a historic marker from the state of Michigan installed on the property, but I would invite everyone to go over there, just take a look at it. And it might make you weak just knowing the length, the length people would go to to not be living around certain individuals, which is horrible. And then we also know brings this to mind on the corner of John R and brush, there's a home there. It's owned by the Detroit association of colored women's clubs, and they had to close the front door and open up the side of the house because white black folks were not allowed to even walk down ferry Street. Not so long ago, Ferry Street, black folks were not allowed to walk down ferry Street. Now, imagine that. Imagine that. So now that's the only house in Detroit that I'm aware of that has two addresses, 5461, brush and 421, Ferry all because of what?

    Racism? Yes,

    ma'am. To

    that point city to the point city council member, there's a wall that still has property value significance that runs through district two and separates Sherwood Forest and Palmer Woods still has a significant change in how some of the houses are valued in Palmer woods, as opposed to Sherwood Forest. So some of those walls are still up and then have significance in identifying property lines or subdivision lines in district two. And

    another discriminatory practice is a zip code. A zip code doesn't have to be a physical wall. Dr Robertson, that I just mentioned, it's a zip code, and we do it right here in our city. We do it so I'm proud of the work that you're doing. I'm looking forward to reading your report, looking forward to attending your meetings, and also when you come back before the council, I think in June, if I'm not mistaken, but continue to good work. Continue to good fight. It's not always easy, but it's worth it. God bless each and every one of you, and thank you again for your work.

    Alright, thank you so much.

    Madam President.

    Madam President, this is Pastor Smith,

    am I? Am I allowed to ask any questions? Oh,

    no, Pastor Smith, I'm sorry. I unfortunately, you can't

    during public comment, you can speak.

    I'm sorry you said, Well, glad you're still listening

    and you're engaged throughout the meeting, but Yeah, unfortunately we can. We not allow for you to speak at this time, but you can definitely speak during public comment, which we're going to go to uh, shortly. Okay, thanks. Okay, thanks. Pastor Smith, Edith for it. Yes,

    I wanted to add some information. I had the opportunity to go to the national reparations symposium, national and local reparations symposium in Evanston, and it was, it was wonderful, the work that they've done. But we're Detroit, and I think we can do more one of one of the things I learned is that

    to to make our report

    more solidly legal, it's important that We have lawyers, sociologists and an economic, economic person in part of writing our paper to show the legal harm that was presented to the group, and yes, we're going to go to court. I can't name, I can't recall a time in history when we were fighting for our freedom and we didn't have to go to court. But guess what? The ancestors built us for that, and and we're going to we're going to go through that, and we're going to get was what is due us, so we can't be afraid of that. No matter what we do, they're going to send us to court Detroit. Yeah, the black is one of the blackest cities in this country. We're going to court, but we ready, because we got young, brilliant black lawyers that's going to be standing up for us and the people. And one thing one of the lawyers mentioned in his speech is that reparations are not going to be achieved slowly, with legislation, is going to be people out in the streets with a massive movement like the civil rights movement or bigger, and us as our grassroots that's what we're working on. That's our part.

    Thank you so much. Council member Johnson, thank

    you, Madam President. Thank you all so much for the work that you've done and the continuation of the work that you all are doing. I'm curious to know if you all have evaluated the impact of territorial ratings on redlining or gentrification in the city of Detroit, so maybe three, four years now, when the state changed the way that auto insurance is is calculated and factored in and created these territorial ratings, as opposed to zip codes,

    that is, information that was has been highlighted in the report from the University of Michigan, not only did they include information on the territorial ratings, but the impact of the city's bankruptcy and emergency management and the the intersection of the city's bankruptcy in conjunction with the school districts bankruptcy, all that has had economic and social ripples in terms of harms, and a large part, which is often not thought of, is the education of the electorate and making decisions, both electoral and financial, that are in their best interest. People have to be informed the vote is powerful, but it's most powerful when it's informed. And so the University of Michigan included some of the information, not on the ratings, but how the school district and property values, and our ability to, I'm sorry, where to jump out my head, but our ability to maintain a quality education in making those decisions, financial literacy, etc, so, but to you, in broader respect to your question, yes, that information is there. Will it be specifically included in a recommendation? We're not at that point yet, but that information, University of Michigan was very detailed in giving us information for consideration as we come up with the rubric for what our recommendations will address, and

    both of the harms reports, in addition to the slide presentation that's here, will be submitted to the council, the body of the Council for reference as well. Excellent.

    Thank you. And I know you all have had a fair amount of discussion about community land trust. We're in the process of working on drafting an ordinance relative to supporting community land trust, so I'd love to have a direct conversation with you all to help shape what that ordinance looks like. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, right.

    Thank you so much. And I do see other members of the reparation task force. If you all just want to stand I saw Keith Williams here. I know Chica. Is there anyone else here? Want to make sure we recognize everyone. Thank you all again for your service as well to the task force. The resolution to extend the task force is line item 23.54, so that will be referred to the committee to take up, and we'll take that up next Tuesday. Okay,

    I just wanted to highlight that we, although we have requested a extension until June, that we have not requested a financial extension, we are fiscally responsible, and we really want to maintain our behavior in that regard, and we're going to move forward so that we keep ourselves within the discipline of our work and our our purview.

    Thank you. Well, thank you so much for this presentation, looking forward to the continued work and also the recommendations. So thank you all for being here. Thank you

    for having us. Very much.

    All right. And if the clerk would know, member durha, Member Santiago Romero in President Pro Temp Tate are all present? No. The Journal of the session of Tuesday, February the 11th, will be approved. There being no reconsiderations or unfinished business. We will proceed to the budget, Finance and Audit standing committee,

    President, various

    item, oh, there was a reconsideration. Sorry about that.

    Under reconsiderations,

    Council Member Johnson a motion to reconsider item 3.1

    3.1 which should be at the top of the agenda, the first item, 3.1 8.1 all right under reconsiderations council member Johnson, thank

    you, Madam President, to all of my colleagues and everyone listening. This is the Jefferson Chalmers $1 million grant I realized that we had not received the updated amendment relative to the use or how the funds would be utilized, and just wanted to get an update from the administration. I have not received anything via an email, and just want to understand where we are at this point. All

    right, Mr. Washington,

    good morning. Madam Chair and committee,

    I believe director Perkins had sent the amended version, but I would need to follow up if there was an additional request following what was emailed to council member Johnson, Madam

    President, through you to Mr. Washington, my most recent communication was with Chief razzo, and I believe there was supposed to be an update to the language that was sent to me. So I'm not sure where that stands.

    Understood through the chair.

    If we could revisit this later in the committee, I'll reach out to Mr. Razzle now just to see where we are with it.

    Okay, all right, so we will skip over the reconsiderations for now, come back to them. Excuse me, yes, come back to them and proceed back to our referrals. So for the budget Finance and Audit standing committee, four reports from various C departments. The four reports will be referred to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations, standing committee submittal of four memorandums. The four reports will be referred to the internal operations, standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee

    a report from Mayor's office. The one

    report will be referred to the neighborhood and community services, standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development. Committee, eight reports from various city departments. The eight reports will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety, standing committee, 11 reports from various city departments. The 11 reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee. We will now move to the voting action matters. Under other matters, there are no items by the President. Under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies,

    there are no items by the President. Okay, we will

    call for our general public comment, and everyone will have a minute and a half for public comment, and we will start with you. Mister Cunningham, good

    morning. Everyone on the sound of my voice, 313444911431344491143134449114,

    that number was made so you can remember it and on Facebook, not enemy. Again on Facebook, not enemy. Two words, not enemy. Want to thank this morning, Councilman Benson for donating some hand warmers. I appreciate you, sir, and Miss Sabatini and the honorable Coleman Young's office has some hats for me, male and female, because I give out hand warmers, gloves, bus tickets and hats. I want to thank each and every council person that has assist from bus tickets from the council president's office to help with bus tickets from Councilman durha, just every council person. Thank you so much, everybody. I appreciate it. The people are really, really appreciative of that. Also, bus tickets is about to get warm. I'm in need of bus tickets always. If anybody can donate anything to get bus tickets, 313449114,

    and there is a double D dot

    Town Hall coming up this week. So when you Google it, put in d dot, Double D dot Town Hall, and you will see that, and you can register for that town hall. Thank you for your time. Take care, everybody.

    Thank you as well. Mr. Cunningham, oh, you get a minute and a half today. Can you guys hear me? Yes. Go right ahead. Miss Williams, hello,

    everyone. Um, I've been speaking about the homeless conditions in the city of Detroit. Like I stated before, it's a 26 shelters in the city of Detroit. And Madam President, you've spoken several times that Detroit officers are not in these facilities, and I do not agree with you on that. Some of them are officers and some of them are becoming officers. And maybe if they were not in the facilities, that woman wouldn't have lost her kids because she would been able to get a referral through Kim. That's not acceptable. We cannot bring her kids back. Two young black kids died because of the illegal corruption of the system filling us and this is not acceptable in anyone I've been complaining over 10 months. Check my reports at OCI. Charnita Williams been complaining about officers in these facilities for over 10 months, and apparently you all are making backdoor deals, because you keep telling me there's no police officers in these facilities now. Who's paying for the helicopters to fly over my facilities? When these officers come in and out for their safeties and then they have weapons in these facilities that's illegal, and what they doing is committing fraud. It's not acceptable. They are in these facilities. They can live in there for two years, and then they have other facilities they can move into and stay for one another year when they second this type of money. That's not acceptable either. Thank you very Tanya.

    A email, and I'm thinking

    we're getting feedback on the Zoom. The memo

    was just, I'm just saying, but he's like, wanting it right the second. But what I'm saying is

    that's who, Miss Barclay. Miss Barclay, if we can hear you,

    she's been muted. Okay, thank you. And then just also wanted to mention to Miss Williams, we will be hosting the affordable housing and homelessness Task Force. Will be having a town hall at the Detroit rescue mission on Wednesday, March the 24th excuse me, on March the 24th which is a Monday, at 5pm we'll have several service providers, the Housing Services Division in pretty much all entities that deal with the issue of homelessness to have a more thorough discussion about the state of homelessness in Detroit. Would love for you to come out and to connect and to provide input and suggestion as well at that meeting, again, that will be Monday, the 24th of March, at 5pm at the Detroit rescue mission, and we'll make sure that you get an invitation to attend. Okay, thank you. Okay,

    Miss Lyons,

    it appears satanic Dugan, like a true slave master, does not allow Council, black council to do any major justice for Detroit residents refusing the return of over $600 million in overpaid property taxes. Attorney mallet heights and his office has not asked for an investigation or justice. The young man on the phone last week hit the nail on the head when he said black Council does not like their own there is no action for their own people, yet satanic Dugan is going to make southwest Detroit whole. Demonic Romero with her reprobate nine mind is fighting for the rights of illegal border jumpers, yet telling a hellish lie about the black people. Rashida Tali, if is fighting for the rights of the illegal, cowardly Palestinians who are hiding here and not fighting with their people. Hitler was about a war, not a holocaust. America was about a black slave Holocaust, who cooks plan are still strong. Remember Emmett Till remember how the Tuskegee Airmen were treated horribly, awful. The fake Jews are albinos. Jews over in Israel, they're black,

    they're not white. Alright?

    Thank you so much and again, we want to, of course, find everyone that you do have the right to speak, freedom to speak, but we do want to encourage respectful dialog, and that you try to refrain from any offensive language to anyone here on council, our public those who are listening again, we welcome your ability to speak and voice your opinions, But let's try as much as we can to please just be respectful of everyone, their beliefs, their backgrounds and who they are. We appreciate you. Ms Lyons, and we will move now to our next public comment.

    Darren. Darren maleski, yep.

    Darren McCluskey, good morning, Council. I sent everyone an email yesterday with the response to one of the solar taking lawsuits. Just curious, if anyone read it, there's quite a few arguments in there that are fairly solid, including a pretty, I don't know, abhorrent calculation of compensation for the vacant lot owners based on averages, including $100 lot sales and side lots. So it's it's quite ironic that earlier in this in the session, it was brought up what to do at 375, and the land that was taken there, as you guys are actively taking land from people, majority black people, and are refusing to put any sort of reversionary clauses on that land, that it go back to the families of the people that it taken from actively. So that might be something that could be considered and then beyond that, you guys have 470 acres of land that's not being maintained already. You're taking private property for 100 acres to generate solar energy. I don't know how that makes any sense, but maybe eventually it'll be tried in the court of public opinion, since your attorney that's making a million dollars per neighborhood is trying to get people dismissed on every little technicality. Thank you.

    Thank you so much. And I see attorney Graham wants to respond, so we will allow him to do so through

    the chair Graham Anderson law department. Just want to read what Corporation Council Conrad mallet wrote, in response to that this matter is under active litigation from a property owner who is self interested and does not come to this conversation with clear and clean hands. He can appear at public comment all he wants. We intend to win our case in court. In addition, this gentleman reached out saying he would accept service of our complaint. In addition, we sent out a recorded declaration of taking, providing that the property had been acquired for the Solar Initiative. It was recorded one day before he obtained the property via quit claim deed, and two days before the quit claim deed was recorded. It would be worth noting that he bought the property after the condemnation complaint was initiated, and then kept his purchase a secret in an attempt to throw a wrench into the proceedings. In the meantime, he has worked on including securing settlements on other property. He certainly does not have clean hands, and we are planning on winning this in court. Thank

    you. Thank you, Attorney Anderson for that. I will continue now. Miss Mayberry. No, no, no, no, no. Good

    morning, everyone. I came before you last week speaking about the homelessness and so forth, and I found a wonderful woman over on on Yellowstone, and she has her own village over there that needs your support. City council people, please give her some support. We need her house that's torn down in that neighborhood. She's over at 12 zero, 2028, Yellowstone that there's a house that needs to be torn down. Her sewage needs to be cleaned out because the street floods. She needs to have some support. As far as homelessness, she's been working with the homeless for last 20 years, and I have and been asked in the city council to help her to rebuild that area that she has. She can house people because she has been doing it without your assistance, and she needs your assistance now to get those houses up and running. She had the medical house that you know would have some volunteer nurses to come in and and care and look at wounds and things like that over there in that area, y'all need to go down there and look at the area that Auntie Nan's village is doing. She's doing a great job, but I need your support to help her and anyone else to get those lights until she can get her license gas on, because the streets have flooded and flooded the basements of some of those houses that she has been homeless people. Thank you so much.

    Thank you so much. Miss Mayberry, and if you will be willing to connect me with her, and we would love to work with you and her as well. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you council member, Durham,

    thank you, Madam President. We're connected with Auntie na because that is in district seven. She's been in contact with Yolanda from our office as well about the issue, and we're working to get it resolved. So thank you very much doing that is in district seven.

    Okay, thank you. Thank you. Miss Mayberry. Karen Clayton, Hi,

    I'm Karen, hi. This is my first time ever come into the meeting. So thank you guys for welcoming me. I did have two issues, but I'm going to put the priority first, and it's regarding homeless. I'm working with a young lady who walked into a wellness clinic that I look over, I run over, she was homeless. She's been homeless since 2019 unfortunately, she was written up in a major article that she was a part of, she was a participant in affordable acting, but they took the money away and they left for homeless. She's been on the street for nine years now. She walked into my clinic two weeks ago, and we did. We tried so hard to get her into a shelter. So cam did refer her to 440, zero East Grand Boulevard. When we got her in there, the young lady indicated to me that once cold blue is lifted, then this young lady will be asked to move, because it's a refugee camp. And so I needed to know some advice on that. And my second issue was that I live upon a part of a property management that's constantly increasing fees and rent for operational costs and sending people to court, but nothing is being done in that property management and fear of being evicted, I got an email to say, well, you can terminate your lease at no cost If you cannot withstand the conditions I'm living right now in two bedrooms. I have six I have six leaks. Um, it's a roofing issue that's people are just patching up. And so I was out of fear of being absolutely my house, of being evicted. I need to know we got resources department, Legal Aid and things like that. But right now, those things are not working for us.

    Okay? Well, thank you for coming down and taking the time to share your concerns with us. If you don't mind why you're here, I would like to one get the address of the building you're referring to that's not in compliance it sounds like the rental property that you're referring to, so that we can make sure that that's directly get sent to building safety and engineering department to see if they can be ticketed, and just see what the process is of what's going on with that property. And then also would love to call directly Miss Chelsea and niblet Yvonne, if we can to see exactly what's happening with the housing situation that you mentioned as well. Okay, so we would love to work with you as well. Madam President, yes council

    member waters, can she just say the address out loud

    is that if she I

    want the address group, the

    address to the property management or the shelter, the

    property that you're referring to, this my,

    my as 4225

    say, Antoine, okay, it's medical reports,

    Plymouth housing, yep, that's, that's

    district I know exactly where You're referring to. That's district five. That's by Plymouth church. Okay, so we would love to, if we need to put on the agenda as well, we will, so we'll, we'll get that information for you now. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much. Karen

    Ronald Foster,

    good morning through the President. First thing our citizens come down. They complain about the same thing. I just would like to reiterate that there is absolutely no accountability to the people for any delegated authority, because authorities do not work for the people. Secondly, I would be putting forth a ballot proposal to change our form of government before the people. I think that this government would do a lot better as a council, Mayor government, as opposed to a mayor, council government, our non elected officials should have the ability to govern this city and make decisions collectively about what's best for the city overall. Third, and restoring trust you have to do a better job and keeping our community. First, while I admire all of you guys individual accomplishments, what do, aka, does for our community? How do it benefit us? What do the fraternities do for our community? How do they benefit us? What do the unions do for our community? How do they benefit us, and what role or benefit do they have in governing the people of this city, and so we have to do better job in keeping those familiarities out of government and staying focused on the citizens and issues that we have here. Fourthly, I was glad to see Miss Mario Kelly reiterate he's not invisible. New Era been doing good work. We're not invisible. Appreciate ms waters always and in front of the scenes and behind the scenes always advocate for social issues. Appreciate it.

    Thank you. All right. Joshua Lemieux,

    good morning Council and everybody tuning in on the World Wide Web. My name is Joshua Lear, born August 8, 1994 in North Memorial Hospital, unfortunately not Highland Park General Hospital, as I would have liked to be as I'm an adopted polar bear 480, 203. I would just like to suggest everybody keeps coming down talking about homelessness and shelter, and we have a beautiful YM and YWCA on Woodward and the Davison. And to my understanding, I think they might be at 10% capacity. And some good news, the McKenna group out of Northville, Michigan, is in charge of every parcel of land in the 2.9 square miles of Highland Park. So let's make it happen. Captain, that's a lot of beds, and it might not be Detroit, but it's Wayne County. So if we could all hang out at The Guardian building, perhaps with the honorable Miss Martha Scott, first black woman mayor in this great state, and she's the real deal. And I'm looking at the future real deal too. Congratulations on your on your run. I've got two sweatshirts, hoping for a third, but it's it's time to make a change with Detroit housing. We've got so much land, we've got so much, so many buildings, and in my remaining seven seconds, I gotta shout out the Southwest YMCA, we'll we'll get it up and running if we gotta see the pants off of I look forward to it. Thank you so much for your time.

    So much, Joshua, and I'll just state I know that there's been a conversation for quite some time. I know member Callaway have said that several times as well, to how we use our vacant commercial structures, our schools to possibly do housing in the city of Detroit. And I can tell you that as budget is approaching, I think we're all looking at different ways to continue to push to find innovative ways to address the issue of housing. We're actually submitting a memo today to be on the agenda for referral to uplift Herman Keefer, the Herman Keefer site, that's a huge vacant structure. We would like to see if that could possibly be revisited to address the issue of homelessness in Detroit, in light of what's happening there and the star development. And so we are actually going to be pushing that, and we have a memo that we're submitting today on that as well. And just unfortunately, we can't go back and forth. Joshua middle sticks, I'll write

    a letter. Thank you, ma'am, and we'll be looking forward

    to seeing it. All right, all right. Our next person. I don't have any more cards. So was that it? Yvonne,

    that was the moment.

    Ma'am, just go right ahead. State your name, hi.

    My name is Adrian Tynes, and I live at 375 West Grand Boulevard. I used to do some work with Detroit action about five, six years ago, the apartment building that I live in the owner tends to threaten people not to speak up about major issues. Certain people that have filed PPOs against the staff got threatened by the owner. One particular lady was found dead in her apartment. Now they're targeting me. I'm going through similar health system symptoms that she's going through now, dealing with my heart, kidneys, and anyone that speaks out, they're threatened to get evicted. He's raised my rent every year, no one else's every year. The Housing Program, Southwest Solutions, staff members do nothing about it, like the attorney Ruth Johnson, saying they're finding out about that the social workers are not protecting their people. He is a slum landlord, slum owner. He's a lawyer, and just pretty much people get targeted. I've had dogs charge me off leash by the Europeans that live there. The owner covers that up. There's proof of it. He the place where people are living at the roof leaks, but they're constantly paying him rent, bedbug roaches, rat infestation. This is my first time ever having to rent. I used to own my own property when I was married, so my health is at risk. I do believe the owner is killing people off to keep them quiet. The building manager stated that he had to stay quiet. He had to lie for the owner in order for him not to get in big trouble. Okay, yeah, that's that's very serious. Everything that you just mentioned. Do you want to state the name of the the building you said it was. It's called Britannic court 375, West Grand Boulevard. The owner is kiatis McGinnis. He's a lawyer and the police department are afraid to touch him. I've gotten as far as to the commander. No

    one's doing anything. Okay, all right, we will. Is that? Yeah, that's because that's a little farther west from from my area. So um, Council Member, Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, I just flagged for my team to come down to speak with you that is in our districts so we can reach out to it sounds like sa solutions is the the overarching organization that is providing this housing for you so we can work with you.

    They're telling us to pick our battles. They're not doing anything. Okay, all right. Well, that's

    unacceptable. Thank you for coming down. Someone should be coming to speak with you right now. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank you.

    I'm Jacqueline Miller, and I just want to help Councilman young out by telling him it won't take DNA to find out if you are from black bottom. I was born in kirwood Hospital on Kirby, and my birth certificate shows that I was born there, and that my parents lived there from the address on the birth certificate, and that would be it.

    Thank you so much. Alright, go right ahead. Good

    morning, city council president and all of the honorable body of city council. My name is Latoya Williams, and I am a resident of District Two with my Councilwoman, Angela Winfield Callaway. However, I am a part of the entire city of Detroit, because I am all over representing and serving my community. So I know Daryl Hall, Sheffield. I know they see me quite often as well. And I just wanted to reach out as far as support for the Detroit task reparations Task Force. I am in many of their meetings. I have seen their work. I've seen the things that they have went through, the struggles and just dealing with all of the residents can be quite I know you all know can be quite a task. But as far as reparations go, I just want to go back to 1833 with the Blackburn riots. Um, Detroit has always been, as far as you know, racism and things like that. We had all of the riots. We had several different riots, the Detroit riots. We've had in 1943 1967 1968 and then, like I said, Blackburn happened back in 1833 so we have always been at the forefront of slave movements. And I just think that the recommendations that have been put down or are going to be put in place by reparations should be taken in consideration. Thank you so much for your

    time. Thank you as well, and thank you for all you do as well. Good to see you. Thanks for coming down. Okay, we'll go to those that have joined us virtually. And Ari, how many callers do we have this morning?

    There were 28 hands raised before you cut off public comment, and the first caller is William M Davis,

    good morning. Can I be heard? Yes, you can. I enjoyed the pastor and the reparation task force members speaking. I think it's a good point that perhaps the city of Detroit should also be getting reparations from the state of Michigan, because that was a fake bankruptcy that robbed the city of Detroit. It took assets. Normally, during the bankruptcy, you don't lose all your valuable assets, like the DIA the Detroit water and sewage department Belle Isle and others, the state should not been able to take all of our assets. You know, this whole bankruptcy was contrived and, in my opinion, was illegal and racist. And the city of Detroit, separately, has been doing a very poor job of helping and assisting Detroit retirees, because a number of us have died, have had major illnesses, and, you know, sickness and have been pushed, you know, to a lower standard of living since our purchasing Power then dropped 33% since the bankruptcy. But yet the administration's pay has increased by 45% you know, these are not fair. You know it's not fair to us. It's not fair to the residents, and has deluded the economic power of the residents of the city of Detroit. So hopefully y'all will step up and do more and try to get back some of our assets. Thank you.

    Thank you. Mr. Davis, the

    next caller is phone number ending in 169 you.

    Late. Caller 169 Good morning.

    Okay, Ari, let's come back to this Caller, please.

    Okay, the next caller is, we see you.

    We see you. Good morning.

    Going in through the chair. May I be heard. Yes, thank you. The reparations Task Force seem to be confused about who they're working for. A DOS, Americans, descendants of slavery, is who reparations it's targeted for. I can show you state documents that had redlining right as a legislative body they supported redlining, which, in their documents, they definitely say negro. They don't say, you know, people of color, or any anything else, it says negro. So let's be clear on who the reparations task force should be operating for and advocating for and it definitely is ethnic based. We are going through what we call genocide. And you shuffle people off to, you know, your staff, and we end up dead. You have to understand, in that van was three generations. It was a mother, a grandmother and children. That's three generations of people, black people, more than likely, ados, people that you are not addressing. You have the labor agreement with the police department. We should not be paying for legal representation. I have never heard in my life that the people who employ you play for your legal representation when you do something wrong.

    Thank you.

    The next caller is Betty a Varner,

    good morning. Miss Verner, Good

    morning, Madam President, and to all within the sound of my voice, I'm Betty, a burner, president of the solar Ellsworth black Association. Y'all heard me speak on the theft that we've had on our used to be beautiful park. Now it's eyesore sitting in our neighborhood. The majority of our fence has been stolen. There's been two separate incidents, so we've decided we're not going to try to replace the fence. We are now working, trying to get help, to get boulders for our park. If there's anyone within the sound of my voice that can help us out with this challenge, please contact Councilman der Hall's office, his people, his team, they know how to contact me. We are planning on having events in our park, as we do every year. We're active black club, doing what we can do to improve our neighborhood, our rise Detroit event, we offer many resources to it's really city wide to the residents of the city of Detroit, so we ask them for help. Also, I want to thank the mayor, his team, administration, Mister day Walker, for the work they're doing by Finkle corridor. Um,

    thank you. Next Caller, please. The next caller is Larry Donald verse. Larry

    Donald verse, the floor is yours regarding general public comment.

    Larry Donald verse, are you there?

    Can you hear me? Yes, sir, floor

    is yours. Okay. My name is Larry Donald verse. I'm a long time resident of the city of Detroit. I live in district seven, and I was born like in 1945 at East K Thomas hospital. Now, usually I talk about busses, but this time, I'm talking about them indirectly. I'd like to address the situation of my brother, Michael Cunningham.

    We all know what he does.

    Sorry for the background noise. I'm on the street. We all know what he does. And some people may not know. Yes, he gets donations, but a significant portion of it comes out of his own personal pocket, at what I would consider a personal sacrifice. Now, what I'm asking council if there is some way that besides the things that many members on the council contribute, such as gloves and masks and money for tickets and hand warmers and those kind of things, is there some way something can be done to assist him in getting his car fixed or replaced, because it's about to break down, really, and I'll consider he doesn't have the funds to do it, maybe not in your official capacity, but maybe you know somebody that you can refer him to.

    Thank you so much. Next

    Caller, please. Next caller is renardski.

    Renardsky, you have a minute 30 general public comment

    morning. Mr. Chair, can I be heard? Yes, sir, I'm sorry. Mr. President Pelton, my apologies. My name is Renard rush key. I'm the organizer with Detroit people's platform and bus rider in District Six. I wanted to speak a little bit more about the DDOT Code of Conduct ordinance. I know that's probably up for deliberation today. Um, the ordinance was done through a democratic process, and I'm very pleased, and want to thank this body, DDOT, and also everyone in the public that has contributed to their statements and their concerns about this ordinance. This is how democracy should work in our city, in our state, in our country, but if our country can't model it, at least we could do it here in Detroit. So let's continue this process of listening to people, because when you get insight from people, you may get things or ideas that you didn't consider yourself. We all have our level of expertise in the city, and Detroiters are brilliant as hell. So just wanted to thank this body for affirming the people's voice in this and if you do more of this, actually might be better outcomes for our residents when it comes to the rules. Part of this, I have some concerns. One of them is, when it goes to administrative hearings, how much of due process do you have? Is the tribunal bias? This is just full of DDOT employees. Will these people be trained in administrative hearings as well, too? Other issue is these tiered offenses need to be posted and there needs to be non punitive ways of restoring your access to data.

    Thank you. Next Caller,

    please. Next caller is not at Karen, alright.

    Caller, the floor is yours. You have a minute 30. General public comment, hello, hello,

    yeah, good morning. As

    it relates to demolition of the Renaissance, I think that we should try to repurpose, as opposed to demo. A demo would be hazardous, not only to our water, drinking water, but to the air we breathe. You know, the quality of the air we breathe, all of the compounds that are going to be released after an implosion or explosion of the rents in so close sitting to the water, we should be trying to recycle, reuse and repurpose rent, destroy, which is going to come straight out of the taxpayers pockets. When we speak of housing, we should consider, you know, the target of this house, elderly, children, families. These the people we need to try to provide sustainable housing, not just adequate. We don't want adequate. Think of your mom. Would you want your mom in adequate housing? Or would you want your mom in in an environment that's sustainable for her, for her health and for her well being. That's our behalf. Mr. Foster, I agree. We got too much play in our politics. We need a drain the swamp. As President Trump would say, drain the swamp. Get rid of all these non necessary titles, executive, this executive that while everything is flat, reparations gotta go by age. We got people. I got five generations. You gotta talk to people who lived it, not dreaming.

    Next Caller, please. Next caller is Casey C,

    Casey C, the floor is yours. You have a minute 30. General public comment, good

    morning. Can y'all hear me? Yes. Thank you so much. This is Casey powder, resident in District Four. First of all, just wanted to thank Council members, Johnson young and water, so so much for helping me out with the property tax issue I raised this weekend. It has brought so much relief to be in my family. So thank you so much to put my policy hat on. On behalf of Detroit disability power, our 300 plus members and our coalition of now 22 allied organizations and growing I urge you all to fund disabled Detroiters this budget season. Your offices should have received an email from me earlier this morning, detailing our request to fully fund the Office of Disability affairs this year at $1.4 million to increase various resources for accessible and affordable housing and doubling DDOT for transit justice by 2030 more details and information are attached in that email, and we really would encourage and invite any and all of you and your staff are willing to meet with us to discuss the recommendations outlined in there further so we can answer any questions and workshop ways to make our city more accessible for all of its residents, disabled and non disabled. Thank you so so much. I yield the rest

    of my time. Thank

    you,

    next caller, please. Next caller is Cindy Dara.

    Cindy Dara, the floor is yours. You have a minute 30 general public comment.

    Cindy, are you there?

    Alright, let's go put Cindy at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

    Okay, the next caller, would you matter? All right?

    Caller, the floor is yours. You have a minute 30 general public comment.

    Caller, are you there?

    Good morning. May I be hurry? Yes. Okay. Well, Black History Month, I just want to say I find it a little ironic that Michigan's first black Supreme Court Justice to serve as the chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court has his name on the condemnation complaints for the Solar Initiative, and that they you are the city is basing its authority to take this property on the 1951 case in race slum clearance In which the city of Detroit cleared out part of black bottom, literally, that the condemnation case bases the city's authority on the same case that I'm sure is of great concern to the reparations Task Force. And then what is Conrad mallet? You know, we say, oh, we can't comment during public comment, but he could, sends to Attorney Graham Anderson a statement to read against the white man that's bringing this up, attacking him for showing concern for what the city's doing. You have an affordable housing crisis, and you yet you want to clear neighborhoods out and like pit neighbors against one another to put in solar farms, you're helping private industry that's economic development and increasing the tax base. It's illegal under the Michigan Constitution. And just look at the irony, folks,

    thank you for the black history lesson. Joanne Warwick, next caller, please.

    Next caller is Lisa Franklin. Lisa

    Franklin, thank you for joining us. You have a minute 30 general public comment.

    Thank you for hearing me good morning. Pro Tim Tate and city council. Lisa Franklin here, President and CEO of warriors on wheels, and today I join my colleagues for transit, transit Justice in support of doubling d.we have a responsibility to our citizens of this city, our seniors and our children who stand at the bus stops daily in the cold or in the heat to catch the bus. In order for us to be able to provide energy efficient busses, new bus shelters with concrete pads, drivers, mechanics and training for our personnel, we must double d.to bring Detroit up to from the bottom of the totem pole, at least to a running standard with the rest of the country. It's a shame when you drive down the street and you see our children and our seniors waiting at the bus stop in the snow, and you go and do what you have to do, and come back 45 minutes, an hour, hour and a half later, and still see them standing at the bus stops. I want to charge everyone in the sound of my voice to pay more attention to the people standing at the bus stop. There's a DDOT town hall this Friday, and if you have any type of compassion or any heart or any understanding of what people go through, we have a litany of things happening in this city, but transportation would be something that could probably fix it. Thank you.

    Thank you. Next Caller, please.

    Next caller is Frank Hammer.

    Frank Hammer, the floor is yours. We have a minute 30 general public comment.

    Good morning. City council, good morning. President Pro Tem um, it's regretful that Miss Lyons allowed herself to be tricked by the US ruling class, which works 24/7 to divide our peoples against each other and thereby weaken us in our fight against the wealthy rulers. She slandered Congresswoman she did to leave and the Palestinian residents in our city, whom she described as cowardly, it's shocking. The Palestinian people and black people have so much in common, especially when it comes to displacement by racists who regard both peoples as racially inferior. Ironically, Congresswoman Rashida Talib tirelessly fights for the rights of both. At this moment, Trump is openly planning for the genocidal removal of Palestinians, 2 million of them, from the Gaza Strip for a luxury seaside development that's not too different from Detroit's elites in the 1970s engaging in what was then called Negro removal for a freeway to the suburbs. I request Miss Lyons cease her unwarranted attacks. Thank you.

    Thank you, next caller, please.

    The next caller is calling. User one,

    call in. User one, the floor is yours. You have minute 30. General public comment.

    Can that be heard? Yes, ma'am. Good

    afternoon. In terms of these bus stops, I'm very disappointed, Madam Sheffield, that in your district, you don't make sure that all of the bus stops for these children that go to Northwestern High School is clearly shoveled and I call every day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and it still doesn't get done now, because it's going to be a little warmer, is it finally getting melted? Now, I like to know why is that allow that you don't make be that shovel properly, these bus stops, so that those that are wheelchair bound using a walker can, in fact, be able to catch the bus. And when do you increase service for the Lynnwood Dexter as well as Joy road to longer than just maybe eight or nine, at least to midnight, just like it is on Vernor. You have apartment complexes that's in Southwest is newly built that refuse to make reasonable accommodations for those of us who are disabled and because we are the wrong skin tone, just like one lady had to lose her children and freeze to death, and nobody came together to raise millions of dollars to help this woman, but it can be help for others. Alex.

    Next Caller, please.

    Next caller is Alonzo Clark,

    yeah. Alonzo Clark, I believe I heard the floor is yours. You have a minute. 30 general public

    comment, yes. A month ago, Councilman Gabriella Santiago Romero said this job is hard, referring to the job of being a city council member. You know, I've had time to think about that, and I agree the job is too difficult for Gabriella Santiago Romero to do. You know, it's like she has had four years to listen, to ask questions, to understand, and she has not, because she has decided that she's way too important to bother listening to constituents, and you're surprised that you know what? Angry about that. It's like, what did we elect you for? Exactly? Anyway,

    yeah, so, so it's like,

    I I yield my time.

    All right. Next Caller, please. The

    next caller is phone number ending in 270,

    caller ending in 270, the floor is yours. You have a minute 30 general public comment.

    Relief Shelton,

    District Three. Budget season is fast approaching, and the residents will be watching and listening very closely to determine if and how the city council will fight to ensure that the funding is allocated

    to be homeless

    and to be destitute and shut out residents of this city. What does it say about the city administration? They have shining towers and skyscrapers downtown and shiny new venues in Midtown, but at the same time, have a 44% child poverty rate around the town during this budget season, when Mike Duggan comes before the council to get his budgets passed, council needs to remember last year how dozen hood went the council by saying that there was no homeless problem in Detroit and no one in Detroit is going without shelter. More recently, dozen did not even have the compassion nor the courage to show up at the funeral of those two little black children that froze to death on his watch.

    There's a litany ways

    that this crisis of Detroit homelessness

    can be addressed and eliminated in Detroit.

    Next Caller, please. The next caller is Miko a Williams, Nico a Williams,

    the floor is yours. We have a minute 30 general public comment.

    Hello. Good morning everyone. Yeah, satanic Michael Duggan has not showed up for the baby's funeral. He's the mayor. He could at least donate 30 minutes of his time. Remember, he always has something to do better than to attend dead baby spinals or to comment or find out the real solution of why children end up dead in the city of Detroit with from child poverty, from homelessness. And let's just get one thing clear. You know, the and for everybody, the whole general basis, is that there has been failure for five years. We have been going through so much since COVID. We have not recovered. We are all broken. You know, it's hard to fix things. Just admit it. I'll have more I'll have more respect for you if you can admit you can't fix the problem and you just can't find no solution, as everybody is. But you all have a responsibility. You were elected in those seats to represent the Detroiters and the people that are living here, taxpayers, Legacy Detroiters and such that's getting pushed out, retirees, that's dying, and you have no care or concern. Okay, I understand you can't fix the world problems, but you can fix problems right here. And by doing another town hall, reforming policy, having all these conversations, the corporations won't even come through with a check to help provide shelter, housing and homelessness. So I don't want to hear not another word about I done. Moved on already. It's just time to go period.

    Thank you. Mika Williams,

    next caller is to hear Ahmed.

    Miss Ahmed, good morning.

    Yes, good morning. I just want to state for reparations. Black people were here and body. We were pretty honestly called Black Indians, black Seminoles, etc, here before America officially became a country, our enslavement built America. Its infrastructure is wealth died in its all its wars, including the Revolutionary War, freeing it from British rule, slavery was the impetus for France and other countries to invest in the Revolutionary War for America to be the winner. Slavery built, built America's wealth and Wall Street banks, JP Morgan, Chase, Bank of America, Lloyd's of London, etc, excuse me, the insurance companies, industry, textiles, cotton, sugar, tobacco, railroads, automobiles, universities, our ancestors never got paid. It's the reason for the Black, White wealth disparity we maintained and grew Detroit. We should not be charged Glee, what? Dw, SD, property taxes, upcoming taxes, or anything. We shouldn't be charged a dog on dime for any dog on thing in the city, we've already paid. Stop charging us and overcharging us. We were illegally taxed 600 million to a billion dollars and 100,000 illegal foreclosure stop charging us.

    You. Okay, thank you.

    Next caller is Rashawn Harris,

    yes, can I be heard? Yes, you can. Good morning.

    Okay, thank you. Good morning, everybody. Just want to definitely give a big shout out to the reparations Task Force and bring up the fact that when we think about things like reparations, we need to think about the structural violence that's been enacted against black communities here in the city of Detroit, specifically in the realm of environmental justice. And I know a lot of folks are not really familiar with that and aren't really clear about what environmental justice actually looks like, but we know that oftentimes you know, black communities are used to sacrifice zones, and we see that in southwest Detroit, obviously, with the health impacts that are happening to the folks around the marathon plant. And remind you that there is a black community in southwest Detroit as well as our Mexican community, but then also the industrial zones all around the city, and the byproducts from those industrial zones reaching and impacting community members, not just now, but for for decades. And there's no accident that we have the highest incidence of asthma and COPD in the country, and it's because of that legacy of environmental racism, where companies and corporations are allowed to come and pollute black communities and do whatever they want to with no recompense or no reconciliation for the people who live in those communities. So I'm here to definitely lift up and highlight the work that has been done by the reparations Task Force, and remind us and remind everyone, there's much more work to be done in the realm of justice for black folks and for all folks, but especially in the realm of environmental justice in the air we breathe and the water we drink, and in everything that is around us.

    Thank you.

    The next caller is Karen hammer.

    Karen hammer, good morning. Good

    morning. I'm inspired to hear the Detroit reparations Task Force addressing the long standing issues Detroiters still face. This must include the legal acts the state holds over Detroiters and other black cities in Michigan, the so called emergency management, beginning under Governor angler, another legal economic consequence detailed in the book plundered, reveals how excessive land taxation laws have and still target the lowest 40% majority black homeowners last the legal economic designation of am I average, median income used for supposed affordable housing for Detroit is 80% the trick is that they average together Livonia, Detroit and Ferndale computing to a $70,000 income, which is less than half Detroiters earn. So we get more homelessness, less housing, worse. Public Schools for Detroiters root out the legal and economic underpinning of the long past discrimination against black Detroit.

    Thank you.

    Your next caller is Whitney Clark. You Hello,

    may

    I be heard. Yes, you can. All right, good morning again. Thank you all for having us and allowing us to speak here. I just believe I had a friend calling in as well that I wanted to speak directly to just about again, the idea that we get to choose what happens next. We've got a hand in what happens next, and so, yeah, there's a lot of different challenges that we're looking at, and a lot, and I think that we're gonna, we're gonna look at these major issues be addressed in the next four to five years. But I'm just encouraging other young families, other young men like myself here in the city who are looking forward to this election season. Um, yes, there's a lot of work to be done, but we plan on doing it and and I believe that our future is bright, um, as a result of what we're about to do, as a result of us stepping forward and and coming together and finding common sense solutions for the challenges that we faced for some generations now, as well as the challenges that we see coming up. So, um, I call it what you want, maybe a little positivity or just a different perspective, but, uh, but the future is bright here, particularly in district five. But all of all of the city, has a bright future, because we're going to continue to step forward and lead by example, bring people together, find comments and solutions. And so my name is Whitney Clark, here in district five, so be encouraged our future is bright.

    The next caller is monk Ren true,

    all right. Ruben Crowley, good morning.

    Ain't that good about this morning. But that wall, that wall, Sherwood Forest, Palmer woods, I know it all too well. Being a former residence, resident of Palmer woods, infamous or famous, depending on how you want to look at it. That's over in your district. Callaway Angelo Whitfield, Callaway, 10 L's of blood. 10 L's. That's how much blood Kenisha Coleman lost before she got to that operating table. Tim L's, James Tate, that was over in your district, District

    One where she was murdered at

    murdered, I didn't say, committed suicide, because of telling the truth, and the truth is the truth. She was shot by someone else, and then it was a aggravated assault complaint initiated by Detroit Mott from the eighth precinct that was upon conditions death, Kenisha Coleman, DPD, case, two, zero, dash, 11112, was turned over to homicide unit, where Marco prestage and Derek may started the cover up, and that's where we at now, the cover up or the cover up, or the cover up, or the cover up of Kenisha come as murder. You

    all right. Thank you,

    Mr. Next caller.

    The next caller is Ernest Russell,

    good morning task force members, can you, I mean, good morning city council, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Good morning. All right. My name is Ernest Russell, and I'm just calling in to support the Detroit reparations Task Force request for an extension. I do want to state that discussion that you guys were having, where you had the back and forth was quite interesting, and that we should recognize the current political climate that we're in. I think someone had left a comment, indicating that we know that there will potentially be a legal challenge, considering the history of Detroit and the efforts that are going to be taken by way of the recommendations to ensure repair, I think that you guys should take a look again at some of the most recent, current court analysis, and ultimately proceed for with the linear standard, which is specifically for Descendants of the formerly enslaved. As you will see in all of the harm reports, that all the harms initially start with starts with this group, and kind of manifest throughout the city of Detroit, by way of the policies that the city implements against their descendants. And I also just go ahead and echo the comments of the elderly lady who called in, who said that, you know, of course, black Detroiters who've been there for generations, who have the lived experience to obviously be placed at the top of the list. And I do think that across the board, you know, as far as the City Council is concerned, you guys must do you must be bold and brave in these recommendations that will come across your desk.

    Okay, thank you.

    Next caller is Charles miles,

    right? Charles. Charles miles, Good morning.

    Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can

    Okay, yes, I'm calling in about

    this water drainage piece, uh,

    run off. It's unnecessary. I mean, it doesn't make no sense. I talked to you last week. You said something that it wasn't voted in. But okay, if it wasn't voted on, how would say charging these people, charging these high amounts to people's property taxes. I mean, it's a shame that. I mean, why is all this illegal, crazy stuff coaches going on? Like, definitely with my property taxes, you clearly see that I made the payment. And for some strange reason all these years, no one could correct your own era, but you, you you can. You can send all these bills out to my houses and and all these foreclosure letters, but you clearly couldn't figure out that you made an error. But you see that you made an error. I've been showing you these receipts for what, eight years, and you still ain't fixed it, but you still got lawyers, and you still got me wasting time and money coming down here. Keep on saying that I owe you, keep on trying to make up an excuse that I owe you, putting up felonious talking about our old you know what you're talking about. Talking about I owe homestead when the House shouldn't have never been homestead, because I clearly borrowed paperwork to get that property taken care of.

    Thank you, Mr. Miles.

    The next caller is Steven Harring, um,

    thank you for letting me speak. I know I did. Um, raise my hand later. But what I want to say is it was announced that Helena Scott will be running and will be the one to oust Angela Whitfield car away in hopefully August. You know, I'm excited about that, and I'll be donating and volunteering for her campaign. We need some good representative that does that's against bigotry and hate. So next I'm going to discuss about the, I mean, complete support of the double data. You know, we need a world class transit system. And, you know, you spend all this money on all these highways, roads, demolitions and all this stuff. And you know, 1% of the city relies on public transit. So I really hope that you, you know, at least do some type of increase. You mean, I say you have to do double. I wish you could, but you know, at least fight and negotiate with the mayor to do a significant increase, because it is needed more than ever. You know, more and more younger people aren't wanting cars more. You know, and I just think that's important.

    And

    lastly, you know, I agree with right?

    Thank you,

    and I'll back to it not responded last time the color is phone number ending in 169

    All right. Caller, 169 Good morning.

    Caller, 169

    Can you hear me? Yes.

    Okay, great. Um, I just want to say thank you people for praying for Cunningham. Um, he advocates for the bus drivers and the bus passengers. He does not receive a salary of benefits for his good work. Um, city persons, clergy power that beat touch, not touch, not God pointing me to do his servant, Cunningham, no harm. Don't let karma play. You all again. Help him. Don't hurt him. Councilwoman Johnson, she is the only council person to ride with Cunningham during the cold the videos and the pictures of the ride along on Cunningham Facebook page. Thank you for my time. City council people.

    Okay, thank you as well, sir.

    Alright, that will conclude all of our public comment.

    No Council President still okay. Two more hands to come back. Okay, the next caller is Cindy Dara,

    okay. There is a class action suit that the Supreme Court won't deal with, but they ruled on it. And I think 98 lock versus, I think Lansing or something. Anyway, we were supposed to be able to vote on that, that that's a tax. That's what they said. And the previous Michigan Supreme Court, it was a tax, not it was not, if it's a tax and not a fee, it's supposed to come to the voters, not be voted on behind a board table. Okay, so and I get two bills every month. It's ridiculous. One says minus 25 and the other says drainage. It didn't rain too much, but we paid for it. But I what I want, I dream for the future and where everybody gets along and and we have an infrastructure that we built the whole thing, and we own the whole thing, because we need internet for people to know what's going on. That should be free. Water should be free, and we ought to have a second separate water drinking line. We ought to separate the sewer from the storm water, so and make cisterns where we can garden with the water, or splush toilets. But we ought to own the internet, not DTE, or some, you know, private company. That's where we're wrong. And we need to own the whole thing and dig it all up. I

    need best raise their hand before comment. Sonia Brown.

    Sonia Brown, good morning. You.

    Sonia Brown, good morning.

    All right, going once, twice,

    good morning. Good Good morning. Can I be heard? Yes, yes, you can, ma'am, good morning. Yes, Councilman, I know you all know about me over here, but you all also know that I said I was subjected to a lot of damage over here with the water, sewage systems and everything. No one came over to compensate me or to work with me or my neighbors. One of the young ladies over here lost her home due to having to use heaters because the basements flooded and our hot water tanks and furnaces went out and her home caught fire right now. Councilman I know, bless her heart, Yolanda, has been over here, and she's been on the phone trying to get this blight and ball picked up in front of the that very home. And yet, from October to now, that stuff is still sitting out here, you yourself is called the water department and the sewage department to come out here and fix these sewer drains. Not nothing that makes no sense. And again, I have offered the city my homes, my facilities, to use as emergency shelter while everyone figure out the red tape and meet to meet, I have offered those up so that we can put people in it. I begged you all to make my facilities and my program tax exempt so I can use those funds to continue on in another manner. Again. Crickets, nothing. Councilman, I know you. You know me, and you know I'm about my business and my community over here. I should not be treated like a third world, second class citizen when I'm out here, busting my button, putting everything and anything I can into my community. Now I ask my my council,

    okay, all right. Thank you member Durham,

    thank you, Madam President. We have been with you every step of the way, even resolving your property tax issues over there, so you can keep those properties. We have contacted DWSD numerous times about those sewers, taking pictures, sent them over there, and they're still working to resolve that. And so we love you, support you 100% wholeheartedly, and we will follow up again with DWSD on the sewers in which some folks pour concrete down. And so we are with you, and I'll have Yolanda get back and give you an update soon. Thank you, Madam President.

    All right, thank you. All right. That will conclude all of our general public comments, and we will now return back to our agenda, and Madam Clerk, line item 10.1 under the referrals, we should have moved that to new business or vote. And if there is a motion, this is regarding the declaration of local state of emergency. Is there a motion to move this item to new business? All right, Hearing no objections. Line item 10.1 will be moved to new business. Okay?

    Thank you, Madam President, okay, thank you

    for the budget, Finance and Audit. Standing Committee from the Office of contracting and procurement. Council

    member durha, three resolutions. Line item 16.1, through 16.3 first up is, mean 16. Yes, 16.1 through 16.3

    first up is contract number 6005798,

    dash a one, 100% city funding Amendment One to provide an increase of funds for city wide auto watch services contractor, downtown auto watch LLC. Total contract amount, $156,493 that's for city wide. Next contract is contract number 6005856, dash a one, 100% city funding Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for city wide auto watch services, Hector legends, Grand River, doing business as Grand River, car wash and oil change. Total contract amount, $67,131.60 cent. That's for city wide. Last contract is contract number 6005799, dash a 100% city funding. Amendment One to provide an increase of funds for citywide auto watch services. Contractor star auto wash Incorporated. Total contract amount, $137,490 that's for city wide council member durha, three resolutions.

    Thank you, Madam Clerk, Council Member durha, thank

    you. Move for approval for line items, 16.1 through 16.3

    Hearing no objections.

    The three resolutions will be approved

    for the office of the city clerk, City Planning Commission.

    Council Member durha, one resolution, line item 16.4

    council member durha, thank

    you. Line item 16.4 is a resolution of authorization for a Nez certificate application for the construction of a new single family house at 28 44/16 Street in the north court town neighborhood association and North court town equitable housing initiative, neighborhood enterprise zone area. This has been recommended for approval by the CPC, as well as committee Move for approval for line item 16.4

    discussion member Benson, right. Thank you. Just through yourself to the administration, just looking at the unit cost of $717,000 with a sale price of 257 Where did that unit cost number come from? The 717

    mr. Washington, do we have someone on please?

    Yes, through the chair. I would have to defer to CBC. I do believe I see Mr. Gulak online.

    Okay, we will promote Mr. Gulak. You.

    Good morning. Chris Gulak, CPC, staff,

    all right. Member, Benson, thank you, Mr. Gulak, thank you for being here. The number $717,000 total unit cost. Where did that number come from?

    And through the chair, this is regarding line item 16.4, the N Easy certificate Yes.

    Through the Chair,

    the developer included, I mean, the petitioner included the, this is a a land Housing Trust project. So that includes the price for all the infrastructure work on the entire project. The entire project has seven new single family houses, and part of it is relocating utilities fixing up the alley. So they included that as part of the development cost. But the individual sale of beach house, I think it's just over $200,000

    is that a price set by the organization, or is that a market price? Would they expect to be able to get

    for those I believe, well, I believe they are partly subsidized. That's what they hope to sell them. I think they're proposing between 50% 80% AMI, so I think part of the it's not a market price, it's a subsidized sale price. All right, thank you.

    All right. Any additional questions?

    Hearing no additional questions. Are there any objections to this line item. Hearing, no objections. The one resolution will be approved.

    Request waiver for line item 16.1 through 16.4

    hearing, no objections. A waiver will be attached to those items from the Office of contracting and procurement for the internal operations standing committee, Council

    Member Johnson for resolutions, line item 17.1 through 17.4 noting that line item 17.1 and 17.2 were reported under the internal operations Standing Committee without recommendation first of his contract number 600373874, dash, 831, 100% city funding. Amendment three, to provide an extension of time and an increase of funds for legal counsel, for immigration, employee sponsorships, contractor, Clark Hill PLC, total contract amount 205,000 that's for law. Next contract is contract number 6006014, dash a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds only for audio and video production services for mayoral and city council meetings. Contractor, creative day technologies. Total contract amount $657,933.20 cent that's for media services. Next contract is contract number 6005854, dash, a one, 100% city funding Amendment One, to provide an extension of time and an increase of funds for probate law assistance for phase two of the solar project. Contractor, Melvin D Jefferson, Junior PC, total contract amount, 150,000 that's for Law. Last contract is contract number 2901809, dash, 831, 100% city funding. Amendment three to provide for the city's online HR systems for time and attendance, payroll, scheduling, training and other tools. Contractor, UK G chromos system, LLC, total contract, amount $36,564,592 and that's for do it. Council member Johnson, for resolutions. Thank you, Madam Clerk.

    Council member Johnson, thank

    you, Madam President. I am going to separate these, noting that there may be some additional discussion needed. Move for approval with discussion online. Item 17.1, okay,

    all right, thank you for 17.1 and we can open it up for discussion. I know this was reported without recommendation. Do we have anyone on mission Washington or any additional questions regarding this particular contract?

    Yes. Council member, Benson,

    right. Thank you. Just curious with the legal counsel for immigration employee sponsorships. How does this work? How is this adding value, and what are we getting for $50,000 through the Chair,

    Mr. Graham, Mr. Attorney Anderson, go right ahead.

    Graham Anderson, law department, Daniel Hughes should have joined us and is available to speak on this matter.

    I'm sorry. Can you say it again? Daniel Hughes

    has been moved over. Perfect. Thank you.

    In addition, Richard Dorothy should also be available to speak on this. Okay.

    Can I be heard? Yes, we can hear you.

    Um, if the council member Benson, if you could repeat your question through the chair, please. All right,

    thank you. This is for line item 17 one, the legal counsel for immigration, employee sponsorship. Just curious, for $50,000 over a one year period, what are we getting? Houses, adding value?

    That's a great question. Thank you.

    What that money is being spent for is we have today, 11 employees at the city of Detroit, amongst our more than 10,000 that the city has sponsored for visas, both TN Visas from Canadian passport holders, as well as h 1b and Green Card processes, and that money will be used to continue to renew and pursue the visas necessary for these employees to continue working.

    Okay, is there some challenge for them working with city, Detroit?

    Um, no, no challenge. It just, it's, there's, you know, visas expire. They need to be renewed. We, we have they, there may be a new employee during this next year that the particularly the positions that we use this for, which are primarily civil engineers in DPW, for example, if we want to hire one, we would need funds to be able to initiate that visa process as well. I know there's a couple of the H, 1b visas, which is foreign nationals working here, that would need to be extended and or renewed. So that's what those funds would be used for to ensure that the current employees can continue working and have no interruption of services to the department or the citizens. Okay,

    and then just looking at about $4,500 per employee, are we displacing anybody else from the positions.

    No, in fact, we go through quite a rigorous process to make sure part of the immigration service audits as this as well, that we advertise in multiple ways to find us citizens for these roles, rather than sponsor foreign nationals. That's part of the immigration process that needs to be documented and shown. We obviously first look for Detroit citizens, and then we move to anyone in Michigan and or anyone in the United States. These positions are typically very hard to fill. They're civil engineers. For most of them, they require, not only a degree, then they require a professional certification, and then they require, specifically for DPW case, three years of work experience in traffic engineering. We have. So it's not exactly somebody that we can just hire and train, although the department does work to train a couple new people to fill these roles. I think there's a approximately, for example, in DPW, 12 total positions. Six of them are still empty. I mean, we would hire anybody we could find today. So we're continuing to search for these roles, and we would continue those efforts to make sure that there are no US citizens, Detroit residents first and or Michigan residents or US citizens that could fill these roles.

    Was it accurate, then, that the immigrant community is filling an employee human capital gap for the city of Detroit with this program? Correct? Is it worth the $4,500 per employee that we're paying? I, you

    know, I believe that the department would certainly tell you, yes, these are, you know, not only hard to fill, but they're fairly well compensated positions. And the department's work is, you know, I mean, they're is fairly frustrated over the fact that they can't, we can't, still can't fill half of the roles that they have open, that that we're continuing to work on daily.

    And then, how long do we keep? Do they work for a year? There's only a year long contract. They work longer than a year. How long do we keep the capital once?

    It's a good question. I believe there will be another request at the end of the year to renew the to renew another contract for the next either three or four year period, etc. I'm not sure how procurement will work that, but it will be an ongoing expense. It is not going to be just a one time.

    How long do the employees stay once they we say, yeah, so it

    depends on the visa we're discussing. Our TN Visas are good for two two years, typically, and are renewed at fairly low cost. The H, 1b visas are good for three years. And then if the employee is in good standing off probation, showing favorable work, then we may even input them with the department blessing and the department funds. Actually some of this, we will then put those people into a green card process. So the h1, B's themselves, which is the first part of that process, are good for three years, and then can be renewed for three more years. The green card process is more of a it would give bring them to a permanent work status in the US, approval and that. But that process takes five to seven years, depending on the country of origin. All

    right. And then last question, how many of these employees that we're investing in and are supporting the city of Detroit are moving into the city?

    It's a great question, do we

    currently,

    just like with any other employee of the city, we can't force them to live in Detroit. We do get them moving from other parts of the country to the Metro southeastern Michigan area. I think the only Detroit resident we had out of the 11 actually just left us or one of the 12 that we had. So we now have 11, and they either reside in Windsor or southeastern Michigan. Today,

    within question, we'll ask more of a statement. I'm hoping that we would take this into account if we're going to invest this type of energy and effort, and they're going to invest that back to the city of Detroit. I'm hoping that we're actively advocating yes to come and move into the city. And also think it's probably a pretty good indicator of our competitiveness as a city, if we can get our immigrant community this, this these 11 to bring their families into the city of Detroit. So I'm hoping that we're talking to them and asking what it would take to get them to move into the city as well. If they're going to invest in them, let's get them into the city as well.

    Those are absolutely active conversations that are bad. Yes, alright, thank you.

    Thank you, sir. And then just briefly, I know you mentioned that there were currently six positions that were open now. And I thought you mentioned we do have competitive wages, or the salaries were pretty competitive. Can you just speak to if the current salaries for the engineerings would be considered competitive compared to the private market?

    And we just got, I think, the council approved last year for DPW, and an increase for this role, which helped, and it's made us fairly much more competitive with other municipalities, which, frankly, is where we do find most of these folks, is in other municipalities because of the traffic experience and

    street experience that we're looking for

    competitively with the private industry. We're I would guess, I would characterize it as at least we're in the ball game. We are not, probably, we are not as high paying as most private considerations. So we really are appealing to people that are looking to serve citizens and have a public wish to contribute to their communities or to a community,

    alright? And you said we recently approved that pay increase. When was that? I'm sorry if I don't recall, you

    know i i And I apologize. I do not have the date. I know it was within the last 12 months. Okay? I can get that information and send you could just

    submit to me, just to get a better understanding of where the engineering engineering position currently is compared to the market. Would be helpful for me, just to have, as we also are going into the budget season, would love to know if that is something that we need to possibly advocate for, for these positions as well possibly an increase. So if you can, please submit that that would be helpful. Will do All right. Thank you, sir. I saw a couple of hands Member Santiago Romero, followed by council member Callaway. Thank you, Madam President. Just have a question why this came out of committee without recommendation to any of the committee members.

    Council member Johnson,

    thank you, Madam President. There were some concerns relative to whether or not the human resources department is connected to the various colleges and universities in the area, and identifying ways to engage and bring those individuals into the fold, into these positions, as opposed to needing to go outside of the country to fill the positions. Thank

    you. Excuse me, thank you and Madam President. Just want to also state, as an immigrant that took over 10 years to become a citizen 1000s of dollars. We don't have a process for undocumented immigrants who migrate here to become citizens. This is one of the few ways that they're able to do so, legally, safely, and they're bringing assets. They are paying taxes, they are working for the city of Detroit, and my hope would be that we are thinking about how we both support Detroiters and gain new Detroiters. As member Benson was talking about, I want to make sure that people are able to work here and stay here. And the reason, the reasons why folks aren't staying here, I'm hearing are the cost of living, the insurance costs that the state has not addressed and helped us address and just also council president to your point about the competitiveness of these positions, we are still behind, and I am grateful that we are raising salaries, but as a city, we still have a long way to go to be able to pay engineers and the different professionals that we need in our departments so that we are competitive. So thank you for letting me know why this came out of committee without recommendation. But just want to state that this is the very few ways that immigrants are able to become, are able to work here and are able to to be able to even think about being here in the long term. Thank you, Madam President. All right. Thank you council member. Council member Calloway, yeah, thank

    you, Madam Chair. I don't believe these 12 are interested in moving to the United States. They're only interested in working here at our expense. I don't believe that we've done enough. Is just my perspective. With respect to recruiting civil engineers. We have the University of Detroit, Mercy School of Engineering. We have Lawrence Tech and South Phil School of Engineering. We have Wayne State's University, School of Engineering and Mr. Hughes. I just don't believe I could be mistaken that we've done enough to recruit from within. We come up with all these reasons why we cannot find qualified engineers or other workers, but I just don't think, and I apologize if you have done the deep dive, but it's just right around the block. Lawrence Tech graduating civil engineers every single year, and I don't see anything posted. Do we post? Do we go to the schools? Do we try to establish a relationship with the deans of engineering, or do we just take the easy way out and just hire from abroad? Because that's what we're doing. They're not trying to move here. They're trying to work here. Ask all the nurses, most of the nurses here live in Canada. I don't have a problem with Canada, but I would like to see us put Americans first. I would like to see us put Detroiters first. Our money is leaving, and I just don't think we've done a deep enough dive in terms of our recruitment efforts. Maybe we need to expand them. But you cannot tell me, sir, that we have gone to Lawrence Tech and looked at those engineers, engineering students. They're never going to build to capacity until they get their first job. If we had some type of mentoring program built within our own system, then we can build from within and out. But our excuse is always we. Our people lack capacity. We can't find any skill people. We've we've shaken the bushes. There's nobody there, but we go to other countries and shake their bushes and make sure that they can get visas at our expense, taxpayers. I just don't understand it for the life of me, when we have all these superb engineering schools, surrounded by them, some of them right here in our own backyard. What has been our effort, Mr. Hughes, to go to these schools physically, physically and recruit

    through the chair,

    through the chair. If I

    could respond, Yes, go right ahead.

    Um, thank you for the questions and comments we actually we do communicate and do present ourselves. Go to every Michigan University that has engineering programs, and frankly, we go there for every discipline, not just engineering. And again, if I could remind the council the positions that we're trying to fill or that these people fill also have three to five year work experience requirements. They are not graduates there the department is to your excellent point, working to try to develop, how can we mentor and grow graduates into fully accredited, certified engineers with the GIS experience that they're looking for and do it on the job? And the department's working on that because it's been a chronic problem to find qualified with experienced engineers. Secondly, these people that we're hiring, we're not hiring them. They live in the United States. Some of them have gone and graduated from Michigan colleges. But they just need a, you know, a visa to to stay in the United States. We are not moving anyone from another country to the United States or paying for that. They are current residents of the US and of Michigan. Okay,

    I misunderstood you, and I misheard you. I thought you said they were from Canada. That's what I thought you said. So maybe there are, yes,

    there are a few that have TN Visas that do reside in Windsor. That is correct. Okay, so, but all of the, all of the foreign nationals that we hired with h1 visa and the Green Card live in southeastern Michigan and have were living here when we hired them away from competitors.

    Oh, okay, so we're hiring them from competitors. They live in South

    other municipalities, Detroit. They just Detroit. Okay.

    So I know I find this very problematic, and I don't believe that we have gone and done enough to recruit from within. We keep talking about three years now, four years for me, almost on the council. I remember the similar conversation that we had, and we were going to start a program where there's mentoring ship mentoring taking place on in our own departments. But no, we don't do it. We come back every year and say the same thing. This has been going on since 2021 August. Now we're here. We want an extension. Want an extension, and we want more money, but still, we're working on building the mentoring program. Mr. Hughes through the chair. When are we going to get serious about mentoring and building our own when we keep talking about this program, when is it going to happen? Sir,

    it's a great question. It is driven by the department, but I will commit to you to get to you their plans, their current efforts, and a documentation of what they're going to do and are doing to address that. I apologize. I don't have that information.

    Okay, through the chair. How much are they earning? You have to have that before we should before we how can we vote on something? And what do you even know? How much they're we're paying them. I We're paying them between, excuse me, sir, I definitely would like that information. I know we're paying $4,500 for the visa program for each of the I think it's 12. You said 11, but it's 12, so I would just like to see how much we're paying. What is the salary range? And then I'd like to know how many women are in the out of the 12 through the chair, how many women

    through the chair? The I will get you the exact wages that are approved, but I believe it's between 75 to $85,000 and as far as the number of women that are in the program or that have visas, let me put it that way, 12344,

    of the 11 are female.

    Okay, so four of the 11 are women. Thank you so much for that information. I would definitely like, I would definitely like, to know your efforts have been in terms of recruiting from Lawrence Tech, certainly engineering school, school exclusively. And then Wayne State University has a beautiful engineering school over there, and also University of Detroit, Mercy. We have to recruit from within. And I just, it's my opinion. Don't believe we have put forth a concerted effort to recruit from our own schools. I just don't understand why we continue to justify these efforts and going outside of our country to get civil engineers, and we have them right here. They're taking out student loans every day to get that civil engineering degree. But they leave Michigan. They leave Detroit because they cannot find employment, because someone else is probably in a job that they qualify for but just can't

    apply for. Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you, Mister Hughes,

    Thank you. Member cowboy. Council member Johnson, thank you, Madam

    President, through you to LPD, I know there was a question relative to the tax clearance for the the contractor.

    Madam Chair, yes.

    Anthony Johnson, LPD, staff council member Johnson, we are still working with the Treasury Department to get these companies income tax clearance approved. As of yesterday, it was stated that the company submitted a new application on February 19, which was last Wednesday, and they need seven to 10 business days to process that application. So I will recommend this body could postpone the vote for one week to allow that process to occur, and then hopefully their income tax clearance will be approved at that time, and I will continue to work closely with the Treasury Department to track that information for this honorable body.

    Thank you. With that, Madam President, I like to make a motion to postpone line item 17.1, for one week. Discussion

    members. Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President. I just want to share that this contract is one that we approve every year. This is nothing new. It's something that is work that is done every single year. And want to offer a presentation from the immigrant immigration Task Force to this body around what it actually takes to be able to access these kinds of visas, the benefits, the assets that immigrants bring from around the world, because immigrants are black, white and brown, because the comments that are made right now, the intention may not be anti immigrant, but that is definitely impact that is that it's having on me and others. So I want to offer that as well, to come have a presentation around what we are actually doing to support to continue to build the city up as well. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you so much. Council member and President Pro Temp Tate, thank

    you, Madam President. And I know that you know that this is all a part of the deliberations. You know we have difference of opinion. We want to fully flush out an item. I think this is imperative. This is part of the process. This is the sausage, so to speak. But what I do have a concern is the fact that this, this item, is even before us without tax clearances. I mean, we constantly have items that come before us and we have to catch it, or we say something. That's the only time that the process is averted. You know, you would end up coming back to us later asking for approval because things haven't been taken care of. So I'm just that's the part I'm trying to figure out. Again, we can have debate on the issue, and that's healthy. But if someone can explain why we even have this contract before us, if all of the check marks haven't been checked off, done good work in the past, not going to take that away. But just like anybody else, any entity, there's a checklist that folks have to go through, or at least the departments have to go through before they provide a contract to us for approval. So if someone can respond to that, that would be extremely helpful. I know we're going to bring it back, and I support that, but there may be something else on here that we're going to catch. So just asking that question, how do we miss those things?

    Do we have someone on who can respond to that? Mr. Washington,

    the chair, we do not have a representative for OCP for this item, I would have to follow up towards the end of the agenda.

    Okay, well, I know we're bringing it back, but I do want it publicly known, not just an email sent to us or a memo, because this is something that's been brought up by pretty much every council member on on this this body, about this particular issue. So I don't want to hold us up and bringing it back at the end of this agenda, seeing that we're going to potentially bring it back next week. But certainly would like to have a public explanation next week, if this item is brought back and approved, or at least when it when it's brought back, why it did not have its full cadre of clearances before it came before us. Thank you. Alright.

    Thank you pro tem council member Young.

    Thank you man. I just also wanted to say Wayne State also has engineering program as well. I just wanted to put that in there one. But I just wanted to ask you, just a little FYI there, but I just wanted to ask, sir, what will be the economic impact? Let's say, I know, kind of doing a doomsday scenario here, but what is the economic impact if we don't have this? What is the economic impact if we don't have these workers here? I mean, I know part of this is because these are specialized fields, but I also understand that that this also does a lot for the economy. I don't think is this also farm workers as well that's included in this. I don't think it is. I think these are specialized positions. But I just want to know, you know, as we're looking for workers right now, as we're dancing inflationary times as as the inflation in city is higher than it is in the country right now, at 3% what are we doing? What what economic impact would this have if this program did not exist, if we did not renew this

    from a micro and a macro economic standpoint?

    Yeah, through the chair. If I can answer yes, go right ahead the it's a great question. Let's deal with the micro first, as it relates to the city.

    If we did not have this program,

    the current employees that have these positions would lose their visa status, and then they would leave the city. So we would be without at least six of those positions, or five,

    as it relates to the civil engineering example

    that we would not be able to fill, at least with these employees, they would be required to leave our contracting companies would not be able to pick up the work they've not been able to pick up help us out thus far with the vacancies that we have. So it's a problem that exists far beyond just the city of Detroit, and the residents would be left without the services that DPW has been asked to provide, for streets, for engineering, for GIS systems, etc, the department could speak to that probably a lot more eloquently than I could on a macro level. Yes, these people contribute. You know, they pay taxes. They they live in the in the state, or at least in the areas around the city, and then we will, as I think Councilman Benson suggested, work to get more of them living in the city of Detroit. But they, they help. You know, as our streets are better at a macro level, as our engineering department is able to do more things to help traffic flow, to help the city, obviously there's a much bigger benefit from a macro economic level to all of Detroit.

    Does that make us more vulnerable to automation?

    Well, I think in some ways, these roles are actually helping automation.

    I don't think that there's,

    you know, AI and or automation, while every I think every department, every part of America, is looking as to how it can help and benefit their efforts. It's not that we're looking at any development that would automate these roles so that we wouldn't need to be hiring these individuals specifically to this type of a position.

    Thank you.

    Got another comment? Yeah. Member Cowan, thank

    you. Thank you. Pro Temp Tate. Mr. Hughes,

    you work for the city. I do. Okay. You work for what DPW, or you work in the law department.

    I work in human resources. Ma'am, I

    do. I do apologize, but I believe that there's a motion on the floor. Oh, there is a motion. There is the motion on the floor. It was actually up for for the vote. Yep. Okay,

    so I'll just send him my additional questions. Okay,

    thank you so much, Tim, alright. Colleague says a motion on the floor to bring back line item, 17.1, in one week. Any objections, seeing none that action shall be taken. Thank you, Madam Clerk, I'm do apologize. Not sure where we are with the items.

    Mr. President, they were almost however. Member Johnson, it will be breaking them up. So 17.1 was taken.

    Which ones are we? 17.2 Yes, she did

    17.1 first, so now there's 17.2 and three. Alright, remaining and four.

    Member Johnson, what is your pleasure online? I'm 17.2 through four.

    Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to make a motion for discussion online. Item 17.2

    motion for discussion on 17.2 member Johnson, thank you.

    There was a fair amount of discussion regarding line item 17.2 this is to provide an increase of funds for the audio and video production services specifically to cover Board of Review meetings. And I'm not sure if there's anyone from the Department to speak to this, the board of reviews march from media services. I do, I do, see the chief assessor. There was a fair amount of discussion relative to when the march Board of Review meetings are slated to begin. There were a number of concerns raised to the amount of the increase that's being requested for a month long of services that will be provided.

    Okay? Yes, anyone from the Board of Review? I do see the assessor here, but I think the question is towards the Board of Review?

    Mr. Chair, yes, ma'am, as well as to media services and

    media services as well. Mr. Washington.

    Through the Chair, we do have director Jasmine Barnes online, and we'll have Leonard Jones joining shortly, as well from procurement

    discussion with further discussion, Mr. Chair

    member Benson, Just do yourself. Does the assessor add value to this conversation? Well, we're

    gonna, we're gonna find out. Okay, we're gonna find out. Because right now the it's not his contract, all right, please

    introduce yourself for the record when you see yourself on the record when

    you see yourself on

    the screen. Oh, you are you? Sorry? It's been a minute.

    Good morning, Your Honor, Your Good afternoon, your honorable body. Jasmine Barnes, Director of Media

    Services, afternoon. Anyone can answer that question, remember member Johnson to repeat it. I see you also, Mr. Don Well, please introduce yourself for the

    record. I will leave down well directing the property session, board review, glad to be here.

    All right, remember Johnson. They may need you to repeat if you will, please.

    Thank you, Mr. President, so recognizing the need for the audio and video services for the March Board of Review would like to get an understanding of the timeliness of this contract and this request as it's coming before City Council and the march Board of Review starts within a week

    this year. Yes, ma'am, hi.

    I recognize the delay in the inconvenience asking your honorable body to vote on this contract with the pending date looming. What I will say is that we have a contract out to be in order to address this service, to do outreach and engagement, in order to expand upon the notification of Detroit based businesses so that we can open the opportunity. We did not think that we were originally going to have to utilize this contract in order to move forward the services. Unfortunately, we did learn, maybe about 30 days ago that we were going to have to move it forward. So we did work with the Office of contract and procurement to get this to your honorable body. I can guarantee you that this will not happen again, and I never want to put your honorable body in a position where you are inconvenience to vote into consider a contract. So we are currently working to include the assessor's needs, annual needs, into our new contract, so that we won't have to do this in the future.

    Thank you for that through the chair. Can you provide clarity around you receiving it within the last 30 days, and who was expected to actually procure the services that are being requested?

    I think it was conversations on what would be the best means of providing the service. And because we have already had a contract, we decided to move forward with this particular creative day contract, and we did move it forward quickly. So it was just figuring out what was the best for both departments. And we did decide that it was best to just include it and roll it into the services, since we had already had a city wide contract.

    And through you, Mr. President,

    are you referring to the Board of Review? You said another department? Yes,

    the board of assessors. Yes, the conversations between media services and the board of assessors on providing the service and the capacity to be able to do so.

    Okay. Thank you. And in the during the discussion in internal operations, we identified that roughly 33 to 35,000 is being provided for labor. The other 60,000 is for the equipment. And because these meetings are taking place at two rec centers, and we've done this in the past at two other rec centers, there were some concerns relative to just renting the equipment at that cost to be able to accommodate meetings for the month of March. So can someone speak to that

    through the chair

    council member Johnson, are you suggesting that we purchase that we rent the equipment and Media Services staff utilize the equipment to support the meetings. Is that the question so that I can answer correctly so

    during iOS, that portion seemed to be an exhaustive conversation relative to the staff and the human resources that the department has. It was more along the lines of, if we are spending $60,000 on equipment, can we spend $60,000 on equipment that we keep and then hire the labor aspect of it?

    I understand yes, through the chair. So this is a one time, non reoccurring cost, so we wouldn't necessarily go and hire and staff the department for this one time cost. Our staff are busy, the servicing city council, our press conferences in our current reoccurring request. So we wouldn't be the best use of our dollars or the city's dollars to rent the equipment or purchase the equipment for a one time cost. We do have equipment that we just purchased. Thankful. Thank you to your honorable body for approving those contracts last year that has that is utilized and that is being moved for by our current our current staffing, for our current needs. So this is a one time cost, so that's why we're choosing to contract it out and go a creative day. The cost of the labor and the cost of the equipment was competitive, competitively bid when the contract was bid out, and that was a part of the cost. So we moved within the cost of the contract so that Leonard can speak more to but again, it's being competitively bid again, so that we can revisit and review if we are getting the best bang for our buck as it relates to this contract, but as it relates to the one time city $1,000 cost, we wouldn't hire staff or purchase just for this one time annual review. This isn't something that we do on a daily basis.

    Thank you for that. And one of the questions or considerations that was uplifted during iOS was, could we not have utilized a temporary agency for the labor aspect of it, if we had $60,000 worth of equipment that we are paying for for this particular contractor? All in all, to say that I think there is a number of different things that could have been addressed, or ways that this particular contract could have been addressed. Have we had more time to entertain all of those ideas, thoughts and suggestions that I think could have helped us to save some dollars to address this? Because, again, I want to focus on, and have focused on the fact that these services will be utilized for the month of March and the month of March only. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President,

    thank you. See there's additional hands with member Callaway,

    yes. Thank you. I serve on that committee, and we did have a lot of questions. I wasn't satisfied with the answers that we received. It's not a month. I thought it was 22 days at 5054, I'm sorry, 2222 days of service. It could be 3031, but I calculated 22 days of service, $5,454 per day, plus we have to pay for their transportation to come from Troy. It's either $75 a day for their transportation or 50. I don't know the difference. I don't know why it's $75 on some days and 50 on other days, which is a $25 difference. I'm just not understanding why. We never have Plan B's in place. We never can find anybody to do any AV work. We have a whole staff, but we can't seem to find set aside one or two people from our full time staff. If you're if you have anything planned to fill me at in March, in the month of March, you can cancel my appointments. You can cancel Media Services. I can help save the city money by you guys not coming to fill me and my events in March, because this takes precedence. That's making sure that the assessment Hearings and Appeals processes and those days are covered. My events could take a back seat. If we can save the city money, if that would help, but 22 days of service at $5,400 a day, plus, we have to pay them either between 50 and $75 to come from Troy. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. It just, to me, does not make sense. And we're talking not grant dollars. This is City funding. And I don't, we can't explain this away. Um, I'm not comfortable with it. I know I'm not going to support it. It'll probably get approved. But because we're under the gun again, we're behind the eight ball, we're behind the eight ball, our backs are up against the wall. The way we spend money around here. It's like my mother would say. It's like it grows on trees when it really doesn't. And it's very unfortunate that we always have to make these last minute decisions, because our backs are always forced up against the wall. We are coerced because certain departments don't do their due diligence because they're not following the city's calendar. We have a master calendar. We know when these hearings take place. We knew they were going to happen in March, and we wait to the last minute, and then you come here, not talking to you miss Barnes or whoever's on the screen. Mr. Don Well, we never have Plan Bs ever, because you know why? Because you know your plan A is going to get voted up. That's, that's, that's one thing I know, since serving on this council, you know that all the department heads know they do not. They never have to come here with the plan B, because the plan A's are always going to get voted up with some conversation, some serious conversation. But yet the vote remains the same. We ask all these questions, but the vote is always going to be in your favor regardless of fault, regardless of negligence, regardless of all of that.

    It doesn't matter. $5,454

    a day for services and coming from Troy, one or two AV technicians. First it was one, now there's two, and we have to pay them to come down here in this contract. So is that gas money for their trucks? I don't know. It doesn't say. It just says transportation, no explanation whatsoever. $50 here, $50 here, 75 but you know, that's just my those are my comments. Thank you so much. You all. And thank you pro tem, Mr. Chair, thank you.

    Any reflections at all?

    If not, then I can go to member Benson. Thank

    you and Mr. Chair, I would like the assessor to join this conversation. I've got a question for his department. So my question is $120,000

    for what could be 22 days of work

    for filming the Board of Review meetings. Where's the value add in that? I'm just concerned that we're spending that much money filming the Board of Review. We're not filming the BCA. We don't film the planning commission, also some very important commissions and committees as well. Why are we spending so much money for one month for the Board of Review? Where's the value added that?

    Do yourself? Mr. Chair, too.

    Thank you so much. Please introduce yourself for the record. Mr. Seth, and you may respond to member Ben's question. Thank

    you, sir. Alvin horn, Deputy CFO and assessor for the city of Detroit. Through the Chair, I can only point out to the member that the need to provide the service to cover the board review during their march session is part of the property tax reform. Or hold

    on. Mr. Horn many services, we can turn the mic down just a little bit. It's making it a little more difficult than we want to understand. Mr. Horne, let's try it again. Mr. Through the Chair,

    I can only point out that the need to provide the service to cover the March board review during the march session is part of the property tax reform ordinance. It requires us to provide this coverage, and that is the broadcast from the season Zuma channel. Okay,

    so then I my next question would be, then to maybe I'm missing the value add then, and maybe the Board of Review Chairman can help me here. Mr. Don, well,

    Don, well, what was yours

    again? William downward, Director of property assessment, board review. So again, just kind of echoing what Mr. Horner said, the requirement to provide the services is something that the board review itself doesn't do, and we have to reach out to media services to provide it for us. And again, it is required under the property tax report ordinance, the way that it is written. Now, and the services that are in front of you now, while you know, there may be a question as relates to the timing of it. They are needed, and.

    Mind, not because of the timing, but because of the value add. If we're spending $120,000 to film a board and commission, we don't do that for the others. We do that for a very select few. And I believe there's a level of value add in having that. But I just really hope that we can look at this in the future, if we're going to be spending this type of money on on ensuring the public has an opportunity. We could do this via zoom. There are other ways to bring that cost down, versus bringing the full force of an evening council meeting compliment to the Board of Review meetings and then filming them in two separate locations. I'm

    just hoping that we can think hard about how we're expending our resources in the future. Thank you, if I may add to the chair. So I was actually in front of budget audit finance a couple of weeks ago and discussed the fact that we're going through a process of starting from square one and evaluating everything the board review is doing structure all of this, processes, everything, and including its costs and those things that and how effective or efficient or inefficient that we may be. And the plan is to present something to city council in its entirety, as relates to how the board review is functioning and operating, as relates to all of those, those these things, the question also, because I'm not going to, going to drag it out, but the question also becomes, again, through to the chair member Benson, the question also becomes, again, not just where we can save or we're spending money In this aspect, but other areas as well,

    to where we can be even more efficient, reduce redundancy and be more transparent. All right, thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to say I don't I want to make sure it's clear that my comments regarding this process and this expenditure have nothing to do. I'm not trying to disparage the Board of Review, it also very valuable institution, one which is necessary and saves, as per information I've received from both the assessor and the Board of Review, 10s of millions of dollars for our residents, often our most vulnerable residents, but I want to make sure we're being good stewards of our money as well. If there's no need to film and spend $100,000 under $20,000 every 2022, days of the year, and we can ensure that our media department has the resources it needs and isn't engaging in processes outside of its typical scope with the with the resources that they have, I'm hoping that people will be willing to rethink how we're expending these type of resources when we're mandating that you have to film something when there is little to no value that's been nobody's measured it. We at least need to be measuring that. I'm glad to hear you're doing that. Mr. Don well, but I'm really concerned that we're spending $120,000

    on 22 days of work when we don't do this type of

    filming for BCA. We've got h DAB coming up shortly. We have a number of commissions, entertainment commission, and we're not filming those. And so I'm hoping that we can make sure that we're spending our resources efficiently and effectively. And I'm just going to go back to what Miss Yolanda Jack said in our presentation earlier today about the reparations task force being very conscious about how it spins city resources.

    And I just don't see that same level

    of efficiency being

    extended here as well. Thank you for the Chair. Thank you. I do want to clarify that these dollars are not coming from the media services budget. This service is being funded by the assessor's office. We're just amending the contract authority on a media services contract. And I do echo the sentiments of council member Callaway, and we will work to improve on in the future. Being a good steward of public dollars is of utmost importance to myself and to our department, and we will work to ensure that when we do sit down with the assessor's office on how we move forward with this in the future, whether it's a hybrid model or more cost efficient model, we will also come to your honorable body with the department with a collaborative strategy. And I do sincerely

    apologize for the lateness of the contract. We appreciate your consideration so that we can move this forward for our residents. Let me just ask. So what's all required? Right? So we talked about the requirement in terms of the ordinance, and we're going to sound like we got a lot of folks along the council table that have questions, but in terms of

    requirements, in terms of

    audio visual, what's required that someone can respond to that question, please, so truly share again. What's required is for their committee will have cameras available to be able to film the board, microphones, audio visual equipment that is necessary for the board to and for the also the audience, because part of the requirement is that the space is available for at least 50 people. So there also has to be, again, front facing and monitoring audio for the board and the audience, again, microphones for each of the board members and staffing to be able to operate, manage and monitor the board meetings through the audio visual side. So I'm sorry. And also, in addition to that, there's also requirements of three additional large screen monitors, one for interface with the public one

    for interface with the bsna system, and one for interface that shows the schedule of

    the day. And that's that's the requirement, or that how we believe that it should be operated.

    I'm looking for the requirements. So

    the require like letter

    of the law, because that that's where we always held to not what we want to do, but letter of the law. What's the requirements?

    The requirement is simply for the board to be recorded during its open meetings. Okay, thank you so much. Got a number of hands still member Young.

    All right, thank you. Thank you, Mr.

    I'm air traffic control here. That's part of what I do.

    She's gonna, she's gonna have a chance. I promise

    everybody gets a chance.

    Mine is real quick, just trying to cheer that's air

    traffic control. There is a shortage y'all

    through the chair to is it miss Barnes and

    whoever else can answer. What's plan B? If this does not get approved, What's plan B? Because I am willing, if you're scheduled to take me in March, and I'm sure my colleagues would agree. If we can save

    us, we the taxpayers money, maybe in March you just

    don't come and film us. You

    uh, because we do have one person who comes to mind. He didn't bring it. He brings a cell phone and tripod. That's Greg, very efficient. He brings a cell phone and an iPod. I mean, not an iPod. I try. What do you call it? The try the tripod. That's what he brings to my meetings. He's not bringing all this fancy equipment. He was at my coffee hour at the Johnson Rec Center. He brought a tripod and a cell phone and filmed the whole thing.

    I had more than 50 people there,

    and we did it. We had PowerPoint.

    So my question, I'm just My question goes back to what is Plan B, if we say no to this, that is my question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, thank you. Give folks on the screen an opportunity to

    respond, and we're going to go down the table for comments through the Chair. Yes, ma'am. It is my hopes that we can move this contract for today. This is the method that we utilize when we have large scale AV requirements that have extensive time requirements for the staff. So it's on top of our daily operations. That's not just service in the city council, but also right now we're in the middle of a flood crisis, so crisis communications via digital means to ensure that the residents are informed and engage. Our press conferences to ensure that residents are connected to the government and making sure that there is a governmental reach. We have a significant rapid response team that is working on digital constituency services. So we have a full digital operations that is working with communicating with the public daily that is not just limited to servicing AV Media Services request that is a portion of our consistent operations. When we look and we outsource utilizing creative day, we have extensive night time and or weekend requirements that will be not only conflicting with our daily operations, but tedious on the staff. One thing we really tried to do, we've been trying to do for the last year, is to prioritize the humanity of our staff, and so when you add on a possible 9am to 9pm for 22 days on top of any current open projects that you might have, it will be very difficult for them to move forward and balance their work life balance, which is very important for me, for our staff, because this is a very tedious responsibility, immediate services. The equipment is heavy, the time it takes to unload and load and to still have to do that, and your consistent responsibility. So we do prioritize the majority of our requests in our department to operation, to be performed by staff, but we do utilize creative day in tedious, time consuming because one at one time projects such as this for border review. So this would be how our department

    will respond to this type of request, and thus

    would not be a Plan B within the department. All right. Thank you member Young. Thank you, Mr. Chair. In all due respect to member Callaway, but I want to be recorded in March. Don't, don't, don't, don't you like the high school prime you all by yourself on that one. I just wanted to ask, first of all, I just wanted to say, I understand the purpose of this. This is a little bit different, because the services that you're providing is actually going to be able to help people stay in their homes, which is going to help the city be able to receive taxpayer dollars, I would assume, also is going to be able to help people they're making challenges via property taxes. I think this is something that's a vital service. I think there's something that's necessary. So I understand it. I'm supporting it. My only concern is the fact that this was that we're providing this money to city that's outside of the city of Detroit. Has there been any discussion about, and I know this is and I know it's kind of dangerous when I say this, but has there been any sort of discussion about sole source contracting? I'm not saying they don't go through the process of making sure that they can do the work and things that nature. But has there been discussion about sole source contracting? And has there been discussion about breaking up these contracts, you know what I'm saying, so that you can have, you know, Detroit businesses be able to participate in this, if you are going to provide this contract outside the city Detroit. Could you break it up so other city so other city companies can participate is that as well? I know it's kind of brand new, and it might be a little bit more expensive in the short term, but I think in the long term, it'd be better for city participation in contracts and in terms of economic development as well, because this is such a vital service that you're providing here. I mean, I can't tell you how many people talk to me about their taxes, about challenge taxes, about getting help. I mean, mister. Don, well, thank you so much for your work. Mister horn, thank you so much for your I think I sent you something to somebody recently, they were talking about their issue with taxes that you helping me with and mister. Don, well, I've been in rooms where I've seen grown women and men cry because they finally got the help that you had to be able to keep them their houses. So I know the importance of the work that you're doing and why it's important for this to be recorded. I just think that if we just did more, perhaps, should we have more local participation, I feel go along go further in the long run. And so that was just my question about, has there been any outreach to of has there been any thought about making

    these contracts sole source and breaking these contracts up so that city contractors can be able to have an opportunity for this audio visual technology? Alright, just asking everyone please streamline your responses, because we are spending an inordinate, or in ordinate amount of time on this particular item,

    and we still have additional hands. So

    again, please streamline responses and questions. Who would like to respond? Well, through the Chair. My name is Leonard Jones, Supervisor of Office of contract and procurement. And we have, we are looking at that when you say, breaking the contract up, doing tier one, large scale and small scale events that some are local videos can handle. So that's going to go out in the new RFP, there's going to be actually two RFPs, one for small scale, one for large scale, which will give opportunities for more Detroiters and more smaller entrepreneurs to bid on

    some of the working scope of work that the city has, audio, video equipment, rental and services.

    Thank you. Thank you so member Johnson's hand. Member Johnson, thank you, Mr. President, I really just want to elevate the fact that I believe these services were provided last year during the march Board of Review, and it appears to me as this is poor planning. If we provided the services last year, what did we learn from it? Did we recognize then that we didn't have the human resources within the media services department to provide the necessary support for the Board of

    Review. And how did we move forward this year,

    almost as if we've not done this before,

    the chair Yes, ma'am. I continue, and I will continue to take accountability. I wholeheartedly agree with this honor body and your in your point of view, burn my time and city council. I understand the inconvenience being put up against the gun to approve a contract last minute that is needed by the people, and

    I take accountability for the department and where we are, and make a commitment to not be here again. And within that, can we scale back what's being provided and

    still offer the services that are required

    to the residents? I will take the I'm going to take a I'm sorry through the Chair. I'm sorry, no, that was the question that I had asked about the requirements versus what we want to do. And we're only hearing about what we want to do versus the requirements. Requirements sound very basic, because the work that's being done is being done not so much through the cameras. It's being done with the men and women. Who are,

    you know, actually executing the one on one, with the with the residents? So great question. Member Johnson and Mr. President, to that point again, we're talking about $60,000 worth of equipment for our rec centers. I'm not sure how large

    these rooms are,

    but why does it take 60,000 worth of equipment to provide service through the Chair, if I may, I may be an answer part of that question. Now, Mr. Down will answer part of it what was required by the ordinance, but he we need to expand a little bit upon that the ordinance requires us to allow people to see what's being done, being done discussed at the table. So we have to, we have to show the data that's on our partial information scene. So that's one why one of the screens are there. It requires us to show who's at the table and who's in attendance and what the schedule is. So that's the purpose of those large screens, so that people can who are in the waiting room. Can see what's being discussed, where they are in line, what particular parcel information is available. So it's a little bit more than we're required to videotape the board review. We're required to do specific information during those hearings, and that specific information requires

    a little bit more than

    one or two cameras that may help address some of that through the Chair. Mr. Downwell, I appreciate your sponsor, and I know you don't work for media services, but Mr. Horn now, I mean, I know work for Media Services, and last night I had my monthly community meeting. And it was a hybrid meeting. We had one screen, media services were there was there two technicians, and we had the laptop with people on Zoom who could see us in person. The screen showed a presentation. And so everything worked smoothly. So I'm not exactly sure why the need, and I don't want you to respond to that, Mr. Horn, because you are not in media services and representing media services, because I think there's, there's a basic need in order to execute what we're asking to be done, but it just sounds like we're being extravagant here. It sounds like we're being extravagant when we look at again, $60,000 worth of equipment for two rec centers. Again, I don't know the size of the room, but I can't imagine that is a massive room, that it's the size of the auditorium in order to accommodate the sound bouncing off walls and things of that nature.

    Um, but again, I it just sounds

    excessive to me. I think we can scale back and still do what is needed

    for the chair.

    Yes, ma'am. Um, so whenever we go out to purchase services from Cree. They sit down with the project manager within the department, and that, in the case with Mr. Horn, to determine the needs of the facility. They do a walk through. And so based upon the needs of Mr. Horn that he described and what it would require from our contractor, that's how the services was quoted. So that is how we get quoted services for creative day. So the request of the assessors is a reflection of the quote in the services being provided by creative day for these 22 days.

    So they handle that quoting process directly with the requesting Department. Thank you for that. So that sounds like it did come from Mr. Horn. And again, I'm just asking, can we scale back and still provide the

    services so that the community knows and understands can hear and see everything that's happening. Chairman council member Johnson,

    we will start that process soon as this year's board review is complete, but none of us are in this position again. I think was was being missed. So this was voted on out of committee, but Wednesday, and I think it was without recommendation, which meant there were some questions about everything that has been mentioned here today, and it sounds like there was no to member callaways point plan B in case these questions arose again, not from three members, but from a nine member body at this point. So that's that's the part I'm confused about. It should always be at least well, if this doesn't happen, then this is how we can potentially scale it down, or if the count Council does not approve the contract, here's the alternative. But right now, it's like, it feels like full head of steam on this way in this way alone, no paring back, no. Let's think about how we can make any adjustments. That's not what I'm hearing. What I'm hearing is this is what we said we were going to do this, how we're going to do it, deal with it, vote up or down. That's what that's how

    it comes across to me, probably not that sternly, but that's how it feels, if I may, through the chair, yes, sir. As as Miss Barnes pointed out, staff from the assessor's office worked with media services, I'm sorry, media services and the vendor. We did a walk through, through both centers. We worked with the board review to understand what the requirements were. This was what the

    experts, the people who actually do this work, set suggested and stated, this is what they would need to go forward and they're, you talking about the ones that are getting paid. That is correct. Okay, that's where, that's where I'm coming from. What? What you hearing the bodies concerned, and I'm gonna bring this plane to a we're gonna land this plane. So, so if you're hearing the the consternation on council and the persons who gave you the advice, the recommendation, are the same individuals that gain the benefit from this contract there. What was the conversation like with the vendor, understanding that there was some concern about all the things you've heard today, that that's where I'm again, I'm not on the committee, so maybe there was some, and I'm certainly not with the departments plural, so So talk to us about that, and then, and then we close this out. We'll do whatever

    we're going to do. We either move it, vote it down, bring it back, whatever we're going to do. But this, this will be the last on this item, through the chair. I will take the hit on this one. I did not bring this to media services until November, that we needed to move forward that that was part of our yearly planning. We start applying for the Marshall review, October, November, time frame. I did not bring this to media services in time for them to investigate if there was a different alternative. So I'll take that one. But I can guarantee this honorable body that as soon as this year's Marshall review is closed, we will come up with that plan B, and that plan C and that plan D, if necessary, so that none of us are at this

    position in 2025, 2026

    as having this discussion again.

    Okay, all right, colleagues, member Johnson, I know there was no motion

    at this point, but open up the door for you now to make a motion

    as we can move this forward. Thank you, Mr. President, motion to approve line item 17.2

    all right, college, there's a motion to approve line item 17.2

    any objections? Objection member, Callaway, Objection,

    sorry. Objection. Objection member, take.

    Objection member, Scott Benson, District Three.

    Mr. Chair, the items fails and it's a four four count, correct, yes, all right,

    that item has failed to a four four count. Thank you so much.

    Thank you. Mr. Chair,

    you have a great day. Your honorable I apologize for 343,

    yes, four, three. Mr. President, thank you all right.

    Line item, thank you all line item, 17.3, member Johnson, thank you. Mr.

    President, I'd like to make a motion to approve line item 17.3 and 17.4

    there's a motion to approve line item 17.3 and 17.4

    any objections? Objection?

    Mr. Chair, Callaway,

    online, item 17.3

    Thank you any further

    seeing, noting that one objection, online item, 17.4 17.3 my apologies

    for member Callaway. Those items have been approved. Mr. President,

    member Johnson, I like to

    request a waiver online items, 17.4

    there's a request for waiver. Line item 17.4 Colleagues, any objections Seeing none waivers

    should be attached.

    All right from the law department council member Johnson, seven resolutions, line item 17.1

    through 17

    point 11.

    I'm sorry, Mr. President, line item 17.5 through 17 point 11.

    Member Johnson, thank you, Mr. President, Move for approval on line item 75,

    through 17 point 11, these are various lawsuit settlement requests and requests for legal representation and indemnification colleagues. There has been a motion for approval line items 17.5 through 17 point 11, any objections.

    Seeing none those actions shall be taken

    from the Human Resources, labor relations, division

    council member Johnson, one resolution, line item 17 point, 12. Member Johnson, thank you. Move for approval on line item 17 point 12 is this is the implementation of the 2024 2000 through 2028 labor agreement between the city of Detroit

    and the Police Officers Association of Michigan, Detroit traffic control officers. There's a motion for approval for line item 17, point 12. Colleagues, any objections

    Seeing none that action shall be taken under resolutions, recommendations for the

    historic designation Advisory Board, Mr. President, you all should be issued a paper ballot at this point. All right, colleagues, we have just been issued this paper ballot here. Miss bark cliff.

    How many names should we?

    Should we check off? Walk us through the rules, if you will, please Good afternoon. There are three names that are before you for appointment to the historic designation advisory board. There is one seat available for that appointment,

    and each individual, each council member, is to choose

    one individual from the list provided. Thank you so much. Take a couple of seconds to fill that out. Is there any discussion? Mr. With discussion member, COVID, yeah. Thank you. Can we, can I say what happened during Chuck Rivers was the most outstanding candidate. He is from district two. The person who were replacing is vacating. The seat was from district two. There are four representatives from district five on this commission, and we're just trying to make sure that there is a selection of not just one concentration in one district. And that's what's happening right now. There are four representatives from district five alone. I think there's one from district one, and we're voting on today to replace someone who was in district two, and that's why my colleagues will support Chuck

    rivers, an outstanding individual with a huge resume. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Any further colleagues Seeing none?

    They're being collected

    at this moment. We'll

    soon be tabulated.

    Got one more over here. I

    As we wait for the tabulation. How about doing pistons? Yeah, what? Seven games in a row, right? Hopefully

    we can get a run like we did with the lions. No, we got we got it. We got to get some

    shout out when we can, because it's been rare. Don't happen. Often. Don't

    happen. They didn't ride. That's right, you

    still have it. I'm still having

    flashbacks about that Washington.

    Yeah, wow, yeah. Shake it off. Shake it off.

    Bona fide, all star. All

    right, we can pull up all the ocean. Three points, I think what they

    surpassed last two years and wins this year, already doing well, hopefully we get a playoff run.

    Thanks for

    Kim and bass podcast. You say? What? Last year,

    we'll make it work

    when's winning. I'm

    not a big hockey fan,

    all right. I think we are

    awesome. Well, yeah, we support Okay, all right, Madam President, yes, I have the count yes for Tim Henry. There were zero votes for Charles rivers council member Angela Whitfield, Callaway council member Scott Benson, Council Member Letitia Johnson, Council Member Coleman and you on the second. Council member Fred der Hall, the third for Melena Monet Rawls, council president, James Tate, Council Member Gabriella Santiago Romero, Charles River with five votes. Melena Monet

    Ross, with two votes, Charles Rivers has the most votes, Mr. President. So Mr. Rivers has been appointed essentially by this body. Congratulations to him.

    All right, Miss Barclay, what's our next step? Anything else required at this point, there is nothing else

    required, other than to move the organization of this resolution. I

    don't see that in front of me. Is there a motion to approve? Mr. Rivers, yes. Ma'am

    council member Johnson, a resolution.

    Oh. Remember Johnson. Thank you, Mister President. Move for approval on line item 17, point 14. This is the resolution appointing Charles rivers to

    the historic designation advisory board for the term ending February 28 2028 thank you for that. My apologies. So there's a motion to approve. Mr. Rivers for line item 17.4, 14, excuse me, any objections, seeing none that action shall be taken.

    Thank you, colleagues for the Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee under unfinished business,

    Council Member,

    durha, an ordinance noting a roll call. Line item 18.1. Member. Durha, thank you, Mr. President, I move to take from the table an ordinance to amend chapter 50 zoning by amending article. I'm sorry, Article 27 zoning district maps, Section 5017, dash, 48 district map number 46 to revise the zoning classification for one parcel generally bounded by McGraw Street on the north, 16th Street on the east,

    Antoinette Street to the south and Stanton Street to the west. Laid on the table. January 9, 2025

    here are no objections that action shall be taken. Member durhall, thank you,

    Mr. President, if I may, that's article 17. I think I

    said 27 by

    Article 17, I move the ordinance be placed on the order of third reading and considered read,

    Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

    Member der Hall, thank you, Mr. President, I move the ordinance be passed as submitted with discussion,

    there being a roll call, I'm sorry with discussion member der Hall,

    thank you, Mr. President, opened it up for discussion in case colleagues needed to weigh in. Thank you. Any discussion colleagues, I

    Yes, seeing none. There being a roll call required, will the clerk please follow the role?

    Council member Angela Whitfield, Callaway, yes.

    Council member Coleman Young a second Yes.

    Council member Scott Nissen, yes. Council member Frederick Hall, the third Yes. Council member Letitia Johnson, yes. Council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, yes. Council President,

    James Tate, yes.

    Mr. President, seven years That motion passes,

    the ordinance is approved.

    Member durha, thank you, Mr.

    President, I move the time. Move the title to the ordinance be confirmed. You know,

    objections that action shall be taken

    from the Office of contracting and procurement.

    Council Member durhall, a resolution line item 18.2, Contract Number 6004269, dash, A, one, 100% CDBG funding. Amendment One, to provide an extension of time for HRD intake. Tier one, contractor, you snap back Incorporated, total contract amount,

    39,000 that's for housing and revitalization. Council

    Member durhall, a resolution through Hall. Thank you, Mr. President, Move for approval for line item 18.2 there's a motion to approve line item 18.2

    colleagues, any objections Seeing none

    that action shall be taken. Mr. President, may I request a waiver for line item 18.1 and 18.2 there's a request for waivers for both 18.1 and 18.2 colleagues, any objections,

    seeing none waivers shall be attached.

    Mr. Chair member Callaway, waiver online item 17 point 13. Colleagues, there's a request for a waiver online item 17 point 13. Any objections?

    I'm looking president,

    member Johnson, thank you. I believe member

    Callaway wanted to request a waiver on 17 point 14,

    because that will be bringing back 17 point 13.

    That's the actual resolution,

    yes, line item 17 point 14. Thank you. There's a request for a waiver, online. Item 17 point 14. Any objections Seeing none that action shall be taken

    from the housing and revitalization

    department.

    Council Member durha, a resolution line item 18.3 member durha, thank you, Mr. President. Line item 18.3 is a resolution of authorization, approving a commercial rehabilitation certificate on behalf of area warning war, area Warren, excuse me, LLC, in the area of 16,

    621, and 16. 653, E. East Warren Move for approval for line item 18.3 there's a motion to approve line item 18.3 colleagues, any objections,

    seeing none that action shall be taken from the planning and development

    department. Council

    member durha Five, resolutions. Line 18.4 through 18.8 remember Hall. Thank you, Mr. President. These items are various property sales

    and transfers moving for approval from line item 18.4 through 18.8

    there's a motion for

    approval line items 18.4 through 18.8

    any objections,

    seeing none.

    It's actually, I'll be taking Thank you,

    Mr. President, request a waiver from line items, 18.3 through 18.8 Sir, you said 18.3 through 18.8 Correct, correct. Alright. There's a request for a waiver on line items, 18.3 through 18.8 any objections Seeing none waivers shall be attached. Thank you so much.

    Member Bucha from the public health and safety standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement Council Member

    Santiago Romero, three resolutions

    lie items 19.1, through 19.3

    Miss Santiago Romero, Mr. President, there are contracts. First contract for line item 19.1 is contract number 6006894. 100% bond funding to provide proposal and demolition release s group s2 contractor salad being trucking and excavating. Incorporated total contract amount $2,676,385.75

    cent that's for construction and demolition,

    noting that this contract was moved out of public health and safety Standing Committee on 127 with the recommendation to deny and it was also postponed from last week formal session. Next contract is contract number 3080594, 100% blight funding to provide emergency dismantling, backfield and site finalization for the emergency commercial alteration at 2903, West, six mile. McNichols Surrey contractor salad being trucking and excavating. Incorporated total contract amount $15,278 that's for construction and demolition. Last contract is contract number 6004595, a, one, 100% special revenue funding Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for towing and recovery services for police authorized tolls. Contractor A, B, A M pound incorporated total contract amount 265,000

    and $88 that's for police

    councilmember. Santiago Romero, three resolutions. Santiago Romero, thank you, Mr. President. I would like to bring

    back 19.1 in one week, to allow colleagues to receive answers to their questions. Thank you so much for that. One got a number of those in that that group are in district one, have not had an opportunity to sift through life. I want to

    there's a request for a

    one week postponement for line item 19.1

    with discussion

    member

    young. I just wanted to ask, this is kind of a shot in the dark here, but I'm looking at this is part of the reason why there was recommendation to deny this is

    because of the price point

    of this. Because I'm looking at $2.6 million contract, and that

    threw me to the members of the committee. Yeah, anyone from the committee who would like to respond through the Chair? Thank you, Mr. President, this was taken or left committee with a recommendation to deny member waters. I believe was the one that made the motion I supported. I personally voted No on Prop end when it was on the ballot.

    So that's where I'm standing, and that's how I've been voting on this issue. That is why, thank you, if I may, and then I'll be down because, because I was wondering, because I just because I had that question about that too, and I didn't feel like I needed to ask that as somebody else who already asked that question already, I felt like it kind of duplicated to ask that question. I mean, I'm, I'm a supporter proposal only, but I do have questions about why we have that price tag with it, what we're doing with it, and how much of that is demolition, and how much of that is is a construction so I just and where that is, and what the impact in the neighborhood is on property values for construction and for demolition. So I was supportive. I just

    had some questions as well, but I can, but I can sit mine in writing. I don't need

    to do that right now, right here. So I was just curious. Thank you. Thank you. So there's a member Johnson, thank you, Mr. President. I'm not sure if member Benson had any questions, but I believe line item 19.1, is districts three and four, possibly some in district five, I know that I have held this up, I believe, for a couple of weeks, if not more, just to make sure that I was able to review some of the properties in District Four, I received the demolition report with the status showing properties that we thought potentially could be salvaged, and once reviewing the report, I understand the request for the

    demolition. And so I prepared to move forward. I just want to make sure that I am looking at the correct information. Yeah, you got me now curious, because the information I have in front of me shows the cadre of of properties on the west side, both one, six and seven. Is that what colleagues are seeing as well?

    Okay, that's what the 119 properties? Yeah, that's,

    that's what I have on my member Johnson. I'm

    just requesting to bring it back in one week. Motion, motion, okay, I apologize. There's a motion to bring back. I was waiting for it. There's a motion to bring back line, excuse me, postpone for one week. Line item 19.1,

    any objections that action shall be

    taken again. My apologies, colleagues, knocking off the cobwebs. All right in line item 19.2 Member Santiago,

    thank you,

    Mr. President, motion to approve 19.2

    and 19.3 his motions to approve line items 19.2 and 19.3 any objections? Objection 19.3 council member Scott Benson.

    Objection 19.2 Member Santiago Romero,

    any further colleagues? Seeing

    none. Madam Clerk, those appear to both pass. Yes, it did. Mr. President,

    that's 646 to one for 19.2 and six to one for 19.3 seeing, voting those two objections on those two line items, those two 19.2 and 19.3

    are approved from

    the Department of Public Works city engineering division.

    Council member, Santiago Romero, one resolution, line item 19.4 member, Santiago Romero, motion to approve. That's a motion to approve. Line item 19.4 any objections, seeing none

    that action shall be taken.

    Under request to speak before Detroit City Council.

    Council Member durha, a resolution

    line item 19.5,

    we can get discussion on this one, please. So move Mr. Chair. Thank you so much with discussion. So I did have an opportunity to speak with the law department on this particular item, and would like for law to chime in on concerns

    that we have regarding this particular line item for the chair Anderson, introduce yourself for the record.

    Floor is yours. Graham Anderson, law

    department. We are also joined by Attorney Jonathan Demers, who should be a panelist.

    Attorney Demers, you

    There he is. Please introduce yourself for the record, sir. Thank you pro tem. Jonathan Merced city, Detroit law department, yep. So thank you again for being here. I've had some conversation my team with a lot of partner

    regarding this particular item. If you can, please relay the information that you provided to us. Yes, thank you, sir, happy to do so. I work as counsel to the BCA, and I'm familiar with the submission by Mr. Gersh. And as we discussed earlier, I would just advise any public official, including members of council or staff, to decline to speak about matters that pertain to active litigation involving the city. Mr. Gersh is matter involves an appeal of a board of zoning appeals decision that is currently in circuit court. There was a hearing on the matter last Wednesday, there's another hearing scheduled this Friday. There's another hearing scheduled the following Wednesday, so we are in very active litigation, and the law department would respectfully advise

    that staff and public officials declined to speak about such matters while litigation continues. Thank you, and I don't disagree with that at all, but why? I mean, I totally don't plan on speaking on this. Why are we taking the stance that we typically do on this one? But earlier, when the gentleman came forward, there was a comment

    by the law department, and there was active litigation taking place there as well, through the chair that was a corporation Council's request, and I believe it was because he spoke on public comment, and we just wanted clarity to provide our side of

    the story, which we attest is the correct set of facts. Thank you. Okay, just hoping we get some consistency, because if this person comes before us, I would hope that we would stay in the same lane, not speaking on litigation, because that's always what I'm advised any additional colleagues, so I think the request or the proper motion if we believe that the direction that the law department has told

    us is proper would be to receive and file. Is that correct through the lot to the law department?

    Madam Chair, I would defer to Dr powers, but I believe that would be proper. Dr power,

    is that an option? Is that an option that we have without you trying to get receiving and filing would be an option, but the active approach would be to deny

    but I would expect that in either case, it won't happen.

    You receive and file it. He's not the person won't be speaking,

    but you're not actively denying it

    little softer blow, I guess. Mister Whitaker, President, I would, I would advise you simply to deny so the petitioner understands the stance that council is taking regarding this, he can be offered an opportunity to speak in public comment, just like anyone else, but the extra

    time that would be allotted to a to a petitioner would not be afforded to someone in active litigation against the city. Thank you so much. And this gentleman has spoken before Planning and Economic Development certainly and may have had other

    opportunities in other committees. So member durhall,

    floor is yours, sir. Thank you, Mr. President, Move for approval for line item 19.5

    there's a motion to approve line item 19.5

    colleagues. Any objections? Objection council

    member FRED DURHAM, objection

    council president pro tem

    take objection. Council member Scott Benson, objection member Johnson.

    Objection, COVID, Young number one. Objection,

    any further colleagues?

    Seeing none. Madam Clerk, what's the count? Two to five? Mr. President, that motion fails. Right. Line item 19.5, fails.

    We will now move to the new business portion of the agenda under unfinished

    business. Council member Benson, an ordinance noting a roll

    call. Line item 20.1,

    member Benson, Thank you, Mister Chair, I move to take from the table and ordinance to amend chapter 47 of the 2019 Detroit city code, transportation for hire, Article two busses, division two city busses, by adding section 47 TAC two, tech 15, prohibited conduct subject to removal policy, promulgation of rules in order to provide for the efficient management and operation of city busses and the safe and

    comfort of city bus passengers laid on the table February 11, 2025

    Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Member Benson, I move that the ordinance be placed on the order of third reading and considered read, Hearing no objections that action shall be taken. Council member Benson, I move that the ordinance be passed as submitted discussion with discussion member Benson, thank you very much. I just want to thank my colleagues. I hope to get everybody support here, and I want to thank DDOT for also thinking about how we transition Detroit into a world class transportation system. We often hear about additional resources, as in financial being placed in DDOT, but we also have to ensure that our bus system is welcoming to everybody, that families feel comfortable putting their children on busses, that residents feel comfortable getting on the bus, no matter what time of day that women are female passengers feel comfortable, understand they will not be verbally or physically assaulted while on the bus. And for our male passengers, they won't be assaulted physically either. And so it's critical that we have a place that's safe and welcoming for all of our passengers. If we want to become the world class it world class transit system that I know that we can become. We have the talent here. We have the human capital leading the way, and we're going to have a Regional Transit Authority soon, all things given if the voters approve it. And so we really need

    to make sure that we are at the tip of the spear, and this is part of the way we get there. I'm going to urge my colleagues to support. Thank

    you. Thank you. Any further discussion, colleagues? Discussion member Johnson, thank you, Mr. President. I appreciate everything. Member Benson said, I am curious. I know there were a number of items that were addressed during the public hearing, or at least uplifted. Just on Friday, I had the opportunity to do a bus ride along with member, or Mr. Cunningham, he may as well be a council member and a few others. And just noted that there were individuals who may have had some some mental health challenges, and I'm just curious to know how this provides support to them, because in conversation with them, there was some Discussion relative to the unhoused population actually utilizing the coaches to get warm so they pay their fare. They get on the coach. They ride from one end to the to the other, really just to get some heat, to get warm, for some shelter for them. I can't say that I experienced any

    behavior towards me that was unbecoming,

    but just just curious to know

    how this impacts them and

    their livelihood. That

    through, through the chair

    to member Benson, through you to member Benson, or anyone within the administration who'd like to respond? Mr. Chair, and I'm more than happy to give my opinion, but I believe that those who are actually doing the work should be able to respond to that as well. And that was something that was lifted yesterday during the public hearing, and the chair asked the most, very similar

    question they were responded to, is there anybody do it yourself? Mr. Chair, to the administration who can address those questions through the chair, yes, Sir Graham Anderson, law department, again, we are joined by Attorney Adam Saxby from the Law Department to speak on the legal

    matters, and Stephanie Davis from DDOT to speak on the DDOT matters, both via zoom. Thank you so much

    if we can pull them over, and when you see yourselves on the screen, please introduce yourselves for the Record.

    Good afternoon. Adam Saxby, law department, good afternoon. You Miss

    Davis, we see you. Please introduce yourself for the record. Hello,

    hello, oh yes, I apologize. Stephanie Davis, government affairs liaison for the Detroit Department of Transportation. Thank you. I'm not sure if you

    all, if you both heard the question that was posed by member Johnson, if not, do you need to repeat it? I did hear council member Johnson's question through you to council member Johnson. DDOT has partnered, or is currently partners with the Detroit Police Department who is making concerted efforts currently, and through the existence of this ordinance, to connect those who are on house with the I'm sorry, the Detroit Department of Transportation is partnering with the Detroit Police Department who can provide resources to those who are unhoused. There's a concerted effort with our two departments to make sure that those who

    are in need are connected with the resources that they

    that they require.

    Johnson, thank you, Mr. President, so I appreciate that response. I'm still wanting to understand how these amendments impact individuals who

    have mental health challenges, who are writing the coaches,

    whoever can respond.

    And to expand on that, I will say that on Friday, one of the experiences that I had is that there were a number of people in the Rosa Parks transit center who were likely doing the same thing that some individuals share with me, just seeking warmth in the transit center. So can you speak to just generally, because DDOT and DDOT workers, whether an operator or someone working within the transit center is encountering individuals who may be on house, but also may have some mental health challenges. How are we addressing that? And really,

    how does this

    ordinance amendment impact those individuals

    through, through the

    Chair, if I may, from from

    the legal side of things,

    yes, the floor is yours. I will just note that everything in this ordinance is really intended to be a tool that DDOT did AT T dot disposal that DDOT did not have beforehand. How DDOT implements those tools for various individuals, with residents within our city that may be going through various crises, is more of a holistic approach, but the from the legal side, these are tools that ensure that DDOT has the ability when, when it deems appropriate, to ensure For the safety of other passengers and and its staff that they are removing any any individual until they can address those issues again. These are tools that are available from the legal side. I would

    defer to DDOT though on how it would handle the specific questions that council member Johnson is speaking to to try to add to what the law department has offered, the the subject of the ordinance is not to be punitive or to be a tool to negatively impact anyone From using public transit, but in order to to be one of many,

    one of many tools that allows everyone to

    travel safely and comfortably, even for passengers as well as our TEOs. Thank you for that. I'm not sure that's that that is reassuring for me, but I do want to ask, is it the operators responsibility to address anyone who is soliciting, selling, loitering or panhandling, or

    someone who is having in the middle of a crisis? No, that is not the responsibility. Of the driver of the Detroit Police department works with our transit I'm sorry not. We are increasing security at the transit centers and the Detroit Police Department, they

    work hand in hand to

    intervene in the event of an issue.

    Okay, and can we just kind of walk through a scenario, if there is something happening on a coach, we expect that there is going to be an officer or someone on the coach to be able to address it in real time, or is it the responsibility of the operator to notify the police department to address the situation,

    perhaps at a near, nearby bus stop or something? I don't want to speak on behalf of operations. That is not an area that I work directly in. But if I am to speak broadly, I the driver is not tasked with intervening on the coach,

    but I can get more

    information on how or what procedures

    they do when there is an issue on the coach or bus. Sorry.

    Thank you, Mr. President, I do see member Benson has his hand raised. Member Benson, all right. Thank you. I just want to add a little bit here, and please DDOT or law department correct me if I'm wrong here. So we are right now looking to lay out prohibited behaviors on the busses. In addition to laying out these prohibitive behaviors, we're also working now to authorize DDOT to promulgate rules which would allow for different levels of discipline for writers. And so if you have writers who who engage in egregious behavior level two, and there's an opportunity for them to be removed from the system via an administrative process that's also here, there is no intent. This was a conversation at your own public hearing yesterday to exclude people based on their level of income, based on their house situation, or based on their mental state. If you are having an episode on the bus as last week or as in next month, that's not illegal. But if you're engaging in behaviors that are destructive or detrimental or harmful to others, you will have that behavior will have to be addressed. And so I don't want there to be a misconception that this is trying to legalize or criminalize those who don't have homes because if you're on the bus you paid your

    fare and you want to get warm and you paid your $2, you have four hours to ride that bus. until you get.