BFA: BSEED / Civil Rights, Inclusion and Opportunity
6:00PM Mar 19, 2025
Speakers:
Keywords:
budget hearings
building safety
compliance fairs
senior buildings
business licenses
cannabis industry
minority contractors
veterans affairs
human trafficking
Detroit Women's Commission
air quality monitoring
zoning enforcement
economic inclusion
disability affairs
community engagement.
Cannabis licensing
Detroit ownership
illegal sales
testing kits
straw man
revenue sharing
compliance fees
language access
discrimination complaints
returning citizens
disability affairs
skilled trades
apprenticeship programs
senior citizens
affordable housing.
He's hearing the screen, okay, okay,
which one on The corner? On the corner?
But they were happy to see me as well. And I'm sure they were happy to were happy.
It was on a
it was far west. Oh. Microphone,
Hey, you ready? Need a second. Okay, all
right, we will call back to order our expanded budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the purposes of our budget hearings. And Mr. Clerk, please call the roll
Good afternoon. Council member Scott Benson.
Council member Frederick Hall, the third present. Council member Letitia Johnson. Council member Gabrielle, Santiago Romero, present. Council member Mary waters, present. Council member Angela with
ocalaway. Member Callaway has indicated she will not be present. The clerk will So note.
Council member Coleman Young the second
Council Pro Tem James Tate.
Council President, Mary Scheffel, present, Madam President, there is a quorum.
There being a quorum present. We are in session, and we will start with our first hearing from the building safety engineering and environmental department director Bell, the floor is yours to proceed.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Council President, robotni, my name is Dave Bell. I am the director of building safety engineering and environmental department,
and on my left, Raymond Scott, Deputy Director,
alright, Eunice Braxton, Williams agency, CFO building safety.
Okay, so I am proud to come before you for my 10th budget hearing representing over 320 hard working, dedicated people from building, safety, engineering, environmental department, I could not do it without these employees. I appreciate them very much. I want to give you a high level overview of the department, and I I
want to give you a high level
six second technical,
okay. Want to give you a high level overview of the department, what we've done over in 24 and what we plan on doing in 25 I want to start off by thanking this honorable body for your continued support and helping us increase the quality of life for the people who live work and visit the city of Detroit.
And next slide, the
mission statement of BC to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the general public as it pertains to buildings and their environments and a efficient, cost effective, user friendly and professional manner. Next slide, the vision is to become a model in our industry by providing best customer service using state of the art technology while enforcing codes, laws and ordinances in order to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Metro Detroit BC consists of seven division next slide, seven divisions, 323 employees. We have a baseline budget of $38.5 million Administration is responsible for resource allocation, management, planning and ensuring that all applicable codes, laws and ordinances are enforced. Next slide construction division is responsible for inspections of any given project related to buildings, mechanical, electrical, boiler, elevator, plumbing and code enforcement. Property Maintenance is responsible for enforcing the codes related to residential buildings, commercial buildings, dangerous buildings and blight reduction. Development resource center is responsible for comprehensive information. Resource Center for development services, virtual permitting, electronic plan review and project development reviews. Environmental Affairs is responsible for protecting, protecting the natural resources, Environmental Enforcement, brownfield redevelopment and revitalization. License and permits division is responsible for permitting and business licensing as related to businesses and trades, licenses and regulated code enforcement and consumer advocacy. The zoning division is responsible for zoning reviews, interpretations, verifications, Site Plan Review and zoning special land use hearings. Next slide and next slide. So what we got done in 2024 we performed 261,489 inspections. We issued 60 866 building permits totaling $2.3 billion in estimated construction costs. We issued 25,938
trade permits, 443
certificates of occupancy, 18 122
business licenses for brick and mortar. 668
certificates of compliance. We closed down with the help of DPD, 276 illegal marijuana facilities we serviced 330, 2751 see click Fix complaints. We handled two. We we had two compliance education fairs. We issued 67 conditional land use decisions and 462 zoning verification letters. You can advance to two slides. We got done in 2024 these business these projects, got to the finish line, the AFG Miller grow center on Burt road for $17 million it's a three story 45 unit, multi family housing facility in d1 next slide, the orchard center in d1 $18 million new construction of 48 unit affordable housing. Next slide, the d dot Jason Hargrove transit center in d2 on Eight Mile Road, $31 million
next slide,
first Merchants Bank in d2 on West McNichols, $1.5 million it's a new bank with a drive through next slide, the North Point development logistics center in d3 on Connor. That's a $19 million warehouse and industrial facility, 648,000 square feet. Next slide, the Chandler Park, sports dome in d4 that's on Frankfort. $14 million 130,000
square feet. Sports Field House.
Next line in d4
we have the Manistee tree house on Manistee for $800,000
that's a neighborhood non profit community center.
Next slide. D5 the built in on Horton street. That's a $4.8 million facility, three story, 29 unit, multi family dwelling, apartment building.
The next slide
piece in d5 also, we've got the shepherd Art Center on Park View $3.2 million multi use space for art gallery and park with collaboration space. Next slide, the water square residential tower in d6 on civic center. Drive, $60,000,000.25 story, 30 unit room, luxury apartment building. Next slide, d6 you've got the love building on Grand River. $4 million for offices.
And next slide,
in d7 you've got the Brennan pool and Recreation Center on Plymouth, $20 million 20,000 square foot facility with gymnasium, fitness center, training classroom, reading nooks, dance studio and multi purpose rooms. Next slide, the straight gate church block is hot project in d7 on Monica Street. $2.7 million for community park.
Next slide.
The goals for 2025
next line, we are going to fully implement an air quality monitoring network citywide. We're going to launch a customer facing zoning marijuana informational portal. Anybody looking to get in the marijuana business, and they have an address in mind, they can type in the address, type in what they want to do, and the system will tell them whether or not they can do it at that address, and the steps that they need to take. The goal is to increase certificates of compliance for rental by 40 to 50% increase the certificates of compliance for businesses by 35% increase the number of businesses license issued, or brick and mortar by 35% and we are going to streamline the business license process, and we are also going to upgrade our Online Permitting System called the seller. It's been with us for about six, seven years now, and it's due for complete overhaul towards the end of the year, or maybe in the beginning of next year. It's going to get a complete overhaul of the customer facing system. Next slide projects there in the plight pipeline for 2025 Minot Park Place on Grand River. $11.2 million this is a new four story mixed use 42 units senior housing facility in d1 next line, the automobile accessory manufacturing facility on Raulston. This is near eight mile and Woodward. $7,000,000.20 9002 552 square foot building. Next slide, the new purging High School in d3 on Seven Mile. $49 million next slide, the Arthur Murray building in d4 on East Warren, $8.6 million residential on the upper floors and on the first floor, you've got commercial and parking. Next slide, the Henry Ford Health Hospital south tower in d5 on West Grand bola for Boulevard for $874 million you've got 19 story building, 432 beds, 28 operating room hospital. Next slide in d6 you've got the Second Avenue South approach on it's the elevated roadway on Second Avenue between Congress and the Lodge Freeway that will connect the the the conference center to the new hotel that's going up $12.3 million next slide, the d dot Coolidge operations and maintenance facility in d7 on Schaefer, $160 million and 1800 800 square 18,840
square feet. Next slide, I guess that's it.
A lot of work, and with that, I'll take any questions you may have.
All right, thank you so much director Bill for the presentation. And I want to just start off by thanking you and your department. I know whenever I reach out, you are very quick to respond. And so want to thank you for being accessible. You know, most of my calls when I'm reaching out to you are regarding our senior buildings and multi family complexes. And so I want to start my questions around that. Just want to know what more you all are doing to ensure that the quality of life for our multi family developments primarily senior buildings. And what I'm also realizing is that a lot of the senior buildings that were 100% for seniors are now phasing out, and they're allowing others into those buildings. So not necessarily just 100% senior building, but most of our multi family residential developments. What are we doing to ensure and enhance quality of life for those buildings? I just want to state I am really just trying to wrap my arms around what more we can do every time I go into one of these buildings. And I've been doing it for years. It truly breaks my heart to see the quality of life that our residents are living in, understanding that some of these are regulated by the Housing Commission. I just got off the phone with Arthur Jemison this morning, getting a breakdown of all of the buildings that are run by hood and their compliance and their protocols, but understanding that you all, too have a layer of compliance as well, and what the coordination is, because oftentimes we're seeing you all come out, you ticket things are not being fixed, and to constantly hear the residents cry And plea for an increased quality of life in these buildings, understanding as well that we may not own these buildings, but they live in our city, and that matters. So I just want to be as vocal as possible. I want to take my time and express how I feel I was just that one today, the way the management treats in some situations, our residents, they're not responding to work orders that have been put in for months, carpet, painting, mold. I mean, the cleanliness in general of our buildings is unacceptable, whether we own the building or not. They are buildings that are in Detroit, and these residents live in our city. So I know at I think two years ago, we allocated two additional inspectors to inspect senior buildings. I'm not sure has there been any success with that, but I want to know what more we are doing to improve the quality of life for multi family residential developments that oftentimes, I think get left out as well the conversation,
yes, ma'am, we are working with
we're coordinating our elevator inspections with our rental inspections, and we are enforcing aggressively. We just related to elevator complaints alone. We've gone out and inspected and issued over $95,000 in tickets last year alone, we we are going to start nap suiting some of these apartment buildings as needed. Again, we've issued $95,000 in tickets rental alone, we have issued over $5.8 million worth of tickets last year for rental
properties. And when you issue the tickets and fines, they're paying the fines and also bringing the property up to code, or is just the fines paid. And then, because I'm hearing that is that they may be paying the fines, but then the correction is not necessarily there with the building itself. I believe
that in some cases, they are bringing working towards compliance, and we've got to hold their feet to the fire, and we're going to continue to do that. They are paying the fines in some cases, and we just have to keep moving them forward with additional enforcement and re inspections. Okay?
So I need a little bit more of oversight, because it sounds like, yeah, in some cases, they are paying a fine, and we just have to keep, you know, making sure that they're doing it, that that's not acceptable when they have to live in those buildings. And then, I know we talked as well about that. I think you mentioned there's only one company that we can actually contract through. Or some of the issues with the elevator is that when they're down, trying to get someone come out, to come out, to have the appropriate parts to fix fix can take months, and so that's some of the issues as well too. I think you mentioned around parts, right? Trying to procure the the appropriate parts to fix the elevators. But that is a huge safety issue as well that we've talked about. I mean, this is constant. I mean, every single time I go into a building is the same, same issues, and it has not got better.
So Madam Chair, we are contracting with elevator companies as needed when the situation calls for repairs. We are issue working with the law department to start the nap process on the cases that we feel that needed.
Okay, so I'm going to put this portion into the Executive Session. And then, before I continue, you mentioned in your reports for accomplishments that you only had two compliance education fairs. Yes, ma'am, and I see a lot of different report outs, but that was the smallest amount. So I'm wondering again, because I try not to put it all on the the owners of the building, because, well, I do understand that they need support, too, but how are we better supporting them through education and compliance and what resources are available to help them improve their buildings? If we've only had two in the whole year, I think we should maybe do a better job at working with developers, landlords and these management companies to give them a pathway to help improve the quality of life for residents as well.
I can work on having more compliance fairs. I will say that we also did a media advertising campaign for compliance that included social media, and included advertising on billboards and things of that nature last year now, but we will work on having more compliance fairs with the landlords. Okay,
so I will, I will add to the executive session the compliance fairs, and I can provide more additional dialog on it, but just compliance, compliance fairs, please to the executive session, and then also the inspection of I'm sorry, okay, any objections to that hearing, none that action will be taken. And then also the compliance in inspections of multi family developments in Detroit, particularly senior buildings. President, okay, thank you.
Any objections
hearing, none that action will be taken. All right, so the second thing I wanted to mention is just overall, how we are improving the and streamlining the business process in Detroit, I know that this is something that we are probably all watching and trying to figure out how we can better streamline the process and eliminate steps for businesses to set up shop to make improvements within our neighborhoods and through commercial corridors in Detroit. I know you said that this is a goal, but can you speak a little bit more in detail about how we are improving customer service when it relates to development in Detroit?
Yes, ma'am, the administration has taken a top down review of how we can make it easier for Detroiters to start a small business. This includes both permitting and licensing. And as part of that review, we've been in touch with business owners developers in the city to hear about their experiences compared to Detroit, comparing Detroit processes to other cities in Michigan. We know this is a lot of work to do and navigating the city's current processes, and immediately after budget concludes, we'll be seeking time to brief all members of council on our findings and proposed plan to make life easier for local small businesses. We greatly look forward to working with council on this issue and hoping to take some ambitious steps to match the scale of the need.
Okay, is there currently a one stop shop? Yes, on the fourth floor of the DRC, okay, and is that, and can you explain exactly how that is? Is streamlining currently the process? So
yes, ma'am, back before the one stop shop, any developer coming to the city of Detroit would meet with fire, then they would meet with CPC, then they would meet with health, and then they would meet with all the other departments related to their development, and by the time they got done meeting with all these departments, their head was swimming. Now, if they go to any department about a new development, that department will say, you need to talk to James Foster. James Foster, in my department, then calls a meeting with the developer and brings everybody into that meeting. So if you hear the water department say something that is related to the fire department, the fire department will then weigh in and say, I heard what you said with the water department just told you, while you're working on that, you also need to keep in mind this, that way they are looking to solve both problems at the same time. Okay, good
to hear. I still do hear that there is a lot of departmental involvement that people are trying to navigate, even with the one stop shop, that there's still a lot of bureaucracy and no help navigating the process. The help is there for larger development. We have the DGC and others that walk them through that process. But again, for smaller developers and for those who want to make alterations, have existing businesses and neighborhoods who want to add a patio, add signage, whatever it may be, there's still a lot of departmental overlap in crossings that people are or developers or business owners are trying to navigate. So definitely looking forward to working on how we improve that process, I actually would like to propose and add to the executive session a concierge project manager team that will help customers through the licensing and permitting process to executive session so that we can look into this more to see how we can better improve the customer service experience for those who are looking to develop in our city. So moved Madam President, and I would like to add $600,000 to that as well. So moved
Madam President, right
any objections hearing,
none that action will be taken, that will be added to Executive Session and again, thank you, Director Bill, looking forward to working with you on a lot of these outstanding concerns. Thank you. Alright, we will move now to council member young,
excellent. First of all, before I begin, I just want to say, you've always been responsive. You just helped me recently with a man. So I just want to say thank you so much. Every time I called you guys, you've always responsible. You have no idea what you just got off my back brother. So I think I appreciate that. And your team, um, man, President, really kind of stole a lot of my Mojo and turned a lot of questions I was going to ask about small businesses. So I guess I'll just kind of piggyback off of what she said. But I'll start prefacing with, with some, with some some facts. So I think, according to Institute of Justice, it's 76 steps to start a restaurant. It is 47 steps to start a food truck, and it's 60 steps to start a barber shop. And you have to get in order for you to start a restaurant, you gotta get 15 different forms. You gotta fill out. It is cost about little over $6,000 to start. I wanted to ask you, what are we doing to reduce the number of steps? What metrics are we using for that reduction? Is it based on what the average is? Is it based on, you know, what they're doing on other parts of the country and right now, in terms of restaurants, the only place that has more steps than we do is Boston.
Look through the Chair. I'd like to see what you're looking at. I'll send you the study. I appreciate that. I know that at one point, several years ago, somebody something came out that said it was 35 steps, and I, I, we dug into it, and it's not 35 steps. We do know that we can do better, and that is the reason why the administration is digging into the whole permitting and licensing process. And we believe we've got some aggressive steps that we believe are going to change things. How
many? How many? How many steps is it? You know, I did a little bit different because I broke it down different industry, so it might not be where it is collectively. So I'll give you that. I'll, I'll have to
dig into it, but I believe it's approximately 15 steps. And overall, overall, okay. Yes. But again, I'm looking forward to working with this honorable body.
I'm done. I'm done, I'm finished. Thank you we can know member Callaway is present. No member proton tape. Thank
you, Madam President, thank you for being here. Director Bell and team. Got question. We're going to send the majority of our questions in writing so that you have an opportunity to review them, and we'll take a look at them as well. Bigger question I have, and I've been talking about bright, more bright, more in general, but wanted to focus on the brightmore scattered homes, which I'm sure you're familiar with, trying to identify what, what actions have been taken thus far, and is planned to be taken to improve, as council President indicated, not necessarily just for seniors, but for the residents, mothers and children in general, who live in these bright, more scattered homes that are more than challenged. Let me just say it like that, without trying to embarrass the people who live in those properties. And they've been like that for quite some time, I know I have been made aware of it since 2018 have been working with various departments, one of course, being yours, since that time frame, trying to identify how to improve the level of disregard and disrespect that the owners have placed upon The residents who live there. For some of them, they have purchased these, or, excuse me, moved into these homes that look not as bad on the outside when you go inside, there's mold, there's missing things, and there's also still a number of original articles, such as carpet and wallpaper and you name it, from 20 plus years ago, and wear and tear makes things a lot more challenging along the way. That'd be one problem. It was just that we got holes in the roofs. We've got just all across the board, pretty much every home of the 300 plus homes, we're talking about, have this same esthetic if you will. And I'm trying to figure out what is it that we're doing as a city, to get the owner to comp.
Pretty pleased with sugar on it never changing through the chair.
All right, thank you, Madam President, so I want to have a conversation maybe a little bit more about properties that are sold, that are for sale. So we talk about the rental ordinance, and really looking to bring landlords into compliance and ensuring that their properties are up to code, and they're providing quality housing for our renters. I really want to have the conversation relative to properties that are being sold and making sure that people that are buying houses in the city also can anticipate walking into a house that is up to code, or if not, they recognize that they are purchasing the property as is so in 2014 there was a relaxation of the pre sale inspection, where it's no Longer mandatory, but people can go through the process to do a pre sale inspection on their own. Can we talk about what the perceived benefits were for the resident, as well as to the city, and what benefits we've realized as a result of relaxing the requirement
through the chair,
being in the department for, for almost 27 years, I got, I got a lot of complaints from landlords or investors and even homeowners. Some homeowners, I mean, I mean buyers, they want to use their own inspector. They don't want to use a city inspector. Some people do. Some people don't. And what that previous ordinance did, it said, even though you want to use your inspector, you also have to pay the city so you have to pay for two inspections because of this ordinance. And now and this honorable body agreed that at the time that people should have the.
okay, any objections,
hearing, none that action will be taken.
Thank you. And finally, do want to talk to you just specifically about IT infrastructure. I know the elaps You're saying that is getting the upgrade that's much needed for that portal. Can you talk us just a little bit more about that? What it'll entail? You said it'll be a little bit more user friendly. But how will it expand, expand its features to help folks who utilize it?
So through the chair, the new system will make it easier to upload documents. It'll make it easier to to to toggle between screens and between different cases that you may have. Another upgrade that we are working on is open counter. Currently urban, open counter allows you to type in what you want to do and and type in the address, and once you're done with that, it says, Okay, now go get a building permit, go to go to elapse and get a building permit. When we get done with it, it will, as soon as you get done typing in your information in open counter, then it will automatically create your account in elapsed, so that it's a seamless process. We're looking forward to doing that. Also. We are looking forward to making a seamless integration with a ball the electronic plan review service, so that it is a seamless process from when you start your application in asela to uploading your plans into a ball that will be a seamless process too. At the end of this fiscal year, the coming fiscal year, we're looking forwards to that
I'm glad to hear that. I'd love to talk to you offline on how I even think we can connect it relative to the permitting portal as well. You know when we're talking about, again, that one stop shop idea, I think we're there in concept here, and we're getting there, but there's a continuous push to really make it as efficient as possible, where on one day you can come in here and get everything that you need. And I know you guys are doing tremendous I'm not hammering you on that. I know you doing what you can do, but we still hear that from a lot of developers. We still hear that from a lot of business owners, but where you can come in here in one day, and then you get one date, and you can expect that that day, you can have those folks come out, and you can maybe get multiple inspections on that day, because it is uniform. And what that does, it makes the city more efficient, because time, time is money. And when we talk about time being money, we see the unintended consequences. Because folks come here and talk about the but for, for development or the but for, for their business. And I think if we are more time efficient, that would be helpful, but I'm glad to hear that. I want to thank you as well for being always responsive to our office. You guys come out and respond to our district every time that we need you. You guys are always there. And thank you even for your help on the auto related ordinances and pushing those through and helping change that we just got to make sure that we're cracking down on these folks that are non compliant. So thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.
Council member Calloway, thank you, Madam Chair and good afternoon everyone. Thank you, Mr. Bell, to you and your team. You, as my colleagues have indicated you, you and your team are always quite responsive, even on Sunday, sir, even when you're on vacation. I appreciate you. I appreciate you, sir for always responding. I do have a couple of questions, and I want to make sure, maybe you can check with your team these questions were sent to you. Six of them on March the 13th. Did your staff receive them? They were sent to you through Malik Washington,
yes, ma'am, and I
through the chair. We did get them, and I do believe we responded, okay,
do you know when you responded?
Oh, I'm sorry. It still has to go through budget, through the Chairman. Okay, so we're working on it. Yes, ma'am, okay, so
I'll just extract one of the questions from the six that I sent. And this is my residents are listening. Second fatal fatality at the same
gasoline station.
James cousins and Wes McNichols just a few months ago, guy jumped to his death running away from a clerk who exited the gasoline station chasing him for retail fraud, maybe bag of chips, I'm not sure, but he's dead, and that's the second death of a young black man after having some interfacement with that particular gas station. So I had the meeting with the residents to kind of keep them calm, because they want that gasoline station to not reopen. You and I have talked about this. We know that the law department, unbeknownst to me, entered some type of agreement that I haven't seen yet with with the the new owner, who was Nasir. They don't I had an opportunity to meet with him and some of the residents a week or so ago. Very nice gentleman. He is gutting the gasoline station. As of today, is being gutted, and he's going to turn it into like a market type of gasoline service type of experience, which is what he's done at Wyoming and West McNichols. My concern is the opening of the gasoline station that has had two deaths as a result of black men residents having contact with that gasoline station that's out of your control. But what are we doing when we know that the same gasoline station owner was the same gasoline station owner that was in ownership of that particular gasoline station when these two deaths occurred, and he was allowed to open up right away again, except for this time we put pressure on them and allegedly it's been sold to a non family member. But how do you really verify that it's hard? We know the shell game that goes around. We know the shell game that goes on with liquor licenses. We know we understand the shell game. So what can BC do to prevent this from happening, do we screen people who want to go in business? Do what is in your authority, to not license or re license someone that has problems in our community? Well, being a good partner, a good business partner
through the chair I am looking in. I am looking forward to working with your office on what we can do anytime these events happen. We work aggressively and swiftly with the police department in order to shut down these businesses when it happens. And as of right now, I don't have an answer to the question as to what we can do, what more we can do, but I will say that I am looking forward to working with you and your office and the law department and the police department in order to address your concerns. Yeah,
um,
through the chair to you, Mr. Bell, how are businesses allowed to operate without a license? It's like they have no fear. They it's like they don't give a D about opening a business and not being licensed. I don't understand it, and then they just operate with no license. The first time that that tragedy occurred, it wasn't even licensed, it had expired. I do believe, and we have, we had a bar Shaffer in six mile that was shut down. A murder occurred in that they didn't even have a license to operate. I'm just not understanding how someone can come to this city and have the audacity to think it's okay to open without a license. That's brazen to me
through the chair. We are aggressively looking at the unlicensed businesses. We are ticketing the unlicensed businesses. We are giving them a warning before we ticket them, and letting them know that you are subject to shut down. And we when, when it's when it's brought to our attention, we are addressing it, and we are addressing it when it's not brought to our attention. We've got our license investigators going street by street, looking for unlicensed businesses. We run a report in our system to find out who is unlicensed, and then we send our investigators out to to enforce we have issued, we've have we increased our business licenses by 35% from the previous year. We're going to continue to do so. We are going to address this issue
through the Chair. Thank you, Mr. Bell,
thank you so much, and I do look forward to working with your office. We work well together, sir. I'm concerned about two more matters, sir, the number of liquor licenses. They don't come through this. They come through the state, but we have double the number of liquor licenses based on our population. So it's a state issue. What can your office do about putting a stop to the number of liquor licenses? And they're like, 100 and something pending. It's supposed to be based on your population. We continue to lose population. We've lost population according to the most recent census count, but we're continuing to issue liquor licenses from the state. So what can the city do, from your position as the head of this department to stop the issuance of all these liquor license and we're involved. The state is violating their own law. They have doubled the number of the issuance of liquor licenses. They know it, and there's some pending in the queue. So how do we what do you recommend through the chair to stop the issuance of liquor license and they have again? Don't mean to repeat it. I'm just reiterating it that it's supposed to be, I think 213 we're almost at 400 and it's based on your population. So I'm just not understanding. What can we do from your position to halt all of these liquor licenses, especially the ones that are pending through
the Chair, I am going to sit down with the law department, your office, and the City Planning Commission to see what we can do in the zoning ordinance to address your concerns. Through
the Chair. If there's anything you need my office to do with respect to the ordinance, you have my full support. And then lastly, through the Chair, if you could have your team take a look at 17, 221, waste West, eight mile road. It was a Chase Bank. And what's going on there? Now I have no idea. It says car loans. I don't know if it's the same day loan operation, but they have yellow and red banners everywhere. It was a Chase Bank at the address, again, is 17, 221, West, eight mile road. There was, I hadn't seen anything to come before the council saying there was going to be a different use at that property. Chase bank closed, and now we have some fly by night, same day loans. Get you get you your titles cleared, get a car loan all under this one structure. It's gaudy signs everywhere, on the sidewalk, in the windows, and it does not look like they should even be there. And again, I don't remember it coming before the council. I don't know if, if there's a business through the chair to you, Mr. Bell, there's a bank, and then it turns into a title company and a auto loan company. How does that work? And it doesn't come before the council? Does it not need to come before the council or before you
through the chair if, if it is a strictly loans, it seems like it might be more of an office building. This is something I'm going to dig into, and we are going to get back with you. Okay?
And that address, again, is 17, 221, West, Eight Mile Road, and it was formerly a Chase Bank. And now we'll say everything kind of long clear your title type of establishment. Thank you Madam Chair. And thank you mister Bell, thank
you ma'am. Thank you so much, Director, Bill. And as you close out, can you just confirm if we still do have the additional inspectors for the senior buildings? I know we added at one point in time a couple of years ago, is that still something that's happening? I
know that we are enforcing on those buildings. I do also know that we do have some vacancies. I just have to dig into that a little bit further, there may be some elevator vacancies. Okay,
so I just want to add that portion as well. If there's a motion to add additional inspectors for our senior multi family developments to
make that motion because I asked him. Motion, sorry, which one I said? Motion,
all right. Hearing no objection.
Okay, Hearing no objections, we will add that to executive session as well. Okay, thank you so much, Director. Oh, me, oh, oh, I even didn't go, no. Oh, that's right. Pro Tim, had a question you. I'm so sorry. Pro Tim, yes, ma'am.
Back to Tim, say I
appreciate it. So
through the chair, sir, I am still working on this. I will get back with you as soon as if I could have 24 hours to dig into this, I would appreciate
it. Yeah, just, I've got to say, because there's some folks who are watching right now from Brighton, we're all disgusted. I must say, I'm totally disgusted at not having this information. Your team should have been able to pull this for you. I mean, I understand you're not the one out there working, but I've been told by HRD that they've been working very closely with your your department, and this is again dating all the way back to 2018 and to not have a sentilla of information to provide us today is very disturbing, disgusting, and I am very my flowery language is not the same As my colleagues, my experience, as well as those mother and children, women and children in Brighton, where it's not the same as my colleagues are expressing today, there should be some information on especially with a time that has elapsed, if it's been true, truly an effort by the department to try to help change the trajectory of the lives of the folks who live over there, somebody should be able to provide some information. By this point, I'm I'm disturbed
through the chair. I I understand what you're saying, sir, I don't remember this being a discussion at the last budget hearing. If I knew this was going to be a topic of discussion, I would have had an answer for you. I am going to give you an answer within 24 hours, sir. I want to make sure that that I give you a comprehensive answer to your question. I'm going to do that, yeah, I want
to make it clear. It's I'm not it. My comments have nothing to do with past budget hearings. It's about the 365 days in between, so that we've had multiple conversation, not you and I personally, but again, there has been conversations with various departments, including yours, if we can't, if we don't have information ready right now that your team can provide you, even if it's an email, something, not one line that we're able to provide at this point today, As they know that the director is coming before this body to present. That's a challenge for me. That's a struggle. It's very much a struggle, and very disappointed. Again, my other question is, you have one here on your document, 200 excuse me, 2024 accomplishments. It says that 276 276 illegal medical marijuana facilities closed. Is there? Is there any error in that, that statement at all? No, sir. All right, so are we saying these are illegal medical marijuana locations, specifically
marijuana facilities, sir? All right, I
pay attention to details. That's why I asked the question. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, looking forward to the information.
Thank you, sir, Tim, did you want them to come back before I'm curious to know the response myself. Maybe next, at the next budget hearing tomorrow, would you be able to provide an update to us tomorrow before our next budget hearing, we all can be abreast of pro tems request today. Yes, ma'am, okay, so we will see you tomorrow. Hopefully we can do a quick update prior to our next budget hearing, so we all can be kept abreast of the update. Thank you, Steve, tomorrow, Director Bill
that first hearing is at 10am Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Thank you, sir, and we were moving now to our next hearing, which will be from the Creo Department. Thank you,
Mama San pesara, una session de los derechos civiles De inclusion oportunidad ya Mado El departamento Creo
Muy buen.
Thank you, President, Madam President, and thank you honorable body for allowing us to present our FY 26 budget presentation. And so we did provide you all with some slides, and we have them going on the TVs as well. And so I was just kind of briefly go through the information. So starting with the obviously the Creole department, list myself. And excuse me, I didn't introduce myself. My name is Anthony zander. I'm the director of civil rights, inclusion and opportunity, and I am joined here next to me, Deputy Director Tanika Griggs, and a director of our cannabis Affairs, Kim James, and also our director of also disability affairs, Christopher Sapp. And so here you have our the leadership, our mission statement, and our various teams that we operate internally within the Creole department. And as you see here, here's our FY 25 adopted and against our FY 22,026 requested. As you can see, the total for the original was 8.4 versus 7.4 that difference in a million dollars is has to do directly with the state funding for our cannabis department. So here you can see the different pillars of our divisions within the Department of Civil Rights, obviously first starting off with civil rights thinking, talking about fair and equitable housing, anti discrimination and enforce civil rights enforcement, our language access program, our construction and compliance, which deals in directly with the workforce, inclusion and compliance. Our communications and engagement helps us with our outreach and education. Our Detroit business opportunity focuses on economic inclusion and small business growth. Obviously we have our distant Office of Disability affairs was our disability rights and accessibility office of cannabis affairs, which focuses on economic inclusion in the cannabis industry. And what is new to our department for this year is our veteran affairs manager who has joined us as well, and we want this is the main focus on veteran support and economic empowerment. And we also have an internal policy and data team, all right, starting with our Department of Civil Rights. And so you can see some of the strategies that we looked for, for emerging for FY 26 enhancing our conflict resolution, expanding workforce training and equipping supervisors for success throughout the city, and strengthening community awareness, as you can see with the chart over here to the right of this page, you can see that the complaints received internally have decreased, which I think is a acknowledgement that our internal our internal outreach and education is being is quite effective. You can see that one of the things that you'll notice, though, is the EEO cases and mdcr cases have increased, and that is outside the necessary internal operations of the Creole department, and you can see all the other numbers are pretty much kind of standard and stand the same or have decreased in as well. And so as you can see, within the past three years, we've had 14 mdcr, EOC dismissals. Okay, moving on to the language access services. Increase in spending that you see for the language access program really reflects on the demand for these services and our in the city's commitment to accessing information and resources for all residents. You can see the different languages requested for the type of language access services as per language, and the percentage of those languages. So one of the notes that I would like for you to notice at the very bottom is that 5817 that is the number of calls into our for our internal hotline to use for language access services for the last fiscal year. So our city Detroit Business Certification Program. Couple of key highlights is that we've launched a Detroit startup program which helps identify, helps Detroit businesses identify opportunities to contract with the city, depending on where they are, identifying where they are, and so that we can reach them and fulfill any type of needs they have to get to the point where they can contract directly with the city of Detroit, we have opted, opted and implemented the responsible contracting ordinance. We are 100% compliant with the supply schedule, and we are in the face of redefining DBB and DHB to ensure only bonafide Detroit businesses are receiving the certifications. So again, working to create an investigation protocol following complaints and concerns are received, establish internal auditing to ensure best practices are maintained, continue to create our modified SOPs to to make all improvements internally, and hosting network events, to promote the potential joint and mentor ventures, and always looking at and reviewing chapter 20 c3 to see if there are any updates or improvements that can be made to ensure that we are reaching the goals that we are that we intend to With the certification program, and you can see down here, essentially where our certified numbers are, as far as the number of businesses, so the different types and categories for each certification, and this is as of currently this month. Moving on to compliance monitoring, if you can look for executive order, 22 dash two, which is the 51% you can see the number of projects. The number of projects that we have are still on par, the number of subcontractors as well. What you can see as well, one of the things we want to point out for the percentage of Detroit workers, we can happy to say that we are seeing an increase year over year of the actual number of Detroit residents that are on these monitored projects, proposal and demolition projects, the residents, again, the residential participation on these projects, we can see that We are pretty much maintaining and which is at a good 50 42% 42% currently moving over to the tax abatement the tax abatement projects. And so one of the things we wanted to show is the, again, increase in the number of Detroiters that are taking advantage or being included in the number of post construction jobs. And so from 22 we had 22% and for 2023 you had 33% currently, 2024 is still being reported, and we'll have those numbers sometime soon. Right below that, you have our community benefits agreement, which we just submitted our last report, um, a couple of months ago. And you can see the number of projects, 12% number of projects, the number of provisions, those that are on track or complete and those that have are off track. We have a 99% of provisions are on track or complete for the ones that have to have started.
So our accessibility efforts, you can see there has been a increase, a high increase, thanks to the work of director Sam, an amount of outreach and engagement that we're seeing over year to year. As you can see that we for FY 24 we were at 37 where right now, year to date, we're at 195 and projected out will be in the high two hundreds for the internal, external trainings, you can see that we're increasing those areas as well, projecting to increase for the training year today, for 25 we 33 and another training for the external at 12 below that, you can see the different requests and of the request for the different training interpretation request, and you can see the increase in those as well for the infrastructure improvements in the last three years. I'll just have this here, and you and everybody can read it at your leisure. But I just want to just again, compliment the work that is being done in Office of Disability affairs.
So Office of cannabis affairs. So here's this kind of chart, as far as the number of licensees in each particular area for each particular license type. You can see it here. We also had our good neighbor plan audit. And so for last year's audit, it was 113 different licensees had their review. Just a couple of highlights that I want to mention for the office of cannabis affairs is that, you know, there were 100 Detroiters hired by licensees for jobs paying $15 or more an hour. The Community Investment $234,000 donated to 36 different nonprofits and our social equity contributions have received for $117,000
to support equitable opportunities.
And here for the community engagement and outreach efforts, we wanted to highlight some of the things that we are that we take it upon ourselves to do, and one of it is our outreach to our youth and engaging them. We want to make sure that we're introducing them to different career opportunities, even outside the necessary four year career path. And so we've had 45 events across 22 schools, reaching 6000 students, and with about 650 of them directly saying they were interested in the skilled trades. In addition to, over the last three years, we've had 35 interns, and we've got them all from different opportunities, such as the mayoral fellowship University Detroit Mercy girl Detroit's young talent VISTA programs and the such. And so we just wanted to highlight that, just because we recognize that, by the time, if we wait till they've graduated then, and a lot of times that may necessarily been an opportunity for them that they could have taken advantage of, coming straight out of coming straight out of high school. And so that being said, we'll take any questions. I know I ran through that pretty fast. Sorry about that. I talked a little fast. And so, Madam President, yes, thank
you so much for the presentation. And thank you to you, the director and Deputy Director, for the work that you all do. And we'll start with questions, and I'll start with council member Callaway.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And good afternoon everyone. Thank you, Mister Zander, for you and your team in 2023
city council authorized $350,000
for a Creole disparity study. Creole never started the study. We've talked about it a couple times since then. I just thought I'd wait to the budget, just in case I have to remove $350,000
from your budget since you didn't use it.
Creole never started the study this council approved the $350,000 you didn't communicate with me at all, sir, I reached out to you, and I think you didn't know what I was asking for if City Council reduced your budget by $350,000 that's hypothetically for the marijuana ventures and entrepreneurship, what effect? What the decrease have on your operation, sir, because we approved it, and now we're in 2025 that was 2023 and I've been begging for a study and nothing, nothing. So here we are. Two years later, the money was approved. I understand, did you send it back to the general fund through the chair,
through the Chair? Yes,
as far as I know, I would if finance wanted to weigh in, that was a one time allocation of $350,000 so if that money wasn't used for that fiscal year, it would have gone back into the general fund.
I'm wondering why, if we approve money for you, you don't use it
through chair. So yes, we've had conversations. Have conversations with the council member, have conversations with your office, conversations with LPD. And again, I think there was some confusion as far as the scope of what the intent of the equity study was to be. And so by the time we worked all that out, we were approaching the next fiscal year. So essentially, that $350,000 had not been allocated for the following year, and it went back into the general fund. Okay?
I don't know unacceptable or not because you didn't spend it. We gave it to you, we we gave it to you. You didn't use he chose not to use it. I just want for for everyone to understand through the chair a disparity study often conducted by government entities investigates whether or not there are discriminatory practices in the solicitation and award of contracts to minority women owned and disadvantaged business enterprises in a city that's happening here in this city, I Sit on internal operations. And every week we're not improving any contracts for women at all. They're not based in Detroit. And very rarely do we approve contracts for women, African American women, women in general. And very rarely are we approving contracts for other minorities in this city? We do a really good job with not awarding them because they lack capacity. That's always the excuse. It's not you. You don't tell us that, but that's what we're often told that some of these organizations and firms, law firms, I'll just use them as an example, lack the capacity. And I always argue that a firm or organization or company grows to capacity with experience and contracts and having an opportunity and access, but if we continue to deny or overlook or disregard or don't consider contracts from women and minorities, they're never, ever going to grow to capacity it. You can't have it both ways. Either we're going to support them, which we don't, or we will. You can't have it both ways. So I'm going to put into executive session that just that piece that we already voted on in 2023 with that money for a disparity study, because we need it in the city, and I would like maybe the law department to chime in what happens through the chair when a department doesn't use the money that we've approved. What I mean? What happens so that 350 I never saw that 350 reflected in any report we got back from the Financial office. I don't remember seeing that 350 came from 2023, back into the general fund. Where did it go? How do we track it? Because we gave it to you, but you elected not to spend it, sir. So through the Chair, Madam Chair, I don't know what happens when a department does not use the money that we approve on something that a council. I think
we mentioned that it goes back to the general fund. So, yeah, okay,
well, I'm going to put this into executive session, just this particular item, $350,000 again, for disparity study, and I like to work with you on it. Atlanta has done it. Boston has done it. The state of Oregon has done it. Toledo has done it. Palm Beach has done it. Houston has done it, and there's no reason why. And they've gotten good results. I've been following, especially Atlanta and Chicago. They are getting good results. They're getting more contractors who are women. They're getting more minority contractors on some of these large and they're helping them, helping them to build to capacity. And that's why they don't get contracts today, because they lack capacity. And we hear it every Wednesday. They don't have the capacity. We don't, they don't have the capacity. So I want to work with you, Mr. Zander, we're going to put this back into your budget instead of extracting it, which I'm, you know, I'm not going to do that because, you know, probably won't get any support for that. But my colleagues did support this two years ago, and I'm hoping they still have an appetite for it, because it needs to be done. There are three of us on this council who sit on the internal operations committee, standing committee, and we know what we see every single, single week. We don't see any contracts going to any women or any African Americans or any other minority group or any other group that is considered a minority. So we gotta fix it, and you can fix it. You can help us fix it by conducting this study. And there are consultants that I can recommend to you. I'll do the calling. My staff will do the calling, but I've listed all the cities who said they have benefited from conducting this study, and they seen, they have seen an increase in improvement in terms of the number of minority and women who are accessing contracts, and a lot of times they are being hired as a subcontractor, and I know we're doing better job in the city as a subcontractor, and then they build to capacity, but we're still deficient. So that's going to that I make a motion to put that $350,000 into Executive Session for disparity study. Madam, madam chair motion
has been made. Are there any objections
that action will be taken
before I move to my next question. Mr. Zander, my staff sent through Malik, Washington on March the 12th. Five questions. Did
you get them? Yes, we have received them. Through the Chair. Yes, we have received them. Did you answer them? Sir, through chair. We have not had a chance to respond to respond to all your questions, but we will within the next 2448
hours. Okay, I'm really concerned about number two. City Council passed a human trafficking ordinance that required hotels and motels to post a sign concerning human trafficking, a nine by seven placard. They haven't been posted yet. The colors are wrong. The human trafficking colors, their theme is just shades of blue. The one that was sent back to us is orange and black. So I don't know what else I can do. I see the restaurant placards up. I don't see anything for human trafficking. Human trafficking is is a crime, and if we can save one person's life. This placard being hung in our hotels and motels is the law, but they're not anywhere. I don't know. Am I supposed to go and put the placards through the chair? Do I hang them? Do I make copies of them? How do we get them to the hotels and motels? I've never done this before, but I know this body approved this human trafficking ordinance, and it's not even in place. Nothing has happened, and this has been months ago, and I told you about the color scheme, so do I change the colors? Do you change the colors? Who does the work? I don't know. Through the Chair, I don't know Mr. Zander. I need help
through the chair. Through the Chair, council member in the ordinance, it does not indicate who is responsible for the actual design and placement of the human trafficking signs. And I know we had this conversation a couple of times, and so I think we came to some other agreement, and I know that your office has sent me drafts of what the human trafficking sign could look like, and I've definitely responded giving my Okay, that's the one responsibility in the ordinance that I know that this department does have, is approving the sign based upon the specifications that is written within the ordinance. And we have done that. We have communicated that with your staff. However, internally, we did, we did take a, you know, just take a move forward, being proactive, and working with law and BSEED and DPD to find a way for us to make that part of our overall business and part of the inspection plan, making sure that these these placards are printed posted in a different establishment, in addition to being reviewed during any inspections through BC and So moving forward, as each inspector goes out for their annual they'll start and put putting this in place as they move on. And so not only that, we also decided we wanted to do kind of a PSA with Visit Detroit and other entities that receive individuals coming into the city and alerting them about the importance of these signs and an importance of recognizing the signs of someone that could be being trafficked. And because this is although that the ordinance doesn't have a lot of specifications, we recognize the importance of it. So those are the things that we work on doing for that ordinance.
Okay, through the chair. It's been several months. Thank you, Mr. Zander, I'm asking you, do you need money to get it printed? What do you need so we can get these placards up? It's been months through
the chair, and no, we don't need any more resources. It was just a matter of trying to figure out and identify the responsible parties for the different parts of the process. And so, because the ordinance didn't necessarily have the specifications we wanted, we decided internally, and we just created our own policies. And so that being said, I can just say that it is ongoing and we are moving forward with it.
Okay, through the Chair, I can't I can't go another i We have a Human Trafficking Task Force, and we meet once a month, every second Tuesday of the month, and they continue to ask, they were the inspiration behind the ordinance. And I feel so deflated because I don't have any clear answers, and what you're saying to me is not a clear answer. When can we expect the placards to be printed? Do you need resources to get the placards printed. And do you need resources to get them to the locations? I think they're about. I think I counted about eight hotels in Detroit, eight, and I think I counted four motels. There could be more. There could be more. I'm sure they are. There are more, but we can just start there, because we had a huge through the chair. We had a huge human trafficking sting right around the NFL Draft, then we, if you've been paying attention, I'm sure a lot of people know that we've been having multiple stings and spots, health spots, okay, here in our city, so, sir, definitively, when can we expect the placards to be printed? And do you need resources to get them printed? I just need a date through
the chair, so we do not need any new additional resources. And I will let you know within the next 24 to eight hours when all those placards will be placed in the proper establishments.
Okay, through the chair. You're going to let me know within two days when the placards will will be printed, and then after that, they'll get posted, correct, okay, and I'll make sure. Thank you through the Chair. Mr. Sander, thank you last night. I'm so happy that you are making the Detroit Women's Commission come to life. I thank you, and the deputy mayor is amazing. Call. We have our new nine members on the Detroit Women's Commission and an alternate thank you so much. They are phenomenal women, and we're going to do some amazing things with that Detroit Women's Commission. So I know you, you're wearing a lot of hats. You handled all of us last night. I think there are 12 or 12 women on the call, and you. So thank you so much for handling us with care and so much patience. But we are finally to my colleagues, we finally have our Detroit Women's Commission. They'll be taking their oath of office in April, probably in these chambers, and I will be present to witness that oath of office being taken by those nine wonderful women. So if any of them are listening, I'm very, very appreciative to their willingness to serve on our Detroit Women's Commission by executive order. So thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you Mrs.
Ander, Thank you. Member Calloway, member waters,
thank you, Madam President. So good afternoon.
I sit on iOS too, and I just want to just say that we do argue every single day, every single week, at least about minority contractors, and so I'm willing to mail out a how to card in my newsletter or something if, in fact, you have something like that, so that we can encourage more entrepreneurs to become vendors with the city, because that's what they need to do. They've gotta become a vendor in order for us to, you know, consider them and so, and we had, and I think maybe some of your people were at at our event on Friday, where we had all these women entrepreneurs in auditorium. It was electric. It really was and so I did talk with them, because we have a minority business Task Force as well. So I wanted to to just uplift that and say that we will continue to do as much as we can and do the necessary workshops to train people as well. I so I just have a couple questions now that I'm done with my editorial, Madam President. I think Madam President get tired of me sometime. So, okay, so could you I talk about how Korea could possibly be impacted by the President's orders against Diversity Equity and inclusionary efforts. You know, because, you know, we've been talking about this for a long time, tell us how we how are we going to deal with that?
So I like to through the chair. So I am happy to say that there are no operations, programming or anything of the such that will be changed or affected by the current executive orders that are coming down from Washington, DC. I can say that emphatically. As of now, there just isn't anything, any executive orders that you can look to and really look at and say with clarity that there are things that we need to change at the city level, okay? And so I'll say so again, reiterating we haven't we aren't changing anything, all right? We will continue to program it just as such as we are. January 19, just right before he became before he was sworn in. Okay,
alright, you go.
Alright. So now I want to talk about the veterans. You know, it's
mine to say it's about 21,000 in the city of Detroit. Maybe you have a different number. Is that about,
right? That through chair, that's approximately Okay.
So before, before I lose my my train of thought here, I'd like to make a motion to add the Veterans Affairs Department to Executive Session, Hearing
no objections that will be added to Executive Session. Um,
because,
how are you working to increase the support. You know, we only have one person right now. I intend to change that in this budget, to be a greater staff over the coming years. Can you talk to us about that
through the chair? So are you asking what kind of support or what kind of yes,
we don't have one person. We're just starting this department, right and, you know, Veterans Affairs and so, in fact, I'm going to be more specific about about my motion. I'm going to say that I want to add one community outreach person and I want to add another person for technical support.
Madam President,
Hearing no objections. Those two items will be added to our executive session.
So through the chair, the first thing that we want to do is that we want to take an assessment of where we are, where the veterans are in the city of Detroit. We want to make sure that we go on a listening tour. We want to make sure that we understand the needs of our veterans community. And so as you know, prior to us making this higher I know you and I and Councilman Benson, we've met with different veteran groups across the city over time your office and so as well as council member Benson's office. And what I want to do is that I want to make sure we continue that session, meet with those same individuals that we've met with, and continue listening to the other veterans and veteran groups that are out there. Luckily, we hired someone that has an extensive experience, not only in the military, but also military, also veteran advocacy throughout the county, throughout the county, and so I think that we are a step ahead of probably where we thought we may have been with this particular hire. This gentleman is more than qualified, and I think he's ready to go right away. He understands where he needs to go as far as making those assessments. And so after those assessments are made, and we have an idea of where we are and within the city of Detroit and what our needs are, then we can start building and programming, building those relationships at the VA or other veteran veteran groups to say, okay, what are your what your needs are you know, are we establishing pipelines? What are we doing? Where are we making sure that individuals, veterans, understand what the benefits that they deserve and they've earned? How do they access them? A lot of times it's just a lot of times it's a lack of knowledge. A lot of times veteran needs a little bit of assistance, a little bit of help, and we want to make sure that we do that. I mean, we took the same approach when we started the Office of Disability affairs, and we want to do the same thing. We want to get an assessment. We want to make sure that everybody understands the veteran community, understands that we are here to help them, even if we are while not necessarily creating brand new programs, but serving as their liaison and resources for information.
And and, and I thank you for that, but, but I want to see a couple of things going on at once. I want to see both the federal and state side being pursued. So, so, so, so you, the person that you just hired, can certainly help with that, but I also know that veterans just need the help locally as well. I think we've got to approach it like that. And rather for me to say, sit here and say, Well, you know, I didn't do what I should have done in order to make sure that we can begin to run in this thing as efficiently as possible. You know? I mean, we really, really need that help. And when I often see veterans, I know for fact that we need to do do more, and I want to help you do it, and that's whether you want it or not. So thank you.
Sure. Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Madam President, thank you so much. Member waters, pro temp Tate, thank
you, Madam President, thank you for being here, sir. Ladies. Madam directors as well. Deputy Director, I want to first say, and I know there's going to be some nasty negative comments, because it typically, typically are from our folks in public comment about immigrants, because in their minds, immigrants come from certain places that they don't particularly care for. But I want to remind everyone that immigrants come from all across this world, this globe, and many of them land right here in the city of Detroit, and they're very productive, doing great things, making the impact one location, bright more. Lot of immigrants over there, African, Caribbean immigrants throughout the city of Detroit. Again, specifically, I'm speaking about the interactions that I've had with those who are in brightmore. So I'm going to move the office of Immigrant Affairs Budget into Executive Session. Out. So move, Madam President,
Hearing no objections, that action will be taken. Thank you,
and that will give us an opportunity to address any concerns that we have and ask more questions to get a better understanding of how we are being supportive of of those who live in our community, work in our community and make our community I'm going to use that G word, nice, good. Can't say that other word, so that that's one move. The other is another very controversial issue. The first one shouldn't be but this one for some cannabis. You know, you have those who are on various end ends of the spectrum, some who are supportive, some who are not supportive and some of agnostic in the middle right, but we went through some real pains to get what I believe is a very strong ordinance that provided an opportunity for Detroiters, Legacy Detroiters, to take part in an industry that is still doing everything it can to push them out. And I know that there are a number of folks who would love for as many of those owners to go out of business, but the reality is, there are some owners that the great majority do not. A lot of them do not live in the city of Detroit, the original ones who started out in the medical marijuana field, and they had a head start on our legacy. Detroiters. Director, James, I would like for you to please talk a bit about what does the cannabis industry look like as it relates to our legacy Detroiters. What are those numbers like? And I know for a fact that we have more African American owners than anywhere else in the country, and that is something that we should be applauding, not necessarily moving away. And again, if you don't believe in the industry, that's fine. It was something that was approved by the voters, and we move forward to make sure that it was done in an equitable way for our residents. But if you can talk a bit about the cannabis industry and how it is infused with the love and appreciation that we need from our legacy Detroiters, our residents.
Well, thank you so much for that question through the chair and good afternoon council members. And I just first want to say in our office two of our contracts out of three, two are with black owned companies, and one is woman owned in black, owned. So I just wanted to provide that information as well. So our program is maturing, and we're really pleased that we have been able to, if you recall, it's basically half of the licenses for retailers, at least were, you know, you were eligible if you lived in a disproportionately impacted area, including city like Detroit. And so it turns out that most of our owners, a majority we have a 58 licenses, and there's at least 31 that are have one black owner, and quite a few. And I don't have that exact number percentage right now, but it's close to 50% that are majority owned by a Detroiter as well as African Americans. So we're really happy with that. I think that it is they still, still need help. Some of them are not open yet, and so a lot of our work is about that, helping them get resources, helping them. You know, we've had a few that are kind of in partnerships, and they've turned out to be a bit predatory. So we've had to address that in ways that we can, which is trying to find lawyers or accountants or whatever it is, they need to be able to work out those situations. And it's very fluid, so there's always things changing. And I would also like to say we have several growers that's the most, that's the area that's growing. We have several owners of grows that are majority black, owned as well, and Detroit resident owned. So we're very pleased that it's starting to grow that direction, and we're seeing our licensees expand into different areas. And so the you know, they do struggle with some things. Break ins is a problem, illegal sales and gas stations of cannabis is a problem, and we are taking steps to address some of that to the extent we can. We I actually spent yesterday in Lansing and met with nine legislators and talked all about Detroit and like the are the needs of our business businesses, and got a very great response. So I don't know if that answers your question, but
yeah, just I mean, again, you're not necessarily speaking to me, because we talk, this is to the public, those who are watching, and my colleagues as well, who may not have the same information. So
is there anything I did not cover that you would like me to cover? Because I don't know what I said. I
will let the statement stand as
Okay. Thank you. So I will, I will leave it at there. Yep. So
we're one of the things that when the police department comes, we're going to move into executive session the ability for the city of Detroit to have its own testing kits on a local level, because we know we have these. And remember, Calloway talked about some of these businesses, and other colleagues talk about these businesses that are not that are detrimental to our community, and if you are selling hemp related cannabinoid infused products to our children. And if you're selling them illegally, that's that's bad. But when you're selling them to our children, we don't, we absolutely don't need you in our in our community. Part of the issue is that we'll go out. That's my phone. Somebody's blowing me up right now, when what we have is there's a huge delay, there's a raid that takes place. There's a huge delay when the state police have to be called in to do the testing. Well, at that point, they're still allowed to continue to operate, and, you know, so on and so forth. And it just loses the impact. In the past, there were testing kits that the Detroit Police Department have, but they don't exist anymore. And so I'll be moving that. So that's one, one thing that I wanted to talk about there, but I don't really have any financial questions, and I'm going to make a motion, but I do want you to talk about, you know, this, this, this straw man, right? There's some folks that believe from your stats, and I can hear them now through the television screen. Yeah, they are black owners, or one or two owners, but they're straw man. What is it that the department does to ensure that that so called straw man does not exist in practice in Detroit, not anywhere else, but in Detroit. Bruce here,
and I also would like to just say, also, just add one thing to the illegal sales and gas stations that also diverts money away from taxpayers because they're not paying taxes on that, and they're not in our revenue sharing that we receive revenue sharing, so it also impacts that. So it's really crucial that we address that. So I'm sorry. Your question was, I apologize, you
know, just in terms of the hell I forgot to comment,
oh yes, so I would like to speak about that, and it's through the chair. It's great. Last year, we retained a law firm to work with us, and so we were able to apply much stricter scrutiny to the renewal applications. We also required an affidavit of all of the licensees who are claiming equity status to verify that they actually live in a disproportionately impacted community. They were also required to provide three pieces of information, such as car insurance, rental insurance, voter ID, things that would be where your primary residence is. We had a few who we found were not being so honest, and so they were taken through a process of appeal. They're still in an appeal process now, and so that is basically the most essential element of the program that and so we want to it's critical that we maintain that integrity. And so that will continue, that due diligence will continue for as long as I'm here, at least. And you know, it's, it's, if you're going to have a program that's called equity, or, you know, resident based, or whatever it is, it's really important to maintain the integrity of it. And I think we do do a good job here. And I would say there may be, because sometimes, when you talk about a straw man, sometimes that's the licensees choice, if they have received a license and they want, you know, to use somebody else, like under a management agreement, to run their business. That's not necessarily something we can control. But what we do see a lot of is most of our businesses, I would say, are black owned, majority owned businesses are operated, mom and pop. They're usually, I mean, we have several families who are running these businesses. I would say, you know, House of Zen, West Coast methods. There's several who are couples with children and who are actually doing this together as a family. And we also have several independent operators. We have maybe four physicians who are licensees, black, black doctors. One female own a doctor. She's she's an obstetrician, she owns a grow so we have a pretty diverse, you know, population of licensees, I would say, and it's much less of the straw man that I would expect. It's many people who are really trying to do this on their own. So we're really pleased with that outcome, and we do the best we can to maintain the integrity of it. Alright,
thank you and Madam President, before we wrap I wrap up, I'd like to move to reassign 96% of the cannabis revenue sharing from adult marijuana sales to Creo office of cannabis affairs programming and allocate 1 million to the homegrown Legacy Fund. And the reason why it's not 100% because we already talked about member Benson and I, and he moved it that 4% of those funds would go towards the health department, substance abuse outreach. I so move.
Okay, the motion has been made, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Thank
you, Madam President, thank you all All right.
So director, I wanted to thank you for the support that you all adding to the industry standards board. So thank you so much for that. And then also, it was great to hear the implementation of the responsible contracting ordinance as well. We do have additional questions that will follow up in writing, but I did notice when you talked about fair and equitable housing. I'm curious to know if you have received any calls, or what your interaction is with returning citizens. I know that we have project clean slate, which provides the expungement of records. But in my conversations with the returning citizen population, there is some advocacy around possibly forming a office of returning citizens, like other cities have as well. Aside from Project clean slate, what other support really is the city providing? I have heard of several incidents where there was possible discrimination in the area of housing with people's records being denied housing. So have you received any calls? Has there been any talk about the Office of returning citizens? What is your involvement in helping navigate that population? Just
curious. So one of the things that chair, one of the things that we can do is that we can just provide you with every phone call or complaint concern that has been submitted to our office that has anything to do with housing, so that you can see the full breath of the issues that may be coming through to our office. And so through that, whatever the different issues, maybe any type of discrimination, any issues for maternity citizens of that nature. So we can provide you with a whole list, but just
off your mind. Now, do you have any, any involvement, any encounters, any reports?
I can't the chair. I can't think of anything that has been brought to our attention. So No, but I but to make sure, to make sure I'm giving you the most accurate information we're running report and running report and again, 2442
hours, you'll have that okay? And has there been any, ever any discussions around that? And I'm not sure the data and the need. I know we have a huge population of attorney citizens in our city, often trying to navigate education, housing and employment. But just curious, has there been any conversations ever regarding need? I know, at one point, previous council, we had a task force on returning citizens, and there was some work being done there, but just, would it be housed in creo? Or has there been any conversations at all? We haven't
had any necessary conversations for actual office for returning citizens, but we would definitely be able to, I mean, participate at any type of level that that you see fit. And so if that's something that the council wants to explore further, we would definitely take a take a look at it. And you know,
yeah, okay, I would like to add that to our Executive Session. If there is a motion, please, the Office of returning citizens, and we can explore that further. What that would look like, how much it will cost, will be housed, and if there isn't even a need for it. So thank you. Then the second question on the page, Oh, is there any objections to that motion to add that to Executive Session Hearing none that action will be taken regarding executive order. 2024, dash, two, you put here for Detroit residents, the percentage was started at in fiscal year. 23 8% and now it's at 15% is that the average that we're averaging for, like, annually, for the amount of residents on projects, correct? Okay, and so are we, I guess I'm trying to get a better gage of how we're reaching you're getting closer to that 51% because that still is extremely low. I thought we would average roughly, maybe 30. But so
for clarification, this is the Detroit residents as versus the Yes,
got that? Okay, so that's Detroit residents versus hours work. Yes. Okay, so then pivoting to the next portion of that question on the compliance fees, B, 29, dash, 10. And so I know that it pretty much goes to the ESC. Is that correct? Correct? So does any money go to Creo at all for training and compliance at all from the compliance fees? Is there any funding coming to you
all? So the so the funding, the funding, all the funding comes to us, and we have our relationship with the ESC, and then we make that determination as far as the funding from the Workforce Development Fund to be moved over to operations at DSC. Currently, creo has not used any of those funds internally for our own use, for workforce development. Okay,
and then what is the oversight for just benchmarks and how we're monitoring what DSC is actually doing with that the training so they
have to submit to us quarterly reports, as far as you know, their metrics and what they're working on, and how the monies are being used, and different things that they put together, that they provide to us. We review them, if the numbers of if it's looks like it's sufficient and put into good use, then that's when we allocate the funding over to them.
Has there been any changes, though, to how that those funds are being utilized?
That would probably be a question best for DSC,
so I'll reach out to them as well. I know they'll be coming before us as well. When you break down the 3 million for the proposed fiscal year 2026 there's a million going to workforce development, but then there's the two going to compliance. Can you break that down for me a little bit more. I'm just kind of trying to understand how the $3 million is allocated. So
remember that the your body had allocated a million dollars specifically for them, and you line item, what you wanted those funds used for. And so that's the million dollars that goes direct system. And the other money is the funds from the Detroit workforce, minus internal operations. Okay,
okay, okay. I just want to have a better understanding of, you know, we are finding we're never really reaching the 50, 51% right? And so, from my understanding, what I in my conversations is roughly closer to 30% is more attainable for for most of these projects, not 51% but there's been a lot of questions around how exactly those dollars are being put to use to actually train Detroiters. So I'll have more conversations with them. But the oversight, I think, is also with you all to ensuring that we're monitoring those reports and figure out how we can change and pivot as need be to ensure that we're actually getting what we want out of those compliance fees Correct. Okay, all right, thank you. We will submit our additional questions in writing, and I will turn it over to council member Young.
Thank you. Always good to see you guys. Wonderful presentation, as always. Have me hello. I wanted to ask you to begin with the issue involving federal contractors and the issue involving in civil contracting and housing. And I'm going to this with a little bit of a different angle. Recently, the federal government passed a order repealing federal contractors from having to, from being banned from having segregated practices or segregate or they basically could have segregated businesses. They could have segregated facilities and things of that nature. The reason why I'm saying that to you is because there might be a case where we might have a contract with someone locally that also has a federal contract, and that person might be practicing segregation, even though it's still illegal on the law. There are going to be people, because of the repeal of this order, who are going to be able, who are going to try that order and want to try that in court, and I could definitely see down the line people saying that if we prohibit this person from being able to get a contract, or we start talking about pulling this contract because of their segregated practice, that that's a violation of their civil rights. Or, I guess the proper term would be anti white, you know, a violation anti white discrimination. I just wanted to ask you, do we do? Are we prepared legally? And I know that as soon as the conversation for the law department, but I just want to ask, from your perspective, are you prepared for that? Are you having conversations with the law department or inter agency discussions about how that's going to happen? Because I guarantee you, you're going to get complaints about that. Sooner or later, down the line, someone is going to complain about that,
so through the chair. So, you know, we have our anti discrimination laws in chapter 23 that cover a plethora of categories. And so if we ever received a complaint such as the one you're describing, we would just go straight to law. I mean, we wouldn't try to interpret it. We wouldn't try to do internally. We go to law to find out. Where do we go from here, what can we do to protect what we've what we've instituted locally, what that means versus the federal changes or issues that may be going on down in DC? I would definitely let Laura handle that. It is
you correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe it's you as well. Miss James. But is like the legacy programs for Detroit is like the inclusionary programs for businesses in the city of Detroit. Are those in jeopardy because of this potentially, and is there, and are there measures or steps that you can take in order to preserve those programs?
So through the chair, one of the things that we have in the state of Michigan is, what is it? Act One, chapter 26 or whatever it may be, and it's essentially an anti discrimination law passed at the state level. And so here in the city of Detroit, none of the things that we do can you be utilized, can be race, gender based, or anythings of the sort. So the anti discrimination things that are coming down from DC will won't necessarily impact us as it will probably other cities, because none of the things that we do are race or gender based. Everything is at most geographical or economic. It is not race or gender, okay, yep.
Then this is my final question. I want to ask about consumption lounges. I just want to know, what is the status of the I think it's like 35 that we have, but none of them have licenses, because now we haven't had 30 approval that yet. Uh, what's what? What's the status? And do we know where these are going to be? Are they all going to be, you know, on in the outskirts of the city, or eight mile, Seven Mile, or we're going to have them places. Well, what's that gonna look
like through the Chair? I'm always adding on things from the last question. So I just wanted to share that the city of Grand Rapids is getting sued for their cannabis ordinance based on some social equity stuff. Yeah, but our ordinance is not based on race or anything like that. It's based on where you live and the economic situation there so disproportionately impacted community, which is economic analysis, that you're, you, you meet our criteria, so we're we'll see what happens, but we don't know. But I would expect that we would be successful consumption lounges. There are, I believe, five approved and six approved. And they are all, if you remember, we have this provisional license program where it's people who don't necessarily have land, but they get the licenses, and then they kind of have a few, several period of time to develop a property, or find a property and all of that. So we have not had any successfully open yet. Plan, I'm sorry, yes, we've only approved six. Only approved six, and that definitely
so, I mean, Heart Foundation, I apologize. So,
yeah, so, but none of them have opened yet. And I, you know, it's a difficult, it's a challenging business model, so we don't know how that's going to look. There's only maybe a few in the state of Michigan that are even open. So we don't know
this is more of a zoning question, but I know that I've tried to actually put, or I've wanted to have marijuana facilities in eastern market as well as downtown and other areas. I think that consumption lounges or things that nature is something that that would be where restaurants are or where businesses are. I just want to know the complaints that I get a lot from two sides of it is, one is that it's too focused in the neighborhoods. And secondly is that from the business side of it is the fact that you have too many of them that are together. And so what's happened is that they're cannibalizing each other for the market, and because marijuana is the one of the few products where there's too much of it, so the prices of it has actually gone down because the prices are depressed, because there's so many marijuana stores, so much of it, because during COVID It was considered an essential need. So I just want to know we plan on spreading these out throughout the city equitably, and do we know where,
through the chair that's at the consumption lounges or retailers? I'm talking consumption lounges. Oh, well, I mean, it's a zoning where they smoke in the consumption Yeah, it's, it's wherever the city approves the zoning. So that's out of my control. Okay, um, and today, so I, I would, I would advise, or recommend, letting the departments that handle that, no, okay, definitely use over concentration as a reason, right thing. So I personally believe, and I agree on the retailer side as well, that due to our zoning, the way it was 10 years ago when people got approved, we do have a bit of a uneven balance, and I would love to see it change, but I don't know what that has, what that looks like in the zoning ordinance.
That's all. Thank you. I'm done. Thank you. Okay,
thank you. Member, young member. Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President. Through you to creo, thank you for the work that you do. Very much appreciated. I do have questions regarding language access, wondering, do you have the staff that you need to be able to meet the needs? It is growing, as you mentioned, and we, through the immigration Task Force, have have shared with you the many concerns and complaints about the language access process, just trying to make sure that it gets enhanced. Do you have what you need, as far as staff to make sure that we are meeting the needs? And also, as you know, we're working on a language access ordinance, so I'm assuming you might need a little bit more help to make sure that we are enforcing that as well, but wondering where you are as far as resources to implement language access
through chair. So thank you, Council Member. No, we are staffed appropriately. Any we have, we have not missed any requests. We are what we consider timely or anything that comes through the office. We have great conversation relationships with our contractors, which allows us to fulfill all the requests from the different departments that are out here or any individuals, residents of the city, city Detroit that may need, like interpreter services as they come down here to conduct business with the city of Detroit. So currently, I think we're staffed pretty well. To the chair. How many staff do you have working on language access? So we have one person dedicated to language access, but we also have others that step in when need be. And so because our language access program is through the Department of Civil Rights, for which we have multiple staff there, in addition to there's overlap with our Office of Disability affairs and ASL interpreters
through the chair understood regarding the division of civil rights, we often hear of complaints of
city staff.
Most recently, there's been an article regarding landlords and how they're discriminated against women and really moving in very inappropriate ways, and essentially, there is nothing that can be done other than them moving. But we have, again, this process where we can make a complaint for discrimination. So wondering same similar question, how is the staff? How are the resources, and what does that process look like, if someone wants to come to the city and say, I feel like I'm being discriminated against by, in this case, a landlord and
so the so we are staff again. We are through chair. We are staffed appropriately. I think that we're managing our cases fairly well, if any individual that has feel they're being discriminated against, and not just in housing, just as mentioned with council president, that we have a process for which they could come in and we investigate, and we have had instances where we've taken to full extent and our power under the ordinance, landlords who we needed to take further action with. So we have taken upon those we have taken those cases on.
Okay? Thank you. We are also working on revamping that human rights ordinance, so currently, the ordinance does not have actual teeth for us to be able to move forward when there is a discrimination complaint. So we're looking to make sure that we do have a process, that you're able to have more supports so that we're able to address these needs. So to want to note that, and I hear you on feeling satisfied on your current staff and the current resources, but I am continuously hearing the need for us to have additional supports. And as you mentioned, there is one person that is dedicated to really doing a lot of language access work. So Council President, I would like to add 200,000 and the Executive Session for additional FTE to support with language access implementation. Okay,
Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Thank
you, Madam President.
And I'll leave it there. I will continue to work with the with with a lot of apartments and Creole regarding the Human Rights Ordinance, and we'll work through what additional support you might need there for us to be able to enforce the ordinance once we we get it passed. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank you council
member, Council Member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President, good afternoon. It is late in the hour. Just want to ask a couple of quick questions. Director Zander, you mentioned the discriminatory policy that's in place. Does Creo provide any type of training to departments to reduce the likelihood of allegations relative to discriminatory practices. And I ask because of sitting on iOS and some things that we've seen come before us, so
through the chair, so discriminatory practices, anything specific, as far as internal, external, any particular area that you want me to clarify more on internal, internal so, yes. And so one of the things that we do is that we have essentially an outreach annually, um, to go around, and we to help, essentially educate and train the different departments. And so one of those things that we can show that it's been working. Some because of our number of complaints and concerns have gone down in particular areas for through the Astro whether it be chapter 23 or the executive orders that cover discrimination. So if there's any particular department and or if for this honorable body as well, if my staff have not had a chance to come and do any type of training or education, we would love to make sure that happens.
I appreciate that, and I'll also be sure that as situations come before iOS, that we share that with you, so that you can at least be made aware of anything that may be happening within a particular department, or an area, a division within a department, so
through the chair. And I think that would be helpful, because obviously, if it comes in through the system, then you know, we can make we start the investigation. However, if there's a note of a pattern or somewhere else in a particular department where the the complaints may not be coming through, but there's a note of concern, we can start the investigation from that end as well.
All right. Thank you. And then my second question is, just around compliance enforcement of development projects, can you talk about what compliance enforcement goes into effect for development projects that are off track and who initiates that enforcement.
So one of the things that we through the chair, what we do is, as you know, we when we submit our line your report to this honorable body, we recognize the different the different projects, or development projects that may be off track. And so it's two ways. So sometimes they're considered off track with a compliance plan, and then sometimes they're considered just off track. And so that that report triggers everybody involved that's in the development process for all the different departments, whether it be our economic development team, whether it be DGC planning, or whoever it may be that needs to be aware of, especially that part, because, as you know, the departments are listed in a particular area for each one of the provisions, and especially that department needs to be aware of where this project is. And so even prior to us reporting on submitting that actual bi annual report, we kind of have an idea of where some of these projects are, because these projects, they have co community meetings. We go to these community meetings. We may get calls or concerns from residents or individuals within the comp and an impact area. Or we might even get calls from the developer themselves and say, Hey, I know I'm falling little short on this, you know, what can we do? How can we work through this? And so for the most part, we try to resolve rather than just necessarily reprimand. But as you know that sometimes you can't help but you certain things you just can't ignore, you can't put aside. You have to make this you have to make this thing known where individuals or development teams are not meeting those provisions. Thank
you. Yes, we have some additional questions. We'll send them over to you. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank you. Member Johnson, member durha.
Thank you and good afternoon to you all. I will try to be brief. A lot of my questions have been asked. Is what happens when you get to go last? A lot of great questions asked. I did, want to kind of dovetail off a little bit, and did mention we do have a returning citizens Task Force now as well. So I think it's just really great to see folks pouring into one of our most underserved populations. I know we've made strides here to do and push forth initiatives here at the city of Detroit, whether that's dealing with expungement. Currently, our hiring process does not we ban the box here, should I say, but there are so many other barriers that exist. So would be looking forward to making a motion, or actually making a motion, to put the entire Creo budget into executive session to talk about the expanding our returning citizen services throughout the entire city and its departments. Okay,
any objections to the motion, and this is put to put the entire creos budget into Executive Session, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Thank
you, and want to talk about the Office of Disability affairs. When we came in here, one of the first acts that we took in our first budget was to put more funding, and advocates from our disabled community at that time were requesting $1.4 million for the Office of Disability affairs. At that time, I think it was funded close to about $600,000 or so. And over these past few budget cycles, we've seen that expand exponentially a couple budgets as well. We put it into different services and departments that could be helpful assisting with those issues that disabled residents have, but it is still my firm belief and my commitment, as I stated before, by the time I left this table, or at least the end of this term, that we would get that office up to 1.4 million. And the recommended budget right now for the Office of Disability affairs is $1 million which is $400,000 short of the benchmark that I want to get at. So I like to make a motion to put into executive session an additional $400,000 for the Office of Disability affairs. That is my motion.
Any objections, hearing, none that action will be taken.
Thank you. And next member, Johnson kind of alluded to it and talked about the incentives compliance team as we talk about EO 2024, dash two, when we talk about the hiring of 51% Detroiters, I would say that here, when we look at the compliance issue and we look at our community benefits, ordinance and the executive the executive order, in concept, is great if we are utilizing those dollars for folks who cannot hire 51% to put that back, to create the pipeline to move that forward. It's not an easy task as well, but would like to see that go forward as I have conversations, particularly with our skilled trades who do a lot of these construction jobs or on a lot of these developments, there's still a barrier that exists for access. There's a barrier that exists to apprenticeship programs, and I know this is kind of deeper into DSC as we talk about the rollout of the fund, but can we talk a little bit more about those fees that have been collected, the different pots that they go into, not just DSC, but even how Creole connects to DSC and and The programs that exist to kind of ensure that we're getting these dollars in the right place.
So through the chair, one of the things that you know we talk about the skilled trades being on many of these projects, we do have a construction manager, and so his sole responsibility is to provide and be that liaison from the different developments and different projects, not the even, not just the ones that are part of CBOs, but all the different projects out there. As we work towards the 51% he listen. He goes out, he listens. His job is outreach, trying to find out where, where the needs are. He so also happens to be our liaison with the SC and so as DSC, as you know, the Workforce Development Fund goes to majority of it, almost all of it goes to them for Workforce Planning and Development. We also have that information, and we're providing that information to them. And it's not just it doesn't just stop at the work that DC DSC is doing, because I'm sure they're doing fantastic work over there, but we also do it here internally. It's not one of those things where we just all right, we collecting the money from the fund, and then we're just writing a check over the DSC. That's not the case at all. So not only our construction manager, construction Outreach Manager, but are also our, all our incentive compliance team. So these are the individuals that are responsible for communicating with each project, the individuals that are responsible for tallying up, and they're finding out what's going on, how much the invoice and things of that nature, that they're also going out and speaking to them. And so when you recognize that for individuals or development projects that are below a certain threshold, those conversations are occurring. We recognize they are barriers. They are barriers that probably require additional conversations. But we don't stop there, and that's why you can see the percentage of Detroiters, not just the workforce hours, which we how we calculate the 51% but the actual number, raw number of Detroiters, are going up every year, and we have to, we have to give that some credit, as far as the work that's being done. And so, as always, there's always more work to do, but it's being so but we are doing work here internally. We are working with our partner, DSC, and I think that while could it be more obviously, but I think we're showing improvement.
Thank you, and I think you have shown improvement. You know, again, this is a systemic issue, and it is to my belief, when we're talking about apprenticeship programs, when we're talking about building a pipeline, we've actually got to start start a little bit earlier. Sure we want to create paths to colleges, but also careers, and sometimes those careers are not going to come for folks who go to college. There are many of our skilled trades here in the city of Detroit that can provide an amazing life for folks, if they choose to go into it. But I believe we've got to do a better job of promoting that at an earlier age and connecting the dots. And one of the piece, you know, one of the ways to do that, obviously, is have a better imprint in our school system, DPS, CD, and really start talking about this, we've got one of the largest retiring populations of workers in the history of the United States, not just here in Detroit. The baby boomers are gone. A lot of them went into this guild trace. They went into construction. But there's still, again, that barrier that exists, because early on, a lot of our students, a lot of our young folks, really don't realize how great an option this could be for them. So that being stated, I like to make a motion to put into executive session the creation of a program from Creo to go into our DPS CD, as well as our other schools in the city of Detroit, promoting our skilled trade programs to address the pipeline shortage.
Any objections,
hearing none that action will be taken. Thank
you, and I will update that with it with an amount as we have further discussions, hopefully offline in the next few weeks. But what I would state is I appreciate your work and even the conversations that we've had with Creole addressing this issue, we don't want to have to find folks for not having 51% of Detroiters. We want to have an amazing workforce here, but part of that relies on us building that from the ground up, doing some things differently and collaboration we can have a better conversation and fix that broken bridge, that broken bridge that we have between our school systems, our government and even our work for it and those who provide workers For our workforce. So thank you so much. Thank you. You want
to say something? Director Zander,
yes, for the chair. So council member, I do want to point out just one of slides, if we could look at those numbers, and so just the indication that we believe in everything that you've just said, and we will continue to the work and hopefully that you'll be pleased throughout the rest of this year and into the next budget season. And we wholeheartedly believe, believe everything you said, and we agree with you.
Well, we appreciate you. And like I said, I know you've come a long way since you've been a director here. You got a outstanding team. You're always responsive to our questions, even in budget. You know, when we come in front of the audit, you're not too big to say, hey, this, these are the changes that we need to make, and you've made significant progress doing that. So I do want to put that on the record. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Member durha, and I know we mentioned the office of returning citizens under creo, but just in some of the research, it looks like it may be housed under the mayor's office. And so if they can just know LPD for the Executive Session, to note both of those departments for now until we figure out where it will be housed. Okay, well, that will conclude all of our questions. Thank you all so much for being here in the work that you all do. Looking forward to working with you guys. Thank
you. Thank you. President Arnold body, thank you. Thank you as well.
All right, we will now move to our public comment for today, and we have Mr. Ronald foster that's joining us in person. Thank you. You
we have a total of of six callers, seven total. Okay,
we're right ahead. Mr. Foster, good afternoon.
Just very quick. The first thing I want to highlight is that the city of Detroit had the oldest human rights department. And I think in one of America's history, there's this distinct difference between human rights and civil rights. I think that we need to have a department that reinforces human rights and which the charter outlines in chapter seven, our creo, I believe, have become more corporate and not really addressing the human needs and grievances of the community. I personally have filed several grievances, and I can attest, they have not been resolved, and one have been towards the administration. So I just ask that they have a sense of independence. Secondly, when it comes down to the Veterans Affairs Manager, well, the gentleman is qualified or unqualified. I believe he's very qualified. I spoke to him several times and gave a lot of information. But as far as corruption goes, corruption means abuse of authority. That's one element of abuse of power. I'm not sure being a fraternity played any role or influence in the hiring of this gentleman. Secondly, after being in the County Veterans Day, I don't understand why anybody would leave the county veterans to come work in the city department. Thirdly, as a veteran here, the county had failed us on a veteran level, and so this familiarity and lack of respect and candor for your citizens here, I think it's really shows the lack of desire to have new perspectives and move in a more desired fashion throughout those last 10 years that he's been on Mr. Benson's, the other former president's task force and MS waters Task Force. They have not going out and getting anybody out of our senior VA nursing homes. They have not done anything for the Marine on south of eight mile that was murdered, and they certainly have not addressed my needs. Thank
you. Thank you. Mr. Foster,
the first online call. Online caller is, we see you.
We see you.
Thank you, honorable body and through the Chair may have you heard yes you can. Carolyn Hughes, yes, Mr. Foster is absolutely right. Creo is not operating with integrity for all the citizens in this city. You guys passed a gay senior citizens bill. If that's not discrimination, I don't know what is you can't do anything for black people, but you can do this. I don't understand why you all have no memory. You act as though Detroit just woke up from some sleep and started to have things function correctly. Things function correctly just fine for years and years and years, even before you got here. Now they're dysfunctional. They're dysfunctional because we have B said that comes to the table and the president tells you how long she's her heart has been broken for the poor seniors that she's seen treated and living in deplorable conditions, but there's nothing she can do about it. But then they pivot immediately and talk about steps to people getting businesses in the city of Detroit, your job is not, you know, a sales force, or to businesses. Your job is the care of the citizens that live here. That is your major function. And Mr. Tate, you couldn't possibly know what I'm thinking. So I've had friends from all kinds of countries all over this world. I don't have any discrimination against people, but what I don't want to see is our continued neglect for others. Miss Romero. The national language is English, and everybody should try and speak it. If we had someone interpreting for everybody that came here all over the world, we would be broke. I've been in many foreign countries. Their television is in that language. Their menus are in that language. You just have to adjust to what is going on in your environment. When in Rome, do as the Romans peace.
The next caller is Betty a Varner,
good afternoon.
Miss Varner, Good afternoon,
Madam President, I show Ms Varner is muted. She'll have to unmute herself to give her comment.
Still nothing. Madam President would like to move to the next
Oh, okay, Miss Varner, yes, sorry about that. Sorry y'all Good afternoon. This is Betty a barn, the president of the soda Ellsworth black Association. I want to make this quick and sweet, just please allocate monies for the senior citizens home repair program and the Detroit accessibility program, and start a program and allocate money to help organizations with their projects, to improve their community, and also allocate money so that when they are applying to be a 501, c3, monies will be available to help pay the fee that is required by the state. Thank you for this time. I appreciate all of you. I'm trying to go to the neighborhood block club meeting. I mean the uh, city wide neighborhood black club meeting, because I'm out on the porch. So okay, God bless you. All you too. Alright, bye, bye, bye, bye.
The next caller is Detroit disability power,
all right, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Council. This is Casey powder, resident of District Four and Policy Manager at Detroit disability power first, I just like to say, especially after hearing about the needs for the language language access program. Just noting there's no ASL interpreters in this meeting or in the budget hearings this year, we definitely need them here. Second, I want to thank especially council member durha for moving to fully fund the Office of Disability affairs, at 1.4 million and thank you all for the support that we've gotten in previous years to get the office to the place that it is now, with currently five staff positions from the one staff back in 2021 when they first started, one of those positions, of the five that they have now is recently filled. I believe one is still open in a hiring process currently, as you all know, in this next fiscal year, we want to see the office fully funded with that 1.4 million for a fuller staff, with project resources that are both necessary for it to be the true one stop shop for disabled Detroiters that it was intended to be. You all operate staffs even a little bit larger than that, and I know you can imagine the impact it would make on your work with your constituents, if you had three or four staff working under your direction. It really stunts the impact that you're able to make when we see disabled Detroiters, unsheltered on the streets, forced to leave the city for accessible, affordable housing, or forced to leave the community, even to move into institutional settings. I know you can understand on a day to day level, what a city wide Office of Disability affairs needs to be fully staffed for disabled Detroiters, and what the resources it needs to implement is strategic initiatives, many of which, in the next couple of years are around accessible housing and accessible city communication, so not just in meetings, but also the print resources and digital resources that are sent out. Thank you all so much again.
All right, thank you.
The next caller is monkey wrench room. All right. Good afternoon.
Mary Sheffield, listen closely, pay close attention to what I'm about to say. The rest of you council people, you also pay attention.
Brett Doha,
you achieve it in
and come demonstrate it improve it now. You got a office over at Saint Suzanne. That pastor over there is comrades, boy, you got an office in that church that's going against my partner, Marvin Walker, Detroit, power Detroit. Now you got an office in that church over there. You've been cheated in, along with the rest of the city council, absentee ballot fraud. Janice and Jen, Janice and Gina been over there at the Department of Elections cheating for years, years, I said, years, absentee ballot fraud. Fred, you been cheated in. You got to go. Mimi, gotta get what she want. She wants y'all to stop saying her mama killed herself and Dante Goss that's why he's exposed now is over there doubling as the
board of police commissioners.
Attorney, that's the deputy or assistant Corporation Counsel for the city. He in nene's way, and comrade, his boss is in Mimi's way, and they boss Michael Edward Duggan, Mike Duggan, Mayor. Mike Duggan is in the way now on the Detroit unity Facebook page, is Dante Goss appearing as an imbecile. Imbecile. So
the next caller is Ruby Robinson,
good afternoon.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for giving me a moment. I am a resident of the city. I'm also an attorney at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, and I'm speaking today about the city's language access programs, one of the functions of creo. Members of the Detroit immigration Task Force have long advocated for interpretation and translation services, and we were glad when the city's Language Access Program was established in 2016 these services are critical to ensure that residents with limited English proficiency have meaningful access to essential city services. Unfortunately, we still hear from city staff and departments who are unaware of these resources, and we still see instances where language access services are not utilized, especially in the context of law enforcement. The city has a language access program and should utilize utilize its own services when interacting with Detroit residents, as opposed to calling on federal officials or relying on family members of those who they're they're interacting with. So we continue to need this robust language access program to ensure the city is equitably serving all Detroiters. Failure to provide these services actually violates the federal civil rights act from 1964 among other laws, and so I urge you to allocate sufficient funding in this budget to ensure that language access programs so that the language access program has the appropriate resources to not only provide these services, but also to provide the education and training for all city of Detroit employees and departments, and I appreciate your time as you weigh this. And I want to echo the previous commenters remarks about language access and ASL interpretation so that all city programs and services and notifications meet the not only meet the minimal requirements, but also can serve and be able to benefit all Detroiters who need these access and services. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next caller is Cindy Dar,
all right. Good afternoon. Hello,
I have been I'm down here at local 58 I got the skilled trades committee for apprenticeships. There is a woman's African American Women's construction organization, and I think that we should link up with them to help get more women into construction, because it's their better paying jobs. And I am running for City Clerk. If anybody wants to help me get the signatures there, I have to get 500 by April 22 there's nobody right now running for District One Police Commission, and the reason I'm running for City Clerk, I've got a lot of ideas I want to get across about how I think we could improve our election system, and this will give me more than a minute and a half to explain those things. So there's only two people running for City Clerk right now, and if they we don't get more people running, they won't even have a primary where they start discussing things. And we do need to get more attention brought to I just think, I'm a networker. I like to communicate and talk, but I we need more of that. You know, I went over to go swimming at Northwest Activity Center, and the people from demolition and construction were there, right there before I went into the, you know, before I was going to go to the locker room, get down there, I said, You better do better maintenance. If you're the ones that supposed to, they still have these showers that drip, and maybe they need to change all of the washers, or figure out which showers are used the most, and try and change those on a regular basis instead of waiting. And then you got to wait a long time for somebody they don't even know if they got the work order.
And the last caller, Madam President, is Jennifer Daniels,
good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can
Yes, we can hear you. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. We can hear you.
I do show Jennifer, yes. This is Jennifer Daniels, and I just wanted to say that I am a resident who is born, raised and educated here in the city of Detroit, proud graduate of Martin Luther King High School. I am calling because I also want to support the full budget for Creo and specifically the $1.4 million budget allocation for Oda. Detroit is a city that is a welcoming, inclusive and universally accessible city. It should, and it should be that if we want to live up to that, we need to have a full budget, and we need to continue to come up with ways that we can increase this budget. And I, as a person who is a who found out that they had a disability within the past 18 months, it's important that we understand that at any point in time in your life, you can become a person who is disabled. And so it is our jobs and our duties as citizens to ensure that the over 130,000 Detroiters who are disabled are welcome in this city. And this is just one step to do so as a professional, I am an organizational designer, and so it's really important to me that we think about how our systems interact with each other. And so the support supporting this budget and adding additional monies give us an opportunity to have coordination across all departments and provide collaboration, and essentially become a central hub for organ departments like d dot, the police department, DFD and so on. And that is my time, and I will seat it. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. And that will conclude all of our public comment for this afternoon. There is nothing else to come before us. Is there a motion to adjourn for today? All right, this meeting is adjourned, and we will resume tomorrow at 10am.