All right, good evening, everyone and thank you all for being here. We will now call to order the expanded budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee, and if the clerk will please call the roll council member Scott Benson. Council member Frederick her the third present council member Letitia Johnson. Present council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, Council Member Santiago Romero indicated that she would not be present today. Council member Mary waters,
Council Member Angela Whitfield Callaway,
Council Member Coleman Young the second. Council
President, pro some James Tate, council president, Mary Sheffield President, Madam President, you have a forum. Alright? There being a quorum present. We are in session. And Mr. Corley, I would turn it over to you to give an overview on where we are today before we move to our public hearing. Thank you,
Madam President. Good evening. City council, citizens of Detroit. The purpose of this meeting tonight is to conduct a public hearing or mayor Doug is proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, and the fiscal year 2026 through 2029 four year financial plan. This public hearing is required in accordance with Section Eight dash 206 the Detroit City Charter, which basically states that a public hearing shall be held on the proposed budget before adoption by city council. Just to remind the council and the citizens, the mayor's proposed budget for fiscal 2026 is 1.5 8 billion for general fund operations, including police, fire, General Services, recreation, the mayor's office, city council, as well as other general fund operations citizens are most familiar with. And the total proposed budget is 3.0 2 billion across all city funds, in addition to the general fund operations, the total proposed budget includes enterprise agencies such as the water and sewage department, also state gas and weight taxes for road improvements and federal and state grant funds after this, but public hearing the council will go into executive session starting on Wednesday, April the second, at 10am to determine what changes your honorable body wants to make to the proposed budget in accordance with Section Eight, dash 207 of the city charter, which basically states the after the public hearing, the city council may adopt the budget with or without amendment, and the proposed budget from the mayor is posted on the office the Chief Financial officer's website, and any citizen can access it through that website. Thank you so much. All
right. And Mr. Corley also all of the proposed recommendations thus far that are on the spreadsheet for Executive Session. Would that be made public as well for residents to view some of our proposed changes and suggestions as well? Yeah.
So we, Madam President, thank you. So we, we in, let's say the policy division, LPD, we post those daily on our website under city council, and then I believe I know for sure the last Executive Session spreadsheet will be posted on the Office of Chief Financial Officer, but daily ones will be posted on our website.
Okay, all right, before you leave pro temp, thank you, Madam
President, thank you for that report out, Mr. Poorly. Just for everyone's knowledge, I know we are here today. I don't want them to think that we're just doing this as a check the box, so to speak, we still have the ability to add items to executive session in the event that we do hear something that we did not hear before even receive responses from departments that give us the information that lead us to that inquiry. Just want to put that on the record. Is that true or not true?
Yes, yes. My present president, Tate, yes. Even during the executive session or leading up to Executive Session, Council can make changes to Executive Session and the items that you put in, of course, we encourage you, as you get further into Executive Session, that you put as minimally more items in there as possible,
right? Thank you so much. Thank you pro tem and thank you, Mr. Corley, right. We will start with public comments. Everyone will have two minutes for public comment on the budget, and we will start with Miss Nadine Miller,
followed by najari Nixon,
followed by Casey pillar. Good
evening, and just make sure the microphone is on by pressing the bottom, it should turn green.
Well, maybe we'll have somebody. Here we go.
Good evening, city council, and if
you could just try to pull the mic down so we can hear you. There we go.
Okay, that better. Okay.
Good evening. City council and constituents. My name is Nadine Miller. I am a disabled, visually impaired resident of the city of Detroit. I reside in district one. I am here to support the fund disabled Detroiters campaign. Because of my disability, my life changed overnight in 2009 when driving was no longer an option for me. Two rare medical conditions left me blind in the left eye and visually impaired or compromised in the right eye without the assistance of family and friends, transportation is very difficult. I received transportation services at no cost through Detroit Disability Network Wayne County, however, the service is only available Monday through Friday, 9am 9am to 4pm and trips need to be scheduled two to three weeks ahead of ahead of time and If and if there's availability, there needs to be other options for transportation for the disabled Detroiter, other than Metro lift. Although I am a resident of Detroit, I am not a native Detroiter, why isn't smart bus or similar services available for stable Detroiters residents?
Okay, I'm sorry.
Thank you so much for being here. You
public comment as well. Okay, Miss Nixon, followed by Miss Casey pillar, good evening. I'm sorry again. If the clerk will note, member waters has joined us. Clerk show note, go
right ahead. I can go ahead. Go right ahead. Okay, good evening. My name is naj Nixon, and I'm the community organizer for Detroit disability power, and I'm here asking to fund disabled Detroiters. Accessible affordable housing and transportation are among the highest needs for our community. Our campaign addresses what the city can do about that. We urge the mayor and city council to prioritize the needs of disabled residents by adopting the following critical investments to the budget. You could try to speak up a little bit more. It's kind of hard to hear you. Oh, let me take a look closer. So we're asking that you increase the Office of Disability Affairs Budget to 1.4 million the This would allow it to hire the staff necessary to foster disability focused collaboration and coordination across city departments with adequate funding and intention, Office of Disability affairs can become the one stop shop that disabled Detroiters deserve. We're also asking that you double D dots budget by 2030 starting with 150 million in general funds this year, reliable, accessible. Public transit is a lifeline for disabled Detroiters, yet, DDOT faces chronic underfunding leading to poor service in inaccessible but busses, we're also asking that you allocate 2 million for the Detroit home accessibility program and continue it past 2026 many disabled Detroiters live in inaccessible homes, and this program provides essential modifications like ramps, lifts, widened doorways, alarm bells and other exterior accessibility features so they can enter and exit safely. We can't let this program expire. And lastly, we're asking that you provide 75,000 for Detroit home connect right now, the site doesn't give enough detail about accessibility features or lack thereof, making it hard for people with disabilities to find homes that meet their needs. And at the same time, housing providers miss out on qualified renters because their units are properly listed. Let's build on what we have and make it better. These investments are not just necessary, they are long overdue. Community would access to support this. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Hey, y'all, how you doing this evening? My name is Casey Peller. I'm a resident of District Four. I'm the Policy Manager at Detroit disability power, and I'm here this evening to urge you all to fund disabled Detroiters and double D dot. I'm the kind of person who gets very easily caught up in the weeds. So to boil it down to the brass tax, we disabled Detroiters need accessible and affordable housing, transit and public spaces and services. First, we need accessible housing. One help homeowners stay at home with our families and in our communities with a minimum investment of $2 million for the Detroit home accessibility program. Now, as you just mentioned, out of 850 or so qualified Detroit households, 250 were approved and funded in the current pipeline to get those modifications, but that leaves over 600 more eligible households who are in need of those changes to be able to live and age in their home safely, to help all of us find housing that meets the needs of our bodies and our budgets, by hiring someone whose full time job is to dedicate and coordinate and maintain up to date Detroit home, connect search and filter website three allocate ten million to the Detroit Affordable Housing Trust Fund to prioritize more deeply affordable units for our families. We also need accessible and reliable transit. We want to see DDOT doubled for more accessible stops with benches and functionally accessible shelters. Thank you. Wage parity for all personnel, especially who are keep our drivers and mechanics and a study into bringing care transit services in house, we also need accessible public spaces and services, and we can start by fully funding the Office of Disability affairs at 1.4 million for a staff of seven disabled Detroiters whose job it will be to work across city departments in the development and implementation of city infrastructure and programs, both old and new, and who can serve as a true one stop shop for disabled Detroiters in navigating everything our great city has to offer. Council members again, I urge you to fund disabled Detroiters and double D dot. Thank you. Applause,
good evening. Good evening. Council members, Madam President, I appreciate your time this evening. My name is Eric willsby. I'm the advocacy director at Detroit disability power. Obviously, I echo the comments already made by my colleagues, and also, you know, look forward to the comments from many of our partners, particularly from the double DDOT campaign. You know, Detroit power, I know it's put a large document in front of you all with several, more than several asks we have, but one I want to touch on, because it ties very close. A lot of my work has to do with the Department of Elections. We have asked for $1 million to run a pilot for the clerk to be able to work with polling locations to fix the infrastructure barriers that exist in those locations. You know, we've been running poll audits, and I know we've come and talked to you all about our poll out at several times. We're getting ready to release our report from last year's audit here in the next month, so we will be coming to bother you all about that once again. But you know, one of the things we find is all these locations. We have a lot of great historic locations, and we also have just locations that haven't had the care that they need. And as a result, we find, you know, narrow doorways, narrow hallways, ramps that are falling apart, all these things that make it so a voter cannot get there to vote. And a lot of these are locations. There are also community centers for any and other number of other reasons, because they're churches, because they're actually centers, library schools, these types of things that when we fix these accessibility issues for voting, we also fix them for all the other other things that people use them for in the community. So my hope is that you all consider moving that those funds into there. We can run a pilot, and we can start addressing some of the infrastructure barriers that exist across our community. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Applause.
Hello. I'm Wyatt castle. I'm here supporting double data as well as much Detroit DSA. I live along with work as many of you, my friends and associates, as a recently unemployed person, I can test to the difficulty in scheduling and access to many bus stops and the human difficulties therein. I just want to echo the message of double data and the importance of increasing the budget. As Detroit moves into the future, we have this opportunity to fund our vital services and give our full effort to making the city something that we truly love and can be proud of. And I just want to hope that council people here can support that mission. Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening. Hello. My name is Brian smegelsky. I'm clean transit organizer with the Sierra Club, and I'm a Detroit resident and district five, with a sprawling city the highest auto insurance premiums in the country and the lowest medium income on average, more than and with more than one in three Detroiters lacking access to a reliable car, we need to be clear that Detroit has the greatest structural need for transit investment of any major US metro region, and yet it continues to operate the lowest funded transit system per capita in the country, and it's not even close. We will never have transit justice in the city as long as we have less than half the transit funding of many of our neighboring major metro areas, those factors form a structural trap, one that disproportionately burdens black, low income and disabled residents, and extends a history of segregation and redlining that unfortunately continues to scar the city. The economic the Harvard equality and opportunity project has shown that commute time, commute time, is the single strongest predictor of economic mobility, more than crime, more than school quality. Meanwhile, studies show that every dollar spent on public transit returns $5 for the city. So I do want to thank City Council for unanimously co sponsoring the DW imagined plan, the resolution to support it, and we're committing to bringing transit justice to Detroit. It's long overdue. I also want to thank the mayor for proposing a bold first step of one $20 million to increase the budget, but we need to go further. The current proposal still falls short of what's needed to build enough enough bus shelters. We're going to get up to 5% bus shelters, but our major our neighboring metro areas get 10 to 15% of their stops have shelters. So we're still way behind, but it's a pivotal moment for the city to demonstrate both leadership and to push for a budget that includes an additional 16 million on top of the $20 million increase, because it's not just about this year. We need to be on track to bringing the DDOT. Reimagine plan the entire blue sky Detroit. Imagine plan online by 2030 that's what transit justice means, and that's why we need that additional there's metrics we got to hit each year. Thank you so much for your
support. Good evening, Council. My name is Jacob Bolton. I am a resident of Detroit for over eight years. I am thankful that city council co sponsored the d dot reimagine plan, also a legal aid lawyer, and I'm a member of Metro Detroit DSA, which has over 1000 constitutional members. Our camp are the GSA endorsed the double ddo campaign that you've heard a bit about tonight already, asking for city council to raise the allocation to dedo, $250 million from the general fund. We've heard a lot already. I have a car, and I choose to ride transit, including the busses, but the busses are lifeline for the 1/3 of Detroiters who do not have a car, and many more without reliable transportation. Folks deserve to get places on time with dignity, without spending all day. I look forward to reviewing the spreadsheet. President Sheffield mentioned thank you guys very much. Okay, thank
you so much for coming. Thank you.
Good evening. Hi. My name is Patty fidewa. I'm a long time Detroit resident and transit activist, and I ride. That's how I got here today. I ride on a daily basis, and I have three requests for you today. The first one you've been hearing is double d.we need Detroit reimagined. We need it funded. We need it to happen now. We've been waiting and waiting, and we appreciate a little bit of an increase, believe me, that's lovely, but we need the real deal, and we need it now. Second thing is, I ask all of you to monitor DDOT budget. DDOT, historically has given some of its budget back over the years, and we need them to spend the whole budget. The reason they've given it back is they haven't been able to hire. One of the big problems with hiring is sometimes we don't pay enough the wages. I know there's bargaining going on now, but we need your support in pushing the administration to make sure we get packages for all employees that includes administration employees so we can hire and have a full complement of employees at DDOT. We need it. We need it now. Otherwise, it's just all plans, unless we get bodies and we get, you know, people that really want to be there. Lastly, I asked all of you to ride and campaign on the bus. There's a whole bunch of voters sitting right there, and they're waiting for you, and we're waiting to hear all of your plans as you're campaigning for what you want DDOT to be and how you want to make that happen, and saying that, you know, thank thanks for a little bit more, but we really need to double DDOT and do it now. Thank
you. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Good afternoon. Good
afternoon. Council members. My name is Donald Stegman. Second. I am a resident of district seven, several years ago, I ended over three years of unemployment at the time the city of Detroit made the right made a wise decision to extend the Warren bus out to telegraph that allowed me to obtain a job at Dearborn Public Schools while I was working with students with disabilities. After being at that job for four years, I was able to secure a job that allowed me to have great, great, excellent employment with good pay and benefits. My message is pretty simple, public transportation lifts people out of poverty and into prosperity. There is absolutely no reason that the city of Detroit and this council cannot fully fund public transportation at $150 million and double that funding every year after Thank you very much. Thank you.
Good evening. Good evening, good evening. Council members. My name is Denzel mccamba. I'm a resident of district seven. I wanted to thank you all for all the work you've done so far on the budget. I wanted to first say that to echo what a lot of folks have said of needing to double the d dot budget. Not only do folks need to have mobility and a safe way to get around, but as mentioned, public transportation helps to open up many opportunities for Detroit, which I know we all want to have happen, I will also say we encourage you all to increase the funding to the Housing Trust Fund and also to put more to have a robust participatory budgeting process. Not only will participatory budgeting help bring resources to our neighborhoods, but it also involves our neighbors into the process, because we always talk about needing to have folks at these meetings and various cities meetings. Lastly, I will talk about needing to maintain and increase the funding for the Office of Disability affairs to make sure that we have a truly accessible city, and we have advocates on the city level to address the concerns of Detroiters with disabilities. So thank you all so much again for the work you've done you are doing on the budget. I know you all know about the budget being the priorities and our moral priorities for the city. So again, thank you and have a good evening. You too. Thank you.
Hello, Council. My name is Chantel Watkins. I'm a Detroiter residing in the north end in district five. Before I got my car, I was an avid bus rider. The main route was the Dexter, which, if you ridden it, you know, that's a long route. I was an intern in this office in 2012 taking that bus from Northland to downtown. Sometimes I waited up to 45 minutes for that bus, barely getting to work on time and from talking to folks, unfortunately, not much has changed. I asked for this council to fund D, top d dot with 150 million to double the amount of busses, double the amount of drivers and double Detroiters chance to getting to work, school and appointments on time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
Good afternoon, illustrious mayor. I mean, what am I talking about? Miss Sheffield, President, the mayor is on my mind, and you're gonna find out why I am shed front. Call your president business agent for atu local 26 I represent the drivers at DDOT, and I have actually did a couple of ride alongs with a couple of you on the bus. And I want to thank you again for coming out and coming out and writing those coaches just to see what's what's going on out there, and how hard it is for people to move around in the city. At the end of the day, I have watched my whole career. I've been at DDOT 36 years. I'm a lifelong Detroiter. I currently live in District Three, and I have watched the defunding of the system, how it has decimated the citizens in this city. I watched people struggle as I drove the bus myself, personally, when it was 19 degrees outside and the bus was so crowded, I had to leave people behind. That's heartbreaking for someone, for me, who have served the public and I care about people. So at the end of the day, although the mayor has reached out and did the extra $20 million there needs to be more funding, as you heard the disability folks speak, I dealt with that every day, sometimes pulling up, not being able to pick them up as well, because they're out there in bus stops, just like everyone else. And DDOT needs to address that. We need more funding. And at the end of the day, if each and every one of you are responsible for the future and the growth of the city, we must fix the transit system. And we do not fix that, this city cannot grow. So thank you for your time. Thank you.
Up. Hello. My name is Kevin Hill. I'm a retired city employee in Detroit, resident in district seven, and I've had to sit but for this council for many years in past years for budget hearings. So but anyway, keep it short. I guess I'm, I'm a city retire, city employee retired in 2021, and also the son and a god son of retired DDOT employee, dot drivers. So I know. And actually, we survived with my dad back in the 70s as a little kid. So I remember, I know how what tough job they have. And you know, we should do whatever it takes to increase the budget. Because the budget, I know from being a budget I was for 19 and a half years, it's a life blood of, you know, of the whatever, the people you know, the city funds what's important to them. So think I know that transit is important because I'm a bus rider myself. Currently, I ride the bus and everything. I live in district seven, and I ride the bus, and ride it for last two or three years. So I know it's important, and I think, you know, in the bus drivers, and it's actually, it's personal to me, like I said, and I think they should be funded, funded fully to the up to 150 the general fund subsidy should be increased, and because this is a priority. So I hope you guys take it hard as you go on to Executive Session in a couple days. Thank you. Okay. Thank you.
Hello everybody at the sound of my voice, 313444914, 1344494,
that's my hotline number regards to
public transit, and that's my focus. So the only 5% of the bus stops in Detroit have a shelter, only 1.5% have a bench to sit down. I'm asking everyone to do some homework. Everybody's concerned about themselves. In this world, you have a vehicle, you have insurance, you have a car. There's some folks that don't have that, and some of y'all don't even pay attention to the people waiting at the bus stops. I'm not saying do anything for them. I want you to just observe. Look at them sitting on the ground. Look at them leaning up against walls and trees, and some of them have canes and stuff like me. Have mercy on them. They need more shelters and at least a bench to sit down,
even if you have to find a sponsor.
When there's a wheel, there's a way, and the wheel is for free fares on the people mover, the wheel is free fares on the queue line. They had sponsors for those. If the city can't take care of their own, the folks have stayed here through the good the bad. So that's why 150 out of the general fund is needed assist those whatever you've done under the least of these you've done to me. That's what the scripture says. I think all the Council for all the help with the hand warmers, gloves, bus tickets, doing bus ride alongs, hoping that continues and more robustly during this campaign season. So I want to thank you for what you have done, but the homework is to check out the people on this while you're driving, where you going, the people that are waiting on the bus, sitting on the ground, leaning on the poles, doing what they have to do because there's no bench and no shelter.
Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Good evening. Good evening. Council President Of the council members. I'm Rachelle Stewart with Detroit people's platform, transit justice team. At first, I want to thank Mayor and council for giving us that $20 million but is everybody saying we need to double it to that 100 and 50 million? But even if we get to that 100 50 million, come on out in the ninth, late 1990s we was at $300 million for DDOT, and at this stage of the game right now, a little bit over 100 about million dollars. Um, even if we double the dot, we're not going to have sufficient money to supply everything that needs to be done to make this transportation system a viable transportation system. I just can't understand we pay $100 per person, and the highest I've seen is $500 per person. So we're low, well below what we should be contributing to public transit. The residents of this city deserve better. We have said here, we paid our taxes, we done bought through bankruptcy, we done bought through everything to sit here and not have this viable transportation system. It doesn't make sense. We have to fund DDOT at a at a rate that it needs to be funded. You can't just look and say to drivers. I know everybody kept talking about drivers. I kept issuing that. Everybody at DDOT needed a raise. We need to get ourselves up to where everybody else is, or we're not going to have drivers, mechanics, dispatchers, schedulers. If we do that, we will keep good people. They will stay. I retire. That's what we need. We got to get that budget up to par, pay the employees. Get busses here, so we have parks here instead of people sitting waiting for a bus that's not going to even come for a to get on the drive. He's just sitting waiting. That doesn't make sense. We're paying somebody that's not even getting out and servicing to be so I don't know what it is you do. We done. Beg the mayor. We rally. I thank all our transit advocates and everybody that come out here all the time.
Thank you for listening. Everybody. Have a blessed evening.
You Good evening. Good
evening. Thank you. Council President and members of council, Robert Fauci, I'm not representing any organization here this evening. I'm a transit rider and I'm also an activist for a very long time. So I'm here like everybody else here this evening to ask council to support transit funding up to $150 million in general fund for DDOT transit is essential to me because I've been using it all my life. Most of you in this room know me as a transit rider through in and throughout in the city, we need to invest in transit to make it accessible for everybody. Is accessible for not just seniors, students and people with disabilities, is a lifeline for some people. Most areas, especially in other parts of Michigan, don't have transit. Most people in the city are very grateful to have it. We all need transportation to make it accessible for one person to get around. From point A to point B could be doctors appointments. It could be school. It's very important that we fund the service going into future, years to come, especially in the decrease in car usage. And most of you know me by my stance on transit, but I'm going to ask you one question here today. How much longer is it going to take for any of you to understand how much neglect we've dealt with over the course of years with transit. It's no offense to anybody in this room, but transit is essential, and it feels like we've been neglected for years. We ask you kindly to support the 100 $50 million to support transit and make sure that we have a future city to come Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
Hello, everyone. Megan Owens, Director of Transportation, writers united, I won't repeat what all of these other wonderful advocates have said, but I will say thank you. First a thank you to the mayor for making the making DDOT a priority, recognizing that when there is a little bit more in the budget than revenue coming in that DDOT is a number one priority. And thank you council for for considering another 16 million in general funds that would get to that full 100 and 50 million in city funds. The one other piece I will note is that that is a great step in the right direction. The other piece is we look forward to working with you over the next year or two or three to figure out how we can get to that full double data. We know it's not going to come all from city general funds. We know you have a lot of needs. So we look forward to figuring out ways to bring in county or state revenue, ways to bring in additional revenue sources, and we appreciate having so many wonderful champions fighting for great transit for all Detroiters. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Hi. My name is Steven Boyle. I'm currently a resident in district seven and will be transitioning to district two with the upcoming election. The work that I've been having recently has been in restaurant industry. I'll say that our night busses are packed after 10 o'clock, if we don't run that bus every 30 minutes. And I know that we have busses that shut down at 10 o'clock. For example, the fenco bus shuts at 10 o'clock. If I could get there, that would be great. If I can't, and it's not, then I gotta walk 1.3 miles home from the Dexter bus. So I was even thinking about employment in the suburbs, but DDOT just announced that they were cutting the Dexter bus from access to private to Northland, back further south. So that completely rules out any job opportunity in the suburbs unless I turned around and went all the way downtown and then took the Dexter all the way back out home, we're looking at a commute time about three hours if we do that at best, if we don't start doing something to improve service. And I'm not saying that the service is terrible. I'm saying that we need more frequent runs. We need the TEOs to have bathroom opportunities. I want to see us actually put public bathrooms around. We have such wait times that we have to deal with the fact that humans have needs and they not being satisfied in the environment we're in. If we need to start working on public health and safety. This is one of the places you really need to work on. It's dire. There's people really having problems. Wind breaks. You standing out there in the wind right now? It's cold if you're not dressed properly. My phone actually showed me Sunday's weather. I went outside thinking it's going to be Sunday's weather.
Think about it. Thank you.
Hi everybody. Thank you for your time. Thank you for everything you've done with the budget. And as a restaurant worker myself, I would like to reiterate what he said, that once we get out of work, especially if you work late at night, you are stuck if you don't make the bus. I get out of work at 1am If I'm lucky, and then have to wait another hour for the woodwork. So I didn't even think about saying that until just now, but public transportation gives people options, and with those options of transportation, it means to get around. It's also providing accessibility to people within our community and to connect our communities. It's giving people accessibility to the city, different parts of the city accessibility to places that have food, grocery stores, job opportunities, and when people are able to reliably take these sources of transportation, you'll be able to better your lives. This is just one seemingly small from the outside, thing that can raise the lives and upgrade everyone's ability to live a better life in Detroit that I would just love to see as somebody who's just been living here recently. It's something that I dream of idealistically. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank
you. Are you doing city councilman, Shelby, okay, everybody. My name is Daniel Whitley. I've been in Detroit for 45 years. Um, gets the bus back in 80s. Go to Cooley High School, things like that. What I want to say, I would like to see improvement for everybody in Detroit, or mostly especially the seniors, you know, the ones with the wheelchairs that have to wait, the people with kids and like you say, we need more shelter because of the weather. Sometime it rains, I have nowhere place to go. They sitting on crates, steady, looking for the bus. If it's crowded, the bus keep on going. We need more drivers. And also, would like to say, some years ago, I remember we used to have warning busses that we could sit on to wait until the next bus come in the winter time, and that was pretty good for the residents and the citizens of Detroit. And as me being in Detroit all my life, I would like to see that come back and improve the driver time, because the busses have been crowded, and we need that as being Detroiters, thank
you for that. Thank you. Applause.
Hello. My name is Amy hammer, and I live in district five. I'm going to start by thanking council members Gabriella Santiago, Romero and Fred der Hall, who voted to advance a motion to discuss adding an additional $16 million to dots budget. I want to ask the council to ensure that the additional $16 million is included in the budget to bring the DDOT budget to one $50 million like many of the people here, like many Detroiters, I live without a car. Just for an example, when I take the number five from my home near Van Dyke to go grocery shopping at Randazzo, I have to be careful to schedule that trip for Saturday mornings, because the bus service gets noticeably worse in the afternoons, and Sunday frequencies make that a non starter. I work during the week, and as everybody else, a couple other people have mentioned, it's also difficult in the evenings on weekdays, so that doesn't leave very much much time for good service. So I have to do it on Saturday mornings. If I can't get there on Saturday mornings, we are often stuck when we're doing grocery shopping, and it happens so often that we, my husband and I have a word for it. We call it being strand ASOS. Please. Double d.so we can get DDOT reimagined, and I and other Detroit residents are no longer strand ASOS. Thank you. Thank you.
Good evening. Hello. My name is Sean minty. I live in Detroit and district five, President Sheffield. I think you're my representative. I don't own a car, and I'll just recount an experience that everyone probably has had if they took the bus. So I was waiting at Mac after getting some stuff from Whole Foods, and I waited so long that my phone died, and it was like four people at the stop when I got there, it was like 12 to 15 people at the stop when the bus got there like my phone died. I had to go back to Whole Foods and charge it for like six minutes while, like, looking at the stop, but there were so many people that was pretty easy to see, like that the bus hadn't come yet. Then I went back to the stop and then waited. I don't know it was like an hour and a half total, but when the bus got finally, got there, like everybody sort of knew each other, but we were all like downtrodden. Felt like it just feels like a little bit like you're disrespected, like you're not treated, like you're important. I guess the bus was so crowded that when it like, when it stops, it has to lower itself a little bit so people can step onto it. I let everyone go first, and, like, there was no room, so, like, I would have to have stood right by the driver, and it felt like the bus was going to tip over. When it was it was, like, so many people that I thought was going to tip over. So I just, I'm lucky, luckily, I'm privileged enough to, like, I could get a lift. So I didn't even get on the bus, because I didn't think there would be enough room for anyone else. This was like, the first stop after the station too. So it's one of the first stops and that it just feels like, almost like, I don't know, I felt like, the feeling like, where you're like, worthless, kind of this was what I felt like. So if you all could double the budget and like, make people feel like you know that they can live and get places and not have to feel like they're not respected. That would be amazing. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much for those who took the time to come in person. We do appreciate your time and your input, and now we're going to go to those who have joined us virtually. And how many callers do we have?
Good evening, Madam President, there were 27 hands that were raised on Zoom before you would comment. The first caller is Steven holing.
Can I be heard? Yes, you can awesome. So I do appreciate and I am happy the mayor, um, has chosen to, um, add 20 million to DDOT, but I am concerned that that's not enough to implement DDOT, reimagine and even get basic needs like more US stops, you know, for example, you know, for so many years, DDOT has been neglected. I mean, in so many years, you just see a dozen, so many people come during budget to ask, you know, for an increase. You know, this year we at least got a modest increase, which I'm happy about. But, you know, I totally agree with what's my fellow transit advocates said, and what, you know, the council set up, increasing it to 36 million. You know, for example, you know, I take the bus occasionally, but only if it's in a major corridor, because I'm fortunate enough to afford a lift or Uber. But, you know, 90% of bus riders can. And you know, if I were to go, for example, I had a meeting over and on the west side. You know, the Grand River bus runs every half hour, so, you know, and that's a major corridor, so it would have taken two hours just to get to it. So I have no choice but to lift but, you know, so many people do not have the luxury or funds I have. So, you know, we really need to get the act together when it comes to transit. That's why I am in full support of increasing the budget to 36 million you know, I don't know the mayor is going to but you know, no matter what, I am satisfied that we got a $20 million increase. And you know, I'm hoping that, you know, eventually we can start to implement the reimagine I am concerned the current increase will not be enough,
okay, thank you.
Next caller is we see you.
We see you. Good evening.
We see you. Good evening.
We see you. Going once,
going twice. We see you.
All right, we can continue, please.
The next caller is William and Dennis,
good evening to have you heard. Yeah, we can hear you.
Okay, I like to say start off by saying that I believe an additional $2 million should be allocated for a future partial check for the general fund retirees. You know in that the general fund retirees, they took a pension cut. They took 4.5 we lost our cost of living retroactively, myself and others also took a clawback of 15.5% and over the last 11 years, we've had over 33% reduction not purchasing power. Unlike some people that have gotten a 45% pay increase, we have lost over 50% of our purchasing power through the pension cuts and newly claw back and what have you I think a greater effort should be made to help the city Detroit general fund retirees, because this whole grand recovery that other people taking credit for was on our backs and still on our backs every month. So the city Detroit should do more. You know, they should not continually. Large number of city retirees die every month. You know, we've lost over 3000 general fund city Detroit retirees, that's horrible. More needs to be done to help city Detroit retirees. It's like more money. Moneys need to be allocated to help us stay in our homes. You know, that, repair our homes, update our homes, and do a number of things that we may be just above the part you know, the income level for it, some things you know, but we're the ones that this whole recovery is on, but yet we do not get none of the benefits. It's almost as though sometimes y'all just want to see us die. Thank you.
Alright, thank you. Good afternoon.
Well, evening. I'm sorry I am saying afternoon. Okay, so we are going to get this started after witness.
Okay, we're hearing another session. Is that, Director Zander, can you hear us? Director Zander,
okay, we just muted him, okay.
The next caller is Kia Mathis.
Mathis, good evening. Hello, good evening. May I be heard? Yes, you can Alright. Hello. I'm Kia Mathis with Detroit people's platform. And I just wanted to review over these last few weeks of what the budget recommendations and requests, not only from the mayor but from the departments have said, you know from that, we know that $1 billion has been used to produce one to two bedrooms and a handful of three bedrooms. We know the HRD had mentioned that there's 1063 units under construction, the deeply affordable units, though only equals 482 units, and those are still one and two bedrooms. We also know that Detroiters in need of deeply affordable rents need three and more bedrooms. Many Detroit households pay more than 50% of their income on monthly housing costs. This is for homeowners and tenants. So households living with disabilities usually pay more, but households and singles living in cars, hotels on the streets across across the city of Detroit have issues accessing hotlines and the cam resources and the HRD talked about it, right? So the unhoused population find themselves in a multi year situation. Sometimes it actually repeats itself. We also know that in 2025 the immediate, you know, the future, appears to bring additional threat and hardships to our families who are housing insecure and they face evictions for closures and environmental disasters. We also know that the rights of council need 25 million, yet the Duggan administration did allocate the funding. But I did not hear about the critical services. You know that we're going to be prioritized for transitional and temporary housing options. I did not hear about the promise to find that we will find a way to support Detroit Housing Commission and the way to use existing housing stocks. I did not hear about massively funding the Housing Trust Fund as a solution to local housing support as solutions to build to maintain housing for those at risk and the currently on house I did not hear about the community land trust as a solution to long term housing stability, equitable infrastructure and also affordable development options. Because of this, I asked the council to continue to challenge how we do the strategy and
all right. Thank you.
The next caller is in ringa masani manual.
Yes, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Hi. How are you I'm calling regarding as a member of the Affordable Housing and Homeless Task Force. We support the 10 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the Community Land Trust should be $5 million right to council should be 25 million. Utility assistance from the general fund, 5 million. Detroit disability powers and warriors on wheels, 2 million. And Detroit Housing Commission one time of 5 million. Thank you, and please support our solutions.
All right, thank you. Thank you.
The next caller is phone number ending in nine nine.
Father, 299, good evening.
Yes. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.
Okay. Good afternoon to city Detroit council members. My name is Joy tomorrow with Virginia Park community coalition within the boundaries of the Virginia Park community, since we have districts 1234567, as opposed to at large, we should consider the individual districts and their specific needs. It was suggested and voted on with a resolution by Detroit City Council for participatory budget, which encompasses this concept. The mayor said, No, we are hoping your recommendations will encourage them to reconsider the participatory budget. Participatory budget as part of the upcoming budget for 2026 there should be an additional 10 to $15 million used to start the rehabilitation of houses in various districts, as opposed to demolishing specifically, please revisit the 10 to $15 million from the demolition department budget to seriously address the housing shortage and the rehabilitation of houses in various districts for affordable housing as well as sustainable housing for 2026 29 and thereafter, the Renaissance Center. The Renaissance Center is five buildings that are over to the history of the city square. Therefore it should be reconsidered, reconsidered for historic designation. New people are constantly coming to the city of Detroit and want to change our history and remove our legacy. As mayor of the city, Detroit, Mike Doug is responsible for the $600 million over tax the residents, and yet he wants to vote for Governor no accountability. Hopefully the new mayor will address the community's relevant this was a grant at one time. One time with proposals by Mayor Mike Duggan to Hunt. Hunt allow the mayor to make grant changes. And took our grant money and so and started a loan program called the Zero Interest Loan Program, whoever our newly elected mayor should seriously address HUD and reconsider change from a loan back to a grant, as was initially intended by President Gerald r4 in 1974 Thank you. I yield my time. All
right. Thank you.
The next caller is Lisa Franklin.
Lisa Franklin, good evening.
Good evening, Madam President, good evening to everyone in the sound of my voice. Lisa Franklin, President and CEO of warriors on wheels of Metropolitan Detroit. I was born and raised in the city of Detroit, but I've been out of the city of Detroit to Dearborn for almost 10 years now. Because of lack of affordable, accessible housing, I'm requesting and urging the city to put ten million into the housing trust fund for the next year, to put $2 million in affordable, accessible housing program so that individuals like myself can stay in their homes In the city of Detroit, requesting $1.4 million into Office of Disability affairs. And please, please, we need to double D dot when Collier and Cunningham talked about the shelters, and Collier talked about driving the bus and having to pass people up at the bus stop. So when you think about that, the public busses hold at least 50 passengers with maybe 10 in standing room? Well, there's only two seats, only two spots available for people with disabilities on those busses. So when, when, when you pass us up. It's worse for a person with a disability. And so what's good for us, for the people with disabilities, is good for everyone. And thank you so much for listening, and I yield my time.
Thank you.
The next caller is Cassandra Floyd, good evening.
Cassandra Floyd, good evening,
good evening. President Sheffield and honorable body. I am Cassandra Floyd with Western Boulevard collaborative, I am proposing that the city council designate 10 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and $5 million into the budget to fund Community Land Trust, Detroit has given billions of dollars to developers to build expensive luxury housing downtown and midtown that have forced legacy Detroiters out of those areas. Detroit investing in CLTs allow legacy Detroiters to build housing we can afford and won't be pushed out of I am also proposing 2.1 million to the participatory budget pilot program that will allow Detroit residents to directly budget city funds by allocating money to programs and services that determine that will determine to keep our community sustainable. I feel this is a perfect time to implement this program due to severe cuts on the federal level, we know that these federal cuts will greatly affect our most vulnerable residents, mainly our seniors, single mothers and children, and bringing participatory budgeting to Detroit will Allow for similar programs and services to be funded in disinvested neighborhoods that desperately need resources and support. I also echo the support for the DLT bus line. I rode the busses in the 80s, and even though the bus was crowded and it would pass me up. Another bus was right behind it. The busses ran 10 to 15 minutes, and I'm just sat in here that we've gotten to this point with our bus system. Thank you so much, and I yield my time.
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is, you matter.
All right, you matter. Oh, Miss warrior, okay,
make sure, miss. I'm sorry,
Miss Warren, just make sure your microphone is on. Press the bottom. It should turn green. Here you go.
Okay, thank you.
Well, first of all, I'd like to echo
the comments of many to increase the funding for DDOT. You cannot have a world class city without world class transportation. I think you know that the region suffers brain drain, because people may get out of college if, well, that's what, but they can't afford a car. And, you know, there's Chicago, other places they have great transit. So you can't have a world class city without world class transit. Please put the money there also doing home repair grants. That's a that would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and it would also help reduce excessive energy costs on many people. So please look into that. We do lots of demolitions, but not not a lot more help for residents here. The other thing I'd like to say, as you all know, I brought up the issue of the BCA, all of a sudden this year, last year, they didn't charge anything for transcripts, for on appeals, but now they want to charge everybody $6.35 a page. 10 pages would be over $60 most transcripts are way more than that. And last year, this body, fortunately, said they didn't want to increase community appeals cost from the BCA to $500 for an appeal, because it would be cost prohibitive. Well, $6 and now 75 cents a page is absolutely cost prohibitive and denies people access to the courts under Detroit city code, 52 dash Six. Six. Read it. It's real simple. The transcript is already supposed to be in the record regardless of whether anybody appeals, so you should not be charging them, anybody more than the cost of what a FOIA request would be, and if you email it, that means nothing, or maybe it's what, $5 to send the email. So member Johnson, you led the thing said, Don't charge $500 for a community appeal. That would be cost prohibitive. $6.75 a page is outrageous, so please, and it's not legal, so please do something about it, or the courts may have to thank all right.
Thank you. Miss worry. I will go back to those who joined us online.
The next caller is motorola moto he stylus.
Good evening, good evening. I'm happy her. This is Carolyn Hughes, yes, yes, you've heard a lot about what people want you to do. It's not about what you want. It's about what the people want and need. Mr. Cunningham mentioned something that's awful. You don't have shelters for people to stand at the bus stop. I drive down Joy road and men are afraid to stop or stand at the bus stop. There's no lighting. These are things that are just indicative of total neglect of people's needs. We have money, and we want to spend our money the way we want to spend our money. We want a first class transportation system, not scooters, not these other things that you keep offering us. We need bus service. You have a feasibility study for improving increasing routes, but you don't have any feasibility studies for all of the ordinances that you that you put into play. Miss Warrick just told you what you're doing is actually hurting the people when you don't actually do your due diligence and do your job, people are being charged and then ordinal amount of money just for copies of a transcript. When I see you on the table getting copies of hard copies of stuff that's electronic, please have some compassion for the people in this city who have less than you, who are not in the same position that you in. Maybe they can't afford a car, but they should be able to top on a bus and go anywhere in this city if it is, in fact, a first class city. But we know it's first class for some and it's poverty stricken for others. You have the pit. You have a right. You have the ability to adjust this budget in order to amend that to make sure that the people get what they need. They need housing. We need a foreclosures. We need a moratorium on foreclosures, and we need first class bus system, and we need to spend our money in those areas. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next caller is friend Rouge Park.
Good evening. You
hear me? Yes, we can. Good
evening, Madam President and city council members. My name is Lindsay pilak, and I'm here representing friends of Rouge Park for the 2025 budget. We respectfully request 3.4 million to be added to the budget for Rouge park for basic amenities to improve accessibility, safety and restroom access in the park. We support the budget items proposed by Councilman der Hall for improvements. That includes the Brennan comfort station needs to be repaired and reopened at a cost of $510,000 the comfort station at tireman and Sawyer is long beyond repair and needs to be demolished at a cost of $200,000 repairing the six mile Greenway so that people can safely walk and bike estimated at 2.7 million this year, we'll be celebrating the park's 100th anniversary, and people are coming back to Rouge Park in numbers we haven't seen in decades. Working closely with the amazing staff and leadership at GSD, we have seen lots of progress to encourage this return to Detroit's largest park, but the park desperately needs resources for basic infrastructure and improvements to ensure residents can enjoy the park. Detroiters deserve world class parks like the rest of the region, great parks improve quality of life and support critical early childhood experiences that lead to lifelong health and wellness outcomes. And finally, as a resident, I would like to express my support for those advocating for better transit and resources for disability justice in the city, because all of these things together truly will make Detroit a world class city with great transportation and great parks and respect and dignity for all the residents. Thank you so much. Thank you.
The next caller is be a Verner.
Good afternoon to all within the sound of my voice, I'm speaking now as an advocate for the seniors and people with disabilities. I was born and raised in the city of Detroit. Love my city, and if I'm blessed,
April 5, I'll be 76
and I want to be able to stay in my home. And there are other seniors that speak to me on the same issue. They want to be able to spend the rest of their days and time on this earth, in their homes and in peace. The Detroit home Accessibility Program is a wonderful program, also the senior disabled accessibility home repair program. I'm asking that the council please consider to continue these programs, put more monies in these programs. Also, there has been a population of seniors, our retirees, as city retirees and disabled people, who have been left out. For example, the Detroit accessibility program. It's a wonderful program, but if you are not on SSI or some type of low income type situation, you are left out. And so you have a whole population of seniors who still need help. They work, they paid their dues, their taxes, and they've been committed to the city of Detroit. We're asking the administration and the council to please make it so more seniors and people who are disabled will be eligible for these programs, and as I speak every day, allow monies for the different programs that I speak about to help organizations black clubs do the work that they need to do to improve their neighborhoods. Thank you for this time, and God bless you all and the work that you do.
The next caller is Theo pride.
Thank you to city council and for the opportunity to speak Theo pride, Detroit people's platform and the budget Justice Coalition. As Council moves into executive session, I would just like to take the time to acknowledge how difficult the budget process is, I know it's a lot of asks for different things, and you have to decide, with limited resources, what gets prioritized, what gets funded, and what doesn't. With that being said, I think City Council has done a good job in listening to community and prioritizing community needs and the budget process so far, things like the Community Land Trust Fund, participatory budgeting right to council, transportation and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund being lifted up during the budget hearings points to an understanding by council of the type of public investments Detroiters want and equitably benefit from. I think all of these budget considerations strengthens the social safety safety net for our most vulnerable residents, at a time when investing in local public goods is needed to fill holes left by the coming reductions in federal support to the city, specifically participatory budgeting, which Chicago, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and several Other cities already have, gives residents real control over revenue spending in their communities. It will allow residents to craft programs and solutions that address the issues that they've identified in their communities. This type of CO governance structures empowers residents in ways that encourage civic participation, all while investing needed resources throughout the city in an equitable way. Examples of participatory budgeting throughout the country shows it moves more money to affordable housing, youth development, transportation and infrastructure improvements, all things Detroiters have loudly demanded from local government. Here again, I'm encouraged by the budget considerations of council so far, and look forward to upcoming executive sessions where those things can come to fruition. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next caller is Joe Adams,
all right, good evening. Good evening.
It's Joanne Adams. I'm a resident of district five and a board member of West Grand Boulevard collaborative, I just wanted to say we need to see more balance and variety in how Detroit City encourages community development. We need some initiatives that support community self determination in a real interactive way, in ways that encourage and support our communities to prioritize and act upon their needs. I've been encouraged to hear some council members advocate for Shared Equity models such as participatory budgets and a supportive funding stream for community land trust the dollar amounts requested 2.1 and 5 million respectively, and hopefully approved by you all show faith in the ability of our neighborhoods to create their own plans. The Detroit people's food Co Op is a great example of a Shared Equity project. The 1.3 billion touted to have been allocated to affordable housing has been predominately to ensure corporate profits. With a nod towards affordable housing for long term residents, they've led to rampant gentrification and displacement from downtown, midtown and soon, new center. This has harmed our long term residents and exacerbated inequity. Shared Equity models lead to more equitable outcomes. For example, CLTs are more than just permanently affordable housing. They're structured. They're structured to benefit residents as well. They can provide home improvements or other resources decided upon in the community by the community participating budgets puts power back into communities, increases civic engagement, and are tried and tested around the country and world. The pilot plan will provide guidance and training in the communities, and they can decide their priorities and take the actions this these budget moves show your support for your constituents and will yield constrictive, constructive, sorry, constructive, fact based input to budgeting in future years. So I'm asking you all to invest in community based initiatives and start to create an equitable balance. Thank you.
The next caller is Brandy watts,
Hello, can I be heard? Yes, I
can. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you, honorable council members. I'm speaking to you today from the southwest Detroit Business Association in districts, in District Six, and I am speaking about the city's language access system overseen by creo. Unfortunately, we have seen repeatedly how important language access is in the times of emergency, first in the floods of 2021 and then recently, with the water main break situation in southwest Detroit, city departments, Homeland Security, DWSD, are still not prepared to utilize the city's language services during emergencies such as these. And previously, we've heard from the Fire Department and Department of Neighborhood staffing that who were unaware that the city had language access problems, I urge you to ensure that there's appropriate funding in this budget so that Creo can provide training for other departments and the city can issue critical communications in multiple languages during times of need and emergencies. Oftentimes, it's at the hands of nonprofit organizations like Southwest trade business association and other major nonprofit organizations in the community to help these residents, and it would be great if we can see, you know, an increase in this funding and training for those departments. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
The next caller is Tahira on that
Good evening.
Thank you. Hello everybody, thank you. I got good news. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you. Hello. Yes, Miss Ahmad, we can hear you.
Okay, yes, I got good news for everybody that's dealing with the foreclosure refund. Because not good news, in a way, but there was a bomb threat at the at the 400 Monroe. So now the deadline has been extended to April 8 for the deadline for the foreclosure refund. So that's good news. I just want to say thank you for considering what you're considering for a community. I hope you will at least consider giving us the chance to get affordable housing trust fund giving more money to that making homes more affordable for the people who, right now, have lost their homes due to illegal foreclosures, please make A plan to pay us all back $600 million you can do it. All you have to do is come together with your great, masterful minds and find a way to refund us and give you a lot of money that's being taken out of our community. We want a moratorium on foreclosures. Yeah, I know you guys can do it. You're so smart. I know you are. Let's get the Detroit Affordable Housing Trust Fund paid and a double d.it is horrible to see people standing in rain and cold and wind with their children nowhere to sit at these bus stops. It's dangerous for women. The women can get raped, and all kind of things happening to people who are standing here without shelter, for waiting on busses that may never come. And I was one of those people who had to walk a mile and a half at night, and nine o'clock at night and people trying to pick me up in cars, it's dangerous. So hope you all listen to us, right? Thank you.
Next caller is earnard on Tron ski.
Good evening. Good
evening. Madam President, council members. Can I be heard? Yes, you can. Alright. Good evening, everyone. My name is renardsky. I'm an organizer with Detroit people's platform, and I'm also a legacy Detroit resident residing in District Six. I regret I couldn't be out there with my compatriots that are out there rallying for Double D dot because I'm under the weather. I'm sick. However, being an online, lifelong bus rider of Detroit, the Grand River was my main route to get to high school and back and forth, and it was reliable. And the thing is, transit justice in the city is overdue for black, disabled and low income Detroiters. We deserve a world class system that gets us to where we need to go. And world class is real simple. This is what it looks like. It's not missing work so that people can put food on the table. It's not missing doctor's appointments so that people can get health care on time and not pay extra fees. It's so that people can visit their families. That's what a city is. It's made of families, our kids, our parents and our friends, so that we can get groceries and shop our local businesses. A lot of these businesses that are amazing, that you advertise in your meetings are hard to get to do the transit. I'm a I don't own a car. I've owned a car since I graduated from college 2011 and I live in the city of Detroit, and I shouldn't have to have a car. We should have the right to be able to move freely in our neighborhoods and across this beautiful city. The city has so many neighborhoods and types of people and communities that could be more accessible if we double DDOT and I asked the city council to have this bold, courageous conversation during an executive session and realize that other forms of government are not going to come through for us on the federal side and possibly on the state side of things, Detroit has always risen to occasion when there was big challenges ahead of us. We always did, and what this council does with double DDOT will reverberate across the country that are also facing severe shortages of drivers and everything else. Thank you. Thank you.
The next caller is Ross Shaw,
okay, good evening. Good evening.
Uh, hi. Thank you very much. My name is Ross Shaw. I'm a resident in district five. I'm calling today to urge city council to support an increase in DDOT funding to $150 million well, $20 million is a nice first step. It is nowhere close to what is needed to create a comprehensive, equitable, adjust transit system for the people of Detroit, as we move towards walk, making our communities walkable, car free and safer for all, if someone has the privilege of owning a car and prioritizes taking transit, I'm often disheartened at the choices I have to make if I'm going somewhere important, like taking like taking the bus downtown to catch the bus to the airport. I don't want to have to rely on worrying about a bus possibly not showing up or having to wait at a bus stop for 30 minutes or more. In addition to the disinvestment in transit, in the transit system itself, there is widespread need for investment in infrastructure like bus stops and benches. What does it say to those that rely on transit when they have to wait out in the cold, snow, rain and heat while they wait, sometimes for up to an hour for a bus without an equitable, equitable and just transit system, Detroit will not be able to grow and attract more people to the city. It will also leave behind many of the poor, disabled Detroiters who rely on public transit. As another commenter said, a first class city like Detroit deserves a first class transit system. I'd also echo the calls of staff members from Detroit disability power to increase funding for the Office of Disability affairs and increased accessibility of voting sites, disabled Detroiters deserve to be heard and respected, and with the attacks on everyone's rights, including voting coming from the President, we now, more than ever, need to protect voters rights to ensure that disabled Detroiters are able to make their voice heard. Thank
you. All right. Thank you.
The next caller is go. All
right. Good evening.
Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Good evening. Okay, great. Hi. My name is Joe Garofalo. I'm a district five resident member Detroit DSA. I work at the Renaissance Center. So I live and work in Detroit. I ride the bus, I ride the queue line, and I ride the people mover. I am making a comment in strong favor of doubling funding for DDOT and generally for making transit and pedestrian access our number one transportation priority. I heard the saying and I wanted to repeat it here. You don't measure demand for a bridge by counting how many people are swimming across the river. We shouldn't be applying this mindset to transit either, especially in a system which is as heavily underfunded as ours, only spending about 1/3 of the amount per capita that other cities spend. The median household income is only $38,000 per year, 15% of that a month. The suggested amount of your budget to spend on transportation is only $475 a month. Yet we live in a city where we expect every adult in the house to have a car. Me and my partner share a car. As public officials, you do have a duty and an obligation to curate an urban space that is safe and accessible for all people. Studies show that almost 40% of people can't drive because of disability, health condition, too old, licenses suspended, they're undocumented, etc. When we exclusively fund personal automobiles at the expense of everything else, we're explicitly taking away these people's ability to participate in employment, recreation and civic life. If this city is going to grow and be a place where regular working people can live, we need to put transit above automobiles. It is a geometric, immutable fact. There is no other option. I also wanted to just say quickly as well, I am in favor of the 10 million for the Affordable Housing Fund participatory budget, and the platforms of Detroit people's platform and Detroit disability. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
The last caller for public raise their hand before you have public comment, recognizing that for our hands raised, but they raised their hands after you had left public comment, and for the last caller Is Michael dish line,
okay, good evening.
Good evening. Michael,
hello. Can you hear me now? Yes, we can. Oh, thank you, and thank you for this opportunity to speak to the council. I'm here in support of the fully funding the Office of Disability affairs. So my name is Michael dash line. I work at the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative, and we provide ombudsman services in nursing facilities and home care programs throughout the state and throughout the city of Detroit, including the My Choice Home Care Program and the PACE program of Southeast Michigan. And for people with disabilities, there are many barriers that make it really difficult to live in the community and receive the services they need. And unfortunately, the state programs that provide services are largely siloed, where they rarely talk to each other, and even are less often able to work together effectively. Yet, the solutions to the problems people face span departments
of health and housing and transportation,
for example, a person with a disability who relies on home care services is facing a chronic shortage of direct care workers, and many workers rely on public transportation. But if they can't get to their clients because the transportation is unreliable or doesn't reach far enough, the clients just won't get services and or they won't be able to on their own to get to the grocery store or church or employment if they don't have accessible transportation. Another example is the person with a disability who's living in nursing home and wants to return to the community, the biggest barrier that they encounter isn't getting services, it's finding accessible and affordable housing. And so there, there are people actually sitting in nursing homes at considerable cost,
right? Thank you. All right. That will conclude all of our public comment this evening, we again thank those who took the time to come down and also call for public comment. We will resume our budget deliberation starting on Wednesday at 10am feel free to listen in as we move forward and the final vote on the budget has to take place by Monday. By Monday, okay, all right, if there is nothing else to come before us, everyone, have a great evening. And is there a motion to adjourn. All right, this meeting will stand adjourned.
