All right, good afternoon. Everyone. We will now call back to order our expanded budget Finance and Audit Committee for the purposes of our budget hearings. Madam Clerk, if you can please call the roll.
Councilmember Scott Benson. Councilmember Fred Moore Hall, the third councilmember Leticia Johnson present councilmember Gabriela Santiago Ramiro resident council member Mary waters, was it council member Angela Whitfield Callaway, Councilmember Coleman a young the second council president project Pro Tem Jane to take excuse me, Council President Mary Sheffield president. All right, we do have a quorum. Forgive me now. You good Madam President. You do have a quorum present you Thank
you Madam Clerk. We are in session and we will proceed with our first hearing. The Detroit transportation Corporation. Good afternoon and when you are ready to proceed, the floor is yours. Just make sure your microphones are on press the bottom. Yep, green.
Better. Thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Robert Kramer, the general manager of the Detroit transportation Corporation. We're the owners and operators of the people mover and we also are home to the Detroit Transit Police. And with me I've got Deputy General Manager Ernest Latham and my finance director was Karen Foster. Good afternoon. We have a brief presentation. I believe you all have copies of this printed in front of you as well. But for the audience at home, I'm gonna do my best to share it on the screen
okay, great. Alright, so just a brief overview. Some agency highlights I mentioned that we're home to the people mover and the Transit Police. So the people mover is a elevated guideway system with one way loop track three miles in length. We have 13 stations that are fully ADA accessible and then we also have a maintenance and control facility which is located adjacent to the Rosa Parks transit center between state and Cass, Michigan and Grand River that was built in 1987. And so we're nearing getting close to our 40th birthday. The Detroit Transit Police is a law enforcement agency that was created to provide enforcement and security for the people mover when it opened. We have been providing services to assist DDOT since 2014, and as we've noted in our our budget and presentation is we're planning to refocus our service on the people who've hurt starting for fiscal year 2025 which is in July July 1. Just a little look back a year and review. So for the calendar year of 2023 we had ridership of 655,000 that was approximately 41% Compared to 2019, which was the last full full year of ridership before the pandemic. We have been implementing or have implemented improvements. There was the 2015 through 2021 OAG audit that we were in front of the Council for a little bit over a year ago. We've made advancements in hiring and training and also focusing on employee engagement as a way to not only attract but also to retain and support our, our employees. We've been focusing on growing our efforts for community and ridership engagement. We've included for the first time a concept called the Net Promoter Score. And so we'll be working more on that but we do have QR codes and other outreach to really engage people in every way we can, how they're how they're experiencing the system and how we can improve it for them. And then also very excited that we've in calendar year 24 January 1, we started our zero fare pilot program, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later. So the zero fare pilot program, this is free fares for all of 2024. The concept is that we have our first ever presenting sponsor, which is priority waists and we had an announcement about that earlier this month. So basically through their sponsorship program which includes some advertising public relations, some exposure for their brand and also kind of involvement in supporting the city. Is that the that revenue offsets to make sure that the zero fare program is at worst budget neutral we really feel that it before we it's kind of cheating because now I know what the results have been for the first two months which are fantastic, but our hope was that it would benefit residents, workers and visitors but also transit riders. So one of the things we heard was that the function of downtown the Peoplemover downtown, while in design is something that could help transit riders make connections and get around is that the 75 cents cash was actually a very significant barrier, because our technology did not allow us to offer transfers as part of the smart and DDOT bus service. In addition to that the the equipment is kind of vintage original to the system, and really limited the number of ways that people could pay for it. And so we really thought that that was a barrier to making the system convenient. Our target increase is 50% increase of ridership over 2023 Sounds like a pretty significant number as someone who's been in the transit industry for a while, but very excited to say that so far. For our first two full months, we're at over a 100% increase. So we've more than doubled our ridership compared to 2023. And with all of the large events coming up here in the next couple of months, I think that that number will continue to go up. Our board approved doing this for one year with the idea that in July at a board meeting, which of course is a public meeting, and with some extra input and outreach from the public as we'll evaluate how the how the program is going and then decide if there's any adjustments if we want to go back to collecting fares we want to make any tweaks to the system and really kind of set our course for what will happen for 2025. My hope and my recommendation to the board will be that we continue the program and seek as much increase in revenue and funding we can get to support this initiative as possible. A couple other things that we've been working on, we did a DTC Peoplemover brand refresh that kind of gives you the new logo you can see here in the upper right corner. Again, just to to kind of refresh and upgrade the appearance and really have a future future focused front front facing and then also nearing the Completion is the station technology upgrade project. You can see here this is one of the kiosks so every station when it's completed will have two ADA accessible touchscreen kiosks one at the platform level I wanted the street level that will have an interactive map information about small businesses that are in the station area, service events that are going on. And then also there'll be overhead video messaging screens providing information about the state is the system open what stationary at again, events, other information that will really be helpful to engage the public and be part of improved experience downtown. We're nearing completion on the accent lighting project for some of the columns head of the draft. And then we're in the process of the Peoplemover fleet enhancement which I'll talk about a little bit more here in a moment. So the fleet enhancement project, rewinding a little bit, the council approved setting aside some money to help provide a local match for us to seek out federal grant funding for brand new replacement vehicles. We were not successful in that discretionary application. That was a project we budgeted at $32 million and that was to replace just four of the rail cars out of the 12 that we have which we believe 10 is the is the right number to get to. We had an incredible opportunity come up middle of last year, which is that a sister system to the people mover which is the Scarborough RT line in Toronto. They made the decision to decommission that that system but it uses essentially the same driverless technology. It's the same exact rail cars are built at the same time. There's a few minor parts and things that are not exactly the same, but generally speaking, it's the same form and do to give a lot of credit to my Deputy General Manager, Ernie Latham. Over the years we've formed a very close working relationship to support the two very unique systems and so Toronto reached out to us to see if we'd be interested in in basically buying any of their surplus parts that really are not useful to anybody else. Which is kind of like winning the lottery really, this is stuff that they don't need that nobody else can use and that we can't find anyplace else. So that's kind of a win win win. And we we've made a commitment to them to invest $1 million and that gets us I think conservatively estimated at least $20 million worth of parts and equipment. And if you factor in the cost of the complete rail vehicles we're going to purchase that's another probably 60 or $70 million worth of worth of equipment for $1 million. And it's really you've already started taking delivery of some of the highest part of those items. So they're able to help us with our maintaining the current fleet. And then as we work to integrate the TTC vehicles, we would replace the entire fleet. The good news is, even though they're the same age as they did a midlife overhaul, which is usually about $4 million per vehicle where they're going all the way down to the frame, and really replacing and rehabilitating all the parts so even though they're the same age, these vehicles have at least five to 10 years of additional life compared to the vehicles we have now. So it's just a really exciting opportunity. And again, it's not it was a good portion of luck, I guess on our part that they came to us and that we were able to take advantage of this without Disaronno surplus purse purchase. A lot of the parts that are part of the people who resist them are very difficult to obtain. You have to have them custom fabricated or rehabilitated. And as I mentioned, if we didn't have the TTC vehicles we would be looking to do to complete a similar end of life extension to our vehicles. And that's estimated to be about $4 million per vehicle so all around just an incredible value and something we're very grateful for the the parts in the real deal because again is transformational to the system over the next 10 plus years and the minor modifications calibration and testing. We anticipate that will take about 12 to 16 months to complete. So at the end of that process, we will have replaced the entire fleet with the Toronto vehicles
so looking at our 2425 budget priorities, we're reutilizing utilizing our remaining COVID funding to continue to support our transition into full service. We're working to reduce maintenance costs. Another hidden benefit of the the parts equipment and rail cars from Toronto is that going to significantly reduce the cost of actually purchasing parts and rehabilitating services for all of the equipment and also should reduce the overall needs for maintenance as well because they've had more work done to them. We want to continue to grow the community engagement so really focusing on different ways to reach out to people where they are to help hear from them how the people mover could be more useful to them. And that can include residents but also can include many small businesses in the downtown area as well. We want to increase our connections to arts, culture and education through events, programming, tours, other ways that we can enhance the system and the stations. Things like having audio tours, supporting the Council's efforts for acknowledging important locations. And the Underground Railroad which is our less riverfront station includes one of those as well. We want to focus on a positive experience and also a value multiplier so finding any way that we can benefit the city residents and again the greater downtown area and across the city and then facilitate improved transit connections and services. So really linking up more closely with scooters, Bike Share. Also with private on demand services, the RTA just had a ribbon cutting for their AirPort Express service, really focusing on ways that the Peoplemover can help tie all those services together conveniently, and having free fair makes that easier. Looking a little bit farther ahead is really focusing on continuing the zero fares policy. Getting the Toronto parts of vehicles in place. We do have grant funding for an agency strategic plan for a mobility study which can take a look at possible expansion plans or improvements. And then also as I mentioned a few times really focusing on ways to generate additional revenue through advertising, sponsorships, and partnerships. And that concludes our presentation.
All right. Thank you so much, Mr. Kramer for the presentation. And we will go to questions from my colleagues and you kind of touched on my question regarding the expansion and I know that during the policy conference when the mayor mentioned reconfiguring the system, it kind of drew a lot of attention about the future of the people, most people Moreover, impossible expansion. And I know that you mentioned possibly conducting or securing funding for a study that will help with scenario planning for future opportunities. Can you speak a little bit more to how much a study like that would take or cost I should say, and then also the timeline? Yeah,
absolutely. So we have we have secured $800,000 of state planning funds. They're not available for us at this very moment. But in the next couple of months, we'll be able to finalize that so we can put out a request for proposals. We anticipate that that would that we bring on a national expert but also make sure that the team has local connections, especially when it comes to public and community involvement. And our plan is that we'd like to have it take less than 12 months from when we award but I think that's a pretty good ballpark is 12 months so figure from today, maybe 15 months we would have the study completed.
Okay, so there's no support the city can provide as it relates to a study or funding it it sounds like you have the appropriate funding from the state to conduct the study.
proud to report that in this case. Yes, we've got what we need appreciate though. Okay. All right. Thank
you. And then just quickly as the city $6.5 million general fund contribution to DTCs operation for this fiscal year, a sufficient to meet operating needs? Yes, we believe so. Okay. All right. Thank you. We will move to questions from my colleagues potentate.
Thank you, Madam President. You just asked the question. That was really it. But I'll add a little bit more. Thank you for the work that you all do. For certain. I see that we have a new refresh of the brand if you will. Are there is there any desire or have you guys content contemplated content, contemplated any apparel or anything of that nature? I mean, Detroit is hot right now. And I go on Etsy. I type in Detroit people mover and I see stuff, but none of it is official stuff from the city of Detroit. And no matter where you go, if you put Detroit on something, people will buy it. Certainly here in Detroit. I'm looking right at your laptop, you got the sticker there and all that good stuff. Talk to us about any opportunities for a payroll or other type of swag, if you will, to help generate revenue but even excitement and engagement, if you will, with the people moment. Yeah,
absolutely. is a great point. And something that I think on from DTC we're all excited about and revenue is always great, but I think the excitement and kind of raising the profile is really the main point of the exercise as far as refreshing the brand. So we have some, we have some items, we got some stickers, so we just got some mouse pads. So we're working on a little stuff, but we are looking for partners, especially we're hoping maybe a few independent folks in the city that can design whether it's T shirts, hats, you know, other other stuff. So we are interested in looking for partners to do that. And I agree with your enthusiasm 100%
was shifts you would then direction either way to do it or not do it right now you contemplating?
Oh no, we just need to do it. Oh, we're just looking for we're looking for partners that would be part of that. We want to make sure that it's that it's high quality but also provides opportunities for residents and businesses in the city to participate.
Okay, well consider me a brand ambassador.
Okay. You're signed up. Appreciate it.
All right. The other question I have. Kevin says, I mean, so how we no longer are focusing on a policing right? You don't have the the police force anymore. Talk to us about the decision to go in that particular direction. I know that there's was concerned ex external concern about it, but talk to us about that decision.
Yeah. So to clarify a bit, the Transit Police will still be the Transit Police and they'll still be part of DTC. It'll be a smaller force. We're anticipating 15 That's our budget shows 15 officers that includes officers sergeants and chief for the the unit, but they will be fully focused on patrolling the Peoplemover system. As a kind of turning the clock back to when the force was first created. And we really think that that will help focus and support you know, the growing ridership that we have. We've been struggling for since COVID. We lost a lot of officers from that unit and we were struggling to to fill those positions. And that was what led to the midnight shift had to be cancelled because we didn't have enough staff that about a year and a half ago. And kind of couple that with you know, we feel DPD is in a good position to be able to take take over the responsibility for DDOT. And so it felt like the right time for us to kind of refocus that effort on the Peoplemover only so right now we're actually paying securitize for unarmed security so that we have coverage on the platform in the system. And the Transit Police are really only covering the people mover for special events, which is maybe one one time or one weekend a month generally. The rest of the time they're focused on DDOT and a lot of that's because the staffing levels. So felt like this is the right the city DPD we feel is ready to take that back on. There's some interest on that side. And on our side really said hey, we'd like to really focus on kind of the original mission of patrolling the river, you
know, and thought about it from that perspective. So we're saying that and I know it gets a little a little challenging with DPD, certainly during the weekends during the summertime. So we're saying that we're going to have more of our transit police that are in place during those summer months in those positions, where the stations are located for the people mobile Correct.
Yeah, there'll be a transit police unit anytime that people movers open. And then obviously during the heavier, you know, weekends or especially during special events, then obviously we'd have you know, multiple units that are out on the system. Still, you know, the Transit Police has always worked really close with Homeland Security. DPD, Wayne County Sheriff, all those partnerships and support will continue just the assignments, you know, shift a little bit.
Alright, thank you so much. Appreciate. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, President Pro Tem, member Young.
Thank you, Madam President. All the questions I really want to answer is kind of answer so I'm gonna come at this a little different angle. Good. To see you, sir. I just want to ask you, how does this project coordinate with the Regional Transit Authority and in one rail, are you going to be relying upon the millage to pass to finance the RTA for any of this project at all? Or is this something that it's within its own space? And it is this funding that you receive it from the state? Is that just its own project or is that part of the WoW project? That's the way in Oakland Macomb expansion to run rapid bus transit, right.
So the the state funding we secured is just for our project separately, it's through the state has service development, new technologies, kind of a planning, planning pool of funding, we were able to work with them to secure that. So it's really a separate and we're kind of framing it as a debt a greater downtown mobility study. So it'll focus on the one hand on ways we could improve the current footprint, maybe small expansions, expansion spurs kind of set up some different scenarios with general parameters of what that would look like, you know, in general costs how long it would take Are there any major obstacles that would go in to be in the way of any of these choices, and they'd be ready for an opportunity. So if one goes by a major development site, developer comes in, they've got a big project. You've kind of teed up those opportunities. And so the funding for those hasn't been identified. It hasn't been worked in anything this study kind of sets the table for what's the magnitude? Are we talking about? What would this cost look like? What's the timeframe? And then we can start trying to figure out what are opportunities through you know, through threat, federal, public private partnerships, joint development agreements, that'll all be kind of a next step after the study. Okay,
it also just want to ask you, is this something that you plan on being intermodal and connected to the neighborhoods because we have a lot of conversations about transportation that is in the downtown area, and that's a good thing. I'm not knocking that but is there any plans for this to go either into the neighborhoods or are you going to rely on mobility as a service? So you know, our transportation network companies, so your Ubers or lifts? Are you going to rely on your Boaz bytes? Are you going to connect this to the Joe Lewis freeway at all Detroit Riverwalk? I know they've been talking about this for a while. It hasn't come into fruition yet, but I know they were discussing water taxis at one point in time. It is it's something that's going to be connected into modally that it may not go into the neighborhoods but we're relying on so much other transportation. I know the chief mobility Innovation Officer Tim Slessor has a project involving vans for senior citizens that's automated. So you have that technology aspect. Are you going to re is this going to be something that's going to be interconnected throughout the city and intermodal or is this just kind of like a standalone project for nonprofits? Make sure to follow Toby or myself you know is this so this we stand alone project for this is basically what I'm saying is this something's gonna be connected to the city or is this specifically designed to get you to point A is utilitarian like you know, you're gonna get to point A to point B if you write this and that's it. Yeah,
some great points. And so, one thing to think a bit would be from the highest level is a really important component of this study is going to be probably one or two steering committees. So we want to make sure that from the first minute we spend on the project all the way through to kind of teeing up those different scenarios is that we're getting feedback from as many people from diverse perspectives as possible, because these are the kinds of conversations that we would want to include. You know, I think that when the mayor made the comment about thinking, you know, if we would have designed if we had a new design of the system today, obviously, it would it would feel different than it did when the system was first being contemplated in the 70s. And I think that all of the things you're talking about as far as how can the station stations can be hubs, right? How can those be connected to expand the the footprint site, we can't build a people mover that is going to be able to go across the whole city with a whole grid, right? That's that's prohibitive. But if you can get the right pattern, and then have autonomous shuttles, you could have rideshare connections. You could have you know, maybe see if it could impact making any of the DDOT routes more efficient. And really think about those getting people to to any of those spurs and then into the into the downtown area. But I think you're on you're on the right track is how do we make sure that from that spot, it's not just like, well, if you live right next to the station, you're good, how can we make sure that miles out from there, there's easy ways to connect in and really be able to benefit. So to me, that's all going to be part of the study. And I think the more voices that we have, the more conversations we'll have about that,
because that was the purpose of the people who've originally when my father proposed me and secure I think like $600 million from the federal government was that they wanted to have part of it was to be elevated and another part of it was to be underground. So I think that we weren't I was not going to be doing that with rapid bus transit. But I think if we have a sort of transportation system that can be intermodal. And connect throughout the city, I think we can at least somewhat build upon its original vision. So I think it's really exciting. And I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm done.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember young councilmember waters Okay,
thank you, Madam President. So good afternoon,
afternoon.
So, what's the relationship between DTC and DDOT?
So do you that's the city department. Right, DTC is a public body corporate so and our local agreement created us so we're an ancillary unit. And so my understanding is that were listed we've always been shown as a line item and D dots budget. That's where our city subsidy if it's, I believe, that's probably the connection that you're looking for.
It's all and I wanted to preface it with that, because I wanted to know if there were any plans to create a universal pass that could be used for DPM D that and smart transit services. Absolutely.
So the Peoplemover was the problem in making that happen because our fare equipment is original to the system and couldn't accept anything other than tokens and kind of old school magstripe cards. That's part of the reason why we we went fare free. So I know Smart D that have the dark paths. And I know they've been talking about doing a more robust system as far as the shared paths. But as long as we're fair, free, we don't have to worry about making sure we can fit into the system. So that was actually one of the reasons we would do that. If we decided to collect fares again, we would have to replace our entire system so that we would be able to participate because, as I mentioned earlier, we need to if we were going to collect fares again, that's I think I've mentioned this council before, I would want to make sure that we can provide free seamless transfers for transit users because it's silly for them. To pay $2 And then I have to pay 75 cents to make their transfer to a different system.
All right, thank you. So um, you mentioned expansion, and so is planning and development going to be going away in on such an explained expansion. And so and then how would all of that fit in with the Master Plan? Oh,
absolutely. So Anton Brian, who's the planning director here at the city. He and I have been I think some of the news coverage include included both of us making some comments about the idea of doing this study. And so we would be short answer is yes, we're going to be fully in line with making sure that this is matches the city's priorities for creating a vibrant, walkable neighborhoods.
Very good. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, member waters Member Santiago Ramiro.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon, everyone. Good to see you. I am happy to hear that we moved forward with the free fair. There's something that I that I suggested last year so then that I will always suggest when it comes to transits because I believe the outcomes are what we're seeing right now more people ride that that source of transportation. So this is exciting, because we're going to continue to push DDOT to look at this as well. We were working with them to see what we can do for some kind of pilot program as well. For DDOT so happy to see the early results and have them be positive. And thank you for doing that work. A lot of the questions that I had, were asked they were about how we're doing so far, with the free fare program doing well. Also wondering about a universal pass between the dots the cue line and and the people mover. But as you just as you're discussing the if we move to two free transit, then we wouldn't need necessarily a pass. So I think still something to keep in mind when it comes to all of our modes of transportation and making sure that there is an app where we can access them at least. So if not needing the app to order tickets. Would you still be willing to talk about the app to see when the people movers gonna stop? At each stop to connect and plan your your day in the city? Have you been discussing at least that kind of integration on a universal app where I'm here I'm taking an Uber or the free bus from the airport to the city. I want to know when when the people mover moves around and the dots have we've been having these discussions about how to at least help us move with with the resources that we have here.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that we're always looking for ways to support our transit partners. Looking at the people mover in particular is we've been working with a company called swiftly which is actually what the cue line and smart both use as well. And that has allowed for the first time ever we're still working out the bugs. We haven't done like a major rollout. But we do have next train predictions that are live now. So if you're using transit app, which is a free app to us we kind of push that to them. I know that smart DDOT also encouraged people to use it as well. But if you go in transit app right now, you'll actually be able to see kind of the trains floating around the track and you'll be able to see the next train arrival. The video messaging screens and kiosks I mentioned earlier, those will have live feeds from swiftly as well. So if you're walking by on the street or on the platform, you'll be able to see when the next couple of trains are arriving, which again, we think is all about. You're helping people connect and engage but also have some certainty that like, okay, the system is running. We know that there's a train coming. It's kind of one of the disadvantages. Of a driverless system is basically the stations and the trains are unstaffed. So if you use the people who were before it's like I of course I'll walk on but for someone you hear some someone out of town, they're like, well, there's a building, we're not really sure if it's if it's on so we just walk into these doors so we're really helping. We're really trying to focus on that. And I think making sure that we have accurate and active information in all the trip planning platforms and apps is really important. As a transit. You know, professional myself though I'm always happy to stick my nose in and help push initiatives forward. You know, for the for the city and the region as well. So I'll I'll follow up with our partners to make sure we can support them any way we can with kind of that trip planning function
of the chair. Thank you. I think that will be very helpful. As we want to continue to grow the city and have visitors come and enjoy what we have to offer. The other question I had was around transit police, which has already been asked as well. So really want to focus my last question on programming. So I and my team came to visits we have a great time checking up people mover, how it functions, meeting staff, we learned a little bit about programming that you do with schools. And quite frankly, I don't recall all of the what you do. So if you wouldn't mind sharing what it is that you currently do, and remind me again, if you do any kind of scavenger hunt programming as as as we're sitting here talking. If we have a universal app where you can plan your trips, we discussed utilizing schools to do maybe some scavenger hunts or around the city to learn about our history. To learn about the artists that we have at each stop. That's That's one side of programming. The other side of programming can be with our local businesses. So you know, having a map of the stores, the restaurants, maybe connecting the people over to the bus to get into the neighborhoods. It's just a lot of opportunities. Here and wondering, have you talked about any kind of programming such as this? And if you would be interested in having these conversations?
Yes, to all of that. Those are all things that we've talked about a lot. And you mentioned quite a few things. There's even more that we've been thinking about a couple quick examples kind of riffing on a few things you said so like Each station has art in the station. And sometimes you can go into the station and still not realize that there's actually like valuable and unique public art in each station. So we have tourism, we have plaques and stuff. But one of the things this is relatively simple is developing something that's outside of the station that engages people as they're walking by on the street, you know, some sort of informational plaque sign that says, Hey, did you know inside here, there's some really cool art and kind of trying to make that connection. So that it's not like, you know, if you know, you know, we like that's cool, but we'd rather have everyone have we'd make we'd rather have it be painfully obvious that we've got all these great assets and resources. But yeah, the list is long and we are looking for any partners. I have a newly minted brand ambassador, but if there's any other partnerships, school programs that we've been developing in HR, you can talk a little bit about some specific school outreach we've done but really, it's it's a blank canvas. There's so many ideas that that just need some some energy and enthusiasm behind them. But really, I think you've captured a good cross section as far as how to engage people help help them understand how easy it is to make connections to small businesses to transit, to experience the arts and culture. You know, these five murals that we're adding through the city walls project, we're super excited about those. It's kind of a whole nother layer. We've been talking about maybe having some live music engagements as part of a movement or jazz festival. So like I said, the great part about having these 13 buildings that are part of the station is that those are resources that we can use to support and enrich everybody so yes, well, we'll we'll connect and and we'd love any any help suggestions or assistance, putting those programs together. Do
you Chair Thank you. I am going to ask that we put this in Executive Session. This meaning a I don't even know I just want I want to put a pin for discussion because I want this I don't want this to to go away. But just for for note taking purposes. I'd like to pin I'd like to move to the second session. The people mover app will just start there because I think that's a good start. As you're as you're talking I have a lot of ideas. I know that we have an arts and culture commission. I don't know if we have a tourist table or commission. You know Detroiters thinking about how to utilize technology local businesses are partners and work together. Because my concern is that as we're growing and building as as member Tate mentioned is probably I mentioned people Detroit is hot right now. I don't want us to be scrambling or reacting to people coming here trying to build I want us to build that now with our residents be proactive. Have have our own brilliant people at the forefront building out this this this map of programming which is really what I want to discuss. But that might even be that this might even be the place for that. But I do want to pin it here and figure out a way to discuss this. But thank you so much. This is exciting for me. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you council member would you like to add that to Executive Session? Motion? Motion? Yes.
Thank you, Madam President.
Okay, Hearing no objections. We will add that to our executive session. Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Callaway.
Thank you Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. Congratulations on your purchase agreement to purchase those. Those rail vehicles from Toronto. Excellent. I follow that in the news. So thank you for that. That was just that was awesome. I don't have a lot of questions. And the ones that I do have have been asked by my colleagues my I'm gonna give you a recommendations maybe since we're so hot around here and everybody loves everything Detroit and Detroit charge Detroit power. Maybe you should consider protecting your intellectual intellectual property by maybe applying for a trademark with this fancy new logo. So I'm just putting it out there so you can make a move on it. You might want to do that today. Did you hear that?
We're We're on it. It's already in process. I would probably agree and we were glad that you think it's worth protecting.
It is yeah, well, everything Detroit now. You know it's worth protecting. Absolutely. I know the NFL is here and I know they shut down a little vendor over there who was trying to sell some, I guess they call them knockoffs. So we wouldn't want anybody knock off your new logo. So hopefully we'll get that protected legally by registering for the trademark. So I really don't have any questions other than I really am interested in knowing whether or not you've asked for a feasibility study in terms of going to Council Member at Large Young's question about his father's vision to have the rails elevated. And if you have commissioned a feasibility study, part of if you have done it already, what's having that elevated rail going out to the airport ever considered? Because I know I just saw on the news that we're going to have DDOT going from downtown Detroit to the Metro airport. And I think that's awesome, but we can transport even more people because a lot of people are doing a lot of traveling around here too bad the systems that are not really in place in time enough for the NFL Draft, but what is your your plans or intention to have expanded rails elevate it and whether or not you've commissioned that feasibility study to look at it? Absolutely.
And we appreciate you had provided that question in advance. as well. So the $800,000 we've secured from the state for this planning study, we feel it'd be the first step and so we've added the it wasn't in the guide. It's kind of like a loose shortlist. But we really were hoping that those committees would help us identify the types of expansion spurs or ideas that we would have. But so we've added that to the list. So when we put the RFP out it will include that as one of the examples that we'd like to have kind of that higher level analysis general constraints approximate cost, and then from that list of opportunities, then it further study is needed. We can go from there but but so the question is, yes, we've commissioned this study, we haven't hired anybody yet or move forward, but we have secured the grant funding, and we'll we'll plan on including that as part of the analysis.
And I think that would be amazing. And none of us would miss another flight. If we could get that elevated rail going because it could reach up to 90 miles per hour. And so you know, we wouldn't have to be running through the airport like OJ Simpson, but I appreciate you commissioning that, that report, that feasibility study, and any other questions that I have, I'll make sure you get them in right and thank you and please consider what I've said about protecting your intellectual property. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Madam Chair.
All right. Thank you member Calloway council member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President. And good afternoon. Of course, most of my questions have already been addressed. I do just want to ask about capital improvements. I know within our budget is six and a half million dollars. Is any of that utilized for capital improvements. What are you doing with excuse me, addressing the individual stations not necessarily the rail cars, but just improvements at the various stations downtown. And then there has also been a lot of discussion as a result of the water square development, about the people movers and the people mover itself and I think it's really important for the people mover to connect the various districts, if you will, downtown, to connect all of it because there are some parts of downtown that you can be in and not know that there's anything else happening in downtown Detroit and I think the people mover is vital in connecting all of downtown. So can you talk about capital improvement projects, where you get those dollars from if any of the six and a half million is specifically for capital improvements?
Absolutely. So the six and a half a million that we get is generally an operating subsidy. So it's really focusing on our operating expenses. We also receive some that helps us earn actually some state operating assistance assistance as well. And then on top of that, we have federal and state grant dollars that's what's really focused on our capital improvement program. There's a formula that brings brings funds to the region that we get a share of DDOT smart every everyone kind of gets a share of the formula. And then there are opportunities for discretionary grants from time to time, that if we had a specific project so the six and a half generally is operating. We have federal and state grants that help us with the capital improvements. I think the point you have about connecting the different you know districts or neighborhoods in the greater downtown neighborhood. That water square West riverfront is the best example of that because it has a physical barrier you could be over there and really not know anything else is going on downtown. And that was one of the things during our shutdown before I came here and then since then, and from what I've heard in the past as well as riverfront towers residents are always kind of our most loyal and vocal riders because we really are their lifeline to anything else that's in the downtown area, which I think is great. And we're happy to support them and connect them to services and businesses and entertainment opportunities for the new hotel next to water's edge and that was part of the CBO included $500,000 donation that's supposed to be put towards improving the West riverfront station. Generally, the system and the stations are all in a good state of repair. The West river riverfront station is the one that isn't quite as good as the rest. And so we've identified that we're working to kind of program in some grant dollars that $500,000 will go towards some specific improvements to be determined that we're hoping would really help enhance the area for current and future residents as well but there's still a lot of opportunities over by that station. Even the property that's around the station is just a surface parking lot that goes all the way to the river. So you know that might be an opportunity for a joint development project or some some sort of coordinated public partner, public private partnership. But I think I've covered everything that's kind of our capital operating, but also agree that would be the station where we think some improvements probably would be next up.
Thank you. And so the study that you're looking to do with $100,000, that will include expansion. Yeah, that would
include that would really be focused on not maintaining the current system as much. So we've got an asset management plan and other efforts for that you really be looking at if we wanted to adjust the location of a station, that joint development concept is something that could be part of the study, but then also actually having expansion spurs or making the loop bigger those are the kinds of things we think the study would do a good job of, of kind of evaluating and discussing with the community. Okay,
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon to you all. Many of my questions have been asked as well just want to do a follow up. I know. I think last year we were talking about just payment methods relative to our transit system. So you go to many other places and they have these smart digital cards that you can utilize, you can utilize your phone to be able to scan and get access to transportation. Where are we at now relative to that type of technology and that's not to infringe on my great advocate colleague for cash. But as far as tokens, obviously things like that become outdated, but where we are relative to those type of
cards, right? So from the Peoplemover only perspective, our equipment
can't support anything else other than tokens and change and kind of old fashioned magstripe cards. And that was part of the motivating factor behind behind going fare free. And so if we make the decision for whatever reason that we are going to start collecting fares again, then that will have to include a plan for us to upgrade and modernize the system so that it could participate in something like that. And then from a bigger picture perspective, as I mentioned before, me and the team at DTC we're happy to help facilitate conversations between our fellow transit providers if there's anything that we can do to help facilitate having a common app or a shared payment platform. I know the RTA has some money set aside to kind of study that some more of the state has a program that they were looking at for different different mobility payment methods. So we're we're supporting supportive of that. We have an easier path through right now because we're not collecting fares, but certainly we're still keeping an eye to that in the future. To make sure that I believe the future has to have any way someone is able to and wants to pay they should be able to and so that that would be our focus moving forward. And first, let me say I think fear free you know, free fair is good, particularly for Detroit residents, but as we look forward, my vision is that one day we do get back to a time where that can be a revenue generator for us and we can still keep fare free fares free for residents. But we know that during major sporting events and concerts down here there are more than just our residents that participate participate in those events. And that can be an opportunity to have the ability to generate revenue and so I'd love to see that get online. Like I said, if you traveled to some major metropolitan cities around the country, whether that's DC Phoenix Charlotte, they have good transportation systems, Chicago as well, right? But they generate revenue off of that and then that, in turn, helps them go into their general fund but also fix their infrastructure that they have. And so looking forward to that vision. We're not there yet, but just want to keep that alive and continue to push it. My second question just revolves around how can we work how can the city work in and encourage relationship between our transportation systems to ensure that the needs of residents are being met during some of these big sporting events? As you will note, parking as we continue to build will become an issue. But so is mobility and the ability to get around downtown. So if we have the lions here, for a playoff series, if something is to pass in the very near future and is connected to our convention center, and we start having more conventions over there, the Peoplemover goes directly to almost at Cobo to Huntington. What are the thoughts though, to coordinate with transportation even the dot and our bus systems to ensure that riders have a great experience around downtown in this area? It's a great question and I think the draft because it is a want to say at least in some ways, it is a disruptive event. Mostly in a good way I'll say I want you to keep your job so please be careful stand as a district. But but the it allows me to brag a little bit about the fact that the people mover is an elevated system. And so the draft and kind of the exercise around that but I mean also other events like Grand Prix opening day some of the things that bring a lot of people in a short amount of time into the downtown area can be disruptive because the downtown area is a hub for all of the for DDOT and smart and some of the regional transit that that serves the area. And so these events have really provided a great opportunity for all the transit providers and city departments and other stakeholders the convention center Visit Detroit. We've really been I'll say behind the scenes have really been working very hard for a number of months to figure out how we can make sure that everyone who wants to come to the event. It has an easy way to get there. To park take transit. Of course we really want to encourage people to not drive their car right into the heart of downtown we'd rather have them take transit. If they don't have access to a car we want to make sure they can enjoy just just the same as everybody else. So it really provides an opportunity and because the people mover is an elevated system, we're the one thing that's not going to be disrupted, you know, personal vehicles, rideshare bus, all of those have to navigate the streets through all of the different you know, crowds and closures and stuff that people move for being above really serves as its original design, which is to kind of collect and distribute people around the downtown. So it's something that's actually pretty exciting for the people who were because we've been able to really be the center point of this of the plans for the big events this year. And that the more that we do that the more it becomes a time tested natural, something that becomes really an asset, especially for residents, even if they don't want to come to the event per se but they're coming down to go to work or they're coming down to connect to to another transit route, but they're able to do that seamlessly alongside people who do want to come downtown and participate in the festivities. So I think that is the kind of thing that's not really publicly apparent until it either works or it doesn't. But there's been a really, from the city departments perspective, all those stakeholders we have multiple meetings that week for the last number of months, really focusing on how this year can be the best year we have for connecting people with with transit and getting around the city as a whole. I mean, that's that's great to hear. And I just hope we continue to advocate and I'm sure it's already been said but even just continue to advertise and market that people will remember being a kid that was like a big thing to get on a people mover and stop at brick town and having them announce at every stop right and just traveling downtown Detroit being able to circle and now as an adult. It's kind of lost some of his zeal, at least to me a little bit. But I like to see that come back. So even when I'm down here with my family, I say hey, let's go hop on the people mover or bring other folks here or residents are on resonance here to enjoy that. But I think putting it putting the word out, continue to revamp it and letting folks know are people mover as active is a tool that you can that can be used to get you from place to place down here I think is very important. So I look forward to having those further discussions with you as well and even through us on our office. If you guys have some type of flyer or whatever you guys have, we'd love to send that on our newsletter. You know, a lot of folks don't know that is free fear. And if we put that on in our newsletter, I bet we can get more ridership and get more folks down here. So thank you again for coming again. coming today. That concludes my questions. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you remember Dr. Hall. Councilmember Benson. Right. Thank you. Thank you all for being here. And the people who were one of the first modes of transportation I use when I moved to Detroit, I lived downtown and I needed to get to the Coast Guard station and I use it people mover to get to Renaissance Center and then take a cab or bus over to work every day. And so I remember being there at 7am waiting for it to get to the first stop. And so I'd really have fond memories of the people mover and just really want to say kudos to the free fair, and really opening that up and allowing for non motorized vehicles to access the people moving cars, ie bicycles, skateboards, things of that nature, to get around as a point of mobility. And so I'm just really glad to see that we as a city are also now leaning in to the people move or when his future was a bit in doubt, just a couple of years ago and so we're really glad to see that we're doing that we're thinking, um, how can we move this forward and is looking forward to seeing what the next iteration of the people move or how it becomes a viable and continues to be a critical piece of our transportation infrastructure? So we've been looking at the budget numbers, I'm seeing data operations support, Detroit transportation corporations, 6.5 million. Is that what it costs to annually run the people who were all in?
No, that's just the that's just the city subsidy that we use. Our budget is closer to $20 million. And some of the the the 6 million allows us to leverage other funds so helps us earn state operating assistance. We've got revenue, some revenue, we're not collecting fares, but again, at least for this year, we've substituted that with this presenting sponsor. We've got advertising and marketing revenues, and then obviously using the federal and state grant dollars as well. So it's kind of a just like with with DDOT, or smart or any other transit provider. It's kind of a, a long menu of some different sources that help keep us running. Okay, and
then revenue opportunities and philanthropic, state federal city. I'm not sure if you get to explore this, but your pylons, the Detroit signage ordinance opened up the pylons for the people mover to be monetized. And so that's not an opportunity for monetization. So just FYI, and those are my questions. Thank you. Thank you.
All right. Thank you that will conclude our budget hearing and we will continue to work with you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the presentation. And we are excited about the future of the people mover. Keep up the great work. Thank you so much for being here. All right.
We will now go right to our last budget hearing which is the Charles Wright Museum.
You don't
need PowerPoints anything.
Don't think we have a PowerPoint or anything so whenever you get situated and you're ready to begin, just make sure your microphone is on and the floor is yours for your presentation.
Good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
It's first of all, I want to extend that thanks to the console for the support that they've given the right in the past few years. It's been catalytic, to say the least, as we begin to return the right to its iconic status as one of the nation's oldest largest African American museums and largely attributed with being the founder of the African American Museum movement in this country. So it's a tremendous asset, not just for the region, but also for the country. And we are constantly fielding calls from colleagues about the right what we're doing, how we're doing it, etc. And so we are very proud of the legacy that we're continuing to build. This year, we're requesting 2.6 million in operating support. Jeff, my Executive Vice President will talk more about the capital piece. This is a operating support that we had received initially, two years ago, I believe it was it was cut back and one of the interim years so 1.9. Unfortunately, we did not find out about that until the budget here. So it created a $700,000 shortfall in that particular year that we were able to recover from and then has been restored now to 2.6 million so we're just asking for the console to stay at that level. Museum's annual operating budget now is $13.8 million. So this is really bringing the museum more in line with the budget that the museum should have had from its from its beginning. We have had several different assessments made of our operating model, our operating budget, the size of the facility, etc and what it would cost to run it and we are just now getting some 30 years into the admin administration of this particular facility or bringing the budget into line with the structure that was built for us. So we're very proud of getting to that point. So a couple of things that I wanted to go over. One, the thing that really is most difficult for us to deal with as operators at the museum is a deferred maintenance that we had the city do an assessment when I first came on some five years ago on deferred maintenance for the building. If a check had been able to be written on the deferred maintenance in that year, this is five years ago. Again, imagine that things are a little bit more expensive now. That number would have been $25 million. That's how much deferred maintenance, the current administration of the museum inherited. Each year. We have tried in various speeds and you've seen and heard of some of the funding that we've received to reduce that number and in addition to funding that the city has been able to provide in terms of its capital support. But the thing about deferred maintenance is that when a particular system goes it goes right so you have an elevator it has a useful life of 30 years. When you get beyond 30 years, you can expect the elevator to fail. Same with HVAC systems, etc, meaning the cooling and heating systems which again I remind people in a museum is particularly critical, right? Because we have to have humidity controls we have to have maintain certain temperatures in the galleries all these are prescribed by the donors of the works that we receive into the institution. So these are not luxuries for us. There are things that we have to attend to and in the past cycle because we did not have all the capital resources, we actually did set up a line of credit meaning that we will be financing these expenses in the coming years where we not able to receive additional support. The other thing I will say about capital support in general for us is that it's almost impossible for us as operators to raise money from the foundation and corporate community or building we do not own. The city owns the building. And so whatever we've asked for that kind of support, we can get it for programs or exhibits for lectures, etc. But not for deferred maintenance or maintenance of the building itself. We've been a little crafty in describing some of the maintenance is programmatically related. Right? You do need the air conditioning to have exhibit it certainly tried to in that way, but it's largely not successful. Writing reasons for this. Foundations do have restrictions on giving money to government entities. For example, they can be viewed as either being lobbying support or other kinds of support. So the conservative lawyers that we find in the foundation community will almost always shy away from that as a matter of their best practices. Right. So that has become an issue for us. The other thing is that you've heard about some of the transitional funding that we receive each year. That we receive it, it comes out of a different office and a different budget and appears this year. For better or for worse. It did come out of an office that structured the contract as a reimbursable. So you can imagine a nonprofit such as ourselves, having to come up with but this year, I believe was $4 million. We have to spend $4 million before we'll see that $4 million back. That was exacerbated in this current year. As even though the budget year started in October. The contracts because of the backlog of different contracts, I guess that they were administering was just released in February. So we are six months into our fiscal year without those resources on a fairly large budget. So it has been difficult. We've been asked about staffing and how we are you know, post pandemic staffing has become pretty critical. But also as our practice as museum administrators has become more sophisticated. We've needed different kinds of employee was familiar with museums. And familiar with the standards that are required to run one and so those have been difficult to fill but we are slowly but surely restoring the staff to about 5456 people that we had pre pandemic I think we're at 40 something at this point, that support will first go into our development and marketing teams. So again, we're attempting to shore up our ability to fundraise as well as our ability to market the programs that we have. And hopefully you all have noticed that the marketing that the programming has increased in quality and size significantly. We've been able to bring in some of the great voices in the African American community of this past year Benjamin Crump, Nikki Giovanni Alexander smalls, etc. And also to bring in an exhibit that was Ruth Carter's Afrofuturism, which was the first African American Museum to present that work, if you can imagine it's been touring nationally for some time. But no other African American Museum was able to present that we not only became the first, but we became the first to be able to present the costumes in both black panther and Wakanda forever. So the time that it first started to tour with condo was just being released in the movie theaters and so those costumes were not available. So it's the first time that we see both, and roof has been very generous to the right in terms of how she has come in and helped us to market and sell better. And we'll be back in like next week actually to close the exhibition which closes at the end of this month. Been a blockbuster for us. We've had record attendance. You can imagine that our young people are particularly excited about seeing an exhibit like that. We have pretty full throughout as well as with our program. So I'll leave it there. I'd like for Jeff to talk a little bit about the capital piece again, our capital projects and this deferred maintenance issue was first raised to us when Jeff and I were first hired some five years ago, through an assessment that the city did for us. They came in they spent quite a bit of time examined the entire building its structure. Its systems and came up with a plan for us to a bring those online according to a particular schedule that does follow one project after the other and it's able to be done with a minimum interruption of the museum services meaning we don't by and large, have to close the museum to complete these capital projects. But they are paced very specifically the some years we have less capital needs and others. Full disclosure that next year is a big year and will be a big year for us. To complete the projects but I'll let Jeff talk about that.
Thank you, Neil. Good afternoon, everyone. The rate Museum is respectfully going to request a 6.6 million allocation or capital support and fiscal 25. And I will go back about three years ago when I sat in this particular same chair and I talked about the mechanical system H vac system for the museum. And that when we started that process that we couldn't return, we couldn't stop. And we are close to two years in spending about just over $11 million and have about five phases still to go some phases. Have multiple phase four a four B. And so I want to bring this body to the attention of this body that we are in a critical stage. What we're asking for and the 6.6 would represent phase four a four B and part of five. This stage is to replace the chiller and so when the museum was built, it had two chillers it's been operating with one chiller over the last seven or eight years. If this chiller is not replaced it's on his last legs and if it stops, we stopped the project. The museum obviously cannot operate because we do not have cooling and air conditioning for the building. So we are at a critical stage of the mechanical system overhaul. And so they asked for us is very important that we continue to move this project forward so that we can stabilize this particular capital project and get closer to our goal of completing it in late 25, early 26. I would also say that when we're talking about transitional funds, there are a lot of other capital projects and needs of the museum in addition to the mechanical system we have the passenger elevator which will be overhauled has been failing miserably. You can get on it and there's no telling that it may stop and you get stuck. Right. And we've had it happen more than we can count and they're spending a lot of money having just to do repairs and so that piece of equipment is scheduled to be overhauled beginning April 29 and will end at the end of May and then we'll do inspections with the city etc. Following that is the freight elevator which will be replaced or modify. We're not going to replace it but modified in late summer. So and then part of the GM theater that is also under renovation that will be coming back online at the end of May. We're fortunate that that particular project even though it's not funded by the city or transitional funding, but with ARPA dollars, GM dollars, we were able to have the air handling unit number four that control the heating and cooling in the theater done at that same time. So these are all projects that are underway. The mechanical system is the biggest obviously of all and so respectfully as that the 6.6 million allocation that we're asking you for capital of the granted for the right Museum.
All right. Well, that concludes the presentation. All right. Thank you. Yes. Thank you so much. We will go now to questions from my colleagues. So just to be clear, the the 2.6 that is being proposed in the budget you want in addition to that additional 6.6 Add it okay. And you mentioned that grants or state funding could not support any capital improvements, because I'm just
going forward some just some yes, some of we've spent, in fact, we've only received 2 million from the city, I believe, the last couple of cycles for capital. And so we've been able to augment that with a transitional funding and other funding that we've received. That's how we've kept this particular schedule of pace.
Okay, because I know you mentioned that the city produced a report that showed the deferred maintenance for 25 million, and it was breaking down per year did it go into detail about how to fund this per year and how much we need to allocate every year for the maintenance.
It does have a schedule on it, but we've been responsible for trying to come up with those firms. In addition to what the city has a lot of
Yeah, the the assessment that the City Commission just did not go into the detail of breaking out all the pieces of each capital issue that they flagged. It just did a date and gave an idea of when we would need to replace those particular pieces of equipment. And I would say that when we're talking about transitional funding, we've been able to get to this point because of transitional funding. Because the last allocation that the city made on Capitol was 2 million, that would have went toward a 3.2 almost 3.3 million of phase three A. So if we didn't have transitional funding, we wouldn't be here. today. We're three be funded by transitional funding. So the fact that we were able to continue this process to get at least where we're at now is because of knowing the city support but transitional funding dollars.
Okay, so the 2 million that we gave you last budget has been utilized as part of the base three and that has been expended. Okay, um, so I would like to add for further discussion to Executive Session the request for the additional 6.6 million for capital improvements noting though that I do think we are going to need some support from either grant funding or state funding to help with the overall $25 million deferred maintenance for the facility. I think the city should support it. Of course we own the facility, but understanding that we do have constraints as well to there, there probably would need to be some additional we
don't have 25 million remaining because we're in Phase four. So we have maybe roughly half or so. Right? Yeah, again,
if we're just talking about the mechanical at this particular point, remaining class is about 15 to seven, five. Now, keep in mind that each year you're going to have to ask some escalation as prices continue to go but that's where we're at right now.
Okay. All right. So we went I would like to add this portion to Executive Session if there are no objections or is there a motion to do so. So all right, Hearing no objections, we will add that to our executive session. And then the only other question I wanted to ask and we do have some will submit and writing but I wanted to speak about the composition of the board. I did meet with a group that reached out and I'm going to add this portion to executive session as well too, because I can't remember the full details but I know there was still issues around not having a community voice or community member and as a part of the official board. I'm not sure if there's two different boards, but the actual board that governs the Charles right, that there has been this desire to have more of a community voice there and it has been denied over the years. So can you provide an update on
I think to be clear, it has never been denied. The right has a process for vetting board members. It's fairly straightforward. It's a one page application for which any anyone who's interested in the board applies for each year. This particular group I think you're referring to refuses to engage in that process. However, we will then have 20 something other people each year who want to be board members and those are the people that are voted feted for the various board seats. So I think it's a fairly simple matter to get anyone into the process of being considered for the board. If they would engage in the process. And this is just to be fair to all the people not just to this one group, or any member of the community who would like to serve, but we do get a significant number of applicants every year to serve on the right board, this particular group, the last time that we were able to speak to them indicated they had members, they wanted to be on the board, they would not identify who they were and would not engage in the process that we had set up just so that we would consider everyone at the same time.
Okay, so who is the community representative? for that?
We don't really know.
Know, the community person. Oh,
I mean, the community representatives on the board. I would say that, you know, we have 30 Something board members, all of them are Detroiters or live in Southeast Michigan. So some of them live in the city of Detroit some of them live outside of they consider themselves, quote, community voices, but I think that we could do more to bring a broader spectrum of people to board and would be happy to do so. Right. So some of them might identify, like a Lauren hood or someone like that or Marseille Allen might identify themselves more as community, you know, being more representative of that group but more of a community. You know, I think as That term has been used in a lot of people use that term and a variety of ways you can imagine when they're talking about community, which community are we talking about? Exactly. So, but there's not a because it's hard to define what what is meant by that?
For sure, and I think they did recommend a process of how we could define it and and they did give more details and I met with them last year so I can't remember all of the details. So I would like to pull up my documents and meet with them. Again, because I did promise them that when you all come before us for budget, that this was the perfect time to talk about this opportunity
share with us even what they're thinking that we have seen. That would be that would be I would love to meet him if it's been an issue that comes up almost every year but we do have a process how it could be. We're more than open to to how that might be, you know, make it more accessible to more people, but it's not for lack of candidates. So from Detroit, that that is happening.
Okay. All right. Thank you. We have several other questions that we will submit in writing but thank you for the work that you all do. And looking forward to trying to help support the museum as much as we can. Thank you. All right, Councilmember. Yeah.
Thank you, Madam Pres. Sir. May May 100 Rain always good to see you. Always a pleasure. I'm in 1911. It started in 1910. But the Chicago Vyas commission documented that police officers whenever they needed to relocate prostitution or vice or their cadets, for commercial reasons, or whatever else in Chicago, they would move them from the more Caucasian areas and relocate them in the undesirable areas, also known as the areas where colored people live, or black people will be specific. The reason why I'm saying this to you is because this replicate itself throughout the North. A lot of times we have the conversation about the African American experience. Now African American history we have a conversation about Black on Black Friday. And from what was documented from you know, according to Khalil Gibran, Muhammad in the Condemnation of Blackness, and Kim Kazmir who's a historian, this kind of shows that this wasn't just something because of the the social construct of race or the lie of black inferiority, whether it be biologically or culturally. This was actual public policy. This was actual corrupt law enforcement and venal greedy criminal outfits and corrupt politicians coming together to one reinforce the lie of black inferiority. And criminality, but also to be able to provide security and protection to people who were engaging in criminal activity. So in other words, this is really the introduction of gangsterism and criminality in African American communities, as part of a part of public policy for political games because they get cracking down on these areas. The police could also for, you know, for law enforce the game as well as for political gains. And as well as protection security for people who were, who were Caucasian who were engaged in these criminal outfits to be able to operate they couldn't do in the white neighborhoods. The reason why I'm asking this is, or bringing this up is because has there been any sort of analysis of this further? Would there be any sort of historical exhibits that would highlight this and particularly the history that this has within the city of Detroit, as it replicated throughout the North and through other parts of the country? And what do I know it's kind of crazy to top your head, but would you have like a price point of what that is? I think it's important for people to understand that aspect of history and how much the black on black crime is a lie. You know, that we have to deal with it. Why that is historically. I also think it kind of dovetails into the effort that we're having involving reparations. In the city of Detroit, it kind of provides a little bit more context of why we're asking that in real time. And I think it addresses that question of how does what happened that did affect us now. And as we can see, there's black or black crime is actually, you know, state sanctioned white supremacist policy in action. So I just want to know, has there ever been a thought of having an exhibit of this at all and discussing this history? Well, how much of that cost?
It's a thermometer. But it's a huge issue and you just bring up one aspect of it, frankly, because of systemic policies that have existed in this country systemically have contributed to a lot of the issues that African Americans currently face. I'm not aware of any exhibit that exists now that talks about those issues, but it's been written about fairly extensively. I know that Benjamin Crump even recently touched on some of these issues as it relates to George Boyd cases, etc. And how this particular policing issue dovetails with that currently, but it's certainly something that we could consider, you know, in the future. It's a big topic. There are a number of books that are written on it. And it is something that I think we should be more raised more, you know, in our consciousness as to what our actual history has been here.
Excellent. I appreciate that answer. And finally, this is not a question this is a statement I just want to say thank you for all the work that you guys have done now partially by us because you know, my family used to work there and mother and my cousin, so I appreciate that. But also I just want to say, I think what you're doing is vital, because I think that you are really the lodestar of his we have a National African American Museum, but none of those museums that we have around the country really touch, why what you do, and I think the fact that you have an exhibit that actually has the belly of the slave ship, I think it's the only exhibit in the country that has something like that
Houstonian duplicated and actually assisted them in curating that exhibit
that's, that's pretty revolutionary. And I've actually been in there and it's kind of hard not to really catch feelings going into that. And so I just wanted to say thank you for all the work that you're doing. I look forward to continuing to have this partnership with you. I know how vital My father used to work in order for this to be able to get done. It was villages and things that needed to heat providers. So I just want to say, I appreciate you, I thank you for all the revolutionary work that you're doing. And I continue to look forward to working with you and thank you for allowing me to go to see a bitch be pro and presented spiritual. That was a lot of fun. And so I just want to say thank you. I appreciate you appreciate your good work.
All right. Thank you so much, Councilmember. Yeah, member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President. And good afternoon, afternoon. Thank you so much for the presentation. It comes President Thank you for elevating the voice of community I've had some residents in the district who asked me to elevate that as well. They have been historically involved in the Charles H. Wright Museum and are interested in maintaining that relationship just to ensure that African American history is first and foremost. What is on display at the museum, in that they provide some thought into the museum itself and Kwanzaa celebrations and the like. So I appreciate you leading the charge on that. I did want to ask about a significant decrease that you all saw in your facility rental and catering revenues, and from fiscal year 2022 to 2023. Can you explain what caused that and if any of it has rebounded since or you're starting to see it rebound?
I would say part of it is certainly and this is really Jeff's area that He supervises but part of it is a theater being offline was not available for rentals. So that what that does is it means that we adjust a lot of our programs to other spaces that might have been rented for example, to to for those events and a catering is tied almost identically with that particular budget. It has rebounded and we've fully expected to fully rebound once the theater comes back online, we'll be basically able to then use the facility as designed and not have to, for example, when we do our lectures now we've had to set them up in the rotunda and also in our we call the right community room downstairs. Right and so ordinarily, that would all be in the theater and what would allow those two other spaces to be rented and the catering income does fall over.
I can expand upon that as well. There are a number of factors as it relates to the revenue. It's not just the theatre, the GM Theatre, which has been offline for the last six or seven months and we'll come back online mid June, but it's also the right community room, which is a space that a lot of the community rent and that space was offline for a whole month in the month of December for renovations. It will go back offline again, as we are investing in technology to upgrade that space and it'll so it'll be offline for about six weeks during that installation. And so you take those two and then you add in the orientation Theater, which we are still trying to figure out where the groundwater seepage is coming into that space, which has been offline for practically three years. And that is also connected to the educational classrooms. So those two those last two have been offline for three years and still offline. And then so until we figure out where's the groundwater coming from that is seeping into the first floor into the orientation theater and address that and then remodel those spaces. We can't bring those spaces back online. I am working with the DPW and we're doing assessments of underground conduit exterior ground kind of we've finished our part in which we did an assessment and looked at all the underground lines to see whether any of the lines were blocked or collapsed. And we were happy to know that from our report that everything was clean. So we're waiting for the report from the city because our lines tie into the city lines from the sidewalks to the streets and so we need that report. And I understand it's supposed to be finished this Friday and then that will kind of give us our marching orders and how we look at tackling the the water issue. And so so those are the things that are that are contributing to the revenue, orientation theater, the education classrooms, right community room are all spaces that are rental spaces. So when you don't have those available to you.
Sure. Thank you for that. So all three of those spaces are still offline.
The orientation theater, the education classrooms, they bumped up against each other. So yes, they have been offline for three years, as we've been trying to figure out where this water has been coming from and it's my understanding, you know, and I've only been here five years but it's my understanding that water had been seeping into the orientation space for years, and nobody addressed it. And so what we're trying to do now is address it and figure out where's it coming from? How do we remedy it, and then figure out how we can remodel the space and bring it back online. So those two spaces have been offline for three years plus, the right community room has just been offline here and there as we've been making modifications to that particular space.
Thank you. So that was a significant decrease $9.2 million. Was it that much?
Oh, no, no, no, I don't know where that number comes from.
Okay, I think I think we saw that in the budget for facility rental and catering revenues.
Oh, no, it's nowhere near that. Okay. It's the other budget. We can certainly clarify that for you. Okay. Yeah, it's not our own revenues wouldn't even be that much on from everything.
Okay. All right. If you would, please clarify that that will be appreciated because that was extremely significant to me. But certainly hoping that DPW can help to address address the issues that you're having there to bring those faces back online.
It's more than a motion to because I don't know if you recall in previous meetings, we you know, the whole ground floor of the museum flooded two years ago and unfortunately actually, it was where our collection was held about as the rain started and we've looked at the forecast, we were able to remove that entire collection from the building and that also was exponential was significant cost to us to do to move it to it. humidity control facility, right but so water seepage into the building, particularly on that first floor, I spent a huge issue, but we were able to remove and then remodeled those spaces, such that we could bring the collection back and had to create certain kinds of cabinets and things like that, that were off the floor. So that if it were to fly again, which we don't think we think we've mitigated that issue. It would not be an issue, but water in that because we're below grade right there.
So you did not have any flooding last year in August. Of 2023.
No, we did not. But I can tell you anytime that I see the weather forecasts, and it's predicting heavy rains I get concerned.
Understood. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you Madam President.
Thank you, Councilmember Johnson and member Doha.
Thank you, Madam President. Good afternoon to you all. I don't have any questions. Just comment. I will say I had the opportunity to tour the museum with you and ins and outs looked at the classrooms, and I can definitely see a significant need for assistance with infrastructure. I don't know if we can do $6 million. But you know, I will attest that something needs to be done significant and I'm glad I took the tour. I know we were here talking about it, but then just to see it in person and go through the facility. Look at the age back system. Look at the outside. We're talking about the railing and we're talking about the foundation of the building is very concerning. And so I said to myself, when the budget season rolled around again, I will be supportive of something again, I don't know if the $6 million if we are able to do that but definitely want to be supportive of the right and figure out what we can do. This is a gym in the city of Detroit and a significant need significantly. I do have one question though. I do want to talk about the millage. Obviously. That is the hot topic always. We've got a different government in Lansing right now. What has been some discussions going forward? Where we are right now considering that the environment and the atmosphere is a little bit different
in Lansing, we've certainly had support from our democratic representatives and pretty full throated on the Senate and the House side. And we and the bills that are pending currently do have bipartisan support. Although some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have just abstain from voting altogether. What that has done is when we had the 52 to 50 I think it was split we would have been able to move that legislation through and we're actually gearing up and had gone through committee last fall for it to be approved. However, as we know two of the House members were elected mayor so it's then even the houses between the two parties. We do believe that when the elections are held on should the you know the at least the Democratic Party be successful in those elections. We would have the votes to move forward. But the legislation is in place. It's ready to be approved. It's in. Representative Carter's compares the lead on the House side and Santia and it's also geared up on the Senate side as well. So once those votes are held, and by mid April, we expect the legislation to go through now the timing of it will now be interesting because it is not time to put it on the ballot for 2024. So we could put it on the ballot for 2025. But the right and our supporters would have to fund those particular elections because there are no planned countywide elections in either any of the counties that we're considering. So we're not likely to do that either is a substantial lift for us, in addition to running a campaign to support the initiative, so we probably will not be able to go until 2026.
And I appreciate that update that we want to say 5654 split and it is hopeful that well let me be careful what I say it was because we're not partisan. But what I will say is it's hopeful that the folks who sit in that seat will be supportive of moving that forward which I anticipate will be the case. And if that is the case, as well. We talked about pushing this to 2026. There are ways that we can be utilized to get the word out as well. I mean, again, this is a asset here for the city of Detroit that really needs help. And I think it's going to take all of us on every level of government to really push that narrative for just the importance because the longer you leave it, the more volatile the infrastructure gets, and will cost more to repair particularly with the increase in our supply chain cost and things of that. So thank you, again for allowing me to tour and see that and you guys have my support definitely in seeing what we can do to at least help and lighten that burden and get our museum running again.
Appreciate that.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you member Dr. Hall, President Pro Tem Tate.
Thank you, Madam President. No questions. Just want to thank you for your stewardship of the museum. We appreciate your your leadership and guidance and look forward to Executive Session. So we can began to figure out how and what we're going to do to support our asset as member Benson member mentioned earlier this week. Similarly, as I was requesting, or we had the Detroit zoo here requesting funding for sinkholes, and a whole host of other issues. We've got to make sure that we do take care of our institutions that are our responsibility even though others have an opportunity to enjoy them and they are regional assets. These are regional entities. It's our asset and we have a responsibility to ensure that we do all we can to support them make them even better than when they were developed. So looking forward to the executive session and I have no no questions at this moment. But thank you again for your leadership.
Thank you President Pro Tem Tate, Councilmember waters.
Thank you, Madam President. So good afternoon.
Good afternoon.
Just Just very quickly so I recently I renewed my membership. I happened to be at Baker's for dinner. And there was Jed Craig's membership drive. I couldn't I wouldn't dare sit there in front of him and not put a button off. Just somehow he is. And so I told him I said, I said next next next year, I'm gonna partner with you for the drive is what I told him. Yeah, so um, I just just have a quick question. Just tell me some of the things that you're doing. To generate revenue. You have a grant writer, you write a lot of grants, state, federal or whatever, other philanthropy and just kind of tell me about
great, you know, upwards of $9 million every 12 months, right. So the combination of grants, earned revenue which a consonant Johnson was referring to, as well as transitional funding and our efforts on the state level. To get support and that's done through various on so that we have this at the state level that's helping us sort of march through that process. We, you know, we're adding next year additional support in our development department, area of grant writing, and there's a lot of grants out there. We just can't get to we, you know, our whole development and marketing team is five people. At some of our partner institutions, I won't name the largest one that's near us. That would be a Department of 2025 people that would be Marsiling those grants and all the reporting that goes with it, so we'll be adding to that team as well as to the marketing team. I think you're seeing more marketing, certainly from us in recent years, brochures, online presence. Our website is being updated significantly. I think it's premieres april one, which will be a whole new visual look for the museum that is more interactive, and will have more opportunities for folks to enter to interact, not just with the museum, but all of the content that we're developing their educational programs, etc. So those are some of the things that we're trying to do. We do have a focus. I'm glad it came up on trying to figure out our revenue model, because I think we can do better on memberships for example. And we can probably generate more once our facilities come back online, in terms of rentals and those kinds of things, and we're beefing up that team as well. So really where we're investing I think in terms of our development, and the next cycle is in those areas that would help us to shore up our financial model. Enlarge. Very
good. So that was it for me. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you.
Thank you member waters. Ken Robinson.
Thank you. And just thank you all for your leadership and being here. In you all are very, very humble. As a board member, I see the day to day numbers. And I see the deferred maintenance and we had the conversations around the Finance Committee. And so Jeff, can you talk about the cashflow issues, the managing the capital needs of the museum, the need to take on debt as you talk about for cash flow purposes, not the museum's asset the city asset, but as the stewards that need to ensure that the H back works, that we can keep water out of the walkout basement, but can you talk about those needs as well and we talked about a $15.275 million number in deferred maintenance how we plan to get there and with the change on how transitional funding and this is a recent change something we learned about I believe, this year which was a huge change in how we're able to manage cash flow and those type of capital needs and just not having a philanthropic community willing to support how, as an organization, are you able to make that work and on top of the debt that needed to be taken on to help with that.
It's very challenging because you know, when these systems fail, they fail. Right? And what we've been trying to do is to stay ahead of that curve by trying by dealing with any piece of deferred maintenance and mechanical system is the most prominent of those right now of staying ahead of the schedule that the assessment, a game for us for dealing with these various aspects. of, you know, the deferred maintenance right. Within case of the line of credit, we did that because we were scheduled and are scheduled to start a phase for which we did not have resources for at this time. We didn't have any additional. We call it transitional funding. We didn't have funding from the city. So we did that really as a precaution. I think it is scheduled, however to start fairly soon. And our practices band, as you know, with our finance committee and trustees to we're not able to greenlight projects that we don't have the funding in place, right. So it's sort of a catch 22 It's the thing that keeps me up with why I have no hair. Now at this point. I used to have a little hair but it's gone. Because we're constantly managing
as quickly as we reject just the line of credit. That's debt, correct. Oh as the museum as the tenant, you have taken on a line of credit debt to pay for the landlords asset. Something I'm not hearing any of the other entities are doing but the Charles H Wright to make sure that we're able to keep the doors open and ensure that our history and our story is told you have taken on and the trustees have authorized this a line of credit debt to keep our doors at West wanted to elevate that and make sure that the public understands what's happening as well.
Yeah, that's That's correct. We did not feel that the museum could close right under any circumstance. And that has been our philosophy you know, from you know, certainly since I've been here and every project that we've done, the management of it is even more challenging, and I commend Jeff and his team for this being able to continue these capital improvements and not have to close the facility. And I'm personally glad that the elevator is being dealt with soon because we can go in the elevator any given day and it may not work. So that is a really critical need right now. But does that answer your question, though, that you have or you can give more color to it for sure.
Thanks. Yeah, what I would say is, is that you know, we finish phase three be in January. That was when the last pay app was submitted to me for payment. And that obviously, was accounted for and transitional fun. And so when we finish January, the design team and the engineers were working on the drawings for the face for a and so we've held that a little bit back because we really should have started for a in February. We didn't release the drawings until early March. And so you know, what's going to happen is is that if we don't have the line of credit in place, which we do once the the the design drawings are approved, and there are no questions, those types of things, then work begins. So we will have April, May, June, before any thing comes from the city because of the how it lays out in terms of the budget so we will have three months where we probably are going to have to be pulling on that line to keep this going. So it's a Yeah, it's a difficult dance. And I also would remind folks, you know, I talked about the mechanical because that's the biggest of everything but I'm not even talking about the fact that you know we have about 900,000 for lighting, exterior lighting because the exterior lighting on the grounds has failed. We have about 70% capacity of the lighting on the grounds currently. We have a design plan. We have the cost and all that replace it. But okay, and so there are these other things also that are out there that we know that once we tackle this, which is major, we didn't have to transition to all these other things that are also they've been flagged in some of the assessments that have been done. So it's it's not easy in terms of managing
these particular projects. No and I appreciate that color and so in just to give it a little more color, we as a city provided by 18.8% of the subsidy, we subsidize the museum or 18.8% of the total costs about was it 13 point 8 million we provide 2.6 Little less than 20%. That means that it's on our leadership to go out and raise the rest when philanthropic corporate communities state will kick in a little bit. Maybe the feds will come in with a little luck there every now and then. But you are the ones filling that gap annually. And so when we have the opportunity to help at least on Capitol side, I think we should do that as well. So I just wanted to make sure that that was elevated when we talk about memberships I am a member I'm hoping that my colleagues are no they're not I would challenge them to become members and there are different levels of giving become a member of our institutions. The Charles H right go to our different events. We just had Nikki Giovanni last week that was huge. The Black Panther the costumes you have I'm gonna get you sucker. You have roots. I mean those type of cultural icons that are at the museum, you need to be supported and we need to elevate that as well. Just want to talk about the growth of the museum under your leadership. We are no longer a hand to mouth institution. When it comes to a public attitude. And we've been there before this is before my tenure as a board member. I mean, the stories are I mean, we were very close many, many times to closing the doors, but now we're in a much better position. That's a direct result of leadership and the team that you brought on and I want to give you kudos for that and elevate that as well. That's something that people don't often talk about. When it comes to our institutions. They often think that because it's a black institution that we have to be in the struggle. That's not how it has to be. We can be a well resourced institution in the city of Detroit and tell our story, as long as we have people committed and the leadership to get us there. And that's what we have right now. And so when we talk about you talked about the challenges of maintaining the city asset, public support is also critical. And my colleague asked about the the millage support. I'm glad to see that we're still on track. It has taken a long time. But good things come to those who wait and we now are seeing the fruits of our Constitution stick with it. But we have Oakland County we have Wayne County. Now publicly supporting that and moving forward to support us there. But also look at what the public support means for the zoo. What does it mean for the DIA? The DIA now has student been correct. It may be a nine dish I believe is an eight digit endowment as a direct result. Our endowment is nowhere near that. And to be a sustainable institution we have to build that endowment and public support can help us get there. So I'm hoping that once we get to that vote, that my colleagues will all be in full throated support of public of a millage for the Charles H. Wright. I know people talk about property taxes, but our cultural institutions, if you go to other places, it costs $46 to get into the Shedd Aquarium, it costs 36 to get into the museum of natural or natural history museum in Chicago. And that's 26 I believe if your Chicago resident I mean just supporting and maintaining culture institutions, it's expensive, but it's necessary. And if you have the public support, it can be done and available to everybody. And I'm not sure who thinks a family of four on a trip to a museum for $100 is accessible. And it's definitely not accessible to our residents here. But a publicly supported Museum and institutions do make that accessible and I'm really proud to be a part of moving that forward. I know we're having conversations with DWSD to help work out the issues around the water coming into the walkout basement. And so really hoping to see those continue on and find a solution there. I'm really glad that we're now drilling down to figure out how to make that work. One of my colleagues haven't been lately please go by have the back the back room. Tour see the the archives and the holdings of the museum see what we have there. And this is something I've asked about with the Historical Society. The Charles H Wright we have a 13th floor we have a a foyer. Here we have a lobby, how about displaying some of our historical artifacts here on the 13th floor in our offices like they do in Washington DC or in the actual building like they do in Washington DC City Hall as well, just to make sure that our artifacts and our public institutions are front facing as well, that are residency that may know where their tax dollars are going, and what it means to be a member of what it means to have our history displayed and told. And so for me I I'm glad to know that we're looking at that 6.6 But I want to go further just because we as a museum, I've had to take on debt in debt means there's interest, so meaning not just taking on that debt. I got to pay that back with a little bit more. So I'm hoping to see a $10 million commitment my motion will be to move $10 million into the Executive Session for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. For capital improvements on that 15.2 $75 million number.
All right, there's a motion to add that as well to our Executive Session. Are there any objections? All right, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Member Callaway
Thank you Madam Chair and good afternoon. Everybody hand love the museum. Thank you. As a matter of fact, I'm just think this past fall I brought a group of seniors on the deedat bus and it was a great experience. I had quite a few maybe 30 to 40. And they were all prepared to well, a few of them did have a membership, but a lot of a lot of them did not. And we got to the count. I'm just going to tell you my experience and hopefully we can fix it. I think it wasn't a cash register. It was a square so that the clerk was using a square and they couldn't accommodate the membership payments. And it was kind of embarrassing. So you lost quite a few potential members that day. And
you'll be using square roots. Yeah, it's really not worked for us. Okay, so
that just happened probably August September of 2023. And then also, the elevator wasn't working. So quite a few of the seniors who were on walkers and wheelchairs were unable to enjoy the experience. And that was also embarrassing. So I know that we need to put the elevator situation into executive session because we have to get that fixed. Because you're missing people who come in to visit need to have access to the different levels or they're just stuck on the first floor. And not that the first floor is it nice but you know they want to access the other levels. And they could even go down so hopefully we can get that fixed through this budget. And then again, hopefully you'll take care of the square situation and is out for that. But I also would encourage I know you said you have 30 board members and a team of how many
40 Something that 46 ways
I would encourage staff 4949 I would encourage if they're not already involved to get involved with our reparations Task Force. We can learn a lot from you and your team and some of your board members. I encourage you if you're not already involved with our reparations Task Force, because you can you can get involved. I mean, provide some guidance. I go to the meetings and President Shepherd goes to the meetings and so does a Member at Large waters. We are at those meetings and I you know, I don't know all 30 board members but you know, hopefully you are involved. It's been a wonderful journey watching that taskforce grow and improve every day. But those that's the only thing I would like to say and also, do you have a community engagement director or liaison? We
do and we actually have a committee of the board that has a kind of a community advisory committee that's about to be reconstituted, we just redid the entire wedding bylaws and policies with regard to that. So that'll be reconstituted Lauren hood and Marcy Allen, our chairs from the trustees that will be doing that. So
yeah, I was just talking about some something more simplistic than that. Just simply someone who represents the museum in the community a sign up members, like for instance, on Juneteenth, which is going to be on the avenue of fashion. I'm giving you a heads up on June the 22nd. I do believe if I'm not mistaken, Miss Williams. Hopefully the museum can have a resource table then we actually do
100. Okay. You usually do we do
last year. I
will stare back at a table and see you guys but that's great. I probably missed it. That's great. Okay, so I encourage you and also we all all, all nine of us have different events. In our communities, and will be wonderful if we had a QR code or something where when our guests and visitors and residents and constituents are at our events, they can scan that QR code and join right there on a spot at our events. So I don't know if we can come up with something like that. I don't know how feasible it is, but I'd be willing to do that at my next meeting which is April, the eighth at a senior building eat manner on coil. And I usually we usually have a nice turnout. So for me to have a QR code to present that to them or someone from your office, from the museum to come and offer membership because of membership. For seniors. What is it $15 Okay, so I would like to work with you in terms of community engagement, and how we can expand that maybe across the city, and we can start out in district two. And thank you so much for all that you do. And Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion to put the elevator situation into Executive Session for funding. Okay,
before we do that, with any capital improvements that we requested, the 6 million would that cover the elevators? Yeah. Okay, so it looks like it will cover so whether we do six or 10 It looks like the elevators will be covered with a particular scenario. Okay, perfect.
Thank you. All right, thank
you remember Callaway, and that will conclude if there is no additional Yes sir.
I just wanted to remind everyone that 2025 is the 60th anniversary of the riot. And we will be doing a number of celebratory events including an exhibit that will feature sort of historical words that word have chronological distribution of our artists community and how that has developed and evolved over time. A number of other community engagement activities adding more people to the ring of genealogy. Bobby, hopefully three, at least three new members added to that. But it's a big year for us in the following year, which hopefully will have elevators for we're also hosting the African American museums conference and their 50th anniversary. So it's a big risk the next couple of years are really important. Ears are awesome for the city. All
right, thank you. Well, we're looking forward to spreading the word getting people out in supporting as much as we can so
know how I can help with that with the community. Yes, yeah,
I'm glad you mentioned that. I wanted to add that as well to our Executive Session, the community representation for the board. Is there a motion to do so? Thank you pro tem Hearing no objections, we will add that to our executive session and we'll be in contact. All right, thank you so much. All right. That will conclude our budget hearing now we have public comments. and how many callers do we have? Madam President, we have 11 callers online. All right, let's move forward. Our first caller first caller is Betty a Varner. All right. Miss Varner. Good afternoon.
You got to get that fixed whatever it is. Was Barner Are you with us? Good afternoon. next caller. We'll come back our next guest Detroit Okay, who are we with his Barna are the next caller. next caller. What was the name? A D O S Detroit. Ad ADOS Detroit. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon and through the chair. May I be heard?
Yes, ma'am.
Carolyn Hughes. My heart is so sad and today with the conversation we just heard about the African American Museum. You mean to tell me that we have to levy money from philanthropists. But Mr. Councilman Tate was so willing to pay for you know the zoo and it's underground problems. Listen, people these are our artifacts. These are this is our history. We make up 85% of the city of Detroit and our voices should be heard. We are the majority here. And if you can't maintain an artifact like our museum and it is a gem I don't know what to say about you. The ridership of of the people mover should be investigated. Why should we give people who can afford to go downtown and run around downtown free. So you want me to just pay and subsidize all white people it's that's what it appears. And maybe maybe the 655 1000 riders the the data that came out maybe that data was because they began to follow the Oh ag audit guidelines, and we begin to see where the money was going. And I want to know what happened to the 32 million for the trial cars and it's good that you think they're pretty council woman, but I think they look a mess and I feel like we have just spent money on junk. Why should we get something that's being decommissioned from Toronto and bring it bring it here to Detroit? You all sound crazy. We you know, there's a there's something that happens and the black community when they say this is the characteristic of some people, you know, they they they buy what they want and beg for what they need. And so this is the condition that you have this city and while you squander our surplus when we could pay what for what we need, but you don't thank you.
Making excuse.
Next is Ruth Johnson.
And then at the Rock Johnson let's go back to miss Varner because she would miss Johnson. Good afternoon. Hello, may you hear me Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Great
Ruth Johnson C dad, which has been a proud and active member of the Detroit right to counsel Coalition for many years. Today, I asked the city of Detroit both administration and city council, city council to fully fund and fully implement the Detroit right to counsel law at $27 million that would allow full implementation of all components of this important law. We're thankful for console support so far, but it's only been partial implementation mean we have not reached all the eligible Detroiters under the law. The components I'm referring to is funding full legal representation, funding full community outreach that would include a phone number website, public service announcements, handouts, community ambassadors, contracts with community organizations or groups to do effective community engagement, not many grants. So what I'm talking about is developing an outreach and communication strategy, not piecemeal. Another component is the legal activities, not just the lawyers at appearing at court appearances, but paralegals and housing counselors to really provide the assistance are Detroiters need confidential meeting space at 36 District Court with appropriate signage and internet access full and complete access to court records and documents and also court navigators to help Detroiters figure out the court bill, the human getting around this bureaucratic system we have at 36 District Court in this way we can truly help the eligible Detroiters facing eviction, both to avoid eviction, but if they are facing it to serve their needs, do right by the right to counsel and we'll be doing right for the deed Thank you. Betty, a Boehner. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon to all within the sound of my voice. My name is Betty Brown and president of the sodales for black Association. I'm also a Sadad member and I support Mrs. Ruth Johnson and everything that she just stated. I also want to talk about thinking and live the noise and our medium and asking that we this year receive regular service on our mediums near limonoids. And Finkle. Normally I have to call my district manager because the grass gets so high and debris. We do go and we try to clean up but I mean he should be cleaned on a regular basis. We want to be treated the same as avenue of fashion and the university district. We want sprinklers we want flowers and our area and we want this area to look nice just like the rest of living noise. So I'm asking the ministration anybody within the sound of my voice take you to the powers to be if that's Mayor Duggan, who's ever in charge of that department to this year, take care of the limonoids and pinko area. Also I'm asking that the council please consider as advocating more money to the thing new accessibility home repair fun. Great program can't wait for it to start we need the services. These walk in showers and our ramps and whatever else can be done to help make our homes handicap accessible. Please continue to support our projects the Finckel corridor thinking and living noise to thinking and why all me and please support our park that we are creating in our community, the deeper community park Thank you. All right. Thank you Miss Varner.
Next is the black legacy coalition. All right. Good afternoon.
Good afternoon President Sheriff do and BOARD MEMBER Thank you for asking Mr. Barclay. About the community engagement. Unfortunately, you heard the nervous laughter of Mr. Barclay. They have been hostile against community involvement. We don't want an advisory committee because they can dismiss everything we advised and we want and ask and demand that we have community board of director membership because we all have power. We don't want this little milk toast stuff. Mr. Barclay knows nothing about black history when he got here. He came here because of some very egregious things that museum the like get rid of Juanita Moore, who was excellent and given us our history got rid of Charles for rail. Mr. Barclay does not know anything about the Republic of New Africa reparations movement. He knows nothing about the Black Power movement. The Black Panthers nothing like that. We will be looking at a fascist show. And for Black History Month, we want some significant programming and that's where community engagement is. We asked him at the board meeting, our membership meeting. We wanted to ask him but he cut off public comment didn't let any of us speak. That's not that's hostility toward the community. And we demand help from the city council because this guy is off. I don't know what's wrong with him. But anyway, their problem is they do not know history. It came in here with that Thomas Jefferson exhibit that said Sally Hemings was a rape victim who was a rape victim of Thomas Jefferson. She was a willing participant. You know, see if the community engagement no one out here she would not have allowed that to happen and that finally, MacKenzie Scott gave us a substantial amount of money to the museum and they refused to tell us how much can you
alright, thank you so much. next caller is Tonya Myers. Phillips. Good afternoon, sir.
Good afternoon, honorable council members. I'm calling on behalf of the Detroit Rights Council coalition and we are requesting full funding for the Detroit Rights Council ordinance in the law department budget. We know that Rights Council works. Having legal representation helps Detroiters stay in their homes. Safe legacy homes and preserves black and brown well protect seniors and women with children from illegal harassment and allows our kids to go to school without disruption. Court Counsel and members of the administration have reported positively about right to counsel, but we're short on the money needed to serve all eligible Detroit residents. And there are nearly 20,000 households facing eviction this year. There's only a little over $14 million left over the next year, two years for right the council when the truth is we need 27 million to fully fund and fully implement this law this year. It costs money to serve over 20,000 households. I want to remind this honorable body about the study that was commissioned that shows the economic impact of a right the council. It stated we can expect a three to one return on investment for every dollar placed into REITs a council. Keeping people in their homes now is one of the best investments that city can make. I also want to uplift the fact that the law requires the office of eviction defense to put forth a budget that serve our residents based on last year's court data the day there has been no budget put forward. This would be unacceptable for other departments. The Coalition is 20 minutes $27 million requests based on facts and the demonstrated need and the number of people facing eviction in our community. We asked you to continue to stand with our residents. Dan with us. Invest in Detroiters and demand at this administration fully fund our right to counsel ordinate Thank you very much for your support. Thank you. Next caller is Jim Dwight.
afternoon, Mr. Dwight.
Good afternoon, Madam President. And council members. My name is Jim Dwyer, a 30 year resident of district one. My family has utilized Detroit's beautiful gem, the African American Museum for over 30 years, and I believe it should be fully funded. Also the right to counsel ordinance should be fully funded $27 million earlier today, Conrad mallet said that they've covered 90% of 17,000 people who need legal defense. The word here is covered. Covered does not mean fully represented. According to many lawyers who represent tenants and housing courts at 36. district court who I have talked to say because of lack of funds, they can't fully represent tenants. They only can attempt to ask the torque court to give the tenant 30 days to move out. To stem the lack of affordable housing in Detroit let's fully fund the right to counsel ordinance to keep people in their homes. Remember housing is a human right. Thank you all.
All right, thank you Mr. Dwight. next caller is Karen Winston. This Western Good afternoon. Yes, good afternoon.
Good afternoon, long day Yeah. You guys, you know you're doing these budget meetings wrong, but keep on doing it. We can take care of it. But listen now as it relates to the let's see, I gotta go all the way back. I forgot who we had now. We had the Ethics Committee. Now. They only did four. They only completed four reports last you know, last year. That's not getting word out. I don't think you know, everybody knows what's going on. And then who else did you have? You just had that? The museum now it's a shame the city is a terrible landmark. Not only do you know all the weeds grow everywhere around the neighborhood, and the houses get shipped constantly. You don't need to take care of your buildings to do you know at that place has been flooded, you know, making for five years. And we're not even considering fixing it. That's horrible. But we'll go and we'll give money to downtown I will make a match Motor City match and make a wish and whatever. We should wish that we could fix that museum, you know, and buildings that the city owns. And the residents that the city knows. Those are the things we should concentrate more on. But um, yeah, so I could I took a look at the Open Meetings Act and it says it's your it's your rule City Council. It says that after every department, there'll be an opportunity for public comment, but my mom handed off to someone else after two years. And you just want you to check it out. Thanks a lot. Have a good evening. Bye
All right. Thank you Miss wisdom. Next is oh, say Bomani. All right. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Mr. Bomani.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
Okay. Yes, my name is Adi Michelle Bomani, I'm a member of the Black legacy coalition. And I'm calling in with the same concern as Mr. Haire about the African American Museum. I I just think they've been dishonest about how they provided programming for the community along with the fact that they don't have any real community means always appears to be some kind of appointed. Men members are appointed people to the board who are appointed maybe by the mayor or somebody who don't have the best interest of the community at all. And I'd like to know where this application is in order for us to apply for these particular positions. On the executive board, but it's a shame and disgrace as Miguel wachsen was, say, the way they are programmed these, these these, the way they have these programs here, but the African American Museum, I just think they're being dishonest. They can talk about the arts all day long, but we need to we need information about the resistance to the issues that happen to black people and they don't have any more programming. They used to have been with Bernie the more they said with Charles Phil, and there's plenty of plenty of exhibitions programs. They brought in speakers, scholars, black scholars to deal with resistance and they probably need to bring in some real scholars to talk about the reparations movement also, again, art the arts are fine, but we need talk about the resistance to the situation what's going on with black folks in this country. And in this city. We need voices of resistance. We need people to be out there and to fight against the things that are going on against not only in the city but on also in this country. We need real community input please real community input. Don't let them shuffle don't walk them. Duck and dodge this issue. They don't have real community they have corporate input. They don't have real community input. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Steven hiring.
Mr. Hiring Good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Can I be her? She can. Okay, awesome. So regarding the transit budget, you know, I'm happy there is a significant increase but still needs to be smaller in my opinion. You know, it's a lot better than last year's proposal, which was a huge disappointment, but we got to know the governor up in Lansing she wants to cut transit by 40 Millions so we really need to get our act together and transit. You know, we don't even have a VR T yet. And city is about a quarter of the size of us are getting building out VR TVs you know, and getting brands for that. You know, it's just still very disappointing. The transit situation, you know, the drivers, DLR under a you know, there's still so much that needs to be done. And, you know, I was pretty turned off when I heard something visual was complaining that there's no redeem it low income fare program and you know, the big assignment I mean, $2 is a lot of money for a large majority of riders, but to be realistic, we can't divert 10 million from the system without I mean, it there would be no return on investment and it would hurt the system. What did that actually help it? You know, I would definitely I mean, being supported. A sponsor came along like the people mover to maybe cover a low income care program, but they can not take the money on either the budget work fair revenue, you know, that would be I mean, there's so much that needs to be fixed with deedat before they even have a convert section about the low income fare program.
All right, thank you, Mr. Harlan. Next is phone number ending into 700 to seven zero that afternoon.
Good afternoon, Woody Shelton, City of Detroit board of ethics that needs to start using its authority, which is spelled out in article five of the Detroit city code what did the Detroit board of ethics due to complaints it received? About Gabe Leland was sitting on the council casting votes on city affairs while under federal indictment for corruption with clear evidence and a recording of him shaking down a Detroit businessman. This lack of action is not promoting integrity of city government, or the public trust or confidence in electoral officers and employees is quite the opposite. Seven of his board members are appointed by the council and the mayor. So the ethics board is placed in the tenuous position of being having a bite the hand and it feed it and obviously refuses to do that. What was the board of ethics when Dugan issued all these municipal bonds without giving the taxpayers in residence, so much the public notice, well, public meeting I can go on and on and on. And doesn't is not supposed to be issuing any bonds especially dating back 15 or 20 years and or more and piling more debt on the current residents. With the excuse that the bonds have voter approval from 2004 and 2009. Duggan needs to put these bonds on a ballot and let the current Detroit residents determine if they want to approve them in the year 2024. Shout out to Mr. Quality because he was trying to give counsel a hint yesterday at the public lighting authority meeting.
Thank you so much. Our final caller is Marguerite Maddox in scarlet. Alright, Miss Madox. Good afternoon.
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you so much Miss Maddox. All right. And that will conclude all of our public comment for this afternoon. And thank you to all of my colleagues for your patience today to our departments to budget to LPD everyone staff, thank you for your amazing day. We will proceed tomorrow or continue tomorrow at 10am with our budget deliberations. Anything else from you all now? Okay. All right. With that being said, Is there a motion to adjourn? All right. This meeting will stand adjourned and we will resume tomorrow at 10am
