Morning everyone. We will now call to order the expanded budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the purposes of our budget hearings for this morning. Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Councilmember Scott Benson. Councilmember afraid there hold a third. Councilmember Leticia Johnson.
Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero present councilmember Mary waters present. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.
Councilmember Coleman at
on a second year. Council President Pro Tem James Tate.
Council President Mary Sheffield President,
Madam President, you have a quorum present.
All right, thank you so much. There being a quorum present. We will start our first hearing and we have the Wayne County Port Authority. Director schrupp If you are here, so you are here. You can join us at the table.
Just make sure your microphone is turned on. Press the bottom. There we go. Perfect. All right. Good morning.
Good morning, council president. How are you? I'm great. Thank you and council members. Glad to be here. My name is Mark Trupp, Executive Director of the Detroit Wayne County Port Authority. I have our finance director Travis Jackson here and as well our port operations director John Jameson. Have a short presentation if you'd like to see that and then I submitted responses to questions early this morning. And I'm prepared to answer those and any other questions that you have okay see
if the clerk would note member Johnson has joined us so
note min president thank you
so this presentation should give a quick overview of are sort of a recap of 2324 Talk a little bit about our strategic initiatives and 24 and 25. Go through our 2025 budget requests and some projections for 26 through 28. We have also a capital budget that we've we've presented as well and we'll take questions. So 2023 and 2024. I guess I would say our biggest initiative that we worked on and took quite a bit of our time was to develop a decarbonisation and air quality improvement plan. And this is for the entire port of Detroit, not just the Port Authority's own activities, but all 18 terminals that bring in cargo, including Cleveland cliffs and all the other ones. We did this with a grant from the state of Michigan and engaged a consulting firm that's an expert in decarbonisation. We also engaged with Southwest Detroit environmental vision to assist with our community engagement which was a big part of our planning. We're near complete, and we'll be presenting the plan, the baseline carbon footprint of all of the port terminals, and then our plan for the next 15 to 20 years to reach net zero on April eighth at m&e Center. I've emailed invitation to everyone, I've got some more copies here. You're all welcome to come to see the results of our first plan and what our initial activation of that plan will be. We've also been engaged in federal alternative energy grants, there's, I would say $7 billion of federal money being pushed out this year for through the inflation Reduction Act and big oil and main mainly aimed at decarbonisation. Energy, alternate alternative energy and air quality improvements. A lot of that's coming through the EPA, and so we've been engaged in that we will be submitting two major grants by the end of February by the end of May, one in partnership with terminal operators at the ditch at the liver noi railyard we've engaged through the city, the mayor's office to seek funding for hydrogen fuel vehicles that travel through the lift, as well as some alternative energy grants for the port so decarbonisation I could say is dominating a lot of our activity. We are also working through a grant we received in late 2022 for the waterfront petroleum, a major fuel supplier for ships as well as they also supply fuel to the city of Detroit, a $16 million federal grant that we're administering to improve the capital infrastructure at that location. Cruise shipping was a tremendous year. This is our second year in a row record numbers. John Jamyang really had had had it that up and so we're looking to keep that going. We spent a good part of the year working on a ferry feasibility study with funding from the city of Detroit. We're near complete on that. We have always been engaged in business development trying to find more ways of using the waterways, to take trucks off the road and reduce our carbon footprint but also bring economic development to the city. Total of 19 million in grants for the year. Not all of that is spent but those were the ones that came through. We also received a grant through EPA for brownfield brownfield activities. kind of went through a lot of this here. We formed a low carbon terminal committee with all of the terminal operators and really has increased our engagement with them. We'll be continuing to implement the decarbonisation plan through the committee. One of the big things that we gained out of this process is that biodiesel is the first step we need to take to reduce carbon emissions today. California and other states have been doing this for years. battery electric and hydrogen are several years out, but we can turn we can reduce carbon emissions today by using biodiesel without any anyone changing their engines. So all those trucks are burning regular diesel, they convert to biodiesel, they can reduce their carbon emissions by between 15 and 70% without spending any more money, so we're going to push real hard for for use of use of bio diesel until those hydrogen trucks get operational. Again, mentioned EPA EPA is putting out almost $4.6 billion and we'll be applying for a lot of that money. Those grants are due by the end of May, and we'll be looking for letters of support but we're trying to get as much of that money here in Detroit. Again, I've mentioned it a few years in a row now we have a project with federal earmark money to put solar panels on our roof. I apologize. They're not there yet. Federal money is very slow, as you may know, and going through the Department of Energy to get those grants. And Travis used to have a lot of hair but he's the one that's dealing with the bureaucracy and it's driving him nuts, but we're finally to the point where we can start putting out bid documents but it's it's a laborious process to get to $100,000 through the Department of Energy, but that'll reduce our energy costs by about 14% at our facility. And then the other one is a hydro kinetic energy harvester which will generate water from electricity from the Detroit River that will be implemented. The prototype is being developed right now. And by next summer. Hopefully we'll have that in the water. Again, the ferry feasibility study, we're near complete on that. We gave a pre sort of executive level presentation to staff from councilmember Whitfield Callaway, who sponsored this and so we're hoping to have that final study by the end of the month, and they'll give us a good idea of what a ferry study could look like a ferry service along the Detroit River connecting Belli all the way down to downriver communities. Cruise ships. We had 62 cruise ships this year, which was a record last year was a record at 52. And we're hoping to keep that going although there will be a little bit of a decline. One of the smaller companies went out of business. So we'll be 44 this year, but we're looking for more ships to come in and bring tourists to the city so they can spend their dollars. One thing we're going to be doing in the summer of 25 is bringing tall ships back to Detroit. You probably remember over the years, these historic looking ships that sailing ships that travel up and down the river they come through the Great Lakes they do. Tours and dinner cruises and things. John is heading that up. He planned, though, I guess back in 2001 The Tall Ships experience and so he'll be leaving that for next summer. We received a $1.3 million grant from EPA for brownfield assistance. We just finished awarding all of the money for the Detroit Food Co Op and a project with Southwest how southwest housing solutions we're looking for more projects. We've got one in Woodbridge that we're going to be funding and so we're trying to be efficient and move dollars into projects throughout the city and county. Think and so our budget requests for 2425. From the city is 300,000. We request the same amount from the county by statute 25% of our budget is allocated to the city and the county and the state pays for the other 50%. Now our total budget is 1.8 million. We're not seeking all of that through governmental sources. You can see we've budgeted almost $500,000 through doc revenue and event space revenue as well as 150,000 that we're shifting over to grants. So our our governmental support is at 1.2 million we're trying to and we believe that's as high as we want it to be. And our goal is eventually to bring that down. But with more activity we're seeking funding to cover those costs. And then there you'll see a breakdown of our expenses 800,000 in salaries, but a lot of it through in economic development and the consultants to help us go get those grants and then some maintenance and other things.
Going forward, modest increases going forward, but we're going to look to outside sources for any increases after that one of the reasons we were able to increase our revenues this year in 25. We rebid our contract or our event space and went from a guarantee of 265,000 to over three to 350,000 from our event spaces. So we've pushed them up as high as we could go and that's the that's the floor it could be higher. And, again, our goal is self sufficiency, but we we need to get past this MCA so we can get our own terminal in charge rent from terminal operators right now. We don't get any revenue from terminal operations and then our capital budget we we've kept it around nine point almost $10 million. This is mostly theoretical. We we don't expect. We haven't expected capital money from the city. It would be nice but this is really going towards our new terminal. When we get to that point where we can break out of the MCA and acquire a terminal and those will be sort of the bare minimum improvements. But with that new terminal our goal is to have a public private partnership and have terminal operators pay for most of that or seek federal grants to do most of the improvements. So be nice to have city capital dollars, but we're not we're not insisting on it or expecting it. I think I've talked enough so I'll turn it over for questions.
Thank you so much, Director strip for that presentation and all the work that you all do at the Port Authority. We truly appreciate you if Ricardo no potentate has joined us, and we will go straight to questions from my scaliness unprecedent. member Dr. Hall. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Remember Doha as well. Good morning.
All right.
And we will start with questions from my colleagues and we will start with councilmember waters.
Thank you, Madam President. And so good morning.
Morning. Good morning. All right. So anyway,
I think you talked about your projected revenue. Some of the questions of course have have already been answered. Um hear me about various programs that that you have right now.
So we have a range of things. Our biggest program right now is our decarbonisation effort to do improve air quality in the port region. But I guess one of the things I haven't talked about but I shared with you we are we will be hosting a career fair for young people on June 22. Partnering with the University of Michigan's Detroit River story lab, will have universities will have the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, the seafarers International Union as well as employers, for students who are interested in working right after high school. It'll be right at our dock will have boat tours, as well as just deep engagement around maritime careers on the water as well as on the shore. That's one of the programs and
would you mind sending those to us so that we can get the information out to Detroiters?
I will I attached it to my response this morning, but I'll send it separately and I also have I have the old stuff.
All right. Okay. Okay. There's
a QR code. So if the student wants to register, then we'll have them on the list. But we're hoping to have a successful career fair this year and then
it positions. Well, these are
route recruiting students to college career college programs in not just maritime but stem environmental stewardship and other things. So we'll have at least U of M. We're looking to have Wayne State and a few other colleges there. And then Great Lakes Maritime Academy. We're recruiting some local employers are our terminal operator, Nicholson terminal and doc will be there. There'll be recruiting and then some of the other terminal operators who are looking for workers as well. So we just finalized the, the date and our partnership with U of M. And so now we're going out to nail down all of the employers who will be there.
Okay. All right. Well, I do know that we will submit our other questions in writing because I wanted to ask you something while while you hear, say a message regarding the relationship, say between city council and and the Wayne County Commission, for example. I do appreciate the opportunity to visit was that the vacant last year? Was it Yeah, I mean, it was just it's an awesome experience. Beautiful, beautiful ship. Um, but I don't feel the connection with you guys. I You seem to be more connected with the Wayne County Commission than you are with city council. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. It's i i think the only time I've basically been invited to something it's been by a Wayne County Commissioner, and not necessarily directly from you guys. So I want to understand the relationship because we get to appointments, they get to appointments and the governor gets an appointment, whatever. I want to understand the relationship because it seems to be dictated from the Wayne County side as opposed to the city of Detroit set. Maybe some of my other colleagues feel differently, but I don't add so I want to understand it.
No, I apologize for that. I need to do more one on one meetings with with council members. You know, if that's how it's feeling then for me, Okay, then let's get on the agenda. Because I, I we're we're trying to do as much outreach for both city council and Wayne County. Yeah, and I'll make up for that. I apologize.
All right. I'll allow
you to also Commissioner king like he'd been on our board for a very long time about eight years.
So that that why the relationship No,
no, no, I'm saying that could be why II said you get invited through the commission or so and it could because it come through. Commissioner Kellogg. I'm not I'm not sure.
I do try. I have a email blast that includes all members here am Wayne County. So when I invited folks to our Viking VIP tour that did go to everyone on council, but maybe we should pick up the phone more often.
I just want to feel just as though we're including a little bit more you know, and maybe it's just me only maybe my other colleagues feel differently, but I wanted to share that. Okay, okay. All right. Thank you, Madam President.
And by the way, Mr. Jameson is organizing a different kind of ship tour this summer. It'll be on one of those big freighters. So we're gonna invite you to take a tour of a cargo ship is not quite as luxurious as it is the
Vikings going up and down the river all the time. We're gonna go on
one and we'll get to see what it looks like on that kind of a ship. All right, cool.
Thanks so much. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you, Councilmember waters member Callaway.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And good morning, everyone. Good morning. Mr. Mr. strock, you and your team. I applaud your efforts and installing solar panels. I love solar. Don't want them in my neighborhood. Taken up parcels, some parcels of land that could be used for homes, because once you put them in that area, you destroy property value. So I absolutely support solar panels going on structures like you're trying to do and I do not support them being in my backyard. So that being said, and it's going to reduce according to what you said, energy costs by 14%. So I can't wait to see that happen. And I'm very proud of your efforts moving in that direction and all the buildings down here should have solar panels on them and not receiving solar from our neighborhoods where children play or used to play. Um, so you alluded to or you mentioned in 2023, the city of Detroit approve the feasibility study for a possible ferry service on the Detroit River to link parks and cities on the American side of the river and allow families to enjoy the water. How close are we to getting that done? I just want you to to expand on what you've accomplished so far, because this was a year ago. And I think you had mentioned to my team that the study was going to start in July of 2023. If you can just update us on the progress of that feasibility study. I will
we began the work in July that started with a request for proposals for consultants. We didn't have the internal capability of doing the study ourselves. So we sought proposals. The contract was approved at our September 23 board meeting, and the contractor got started late mid October. And so that the actual study occurred mostly in the fall, we we engaged a small consulting firm that consisted of two two gentlemen who are ship captains and ship engineers very familiar with the Great Lakes and the costs of of operating ships. Kind of a very innovative background. And they've done different types of feasibility studies over the years. And they have completed all of the evaluations and from the tech technical feasibility side. They recommended that we wait to do the market study until after the technical side was done, then we could determine whether those recommended their recommendations would have some market support and so we're expecting that final written report, possibly by the end of this week, maybe next week, but early the first week of April at the latest and so we'll share it with you as soon as we get it. We met with Mr. Rhodes from your staff on Friday to receive sort of an oral presentation of the the overall results. They're fine tuning the and just making sure there's no typos in the report. So it's essentially done but we'll we'll have it within a week or two.
Yeah, I'm really interested in that because I see it you know, in other places on bodies of water much smaller than ours. Right. And they do it on the Potomac. They do in an Ohio on on some of their waterfront and I just don't understand why it's so complicated for us to get a ferry on our river. We're not trying to cross into Canada. We're just trying to just park hop from our ferry on this side. And so I'm hoping we can see a ferry on the American side of the Detroit River really, really soon and I'm just going to continue to push for it. I don't know how else I can support you in your efforts. I'm glad that the feasibility study is progressing. I can't wait to see what you're going to provide in April. But we have to do that. We have
to do it and that will be a tourist attraction. Not only is it going to support what's happening in Detroit but along the river in those other smaller communities. They have parks on the river so I call it Park hopping like we Bar Hop, we can park hop off Guinean you can have all day pass we talked about this last year. We can have all day pass or half day pass you can you know picnic and then to hop back home before the end of the day. Maybe the last ferry can end at nine o'clock eight o'clock. I don't know but we can do it. And I just have faith that in the next two years or less, we'll have a ferry operating on the Detroit River. I don't have any other questions. But I'm still concerned about that marketing component. You know, some people know that they can come and use the venue some people don't. I'm one of the people who just found out about having access to the venue when I took my seat on this council. So how are we marketing? Because I know you said last year that marketing was an issue and that you were looking to hire someone I don't know. I just know that. That's a dual down there. And I have not visited in a long long time i Hoping to visit once the weather breaks but how are we marketing? The event space there. I know some people know and those some people know who they are. But a lot of people don't know that. They have access to that space, just certain portions of our community. And I hope you know what I'm talking about. But vastly we just don't know. And I don't know if it's like a private type of event space. Because that's that's the way I feel and I do I do agree with member waters. I don't have any connection. You said that the city has a 25% investment. The county has a fee of 25% investment and the state I think you said has a 50 50% investment in the operation of that port. But I don't feel connected to it. And so she was speaking on my behalf. So how do we market do a better job of marketing the event space? And thank you Madam Chair, and I wait to hear your response. Thank you Mr. Shrum. Sure, the previous contract or the current contract and the new one that starts in November is a an exclusive event space management agreement with continental services. They have a marketing budget to promote the use of that space. For business events, or social events. They operated I think 100 events in 2023 it's about 60 were weddings and the rest of our business events. We have the ability so so they are marketing for revenue generating it's a way for the Port Authority to generate revenue we in 2023 received almost $270,000 of revenue, net revenue from those those events. The company charges and pays us a percentage. We have the ability under the agreement to use the space during hours when it's not when there are no events and that's typically during the day during the week. And we've extended that to other nonprofits or community groups that need a space. We waive the room charge. But if there's any need for food or beverages that is covered by the agreement, and the the the user would need to pay through continental for those those events. We've asked under the new contract for them to develop a sort of a lower cost sort of delivery only type meal where you wouldn't need staff there because that's when the costs for nonprofits goes up quite a bit when you have staff on site to take care of the event. So we will have that pricing and menu available that we can share with you know, city council or other organizations that are interested in using that, that location for annual meetings. And what have you. There may be a charge for setting up the space because there'll be staff needed to set up tables or there may be a charge for linens and other things. So but we will keep our goal is to keep it as close to at costs. For governmental functions and nonprofit organizations. We've probably hosted more than a dozen last year events, some of the trade group meetings that the Port Authority participates in, have have held their meetings there. The the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast Guard, they've all held meetings there. Mostly, most of the events have been related to maritime but there have been others but we'll we'll share sort of a marketing flyer so to speak for groups that maybe budget constraint and can't afford the full cost of continental services because it is quite pricey when you're hosting a wedding or something like that. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Mr. Sher.
Thank you, Councilmember. Councilmember Benson.
Alright, thank you. Um, and I apologize for my tardiness. And I'm not sure if this question was asked and the number one is thank you all for mentioned do have the chance to tour one of the cruise lines this past summer in 23 inches glad to see that we are now becoming a destination and that our professional port Center makes that a possibility and seeing larger and larger ships and I saw our I'm not mistaken was it our million dollar bollard that is down or half million dollar bollard had a chance to see that and how that's playing a role to allow larger ships to come in and so just really glad to see how that type of investment practically helps bring more people and tourism to the city of Detroit and I'm not sure it was the concession agreement discussed yet and where we are with those negotiations.
I was mentioned in offhand but not not in detail and there. It still is in place is the update and we're hopeful that it will be terminated soon. But I don't have details on when that's going to happen.
You don't have details that you can share here or you don't have the details period.
I don't have details period. Okay happening in different rooms, not mine.
Okay. Okay,
that's fine. Then Then my question is going to be regarding the port authorities bonding, port authorities ability to bond and where are we with that? And has there been any thought given to New York City the subway system Port Authority is supports that any thought to doing economic development and CIP initiatives away from the river more inland and to support economic development and using bonds to do that in the city?
Yes, and that's been sort of a common effort at the Port Authority since as early as the mid 2000s 2000 teens. We have submitted new legislation for consideration that would expand do a couple things first it would allow the port authority to issue revenue bonds on property that we don't own. Right now we're limited to projects that we own. This would by removing that restriction. We could do pass through bonds for other entities it would also expand the types of activities. Right now there's a very narrow scope of projects that the port authority can bind limited to strictly cargo terminal type improvements. This expands it to other kinds of entertainment facilities and not housing but entertainment facilities, garages and other things that meet would be more economic development. Our goal is simply to be a complement to other agencies that do binding authority not to supplant or take away from but in in those instances. Where we can be useful and we can bring lower tax exempt bonds to the table to make the project more viable. That's our goal. And with the increase in interest rates in general, tax exempt is more attractive these days. And so we're hoping to be able to assist with that, and what would it take to do that new legislation so we've got draft amendments to our legislation that will expand the types of projects that we can fund. Allow us to fund things that we don't own. And it would extend a little bit away from the waterfront about five, five miles from the waterfront
in hopefully we can help there and if so, please let us know how we'll do. Right. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you member Benson. Member potentate?
Thank you, Madam President. Good. There we go. Thank you, Madam President. And good morning, everyone. My apologies for my tardiness as well if these questions have already been responded to, or the issues that I'm on race, I know that there has been the creation of the ports, the office ports within MDOT have supports and just wanted to know what type of grant funding you may have received as a result of the Creation if you haven't discussed
that. No, we haven't. Thank you, council president or Pro Tem Kate. The legislation was approved a couple of years ago and it was included in this year's funding. One or two weeks ago, the MDOT released the guidelines on the grant program. There's $5 million that's available. We just downloaded the grant application and we will be submitting a request for funding for a couple different items. One will be funding to cover the cost of applying for green marine certification which will allow all of the terminals in Detroit to participate in green marine and reduce their carbon footprint, not a big dollar figure. We'll also be seeking funding seed money for the purchase of our future terminal. Once we break free from the master concession agreement. We've been in discussions regarding a former terminal that is not being operated by as a marine terminal now but was available or it was in use a number of years ago. So we're limited to $2.5 million the total amount available statewide is five and and that's available to port authorities as well as private terminal operators. So we're not exactly sure how the money will be divvied up. We were hoping that more money would be put into that pot and that it would be available on an annual basis. It's not in the current proposed budget at the state level. So it looks like they're seeing it as a one time program. Although the legislation appeared to be a new, a new office, and with annual appropriations and so we'll be in discussion with the legislature to see if that can be restored on an annual basis so that it's not just a one time thing. Michigan, unlike other states in the Great Lakes is doesn't provide a lot of funding for terminals and ports. Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio all find their ports at a much higher level.
They'll know that the governor has to sign off on all this but what's the state legislatures temperature on the possibility and I'm gonna have even had that conversation yet because I know that legislation is approved some time ago and now we're finally learning how much is $5 million. But it sounds again, it may be kept just solely for this year. But it could be something that's expanded down the road. Has there been any conversation with state legislators on keeping the ball moving so to speak, at least in this area?
We've had conversations with Senator Chang's office who she was the original sponsor of the legislation. And and so I think during the budget negotiations, maybe there's a chance that it could be added but at this point, I'm not sure but we'll continue to work with Senator Chang because she's been a champion of that program.
Okay, last question. In that chain is, when do you and I may have missed and when do you believe that you'll know when that allocation will be awarded?
Applications are due I believe, June June 1 June first, so we're going to submit pretty quickly and I think they want to announce those sometime this summer during the current fiscal year before October one.
Okay. All right. Thank you. My final question is, if you can share know you've all been working on a decarbonisation plan and apologize again, if you discussed it. No, there was a meeting in January where you updated the community. If you have not already discussed it, if you can kind of talk about where things stand with that plan to reduce emissions,
or where you started a one year project almost a year ago. And we're near the end of developing the actual plan, which will include a baseline analysis of the current carbon footprint, and then a set of strategies that we'll be employing over the next 15 to 20 years. That plan will be released on April 8 I invited everyone but I've also got flyers for that event. It'll be at Kemeny center Recreation Center on April 8, at five o'clock. I apologize. That's eclipse day. So if you're planning to go to the Eclipse, we might we'll videotape it, but we'll release copies of the actual plan and then we'll have an ongoing set of updates with the plan. We also signed a an agreement with air monitoring company called just air to place monitors air monitors throughout the port. And that those monitors will provide live updates on air quality and residents can apply for text alerts when air quality exceeds certain levels. So we will have an interactive map that shows all 18 of the terminals and their current carbon footprint footprint overlaid with air quality results. Those footprints will be updated annually with updates so as the terminal operators employ battery or hydrogen fuel and their footprint declines then they're up there. They're there, their footprint will be updated. So it's it's it's not just a one time plan for the shelf where it's it's an active plan that we're going to keep working and we're seeking grants to implement a lot of the strategies that that we're identifying in the plan. So we'll make sure we send a reminder to everyone for the April 8 meeting. If you can attend. That would be great. We'll have a full unveiling of the plan.
Are there any last question on President any budget implications in this fiscal year? As it relates to the decarbonize decarbonisation plan? And the reason why I asked the question is, tis the season right now, if there is some financial application that needs to be addressed?
Well, with last year's increase in our base funding, and hopefully that continues, we'll we're using that money to help with the consultants that we need to go get the federal money. There's $7 billion that the Biden administration is pushing out this year for a lot of different things a lot of its decarbonisation efforts. So the seed money that you provided us we're using to go get that money. For example, the EPA money through the ports initiative will fund 90% of the cost of battery electric vehicles. So private entities have to come up with 10% and EPA will come up with 90%. That's a pretty good and pretty good return on their investment. So we've got terminal operators that are signing up to replace diesel powered forklifts with battery powered forklifts, and their 10% is much lower than the cost of a new diesel. So they're they're anxious to sign on to that. So no, we don't need any more city money for those things. We're going to really go after the federal money. As we move forward with the plan, if there are some opportunities, we're definitely going to seek that. Oh, one thing I should mention that EPA grant that we're seeking does include replacement for police vessels. So we're engaging with Wayne County Sheriff as well as Detroit Harbormaster. To ask for funding to Kurt to replace some of their gasoline powered outboard motors are boats with battery electric. And now the technology isn't quite there yet for eight hour shifts, and lots of fast operation but we have three years from the grant award to spend it so hopefully by the time the three years is up, the technology is advanced enough that we can get a full eight hour charge for those boats. So so we're going to be applying for money to replace those engines.
Thank you so much. Appreciate your work. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you pro Tim Tate. Can you speak a little bit about the economic impacts of the port specifically related to Detroit? I know a lot of the reporting that I see online speaks to the state of Michigan, how many jobs were created, how much money was generated, but specifically, direct or indirect jobs to Detroit possible revenue, just the economic impact specifically to the city of Detroit?
Sure. The most recent economic economic impact study for the port of Detroit was released in 2023. It was based on 2022 data, it showed a $910 million impact not just Detroit but Southeast Michigan, the local economy, and I believe over 4000 jobs. Now, mind you, the port overall has been shrinking in terms of cargo and that has a lot to do with US steel plants closing because most of the cargo that's needed for steel plants comes in on ships. To us steel plants shut down DTE River Rouge, our plant shut down those two operations counted for almost 2 million tons of cargo so port operations between 2018 and 2023 did decline. But there's still a significant part of the local economy. Harder to trace are the jobs that are related to the products that come in so the economic impact study did not talk about the road jobs that are created with the road building materials that come through the port, just the jobs related to moving that that cargo so we have five cement plants, they bring in cement aggregate and those those cargoes are way up because of all the construction that's going on in the region. And having a terminal having a port right here makes it lowers the costs for construction and road building to to Lessen the distance that that cargo has to travel once it gets on shore and so we're vital to a lot of the activity that happens here. In fact, if you really think about Detroit and its proximity to the water, we wouldn't be the auto capital of the world if we were right here on this water to receive the iron ore from Upper Michigan and all the other elements needed to make cars. And so we would we would look a lot different as a as an economy if we weren't right where we are. We continue to be that source for heavy, bulky materials that need to get in for manufacturing. But we're looking at other ways to use the waterfront as those steel plants shut down. There's a lot of land right on the waterfront that's available for other things. And so we've been having really preliminary discussions with light manufacturing other kinds of uses for those those terminals and hopefully in the next two to five years. Some of those plans will start to materialize.
All right, thank you. Can you please provide an update on the partnership with eco ships and has revenue been generated since starting? If not, when do you all expect to see a return?
So eco ships is a Michigan based startup company. They they don't currently have operations. We've been engaging with them on a plan to move finished vehicles on the water. And that started with discussions with Ford Motor Company almost three years ago now. This December Ford has told us they're stopping that that research right now. So we at the moment don't have a partner to work with on moving those vehicles worse continuing to study it we believe it has some value. But at the current moment auto companies are looking at other ways to get their current ways of moving vehicles. We continue to have discussions with eco ships about moving other kinds of cargo. We have not generated any revenue with them. It's right now we're sort of venture we're putting our own sweat equity into those discussions. They're putting a lot of their own sweat equity into it. They have investors ready to move forward with plans, but you need you need partners who want their cargo to move on the water for that to happen. So but we're continuing to explore other ways of using the waterways and not just eco ships. We will talk we talked to different businesses all the time that are interested in using the waterways to move cargo.
Alright, thank you, Councilmember. Yeah.
Thank you, Madam President. Right, everybody's good to see you. I just wanted to ask you just really quickly on this corner. Now kind of explain when I want to talk about why has the port not been able to get business from the big three? Is it because your dock infrastructures like 50 years old Lance, if I'm wrong, correct me? Is it because of what you're talking about earlier or lack of state authorization in terms of you being able to finance projects outside of what the Port Authority owns? Is because of upgrades needed in the terminal, you know, as a whole, or is it just because with the new vision that you have with rebuilding so is it because you have the identify land expansion for the port terminal to be at its maximum capacity? Or is it just because after you do all that you have to pitch the plan to them that make sense to them financially? Or is it all the above?
Well, the last one is what really kept us from these new initiatives for post production use of the waterways. Just want to clarify the pre production side. We're very connected with the autos, not directly but through the our cargo terminal. Okay, the steel that comes in through the port goes directly into auto manufacturing. So they're a beneficiary of our infrastructure. Mind you are terminal, the Nickelson e course terminal are both old and need infrastructure improvements
over the IoT because automation that's been taught like the iron ore and stuff like that predict you'd have company
well, that's that's the steel that goes through Cleveland. cliffs. So Cleveland cliffs make steel for Ford. That's the old Ford Rouge plant. They bring in iron ore and coal and other materials and they actually produce the steel here. There are some rolled steel that for environmental reasons cannot be made in the US and it comes in from Europe, in rolls, you know, five ton rolls of steel. Those come in on ships are unloaded onto our dock and then placed on trucks and taken to auto production where it's melted in in in in pounded into shape. So that production is still going on. And and the auto companies definitely benefit from that. Now the post production is where we want to try to expand the use right now the the auto companies are pretty happy with using rail and trucks to move their their cars and parts and things like that. We would like to, you know, continue engaging with them to find efficient ways of moving a lot of the parts go back and forth between Detroit and in Canada before it ends up in a in a in a final vehicle. We did have some discussions with General Motors last fall, when they had supply chain issues from their Oshawa Ontario plant. They couldn't get the Silverados brought back to the US and we connected them with eco ships to find a way of getting it across. They had some problems with the rail companies. Eco ships made a nice pitch. General Motors went another direction on how to move those those pickup trucks but we're continuing to look for opportunities to to move that post production or parts on the water but you're the last point you make. It's really the auto companies looking at the pennies, you know if it saves them, you know two pennies they might do it but right now we haven't been able to demonstrate how it's going to save them. Money moving things on the water requires two extra hands to get from the truck to the ship and from the ship back onto a truck. If they can go straight on a truck the whole way. They don't have to handle it twice. So that does add some costs and the waterways aren't as fast as as on the road but we're looking for ways to still save them money and find routes that make more sense. Is
that primarily an infrastructure concern like did you need to build like you know more terminals in there? Is there certain things that you need to build out and in could we help you because I know you're asking for I think correct me wrong, but for 2.6 million capital needs. Could does that help towards that or is that towards something else? Or is that more states?
Yeah, federal No, I we would definitely be interested in city and county and state support. Once we exit this MCA okay to have a true publicly owned terminal for general cargo and to have be a launchpad. pilot plans like we like to auto distribution and other things. Having that makes it easier to have those discussions with the stevedore companies and others who have cargo to move in because we get into a room and talk about a new thing. Well, if you bring the business then I might be able to get out of my agreement. If there's too many steps in the process. So getting out of the agreement, and acquiring that terminal would be a an excellent first step because then we're open for business. Okay. And so yeah, so you're
just really waiting for that agreement to expire and then you gotta Yeah, we're not trying to throw people the agreement under the bus. But basically, yeah,
we're doing things. Once the agreements terminated, we can get going. Okay, so we're not totally waiting, but it would help if we had that gone.
Thank you, Madam President. I would like to make a motion to put the $2.6 million chap it'll ask in the ports, budget in Executive Session. All
right, any objections? Hearing none, that action will be taken. Thank you, Councilmember young councilmember Santiago Romero.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning and consistently on. Thank you for joining us. A lot of the questions that I had were already asked I really look forward to the work on the decarbonisation. I will be there on Monday when we schedule and yes, it is during the eclipse but we will we'll make it through. Also just wanted to know what we're doing for outreach when it comes to work. So thank you for sharing. The Youth Expo had questions regarding the concession agreements, you mentioned. conversations are happening who who's having these conversations right now? Who is what are these rooms who are in these rooms? I know who we should be talking to set the maroon
level and the city and the riverfront Conservancy. I just read the paper and see it so I don't I don't know. But I believe there's some discussions around that. Okay.
Because that that was going to be a major focus of mine. That is definitely needed for us to be able to move forward on the great work that you are all doing. So we can follow up with with those parties and ask them where they're at in that process. Because it is incredibly important for us. To be able to move forward in our work. I guess we'll ask you mentioned we the success. We had a successful year in cruise ships. Do we have a sense of what the economic impact is with those ships here? We've
estimated at around $1.2 million of direct spend. You know that? That's we had 1200 passengers. I'm sorry 12,000 over 12,000 passengers from those ships. Spend a day in Detroit. And that's an estimate of sales for mostly they go to museums. So museum ticket sales, renting tour bus, and then tour guides. Restaurants a little bit mostly the guests are getting off spending the day and getting back on the ship we don't have overnight because most of the ships start in in Toronto and end up in Milwaukee. So they're already on the boat when they get here. But the part we can't we haven't been able to estimate is when those passengers go back home and say nice things about Detroit or they got a taste of it and they want to come back. We believe there is a significant number of there are a significant number of people who spend some time here and then do come back. You're
the chair. I that makes sense to me. And that's the whole that's what we're building to have people come back and visit us. i The only other question that came to mind as you were sharing. We're focused on reducing our carbon footprint which is importance. There was a recent picture of the incoming Gordie Howe bridge with the two of them about to connect. When I looked at the water, I realized there was a visible difference between the water on our side and the water on Canada's side. We're focused on our air which I appreciate who's looking at our water. Is it the Coast Guard? Is it yourself? Who is this at the states who is looking at our water to make sure that our water is clean that it's safe? Because just from looking at that image it looks like and I get it we have industry along our side of the river. But are you in discussions about the health of our water while you're out there? The
EPA is has responsibility over the water because it's an international waterway. I think this eagle also pays attention to it. There's some the Rouge conservancy group that focuses on the Rouge river. We have not been but thank you for the nudge will in the EPA ship. Yeah, and the APA definitely they do they do the dredging of the channels. And so that may that's stirs up a lot of the the sediment and water. What I read is that the quality of the water has improved greatly since the 70s with a lot of the improvements on the land side as well as in the water itself. But there's there's certainly more that can be done in at put a note down for adding that
to our list, if I may. The EPA brings their ship in our system, usually once a season and so they come to our dock and we work closely with them and that ship is really a unique ship and you know, we'd love to invite you to see it because they sample the water. They have scientist on board and they go through everything in the Detroit River and it's pretty impressive the things that they do and the things that they report so when that happens, we'll make sure to invite
the Chair. Thank you. I appreciate that. That's helpful. And that's I think the privilege and the honor of these positions it feels I live my best parks and rec life when I go out and venture into what divisions do and you get to see so it is good to know how we all work together. And that's why I asked and we should be working together. If you see something wrong. Let EPA know we know who the partners are so good to know. And I would love to come down let me know when that happens. Thank you Madam President.
All right. Thank you. I don't see any additional questions. And so we do appreciate you for being here. Looking forward to the continued work. And that is it. We will conclude this budget hearing. All right. Thank you thank you so much, but the great work.
Right we will go now into our next budget hearing for the 36th District Court. Chief Judge mechanical I think is here Okay. Yep, you can come right up here to this table.
Morning. Good morning.
In the floor is yours whenever you're ready to begin.
Alright, Madam President. So always a privilege to come before this body and to let you know the good things that are going on at 36 District Court. Since we were here a year ago. We've worked on many things at our building. Want to go over a few things and then we'll open it up for questions. Our dockets are moving very efficiently and all of the divisions we've met with our state court administrator's office and the backlogs have been eradicated that started during COVID Thankfully, crime is down in the city of Detroit. So we're having less felony cases coming through. Those cases are moving very efficiently. I have had a chance to speak with council president concerning one area of concern and that is domestic violence in the city of Detroit right now. That is one area that that I'm very concerned with. I'm seeing the the domestic violence cases that I receive are felony domestic violence cases and the aggravated nature is increasing as well as the age of the defendants and victims are getting younger and so that's something that I in a recent meeting I spoke with the chief of police about that. And again, it's things that we're trying to work some programs outside the court that there has to be something to to to address that. But the felling divisions overall is going well. Guns are the gun cases are decreasing. They've decreased every year since 2020. This great partnership with the city of Detroit with DPD with the Wayne County Sheriff's and the federal government. So we were seeing a decrease in that but the only troubling thing on the felony side obviously is is the domestic violence portion. Our traffic matters are again, being the cases are being hurt sooner. Again, the backlog and that has been eradicated. Our court administrator in a little while is going to talk about some of the restoration clinics and projects that we've done outside of the court, which has helped with that. And the grants that we've received to do those restoration projects, the Civil Division. There's never an issue really with the civil division. We have the best numbers in the state of Michigan there and the division that has caused the taking the most time. Probably 80% of my administrative time is with the landlord tenant division. And probably the most questions I received from this body saw the landlord tenant division. So I'll spend a little bit of time there. Since we were here. Last time there's been about four or five changes on the state level of regulations of how landlord tenant cases are to be heard. We advocated that there that they keep in place having two hearings, because we thought that would be a better, better way to make sure that tenants have received service to make sure they've had a chance to meet with counsel due to your the right to counsel program that you guys instilled. And while most courts wanted to only have one hearing and go back to the whole pre COVID way, we did argue judge brew went to Lansing to argue on behalf of the court of having two hearings and we were successful. We have a hybrid system now at our court where the first hearing is a virtual hearing. And the second hearing is an in person hearing. We did a project of having both of them in person. The advocates on the tenant side the agencies asked that we have a virtual component and we listened to them we went back to that we have our parents rate is higher than it was when I sat here last last year. And the right to counsel project is not perfect but it we're in a much better state than we were two years ago three years ago. And pre pandemic before the right to counsel project started 95% of the attendance were unrepresented. Now. tenants have representation. Each judge is making sure there's an announcement before the case is that they have a right to counsel where the council's are. We've had a lot of back and forth with making sure there's signage all over the court. I mean, we've we've noticed we've had arguments about color coordinating the size to so much just to make sure that every tenant knows that there is availability for counsel there. There was a time period where judges did not feel that the agencies were representing enough tenants on that first hearing. I brought that to Council President Xi convened a meeting as my mother would say that was a coming to Jesus meeting. It was a tough meeting. But since then, and Council President Well, I haven't come back about that issue. That that has been resolved. The process is working. The agency attorneys are saying that there's there's still a lack of resources and they need more bodies. And I always tell them, that's not something that I can do. That is something that they have to come to the city for for resources, but we're making sure that all the attorneys who are there, there's office space, their resources, and then we're pushing it so I do want to want on on behalf of our court. Thank you for what you've done, and it's not over there. We still have things that we need to do. But it's much better than it was. And the last thing we have a the newest rule change that has occurred is that landlords now can motion for a dismissal at the first hearing. If there was personal service or if the court male the notice. Other courts are doing a lot of dismissals at the first hearing. Our court is not doing has not done any dismissals at the first hearing. We are going to we're meeting with our judges and we're going to do a full bench bar meeting with the plaintiff's attorneys in the the excuse me, the defense attorneys because it's a mate language. So we may dismiss cases. It's not a shell dismiss and so there's some issues some some planners attorneys are upset that we're not dismissing at the first hearing, but that's going to be on a case by case basis. And the whole point of the first hearing is to make sure there's time for the the tenants to meet with counsel make sure they have noticed and to set it up, but it is working. The next project I like to speak on is the new renaming of the building. This has been an ongoing thing that's taken a while right. But we are I like to say we're in the fourth quarter right now. The building will be renamed in June. We are just we're working to make sure there are no events at the Music Hall opera house or for fields so that we can have proper parking. But we have it's either going to be the second I mean, I mean the third of the fourth Friday of June. I want to thank I want to give a special thanks to Councilman Tate and his chief of staff Miss Humphries because they have worked tirelessly on this project. The addition of Mr. Derrick Gray from the city and Rochelle Riley has definitely helped move it forward. Show Riley has been working with the court on we're going to do there's going to be a portrait of Judge corps and that's something that she is helping spearhead and we're going to go to Phil there'll be philanthropic organizations as well. As Joshua's fraternity will be helping to pay for that but we were kind of stuck in there and Miss rally has come in and really help and Derek Gray has pushed the ball forward a lot so that is finally coming to fruition so that will be in June. We will make sure you have plenty of notice and we would like you know like for you guys to come out because it wouldn't have happened but for the council. On the revenue side. Our collections efforts are going well. We are we're doing payment plans. We're doing tax garnishments we're doing wage assignments, in DLC prisoner funds remittance we're doing skip tracing our old accounts. We're doing zoom interviews with our staff and people who are having problems paying and we have hired a third party. a collections agency linebarger LPGs has collected over 1.2 million on behalf of the court and this fiscal year. All courts are having some collections issues because a lot of the tools and that courts have used dealing with warrants and pretrial incarceration is we're not doing that and we're not doing those things. And so we are having to go through other avenues of getting the money for outstanding tickets. But we're doing well with that. And missile day. We'll talk about that a little bit later. All right, on to our community. Just a few more our community relations. One thing that I've tried to do since I became chief was to take our court outside of courthouse and so we have we have increased that that our presence in the community. Our community specialist relation, Berlin Martin has been going out every week to community meetings, and judges are out in the community. I make as many of the meetings myself and if I cannot make them we have either a presiding judges or just judges from different departments, divisions rather to make presentations. And from going to these meetings we're able to come back and make some changes at the court, as well as we've started going into schools as well as having schools come to the court. The Detroit public schools have really, they've been great. We have hosted Renaissance High School multiple times.
Their civics program that's almost run out of 36. We're laughing there at our courts so much. CASS Tech has come multiple times. And two weeks ago, I was at Chrysler Elementary and the fifth grade class there was you know, I was just so out done by the the level of professionalism and a fifth grade class because we had them doing mock cases and arguing, and it was just one of the one of the most eye opening things and I want to thank Miss Blair. It was her fifth grade class. It was just phenomenal and we're going to continue those efforts at every community meeting we go to, we ask them to and I'm an east side or we got to get some more East Side schools coming to the court or was going there. Yes, Councilman waters, I'm always gonna represent the sides. So we gotta gotta get a side going. Going a little more, but we are we are open to come either come to the school. We've actually helped Chrysler gets in transportation. They're coming in two weeks to the court, but we're going out and that's one of our one of our biggest things. We've had so some it improvements. We have a new website, which is more user friendly. We fully implemented our e 911. System. There's been a complete upgrade of our JAF system, the recording system for our courts. We've overhauled our Wi Fi for the court, so it's a better system for anyone that comes in. We have an AI call center so that calls can be answered quicker, and we can get some answers and we're working to change the domain name to a.gov specialty course program is still an award winning program. And we have received a lot of grants for our specialty course program and restoration clinics, which yes,
so this Well, last year we participated in for restoration clinics. So we're very proud that we are in the community. We're not just when other people are intimidated sometimes when they come to the court, you know, especially if you're not familiar with the system, you have navigated it so we find that it's easier to go out into the community, people really embrace that. And actually, our staff love it. And so they're they're asking, you know, are there more restoration clinics that they can participate in? So it's wonderful to see that they love it as well. And so we're making an impact that way, and we do have four additional restoration clinics coming up this year. They were going to participate in as well.
And they're April 23, April 25, June 18 and August 28. Yeah, and so the
additional dates may be added, but as of right now, those are the payment dates that they have secured spaces for and
Miss Crosby has been very active with getting grants to help fund this for our clean slate to help clear people's driving records. We received $200,000 from state court administrator's office for the virtual backlog in our traffic area. We received 142,000 And we started the self help center center at the core and received $82,300 to help get that started. And so
that's about it. That's a lot it didn't cover a lot. Thank you so much for the presentation. You all cover a lot and I just wanted to start off by thanking you because you have literally always answered the phone call as it relates to right to counsel and not only answered the phone but got into the room and had those tough conversations that I believe has ultimately helped make the the program as a success. I know we have a lot of work to do. But like I said, I mean you were on every call listening and even if you disagreed you were honest about it. And those tough conversations I really believe led to the strengthening of the process. I had the opportunity myself to come down to the 36th District Court to view the whole process in action to see the judges to see the representation take take place and it blew my mind. It just really was an opportunity to see the impact of law in action to see a senior citizen who will be a representative by like Lakeshore global I think at the time and to have that attorney by their side during that process meant so much. So I just want to thank you. I want to thank all of the judges I got to see judge Sabrina was down here at the time there was a couple of other judges. I popped in in a lot of different rooms to see them in action to see how the whole court was being run phenomenal. So I just want to just give you a big shout out and also a shout out to judge Yancey who just did a huge expungement event with us and she had over 2030 attorneys on site that they pull it from various law schools and so just phenomenal job. And thank you. Thank you. So I just wanted to ask you mentioned the domestic violence and I'm going to raise this with the chief as well, too. But is there anything that you think that we could support? I'm assuming you I don't have any programs within the court that assist with that, but anything that counsel can do, seeing that's the number one issue that you're facing
that is and I'm not sure and honestly we're trying to and I'm convening a kind of a symposium at Wayne County Community College on April 25. And I'm going to send that to you guys because we got to gotta wrap our arms around it, I'm not sure. And the thing is, I mean, alcohol is normally involved, drugs are normally involved, but the fact that the that the that the defendants in the end that that they're getting younger and younger, me we're seeing domestic violence cases, 18 year olds, 19 year olds in this, that's not the normal pattern, and so I'm not sure what's going on that's causing this, and that's why every room I get into, I'm just asking for some help and let's come together. There's only so much the court can do but we I am willing to talk to guy to go into schools but I'm not sure I mean, that's the one time you know, I normally have some answers, but we got to get a conversation going we do because it's real. It's getting I mean like says getting more aggressive which is that's the part where I don't quite have a reason that it's real aggressive type, domestic violence and this younger and younger. Thank
you for that. And I'm going to add that portion to our Executive Session for sure. I know over the years, there's been mentioned that there's only one domestic shelter that's solely dedicated towards domestic violence for victims and so I just the overall resources in general, I think need to be there as well. Just want to talk a little bit about a couple of decreases in your budget. I see that the drug court was eliminated is that it was $40,000 and that is showing no longer there is that correct?
The drug court itself has not been eliminated. have numerous specialty courts, drug court, veteran court and mental health court. What's been eliminated from the budget is a request for funding for expense items because we are able to sustain our specialty courts through grant funding so we do not need to include it in our operating budget. Okay,
perfect. For just an example. Last year, the drug court we received $110,000 grant from the state court administrator's office the mental health court 40,005 88 and the veterans court an additional 1500. And so we've been really aggressive trying to go and get grant dollars to reduce our assets to for the city.
Okay. All right. Great. And then can you speak to the overall condition of the facilities at the 36 District Court capital needs? I haven't really heard much about any capital investments within a court and how those are being addressed.
Well, that is yes, it is. It is a huge issue. I mean, it is a it is a huge issue. We have gone back and forth internally about whether we should just make the ask at the Capitol agenda conference. That guess is in September. Our estimation is that we need immediately another $3 million to help with the facilities. I'm very concerned there are some things where I'm I don't think we're in compliance with the ATA. We have air quality issues in the court that immediately need to be fixed. Our elevators we can't transport I mean, we have issues transporting prisoners when they come over from the Wayne County Jail. We had a situation where prisoners were coming through the front I mean, we can't do this. And it is our elevators when our elevators are just down in prison transport our our escalator has not worked since what about 2018?
If not before 2018 was when we were told no escalators were being repaired in the city when we made to ask and the President just to
close and the the prisoner elevators now work since 2022. And these are things that we've been working we've been asking the city we've been working with JLL and you know, they there have been bandaid fixes, but we're we're at a borderline crisis and so like I said, so I'm gonna lead in this crisis but you can go a
little deeper we're definitely in a crisis. The the elevators are very concerning staff no longer trust the elevators they don't want to ride the elevators. People are stuck in the elevators literally every other day. There's an elevator that's down every day. So sometimes they will catch the problem before someone gets stuck. But somebody is stuck literally every other day. And so I don't trust the elevators. And so you know, I can't blame the staff. The prisoner elevator like chief said it has not worked since 2022. They are working right now. They just did a be it so contractors were out last week. But once they secure a bit that's going to take at least 18 to 24 additional months for them to even get that up and running. But right now, we have to stop all movement in order for them to move prisoners in our public elevators. And so yes, that is very concerning to people when they see that happening. Not just to staff but to the public. And we've been doing that since 2022.
If so, who owns the Teresa's District Court, you're building itself you the city does own it. So I'm gonna use Mr. Benson's line over here about investing in our assets and if that is a city owned building, and when was the last time the city's put capital money into the 36 district court because I don't recall since I've been here. And I've been here for 10 years
and even had a capital S in a good decade. Yeah. Wow.
Yeah. And it's like I said, where it's getting to the point where, you know, we've been trying to work with the city and you know, and worked with the contract with JLL. And, you know, we have we have parts like with our air conditioning, heating, they don't make the system anymore. So we have to keep employees that have worked for the court for 30 years because they know how some internal fixes but you know, we've had some people who were sick, we couldn't get anyone to to fix it. And we've actually had to close before because we have no heat in the building. And so it's a it's a critical ask. And so again, the the this this capital conference, we we had made a decision that we're just going to go very hard and asked for this $3 million, that it will fix some things. But and that's
all I have. And where's that money coming from the capital conference that's like the state or grants or
what No, that's the city.
Cities Okay. Okay.
Obviously we're here today, train it up. And as cheap indicated, we've kind of gone back and forth and including it in our operating budget, but it shouldn't come from their camping away from the children, although I will say a substantial portion over the past several years including this current fiscal year that we're in, we do have to subsidize what would otherwise be some capital upgrades through our operating budget when we're already being you know, that's already tight as it is. So, it's, it's quite critical. Okay.
So what we what we can do is I heard a $3 million dollar figure that came out so I'm assuming that's based on the immediate emergency needs of the building.
Yes. Pipes leaking.
Oh my gosh, wow. And it's the public facing buildings
in the in the collections area. It just, it just, that's just the first one. We literally we just had to move them out because in where they work, the pipe leaks, and then we you know, and it's causing mold in that area. And we've had, we've had to just close that recently.
So yeah, it really is unfortunate. And I remember saying what you're saying even your employees working in a building Yes.
Yeah. You know, it's like a snowball effect, right? Someone gets ill and then got,
you know, Bill, definitely, oh, that I think was happening. It's like the old home was one thing breaks, everything breaks. So now we're having that issue.
Gotcha. Gotcha. So I'm sure all of my colleagues will support adding this portion the capital needs of the 36 District Court, specifically a minimum, I'm assuming that $3 million request from the chief judge to our executive session, and if you all have a breakdown of the request that we can see as well. Yes, we'll send that to you. All right, perfect. Is there any objections to adding that to our Executive Session? All right, hearing none, that action will be taken. And we do have several other questions that we will submit in writing. And I will Yes, remember? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes.
You mentioned the domestic violence issue. Did you want to put that also in Executive Session,
as well too. Yes. Is there any objections to add that as well? All right, Hearing no objections that will be added. Thank you, Mr. Whittaker.
I'm gonna do both. Yep. All right.
We will turn it over to questions potentate.
Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Judge and team appreciate the work you've done. On behalf of the City of Detroit, I want to apologize to you employees and you all for having to work under those conditions. kind of heard over the years about some challenges and we think we're plugging holes here and there but I had no idea it was that bad to the point where we've got to transport prisoners down the public elevator and stop all action. I was even talking with what I said to council president, how do you retain employees? If you are in a type of situation, folks are ready to vote as soon as they can and get an offer and we need as many strong dedicated employees working over 3060 as possible. So again, apologies on behalf of the City of Detroit, we will do better, certainly starting with this budget. I also want to give a shout out to your specialty court. Judge Shannon Holmes always a tremendous and a tremendous asset to the city, certainly over at 36 D great job have seen the results of it. actually saw it in action myself and had an opportunity to see that and made a difference in how I think about it the 36th District Court and the way that the actions are taken over there, so shout out there. Wanted to ask that. No, we talked about the renaming and I'm glad to hear that we are in the process now of actually solidifying the date in terms of the artists who's going to create the portrait has that artists already been selected. Now we got the date come now what what
we're going to have to do, because that process was was was an interesting process. I'll just say that. We're going to have to do the dedication of the portrait later. We did not want to hold off on doing the building any longer. And so Gail should core is working with Miss Riley as well as the city and and picking it and doing the pictures that she would like to see. We definitely wanted the Chicago family to be involved with that. And so that's taken a little more time so we're going to do that in Vail like at a later time.
Okay, well, I definitely have a few artists myself that I want to throw into the pool to select from who I know of three of them will do a great job. But if there's a penny above and beyond those, then again, we just want the best artists possible to render this person
has not been selected. So if you could get that to myself and Miss Riley, we can definitely make sure they're considered.
Thank you for that. And then lastly, as it relates to the restoration clinics, if we can get a schedule of them location, the next one you say it's taking place. I'm sorry,
the next one is so the next one. We're not doing this one in person. The next one is at Parnell facility. It's a prison in Jackson. So what we do if the staff sometimes they will have some that are not in our jurisdiction or you know, our staff can get to that location. They send us all the information for those individuals. We run all the backgrounds on them, we put any records and we submit that information prior to the clinic so that they can still share that information and help them navigate through whatever issues they have concerning to their driving record.
The first one in Detroit is on June 18 And that is at the Latin Americans for social and economic development Senior Center
and that's in southwest Detroit.
I have a you know the city right now we're working on a framework plan over in bright more to revision what Brian Moore looks, feels and experience that's over there both in the residential area, as well. As the commercial corridor. So I am looking to throw all resources we have over in the neighborhood to help transform their lives before we see transformation in the development because we know if we see those homes and those businesses sprout up now the folks who are over there if their financial situation has not changed as it relates to the training that they have their earning ability, then they'll be swept out and I will be the one who will welcome them being swapped out and I'm not looking forward that to that happening. So don't know what type of assistance or what types of programs that can be offered over in the neighborhood again, before we start digging anything. We got to start working on the the residents themselves with them, not just for them, but with them. And so I certainly look forward to having additional conversations with you, chief judge and team on how we can provide any awareness first of all services that are available, but then also give folks that have a different view of 36 district court as well. Especially if you see some of the things that we were hearing today on a regular basis. If you have to go down there we need to we need to refresh and rebrand on that tool will be there. Councilman. Thank you so much, sir. Appreciate you always. Thank you, Mr. President.
Thank you, President Pro Tem councilmember waters
Thank you. Hello.
Anyway, I I'm very sad to hear about all those domestic violence issues. Have you noticed whether or not this is due to people that are unemployed? It
Well, honestly that's that's part of the conversation trying to figure out if there's something that's overlapping it's and, you know, just in my own anecdotal studies, I've heard that domestic violence increased during the pandemic, but in most places as other crimes decreased, so that that it hasn't decreased here. And so that's where I'm I don't know what it is. And so that's why, you know, I'm trying to talk to anyone, whether these academics, prosecutors, police officers, defense attorneys, whoever just to try to to see if we can get is there some commonality to this, but right now I don't know. It's just that I'm seeing an increase, and it's more aggressive. And so but, you know, you hear that the economy is better your your hearing that things are better. And so, I don't know. I mean, like I said, this is one where I'm a little bit perplexed, and that's why this is going to have to be a collective to kind of get get get our arms wrapped around what's happening, and to really protect protecting you and his and his men and women who are being victims. It's seen and on both sides,
and okay, so please keep us in the loop. We want to see how we can be a part of helping to address the issue and I don't know if we can, but you know, I kind of like to know what the data shows at some point. In terms of who's really coming into court. You know, you say it's mostly increasing with the young folks, but understanding the reasoning reasons is very, very important if we can Yeah, absolutely. And uh huh. Um, we we put together tennis Rights Commission. It hasn't been passed by this body yet, but it has been approved. By the law, the law department. And I know that there are tons and tons of compliance issues when when these landlords come to court, and I know that you've tried to help with that too. And but I certainly once we get this tennis Rights Commission up and going, I would certainly appreciate some feedback from you, Your Honor. Yes, counsel. Do Yeah. Yeah. Any thoughts on it now or anything? Well,
the thing with and this has been an ongoing thing and dealing with compliance. He started out just trying to work with the city to make sure there were enough people enough inspectors to inspect the properties, then to roll it out citywide because at first they were only doing certain zip codes. Then it was to actually get the landlords to have a certificate of compliance. Now there's a new skate a new state rule that applies statewide that a landlord there's a there's a there's a predisposition that I know that they are in compliance. It's not necessary a certificate of compliance, but that that the building is habitable, that if they're going to go with an eviction, so there is a burden now that is shifted to all landlords that they have to show it have a showing that their property is up to code and habitable where there's just been there's just been pushed back on all sides as well as when it comes to enforcing the certificate of compliance. We have to make sure that tenants are aware that they have to escrow their rent. They they do have to escrow they weren't and they have to assert the defense of that they're not paying rent because the landlord does not have a certificate of compliance because it's a two prong test to do that. And so, it is, you know, again, this is about education. The council has to do that. And people also have to realize that the certificate of compliance portion does not apply. If it's a termination of tenancy it only applies and in non payment of rent cases, but there has to be more awareness. And, you know, I'm not seeing there is some uptick of landlords getting certificate of compliance, but it's not enough. It's just it's not enough. It's there and I don't know why there's pushback on that side, but it's not increasing at the rate that we thought it would happen by now. And
that is true. I think. We were told last week, we're only at about 13%. That is shameful. The
well we definitely know it's less than 20. I'm not sure if it's but it's definitely less than 20 right now. And we thought that once there were more inspectors and the city was being more aggressive that that was going to increase but it really hasn't. And, you know,
okay, well, I certainly thank you for your feedback. I'll always appreciate that. And let me just say this that I'm just so very proud of you. You know, had the honor of serving with you before that legislature and just always been a just a very I just wanted those go getters you know, I just want to get some things done. You know, I used to have to say calm down.
I know, I know. I knew you were gonna say that. And you did actually patients wasn't my virtue back. I like to say that. But no, we are very we're very passionate. About our city and you know, the people that come before us and I always tell people, you know, being a judge in Detroit is different than being a judge in other places. You know, we have other responsibilities. It's like being a teacher in Detroit. You have other things that you have to deal with that a teacher someplace else does, and you know, I take it very seriously. And we have really from we've really changed this court mail in the four years we've really changed this court. Yes. And we're and we're not done and like I said, we I love to talk to other judges in other cities, and other municipalities about their interaction with their funding unit is different than ours. I said we were in a partnership, you guys are at war, and I don't want to hear that about that. Don't don't bring that our way. And you know, because we really we really want to make sure our citizens have the best and and that is why I really appreciate that you guys have a concern about our building, because you know, the citizens shouldn't have to endure certain things that they're doing right now our employees should or judges shouldn't either, and that means a lot but I do thank you for the kind words. And
I just want to say thank you for all of the tremendous efforts that you've placed over into 36 District Court for the energy and to carry all that love that you're showing just to Google things, and we're certainly going to try and help you find that money to make some improvements over there. Sounds like you need a few new things. I'm sure member Benson has some ideas. too.
All right. Thank you. Councilmember waters member Benson.
Thank you, Madam President. Hey, good morning. And thank you all for being here in the thanks for your advocacy as well on behalf of those who typically are thought to be forgotten and don't have the greatest experience when it comes to the system. So just think about advocacy. It's good to hear I'm glad that my colleagues are really leaning in on the investment in our assets as a city, and then how the lack of investment in that deferred maintenance plays a significant role in the day to day activities and the quality of life and the operations and the service that you're able to provide. So it sounds as if the building will level to remain as it may have. It may be exceeding its life expectancy. And so then the question comes Has there been a conversation about a new 36 District Court or new location? Are those services? Yes,
they're very, you know, there's been the talk of would you have an interest with with the city and I told them, absolutely, we would have an interest. We're seeing what has happened with third circuit and that they are consolidating in a new building and new facilities. And their facilities are nothing they're they're much better than what our facilities were and they're getting new facilities. And so, yes, they're you know, I have spoken with members of the administration about that. And hopefully, there's going to be a feasibility study to see what it would take. But yes, those conversations very, you know, very cursory conversations have been had. All right, good.
So that's good to hear. So then maybe we can look to see some improvements to that property, that maybe here's something about a long term solution to what sounds like you've got $3 billion would be more of a band aid than an actual solution. Looking at the operations on page Robbo, 60 Tac 10. I'm looking at a significant reduction in revenues. Can we just talk about that if we're looking at traffic from fiscal year 2014 To proposed looking at about a 35 to 40% reduction? On the traffic side, we're looking at an increase in the civil side by over 100%. But we're also seeing a significant a, an increase in the court administration, but just that reduction in traffic is just nificant reduction that it there's a loss of close to two and a half million dollars in revenues this year. He's talking about the different revenue increases and decreases in house impacting the overall revenue number one
on the and I'm going to turn it over to our CFO but on the traffic side, there are less tickets being made. If you have less tickets, you're going to collect less revenue, and that's
there's less things being written yes by the
police. Okay, so if you have less traffic cases coming in, your revenue is going to decrease. The other part is the collection. The collection efforts on even the tickets that we have we have our they're harder it's harder to collect right now because you have to there are multiple hearings you have to have there's state mandated show causes. Those show causes are pushed out a decent, decent ways. Were because they're not the cases are not in person. You can't necessarily capture a person's information where we could before sending them downstairs to receive a start to collections process right away. And so it takes longer to do a tax garnishment to do wage garnishments and so, but with less less tickets being written on those revenues are going to continue to go out because you can't you that revenue was directly driven by what's happening, what comes into the court. So
just to piggyback on all of what she said, with regard to the fines and costs. I mean, certainly he covered that and the limitations that we've encountered in collecting these budget numbers are really just reflective of where we are year to date in this fiscal year and then extrapolating that out for next year. So hence the decrease on that side. And then conversely, the increase on the civil side essentially
that the increase um,
I'll go there they're they're more civil cases being like say we're having they're less felony cases. coming in because crime is down. There are less traffic cases because of ticket writing, things of that nature. The civil side is up. You have more collection agencies that are filing cases against our residents. And I know council or Macau that has been that has been a concern that you have. There are you know, there are more garnishments that are coming in on the civil side, that is where there's an increase and there's an increase in cases on the civil side. There's an increase of cases on the landlord tenant side but that doesn't generate revenue, but the there they're more cases on in small claims. Were parties are going at each other on the civil side and then they'll that we collect fees from filing fees on those cases but there's a lot of there's a lot of collection cases that are going on to see if Detroit right now. And that is causing that those are those are going up.
Okay. And then there's a whole new line item and court administration.
Yes. That actually if you look, just a couple lines above it there under the I'm sorry, the appropriation the 276 double zero economic equity. You see this 600,000 that's there in the current fiscal year. That's just being shifted to the more appropriate appropriate, appropriate appropriation, if you will, and then the increase being those are our grant dollars that we have secured. Okay.
That's good to hear and know and I'm hoping so I'm not sure this is a statement really a question. I mean, if we're seeing a reduction in the ticket writing, is that just because we're no longer focused on traffic enforcement or are we seeing people who just don't speed anymore? They don't make left turns illegally?
No, actually, yes. And just just to add one more component, the Secretary of State removed the sanction portion from numerous moving violations. And so therefore, people are not motivated to pay if there's no sanction attach there's nothing going to happen to my license. It's not going to be suspended if I don't pay so we've noticed that as well.
Got it and and and council events and this is a on when we go to conferences and they go to like this meeting. This is a concern and all municipalities ticket writing is just down period. And I don't know if this is well, I mean, we all drive and see Detroit there's there's not less speeding, there's not less people. I mean, people are running red lights in front of me all the time. There's a lot of stuff that's happening, but I can't speak to why there's less ticket right but that is something that that we're seeing across the state of Michigan, there are less moving infractions being written across the state and the rationale. That's something that I don't know. I don't know why the ticket writing is going down. But that has happened. Okay,
sounds like a question for DPD and then just and this isn't a statement again, just increasing collections on people. Just for some reason. It has a tough rub. on me. It's as if we're chasing down some of our most vulnerable residents for what little pennies they do have. And then we're not enforcing bad behavior when it does happen, which was a Tamiya legitimate target for enforcement. I don't know if it's true or not I just this anecdotal right now for me, but just there's some concerns with that being the direction that we're going
on the on the on the side of when it we're going back to traffic. We have basically there's a 10 point mandate that we have from the state court administrator's office of how we have to have collections efforts. And one thing that we were out of compliance for years is that we did not have a collections agency. That is something that is part of we have to have an internal collections department and we have to have a outside if we cannot collect it. I don't necessarily think it's chasing people down. We have our judges, waive more fees and more things and any judges we offer if you don't have the money to do some community service, do some of the beautify to help out the community. And we try to make sure they're, you know, to the point where I've had to speak to some of our judges about waiving some things that you can't waive. Some things are mandatory fees. But we're not trying to hunt or chase anyone down. But if you've got to the point where there's a fine lead, you have to pay your fine. And if you can't pay the fine, we have ways of working where you don't have to pay the fine, but you have to do something. And if we don't, then we'll come back here next year. And then we'll say our revenues are down further. And then you know, but that's that's the only revenue that we have. There is no revenue from the selling division there is no revenue from the special record division there's no revenue from landlord tenant really. So that's where your revenue comes is just really coming from if from your traffic enforcement and collecting it. So just
thank you and so my my statements have resulted in many much more dialog than I thought they would. But I just want to have an offline conversation so I can learn more than it sounds as if we're not creating a debtors, debtors prison. Absolutely. At the 360s. Of course, I want to thank you for those efforts as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Benson, member young
Thank you. Good to see you. Always a pleasure, you know, a hardest working corn show business. I just wanted to ask you that was kind of horrifying. You talking about you know, your capital improvements in not just terms how people feel but also, I would assume some folks might feel encouraged to try to escape in answer in that sort of situation. I just wanted to ask you one was this something that happened when the States took over recorders court and they transferred over this responsibility to the city? And then SEC letters want to ask has there been any sort of state funding that will be available to this? I don't know when I use it several there feels like eons ago, but when I used to serve up there, you know, they had something you know they had a budget you know called capital improvements, that they will be able to provide you no money for courts and other such things. has ever been a discussion up there to be able to dress this and we will provide I think the the $3 million that you're looking for now and in the state might be able to cover the rest.
Well, my understanding is that because it's a city building that is up to the city to provide that. Now there are several things with courts where even if the city does the upfront, there's things that are reimbursable by the state just like with salaries, benefits and things of that nature. It's my understanding that capital improvement at the ethic capital issues that capital issues, there's a facilities there's been an issue for decades, if there is District Court, and it was it was a warehouse it was a Hudson's warehouse that was converted to a court and from day one, there have been some issues it was retrofitted. But right now there there has been deferred maintenance for years. And you know, there was an economic downturn in the city that was bankruptcy there was there was no money to really do the day to day stuff. And but we've kicked the can down the road to the point where you know, there's no more road right and so it's you know, it's one of those things where and where we do lose employees, our employees on the first floor, like some of your cashiers, your your, your your lower level clerks, because our salaries are not the highest, but you're dealing with pipes bursting all the time. You're dealing with having to have space heaters one day or the day you got to have a fan because it's too so and those are the ones that will leave and go to the Secretary of State they will leave and go someplace else if they and those are the ones that we have our most turnover because they're dealing with them with with the facilities, but I don't think Recorder's Court necessarily had had any issues. I just think this has just not been a priority. And there's been other Debian budget concerns, obviously with the city, I don't think has been purposeful, but the end result is what it is. Can
you give me what the full amount that you would need? You know, just just if money were no object here and you need to fix all the infrastructure to tell you how much would this cost?
Councilmember young, that's something I would love to send you today, even though we would add? I didn't I didn't bring my wish list. I wish I would have brought it now. But I know we need three that we need three as a band aid, but the full amount. We're just the court administrator just said we'll have that to you. Immediately. I
just thought that's part of the problem. You know, putting band aids on you know, some things you could put band aids on this type of stuff. You can't
we have a heating and cooling system that exists anymore. They can't get parts and so it is kind
of like pick your poison you know, you will deal with it. Now you will deal with it later. So I just let them know what I'm dealing with. So I'm gonna deal with the front. And finally, I just want to ask you really quickly about the issues involving mental health. I mean, as you all know, I think it's maybe about 74% or something like that. People that are in Wayne County Jail, have mental health issues. Are those cases differ directly to the mental health court or are there some cases that might come before you? And you might see that case if they can be better, that they are a mental health and so you defer them over?
It depends on the offense. And so some of the cases that I received that really are impacted by mental health, where's the problem right now is where if a person you given them a personal bond, but they need a tether, a lot of times, people who are dealing with mental health, they're homeless, and so you have no place to tether them. So if you don't give a tether, then the likelihood of them returning to court is not high. But you don't want to keep a person in the Wayne County jail because they're poor and they're homeless, and that's where but if they have certain offenses, certain violent offenses, they're not eligible for mental health court. And so that's where that's the problem with the lack of shelters, the lack of mental health facilities, because if you because the Wayne County jail has become a place where it's that is becoming the mental health facility, and you're having you're having more inmate violence on inmate violence, you're having people you know, you know, I have cases every week where the person cannot come out because they're on suicide watch in the Wayne County Jail. And you know, and we have no place to put them and they're not equipped in the Wayne County jail to to to handle these type of these type of issues. And so it is a it is a it's a cycle right now, where if it's a misdemeanor case, we definitely can refer them to mental health court, and judge Holmes has a great program for them, but when they're when they're coming before me on the felony docket, if, if we if you if you send them for competency or for criminal responsibility, waiting on a bed at a mental health, they're still going to sit six, seven months in the county to even have to even be seen by a doctor to see if they're competent to stand trial. And we just don't have any facilities. And that's that's a long answer to say that that is the problem. We have no mental health facilities to treat people who don't need to be in jail, but they need to be treated.
Very well. You. Thank You, Councilmember young member Santiago renewals.
Thank you, Madam President. Good morning. Thank you all so much for the work that you do. It is exciting to hear how it is that the court functions and the goals that you have set for yourselves excited to hear the work that you're doing around restorative justice. So thank you for taking that and running with it. So it's exciting to see. My one question is one that I've asked last year, and that is around a technology that is needed to allow for civil infractions instead of misdemeanors. Court counsel mentioned that the department received several 7 million in grants to address infrastructure and technology needs, wondering what that 7 million is for and if there has been discussions in trying to access the technology needed for civil infractions. I
don't think we're looking at each other. We're not we're not. I'm not. I'm not familiar with the $7 million grant for civil infractions. No,
just in general, and I'm asking if if if that would apply for this technology. So this was during our law department hearing. There was a mention that there was seven millions in grants to address infrastructure and technology needs, but I don't know what that is.
So we've used our technology in various ways we have we're the AI system that we're doing where our call center, which actually definitely helps the civil infraction needs because those are, we get numerous calls regarding our civil infractions. We've updated our website so that people with civil infractions can schedule court dates online versus calling into the court. We've also input it check in systems throughout our court where you can check in and when you're in court that way, if the area is crowded and you're in another area you checked in, they won't overlook your case your case won't go into default. So we've done various things with our technology with the dollars not necessarily anything specific to civil infractions only but just overall through
the Chair. Thank you.
That's helpful, because we are looking at amending policy or creating policy. And we're being told that the consequence would be a misdemeanor, and we are trying to avoid that being the consequence, but we're being told because there is a lack of a specific technology to process civil infractions instead of misdemeanors. We can't move forward with creating those policies. Well, I
guess my question is where's there? They're saying the court has an issue processing this to make it a civil infraction instead of a mystery. I would. I'm unfamiliar with it. I would ask that if maybe if we could have a sit down with the representative from the law department and your staff or yourself in this to kinda I'm unaware of what they're what they're referring to.
Okay, through the chair would love to do that, because the other we're being told to to pause on trying to make those amendments because there are plenty of ordinances that the consequence is a misdemeanor that could have it be a civil infraction. So we're looking to decriminalize a lot of our own internal policies, but also want to make sure anything moving forward, allows for a civil infraction, so happy to have that conversation offline, because if if, if it is that we can process this, and then we have a lot to do, and we can move forward and in doing that work, and
Councilwoman just know, and we could continue this, but our General Counsel Andreea Bradley Baskin would be a great person would be a person for your staff to reach out to she would be the person representing the court and Ms. Crosby dealing with it. But again, I'm I'm unaware of any technology that would that would be a barrier from from decriminalizing something. We've been decriminalizing things, you know. Absolutely. I know. And then when we've had that issue, that's where we receive grant dollars from from scale we went to to correct it. So but I'm not familiar with this at all.
This sounds like an opportunity to me, so I appreciate this. Thank you, Madam President. I would like to move into Executive Session, discussion around civil infraction technology. This might end up in a closing resolution. But want to make sure that we keep this conversation in the forefront. So that is my motion.
All right, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President. And good afternoon to all of you member bins and asked my question relative to traffic court. And so I really just kind of want to piggyback off of what was talked about as relates to domestic violence. I have noticed the trend, if you will. amongst younger people. I think there has to be a holistic effort from everybody. I know. In the fifth at the fifth precinct, there was a program that provided support for domestic violence survivors. I'm not sure if that program is still happening. doing outreach and just providing support to individuals. I think the community as a whole really needs to be informed about what's happening as it relates to domestic violence. I unfortunately was horribly disappointed by residents in the district that did not support the creation of a domestic violence shelter, because they thought that it was going to increase criminal activity in the neighborhood as a result of women staying at this facility. And so just recognizing the difficulty in providing support to survivors. It was very problematic for me, and so I think there there is a huge need for marketing, for sharing information so that everybody understands where we are around domestic violence, and providing all of the support all of the wraparound support that we can to help people get out of the situation. So I'm happy to have some conversation with you offline, would love to do that and see how we, as a community can provide support to people that are are going through these challenges, and I do think it's extremely important to talk to younger people, because I have seen it happening with younger people. It's happened very closely to one of the judges at 36 District Court and a family member of theirs. And so I think it's important for people to realize that it impacts all of us and impacts our community. As a whole. I do have a question relative to the maintenance of the building. Do you all have what what does regular general maintenance look like? Because it sounds like you know we've we've allowed some things to not be addressed. And so now they've become much more significant. Does the city provide regular support in maintaining the building?
Yes, yes, they do. We we work with JLL and so they do provide regular support, but a lot of our issues have come as stated before, I think Councilman young stated it is that a lot of the things that are happening now are due to we have older parts that are needed, they can't locate them can't find them. They don't make this anymore, these particular models. And then the other issue is so things cost so much that they don't have the capital funding to support some of the needs that we have. So they're doing a lot of band aid fixes because to fix it, it's just out of the budget. That's
understandable. What is JLL? I've heard you say it several times.
I'm gonna forget it just because I call them J allele. So which is the name of the maintenance? Yeah, that's the that's the company that is a maintenance company that is assigned to our buildings. They
are contracted through the city. Yes, he contracted them to help the to perform building maintenance at our facility and other city facilities. And they were moved. They've been riding me back three years now. I believe.
2020 I believe? Okay. Yes. linebarger
previously did the lion bot No, definitely. Men back then, but men back previously did our maintenance and the JLL went to bed. And so they've been there but again, they they work with the city and to do the maintenance. They're not we don't contract with them and we have no say in that that's with the city.
Sure understood that.
I'm actually going to jump in as well if you don't mind only because this does have an impact on the operational budget and it's certainly something that I'd like to address. To that point. The contract between the city and JLL is very specific of what they are responsible for. And what we the court are responsible for. You know, JLL contracts, the housekeeping, the cleaning company, they're responsible for the rule for you know, so it's very finite. With that said, as I'm sure you can imagine there are so many things in and around the building that are also quite costly. But don't fall into the purview of JLL which is why while you know the budget we submitted for this fiscal year was as prudent as possible and we always know things like salaries and benefits. Do you make up the bulk of it? There is a substantial need in our what I'll call other expenses or operating expenses. And, you know, the budget that I submitted was for a certain amount but ultimately what we received back you know, from the mayor's recommendation, and what's printed currently is something less than that. So I would just ask this group to consider maybe reviewing what our actual ask was.
And just to tell you, it stands for Jones Lang and lusail got
it. All right. Thank you for that. And so if you are able to provide to us as we have the discussion around the $3 million requests if you can provide what the court is responsible for as it relates to maintenance of the building, we can have a greater conversation during executive session because I'm curious
to know whether or not the, I believe now is the construction and demolition department that maintains the buildings that are owned by the city, and so would just like to have a greater conversation around the the support for other city owned assets and what we're providing for the 36 District Court. All right, that is all that I have but look forward to doing some restoration clinics on the east side. And anything else I know, I'm due to have another expungement fair, if you will, on the east side and in District Four. So I would love to work with you all on that. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. All right. Thank you councilmember Johnson. Councilmember Calloway. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to all of you for being here. And good afternoon, my Morehouse brothers and your team. I'm gonna go back to what you mentioned earlier riegert Regarding collections. And we've talked about this I think I might have even for to someone on your team. A copy of the pro publica article that I found. Did anyone on your team do you know whether or not had it? They had a chance to review that article that was about a year or so ago? Yeah. Yes. Actually sent it to me. I think I because I read I read the or I didn't want to say that. No, no, no, no, no. I know. I read the article. And this was what I sent it to all of the judges from the Civil Division and part of the article was that it was a credit card acceptances using three C's just record as their collection agency, and that this business kind of targets women and black women and they are they are you know, people are getting car buying cars that you know usery prices basically they were the interest and they're set up to fail. The issue is one a lot of a lot of those cases are actually defaults and fortunately a lot of a lot of the defendants don't don't show up. And the next fight for right to counsel actually has to be in these type civil cases because just as on the on the landlord tenant side where people are not represented on those type of credit card cases or cases where they're being sued by these agencies. The vast, vast majority of those defendants are unrepresented and you get the same results that we used to get on the on the on the landlord tenant side. And so part of what we've done is that as part of our Help Center, that we have is to to give people resources and they can check into that. And, you know, I think that there has to be obviously a financial literacy program that would be outside the court to you know, I know, you know, people are in desperate situations sometimes and these are the only people that will allow them you know, access to some sort of capital, and they're just taking what they can, but knowing that there are some downfalls on the back end, but yes, we have definitely looked at it. We've had our civil director, when it's Tara Jackson Davis actually ran stats and seeing how many cases that they had what is the percentage that percentage has gone down on the amount of cases that they're they're doing at our court? But yeah, we did meet and again that I did share that with all of our civil judges as well as the staff. And like really, the number one takeaway is one of the best ways is to have counsel and that you know, either some legal aid agency, or someone is going to have to kind of step in to help those to help those defendants because they're more susceptible to a default honestly than any other department is in those civil cases. Which is I'm sure concern of yours, and I'm starting to mine and DTE is doing the same thing. DTE is selling its debt on pennies for dollar has not been approved by the state of Michigan. According to the article that I'm reading right now. DTE is notorious for selling their debt. And then before you know it, folks wages are being garnished. And there's a company out of Minnesota that they are selling the debt to. And, you know, I have I don't know how to get to it because if we are setting up the right to counsel it to help folks who are experiencing housing issues, and need legal support. I don't know if we can use that same counsel to help folks avoid these types of situations because default judgments, they're just not appearing. They don't have legal counsel, and these companies are winning for that fact. And also counsel not to cut you off but another area that we noticed after Fe Fe just in the article was that if they missed the case, negative default, or or the garnishment has been allowed. The objection of the garnishment has to be very specific. It's not giving that you know, I missed court because of this. And so there's a lot of technical faults in the answers because these are not lawyers writing these responses. And the judges have no leeway when it comes to their because the there's a lawyer on the other side is saying that they're objecting to this filing, and that's where even when the person tries to get the garnishment lifted, they don't know how to lift it. And that's that's also a second layer that that's causing people to keep these garnishments on. Yeah, and I'm trying to thank you for that and through the Chair. I'm trying to figure out how we can help, you know, want to discuss it with your team. Before even gets to the garnishment stage. How do we avoid it? I mean, if we have counsel for tenants, maybe we can have counsel for these folks, to keep them from even having their wages garnished in the first place. If they just have counsel there and make an appearance, they can probably that attorney could negotiate with that attorney and avoid the garnishment procedure in the first place. So I don't have any other questions. I thank you for the work that you're doing. But I am interested in putting the Civil Division specifically supporting what we're talking about this conversation in terms of collections, and how we can get at that and support our residents because it is black women, who is Credit Acceptance is taking advantage of them and exploiting them, even with the highest interest rates on them taking out loans to even get a vehicle in the first place. They are very, very exploitive, and then also, you know DTE consumer power doesn't do it, and they're the second largest utility company in the state DTE is you know, the main provider of our services here in the city. And I don't know how they get connected. I wish we could separate them out but that's a whole nother conversation put our heat and our electricity together. But that's a conversation for another day but I would like to make a motion to move this particular conversation, the civil the Civil Division of your, of your budget into executive session and the closing resolution just so we can have a conversation about how we can help. You know, these residents again, mostly black women who are being subjected to tenets, I mean mostly black women. And these exploitive devices I believe are being used for I don't know even how to get to it being used by these, these companies. DTE and Credit Acceptance. But I'd like to see if we can get an attorney set aside like we have for right to counsel. Because the right to counsel I know is I don't know if it's exclusively for landlord tenants, but maybe we can expand it to include the civil cases. So again, I'd like to put this into executive session in the closing resolution, the civil division of 36. district court. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, sir. Hearing no objections that action will be taken. All right, that will did you have anything to offer for our chief judge as we wrap up this hearing? Thank you, Madam President. And good afternoon to y'all. Good afternoon. Judge rep. All good stuff. I don't know if it's already been asked him. Pardon my tardiness. But just about the vacancies. I don't know if we've addressed that yet. Relative to the vacancies and where we are. I'm happy to say we're close to fully staffed where we have our largest vacancies we have right now at the
highest level is our Deputy General Counsel. Our deputy we don't have a deputy general counsel because the governor appointed her as judge so alone, Nick sharp, who was our deputy general counsel was our newest judge. And so we're very happy that she was appointed and Governor Whitmer actually has we asked her to fill the spot quickly because there had been some legs and so but besides that, our clerks there are some our clerk ones are that you know they they're getting other jobs and higher paying jobs. And so we hire some they get another offer for you know, a little more they're leaving, but we're constantly filling the spot. So right now we're close to full. Right now. We're at a much better shape than we were. By two years ago. We came before you we had we had some issues. And so but we've really done well with filling those positions. HR has been very aggressive. They've been going to job fairs, old school, setting up tables at places and just you know, really working hard to to fill those spots. And thank you for that. I mean, obviously that's instrumental in ensuring that the court is running I think you've guys been doing a great job to change the culture at 36. district court. I don't have any further questions, but I did just want to put on the record and thank you personally. You are a very active Chief Judge, even in a community. We've invited you to our policy sessions in which you taught a lot of our residents at district seven about 36 District Court and the processes and I appreciate you as well as your team taking the time out to spend time with residents and do that. Absolutely. And I would say to any of the council members, any meetings that you have, we will come we will come and and I love doing it. And we have a great court. And I want the citizens of Detroit to know that they have a great court and if they have questions we're here for. Thank you. Yeah, and I appreciate that. And thank you, ma'am. All right. Thank you, Chief Judge. We appreciate you guys and the entire team for being here and we will be in touch with you all. Thank you. Thank you for the work that you all do. All right. That will conclude our budget hearing for the 36th District Court. We will have a break and resume at two o'clock. One o'clock I think yep, are one o'clock with the police department. So we will stand in recess until 1pm
