I want I want my cauliflower barbecue All right, good evening everyone. We are going to call to order the expanded finance an audit standing committee for the purposes of our budget, public hearing, fiscal year 24. Madam Clerk, Mr. Clerk, please call the roll.
Good evening, council members, Scott Benson. Councilmember Fred Hall, the third president, Council Member councilmember Leticia Johnson. Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero. Present. Councilmember Mary waters. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway present. Councilmember Coleman younger second. Council Pro Tem James state. Council President Mary Sheffield. Present. You have a quorum, Madam President.
All right, thank you there being a quorum present. We are in session and Mr. Coralee. Any comments before we go into our public comment?
You have to know mom City Council. President Sheffield. This is the public hearing on the proposed budget from Mayor Duggan. According to the city charter, forget this session. I think it's session eight to 205 something like that. And the mayor's proposed budget is a total of $2.6 billion. Of that 1.3 billion relates to the general fund which most people associate with general fund provides placing fire, recreation and other services for the citizens. And as the public knows, probably there's been about 47 budget hearings conducted by city council and now this is the opportunity for the public to provide any more feedback on the budget.
Thank you so much, Mr. Poorly and if the clerk no we've been joined by member waters and I think everyone else was here when we did the roll call. This is our time to hear from the public. We will start with those who have joined us in person everyone will have two minutes for public comment. Jim to white, you will be first followed by William Bryce followed by Steven whoring
and I'm going to cut off our public comment is well everyone in here it does have a card though. Correct. Okay, great.
Madam President. How much time do I have,
by the way? Two minutes.
Okay. Madam President, Council. Thank you. My name is Jim Dwyer. I'm in district one. And a lot of people have been talking about the right to counsel is being implemented right now. And they're they're saying it's working. It's being implemented, and it is not being implemented. The right to counsel ordinance is an ordinance that there's certain aspects of it that are there to specify and those are not being done at this point. What's not being done is that people are not being fully represented by an attorney. They're being advised by an attorney. And so if they have a serious case a real serious case, Lakeshore legal Michigan Legal Services, you see HC may take the case, but they have limited funds right now. So basically, people are told that it's, it's by an attorney, that what you can do at this point is either pay your rent, or move, the attorney might be able to stretch things out a little bit instead of next week. Maybe we'll give you two weeks. But at this point, they're there the right to counsel ordinance is not being implemented period. I don't care what the mayor says or anybody else. I know this because I talked to the attorneys from the different the different nonprofits, so please, please fully fund the right to counsel. It works in every single city that has it right now. That at least been there for a year. It's working everywhere else Toledo, Cleveland. If Toledo can do it. Detroit can do it. Thank you all very much.
Thank you so much, Mr. Dwight. William Bryce.
Hi, I'm William Bryce. I'm a Detroit residents since 1971. I love the city and the city has been good to me. But I would like to endorse what my colleague Jim Dwight just said. I've been very active over the last 15 years with a group called Detroit eviction defense, and we have seen the incredible suffering. That Detroiters experience as a result of the behavior of avaricious developers and landlords. This legislation mitigates those horrors and needs to be addressed as Jim said, everywhere, it works everywhere, it helps people and everywhere it is a blessing. It is a blessing much beyond the money involved. I certainly hope that you will take that into consideration. Thank you. All right. Thank
you. Mr. Hari. Hattie Badulla will be next.
Awesome. Stephen hiring District Six resident not as long as the previous speaker. I just want to say how disappointed I am that the DDOT one sec gotta but that the DDOT budget isn't even the bare minimum ask of 80 million. It's no secret. Our transit is deplorable. And I'm gonna say it again. It's just as embarrassing as the 2008 Lion season. Bus drivers are some of the most important city employees and some of them are making the same wage as fast food employees and less than high school aged lifeguards. In my opinion, the DDOT budget should be just a minimal mask of 150 million and in the transit Agathis we will fight like how intel we have a fair operational budget. If Rosa Parks was alive today, she would just be ashamed of the current status of D that and I just want to end this by saying I really think you should consider bringing the Department of entrepreneurship and innovation back. I mean, that just it's so much back when Jill Ford was running it in 2016. When I first moved to the city, I think that's definitely something you should consider. And that's about it. All right.
Thank you. So much. Ross bulat I'm sorry Petey can come probably at risk a lot.
Oops. Thank you, honorable Council. I'd like it. Other advocates have said we need to get at least $80 million in the deedat budget just to get things moving. We need to pay our dollar or our drivers $30 per hour. It's just something we need to do if we're going to actually have a functional system. And that's what we need to start looking at D that is a functional system. Something that's useful, supportive, important and something that we take seriously in the city. I don't feel that the mayor's office is doing that. I'm concerned that next year we're going to be sitting here having the same discussion about why can't we hire why can't we get things moving? I mean, we're it's been a year and a half since we've been sustained those November 2021 temporary cuts that were promised to be temporary. We keep having the same conversations. And the mayor will come up with new excuses about why it's unable to why he's unable to hire drivers. And they may be the same excuses. What I'm asking is this Council to pass in addition to the budgetary allocation is a separate resolution setting benchmarks for DDOT. And this would be something that counsel could monitor such as by September 1. Let's have 100% pull outs. That's what successful systems do is they have 100% pull outs every day. No more Miss trips, we can count on DDOT. Then December 1, we'll start expanding service. So that way we can actually get above what we were pre COVID. These are things we need to do to actually have a system that's not a system of last resort. But something we need. I am asking for this resolution and I'm going to give you something in writing in the next day or two, but something that we can put down in writing and that we can meet on and hopefully this honorable Council can meet on once a month to see where deedat is. Keep it going. Keep the pressure on so we don't sit there and have the same discussion over and over. And I thank you very much for your time.
Thank you. Thank you. Well, Patti, and I will be looking forward to your proposed resolution. Thank you The wording Yes, thank you so much. And if a clerk would know pro Tim Tate and member young have both joined us. clock was started out right my salon.
Today mean you thank you for holding this hearing and soliciting the views of the public. It won't surprise you that I'm here to talk about the library. I'm hoping that one remaining matter concerning the 25% increase in our tax capture, which could be on our obligations for 30 years. It cost us $24 million. It could be 35 years it could be 25 years, but it's going to cost us 10s of millions of dollars. If you leave that in the budget. And if they say you don't have the authority, Please express your will. We can talk about whose authority is what later, but please express your will. The there's been discussion that in 2025 we won't have to pay tax captures anymore. But like the DIA in the zoo that Rick Snyder banned tax captures for the DIA in the zoo many years ago. They're still paying them because they had a legacy debt prior to the ban. And if it's banned in the future, we're still going to have that legacy debt and that 404.2 mils will all be our legacy. So if you Jack it up 800,000 more dollars. That's what we're going to be paying for decades, no matter what legislation, no matter what action is taken by any party. This is this is permanent, well permanent for decades. And I'll just remind folks that $800,000 is the cost of operating one library branch a year we have five terrible we're struggling to open some we can't open yet. Some that we need more. To capitalize more if we can keep this debt captures down I'm only asked for freeze that 3.4 million is still at historic high Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Joel Batterman.
Good evening to all Batterman district five resident I work with transportation routers united. I'm here again today to advocate for more funding for bus service in the city for at minimum $80 million up from the 73 proposed in the mayor's budget for the Detroit Department of Transportation. Obviously you have many worthy priorities in front of you. There are a lot of needs in the city. But just for some historical context, I want to emphasize that back in 2005 DDOT was funded DDOT received $90 million from the City of Detroit's general fund. 90 million in 2005 works out to over 140 million in 20 $23. So even the 80 million that we're requesting is not much more than half less than two thirds of what it was almost 20 years ago. Again, this is just one of many I know you have so many priorities in front of you. But I want to stress that the investment that we make in public transit has a kind of multiplier effect. It makes it possible for people to access all the other services we fund. So it's not just an investment in public transit. It's an investment in public education, so kids can get to school. It's an investment in public health. So focusing at the hospital, the hospital, it's an investment in public safety, so folks don't have to wait for hours. Like the woman I talked to on the bus down here last week who said that she waited three hours at eight mile in Van Dyck so that she could get home from her job in Warren. So please Please make DDOT a priority in this in this year's budget and funded at minimum $80 million. Thank you. All right, thank you
Solomon Linden Tez. Babson will be next.
Yeah, my name is Solomon. I'm a district five resident and I'm here to talk about the importance of fully funding DDOT to add at least $80 million. I'm just going to share a little bit of personal experience about the importance of public transit for me, I'm a district five resident I share a car with my brother who lives in Ann Arbor. And so sometimes I have it and sometimes he does, and our cars pretty good but if it if it has trouble or if it gets totaled, or if my brother and I get into a fight I'm like, I'm not sure I'll be able to say living in Detroit. It's just too hard. It's too hard to get around. I don't have the money to buy it. Get access to a new car it's super expensive. And when I when I do have the car takes me eight minutes to get to work, but when he has the car it takes me at least an hour on the bus and the high school student I often wait with when I when I take the bus is always like super dejected even though he's woken up an hour and a half before the get to school, but he knows that he's going to be late because the bus is not coming. We're not having a good time out there. But more than that I want to live in in a city where I can see and meet my neighbors on the bus. I want to live in a city where every person's livelihood isn't tied to the health of expensive machines that take a beating every time they go out on the road. And critical to that is having drivers so please fund DDOT to the full $80 million and invest in a public good that will make life less precarious for all residents in the city. Thank you.
Thank you Steve Babson, followed by Ramon Jackson.
Ah, Hi. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. I'm Steve Babson. I am a 40 year resident in District Four, and I'm here to speak on behalf of right to counsel but I also want to make it a twofer. I want to argue that right to counsel is also a way of addressing affordable housing. The most affordable housing people have is the housing there in the problem for many renters is that the affordable housing there is not livable. And that's one of the main reasons why people stop paying rent. That's my experience years of fighting unjust evictions. In addition to economic hardship it's also that the furnace doesn't work. Or when it rains there's water coming through the ceiling light fixture, a whole range of issues including standing water in the basement. Many of Detroit's landlords 85 to 90% are not in compliance. Do not have a certificate of compliance. And so they are able to actually rent a house that is not livable and when tenants stopped paying the rent, they really need a lawyer who can help them defend themselves in court and make the case for why the landlord is not actually there with clean hands. Why they should not be as protected by a court when they are disobeying the obligation to have a certificate of compliance and make that an affordable house. Let's make these slumlords pay for affordable housing. The way to do that is to help defend tenants who need the help of a lawyer in a system where they're otherwise bewildered. And at a loss to defend themselves. But I want to argue that the money spent on right to counsel is well spent and right now there is only a pittance available to fund that program. It is simply window dressing as it now stands. So it needs to be afford it needs to be made fully fundable fully operational and help people have affordable housing this livable make the slumlords pay for it. And by the way for their small fry a mom and pop landlords and they can't afford to make that that property livable. Maybe they shouldn't be in that business. These are things to consider. Thank you. Thank you.
The mountain Jackson followed by Zori Martinez.
That's it ants test only me channel to any residents within this audience. I'm talking to y'all. We can't be full the city council. And we make demands to the people that we hire, we elect we pay with our tax dollars, they turn a blind eye to us. So the question becomes, how do we hold them accountable? When they show us blatantly that they don't work? For us? It's only two ways to do that. recall them, put them back on the ballot so they can come back before the voters before the election is over. And to vote them out in the next election. We have been before you're making numerous demands to y'all as a as a council member. We have proven to y'all that our rights is being trampled upon, usurped and violated continuously your does nothing about it. Galloway pass the county passed over there in that district line is he got an army of people that can get out, put you on the ballot in two days. If he applied his power properly. He could put all y'all on the ballot over a weekend. They can hit the streets and sang Himes like signatures to put any one of y'all on the ballot. forgotten where the power lies. Wherever tricked y'all. Y'all need to get back on base are we gonna put y'all back up before the voters?
Great, thank you, Mr Oba with followed by Mike Chang.
He made a plan he told you how to choose
Mr. alpha wave if you can do me a favor and not because it broke last time so be careful with that go the microphone so we don't break it again and have any issue.
Okay. Well, I do it like this stand
ready to return my card back again cannot talk
the two minutes has started go right ahead.
disrupt it. Okay. The
time has started is over and go.
I miss being discovered calm down. He told me to choose me Shaquille you neglected. Your responsibility to the citizens here in the city of Detroit. You I never held no vote on whether contracts with authorities are to be put before the ballot or placed on a public notice in a widely circulated newspaper, less than a quarter of a page widely circulated. So you ain't done that. And all these members sent up his mind and looking at me like I got a problem. That's what the problem is. He should call me the shooter. So now I'm gonna put it out there. Y'all want to know she didn't shoot itself. And I'm told all y'all it ain't none of y'all have done nothing. So now we're going to do some different contracts with authorities in the city of Detroit is illegal. You hold him discussions about illegal activities, and as far as waste, and so builds, so stop it now. Well, I'm gonna take the next step man Sheffield, James Tate, Angela Whitfield Callaway, Scott Benson. Mary waters. Just the next and the rest of y'all. The next step is I'm gonna expose you where she wants to know you want to come into my time and say no back and forth. Be quiet. Stay in your lane and your plates. Because I'm way out of mass right now. Because y'all made me do this. Mary shampoo broke Michigan State laws violated my constitutional rights to vote and you're not action to call for vote for it. So that's illegal right there. And it's wasted. It's forbidden people to come out here and be out here are according to John maglich line in front of you, Fred Hall, right in front of my face. And y'all got my voting rights tied up in all this. Your underwear that were that you can sesame lady on me. Tell him for real. Great. Thank you.
Cindy dhara is that zuari Martinez.
Everybody, thank you for letting me speak today. I'm here to talk about the right to counsel initiative on
your microphone download a bit.
Okay. Hi, everybody. My
name is Laurie Martinez, and I'm here to speak about the right to counsel initiative. I'm on behalf of the wisdom Institute. So I've been living in a city since I was 18 years old. I came down here for school. I'm a criminal justice major. And I've had to write 10 page papers with gloves on in my living room because there was no heat and the landlord didn't care. I've had to beg somebody to come out and look at the city because every time it rained, the kitchen was just flooding. I've had my basement flooding and I'm lucky enough to have connections and assets where I don't have to do everything by myself. But I know that that's not something that everybody has access to. And I just want to say that you know 27 million in the grand scheme of this budget is really not that much. And I think that you all really should take a look at the politicians that you want it to be when you first set out in your careers you know we know that this is kind of a loophole to refuse to fund a program that would benefit working class Detroiters disproportionately single black mothers and parents. Since Mr. Duggan is such a businessman and he loves to talk about the city like a business rather than a living, breathing community, don't you think that the business would operate better if your constituents felt that their homes and families were protected by you and your constituents administration and keep in mind that this initiative was already won in court? So at this point, it's just a legal loophole to keep the poor poor and to not fund this program is to say that your business law, your business model is above the law. Thank you all for your time. Thank you.
Mike Shane followed by Cindy Dara.
Good evening City Council. I'm resit long resident life, excuse me, longtime resident of district one. I want to address a couple of issues that are very important to the children of Detroit. The first is Public Library system that we have has a potential of being one of the greatest public library systems in any city in the United States. But it can't be that way. If we continue to take 10s of millions of dollars and give it away to the rich people in the name of Dan Gilbert Ross Elitch and the likes of them. I would hope that we could restore all the money to the library so their children can go and have a place to study a place to use computers. Some of the poorest children in Detroit don't have access to these things at home. I'd also like to address the question of the right to counsel right to counsel has been passed as a law. So I don't understand why it can't be funded. We can give the Detroit Police Department what on the order of $400 million annually and why don't we take some of that money and fund right to council. It would would help the citizens of Detroit a lot more by being able to stay in a home then giving that money to the Detroit Police All right. As far as I can tell. They waste a lot of that money. I would implore the city of Detroit that look at that money look at the surplus you will you got $150 million surplus. Look at those things to fund the right to counsel. Other cities that have funded the right to counsel have actually had net savings in the costs to serve their constituency. That's money. We don't have to spend finding alternate housing for people until they can find another home to live in. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mike Shea and Sandy Dara will be our last in person.
Yeah, when I was younger, I stayed in some vacant houses or buildings. And when I need to place temporarily and tearing down our homes isn't necessarily good. If people can just keep them where they look clean and even where kids can't get in. But what I came to talk about how can we keep you held accountable. But I was talking to your legislative policy people and we have to have the budget in every year by a certain date according to the state law. So my proposal is in Brazil, and maybe Mike Shane could help us on this social forum. They had neighborhood budgeting. So we have one year we could maybe start budgeting in the neighborhoods and really get people involved. Because actually see the government is not a Jesus Christ savior. And I can't see this government working unless more people work together. And some of us volunteer I work a lot but I don't get paid for most of it. But I consider any effort you know, that's worth some. Also, the legislature. We you know, after you budget this money, you have very little power over anything except maybe the ones that you appoint, and you can control what they do or work with them. But the rest of these departments you've lost your control to really control them and you're cuz that's the executive branch that administrators that's what I was told by legislative policy. So we need to figure out how to how to redesign our badge or our government and change our charter to make it worse somehow, we're going to be successful, but this top down management is authoritarian. Even Don't you know everybody's trained just to do what their job is? and not think about the rest of the institution that won't work. We need people to network and share information and work together and we get eating clubs. That's what I thought would help in the neighborhoods.
Thank you, Miss Daraa. And just really quick for those who are here for right to counsel. We did add this topic to our executive session and plan on discussing it in more detail when we get into Executive Session. There's also going to be a ARPA amendment that is forthcoming to city council and and part of that amendment, we plan to address or at least have some discussion around what we feel is appropriate to find right to counsel so looking forward to those discussions in committee and then also with deedat we did add that as well.
Miss Shannon, can you hear me?
Yes, Castle president I can
hear you. Okay, we're ready to begin.
The first caller is William M. Davis.
Good afternoon. Can I be heard?
Sir, Yes, sir. You can be heard.
Okay. I think this budget should reflect a need to do something about the city of Detroit. Hit your nose mortality rate is jumped tremendously since this May has been office. As you many of you may know. Our cost of living was retroactively took from us back to July of 2013. Our pension was cut 4.5% for effective March of 2014. Awesome March of 2014. We have an annuity clawback of 15.5%. That affected the city workers that came on board at the Coleman Young became mayor, the ones that came on board before that didn't have to take a note of the clawback. You know so this whole bankruptcy was racist, especially because they especially when black and brown people, but I'm asking you to come up with a means to so that more city of Detroit retirees can live can live can live because our numbers are horrible. You know, more and more of us are dying, on average 20 per month. That is unacceptable. I bet if we was all white people from Europe somewhere y'all would be more concerned or at least our mayor would be more concerned. But right now more needs to be done. What needs to be you need to find more ways to help and benefit the pensioners. You know, this is horrible. You know, this mayor who is a multimillionaire from a prominent Republican rich family as the son of a Ronald Reagan appointee does not care to say the Detroit City Council should care and do something to help the pensioners now. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. Davis.
The next caller is Detroit affordable housing and homeless Task Force.
Thank you. Everyone deserves a safe and and affordable home and shelter in Detroit citizens. Every one of them. Children, families deserve a safe home and they have been looted out of their homes. They have gone through living on the edge living in a street because their homes were illegally taken and taxed. This surplus is a result of federally illegal taxation. That money should go to help these people and help our people get into a safe, affordable home. It is it is imperative that you don't cause more misery. By taking their money and putting it in sidewalks. And greenways you already got enough sidewalks in Greenway. Phil, though. Keep funding this pie in the sky dream unless you want us to erect a tent on Joe Lewis Greenway prepare families to live in I think that will be the next step because there's no homes for these people to go to and they have been illegally foreclosed and illegally overtaxed. We want the holes that need to be repaired, repaired, we want to to to audit the housing a revitalization department find out who's getting the repairs and if they're not getting them make sure they get the repairs. We are imploring you to not to ignore our citizens any longer. They deserve a place to live they deserve justice because they were illegally they were done wrong. We're gonna have the Coalition for Property Tax Justice is gonna have a press conference. It's coming up very soon. So go on Facebook, Coalition for property, tax and justice. We will have a press conference concerning these issues. Thank you have a blessed day.
Thank you.
The next caller is Christine suave.
Good evening, city council. My name is Christine Solvay. I'm a district five resident and I serve as one of the co chairs for the Detroit immigration Task Force. On behalf of our 30 taskforce members and all of the immigrant communities that we serve. We request that this honorable body ensure the health department has sufficient resources in its budget to relaunch and maintain the Detroit ID program. Last Friday we heard director fair razo, say that they are quote examining to see if we should continue the program. For Detroit's immigrant community. This was surprising and alarming. Let me be clear, this program is still very much needed and wanted by our community members. We recently pulled ITF members and restoring a safe and trusted Detroit ID program was the number one goal for our communities this year. The program has been on hold for more than three years now and Detroit errs are still waiting to renew their IDs. Every day the city is welcoming more asylum seekers and humanitarian parolees in need of this program. And Detroit at work continues to recommend Detroit ID for job seekers, even though the program is dormant. Residents of all backgrounds want the city to reestablish a safe and trusted Detroit ID program as soon as possible. And we want this program to protect residents data by adhering to the original design of the program. The point system used to verify identity and residency rather than using an outside vendor that may share applicant data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. We urge the health department to purchase equipment to print the cards in house just as they do in Washington on Kalamazoo counties and across the country, and at a fraction of the cost of Detroit's last contract. This is the safest and most cost effective way to restore Community Trust. Please ensure there are sufficient resources in the budget for staffing purchase of equipment and materials. Thank you
Thank you.
The next caller is Nancy Brangham.
Good afternoon. I live in I've been living in Detroit for 40 years and I was really grateful and delighted when the city council passed the right to counsel because I have seen how intimidated and distressed tenants are when they face the legalese language and the laws that they don't fully understand and how landlords who know the judges and have lawyers almost always get their way. And so I watched the mayor's budget presentation and I was shocked that he didn't even mention right to council, and I really thank Councilwoman Sheffield for raising it. But I could hardly believe in my ears when he said he wasn't going to fully fund it. Because he i He claimed that there was a state provision that prevents the city from funding benefits for individuals. Well, I'm glad my city does help individual citizens and I don't know what else the city would be for if it didn't help residents. I know when I made home improvements I was very grateful the city did inspections people are getting home repair have helped there's housing programs. There's help for people with disabilities, low income people, jobs programs, the city response to 911 calls. So you, the council, listen to residents and pass right to counsel and did the right thing. And I urge you to insist that that Mayor respect your wishes and do the right thing. Thank you.
All right, thank you.
The next caller is Yvonne Jones.
We should now be spending 28% of our general funds on policing. Plus an additional 80 million on other funds is too much the cure for violence is to stop the spread of violence communities by using the methods and strategies associated with public health and disease control. Detecting and interrupting conflicts identify and treating the highest risk individuals and changing social norms. Police departments are not designed to do this. Every year our local officials pledge to reduce violence and crimes by increasing the police budget. police do not prevent crimes. This is one of the best kept secrets of modern times. experts know the police know it but the public don't. Yet the police pretend that they are society's best defense against crime and continuously argue that if they are given more resources especially personnel that will be able to protect the community against crime. This is a myth. If we want to interrupt violence, we must invest in the people of Detroit. Detroit has a 37% Almost 38% poverty rate. research show that direct relationship to crime reduction when people's needs are met. We need to invest in the needs of the people of Detroit mental health care, substance abuse treatment, low income housing right to counsel, accessible transportation, library services, the more services for returning citizens. We need to remove barriers to employment. We need to reduce the police budget and increase the budget that will help the people Detroit
Thank you.
The next caller is Karen Winston. Good evening Hello
Can you hear me yes, we can hear you. Yeah.
Good afternoon. Um, first off, I'd like to speak on. We need to pay careful attention to what people are saying when they're saying it to us. Administration has a knack for having people that tend to Bumble and stumble over their words and so you're not really sure what they say, you know, so you don't really know what they mean. So you have to look it up. Alright, the library funding. First off, it comes from the penal fines, which means it comes from traffic tickets, things like that. That is Michigan law. Additionally we additionally we should not we have to look up everything you know, we it doesn't say we find the library it says the Library Commission that means we just you know send enough money for their put the commissioners that's a whole different thing. So no we can't take over the library. The Commission and the penal code are what sustains the libraries and then act 173 or 2017. There was even an interstate library compact when all the counties decided they would fund it so I'm tired of the administration constantly throwing all of the responsibility financial responsibility on the Detroit residents. Additionally, we the city does not fund clean and freeways get yourself your work your work crews out there don't put them in jail let them clean the freeways like they used to quit the remanent jail and stop the you know the pocket from the prison deal. We need to do that. Another thing is this zero waste way behind way behind schedule. We need more containers so we can recycle double stream not single stream that's all we're doing now. You got you got paper and everything else. No we still have glass you got to separate the CANS when the paper from the garbage. You recycled. The garbage. You know those are things that are recyclable. We're supposed to be composted. We're not supposed to be thrown, you know, putting everything in the dump creating more methane gas Thank you. Good evening.
The next caller is will show us Stuart
Good evening, President Sheffield and rest of the council when I was Rochelle Stewart and we'd be checking people's platform transit justice team. I'm calling for an increase in DDOT operational budget by increasing wages and benefits for DDOT employees. You know, they're at a place where $15 an hour is not enough for a single person, let alone to support a family. If we can get the drivers we can depend on more on time. bus service that is reliable on schedule expenses service on weeknights, and weekends, increase fish efficiency, and neighborhood route and most importantly, longer wait times for folks to get where they need to be on time. That is work doctor's appointments, appointment social service access to community service resources, grocery stores and giving back and forth to school all day. We are in bad need of a low income fair for homeless individual. paratransit riders families with low to no income returning citizens and veterans. We have to look at this everybody is in a time of need. But D that is really in a time of need to get back to a efficiency service. We put America in the world on wheels. We should be the city that everybody is looking up to to duplicate and public transit are no no please cancel, initiate and give DDOT at least a starting more of 18 more million dollars, if not more. We need to be a supreme transit system for our residents of the city of Detroit is no need that we one of the biggest cities don't have reliable transportation. I just asked you again. Please consider d died in this budget. We give police everything else more money, but it is badly needed by transportation transportation system here in the city of Detroit.
Thank you.
The next caller is Tanya Meyer Phil tire. Tanya Meyers Phillips
All right. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.
Good Evening President Sheffield and honorable city councilmembers. I'm calling on behalf of the Detroit right to counsel coalition to ask you to fully fund the Detroit Rights Council ordinance this year. It's a shame that we are coming up on the one year anniversary of the ordinance passing and Mayor Duggan and his administration are still dragging their feet. We have already done studies in Detroit to show that right so Council works. We already know there is a three to one return on investment when you put money into REITs a council or looking at it another way the city's cost for not doing anything and maintaining the awful status quo is that up to 10% of our population will face eviction this year. 25% of our renter population will face eviction this year. Our city keeps shrinking and long term Detroiters are being displaced. We will lose nearly $3,800 per year per resident for every Detroiter that's pushed out of the city because of the eviction. There's no excuse for not funding this ordinance when we're discussing a $2.6 billion budget this year when there's $156 million budget surplus when there's 800 Over $826 million in federal ARPA funds available for this very purpose. We need $27 million next year. We are calling on Mayor Duggan to stop ignoring this eviction crisis and fully fund the Detroit right to counsel ordinance. Again, I want to thank President Sheffield and all of our city council members for putting this on the executive session and for all you do and we need you to fight for us and do everything in your power in the next 10 days to get this done because Detroiters cannot afford to wait any longer. Thank you.
Thank you.
The next caller is Eric welsby.
Thank you Madam Chair, council members. Good evening. My name is Eric walls B and I'm the advocacy director for Detroit disability power. I'm here today to reiterate our call to increase the budget for the Office of Disability affairs to $1.4 million. The mayor's proposed increased funding level does not provide adequate funding for the office to achieve the goals established in their strategic plan. These funds could allow could could allow Oda to significantly improve the inclusive inclusiveness of city operations and departments through the hiring of an ASL interpreter and specialized department liaisons to assist in making all public facing programs, events and medians more accessible funding of $1.4 million would allow Oda to hire the staff necessary to provide the services and support Detroiters with disability deserve. This could include staff capable of supporting residency departments and other organizations across Detroit. We believe this city is capable of becoming a leader in accessibility and inclusion. But we need to make the investment today to reach that potential. We also want to stand with and support calls to increase investments in DDOT to $80 million and $30 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The services provided by these programs are essential for Detroiters with disabilities. In Detroit disability powers hope that the important work that of the Office of Disability affairs DDOT and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund can be funded at levels allowing them to meet the needs of residents and move the city towards being more inclusive and accessible to all. Thank you for this time. I appreciate it. Thank you.
The next caller is Casey N.
May I be heard?
Yes, you can.
Thank you. This is Casey masseter. I'm a resident of district four and a Policy Analyst with Detroit disability power. First I'd like to thank you for moving the Office of Disability affairs to Executive Session for further discussion. I'm here today to urge you to increase the annual budget of the Office of Disability affairs from last year's just under 600,000 to a much more effective budget of $1.4 million a year. The understaffing and under resourcing of the Oda has not gone without consequence. The past year has proven that the city is not well equipped in handling disability related issues. Our community members are moving out of the city in search of accessible housing and infrastructure. And we've experienced undue stress during the recent paratransit contracting process as to choose between awful services, or no services at all because we weren't considered or consulted at the outset. The Oda when properly funded and staffed could fulfill its plan to support city departments in reshaping city infrastructure. And services to prioritize the disability communities needs continued investment and growth into the office of disability affairs as an investment and structural change to help Detroit and our disability communities over the long term. Because Oda can ensure the city's programs and services work for the 20% or more of residents with disabilities in the city. Again, I would urge you to increase the Office of Disability Affairs Budget to $1.4 million a year. In addition, I'd like to cast my support for others who are present as well for the Department of Transportation to increase to a budget of $80 million per year to fund driver pay increases and paying Detroiters with disabilities to train paratransit drivers. Again, thank you for your time. All right, thank you.
The next caller is Jun Walker.
Jun Walker would like to unmute.
Sorry about that. Good afternoon. I'm calling because I was a client of United Community Housing Coalition as recently as last year and had I not had the services available to me for an attorney to represent me in court. I don't know what would have happened. Okay. And I beseech you guys to seriously consider the pros and cons of not fully funding the right to counsel you must fully fund it. For it to work and work effectively. If I've run into so many people and that have been in front of the 36, District Court landlord tenant, and they lost, but the housing that they live in, you wouldn't put a dog in it. Okay. It's not fair. It's not justice. And we're trying to portray Detroit as a comeback city or everybody should come here for what? Why? You can't treat your residents any better than this. Some of us have lived and worked through this city all of our lives. And this is what it has become. So I implore you to fully fund the right to counsel because it's badly needed. You can't push everybody out of the city by evicting them, okay? Or stealing their homes by illegal taxation. Okay. Just fully fund the right to counsel program and you will see a difference in the city. Okay, thank you.
Thank you.
Madam President, the next caller is Renard Munchen. Ski.
Greetings, the madam president. Can I be heard?
Yes, you can.
Thank you. Good evening, Madam President and members of council. I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Fernando Shecky. organizer with the Detroit people's platform transit justice team and District Six president and longtime resident of Detroit and bus rider. I just want to say that an increase in Detroit operational budget will have many positive effects. By raising a wage and benefits of drivers. We can have more on time bus service that is reliably on schedule, extend service on weeknights, and weekends, increased frequency and neighborhood routes and most importantly, lower wait times for folks to get to where they need to one time and beyond work. It's also the doctor's office appointments with social and community services and resources, grocery stores, and most importantly for youth getting to school on time avoiding truancy. It is time we support DDOT as a primary department and agency that is responsible for the livelihood of the city. Increased funding means reliable service for paratransit riders, and also an opportunity for homeless individuals, families with low to no income returning citizens and veterans to access reduced fares. This is so necessary for our city and we cannot have DDOT be funded as a lower tier or minute or last resort sort of travel department. We need the that funding to be primarily focused and to be prioritized as a main department of the city that is responsible for getting people around the city and is also by funding DDOT you're also funding the public health response to COVID and us getting over COVID as well to this is about recovery of our city from this pandemic and getting people to where they need to go in a timely manner. It is an injustice in the city, that it is take up to an hour two hours or three hours for a resident to travel with in the city of Detroit. Fix that. Thank you
Thank you.
The next caller is Carol Hughes.
Good afternoon or good evening, honorable body. My name is Carolyn Hughes. I'm my life long resident of the city of Detroit. May I speak, ma'am. Thank you to the council president and honorable body. You've heard a lot of good. A lot of good
a lot of good people from the city of Detroit speaking about their conditions and the conditions of the city. I was quite alarmed that you signed on to a document where the mayor has withheld CDBG dollars and they ask you some of them are expiring seven years and we have the conditions that we have in the city and you're holding government funding and for for people like Sheila cockerel. I also asked for assets of the city and that was last year. And then I found out that the queue line no longer belong to the city and now I'm finding out maybe not people mover. I don't know why we're subsidizing these departments when we don't have anything that we're getting out of it. You Tgb all bonds were sold for the MMR M M M one rail and 2003 and revenue bonds in 2011. I don't know how we don't have ownership of it and I think an investigation should be held. You fold it for you TT o bonds for use of replacement of EMS equipment. If you would just the house and the eviction certification of compliance, instruct the court that if they don't have a certificate of compliance from BC it that they should not follow through with the evictions and that would cut down on like 80% of the evictions and not the land bank. The land bank doesn't have any right to give any certificate. We use the another department for that. And the city clerk should be using a different form to fully inform the people of bond. The legal news is not widely supported in our neighborhoods. Thank you. Thank you.
The next caller is nonjury.
Good evening. My name is Marjorie Nixon, and I am the Community Organizer at Detroit disability power. Today I urge you to increase the Office of Disability affairs annual budget to 1.4 million in order for the office to serve the community effectively. There has to be adequate funding. Currently about 20% of the city's residents have a disability. And I'm sorry the ODA currently has a very small staff three and was working with only two up until recently. We can't expect the office to have a truly significant impact without better staffing. So the office can really develop into the one stop shop the disabled community needs in the city. Investing in the Office of Disability affairs will provide much needed resources and support to the 123,000 plus citizens navigating life with the disability. The Oda when properly funded and staffed with affiliates plans to support city departments and reshaping city infrastructure and services. It's time to show that the needs of the disabled community are a priority. The past year has shown that the city is not well equipped in handling disability related issues. And this is why the ODA is so important and requires adequate funding. Without true accessibility you will have more and more disabled people leaving the city Please increase the annual budget of the Office of Disability affairs to 1.4 million I'd also like to ask for the full funding of 80 million to be that the public transit system needs a lot of work and the drivers need a pay increase and better training. Lastly, please allocate 30 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to increase affordable accessible housing in the city. Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
The next caller is Vina Holland Robinson.
Good evening, thank you for taking this allowing me to speak to the council I'm calling is a recipient of the fair housing a legal counsel. I myself have benefited from this program. If it wasn't, I came here to Michigan, trying to become a homeowner and make a difference in the community and was faced with COVID and then sexual abuse by an administrator and almost lost my mind. And my housing was at risk and with the help of the fair legal housing community. They were able to work out a plan for me to stay in the house which has allowed me to now become a full fledged teacher and provide additional resources and services to the children of Detroit. We never know what's going on in our communities what is going on. That will keep somebody from having that fare. Represented represented and station in the courtroom in keeping them to be a calm, stable, productive members of our society. I urge you guys to continue to provide funding for this very important resource. Our children are being uprooted when these things happen in their family and we are being left on the street. We do not need homeless we need to be able to provide a resource and a source for our people to become productive and better members of society. Thank you for this allowing me this time.
All right, thank you.
Next caller is Betty a Varner.
Good evening to all. First I want to say kudos to Councilmember waters for working with my council member Joe Hall in regards to the challenges that seniors and people with disabilities are having in regards to making their homes handicap accessible. Other people have spoken in regards to what they're advocating for and they're throwing out numbers. I don't have a number. So I'm relying on the council members to have a positive conversation discussion regarding the singers and people with disabilities and come up with a realistic number that can help us be able to stay in our homes and be in the neighborhoods that we have invested so much time in and some of us are still investing in our community, working with the city working with I work with my councilmember and his staff to improve and beautify our neighborhoods. So I thank you all for the time that I have received to be able to speak in regards to this issue. And I pray that there will be a positive result out of the executive sessions I thank you for adding this particular issue to that executive session. And I'm just going to be positive what you put out in the universe come back to you and I know it's just going to be all right. Y'all be blessed. Thank you for this time.
Thank you you as well miss Varner.
The next caller is Alyssa Marie Bose.
Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Hello, good evening Council. My name is Alyssa booths and I'm a policy intern with Detroit disability power. Today I'm asking that you increase the Office of Disabilities affair budget to 1.4 million. This year. The Oda strategic plan includes improving sidewalk conditions, public transportation, improved access to health care, increasing accessible housing and increasing employment opportunities for disabled Detroiters. In order to achieve these goals and make Detroit a more welcoming, inclusive and universally acceptable city. The budget must be increased, increasing the budget to at least 1.4 million would allow the ODA to hire the staff necessary to allow the office to become a permanent fixture in the city of Detroit so that the ODA can be a true one stop shop for disabled Detroiters to get the needs of their community met. This increase includes funds for staff salaries and benefits, supplies, operating services and accessing accommodations. This funding increase would allow the ODA to take a comprehensive approach and addressing the needs and concerns of disabled Detroiters. Additionally, Detroit must increase DDOT funding to at a minimum of $80 million dollars from the city's general fund. This increase is critical to addressing the shortage of bus drivers who must be paid a living wage and will increase the city's ability to service more bus routes we are requesting Additionally, a study of in house paratransit that must result in transparency and transparency. As to what a realistic timeline budget impossible processes for transitioning all paratransit operations to the city would look like. disabled residents should also be paid to train operators on how to best serve disabled Detroiters. Finally, I urge you to allocate 30 million to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to increase affordable accessible housing in the city. Thank you for listening and your consideration.
The next caller is Samar. Ah
Good evening. May I be her?
Yes, you can.
Good evening. My name is Maura Hill and I'm an organizer with the Detroit people's platform. Every thriving city in America has one thing in common that is reliable and accessible public transportation. I believe that an increase in DDOT operational budget will allow for more on time and reliable bus service, extend service on weeknights and weekends increased frequently see in our neighborhood routes, and most importantly, lower wait times for folks to get to where they need to on time. A well funded public transit system is a necessity and an afterthought and should be treated as such. You can't have a world class city without world class public transit. Thank you.
All right. Thank you
Madam President. The next caller ends in 124.
May I be heard
Yes, ma'am.
Okay. First of all, I echo those sentiments. We cannot have a world class city without a world class transportation system. Regarding the right to counsel. We are funding private services in the clean slate program which I do support. Also, my understanding was that Mike Duggan got the defense of a fancy law firm Wilmer Hale from DC at the discounted rate of $700 an hour. I'm not sure who paid for that. But I know that's not what we're paying the right to counsel people. I mean, it's not really a full right to counsel if they barely have a chance to look at the case. Third, I'd like to remind you all your co equal branch of government, the city council is you all took an oath of office to support the United States and the Michigan Constitution, which both call for equal protection under the law, but I don't see that happening when they're secretly made plans in neighborhoods excluding people when it appears these planning studies are being done with this selected unelected group of people called the neighborhood Advisory Committee. And I try and get a clear answer out of the planner in charge of the planning that in my neighborhood that I've been waiting for since 2015, and I can't get a clear answer. So and how we treat uh, you know, our least fortunate citizen says who we are. I met a gentleman on the q line the other day he had his bag was breaking he was missing his fingers and his toes because he was out in the cold for too long after somebody tried to rob them at gunpoint, and now he lost them to frostbite. That's who Detroit is. That's who we are right now. So no one in the mayor's office should get a single dime of a race. Until the bus driver pay is raised. Or isn't that serious about having a world class city maybe for the developers coming in so they can build their fancy, imported market rate stuff, but a bunch of people got pushed out in Lordstown in downtown including me.
All right, thank you.
The next caller is Michael Cunningham, Jr.
Good evening, Mr. Cunningham.
1344491143149434449114 and on Facebook for subservience training. I would like to talk about tomorrow transit Tuesday talk. I am not a member of transit riders. Neither people's platform or none of those but I am friendly with all of them. Been doing this activism for a long time. It is Tuesday, March 28 at 6pm The address is 4401 counter Street, Detroit, Michigan. There's a virtual option. You can watch the meeting and join the meeting virtually WWW dot Detroit transit.org. Again, the address is 4401 kind of street Detroit. Tomorrow at six p Il. And I just think, you know folks are smiling faces and you don't really know what's going on behind the scenes but this is gentrification on steroids. Bad schools, bad transportation, bad libraries, high light bills, and just all the problems. Black folks wearing enduring people we endure. Some of you read my story. We're enduring people. But it's I think it's all plan for gentrification on steroids. When people start banding the city, the property is cheap to be bought up. Gentrification on steroids. It is a doggone shame that each one of you councilmembers don't want to give $80 million to DDOT. It can be cut from other areas. The buses suck up to 6pm on a daily basis and on the weekend. They're horrible. I'm a taxi driver. I make money off the damn bed. I want it to be good. A great city. Great transportation
All right. Thank you.
Madam President. The last caller there raise their hand before you cut off public comment is Stephen Boyle.
Hello, this is Taylor. Yes. Good evening. Good evening. I'm very supportive of a lot of the issues that have been raised by the public here including transportation disability rights, the right to counsel so many things need to be addressed. And I don't mean to short anything that I didn't mention there. One thing I want to say is 30% of the city relies on this bus system. I really mean relies on in the sense that they don't. They don't have a life without it. And it's so important for it to be fully funded. The one thing I'm very concerned about as revenues, budget revenues, and that being in the form of taxes that are placed on property, be it commercial property or residential property. I'm looking at what's going on with the district. I'm real concerned about the tax and sound financing and the fact that they can capture property taxes, state, county and local taxes for the development project. We're talking 6000 jobs and all of the income from 6000 jobs just going to be captured by the development project. As much as people want to say that we're transforming revenue from parking lots to income, you know, that is revenue coming into our budget. We're going to now lose the property income through the TIF. The TIF is going to absorb that. So I really, I really want to have you look fully at the budget. We need income and we also need to put the money into the places where the people have real needs on a day to day basis. Thank you. All right. Great.
Thank you. And that was our last public comment for this evening. There anything additional from my colleagues all right, hearing nothing additional that will conclude our public comment and we will start our executive session discussions tomorrow at 2pm. Everyone Have a blessed evening and if there's nothing else to come before this committee or this body, this meeting will now stand adjourned.