all right. All right. Good morning, everyone. We will now call to order our session for Tuesday, October the first and Madam Clerk, good morning. Please call the roll. Good morning. Council
member Scott Vincent, tonight,
customer Fred do hard. Member Letitia Johnson, present.
Council member Gabrielle Santiago Romero, Council Member Mary Walters, present. Council member Angie Whitfield Callaway
council member Coleman Young, the second here.
Council President Pro Tim James Tate and Council President Mary Sheffield, present. You have a corn President, Madam President, alright.
There being a quorum present. We are now in session. And want to start off by, of course, saying this is the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and want to thank Council Member waters for her her leadership around us all coming today, and different shades of pink. So as you will see, all of the council members will be in different shades of pink, as well as staff around the auditorium. So thank you, member waters. I don't think anything.
I'm thrilled that not only council members and staff somewhere, and I noticed that there were city employees throughout the building, and then I had some people who didn't even work for the city dressed in their pink today, and texted to me. So that was just absolutely fantastic. It is such a serious, serious illness. I'm a survivor myself. I am very passionate about it, and so once I was diagnosed, member Benson, I didn't just feel sorry for myself. I decided to join an organization called Sisters network to help other women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, and sometimes when young women in particular, diagnosed with it scares them to men, they are simply really, really afraid. And black women die nearly 40% more often than than white women from breast cancer, and so it is very serious matter. We don't receive the diagnosis in a timely manner. Sometimes it's access to care. There are a lot of reasons why, and it's diet, too, the type of foods we eat. There are so many things. I'm not an expert on it, but I continue to learn more and more, Madam President, so that I can help others. And I want to thank you so much. Thank you. Thank
you, Council Member waters, and we appreciate your your story, your journey, and just continue to push awareness around breast cancer. I always honor both of my aunts on both sides of my family, my dad's sister and my mom's sister are both survivors of breast cancer, and so I understand the journey. I was there with both of them throughout the entire time, and so early detection is key, because a lot of it can be prevented with early detection. So we thank you and we honor all those survivors and those who are still in a fight. You have a community here to support you. All right. Thank you so much. All alright. So we will start off with our prayer for this morning, our invocation. We have pastor Jamil Barksdale, who has joined us. Good morning.
Good morning, Madam President,
uh, we cannot hear you.
Audio on,
can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? I have my audio. Okay,
looks like he is unmuted, but we're unable to hear Hold on one second, Pastor, we're going to work on our audio in the auditorium. Do
All right. Can you try again? Pastor,
yes. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Awesome. Good morning. Madam President,
good morning.
Thank you again for this opportunity and the city council. But let's go to let's go in prayer, God, we thank you for another day to serve you and the city of Detroit, your word instructs us in First Timothy two, verses one to two, I exhort thee, therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and our godliness and honesty, we are praying for the City Council on today. We pray for our city council president and her staff. We pray for every city council member and their staff. God, we pray that You would give them wisdom and discernment in making critical decisions that impact the citizens of the city of Detroit, may they seek your guidance in every decision that they make, rather big or small. We're also praying that they may uphold the high standards of integrity and honesty in their roles. Lord, let their actions reflect their commitment to truth and righteousness for the city of Detroit, we're praying for their protection over the city council keep them safe from all hurt, harm and danger, both physical, emotional and spiritual, as they carry out their duties as city council. And in closing, God, we thank You again for a successful session on this day, and we ask all these blessings in your Son, Jesus, name amen, amen.
Alright, thank you so much. Pastor Barksdale for the invocation. Feel free to hang on virtually, if you would like. If not, we do understand, God bless you. And thank you so much. Bless you. God bless you. Alright, the Journal of the session of Tuesday, September the 10th, will be approved and there being no reconsiderations or unfinished unfinished business, we will proceed to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the budget Finance and Audit. Standing Committee two
reports from the Office of contracting and procurement.
The two reports will be referred to the budget, Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations. Standing Committee,
four reports from various city departments.
The four reports will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee, this reports from various city departments. The six reports will be referred to the Neighborhood and Community Services standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development, standing committee,
a report from office of contracting and procurement.
The one report will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety. Standing Committee, eight
reports from various state departments.
The eight reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee, we will now move to the voting action matters under other matters,
there are no items Madam President,
under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies.
No, I was going to President.
All right, we will now move to our general public comment, and everyone will have a minute and a half for public comment this morning. We will start with those who have joined us virtually, okay? And we're going to also cut off our public comment. Mr. Cunningham, you will be first, followed by Kimberly Gillespie, followed by Betty Lyons, followed by Henny Cooper. You
Good morning. Mr.
Cunningham, good morning, council persons and good morning everyone in the sound of my voice, 31344491143134449114,
and on Facebook, expensive vehicle repairs. Again on Facebook, expensive vehicle repairs. I think those that have donated to repair the outreach vehicle, and those that donate to and get bus tickets and pass out, that's how I met the young lady that's about to speak next. I was out giving out bus tickets, asking about the bus services, and I said, don't, don't talk to me. Talk to the powers that be. And so she's here, and she's going to say a few words. What's your name again? Missus. Kimberly, yeah. So, and there's a lot more people. A lot of folks are shy, um, this scripture popped out, First John chapter 313, that's first John chapter three, verse 13, Marvel, not my brethren, If the world hates you, you know you just gotta keep it moving. And the word Marvel, wonder, wonder not why the world hates you. Keep it moving. That's what I can always say. Just keep it moving. They going to hate you no matter what. You can't please everybody. And if you are concerned about your your your fellow citizen and where your tax dollars are going, please ride the busses, DDOT busses after 6pm on the weekdays and on the weekends. Don't be seddie or uppity. Go ahead and talk to the people. They will give you the 411, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I know it's uncomfortable, but take the bus at least once or twice. It's been a long time since you've been on the bus. So thank you so much. 313-444-9114, if anyone has any donations, and I want to thank Council President Mary shovels office again for giving me some more bus tickets. Thank you. Thank
you. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham, we appreciate you, sir. And if
the clerk will know, we've been joined by Member Santiago Ramiro,
so no right ahead. Miss Kimberly,
Hi, I'm Kimberly Gillespie, um, I've only been here a couple months. I spoke before. Talk a
little bit over your microphone so we can hear you. Yeah, I
did. Oh, you can hear me. Okay. Um, so I did meet mister Cunningham. He was at around Jefferson. He gave me a couple bus passes to ride. The bus pass, they really help us out out there, like, it's kind of hard, um, but what I want to mention today is about how they're locking these bathrooms. Like I had to help the handicap lady the other day get into a regular stall, and you got a handicap bus, like a handicap um, stall right there, and they're not letting the citizens utilize, you know, the what, what y'all got there. And it was like it was really disturbing to me to have to see this handicapped person try to get into this small bathroom when there's one that's locked right there. And that's really all I wanted to say to you guys today, because I feel I know where I come from. If the busses are running, bathrooms are available. When you get off the bus, you gotta go to the bathroom to get back on the bus, you know, right? And that's all I wanted to say today. Okay, thank
you so much, Kimberly for being here. And we'll submit a memo to the department to get the status on the handicap bathrooms over at the transit center, they
really open when they want to. They open when they want, when they want to. Sundays, you might go all day with like, I might go somewhere and come back in the bathroom. Still close, okay. And I feel like, if the busses are running, those doors should be open for sure, you should be able to especially with the handicap, okay, like, that's how it wasn't fair
at all. Okay, no, we appreciate you for notifying us one second. Miss. Kimberly member water, Yes,
Madam President, we did submit one yesterday about this. Yes. Okay, yes, we did. So hopefully we'll know something real soon, and what's needed, we'll make sure it gets fixed. Thanks. Thank
you. We'll reach out to the director, just via email and follow up. Thank you so much for coming down. Miss Kimberly, all right, thank you. All right. Miss Betty Lyons,
over $600 million stolen from the Detroit residents and overpaid property taxes the satanic Dugan and Dana Nessel keeping the money for themselves, attorney with Whitaker, Where is the evidence of black and white notification of signatures, showing the signing away of our moneys show me the law is supposed to be a staple of justice. Where is it? What about the rights of the unborn child? Women talking about is their body, nor is not your body, though your body belongs to Father, God. What about the rights of that child? If you don't want that responsibility, then hand it over to the Father and you pay child support and let him take care of the the children. The men are just as important, and especially with sons, we need our men also women, black women, be vigilant, boosting our people, our black women, that's fine, but don't forget our black man. Don't forget the veteran that came here whose home was stolen, or his it was taken back. Did he get any help? Stop being divided. We've got to stop that as a black race.
Thank you. Miss Lyons. Any Cooper?
Good morning. I go by Henny Cooper. I'm a volunteer escort at a Detroit clinic that sits right on a public sidewalk. I'd like to share an incident from this past Saturday, but it's not an uncommon one. I'll set the scene. A patient is dropped off before the clinic opens. She waits by the door. A protester aggressively approaches her within one to two feet of her and batters her with don't murder your baby. Don't kill your baby. The patient pleads, stop talking to me. Get away from me. You don't know anything about me or my situation. He continues his attack. Don't kill your baby. God hates the hands that shed innocent blood. Get away from me. I don't want to talk to you. Get away. He ignores her, leans closer and continues his barrage. There is no space between them for me or security to place ourselves between them, to shield her, and my safety training tells me to avoid that. I tell him he's escalating the situation. Too bad. He says. She continues crying, yelling at him, becoming more distraught. He continues to pound her with his religious diatribe, ignoring commands to stop this nightmare only ends when the clinic opens and she finds refuge inside, in safety, relief and respect which should be afforded her outside as well.
All right. Thank you so much, and if we can know President Pro Tem Tate has joined us. Morning, it was so no good morning.
I want to thank Council Member Santiago Romero for clarifying the intent of her proposed buffer zone ordinance yesterday by sharing her experience visiting an abortion clinic. What dangerous activity from pro life sidewalk counselors? Did miss Romero encounter that she hopes to ban through this ordinance. Did she allege harassment, threats or physical violence? No in her telling a counselor merely spoke to her, encouraging her not to kill her little child if she were pregnant. In other words, as a government official, Ms Romero is seeking to restrict speech that she finds in her words inappropriate, ladies and gentlemen, the First Amendment does not exist to protect speech that people like. It exists to protect speech that government, government officials don't like. So I'm glad ms Romero clarified that for the courts. Ms Romero also provided a helpful reminder of what constitutes true harassment and intimidate intimidation. Yesterday, referring to sidewalk counselors, she held up a binder and said, quote, I have here a binder full of people full of license plates. This kind of activity is meant to intimidate ordinary citizens and is likely illegal. The Detroit City Council should not entangle itself in the legal difficulty ms Romero has acquired for herself by passing this ordinance. Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much. Miss Elizabeth van Reena, good
morning. I'm also here to speak about the buffer zone ordinance that's under consideration. And I would actually also like to thank Miss Santiago Romero for her honesty yesterday when she described sidewalk counseling outside abortion clinics as, quote, saving lives. Let's be clear, the abortion industry is profiting from the deaths of voiceless infants, and we are costing them money when we save lives. You're hearing conflicting testimonies today, but keep in mind that we are nothing by sacrificing our free time and reputations. Well, they have everything to lose. Here are a couple of practical reasons not to vote for this ordinance. One, it's unenforceable. There will be constant, unsolvable disputes involving the police over exactly how far apart people are. And two, the city of Detroit will certainly be involved in a lengthy and expensive legal battle, which they will likely lose. In 2022 the Supreme Court referred to buffer zones as distorting First Amendment doctrines. In 2011 they called communicating with others on public sidewalks, the essence of free speech and deserving of special protection. This exact issue is currently before the Supreme Court, and it is not unlikely that hill versus Colorado will be overturned next year. Passing this ordinance would be a costly and premature action, and the city of Detroit would be responsible for paying the extensive legal fees for whoever challenges this ordinance, the ordinance would also force protesters and sidewalk counselors to stand in front of other uninvolved businesses. Please keep these things in mind as you make your decisions.
All right. Thank you so much. John Van Reenen, morning,
council members, I do want to speak against the buffering ordinance in Detroit. I did speak to some of you yesterday about your duty to honor God as those given authority by him. And I want to reiterate that God has given you this authority for Romans 13, to be rewarder of good and a terror to evil. Again, I exhort you to turn to Christ in faith and honor His law and your spheres of authority. I want to also state, as has been stated, that we have established laws already to protect against harassment and assault, and those cases should, should be handled with due process. These cases do not, however, have bearing on our bearing on our right to free speech. It was mentioned that this buffer zone does not infringe upon first amendment rights. But this is disingenuous to suggest such a thing as clearly, the First Amendment does not restrict our speech in any way to certain zones and distances in the public square. This is simply an attempt to stifle the speech of Christians and others with whom this council disagrees as they seek to engage with people on public property. The church will not remain silent against such evils such as abortion being protected and perpetuated through the actions taken by this body. Thank you.
Alright. Thank you. Hi. Good
morning, good morning. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Andrew, and I'm a Christian. Follow Christ in His teachings. Proverbs 31 verses eight and nine, says, Open your mouth for the speechless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth judge righteously and plead the cause poor and needy. Each one of us in this auditorium concern ourselves with the lives of other human beings in our nation, a people group that is overlooked by the vast majority of American citizens, of the unborn babies, and we have concerned ourselves with their lives and this bubble zone. Will it help the lives of citizens that are currently living in our state, or will it hinder the lives of other citizens that are currently living in this state, each one of us will stand before God and give an account of our lives. The Bible makes it clear that we shall not murder and so what are we going to play in the lives of unborn babies? Will we help or will we hinder? So this while we do protest peacefully and do not believe in yelling at women. Passing this ordinance would make us think that you might actually want women to be yelled at if you are trying to protect free speech and prevent yelling, why would the answer be to move sidewalk counselors further away in this situation, if we wanted to speak meaningfully, we would actually have to raise our voices. The only reasonable conclusion you pass this ordinance is a, you want to silence our speech, or B, you want to incite yelling at women.
Thank you so much. Chris Coney,
Yes, that's me. Hi. Good morning. I was glad to speak yesterday for a minute. I've never been to a city council meeting before, but this issue of most importance to me, I appreciated the opening prayer this morning, which recognized that Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we need his guidance to govern our lives properly, not just individually, but corporately as a nation. I was an atheist before I became a Christian, and my views on several issues have changed because of my faith. I used to be ambivalent about the issue of abortion, thinking that unborn children were not truly human beings. My views have changed because I now recognize that human beings are made in God's image, and they have a God given right to life. For that reason, the fact that God himself became an unborn children, a child in Mary's womb, means that unborn children are also made in His image. They're just as precious and valuable, but God was anyone else, and that we in fact, are committing a grave sin, the crime of murder whenever we kill an unborn child. I know a lot of people disagree with that. I have talked to people said abortion cannot be murdered because it's legal, but there have been many examples throughout history where different groups of human beings were not recognized as human beings did not have legal rights. For instance, slavery in our country, slaves were not recognized as humans. And Nazi Germany, Jewish people and unborn children have the same right to life, whether we recognize that legal. Thank
you. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
All right, Sean, and if we can know member duha has joined us as well.
So no good morning.
Morning. I'm Sean SOTY. I thank you council for this opportunity to comment on this ordinance being passed. I have a few questions that I hope that you can answer after my time today. Those questions being, what liberties exactly will remain protected under this ordinance? Namely, if I'm within 15 feet of one of these facilities, will I still be able to pray? Can I pray out loud? Will I be able to read the Bible out loud? Will certain verses from the Bible be barred? What if I'm wearing a t shirt with religious themes on it and I'm within 15 feet of this place, you may very well say that all of these will still remain protected, but you will have to concede that this ordinance and others like it does set a terrible precedent, whether we like it or not, this nation every day is becoming less and less of a constitutional republic and more like a republic of precedence. Whatever you declare here today, others will look to you as a shining example of what other rights they can steal away from US citizens. What will happen next? Will Christians be barred from speaking their mind at public parks? What about in the post office? What about city council meetings like we're here today, if enough people contacted you that they were offended by Christian speech here today, would your mind start racing about all the bubble zones you can create? Would you collect another binder full of our license plates and tell us that our behavior, our speech, our thoughts are not acceptable in public areas? Thank you very much.
All right, thank you, and we will make sure the questions that you just asked are answered during when we get to that item on the agenda. Okay, thank you, sir. Right go right ahead.
Pastor Adam Keener, Southfield reform Presbyterian Church, founded in 1834 home of the Underground Railroad. Just want to speak briefly to this proposed ordinance, echoing the the concerns of my brothers and sisters here and calling us to submit to the Lordship of Christ. But also a couple points to reiterate, there are unintended consequences here. Anyone who's been to this place more than once would know that the warmest interactions are the ones that are of close proximity, offering a tract or a leaflet to incentivize people moving further back and having to shout to be heard escalates the situation. It just reflects it needs. This needs more work. It's not going to achieve the aims of this council. Also, this ordinance is not just counterproductive, but I think in many ways, this is prejudicial. There's no protection here for the protesters or the pro lifers. I've seen security guards at the Seven Mile clinic shoving pro lifers. We've had pro lifers threatened verbally by security guards threatened with firearms by people in the parking lot. None of that is addressed. There's no mutual protection. Finally, it's going to be overturned at the federal level, and so it's counterproductive for that reason, and even if it's not, we will all stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. Thank you.
All right, thank you. Monica Miller, first
of all, I want to thank Councilwoman waters. I am also a breast cancer survivor of 20 years. Thank you. And I also emailed you a list of the moms that we have helped and are continuing to help, going back 10 years, all of these women that we turned away from Detroit abortion clinics we help these moms. 90% of the moms that we turn away from Detroit abortion clinics live in Detroit, and we are helping them. We are a service to this community, service to these moms. And I don't know what binder Councilwoman Romero showed yesterday, I assume it was probably from a pro abortion source, hardly neutral. I really urge before you vote, you need to scrutinize the record of the Detroit Police Department, and you will find that not one single pro lifer that goes out to an abortion clinic in Detroit has been charged with the Michigan law of harassment, not a single one. This ordinance is completely unnecessary, and it's going to burden our efforts to save lives. We need to have these close, personal conversations, real and true, to reaching out to these moms and without the burden of us being marked and compromised by an eight foot buffer zone, as if somehow were the problem. These women need to know that they can trust us and allow us to reach out to them. So please, this is a life or death issue, and it's completely unnecessary, and it's going
to be challenged. All right. Thank
you. Thank you so much.
Michael DEA,
I'm Michael day, and I first want to just thank all of you for allowing me to speak. My wife and I have been housing, caring for women in Detroit area for over 45 years, when I speak of these women, their mothers that were carrying a baby and we're looking to have an abortion, as advocates at a crisis pregnancy center that we founded in 1984 and as sidewalk counselors, we have been able to rescue 1000s of moms from abortion and save 1000s of babies lives. This is about a life and death. These babies are as real as you and I are, and it's not just about women's health, it women's health, because we know how much they needed in City of Detroit, and we learned it from our work with all these women. We have also founded a part of Christ clinic in downtown Detroit, if you haven't heard about it, and these moms that come to us there, they get the type care, and they're treated with dignity, and they're not, you know, forced into having abortions or they're taken care of. And every mom that I've ever seen that changed her heart from having abortion and having her baby has never been unhappy. I mean, this is outrageous, this ordinance that's been put forth here to stop our religious freedom and our ability to get out and speak and save these mothers. And it's not only that we know. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
Hi. My name is Jenny Nelson. Worked in Detroit for last 20 years, graduated Wayne State University as a single parent. I talked yesterday I lost my composure a little bit. I'm talking about how I almost lost my daughter, the love of my life, when I was 19, to abortion, but she inspired me to be the best I could possibly be. And I want you to realize too, that these places that they profit off of women in crisis. Let that sink in for a minute. They profit off of women in crisis. Every single woman that walks into their abortion centers has $1 sign over her head. Is Lost business. This, this bill, this buffer zone, is about lost business. If think if this was something that was good for women, if abortion was good for women, they would be honest with us. They would be honest. They wouldn't have misrepresented that my child was just a bob of cells or a product of conception. They would have let me see the ultrasound make a decision for myself. And when I did see the ultrasound, I was completely shocked, and I was really upset, because my daughter matters, and I didn't know, I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know what I was getting into. But that being said, I wanted to talk about a little bit about negative eugenics and how the abortion industry has been targeting minority groups, especially the black communities. 30% of the the American population used to consist of the African American community, and now it's less than 10% abortion, birth control, forced feralization, ski, syphilis, genocide.
Thank you. Miss Warrick.
Good morning.
I don't see it on the agenda, but I oppose spending $6.9 million in American rescue Act funds for the Fisher 21 lofts for the 63 so called affordable apartments. That comes to over 109,000 $109,000 subsidy for the developer who happens to be Richard Hosey on the board of the Detroit Land Bank Authority. And please don't approve that. Mou yet the nuisance abatement program is illegal. Just ask member waters who was on the state legislature when they passed the law that allowed for the creation of the land bank. Number two, we still need some more sunshine on the solar plans. I'm not against solar energy, but I'm against a plan that lacks due diligence. It looks like a veiled plan to clear the land. I know Mr. Benson because you asked to be have the administration walk you through the decommissioning plan. Who gets the land after that? How about give it back to the people who get pushed off the land. It's the land bank that didn't do anything with a lot of that property, it seems, for like 10 years. And I bet you could find that out in the real estate committee inclusion, please say no to 18.2 $500,000 to the Smith group to do a non inclusive at this point. But you can change it. You can make the Master Plan update process inclusive, treat us all with the same respect that we can have the in depth conversations about the future of the city and where we live. No more master planning like you did to sell off the Historic State Fairgrounds, and we have problems at the BCA. Think
that's your time, Miss Boyd, thank you.
Alright, Mister Cook,
morning, I'm here at the invitation of Councilwoman Callaway. Thank you. I'm kind of a twofold representative here. So I represent Wickham, a block club, two blocks between auto driver Curtis and the windshield. Neighborhood, district two. I'm also a business owner. I own a retail pop up space venue called the Ross space. It's located at 8420 West McNichols, across the street from the school at Marygrove. Both my concerns are about traffic and safety in these respective areas. First, Peterson Park, North and South. Boundaries, Greenfield and Coyo east and west boundaries, Curtis and Pickford, we've been seeing a rise in speeding vehicle break ins and theft, understanding that all these issues don't necessarily get reported, but the ask is for some additional lighting at the park and the idea of some permanent speed radars, in the hopes that, you know, it may deter some potential criminals, as far as the lighting from lurking in the park at night, targeting unintended vehicles, things like that, and the permanent speed radars in the hopes that it may deter some speeding second McNichols, between Wyoming and Livernois, specifically where my business is located, between cherry lawn and North Lawn, directly across from The School at Mary Grove, the speed limit is 25 miles an hour, but we're asking for permanent speed radars in that area, also with the hopes to deter speeding. And the biggest ask is some regulation policing of the bike lanes in that area. People use it as a walking lane, a running lane, a unicycle lane, three wheelers, four wheelers, but it's very dangerous and problematic. Thank you,
right. Thank you so much for coming down. And I know member Callaway wants to respond, yeah. Thank you. Thank
you, Madam Chair. Thank you sir for coming down. He walks with us on Thursdays at night, when we have these walks on Thursday it gives residents and business owners have like him an opportunity to engage me one on one. So I asked him to come down, because there were so many issues in that area. In the bank, the bike lanes over there are problematic, to say the least. They are problematic. And when parents are trying to drop off their students at the high school, at mayor at Mary Grove, it's problematic. It's traffic jams. The bike lanes have caused problems over there, to the point where a car drove into a bus shelter, tore it down, and it has not been rebuilt because there's not enough space on West McNichols. So I want to thank you for coming down, sharing all those issues that are happening in our area, and I want to thank you for built, opening your business. I think it's about two years now. Two years I've had an opportunity to have a coffee and conversation there. It's a wonderful space, the raw space on West McNichols. I would invite my colleagues to go and visit it. It's a wonderful, wonderful concept. But I listed everything that you brought to our attention, and we'll take them one by one. And thank you for coming out. All
right. Thank
you so much. Member Callaway,
all right. Morning, my name is Sarah HEB. I'm the president of the Detroit chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. I'm an attorney, so I'm not going to talk to you about vibes or my feelings. I'm talking about what the law actually is. In Wayne County, residents voted in support of proposal three over 70% and in Detroit, they voted in support with almost 84% those are your residents that you represent, not people from outside the city coming in here and disturbing the people that live in it. Today, you're going to hear about the buffer and bubble zone and that it's unconstitutional, but that's not true. This exact ordinance was found constitutional by the US Supreme Court in Hill versus Colorado. And the question in Hill versus Colorado was whether this 100 foot zone where someone is required to get consent to speak to a person entering a facility was constitutional, and it was found in a six to three decision authored by a conservative justice, Stevens, that the court that this ordinance did not violate the First Amendment. The only thing that it does is it requires a person to gain consent before speaking to a person entering the facility. So they can still talk, they can still minister. They just have to ask for consent to speak to a person. If you've ever done informational picketing, that's what you do. You ask, Would you like to take this piece of literature? And if they do, you give it to them, and if they don't, you don't give it to them. They've talked about McCullen, and that doesn't apply, because the buffer zone is different there, but this specific ordinance that you are working to pass, it is constitutional.
Thank you so much. Brian Ellison,
morning, honorable council members. Nice to see everyone in person. I like this a lot better. So no offense to zoom. I just want to flag an item that is going to come across your desk shortly today, which is the recommendation for denial from the City Planning Commission that came for a rezoning of a property at Harper and Cadu. I submitted a memorandum this morning. Feel free to read at your leisure. My ask here is just that it does have an opportunity to go to committee and have a public hearing. I think that it would be beneficial, across the board, for this body prior to following any recommendation from CPC on this matter, CPC staff recommended approval. CPC had some differences in opinion, but I think that it warrants some definite attention. They're looking to redevelop a site that was previously inhabited by now defunct drive through bank with a drive through restaurant. The community is in support of it, the neighbors literally adjacent to the property in support of it. I think it just warrants your attention, and I would appreciate
Okay. Thank you so much. Mr. Ellington, you
Good morning.
My name is Pastor Lorenzo Sewell. I have the honor and the privilege of being the senior pastor of 180 church, and I have the honor of also being the head of the clergy caucus in the seventh district. And today, my heart hurts because I think about how I came to Christ, somebody had to hand me a Bible. Someone had to touch me and pray over me. Think about how important it was that proximity matters, that the life of a child matters. That are women that are in this community, they matter. And it's important that this council understands that the religious community believes that you can pray anywhere in this city, that anywhere in this city, you can speak the name of Jesus, because his name still has all power and all authority in heaven and in earth. And it behooves this council to understand if you want the faith community support, if you want the religious community support, we need your support to realize that you can pray anywhere you want. You can be able to witness the name of Jesus anywhere you want in this city, this is the most church city in America, and it's a shame that we would even consider pushing back prayer that we would even consider pushing back giving someone an opportunity to know the Lord Jesus Christ for protesting in front of my church. And they had the right to do that. They passed out things I didn't like. They had the right to do that. Surely we have the right to pray, because
Black Lives Matter.
Right? Thank you,
Troy. Troy guinnyard,
good morning. My name is Troy Guignard, a small business owner with Detroit resident employees, our number one goal is to stay in business and support our hardworking employees so they can support their families. As everyone knows, expenses for small businesses have become unbearable over the last decade. Today is the deadline to approve item 20.8 we ask that you consider all the time hard work and transparency the toll rate commission did over the last several months to get us to this point. Not only are we asking that the item 20.8 to be approved today, but if possible, implement those fees immediately versus the next fiscal year, as we haven't had an increase since 2013 I really appreciate the opportunity to speak to this honorable honorable body today and your consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.
Julie Seema, followed by Miss Williams, followed by jadonte Smith.
Morning alibadi. My name is Julie summer from 70s towing and the Detroit towing Association as a long term police authorized tour in the city of Detroit. I ask that you prove this tow rate increase today our first increase since 2013 while other city groups have received increases, we suffer from inflation and expenses that are not reimbursed, including contractor bags, oil, dry absorbent And disposals. We are professional towers who train our staff, who put our hard work forth to do what we need to do and help one another, as well as put our safety first in a beta city ordinances years ago, one tower, several police officers and other officials were charged. I want to remind you at the public that we, as a current police authorized tours, are not associated with any of this. We are hand chosen to be doing this job, and we proudly do so. So I just want you guys all to know when you guys do this, this is on our behalfs. We are simply very hard working Detroiters who ask what is fair. Just as you guys do your job, we're doing our job every single day, and we thank you for the approving, approving Detroit today. Thank you and have a blessed day.
Thank you. Ma'am, you as well. Hello, I'm
here to speak about
our First Amendment right abuse of authority. I've been in the system over a year now, and since I've been in the system, I don't seen a lot of illegal corruption. I'm in this shelter right now, and it's coming from the recruit, whoever is in charge at the Detroit Police Department, the recruiters, they are recruiting officers from different states to come in here now, when Coleman Young was in office, you had to stay in the city of Detroit to have a job. So these shelters are for homeless people, not police officers who come from out of state that can pay their bills. They got to go through cam to get a referral. So a lot of people are working together on this illegal corruption, and it's not acceptable when it's homeless people out here that cannot get a referral to have a bed to sleep in, and it's getting ready to get cold. It's not acceptable when you guys continue to abuse your authority and not do your job, correct? This is not a joke. Homeless people need a place to stay, so we got police officers. Has just graduated a Grady Grace over almost going on two weeks, and it's not acceptable, and you got officers, like I said, they need to have some site evaluation, because if you can't handle what's going on on my personal device, you gonna have to have a lot of money paying for these lawsuits when they kill him.
Thank you. Miss Williams, the Dante Smith, good morning. Hey,
just like a broken record. But I come here speaking about the same things over and over. I want to I want to know, are you guys ever going to vote on an MOU for the land bank that Councilwoman waters is continuously pushing for? Want to talk about that. I also want to talk about all of the Maga supporters we have in the room. I hate to be like that, but I just got to say we got a lot of people from outside of the city of Detroit who have no vested interest in the city of Detroit talking about abortion rights, and that's not even we're talking about a buffer. Is nothing. I protest all the time. I have a lieutenant that I got suspended from Detroit Police Department for his racist comments to me because he's probably a maga supporter like you while I was protesting. So to come here is very, very insulting. Also, I just want to say we have a lot of people specifically in this room. We have a lot of career politicians like we have Mister David Whitaker there, who's been since, since Kwame. We just got a lot of people who are not serving the interest of the people, which is very sad. I want to shout out pastor Barry Randolph, which
is a true pastor in city Detroit, who taught me what I know, made me who I am, as an organizer, as a young man, as a believer in Christ. And so I just want to say, we have people like him at church of Messiah. We have other churches, but a lot of times churches in the city of Detroit. Fellas. Also want to say,
I don't know if any of you guys have looked into the article about the Detroit Police Department from Lieutenant Brandon Cole and the fact that the Detroit Police Department are surveilling protesters, and he's about to get a settlement. If you guys vote on that settlement, you guys are never going to have peace. I'm going to flood this room out with protesters. We're going to protest them here in this room, if he gets any type of settlement and thinks he's going to walk away with it, and he did what he did, you don't have a problem with that. And I also want to say it's very safe for Pastor su to come in here and speak.
Right? Thank you so much. Jadonte president, yes. Pro Tempe, I
just want to again, as I did, I've done in the past, when anyone seeks to attack members of staff, lift up. Mister David Whitaker, he is not a politician. This is a gentleman who has guided many, many, many folks through these chambers into making decisions that are on the best on the behalf of the residents of the city of Detroit. So Mister Whitaker, again, as I've mentioned before, I thank you as a thank you as a individual who I see as a mentor and who has shown me and this is what folks do when they can't understand freedom of speech. It's okay, but I thank you, Mr. Whitaker, for all of this you've done for the citizens of the city of Detroit and all of the staff that we have here that's working with us. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. I see you.
Christine,
good morning City Council. I am a fourth year breast cancer survivor. Come Saturday, it'll be the day that I heard cancer free. Amen. God has gave me this vision for a faith based nonprofit, and it is to support breast cancer women that the ones that are currently going through treatment with financial help essential needs in their home. Because no woman that has has to go through treatment should ever deal with once I go through treatment, do I come back home? Is the lights on? Is it an eviction over on my door? So I am asking the City Council and the city of Detroit to help me into getting funding, because the numbers is massive. I have heard women come up to tell me that my breast cancer has spread into a stage four. I have had their kids lay their head over on my shoulder because they're scared, because they mother has to go have surgery. These are the the burdens that I put over on my shoulders, over for over, for these women, but I cannot do it alone. This is the fourth year that I'll be doing an event, and I raise money, and I pass it on to the ones that's in need. This is not for profit. And council imma say this,
I feel the spirit of the holy in here. Amen, no matter what nobody say,
man, we appreciate you, and if we can get your information, and we'll make sure everyone gets it and see how we can support your efforts. What you're doing with your nonprofit, okay, well, we appreciate you for coming down and sharing your story. Mr. Foster
Good morning through the council president. First thing, I'm very grateful to be able to stand in support with Miss waters initiative with the breast cancer awareness. I think it's very, very important. I appreciate Ms Santiago Romero's proposed ordinance here. I personally believe that church and state are separate. I believe that all our freedoms stop where the next citizen's freedoms begin. I believe that government is supposed to be neutral and but secure, safe and secure environments for people to freely make choices. I believe the burden is on our spiritual leaders to speak to their congregation about spiritual needs. I as a citizen, as our pro choice community, to advocate for more education awareness and funding for issue within minority community called fibroids, which affects 80, 90% of African American women, which prevents childbirth. If we can raise our voices and unite on those fronts, I would be happy to sit down and really champion some of these issues here. My ask that we have debates and town halls for our community, I think that debates and town halls from all of our candidates would dispel rumors and misinformation. We can do here whatever it is, directly from the horse's mouth. I appreciate everything that city council's been doing to uplift and address our social conditions, and I ask that we continue to support appreciate you all for listening, right?
Thank you so much, Mr. Foster and lastly, will be Cindy Darris,
yeah, I rode the bus the other day, and it was really great, Woodward and Seven Mile, real quick and efficient and on time. But then when I tried to take the burner bus to southwest Detroit, it was about over an hour down at the transit center. I went into the bathroom, and the water in the women's bathroom is in this big, long trough. Water's running on both ends, and there's no soap in the dispenser, and I went swimming out at Adam's mouth. So they finally, and I've been bitching at them for about three months, but they finally did kind of stop the water from running, except they put a new handle on the children's lower shower. And these handles are acorn. They're round like this with a little it takes two hands to close them and open them. And they need to be they're not even handicapped accessible, but they're high up. They're hard for a lot of kids or even adults that turn them off. They should be redesigned, and I'm going to look into that more, but you should, too, because they just still, they have to change the seat when they don't change the washer, and they haven't done that, I think that's probably the problem if they're just changing the washer, but they've already ruined the seat underneath. They got to change that. Now, I had an abortion when I was 22 I don't regret it, and I just want to say this, be careful about making laws to restrict it, because it's punitive a lot a lot of times, but you're not getting at the cost. Thank you. I noticed more people are being unfriendly
sometimes. Thank
you so much. Miss direct. Thank
you Christ. Thank you. Kind of a negative look. It bothers me. Thank you. Okay, so things are changing. We gotta figure out what to do about an Alaska I don't think okay.
We appreciate your comment. Bring your people together. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Miss Darrell. We appreciate you as always, and we are now going to all of our Yes, miss, miss,
miss. I don't know if you can hear because sometimes I know you don't wear your your your hearing aid, but I hope you can hear me. Miss Dara, thank you for coming to the district two community picnic last Saturday. It was amazing seeing you. I really liked your sun hat and Adam, but so is in district two, and we'll be over there today. So I don't know if you want to meet me over there or not, but you're going to talk to my staff right there, if you can meet me over there today, so you can show me exactly what you're talking about. I was going over to Adam Buttle anyway, so this is giving me another reason to go. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Dara. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right. Thank
you so much. Council member, Santiago Ramiro, thank you, Madam President. Just briefly, before we go into public comment from folks that we have on virtually, the binder seems to have been a big hit. It was brought up multiple times, so I do have it here with me, and I will allow I will ask that each member review it, while we hear from other folks online. Want to make it very clear, the binder is full of people and cars that have been identified as folks that do harass and it is used by volunteers to identify those folks to be able to protect each other. So none of this information is public information. We know how to think keep things confidential. It's really just for us to see what it is that's just one clinic experiences of the money. And want to make that very clear. And I have much more to say that. I'll say once we hear from the public. Thank you, Madam President, thank you so much. Council member, Santiago Romero, all right, we will go now to those who have joined us, virtually.
Good. Morning, Madam President, there were 48 or 26 hands that were raised before you had public comment, and the first caller is William, and
good morning. Can I be heard?
Yes, you can Good morning.
I think the city needs to do more as relates to these massive number of lawsuits. As you know, I'm a city Detroit retiree to have my pension cut and haven't received anything in over 13 years. I think the city needs to do a better job, especially as it relates to if somebody is being sued and if that employee file falsified records. They should not be represented. You know, we have a problem in this city, ongoing problem with lawsuits. And I think sometimes people are not as concerned about if a lawsuit is bought against them, if the city is paying for it, and then the city is helping them with the lawsuit, you know, we have a lot of police officers don't live in the city of Detroit. We have a lot of wrongfully convicted people, you know, because of falsified information. So it should be a standard practice if an individual file any type of false information related to an incident, they should not be represented, and I think we could do a greater job of reducing the number of lawsuits. And also, I'm in favor of the the, you know, the buffer zone. I've done a number of protests for over 40 years, and I will continue to do a number of protests, but being eight feet away from the person is not a problem. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Mr. Davis,
the next caller is Alicia Wong,
good morning. You
Good morning. Alicia Wong,
yes.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Okay,
yes. My name is Alicia Wong, and I am the Executive Director of Guadalupe workers is a nonprofit organization. Our office is in the southwest area in Detroit, and we have been at the sidewalk for about 22 years. We do not carry any signs. We do not protest. We are there to offer help to the women so that they can actually see that there is real help out there for them, and they can make a choice, a real choice. So we're there. We offer them help, and we have helped 1000s of women at our office and other homes with rent, with utilities. We have given about a dozen houses for different families. We give cars, we help with education, we help with clothes, with food. A lot of Hispanic families come to our office as well. Our office is called a Family Resource Center, and we help immediately. We don't send them a way to get help to another organization. We do it ourselves, straight to the mother, to the DTE. We pay everything, and the mothers make the choice if they, if they hear us offering the help, we just don't tell them, Don't kill your baby. And we walk away. We stand by them and the whole family, we are here to help. And if we are not allowed to stand there, many will be wishing that we would
thank you.
The next caller is Holland Bolton,
good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking up the important issues before you today. I am a proud resident of district five, and I support the proposed city ordinance that will establish a buffer zone around our Detroit Medical clinics. We are not debating abortion, regardless of our personal positions on abortion, it is legal in Michigan. We're also not debating anyone's first amendment right to free speech, though this parade of mostly white men who, by their own admission, don't live in Detroit, would have you believe otherwise, the right to protest is enshrined in our Constitution. What's put before Council today is a common sense measure that will foster conditions outside our Detroit clinics that will reduce conflict, danger, disruption and distress, while simultaneously creating further protections for our out of town visitors who for some reason aren't interested in expressing themselves in their own neighborhoods. If you are opposed to this ordinance, then I suggest you make the case against it before your own city council. Should it ever come up in your home city or state? Detroit city council members know their responsibility is to Detroit and Detroiters. If you're an out of Towner who wants to support existing Detroit families or efforts in Detroit to reduce black maternal death and infant mortality, there are many wonderful organizations you can connect with. This measure clearly protects protesters, so it's surprising that so many of these out of town religious extremists are opposed to the measure, until you consider that what they do isn't protesting by any stretch of the imagination. It's harassment, intimidation and abuse. It's also not speech. It's grown men wearing GoPros screaming at women and girls attempting to visit their doctor. Our out of town visitors keep bringing up that they're peaceful sidewalk.
Right? Thank you.
The next caller is we see you
right. Good morning. You
Good morning and through the chair. May I be heard.
Yes, you can.
Thank you. Carolyn Hughes, the last speaker, was just ridiculous in her assumptions, we aren't religious fanatics, and these people who are against this ordinance understand that it's about the First Amendment. Carrie, just the other day, said the First Amendment is a, what did he call it? He said, he said it was a major block to be able to to to get for you all, to tell us what we need to know, and we need to hammer it out of existence. He also said that Kamala Harris was going to implement these things forcibly. Now I see Miss Miss Romero, you have a surveillance list of people do you also have a surveillance list of the people who are having the abortions? I am appealing to miss waters, who talks about the disparities in health care, and instead of you working on ordinances to change those types of things, you're working on killing our babies, which was the goal of the Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger, so you are in it. You are in favor of eugenics. You're in favor of getting rid of your own people. That's why these centers are in our area. Let these people help people who may have made a rash decision or a bad decision, and then they make a good decision. You saw several babies that came out of this, if we can save just one, somebody. Praise Jesus Christ. You guys are ungodly if you vote for this,
right? Thank you.
The next caller is phone number ending in 169
caller, 169 Good morning.
Caller, 169 Good morning. You.
All
right. Ari, let's come back to this Caller, please.
The next caller, Marguerite Maddox, Scarlet,
all Right. Miss Maddox, good morning.
Good morning.
Is the right decision we all have To live with our
issue of
for the
says, make the right decision, and
remember saying, J, U, S, T, I, C, E, we need to live by her word in depth and life forever. It is
is
transition. I've been
the last and this time I go there I was checked to see if the ladies restaurants are open during the daytime. Yes, the night. I do not know. I do not have that much at night, but that release the security camera inside much more than You will be a
Okay? So? I
Open up
it's
worship has legacy.
Thank you
so much. Ms, Maddox, the next caller is Karen's iPad. All right, good morning. Hello. Yes, we can hear you. Good morning. Great. Good morning. As it relates to the bubble zoning, I still think it's arbitrary, unless you're going to mark it, if you're going to, you know, put a sign, or possibly even a sidewalk markings that says this is your 100 foot limit. Otherwise, it's going to be arbitrary, you know, and it's going to be left up to the person deciding that you're standing too close, or whatever. So, you know, we should go a little bit further.
And you know, mandate,
if we're going to pass this, let's also make sure that we have it clearly, that, you know, the limits clearly defined. So it's not a, you know, unsuspected trap, you know, of entrapment, you know, and especially when we got people that are pushing for seeing personal have personal reasons to want this to pass, and we should not do that, you know, you suspect it might be anybody's motive that's sitting on that council there. Now I'm going to speak real quick about attendance, the attendance of Council and the lack of, you know, punctuality. I think that we should, you guys, to try to be more punctual, you know, because you're setting up. You know, that's why nobody else
has any respect for any, you
know, any rules, because they, you know, they look at what we're looking at here. Um, now, as far as it relates to what's legal or whatever, if it's not expressly, you know, applied or given to you. You can't do it. You can't do anything that you're not allowed to do. You can't create, alright? Thank
you so much.
The next caller is Betty a Varner,
Miss Varner, good morning.
Good morning to all within the sound of my voice today, October 1 marks the International Day of Older Persons, established by the United Nations General Assembly. The day is dedicated to the appreciation of older people and to raising awareness about issues that affect them. This year's theme is aging with dignity, the importance of strengthening care and support systems to older persons worldwide. For the council, I want you to think about what I just mentioned, and think about all the seniors who have contacted counts, honorable council member waters office, and who have signed up and to indicate that they need a walk in shower, we need these walk in showers. These traditional Bathtubs are very dangerous. There's a problem with falling, and we don't want to fall. We want to be safe in our homes. I'm pleading to the council, get together and do something to help us get these walk in showers. I want to say to honorable council member waters, thank you for the work you're doing for the breast cancer. Thank you for the work you do for the seniors. Thank you for having the list and letting people be able to call in and sign up for these walk in showers. But we need for it to happen. I start. I try to be positive. I do the best I can. I don't just advocate for myself. I advocate
alright. Thank you so much. Miss Varner.
The next caller is Felicia Brock,
alright, may I be heard? Good morning. Good morning to this honorable Council. I'm Felicia Brock, the owner of BBK towing and recovery and our company manager Mike, is sitting in the gallery on today. I just wanted to take this brief opportunity to first of all say thank you to each and every council member. I know that you guys are currently in the process of considering our request for a toll rate increase. I know you've done your due diligence, read all the reports, watched the PowerPoint presentation. I just would like to add to all of the information that you have received thus far, to just let you guys know that the numbers that we're requesting, the increased value, did not come just out of the air. The toll rate commission worked very diligently, and they pooled the charges, the fees of towing companies within our area from municipality towing companies within our areas. And what we're asking for is either in line with or below. But what other municipalities are paying their towers. Certainly, when you compare everything we do, line for line, we're not asking for more than any other municipality, and we would ask that you would agree to allow us this tow rate increase and to go ahead and implement it. Okay? Thank you.
The next caller is to hear our mob,
Good morning, Miss Ahmad,
good morning member, council members, and thank you for allowing me to speak. Good morning Council President, Sheffield, after the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, administered the property tax appeals project for clients whom the city of Detroit unconstitutionally over assessed it reviewed the decision letters sent to its clients while uh by uh Willie Don wells office, more than a third of the letters sent to the coalition's 500 clients had errors in them. The coalition promptly sent this figure along with information about the specific errors to Don wells office. It took many weeks and interventions with council members' office to get done well, to send the corrected letters to our clients upon reviewing the 80 484, corrected letters, after upon reviewing them, The Coalition, I'm sorry, upon reviewing that 184 corrected letters, we found that some of them had errors, and we informed our will. And again, it took, you know, a lot of time for him to address the errors we we are here today because we need to figure out the the 17 clients that we need to address this problem with can be informed. They need to be informed as to whether their property tax.
Thank you so much. Miss Ahmed, and we'll continue to work with you in a coalition. Thank you.
The next caller is Shelly Miller,
good morning. Sorry I had headphones on in
2013 The floor is yours for general public comment. Good morning Texas
is now being added to both Ohio
and good morning for general public
macaroni and cheese flavors such as
back to this Caller, please. Thank you if we can come back to this Caller, please, Okay,
the next caller is Hitomi.
Council members, can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Good morning.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Hitomi warnett, a servant of Jesus Christ. I want to speak regarding the healthcare ordinance proposed by Ms Santiago Romero, I appreciate your desire for caring for the safety and welfare of people as I also share that desire the safety of the unborn people of the city of Detroit and beyond should be cared for, and we should speak on behalf of them. People in the womb are discriminated and continually murdered at abortion facilities. God is our Creator, who spoke from the Holy Bible as the one who knit us in our mother's womb, who made us in secret, whose eyes have seen every unshaped being. All persons are created in His image, the location, age and environment doesn't determine the worth of a human. God is very clear in his word, as he says, Do not murder. I do believe this ordinance is disingenuous, as it violates the First Amendment by hindering those who want to speak on behalf of the unborn persons in the womb. I thank the moms who testified the goodness of God in their life by using the sidewalk counselors to help change their minds and love their baby. My heart breaks for those who have had an abortion and encourage them to find comfort and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Please do not vote for this ordinance, but instead turn to Christ and trust in what the Bible teaches us truth. Council members, trust in Christ that He has put you in this role to do what is right.
Thank you so much.
Next caller is renardsky.
All right. Good morning.
Good morning. Renard maschinsky, good morning. Be heard. Yes, you can
technical difficulties. My name is Renard maschinsky. I'm a resident district six of the city of Detroit, and also organized with the Detroit people's platform. I want to thank this honorable body for consideration of the line item. Let me get to refer to the number, but it is referring to yes line item, 26.6 in support of the purchase and mandate of the use of low to zero emission paratransit vehicles. You know, with climate change impact in our city and our city sustainability goals and climate justice goals in our city, it will bring parity to the efforts that are already taking place with other city departments and our transit line, but our bus lines as well that are slowly being converted to alternative fuel sources such as electric hybrid and other alternative fuels. So in that case, this is a step in the right direction, and I'm very encouraged to hear from the administration and the mayor himself, that this is an effort that they are taking up for consideration. So I want to ask this body. I can't instruct this body, but it will be, you know, beneficial if this body, you know, coordinates with the administration on an effort to make this possible for residents. Otherwise, we want to look into investigation and reports about the Rosa Parks transit center and improvements and what money has been spent. All
right. Thank you so much.
The next caller is Stephen Holling. You
her,
yes, you can Good morning,
awesome. Um, so as I said yesterday, I'm in strong support of the ordinance. You know, most of the people that are speaking against, except maybe a few of the regular complainers, are not from Detroit, you know, they are white mangas that are probably from the thumb or, I think, a couple second Ann Arbor, which, you know, is over with overwhelmingly supporting ordinance like this. You know, these people need to go to their own counsel and complain there, you know, I understand maybe not all the protesters have bad intentions. I'm sure some of those sidewalk counselors definitely, you know, have their but a lot do you know there are armed gone. Some are involved in groups, like proud boys. I mean, you all remember well, I the Olympic bombing the in, I believe it was 95 or the mid 90s. It was done by an anti abortion radical activist and a lot of people that probably share the same views as I think his name was Rudolph. Are probably the ones who are protesting harassing woman. And you know, he's abortion. That's like 1% of what they do. And what they do is either very early term abortion, and if they do they term, it's because the baby's going to be born dead. So these people are right.
Thank you.
The next caller is Frank Hammer,
good morning.
This is Karen hammer,
I'm here.
Good morning Council. I'm here to speak about the Downtown Development Authority started in 1975 headed by the mayor and the Detroit Economic Growth Council that mainly fund the downtown economic development through caps, tax captures. While downtown has improved, mainly low income and black, rest of the city hasn't schools, city services, libraries, county programs are underfunded for 47 years. The real estate value is 74% of the 1966 levels there has to be corrected. One, the DDA should pay off its debt and be phased out. Two, these strengthen the community Ben benefits. Ordinance apply and guarantee clawbacks. Increase the number of community representatives to twice or three times the number. Thank you. I support the bumper zone and I support the low to zero emission transit efforts. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Miss hammer
next caller is phone number ending in 369
caller, 369 Good morning.
Caller, 369 Good morning.
Okay, Ari, let's come back to this Caller, please.
The next caller is Mikko a Williams,
yes, hi, good morning. I just want to speak. First of all, Abortionists should not be in this council pushing their Jesus agenda. We are separated from church and state in this government. They need to know that. And I'm not even going to comment, because this is a politically motivated agenda from Miss Santiago Romero, but I want to continue on last week, what I said in 2015 We begged the council to make the average medium income for renting and for a low income affordable amount of 80% versus 30% or compromise to make sure that we had a controlled rent that doesn't go over $1,200 again, the old people on the regime was council president and pro tem, and they were on that council of before, and we begged for them before they gave money to billionaires and billionaires that we get no return of investment from, and the affordable housing that's now over $1,200 that people cannot afford was to be made affordable in the realm of between six to $800 they could have done that. Yeah, proving that state law. But are you all on the rent is too damn high commission. They have been meeting ever since last year or the year before, and it's already up at the state, has this council used this lobbyist, state and federal lobbyists, to join that action? I would like to know thank you.
Thank you so much. Miko, would love to actually sit down with you and have a conversation, a real conversation about the history and what has taken place from the onset of 2013 around affordable housing, a real conversation with real facts. So I welcome that conversation anytime you can reach out to my office and we can sit down and talk about where we've come from and what we need to do moving forward. So, 313-224-4505, thank you so much for calling in. Okay, our next caller, please.
The next caller is Rebecca.
What was the caller's name? Uh,
I'm sorry, what was the caller's name? Ari.
The caller's name was Rebecca.
Okay. Rebecca, good morning. I
Rebecca, good morning. You have the floor for general public comment. The
A seem to have
you're breaking up. Ari, a little bit. What did you say
that caller is no longer showing? Okay. Next caller is Bobby Johnson.
Bobby Johnson, Good morning. Hello. Can
you hear me? Yes. Okay. Greetings, honorable Council. I heard a lot about children's matters. Lives Matter. Single parents matter. I have a serious problem right now. Your residents over here in district seven, Franklin Park, we're flooding out. There's no Recreation Center. And district seven, we paid $150,000 more for a dog park and d7 then we and d2 than we did for a city park and d7 for residents, we have abundance of liquor stores and D sevens. What about an ordinance about how many liquor stores there can be within a certain square footage or travel zones of school aged children? What about an ordinance to help our children with mental health? What about a promise of a new recreation center that was at roots Park? But what about us having anything over here? We've asked, and I'm asking every council person, not just our council, because everyone out on this council votes on this, what about that Recreation Center, and why is Adam butzel As in DC as in d2 Why is our district manager city housed over and d2 and not in d7 Why Don't we have access to the same city services as every other district. Those are questions Can you answer for me? Thank you and you both. All of you have a blessed day,
right? Thank you so much. Miss Johnson. Council member, durha, thank you,
Madam President, just for you. Ms Johnson, to give you an update on the Brennan pool site and the recreation center, $20 million Recreation Center coming to district seven in partnership with the Detroit Pistons. We will, we will be breaking ground this fall. I don't know if you had the opportunity to go over on Dexter to look at the $8.5 million Recreation Center coming over there, along with the streetscape, but they are already starting to make renovations on that recreation center as well. And then your other concerns, I'll be more than happy to talk to you about those. But in the Detroit city code, by the way, as well as state, there is distances relative to folks being able to open liquor stores close into close to the vicinity of schools, as as well as other facilities where children may play. So I'd love to go over those ordinances with you as well so you can see the footage required. Thank you, Madam
President.
All right. Thank you our next caller, please.
Next caller is calling user one,
calling user one, good morning.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Good afternoon.
Madam President, I'm glad that you are here. I would like to know how long is it going to be before you make sure adequate lighting is for Northwestern High school students. I've been asking you a year this gas station has this light pole, and they keep it out so they can sell heroin. I've been asking you to get these lots cut, and I sent it this morning, and they still up, and they haven't been cut. Your picture of individuals selling drugs in the process, and nothing is getting done now in I also want to add that, what provisions are you going to do for those of us that are disabled, when it comes to this transit center not being allowed to use the restroom, the Dexter bus is skipping every other hour. If you're down there at eight, it may not show up to 1011, o'clock and you can't use the restroom because I'm disabled, I don't have nothing to do if somebody tears up when you go in there, they don't have soap, which is unsanitary, and under federal law, you have to allow me, as a disabled to use the restroom without somebody being nasty, rude and hostile. And I have all that activity on recording, I've tried to reach your office, and nobody responds, but I dealt with somebody was a bit nervous.
Thank you so much, Miss Shay, and we did forward over your email that was sent yesterday regarding the grass around Northwestern High School, and we will follow back up with you, hopefully as soon as we hear from the department and we'll continue to work with you. Ms, Shea, thank you so much for calling in. Okay, our next caller, please.
The next caller is phone number ending in three through seven.
Good morning. Can I be heard?
Yes, you can. Okay, great.
This is Patricia Bosch, resident of district three. I'm specifically concerned about Agenda Item 8.2 contract amendment for the extension of time for the lease agreement at Litke Recreation Center. It is approved. Oh, well, it is a matter to be approved and extended to 2050, for $1 there has been no advisory committee meetings. The last one that was scheduled for the summer was canceled, and we are extremely concerned about licky Park remaining a city park, so we are asking the council not to approve this huge extension for 50 years. So we are also concerned that district three, like district seven, seems to be losing Park funding. Example, we have lost 13189, French Road, which is known as Fletcher field to the city the airport expansion. We are also concerned about the effect of solar arrays on commercial property, as well as the eminent domain factors.
All right. Thank you.
The next caller is phone number ending in seven, four. Good
morning. You.
Good morning. You have the floor for general public comment. All
right. Ari, can we go to the next caller? Please?
The next caller? Timothy,
Timothy, good morning. You have the floor for public comments.
Good morning, Timothy, you
okay, Ari, can we go to our next call? Oh, yeah, we can hear you. Timothy, good morning.
Yeah, I would like to voice my opposition to the proposed ordinance to enact a 15 foot buffer zone around medical facilities in the city of Detroit, in the mccollin Supreme Court ruling, they actually ruled that the 35 foot buffer zones that the state of Massachusetts tried to put into place were unconstitutional, and this governing body, at the end of the day, has a responsibility to follow the Constitution of the United States. And buffer zones have been struck down by the Supreme Court, and I think that it would be it's so important for members of the city council to look at what the Supreme Court had to say about that, and also i This ordinance that the Detroit City Council is pushing forward is not just going to impact people who live in the city of Detroit, but also all across Southeast Michigan and ultimately all across the state. And I urge a no vote on this ordinance, and please work with sidewalk counselors and people of many different religious backgrounds to address their concerns. Thank you. Thank you.
The next caller is phone number ending in 209209
Good morning. You.
Caller 209 Good morning. Good morning. Can you hear me? Yes, we can.
Hi, good morning. I'm Arianne Fisher, a resident of District Two, dispelling the myth that it's merely people outside of Detroit who oppose the bubble zone law, I would like to ask, When else is our fair city restrict the right to protest even when it makes people uncomfortable. My family moved back to Detroit in July of 2020, on July 10 of that year, a police officer shot and killed someone a couple of miles from my home, even though body cam footage showed that it was a justified shooting, the city allowed citizens of the city to rally and protest marching along Livernois up to seven mile to the 12th precinct, the city rightly favored the right to speak over consideration of whether it made others uncomfortable, even if you happen to be pro choice, are you against forced abortion? I was a sidewalk counselor for four years in Chicago, where they have a bubble zone law. It was not infrequent to see a woman dragged into the clinic against her will by a trafficker, boyfriend, husband or parent, and there was absolutely nothing we could do to help her and the clinic, although a mandatory reporter accepted the abusers money for the procedure and reported nothing. For example, a white middle aged mom dragged her teenage daughter into the clinic screaming, I don't want no effing N word. Grandbaby, a South Asian dad dragged his wife into the clinic following, I told you no more girl babies, Both victims were sobbing and pleading not to go in, and we couldn't help them because of the bubble zone.
The next caller is Jennifer McCoy.
Right. Good morning. Jennifer McCoy,
you Good
morning. Jennifer McCoy, have a minute and a half for general public comment. You
okay.
Ari, do we have anyone else?
The last new caller, so I have to circle back caller who did not respond the last time the first one is phone number ending in 169, caller, 169
caller, 169 general public comment, all right, going once, going twice, and please submit your public comment to the clerk's office if you would like it A part of our public record and our next caller, please.
The next caller is phone number ending in 369 caller, 369
caller, 369 going once, twice and caller 369 as well. Please submit your comments to the clerk's office if you would like it a part of our public record in our next caller, please.
The next caller is phone number ending in 742,
caller, 742,
caller, 742 going once twice. Caller 742 if you would like your public comment a part of public record, please submit it. Submit it to the clerk's office. Our next caller, please.
The next caller is Shelly Miller,
good morning. I apologize for the previous technical difficulties. I do want to speak about the buffer zone, as I have in previous meetings. And I just have two very quick points, because I know you probably want to get this meeting moved along. I do want to explain that the binder everyone is so wrapped up about is for safety of escorts and staff, and it is used only amongst ourselves. We do not use any of the information to contact any of the protesters that we have information on, unlike the protesters who I believe illegally, get staff license plates and send mail to their homes and try to contact them other ways. The second point I would like to make is that if all of the sidewalk counselors anti abortion, religious people are so calm and so thoughtful and so lovely to be around, why are we talking about a buffer zone? We're talking about a buffer zone because that is not how they behave. If they behave the way they spoke of, we would not need to ask for this ordinance to keep our patients, protesters and staff safe. Thank you again for your time over and over again on this matter, I really appreciate and do hope you will vote to protect everyone. Thank you. Okay, thank
you as well. And that will conclude all of our general public comment for this morning. We thank everyone for calling in and also coming. Madam
President, there were still two more people who had not answered the first time. Next caller is Rebecca.
I'm sorry. Next caller is who? Rebecca? Rebecca, Rebecca, are you there? Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can.
Hello, sorry. Also technical difficulties. So my name is Rebecca, and I am speaking out against this ordinance. It's unforcable, unclear, a waste of city money, and most of all, it's unconstitutional. So a couple things, it infringes on the American citizens right to freedom of peaceful assembly, including on public sidewalks, it infringes on freedom of religion, which supports the freedom of an individual or community to manifest religion or belief, including in private and in public. Now you have the right to disagree, but not to silence those who you disagree with. Also separation of church and state actually means the state cannot dictate or determine what the church does. The ordinance includes infringement on freedom of speech, because the ordinance is not actually about saving people and helping people. It's about silencing voices and encouraging a divide, the voices of the unborn, the voices of Christians, the voices of the millions of black women who are targeted by Margaret sanger's racist intentions, the voices of men who have no say in the life of their children, the voices of American citizens that have not only a legal right but a God ordained right to speak out. Now I wonder, as expressed by Miss Santiago Romero herself, she was approached with words, not violence, not harassment, not threats, which actually most of the threats come from the people that are actually going into the clinic or the traffickers that are bringing them there. She was approached with words, we can help you with whatever you need for your child for free, if you spare his or her life is hardly an aggressive assault, but a generous offer that many women gladly receive moments before they're going to kill their baby and
Okay, thank you.
And the last caller is Jennifer McCoy.
Jennifer McCoy, Jennifer McCoy, you
right? Jennifer McCoy, going once and twice, all right. Jennifer McCoy, please submit your public comment to the clerk's office so that it will be a part of public record, and that will now conclude all of our general public comment for this morning, and we will now return back to our agenda for today, understanding committee reports for the budget, Finance and Audit standing committee from the Office of contracting and
peculiar council member durhall a resolution, line item 16.1, Contract Number 6003729, dash, a, four, 100% city funding amendment four, to provide an extension of time for FEMA disaster recovery and management services. Contractor died. House Incorporated. Total contract amount $6,288,790 that's for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Council Member durha, a resolution. Council member durha, thank you,
Madam President, Move for approval for line item 16.1,
any objections, hearing, no objections, the resolution will be approved from the law department.
Council Member durhall, joined by Council President Mary Sheffield, Council Member Mary waters and council member young introduction of an ordinance. Line item 16.2,
Council Member durha, thank you,
Madam President, as many of you know, this is also referred as the pilot ordinance. So Madam President, I move that the ordinance be read twice by title order, printed and laid on the table,
Hearing no objections. Discussion council member Benson, thank
you. Through yourself to the administration, it's a question about the ordinance itself.
We can't the
question about the ordinance itself looking the possibility of ensuring that we're making this type of incentive for development of affordable and moderate housing available to all the levels. What kind of language will be needed to
add
the moderate workforce housing, rather to the fast track process.
All right, Mr. Washington, and just so we know and we can have the discussion now, but also understanding that a public hearing is being scheduled for budget, Finance and Audit, Mr. Washington, do we have anyone on for the this ordinance.
Yes, good morning, Madam Chair, we do have Rebecca above online.
Okay, we can please move Rebecca over you.
Okay, Rebecca, you must accept the invitation to be promoted. I
Okay, she is not accepting the invitation to be promoted. If we did, you want to bring this back towards the end of the agenda, member Benson, to get your questions answered. If we
could bring it back, that's that's okay. We could get somebody. There's nobody from HRD you can answer this question.
I think that's who they recommended, and she's not answering. Malik is Rebecca the only one on that can address this question.
Yes, Madam Chair, if we could bring this back towards the
end. Okay,
thank you. Would like to try again, to request Rebecca to come on. We've done it several times, and we can try again. Motion. Okay, so there's a motion to she's accepting it now, okay.
All right, good, good afternoon. Rebecca council member Benson has a question regarding the pilot ordinance. Member Benson, Hey, good
morning, good afternoon now, and thank you for being here this question regarding moving the workforce housing into the fast track process. But I don't want to do is lose the incentive to develop housing for our dental hygienist our pharmacy techs, police officers, firefighters and teachers want to see us encourage housing for that income range as well.
Good afternoon and thank you. Council president through the chair Yes, HRD is certainly supportive of the inclusion of those workforce units as part of the fast track process for the redevelopment of vacant units, and that is reflected right now in the proposed ordinance, we have, you know, had some initial conversations about what it would look like to include workforce units up to 120% AMI, within the fast track. And I think that's a discussion that we're willing to have with yourself and and other council members as well. But the you know the bottom line is that for us to address the affordability crisis, we need to build and we have more housing units at all income levels. And what's really important in in the proposed ordinance is making it as easy as possible to build housing units at all income levels, and that's really what we want to ensure is incentivized. And we see, you know, deeper incentive for more affordability, that's what's in the proposal. We certainly understand the need for it and regularly support and continue to build housing at 30% AMI, at 60% Ami. But this is a bigger picture here that we're looking to address by incentivizing housing, including up 220% AMI, as enabled by the state statute,
okay, and then knowing that there's looking to have a public hearing set soon, or actually, I don't know when the date the requested date is, but like to have that conversation and find out what it would actually take, and if there are any guardrails needed if we were to move the workforce housing into the fast track process as well. That makes sense.
Yes, thank you. And we're happy to have that conversation with yourself and others as well over the coming weeks and at that public hearing, okay, thank you.
Thank you. Council member Benson, Council Member durha. Thank you,
Madam President, through you to member Benson. Happen to know to chair that committee and who sets the agenda, and I'm assuming that public hearing is going to be on the 16th of October. So just for you to know if this is the go through right now, so not to be assumptions. Thank you, Madam President, and I believe there was a motion already on the table.
Okay, I'm sorry I didn't hear you. I said, Thank you, Madam
President. I believe there was a motion already on the table.
Okay, any more discussion? President, pro temp Tate, thank you,
Madam President, just I like the concept completely. Just got a question about it appears that, at least in my read the way that we have deciphered, that the pilot itself city council would not necessarily have any hand in the decision making, but we would get a report afterwards. Is there any pro, any, any, anything in the legislate, legislation that prohibits the local legislative body from having a real time opportunity to review these pilots prior to of them being approved by essentially a department within the city.
Miss Rebecca,
yes, um to pro tem i there. Is no specific language within the state law that requires a process for the approval of the workforce units outside of having an affordability agreement in place of some kind that can restrict those so they don't dictate what that process looks like. That's for the municipality to set and established, and we have run that proposed process by the folks at mishta, who would be approving the exemptions after they've been approved through the department, and they didn't have concerns about the way that we've proposed that and felt that it was in line With the requirements of the statute, you
know? I mean, I understand that they wouldn't. It's they don't have a problem with which is good, and I'm glad you answered the question about the legality of it. But why would?
What could make my concern
my concern that we only get in a report about the pilots, as opposed to actually real time information about these pilots. What could calm that concern, so to speak. And I think my colleague, also, madam president, if
I may, Council Member, durha, thank
you. And so part of the intent of the fast track to get this through is
when we have, can you hear me, yes. A little low.
How about now? Okay, everybody can hear me, yeah. Alright, great. Part of the intent for this ordinance, for specifically the Fast Track portion of it was that, as we look at many developments that have come through the city of Detroit, particularly relative to pilots, because there's a pilot that's already established, as well as other abatements, pa 210s it takes longer, particularly for smaller developers, to get these projects through. So for example, Mr. Eddie, Eddie Carrington in District Four had a project come before us, had an abatement, and it took over two to three years to see that into fruition. And a lot of that happens most of the time because smaller developers lack access to capital as bigger developers do. It takes longer to do these projects, and particularly with certifications and things of that nature. That's why mister was brought up. So when we talk about fast tracking, and then correct me if I'm wrong, Mister bow, this is anything below 80% and I know member Benson, we were talking about opening it up, opening it up, and that was his question. I think in the spirit of the ordinance, we wanted to still have council to have the ability to say anything 80% of or above would come in front of Council, anything below that, which many folks at this table have been talking and advocating for, for affordable housing and pushing particularly those, those developments that fall below 80% been supported with the majority of council sitting at that table. We did that in the spirit of this ordinance, so council would still have the ability anything 80% or above to get get eyes on it. This if it's below 80% we don't necessarily vote on it specifically, but we have that report that will come to us and say, These are the affordable projects within that range that we're able to get through. So I'm speaking more so to the spirit and the intent of it. Member take and for us, one of the reasons during the discussion, as we were building this ordinance out, we wanted to have that report in there so Council could lay eyes on it in totality. And so right now we're looking at pilots. It takes us just to get to the through the initial stage, six to eight months. And that's not, you know, that's, God forbid we don't go on recess or anything like that happens. But in that time we're losing opportunity to build affordable housing. Specifically, this tax abatement is specifically designed for affordable housing. So as we see others that come before us as well, LIHTC are attached to those other pilots that are already on the books, this creates more diversity and allows for different income levels and most specifically workforce housing. So I hope I answered the question a little bit, but that that was pretty much the intent behind it, not to give away our power. But I think I can agree with most folks at this table, and sat at many press conferences with many folks at this table, that as we were pushing for affordable housing or even other developments that come in front of us, we wanted to incentivize developers to at least build affordable housing that's below 80% AMI, thank you, Madam President,
thank you. Thank
you, Madam President, through you to Mr. Chair. So I appreciate and I think it may makes a whole lot of sense for us to have that report I was just trying to understand better, and we can talk about it as we move forward. If this goes through, looks like you got a lot of sponsors on the ordinance, so looks like it's going down for certain, but just looking at it from the standpoint of the council process again, even if it's brought to us prior to the final approval. How do we slow our process? Slow it down for two to three years? And it's part of kind of what I'm often told, or we're told honestly about processes within the city, that our process slows things down. I think we're open. I know I am to making adjustments, but I also want to ensure that we keep an eyeball on on these projects as close to real time as possible,
Madam President, May I respond?
Yes. Go ahead. Rebecca, thank
you to President Pro Tem Tate. I think member durhall explained really well why, why it is important to give developers some of that certainty moving forward. And it is a bit of a shift right from how we've been doing things to ask for the projects right now that are below the 80% AMI or rehabs of vacant structures to be able to rely on that rate and not require council approval. And I you know to your specific question, it's not the City Council, the Detroit City Council process, in and of itself, that is slowing the projects down right? It's the interaction with the state laws and requirements that enable those kind of traditional tax abatements, like any ZS and Oprah that require the public hearings and that require specific timeframes prior to when those can be held. And in addition to the to the council schedule, it's sort of the interaction of those things. Pilots as they as they work currently for the state and federally subsidized properties don't take an enormous amount of time coming through city council, but what happens is that they have to be approved at multiple levels before they can even come to city council. And by putting the rates that a developer and a lender really can look to an underwrite to upfront in the ordinance, it's not just the council process. It's also the fact that it wouldn't need to be underwritten by HRD, by mishta, by the city assessor and then go to Council for approval. So it's not the only part of the process that that we're solving for is the City Council piece. It's the sort of bigger ecosystem of approvals that are all dependent on people looking at those affordable deals with a microscope and weighing in on them that we're asking through the proposal of this ordinance to streamline what we'd like to see is in an environment where to build affordable housing you know what your your tax liability is going to be, and that it's tied to your affordability, and that it would be a fundamental shift from how some of the deals come together now, and we even have some that we're trying to close by the end of this year, where the pilot itself and some of the technical pieces that we have to work through with the assessor's office and the environmental requirements, that's what's slowing down the deal and and pushing them possibly past some funding deadlines. So we want that reliability up front where the developer and the lenders and the investors on the deal don't have to wonder when they're going to get held up, whether it's by the state, whether it's by the assessor, whether it's by city council. So that's what we're trying to address through the proposal to have those rates for Administrative Approval under the ordinance, so long as they meet the requirements, right? We need the affordability and we need quality housing that is going to pass those inspections. And we're saying that if you do those things, you can rely on these rates and use that to move deals faster across the board, not just, not just bypassing a city council vote.
Thank you. And so, like I said, I support, you know what we have here on the table. I'm a legislator, so I'm not part of those other entities that slow down and create the slog. Uh, I'm always going to support our legislative abilities, our legislative powers and legislative rights and and our opportunities to be open and transparent with this information as as much as possible. And so again, I totally understand where and why this this particular ordinance has been put together and put together in this way. I get it. But again, I am a legislator and looking at our process, and it's to your credit, you did mention that our process is not the longest process, it's really a scintilla of of what takes place within those two to three years or so. So again, looking forward to additional dialog as we more than likely move this forward and we'll go from there. Thank you.
Thank you. Member duha, thank you, Madam
President. Through you to President Pro Tem, I would love to have conversations as well. I know your concern is real time, not even just you're a process guy. Come to know that over the few years, serving what you hear, but we can definitely have discussions offline as well, of what that looks like, even though it's administrative. I know there could be a possibility, you know, whether we, you know, talk about it in committee or whatnot when that report comes. So you know where that's coming in real time. I'm very open to that. And again, I know the public hearing will be coming up on the 16th. And so if there are some things that can be tweaked just relative to that, real time reporting, noting that we will not specifically be approving anything under 80 80% Am I believe we can come up with a mechanism and or put something in there that requires, because it's administrative in nature, that reporting to council in a different way. So I'm open to that, and look forward to having those discussions with you as well. Thank you, Madam President, thank
you so really quick. Just question for me for clarity regarding projects under 80% AMI stating that we will not approve them, from my understanding, though, if there is projects that are having that have a pilot paired with any other abatement, for example, an obsolete property exemption, a public facility rehab, the PA 210s that come before council if you're receiving CDBG funding and any other abatements that are tied with the pilot, all of those projects, even if it's Below 80% AMI, will still come before Council for approval, if you can just speak to that, because it's really only one group of projects, and those are projects that specifically only utilize the pilot route alone, that would not come before Council, that have the Fast Track option, but if you pair it with any other abatement, that process still will come before Council. If you can clarify that, please, sure
I'm happy to the pilot works as a payment in lieu of taxes, and so it's an exemption from ad valorem taxes. So it might not be paired on a specific parcel with another abatement, but certainly in a multi phase project, other phases may be seeking a commercial abatement, like a PA 210, as you mentioned, and those would still come before City Council most often, those, those projects that you might see would also be coming to council if we were awarding funding. And many, you know, currently, lots of the projects that are receiving pilots are also applying for funding through the city that would, of course, still come before Council, and then any other required approvals related to entitlements around the development. You may also be seeing those for approval as well. And I'm joined by director Schneider, if she'd like to add
anything, Director Schneider
to the council president, yeah, you're correct. Any any other approval that typically goes through Council now would continue to go through council. So they'll have went through what those, what those might be, but certainly we have the hearings would still take place for anything seeking a Brownfield. Zoning, any variance that might be sought that needs council approval, all of those would processes would still come through Council, as they do today.
All right, thank you. All right. And looking forward to more conversation. Did want to mention we talked a lot about the compliance of the ordinance, which has been very important to me as it relates to any affordable housing project, making sure that we're actually monitoring the incomes in the set aside or the rental amount per person or per rental unit. And so we were able to add the inclusion of the Housing Trust Fund for all penalties for this ordinance that will be placed into that fund. And if Julie, if you can just briefly mention how the compliance will work for this ordinance, as well the monitoring of the units that are set aside for affordable
yes to council president. So HRD currently does monitoring for the developments that we've invested CDBG and HOME IN, and this past year, we started compliance of developments that have received tax abatements and entered into an affordability agreement. So we have we work both internally and externally, so our external partner does income verification with the developments that have either received funding from us or have a an affordability agreement that requires them to offer rental rates at a certain level and rent to households with specific incomes. And then internally, we are receiving those reports, making sure that they're not only in compliance with whatever is laid out in their affordability agreement, but also any additional requirements we might have in terms of unit conditions or anything else that might be a non affordability agreement. So we have both the staff internally and then an external contractor that does that income verification, and that's important because it allows us to protect the personally identifiable information of the people who are renting those units.
Okay, all right. Thank you all so much for that information and looking forward to more discussion on this ordinance. Any additional questions. Okay? Hearing, none. A motion has been made for the scheduling of a public hearing. Excuse me for to introduce to set the public hearing. Any objections? Hearing, no objections. That action will be taken. I
Okay, all right, so we go back to the first motion to introduce the ordinance. Member
President, thank you. I made a motion to move the ordinance, and I made a motion that the ordinance be read twice by title order, printed and laid on the table. That was the motion. On the table,
okay, and Hearing no objections, that action will be taken discussion. Council member Benson that
is really looking forward to the conversation and just really want to reinforce that is critical that we support our dental hygienist our pharmacy techs and our entry level fire department and bus drivers as well. We have to support that group when it comes to housing also. Thank you
from the law department.
Council member Doha, joined by Council President Mary Sheffield, Council Member Mary waters and council member young a resolution setting the public hearing. Line item 16.3, Council
Member duraha, thank you, Madam
President, I moved to set a public hearing for Wednesday, October 16, 2024,
hearing, no objections. The resolution will be approved for the scheduling of a public hearing from the office of the city clerk, City Planning Commission.
Council Member durhall, a resolution line item 16.4
council member durha, thank you,
Madam President, this is a resolution of authorization for a neighborhood enterprise zone certificate, application for the rehabilitation of a four unit building of 5122 West Chicago and the northern Park neighborhood enterprise zone area has been recommended for approval by the CPC, as well as committee Move for approval for line item 16.4,
any objections, Hearing no objections, the one resolution will be approved,
Madam President, I'd like to request waivers for line items 16.1 and 16.4 line item 16.1 was the contract that we voted on to provide an extension of time for FEMA disaster recovery. And of course, line item 16.4 is the NEC certificate.
Okay, any objections to a waiver hearing, none that action will be taken for the internal operations standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement,
Council Member Johnson, three resolutions, line item 17.1 through 17.3 and noting that nine item 17.3 was report out of committee without recommendation. First up is contract number 6006480, 100% city funding to provide representation to the IRS and state of Michigan for payroll tax matters. Contractor Barry, Mormon professional corporation. Total contract amount 22,800, that's for law. Next contract is contract number 6006370, 100% city bonding to provide background screening services. Contractor, magnet, quick, LLC, total contract amount 110,000 that's for human resources. Last contract is contract number 6006363, 100% city funding to provide Employee Benefit Administration Services. Contractor Wex health incorporated total contract amount, 654,000 that's for human resources. Council member Johnson, three resolutions.
Thank you, Madam Clerk. Council member Johnson,
thank you, Madam President, Move for approval on line item 17.1 through 17.3
okay. Discussion, any discussion? Council member Callaway,
thank you so much, Madam Chair. Um, line item 17.1 was a contract for law firm regarding payroll tax matters and IRS matters. I helped this in August, and it's come. It came before internal ops last week, all of my questions have been answered by the law department Madam Chair. I also had line item 17.2 to come back regarding background screenings. This is a contract from HR. All of my questions for line item 17.2 have been answered, and then respect to line item 17.3 I also held this contract during August, the summer recess, I was just concerned with the number of lapsed contracts coming out of the HR department. I did have an opportunity to talk to Director Stahl and director star. I'm still not satisfied with how contracts are continuing, even when they've lapsed, they're continuing. They haven't been renewed, they're just continuing. And we're caught between a rock and a hard place, because we have to continue these services. So I've had several conversations with Director star. I'm hoping they will tighten up their systems, but this contract was held by me in August, and I'm going to be a no on this, because it's just it needs to stop the pattern. Needs to stop with us continuing contracts and not renewing them. They're just continuing without the proper renewal process. So thank you, Madam Chair,
thank you so much. Council member, Calloway, President, pro tem Tate,
thank you, Madam President. Share some of that same sentiment. Again, it's important to let the body know close to real time, it's possible that these contracts are expiring. I think it's incredibly important to ensure that we have this service. So I understand what we're up against at this moment for certain, but to find out when we found out, and how we found out that we were behind, if you will, on this particular contract is I'm not pleased with that. So I have also voiced my concern with the director, and I'm looking for some level of accountability, certainly moving forward if this type of situation happens again, there was no real dialog about the fact that this was so so far behind, if you will, for a renewal and Again, not pleased with the way that we found out. We found out had the conversation looking for again, the level of accountability that we have not had before, if this situation arises moving forward. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Pro Tem and director star also did send over some information to me as well, and it may be helpful if Mr. Washington, Washington, do we have someone on, or director Starr that can come on and just reassure us of how this is not going to happen moving forward, or someone for procurement that can give a verbal response today as to how we're going to address this issue of letting contracts lapse, and then we're put in a situation where we have to continue to continue contracts at The last minute. So if someone on who can just briefly address this situation, please.
Yes, Madam Chair, we
do have director Star Online, as well as Chris Jones from OCP.
Okay, we can bring both of them over. Please. You.
Hi, Chris Jones, OCP,
right director, Star
Denise star, HR, Director,
all right, if you can just give us some reassurance as to the questions and concerns that have been raised by member Callaway, member protein Tate and probably numerous of my colleagues regarding the situation that we're in today.
Uh, yes, through the Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. I am certainly, you know, not pleased either that this is coming to council in the way that it is. I do assure you that if this situation should ever arise, we will give Council a heads up of where we are in the process in this particular situation, as you may have seen from the document that HR and procurement sent to each of your offices late yesterday, this was a unique situation. Wex purchased or merged with benefits Express, which was the company. Back in they started that process back around October of 2023 our contract expired in December of 23 their acquisition was not complete yet, and they could not sign any contract with us in April, they finally the the acquisition merger completed, but their clearances had expired. So then we went back and asked the company to on with OCP to complete those requirements, which they did. But then we came across, you know, upon July, and that was during recess. We did submit it and and then it was brought back in September. We don't have control over acquisitions and mergers. Fortunately, they don't happen that often. I don't foresee something like this occurring in the future, but I do want to give you reassurance that if anything happens like this in the future, we will make sure that we bring it forward so that there is awareness at every step of the process. All right.
Thank you so much. Director star, yes. Council member Calloway, yeah.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you, Director star, had I not held this in August, you know, this would have just gotten approved. And before we bring these types of contracts before the council, just give us background information, because I'm going to ask questions. Everybody knows I'm going to ask questions, and so I'm not. I'm never going to stop asking questions. And so even people think we're on recess, we're not doing anything. We are doing something. We're reading contracts. And so if you had just simply someone from your staff had reached out to this body, we wouldn't be here today. It could have been resolved. It could have been voted on, and not have to be brought back and publicized like this. So I'm hoping that we can improve our systems and processes. HRS critical to the city, and these contracts are critical to the employees who work in the city and live in the city. So thank you, Madam Chair, thank you Director Stark,
thank you so much. All right, any additional questions or comments regarding these items? All right, hearing no questions or comments. A motion has been made for approval for 17.1 from 17.3 any objections?
Okay. I am an objection on line item 17.3, thank you.
The clerk would know.
Clerk will So note, Madam President,
all right, and hearing no further objections, the three resolutions will be approved. All right. Thank you. Denise director, thank you from the law department.
Council member Johnson, 11 resolutions line item 17.4 through 17 point 14.
Council member Johnson,
thank you, Madam President. Move for approval online, item 17.4 through 17 point 14. These are various lawsuits, settlement requests and requests for legal representation and indemnification, right.
Any objections? Objection member, Santiago Romero, 17 points 12 and 17 point 14. Clerk would know. Clerk will still note, Madam
President,
Madam Chair, discussion.
We're in the middle of a vote now. Thank you. Soon as we finish, we can go back if we need to, and we're moving line item, 17.4 to 17 point 14, all lawsuits and settlements.
Madam President, objection to 17 point 13 as well.
The clerk would know. Clerk will So note, mad president,
any additional objections, hearing no further objections. The resolutions will the 11 resolutions will be approved. And member Callaway, did you have a discussion on those?
Yeah, just line item. Thank you, Madam Chair, 17 point 12. I'm not sure that we can. I mean, the Chief of Police has issues with this. I mean, I'm reading something and it says the chief of police, I don't know if he's in agreement with this or not, so I don't know not that I'm I don't know if I'm reading my annotations wrong, but I don't know if we can discuss it now, but I don't know if he is approving this or he's online with this. Those Okay, that's in my annotations. So okay,
mines does not say it for this case, but this should have went through committee. Was it discussed in committee? Line item 17, point 12, Mr. Graham, Attorney Graham, I see you online as well. Yes,
through the chair Graham Anderson law department. But my reading of this is it says it as a recommendation to approve by the chief police, but I'm happy if we need a reconsideration for further discussion, if there's any confusion,
no need for that. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, no need for that. Okay,
okay, okay.
Thank you attorney Graham, thank
you council president. Thank you. Councilwoman. Callaway,
okay, under resolutions.
Council member waters, a resolution. Line item 17, point 15. Council member waters,
thank you, Madam President, I move approval. This is just reappointing. Latosha Patman, to the Board of Review.
Alright, any objections?
Discussion? Madam Chair, yes. Madam Chair, while we were interviewing the wonderful doctor Patman, we also brought up the fact that they need mileage. And I don't know if that can be talked about now we need, if we need to go ahead and vote on this, but during her interview, she talks about all the driving that she's doing. And so I think I asked LPD last Wednesday, I think I submitted a memo, if I'm not mistaken, to look into mileage issues with these representatives on these boards, because this particular board member is doing a lot of driving. And I asked her, you know whether or not she's getting miles, she says, No. So I'm hoping that LPD did get that memorandum, but thank you. Madam Chair, yep,
I did see it, so I'm assuming that LPD did see it as well, and we they're preparing it. Thank
you. Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you Miss Witter, right,
thank you so much. Member. Callaway, all right. If there are no objections, we will proceed with the approval of the resolution for the appointment to the Board of Review and Hearing no objections, that resolution will be approved.
Madam President, request a waiver. Okay?
Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to line item 17 point 15, for the Planning and Economic Development standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement
council president pro tem James Tate. Two resolutions, line items, 18.1 and 18.2 first up is contract number 6006298, 100% grant funding to provide technical assistance for the grants management of Hood funded programs, contractor, gatehouse strategies, LLC, total contract amount 200,000 that's for housing and revitalization. Next contract is contract number 6006535, 100% CDBG, Dr funding to provide services for a master plan of policies, equity and resiliency into integration planning study, total contract amount 500,000 that's for Planning and Development Council President Pro Tem Tate, two resolutions.
Thank you. Madam Clerk president, pro temp Tate. Madam
President, I move approval of line items 18.1 and 18.2 please.
All right, any discussion on these items? Discussion council member Benson through
yourself to the administration on Item 18.1 looking at consulting services for our grants management of CDBG programs. Just how we're going to leverage that into better process, into more money for our grants. How do we find that? How do we add value to our residents through this contract?
Mister Washington,
Yes, Madam Chair, we
have Nicole wise online.
Okay? We will promote Miss Nicole Weiss
Madam Chair, if we can promote director Schneider as well. Okay.
Good. Afternoon, Madam President, good afternoon. Nicole wise with HRD, and we also have our director on Julie Schneider,
all right. Thank you. Were you able to hear member Benson's question?
I believe so. But through the
Chair, if we can have him just repeat his question.
Thank you online, I'm 18.1 looking at a consulting contract funded by HUD grant dollars CDBG to support our HUD grant funded programs. Just how are we adding value to the process and leveraging these dollars to extend or minimize problems within any of our programs? Want to make sure we're adding value and not just hiring consultants to hire hire consultants
through the chair to council member Benson. I appreciate the question, and it is the reason that we are actually looking to procure and contract for these services. Kind of goes right to your question. So I believe the council may be familiar with the fact that HRD, as the administrator of HUD funding, gets monitored pretty regularly, typically once annually by by HUD. In 2021 we did receive some it was a rather extensive audit. I believe four programs were audited, and we had or monitored, and we had a number of findings. Since that time, we've worked really hard to address those findings and get into much better standing with HUD. When you do that, you you increase your your when you increase your stand with HUD, you decreased your risk rating, which helps you be more competitive with funding. So there's two, two things that help, two things happen through this, through this contract, one, we make sure that we are doing reviews of our programs to identify any places that need to be improved, where capacity needs to be increased, where we need to really add to the strength and capacity of the organization. But at the same time, in so doing, we increase our competitiveness for federal funds, so we decrease the risk of audit findings or monitoring findings, and we increase the our ability to to capture additional funds for the city.
Okay, thank you. It's very helpful.
Thank you. And to miss wise. Do you know where exactly cloud burst is located in the reasoning why they pulled out of this particular process and other they scored one, they were the first place in the procurement process with 100 points and withdrew their proposal. Can you speak to that? Actually,
Madam Chair, I
would ask that our buyer, from office of contract and procurement procurement, they would know the reasoning for their for them pulling out their proposal. I think Christopher Jones is on.
If we can, Please promote Christopher Jones. Please, Director Schneider, were you going to respond as well
to the chair. I was going to say, Mr. Jones was okay.
Mr. Jones, can you give more information regarding why that proposal was withdrawn
through the chair? I could forward that information over to you. They did say they had some type of conflict. But again, that's just going on from memory. I'll be glad to forward that information to you, detailing the exact the exact reason. Okay, if
you could please forward that please, that'd be great. Benson, where you done with your questions? Done. Okay, all right. Thank you all for being here. And any additional questions or concerns on these two line items. Carrying no questions or concerns, a motion has been made for approval for 18.1 and 18.2 any objections, Hearing no objections, the two resolutions will be approved.
President, yes. Quest for a waiver online item, 18.2
please.
Is one meeting. Okay, I'm going to object away from that one in on 18.2
The clerk will note. Clerk will So note, madam. President, okay,
thank you from the planning and development department Council
President, pro tem James Tate, five resolutions, line items, 18.3 through 18.7
President Pro Tem Tate, President,
move approval of line items, 18.3 through 18.7 Yes. Discussion,
all right.
Motion has been made for approval and discussion. Member Benson,
thank you. To yourself. To the Administration, has there been any accommodations made for the community that lives behind the airport for replacement of the park in that area?
Mr. Washington, Yes, Madam Chair, if
we could promote John trong. I
Good afternoon. This is John trong, the housing and revitalization department. Um through the chair. If you don't mind, could I, could I get the question repeated? I didn't hear a part of it when I was getting elevated council
member Vincent. Just, has
there been any accommodations made to the community regarding the replacement of the park on Mount Olivet and French
through the chair to council member Benson. Unfortunately, I don't have a clear answer for that. I'll have to defer back to the general service department the parks.
Are they available? I
for the chair, yes,
yes. I don't believe they're available at this time, but if we can bring it back to the to the end of the agenda, I can reach out
motion to bring back 18.5 at the end,
right? So we will postpone. I I say 18.5
you're not a postponement. Just, I'm sorry to the end, not a postponement. Just
moved to move it to the end of the agenda. Line item, 18.5 Hearing no objections, we will move this to the end of the agenda. And council member Young,
thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to ask a question about line item 18.3 I just want to know what is the status of this project. We talked about this a lot. We've gone back and forth with the community about this a lot. I just want to know. I have a problem with the easement. I just want to know what is the status of the project, and will we be receiving any updates on this after this easement is issued
through the chair to council member young Ali, will have to get the answer from MDOT on the timeline, I can go into the consent to grade construction easement. There is a timeline in there, if you give me one second here, or if you want to move this to the end,
to the present. I mean, you will have to give it to me right away. If you could just email it to my office, you know. I mean, I'm not trying to put you on the clock here, on the spotlight. I just really want to know, just in general, what is the plan for this. You know what I mean? Because we're seeing this, we're seeing it move forward, I just want to know what the plan with this, what's the community engagement been like for this? I have some questions of all this, some other things about where they're going to get the dirt fill this. What's the cost for that going to be? You know? What about minority business involvement along the area, is it going to coincide with Paradise Valley and black bottom? Reimagining that through this project, I thought that was part of this project, not reparations, but just a part of reimagining what the freeways that have been built through those neighborhoods. We're trying to restore that, not just from an economic standpoint, from a small business standpoint, and from an investment in the African American community standpoint, as well as the monetization of African American History, but just from a historical standpoint. I thought this is something that was going to be revitalized so that we could have that opportunity and right that wrong. So I just want to know what I'm not I'm not asking you to answer all those questions right now. I just think that that's something I would like to have someone represented from MDOT come down here at some point in time and have that conversation. I'm going to vote for this, but I just like have update on where we are in the project general, because I don't want to vote for this did not happen.
Understood. I will connect you with MDOT representative that we've been working with.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, I'm
done. All right. Thank you. Any additional questions or comments on these property sales? Okay? Hearing no concerns, any objections. Hearing, no objections. The five resolutions will be approved. I can have a waiver. Proton, 18.6
presidential, 18.5 a waiver online item, 18.5
I'm giving you the wrong one. Sorry. I'm sorry. We call 18.5 we postpone that one. Hold on, it's 18.4
as a request for a waiver online, I'm 18.4
Thank you. All right, Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to line item 18.4
Madam President,
request waiver for line item 18.7
request. For a waiver on 18.7 Hearing no objections, that action will be taken. All right, moving along to the public health and safety standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement Council
Member Santiago Romero to 10 resolutions, line items 19.1 through 19 point 10, noting that line items 19.2 through four or postponed from last week formal session. First up is contract number 3003. Excuse me, 3077562. 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the commercial property at 6559, West Grand River, aka building 101, front only, with basement back refill. Contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $219,702 that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 3077583, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the commercial property. 2037, Buchanan with basement backfield contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $85,980.11 cent. That's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 3077600, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the commercial property. 12818, Woodrow Wilson with basement, backfield contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $373,221.04 cent as for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 3074393, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition. But a commercial property, 9000 Oakland with basement backfield at 9000 through 9006 Oakland with sidewalk repairs at 9000 through 90. Contractor is Adamo demolition company. Total contract amount, $153,122 and dollars and 60 cent as for construction and demolition. Contract Number 3077875, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for commercial property. 5505, East Davidson contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $196,380 that's for construction and demolition. Next contract, which is line item 19.6 contract number 307940, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for the commercial property, 6600, Mac with basement, backfield contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $187,361.05 cent that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 60064291, 6006429, 100% bond funding to provide a proposal in trash, out, release, one group, 120, just 24 properties, contractor, infrastructure, Environmental Services, LLC, total contract amount, $87,987.14 cent that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 3077599, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for commercial property at 5818, Dubois building 102, with basement backfield contractor, Adamo demolition company. Total contract, amount, $268,839.82 cent that's for construction and demolition. Next contract, contract number 3076602, 100% city funding to provide payment for fiduciary services. Contractor, Black Family Development Incorporated. Total contract amount $57,586.70 cent that's for health. Last contract is contract number 3077608, 100% city funding to provide payment and release of further claims for services rendered. Contractor, coherent RX, Incorporated, total contract amount $1,330,857.40 cent. That's for health. Council Member Santiago Romero, 10 resolutions,
right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Council member, Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, motion to approve line items 19.1
through
19.8
right? I know there will be discussion on these items. Some were postponed from last week, and remember Callaway. Did you want to give us an update? Yes.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I ask that these be postponed until today. They are line items, 19.1 19.3 19.4 19.6 and 19.8 these are all regarding the discovery of basements. After a contractor has agreed to a certain amount, they returned to the city to this honorable body asking for additional amounts to add to their contract because they discovered a basement. We had a very lengthy discussion last week with the director lawn counts of construction and demolition, which brings us here today. Line item seven. 19.1 was originally $164,000
they discovered a basement. They added $54,000 19.3 was $210,000 they discovered a basement. $162,000 would be added to that contract. Line item 19.4 was $74,000
they added $77,000 because they discovered a basement. 19.6 $110,000 was, was the original amount of the contract. They discovered a basement. They added $76,000 and then line item 19.8 $202,000 to tear down a structure. They discovered a basement. They attached 66,000 so but for my questions, they've added 430 $800,000 to contracts, and that's why we were just, this is what we were discussing last week. So my staff and I got to work. We went to the fourth quarter the fourth floor of this building. There's a huge car catalog. It describes properties, whether or not they're brick, they're framed, card catalog. I called DFD because I know they had a fleet of brand new drones. Because the main concern last week was the safety of individuals going to these properties to survey, to survey. Because if a contractor is going to bid on a a property to demolish it, I would think that contractor would know before they bid on it, what's there. That has not been the case in the city. I called DFD So Madam Chair, if you will, allow me these people are ready to answer a couple questions. I have spoken to special project manager anthony Watts, if he's available, Madam Chair, I'd like for him to come on. He has 15 drones through DFD, which can detect basements and other things that are inside of buildings. He assured me that they could do that. So if he's available, I'd like for him to come on. Janice Chapman, she has access to all of the blueprints for structures here in the city. It also will let you know whether or not there's a basement. Tony lemon, I think she's here. I've spoken to Director Stahl. All of these department heads have been in discussions with each other, so all agree that basements can be discovered, possibly with drones and other technology, which member young brought up last week. So if these individuals can, please come on. I'm just going to ask a couple questions so we can get to the bottom of this. All
right, thank you. Member Calloway, and I do see Mr. Watts is on. And here, if you have all the other names to promote, you see those individuals on. I see Miss limit here.
Tony limit from office of contracts and procurement special project manager, anthony Watts from the Detroit Fire Department, if there is someone on from BC they're a part of this.
And Janice Chapman, Miss Chapman, is there, so you want to check and see if she's she's not online, okay, all right, Miss lemon, if you want to come down, thank
you, Madam Chair. You
here. Good morning through the chair tony stewart limit, Deputy Chief Procurement Officer from the Office of contractor
procurement now I see director counts is here as well. Do you want to join us down here? Director count?
And also, madam chair is special project manager from the Detroit Fire Department on Commissioner anthony Watts
is online. He's on virtually. Okay, great. Thank you. All right, so we can just state your names and titles, and if you want to just respond to member Callaway, and what we have discovered, possibly been able to use technology to address this issue.
Wine counts, director of the construction and demolition department, okay,
did you all want to respond?
Um, so I guess I'll let you respond first. Um,
through the Chair. Good afternoon. I am director anthony Watts with Detroit fire Okay. Councilwoman Callaway reached out to me and I was I was more than happy to share our resources. Currently, DFD has 14 skydio X, 2e drones that we are using for fire operations, and so we will be happy to share those with with direct accounts. I actually reached out to her today to try to put something together. The only hang up that we have right now, and I've worked to address that, we have a sea OGS agreement that does not speak to those use cases. I have updated that document, and I will be submitting that to you for amendment, but with the permission of the group, we would absolutely love to share that technology with the with direct counts.
All right, thank you, Mr. Watts, Director counts, anything you would like to respond.
So after the conversation that we had, I'm sorry, through the chair, after the conversation that we had last week, I'm with this body, we actively started to engage with the resources that council member Callaway has started to open up for us. The very first thing that we reached out to was the fire marshal, or for the Fire Marshal's inspection team, was to be able to identify all of the locations that they had inspected and to be able to see if we could use their resources to determine not only if the brace basements were present, but also the volume, because that's the biggest issue, and when we start to talk about these basements, is how much backfill are we actually putting in? It's one thing to be able to identify the basement. We need to be able to know how much feel we're putting in the basements. So we did reach out to fire their response was where we could tell you about some of them. We are not able to actually inspect all 14,000 locations across the city, and so where they can support us, they will. I did send them our current list. We currently have four emergency demos that are out that I'm trying to gain that information before we actually reach final bid with those contractors. Our normal process requires the contractors to bid, getting the buildings down and the load out. They do provide their backfill volume cost up front, so we do know what those numbers are prior to the backfill taking place. Once the building is down and we're able to actually identify how much of a basement exists, we have a third party who's responsible for determining what the volumes are. So the contractors are not given that responsibility. We have a third party consultant who's responsible for providing that information to us, and then they're already provided cost is what's applied towards the actual backfield that's necessary. So it's not a situation where the contractors are able to kind of run wild with their pricing after the fact, and we found this to be the most efficient way to do it, because it allows us to get the property down as quickly as we can and then work out the details about the backfill. And it's the safest manner for everyone involved. But understanding that there was a concern from this body, we continue to even go further, we did receive the I did receive contact from the drone unit from DFD, and I provided them with those lists of properties as well. Again, I need for the drone to be able to tell me, not only if the basement is present, but the volume in which we have to have the contractors bid out so we continue to the other thing I did too is I started trying to actually get the phone numbers to reach out to some of these owners to see if they were able to provide us with this information as well. So we have been actively trying to reach some sort of middle ground with this body so that we can give you some assurances that we are trying to identify them as much as best we can ahead of time. But the ultimate issue is that we're just not able to actually get into these locations. If these were more like our schedule demos, where we are actually able to go in and provide the square footage up front, we were able to give those numbers better, hence why we don't have the the additional or the change order costs associated with these basements. So through the chair as an additional resolution, once director counts and her staff received that information, will now put those back out for bid, and we'll allow the contractors to bid on that, and we'll take the lowest bidder who can provide the backfill and everything that director's counts office is looking
for. So it won't be just an extension to an existing contract. I thought about that before, but I thought that would make the process longer. How does that delay the demolition? I mean, just the process to rebid it out again. Because when you originally mentioned this member, Callaway, I thought about, well, maybe we could just rebid that backfill portion. But how does that delay the process and interrupt the whole demolition process itself? So
through the chair, it will delay the process. It'll, it'll, it'll. It basically means we'll have an open hole longer, okay,
and then rebidding. So, I mean, I think it's a great topic to dive deeper in to figure out what the middle ground is and what the solution is. Are you saying moving forward? You are going to move forward now with rebidding the basement backup portion. Or is that a solution you're recommending to council
through the chair? Our current plan is that we're going to be bidding out those basement backfills separately. Okay?
And how long does that take, though, if the hole will be open for how long? So how long does that rebidding process take place.
So typically,
for an emergency demo, we are actively in demo in seven to 10 days in that where 14 days is the max from the time that we open the hole to the demo is complete, we reach open hole approval and we have to do the backfill. So 14 days is the max at the hole should be open. It is sometimes it goes beyond that. The intent would be to try and keep it as close to that, although with this additional possible two to three days for allowing for for contractors to bid the open hole, it is going to at least extend it that much, an additional two to three days. Okay, I thought it
would be longer than that, two to three days. I thought it's not as bad. Okay. Member Callaway, yeah, thank
you, Madam Chair, this is improvement for me. But through the Chair, I want to go back to the special project manager anthony Watts. Now we're talking about, I guess, depth of the structure and how much backfill will be needed to cover the basement that was newly discovered, my question would be to You, sir, can a drone, and I don't know anything about technology? No, absolutely not nothing about drones, until I started talking to you last week. You're the expert. Does a drone, to your knowledge, have the capability of hovering over a structure, or going into the structure and taking any type of measure, measurements, in terms of depth, dimensions, measurements, what could, what is the possible? What is the capability of the drones that you have? And are there drones that do exist, that may not be in your fleet, that could take these types of measurements, that can continue to, you know, keep the project on track.
So, yeah, so through the chair. So the drones that we have are a little larger drones, and so they can do kind of fly over, and we can get guesstimates on the the spacing and the sizes based on the mapping that we have in in the ones that that we own now, they have thermal imaging capability as well as night vision, but the ones that we discussed are the ones that I think would work best, would be the first person view drones, which are smaller, and they'll allow us to actually access the interior of the building, and those are some that we've investigated for our own inspections. We don't have those yet. I can look into to finding potentially some that we could use for that purpose, but the first person view would allow a more intense or a closer look at at the structure interior.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. I don't know what your specials project manager wants.
Just Tony is fine. Okay, so I
would like to, after we have this discussion, find ARPA dollars to support what you're saying you need. Because we do have ARPA dollars left, and this would be a prime example of good use of those funds in these types of situations to save we the taxpayer money. And so I'm definitely going to make a request for that, that our dollars be set aside for what you need so we can continue to do our job to support demolition and construction. Construction, demolition, the Office of contract and procurement and all other departments that touch the demolition of commercial and residential property, properties in the city, we're trying to save the residents like me taxpayer dollars. That's all we want to do. We want to make sure that we are being fiscal, fiscally responsible, and until we brought this up last week, it would have continued when I knew there was a way, because it's happening in other cities where these drones are being used for these types of purposes. So I we're we're on the right track. I appreciate these conversations. We do have more work to do, but we're on the right track, so we're hoping I'm going to make a request that we get ARPA dollars to buy those loans that you just mentioned, and I did you. Did you call them first person? What?
First Person FPV, first person viewer?
Okay,
yes. All right.
I appreciate you coming on, Madam Chair. I don't have any other questions. I'm just thrilled that we can use these drones to address these purposes that I've been screaming about since I joined this council. I knew there was a way that we can discover basements and also through the chair. I think I asked LPD to look into whether or not it's the city's responsibility to discover the basement or the contractor, because it's like as a contractor, I don't know how you can bid when you haven't even gone out to the property to survey it. I don't understand that for the life of me and I it's not about the property being safe or not. Is your is your responsibility as a contractor, and I'm not a contractor, I would think to go out and survey, pre survey a property that you're planning to bid on. So I don't know, I don't even know how you bid on something. You don't even know what's there. So we're going to get to the bottom of that as well. So I think I gave that assignment to LPD last week to let us know whether or not it's the city's responsibility or the contractor's responsibility to pre survey properties and to make that determination in terms of whether or not there's a basement there or any other item or structure at these locations. So thank you, Madam Chair, thank you Mr. Watts, thank you Director counts and Tony Lams, I don't have any other questions. I don't know if Janice Chapman is on the call.
No, we looked and she is not. Is that correct? Paris, yep, we don't see Miss Jack, okay.
Well, I've had all my questions answered. I'm looking forward to us continuing these conversations and making adjustments and improvements in this area. Thank you. Madam Chair,
all right, thank you so much. Member Callaway, Council Member Young,
thank you, Madam President. I especially want to thank member Callaway for embracing technology. I appreciate that. I just want to just just say, just more of a statement. I just wanted to ask Mr. Watts that I agree with the first person drones. I just want you just hopefully that when you're when they're when the city is making administration, making this bid, that we also make an effort to reach out to the National League, as well as the Independent Business Association, so they'll make sure that we have more participation, or at least try to increase participation of African Americans. Within this space, there's a lot of people that have opportunity, a lot have the skill set, they have the ability, they just don't have the opportunity. So I really think this be an opportunity for us to be able to expand that. I also think it's an opportunity for us to be able to partner with dpscd as well so that our kids can learn about this technology, and so they can get into the fields of STEM where I could be important. So I just want to say thank you for utilizing this idea. I appreciate even the modernization of city Detroit. We just want to make sure as many people in the city of Troy can participate as well. Thank you. Thank you. And
Madam Chair, Janice Chapman is on the line. She said her numbers, 313-446-2058, she says she's been on on hold,
and she must not be under Miss Chapman, which is why we Paris probably couldn't recognize who she is. She says she's on the line. So we want to raise her last she can raise her hand, then that way we can know who can
you? Raise your hand, Miss Chapman,
she's under what Paris?
I pH,
okay. We will promote Miss Chapman. Thank
you, Madam Chair, thank you Miss bless my
actually been promoted. Okay, Miss Chapman, are you with us? If you can just turn your camera on.
Good afternoon. Miss Chapman, okay, she's been promoted. So, Miss Chapman, I'm not sure if you can hear us, but you are there. Okay, so we tried to promote Miss Chapman, she is not I'm not sure what's going on with her audio, but I think that this warrants further discussion, just in general, that won't be soft here today, but I do appreciate the effort of member Callaway for raising the issue, and then you all for all following up to try to find a middle ground to the solution here. So looking forward to what comes out of these discussions, member Callaway and however we can all be supportive to figure out how we can save money, yes, and make this more efficient. We appreciate it. Yes. Okay,
thank you, Madam Chair.
So thank you to both of you all for being here, and we will continue to follow up with you all, and to Mr. And Mr. Watts as well. Thank you, Mr. Watts for your efforts as well on this. All right, you're very welcome. Thank you.
I'm here,
if you can hear me. Finally, Miss Chapman, yes, I
apologize. I don't know what's going on
today, so
can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Yes,
I just wanted to. And my camera. I'm they're doing my my computer is up. We are done. So I'm using my phone. I apologize. Just very quickly, and the BC in the buildings and safety on the fourth floor, there's a card catalog, I think Councilwoman Callaway spoke to that issue, which offers that there, if we can get the original permit number, the address, the lot and the date of the permit was issued, if that information can be given to our staff and here Dallas, here at H, dab at H, historic distribution Advisory Board, if that's the original permit, we can pull that up and find out the number of stories the building is, whether or not it was a basement, the cost just contractor or indoor architect. So that information is available with with an original permit number. If they can get that to us, and those are doing demos that they can get, get that information to us right away, we can fulfill that that that instrument, you know, get that information to the vendors as quickly as possible.
Alright? Thank you. Yes,
we don't have, and I just want to clarify one thing, we don't have blueprints of every building, just major buildings in the city of Detroit, some commercial buildings, churches and schools. But unfortunately, we don't have building blueprints for individual homes. Those unfortunately were lost before I arrived, and that's been over 30 years, so we haven't had Thank you.
Thank you. Miss Chapman, yes. Member Callaway, yeah.
Madam Chair, I have one question before Miss Chapman leaves under when I went down to look at the archives, think is on the fourth floor here in kmac, my staff and I, we went through the car catalog. Some of our information is in Lansing. Do you know what is housed in Lansing? Lansing
just has a duplicate copy of everything we have in our office.
Okay, does Lansing have anything that you don't have in your office that
no, okay, so
not at all. You just said that through the chair. You just said that we're missing documents. So right,
but that no that Lansing got those, those were missing prior to lasting you making copies of that information. I apologize through the chair. We do everything that Lansing has they got from us to as a way of protecting and holding onto in some if case, something happens to the documents we had in our in our office. So that's what they have. They have a copy of what we have in our office.
Okay, through the chair to ms Chapman, what does the library of archives have here in kmac that you don't have? Because that's where my staff and I went last week.
Now what you're talking about the car catalog. Yes, yeah, the car catalog just is cataloging. There is a card issued for, hopefully for, for the want to permit is issued to a a contractor and or an architect or a homeowner that card kettle and they put certain information on that. That's what they have. In any alterations, there may be additional cards which identify and talk about the date of alterations of any built of any major buildings or many of the commercial buildings that have been taking place. So that's what they have. What we have are the original the copies of the original permit, and they're on a microfilm. So that's why they're so they're very delicate, because they don't exist in paper form anywhere else. So we have one of the old fashioned machines in our office that we go through based upon the original permit number, because we have to have the original permit number, the date that the permit was issued, and the and and the the address. So those three things are a must as well, excuse me, and the lot law and the lot those things are the things that you looked at in the on the fourth floor, in the building catalog, in the permit catalog on the fourth floor, those were the information that they gave you.
Okay, thank you so much. Miss Chapman, thank you, Madam Chair.
All right. Thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Chapman, you all right. We will now proceed. Council Member Santiago Ramiro has moved line items 19.1 through 19.8 for approval. Are there any objections? Objection? Madam Chair,
the clerk would note. Clerk will So note. Madam President,
which on all items?
Council member Callaway, objects to line item, 19.1 19.3 19.4 19.6 and 19.8 Madam Chair, thank you.
The clerk would know. Member, Santiago Romero,
Objection, 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.7 and 19.8
the clerk would note, clerk will sell No
Madam President,
all right, hearing no further objections. The resolutions will be approved. Council Member Santiago Ramiro, motion to approve 19.9
and 19 point 10.
Motion has been made for 19.9 and 19 point 10. Are there any objections?
Discussion, Madam Chair,
yes. Discussion member Calloway,
yeah. Line, thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Line item, 19, point 10, I'm going to ask if they can answer my questions. Now, I have quite a few questions regarding this particular contract. It expired in 2022 and it wasn't renewed for services, but continued through 2023 and this is the company out in Troy, Michigan, and it has to do with, I guess, covid services. I just need more information, and I don't know if we, if I can, maybe I can postpone it for a week. Madam Chair, through you to member Santiago, remember, because Romero, because I have quite a few questions. Mister Washington, Yes, Madam Chair,
we do have Deputy Director Christina Floyd online, as well as Jim Glavin from OCP. All
right, we want to promote both of those individuals. I
All right, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Jim blavin Officer, contracting procurement,
alright? Christina Floyd, Deputy Director of Public Health for the Detroit health department, all
right, if you all can just provide a little bit more context to the contract for line item 19 point 10, regarding the payment of services that were rendered during the covid 19 and where we are today with this contract, please
this through the through the chair to member Callaway. This is not a new contract. This is a payment for services rendered. We are no longer using this vendor. We unless there's another pandemic, God forbid, we wouldn't see a need to use them in the future. They were our vaccination appointment scheduling vendor. When covid broke out, we looked at a number of vendors back in 2020, settled on this vendor as they were relatively local versus a vendor from California, and we had a contract with them. We had appeals with them that expired back in late 2022 but unfortunately, services were requested by individuals who are no longer with the city out of the health department for continued services. They invoiced us last year, and we have literally spent the last year reviewing the invoice meeting and determining what we owed them for the services they did provide under the previous contract. And then post contract they initially asked for 1.7 8 million. And the department, along with OCP, did an in depth review of all the invoices, line by line, and settled that the appropriate amount that we owed is the 1.3 3 million. And the agreement we have is this a settlement saying we're paying you this for everything you did, and you are barred from asking for any more money. Down the road, you discover other services, invoices, you cannot charge us for them. We are done, and we are no longer using you. All
right. Thank you. Member Callaway,
yes. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, my question is, if the contract expired in 2022 why did it continue through 2023 I don't understand. It expired in 2022 services weren't renewed, but they continue to build the city through 2023 and that's why they invoices for $1.7 million and you all negotiated it down when you went through your invoices to $1.3 million how does this happen?
Through the Chair to member Callaway? It's more of a departmental question, but in a nutshell, the department continued using their services after the contract expired, and that's why we continued running up the bill when the bill was found out. You know, services were rendered were ended, and we've, you know, we're working on, you know, you know, being fair to the vendor that did provide services based on requests from individuals of the city, employees of the city that are no longer with the city for those services,
through the chair to council member Callaway to Jim glovins point, there was services that, again, unfortunately, staff members who are no longer with the department, and there Were conversations with the vendor to provide services well after and so again, just as Mr. Glavin stated, unfortunately, the contract did end, but there were services that were still rendered once we found out that those services that what had occurred, we immediately stopped. We acknowledged that we had to ensure that whatever services were actually asked for and rendered were paid to the vendor, but we again ensure that moving forward, the work was completed as well, but moving forward that absolutely no contracts or no work is completed within the health department without a current contract in place for services rendered, and any changes to contracts go through the proper process. Thank you, ma'am.
Thank you. Ma'am Kelly, would you want more time on this particular contract
or No, Madam Chair, thank you.
All right, any
additional questions or concerns on this item? All right, hearing, none. A motion has been made for the approval of 19.9 and 19 point 10. Are there any objections? Objection, the clerk would know,
madam chair on 19, did you say 19.8
19.9 and 19 point 10,
19.8 and 19 point 10. Council member Calloway, Objection,
no. 19.9 we've already approved 19.8 Okay, all right, the clerk will note, clerk will still note. Further objections. All right, hearing no further objections. The two resolutions will be approved. Council
member young request a waiver for 19 point 10.
A waiver has been requested for 19 point 10
objection.
Okay, so that motion does fail. All right, moving along to our new business portion of the agenda, under unfinished business, Council
Member Santiago Romero and ordinance noting a roll call line item, 20.1
council member Santiago Ramiro, thank you, Madam President. 20.1 is the medical facilities ordinance that we've been hearing about this morning and yesterday during PHS, I would like to through you madam presidents, ask that attorney Saxby join us. I would like to ask the few questions that we've been hearing over and over again, and allow for any other questions from my colleagues before I go into a little bit of the process, and before we go for a final vote. But three through you. Madam President, wanted to see if attorney Saxby could join us. Okay, Attorney Saxby will promote him now.
Right council member. Thank you, Madam
President.
Thank you, Attorney Saxby for joining us. There were a few questions and statements made multiple times today and yesterday regarding the proposed ordinance, and I would like to ask you, if this ordinance infringes on any rights, would this silence anyone from sharing their viewpoints or sharing resources the way that we've heard so far,
through the Chair. I'm sorry, Councilmember, can you repeat that question one more time?
Yes, sir,
no worries. The question was, if
you wouldn't mind answering the questions, addressing the questions that we've heard over and over again, stating that this ordinance will infringe on people's rights to freely express themselves, share their viewpoints, share resources, even prey on the streets, will and will this proposed ordinance infringe on any of their rights? And would you please, if you wouldn't mind, share what this ordinance does? It's fairly simple.
Thank you, Council Member to your second question, this ordinance creates a buffer zone and a bubble zone at health care facilities. The buffer zone is a static zone within 15 feet of an entrance that would prohibit the conduct that's regulated under the buffer zone section, such as certain displays of certain signs, congregating and picketing. The bubble zone is within 100 feet of an entrance to any healthcare facility, and it is a dynamic zone, so it moves with an individual within an eight foot radius, and all it means is that a person who is engaging in certain conduct, such as verbal protests or picketing or passing out leaflets or pamphlets cannot knowingly approach that person without their consent, at least within eight feet of that person, anywhere outside of eight feet of that person, they may continue to engage in any of the conduct that they normally would would engage in. It simply creates two different kinds of zones and regulates that on health care facility premises, as far as whether or not this is legal, according to federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court, from legal standpoint, this is this has been well litigated and is legal. This does not infringe on anyone's constitutional rights. The very rarely does the law department have the opportunity to draft an ordinance that is specifically been upheld by federal courts, much less the Supreme Court. That's the case here. Best practices are to defer to the wisdom United States Supreme Court on questions of legality. In fact, the doctrine of stare decisis demands it, the current controlling precedent indicates clearly and without question that this ordinance is legally permissible.
Thank you, Attorney Saxby, appreciate that and
appreciate your work on this ordinance and all the work that you do for us.
I want to turn it over now to my colleagues to see if you have any questions before I share briefly our process before I ask for final votes. I do see a couple of questions council member waters,
thank Thank you, Madam President. I want to ask the attorney about potential unintended consequences. For example, you know, those of us, we are elected and and sometimes we are out there passing up pamphlets and so forth. The I mean, although we this is specifically for health care facilities, right? Could that also be a potential problem politically as well,
through the chair to council member waters, if I understand the question correctly, this would apply to anyone on a on a health on the facility, on the premises of a health care facility. So the main point of this ordinance is that it is viewpoint neutral. It does not matter what the person is, what the message is of the person. It is blind to that. The ordinance regulates the conduct within those zones. So any person on the premises of a healthcare facility would be something
pardon me Through you, madam president, yeah, I understand it as it relates to healthcare facilities. That's not what I meant. I meant, can it carry over to other types of of situations? I mean, even at a polling place, at a grocery store, I'm just asking, because I'm not an attorney, I know that this is specific for health care facilities, so I get that part not being an attorney, I'm just asking, are there other potential issues not related to health care facilities. Maybe that's a better word phrasing it,
forgive me. Council member, the answer is no, this is specifically, narrowly tailored to health care facilities, and the premises is there
on All right, I just need to be sure. Thank you so much. Thank you Madam President. Thank
you so much. Council member, Callaway,
yeah, thank you, Madam Chair, I was watching public health and safety yesterday, and I heard a lot of the comments that came in over the phone and those that were made in person. A lot of folks were bringing up hill versus Colorado Supreme Court cases that a case pending before the Supreme Court is being argued right now. Do you know anything about that? Because I've heard it. I wrote it down seven times and three times today, four times yesterday. It's called Hill versus Colorado. Supreme Court case
through the Chair. Thank you. Member council member Callaway. Yes, that is one of the many cases that this ordinance was specifically modeled after that was already decided by the Supreme Court in 2000 and is 20, over 20 years of standing precedent that where the law is very clear, including from the highest court of the land, that this specific ordinance is, is, is legal and defensible and constitutional.
Thank you, Madam Chair,
thank you. Can you speak to whether or not this will apply to striking union workers trying to educate patients on the treatment of employees?
Thank you for the question to the chair. The answer, in short, is that this is content neutral, so any person on the premises of a healthcare facility would be governed by this regulation. However, so long as individuals are outside of that 15 foot zone in an entrance, and do not approach someone with within eight feet of a person without their consent. Then this, this would not impact any form of speech, including striking workers. Okay?
And then lastly, what is the educational aspect? Do healthcare facilities have to post something in their establishment that notifies individuals of this new ordinance that is going to be passed, of this new bubble, of this new spacing requirement, our people going to be aware, those who wouldn't want to continue to advocate for whatever side they may be on, that they now have these, these requirements, and so that people are made aware properly. What is, were there any posting requirements or any type of notification that healthcare facilities now need to place within their facility to notify individuals of this new ordinance?
To the Chair, thank you for the question, council president, there is no specific requirement for posting as it pertains to the health care facilities themselves in this ordinance, but the normal posting and notice requirements for it for an ordinance will be followed as they are for all ordinances. And I would defer to Council Member Santiago Romero on any additional outreach efforts that may be concrete.
Thank you, Attorney Saxe member, Santiago Ramiro, thank you, Madam President, thank you to my colleagues for your questions and due diligence to ensure this is legal and to ensure that we're educating clinics. Madam President, we are in communication, I believe, with all of them, and I know that clinics are already measuring from their door, and I believe they will be putting markers. So this is something that they are eager to have passed so that they can set up that that space for folks. But I see no problem with the clinics enforcing this. And to your question about protesters, thank you for that as well. I had the same thoughts, and then I realized a protester would not stop someone from entering a hospital that is there for emergency reasons. And to Attorney saxbys points, they want to give you information, and you want to hear, which I often do. I will, I will approach a striker for information, then they are free to do that as well. Thank you, Madam President, thank you. And then just one other question regarding DPD and how this is enforced. So with there will be, you know, warning signs given to individuals. What's the communication with DPD on how this will be enforced and just penalties that will be issued? I'm not sure if someone's on from that, but just curious how that actually works as well, too. Attorney Saxby, if you wouldn't mind noting the consequences how this will be enforced through DPD.
Through the Chair. This is a violation of this this ordinance would be a part of Chapter 31 and any violation of Chapter 31 would be a misdemeanor. It
would be a misdemeanor, is what he mentioned, right? I see a few more hands. Member, President, pro tem Tate, thank you, Madam
President, I don't have any questions. I just want to thank Member Santiago Romero for bringing this forward. Many times, a lot of folks believe that these ordinances and amendments that we have are something that we just conjure up ourselves, and sometimes we do. But many times we get this information, these requests from constituents, from those who go through challenges, whether it's affordable housing, whether it is equal protection, you name it across the board, our responsibility, our role, is To listen to our constituents, and you have, in many situations, folks on multiple sides, some who are pro con, and then you have some who may be agnostic towards it, don't have a opinion. And then others, you know, gradation in between. I believe that this particular amendment, this ordinance, is one that certainly has listened to all voices. Many voices have been raised here at Council and outside. I think, you know, I don't see and have not heard, have not read, and we've just got another example from our law department that this is not a most a move to chill freedom of speech, to stop it whatsoever, or freedom of religion. I think part of the problem is that some folks in our country believe that there's only one religion in this particular United States of America that is one of the benefits of being in this country, that we can have a right to choose and right to be free to choose our religion and also to speak out if we feel that someone is doing something that is harming themselves or others. I am fully supportive of this ordinance, and again, thank you so much. What this does is provide some protections for individuals from harassment, unneedless, dangerous harassment. So it does not stop anyone from saying what they want to say. It doesn't do any of that. So this idea that we are anti anything other than harassment, needless harassment and fear and intimidation, I think, is should rule the day. So again, I commend you, Member Santiago mero, for the conversations that you've had bringing this forward, and you have my full support on this particular ordinance. Thank you.
Thank you Pro Tem.
Thank you so much. Pro Tem. Members Calloway, yeah,
thank you, Madam Chair. I don't know if the attorney who is online with us can answer this question, but are there other buffer, buffer zone and bubbles? Bubble zones in Michigan,
through the Chair? I'm not aware of any in Michigan. I do know that there are several across the country, all which have been that the ones that I have seen have been scrutinized and upheld through the the federal courts that are like this
one. So through the chair to you, you're saying that there aren't any buffer zones or bubble zones in Michigan. To your knowledge, that
I am not, I am not aware of any council member. That does not mean that there, there aren't, aren't any, but I am not personally aware of any.
Yeah, I'm just always, thank you. I'm just always, you know, just kind of, my daughters were arrested for protesting peacefully, and I'm just always nervous when we kind of edge up to interfering with people's rights to assemble. It just it doesn't feel right for me personally, having experienced three daughters being arrested and seeing one on TV and all three incarcerated for protesting, being in a place where they were told they shouldn't have been and there were no signs posted. So I'm just uncomfortable with it. I understand what we're trying to get to, but I'm uncomfortable with it right now. So I know I can't support it. I don't want anybody, whether they're in front of a healthcare clinic or in front of a school, in front of a liquor store, in front of a casino. I don't want anyone to feel like they can't pass out a leaflet, pass out information, pass out information about the Lord Jesus Christ. We have Jehovah witnesses and other religious groups who stand wherever they want to stand and pass out religious information. I take a few myself to get motivated and get inspired. So I'm just really, really uncomfortable with the feet, you know, with the footage from the entrance, and it just feels uncomfortable for me right now. So I'm not there with the full support. I'm just uncomfortable with us even edging toward interfering with people's rights to assemble and to pass out information as member waters alluded to earlier. We're elected officials, and we have to get in people's spaces that three feet. We have to get there. We have to get them to sign petitions. We have to give them information. We have to engage them, knock on doors. We have to do that as well. Some things we don't want to do. Some of us are uncomfortable with it, but I'm just uncomfortable with the bubble and the buffer zones right now. So I know I cannot support it. Thank you, Madam Chair,
thank you. Member Calloway, all right, any additional questions? Yes. Council member, young member, Cindy Dara, please. We have to make sure
we thank you, Madam President. Um, Mr. Whitaker, I have a question. I want to take this from a little bit of a different perspective. Here. I different perspective here. So in 1808, they banned the importation slaves into the country, slave trafficking. And so in order for them to have labor, they had a process called natural increase. The natural increase is a act where they would breed slave women like animals. It would lock them in a barn. They'd have a black man who they would call a stud, who would come into that barn and would essentially rape these women, and the more slaves you had on your own plantation, the more valuable your plantation became. So this began the capitalization of the womb. Okay, so basically, a black woman did not have agency over her own body, and it was business to have more slaves. One, because you have more slaves on the plantation, your plantations keep more valuable. Secondly, because if you breed the slaves, you can have super, stronger, faster slaves, which could pick more cotton, produce more labor, create more profits. The issue with that is that in that environment, you have black women who give birth to children. 50% of them would be stillborn. Black children were two and a half times more likely to die during this process. Black women were now nourished and more likely to die. And then after this process took place between 1808 1865 when slavery ended, there was a man named J Marion Sims. J Marion Sims comes along. He comes up with the industry of gynecology. The way in which he does this is that he cuts up on black women, no anesthesia, no pain medicine, no treatment because he believed that black women felt pain differently. We are still experiencing the aftermath of that in our medical care system. Now. That's why black women are three times more likely to die while given childbirth. 60% of the issues are preventable in Michigan, 88% of the issues are preventable across the country. This is why Black people are 21 over 20% less likely be prescribed the pain medication that they need. And so the reason I bring this up is because we talked an awful lot about abortion, from the perspective is I'm not trying to take away from people who come up that perspective of faith and things that nature we have not talked about this issue at all black women, what we have put, and I forgot to say also that there was an actual during the process of breeding, if a black woman, depending if, depending on how many black how many children she had, she qualified for something called meritorious magumission, which was freedom. So there were quotas. There was a direct incentive for black women to be able to give birth to children. And if the study did not perform, they would either resell him or they would castrate him. Of course, the reason why I'm saying this we've had that conversation at all. We haven't had a conversation in the fact that the reason why black women, in part, are more likely to have these types of health care procedures necessary is because we have not dealt with racism in our medical profession. We have not dealt with the aftermath of what we've done to black women from slavery and beyond. And so the reason why I'm having this conversation with you is because, has there been any this is really kind of personally, I think the government has no business underneath women's clothes. Personally, it's none of you know, and it's a man none of my damn business, quite honestly.
But
has there been any sort of effort historically to be able to explain this scene, since we are in the blackest city in America? Has there been any sort and let me say this just from, just from, full disclosure, I am in the seat that I am in because of black women with children. That's why I got in this position. Is there any sort of effort to make this sort of history be known to the public, especially when we're having these kind of discussions, just so everybody knows the full context of what this is and why we are in the situation that we are, and why people feel so strongly about this, and why, as a black man, I feel so strongly about this, I think this is another reason for why reparations need to be paid, quite frankly. But have there been any conversations, any sort of historical, you know, presentations, or anything like that to educate people on this aspect of our history in the country?
Madam President, I cannot speak specifically about the history that you just laid out. I do know that there are a lot of issues going on right now relative to the way in which African Americans have been treated and diagnosed for diabetes, all kind of kidney elements, that's ailments that are in the news currently, but the issues that you raise that relate to black women and what happened during slavery in the aftermath of slavery, I would hope that the reparations Task Force to This been in panel would cover some of that, I think, to the to the degree that you want answers today, I'm not really able to give you that. I think if you give us an assignment in the area, we'd be happy to explore it and give you a paper on it. But as we speak today and the issues before Council today on this ordinance and how it how the issues that you raise may impact the ordinance. We're not able to do that today. No,
I appreciate that, and I'm going to close, I just think that that history is really left out. And there was a meta analysis that was done, and it said that 40% of physicians today feel that black people feel pain differently, right? So that legacy of J Marion says, still exists with us to this day. And I just, I just think that that sort of history should be brought out, making these discussions of this consequence, whether it convinces people or it doesn't, people should at least know the other side of it. And so I definitely want to talk to you about it, because for me, it's more of an informational campaign. I don't know what that's for administration. I have to go talk to them about that. You know, you know, we already had this discussion about me wanting to, you know, have more people, you know, be informational specialists. We don't have this. We saw how that turned out. So, you know, I really want to sit down and just kind of hash this out more, you know, as we have these conversations about this, because I think it's really important for us to understand this history involving black
people would be happy to participate. I
appreciate I'm done. Thank you. I'm done.
Thank you so much. Member young council member Johnson, thank you, Madam
President. And thank you to member Santiago Romero for elevating this I think one of the things that we haven't talked about is who utilizes these health care facilities as a 19 year old, I remember going to a Planned Parenthood in the city of Detroit, because that was the health care that I could afford today, I would go to my OBGYN. And so as we talk about and think about the individuals that are going to these health care facilities and wanting to provide some personal space for them, I think is warranted for anyone to offer support to an individual going into a facility. They can still do that they can still provide information, attempt to have a conversation with them, to provide any pamphlet, any information that you have available, to give to them, to allow that person to make the decision on whether or not they want to accept the information, whether or not they want to have a greater conversation with you, and I think it's important to allow individuals to make that decision on their own. Again, just remember who's going into these healthcare facilities, and think about the access that they have, and it's a greater conversation that needs to be had relative to healthcare access. But to member, Santiago Romero, thank you for putting individual safety first and foremost, that's what I get from this ordinance, not to stifle anybody's voice, not to prevent anyone from being able to have the conversation. And so I am fully supportive of the ordinance, because I think about myself as a 19 year old girl who utilized one of these facilities, and think about the individuals, particularly in the city of Detroit, who utilize these facilities. So thank you. Thank you, Madam President,
right. Thank you. Member Johnson, any additional questions or comments on this ordinance?
Member waters, yes,
thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I was I did not know that these organizations existed until starting yesterday, and I'm grateful that that you do exist and that you are providing assistance for young women who can't seem to make that decision, and I certainly hope that you will continue to provide that assistance. In fact, I now know that if a young person approaches me, I can, I can say, alright, contact this organization if you are having some difficulty as to whether or not you want to keep your child. Um, what I think of a city like, like Detroit, I can tell you, abortion is not at the forefront of everybody's mind. You've got housing you have other poverty issues, you have employment issues, all of those kinds of issues are prevalent right here in the city of Detroit, and I don't believe, as my colleague from the District Four said, you know, they're, they're young people who go to those clinics for other reasons, not necessarily to to receive an abortion. They don't, they go there because they don't have health care and they need other type of assistance. And I'm assuming that that we've received a number of complaints regarding people trying to enter into those facilities to receive help, all types of harassment. But I can, I can say to you that I know that there are times that I've been going to certain events and people have those signs out there, you know, with aborted babies and so forth. This is pretty rough to look at and and then they start yelling all kinds of unpleasant word. And so I remember, I recall one day I said, okay, so you're not pro choice. You don't believe in abortion and and I get it because I don't encourage people to go to go and get abortions, but I am pro choice. And I'll say that loud, it is up to a woman to decide what she wants to do with her own body. I stand, I stand. I do stand by that, but I want to be supportive of of young people who are trying to make that decision. So one day, I was going into a place, and they were basically shoveling these photos in my face. And they said, so you support abortion? I says, what? I have a question for you. Do you support capital punishment? And they said, Yes. I said, Oh, so you just wait until they grow up and kill them. And so that was my response. So I want everybody to be able to enjoy their rights, to have access to information. I want to be support as supportive as possible for young people who are trying to make that decision. I see some beautiful babies all the time, all the time.
