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Detroit City Council Formal Session part 1 - Last meeting before summer recess!
Unknown Speaker
Progress,
Speaker 1
so Okay, you
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you. Thanks. Thank
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You. Good
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job, man. $10
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that's I'm Not
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until I anybody she was sick.
Speaker 2
It wasn't necessarily honest. Yeah,
Speaker 3
I'll tell you another story about my mother saying
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it's in her Mind.
Unknown Speaker
It was in her Mind.
Speaker 2
Oh, No. Well, stops.
Unknown Speaker
So
Unknown Speaker
Sure You You Thank You, Bye,
President Sheffield
okay, all right, All right. Good morning, everyone. We will now call to order the formal session for Tuesday, July 30, if the clerk will, please call the roll.
Unknown Speaker
Councilman Scott Ben says not. Customer Fred duharth, Leticia Johnson house, Council Member Gabriel Santiago Romero. House member Mary Walters, present. Council member Angela Whitfield Callaway, Councilman Coleman Young, the second council president Paul Tim James Tate and Council President Mary Sheffield, present, you have a quorum. Madam. President,
President Sheffield
all right, we do not have a quorum. I know that one of my colleagues should be walking down the hallway now. Dr powers, can we move to our indication, at least that portion. No, okay, all right, so we will recess until we have a quorum, okay, so we will stand in recess until we have a quorum. Thank you all for your patience.
Unknown Speaker
Okay,
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yeah, three or four and then one
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more thing, okay, look
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at my screen. It's upside down.
President Sheffield
All right, we will call back to order our formal session for Tuesday, July 30, Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Council member
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Scott Vincent, Councilman Fay duhall, the
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third
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council member Letitia Johnson, Councilman Gabriel Santiago Romero, Councilman Mary Walters, present. Council member Angela Whitfield Callaway present. Councilman Coleman Young the second. Council president pro tem James Tate here, and Council President Mary Sheffield present. You have a quorum present, Madam President,
President Sheffield
alright. Thank you. There being a quorum. Present. We are now in session, and we will start off as always, with our invocation for this morning. We have joining us, Minister Pamela Jenkins from Renaissance Baptist church located in district five. Good morning. Good
Unknown Speaker
morning. God
Speaker 3
bless you. Good morning. Council President Sheffield, and to all the council members and everyone in attendance on today, I bring you greetings from rendezvous Baptist Church of Detroit, where Reverend Doctor Edwin Holmes is our pastor. This is truly an honor to come before you this morning to offer prayer. And if ever we need prayer, if ever there is a time that we need prayer for our city and for our nation in leadership, now is the time, so let us prepare our hearts and minds to go before the throne, Dear Heavenly Father and most gracious, Father, we bless your holy name. This morning, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we first want to thank you for being God all by yourself, the lifter of our hands and keeper of our souls. You are Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the ending, the Creator of all things above and below, within and below earth, and we give you the praise, the glory and the honor for it all, Lord, we humbly ask for your forgiveness for our sins, those things we know have offended you, and especially the things we are not fully aware of. Forgive us, Lord and let us lead us, Lord God, on the path of righteousness. We come before you this morning, on behalf of our great city council board with the women and men you have assigned to be leaders in our city, we ask that you meet each one right where they are and provide whatever they stand in need of to do your perfect will lead them to the right path to fulfill the assignment you have given each one, so that you alone will get the glory for their work. Lord shower them with your wisdom and your knowledge along with a clear understanding, so that all things will be done decent and in divine order, so that through their leadership, others will receive your blessings that flow endlessly to all who trust, obey and believe in your great name, because that's the kind of God you are. For we know you can do all things, Lord, but fail. We love you, Lord, and we offer this prayer in the mighty, matchless name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior forever, amen, amen and amen. God bless you and be encouraged. God bless you.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. God bless you as well. Minister Jenkins for that beautiful invocation, and you have a blessed day. You too. Thank you. Alright, alright. We will now move to our presentation from council member waters before we do so, if those who are wishing to make a public comment, we will cut off public comment after this presentation. So please make sure you raise your hand in person here or virtually. We've also been joined by Council Member Santiago Romero, Council Member Johnson and council member der Hoff, the clerk would know. Clerk will so No, all right, I will turn the floor over now to council member waters for a special presentation. Thank
Speaker 4
you, Madam President, our members of five, Ella here. Okay,
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he said, present.
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All right.
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Can you join me here. Thank
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you, baby girl, yes,
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screwing her up. Yes, okay, you
Unknown Speaker
Well, absolutely, the baby wants to come. We must bring her. Good morning. How
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are you? Alright?
Speaker 4
Wonderful, alright. So thank thank you all, ladies and gentlemen who are here today, it is certainly an honor for me today to be able to
Unknown Speaker
honor favela.
Speaker 4
Many of you may remember favela, but let me just read the resolution to you, whereas the trio of Deshawn proof, hobo, Reginald Mudd Mora and Bernard time Russell formed five Ella, five elements. You guys probably remember that right during the legendary days of the hip hop shop on Detroit's West seven mile with fashion designer Maurice Malone and whereas proof, mud and fine served as key employees and host of the legendary Saturday open mics that brought hundreds of youth artists in the spirit of Detroit's competitive rap music legacy. And whereas five Ella set the tone for the Detroit rap scene of the 1990s helping to birth a movement that would propel locals like Slum Village J Dilla and Eminem to stardom, and whereas five Ella was at The heart of that heiress youth spiritual movement known as the order of divine reality. And whereas, more than 30 years from their founding five Ellis, extensive music catalog continues to influence underground hip hop fans the world over with powerful lyrics focused on education, business and community building and the power of mindfulness and resilience in the midst of Detroit social challenges and whereas protecting the legacy of proof and J Dilla is paramount for mud, who continues his music journey as a solo recording artist and manager of five Ellis catalog, raising three daughters in Detroit. And then finally, be it resolved, Council Member Mary waters at large and the entire Detroit City Council herein honors the historic contributions of five ellas to Detroit's musical legacy worldwide. We thank you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Yes, so
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would you like to have something to say?
Unknown Speaker
Okay, little something.
Speaker 5
I just would like to say thank you to the city of Detroit. I love my city. Rest in peace to the brothers Deshawn Holton proof and Jay Dilla, who are not here to receive this. We also had a DJ, DJ head. I don't want to lead you out DJ head, if y'all ever want to know anything similar to what it was like going through that
Unknown Speaker
and pioneering.
Unknown Speaker
Mud five, Ella com. Mud five, ella.com mud five, ella.com THANK YOU. Five Ella for life.
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All right, all
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right.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you for being a baby. There too. Colleagues. Would you like to take A Photo? You
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Thank you.
President Sheffield
All right, thank you again. Council member waters for that presentation, and we will proceed back to our agenda. We do have a presentation from DWSD that will now come forward regarding their easy pay $10 program that was announced yesterday at the mayor's evening community meeting. And they would like an opportunity to present this new plan within DWSD, and we're going to cut off our public comment as well, too. Before you begin. Sorry about that.
Speaker 1
Director Brown, who's the architect of this particular program, my chief of staff, as well as he runs our customer service department. That's very important to making sure that this initiative works. First of all, let me say that the moratorium that was placed on shutoffs during the covid era four years ago is over. It's over with this program being initiated, currently, DWSD is losing about $48 million a year, 12% of our revenue that we're not collecting. And to be perfectly frank, if the state and the federal government were not funding let lifeline, we would be losing about 24% of our revenue, and that's just not sustainable, and so we have to get our national our collection rate back up to the national average, which is 95 we were 93 prior to covid, and we got to get closer to that number, because at some point we could lose federal and state funding, if we're not successful in lobbying Lansing and Washington for long term funding for the Lifeline program. Lifeline, as you know, has been extremely successful. There are more than 100,000 Detroiters that are benefiting from an $18 bill. There are 30,000 households accounts that are in the Lifeline program, and now we want to help those customers that do not qualify for lifeline because their income is too high. And so I'm going to let Matt just walk through a very quick PowerPoint presentation that will explain the details, and then we're happy to answer any questions.
Speaker 6
Good morning. Matthew Phillips, Chief of Staff, Chief Customer Service Officer, Detroit water and sewage department. There is a presentation, but it doesn't seem to be up, so we'll just kind of go through it real quick, all right, so we can move on to like the third slide here.
Unknown Speaker
So since
Speaker 6
the 
pandemic, DWSD currently has 186,000 accounts. They're at least 60 days past due, and with that, the average customer, residential customer within the Detroit water and sewage department owes, on average, $1,240 and so in order to make this easy for all of our residents to get back on track with the water bills, we're introducing the easy pay program, which just puts all customers, all classes of Customers, are eligible for the program, faith based churches residential, customers, commercial, industrial, all have the opportunity to enter into the program. It will replace our current program, which is the 10, 3050 program that required you to put 10% 30% or 50% down, and we spread out your payments over 12 months. The Easy pay program allows for just $10 down in your first month, and will spread out the rest of your payments over the next three years, 36 months. So on average, for the average customer that owes 1240 that would only be $10 down the first month, and the rest of the payments going forward months two through 36 would be $120 a month. If we look at the top five cities across the United States, Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
Seattle, New Orleans, their average monthly payment without any type of arrears on their bills, averages between 130 and $190 per month. And while we're asking for on the easy pay program, all in is $120 a month. So that is approximately $34 a month for your easy pay. 36 month payment, plus the average bill is $85 that comes out to 119 so we feel extremely positive about this program, and we feel that it's extremely easy. There's no barriers for entry. There's no income requirements. We don't doesn't matter how much you make, you can get into the program. Doesn't matter what type of account you have, you can get into the program, and it's interest free for all 36 months. Any questions? Yep.
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pandemic, DWSD currently has 186,000 accounts. They're at least 60 days past due, and with that, the average customer, residential customer within the Detroit water and sewage department owes, on average, $1,240 and so in order to make this easy for all of our residents to get back on track with the water bills, we're introducing the easy pay program, which just puts all customers, all classes of Customers, are eligible for the program, faith based churches residential, customers, commercial, industrial, all have the opportunity to enter into the program. It will replace our current program, which is the 10, 3050 program that required you to put 10% 30% or 50% down, and we spread out your payments over 12 months. The Easy pay program allows for just $10 down in your first month, and will spread out the rest of your payments over the next three years, 36 months. So on average, for the average customer that owes 1240 that would only be $10 down the first month, and the rest of the payments going forward months two through 36 would be $120 a month. If we look at the top five cities across the United States, Baltimore, Philadelphia, 
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Seattle, New Orleans, their average monthly payment without any type of arrears on their bills, averages between 130 and $190 per month. And while we're asking for on the easy pay program, all in is $120 a month. So that is approximately $34 a month for your easy pay. 36 month payment, plus the average bill is $85 that comes out to 119 so we feel extremely positive about this program, and we feel that it's extremely easy. There's no barriers for entry. There's no income requirements. We don't doesn't matter how much you make, you can get into the program. Doesn't matter what type of account you have, you can get into the program, and it's interest free for all 36 months. Any questions? Yep. Speaker 1
So 
right now we have 30,000 households in lifeline. I anticipate by early fall, we're going to have 30,000 additional customers that will be on the ECPA plan. So that'll be more than 200,000 residents. We calculate three people per household, seniors, kids, single mothers that will benefit from either the easy Pay Plan or the Lifeline program. But that said we'd be happy to take any questions or concerns, and I did have my staff mail your staff the policies and procedures that make up this program that my board will approve this afternoon, as as well as all of the literature that's involved with the program, in case you want to make flyers and hand out at any community meetings. Uh, Matt didn't mention that we are going to have eight, um, town hall meetings. The first one will be on the eighth of August. It will be at second Ebenezer church between four and eight o'clock, which is located in the 1400 block of Dequindre, right at six mile. So that'll be the first town hall meeting. You can come there, sign up on the spot and get any questions about your situation that you need and get started on the program.
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right now we have 30,000 households in lifeline. I anticipate by early fall, we're going to have 30,000 additional customers that will be on the ECPA plan. So that'll be more than 200,000 residents. We calculate three people per household, seniors, kids, single mothers that will benefit from either the easy Pay Plan or the Lifeline program. But that said we'd be happy to take any questions or concerns, and I did have my staff mail your staff the policies and procedures that make up this program that my board will approve this afternoon, as as well as all of the literature that's involved with the program, in case you want to make flyers and hand out at any community meetings. Uh, Matt didn't mention that we are going to have eight, um, town hall meetings. The first one will be on the eighth of August. It will be at second Ebenezer church between four and eight o'clock, which is located in the 1400 block of Dequindre, right at six mile. So that'll be the first town hall meeting. You can come there, sign up on the spot and get any questions about your situation that you need and get started on the program. President Sheffield
Right? All right. Thank you so much. Director Brown, and we will allow questions now from colleagues. Council Member Santiago Ramiro, thank you, Madam President, through you. Chair director, good morning.
Unknown Speaker
Briefly. I
President Sheffield
know we have a long day today. Residents have been asking about the 10, 3050 plan. Seem to be confusing and may have not worked out. Can you let us know why not and how this is different, what you've learned and how you think this is going to work the original plan?
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's a great question. And when you look at the data, we only have 3000 people in the program, which says it's when we have 60,000 accounts past due, and you've got 3000 that program is not successful. The main reason it wasn't successful is people couldn't come up with 10% 30% or 50% it was just too much. And so we saw in the data that even when they entered into the program, they failed within 90 days. And so the program wasn't working. I probably waited too long. I told you at budget time that I would be back. We were working on a new plan, and it takes a lot of time just to make sure that the billing system will accept the new changes that we made, and that it truly will be as easy as dialing a phone number and saying the word easy plan, or going to a kiosk, a div that kiosk, and there'll be a logo that says easy plan. You push the button, you make the phone call, you can go on a computer and start initiate the plan. It's extremely easy, and again, as Matt indicated, just 10. You don't even have to make your first month normal payment. Just pay $10 what I'm trying to do is get people back into the habit of making payments. Show them where the kiosks are. Show them how to make these payments so we can get people back on track
President Sheffield
through the Chair. Thank you. Understood, and you're correct. Other cities I did not realize pay a lot of money for their water compared to us, roughly, I know mine is around $80 a month, and I'm assuming that's roughly what the average is for Detroiters, so I can see how this works compared relatively to the rest of the cities. But to your point, I think the issue still is some folks just cannot afford that. So the need for us to go to Lansing, the federal government to send us more support, is definitely needed. So we'll be happy to talk to you about that, with Senator Chang other folks that are pushing for those funds, because while this plan, I agree with you, sounds like it could be better, we still got to think about what we're doing to make sure that those that may not be able to make the payments still have some some services, some resources to be able to receive service. And
Speaker 1
I'm in Lance in Washington once a month, um, lobbying for Liwa permanent long range funding. We think we may be close to at least getting a one year extension, based on the pilot that was run in Detroit. The EPA deputy director will be coming to Detroit on the ninth to look at our program, because we're being asked about it all over, all over the country. And you're right. We have legislation that we've helped develop with Stephanie Chang and we're cautiously optimistic that we're going to get that through. But I have to be realistic, if we don't get the the, you know, the help, then we're going to have to run the water department based on the rates that we're able to collect. And I said this last night, we've only raised rates for the last nine years, less than 3% 2.9 now inflation is six and a half 7% but we've only raised rates less than 3% 10 years prior to that, double digits sometimes as high as 18% a year rates were that's unsustainable for Our customer base, and so we're keeping rates low. We don't want to be forced to raise rates where you push more people into an unaffordable situation. So if we want to be able to continue, we're investing more than a billion dollars in rebuilding the system. If we want to continue to be able to invest in the system and keep rates low, then we have to make sure that water is affordable for everybody, and those that can pay actually are paying through
President Sheffield
the Chair. Thank you doctor, so much for your work, all of that and making sure that we're able to keep people's waters on. So thank you for the work that you're doing. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, thank you so much. Council member and director Brown, I know, during the budget we talked about, I remember asking about the issue with drainage fees and some of the additional costs that it is that churches and nonprofits are incurring because of the drainage fees. And we talked about, you possibly rolling out a program for residential in churches to receive credits. And I'm curious, this probably will help with some of the cost overall people's bills who have drainage fees that happen, you know, have piled up. But just curious, has that program been implemented, and when is that forthcoming regarding possible credits for individuals within churches for drainage fees? Yeah, we
Speaker 1
are. We are working with the churches. We know that matters at 400 account, churches that we have, about 400 churches. We have 60 of them that are behind in their bills. What we find out, in a lot of instances, is, in the assessor's office, they're not listed as a nonprofit or church, they're listed as a business, so they're being treated different as a business and and foreclosure letters are going out because they're not being recognized in the assessor's office as a church. So that's that's the first thing we want to help them get fixed. Let's get them listed as a nonprofit. No one is going to be foreclosed on because they owe a water bill. Now, churches don't pay taxes, so they're not going to be on the tax rolls for taxes, but they should not be foreclosed on. They will not be foreclosed on because they owe a water bill, so let's get them identified properly. Secondly, most churches have additional property that's outside of the church proper that's causing a drainage issue for them, and we're going to work with them to set up a plan to take care of that so there's 60 of them that could be eligible for this program right now, and we're putting them in their separate groups so that I can spend a lot of time working with that group to resolve their issues. I don't think it's going to be difficult to do it okay.
President Sheffield
Looking forward to working with you on that, and not just the churches again, making sure that residents residential properties understand how to improve their properties, to reduce drainage costs as well too, and offering credits when they do add those home improvements to their home, to reduce those those bills as well too. Thank you. Director Brown, any additional questions? Yes, Council Member Johnson, followed by council member durha. Thank you, Madam
Speaker 7
President, and good morning. Thank you for keeping an eye on the program and recognizing that we needed to do some improvements to encourage more people to join the program. Can you talk about satellite offices? I've had a number of residents complain about the six mile and Gratiot office that was there that has been closed, and so people feel like they don't have somewhere to go to have conversations, whether about this program or about their bill in general. Yeah,
Speaker 1
that's a good question. I've been hearing the same thing, and we know that this particular program is going to spur a need to have a brick and mortar presence in the community. The west side service center being the one that's asked about the most. So I'm in negotiations right now with Wayne metro to sell them the building and then lease space and also have their personnel be able to talk to our customers about the programs that we have. So we'll have DWSD employees in the building, along with Wayne Metro staff that can help answer these questions, and so very shortly, you're going to see that building come back open and online.
Unknown Speaker
I think I heard you say Westside. Did you mean east side? Or no,
Unknown Speaker
I meant the west side.
Unknown Speaker
Is there an east side?
Speaker 1
I do have an east side. I do have an East Side location, but we have always got very little traffic. It's a beautiful building. It's on six mile near Gratiot, but we just don't get the service. Wayne Metro is leasing that building. Now it is open, and we're going to have the same arrangement as we have on the west side. We will have space in that building for any customers, but it truly is the West Side building where most of the traffic has always been general generated. We'll have a presence at the West at the East Side center.
Speaker 7
Okay, I'll make sure we share that with this information, so that residents know that the facility, the location, is open and they can go and speak with the representative. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. We're
Unknown Speaker
negotiating our contract right now. Okay,
President Sheffield
thank you council member, duro, thank you,
Speaker 8
Madam President, and good morning to you first. Let me thank you, Director Brown, for your commitment to our residents, working to help them keep their water on, but also working with just folks in the community that provide insight on what our residents need, and trying to work with them and craft a plan to do so. So I really appreciate that, and I admire that. The question I have is this, you know, relative to, how do we get this information out to folks. I know generally the acts or the barrier is, is having access to information or just knowing that the program exists. So what are our plans to ensure that we're going to get this out? Are we talking billboards? Are we talking commercials? Because this is a really good plan, and I know we want to get more than 3000 people enrolled in here, so we can ensure that they are able to keep their water on. But what are we planning to do to make sure our residents know that this plan exists?
Speaker 1
That's a good question. And Matt's in charge of customer service, and we before I finished the charter meeting last night, we had 200 people already enrolled in the program. I'm sure we have 1000 right now. We've been on every major news station this morning. I'm doing television, radio, editorial boards. We have billboards that have been purchased and will be up and running really soon. I believe it's going to be this first three months in which we're going to generate the majority of people into the program, very similar to lifeline, but we're going to put a full court Blitz. I just I caution people that I recently hired, I believe 18 new customer service agents. They weren't they were just going to go into answering phones, and then we decided to use them specifically for this program, so that they didn't have to learn every issue going on in DWSD. They just have to know this project. But they're new. They're literally have been in training for the last four or five weeks, and I'm a little concerned about the immediate impact, so I'm asking people to be patient. We will get you into this program as quickly as humanly possible, but we're going to see a large influx of people, and we have a full media blitz going out on this program, and if I get into trouble, I have a contract with Wayne Metro that has a customer service center that can lean in. It's always my first option to hire Detroiters and use Detroiters to do this before I use contractors. But that's an option if, in fact, we see that we get in trouble. I when it's for a short period of time. I don't like to sign a contract with somebody for a year when I know the problem is just going to exist, and until early fall, and then things will smooth out. So you may hear, we're not quite sure what we're going to hear, these are new people, and it's a new program, but we're going to work really hard to make sure we get everybody satisfied. And
Speaker 8
thank you. And through you, Madam President, to you. Director Brown, again, I just want to say thank you for your commitment. And I know you mentioned the town hall, so I look forward to partnering with you as well as you host these town halls across the city to ensure that we are doing everything we can, from our end to that, to ensure that we're getting our residents there and getting them access, and whether that's putting that in our newsletters or even maybe holding some other meetings in our district where we can have some representatives come and speak to our residents, that would be amazing. And I know if you've done that before, you're on many of our meetings and your team is but again, thank you for your commitment. Thank you, Madam President. All right. Thank
President Sheffield
you so much. Council member, Council Member, Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, briefly, just want to confirm through you to our director materials will be in Spanish and Arabic. Yes, awesome. If we can receive those as well, we can make sure to share those out with our groups as well. Thank you, Madam President, thank you. And then Director Brown. Lastly, if you can just briefly specify the types of businesses that are eligible. Is it all businesses you know, larger corporations, small,
Speaker 1
large. And I know there's, there's been some concern last night at the meeting with regards to large corporations, but rest assured that I sue them, and anyone that's in a settlement agreement based on a lawsuit negotiation will not be eligible for this program. So we don't sue residential customers, obviously, but we sue our industrial and commercial customers, and if they've entered into an agreement based on a settlement agreement, they will not be eligible for this program. Okay,
President Sheffield
all right. All right. Well, thank you so much for this program, looking forward to the rollout, and as was mentioned, working with you in each of the districts to make sure it gets out to our residents. So thank you all for being here and appreciate the work.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you for the time, and thank you so much.
President Sheffield
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Sarah, alright, alright. And if the clerk will know, member Young has joined us as well. So it was so no alright. We will proceed now with our agenda. The Journal of the session of Tuesday, July the 16th, will be approved. There being no reconsideration or unfinished business, we will proceed to the internal operations committee for the internal operations standing committee,
Speaker 9
three reports from various C departments. The three reports
President Sheffield
will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee
Speaker 9
there are the reports from various state departments. The
President Sheffield
three reports will be referred to the Neighborhood and Community Services standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development, standing committee the
Unknown Speaker
reports from various state departments.
President Sheffield
The three reports will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee
Unknown Speaker
four reports from various state departments.
President Sheffield
Right the four reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee. We will now move to the voting action matters under other matters,
Unknown Speaker
no items, Madam
President Sheffield
President, under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials
Speaker 9
and agencies, there are no items by the President. All
President Sheffield
right, we will call for public comments. And we have over, I think, roughly 80 total. So we are going to do one minute for public comment this morning. We have a lot to get through today, and so we are going to start with Miss Betty Lyons, and if we can start kind of lining people up as well, Kayla Shawna Forbes, Henry will be next, followed by Patrick Driscoll would be next. Good morning. Ms, Lyons, you're first
Unknown Speaker
a few weeks back,
Speaker 4
I watched as you the city council and legal help the family and community rename a street. Yet you continue, yes, you city council and legal refused to respond in justice with the return of over $600 million of the overpaid property taxes belonging to the Detroit residents as you assisted that family. Why won't you city council and legal assist the Detroit residents in solving this great injustice. And I want to say that as you give Dan Gilbert all that money and grants, I want my money, and not in green stamps or this junk about credit, I want money do the right thing. Okay,
President Sheffield
thank you so much. Miss Lyon. Miss Shawna Forbes, Henry, Madam Chair, yes. Member. Callaway to Ma'am,
Speaker 10
what's your name again? Miss Lyons. Miss Lyons, Michigan Supreme Court just passed a ruling where folks were illegally assessed, overpaid property taxes and were illegally foreclosed on, and the properties were sold by the treasurer, and they made a profit off some of these properties. The Supreme Court said that was illegal, and so a lot of folks who so I'm asking you to read the opinion. It just came out yesterday from Lansing. So absolutely, some folks who were foreclosed on, the property owners who whoever the treasurer, turned around and sold the properties and made a profit, the homeowners are now entitled to receive that profit. So that is the supreme court ruling that came out yesterday. So I would encourage you to read it, or I can get you a copy of the of the case. Okay, okay, that happened yesterday.
President Sheffield
Alright. And member Callaway, that's a great point. I'm curious if we can assign LPD. Hopefully we can do a overview on what you just mentioned, seeing that that is a huge issue in the city that we've all been working on, but have legal issues that you know held us to to be able to provide direct compensation. So, Madam Chair, your motion to assign that to OPD to do a writing on yes
Speaker 10
and yes, Madam Chair, that is the motion for LPD to look into it, and also for Alvin Horne, and also to see how many Detroiters were impacted, for sure, and how many Detroiters are going to be made whole they'll be able to get it's going to be in the understand the billions. So it is a case that came out yesterday, so absolutely that that is a motion for LPD to take a look at it, and also we need Alvin Horne to tell us how many Detroiters have been impacted or will receive retribution for what happened yesterday at the Supreme Court level. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you for sharing that member Callaway, and the motion has been made for that assignment so that we can have a writing on the Supreme Court decision that was just made. Are there any objections hearing? No objections that action will be taken. Thank you. Member Calloway, go right ahead.
Speaker 11
Good morning, council members. My name is Shawna Forbes, Henry. I was born and raised in the city of Detroit. I currently serve as the Michigan Community Programs Director for elevate. Elevate has had a presence in the city of Detroit for approximately 10 years, doing great work, making impact. And elevate will be supporting light star in the solar project. We will be delivering the community benefits project portion of it, and we will be that front facing to our residents. We're going to be using a software called snug Pro. Snug Pro is a software that's already been certified by the government in order to receive Ira benefits. So not only will we be delivering those benefits? We'll also be looking to position those residents to get rebates. Now, of course, we can't guarantee those rebates, but we're going to definitely look at braiding funds and getting those residents as much as they possibly can get. Thank you, and I appreciate your support of this project.
Unknown Speaker
Mister Driscoll,
Speaker 12
yes, my name is Patrick Driscoll. I'm retired steel worker and over 50 year resident of Detroit. I'm with Detroit eviction defense and the coalition Justice Coalition for the murdered Detroit tenant. As you may or may not be aware, on July 12, the tenant was killed in the Palmer Park area in the process of an eviction. We didn't get information until yesterday, who this gentleman was? That that Sherman Butler, was the person killed. He was an unknown, unnameless person, because we couldn't, nobody get on to give us the information we nor did we have any information of who the bailiff was that shot him. It was a Craig Gregory, evidently. But we'd still have no information on the details of the of the thing. We're told that it's in, it's in the prosecutor's hand. That's fine, but there's a larger issue involved. Why was, why was deadly force used, and the person that was in the middle of agreed to be in a mental health crisis. Why was what? What role are these? Was there a mini cam that the that the bailiff had, we know the officer there should have had one. What? How? What did we know about all the details about this and about the Palmer Park portfolio 14 Thank you 14 places.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much.
Speaker 10
Yes, Council Member Calloway to Madam Chair, um, thank you, sir. That is my district. I'm well aware of the gentleman who was experiencing a mental health crisis. He was being evicted. He was shot and killed by a bailiff. Police were were there. They witnessed it. As to the 14th properties that have been are now in receivership. They were given, they were given to a company well before I joined this council, but I am in talks with the receivership, with the receiver and the court and our law department regarding those 14 properties that are dilapidated, missing windows, elevators don't work. I'm very aware of what's happening in my district, so I'm working on it. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair,
President Sheffield
thank you member Tabitha Kari Frazier,
Speaker 13
body of the whole my city council. Definitely. Once again, I want to invite you all to the collard green cook off. This will be happening August 15. I know this is a different mix of culture and blend, but definitely bringing together a lot of the city with a lot of people that cook in. Because all of the food comes from Detroit farms and gardens. So that's Detroit Black farmer land fund growers, and we're buying it for $5 a pound. So the chefs get paid, the growers get paid, and guess what, we all win. So please come out to Joseph Walker Williams Center. Thank you. Thank you so much for my council member, Calloway. That was supported for first time, and everybody else, I would like to see you all out. 15.
President Sheffield
Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Frazier. Major Bob Tillman,
Unknown Speaker
good morning, honorable city council members. My name is Major Bob Tillman, I'm with the Tuskegee Airmen. We also support the the reason I support the Solar Initiative, we just been selected at Davis aerospace of the seven continents in the world. Our young people has chosen to
Speaker 14
view the astronaut in space in real time. And if all of you know that these that the ISS space station is powered by solar panels, it travels at a rate of 17,000 miles an hour, every two hours, this circus Earth. So solar panels are essential, essential for energy. So thank you. Bless all of you. God. Bless you. Have a wonderful day.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Christina Hobson, followed by L Martin, hello.
Speaker 11
My name is Christina Hobson. I'm speaking on behalf of the City of Detroit, Office of Inspector General Staff, honorable members of Detroit City Council. We are writing in support of Kamal Marable. It is a pleasure to recommend him for the city of Detroit inspector general position. Mr. Maribel is uniquely qualified as a uniquely qualified candidate who has vast experience within the within the inspector general community, and even more, within the city of Detroit and both the executive and legislator branches. Mr. Maribel has served as Deputy Inspector General Since 2012 and was instrumental in establishing this office. He has helped lay the foundation for the Office of Inspector General, or OIG, by establishing our policies and procedures which guide the office's investigations and audits, he has worked collaboratively with two previous IGS as well as the staff to continuously improve on his existing operations and to create new systems as the need rises more importantly, however, Mr. Maribel is a great leader and mentor with a servant's heart, he has helped create a supportive and collaborative work environment within the office, which the cycles value and motivated.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Thank you, yes, council member
Speaker 10
on the way, young lady, ma'am, thank you, Madam Chair, um, I just want to say I appreciate you, because I know it took courage for you, because you currently work in that office, right? Because it could go either way, right? Yeah. So you're putting yourself out there in support of your the person that you want to continue to work in that department, leading that department, and it took courage for you to do that, because we don't know how we're going to vote yet, the votes haven't been had, right? Yeah. So I can tell you that you have a lot of courage, and I appreciate you stepping out and taking that stance in support of the person that you'd like to work continue to work with. So congratulations, and thank you for that. Thank you. Thank
Unknown Speaker
you for listening. Thank you.
Speaker 15
Morning electorates Council. This is Al Martin earlier today and earlier today, I was standing in this beautiful downtown area of Detroit, looking across from our beautiful Riverwalk that is now listed as the most beautiful Riverwalk in the country. We see the beautiful things that are happening in our city. Now it's time to concentrate on the neighborhoods the solar project is just one piece of a big puzzle. I'm here to support it. There are many, many things we need to do within our city. This happens to be one that also give community benefits. And as always, I'm going to support the the the movement of our community, the betterment of our neighborhoods. And of course, want to push the Youth Commission, because I believe a city is only as good as you treat your elders and as you treat your youth, recognizing the past and pushing forward in the future. Let's support the the Solar Initiative. Let's move our city forward. And I appreciate your time.
Unknown Speaker
Great. Thank you so much.
President Sheffield
Jackson rollback,
Speaker 16
hello, counselors. I'm here with Detroit anti work committee. My name is Jackson. I'm here to say months ago you guys had a ceasefire resolution, which, well, courageous, I think, is now dated. The International Criminal Court of Justice has now seen the so called State of Israel as being guilty of war crimes and occupation, and we need serious disclosure of Detroit investment portfolios. Me and other organizers have tried to FOIA request the various portfolios to see if Detroit is investing in war profiteers like Lockheed Martin, who are now complicit in this genocide, right and through our tax dollars, Detroit taxpayers are paying for these bombs by investing in these companies, and it is morally abhorrent as a city to make your citizens a part of war crimes happening overseas by merely paying their tax dollars. We also need an end of training with DPD and the Israeli occupation forces as we see other you know, cities are now calling for there's no reason why an army that's investing in fighting a genocide and our police are training together. There's no reason. There's no excuses, and we need to make sure that ends. Thank
President Sheffield
you so much. Michael musinski, hello. My name is
Speaker 16
Michael musinski. I'm the president of the Wayne State University Graduate Student Senate, as well as a member of the Detroit anti war committee. As a scientist and student leader, it's my duty to carefully analyze data and base my conclusions on truth. Well, the truth is that Detroit, Michigan and the United States are currently complicit in genocide. The Lancet, a world renowned academic journal, published an article predicting 186,000 Palestinians have already been ethnically cleansed by the rogue state of so called Israel. Nearly 10% of the entire population of Gaza murdered. I was grateful that the City Council voted to adopt one of the first major ceasefire resolutions, it is nowhere near enough. I'm calling upon the city council to revisit the resolution and to improve it. In order to put real pressure on the Zionist entity, you must insist on total divestment from the genocidal state, a proven strategy that worked with South Africa. You must cease all Detroit Police Department investment with involvement with the heinous Israeli occupation forces, Israel a rogue state, which, just yesterday, had members of its Knesset argue that the rape of Palestinian prisoners is an acceptable action. History is watching. Where will you stand? Thank you. Joe Pico,
Unknown Speaker
Hi there. My
Speaker 17
name is Joe. I'm a member of the Detroit anti war committee, and just like my comrades, I'm here to talk to you about how your ceasefire resolution from last November is no longer adequate, and few examples of why that is the case. Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that the so called Israeli occupation and annexation of its Palestinian lands, along with the discriminatory practices of the Zionist occupation are violations of international law and practices of apartheid. In addition to this, last week as well, officially, a polio academic was declared in Gaza, these are both consequences of what it looks like when apartheid and genocide are left unchecked. Because of this, I'm calling upon you, the City Council, to consider completely divesting from any sort of involvement with the so called State of Israel. And in addition to that, ensuring that any Detroit Police Department involvement with the Israel and the Israeli occupational forces ceases, any police trained by the IOF are taught the same genocidal practices that are currently being used to kill and slaughter Palestinians. And this relationship only legitimizes the violence being perpetrated by the Zionist occupation. Thank you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Miss Williams.
Unknown Speaker
Good morning to the council. My name is signing it Williams. I
Speaker 18
am a resident of the city of Detroit. I also work in the city of Detroit, and I work for the IBEW. I come to support the initiative for the solar power. But first and foremost, I would like to make sure someone is appointed to oversee that the work for the surrounding community, the repairs and different things for the houses, is most definitely at the forefront, because so many times we have contractors or businesses come in and want to do things in the city and say they're going to do things for the neighborhood, and they don't follow through on it, but that's my main concern, but I am support of the initiative. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Richard Garrett,
Unknown Speaker
yeah. Richard Garrett,
Speaker 19
I've been a resident of the city my whole life. I currently own a property in North Rosedale Park, and live there. Raised my four kids here. One of my kids is getting ready to have a couple grandkids. And I speaking on behalf of the solar project. I'm an electrician, 37 years and local, 58 IBEW, and I think that it would be a great project for the city, for the children, for my grandchildren, to have a solar project in the city. And I think that whatever you can do to make that happen, it's about the future. It's about the kids. So it'd be great to see this solar project here in the city. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Byron,
Speaker 20
good morning City Council. Thank you for your tireless service to this city. I'm going to reiterate what the previous two speakers talked about, my name is Byron Osborne, resident of the city of Detroit, district five and IBEW, member business agent representing our 4000 plus working families that work in Southeast Michigan. And we also have the largest delegation of Detroit electricians. The solar project will give us an opportunity to attract local talent, retain local talent through wages that are paid through the union. We've got local contractors that can do this work. They can mobilize and make sure that the job is done on time, under budget and a little bit of self serving. I got a son that I'm trying to get into our apprenticeship, and this will give him an opportunity specifically to become the next generation of electrical workers here in the city of Detroit. So I hope that you approve this project. We do stand in support of it, and thank you for your time.
Unknown Speaker
Peter Bell,
Taura Brown
good morning. Good morning. My name is Takita Bell. I'm here today speaking on behalf of my grandmother, Ernestine Austin. She lives in districts, district three, which is the Van Dyke Lynch area. We're speaking in support of the solar project. My grandmother has been living in that area for almost 50 years she's almost 90 years old, and we've watched that neighborhood, um depreciate considerably over the last maybe 30 years. A project such as this is doing something that I have not seen done in this area and all of the years. As far as initiatives go, this project allows the residents that um, may want or need to leave, to leave, but also it is allowing the residents that have to remain in the area to fix up their community. It is it will help to deplete the Blight that's going on in the area. It will make the areas a safer area, because currently it is not. So we are asking that you all vote yes in support of this solar project. Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
Haley Henley,
Speaker 4
Hi, my name is Haley Henley, and I live in the lynch in Van Dyke area, and I support support the solar system. And I'm here because I'm very much in need of electrician for my kitchen. And if you guys would be so kind and pass this, I would really like that. I really, truly need the help. I'm a widow, and I'm kind of struggling right now, and I need the help. Thank you. Thank
President Sheffield
you. Gabrielle rush, followed by Caden Brown, good
Speaker 21
morning City Council. My name is Gabrielle rush. I'm a planner and student here in the city of Detroit, and I'm here to express my strong support for the solar panels. I'd first like to thank the council and the city of Detroit for recognizing the real climate crisis we're experiencing since the last Council meeting, NASA had reported the hottest day on history in earth. So these really aren't problems that can wait for the future. They're problems that need to be solved now, and you guys are recognizing that. So thank you. For the first time in 66 years, Detroit has experienced population growth, and I strongly believe that the implementation of the solar panels will support that trend. As we continue to expand both economically and demographically, the city must adopt sustainable, long term energy solutions to prepare and prepare for potential climate migration with the 21.06 megawatts planned or proposed Detroit could reduce about 20k metric tons annually. Such reductions are very critical to support the Detroit climate strategy. Okay, well, thank you so much for recognizing the climate crisis, especially as a Gen Z. Our future is very uncertain, so I'm very much so in support of the solar panels. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Speaker 22
Morning, honorable Council. My name is Caden Brown. I am 17 years old, and for the past two years I have served and spent my time in a juvenile diversion program, representing first time offending youth under Oakland County. When I was appointed, I did not fully grasp the immensity of everything I'd encounter, but the things I've witnessed compel me to share with you a perspective that often goes unheard Mayor Duggan solar panel initiative is about more than what can be deduced from its name. Its impact does not cease at the border of environmental sustainability. This project will reclaim space where currently exists nearly 200 acres of open land. Crime thrives in this vacancy. The accessibility to illegal activity is hosted by spaces such as these, and when we leave them malnourished, we unlock the doors to a breeding ground for further illicit behavior to succeed and for the cycles of crime to usher more vulnerable youth in. I urge the council to not only support this initiative, but to continue investing in projects alike, because when you do, you protect kids just like me from falling through the cracks. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Wow, that
Speaker 23
was it. Diane. Good morning Council members and Detroit at large here. Diane Van Buren, district five resident and lifetime resident of Detroit, over 20 years ago, we started examining the whole crisis of Detroit with vacant land, and the issue is shrinking city. And we discovered then that within the 139 square miles of Detroit we could fit Boston, San Francisco and Manhattan. And we discovered this luxury of land that Detroit had, and what were we going to do with it? We have an answer here. We have a pilot project with the Detroit Solar Initiative, where we can be leaders and looking at how to put our vacant land to use, how to be productive with it, and how to help residents in those surrounding areas with community benefits. Land that can be productive, land that can be an example of leadership in Detroit and how we can set the stage for the global economy to look at. We're not wasting land, we're using it. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 24
Good morning. My name is Diane checklich, and I'm a resident of District Six. I urge City Council to approve the solar project today, because we need urgency in the fight against climate change. Our planet is literally burning up just nine days ago, July 21 earth had the hottest day on record in the last 100,000 years. Right now, there are over 900 climate fueled wildfires burning in Canada. We all know how wildfire smoke ruins the air in Detroit and affects our public health. Our nature and wildlife suffer too. Two thirds of our birds, plants and animals are threatened with extinction due to climate change. With all this happening, we're on the brink of hitting some dangerous tipping points with climate so the time to act is now. Please vote yes on the solar project. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Speaker 25
Good morning. My name is Madison. I'm with the Detroit anti war committee. I'm here today to call on the city of Detroit to take a clear stance on the genocide in Gaza, to divest from Israel and to immediately cease any police training with the Israeli occupation force. Since the original call for cease fire, we have seen millions of Palestinians displaced from their homes, 1000s murdered, very little aid successfully delivered. It has been recognized this month by international humanitarian law that that Israel has been legally occupying Palestine for decades under an apartheid state. We are also now familiar with the Israeli forces propensity to ignore calls for ceasefire, unless pressured by their most powerful ally, which is us, United States Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the campaign in Gaza as a clash of barbarism and civilization, a phrase he used again just last week with Congress. Can we have our police trained by a force that recognizes an enemy as barbers as the opposite of civilization? I think we need to stand for our own vulnerable people and the vulnerable people overseas. Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Speaker 9
Good morning. My name is Bria Harris. I am a district two resident, first year apprentice at Detroit carpenter apprenticeship school. I support the Solar Initiative because it's funded for people like me and my community. It brings jobs and more opportunities to find a career. My four years in high school, this opportunity was not available. I want to stand and support this opportunity for the young people for the future. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Mr.
Unknown Speaker
Perkins, you Perkins,
Speaker 22
good morning, honorable bodies. My name is John Perkins, business representative for the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and mill rights. And we, too are in full support of the Solar Initiative. Not only will this initiative provide job opportunities for Detroiters, but also clean energy resources for the neighborhoods that these projects and the surrounding neighborhoods that these projects were resigned in when we think about building a better future for the generation behind us. This this Solar Initiative is only the beginning of that start. So that's why we're in full support of the project, and we hope that you are, too. Thank you.
President Sheffield
All right. Thank you. Applause. Ms Logan, good morning, everyone.
Speaker 26
I'm here because I love Detroit. Thank you. Councilwoman Callaway for giving us that information about the Supreme Court's decision over assessments are still occurring in Detroit without consequence, without accountability, we pay the highest property taxes in the country, still in 2000 the city had 950,000 residents in 2020 we went down to 650,000 less than that, with A million median income in 2000 or 40, about $40,000 in 2020 went down to $31,000, whether it be tax abatements to billionaires or solar panels or anything else to displace residents, is not in our best interest if we want to be still be the largest city in Michigan and one of the largest black cities in the country.
Unknown Speaker
We need our people.
Unknown Speaker
There is strength in numbers. Logan,
Speaker 10
Thank you, ma'am. I've been getting several text text messages. People want to know the name of the case, Madam Chair, it is Rafaeli versus Oakland County. Rafaeli, I'll spell it. His first name is Yuri URI. His last name is R A, F, A, E, L, I versus Oakland County. He owed $8.41 in taxes on a rental property in Southfield.
Unknown Speaker
It grew to $285,000
Speaker 10
Oakland County sold his property after foreclosing on it for $24,500 and kept the windfall. Thank you, Madam Chair,
President Sheffield
thank you. Member, cathaway,
Speaker 17
good afternoon. Council, Kyle cantala, District Two after hearing public comment last week in regards to the solar field initiative, it's very apparent that most of these supporters don't live in the footprint of any of the finalist areas, and therefore weren't around last year when the Department of neighborhoods barely alerted us of meetings with vague handbills about this land grab in the name of green energy, they didn't come home to assessors illegally being in their backyard with a depressingly Low property assessment of 45k in areas that the city has blighted for decades to now offering homeowners and neighbors a dismal one time payment for acres of solar fields that they won't benefit from long term, because DTE has lobbied at a state level to make sure that we will never benefit from that community solar energy being told that dump sites blight and vacant homes will finally be taken care of when the city hasn't fixed these issues today, when tax paying Detroiters live in these areas doesn't add up, has the city thoroughly studied and investigated other options, such as freeway sides over parking lots raise solar fields would radically develop Gardens underneath, over bike lanes and next to the mayor's mansion, the fact that last week, the lawyers assessment of the plan had to be discussed in private is an issue. Please vote no and take more time. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Morning. Good morning. I'm Donald. I'm
Speaker 27
here in support of the solar system. I've been on bench and land dyke for 53 years. I'm still there. I'm already in the process of building what you call the Wonderland with the vacant lots where me, my grandchildren, my family, utilized for like a fun day and fun times. So I'm in support of the solar system. I think it's a great look. The airport is gone. I mean, we was there when the air shows, is there, the bookmobile, the swimming bill, all that's gone. So we trying to figure out a way to bring it back and implement a better future for the children.
President Sheffield
Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Council. My
Speaker 28
name is Steven crutch. I've been a resident of university District of Maryland for 30 years. My concern is that past president of the UDCA, Roger short, along with MHC housing, submitted a letter to the City Planning Division that the community was in support of the rezoning, which in fact, we learned at the meeting that Roger short used the UDCA letterhead submit the letter, which was totally fraudulent misrepresentation of the facts and statements that was approved by the City Planning Division. And since that time, we have never, ever had any open meetings. All the Open Meetings was conducted by Jay Z I'm asking you to not approve this rezoning based on the fact that the fraudulent representation of the application just as the same as Bianca Bush, her application, which was canceled, this was a fraudulent and since then, there's been no democracy by my council. Calloway, she's been continuously working with Jay zoo, MHT housing, but not the UDCA community. Thank you,
Speaker 10
Madam Chair Callaway, yeah, Mr. Crutcher, that is incorrect. I've not I've worked with you and all the residents of the university Hold on one second. I have contended every single meeting, I've not sat on anybody's side. I've been neutral throughout the entire process, and that is absolutely true. You've not been at all the meetings. I have been at every single meeting, and any residents in that area knows I've been at the meetings. And so through the representatives from MHT and Jay Z, I have been in attendance at every single meeting, and I I'm not siding with anyone. Thank you Madam Chair.
President Sheffield
Thank you. Member Callaway,
Speaker 29
just a couple of things. I've been living in District Three for over 30 years, and I support support a solar panel project, and I'm quite sure that the citizens in that district that don't want to move will benefit greatly for from the benefits community benefits for the citizens that want to stay there and the ones that do want to move. I'm quite sure that we would really benefit from the city buying a property. And another thing, one other thing back in when the mayor mentioned, and I think that was in 2014 he said he was going to take Jones Day to court concerning a big money that was owed a big, a lot of money that was due for the that's your time retirement. And I would like to know if any of the council members know anything about that?
President Sheffield
That's your time, sir. Thank you so much, sir. We can, Mr. Johnson, we can follow up with you on the information that you requested regarding the Jones Day case, the situation where the city pursued, I'm familiar what you're talking about. We can try to see if LPD or someone has a writing to further explain that situation. Okay, thank you so much, sir. Miss Johnson.
Speaker 3
Good morning. Ruth Johnson from Community Development advocates of Detroit, a membership oriented non profit organization with over 150 dues paying members and has served as the leading voice of community development in Detroit for over 25 years. I sent to your offices, to the mayor and to the Detroit Land Bank Board of Directors, our statement regarding the land bank and the MOU and I'm going to cover some of the recommendations we are asking and advocating for changes in the board of directors that they must be Detroit residents expand to nine for appointed by the mayor, for appointed by this council, and one by Miska mister, the Michigan State Development Housing Development Agency, and that all members will be term limited to a four year term and no more than three four year terms, retroactive to May of 2015
President Sheffield
All right. Thank you. Ms Johnson, Mr. Burton,
Speaker 30
are you going again, my name is elder burden. Give space the guide ahead of my life and to the city council, you've been giving ear to the deafblind, dumb and the crazy and the needy and the greedy. So y'all, I have some honorable boards. I've come down here to get straight to the point. I hope you don't put off any longer this solar panel following again, as Coleman Young himself said, y'all have had committees in front of y'all and gave you all kind of testimonies, documentations and everything you possibly need. Do not put this on the back burner. I wanted to say that everybody has basically said the same thing I've been saying, and you had a whole host of people that support lot fewer against, and even some person that claimed to be a part of District Two, not even so that's the biggest lie I've ever heard. You know lived on and don't live in district two. And I gotta say to city councilman woman Callaway, I do commend you for being a great Councilwoman. You are a wonderful Councilwoman. And I know everybody's not perfect. Everybody got faults, and I have not seen you at any of our meetings at the ACC building, you've certainly on seventh I haven't seen I know Kim Tanya has been asking you, but I know you're great, and I appreciate your participation. Alright,
Unknown Speaker
thank you. Have a good day. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Okay, alright. Misha Parker, hello,
Speaker 4
everyone. My name is Misha Parker. I am the president of the Karen neighborhood block club and District Four at Finley, Finley and grasshoot area. I'm here to support the solar panels. I would like to say that Miss Jackson, Tisha Johnson, she always there for us. We go bike riding with her in our area, and we see the blight. We take our youth with us, and they see the blight. We want to turn blight into light. Our children need these solar panels so they can see that when they ride through the neighborhood, how the neighborhood is changing for them. They want to be safe on the sidewalks and in the streets without because we barely have sidewalks for them. So if they come over in our neighborhood and build that area up, they'll be able to ride their bikes over there and see the new light without the blight. So I'm looking forward to you guys saying yes to the solar panels for our youth organizations in our area, and do support them, because they need you. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 26
Hello everyone. I'm Gail Hines. I also from the grassroot family area, and I just wanted to say that we're here because we highly support getting solar panels in our area. I've listened to everyone, and I hear the same thing that we think that is for the future, is for our children. It takes care of our blighted land, and we we can redevelop our land and grow underneath the solar panels. I hear the same thing, but the last thing I really want to say is that I believe in the city council. I am here for the same reason everyone else is here because we believe in the system and that you all will make the right decision based on everything that you hear, that we hear positive, we hear negative, but based on what everybody thinks, their opinions and their thoughts that you all I believe, and I want to say thank you for making the right decision and looking at the positive and negative overall, and see what's best for our residents in the city of Detroit. And thank you very much. Appreciate you.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Speaker 26
Good morning. Greetings. I'm Donnell Wilkins. I am the founder and CEO of the Green Door initiative, headquartered in the city of Detroit. I dedicated all of my 30 years in working to ensure that the city of Detroit actually stands up and be a leader around environmental justice. That's the work that I've been doing. I am totally supportive of the Solar Initiative, I think it is a way for us to showcase what solar could look like for a city of our kind to be a leader in this is an amazing opportunity. I will also say that because of this current federal administration who has dedicated billions of dollars to communities like ours to take care of the legacy issues that have affected our communities and to bring investments through the IRA and others to stand up and represent what we can do to serve our community. Support it. Oh yes, thank you
Unknown Speaker
now,
Unknown Speaker
thank you. Good morning.
Speaker 26
My name is markisha Ellis. I live in District Three. I'm in support of the solar panels on my block. There's three legal residents. In the past 90 days, I've been able to walk outside and see two dead bodies in front of my home, between the blight, the dumping, the prostitution and the drugs of a 16 year old and a 13 year old, I just feel like we maybe deserve another chance. I see the effort Councilman Benson for actually coming out and seeing the everyday of what we're going through. It's so much open area that it's the police they patrol, but it's so much open area they can't be everywhere over every time. We need to be doing something now, and maybe it could possibly save a life, mine, yours, my grandchild, your grandchild, anybody's but the seven mile area. I'm for the Solar Initiative. Thank you. Thank you. I
Speaker 31
want to thank marquesha for coming down today. We've had the opportunity to come out to your home. We've done the vignette. We've seen what's going on. I know the data, and I know what you're going through and your children at that space, and what you plan to do with the money when your home is purchased, to stay within the city of Detroit, move near your mother and give your children a better quality of life, because what you have to go through on a daily basis is not what you should have to and we're offering you something now. We're hoping that we want to take it today. Thank
Unknown Speaker
you. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Mr. Foster.
Speaker 27
Good morning through the President. First thing I want to just say is we have to vote. Elections are more than elections. Elections are the opportunities to transform government. I've already voted. I personally voted federally for MS Walters and Mr. Hill Harper, that's no secret. Number two, as you guys go on resource recess, it's important to know that school begins August 26 while you don't have governance at the school, you do have governance at the route to and fro school and the environment and the community that surrounds our schools and the children and the citizens of the city during the recess, please ponder new policies and ideas to improve the quality of life and quality of education for our most precious treasures, our youth. Thirdly, I ask our community to support our fellow community members. Miss Betty Vance, have an event on August 4 in district seven, we have to start supporting each other. Lastly, happy early birthday to miss Callaway, Mr. Whitaker, and my birthday is the filth as well. So happy birthday. Mr.
Unknown Speaker
Foster
President Sheffield
we appreciate you, sir. Go right ahead. Ma'am,
Speaker 11
good morning, honorable Council. My name is Carly Austin, and I am a nurse for the past seven years in the city of Detroit. I'm also a third year PhD student at Wayne State University, and I've worked at health and health policy in Lansing for the past year. I'm here today to talk about a different lived experience that may offer you some additional insight to the benefits of the solar power neighborhood. Solar power power, excuse me, solar power initiative. My grandmother, for the third time in her lifetime, lived 50 years on seven mile and Biltmore, and just has been diagnosed last week for with breast cancer unrelated to the other two and my mom has been diagnosed twice, unrelated to one another, for triple negative breast cancer. I recently engaged in genetic testing, having had those experiences with my grandmother and my mother and realized that we had no genetic predisposition, but it was environmental. There was a meta analysis that just came out that the exposure to ultraviolet light can decrease the risk for breast cancer. So please just add that to your language knowledge base. It could save my life, and it can save those that I birth. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Mr. Brown, good
Taura Brown
morning Council. My name is Tara Brown. I'm in district five. And before you all consider a ceasefire in Israel or Gaza, and I support it, make sure you request one here in Detroit. You know I'm here because I wanted to talk about Sherman Butler. He died on July 12, and he was a tenant in district two like Pat discussed before. However, nobody seems to care. This is a big deal. It's one thing when the police feel emboldened to shoot somebody. It's another thing when the court bailer feels emboldened to shoot somebody in the presence of the police. Not only have we not gotten any information about what happened with Mr. Butler, other than what the Detroit Police put out the day that he was killed. You know, I broadcast media here in Detroit just falling down on the job because he got shot, and it was on to the next story. And we keep hearing about how crime is going down in Detroit, but when I do turn on the news, I'm not seeing that people are being killed here, Shot Spotter, and all the other things that were put in place were supposed to stop, that it's not stopping. So we need a ceasefire here in Detroit, and we also need to acknowledge that people don't need to be killed during an eviction.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Miss Brown, right? Mr. Smith
Speaker 32
Council, my name is James Smith here on behalf of the solar panel initiative, I believe it's a great opportunity for Detroit to move forward into the future where we need to be, because, sadly enough, the city has been in the stone age for the longest time, and there needs to be something for these kids to have looking forward. I think this is one thing that they can look forward to, that that'll create opportunities, jobs, you know, maintain with the solar panels and things like that. I just I want to see my city do better. I've been living here my whole life. I lived on the east side, west side, everywhere. And I just want to see us go forward and catch up with the other cities in this country that are the elite, the upper echelon. I think Detroit can be that it should be, that there's no reason that it shouldn't. It isn't, you know that it it we need to move forward. We gotta stop living in the past, past, and I think that we just need to go ahead and do what's necessary for our future generations to flourish. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you. Did I face me? Good.
Speaker 33
Good Good morning. Janante Smith, here, I want to talk about a few different things. I have a couple questions to post you guys as well. Do you guys know how many DP, how many city owned tow yards the city has, and how many tow trucks the city has also in the server I work with Detroit eviction defense. I also want to talk about the bailiff shooting and killing a person in the middle of eviction. That's ridiculous. Also the um, land bank, the MOU, you guys need to vote on MOU. You guys need to make that fair for the city. This city is being run, and this land bank is selling all these homes to major developers, and people like me who are single, young and don't make a lot of money, can't afford houses here, which is ridiculous. Also, these solar panels suck. We don't want that. These people's not there being paid. You see people something they don't even live in this city. So that's also terrible. And also the story commission, Imma make sure I follow up with LPD, because the city didn't select me as a city council or the mayor's office, especially David Whitaker, make sure I follow up with you. And also auditor general, I'm still on the story commission, because we have a lot of issues with towing the city. People are losing their cars. This is a big windfall for money in the city, and we have had a lot of malefeasance in our government around tolling, so I'm going to make sure you never hear any and also auto insurance.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Mr. Smith,
Unknown Speaker
anybody had an answer yet?
President Sheffield
So I heard, I know, excuse me, janante, I know you mentioned the same question in the mayor's meeting yesterday, as it relates to how many toll company, that's
Unknown Speaker
not an answer they
President Sheffield
gave you. What was the answer? It
Unknown Speaker
said 12 to 15. That's
President Sheffield
not okay. So we we would need to get with DPD to get the exact answer, because I know that the question was asked and I thought they gave you an answer. So let us follow up with you, okay, to make sure that they that question is answered. Thank you so much. Mister Smith, Mister Crawley, followed by Mister Brown. Hey
Unknown Speaker
guys glasses on, you can see clear. Pay
Speaker 13
attention now Dennis Winfrey and Gina Avery Walker, Cole blue handed busted Keaton and Alexis. 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2020, 2024, this presidential primary election, February the 27th February 28 I did a background on Mary Elaine Beckman, 12842, and district one, Sussex Street, 48227, she is an overseas citizen voting for Germany. Fred durhall In 2021 did not beat Virginia Ross final 60 votes that cost me a lot of time, money, resources to be able to say this to you, Fred, you're not the duly elected, legitimate representative for district seven, you got a lot of Detroit voter trap houses in district seven, and you've got fraudulent absentee votes, and that election, when we get to 60, you gotta get up.
President Sheffield
Mister Foley, Mister Brown, followed by Mister Jay jergenson. Greetings,
Speaker 34
council reading. I'd like to preface my statement by asking, was there anything from the closed meeting yesterday that about the solar Can you speak up just a little bit more? Was there anything from the closed meeting yesterday that you guys were able to share with us today or later today, in regard to voting for the Solar Initiative. I know last week y'all, y'all said that y'all going to have a closed meeting Monday. But also, I want to add something to a few of the residents. Not only was last month the hottest June ever recorded, the 21st of July was the hottest day ever recorded. Then it was followed by the Monday, which was then the hottest day ever recorded. So this is a prevalent issue. I also want to ask, why not Detroit? I feel like this solar panel initiative was Macomb County, Oakland County, or something like that. You know, then there would be a bit of a hindsight 2020 and say, why didn't they elect to do this in Detroit, something that would bring a lot of company, a lot of business, a lot of
Unknown Speaker
liquid to the city. That's my time.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. And I think we've been advised from LPD and our attorneys essentially that we can't disclose what was in the closed session, because if there is pending litigation that comes before the city, that information can be used against the city, and so unfortunately, we cannot disclose what was discussed. And Mr. Whitaker, if you want to shake your head yes or no, that that is correct, so unfortunately we cannot at
Speaker 34
this. I do remember him, him speaking on that two weeks in a row, but okay, just want to make
President Sheffield
sure you understood. Thank you. Okay, thank you sir for being here. All right. Mr. Jorgensen, morning,
Speaker 35
before we break for a much needed recess, I'd ask that we do one last piece of homework. I find it troubling that members of this council are on the radio last week concerned about industrial zones, yet this body unit unanimously approved the vacating of fruit Street to allow for the encroachment of an industrial use into the poorest and blackest part of our residential community, we do the analytics, we do the policy research, we get an independent legal opinion, and we ask for an investigation, and all of that falls on deaf ears, and if you thought we were going to get another bite at the apple, there's movement afoot to avoid rezoning of this project. Legal officials claim that they've been unable to engage with us for the last eight years because they were concerned about speculative land costs. Yet they spent 13 cents per consumer of the 2.8 million consumers. They spent $354,000 of $138 million project as the top of the electoral food chain. We expect you to understand the intersectionality of these issues, and we expect more.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Mister Jurgensen, alright, that will conclude in person, and we will now turn it over to everyone who has joined us virtually discussion yes. Member Benson Madam
Speaker 31
President, just wanted to recognize my, one of my one of my bosses who came out, who lives on Robinwood as well, to speak directly to the solar farms and the conditions in which they're living on Robinwood, both of whom have accepted and signed documents accepting a buyout for their homes, to move out of the solar farm, out of the Solar footprint, and hoping that we can make that approval today, want to recognize that both of them coming out and speaking. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Thank you. Alright, Mister Rudin Ari, how many callers do we have online?
Speaker 18
Good morning, Madam President, there were 30 hands who 30 callers who raised the room before you cut off public comment and the first caller is Betty Avon,
President Sheffield
all right, good morning.
Speaker 4
Good morning to all within the sound of my voice. Betty a barn, the president of the soda Ellsworth black Association, I want to speak to my honorable council person der Hall, the third desolate Ellsworth black Association. We appreciate all that you have done for us. Ever since you have been a council person, you have stepped up and supported us and helped us to accomplish so many of our mission and goals. But I want to say, council person, I'm getting a little nervous in regards to our community park sign this Saturday, we would like to have our soft opening, and it's based on us having that commute community park sign in the honor of our late vice president, Gwendolyn veneer. So I'm just putting it out there. You know, we love you, but I'm a little nervous. I want to say thank you to council member Coleman Young.
President Sheffield
Member young me. Member durhau, thank
Speaker 8
you, Madam President, Miss Verner, I know you're nervous, but we always deliver. We have a commitment for your sign. So everything is in motion for that to happen, but it takes some time, and we're looking to have it before Saturday. So wanted to let you know that I know Yolanda has been in conversation with you as well, and we are working on trying to get that expedited. Thank you, Madam President,
President Sheffield
thank you our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is demanding election integrity.
President Sheffield
We can move forward. Is this Mr. Crowley, or is it someone different? Okay, I'm sorry. Go right ahead, caller,
Unknown Speaker
set my time back, please. Thank you. Good morning through the chair. May I be heard?
President Sheffield
Yes, we can hear you. Good morning.
Speaker 5
I know you can hear me. Oh, no, I don't. Anyway, 15.3 is to create a fun a solar Fund, which is not actually what the money is was for. And so you have to go through the budget process and the reappropriations process. I don't think public lighting gets to decide what we do with our general funds. If they had $24 million it should go back to the general fund and it should be brought through the normal procedure of funding. 15.4 ltgo is just this administration trying to push
Unknown Speaker
the
Speaker 5
whoever has to pay this bill. They're pushing it off on somewhere else, and you all know what's going on. I'm against the 15.3 19.1 and two and 19.26 will allow it is criminal against the citizens. This matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand of the word of the holy ones, to the extent that we may know that the most high rule of
Unknown Speaker
right. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Marguerite Maddox Scarlet,
President Sheffield
all Right, good morning, Miss Maddox.
Unknown Speaker
Good morning. Good morning.
Unknown Speaker
I wish I'm not being
Unknown Speaker
heard
Unknown Speaker
the please,
Unknown Speaker
before the driveway connected With the shower before and
Unknown Speaker
before and remember,
Unknown Speaker
issue, everything.
Unknown Speaker
Please make sure there is room In
Speaker 2
they said, the Israelite people
Speaker 2
sometimes, did not work properly, because it can be firecrackers. Firecrackers did not me sound alike. Please, belt.
Unknown Speaker
Grew up
Unknown Speaker
AM, thank you.
Unknown Speaker
May God bless you.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much. Miss Maddox, and may God bless you as well. We appreciate you as well.
President Sheffield
Our next caller please.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Sam Menna, hello.
Unknown Speaker
Can you
President Sheffield
Good morning? Good morning. Can
Unknown Speaker
you hear me?
President Sheffield
Yes, we can hear you. Okay, cool. Thank you. Sorry.
Unknown Speaker
So my name is Samantha mana, and I'm currently a little low. Yes, I so
President Sheffield
right ahead, you have the floor, just if you could speak up a little bit louder. It was a little low. I gotcha. Can
Unknown Speaker
you hear me now? Is
President Sheffield
that better? Yes, it is perfect. Thank
Speaker 11
you. Sorry about that. So my name is Samantha Mona, and I am currently a rising senior at the University of Detroit, Mercy the neighborhood solar panel initiative, which represents a transformative step for step towards a cleaner, safer and more vibrant community. It's not just about solar panels. It's about creating an environment where everyone can breathe clean air and live comfortably. I remember the first time I had to wear a mask outside for safety. Was in 2020 during the break of the covid 19 pandemic. Last summer, I had to start wearing a mask again because the quality of air was so dangerous, this was all over Michigan. I believe that Detroit can be the city that takes the initiative to begin the fight against this climate issue. For all Michiganders, just this past year, flooding itself has also increased extensively and impacted cities also all over Michigan. And this initiative, financial support will be provided to make up to 159 home 159 homes more energy efficient and safer. This includes new windows, new for new furnaces and upgraded insulation. A well maintained and vibrant neighborhood can foster a safer environment for all, especially for people
Unknown Speaker
like myself, the youth,
President Sheffield
right? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Next caller is Stephen Holling,
Speaker 35
can I be heard? Can you Okay? Awesome. So I'm here to speak in complete support of the Solar Initiative. You know, as I've said, and you probably first, there was better use, but just doing a lot of research, really listening to comments, going to meetings. You know, I think this is going to be a great opportunity for the city, and I also think it's going to be an even better opportunity to fight on climate change, which is one of the biggest threats, you know, the civilization there is. And you know, I feel like, you know, this is really going to be another opportunity to really provide some of those neighborhoods with just some of the security and, you know, kind of give them some functionality. You know, a lot of these neighborhoods, you know, I hate saying they don't have any, oh, but, you know, no one seems to be interested in developing Council only Callaway. Do you have anything better? Carl Shay, to share? Please, let us know, because
President Sheffield
right. Thank you our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Tahira OMA,
President Sheffield
good morning to hear Ahmad.
Speaker 10
Good morning. Council, President, Council and the community, happy birthday. Member, Callaway, coming up. Detroit homeowners were illegally overtaxed. $60 million in the 100,000 homes were illegally foreclosed. Solar panels are not going to help homeowners who lost their homes and repopulate our city. These are solar panels are put in here to help downtown businesses and buildings. They already got millions of dollars in tax abatements. So no, that's not the solution. The solution is to build back the home you stole and tore down and cleared out of our city illegally and stole from the wealth from black people and other people who had homes here. That's the solution that gets rid of blight. It repopulates the city, and it makes us have communities again. Now you're seeing all of this vacant land and all kind of animals that are now repopulating city. That's the city's fault. They did that. We want those houses put back. We want our money back, and we want you to secure our community that way.
President Sheffield
Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Next caller is Theresa Landrum,
Theresa Landrum SWD 48217 GDI
greetings Council. Theresa Landrum, the president of the original United Citizens of Southwest Detroit, the oldest registered black club in District Six. I'm here representing the community of Southwest Detroit, 42 and seven. In regards to the animal husbandry, I have the opportunity to sit down with Director Todd of CPC, Mr. Kimani Jeffress and Jai singleton from Tate's office southwest Detroit. 42 and seven overwhelmingly opposed this. We had several questions that need to be asked. We wanted to make sure that it was fair and equitable, if it impacts every zone of the city, that everyone in those zones being notified about the animal husbandry proposed ordinance, it's a danger. We're now pitting neighbor against neighbor, as we saw two neighbors, fighting because of chicken jumped over the family event on their fire, not five pit barbecue kit. Now, the two neighbors are feuding, you're going to pit neighbor against neighbor, and we want to know, will the HMOs in private security. To be left out we we want, don't want our
President Sheffield
All right? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is William M Davis,
Unknown Speaker
good morning. Can I be heard? Yes,
President Sheffield
we can hear you. Good morning. Okay,
Speaker 36
I think that, as it relates to city, Detroit retirees, you know, we're playing a clawback on what is our annuity savings fund, but yet, yeah, do not and will not claw back money from these millionaires and billionaires that make all these promises about delivering this and delivering that, and, you know, downsize their product, you know, the projects, but yet, y'all still let them keep everything as if they going forward with everything they originally agreed with. You know, I think that y'all should stop to annuity clawback that y'all take them from city chart retirees, I think y'all should enforce their original agreements that you have with these millionaires and billionaires for these projects. And I think y'all should do a whole lot more to help city chart retirees. A year from now, y'all going to be asking us to vote for y'all. We have city Detroit retirees in every single district, and we have families and friends in every single district, so y'all should start helping us now. Thank you.
President Sheffield
Right. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is d2,
President Sheffield
good morning
President Sheffield
caller. D2, good morning you.
President Sheffield
Right. Can we can please come back to this caller, Ari,
Speaker 18
Okay, the next caller is Renard manski,
President Sheffield
all right. Good morning.
Unknown Speaker
Hi. Good morning. Can I be heard?
President Sheffield
Yes, we can hear you. Good morning.
Speaker 28
Good morning. My name is renaski. I'm with the Detroit people's platform, and I'm a community organizer of transit. I just wanted to speak really quickly about the environmental benefits of switching our paratransit fleet, which is a transportation that folks that with disabilities can use if they cannot use the fixed line bus, the electric busses advance that would be part of such fleet does not produce emissions. This means less air pollution and fewer health problems like asthma and heart disease for Detroit residents and unfortunately, according to the World Health Organization, Detroit has experienced 27 poor air quality days in 2023 last year. So moving to low emission or no emission vehicles can lead to significantly improving outcomes for paratransit riders, and this is something that we should investigate. We'll be sending some written materials to council, but not sure how you'll be able to see that over the recess. Thank you.
President Sheffield
All right, thank you.
Speaker 18
The next caller is Detroiters for Tax Justice,
President Sheffield
right? Good afternoon.
Speaker 26
Good afternoon Council, so many grievances, so many grievances. But in reading the agenda, I'm wondering why we're doing a contract with the company for almost two generations, 35 years, in a technology that is constantly improving, innovating and what have you. Why would we give our contract to a single entity for 35 years, and we're talking about electric when we're talking about solar power, we know that things are going to change. We know that those rates that you all are agreeing to pay will probably drop, but for 35 years, we're locked into a single a single company for a technology that is growing and changing every single day. I think that's not a good use of our tax money, which everyone has a grievance. People need to think about the over $1 billion that we've given away in our tax and tax incentives and tax captions,
President Sheffield
right? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Frank Hammer. Can you hear me?
President Sheffield
Yes, we can. Good afternoon.
Speaker 14
Good afternoon. City council, happy birthday to my consent council member, Calloway. I'm calling in support of the speakers, demanding the council get more vocal about the continued genocide by Israel against the Palestinian people. You did well with a cease fire resolution last December, and now you need to do more. Council must work to end all complicity by the US and the genocide. I'm also calling in support of the participants, calling out the climate crisis when the city allowed the fairgrounds to be replaced by three warehouses. The community was ignored when we demanded the warehouses be powered with solar farms on the roofs, and when we demanded a solar roof on the new transit center, the climate crisis requires solutions to scale, not just a few solar farms. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Chuck for State Fair solar.
President Sheffield
Good afternoon. All right, yes, we can.
Speaker 22
Yeah, I live in state fair, state fairgrounds, and I'm in favor of the solo initiative.
Speaker 28
I think it'd be a great thing to add to my neighborhood.
Unknown Speaker
And yeah, that's it.
Unknown Speaker
Let's thank you very much.
President Sheffield
Thank you for your time. Thank you.
Speaker 18
The next caller is Cindy Dara.
President Sheffield
Cindy Dara, good afternoon. Yes,
Speaker 37
I want to know why you allow the water bill to be put on the property tax bill, which will cause more foreclosures. When I bought my building in 1981 it was a lien. The water bill was a lien. it wasn't on the property tax, you're going to cost more foreclosures that way. If you want to know more about solar try contacting Midwest. All Energy Association in Custer, Wisconsin, every year they have an energy fair. I probably haven't been for the last 10 years, but I went to probably six of them years and years ago, they were talking about solar, wind, under floor, heating, if you want to give somebody put, if you can get 30% tax break on solar, and if you maybe put a steel roof you can, might be able to write that off to give that to the people when, instead of to the
President Sheffield
Thank you, Miss Dara,
Speaker 18
the next caller is calling user one,
President Sheffield
calling user one, good afternoon.
Unknown Speaker
Can I be heard?
President Sheffield
Yes, you can.
Speaker 38
Good afternoon. Madam President, I want to thank you. James Tate, member Calloway and member Johnson, I've been complaining about these lots on Lynnwood and West Grand not being cut. I set more pictures. One part has been done. I still need to do. The other part I'd like to know before you all go on a leave. When can this get addressed? I've been complaining about constant drug sales in the apartment complex and filthy carpet that has not been shampooed. I show evidence and proof, and I like to know from you, Madam President, why is it your building and safety puts residents lives in jeopardy every time we complain to the mayor's office, to city council and
President Sheffield
right? Thank you so much. Miss Shay, and I will be sure to look at the email that you the most updated email that you sent, and make sure that your concerns are addressed. Thank you so much for calling in and thank you again. Miss Shay. We appreciate you our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is phone number ending in 270,
President Sheffield
caller, 270, good afternoon.
Speaker 29
Good afternoon. This is Nick Shelton. First of all, that's a Michigan State Supreme Court ruling about the tax foreclosures and the restitution that the owners are supposed to get. Very important decision. I hope it won't get swept under the rug. Also, these annual, comprehensive financial reports need to be looked over by a outside forensic auditing firm. I've been saying this for years, and when John naglett speaks before the city council about the bond that the city has, he's leaving out the high interest rates. They're tacking on it. I'm gonna repeat that again. He always leaves out the interest rate, and he's also under reporting the city's general obligation bond debt. I can prove it by using his own statements. Just two years ago, he said the city of Detroit only had seven $40 million total. Dollars total. General negation by debt. Now you saying we got $1.5 billion independent sources that we got over two
President Sheffield
all right, thank you, Mr. Shelton, um council member Durham, thank you,
Speaker 8
Madam President. I just wanted to clear something up really quick, because I believe information is important. I don't want to get anybody's hopes up. So relative to the Supreme Court ruling, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Kent County had to pay that reimbursement back for the proceeds of the sales of foreclosed properties, and not over assessment. So I think it's very important that we put the correct information out there about the ruling to ensure that we're not getting residents hopes up for the over assessment that particular ruling was for properties that were sold in camp County, that have been foreclosed on in those those proceeds, and then furthermore, that is more so of a county issue and not a city issue. So I did want to clarify that. Thank you, Madam President, right?
President Sheffield
Thank you member. Callaway,
Speaker 10
yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. It applies to all counties in the state of Michigan for anyone's home who was foreclosed on, not just in Kent County, but the case was out of Oakland County. I gave you the citation. I'll give it again, as you Yuri right, failey versus Oakland County applies to the entire state of Michigan. Anyone whose home was foreclosed on for whatever amount there was a windfall by the treasurer's department, there are going to be Detroit homeowners who are impacted by the decision. That's why we had LPD to look into it and render a report. Thank you, Madam Chair,
President Sheffield
all right, thank you, and we will still have LPD just do a thorough, you know, report on the decision, so that we all can be aware of what what took place and the implications that it has on Detroiters. Alright? Thank you so much our next caller, please.
Speaker 18
The next caller is Dr Eloise Thomas,
Unknown Speaker
may I be heard?
President Sheffield
Yes, you can Good afternoon.
Speaker 3
Thank you so much. I'm Dr Lois Thomas, president of seal LLC, solutions for energy efficient logistics as a local, minority owned business, we work with utilities, municipalities and stakeholders to help them get to their clean energy goals. I am offering our public support of the solar energy development project supporting DTE electric as a Detroit based business. We have been working with DTE for over 15 years, and we also have over 146 employees, with around 75% of our local workforce residing in the city of Detroit. Governor Whitmer signed the historic clean energy and climate action package last year, and this project will not only help Michigan to be a leader in the sustainability space, but it will also help make Detroit a resilient place with resilient leaders toward clean energy. So as the parent of two boys, now, young men who grew up with childhood asthma, the improved health by reducing air pollution is critical to our region and our community. Thank you so much for my opportunity to speak.
Unknown Speaker
I appreciate it.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
The the next caller is Christian grant,
Unknown Speaker
Hello, can you hear
President Sheffield
me? Yes, we can
Unknown Speaker
on the morning, oh, thank you,
Speaker 31
as was mentioned before, on the morning of July 12, the Detroit Police tased and a bailiff shot and murdered Sherman Butler, a resident of Palmer Park, during an eviction. They were reported to have been go undergoing a mental health crisis, and as of now, the 36th district court has refused to release the detail. Further details beyond names of this case. Sherman deserved to live. They deserve to have help in their time of crisis. They deserve to home and shelter. The community deserves to know the details of this incident, and Sherman and their family deserve justice.
Unknown Speaker
That's all I have to say.
President Sheffield
Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is phone number ending in 534,
President Sheffield
other, 534, good afternoon.
Unknown Speaker
Yes, good morning. May I be heard?
President Sheffield
Yes, you can Good afternoon.
Speaker 23
Okay. Well, I'm not saying I'm against solar, but despite my repeated questions about any alternative plans or possibilities to do smaller installations rooftop solar without using eminent domain, there's been no report produced. So on that alone, this is not necessary, and I think you will not survive a legal challenge in court because you have not or the city has not done their due diligence. I have asked the sustainability director for this information. I have asked Ben, do we from Miller, Walker, energy last night, I asked the mayor about it, but instead of answering my question about whether there any alternatives had had been explored, not using eminent domain, he pivoted and then kind of stuck words in my mouth, saying, Oh, well, oh, so the people there who want it, you know, can't do it because the resident North End said, No, that is not what I said. I asked the question, duly noted, Mayor Duggan, you have not done your due diligence. This looks like a long term plan to
President Sheffield
right. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Joseph Perry,
President Sheffield
good afternoon. You.
President Sheffield
Joseph Perry, good afternoon.
Unknown Speaker
Good afternoon. How are you?
President Sheffield
I'm representing right ahead for public comment.
Speaker 27
I'm representing Exodus, missionary, Baptist Church. I'm over in the district three area, and Pastor JJ Perry was the pastor. He's deceased. Now we have pastor Owens. And I just want to let you know everybody is talking about the power initiative, the the solar power initiative, and I'm for it, because over in that area, I can see how it would improve the area, how it would improve the environment, and what it would do for for for us. So I just want you to know that Exodus is is in, in for it. And we just want to let you know that Scott Benson has been over in the area, and he's trying to do some wonderful things over there too. So we just want to get behind the council and our district person to help them get along. Thank you for sharing your time with me and thank you for doing an excellent job. You are very impressive. You take care. Thank
President Sheffield
you. Have a good day. All right, our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Cynthia banks.
President Sheffield
Good afternoon.
Speaker 5
Good afternoon. The entire city council body I just wanted to touch on the solar panel project representing Trinity Pickford district one, during the last city council meeting, I listened, and I heard the word taking quite a bit. I just wanted to reiterate that no one is taking. There's no eminent domain being exercised within this project, I personally can say that I am not desperate, and we are sound mind and eager for change, because change brings progress. I am for the solar project initiative. Thank you. Thank you
President Sheffield
our next caller, please.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Mary D,
President Sheffield
good afternoon.
President Sheffield
Good afternoon. Mary D,
President Sheffield
all right, can we come back to Miss Mary D, please, Okay,
Unknown Speaker
the next caller is Mikko a Williams,
President Sheffield
good afternoon.
Speaker 28
Hi, good afternoon. Damico Williams, Chief Executive Director hydrate Detroit, we help advocate people in City of Detroit for help with their water bills. And I am endorsing today the Detroit water and sewerage department easy pay plan. I want to thank Director Brown and Matthew Phillips were working with us and for taking our recommendations and working with us closely, we really have to come together and get on this plan. It's just so easy. 10 years ago, it was the Detroit water crisis, when 150,000 people were getting their water shut off from east to west, and it was caused death and devastation. Now we have a chance to fix the right of wrongs that happened. We need affordable water assistance is not affordability, but this is for everyone that couldn't get on lifeline, and we're thankful. We are hoping for water relief amnesty, to get the debt taken off of the bills here in the city of Detroit, it is very important that if we can all support that opportunity, it would be
President Sheffield
thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Cunningham.
President Sheffield
Cunningham, good afternoon. You.
Speaker 39
Happy, born Day to you. Happy. Born Day to you. Happy. Born day member Callaway, happy, blessed. Born Day to you. I hope I didn't hurt all your ears. I hope I did not but 313-444-9114, and on Facebook expensive vehicle repairs, I want to shout out and know that I prayed for mister Jose a Munez, who, via mail, sent me $100 for the expensive vehicle repairs that I have. They're countless. There's just so much going on. I'm still doing the outreach out in the community, giving out the bus tickets at the bus stops and keep me in prayers and my mother at the rivers of gross point. Cheryl, Marie Lyons, uh, if you can ride the busses, it'd be greatly appreciated. Don't be sedating talk to the people and asking all council members during recess if we can go
President Sheffield
right. Thank you so much. Mr. Cunningham,
Unknown Speaker
the next caller is iPhone.
President Sheffield
IPhone. Good afternoon,
Unknown Speaker
good morning. Ma'am,
President Sheffield
you heard yes you can
Speaker 34
Yeah, I'm calling in support of the Solar Initiative for district three. I wanted to say that few of my neighbors that I spoke with that were being bought out in the footprint. All of them are willing, are trying to relocate within Detroit. Nobody is trying to leave Detroit. And I just think it'll be a good opportunity for myself my children. I have five children, and I can see them using this as a as a base, to kind of educate themselves, or me educate them in the future of solar energy and just clean energy overall. So thank you, but I yield my time.
President Sheffield
All right. Thank you.
Speaker 18
The next caller is phone number ending in 299 caller 299
President Sheffield
Good afternoon. Caller 299
President Sheffield
All right. Is this the last caller? Arie, do we have another caller?
Speaker 18
Only the ones this is the last new caller. All that's left are the two callers who hadn't
President Sheffield
responded before when we called on them. We can go callers now, please. Okay,
Unknown Speaker
the first caller is d2,
President Sheffield
d2, good afternoon.
President Sheffield
Caller d2 Good afternoon.
Unknown Speaker
Okay, you can't hear me. Yes,
President Sheffield
we can go right ahead. You have the floor for public comment. Caller d2 Yeah. Do you have a public comment this morning?
Speaker 40
I'm trying, but I keep getting muted. Okay, before you hear me,
President Sheffield
we can hear you.
Speaker 40
Okay, great. Um, yeah, that sounds a bad deal all the way around. Uh, missing misinformation, you know, is like Trump would say so in 2014 October, 2014 under the ARR a plan, a Michigan data Smart Grid Investment grants. So we got them then. And that lasted till 2012 and then there was a report by the Secretary of Energy that spoke, let's say, let's just do something. Ricky Haas and he spoke about that plan, and how many, you know, how many weather realizations were done? 35,000 they said, were done in Michigan. So I don't understand why we're acting like this is something that we aren't supposed to do already. You had the money for that and so, but somebody decided you're going to use it for demolition. Now, solar has to have a deconstruction plan submitted with it. What's the deconstruction? They're going to leave it there. They're going to leave them panels there. Already running the wires overhead. No overhead wires in the southeast, southeast portion of Michigan. It's all documented.
President Sheffield
Right? Thank you so much.
Unknown Speaker
The next caller is Mary D,
President Sheffield
good afternoon. Caller. Mary D,
Unknown Speaker
yes, I'm here. Can
President Sheffield
you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hi. How are you great. Thank you. Hi.
Speaker 26
My name is Mary Davis, I stay in District Three, and on my block, I've been on this block since 1975 I am all for the solar project, and neighbors are too. So I wish the council would consider that for us, we have a lot of blight around here, and we have a lot of undesirables around here. We have two or three houses on some blocks and they're empty. And we also need to have someone come and tear down these houses that are scheduled for demolition, because all we have is people going up in them. We have animals around here. We have people that's actually sleeping up on the trees across from me. I'm on a block where I'm the first house from the corner, and there's nothing else on either side of me, and there's all kinds of debris behind me, because the next block over is half empty. So we need help in this area, and I that solar would be a good project. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Speaker 18
And the last caller who raised their hand before you had cut off public comment is phone number ending in 299
President Sheffield
caller, 299 Good afternoon. I
President Sheffield
Good afternoon. Caller 299 All right, going once, twice and caller 299 if you have a public comment you would like to share with us, please submit that public comment to the clerk's office, and it will be a part of our record today. All right, that will conclude all of our public comment for this morning. We thank everyone who came down in person, those who joined us virtually for their comments, and we will now proceed to our agenda for this morning, understanding committee reports for the budget, Finance and Audit Standing Committee under unfinished business.
Taura Brown
Council Member durhall, on behalf of Council President Mary Sheffield, an ordinance noting a roll call. Line item 15.1
President Sheffield
council member durha, thank you,
Speaker 8
Madam President, line item 15.1 otherwise known as the proportional funding ordinance, I want to say I moved to take from the table an ordinance to amend chapter 17 of the 2019 Detroit city code finance, Article Two, budget by adding division four oversight funding to include section 17 dash two, dash 31 proportional funding. Section 17 dash two, dash 32 adoption of funding formula by resolution. Section 17 dash two dash 33 appropriations. Section 17 dash two dash 34 four year review require annual reports required. Section 17 dash two dash 35 legislative determination. Section 17 dash two dash 36 minimum alternative funding and section 17 dash two dash 37 reservation of administrative rights in order to foster strong oversight by the city's oversight agencies of the city of Detroit governmental units and officials
President Sheffield
laid on the table.
Speaker 8
I'm sorry, I moved. I already moved to take from the table.
President Sheffield
No, I was just saying that you laid on the table july 24 Do you have the date? I
Unknown Speaker
do not, Madam President,
President Sheffield
so just laid on the table. July 24 2024
Unknown Speaker
laid on the table. July 24 2024
President Sheffield
Hearing no objections, that action will be taken. Council Member durha,
Speaker 8
thank you, Madam President, moved to move the ordinance to third reading,
President Sheffield
Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Council member door Hall, I move
Unknown Speaker
that the ordinance be passed as submitted,
President Sheffield
right and just before we do that, I wanted to publicly thank all of the oversight agencies, as well as the committee and my colleagues the law department, everyone who put the time to get this proportional funding ordinance in place, as was mentioned, this is required by the city charter that we have a method for funding our oversight agencies proportionally as relates to our overall budget. And so this is something that has not been in place. I'm excited that it is in place so that every year when the budget comes before us, we have a formula that would allow for proportional funding for all of our oversight agencies. So I want to thank again, everyone who played a role in this to get to date, to get here to date. Also want to thank Brian White, my chief of staff, who led a working group for us to be here today. So thank you so much. And if there's nothing else, member door Hall has moved that the ordinance be passed as submitted and there being a roll call required. Would the clerk please call the roll Council
Taura Brown
President Mary Sheffield, yes. Council member Scott Vincent Yes, Council Member frederhall The third Yes. Council member Letitia Johnson Yes. Council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, yes. Council President, pro tem James Tate, yes. Council member Mary waters,
Unknown Speaker
yes.
Taura Brown
Council member Angela Whitfield Callaway Yes. Council member Coleman, you on a second Yes, nine yeas, That motion passes. Madam President,
President Sheffield
the ordinance is approved. Council Member durhall, thank you, Madam
Unknown Speaker
President, I move that the title of the ordinance be confirmed,
President Sheffield
Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Thank you, Madam
Speaker 8
President, request waiver for line item 15.1, waiver
President Sheffield
has been requested. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections that action will be taken. And again, thank you to all of my colleagues from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Taura Brown
Council member durha a resolution line item 15.2, Contract Number 6006121, 100% city funding to provide appraisal consulting services for MGM, casino contractor, federal appraisal LLC, total contract amount 75,000 that's for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Council Member durha, one resolution.
President Sheffield
Council Member durha, thank you, Madam
Unknown Speaker
President. Move for approval for line out of 15.2
President Sheffield
any objections to 15.2 Hearing no objections. The one resolution will be approved from the Office of of the Chief Financial Office.
Taura Brown
Council member durhall Three resolute. Two resolutions. My apologies. Line item, 15.3 and 15.4
President Sheffield
All right. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Council Member durha,
Speaker 8
thank you, Madam President. Move for discussion with line item, 15.3
President Sheffield
All right. In discussion in member durhau, do you want to let's move all of the solar items if we can. So that would be 15.3 as he already moved for discussion, 16.2 which is the Real Estate Services and relocation assistance line item 19.1 which is the light star renewable contract. 19.2 is a DTE contract. And 19 point 26 is a resolution of necessity, their motion to discuss all of those items.
Speaker 8
Okay, all right. So move. Madam President, right. So
President Sheffield
we were moving for discussion. And member Doha, did you want to? Did you have anything you wanted to start off?
Speaker 8
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to turn it over to colleagues. If there were any questions, I know this is something that we have discussed for a week, a few weeks now, has been sitting in this sitting on the table, should I say, postpone for a few weeks, and just wanted to open it up to colleagues first, before I provide any commentary. Thank you, Madam President.
Unknown Speaker
Okay,
President Sheffield
who do we have joining us here for the solar discussion? Okay, so we will open it up to questions. I'm not sure if anyone from the administration would like to come down any additional remarks at this time. If not, we'll go straight to questions from
Unknown Speaker
colleagues. Discussion.
President Sheffield
Yes. Member Benson,
Unknown Speaker
thank you
Speaker 31
on line item 16.2, this is the Real Estate Services and relocation assistance. Just want to verify. I know this is a increase of $2.6 million and my concern is, if this isn't voted on today, how would the residents, many of which from my district, who came out today, who have been working with these attorneys for their buyout. How will they be impacted by this
Speaker 41
Good afternoon? Council president through the chair to council person Benson, in the absence of an extension of this contract, I would direct all of the persons council person Benson, working on this effort to stop we could not, in good conscience, ask people to work pursuant to a project not yet approved by the Detroit City Council. We would be anxious for the approval. We we would continue to advocate for the approval, but we, I would direct all of the persons reporting to the law department doing this work to stop so that the potential liability the city would be measured and as of this day, no longer be incurred.
Speaker 31
Okay. And then through your through the President to the zasma representative, the offers that have been made to the residents. I'm not sure if you have this data available. I know that one of my bosses who was here today has an offer in the $200,000 that she's accepted, which is well above what I would believe fair market value, or even appraised value would be on the 8000 block of Robin. Do you have the fair market value or appraised value, or even broker's opinion on these owner occupied homes and where the city has been on those values, as far as the offers and accepted offers
Speaker 42
through the chair to council person Benson, I do have the information. I don't have it in a neatly packaged way. I can tell you that we are, for all owner occupants, at two times fair market value. I'm trying to figure out who might be at 200 right here. I've got a chart of everyone but Robin. As we said, we're two times fair market value. And there were a couple homes that would have that, you know, were nicer than the ones that we talked about last time when I was here, that were appraising for 10 or 11,000 Additionally, there are some property owners that have vacant lots in and around their home and are in the neighborhood, and the city is is paying $2,500 per vacant lot, so that would be added to whatever the the offer was for their their home,
Speaker 31
okay? And then condemnation. If there were to be a challenge, who would handle that challenge in court?
Speaker 41
I would be having by the law department, supported by the zeusmer team, be handled by the law department through the chair supported by the zeusmer team. Okay,
Speaker 31
what kind of experience does my team have when it comes to condemnation as
Speaker 41
India and not throwing my dear friend LPD director David Whitaker under the bus. He describes alzmere yesterday as the best firm in town to do this kind
Speaker 31
of work. Okay? And are you familiar with an attorney who has the acronym AA, we all who works in this space, and have you had the opportunity to work against him across the court
Unknown Speaker
many times?
Unknown Speaker
What is your track record there?
Speaker 42
The attorney that you speak of is highly competent and very qualified. We have a good track record with him. We have a good working relationship with his firm. I have known him since I started practicing 25 years ago. We have a very good working relationship with him. Okay?
Speaker 31
And then what legal peril do we face? Based on your assessment of the owner, not the owner occupied, but the investment properties here,
Unknown Speaker
I don't know that. We'll
Unknown Speaker
see
Speaker 42
that attorney that you mentioned get involved in this project, we would just have to wait and see. But the the vast majority of the property values that are at issue here are very small and typically not something that attracts that particular attorney. Okay, all right. Thank
Unknown Speaker
you very much. All right,
President Sheffield
thank you. One second. Remember Callaway. Just really quick to think this would be Miss Trish Stein, I was looking at the responses to some of the questions that I submitted, and I know that there has been discussion regarding federal funding that could be at risk of being lost for this project. And in your response, you indicated that this is under the inflation Reduction Act. Is that correct? Okay? And that essentially what the funding is is credits that will be given to the developer to build the solar panels. Is that correct? Yes, ma'am, okay, so do those credits expire?
Speaker 43
Thank you, Madam President, for that question. I did put it in writing, and I've talked to talked to a couple of your colleagues about that those tax credits are through the IRA, and they are made possible by the Biden Harris administration. As we know, the administration is about to change, and potentially there could be a new Congress in place as well, so that funding is tied to the administrative Act and the congressional act that is in place currently, and they are been negotiated in the contract and part of the PPA price that is negotiated and in both developer contracts now, and is what makes this deal pencil out in a way that it hasn't in years prior to that Okay.
President Sheffield
And so just to be clear, though, this allows developers to the ability to receive a credit to develop. So in this case, light star and dt will get a anywhere between a 30 to 50% credit to build out the solar panels. Yes, Madam President. And that is not singularly just for them. Though, any developer could access credits to develop, for example, housing with solar panels on there on the top of that development, or green roofs. Is that correct?
Speaker 43
It's a different type of credits that are available. But the in the IRA, there are credits available to expand and encourage green energy, particularly solar development. Yes. Okay,
President Sheffield
so I just wanted to make sure that that was clear for me, because when I saw that that the actual money that you're saying is at risk is really the ability for developers, and it doesn't have to be big corporations like DTE or light star. It can be us as a city, incentivizing the development of housing projects that incorporate solar roofing, green roofing in those projects that addresses the housing crisis, while also addressing our renewable energy goals at the same time, and offering those credits to developers to receive. Is that correct? With this particular funding that you're mentioning, could possibly happen? The
Speaker 43
tax credits that I'm talking about specifically, that we're talking about specifically, are available to developers to build clean renewable energy. Yes, okay,
President Sheffield
so but, and again, it doesn't have to strictly be for the solar panels that are being presented today. It could be for but there is ways to address renewable energy. Yes, it's encouraged. Yes, I just wanted to make sure that that was clear, because again, we've been talking about, you know, different ways to address this issue, and I've been very clear. I'm for solar panels. I'm for solar farms. I have a slight issue about preference of location here, but we have an opportunity, it sounds like, to be able to address two issues at the same time, possibly by incentivizing the development of housing or putting this on other you know, incentivizing development in general, to incorporate these panels on the top of their facilities, and they can get a reduction in up to 30 to 50% to build. It sounds like under the inflation Reduction Act. Yes, ma'am, okay, so I just don't want to lose that, because that's very important to me, extremely we're giving corporations, you know, DTE, we're giving them a 50% reduction. Now, it sounds like to build these particular panels. They're getting the credit through this. This is what the grant, the federal funding that you all said we're going to lose. We're giving this to a corporation. Well, I would like to see, how do we get other developers, contractors, within the city the ability to get these credits to build the same thing that we're talking about here, but also addressing the issue of housing, some of the other needs, yes of our city, yes
Speaker 43
and yes, absolutely, Madam President. And we're going to make sure that we are seeking all of the available credits and rebates. One of the public, at least one of the public commenters, talked about the work and how that will be done on an individual home basis as well, and make sure that the what homeowners are available to for rebates and credits, that they are also able to layer that and make sure that we are taking advantage of all the state and federal funding that is available. And
President Sheffield
how are we letting developers know who are developing and constructing multi, you know, family complexes and all types of new development our city that these tax credits are available to incentivize our goals for renewable energy, because this, this alone, is not going to solve it all. Right, these solar farms are not going to solve it all. But how are we letting them know about this particular funding and credit?
Speaker 43
Yeah, I speak regularly with HRD and DGC, that's just a start to ensure that they know what's available. There are webinars and the Department of Energy and joint office between the EPA, DOD and energy make information available. We are, our director of federal affairs is constantly providing us information and making sure that we are connected, both on a federal and a state level, with information to share with developers and make sure that we are sharing them with our our network and our ecosystem, because there is a lot of money available right now for renewable energy and development. Got
President Sheffield
you and just so we know our office did submit a memo requesting LPD to look at New York, who I think has an ordinance now in place that incentivizes and encourages development of solar panels and green roofs on all new construction. Yes, and so that is another way, especially credits are available that we can use to achieve our renewable energy goals. And I would love to see here in the city of Detroit. And then lastly, before I turn it over to member Calloway, to Mr. Solomon, in your responses as well, I've been asking for just the signatures of the people who supported the project, and I still haven't got any. I know you submitted the 33% you know, the 8033 signatures for a state fair, 72 for Van Dyke Lynch. But I just haven't seen anything. It's just percentages. So I just wanted to see that, because that's important to
Speaker 8
me to know through the chair. I'll make sure we get it. I
President Sheffield
thought we've been saying that, though, and today is the vote. I haven't seen anything. Is that something that we can get possibly, because I see the percentages here, but I have not seen anything in writing that says, you know, this person supports, this person supports yay or nay, and I have received emails about a lack of transparency in the ability for people who don't support it to actually be able to voice their their opposition. So I just think it's fair to be able to see who supports and who don't within these areas. And I have not seen that today. Is that something you can get today? Yes, okay, I'll be waiting for it. Thank you, sir. Thank you council member Callaway
Speaker 10
on your real briefly. Thank you, Madam Chair and good afternoon to everyone. We've heard the initials A, A tossed around here for the last couple weeks. So aa represents Ackerman and Ackerman law firm located in Birmingham, Michigan. Ackerman and Ackerman is widely considered one of America's leading law firms specialized in protecting property owners in eminent domain and condemnation cases, and has obtained over $700 million in jury verdicts and settlements for property owners. Just for transparency purposes, I thought I let those who are listening in the public that AA is for Amen and Ackerman. Thank you. Thank you, Madam
President Sheffield
Chair. Thank you so much. Member Callaway, and before we continue with questions, Director Whitaker, if you wanted to just provide any, I guess, information, I'm not sure if you could just give a high level, maybe not really analysis, but maybe recommendations that may have come out of anything. I'm not sure of anything you want to state at this time, just based on your writings, our independent counsel's writings that you can share publicly.
Speaker 44
Madam President, I I don't want to give you any information that might might have been discussed in the closed session for the reasons previously discussed as as indicated, there are some risks in proceeding with this, but I think the law department and outside council has indicated that they have them well covered, so council should take that under advisement. You were at the closed session, so you know what was discussed in detail. And I think that's probably as far as I should go. It is not an open and shut situation, but the law department feel comfortable with the risk involved, and with that, I'll stop
President Sheffield
right. Thank you. All right, so we will now open it up to colleagues. Council member Johnson, thank
Speaker 7
you, Madam President. Good afternoon, everyone. So let me just pick up on what was just stated by my colleague. Can someone just explain the condemnation process?
Speaker 41
So through the chair council person, we did just send to your office a response to the question that you asked this morning.
Unknown Speaker
I do have it Corporation.
Unknown Speaker
I corporations?
Speaker 41
I want to quote directly, if you don't mind council president from the from the memorandum that we sent. I want to start out by reminding this honorable body that no owners that have signed an option agreement with the city will be submitted to condemnation. All owner occupants and other owners with signed options will be bought through a voluntary, voluntary closing with the owners. We expect that only owners of vacant lots, vacant structures and a small number of landlords may be submitted to condemnation. Condemnation process has seven steps. Number one, the city council passes the resolution of necessity city values. Then as step two, the value of each structure is based on an appraisal and values each vacant parcel based on our market study. Number three, if the owner accepts the good faith offer, the city will proceed to a voluntary, voluntary closing. If the owner rejects the good faith offer. The city initiates a legal action known as condemnation in the Wayne County Circuit Court. In that action, the owner gets, at a minimum, the good faith offer made by the city. The owner is entitled to argue for a higher amount based on evidence of comparable sales in the area. If the owner succeeds at getting a higher amount in litigation, the attorney representing the property is entitled to a fee capped at 1/3 of the increased amount under Michigan's condemnation law, title transfers to the city on a very short timeline. The law requires a circuit court to challenge on the city's taking within 120 days. Number six, upon the court's ruling, transferring title to the city, the property owner receives the amount of the good faith offer number seven, the circuit court will oversee the transfer of possession of the property to the city, including any relocation of occupants. At this time, the city has secured option agreements with all owner occupants and nearly all tenants. Through our relocation team, we are actively working with occupants on securing replacement housing. That is the process.
Unknown Speaker
Thank
Speaker 7
you. And through you, Madam President, can you speak to how we ensure that we can prevent a landowner or someone in a desolate property from receiving more than the fair market value of their property as we go through this process, because one of the things I was concerned about was making sure that we don't have land speculators Who now essentially reap a benefit from going through this process, because the community has identified the boundaries of the solar array that includes some of their land.
Speaker 41
Yes, ma'am, through the chair. That's a very appropriate question. The bottom line is, in any instance, what these vacant landowners are entitled to is their fair market value, the price as of today, without attaching really gigantic significance. Part of the reason that time is not on our side is that people could come in by these vacant lots and drive up the price. On purpose. Right now, we're in a situation where the comparables are, what they are. Were we to go in court based on today, on the day that the resolution and necessity has passed, that would be the the foundation price for the court to evaluate whether or not it's fair market value. So what the price is, when the a resolution of necessity is passed, is the price that will be paid out absent and negotiating agreement.
Speaker 7
Okay, thank you. And so we talked about, we've talked over the weeks about zoning, yes, ma'am, and and how zoning can help to ensure that we've identified the characteristics of what the solar arrays will look like, and ensuring that there are definitive measures around zoning, can we speak to where we stand relative to addressing zoning laws
Speaker 41
so through the chair council person again, part of the public discussion that We've had in respecting tremendously all of the admonitions given by Mr. Whitaker. Part of the public discussion that we've had is the idea that when a municipality is engaged in a government function, that it is immune from its own zoning ordinance. Number one. Number two, we've also discussed the possibility of this body acting on a text amendment to Chapter 50, which was specifically exempt phase one of this particular project from zoning. The bottom line protection though council person is this, the contract says in great specificity that all permits and all building ordinances associated with this project passed by this honorable body, enforced by BC and DPW and all the other enforcement entities must be complied with. That means there will be a review process. That means that Jim foster from BC is going to be looking at the plans that are submitted by light star and by DTE. In order to get a permit, the plans will have to be public. The plans will have to be available. They'll have to be subject to FOIA. Every room will know what is, in fact, going to go on. Number one. Number two, we have indicated publicly at, in fact, at this very lecture that PDD and CPC will be intimately involved in the neighborhood meetings that are part of the process to create the solar array and the all of the other esthetics that goes that surrounded, including the fencing and the other vegetation possibilities that will be present all of that, which is why we've not been able to present it to this body for approval. We believe, and have said before that having the neighborhood involved in the creation of the esthetics that they want associated with the soldier solar arrays that are about to be produced. If this body votes yes again, will give the neighborhood CPC, PDD, the permitting process by DPW and by BC, the entire city government will be involved. And so in addition to the regular process as it relates to phase two, what we have indicated is an enthusiastic support of the suggestion of this body that we do an overlay for phase two, which is the classic zoning procedure, which would could be done in a timely manner and not slow down of the process that we're involved in now. So I think for legal reasons, strategic reasons, and the regular implementation of the standard permitting process in the city of Detroit, council person, the aspirations associated with zoning are going to be fully realized.
Speaker 7
Okay, thank you. Miss Stein, would you like to add anything I know when I spoke to you yesterday, there's a process that has already started with the City Planning Commission and the planning department.
Speaker 43
Yes, through Through you, madam president, to member Johnson, the CPC staff and planning and development have started meetings both for these both tracks that have been discussed. They will. First of all, the administration did go and speak to the Commission last week. We presented in front of the commissioners, and then, and hopefully we'll be able to come back in the fall. And then on Friday, CPC and planning department had a meeting focused on the solar overlay in the master plan. There's another meeting coming up this week, so there are regular cadence. I talked to Director Marshall Todd this morning. He feels that they are on track with timing to be able to present something at the September 5 CPC board meeting, commission meeting, and continue to work through that in the next coming weeks, and to then be able to stay on track, to work collectively to get both the text amendments and the zoning amendments
Speaker 7
done. And so just to be clear, that will impact both phase one and phase two.
Speaker 43
The goal is what we're working towards and what we have talked about, and what Corporation Counsel mallet just said, is that be the first, will be done in the same tool track during phase one, and will be completed by the time we bring phase two in front of this body. Okay, is the timing, and if so, the desire of this body that we're working towards? Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you, Madam President.
President Sheffield
Any additional questions? Council member Young,
Speaker 28
thank you. Thank you. Mayor president, Miss Stein, good to see you. Tell me about the benefits of this. Tell me about the fact that we're having people that are could receive between 15,000 to $25,000 in terms of energy savings, we know the city of Detroit, about 30% cities energy burden. That means they spend more than 6% of their income on energy. I think African Americans about 56% I think for Latinos, about 54 so on. That number, talk to me a little bit about the benefits, in terms of the 15 to $25,000 in the energy savings that two to 3% I think they expect on their bill. It also talked to me about the $90,000 in some cases, that's gone up to as much as 100,000 in some cases, talk to me about that. Yeah,
Speaker 43
through you, Madam President, to member young. So the benefits are great, and some things that we've absolutely talked about on the record. So there's a few that I would like to lift up and a few that have been mentioned today. One is the individuals who live inside the solar area, at minimum will receive 90,000 and we've heard some evidence that it's higher. The average is 125,000 for the 22 owner occupant homeowners that will receive the ability to then relocate some of them you've heard come and speak to you about where they plan on going. That says 22 inside those 100 acres for phase one, around the areas in phase one, there's 159 owner occupied. So just to think about the vacancy and the level of occupancy in and around these areas, 159 owner occupant homeowners, who then will get that minimum of $15,000 for energy efficiency upgrades that will lower their bills. You heard from some of the contractors today that will work on on bringing that to the residents, not only that directly, but then layer the rebates that are available to them. There will also be jobs that come to this, if I could just continue on with the benefits. And there will be local contractors who not only build the solar arrays, you heard from some of the folks in labor today that will do that work, and that have been documented by the developers that they that's who they intend to contract with, but also the work of 159 homeowners. Those will be local contractors that do that work. Those, those will go to local to local developers and entrepreneurs and individuals and a whole workforce development will will happen. It's anticipated at least 100 jobs will come from the construction and training and then subsequent for the weatherization. There's also public health benefits that we've talked about by developing
Speaker 28
this covid tool correct through covid Exactly, exactly,
Speaker 43
by taking dirty energy offline and putting clean energy onto the grid and developing up to 21 megawatts for just this phase one will have huge public health benefits. And we've talked about that and and Chief Health Officer, farrazo is standing by if there's, you know, more questions to be answered, but that's a $14 million benefit for public health that lowering those incidents of asthma and having economic benefits about coming to work, a fever, exactly, exactly, asthma, all of that. And then, just then, there's also the economic piece for for stabilization of the neighborhoods and the home improvement values that we've seen in the in the O'Shea area. We feel that will also happen in these these areas as well, because they've seen a lower amount of Home app values increase since taking a look at at O'Shea. But stabilizing these areas and investing in those around will have huge benefits. My final one is food insecurity, and so there's a very exciting piece that we hope to apply to as many areas as the community wants, but have it's called agrovoltaics, word that I did not know a few months ago and but this is urban farming. This is the inclusion of crops included around the solar array has a ton of varieties and light star renewables, as we've talked, is a national expert on this they are here. Would love to speak about that they've been working with urban farmers. I love to also say tafera, Russians leadership is right on time, and she's now the Director of sustainability, and really is lifting this up to make sure that local farmers are included in this design and has huge benefits, not only from the urban farmers to be contracted and be able to have the ability to expand their operations in and around the solar arrays, but also be paid and then be part of the local ecosystem to increase food production, and then also that lowers the Heat that comes from these developments, because of the crops are able to lower, and we've been provided details and information, and as I said, a light star is here to answer more questions, if, if, if, if that makes sense. Those are just a few of the benefits that we are really excited about this development, in addition to the ones that we've already been on the record about, that, that corporation Council has talked about about the government purpose and the government function of this which is to reduce blight and then also to realize our climate goals, which are in the greenhouse gas ordinance.
Speaker 28
That's excellent. I appreciate that. I also wanted to ask you, Barry, and I think that the farming is so important, because I think the city is about 69% food in percent food insecure. Someone there credit Troy field Council. But also wanted to ask you about the inflation Reduction Act. It's from my understanding that cities themselves will be able to qualify for certain tax credits to the issue of direct pay. And so basically, this process allows entities exempt from income tax, such as nonprofit states, local tribal governments, public utilities, rural electric cooperatives, etc, etc. In the case that it involves lesser cities to claim the equivalent of a tax credit in the form of direct payment from the IRS, and this enables tax exempt entities to take advantage of clean energy credits. For the first time, I would assume that we will be able to qualify for 48 Section E of the task code involving clean energy investment tax credit, which qualifies for direct pay. Is that something that you're going to look into, and would you put that into the the in, would you put that into the fund that would basically be for the business of the community benefits people would benefit from
Speaker 43
through the chair to member young, we need to take a look. Yeah, we need to take a look and see what the requirements are. But it's certainly something that we are looking at for our own buildings. As president Sheffield talked about putting and being available to not only do renewable energy, but also do the energy efficiency that is so needed on our buildings, also in new builds, do electrification and be able to take advantage of the money that is available. There is a plethora of money that is available as direct pay, both for clean and renewable energy and electrification and energy upgrades, also for the electrification of the grid. These are all things that we're looking at and making sure that we are taking advantage of direct pay that will come to us in addition and separate and not as a conflict or or competition. Are the credits that I talked about earlier that are available to developers to also develop clean renewable energy,
Speaker 28
right? And I think that's a real. I think that's a real big I think that's a real big goal. And so I just want to say I appreciate that as well, and thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it. Thank you
President Sheffield
all right, President, pro tem Tate, thank
Unknown Speaker
you, Madam
Speaker 8
President, thank you all for being here. Quick question, I know we had talked about earlier, the urban ag piece is a newer element to this particular solar array project, and so just want to get a little bit more clarity on the urban ag piece. And one of the open questions that I had when the last time we talked, we didn't have a any closure on it, but how does the distribution of the fruits and veggies that are cultivated in the arrays. How are they distributed throughout the community? I know we've talked about the fact that it's a tremendous benefit, but how do the neighbors who are in the benefit area, even just outside of the benefit area, how do we ensure that they actually have an opportunity to partake in the distribution?
Speaker 45
Through the Chair to Councilman Tate. Thank you for this question. I know that it does seem new, but I will tell you that the months leading into me coming into this role in sustainability, this is kind of what brought me to the table in terms of working with this project, landscaping, the farming piece. And I know that we've been working closely, particularly with like star renewables, who who have done this several times over across the nation. We anticipate that they will provide contracts for these farmers per acre, we are looking at the different models that we can do. Again, I want to preface that there are things that we don't know, because we're very intentional about making sure that the community is designing this whole thing. So this is a conversation that we would have on the ground with the community in terms of, how do we want to what do we want to use, utilize this food for? Do we want to put in certain provisions so that the community around there is for, has first grabs for these food, for this food, so all of this is in somewhat needs to be designed with the community members. And that is, I know, I know that questions want to be answered right now, but in order to have that buy in from the community, we really want to make that an intentional process. And so I do want to say if, if lifestyle wanted to speak on that, since they are a leader in that role,
Speaker 8
yeah, I would hope so. Because, I mean, we've talked about financials, and that's money being moved over. We've talked about commitments. And if this so it recently was rolled out to me just about a month or two ago, a month and a half ago, in terms of urban AG. But if it was something that was contemplated quite some time ago, why has that not also been integrated the the process of how the distribution is going to happen? Because it's it's literally no pun intended. I can't a carrot being dangled. But how are the folks in the neighborhoods going to be able to benefit? Not just the farmers, which I think is important, it's critical, because it provides them with access to land that they possibly would not be able to have. But again, looking at total benefit for the community that is surrounding this, but where the solar array is located. That part is important to me as well, and absolutely.
Speaker 43
Morning, thank you for having me. Brianna Fiorello, I'm the representative here from light star. I have some folks here with me as well that can hopefully address this question through the Chair. Madam President, to you. Speaker Tate, so the the question of urban agrivoltaics is one that we're very excited about. Thank you again for the question. So this is, this is really a project that will be the first of its kind in in the nation, we haven't seen an agrovoltaics project quite like this. So as tepkira mentioned, there are some things that we don't quite have outlined yet, but we do have quite a few options, so I can speak to those. So in regards to what this will look like from an urban farming perspective, we first want to talk again with the neighborhoods and help them understand what this could look like. There could be different areas of the array that they would want to prioritize for urban agrivoltaics, there may be certain areas that they may want to prioritize more for different vegetative just a little bit because it is, oh, I'm sorry, sure, I apologize. I'm soft spoken. So again, first step for us is to make sure we understand what the community wants to see in those different areas. Once we do have the understanding that a tags is something that they desire. We will communicate with tefura and through the network of urban farmers that we've been connecting with to this date, which includes keep going Detroit sanctuary farms, among among others, and we'll chat with them about the land, what we're finding on the land. We included the possibility of doing, perhaps raised beds, just because we don't know if we can so directly into the soil in some of these areas, we provide that land for free to those urban farmers. We create, we create an agricultural management plan with them, in tandem with their understanding of what they would like to grow, what they feel is capable within that soil. We also provide them a stipend to be able to farm that land, and then from there, we'll continue those conversations with the community and the farmers far as what makes sense within the local distribution network. So we do have many options. Again, I do want to preface we want to make sure we we start the right way and have those conversations with the community, but we do ultimately have a variety of methods for distribution. So
Speaker 8
is there a possibility that there will be some of the arrays that will not have distribution attached to it?
Unknown Speaker
There may be distribution for those
Speaker 43
so I can only speak to the light star arrays we've offered the opportunity for agrivoltaics within both the State Farm and the Gratiot Findley arrays, I can only speak to our intention to offer that as an option within those two areas.
Speaker 38
What about the third anybody can anybody can chime in the chair,
Speaker 43
President project, did you ask about the third area? Oh, that's what I thought. Okay, coming up.
Unknown Speaker
I'm sorry, my mask as well. Probably closer.
Speaker 19
Good afternoon. Knox Cameron, representing DTE, in this particular case, through the chair to council member Tate. DTS core solution involves developing a 10 megawatt solar array at the Van Dyke Lynch site, and to the previous remarks made, our vision is to engage the community and ultimately ensure that the almost 85 residents in the van dyke Lynch area have their needs met, have their concerns highlighted. And to the extent of photo voltaics or agrivoltaics, rather, that was not part of our core solution, but certainly something dt is very open to. And so to the extent that the neighborhoods are open and interested in that, and that is something that DT certainly wants to provide for the community.
Speaker 8
Thank you. And then my last question, again, I'm real big on community engagement, and shout out to our d1 folks, district managers and Deputy District Manager for doing such a great job of getting out the word to the folks in the community. What other engagement are we talking about that's still necessary as we move forward. So we know again, we've already engaged folks with Financials in terms of removal or housing options. What other form of engagement are we talking about? And when are we looking for that potential to happen? So through the chair immediately, if we move forward, we will start with the conversation of the agriculture, the development, the design. We have been intentional about not even putting out designs so the community will be involved. Do you want to fence? Do you want agriculture? Do you want gravel. So our next round of meetings, if we move forward, will be to begin to talk about design. So how do we so if this is approved today, this is for the first phase. Second phase be coming up approximately when before this body,
Unknown Speaker
first quarter, first quarter,
Speaker 8
I would encourage that we also include some of those other conversations about the urban ag and what neighbors want to see, and certainly distribution. And I say that as the council member represents a location within that's being recommended for the second phase that is critically important if we are telling folks, and we keep hearing food desert, and we need to make sure we have food, but we need to make sure that people have access to those, those those to the produce that is being cultivated in those locations as well, and not in a small amount, but in earnest. But I think it is, it is definitely more appealing to have a element outside of just solely solar farms and just empty, vacant space in between those solar panels, as it's being contemplated. So looking forward to additional conversation. Not sure how things are going to go today, but as we move forward to the second phase that is a critically important part
Speaker 31
of my support. Thank you. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Member durha, thank
Unknown Speaker
you, Madam
Speaker 8
President and President Pro Tem kind of took one of the questions that I had. I know there were a lot of folks who came down today in support of it had the opportunity, just for the record, to, you know, attend a meeting in d7 folks talk about the O'Shea area. And a lot of folks that came down here were from the O'Shea area, the first place where we saw solar fields in a solar farm. And I think a lot was learned from 2017 and I think there's been a lot of intention in this move for this project to ensure that the community is represented. But I did want to just ask really quickly, Can we touch on the engagement process, how we engage those residents? Because I went to one of the meetings, and there were over 40 people sitting in a room talking about solar, and I will be honest and tell you, I am not a solar expert. I've learned a lot about this over the past four to five months that I did not know, but it was very interesting to see members in our community who were supportive of it and really engaged on it, and could really have the ability to tell me why it was important to them. But can we talk about how the administration engaged folks and and kind of came up to came up with this of how who wanted it, who didn't want it? So, so through the chair, the mayor presented it a year ago in District Three, at the charter mandated meeting, proposed it, and the very next day, we put an interest form up on the city's website just to say I'm interested. I wanted to hear more. So 60 plus filled that interest application now. And then the district managers went out with the message and explained. And then the NSPS are experts. We are called solar experts. They accompany this because government, we don't know solar, right? So we had them come out, and they spoke, and they were able to get into the grain the details about what solar field farms were, how they would move forward, and how they could benefit. So fast forward to the day, a couple of areas did not make the final round because neighbors had difference of opinion. So now that we are here to the last three finalists, we have to your question, knock doors, drop flyers. We even hired an outside agency, a promotion agency, to help drop flyers for that digital divide that we know exist in the city, text messages before the meeting, calls before the meeting. So these are remembering. These are areas that are disconnected in a lot of ways from government. They don't attend city council meetings. They don't tend district managers meetings. So the first initial knock, we had to get through the surprise, you're really here, right? So then we moved forward and just kept knocking, kept emailing, and today we use that Ross washern To repeat, and we do the same promotion to get those meetings, get good members of those meetings. Thank you. And to that point, can we talk about, just based off engagement, the number of folks when we talk about either relocation or we talk about upgrades, folks who are just particularly adverse to this? Can we talk about the percentage wise and how that engagement has been. And do we have any idea kind of what those numbers look like? Of you know, were there more folks that said, okay, I'm okay with this plan. This is something I would want to take a part in. I would love to, you know, sell my home there. I would love to stay so, but I would love the energy upgrades. Or some folks to say, I don't want anything to do with it. Can we talk a little bit about that? So, so, for the most through the Chair, for the most part, people signed on, yes, I want to relocate, which I mind was a low number in each one of the areas, and then someone knocking on your door saying there's an opportunity for energy upgrades and explaining the numbers were positive in that area. Yes, I want but for those that did not want to sign on, you heard stories like, government doesn't do anything for us. Like, I don't believe that this thing will move forward. I'm not interested in hearing anything. So those are the ones we mark know, and those are, those are very few. Or yes, those numbers are very few, but I will get the exact numbers to you, okay, and if I can just touch now on the financial piece, I know we talk about the solar equity fund, and we talk about how this is funded. And from my understanding, I know my team, we've done, you know, some research just relative to grants right now, that's a hot topic floating around in the federal government, relative to alternative funding for energy, and a lot of grants floating around, at least, saw close to two grants, between two grants, about $90 million which the ceiling For those grants that our city could possibly be available for a close to about $9 million is it in our belief that if this project is to move forward, and I saw some of the prerequisites for those grants, by the way, to be able to get and receive that money, you already have to have infrastructure design. Is it? Is it our belief that if we are to move this forward, this helps us and gives us more access to federal funding and grants relative to alternative energy? That's
Speaker 43
through the chair to member durhall, wasn't quite sure where you're going with the question, so I wasn't sure if CFO advisor was going to have to answer it, but this one I 100% can take and thank you for the question. We've already started to receive those benefits by having this, this introduced, and this project being leader on this, and showing that the city can lead with equity and can it be part of a just transition. We were part of two awards for solar for all, excuse me, that is federal funding that were just awarded in April. $256 million awards. One with the state of Michigan, we should get about 25 at least 25% it'll be allocated based on census tracts, those census tracts that have the highest, you know, from from admissions and cleanup that is needed. So we feel very strongly that we will begin that work. It's a year long planning process. They're in the process of hiring the project director right now, and so we talk to the state all the time, and it's very similar to what we're talking about here for the individual homes that we will be doing energy efficient upgrades. Will be doing weatherization. We the goal is to get solar ready, or if homes are there, we will put solar on their homes. And now we're talking about 150 homes for phase one. That's just a start. We will then scale this work next summer and talk about 1000s of single family homes. That's the state award, which we're very excited about. Then there's a multi state award, which will get a smaller amount, but what we proposed there is a multi family approach, and we will do solar at multi family developments, and then be able to lower bills for the residents. And so again, that's another year long planning process, and there's a workforce component. So I will tell you, Yes, we are already receiving that because we are leading in this space and that we are building this ecosystem. A lot of folks that you heard in public comment today that grant was the IBEW Local 58 the carpenters were part of that grant. A lot of the neighborhood solar partners that we've talked about, and the local experts are part of that grant to show that we do have local expertise, we do have an infrastructure, and we're building it. We're building the workforce. So that's just starting. And then, as you said, there are nofas and awards for opportunities for funding that come every day, because there is so much funding available in this administration that we hope to take advantage of it. But I just thank you for letting me. Council member Johnson tells me all the time I don't talk about solar for all enough. So thank you for that opportunity to talk about what's coming and that we're very excited. This is just a start of getting home solar ready, or solar on homes, and also a multi family development
Speaker 8
aspect. And if I can ask as one or one of those grants describes grants, because I know the Department of Energy also has some grants that are floating around relative to solar infrastructure, the two that
Speaker 43
I just spoke of are EPA. So now I'm going to go look at the DOE one that you just mentioned. So
Speaker 8
so I should have clarified, let me specifically state what I was talking about, just even other additional grants that we can become available, or that can become available here to our city as we talk about building infrastructure. So the two, and I'm sorry I didn't say that specifically, the there are two solar grants in the Department of Energy right now that we could possibly qualify up to $9 million but it states about having that infrastructure already built in the city and having the ability to fund or to power city structure. So just that's just a FYI. We may want to look into that as well. My next question. Thank you very much.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you for giving me some homework.
Speaker 8
Thank you. Through you, madam president, to Corporation Counsel, I have a question specifically about the contract. I know there's been a lot of speculation, some consternation about the contract, particularly some maybe concern about the length of this contract and the protections and risks that may exist. Can we speak specifically about this contract and how it kind of differs from other contracts, and what if the city may want to back out of this contract, what that looks like
Speaker 41
so through the chair, council person door Hall, at the insistence and direction of President Pro Tem Tate, we made sure that we have a very robust, unfettered ability to terminate this contract at any time, as I've indicated to council before, there will be costs associated with that termination, right? But again, it is unfettered. It is always available. It can be exercised anytime that we make a decision as a executive team and a legislative body that that is something that's required. Number one. Number two, we have four different opportunities to purchase the solar array. There has been some suggestion that this might be a business that we White might want to go back into if this body decides at some point that you want to rebuild the infrastructure that we don't have to, in fact, become a utility again. This is a possibility that is always there. And so I would say that the contract is at its length, because we do want to give the developers an opportunity for the return on their investment. Nevertheless, the kinds of controls that we have to have, remember, I misspoke yesterday when I said that there were, in fact, power service minimums. There are power service minimum goals that we've talked about and that we will be in constant conversation with the developers. Are you close to the goals that we have set? Number one, number two, in the contract itself, we have auditing rights based on performance that we are able to exercise a high degree of intervention and control. And then number three, again, we talked about the entire committing process, which clearly gives us design control, gives us all kinds of environmental options in terms of where these are going to be located, how they're going to look, make sure that the community's voice is heard throughout the process. So those are very important aspects of the contract. Mr. Chairman,
Speaker 8
thank you, Mr. Corporation Council. And finally, Madam President, through you. And this question is for DTE and lifestyle. And I'd be remiss if I didn't ask this question, and even have you get this on record again, the O'Shea area is one of the first places in the city of Detroit where a solar farm existed. And I would be again remiss if I had mentioned back in 2017 that did not come without some consternation, some lessons learned and some outcry from our community. And so the question that I have today, if this is the past, what is the commitment from both of your companies relative to community engagement, relative to ensuring that these fields are maintained and kept as well, and then again, building the community as a whole and bringing the community together for something that they can show that is beneficial to their community in the area where these panels or solar farms are to be
Speaker 19
through the chair, responding directly, I will say as as one of the key folks on the negotiation efforts to bring this contract to bear, I think this body should be quite proud of the staff and how they approach the efforts to ensure that the city's interests are protected and the customer's interests are protected. I was not part of the development of OSHA, but certainly I represent the company that supported that effort. And I think the big takeaway is we learned a lot, both through that development and hearing from the communities themselves. And we want to ensure, and that was to my comment earlier, we want to ensure that feedback is taken seriously. We want to ensure that folks voices are heard, and ultimately, we do not want to replicate some of the sentiments coming out about O'Shea. And I think that is why the community engagement efforts is so critical. DTE will be at the forefront of that with certainly the support of the city staff and leveraging their expertise and engaging the community. Certainly, we will bring our muscle to that as well, but the idea is to learn and implement something that folks in their communities can be much proud of. Thank
Unknown Speaker
you. Discussion
Speaker 43
quickly, just to add, from the light star perspective, we are partnered with Jim a studio for our community engagement efforts. It's a Detroit based woman owned business. I believe she's actually on the line as well. Gigi Williams, she's very well versed in working with these communities that we have sites in, and we're very proud to to have her on our team. So from the light star perspective, the community engagement really starts once these contracts are approved. You know, we've been having as many conversations as we can to this date, but we really foresee the start of it once we're able to start talking, talking with the neighbors and Gigi is going to be very helpful with us making sure that their needs are met to address the question about the maintenance, that will be one of the things that that takes prominence during those community engagement discussions. Ojiji is actually a landscape architect, so can help us with showing different renderings of what different screening techniques, agrivoltaics, fencing might might look like, and help the neighbors be able to visualize all of that. And then light Stars is a long term asset owner and operator, so we we do deploy robust operations and maintenance to ensure that we're upholding what we promised the site would look
Speaker 8
like. Thank you. And finally, I will state that I'm just, I'm supportive in this for a few reasons. Again, being in the district where oshay is, it was interesting to see for me, folks who complained about the solar field that existed in previous years have found a way to support this based off of the engagement, what they have learned, and more importantly, their ability to have input in the process of what they wanted to see, and that is probably one of the driving decisions behind my decision, or the driving factor, should I say, behind my decision today, when I walk into a room and 40 people who I know live in that community and walk those blocks with in those neighborhoods, state that this is something that they want, that is very overwhelming and makes you think, furthermore, I think a lot of times here, as government officials, we do a lot of talk about what we want to see in the future, about the environment and Making it clean and there are risk involved in any policy that we make up here, but we never know how successful we can be if we don't only take an initial step forward to see what we possibly can do. The fact that this contract can be pulled back, if we say, after one to two or three years that, hey, this is not working. This is not where it is, is something that provides a level of comfort. But even with that existing I would hope that we continue to engage the community around this project, if it is to pass that their input still continues to matter in this project, and that we can see something coming to fruition, something new here in the city of Detroit. It was mentioned by a few public commenters today that who have visited other cities that this is an opportunity for our city to take that huge step forward, for us to be available for some of the millions of dollars that float through our federal government, but don't come here to the city of Detroit, because we don't have the infrastructure here built, and so I'm very supportive of this project. I hope that my colleagues will support this project as well, but I do. Thank you all for taking the time and putting in some of the work, particularly for this initiative. Thank you, Madam
Unknown Speaker
President, Council Member Benson. All
Speaker 31
right, thank you. And just one last item for me, and as the chair of the green Task Force, been doing this work for 10 years now, my office was the impetus behind the greenhouse gas Ordinance of which this project, these three phases, will allow the city to achieve 30% of its greenhouse gas reduction goals, which is required by the ordinance that this body approved. So glad to see the city leaning in the benchmarking ordinance, which requires all buildings to now advertise and let us know what energy the level of energy that they're using, including water, another of the policies that have been advocated for and championed by the green Task Force, of which I chair. So part of this, for me, why I support is this is who I am, who my office is, and what we're trying to do for the city of Detroit. There is also another part here. I've got my bosses who have made their way down today and have come on several times from the third district to talk about how important this project is for their quality of life. So I went out and took a look at a conversation, and the stories that I got back were, number one, horrifying, which concerned me and as a person who has a family in the city of Detroit, to know that this quality of life is what some of our residents are experiencing. And so one of my bosses tells me that 1230 in the AM, you have a man reaching through her mailbox looking to purchase drugs. She and her two children are there. She has to fend him off with a stick. Please come and arrest this person. So then you have to think, and this is on one block. I asked for the number of police ones phone calls on one block. 98 police calls to one block over a six year period. Actually it's five and a half one block. So I want you to imagine what that quality of life is like. Then let's think about the type of calls, as was said earlier, dead body, unknown. Dead body in the field next to my home. Okay, this is a regular day, malicious destruction. Recoverato. Dead person observed burglary, other burglary, occupied residents, rubbish, littering, quality of life, one down, drug OD, quality, wife, domestic violence, domestic violence, burglary, business breaking and entering, a person with weapon, shots fired twice that year. This is all one block. This is the quality of life that our residents are experiencing that we have the opportunity to eliminate. My boss, who is here, has accepted the buyout from the city of Detroit, committed to staying within the city, looking forward to continuing residing here in the city of Detroit. And we talk about, how will this impact the city of Detroit? Number one, if I can get rid of 98 police runs to one block. I mean, do you imagine how much money we save for the general fund, and then number two, how we can redeploy resources. But if we have the opportunity to assist and support our residents who improve their quality of life, that, to me, is huge, and the fact that they want to stay with us right here in the city of Detroit also speaks volumes about us as a city and what we have moving forward, I am in strong support of this. I will continue to support this, and I believe the time is now why require a resident to continue to live in a situation where she has to fend off men towing through her door looking for drugs. On that block of 8000 Robin Hood, there are eight structures, two of which are owner occupied, four of which are occupied period, one by a squatter we had a chance to meet who was the one shooting dogs from his front porch. The other is a operating drug house, which is rated on a routine basis, prostitution occurs on a regular basis, and this is what you're living next to. And we have the chance to eliminate and change some waste quality law. So I will be in support of this. I will continue to support this. I will continue to move the city of Detroit towards being the most resilient and sustainable city in the country. And we're able to do this, and I might the green Task Force has taken public officials, elected officials, community advocates, as well as practitioners of sustainability, to San Francisco, to Minneapolis and to Seattle, and not one dime from the public coffers was used. We raised money for that to show people how we can change lives and move this city forward, including some of my colleagues here, we know what it's like to move forward with equity and to lead with equity, with sustainability, and we can do that right here, right now, and we have living proof right here and ability to change people's lives. So I'm hoping that we make the right decision. I am prepared to vote yes to move the city forward. I hope my colleagues will join.
President Sheffield
Thank you, Council Member Bazel, Council Member Johnson, thank
Speaker 7
you, Madam President. I just have a very brief question around workforce development. I know two of the unions had individuals who came out and spoken support. Can you all speak to what workforce development looks like? I have a an entity in District Four that has been doing providing solar panels for residents in their direct community, and I'm not sure if there's an opportunity for them, because they are working with young people from the neighborhood to build solar panels, to install solar panels. So can someone speak to what workforce development looks like as a part of this
Unknown Speaker
great if we could have developers
Speaker 19
through the chair, once again, representing DTE, as most folks know, we represent 2.3 million electric customers across Southeast Michigan, 1.3 million gas customers across the state as well. And we view it as a responsibility to represent just that, the state of Michigan, and more locally, the city of Detroit. With respect to this project, we're looking at a local workforce. We envision at least 50 new jobs to be developed as part of these efforts in the van dyke Lynch area. And so we are only contracting with local officials, and certainly, if someone has the capabilities and the capacity, we would love to learn more about learn more about that and look to incorporate them into our efforts. One of the critical elements is, in fact, the community engagement. But of course, the the upgrades that come from that we envision local workforce supporting that effort as well, and we fundamentally believe that is a critical element to the offering here, hardening someone's home, ensuring that the building envelope is secure, that ultimately is going to drive down energy cost savings. Preparing oneself for solar really means ensuring that the building envelope is secure and can save a resident money. Happy to take additional questions. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker
Thank you.
Speaker 43
Thank you through the chair to member Johnson, just to add the light star perspective is also our intention to use all Detroit based labor for these projects. And then, just to speak to two specific examples, our energy efficiency upgrade partner elevate offers a workforce accelerator program where they actually work with local Detroit based electricians and contractors to help them grow their businesses and help connect them to different opportunities to put in upgrades and work with homeowners like this will be and then we also had A conversation last week with a group called communities power, who I believe is in your district and is doing some of this, and we were able to connect with with her, learn about what she's doing, and we are hopefully going to be working very closely with her and the folks that she's training, both from the electrician standpoint, but also folks with disabilities, to be able To get them involved in different aspects of the solar projects, particularly from a safety component. So that is that is also something that we intend to do. Thank you. Real quick through the chair. I also have been talking with the electricians and the carpenters, and it is their intention to add additional apprentice, not only for this work, but the solar for all work. So they are sitting additional classes for Detroit based apprenticeship operation, option operations for this and going forward to make sure that we have a pipeline. Thank
Speaker 7
you. And one thing I just want to add I know last week I mentioned that as I was driving into the area where the District Four solar array is going to be that I encountered some individuals dumping on the other side of Gratiot. And so one of my conversations with the administration, particularly with the mayor, has been because there have been efforts to create a community land trust fund and to provide support for community land trust that we really look at, how are we improving the greater community outside of the solar neighborhoods, outside of the solar arrays, because there's still a vast amount of vacant, blighted land, and so we've been having that conversation to extend community land trust and support in these particular areas. And so I'm hopeful that we are able to do that when this moves forward. And so just looking forward to making sure that we are intentional about improving the entire area within these footprints. Thank you
Speaker 43
absolutely. And through the chair as you know, member Johnson, we are completely supportive of that initiative. Just taking a look at the Community Benefit area, there's 1300 vacant parcels that the dlbn owns. We are leaning in. That's part of director Russians charge as well, is to ensure that those parcels get developed for beautification or urban farming or part of the sustainability effort that we have common goals as well, and so looking forward to working with you and in building out that ecosystem. Thank
Speaker 7
you for that. And I just want to mention that true community land trust follow the need of the community in that particular area. So housing could be another item that gets developed on this land really dependent upon what is needed in that immediate community. So absolutely, thank
Speaker 43
you for that correction. We've definitely talked to Director Schneider as well, which I know you're working with and members of Council is to lift up community land trust to support housing and and the efforts that she's doing around affordability and additional housing. Okay?
Unknown Speaker
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President,
President Sheffield
thank you council member Durham,
Unknown Speaker
thank you, Madam President, I
President Sheffield
want to move to call the question before we do so. So we call in the question on the motion to discuss, because that's what we're on, a motion to discuss right now.
Speaker 8
Motion to approve move to call the question now, to end discussion, call the question.
President Sheffield
So I would like the ability to be able to state my position before we do so I'm just letting everyone know before we vote I have not had the opportunity to do so so,
Speaker 8
so move for discussion on on that, to allow the opportunity to do that. Thank
President Sheffield
you. Thank you. Thank you so much. So it sounds like we are going to move forward today, and I just wanted to share to the residents of Detroit, first and foremost, my support for solar panels, for solar farms, for reducing our carbon footprint for renewable energy, I think is a serious thing. I think climate change is real, and I wholeheartedly support any efforts to reach our overall benchmarks and goals. I think the issue for me is how we achieve it. And you know, we just heard at the table today, blight crime, blight, crime, and, you know, contemplating back and forth if this really is an issue of how we address crime and blight, or how do we address the issue of renewable energy and climate change. And I think that there's a way to do both. There's a way to address it without violating our own zoning ordinances, reaching our benchmarks and addressing the issue of blight and crime in our community. So I just wanted to make sure that it's very clear how I vote today. First and foremost, I may have been supportive of it if more time was given, but the constant push and urgency and rushing when just out the admission of someone today stated that our zoning change could be done by September when we come back, which would have given us more time which, which would have allowed us to have our zoning changes in place, gave us the belt and suspenders that we needed. So I'm a little concerned about that extra urgency and push that raises a concern for me as well, too. I want our union brothers and sisters to know that I'm with them. I support unions. I support jobs that's never going to change again. Those same jobs could be available with this project was shifted somewhere else. We're in different areas of our city, so my vote today, again, really is for more time, because I'm not saying that I'm against this, but if, in fact, it will have to be a no. It's not against our union, it's not against workforce development, is not against renewable, renewable energy, because I support it. It is, again, for me, more time to digest this in the primary things for me, as as mentioned, it's preference, it's location. I agree with member Calloway, who is artic articulated in several times about the location being in rural, vacant industrial sites. LPD has noted that many comparable cities attempting to dedicate large areas of land have not been found that are zoned residential. Cities like Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, have all invested large scale solar farms that operate on rural land outside of city limits. Cities like Baltimore Grand Rapids are seeking to locate farms, solar farms on landfills. Cities like Chicago and Cincinnati are engaged in large scale projects that will provide for solar power located outside of the city limits. I still believe that if they were shifted somewhere else, outside of the residential neighborhoods, that community benefits could have been negotiated with both light star and DTE. So that argument, to me, is not valid. I think that that could still have been negotiated. We could identify disenfranchised, low income areas that needed support and still provided those benefits without locating the solar farms right in that area. I still believe that we have not studied or explored scenarios or policies that represent a different path to reducing our carbon footprint through solar panels or green roofs on newly constructed or current buildings. Community Solar is big for me, right? And I know this was discussed as well in committee the ability for the energy created to provide energy to homes, to individual individuals throughout the city of Detroit, and have access to the energy that is produced. It was very unfortunate to hear that DTE has lobbied against Senate bills that would allow community solar to be legal. That was very disappointing to hear. I have not heard a commitment from DTE, either verbally or in writing, that you will support community solar moving forward, one can only surmise that DTE did so because community solar would decrease their profit and benefit residents and start contrast this proposal increases, of course, DTS bottom line which that information has been submitted, and again, it seems that DTE in these other companies are benefiting a lot more zoning. Zoning is big for me. I know much a lot cannot be disclosed regarding the city's violating our own zoning ordinance, but it has been talked here a lot at the table about process, process, process, and today we will be moving forward violating our own ordinance. And that is, that is that's important to me, and we just laid out a process to fix it. We just laid out a process to fix it, which is just mind boggling to me, that we have a process. Our corporation Council has agreed with the process, but we still want to rush it through September 9. I think someone said the changes will be before us, but we still want to violate our own ordinance when our own attorneys have told us several times that litigation, it's not if it happens is when, and that is imminent, it is forthcoming. So I believe that we have, we should have the necessary protections, and that is making sure that we change our zoning ordinance and do that prior to voting on this. Lastly, I wanted to mention just priorities. So we recently hosted an event in the city of Detroit, a housing Summit. And what comes to me is the continued need, and we hear this all the time about housing in Detroit, the mothers, the children that we've turned away for housing. And I know it doesn't have to be one or the other, but as I mentioned before, there seems to be a way that we can still build housing, incentivize it, while also addressing the issue of renewable energy and climate change by building solar panels and green roofs on top. And so for me, I struggle just with the issue of priorities, where we have a huge issue of housing in the city of Detroit, in a recent response by the administration to one of my questions, they stated that 850 homes could be produced on the land needed for the proposed solar farms. 850 homes could go there and guess what? We could put the homes there and create the solar panels or the green roofs incentivize that on top. So that's also a concern for me. I think it sets a bad precedent to promise upgrades to residents, to negotiate and to make agreements before it has been implemented by by council. It seems like a lot of deals were reached and made prior to this coming before Council, and I have a concern with that as well, too. Lastly, I'll just say one other thing. I did have the opportunity to go out to one of the solar farm areas, and I may, have, you know, possibly went over and said, Yes, you know, been drawn to support this little bit more, given more time, I'm not saying maybe phase two, I may come around. But allowing that time to be able to drive and see these areas, I think, also is very important to me. So with that being said, I just wanted to state publicly where I am so that people can know why I'm voting the way I vote today. I think more time may have allowed me to maybe move more to the affirmative, to negotiate more, to get more, see more commitments around community solar from DTE, which I think is extremely important, have not heard that to date. So just wanted to say that for the record in one of the residents of Detroit to know where I stand, because I don't want it to be misunderstood at all that council president Sheffield does not support solar panels or solar energy or renewable energy, because council president Sheffield does. It's just how we achieve it, and we can disagree on how that's okay. I think that's what this process is about how we achieve it, and I'm not quite there yet on this being the solution, especially when there's ways to achieve it without violating our own ordinances and using eminent domain. So thank you so much. So with that being said, member duha, if you would like to move the court,
Speaker 8
we already made a motion to call the question before approval.
President Sheffield
All right, so we're motion now is to call the question. Are there any objections to calling the question? Objection, Objection, objection. So that does pass. Okay, so it fails. Okay, okay, so,
Speaker 8
so move the the motion stands to call the question. Move for approval for line items, 15 point
President Sheffield
director powers Correct. Okay, okay.
Speaker 8
Durham, Move for approval for line items, 15.3 16.2 19.1 19.2 and 19 point 26 Okay,
Unknown Speaker
and let
President Sheffield
me just find my card. Alright, so we are moving all items. The motion has been moved for approval for 15.3 16.2 19.1 19.1 19.2 and 19 point 26 are there any objections?
Speaker 10
Objection, Objection, metaphor, Council Member Callaway objects,
President Sheffield
is that to all, pardon me, to all items, to all items.
Speaker 10
Online item 15.3 line item 16.2 line item 19.1 and line item 19 point 26 Madam Chair and Madam Clerk, right?
President Sheffield
And if you can show me Madam Clerk as a no on all items as well, 15.3 16.2 19.1 19.2 19 point 26 with a statement as well. Madam President, just discussion. We are voting on all items. Yes. At the moment, yes, okay, understood
Unknown Speaker
objection to 19.2 and 19 point 26
Unknown Speaker
the clerk would note, clerk will still note, Madam President,
President Sheffield
okay, and hearing no further objections, the five resolutions will be approved, madam president
Speaker 31
across the waiver on all five items, okay,
President Sheffield
waiver has been requested objection on all five okay, and there is An objection to a waiver. So that does fail, alright? Thank you all for being here. All right, colleagues. So wanted to get a sense of where everyone is, we are going to possible take up pastor Winans item, Jay Z rezoning, and then possibly take a quick break. If everyone is okay for lunch, come back and then finish our agendas. See, a lot of people are okay, alright. So we will move now to line item 18.2 if there's no objections. And this is the rezoning for perfecting church. President, yes. President, pro temp type,
Speaker 8
if we can move both line items 18.2 and 18.3 please. Okay,
President Sheffield
18.2 and 18.3 Perfect. All right. Can we start with line item 18.2 Madam Clerk Council,
Taura Brown
President Pro Tem James Tate, an ordinance noting a roll call, line item 18.2
President Sheffield
President Pro Temp Tate.
Speaker 8
Madam President, I move to take from the table an ordinance to amend chapter 50 of the 2019 Detroit city code zoning by amending article 17 zoning district maps, Section 50. Dash 17. Dash 64 district map number 62 to show a PD zoning classification, where an r2 two family residential zoning class classification is currently shown on the land, generally bounded by Carmel Street, Bowman Street and vacated Penrose avenue to allow for additional accessory parking for the religious institution and establish the plans terms and conditions. of a planned development
Speaker 29
district on land. Generally, bounded by Woodward Avenue.
Unknown Speaker
Bryson Avenue. Bowman
Unknown Speaker
Street, and large Wood Street to allow for the construction of a village of.