Hey. All right. Good morning, everyone. We will call to order our formal session for Tuesday, November the 19th, to order, and if our clerk will please call the roll.
Council member Scott Benson. Scott Benson, nine. Council council member Fred durha, the third council member Letitia Johnson, present council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, present council member Mary waters, present council member Angela Whitfield Callaway, Council Member Coleman Young a second Council President, pro tem James Tate. Council President, Mary Sheffield President, Madam President, you have a quorum. Alright?
There being a quorum present. We are in session. As always. We will start with our invocation. We have joining us today. Pastor quintes Presley of third new hope. I actually had the privilege of visiting his church this past Sunday. What a dynamic congregation. Amazing things that are happening at third and hope so. Thank you for joining us, Pastor Presley, and you can lead us this morning in invocation.
Thank you, Madam President, and to the Detroit City Council staff and citizens. Let us center our hearts together for a word of prayer God as we pause to acknowledge our need for a power that is greater than ourselves, we need you to enable us to do what we cannot do on our own, we express our gratitude for the privilege of being able to serve and commit ourselves to giving our very best in service to others. So as we handle today's business, let our decisions be drenched in discretion and discernment. Let our questions create a climate of clarity and comprehension. May we be mindful of the marginalized, sensitive to those who are suffering, and partial to those who are in pain. As we follow your instructions, which tells us that what we do for the least of these we do unto you, and so we welcome your guidance, your direction and your insight, as we aim to fulfill your will this day. So bless us now in your all powerful and sufficient name, we pray. Amen.
Amen. Alright. Thank you so much, Pastor Presley, for that invocation, and we look to see you soon, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you. God bless you. All right, for those who want to make public comment, please make sure that you raise your hand at this time, either virtually or in person. We will be cutting off public comment after our presentations for this morning. And I'm going to start with council member Benson, who has a special presentation, followed by myself, and then followed by council member young and member durhaus present as well council member Benson. All right, thank you. And I'm going to also ask if we can do pictures all at one time, after all of the presentation, thank you. Member Vincent, I
can have Mr. George desh come down, please and his team and any supporters as well, if you like, back here,
this is a Spirit of Detroit award is presented herewith as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the citizens of Detroit to Mr. George debris director, adaptive athlete division for the Detroit Free Press marathon in recognition of exceptional achievement, outstanding leadership and dedication to improving the quality of life, by Councilman Scott Benson and Detroit City Council, we celebrate George dubris. Since 19, since 2012 George has served as the adaptive athlete director for Detroit Free Press marathon. Some of you are familiar that is a huge race that's run here in the city of Detroit annually. What you may not be familiar with are the adaptive use athletes, the hand cyclists and those who are disabled who also participate in that race and participate at a different level, some very, very high and some more traditional speeds as a traditional as a more as a regular person. George has served as the adaptive athlete director for the Detroit Free Press marathon. His mission is to support and accommodate disabled athletes who race on wheels. In 2010 George was elected president of the Wolverine sports club by 2011 he was helping them navigate hazards and make turns safely. Under Georgia's leadership, the program has flourished into a highly organized and welcoming initiative. Its goal is to provide athletes with the best possible race experience while showcasing Detroit and its world class marathon. May God continue to bless your endeavors. Council, Detroit City Council,
beautiful
and George, you can just say a couple words and describe what you're doing. For those who aren't familiar, just kind of how this process works, what time they start off, and how you support the disabled athletes. Sure, I'll,
I'll get on Mike here. The first of all, thank you so much, Councilman Benson and the city council for for recognizing me and my group. You know, I just organized everything I don't ride. But as I was president of the Wolverine Sports Club, which is a large Bike Club of tourists and racers, and with the with our athletes, you Scott mentioned that there's a wide range of capabilities, the really fast guys, the really slow, the slow people. And we support everyone. And I need to actually keep the some of the top racers in Michigan at the front of the group, to stay with the fast guys, or men and women both. And I, you know, again, I just keep a database of bicyclists, and, you know, find a bunch of volunteers, somewhere between 40 and 70 bicycle volunteers each year, and we have almost no accidents. We fix flat tires. We had our 22 flat tires one year, and we got everybody back in, you know, so it's the bicycle community. The bicycle, the bicycle community in Detroit is, is wonderful. I mean, with, without, you know, the hearts of everybody. This is my wife, Kathy, who's been my assistant. You know exactly, and you know she, she's helped all along. And I just, I'm just proud to be here.
So Kathy, you have any
I watch him obsess over all the details, and it all pays off at the end. He doesn't leave Benny stone unturned. And so
I just want to add a few things. And so George is being he's being humble here. So you have athletes who come in from the entire country, who come to participate in the Free Press marathon and in the disabled category as well. And so you have GM so right across the street, they help fund and so their cycles, they're not cheap. These are carbon fiber. These are high performance vehicles, 10 to $20,000 each vehicle for these racers from at all skill levels. And so GM plays a huge role, and they support and fund the travel and the care and the training for these athletes. And when they come to Michigan for the Detroit Free Press marathon, as George said, you have to have top cyclists who can keep up with them. And so if you got somebody who's able to do and hold 30 miles an hour for an entire marathon that takes a supreme athlete that and it's hard to imagine unless you actually experienced it. And they're going up the International Bridge or going through the tunnel, they're going through all of our neighborhoods, and they're coming in sometimes at Olympic level or even world record pace. And so we have the top athletes, and we have those who take four and five hours to finish as well. They all need support, and George organizes that. And so it's just for me, it is a huge endeavor, and it's something that goes unheralded, because these athletes also start first, and so they're starting in the dark. They're starting before all the other athletes and they're gone, and no one really recognizes the accomplishments of these athletes and is deserved, and those who support deserve that recognition as well. So just want to thank you for all that you're doing for the cycling community and our disabled cyclist as well. Thank you. Thank
you so much. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, General, General Motors does bring a number from the the Achilles international organization. And we also have private entries that are not, you know, that are, that are self funded, and they, they come here from all over, and it's my goal, and I've been told that Detroit is the favorite race for most of these athletes. So for good we're there for good reason. So try to do our city some good. So I thank you.
You're welcome. So thank you. And we have one of our supporters as well. Sure, do
you want Kelvin? Kelvin, you
have, I mean, like to add anything Kelvin,
one of our he's,
he's been a long time bicycle guide. He's also been an officer in the Wolverine Sports Club. I have a lot of officers and, you know, race team leaders and things like that. I'm a board member. Yeah, he's a board member now. He was chairman of touring or for a while, and I worked down here for city council.
Very good.
McFadden, Don if you peoples.
Oh, wow. Bill Hill,
okay, alright. Well, thank you. Alright. Round of applause please, and we'll ask you to stay. We'll come back to folks later to be inside account. Give a number of awards to get Okay,
thank you. Alright, should I take this, leave it. Yes, you should. Thank you. You're welcome.
All right, congratulations. Thank you so much. We'll come down and do my group photos. Vicky
and I know that one of my awardees was having some difficult and here he is, Mr. Reynolds, if you come down, please. You
now it is also my distinct pleasure in introducing Mr. Makaj Reynolds, who is a hometown favorite and a a Detroiter born and raised here in the city of Detroit and has gone on to some great things, including the NFL, including Big 10 football, including a number of teams, and including now gaming and so just really some great things, and really looking forward to having this opportunity to recognize Maka and all he's done so this Spirit of Detroit awards presented here with as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the citizens of Detroit to Mr. Makaj Reynolds, community activist, entrepreneur, talent developer and philanthropist. The City of Detroit celebrates Mr. Reynolds for his accomplishments, both on and off the field, a native Detroiter, because is a gaming entrepreneur, football, football, talent developer and philanthropist, because began his football career with a scholarship for Michigan State Spartans football. Next he played professionally for the Miami Dolphins and the Baltimore Ravens. Currently, he works with pro era and previously served as a Narrative Designer for EA Sports, where he wrote the superstar storyline in content for Madden NFL. Dedicated, go go ahead, if you want to. Yes, go ahead, yes, go ahead. A long, impressive resume dedicated to giving back the conscious goal is to help youth access opportunities in both the sports and tech industries. He runs a camp for high potential young linemen, and leads a foundation that supports athletes of color. May God continue to bless your endeavors.
Quite an intro. I'm so thankful. Before I was any of those things, before I started any of these programs, I was a kid here in Detroit. I played pal football for the Panthers. I played for the Oak Park Trojans. And I remember what it was, you know, coming up in that time, and the support that I had, and one thing that I hope to be able to give back to those in our community today is that same support that I had for those who were not able to receive it themselves, for those who are underprivileged, and just for those who are hungry to go to the next level, but don't necessarily have the backing I look to be able to help those kids out in the future. I know we got some beautiful things going on at the new dome in Chandler Park. I look forward to partnering with them so that we're able to get a lot of this training in. I want to thank my mother, Delilah,
being so superior. Bethany
And y'all go check out Joy cakes, our family bakery. Excuse me, oh goodness, Grand River and Fingle and royal fresh Margaret wheat, owners of joy cakes. I also want to thank my support staff, all my guys, my people that came out here today. Zach, all those folks. Adrian, everybody. I thank you so much for being here today. It means a whole lot to me. I'm appreciative of the city for this award, and you know, I look forward to continuing to partner and develop our youth out here. Thank you
for joy. Thanks.
I am just exceptionally proud of my son for the the amazing young man that he is that he's become shout out to his support from his former MSU teammate, Zach, good to see you here. Thank you. He and his family, and he's, he's, he's part Detroit, part Lansing, as far as his being reared and raised and just really grateful for the things that he's doing here in the city of Detroit, grateful to be a busy grateful to be a business owner here in the city of Detroit as well, and the support that we've received. And just look forward to seeing the continued work that he's doing with the young people to ensure that they have the support that you know, similar to what he received coming up. We've had just a tremendous support system throughout his throughout his journey, and we want to make sure that others have that as well.
Alright,
just real quick. And so I also, once again, the awardees are being humble. And so I have the opportunity to meet makaj This past spring during the NFL Draft, where he was running the pro era booth at the corner ballpark. They had a number of activities there for the youth, and his was his game, and he had a number of other athletes, as well as his team, who were showing people how it works for pro era. And so we had a chance to talk, and told me he started like, this is a great story. This needs to be told. So Detroit native, MSU football, pro football now into a display space that you typically don't see us in the gaming space and at a very high level. NFL mad. I'm not sure how much bigger it gets when it comes to sport gaming. And we recently in the city and through my colleague over in the neighborhood of Community Services and GSD, we now have gaming centers where we're doing gaming as teams and as a sport here in the city of Detroit, through our rec department, but also being prepared to give back in the philanthropic space where you are now have a foundation where young men and women who are playing sports at a high level can be supported. And often for us, we don't have those type of resources at home, and so to have a foundation that ensures that people of high potential can go forward if you need a training, if you need a coach, if you need equipment, and equipment can be very, very expensive. As we said, those bicycles, they're not cheap. Pads are not cheap. A lineman coach isn't cheap. That you have a foundation that's willing to support those youth. And so this past weekend, I had a chance to introduce Bucha to the Velodrome. So I'm looking forward to him supporting some of our high potential young cyclists. And not know sure people know it, but I am a cycling advocate, and so we're looking forward to that type of support within the city of Detroit. And as Maka just said, he's looking, hopefully, to run this type of camp over at the dome at Chandler Park, over in the fourth district, to help encourage and there was a stat that you told me, and I don't want to steal your thunder, what's the stat? Who? What city produces the most,
Detroit, Michigan produces the most NFL players that are currently
acting. So I look
so those who are sports enthusiasts, who often hear Florida is a proving ground, California is a proving ground. You go those places to get your talent because they play year round, because the weather. Well, we now, in the city of Detroit, have year round sporting opportunities, and we have makaj. They don't have makaj, and so we now have a pro NFL lineman and a Big 10 superstar who can help coach them to make sure that our kids get those type of opportunities at the highest level. So it's once again, want to thank makaj and his family, and we have joy takes right here, and we have our friends in the Big 10 over here. Well, thank you very much. Yes, ma'am, yes. Just
one other thing that I really appreciate, that when Kaj and I are just in when he's doing it independently, that he doesn't just focus on the athletics, he also focuses on and we focus on the professional development to prepare them for the workforce, beyond sports, and also talking about their academics and the critical nature of that as well. So the holistic approach is, you know what's most critical.
And so just as mom said, after athletic, after athleticism, there is a real world that you have to go into and to be prepared for that. If you are given the God given talent to be a professional athlete, use it and leverage it, but you also, at a certain time, Father Time, catches everybody, and you will need to make that transition. And the Kash is helping people get into the space and transition into the real world as well. So thank you for being here today, and we'll take photos afterwards. And so please, we hope that your team, who has come and supports you comes down as well. Thank you. Thank you. Man,
appreciate it. Thank
you. Council member Benson, congratulations again, and if the clerk would know they've been here. Member durha, Member young and member Calloway have all been here. Clerk will So note,
Madam President, alright, we
now will proceed. I have the absolute honor and privilege to recognize one of our own. Mr. David Bowser, if he can come down, please, Dr Bowser,
I definitely did not want the opportunity to pass to recognize Mr. Bowser, who will be leaving the city and transitioning over to the Detroit Housing Commission. I truly believe you've been a tremendous asset to the city of Detroit, exceptional leadership, quality of service that you provide to the residents in Detroit. He currently is the Deputy Director of the housing and revitalization department and will continue his work around housing now with Detroit housing commission. So we know you won't be too far, but anything dealing with the area of homelessness in the city of Detroit and housing ensuring that people have access to safe, stable housing, David Bowser was the one that I will call and I always remember the event. We had our first housing resource fair in Detroit, and we helped coordinate it with you. And so many people came out to that event. And I remember there being a line wrapped around David Bowser so people can talk to you about connecting to housing and what I would never forget that day. And we left that day talking with my office about you. You literally stayed and talked to every single resident. And I think it was almost to eight or nine o'clock that night, and you called me after and made sure that each person was connected to the services that they needed. So we know in Detroit we still have a housing crisis. We still have issue to access to safe, quality, affordable housing. We still have an issue of homelessness, and you have really been that bridge to connect people. So I just wanted the opportunity not to pass without honoring you. I believe that you embody with the Spirit of Detroit is all about David has developed a continuum of safety net services that include resource navigation, direct case management, a citywide housing resource call center, door to door outreach, all aimed at preventing homelessness, addressing homelessness directly, re housing displaced residents, and facilitating home ownership in housing sustainability, also during the onset of COVID 19. Mr. Bowser also expanded to establishing and managing the health operations within the city's COVID 19, quarantine and isolation services. He has been a part of the homelessness strategy, the Housing Services office, the Office of Immigrant Affairs and economic inclusion and the community engagement and improvement Division programs and initiatives. I feel like you've touched everything with housing. We honor you. We appreciate you. On behalf of the Detroit City Council, we would like to present to you a Spirit of Detroit award. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for your exceptional service, unwavering dedication to the residents of our great city. Your impactful work has enriched the lives of countless Detroiters, leaving a legacy of positive change. We thank you. We celebrate you and we stand with you as you embrace on new opportunities to continue to make a difference in our great city, and signed by the entire Detroit City Council, none other Mr. Bowser, my man, and if you could just speak, yep, just turn the microphone on, Mr. Bowser, and then we'll come down and present this to you as well.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you so much. You know, I feel like this is less about me and more about the power of partnership. You know, it doesn't really matter who you work for in the city, the residents, if they need help, we should go out there and make it happen. So for the last seven years that I've done, I'm a transplant, and I'm from North Carolina, I've never felt like one. So Detroit has really treated me like family, and I really appreciate that. The work has been hard, but it's been necessary. We've, you know, rehoused 1000s of residents. We've answered hundreds of 1000s of calls at the helpline. We created the Community Health Corps, the horizon Services Office, the kamaya Davis Resource Center. We've done so much to address the gaps that exist here in Detroit. And again, it wouldn't have been possible without your partnership, and without you know, our common desire to make sure that residents have what they need, especially when it comes to housing, so that we can then introduce them to other resources, like mental behavior, health, food, transportation, employment, things like that. So really appreciate your partnership. Really appreciate everyone at the city who's who's allowed this to happen as well. And like I said, I'm right down the street Detroit Housing Commission. We want to make sure that we are bettering the housing stop bettering public housing for residents that need it, and I'm really making sure, you know, looking forward to making sure that we have those resources there for residents, and looking forward to continue to work with you all. So thank you. All
right. Congratulations and Mister Bowser, before you leave, I think member water is also safe to continue Council. Member water, David,
now you know you can't go anywhere with about me saying something to you, so I want to say thank you. First and foremost, I want to thank you for your heart of gold when it comes to helping our people, I want to thank you for your willingness to take telephone calls in the midnight hours, whatever time it may be. I thank you for that, because when I call you and I say that this person needs a place to live. You made sure that it happened right away. Even when we were in council, council session, some people would come down. Remember the woman that had the babies in her arms? I said, please come down and do intake. There you were sitting right there outside in this chambers, taking care of our people, I want to thank you for working with us to set up that call center. We really appreciate it, and I heard you just mentioned the Maya Davis family resource center because you knew how much it meant for all of us to establish something that baby's name, the 11 month old baby who fell through a hole in the floor and died in water and feces. I just want to say thank you, David, and I'm and I'm going to be following you. You know you're not getting away that easy, but I know that you can help us do a lot more, too, in your new position, and I cannot say thank you enough. Love you. David, thank you.
Thank you so much. I see a couple of hands before you leave. Member Calloway,
thank you Madam Chair. And good morning everyone. David, thank you for answering my call on Sundays. It's rare that I can put a call through to anyone on a Sunday related to work, and you heard the urgency of the matter, and you picked up your phone, and I was telling you that I'm witnessing a homeless family, February of 2024, walking down West Eight Mile Road in district two, which is a district that I represent on this council, and I shared that with you. I was able to put them up in a hotel that night, but then, after they spent the night, one night, you took it from there, and you got them housing. And that was three children and a mother, and they were carrying boxes of food from the Forgotten harvest. So I loaded up my car and didn't know what they were going to do with all that food, because they didn't have access to a refrigerator or a stove, but they felt comfortable carrying all those boxes. But thank you for doing all that you do to address the housing crisis in our community. And thank you. And I hope you'll continue to answer your fault your phone on Sunday. And thank you for that. And God bless you.
Council member young, followed by member Johnson.
Thank you, Mr. Bowser, you can't leave. Man, where you going? We going to we going to lock you down. Man, you can go nowhere. Listen, I just want to say that hopes are not just bricks and beams. They're hopes and dreams, and you have provided the American dream of a home or for shelter for a lot of people. And you have saved me out of a lot of situations, whether I was doing a community event and I found somebody that was literally living in their car and they're saying we're looking for a place to live, whether it was somebody that would call me on the phone saying I need somewhere else to live, and I need within 24 hours. And I felt like I had nowhere else to go to. And how am I going to help this person? Or it was someone that would call in from a public comment, you know, and after, you know, giving me the business for two minutes, they would let me know they need somewhere to live. And you would be the person who I always go to on the front line. And so I think that in a time when people are running out of money for they run out of month, when you got folks that are making decisions, you know, am I going to pay my rent, or am I going to pay for my prescription drugs? You know, am I going to feed myself or am I going to provide money for my kids to go to college, for you to be able to provide access, for you to be able to provide opportunity for people to be shelter is not just providing services of a house, it's also recognized people's community. And there are words that I can express to say thank you for the work that you've done. You will truly be missed. You leave big shoes to fill. You leave a great pathway for people to follow. But I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, is tremendous, isn't a tremendous honor? You have made this job so much easier. And I can't tell you how many stories where I get to walk into my community and be 10 feet tall and bulletproof because I was able to work with you, and so I just want to say thank you so much. Job well done. We will certainly miss you.
Council member Johnson, thank you.
Thank you, Madam President. David Bowser, I feel like I've worked with you very closely over the last year, year and a half, and a lot of people know that housing is a passion of mine. Really trying to figure it out. I didn't realize that you weren't from Detroit, because I'll tell you, you are very genuine and authentic in providing housing solutions for Detroiters that I do appreciate tremendously, because we are in a very unique situation where we're trying to figure out details on how we provide housing for all Detroiters of various income levels, and I appreciate you being a thought partner in that work that is extremely important. I'm grateful that you are at the Detroit housing commission because I've recently had conversations with them, just making sure that we're all having a comprehensive conversation around housing. I thank you for all of the efforts that you've done here with the city of Detroit and providing support to residents, as we all reach out to you and call you about unique situations, but I'm most appreciative of you just being that thought partner and helping us to identify solutions on housing and how we move forward to make sure that Detroit remains a city for everyone. So thank you so much for that. Look forward to the continued partnership and relationship. As you know, I've already sent you a text message and have you working on on a project, an issue of concern that a resident has now, and I just thank you for always being available and being supportive. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Member Johnson, lot of love for you. A lot of love. Member. Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, I'll be brief, but David, I can't let you go without saying, Thank you. On behalf of the immigration Task Force, there was a time where we heard of many people coming across the border to many different cities. Detroit was one, and you helped. You helped welcome folks. Everyone Detroiters, native newcomers, everyone. It is so amazing to hear that you're a transplant. That means that you have an incredible heart for this job. So thank you so much for doing this job. I'm so grateful that you're going to be close. We have so much more work to do, but just thank you so much, David,
keep it up.
Thank you. Thank
you so much. All right, thank you so much. David Bowser, and we're going to come down to do pictures in one second, so don't go far. Thank you. David Bowser, all right, we'll turn the floor over now to council member Young who has a special presentation. You
Hello everybody. Let's start with the quotes. Music is a moral law. It gives so Oh. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I ain't even started. I get a round of applause. You alright, I gotta take you out. We done. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and charm and gaiety, to life and to everything. I think that the people who I'm about to honor embody that spirit and embody that energy, and so it is my honor and privilege to present this Spirit of Detroit award, presented as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the people of Detroit to the significantly important and tremendously valuable. James Mitchell, Jr, sole surviving member of the original Detroit emerald. You.
In 1967 Mitchell, along with his brothers Abe and ivory Tillman and later Marvin Willis, began their legendary careers as the Detroit emeralds, with hits including, do me right? You want it. You got it. And feel the need in me. That's That's my mom back there, over there, in that corner in 2025 the new generation of Detroit emeralds, will release a new vinyl LP titled there is no distance with lead vocals by James Mitchell Jr.
You are indeed a hero for the people of Detroit. You are an asset to our great city of Detroit. We thank you and are eternally grateful for your tireless efforts, exceptional achievements, outstanding leadership and dedicated devotion that lifts the spirits and fills the hearts of the people of Detroit America. The Honorable Coleman, a young the second Detroit City Councilman at large, number one means I got the most votes. So thank you everybody. Thank you everybody, but the entire honorable City Council Detroit, Michigan, presents this spirit Detroit award. James Mitchell, Jr, everybody, you want to say something? Let's take a picture with the
Wow. Did you say? Did
you get this? Oh, you'll do pictures. Okay, okay, okay,
okay,
okay.
Honor to God the Father. He's in control, and I'm just a little pond i I never talked that much. Is that right lock? So I'll say a few words to Charles. Oh, let me get out. Thank God for each and everyone of you, because we've become a ambassador to the world. They're playing music from where Detroit, Michigan, and it's only because and it's been 80 years that I came to Detroit from Florida, right? But it's been lovely. All I can say is, it was a young man that changed my life totally. I'm standing next to her son, and yeah, as a young lady out there, wouldn't take no fun answer to make sure that everything was right, and I'm looking at it. So thank you Detroit. We are ambassadors for you. A Marvin, love you. Al, I can't shout. Call everybody. I
get booked. Well, thank you. AJ, okay, lock, I can't say no more Detroit. Hey, next up the
spirit of this Spirit of Detroit award presents it as expression of the gratitude and esteem of the people of Detroit to the significantly important and tremendously valuable Marcus Elliot 2020, Kresge, artist, fellow see here. Yeah, come on, you. Rob loves.
Marcus Elliot is a saxophonist, composer and educator, created transformative experiences in his community through his music, he has self released four albums as a band leader in the past decade. The New York Times described his compositions and improvisations as convincing and confident, evolved in touch and tone. Detroit Free Press said Elliot represents the next generation of jazz. He has toured with Marcus Belgrave, Rodney, Whitaker, Chris Johnson and Anthony Stanko. Elliot received his master's degree in musical improvisation from the University of Michigan, you are yes, yes. You are indeed a hero for the people of Detroit. You are an asset to our great city, Detroit. We thank you and are eternally grateful for your tireless efforts, exceptional achievements, outstanding leadership and dedicated devotion that lives the spirits and fills the hearts of the people of Detroit and America. The Honorable Coleman and young the second presents this spirit Detroit award, the Marcus Elliott, everybody.
Thank you very much. I don't have much to say. I just want to say thank you so much to my family and friends that are here today. If it wasn't for my family, there's my mother right there taking the pictures. Shout out to my mom. I'm, I'm proud to say that I've I'm a come from four generations of Detroiters, and my son is here right now. He's a fifth generation Detroit, it's a real honor to receive this award from this great city. I love this city so much, and I owe it so much, and I'm going to continue to do my best to create music that represents how amazing this place is, and to also be an ambassador. So thank you very much. Applause.
We gonna take pictures that. We gonna take pictures that, Yeah, nah, not that. I'll appreciate it. We're gonna do pictures. We go.
We gonna do pictures after,
yeah, come
on, bro, come
on, baby, alright, couple minutes, couple
I like to be of Honor to all the council members here, I want to say something. I'm Al Livingston, and I want to say something about this gentleman, because he changed my life. I'm here today because of him. Didn't have to even be living he created a platform at the Emerald Lounge on Shane and fairy. And he was a mentor to many, many, many of us. You know what I'm talking about. AJ, on Sundays, we would have matinee, and a lot of us was down at the Emerald lounge. And he was mentoring us. I learned how to write range produce, um, Anita Baker was there, young Anita Michael Henderson, the floaters, you know. And this kept a lot of us off the streets. And I want to give honor to him, because if it wasn't for this gentleman, what he was doing mentoring young kids, even during the time of the the riot, we were down at the Emerald lounge in the in the pit, rehearsing. So I want to give honor. I want to let everybody know that this man did a lot for the community, his family, Mama, Mitch, big Mitch, everybody you know. So I just want to get honest for you, and I'm I love you like a fat kid in a German chocolate cake. And ain't nothing you can do about
hey, this next spirit Detroit award presented as an expression of the gratitude esteem of the people of Detroit to significantly important and tremendously viable Grammy nominated, world renowned all female jazz group. Straight ahead, everybody you
game original members, Marion Hayden, bass, Alina Moore, piano, Galen McKinney, drums, with Ingrid Racine trumpet and Kimberly Wright Bucha this is,
this is Black girl magic personified right
up in here. You
better ask. So far, broke ground for women in the recording industry as the first all women jazz band signed to Atlantic Records as the first all women jazz band signed to Atlantic Records as the first all women jazz bands signed to Atlantic Records, widely recognized for their electric and soulful approach to creating music for several musical genres with five recordings to their credit, straight ahead, has established themselves as with a Jazz's most enduring and prolific groups, you are indeed heroines for the people of Detroit. You are an asset to our great city of Detroit. We thank you and are entirely grateful for your tireless efforts, exceptional achievements, outstanding leadership and dedicated devotion that lives the spirits and fills the hearts of people of Detroit and America. The Honorable COVID 19 on the second presents this Spirit of Detroit war straight ahead. Everybody. You want to say something? Go
ahead. Take it quick.
So first of all, I'd like to thank you so much. The Honorable Coleman a young the second for this beautiful honor, I like to say I was a guest at the Manoogian many times when your dad was presiding there. And for any of you jazz lovers, Mayor Young's favorite song was the midnight sun by Lionel Hampton, go check that out. That's that's Google so, but I just like to say we tour all over the world and represent Detroit proudly as the as one of the great music cities of the world. And has been that that way for for decades. It is, it is a, it is a, it is a city that really has been a very unique place. And we and I would also like to say that we stand on the shoulders of a couple of other really great women. One is the founder of our group, Mickey Braden, and the other is the person who brought us to Atlantic Records that being the great Grammy Award winning composer and producer, Sylvia Moy. Sylvia. Moy, who produced for Stevie Wonder, was the one that brought us to to Atlantic Records.
Well, I'm truly honored to be a part of the Spirit of Detroit celebration. Um, I'm sure if my my father was still living, he would, he would be sitting right here in the front, and my mother as well would be sitting right in front I stand on their shoulders for passing the musical legacy, Legacy of my family, on to me. And for those of you who know who my father is, his name was Harold McKinney, and he he too, was recognized by the city of Detroit, with a by the Council for the with a big plaque of in recognition of his contributions to the city. And so my job as his daughter is to carry on that legacy by not only performing music, but teaching music and spreading the knowledge that I have that was given to me by my mentors, Harold McKinney, Marcus del Gray, Wendell Harrison, and my job is to also continue that legacy. So thank you very much for this, this honor. I appreciate it, and I'm sure wherever my my mom and dad is, they appreciate it, too. Thank you. Thank
a Hello. My name is Alina Moore. I'm not a native Detroiter, but I am a transplant, and I thank you, and I do acclaim. Detroit is my hometown. It's been a great town for me musically. And I want to add a couple of women to the list that Marion spoke on that were personally very important to me because they were playing jazz. One was I never knew either of them personally, but just knowing about them and knowing about their recordings was very inspiring to me. One was the great Terry Pollard pianist and vibrant harpist. And also Alice McClure McLeod, who became Alice Coltrane. So people often say, you know, there's something in the water in Detroit, and there may be, there may be something to do with it, but I think it's more like it comes from a community that's inherently creative and warm and expansive, and it's been a great place for me to grow up musically. And thank you very much for having me be an adoption to your city. I
just want to say one thing, I am honored and privileged to be working with these women. They are the start of straight ahead, and I've there. They've let me sing with them for the last 20 years. And thank you so much.
Thank you.
My sister's a song and music. Thank you.
This next Spirit of Detroit award presented as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the people of Detroit to the significantly important and tremendously valuable Detroit's Premier and treasured jazz, blues and pop vocalists, shauda Shahida Narula,
deeply steeped in the generations of great jazz and blues that centers the rich musical legacy of Detroit, her outstanding musical intelligence is vibrantly reflected through a versatile repertoire that includes blues, jazz, samba, bossa nova, show tunes and more. She has performed at the Detroit International Jazz Festival and performs at clubs throughout Southeast Michigan, including the dirty dog jazz cafe and Detroit's infamous and famous Cliff bells. She has taught Jazz Pop voice at the University of Windsor School of creative arts since 2007 she's so she's so bad when she drops a hat a pin will you can hear a pin drop, and she can drop her own hat if she wants to. You know, my mother says she's so good. She got you coming and she got you going. You are a D a heroine for the people of Detroit. You are an asset to our great city of Detroit. We thank you and eternally grateful for your tireless efforts, except your achievements, outstanding leadership and dedicated devotion that lives the spirits and fills the hearts of the people of Detroit and America. The Honorable Coleman, a of the second Detroit City Council at large presents this Spirit of Detroit award to shaita Narula, Detroit's premier jazz treasure, jazz, blues and pop vocalists, everybody you
Good morning. I'd like to thank the Detroit City Council for this honor. I would like to thank my dear friend Dexter fields for coming with me and my niece Halima, who is here with me this morning. And I want to say congratulations to all of the people that have won the awards this morning and these great artists that are here. I am so honored to be here with everybody else that's been here this morning. Detroit holds a lot of credit all over the world. You can go anywhere and say you're from Detroit. It means something. It really means something. This city has produced so many great artists, and I am very proud and grateful to have been born here and raised here. Your dad was a great, great man and and so are you, and so are you, and he had a wonderful spirit. And probably all of us here, with the exception of Marcus, because he's not old enough, probably did a lot of different performances for your for your father, at the new game mansion and other places. I really finally remember one of the times that I was performing at the mansion, and we've taken a break, and I was walking by Mayor young, and he was talking to a group of people, and he excused himself, and he said, Excuse me. And he said, I want you to know I'm enjoying it and I'm listening. See, he didn't have to do that. You know, that was something that was just really, really wonderful, and you have the same kind of spirit. Thank you so very much. Appreciate
this next spirit Detroit award presented as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the people of Detroit to significantly important and tremendously valuable Detroit's own queen of the blues, thornetta Davis,
brown Queen of the blues,
by the Detroit blues society in 2015 with proclamations from the city, state and county. She is the 2023 winner of the Best soul blues artist of the year by the blues Foundation. She is a singer songwriter and recording artist and winner of over 30 Detroit Music Awards.
She has electrified audiences and is a well known and is well known as a Detroit artist extraordinaire. This Spirit of Detroit award goes to thornetta Davis, everybody, you are indeed a heroine for the people of Detroit. You are an asset to our great city, Detroit. We thank you and are except eternally grateful for your tireless efforts, exceptional achievements, outstanding leadership and dedicated devotion that lives the spirits and fills the hearts of the people of Detroit and America. The Honorable Coleman, a young maseke, presents this Spirit of Detroit award to the best there is, the best there was, and the best there's ever going to be, best in my time, the best of your time, and the best of all time, Detroit, sweet of the blue store, daddy Davis, everybody.
Imma feel like saying, Oh, that's a lie.
How y'all doing?
Family? I'm sorry for being a boo boo crier. That's what I do when I'm filled with joy.
I feel so much joy at this moment, I see all these people who are getting awards, also who were there right in the beginning. I'm just so thankful to be a part of this and to be from Detroit. I got folks who've been there for me, to help uplift me, to produce records with me, to just be there. Say, girl, you
can do it. Got band members. Thank you, Carl, for showing up.
I just love each and every one of you,
so many of y'all know all the musicians know we represent when we leave the city, when we step out of Detroit, everybody know what's happening. They know what got going on in the city. Detroit has nothing but a beautiful music Mecca.
It didn't stop with Motown. It
did not stop with Motown. And everywhere I go, I make sure to let them know that Detroit is a music town, and to be from Detroit is a special thing,
and I'm so glad that you guys gave me this honor. Thank you. Thank you so much. I love you all. I
want to thank my husband, too, James for
just being here supporting
this next Spirit of Detroit award, presented as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the people of Detroit to the significantly important and tremendously viable Detroit's own extraordinary and exquisite musical Dynamic Duo. Let's give a round of applause to Charles and Gwen scales. Everybody,
pianist, vocalists, composer, arranger, songwriter, producer, business owner, this dynamic duo has racked up quite a few titles between them over their 20 plus years in the music business, known domestically and internationally, Charles and Gwen have shared the stage with artists such as Patti LaBelle, Phyllis, Hyman, Naji and Hamilton Bohannon and have performed for presidents, governors and mayors. Yes, every inaugural, excuse me. Excuse me. Every inaugural have produced and worked on musical productions with national and international recording artists. They are based out of their hometown of Detroit, where their family resides. You are indeed a hero and heroine for the people of Detroit. You are an asset to our great city, Detroit. We thank you and eternally grateful for your tireless efforts, exceptional achievements, outstanding leadership and dedicated devotion that lives the spirits and fills the hearts. It fills the hearts of the people of Detroit and America. The Honorable Coleman and young the second presents this special Spirit of Detroit award. Charles and Gwen scales, everybody.
Okay,
my man, alright, wow, they say you hang around the candy store long enough they're going to give you some canyons. Okay, so hey, we want to thank. I like to thank the city council. I'd like to thank everyone here. I mean, James Mitchell, I haven't seen you in so long. He was responsible for us getting our first record deal. He brought he brought Ralph T to our house back in the day. I've worked with thornetta, I mean, many times. And everyone here, I want to say thank you to this woman who has completed me as a husband, a father, a man, a musician and a business person. You know, we're proud of what we've been able to accomplish, not only musically, but years ago, you know, I graduated, I graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in composition and arranging, and from there, I've always I've worked with advertising companies, music labels and the likes. And I went to a conference years ago, and they said, out of the entertainment dollar, 11 cents goes to the performing artists, 89 cents goes everywhere else. So I said, I'm going to have to operate on both sides of this equation here. I'm going to raise a family. Want to thank my daughter. She I have, we have two daughters. She came in town. She bum rushed me. She said, We gotta finish this project. So you gotta stop what you're doing, and we're working on the Christmas record. We're doing. So much you wanna, you wanna talk? Okay, okay.
What he said?
So again we want we're so grateful. We're again we represent this great city. We always represent this city whenever we go any place out of town and and people are just amazed, you know, at the level of professionalism and talent that comes out of this place. So anything else?
Yeah, I just
like to say again, I would like to personally thank everybody. Everybody looks fantastic. Keep doing what you're doing. Enjoy your life. Live your song. Okay? And let me say this music is the only thing that can hit you and not hurt you. You know because it goes right through it. It's vibrational. Listen to it all the time. You don't
stop one other thing I do want to say, we have an entertainment company called CGS entertainment. We blessed to be suppliers for MGM Grand Casino since 2007 Okay, and let me say this, it's not easy penetrating any supplier. Market is not easy for automotive suppliers. It's not easy for us. We've been in battle the last five years. Yes, with people trying to come in from outside and take our supplier ship, we had to go to Vegas and fight. Okay? We're hoping the City Council supports their local vendors when they're we're the last man standing there. No entertainment. Motor City, no entertainment, no, no. That's right, we are. We are the last man standing at MGM. So we're hoping that we continue, maybe to get some
city council support. We can also have, and I saw, I saw mister Todd. We also have the entertainment Commission, which I'm fortunate enough to have been
on since 2018 and we want to make sure
yes, Council Member water said,
We gotta keep this entertainment we gotta keep you going here in the city, and that is definitely
one of my missions.
So we're doing what we can to not only to to keep it going for all musicians in the city, to keep networks alive, to keep money flowing to our performance artists like it should. That's right, it's not easy. So, but we want to say thank you to everyone.
Yes, thank you.
And I want to say thank you to my daughter Lauren, who a graduate of U of M and yes, who is keeping the keeping the scales family going? We also have a scales in San Francisco that works with SF jazz, if you're ever out there. Yeah. So she's meeting all the jazz folks.
So we're keeping it in the family.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you to everyone who were honored today. We're going to now come down and do group photos with everyone. We'll start with member Benson, followed by Mister Bowser in the order in which we get The awards
Right Now, You
Right here in
The middle three I three.
Perfect. You.
I like to be nice and simple. All right, you. All right, yes, right, simplicity.
What does she mean?
We haven't even started.
She said,
table, right
so? All right, everyone, thank you so much for being here.
All right, thank you all for being here. We would like to proceed back with our agenda for this evening, this morning, please. We're the officers Paris. We got officers. All right. Thank you all for being here. We would like to proceed now with our agenda, if we can, please quietly exit out of the auditorium. Thank you all so much for being here.
All right, thank you. We are now going to proceed back to our agenda, if we can, please have it quiet in the auditorium, as we do have business to take up now for this morning, we thank everyone for being here and for the amazing presentations. God bless everyone. Thank you all so much for being here and the great work that you all are doing. The regular session of Tuesday November the 19th, we already did that the general session of Tuesday, November the 12th, will be approved. There being no reconsideration or unfinished business. We will proceed to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the budget Finance and Audit Committee,
six reports from various city departments.
These six reports will be referred to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations, standing committee, 12 reports from various city departments. The 12 reports will be referred to the internal operations, standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee, eight reports from various city departments. The eight reports will be referred to the neighborhood and community services, standing committee for the planning and development standing committee,
five reports from various city departments.
The five reports will be referred to the planning and development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee, 27
reports from various city departments.
The 27 reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee. We will now move to the voting action matters under other matters, there are no items. Madam President, under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies, there are no items. Madam
President,
all right, we will call for general public comment. Everyone will have one minute this morning for public comment. Okay, and I'm going to also cut off our public comment as well. We're going to start with Nicole Brown coming out, followed by Kenneth Smith. You
Good morning,
good morning. And greetings, Council. My name is Nicole Brown, and I'm here on behalf of Detroit, future city where I serve as a director of community engagement and partnerships. And we are coming out, and we're urging council to please vote yes on the current proposed amendments to zoning. Excuse me, so the current amendments for the ordinance for Chapter 50. Excuse me. I'm so sorry.
Thank you. Thomas, okay. Oh, my goodness
gracious. I'm so sorry. The
amendment for ordinance chapter the ordinance of Chapter 50 regarding the sit the 2019 city of Detroit zoning ordinance with regard to child care facilities. Sorry, that's a little bit on my flow this morning, we are urging the city to be able to vote yes on this amendment. Because what we understand is that, as we champion and we've done a tremendous amount of research around Workforce Development and the economic development within the city of Detroit, one of the things that we know for sure, whether it is from the report that we established in 2019 growing the African American medical class and opportunity for prosperous Detroit, to the work that we do currently with the global economic global epicenter for mobility, talent and retention team, is that the city of Detroit one of the barriers for our workforce participation is access to child care. And we have 55,000 young people in a city of Detroit that need child care. We have a deficit of almost 27,000
time. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate your comments. Manny, Mr. Smith, followed by Cal Dune, followed by Adam Barrett,
good morning.
Good morning.
My name is Kendall Smith, and I live in camper Stevens apartment buildings on Washington Boulevard and Grand River. Okay? On August 12, we had a fire there. One of our neighbors passed away trying to escape, and we had several of them had to be an ambulance out. We didn't have an elevator. It's 21 floors. We did not have an elevator at the time. Okay? They said on news, they going to fix all four of them. One got fixed, and that's it. Half the time maintenance uses the elevator every day to take out the garbage so we don't have an elevator then, um, then I'll roll some stuff down. Okay, the elevator is broken down four times since, um, October, October 7, october 14, october 25 and November 1, we had no elevator in the senior citizen building. They say they're going to fix them all, but they have not done it.
Okay,
all right. Thank you so much for being here, for being here. Excuse me. It's going to be a minute for today. I mentioned at the beginning, we do have several closed sessions that start at 3pm so public comment today will be one minute. So, sir, we want to make sure we I think you are a council member Santiago Ramirez district, but we will get your information as it relates to the elevators and senior buildings as an issue that I work with BC a lot on and making sure that we appropriately report that particular building, okay, right? It
is a lot more. Oh, I
know, believe me, if we can get the information, we'll make sure that at large members receive it as well as your district council person as well. Okay, we appreciate you taking the time to come down. Thank you, sir. Okay, we'll move along. Go right ahead.
Detroit's children are the world's future. Detroit's children are the world's future. Detroit's children are the world's future. We are in a child care crisis right now, not only in Detroit, but across the nation. It's a systemic crisis that generations of Detroiters and people across the US and the world has had to deal with. This systemic crisis can be ameliorated by some actions taken today, by passing the by right child care amendment. This is an emergency. It's 20,000 seats that need to be filled that are not there. 20,000 seats that are not there. Has to buy right? We need it. It's systemic problems. There are empty so systemic that there are empty seats because people cannot get to them, because they don't have transportation, they can't afford to get to them. They can't afford the seats. So I understand that there are empty seats, but there needs to be actions taken to make this buy right, so we can have community health care in the neighborhood, so families can get to their child care. Thank you very much. That's
your time. Thank you so much. Mr. Barrett,
yeah. Adam, Detroiters for Tax Justice, I'm here today to demand that council adhere to the letter of the property tax reformal ordinance by only nominating candidates to the Board of Review who have passed the state tax commission. Course, I also oppose that tiny, little 4.2 million tax break for Dan Gilbert related to the Harvard Square center. He's asking it in order to turn a point 9% negative return on investment into a point 4% positive return, clearly, is designed merely to help bedrock look better on paper. It's not really a matter of whether the project goes forward or not. It's not a matter of whether he can afford to provide affordable units or not. They're not affordable, by the way. Let the business man be a businessman and deal with the risks of his trade. He already got 5 million from the state back in 2022 so I think it's time to end corporate welfare for this guy and in general, Detroit taxpayers already have enough on our back. We don't need billionaires on our back too. Thanks. All
right. Thank you. Miss gaviri.
Morning, I Russ Gallant, I want to first endorse the call from the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, calling for compliance from city council and from the executive branch on various ordinances related to housing issues. And I'm mainly here to talk about the threat to fluoride treatment that's going to be imposed by the incoming Trump administration. And I'm asking first city council to provide leadership and initiative to organize public health agencies in the region, our own public board, DWSD and Glee will and education experts and forces together so that when this time comes where they intend to impose, that we're ready to seek an injunction in court to stop it the time that has been the decades before fluoride teeth were riding on people in their 30s and 40s. Fluoride has made a difference. Everybody can find a fault with something, but we need to stop this and organize and lead this issue for Detroit and beyond.
Thank you so much. Mr. Belant. Hello there. My
name is Luca. I'm the engagement specialist at transportation riders united, I wanted to address today, today's agenda item 25.6 because the new proposed ordinance section 4247 dash two, dash one, five threatens our organization's ability to conduct outreach work. We spend a lot of our time engaging with riders on busses and at bus stops, educating them about the issues affecting public transit and encouraging them to get involved in taking action, to find solutions. You can probably see then where we'd run into an issue with line item 28 of this proposed amendment, which prohibits, and I quote, distributing leaflets or handbills, displaying a sign, engaging in oral protests, educating or counseling others. On DDOT, we've conducted this outreach for years without causing any disruption or disturbance to DDOT, we've always respected the writers and the system and don't bother anyone who doesn't want to speak. And because of this threat to this threat to our work, and specifically to my job, doing public outreach, transportation riders United vehemently opposes section 47 dash two, dash 15 as written, and urges you to reconsider.
Thank you so much.
Good morning.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Veronica Smith from the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. The yellow four cars are bags are here. I am giving a public comment to the man that city council implement the property tax reform ordinance by one fast tracking the completion of the IA ao independent evaluator study, which is eight months late to canceling nominations for the Board of Review candidates who have not completed the state tax Commission's Michigan certified assessing technician course and three nominated candidates endorsed by the Coalition of Property Tax Justice who Are Detroit residents and have robust, quantitative experience the Coalition did. Coalition did illegal research of the city council's procurement rules, and there is nothing preventing the council from exercising oversight on the Iao study effort. Mr. Duncan,
thank you.
Thank you so much. Miss Lyons,
yes,
is it? It is imperative that we get this over 600 million stolen property taxes back to the Detroit residents. This satanic Dugan, all he does is assist Dan Gilbert gives rich men, millionaires, 10s of millions in grants, and like that young man said, that needs to stop. Give us our money that belongs to us. It is not theirs. Dugan can come up with all kind of excuses. He's a liar and He's a cheat, and he only looks out for himself, Dan Gilbert, his cronies and Mexican town. Go look at Mexican town. How he pours millions into Mexican town and brags about Romero and the Mexicans and, you
know, dog gone. Well,
there's some border jumpers and there's some cartel of drugs over there. Don't lie.
Michael, Michael Thompson,
somewhere. So what's the response? And
that was from DPD, okay, go right ahead. We were just going over place last week. Go right ahead.
Yeah, if I'm back again, just my fourth time down here about the ordinance. Your sister came and nobody talked to me. I talked to the Board of Commissioners about I found a formal issue that Mary waters helped me with, with Daryl, what's his name, but I got this time it happened again downtown, with the issue with the license. I got it on video, put it on YouTube, so you know it's it's where it's getting harassment. It's getting ridiculous again. So I need to get this ordinance thing taken care of, because they still keep taking my property, taking other people's property, and destroying it. So I'm asking you guys get with me, because nobody's called me back. Nobody's broke with me about it. You said something about a Zoom meeting, yeah, and nobody said nothing to me. Thank
you. So thank you so much for being here. So our team has reached out to you, and actually director Bill we've been in contact with with regard to your situation, you talk directly with the business licensing manager. He did speak with you. The code specifically says that you cannot food vendor downtown. They will provide the section of the ordinance that reflects that. And also you have, you have the wrong license, I think you need to go through the process to get the correct license to do what you're trying to do. So we will continue to work with you, sir. We're here to support you as it relates to the amendment to the ordinance that takes time. We're going to be gathering everyone again for another Zoom meeting to make changes to the vending ordinance. Won't happen before we recess. Unfortunately, we're this. We have one more session next Tuesday, so we'll probably take that up at the top of the year. But we do support what you're trying to do, and want to make it easier for you to do vending in downtown Detroit. So we're here.
So what you're saying is there is a license to sell down. I don't want
to go back and forth here. I'm just telling you with Director Bill has mentioned that he spoke with you directly, and whatever you currently have is not the adequate license. So we can work with you offline to try to see how we can support you, but we did connect you directly with BC, and this is what they're directly telling us. Okay, so we will work with you, and we can work with whomever else on council you would like, but we would love to assist you, sir. We're here to support want to make sure you're doing through business in Detroit. Alright, okay, thank you for being here. So Paris, if we can get offline and make sure we can continue to connect. Yep, remember call away,
Madam Chair, we would love to work with you to help. Is it mister Thompson? We met with mister Thompson two months ago in my office with your wife, and we also had the either the chief of police or the deputy Deputy Chief of Police to reach out to him directly. So we'll continue to work with you. President Sheffield, to support he and his wife.
We're all here
to help you. Sir, yes, okay. Thank you so much.
Miss Williams,
hello. Speaking the truth can be very dangerous. I've been continuing to talk about officers staying in the shelter, but one thing that I'm not going to tolerate when an officer threatened to tie me up, do something to me and put me in the trunk, that's not acceptable. I'm not going to live in fear because officers are breaking the law and do not comply to the laws staying in the shelter. I don't care who you are. You are not above the law, and you're not going to continue to try to intimidate me or scare me or whatever you think you gonna do. But like I said, his name is Chauncey. His grandfather was a police officer, and I made plenty of reports on him, and I'm going to OCI and put this on record, because that's what you're not going to do, is threaten my life, and I don't care who you related to. You bleed, just like I do, and you do not comply to the laws and regulations as consequences, period. I do not care who you are. When the shelters is for homeless people in the means that pay rent and they can pay rent. Madam Chair, yes.
Council member Calloway, thank
you. This young lady has come down here three consecutive weeks. I asked for inquiry regarding whether or not there are police officers living in the shelter. What is the shelter name and the address? Oh, I'm
at 3426
but they are all over. It's 26th in the city. So okay, so what we're going to do is, but on one second step right here. Talk again. Peter's going to talk to you, and we'll get that information, because we did inquire last week. Thank you, Matt. We did as well, too. Yep,
thank you so with you on that as well. Okay, thank you, Yep, alright, moving. Hello. Good
morning, everyone. My name is Miss Rogers. I'm born and raised in the city of Detroit all my life. The things that go on here, I have to say, I thank God for this building, for Mayor Coleman Young, who stood up for the city, Detroit and its citizens, for everything that he's done so that we can be here today again, I'd like to thank you all for being here. Need to address the matters, the corruption, exploitation from the city, the state, the county, illegal lifetime surveillancing, the shelters, rent caps abuse on women and the church's involvement, what, and mental health and sections of code, section 750, 411, H and a positive change needs to start here, and it needs to be taken serious about the abuse against women.
Thank you so much. Alonzo de larte,
this District Six is without representation on this council for four years, I've been trying to explain to Councilwoman Santiago Romero a problem that affects 1000 of your constituents. You have 1000 constituents who will never know the dignity of getting a paycheck for their software development skills and Councilwoman Santiago Romero is complicit with the racism that forbids me. You know, from the software developer salary that I deserve, and I've been trying to explain this for four years, she has asked me two questions in four years. Is that how you got your degree at U of M? By asking two questions in four years. No, because you took your education at U of M seriously, and you're not taking this problem seriously, that's like 100 questions that need to be asked. So that I would like to bypass, you know, Councilman Soto Romero and talk to the other council members, you know, like a one hour presentation in which you listen in You asshole every question you ask, right? Thank
you so much. All right? Christopher Allen Hubbard, no, okay, Taff. Taff Gaddy. Joe Batterman will follow.
Good morning, madam president City Council of Detroit, this proposal is on behalf of four entities. My name is Alan. I represent White Rock, friends of Benedict, teams of Mary say, Woodson syndicate and the historical new center and health district. We are proposing to the city of Detroit a $8.8 billion Smart City, health care, hydro energy systems, human centric urban planning and heat responsive urban design. And it outlines in the following the document that will be submitted for your consideration will be a bold plan to harness Michigan's maritime assets to create economic prosperity via town, city to council, annexation and island sovereignty, drawing inspiration from successful Island economics, this strategy aims to position Michigan islands as A financial and cultural hub that fosters growth and inspires global peace,
right? Thank you, and you'll submit that to council so we can get opportunity to look at that, sir, I'm sorry, did you say you have submitted or you will submit it? Yes, I can. I will submit Okay, thank you, Council Member. Young
only I heard you correct. You said like you represent black rock. Larry. Black
Rock. I represent White Rock, White Rock. Okay, all sorry. White Rock is a shadow company, a black rock. Oh, okay, so
when we say black like Larry Fink, Black Rock, yes, okay,
I'm the white rock of the blade, yeah,
but you like the affiliate, okay, I'll make sure. No, thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you, sir.
Thank you so much.
Morning Good Morning Council, Madam President. I'm Taft Gaddy with 21st century water program, and I'm here just to reiterate this information that we shared with you folks about a month ago with the council, and we really like to have a sit down and talk to you about the water situation in our city. Did you all get a letter this week on Saturday about how bad the water is? You did it came from the SWD, Detroit Water schools department. So we'd like to talk to you guys about this letter, alarming letter that I did get, and everybody in the city got one. So, so we want to solve the problem. And then one, one reason I think we could do some with, because the Biden Harris infrastructure program got $82 billion out here. They can. They can. Instead of you pulling up the infrastructure, we can put water systems in every home so that kind of money, and then you always have clean water in the house forever. I got water systems in some of my customer house since 1989 right now to this day, when I started in this business. I'm just saying we can solve the problem, problem. We don't. We don't have to live with no anything else, Mr. Borderman, yes, thank
you so much. Taff Gaddy, and as I mentioned to you, Director Brown will be here today, either virtually or virtually or in person, to discuss the letter that was sent to residents in Detroit regarding their service lines and condition of water in their homes. And so someone will be here, probably after public comment. They have a press conference this morning at 1130 so he'll be coming over shortly after to provide more information on that letter. Okay, you're welcome, sir. All right. Good Good morning.
Good morning. My name is Joel Batterman. I'm a district five resident and engagement coordinator for transportation riders united. I'd like to echo the comments of my colleague Lucas regarding the proposed DDOT code of conduct. I'd like to specifically mention one of our recent campaigns that were concerned may have been prohibited under provision 28 which bars distributing leaflets and educating or counseling others on the coaches over the two months leading up to the November election, we conducted an outreach campaign on the busses and at transit centers, surveying bus riders about their experiences with the system and educating them about their options for voting. Many riders had not heard about their options for voting early this year, and we're very glad to receive this information, but we're concerned that this activity might not be possible in the future under Section 28 of the proposed code, even our ride alongs with elected officials, which many of you have participated in, might be on shaky ground under the provision insofar as they involve educating or counseling others. We urge you then to consider amending this proposed code of conduct that provision. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Batterman. Ronald Foster, good
morning through the chair. President, just a few things today. Glad to see 18.7 I think that's a step in the right direction. Psychological evaluations for a law enforcement is necessary, not just for new recruits, but you need to get provide funding for old officers as well. 22.3 is another change to law enforcement. I think while we making changes, we need to change the charter chapter seven and get more power to the people and elected officials to do what the people want them to do. At this time, I think I've done a lot of advocating a lot of things didn't go the way I need to, but I do still advocate for unity. I still advocate for addressing common issues and common problems, which are poverty, housing, education, transportation, health. I appreciate what the city has put forth as far as trying to help veterans out. I've heard it before, so I don't get all excited about it, but if it does come together, I'm very grateful.
Thank you, Mr. Foster.
Denise Smith,
good morning.
Denise Smith, Black Family Development, thank you for the opportunity to be able to provide comments and support of the Child Care zoning ordinance. I'd like to begin by just underscoring the magnitude of unmet needs shared by my colleague for con and state that of the 490 early childhood providers who are in the city providing care that need cannot be met by their current capacity in that is a subset of 100 family providers who can expand and provide additional seats for families who need to work or go to school to support their families and our community. Additionally, let me mention that early child care, a quality environment, a quality learning experience, can help mitigate some of the learning gaps that we see later. For our children, only 14% of our children are reading at proficiency and at math at grade level by the time they test at their grade, this can be mitigated by having a quality experience. Thank you.
Thank you as well. All right, that will conclude in Person public comment, and we will turn it over to those who have joined us virtually.
Morning. Madam President, there were 32 hands raised before you were cut off public comment and the first caller is Phone number ending in 169,
all right, good morning. You
Good morning. You have one minute for public comment.
Okay, let's
please come back to this caller. Please.
The next caller is Stephen Harum,
all right, good morning.
Can I be heard?
Yes, you can.
Okay, thank you so, yeah, I agree with true. I guess you know. But all the problems in transit. You know, outreach is critical, especially, you know, with the Wayne County Transit millage coming up, which is going to need a lot of education. Second, I'm just going to say what I mentioned yesterday is we need to have some more aggressive solicitation laws on the streets. You know, for example, grand circuit has, I mean, this bill with, you know, homeless people trying to sell marijuana, scammers, you know. And you know, we're even having more scammers pretend they're homeless. Like many of you have been by CVS, we have a guy who's not homeless pretending he's homeless, just screaming, help the homeless. You know we need to really
alright. Thank you.
The next caller is William Ember,
all right, good morning.
Good morning. You have one minute for public comment.
Good morning. Can
I be heard? Yes, you can.
I like to start it off by looking at Item 6.3 on the agenda, you know, the city Detroit retirees, the legacy pensioners. You know, we have given up billions and billions of dollars to the city Detroit, and the city is doing quite well. I think that the very least the city could do to assist us, and so many of us have died in the last 10 and a half years, would be to give us a 13th check of at least 50 to 100% of our regular monthly check, which has not been increased in over 10 years, and was actually, in my case, was cut by 23% you know. So y'all should be doing more to help city Detroit retires, the legacy pensioners, and making sure that we can survive a little bit longer, especially in so much that millions and millions of dollars are given yearly to millionaires and billionaires. Thank you for your consideration,
right? Thank you. Mr. Davis,
the next caller is Anita Smith,
all right, good morning, Miss Smith, morning.
My name is Denise Smith. I'm
a homeowner in district five. I like to speak about the property tax reform ordinance state city council, through the city's procurement process, shall hire an independent evaluator to complete an assessment ratio study each year, every year, the assessment division must provide the independent evaluator with all its sales data no later than February, 1, following Tax Day, the independent evaluator must use this data to conduct an assessment ratio study. We are in November and there's still no assessment. Ratio study completed. The Duggan administration is dragging its feet in violation of the law which required the study be which required the study to be done in February. Section 44444, dash, four, 5d, of the ordinance. State's Board of Review members shall complete and passed the state tax Commission's Michigan certified assessing technician course before assuming duties as members of the board.
Thank you so much. And I just wanted to briefly state for those that are calling in from the coalition, we had the opportunity to meet with myself. Alvin horn, Mr. Don will, Professor Bernadette, to go over each outstanding concern in detail. The I, a o study is currently being conducted as we speak. They did take a little bit longer than expected to gather the data that was needed, which we had no control over. I think this is a new process for them as well, too. So the study is being conducted as we speak, and we're looking forward to the results of that study, and then following what the ordinance requires, and doing a public hearing at the top of the year. So I want to again, thank our assessor's office, Mr. Downwell in the professor, for joining in on that very thorough and detailed meeting where every single issue was addressed, a response was provided to every outstanding concern, and we will continue to work with the coalition on any outstanding concerns or issues that they have, understanding that we did meet and we're looking forward to continuing to meet to address any concerns. Thank you so much for calling in and our next caller please.
Next caller is Tahira Ahmed,
alright. Good morning. You have one minute for public comment.
Mike Duggan is the worst Mayor we ever had in Detroit. I like your response. President Sheffield, but you meeting with us is not, is not adhering to the law. Fast Track the completion of the IA Oh, independent evaluator study. Cancel the nominations for Board of Review candidates who have not completed the state tax Commission's Michigan certified assessment technician. Course, essentially, you're breaking the law that you passed. Nominate the candidates endorsed by the Coalition for Property Tax Justice. The Coalition did the research. It's already been done. We'll need to remake the wheel the property tax reform ordinance, state to city council have to do their due diligence, and we say no to another welfare check for Dan Gilbert tell a billionaire using
thank you so much our next Caller, please.
Next caller is Betty a bomber.
Good morning to all within the sound of my voice, I'm Betty a brown, the president of DeSoto Ellsworth black Association. And I want to start off by saying I really enjoyed this morning, all the presentations that were given to the awardees for the Spirit Award. It was so enjoyable to hear all of the good work and the music and about the bikes and all so good job. I just want to say again for if there's any seniors who are out there that need help in their home to be able to stay in their homes, to stay out of a nursing home, or just you need assistance, please contact D triple A at 313-446-4444, and if you've applied for assistance and been turned down because you wasn't eligible for Medicaid, there are programs there that will allow you to have a higher income and be eligible for Medicaid. Thank you.
Thank you.
Next caller is Larry Donald verse,
now. Larry verse, good morning,
good morning. How are you? Larry Donald, verse district seven, representing Detroit's people's platform and another organization, national organization, simply, I'd like to incorporate the comments about the proposed ordinance for d dot and it's a problem. It violates the First Amendment. In fact, consider this. It means that, if you meaning all council members and some of you have did ride alongs if you were on a bus and ask somebody a question and advise them to do something, you could be arrested and prohibited from riding the Bus forever. Is this proper? It's a formal tax on advocacy.
Thank you. Mr. Verse.
Next caller is phone number and Nine. Nine.
Yeah. Good morning to everyone. To the city, Detroit. My name is Joyce war with the Virginia fire community coalition within the boundaries of Virginia Park community, I received a letter, like most people here in the city, Detroit, but I want to ensure that our water is is drinkable. This, the fact that we've been drinking this, this water for so long. How long has this study been going on that we have not been aware of? And two, if there's any major cost Detroit water source, you probably should pick up that cost due to the fact that our houses, where that line comes from the city to our homes had to be approved by somebody, a council at some point in time. That's basically, yeah, that's basically, what I want to say is that we had the best, best water in the world, not the city, not the state, but the world. And the Mayor Coleman, a young administration, people used to come and study our systems make their city a better, I mean, to make their water better for the people to drink. So we need to ensure that we are drinking purify no lead water from the line of the city Detroit to our homes. Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much. Miss Moore.
Next caller, is that to a
hen, good afternoon.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Y'all
so first of all,
the property tax reform ordinance requires everybody before they're set to pass the MCAT. Shout out to council president pro tem and Coleman Young, because those are the only three council people who their nominee has actually passed the required MCAT and is following the property tax reform ordinance. Every single other council member is in violation. So there's a couple of things to do to get in line with the ordinance number one, make sure your person there's one more test in December. Make sure they sit and pass that test in December, or we at the coalition are willing to work with you to find somebody who is qualified with the necessary qualifications. And a reference to the meeting that council president just mentioned, it was supposed to be IAA Oh in that meeting as well, but the Duggan administration unilaterally decided that they could not come to the meeting. And so the entity that's supposed to be holding them accountable, they are, you know, they're preventing from speaking to city council.
All right. Thank you so much, Professor.
The next caller is Karen's iPad.
Hello, yes, good good afternoon. Yeah, good afternoon.
Everything that the professor just said, I doubled down on that also, you know, these LED, lead service lines, you've been given that money twice. You've got that money replace all those lead service lines during the Cares Act. So I don't know where the money keeps going, but it's obviously not going to serve people as it relates to fees. Where can we find a list of fees? We should have a when we come, wherever we go, we should be able to come and endorse your list of fees that are charged. And we should know if it's a cash it's cash only, if it's credit card only, we should know that it should be posted. We should be able to go somewhere, and that should be posted for our reference. As it relates to private I think the city is extremely negligent in protecting private information. You don't do any private information assessments. You just give contracts for internet infrastructure, and then you wonder why everybody's hacked. I don't wonder. I know why about that? You're all guilty. You're negligent. Thanks for nothing.
Thank you so much.
The next caller is Mikko a Williams,
Hi, good afternoon, Council. May I be heard? Please?
Yes you can.
Yes, I agree with my transit advocates, Lucas and Joel about the DDOT proposed ordinance that need to be clawed back, because the only way that we are able to communicate with the citizens of Detroit is through the busses. You all use it for special interest, and it should not be a process where it is unfair that it picks Cunningham's work with all of you in reaching out to the people. It's an outreach tool. You need to keep this, I think it's very important that we are able to use communicate. We're still in the information disconnect, so we have to get to the same methods that we are to reach out and also about the water, the lead in the water, Detroit Water sewage department meeting tomorrow, two o'clock, 735, Randolph, our hybrid zoom, get in that meeting and the Great Lakes Board of Water commissioners, Thursday, two o'clock, same place.
Okay, thank you.
Next caller is Frank Hammer.
I want to bring it to your attention us. House Bill 9495 the legislation is an attack on nonprofits. If passed, it will allow the incoming Trump regime to end the tax exempt status of nonprofits by giving the Secretary of Treasury exclusive authority to label any organization as supports terrorism. It will silence human rights nonprofits that call out injustice, such as the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Lebanon, and much more, arbitrarily designating nonprofits as supporters of terrorism is a violation of the First Amendment and a glimpse into the incoming administration's fascist intentions, the house will vote Thursday, previously, two local reps wrongly voted yes. Dingle and tanned are give them a call right away, tell them to vote no. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is, we
see you all right,
good morning and through the Chair.
Yes, we can hear you. Oh,
thank you. Yes, the letter that we received is very disturbing, and I'm agreeing with Miss Karen Winston. We have paid for this several times. I have from the board where it it has a contract to remove all lead lines, and it's been paid for already, and I get at the bottom of my letter at the cost of the resident or the owner. This is a fraudulent display in the city of Detroit that always seems to raise this ugly head. Mr. Brown should account for the aviation subdivision reservoir to nowhere that he spent millions of dollars on while we have possibly led in our lines. And I get a letter saying they don't even know what kind of material it is, what kind of incompetence, what level of incompetence do we have to endure before this city council acts in on behalf of the residents? Please act on behalf of the residents. 10, dot 23, and 17.2,
thank you, Madam
President, Scott,
thank you. Regarding the Code of Conduct ordinance, that's an ordinance in my office is shepherding through the process, and the public commenters are speaking of Section 47 tech to tech 15, number 28 and please contact my office. More than happy to have that conversation. Free Speech cannot be a bridge, but in but unruly conduct can, so let's have a conversation about that. Thank you. Okay,
thank you. Member Benson, all right, our next caller, please. The
next caller is Bobby Johnson. Good
afternoon, Miss Johnson. Yes,
can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
First, I like to talk about the water department we are over here in the city of Detroit having a flint issue. Next. What kind of ordinance goes around telling that we cannot we cannot organize, we cannot petition, we cannot do anything on the bus in the City of Detroit's bus terminals, people cannot lay down. They can't do you have a homeless crisis here. Some of the it's about to get really cold out here. What do you think a lot of these people are going to be staying at and living at with this crisis, with the housing condition and now the water condition, and we have this right around Thanksgiving. We have a thing right now. We have a flint crisis in the city of Detroit. You wonder why these kids have ADHD or jumping around because we're feeding them poison. Instead of giving all this millions and millions to Dan Gilbert, we should have been fixing the water system for the residents of the city of Detroit.
Okay, thank you so much.
The next caller is Burke wire.
Good afternoon. My name is Derek Aguirre. I'm the CEO of racket up Detroit, a youth serving can I be heard? Yes, you can. Oh, great. I'm the CEO of racket up Detroit, a youth serving nonprofit in northwest Detroit, in district two, and I'm here today to express enthusiastic support for the amendment to the ordinance, which would allow child care facilities by right in the city of Detroit. It's really clear that this amendment will increase access to child care for parents in the city, a much needed improvement for conditions of families. I know the families served by our organization will benefit from easier access to child care, and I encourage you to vote yes on this amendment, which will facilitate this improvement. Thank you so much.
Thank you.
The next caller is phone number ending in 534,
right, good afternoon.
Yes, may I be heard,
yes.
Sorry I hear a buzzing noise. Can you hear me? Yes, we
can hear you. Ms Warri, okay, thank
you. If you could start the clock now, please. Congratulations to the honorees. However, when there's a super duper packed agenda, I would suggest maybe doing that at an evening meeting where, you know it can maybe might flow a little better. I'm disappointed at the millions I see on the budget for blight funding, yet we still don't have a fully functioning health department for what I believe is called for under charter section 7201, haven't been in compliance with that since I got back in. 2014 2014 19.6 please don't spend money on Roundup. I'm not sure that's a good idea. That's that's been known to be carcinogenic. 19 point 1719, point 18, spending American rescue plan act, money, almost $4 million on electric vehicle station charging. What does that have to do with the pandemic? Please, when there's so many other people who could use the money, like children who fell behind during the shutdown, etc, and the so
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is Mr. Rueben
Crawley, good afternoon.
Mary Sheffield, excellent color choice this morning, black now come as the top vote getter on Detroit City Council, 2024 Detroit City Council. The number of the number of voter trap houses that I've discovered and uncovered here the city of Detroit is cause for great concern. Now we got Dennis M lemper on April the 25th lying blue, face it ball, face it lying on public record. In relation to the findings are the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report done by her. She's one of five elections in a row service of 19 years now, um puppy cop, and then we got the problem with Gabriella Santiago, Romero, District Six, council person who said she viewed that report on
Right. Thank you.
The next caller is Ruth Johnson,
good afternoon. May I be heard?
Yes, you can.
Thank you. Ruth Johnson, community development advocate of Detroit, I have four items I would like to comment on. I am interested in learning more about the proposed ARPA American rescue plan at full obligation resolution, understanding that it would council would delegate responsibility for deciding how to spend the remaining decisible, remaining balance of funds, or at least obligating them. What are the guidelines Council is providing? Because that seems like that's a lot of discretion. And as you've heard me say before, I'm very concerned about making sure ARPA funds are meeting the direct needs of Detroiters and Detroit organizations. Secondly, the Hive at Russell is receiving housing trust fund. I would like to know about accessibility and affordability. What is the split funding between ARPA and capital funding with a couple of contracts, and what is blight remediation funding? I haven't been able to discern what that is based upon my research. I'd appreciate Okay. Thank
you so much. Miss Johnson.
The next caller is Darren McCluskey, you ski.
Good afternoon, Council, can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Hi.
My name is Darren McCleskey. I own a property at 784 Fern Hill near state fair. I'm a proponent of solar. I also am a proponent of individual property rights. You guys neglected these neighborhoods for decades on squatters, drug dealers and dumping. 19 days ago, I saw a disabled, 70 year old lady Tyra Williams have her property seized. The sweater heating center, owning it for 50 years, you give squatters free attorneys. Why do you why do you not give long term residents attorneys to fight this, taking myself a college educated young, young man has a lot of high energy, well versed in law, is having issues with this process. I'm sure they are too. You guys had to stretch this process to get the public lighting department as a city department and a 30 year lease to DTE the blow past proposal for 2006 nearby, there's 31 acres of roof on state fair that you could use, but you're seizing all of this land, and the biggest red flag of all is that you guys will not allow a reversionary causing land.
Thank you.
Next caller is Rachelle Stewart,
well, good afternoon Council. I'm calling the Detroit people's platform. Rochelle Stewart, the transit justice team. I'm calling about that amendment to Chapter 47 especially line 28 A and B, with us prohibiting we don't do disrupt this, rallies or protests, we are all peaceful. May it be wild, true. Detroit people's platform, etc, we've never had disruption. We never had police called. We just did it the other night. As you know, Miss Sheffield dura Hall at the mandated city council meeting. We just want our fair share, what we are able and what we have rights to do, and the D dot Bill of Rights, Is there freedom of speech? It's in the constitution. We all have freedom of speech.
Always.
Come on now look back over this.
All right, thank you, Miss Stewart.
Next caller is Shoshana core. All right,
good afternoon. Hello, yes, good afternoon. Yeah,
I'm following up with Professor Bernadette on to handy of the coalition. I'm also an advocate of the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, and I believe what the professor left off saying it was great that you all had come to the table and had that meeting council president, but there was someone missing from that meeting, an entity that was off, very important, and everyone should be present. And then also, property owners were over assessed $600 million in taxes from 2009 to 2016 this we all know, the mayor, council members and property owners, especially those who lost their homes their tax overseas. But what we also must acknowledge is that the property owners are still being over assessed on our property taxes. Today, please enforce your ordinance city council members and for the evaluation and also that the Board of Review members are certified.
Okay, thank you.
Next caller is Robert claussky,
good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Council, Council President and members of staff and members of the public. My name is Robert plowsky. I'm a transit advocate. I'm calling in to speak today regarding agenda item 25.6 that'll be the proposed amendment to 47 215 would establish a 28th offenses prohibited, which would be grounds for removal, exclusion from DDOT and City of Detroit, bus operation, properties. One of the things that sticks out is the 28 item proposes a direct threat for us that do engagement as advocates for picketing, demonstrating, distributing or talking and engaging with people to let them know about our bus service. It is a violation of our Second Amendment, and the city of Detroit is very much stooping low in terms of our beliefs to be able to engage with bus riders. I'm not calling out in for anyone in particular, and I will note that DDOT, City of Detroit, and if its employees and leader, Michael Staley, is unaware of the proposal that's going on in front of you today, I kindly ask for council to vote no on this process and give it back our rights. This is peaceful, and we want to work with you. Thank you, Council. Thank you.
The next caller is Elizabeth Gonzalez,
can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Okay,
thank you. I'm good morning or good afternoon, everyone. I'm from Congress of communities. My name is Elizabeth Gonzalez. I am here, and for the yes for the zoning, for check, for the child care amendment, as we all know, we all need child care. For working families, it is a desperate need right now, and for child care, especially in southwest Detroit, we have no child care. We have some that are child in home, child care, but we have no access to child care in our district six, and so this is a major need that we are asking for, for the zoning to pass, and we also would love it, because also in District Six, we would love to have an emerging child care center with Congress, with communities In two years, hopefully opening up once the zoning passes. Please. We are begging you please say yes to the child care amendment.
Thank you, right. Thank you.
The next caller is Karen hammer,
good afternoon. Apologize. It's
not letting me unmute her. I will try coloring in 337,
okay. Good afternoon, caller. 337
morning. Am I be heard? Yes, we
can hear you. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.
Okay, thank you. This is Patricia Bosch. I'm a resident of District Three. No one is against the child care ordinance as it stands before what we are against is the by right classification of the Child Care ordinance. We have just heard how our water supply is threatened, and certainly these home daycares, by right, are also a threat to the well being of children. Do not listen to the Detroit future cities, because their plan in 2019 labeled district three as industrial and farmland. This is a threat to our single family r1 zoning classification, all we are asking is that.
Thank you so much.
The next caller is iPhone. You
Hi, hello, man,
good morning. How are you all or good afternoon. How you guys doing
good? Thank
you, good. Great. Thank
you guys so much for having me. My name again is Whitney Clark. I am calling in with the Detroit community coalition. You guys. We have a big election coming up, and this call is also to our lovely you know council members, those of you who are considering running for re election, we have spent the last two years quietly putting together a great ground strategy that we think is going to help whoever we support in this upcoming election. We looked at the numbers, the margin for success. We looked at the number of votes that missed waters lost by in the primary. And we're taking a scientific approach. But what we need everybody's on these calls talking about their complaints, we need you guys to start saying the names of those people that we believe will be good candidates for city council, so that we can join forces with you quickly and get started while everybody else is trying to figure out what they're going to do. We have a ground game. We have a church coalition. Let's get to the Okay.
Thank you.
The next caller, Bernard manski, applause.
All right. Good, good, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. Can I be heard? Yes, you can Good afternoon. Renard, Russian ski, Detroit people's platform and organizer of the transit justice team. I'm speaking in serious concerns of the proposed DDOT code of conduct as line item 25.6 if I'm correct, Section 28 would effectively criminalize the work that me and the transit justice team and other transit advocacy organizations like wow and true have done for years, including myself. We've always passed out literature flyers have taught people how to call into the DDOT department every month, and it seems like the way that section 28 is written, it will effectively ban organizing distribution of flyers and other materials to help people file complaints or other issues with the department. And me, along with all my colleagues, vigorously oppose this measure. This seems to be an affront to our First Amendment and constitutional right to assemble in the public space to peacefully, you know, pass out literature and talk to people we have never had one complaint from the department or bus drivers when we are doing our good work.
All right. Thank you.
The next caller is Charles miles?
Hello, gonna be heard? Yes, you can Hi. My name is Charles miles. I'm following in regards to the water crisis in the city of Detroit, and I just want to say that it's a thing that we in this news that nothing's being done about it all these years. And also, my main concern is I've been coming down there for eight years about my property at 9550, Hubble, talk to Fred durha. Talk to your at large. Coleman Young, and I've talked to Mary waters, I've talked to all, just about all of them, and they have done nothing in eight years about my property that they clearly can see that the receipt has been is there that I paid the bill and it's been overpaid, and you still stand a lot. Oh, and you won't do nothing about it. And it's a saying that you guys will allow this to continue, to keep getting bills and letters, and it's been foreclosed. Okay?
Thank you.
The next caller is phone number ending at 430, you Hello.
Yes, good afternoon.
Good afternoon. My name is Karen Crawford, and I'm calling on behalf of my ancestral home, which the land bank is trying to take away from me. Presently the home. There's no one living in the home at present. And unlike the Michigan station, which stayed vacant and abandoned for 20 plus years, it does not pose a threat to the community. It is not open. It is secure. Is not open to the elements the city has often boast about how they wish to elevate the economic climate of all its citizens. Yes, you have the trades for the young, you have the programs for first home buyers, and you also have programs for new business owners, but my question to you is, what about the senior citizens, the ones who have ancestral property?
All right, thank you so much, ma'am for calling in, and if you would like to reach out to our office, we can make sure we connect you with your district council person as well as the at large members to help you with your property. The number is 31339931322445053132244505,
thank you so much for calling in.
The next caller is phone number ending in 169,
alright. Good afternoon.
Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, great. I just want to say thank you everybody for praying for brother. Cunningham. I'm a little upset yesterday at the city council meeting. Councilwoman Gabriella GSR unleashed a verbal attack on Cunningham. I feel brother, Cunningham does not get paid for the work that he does in the community, and he does a great job. Honorable. Councilwoman, it sounded like a verbal attack. Unfortunately, is in this world, you can't control how people see things. Brother Cunningham really prays for her and respects her. You can tell from the comments that he has made on his Facebook page. He feels that he's a superb Councilwoman, and I agree. I just think that what she said yesterday was really nasty and could have went about it another way. A lot of people he helped doesn't have a way to communicate to you all. I got this notification for this meeting, of course, from Brother Cunningham's Facebook page. Homeless people sometimes have no choice but the panhandle on another note,
all right, thank you Council Member Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, and thank you for calling in. And I do understand that my comments were taken the wrong way completely, as I started in my comment yesterday. Thank you Mr. Cunningham for the advocacy that he's done and the work that he's done. And my comment was simply stating that we help each other in understanding the time that everyone has for public comment. So Brother Cunningham will often call and share his time with someone that's in this car. And I have allowed that for the past three years, but I was asking brother Cunningham is to work with me and to encourage folks, if they can, to call in, to call in, so that they we give them their full one to two minutes to make their comments. I completely understand that folks may not have a phone to call in, and brother Cunningham shares his time, that is fine, but you call in, there are others that call in, and that's encouraging. So I was simply thanking him for what he's done. I encourage him to encourage others to call in, so that they all have their time. And I completely understand if you don't have a phone to call in that you share the time, but I was only giving feedback. Thank you for the comments.
Thank you. All right, Madam President,
that was actually the last person who had raised their hand before you would put off public comments.
All right. Thank you so much that will end public comment for this morning, and we will now proceed back to our agenda if there are no objections, if we can go to line item 17.2 I know that maybe one of our colleagues may have to step out. There's a big groundbreaking taking place regarding housing, and we want to make sure that her concerns are addressed here. So line item 17.2 is regarding the rezoning for some of the solar initiatives in the city. And Madam Clerk, if we can take this one, please
sure council president pro tem James Tate an ordinance noting a roll call line item 17.2
President Pro Temp Tate,
Madam President,
it has,
I did end up moving this item last week and read it and place it into order of third reading. So at this end, then we postpone right for one week. So like to pick back up as where I move. This ordinance be passed as submitted,
right and there's discussion on this item. Council member Callaway, yes,
thank you, Madam Chair, thank you so much. I'm hoping we can postpone this. I'll be making a motion to do so, just to bring it back in a week, simply because I'm thinking there perhaps may be a 14th Amendment violation of the Equal Protection Clause regarding the treatment of privately owned solar owners, and then government owned solar projects, we're treating them differently, so I'm asking that I'd be allowed at least a week to do some research and to reach out to the law department and LPD and my staff, so we can do our due diligence, and we may even have to hire our attorney the Perkins group, because this is a very, very serious matter, and if there is a possible violation of the Equal Protection Clause, we need to talk about it up front. And I'm just now seeing it now, and I'm asking that my colleagues will allow me to make that motion and vote in favor of that motion to bring this back in a week.
Okay, discussion still in the motion. Council member Benson
through yourself to the law department, just so my own edification, and I'm not a 14th or constitutional scholar, just how would the 14th Amendment apply to a zoning
code?
Right? Mr. Washington, yes, good morning, Madam
Chair and Council. We do have Corporation council that is about to hit up momentarily.
All right, so he's headed in person to be with us.
Yes, he should be joining in person.
Mr. Washington. Do you know when he left out how long it would take him to get here, or
yes, he's headed upstairs now,
and Madam Chair, what I'm hoping is thank you that we will not look at this from political perspective, but the constitutionality of the violation, of possible violation of the Equal Protection line. Take the politics out, out of it, and just look at on its face whether or not this violates the Equal Protection Clause, just if our corporation Council can at all take the politics out of the question or the answer to my question.
Alright, thank you. Council member, Callaway Any other discussion as we wait for Corporation Council. Yes. Member Young,
thank you. I understand exactly what um, and I'll say this, and if I'm wrong, you correct me. If I don't get it wrong, I understand where you're coming from. I think, I think it's the fact that we would have to we were with that. The argument is that we're applying this so this or this law differently when it comes to complying with zoning ordinances than we would other laws. The same thing, I understand where you're coming from. I just personally disagree. Because one, I understand that this was deed to be illegal because of the Tabor case. But the Tabor case, from my understanding, was that the water tower was based on, it was called proprietary use. We knew that the city made revenue from that case, whereas in this case, this would be called government use. It's the Spicer, the Spicer, the Columbia board town, a trustees, a board of excuse me, township Board of Trustees, which says that government use is two purposes. One, it serves the public, which this does because we're talking about generating electricity for the public use. And secondly, it's also because it doesn't make a profit. And also, there is a case called the, I think it was called the Board of Commissioners Orleans levy a board of board, a committee, New Orleans Board of Commissioners, the Orleans levy districts. And that says that a city, a municipality, that has the powers of condemnation or eminent domain, that the zoning ordinance would not that they would be exempt from the zoning ordinance when going about the business of the city. And I think that those two cases would would apply to this case, saying that the reason why one they would be exempt from the zoning ordinance is because of that case, and also because the Tabor case will not comply. Because the Tabor case is proprietary use, meaning that the city was making money from that, and whereas in this case, the city is not making money for that, and it's for a government purpose. So I just want to kind of get that out of my chest as well, and law department can argue for or against that case. I just
want to madam chair that was a little convoluted for my my comprehension, so hopefully somebody can clarify what you just attempted to explain. But my very, very basic question here is whether or not we are treating these two entities differently, the government and privately owned solar solar projects owners, that's it. Very, very basic question. Nothing convoluted about it. Very, very straightforward, whether or not, if we do this, we are treating these two parties unequal. We have private we have government. And what we're doing here, we're going to treat them a little differently, according to what I've read. And then also, why are we allowing this when we have zoning laws on the books, we are about to again violating violate our own resident residential zoning laws for industrial uses. And you know that, mister Todd, we are this is what we're attempting to do with what we have in front of us today. And you know that we've had discussions about this, we are actually about to which we already have file it violate our own zoning ordinances to accommodate this, and we should not. We should follow our own laws. So my question again, very basic, the corporation Council is here. I'm hoping the politics does not come into play whether or not equal protection clause is violated or if there's a possibility for it to be violated when we're treating these two parties differently, government versus private. Thank you, Madam Chair, and that's not convoluted at all. Very straightforward.
All right. Thank you, member Calloway, Corporation Council, if you want to come down and I see Director Todd, sure you might want to add something as well.
Good afternoon. Conrad mallet, Corporation Council, City of Detroit. It's an interesting question, but let me just point out that we are treating the category of persons who are private all of the same. What we are saying as it relates to government is that if it is done for or on behalf of the City of Detroit, then the zoning laws do not apply. That is not an unconstitutional premise that involves at all. The Constitution since day one, first time that I came before this honorable body talking about the zoning amendment and talk, excuse me, talking about zoning and talking about as zoning related to solar, I indicated to this body that the zoning law did not apply to the municipal government. Has nothing to do with how we treat other persons, other persons, not the government, are all being treated the same. So I'm hoping that the distinction between government and private obviously, council person Callaway, you're extremely familiar with that, so I just, I'm not sure that I'm answering the question, because I'm not sure what the question actually is. So
Madam Chair. Madam Chair. So I just need time to draft my questions and get them to you, because after I read this again, and my team, we have questions. And I This is nothing. I think we should rush along. I really don't. I know that we're most of us are in support of solar farms. They're here. They're going to be here for the next 3550 to 100 years. Some you know, I won't be here, but I'm fighting on behalf of those who did not want the solar farms. That's neither here, nor is there, but I do have questions about the constitutionality of whether or not, and it looks like it's to me. So I mean, we can, I'm asking that we bring it back in a week. That's just my
simple and I'm strongly saying to this honorable body that
if it cannot be brought, that's my, that's my that's my motion to bring it back in a week. I do have a groundbreaking to go to for hickenbotham, but it's a very serious question, and probably can't be answered today, but I'm that is my motion, Madam Chair, and it is on the
floor, right. Motion is still on the floor. And member Benton, any further discussion?
That's one. Make sure that I'm clear. Does your signature on the bottom of this ordinance approved form indicate that it meets all of the constitutional challenges as well thresholds. Yes, sir. So you're indicating that it does meet standard that there is no conflict with
that is bias. That was my assertion then, and it's my assertion now. Yes,
thank you. Member young,
let me attempt to try to explain myself a little bit here.
So
from my understanding, the issue of applying this to the ordinance, the reason why would be exempt is because there was a case that basically says that zoning ordinances are inapplicable to government projects in which the government has the power of condemnation. That's New Orleans Board of Commissioners, Orleans levy district, right? Yes, basically. And also it's because you have to prove it to be a government purpose, that's right. And a government purpose is twofold. One, it doesn't make a profit. And secondly, it provides a government it provides a public use. The public use of this is to be able to generate a generation of electricity. Am I correct on that? Yes, sir, is that basically addresses the issue, while the equal protection clause will not apply, because, according to court, according to Court precedent, zoning ordinances are applicable to government projects in which the government has the power of condemnation. Am I correct in that? And if not, why?
No, you're correct. I just want to say that government is responsible for behaving in a constitutional manner if we were to unfairly make a distinction between citizens, then the citizens would have a claim that they were not being treated equally under the law. The fact that the government is not subject to zoning does not implicate a constitutional right held by a private citizen that is as direct and plain as I can, as I can make no further questions. I'm done.
Thank you. Chair through you. I call the question. Want to take it, take the vote up or down, but I still have a motion, whether or not I'd like to see it be brought back in a week so my questions can be answered.
Okay, alright. Question has been called. Any objections hearing? None. Motion passes. There's a motion to postpone this item for one week. Are there any objections to postponing for one week? Objection
council member durha,
objection council member Scott Benson,
objection council member young,
right? All right, the clerk will note hearing no further objections, The motion passes to postpone for one week to allow for the responses to member calloway's question. All right. Thank you. We will now go to line item if there are no objections, is to allow our EPD representatives here
this line item,
16 point 18, Madam Clerk, okay, 16 point 18, the MOU for the Detroit command Officers Association, New Britain tenants and Detroit Police Officers Association, Madam Clerk. Council member
Johnson, a resolution line item 16, point 18. Council
member Johnson,
motion to discuss. Okay? Any
discussion?
Yes, thank you, Madam President. I'm not sure who was going to discuss the line item 16 point 18.
Okay, Mr. Washington, do we have anyone on for 16 point 18? I
Yes, Madam Chair, if you can give me one moment.
So through the chair, there's actually a request that this item be postponed for one week. There's a seven day waiting period that this item was set for. And there's also an another item related to this that will be an internal ops tomorrow that we would like to be considered with this. But if you would like to hear from representatives today, we can bring this back. I can't have them jump on to the session.
Okay, all right, so there is a seven day waiting period that we have to hear too. So and so there's a motion. Is there a motion to postpone this item for one week? Motion, motion, okay, Hearing no objections. We will postpone 16 point 18 for one week. Okay. All right, thank you.
All right, going back to the top of the agenda for the internal operations Standing Committee under unfinished business. Oh, before we proceed to the agenda, I see director Brown has joined us, and I know you probably have to leave as well. So if you want want to come down and just update us on the letters that were sent out to various residents today, Saturday. Saturday, they were sent out. We were made aware of it this weekend, and today,
good afternoon, sorry to be here under these circumstances. I apologize for the angst that is causing the community and you, I know you're getting a lot of calls. I heard some of them just in a few minutes that I've been here. EPA required DWSD to put out a communications regarding the type of service lines that customers had, and EPA dictated through a template, the language that had to be used, and so we use EPA template, the breakdown is really my fault. I should have recognized that we could have put more context around that template so that people would understand better exactly what was being said, rather than sending out a regulatory correspondence that's on me, I made the decision it was short sighted, and I apologize for doing that. So DWSD is providing the safest, cleanest water in America. Nothing has changed yesterday, a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, I looked at the records 20 years and DWSD has not exceeded the actionable level in testing in 20 years, records that I could find. We certainly didn't do it last year and we haven't done it this year. It's my goal that it won't happen next year. This is the first year that EPA required that letter to go out, but it has to go out every year for 10 years. And so EPA is basically saying that we have to remove all the lead service lines within 10 years, which means we have to do 10% of the lines a year. Now our data facts show that we know we have 80,000 lead service lines. We also know that we have 20,000 that we don't know what they are, and so we make the assumption, until they're verified, that they're led. So that's 100,000 lead service lines to be replaced. We have to do 10,000 a year. We've done 10,000 this year because the Biden administration provided $95 million to jump start the program. Today, I've added $30 million of DWSD bond money because we've spent $100 million that the Biden money is gone, and so we're adding another $30 million of bond money to three contracts to keep moving forward in getting the lines out of the ground. So what caused the angst as soon as you put at the top of the letter the word unknown, and then in the body, anywhere in that body, there's the word lead, you, I should have known, regardless of the regulatory requirement that that needs context around it, and that's what I'm trying to do today. Was out of town over the weekend. I got back Monday morning and had a firestorm in my office. We called a press conference for today to try to clarify what these letters mean. And I'm here in front of you. I know that you haven't had an opportunity to thoroughly read the letters and also read the regulation that required the letter, so I'm more than happy to come back at any time and answer questions after you've had a chance to do that, and I'm prepared to answer questions today, I will have a board of directors meeting tomorrow. There's a water quality community meeting at 130 and a regular board meeting at two, and I intend to go through the same information that I did at the press conference with regards with assuring Detroit is that, again, the water is the safest. There's no crisis going on at DWC. We're not trying to hide something that happened. That's none of that's happened. We haven't changed the thing from the way we operate today, from a year ago, five years ago, 10 years ago, the water is safe.
Thank you. And just to be clear on the entire city of Detroit received a letter the
entire, not only, no, not the entire city 200 approximately 25,000 residents received a letter to 222,000 exactly, received a letter saying we don't know what they're the unknown letter, it's unknown. Okay, so you know how we operate. We go on to a block and we dig up every stop box on that block, and if it's copper, we put the dirt back in, and we do restoration to the grass and fix the sidewalk. We're done if it's led, we replace it right now, we're finding 83% of the time that it is lead, and the lines being replaced several years from now, as we get further into the program and we get into neighborhoods that don't have as many lead service lines that will reverse and we'll start finding more copper than lead. We believe that there are 80,000 let's let service line 20,000 unknowns. That's 100,000 we know that we have 100,000 that are copper. We just don't know which house on that block when we're there, has to copper or until we dig up and verify. An EPA won't allow us to tell the customer what their material is until we've laid eyes on it by digging it up and verify. Now it would cost $60 million to go through the city and dig up every so when we dig it up, we replace it right then and there. To be efficient with the dollars, it would not be cost effective to go through and create an inventory by digging up every bus. You'd really be getting calls if I dug up every front yard of every home in the city of Detroit to verify the material and then didn't do anything about it. So we're doing it the way that is most efficient. We're getting lines out of the ground for $9,300 in Chicago. That's more than 25,000 per line. So we're being very efficient about the way we're doing it. And again, I just want to assure everybody that the water's safe. There's nothing in that letter that would say that we've had some type of incident where water is not safe. Thank you. So
I just wanted to get clarity. So 200 roughly 202 120,000 residents, roughly, received a letter. And because of the uncertainty now of the unknown wording in the document, and people wanting to know the status of lid, I just want to kind of make sure that there is an educational and customer service piece. I'm not sure if you guys are going to do another direct mailing to those individuals that kind of thoroughly explains the process of what D, w, s, d is undertaking right now, or just, you know, upping the customer service to these individuals. Just what is the educational and customer service response to people who are concerned and unsure now of the status of lead, and
we're working through that now. I can tell you that another mailing would be more than $400,000 and so we're looking at the best way to get that done. I and I'll assure you of this, once we've laid out the plan. We will come back to the board this body and make sure you know what it is before we we implement it, but we do intend to go back and re educate customers regarding this issue.
Any additional questions? Council President Pro Tempe,
thank you, Madam. President, uh, good afternoon, Director Brown, and love you to life, man, but this one, this one caught me off guard, and I'm I'm surprised that you'd allow this one to happen like this, in this way, knowing the seat that you sat in over here, and knowing the the job that you do over there, to get these calls and get caught off guard and people asking me questions, and now I look foolish as a council member, not knowing about these letters going out in my district or other districts. Not a good feeling at all. Didn't know about the press conference happening today. You and I, we talked this morning. Yeah. So nothing I'm saying now is is foreign to you, but very disappointed at how it was was rolled out, because it does lead to a lot of questions. I mean, we heard folks who are calling in today saying this, this is a flint crisis happening in Detroit, and as much as we know, I mean, I think part of the reason why it took a while for it to really circulate is it was sent, I think, just in a normal looking letter. And some folks probably have them sitting at home right now, and they're going to be opening them up soon. Have not seen the press conference. Won't Pay attention. So I think there has to be a a immediate response, not one that we've got to wait until. I mean, outside of a press conference, social media, we've seen the information on social media. I would expect our media services team, or whoever you're going to work with, to really get hopping on this thing, like ASAP, showing what the letter looks like, breaking down the what it really means, but then also explaining what this EPA mandate is. Because I haven't seen it, no one has seen it, it'd be helpful to actually see this mandate that comes out. And then I got a couple of other questions about just, just numbers themselves. So
again, I apologize for putting you in this situation. You're right. I know better. I absolutely know better. So it's a mistake of the heart and not the head, and we won't do it again.
So just again, how aggressive are we talking about? And yeah,
I've already signed off on four pieces of information that are putting on that are being put on social media right now, before I came up, I told them to to put it out there, and we're going to come up with a full court press to get the information out. Most of the information is coming in that we're getting. The complaints are coming in from social media next door, Facebook. Surprisingly, I hadn't gotten one call from the local news media. It's still early, as you indicated. I got home on Monday and asked my wife, did we get a letter from DWSD? And she said, Yeah, we got one. It's looks official. It's over there on the on the counter. You should take a look at take a look at it. Okay, so I realized that others haven't even opened the letter yet, and and we're trying to get out in front of it as best we can, and I will come back or send you a correspondence on all of the things that we're doing. And we've got the mayor's office involved with their communication team, certainly Brian has got, we've got our own communication team, and we've talked to some outside consultants that we're working with to also help us clear up this misunderstanding.
Well, yeah, I would certainly appreciate an update next week. Yes, since it's been rolled out, no, it will be by Friday. The conversation today, we last week. I mean, next week will be our final meeting. Yeah. So we want to make sure that, as folks are going out and about their holiday season, that they are at ease as best as possible, at least as informed as possible. Let me put it that way, and then want to see what we can do to also help communicate that information. So it's not just in this place, that place, but all hands on deck. Because the last thing we need if in fact, what you're saying is, in fact, true, that there's no change, no issue. We want to make sure that people feel that way and have all the information so they can pass it on to their grandmother and others who are preparing food for their relatives. They're saying that this is going to be one of the most busiest Thanksgiving travel day ever. So a lot of folks are moving and getting out and about. We just got to make sure that we do a full court press on,
yeah, we have several people monitoring social media. We'll put together all the frequently asked questions, and we'll put together talking points for you with regards to all of the issues that are coming in. Okay?
And director, you indicated that there were 222,000 then you said, families. Are we talking homes or fam or people? I'm
talking I'm talking homes addresses. And when I say 222,000 that's just the one letter that went out saying the material was unknown. There were 1000s of other letters that went out that said it was either galvanized or or we know that it's LED. So there are three letters that were required by EPA, one regarding galvanized, which we have a very small amount, 120 out of 300,000 that we know of. And then the ones that we know are LED. Remember when our when our field service technicians are inside homes putting in a meter, they're documenting whether or not it's led or not. So we know homes that have led. We've sent those customers saying, We know you have lead. And then there's the 220 2000 that are unknown. So there are more than 225,000 letters that went out to households, not to people. So again, I give and businesses and businesses and daycare centers
and the like. That gives us, again another opportunity to educate folks, because now another element is added, being added into so there are folks who did receive letters that indicate that they do have lead service lines they may look at. You know, the communication that says we're not certain if to not apply to them. I mean, so I think it's all encompassing. I think we also include how many of those letters went out, the ones that we officially knew.
I want to say close to 10,000 All right, so that we know are LED. And that's a very specific we give them the things that they need to do in order to make sure that their their family, is protected.
And that's so we look at those letters that we just described, those who know that they have lead service lines. We're not certain the 10,000 and the 222,000 what percentage is that
of all of our households, 300,000 would be total. So 300 300,000 of these accounts? Yes,
okay, so pretty significant amount. It is alright. So yeah, looking for that.
Get it to you by Friday. I promise nothing else on our higher priority at DWC than everybody working on this.
Okay, alright. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you pro time. Alright. Thank Thank you. Director Brown, for being here. Yes, I didn't see it. Member Johnson,
thank you, Madam President. So I was one of the 222,000 who received the letter, and I did read it, but I had a constituent text me and was very alarmed by it. Then I received and read the letter, and then yesterday, at my monthly community meeting, I had several people ask me about the quality of the water. So I think the most alarming part of the letter, and I'm not sure if the EPA dictated what was in the content of the letter, so the most alarming part was discouraging people from using hot water and instead to utilize cold water. And of course, we all bathe in hot water. And yeah,
it should be clear we're asking you not to cook or to drink from the hot water tab. It's fine. I know what the letter says, but that's the requirement that he when we ask you to boil water is to kill bacteria. It does. It has an opposite effect on lead. It exasperates the problem. So we don't want you to use your hot water to drink or cook with. We want you to use the cold water tap in case there's particles that have gotten in there. But I again, the letter doesn't have the context that's required. And that's that's where we fell down regulatory we met all regulatory requirements that EPA wanted, but we I should have known better, that we have to put more context around for our customer base to be able to understand what really is being said. And so
have has DWSD done any testing of
absolutely, absolutely, and we know that we're below the actionable level as we have been for the last 20 years.
And are you sharing that information so that people know? Yeah, I,
I had, I mean, we put out every June, we put out a huge booklet on water quality that shares all of that information. I'll make sure that you get a copy of it. Then the next one will come out in June 25 and it'll have the latest results that will receive from EPA and Egle in December,
and that comes
in the bill? No, it comes in a booklet. It's a full color booklet called water quality. It says 2023, water quality. Every household gets that booklet. That's what I'm a little surprised that people, some people are acting as if they've never heard that we have had issues in the city of Detroit with regards to that service line, but the water is safe,
okay? I think to put everything in context, though, we also have to remember that the Great Lakes Water Authority put out a couple of letters earlier this year that talked about needing to treat the water more or greater because of the chemicals or contaminants that, yes, they are in the water.
There are, there are several cities around the city of Detroit that are above the actionable level, and the Great Lakes Water Authority is going to boost the also phosphate that protects the lines, and they've already done that. They've added more it's safe to do it, and they're hoping to add a higher level of protection for all of its customers, Detroiters, as well as some of the cities that are outside the city of Detroit, that are hitting the actionable level,
all right? And my final question is, relative to replacing the line, so I know you indicated that you gotten to the 10,000 lines plus this year. Can you share with us? Not now, but just how you plan on replacing the lines over the next nine years, I guess. And if you've already identified where you're going next,
yeah, I will. That's that's a $1 billion cost that cannot be passed on to ratepayers. We need support from the federal and state level. This year, we got $100 million from the federal government to do this next year. I've already asked for five grants, 20 million each, 100 million dollars to continue the program for next year. So every year, going forward, when we do our budget, we're going to have to try to identify funding and then make a decision whether you increase rates to raise funding to do this, which I wouldn't recommend doing, or if you can get the money from a federal source. But yes, it's going to be dependent on how much money now I you know, everybody in the industry expects, with the new federal administration that's coming in, that the rules might get changed, and so we just have to stay tuned to understand how EPA I expect it to be downsized to a smaller department, and for regulation, a lot of regulation, to go away, and for the states to be able to manage the lead service line program, as opposed to EPA. But that that speculation, based on what we're hearing from people in the water utility industry, will have to keep an eye on what happens to EPA, and if they rescind the federal lead and copper rule and tell the states to manage the program, and the States right now, they basically say you got to remove all the lines in 20 years. So that's 5% half the amount that you do now. So we'd revert back to the state requirement.
All right,
another quick question before I wrap up. How effective are filters? Extremely
effective, as long as you're using a certified filter that's certified to take, let out and then that's the filter is called an NSP 53 that's the model number of a certified filter that you can use in a picture that will take any lead out of out of the water. NSP 53 All right.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Member Johnson, Council Member durha, thank you, Madam
President. Member Johnson, always, in her infinite wisdom, asked the question that I was going to ask. Got a question from a few residents, particularly at a community meeting last night regarding the filters. Asking of DWSD was going to provide filters, but just wanted to you know, have you answer that, just for their clarification as well. And what I will say to that I had opportunity to view a lead line replacement, which is man just an interesting process to see that dug up, but something that's much needed. And so it is our hope that we can continue to push that forward to make sure that our water is safe for residents, but if you could just address the filters in that letter portion,
I'll be glad to we are providing filters in the neighborhoods in which we're working and disturbing the line. We not only provide filters and cartridges, but instructions on how to use those filters. And so any neighborhood that we're working doing construction on the water line that could shake loose any particles, we're providing a picture, but we're not citywide providing pictures. And thank
you. And through you, Madam President, just one more question. Can you just talk about the process of when these line service replacements come into a neighborhood, the notification to residents again. We got that question last night as well. Yeah, it's
we do a lot of community outreach. Not only do we send letters to the neighborhood, but we have meetings at the black on block clubs before we go in, we go in six weeks ahead of time and start talking to the community about what they could expect. We select the neighborhoods based on the most disadvantaged community that has the most children and seniors. The biggest question I get in in my neighborhood is, when are you when are you coming to our neighborhood? And the answer is probably not for eight or nine years, because we're going into disadvantaged communities first. We're going into communities that have large amounts of kids. We have that data from census tract, we can work with the schools to understand where the kids are, and then, thirdly, we're going into the neighborhoods that also have a dense population of lines, so we can get biggest bang for our buck.
Thank you, and I appreciate your work on that, as well as director Brown, and stand in contact with her. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Madam President,
thank you council member Young. Thank you, Madam
President. I appreciate it good. Good to see you. Unfortunately, I wish it wasn't in this circumstance. Um, I just wanted to ask you, really quickly, I'm reading this and it says that it's an unknown material, that they're assuming that this is lead, but we don't really know what this is. Are there other types of material that could look like lead, but be something else company that's real ominous, quite frankly,
if the house was built before 1945 okay, the mirror, the the material of choice was led, right? That's that's a good indicator. It's not necessarily 100% true, but lead was inexpensive. It was pliable, easy to work with, and that was the material of choice. So it was not was built after 1945 then you it was outlawed, so you won't have lead. Unfortunately, the majority of our housing stock was built before 1945 so we make the assumption that if it were built before 1945 that you have lead, and until we verify visually that we can see both sides of the line. We can't tell the customer whether it's lead or whether it's copper, and therefore we have to say that it's unknown. But we know, when replacing lines, that we have 100,000 copper lines in the city of Detroit, they're not all going to be led, but we just can't say that, because we don't know, we haven't verified it. And
then secondly, I just want to ask, what role does Glee will play in this? Yeah, that's
a good that's a good question. I
heard there's been some discussion this might be a little bit different, but I heard they've had some issues with discharging in St Clair shore in the third place, you know, like sewage and condoms, other stuff, and toilet paper. Does that have any play in terms of what this potentially might be from that
none whatsoever. The publicity that you're talking about is the fight between Candace Miller and Macomb County and Oakland County, and it has to do with sewage, not doesn't have anything to do with the quality of water, other than when you put sewer into the Great Lakes, it it ruins the quality of that water so but it doesn't. They're two distinctly different systems. The water system is separate from the sewer system, and you're you're describing an issue with the sewer system.
So what role does glial play? That's a good question. They
operate both the water treatment plant, which is on East Jefferson, and the wastewater plant that's on West Jefferson, behind the post office. And so they take water out of the river, they clean it, they distribute it to customers Detroit and others, and there is no lead in their system for water to come into contact. None of the distribution lines have any lead. Lead is a two inch pipe and less. That's what was used for lead. Anything bigger than two inches is another material other than lead. And so there's when gleewood distributes water to our distribution system, or to any City's distribution system, at that point, it has has not come into contact with any lead. So
how are we in this systems? Because we're tracking it differently. We're using a different tracking system that's picking this up. Picking this up differently. I mean, because what you're saying, I mean, makes sense. I mean, how are we in this situation where we're getting these letters that are being put out? Well,
you're getting, there's no lead, yeah. EPA is intent was to send out a letter that educates the public with regards to the type of line that they have so that they could take any precautionary measures that they wanted. Unfortunately, the letter was more confusing, and we didn't put context around it to clarify it. But it's as simple as that. It This has nothing to do with the quality of the water. The water is same.
In my last question here, I just wanted to ask, what are we doing in terms of technology, using sensors and other things in our pipes to be able to determine what this type of stuff is, so we can actually be definitive about when letters like this come out, so we can actually respond to what it is. Because, to me, I understand the EPA is doing this and what they're doing, but it's not good enough for us to say that there's something of an unknown servant. This is almost, to me, almost borderline world panic here if what they're saying is not accurate. And so we have a responsibility to give the citizens the truth that's accurate. And obviously the EPA is not going to be doing this. So what kind of technology are we investing in so that we can have a better understanding of what's in our water, so we can respond to these type of things and actually be clear about what's there so we can avoid this type of stuff happening? Yeah, and
again, there is no lead in the water. The water doesn't come into contact with lead until it hits the service line that's going into the home. That's when it comes into contact. And so the way I think about it, and the way I tell my family, most of which lives in Detroit, as well as neighbors that ask, What difference does it whether your line is copper, whether it's galvanized, or whether it's lead? You should be running your water for three to five minutes, because if you've changed out your let your your lead service line and put in a copper line. But your house has galvanized pipes, then you have lead particles in those galvanized pipes, and you want to make sure that you flush them out. So there are steps that can be taken no matter what the material is of your line to protect you and your family, and that's the information we want to get out. Thank you.
Thank you for that. I'm done.
Thank you so much. Director brown for the update. Looking forward to working with you on how we continue to educate and provide the necessary information to residents. Oh,
thank you, and you'll have it by Friday.
I'm sorry, have it by Friday. Okay? All right, thank you. All right, we will proceed now back to our agenda. And Madam Clerk, we were on 16.1
yes, Council Member Johnson, on behalf of Council President Mary Sheffield, an ordinance noting a roll call line item 16.1,
Council Member Johnson,
thank you, Madam President, I moved to take from the table in ordinance to amend chapter 23 of the 2019 Detroit city code, human rights, Article One, generally by amending section 23 dash one, dash two, definitions to define race as inclusive of traits historically associated with race laid on the table November 13, 2024
Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Council member Johnson, I
move the ordinance be placed on the order of third reading and considered read,
Hearing no objections that action will be taken, and just want the public to know that this is the crown act, an ordinance that mirrors the state changes, the laws that were implemented on the state level. I am proud to move this legislation forward and build on the incredible progress made at the state level. As one of the cities with the highest black representation in the country, it is essential that our local laws reflect our unwavering commitment to protecting all residents in a growing and thriving city like ours, workplace discrimination of any kind has no place. I also want to extend my gratitude to the law department for their assistance in developing this ordinance. Together, we are setting a powerful precedent for equity and justice, and again, this is the crown act that will be implemented now on the local level, Hearing no objections that action will be taken. Council member Johnson,
I move the ordinance be passed as submitted. There being a roll call required with
the clerk, please call the roll.
Council member Johnson, yes. Council Member Santiago Romero, yes. Council President Pro Tem Tate Yes. Council member waters Yes. Council member young Yes. Council president Sheffield, yes, Council Member Benson. Council council member durha, yes, seven yeas, That motion passes. Madam President,
all right, the ordinance is approved. Member Johnson,
I move the title to the ordinance be confirmed, Hearing
no objections that action will be taken. And Thank you, colleagues from the Office of contracting and procurement. Council member
Johnson, seven resolutions, line item, 16.2, through 16.8 first up is contract number 6006065, dash a one, 100% opera funding. Amendment One to provide an increase of funds for the right to council, information, materials, contractor, Lakeshore Legal Aid. Total contract amount $252,060 that's for law. Next contract is the resolution for the City Council recess, which will be from Wednesday November 27 through Monday January the sixth of 2025 next contract is contract number 3079127, 100% 100% grant funding to provide Detroit public community district. That's Detroit Public School, madam president community district for the use of their schools for the 2024 primary and general elections. Contractor is Detroit Public Schools. Total contract amount, $201,516.21 cent that's for elections. Next contract is contract number 6002667, dash, 831, 100% city funding. Amendment three, to provide an increase of funds for various election mailing services. Final invoice, contractor, Wolverine Solutions Group, total contract amount $2,468,226.96
cent. That's for elections. Next contract is contract number 6006678, 100% city funding to provide network and voice maintenance services to various city departments. Contractor, groundwork, zero. Total contract amount 5,210,000 that's for do it. Next contract is contract number 6006718, 100% city funding to provide the purchase of net work and voice equipment for various city departments. Contractor, groundwork, zero, total contract amount, 1,250,000 that's for do it. Last contract is contract number 6006158, dash a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for legal services, for litigation involving the MGM Grand Casino tax assessment disputes, contractor, option, rust, LLP, total contract amount, 500,000 that's for law council member Johnson, seven resolutions.
Thank you, Madam Clerk, Okay, we're good to go in here. I know the light went off for the alarm system, but everything is clear to proceed. Council member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President, Move for approval on line item 16.2 through 16.8
right. A motion has been made. Any objections?
Objection on 16.2
okay. If the clerk would know, of course,
I'll note, Madam President,
hearing no further objections. The resolution you had an objection, the seven resolutions will be approved. I
from the law department.
Council member Johnson, eight resolutions, line item 16.9, through 16 point 16. Council
member Johnson,
thank you, Madam President, Move for approval on line item 16.9, through 16, point 16. These are various lawsuit settlement request.
Right, any objections. Hearing, no objections. The eight resolutions will be approved from the office of the city clerk.
Council member Johnson, a resolution. Line item, 16. Point, 17.
Member Johnson, thank you, Madam
President, Move for approval.
All right. Motion has been made. This is a petition for a rock C foundation for a charitable gaming license. Are there any objections? Hearing? No objections. The one resolution will be approved from the Human Resources Department, Labor Relations Division, we skipped 16 point 18, already sorry about that. Moving under resolutions.
Council member Johnson, a resolution line item 16 point 19. Member
Johnson, thank
you, Madam President, Move for approval. This is to reappoint Lewis Moore to the Board of Review representing district seven. Okay,
a motion has been made. Are there any objections? Hearing? No objections. One resolution for the appointment will be approved.
Madam President,
yes. Ma'am,
I'd like to request a waiver for line item 16.4 through 16.7
All right, any objections to a waiver hearing, none waiver will be attached. Madam
President, request a waiver for line item 16 point 19. Waiver
has been requested for 16 point 19. This is the appointment for district seven property assessment Board of Review, represented, representative. Any objections, hearing, none. Waiver will be attached to that item, moving to under unfinished business for the Planning and Economic Development standing committee.
Council President, pro tem James Tate, in ordinance, noting a roll call nine, item 17.1, also noted that this line item was postponed from last week formal session.
Pro Temp Tate,
thank you. Madam President, again, as mentioned by the clerks, Madam Clerk, that this item was postponed last week. We did move the ordinance and replace the order on or order of third reading last week. And
with that, we
have said, Madam President, I move that the ordinance be passed as submitted for those who are watching and may not have a document in front of them. This is concerning, the amendment to expand the permissibility of child care centers, family day care homes and group day care homes that we discussed over the last number of
weeks. I know last week, member dura, you had proposed amendments. Are you moving forward with those at this time, thank
you, Madam President. We did not propose amendments, but we were
the fire alarm at this time. Thank you.
Thank you.
Member, durha, thank you, Madam
President, that time it was impeccable, so we were having discussions with law, as well as our office, with other offices, of what the desire would be to be able to make an amendment that allows for by right. After conversations with some folks, have you seen today, black family development, a lot of other stakeholders, daycare providers in the community, a lot of them have been coming down here and wanting to see this and have the ability to open up by right, but there is other conversation on the other side of the debate in our historical neighborhoods, and folks want the opportunity to weigh in. And so it seems as if we are at an impasse, relative to pushing it forward for by right, although I will stay on the record, I do support by Right, I've given my take on it based off of experience, particularly at the birth of my son, when we were looking for child care in the city of Detroit, and some of the bigger child care providers had extensive waiting lists, and so I can only imagine, if you are a single parent who may even have problems with transportation, and there is no child daycare, daycare facility within the vicinity of your residence, the barrier that it provides to access for childcare. And so I'm happy to make that amendment, but I do not want to make that amendment if it's not going to be support for that. We have had conversations with the law department as well, particularly asking the conversation, or engaging in the conversation of what it would look like if we presented a carve out for particular historical areas or historical districts in the city of Detroit, which generally seem to be more in opposition of by right. Use my concern is always we do want neighborhoods to have voices. We want constituents to have voices, but we also want folks to have the resources that they need. And so I'm not going to make this amendment at this time, although I would support something in that vein, because I do truly believe that it's needed. If we we say that a person has to wait an entire year to open up and then they become, you know, have the access to Dubai, right? We see less opportunity for child, daycare homes, group homes, to come and provide that much needed resource. And so that is where I am with that. I did want to put that on the record and state that. And other than that, if there's any other discussion relative to that, Madam President, that's all I have. Thank you.
Great. Thank you so much. Member durha. Member Benson,
thank you, and I appreciate member durhall for not making that motion to change today. We have the third district had this conversation, and we've been here with the practitioners, with the professionals in this space for over a year now. We've been working with the Office of Early Learning. We've been having conversations with CPC, as well as CPC staff, about what it means, and as an urban planner, about taking the right away and the voice of way from homeowners in our low density residential neighborhoods. We've also heard that there is a child care desert, but when we have the conversation with child care practitioners in the third district, they have seats available. They're asking and hoping to get some type of support from the city, the way that they see in Macomb County to help fill those seats. So what has been presented by the administration is not the experience that we're seeing in the third district. In addition, we've had this conversation well over a year. The practitioners have asked we've sat down with the Office of Early Learning. We brought in Detroit at work to help the practitioners identify human capital to support them on the biggest issues in this space is it's hard to find people, and the revenue that you're able to generate makes it almost impossible to pay people at a living wage to keep talent. And so one of the Ask was to the Office of Early Learning and to Detroit at work. Please help us identify resources for our practitioners, for those existing daycare centers in our neighborhoods, and what we've heard is crickets. Unfortunately, there's an ass to go by, right? But I believe that should be precluded by a support and some type of resources being provided to those, those providers in the neighborhoods. Now, it is critical that if we're going to open up additional resources, we if we make it easier for people to come into that space, then we really need to make sure that we are supporting the existing businesses that are there. And I support further conversation in the future, but I support what's on the table now this comes after well over a year of conversation in which we were all I thought at one time, agreed that we would have this modification where where larger, more intense home daycare centers would be conditional, but the smaller, less intensive would be by right in our residential neighborhoods, and we're opening up root daycare centers into our business districts as well as the by right residential so I believe we have a great compromise on the table that's been negotiated for well over a year, what we did here, and we have mister Todd on the on the line, and he can speak to what the conversations were like and what the group, the community engagement, was like during this entire conversation, when it was at the CPC level, about how this has been engaged and how communities have responded. And for me, having the right to at least know who's coming next door to me is critical, but removing that right from me is also, for me, as an urban planner, just not good policy. And I do want to see us support our families, but I also want to make sure that when I buy into a low density neighborhood, you're not able to buy right open a business that could operate for 23 hours and 59 minutes without any regulation or saved by the city of Detroit. I just really think we need to have a voice for our residents when it comes to what opens and what businesses are allowed to open next door to us in our neighborhoods. Thank you.
All right. Thank
you council member Durham,
thank you, Madam President, and I want to state that that doesn't necessarily mean the next few months I will not follow up and maybe work to make an amendment. If this is passed today, what I will state, and I always respect the opinion of my great colleague from the third district. That is not the case in district seven. And so while there may be opportunity and may why, while there may be a number of options in District Three, it is difficult for someone to drive all the way from Franklin Park all the way to East seven mile when we talk about transportation needs here in the city, particularly from folks who are struggling To be able to find daycare, and by the way, daycare that is affordable. As you know member Benson, we often have conversations about our own children and the cost of what daycare is, and the average individual is paying close to $2,000 a month per child for daycare. And you add that up to issues as we talk about affordable housing, you add that up to issues relative to the rising cost of our economy, and to state that we want to not create an environment that allows them to thrive, is beyond me, and I'm not saying you're stating that, because I want to state that for the record. I do think you are right. I think we need to also work on the other end and talk about how we provide greater resources for our families here in the city of Detroit, particularly those who have smaller children. And so it is a and it's very split. I was at a community organization meeting last night, a historical organization who did not have a problem, particularly with by right, but that is not the case for every neighborhood. That is not the case for everyone or in some, as you say, low density neighborhoods, and so how we do that right now? I don't think we have the entire answer to that question, but I do look forward to working with my colleagues, if this is the past today on how we provide that, that relief, because, again, we want to support already what's in existence. I think that is very important. But we also want to have the ability again, because I know many families, many families, and this is not 5060, years ago where grandma could watch the children. Let's just be frank, Grandma is now working at the Walmart based off of the economy that need that relief, and so I look forward to having those further discussions with my colleagues and even the neighborhoods, even with our residents of what they want to see, and maybe we find a way to craft a piece of legislation that works for everybody. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you. Council Member durhau, Council Member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President. I just want to say that I support what member Benson shared the group daycare homes being supported on a conditional basis. It has been articulated numerous times that there have not been any group daycare homes, or, I'm not sure if it was family daycare facilities that has been that have been opposed by residents in the community. And so if we have it as a conditional use, presumably that will continue to happen. But I think it's important to give residents the opportunity to weigh in, to know what is potentially coming next door to them, and if there's a need in the community, I think they will be supported. And so I think it's, I don't want to say it's a no brainer, but I just want to make sure that I am supportive of individuals or households being able to weigh in on the conversation, to know beforehand what will potentially come next door, across the street to them, and I think they can provide all of the community dynamics that relate to traffic to safety in the area, and can provide that information into the conversation as the community decides or supports moving this forward in their respective area. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
Thank you so much. Member Johnson, and just a quick question to Director Todd, and I support the the ordinance as is as well. But just there was a there was a comment made, just in general, around this, changing it to buy right around timing, and that the buy right essentially will allow these to proceed in a faster pace. So can you just speak on how roughly the timing is for the conditional route having to go before zoning like what the time frame would be compared to that of a by right. Just curious. Good
afternoon, Madam President and members of council in response to your question, Madam President, I believe that depending upon the overall workload that Building and Safety Engineering is facing. You're looking at maybe three to four months in order to process a special land use hearing, to have the petitioner provide the necessary information, and for the department to then go through the process with respect to the by right use, again, in theory, if everything is in place, the necessary instructions, inspections and authorization corresponding authorizations have been granted by the State, getting securing a permit, will take less than half that time could typically again, depending upon workload and the availability and accuracy of information submitted could be completed within a month's time for by right applicant. And again, based upon, you know, particular circumstances and extenuating circumstances, it could take longer in both under both scenarios by right or land use the the bigger question and concern that the Office of Early Learning was trying to address again was the cost associated with going the route of the SLU where they have to pay again in excess of $1,000 in order to go to fund the hearing and the research, the mailings, the the public engagement that's associated with it.
Okay, all right.
Thank you. All right. Member Benson, anything additional, I think we have moved this forward. Okay? Pro Tem, you started off. What did you leave off? I'm sorry that's a minute passed as submitted. Okay, so now there being a roll call required. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll
Sure? Council Member Santiago Romero, yes. Council President Pro Tem Tate,
yes.
Council member waters, yes. Council member young Yes. Council President, Sheffield, yes. Council member Benson, yes, Council Member durhau,
yes.
Council member Johnson, no, seven yeas and one no, that motion passes. Madam President,
all right, that ordinance is approved. Pro Temp Tate. Madam
President, I move that the title of the ordinance be confirmed, Hearing no
objections that action will be taken request a waiver line of 17.1 right, any objections to a waiver objection, all right. That motion does fail, and we will proceed to 17.3 we already taken up 17.2 from the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority
Council President, pro tem James Tate, two resolutions. Line item 17.3 and 17.4 Pro Tem Tate, Madam
President, I move approval. Line Items 17.3 and 17.4 please.
Any objections. Hearing no objections. The two resolutions will be approved from the Office of contracting and procurement
council president pro tem James Tate, five resolutions. Line item 17.5, through 17.91 point nine. First up is contract number 6004890, dash, a one, 100% CDBG funding Amendment One to provide an extension of time for green stormwater infrastructure plan services for the greater court town neighborhood contractor orchid hills and McClement Incorporated, doing business as Oh M advisors. Total contract amount, $300,225.02 cent. That's for planning and development. Next contract is contract number 6005979, dash a one, 100% grant funding. Amendment One to provide an extension of time for community homeless support contracted, community and home supporters Incorporated. Total contract amount, $307,106.48 cent. That's for housing and revitalization. Next contract is contract number 6006747, 100% city funding to provide drop in shelter services for those experiencing homelessness. Contractor cast community Social Services Incorporated total contract amount 3,500,000 that's for housing and revitalization. Next contract is contract number 6006783, 100% three, 100% city funding to provide camp navigation system services to support those experiencing homelessness. Contractor community and home supports incorporated total contract amount 200,000 that's for housing and revitalization. Last contract is contract number 6004781, dash, a one, 100% ARPA funding Amendment One, to provide an extension of time to continue the tenant relocation services to offer tenant engagement and relocation services to support residents and multi family affordable housing developments and transition in their housing status contracted. United Community Housing Coalition. Total contract amount, 300,000 that's for housing and revitalization. Council President, pro tem James Tate, five resolutions,
right? Thank you. Pro Tim Tate, Madam
President, I move approval of line items, 17.5 through 17.9
right? Any objections to the resolutions? Hearing, no objections. The five resolutions will be approved. President, yes, the
request for waiver, online items, 17.5 and 17.7
any objections? All right, Hearing no objections that action will be taken from the housing and revitalization department.
Council President, pro tem James Tate, a resolution, line item 17 point 10.
Pro Temp Tate president,
move approval of line item 17 point 10.
Right motion has been made. This is a sub grant agreement with the city of Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority to eliminate blight using funds accepted from the State Land Bank Authority Hearing no objections. One resolution will be approved. I The Planning and Development Department.
Council President Pro Tem James Tate, four resolutions. Line item 1711, through 17 point 14.
Pro Temp Tate, president
I move approval. Line items 17 point 11 through 17 point 14, please.
All right, a motion has been made, and these are various property sales within the city of Detroit. Are there any objections to any of the resolutions? Hearing? No objections before resolutions will be approved.
Present, yes. Proton, of course, for a waiver online item 17 point 11, please,
Hearing no objections, a waiver will be attached to 17 point 11, moving to the public health and safety standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement
Council Member Santiago Romero, 22 resolutions, nine items 18.1 through 18. Point 22 noting that line items 18.4 18.1 through 18.4 will postpone from last week formal session. And also noting that line items 18.5 through 18.8 Madam President, should all read from the health department those corrected resolutions has been submitted to the court the clerk office. First up is contract number 6005787, dash a one, 100% ARPA funding Amendment One to provide an increase of funds for additional basements that were not shown on the survey services include additional concrete removal and disposal and additional stone to complete the backfield for commercial structures. Group 217, contractor, Adamo demolition company, total contract amount, $1,632,710.33 cent. That's construction and demolition. Next contract, Contract Number 6005655, dash a one, 100% opera Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for additional abatement of asbestos material for structure in group 213, contractor, home rich, wrecking Incorporated, doing business as home rich total contract amount, $4,298,570.62 cent. That's construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6006704, 100% city funding to provide maintenance and repair services to dodge fountain contractor, the water works. Water guard, Incorporated doing business as fountains by water works. Total contract amount 735,000 that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6005405, dash a one, 100% opera funding, Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for additional abatement of abestos, material for structure in group 204, contractor, common, rich wrecking, Incorporated, doing business as hemridge. Total contract amount, $3,442,369.82 cent. That's for construction and demolition. Next, contract line item, 18.5, Contract Number 6005401, dash, a two, 100% ARPA funding amendment two to provide an increase of funds for services to reduce violent crime in the city of Detroit through community violence intervention, CBI tactics, contractor Detroit friends and family total contract amount, 1,575,000 that's for health. Next contract is contract number 6005402, dash, a two, 100% ARPA funding, amendment two, to amend contract terms and condition for services to reduce violent crime in the city of Detroit through community violence intervention, CVI tactics, contractor, Detroit People's Community total contract amount, 1,400,000 that's for health. Next contract is contract number 6005412, dash, a two, 100% ARPA funding amendment two, to provide an increase of funds for services to reduce violent crime in the city of Detroit through community violence intervention, CBI tactics. Contractor, New Era community connection. Total contract amount, 1,525,000 that's for health. Next contract is contract number 6005413, dash, eight to 100% ARPA funding, amendment two, to provide an increase of funds for services to reduce violent crime in the city of Detroit through community violence intervention, CBI tactics, contractor force Detroit. Total contract amount, 1,925,000 that's for health next. Contract nine. Item 18.9 contract number 6002743, dash, a one, 100% fund city funding. Amendment One, to provide an extension of time and an increase of funds for a web based workflow solution for processing customer plans and drawings within the BC department, contractor, evolve software Corporation. Total contract amount, $695,535.63 cent. That's for BC. Next contract is contract number 3072869, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for residential property, three, 875, West Kirby building 102, contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract, amount, $32,777, that's for construction and demolition. Next contract, contract number 3073169, 100% city funding to provide emergency demolition for residential property. 22537, Santa Maria, contractor DMC consult is incorporated. Total contract amount $26,350, that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 3077581, 100% city funding to provide an emergency demolition for residential property. 12075, will Shire contractor DMC consultant incorporated total contract amount $21,750, that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6006715, 100% capital funding to provide design, build services necessary for renovations at the Detroit Department of Elections located at 2978, West Grand Boulevard. Contractor is De Angelis diamond construction LLC. Total contract amount, $4,611,190 that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6006728, 100% blight remediation funding to provide services to support the city's blight removal efforts through minor construction debris related and other general services. Contractor 18, snow and ice control, LLC, total contract amount 350,000 that's for construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6006729, 100% blight remediation funding to provide services to support the city's blight removal efforts through minor construction debris related and other general services. Contractor Detroit grounds crew, LLC, total contract amount 350,000 that's for construction and demolition. Next contract number 6006730, 100% blight remediation funding to provide services to support the city's blight removal efforts through mining, construction, debris related and other general services. Contractor, I'm rich, wrecking Incorporated, doing business as home. Rich. Total contract amount 350,000 that's for construction. And demolition. Next contract line item 18, point 17. Contract number 6006793, 100% city funding to provide the administration of both psychological evaluations and Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement standards, which is imposed reading and writing test for DPD candidates. Contractor tailor G LLC, total contract amount 110,000 that's for police. Next contract is contract number 3078765, 100% city funding to provide training equipment for police department contractor CMP distributors incorporated total contract amount $29,028.50 cent that's for police next contract, Contract Number 6006680, 100% city funding to provide base uniforms and leather gear for the Detroit Police Department contractor, gals LLC, total contract amount 440,000 that's for police. Next contract is contract number 6005399, dash a one, 100% general obligation bond funding, Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for roadway reconstruction. EB PW dash 7047 Eliza Hall Park contractor is major contracting group, Incorporated, total contract amount $4,010,646.06 cent. That's for public works.
