Good morning, the formal session for Tuesday, April, the first will come to order, Madam Clerk, please call the roll.
Council member Scott Benson. Scott Benson, I, Council Member Fred durha The third. Present council member Letitia Johnson, present council member Gabriella Santiago Romero, present council member Mary waters,
Council Member Angela Whitfield Callaway
council member Coleman, a young a second.
Council President, pro tem, James Tate. Council President, Mary Sheffield, present. Madam President, you have a quorum.
Alright. There being a quorum present. We are in session. Member waters indicated that she would be running behind this morning as well, if the clerk would note, clerk was so note. Madam President, and we will start off with our invocation we have joining us, Reverend Doctor Yvette Griffin of Pilgrim Baptist Church, who is joining us virtually, good morning. Good morning.
This is the day that the Lord has made, and we ought to rejoice and be glad in it. Let us pray. Father, God, Eternal God, Lord over heaven and earth. First, we want to thank you for waking us up this morning, because you didn't have to do it, but you did. We realized that so many people did not wake up this morning, but you allowed us to wake up. And we want to thank you, Lord. We're asking you to invoke your Holy Spirit and presence into this April 1, 2025, Detroit city council meeting. We're asking you to invoke your holy spirit throughout the physical building on the corner of Woodward and Jefferson, each and every office space, meetings rooms where these leaders and staff work and our citizens visit, where the mayor and the president of the city council lead, Lord, invoke your holy spirit throughout this city, the neighborhoods, the block clubs, business throughout social media. We need your presence, Lord, to anoint each council leader, no matter the district or at large, and their staff who represent your people, who were elected by your people. Now, Lord, we're seeking your guidance and your blessing on today at this meeting on any decisions that are being made by our leaders that will affect your people. Father, God, we ask you to anoint President Sheffield from the top of her head to the soles of her feet as she continues to lead by your authority that no weapon formed against her shall prosper. Every step she will take, every step she will make, will be in your power and your might. We're asking all of these blessings in the mighty name of Jesus, the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star, the Rose of Sharon, amen amen and amen amen.
Thank you so much. We appreciate that prayer. Uh, Reverend Doctor Griffin, thank you for joining us. And feel free to hang on virtually as long as you would like, and if you have to jump off, we do understand, but God bless you, and thank you so much for joining us. Bless you as well. Bless you. Alright, if the clerk would know, we've been joined by member Callaway as well, and we will start off with council member Calloway actually with the presentation and the floor is yours. Member Callaway, for those who are wishing to make public comment, please make sure you raise your hand at this time. Those who are joining us virtually as well, we will cut off our public comment after our first presentation. Member Callaway, Good
morning, Madam Chair, and thank you so much. Thank you. And good morning everyone. I could just have la trail McNary just to stand and so I can see where she is with her family. Is your family here with you, if they can stand with you, if they're able to stand, if not, if they could just wave. I just want to see where you all are. Okay? All right, thank you. Thank you so much. And good morning. Detroit City Council testimonial resolution Latrell D McNary, whereas la trail McNary is a dedicated corporal with the Detroit Police Department proudly serving her community for 25 years. Her career began with a few years on patrol, followed by an impressive 17 years in the crime scene unit. She is currently assigned to the National Integrated ballistic information network unit where she specializes in test firing, recovered and confiscated firearms and analyzing shell casings for ballistic comparisons. And whereas Latrell D McNary is highly educated, holding an associate's degree in Applied Science, a dual bachelor's degree in mortuary science and chemistry and a master's degree in criminal justice. She brings her sharp analytical skills and her compassionate nature to every endeavor. And whereas Latrell D McNary is a kind and humbled individual with a heart for service, she organizes annual free school supply and grocery giveaways, collaborating with local businesses and The Gleaners Community Food Bank to support families in need. And whereas Latrell D McNary is the co owner of Superbad boxing gym and the manager of world boxing champion Tony super bad Harrison, as well as newly announced professional boxer Lance Boogie Smith as Michigan's only African American female boxing promoter, she has broken barriers and built opportunities for aspiring athletes. Her work with her nephew Toni Harrison includes creating a boxing program that nurtures young talent and whereas Latrell D McNary family is her greatest inspiration, she is a loving daughter, sister, wife and mother, creating, crediting her parents as her biggest supporters, and they are here with us today. She is a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated and the order of the Eastern Star, embodying the principles of sisterhood and service. In addition, she serves as the president of a nonprofit, Royal riders Incorporated, amplifying her impact within her community. Now, therefore be it resolved. Councilwoman Angela Whitfield Calloway, and the entire Detroit City Council and all Detroiters hereby celebrate you. Latrell D McNary, we celebrate and honor you for your contributions to our beloved Detroit. God bless you and thank you. And we have this award for you with the with the gold seal signed by myself and my eight colleagues, and on the reverse side, we have the Spirit of Detroit lapel pin for you. Latrell D McNary,
I do believe Madam Chair, if you could come forward, Miss McNary, and if you're if your family wanted to join you, maybe one or two of them, you can come right to the center seat. And this young lady is going to tell you, show you where to sit.
Tony,
you guys is an honor. Thank you. Good morning. I met Councilwoman Callaway, and it was we were giving away turkeys, and I was just thinking it was just something normal. This is, this is just what I do. I've been doing giveaways since 2008 and no one has never said anything. And just to meet her and just say, You know what, give your spirit Detroit. And I'm like, I'm a Spirit of Detroit, you know. But I am grateful. I am humbled to be here, and it's an honor to see you Mr. Tate and from Yes, yes. So thank you. And Miss Sheffield, I look forward to you as well. So thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. I bless you.
Madam Chair, what just I want to say? Congratulations, and you mentioned Tony Harrison is your nephew, your nephew, and I've worked with him a lot in the community. So just thank you for all you all do a great family. And like I said, I know Tony very well has given back and worked with us in a lot of youth events in the city. So I guess it comes to show that your whole family does a lot in the community. So such an honor to recognize you today and keep up the amazing work that you're doing. Thank you. Yes, yes, thank you. All right. Well, we appreciate you. Member Calvin, anything additional? Um,
no, um, thank you, Madam Chair. Miss McNary, it was a wonderful opportunity when I met you when we were passing out turkeys. You do it all the time. You all had it all set up. You're so organized. And I just get I got in with our where I wherever I could fit in. So I thank you for the opportunity just to get in there and fall in line and just passing out the turkeys. They told me what to do, told me where to stand, and it was wonderful. And you had it all organized, because I didn't know you have been doing it since 2008 that whole community, that line was wrapped around that whole block. Now, what street were we on?
We were on Puritan at the corner of Wisconsin. I grew up on Puritan. So everything I do starts there.
Everything you do starts where you were raised. Yes, ma'am,
I expand and go out throughout the city, but Puritan is my baby, so that's I start there. It
was wonderful, and that, well, how did you get into boxing? And then I know we're going to take a picture with you, but I'm just curious, because I've never seen a woman like manage, or, you know, take the lead in this, in this area. That young man right there,
exactly Tony.
He started boxing at six, but he was eight, and said he's going to be a world champion. And he he stood on that and he's a two time world champion. Yes, he is,
he he's, this is amazing. So I'm not going to forget you. I'm not that's not going to be my first and last time over there, because you need resources. You need help over there. And I saw what I saw, and we can talk about it later, but I saw what I saw, yes, and I went in through the building. I walked through it. I looked up, I looked down, I looked all around. And Madam Chair, my colleagues, they need help. Yes, they need resources. And doing some amazing things with young people, our young people, the city's young people. They're keeping young people alive. They're keeping young people in that community. I don't know if you all know where that is, but you know, to have a safe haven. It's like a library. They can go over there and relax and still train, but they need resources. So I'm hoping we can help you out. That's what we're here to do, is to help out businesses like not businesses, but organizations like yours, to give back to the community where you were raised. And so thank you. That neighborhood is a testament to your dedication to that community and those folks over there. They need us, and we need them, and we're not going to forget you. Thank you.
Thank you.
Take a picture manager, we can all come up for it, and we'll do a group photo with you all, okay, yes,
which way You want me to come on. Can take a
step. You can do it. Your dad. Listen, yes, my mom and your mom and dad, they've been they don't move without one another. That's that. Know
I agree with your initial position. Okay?
Thank you.
It's a you perfect. Yeah,
we just scoot on in on this side a little bit more.
Yep, it's a little bit tighter, If you can, you
said, 70s, alright,
oh yeah, alright. Everybody at this camera right here. Big smiles. Everybody, yep, signed up a little more. Thank you. Perfect. Three, two and one. Let's do one more. Three, two and one, and then you gotta be quick. I got mine.
Are you good? Sir? Good. Cool.
Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank You.
There. Congratulations and
bag, oh, you okay, you too now, alright, thank you again. Member Calloway for that presentation, and we so appreciate you all. Thank you so much. Yep, yep. All right, we will proceed now to the global ties Detroit presentation. Those who are with us today, please join us at the table.
Global ties Detroit,
we're going to cut off our general public comment as well,
and we have a PowerPoint to share. Okay?
Have music. Thank you so much. Well, first of all, good morning. Thank you so much to the city council for inviting us to speak today. We really appreciate it. My name is Marion Reich, the president of Global ties Detroit, and I have two colleagues with me. This is Brianna Ramsey. Brianna is our communications manager. And then in the back we have also Laura Klein, who also helped. And I should say, Brianna there's Laura. Brianna did a great job putting together this presentation. So I wanted to take this opportunity to share a little bit about global ties and why it's so important right now in this moment in time. And we wanted to make the council aware of our work and really ask for your help and the communities you serve, their help and their connections to work together to really promote our city and our region around the world. So next slide please. So global ties. Detroit was founded back in 1972 and we're part of a national network that works with the US Department of State to host emerging leaders, cultural and Youth Leadership exchanges for professionals and entrepreneurs and youth from more than 100 countries across the globe. Some exchanges just last a few days here in Detroit, but others are a month long, or several months long, and our job is to welcome these international emerging leaders to Detroit and provide People to People connections. We call that citizen diplomacy. As you can see from the PowerPoint, one of our goals is really to highlight Detroit as a center of global commerce and cultures.
Next slide, please.
So just a quick snapshot about 2024 we hosted 630 global leaders and youth and fellowships. We're from more than 123 countries through 52 different programs. In our annual report, on our website, we list the the hundreds of organizations throughout the city and region that we connect with for these visiting leaders, we had 667 Detroit diplomats, meaning people who engaged with our our delegations. And these really made unlimited connections. And we do a variety of topics to really promote our region and to connect people. So you can see that we can do economic development, entrepreneurship, quite a number of different topics. And we take the visitors throughout the city. Oftentimes, when delegations find out they're coming to Detroit, they are apprehensive, and then they leave truly being transformed and becoming ambassadors for Detroit, really around the world. Next slide, please. So when we say global leaders, we're literal. We mean global leaders. They can be in any industry. You know, we've had hip hop artists, we've had environmentalists, we've had scientists, we've had politicians. And some of the programs, some of the alumni from the programs, we happen to pick three really distinguished leaders who had come on the IVLP program, which is the International physical Leadership Program, which is one of the programs we do. And you can see that Indira Gandhi came, Joyce Banda came, and Justin Arden came. They came five, 610, years before they were heads of state, people like Tony, Blair, Nicholas, Sarkozy, our State Department, since we're partners with the State Department, they are finding these visitors and, you know, emerging leaders from around the world, and sending them on these study tours here in the United States. Next slide please. So as hosts, we want to ensure these visitors have really meaningful experiences in Detroit, real experience, no filters. Nobody from the State Department is coming with these groups. They are experiencing Detroit and connecting with Detroiters directly. When delegation comes to town. We like to work with each one of you and your businesses, nonprofits, community groups in your district and in your network to connect the delegations and Detroiters. So we just you know, throughout the presentation, are sharing photos of just some of the wonderful places and connections that we made. I just wanted to mention so with bass blue, we had a fellow from Tunisia who worked at glass blue for a month, we had young women from Latin America who job shadowed at the Henry Ford Health Clinic. What was so exciting was one of the women who worked at Henry Ford Health was from Suriname, and her fellow was from Suriname. It was just a really incredible connection. Next slide, please. This is not just a feel good program. It's also economic. So for every dollar that global ties Detroit receives, mostly from the government, we can turn it into $11 in economic impact that's through hotels, that's through restaurants, that's through shopping, that's through sporting and and museums. So we really feel like it's a it's a benefit to the city economically as well as culturally. Sharing the just sharing what is so wonderfully surprising about Detroit. Next slide, please. So just I wanted to give you a view of some of the upcoming programs. Sadly, our programs have been paused for the last few months because of the federal funding freezes, but we believe that some of those these freezes are thawing. We're hopeful we're going to keep driving to do this work. We've been doing it even without pay. People are so engaged with Detroit. We had a program called the Humphrey Fellows that was canceled, but the fellows still wanted to come to Detroit, and we still connected with them here, you know, we, we still brought them here. People who are volunteers are so passionate. They still had dinners for people they, you know, because they just, we really want to share. And people, I think around the world, are fascinated by Detroit, Detroit story, innovation and resilience. I mean, we can share quotes about it, because people will write to us afterwards, saying, you know, how inspired they are. So here are some of the delegations and programs we have coming up. But we have a group coming from Europe that's looking at local governance. We're going to have a big delegation of young African leaders in public administration here. We work with Wayne State University on that. We have tech girls, which are young girls looking at STEM careers. What better place than Detroit to come for those kind of programs? Next slide, please. And so what we're looking for both the council and for the community to do is to engage with our visitors, engage with global ties Detroit, if you know, some meetings and and we've had council members. Many of you have met with our delegations in the past. Meet for, you know, just an hour or so to talk about an issue in your community, talk about the work that you do, if you were so inclined. And some people have Council Member Santiago Romero has hosted a fellow for a month in her office. They can do actual, real work. There's no pay involved. Everything gets taken care of by global ties Detroit and the program. When you host a fellow, you're you're eligible for a reverse, a fully funded reverse exchange in their country. We can, we have home hospitality dinners, meaning you can host a dinner in your home, get the fellows and the delegates out of the conference room and out of their hotel room and get a chance to be in the home of a Detroiter. And you know, people like Dr Glenda price, Harriet, Saperstein, all sorts of people throughout Detroit are hosting dinners in their homes, just to give a real sense, we really like to share the Detroit with the world. And then our final slide is coming up next. Oh, so then just some more pictures of really, just great exchanges from Wayne State, Eastern Market, the Wright Museum, dia, just connecting leaders. I mean, that's what we believe it's all about. And I think everyone knows it's a particularly challenging time for international relations. I know Detroit also was impacted by the cuts that are coming from the federal government, and we think that this is an incentive to create even stronger connections. We're a global city, and so we're asking for your help to work with our delegations and make sure people from around the world know how what a special place Detroit is. We want Detroiters to also have the opportunities to share their voices and their stories on a global platform through citizen diplomacy, and that's what global ties Detroit can provide. And then our last slide is just to thank you and answer any questions you might have. All right, thank
you so much for that presentation. And I know Council Member Santiago Ramiro requested this presentation, so I'll turn it over to you. Thank you,
Madam President. Thank you global ties for being here and for the work that you do, as you mentioned at the beginning, right now, is incredibly important to remind ourselves of our connections with people around the world. And frankly, when I spoke with fellows or spoke to to the groups of folks that were here, the questions they asked were questions that Detroiters are asking, the things that we're dealing with here in Detroit, we're dealing with around the world, systemic racism, systemic issues, lack of opportunities for women, lack of opportunities for for for people of color. There's colorism in Latin America. There's there. There are issues like this all over the world. So the inspiration that people get from Detroit is real, because they see what we what we've been through, how we're still grounded, how we're still moving forward. And it is really beautiful to stay connected to the fellows, because they do incredible work. They do really inspiring work. So to be able to follow along on social media, see where they're at now, I agree it's a really inspiring, fruitful process to be able to connect with them. So thank you for doing the work. And I do encourage anyone that would like to host a fellow. They you get to learn a lot from from each other. It's a mutual it's a mutually beneficial relationship. So thank you for being here. Thank you for the work that you do. And I do encourage my colleagues to engage in whatever ways that we can. Thank you, Madam President, Madam President,
okay, thank you so much. Council member. Any additional questions? All right? Well, thank you so much for the work that you all do and looking forward to connecting with you guys. Thank you so much. All right, we will continue with the agenda for this morning, the Journal of the session of Tuesday, March the 18th, 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, Finance and Audit. Standing Committee
submittal of a memorandum,
the one report will be referred to the budget, Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations. Standing Committee,
four reports from various city departments.
The four reports will be referred to the internal operations, standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development standing committee,
two reports from various city departments. The two reports
will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee,
17 reports from various city departments.
The 17 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 public comment. Everyone will have a minute and a half for general public comment this morning. Oh, sorry about that. Alright, we will start with those who have joined us in person, Mr. Cunningham, you will be first
Good morning. Everybody, 31344491143134449114,
if you want, 34449114,
that number was made so you can remember it and on Facebook, not enemy. Again on Facebook, not enemy. One more time on Facebook, not enemy. You click people when you hit Search, and you'll see me and my family there, my mom and myself dressed in blue. I have got a lot of comments and suggestions and through that nature, through a message, but on my Facebook recently, I spoke about my homelessness, how it was nine to 10 years, and how I had frozen my hand and my feet solid twice. But by God's grace, I didn't get frostbite. I would when I talked to people, they were homeless around the same time, and still are, and I was complaining, and they lifted their hands up, and fingers were missing and portions were missing, and I had to say, God, I'm grateful, and I'm empathetic and sympathetic for those who at the Rosa Park trans center or Jason Hargrove, and they're staying warm there and they close the facility from 12 to 4am pray for those that need help. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Mr. Cunningham,
miss. Betty Lyons,
you want me to respect a people, the Palestinians, who are vandalizing people's properties, disrupting schools, and yet you want to quiet me That's disrespectful Dugan, who refuses to address the stolen and hidden over $600 million in overpaid property taxes, but he won't come here he or Conrad mallet to answer the people's questions. The way Miss Logan was treated last week was disrespectful, yet people come here asking for money, millions sometimes can't even answer Miss callaways Questions unprepared, yet you still give them millions of dollars. Council every week gives out millions of dollars, especially Romero and young and don't even flinch when those millions of dollars are mentioned. Yet I can't find my money that belongs to me, that I have worked for and deserve the historic society. Thank you, Miss Callaway for asking that woman about the Ulysses house. She couldn't even answer you. She still has a job. Are you kidding me?
Thank you. Miss Lyons, Miss Melissa. Love,
fair elections, equal, Civil Right, but it's Proverbs, 631, but if he is caught, he must pay back seven times what he stole, even if it cost him everything he owed. I'm Melissa love, never voted for the November 2020 election or the August 2024 election.
Thank you, Miss Melissa love.
Marcel Lacey, followed by Costa bar note,
excuse me for
Reynosa, sorry about it. Okay. Yep, you're right ahead. Hi,
city councilors. My name is Marcel, and I'm speaking today to demand basic accountability from the Detroit Police Department. Too often after incidents of police violence, the DPD refuses to release body cam footage of the incident until months after the fact, effectively hiding the truth of their conduct from the people of the city. You know many times that the department breaks down, breaks its own policies in order to do so, coming up with flimsy excuses as to why footage of police meetings and murders cannot be shown to the public, while at the same time pointing to a supposed 45 day release policy as a show of their transparency, we know that they're being dishonest, which is why we need the release of police body cam footage to be mandated by law. Right now is a proposed ordinance drafted and submitted by members of the coalition for police transparency that would force police body cam footage obtained during any evidence of police violence to be released within seven days of the incident. I'm demanding that the proposed ordinance in question be brought into consideration by city council and made into law as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair, Yes.
May I Yes, greater sir,
my office and I were working for work she would like to respond members, yes, sir, yeah, my office, my staff and I are working with the law department on that very ordinance. So we have taken action, and it's been inspired by Minister Eric Blount. So we have all the language, we have the complete package, and it's with the law department and my office. So we are moving it forward. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. Yes, sir. Thank you, Madam Chair, right?
Thank you. Good morning. Is same council members. My name is Costa ronaldos. I'm the owner of Costa Doro jewelers, a small jewelry store in the Millender center. We've been in that location for 30 years, gone through all the changes that Detroit has gone through, and I'm here basically to ask for your help. I like Detroit. I'm not giving up. The building was recently purchased by bedrock, and actually Mr. Gilbert came in and he asked me, he said, why would we keep you and not get a big jewelry store? I said, Well, I don't have a choice. I have to sit and fight you bring in all these big companies. You give them tax incentives, tax breaks, and as soon as that's finished, they're out of here. Basically, what I'm asking is, with all your social media, your followers, your constituents, put the word out there's a jewelry store. We make all our own merchandise. We're here. We love Detroit, and we just want to keep it going. That's all I'm asking. And if I may, I do have little loops for every one of the council members. So when you look for your next gold or diamonds, it's 10 power magnification, you know what you're getting.
Thank you. Thank you so much for coming down. Appreciate you, and we will try to work to see how we can support you, sir. Thank you. Thank you. Victoria Camille, followed by Ronald Foster,
good morning, honorable City Council. My name is Victoria Camille. I'm from district seven, and I'm glad to hear that council member Whitfield callaways office is working on the police video release ordinance. The draft includes considerations for victims and their families. It also includes provisions for DPD and others to petition for delay in the release if they transparently meet the burden of proof for certain circumstances, Detroit's do deserve the freedom to see what happened when police cause harm to fellow community members when force is used but unwarranted, it results in erosion of public trust, victim suffering and cost to taxpayers, as each of you see time and time again in lawsuits on your agendas, accountability starts with transparency, and the public's trust is dependent on this level of transparency, I admonish this body to approve the police video release ordinance as submitted by the Coalition for police transparency and accountability. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Joanne Manning, followed by Ronald Foster, good
morning council members, Joanne Manny, one of the owners and co founders of granny farm, we grow marijuana in the city of Detroit and district three. I also live in District Three, and we have several other businesses in District Three. At granny farm, we're definitely an asset to the community. We've done several wonderful things in the city of Detroit with Granny farms. One of the things that I was once presented with was the Spirit of Detroit award. Joanne Manny, and it's an honor to receive this award, and that's because of the wonderful things I've done in the past. Last summer, Granny farm as an extension ABC mobile vision, we went to the Sojourner Truth homes, we provided over 50 free eye exams, 45 pairs of glasses to the community. They did not have to use their insurance. Two years ago, we went to Sojourner Truth as well. We provided 60 free eye exams and 56 pair of eyeglasses free to the community, not charging their insurance at all. Granny farm, we provide many, many jobs and over there in our community where we are, we, when we were building our building, we partnered with one of the Drug Rehabs in the city of Detroit to use their members to come over and help put our building together. We also participated in many, many cleanups. We organized a turkey giveaway. Not only did we organize, we purchased the turkeys and distribute all of the turkeys. In District Three, we want your support City Council. Okay,
thank you so much.
Good morning through the president, just a few things. Very happy to see the presentation this morning. That's the area in which on live in, and I agree with Miss Callaway. There's a lot of work that could be done over in that community. I also want to just extend the maybe the school liaison I did speak with the brother out there, and he's open to other things with the school Bethune in which my children attend. And so maybe you guys could bridge that gap and open up more opportunities with that within this community, also in this community, on the same block on Puritan indexer, in which area I've owned, there are three churches there. How do we strengthen the clergy in the community and the benefit that they bring to the citizens and community members within our community? With that being said, I think I'm going to turn to the rent stand front. I think it's a very good idea. I look forward to hearing more about it.
And
I just think that overall, with any more development with the culture that's going on, we have to make sure that we mirror those things in the outside community, and that now that we put more talks on Dexter corridor and Puritan corridor, because both of those communities are lacking and can use some improvement and financial funds. Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Dante Smith, followed by Antonio McCurdy,
how you doing? Um, I have a been dealing with I've been living in the city for a long time. I got a short period of time. So I bought a house from land bank five years ago, and now I'm getting told to evict my property. I emailed Tammy. Tammy David, what is Daniels? No respond. I reach our office, no response. So I'm saying this. I got all paperwork, deeds, pictures of what they walked through my property, and everything. So I'm saying this. I don't know how this happened at Detroit. I just feel like this is something. It's a stem because I don't know how nobody responded. I went to the land bank office to talk to the lawyer personally. That's only why I got a chance to talk to him. He's saying he can't promise me anything. It's my property. I bought it outright from land bank, from the city of Detroit. I got a deep I got a company giving me a notice to evict my property less than 50 days, and nobody want to give me no answer. So I gotta hire a lawyer. That's costing me 75 to $10,000 to fight your land bank in the city for a property that I already paid for, and I have all evidence, and nobody want to respond to me. So I had to come here and come and this not the first time I'm having a property a situation with this, but this is and I need some answers.
Okay, okay, um, if you don't mind, I'm not sure what area this is in, but District Four. District Four, okay, um, so I don't know, member Johnson, but we could work with you and maybe get director Daniels on the phone while you're here to see if we can get some responses. Okay, I
would appreciate that, but it's a civil matter, and I'm like, and I want somebody to really not just try to brush me off because it's been on a month now. Yeah, yeah,
I'm not, this is my first time hearing it, but that's why I said I could, we could work with member Johnson and try to give, I don't know if you did. You have any No, I even worked with them. I sent it even a one second, sir. Thank
you, Madam President. I didn't catch his name. Antonio
McCurdy, yes, ma'am, I got the D's and everything you need to look at today, pictures, whatever you need. Thank
you. I'll one of my team members is here. Cynthia McClure, she'll get your contact information and we will connect you with the Detroit Land Bank Authority, but we will also make sure that all of the information that you have, that they have, so that the eviction can be paused. So I need to understand what it is that you have in your possession that you're saying is the challenge. I don't I'm not sure of your specific situation, but I'd be happy to work with you. Hold on one second,
because we, typically, we don't allow going back and forth during public comment. But if we don't mind, we can have you step step aside, get with her team, and let's try to get something resolved. If we can, okay, just don't want to be silenced. That's reason why. So we don't want to silence you, sir. We want to help you. No, that's okay. It's big and messed up. That's all, yep, yep. So we're going to work with member Johnson's office. Her team is here.
Okay, thank you so much.
Now we are on Dante Smith, followed by Richard Noto Good morning. I just
want to reiterate the sentiments of cBta over the video release ordinance, especially for my interaction with Brandon Cole. I don't get the credit for it. Lexi Z didn't get the credit, but the whole interaction, reason he was suspended was because I talked to him at a protest who was he's the head of a department that section of the Detroit Police Department and monitors protests. And this man didn't have a body cam. Didn't have a body camera on 25 years on the force, no body camera. So the things that are captured on body cameras, we want to see them, especially the things that aren't captured. So James Tatum sends your office an email. So the group I work with mothers keeping boots on the ground. One of the mothers wants a bench in a park in district one in honor of her son that was murdered. Um, and we want to work with our person up. Um, also want to give a shout out to mothers keeping boots on the ground. Um, these women are fighting for victims and gun violence and violent crime in the city of Detroit, and they are doing a masterful job. Um, very, very proud to work with them and advocating for them on the efforts. Also want to talk about the land bank and Tammy Daniels very, very terrible. So many complaints don't even reach this council, this body, housing is a human right, along with water and being, you know, being able to be out and be free and safe. Also want to give a very, very negative shout out to Malia Howard. I reached out to the mayor, or to the deputy mayor, to have a meeting, and she told me she will only meet with me at my church, with my mayor. I feel like that is very, very unprofessional, and that's a ridiculous sentiment to have.
Okay, alright, thank you, Mister Richard. No Good
morning, everybody,
I'm gonna have a positive note today, old western market, we bring you back. Western market will be starting up this Friday and Saturday, and every weekend, I'd like to thank Council president for helping us, Council Member Santiago mayor for helping us and the people of the city been great, trying to push us through. And Sarah troop for sure, so please come and visit us. We have a mural on called equity in Detroit, and it's for children to write on. So if you have a child, bring them down on Saturday, from 12 to four, and the stuff that they've been writing on the walls, it's unbelievable, four year olds, and the insight that they have is unbelievable. And then the other thing that I see all the budget cuts, but there's no money put in for last mile transportation, which we need to do. I mean, many council members see it and know we need to move forward. We're not going to get big bucks from the federal government anymore, but this mode of transportation is cheap, and everyone complains about they want to move around quickly in their neighborhood. This is the way to go. We've seen it with all the golf carts all over the place. So please, let's do it. I gladly work with you. I have a plan or other people. Southwest Detroit Business Association wants to do a Corktown business. The people in avenue of fashion or want to do this is a way to go. We've used it, so let's move forward. I know the present administration is not in favor of it, but we're moving to a new administration, and mayor should actually think about this concept. Thank you
so much, Richard, and looking forward to coming back out this summer, in spring to visit you all. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for all you do. Okay, we'll join move now to those who have joined us virtually.
Morning, Madam President, for 27 hands raised on Zoom before you public comment and the first caller is phone number ending in 169, good.
Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can.
Great, great. I just want to say thank you people for cram for Cunningham. He advocates for the bus drivers and the bus passengers. He does not receive a salary or benefits for his good work, city council persons, clergy powers that be touched, not guys anointed, neither do his serving Cunningham. No harm. Don't let karma plague you all again. Help him. Don't hurt him. Help him get a new vehicle. Help him step by step to form a non profit, 501, c3, instead of using Uber and Lyft called brother Cunningham, because we all know Cunningham is good ground and the money goes to a good cause. Thank you for my time.
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is Tahira Amanda,
right? Good morning.
Good morning. Council. Just want to let people know foreclosure refund deadline has been extended to April 8 because of a bomb threat yesterday. So we you know, people are weird. A, 334218123, is the Treasury. Call them. I'd like for the council members to try to reach some of the people in your district that have been foreclosed before 2020 and get them to this information. Now to Mr. Young, city council member, young, we've been going back and forth about this madness, about what you said to me at the press conference with Mayor
Duggan for the land
tax, you walked up to me and told me that the reason why you haven't helped me get home repairs is because I said something in public comment about you, and this is a violation of My civil rights. This is a violation of my freedom of speech, and I'd like the ethics department to take a look at Mr. Young. I did not receive the home repairs. Mr. Young obfuscated by saying, yeah, she received some home repairs, violating my privacy. He wasn't even on the city council when I got those small repairs, I've been illegally overtaxed $20,000 I haven't been able to repair my own home. I would have done it gladly myself if I hadn't been illegally over text
number Young. Thank you. First of all, I would like to say and I appreciate this, this conversation. We have been having, this back and forth. I just want to say one, first and foremost, I did actually offer one that did actually pay you $21,000 $15,000 from a housing research and revital housing and revitalization department, which is the max at which they could provide. And then you received $6,000 from the Community Health Corps, and you also sent us an email confirming that we were right when we sent you this information. And listen, it is not my intention, nor do I take any pleasure in having this conversation, publicly with publicly with you. And I also call Rico ro to be able to come out and look at the repairs that you have. If you have any issues, please call me and let's sit down and let's do this. I do not enjoy having this back and forth with you. I do not have this back and forth with you. Quite frankly, I'm getting a little bit exhausted having this discussion over and over again, but the fact of the matter, again, respectfully, respectfully, is that I did provide $15,000 from HRD and $6,000 to you from the Community Health Corps, and that came from my office. And so if you need some help, if you need some assistance, please give me a call at 313-224-4248,
thank you. All right. Thank you. If the clerk of no member waters has joined us as well,
Madam President,
our next caller, please.
The next caller is torpedo.
Mr. Crawley, go right ahead.
Well, it's nice to know that you recognize the name here in the city of Detroit. Year 2025, is an election year, so y'all pulling out all your little tricks now, Nini wants what she wants. Y'all don't want to give it to her, so I'm gonna take it now. Janice Wendy been cheating in elections for a decade or more. 2020. Is all it can be proven Since 2020 2021 2022, and 2024 Mary Elaine Beckman does not have an absentee ballot over at the Department of Elections. Gina Avery Walker knows it not with her ballot signature on it, and Dennis Winfrey knows it because they mailed the ballot out to 12842, Sussex Street. It was flagged undeliverable because there are some Venezuelan immigrants who live in the house and the United States Postal Service sent it back to the Department of Elections. The Department of Elections claimed that they sent the ballot out on 214 and received it back on 226 Well, Mary Elaine Beckman is an overseas citizen voting from Germany, but she never got a ballot. So therefore the Department of Elections teen Avery Walker and Janice weffy on some BS. All
right, our next caller, please.
The next caller is what book.
All right. Good morning. You.
Good morning.
Good morning. Caller, go right ahead.
Okay, can we please come back to this caller?
Okay, the next caller is William and Davis.
Mister Davis, good morning.
Good morning. Can I be heard? Yes, you can. I'd like to start off by saying that I'm in full support of greater transparency for the Detroit Police Department. I think that y'all should be encouraging to release a video, you know, I say video, body camera, just like, yeah, I should make it more of a problem for officers to refuse to turn on the video. You know, the body camera that you know, if you look at your agenda, you see, settlement, settlement, settlement. You know, as a city Detroit retiree, I should not have to see constantly the city is paying out money for people that you know, some of them are honestly made a mistake, but some of them people that are doing stuff that's clearly against the city rules, policies and procedures, and some of what they do is unethical and downright illegal. So I don't think my dollar should be going for that. I think we should be doing more to save the city money, and y'all should be able to say that y'all have improved. Y'all cut down on lawsuits. Y'all cut down on settlements. Y'all cut down on things to make the city better. And of course, if y'all was to cut down on some of these lawsuits, y'all could probably do more to help seniors and city Detroit retirees also like to send out a birthday greeting to a young man. My city councilman, Fred duar, I have ties older than him. In fact, I have ties older than a few of y'all, thank you
good one. Thank you so much. Mr. Davis,
the next caller is, we see you. We see you.
Good morning and through the Chair, may I be heard. Yes,
good morning.
Thank you. My prayers go out to the victims of the explosion and the people that were injured. I think that that brings me to 20.67 10 and 11. We're going to spend about $13 million for inspections. Well, we have a B said department that seems to have funds that come from strange places, and they weren't able to give a fee to the ombudsman. That's strange in and of itself, but he gave the gentleman, gave no explanation to the 15 points that he was going to be checking, and he said his purpose was to streamline. I thought the purpose of B said was to Swift. Was for safety, and I want to know what funds will be available to the citizens whose properties may not get the 15 points, what? How and why are we using zip code to dispatch these people? Why aren't we using people who are complaining the way we do with chicken farms and chickens, you know, in order for them to come out, it has to be a complaint. Well, why isn't it the same process for inspecting these, these homes and 9.1 the MOU with the we don't want another MOU with them. It has expired, and everything in it is expired. So we want them to go away 18.4 there's no public lighting department with one person. Thank you,
right? Thank you.
The next caller is Betty a Varner.
Uh, good morning to all within the sound of my voice, Betty a brown the president of the soda Ellsworth black Association and a dedicated City resident for 75 years, I'm here advocating for seniors and for people with disabilities. If you need help to be able to stay in your home and to be at peace, please contact D, triple, a, 313-446-4444,
again, 313-446-4444,
there's a program called My Choice waiver. The program is a government program that is set up to let you be able to have a higher income to be eligible for Medicaid. You can have $2,901 per month and still be eligible for Medicaid. And I just found out from a sister power, one dedicated woman, that she is aware of this program, and they did home repairs on her home. I didn't know about the home repairs, but I know they will assist you. The purpose is to keep you out of a nursing home the federal government states it is cost less.
All right, thank you.
Next caller is phone number ending in 270,
good morning.
Yes, good morning. Miss Monique shelter,
we just had an explosion over there in the seventh district at a apartment complex, and it's a shame that it's not getting same type of attention and help that the residents in southwest Detroit got when the water main broke. The City of Detroit needs to declare a housing and homeless emergency crisis, just like other cities have done, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, Richmond, Virginia, they've all declared emergency housing crises to free up funds, to free up funds for low cost housing, not affordable housing, because the metrics of what's considered affordable housing include cities in Metro Detroit, and it's not affordable for the city of Detroit, for residents in the city of Detroit, and Detroit has one of the highest eviction rates in the nation. And if the city would stop issuing, or had stopped issuing, all of these high interest municipal bonds, it would have had the financial research sources and reserves to supplement and to build low income housing for its residents. Look what happened in 2014
Thank you. The next scholar is Marguerite, Scarlet Maddox,
all right, Miss Maddox, good morning.
Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Hello, yes. Miss Maddox, we can hear you,
yes, we can hear you.
Miss Maddox, we can hear you,
yes, we can hear you. Miss Maddox,
yep, I'm not sure if she's able.
Yes, we can. Ari, can you respond and see if she can hear you? Ms, Maddox.
MS, Maddox, we can hear you.
She can't hear us. Okay. Um, okay, so let's come back to miss Maddox again and see if we can get Miss Maddox on the same page with us. Yep, because she can't hear us. So let's come back to miss Maddox and see if we can reach out to her and let her know we can hear Ari and come back to miss Maddox.
Okay, the next caller, Sonia,
okay, morning, may I be heard? Yes, we can hear you.
Good morning. I'm Sonia Brown. I'm known as Auntie nay from Auntie nays house, Auntie nays village. I'm calling because I have a few things to state this morning. One, I'd like to definitely thank Yolanda Lockett for her assistant and 80 men helping two of our seniors who were evicted and displaced. Thanks to her, we were able to house these seniors immediately, 181 years old, with a 51 year old, autistic son. Again, it shows generations that are being evicted and displaced. We need to stop these evictions until we can place those that are already homeless. It makes no sense to add to what we're supposed to be cleaning up and straightening up in our city. My next issue is the fact that I'd like to wish my Councilman Happy birthday before I get started with the fact that I too wonder what happened for those of us who have not been compensated yet for this over taxation, some of us don't qualify for that whole program, and yet, we have not been compensated yet for the over taxation. We're still struggling to try to keep our heads above water. No one is taking us in consideration we should still be given the same compensation. And third of all, I am still one that's complaining about the sewer damage and the water back up in my basements. I have not been compensated for what I've lost, furnaces, hot water tanks, materials and supplies. And this information and that has been put out there, and no one has tried to compensate Auntie nays village for anything. Thank you, and I yield the rest of my time.
Thank you.
The next caller is you matter.
All right, you matter.
You matter. Good morning. You
Good morning, ma'am. You heard
Yes, we can hear you.
Okay, thank you.
Well, Happy Birthday member Hall.
Also, I'd like to say it would be nice this year, if everyone in the city would take charter section seven, dash 201, seriously and create the Health Commission and make sure the department is providing the services it's supposed to seems to be very limited. And again, I would suggest clawing back the Herman Kiefer hospital, since it's one of the earlier big developments and still isn't in compliance, from what I heard, and we could have used a bunch of the American rescue plant plan Act money to turn it back into a Health Center, because we had the city closed down Walker Williams rec center to make a COVID testing back site, because we don't have a sufficient space for a health department. I also want to talk about, I see on the agenda, they're buying more houses in perspective, solar areas. I saw some of the prices. Please every member, especially one of your bosses, member Benson, is very upset. Felt like she's being super low balled and pressured into taking a deal. Will you please make sure that the city is taking care of these residents with relocation assistance as well, and they're not being bullied into taking a deal. That's
right. Thank you. The next caller is Alexi s 22 ultra,
yes. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay. First of all, I want to tell that gentleman Good luck with land bank and District Four. You know, they screwed me around and my, my, my city council. Know they screwed me when she was running, she was over here, and I was speaking on that house next door to me, and they sold it to in a package deal when I've been taking care of the house for 445, years. And I talked to Duncan about so good luck, young man with land bank, because they full of it. And thanks, you'll get nowhere, you know. And second of all, I'm like, I'm with Malik, all this TV and all this other stuff that they did for Southwest Detroit, with a house on little field and and school crime, they ain't getting none of that attention. Kids got hurt, still in the hospital and critical and all that, and they they offered them no kind of living, you know, for them, help for them, like they did southwest Detroit. So it's so sad that our city council will ask for our vote, but you have to show me why you want my vote, because I was always told, you know, you could talk that talk, but your actions are so different. I'm not seeing the action from a lot of it. I've been coming back and forth and I'm like, I'm like, COVID, I'm I'm exhausted. Keep coming to you guys with the same thing about over here, where we stand in District Four, about the films that we didn't get no opera money or nothing but the little. Thank you.
Next caller is Cindy Dara.
Cindy Dara, good morning.
Good morning. Um, I just Rosemary Robinson, when she was in the state legislature, she got that body cam bill passed, and I remember checking on it. It over on Fourth Street at the police station. And I thought they told me, this is quite a few years ago. They only kept these about 30 days, and then they would tape over them. So you need to get the details, you know, on a lot of this stuff, where you're not going to make very good decisions. So, and I want to tell you real quickly, this is the most important thing, the local 547, that's the Motor City seasonal workers union. I was looking at their I didn't look at most of it, but I'm going to send you, I think I've got an email. I can send it to you the contract that was expired a year ago June, I think. But they, they're demanding 14 140 hours for seasonal employees. And I don't think they're given enough hours in the winter time to actually get that many hours, because they they can work 40 in the summer, but they don't let them work, but I think 20 in the winter. So I they can't get any retirement that way. See, they don't, because the way they wrote the contract. So that needs, you need to look at that contract we need training for so that some of these you're supposed to be able to be trained so you can be
have the right courses,
right Thank you. Ms Dora, next
caller is Karen hammer.
Karen hammer, good morning. Good morning.
Repurpose the Renaissance Center and yes to transparency in the police department. The City Council also needs to improve their record on Property Tax Justice, with 84% of the homes were worth less than $25,000 the city's illegally inflating their value. You should pass a resolution to halt foreclosure of homes less than $50,000 and send them to the Board of Review, plus release a copy of the 2024, assessment ratio study produced by the I, A, A, O, the of the six who voted for this ordinance, two did not have their Board of Review nominee follow the ordinance which is law. The remaining four still have neither ensured the Duggan administration produce a timely independent evaluator study, nor have they ensured the city's property tax assessment notice follows the law make sure that the money that we voted in as millages is as then is now being captured by the city, reduces Our Head Start libraries and public schools that this month.
All right, thank you, Miss hammer.
The the next caller is Steven Harring,
good morning. Um, can I be heard? Um, I hate constantly having to say this, but um, it is not true. Tax captures. Do not steal from the libraries and the schools, and I'm not going to waste my public comment explaining that, but, um, you know, I just want to say is, I understand there is freedom of speech, but the council has every right to call out a evil beyond offensive comment, that's all you know. They have every right to and they should, you know, hate speech, unfortunately, is freedom of speech, but you know the council should be able. They have every right to call it out. I mean, I don't know what these people are saying, but you know, they do have everybody, um, so I want to talk about again, the ddo budget. I really want to thank this council for adding, offering to add an additional 16 million, you know, I am satisfied with the $20 million increase. But, you know, there is concerns. And you know, yesterday, I was very inspired by a lot of the transit activists, even the ones I can't stand or don't get along with, personally, about just how we need to really get together with transit. And you know, we have this conversation every year. And you know, I think the mayor is definitely understanding, starting to understand, but you know, we still need more, and I really do want to thank durhall and council, I believe Santiago Romero for that additional
Alright, thank you.
The next caller is Rashawn Horace,
yes, can I be heard? Yes, you can Okay. Thank you very much. First and foremost, I want to invite everyone who can hear my voice to ECN ozone Town Hall, which is going to be taking place Thursday this Thursday, April the third, at 6pm at 4401 Connor Street. Definitely like to thank all of our council members who plan on attending and sending their staff and those who have been supporting us around air quality issues here in the city, and also we're looking for support at the state level. Is obviously the ozone issue is monitored by Egle, which is the state regulatory authority over the air in this area. And so along with that, also want to thank Council Member Letitia Johnson and her commitment to engage the health department, because I think that's a really, really important facet to improving community health and the health impacts of all of the environmental impacts that we have surrounding us, whether it be the plants, whether it be marathon, whether it's the Lantus or the semi trucks, we know we're Going to need an active and fully robust health department to be able to implement any type of whether it be a semi truck ordinance or anything dealing with improving the actual public health for the citizens that live in the communities across the city of Detroit. So definitely are willing to work and continue to work with Leticia on that, and really appreciate her support. Also appreciate Council Member Santiago Romero and her support around the semi truck ordinance, and we just want to remind y'all that we want to make sure we get a solid ordinance that is really focused on community health and the impacts of the air quality around our surrounding communities here in the city of
Detroit. All right. Thank you.
Next caller is iPhone.
Hey, good morning. May I be heard? Yes, you can. Hey, good morning again. My name is Whitney Clark, and I live here in district five. I just wanted to make a public comment and bring back to the floor of the conference. I guess I'm I guess what I'm trying to say is that, as we are out here and asking for signatures, one of the things that really just kind of, it's in your face and you can't ignore it, is the housing crisis. And so again, we just want to use our voice and these opportunities to raise that up. You know, I saw quite a few people yesterday in district five that appeared to be unhoused, and I had some in depth conversations, and so let's just continue to have that conversation about how I've heard a couple of mayoral candidates mention the missing middle, and I believe that a lot of these people are they fall under that category. Because, you know how homelessness, kind of you can fall into it a number of different ways. And so the stereotype that I think we have about people that are on house, when you begin to speak to these individuals, you realize very quickly, it's a car accident, it's a death of a loved one, it's a you know, it's an illness. It's not just drugs and being crazy or, you know, whatever the case may be, but And so again, let's just continue to raise this up as we move forward into this election cycle, as to how we can create housing that gives people dignity protection, you know, here in the city, and that's also affordable that They can own. Thank you so much. Thank you.
The next caller is Steven Boyle,
hello. I couldn't agree more with the last caller. Yesterday, I was at the transit center at Rosa Parks Transit Center, and I spoke with the police that were there and inquired with them why they were pushing everybody out of the facility 10 minutes before a large number of busses were going to be leaving. If they were to just simply change their process to delay 10 minutes a lot of people that are not as they these officers actually told me none of these people are actually taking the bus. If you think that people are taking the bus, go find me a couple. I That, to me, is ridiculous, because I know full well that maybe, maybe a third of the people in that center are literally there on a regular basis, and that can that needs to be monitored, and we need DH win and some other social outreach groups to actually engage at the transit center with those people that are identified as repeated visitors at the center, but to to subject to common transit person to being ejected from the building into the cold, they're just simply trying to get off of one bus and get onto another bus, and then they're confronted with this, and Literally, a 10 minute shift in timing would change,
right? Thank you. Next caller is Darren McCluskey,
good morning Council, good morning.
I just, I wanted to start off by thanking everybody, because even though I come here for typically one topic, it's very informative, and I appreciate everyone's participation and presentations in the beginning. Just wanted to state, I know the land bank is brought up a lot with nuisance abatement and taking without due process and that sort of thing. It kind of feels to me, because I've been party to those that nap maybe gave the city a taste of what it's like to take private property. But are the homes really better under the land bank? I mean, there are a few that sell, there are a few that are renovated. But overarching drive through the neighborhoods are the land bank homes that much better than the private homes. You can just scroll around Zillow and see lots for sale by the land bank, most have been on the market for 300 to 1000 days. They're not really selling. They're priced really high. So again, you guys are trying to get top dollar for things, while offering people $2,500 and dragging them through court to make them fight for even a little more. For example, item 18.4, there's no price. I don't know if that's an oversight or if you guys are intentionally trying to hide the amount of money you're spending on buying these neighborhoods out from people, but there's no price out there. So I just encourage everyone to go to Detroit solar scam.com
that's where we're trying to bring to
thank you. Our next caller is Joyce Jennings.
Joyce Jennings, good morning. Good morning,
President and body and public. I am a resident of district three. I along with my neighbors on Doyle Street. We do not want to be forced out of our homes. We do not agree with the Solar Initiative. DTE charges are one of the highest rates when it comes to living or doing business in the city of Detroit. We need a mayor, we need a city council, and we need city leaders to work with the community to come up with ideas. Given the fact that we live in Michigan and we have natural resources that would allow us to create many forms of energy to make living in Detroit more energy efficiency, I would like to thank Councilwoman waters for referring me to DTE for The weatherization program, but I would like to raise concerns about the contractors that DTE is bringing to the city of Detroit that don't know city code, that don't have the supplies to do the work that they are doing. It does not take over six weeks to install a boiler. Then the contractor took the pipes from my old boiler and put them on the new boiler. It is not square and it is not going to pass licensing in the city of Detroit. Please help the people on the east side of Detroit. Thank you. Thank you.
Next caller is Frank Hammer.
Good morning. I'm reading excerpts from an email sent by Dr Thomas pedroni, Associate Professor at Wayne State. He says we have been having bi weekly sick from genocide vigils at the Wayne State Medical School campus since early January. The next one is the this coming Friday at 11am Wayne State has been no exception regarding the recent repressive climate on university campuses. During our first two vigils in January, campus police threatened us with arrest for setting up a literature table. We were threatened with trespass on our own campus. We pushed back, and with the help of a letter from the ACLU, the Vice Provost agreed in writing to stop trying to arrest us, contrary to the Vice Provost word, when we arrived Friday, March 21 we were once again greeted by the campus police who were instructed to again arrest us, the threat of arrest is especially threatening to students who are on visas. We once again have been guaranteed the right to engage in a peaceful vigil on behalf of Palestine. Please join us in this fight for both our university and the people of Gaza, please spread the word. The address is 320, East Canfield, Friday, 11am Thank you very much.
Okay, thank you.
The next caller is Bobby's iPhone.
All right, good morning. Good morning.
I like to wish council member Hall Happy birthday, but one thing I'm kind of feeling is when it flooded over, when it flooded over in southwest Detroit, $8 million was immediately gotten over here. We had an explosion. No one's speaking about the kids, no one's speaking about the people that have been hurt. You have on here, we're still discussing with the land bank about how it's going to operate. The land bank is adding to homeless over the Christmas holiday, they actually evicted a family this. This is a legal evictions that they're doing. We regular people are not able to go into a house and take you out and use Senate, city entities like the police, like
neighborhood, the
the whoever, the inspectors to come out BC that that is unfair to people If they don't have an opportunity to have their fair word and the court system. How is the city of Detroit going to allow the land bank to continuously make people homeless? We need to defund the land bank, and they need a sunset time. Thank you. Thank you.
The next caller is Miko a Williams. Mika Williams, Hi,
good morning. Happy Birthday council member, durha. And also, rest in peace to Isaac Robinson. We lost him around this time, five years ago, during the Coronavirus, and also this marks April 1, 2013 to 2014 was a very intense time for the city of Detroit. Y'all remember when emergency management took over the city, when black leadership knew what was going down. It didn't say a word. They moved, secured soft landings at other places of employment. Some even pushed for Duggan to be the mayor, then Kevin or the emergency manager, unelected, unappointed, came in and borrowed our money, sold everything off that wasn't nailed down, made deals to pay bond holders and then rolled off in the sunset with our money to pay off his debts and be rewarded by Jones Day law firm. It's the same thing happening on the federal level going on right now, but it's much worse for the American people. I heard someone speaking at Congress saying that Trump is the best deal maker that ever lived. He asked a reporter asked a question, Hey, isn't Trump a Russian asset? In my view, it's nothing more than to see a grown man on their knees begging for another man. The same thing. When I saw Duggan last week begging on his knees to Dan Gilbert, I thought he was going to give him a crown to the city of Detroit and anoint Him to be the mayor. Um, once again, we are not free, and freedom isn't free until we fight.
Thank you.
The next caller is Barbie Logan,
right. Good afternoon. Excuse me. Good morning.
Barbie Logan, good morning.
All right. Barbie Logan, good morning.
Okay, can we go to the next caller, please.
Okay, the next caller is Charles miles.
Charles miles, good morning.
All right, good morning. I'm here today to talk about plenty issues going on in the city of Detroit, especially with my property that you all know about. And yesterday was the last day for you to take the property. But I was there, and it was a bomb threat, and that saved me a few more days to get my point across. I reached out to Fred durhaus office, to none of veil as usual. I guess they was happy to think that I was going to lose it, even though you guys know that I paid the bill, and you guys, I very confident that you purposely did this to take my property, because you guys know that you applied the payment backwards, and I've showed it to each and every one of you, the only person that reached out to help me, and pretty did a good job, was Rashida Talib. Out of all the city council members had to go all the way to Lansing to get somebody to help. And you guys knew about it. Wouldn't do a single thing. And I don't know y'all, y'all, I guess by our I mean, it's a shame to say that you are black and I am black too, so black people hate black people, and you don't want to help black people and and you're clearly wrong. But what I am asking you to do is get the receipt over to the county, because they're they're waiting on it.
All right, thank you.
The next caller, we are back to the previous caller. What the cook?
I'm sorry, what was the name?
The name was, what one of the previous callers who respond first, you're
breaking up. Okay, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. What? Okay. Hi.
Welcome to the new year. I haven't heard from you guys, nor have you heard from me in a while, but I am calling because I'm been for the last eight years trying to purchase the land on 12th and Claremont, which is now a parking lot on Thursdays for the congregation. I was told it was given to the rec department. So is the rec department purposely using that lot for parking, or are they just not willing, or the city not willing, to sell it to the resident in that particular area? There was one portion that they said that I could purchase, however, I've been blocked at every angle. I would like some information on why we cannot, as a resident area, purchase a lot, but however, it can be used as a parking lot every Thursday in the summer months, which is ridiculous. Please respond to me and have a blessed day.
Okay, you too. Thank you.
The next caller is Marguerite Scarlet Maddox.
All right, good morning.
Yes, we can
Okay, so can I thank You yesterday, I I hear my Hand. They should
I would like to make my comment yesterday, and number one comment is number two, presentation,
number three,
number four,
to make sure that Every
person with disability,
wherever they work, Anyway,
happy happy
happy happy birthday. Mr.
And today, some
question about
number. Number one
question, is
anybody in that group
that is disability? Right? Guys,
today is,
please make sure
that everybody sees body
weights. Every educator,
let me know, what day, what time that Would you get?
Thank you
and happy birthday, Mr. Joe,
I'm done. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Miss Maddox. And that will conclude all of our general public comment. And I'm definitely want to wish our colleague, member door Hall, a happy birthday. They they beat me to remember door Hall. I was going to make sure we did it during member reports, but the public beat me to it. But Happy Birthday to our colleague, Council Member durha, whose birthday is today. Wish him a happy birthday. Happy
birthday. I knew it was coming.
All right. Thank you.
All right, moving along to our agenda, understanding, committee reports for the budget, Finance and Audit, standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Council member, durha con I'm sorry. One resolution, line item 16.1, it's contract number 6003575, dash, 821, 100% city funding. Amendment two to exercise renewal option for Treasury cash management system contractor, emphasis Computer Solutions Incorporated doing business as emphasis software total contract amount $305,096 and that's for the ocfo office Council Member durha, a resolution. Thank
you, Madam Clerk. Council Member durha, thank you, Madam
President, Move for approval for line item 16.1
all right. Motion has been made. Any objections to 16.1 hearing, no objections. The one resolution will be approved
request a waiver for line item 16.1
Hearing no objections. A waiver will be attached to 16.1
moving along to the internal operations standing committee from the law department council
member Johnson, two resolutions, line items, 17.1 and 17.2
council member Johnson, thank you,
Madam President. Move for approval. These are two lawsuit settlement requests.
All right, hearing, no objections. The two resolutions will be approved from the Human Resources classification and compensation division.
Council member Johnson, a resolution line item 17.3,
Council Member Johnson, thank
you, Madam President, Move for approval. This is a request to amend the 2024 2025 official compensation schedule for the environmental specialists positions for one through three,
all right, and Hearing no objections, the one resolution will be approved for the Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee under unfinished business council president
pro tem James Tate in ordinance noting a roll call line item 18.1,
all right. President Pro Temp Tate, Madam
President, I move to take from the table and ordinance to excuse I move to take from the table and ordinance. Article 17, Section 5017, dash 41 district map number 39 of the 2019 Detroit city code, zoning. Chapter 50, to show a, b4, general business district zoning classification, or a, p1, open parking district and b2, local business and residential district zoning classifications are currently shown in one parcel, commonly known as 6181, casual road and generally bounded by Harper Avenue to the north, casual road to the east, burden Street to the south, and Harvard road to the west, laid on the table January 14, 2025
and Hearing no objections, that action will be taken. I'm Madam
President, I move the ordinance be placed on the order of third reading and considered read,
Hearing no objections, that action will be taken. Pro Temp Tate,
I move the ordinance be passed as submitted. There being a roll call
required. Would the clerk please call the roll sorry, I didn't get a script. Council
member Scott Benson, yes. Council member Fred der Hall, the third Yes. Council member Letitia Johnson, yes. Council member Gabriella Santiago Romero Yes. Council President, pro tem James Tate, yes. Council member Mary waters, yes. Council member Angela Whitfield Callaway. Council member Coleman, a young second Yes. Council President, Mary Sheffield, yes, nine yeas. That motion passes. Madam President, all right, the ordinance is approved. Pro
Temp Tate. Madam President, I move that the title of the ordinance be confirmed
and Hearing no objections that action will be taken.
I'm president, yes, as a request for waiver in line item 18.1 please.
All right, any objections to a waiver,
hearing none a waiver will be attached to 18.1
right from the Office of contracting and procurement
council president pro tem James Tate, two resolutions, line items, 18.2 and 18.3 contract number 6006938, 100% opioid settlement funding to provide assistance With the operations and expansion of recovery housing for individuals receiving substance use disorder. Sud services, contractor, second chance, 2000 incorporated total contract amount, $806,436.40 cent. That's for housing and revitalization. Next contract number 6006944, 100% opioid settlement funding to provide assistance with the operations and expansion of recovery housing for individuals receiving substance use disorder. Sud services, contractor self help addiction rehabilitation. Shar house total contract amount, $1,213,391.30 cent. That's for housing and revitalization. Council President, pro temp Tate, two resolutions,
all right, thank you, Madam Clerk. President, pro temp Tate. Madam
President, I move approval of line items 18.2 and 18.3
All right. Hearing, no objections. The two resolutions will be approved. President ms proton for a
waiver on line items 18.2 and 18.3 please.
All right, any objections to a waiver
hearing, none that action will be taken
from the planning and development department.
Council President, pro tem James Tate, or resolution line 18.4
pro Tim Tate. President,
I move approval of line item 18.4
All right, any discussion?
Are there any objections to line item 18.4, this is the approval and authorization to acquire nine properties that are within the prospective solar project sites.
Objection members, Santiago Romero, the clerk
would know. Clerk would know. Clerk
will So note, Madam President, objection member Calloway,
the clerk would note, clerk will so no, if you can show myself as a no on 18.4
clerk will So note. Madam President,
hearing no further objections, the resolution will be approved.
What's the waiver in 18.4
and I'm going to object a waiver as well for 18.4
from the planning and development department. Madam
President, line item 18.5 should be under testimonial resolution, so we will take that item at the end under testimonial resolution. Okay,
move to send to the end of the agenda. Okay,
all right, Hearing no objections, we will move 18.5 to the end of the agenda for the public health and safety standing committee from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Council Member Santiago Romero, eight resolutions, line items, 19.1, through 19.8
contract number 6007011,
100% blight funding to provide demolition for residential group, 2.7 point 2025. A contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $2,205,527.10 cent instruction and demolition. Next contract, Contract Number 60070121, 007012, 100% black funding to provide demolition for residential group. 2.7 point 202. 5b contractor, inner city contracting, LLC, total contract amount, $1,861,726.65 cent construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6007013, 100% blight funding to provide demolition for residential group. 2.7 point 202. 5c contractor, Adamo demolition company, total contract amount, 1,741,005 $1,741,511.31 cent construction and demolition. Next, contract line item 19.4 contract number 6007014, 100% blight funding to provide demolition for residential group. 2.7, point 202. 5d contractor SC, Environmental Services, LLC, total contract amount, $1,609,963.95 cent construction and demolition. Next contract is contract number 6004341, dash, a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One to exercise one year renewal for electronic reporting and investigation system services pertaining to stolen goods. Contractor, less, online, LLC, total contract amount, $520,804 that's for police. Next contract is contract number 60070211, 007021, 100% city funding to provide staffing services for public lighting. Contractor VM x total contract amount 150,000 that's for public lighting. Next contract is contract number 6007025. 100% major street funding to provide emulsify asphalt contractor, Cadillac, asphalt LLC, total contract amount, $657,500 that's where public works last contract is contract number 3082044, 100% blight funding to provide an emergency demolition for the residential property, 76 06, homes. Contractor, DMC consultants incorporated total contract amount, $22,513.39 cent that's for construction and demolition. Council member, Santiago Romero, eight resolutions,
all right, thank you. Madam Clerk member, Santiago Romero, thank you, Madam President, motion to postpone 19.1 in one week. There are some remaining questions that are needed to be answered by some colleagues.
All right, is there any objections to postpone 19.1
hearing, none that action will be taken. Remember, Santiago Romero, thank you.
Motion to approve.
You had it. It was a discussion on that. Okay, I'm sorry. Okay, yes. Pro Tem, which 19.1 alone, by itself, just by itself. Yeah. Okay. Is that okay? Okay? Member, Santiago Romero, thank
you, Madam President, motion to approve 19.2 through 19.4
Okay. Discussion on those vote. Tim, no,
I was just ready to vote on it. Okay? Well, actually, line on a 19.3 Madam President, we haven't had an opportunity to go through it as we would like, to the budget and other issues. So just requesting through you to the chair one week postponement on this item. Please.
Any other discussion on that? This is 19.33 Yes, ma'am. Okay, any objections in postponing 19.3 for one week.
Hearing, none that action will be taken.
Any other discussion on 19.2 and 19.4
All right. Any objections on 19.2 and 19.4 All right. Hearing, no objections, the two resolutions will be approved.
Member Santiago Romero, thank you,
Madam President, motion to approve 19.5 through 19.8
discussion. Okay. Member young
yes to who this refers to? Why 19.6 I don't understand why we are having a contract for staffing services for public lighting department. Why isn't this being a staffing services for the public lighting authority? This seems to be the it kind of reminds me that quote from Brokeback Mountain. This seems to be the department we just can't quit and we're supposed to eliminate this department or phase it out, and we haven't done that. And then I'm looking here, it says provide materials handler from astersky. We shut that down in 2010 because it cost $675 million for us to be able to upgrade it to today's standards in terms of the electricity and the code and upgrades. I just want to know, shouldn't this be handled by the was there a deal for this to be either handled by DTE, or shouldn't this be handled by the private sector? Why are we still involved with musters key and why is the public lighting department? And then furthermore, I saw this is this line of 18.4 but I also saw that the public lighting department is here again about the properties for the solar farms. I thought that should be the public lighting authority. Why is this happening? Alright?
Mister Washington, yes,
good morning, Madam Chair and Council. We do have Dan Boyd tolovich online from PLD.
Okay, we will promote him over
I'm sorry. Can you repeat the name,
please? Dan voitulovic,
his last name begins with a W.
I Good morning. I am here.
Good morning. Council member, young, okay,
what's your last name, sir, say for me one time, because I don't want to Bucha leverage. You don't call you Mr. W sorry. Bro. I just, I just, you don't want to hear me butcher that. So I apologize, but I just want to know, no offense. But I just want to know, like I we're seeing these things about the public lighting department, and I was under the assumption that the lighting department was supposed to be phased out. Here I'm looking at it in terms of article I'm just kidding, 19.6 this item, and it says that we're having staffing services for public lighting. Why are we doing that? We're supposed to be phasing this. This out. It says that we're handling materials from mystery ski. Why is that not being done by the private sector? Why is that not being done by DTE? When we shuttered the mystery ski plant because it cost 670, $5 million for us to be able to upgrade it. I just don't understand why the public lighting department is still here, you know, and why we are spending this money for more staffing, where we're supposed to be unwinding and we're supposed to be transferring all this over to the public lighting authority,
just through the chair the we're using the mystery location just for the land itself, because we don't have any other land to for storing that was materials until it can be just sold or disposed of. Okay? And so the handler sorts some of the thought that comes in so it gets properly handled. Get the maximum amount of money for it. And money for it and resale. There's all the old unused cable and wire that public lighting has at being removed from the streets, underground and overhead.
Okay, so we're getting money for so we're getting money for selling this. Because I was getting ready to say, I understand why you're doing it. I just don't know why we're doing it. I thought that the private sector, could we give this over to the private sector to be able to do but you're saying we're actually making money from selling this. So this is a revenue generating process. So I don't want to mess with that. So okay, that is correct. You answer that question. But I also want to ask the final question about the PLD. And maybe this is just me and being biased, because I remember I was in Lansing when we were having the discussion about the public lighting authority, and everybody was telling me that this is going to be replacing it, the public lighting department will be replaced. And it just seems that you're still kind of hanging on here, you know, like the ghost in the machine. And I mean, again, I'm not knocking it. I'm not, you know, it's always good to see you, sir. I just want to know what the plan here is long term. Is this something that you're going to be phased out in? Is this something you're going to hang around in? Are you going to be in advisory capacity like way? Is the deal
again, through the chair? My understanding is that the current city charter, requires the state to have a Public Land Department. Okay? That probably needs to be a charter amendment to eliminate that. But in the meantime, we still own several 100 miles of underground conduit that we lease out to various places, as well as running public safety cables, communication cables through them and all they're owned by the public lighting department, not the public authority. Doesn't own any assets. The street lights are owned by public lighting department. They're maintained by public lighting authority. Okay, so I don't know what the city's plans are for the future, how they're going to handle this, going give me my opinion, what it should be, but that's I'm not a politician, so no, no,
I understand, and I'm going to take that as a compliment that you said that, sir, not to put down. But I just wanted to say I understand what you're saying. But I learned from the bankruptcy very quickly, that state law usually could override city charter. And it was my understanding that state law said that all this stuff would be transferred over to the public lighting authority. Now maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. You know what I'm saying? I'll be the first one to come back and say I was but that was my understanding we were having that vote. Was that all this and maybe this and maybe this is a discussion for the lighting department. I mean, the light part, maybe discussion for law department that I need to be having with a corporation Council. But that was my understanding, all this is going to be transferred over to that area as part of the authorization of the public lighting authority when we voted on it in Lansing.
But maybe I need to talk to the law department
about that. Madam President, yes. Mr. Whitaker,
I think it would be a good idea for you to ask for either the law department or LPD to write on the situation that currently is this between the lighting department and the lighting authority? Okay, I think it might be helpful for for you to get some clear delineation as a result of what the charter is saying and what happened during the bankruptcy period when the public lighting Authority
came to life. I think it would be helpful, right?
Because I'm not, I'm not advocating one way or the other, but I just really, that's just really what I thought. So I'm going to take your advice. I would like to make a motion to law department and to LPD for an analysis on what happens to the public lighting department after the public lighting authority state law passed. All right, any objections,
excuse me, madam president, yes, which line item? First of all, if you tie a group of line items together, you have to make the same motion for all of them. For example, I moved to postpone 9.1 to 9.81 week. You can't tie them together and then postpone some and approve the other. You have to do them separately.
Okay, all right. Thank you so much, Madam parliamentarian, he okay. He's going to make a motion for an assignment. Is that okay? Is that proper? Now he's just making a motion for an assignment. He's
referring to which line item, 19.6 19.6
it would be best to take them in order.
But right now, because he wants to refer.
You want to in this group, 19.1 through 19.8 you have three motions, postpone, refer and approve.
Yeah, he's not. He's not gonna, I don't think he wants to refer the item anywhere. He just wants to make an assignment to LPD about an item. So, right? They're saying it's fine to refer the the assignment, okay, 19.6 right? It's about 19.6 but we're not actually moving the item itself. He's just giving an assignment to LPD about that item. Okay, okay, okay. So if there are they any, any objections on the assignment, hearing, none that action will be taken. Okay, yes,
if you can follow it up in writing, I will. Thank you.
Yes, sir, okay, do I need to send that
to the law department as well? Okay, I'll do that.
All right, so motion has been made for approval for 19.5 through 19.8
Madam Chair, yes. Bill online, Item 9.6 okay, like to make a motion to postpone it for one week. I have questions about it. Is that a company that I've not heard of, and it's located in district two, so I want to do my due diligence. I want to know what is the 154 and I don't see that. I'm not understanding, are they hiring? Have they already hired somebody? So I make a motion to bring light item, 9.6 back in one week, 9.6
19.6 19.6
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you. Any objections?
Thank you. No, no,
I want to make sure we're doing it right. Yep, we're taking them separately. So we're going to, we're going to postpone 19.6 for one week. Okay, okay. There are no objections. That action will be taken, and a motion has been made to approve 19.5 19.7 and 19.8
are there any objections
hearing? None. The motion will pass and those items will be approved.
Request a waiver, Madam President, for 19.7
any objections to a waiver for 19.7
Hearing none that action will be taken
for the planning and development department.
Council Member Santiago Romero three resolutions, line items, 19.9 through 19 point 11. Council
Member Santiago Romero, thank
you. Motion to approve 19.9 through 19 point 11. These are all various requests for easements.
I'm Hearing no objections. The three resolutions will be approved from the Department of Public Works, city engineering division. Council
Member Santiago Romero, a resolution line item 19 point 12, noting that this item was postponed from last week formal session.
Council Member Santiago Romero, thank
you, Madam President. Motion to send 19 point 12 back to committee, there needs to be a meeting with the bridge company and the community before we move this forward.
Any objections,
hearing, none. This item will be sent back to committee. We will now move to the new business portion of the agenda from the mayor's office.
Council member young, three resolutions, line items, 20.1 through 20.3
council member Young,
thank you, Madam President, I moved to approve line items, 20.1 through 20.3
All right. Motion has been made, and these are various city events that have all received departmental approvals. Are there any objections? Hearing? No objections. The three resolutions will be approved.
Madam Chair, yes. Member Calloway, request a waiver, online item 20.2
All right, any objections to a waiver
hearing, none that action will be taken
from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Council Member Santiago Romero, eight resolutions, line items, 20.4 through 20 point 11. Contract Number 6005067, 00506782, 100% grant funding, amendment two to provide an extension of time only for the burn criminal justice program, contract of Michigan State University. Total contract amount 99,000 that's for police. Next contract is contract number 6005395, dash a one, 100% major street funding. Amendment One, to provide an increase of funds for traffic signal maintenance and repairs city wide contractor J rank, electric incorporated total contract amount, 7,500,000 that's for public works. Next contract is contract number 6007051, 100% city funding to provide third party rental inspections for single family and two family homes. Contractor, prospections, LLC, total contract amount 2,119,200 75,000, 75,000 that's for BC. Next contract is contract number 6007052, 100% city funding to provide third party rental inspections for single family and two family homes. Contractor, the inspection group, doing business as Detroit inspection group, total contract amount, $3,656,205 that's for BC. Next contract line item, 20.8 contract number 6006965, 100% grant funding to provide same day para transit services, D, D, o, t. Now contractor SW transport company LLC, doing business as checker transportation. Total contract amount 1,820,000 that's for transportation. Next contract is contract number 6006966, 100% grant funding to provide same day para transit services. DD, ot now contractor mo transportation, LLC, total contract amount 780,000 that's for transportation. Next contract is contract number 6007047, 100% city funding to provide third party rental inspections for single family and two family homes. Contractor, custom built construction, LLC, total contract amount, 2,119,270 $5,000 that's for BC. Last contract is contract number 6007048, 100% city, funding to provide third party rental inspections for single family and two family homes. Contractor safe built Michigan LLC, total contract amount $4,235,625 and that's for BC council member, Santiago Romero, eight resolutions.
All right, thank you, Madam Clerk. Member Santiago Romero,
thank you, Madam President, motion to approve 20 points for through 20 point 11.
All right. Motion has been made. Are there any, any discussion? Discussion. Madam Chair, okay.
Member waters, okay, I do apologize for this to the chair. PHS, I just happen to not be in in the committee when it was discussed, so I have some questions. Madam President, okay,
so
from the department which items? Member waters. Oh, I'm so sorry. The rentals. Okay, yes, oh,
okay, um, Mister Washington, do we have someone on for? Looks like 20.6 and 20 467, yeah, and 11, yeah,
those the rentals.
It'll be quick. Yes, Madam Chair, we do have Arthur Russian on from BC. Okay,
all right, we will promote Mr. Russian.
Oh. Oh, okay, all right.
Oh, all right, all
right. Member waters go right ahead. All right.
Thank you, Madam President. Just just a few questions for you. Well, these contracts involve outsourcing the city inspectors We currently employ.
Mr. Rushing, can you hear member waters? Barely?
Okay, every time I have a soft voice, but I didn't think that's off, okay?
The reason, oh, well, that's too close.
The reason I'm asking these questions actually has a lot to do with the compliance ordinance. So the so the will this contract involved. That's the first question. Outsourcing the city inspectors We currently employ
no through the chair council member waters
these contracts.
They they won't outsource the work that the inspectors are are currently doing, we do have inspectors that are enforcing, as far as writing black tickets, inspecting complaint inspections, and doing multi family property inspections as well. The third party companies have been doing the one and two family inspections for us for about eight years now, just not under contract.
Alright, gotcha, um,
can you tell me how many city inspectors are the currently staffing, staffing for rental inspections right now,
right now, I believe we have approximately 40 inspectors that are doing inspections as far as multi multi family inspections, complaint inspections and blight inspections
and so how many? How many do you think we actually need? Is that enough? Or do we need more
currently? Right
now, we do staff to depend, yep, adequate staffing for what we're doing right now.
Okay, all right, put that down. Please. Budget time. So I'm just asking the questions. I know these numbers are still low, but I'm going to ask you anyway, how many And supposedly, after we passed that compliance ordinance, we were supposed to have more landlords to to be in compliance, have their certification. Has that number increased? So we still at a very, very low percentage
through the chair. We are working to increase that by making sure that we update our website, reaching out to to landlords. More specifically, what we're about to do right now is we have landlords that have registered their rental properties but have not obtain their certificate of compliance right now, and so we are reaching out to them to let them know the steps that they need to take in order to come into compliance. And so we are doing that. We're reaching out as far as with landlord organizations to give them information so that they can reach out to, you know, the landlords that they manage properties for. And we're also working with the Detroit Housing Commission as far as the property owners that have section eight properties within the city of Detroit. So we're doing a lot of outreach right now, and we anticipate that once these contracts are approved, that we would be able to fully implement some of the things that that we have planned.
Well. Thank you for the the outreach. I do worry that we're not going to be able to find some of these landlords. They they're probably in hiding and still renting out places that that they that are not in compliance? So then finally, I'll just ask you,
for the landlords that are city wide,
do they have any outstanding black tickets that are not paid or underpaid?
Do you know the number any
property owner that have received blank tickets, I know that the Department of appeals and hearings, after a period of time, they do put those into collection, and one of the things that I know that the Department of appeals and hearings will look at is the new component that was added into the rental ordinance as it pertains to liens. So property owners that do have a lot of real blight tickets that have not been paid, I know that it is our intention to impose liens on properties that do have a lot of black tickets.
Okay, all right then, well, that's it for me. Thank you so much, Madam President, thank you.
Member waters, member Callaway, yeah, Madam Chair, I'm going to make a motion to bring back in one week, or postpone for one week. 20.6 20.7 20 point 10 and 20 point 11. I'm wondering why Athens Michigan is getting $4.2 million for the third party rental inspections contracts. Athens Michigan 4.2 and then we have a company in Westerfield, Ohio getting 3.6 million. But our Michigan based, and Detroit and Detroit base is getting 2.1 so I'm just want to understanding. Don't really want to hear this capacity. So I would make a motion to, I'm making a motion to bring back those four line items, because I have several questions about these contracts. This is very, very important inspection work, and I just want to know why you these, all these different amounts.
Okay, thank you, Madam Chair.
All right, any
discussion on that? And that's 20.6 20.7
what were the remaining 10 and 1110? And 11, huh?
Any discussion?
Okay, any objections to postponing these for one week? Madam
President, yes. Um, so yes, I was asking for, I'm sorry I didn't see you. Go ahead. That's okay. Um, so I've got one more. I don't know that my discussion is relative to the postponement, but I would just like to ask a question, which we can discuss next week when it comes back. But I'm just curious to understand, Mr. Rushing, you indicated that we have adequate staffing to do the inspections when member waters asked about the 40 sectors. So I'm trying to understand the need for the contracts to bring in outside inspectors to do the inspection work. I wanted to clarify that part, and then am just wondering if these are, if there is a per property inspection fee that is included within these contracts. So that, if you have a contract where you anticipate being able to inspect 1000 properties, but only 50 properties get inspected, that there is a per property inspection fee, but because there's a motion on the floor relative to postponement, I'm just asking that you take those things into consideration when it comes back next week. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, okay,
thank you member Johnson. Just one
more question I I didn't hear him talk about, discuss the apartments, those, those, those buildings, in terms of how that was going to be handled by Madam President, you know, especially where our seniors live. Oh, my goodness, so many issues. So he, he didn't point that out. So, I mean, is it because of the motion? Is it not appropriate?
Yep, I think we're the motion now is to bring it back. And so at this point, I'm not sure if we can continue discussion. Madam, madam
parliamentarian, Madam President,
member Romero had made a motion to approve. Miss Callaway has made a motion to postpone what I suggest for right now, instead of lumping these all together because you're doing something different. Say, for example, two you want to postpone. Two you want to refer it's best just to do it separately. Do each line item unless you're going to do unless you're going to make a motion for the whole block is not permissible, okay, because you're you're changing this on one, you're changing this on the other, so don't do it as a block, okay, if you're going to postpone all of them, fine.
Okay, so her motion to postpone 20.6 20.7 20 point 10, and 20 point 11 is not okay.
Now okay, originally
you had 20.4 through 20 point 11, like she moved all those for approval, right? And then you had discussion, and then member Calloway acts for a postponement, correct, right. Okay, so
you're not going to approve that motion and you want to postpone it
actually,
to postpone would not suffice, because, according to Your rules, postpone is the least motion and you see, how can I explain this? Separate them. Okay, moving forward. Separate. Separate these line items. Okay, we'll try
to do that moving forward. And so, right now, she separates 20.6 20.7 20 point 10, and 20 point 11, there's a motion to at least postpone those Okay, and so we'll move forward with that if there's no objections in doing so, no objections, okay, hearing none. We will postpone those items and go back to the original motion that was to approve line items. 20
points.
You follow me? Yes, I
understand what you're saying. You like them doing them separately. 20.4 through 20 point 11, excluding the ones that were already postponed. Okay, any objections to items 20.4 through 20 point 11, excluding the ones that were already postponed.
Alright, hearing none
the remaining items will be approved. And I do understand, Madam parliamentary, you like to do them separate as well.
It's not that, excuse me, madam president, it's not that. I like to do them separately. It gets confusing. Mm, hmm. If you're going to put several line items together, just for future reference, if you're going to take a block of line items, you have to make the same motion for all of them. You can't say 20.4 to 20 point 11. I want to approve. I moved to approve 20.4 to 20 point 11. That was the motion to approve there. And actually, right after that motion is made, that's when the chair states the motion. Once the chair states the motion, restates the motion, then it's before the assembly. But the way that you all are doing it, it is improper, first of all, and confusing. Second of all, okay, so if you want to do four, 20.4 to 20.8 postpone. 20.9 through 20 point 11, referred to Committee or whatever. But you can't block them together and then do something different for all of them.
Okay, well, let's, let's talk it through, because I know we've been doing it that way, and if it's improper, we want to make sure we address it. So typically, we would group them as, you know, as a group, and then if someone within that group has an objection or would like to postpone one, the last motion was supersede the previous one, so we will postpone in that case. But if that's not proper, then we to discuss this in more detail later. Okay, and Mr. Whitaker, I don't know. Did you have anything as well? Okay, alright, alright. Thank you so much. Madam parliamentarian,
so So Madam President, yes, ma'am, does that? Does that? Is he not able to answer my question?
Just regarding they because we've already,
we've already motioned to bring it back. No, but
still you can't answer the question. You can't
because member Johnson had a question as well too that she didn't get her responses because we had decided that
we just wondered if it was appropriate or not. That's all.
Mister Russian, go right ahead, sir.
Thank you, Madam Chair council member waters, would you mind restating the question for me, please?
Well, you, you didn't, you didn't mention the apartments, you know, especially when it comes to a lot of these senior buildings and so forth. You know, of course, they are not the only ones, but they are huge concern. You didn't talk about how, how those were going to be done, and how many people you're going to have out there to inspect the buildings. We have a lot of buildings across this city
through the chair, so the third party inspection companies are only handling the one and two family inspections, and BC is handling all of the apartment buildings, all of the multi family structures, all of the condos, so we are still doing all of those inspections. Okay,
got you all right now it's clear to me. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you Madam President, thank
you member Johnson, would you like them to answer your question as well? Since he's no, I don't
want to be out of order. Thank you, Madam President, we'll talk about it next week. Okay,
all right, moving along to the next items
from the Office of contracting and procure in procurement?
Yes, we did,
from the Office of contracting and procurement.
Council member young two resolutions, line items, 20 point 12 and 20 point 13. Contract Number 6004568, dash, a one, 100% city funding. Amendment One to provide an extension of time only for light duty, vehicle repair services, general and body labor and or parts. Contractor by maxi ford Incorporated, total contract amount 939,000
for general services. Contract number 6007080,
100% major street funding to provide construction equipment, maintenance and repair services, including sweepers, contractor McQueen equipment LLC, total contract amount 600,000 that's for general services. Council member young two resolutions. Council member Young, thank you,
Madam President, moved to approve line items 20 point 12 and 20 point 13.
All right, any objections?
Hearing no objections, the two resolutions will be approved. Yes.
Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to request a waiver online. Item 20 point 13.
All right, any objections to a waiver
hearing, none that action will be taken
under resolutions.
Council member Johnson, a resolution line item 20 point 14. Council
member Johnson, thank you, Madam President, Move for approval. This is an updated City Council calendar for 2025
All right, and Hearing no objections, the one resolution for the City Council calendar will be approved.
Madam President, yes, request a waiver for 20.4 this is the grant for DPD. This is a extension of time only for their criminal justice program, and for 20.8 and 20.9 these are for same day para transit
services.
Okay, any objections to a waiver,
hearing, none that action will be taken. Thank you.
All right. And Madam Clerk, before referrals, can we go back to the resolution that we move down to the end of the agenda?
Madam President, that resolution is a testimony. All right, all right,
for the president's report on standing committee referrals and other matters for the budget Finance and Audit. Standing Committee
submittal of two memorandums. The two
memorandums will be referred to the budget Finance and Audit standing committee for the internal operations. Standing Committee
11 reports from various city departments.
The 11 reports
will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the Neighborhood and Community Services. Standing Committee, six reports from various city departments. The six reports will be referred to the neighborhood and community services, standing committee for the Planning and Economic Development standing committee,
three reports from various city departments. Three
reports will be referred to the Planning and Economic Development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee, six
reports from various city departments.
These six reports will be referred to the public health and safety Standing Committee, and Madam Clerk actually line item, 25.3 needs to be removed from the agenda, and we submitted at another time, and that is a referral to the planning and development department committee their motion To remove 25.3 from the agenda. So moved. Madam President, all right, Hearing no objections, that item will be removed, and that will be two items being referred to Planning and Economic Development. That's great. Thank you. Madam President, right. Thank you. Under the consent agenda, there
are no items. Madam President, all right, we will
move now to member Reports council member young,
Madam President.
All right, join coffee with Coleman. Friday, April 11 11am, to 1pm at good cakes and bakes. 19363, liver noise Avenue, again, join coffee with Coleman. Friday, April 11 11am, to 1pm good cakes and bakes. 19363, liver, noise Avenue, RSVP to register at 313-574-5449, that's coffee with Coleman. Friday, April, 11, 11am, to 1pm good cakes it bakes 19363,
liver noise Avenue 313-574-5449,
so, Friday, April, 11, 11am, 1pm, good cakes, it bakes 19363, liver noise Avenue, register, RSVP, 313-574-5449, good cakes, good people, good time. April 11. Hope to see you there. Thank you,
alright. Thank you. Member, young member, Santiago Romero,
thank you, Madam President. I want to invite District Six residents to join us for our monthly day six meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, April 2, at 6pm we will be virtual on Zoom and on Facebook. We're going to hear presentations from the Detroit reparations Task Force project clean slate and the American Water Resources Group. So please join us to learn more. Also for our monthly hours this this month, we are in partnership with the Henry Ford Health System, their workforce development and Talent Team. So if you have any questions or looking for career opportunities, please join us on Monday, April 7, at patent Park, from four to 6pm and save the date for Let's dance the six. This is our first events where we're trying to bring together our beautiful cultures to dance. We're going to be at lemon direct center on Saturday, April 12. We're going to have on site instructors, so if you want to learn how to hustle or dance the Bucha, please join us. We'll have some lunch. Thank you, Madam President, okay, thank you council member Johnson.
Thank you, Madam President. No report. All right. Thank you member Johnson. Member door Hall.
Thank you Madam President. And just want to thank all the residents who called in and said, Happy Birthday to us. We are enjoying the day. 41 years old today. So very grateful that in my you know, I had the ability to wake up this morning and not face tragedy, and so I'm grateful and thankful for that. And my heart goes out to the families in our district who were affected by the explosion. Yesterday, I was on the scene at about 6am and pulled up and and saw what is now a pile of rubble, but nevertheless, those are folks homes, and folks families were involved in that, and so our heart continues to go out to them. We have reached out to the families to ensure that they are going to receive temporary and or permanent housing. Had an opportunity to see some folks as well who are still being treated. Very devastating yesterday. So ask our community, ask our city to continue to give their thoughts and their prayers to those families that are affected and to those families know that we are all standing with you. Thank you, Madam President,
thank you. Member durha. Member Pro Temp Tate, a negative report. All right, thank you. Member waters,
thank you, Madam President, is it appropriate to move something to Executive Session, is that tomorrow.
Can we do that now? Or has to be in this session.
Your microphone isn't on.
There is nothing that will stop you from doing that. Okay? Member waters the writing, okay. All
right. Well, thank you so much. All right, so I want to add to Executive Session. My first motion, repair dollars, for people who currently live in land, bank homes, Home Repair dollars. But to add that
first motion,
okay, any objections, hearing, none that will be added to Executive Session member waters. And then I have a motion
for our the tennis Rights Commission regarding marketing. That's my second motion.
Any objections,
hearing none that will be added. And member waters, do you have figures for any of these? I will you will, okay, go ahead. Member waters,
all right. And just like I need figures for the next motion, commissioner of literacy study, and certainly going to give you more specific information
of what we're looking for. Okay,
Hearing no objections that will be added to our executive session. And then
the final motion
is regarding our fire stations.
The fire fire stations need beds. Their beds are 20 years old and older, and our firemen deserve better, and so I want to add beds for our firemen to Executive Session.
Okay, Hearing no objections that action will be taken.
Thank you, Madam President,
thank you. Member waters. Member Benson,
Thank you. Member Benson, member
Callaway, thank you. And good afternoon. Thank you, Madam Chair. Real quick. Tomorrow is National Walking Day, and I'm hoping everybody will get out or get outdoors and walk, or you can walk and indoors if you can, if you can, and excited about that, and some of the benefits of walking is heart health, weight management, reduced risk of chronic diseases, improved bone health, boosted immunity, improved joint health, increase energy, reduces stress and anxiety, improves your mood, enhance cognitive function, better sleep, increase self esteem. And you don't have to walk miles. You can just take your time, take steps, indoors or outdoors, whatever is comfortable for you. But there's benefits to walking, and again, tomorrow is National Walking Day. Next our monthly coffee and conversation will be Monday, April the 14th, at the Adams, but so rec center from 8am to 9am everyone is invited. You do not have to live in district two to come. It's very informal. We've always have wonderful, wonderful guest speakers from departments. Yes, ma'am. So again, Monday, April the 14th is our district two monthly coffee and conversation. It is only one hour from 8am to 9am at the Adams. But so rec center. And then April the 21st is our monthly virtual call, one hour from 530 to 630 I do believe our our Inspector General will be our guest speaker, and that is 530 to 630 virtual call, April the 21st and you can call my office at two to 445 35 to get that meeting link. Thank you, Madam Chair. All
right. Thank you so much. Member, Calloway, and just a reminder do the due to the occurrence yesterday at the wayne county treasurer's office, the deadline for foreclosure prevention and to submit a Notice of Intent form has been extended until April the eighth. Walk ins and appointments every business day from April 2 through April the eighth are available. April the 14th, at 4pm our office will be having our virtual office hours focusing on street vending, encouraging all of our street vendors to please attend as we are looking for input and possible changes to the ordinance again. April the 14th, at 4pm our office will be hosting our virtual office hours, focusing on street vending, encouraging all of our street vendors to attend. All right, that is all of the reports I have for today. We will move now to adoption without committee
reference. There are no items Madam President, under communications from the clerk, a report on approval of proceedings by the mayor.
The report will be received and placed on file under testimonial resolutions and special privilege. Council
President, pro tem James Tate, four resolutions, including line item 18.5,
pro Tim Tate, Madam President, move approval of the resolutions, all
right, and Hearing no objections, the resolutions will be approved, all right. And if there is nothing else to come before us as reminder, we move into executive session tomorrow at 10am to continue our budget deliberations. There's nothing else to come before us. Is there a motion to adjourn. So Madam President, all right, this meeting will stand adjourned. Everyone Have a blessed day. And there is cake from council member durha staff in The back. Okay, Yep. Yep.
