The Internal Operations Standing Committee met on Wednesday, September 10, 2025, to approve minutes, hear public comments, interview nominees for the Brownfield Community Advisory Council, and consider settlement requests and new business items. The meeting was chaired by Councilmember Letitia Johnson, with Councilmembers Mary Waters and Angela Whitfield Callaway present.
Welcome to the Internal Operations Standing Committee meeting on today, Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll? Councilmember Letitia Johnson. Present. Councilmember Mary Waters. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway. Madam Chair, you have a quorum present. Thank you. Having a quorum present, we are now in session. Good morning, colleagues. Is there a motion on the minutes? Motion. There's a motion to approve the minutes. Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken. We are going to move into public comment. If you are joining us in person or virtually and would like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. We were a tad bit delayed because of technical difficulties. So we are going to cut off public comment shortly. If you are joining us for public comment, please raise your hand. Seeing no hands raised in the committee of the whole. We're going to give you five seconds to raise your hand if you'd like to make a public comment. And five, four, three, two, one. The collection of public comment has now concluded. And good morning, Ms. Jackson. How many hands do you have? There are 11 hands raised for virtual public comments. Okay, let's set the clock for two minutes. And we don't have anyone here in the committee of the whole, so we will get started with the first virtual caller when you are ready. The first caller is William M. Davis. William M. Davis, do you have two minutes for general public comment? Good morning, young ladies. Can I be heard? Good morning, yes. Okay, I like to start off by saying what I normally say is the fact that I think the city of Detroit still has too many losses and demplifications. You know, we spend a whole lot of money on lawsuits. I mean, a whole lot of money and losses. And we spent some a lot of money on defending people. And don't get me wrong, there are times we need to defend and pay how help pay their uh their legal um challenges. But but but but there's a lot of times when people are having frequent accidents that when people are doing stuff that violates law and city rules and regulations that we should not be stepping out there and paying at. You know, what y'all spend on lawsuits every year could be an additional monies that could help close the gap so that city track retirees who this whole bankruptcy grand theft, which has been on our backs. You know, more needs to be done to help City Detroit retirees. More needs to be done to help senior citizens in this city. Um, but far too much money is going to a lot of lawsuits, a lot of indemnifications, a lot of stuff that wasted. Far too much money is going to abatements, you know. You know, and you have a lot of millionaires and billionaires. They do these projects and they don't do everything they're supposed to do that they got the abatements for. But yeah, I don't call back anything from them, but y'all claw back almost a thousand dollars a month to my check.