Are you ready?

All right.

All right, good afternoon, everyone.

We will now call to order the committee of the whole.

And Madam Clerk or Mr.

Clerk, good afternoon.

Please call the roll.

Good afternoon, Councilmember Scott Benson.

Councilmember Fred Joe Hall the third.

Present.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Councilmember Gabriel Santiago Romero.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Councilmember Coleman Young the second.

Council President Pro Tem James Tate.

Not here.

Sorry.

Council President Mary Sheffield.

Present.

Madam President, there's a quorum.

All right.

We are now in session, and we are here for the purposes of interviews for the Ombudsman position here for the City of Detroit.

We will start off with public comment for those who are here who have joined us in person for public comment.

We will have two minutes.

Do we have cards or okay?

Perfect.

All right.

We will start with uh Miss Burton.

Okay, and um, because we don't have Zoom uh working today, Ari is going to be keeping the time the old school way with his cell phone and with a piece of paper.

So just look to your right and you will see your time indicated there.

All right, Miss Burton, you are first.

Good afternoon, council.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I come in support of Deputy Ombudsman Gail Bernard for the position of Ombudsman.

And I thank you, and I concede my time.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you for being here.

Dr.

Bonnie Pharrell.

Hi.

Your microphone, Dr.

Bonnie.

Just press the bottom of your microphone.

It should turn green.

There you go.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Madam President, thank you for allowing me to speak.

So I am pleased to endorse Gail Bernard for the Ombudsman's position on behalf of the Field House Block Club.

I'm a precinct delegate 120, and we support her.

And here's why.

Gail has been a true asset to our community, diligent, tenacious, and consistent in her leadership.

Currently, we have we are navigating through some changes with new mayor, city council, police commissioner, and we need strong, steady leadership more than ever.

And I am confident Gail would bring the dedication, fairness, and integrity to this role.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

Thank you so much.

When I start this, Madam President, thank you so much.

Uh City Council members, uh, I'm here to support Gail.

Uh she's a proven leader, is a proven leader, and someone that always takes care of the community no matter where they come from.

Uh she always returns calls, stays on top of issues, and I think that that's what we need in our community.

I don't care whether you're from the east side, west side, northwest, or southwest.

Uh, she's someone that pays attention to our needs are and makes sure that she follows up.

I am totally supportive.

My name is Jane C.

Garcia, and I'm a resident of Southwest Detroit, and I know that she will continue to do what she does best, and that's being a proven leader.

Gracias.

Right, gracias.

Thank you so much.

Buenas thought of this.

Good afternoon.

I'm Mary Carmen Wunos, Executive Director for Latin Americans for Social and Economic Develop Development, also known as La Set in Southwest Detroit.

I'm here to also support Gail Bernard.

Um Gail is a tremendous individual that represents all people and all communities so well.

She's dedicated to the city, dedicated to serving those that are underserved, and is always there to help us in in anything that we might need and to act as a as a mediator and so and as an advocate for our community.

Thank you very much.

Thank you as well.

Good afternoon.

I'm Elena Hirada.

I also am here in support of Gail Bernard.

Mainly I I also would like to mention that I've received many calls today from people who were asking about why this is not on Zoom.

And I insisted that that's not my department.

But I just wanted to let you know that people wanted to participate who couldn't get here.

I am supporting Gail Bernard because of her long professional career and the wonderful, wonderful culture of the Ombudsman's office, which is always professional and so helpful.

Every time, even if I've gotten a call saying, is there any more information you can give us?

I have often gotten help from her office, and I just really want to give support to Gail Bernard.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And before we proceed, uh Director Whitaker, if you can just briefly speak to the resolution that was passed by council that did indicate that this would not be a hybrid meeting and that everything will be conducted in person.

Yes.

Thank you, Madam Madam President.

We we uh drafted a resolution that was passed on September the 2nd by counsel, indicating that this meeting would be a committee of the whole, would be done today, and it would not be a hybrid meeting.

And the reason why it's not hybrid is that these candidates need each need a fair shake at an interview without the first one being put at a disadvantage by allowing the the candidates at the end to get the benefit of having to watch and observe and learn from mistakes, perhaps that the first candidates make.

So in order to create fairness, we decided it had to be um a non-hybrid meeting.

We recognize that that short certain certainly would shortchange the public's participation.

That's why we noticed it and put it in the resolution in the resolution far in advance to give people sufficient time to prepare to come in person if they wanted to participate in this session.

So it was fairness to the candidates that's coming before council is the reason why it's done this way.

Okay, all right.

Thank you for that, Director Whitaker.

It will be aired in its entirety after this, so that the public will understand and get a chance to observe each one of the interviewees.

Yep.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh Edith Ford.

Hi, good afternoon, um, council, council president.

Uh the microphone, Miss Ford.

Just press the bottom.

Let's just leave those on for now.

Sorry about that.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Good afternoon, counsel, and good afternoon, council person Sheffield.

Um, I am here from the Pink Creek Park neighborhood to support Gail Bernard to be Ombudsman.

One of the things that I'm a very grassroot organizer, most of you know, and one of the problems that we have in city government is that when a new person comes, our problems have to start all over.

When we may be in the middle of getting them resolved, and she will be the consistency to help make sure things don't have to start over.

She understands what's going on.

Um, she's been in our community and she has been very helpful and also helpful with our red residents understanding exactly the role of the ombudsman.

So we um support her in that position as ombudsman, and we hope that she'll be the person that you guys decide on.

Make your final decision on.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Uh Kimberly Marble.

Yes.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Thank you all, all council members and everyone that's out here giving me the opportunity to come in here and say what I need to say for the person that I think is um a good candidate.

And that is uh Dennis Perkins from he used to be my uh deputy district manager, and the reason why I feel that he is a good person for that.

That area was really worn down, broke down, and it needed a lot of help.

And I seen him, didn't know who he was at that time, but I asked him, hey, who are you?

And he said, I'm Dennis Perkins.

I'm the deputy district manager.

From that, a beautiful relationship came for us to be able to talk and be open.

My community was able to come and talk with him.

He came and seen the issue where I was, which was very bad.

I'm sure you all been following.

Y'all know this little face with proposal in.

It got passed.

He helped keep things going and me abreast and them abreast of who I am, and to speak for my whole community.

It's a lot of older people in my community that might not have had felt that they could speak.

So I was speaking up for all of them.

It looks beautiful over there.

He knows the things that's happening over there.

I think he will be beautiful because there were other people who didn't give me that much time to follow me to see exactly what my problem was.

He was helpful in a lot of different directions and things that I didn't need, but some of the older people that has been there 40-something years, he was able to help them.

So I think Dennis will be a good because he was very helpful for me and the people that was over there didn't understand why my area got nothing because we're we were like 60% abandoned.

It wasn't a lot of people.

So we didn't get the that's who I hope get it because there are more things that need to be done.

There are a lot of people that are that stood.

Oh, I did it.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you as well.

Go to work.

Mr.

Arthur Edge.

Oh, yes.

Good afternoon, Honorable Council.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I'm here in support of Gail Bernard.

She has been with the Budsman, uh, deputy director of the current ombudsman Bruce Simpson and the previous ombudsman.

I've worked with Miss Bernard on many cases that the Budsman has had for the city.

And she has always been fair, non-political, and to get the things done, whether it is for the citizens or the city and getting it done correctly.

So in what I'm saying is that she is your best choice and your only choice for the next ombudsman.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

Go right ahead, Paul.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Council and Council President.

Um Paul Chenault.

I'm here to support candidate for the ombudsman for the city of Detroit to be uh district two department of neighborhoods manager Kim Tandy.

Uh my mother stays in District 2.

So I attend a lot of meetings, a lot of workshops, a lot of programs, a lot of functions in regards to uh District 2 and many other districts.

Uh I think Kim Tandy really is down to earth with her residence as well as the businesses.

Uh she does a very good job at what she does over there in District 2.

Uh so that's why I'm in full support.

I hear people saying that um you know you have to carry over leadership.

Uh but I believe sometimes something new is just as good as something carrying over.

Uh I yield my time.

Uh, have another meeting to go to.

Okay.

Have a good day.

Thank you so much.

All right, Miss Nancy.

Is it Nancy Barner?

Nancy Barner.

Good afternoon, and thank you for allowing me to come and speak on my daughter's behalf.

So I bring up a personal view here.

Uh Kim Barner Tandy uh has worked as a district manager for 12 years.

Uh, there's not an area or neighborhood, I believe, or a neighborhood association that she hasn't assisted and worked with and resolving whatever concerns or issues that they have.

She's always available.

She works 24-7, 365.

Uh, but I also see that uh the district manager's position is really kind of a subset of what the uh ombudsmans do.

And so I'm I'm asking you to vote for her so she can bring her knowledge, her previous experiences as district manager and so forth um to this position.

But most of all, her passion and love for this city.

Uh it's it's one we're native Detroiters, and so she is she's worked with the with the uh mayor's office and so forth for a long time now.

So she does bring a lot of experiences and knowledge.

So I asked for that vote.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you as well.

Miss Helen Moore.

Good afternoon.

I took off some time from the school board problems to come down here when I got a call.

That this was going to happen right now.

All I can say to you is every time I came down here for something, office, which is one of Barbara Rose's favorite grandchildren.

We helped they helped me up right away.

Now I just want to make sure that everybody knows that the ombudsman, Gail, is one person that sees about us, the citizens.

She doesn't stop and and say just talk to somebody else.

She immediately deals with the problems, especially if it has to do with the school system.

So I'm just down here.

I got dressed real fast.

I did not know it was going on this soon, just to tell you, don't make a mistake.

Vote for her because she is the one that knows everything.

You don't have to train anybody like me for 62 years with the school system.

She knows everything.

So please make her our ombudsman.

Thank you very much.

Thank you as well.

Pamela Brown.

Hello.

Um, I'm here in support of Gail Bernard for the Ombudsman position.

Um, from day one from the time I met her back in 2005.

Um, from day one, from the time I met her back in 2005, I was so impressed about the things that she did and the passion that she has for the city of Detroit.

I'm a native Detroiter.

I'm 61 years old.

I've been here all of my life, and I look for people that that have a genuine care and love for their city or and others, not just uh a facade or whatever, but somebody who truly cares from their heart and not just say it but show their love for the citizens of the city of Detroit.

She has been such a blessing to myself and my family and my neighborhood.

I'm part of the uh school craft association, and anytime I call, I'll be calling for Bruce, but she ended up getting me.

So anytime when I have any type of problem, she has always been there for me, um, personal and professional as well.

So I pray that she gets the position of the umbudsman because she's truly worthy of that position.

Okay, thank you so much for sharing that, Madam Chair.

Yes, Member Callaway.

Can you repeat her name, please?

Pamela Brown.

Pamela.

Pamela, that was Pamela Brown.

Thank you.

Yeah.

One in your history.

All right.

Um, is that the end of that will be conclude all of our public comments?

Thank you all for taking the time to come down and speak on um for public comment.

We appreciate it.

Uh, and we will now proceed to our interviews.

What we will start off doing uh is allowing the first candidate to uh proceed with two-minute introductions.

Um after that, uh, we will allow questions from our colleagues.

What we'll do is if you have a question, uh please just raise your hand and we will allow for uh you to ask your questions.

We are trying to keep each interview uh to 20 minutes.

That is what each one is scheduled to be at, and so we will monitor the time as well.

So we will start with our first uh person, which will be Gail Bernard, and if the clerk would note, Member Young has joined us, Member Johnson has joined us, and everyone is here.

Clerk will snow.

Okay.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, and thank you so much for your willingness to serve and apply for this position.

We appreciate you, and we're gonna open it up with two-minute introductions.

Okay, and then from there we will proceed with questions.

Thank you.

Well, good afternoon.

I would like to thank this honorable body for this tremendous opportunity to be interviewed for the Ombudsman appointment.

Now, I do realize this is a little more than an interview.

This is more like a gathering of the minds to carefully select the next city ombudsman.

The candidate that will be selected will carry the heavy but honorable weight of improving city services with honesty and transparency.

Our city is unique in many ways.

Our challenges and our goals are different than most, and I know these challenges with two decades of serving ombudsman constituents.

I have saw thousands of complaints, and I feel like I want you to consider me and consider my compassion and sit consider having me the next ombudsman.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

We appreciate you.

And we will start uh with questions from colleagues again.

We are going to uh start off with the first one round of questioning.

And does anyone want to start off with questions?

Okay, member Callaway.

Yeah, I I um don't um have a question necessarily.

I just want to thank you for your decades of service to that office.

Um, you know it very intimately.

Um you understand the inner workings of it, and um, so I don't have any questions for you, but thank you so much for your willingness.

Thank you for your willingness to serve in that capacity and to be interviewed.

Thank you so much, ma'am.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Pro Tim Tate.

Thank you, Madam President.

And I'll also like to echo uh the sentiment.

Uh thank you for your uh service thus far and your willingness to serve in this uh new capacity as well.

Question I have is just if you can just kind of elaborate a bit on why do you I mean you've had years in doing this, and I get this question myself, right?

Right, you've got years of doing this.

Why do you still want to do it?

What do you get out of being in the ombuds person's position?

Right.

Well, a lot of people do ask me that because I do take problems home with me.

I do drive by areas and we don't put blinders on, so I'm always in ombudsman's mode.

Um, I want to do this because the passion I have.

Um, I want to continue my mission on what I've been doing.

I if you look at what the proposal that I gave you on page four, I have initiatives that I want to continue.

So I want you know, I'll tell you the other day I got a call from an older woman, and she said, I can't even sit on my porch and drink coffee.

And it's people like that that makes me want to continue.

Thank you.

Okay, so uh again for me, just want to again thank you for your uh service.

We've interacted, of course, serving on council over here over the years.

Can you just talk a little bit about um with the wealth of experience that you've had for over a decade now?

What are some changes you would like to bring uh to the office, and then what does success look like for you by 2036 at the end of your 10-year term?

Right.

You look back to say this this has been a success, or would you have liked to include?

Sure, sure.

So if you look on page for I have some of my goals, um, what I want to do as soon as I get in, if I'm so blessed to get this position, I would like to assign an assistant ombudsman to each council member.

So you will basically have your we call ourselves um buddies.

So you will basically have your own umbuddy.

That person will be responsible for attending all of your staff meetings.

Um I'm sorry, not your staff meetings, of course not, all of your meetings, all of your outreach events.

Um, we will take your complaints from beginning to end and see them out and keeping you abreast of what's going on in your office.

Okay, uh, and then the second part of the question was just what what was success look like for you living back at the end of your of your term?

I think um how many lives we've touched.

Yeah, okay.

All right, um, member Durhal.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon to you.

Thank you so much for your tremendous years uh of service.

I'm sure the residents, as we can hear, uh, really appreciate that.

Uh my question uh kind of revolves around something that the current umbudsman uh stated, and I remember this when I came in about the importance of the ombudsman office.

Uh what is your thoughts behind subpoena power?

Uh uh, how it should be utilized, how would you utilize it uh in this role?

Yes.

So again, we always say it'll be a sad day if we have to use subpoena power.

Um now so far in Mr.

Simpson's um tenure, we have not even had to come close because we have bridged so many gaps between the departments, but I do I'm thankful that in the charter it does state that we have subpoena power because if we have to use it, we will, and I do believe in using it.

Okay, through you, Madam President, just a follow-up question, uh kind of dovetelling off of council president's question.

If you could change anything right now uh for the current office, and you would do something different under your leadership, what would that thing be?

Um I think probably I was thinking I identify one thing.

We usually we have 14 staff members, and each staff member communicates with all the departments.

I want to have one staff member assigned to each department, so we won't have 14 people contacting one department.

Okay.

Um if I can, madam president, just a final follow-up, just going deeply into the departmental aspect.

Um as we've seen without getting deep into specific situations, sometimes the ombudsman plays an important role in investigative oversight uh uh agency or leg uh of our government.

Uh what reporting-wise, transparency-wise to council members.

Uh, what does that look like from your leadership in the office of how we can understand what's going on in real time, not just when the report is done?

And that is why I do want to assign an assistant ombudsman to each district.

And maybe we can meet quarterly.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you so much.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your 20 years of service to the residents throughout the city of Detroit.

It's clear that many of them have come out in support of you and they appreciate the work that you have done thus far.

Can you talk about your ability to resolve conflicts and be in fair for all parties?

Right.

So you know, again, I'm going to refer back to that charter.

It's very important and transparency and integrity that we talk about that in our office all the time.

I do want to have more meetings about it and more training.

However, that's what it looks like.

And if you don't, it's unlawful and unethical.

Thank you.

And considering you've been in the office for 20 years, how do you see your relationship with the departments?

Do you have you been able to provide suggestions that were implemented seeing that you know an investigation results in something perhaps policy wise that needs to be changed internally?

Can you just kind of speak to that?

Yes, so I know in the past we've seen, you know, like if we have problems with departments, we might sit down and talk to them because maybe there's a lack of resources, so maybe we can help them.

So in the past, we have made recommendations to this honorable body to give more funding to a certain department, and that has gone through.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Councilmember Santiago Ramiro.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you as well.

Ms.

Bernard, I have a simple question.

Um would like to know.

We have a lot of issues here in the city of Detroit.

Yes.

Is there one in particular that was big that your office was able to address that you're really proud of?

Um if so, what was that issue and how did you address it?

You know, we have big issues, um, and you may consider an issue that the public would say, oh my God, wow, you know, but something that's near dear to my heart is I can remember helping a lady who was losing her house to planning and development, her husband died without the deed being recorded.

And it took probably three years to get this done.

I mean, I have a big file of paperwork, and it's things like that that really makes me proud.

Agreed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Member Durha.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just want to answer as one more follow-up question.

Um, you've been here for 20 years.

Um I respect a lot of your work because uh you're not as front-facing as the ombudsman, but we definitely see your fingerprints on a lot of things uh that have got done gotten done.

How do you make how do you view you making that transition uh if you are to be selected by us and you are going to be the actual ombudsman?

Right.

Uh, what are your thoughts behind that uh as well as engagement?

How do you organize that?

How do you think that transition will be?

Thank you for that.

Well, one thing I know you don't have to be, as being being in deputy, I realize you don't have to be the face of the office to really care about it, but that transition will not be hard at all.

I um I have experienced being like sitting in his seat many a times.

Um I probably will have to do a little bit more outreach, which I think I would enjoy.

And we always say if an ombudsman stays in the office, he's not really doing his job.

So I think that would be an easy transition.

I mean, I know it will thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Member Waters?

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, please allow me to thank you for for your use of service, just as my my colleagues have.

So just a couple of quick questions.

Uh, what would distinguish your leadership from that of the current uh ombudsman?

Um, I think, as I said, I have a few goals that I want to implement.

I want to hire a more diverse staff, and I do want to assign assistance to each one of your districts.

I think that would really make a difference.

Um I also want to increase our outreach presence, even though we have we've come miles from before, but I still want to continue that.

But I think those are the things that would make a difference.

All right.

So just one other um, so in your current position, what will you say is your crowning achievement?

What would that be?

I would say maybe our software.

Um we from 2005 until about 2017, we used a software that was antiquated.

It was called a case tracker, and we inherited it from the previous administration, Mr.

John Eddings.

So I made it my mission to find a new software, and it's called Wing Sweat.

Wing Swept is well-based, so we can open it up from anywhere in the world, check a compression, uh check a complaint to see what's going on with it, logic complaint.

Now that's something we wouldn't have been able to do around COVID time.

Um we can it has a tickler file on it, so it alerts us when a complaint is outstanding.

It's like the umbrella in our office.

You know, when you set up an office, the first thing you look at is software.

So it has enabled us to take thousands of complaints.

So I I think that's what I'm most proud of.

And since you mentioned COVID, is that um was it very helpful, especially during COVID, because so many of us couldn't get outside.

It was especially helpful.

It I don't think we would have been able to take the complaints we took, and people were in the paddock.

We didn't know what was gonna happen.

So people were really calling at that time.

We we never shut down.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Member Waters.

Member um Benson.

Thank you.

Just to uh give additional kudos for your time um and work here with the city of Detroit and our residents.

Um you speak to it in your packet.

Can you just talk more about how do you plan or how would you plan to further leverage technology to support the work of the ombudsman's office?

Yes.

So we've been looking into it, and you know, when we talk about AI, we it's really technology, you know.

We look at it like it's something out of this world, but it's really another word for technology, and I always give an example of I when I call somewhere, I want to call, I want to talk to a person.

Now, my daughter, she says I don't like to talk to people, I want to put the complaint in, get a complaint number, get it closed.

So I want to help both, you know, her and myself.

So, you know, um, I think that's what I'm looking for, something that will help all the citizens.

Maybe a person can call or not call and just put in a complaint, get a complaint number and see it open and close without talking to a person.

All right, thank you.

Any additional questions?

All right, if you thank you so much again again.

We appreciate your service and your uh time here today.

Thank you.

And we wish you the best.

Thank you again.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for being here.

Okay, we will proceed to our next applicant, and that will be Reggie Davis.

Oh, hand this out to Reggie.

You could just have a seat there.

I'll have Pierce pass out anything you have for us.

And good afternoon to you.

Good afternoon.

All right, once you just see you, sir.

Once you get situated, we're going to uh allow you to have two-minute opening remarks, and then we'll go straight to QA, and we're gonna try to keep each interview to about 20 minutes.

Got it.

And we're gonna pass out um these documents.

Thank you, Pierce.

All right, uh, greetings, uh, Madam President, uh, Mr.

Pro Tem, and to our esteemed uh city council members.

Uh I am thankful to be here before you today, and um I just want to say that I believe that I am well suited for the role of legislative ombuds.

Um I have uh worked both the legislative and the administrative branches of municipal government, and I think that's something important for uh this position.

Uh also I uh was it was elected to write the city's charter uh and to just to sit in a room, just think about it, sit in the room and design the the framework, the structure of uh municipal government operations.

Uh that is a plus.

So I think that's something good for our next unbuds to have.

As far as education, uh dear madam uh president.

Uh I have a master's degree in public administration, and I am currently working on my doctorate degree in public administration.

Uh I'll be done in uh about 18 months.

Um I also am a part of a program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government's uh public learning credential program.

It's a three-year program.

I'm a part of a fraternity of learners and scholars at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

I think this is a great uh plus for uh our legislative ombuds uh to possess.

Uh I would like to say thank you to our current uh umbuds and his his uh team for all the great work they've done the past 10 years.

But there's always room for improvement, and uh I want you to know that um I have a team that are that is ready uh to come and and make some improvements in that office.

Uh I have assembled a profound team of experts, uh including a fabulous attorney uh uh whose expertise is uh municipal government.

I think that's very important.

Um my team and I would like to to come into the office uh and implement numerous streamlining uh modifications.

Uh one would be we would like to create a diverse uh team, a diverse team of people that work with us.

Um we want to have the multicultural multilingual team, if I might say.

I think that is very important.

Uh and I I want to say that our team wants to come in and put in many more uh streamlining modifications.

Hopefully, we'll have time today to talk about them.

Um so uh I want to talk now uh real quick, I'm gonna speed up real quick.

I want to talk about uh one piece that that we feel me and my team feel that needs to be disposed of, and that is uh the wing swept data management system.

If we come in, we found that our my research and findings have found that uh wing swept is designed for organizations uh who uh whose workflow is in large part formal investigations.

Uh per my research and findings, our current uh umbuds, the work that they do is uh is maybe 10 to 15 percent formal investigation, so that's waste.

So uh we must streamline.

So uh what we want to do is to get get rid of it uh immediately.

And another issue about uh the wing swept data management system is that it does not integrate with our geographic information system.

We have to have a geographic information system in the office of uh the umbuds.

Uh so that's something that we want to look at.

Um out with the old, in with the new.

That that it's it's very costly and complex to to make that GIS system connect or integrate with the uh wing swept data management system.

So my team of experts uh would like to come in and as I mentioned, out with the old, in with the new.

Uh we have a uh a piece called the th the 311 CRM.

Uh this data management system, uh, some texts refer to it as improved Detroit on steroids.

Um and this is what we want to bring in.

I'll say this and I and I'll conclude, uh Madam President.

Uh the new 311 CRM, we bring that to the city of Detroit.

Uh it is able to be integrated with the GIS uh geographic information system, which is so important.

Uh this 311 CRM uh management system um has many different features.

It's friendly, user-friendly, uh, it's automated, it's secure, and it has the following uh features chat box, text and capabilities, notifications, process automation, survey deployment, mobile first, AI bot, and more.

But the most important, the most important, madam president, feature that it has is geocoding capabilities, and this will allow for the integration of the geographic information system, and we will now be able to in real time capture every every uh citizen that wants to make a complaint, will capture it in real time on our district map.

Okay.

All right, and I hope that I can say more about the uh uh this uh uh 311 CRM data management uh system.

It's a lot of important things about it.

Okay, and I would also, madam president, I'm sorry.

We have to I'm sorry, madam president.

I just got so much to say.

I'm sorry.

I'm gonna do that.

I understand, I understand.

I just want to make two minute rule out there and allow you all to try to stay within.

So but thank you.

We appreciate your passion.

Um, Reggie Ridge.

So we all know you, and we thank you for your commitment to the betterment of Detroit and your service in our city and for stepping up to apply for this position.

Thank you.

All right, we're gonna now go directly to um any questions that any of my colleagues may have for um Mr.

Reggie Davis.

Pro Tim Tate.

Thank you, Mr.

Proton.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh good afternoon, sir.

Uh we've known each other for quite some time and senior as Madam President indicated around the city of Detroit doing good work.

So thank you for the service that you've done thus far.

And your willingness to um transition your work into this this position.

You mentioned in your statement, you and your team, you and your team, you and your team, um, which would lead to believe that you already have the individuals that you would like to bring on with you.

If that is the case, what type of evaluation do you have for the folks who've been in the office currently?

Um some of them have been there for a number of years and have institutional knowledge.

Absolutely.

So talk to us about what what that looks like instead of absolutely coming in.

Thank thank you.

Uh thank you, Member Tate.

I appreciate that.

I'll start by saying uh there I know the whole team just about that's there now, and I would like to keep the all of them if I can.

Um and when I said team, I'm only speaking about a couple of individuals who uh want to come in and help with uh like the technology part.

Um my team and I want to bring in innovation in that office.

That's I I did we did a total uh shakeup of that office, and through our research and findings, we see that there's a ton of work to do with technology.

Um, and that's our main focus.

So when I say team, I'm particularly speaking of uh the technology uh group of uh people, maybe one or two people really that can come in and to help us take out the wing swept system.

Uh and we've we have uh a young lady uh down in uh Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Miss Garcia, uh Masters in Public Administration, she has the the 311 CRM system with her.

They just put it in, just implemented it about uh 16 months ago, and she's working with us to show us how uh certain things don't work and how in Detroit, because we're much bigger than Fort Lauderdale, uh they have 200,000, we have 600 something thousand that we need to take our time with instituting with with implementing the 311 CRM uh you know project here uh because it could take between 90 and 100 days uh 180 days because there's so much work that you have to do when you bring in this new system.

So our experts back to that are just a few people who understand they're mainly technology uh experts.

Thank you for that.

And my follow-up, uh Madam President, is all of that, you know, everything we do has a cost attached to it.

Absolutely.

So if you're looking at bringing in new staff, what is that?

Have you factored in with that the budget of the umbuds person's position or office holds, and how have you factored that into the retention of staff and bringing in two new people?

Yes, sir.

So 17 FTEs um is more than enough for what we uh need to do.

Uh and and uh looking at the two million dollars uh budget, um everything fits uh perfectly to have uh if if we choose to 17 FTEs making an average uh with between 60, 65 uh thousand and and 90,000 dollars, depending on where they are, uh it it all works out and allows us to have uh another cash flow to do all the the other important things that we have to do out of that office.

But as far as cost for the system, I'm glad you brought that up.

I was able to negotiate with uh a few vendors and uh one vendor, uh which is the 311 CRM.

Uh I was able to negotiate a price from 95,000 all the way down to 75,000, and that includes the um SREARC.

So we have the we're gonna have the 311 CRM, that's our data management system, and we're going to integrate uh the SREARC uh uh geographic information system into it, uh, so that we'll be able to on a district map get uh complaints citywide uh in real time.

Uh so the vendor, Civic Plus, uh they've worked a very good deal with us with everything all in for uh 75 uh thousand dollars.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you so much.

Member Durha.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon to you, sir.

Uh good afternoon.

Some of the same comments, appreciate some of the work that you've done over the years serving.

Sir, thank you.

Uh as well.

Very well respected across the city and through our constituency.

Thank you.

Um question that I have is dovetelling off of uh what council member tate mentioned, and and just to talk about this new system.

Um, want to be very careful uh noting that uh any software changes from my understanding that has to go through a procurement process of the city of Detroit.

And it has to be improved, approved by the city council.

Yes, sir.

Uh so uh as far as like having discussions with the vendors what what is kind of your plan uh to implement that get that to whoever the administration may be at that time uh and procurement, it has to go through a RFP process uh and then in front of counsel for so that's not set in stone if that type of technology or software does not come in or the council doesn't want it or the current administration doesn't want it.

Right.

If that type of technology or software does not come in, or the council doesn't want it, or the current administration doesn't want it.

What is your plan to move uh that office further technologically?

Absolutely.

Thanks for the question, uh Member Doha.

I appreciate that.

Yes.

Um it is important that we have a you know an a new uh mayor.

She's gonna do a great job, and uh we will have to sit with her and and talk to counsel and allow her to know.

I want to know if it if everybody sees it fit, if it works well for everyone.

Um this uh system is uh from the C click fix 311 uh family.

Uh it is uh a new uh piece, you know.

We know improved Detroit with the administration.

So I of course I I'm never I'm not gonna say, yeah, I'm gonna bring this in because we're gonna put it in there.

No way.

My job is to come before you today and allow you to know that I am today.

Radio may be one day.

Today, I am an educated black man from Joy Road and Dexter.

Uh I come in here today.

That's district seven, I love it.

Right.

And and and and my job, I'm a researcher now.

I'm not radio's gone, I'm a researcher.

I I understand that we research, we we provide findings, and and and what we do is we we then implement.

So of course I can't do that unless I get the approval, but I need to show you here today, brother councilman, that I'm serious about what I do.

And I research, I am a researcher now.

I'm at a Harvard program, I I have my master's degree in public administration.

I I'm working on my doctorate in 18 months from now, you're gonna call me Dr.

Reggie Davis.

So, and and I'm coming from George Rollin Dexter, I that's a great thing.

I feel thank God.

So I want to be prepared, and all you're hearing from me now is I am prepared.

If you shoot me down when I get it, no problem.

We'll go to the next.

But that's why I bring in that like I say, I have a a strong team, uh profound team of experts who are coming in with me, and I believe in in them.

So let me say this.

Appreciate the enthusiasm as well.

Love what I'm hearing.

Uh let me ask you, what do you think differentiates you between the current ombuds office and ombudsman and then potential candidates that may come in?

What would you say would be the thing that would separate you from everyone and why should we choose you?

That's a very good question.

Thank you for that.

But well, uh for one, as I mentioned before, um, I actually did my homework.

I like to research stuff, so I'm sorry, but I took the other candidates who were coming in today, and I kind of did their background.

I mean, you can look at the back.

And uh I am the only one that has worked on both the legislative and uh the administrative um side of government.

And in each case, I was doing the work of uh dealing with department heads, departments, and rendering city services to our residents.

That's what the MBUDs does.

Uh so I have that experience, and and as far as education, I think you're going back to the education, but um it does make a difference, especially in answering this question.

I have a master's in public administration, uh, so I master public administration, and someday uh soon uh I will be an expert in public administration.

So uh I think that that's a little different.

I saw some other highly educated people coming in here today, but they the it seems that they may be uh educated with something a little bit different than public administration.

And through you, Madam President, my final question.

Uh what would be your plan uh to work with the current city council?

Uh and I will give you an example.

Umtrary to popular belief, uh and I can speak for my colleagues, everyone sitting at this table is very constituent oriented.

Um so we don't necessarily need a 10th council person, but what is your idea of working with these offices to ensure that there's transparency and connecting the resources that we all need to have, the type of resolution for residents that we need.

What are what's your idea behind that?

How would you go about that?

Another excellent uh question.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, I am also a member of the United States Umbudsman's Association.

Uh the United States Umbudsman's Association uh sets the standards for Umbuds offices uh nationwide.

Uh it is my job uh to to work with city council.

I work for you.

We we are not co-equals, and as you mentioned, I'm not the 10th council person.

I do work with you.

Uh the United States Office of uh the United States Umbudsman's Association talks about uh how it's important um for the umbuds um to be independent and partiality and confidentiality.

These are three terms that uh describe the character of Umbuds nationwide.

Independence and partiality, confidentiality, independence.

I should be able to do my job without any interference.

Uh uh impartiality, I should be fair and equal and equitable to those I work with and confidentiality.

I should understand the protect people's uh privacy.

So directly to your question, yeah, as part of part of our team, something that I want to do that I did as deputy district manager and Mayor Duggan found uh very good is to to make sure that we are overly responsive, and I say again, overly responsive to our residents.

Uh I was the one uh manager, deputy district manager who decided to not come into the office and take complaints and send them to the departments.

I was in my car every day taking calls from residents, and when they're done talking, I'm knocking on their door, calling Ron Brundris to tell him to bring over the DPW truck, forestry, and remove the tree for the lady to get to her doctor's appointment.

True story.

So I have a team that I will train and will be trained, uh, that will be out every day on the doors for our seniors who do not like technology or or uh just can't get to it or whatever the case, we will be right.

Our team will be in their face.

Their their job will be uh door to door.

Thank you, madam president.

All right, thank you, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon.

Um definitely appreciate your service and uh you coming in here with a lot of enthusiasm.

As you are applying for the position, I do want to ask you a question relative to the change in technology.

Um of the things we see is there are many agencies, many entities that receive constituent complaints, some of them require a fair amount of investigation.

If you change out the system, how does that impact the work?

How does that impact us streamlining which I think we need to do?

Streamline what's happening uh internally so that five different entities, different agencies are not addressing the same issue.

If you change out the technology, how are you communicating with other agencies?

Yeah, thank you for that that question.

So it with this new system, 311 CRM, uh it's not uh as I mentioned, the the wing swept, uh, in which we're wasting uh you know space or service.

Um we have a system where if something comes in on 311 CRM and it it it it requires uh formal uh investigation, it's flagged and it then goes to our attorney and to me, and then we take it and it's something different that that that needs to happen because it is now a formal uh investigation.

Uh and uh to what you're saying about the different groups coming in at one.

I I want to streamline something that my team and I talked about as far as streamlining in that capacity, is we want to have members of our team to work uh one-on-one with each of the individual uh council members' office uh uh to to uh to to make sure that the the departments are held accountable uh to the residents.

So I think it's a matter of us uh getting this system together uh and sitting down and looking at uh how we can work together because again, it we're doing the same thing.

You know, I I work for you, so it should be a matter of you should do your job uh and everything you guys do on a daily basis with the contracts and the putting the ordinances together and et cetera, and allow uh me and my team to really help you through assisting the residents.

Uh, I think that will cut cut down.

So streamlining is definitely one of a very important uh idea that we want to institute into this office.

Thank you for that.

Um so there are several departments that use Wing Swept.

Do you not see an opportunity to perhaps add some additional software that may get you where you'd like to be?

So the departments as well as the ombudsman's office is able to communicate through Wing Swept, but then take the information and add on another component.

That I we uh when we took a look at that again in in my uh research and and findings, uh the cost is again it's it's it's costly and it and it's complex to uh again the geographic information system needs to be implemented into wing swept.

Uh those other offices they may not have a geographic information system.

Am I correct?

I'm not I'm not certain about that because I I can say that when the ombudsman's office presents to us during our budget hearings, it is by geography.

Okay.

So that has been presented to us, but I'm not I don't utilize wing swept.

Absolutely.

So I'll say this, uh uh member Johnson.

When we when I talked about the features from 311 CRM, this is something from the knowledge I have about what you want um and and my research and findings and being in this this city, uh things like chat box and text and capabilities and all the rest, survey research and mobile first, AI bot, that's something different.

If we have this program where our citizens can contact us and with ease, they can make their complaint with and without any concern, and we can capture it in real time.

That's something that that wing swept doesn't do.

So, you know, that's where I I think we need to concentrate, but it's still a great idea, and I will fancy after looking back into that to see if that will work as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Madam President, and thank you for your work and for applying for this position.

Thank you.

I have a very brief question.

You mentioned your experience in legislative and administrative work.

There is some investigation, your experience in investigating um cases as well.

What is your experience?

I'm sorry, can you ask that again?

So sorry.

You shared your work with legislative and administrative work.

There is some legislation there is some investigative work that the umbudsman's office has to do.

So what is your background and thank you for that question?

I appreciate that.

Yeah.

Uh, Member Santiago Romero.

Yeah, as uh um working for the administration during Mike Duggins' first term as deputy district manager.

Um I'll just use the same so I could use a uh a ton of stories, but I'll use the same one I was speaking to the gentleman about earlier.

Um that is the the situation with where I was in the car and I got a call from a la a senior lady who was at our house, her tree fell down in her driveway, and she needed to get out to get to the doctor's appointment.

Uh I by by the time she was done, I was knocking on the door, and she was like, Whoa, like wow.

Um, and so what I did was I had to investigate the situation.

Was it something I could just push myself out the way?

Uh was it something I had to call uh Ron Brundridge?

Uh it was is it uh the forestry, whatever it is, I had to do it.

But there's other examples of uh investigations in which someone reports something to me and I need to go see it for myself.

And uh, you know, one time I had a call from a lady that's was talking about a truck in front of her house, and we need to get it moved, and lo and behold, it it was a situation, uh a domestic situation, so I didn't need to call DPW or wherever I needed to call the the the police.

So, yeah, investigation is definitely a great part of what my experience was as in the legislative and administrative uh uh branches of government and as uh our next on buds if given the opportunity that that is something that I'm very prepared to do.

Okay, thank you, madam president.

Thank you so much.

Any additional member Callaway?

Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon, everyone, and good afternoon, Mr.

Um Mr.

Davis.

How are you?

Good afternoon, how are you, Sister Calvert?

Thank you for expressing an interest in serving in this capacity.

I have a couple questions for you.

Um a lot of Detroiters um are not familiar with the Ombudsman's office, they don't know what the Ombudsman does or ombudsperson.

Um how would you raise awareness and make the office more accessible, especially for residents who don't have internet connection, um internet access, no transportation.

Sometimes when you come down here, it's very expensive to park if you do have transportation.

How would you make the office more accessible in the neighborhoods?

Absolutely in the community.

Thank you for that question, uh member Callaway.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, and and so part of my team, I think I mentioned part of that before.

Um we will have members of our team that uh their job is to be in the community every day, uh, going to residence.

And when we bring, if we can talk to council and get the approval of uh 311 CRM data management system, we will be our team will be in the field uh teaching uh everyone about how this works and how easy it is.

We have an app you can put on your phone and so on and thus forth.

And at the same time, I think you're going here as well with our seniors who don't care about or don't want to deal with the technology, we are there in their face, still educating them about the system, and then ultimately helping them uh to resolve their issues, their complaints, or whatever their concerns are, we want to direct them to the right place.

So it's about I I I call it being overly responsive.

This is something that Mike Duggan said that he liked about me uh and it separated me probably from other people is that I like to be overly responsive to our residents, and that is very important.

When you're overly responsive, and you can use uh uh things like emotional and intelligence and and listen to people and uh you know hear them out and and and deal with them on a on a more you know uh internal use them you know your heart type of work.

That's this this is what I want to do with my team.

So um, yeah, that's something that we are prepared to do is to be always being a community teaching and helping.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your response.

And my last question is um, if selected, what reforms, in addition to technology, rolling out the new software that you're talking about today, what reforms or initiatives would you prioritize in your first year?

Uh that's a very good question.

Um I think that uh uh one would be the idea of um innovation and how we want to take this office to somewhere it it hasn't been in a long time, being a very innovative um uh office.

Uh I want people to see us doing that.

Uh I want our our team um have we have a goal.

Our goal is to take the office of the legislative ombuds and make it something that other municipalities look at for best practice.

We want to set the bar um for the type of work we do in Detroit.

So we want people in the in the to answer question, people around this country to say, oh, Detroit, oh my God, look at what are they doing?

They're municipal, the city council is hey, let's find out what they're doing.

We got to do what they're doing.

That's our goal.

So uh to answer that, I think our focus is to really be as innovative uh as possible.

Yeah.

Um thank you.

And my last question, Madam Chair and Mr.

Davis.

Um, since I've been in office, sometimes you know, we have some overzealous uh folks.

Um sometimes they think they're the council person.

Um so how would you avoid um avoid uh conflicting or um having an adverse but professional relationship with the individual council persons.

Oh yeah, that it's so again uh I'm a member of the United States uh Ombudsman's Association.

Uh and and it uh again uh this uh organization uh pretty much talks about the standards of uh Umbuds uh nationwide.

And it is my job again, I'll say it again uh with more clarity.

If I'm in the the legislative ombuds, you are my boss.

Even though I work independent, you know, and I don't want any any interferences, but you are my boss.

So it's my job to investigate, um provide findings, and then uh ultimately give recommendations to you.

And I don't have any uh any type of uh of authority um you know over people to punish them and that type of thing.

Uh my job is just to recommend to make recommendations to you, and I'm done.

That's my job as ombuds.

You're the boss.

Thank you.

And I will not be the eighth council person.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

And we're wrapped, we're uh well over our 20 minutes over.

I'm sorry.

No, you're okay.

Just want to make sure every colleagues know we still have a lot of NDs left.

Member Wiles.

Okay.

I I I suppose everybody had a lot of questions to ask.

But in full disclosure, let me just say that that uh Mr.

Davis here does work with me.

And um I've just got to tell you, I love it because he keeps he he has my back.

That I know out in the community, give him something to do, go organize Summer Sizzler, thousands and thousands of people are there.

So I just want to thank you for being that type of person.

Just go and and get it done.

I mean, there's nothing shy about you.

Uh so I wanted to say that because oftentimes as leaders, we don't give enough thanks to to the staff when they go out and represent us and do an excellent job.

So I'm just saying here today before the world, how much I appreciate what you've been able to accomplish and how great you make me look when you do it.

So I thank you.

Um so um what is your obligation and responsibility to council?

And I know you kind of answered this, but I I I just want you to clarify a little bit more.

Right.

So uh again, I'm I'm uh a member of the United States Umbudsman Association, and uh they set the standard.

A lot of the language that's in and what they they write is in our charter.

And when I was elected to write the charter, um, I have the charter with me, but I don't have to go there.

This article chapter, you know what it's at, 7.5.

Uh this writes about what we you know what the uh duties are.

Um and basically, and I'll just say it like this the three terms independence and partiality and confidentiality.

I must understand that.

And my job again is to investigate, to report findings and to make recommendations.

And I have no enforcement authority.

So that's my job.

All right.

All right, let me go to the next one quickly.

Uh, if you have chosen to be Detroit's next ombudsman, what be what will be your first priority?

I probably heard it already.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah, so and I'll answer it real fast, uh, Madam President.

Um, yeah, so it's technology, it's innovation.

Um hate to keep going back here, but the the Harvard program I'm a part of, it the Harvard uh public learning credential program, it teaches public leadership, policy, and data management.

I'm not a data expert, but uh member waters, I think I would be pretty good the knowledge I have in the last two years at this Harvard program with understanding the implement implementation of this new system if we're able to do it uh and to run it and operate it and make sure everything is going right.

All right, so uh a couple of quick ones.

Uh can you tell me about um how you would continue to build uh the community as as as the Ombudsman.

Absolutely.

Um I would like to bring in a a deputy umbuds, the uh being a member of the uh United States Ombudsman's Association, they say that we are able to pretty much bring in two deputies uh in different uh you know categories.

Um I would like to bring in a deputy who will work with uh media for us and help us with uh putting messaging out if if and when we need to uh because it's important for uh the world and especially our town, our city, Detroit, to understand what we're doing out of this office.

Uh and then when we we begin to teach about 311 CRM and things like that, we want to be able to reach everybody.

So I I think that's uh to answer your question.

It it's it's about the team again that I bring in, and uh I would like at least one one deputy to to be able to help uh with everything that we do in that facet.

All right, so one final one.

Have you seen the how have you seen the role of the ombudsman's change as Detroit has changed?

Yeah, I I just I I've seen it change.

I've been paying attention since paying attention to it since 2011.

Uh when I when the vote came down to me, Commissioner Davis, do we keep this the Office of Umbuds or let it go?

Uh I said no, let's keep it because uh the the most important thing is about uh checks and balances and the balance of government.

We have a strong mayor council form of government here in Detroit.

So we have a stronger need for checks and balances.

This is the reason that I decided to say vote yes, let's keep the office of the ombuds.

And I have seen it change, but I I I believe we should have caught I think we they should have caught up with this innovation piece a lot sooner.

I I shouldn't feel the way I feel right now about bringing instituting this new technology.

I think maybe you know a few years back they should have changed it a little bit.

All right, then thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

I feel rushed about it, but okay.

Sorry for talking so long, Madam President.

I'm about to member thank you.

Um I don't want to belabor this, but uh Mr.

Davis, thank you for your your support for the city of Detroit and its residents.

In addition, thank you for your legislative uh service to the residents of the city of Detroit.

Uh obviously very learned, very impressive resume.

And so I just wanted to make that known.

And my lot of my questions have already been asked.

Technology, you've gone over that, and you have your recommendations of how you further leverage technology moving forward as well.

And then this is just a statement to my colleagues.

I have um familial obligations, and I am advocating that we vote for these positions on the 30th of September, once everybody's had an opportunity to uh handle Washington, DC, and then come back.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Member Benson.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh Ray Davis for your madam president.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

All right, our next uh applicant will be for Jessica Gates.

Good afternoon.

How you doing?

I'm well, thank you.

How's everybody doing too good?

Good, good.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

All right, we're gonna open it up.

You will have two minutes for uh uh opening statement, and then we'll go straight to QA.

Okay, so go right ahead.

Well, first of all, thank you everyone for taking the time.

I feel honored to even be sitting here.

Um my background is in social work, a lot of case management, and also a lot of legislative framework.

I've done community organizing for a few years.

I currently work in the school system.

Um I'm a graduate of Southfield Lathrop High School.

I got a bachelor's in psychology from Hampton University, and then after that, I got a master's in social work emphasis on community organizing from UConn.

So I have familiarity with learning different legislative landscapes.

Um that's what I enjoy doing, and that's why I'm actually happy to be here.

My most recent work is working in workforce development with Michigan Works.

Unfortunately, some of the offices are closing, but it's a lot of work with um just helping people find workforce development, workforce opportunities, finding solutions for that, and helping them find educational resources as well, too.

Okay, all right.

We thank you for uh stepping up and applying and willing to serve.

Uh for that.

And we will start off with uh questions from uh my colleagues.

And I will start with Councilmember Santiago Romeo.

Thank you, madam presidents.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Gates, for being here and for applying and for being a social worker.

I will be on uh that topic.

Uh why the Ombudsman's office uh with your background.

What do you think are the strengths that you bring as an organizer as a social worker to the ombudsman's office?

Sure.

The key part of social work is meeting people where they're at, and this is literally meeting people where they're at.

And so I've had the opportunity to work with a diverse set of populations.

Like I said, most of my work is an educational expansion, but also working at mental health facilities and also school buildings as well, too.

So I just have a keen sense of getting to the root issue.

I have to be impartial when you're talking about mental health as well.

So listening, having a good ear, and also just knowing the sort uh resources that I can employ to share out in case people you know might need different routes or different um solutions that they have.

The social work ethos is just like I said, meeting people where they're at and just trying to problem solve.

That is actually why I like social work, to be honest with you.

Um, if I could be a conduit for just people maybe having the best possible outcome and resources available to them and learning what they actually have, that's what I actually find joy in.

So this to me just seems like a pretty good mirror of what I like to do, even on um a recreational side.

I also do a lot of volunteer work.

So it all just culminates to I think being great for this role.

I like working with systems, I like process.

I'm on a school board, so I'm very familiar with governance as well too.

Through the chair, thank you.

Um, my last question you were talking about systems processes.

You would run an office.

Um, what is your experience in leadership in running an office and having staff?

What does that look like?

Sure.

So I've worked with adjudicated youth, particularly at the Third Circuit Court with the Short Family Services.

They're located on Woodward in the Boulevard.

So I supervise there for about four years, and I supervise master level clinicians, so a lot of LPCs, counselors, and they had to delegate out work to some of the CMOs in the city, which are case management organizations.

So I have familiarity with supervising a wide range, interviewing, hiring, sometimes unfortunately firing as well too.

So having those uncomfortable conversations isn't something that I'm necessarily afraid of.

Through the chair, thank you.

Umbody thinks about those things when they're doing this about those skills and how important they are.

Uh so thank you for sharing.

Uh, thank you, Madam President.

Thank you so much.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Madam President.

Uh, good afternoon.

Thank you for being here and your interest.

Um, can you speak to your understanding of the internal systems within the city of Detroit?

It is gonna be a little bit limited if I'm being honest with you, so I would probably have to shore up on that.

Um, but I have more so experience with leadership and working with and supervising people, so that is something I would have to maybe learn a little bit more.

But I have had to learn different landscapes.

Um, I lived in Connecticut for a while and I did a lot of legislative work in Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts as well, too.

But I was able to take on the information and navigate it pretty easily once I was made aware of it and some of the complexities.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And you indicated that you are on the school board.

What school board?

So charters, yes.

So I know it's people have a lot of visceral feelings about charter school, but um, they're mostly charter schools.

The school board I'm on is located in Taylor, Michigan.

I've been on there for about two years, and then prior to that I was on another school board for three years.

Um, I'm currently the secretary as a K through eight school.

Thank you.

Yeah, no, thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Member Durha.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon to you.

Um my question revolves uh just about or around engagement.

Uh obviously, this office has a lot of uh contact with the community.

Uh what do you do currently?

Uh, what organizations do you belong in?

What are your relationships with community groups throughout the city of Detroit?

Well, currently I work in the school system.

I do um social work for K through eight.

Prior to that, I worked at Simca Michigan work.

So it was a lot of interface with 16 to 24 year olds and as well as adults as well, too.

I'm very comfortable with meeting with elected officials.

I would spend a lot of um days just going to chamber meetings, uh chamber of commerce meetings as well, too, organizing events, troubleshooting issues or barriers that people might have brought up before in the past.

So, for instance, um I had to organize an event for something like work development, workforce development, where I gathered up to about maybe 200 youth, and we did resume reviews.

We had I organized employers to be there as well, too, so they can answer questions, and there were also employers who were hiring as well, too.

So just bringing those resources.

Like I said, my background is in um well, my master's is in social work, but my emphasis is community organizing.

So I'm very, very comfortable with having those meetings.

I've set up a lot of legislative meetings in Connecticut before as well, too.

Um, we had to advocate for charter school expansion.

That was my main role was advocating.

Currently, I do volunteer quite a bit actually.

Um, I'm with an organization called Women of Tomorrow, where we spend one hour each month at a local high school.

It's particularly with young women.

So last year I was at River Rouge High School.

I also do organize and do volunteer with my undergraduate association, Hampton University.

And then I also do work with another organization called Camp Casey, where they provide just experiences for youth who have terminal illnesses.

So for instance, we'll bring things like a um a horse to a certain neighborhood, and they can invite eight to ten friends, and we'll have a party, things like that.

And so those are some of the organizations that I'm proud to be a part of and actually volunteer in.

And I've been doing that for about close to five years.

Some of the more local organizations might be making it to the finish line.

It's usually things based around just betterment opportunities, things like that, particularly youth, I would say, is what I've been working with for the most part.

But I have familiarity in working with adults as well, too.

Well, thank you.

And through you, Madam President.

This is a very constituent related uh position.

Um and I can tell you, even as a council member sitting here, you always hear uh complaints from the residents.

What are what are your what's your experience with handling or or working with constituent complaints, or what is your idea on how to provide the best resolutions from those complaints that you get uh while still providing transparency to the council offices?

Sure.

I would say the most that I try to do is try to get to the facts, get I try to ask a lot of fact-finding questions essentially, ask certain questions, try to find out a little bit more information.

I do that, I take an honest approach, look at it.

I try to be impartial.

Social work, you have to be impartial because everyone's coming to you with something different, so you try not to look through the lens of certain things.

So I would say impartiality is probably what I like to bring most to those um situations.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Um take thank you, Madam President.

And uh Ms.

Gates, thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

Um, and you know, you did acknowledge that you have limited knowledge about the inner workings of city government, Detroit.

Uh there are some individuals that have you know extensive knowledge about how uh the the government this particular government works.

What do you think would convince those up here who may say, well, we need someone who knows a little bit more about how government works versus someone who doesn't.

What would be your your um response to that?

That's a good question.

I think what's great is I'm coming in with a clean slate as well.

It might not be what you guys are looking for in that sense in that regard, but I'm completely impartial.

I I haven't made any friends necessarily in government to actually maybe feel a certain way.

I feel like I can carry out the duties in the roles and responsibilities of the role because I haven't necessarily maybe had too much of a background, but I am a quick learner.

Um I do like to learn, and it is a 10-year position, so I don't expect you guys to think I'll have everything done within the first 30 days.

But I am someone who is gone through school, so I have no problem reading over documents.

I'm someone who loves process and policy.

Um, one of the phrases we use in school governance is it's easier to manage policy than to manage people.

And so, with that being said, I'm someone who respects policy.

I'm pretty studious as well, too.

So I don't mind taking that role on and learning more.

And it seems like it's a pretty knowledgeable board as well to our people that I would work with.

So I don't mind leaning into that a little bit, but I would just approach it like I do other challenges, study hard and try to just learn as much as I can as possible.

And I like to be boots on the ground as well, too.

Um, community organizing.

It is a lot of door knocking.

I've done a lot of signatures, a lot of what's your policy here, what's your policy there, strong review, and if I have questions, I'm also not afraid to ask questions as well.

Thank you.

And my last question is similar along those lines.

Is what is your familiarity at least with the work that has come out of the embuds person's office over the years, whether it's you know this term or previous term, um, what's your familiarity of the work that's come out of that office?

So I know that it's fact-finding, it's investigation.

I know that the most current president as well has work with the VA to establish certain processes as well, too.

Um, I remember as a youth coming here with my mom to speak with an abusment, she's very familiar with it as well, too.

So I've spent a couple of times years ago being in here in this building.

So it wouldn't necessarily be a new environment, just due to that, I would say.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

Thank you, Madam President.

I just have one quick question for you.

Ms.

Gates.

Nice to meet you.

Um, what percentage of Detroit would you say you've impacted in your current position?

It is a pretty it is mostly youth, I would say.

I've served over 700 adjudicated youth, um, finding therapeutic services, wrapping around that type of service.

Right here in the city.

Yes, um, third circuit court, yep.

I've been over there before, so I've worked with adjudicated youth.

So I would say maybe three percent.

The goal of the services is to reduce recidivism essentially, so they don't re-offend.

And so the thought is if you offer therapeutic services, you can kind of get to the root of some of what the issues are, and then through volunteering for better outcomes, I explain the process of education and then other um pathways that people might be interested in taking that are non-traditional.

So I can't necessarily maybe put a number on it if it's fair to you, but if I were to give you the numbers of my previous roles, it would be over 700 youth being served.

Um also I just do a lot of work with workforce development and expansion as well, too.

So making people aware of job opportunities.

Like I've said, I've hosted a lot of career fairs as well, too, and I've boosted membership for the organization I've worked for, so they do sign up for those services to receive help for secondary education as well as resume building, resume skills, and then just pointing people in that direction.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, member uh Callaway.

Thank you, thank you, madam chair, and good afternoon, Miss Gates.

Thank you for um being here and thank you for expressing an interest in serving in this capacity.

Um a lot of Detroiters um don't know anything about the ombudsman's position.

Um they don't need no we have an ombudsman.

Um how would you raise awareness and uh make the office more accessible, except especially for people who don't have transportation and can come cannot come downtown.

And even if they do have transportation, parking is always an issue, it can be quite costly to come down here.

And again, they don't have internet access.

How would you make the office more accessible to our residents in the community?

Sure.

Well, being that community organizing is my background, like I've stated, I'm a boots on the ground type person, so I have um before created for other agencies, mobile units to get out, dispersing teams in certain territories if we have the capacity and bandwidth.

And I know you said maybe not internet, but I do see that there is a big mark to there was a really great reel that was created that I saw where people saw some behind the scenes coverage.

So I would try to maybe leverage those who do have access to social media, but I do believe people feel more comfortable when they have a familiar face in front of them, someone who they've seen quite frequently.

So I would probably be actually excited about establishing community outreach teams, holding special nights.

I've done that before where I've held advocacy nights.

I've worked um, I had a really great internship in Cape Town before, and so I was able to do certain things like have advocacy night at some of the centers I worked at, um informational sessions, things like that, and I would probably try to create a cadence.

So if can't in case people missed maybe one night, they know that there are other nights, and then also flyers.

I know snail male is still have especially for older, more mature um constituents.

I know that that kind of still lands and sticks for people, so also try to create some engaging one-pagers or flyers, and then just let them know of the availability and make it seem accessible.

Um, I'm a fan of setting up at grocery stores, high volume traffic areas that people frequent, just letting them know what's out there.

Even when I posed this job to my friends, some of them thought I misspelled the word because they're just that unfamiliar with the role itself.

So I would just try to create the knowledge.

I think once people have the knowledge, then they can start to access those um channels.

So I would just try to be familiar facing the community.

Thank you so much um for your response, Miss Gates.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much.

Member Yana, do you have any questions?

Uh excellent job.

You have me hello, no questions.

Thank you.

And just one, just want to know what you believe uh is one of the most pressing issues that Detroit residents bring to the ombudsman office, and how would you address uh address it?

Sure.

I mean, it kind of leans on what councilman collar, we said, just maybe even knowing about what the issue are just even knowing that this is a resource.

So first just making people aware.

But I do think things like parking are presenting a big issue to people, and then for some people, maybe sustainability, having maybe more progressive programs as well, too, that they can rely on that are just available to all people, I think is something that people are unaware of.

I know when I've been down here before, it's usually for property infractions, property um mismanagement sometimes are for instance.

If there was a tree that fell on someone's yard, who do they talk to?

Who do they go to, things like that?

So I think a lot of times it's dealing with property, sometimes sanitation as well, too.

That seems to be some of the more pressing issues I hear about.

Okay, all right.

Well, we thank you again, uh Ms.

Gates, for applying, and we thank you for your service.

And if there are no further questions, that will conclude your interview.

And we thank you so much for being here.

I thank you guys for your time.

Can I leave a one-pager with you?

Yes, you can, of course.

Great.

Who would I handle?

Up here, right behind you, we're gonna pass that out.

All right, you guys enjoy your day.

You as well.

Thank you again for coming.

All right, we will proceed now to Sherry Gay Dagnogo for our next interview.

School board member.

Oh, district board.

All right, good afternoon.

Good afternoon to this honorable body.

Always thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

All right, so we're gonna open it up with two minutes for uh welcome uh remarks, introduction, and then we'll go straight into QA.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening.

Uh, I am Sherry Gay Daniel, and I want to thank this honorable body for the opportunity to share my vision for ombudsman position with the city of Detroit.

I acknowledge this is a historic moment with changing governance and leadership and transitions and an increase in our city's census population and since decades.

I reflect on the legacy of those who have come before us and emphasize the progress that everyone must be included, and we must leave no one behind.

That means delivering exemplary services, delivering it from all 25 departments.

I know firsthand, as I am a product of this chamber, having worked here for nine and a half years as an appointee for the late councilman Cleveland and Councilmember Berta Tensley Talabi that being a city council member is has been a thankless job in many instances, but you must persevere.

It is my desire to forge a partnership with this honorable body to help lift up and deliver services, expedience, efficiency, and collaborations, and even in some instances, making sure that we make recommendations for policy changes, either at the local and at the state level.

Again, I just want to thank you for allowing me to share some of my background as an appointee as a science teacher with Detroit Public School, current school board member, former state legislator until I was termed out in 2020.

Is that my time?

Thank you.

We we appreciate you.

I I just want to say I appreciate you for your service to Detroit.

Um, you know that you have been on the front line for a long time in our city, and so definitely commend your service and then your willingness now to step up for this position.

So we thank you.

Thank you.

Um, so first question, just wanted you to speak briefly on you are still a current board member with CPSCD.

Can you speak on your ability and your uh thoughts around serving in both capacities?

Are you going to, you know, maybe leave the board, just your thoughts around how you would serve both with your full your full time.

Thank you.

That is a great question.

So this is a full circle moment for me, having started my political uh career in this chamber, learning from some great leaders.

Um, my focus after leaving, though, in 2001, I believe it was, uh, was actually eventually going to the classroom after I got my teaching certification.

I felt that in order to change some of the challenges that I saw, uh, being someone who took constituent complaints would be to go and improve the academic uh ability of our students.

I got into the classroom, and as a mom of one son, I was horrified by what I saw.

Many of you may have seen the documentary with Dan Rather, where he called our state and our district, I should say, uh amazing disgrace.

Uh, and that was very hurtful, and so it was my desire to go into the legislature to try and change the laws that would improve education.

I went to the school board during 2020 because teachers were afraid.

We had COVID, you have these guards up right now, and that's a reflection of the changes that took place.

But we have a lot of teachers uh and staff, I should say, in our district that already had pre-existing illnesses, and they were being made in some instances to consider coming into the classroom, and many of them recruited me to be there.

Um, I served for years, and it's one of the toughest, I mean, toughest jobs that I've ever had.

Um, but I saw the increase in morale, uh, the belief that teachers and staff felt they had someone fighting for them.

And so while I wasn't going to serve again, I actually signed up pretty much at the last minute because I was hopeful to be on the ballot with the next president, which is that time uh Columa Harris.

Uh, I do intend to stay with the board.

I've reached out to the Michigan Association of School Board to determine if there would be a conflict.

There is not a conflict.

And the reason I would be willing, the reason I want to stay, if I were blessed to get this opportunity, is because I see an opportunity now to marry uh some of the key problems and challenges for sustainability with um our city.

Uh it's great that we have moved the needle north on uh population, but in order to really thrive for our community our families to move to the middle class, um, we're going to have to improve our education systems.

And I know that many of you have been focused on literacy.

Uh we have educators here that are committed to the transforming our district.

Thank you all.

Shout out for passing that lease for Davis Aerospace, but that's not the end.

There are so many other projects that I've learned that our district interface with, but we're so siloed that we don't get an opportunity to work together to really create efficiency.

Uh I I yesterday when our finance meeting, Dr.

VD lifted up the fact that if we're really were going to improve our schools after the biggest closure in the state in the history of Michigan of schools, it would be to create a trans transportation system uh that is shared both by the city and with investments from the district.

We can't do that alone because it would be cost prohibitive, especially with more than 50% of our students leaving the district going outside to charter schools.

And so uh that's just one example that will help create efficiency, uh address literacy as a campaign and a myriad of other issues that if we're working together, um, oftentimes many of our contracts, even for demolition, we can't really afford it.

So sometimes we send them through uh the city's department, which has a bigger uh cost uh uh discount uh or uh uh cost efficiency, I should say, that makes it more affordable.

So I would stay there because I like the during the budget hearings.

Um our current ombudman spoke to one of his key areas of focus that he wanted to see lifted up, and that's education.

And I think together in working in sync, both as a board member and um as an ombudsman, I would be able to work together with both and my colleagues.

I would say are looking forward to that as well.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Uh, and then one more question for me, and I'll turn it over.

Uh dealing with conflict between residents and departments, we know is gonna be inevitable.

Uh, what strategies would you use to hold city departments accountable, but while maintaining a constructive working relationship with them is that thank you.

Um, I passed out or I I gave to your staff member a package of a 90-day plan, a proposed 90-day plan that would ultimately I would like to sit down with each of you if I'm blessed to get this opportunity to kind of talk about some of that.

But I have to say, as I am 58 years old, I started again running from the 13th floor to build and safety engineering, planning and development, the water department, um, and I was able to forge relationships back then uh with people by by uh showing people that you respect them.

One of the letters in that packet is from Marsha Bruin, which was director of plan development.

Um working with them, people as long as they are respected, as long as you sit down and build relationships, as long as you understand from their vantage point uh the barriers and the challenges that they have in order to uh move our city forward, we can work together.

Uh and so I've established those relationships previously, both with department heads and I would say uh our former members of the Detroit City Council uh back then, because back in those days I worked for several of them, even though I was on the payroll for two.

Um so I'm looking forward to having that opportunity to build on that.

And many of my former colleagues are now serving in different leadership roles uh uh here at the city of Detroit.

Okay, all right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh, we would turn it over to questions from colleagues.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Uh thank you so much for your interest.

Um, I know we all know that you are very well connected.

Uh, can you talk about how we can ensure that you will be impartial as you address constituent issues, considering everyone that you know?

Well, that's easy for me.

Um, I would hope that my track record kind of speaks to my willingness to collaborate with a number of you.

Some of you have had the chance to work with on projects.

I'm looking forward to having that opportunity to work with you all again.

I realize that everybody has a different leadership style.

Um, some people would love an opportunity to perhaps work together.

Part of my 90-day plan is to get a needs assessment, understand your views, how you work, and also determine with the FTEs that exist within the ombudsman's office, would it be beneficial from your perspective if we assign one person specifically to your office?

If we have 15 assistant ombudsmen, I feel like in some instances, we could work together and or allow for our staff to at least have uh bi-monthly or quarterly meetings to address those issues.

Uh and so it's all based on needs assessment, building relationships.

I've demonstrated that at all levels of government on both sides of the aisle, uh, Democrat, Republican, and everything in the middle.

So looking forward to having that and working together with all.

Thank you.

Uh, and can you delve a little bit deeper in organizational leadership?

If you were the ombudsperson, what would the team currently in the ombudsman's office have to look forward to in you being the leader?

Thank you.

So again, organizational meetings first when I first come in because we're coming into I'm coming into a culture that exists already.

Uh taking the opportunity to first meet again with um our current ombudsman, understand the structure of the office, the chief of staff, the staff members.

I heard it stated that everyone is an assistant ombudsman, understanding uh their gifts and talents, but also from their perspective, their view.

Having weekly meetings to understand after they have looked at the constituent matters that they are addressing with the departments, what are the barriers that they are facing?

How can we improve in our systems?

Um, I know that we use Windswept as well as the Civil Rights Commission, the Detroit Police Um Commission, and DPS eventually is going to come on board and using that system as well.

But making sure that we de-silo, work with them, understand what their load is like in their respective departments.

I don't know currently if they're working specific to each assigned by each specific 25 departments, or are they taking the complaints by rolling basis on how they come in?

But I think if we organize uh the complaints in a system that works with supporting each independent office and or assigning to each independent um department, we can create efficiency and efficacy that way.

So it would be first needs assessment, understanding uh working style, leadership style, talent style, and also getting their impent.

The last thing I would say is I would imagine, I would hope that the majority of them, if not all, are City of Detroit residents, uh, and working with them to better understand from even their own neighborhood.

The one challenge uh that I saw when I came into DPS is how teachers were lived on one side of town, but then uh could not choose uh to work in their neighborhood, but being forced to work way on the other side of town.

And so to me, uh it's not always about pay increases about sometimes meeting the staff where they are and giving them an opportunity to work an environment that helps them to bloom, blossom, and be more comfortable.

I would say the same thing for the assistant ombudsman.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President.

Thank you.

Councilmember Durhoff.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon to you.

Good afternoon.

First, thank you for your service and everything you've done, uh, tremendous work over the years.

Uh want to talk about this position.

Uh, this is obviously an oversight agency.

Yes.

Uh so a lot of power with this position.

Uh and one of the major powers are subpoena power.

Uh, what are your thoughts and ideas about this being an oversight agency, having the authority to use subpoena power uh if necessary?

How would you utilize it?

What are your thoughts about that power uh and utilizing it?

So, so first of all, I would say thank you.

Thank you for that question.

Um I've worked with and communicated with and set at the table with other oversight agencies at the state level.

Um, I would hope that in this era and where we are, this historical moment, that that would be a last resort um issue.

Uh it is my hope to work with the next mayor of the city of Detroit and making sure that we find landmines that are being set before us, even by those in the legislature.

I know that we have a lot to face with fiscal responsibility, a fiscal cliff potentially, uh, but also uh all eyes will be on Detroit.

And so it's important to have someone that is a partner, not coming to penalize anyone.

So that's a last resort, uh, and I'm hopeful to work and build the partnership and the communication that's necessary uh to create and foster an environment where our city becomes a national, if not international model on how we all work together as leadership for the city of Detroit.

That looks like Detroit.

Thank you, and through you, Madam President.

Uh, I know you very well, but I have to ask the question because some folks may be concerned.

Obviously, you are a very popular figure uh here in the city of Detroit, often appearing on media and things of that nature.

How would that change if you are elected the ombudsman due to the sensitivity and nature of possibly investigating and uh being charged with city issues that may come?

How would you deal with that?

Thank you.

So confidential confidentiality is important, and yes, um I am uh I have built my framework from the use of free tools.

A number of people probably look at my fight and wonder if she's a fighter, she go hard, but I go hard for my city because I love this city and I love each and every one of you.

Um and I've had to use what I could, and that was my voice, whether it be singing or whether it be speaking.

Uh, it is what helped to garner me the attention and the platform to be able to live deliver on behalf of our residents, whether it was striking down the emergency manager law, whether it was helping to get rid of the EAA, whether it was helping to get our teachers their money back.

But in this environment, we transition.

One of the conversations that I had with two great uh former legislators, KB Stalworth and Tommy Stalworth was transitioning from the advocate uh to the legislator.

Uh and so there would be some instances where I would transfer uh even in this position to the ombudsperson.

I understand confidentiality.

Um I've worked again at different levels of government, and while you see a lot, there's a lot you don't see.

And finally, I know we're running out of time through you, Madam President.

If you could say 10 years from now, where this embudsman office would have grown under your leadership, where where do you envision it?

Again, um I think that the numbers showed um 2023, about approximately 5,012 complaints, uh 2023, 2004, uh about 4,000 complaints.

Um, I'd like to see that increased.

Uh um I like to see us work together to help create that efficiency.

I think one of the key areas that we're going to have to be concerned about as we move forward in the state of Michigan is costs, uh, revenue sharing, potential legislation that we have to move forward.

But working in a cohesive way to make sure that I garner from you your priorities to push legislation that will move the needle and help our communities thrive and be more sustainable, whether if that's for affordable housing, whether that's for making sure that our education systems are properly funded, whether that is for Prop A to make sure that uh we address and deal with true and equitable revenue sharing.

So it's growing that and growing and sewing into those who are assistant ombudsman's as well, uh, so that perhaps maybe they might take the lead and increasing efficiency.

The last thing I would say is it's important that we're not redundant in services.

I know with the school board, um, I'll receive an email, our chair receives an email, the vice chair receives an email, everybody receives an email, and we're all scrambling trying to solve the same problem.

But if we use the system that we have before us, which you guys use Windswept, there is a way that you don't have to compromise anonymity, but allow for staff to have an opportunity to, if they've already called, if our seniors, because they will call, uh, we can already address and see that they have called.

And so that's one of the key things that I would like to make sure that we are creating that efficacy and efficiency uh that will help us all thrive.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam President.

All right, thank you.

All right, any additional questions?

Have you?

No, okay.

So proton Tate I'm saying.

Thank you, and thank you, uh Ms.

Gay Danyogo for being here.

Thank you.

I appreciate you and known you for quite some time.

Full disclosure, as we say, we're neighbors as well.

Um you're my constituent, I've been yours as well.

Uh so lots of connectivity there.

So thank you for your service.

And I only say that because I I've seen it personally and not just from a distance.

So again, thank you for your service and your willingness to uh serve in this capacity.

I wanted to know when does your current term of DPS C D board end?

My current term.

And do you plan on rerunning or running again?

So I re-ran this time because I wanted to be on the ballot with the next president or Kamala Harris, I should say.

Uh it's a tough and heavy lift.

Um, and so no, I don't anticipate running again.

I think this my tenure right now ends in 28.

It will afford me an opportunity to help pick the next superintendent.

Uh, and so it is my desire to stay there if I have capacity for both.

Uh, I do believe empowering um my team, and that is the structure in which I've worked with.

I know that this office has done some amazing things already.

Um I have some key people that I have relationships with, and so I would entrust and help that we also partner and lead uh the ombudsman department together.

But I anticipate uh in the beginning at least to stay at both because there are a number of things that uh I've been discussing with the superintendent, with our board members, our ability to address some key issues that would help.

If we're gonna really create uh an environment where we can move people to middle class, address homelessness, address um a myriad of issues, it's it's a benefit to kind of de-silo, and I would have an opportunity to serve uh in that capacity, if that makes sense.

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

And um again, knowing the work that you've done uh on so many different levels, I know how talented you are.

And when you're talented, people try to recruit you for positions, right?

So uh if you are um so blessed, if you will, to be uh appointed to this position, it's a 10-year position.

How do you resist the um attempts of others to recruit you to run for something else that you have potentially pathway into easily winning?

That that's a good question.

You you you all have no idea how humbling it is to sit in this room.

I brought my City of Detroit pen.

It may be mine, it may have been in my boss's, but I have it in my purse.

It's over 30 years old.

It's it's dingy.

Uh it is.

I'll show it to you all.

But my heart, my heart is wedded um to this place.

It's so historical for me.

It's so humbling for me to be able to come full circle and do the will of my father to start here as a 27-year-old and to come back as a 58-year-old to carry out some of the great things that I learned, not just from Clyde, not just from Alberta, but uh Gil Hill, uh Kay Everett, uh, and so many others.

Brenda Scott, who helped me start my first program over at Wayne State, so many others.

This is a this is legacy.

Um I would I would have nowhere else to go.

Every day I'm solving a constituent problem, or I'm at least directing traffic.

And it's whether it's it goes to the state, whether it goes to the AG, whether it comes to you all, uh, you all have gotten my emails.

Uh, this would gladden my heart in such a way that becomes full circle and allow me to do the work that I do already, but now do it uh with a staff and some measures of accountability.

So I'm not going nowhere.

If I can sign somewhere, I'll sign.

But I'm not running for anything, I'm not going for anything.

If I were to have rank, if I wanted to run for anything, especially citywide, I ran a race.

I won.

If that is what I wanted to do, I could have done it again.

I have no desire.

That fire's not in my belly.

My mother's 86 years old.

She's taking care of her second husband with Alzheimer's.

I need to be available to do something with consistency that still delivers great service to our seniors and to our citizens.

So if you pick me, stuck with me for 10 years.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you, my president.

Thank you, Protown Member Waters.

Well, thank you.

And and thank you for all of your service.

You certainly know your way around this city, this state, this country.

So kudos for that, you know.

And and I certainly um appreciate uh that about you.

You do stand strong.

I like that.

Um, operational, uh any operational improvements that you see, you can just name one if there's anything that you have in mind for the ombudsman's office.

That'll be my only question.

Yeah, so so people often look from the outside of systems and say what they would do better just for sound bites.

Um, I believe that moving the needle on efficacy and improving the number of complaints that come through this system.

Um, I think they've done an amazing job uh with bringing more awareness to what the ombudsman, you don't know how many people have asked me, well, what is the ombudsman?

Um so I think they've done a got good job with helping to improve and increase that profile.

I would say with where we're going with technology, um, again, the platform that we utilize, I think that it will truly create some efficiency.

But my master's is in instructional technology, which is a discipline that seeks to find gaps in systems and then close them with proper um evidence-based, data-driven information.

So it would not be wise of me to say exactly what I'm gonna do, but this plan right here, this uh proposed 90-day plan speaks to having the meetings, getting the data, reviewing the last three years of reports, looking at the highest percentage of complaints that have come in and identifying the priority department.

If that's, and I'm not calling BSNE out, but if it happens to B S E, uh, if it happens to be DPW, if it happens to be one of these other issues that you guys just passed a uh resolution for the land bank, uh it's how I won't open that can of worms, but uh it's making those needs assessments with data and then having the hearings, um, having the stakeholder listening to her, you will see, you will note that this plan that I have, it starts off phase one listening, listening, listening, then assessment.

That is the only way that you can truly make a data-driven decision on how to improve any department.

And I certainly hope that you've told that to your students.

Listen, that's they're so different, it's so difficult to get them to do that.

But you have my permission to do something about B SE.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Calloway.

Um thank you so much, and good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I am also very acquainted with you.

And um, Miss Um Gay Dan Yogo.

Um have been watching your career, used to listen to you on the radio when you would be interviewed and then see you on TV quite a bit being interviewed.

And thank you for representing we the people of the city of Detroit in such a spectacular professional manner.

So I really want you to know that.

Thank you.

Um, even when it had to do with um the numbers, not mathing when we were just redistricting at the state level, you were the voice of the people.

Thank you.

You were my voice.

So I want to publicly thank you for that.

You were um doing what you did unapologetically, and you didn't mind being on the radio, the television, you stood your ground, and I want to thank you for that effort.

Sometimes you stood alone, sometimes I understand you were coming out of your own pocket to get back to Lansing.

So publicly, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And um, how would you um define the role of the ombudsman?

To me, the ambudman, um the charter lifts up um the it independence of the agency and the subpoena power that gets lifted up, but more than anything, it's it's a leader that helps to create efficacy and efficiency, uh being a voice for the people, a champion for the people to make sure that they're receiving the services that many of them oftentimes have not had access to.

I see improvements, but I think that there's a lot of improvements to still happen.

Uh, making sure that information is provided so that um people understand how to navigate um because oftentimes people perish for the lack of knowledge.

So it's it's being an educator, so to speak, um, and also being a partner, a partner to help make sure that we address the issues and the priorities and and those bottlenecks that we see in services uh and identify those and help work alongside you all and or your appointees to help make sure that those services are delivered.

What I found while serving in Lansing, and I'm sure my colleagues that served in Lance can tell you as well.

I served in a minority for the whole time.

And so it was tough getting legislation passed, but you know what?

My seniors at Faith Manor, at Restoration Tower, uh, and so many other buildings, they didn't care about the legislation.

They cared about the fact that I made sure that if I had to drive from Lansing and come to their houses, they got the attention and the services they need.

And in many instances, it had nothing to do with the state, and so I'm thankful that my city councilman lived around the corner.

Um, but again, working as a as a partner, uh working as a partner more than anything to understand what is going to improve and move the needle for our city department services.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

All right.

Well, we thank you so much again for being here and uh all of the amazing work you do here.

We appreciate you.

Thank you so much.

And that will conclude our uh interview for today.

Well, thank you all.

I appreciate you again.

I understand uh the the work that you lead.

Oftentimes I've heard a statement said when you are leading an orchestra, you have to turn your back on the crowd.

And I know sometimes uh as leaders of this city having to conduct an orchestra, a 25 piece orchestra, and then your staff.

That's not easy work, often criticized and making it look as though you've turned your back, but you haven't.

But I want to help you with that crowd.

That crowd is our citizens, more than 650,000 residents in the city of Detroit.

Relationship building is what I do.

I look forward to using my influence, uh, my track record, and my work to help make sure that we are a partner and that Detroit will shine, shine, shine.

200 2026 looks bright to me, and I hope that we'll be working together.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate you all.

Move to our next applicant, which would be Darius Hope.

Excuse me, Darius Cope Hope.

Is that correct?

I have hope on here.

Oh, that's what's on the agenda.

Oh, okay.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Huff.

Yes, my name is Darius Huff.

Okay, sorry about that.

All right.

You have two minutes for opening remarks, and then we'll go straight to QA.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh I want to start by thanking you guys for this opportunity.

Um, it really means the world to me, and I can't express how excited I am.

Uh a little bit about me.

I'm born and raised in Detroit.

I'm a proud product of the Detroit public schools.

I grew up uh doing summer programming at Mary Grove and at the Northwest Activity Center.

My little brother plays sports at the Adam Butzel Center, and uh I'm excited to be back here and being able to uh bring my experience back to the the city.

I prepared a little infographic for you guys just to give you an intro uh overview of kind of what I've been up to over the last 19 years of my career, and uh I'm hoping that that is uh somewhat informative about uh how my experience in the nonprofit sector as well as in retail and hospitality industry before coming into public service has kind of informed my um spirit of service and uh desire to really bring that talent back to the city and contribute to the growth and all the incredible things that you guys are working on and that uh we're doing for the residents here in my career.

I have the pleasure of uh actually uh doing a lot of work in oversight and compliance, um, namely and most recently uh for contracting and procurement procurement for uh the public sector.

I manage IT contracts right now for the Department of Labor.

Uh that's like kind of my main uh thing.

Uh okay, uh in addition to um uh some of that uh academic work, I mean I'm sorry, some of that uh public service work I've been uh in the academic space of um uh studying um at artificial intelligence and uh getting on the cutting edge of kind of some of how we use data to inform public service and policy making and how we uh use that to the benefit of the people who need it most, uh again very much highlighting equitable access to economic opportunities, uh youth development work, recidivism stuff, and uh housing, of course, which are all really really uh high points for for the city.

Again, uh incredibly excited to be here.

All right, thank you so much.

We are excited that you are here as well.

Uh, thank you for your willingness to step up to serve and apply for this position.

Um, if you can just talk a little bit more about your understanding of the role of the office of the abudsman and how your uh work and professional experience has prepared you uh for the job, and if you can give any specific examples that would be helpful.

Okay, thank you.

Um I understand this office to serve as an independent confidential oversight body for city services.

Uh again, as I mentioned before, a lot of my work uh so far in my career has been doing investigative work uh for uh eligibility determinations, compliance stuff, specifically for uh making benefits determinations, also applying regulatory um statutes for uh performance determinations, uh not just on contracts, not just for federal benefits programs, but in general to ensure that the government is getting the best value for the dollar.

Like I said, I've had the pleasure of doing that at the municipal level for the District of Columbia, and also now at the federal level uh in the labor economic security workforce development space.

Um in addition to that actual hardcore investigative fact-finding work, conducting interviews, rebuttal statements, applying uh statutory law, making quite a judicial as legibility excuse me, eligibility determinations.

Uh I also worked in hospitality, which uh I think uh really has been the backbone for a lot of the preparation of dealing with people, really um informing uh listening skills that are requisite for understanding any issue because uh as with uh any technical technical issue, you have to have a solid and strong problem definition before you can approach finding a solution.

All right, thank you.

We will open it up to colleagues.

Any questions?

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Madam President.

I have one for you.

Uh, why the embudsman office?

Uh, given your experience and your career, what makes you want to begin uh working in this office?

Uh well, uh, when this job came up for me on Indeed, uh I it was kind of I kind of apply for it on the whim.

I kind of didn't know if it would be quite within reach for me, and I was so excited to um uh get a call back.

Um I actually think it's the perfect combination of my experience so far in my career.

I've uh again worked with people in a developmental capacity of uh problem solving.

Uh also, like I said, I've had my hands pretty deep in some community work in recent years and in the past, um, and the opportunity to come back to Detroit is a dream for me.

Um in 2020, there was uh an opportunity presented itself for me to live anywhere in the country, and I couldn't help but come home.

It was the it was a no-brainer for me.

And so um the opportunity to come back here and bring my public service experience to serve the city would be it would be a dream for me.

Understood.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And as someone that has that was in the service industry uh for over 10 years since I was 15 years old, I agree everyone should wait a table at least once in their life uh to be a better worker, public servants person in general.

Uh, but thank you, Madam President.

Thank you, Madam President, and good afternoon to you.

Thank you for your willingness to apply for this position.

Uh very community-oriented, constituent-related position.

Um give me your thoughts, your experiences uh working with the community, community groups, uh, particularly uh here in the city of Detroit, relationships that exist, uh, and what are your ideas on how to solve constituent uh related issues?

Okay, thank you.

Um namely, I'm a member of the community Merry Growth Community Association.

I'm also a change collective fellow.

It's a civic training program inaugurated, I think in 2023.

I was a part of the 2024 cohort.

Those experiences I feel like have uh been a great training ground for those types of conversations and facilitating again problem definition and really um uh creating an empathetic channel for uh relationship building because I think um that that is a a big nexus of being able to do work in the community is uh establishing the credibility um to um even create the forum for uh trust building and advancing uh share collective objectives.

A lot of times I think we are working towards the same goal and don't know.

And through you, Mr.

President, uh to you.

Uh just very quickly, uh how would what changes would you make from the current ombudsman office now uh under your uh administration?

Uh and what would you hope to see uh when your term is up if you are selected?

Uh how that office has changed.

Okay.

Well, um I I want to start by saying I feel like the Ombudsman's office is doing a great job.

I feel like um they're doing a good uh as far as like um uh the reporting facet of the work that they've done and are doing.

I feel like it really speaks to the needs of the residents, and uh to that point, I think I would expound on creating further uh avenues to listen and collect data and really aggregate and analyze it.

As I mentioned before, I'm uh currently a student of uh artificial intelligence machine learning and data science.

So uh what that does is kind of collect um and aggregate the information in order to um create um some uh creative story about uh where the needs are and um how to apply those types of solutions.

So uh that's a uh one particular focus that I think is not getting enough attention uh that has come to me again from conversation with my neighbors, friends, and colleagues is that um uh the Detroit public schools specifically, we don't have any librarians.

And so I think that um just youth development as a feature of um community building, I think is very important.

But again, um I I want to go back and reiterate to say that we all really want the same things.

You know, I did a little bit of research, I guess, on all of the members of the council and you know, kind of some of the objectives of the Ombudsman's office, the upcoming mayor's budget, et cetera.

And uh some of the central themes that I see are that we all want to live in safe, happy communities.

We all want to be healthy and have good clean water.

We all want to take care of our kids and our aging parents, and we all want to make sure that our our siblings, friends, and neighbors who are coming back from having served their time, having uh repaid their debts in society are able to reintegrate to the society seamlessly.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Any other well, I have I have one.

So um just question and thank first of all, I want to thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

That's always important.

Um what what's your familiarity with uh Detroit City government overall?

Uh when I say Detroit is a strong mayor form of government, and take it from there.

What's your what's your and what's your familiarity even with the just departments?

Okay, well, um again, like I said, I have 10 years' experience working in government.

Five of those was in the local government, uh, and it's organized reasonably similarly uh with the mayor, a council, uh, executive departments, um, and legislative branches, uh legislative body that uh works to pass budget resolutions.

Um the I I've also done academic study and sociology, like my background is in social science, so uh in that I I would say I have a strong familiarity.

But with Detroit, the city of government here in the city of Detroit.

Yeah, I stay uh abreast with um the happenings here and I I do my best to um be informed.

I vote here, I live, I have a house here.

Okay.

Uh other question is uh any familiarity with any of the um work, if you will, that the current ombudsman's office has produced.

And it's been 10 years now, um, so there's work that's been produced.

There's I don't want to put too much any reflections on that.

Yeah, I I've read the recommendations, um, the interviews.

I've uh had you know given that uh is due space of uh research, just uh requisite stuff for this office.

I had not taken any particular interest prior to um coming in to interview for this position.

I I was not uh it was not the Ombudsman's office is not some like a resource that I was personally using, um, but I feel like it's uh very important that it's here, and I'm excited that the that avenue exists for uh resolution to take place for city services.

Like I have some uh folks I'll probably be referring in the coming weeks.

Thank you, colleagues.

Any additional um member Callaway?

Yeah, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair Um Pro Tim.

Um good afternoon, Mr.

Huff.

Good afternoon.

Um thank you for your willingness to um serve in this capacity um to be interviewed by a body of nine.

Um I don't like interviewing.

And um, so you're doing a wonderful job.

Um I thank you for um loving Detroit like all of us do, um, born and raised, and um understanding the function of the Ombudsman office is so important, uh, just based on what you know about the ombudsman's position, although you weren't that familiar with it, um, and um you saw the position and you um believe that you could um pivot in your career and your experience into this position.

In your opinion, what is the main function or responsibility um of the ombudsman, umbuds ombudsperson?

Okay, I the well, for one, I I would like to correct that.

I think I do have some baseline familiarity, and I wouldn't consider it as much of a pivot just because a lot of the work that I've done has been an investigative and compliance oversight type of uh capacity.

I think uh to answer your question, I think the key function or most essential function of the Ombudsman's office is about accountability for government.

Um the people, the citizens of Detroit, they are due the services that they pay for.

Uh and I think that um it's really important that those avenues exist, the checks and balances to ensure that if there are interruptions in that pipeline that though those people are still able to get service, uh particularly our seniors, you know, there are a lot of um aging people here, you know, and we want Detroit to be a place where people are comfortable aging in place and are able to live out their you know, happy lives and raise grandchildren and great grandchildren comfortably in, you know, um without worrying about blight or high weeds or um you know public safety issues.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Um, and through the chair, um pro Tim.

Um Mr.

Huff, um, in your opinion, what is the greatest um issue facing everyday Detroiters?

Just maybe what you've seen in the news, on TV, your own experience in your neighborhood, in the community overall, what in your opinion is that glaring issue um in the city facing Detroiters?

Um I I would say the biggest issue is uh equitable access to economic opportunity.

Um by way of homeownership, by way of uh public transportation, by way of um our uh education system, which I mentioned when I sat down here.

I wanted to be sure that that was something that I mentioned um in case it had not come up in the past.

But um above most other things, uh in order for people to be happy and healthy and survive this iteration of our uh society, I think that um we all need money, you know.

And uh there are avenues that exist for doing business with the city, there are avenues that exist for um creating economic opportunities for other citizens by um the people here, and uh I think that having that access is paramount to people being able to have a um positive civic experience here.

Thank you, Member Calley and Member Waters.

Thank you.

Just a um couple quick questions.

Um what has been your direct uh out rate to outreach to uh constituents, any direct outreach?

Yes, my um in my first row role in um in local government, I did direct service, like said for economic stability program, so conducting those investigations, we uh directly contact um constituents, customers, stakeholders in order to collect information from them.

Um beyond that, uh I worked on project teams that involve um taking stakeholder influence um, even as far as uh quality assurance testing and using uh user data in order to inform decision making for uh software products.

I I would consider kind of some of all of those things in that same vein as far as uh working directly in community type environments.

Uh also my work with the change collective.

Uh I put together a civic action plan, and that required doing a lot of research, some door knocking.

Uh in addition to that, I live in a um I would say pretty close-knit and warm community.

Like uh, there's a lot of uh intermeaning intermingling conversation that happens there where um there's a a lot of very, very comfortable exchange where um I feel like I've developed some empathy and uh powerful positive listening skills and uh are able to kind of use that to collect information and and use it um effectively.

And and so those are some of the ways that you see your role as the ombudsman.

There is is there any specific role that you know just visualize yourself as the ombudsman?

What role do you actually see yourself in?

I'm I'm sorry, what's the question?

Yeah.

What what role do you see yourself in as the ombudsman?

I mean, just tell me one or two things.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, um, I I definitely think that uh like as a uh empathetic listener and a visionary leader, those two things for for certain.

Um because I think that again, it's my understanding that this is not really a policymaking role, it's not really a legislative capacity.

This is uh a role that's supposed to take in information from the public.

I thought to prepare a uh project proposal for you guys.

I thought to come with recommendations and things of that sort, but um I I understood that that was not necessary.

You guys are in the community, you listen to your constituents and they bring you information, you know, and uh the ombudsman is another avenue that the information comes in.

It's an escalation for um, you know, issues that have not been resolved and addressed that need uh extra attention, and I think that um it's so important that it exists, and having someone in that role with the experience that I have that I'm I'm bringing from Washington DC and the hospitality industry and you know, my 19 years of community work, I think um would be a great service to the city.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

Seeing that there's no additional questions, we just again want to thank you for um putting yourself out there.

It's not easy.

Um coming here before us as member Calloway indicated uh a public interview uh before nine folks.

So thank you.

Wish you all the best.

And um we have your information.

You have a great rest of your day.

Okay, we'll now make room for the next candidate, Mr.

Dennis Perkins.

Thank you again, Mr.

Hoffman.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Perkins.

Good afternoon.

Give you an opportunity to introduce yourself.

You have uh two minutes to again tell us about yourself and anything you want to let us know about your thoughts about this particular position.

Floor is yours, sir.

Good afternoon, honorable body.

Uh, my name is Dennis Perkins, and I'm a lifelong resident of the city of Detroit, former Deputy Chief of Staff or Member Johnson, former deputy chief, I'm sorry, deputy district manager for the department of neighborhoods for District Four.

Um, and a retired police officer after 21 years and nine months.

I feel like over the past 30 years that this position has opened up after a culmination of skill sets that align perfectly with what I feel that the Ombudsman's uh skill set should have.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Colleagues, any questions that you have for Mr.

Perkins?

Member Callaway.

Good afternoon.

Um, Mr.

Perkins, it's good seeing you.

And um, what skills do you believe um the ombuds person should have through through the chair or just sure?

Just go ahead.

Okay, it's all good.

Trying to be politically correct here.

That's all good.

I believe that the ombudsperson per ombudsperson should have first of all characteristics such as empathy, the ability to listen and hear the residents' concerns and take those concerns uh and treat them as priority.

Sometimes when we hear the concerns of residents, some may think that it's not important or is it's not such an emergency, but that's the wrong attitude to take towards uh residents' concerns.

Should prior to prioritize them as best you can.

Um as far as investigator, investigative skills, I think that's a uh definitely a priority for uh uh persons to have because once you receive that complaint, you have to determine the validity, determine the scope of the uh concern, identify which avenues in terms of departments that you need to investigate and um formulate your report after after after ascertaining all the facts and information, be able to articulate your uh those facts clearly and concisely.

Thank you.

Collects any additional uh member Durhoe Thank you, uh Mr.

President, and good afternoon to you.

After all, thank you, brother.

Uh so I have a question just around uh the duties of of an ombudsman, obviously a very serio serious position.

Yes, sir.

Um oversight agency.

What are your thoughts on the utilization of subpoena power uh as well?

Uh how do you plan uh to work uh in an unbiased way with the council as well as the administration?

Thank you for that question.

I actually am looking forward to working with both the administration and council in terms of the use of subpoena power because as in the past working with the police department, I have had occasions to work in an undercover capacity to investigate criminal activity of public officials, and um during that investigation, there was some resistance when we tried to ascertain certain information and data, so the use of subpoena powers would come in handy, and also making reference to the powers granted by the city charter to compel cooperation in investigations to enhance transparency and uh I'm sorry, I'm losing my train of thought.

Um to make sure that that what needs to come out is revealed through our investigation.

So I look forward to working with both bodies.

I appreciate that.

And then the second thing is obviously a very constituent-related position.

Can you talk about your experience in the past with constituents handling constituent complaints, how that'll serve you in this position?

Oh, absolutely.

Thank you for that question.

As uh the deputy district manager, it was my daily duty to accept and receive complaints from the dis uh residents of district four, and uh contact the respective department heads of those uh divisions and departments that were in question, and to make sure that those complaints of those residents were handled.

Um part of my routine was to continuously follow up to make sure that those issues were handled correctly and timely, and um I think that experience will serve me well in this capacity as well.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President, and good afternoon, Mr.

Perkins.

Good afternoon, Member Johnson.

It's it's always interesting to see people on that side of the table and to see how sometimes y'all are so nervous.

And and I know you very well, and so I'm looking like, okay, come on.

Uh I can see that you are nervous, and so I wanted to um just talk about your experience.

So you mentioned 30 years working for the city of Detroit.

Um clearly you've worked for the police department, you work for the administration, you work in my office as well.

How do you see yourself as being impartial when you have to investigate the individuals or departments that you are very familiar with, people that you are very familiar with?

Thank you for that question.

I intend to maintain impartiality by strictly following the letters of the law, if you want to put it that way.

Uh investigations are pretty much outlined by legal constraints and certain certain you have to follow a certain certain steps and guidelines, and if you stick strictly to those guidelines, you maintain impartiality.

And if you stick strictly to those guidelines, you maintain impartiality.

Friendships, relationships do not play any role in an investigation.

Those who have worked for me know that.

I did not mention out of those 20 almost 22 years I spent 17 in supervision.

And there were several colleagues and people on my team that I had to write up, sometimes suspend.

So it was nothing personal, it was just the law.

All right, thank you.

Um and you are familiar with the office of the ombuds having been in the city of Detroit or working for the city for 30 years.

Um talk about your understanding, your knowledge of the Ombudsman's office and what you bring to the position as the Ombudsperson.

To my knowledge, um the office is there to make sure our residents receive fair treatment by city government and city services, and my experience is if there is a concern that is brought to our office again, acknowledging the complaint, gathering the information, uh conducting an investigation, keeping everything transparent, and drawing my conclusions based on facts and facts alone, and making recommendations to the individual departments if they are found uh guilty for lack of better term of a lack of service or egregious behavior.

We can look at uh possibly introducing new policies and my experience in your office and working with dishonorable body, members of your offices.

Um I'm familiar with the proposal of new legislation.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

I've got one for you to uh again, thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

Um talk to us a bit about what how you would plan to communicate in real time with council.

Uh there's a we as council members receive a litany of constituent concerns.

None of that is our responsibility, but we do it because of expectation, and it also helps us better understand what the challenges are as we create legislation.

Uh but we always you know for us we direct folks to the um bus person's office so that you know who they are and what they do.

What would be your way of communicating us uh in real time on issues that we need to address, not at the end of your term, not at the end of the fiscal year, not the end of the calendar year, but closer to real time.

Uh thank you for that question, uh Pro Temp.

And that was actually one of the questions I was gonna have for you all, but uh I uh first.

But I would um main well establish a point of contact in each of your offices, and um whether that's your chief of staff or whoever you would have our office communicate with on a excuse me on a daily basis or however frequent you may require our office to to uh communicate with you, of course, anything that I deem that is extremely of a of extreme importance and high priority that may hit the news or they want to notify the mayor's office.

Of course, I would make sure to contact you all immediately or someone on my staff.

Okay.

And uh talk to us a bit about how you plan to evaluate uh staff, current staff or any new additional members that you would uh hire.

Uh my plan is to assess where we are as terms of a backlog if there is any assess the number of people on the staff.

I know what the city charter allows us to as um bus persons, how many uh staff members we're allowed, if the need, if I see a need that there's a backlog or inability to handle the caseloads, I would request through your honorable body uh possible budget increase to hire more personnel, if that's an option.

Um if not, I'm not a stranger to doing more with less, and we just have to get creative to uh maintain a proper response and and and rate of closing out cases.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any additional?

Um, member Waters, thank you.

Um hello.

Hi.

Um your decades of experience.

Um where do you see uh the holes in outreach with constituents?

Do you see any holes in outreach from the ombudsman's office?

Oh I was actually thinking about how um I was complimentary of current uh Ombudsman uh Simpson for reaching out and to the individual offices, and I know that he had a coffee hour or attended coffee hours with Member Johnson and myself.

Um I don't know if he I would assume he had done so with other districts as well.

Um but in terms of my plans, I plan to partner with the Department of Neighborhoods and other community organizations to regularly make regular appearances and have public forums to first of all introduce myself and let the constituents know what our office does and how we're there to help them advocate on their behalf.

Okay, all right.

So what would be the metric by which you would evaluate your success as ombudsman?

Uh case closure rate uh would be first, timeliness, um, community engage uh response through community engagement, maybe surveys, ask them how we're doing, um how well we're known.

I mean, I really want to push the fact that there is this there is an office that you all can come to.

So the more calls, I think if we receive more calls, that means that people are more aware.

That's right.

So that would be another uh measure uh measuring tool.

Um I know about receiving those calls as a metric.

I know they know we're here.

Yes, ma'am.

But but thank you so much for sharing.

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

All right, colleagues, any additional seeing none, uh Mr.

Perkins want to thank you again for your willingness to come and um before us and uh put your name in the hat to serve in this capacity.

Thank you so much, and we wish you well.

Thank you.

Appreciate everyone.

Thank you.

You take care of we will now make room for our next um a candidate, and that's Mr.

Anthony Reddit, Mr.

Anthony Reddit.

So for the public who's watching, we've got four more individuals, four more interviews.

Good afternoon, sir.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for joining us today.

Please say good evening.

Good evening.

No, not yet.

Don't know.

I'm on all my minutes, not yet.

It's still not six yet.

Um, I want to welcome you uh the city council committee of the whole.

Uh, this is an interview for the embuds person's position, give you a two minutes to introduce yourself and what you would like for us to know about your knowledge of the abuds person and what you would plan to do in that position.

Good evening, good afternoon.

My name is Anthony Reddit.

Uh I'm a native Detroiter, grew up on the Detroit Windship area, Seven Mile Lodge.

Uh I found the position, and I have a little background with the position.

When I was in college, I dealt with an ombudsman.

I didn't know Detroit had an embudsman position, but I was in college, I had an ombudsman, and they were very helpful for me to get through college, to get through law school.

So I was familiar with what an embudsman should do, what they should represent.

And usually what happens, you go to ombudsman when something is not working out.

You go through the normal channels, you try to do it the best way you can, and sometimes you hit a hit a roadblock.

And then sometimes you need to find somebody else.

Everybody's up here elected official.

Sometimes you want to do right by them.

Sometimes they can't hear from you.

And it's not your fault, it's not their fault.

They may just have not the right number.

Sometimes they might have a tax issue, calling office that's not for tax.

Sometimes they might have a housing or water issue.

Calling wrong number that's not for housing or water.

So what an ombudsman does, they'll listen.

Sometimes they'll deal with the complaints, sometimes they'll deal with the ragging, but they listen compassionately in order to offer them some solutions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any questions?

Uh, member Durhal.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon to you all.

Thank you for applying.

Uh thank you for applying for the position.

Uh see that you are an attorney.

I am.

Um, and so you would be one to understand the importance and the power of subpoenas.

Yeah.

Um, what are your thoughts about the utilization of subpoena power from the position of the ombudsman, knowing that that is a power that the ombudsman has?

Well, I've been an attorney for almost over 14, 15 years now.

In particular, right now I work for the Social Security Administration, but I did litigation trial work for all state.

And in that capacity, we held a lot of hearings.

Uh, I've run my own trials, we've did a lot of depositions.

Uh I looked at the Detroit um municipal code.

I think it's under 4.04 or chapter 4 for an ombudsman person.

I know they have the power to run an investigation, they're having the power for subpoena.

I also know that the limits of their power.

Primarily, we're dealing with city services.

What's going on, what's happening, what's not happening.

We bring you in.

We say, hey, what's going on?

And a lot of times what I found in situations like that, I work for Social Security.

We we deliver services, disability services.

A lot of times it's just something that's missed.

It's usually not anything nefarious.

But like I was saying before, sometimes a person may be calling the wrong number, contacting the wrong people.

In that regard, if something is messed up, if there's a link in the chain that's not working, bringing them in, hey, what's going on?

What's not working?

Do you need any additional services?

So, in that regard, we've done the depositions.

We've done the asking for discovery.

So I will be able to use my background as a trial attorney in order to do those services as the ombudsman in Detroit.

Three, Mr.

President, just to follow up uh question, noting that the ombudsman is also a position that has the ability to control the narrative here in the city of Detroit and how our residents view uh the deliverables uh or the deliveries, should I say, uh, of services and resources here in the city of Detroit.

What is your plan to balance the political nature of the job and the governmental responsibility of the job that exists for that position?

I'm not naive.

Uh, even though the ombudsman is not elected, politics has his hand on everything.

However, you are the elected officials.

As part of, if I'm the ombudsman, I just want to make sure that the issues get resolved, people are being heard, and nobody feels that they're being left behind.

A lot of times when people are the most frustrated, it's because they don't feel they're being heard.

So I will try to be visible because a lot of times, especially our seniors, they just want somebody to talk to.

It might be a minute before they talk to their grandson, a niece or somebody.

And if you can bring them in, hey, what's your problem?

What's going on?

A lot of times just speaking with them sometimes resolves the issue.

So as far as politically, I'm not naive.

I know political touches everything.

But be an ombudsman, being able to listen to people, being able to be available, that's a lot of the job.

Through you, Mr.

President, uh, my final question in that same vein.

What is your plan to work with the current council relative to transparency of constituent issues as well as the administration and those departments about the complaints that your office may have received?

What is your plan to work with each one of those branches uh to be able to uh get those issues for constituents resolved, build a level of transparency, but also uh a strong relationship between the boat between both.

Well, you touched on it.

You brought up transparency.

Umbudsman is not an elective position, meaning we can go to everybody and say what problems you're having, these are the problems we're hearing, what problems are you hearing?

Hopefully, that exchange will allow us to help the elected officials.

Umbudsman is not elected, but we might be able to help your district in your district in your district.

And it's a win-win for everybody.

Constituents feel they're being heard, even if it's the umbudsman, maybe not the council person because they can't get to it right then.

But as long as they feel supported, I can bring them back to Councilmember Durho's uh district.

Hey, I talked to Council Durh, he spoke to me.

We can work, do a couple things here.

He said he's gonna help with this, and I'm gonna do my part over here.

And that collaboration is what kind of allows everything to function all together.

So kind of just summing up, we're supposed to be support, support each other.

We're supposed to be help, help each other.

If something is missing, something you need, we might be able to add that to it.

So everybody and the citizens of Detroit benefit.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President, and good afternoon to you.

Thank you so much for your interest.

Um considering your background, so you have been an attorney for over 15 uh roughly 15 years now.

Um talk to me about being able to empathize with residents as they bring forward concerns that they may have.

I started off as a IT guy.

I started off in computers when I went to undergrad.

And after years of sitting in the uh basement not talking to anybody, I went to law school because I said I want to speak to people, I want to help people.

So I actually went to law school for public service.

Uh my senior year, or I should say my last year of law school, I worked at the Detroit uh circuit, which allowed us to go to Hannah House, allowed us to go to neighborhoods in Detroit, and we would just bring our desks, our virtual desks, we bring our laptop, and we would just set up, put a sign, and just allow people to come in and just tell us what they need.

That's the best way to get stuff done.

Where we run into issues where we assume people are having issues, where we assume people are having problems.

But a lot of times, people, if you open up your door, they will tell you what's the issue.

So even though I do have a 15-year background, I've done some litigation.

My last few years we've been delivering services at the Social Security Agency, delivering uh uh giving people benefits, whether they're indigent or having severe uh accident and need some help.

Excellent.

Thank you for sharing that because we know that constituent issues is not usually black and white.

Um so I appreciate you sharing that experience as well.

Can you talk about your understanding of the city's internal systems?

When you say internal systems, I know what do you mean?

Just how we function as a city, the um interworkings of departments because the ombudsman's office works with virtually every department in the city and receives complaints about uh departments throughout the city.

Yeah, you're talking about the city services, the water department, uh vehicle, motor vehicle issues, uh complaints for building codes.

Is that what you're referring to?

It could it it could be any and everything that you can think of.

Um I I recently actually had an issue with um a constituent who acquired property uh from the Detroit Land Bank Authority and and worked with the Ombudsman's office on that.

So just your understanding, your overall understanding of the inner workings of the city.

Well, understanding of the workings of the city, city council, mayor, department heads, and then I know we have a legal department that takes on certain responsibilities and hear certain things.

What you're talking about regarding about hearing issues with dealing with whatever, dealing with building issues.

The one thing I do have outside of a legal degree, I was in IT for 10 years.

I have I've been doing computers before I even touched the legal book.

And I bring that up to say going forward, we're gonna see some issues that we haven't seen before.

Uh when COVID came, nobody could have saw that coming.

But yeah, people had to come up with issues.

People have to come up with uh solutions to those issues.

So, regardless of the complaints, whether they're usual, whether we have a solution on the books, or whether a new solution needs to be created, the diversion in my background, whether it's the IT, whether it's dealing with indigent uh people with Social Security, will kind of give me the background to work with whatever issues come in the door, whether it's old and we have some solutions on the book, and I can go to you and say, Hey, how do we solve that?

Or whether it's something new, whether it might be I AI or something like that.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Positional member waters.

All right, thank you.

So good evening.

Good evening.

It's evening, I think.

No, we're still in crossing.

No, we still have six o'clock.

Six o'clock.

Back when I was growing up.

All right, I'll just bother you.

All right.

Um can you tell talk about um your experiences, how your experiences have enabled you to work with residents uh say even on one of their worst days.

Yeah, uh right now I'm uh uh attorney advisor for Social Security Administration.

And we work for the judges, they give a decision, they give it to us, we write it up, and we have to make those defensible for either attorneys or the agencies in order to pay or not pay.

But about two years ago, I actually did disability determinations for the state of Florida.

And the interesting about that, we would have to call people directly.

We would have to call neighborhoods that may not be used to people who sounded like me, and we have we would have to work on behalf of them.

Sometimes we would call people, they're not ready for our call.

Sometimes we'll call people, they might have had a bad day.

I say that to say I've dealt with people, I've dealt with constituents, I've dealt with claimants that sometimes don't care about my feelings.

However, we have services that we have to uh give them.

So even in that regard, even though they might not be up for me when I call at nine o'clock in the morning asking for medical records, I've dealt with everybody, they can be cranky, but when you give them a solution, when you pay their claim, when you give them the information timely, when you listen to them, when you don't mess around and give them the information they're looking for, even if they're cranky that day, even if they, you know, son or daughter might have pissed them off, later on they usually appreciate you calling them, you handle the business, and you're getting them the information and services that they needed.

So it sounds like maybe with the Social Security Administration, it could be what is it, countywide, statewide that you do?

And if that is the case, I mean if it's directly Detroit, could you talk about maybe say what percentage of of the Detroit residents that you've directly impacted?

Well, I work for the Detroit uh hearing office in in the McLamar Bills.

So the claimants that we list to that coming to our office, they're primarily Metro Detorters and Michiganders, you know.

So they could be in the city of Detroit all the way into the outskirts.

Okay.

So all right then.

Okay, so thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Randy.

Um, member Callaway.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Mr.

Reddit, thank you for um your interest in this position.

And um thank you for your legal acumen that I believe you'll be able to bring to the position, your experience, your knowledge, and um, in your estimation, um, how would you um go about making the office of the ombuds person more accessible to everyday Detroiters who one may not have internet access or connection, number two may not have transportation down here, and if they do have transportation, may not have the resources to pay for the very, very, very expensive parking down here around this building.

How would you make the ombudsperson's office more accessible to that everyday Detroiter?

Thank you.

Uh, I did look at some of uh Umbudsman Simpson's work, and I saw he did have the remote offices.

There's a way to even make that a little more accessible to people.

Uh, if anybody's familiar with UAD UD law, they used to have a mobile services bus.

They used to have somebody who come into the neighborhoods, drive, set up a little office in the back, and do intake in neighborhoods.

So you don't necessarily have to go to a coffee shop, a restaurant.

Some of our aging members, they may not want to do that.

They may feel uncomfortable, and they may not be able to drive.

One way we can solve that is kind of get a mobile bus.

I've seen it happen before, and it seems to be well received because you just come out your door, you might send your your son or your your nephew or your daughter, bring grandma in, bring mama in, and you don't necessarily have to leave, you don't necessarily have to drive.

We can come to you.

Thank you for that.

Um, that's that's that's wonderful.

U and D is amazing.

You can get your law degree now online at U and D mercy.

And so they're all about making everything convenient for you.

I read that um just recently um in some of the literature that I got from them, because that's in district two.

So um thank you for that, and that's very important that we make the office of the embudsman um accessible.

And um, and I thank you for again your interest in this position.

All right, any additional colleagues?

I think it's just me, Brother Reddit, oh six.

Oh six, all right.

Um my question is how do you plan on communicating?

I know y'all don't understand.

How do you how do you plan to uh communicate to uh this body uh issues in real time?

Uh sometime we get information, uh constituent concerns at the end of a term, we get it at the end of the year, the end of the fiscal year, but it's important to be able to uh address these issues in a more systemic, those more systemic issues uh through legislation, and the way we find that out is through constituent uh concerns.

And if they're not calling us, they should be calling.

How do you plan on communicating to this body those issues so that we could uh translate uh those systemic issues into legislation that hopefully resolves those systemic issues?

Thank you for the question.

Uh it's one thing to have one-off issues, uh something come up, something be able to be resolved.

We might have a solution for it.

Uh one way we can kind of pool our resources together.

Sometimes there are issues that will pile.

Sometimes there were issues that will repeat itself.

Sometimes you'll say, hey, district two, district seven, district nine.

The same issue is coming up.

And usually if we run into an issue where we're starting to see a problem and it continues and it continues, and we might even offer a solution and still continues, then what that tells us that we might need something legislative to fix it.

So, in that regard, we're gonna see the issue because they're gonna be calling our office, they're gonna be calling your office, they're gonna be calling everybody else's office.

And if we run into a situation where I'm hearing about it, you're hearing about it, everybody else is hearing about the mayor hearing about it, then it's time to take legislative action.

Then it's time to pull everything together, maybe go to Lansing and try to get long-term solution.

And if it's a problem like that, we don't have to yell it because everybody's gonna hear it from the constituency.

Well, Mr.

Reddick, we thank you uh for your willingness again to serve in this capacity.

Appreciate you coming in um for this you know public interview in front of the world.

Uh wish you all the best.

Thank you much.

Thank you, Council.

Thank you.

All right, we will bring forward our next interviewee, and that is Miss Kimberly Hunter Varner Tandy.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon, good evening.

Okay, maybe it's just me.

All right, good evening.

Now see good evening.

We've been here that long.

Right.

Um we're here today for the interviews for the umbudsperson.

Uh, you are our third to last candidate.

Um, we appreciate you for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

Want to give you two minutes to introduce yourself and talk a bit about what you know about the umbudsperson's position and what you would like to bring to this office.

The floor is yours.

Absolutely.

Thank you again.

Um, as you know, my name's Kim Tandy.

Um I am a born and raised Detroiter, um, have lived in the city all of my life, and have been um actively engaged all that time.

As a kid, my father, who was uh the director of the housing development commission at the time, um I used to be with him all the time in the streets, making sure that people had adequate affordable housing, water, and all that.

Little did I know that later on in life I would use those skills and that engagement to understand this a little bit more.

My mother as an educator always being in there with children, working with them as well in the community.

Um that's something that has been my passion.

I'm an architect by trade, have my master's in architecture, um, and through that I have been construction manager on many jobs, Museum of African American History, Tiger Stadium actually was um I worked on the Lions um Stadium as well.

Um and through that, I think that I have learned um management skills and how to manage people, how to work with people and bring people together to work together to get a job done.

Um, in the last 12 years, of course, I've been the district two manager where I've hosted hundreds of meetings and brought engagement together, worked on revitalization of uh streetscapes projects and those things.

I think as the embudsman, I want to continue to do some of those things that we've been working on in the past 12 years, um, bringing that engagement as well as working to make sure the residents trust government, have access to government, um, and understand the importance of, as well as making sure that they have the resources and um all kind of knowledge that they need in order to be and have good quality of life in the city of Detroit.

Thank you for that.

Uh colleagues, any questions from right?

Um, Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Good evening, good to see you.

Um, Ms.

Tandy.

Um, really, my one question for you is you've worked for the city, you have um a career um that you've done really amazing work in.

Wondering, and you know the embudsment office through your work.

What are some changes, some improvements uh that you are thinking about making if you were to have this role?

So I think as the role, I think I would want to continue some of the great work that the embudsman has done.

I think that in the past 10 years, the embudsman has done a great job being in the community and making sure that there's that the community had access to someone that was an impartial person that could talk about and help them through some of these programs.

I think that I want to engage that even more.

I want to make sure that the community has a lot more access, but also knows what that means through programs through making sure that they're that I'm visible and accountable, and again, my biggest thing is also starting to bring more trust into the city government.

A lot of our residents have for many years had issues with some of the things that were going on, not to anybody's necessary fault, but I want to make sure that our residents really feel comfortable that our government is working for them, that these are the people that they have you know voted for and that they um trust in, and how do we engage them in order to make sure that they have trust in that system?

So I want to be there for that.

I'd like to bring that further.

I'd like to be able to make it a little bit more accessible to our community as ombudsman.

I think that's what I would really want to bring.

Thank you.

I appreciate that, and I really appreciate your leadership.

Um I was very lucky to work with you as a student at Detroit Mercy University doing Livernoy Soup.

Uh, and quite frankly, just was really inspired by you and how much you love your city, how much you love the neighborhood.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Any additional questions, colleagues?

Number Waters.

Thank you.

I remember Johnson.

Oh, well, you can go to the next this time.

Okay.

So we just never know about relationships.

So I didn't know that you had you were her student, you know.

Like that would that's very nice.

You're an architect uh like your dad.

Yeah.

Um, so can you talk about your biggest um achievement as a district two manager uh in the mayor's office and what would you do to make a similar impact as ombudsman?

Well, I think one of the biggest, we've had a lot of big um achievements in district two since I've been there, but one of the biggest one I think was during our streetscape.

Um, of course, one of the first big streetscapes in the city that we had, um, there were a lot of businesses that were having some significant challenges.

Um, through that time, I worked with all of our department heads as well as some of our um nonprofits and some other fiduciaries, some of our banks, to help raise some money to actually help those businesses to stay alive because I really believe that construction is construction.

It's gonna do what it does, and there's not really anything we can do to make that any better, right?

I think that one of the things that we we need to do a little bit better is making sure that when our departments are working on our streets or working in some capacity that might influence those things that we're engaged with those people that it affects first and that they have knowledge of that.

So we um I helped to organize meetings so that those businesses had access to those departments, and I raised over 150,000 to actually through a soup similar to the Limbers Livernoy soups that we had done before to actually keep businesses open and give them that.

I think that's one of the big things.

I also um started a program called Pathway to Home Ownership because I found that as we were working through some of the things that we're working through, a lot of our renters um needed access or knowledge of resources to get there.

So I started that program as well, and I think that that's been very effective and has branched off into a lot of other people working in that capacity.

So the second part of it is what would you do to make a similar impact as embudsmers?

One I would do is um make sure that I continue to have those resources available again.

I think resources and knowledge are the key to our success.

And so make sure that I could bring those resources and that knowledge into the community as the ombudsman and have access to um funding capabilities, making sure that there's um collaboration between different businesses and um and the city of Detroit and our residents and our businesses.

I think that through that, through the embudsman office, I can continue to do exactly what I did on Livernoise for the whole city.

Um, make sure that there's again make sure there's resources and and opportunities there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good evening.

Good evening.

Great to see you.

I think 12 years ago, I met you when I was on the board of my neighborhood association, and you had just began working for the city in the department of neighborhoods.

You have developed relationships over those last 12 years within the administration within city council as well.

How do you maintain a level of impartiality in the role as the ombudsman, recognizing that relationships may get you into a meeting, but how do how can residents feel comfortable that if you're the ombudsperson that you are unbiased?

So I think that even in my practices as district manager, um, I I want to continue the fact that my role is to make sure that everybody's heard that you have you hear what the complaint is, you hear what's working on in the city, what what the what those things are happening in the city, what is that actually happened, bringing those together, and then analyzing what where we are in that right spot.

I don't feel like there's I I mean there are some alliances, everybody has alliances, absolutely.

I think that that's just natural.

But I think that in my role, and I think even as district manager, I have continued to do this that all of us deserve quality, right?

And so the best way I think that we can get quality is by understanding what those issues are, being impartial in to in that investigation, working with all of those that are in this in the solution of that, and then coming up with a solution that is best for the resident of the city of Detroit as well as the city, so that we are all working together in collaboration.

Thank you.

And I'm not sure if Member Santiago Romero asked you this question, but um because you are here, you've been working in City Hall.

Um, do you have you already identified ways to improve efficiencies within the office um experiences for our residents?

So I don't know that I've necessarily sat down and identified specific um ways to improve because I think that that we're going in the great in the right direction.

I'd like to continue to grow in the one transparency of what's going on.

I also want to continue to work with residents again to feel confident in the city and in the practices that that they are feeling, um, to have confidence in that the city is actually working for them.

And so um I think that the biggest thing is just outreach, communication, um being out there, um, accessibility, accountability, um, and transparency.

And those are the things that I would want to bring to the office and continue the growth of that office um as it has been growing in the past 10 years.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Uh, Member Durral.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Good afternoon to you.

Uh first, let me say thank you for your tremendous amount of service.

Uh, I recently had opportunity to travel across this city to every single district.

Uh, and one of the things that I learned that you are not just district two, uh, there are a lot of folks that know you uh across this city, which is a great thing, uh understanding how important this position is uh for constituent relations in that same vein.

Uh and I know member Santiago Romero and Member Johnson kind of alluded to it.

Uh, if we're talking about like not just constituent relations and kind of fixing some of those issues that exist, because uh we we all hope we know the city's a lot better than it was 12 years ago.

We know that.

But in that office, what kind of tools would you use uh or what kind of strategies would you use uh to provide better implementation to get that transparency out there to be able to reach that uh reach those folks?

Uh is that hiring more staff?

Is that ensuring uh you know there are better relationships between council and the administration because this is an oversight agency.

What would you do to strategically uh to kind of push that office forward uh and continue the growth of the city?

So I think one thing um first of all, I I don't know if I would grow staff necessarily.

I would take the time once I got into the position to actually evaluate staff and where it is and what they feel like needs and what those holes are because they've been working in this capacity already, right?

And I'd be willing to listen to that to talk to them about that.

So I don't know if it would be increasing staff.

I think that one of the things that I have found that is incredibly um effective, and I think that has reached out to across the city is the Doncast.

So when we went in pandemic mode in the city of Detroit, um we had really no communication.

We we kind of fell on like, oh gosh, what are we gonna do right now, right?

And so one of the things that I helped in the Department of Neighborhood to implement was the Doncast, and that was for us to be able to communicate to residents even when there was not but contact or of us being able to be at their houses or be at their at their doorsteps.

So I would like to implement something like that, that there was some kind of um podcast or some kind of um Doncast or Umbudsmancast or Umcast or whatever we would call it, um, so that there was actually access to have those conversations because again, the the pot the Doncast is not just for someone to present something, it is for someone to be able to back and engage and ask those questions, right?

So I think I would um like to add something like that, as well as again to um reinforce having office hours in all of the diff districts all of the time because I think that it's difficult for people to get downtown sometimes, um, and we want to meet people where they are and make sure that they have accessibility.

So I think I would add some of those things to that office, and I think that would be one of the ones that I'd like to implement in that in that space.

And noting this through you, Mr.

President, noting that this is an oversight agency, one of the most uh important powers that this position has is the power to subpoena.

How do you view uh that power?

How would you utilize it if you were to become the ombudsman?

Uh and what are your thoughts behind it?

Um again, as an impartial, I mean, uh impartial and and also um I think that I would I would use that when necessary, but I don't think that that would be the tool that I would want to use in order to make people do certain things.

I think that we can work together and make resolution without that.

And so if I had to, I would use it if that was necessary.

I don't that that's not something that I think that I would use regularly or would would use as a strategy to make this office stronger or work because again, I think that we need to work together and partially work together, talk together, and if our city did that more, we would be in way better situation.

And through you, Mr.

President, my final question.

Uh, if we were to choose you as our ombudsperson, uh after 10 years of your service, where do you envision the city would be and what the success look like to you?

Oh, I think the city could be a great place because I think we'll all be working in together hand in hand.

I think that us having relationships.

Um I think that the mayor's office and the city council office working together has come together a lot.

Um, but I think that we can get to get together a little bit more and start to work together with that.

But I really want I think that the biggest thing for me and my passion that I've always had is that our residents feel like they have access, and our residents feel like they have they're being heard, that they're being seen, they're being thought of, and that they feel like this is the city for them.

Um, you know, we pay a lot in taxes, we pay a lot in all of the things that we do in our city right here, and they should be comfortable enough to be able to come to City Council.

They should be comfortable enough to feel like they have an ombudsman that can work for them, that can actually help them to get to that next space, and that the mayor is in that same space.

So, as the ombudsman, I would want to work together to make sure that that is happening.

And so I think that our residents would feel more comfortable, they would trust government more, um, and they would feel like they have more access to the city and what it's doing and to programs and resources that the city provides.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

And I want to say thank you for your years of service.

I've known you for quite some time, and it's that happens when we be in government for for so long.

Um local government in particular.

You you are currently a part of an outgoing mayoral administration.

Uh, you are the one that people call in addition to us, of course, for constituent concerns.

Um what has been your interaction with the unbudsperson's office currently at this in this capacity?

And with that being said, now again, because you are a part of a mayoral administration, it's outgoing.

You should have some idea of some of those challenges that you might not be able to address because you're a part of the administration.

What would be some of those first things that you look at from a systemic standpoint with the knowledge that you have embedded in you?

So I think that one of the things that I would I would really like to work on is actually the relationship of the city and the and the and the land bank and some of those things that we are having concerns with as far as transparency and some of those things that are going on.

I would like to work on that because I think that as a as an entity, I think that the idea of the land bank is a really good one, and I think that it's something that that can help the city.

And I think that our residents don't understand or don't have the access that they need to understand that as a um so I'd like to work in a capacity to help make sure that that engagement so that we have access to property, so that our residents that live and have paid taxes have access to those properties, um, and that there's an understanding of what that is.

So that's something that I would I would like to work on as the ombudsman and with this council and and with the next with the next mayor.

Um I think that would be my my biggest thing that I would like to try and try and challenge, but again, also to start to make people feel like there is real like we are all working together, that the residents aren't here, the city's not here.

We're all working together for a better Detroit.

And so um the bringing in something like the Doncast, as well as making sure that we're visible and out there in the streets and working with our residents to continue getting resources out there and having the so that they have the understanding of what is actually happening in the city of Detroit.

Where are those programs?

Um, even still, as district manager, when I go into meetings, there's still a lot of people that that come to meetings but don't know where those resources are.

How do we bridge that gap to make sure the residents have that so that they have the opportunities in order for them to have the quality of life that they deserve right here in the city of Detroit?

There should not be any place in the world that has any better quality of life than the city of Detroit.

We have the greatest housing, we have the greatest people, we have a great location at the waterfront.

Great council.

We have a great council.

Um I always say to people that the greatest asset of the city is the people, and so I want to make sure that those people are served in the capacity that they deserve.

Thank you.

The second part of my question is what's been your interaction with the ombudsperson's office up to the case.

Okay, so yeah, so I I've worked with Bruce our ombudsman at length in several several occasions, you know, where he's received certain things that are happening in.

He'd call me and we'd work together to make sure those resolutions.

Same here.

If there's any knowledge that I think that the ombudsman has, or if they have any access to something, um I I would I had no problem in calling him and getting some insight on what they were doing and how they could actually help us in the city.

Um, I don't have a problem with referring people to the ombudsman if the if that needs to be done because things that they are having problems with are not being resolved.

Um I haven't had too many occasions where I've had to necessarily that I couldn't resolve an issue for them, but there are occasions that you want to just have access, and not just because I might have resolved it, you might not necessarily agree with that resolution.

But here is somebody that's impartial that you can talk to to see whether or not what you feel like if I've done what I was supposed to do.

And I think that that oversight is what we all need in in government, and sometimes we can get close to some things, and we might need that impartial person to just tell us yes, we're doing the right thing, and no, we're not.

And so in that case, I have referred people to um the ombudsman at that.

But we have we've had a great relationship, he's worked well, he's always been out to community meetings and been with, so I've had a great relationship with him at that time.

And I've referred people because there's some concern in the future.

What does that mean with the department of neighborhoods?

But you always have your ombudsman, right?

And so at this point, even through transition period, you always have your ombudsman, and I've I've told people that um as well as your city council for people to go to.

Thank you.

Any further questions, colleagues?

All right, seeing none, again, thank you for your service and your willingness to serve me.

Thank you.

How are you doing?

Appreciate you here for the uh thank you so much interview.

Thank you.

And as we transition from Miss Kim Hunter Verner Tandy, we will bring in Ms.

Tiffany Tilly.

T Tilly.

Two more.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Very nice to have you here.

Thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

We appreciate you.

Thank you for having me.

Yes, ma'am.

We are here for the uh interview for the ombudsperson's position.

And you are our second to last interview.

Um, and we want to give you two minutes to provide the body with uh a little bit about yourself as well as what you know about the position.

What do you plan to do and bring in this capacity?

Floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you to the to the honorable body for this opportunity to interview for the position of ombudsperson.

I am humble and grateful to be here.

I am a proud Detroiter, born and raised.

I graduated from Henry Ford High School, earned my undergraduate degree in organizational leadership and communications, and later received my MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy with a focus on international business and finance.

Through my study abroad, I trained with leaders in government, nonprofits, and the private sector in countries including Italy, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, and Costa Rica.

But I chose to stay in Detroit.

I chose to stay in Michigan and use those experiences to serve right here at home.

My path of service was shaped by personal tragedy.

I grew up as a caregiver for my mom who fell ill when I was 10 years old.

Then after losing both my brother and cousin to gun violence, I founded the Manning Project to honor them.

Through it, I organized Stop the Violence Rallies, connected with family connected families with resources, and partnered with organizations like the NAACP, Henry Ford Hospital, gun prevention organizations, other nonprofit organizations, and the Detroit Police Department, as well as elected officials to support our communities.

Those efforts grew from a few dozen participants to hundreds and thousands of Detroiters have benefited from those jobs and resources I've shared.

This commitment to service and advocacy is what I brought to the State Board of Education, working to remove systemic barriers in over 850 school districts and standing with students and parents.

It is the same spirit I would bring as umbudsperson to listen to advocate and to help ensure accountability and fairness for all Detroiters.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We're gonna open up for questions, colleagues.

Um member Waters.

All right.

Thank you, and good evening.

Good evening.

Uh I'm impressed.

This is great.

Absolutely great.

Thank you.

Um, Detroit usually um always um have something going on to help our residents, but they often say they didn't know about it with your history and journalism.

How would you shift the communication strategy for the ombudsman's office?

So there are multiple things that we can do with communications.

One of the things that I did years ago that was very successful in the city of Detroit was PSAs.

Uh radio PSAs, TV PSAs go a long way to get the word out.

But also social media is huge since then.

And so using different avenues, including social media, emails, making sure that we are spreading the word at the community meetings.

I've had great training.

I was trained by some of the best when I worked for the Wayne County Clerk as a community liaison, trained by Albanau Hogan, also received training by Ray Solomon, and so I really understand how to navigate those meetings and making sure that the community gets the information out in front of them.

The other thing I just want to thank you for all of your work that you've also done in education as well.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

Your passion uh for that.

We all traveled to Benton Harbor together to take on an issue, and all I had to do was pick up the phone and call you, and you were on it.

Thank you.

Right away.

So thank you so much for for caring the way that you do.

I appreciate that, and I appreciate you for alerting me.

Um, we did some great work to keep the high school from being shut down.

That was in 2019 when I first became a board member, and I'm so grateful that the work we did culminated in that school still being there for that community.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Uh, any additional questions, colleagues?

Uh, Member Durhoe.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Good afternoon to you.

Uh I I um champion member Waters' comments.

This is absolutely amazing.

This uh this document that we have in front of us, very uh informative about uh your plans and uh very well put together.

So I want to give you kudos on that.

Um my question revolves around a couple things.

First, um, just the responsibilities of the ombudsman.

Uh you would have uh subpoena power.

Uh what is your idea about the utilization of subpoena power here uh in the city of Detroit?

I think that it's needed.

I think that that would be a last resolve, though.

I am big on collaboration and relationships and making sure that I'm working those relationships to work on behalf of citizens.

So I am in this role, my vision is to be that person that go-to person that really can get things done for the citizens.

I think I have a very unique lens, and I would bring a fresh perspective to this role because I've worked cross-functionally in government and I've worked cross-functionally uh not only on the local level but state level as well.

And so, as a former CED director, and I have, you know, I was also over the real estate department.

I was also over the code enforcement department, as well as the building department.

And I work closely with the water department and public works department to make sure that things were getting done.

I know looking at the data here that the BC department and the land bank department are your top departments that get complaints.

Because I have experience navigating those systems and working with those systems, I would be able to uh mediate between residents and those departments.

I understand how they work, I understand the inner workings, and I understand uh some of the policies and and some of the things that go on that affect why things aren't always moving as briskly as we would like them to, and including budget issues.

So I would be able to speak to them with residents after I speak to the department heads to find out what's going on and help with those invest investigations as well as the mediations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, through you, Mr.

President.

Uh, just a follow-up question.

Uh obviously you've been around for a very long time as well.

Uh you uh have a lot of relationships, um, even folks who are here in certain departments, city government on the council.

Uh, what is your uh thought about the unbiased nature of the position, being again an oversight agency, uh having investigative uh duties as well.

What are your thoughts behind that and how do you plan to work with the administration as well as city council?

Thank you for that question.

I don't have an issue with it being unbiased at all.

I think I will work well uh while still advocating for citizens.

As a state board member, I am constantly battling with Republicans, but there are times where we come together and we agree.

There are nonpartisan issues that we work well on, and I make sure that I keep those relationships where we can come across the the aisle that we can come across the table and we can talk on behalf because it's not about me, it's about the youth, it's about our stakeholders.

So, what can we do to make sure that things are moving smoothly for them and working well for them and working on policies that can help change lives?

That's what my focus is.

Thank you.

Thank you, and through you, Mr.

President.

Uh, final question again, you wear a lot of hats, uh, obviously, politically uh and otherwise.

You did mention the school board.

Uh, if uh chosen for this position, do you plan to stay on the state school board?

And is there a conflict of interest if we were to choose you and you decided that you were that you would stay on the state school board?

I have I am still deciding whether I am going to run for another term or not or not.

There would not be a conflict of interest though.

We do have a store state board member that works for the city for city government, and all of the board members do have positions.

It would not be a conflict of interest.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Okay, Mr.

President.

Uh, any additional questions, colleagues?

Uh, member Callaway.

Good afternoon, Miss Tilley.

Good afternoon.

And this is um a spectacular document.

Just thank you.

Um, just going over it and looking at all the documents and looking at all the letters of recommendation that you received.

Um, I thank you for putting this together the way that you took you the way that you did, and it's presentation and the content.

Thank you.

Um so thank you for that.

Thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity, and thank you for serving right now.

Thank you.

You're serving right now, and I'm a former educator.

Um, and um, all of us, we we we we know the importance of receiving a quality um education, um, and I appreciate what you've done at the state level.

Thank you.

Um, I'm familiar with your work and your commitment, um, not just from this, just from um what I've read about you and just following you somewhat.

So thank you again for your willingness to serve in this capacity.

And the only question I I've been asking pretty much is how would you bring awareness to the ombudsman's office?

How would you bring awareness to the office of the ombudsman and for those who don't have internet connection or access and those who cannot come down here because one they may not have transportation, two, they may have transportation but can't afford the very expensive parking.

How would you bring or take the ombudsman um position to the neighborhoods?

Thank you.

Thank you for that question.

There are a lot of things that we could do.

It's important for me in this role.

Should I be chosen to bring awareness and to educate?

That is something that I was strong on when I worked for the Wayne County Clerk and was a liaison.

I made sure that I was educating community members about about issues, concerns, making sure that they fully understood what was on the ballot in a very nonpartisan way.

Um in addition to some of the things that I mentioned with communications, with the PSAs, with social media, one of the things that I mentioned in this document in this package is to do an umbudsperson's tour.

I would like to do a tour in the community.

Another thing that I would like to do is work with each of the council members, collaborate with you all, make sure that I'm supporting you and your roles as well, showing up to your events, making sure if you want it that we have presence there.

Um I think it's important to make sure that we are reaching out to the seniors.

One of the things that my grandfather told me when I was young is that people always forget about the seniors, never forget the seniors.

We didn't know at that time that I was gonna run for public office, but that stuck with me.

And so I want to make sure that we are going to those seniors, senior events, senior buildings.

I definitely know my way around them as an elected official and as a former liaison.

There are definitely other ways as well.

Um recreation centers, I think they're underutilized, and I think that we should have we should have satellite sites in each district where although we might not be able to man them every day, there may be one day a week that's consistent and they know this day we will be at this recenter.

This day we will we will be at this location, and so those are some of the things that I would like to do, Mr.

Chair.

Uh yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Um thank you for that.

And those are some wonderful, wonderful suggestions.

Um I love the satellite office.

I love the um hours that you propose for being in each district.

Um those are wonderful suggestions, and thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Member Callaway.

Um, before we come to you, Member Durha, I just want to say uh very very proud of the work that you've done over the years, known you for a long time as well, uh, and appreciated all the work that you have done and currently are um in the fight right now for the community.

A question that I've asked folks uh how do you plan if appointed to this position to communicate with council in closer to real time?

You know, um you get a lot of constituent concerns, we get constituent concerns.

Uh our job as legislators, our job is to uh create legislation that makes life better, easier, more efficient.

Um, but sometimes we don't know exactly just because these calls may not be coming to our office, doesn't mean that it's not still a problem.

And they may come to the ombudsperson's office.

How do you plan on communicating with us closer to real time for us to determine if there's a uh piece of legislation that needs to be moved or maybe it's a policy within a department that needs to be addressed?

There are a couple of different ways.

For one, I have an open door policy, and so you would always have access to me to be able to ask questions and to let let me know what your needs are or what you're dealing with, what you're facing with, how can we assist?

For two, I can give reports monthly, quarterly, whatever the council likes.

But to make it easier, one of the things that I have in this document is I believe in order for us to make this a world-class office, one of the things that we need to do is change the system.

So there are multiple things that we can do.

Uh council can look on that that dashboard.

Other departments can get alerts right to them and know what what's happening and what needs to be fixed, what the complaints are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And you talked a little bit, and you talked about the dashboard, because my question was going to be about technology.

What what technology uh would you be looking to potentially integrate into the ombudsperson's office, whether that is technology that would aid and assist the public or aid and assist uh staff.

So again, and I do have some technology, and I I do have a technology plan in here behind the strategic plan, but it may have have to be stacked.

The technology may have to be stacked, where we're using multiple platforms, but you can go in the back system, department heads can go in the back system, they can see what's going on, they can get the alerts.

I think technology is a huge piece that's missing in this office.

And again, I would love to bring a new lens and fresh perspective and help with that, assist with implement the implementation.

I have it all laid out as well.

I know we don't have a lot of time, so I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of information in the package.

Thank you so much, Member Durha.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And so I know we don't have a lot of time, but when you put together a great packet like that, then other questions come.

So I'm looking at page 33.

Um you have a uh department breakdown of complaints, you have previous uh recommendations that were that was that were made from the current ombudsman as well as the city response.

I think that's impressive how you how you move that.

My question uh in your recommendations for continue oversight.

One, you said there are missing reports that are needed from 2022, fiscal year 2020 to fiscal 20, fiscal year 2022.

Have you looked uh to find those?

That's one question.

Uh and the second one would just be your overall overall agreement from where you are now with the ombudsman's recommendations.

I'm sorry, can you repeat the last part of that question?

Yep.

So the first question was just dealing with the reports.

Have you looked and found those reports?

Is that recent?

Because I don't know when you published this, were you able to get the information for those reports?

Second thing is what is your concurrence with the recommendations that the ombudsman has already placed in uh or or as you listed here from 2019 uh 2023 to 2024, what is your concurrence with those recommendations from the Ombudsman's office so I would need more information to be able to give an answer on some of the recommendations like oversight for demolition.

I would need more information and feedback for that.

As far as the reports, I did look for the reports.

Data trends, uh you need at least 10 years for data to trend.

And so I wanted to get the last 10 years, not only because that was the the current umbudsperson's time, but because that is the information I need to see the trends.

And I did not find those reports on the website, although I did find the others.

And three, Mr.

President, I would assume probably that's a period during COVID, so probably a little bit more difficult difficulty.

That's what I suspect that it could be because of COVID.

Okay.

Um, but but again, I uh I'm with you.

I know you say before you answer if you agree with the embudsman, you want to see uh and develop some of the data, but um okay.

That's that's what I have, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Or Mr.

President, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, colleagues.

Any additional questions?

All right, thank you.

Well, we want to thank you for uh joining us today and uh again your willingness to serve in this capacity, appreciate you uh taking the time out in this very public interview, as I've said before.

Um, and we wish you all the best.

I appreciate you all for the time.

Thank you so much for the questions, and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, and as we transition, Miss Tilly out, we have our last interviewee, and that is Anthony Zander.

Made a little hard for you.

Good day, sir.

Good day, honorable body.

How are you all today?

Doing well, thank you for being here.

Uh, we appreciate your uh willingness to serve in this capacity and come before us for this interview for the umbudsperson.

You are our last interviewee for the day.

Um, and we want to give you two minutes to give us a better understanding of who you are and uh what you plan to bring to the position of umbudsperson if so appointed.

So thank you for the opportunity to present myself to be the next ombudsman for the city of Detroit.

Uh my name is Anthony Zander, uh native Detroiter, uh DPS student, um degree in political science, current public, current PhD students studying government affairs, studying political science with a focus in public administration.

Um I also have a PMP, and I am certified in Lean Six Sigma Green, Lean Six Sigma Um Green and Black Belt.

Uh also that I started my career at the American Red Cross where I spent 17 years.

Um that took me to DC, worked in Lansing, obviously here locally in the city of Detroit.

Um last role there, I was the director of compliance and regulatory affairs for the state of uh for the state of Michigan.

And then in 2017, that brought me here to work in the city of Detroit, where I served in the capacity as a project manager on the lean team.

Um in that capacity, I had the opportunity to work with many departments.

Um worked in worked with uh BC, worked with DPD, worked with the water department, worked with public works.

Um my job was to go assess and improve um the operations within those departments.

And so that gave me opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the city of Detroit.

Um that gave me a chance to learn the the employees, the agency heads, and so that way it got me to understand what the needs were, and so that we can provide better service to the people of the city of Detroit.

And that led to my current role as I am now the director of civil rights inclusion and opportunity, also known as CREO, where I oversee a staff of 41 with a budget of about 8.3 million dollars.

Um, and I've been in this role for about approximately three and a half years now.

And so thank you for that opportunity.

Thank you.

Yep.

Uh colleagues, questions, member Durho.

Thank you, Mr.

President, and good afternoon to you.

Uh first, thank you for your service and what you do uh for us currently here at CREO.

Uh much appreciated.

Uh talk a little bit about how you would utilize your experiences that you may have gone through at CREO to transition to the Ombudsman's office and what changes you would make.

So, as you know, the first thing that CREO is responsible for is taking on investigations for um complaints, civil rights complaints, whether it be um from NDCR, which is Michigan Department of Civil Rights, EEOC, executive orders for um sexual harassment or workplace violence.

Those are the things that I do every day.

And so understanding that what it means to when a complaint, a person that comes in and they file the complaint, what they're looking for is someone to listen to them to see if something had something could be done better.

Are we not are we missing the opportunity somewhere at some point?

And so that's our job to make sure that we investigate and we ensure that that person is heard and that we are given them the satisfaction to know that someone listened to them.

And so as we move, and I'm as if I have the opportunity to move into this position, I want to take that same opportunity in that same role and that same compassion because these people come to the umbudsman's office because sometimes they feel that they're on their last hope, that they didn't get the they did not get the opportunities and they didn't get heard and they didn't get the resolutions they were looking for in the departments.

And so we can't have that.

We can't have anybody with last hope.

We have to make sure that they feel that they are always here and always welcome to be a resident, a visitor, a business owner.

They deserve it.

Thank you.

And through you, Mr.

President, uh, just for example, due to some ordinances or executive orders that may have been issued, and oftentimes you find yourself uh responsible for folks who are not in compliance.

Uh, what is your idea behind the utilization of subpoena power?

And or if you find departments are not in compliance because you do have relationship history with some of the folks in those departments.

Uh, what is your idea behind utilizing subpoena power?

Uh the relationship sheets you have and the ability to maintain unbiased uh and how would you uh implement your recommendations moving forward if they were found that uh some efficiencies or deficiencies exist.

So fortunately, I haven't had I haven't had to utilize the C Panel even in my current capacity.

Um and going back to the investigation portion of what I oversee in CREO, um the investigations, the investigations include individuals that I work with.

The investigation includes the you know, individuals, um staff members or agency heads or departments or whatever it may be.

I have to maintain that level of integrity no matter what.

So my relations with them has no bearing on the investigation, the outcomes, and whatever it is that we ended up deciding and recommending to whatever entity that we have to report that particular type of case to.

Okay.

Uh, and just really quickly on the utilization of subpoena power, would you use it?

How would you use it?

Hopefully, I will never get to that point.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Mr.

President, thank you.

No words.

Any additional questions, colleagues?

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Um Chair.

Good afternoon.

Sorry.

Good evening, Mr.

Xander.

Um, thank you for being here, and thank you for um demonstrating your interest in serving this capacity.

Um, just um one question for you.

Um in this role, what tools or or approaches would you incorporate um or introduce to strengthen um the office of the ombudsperson?

So I'd like to get through the chair.

Thank you, uh council member.

I like to get in there and find out what's going on.

So take a more analytical approach as I as I mentioned, background is in process improvement.

So you want to find out where are the deficiencies?

Rather, we like to sometimes say that okay, we did the right thing, but it's not okay just to do the right thing.

You have to be efficient, you have to be effective.

And so we want to make sure that we go in there, we analyze um where can we improve?

The data would tell us that the data should lead us there.

That data can be quantitative or qualitative.

So we can look at what's going on, whatever they exist in the system, but we also need to talk to the customers.

We also need to talk to the staff.

So we need to find out where in the ombudsman's office um that we can improve um uh overall services to the public and internally to us ourselves.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Member Waters.

All right, thank you.

So good evening.

Um how would you shift your experience as CRO director to being the ombudsman?

That's the first question.

I'm through the chair.

Say that one more time.

I was showing some seeds.

Uh member young.

How would you shift your experience as CREO director to being the ombudsman?

Uh through the chair, thank you.

I appreciate that uh question.

And so as two two things.

One, as I just mentioned to council member um Durall, is that our main priority is investigation.

Our main priority is customer service.

That is our number one um task.

That is what we were sought out to do to start out to establish at the inception of the Department of Human Rights.

Um we investigate, we ensure that people are satisfied, they make sure they're heard, they're satisfied with the services that they are provide, they are being provided, and they ensure that that they someone is hearing them because at some point they went to someone and they and they weren't heard, and then they need felt the need to come to us.

Second, I would say that my role as a project manager uh over the years is that it is to improve and to listen and to make sure all processes are for is one thing is that we are improving services internally for improving operations so that we can improve services.

That's what we should be focusing on.

Right, thank you.

So, how much has your department interacted with the ombudsman?

And did you have any ideas for improving interaction with city departments and the ombudsman's office?

So we've only had a couple of interactions, professional interactions with the ombudsman's office.

Such as just in inquiry about our operations.

Okay, and so probably doing for his day-to-day uh for his day-to-day um reasons, uh, we had those interactions.

And so other than that, then no, we haven't had any other interactions with the ombudsman, but we've I find that the two entities are very similar um in nature as far as what we are tasked to do.

All right.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Zander, thank you again for being here.

Got a question here from me.

Um how what what methods would you use to measure the umbudsperson's uh effectiveness under your leadership?

Uh and how would you uh how would you communicate those outcomes to the community?

So one of the things is that obviously again data, um, is seeing that not only are we talking about the 3300 complaints that come in, but also how are we resolving them?

What are we doing?

Do we have what are our re what's our repeat number?

What's our rate of efficiency?

Are people coming back to the umbudsman's office complaining about the same thing?

Not only to say necessarily because of the department, but because we didn't do what we thought we were should have been doing, just because we reached back out to the department and said, hey, this thing needs to be done, or can you help with this particular situation?

If it if our communication to the department or if our communication to whatever service that we were supposed to um improve doesn't happen, then that's the what we need to find out.

So we need a quality metric system or a quality insurance system to ensure that we don't have repeat of same individuals and same systems.

And I know you you're not working in the ombudsperson's office.

You had you indicated you don't work that much together, not that much interaction, but just from the outside looking in, I'm sure you looked at reports, it's been 10 years of of work uh under this particular unbudsperson.

What are what just give me one thing that you would keep and one thing that you would either cancel, right?

From what processes, either process or technology or fill in the blank.

So one of the things, so obviously our investigation system, we use the same system.

So currently that system for the investigation seems to work pretty okay.

Could we look at something else to see if it if we can find a better system?

Maybe also I think the system the city needs to go back to looking and see it if we need a uh a whole customer management system.

How would that work?

Would that benefit?

Um, those are the things as far as technology that I think that we should um to view.

How are we utilizing the data that does exist in the current system?

And so I know we report out, but once we report out, then what do we do with that information?

Um having you know having information available but not executing on it.

How does that help the individuals that have come in and looking for a resolution?

Okay.

Colleagues, any additional questions for Mr.

Zander?

Seeing none, sir, we thank you.

Oh six as well.

We thank you for your uh participation and uh your willingness to serve in this capacity as well as your current uh dedicated dedication to the citizens of the city of Detroit.

We thank you.

I appreciate you taking time.

Thank you, appreciate it.

All right.

Okay, that wraps up our interviews today, Mr.

Whittaker, uh, Ms.

Barcliff.

Uh if you can kind of give us just an understanding of what the next phase of this process is.

Uh noting that I know that as member Benson walked out, he said, Hey, I would like to push this back one more week, but I don't know if that's something that we had already discussed or not, or if we have a date at this point for the actual vote before council.

Good evening.

Um today we have planned on your body um voting on this next week, next Tuesday.

However, it is within your purview if you wanted to change it to the 30th.

The ombudsman's position um expires on or the his last date is October the fourth.

Um so that will leave time for it for that to happen if you if that was your desire to do so.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Whitaker.

Uh it would be helpful if counsel would direct if um if you would like us to do a background check on the 10 candidates before you vote that may be helpful to you.

Yes.

Um we would need direction on that.

Colleagues, is there a motion?

Motion.

There also any objection?

See none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Mr.

President Pro Tem, there are also there's also an issue that has been raised regarding uh the positions held by Ms.

Tilly and Ms.

De Nago, uh, whether or not they can simultaneously serve both positions.

I would I would ask that you would direct both law and LPD to do a report and have that also available to you before you begin your deliberations on the on these candidates.

Thank you.

And and I I would say just asking you, seeing that this is Thursday, would that uh uh additional week assist in that process so that we'll have more information than it may assist law.

Right, you know, we've anticipated the question.

So we do have a preliminary report that might need some refinement.

Gotcha, but we can certainly meet the time.

But I think to allow for for law law to have more opportunity because it's really important that law answers this question.

Yes, sir.

Not we're happy to do it.

As I indicated, we've already looked into it, but I think law has to opine.

Well, I'm not the council president.

Um pro Tim, and I know that you may have talked to Council President about the timing of this particular vote.

Uh if we do not make that decision today, can it still be made um after today?

Um I think giving the direction um to law uh and Tuesday's formal would be sufficient time.

It's not a particularly complex legal issue, but you do need to hear from them.

But I mean so we we had not slated for the actual vote.

There's nothing on paper that said that we were going to be voting next week.

So you've got to accommodate uh Mr.

Benson's request, you could certainly do it.

I think it would give time to to for both, and if you do it on the if you vote on the 30th, you would have sufficient time for the person to become acclimated to the position.

They'd have some time to chat with Mr.

Simp Simpson, and I think things could be accomplished if you want to delay it to the 30th.

You agree?

I agree.

Colleagues, is there a motion for the uh providing direction to the law department to move?

Discussion with discussion.

There's a motion with discussion.

Um member Young with discussion.

Yes.

Um first of all, let me just say excellent job to everybody from the staff.

Wonderful job.

This is an incredible process, very thorough.

I never felt lost or like I didn't have the information available to me.

And thank you for taking my calls, because I know I was really confused and asked you a whole bunch of questions.

So thank you for your patience, Mr.

Witterk and your professionalism, everybody.

I appreciate it.

I just want to ask you, why do we have to request the background check?

Wouldn't that something that should be already be done anyway?

Shouldn't it just be part of the normal process?

And why is it not?

It's Mr.

Witter.

It's not and we we only take group direction from council.

So if council doesn't direct us to do it, we have no independent authority to act in that in that regard.

It may require, I'm not sure at this point whether it's not is going to require some expense.

I think largely HR and the police department would actually do the under the undertaking.

But all oftentimes council doesn't ask for that.

So we we're not we're not we don't take it upon ourselves to independently act in that regard.

And is that really why that is is because one the financial aspect to it, but also because it would be outside your the powers that you've been given to be able to act independently, even though people can understand why you would do that in the course of a process and for other positions, normally that is the process.

You I would assume you go through some sort of background check before you get to work for the city.

Is that just because of the way the the charter and the law is set up for you to be able to follow that process that way and the monetary aspect as well?

Yeah, pretty much so.

We would take the direction if council asked that that that be undertaken.

You know, there there is a uh a you know, that there is a thought that you would take a background chess, background check only on the the successful candidate.

Okay, but I think given if you wait to the 30th, you may not have time.