Thank you.

Commissioner Eric O'Hill.

Commissioner Nicholas Waller.

Thank you.

Thank you.

There being a corn present, the commission will not be in session.

We will now move to the adoption of the agenda.

Is there a motion?

Great.

Hearing no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

We will now move to the adoption of the rules of procedure.

Is there a motion?

Any objection?

Hearing no objections, the rules of procedure will be adopted.

So that's just saying that.

Madam Clerk, do you have the results of the ballots?

Yes, I do, Mr.

Chair.

Do you mind reading?

Yes.

For the appointment of chairperson to the elected officials compensation commission.

For Commissioner Rhonda Willis, there were no votes.

For Commissioner Tiffany Jackson, there were no votes.

For Commissioner Kristen Lenson, there were no votes.

For Commissioner Erica Heel, Commissioner Waller, Commissioner Lenson, Commissioner Heel, and Commissioner Jackson, total of four votes.

For Commissioner Nicholas Waller, there were no votes.

Erica Heel has four votes, which would name her the elected officials compensation commission chairperson.

Congratulations.

Congratulations to the chairperson.

Do we have the resource for the vice chairperson?

Yes, we do, Mr.

Chair.

For the elected officials compensation commission, appointment of vice chairperson.

For Commissioner Rhonda Willis, there were no votes.

For Commissioner Tiffany Jackson, Commissioner Lunson, Commissioner Erica Heel, Commissioner Jackson, and Commissioner Waller, total of four votes.

For Commissioner Kristen Lunson, there were no votes.

For Commissioner Erica Hill, there won no votes.

For Commissioner Nicholas Waller, there were no votes.

For the appointment of Vice Chairperson, Tiffany Jackson has the most votes.

I will now turn the remainder of this meeting over to Chair Erica Hill.

Thank you.

So the commission has 45 days from today, the first meeting to issue final determinations on the salaries for mayor, city council members, and the city clerk.

That would mean that we need to have um if the commission is going to issue decisions regarding the salaries, they have to do it, the commission has to do it by December 6th.

Uh within those 45 days, there are only 15 session days allowed.

A session day is a day that the commission meets.

Um so in other words, the commission is maxed out at 15 15 meetings.

Um I don't think we'll need 15 meter meetings.

Uh hopefully we can finish this in two or three, maybe four meetings.

Um I know in years past it has been usually around two or three meetings.

Um after issuing the final determinations, they'll become final and effective within 30 days, unless uh two-thirds of city council rejects the uh just decision of the commission.

Um I may have already said this, sorry if I'm repeating myself, but a majority of the seven-member commission is needed for a quorum.

That's why we need four.

Um, and a majority appointed and serving is needed to make a decision.

Uh, in this case, since we have five members who are appointed and serving, uh, we need uh three members to agree uh or vote the same way in order for a decision to be made.

As members of the commission, uh I just wanna remind you all that you are public servants of the city uh and therefore subject to the city's ethics ordinance.

I know Kristen Lesson uh it's being the chair of the uh board of ethics uh in up until just recently.

Um she knows quite a bit about the ethics ordinance.

Um if any of you have any questions about the ethics ordinance or any, you know, if you're wondering if you can do a certain action without violating the ethics ordinance, please feel free to ask me.

Um you are also allowed to request an advisory opinion from the ethics board.

Uh, but I would just say that it's probably unlikely that they would get back to you in time before this commission's already met and finished up its business.

Um as a commission of the city, you're also subject to the open meetings act.

Um, in case you're not familiar with the open meetings act, it requires all public bodies to make decisions and have deliberations in an open meeting, um, with some exceptions, but none of those would be really applicable here.

So I asked that you please do not have uh email threads or group chats with each other discussing issues that uh are you know within the authority of the elected officials compensation commission.

Just to play it safe, I would say for the duration of this commission, just don't text don't have a group text with each other um or a group email thread.

Uh and also be aware that any documents pertaining to the commission uh are subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

Um because this is a public body, and those are technically public documents.

Um does anybody have any questions for me that I can answer at this time?

Are we getting our own emails uh for this board?

Commission.

Um I do not believe so.

I think that uh the at least I I was not made aware if you guys are getting your own emails.

Um that's something that we could look into if you guys would would like to.

We did on ethics just for sake of cabinet.

Yeah, for FOIA, I think.

Yeah.

Uh I will look into seeing if we can get email addresses for you all.

Um, because I can understand not wanting to have your personal email address subject to FOIA.

Gmail for ethics, but it said, you know, it had you talked to I would talk to the director of ethics as we you know, we have an IT person there that set something up that was Gmail, but it was separate.

So it wasn't in our personal boxes on sign in, but it had an ethics.

All right, I'll I'll look into it and see uh because I think that that would be a good idea.

So yeah.

Good question.

Anything else I can answer.

Um there are two open positions right now.

Are is there a plan to fill those two vacancies or no?

Um that would be up to I believe the mayor's office.

Um I am not aware of any plan to uh I just think that going forward we should expect that the five members.

Um Commissioner Willis is not with us today, but you four and Commissioner Willis will are most likely going to constitute the commissioner for this year.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Okay, and Commissioner Willis is going to be active and available even for correct.

Uh I have an email from her.

Um, because as you can see on the agenda, there is a resolution to set the rest of the meeting schedule.

Um, that is something under the open meetings act that requires after the first meeting, within 10 days after the first meeting, um, the city needs to post the remaining schedule of meetings um of regularly scheduled meetings.

Uh the there could be a special meeting called if we needed.

Um, but Commissioner Willis had given me her availability, so when we get to that resolution, um actually I can just say it now, and then when we get to the her the resolution, we can discuss it again if needed for determining uh dates for the meeting.

She uh is going to be unavailable the 30th and 31st of October, but says that she has availability any other day in October and November.

Okay, thank you.

Uh do we need a motion to accept him or we just move on to new business?

Motion to accept that um can I have a motion to accept the resolution uh to request input.

I'm sorry, the report from the law department um from Alex Henderson.

Is there a motion on the floor?

Somewhere lesson there is support.

Yeah, no objections.

Yeah, no objection.

Okay, very good.

All right, and we're gonna move on to new business.

I'm sorry.

Unfinished is crossed out on our figure that I figured there's no unfinished business, so I did I didn't say that we could cross that out.

Okay, all right, very good.

All right, so seeing that there is no unfinished business, we will move to new business.

Um, our first item for new business is a resolution to request input and recommendations from city council, mayor, and the city clerk, and it looks like first resolution.

So there's a resolution um requesting information.

Do I need to read this entire thing?

Uh, whereas in accordance with section 224 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Committee is required to meet an odd number of years to consider the salaries of city elected officials and whereas section 3-107 of the 2012 Detroit City Charter provides that the elective officers of the city of Detroit are the mayor, the nine city council members, the city clerk, and the seven elected members of the board of police commissioners, and pursuant to section 7802 of the 2012 Detroit City Charter, elected members of the Board of Police Commissioners are not entitled to salaries.

And whereas in accordance with section 2-2-3 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission may recommend adjustment to the salaries of the city elected officials subject to the city council rejection through adoption of a resolution by a two-third vote vote within 30 calendar days after filing of the commission's determination with the city clerk, and whereas section 2-2-5 of the 2019 Detroit City Code requires the city clerk to provide such administrative assistant as the elected officials compensation commission shall reasonably require.

Now therefore be it resolved that the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission hereby request the mayor of the city of Detroit, the Detroit City Council, either individually or through resolution, and the city clerk to provide any and all reports, data, opinions, testimony, or guidance relevant or helpful to the determination of the future salaries of Detroit's elected officials, and be it further resolved that in accordance with section 2-2-5 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the City Clerk is requested to provide the necessary administrative assistant assistance to facilitate this request.

All in favor to get a motion to submit the resolution for the compensation commission input from elected officials.

No objection.

So we will adopt the resolution to for requesting relevant input and information from Detroit City elected officials.

All right, moving on.

Our next item of new business is a resolution to request the following reports from the human resources department, the elected officials compensation survey for similarly situated cities, salary history of Detroit elected officials, history of general wage obligations for recent years, and actions of the commission in recent years.

Current salaries for similar positions in other municipalities, recent history of the city's general wage obligation, and previous adjustments made by the commission.

Whereas, in accordance with section 2-2-4 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission is required to meet an odd number of years to consider the salaries of city elected officials, and whereas section 3-107 of the 2012 Detroit City Charter provides that the elective officers of the City of Detroit are the mayor, the nine city council members, the city clerk, and seven elected board of police commissioners.

And whereas pursuant to the section 7-802 of the 2012 Detroit City Charter, elected members of the Board of Police Commissioners are not entitled to salaries.

And whereas, in accordance with section 2-2-3 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission may recommend adjustment to the salaries of the city elected officials subject to the city council rejection through adoption of a resolution by two-thirds vote within 30 calendar days after the filing of the commission's determination with the city clerk.

And whereas, in order to make a determination to the necessity of the adjustments to the salaries of elected officials in the city of Detroit, certain information is required, including but not limited to current salaries and salary history for elected officials in the city of Detroit, current salaries for similar positions in the cities of similar population in the United States, history of the city's general wage obligations and recent years, and previous adjustments made in response to actions by previous commissioners.

And whereas section 2-2-5 of the 2019 Detroit City Code requires the city clerk to provide such administrative assistance as the elected officials compensation commission shall reasonably require.

Now, therefore, be a resolve that the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission requests the human resource department of the City of Detroit to provide all reports relevant to the information required and be it further resolved that in accordance with section two-two-five of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the City Clerk is requested to provide the necessary administrative assistance to facilitate this request.

Any objections.

The resolution of the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission request reports from the Human Resources Department.

Whereas, in accordance with section 2-2-4 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission is required to meet an odd number of years to consider the salaries of city elected officials, and whereas section 3-107 of the 2012 Detroit City Charter provides that the elective officers of the city of Detroit are the mayor, the nine city council members, the city clerk, and seven elected board of police commissioners, and whereas pursuant to section 7-802 of the 2012 Detroit City Charter, elected members of the Board of Police Commissioners are not entitled to salaries.

Whereas, in accordance with Section 2-2-3 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission may recommend adjustments to the salaries of the city elected officials subject to the city council rejection through adoption of a resolution by a two-third vote within 30 calendar days after the filing of the commission's determination with the city clerk.

And whereas certain salary adjustment adjustments may require budget amendment and further approval in order to satisfy legal requirements and conform to the city's budget.

And whereas section 2-2-5 of the 2019 Detroit City Code requires the city clerk to provide such administrative assistance as the elected officials compensation commission shall reasonably require.

Now, therefore, be a resolve that the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission request that the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of the City of Detroit provide a report on any compensation changes contemplated by the commission will be reflected in the city's budget.

And be it further resolved that the city of that the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission requires that the office of the chief financial officer of the city of Detroit provide a fiscal impact statement and report on how any compensation changes contemplated by the commission may impact the city's budget and four-year plan.

And be it further resolved that in accordance with section 2-2-5 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, the City Clerk is requested to provide the necessary administrative assistance to facilitate this request.

No objections.

Whereas the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission wishes to establish a schedule of regular meetings for 2025 in accordance with section 5 of the Mission Open Michigan Open Meetings Act being MCL 15.265.

And whereas the commission is required by Section 5C of the Human Home Rules City Act being MCL 117.5C and Section 2-2-4 of the 2019 Detroit City Code to make its determination of elected officials' salary salaries within 45 calendar days of its first meeting and may not have more than 15 session days.

And whereas the commission is also aware that in addition to regularly scheduled meetings, the commission may from time to time require additional special meetings, and it is the intent of the commission to provide the public with proper notice of those meetings in accordance with the Michigan Open Meetings Act being MCL 15.261 as sec and other applicable laws.

Now therefore, be it resolved that the following schedule of meetings for the commission is hereby adopted.

So the chair.

work well for you, you know, then you could do put it fill in those blanks with the dates for the following Wednesdays.

Um if Wednesday doesn't work for you, um, you know, really it's up to you.

You can pick any any day.

Uh the reason why I put P.M.

in there is that I assume that city council will probably be using this room um any time in the mornings.

Uh and so I would ask that you can just at least try to do 4 p.m.

or later so that we're not running into any um scheduling conflicts with uh city council.

Okay.

And all meetings are in person, correct?

Because of the public meetings act?

Uh correct.

All meetings will have to be in person, whether or not we can have um participation by the public on Zoom or being able to watch uh on channel 10.

That all depends on I guess the availability of um I think it's the media services department.

Okay.

Um the chair.

Um this time work for you guys the Wednesdays at four.

Well, it yes and no.

Uh for me, I travel for the other part of my life.

So next Wednesday works fine, the 29th for me.

The following week.

Next Wednesday.

Yes.

Through the chair.

Um go ahead.

Sorry, uh, I would suggest that there be a motion for discussion, and then you guys all turn your mics on so that um you know so we can no turn them on so that so we can hear the deliberation, even though it's kind of a minor policy thing.

I don't think anybody's gonna get upset about not knowing what schedules, but yeah, just so that we you know okay, cross our t's dot our i's very good.

Is there a motion for open discussion regarding uh the adoption of our meeting schedule?

So moved.

So move any objections.

All right, is everyone's mics on?

Yes.

All right, here we go.

Okay.

Um so Tiffany, you said the 29th does not work for you.

Any any day next week work for you?

Um yes, I have availability on Tuesday, Thursday.

Yeah, just Wednesday does not work.

Okay, and Monday and Friday as well.

And Miss Willis is not available on Thursday.

So is does Tuesday work?

Tuesday's fine with me.

Okay, so our next meeting will be on Tuesday the 28th.

Now the following week for me, I'm only available at 4 o'clock.

At 4 p.m.

If that works for everyone, okay.

Following week, I'm available on Friday.

No, that's kind of sucks, but that's all I have.

Um that's the only day for me.

That's I can do Friday.

Okay, you do Friday the 7th, Nicholas.

What about you to me?

Oh what Friday the 7th.

Yes.

Do we have to meet every week?

Yeah.

Um we don't know.

As long as uh I would say as long as we have four scheduled for December 6th, we should be good.

Okay.

I mean the seventh can work for sure.

And then the for me the following week would um I'm available the 13th or the 14th.

Okay, so for the week of November 3rd, we're saying the seventh.

Yes, okay.

If everyone's available.

That's still four o'clock.

Four o'clock, yes.

And the following week I'm gonna have availability availability on Thursday the 13th or Friday the 14th.

Thursday is better for me.

Thursday is better for me as well.

So can we let the note 13 13th at 4 p.m.?

And then the following week, the week of the 17th, I have the 17th and the 21st.

That's getting to before the holidays.

So we have any availability on the November to 17th week.

You said the 17th and the 21st.

Yes.

I think the 21st might be better for me.

I mean, I'm open both days, but then I was supposed to be out of town that week for work.

So but we'll see.

It's tentative.

So either one will work.

Um we have to have it done by the December the 4th.

6, I think.

Six is a Saturday.

Oh, so good.

Is that right, Alex?

The fourth is the need to be concluded by the fourth.

Is that correct?

By the sixth.

Oh, the sixth which is a Saturday, you're correct.

Okay.

Um but even still, if I'm not able to come, the other commissioner should be here.

You should just have a question.

Yeah.

So we'll schedule for the 17th.

Does that work for you?

Mr.

Lance?

Yeah, we can do the 17th.

Okay.

Make it work.

But Nicholas is available on the 21st, right?

Yes.

Both.

Both.

Okay.

We're gonna say the 17th.

We'll say the 17.

Get it over with.

Yeah.

Okay.

So it looks like we have um agreed on the meeting schedule.

So can I have a motion to accept the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission meeting schedule, which would be um today, Wednesday, October 22nd at 4 p.m.

And then Wednesday, October 29th at 4 p.m.

And then Friday, November the 7th at 2020.

Excuse me, that's um your first date was Tuesday, October the 28th.

That's correct.

Oh, it was oh, that's right, because you can't.

Thank you.

Friday.

Thursday.

Okay, so let's just start that again.

So can I get a motion to accept the meeting schedule for the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission, which would include today, Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 at 4 p.m.

Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 at 4 p.m.

Friday, November 7th, 2025 at 4 p.m.

Thursday, November 13th, 2025 at 4 p.m.

And Monday, November 17th, 2025 at 4 p.m.

if necessary.

Be it further resolved that meetings of the commission shall be held in the Coleman A.

Young Municipal Center 13th Floor Committee of the Whole Meeting Room, unless otherwise described in the notice of such meeting posted as described below.

And be it further resolved that the chair of the commission is authorized to call special meetings of the commission and direct notices of such meetings to be posted as described below.

And be it further resolved that meetings of the commission shall be posted in accordance with the Michigan Open Meetings Act being MCL 15.261 at sec and be it further resolved that this schedule of meetings may be amended at any time by a majority vote of the members appointed and serving on the commission.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

Oh, to accept the dates.

So moved.

So move any objections.

All right.

And now we want to accept the resolution of the Detroit Elected Officials Compensation Commission.

Can I get a motion for acceptance of the resolution?

Which includes the current meeting schedules just adopted.

So moved lesson.

No objections.

No objections.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, with no objections, we're going to move on to our next item on the agenda, which is public comment.

Then any public comment.

There is a hand.

If you would like to have public comment, you can come to the table and state your name.

Yep, you're right there.

And state your name before your comment.

Do we have a timekeeper?

You got it.

Okay.

Very well.

Hello, sir.

Good evening.

My name is Shadante Smith for the record.

I have a couple quick questions.

So this is one of the only public meetings I've ever been to.

I've been to a lot in this meeting, um, including like well, different ones as well.

Uh, there's no agenda present for the public.

That's very odd to me.

Um, I'll also like to say it's very interesting to see a couple sitting city council members sitting here.

Um, for like the record, I see Scott Benson, and I see um Angela Woodfield Calloway here at a meeting, possibly about them getting raises.

I understand advocating for yourself, but um, we have a billion dollar shortfall uh coming up and losing ARPA dollars to the city of Detroit, and so I think it is very, very um very, very encouraged to look at cutting budgets, cutting paychecks and salaries for our umbudsmen for um city council, like we said, the board of police commissioners don't even get paid currently, and we're still gonna have a shortfall and a shortage, but I think it will be fair to cut the mayor's salary as well because the residents are going to lose uh we're gonna lose our quality of life that we've been accustomed to over the last four years or two years because of these ARPA dollars, these this one billion dollars in funding, so I think it's it's fair to cut that funding.

That's time.

Thank you, sir.

We appreciate your comments, and um we will take your comments in under consideration.

Is there anyone else that has public comment?

Councilman Benson.

Thank you, and good afternoon.

I also have a number of letters to be submitted to the clerk as well, and so I'll read a quick statement, and this comes from myself and my colleague as well, who are on this letter.

I am writing to formally and unequivocally support a necessary adjustment to the salaries of Detroit's highest elected officials, the mayor, the city council, and the city clerk, their current compensation levels do not adequately reflect the profound level of responsibility, the complex demands of governance, or the exceptional turnaround results achieved over the last decade.

A competitive salary is not a merely a reward, it is a critical investment that ensures the city can attract and retain the high caliber experience leadership essential to maintaining our current trajectory and successes and securing Detroit's future prosperity to ensure this momentum continues.

The city must offer compensation packages that are competitive with similar positions in peer cities and equivalent executive roles in the public sector.

Sustaining world-class performance requires retaining the talent that achieve these results and attracting future leaders who can innovate and meet forthcoming challenges.

Detroit City Council put into the budget, baked into the budget, reoccurring um amount of money to support these salaries as well, just to ensure that you all are aware that the financial ability of the city can meet this request.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Benson.

We will take um your letter under advisement, and if we can get a copy of the letter to submit to the commissioners there any more anyone else for public comment public comments public comment is closed.

We thank you for your comments, and with that you want to do a set public comment, a motion to make a motion to adjourn is in order.

Can I get a motion on the floor?

All right, we thank you.

Our meeting is adjourned, and uh we will reconvene on the 28th of October.

Thank you.