The Detroit City Council Internal Operations Standing Committee convened on November 19, 2025, to address public concerns regarding developer payments and charter compliance, interview nominees for the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) board, and deliberate on various contractual amendments and labor agreements. The meeting featured significant public testimony on unsafe construction sites, the lack of local retail options, and the hiring of foreign nationals for government positions, alongside a discussion on the Detroit Reparations Task Force.
EDC Nominee Interviews (Alexa Bush & Crystal Perkins):
Contract 8.6 (Immigration Employee Sponsorships):
Contract 8.22 (Indigent Legal Services):
Reparations Task Force (Line Items 8.33 & 8.34):
Charter Compliance: Public commenters and Councilmember Calloway emphasized the need to adhere strictly to Charter Section 6-205 regarding the handling of legislative items and committee procedures.
Omitted Sections: None. All major agenda items and public comments were included as per the transcript structure. Discrepancies between the transcript and specific contract dates/amounts were noted and flagged as pending corrections.
Member Mary Waters. Member Waters did indicate she's running a little behind. Clerk will still note. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Calloway. Member Callaway did indicate that she is a few minutes behind as well. The clerk will still note. There is no quorum, madam chair. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Although we do not have a quorum, I'd like to proceed with public comment, noting to anyone who makes a public comment that I am not allowed to respond to you because we do not have a quorum. But uh in an effort to move things along, I would like to proceed with public comment. So if you are joining us, whether in the committee of the whole or virtually, and you'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand. Please raise your hand. Public comment will be cut off at 10 05. 10 05. It looks like we have we have two hands currently raised. Any additional hands raised for general public comment. All right, we have three, four. Anyone else interested in making public comment? All right, it looks like we have three hands raised in the committee of the whole. Good morning, Ms. Jackson. How many hands do we have raised virtually? Good morning, madam chair. We have 11 hands raised for virtual public comment. 11 hands. Okay, thank you, Aaron. Um, if we can please set the clock for two minutes, we will get started first with the three hands that we had raised in the committee of the whole. We still have one minute before general public comment gets cut off. So if anyone else joins us who'd like to make a public comment, uh please come in and raise your hand. If you'd like to make a public comment, please uh join us at the table. All right, Aaron, let's go ahead and get started with our virtual public callers uh first, and then we'll come back to those that are in the committee of the whole. And before we do that, it is 10.05. So if you'd like to make a public comment virtually or in person, and you have not raised your hand thus far, please do so. General public comment has now been cut off. Aaron, who do we have first? Our first caller is Owner Papa. Owner Papa, you have two minutes for general public comment. Uh good morning, and through the chairman, I'll be heard. Good morning, yes. My question to you is when did you know and when did you know it? Uh yesterday was very disturbing for at many levels. Um this might be one of the most uh overt attacks of genocide by government that I've seen in a long time since loud Alabama. Uh the soil is is said to be found. This is a quote, found to be unsafe for direct human contact. This sounds like your hair should be on fire. This sounds like you should be going to those sites and making sure that they're covered, making sure that you um you have hazmat teams out there doing what they need to do. But uh we're we're doing what what what you guys usually do, which is um watch people uh perish. And and you you also have um raises for yourself on I'd like to have a fiscal analysis on whether or not we're able to pay these raises before any any of this is instituted. Um you know there's a thing called uh depraved indifference.