Madam Share, you have a quorum present.

Thank you.

Having a quorum present, we are now in session.

Good morning, colleagues.

And first want to welcome the two of you, Pro Tim Young and Councilmember Santiago Romero, for um joining me on the Planning and Economic Development Committee.

I had the privilege of being on this committee last term and now excited to chair the committee and welcome the two of you.

We will have an exciting term and certainly looking forward to the amazing work that we do together, not only on this committee, but as a body.

So happy new year to all of you and colleagues.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Is there a motion on the minutes?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

We are going to move into public comment.

If there's anyone who'd like to make a general public comment, please raise your hand.

Whether in person or joining us virtually, please raise your hand.

We have a very short agenda today.

This will probably be the only time we have this short event agenda in the planning and economic development committee.

Um we have one hand raised here in the committee of the whole.

Good morning, Ms.

Jackson.

How many hands do we currently have raised virtually?

Good morning, madam chair.

We currently have four hands raised for virtual public comment.

Four hands.

All right, we are going to cut off our general public comment at 10 05.

So if you are joining us virtually, you have three minutes to raise your hand.

We're going to get started with Mr.

Cunningham, who's here in the committee of the whole.

Mr.

Cunningham, if you'd like to take one of the seats, and if you will set the clock for two minutes, we'll get started when Mr.

Cunningham is ready to go to the 1930s.

You can remember it.

It is my Cash App and phone number 313 444 9114.

I go around the city, east, web, north, south, give out hand warmers, gloves, hats, bus tickets.

I'm having a hard time getting blankets, and I need more gloves.

Uh and funds for bus tickets.

So keep me in prayers as I pray for you.

You pray for me.

On Facebook, you can look up Not Enemy Detroit, put in not enemy Detroit and click people, and you'll see that page and other information and what I do daily to God be all the glory.

Um pray uh for me as I pray for you.

I'm talking to you.

Pray for me as I pray for you.

I love this city.

And particularly today, uh, I'm not saying whom for security purposes, but at 1 p.m., it'll be uh a possible uh well, they're running for an office with the state, and they'll be doing a bus ride along from Rosa Parks Transit Center.

The fervent effectual prayers of the righteous availeth much.

These are the bus tickets that I referred to.

They're blue.

These tickets, I give them out.

Um, it really should be.

Busfares should be free, pair of transit should be free or or something, uh a pilot as um some of the council members um pilot on free fare.

It really should.

It's there are other places around the country that are doing it, and during the pandemic, it was free.

And the tensions are a lot less between passenger and driver when you just get on sit down.

Um there is an article I'd like you to read with Bridge Detroit.

Transit advocate donates winter essentials.

He needs your help.

One more time, transit advocate donates winter essentials, he needs your help.

And I would also include a purchase bus tickets out of my pocket and give them out.

Thank you that's about it.

Thank you so much.

And anybody listening, don't be fake.

Keep it real.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Cunningham.

Who is our first virtual caller?

And noting that my clock shows that it is 10.05.

General, the collection of general public comments has concluded.

Our first virtual caller.

Our first caller is William M.

Davis.

William M.

Davis, you have two minutes for general public comment.

Uh, good morning, young people.

Can I be heard?

Good morning, yes.

Okay, I like to start off by saying I think it would be good if y'all had uh a regular report on all seven districts on economic activity.

Um way before two of the three of you people was born back in 1980.

Uh I was uh citizen co-chair of the University City Ace's District Council, uh, right down there.

And we did a number of projects.

One of the last projects we did where I was uh co-chair of the council was uh right there.

Uh it was um count yet.

It's right there on the between third and John C.

Lodge right off of Forest.

And you know, it was a very successful project.

You know, earlier before I was chair, they did uh Freedom Place over there by Wayne State.

You know, I think that we need more things like that.

That's some of the stuff we were able to do when Coleman A.

Young was the mayor.

I think they helped to encourage more community environment and more development.

In fact, during that project, we got one third of the state budget to help assist with that one project.

I think if we work together, we could push and do more.

Um the the citizen district councils used to be a great vehicle.

I know Arthur didn't care for him because he had problems with Coleman Young, but I I think that we could do more than what we're doing now.

And I would like to see more economic opportunities in the neighborhoods.

Uh far too often it looks like everything is going on downtown, but not in our local communities.

And I wish all y'all outstanding new year, and hopefully things can improve for the city of Detroit, and especially improve for the city of Detroit retirees.

Y'all have a great day.

Thank you.

You have a great day as well.

I'm sure you will continue to tune in.

There are some initiatives that I think you will be um excited to hear about coming online.

Um, hopefully this year.

Thank you so much for calling in.

The next caller.

The next caller is to hera IMAD.

To hear I'm Ed, you have two minutes for general public comment.

Good morning, good morning, a happy new year, and um congratulations.

Coming on back.

Uh, I'd like to start with uh uh a um particular adage.

Remember when we had the commercial with uh Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.

Uh um sitting on uh a pedestal, Michael was eating a uh Big Mac, and and then here comes uh Larry Bird and said, Hey, Mike, what you got there?

And Mike said, Well, I got me a Big Mac.

He said, uh, I'll play you for it.

And so they start bouncing the ball off of the the moon and the sun and everything.

Okay, so now Michael Jordan Michael Jordan already had the sandwich.

And Larry Barry walked up and told him he'll play them for his sandwich.

That's what's been happening with the DGC that was established by the great honorable Mayor Coleman Young.

We being played for our own sandwich.

You never found out we knew Michael Jordan was gonna win, but what was he gonna get if he won since he's gonna win?

Larry Burry didn't have the sandwich.

That's what's happening with us here in Detroit.

This is our city, and I'd like to see the Detroit Economic Growth uh to uh reach out to like Burkina Fossil and uh the Sahel uh uh people the people in Sahel, uh that's uh Niger and Mali, and to get them to invest in Detroit in our communities, in our neighborhoods.

Let's expand our view and and uh vision uh for an economic growth here in Detroit.

Stop just looking at uh Dan Gilbert and the illish, and all they've been doing is sucking wealth up out of Detroit and not putting very much back into it.

So I'd like to see that uh from this new council.

And I also want to know uh what can uh you do uh to pay us back our 600 million dollars.

Thank you so much for calling in.

And um, we have hosted a developer summit in the past, are looking to do another one this year.

So if you know anyone who's interested in doing development in the city of Detroit, please be sure to let us know.

My office number is 313-224-4841.

Thank you so much.

The next caller.

The next caller is Betty A.

Verner.

Betty A.

Varner, you have two minutes for general public comment.

Uh, good morning and happy new year to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Verner, president of the Soda Ellsworth Black Association.

And today I'm going to give some information that I've given before about the Detroit area agency for the aging that has a program that can assist seniors and people who are disabled who are not normally eligible for Medicaid.

They have a program that's called My Choice Waiver.

And that's MI Choice Waiver.

The telephone number is 313 446 4444.

Again, 313 446, 4444.

And what's uh so wonderful and unique about this program, it allows you to have a monthly income of up to 2900 to be eligible for Medicaid.

And if you normally aren't eligible for Medicaid, when you need help, you go to different organizations or programs, and they give you with sorry, but you must be eligible for Medicaid.

And so this is the problem that I found when I started having serious health challenges.

I need assistance in my home.

And I've been blessed to find out about all different programs because once you get Medicaid, then the door opens for different programs.

You don't just have to use it at DEEAA.

And so this is why I share these blessings because I know there are other people who are in the same situation that I am in.

Thank you for this time.

Thank you.

The next caller.

The next caller is Owner Papa.

Owner Papa, you have two minutes for general public comment.

Good morning, and through the chair, may I be heard?

Good morning, yes.

Thank you.

Um, this is a new year uh for some people.

Um, and I would like to see the new council behave in a much different way than they did over the last four years.

We have received um data, actual data, not data that is um compiled by Detroit because they must have a different set of numbers than the federal government has.

Um the the data shows that we are greater, have greater poverty levels than we did before you started.

Um it's it's really a shame the way uh our money has been spent.

And and yesterday, the assessor's office, who has not been a friend to the to the people in the city of Detroit because they have been found to have over-assessed homes at a certain value and underassessed others.

Um, but the disturbing part was after being a monished, his reply was he would do it again.

And see, and that's part of the problem.

We have an ethic ethics problem in this city, and this body to every last one of them that was on the council almost patted him on the back for doing something that was illegal.

Not only was this unethical, it was un illegal.

Um, he does not have the authority to do what he did, and you know he didn't, and I know he didn't.

Um, your position here as a planning committee is to plan for all seven districts.

I am in agreement with the first caller who suggests that we have a report given as to how the monies are spent.

I am also advocating for the disparity study.

The care that Cairo refuses to complete, although we can give money for people who don't speak English to translate.

We want the disparity study because we want to know where our funds have gone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller.

The next caller is caller ending in 039.

Caller ending in 039.

You have two minutes for general public comment.

Hey, uh chair now of this committee.

Was the former chair, J.

Tate Jr.

from District One.

Now I'm getting ready to put it on the floor.

Oh, y'all cheated here, you keep it in, Letitian.

So you ain't got no business sitting up there on that committee.

Controlling none of the city finances.

Janice M.

Worth we've been keeping in Detroit elections for years and years and years and years, along with Gina Avery Walker and Daniel Baxter over here at the Detroit Department of Elections, and y'all busted.

Busted, busted, busted.

And I'm Mr.

Real now.

So I'm back outside, outside, outside, outside.

Now you can't call me a liar.

Ain't nobody done call me a liar or all the sugar honey.

I see I said publicly.

And now I'm getting ready to demonstrate to y'all exactly who Mr.

Real is.

I'm a whole Detroit legend.

Um before that I'm real.

That's the name that was given to me a long time ago.

And I live up to it to my very last breath.

Nini got to get what she won't.

Y'all didn't want to give it to her, don't want to give it to us.

And now all y'all got to go.

Get out of Nini's way.

And I'm Mr.

Roo, too.

Mimi gave me that name.

And y'all can smoke dick.

All right.

Well, I appreciate you.

I appreciate you saying my first name correctly.

The next caller.

The next caller is Cindy Dara.

Cindy Dara.

You have two minutes for general public comment.

Yeah, uh, I was at the veterinary the other day, and I ran into somebody remembering me from uh and she's living in Ralph Bunch co-op apartments, and now her monthly tax bill is more than the co-op uh bill just to take care of the property.

They have a maintenance bill for their co-op.

And that's uh this now it's more expensive, much more expensive for her to live in a co-op.

So you better look at these uh they recently had that new uh tax uh on properties for commercial property.

So evidently you're saying that the co-ops is same as a commercial property, which it's not the same, but uh and you need to look at the laws and figure out how to make sure that co-ops don't have to pay that tax for uh because by the way, the reason they had that new tax that not this last election, the election before for the Wayne County schools, because they took so much out of the tax capture illegally the last 10 years that they said they could only operate on that money and they didn't have enough money to pay the debt.

So this new uh tax uh commercial properties uh to make them pay their fair share to pay the debt for the next 10 years, they're gonna try and pay off the debt.

So they accumulated after we had uh surplus, but the state took over.

Uh anyway, that uh needs to be uh looked at and uh I I have a lot more to complain about, but uh uh that's something you ought to look at carefully.

We need co-op housing, and we don't need to discourage it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Try and do better.

Thank you.

The next caller, madam chair, that was our last caller, noting that we had one hand raise after you cut off public comment.

All right, thank you.

That now concludes our general public comment, and we will shift to the new business items on the agenda, beginning with line item 6.1, which is a report relative to the December 2025 update on the status of business activity in the Grand River Corridor.

Colleagues, council president Tate has requested a two-week bring back for an opportunity to review the information prior to receiving and filing it.

Is there a motion?

There's a motion to bring line item 6.1 back in two weeks.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

That is the only item on our agenda, and that brings us to memory ports.

Pro Tim Young.

I just wanted to say I live very forward to serving my colleagues and everybody here on staff, and it's my honor and privilege to be here.

And for what I can see so far, we are in good hands and good leadership, and so I'm excited and look forward to it.

Thank you so much, and I appreciate you.

Thank you.

And member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, madam chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Looking forward to another term and looking forward to being in this committee.

Um, just want to briefly share since I have the mic regarding things that are we're working on for district six.

I want to invite District Six residents to our office hours.

They have resumed.

We are going to be hosting these twice a month.

The next one is going to be at Kemini Rec Center on Monday, January 26th, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Our first team GSR monthly meeting is going to be on Saturday, January 24th, from 11 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

We're gonna be at St.

Stephen AME.

We ask you to join us and LPD to go through our annual budget training process.

Um it's also an opportunity for for us to hear from you what you would like for us to focus on uh this year on the budget.

Um want to ask LPD if you're listening, um, just want to flag um a memo that's going to come from our office regarding um immigrant protections.

Unfortunately, yesterday we saw a terrorist attack from an agency that is lawless.

Um and quite frankly, we need to ensure that does not happen um anywhere else.

Uh the person that was shot was an American citizen.

And quite frankly, I do believe that we need to ensure that that does not happen here in Detroit.

Um, so looking to see if there's any way that the city can ban or limit ice operations, whether that be in in schools or places of worship, um, which by the way, we do hear often that people as they're picking up their children, as they're going to a mosque, they're getting picked up by ice.

Um, or if we can limit any of that interaction on city property.

Um, let's have these conversations.

Let's do some work because um we are in a very different place right now.

Um, so that is uh a motion for a memo.

We will send that out um as well.

There is a motion on the floor, and I do see Director Todd is here uh taking notes.

Uh any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

You're the chair.

Attorney Anderson.

Uh Graham Anderson Law Department.

I would just ask that that memo also be addressed to the law department.

We'll do, thank you.

Thank you.

If I may.

Pro Tim Young?

Yeah.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask.

Um, I I I agree with you full whole heartedly.

I just want to know does this also include uh sanctuary cities and would this include an ordinance, or would this be something that you would want to go through administratively first and then potentially pass it as a reso.

Uh through you, madam chair both to our pro tem.

Um I have reached out to our mayor, hoping to have us sit down with her to see uh what the protection plan is for really everyone, not just immigrants at this point.

It's all us, it's it's it's every every person here to make sure that we're protected against these agencies that are not here to protect us.

Um that can look like an ordinance that can look like executive orders.

Um that might also look like working with our courts and at the state level as well.

Um so there's a lot to do, and we need to do some research.

Um other cities are ahead of us already, New York, Chicago, LA, other counties as well.

Um, so the ideas are out there.

Let's collect, let's do best practices um and see what we can do here.

Now that I believe that we have a mayor um that is willing to make sure that we go above and beyond um just the basics.

Chairman, you know, I just want to know I totally agree with you, and I and I'm I'm in support of it.

And I and I and I do support, you know, um solutions that are univ universally beneficial to everybody.

But if if I can just take a point of privilege, I you know, just from my experience and what I'm saying, it particularly not necessarily this case, particularly with ice, I am seeing a very hostile anti-immigrant sentiment, and I am seeing that being rewarded with um and quite frankly encouraged with unnecessarily violence and brutality.

And so I mean I I I'm not saying that there's been instances where you've had American citizens who have also been taken out of homes and who have been held up and who have been shot and harassed.

I'm not saying it's not, but from my experience, I think it's particularly towards the immigrant community, and I think it's particularly towards um our Latino community, which I have a significant problem with, and so I'm supporting and I'm with you all the way, but I just want to make sure to let you know and let everybody here know from my perspective, I have no problem if it is specifically towards that, because we need to protect them.

And we first of all we need to protect people's humanity.

But second of all, and this is just me personally, I truly believe the fact that since the 80s, we have provided amnesty for people who are Latinos to come into this country to work in this country, to build families in this country, to build homes this country, to pick the fruit in this country, to do the labor and the hard jobs to maintain this country and keep it going.

And I think for us to be in a situation that we are now and to not only abandon that promise, but to then try to recklessly and humanely, and I think predatorily target people and throw them out as wrong.

And we have an obligation just in terms of upholding humanity but also justice and equity to do all we can to protect them and to honor them.

So I just wanted to get that off my chest.

I had it I had it on my head for a long time I think especially after this brutal unnecessary execution that we just saw I definitely think that we have in Minnesota we have to do all we can to make sure that doesn't happen here.

So I just want to get out of my chest.

Thank you appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you pro Tim Members Santiago remember Madam Chair thank you.

And through you thank you Mr.

ProTime I wholeheartedly agree um and quite frankly it's obviously a little too late um what we have not been doing or doing to protect immigrants it's a titty now everyone so thank you just want to end by thanking the six residents for bringing me back and looking forward to continuing to make sure that we're serving every single day trader.

Thank you Madam Chair thank you and thank you both colleagues looking forward to serving with you all and identifying how we move economic development forward in this term with this body um in collaboration and jointly with the mayor um so I am asking if you all can um just be aware and ensure that your teams are communicating with my team we will be reaching out asking for any priorities initiatives uh that you'd like to see moved forward um so that we can be certain that we're having conversations with the appropriate departments so they're aware of what our desires are as we move forward so um look forward to some great conversations some great work that takes place here within this committee um and just looking forward to continuing to serve the residents of this city uh to ensure that we improve their quality of life first and foremost um and create an environment where by people are interested in coming to the city to live in the city because of how we treat our current residents so thank you all so much for your time attention and your support as we move forward in these next four years if there is nothing else to come before this body without objection we shall stand adjourned