Madam Chair, we have quorum.

Thank you so much.

And Miss Um Ellis, if you could cut off the public comment and two minutes, that'd be great.

Miss Ellis.

You could cut off public comment in two minutes.

Next on the agenda is our invocation.

And I'm just gonna read something that Peter gave me to read to um this morning.

So thank you, Peter.

Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor, and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing your will.

Thank you, Peter.

Thank you for that.

Hope you all enjoyed that.

There um may I have a motion for the approval of the minutes?

Motion.

Okay.

Hearing no objections.

That motion is approved.

There are no chair remarks.

And um, do we have anyone in the audience who was here for public comment in person, Mr.

Um Cunningham?

If you could take the first microphone, and then the next person, I saw your hand.

If you want to sit next to Mr.

Cunningham, you can make public comment.

Mr.

Foster, and happy new year to you both you have two minutes, Mr.

Cuttingham.

You want to introduce yourself, and you have two minutes.

Greetings, everyone.

Happy new year.

If I ain't told you 313, 444-9114, 313-444-9114.

313, 444, 9114.

That number was made so you can remember it.

And on Facebook, not enemy Detroit.

Again, on Facebook, not enemy Detroit.

Click on people.

I believe the pictures with me and my mom at Christmas at this time.

Thank you for your prayers.

My birthday is not until the 26th.

I'll be 44.

Um, but I've been getting text messages, so that's cool.

But it's on the 26th, keep me in prayer.

Last night, as always, or this time I was at the Rosa Parks Transit Center at the 444 building on the on the left side.

I was parked there.

A gentleman said, I'm homeless, I'm hungry, and I need some money.

I know him.

I knew he has mental problems and doesn't take his medication.

Um, but I I gave gave him the money, and I um turned my head to the right, and then he hits me in my eye, and I'm on blood thinners, so blood was just shooting everywhere.

I thought I need stitches with so much blood.

Um, so I didn't see any police around at all, trying to call the police, waited 30 minutes.

Um, but I uh I appreciate those that tried to serve Chief Bettison and just um and I said I'm gonna stop this, giving out these hand warmers, these busted goods.

I I I just it I hurt so bad.

Um, not in pain, but emotionally, you know.

I'm trying to help folks, and this type of stuff happens to me.

My license place is no luck.

This is my life like that.

You know, I was homeless for 10 years.

But when I woke up after prayer this morning, I still say God is good all the time.

Uh I need hand warmers, gloves, blankets, bus tickets, and uh uh hotline number 313 4449114, and that's also my cash app and those council persons.

Please give that to somebody in your community that takes the bus.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Cuttingham and happy early birthday.

And we're so glad that you're here.

Um, and um, we're so sorry that that happened to you because you didn't deserve it.

Um I'm glad that we're glad that you're here.

Mr.

Cunningham, Mr.

Cunningham, I am sorry to hear that you were assaulted last night.

Let me encourage you to consider changing your license plate.

You said it says no look.

It says no luck.

And we know that our words have life.

Please encourage me.

Let me encourage you to change that license plate as soon as possible.

And we're gonna speak positive things into our atmosphere.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Miller.

Anyone else?

Okay, thank you again, Mr.

Cunningham.

Mr.

Foster, you have two minutes.

Good morning, uh very nice invocation.

Um, I'm just gonna stop in today.

I'm a young man that believes in repentance, but with repentance, you have to be accountable for things that you do.

Okay, you just can't go in and say I repented these things.

You have to acknowledge what it is that you do and be accountable for that, and then you have the opportunity to move forward and start going on.

So today I'm here to speak about accountability with this new opportunity.

I don't cast a vote in who uh gets hired.

I don't have a voice in what they get paid anything.

I'm just a citizen here.

That is exercise.

Democracy.

Okay, that are fought for.

And so when it comes down to our police chief and our corporate counsel.

I believe they may be wonderful people as individuals, but I'm here to talk business and numbers and accountability.

I would like to show support for these gentlemen, but they have to have an attitude of changing things moving forward.

Um I'm one that come down and have been retaliated.

Talked about plenty of cases and things that come from law enforcement, okay, and now the powers that be.

And um, because I'm strong enough to tolerate it, and because I don't get anything from any form of government, means that my voice is stronger to be heard, okay.

It don't diminish the other citizens here that complain about these things that have the same issues.

Okay, you guys have our largest portion of our budget here.

Okay.

With that comes responsibility and culpability, and that's what I'm asking you guys to do when you come up here in interview, express what you're gonna do differently.

You guys took an oath now to us, but you took that oath before God, and that's where I'm uh putting this on your guys' conscience to be held accountable to.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Cuttingham.

Um, we have another person.

You want to introduce yourself, sir?

You have two minutes.

Sure.

My name is Anthony Scott.

I just wanted to come up and give a compliment.

I work for the city with D Dot, and I meet a lot of police and fire.

I'll compress this as much as I can.

A lot of times you guys get a lot of complaints about this and that, but a lot of you guys your good is being overlooked, especially with the police.

Um, I'm not linked in with them.

I'm just telling you what I see, and I've been witnessing a lot on the buses, and just I want to come up and just say, good job.

It's always gonna be somebody do wrong things in every position, every city will be due.

I know what I see in this city being 57 in two weeks, and you guys are throwing down, and even in D Dal, from our high rings all the way down.

I see where you're trying, and I appreciate it for my heart.

That I do.

So, public safety, D Dot, the City Council.

Everybody I've come in contact with with the energy, has been awesome.

So I just say keep doing what you're doing.

Things gonna get better, but a lot of us see it because I hear it on the bus, and they love you guys, and I just want to give you a spiritual hug and a verbal hug and say thank you.

And I'm honored to work for you guys.

Thank you, Mr.

Scott.

That's it.

Thank you, Mr.

Scott, and happy early birthday to you.

Thank you.

And um, thank you for those kind words.

I'm hoping that folks from D Dot are listening.

Yes, and they would have heard that compliment because we rarely get compliments around.

I know, and that's what I wanted to do.

I don't want nothing to do with attached.

I don't want anything.

I just it's what God put on my heart for the rest of my life.

Find a good and expose it in everybody we can.

So amazing if we all did that.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Scott.

And again, happy birthday.

Thank you.

Um any discussion from my colleagues?

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Scott.

Thank you.

Okay, do we have anyone else in the audience?

All right, we'll take the first caller online.

Who do we have, Miss Ellis?

Miss Ellis, our first caller.

Miss Ellis.

I think we're gonna have to read.

Oh, okay.

Miss Ellis, how you have nine callers.

The first caller is Todd Scott.

Okay, first caller, you have two minutes.

Thank you.

Uh yeah, my name is Todd Scott, Detroit Greenways Coalition, and this is gonna be uh another Mr.

Scott getting compliments.

Um we we support the reappointment of Alexa Bush to the planning director position.

We worked with Alexa when she first started with the planning and development department um through her work with Kreske Foundation and then back as a planning director, and we've been so impressed with her work in the Fitzgerald neighborhood, including the Fitzgerald Greenway and and all the work around the Avenue of Fashion.

Yeah, we used to look at um nine mile road in uh Ferndale as an example of when you invest in streetscapes, you can bring back local businesses and revitalize it downtown.

And now clearly the Avenue of Fashion has surpassed what was accomplished in Ferndale.

And we're glad we have a local example within Detroit.

And Alexa has takes a lot of credit for making that happen.

So we support her.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Scott.

Thank you.

Our next caller.

The next caller is Jadante Smith.

And reset the time for two minutes, Miss Ellis, please.

Thank you.

Caller, you have two minutes.

Good morning or good evening, as my council member would say.

Do I can you can I be heard?

You can be heard.

You left off a little bit.

Vice President of Helen Street Block Club.

Um, I like to say that I I'll see some resumes in the um the agenda is pretty interesting.

See Todd Bettison, Julie Snyder, Charles Sims, and a few other people, Tanya Steidemyer.

I guess every appointment from the mayor must be reappointed uh and voted through council.

I'd like to say I want to read something from a um a redacted maroon redacted uh memo from a blight ticket, blight ticket number two five zero three-nine three zero one DAH regarding Chronos concrete facilities.

Um it says that um let me read this correctly and accurately from this document.

I want to send this document to everybody in city council so that they can read the document and they'll able they'll be able to um reference this when I come to city council and talk about Crown Crown Enterprises and Kronos and their down zoning because Crown Enterprises pay 50,000 to remove every blight ticket they have for a thousand twenty-three properties, and any property that they own can be added to this agreement 90 days from the date of purchase.

Um I want to read the section that says that Conrad Mallet meets with the lawyers from Crown Enterprises, two representatives from BC Corporation Council, Conrad Mallet and Chief Corporation with the the head lawyer for Crown Enterprises also comes to meet with uh Conrad Mallet to pretty much advise Crown Enterprises on how to stay away from blight tickets and how to stay in compliance on Detroit City taxpayer dime.

So I'm gonna send this to everybody because I don't just run rat and rave about Kronos and down zoning Kronos.

It needs to be down zone because we have very, very bad um legislation around this.

And I'll use a little bit of my time to say Taylor Harrill, District 4 District Manager.

I love how you see me in the hallway on Friday and refute no, not Friday, Monday, and refuse to give me your contact information.

The department neighborhoods meetings is really, really uh disorganized and is really really terrible.

Josh, you gotta do better.

So I guess I wasted a lot of my time, but Conrad Mallet is meeting with the lawyers from Kronos every two weeks, every three months to help them.

Fuck, I couldn't get it right.

I couldn't get it.

Fuck.

Next caller, please.

You have two minutes.

The next caller is Ona Papa.

On a papa, you have two minutes.

Uh, good morning through the chair, my happy heard.

You can be heard.

Thank you.

Um the guy who's giving out compliments is delusional.

What is going on in this city is is corruption from beginning to end.

I see you using the city charter to uh implement the uh the mayor's um APO, but you don't use the charter when you're giving out chairperson assignments.

I have called and I have expressed to you that the charter is written to protect the people.

So it's written for a reason.

And it's not for this city council to um uh uh adhere to the things that they want to do uh or want to adhere to in the city charter, and then uh ignore it in other ways.

Um this is the fifth year that um Romero has been on the committee, chair the chair of the committee of public health and finance.

And and if you look at what the report that has come out, Detroit is what is the worst city in this country when it comes to poverty and health.

And I believe that we are not distributing the uh assignments for chairpers uh in an affair or even in a uh a way in which makes any sense.

Uh Julie Schneider, her her um her resume is doesn't does not rise to the kind of position that she has here in the city of Detroit, and that's quite evident by the way that the HRD has been run.

Um you all have the the chance to make some changes, and I see that you have from 422 to 26 the same thing.

Police are getting away with beating up the people, and we and we're paying for their uh legal representation and the settlement, and then I'm indemnifying them.

That's the reason why we have what we have.

Thank you.

We're gonna recess to the call of the chair because we have a 1015 AM um interview with Chief Bettison.

We're gonna go back to public comments.

We're running a little behind, so we're gonna recess to the call of chair, go back to public comments, but recognizing that we do have a 1015 a.m.

interview with Chief Medicine.

Back to public comments.

Ellison, Miss Ellis, who do we have next for public comment.

Next person is William M.

Davis.

Mr.

Davis.

Mr.

Davis, you have two minutes.

Hello, can I be heard?

You can be heard, sir.

Okay.

Uh first I'd like to start off by saying I think that more needs to be done with human trafficking about the human trafficking in the city trade in the state of Michigan.

You know, not just the auto show, but when uh the season start, we have a whole lot of activity going on.

Also, um, I think some of these people should not be reappointed.

Uh, I have no problem with the chief, but you know, some of these I think our new mayor should have got some new people.

Uh also I think the comrade Maurit is not a good example, uh, especially in so much that you know, he he he acts as the attorney for the Board of the Police Commission, the Board of Police Commissioners should have a separate private attorney because sometimes there's a conflict and you know it's not being weighed the right way.

Also, I think more should have been done as relates to the massive number of lawsuits.

Um I'm the president of a retirement group with the city of Detroit, and I think if we keep paying 50 and 60 and 70 million dollars a year in lawsuits, and some of them we should not be paying or should not be indemnifying some people, you know, we could do better.

Uh also I I think that more needs to be done to get some fresh faces in, some fresh ideas.

Uh I think there's an opportunity to improve.

I think that's a step in the right direction about the executive organization plan.

And I think that also a whole lot needs to be done with the health department.

The health department is a joke.

Uh, the health department, you know, who's paying for the, you know, that why do we have a lease in the area that people, you know, seniors and pregnant women, they go down there and they have to look for a parking space.

You know, that's crazy.

Uh, and we're paying a fortune to lease certain floors in that at 100 Mac.

And we also paying for you know, employees to you know, for parking space, you know.

So, you know, somebody needs to reorganize and plan better for what's going on in this city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Ms.

Ellis, um, hopefully you turned off public comment at 10.05.

Public comment was turned um cut off at 1005.

Our next caller, and if you can um change the time to two minutes, Miss Ellis, and our next caller.

Our next caller is Eddie A.

Varner.

Okay, can you change the time to two minutes before we go to Ms.

Verner?

Okay.

Ms.

Varner, you have two minutes.

Ms.

Varner.

You have two minutes.

Hello, can y'all hear me?

We can hear you.

I couldn't unmute.

Okay, good morning to all within the sound of my voice.

I want to start off by saying um honorable uh council member uh Callaway.

We uh appreciate the time you took to come to our our holiday luncheon.

We really enjoyed you.

I want to share some information for uh the seniors.

There's a program that's called Senior Chore Services, and the telephone number is 313 5791000, extension 301 313 5791000, extension 301.

It offers services for seniors aged 60 plus.

Some of the services that they offer are they replace fuses and light bulbs, they replace door locks and window catches, they install screen doors, storm doors and weather strips around doors.

They do window caulking, they clean appliances, they do carpet cleaning, installing window shades and curtain rods, uh they wash walls, uh, they do windows, windows and scrubbing floors.

Seasonal, they cut grass and they rake leaves.

They clean walkways of ice and snow.

They trim the overhanging tree branches.

This is a good program.

Uh it is provided by the Franklin Wright, and it is called the Senior Choice Services Program.

That telephone number again is 313 579 1000 extension 301.

This these services are free to seniors that's 60 plus.

Brother Cunningham, I am very sorry that you were uh attacked, but we are glad that you are doing the work.

You are blessed.

Thank you, Miss Barner.

Our next caller is you have two minutes.

Next caller is phone number ending in 039.

Caller number ending in 039.

You have two minutes.

Everybody that's in the town, my boy, someone's the biggest biggest shout out to the former chief of Detroit Police Department, James White.

Jane D.

White.

If it had not been for him calling the Michigan State Police, I never would have got to the bottom of the investigation.

Uh Kenya didn't shoot yourself.

That's Kenita Coleman, DTB case number two zero dash one one two.

Now also send out the most part felt.

The salutation and accommodation sir.

One honorable man.

Great choice to be the chief of the Detroit Police Department.

Now we'll get straight down to it.

Marco Passad and Derek May, former captain of the homicide unit for the Detroit Police Department.

Jeffrey Hutton.

Former or present assistant Wayne County Medical Examiner amendment.

The original determination of homicide is that the suicide four and a half months later after Metter demise.

My word.

Next caller is C Gina Brown Anderson.

Miss Anderson, you have two minutes.

You can be heard, ma'am.

I'm calling in today to talk about the property tax paper system used on the BSA online to pay our property taxes.

It's flawed.

And it took a year to find a property tax payment that was paid in full.

Yet sent over to Wayne County Treasurer with interest and fees.

And even when it was found, it still had fees for the resident to pay in the Wayne County system.

I'm asking those fees will continue to incur interest and fees.

This is illegal if the paid tax payment was paid in full.

Who's going to pay that um payment to the Wayne County Treasurer?

Does that bill come to the city?

Because the resident shouldn't have to pay that fee or those interest fees.

So I am calling to really find out where am I calling to make sure those fees are directed back towards the city.

The city made the error.

The city is responsible for the payment.

But yet still it sits in that Wayne County system and it's going to continue to get fees and interest.

So that is still a hardship to the residents who make full payment of their property taxes.

This is continue to be a problem.

And I think internal, the internal operations need to take a look at that BSA online system to make sure the payment system that they're using the third party is accurately processing our payments.

This is something that we should not have to be worried about if this is the only system that you're going to use for us to make property tax payments.

It is an injustice to the residents.

And thank you for allowing to be heard.

Thank you, Miss Anderson.

The next caller.

Next caller is Melissa Love.

Miss Love, you have two minutes, ma'am.

Love versus Vincent S.

et al case number 25-C V-13105.

The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 states that Secretary State must maintain clean voter roles.

I'm Melissa Love, never voted.

November 2020 or August 2024.

I will not be silenced and justice will be served.

And respect will be on my name.

I will not stop or be stopped.

I will continue to speak about this evil corruption.

I am here to demand justice and representation for the city of Detroit.

I will continue to fight for what's right and fear no evil while doing so.

City of Detroit, if we had representation, DTE wouldn't be so high.

If we had representation, insurance wouldn't be so high.

If we had representation, we wouldn't have so many liquor stores and dispensaries with no grocery stores.

If we had representation, our air power fees wouldn't be so high.

If we had representation, these desolate neighborhoods would be gentrified.

If we had representation, $50 million towards the bus transit phone number wouldn't always be busy.

313933 1300.

It's always busy.

Miss Riley, you have two two minutes.

Good morning.

Can I be heard?

You can be heard, ma'am.

Good morning, and congratulations to those that won for the city council, other than somebody that is taking people's signs and stealing them.

And that should be a law against that.

So I'm going to get with the state or whoever, because nobody should be on the West Side, East Side, or whatever side, taking people's uh signs.

For one thing, it costs money.

Number two, councilwoman.

I called in yesterday.

You all had difficulties.

I was on the line, I was on Zoom before the preacher even preached.

He's the same one that he was talking about.

He knew Koma Young Senior and all that stuff.

And so the difficulty y'all was having, it kept throwing me off the line.

So I kept getting back on Zoom.

And it kept throwing me off.

And somebody needs to look into that because if we are on there before the public comments is cut off, whether it's difficulties, we should still be able to speak.

So I was very upset just then.

I said I'm gonna write a nasty note on Facebook and talk about what I have started writing it, but for some reason my other tablet wouldn't take it.

But that's not fair for me to be on there or anyone to be on there before the com public comments is cut off, but then you all have technical difficulty.

Okay, I understand about technical difficulties, but still let the people speak if they was online.

And I'm sure there's a way you all can go back there and see see that it was you know that I was online.

So can you look?

Can you look into that for me?

And I'm gonna need I'm trying to find is uh councilmember pro Tim Commer Young still had the same number for his office.

And I also was wondering how can I get council president uh take number because like when I have some issues, I still got a call.

And do and do the other at large, like Mary Waters, Councilwoman at large, Mary Waters.

Does she have the same number?

Thank you.

Thanks for taking my call.

Thank you, Miss Riley.

Um that does complete um public comment.

We will recess to the call of the chair for the 1038 M interview, and we will ask top um Chief Top Medison to come forth for the 1015 interview.

And we're just running about 15 minutes um behind.

And good morning, sir.

Good morning, madam chair.

Absolutely, sir.

The floor is yours.

Well, definitely it's my pleasure to be here before council and to um be a part of this interview process.

I was here last year um when I was in an interim role, and you all confirmed me in as the permanent chief.

And during the previous year, of course, with goals, the number one goal was community engagement, reaching out to the community, ensuring that we have that public trust, but also continuing to push down into lower crime within the community.

That was my goal.

Last year, during 20 at the beginning of 25, looking back at 24, we had historic low numbers when it came to homicides.

We came in at 202.

My predecessor, James Whitehead did a phenomenal job as far as moving the department forward, continuing the trajectory of crime going in the right direction.

And so my command staff and I look to say building upon continuous improvement.

How can we continue to make Detroit a safer city?

Investing in our officers, ensuring that the morale is up, ensuring that citizen morale is up as well, and getting those numbers low.

With that being said, um homicides were down 20% from 2024, and since 2020, um 50 percent.

And if you look at the trend line, and I know you all saw the reports, um, some of you uh were actually there, and I appreciated being with you all being there as well.

Um, Council President Tate was there along with um another council member as well.

But in other categories which were very significant are non-fatal shootings.

Um the previous year, we ended with 106, I'm sorry, 606.

This year we ended with 440.

What I will say is, you know, uh I didn't celebrate that.

We still have much work to do.

Anytime you have one life lost, or you have one assault, or you have one victim of a carjacking, is still far too many.

But I am happy to be able to report to the community that based off the investment, that and the support that I received from the previous mayor.

Now, of course, this mayor, who was the president of city council, this city council who invested in um this police department, whether it was equipment, ensuring that we had what we needed, um, it it it it the return on investment that you're making in this department is definitely going in the right direction.

Carjackings, that trend line um compared to where we were back in 2013 when we were known as Carjack City, um roughly at 800 carjackings a year.

Last year we ended with 76 carjackings.

And the previous year we had 142.

Um the men and women of the Detroit police department are working extremely hard.

Umward, you would say, Well, what are we gonna do different?

Well, of course, we have our community violence intervention, we have our community outreach.

One of the things my goal was to invest more in that.

We actually expanded um the area coverage because we know that that's working.

But this summer we had an uptick in juvenile type violence with young people being shot, um injured out.

We know that we had a two-year-old uh right around the 4th of July holiday weekend that was shot, thank God he survived.

We lost a five-year-old, and we also lost a six-year-old with basically within a 30-day window and period.

One of the things I came before council being very, very proactive is I asked for an increase in the parental responsibility fee when it came to curfew.

We started enforcing the curfew citywide.

We saw a downtick with that, but with the collaboration of working closely with our federal, our state, our county, Wayne County has been phenomenal, working very closely with um CEO Warren Evans and working with the prosecutor as well.

That has paid dividends.

But looking forward, really investing in the preventative aspect of it, and I know that Mayor Sheffield is creating up Office of Violence Prevention, Neighborhood Safety.

I'm not sure exactly what the name of it will be, but just like community violence intervention, um, when I was the deputy mayor, helped architect that and said it was gonna be the best in the country, and I will say ours is the best in the country because we have metrics to be able to measure and hold accountable individuals that are getting city contracts, and we can tie in their actions and what they're doing and attribute it to them versus um and extrapolate what other technology or police are doing.

And so it's being deemed and looked at as the best in the country.

So this office will be the best in the country as well because what's unique, community and policing working together collaboratively, and so I'll be definitely instrumental in that part with the emphasis on our young people and uh I said a lot about young people to don't want to forget about our senior citizens, senior citizens as well.

Um really getting us out of the senior citizen apartment buildings, concentrating on that, making sure that they're good because it's particular issues that go on in there as well, whether it's drug trafficking, individuals trying to take advantage of them, whether it's financial crimes, et cetera.

Um, our PAL league, we actually started a CBI basketball league over the summer, and so this year we're gonna be expanding it from just not just basketball, but working towards having it year-round as well.

Um, just really inspiring our young people, and then Councilmember Callaway, I just recently um stood with you when it came to the human trafficking and with that ordinance, the human trafficking task force, which is very, very significant.

I take exception to anybody who is forcing an individual into um forced labor or sex trafficking, and if you remember or go back, we the department along with other city entities, BC'd, etc., we actually shut down the Steam Gentlemen's Club when we got that horrific report that they were allowing uh children as young as 14 years old in there, and nothing gives me more satisfaction.

Whenever I'm having a bad day, you know what I do?

I drive down Michigan Avenue and I stand right in front of the sting and I see this steel boarded and shut down that just makes my day.

Um I will continue and looking at problematic locations also within the city of Detroit that ruin the quality of life because that's important as well.

And so whether it's an Airbnb, whether it's something that I'm getting complaints about, or another location that is a nuisance in that neighborhood, know that the Detroit police department under my leadership, we will give that particular attention as well, and stick and stay until we address it and bring the quality of life back to that neighborhood and that street and that block.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, Chief Bettison, thank you so much.

Um discussion from my colleagues?

Member Benson?

Thank you.

Chief, thank you for being here today.

Uh good to see you.

This would be your second confirmation hearing, um, if I'm not mistaken.

Um, and so you talked about quality of life for us in the third district, quality of life crimes, quality of life issues are paramount when it comes to public safety.

And so my bosses have stood behind me when we talked about just basic bringing in code enforcement, bringing your trash cans in, getting old dilapidated, uh immovable vehicles off the streets, uh, rubbish pickup, things of that nature.

So when we talk about that, you also with the CBI, you all done a fantastic job.

And we started with CBI.

We did not have any representation in the third district, and now we have two groups who are there, and they're really helping to make a difference when it comes to violent crime.

So we want to uh give you kudos on that.

When we go back to quality of life, one of the things that now makes us a competitive city, and one of the things you see in other competitive cities are your parks and recreation, your rec centers, your parks, and unfortunately, what we see is antisocial behavior at our parks in the form of loot the city's behavior, um, open air alcohol use, open air drug use, um, reckless driving, um, illegal use when it comes to uh ATUs, ATVs throughout the parks, and unfortunately, we're just not seeing the level of enforcement to make parents feel comfortable.

And so, just my own personal anecdote we'll go to Chandler Park and after school and a weekday, about four or five o'clock for soccer practice, and you'll see all of these activities abutting directly in concert with our rec or our parents who have their children there, which then does not make us as parents feel comfortable being there, nor do we want to expose our children to that type of activity.

Now, you're a grown person, I can't tell you what to do, but I can tell you should not do it here in our public space where all of those behaviors are illegal.

So, what type of commitment do we have from you as the chief for helping parks and rec to enforce and reduce that level of antisocial behavior and illegal behavior in our parks?

You you have my commitment.

We have a park detail, and just based off of that and the information and the feedback, I will definitely work with each council district, council person to ensure that their specific issues are addressed.

And so bringing that to my attention, telling me about that, I will ensure that our officers, the precinct command and the captain, our neighborhood police officer officers are given it the focus that they need, and other entities within the department.

And so, just like um you we can have a blitz, but it can be an educational component as well because when you start implementing things that are new, we want to educate individuals because a lot of it's litter.

You know, it pay folks are just throwing stuff out, they're trash in the park, and we'll send out our city workers and resources to clean it up, and then it'll have a game there, and then it's trashed out again.

And so being able to let folks know that hey, and putting the proper sideage up too, that do not litter and that the fine will be this, so that when we come and actually enforce that folks aren't as shocked.

But we will do the enforcement, but I want to do an educational campaign of it as well.

And when it comes to the abandoned cars that you mentioned, I actually have a report, and each and every week I get a report, and typically we remove on private property about 300 abandoned cars a week, and that's what's been helping the city look um a whole lot better.

And it was an educational campaign that we rolled out first and then started letting individuals know that hey um this is something new that we're doing, but it's for the benefit of us all.

Okay, and then can we count on the police department to support with the MPOs to support BC when it comes to code enforcement as well?

Maybe that ability is water write tickets.

Absolutely.

And warnings.

Absolutely.

And then who should we be talking to when it comes to quality of life crimes enforcement in the park?

Should we work directly with the MPOs?

Should we contact your office for further direction and how we as council members can also support and help get the word out there?

I have um his name is Derek Griffin, and he's over our chief's neighborhood liaison directly out of my office, and he's the overseer and the coordinator for all of the neighborhood police officers.

So you'll want to work with Captain Griffin.

I will connect him directly and make his information available to each and every council member so that when it's quality of life type issues or community-driven events, you'll be able to call him, and that's a one-stop shop for you all.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Um Member Miller.

Hi, Chief Benis Bettison.

I want to say thank you.

I had a personal interview with Mr.

Bennison because I am new, and I believe we took up about an hour just to hear what some of his new initiatives is going forward in 2026, and I was totally impressed by your commitment to community outreach and the commitment to our residents as well as our seniors.

But I think what struck with me the most was your commitment for CVI to go into our juvenile detention centers to deter our youth for further engagement with criminal activity.

That was a must.

But as far as your commitment goes, I want to appreciate the block party task force that starts at 7 p.m.

that goes at 7 at night.

That it was one of my most um thoughtful ideas.

I mean that you came up with us.

I was able to participate with MPLs in District 7.

I look forward to branching out to district, I'm sorry, to precinct seven and three and ten.

But more importantly, you are a grassroots officer.

Your heart is in the community, and you offer, and I want you to know that he offered me the opportunity to walk with him.

I have addresses that I have intend on pointing out to him that has criminal activity, and we are gonna hit it head on.

They already know I'm coming because I saw them when I was campaigning.

Like there's a lot of illegal activity going on in our city, and uh, we will be out there walking in the night time when that's when things are moving in our cities, especially on weekends.

So I just want to say that commitment alone um was a blessing because I look forward to our residents seeing you with me in the field where we can get things done.

And I just want to say I appreciate the time that you gave uh my office.

He sat down with our uh policy analyst and my amazing EA Thelma Brown set up the interview, and I just want to say thank you.

I appreciate it.

Through the chair, Councilmember Miller, thank you so much, and I look forward to it.

And during the year of 2026, we have to we have to do more than we did in 2025, and in 2027, we have to do more than we did in 2026, and so it's all of us collaboratively working together to make Detroit the safest city possible.

So I'm there boots on the ground, I'm ready.

I want to say also thank you for the crime stat you invited me, but this is our hour to have our committee so we weren't able to attend, but that tangible evidence that I can actually show block clubs and associations, it was imperative because a lot of times people strive on fear.

They want to they want to promote fear in our city, and that is unacceptable if we continue to thrive on just like like your car door.

This is Detroit, as it's not uh um an issue that we have to be concerned with, but some things you just have to know.

Yes, and we cannot operate or thrive on ignorance because we live in Detroit.

So, but thank you for your commitment and those stats were amazing.

I look forward to them going down even further.

And anything I can do in my office, if you call and say I need you by my side here, I'm with you because we will be calling to be visible in our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Member Miller.

Anything else from my colleagues?

Anything else you want to add, um, Chief Bettison, I don't have any questions.

I've just thank you for your service and your willingness to continue that service, sir.

I I just want to let the community know that um in we talk a lot about violent crime, but with um car theft, we had two thousand fewer cars stolen in the city of Detroit last year.

So hopefully that'll equate to um car insurance going down some more in some.

And so, you know, we're doing our part on the men and women of the Detroit Police Department.

We're working very, very hard, along with our professional staff as well, because we have about 700 um members of the department that are not sworn officers, but they're crime analysts, they do a lot of stuff behind the scenes.

And so I just wanted to thank them as well.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chief.

Thank you for being here.

Absolutely.

I'm gonna call the um, I'm gonna recess to the call the chair the 1045 a.m.

interview and call the 1030 interview forward.

That would be um Julie Schneider.

And thank you for your patience.

Um Corporation Council Mallet and uh Miss Schneider.

Want to introduce yourself.

Good morning.

Julie Schneider, I'm uh nominated for the director of the housing and revitalization department.

Okay.

Sure opportunity.

Great, thank you.

Uh it's an honor to be here today with in front of this this honorable body.

So uh housing is fundamental to each person, each household's life.

Um it's it's where you start your day, it's where you end your day, it's where you it's where you feed your family, it's where you um begin all of all of life's activities, and the housing and revitalization department is focused on making sure that housing within the city of Detroit is safe, accessible, and affordable to to all.

We do that through a number of initiatives, including providing um uh home repair services to residents.

We also work to facilitate the the development of affordable housing deals, and we we fund those deals, make them uh possible and realized in the the city of Detroit.

Since 2015, which is the beginning of the the housing and revitalization department, and is what when I when I personally began working with the department, we've had uh two thousand uh three thousand units of housing that have affordable housing that have been completed within the city of Detroit, and two thousand units that are currently under construction.

That represents a 23% increase in the number of affordable housing units within the city of Detroit all time.

So within those those 10 years, we've been able to increase the amount of housing nearly by nearly by one quarter.

Uh we also provide such services as down payment assistance to Detroiters.

We launched phase one and phase two in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and we're able to help over 800 households become homeowners for the first time.

And are we launching a phase three within the next couple of weeks as it's been one of our most popular programs and has been something that has helped um many hundreds of households achieve the dream of homeownership and is certainly something we want to make sure that Detroiters continue to be able to access and participate in.

We are also the manager of federal housing and urban development funding.

So these are funds that come through what is better known as HUD through the form of annual funding grants to the City of Detroit, known as community development block grant dollars, home investment partnership dollars, and emergency emergency solutions grants, and we also play a role in managing the housing opportunities for persons with aids in partnership with with the health department.

Um we take managing these federal funds very seriously as we want to make sure that residents of the city of Detroit are know that we are being good financial stewards of those dollars and making sure that they are administered appropriately so that the city of Detroit's finances are not exposed or not at risk due to inappropriate management of those dollars.

We've made really significant improvements in that area since uh since I started we which was five years ago.

Uh we've reduced the findings to um we to we we haven't received a finding in in two years, I believe, um, which is uh significant accomplishment for us and something that we absolutely want to maintain.

It helps to put us in better financial footing.

It also helps to make the city of Detroit more competitive when we compete with with federal grants.

Um and I will uh uh conclude my remarks there.

I just want to say thank you to all the res all the uh residents we've worked with, but also all the the staff members within HRD that support and make this work possible.

Thank you, thank you, Ms.

Schneider.

Any on discussion?

My colleagues?

Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Uh Ms.

Schneider, thank you for being here today and uh glad to see you uh here for your second, I believe, confirmation hearing for this position.

So just wanted to talk about number one uh and congratulate you for the accolades as we've earned and just the level of respect we've gotten back from HUD for your ability to continue on with compliance, us not having findings, um something that was not uh what Detroit was known for in the past and just helping to take us to the next level when it comes to how we manage and implement and get the grant money into the communities.

We often talk about low-income housing, affordable housing.

As a city of Detroit, we're not going to be able to continue our upward trajectory only building housing for our low-income families.

We have to provide support for our middle or middle income families, workforce housing, and make the city of Detroit a space where middle class and wealthy families want to come back and live.

And so I'm really interested in mixed income communities, workforce housing, which our pilot um pilot ordinance does uh mention, but we're not seeing the level of support that I'm hoping that we'll see moving forward for workforce housing, for our apprentices, for our bus drivers who often are their income levels do not support affordable housing, but they're not receiving any type of support when it comes to workforce level.

What will you do moving forward to ensure that we're welcoming our workforce housing opportunities that we're not pushing people who move out of the low-income status into middle class or into workforce level housing income out of the city of Detroit into other communities that have that in ready abundance?

Thank you.

Through the through the chair to council member Benson.

So creating housing opportunities for persons of of all incomes is incredibly important.

Making sure that housing is affordable to all is something that HRD absolutely uh strives to achieve.

And so you mentioned the payment in lieu of taxes program, and I want to um mention this um for for a moment.

So we passed with with city council in late uh in late 2023.

We passed uh an ordinance to expand the payment in lieu of taxes program.

And this was important for workforce housing is prior to the expansion of that ordinance, there was no program within the the city of Detroit that uh provided benefit if you were producing workforce housing.

And so we expanded that to make that possible and have seen really significant interest and uptake of that program, including an expansion of interest in workforce housing that that we had not seen previously.

So tools like that are important to making sure that we are facilitating the pipeline and the development of workforce housing.

We will continue to to do that work through programs like that.

We also work to make sure that when we're when we're marketing land, we are not just marketing land only sp only restricted to affordable housing.

We want to make sure that we're making it known and clear that we welcome housing opportunities for for all, and that's a part of our our work and will continue to be a part of our work as well.

We are also uh doing work to really think about how do we encourage in fill housing within the city of Detroit, much of which would be um unsubsidized, and how do we make sure that that is at a price point that the Detroiters and the households that that you mentioned, council member can afford.

And so we're doing that right now and the early stages of that work with PDD and B seed to really think about how do we restart the engine of infill housing in Detroit because it's it's truly been decades since that that work has happened in Detroit in in mass numbers, which uh we we want to to see that that rebuilding happen within neighborhoods within within Detroit.

Uh we also work closely with the state to advocate when when there are funding for workforce housing to make sure that that workforce housing is coming into Detroit and those programs are competitive.

We've been very successful in getting funding from the state to Detroit in average rounds 30 to 40 percent of the funding is coming to the city of Detroit in those competitive programs, and that's largely because of the work we do to make sure the pipeline is strong, and we also work to make sure our relationships are strong and we're able to get those those deals and grant dollars to the city of Detroit, and we'll continue to do that as well.

All right, thank you.

And this will make a last statement here.

And so when the Green Task Force, when we took our colleagues to Seattle, and number of my colleagues went with us, we had the chance to see a mixed-income community that they developed there, which was extraordinarily successful, where we had low-income housing all the way to market rate housing in that space and great infrastructure improvements as well, some of which I believe have been implemented into the second district of the advocacy of my colleague.

Good job.

Um, in addition, just want to make sure that we're looking at that and we don't see stable middle income, diverse communities as being a rarity.

We should see these as being the norm.

We have to have a landing spot for our burgeoning middle class.

We want residents to move back to the city of Detroit.

Families have to feel welcome, they have to feel comfortable in their own neighborhoods, and that's how we can do it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Member Miller.

Hi, Ms.

Snyder.

Good morning, Ms.

Snyder.

Pleasant to see you again.

We also met one-on-one because I am new and I need an extensive interview.

But um I did raise the same question, Member Scott, and I just wanted to say that Julie's has stated to me that there is an uh overzealous need for affordable housing, but her top priority is for single-family dwellings in middle class.

And she do want to see that come into our city, and that I look forward to working with her to make that um a priority in Detroit.

And I enjoyed uh talking with you and hearing some of your insights and your goals coming to 2026.

I just want to say thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

It's nice to nice to meet you.

Thank you, Grace.

Thank you, um, Member Miller.

I'll forward you my questions um for the sake of time because we have two um interviewees here waiting to be interviewed, so I will forward uh my questions to you, um, Director Schneider.

But one thing I do want to put on your radar is the apartment buildings.

There are about 15 of them in the um historic Palmer Park area.

I don't know what we can do as a city.

Those properties were sold in a bundle before I took um my seat because I probably would have fought against that.

Um, and the um the purchasers purchased those properties in a bundle in 2020, um sight on seeing.

They hadn't even been here, didn't know anything about the properties, probably saw them online, they were beautiful then, and now I would have to say to you, it breaks my heart every time I drive through that area and see the condition of those apartment buildings.

So um please put that on your radar and let's see what we can do as a city, because they are um in receivership now, every last one of them.

Um, and they're continue on a daily basis to um just to fall in such huge um disrepair.

So if you can remember that, I'd like to talk to you about what the possibilities are in terms of the city intervening.

Um I don't know what we can do, but we got to do something, even to uh make sure they're boarded up and made safe.

But um, thank you so much, and I'll get you my question.

Yes, member.

I know you mentioned the 1.7 billion invested in the last six years for affordable housing.

That's record numbers.

And uh the 200 million invested from the city of Detroit.

That's numbers for me.

And I just want to say thank you again.

Thank you.

Um anything else.

Um, Director Schneider, you want to say?

I I appreciate the to the chair.

I just want to commend the city council's focus on on housing and and the partnerships that we've had over the years.

I uh look forward to having that conversation with you about those properties in in Palmer Park as it it has a it's having a major negative effect on on that neighborhood, and so we want to to to do whatever we can to um to reverse that, but uh appreciate um this the support on this issue and look forward to working with with this council going forward.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Director Schneider.

I will take this opportunity to recess to the call that chair the 11 the 11 a.m.

interview and call the 1045 interview for with um corporation council Conrad Mallettes.

Morning, sir.

Morning, good morning.

Happy New Year.

Happy to introduce yourself for the record.

My name is Conrad Mallet.

I am the Corporation Council for the City of Detroit and nominated once again for this role uh by Mary, excuse me, by Mayor Mary Sheffield.

Okay, take it away.

You have the floor.

Madam Chairperson, Councilperson Benson, Councilperson Renetta King, the law department or Miller, under my leadership continues to evolve.

If we focus on charter granted responsibilities, the Corporation Council really is the chief law enforcement officer of the Detroit City ordinances.

We function in many ways like a mini version of the Attorney General's office.

So while we support all of Detroit elected officials and the Department Directors, we also, in a very real sense, represent all of the citizens of the City of Detroit.

We have taken Blight Ordnance Enforcement to a brand new level.

We have taken on the enforcement of identified by this City Council, identified Mr.

Meaners through our brand new criminal division.

We have we oversee the right to counsel program.

We oversee the Michigan Incident Defense Program.

We are setting ourselves up to take on a brand new crime that's been identified by the Register of Deeds Bernard Youngblood.

There's a thing plaguing our community chairperson called quit claim deed fraud.

We currently have about 300 persons according to the Register of Deeds who are victims.

And the law department is working with the Register of D so that we can figure out a way that we can be supportive to those persons who have been victims of that particular crime.

All of that said, Madam Chairperson, Council Members, the goal of the Law Department under my leadership is to continue to deliver to our day-to-day clients, swift support and excellence, but to bring the Department closer to the people of the City of Detroit and allow them to feel like they have some service opportunities directly delivered to them by the Law Department.

And with that, Madam Chair, I just want to say that I think that the Department really has uh progressed.

It has always done, I think, a really, really, really incredible job of providing corporate support for the municipality of the City of Detroit.

I think that an aggressive people-centered orientation, which some sections of the law department is responsible for carrying out, uh, is new, and at the same time is an added dimension that I think adds value.

And so with that, Madam Chair, I will be available for questions.

Thank you.

Um Corporation Council Mallett.

Are there any questions?

Discussion for my colleagues?

Member Benson, discussion.

Corporation counsel, thank you for being here today.

This will be your second uh confirmation since I've been at this table as well.

Um just the new misdemeanor ordinance that was has been implemented.

I'm not sure if we're actually enforcing that yet.

Can you just talk about uh the enforcement of that, the um work we'll be doing with specialty courts to ensure that we're holding people accountable but giving them a second chance by not um scarring them with a permanent record that that comes from um the legal the judicial process and what you plan to do to ensure that we are supporting quality of life crimes out of our newly, as you just said, um stood up um prosecutor's department.

So, uh councilperson Benson, through the chair, uh uh we we, as you know, are going to start this process in June.

Uh the lawyers have been hired.

Uh we are at a point now where we are doing, we are representing the prosecutor, prosecutorial function at all bond and arraignment hearings, so that the magistrates most particularly uh hear from the citizens of the city of Detroit as it relates to bail to bond and other conditions associated with uh requirements to come back to court, number one.

Number two, uh 36th district court under the leadership of uh Chief Judge Bill McConaco, they do have a very important function uh under the leadership for got blanking on the judge's name, but she is responsible for managing an alternative uh sentencing program to be sure that the people who come in contact with law enforcement have an opportunity to actually go another way, uh not have the uh crime on their record uh if they successfully go through one of the specialty courts that are over at 36D.

So there is plenty of opportunity, councilperson, for someone who embraces the opportunity to avoid a permanent stain on their record, number one.

Number two, what is critical, however, as it relates to the quality of life issues that you describe, uh, particularly in your district and across the city, is that people understand that there will be consequences, that there's no such thing as a free pass.

What you may get is an opportunity to do better.

What you may get is an opportunity to avoid a permanent consequence, but you are going to have to make an investment in yourself, and you are going to have to uh endure some degree of difficulty associated with the crime for which you've been convicted.

What we cannot do is have a class of crimes in the City of Detroit where people conclude, well, they don't enforce those.

We have seen uh uh and and uh the chairperson was making reference back to Palmer Park.

We have seen the consequences associated with not enforcing the blight ordinances.

Uh that has plagued the City of Detroit and brought us down, and and we have fought mightily back uh with this council's leadership uh uh uh to to restore you know property values across the city, to restore predictability in terms of the neighborhood uh experience that people uh report out.

Uh uh we we have done everything that we could to try to make it better, but enforcement of the law is the unfortunately necessary in order to incentivize the kind of behavior that all of us expect.

Thank you very much.

I just want to say thank you as well for bringing level professionalism and pragmatism to this office as well.

Not that it wasn't there before, but we appreciate that level of continued service from your office.

In addition, and as I said to the chief of police earlier, I'm hoping that we'll be leaning in when it comes to antisocial behavior, just brazen lawlessness that we see at our parks, which dis which discourages young families from living and staying in the city of Detroit when that's the type of behavior that is often seen as being tolerated.

And I'm hoping that we'll take a round turn on that and start to look at that as a way to encourage more families and continue to increase in our quality of life with here in the City of Detroit.

And thank you for that in your support when it came to getting the misdemeanor ordinance passed, working with the county prosecutor, working with your office, working with our CBI community to come together to put something that everybody could support and appreciate was very, very important.

So thank you for that work as well.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much, Member Benson.

Member Miller.

Good morning, sir.

I just want to say thank you.

We are already interviewed already.

And I just asked for firsthand information up front.

I like advanced knowledge, I don't like to be ambushed, and I do not want to get things as a last minute second be and be embarrassed.

So please are we have open door policy, send emails, text.

If you want to call me, you have my number, just I just want to know in advance.

Things is coming down the height.

You share a uh similar concern with the chairperson who is equally anxious for timely information.

I am new, so I just want to be informed.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I don't have any questions, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Um today I'll send you the ones that I do have um later on in the week or perhaps next week.

Thank you for your service and thank you for your willingness to continue in that service.

Do you have anything you want to add?

The the only the only thing that I'll say is is that uh, and I know uh through the chair, councilperson Benson, you'll be really interested in this.

We are trying uh to figure out how we are going to uh embrace artificial intelligence.

Uh we know very well that City Council cannot offer the law department any more money.

Uh simply we have reached a point where costs associated with law enforcement are going to have to be imaginatively managed in a way that continues to benefit uh the citizens without uh uh demanding more of the general fund budget.

Uh so I'm I'm I'm we we we are we believe that there are opportunities with artificial intelligence to allow us to support the lawyers that we have better uh to uh raise their level of productivity and allow us to streamline some of the day-to-day work that we do.

Uh if you look at FOIA, and I remember uh Madam Chair, when you first arrived, FOIA was a uh large issue for you.

Uh that is where our initial artificial intelligence uh experiment is beginning.

Is there a way for us to make to introduce the artificial intelligence function so that we can increase the timeliness of the responses so that they uh uh the interaction between the law department and the departments is more predictable.

Uh that's where we're starting.

Uh and and uh because the number of FOIA requests continues to go up, not down.

So I just want to assure you all that as we take on these new assignments, uh it is it is not necessarily so that we will also be coming back in and saying, and oh, by the way, we need more money.

Uh we will uh manage within the budget that you have given us.

We do think, though, that we can uh provide new service, better service, more expedited service.

Uh if there if if if we can manage appropriately uh this new opportunity.

Anything else from my colleagues?

Um member Benson.

Onto that, and I appreciate um hearing that.

Oftentimes what people will do, there is a natural skepticism or even a bit of fear when it comes to the conversation around AI.

Um in my um research, AI is a great tool to help make you more efficient if you use it in that manner.

And I appreciate hearing that's what you sound like as if you want the law department to do to use that tool to make you more efficient.

I I truly support that in my office.

We have embraced it and we use that tool to make us more efficient as well in our day-to-day tasks.

Thank you.

Corporation Council, that is one of my questions that I am going to forward to you because I was going to inquire about for you, but now I am I'm understanding that you're going to um use AI.

I'd like to know how you're going to use it because perhaps my office can start looking at ways that we can use it to be more efficient in our service delivery.

And then I was going to also ask you about um real token realty, but those questions will come to you probably today or tomorrow, and thank you so much.

We're the council person, we're very proud of real token.

I don't want to take any of uh uh uh Commissioner Harris's uh uh time, so I'll step away, but I can I I can tell you that real token is something that has gotten national attention.

There is a hearing on Friday that uh where the Wall Street Journal uh is coming to cover the hearing uh where we are continuing to uh fight for uh the tenants who are a part of that uh degraded circumstance.

So uh uh it's it's it's it can it continues to be an adventure.

Thank you.

Uh for inquiring minds.

Where is that hearing going to occur and is it open to the public?

Because we have folks listening.

It's going to be uh at 10 o'clock on Friday in the courtroom of uh Judge Annette Barry.

Barry.

Yes, ma'am.

Is that third circuit?

Which Wayne County Third Circuit, that's correct.

Annette Barry.

Annette Barry.

Thank you so much, sir.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Chair, looking forward to Commissioner Sims coming up as well.

Yes, okay.

And now we're gonna have um Commissioner Fire Commissioner Ums come forward and we're going to recess to the call of the chair.

Um our 1115 interview with um CFO, Tanya Staudemeyer.

Mr.

Um Sims.

Yes, uh good morning, Madam Chair.

Good morning, Councilmember Benson.

Good morning, Councilmember Miller.

Um glad to be here.

I just want to thank you for this opportunity.

Um, just a little background on me.

Um, been on the fire department for a very long time, came on when I was 19, uh, work my way up through the ranks, and uh uh Mayor Duggan appointed me as executive fire commissioner in 2022, and I'm happy and grateful to say that Mayor Sheffield reappointed me for her term.

And so um just to start off with some accomplishments over those over those years.

Um happy to say our response time is at a uh historic low.

Uh we believe it's the lowest in the country right now.

It's right around seven minutes and thirty seconds for a COL 1 medical response.

We're very excited about that.

Um we're the largest city, largest community in the country to become a heart safe city city, meaning we had to satisfy 13 requirements to show that we're prepared for cardiac arrest emergencies.

We've been able to secure funding for a new SCBA uh system, which is the um air tanks and harnesses that firefighters carry on their backs.

Uh is it was a pretty old system, but now this system will be in place for the next 10 to 15 years.

We've been able to secure funding for additional apparatus.

We just had a 10.7 million dollar investment into 10 ambulances and 10 fire trucks.

Um we've been able to cross-train over 450 of our members.

What that means is that now they can respond to medical and fire runs.

They are all our members are at a minimum medical first responders as well as firefighters.

The 450, they are trained at the EMT level and we and at the paramedic level.

And very excited to say that we just graduated our first paramedic class in history.

So we're very excited about that.

We will be introducing a community risk reduction program, which is basically singling in on each council district to let uh council members know what is the biggest cause of fires in their area.

And so that will allow us to really focus in on the on the type of training and education we need to provide to that uh councilmember district.

Um in the future, what we're gonna do is re-reinvent the apprenticeship program.

This started back probably 2015.

Cody High School was the first high school, and so um that carried on up until COVID, but we're gonna we're ready to to um reinvent that now, and so next fall we're looking to bring in two high schools for the apprenticeship program.

Um also we've been able to partner with Hustler Safety Cloud, which is a software package that uh it it it's it's stationed in our vehicles and it will alert uh vehicles uh Stillantis and Volkswagen vehicles over their radio that an emergency vehicle is approaching, and we're doing this to try to help prevent some of these accidents that are happening out here when we were when we respond.

Um future initiatives is one is nurse navigation, which is a patient-centered program, and what it is is made up of of RN of uh registered nurses, and some of our low acute acuity medical calls like our Code 3s will be transferred to that registered nurse, and she will be an advocate for that person.

She will provide uh transportation through Uber or Lyft to the hospital.

But what that does is it frees up our resources, so we won't have our ambulances responding to uh the low acuity calls when they're not needed.

And also, we're gonna have uh we've presented a replacement plan for all our equipment.

Um we don't like to come in front of city council and request funding.

We've we rather prepare.

So it's a it's a 10-year replacement plan on our apparatus, our medical supplies, um, really all the the uh replacement items that we need throughout the fire department.

And one future in this initiative we're gonna look forward to is trying to build new fire stations.

Our fire stations are uh anywhere from 80 to 100 years old.

Um, some of them are money pits, and so we want to really catch up with technology and build new stations along with a new deployment plan.

So saying that, uh, those are a few items um open for questions, madam chair.

Thank you.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Sims.

Um I have a couple questions, and I'll turn it over to my colleagues.

Um, I just got it um a message from a former um firefighter, and this is what he's saying.

That a percentage of Detroiters on Detroit fire department is only 21 percent, meaning 80 percent of the firefighters do not live in the city, and we know there's not a requirement.

You can't require them to live in the city.

We can certainly um strongly urge them and encourage them and give them incentives to live in the city.

But only 21 percent of Detroiters are on the fire department.

The percentage of blacks on the fire department is only 34 percent, and these are numbers as of December 2025.

The department is currently accepting applications until January 31st, and he provided a link.

And I'm going to share that with all of my colleagues so they can put it on their um their social media platforms.

I don't know if that was a question, um, but I don't know what we can do about encouraging um our firefighters to live in the city.

They used to.

Um, and a lot of them lived on the east side, uh, right around that grass it area um at eight mile, quite a few um a large number of them.

But that's not the case anymore.

They're living outside um of the city.

And then also um I have another person who sent me an email, I mean a text message.

Um, if you could write this address down, um fire commissioner Sims, 19203 Pinehurst.

There was a fire there last week, and the fire hydrant in front of the house did not work.

So the fire um did more damage than it needed to do because of the um malfunctioning or non-functioning fire hydrant.

So again, that address is 19203.

And then lastly, before I turn it over to my colleagues, I remember we honored um Steele Hughes' mom grand mom about a year ago.

And you and I had a discussion about naming a lab or wherever she worked all those years.

I think she worked there for 27 years, and she went back and got a PhD, just did some amazing things.

Are we still gonna make that happen?

Because that was almost a year ago when we first honored her right in this room.

And this room had never been packed like that before in the four years I have served here.

So, what are we doing to move that initiative um along?

Yes, thank you for that, uh, madam chair.

So I've been talking with Steele Hughes, and we are definitely gonna name um a room within our training center after her.

We're just trying to figure out which room, but we're gonna make it a special room specifically for her.

Um, to address your other items.

I'll I will um check with the water board regarding the hydrant on Pinehurst.

And then in regards to the um minorities and the uh if you live in the city or not.

So um those are metrics that I actually requested a year ago.

So we've we have those metrics.

I wanted to know personally.

And so what we've been doing is for the um when we have a hiring, uh, we we always exhaust the members on who live in Detroit first, and then we exhaust all the minorities.

And so we're doing everything we can as a department to ensure that we get you know more Detroiters on the job.

Okay, another question.

How old does one have to be to apply for a position uh with the fire department?

Because maybe we can start recruiting from our high school.

Some folks may not want to go to college.

Is a college degree required to serve as a firefighter?

Madam Chair, it is not an 18 years old.

18 years old.

Yes, and so we have um human resources, they'll go out to schools.

Um we always notify the schools of uh of an upcoming um hiring.

So once again, we're doing everything we can.

Just so you'll know, we have um the the posting has been open for a while, and we have about 1,900 people who applied.

Okay, 1900.

All right.

Thank you so much, um, Commissioner Sims.

My colleagues, uh, member Benson.

All right, thank you.

1900 applications for how many positions?

Well, we're we're uh through the chair, I'm sorry, we're gonna have a class starting sometime in March, and it's only about 35, and then we're looking to have another class in July for 35.

So 70 positions and 1900 applications as of now.

Um, when you talk about capital improvements for fire stations, ARPA money is now been exhausted.

That would have been a great opportunity to really revitalize um and bring our firehouses up to standard.

What's the cost going to be to do that?

If you were able to wave a magic wand and find a bag of money that would pay for all the capital improvements, new construction necessary to modernize our firehouses, what would that number be?

Through the chair to build a new firehouse um with two to three bays would probably be in the range of 10 to 12 million dollars.

Okay.

And how many do we need?

So we're not looking to replace all of them.

Um it's part of a of an entire deployment plan as well.

So I would say we have um 34 fire stations, maybe 15 to 20 new fire stations.

So 150 million dollars over a period of time through the chair.

Maybe a quarter of a billion dollars over a period of time to modernize our our firehouses and our fire stations.

Through the chair, yes.

It's it's it's been a long time.

And um you know, we've we we've noticed that other communities they're building new fire stations, but we just have not uh put the resources in to build new fire stations.

Okay, and obviously that's a bond level type of capital improvement.

Are we having these conversations behind the scenes now with the uh CFO about the ability to look at using bond funds to uh do that type of capital improvement?

Through the chair, we have had conversations and we're gonna continue to have those conversations.

All right, thank you very much.

And commissioners want to say um kudos to the work you've done.

You've leaned in when it comes to community.

We've had the opportunity to walk with your firefighters in 20 degree weather when we've had problems in the third district when we lost a family due to a fire.

You all went on walk with us and gave out fire detectors because they didn't have fire detectors, and that's probably why they perished.

And so just want to say kudos to that.

You all have leaned in when it comes to ensuring that young families know how to properly secure their children in their car seats and can go to any firehouse and have that done with an appointment, and we appreciate that level of service and community outreach and engagement from your department and forward thinking that we do need to modernize our firehouses and a quality of life in the work environment is very, very important, despite the fact that you have a you have an overabundance of people who want to become Detroit firefighters.

We still need to make sure those that become Detroit firefighters have a quality of life in the workspace befitting of the city of Detroit.

Thank you.

Ruiter Chair, thank you so much.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Member Miller.

Good morning, Mr.

Sims.

Good morning.

I see you this morning.

I have also had an interview with him that lasted a great about an hour.

I am a product of the Detroit Fire Department.

My dad retired from there as captain on the fire department.

He was also one of the founding members for the Phoenix Detroit Firefighters.

And I just wanted to say, Mr.

Benson, you are lucky because he does realize the ratio of African Americans in this field, and there was only five black people that graduated out of class of 30 recently.

And they're starting their apprenticeship program in your area, Persian High School.

And I am excited to, as a mentor from Osborne High School through the Lawn Academy, I am excited about bringing young men and women to Persian.

There's my dad's graduating school, and I'm sure you know all about Pershing, and I look to see that community even grow around your program because they need to know there's another option.

So what we have the numbers that are not favorable for a city of 77% African Americans, we must do what's necessary because I'm in the street, I am out here, and they're saying we're we're at the presence of African Americans.

So we can talk about everything all day, but that is important.

I mean, even when there's apprentice on their highways doing the roads, I'm getting phone calls and text messages where they're saying, I don't see any black people on the roads.

I mean, people don't want to talk about it, but this time we're gonna be we have to talk about it, we have to address it.

I don't want to address it in this room or on the on the cause.

I want to address it in the streets.

I want to address it in person so we can eliminate people that complain and call in with the negative comments.

So let's try and fight against the negativity.

I look forward to working with you at Persian to uh getting some people into those programs and figuring out why.

Why are people not classing out?

Why are they not passing the test?

Why are they not included?

And that even goes with skill trade.

When I go to their apprenticeship, I'll see 60 people and just two people that look like me.

That's unacceptable.

So we have to meet them where they are and find out what we can do to raise that class of people up.

Thank you very much, sir.

Thank you so much, um, Councilmember Miller.

And uh just a couple of things.

So that number was actually lower a few years ago.

The um it's up to 35 percent now, but it was actually lower.

So um, just to just a testament on that that we're trying to, you know, we're making an effort to increase those numbers.

And number two is you know they're building um a new Persian high school.

Yes, they are.

Thank you.

I'm just those are the questions that our my consistents are asking me.

I'm gonna have to get those on honest answers, and that's why those numbers are important.

I thank you for uh uh appreciate that I did get a couple phone calls and text messages as well because I am close to the fire department um and the people that run it.

So look forward to working with you soon with that apprenticeship program, Mr.

Scott, in your area.

Thank you, Member Miller.

Um, anything else you'd like to leave us with?

Um, Commissioner Sims.

Um I just want to thank uh counsel because you guys have been advocates and supporters of the Detroit Fire Department, and just want to say thank you for that and appreciate it.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

I'm going to take this opportunity to recess the 1130 interview to the call of the chair and call the 1115 interview forward, Tanya Staudemeyer.

Our CFO.

Good morning, Miss Staudemeyer.

Good morning, how are you?

Good.

Thank you for being here with us this morning.

And the floor is yours, ma'am.

So my name is Tanya Stademeyer.

I'm the CFO for the City of Detroit.

I was previously appointed by Mayor Duggan and then reappointed by Mr.

Sheffield.

Uh, my priorities pretty much remain the same, um, making sure that we remain financially prudent.

Um we recently completed our annual financial report for last fiscal year, and the city had a hundred and five million dollar surplus.

Uh, those dollars will be available when we have our budget development discussions for the next year.

Uh, there may also be some priorities in this fiscal year that we may want to address with those dollars as well.

So we'll have an opportunity to have those discussions with council if we decide that we need to do uh budget amendment in the current fiscal year as it relates to that surplus.

Uh, what we are planning now are budget priority forums.

So we'll do that in each one of the districts.

The first one will be January 26th in District 2.

And this is an opportunity for us to be with the Dons and have conversations with the public regarding what their priorities are so that we can see that if those priorities are something that we can address this year, maybe we can do pilot programs as it relates to some of those priorities so that we can use those one-time dollars.

Uh, but it's an opportunity for us to see what's important to the community, which I think we've done a good job over the years of trying to make sure that we are reaching the neighborhoods with a lot of our initiatives.

So I really think we made the transformational changes that we were hoping we would be able to accomplish with those funds.

Other than that, I just also want to say that a lot's about to happen as it relates to the budget.

So especially for Member Miller, I want to make sure that you're comfortable with what's about to happen.

So we're going to start off with the budget priority forums, and then on February 13th, we're going to have our revenue estimating conference.

So this is all tied to the new state law after coming out of bankruptcy.

There used to be a time because I've been here for with the city for over 30 years.

It used to be a time when we would figure out what our expenditures were, and then we would put on a revenue amount so that we had a balanced budget.

We no longer operate that way.

Now we determine what our revenues are first, and then we balance the expenditures based on that revenue number.

And I I don't know if you've heard, you know, we've had some revenue challenges, really for the first time since coming out of bankruptcy.

And it's mainly it's very specific.

It's tied to our corporate refunds.

So what we're seeing with our corporate is that a lot of our manufacturers are no longer making the same amount of profit that they were previously, and this is impacting the amount of taxes that they have to pay us.

So it's not that they're getting you know not paying their taxes, they just don't owe as much because they're not making as much.

So I want to make sure people understand what that is.

And as a result of that, and and it's really tied to the tariffs, it's tied to the you know, the big beautiful bill and all of those kind of things uh that really aren't under our control, but it has impacted our revenues.

So this was the first time we actually did not see an increase in our budgeted revenues.

They remained pretty flat.

Uh, and the only reason that they remain flat is because with our uh wagering taxes, especially internet gaming, we're seeing a significant increase in that.

So that's kind of keeping us flat.

Uh, but we know that things could change, you know.

Um, if the manufacturing industry starts to lay off staff, it would impact our withholding.

But right now we're not seeing any of those um other revenue concerns outside of the corporate income tax.

And as you all know, we came to council and we actually set dollars aside so that we could address that in this current fiscal year.

Uh so in addition to the revenue conference, uh, there'll be the mayor's first budget address.

That's going to happen uh probably around March the 7th, which I think might be a Saturday or Sunday, so it may end up being that following Monday.

Uh so we'll have that, and then council will vote on the budget on April 7th, which is the same day as the um new EOP, the uh executive organization plan that was submitted.

That will become effective in 60 days, and that's also on April 7th.

Uh we have plenty of time though to have discussions with this body, you know, uh with this committee, just to talk about you know what changes might be needed, what you know, making sure you guys understand and you're comfortable with it.

Uh, but I want to say that it will be budget neutral, you know, we're able to use um funds that are in our current budget in order to uh not only create the new department but some of the other amendments that are occurring in in the various departments.

So with that, I don't know if you all have any questions.

My um colleagues have any questions.

Um then member um Benson.

Thank you for joining us again, Ms.

Doddemur.

I don't have any questions.

We've already addressed everything, and I am confident that my attorney, Mr.

Corley, who represents city council, he has committed that he is definitely my guy, and that he will stand in the gap to get the budget done on our behalf for city council.

I am new.

I know the council has already um they have taken a hit during the bankruptcy.

They still have not been made whole, in my opinion.

But I I trust that you guys would come up with something that's gonna be amazing that works for everyone.

Thank you.

So uh through the chair to uh member Miller.

Um I just want to assure you that Mr.

Corley and I have a wonderful relationship.

We've been working together, you know, for the past 12 years, and even before that, as it relates uh to the budget.

Uh there's a lot of collaborations, you know, we kind of lean on each other.

We, you know, we have informal conversations, you know, to kind of talk through issues.

So I'm I'm sure we'll figure everything out.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate what you're doing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Member Miller, Member Benson.

Thank you.

Uh CFO, thank you.

This I believe is your second confirmation as well, and congratulations.

I think another badge of honor that you didn't say is you've seen seven mayors since you've been here, the city of Detroit, if I'm not mistaken.

Does that start with Coltman Young, sir?

I was going to say you started with Coleman Young, another badge of honor.

So just wanted to make sure that that was known to the public.

So your level of experience and just corporate knowledge, institutional knowledge is invaluable.

So just wanted to make sure that we're aware of that.

And I really like to hear you lead with fiscal discipline.

I'm a huge fiscal hawk.

I want to make sure that we live at the City of Detroit the way that I manage our household budget.

We live beneath our means.

We don't live above, we don't live at, we live beneath our means.

So we make sure that we have a savings every year.

And I know that we've had that conversation, so it sounds as if that will be how you all continue to move as a department and lead the city.

I'm hoping to see that.

I'm hoping to see that we also have a small but some type of savings that we can continue to grow for a rainy day.

And we've seen an extraordinary extreme rainy day during COVID, something that none of us planned for, but based on the fiscal discipline and our ability to have a savings and a fund balance, we were able to uh weather that storm when many municipalities weren't able to do that.

They had to take on debt.

We did not have to do that, which to me is also a badge of honor for the city of Detroit and why fiscal discipline is so important and living beneath your means when you don't think that something catastrophic can happen, it will, and you need to be prepared.

And I share the concerns of my colleague, Member Miller, when it comes to the growth of our city council department.

To have a proper oversight, you need to have the staff to do that.

Our staff has been working with out for a long time when it comes to the ability to talk to your office when it comes to the ability to do oversight when it comes to legislative um agenda, when it comes to fiscal analysis, when it comes to research, and we as an oversight body, if you want us to be professional and be able to continue these incremental growth for the city of Detroit, your legislative division and your policy analysis, as well as our oversight uh function, needs to be prioritized as well.

And so I share that concern support member Miller when it comes to how we grow the legislative side of the house.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Um, and um I um will get you my questions.

Thank you for meeting with him, my staff yesterday, and thank you for your commitment to ensuring the financial prudency of um the city of Detroit.

And thank you for your many years of service, and we are so delighted that you your your desire to continue in that service.

So thank you so much, and I'm looking forward to um to working with you in the next four years.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Anything else from you, madam?

Um, I just want to say through the chair, you know, I'm very grateful for this opportunity to continue to serve the residents.

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to do more in the neighborhoods, you know, to make sure that residents are aware of the opportunities that they have in the city.

And I think we, you know, we offer so many services that people don't know about, and that's something that has always bothered me is that there's so much more that we can do for our residents if they only knew that those uh opportunities were out there for them, or those services, or you know, we're here to help them, you know, with their day-to-day needs.

So I just want to make sure that, you know, and I I know this body feels the same way in terms of we just need to make our focus a little bit more on the neighborhoods, you know, and I think we're in a good position to do that now.

Yeah, and um, thank you so much.

And while you were saying that I looked up the word prudency, and it simply means exercising good judgment, caution, and foresight and practical manners to manage resources and avoid risk.

So thank you for your commitment to that financial prudency for our city.

Okay, um, thank you.

There aren't any other any more discussion.

No, okay, thank you.

Thank you for being with us.

Thank you.

Uh-huh.

And then we will call our um our next interview is with Alexa Bush, and that's at 11:30.

And then I'm going to call, I'm going to recess to the call of the chair, the 1145 interview with Denise Starr from HR.

Again, we will take this um interview with Alexa Bush, who is the director of the planning department.

And um you have the floor, Miss Bush.

You want to introduce yourself for the record.

Yes, through the chair.

Good morning, everyone.

It's great to see you down here up here on 13th floor as we go through this process.

My name is Alexa Bush.

I've been the director of the planning and development department.

I've been in this capacity for the past year.

I've spent seven years overall with the department.

And really have been, you know, at the end of the last year was reflecting on the team about, you know, there's still a lot to do, but it was a pretty amazing moment to reflect on where we've come as a city in the last 10 years.

Thinking back to, you know, we didn't have a community benefits ordinance.

We didn't have a streetscape program.

We didn't have strategic neighborhood fund.

East Warren Streetscape, Livernoy Streetscape, Dexter Streetscapes.

There's a phenomenal number of new businesses that have opened along those places with Motor City Match.

Again, excited to keep at it, to keep expanding that recovery, to keep ensuring that we're touching more parts of the city, that more people feel like it is having that positive impact on their quality of life.

But it was a pretty phenomenal chance to just think back at what we've done.

And frankly, I think you know, talking with peer planning directors and other big cities, what we are doing in Detroit is sort of unprecedented of thinking about the level of economic challenge that we faced and where we've really tried to come to, you know, raise the bar, improve things for our city.

I think we're really excited to continue to work with residents, with stakeholders, with small business owners, the business community to continue to build that collective vision of where we want to go and where our city can become next.

So I'm really excited to be back here and having this conversation before this body.

Thank you, Ms.

Bush.

Um any discussion from my colleagues or questions?

No, I just member Miller.

Uh thank you again, Ms.

Bush, for meeting with me yesterday.

I am I thank you for your commitment.

Um, especially when I asked you about were you over the historic district um committee?

That is like really important to for someone to finally actually admit that they do have jurisdiction over the department.

The department maintains our historical fabric and our neighborhood is very dear to me as one of the founders for the Detroit Historic District Alliance.

It is important that uh we that they be recognized for maintaining the city when we were at our lowest.

Can you imagine we're gonna say uh 52% paying uh more than half of our budget when our city was in downturn?

So I look forward to walking in the neighborhoods with you.

I look forward to you actually coming out to see some of the grievances that we're dealing with from uh those two different departments because sometimes the information that's brought back here in this very room is not accurate.

It's not true because they have not gotten the proper community, I would say, responses, because I'm in those rooms and I know what's being said.

So I would like to um be that person to uh properly give the information that our residents feel and need to be heard, and actually you can see firsthand for yourself the reality of what's in in our city and what's our residents are dealing with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Miller.

Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

And uh, Ms.

Bush, thank you for being here.

This would be your second confirmation as well.

Glad that you're back here with us.

Um working closely with your office when it comes to the uh the master plan update.

Um, our hopeful uh redevelopment, mixed income in the third district.

Can you just talk about the role of PDD when it comes to the master plan update where we are with that, and then your role when it comes to proposed mixed income uh sustainable development for our neighborhoods as well.

Uh through the chair, thank you, Member Benson, for that question.

Yes, we are very excited to be continuing to move through this update of our master plan of policies.

Um this is a document that is required by the state to really set a land use vision for the city.

Um it sets the framework for the implementation of that that work, which is through the Zorin zoning ordinance.

Um that sits in the legislative branch with the city planning commission, and we try to work as closely as we can to have an integrated approach to what that looks like.

Um but the master plan is truly that opportunity to engage with the community at a citywide scale and shape what that vision looks like.

Um, where and how do we want to see growth?

What does commercial corridors look like in this neighborhood versus that neighborhood?

Um I think uh member Miller raised a great point that you know every neighborhood isn't and shouldn't be the same.

Everyone deserves a very high quality of life and services, but the master plan provides us a way to make those differentiations to identify different areas, you know, different historic character, different parks, different transportation opportunities, the river, right?

We have all these amazing assets, and this is a guide that can help us not only communicate to the larger development community, you know, where and how do we want to see growth?

What does that look like to residents?

Um, it also can help us internally to the city to say, um, you know, in close partnership with my colleagues in CFO's office.

Um, we've completed, I would say the the first half of the deliverables we're we're setting out to do, which is really establishing with community the vision and the goals of the plan.

Um we will be coming out district by district at the end of February, early March, um, to have district wide engagements around our draft policies and draft place types.

So these are really the maps that will begin to lay out what those different uses are.

We do want to have this citywide frame, but we do want to get into the districts because we want to get that next level of distinction between you know what works here, what works there, what's appropriate in this part of the city.

Um we have the benefit of you know, 18 neighborhood framework plans that we've done where we've had a deeper touch with some of these neighborhoods, and that's being integrated into the plan.

Um, and we're having these engagements to really, you know, some of these are 10 years old.

You know, does this still fit?

Is this still where we are?

Um, but would love to work with this body and your offices to help us get the word out as we schedule those engagements.

Um, as we often try to do, we will begin with those early conversations, we'll put out a draft, we'll continue to iterate not only with community feedback, but talking across departments, working with colleagues in CPC with the goal of bringing a draft of that full plan to the full body of council for approval this year is our hope.

Um, so would really love to continue the partnership around this next phase of those draft land use maps and policies that align with those land uses.

All right, thank you.

The development piece?

Yes.

Um, so our department plays a role in development on a couple different fronts.

Um, one of them is via these neighborhood plans and really working, you know, at a multi-neighborhood scale.

Sometimes we are brought in on a project basis.

There might be new development, there might be a property owner that is looking to do development in a community, and we often are working alongside other city departments to ensure that there is outreach and engagement and communication around those projects.

Um, you know, in some of our neighborhoods, there might be different barriers to why there hasn't been development.

Some of that is more regulatory on our side, and I think we're often working to say, you know, the land use plan of the city as it was last developed was around, you know, a different population, a different footprint.

I think we try to figure out, you know, what do people want to see today?

Does this fit or how do we need to change the regulation side of that to best achieve the vision?

Um for projects of a very large scale that might trigger other ordinances like the community outreach ordinance or the community benefits ordinance, by those ordinances, our department has a role to facilitate those development processes and really walk alongside the neighborhood advisory councils that get set up to work with the developer to negotiate benefits in certain cases.

Um but our goal is always to ensure that you know that development is doing what we hope it does, that it's having those benefits that residents want to see that we're meeting those services and amenities that we're hearing, hearing the demand for loud and clear to you know help our partners in the development side deliver on those goals, but also to coordinate, you know, how do you get to transit?

What is the nature of the street and sidewalk?

You know, for a new housing development, are there parks nearby where children can play?

Um we are often working interdepartmentally to try and coordinate those different bodies of work to really deliver something that's holistic at the neighborhood level.

Okay, thank you very much.

Yep, thank you, Member Benson.

I just I'll make sure you get my questions, but I have a question about the motor city match.

Um, since I've been on council, I attend a lot of ribbon cuttings, and it's so sad when I go back, the business is gone.

Um we had the waffle cafe on Livernoy, now it's um tackles and sauce.

Um, and then we had um tie-dye, that's gone.

I think it's down in midtown, downtown somewhere, and then we had um uh natural hair-ish on Seven Mile next to human IT.

That's gone.

I think those were all motor city match recipients.

What is the plan to help these businesses not just have a ribbon cutting, but to to survive?

They're not surviving.

I can only speak for what I see in my district, um, and not just on Livernoy, just throughout district two.

We're all excited, a lot of fanfare, ribbon cuttings, awesome.

TV is there, but the TV's not there when they go out of business.

And I have quite a quite a few in my district open, closed the next year.

So, what is the plan to help these um young businesses thrive, survive, and sustain?

And then my next question is I don't know if you have any involvement with this one, and you don't have to answer it now, you can just get back with me, and I also put these in writing.

And I also put these in writing.

The Ulysses Grant, he was the 18th president of the United States.

He lived here in Detroit from 1849 to 1951 with his wife Julia.

And they lived on 4th Street, and he was stationed at Fort Wayne.

What are we doing with the house?

It has moved a couple times.

Now it's in the Eastern Market.

And I'm looking online and said it's been preserved, you know, it's open as a learning center.

I don't think that's true.

So is that under your purview or is that another department for the um for the um historic house?

Yes, through the chair.

Great questions.

Um I'll I'll take them both on at a high level, but be sure to answer them in a deeper way in writing.

Yep.

Um, you know, we try to work very closely with our our colleagues at the DGC around the administration of Motor City Match.

Um, I echo your concern.

I mean, our our the outcome of these are these thriving businesses providing services in neighborhoods where people can access them.

Um, you know, I think what we really see our role in is a number of of pieces of one trying to support the kind of of built environment that supports those businesses, right?

Is there a high-quality street and place that people want to and feel safe to park, walk their car, is it well lit?

Is there a place to sit?

Is there shade?

Um we often think as well about some of the development and land use supports that can be beneficial to small businesses.

Are there other active businesses that if you walk into one shop, you might actually have the foot traffic and notice another business so that it isn't just each single small business owner has to generate all of their own foot traffic?

But how do we support creating enough critical mass of businesses that they actually become more of a destination and mutually supporting each other?

Um I think the third piece we try to support in planning is also to think about how to encourage and support those businesses being around enough residential density, and by that I want to be clear, I don't mean just high-rise buildings, but I mean, you know, are we ensuring that they are near, you know, places where there's people already shopping or walking?

Are they near places where lots of people live?

And do we have opportunities as we are seeing, you know, people have different lifestyle needs and demands for housing.

Might there be opportunities to you know support mixed-use buildings where you might have residents with those buildings where you know it becomes part of your routine that you stop in the coffee shop, you stop and buy that service as part of your daily life, and it doesn't have to be a destination to seek out the business.

So we'd be happy to get into more detail, but at a high level, yes, we really try to think about how to create the systems that support those businesses in addition to just getting them open and appreciate that it is a challenging time for businesses, and we continue to really dig deeper into what are those factors of success.

Um your second question about the the Grant House.

Um, I am aware of it.

I actually was reading Grant's biography the other summer, like the big thick, the big thick one.

Um, and yes, aware of his time in the city.

Um I do not know exactly who owns the house at this point, but could find that out.

Depending on there'd be two ways that it would fall into our department.

One is if it is a city-owned property.

Um, the second would be if it is listed as a local historic district.

Um, that process is what the historic designation advisory board does on the legislative branch, they designate those properties.

Once they are designated, the stewardship, the repair, the permitting required for those um districts is what comes to the historic district commission that our team staffs.

Um I just I I'm aware of it, but not clear on the ownership, so I'd be happy to follow up and let you know if that falls under our jurisdiction or otherwise.

Okay, all right.

Um, thank you so much, and I look forward to getting um more detailed responses for those two questions, and I'll follow up with additional questions at a later date.

But thank you so much.

Do my colleagues have any other discussion or questions on member Miller?

Um I just want to say, Member Benson, I attended a planning meeting at Farwell on the east side, and it was very informative.

I just popped up and just was there.

Um I noticed that a lot of the meetings is the same people, the same 35 people going to these meetings that sign off on things and saying they agree with things, and that is unacceptable.

35 people at the same meetings.

Um we need to, um I agree with partnering with her to get the information out.

I mean, if we have to have people to go door to door and drop leaflets off, like here, we're planning here.

You're gonna be here 10 years.

And I I can tell you for me where I live, I have been in this room at least over the last eight years regularly.

And when they drop those concrete sidewalks down in my area down the middle of the street, I never receive the notification.

I don't care what anyone says, I never receive the notification that they're going to be putting concrete bus stops in my area.

And to this day, I've never seen one person at the bus stop.

Only thing I see is tire tracks from people riding up on the bus stops at night or when they're intoxicated.

So whoever plans these things for neighborhoods, nine times out of ten, they probably don't even live in Detroit, but they're on their staff making decisions for Detroiters.

So I am I am committed to the notifications going out.

And in some areas past the actual footage.

We need to we need to notify associations, block clubs, if we want the proper communication because decisions are being made by a few people.

I even noticed that some of the some of the graphs that were made were actually misleading.

The people did not even understand what they were signing off on because it was a community in Northwest, Southwest, and then a community in your area for comparison of would you like this in your area?

They're saying yes, yes.

And I'm saying, excuse me, do you know this is a Southwest Detroit?

Uh this is um industrial, and they're signing off for being next to six-mile Illinois residents.

So they did not know the location.

So we have to educate our people what they're looking at, and we have to be there to be the oversight to make sure they're getting the right information.

Otherwise, they'll come down here at the end complaining, and we've been doing this for over a year or two.

And our director is committed to coming to those associations.

I'm setting up those appointments as we speak.

I told them I'll get you on the books so you can speak to some of these neighborhood organizations, and you can compare our notes with your staff because there has to be accountability.

And I just want to say thank you for our meeting.

I had a really good meeting, and I feel confident that um that you understood exactly where I was coming from.

All right, thank you.

Member Miller, anything else from Member Benson?

Miss Bush, do you have any um parting words?

Um, just to say thanks to this body.

I look forward to any additional questions.

I know we'll be back in about a week or so, um, but please feel free to send those our way.

We'd be happy to answer them in this format.

But as mentioned, um, we'll be involved in the master plan and other processes through this whole year, and do you welcome the continued cooperation and partnership with your staffs in advancing that work and getting out the word?

So thank you for that.

Thank you so much, uh, Ms.

Bush.

Okay, now we will call our last interview of the morning.

Um, Denise Starr, director of human resources.

Will you take your seat, Miss Starr?

You can introduce yourself for the record, and thank you, and good morning.

Good morning, honorable body.

Um, thank you for this opportunity.

I am Denise Star.

I am human resource uh director for the city of Detroit.

Yes.

We have the four.

Okay.

Uh-huh.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

So um I am proud to have served this admin the administration for 10 years now as the human resources director.

Prior to that, I was the uh executive vice president and chief administrative officer for CompuRare Corporation.

Um in that role, I was responsible for bringing CompuWare downtown in the building that is known as One Campus Marshall's today.

Um, and and those responsibilities, it was um global human resources, procurement, facilities, security, and on-site daycare center.

Um, to talk about some of the experiences that I've had with the city thus far in my 10 years, uh, which by the way went by very fast.

Um we transitioned from a from two 40-year-old legacy payroll and HR systems into what is now known as Ulti Pro UKG.

Uh, this now is um everything is pretty much automated over the last 10 years, where onboarding is automated, um, benefits administration is automated, and we've expanded our employee self-service for many things where employees can change their addresses, uh, do a lot of their own upkeep of their data in our system, whereas before it was all paper-driven.

Uh, we introduced a few years back by annual employee engagement surveys to assist us in evaluating employee satisfaction.

Based on that feedback, we work with every single department and have employee engagement team that now works um with the departments once we get the feedback because every department has a different rating score, and so we work with each department to improve their scores.

And we have seen improvements um every two years in the engagement score since we started that um several years ago.

We have proven to be able to pivot in an emergency, as you all may recall during COVID.

We pivoted to our employees, although I would say 90% of our employees are customer facing out in the community, public safety.

We did wellness checks for our other employees that were pretty much office-based.

They work from home for quite some time.

We did wellness checks for our employees.

We processed all of their state payments for, we had employees that were on work share where they and we had some employees that were reduced to one-day work weeks.

So rather than have the employee have to do all of their state filings, we did them every two weeks and basically were able to get them paid.

Our policy and planning team, along with the help, thank you of council member Benson and the city council body.

We are able to implement a pay parental leave program of six weeks for our employees.

So thank you very much for that.

We've had over 300 employees participate in that since 2021.

And you know, one question you might come and ask is Is there a cost to the city?

Yes, there is, but it's an investment in our future.

Maybe at some point they will be future employees for the city.

Our Class and Cop team has partnered with labor relations to part to provide competitive wages for not only our union employees, our non-union, and elected officials.

Our talent development and performance team has received multiple national recognized learning and development awards, highlighting our strong commitment to growth, development, and workforce advancement capabilities.

Prior to joining the city, the city during bankruptcy had to cut out all employee development.

We offer thousands of classes, both online and in-person and virtual for our employees.

We are 24 hours operation.

We've got bus drivers, police officers, firefighters that work in the middle of the night that still would like to, you know, increase their education, and we've been able to do that through a lot of our online courses that we offer so that we touch those employees as well.

We have management, we also implemented online performance management.

Prior to this, there was a manual process, but no one was ever watching it, right?

And making sure that employees were getting feedback on their performance and also development plans that would help them improve their skills.

Of the employees that we end up hiring, about 25% of them are actually promotions from within.

So we want to develop our employees that we have, retain them because the amount it cost us for turnover is exorbitant.

You don't really see it in my budget, but where you see it is across the city with turnover.

It takes about six months in order to hire the person, get them proficient in their position.

So it costs you about six months' worth of salary every time a person leaves the city.

So it's been very helpful with this honorable body's support that we've been able to increase wages so we don't have the high turnover.

One of the reasons that we could afford the increase for our GDOT drivers was because what we were spending in turnover by hiring drivers and training them, getting them their CDLs, and then they were leaving to some of our competitors.

That it was a lot of money.

So we're able to take that money now and invest it in the employees themselves so that we can retain them and not lose them to others.

Talent acquis acquisition had over a hundred hiring events in the community this past year in all the districts citywide.

We had also events for veterans.

We were able to hire 65 veterans this past year.

We had a couple of couple hiring events out in the community.

We continue to expand our outreach and look forward to working with all the council on in their districts so that we can hire from the city of Detroit.

We have a couple, um actually four key contracts coming up.

One this year is DFFA.

We just got our notice to negotiate and their contract expires June 30th of this year.

And then in 2027, our three police unions contracts are expiring.

So those are upcoming for our future.

And you know, our our you know, labor contracts are wonderful and wages are important.

But if our employees are not engaged and feel satisfied in their careers with us, they will, you know, they'll leave and they might not give us a warning.

So over in talking about the future, what we want to be able to do, and and you uh city council you're um has already supported our our uh zeroed-in products, so our policy and planning team is working on developing that so that we can get some key metrics out of our systems that will help us in identifying at-risk employees of leaving and then be able to communicate with the employees on career opportunities within the city that fit within what their experience in their resumes and um trainings have in the system.

So that'll be very helpful.

Also be able to identify when someone might be eligible for retirement so that we can target those individuals and um you know, and get them to um you know gather some of the data on what they do in their position, but also to be able to partner them with others that they could help develop that could take on their position.

Um with that, um close and say open for any questions.

Yeah, before I go to my colleagues, thank you so much, Director Starr.

Um, you know, you and I are in constant communication because I've served on served on this committee as a member for the last four years, so I'm very aware of what happens in HR in terms of contracts.

Um what I also find problematic is um folks living outside of Michigan working in our city, um, and I guess that's done remotely.

I don't think there should be any remote, and we talked about this before, um, workers.

Um we should be back in the office.

Um a lot of um industries, a lot of corporations are requiring their workers to come to work.

Um during COVID, some exceptions were made, um, and I understand that.

But now um COVID has reached its peak and it's no longer um the uh the issue today that it was back in 2019 through 2021.

Um so I am going to continue to encourage you to encourage our department heads to require workers to come to work.

I also find it kind of problematic.

I don't know if you have any um control over it, that our treasury office, our assessor's office is closed on Fridays.

Um and I came down here to pay a bill, my property taxes, and the office was closed, and it has been closed since COVID.

So I'm just respectfully requesting that anyone who works in the city or is the head of a department require your employees because I require my staff to come to work Monday through Friday because that's the expect expectation for myself as the leader.

So um that being said, I'm hoping that the uh Mayor Sheffield will require folks to come to work.

Um and then also our HB1 visa holders.

We I think you sent me the report.

I think there are approximately 11.

One lives in Illinois, and I just don't know what the work we're getting from that person.

Um, and I think they make 157,000.

So I'm hoping that we can um kind of take a look at what we're doing because I know um most of them are engineers working with data and numbers, but we have bright folks right in this city who can work with data, who can work with numbers.

We have degrees in engineering, civil engineering.

I saw two of them with civil engineering degrees from their country, India.

I think there were 10 from India and one from Nigeria.

So um I hope that we can build a stronger relationship and partnership with Lawrence Tech, which is in Southville, with Wayne State, which is in Detroit.

We also have a Michigan State satellite campus and also U of M.

I cannot believe that we cannot find workers who live in Detroit or Michigan to do the work that we're hiring these uh HB1 visa holders to do.

I just didn't see it from the report that you provided me, especially knowing that one is in Illinois, and then also aware of another employee who lives in Florida and has been there for a number of number of years and working.

So my question to you is what how are we benefiting from them if they're paying whatever they're paying in Illinois or Florida?

What's the benefit other than them working remotely?

Allegedly.

The taxes, what are they paying in terms of taxes?

If they are not living in the city, living in the state of Michigan, how how do we tax them?

Their income, the income that they're earning from us, we the taxpayers.

What's the benefit in terms of how they are um paying taxes?

Or how we are um getting taxes from their wages.

How does that work?

For these two individuals, the one who lives in Illinois and the one who lives in Florida.

And I think there are more.

Um through the chair, so the the employee themselves.

I would have to, I I um OCFO is responsible for payroll and for taxes.

So I'm not exactly sure how they are taxed uh for the Detroit tax because they are a Detroit City of Detroit employee.

Um they would probably claim at the end of the year, even if they are paying it, they would claim that they live out of state 100% of the time.

So from a tax perspective, they're not, you know, they're they are probably not.

We would have to confirm that with the OCFO.

Um I would say the work that they're doing.

I must I'm going to make an assumption that the department is paying them for quality work that and they are responsible for keeping track of what it is that they're doing and their performance.

Um I think I um I believe that in the communication I sent back to you, we have stopped the H1B visas for um the time being, and we will not restart them without coming back to this honorable body.

Um and um, of course, the current employees will stay as the current employees and we could um get additional information from the departments that have them working on the critical work that they do.

I do know that the Due Department was paying more for some of these employees uh through contractors, and one of the reasons that they were pulled in-house and that we helped them to bring them back on or in-house was because it was actually a cost reduction for us.

And we are now um, you know, they are working in the city of Detroit and paying taxes.

Yeah, I also thank you so much for the report that you sent.

They live in Canton, I think Northville, everywhere else but Detroit.

Dearborn, Lavonia, not one of them live in Detroit, ma'am.

I looked, you know, I I read your report um very closely, and that's um disheartening for me, knowing that one of them are from India, one from Nigeria, and none of them chose to live in our city, but they want to work here and and and and and and and I appreciate all that you've done, but I'm glad that we're gonna get out of hiring them because it's gonna be a hundred thousand dollars that the government has just um approved for all H B1 visa holders and workers coming to the um in the state, um I'm sorry, in the country now, and those who are um wanting to come and work in the country.

There's a hundred thousand dollar fee.

And I know I looked at some of the information that you sent.

Some of those visas are about to expire, and I know they um are up for some of them can be renewed twice, um, three years and then six years.

So I'm hoping we will look at not renewing some of the ones that are about to expire based on the information that you sent me.

But I know that we can find um workers who can do the work that we've hired them to do, and we're paying more because we've also had to pay those fees for them to be working over here, and then for not for them not to think that it's not okay for them not to live in our city, I find it very personally problematic.

Um, but anyway, that being said, I'm gonna um um go to um member Miller and then member Benson.

Thank you, Director Star.

Thank you.

Oh, that was a lot.

I will say, Ms.

Starr, thank you for joining us.

Uh prior to even meeting you and having that our interview, you came to our office at the drop of one call, and you actually assisted me personally with getting set up.

That meant a lot to me.

Uh, you stopped your schedule just to come to accommodate and even the transitioning, I really appreciate it.

I just want to draw inference to one thing you mentioned about the D D dot.

You mentioned D DOT and the high turnover, which is jobs in itself.

I was I was part of the picketing when they picked it for the for the increase in wages.

And if you're on the D DOT bus and you're behind a smart bus, but you're making making six dollars less for many years, you should jump ship.

And you should let them know that you're not valued.

But all the years of negotiating a higher pay, and you're on the same bus line on what we're doing the same work for six dollars less.

Our city, our employees, our residents could not continue to be taken for granted.

So I'm glad your department came to the knowledge.

Like we got to pay them.

The mayor had to step up and do it.

Unfortunately, it was at the last minute before the changeover, but uh it was many years that they had to endure that um it was an actually an embarrassment.

So you to drive alongside a bus, and they're making six dollars more than you.

I am a union advocate, and I believe in a fair wage for a fair hour.

So if you work 40 hours, you should get fair pay.

And that's anywhere you go.

But in Detroit, we have to stand strong when it comes to our unions and when it comes to our workers.

And that involves with health care too.

It's it's disheartening that we cannot provide some health care for some of our residents in 2026 in the United States of America.

Well, so when we negotiate those things, it is important that we look out for our residents in.

You know, we're in a generation where turnover is um a big thing.

I have two millennial children.

Well, one is a millennial, and they will quit in a minute.

That's why they're business owners.

They have this thing.

If you value me, if not, this is a new thing.

It's not like how we were, we have to work.

We believe we have to work.

But sometimes they'll just take their talents and go elsewhere.

But um, I appreciate you standing up for the D dot and make sure they had that um wage that was comparable to SMART.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome and appreciate your support and comments and employees, you know, are our greatest ass he.

Okay.

They're the ones that are getting the job done every day.

And we need to look at ways, and it's not always wages.

In their case, we were losing as fast as we were hiring, we were losing 50 percent.

Okay, and so um to be able to give that increase.

Um, it was well deserved and important for us as a city to lead the way in that.

So thank you again.

Thank you.

And member Miller, thank you.

Yeah, um, the a lot.

Um, my inquiries and my remarks and comments and questions comes from me reading a lot.

And um it's always my pleasure to request information, get that information and read it.

I just don't request information and not read it.

So the a lot of the remarks and comments and questions and inquiries comes from me reading a lot.

Thank you so much.

Uh, member Benson.

Thank you very much.

And uh, Ms.

Starr, thank you for being here today in your service to the city of Detroit.

And this is your second confirmation hearing as well.

Um paid parental leave, and I want to thank my colleague for helping with the tush push on that one.

We had the football.

We're able to get across the finish line, but then we got that tush push and we got it across, and now we have a great um asset for our employees.

That's been utilized in my office by my staff, and I talk to people all the time who thanked me and thank city council for implementing that program to ensure that we acknowledge the importance of young families, and now we have a tool to help encourage young families to stay here in the city of Detroit and reward them for staying with us as well.

And it's really important for our entry-level employees who may be single parents to have that type of support, which is something you do not get many other places, especially in the public sector.

So just really want to thank you all for supporting that as well.

It's good to hear that we got 300 people who have supported, and we've seen it from the C-suites all the way down to our entry-level employees.

That's very, very important.

Also, want to thank you for participating in B for E, our bikes for employees program that helps our employees who do not have reliable sources of transportation, and it helps them with health.

And you talked about uh prevention, we want to get people healthy, and riding your bike is a fantastic way, and getting people to work reliably, not having to worry about a ride, not having to worry about Uber saving that money is fantastic.

We've had people on the 13th floor who've been able to take advantage of that, and I hear from people all the time.

And when the city joined as a partner, you all became our largest partner, and we really appreciate that as well.

And we're looking to come back to you in the future to continue with B for E to ensure that people have reliable sources of transportation uh for our residents and for our employees.

Now, we here, and this is my first time doing IOS, we see all the con the settlements, and a large number of those settlements come from D DOT as well as DPD.

And as you do the contract negotiations, I'm hoping that we can do something creative.

I know people have taken a run at this in the past, but maybe there is a way to help people be more um proactive, more careful when it comes to their daily activities that cause a lot of these settlements if we incentivize them financially.

If you all can reduce the amount of settlements, we will split that savings in half as a pool for you all to take advantage of.

We already provide fair box um participation for our TOEs.

Maybe we can do something like that for all of our employees when it comes to settlements.

Let's reduce that amount of settlements and any savings that we see, and this could be something in the contract, hopefully, that that money could be split.

And so if we're saving a million dollars and we now split half of that 500,000 with the employees, I mean we're still up 500,000.

And so it's a win-win for everybody.

Maybe financial incentives is a way to get something done.

So hope to talk to you about that in the law department and see if we can implement something like that legally.

But just want to say thank you.

Thank you for being proactive.

Thank you for being open and being very supportive, as was said by my uh colleagues as well, and being creative to what type of solutions and incentives we bring for the quality of life for our employees.

As you said, human capital is very, very important, and reducing the amount of turnover, having this be a workspace where people want to come, that's huge.

And you're part of that.

So thank you very much.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um thank you, Member Benson.

And um, to that point, um, I'm looking forward to working with you and your staff, um, Director Um Starr on recruitment.

My background is education and human resources.

The last 10 years of my career was in HR with DPSCD.

So I would hope that we can maybe open up the pipeline from Lawrence Tech from Wayne State from U of D Mercy in my district to um see if we can recruit some of those engineers who are the engineers who are graduating but can't find jobs in the city where they got their degrees from, have to go outside of the state of Michigan looking for work.

But I'm hoping we can um work on that and have further discussions because we continue to talk about it every year.

But I'm hoping in 2026 we can actually put a plan together.

And thank you so much for all that you do, and thank you for always sending sending me timely reports when I ask for them.

They're just chalk full of information.

So thank you so much for being so responsive to my um request.

Member Miller, you have anything else for okay?

So thank you so much.

Do you have anything else you want to add, um director?

Just um through the through the chair, um, council member Benson.

In this latest contract that you um that city council um has approved for DDAT, there is a safety incentive.

Uh we do recognize that safety is very important.

We are also hiring additional trainers for DDAT so that we can spend more time with the new newer drivers, especially, and then to also have retraining, uh, which is required by FTA, but we don't do enough of it.

So they're going to be hiring six additional trainers, and um, and there is a financial incentive for safe driving now.

I don't recall the numbers, but I will send them to you.

And um, on that note, um, Member Benson, for your information, those conversations were engaged in um during the last four years with um um chairwoman um Letitia Johnson and co-chair Mary Waters.

We talked about um rewarding safe drivers, not only in D DOT, but DPD as well.

So those conversations were initiated in the last four years under the um awesome chairmanship of Letitia Johnson.

So thank you.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Um direct through the chair.

Um, I would um uh I'll be reaching out to you, and maybe we could uh have a little committee that would just meet with you and talk about some of the outreach and um get your insight and additional information on you know contacts you might have you know that we may not.

So I like that very much.

I'd like to make sure that we you know do what we can, do our part to make sure that any student who's graduating with an engineering degree or any other kind of degree here and in the state of Michigan can find work here, and we don't have to go to Indy and Nigeria and these foreign countries to find workers when we have workers here who are willing, able, educated, and ready to work.

So thank you so much, Director Starr.

Okay, thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, we're gonna move on with our agenda under line item.

I think it's um 12 13.

There's no unfinished business before this council, and now we are on line item, I think it's 14, new business, and under new business from the mayor's office.

We have line item 14.1, submitting resolution authorization for a proposed amendment to the executive organization plan.

And um, is there any discussion on line item 14.1 hearing none?

I think we're going to bring this back in two weeks because we're okay, bringing it back in two weeks on January 23rd.

Any objections to that motion?

Hearing none.

That motion is approved.

Line item 14.2, a resolution reappointing Denise Starr.

So um through um Mr.

either Mr.

Anderson or Mr.

Um King, can we um approve all of these resolutions in one bunch or individually, or should these be brought back on January 23rd?

These resolutions for the reappointment of the individuals that we just interviewed.

Through the chair Graham Anderson Law Department, it's my understanding we wish to have a special session for these uh additional interviews.

I would recommend to bring back because of that.

Okay, so these resolutions should be brought back in two weeks.

They'll be brought back on January 23rd.

Is there a motion?

Okay, hearing a motion, hearing no objections, that motion is approved.

They will be brought back.

Line items 14.2 through 14.8 to be brought back in two weeks.

Thank you so much to my colleagues.

And now we are in line item 14.9 from the Office of Contracted and Procurement.

Contract number 67597, 100% city funding to provide cybersecurity Google threat intelligence enterprise package and license league.

The contractor is Dastin Corporation located in Leesburg, Virginia.

It's 160,000 plus contract.

And the report is in the teachers report for my colleagues' information.

Is there um discussion or recommendation?

Motion to approve.

Okay, there's a motion to approve line item 14.9.

Any um any objection?

Hearing no objection, that motion will be approved.

Now we are with the law department line item 14.10.

Um a resolution is a settlement in a lawsuit of advanced physician group pharmacy, Mackie versus the City of Detroit for $6,500.

Discussion?

Motion.

A motion is that a motion to approve?

For discussion.

Oh discussion.

Ms.

Member Benson?

Member motion to approve the contract and send the formal.

Okay.

Um there's been a motion to approve send this to formal session on Tuesday with the motion to approve.

Hearing no objections, that motion will be approved.

Line item 1411.

Another settlement and the lawsuit of Manfred Brandenburger versus City of Detroit.

Is there a motion for discussion?

Uh motion to approve, send the formal recommendation to approve.

Okay.

Hearing no motion for discussion, but one for approval that motion carries going to formal session with the motion to approve.

Hearing no objections.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Line item 1412.

Settlement in the lawsuit of Antonio Shelby versus Christian Carpenter versus I'm sorry, Antonio Shelby and Christian Carpenter versus Robert Moss, Marcellus Turner, and the City of Detroit.

Is there a motion for discussion or a motion to approve?

Motion to approve formal recommendation to approve.

Okay.

Hearing no objections, that motion is approved.

Line item 1413, settlement in the lawsuit of City of Detroit versus Bemini properties.

Is there a motion for discussion or approval?

Motion to recommend approval send the formal.

There's been a motion for approval moving on line item 1413 to formal session.

Any objections?

That motion is approved.

Line item 1414, settlement and lawsuit of Darrell Barnes Bay versus City of Detroit for the amount of 100,000 dollars.

This is from the Department of Transportation.

And I have to remember to call the department so we'll know where these lawsuits are emanating from.

So this is for the Department of Transportation.

Is there a motion?

Motion to send the formal recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to send this line item to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Any objections?

Okay, that motion is approved.

Line item 1415.

And this is from the Department of Transportation.

Settlement in the lawsuit of Lenise Frazier and Z versus Zachary Cammons and the City of Detroit in the amount settlement amount of $35,000.

Is there a motion for discussion or approval?

Motion to recommend approval and send a formal.

Any objections?

That motion is approved.

Line item 1415 will be moved to formal session next Tuesday with the motion to approve.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Line item 1416, and this is D dot.

Lawsuit of New Grace Spinal Rehabilitation Center, A.

Smith, A Damon, and M Allen versus the City of Detroit.

The amount is, if I'm not mistaken, is $15,000.

Is there a motion to approve or a motion to discuss?

Motion to approve some informal recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to approve this line item 14.16.

Are there any objections?

No.

That motion is approved.

Line item 1417, settlement in the lawsuit of Reginald Brooks versus the City of Detroit.

D dot and the amount of $80,000.

A motion to discuss or approve.

Motion to recommend approvals into formal.

Hearing no objections.

No objections.

That um line item will be go to formal session with the motion to approve.

Line item 1418, settlement and lawsuit of Dorothy Manley versus City of Detroit.

And this is which department.

Office of the assessor.

And the amount of $14,000.

Is there a motion to discuss or approve?

Motion to recommend approval is into formal.

There's been a motion to approve this line item.

Are there any objections?

None.

Hearing none, this um this motion is approved.

Thank you.

And then line item 1419.

A settlement in the lawsuit of Sharona Williams versus the City of Detroit.

D dot.

And the amount of $15,000.

Is there a motion for discussion or approval?

Motion is in the form of the recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to approve.

Um line item 1419.

Um any objections?

No.

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

Line item 1420, settlement in the lawsuit of Medavan, LLC, James Gooden versus City of Detroit.

This is another D dot settlement and the amount of $10,000.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Motion is in the formal with recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to approve line item 1420.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

Line item 1421 in the lawsuit of Timmy Reese versus the City of Detroit involving D dot.

The amount is settlement amount is nine, a little over $9,000.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Motion to send the formal with recommendation to approve.

Any objections?

Hearing none.

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

Line item nine 1421 will be sent to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Line item 14.22.

Legal representation and indemnification for police officer Brian Edwards in the lawsuit of Demario Hill versus the City of Detroit.

Is a is there a motion to discuss or approve?

Motion is in the formal the recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to send line item 14.22 to formal with the recommendation to approve approve.

Any objections?

No.

No objections being heard, then um line item 1422 will be sent to formal with a recommendation to approve.

We are now on line item 14.23, legal representation and indemnification for police officer Christopher Young in lawsuit of Zhawan or Zhoshawn Eaton Rivers versus the City of Detroit.

Um is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Motion to send the formal recommendation to approve.

There's been a recommendation to move 14.23 to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Are there any objections?

No.

Hearing no objections, that um item will be approved.

That motion will be approved.

Okay, now we are on line item 14.24.

Legal representation and indemnification for post police officer Youssef Elzine in lawsuit of Patrick Alexander versus the City of Detroit.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss?

Motion to approve to send the formal with recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to send line item 14.24 to formal session with the recommendation to approve.

Are there any objections?

No.

Hearing no objections, that motion is approved.

We are now on line item 14.25.

Legal representation and indemnification for police officer Hawk Greer and lawsuit of Demario Hill versus the City of Detroit.

Is there a motion to um discuss or approve?

Motion to send the formal with recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to send line item 14.25 to formal session with a recommendation to approve.

Any any objections?

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

Line item 14.26, legal representation and indemnification for police officer Lamont Gibson and lawsuit of Joshawn Eaton Rivers versus the City of Detroit.

Is there a motion to discuss or approve?

Motion to send the formal with a recommendation to approve.

Any objection?

None.

Hearing no objections, that motion is approved.

We are on the Department of Elections, line item 14.27, certification of election of January 6, 2026, approving the establishment of the Rivertown Business Improvement Zone and Zone Plan.

Is there a motion to receive and file or is there a motion to discuss?

Motion to discuss.

Member Benson, motion to discuss.

Thank you.

Is there anybody here from the elections department who can speak to this?

Ma'am, you can come forward, you can introduce yourself.

You could take a seat right at the microphone.

Make sure you press the button should be green.

I didn't find that what's going on.

Thank you, Gina Cavalier, Downtown Detroit Partnership.

Um, I am not from the elections department, but the statute allows stakeholders and put the person submitting the petition to support the election.

Okay.

Um just for the record, what's your interest uh or your standing in this particular matter?

Um, ma'am.

In this matter, I submitted the petition as an employee of the downtown Detroit partnership supporting um providing technical support to the Rivertown Business Improvement Zone establishment.

Member Benson, you have any questions?

All right, thank you.

Can you just tell us what we have here?

Why this is important and why what this means for the city traveling.

This will be our third biz.

Yes, sir.

This is the third business improvement zone being established in the city of Detroit.

Um it's a statutory tool that enables this type of of use that was established in 2014.

So we are very excited about this tool and working with the stakeholders for a number of years on this plan.

Um, what we heard is that they are very enthusiastic in Rivertown about the um effectiveness of this tool and how it's been demonstrated in use in downtown Detroit as well as in southwest Detroit.

Um we are providing technical support.

We intend to continue to provide that, and we are um very proud to report that the um the election came back with um about 75 percent of the voters supporting it.

Um we're also very proud to report that about 80 percent of the proposed assessment was voted, so we had very good participation as well as support.

Okay, and then the rough boundaries for the uh biz.

The the biz begins on the west side where the downtown biz ends, so it abuts um at Rivard Street and goes basically on the north end from Larnid and then the south end of the Detroit River, um, just past the McArthur Bridge at Bell Isle.

So Gabriel Richard Park is actually two parcels, and so it encompasses the the parcel on the on the western side and and not the parcel on the eastern side.

We were working to make sure that we were um including in uh a balanced amount of public land of non-assessable land in the biz, and so it encompasses the entrance of Bell Isle, but but not the entire park.

Okay, and then will DDP manage the uh biz?

Um that is up to the board of directors that was elected.

Um that is is has been the discussion and the intent of the stakeholder committee that has been convening for some time and we are prepared to do that.

That the it takes effect on April 1st, so the board would be seated April 1st.

Thank you.

Um thank you so much for that.

Um I was um watching um the um I don't want to say deliberations, but when you made your presentation, um there was an owner of a dealership on Jefferson who opposed this.

I think he opposed, and then there were some residents who lived in apartment buildings off of Jefferson who got a letter saying that I don't know if their rent is going to be impacted because there are going to be some additional fees involved.

How did that work out?

Because that was about two months ago, and I'm just going from my memory.

Yes, the um the the dealership um the the representative of the dealership who voted voted against the establishment of the zone and the representative of the apartments who voted voted against the establishment.

I do think it's important to note that the um the unsigned letter that was placed on the doors of the apartments indicated that the rent would be increased and the amount that was indicated was nowhere near in alignment with even if 100 percent of that assessment was passed on to the residents.

It was probably 10 times more that was represented.

So there was some misinformation there, and we're working with the apartment owner to to clarify that and make sure that they have accurate information moving forward.

Yeah, because of thank you so much for him.

Thank you so much for your response because I was here when a lot of the residents came and made public comment, and they were concerned about their rent going up, and a lot of them are on a fixed income.

So $27, $30 is still an increase.

And so I'm just hoping that that does not happen to those residents who took out the time from their busy schedules to come down here and make public comment, and you were present when they made public comment.

And um I just was not physically present.

I was in my office watching, so I know exactly what occurred.

And the dealer of the owner of the dealership, they've been on that, they've been on Jefferson for a very long time, and um so uh he did say he was gonna vote against it, and he did, but he still will be um subjected to this the be to the zone, right?

To whatever the fees are going to be assessed against the owners of properties in the area, he's still gonna have to pay.

Is that correct?

Even though he objected and opposed it.

That is correct, and and we have been coordinating with Jefferson East Inc.

and the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, the City of Detroit, to sit with these owners, understand their concerns, um, and help them to come to you know an economic development strategy to address the concerns that they have and make sure that they um see the maximized you know maximize the value of their contribution.

Yeah.

Um are there any other any other discussion from my colleagues?

Okay, thank you so much.

Um is there a motion to receive and file the report and thank you, ma'am, for being here.

Thank you very much.

Madam Chair, is this a receive and file or motion to formal for recommendation to approve?

I'll defer to the law department or to LPD.

Is this a motion to receive and file or a motion to go to um formal with a recommendation to approve for the body?

Is it my notes I have received and file?

Is um attorney Philip Keller LPD?

Uh because this is a report.

I believe it's a receive and file.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Is there a motion to receive and file?

Motion.

Okay, there's been a motion to receive and file this report.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that motion um is approved.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you very much.

Yes, ma'am.

We are now discussion, member um madam chair to the law department or LPD.

And so does there need to be a formal approval from city council at any point if we're only receiving the filing today.

When does city council approve this election?

So it gets on to the permanent records, and maybe DDP can help us there.

They've been through this before.

Uh through the chair to member Benson.

Um that's not something I'm aware of off the top of my head, but um we can certainly look into that for you.

Okay, and determine if there's any other uh approval required from council for the chair Graham Anderson Law Department, I echo LPD's point.

We'll get back to and get an answer on that.

DDP may be able to help, madam chair.

Um absolutely, ma'am.

You want to reintroduce yourself and uh cavalier, downtown Detroit Partnership.

Um, I have consulted with our attorney and have been working with the city clerk's office on this this process.

Um, as as you said, we've been through this before, and this is the first time through this process under the current version of the statute with the certification of by the city clerk that followed the election by the by the the assessed property owners, the owners of assessed property, the the action in the establishment has been finalized.

So this is a matter of you know, perfecting the record, recording the election, but um the election is complete with the certification by the city clerk that is has been transmitted to the council.

So this is not a legislative process at this point.

It's now an election.

Okay.

Correct.

That the city council authorized the election last year, and so that election took place, and that election is finalized.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other discussion?

Okay, there's no additional discussion.

Thank you so much, ma'am, and thank you, attorney um Keller, uh, Mr.

King and attorney Anderson.

Um we have a motion to receive and file, and that motion has been approved with no objections.

I have foot questions.

Okay, um, question absolutely member Miller.

Can you tell me the results of the election?

The um the results were that 74.6 percent of the vote was in favor of the establishment of the biz.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Anything else, member Miller?

No, thank you.

Okay, thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

All right, we are now on line item 14.21, extension of interim suspensions issued against Gayanga Company L L and Brian McKinney.

And is there a motion to receive and file or discuss?

Can we have a motion to discuss?

I'd like to provide some information.

Motion to discuss?

Motion.

Okay, um, thank you so much.

Member Benson, you requested last week um for uh meeting with the with the inspector general.

He's called our office and said he is available next um Wednesday, um January 21st.

If that will work for your schedule and your schedule, Member Miller, he is available to come before this body.

And that works for me.

Okay.

All righty.

Um, so if uh I guess the clerk could note that we need to extend an invitation to the inspector general, Mr.

Mirable, to um come before come before this committee um next Wednesday.

And is there a motion to receive and file um the report?

Motion any objections?

Hearing none, um the motion um for to receive and file has been um been approved.

And thank you, madam clerk.

All right, now we are moving to the end of our agenda.

We are on line item 14.29, the legislative policy division submitting a report relative to the city council appointments to boards and commissions.

Is there a motion to receive and file?

Motion.

There's been a motion to receive and file.

Is are any objections?

No.

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

Line item 1430, submitting a resolution to schedule interviews for mayoral appointments.

Um we've had those interviews this morning, but we are having um a second um meeting on January 23rd.

So I think this can be removed.

If there is there a motion to remove line item 14.30.

Motion.

There's been a motion to remove line item 1430.

Any objections.

And this is where we're talking about because our agendas are differently numbered.

And I don't know if I have the latest version or she has the latest version, but we have to make sure that our um agendas are exactly the same because my line item is 1430, and um hers for this is 1428.

So how that happened, I don't know, but we'll make sure that never happens again.

We'll make sure that doesn't happen.

But um hearing no objections, we will remove line item 1430, which is your line item 1428.

Thank you, Member Miller, for bringing that to my attention.

We are now on miscellaneous line item 1431 and uh member miller.

That is going to be the resolution continuing the immigration Detroit Immigration Task Force from um member Santiago Romero.

Is there um discussion or is there a recommendation to send this to um formal with the recommendation to approve?

Motion is in the formal recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to send line item 1431 to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

Last line item before members' report is line item 1432.

Um council member Callaway submitting a rem memorandum request for resolution reauthorizing the youth and civic engagement task force.

Um I'm going to um ask LPD what other steps we need to take in order to continue the authorization of the youth and civic engagement task force another year.

Uh Edward King LPD.

Uh madam chair.

Um we will have this uh item drafted prior to next week's formal session.

So what action do I take?

Just you can you can bring this item back in one week, however, we'll have it available prior to um next week's formal session.

Okay, is there a motion to bring line item 1432 back in one week?

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring line item 1432 back in a week.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that motion is approved.

We are now at members' reports.

Member Miller.

I have none, thank you.

Okay, negative report from member.

Member Benson.

All right, thank you very much.

Just want to say that this Monday will be Martin Luther King's Day, and my office will be hosting our second and we'll be hosting the second um Martin Luther King Day bike ride at the Charles H.

Wright Museum of African American History.

Registration starts at 9 a.m.

And this is part of the many activities at the Wright Museum host as a trustee.

Just really excited to have this be the second year that the bike ride has a new home, and we'll be starting from the Charles H.

Wright.

We have a number of partners this year.

We have Black Leaders Detroit, we have the 313 Cyclones, my office, the Wright Museum.

We also have the um Detroit Slow Roll as well as Detroit Police Department.

We will have an escort.

We expect about 50 writers.

Um we will depart at 10 a.m.

Registration is at 9 a.m.

There is a registration link on the rights web page on their day of activities.

And so if you're interested, please come out and join us.

It will be a cold one, so please put on your proper riding gear as well.

But this is a great opportunity.

It's 9.7 mile ride.

We're going to have cookies, hot cocoa, and coffee from a local uh bakery as well, provided by Black Leaders Detroit for the ride.

We do this every year.

Come on out and have a good time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Benson.

I just want to again wish my Sorors, members of the oldest sorority in the country, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, founded on January 15th in 1908 on the campus of Howard University.

We'll be celebrating our 118th Founders' Day tomorrow.

And so I want to say congratulations to all my Sore Wars.

I initiated at Mew Pie on Spelman's campus and soon to be a golden source war.

And then also tomorrow is the official birthday of Martin Luther King, who is my Morehouse brother.

He was assassinated in 1968 on April the 4th.

His birthday is January 15th, 1929.

Had he not been assassinated, if he was here with us today, he'd be 97 years old.

I know he's a member of your fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha.

I'll get that out there before you do, Member Benson.

But I had the pleasure of having Martin Luther King's.

This is my members' report, Martin Luther King's sister, Christine King Ferris as my professor at Spelman College, where she graduated from, her mother graduated from.

And I had the opportunity to go.

I was at Spelman when King's youngest son, Dexter, was at Morehouse.

So I have fond memories of the King family, and um it's always a delight for me to go down to Atlanta and see where he grew up and see that whole area on Auburn Avenue.

So thank you.

And if he were here, it would be his 97th birthday.

So that being said, any other discussion from my colleagues?

Um happy Founders Day.

One day early, and I have five diamonds of your sorores in my family.

It's FYI.

Absolutely.

Member Mill, I've been informed that I should always have something to say.

I will say to you that I do, I still do not have the proper communications to be effective.

I do, I don't have an office yet.

I have not received a telephone to conduct business with my constituents, but we are going off my personal sale, which I've been advised not to do for several reasons, but I am attempting to make contact in spite of that.

I will say that um I want to give a shout out to Delta Sigma Theta.

I know it is Founders Day, and my daughter told me yesterday.

How dare I not mention it?

She is the first vice chair of the Detroit DSC chapter, and they are great supporters and are amazing advocates in the city of Detroit.

So shout out to Del Sigma Theta when they're a founder's yeah.

And um I just want to say I am available through our office.

Our our messages are being taken by someone else.

There was about 78 messages left in the queue since December.

So we are actually gotten those by hand and we're trying to disseminate those.

So please be patient with our office.

We are trying to get up and running.

Um if there's any questions and anyone here in the audience who would like to talk to us afterwards, we are here.

And I look forward to the events this weekend.

I know that there's a lot going on in the city of Detroit.

People have called me and invited me to various events, and I look forward to coming back with some amazing reports next year, especially from the auto industry.

Um, I know we're they're launching a lot of new things uh that might help our residents as far as fuel economy and those type of cars.

So I look forward to actually having some reports to give to you all.

Um, you have wonderful um week.

If I have if I don't talk to anyone in the next few days regarding iOS, and I'm glad to uh share this committee, my first committee, my morning committee, and you two are an energetic.

Uh you all you're on point, and I look forward to being groomed by both of you if I could be as an even more effective online and in person.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

There's nothing, nothing else.

Okay, so here's hit the gavel.

This committee of the uh standing committee of internal operation has been adjourned.

It's long one today because of the interviews.