President.

Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

Present.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Nana Miller here.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

President.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Council President Pro Tim Colme Young the second.

Council President James State.

Here.

Mr.

President, you have a quorum president.

Thank you so much.

Media Service, we could please get a little bit more value on the clerk's mic.

Help them, please.

Will we please note that we've been joined by Member Kellewar?

So note, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

We will now begin the collection of public comments, commenters who would like to speak before the body this morning, both in person as well as online.

So note it, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Today, providing this morning's invocation, we have none other than Dr.

Ben Clayton Jr.

of Pure in Heart Word, excuse me, Pure in Heart Missionary Baptist Church, located at 3411 Hopham Street in District 5.

Dr.

Clayton, if you please come forward.

And the floor is yours, sir.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Good morning, sir.

Let us pray.

Gracious God, we pause at the beginning of this city council session on this day, January 27, 2026.

First, to acknowledge you and to welcome you and to lift up this city council, these leaders, and this city that we so dearly love, Detroit.

Dear God, grant clarity today, calmness of spirit, and the unitedness of purpose as they make decisions that will shape this city community, the neighborhoods, and its citizens' future.

Strengthen, dear God, the commitment to justice and fairness and the commitment to the common good.

Let the conversations in this place be respectful.

May they be intentional.

And may they be marked by integrity.

Even in disagreement, dear God, I pray purpose of bold and intention remain united for the advancement of this city.

God bless this meeting.

God bless these leaders and God bless the people they serve.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you so much, uh, Dr.

Clayton Jr.

You are more than welcome to stick around and hang out with us, but we certainly understand if you have other appointments as well.

But thank you again for joining us, sir.

Really appreciate it.

The journal of the session of Tuesday, January 13th, 2026, will be approved.

Uh, before we go forward, I wanted to uh invite the uh members of the administration to come forward.

Uh, they wanted to provide just a brief uh report on what is being done to address those who are in need during this cold weather that we have this very cold, dangerously cold weather.

Do we have these individuals?

Are they here yet?

Uh Mr.

Washington.

Yes, good morning to the chair and the body.

Um, Miss Lisner is actually headed upstairs.

She should be walking in the auditorium at just a moment.

Right on time.

Here she is.

Uh, Miss Lindsay, thank you for joining us.

Please, uh come on down.

Thank you so much.

I know this has been a very challenging situation for a number of our residents out uh in the city of Detroit.

We've had a number of uh school days that have uh been canceled.

I know they have a certain limit that they have, and they're gonna have to figure out uh how to get around the waiver system.

Um, but we as the city of Detroit have an obligation as well to help our residents and provide that safety net.

So if you can please provide to us information to the public on what is being done to address those who are most in need uh in terms of exposure of this very dangerously cold weather.

Uh good morning.

Uh to the chair.

So we are currently under a severe weather um health uh threat.

And so we have continued to activate our emergency shelter standby locations.

Those locations continue to operate until Sunday at noon.

We um the housing revitalization department along with the health department will meet later on this week to determine if we need to extend that activation past Sunday at noon.

And so, what that means for the public is that we will continue to have these emergency shelter beds, these standby shelter beds activated uh through all of this week to ensure that anyone who wants to come inside can have a safe place to um to sleep at night to be indoors, along with working with our recreations and libraries uh for how um for households that want to come indoors during the daytime hours.

And then we also have uh 24-hour outreach services available for households to get connected to those services.

They can call 866-313-252.

And again, that connection is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And then finally, households can also use police precincts as safe havens.

They can go to any police precinct, and the police officers there will help them get connected to these standby shelter beds as well.

So, Ms.

Lisner, if you can please, I know whenever we uh announce phone numbers, we want to slow down just a little bit because that's when people start pulling out their pins.

Sorry.

Repeat that phone number again for folks that may help.

86613 25, 20.

Okay.

24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And can you give us just an understanding of what the you know uh call has calls, what the participation has been thus far from our residents, uh, those who are reaching out, uh numbers uh that you can release thus far.

So in the afternoon and in the midnight evening hours, we're getting about 20 to 30 phone calls in those in those kind of evening and after hours.

And those phone calls can are a combination of households calling directly for assistance, but also households that are calling because they're concerned about neighbors that they're seeing outside and they want outreach to go out and check on those individuals.

And so it's a combination of both.

We also have DPD officers that are doing an amazing job of bringing individuals directly to our standby shelters, and so um, they're also a great um great way for households to get connected to those services.

Um and so they're dropping people off directly to our standby shelters as well.

And I know that uh we approved the contract for Michigan Mitten as well.

Yes.

Uh, talk to us a bit about what that uh activity has looked like on that particular vendor.

Absolutely.

And so that's the team that's responding to those 20 to 30 calls, 40 calls a night that is um going into the community, picking people up, providing rides for them.

If someone goes to a standby shelter and let's say they're a family and they go to NSO Bell building that's for single individuals, they'll arrange for the transportation for that household to get to a family site.

So all of the standby shelters, um, we've met um with everybody uh Motor City Mitt In Mission, the standby shelter locations.

So if anyone gets to capacity, they call that team and that team then takes that family, that individual to the other site that has um that has vacancy.

And so we're all working as a coordinated team to make sure that nobody is left in the cold.

Thank you.

Alex, any additional questions, comments?

Uh member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm not sure that this is for Miss Linsner.

Um, but I am interested in knowing if there are any resources for emergency uh assistance.

I've had a couple of residents reach out to me because their furnace or their boiler has gone out, and I know that happens during extreme uh temperatures.

I my family and I had an experience last Monday ourselves.

And so I'm just wondering if there are any emergency resources that can provide assistance to repair those items.

Uh to the chair, I am not sure off the top of my head, but I will find out and I can um bring this information back to this body.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Um Protonio.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, I just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for all the hard work that you're doing.

This is very important.

I just wanted to ask you a question about capacity.

Um if the places that people are going to, the shelters are at capacity, or is there anywhere else that you would direct them to be able to go?

To the chair.

We are monitoring capacity um every um every morning, every evening, we get those capacity numbers.

I have uh Motor City Mission is texting us in the evening hours as well, as well as the providers about capacity concerns.

And we're doing this, we're doing these multiple check-ins to ensure that we do have capacity.

If we do not, if we if we fill up, if all of our sites fill up, then we have been working with our and we would activate a recreation site um during this week.

And so we are um we've been coordinating with the recreation department to kind of have them be on standby as well because we are very much committed and we have we're very well aware that you know we're not gonna leave anyone in the cold.

So that is the backup plan to our backup plans, yeah, um, is to activate a rack a recreation center.

No, I I I I appreciate that because I'm sure you're aware of uh it was in the suburbs, a young lady who passed when it frozen death.

And so we want to make sure that doesn't happen here in the city.

But I also just want to ask you is the do you foresee maybe I need to talk to OCP about this, office contract and procurement, but do you foresee us having to engage in emergency contracts at all for us to be able to have the capacity necessary?

If if you know we can't put people in the recreational centers for whatever reason, and should we if should we act on that?

You know, is that something that we need to act on?

What's the timeline for that?

If if you know.

To the chair.

Yes.

So I there are there were two emergency procurements that we had to work with for OCP in order to stand up to additional um two additional sites uh last week.

So do you expect those to come before this body very soon?

Um, if we do have to stand up in a rec center, we would need to do additional emergency procurement to ensure that households' basic needs were met as those recreation centers would need to provide.

We would need to have contracts for food and other um items for basic needs that recreation centers simply do not have um at readily available.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Oh, thank you, um Chair Tate.

Um, and good morning.

Um, have we reached out to um our faith based organizations like our churches?

Um I visited a couple churches over the weekend, and it would be great if we could bring them into the circle into the fold in terms of using their spaces uh for possible temporary shelters.

Um I know that we had um contracts with them during COVID.

Um I know we have one with straight gate um um greater grace during COVID.

So I'm hoping that we are doing the same outreach to those churches as we did during COVID.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Well, member Waters.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just have a quick question.

Um, to your knowledge, to our knowledge, has there been any deaths as yet during this cold weather?

Uh to the chair.

Um, I am not aware of any of any deaths of individuals experiencing homelessness to the cold.

Um, but yeah, so I am not I am not directly aware to a member Callaway's question um as well.

So we have um talked to a few uh churches that um have expressed interest for this.

Um we uh there are some issues with staffing, having the proper staffing for that.

Um if there are additional churches that we should reach out to, please send them our way and we would love to have those conversations.

Thank you, colleagues.

Any additional questions from member Sandiago Romero?

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Good morning.

Uh two quick ones.

Um the first one is regarding rides.

Um, so we've heard that DPD provides rides as we did to shelters.

Uh, do we know if D uh D DOT is doing this or are there any other ride services that folks can access?

To the through the chair.

We have a uh contract with Checker CAB.

And so that is um, we would actually prefer instead of using police to provide the rides that we that we have checker cab provide the ride.

So we're not taking police officers offside of their main responsibilities.

Um and you will actually have a contract amendment to add additional funds for that coming before you relatively soon.

Um, and then outreach teams, besides using their vehicles, they will also use ride share um ride share uh um as well in order to help provide transportation through the chair to access the the ride share um through checkers, is it the same number that they should call the 866313 number?

It is through the chair.

Yes, it is.

So we want everybody to call 866 313 2520 so that outreach teams can talk with the household, problem solve with them, and then if they de transportation, they can then um figure out the best with best transportation system for them.

Checker cab has the ability for car seats, has the ability to kind of help how household.

So they're gonna figure figure out what works best for the family.

Um, and so we want everybody to just call the 866 number.

Okay, through the chair.

Understood.

We can do that.

And just a note, um, something for us to do now or in the future.

Um, I have many conversations with many people that want to help their business owners, they're they're you know, religious leaders, they have space, they have warehouses.

I I know a few that will welcome people in that they see outside into their spaces because it has heats, but to your points, there is that need for wraparound services.

Many folks are in need of mental health services or or um harm reduction or whatever the case may be.

Just the notes if it's possible that we have training, because I I believe it would be difficult for the city to work with someone that isn't an official social worker or healthcare worker, whatever the case may be.

But if we can train people, because people have resources and they want to open their doors and they want to do this for best practices on how to do that.

Because being here, I know there are lack of resources, but there are actually a lot of people, a lot of resources they want to help.

I think if we can provide them the training, the support, those connections, we can all be vigilants, all know where to send people and help each other out that way.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Um, member McCamp.

Thank you, Mr.

President, and good morning.

Um, through the chair.

I just a quick question on are there any cutoff times for any other emergency shelters or any of the shelters that are stood up.

Uh for the chair.

So no, people can walk into the standby shelters 24 hours a day.

So there is no cutoff time.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Servant.

Thank you so much.

Alex, any additional?

Ms.

Linzer, if you can uh hit that number one more time, please, folks.

Yes.

The number to call is 86613 2520.

And you brought up something very important.

It's not just for those who are in need, but also if you know of someone who's in need as well.

Absolutely.

You can call about a loved one, a neighbor, a friend that is experiencing homelessness.

Um the number is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Do you want to note that if you are concerned about someone's welfare and you need a welfare check to please call 911 and to ask for a welfare check as our outreach teams are not able to provide any type of medical services?

Um, so I just wanted to note that one difference.

Thank you.

Um there are being no thank you so much.

So we appreciate the presentation.

There being no reconsiderations of our unfinished business, we will proceed to the budget finance and audit standing committee.

Madam Clerk.

The middle of the of a memorandum.

The memorandum will be referred to the budget finance and audit standing committee.

We also close, uh we'll now close public comment.

The collection of public comments are now closed.

For the for the internal operations standing committee, Mr.

Chair discussion.

Oh, I apologize.

Uh, member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Um, line of 7.1 should be referred to the internal operations standing committee.

While the narrative or the subject is a bond, it's really about the rules of the road for the library to issue a bond, not for the city of Detroit.

So that really should go to the internal operations standing committee.

Okay.

Um, Madam Clerk, if you please note that this item will be referred to the uh internal operations standing committee.

If there's any issues, we'll rectify that afterwards.

So no to Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Uh for the internal operations standing committee.

Seven reports from various city departments.

Seven reports will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the neighborhood and community services standing committee.

Four reports from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Seven reports from various city departments.

Seven reports will be referred to the planning and economic development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee.

Eight reports from various city departments.

The eight reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee.

We will now move to the voting action matters under other matters.

There are no items, Mr.

President.

Under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies.

There are no items, Mr.

President.

All right.

Thank you so much.

We will now call for public comment.

I need my cards to see how many folks we have.

21.

Okay.

We're going to uh provide everyone a minute and a half of public comment today.

We're gonna start uh in the committee of the whole uh with Mr.

with Brother Cunningham in the uh auditorium, brother Cunningham.

Okay he's out in the back.

All right, we'll go to our next individual, Kamal Clark.

Oh dang the mic is on.

Okay, the floor is yours.

Hey, how y'all doing?

Um, uh representative of Gingerroot, which is the black male leadership team at We the People Action Fund, also a resident of District 4.

I wanted to start with just a couple gratitudes, and then I wanted to get to the bit.

So um one, I want to express gratitude for council member Johnson um for the meeting last night.

I was having a little bit of property tax issues, so it's really great to kind of get things worked out and get some support.

Um, a gratitude to councilmember Gabby as well for the breakdown on just city budget and how it works, and then last day gratitude to um Councilman Tate's team for attending our meeting last week, last Tuesday at Paige's bookshop.

So just wanted to express some gratitude there.

Um to get to the point because I know I have a lot of time.

Um, so like I said, I represent our black male leadership team at We The People Action Fund, um, which is organizing black men ages 18 to 35 to be a part of a multiracial democracy.

Um, something that's really important to our team is mental health and public safety, and there's kind of a wide array of like small kind of initiatives and some bigger initiatives, the city level around mental health, but we're really noticing a challenge in creating a pipeline for younger black men to actually access the mental health resources that are here.

So both knowledge and then also to the actual outreach and recruitment and people on the ground to do it, which we've kind of been doing.

Um, so just requesting two things um from council one.

I would love to meet with council members about ways to kind of build a better pipeline to DUN for our young people and to I would love to extend an invitation actually to a town hall that we're gonna be hosting at uh developing kids in district one, which is which will be February 17th.

Um, it's our young adult town hall, so it's an opportunity for people ages 18 to 35 who generally don't come down here and and you know speak to council to actually have a space um to talk to folks.

So I do want to extend that invite and I'm happy to speak with anyone.

Um you're the first speaker.

I I was under the impression we have more cards than we actually do.

So don't worry, everyone two minutes today.

Everyone, two minutes.

Well, I think I said all the third.

Well, yeah, I just want to give the the 30 seconds all.

And you may proceed, sir.

Yeah, so I just want to get the guess.

So, like I said, the February 17th at developing kids at 6:30.

Um, dinner will be provided.

Um, but if there are young folks in your district um that really kind of need a space and maybe they feel a little bit kind of nervous coming down here so far or being in spaces where maybe they might get drowned out.

I do want to extend the invitation as well.

Um, but yeah, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker, brother Cunningham.

Oh, I'm sorry, if you had uh before you before you go forward, Mr.

Clark, uh member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President and Mr.

Clark.

Thank you so much for coming down.

Thank you for being at the meeting yesterday evening.

Um, me seeing you here in your engagement um just speaks to how uh families how parents can get their children involved and active.

I remember being um closely connected to your dad, uh working in the community, and so it's really great to see you doing the work that you're doing in the community.

My team member Yolanda Jackson is going to connect with you just to make sure we have one another's contact information.

We'll get the 17th put on the calendar and would love to stay connected with you.

So certainly appreciate the work that you're doing.

I totally appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Uh member Santiago Bell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you two, Kamal.

Good morning.

Just briefly, can we repeat the time on the 7th?

6:30, seven February 17th at Developing Kids.

Okay.

That just wanna make a flag.

We do have an evening community meeting that night.

No, seven, um, at seven o'clock.

But if we can get there early, we'll come say hi, have some food, talk to folks before we run over.

But thank you for coming down.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Brother Cunningham.

Good morning, everyone.

313, 444.

313, 444, 9114, 313, 44494.

Tonight, Transitation Riders United is having the state of transit.

And so they got me uh shuttling from the bus stop to the building.

Because it's very cold, and not everybody's driving.

So those that do take the bus and attend.

You don't have to do that long, John from the stop in Wyoming and stop on uh McNichols to the door.

Um it's the biggest day in transit.

And you can do it on Zoom too, just to look in.

Um, or there's five dollar tickets for those who are low income, fixed income.

I I even qualify for that.

Um, so I'll be volunteering there tonight.

Please excuse my horse voice.

I don't know why.

Um, but if you can, transportation riders, you're nine it.

Um, the state of transit tonight, everything transit.

Um, so this is the night to come to to be a part.

I'm still in either hand warmers, gloves, bus tickets at the bus stops.

I done went through so many cases of hand warmers.

So many cases.

And I think everyone on council gave me some hand warmers and some bus tickets.

So I appreciate each one of you, and I thank you for your kindness.

Um if you want to find me on Facebook, put in 313-444-9114.

If you want to send a cash app to purchase bus tickets, 313, 444, 9114.

Or if you like to leave a positive message, and I call them holy handshakes.

This is what we used to call call it like at church.

I was from there's shake your hand and there's money in it.

And so that's what someone did for birthday, a birthday gift.

It's appreciated.

Thanks for that holy handshake.

Um everybody take care and be warm.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate all the work you do.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Mr.

Irvin Morrow, followed by Fidel L.

Morning, Council.

Good morning.

Oh, thank you.

Um, recently, um journalist Challenge Jeff released a video.

And uh Ramon Jackson released a video, and food has some words to speak out, right?

And the video once again pulled back the curtain on what many Detroiters already feel in their bones that corruption, back row back room dealings and a lack of accountability continue to play Detroit politics from the mayor's office to the city council for decades.

Detroit packed taxpayers have been told to be patient.

We told prosperity is coming, yet billions of our tax dollars are being routinely redirected into rebuilding, not into rebuilding neighborhoods, not into the inner city schools, not into black and detroit-based businesses, but into massive billionaire developers and the powerful families.

Let me be clear.

This is not about anti-business, this is about fairness.

This is about priorities.

This is about a political system that too often rewards influence instead of impact for our citizens, right?

Meanwhile, entire neighborhoods remain neglected, street lights don't work, homes are abandoned, youth programs are underfunded, and the people who actually live here are left asking.

When do we get our fair shake?

85% of Detroit voters don't vote, they're not even involved in politics.

They're silence, right?

And they it's like we are here to wake people up to re-engage our citizens and to say this is clearly if this corruption continues, accountability must follow.

Detroit doesn't need more excuses.

We don't we need transparency, we need equity.

And I say this because it's like when I ran years ago, and they was talking about building the stadiums and everything, and they were talking about the jobs that they were going to provide, like young lady Miss Johnson said, the jobs they provide.

It's not enough to substantially take care of a family.

You follow me in this.

Thank you guys.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker for the L.

Well, Adam Barrett.

Well, that's simple.

Er, you just gotta realize when people just don't like it.

Because if they like you, they'll give you those contracts, especially when you're the majority.

I was gonna ask the pastor while he's doing all this praying for y'all, how much is his water drain off fee on this church?

But as you can see, he don't care less about what's going on in the city.

He just cares about keeping y'all from taking this church through that water drain off free.

Again, you talk about homeless.

Majority of people that's homeless in the city of Detroit is majority of the people that look like y'all.

The majority of the people that y'all don't give these contracts to.

You guys from this Martin Luther King civil civil right movement.

Well, what's up with those contracts?

Y'all do everything to go against what Martin Luther King says.

Everything.

And I can understand what Mary is doing because she don't never speak up for no black people in her districts ever.

And I got one that y'all got y'all can't get off.

What about the dirty dirt?

That's right.

Y'all co-worker, y'all ex-coworker, Mary Sheffield and Brian Kenn.

Y'all care so much about the kids, the women, and the community.

What y'all gonna do about the dirty dirt?

Who gonna get it up?

Explain to me, who gonna get it up?

Detroit residents.

We can't do this by ourselves.

We need y'all down here.

I know they they corrupt and they ignorant and they rude, but they had this meeting at 10 a.m.

when they know most people are working these low-level jobs.

Y'all can't get here, but we need y'all here and to the world.

Again, welcome to the most ignorance, corrupt, low life devil, cheated in, city council of all, James Takes and the Detroit City Council.

My man, appreciate you.

But we got to make sure that clock is working, team.

Two minutes, please.

Okay.

Yeah, Adam Barrett, uh Detroit District Tax Justice Moratorium Now Coalition.

Um just want to remind council that I'm still calling for the removal of flock cameras from our streets.

Um, just saw another brand new pair of them on fireman, which I patrol regularly um at Wisconsin Street.

There's two of them facing each other, not a hundred feet apart in an area that's purely residential and has been a hot spot for abductions by ice.

Um, there's another one at Joy Road in Northfield, another purely residential area.

Tell me that's not ice related.

Uh, these are these are quickly set up to monitor movements in real time in areas that they want to target specific victims in according to their you know AIA algorithm or whatever they got.

Um this is not to monitor, you know, MDOT freeways for safety.

Uh that's all I'll say about that for now.

Anyways, back to Conrad Mallet.

Um, I didn't like him the first time he was served up, so I sure don't want him as microwave leftovers.

Um, for all the reasons I mentioned on Friday, please do not reinstate this man.

Um also want to support the shutoff moratorium mentioned in agenda item 11.7 by member Callaway.

Thanks.

Next speaker, I don't may have mispronounced it out.

Yeah, thank you.

Good morning, counsel.

My name is Kyle Kentela, and I'm a district uh three member, 15-year district two member.

We just moved over, and I'm here to discuss uh the lack of accountability and action from the Detroit Animal Control.

Uh, I've been a member of that community for 15 years, and obviously right now we're talking about this uh the this bitter cold spell at minus 15 to minus 20 degree windshield.

We have dogs in our neighborhood that are still chained 24-7, which is illegal in our city.

It is never enforced.

These uh these neighbors do not get ticketed, the tickets get thrown out in court.

We don't see uh animal control for weeks after reporting.

I just had my neighborhood meeting last night, and we have multiple neighbors who have called on multiple instances.

Um, I personally have been attacked by a dog violently in my neighborhood.

I had to go to the hospital.

My dog um had severe injuries.

Uh DAC ticketed that neighbor, and then weeks later, um, that neighbor had another dog that was equally as um as violent.

Uh, I could go on and on about kids that have been killed by dogs, uh elderly that have been attacked by dogs, and the lack of accountability that the DACC has um had over these years is really affecting our neighborhood safety, and it's really affecting um the quality of life that our neighborhoods have.

Uh, but right now, in this week and in this past month, to me, it's even more um apparent that there are citizens of Detroit that don't care about these animals.

Um, and they don't have a say.

So, so I would really like to see that the animal control uh be stepped up in their ability to serve our community, whether that's more funding, whether that's better uh employees and staff, that would be amazing.

Uh, and that's all I have to say today.

So, thank you so much for hearing me out.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Betty Lyons.

Followed by Josh Mayor.

Okay, over 600 million dollars in overpaid property taxes belonging to Detroit residents, stolen, hid by dougan, and uh none of you have the integrity to uh bring justice for the Detroit people.

Yes, Trump is right to hunt down these illegal border jumpers, the gang, the cartels, the Muslims, the Mexicans, the fake Jews.

Yes, he has the right to get rid of them because they've taken from the blacks enough.

They come and eat up everything and then complain and want us to even fight their back battle.

That's crazy, they're crazy.

Black slaves, free labor for hundreds of years, raped the girls and the boys, castrated the boys, separated the families, did research without anesthesia.

Fake Jews came over here in this country, put them and others, foreigners, in front of the black people, and built this country.

Yes, we must remember Johnny Cochran, Emmett Till, Lianteen Price, all the beautiful black people, free labor.

Can you imagine?

Even education, we were denied.

We were denied property because we were the property.

We denied education again.

We were the property, and I will repeat that because that is so fair, and you have that same mentality today.

We were considered three-fifths of a man, not even a whole man.

So they've got a lot to pay for us.

They all thank you so much.

Next speaker, Mr.

Josh Man.

Followed by Charles Miles.

Good morning, counsel.

Um I'm hoping uh we can see the snowball rolling to get these flock cameras out of here.

Everyone up there is more intelligent than me, and I know you can see it's bad for our city and the future.

Even our police officers are soon going to be replaced by these cameras because they're gonna do everything.

These need to be removed.

I don't know if we have to come back every week and repeat ourselves or bring 30 of my friends every week to plug up the line and drop our time.

You see, people come in with their group of 20 friends, repeat the same thing.

I don't want to do that.

Um, so hopefully you're figuring out some way to get this out of here.

Miss Miller, I'm hoping that uh we're coming to a resolution on the southbound lodge exit at Chicago Boulevard to protect my house.

Also moving into the spring and summer, uh drifting, drag racing, motorbike four-wheeler takeovers is going to be a problem again.

So creating a safe space in the city, a designated mixed-use motorsports area is important.

People have been going to French Road drag racing since the early 70s, 50 years later, it's still there, and we're creating criminals out of people that have no legal option.

Same as graffiti did when Duggan came in and created felonies for all graffites raiding houses.

These are simple things that can be addressed by offering space, creating legal opportunity and option where if you have no option, you're gonna choose the illegal way.

Motors motor city has no motor sports, we have no motor, anything besides the auto show, and this can be sanctioned, done safely, and capitalized on, and turned into something positive for our city.

The amount of talented dirt bike riders we have here, drifters, drag racers, should be celebrated and put on display instead of incarcerated and penalized.

So hopefully we can come to some sort of resolution.

Thank you so much.

We'd love to receive uh any uh proposal that you have in terms of a location and also funding because all of that costs.

We always got to keep that in mind with uh Benson's okay or try to put it over there.

Well to let you know that that would help us.

Yeah, certain member Miller.

Hello, gosh, Mr.

Mayor.

Hello, I just want to say we are addressing your issue.

Uh, please know that Boston Edison, the association is also speaking out regarding your behalf.

No one should have their house continue to be hit by cars exiting the freeway.

And we are looking for a resolution, and our staff is here, they've already spoken.

Um, they'll address you before you leave so we can let you know where we are in the talks.

You're welcome.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Charles Miles, followed by Ruben James Crowley Vendor.

Well, come today.

I've been coming here for years, trying to get some resolution, and now I still have the same situation which it just keeps getting worse.

Uh you know, about the property.

I'm sure that new people here don't know, but I got two properties that's uh actually uh the city of Detroit allowed uh foreclosure to move forward while the case was still in court, and they denied to do anything about it and fixed the problem where I've been campaigning and coming down here and giving you the receipts.

I've given it to uh Young's office, Mary Waters' office, uh well, District 7, uh Santiago Romero's office.

All you guys had copies of these receipts where the payments were misupplied by the city of Detroit.

I have this receipts again to show you the same receipts from 2017 that you misapplied the payments on my properties and created a foreclosure, and you did nothing about it to fix it.

It's still in your system today, as we speak, as I speak right now, in your system, right downstairs on the first floor.

You still got this payment that I made in full, misapplied as a partial payment in your system.

Now you're being so dirty right now, you're being so dirty, the city of Detroit.

And I went down there yesterday, and I have witnesses here that was standing there with me.

This place is recorded, so you do know about this.

You wouldn't even give me a copy of my payment history, my payment receipt, which I already have it.

I just wanted to verify, which I verified last month, that it's still on there, and I just wanted to verify it again.

Thank you so much, Mr.

And I need somebody to do something about it.

Mr.

Miles, I got someone from my team will get you information.

Sounds like you talked to a number of my colleagues.

We are not aware of your situation.

We don't know if we're gonna be able to give you exactly what you want, but we're gonna be able to get your response, though.

Uh, someone from my team will be able to uh connect.

Why not?

Why you can't give them what he wants, he paid 1,55.

The candidate's time, please.

Yeah, go ahead, but give my time you cheating in president of the Detroit City Council, and you too.

Angelo Phil Calloway Peter in over there, and Scott Bince, you know you cheated in and Letitia Johnson.

One for three three spring guy, you still ain't viewed the house with 85, 90 percent done.

You ain't came to see it, Gabriella Santiago Romero.

I'm a district six resident now.

District six, your district, you cheated in liar and call me.

Got big reference for your dad, but you cheated in too.

And Mary, you cheated in too absentee by the five.

Now I gave the information at number 47.

The president of the United States of America.

I got it sent to him by somebody I don't know.

Now, JZ Tate Jr., you called Kamisha's mother twice in 23.

You should have GD did that.

Now I'm about to turn the whole city side down.

I turned it upside down last week.

Now I'm about to make it shake.

Operation make sugar honey ice tea shake is in full effect, and I ain't no liar.

I got a 45-year reputation in and around Detroit of being stand-up 100, and then ain't none of them take that from me.

Did you hear that, Jan Z Tate Jr.?

I'm the real deal.

Names you gave me, player with my name.

About to find out.

I'm gonna do it to you right in front of your face in district one.

President of the Detroit City Council, you can smoke D.

Got four seconds left.

Okay.

Thank you.

Mr.

Jadante Smith, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes.

General public comments.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I just want to give a uh I don't know if you call it through the chair through Council President.

I want to give a shout-out to uh David Whitaker.

I told him I saw him a couple days ago and let him know he was never 10 years ago expected to see me down here every day dressed so nicely eloquently, fighting for the people, not for the elitist in Detroit.

I want to start off by talking about Conrad Mallet.

321, there was a budget hearing um with all a lot of the council members who are still here talking about different things.

Miss Angela Wilfield Calloway, you grilled Conrad Mallet about the foyas in the lawsuits that we have 55,000 resulting from uh Gross Point Storage Company who's late on the foyer.

Uh Councilman Tate, you talked about the elongated contract process with outside council and the fact that we are spending more money and not getting the results at the at the right amount of time.

Also, uh Ms.

Johnson, uh Councilmember Johnson, you talked about the fact that um we are spending a lot of money from our fund of lawsuits regarding from D dot and uh DPD.

There was not a lot of questions asking about that.

Um Miss Santa Romero, you talked about uh the situation with ice and outside outside law enforcement.

I just want to kind of remind you guys that some of the things you asked the law department about, um, and that was not not done.

So Conrad Mallet does not need to be reappointed.

Um, also James Tandler has a petition I would like you guys to look at.

Also, I will be assisting Mr.

Perry Jenkins, Prairie Columbus Jenkins with his land bank issue, and I still would like to meet with you, Councilmember Johnson.

I also want to give a shout out to uh well, not a shot.

I wanted to say uh D5, we do not support the Bosa Family Center development or the Packer Plant development.

I like to look into the Packer plant development um and what's what's going on with that and the developers and uh what kind of community outreach was done with that.

Um so many issues we have across the city.

So many people come down here week in, week out.

We have the same issues, and we we get very little support for these issues.

Um it's very sad to have this this type of uh response back.

But if we have if we have to have a hundred people come down here and talk about Mr.

Mallet and all the issues, I'm gonna find I'm gonna scrub through every city council video and all the all the complaints, even with Miss Madam Mayor talking about how she didn't want uh the prosecutor of power to go to Conrad Mallet.

I'm gonna make sure it happens.

Also, Scott Benson, I do have the line slightly continuous.

Can you a final in-person speaker is Michael Zubas?

Michael Zubas.

Mr.

Zubas.

Good morning.

All right, I apologize.

Just give me one second to pop up my notebook thing because I got this all written down.

Okay.

Um, I'll let the the documents be bruised, or should I begin now?

You can begin now.

Okay.

Hello, esteemed council members of the city of Detroit.

I come before you on this day to discuss the future plans of Gratit Avenue.

I mean street, or is it a road?

To be honest, that's the real problem with Gratchett.

It's a road, a street and a road at the same time, which has led to many issues, the main one being fatal accidents.

The problem is Detroit has a grid-based network system, and Gratchett basically cuts through the grid like a reverse mohawk, making for difficult left turns and large gaps from many residents, leading to these unfortunate incidents.

So the solution is to turn every single intersection up and down Grasshaet from I-75 exit up to eight mile into some of the many forms of roundabouts that exist, eliminating the turn signals.

We would still need to put a divider along the middle to prevent left turns using the roundabouts for the left and U-turns.

Where most as most of the fatal actions involve left turns.

This would keep traffic flowing.

It's controlling traffic has gotten out of control.

And roundabouts are cheaper than a traffic light, can't be run through like a red light, and have yield signs instead of a full stop.

When you're in one, you just make sure there's no one's to the left of you, go and hope no one to the right cuts you off.

An issue with roundabouts like avenues is that Grand Boulevard outer drive aren't really as compatible.

So what's best used is a peanut roundabout.

So just imagine putting a peanut shell and trace around it and you have your roundabout with the longer part going up and down grass it so the traffic can flow easier that way.

So for example, you build a roundabout on Connor and Grasshit, and then a peanut roundabout on outer drive, and then a regular route about on Connor and uh outer drive, which that and on Gunston as well, which turns that all into a roundabout cluster, which it made left turns.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh member jobs.

Thank you, Mr.

President, sir.

Oh Mr.

Zuboss.

Uh, you named a lot of district four streets, so I'm not sure if you are a resident of district four, but yesterday evening, just wanted to share with you yesterday evening at our monthly community meeting.

We did ask for the Department of Public Works to um do a presentation about complete streets.

They did speak about the grant that the city has received for Gratchett Avenue.

My team member will get your contact information so we can connect you to the Department of Public Works, and you can provide your suggestions to them as they're looking at uh redoing Grashet to address the um faith.

The challenges that we've had on Gratchett.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Mrs.

Spinning around in circles now.

I feel like I'm in the roundabout now.

Member Calloway.

Thank you.

Um my district does not um cover Grashet, but I listened intently to what you were saying.

And um it makes a lot of sense.

Yes, it does.

Yes.

I let me finish with the peanut and then the roundabout.

It makes so much sense.

And I appreciate this.

You've done the work.

So I'm hoping Mr.

Brunditch is listening, because we have about 10 folks who hold HB1 visas working throughout our city.

I'm hoping he heard what you said.

Come on, and maybe have you be a consultant.

I don't know.

Because this sure makes a lot of sense.

We don't have to go to India.

We don't have to go to Nigeria.

We have that skill set right here.

You are the best.

Well, here I am.

So um I hope he's I'm hoping he's listening.

I'm hoping I can get your number um from Peter if you can grab his number.

Because what you're saying, sir, I followed along and I understood exactly what you were saying.

And I could imagine what you were saying working on Grassha.

We know Grassha is problematic, it's been problematic for a long time, regardless of whose district it is, it's in our city.

And um, so I definitely support what you were saying, and I'm hoping that DPD was DPW was listening because it makes a whole lot of sense.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I appreciate your commentary member Cowell.

Actually, Mr.

Zubas, you got one more.

You got one more.

This is popular.

Thank you very much.

This is what happens when you actually come down here.

We we listen.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate that.

I'm gonna try I try not to just come up with the problem.

We're gonna give them this one.

We're gonna give members.

Hold on one second.

Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Uh thank you for coming this morning as well.

And so Grasshet has been a long issue within the city of Detroit.

And as you know, this is a state road.

So we do not, as a city, have jurisdiction over Grasshet.

But as my colleague indicated, we have received a grant to try to make Grasshet a safer corridor.

And MDOT is well aware of the challenges.

We've had the conversations with DPW regarding traffic circles when the challenges there.

Number one, it is a state road.

Number two, is that traffic circles along a right-of-way of this width require a huge amount of private property as well, which makes them at many times just they they're they're not feasible based on the cost to implement a solution of that nature.

And so what they're looking at is traffic on, we're looking at boulevarding.

If you see what Grashet does just north of eight mile, and what East Point has done to reduce the amount of traffic and to calm that traffic would be something that they're talking about now.

You saw DPW implemented its own easy solution, which was to paint parking lanes along Grashet south of seven mile, which is also helped to reduce the traffic because people use that right lane for this right lane as a two-lane when it's really one lane with the parking lane.

And so you've seen the city is addressing this in the ways that we can, and it does take time to implement these type of solutions, but some are just off the table based on their cost and feasibility implement.

But thank you for identifying this issue.

I agree.

If I may say something about that, we'll give you a chance to say something offline, but I got one more council member.

One more copy.

And then Mr.

Kenlow, I just wanted to throw the chair.

I just wanted to understood correctly.

You're saying you would like to see uh number four McCurds on Grass.

I'm just asking on Grass.

Mr.

Zubas, Mr.

Zubas, on Grash.

You said you like to see this on Grass.

Yeah.

I lived on in off Grasshaw my entire life.

Yeah.

You would have to make it.

I just wanted to make sure that I was understanding you correctly before we do our own investigation because I've lived in this area for over 50 years, and I know the congestion this would cause on Grasshead.

Yes.

I just want to make sure that was thank you.

I apologize.

That was actually no worries.

Two ideas, and I knew I only had time for one.

Mr.

Zubas, our final colleague that's going to address you, and all the rest of the comments can happen offline.

This phone number is available.

Everybody wants to reach out to them.

Member Callaway, the floor is yours.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I found myself and my um and the member at large number one waters clean up trash and debris and tires off property or off um service drives that were governed by the state of Michigan.

That job is now the city's responsibility, and we have entered an agreement with them, and they are paying us to clean up um the areas around Wyoming and those service drives around the lodge freeway.

So sometimes we don't get things done because well is the state's responsibility, but this is where we live, and it's our people who are being killed in car accidents along Grassha, and they have been being killed, if that makes sense for a very long time for many, many years.

So sometimes we cannot wait for the state to take action.

We, as city residents, have to take actions to save lives.

So we cannot ask what can the state do for us.

Is we have to ask what can we do for ourselves.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs.

Uh Zubas.

We appreciate you coming down.

Now transition to our online public comments.

We have 20 in the queue.

Uh Mr.

Woodfield, who's our first caller?

This caller is number ending in one nine one six nine.

Excuse me.

Caller ended in one six nine.

The floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Um, hello, can you guys hear me?

Yes, sir.

Okay, great.

I just want to say thank you for praying for Brother Cunningham, and thank you for my time.

Okay, thank you so much.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is a warner.

Okay, caller, the floor is yours.

We have two minutes.

General public comment.

Uh, good morning to all, but then the sound of my voice.

This is Betty A.

Varner, president of DeSoda Elsewhere Black Association, and we're advocating for our neighborhood.

We have purchased uh three additional vacant lots to expand our park that we have created, and we are going to be in need.

Well, we are in need of help in clearing the land.

There is uh bushes uh that grew up to be like little small trees.

There are stumps, and we are looking for help.

Uh someone with equipment that can come up, come and help us clear the land when the weather breaks.

We want to get the land ready for our motor city makeover so we can clean it up so we can have it uh ready when we start having our events.

We also are still uh advocating for our think of corridor.

We want to bring our corridor back to life.

Um with the last uh administration, we were fortunate to have some uh positive meetings, good ideas, but there was no money.

So we're asking for help for our Fink Accorder.

We want the same attention and monies to be spent in our area that has been spent Avenue of Fashion, uh Magnicolis and Livernoise, Warren, uh Mexican town, and this is good for our city, but we want to be able to go and shop and spend our monies in our immediate area.

We don't even have a supermarket in our immediate area.

We have people here who don't have transportation.

We need a working thinker corridor.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Darren Mulleske.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes.

General public comment.

Good morning, council.

Um, Miss Verner, I've just run a requested you on Facebook.

I do have a tractor, and I can help with that land clearing.

She responds.

My request.

Um, did I just hear it right that when a roundabout was presented, someone responded and said that that would require taking private property as a reason to not do something?

That seems very strange to me.

Um, because as you guys know, the city's taking hundreds of properties for solar farms.

My question is, what's the latest?

There have been no additional lawsuits since October.

Just the Brightmore lawsuit for a water project.

Um, it's Dugan's Pet project.

Will it continue?

I reviewed the MrSky memo.

Um, that was the response to Angel Whitfield Callaway's questions, and Duggan stated DT and Lights are will pay property taxes.

How can they pay property taxes on a city owned parcel that was only taken because it's owned by the city, but it's leased to a private corporation that pays property taxes after eminent domain?

Um, in my opinion, this has been a one-to-punch.

You guys made community support by paying people off, and then you guys use that as justification for taking other people's property, but then you did the use restrictions that notified everyone in the neighborhood that they had to give something up.

If you guys would have done that at the same time, there would have been a revolt and the project wouldn't have happened.

So you guys definitely perfected that one-to punch.

Now, when it comes to counter and mouth, I had a lot to say last week.

Um, my biggest question is overall, why did he step down from the Supreme Court?

Hand it over to a conservative who reversed pole town, Robert Young.

There was a Republican in his place until 2019.

Oh, yeah, it was to make money at the DMC under Duggan.

And why in 2022 was his name originally withdrawn by the city council, and now you guys are considering that's called caller is Frank Hammer.

Frank Hammer, the pool drawer is general public comment.

Frank Hammer, are you there?

Uh, this is Karen Hammer.

Frank Hammer is going to speak from a different computer.

Good morning.

Uh, please update council contact information on the website so we can communicate.

I'm going to speak on budget priorities for council.

One, reduce the city's poverty rate, which is one third the population.

Empower citizens as contributing assets for the city's long-term growth and stability.

Include issues such as very low-income housing, union jobs, and union organizing for livable wages, and fair assessment for property taxes.

Two, focus money on community relations with police, de-emphasize facial recognition, drones, shot spotter, surveillance cameras, war equipment from the military.

I suggest the book Cop Agenda by Alec Kaye, which exposed how violent crime has gone down the last five years, and how immigrants are less likely to commit violent crimes.

He also exposes how the media goes along with the propaganda from the police state.

Three public transit increase monies so that it is viable for seniors, youth, disabled, and non-car owners, which comprise a third of Detroit.

I appreciate the work that the new council has set about, but budget priorities can mean de-emphasizing spending money in one spot and emphasizing spending money in another.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

This is Frank Hammer.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning.

Glad to be with you in the city council meeting.

We're we're there's been a lot of public comment about the extreme cold temperatures we're experiencing.

January is normally about 30 degrees, 32 degrees average with an overnight of 20.

We're living in temperatures 20, 30 degrees below normal.

No one is talking about why.

Why isn't council serving a residents by devoting time to educating Detroiters?

We know that the corporate media won't do it.

Linked as they are to the fossil fuel industry.

How many of you can explain right now about the polar vortex?

Climate change is driven by the rapid Arctic warming.

This is from uh you know, all you have to do is Google it.

It's believed to weaken and destabilize the polar vortex by reducing the temperature difference between the pole and places like Michigan, causing the vortex to stretch or split.

This disruption allows frigid Arctic air to spill spill southward, resulting in more frequent severe winter weather events like we're experiencing here in Michigan.

As of January 2026, Detroit and the broader Great Lakes region are experiencing a severe winter blast driven by uh the the polar vortex while overall winters in Michigan are warming.

Climate change is increasingly linked to these erratic high intensity cold events.

Rapid Arctic warming, largely caused by greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, weakens the atmospheric fence that normally traps cold air at the pole, allowing it to spill southward.

You can start educating Detroiters by replacing the city council in vacation and inviting scientists to spend time with the city explaining why next caller, please.

Next caller is James Chandler.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Good afternoon, Council President, Council members, and honored public servants.

My name is James Chandler, a Detroit resident and civil rights advocate representing the voice of we the people.

I formally submit this petition and legislate and legislative proposal titled the Civil Rights and Constitutional Reform Act.

I don't know if you have it in front of you for official review.

Legislative consideration and action to be made into law through all appropriate municipal, state, and federal legislative pathways.

This proposal is a comprehensive reform framework designed to restore constitutional authority, strengthen civil rights protections, and establish enforceable accountability and government and public institutions.

At its core, this legislation seeks to be made into law to ensure constitutional compliance and equal protection under the law.

Government transparency and enforceable ethical standards, affordable and accessible justice systems, protection of personal debt, identity and civil liberties, housing security, tenant protections and economic fairness, election integrity, and lawful civic participation, justice reparative policy development and social equity, community-centered investment, uh corporate prioritization.

This legislation this legislation does not weaken governance, it strengthens it, it does not undermine authority, it restores constitutional order, it does not create instability, it establishes lawful structure, trust accountability.

We formally request official official acknowledgement and entry into public legislative record, referral to the council and policy committees scheduling.

And again, with Conrad Mallet, um, we don't want him involved with our city.

And as I said before Friday, that if they don't, I see where you next caller, please.

We will be taking up that particular petition today.

Next caller is Jarrett Rogers.

Caller, the floor is yours.

We have two minutes of general public comment.

Yeah, hello, good morning.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi, um, I just wanted to comment a little bit about the um Detroit solar project and my experience um with that.

I have properties that were taken under eminent domain.

And uh yeah, all around it's been a pretty bad experience.

Um, I got I bought them this lot in not a not the best neighborhood because it had a big open field behind with lots that I could purchase.

Um, and then those lots got taken from me, and I didn't really prioritize uh negotiating for a higher price because when I saw that they would be doing offering me 25,000 in uh home renovations, energy efficiency upgrades, you know, I wasn't feeling too pressured to negotiate for a higher price than what they offered for the lots that they took.

Um here we are, I don't know, well over a year later.

I've had no work done.

I've had seven or eight contractors come through my house and continually saying they would get something done soon.

I've had nothing done.

Finally contact Mark at Elevate, who tells me that they're not even sure who's walked to my house, and they've had problems with scammers.

So I may have had scammers walking through my house.

Um, my furnace only works intermittently, and they said they'd fast track me for a furnace.

Nothing on that.

You know, I didn't prioritize buying a furnace.

I had space heaters going.

Uh, and use restrictions, as Darren mentioned.

You know, I I built a gate in my backyard for my business to get to my shed, and then later the use restrictions come and they tell me I can't, I'm not gonna be able to use my alley to get to my uh my shed, which is part of my business.

Um I can go on, but I'm not thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is Joyce E.

Jennings.

Joyce E.

Jennings, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Good morning, everyone.

Um, good morning.

Um, I don't know if you heard me the first time, everyone.

Yes, ma'am.

Good morning.

Um, good morning, sir.

I would like, since we have transitioned under new leadership with um council president Tate now in the lead over city council and our law department to please carefully look at the lawsuit that I filed against the city of Detroit when I transitioned from the mayor's office, um, that I won against the city of Detroit.

I was responsible then for 43 departments um leading the 311 call center for city services.

Um, Judge Kathleen McDonald presided over my case, and in her comments during my hearing, she stated the city law department has subpoenaed over 3,000 documents in an effort to throw out my lawsuit against the city of Detroit.

And she said in her years of being a practicing attorney and presiding judge, she's never seen evidence that the more information that came across her desk, the more impeccable of the reputation that a person had.

She said the type of digging that the city did into my background was commensurate to people who run for the highest levels of office.

I would like to say the people of Detroit, I love.

There's spiritualness and powerment to these ordinances.

Secondly, when we talk about unsheltered folks, I want to hear more than just bids.

I want you all to have an aptitude to understand who it is that you're dealing with.

I'm not hearing anything about the effects of tuberculosis in community areas.

I'm not hearing anything about MRSA and other issues that go on in these community areas, right?

Transportation, real food, you know.

So it's not just about getting people out of the streets and out of the code, but it's about improving their quality of life and maintaining uh a decent quality of life.

Thirdly, I'm not sure if you guys are paying people to call up, but I'm glad Brother Rick was pretty short today in his flirting with Cunningham.

You feel what I'm saying?

And then uh thirdly, when we talk about defraud, I thought I'm glad that the county sent down 300 properties for defraud, but this city has to be accountable for the mortgages for the houses that they stole through land bank through the through the number of obstacles that they put our citizens through to take their properties through land bank.

And so to take on new responsibilities from another county and don't take care of their citizens here first is another injustice, right?

And so uh we have to do better with the propaganda.

I'm glad to hear Miss Calloway endorsing that people uh take on, you know, other other other people, ideas and different things, you know.

You know, stop playing with Mr.

Foster, okay?

I'm out enjoying myself right now, but I will be back, and business will continue to go on.

Integrity, man, accountability.

Let's call the clues.

Next caller is Richard Miles.

Uh Richard Miles, the floor is yours.

We have two minutes, general public comment.

Are you there?

Are you there?

Uh can you guys hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Um, I'm gonna uh I live in district one.

I like to say I don't believe in Conrad Mallard's leadership.

I don't believe he should be a reappointed.

We have a record high amount of settlements that are costing taxpayers.

We have spent millions on solar farm lawsuits unnecessarily, countless and demnifications, police officers, and other ways for lawsuits.

We don't now support his leadership, legal representation, and we would like to change that.

Okay, thank you so much.

Let's call the please.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

We have two minutes, general public cover.

Are you there?

Yes, I they just unmuted me.

Uh, good morning, counsel.

Um, thank you for taking my comment.

Thank you, Angela Whitfield Callaway for all that you do.

We appreciate you and Mary Waters.

Thank you so much.

Um, on behalf of the coalition with property tax justice, you all helped us uh and those of you as well as Ms.

Johnson, uh, councilwoman Johnson.

Thank you for helping us pass the property tax reform ordinance.

We just need it to be implemented right now.

Also uh completely implemented.

Thank you for passing it.

But uh Conrad Mallet was uh counsel um that advised you not to pass it because uh you and try to to scare you from passing it by saying that the city would get uh sued.

What kind of counsel is that?

Thank you for passing it despite his ill-advised uh comment and and uh advisement to you guys.

Also, um uh you need to get rid of don't don't don't give Alvin Horn his job back, he's unqualified.

Uh we were illegally over taxed 600 million dollars.

That money can be in families' pockets right now, they can get their own hotel room or fix their houses or whatever.

If they're in the cold, they could go to the hotel.

And that's what we want.

We want them, the families to be able to go to a hotel room, not these temporary shelters.

This is inhumane.

Um, so don't don't uh don't give Alvin Horn another chance.

Um he needs to go, him and Conrad Mallet, they're unqualified.

Uh Alvin Horn, who is uh unqualified as Detroit's chief assessor, because he he has not passed the required Michigan master assessing officer examination under state tax commission clarification rules and Michigan law.

Why we got these people in here that are hurting us that are unqualified?

Valid is unqualified.

Thank you.

All right, what do we have next to you?

Next thing you is Veronica Smith.

All right, go ahead.

Floor is yours, two minutes.

Good morning.

My name is Veronica Smith with the coalition of property tax justice, and we have a first hundred days plan, which we believe all of you have received a copy of.

And with this plan, and it's it's successfully implemented.

We'll end the property tax overassessments in Detroit.

Our first pillar is to fully implement the property tax reform ordinance that was passed in 2023 to provide a district descriptive and specific reason for changes in the assessment to include the property tax exemption percentage for each homeowner and to provide a link to frequently asked questions, such as what is a property tax assessment appeal?

How can I estimate my property tax bill?

And what are tax property assistance so resources available in Detroit?

Two, we need to stop the overassessment of lower valued homes.

The state constitution says the house cannot be valid at more than 50% its value.

When we finally got the report that Duggan suppressed, we found that the average was 50.1%, but that still over assessed homes at the value less than 40, 40,000.

Three, we want to protect the home owner occupied exemption, the PRE, which should be at 100%.

And we found it to make it easier for those who have not had had their taken away to be easier for them to get it replaced.

And we need to have the LLCs, limited liability corporations removed from the roles because they are not paying their fair share of taxes.

Thank you so much.

General public comment.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Yes, much better.

Okay, great.

Um, first of all, please don't make Walker Williams a shelter after it was closed for so many years.

Hold on one hold on one second, Miss Ward.

Your time was not set at two minutes.

Okay, you may be the floor's yours.

Okay.

Please don't call close Walker Williams for a shelter after it was closed for so many years while other rec centers were open.

I mean, please do take care of people, but please don't do that.

Um Less Council Angela Callaway, the only attorney on the council admitted, well, sometimes we follow the charter and sometimes we don't.

Um that's pretty obvious.

Charter section um uh 7.201 health departments not fully complied with 9-405 elimination of redundancy and programs, and so here's the reason council to vote this down.

I'm uh uh uh uh Conrad mail it down is because Charter Section 7.5-201.

It's the corporation council's duty to uphold the charter, and he has not been doing it.

I'm also disappointed that during the campaign I asked Mary Sheffield who she would pick for corporation counsel and why, and she declined to say so.

So that doesn't uh create uh great trust uh with me.

I also would say say no to Alexa Bush for planning and Julie Schneider.

Why?

Because I've seen that they don't seem to truly care about meaningful community engagement in planning that is a violation of the charter in the preamble that says public policy objectives and decisions are supposed to reflect citizen participation and collective desires, not a select few, like what happened in my neighborhood.

Two handfuls of people were selected to sign a non-disclosure agreement, plan a big development re uh uh uh lease complex all around us to be owned by some uh uh wealthy people outside the city, and now the corrupt thousand seven hundred dollars in transcripts that the city's already obligated to pay for under 50-year next caller, please.

Next caller is telephone number inning in one two four caller ending in one two four.

The floor is yours.

We have two minutes, general public comment.

Thank you.

I just spoke.

Okay, thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is William M.

Davis.

Mr.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

We got two minutes, general public comment.

Uh good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Sir, uh great.

Uh once uh one thing I would like to start off by saying I think that it should be a moratorium on cutting people's water off, especially since most homes in the city of Detroit are older homes and they need water for furnaces and and uh you know they need they need water.

Uh two, you know, I I think that there is a problem.

You know, I'm a former elected board of the police commissioner, and I don't think Conrad Mallet should be sitting on that board.

And I think the board of the police commissioner needs their own separate attorney because they some of the stuff that is being said is in conflict with each other.

Um, three, I I think that uh Conrad Mallard has not done a good job during the time he's been in charge of you know the as corporation counsel, and that there are countless.

I know myself I turned in uh a four-hour request that was never heard from.

I'm having seriously thinking about challenging this law license because there's a number of things that's highly questionable.

There's too many lawsuits, there's too many demifications, there's too many just turning their heads on stuff that they should be challenging.

You know, I I think we need uh somebody a little bit younger, more aggressive, perhaps a young black um person from uh Washington County.

But you know, we need somebody that's gonna make sure that there's not so many lawsuits, not so many indemnifications, and somebody that really cares about what they're doing.

Uh also, you know, the recreation centers, the recreation centers be open every day at least six days a week.

Far too often, most recreation centers are only open five days a week.

Uh and um, you know, they all should be open at least on Saturdays.

When I was growing up, when Comey Young was mad, they was open every day, at least six days a week.

And we had longer hours.

It seems like we're paying more and getting less today.

Uh so I like to thank you, and hopefully, y'all would do more to help the people of the city of Detroit instead of helping the suburbanites.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

General Covenant Cover.

Caller, are you there?

Are you there?

Good morning, and through the chair, Matt.

Heard.

Yes.

Good morning, everyone.

I'm glad you made it okay safely.

Um, a lot of people have said a lot of good things today about how you operate.

Um, not following the charter is illegal.

And if you all continue to ignore the charter, then we have a right to ignore you.

Um it's it's against the law.

The the charter is our constitution.

And when you have contracts that go against the legality of the constitution, which says you cannot do these things, you have to pay attention to what the charter says about what you can and can't do.

We don't have a uh report of the health of the city of Detroit, and we have the same person who's been on the health committee for uh chair of the health committee for the last five years, and our health is not even being taken into consideration.

I'm not sure if she understands the role of the health and safety committee.

It appears to be to only um allow people to demolish houses using our tax dollars.

In the meeting yesterday, we talked about blight funds and fun and bond funds.

Well, the bond funds were reported to be um insufficient funds.

There's not enough money for what you want to do because you've you've blown through our funds.

We have people that are homeless.

You've stolen the low-income tax credits and given them to AMI, which is not low income.

So you've hurt the very people who you sit there and claim that you represent.

You represent um, not us, the the businesses is what your interest is.

And Conrad Mallet should not be reinstated, nor Julie Snyder should not be instated.

And for God's sakes, Alvin Horn, he should be prosecuted for what he did.

You all cannot keep upholding these people.

It it uh it appears that you don't want the city of Detroit to advance for that for the caller, please.

Next caller is C Gina Brown Anderson.

Okay, caller.

The floor is yours.

We have two minutes.

General public comment.

Hello, can I be heard?

Yes.

For those that showed up Friday for the confirmation meeting, thank you.

For those that did not, thank you for giving residents another opportunity to gain more experience with the people considered for appointment or reappointment.

Residents did attend that meeting, and some took the bus.

So we expect to see all of you with earnings over a hundred thousand dollars at all the meetings, regardless of the web.

Scott Vincent, you are making it to all the compensation meetings to get a raise so you can make it to the other meetings as well.

And stop buying votes with our land contracts and grant funding in district three.

Um audit investigation of the Detroit land bank you requested before the election.

There was nine million dollars worth of grant money approved for 150 green light cameras to be stationed around Detroit.

I was wondering why it does not require input from the Board of Police Commissioners, as it was told to council personago.

Will there be a list of identity that identifies where these cameras will be located?

Going after District Three's police commissioner displays your effort to shut people up, even when elected.

You all are aware of other members on that committee with worse crimes, and no one went after them.

Fairness is required from all of you.

I understand and agree that Detroit needs new legal legal counsel leading the law department.

So please internalize what taxpayers are asking.

I caution legal counsel to Detroit to um stop acting like you care about residents' well-being by offering them low-wage jobs with the city without using the proper channels for employment.

City jobs are not for politicians to use as political tools to shut up residents that speak out against injustices to the residents.

People are going to continue to rise up against voter fraud because it is real, and it's very obvious that it is being next caller, please.

Next caller is Michael's mama.

Are you there?

Are you there?

Mr.

Whitfield, let's put this caller at the end of the queue and go to the next, please.

Okay, next caller is calling user three.

All right, call in user three.

The floor is yours.

We have two minutes, general public comment.

Yes, ma'am.

Good afternoon, happy new year, member young.

Um I would like it that you all start to work on making sure that no more women and children have to freeze to death, like Tatiana Williams being completely ignored when she came to city council and the mayor's office, yet there was hope for illegal migrants when a flood happened.

I think that that's still moral.

I also have sent pictures to all council members, including uh council member Miller showing that these uh sidewalks is not being shoveled so the children that go to Northwestern High School can't even walk safely.

They have to walk in the streets.

My question is when are you going to make sure that they are properly shoveled?

Um, going from 2274 West Grand Boulevard to 2235 West Grand Boulevard because kids live in the neighborhood and sometimes have to walk to school, shouldn't have to run the risk of being ran over.

And in closing, when are you all going to stop landlords from being able to retaliate in retaliatory eviction for bringing complaints to city council or building and safety without building and safety putting lives in jeopardy?

Telling what days of the week we call and complain and how many times during the week we speak to council, showing pictures and videos that's putting our health and safety at risk.

The right to counsel is telling people that they will not represent them.

They want you to just wait until it's time for.

Thank you so much.

That takes us to the end of general public comments.

Council Member McCampbell, a resolution line item 17.1.

All right, member McKenna.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve line item 17.1 colleagues.

Any objections?

See none.

That action shall be taken.

For the internal operations standing committee, Adam Clerk.

That is the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Mr.

President, we have one contract up for a vote.

Councilmember Whitfield Callaway, contract number 6006266A1.

100% city city funding amendment number one to provide an increase in funds for structured network cabling installation services to various city locations.

Contract increase amount 150,000.

Total contract amount 650,000.

Do it.

Councilmember Whitfield Callaway, a resolution line item 18.1.

Thank you so much.

Member Callaway line item 18.1.

Motion to approve, Mr.

Chair.

Uh most motion motion to approve, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you so much.

There's a motion to approve line item 18.1.

Any objection, colleagues?

Seeing none that action shall be taken.

Under resolutions, Madam Clerk.

Councilmember Whitfield Callaway, three resolutions.

Line items 18.2 through 18.4.

Thank you so much.

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, line item 18.2 is the continuation of the youth and a civic engagement task force.

Um line item 18.3 is the reappointment of Rhonda Paul to the Human Rights Commission.

And then line item 18.4 is the appointment of Lauren Stolval to the human rights uh commission, Mr.

Chair.

Mostly to approve.

Thank you so much.

College is a motion to approve line item 18.2 through 18.4.

Any objections?

Seeing none that action shall be taken.

Councilmember Benson joined by council member waters, a resolution line item 18.5.

Thank you so much.

Member Benson, I think you want to do that one first, or member walks.

Motion to approve.

Thank you so much.

There's a motion to approve line item 18.5, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none.

That action shall be taken.

Question waiver on line 18.5.

There's a request for a waiver, colleagues on 18.5.

Any objections?

See none, a waiver shall be attached.

Mr.

President, I'd like to request a waiver on 18.4.

There's a request for a waiver on line item 18.4, colleagues.

Any objections?

Seeing none, a waiver shall be attached.

Mr.

Chair.

Uh here a voice.

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, ma'am.

Um, waiver on line item 18.2 and 18.3.

There is a request for a waiver on 18.4 and 18.3, member calloway.

18.2 and 18.3.

Okay.

Any objections?

See none.

Waiver should be attached.

Thank you so much, colleagues.

Uh under resolutions, Madam Clerk.

Oh no, I think that one.

Planning and development, Mr.

President.

My apologies for the planning and economic development standing committee from the historic designation advisory board.

Councilmember Johnson, an introduction of an ordinance, line item 19.1.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, line item 19.1 is to amend chapter 21 of the 2019 Detroit City Code History Article 2, Historic Districts and Landmarks, Division 5, Designated Districts to add Section 21-2-253, conductors protective assurance building, CPA building, historic district, and to define the elements of design for the district.

Mr.

President, I move that the ordinance be read twice by title, order printed and laid on the table.

Thank you so much.

Alex, any objections?

Seeing none discussion with discussion, member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Just uh to my colleagues or to the administration.

Do we have a proposed end use for this property?

All right, we'll bring up uh someone from the administration, Mr.

Washington.

Are you watching?

There she is.

Good morning.

Through the chair, I would defer this to H stab.

Um, I do know to my knowledge right now, there are no current um economic development plans for the site, but I would defer to HDAP if they have anything additional to add.

Okay, we do have someone from HDAP who's available.

Deputy Director Chair.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you, can't see you though.

I know.

I don't know why I have my camera off, and I'm not sure why it's not working.

I apologize.

Okay, we can um asked today for sure.

We do have a um through the chair.

Um the property uh that uh council member uh Benson, I believe, asked about it is currently for sale, so there is not an end use uh determined at this time.

Uh the owner who is selling the property is aware of the uh historic district designation process, however, that we are going through right now, and uh he's actually an ad hoc member to the historic designation advisory board for this process, which completed through the board, which is why it is now um at city council for your portion of the process, which is next step the public hearing.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

Any further seeing none?

Any objections to line item 19.1.

Seeing none that action shall be taken from the historic designation advisory board, madam clerk.

Councilmember Johnson, a resolution setting the public hearing.

Line item 19.2.

Member Johnson, line item 19.2.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm for approval to set the public hearing on Thursday, February 26th at 1015 a.m.

Colleagues.

There's a motion for line item 19.2.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

We will now move to the request to speak.

Madam Clerk.

Councilmember Whitfield Catalway, a resolution line item 20.1.

Member Callaway.

For discussion, member called stepped away.

She's back.

She's back.

Member Callaway on line item 20.1, ma'am.

Thank you.

Um, thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Um discussion.

Yes, thank you so much.

There's a motion to discuss line item 20.1.

Um, I'm not thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'm not sure why my name is on this resolution.

Um, I don't know this gentleman.

This gentleman has not sent me a correspondence, but um, is this something for internal operations or is this a I think it's referred first through IOS.

Yeah, but I would just say, since we're in discussion, thank you for for removing for discussion.

I I would like to bring back this line item.

Uh, there's a number of uh items within the uh petition to speak that are well without well outside of the city council's jurisdiction.

Uh for example, it was one that indicated that uh implement the elimination of the electoral college to make the popular vote.

We the people, uh, the determination of our country's leader.

Um talked about drafts.

There's a number of things that have absolutely no jurisdiction uh by this particular council.

So I would like for again a uh bring back or when we bring back on this particular item so that we allow to have further discussion.

Don't want to stop anyone's opportunity to speak, but want to have a better understanding, and maybe this uh the the uh the requester uh would have a better understanding of what the powers of city council actually are uh as we move forward.

Further discussion, member Benson.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I'm prepared to vote now on this request.

Okay.

For a request to come and speak before this body with what has been submitted, the broad uh parameters of this.

I'd be more than happy to vote right now on this request.

Yeah, I just say I wanted to be very cautious and careful about it because this individual did run uh didn't do a write-in campaign for district one city council, so I don't want it to make it appear as if I'm biased by any means.

Uh so colleagues, uh, what is the will of motion bring back?

Okay, there's a motion uh to bring back in one week.

There's a motion to bring the postpone.

Right.

There's a motion to postpone the vote for one week.

Is there's a motion?

There's a motion on the floor, but we have Mr.

Whittaker who just joined us, Mr.

Whitaker.

Yes, Mr.

President, it might end the one week if you refer it to LPD and law, then we might give you a writing that might help you in your deliberation.

So there was a motion to postpone for one week.

Um member uh pro Tim, would you uh be open to allow for this item to be referred to LPD discussion uh within that one week as well?

Okay, discussion first motion.

Well, I was gonna ask with further discussion, since we were still on that motion.

I'm gonna stop this one, go back to the original member Vincent.

I I'll wait until this vote to my discussion is going to be on the suggestion that we refer this to the law department and to LPD to utilize those city resources for this petition.

Colleagues, there uh was with further discussion, member Miller.

I was concerned because uh councilman Callaway said she had no knowledge of it having her name on it, and I was wondering um why we're proceeding if it wasn't followed up the proper channels, Mr.

Whitaker.

Why was Member Callaway as the chair of IOS or maybe to the clerk?

Well, it might be because as reflected on the on your calendar, it involves the city's law department, perhaps, and that falls under IOS.

Okay, I understand.

Thank you.

Any further comment on the original motion to postpone the vote for one week?

Seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

Uh further motion, colleagues to send to LPD for review and um analysis, discussion.

There's a motion for member pro Tim Young.

Uh, with further discussion, member Biss.

Just through yourself to Mr.

Whitaker.

Based on the fact this person has not come before this body and not exhausted any opportunity to speak before this body.

I'm just concerned about utilizing those resources to speak to a petition that is so broad based that out that there's no span of control of any of this process, very little of this process within city council.

I just rather us ensure that we're utilizing our limited resources wisely before we start taking up petitions of this nature.

Do you like your resource where they even come to this body and request to speak before us during their right, which is public comment?

Mr.

Mr.

Whitaker, I will say just to correct the record.

This individual did come before us once.

Um, I want to say about two or three weeks ago, uh, and spoke in public comment.

So I didn't want to put that on the record.

Okay, Mr.

Whitaker.

Mr.

President, I I came forward because your rule does contemplate um, I don't have to add a wrong.

The rules does contemplate uh matters being when petitions come that you seek an opinion from the law department just as a matter of course.

And I understand why you're saying what you're saying, Mr.

Benson, but I do think that if you give your rules, you have plenty of cover that the respect that you're you're giving the petitioner by following your rule is why I step forward.

And it should not take as long to give a response.

In other words, we're not gonna spend hours and hours researching a petition of this nature, but it does give the respect to the petitioner, and it does allow you to follow your through the chair with further uh attorney anderson from the law department grab Anderson Law Department.

Just to echo what Director Whitaker said, we would not spend an abundance of time or resources on this request, but I absolutely do understand your concern, Councilmember Benson.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

There's a motion on the floor.

Any objections to that motion is to send to law and uh LPD for analysis and report.

See no objections, then action shall be taken.

We will now move on to the next request to speak.

Councilmember McCampbell, a resolution line item 20.2.

Member McCampbell.

Motion to discuss.

There's a motion to discuss line item 20.2.

Uh thank you so much.

And I think this may even fall under the same to allow for that analysis.

Absolutely.

Yeah, and I was just gonna say the same, especially since it's related to I just want to be clear on what we can do with this is related to the Wayne County Treasurer.

So I will make a motion to bring back in one week and refer to the LPD and the law for analysis.

Okay, so we'll do the first one because I don't want to let Dr.

Powell get at me.

Dr.

So there's a motion to postpone the vote for one week for line item 20.2.

We love it, Dr.

Powers.

Any objection?

See none that actions shall be taken.

Member McCammel, can you state that a second motion again?

Motion to refer to LPDN law for analysis.

All right, colleagues, there's another motion on the floor.

Any objections?

Seeing none that action shall be taken.

We'll now move to the new business portion of the agenda from the Office of Contracted and Procurement.

Mr.

President, we have three contracts up for a vote.

First contract number 6005073A1, 100% city grant funding, excuse me.

Amendment number one to provide an increase of funds only for services for ending the HIV epidemic, a plan for America.

Ryan White, HIVA's program parts A and B.

And that's a contract increase amount of 138,947.84 cent.

Total contract amount 750,946 and four cents.

That's for the health department.

Next contract, number 6005087A1, 100% grant funding, amendment one to provide an increase of funds for a program administrator for coordinating and managing medical and supportive services for low income under insured and under insured persons living with HIV in the Detroit eligible metropolitan metropolitan area.

The contractor is Harry Ford Health System contract increase amount 421,076 and 31 cent.

Total contract amount 4,278,762 and 58 cents for the health department.

Next contract, contract number 6006102A1, 100% city funding, amendment number one to provide an increase in funds only for municipal resident identification cards, software system, contract, omicron technology solution LLC contract decrease amount $30,000.

Total contract amount 117,000.

Council member Santiago Romero, three resolutions, line items 21.1 through 21.3.

Thank you so much.

Member Santiago Romero, line items 21.1 through 21.3.

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve those items.

Colleagues, any objections?

Discussion with discussion.

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Can we get someone on from health um for line item 21.1 and 21.2?

Um these both of these contracts expire February 28th of this year.

So in another month or so, both of these contracts will be expired.

So why the increase and or um are there plans to come back before the council to extend the contracts to cover the amount that's being asked here?

Mr.

President Chair.

And I'd like to hear from the from the health department.

Just out of respect before cells to allow uh member Santiago Romero to motion.

Uh thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, through you to member Callaway.

I was gonna answer the question, but if she wants to hear from the health departments, um, they can go ahead and answer.

We asked these questions yesterday in committee as well.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Uh Mr.

Washington, I believe you do have two.

You have someone, Miss Leah Smith before us from the health department.

Good morning or good afternoon.

Thank you for joining us to hear the question from member Callaway.

Um good morningslash afternoon through the chair.

Yes, I did.

Thank you.

Um, so through the chair to answer your question, we still have this funding available.

We will not have a new award for either of these programs until the end of February.

That will go in that will go into effect.

The reason why these amendments are late in coming before this body for approval is because working with Henry Ford Health, they have a very robust legal system, and we did have to enter into some negotiations on the language regarding the amendments and the award increases.

This is work that has been ongoing and some of it has already been completed.

So we're requesting to be able to increase the contract authority in order to pay for the services that have been rendered.

Additionally, I will also share with this body as I shared in committee yesterday that we will be having a number of new suburbs and paint agreements coming in front of this body for approval for these two funding programs, the Ryan White Part A and the ending the HIV epidemic.

Okay, Mr.

Chair.

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So thank you so much.

Um the increases are for services and programming that have already occurred.

Is that correct?

Through the chair, yes, that is correct.

This is increases to cover ongoing and already occurred programming and services.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further?

See none.

Uh motion for approval for line items 21.1 through 21.3.

Any objections uh further discussion.

Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Um to the chair, line 21.3, maybe to the uh health department as well.

So just looking at the municipal ID had challenged in the in the past with this program.

What has changed?

What are we doing now to resolve all the previous issues?

And then how is our program looking forward as far as being used by residents?

Through the chair.

Mr.

Washington.

Can we also promote Art Thompson as well?

He's online under Art T.

We'll do so.

Mr.

President.

Um member of Santiago Romero as we pull them over.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Well, we wait for Arts.

Uh, we also asked this question during committee.

Um, and our office has been working very closely with the administration um over the past year for data protections and art can talk about that as well.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

I do see that we've been joined by uh Mr.

Art Thompson, director.

Good afternoon.

Oh, we're still more.

Uh keep shaving off those uh minutes.

So good morning.

The floor is yours, sir.

Please introduce yourself and the floor's yours for the the response.

Good morning.

Uh Art Thompson, Chief Information Officer uh here at the city of Detroit.

And good morning for one more minute.

Uh so yes, uh, you know, through you to member Benson, uh, you know, the data privacy has been one of the biggest focuses, obviously, with this program.

Um, so we dove heavily into it and made sure to work with the vendor to make sure that any information captured as part of this program uh was erased by the application.

Uh so we do not create a log or a database for people with you know these ad, these IDs that we have been given out.

Um it is a one time we create it.

Uh the health department, you know, has that proof or verification of who you say you are, and you take that with you when you leave, along with the ID card.

Uh so we made sure to work very closely with that vendor uh so that information isn't being logged.

You know, we really dove into this very heavily to make sure that you know data privacy is something that I take extremely serious uh as well as the rest administration uh to make sure that we are protecting individuals and we are not uh doing anything that could, you know, jeopardize or harm anyone uh as part of this program.

All right, thank you.

What's the cost for the ID and is it still being done on Mac Avenue?

Um through the chair.

So the cost of the ID is um $10.

However, it is free for residents who can demonstrate a hardship, either because of their housing situation or other situations.

We actually have two locations.

We are we are issuing Detroit IDs out of 100 Mac, which is the main health department office, and then we are also out of patent recenter as well.

All right, thank you.

Mr.

President Santiago Romero.

Thank you.

Just do want to share um the health department is we had a conversation and we're interested in expanding these resources to others.

Um, I do believe if it could be confirmed that our printer can be mobile.

Um, so if there's any churches, um any partners that you can think of, I'm pretty sure we can continue to expand the outreach.

Um, so that's something that we would like to do as well.

Um, but I do believe that was offered from the health departments, and we should totally engage in that in that offer.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair.

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And to um Ms.

Smith and uh Mr.

Thompson, um, good afternoon.

I have a real quick question.

Um, speaking of the mobile um unit, if there is one, um is there one where um it can be stationed maybe outside of the um detention center or the prison system, um, where when people are are um returning to society or returning to the community, they can have it right there.

They don't have to think about it offered to them right there.

Have we thought about um those possibilities?

Because it sure would be a benefit to those who have nothing when they come out, they may not have a current ID, and this service is just critical to make sure that they um you know they have proper identification.

Have we thought about um those options?

Uh through the chair, yes, I can confirm that we do have the ability to be mobile with our program.

And so, as Art said, we don't save any of the documentation that you go through.

We do have a mobile printer that allows us to print the IDs mobile, so we do not have to be at 100 Mac or at Patent Rec Center in order to issue the IDs.

We are currently looking at expanding the program as Councilmember Santiago Romero stated, and so I will definitely make sure, Councilmember Callaway, that that idea is shared with the program director and my leadership, so we can consider that as an additional option for outreach.

Yeah, thank you so much.

And through the chair to yourself, Ms.

Smith, Miss Smith, and Mr.

Thompson.

I know that DPSCD has a similar like mobile unit that goes throughout the city, making sure that the students have a proper state ID at no charge to them.

And I think it was most recently at King High School.

So I'm hoping that we can get that unit out to those detention centers and to um the the jail, the jail location for this very reason because they're not going to have state IDs or proper identification when they are returning citizens.

So thank you so much for even um considering those options.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

With further discussion, pro Tim Young.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I just want to ask you, hello everybody.

Good to see everybody here.

Um, I just wanted to ask you for the municipal resident identification card software system.

This ID card.

Can I use this ID card if I'm gonna go if I want to go vote?

If if if you know if I get pulled over by ICE agent, was this sufficient enough for me to use for that if they ask me for my ID?

If I'm going to a store and I want to buy something, will they card me for that?

Can I use this for that?

Well, just kind of tell me like what is the uses of this and what is not the use of this.

Um, so through the chair, I can confirm that Detroit IDs cannot be utilized for voting.

Um, so that is one area that I want to make sure is very clear is that they cannot be utilized for voting.

They are also not a replacement for state issued IDs or federally issued IDs, such as a driver's license or a passport.

Um, the biggest usage for the Detroit ID card is to be able to access city services.

Um, we've also had residents indicate that they have been able to access health care utilizing their Detroit ID.

They have been able to rent apartments, secure DTE service, secure um internet service, cell phones, as well as access in the hospitals for either themselves or for their um sick family members or other family friends.

Though so, really the usage is is for specifically the state of Detroit residents and services.

However, we are also actively working to expand the knowledge and the accessibility and allowability of the ID in different Detroit-based businesses.

Okay, so this can't be used.

So for instance, if I get pulled over the car, this cannot be used as ID for that, whether I'm the driver or the passenger, because there have been some instances where they've asked passengers for IDs in the car.

And what you're telling me is that this cannot be used for that at all, right?

It is not a replacement for a state issue driver's license.

Okay.

We have been partnering um with council member Santiago Romero's staff as well as Detroit police to inform and educate them on the Detroit ID and how it can be utilized as sufficient and legal identification.

That is still an ongoing conversation that we are engaged in.

Right, because that's because that's my concern.

Because I mean, I don't think you should replace the state ID, but at the same time, I do think in these times that we're in now, if he can be used for proper identification, I think that's something that's very important.

You know what I mean?

I so I just I know that's more of an argument more of a state's rights, you know, state local argument, federal, federalist um argument, but I just really believe that it's important for us to be able to understand what those are and how this can be used because that's something that's a trend that's happening now nationally.

And so I just want to make sure that that's possible.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And just just to make make it really clear, it's not just for those who uh maybe stop by law enforcement uh because of immigration status, it's also for those who may have been justice impacted as well, uh also known as returning citizens.

So we just want to know a full gamut of what these particular municipal uh identification cards are are utilized for uh as we discussed them.

All right, colleagues, there's been motions uh for move motions to move.

Uh line item 21.1 through 21.3.

Any objections?

Seeing none, then action shall be taken.

From the office of contracting and procurement.

Thank you both.

Mr.

President, we have two contracts up for a vote.

First contract, contract number 6007290 A1, 100% city funding, amendment number one to provide an increase of funds for motorcycle repair and maintenance services, contractor, arsenal power sports contract increase amount of 50,000, total contract and amount of 100,000.

Next contract is contract number 6007489, 100% city funding to provide geese management services.

Contractor, goodbye geese LLC.

Total contract amount 108,000.

Council President Pro Tim Young, two resolutions, line items 21.4 through 21.5.

Proto meo 21.4 through 21.5.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

I move to approve line items 21.4 and 21.5.

Discussion.

There's a motion for approval of 21.4 through 20 and through 21.5 with discussion, Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Not sure if this was asked in committee.

But these are motorcycles for DPD.

And we've had discussion around where these contracts should live.

Usually they go through a PHS or BFA if it's citywide.

But this is specifically to DPD, and just wondering either to the chair to the administration why it is an NCS.

I would say it's because they want to go to the better committee.

But um but in actuality, I don't know.

That's a good question.

I think administration should answer that.

We're gonna go to the GSD contract.

Member, Mr.

Washington.

Do you have anyone which ever explanation of why we would go through this?

Or maybe it's the clerk.

Well, through the chair.

Yes, sir.

Yes, through the chair, I believe because it's fleet related and GSD tends to handle fleet.

That is why it went to neighborhoods.

Um, but Alex Weatherup is online as well.

He may have additional additional commentary.

Okay, we're gonna port him over.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Alex Weatherup, Assistant Director of General Services.

Uh, through the chair, I did hear the question.

Um, this is a fleet contract.

It is for DPD vehicles, but technically, uh, in theory, some other department could have motorcycles, and so this would be a multi-department fleet repair contract managed by GSD.

In this case, um, it is just DPD that has motorcycles, and so it just falls within our purview as the fleet management team.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through the chair.

Understood.

So and you you you answered the question yourself.

There could be other people using these motorcycles, but it's just police that are using these motorcycles.

Um, so I don't know of anybody else.

Um, and I just want to make sure that we're keeping track of all the moving pieces.

Um, because through PHS, we also see contracts for helicopters, cars, um, repairs, things like that.

Um, so just want to make sure that we're keeping track of all the things because there's lots of buckets of money and resources um and processes.

So just I wanted to flag for us, and also we've had this discussion um in BFA if these citywide uh fleet contracts should be in BFA.

Um, and I know that this was originally in I.O.

in IOS that then gets sent to NCS.

So just um, I'm just flagging and just trying to make sure that we are keeping track of all the moving pieces um because we need to keep track of them and need to make sure that we're not getting from too many buckets at the same time.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further?

Yeah, is that one way?

Um, I'm sorry, member Callaway, you had your hand first.

Yes, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I know we're on line item 21.4, but I have questions for line item 21.5 as well.

But for 21.4, um, I understood um maybe six months ago that demolition and construction um manages fleet.

So has those management services and responsibilities been divided?

Because the last time um we were talking about um fleet and the management and the um purchase and the maintenance, it fell under demolition and construction.

So why is this in GSD?

Have you all divided through the chair?

Have you all divided the responsibilities between demolition and construction and GSD?

Mr.

Weatherup, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Mr.

Relevan, thank you.

Through the chair, um the leadership of the fleet management division is construction and demolition.

Because fleet management was recently part of GSD, a lot of their contract management and administrative services still are housed here.

So we work hand in hand with construction and development on all fleet management contracts.

Thank you.

Um, through the chair to you, Mr.

Weather, how are you all managing uh the funding?

Because is the funding is this $50,000, which is an amendment one increase.

Is that coming out of GSD's budget or is it coming out of um construction and demolition?

How are you all managing um where these funds are coming from?

Since it's supposed to be with construction and demolition entirely.

So how are you making one the determination which services management purchases?

GSD is going to be responsible for, and the same for um construction and demolition.

Through the chair, the budget for fleet operations is still in GSD.

Um, but I defer to OCFO on how and why.

Okay, um, I'll put through the chair, I'll just send some questions over, Mr.

Um Weatherup.

Um, because I'm just kind of concerned about um where the funding is coming from, and if we're going to have construction and demolition managing fleet, then they should be managing fleet entirely because then you kind of money the waters or blur the lines when you're having two different departments managing this process.

So that's that's my only concern, just to keep it clean um and keep it um uh just keep it clean.

So and divide it.

So whoever's gonna do what, but I'm just kind of confused with why GSD is still involved in fleet when I know we got an announcement that construction demolition was going to manage the entire process.

So that's my question, Mr.

Um, Ms.

Chair for 21.4, but I do have questions about 21.5 as well.

So thank you.

Well, we move both of us.

Okay, so for 21.5, I'm gonna ask that we bring this back um in a week, sir.

I I just have a lot of questions um for get goodbye geese.

They do wonderful um work, but I I hope we can bring the before us because I don't think GSD can answer my questions.

This was before so almost a year ago, and we're having problems in Palmer Park because we have a lake.

We have a man-made lake, um, about three acres, and um the geese out there is just um out of control.

And what happens, I did a little bit of reading about the um the the dogs, the border collies, I think they're about four of them.

They've been um managing the geese population at Wayne State.

I think it's the same dogs that are used throughout the city.

But what's happening is I just try to understand when they come out to chase the geese, they chase them to the closest body of water.

We just drudged that lake.

We spent millions on drudging the lake, and so now we're pushing the geese back over to um Lake Francis, and they're dumping, they're doing the same thing.

And it's we have an apple orchard out there now and love the geese.

They love the apples, but it's just a lot of pollution.

You know what they do when they're there, but they're multiplying to me at a rapid rate.

So are we um managing when they come out to chase the geese?

How are they timing it?

And I know they're experts with the nesting and the migration cycles, because right now, every year we go out there, it seems like there's more and more geese coming and they love the lake, but they're making a mess of it again.

So I would like to bring this back in a week so I can reach out to um goodbye geese to get some of my questions and concerns addressed.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

So there's is there a motion to postpone the vote for line item 21.5?

Yes, um, sir.

The motion is to um postpone it for a week.

Um, line item 21.5.

All right, there's a motion uh to postpone for a weekly line out of 21.5 with discussion, pro Tim Young.

Yes, uh, Mr.

Weatherup, do we have anybody that can answer uh council member uh Callaway's questions about what that process is supposed to be like, how that's supposed to work?

Do we need to have another contract to be able to deal with that?

Or is that something that we could just ask them to uh be able to deal with themselves?

Uh I think it's uh goodbye geese, right?

Yeah.

Uh through the chair, I I can speak to the overall strategy and how we complement it with with adding kind of tall grass natural areas to to break up the big grassy lawns that the geese love so much.

Um but if you're if the question is specific to uh or a germane to the actual strategy behind what the dogs are being told to do on site, I can get those answers for you, but I I don't have them handy.

Okay, could you how long would it take you to be able to get that?

Um if I could have I I would appreciate that some of the questions in writing, just so I can make sure I'm answering specifically what's being asked and not just my memory of the question.

Okay, thank you, sir.

I appreciate that.

Okay, colleagues, again, there's a motion to postpone for one week line item 21.5.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Uh there's been a motion to approve line item 21.4, colleagues.

Any objections with further discussion, member you know.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh Mr.

Weatherup, I just wanted to ask you about this.

It says here that it's uh a line out on 21.4.

It talks about it being Harley Davidson.

I just want to know why is he just why is he specifically Harley Davidson?

Why could it be why couldn't it be Indian or Well or other, you know, American, you know, or choppers or whatever other American motorcycle companies.

I'm not gonna turn the paper when I say this, or like BMW or something like that.

Why is it this particular?

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying why is it this particular company?

Through the chair, the the city's fleet of motorcycles are Harley Davidson's, and that was uh a required spec to service them.

Okay.

Does that have does that have anything to do with necessarily performance and and and what they're looking for in terms of civic bike for the job that they're doing specifically, and this was best this company was best designed to uh maximize that performance.

So this is through the chair.

This is not a replacement or purchase.

This is just maintaining and repairing the vehicles that we already have, which are all Harley Davidson.

Yeah, thank you for that clarification.

Stop reaching.

Thank you, Mr.

All right, colleagues.

Any objections to the approval to the motion for approval line item 21.4.

See none, that action shall be taken.

Uh, from the general services uh department, Madam Clerk.

Council President Pro Tim Young, a resolution line item 21.6.

Uh pro tem young.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, I move to approve line item 21.6.

There's a motion to approve line item 21.6, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Adam Clerk from the Department of Public Works City Engineering Division.

Councilmember Santiago Romero, a resolution line item 21.7.

Thank you so much.

Line item 21.7, Member Santiago Romero.

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve, colleagues.

Any objections?

Seeing none that action shall be taken.

Request a waiver, Mr.

President.

The request for a waiver on line item 21.7.

Any objection, colleagues?

Seeing none, a waiver shall be attached.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh for the president's report on standing committee referrals and other matters from the budget, finance, and audit standing committee.

Madam Clerk.

Mr.

President, line items 23.1 and 23.2 were added to the BFA referrals when they should have been added on to the PED referrals list.

So this will just be one report from the city planning commission.

One report.

Mr.

President.

Mr.

President.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Member McCamp.

Um just uh discussion 23.3.

Uh member McCamp.

So just I know this report is of interest for a lot of our colleagues here.

So um if it is the will uh we'll discuss it in committee tomorrow, but one of just provide opportunity for our cop my colleagues, all of us to have um to review that presentation.

So I just want to make a note on that.

Thank you so much.

Uh further discussion, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you to member McCampbell, um, are you indicating that a presentation will be done tomorrow, or we are just discussing it within the committee?

Just discussing it within the committee tomorrow, and then um would like to have a presentation done a letter later date in the committee.

Okay.

Thank you, uh member McCampbell.

And just so that everyone is aware, we are talking about the study that was done by Citizens Research Council to evaluate the local option sales tax.

Um, so the report is in the discussion will be had uh in the near future.

I'm not sure if member McCampbell has a date.

Um, because I think it's important for all of us uh to be aware and if possible, um, to attend the meeting to hear the discussion, whether or not however we decide to proceed.

I'll say that.

Um, but I think it's something important that uh we should all be thinking about having conversations about um how do we grow revenue for the city of Detroit in order for us to address a number of concerns that um get presented to us on a daily weekly basis.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Uh Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Do you two member McCampbell?

Just want to let you know I'm very interested, whenever that is.

If you can notice the quorum, let us know.

I hope to be there.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for the advisement.

Um, Mr.

Whitaker, I see you walking up to the mic.

Mr.

President, on that point, uh, we had discussions with Eric Laufer about that report yesterday, and he's preparing a PowerPoint presentation so that he can have a revulse robust uh conversation with the council regarding that report.

In speaking to him, he also said it would be good to present all of the reports that they did last year because when he presented the report to committee the last time, it was only two council members present, and there were a lot of issues and recommendations that were embedded in those last reports on I think they were in planning and economic development, but they were there were recommendations embedded in those reports that were never discussed fully.

And so I don't know whether or not the council wants to have a committee to hold to deal with all of the reports, but I'm suggesting that you give that some consideration in going forward so that when the presentation is made, it is a complete presentation on all the reports that the CRC prepared for the council with considerable financing by council.

So just for your edification.

Duly noted, uh, Mr.

Whitaker and my team will work with you uh to identify date and time.

Uh I think that's a great idea.

There was quite a bit of information that was provided uh in those reports um and give us an opportunity to uh see what that next step will be as we move forward.

Okay.

Thank you.

For the internal operations standing committee, ma'am, madam clerk.

27 reports from various city departments.

The 27 reports will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the neighborhood and community services standing committee.

One report from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

The one report will be referred to the neighborhood and community services standing committee for the planning and economic development standing committee.

Including the two items that was moved up from BFA committee, that would be eight reports from various city departments.

The eight reports will be referred to the planning and economic development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee.

Line item 27.1 is a duplicate of line item 23.1.

So uh that can be removed.

And that would just be one report from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Uh before we go forward, colleagues, is there a motion to remove line item 27.1?

Motion.

No objections that action shall be taken.

Adam Clerk.

One report from Office of Contracting and Procurement.

The worm report will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee.

Before we uh proceed under the consent agreement, there are four uh uh items that member Miller would like to move or refer.

One is a resolution appointing number two, a I'm sorry, removing a remember from the tax board of review for district five, and then there's another that is replacing another member individual for the tax board of review, uh district five.

There's also an appointment for Todd Taylor of the Inter for the Entertainment Commission, and then number four, the fourth item is a resolution establishing the home preservation and foreclosure prevention task force.

Is there a motion to move these items uh to referral to new business?

Excuse me, for reports.

Thank you so much.

Any objections?

Seeing none, the action shall be taken.

Yep.

All right, for uh under consent agenda.

There are no items, Mr.

President.

We'll now move to up before we go to member reports.

There has been a request for DWSD to uh provide an update on the uh significant water main breaks in the city of Detroit.

What's being done?

Where are they at?

Um, and what should we expect?

So, do we have someone from the water department, DWSD, uh, Mr.

Washington who can join us with that information?

Yes, through the chair, we have Sam Smalley online.

All right, we can bring him on.

Report him over.

Member Johnson, I know you had uh made that request.

So I want to open up the floor for you uh to ask the questions uh first if there's none other from colleagues.

Smally, thank you for joining us.

Uh, before we uh turn over to you, member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, and thank you to uh deputy director Snolly for joining us.

Um I I would like to ask a request because I was notified by someone uh in the community that there was a significant water main break uh in the district.

And then when I saw the um media report on it, there were several throughout the city.

And I just would like to ask that when we have these incidents, if we can please notify the council members so that we are aware because our office receives calls and questions in regards to the status of them, especially when they are significant and creating challenges for residents to leave their home.

Um if we can get just an update on the status of those um water main breaks.

Uh, I just had someone reach out to me while I was sitting here who asked how the communication or how information is going to be shared to the residents that are impacted as well.

So um, Deputy Director Smalley, if you can please um put it a note down to make sure that at least my office um and I'm sure my colleagues would like to know as well when we have significant water main breaks happening within our district so we can be prepared to respond to residents.

Thank you, Councilmember Johnson, for that request.

Um we'll certainly we're having a three o'clock meeting with our entire team about our emergency plan.

So um I'll present that to the team and we'll provide a solution.

Um, first of all, let me uh thank you for this opportunity.

Um I'd like to first thank our the men and women of DWSD and our Detroit-based contractors.

They are out there working in frigid conditions.

Um, not only is it cold, but they're also getting wet because they're working on the water system.

Um, they're doing everything that is needed to make sure that we're providing safe drinking water to our customers.

But also like to thank our uh customers for their patience and understanding.

Um, everyone at DWSD, it's all hands-on deck effort.

Um, we have reallocated resources from essentially every division to help uh mitigate the frigid temperatures.

These frigid temperatures are having a are a significant challenge for our older infrastructure.

Um fire hydrants that are exposed to the elements.

Um we're working to keep those unfrozen.

Um, we have less than one percent of all of our 30,000 hydrants are out of service.

Um, we do have a significant number of water main breaks that we are repairing.

Um unfortunately, um, the same number that we repair every day.

We seem to get an equal number of new breaks every day.

Um, we have a number of salting locations.

Uh, we apologize for the uh streets that have become flooded and iced over.

We have a number of salt crews of our own.

We are also getting assistance from DPW, GSD, and GLWA, our partner agencies.

Um they are allocating resources to assist us with this.

We we highly encourage our customers to either use the improved Detroit app or to call us at 2678000.

We are answering those numbers, uh, that phone line 24-7.

Um, the people that call 911, it actually takes a lot longer for that information to reach us than simply calling 2678000 or using the improved Detroit app.

Um, again, as a caution, please don't drive through or walk through standing water.

We don't know, you may not know where the bottom is, especially if there's an active water main break.

Um, our crews are working closely with DPW for salting locations.

Um we are deploying about four more crews tomorrow for both water main break repairs and for also de-icing, removing ice or piling it up somewhere to ensure that the catch basins can continue to flow.

In terms of prioritization, um, our first priority for water main breaks is if anyone's out of water, um, we make sure that that's uh one of the highest priorities.

Next comes major streets, thoroughfares, freeways, if they're being affected, um we will address those along with um emergency hospitals, uh fire department, police stations, things of that nature, um, and then all other breaks.

We certainly want to make them safe until we can get back to them and make those repairs.

The cold weather is not only having um challenges to the uh public water system, but also to private plumbing.

Whereas about a week ago we were getting 10 to 15 burst service lines or burst meters inside people's houses.

We are now getting about 15 to 30 burst meters on a daily basis.

Um you can call us, we will come out and shut the service.

If the valve at your meter is not operable, you can call us at 2678000.

We will come out and shut the water at the street.

There does you do need to have a source of heat in the house in order for us to turn the water back once your plumber has made the repairs.

Um if the water meter is adjacent to an exterior wall inside the basement.

Um, if you can open up a cabinet or ensure that there's a source of heat that can help protect that from bursting.

As I mentioned a little earlier, there's a number of hydrants that are frozen throughout the city.

Um we have two crews that are out using our boiler trucks to make sure that they're operable and ready for emergency use.

Um so again, thank you everyone for your patience.

Um the men and women are out there working.

Um we're we're trying to limit their exposure to a couple hours at a time, especially when the temperature gets this cold.

Happy to answer any additional questions.

Member Johnson remains uh continues to have the floor.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um Deputy Director Smalley, can you please share how you're communicating with affected residents?

Um through the chair.

When we uh arrive to do a break repair, um we will knock on doors, letting people know that the water is going to be turned off.

Um we effectuate the repair and then turn the water back on.

Um, with the number of breaks that we have and the prioritizations that we have to go through.

We're not able not able, or we don't have at this time a uh a dashboard or something that where we can tell residents, you know, yours is going to be Thursday at two o'clock because there are constantly shifting priorities based on emergencies that we receive.

Thank you so much.

And um, through you, Mr.

President, to the administration.

Um, so earlier I inquired about emergency funds or assistance for um boilers, furnaces that are going out.

We know this is extreme weather.

I'm asking that we identify some resources to address these types of situations as well, noting that there are vehicles that are now may now be inoperable because of um streets that are now flooded as a result of water main breaks.

So I will follow up with the housing and revitalization department and with the mayor as well, just to see if we can identify some resources to address these challenges.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you to director, uh Deputy Director Smalley.

Um, I know Councilmember Water's office is working on this as well.

But are you do you have any informational update on the work that's going on on Hartwell Street between Joy Road and Ellis?

Um, because we've gotten reports that there's been some work done over there in the past couple of weeks, and residents don't they still do not have water running.

Um, so just want to get an update on that.

And if we in the meantime could get a bottle of water or something over to residents there, uh, but just want to ask about ask about that.

Through the chair, I do not have a specific update on that, but uh there are people out of water, that will be a top priority for us.

And yes, we do have uh bottled water that we can deliver to people who are out of service, but we will uh find out exactly what's going on with that uh and ensure we get that water restored as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Mrs.

Uh Director, uh Deputy Director Smalley, if you can please stay in contact with uh member McCampbell's office to ensure that he's aware so we can uh alert us residents as well.

Absolutely.

All right, thank you so much.

We have another one from a member waters.

All right, thank you.

Um I don't have a question.

I just want to have you to place something on your red house screen, and that is the standing water that is at Martin Luther King Junior High School, right there at Mafayette and New Mount Elliott.

Uh, when payers and students are leaving um the parking lot, the driveway right there at Lafayette as they exit.

I mean, there's so much water there, you really cannot see the bottom.

And and I'm hoping um, I mean, we can follow up with a memo, but I'm hoping that we can address that issue uh so that parents and students uh have some sort of ease of getting um out of that driveway when when they when they exit um King High School.

Lots and lots of water.

We will investigate that immediately.

Thank you.

So much.

So member Callaway's hand, Member Calloway.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um thank you for being here, Mr.

Um Mr.

Smalley.

Can you repeat that 26 number again?

You went went pretty fast.

Yes.

Our phone number, our 24-7 phone number 313 267 8,000.

Or you can use the C click fix or improve Detroit application.

Okay, thank you.

Throw the chair to yourself.

Um, just a couple questions.

Um, we had a fire, I think it was at 19203 Pinehurst a couple weeks ago, and there was problems with the hydrants.

I don't know if this is a question for you or for DFD, but um we had another fire at um on Buena Vista at Lawton.

I think that was on Saturday afternoon, and that fire was out of control for quite some while when I was over there for quite some time.

So I don't know if they were also experiencing problems with the hydrant.

I have a question for you.

Are there any sleeves or covers um designed to cover fire hydrants?

Like we when people have a um AC unit outside of their home, there are covers you can get just to protect the AC unit from the temperatures, the freezing temperatures, not blocking access to um the fire department and their hoses.

Have we thought about that?

Having these sleeves, because I know they have them in some cities um throughout the country.

They're just simply covers, I call them a sleeve, and it protects the fire hydrant from the water from freezing and preventing what we're describing right now.

So have we thought about that?

Or is that a question for DFD?

Um, through the chair.

No, we haven't um explored that.

Our approach is DFD inspects every hydrant uh multiple times a year.

Um, if they are found to be with water, um, that water is pumped out.

Um the way to prevent a hydrant from freezing is to not have water in the actual barrel um and not have water in it until it's actually put in service and then to drain the hydrant uh once it's been done.

That way the water level is you know below the frost line, more than 42 inches deep, so it doesn't freeze.

The ones that freeze, if somebody tampers with the hydrant or if there's a slow leak where water is able to get into the hydrant and come up towards the surface, that's when we have the problems.

Um but the you know the hydrants were inspected multiple times a year, uh most recently right before the winter by DFD.

Um, and again, the number of hydrants out of service is less than one percent um out of the 30,000 hydrants that we have.

But I'll be happy to we'll be happy to look into the two instances uh that you mentioned and see if we have any data on it.

Okay, and through the chair to yourself, um, can you look into whether or not it's a possibility that we can entertain or at least discuss in terms of the coverslash sleeve for the fire hydrant, especially during these frigid temperatures.

I will discuss that with our uh with our director, gasmind.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Could meo thank you.

I appreciate that.

I think um I'm kind of piggybacking off of what member Callaway was talking about.

I just want to know.

Um, can these fire hydrants be thawed out?

What are we doing in terms of thawing them out?

And you know, what kind of technology are we using for this to happen?

I mean, what kind of are there anything I I know that you can use 4D printing in terms of being able to react to the water stimuli to try to deal with this, not actual fire hydrant, but parts that could go into the fire hydrant to be able to deal with this more effectively and efficiently.

Is there a plan to be able to upgrade that?

Is it plan to look at this in a pilot uh situation at all?

Uh through the chair.

Um, so we have 30,000 hydrants as of today.

Um, there were 77 hydrants that were frozen.

We have boiler trucks that use high pressure steam.

We put a hose into the hydrant and we can melt a frozen hydrant within five to 10 minutes, uh, dewater the water that has been uh thought out and move on to the next one.

So um we do think that we have a very efficient and effective program.

Again, you know, 77 out of 30,000 hydrants are frozen.

Um so it's a very low number.

In the city of Detroit, our hydrant spacing is 300 feet.

The 10th state standard for the Midwest is 500 feet.

So not only do we have a um high number of operable hydrants, we also have more hydrants installed than most of our Midwest neighbors.

Um, but we will absolutely look at um the cover or sleeve option um and anything else that we can do to improve our operability.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, um when we're done with this, I have a question that I like to ask uh Mr.

Rico Razo of all two million dollars of general fund lay that's available for senior home repair.

He talked about this on the call yesterday.

And so I know we're having questions for the uh Mr.

Small enrollment EWSD, but when we're done, I like to be able to ask you those questions through Mr.

Washington if I could.

Okay.

Uh still on this subject, we have uh member millers for the question.

Mr.

Small, that's one to actually could you check into 1600 clements.

I inherited 150 parcels from District 2, and they say that member Callaway have been very instrumental in solving their problems with um water shutoff.

This is the second week they've gone into the water shutoff and they've uh made it perfectly clear.

This is the second or third year in a row around this time their water had been shut off for more than a week.

It's in the area of 1600 Clements near Davis, and I would appreciate that uh follow-up.

Thank you.

Through the chair, absolutely look into that right away.

Thank you.

And still on the line with uh DWSD member McCampbell.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Um, through you to the deputy director.

Um following up, uh, thanks for um keeping me in the loop on uh Hartwell Street, but also piggybacking off of member Johnson's request.

I when you all are, I know you all are doing a lot of work throughout the city.

Is it possible for council and members, especially in our district to get a report if there are any residents that may be experiencing um their uh water being cut off because of work and any work to be any actions being taken to mitigate that, whether it is bottled water or potable water truck, because that'd be helpful to know as folks are contacting our offices as well.

Yes, we'll be happy to uh provide that information.

You know, as of yesterday, there was only one water main break um that was that we are aware of that was causing um anyone to be without water.

Again, I want to keep emphasizing.

Please call us at 2678000 or use the improved Detroit app.

Indicate that you know you are out of water because that is one of our top prioritizations for getting these uh repairs executed.

Absolutely.

Through the chair, um, not just what I meant, not just with waterman breaks, but also just uh schedule maintenance work and such, because it I'm not sure if Hartwell was a waterman break or if it was work um when the projects going off.

So just wanted to lift that up.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further questions for DEWSD colleagues?

I just wanted to say uh to the chair.

I know there's 640,988 issues right now on the crude Detroit app.

I know it is easier to say, but we're gonna say thank you and continue to ask our residence to try and be patient.

Our temperatures are really low and is expected.

I myself had a report place boiler issues through uh a pipe, a pipe burst in my house.

So I know at 640,000 is going to take a little time to get that service taken care of.

Thank you uh for that.

Excuse me, Kelly's part, pardon me.

Uh Deputy Director Smalling, I know you said it twice, but we're going to say it one more time.

What's that phone number of residents?

Uh C here know about a water main break.

I know we tell folks see click fixed, but some folks just don't have that app on their phone, but they can make that phone call.

What's that number, sir?

313 267 8,000.

313 267 8000.

All right.

We answer that 24-7.

We appreciate you and we appreciate all the men and women of DWSD for their hard work in this uh frigidly cold, dangerously cold weather.

They are the true true heroes, and we thank them as often as we can for their efforts.

Thank you so much, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, before we go into member reports, I know member young, you had a question of an individual from the administration, Mr.

Rico Razzo.

Mr.

Razzo, thank you for being here.

Do you need uh member young excuse me, pro Tim Young, to uh reiterate the question, sir?

Through President Tate, I believe I I heard the question related to um uh two million dollars in general fund money related to home repair.

Yes, home repair and uh I have to be honest, we don't take any from my member Johnson because we're talking about particularly furnace repair.

Now I know we had talked about that um yesterday.

Yes.

So I kind of just wanted you to be able to expound on that a little bit for me.

Correct.

Uh through President Tate to um Pro Tem.

Um so we we in the home repair neighborhood service division, we get our annual allocations of dollars and there's eligibility criteria and application periods.

So, in terms of um uh emergency dollars for home repairs like boilers, hot water tanks, furnaces that come up whenever there's extreme weather conditions.

I don't have a good route to address those based on the other dollars that we have.

I mentioned to Pro Tem Tate in the meeting.

I'm sorry, Pro Tem Young in our meeting yesterday that uh uh every year council allocates general fund dollars for home repair specifically.

Um, my understanding, and you can tell me if I'm wrong in this assessment, the lending of credit rule prohibits us from using general fund dollars in private residences, and so that is the uh only reason um at this point we have not utilized those dollars, and we have not utilized those dollars in uh private homes.

I mean, if there's a route to get around that, um, we would we would be willing to um utilize those dollars for these emergency one off uh situations that arise throughout the year.

All right, thank you, sir.

I appreciate it.

Um, Mr.

President, yes, sir.

Uh does Mr.

Washington, do they have somebody from the law department I could talk to you about that?

Before we move off to the law department, I saw some additional hands that uh address some of the uh comments made.

I'm gonna start with uh Member Santiago Romero moving then to member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just really want to share in this conversation.

Um, because unfortunately, this happens in district six.

Um in our experience is pretty terrible.

Um, people still to this day um have not been made full.

We have asked the many questions of resources to to try to support people who lost their cars, who had just recently finished their basements, who lost furniture.

Um, and frankly, all residents were given were spoilers, um I think of hot water tank, and and I believe 3,000 is the max that I've heard.

Um, so I want us to have this conversation out loud because this is happening across the city.

And that is absolutely not true.

Um, but if we are going to solve the problem for residents here after there's been a flooding, I would like that same kind of consideration for district six residents who have still not been made whole.

Um, this is going to be a very hard and difficult conversation because we were told that the researchers aren't there.

And really, what the city does provide from what I can see is the bare minimum of hot water tanks, uh, a water uh of uh a boiler system to make sure people are able to live um with dignity in their homes, but all the other things the basements, the cars, the valuables, as far as I know, and the stories from from what I hear from my residents are gone and they received very little back.

So let's talk about this.

How are we going to make sure everyone gets made poll?

Because in district six, people are still dealing with issues, and when we talk about services, unfortunately, too, a lot of the work that was conducted by contractors had to get done again.

So more money had to be spent by residents because it wasn't done correctly the first time.

So let's make sure as we contract this work out that it's done well, that as we talk about resources that we're honest about what those are, and that we are equitable and fair throughout the city.

Um, because they are in your days going around of how we help some and others, not others.

And quite frankly, I I think we all need more help.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, I am wondering as attorney Anderson comes forward if we can create an emergency fund.

Can we create an emergency fund and disseminate resources to those who have been involved in an emergency?

Mr.

Washington has joined us.

Uh Mr.

Washington.

Yes, through the chair.

Um, corporation council has joined us as well.

If he can be promoted, very we'll support him over as well.

Good afternoon.

Uh good afternoon.

Please introduce yourself for the record.

My name is Conrad Mallet.

I'm the corporation counsel for the city of Detroit.

All right.

Uh for an old member member Johnson, did you have we'll we'll go to pro tem.

Excellent.

Corporate council Mallet, good to see you, sir.

It's always thank you.

I just wanted to ask you a question about um Article 726.

That's referring to in terms of a loan of credit.

Now, from my understanding, when this was done, it was done to make sure that we are not prevent governments from accumulating unauthorized debts by guaranteeing other people's um obligations.

And the reason why this would be different, one is because it has a time limit on it.

Secondly, there it's means testing.

So we're not just giving this out, it's means testing.

And thirdly, it has a political goal.

And the political goal here is to be able to help people stay in their homes.

So also also in terms of not only helping people stay in their homes, but also reducing poverty in the neighborhood.

That's a part of that, as well as ensuring quality of life for our senior citizens.

And I from my understanding of the attorney general opinion on this discussion, if you had those three things, those three factors, you could be able to use public funds for a government program.

And I just want to know am I right about that?

Am I wrong?

And if I'm wrong, please tell me why.

So I guess I came in um in the middle of the conversation.

I I I don't quite know what the question that's being uh uh uh asked.

The bottom line is is that we approach lending of credit issues very carefully.

Uh I at the I guess I got the end of the discussion and not the beginning.

How is it that we in uh anticipate these funds being used?

Uh and and I that's that's the part, council person that I did not uh hear prior to joining the call.

So there's a request uh to to find out how the city can assist residents, and this is just the most broad um uh uh uh way to explain it.

And colleagues, please assist me if necessary.

But those who may have uh water heaters and furnaces that have failed, especially in this very frigid cold uh temperature that we have, uh, and sometimes even as a result of uh uh infrastructural challenges that the city of Detroit has, you know, uh as resulted in uh why can't the city uh assist residents in that capacity and in replacing them or repairing.

Let's see.

Well, I mean, I think that uh uh the council councilperson Young was was was correct in that it is the test that has that has a number of sections to it.

One of them is whether or not there is a sufficient uh public purpose, not a political purpose, Councilman Young, but a uh uh public purpose.

Uh I did I think uh understand councilperson um uh Johnson to indicate what and about an emergency fund.

I mean, I think in this instance, uh what I would like to do is spend a bit more time on the question.

Uh I don't think it comes out any differently.

I don't think that the Constitution is going to allow us uh in this particular circumstance to buy water heaters, to buy furnaces that failed, uh, even in the face of a public purpose, and that is uh responding to an emergency uh polar vortex, an emergency caused by uh the introduction of a polar vote vortex.

But if you can give me uh the rest of today, I can have something back in hand uh to city council by the close of business.

Uh I don't want to just give you an answer off the top of my head.

I don't think the answer is going to be yes, but I would like some opportunity to consider.

No, no, no, uh Mr.

President.

No, I definitely will.

I and I have some uh legal precedent, so I'll probably uh send you that.

I'll probably sit try to find the attorney general's opinion and uh send you and send you that as well.

But I just wanted to say I think this is important for me, one because if we could do this for this, I think it opens the door for uh guaranteed income.

I think it also opens the door for targeted income or um I think RX kids, you know, it's a little bit different, but it has the same goal.

But I think it opens the door legally for what this could do, which I which we see in other cities, you know, Ann Arbor and others in the state and across the country be able to do.

So I'm not I'm I'm not trying to, I'm you know, I'm obviously I'm arguing in favor of what I want here, but um, I'll give you the uh documentation and I had a sent to your office shortly.

But I just want to know just legally, what is this, what kind of challenges can we foresee from this?

Can we do this?

And if so, you know, does it have to be limited?

What are the rules and as you said, tests that we have to do to do it?

I thought we already met that, but if there's other things we can meet where we can make this legal, I really like to work with you to be able to do that, corporation council.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Uh, member McCampbell, followed by Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Threw you to the corporation council.

I'm just wondering how would this emergency fund differ from the emergency fund that the city rolled out regarding snap benefits being um cut back in November?

Um we provide funds for pantries there to go directly to residents.

So, how would this be different in that case?

Um I'm on uh council person uh McCampbell, uh the SNAP benefit funds.

I am 99.9% sure came out of federal dollars that the state of Michigan had available.

Uh the federal limitations on spending are much different than the limitations on spending money directly out of the general fund.

Uh and and so we were able to take federal dollars that we had and repurpose them uh to deal with the SNAP issue as it occurred when obviously the federal government had not funded uh appropriately the food programs that many of our uh uh fellow citizens rely on.

Uh I can confirm that pretty simply uh but if memory serves, those were federal dollars.

Thank you through the chair.

Um I appreciate that answer.

I think also um I know this is with the administration, but if if we can do all that we can to get some funding, if there is more federal funding available that we can repurpose for this, I think it would be useful.

But thank you so much, Mr.

President.

Thank you, Corporation Council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, and so in response to the use of federal dollars regarding SNAP, um, I guess the the first thought would be are there ARPA dollars?

Um, because we are talking about we're in the middle of an emergency.

This emergency will last at least a week that we know of as it relates to the temperature.

So certainly it would be before our ARPA funding has to be spent.

Um, and secondly, my question is if we do believe and we continue with the thought that we're not able to provide these emergency um to provide emergency assistance.

Um, I would like for the housing and revitalization department to share with us how we are looking to provide uh perhaps an extension um of temporary shelter and temporary shelter units for households that are dealing with these extreme temperatures and now have lost their heating system.

Um, I do think a house is uninhabitable at that point, considering that we're looking at another week of extremely low temperatures.

Um, so if someone can please share that, because I I want to make sure we have support that we can provide to our residents as we provide temporary shelter to residents on a regular basis.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone have any uh reflection?

Mr.

President, no, from from the administration on what member Johnson just said.

Anyone corporation counsel and uh Mr.

Razo to President Tate, uh that question around temporary shelters or assistance with housing would be under uh either Chelsea Neblet or Tara Lindsner, Tara Lindsner, sorry.

Yeah, I was hopeful when I said your names that Mr.

Washington would pop up and have someone available.

He's been busy today.

Yeah, he has me too.

All right, there he is.

Through the chair, I believe Miss Linsner and Neblet um jumped off earlier, but I can reach out to see if I can get one of them to join us really quickly.

Okay, appreciate that.

Thank you so much.

Anything further for uh Mr.

Razo or Corporation Council?

Um member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, just sharing other thoughts from someone that has gone through this.

Um, but the city does do very grateful for this.

This did happen.

There were hotels provided for residents that could no longer stay in their home.

Just the notes, these hotels were not in the city proper.

There were issues of transportation and there were issues of getting children to their schools.

So we have not been this is not the first time.

We weren't prepared last time.

This is why we have to be working together to plan because this is climate change.

It is here.

It's going to happen regularly.

And I do believe in an emergency funding with local hotels, figuring out local transportation for students is going to be a huge issue if residents are going to have issues with their infrastructure and no longer able to stay at home.

We say the things, and like last time, we had solutions to all the things.

The solutions weren't exact and they caused more problems.

So I'm happy to share these experiences, these insights so that if it happens again, which it will unfortunately until we completely change our infrastructure, that we are prepared and that we are able to care for residents.

And we have a lot of learnings from this.

So yes, member Johnson, as we find places for them, they have to be in the city.

We have to provide transportation, and we have to think about the children.

Because last time when this happened in Southwest, children missed schools for weeks.

Four weeks.

Children missed school.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

All right.

Do we have anyone from HRD available?

Ms.

Neblet is about to join us in just a moment.

Okay.

This will help usher us to uh wrap this portion of the conversation up for today.

Wait for Ms.

Neblet.

We don't see her yet.

I see she's just joined.

Okay, she just joined us.

We're gonna pull her over.

When you see yourself on the screen, please introduce yourself for the record.

Good morning or good afternoon.

Um good afternoon to this honorable body.

My name is Chelsea Neblet.

I am the chief of housing solutions and supportive services in the city of Detroit Housing Revitalization Department.

Thank you.

Question for Ms.

Neblet.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um, just really interested in understanding uh any expansion of uh temporary shelter that may be provided to families that are uh dealing with emergencies as a result of the extreme weather.

And for the record, I'd just like to add that um I have always advocated for temporary shelter to be throughout this city.

Um just indicated that um as families were housed in hotels that children had challenges getting back and forth to school.

That is the reason that I've always advocated for um shelter to be throughout the entire city of Detroit to avoid uprooting families, to avoid having them have to figure out now how to get their children to and from school.

Um certainly if they if there are challenges with housing, there are challenges with transportation, and I don't want us to exacerbate the issue for families.

Ms.

Neblet.

Um through the through the chair to member Johnson.

Um so Tara Lindsner um was present earlier at formal session um and she spoke about the temporary standby shelters that the city has brought online to support any resident that was in need of shelter, um, including those that may be having heat issues um through this weather emergency.

We also have a process in HRD set up with our building and safety department B seed, where if there is a tenant that has a no heat complaint, the building and safety department will go out to do an emergency no heat inspection.

And if the landlord or the property owner does does not restore and complete those repairs, um the building and safety department would issue a vacate order.

That vacate order then um is referred over to the HRD housing services office so we can assist the resident with temporary housing as well as relocation case management if the repairs are not going to be made to the property.

So we have a variety of ways that we can support residents through this weather emergency.

I hope I answered your question.

I I did not hear that the initial conversation, so please let me know if additional clarity is needed.

Uh, through you, Mr.

President, uh, thank you, Ms.

Neblet, for the information that you just reiterated.

Um, I do not believe any of the temporary shelters are on the east side.

I believe one is centrally located and one may be in Southwest Detroit.

And so that is my question.

How are we providing a temporary shelter to families?

And I will share that I've had at least two families who own and occupy their property who are lower income and having challenges.

I'm trying to work with them and provide assistance to give an HVAC technician to do repairs.

And if that is successful, wonderful.

If not, then it creates that challenge because one family in particular has children that are school-age children.

And so again, I'm not seeing any temporary housing on the east side that is able to provide that assistance to families with children.

So really again, still looking to identify solutions for that as we are looking to address these emergency situations.

Through council president to member Johnson, thank you for for the additional clarity.

We um I will first say we we absolutely hear um your request for emergency shelter on the east side and in your district.

That is something that we are working diligently on and wanting to ensure that there's coverage uh for each district in the city um closer on the east side.

Uh so I just wanted to acknowledge that for the low-income home homeowners that you referenced.

Um, there are programs such as McKenzie Vento and other resources that can assist in getting um children to school if they are experiencing temporary displacement.

So would absolutely be happy to speak with your office on how to connect those households that you mentioned to the resources that are available.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

And Slender, we're gonna give you an opportunity to wrap this part of the conversation up if you had anything else to add.

No, I believe Ms.

Neblett, uh, address everything.

Okay, thank you so much.

I did get one more hand, colleagues.

We are going to look to close out this conversation.

Uh, pro Tim Young.

Thank you, Ms.

President, for your leadership and patience.

Uh I just wanted to ask you, or anybody who this may apply to, I just want to ask you.

One, has there been a discussion about converting um abandoned motels to houses for uh temporary shelter at all, or some of these abandoned, let's say, like fire um fire stations or things that nature, or is that a zoning discussion that we have to have in terms of repurposing some of those buildings to the chair through the chair?

Yeah, so we absolutely have looked at buildings through HRD's public-private partnership with properties that uh the city may own, or um that we may have um be able to um easily access them.

Sorry, I this is not my area of expertise at all.

So that's why we use another another division in HRD for this piece of it.

So we do look at um other properties that may be suitable for um emergency shelter.

What it comes down to though is usually um the money that it costs and to bringing those buildings up into code.

Uh there is absolutely zoning issues that may come that may be an issue, but HRD knows how to work with the zoning, um, the zoning board and you know, work with the community if that were to be a barrier.

But it's usually uh the the state of the building and the money that we require and the time that it would require in order to rehab it.

Although those are not um those are not barriers that could not be overcome.

Thank you so much, and thank you all for joining us for this uh very important discussion.

I look forward to uh closing the loop on some of those items and continue the discussions on others.

So thank you again.

All right, Madam Clerk, uh we shall now go to memory ports, colleagues.

Uh we'll start off with uh member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just uh one report uh tomorrow, January 28th, uh Wednesday at 5:30.

We will have our district um community ceremonial swearing in and vision a session um at St.

Suzanne's uh at 5:30 to 7.

We'll have refreshments and looking forward to folks being there as we set the foundation of what residents want to see in District 7 moving forward.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, couple things.

The first, I um threw yourself to LPD.

Um I sent an email um to Mr.

Whitaker and Dr.

Powers.

So, Mr.

Witterker, can you join us at the podium?

Um, I'm going to make it official this request regarding what triggers um council rule 15.5.8 um regarding um if it's a um committee chair or a person or individual council person who does not serve on a particular committee.

What triggers um a quorum of the city council may be present?

Um, and there was a little confusion um last week, and I just want further clarification.

So I'm making an official request that you shine some light on what triggers that particular um rule.

And you don't have to answer it now.

We're going to follow it up.

Um, Peter's writing it down.

We'll send you a memorandum requesting it because I um didn't know that it was the committee chair's responsibility to um trigger or to even request a 15.5.8.

Um, since I've been on the council, whenever I wanted to appear um during a um standing committee meeting and wanted to make comment other than what's allotted during public comment, I've always had either myself or my um my staff contact the chair of that particular committee, i.e.

I remember when um had the conversations about the solar farms, and I had a statement that I wanted to make, but I had to make sure I contacted the particular and it was um um chaired um Santiago Romero of public health and safety a couple years ago.

And so I got um, I don't know if you want to call it permission, but um authorization um or clearance.

I don't know what term you would use um to make a public statement um beyond what was allotted to um those who were there for public comment.

So um I'll be sending you a memorandum, but I just and we'll also be uploading to East Gry what triggers that particular um provision in our city rules.

And I think the other one was I think 9.15.

But particularly, I'm concerned about the 15.5.8 as the chair of a particular um committee.

I just want to know when is it triggered?

Is it my responsibility or is it responsibility of of an individual who does not serve on the committee to alert me that they want to make public comment beyond the two minutes that that and I'll send you the memorandum.

Mr.

President, we'd be happy to receive uh the memo and provide a report to council ASAP.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, and thank you so much.

And um, we'll get you back before the end of the day.

Um continuation of my members' report.

Everyone is invited to join us at the Northwest Activity Center for our first coughing conversation of the year, which is February 9th, Monday.

Our coughing conversations have been occurring since 2022, and they are for one hour, and they're just not um open to District 2 residents.

They're open to anybody who wants to attend.

We have a great time.

We have a lot of um folks who come in and and um share information from the different departments.

So again, that is February 9th, 8 to 9 a.m.

We start on time, and it's at the Northwest Activity Center, which is located 18100 Myers Road.

And I want to thank everyone on behalf of Tori, who um is the um she owns, I think it's called the Unique Um Livernoid.

We had a wonderful time.

She launched her mental health um awareness podcast, and the the place was filled, even with the temperatures, um, the way that they were.

Um, she did an amazing job.

We had a lot of folks from eCourse, Inkster, all over all over um Metro Detroit to come out and support the launch of her podcast.

So I was very grateful that she asked me to come in and do a welcome and to share some things that are going on in district two.

So um kudos to her and um thank you, Mr.

Chair.

That completes my member's report.

Thank you, member Delaway.

Would you like to make a motion?

I know that you said that you were gonna send a memo for Mr.

Whitaker.

We'll be sending the memo um to Mr.

Whitaker before the end of the day, as I indicated earlier.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

The motion is to um send the memo to Mr.

Whitaker by the end of the day regarding what triggers um um city rule um council rule 15.5.8, and you'll get that at the end of the day.

That's my motion.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Um, member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just want to remind District 4 residents that the Department of Neighborhoods is hosting their budget priority session this evening at 5 p.m.

It is a virtual session.

Um, it is for the new mayor to get an understanding for um what district four residents would like to see included in the budget as it will be presented to council in less than two months.

Um, so I'm encouraging residents to attend.

If you'd like the virtual link, please reach out to our office.

The phone number is 313 224841.

And just to share with residents, we hosted our budget priorities discussion last October, and we will share that information with the new administration so they're aware of what we the feedback we heard when we hosted our event last year.

So looking forward to seeing a lot of district four residents on the call again this evening at 5 p.m.

The virtual link can be obtained by calling our office at 31324841.

Or if you'd like to email us, we can send you the link.

The email address is councilmember Johnson at Detroit MI.gov.

Again, Councilmember Johnson at Detroit Mi.gov.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just a couple of things.

One thing condolences to the families in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Good and pretty, because we're getting to a point now where our First Amendment and our second, as a matter of fact, it's in jeopardy.

And when one city or state hurts, we all hurt, especially when it comes to our democracy.

And in our amendment and our first amendment and second amendment.

So condolences to those families.

Condolences to Governor Gretchen Whitmer and her family on the passing of her dad, Richard Whitmer.

I was part of that Blue Cross Blue Shield family, and I certainly I served during the time of Dick Whitmer.

Got to know him pretty well.

And so condolences to you, Governor Gretchen Whitmer and your and your family.

Pardon me.

For both, both good, pretty, and and Whitmer.

Moment of silence.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, everyone.

This Saturday from 10 a.m.

to 12 will be a town hall meeting.

The first uh one that we're hosting, which will be around the city is regarding deed fraud.

Um Detroit is take this very serious.

If you want to be able to keep your property, because running rampant, uh stealing properties all over the place in every single district in this city, they've managed to steal some property.

So this Saturday, January 31st, 10 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

at Northwest Activity Center, 18100 Myers Road.

Um Councilmember Callaway and I will be hosting a town hall meeting.

Um you can call this is a hybrid meeting.

So if you want to participate online, you can please call my office at 313628-2363-238-6.

Wait a minute, what's the number?

313-628-2363 uh for additional information if you need the uh webinar um ID, or you can email us at Councilmember Waters at Detroit MI.gov, Councilmember Waters at Detroit Mi.gov.

Um I want to thank our mayor for I I saw the article in the paper uh this morning uh regarding um her her tenants rights and and and compliance that she's gonna be doing in the various uh senior buildings.

I I want to thank her and and I do look forward to working uh with the administration so that we can systematically uh implement our housing tennis rights and compliance concept that this body voted on nearly two years ago, um, including her.

Uh she did.

I'm not sure what their plans are uh for those buildings, but I certainly hope that we are able to um work together uh on this particular initiative of hers.

And because we have a responsibility as a legislative body to make sure that there are no duplication of services.

And so uh, and I I'm looking forward to having that discussion uh during budget.

I can tell you that when people have issues, and Team Waters has been out there a lot.

And I'm pretty sure my colleagues and their teams have been out a lot because we're on the front lines.

And when people have issues in those buildings, they call us whether it's water, whether they want to ten a council set up in those buildings, and we've managed to assist a number of them and setting up their tenant councils in the various uh buildings.

And so we I look forward to hearing more about what Mayor Sheffield is planning to do.

And I certainly hope that the current tenants' rights commission that is in place, that the administration is planning to work uh uh with them and to make sure that the compliance ordinance and the tennis rights ordinance that this body passed will also be recognized and be respected during uh that process.

Thank you, um, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Johnson.

Mr.

President, you must must have been reading my mind because I just went, but I did forget something.

Um I would like to uh recognize and acknowledge Principal Michelle Davis from Davis Aerospace uh High School.

She was on the JHOD show yesterday on Jennifer Hudson's show, uh representing the city of Detroit exceptionally well.

She has a heart of goat.

She loves her students and it shows very clearly.

I visited the school a number of times, and just to see the response that they share that their response to her loving them, essentially.

Um, they are open, willing to share their emotions.

And I'm talking about the young boys.

Uh they they are just absolutely amazing.

Um, and I just wanted to give kudos to her.

I know she already has Spirit of Detroit Awards, um, but if she can get another one, I would give her another one.

So uh we will be there visiting the school just to thank her for who she is, um, just being a phenomenal person and sharing her love with our young children at Davis Aerospace High School.

So thank you, Mr.

President.

Yes, ma'am.

She is awesome.

She is awesome.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just want to thank residents for joining us this past Saturday for our virtual budget training.

We did have to pivot due to the weather.

Uh, thank you for giving us your feedback on what you want us to prioritize in this budget.

We too will be meeting with the OCFO's office to share with them our priorities.

Thank you, LPD, for joining us and for helping ensure that we gave accurate information and answered questions from the public.

Want to invite District 6 residents to join us for our office hours for February.

I will be joining.

I will be at Equity Alliance on next Monday, February 2nd from 3 to 5 p.m.

And then we'll be at Kemene Rec Center on Monday, February 16th from 4 to 6 p.m.

I want to remind residents that we also have our budgets, Office of Budgets uh D6 budget priorities forum online.

It's going to be this Thursday, January 29th at 5 p.m.

We'll link this to our Facebook.

Um, and we will also share our recording and our information on our newsletter uh this Friday regarding budgets.

Um, and just um, because it was mentioned as we continue to be impacted by the violence, um, the federal agents of ICE.

Um, I am hoping to meet with our mayor next week um to finalize what our plans are here in the city of Detroit to protect everyone.

Uh, we see black and white American citizens at this point uh be targets as well, uh making it very clear that we are not safe, none of us are safe under this federal agency.

Uh, so hope to come back with more information and a plan to protect everyone in the next coming weeks.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Miller.

Good afternoon again.

I just wanted to say um member waters.

I also want to commend the mayor for her new task force in our senior building.

She was in our district yesterday, and I got some amazing reviews from our residents.

They called, they sent pictures, and I am excited also with her new initiative and joining her in District 5, especially where we house more seniors in any other district in the city.

Um, I am excited about teaming up with her, and I look forward to sitting down with them to see how we could also uh collaborate.

I did want to say that our first district five community kickoff is this Wednesday.

It is this Wednesday from 6 8 at the Considine.

The Constantine's address is 8904 Woodward.

That's 8904 Woodward.

We will have our first District 5 community kickoff.

You will be able to meet our staff.

It's going to be a meeting greet.

You get to meet our staff, share your concerns and ideas and help shape the priorities for district five.

We're going to have real talk at a real time once everyone's off work.

So please join us.

Don't let the weather hold you back.

It says six o'clock.

We'll be there at least until eight.

And that is also the time for our budget initiative with the mayor's office.

It is online.

Unfortunately, we had our date planned and we were unable to cancel, but we do look forward to everyone.

Do join online and then come on over if you have an ear pod, utilize it and try to do both at the same time.

But we look forward to uh seeing you once again, six o'clock at the Considine at 8904 Woodward on um Wednesday, the 28th of January.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And Member Miller, I know I have the pleasure of being able to just say member Miller, but I know many of us, and I've been incorrect as well, have pronounced your first name incorrectly.

Uh if you can please, and I want to give you that opportunity because I want to make sure everyone knows how to say it and pronounce it so it is on the record because again, I said it wrong a couple of times myself.

It's Renata, Renata, like Renee.

Like Renee, just like it's spelled pronata.

Yes.

All right.

For the record.

For the record.

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, Sylvia.

All right.

I have no member reports, but we're gonna uh wrap it up with uh member, excuse me, go a pro tem yeah, Renee Ta.

All right, all right, I got it.

Uh I have two questions I just wanted to ask.

One I wanted I wanted me to ask before, but I didn't.

So I wanted to ask, um, and you don't have to answer to be now, you can say it to me in writing, and um, I'm also making a motion to answer this too, but I want to know in terms of um furnaces and home repairs.

Could FEMA and CBDG funding be provided for emergency funding for those services?

And also, can recreation centers on the east side be used and included as temporary shelters?

So I just wanted to get an answer from the administration, and I also would like to make a motion to LPD to be able to answer those questions as well.

You're gonna put that in writing?

Yes, I'm gonna put it in writing.

So with the motion, please state restation.

Oh, sorry.

Yes, I like to make a motion uh for the question answered.

Can FEMA and CBDG funds, community development block grant funds be used for the federal emergency um FEMA, excuse me, be used um to provide emergency funding for the services of home repairs and for furnace repair?

And can the recreation centers on the east side be used as temporary shelters?

And who's that director to, sir?

That's right to LPD.

All right, colleagues.

There's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

The federal emergency management agency.

I'm sorry, that's what I'm gonna say.

I say feed my guy.

Next step.