Good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to call the budget finance and all this standing committee meeting of Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 to order.

Will the clerk please call the role?

Sure.

Good afternoon.

Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

Present.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Councilmember McCampbell, we have quorum.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And now we'll move on to approval of the minutes.

If there are any, I believe we have the minutes.

If I were to take a motion to approve the minutes.

Motion to approve.

Without any objections, the action shall be taken.

And will the clerk please note the presence of member waters?

The clerk will note.

Thank you so much.

All right.

We'll move on to chair remarks.

I I do not have any remarks today.

And that'll move us on to public comment.

We'll close public comment, a request for public comment at 110.

Please limit your remarks to two minutes, and we'll start with folks in the room.

Do we have uh we have one person in the room I see?

Um, and then out there in the room, we'll go to Zoom and Sir if you will want to come forward for your public comment.

Good afternoon.

If you can just uh state your name and then you'll have two minutes.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jadonte Smith.

Uh so I have a completely directed comment towards District 4.

I wish I could have caught you beforehand, uh, Councilwoman uh Johnson.

So you gave a spirit of Detroit award in 2024 to a Dr.

Tunisia Evans of Divine Restoration Ministries.

Her church is located, one of her churches located 16392 Harper.

She has a church located at 10531 uh Orange Lawn.

That church is behind four years in Wayne County taxes and city of Detroit taxes to the tune of 69,000.

She owes 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 taxes.

So I there's a young there's a gentleman who keeps coming down here.

He owed one year of taxes and lost his property from a 2027 2017 payment.

Very egregious to see a person who have that much pool.

She she's friends with Mark Hackle and Haley Stevens, and I hate to say it, I wish her office did a little bit more work on that.

So Perry Columbus Jenkins, I'm helping him.

He has court today.

So uh I give credit to um the land bank, Tammy Daniels, for having a meeting with me about his property in District 4.

Um, even though uh Councilman Johnson you agreed to meet with me before Fraser Kemsen from Coleman Young's disrespectful office told me he wouldn't meet with me.

It was not much he could say.

Then you said that you'd only meet with me and you couldn't say anything.

And so I also talk about the Cover Girl Strip Club in District 4.

Um that strip club needs to stay closed.

I'll be working with Pastor Alonzo Bell, um, who I met a decade ago about keeping that strip club closed.

That's a CVI zone along with here.

They have a business association as well.

That strip club is going to bring possibly prostitution, um, sex trafficking, drugs, lots of crime and violence, fights, and a lot of belligerent activity to that corridor, which is being rebuilt.

And I used to live on Corville Street in District 4, and I believe that strip club needs to stay closed.

It's been closed for years.

Those owners do not deserve to be able to buy that property and open that strip club back up.

And I also end out with uh Conrad Mallet needs to not be re-elected.

I promise, I promise, I promise.

I will bring as much media attention to this council as I can about Conrad Mallet.

If you vote him in tomorrow at 2:30.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith, for coming down.

If you will check your email, you will see that I responded immediately to you about meeting with you as it relates to Mr.

Perry Jenkins.

I didn't hear back from you.

So you may want to take a look at your email when you were in the committee of the whole, um, or actually during formal session, you you emailed me and I emailed you back immediately.

Um, and never heard back from you.

Uh would appreciate your support as it relates to cover girls.

Um, we have already looked into it.

The facility itself has the licensing to do what it did before.

So this owner has already the permitting.

I think what it'll take for them not to open up is pressure from the community.

So certainly um look forward to you supporting Pastor Bell and the community over there who have been reaching out to me.

I'm in alignment with them.

I know the work that we all have been doing in the Whittier corridor.

They were the ones who came to me asking for the planning study that is now underway for that Denby Whittier area.

So um, as much as we can do to stabilize that neighborhood and and build it up.

I'm certainly advocating for that, and we'll be in lockstep with you all.

Pastor Bill has my personal cell phone number.

So happy to advocate with you all to make sure that we're improving that community as a whole.

As it relates to the church, I'm not familiar with the church on the west side.

The church on the east side that you referenced, I believe her husband was the pastor of the church.

And transitioned not long ago.

So perhaps that has something to do with their outstanding bills.

I'm not sure, but I don't have a personal relationship with them.

I know the work that they've been doing in the community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

All right.

Um was request for public comments still open.

We'll move on.

Seeing no other folks in the room, we'll move on to Zoom.

Yeah.

Sorry, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, we have right now 11 people.

11 hands reads for public comment.

Our first is Veronica Smith.

All right.

Um, Veronica Smith.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

My name is Veronica Smith.

Thank you.

Apologies.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am from the Coalition of Property Tax Tax Justice, and we'd like to talk about the five pillars that we think would help us get through a hundred days of this administration.

First 100 days.

What we like is um property tax justice.

Who can give it to us?

Mayor Sheffield.

And how do we get what we want with our five pillars that we like to present?

First pillar being replace the assessor with a qualified assessor.

You know, we need to ensure that Detroit's chief property tax assessors passed the MA officer examination required for the city of the size of Detroit.

Two, we want to enforce the property tax reform ordinance passed in 2023.

Um, some of those things have been implemented, but we need a lot more to be implemented in addition to the ones that Mayor Sheffield mentioned in her executive order.

We need to upgrade the notice of assessment by clearly writing the mailing date.

We need to produce an annual independent assessment racial study, which determines if tax property tax assessments are fair in Detroit.

Three, we want to stop the overassessing of lower valued homes.

We know we had this the survey that came out and said that we're at 50.1%, but with averages, we know there's always somebody who falls below, and we've got 40 houses that are below that rate and being over-assessed.

We want to protect unoccupied exemptions.

Um, we'd like to have the Office of the Assessor to remove ineligible LLCs from the PRE roles to ensure.

Thank you, Ms.

Smith.

Um, next call.

Our next caller is phone number ending in 169.

Phone number ended in 169.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Um, can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Um, please, please.

And thank you for praying for Brother Cunningham.

Curry Ham is the underdog.

The others are rich and powerful.

Help the underdog, even if you have to help him behind the scenes.

God will bless you.

Here's a quote.

Always make a total effort, even when the eyes are against you.

And that quote is by Arnold Palmer.

Thank you for my time.

Thank you so much.

Next caller.

Our next caller is Betty A.

Varner.

Miss Varner, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm president of DeSoda Elsewhere Black Association and want to share some good news.

I'm excited today.

I found out that there's a new business who has moved on our Finkel Corridor.

And I'm happy about that.

And I want to advocate for my Finker corridor as I do often.

We are in the need of help to get monies to redevelop, revitalize our corridor.

We are not asking to be treated any differently than any other corridors that have been uh revitalized.

That's a wonderful thing that the city is doing.

We just want to be part of these good blessings.

I think a corridor.

We want to be able to go to our immediate area to be able to spend our money and to uplift our community.

We're in a situation now we don't even have a supermarket in our immediate area.

There are uh seniors and people who are disabled, as myself who cannot uh get out and go to a supermarket.

Now I'm fortunate I have help, but everybody might not be in my same situation.

So we're asking that whatever the council and the administration can do to um help us in this area to revitalize our community um corridor, our thinker corridor.

I'm excited about the new business that's being in our area.

I'm excited about our Diva Community Park.

We are purchased additional land, and we are going to be expanding our park, and we're eager to get started when the weather breaks.

Thank you for this time.

God bless you all.

Thank you, Miss Varner, and and definitely share your um your concern and priority around getting more activity in our corridors, Finco and others throughout the neighborhood.

So thank you so much.

Next caller.

Our next caller is phone number ending in 169.

I think we just we already had 169.

That was it, that was a different phone number.

All right, caller ended at 169.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

Um, I just spoke.

Oh right, thank you.

Thanks, caller.

Our next uh our next caller is Cunningham.

Brother Cunningham, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

God is great.

Oh, let me roll my one rub and pull over.

Um and it says, God is great, stay warm, free hand warmers.

Uh so I've been from east to west, north to south.

I come from just Livernoise and Grand River, and now I'm going all the way to Grasshit.

So I'll I see the east to west, north to south every single day.

I can't help but to see it.

And the bus stops are not shoveled.

I don't know who lying.

And then as regards the buses being on time, I'm not hearing that they're being on time or showing up.

So I don't know where these statistics are coming from.

Are they valid or are they just sugarcoating stuff?

Because I uh I don't I don't see much improvement.

My hotline number 313 4449114, 31344, 9114.

That is my Cash App.

You can also put that number in on Facebook, and you'll find my page 31349114.

As it regards to the warming buses, I'm hoping that they expand to go overnight to the warming coaches.

Also, um a lot of people don't even know that Pair Transit exists, and Pair Transit is excellent.

As I go around and see people with walkers, canes and things of that nature, I give them an application, even if they are my customer to Peer Transit.

It doesn't benefit me, but my nature is not to care about it benefiting me, it's to benefit my brother and sister, and there's karma in ball.

If anyone needs Uber Lyft services, use me.

At least you know where your money is going.

Thank you, Brother Cunningham.

And on that topic, if you do have which bus stops are not yet shoveled, um, please do send that to my office so we can follow up with the department on that.

Next caller.

Our next caller is owner Papa.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, and to the chair, may I be heard?

Yes, you may.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Um there are there's a there's a lot of um uh a lot of poverty going around in the city of Detroit.

Um, and I I see that um we we have the accessor here today, and um I think the way the taxes are being done is very unfair to the majority and the legacy people that are here.

Um we have people in places like um Corktown that are getting subsidized uh with tax dollars, uh federal dollars, and they don't meet the qualifications to um qualify for the kinds of monies they're taking out of the city and from the neighborhoods.

Um they were chosen as a choice neighborhood, and I and and that is telling all in it all in itself.

Um my my question to you yesterday was not to disper discourage uh people who have different languages, but just to say that um we don't pick our money off of a money tree, and everything has to be uh cost.

I mean, ask the assessor how much does it cost now to print our um assessors' bills and all of our bills and triplets.

Ask them how much the cost has gone up.

Do you realize that you could put other languages online?

Um you tell poor people and people without phones, you give them phone numbers and websites, but people who speak a different language can't go to a um a website and have their languages translate it because it's easy enough.

Google does it for free.

Um I I really I really think that uh we we need to have a conversation, and 6.2 is a good place to start our long-term debt.

Don't let Mr.

Um put you off.

Uh, we need this report before budget.

Thank you so much.

I will just say I I understand the concern around cost of printing, but also stand by the need for language access.

And also what I want to make sure that we're accessible to all folks, so not only by calling it online, but we also have a district office and the office is downtown as well.

So want to be as successful as possible and make sure people understand what our their government is communicating to them.

So thank you so much.

Next caller.

Our next caller is phone number ending in one two four.

Caller ending one two four.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Are you there?

All right, we'll go back to this caller.

Next caller, please.

Yeah, we'll move them towards the end, Mr.

Chair.

And our next caller is William M.

Davis.

Commissioner Davis, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, young people.

How are y'all doing today?

Can I be heard?

Yes, you may.

Good afternoon.

Okay, I like to start off with the drainage fee.

I think it needs to be it needs to be more transparency in the drainage fee.

Uh we the people need to know how much is being collected, how is it being allocated, and how the winners and losers are being picked, you know.

Some churches and institutions may not have to pay the full journey fee, where others may have to.

Also, I think uh we you know, we need to have a little bit of transparency as it relates to I I worked like many people work for the Detroit Water and Sewage Department for 34 years.

All during the time that worked for the city from 1978 to 2012, you know, the the water bill, and they said that my the while the rates was paying my my salary, my benefits, and what have you.

And the benefits also included my pension.

So if the water rates was paying for my pension too, why is my pension why was my pension cut?

And if that was the case, then do the city owe some of us a rebate on uh what we've been paying.

I mean that's something that should be explored.

Uh also as relates to DWS, you know, as it relates to Detroit police department.

You know, as you know, I was uh elected police commissioner, and one of the problems we had with with that was the fact that you know we could rule on the fact that somebody should get suspended or there's that, but their contract actually supersedes the city charter, and that whenever you do the next uh police department um officers and sergeants and every everyone else, the different union people, and I was a union people, I am still a union person.

You know, it should be some adjustments made so that their contract cannot be supersede the the city charter.

You know, if if you have a bad officer and and they uh continue to do stuff, we should not have to keep paying for them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis.

Uh next call.

Yes, our next caller is caller, call in user one.

Call in user one.

Uh good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Call in user one.

Are you there?

Can you can you hear me?

Hello.

Yes, yes, I can.

Let me get straight to the point.

The bus stops that is on Lynnwood and West Grand Boulevard near Northwestern High School have not been shoveled.

If you're going southbound on Lynwood, where the Marathon Gas Station, that bus stop has not been fully shoveled so that the children can get to school.

If you go on the north side of West Grand Boulevard and Limwood, the excuse me, bus stop has not been shoveled fully, making it difficult for children who are falling every morning.

When you go on Linwood and West Grand Boulevard, where the Dexter lets off going northbound, that bus stop hasn't been fully shoveled.

I sent each council member, um, including yours, Campbell, um, President Tate, and young um Pro Tim Um pictures asking this, and it has not been done.

There's the old hotel that I think was uh St.

Leo's hotel.

It needs to be better shoveled because when you're getting out of your metro lift and you have your walker, so much snow and ice, many elderly are falling and slipping.

And instead of ignoring me, I like to see this being done.

When you contact member Kate's office, you have to deal with arrogancy as though you're taking up time.

Same as if you contact Scott Benson's office, you're dealing with the same arrogancy, and I'm tired of it.

In closing, you all need to stop building and safety from telling owners and management companies when we complain to you all with pictures and videos that's making you a susceptible of getting.

Um to DPW and D.A.SAP.

Um apologies.

I want to make sure that folks have the um notice that some of the communications to our office may have been lost.

One make sure that folks know that our email address is council member Denzel at Detroit Mi.gov is not Councilmember McCampbell.

So just want to make that note for people who are uh contacting our office, but we'll get that right over to folks and also uh I share your concern about confidentiality of folks when it comes to BC complaints.

Um, Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, Ms.

Shea, if you are still listening, I just want to let you know we did share the information with DPS CD.

They did send um their contractor out to make sure that the sidewalk around the high school was shoveled, but we'll also uh elevate the bus stop.

Um and I think we need to be sure that B seed is aware of the bus stop across the street on the other side of the um median uh is addressed.

So we will do that as well.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

All right, next caller.

Our next caller is phone number ending in 039.

Phone number in the 039.

Are you there?

Yeah, uh Councilman McCamble.

Now to your left and to your right are two TV and public officials.

They uh won't say anything about this finding on the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report.

And um the person that paired the committee this morning, the skeleton, the skeletor, uh she won't say nothing about the findings on the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report.

But district six councilwoman, um, not Conservator Lopez.

Um you know the one out against the sixth.

Uh she said he read the report on May the 9th, 2024, and she's a liar.

My word on it.

Because she didn't have it.

The report the report, I called her office on the 20th, and none of the council people have been sent their report, nor the mayor's office, nor the law department.

Now we're just whiffy, the trade city clerk person of the trade election commission told the lie.

She had comrade Mallet Jr., Corporation Council for the City of Detroit sitting right beside her.

And he didn't say sugar honey IT.

Y'all busted.

And how much the vision covering up murder.

And uh Gabriella, Cartiago Romero is a liar.

Andrew with Bill Callaway, Mary Waters, Patricia Johnson.

Tell the city and the residents and the taxpayers when did you definitely do an allegation of the voter fraud by not in the citizen report by Janice Lefrey Peter in the Detroit election?

Thank you.

Are there any other callers on the zone?

Mike.

Sorry, uh, Mr.

Chair.

Right before you close public comment, we had a few more people, uh, plus phone number 124 uh get on to the list.

Our next caller is Mr.

Rue.

Mr.

Rue.

Oh, that was that was just the caller.

Next person.

Uh our next caller is Rada Caralho.

Our next caller.

Good afternoon.

Yay.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

I wanted to speak on the coalition for property tax justices first 100 days plan and to ask the city council to use their powers as they can to encourage Mayor Shaffield to implement our five pillars for property tax justice to replace the assessor with a qualified assessor to enforce the property tax reform ordinance passed in 2023 to stop over-assessing lower valued homes and to protect owner occupant exemptions.

And finally, to return the money to overtaxed homeowners.

All of these reforms are very specific.

They are well researched.

We have spoken to several of the council members, you know, about these reforms, and Mayor Sheffield has the power to implement them.

We just ask for city council support and making it happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller.

Our next caller is Damon, Coalition for Property Tax Justice.

Damon, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Yes, good afternoon.

That's Damon.

And thank you all for your time.

Um I'm with the District 3, where we was in District 3 before our foreclosure, and now we're in District 4.

And I'd like to commend uh councilman person Johnson for her um efforts in our district and being um and being available and the way that she is, but also more most importantly, as it as it relates to us uh to protect the uh owner owner occupant exemption.

We really need that um immediately because that's one of the reasons why uh our home was foreclosed on is because it was uh the inflated rate, and I was removed from the exemptions list, and still to this day, you know, it's been uh half a dozen years that we've been dealing with this issue, and um, and we still haven't had our home.

So that brings me to the other point of having uh uh compensation.

We need to be compensated.

Our family has been displaced and has uh has a series of um events related to that foreclosure that displaced us that has caused other relatives to have uh issues in life because of that stability that was there that is no longer there.

Uh it is very important that not only uh are we to protect the homeowners uh uh the owner occupant exemptions, but that we're compensated for for our loss.

And uh with that I yield thank you, thank thank you all for the time.

Thank you, and thank you for calling in and um sharing your story, and we see the human impacts of what foreclosure overassessment has on families.

So thank you.

Um next caller.

Our next caller is Detroit City Code 50-2-66 matters.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Uh yes, good afternoon.

May I be here?

Yes, you may.

Yeah, I just want to say for all of you in case you don't know.

Uh there's a class action lawsuit that got filed against the land bank and the city of Detroit about the illegal nuisance abatement taking cases.

So you really need to tell the land bank to stop.

You should all listen to member Mary Waters, who was in the legislature when they passed the Michigan Fast Land Bank Authority Act, and they were supposed to be dealing with tax-reverted properties, not commandeering people's private property.

So if you let this out of control land bank, keep going.

You are incurring liability on our behalf, because we'll probably have to pay for it, and that would be negligence on your part.

So please tell the land bank to stop.

And where is the uh legal opinion from Attorney General Dana Nesso that council members waters asked for some time ago?

And if you don't believe member waters, which you should because she was there, talk to William McConaco, chief judge of 36th District Court.

He was in the legislature at the same time.

And when I was being falsely prosecuted for a false arrest, he was my first judge, the bogus charge funding got dropped on judge number four.

Um, and I mentioned him the new sense abatement program, and he had a very befuddled look on his face, and he's like, that doesn't sound like what we voted for, because it's not what they voted for.

And the city council does not have the authority to authorize the land bank to do what it's not allowed to do under state law.

So it's time to stop, and you really need to compensate all these people that they roll over because they don't have the resources to fight back.

The attorneys, when you're supposed to confer with them, it's their way or the highway.

They can't even discuss their own legal authority to go after people.

And they don't they just don't have the right to commandeer private property.

And so did did did Conrad Mallet warn you about this?

Another reason, no Conrad Mallet, because he doesn't uphold the charter, and I could tell you more stuff.

No one Bush and no on Snyder, because they're not transparent, they don't do some sincere community engagement.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller.

Uh phone number ending in 124 is no longer on the call, so we are done with public comment.

All right, thank you.

That will conclude public comment, and that will move us on to our presentation for um a presentation by the Office of Assessor to present property tax assessment data.

All right, we'll have folks come forward, please.

Good afternoon.

And before we get started, just uh do you all have slides for the presentation?

Uh yes, Mr.

Chair, they were turned over to staff, and I believe someone else is going to be the driver today.

All right, thank you.

All right, good afternoon.

If you could state your name for the record.

Uh good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, members of the committee, Alvin Horn, Deputy CFO and Assessor for the City of Detroit.

Good afternoon, Cynthia Burton, Deputy Assessor for the City of Detroit.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for being here.

And you may go right ahead.

As soon as everything pops up on the screen, we can begin.

And there we are.

So Mr.

Chair, thank you for the opportunity to present this demonstrate.

This is presentation.

It should take five to ten minutes.

It's an overview of how the city's values have changed over the from December 31st of 2024 through December 31st of 2025 for the current assessment year.

If you go to the next, if you could go to the next slide, please.

As was presented at the mayor's press conference last week, the average assessment in C of Detroit for residential properties increased by 10% over the prior year.

Of 286 residential neighborhoods, 267 saw an increase in property values.

And even though the property values did increase, the taxable value of your property, the amount that you pay taxes on, is capped by the Michigan Constitution.

For 2026, that cap is 2.7%.

So despite the value increase of your property, which is a good thing.

Your equity goes up, the generational wealth goes up.

Your taxes are not going up at the rate of the value increase.

They are capped as long as you did not purchase that property in 2025, they are capped at the rate of inflation, 2.7%.

Next slide, please.

And this is just talking about the process a little bit.

So the state of Michigan uses what's known as a 24-month sales study.

Every single assessor, every equalization director does the same thing.

The sales study for 2026 looked at sales between April 1st of 2023 through March 31st of 2025.

That process actually starts with the county equalization director.

They have the same sales that we have.

They look at the exact same numbers we do, and they provide what's called an L4015.

That's a list of the sales that the City of Detroit can use to compute values for this year.

We can have a back and forth with them.

We could ask them to include or remove sales, but ultimately the county equalization director decides on the sales which are used.

Next slide, please.

This is our economic condition factor map.

The two areas in pink are the are the two largest areas in the city that saw property decline.

One is around the airport, and for the last several years, the airport has demolished about 1,400 houses.

So that would lead to a decline in residential values.

The other is near the Packard plant.

So there's been demolition in that area.

So that has lost, that has led to a loss of value in that surrounding area.

There's been smaller neighborhoods throughout the city, which in some cases have lost value.

That is attributed primarily through demolitions of property.

Having said that, we have seen sales decline.

The volume of sales are pretty much the same.

In our last sales study, we looked at about 63,000 transfers.

That's comparable to the last three sales studies.

So the number of sales is consistent, but the sale prices decline a little.

It's declined slightly in 2026.

It is somewhere around $94,000 right now.

So the volume of sales are the same, but the value has started to decline the low.

Next slide, please.

This is the property assessment notice.

This is what people get at the start of the month.

It's the it is the lead up to the appeals process in the city of Detroit.

The box circle in red is the one that's most important to most people.

That tells you what your taxes are going to go up from one year to the next.

If you did not buy your property in 2025, your taxable value is capped.

It doesn't matter what the assessment went up.

In this particular instance, you see the assessment in 2025 was $18,000.

Am I blind so bad?

No, it was 40%.

Thank you.

The assessment in 2025 was 47,000.

The tentative assessment in 2026 is $60,500.

So that's an increase of value of $13,000.

But the line before that shows the taxable value.

The taxable value only went up 2.7% from 17,756 to 18,235, an increase of 479, which leads to a tax increase of 24.

That's comparable to what most people who have owned their property prior to 2025 will see.

Next slide, please.

This is a graph showing basically the deaths of the recession through where we are today.

Seven years earlier, the residential value of the city was over 17 billion dollars.

That is how hard the recession hit the city.

We lost almost 14 billion dollars in residential value over seven years.

For the next several years, the value can conclude can continue to decline.

It hit its lowest point in 2017, $2.8 billion.

It finally started to reverse itself in 2018, 2019, 2020.

Starting with the 2021 tax year, we started seeing significant increases.

The Apex was in 2023.

That was the year of an almost 30% increase in property values.

What goes up comes down.

So since 2023, we have started seeing smaller increases in value.

The needle is still going up.

It simply isn't going up as fast as it as it once was.

The blue line represents the value.

The red line, the taxable value.

So even though we've seen it increase in the wealth of our real estate, the taxes have not increased at the same rate.

Since 2020 since 2014, the value of the residential class has tripled and is triple.

But the tax will increase, the increase in taxable value is about a quarter, about 25%.

Next slide, please.

So this is a graph that simply shows the same thing by dollar value.

And it's a little more, it shows a little, it's a little more dramatic.

It starts off at around 3.3.

You can see it declined to 2.8, and then it's starting in 2021, 22, it zooms.

The city is in the 10-year run of double digit value increases.

And you can see at the very end how dramatic it has been these last three years.

Next slide, please.

This shows a breakdown by council district.

District 1 and 2 have lost a low residential value.

We're not entirely certain why, but we've double checked and triple checked those numbers.

So there's been a slight decrease in the value in both Council District 1 and Council District 2.

Council District 3 has seen the largest increase this year between 2025 and 2026, and almost 22% increase in value.

District 5 is still seeing an increase.

District 5 is still seeing an increase, but it is not as the same increase as it has been.

That is attributed almost entirely to the loss of value in the condo market.

Over the last two, three years, condos have lost a considerable amount of value from their Apex in 2223.

Most of the condos in Detroit are in District 5 and 6.

A lot of it is generational housing that does not transfer that often.

And District 7 has seen an increase.

Those of us who've been in Detroit for a while, those districts were devastated during the during the recession.

District 3, District, District 3, and District 7 lost a considerable amount of residential wealth.

It was consistent across the city, but was heavy in District 3 and in District 7.

The last few years we've seen that rebound, and we are starting to see this is the fourth year of value increases in District 7.

This is the second year value increases in District 3.

Next slide, please.

This talks a little bit about the review period.

Sunday, the assessor's review started.

That's the first tier of a three-tier appeals process in the City of Detroit.

It is from February 1st through the 22nd.

You can appeal online, in person, or by mail.

It is meant to be an informal process.

You can simply tell us that you don't agree, and we will we will verify those values.

We will send an appraiser to your property.

You can tell us I don't understand how you came up with these values, and we will go and explain it to you, and we'll still send someone to your property to make sure those those processes are correct.

This is meant to be as easy as possible, the assessor's review.

It is not mandatory.

You don't have to go to the assessors review.

But I would tell anyone who owns property in this city, they should go through the process.

And here's why.

We won't know if the foundations cracked.

We won't know if the roof gels are rotten.

We don't know if you've got a flooding issue in your basement unless you file an appeal and we can come to the property.

Because short of that, we have to use the sales.

And right now we're in a 10-year run of value increases.

So unless we know that there's something about your house that stands out that we need to take an account of during this appear during this valuation process, we'll never know.

We do not increase values during the appeals process.

If we send an appraiser to your house and they see something unexpected, we're not going to shoot up your values.

This is designed to see if there's a reason to adjust the value.

That's the only thing we're there to do.

As I said, you're not required to file an appeal at the at the assessor's review.

However, the second tier, the March Board Review, to protect your rights to continue the appeals process, you are required.

If you're a residential property owner, you are required by Michigan law to file an appeal at the Marshall Board Review.

The March Board Review runs from March 4th through the 28th.

While the first tier is informal, the assessor's review, the Marshall Review is a creature of the State of Michigan.

The Board of Review is required to follow Michigan law as they hear those appeals.

Next slide, please.

As I said, residential property owners do not have to go to the Marshall Review.

I would suggest you do.

If you get three bytes of the apple, why would you only take two?

A lot easier to come in there and say this is what I think is wrong, as opposed to the Marshall Review, which under Michigan law, you have to prove your point.

You have to prove to the Board of Review why they should reduce the value.

Finally, the third and final tier is the Michigan Tax Tribunal.

That is an administrative court of the State of Michigan.

They have final jurisdiction over valuation issues in the state.

You have to preserve your right to appeal to the tribunal, you have to go to the March Board Review.

Next slide, please.

And this is just a continuation of the appeals process.

How you can appeal, you can in person, Room 130 of the first floor of this building, the Common Common A Young Municipal Center.

You can apply online to trade.gov/slash property tax appeals, or you can mail.

You can send a letter to our office asking to open up an appeal.

Next slide.

And this is talks a little bit about the mayor's executive order from last Friday.

The purpose of that is to be as transparent as we possibly can, and it's another attempt to restore trust in the process, which many people question.

The second is a mass appraisal report.

A master appraisal report is a deep dive into the operations of the assessor's office.

Why did we how did we come to these conclusions?

What data did we use?

The individual pieces are a part of public record.

This consolidates everything into one report.

The first one will be issued in 2027, and then a report every other year after that.

And finally, a review of our economic condition factors, our residential neighborhoods.

We started with 208 two years ago.

We started the modifications last year.

We expected it would take anywhere from two to five years.

The mayor has instructed us to have this completed by this year.

We can.

We have the process in place.

We have everything lined up to do it this year, so we can comply with the mayor's orders.

And what modifying our ECF does, assessing is an apple to apple comparison.

You compare bungalows to bungalows, two family flats to two family flats.

What we're doing in this new review is doing a deeper dive into why people buy properties in the particular block.

We're looking at more than just sales.

We're looking at more than just the condition of the neighborhood.

We're trying to figure out where the grocery stores are, where the barbershops are, where the bus routes are, what the traffic count on every street is.

Everything that goes into why a person buys a property, and we're trying to break it down into attributes that can help us determine what the value should be at.

So this is this is a project we've been working on for a few years now, and this is the opportunity to actually get something out of it.

So, Mr.

Chair, this is the end of my presentation, and Ms.

Burton and I are prepared for any questions that you and your members may have.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate the presentation.

We will start with Vice Chair Johnson if you have any questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, good afternoon to you both.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um it's great for the community to hear these presentations so that they have a better understanding of what goes into the assessments.

I do have I have a number of questions, so Mr.

Chair, feel free to stop me if I'm going too long.

Um I can always submit additional questions via a memo.

So can you talk about you indicated that real estate sales have decreased, although the average amount of home, the home values have increased.

So I'm assuming that's real estate sales can be.

The other way around now.

It was the other way around.

Yes now.

So real estate sales decreased, but the home values increase.

The home values are the home values are decreasing, but the number of sales are consistent with the last several years.

So we're still selling a thousand houses, but those thousand houses sold for a hundred thousand dollars last year.

This year there's some for 95,000.

Okay.

Okay.

Do you do you equate that to the percentage or ratio of renters in comparison to homeowners at all?

Through the chair.

Not really.

I think what we're seeing in the real estate market is in the indicative of what we're seeing across the economy.

When people are nervous, when they're unsure about what direction the accounty is going, they stop making big purchases.

And for most of us, that biggest purchase we can ever make is a house.

So there was this is not unexpected that the values would start declining to some extent.

And I would point out to the members, our perverse increase is still higher than the surrounding communities.

Many people are priced out of those markets.

They're looking at Detroit.

Now, what has happened these last three years that wasn't happening before?

People would look at the preferred neighborhood.

They'd look at Rosedale Park, they'd look at Indian Village, they'd look at Palmer Woods.

And if I can't find a house there, they're going to Canton.

What's happening now is people look at those neighborhoods.

They can't find a house there, so you're looking at the surrounding neighborhoods.

That's what's driving the increase.

And the look in there, because there's, as I said, there's still structurally sound houses.

It's older.

You won't find the anemones you're finding other, you know, you won't find attached garages, you won't find walk-in showers, but the homes are still structurally sound, and they can be, you can buy them for far less than you can buy a single family home in some of the surrounding areas.

So I hear your question, and I I think it's a great question because I sometimes I don't know.

Does the number of renters in the particular area influence the selling price of a of a of a particular neighborhood?

If you'd asked me that seven or eight years ago, I would say yes.

Because it was clear as owner occupants were leaving the city and more renters were moving to those areas.

It was clear that the values were declining.

So there would it was easier to make that correlation.

But as values increase and as we start seeing a turnaround for the last year was probably the first year in almost 15 years that there were more owner occupants than runners in the city.

So those values are starting to increase.

They well, they've been increasing prior to that.

That might be more of a cause and effect.

As values go up, people want to own property in this city.

So I I don't have an easy answer because I don't know what if there is one to that.

Sure.

But thank you for the question.

Yeah, thank you.

Um can you share um what other data is used uh to calculate home values?

I know you talked about arm-to-arm transactions.

Yes, ma'am.

Um through the chair.

Direct sales are the most obvious one.

Uh the trait, we we looked at about 63,000 transfers of all type between April 1st of 23 and to March 31st of 20 of 2025.

We look at direct sales, but we also take into consideration the condition of the neighborhood.

Ums in this city have have regained value.

Almost all cities in this neighborhood have in this almost all neighborhoods in the city have regained value over the last several years.

But there are still some neighborhoods which are still have a way to go.

And in many cases, that will influence the value.

You might maintain your home, it might be the nicest house on the street.

But if there's three vacant lots on one side of you, uh a boarded up piece of something that should be torn down across the street and a crack house on the corner, you're not going to sell your house for very much.

So we have to take those type of issues into consideration.

So the condition of the neighborhood plays as almost as much a factor as the actual selling price of property.

And finally, it's the condition of the of the houses in that neighborhood.

A house might sell for 125,000.

That's great for the owner.

But from my perspective, the house was built in 1943.

It hasn't been maintained.

It has been upgraded.

It's in fair to poor condition.

So, yes, they got 125,000 for it, but based on the material condition of that house, I can't assess it for that.

I have to take into consideration the material condition of that house.

So even if we in theory set that assessment at half of that 125, we wouldn't do that because it's not worth 60,000 from an assessor's vantage, from the condition of it.

We have to take into account it hasn't been maintained.

It's 80 years old.

It doesn't have the attributes that most people are looking for in a house that day.

So that brings that assessment down.

And this is one of the things that we actually look at during the assessor's review.

When we go to a house, one of the first things we look at is the things that most people wouldn't even think of.

We're going to look at the walls and see if there's been water damage.

We're going to look to see if there's any type of foundation if the house is settled and cracked the foundation.

If the windows are should have been replaced 10 years ago, so now your walls are warped, your floors are warped, there's water damage.

Those are the kind of things you see with older homes.

So it may sell for 125,000, but once we do our review and we look at all the all the nuts and bolts, we're going to bring that value down more in line to what we believe the actual value of the property is.

No, it it's it just makes me think about the assessor review process, and I know Mr.

Downwell always encourages everybody to go through the border review at least once so you understand it.

It sounds like many of us should go through an assessor review as well, just to make sure our properties are in alignment with the assessor's office and recognizing so you know houses in the city of Detroit are probably 60 plus years old on average and just making sure that they are being properly assessed.

So certainly we'll be sharing the assessor review deadline so that residents can go through that process because as you said, there's something wrong with all of our houses.

Yes, ma'am.

I I probably do a significant project on my house at least once a year, trying to stay on top of it, trying to maintain it.

Um can you I'm really interested in knowing how the information that you have that you've shared, is there any information that's provided to financial institutions, to appraisers, to the outside world that is also involved in housing values because one of the things we also notice is we get, depending on who owns the house, um, we get a little slighted as it relates to appraisals for our property.

So if somebody is looking to pull equity out of their home.

Our appraisal seem to be lower, and I'm not sure if that's in alignment with assessments or where that's coming from outside of any biases that exist in the appraisal world.

Uh through the chair, first of all, there isn't a bias in the appraisal world.

I think that's not that's that's not a surprise or a secret anyone.

There is an inherent bias in the appraisal industry, which I think steps are being taken to correct, but it's there, and we can't kid ourselves that's not there.

Um assessed value will never in most instances reflect the appraised value of a pro of a property.

The appraise when you have an appraiser, may very often this for you you're trying to get finance for this house.

So you're the bank is gonna send an appraiser, you're gonna have an appraiser, and they're going to come up with a value based on that individual house.

Think of assessments like statistics.

There's a range of sales where we look at.

We throw out the high, we throw out the low, and we look at the median.

That median is gonna be lower than your individual price in most in most instances.

So for every neighborhood, the assessment represents the median of that neighborhood as opposed to an individual appraisal.

They're looking to get the value of your home.

All right, thank you for that.

Two additional uh questions, and I'm gonna try to be quick about these.

So Ms.

Burden, thank you so much for coming out to our meeting to talk about PRE audits.

Um I I'd like to just share some general information with the community for them to be aware of what PRE audits are, um, who actually does the audit and what happens if you don't respond, and if you don't respond, what is your um response to that?

What action should you take if you find yourself in the midst of a PRE audit that you have not responded to.

Yes, through the chair, I can answer those questions.

So uh our office conducts what was considered a PRE audit, which is a principal resident exemption audit.

Um this audit intel is looking to looking to ensure that the 18 mills, which is a school operating millage, is uh apply properly properly to each property.

Um we audit every year a number of properties, and those properties are considered what we what we would consider questionable.

That means we've done our due diligence to verify that the property is owner occupied, and in those instances where we can't verify, then we send the information out to the taxpayer.

So one of the things that we're doing this year is we are listing the questional properties on the website, I believe by the end of March.

Uh furthermore, we're sending out questionnaires.

So in the past, we've sent out anywhere from three to five uh correspondences to each property owners, and more than likely we'll do the same this year.

Um as far as the question regarding the owner occupied, and that was mentioned earlier with the LLC.

An LLC can indeed have a PRE as long as there is one percent ownership for the individual.

And just to follow up on that, Member Johnson, because you were the one who actually, if you might remember, uh, three years ago who basically at this table told me go check those LLCs and make sure they they actually qualify for this thing.

That's what that was the uh genesis of the PR of our PRE audit.

Most of them didn't qualify.

So we took them off the road and we went back as far as we could to put them back on the tax row and get that money back back from those owners.

Um for those people who found themselves that we've removed the PRE and it was a mistake, we'll put it back on.

Even if you did not notify us, because usually people don't say something until they've lost it.

When I see my tax bill and that PRE is not on there anymore, then I must go say something to you, Mr.

Assessor.

Just show us the information, we'll put it back on.

We'll put back on from the point we took it off.

Thank you for that.

Um and I want you to repeat what you just said to make sure everybody heard.

Um so I remember looking up a property and I saw an LLC.

I knew that it was a rental property, and that's when I reached out to you to say, like, how are people verifying this?

How are we going through this process to ensure that folks are being um taxed properly?

Uh so can you share, have you instituted a policy within the assessor's office so that an LLC essentially has to prove that the property is owner-occupied?

Through the share through the chair, yes, ma'am, we have.

Um any and staff has been instructed and trained in this.

Any PTA that comes in here with in the name of a PT of a LLC, the owners to be contacted immediately.

You need to both in writing and verbally confirm that they own that property, that their action their name is actually on the deed, and you need to ask to see the deed to confirm ownership before we will grant the PRE.

And if we don't get information, we make it clear we're gonna deny it.

And your only appeal is to the Michigan Tax Tribunal.

And then you're gonna have to answer the same questions that we just asked you.

Thank you.

Uh, last question is um on one of the slides, you showed the changes in assessed value from 2025 to 2026 by district.

I'm wondering, um, are these new boundary districts?

Yes, ma'am, they are.

And that and we were wondering ourselves in the office, maybe that's why district one and two were showing a bit of a decline because of the new boundaries.

But also um we increased the neighborhoods from 25 to from 24 to 25, from 25 to 26, and we did not want new neighborhoods to show up as either a positive or a negative.

So they were simply zero dollars gray because there was no no comparison to the prior year.

Most of those new neighborhoods are in district one, two, and four.

So that is probably the other reason why district one and two are showing a slight loss because that's where most of the new neighborhoods are, and there's and those those are simply showing as zero.

Thank you for that.

Um I was just trying to figure out if District 4, like what type of um an assessed value difference we were seeing from last year to this year, but because we have picked up a portion of District 5 and probably um, well, some of the areas assessed values would be higher.

Those neighborhoods that are along the Detroit River uh would probably increase our assessed values uh above and beyond what the last year district four assessed values were.

Through the chair, uh member Johnson, we're actually prepared preparing, we should have it done by the end of the month, a breakdown by district.

Because we were our staff was asking those same questions.

Is there a way to look to see if those were real increases or they are increases because the district changed because the district lines are changing.

So by the end of the month, we will have those those those reports ready, and we will send them to each member of council.

Sounds great.

Thank you.

Look forward to that and look forward to this ECF review.

I'm really excited to see that.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Uh member Waters.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh, so good afternoon.

Good afternoon, ma'am.

Um I just want to highlight a couple things that my colleague from the District 4 mentioned.

You know, I I am not sure if many uh homeowners even know that they should have a PRE.

I I'm not sure about that.

That's number one.

Number two, when it comes to these appraisal companies, I remember some some years ago how they used to just over-appraise.

And it was a big, you know, in fact, I tried to stop them at Lansing, the lobbyists were too big for me.

I couldn't do it.

Um but they were over appraised, and when people sell their homes, they can't get anywhere near that amount that is appraised for.

So has that changed?

You may or may not remember uh when when that was an issue uh for us in this city.

Uh, through the chair member, member Warz, my apologies, it is still an issue.

I have an appeal on my desk right now.

A gentleman just bought a house a couple of years ago.

Um he paid almost 700,000 for it.

He got in there and he saw, oh, this I didn't see this damage, I didn't know this damage.

How did this happen?

We asked him, do you have an appraisal?

We he gave us his appraisal, that house is in pristine condition.

There's nothing wrong with it.

And we went through it line by line, so that you realize this is what your appraiser wrote in this appraisal.

I wish you could I could say it's the exception.

It's not.

It is still a problem in this city.

And one of the things, if I could, if I had a platform, I could scream at people.

Don't depend on the bank's appraiser.

He doesn't work for you.

That bank appraiser does not work for you.

They work for the bank, and the bank is interested in getting you the highest rate and the highest millage they can possibly can.

They don't care if the house is falling apart.

Two years ago, a house sold in this city for a million, 1.2 million dollars.

We said they filed an appeal, we said an appraiser over there.

It was raining that day.

I asked them, Well, can you see is it leaking?

He asked me, he told, where isn't it leaking from?

Every window was leaking, all three fireplaces were leaking, the floor was warped, the walls were warped.

They didn't see that with all that nice furniture in there.

And their appraiser thought the house was in great shape.

Pay 1.2 million dollars for it, we cut it to 250,000 based on our appraisers review.

And they want to shoot me.

Well, how can I afford the insurance now?

Well, so you filed an appeal.

This is what we think is worth.

You can withdraw the appeal and take it for what we leave it as it is, but it is still a problem.

It's a big problem because one, because and I I don't mean to be on my soapbox, Mr.

Chair.

Um most transfers in this city are still quit claiming deeds and land contracts.

Oh lord, so people are the very dependent on they don't know.

Simple as that.

They don't know in a lot of cases, they don't know.

There isn't somewhere in their family or they don't have a friend who can guide them through this process.

So people are taking advantage of in ways that they can't begin to imagine, and they don't know it until something goes wrong.

They try to get a line of equity.

They try to, well, why is my house falling apart?

First thing everybody's gonna ask you to see is your appraisal.

There's nothing wrong with this house based on the appraisal.

But then you try to sell it and you can't get a sixth of what you sold it for because the person behind you, well, they bought a house before, so they know what to look for.

Oh, this thing's falling apart.

I'm not paying all this for it.

It's still a problem, man.

It's the short answer.

My apologies.

Speaking of uh quick claim deeds, we're doing a series of town halls on on deed fraud.

And um there's a certain percentage, and you probably know off the top of your head of folks here in the city who the majority have quick claim deeds.

Correct, yes, ma'am.

As opposed to warranty deeds.

Correct.

And um, is is there a uh an easy way for them to move over to a warranty deed?

Is that is that is that does that cost them a lot of money?

Was it about $500 or something in order to do that, or is not that simple?

Uh through the chair, it's not that simple, I'm afraid.

It's not that simple.

Uh, the reason why warrant, why quick claim deeds and land contracts, which is the other issue are so prevalent in Detroit is because people have been denied access to traditional financing.

Those warranty deeds come with guarantees because a financier is prepared to pay for those guarantees.

If you can't, if you have been denied access to traditional financing, that's part of of that denial.

You've been denied access to those safeguards because one a warranty deed is a safeguard.

Yeah.

Someone, a title company guaranteed that chain of title.

A title company guaranteed there's no liens against that property.

If you are buying a house with a quick claim deed, and I just they're perfectly legal.

And eight times out of ten is not a problem.

But for those two times, there's a problem.

It's a big problem.

Big problem.

And it puts people in holes that they cannot imagine they were ever find themselves in.

And it takes in we're dealing with a gentleman a gentleman now who bought a house on a quick claim deed.

Well, unfortunately, a quick claim deed simply means I'm transferring whatever ownership I have.

If I don't have any ownership in that property, haven't transferred anything except the four years of back taxes over to Wayne County Treasurer's office.

Every dime he had went into a house he never owned.

Oh.

And now we're trying to figure out a way to pull it off the foreclosure list.

I wish that was the exception that I spent I spend more time dealing with that than you can imagine.

That is so so sad.

So it's still a problem, I'm chair.

Tax on capping hit new homeowners hard.

What is the average dollar amount increase for a first-time home buyer in Detroit in 2025, since you mentioned 2025 compared to the uh 2.7% cap increase for legacy owners?

Um the chair.

I'm not prepared to I don't want to recite the raw numbers, so I can guarantee our office will have that to you by this time next week.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, how does the um 2026 value valuation um matter account for say for those homes that are the physical appearances outdated?

Uh specifically nearby blight or or abandoned structures.

Um is the office manually.

Are you manually adjusting for these localized value depressing factors?

Because those are depressing factors.

They are.

Um, or are you relying on broad neighborhood averages?

Through the chair, ma'am, thank you for the question.

It is very similar to the question that Member Johnson asked.

Even though we have adopted a high-tech model as far as the valuation, there's still a need for foot soldiers to go up and down the street.

And that's what most of our residential appraisers spent 80% of their time doing.

They're not actually going to houses, they're checking the condition of the neighborhood.

That's how we're we're taking that into account.

Because it is a significant factor in an older urban city like Detroit.

So to answer your question, we send people to the neighborhoods.

We're not relying on an average, we're not trying to come up with a sum.

We're actually sending people up and down these streets trying to determine what the condition of the neighborhoods are.

Okay.

Is that working well?

It is the best way we can do it.

That's right.

Okay.

All right.

Um, you mentioned Novae, the current uh millage rate for an owner-occupied home in Detroit is approximately what, 82.2 mils for comparison, many surrounding suburbs like Troy or Novi, often range between 30 and 45 mills.

So at 82 mils, Detroit's rate is effectively the highest in Michigan, and consistently ranks amongst the top in the United States.

So are we considering lowering this at all?

Through the chair, I'm not a policymaker.

Well, I do know that the mayor.

The recommendation can come from you.

True.

I know the mayor has made this a pledge of her campaign.

It's something she's talked about for the last dozen years or last six years at least.

Tax property tax relief.

You're correct.

Our military is drown is drowning us.

This is my two cents.

This is me talking, not the assessor for Detroit, but this is me talking.

The high military in this city is stifling small businesses.

It is stifling first-time home buyers.

Our lowest military, which is the NEZ Homestead Milletry, is higher than the highest military in the South Toronto communities.

When you see the difference, it will be shocking.

The lowest military in this city is the NEZ homestead rate.

It's still higher than the highest military in Southfield, in Novi, in Troy, in Royal Oak.

I can go up and down the list.

It is stifling new homeowners in this city.

And I know I'm I'm preaching to the choir.

Everybody here already knows that.

Everybody on the 11th floor knows that.

The uncapping issue is already a nightmare in this state.

Our high military makes it worse for Detroit.

We've seen double digit value increases because people feel good about the city again.

But if we want that to continue, once again, this is me talking.

If we want that to continue, then we have to get the military under control.

We have to, we cannot keep pretending that having a military that's anywhere from a quarter to a third higher than our surrounding neighbors is okay.

It's not.

Not if we want to compete for new businesses and for new homeowners.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairfall me, to uh subvent like that.

And frankly, Mr.

Assessor, I I just have to tell you that I'm I'm waiting for a tax overhaul at the state level.

Uh I think a lot of people throughout Michigan are hurting.

And um, and I just think that the state legislature should be looking at that.

I'm not saying that they're not, I don't know that.

But but I I do know that that we could use some help from them.

So uh we talk about growing the city's population.

How can we tell a family to buy a $2,000 home in Detroit and pay about $8200 in taxes when they can buy that same home in the suburb and pay about $3,500 in taxes.

What what do we tell them?

Because I'm going to be able to increase population.

What what what am I going to tell them?

I mean, do you have any idea?

Through the chair, I'm I'm as perplexed as you are, ma'am uh member Waters.

It is it goes back to if we want to continue the revival of the city that we've seen in the last dozen years, we have to address the property tax issue.

There's we can't kick the can down the road anymore.

Um we're getting to a point, and and here's here's some of the reasons.

Once again, Mr.

Chair, thank you for the indulgence.

Um we can't compete with the suburbs when it comes to the the age of the homes.

Our housing stocks just older.

Detroit's just an older city.

Uh we our homes don't have the many of the annuities that people are looking for.

They don't have open floor spaces, they don't have attached garages, they don't have walk-in showers.

But we have a there's a lot of positive to the city, but we're shooting ourselves in the foot with this milletry.

And until there is real tax relief, and I know the mayor feels this way.

I know the members of council feels this feel this way.

I guarantee you I hear it every day when someone comes to me and wanting to know whether tax bill tripled because I just bought a house in Detroit.

I know Detroiters feel that way.

Um there's no easy answer.

Um the uncapping provision is is not a it's not a law, it's a member, is it's part of Michigan Constitution.

Um Article 9, Section 3.

The year following a transfer of property, the taxable value of the property shall uncap to the current year state equalized value.

That was a well-written piece of uh of uh of of constitutional law.

There's no leeway there.

So you agree we need we do need some some help at the state level.

It has to happen.

That's right.

Um two months ago I had the privilege of being in Lansing to talk about a bill.

And as before my turn to speak, there was a member of the legislature from uh from the UP.

He was addressing the uncapping issue and the and the and what it's doing to his community, how it's making people making it difficult or next to impossible for new homeowners in his community.

It's not a Detroit thing.

It is from Marquette, the same thing.

It's not a Detroit thing because when it's just not the Detroit thing, the folks in the legislature will act.

So I'm glad we're not the Lone Ranger there.

It's not a Detroit thing, but it is aspirating Detroit because of the military.

Yeah.

So it's a problem.

The uncapping is a problem across the board.

It's a little bit more of a problem in Detroit because of our military.

All right.

So how do you account for distress sales uh foreclosures or bank sales in the neighborhoods?

Um those being excluded or included in your average?

Under Michigan law, they have to be excluded from the sale.

Exclude.

Okay.

Yes, ma'am.

But what we do is we we concentrate a little on those neighborhoods, particularly if there's an area of the city that sees a high volume of distress sales or foreclosures, then we go look at those houses and see if there's something about these properties that we need to understand.

And in many cases, when you have a neighborhood where there's a high number of distress sales, when you have a high number of foreclosures, the homes aren't well maintained.

Uh it's usually investor properties, and we know what investors do to homes.

They're just collecting the rent.

They're not well maintained.

The neighborhoods have been allowed to deteriorate.

So from our perspective, even though we can't chase those sales or use them in our analysis, it's almost tit for tat where you see those types of sales, you see can you see homes in poor conditions, homes that need maintenance.

So that will cause us to reduce the assessment in those particular neighborhoods.

Not because of the sales, but because of the conditions which are almost tied to those type of sales.

All right, um, I'm winding down.

I appreciate the question, thank you.

What is the single single uh most common um error found during the appeal process in in previous years?

And what are we doing to educate the people that they can appeal to Lansing once they, especially for residential properties, once they appeal here at the local level, they can if they're not satisfied, they can take it to the tax tribunal.

Right.

Um we're doing enough to let them know what what their options are and and tell us about some of the um through the chair.

Common errors you you found in previous years.

Through the chair.

Um I'm assuming errors that the assessor's office has made as opposed to anything else.

Yeah.

Um the the records weren't maintained.

There was a period, probably between 95, 96, 97 to maybe 2010, 2011.

And there was an auditor general's report, and she was quite blunt in the the inability of the assessors, the within assessment divisions care of the mandates.

Like many departments in this city at that time period, resources were scarce.

People weren't hired.

The city was trying to keep policemen on the street.

Street lights weren't working, garbage was in color, you know.

There were problems with C services across the board, and they were reflecting the assessor's office.

The single biggest error is there's there is a gap.

You can almost records were great up until about the mid-90s, and then they took a night a nosedive to about 2011, 2012.

That gap floats right in to when vacancies weren't filled, staff was let go.

We didn't pay for training because we're trying to save a couple of bucks.

We didn't pay for certification because we're trying to save a couple of bucks.

Well, you might save a couple of bucks up front, but you're gonna pay for it in the back end.

And we're still talking about that paying for it because it to the large extent led to the overassessment issue.

So it's a gap about a 14-year gap in data that we should have that's missing.

That's the single biggest error.

Now we're when when it happens, we try to backtrack, we try to give them the Congress their needs, we we try to get from some of our other other sources, but that's the single biggest error that I found.

That gap.

And is it it occurred just as say services simply nosedived?

Uh what we're doing to notify people of the rights of appeal.

First of all, let me publicly thank you for the position that you put in our our budget last year.

We are talking to the CFO about filling that that public affairs uh manager position.

Well, you better help me get it done because you know we're gonna be doing budget service.

Oh, yeah, I believe that's why I'm talking to the CFO next week about it.

Um we are working with Detroit Board of Review, Willie Donwell, Lewis Moore, and the members there.

We are we go to every community meeting.

We take every chance to to go on the radio to do community events.

Um we spoke to Vicky Thomas yesterday, we're gonna put something on the website.

So we're doing what we can.

We can always do better.

We're we're doing a little bit better than we did last year, and the tensions do a little bit better this year than we did in the previous past.

But I know the message isn't out there.

As much as is we're trying to get out there, there's still most people do not know in this day and age with everything that's happened, all the talk that's been about assessment issues in the city.

Most people don't know they have a right to appeal to property, property valuations.

And that's scary from my perspective, because I spend most of my time talking about Ms.

Burton spends most of her time talking about it.

I go I come before this honorable body and we talk about it.

Um I've done radio interviews, I've done a couple of TV interviews talking about it, and people still don't know that they have the right to question how the City of Detroit is valuing their property.

I know.

I I don't know what we're gonna do.

I mean, I try to tell people myself when I'm out and about.

I mean, it's just it's it's just pretty pretty sad that so many people uh do not know.

Um I think we keep doing what we've been doing and just try to get a little bit better at every day.

We just keep getting the message out there, we just keep getting the message out there.

Uh earlier over the summer of 2025, my Miss Burton and I and some of our managers met with some of the ruler real estate organizations in the city, and they agreed to start supplying some information that we provide about the appeals process, about some of the things that the property owners have can do, some of their rights.

So I think those are some of the things we do.

We kind of go go off the grid, think a little differently about how we can get the message out there, knowing that it may not be enough, but it's a little bit better than what we were doing yesterday.

All right, so just one last one, Mr.

Chairman.

Um for people who are applying for the Hope program, you know, to get some sort of tax relief.

Has the assessor's office made any errors that would cause the people not complete the application?

I mean, what what type of errors have been made and people ended up not getting the opportunity to complete the hope application or something else happened, things just fall through the cracks.

What percentage would you say happens where people just don't get to participate because the assessor's office has made an error?

Okay.

Uh through the chair, thank you for the question, ma'am.

I I would point out that the assessor's office does not have responsibility for the whole program.

That is an exclusive province of the board of review.

But we do support them in this process.

And our staff is usually the first point of contact.

Um we take pains to make sure that what you just suggested doesn't happen.

Uh, when someone put someone fills an application out, and if there's missing information, there's five points of contact made by our staff.

Five points of contact.

And then they will receive a certified letter.

Hey, you turnt this thing in, we've been trying to get this data from you, and we still haven't gotten it.

You get 30 more days, and then we're going to put this to the side.

So they get that 30 days.

If they still haven't contacted us, then one of the board review members will try to contact them.

They will make another three attempts, minimum, three attempts to contact that person.

In many cases, we've sent an appraiser to that property to knock on the door.

You know, we we've been trying to get this information from you.

Can you please send it out to us?

The board review, and I think this just they need to be complimented on this.

They go out of their way not to deny applications.

The city as a rule does not want to deny applications.

We get an application in January.

We might not make a decision until October.

And I'm not just making that up.

There are applications where that has happened.

Someone has filed an application.

We've spent months trying to get the data from them.

The Board of Reviews tried to get the data from them.

At some point you got to pull the trigger, but it's not through a lack of effort or or not giving that person an opportunity to respond.

So Mr.

Horn, I've always been under the impression that your office and the Board of Review office work extremely close together.

We do.

And they that they are often held accountable by your office.

Is that an incorrect assumption?

Through the chair, that is an incorrect assumption.

And every each of the nine members of the Board of Review will tell you very passionately that they do not answer to the assessor.

But you guys work really, really close together.

There are fewer people the nine people who make up the Detroit Board Review, and I I start every session by telling them this, and thank you for the opportunity to say it here.

I there are I have more respect for those members than anybody I can imagine in city government.

They go out of their way to do their duties.

The expectations from city council, their own expectations to make sure they help every single person they can.

I don't think the traitors can appreciate just how far they go to make sure that they do the job that they were going to be able to do.

Yes.

And to your to the council's credit, they'll replace someone who doesn't do what they're supposed to be doing.

I have seen several members of the Detroit Board Review shown the door because their council member was not pleased with their performance.

So they're there to do their job.

They know that they're they want to be there.

They also know that you're watching them, that you that they represent the nine members of city council, and they're not going to let you down.

And and I'm gonna say this finally, Mr.

Chairman, and we watch because we know that people in this in this city need the help.

Yes.

That is why we watch.

And so we we want them to take really, really good care of those things and and make sure that people receive the help that that they need.

So that that is why we watch.

I just wanted to better understand your work and relationship with them.

And um I think it's a little clearer now.

Under both state law and city ordinance, the officers of the assessor is obligated to provide all material support that includes clerks, a secretary of board review, and whatever training they need to the Detroit Board Review to fulfill their jobs.

So if you were to go to their offices, those clerks you see are from the assessor's office.

Okay.

The the secretaries of the board review is a supervisor from the assessor's office.

So we provide the support, but they make the decisions.

All right then.

Well, thank you.

Uh Mr.

Horn, thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Horn.

Um, I have a few questions.

I have more.

I'll submit them right now because of time, and I wanted to give my colleagues the opportunity to ask their questions.

Um I will also say we should call this the informal budget finance audit and uh vacancy uh committee because we have heard constantly, week by week, that there are some vacancies in city government.

So I will tell folks who are listening.

You just heard that the assessor's office is looking for a public affairs versus so um get those applications and those resumes.

Uh Mr.

Horn, I have a question on um the aspect on the ECF, as you mentioned.

Could you just go over what again what things go into the ECF or what information or data is considered there?

Uh thank you through the chair.

Uh in ECF, this should an in an economic condition factor.

That is in layman's term, how we take the state assessor's manual, which every assessor in this state is required to use to determine value, and make sure that it it conforms to the city of Detroit, because this is a very unique city.

It doesn't look like anything else in this state.

So the state says every assessor, you have to use the assessor's manual, the Michigan manual.

So it comes, it it tells you the cost of every property.

Cost new minus depreciation plus land.

That's what the state says the value is.

But the market in Detroit is different than the market marquette or Grand Rapids.

So we use that ECF to modify that cost manual to the conditions of Detroit.

We do that in a way that we wouldn't normally do the valuation piece.

We spoke earlier that we don't use, we only use valid arms linked transactions to compute the values.

But we look at everything when we use our ECS.

Every quick claim deed, every land contract, every ladybird cell, every single bit of information we can get.

Because even if it if it's not a valid sale in the sense of an arms link transaction, it tells a story about a particular neighborhood.

If we have a neighborhood and we have 10 quick claim deeds and they're all kind of roughly where that price is, that's the value in that neighborhood.

Now maybe we can't use them to set value, but we can't ignore that either.

And that's what our ECS allow us to do.

It allows us to comply with Michigan law because first, last and always we have to comply with Michigan law in the valuation process, but it also allows us to look at those things which normally would be excluded from the valuation process.

So we those there were 63,000 transfers in Detroit, only about 12,000 of them were used in the valuation, but all 63,000 were looked at as we compute our ECS because every single one of them told a story about a particular neighborhood, and that's what we use to put those push those down.

I'll be honest with you.

We use the ECS to push the values down.

Warranty deeds sell at a higher price than quick claim deeds and land contracts.

If we only used warranty deeds to set values, then we'd be setting a value that's higher than it would be an artificial value because most sales in the city aren't warranty dates.

We push them down with those ECS because we take those quick claim deeds into account.

We take those other factors into account when we compute those values.

Our ECF calculations are on the website.

If you were to look at them, every one of them is a minus because we're forcing those values from those from those warranty dates down to match the conditions of these hundred euro houses where most of the sales are not warranty deeds.

Thank you for that.

Appreciate that breakdown.

I wanted to go to slide six as you talked about the graph of the taxable values and the decline that we saw in Detroit, and now we're seeing an increase.

And I know you mentioned this as for folks to know if your taxable value did go up, that does not mean your your taxes would go up in a rate that it did.

Is it also to correct to say as we're looking at that as uh uh the budget financial audit committee?

When we're seeing is and folks are saying that that that also means that while our values have gone up in the city, the taxes that we're getting from property taxes has not rebounded in that way as well.

Is that correct to say?

Uh under it's it's it's the other issue for proposal A.

When you lose taxable value, you only get back through sales.

Um we'll none of us will live long enough to recoup the taxable value to see a Detroit laws prior to the recession.

You could sell every property in this city next year, and you still wouldn't recover that taxable value.

It's just how proposal A is is set up.

You the the values will go up, but taxes are capped, and they're only capped, and they're they're only uncapped upon the sale.

You'll never see enough sales to get that to get back to where we were.

Thank you for saying that.

And I think as you said, the other foot of proposal, eh, and uh and we had this conversation about our state lawmakers, and um hopefully as they are looking at taxes, they realize the impact of like an economic downturn could have on a municipality, especially even years after we've come out of that and what it does to our revenue as well.

I will also say, as we talked about, you know, tax reform on the state level and in the city as we're trying to find relief for folks, uh as folks who are listening as residents, and I would keep saying this, um, as we are thinking about other ways to bring in revenue, and we definitely have to engage our state legislators on this to make sure we have those to us as a city government.

So I just want to make that note um to say that.

Uh also would love to see that district, I know you're preparing it, but would love this, so thank you for that.

Um, the last thing, and I want to see if uh Mr.

Corley uh has any questions as well.

But what you may have heard in public comment, I don't know if you had came in, but the the and I'm glad to see the um uh the the assessment notice and the revamp and of that.

I actually have two questions on that.

Uh I on the example that you showed is said um market value as a reasoning for change.

What other reasons may be listed on someone's um notice of assessment?

Uh the most obvious is damage to the house.

If the house confire if some part of it was demolished or destroyed, that you would that would be a reason for change.

Uh if the exemption if it changed from taxable to exempt, that would be a reason for change.

So there are about 20 different reasons why you would see it, but primarily would be either damage, some type of significant damage to the house, or it went from a taxable status to an exempt status.

Okay.

And have you on the issue of language assess, have you heard from folks about how that is helpful to them to get this notice in different languages?

It has been overwhelmingly positive.

Um when it first went out, um, we our office was flooded with thank yous from people in Southwest Detroit and from the bank uh parts of the banking leash area where people loved it.

We the comments that we heard earlier than public comment, that's probably the first negative comment I heard in two years regarding it.

There were some concerns about the expense, but as you point out, um it's it's far more important that everyone feel that they're part of the process.

So that means we need to send out a notice in Spanish or a nose in in Arabic, so it's someone feels part of the process from my perspective, and I believe the CFO, I know the CFO feels the same way, and I believe from some of the comments, I believe council feels this way.

It's a small price to pay.

Thank you for that.

And I and I will also say I would imagine if someone understands what their taxes are, what goes into it, and they're able to understand the document for government.

I know this you can't like say this in a uh uh confirmational way, but I would uh uh assume that that also may encourage them more to actually pay their taxes and be a part of the process as well.

But that's just my thought on it.

I agree with you.

If someone feels part of the process, they're more inclined to do if I'm a citizen.

I I feel like I'm a citizen.

You're encouraging me to be a citizen with citizens pay their taxes.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

Um Mr.

Crowley, did you have any question?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Now you are asked some great questions.

I really don't have uh more to add.

Uh just want to just indicate though that you know the property tax revenues about nine percent of the city general funds.

So, you know, other communities throughout the state rely heavily on their property tax revenue.

So, in a sense, we're fortunate to have you know some diversity in our revenue.

We have casino tax revenue, we have income tax revenue.

There's only 20 cities in the state that have an income tax.

Um obviously there's only you know, us and a few other cities that have casinos.

So I wholeheartedly agree that there's need that needs to be reformed when it comes to property taxes because of the high mailage rate.

Fortunately, we have more diversification in our overall revenue than other cities that rely heavily on property tax revenue.

So just wanted to bring that up.

But thank you so much.

Thank you for the wonderful questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Crowley, member orders.

Well, Mr.

Corley, these property taxes are high, extremely high.

Uh so much that people are losing their homes all the time over there at the Wayne County Treasurer's office.

They are they are high, and I know I mean I understand what you're saying.

We have other revenue streams and so forth, but that those property taxes are killing us.

I just want to say that, Mr.

Corley.

Um, so two things I want to ask of the assessor's office.

Uh I'd like to a copy of your pre-audit and a copy of today's uh uh presentation.

And I want to invite you to uh Crowwell Recreation Center tonight, if you know if you have time for the 6 p.m.

Um for our deep fraud uh town hall.

Pro well, ma'am.

Prowell.

Yeah, I'm Lasser.

16630 Lasser.

I grew up around that area, so yes, I will be there.

See, see, all right, all right, thank you.

Thank you, Member.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, just very briefly, a couple of things that you all talked about a short while ago.

Um, so as you were talking about someone purchasing a property for $700,000, but they're actually being challenges with the property.

Um, I have had some conversations about going back to the way we used to do things in the city when pre-sale inspections were required.

I've gotten a little pushback from that.

But my question to you is do you anticipate that pre-sale inspections would impact the assessed values of properties at all.

Through the chair, and this is just me talking again.

I think if we want to protect our citizens, many who are first home first-time homeowners who buy homes on quick claim dees and land contracts, which are perfectly legal, but they don't offer safeguards.

If we were to require pre-sale inspections, many of those furnaces that aren't really furnaces because they're just a shell would have been caught.

Many of those roofs that don't start leaking till it first rain, but I bought the house in the middle of the summer, so it hadn't rained in a month, would have been caught.

Many of those cracks in the foundations, many of those pipes that were missing, many of the things that people don't know what to look for.

And it and they don't find it until it blows up in their face because they bought this thing on a land contract or a quick claim deed, many of those issues would have been averted.

So if that's a way of saying I wish we did do it, I I I agree with you.

I wish we did do it would safeguard many of the citizens in the city if we did it.

I agree with you wholeheartedly, and recognizing that the uncapping takes place if your property taxes are uncapped, um, but your property is intact.

Perhaps people would be able to deal with that better as opposed to your property taxes uncapping, and now you have to address the roof, and now you have to address the furnace, and now you have to address all of these things that you thought were working fine before you bought the house.

That's six out of every ten appeals at the assessors review.

It's a new homeowner who got in that house and didn't realize how half the stuff was missing or didn't work.

Okay, all right.

Well, thank you for that.

Um we will put this in writing.

Um our requests, thoughts, suggestions on pre-sale inspections.

Um again, and I do know that there are some instances where they are required, which is not the city, is with the land bank.

The land bank requires pre-sale inspections for some of their properties, um, which is very interesting to me because the land bank has already done the inspection report.

Uh so I I think I mean it's a good thing that they're asking for it to be done, but in many of the cases, they have already done it, and you can see the report on their website.

It's a very extensive report, so um, I find that to be very interesting, but we'll we'll continue to uh push to require them again because I think it protects the homeowner, especially first-time homeowners.

Through the chair, I agree with you a hundred percent, ma'am.

Thank you.

Uh, and then my last question do you all have a social media presence at all?

I'm old now.

You don't have to do everything that happens in the assessor's office.

Um, you have someone actually um Vicky Thomas and I were talking about the different departments and the social media um what different departments do on social media.

The media services team is very creative.

They do some great work on social media, and I only ask that because you know you have a um some residents that are on social media all of the time, and for them to maybe continually see some of these things that we're talking about, it may help them become more comfortable in going through the assessors of review, the board of review, what have you.

But we do know that a lot of people, not just City of Detroit residents, when you talk about taxes, they shut down because they feel like they don't understand the lingo.

Um, they really don't know how to represent themselves.

Um, and they I think they get nervous when they have to present things, not really being sure what to present, how to present it, but if somebody was showing on social media, someone going through the assessor review process and and you know bringing the documentation, bringing some of the challenges that they may have with their property, walking people through and showing them that they actually can do it.

It's not difficult.

Um, but these are some of the things that you may need that helps to assist in going through the process.

Uh, through the chair, in all seriousness, ma'am.

Um, Stephanie Davis, the communication manager for OCFO, has been doing her best to drag the assessors office into 22nd century.

She's actually suggested that.

Okay.

She's suggested that, and we are slowly but surely moving in that direction.

Sounds great.

Let me know if you need any assistance, not with posting, but maybe packaging and and how we present it to uh residents that would be more palatable or not more palatable but palatable, something that they can easily digest and and do for themselves.

Thank you, ma'am.

We will we will take you up on that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Yeah, we'll get that public affairs position.

All right.

Um, if there are no further questions, thank you, Mr.

Assessor.

Thank you, madam deputy assessor.

Appreciate you all coming for the presentation.

And like I said, we'll we'll probably have a few more questions that we'll submit via memo.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Okay, we will now move on to unfinished business.

Um this item 6.1 that was brought back.

Um neighborhood enterprise zone certificate application for the rehabilitation of a residential building at 250 Elliott Street and to six rental units in the crosswinds neighborhood enterprise zone area.

And I see we have Mr.

Gulach on the name as Chair Chris Gulag CPT staff.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Gulark.

And um, do we have the um petitioner on Sir?

Mr.

Chair.

Sir, if you can come off mute and just introduce yourself for the record.

Oh, you're still on mute.

Chair I believe there's something perhaps wrong with his volume because he's not on the dare you are okay thank you for okay I apologize for that no worries that was my fault.

Um yes, I'm Craig Jenkins, uh owner of uh property 250 of Elliott.

It's a um in a historical district, and it is probably NAZ zone.

And um I was answering the concerns of Vice Chair Councilmember Johnson about uh rent.

My proposal was to have um uh six units, it's an old home uh built, I think back in the 30s, and my father owned it since for about 50 years, but uh everyone my family has passed other than me, and I'd like to rehabilitate it and put in six uh units, rental units, and I think the last time I was on I had mentioned uh rent around 2500 to 3,000 a month, but um council member Johnson did point out that that was an awfully high for the city of Detroit, and I did do another evaluation, and then you are correct with um those rents.

So I I hired my son who is an accountant to do a flow sheet on a lower rent rate of 1500 a month, and um it still shows to be profitable with the NEZ to uh at that rate, and he did a flow sheet, which um I I um think Mr.

Golick has a copy of, but it it showed um the cash flow and uh profits at a rental rate of fifteen hundred a month for six units, and it still came out profitable, you know, with lower uh property taxes, and so um I guess I'm appealing to you all to approve the NEZ so I could proceed with the project at uh proper level.

I don't think I could make a profit on it without the uh lower NEZ due to the high millage rate uh normally without that, and that's why I'm presenting this to you today.

Thank you, Mr.

Jenkins, Vice Chair Johnson.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and Mr.

Jenkins.

Thank you for listening to our previous discussion.

Um and thank you for adjusting the rental rates.

Um I do want to ask Mr.

Gulag, Mr.

Gulag, is there a way for us to ensure the rental rates that are being proposed or offered today are actually instituted?

Uh through the chair, um my experience the last several years working on these is that um there are affordability agreements uh through HRD, but that's usually if it involves a city a city project where there's city land or city uh other city incentives.

Um so I haven't um seen any um uh affordability agreements with with non-city projects Rebecca Lavoe Lebeau from HRD might be able to chime in on that, but council to my knowledge hasn't done that yet.

Thank you.

I'm not sure if Miss Lebove is present is uh Miss Laval present.

No, she is not Mr.

Chair.

Is um Mr.

Washington on?

Yes, Mr.

Washington Mr.

Washington is no longer on.

I'm promoting Miss Sullivan.

Thank you.

Miss Sullivan, are you there?

Uh we were uh Vice Chair Johnson is wondering if we could get um Miss Lavolve on or someone from HRD to address the question around um the ability to ensure that rental rates are um affordable rental rates are hit or here to when it comes to NEZ application of certificates.

Yes, one moment, can we please bring that back?

I'll try and get someone right now.

Okay.

So what we'll do is if I could get a motion to postpone 6.1 to the end of the motion meeting without any objections, the action shall be taken.

Without any objections, the action shall be taken.

All right, we'll bring us back at the end.

So that will move us on to new business.

What's that?

All right.

Oh no, actually, we have 6.2.

Sorry about that.

Um under unfitness business.

And this is a for member waters submitting a memorandum requesting information on the city of Detroit's long-term financial obligation.

Member Waters.

Thank you, Mr.

Mr.

Chairman.

Uh, through you, uh, could we hear from LPD?

Yes.

Um, so if I are going to do a motion to discuss if there's a motion to discuss and um from LPD, if we can just get the status of this memo.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So uh member waters did ask for us to work with the OCFO, and we have received information from them a few days ago.

And so please bring this back in two weeks.

That'll give us a chance to review their information and prepare a memo for you for you.

So you can bring back in two weeks, it'll be great.

All right.

Motion to bring back in two weeks.

There's a motion to bring back line number six point two in two weeks without any objections, that action shall be taken.

All right.

Now we'll move on to new business, and that will bring us to well.

Actually, if we could take up 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 together.

There's a motion to um discuss those items together.

Motion.

Mr.

Corley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so on the agenda today, of course, is item 7.1 through 7.4.

Um, and these four resolutions will institute the upcoming fiscal 2027 budget process, my favorite time of the year.

Hopefully, the committee will move these items to the next former session on uh next Tuesday, the 10th, with a recommendation to approve.

These resolutions are based on a report that LPD issued on January 28th on the budget calendar and development um process.

So line item 7.1 represents the resolution setting a committee of the whole meeting at 2 p.m.

on Monday, March the 9th, for the Mayor's budget address.

And I noticed yesterday that LPD's memo that was dated January 28th appeared um as a an attachment um for BFNA's agenda.

And so I submitted yesterday a copy of the actual resolution for this line item for you to hopefully move um to the former session for approval.

But I want to bring to your attention um for your information, Article 2, Section 17-2-4 of the Detroit City Code says that the mayor is to present the proposed budget to city council on or before March the 7th.

But this year, since March the 7th falls on a Saturday, Mayor Sheffield will present her budget to council on the next business day, which is Monday, March the 9th.

That's in accordance with Article Section 17 uh dash two, and I had 11, and apparently according to Ms.

Barker is is 10 um of the Detroit City Code, which says that if a deadline date falls on a Saturday or Sunday or holiday, then a deadline date would be the next business day, which of course in this case is March the 9th.

Line item 7.2 represents the resolution having all morning council standing committees.

Those committees being public health and safety, internal operations, and planning and economic development to start at 9 a.m.

rather than at 10 a.m.

for the period of Wednesday, March the 11th through Monday, April the 6th, to accommodate the budget hearing process.

The starting time will go back to 10 a.m.

starting on Wednesday, April the 8th.

Meanwhile, the budget finance and order committee and the neighborhood and community services committee will continue to meet at 1 p.m.

during the budget process.

This same resolution at line item 7.2 also asks that the committee meetings last just one hour from Wednesday, March the 11th through Monday, April the 6th, to again accommodate the budget hearing process and the executive session budget liberations during that time frame.

And you do have the actual resolution before you today.

Line item 7.3 represents the resolution setting the public hearing on the budget to be held at 5 p.m.

on Monday, March the 30th, in accordance with session 8-206 of the Detroit City Charter.

The public hearing usually takes place after all of the budget hearings are done.

And you have the resolution actual resolution before you.

So hopefully we have a final calendar by Wednesday, February the 25th.

And then after that date, the budget hearing date can only be rescheduled due to an extreme emergency.

Thankfully, this policy has worked pretty well in the past.

And you do have the actual resolution before your date on this item.

So that's it, Mr.

Chair, and thank you for your consideration.

Thank you, Mr.

Corley.

Appreciate that.

Any questions from the committee members?

All right.

I'll entertain the motion to approve line items uh 7.1 through 7.4 to form a session with a recommendation to approve.

Motion to approve.

All right.

Without any objections, the action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's bring back up Mr.

Gulark and Mr.

Jenkins and Ms.

Sullivan, please.

Oh, that would take us back to line number six point one.

Motion to discuss.

There's been a motion to discuss without any objection.

Through the chair, we do have Rebecca Lebeau joined us as well.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Chair, I'm not seeing her yet.

Let me know.

Rebecca's hand is raised to be promoted under Rebecca L.

Good afternoon.

If you can just state your name for the record, please.

Afternoon, Rebecca Labove, Housing and Revitalization.

Thank you, Ms.

Lebeau.

We had a question from Vice Chair Johnson.

I'll turn it over to her.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon, Ms.

LeBeau.

Thank you for joining us.

We have before us in NEZ for a property, and Mr.

Jenkins indicated that he's willing to hold the rental rates for the units at $1,500 per month.

Is there a way for us to just ensure that happens?

Is there any oversight that the city, the department does to ensure the rates are more at that level?

Initially, the proposed rents were 2500 to 3500, but thankfully Mr.

Jenkins recognizes, appreciates the freeze in the property taxes and is willing to reduce the rental rates, recognizing the AMI that we also have in the city of Detroit.

Through the chair, um I will say I'm unfamiliar with this deal as the NEZ certificates don't um come through our office.

This rent is approximately depending on the unit size, um, aligned with 80% AMI.

And so we do um typically either provide an addendum to the abatement uh that codifies the affordability, or in some cases a freestanding affordability agreement that we will execute with the developer, um, which can be recorded and run with the property.

So it is um not atypical that we might have an agreement covering a percentage of those units at 80 percent AMI, um, depending on the the triggers of the inclusionary ordinance.

So I'm not knowing the specific the specifics of this project, the total unit count.

Um I'm not sure if the ordinance is formally triggered or not.

It sounds like it may be more of a voluntary commitment by the developer, but we in HRD will certainly work with them if they're willing to make that commitment to an and in front of council to develop an agreement um that can codify that uh that affordability for the term of the abatement.

Thank you, Ms.

LeBo.

Do you believe you can work through an agreement between now and Tuesday?

It is six units, I believe, that's going to be created within the property.

Correct.

I'm saying um thank you.

And and yes, to the chair, that is uh that makes sense given the size of the project um that it wouldn't have that accompanying required affordability, but we do have form agreements.

I am dependent on the law department to get those finalized and executed.

So that is a tight timeline, but we can certainly elevate it to them and work with the developer to fill in the form agreement um and try to push to um see how quickly we can work back and forth with law and of course with the developers um attorneys to uh get that agreement finalized.

Um at the very least, we should be able to have a draft agreement by that time.

Okay, thank you.

That would be great.

Um, and I guess if we get to Tuesday and we haven't been able to finalize things, we can take the necessary actions then.

But if um the two of you, if Mr.

Gulai can connect um you to with Mr.

Jenkins to get that process started, we would be greatly appreciative.

Thank you.

Certainly.

Certainly, yep.

Happy to help.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Order, do you have any questions?

No.

All right.

See I do not also I also do not have any uh questions, so I entertain a motion on line number 6.1.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Move to send line item 6.1 to formal with a recommendation to approve, noting the um agreement that will be put in place between now and Tuesday.

Um that's my motion.

All right.

There's a motion without any objections.

This shall be moved to formal where recommendation to approve, noting the um the work going on to get the affordability um agreement there.

So without any objections, that action shall be taken.

Thank you so much.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

All right, that will move us on to member reports.

Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so I will I don't have any motion any uh member reports.

I'll I'll refrain, I'll wait till next week.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Member Waters.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to remind residents that to this evening starting from 4 to 6 p.m.

will be our town hall on deed fraud.

Um some residents call in asking if in fact uh someone from the Wayne County Treasurer's office would be present.

Um they will be um uh according to um Mr.

Youngblood on yesterday.

So uh so please come out and and ask um your questions uh of the um register of these.

The address is one six six three zero.

One six six three zero lacer.

There's one six six three zero laser is from four to six p.m.

It's a crowwell recreation center.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, member Waters.

I would just have one thing, uh and thank you to Vice Chair Johnson for providing the correct answer uh to correct information.

And I would just have one thing uh and thank you to Vice Chair Johnson for providing the correct answer uh to correct information I did make an error yesterday during the member reports around the private sewer repair program today is not the deadline of that program um it will end once the money runs out so that does mean if you are listening and you have been impacted by the floods in 2021 please do call today at 8663132520 to get into that program so today is not the deadline but please call immediately because the program went will end once the funds are exhausted and that is the end of my member reports and seeing that there are no further business before this committee I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Without any objections this committee stands adjourned thank you