Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

Good morning, President.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Thank you, Mr.

Clerk.

Given a quorum we'll go into the agenda for today.

We did receive our minutes from last session.

If there's a motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Hearing no objections, our minutes from our last session will be approved.

I have no chair remarks for today.

We can go right into public comments.

Just want to remind everyone that we do have a I guess I do have chair remarks.

I want to remind folks that we do have a 1015 a.m.

presentation regarding D dots.

This will be for quarter four.

We do hold these quarterly updates in this committee.

So expect that conversation to happen in a few.

Before then, we can go into general public comment for today.

Everyone will have a minute and a half for general public comments.

And again, we have a presentation.

If you have any questions or concerns you want to share for D Dot and myself and my colleagues, please do.

And this is also a time to share whether whatever comments concerns the general public has.

We'll go with folks that we have here in person.

If there's anybody here in person for general public comments, Mr.

Foster seems to be the only one.

If you wouldn't mind coming and joining us here at the front of the room, when the microphone is on and when you are ready, you can go ahead and begin.

And I will cut off general public comments in two minutes.

So at 10 07, please raise your hands by then if you would like to make public comments.

We'll begin with the folks here in person.

Mr.

Foster, whenever you are ready, you can begin.

But with the knowledge I know the police chief is limited to what he could do.

We still have issues with the union, who is ultimately going to make the decision as to what goes on with any uh rogue officers, the one or two percent.

And until this community have more oversight and involvement in those um punishments or reliefs, then we're going to continue to have issues in this city.

Secondly, when it relates to ice, I think it's important to understand that in America, a reasonable articulate suspicion that a crime has occurred is needed to establish probable cause, which means that that's needed to engage anybody.

And so um, and then secondly, in the state of Michigan, the state of Michigan, it's not a ask an ID state, which means that nobody's required to give their ID to anybody.

Um, unless there is a reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred, is suspected of a crime.

And so I think those things are important.

They need to be enforced.

I see ICE out here doing what they want to do.

They bought uh a facility nearby, and so I hope that the city really takes stronger stance on what we thank you, Mr.

Foster.

General public comment is now going to be cut off.

We are going to turn it over to the folks that we have online.

Ms.

Evangelista, how many hands do we have raised and who do we have first?

Good morning, madam chair and council members.

We have 10 hands raised online.

The first caller is Dr.

Denise Darnell.

Good morning.

Can you hear me?

Yes, good morning.

Okay.

Greetings to the committee.

Uh, Dr.

Darnell here, given a big thank you for addressing the growing ice problem there on East Nevada that was obstructing traffic and very dangerous.

They actually began to address it the same day that I brought it to your attention.

So I really appreciate that.

Also, Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

I appreciate Sean Rositano from your office following up on the tree that looked like it was getting ready to fall over on Mount Elliott.

They reassured me that the vendor would take care of that by February 20th, and that DTE had already cut away branches from their wires.

And lastly, council member at large, Mary Waters.

I want to voice my opinion and my support and my agreement regarding your memorandum to David Whitaker with the legislative policy division on modifications to the to the Detroit Land Bank Authority and the memorandum of understanding.

I certainly hope they move forward concerning the changes in the language and the revisions for the eviction process and first right of refusal and the other 12 items that you stipulated.

So thank you.

That is my public comment.

Have a good day.

Thank you, you as well.

The next caller is William M.

Davis.

Good morning.

Yes, good morning.

Um I also like to uh say that we we need to be doing more in the city as relates to uh shelters.

We have people that are afraid to go to shelters because some people are being abused and they have horrible conditions.

Um we used to inspect a lot of things, like right now, like one of my friends lives in the Primo Park area, his building, he was just put out of his building because there's no heat.

You know, we have we need to go back to having regular inspections.

We need to make sure nobody is living in inhumane conditions, you know.

We need to make sure buildings have heat and you know, and you know, heat in the summertime.

I mean, you know, heat in the winter time, air conditioning, cooling system.

We need to make sure everything is up to code.

We need to make sure we have more people doing this work than what's going on now.

So that's all I have to say for today.

Y'all have a great day.

Thank you.

You as well.

The next caller, madam chair, is caller ending in 169.

Caller ending in 160.

Hello, can you guys?

Can you guys hear me?

Yes, we can.

Great, great.

I just want to say uh thank you for praying for Brother Cunningham.

Better yet, thank you to those that have taken action to help Cunningham.

Um, this quote is by Tupac.

My mom always used to tell me if you can't find something to live for, you best find something to die for.

Again, my mom always used to tell me if you can't find something to live for, you best find something to die for.

Cunningham is the underdog, Cunningham is the underdog, Cunningham is the underdog.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for my time.

The next caller is Owner Papa.

Uh, good morning, and through the chair, may I be heard?

Yes, good morning.

Good morning.

Um, uh, yes, Councilman McCampbell.

Yes, that's wonderful.

The trees, but um, are you aware that there are no shelters, no bus shelters on Joy Road?

If you go up and down Joy Road, we have zero um bus shelters, and that there are lots of used car lots and uh police towing yards.

I think we deserve more than what we are getting.

Councilwoman Waters.

It's very urgent that we have this report done on the homeless shelters, but also on the dirty dirt.

Um, do we do we know if this dirt that's with mixed with this uh snow is melting off and going into our water system?

Do we know exactly what we're dealing with?

And um, why is it always that we are deferred?

Uh, yes, ice is a problem, and I I agree I should follow warrants like everybody else, every other unit.

But are we aware that the FBI don't have a very good relationship in the uh history of a relationship with black people?

Um, and I want to know uh why we haven't had a response from BSAID, Mr.

Bell on um the shelters and uh Miss Romero.

While there are rules to engagement, and I should follow them.

You are with the Detroit police department and the woman being shot at six times and then being lied to.

Everybody who was there should be fired.

And we need rules of engagement.

Next is Cassania Gibson.

Good morning, council members.

May have you heard?

Yes, good morning.

Thank you, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Cassiana Gibson.

I'm here on behalf of the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center MERC.

We support immigrant populations across Michigan through legal services and resource connection.

I'm here to draw attention to the need for language access to public information posted on the city's social media accounts without resources in various languages.

Not all Detroit residents are able to utilize available resources that support their well-being.

The Detroit Language Access Ordinance was established to ensure residents with limited English proficiency or LEP are given meaningful and equitable access to vital information.

The ordinance requires the city to translate critical health and safety information in Spanish, Arabic, and Bengali, also known as Bangalore.

Over the past two months, the City of Detroit's Facebook page has shared winter weather advisories and safety tips.

We encourage the city's media team, but these vital resources were not accessible to residents with limited English proficiency.

LEP residents are denied equitable access to life-saving resources when information on dangerous weather conditions is shared only in English.

We encourage you to take prompt action to ensure all Detroit residents receive vital information that meets the standards of the language access ordinance and upholds the city values of accountability and opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next caller is Betty A.

Verner.

Good morning to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Varner, president of the Soda Ellsworth Black Association.

Want to share some information.

The Franklin Wright settlement has a program.

It's called the Home Modification Program for Older Adults.

It's free if you are qualified.

The qualifications, you must be a Wayne County resident.

You must be 62 years of age or older and low income.

And then you must verify.

And some of the things that they do are the interior and exterior lighting for safety.

They install.

They fix hazardous gutters and/or downspouts.

They uh thank you, Ms.

Verner.

Our next caller is Cecily McLellan.

Thank you very much.

Uh Cecily McClellan with We the People of Detroit.

I would like to uh to uh to announce that the Great Lakes Water Authority on February the 25th at one o'clock is having a public hearing in regards to here we go again, another water rate increase.

Last year, the Great Lakes Water Authority asked for a rate increase as much for water as 7% in pursuage at 5.3%.

It ended up that they uh received uh a 5.9% increase in water and a 4.5% increase in sewer, an average of about 5.2, which is higher than the rate of inflation.

We don't believe in this water rate increase is passed on to the city of Detroit because we lease our water system to the Great Lakes, who then charge us for wholesale water.

The rate increase they're proposed in this year is going to be 6.83 for water and 5.9 for uh sewage.

Again, these rates are not sustainable.

We already have enough residents of the city of Detroit struggling to pay their water bill, and we don't have water affordability that is consistent in the city of Detroit that can service the uh population that is low income.

But these consistent water rate increases are beginning to infect the moderate and middle class income.

It is unfair, and we need to say no to water rate increases.

Make sure thank you.

The next caller is caller ending in 124.

Yes, good morning, maybe heard.

Yes, you can be heard.

Good morning.

Okay.

Amen to what the last caller said.

You ever notice on all our bills, they like separate.

All these little things that the service does in the different things, different transmission there, uh water drainage, this, also they can charge us more money.

Amen for the last caller.

It's getting out of here.

Um another note, I would like to thank member uh Gabriela Santiago Romero for having such nice staff.

They answer the phone, they listen intently, and I hope they're communicating the information to you, member Gabby.

I wish all the council members would have staff like yours to answer the phone and listen to people, even if they don't live in your district, because they're written they're raising citywide issues like the problematic Board of Zoning Appeals proposed rules they want to implement that would violate the open meetings act, the charter, due process, and it would be nice to see all of the council members send some staff to some of these meetings so you can see how some of these entities are operating.

I never, for example, the land bank.

Um, but definitely the board is zoning appeals.

They got a lady from remote legal right now, court reporting, and yet there's all this shenanigans about trying to charge people $6.75 a page for transcripts they're already required to have by law.

That is in the thank you.

Next is Stephen Boyle.

Hello, this is Stephen Boyle.

Can I be here?

Yes, good morning.

Hi.

I'm a resident of uh uh District 2, and um I've been taking the bus very regularly.

Today was another one of those uh interesting rides on the way in to work.

Um stepped up to the uh Dexter and Fenkel bus shelter and met my president uh I asked him if that was his living room and um the shelters that are at Rosa Park, Linkwood uh on West Grand Boulevard, continue to have the glass broken out of Mr.

Boyle it sounds like you're moving away from your phone, if you wouldn't mind making sure that you are people that are there before this stage you can continue.

Thank you.

Um probably over so if there's any questions that we need to have uh specialized focus right now as far as mental health goes.

So this is you know Henry Horns possible the playground right now, and we need to make sure that they take care of the playground.

Thank you, Mr.

Boyle.

That was your time.

It did sound as if you walked away from your device.

We could not hear you towards the end.

I tried to capture some of your comments.

Um they sounded like they had to do with the majority of them having to do with the bus shelters and the bus systems, um, and the need to address mental health.

Um, probably in the system, so we will have that conversation shortly.

But thank you for calling in.

Who do we have next?

Madam Chair, the last caller before you cut off public comment was Mr.

Cunningham.

Brother Cunningham.

Whenever you're ready.

Pulling over to the side of the road for safety, 313, 444, 9114.

3134, 9114.

That number was made so you can remember it.

Uh, if you want to find me on Facebook, put in that phone number.

You want to send a cash app for bus tickets and other things to give out of the bus stops.

Get that number 3134 9114.

Um Facebook Cash App, reach out, listen to the message.

Uh, please do so.

Dot is really stuck.

It's terrible.

East, west, north, south.

The new buses.

Did any of the powers be know that the new buses?

They're not saying too much.

The new buses are breaking down.

Half of the new buses aren't even getting on the road.

It's causing a letter should be written to the federal government who paid for the buses.

Can we keep the old buses in the system?

Because we're short buses.

We got tons of drivers waiting at the terminal, getting paid.

I ain't trying to block nobody's money, but I'm seeing east, west, north, south, unlike anybody else listening.

And that's not cool.

I had a promise from Mr.

Kramer this week.

And I hope that comes to fruition.

That promise.

And thank you to the Sheffield office for reaching out.

There's a letter on my Facebook.

Please read it every thank you, Mr.

Cunningham.

All right, folks, that was the last caller.

So we will now go into oh uh before going into our 1015 presentation, Vice Chair.

Thank you.

And just through the chair, since it was um there was a question directed regarding the shelters in District 7.

Definitely aware of the need to have more, and something I continue to talk about, and we'll talk about that soon.

Um, but also as we talked about uh used car lots and such in District 7.

It is my goal and my push that we really make sure that we're getting um development that addresses our needs in the district.

So I just want to address that in full agreement of what has been brought up and we are working hard on it.

So thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um, also just grateful for the call regarding language access.

Um we need it.

Uh we continue to ask, and it is important and helpful when the public sees the need as well and asks for it.

Um when it comes to dangerous issues or um things that are happening, um, like dangerous weather.

The notices are only being sent in English.

Um, so we need to make sure that everyone is able to understand the issues.

And uh we have later on in the agenda discussions around ice.

Um, so we will touch on that issue once we get to that.

But I will now move us along to the rest of the agenda.

We are joined by Director Kramer, if you wouldn't mind joining us um at the front of the stage here.

Uh, we will hear from Director Kramer, who is going to present to us the quarter four KPIs, the key performance indicators, how we are doing as a transit system as a bus system here in the city of Detroit.

Um, again, as I mentioned, we do these quarterly.

There will be one for quarter one later on this year.

Um, but I know from when I started on council, uh, the numbers are very helpful to keep track of um and to know where we are and where we have to go and how we can help.

Uh so thank you, director, for joining us.

Do you need access to the screen or anything?

I believe as a presentation.

I believe uh Stephanie Davis should be joining to share it on the Zoom.

Okay, so we'll make Stephanie a panelist and director, I believe.

Is there anyone else that you're needing from your team that you're expecting from your team?

All right, so Stephanie will be made a panelist.

Uh the floor is yours, director.

Whenever you would like to start, please introduce yourself and then feel free to jump in.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Um, my name's Robert Kramer.

I'm the director of uh transit for the city of Detroit, director of D DOT.

Um, and here as mentioned to the chair to do our quarterly uh core or queue for uh regular report.

Uh this of course is a good opportunity for me to give a general overview of kind of how things are going at DDOT before getting into the specific metrics uh that are generally reported as well.

And then certainly if the members have any questions, I am here and available.

So I think Stephanie's gonna share the presentation while she's getting that uh queued up.

I just want to start with kind of an overview.

So um our our bus availability is down by about 30 buses a day since Thanksgiving when we had uh over 190 buses available.

Um our service requires about 200, um, but that's at just one peak, so it's manageable even with a little bit less than that.

But that certainly uh has been showing up in the services out on the street, as I'm sure you all have been hearing at council public comment sessions as you're talking to people in your districts.

Uh we know that there are buses missing, which means that there's services missing as well.

The new flyer buses.

Well, all of our buses are new flyer now, but uh the 2025 mile year, which we are um uh receiving 45 of those.

We have 45 of them.

They're replacing our oldest buses.

Um, those account for about 20 buses a day that we are short.

And that's about half of the order, as uh Cunningham mentioned.

Um, we are now doing a daily task force meeting with New Flyer.

We finally have had started to make some progress.

Um, but these are all warranty issues, so that's they're being delivered.

Uh, we're doing inspections through our our vendors uh when they'll be building on the line, just so you know the process.

When the buses come here, then new flyer actually sends their staff to do a prescribed um inspection process as part of the acceptance, then they present that to us for our acceptance, and then we take a look at them after that.

So these are all buses that cleared that process.

But then, of course, when you start using something, that's when some of the issues present themselves.

And that has that is uh cost us at least 20 buses a day, really for for quite a while now.

Um but we do have uh commitment from New Flyer.

We've escalated it a few levels higher, and we've got, as I mentioned, uh a daily working group.

They actually flew in a few extra technicians uh two weeks ago to be on site and really tackle those issues.

So we are now optimistic that in the next couple of weeks that most of these buses should have their issues resolved and be back on the street.

Doesn't mean that something else won't go wrong, but we're feeling better about that.

The buses that we're replacing uh have over 500,000 miles and are about 14 years old.

So that's uh in excess of their useful life.

Um so while there are a few of the 2012 models that could be worth saving as a contingency fleet, we're focusing most of our effort on repairing the newer buses in the fleet rather than those that are well beyond their useful life.

Um good news, we don't have a shortage of operators.

Um this is really a maintenance capacity challenge.

Uh we're still working to recover from maintenance and staffing gaps, but we've got a clear path forward with the new union contracts that the council approved in November, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment, as well as developing some pipeline programs, including one uh coming up very shortly, uh, working with Henry Ford College to do uh kind of like a certificate program for uh folks that would like to be uh mechanics.

So very excited about that.

Um really this group, this exercise is part of having you know transparency and accountability, so I think this is a really good forum for us to report those numbers.

We are reviewing the schedules to ensure that when we're short buses, that we're doing the best job we can to structure the cuts to be predictable and also thinking about things like impact on uh schools.

I know I'm gonna be talking with some students from Cody, I believe next week about how the bus can help or hurt um uh attendance and educational success outcomes for high school students, but that applies to middle school students as well.

Um we're also working to improve the accuracy of our bus predictions so that we can keep encouraging people to use the transit app, which is free, and the RTA paid for an upgrade of that to the Royale package that can really help you plan and pay for your trip on any of the systems in the region.

Um, and then also the DDOT app still works as well, or you can call customer service at 313933 1300.

If you have questions, complaints, or compliments about the service.

Uh we're also evaluating the service levels, kind of looking at our scheduled service change.

Next one is in April.

So that's an opportunity for us to fine-tune the schedule as well.

Um working with the nearly 1,000 team members, DDOT, we're gonna update, we're updating all of our standard operating procedures and looking to improve and clarify some of our KPIs, which again we report some of them to this group, and really ensure that management and supervisory staff has the support and training that they need to grow a culture of proactively managing our service that we deliver.

And I think this will be consistent with uh Ms.

Lau, the new COO, who's very focused on data and metrics and improving performance of all the key uh operational units of the city as well.

So looking forward to working with her.

Okay, so now on to the buses.

So we talked a little bit about we've got the 45 hybrids.

Uh, we're working through the reliability issues with those, um, but when they're on the road, um they are fantastic.

Um, they're all hybrids, you'll notice acquired a ride and less uh less pollution, which is a really good thing.

We also have accepted for we haven't accepted, we have on site four all electric buses from NewFlyer as well.

We are um uh we they have agreed to prioritize making sure the hybrids work first before we get into the four electric buses.

Those are gonna give us an opportunity to really test how all electric buses can work in our environment.

Environment meaning everything from traffic and road conditions to the actual weather and um temperatures that we have here in our four season state.

So we're looking forward to to working through that.

But those electric buses because we don't have a network citywide of uh ways to top off the charge of those buses, they're gonna be assigned on routes that are only out on the road for four or five hours before they can come back to the terminal to be charged, which is a pretty lengthy process.

So that is the biggest constraint of having all electric buses is that you can't just hook them up to a diesel gas pump or other fuel and fuel them in a matter of minutes.

They do take hours to charge.

So that's the biggest constraint for a fully battery electric fleet.

Um, the contracts, um, yeah.

So I'll come, I'm gonna cover Coolidge when we get toward the end.

But the last thing on this slide before we get into some of the numbers is the contracts.

So the council did approve the driver, the operations and maintenance contracts in November.

We're already seeing some huge benefits as far as the TEOs and the students, which you'll see here in a moment.

On the maintenance side, the master agreement is what was approved by council, but there is still some work to be done for supplemental for each of the ASME units, and that will help us work out the details of the incentives that were included in theory.

So the incentive included things like on the maintenance side, incentive for CDL A and B, tow truck training, uh ASE certifications, things that can really help us to encourage and reward those who are willing to invest their time and energy to get these things, which then provide a much more uh sound set of technical expertise for us to be able to diagnose and repair vehicles, with the end game or the end goal being that we can uh basically reduce our need for outside vendors down to basically just warranty work.

So that's like if you if you want to know kind of the the goal, the the light at the end of the tunnel, that's where we'd like to get to, and that's where some of the more mature or advanced maintenance programs at other peer agencies in our state and region, that's where you want to get to.

Um so looking forward to that.

Again, that's gonna take a while, for example, to go through the ASC progression that we've listed.

That can be about 18 months if you start today and say I'm I'm committed to do this as quickly as possible as a someone who wants to enhance my skills.

It can take quite a while for you to progress through all of those classes while also doing your work.

So it's not going to be an overnight uh fix, but um this really gives us the tools and opportunities to make these significant changes.

We've got parity with other similar similar transit agencies, and I would argue a pretty clearly a more robust incentive package that really helps to encourage and reward people that are investing in in their development as well.

Okay, so with that, let's go into the data.

I'll I'll touch on the bus stops and Coolidge when we get to their slides at the end of the deck here.

So the first one is our revenue models monthly.

This is uh 24 versus 25, is what we're seeing here.

Uh, you can see that we are 100% is what you want to be at, which would be the number of revenue miles that you perform.

And so, as mentioned with our equipment shortage, we have been doing uh we did worse this this December, really this quarter than the same quarter last year.

The next one, the more positive news, our active TEOs.

Um we're at uh 522 in December.

We're actually into the 530s, maybe close to 540 today.

Um, and I think that's maybe the biggest sh immediate indicator of the impact of these um improved union contracts.

So last year for the entire 12-month period, we had uh student classes every month.

We were graduating classes anywhere from 20 to 40 students, and by the time we got to the end of the year, our net change of TEOs was zero.

So basically, all of that work was us to keep the same number of drivers.

And a lot of that's again the retention is based on the fact that they could go make quite a bit more working other places among other challenges.

Um, and so now our our current skirt set our current scheduled service requires about 520, 20 525 drivers.

So we are now finally at that point where we have more than enough drivers.

And uh we had our largest class that I could see in a long time.

Um our class in December was 74 students, and we started a class in January that had 30.

And we're gonna have one more class in February, which should be about 25, and then we're actually going to take a pause for a class cycle or two, and that'll help us move to the new terminal and you know give our trainers a chance, which basically been going 24-7 for the last couple of years basically to reset some of their materials and train some new trainers that are joining us as well, and really shift to focusing more on enhancement and refresher training or a good balance between those two.

Um so again, this is a good number.

Uh the TEOs and training, really, this goes up and down based on how those classes uh join.

So you can see in December we had a bump up to 109.

I believe right now we have about 100.

We've been badging to when you get to the very end and you actually badge a TEO, that's when they actually kind of graduate and are eligible for regular work.

We've been badging about uh 10 to 20 drivers a week for the last few weeks, and that will continue on for for quite a while as well.

So that number is gonna continue to go up.

Our separated TEOs in December are our goal or what we think that number should be around is about eight.

But it really goes up and down depending on kind of what happens each month.

As you can see, December was pretty low.

Our ridership is for the whole year last year, we our increase was about 7%.

For here for this quarter, you can see that our ridership was approximately the same in 2025 as it was in 2024.

Our pull outs from terminals.

So again, our goal here is 100%, and you can see these this is what's mostly impacted by equipment availability.

And you can see the on-time performance of pull-outs also has been around 80%.

Our missed trips for December was up to 8%.

Again, our goal there is 4%.

But a lot of that is contingent on the equipment.

Our in-service on top performance is 72%.

So that's a number that the goal we have is 85%, so we do have a long ways to go.

Missing buses does have some impact on that.

But I think as I mentioned earlier, we're going to be spending time really re-establishing our SOPs for service delivery and kind of managing what's out on the road, because I do think that there's opportunities for us to move that up even by addressing in some cases our data is showing some pretty high early data.

So just to uh frame for much of the data you have in this presentation, it's automatic data that's pulled from our clever system.

So it's uh it's an automatic vehicle locator system.

It's actually recording the position of the buses and then comparing it to the schedule.

So in some cases, there are uh things you can do, and at Smart we have this same issue as well.

In some cases, the way that it's set up or some some quirks about the system can actually give you bad data.

Um, and that just requires some some vigilance and some effort to really monitor what you've got.

Um, and so the best example, which happened for DDOT and Smart is you have an area like uh in Fairlane, there's buses that end and start the routes there.

If you don't set up the geofencing appropriately, it can actually think the bus gets there and then starts its route early when it's really just the bus take uh the driver taking their break.

So just little things like that really require some attention to stay on top of.

Um but we also want to make sure in in transit in other industries sometimes it's okay, but in transit you never want to leave early.

You never want to be early because if someone's counting on your schedule and they get there and you've already left, that's unacceptable.

It's kind of the same thing for a plane.

Like you don't want to show up at the airport and they say, Oh, well, we were all ready to go, so we left uh without you.

Not a good thing.

Uh okay, next would be um our PCR per 100,000.

So PCR is our preventable crash rate.

That's the P in PCR, preventable crash rate.

We do have a um uh a weekly committee that actually reviews with a group that includes uh union representation and management to actually make a determination of whether a crash is preventable or not.

Um that's going to continue to be an important process because our new contracts, which are now in effect, do include a quarterly safety bonus for the safe time where for this first time, and uh that's basically if you go the whole quarter without having a preventable crash, you're eligible for that incentive.

Um so it's good that we have this uh process in place.

We'd like this number to be lower, um, and actually in January it was a little bit lower, but you can see the PCR is about 3.5, and the non-PCR is about three.

Okay, and then complaints is the next one.

Um, our goal is to be at 15 or less per 100,000 boardings, as you might expect with our equipment availability being worse than it was last year.

Um, the complaints are higher.

Um, and so that's not surprising, but uh we do have a I would say a very thorough system of actually listening and recording to those complaints, pulling video if we need to, and certainly following up with those in a timely fashion to make sure that we can have the best experience possible.

And then uh last one is DPD bus boarding.

So this is a relatively new um statistic for us to report, and we're still, I think last quarter we were kind of took a shot at this.

These next couple of slides are about the um about our uh safety on the buses.

So this is our bus boardings per month.

So this would be the number of times that uh DPD transit unit staff boarded a bus for any reason.

If you look at the next slide, this is the incidents at transit centers by shift.

So the uh Jason Hardgrove and Rosa Parks are the two transit centers.

Both of them have DPD that are stationed at them 24 7, and so as they're responding to incidents that require their support.

Um this is the number of incidents by time of day.

So the left one is kind of the over or the daytime, then you have the afternoon and blue is the overnight hours.

Um then the next slide is the type types of incidents for um DPD transit reporting, um, and just to be clear too for the transit center.

So we have our um DDOT has security senior safety guards, I think.

I can always get the title mixed up, but those are the individuals that you'll see that are either our staff or contractors through Eagle, and they're um helping to make sure people are safe, have what they need, and they're also staffing the screening checkpoints when we have those.

Um DPD are there then to provide support and patrol outside as well to address any incidents that might come up or any uh calls for help.

So the types of incidents you can see generally disturbances, but we do have some accidents, medical emergencies, um, just a very small number of TEO assaults or vandalism.

Again, this is between the transit centers and the bus routes across the city.

Okay, and then the next next one is paratransit trips.

So you can see here that our trips are up about 15% between 2024 and 2025.

Um bad news is for paratransit is the number of trips you provide is directly tied to how much it costs you to provide them because each trip does have a cost to it, whereas on fixed route the bus is there whether one person rides it or 50.

Um but the good news is um when you see increasing ridership like this, and you see the next slide, which is our on-time performance, that means that the system is working for the people who need it.

So that is a good thing.

Um, and you can see here that all of our vendors, if you haven't seen this chart before, basically this is our vendors are the the root the rows here, the five vendors.

The columns are the different windows weekday, Sunday, Saturday, Sunday, and total, and um all of them meet or exceed the 95% on time performance threshold, which is why they all got an A, which is good.

And the on-time performance threshold basically means what we we give people when they book a trip, they get a 30 a 30 minute window.

So we say, okay, we we promise you we're going to be here within this 30 minute window, and the on time means that we have arrived and picked them up within the 30 minute window, just to be clear.

Uh paratransit accidents, um nice and low, which is great.

Our complaints also very low.

Um you can see sometimes percentages don't always mean stuff, so 0.03% means we had 11 complaints against 37,000 trips.

So that's pretty good.

That's a pretty good number.

Um D DOT now is our same same day paratransit, and this is uh two of the vendors, um, and and these are about a hundred trips a day we have that are available, it's first come, first served.

Basically, what this uh system works is that um people who are eligible for paratransit can use the DDOT now to ask for a trip on the same day.

So generally you hit you'd have to schedule it at least two days ahead of time, and then it's all pre-booked and scheduled for DDOT and I you can call up, and if there's availability, you can get a trip the same day.

Okay.

Now, last couple of slides here.

I feel like I've been talking for quite a while, but hopefully, all helpful information.

The last couple of slides here are those other items.

So the Coolidge terminal update, we're at about 90% complete.

We've got a little bit of IT electrical and finishes that are remaining.

Um we are still on track to uh begin operating out of the facility in April.

So we have a quarterly service change.

Um it's even though the building's gonna be ready before that.

We can't we have to make that kind of overnight change to operate from Coolidge instead of Gilbert, and so that'll be the Sunday night into Monday.

I think that's the 2023 now that I have it, the 27th.

The 27th of April will be the first day that we're operating out of Coolidge, and that means maintenance and operations will both be uh we'll both move over kind of overnight there.

So very excited about that.

Um it provides a little bit more efficiency from a routing standpoint because it's more centrally, it's a more centrally located west side terminal, whereas Gilbert is kind of like a central central terminal.

Um, but really the most exciting part is that it's just a much better and supportive environment for the staff that work there every day.

So that's the biggest biggest benefit that hopefully will translate into a better experience for the riders.

Our next slide is the shelters update.

So we have 44 of the 60 ad shelters are complete.

The last 16 should be able to be installed here in the next couple of months as the weather permits.

Our next phase is 100 shelters.

These locations are still being finalized and clearing all of the different clearances, but they are on track to all be installed this year, and we'll be back with an update to share exactly what those locations are.

About half of them will be replacing locations that have old or broken or missing shelters, and the other half will be spots that don't have not had shelters in recent history.

The next next slide is about the benches.

So last year the council provided $2 million of extra money for bus stop enhancements.

And while we haven't, some of that will go towards supporting the 100 bus shelters that I mentioned last slide.

We've installed 25.

They come in batches of 39 or 36 or something like that.

So similarly with the shelters, it's a little bit easier process, but we are working with our partners at DPW, Wayne County Roads, and the state of Michigan to get the appropriate approvals that we need to install these around the city.

But I'm pretty excited about that.

The first one was on uh Cass and Peterborough.

If you want to see what they look like, also in this picture, you can see they're nice.

They're nice benches and comfortable.

And so we know that that's something people have really been asking for is uh a simple amenity at the bus stop.

So we think this will be um a good uh good improvement and appreciate the support.

And then last couple of slides, just real quick as we're trying we are tracking our social media uh progress a little bit more precisely these days.

So so far we have Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

We'll be adding TikTok and really coordinating this all with some new and additional energy from the city media services team in general to really improve the uh outreach and the messaging that comes out for the city and and its departments.

So very excited about this.

Um we had um kind of uh a veteran join the team um a few months ago, and he uh alongside the rest of the team members has really put a lot of energy into increasing our social media um output and engagement, so much appreciated for him.

So you can see Facebook, we had about 36% increase in new followers for Instagram about six percent, but also had almost 300% increase in views, and for LinkedIn, um also about 60% new followers and lots of uh impressions and engagements.

So not that any one thing is the perfect answer, but um, this is another avenue for us to be able to engage with people about the system, hear their feedback, and help them learn how to use it.

And with that, my update.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you to you and to your team for the work that you do.

It's incredibly important.

I have a lot of questions.

I will start with one, um, turn it over to my colleagues and then we can continue the conversation.

Um, but thank you for going over the bus shelter plan, um, the benches, um, and making sure we have amenities.

We also put money um into your budget to hire an additional staff person, essentially a social worker, community care worker.

Where are we in that process?

We're we're close.

I know I feel like we've given you that update the last couple of times, but um it is still on our radar and really looking at I think there's there will be some opportunities for it to um align and synchronize with some of the efforts for uh Mayor Sheffield's administration to really focus on poverty and homelessness as well and see how we can better use um uh Rosa Parks and that staff member to support people.

Perfect.

That sounds great.

Um, yes, just bringing somebody in from this system, the supportive system, uh the system of care to make sure that we are supporting our residents that are using our transit system as well that need help.

I will start there.

We'll turn it over to my colleagues, member Waters.

I saw your light turn on immediately.

So I'll go right ahead.

Okay, thank you.

So good morning.

Morning.

Um I just wanted to um ask a few questions.

The first one is regarding the hybrid and the electric uh buses.

Given the fact that we um really have any support for electric buses coming out of uh Washington DC, how how is that going to affect us or does it at all?

Well, the the good news is um so far it appears that the support for hybrids is still there.

Well the the good news is um so far it appears that the support for hybrids is still there um and so these 45 are hybrids uh we received another discretionary award uh just in the fall for more hybrids.

So we've got funding for another, I think it's another 80 uh hybrids through two grants that we'll be able to purchase and bring on to replace vehicles from the 14 and 15 model years, and the hybrids, of course, are all diesel electric, so you don't have to have a charging infrastructure.

So far, I think if I'm hearing your question correctly, it's um it we are um should be well supported and are not concerned about the electric issue.

Not that you mean for the hybrid, but just total electric, do we have any concerns?

Well, we only have the four.

We have the four Pro Terra buses, which that company went bankrupt.

We have four new um electric buses from New Flyer, and we have a way to charge those.

Okay.

Um, but just not out on the road.

So they will be limited in how long they can be out.

Um, and so if if we were going to expand any farther than four, because the fleet's almost 300, so it's only four out of three hundred.

If we were going to expand, if we had 45 electric buses coming in, I would be very concerned.

We have any fast chargers for the buses too.

You know how some of these rapid chargers we have.

Does that work for the buses?

Yes, we have uh the chargers we're installing at the shoemaker church terminal are are relatively fast, but the buses have you know many times more batteries than a car, so even a fast charger still can take like four hours for four hours.

Okay.

Um which routes are experiencing the the most delay, and how can we approve improve that?

Um I think that's a good question.

It's we have been working to make sure.

I mean, there's always a reason to every route has a as a need, right?

So we've really been working as as an organization and it's changing every day.

We've got a lot more input from schools lately, for example.

So really making sure that Joy Road route is a good example, it has pretty low frequency, and the way that the um buses were lining up, there was there was a gap that was between seven and eight o'clock, which obviously is very important for a students going to school.

So it really impacts every diff every route differently, and that's where we need to do better to make sure that we really understand how each of the cuts work.

For just to take this one step further, so on Woodward or Jefferson or Grand River, where you have a bus that's scheduled to come every 10 or 15 minutes, if you're missing a bus, that's not going to be as big of a deal on the one hand, because it means there's going to be another bus 10 minutes later anyway.

However, those have higher ridership, so now you might experience buses that start getting full and crowded, and then in very rare cases they may have to actually skip some stops because they don't have any more room.

That doesn't really happen very often, but it's something to really keep our eye on.

Where obviously then on the other end of the spectrum, if you have a bus that only comes every 45 minutes or an hour, if you miss just one of those, now you're talking about an hour and a half or two hours between buses, um, but there's only a few people that ride that route.

So it really is like there's no good answer to which buses that we cut, and so it's really we we need to do better on really um uh making sure we can be aware of and balance that.

That's an area where we're not doing as well as I would like.

Okay.

So when I saw heard you talk about missing shelters, now you're not talking about you're talking about shelters that were never there in the first place, or are you talking about shelters that were there and they were somehow removed?

Uh was is through the chair.

Is this this about the 50 re bus shelters?

Because you said that said you said that there were some they were missing, and I know sometimes we get damaged shelters and so forth.

Yeah.

Um how can how how can how can we better protect our shelters?

That's a great question.

Uh so I was referring to if I said missing, it would be a spot that used to have a shelter where either the shuttle was it was damaged or destroyed, um and so it was removed.

How does that happen?

How do you just destroy an entire shelter?

Vehicles.

Yeah, vehicles, vehicles crashing into shelters, yeah.

Okay.

So one of the big challenges here, um, and as a planner, I can say this more than uh as an engineer, um, is that there is a balance between how um like right-away is treated.

So if you think about even on the freeway signs and and other equipment are always made to break away, so that they're not you know, so that they're not going to more greatly damage the person in the vehicle hitting those shelters are are kind of in that same category, so they are designed to break away, just as bus stop signs are um, which is can be good on the one hand, but not as great if you're someone that's standing in that shelter when it gets hit.

So um it is really a challenge on how you protect um the shelters and make sure that they're as um you know as accommodating and safe as possible, um, and even having you know good good visibility and making sure that they're in spots to be seen, but ultimately, you know, I would say anecdotally, the almost all of the shelters that are damaged are from are from vehicles hitting them.

And that's not just a Detroit issue.

That's yeah, yeah, just yeah, okay.

Um so the certificate program, is that something that people will have to pay for, or is that or will you be DDAP be assisting people so they can earn a certification?

Yeah, so we're working to finalize this uh program with Henry Ford College, and uh there is a grant, a couple of grants that are gonna support that.

So um it's a very limited number of seats, but the people who are in that program actually there is no cost to them, so they'll actually get paid while they're attending the class, and then if they uh graduate the program at the end, they actually get a tool allowance um end up in a position.

So it's a really great program.

Uh it's been something they've been that's been in the works for a long time.

Um our first class, I believe, is just gonna be three three people.

Um and then um we're hoping to expand that in the future and make it available for other providers too.

So does it does this this uh certification allow people to work on both the hybrid and electrical buses as as well as our current fleet?

Yeah, it's it's not a certification that would be like easily transferable, it's more of like a a good basics class to put someone in a position to be able to learn more and to be work on basic systems, but yes, uh the the program is set up to be able to work on high voltage systems and diesel engines.

Okay.

Um could you share the information with the community and tell them how they can get access to these job opportunities?

Absolutely, yeah.

You can go ahead now and share it with them.

Oh uh I'll I'll provide more information.

I don't have that part memorized.

I'll probably provide that.

I know we have some people that are listening, that's why I I ask.

There is a process through through um it's through the uh Detroit at work office is the one that's helping to identify the individuals and get them into the program.

Um again, how many positions right now?

The first one is just for three, but we're hoping to make that more.

Because the idea is if you go into the how many more you think.

Well, the uh the original grant was up for up to 25 over a period of time.

The the um the nexus here is that you when we have people to enter the class, is that we are saying that when they get to the end of the class, then they'll actually be hired on as a mechanic.

So we can't have um if we we can only have as many as we're able to take on and actually have as mechanics.

That's part of the reason why there's a limitation.

So it's not a training program where they could take that and go work elsewhere.

I mean it's skills that are very useful, but the idea is that they would join, you know, they would join the D dot team um with those skills that help us.

We are paying the money for them to get the trade, and we certainly want them with us.

Absolutely.

Yes.

All right then.

Okay, thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, Member Waters.

And uh there's a really good example of bus shelters continuing to get hurt on Fort Streets.

We've been working with D dot and MDOT trying to get a bus shelter along Fort Streets, and we've been told no uh because cars hit the shelter so often.

Um but director, it sounds like we might be able to get a bench.

Um a bench would be great.

We have a church, we have a recenter, we have schools, um, and they do take the bus on Fort Streets and they do stand um on forts where a bench would be incredible.

Uh just a notes for you and your team and member waters if you wouldn't mind helping us.

Again, it's been two years of us trying to find either a shelter, potentially not a bench along Fort Street because that bus shelter has been hit by cars over and over and over again.

Okay, and madam chair, yes, number one.

Um can we install boulders at at the various shelters so that if a car goes up there, it's gonna be more difficult.

I think we talked about that too.

And to what director Kramer is talking about is what that causes for accidents.

If you have it's on the corner of Shafer and Fort Straight.

Okay.

So if you have boulders, you have a crash, now you have a massive crash.

So it is it does make sense why they would just break away.

Yeah, that way you don't cause a more massive accidents.

But these are questions that we've asked, and I really think like maybe a bench might be the solution for now.

Yeah, but we keep asking for shelters.

Um, and that is the issue, is just how many crashes are along that that corner street.

Okay, we'll do whatever I can.

Thank you.

All right, we'll work on that together.

Thank you, Member Waters.

Uh to our vice chair.

Thank you, madam chair, and director Kramer, thank you for being here this morning.

Um share the sentiments of it's great to see the progress that uh is going on to see more operators as well.

And I'm glad we were able to make that happen.

So thank you for that.

I do have a number of questions as well.

Uh some has been touched on, but as you talked about the warranty issues with new flyer, um, and I know that there are we're limited in bus manufacturers in this country, um, and you know, the need to have more coaches and such.

Do it do they have like in talking with them?

These are like signific it seems like significant issues like with warranty issues moving forward.

Are they putting it in any type of uh quality control to make sure like if we're ordering from them moving forward that we don't face this again?

Yeah, um a couple of thoughts on that.

So they are um they they've admitted that this is more than they find acceptable as far as these issues that are coming up.

Um there is a process, as I was trying to described before, of kind of what's happening at the um at the factory, um, and then once it gets here, but I think you know one of the lessons that we learned moving forward, whether it's with New Flyer or the other manu major uh manufacturers, Gillig, um there's also um one other that's trying to kind of get into the market but is having some trouble delivering.

But whoever we um uh set in the future is adding some more teeth to the contract that would have like liquidated damages or um something that guarantees a little bit more precise the the availability of the fleet once it's delivered.

Um so those are some things that we're you know learning the hard way this time around.

Um we have had some commitments from new flyers far as making sure that the uh warranties, so we have a couple buses were down for 150 days.

Obviously, that's eating up a lot of the warranty because a lot of a lot of the systems are like the first year.

Um so we we've gotten positive reception from them so far about making sure that we can push some of those windows out to acknowledge the fact that they were down as well.

So I think that's my my thoughts on your question is you know, we're we're learning about these things.

Um and yeah, I think the other thing we would do differently next time, uh, which we didn't really have the luxury of doing this time, is um actually sending um a member or a small team of our staff uh to be on site during the build.

Um so we used a vendor to do that, which is it's pretty common.

Um, but if you can afford it and afford it, meaning if you have the the time and the staff that are willing to do that, it's pretty disruptive to go live live in Minnesota or California for a couple of months.

Um for people have families and lives and stuff like that.

But if you can afford it and work it out, I think that for our next uh order, we'll make sure that we've got a contingent of some of our staff that are on site as well.

Not that that would guarantee that it would be fixed, but at least then you just have another layer of comfort.

Um and you know, from previous experience, um we when we would send a team uh at SMART, sometimes you can identify something early on, and then it makes it so that that's not an issue for some of the rest of the buses rather than it gets here and then you realize oh, this one thing is kind of not quite the way it needs to be.

So thank you for that, and I'm glad to know that there are lessons and um yeah, we'd love to as we think about contracts.

I'm glad you brought that up in contracts moving forward because it is now a cost to the department, the city, and our residents for I mean, like 150 days is significant, especially when folks are um we're having to miss buses and such, that is a cost to the community.

So um definitely willing to be a partner in that moving forward as we look at new coaches as well.

Um member waters touched on this as well with the charging stations and such.

Um I know there, yeah, uh I'm glad to know that the hybrid uh environment on the federal level isn't hasn't changed much, but we know the all electric and we also know the need for uh public charger infrastructure in cities like Detroit.

Has there been conversations and um with the new administration as we're thinking about how can we?

I know buses need a different level of charging, but how can we kind of incorporate this into uh charge and avenues for residents as a whole?

Maybe there's like a uh complex or an addition to one of the uh terminals or anything like that.

Has that been thoughts on that?

Uh we haven't had any any you know specific conversations about it, but um certainly you know, take that note and it's a good thought is it as we're considering that I know for um for a minute there was um could be an opportunity for hydrogen, but that seems to be uh kind of an unknown as far as the federal support for that.

But uh for hydrogen or electric, I think when we're building that infrastructure, there's always that that question of could this be something that could also accommodate public customers as well.

Yep.

Okay, thank you.

And um a few more, please bear with me.

Um the you talked about um and let's talk another chair brought up this about the hiring of folks, but thinking about the safety on on the buses, and you talked about the DPD uh getting on another those rates.

But has there been conversations about or is there a like a community ambassador such that uh we could have on the buses to have to help like if there's folks that are going through mental health issues or that need housing support or anything like that, or de-escalation, um that we can kind of be a more preventative in that I I also had this thought around safety for our students as well on those routes that we know students aren't are ongoing to um certain schools, and maybe there's a partnership with the school district that we could have known folks from the school that can help ensure our student safety.

But is there has there been thought around that about think about how would we be more preventive with any issues on the buses?

Yeah, so uh th through the chair.

I think um we have a budget for uh a couple of additional ambassadors.

Right now we have just one that spends most of her time at Rose at Parks.

Um so I think that's is something, especially at the transit centers, have someone that can help uh do a lot of different things, you know, how to ride the system.

Do you have questions about where to board the bus or where it's gonna go?

But then also to be trained to be able to look for people who might be in crisis or or need some other assistance of some sort or or just feeling unsafe.

Um we've had some preliminary brainstorming, I'll call it, about could we have you know um ambassadors or you know, uh unarmed guards or just you know, other adults basically that are on the bus there, especially for student routes.

And um, I don't have anything to report yet as far as something that we're you know, we think we we're willing to try, but it is something that we've we we are discussing actively.

So I think it's a it's a good I mean it's good and all of the above, right?

There's no one perfect solution.

Um and and really hearing um I think uh there's an opportunity for us to hear more from students, including like obviously I'm gonna go to Cody, but um finding those avenues for for middle school and high school students to hear more about um how they feel about riding the bus is important because it's a it's a really incredible opportunity for uh young people to show them that the bus can really be an asset for them and something that they can uh learn to use and it's um it has a lot of freedom and independence, but it's really important.

It's also an opportunity where if they use it um and something happens if they're feeling unsafe, if it's not reliable, um, if they don't understand it, then it's uh uh uh opportunity uh missed.

So and I and absolutely, and I I appreciate you going to talk to students at Cody because we can have conversation around the table, but we're not students that have to use it, so I appreciate you getting that direct feedback there.

Uh and agree with like all of the above.

And I'm even thinking about you know the various social work programs that are around.

Um, if we can uh provide I know folks have to get uh it's hours or credits or such and that field work, so that could be something to explore as well.

But um thank you for that.

I want to touch on Rosa Parks as well, because we did we have her had some folks come down with concerns around the terminal being closed at times.

Could you just go into the process around that and what was the current status of the terminal?

Sure, through the chair.

Um so for both Rosa Parks and um Jason Hardgrove, our regular schedule is that the term the inside areas are closed from 12 a.m.

to 4 a.m.

And basically that's an opportunity to do kind of a deep cleaning and reset.

That's also the time when there's the lease buses that are going through the area.

But to be clear, the service is still working, the bays, the the covered bays are still in operation, DPD and our um D D dot security are both on site as well.

Uh it's just the inside areas of the building that are closed.

The only other time it should ever be closed other than that is if DPD, uh if we have like a power issue or something which we had a couple about a month ago now, um, or if DPD declares that it needs to be closed, and that generally be if there's something going on where they say for security it needs to be closed, but that's the only reason it should be closed other than from 12 to 4.

Um thank you for that.

And two more.

Uh I um as we talked about the shelters, and you alluded to this in District 7, many of our routes are the 45 to an hour routes, and um I would just I know you all are thinking about locations and uh um I'm not gonna assume the process and that I'm I would uh think that it's high priority, but if if you all could just think about it is the need for both shelters and seating in those type of uh I road down Plymouth on the Plymouth route, for example, there's not a lot of stops that even have seating, and if folks are having to wait 45 to an hour for that route, um it I I believe that increases the need for folks to be able to have a safe uh place to be at the stop.

So just want to encourage that as we're looking at the placement for more CNN and more shelters, and um that is and if there is a need around it for the department, that's something that I am willing to push for with my colleagues here at the table as we come upon budget season as well.

Um and then the last question I had was on um okay, uh sorry, uh I'll put two in one.

Um what is the if you could give us uh update on I know a lot of this goes into the uh D DOT reimagined plan, but if you can just give an update on where that is now.

And this is not a question, but I know Smart has um and the county, there will be a countywide millage coming up and their they've released plans as well.

But would love to in the maybe in the future day if we can talk more about the impacts on that on service in Detroit as well.

But um, if you can just go on the update on D Dot reimagine.

Uh so through the chair, so D D dot reimagined um is kind of um a baseline framework.

Uh last year we increased service two different times, uh 5% each.

Um, and I believe all of those were frequency improvements.

Um so if you think about kind of the the uh the baseline uh goals and objectives of the D Dot reimagined plan is about increasing the network of frequent routes.

Um and so there's always gonna be opportunities for us to make those improvements.

I think where it gets a little bit trickier is there were some suggestions for actually you know combining or reducing or rerouting routes in certain areas, which means that you're gonna lose service on certain segments or corridors, and having maybe a higher frequency route that combines a couple of them.

Uh we did talk to the public about doing that last year.

Um we got some some pretty mixed feedback.

Obviously, people who say, oh yeah, that means there's more service on my corner or up for a sportive, and people who said, Yeah, but now I have to walk farther, we're not.

So um, and then we didn't end up doing any more service increases because we need to make sure that we improve our reliability first.

But it is an opportunity right now, and I think that the um Mayor Mayor Sheffield and her administration, um, which includes me, will uh we'll really be thinking about that as we move forward.

Um when we're ready to start um increasing service again, is how do we balance you know some of the ideas that were put in D dot reimagined?

Are they still relevant?

That was a couple years ago now.

Um should we focus just on frequency to start with, or are there other models of service delivery that maybe weren't considered like microtransit or some sort of other complement um to to really uh you know play this goal out of just improving mobility for Detroiters?

So it's a really long answer, kind of maybe even a non-answer you might say, but we've made some progress in in increasing service last year, and that's still the most important goal is you really want to have more frequent transit.

Um but there will be more opportunities for that moving forward when we get to the point where it's ready to to increase service again.

I think that's still an organic document and and part of that.

And then your second question statement about uh Wayne County is that you know it will generate some amount of funding from obviously it it's a transit tax in the city of Detroit for the first time because previously Detroit was an opt-out community, just like many of the farther out communities in Wayne County.

So we'll generate some funding for the city.

I think it's the question of it, it's not um it's maybe you know seven million dollars somewhere in that ballpark, uh, which you you know compared to the general fund contribution that the council makes to D DOT is a not a very big amount of money.

So I know there are some conversations at the county level and also with Smart, and certainly D dot's been part of those about okay, what what could we really get?

How could we really get um uh a really noticeable benefit out of this this funding?

It's not gonna pay for doubling D dot, it's not gonna pay for doubling frequency, but it still can have a meaningful impact.

And I think that's something that um you know the the uh Mayor Sheffield, her administration certainly we're gonna be pushing to make sure that that can be the biggest impact possible, but nothing's set in stone yet.

Thank you for that.

And I and I know uh as we're talking about that direct uh benefit to the city, I know also with having those communities be all in in Western Wayne, it helps connect folks to get to jobs that they otherwise wouldn't be able to.

Um and and to that point, as you are in conversations, if you share this view, um if you could help ensure that this actually connects us to Washington County.

I know some of the initial plans I've seen that kind of is short of that place where you can um transfer over and can.

So I would love to see that happen in in the plan.

And then uh this is not a question.

Um I just wanna, as we I know we're enjoying a 50 degree day to day, but I know we have had a lot of folks calling about concerns around the snow around bus stops and I know dust uh together with a DPW as well.

But if we can just have a uh eye on that if during the next snowfall as well.

But thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, Director Carn.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um some few questions, remaining questions for myself, and these can be quick.

Just wondering, is flyers successful in other states that have four seasons.

Is what successful?

Is flyers successful, the the new flyer are have they been successful in other places?

Are we kind of just an outlier or um I don't think that the the issues with the hybrids are not related to weather?

Um and even their plant is in northern Minnesota, so it's they're they're familiar with the conditions.

Um and we have heard from others, so we in this contract we piggybacked office state of Washington contract, and so some of the other uh agencies that are ordering from that are also experiencing some issues, but it seems like maybe ours are a little bit more severe.

Like I said, we we have been able to escalate high enough that you know they're admitting and tracking that this is you know higher than what they would expect to deliver.

So we just need to keep working with them.

Okay, I just needed to ask that question.

Um there's a lot of ad space now on some of our shelters.

How can folks utilize that um at space?

Can the public utilize the ad space?

Uh let me get more details.

Let me refresh my recollection on that one and get back to um the ads are meant managed through our contract with Brooklyn All the Doors as part of the ad shelter program.

Um and I know that there are opportunities for like PSAs and nonprofits and stuff, but I I don't have that uh memorized, so I'll follow up with that.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

As we're putting up the shelters, there seems to be space for us to be sharing information or gathering income for some if that's the the ad that we have in that space.

So just want to utilize it if we have it.

Um director, there's a lot of questions coming at you.

There's a lot of um a concern and also just needs because transit is pretty important.

Um and I'm just wondering, and since you're in this world and you talk to, I'm sure a lot of other um directors in transits.

Uh why is it so bad?

I have my own ideas, but I see politicians making videos of them not ghosting their residents, because uh unlike the bus, they're promising free buses, you know, if they win.

It's important.

Um why is it this bad?

Is it cost?

Is it usage?

Because we are trying to make sure that we're providing you drivers, we're making sure that we have the buses, but this does not seem to be you know uh unique to Detroit at all.

It seems to be an issue probably in this country, because if you go to other countries like in Asia, it's on time.

They actually apologize to you if they are late.

So just wondering if you can just share some of your insight with us, um, because this is not unique to us.

Um I'm seeing it everywhere, and just really wondering um what is it in this system that is preventing us from having good public transit.

Sure.

Um great question.

I think um the answer is probably the circumstances are different and unique for each agency.

So um, for example, maybe I'll start with a few things that we don't have to deal with.

So in some agencies, um there's a real uh fiscal cliff.

Um if they're tied to a specific sales tax or funding measure or property tax or something like that.

In a lot of cases, uh, like I know Pittsburgh um is facing uh Philadelphia just went through this SEPTA uh Pittsburgh is facing like a 35% cut service because they're they're facing a fiscal clip that's kind of like started with COVID and they're finally coming to it.

Okay.

Um so that's something that here we have not had to deal with because the city's been successful in managing this process and finances and also the general fund allows the council to kind of make that decision, and it's not tied to well, it's gotta be a certain tax line or something for better or for worse.

So uh maybe starting with the positives, you know, that would be something.

Uh we're finally to the point where we don't have a driver shortage.

I know smart after a long time also kind of uh you know uh got to the top of the mountain as far as filling all their driver positions.

Um but that has been a challenge um uh across the industry uh for a number of reasons, often including pay, but also the kind of the allure of bus driving as a career has continued to diminish like a lot of other public servant type positions as well.

Um and it's a really tough job um and has a really tough schedule.

So that's another another factor that we kind of seem like we maybe have finally uh resolved that again with these contracts at the end.

And I think from the maintenance standpoint, maybe even more severe than the driver's standpoint, which this is what's affecting us the most, is um a lot of things all stacking up.

So here before the contracts, this was the only system that I could find in the country where the mechanics made less than the drivers, for example, so that's a pretty big deal, um, and making a lot less than other providers in the state, and then the other providers in the state are making a lot less than the private private sector.

So if you went to work for Cummins or for uh like a private sector company, you're often making a lot more as well, even though you don't have the the pride and benefits and security of the job, those are still things that impact people's decisions.

And I think from a bigger picture perspective, um, and that's why this Henry Ford College program is pretty exciting, is you know, being a mechanic as a trade, like many other trades, vocational trades, has been on a long decline of you know popularity, which then drives decisions of vocational schools either going away or deciding to reprioritize their uh classroom space and resources to things that are maybe more high-tech, uh, HVAC, you know, things like that.

So, really what you have is over a long period of time, just the people who think of being a mechanic or other similar positions, um, they just don't think of it, and then the programs aren't there to help them.

And then what you get is kind of a lack of a very high demand and a very low supply for kind of those hands-on vocational trades, same thing for electrical plumbing, um, stuff that all of you are very well aware of.

But that's something that's impacting us right now is you know, we we had uh low pay, and so even when we were able to get candidates in those positions, they were not very experienced, and we didn't have the training incentives for them to continue to grow.

And so today, what you have is um it's it's difficult for us to be able to diagnose, let alone repair a lot of the things that are ailing our coaches, uh, which then obviously snowballs.

So these contracts um truly, I mean, I keep mentioning them, but it is like a generational opportunity for the the drivers and the mechanics and all the other staff that you know, all the support staff too.

Um, but it's an it's an incredible opportunity, but it's gonna take a lot of work and time from today moving forward, especially on the maintenance side, to have that fruit come to bear as far as having the system, which I think I started all the way back at the beginning of this was the goal is to get to a point where you have staff that want to make a career out of it, and they're able to diagnose and repair basically anything that happens with our equipment that isn't really covered by warranty.

And that is the place we still want to get to, and I think there's a lot of um there's a lot of great um team members that work at D dot that that believe in that goal too, but it's gonna take you know it's gonna take a lot of uh effort and and some time to get there.

So we all should care about transit.

Yes.

And it should be fun for all of us, and uh we should support it.

And thank you for bringing everything in house.

I think that makes sense.

Um I asked these questions as well around other maintenance that we have for buildings, things like that, but bringing it in house, only working with warranty workers makes sense to me.

I know it'll take some time.

Do you think five years we might be at a better place?

Or is that not enough time to get this to be in-house?

Um, Madam Chair, I hope it's sooner than five years.

Perfect.

Okay.

Let's say two years is what I think would be a really good goal.

Again, thinking about the time to train and hire the staff.

Um, but and along the way, we're still gonna be working every day to get you know everything um repaired and out on the road as possible.

But I think really seeing that that shift that I think you're you're hearing and we're talking about, um, you know, I I would hope that we'd be able to see that measurably, you know, within the next two years.

Okay, that sounds wonderful.

I think that's needed.

Um I personally do not own a car, and uh hope to when I'm done with my service to the city, take the bus that it's on time.

That's we don't have to worry about paying gas money, high insurance that we have a system that works for us.

Um so glad that we are working in that um towards that.

I think the PCR bonus will probably save us money in the long run.

We're seeing all these lawsuits against us, right?

For accidents.

Uh so thank you, Director.

Thank you to your team.

I do believe that's all that we have for you today.

So we appreciate you.

We will now let you go along with the rest of your day.

But thanks for being here.

I will now close out our 1015 presentation.

Thanks everyone for tuning in and move us along now to unfinished business.

Under unfinished business 6.1.

This is contract number 6007588.

This is utilizing 100% city funding.

This is regarding general contracting services at city facilities.

This will go through January 31st of 2029.

And this will be for 750,000 dollars for construction and demolition.

Motion to discuss.

Motion to discuss discussion.

We I believe should be joined by Raquel Harrington and or Anita Clark, if we can please make them into panelists.

Oh hello through the chair.

Good morning.

If you wouldn't mind seeding your name and title for the public, Raquel Harrington, press secretary for construction and demolition department.

Thank you for joining us, Ms.

Harrington.

I'll turn it over to our vice chair if you have a question, Vice Chair discussion for 6.1.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning.

I I just want to I know we got more information on the contract.

I just have a few more questions on this.

So on the is Am I correct?

And I guess this is contractual services, but I'm trying to just uh piece together.

I think one of the concerns or the concerns that I had is um as we had in the previous discussion about bringing a lot of this maintenance in-house, and I'm just trying to get a view on how many or do we know how many and us is how many positions this contract helps to cover or it's I know it might not be uh apples to apples comparison, but um do we have information on otherwise if we were to have these services in-house, how many folks would that what would that mean in terms of um employees?

So right now, our facility maintenance team, we have uh just over 40 um in-house individuals on our maintenance division team, and this contract will help with that middle ground.

Um so it's not necessarily uh capability issue what this contract will cover, it is a capacity issue.

So this contract will help make up for that manpower that our department is unable to um that our maintenance facilities division is unable to meet.

So when it comes to um like infrastructure, roofing, concrete, this is where that contracting service will come into play versus our in-house team have the capability to do um like plumbing sinks, repairs, and things like that.

Um it just our team just doesn't have the capacity to and the manpower to withhold the much needed space that this contract will cover.

Absolutely, and thank you for that.

I um and and definitely um understand that I'm just looking at this since this is a three-year contract when it's a longer term like this.

Um it just says to me that there may be a need to have more in-house folks that can, if there is a capacity, yes, you less increase our capacity or increase the budget, um, especially for this 750,000.

I don't want this to impede on progress and maintaining our facilities, but I think if we have this conversation on budget finance and audit, especially with the number of vacancies that then we have to go to get contracts that may be a bit more expensive to cover that need.

So I think this is just a I uh this is just me just thinking as a citywide thing that I would love to see more of this be in-house, but I appreciate the information and the answers to that.

And I'll um get back to you, madam chair.

Thank you, vice chair.

Agreed, and and knowing that we have city staff that are really supervising, managing, overseeing the folks that we're bringing in to support with added capacity.

That's understandable.

Uh, to my vice chair's question, though.

I think we always want to create opportunities for in-house jobs for Detroiters, um, and making sure um that we are providing those opportunities.

Um, Ms.

Harrington, I feel fine moving this along today.

Um, but would like to um if it's okay with you, we'll reach out to just sit down.

And I know that uh construction and demolition oversees a lot of maintenance for city properties um and it's just helpful to get a picture.

Um that way we're better prepared and understand how all of these things work because there are so many moving pieces, um, and just want to make sure that um we understand and we can support or shift things uh where we see opportunities to do so.

So if that's okay with you, that's a request that I have um moving forward.

And what I'll do now is turn it over to Member Waters who has a comment or question.

Okay, man, just to follow up on what both of my colleagues have said.

Yes, we want more opportunities in-house, people living right here in this city because guess what?

It contributes to our general fund, our tax base, and so forth.

And so those are the kinds of things I'm looking forward to.

Thank you, ma'am.

Here, thank you, Member Waters.

And just a note, we could very well be hiring detritors through these contractors.

Um, which is amazing.

These are still opportunities, there's still jobs.

I just think it's easier to see where our hands are if we know where folks are at, um, who who are the folks that we have in-house, things like that.

Um, so is Harrington is that okay with you?

We'll probably reach out to you to get um more of uh of an educational um meeting to to learn more.

Absolutely.

Okay, I don't hear any other questions from my colleagues.

There was a motion to discuss.

Is there a motion to approve?

Motion to approve.

Hearing no objections.

6.1 will be approved, sent to a formal with the recommendation to approve, and my team and I will be reaching out to you, Miss Harrington.

Thank you.

Moving us along, 6.2 and 6.3 are both various memos.

6.2 is a memo requesting information regarding shelter inspections.

Uh we did receive the shelter inspection report.

Um, and we received no other comments for 6.2.

So I believe we can receive and file if there's a motion, hearing no objections.

6.2 can be received and filed.

6.3 is a memo relative to Detroit police department's interactions with ice.

Is there a motion to discuss?

Motion to discuss.

Thanks, team.

For 6.3.

I have a question.

I'm not sure if this is for LPD or to the law departments.

Um, but this is confidential.

We have a lot of reporters who are very interested in reading what's going on.

Um, and I'm just wondering what the process is.

Is it a motion at this table to remove?

Is it a final votes?

How can we get that happen?

Let's do it.

Uh please tell me how to make that happen.

Um the law department.

Alex Henderson from the law department.

Uh, because the memo was directed to council, uh, council as a whole body holds the privilege.

So it would have to go to a vote through the whole council to waive that privilege.

Okay, understood.

Do I make that motion today?

Do we follow up with the memo?

Can we move it to new business?

Can it be removed tomorrow?

LPD.

Doesn't it go to the president?

Does it have to go to the president?

I thought it went to the president.

I think all you can do is ask her.

Okay.

We haven't done it in a while in a long time, but it used to be more routine.

Yeah.

It seems simple enough.

So we'll reach out to the president's office today.

It's just a question of whether there's something in the particular reports that there might be some some problem with making public.

Uh you also might want to have a closed session first.

I don't know if that's necessary.

I just don't know this.

That's that's your call.

Okay, thank you.

I don't believe that's necessary.

I think this is just process um law department sends us information that's privileged, and we will work on trying to remove that tomorrow if we can during formal session, we'll figure that out.

Yes, through the chair.

I mean, just my my impression, and I didn't write this thing, but I read it and and I read the law departments too.

My impression is that this is one of those things where you put a privilege on it because it does involve legal interpretation and legal analysis and legal opinion, and then the client has every right to rate it to lift the privilege.

And I I would expect it's already being it's already such a subject of uh so much interest.

That probably would be a good thing.

Thank you.

All right, thank you both.

So with that, I would like to bring this back more discussion, Vice Chair.

Um just before do that on discussion, and I I agree with what makes and it would be good for folks to see what's in this.

Um, I also believe it brings the need as we I appreciate seeing the accountability um that DPD has taken on the officers that were found in coordination, but I also feel that that brings up a higher new for folks to know what the policies are.

Um so as Mr.

Foster even indicated to our public comment that there can be accountability and folks know um what should not be happening in the city.

So thank you, Vice Chair.

To that point, um I don't believe Mr.

Washington, are you on with us?

If so, would anyone from DPD be on with us to briefly discuss um the the I believe there's terminations um at the table right now um with I uh with DPD officers that were um engaging with ICE through the chair um and good morning.

I would have to reach out to DPD.

I am not sure if there are you know limitations for what they can say publicly to that.

I would refer to the law department, um, but I can touch base with them to double check on that question.

Mr.

Washington, if you wouldn't mind, and um since we are going to discuss removing privilege tomorrow, having someone from DPD at formal session tomorrow to provide that update.

Um, we will try to remove the privilege just for us to have this this conversation at the table.

So if we can have that update, and I believe the chief has already shared some information publicly.

Um maybe not everyone has has heard that.

Um, but if we can work on this for tomorrow, that would be great.

We'll do madam chair.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Washington.

Any other discussions on this hearing none?

Um, is there a week?

Is there can we bring this back in one week, please through motion?

Motion hearing no objections, 6.3 will be brought back in one week.

Thanks, everyone.

6.4.

This is a memo requesting information on nories, public in Detroit and services for low income residents.

Um this is a memo through member waters' office.

I do believe is there's a motion to discuss.

Oh, sure.

Uh thank you.

Member Waters, I believe the response has been submitted.

I'm not sure if you've been able to review it.

So no, because as a Friday it had not been submitted.

So was it submitted this morning?

Probably this morning.

So we can be back in a week.

Okay.

Thank you.

Hearing no objections, 6.4 will be brought back in one week.

Under new business, under the Office of Contract and Procurement 7.1.

This is contract number 600509, zero amendment number one utilizing the 100% grant funding.

This is to provide an increase of funds for program administrator for managing medical and supportive services for persons living with HIV.

The contractors wellness services, they're located in Flint.

This increased amounts will be for 76,649 with 81 cents, and this will be for the health department.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss 7.1?

Discussion.

There's a motion to approve with discussion.

And Vice Chair would like to discuss.

We do have we should have Miss Leah Smith or Elizabeth Ayana Johnson with us to discuss 7.1.

If we can make them into panelists, Madam Chair, Ms.

Smith is rejoining as panelists.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see them joining us on the screen.

If you wouldn't mind stating your names and titles for the public.

Good morning.

Thank you for joining us.

Uh Vice Chair.

Thank you.

Good morning, Ms.

Smith.

I just have a quick question on this.

Is this a kind?

Is this a similar contract to the ones we um approved before?

Would just I know that was with Henry Ford, but needed to the additional services here.

I'm through the chair, yes, that is correct.

All of these agreements are for various HIV STI related um case management services as well as um additional support services.

And so depending on the contractor, some of the specific tasks they may do, they are doing maybe different.

However, they're all funded through the same pot of money and they're all um achieving the same purpose.

Thank you.

And and one further question.

Do we have an idea when the March uh and beyond contracts will be coming forward?

Yes, uh, through the chair, it's my understanding that those new agreements have been approved through um the fiscal review commission, which is required due to the time frame of all the new agreements, and so I do believe that those should be either heard at this committee next week or the week after.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Are there any other questions for 7.1?

Um director, I just have one, not a question, uh, but we tend to have monthly meetings with the health departments.

I would like us to touch base on our HIV services.

Uh, we see these contracts often, and we have been doing this work in the city for years, um, and before our time.

So it just again, it's a whole process of learning and seeing how all these things connect.

Uh so for our next health department meeting, if you wouldn't mind touching based on this program um since the inception and and what we are seeing now and what we should expect moving forward.

I really appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Uh, there was a motion to approve.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, 7.1 will be approved.

There's a request for new business.

If there's a motion to do so, just sent to new business.

Hearing no objections, 7.1 will be approved, will be sent to new business with the recommendation to approve.

Thank you both.

7.2 moving us along to 7.2.

This is contract number 600 7681 utilizing 100% grants funding.

This is to provide a community health services to supports vulnerable populations across the city of Detroit.

Contractor is Southeastern Michigan Health Association.

They're located in Detroit.

This will go through November 11th of 2027.

And this contract is for 327,888.

And this will be for the health departments.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss 7.2?

Motion to approve.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, 7.2 will be approved.

We have been requested to send this to new business as well.

Motion to send hearing no objections, 7.2 will be approved.

Sent to new business with the recommendation to approve.

7.3 is contract number 6004 eight eight five amendment number three.

This is to provide six-month extension for bust hire purchases, repair, recapping, and scrapping services.

Contractor is shredder, tire, and oil.

They're located in Melvendale.

This will extend their time through August 21st, 2026.

There is no change in contract uh value.

Uh but it is a four million dollar contract, and we're expending the time.

Is there a motion to approve or discuss 7.3?

Motion to approve.

Hearing no objections, 7.3 will be approved.

We also have a request for new business for 7.3.

Motion.

Hearing no objections, 7.3 will be sent to new business with the recommendation to approve.

Under the law department 7.4.

This is um uh connected to 6.3 regarding DPD and ice.

If there's a motion to bring this back in one week, motion thank you.

7.4 will be brought back in one week.

Under the building safety engineering and environmental department 7.5.

This is a recommendation for recession for property located at 12731 Linwood.

Is there a motion to concur or discuss?

Well, discussion.

Um member waters.

You know, I'm very reluctant about rescissions, and so ma'am she I want to make sure that um the department has done all that it that it can to reach out uh to this owner.

Um they're not sometimes you know things fall through the crack, they they miscommunicate and whatever.

I'm just I just need to know.

I hear that member waters uh to Mr.

Washington.

Do we have anyone from BC to discuss 7.5 chair?

Um, could we please bring this back at the end of the agenda and I'll reach out to the department?

Yes, thank you.

Without objection, we will come back to 7.5 at the end of the agenda now.

Under the office of the chief financial officer, Office of Development and Grants, 7.6 is to accept and appropriate the fiscal year 2025 Sister Friends Detroit grant, and 7.7 is to authorize and submit a grant application to the HAP HAP Care Source Foundation for the fiscal year 2026 HAP Care Source Foundation grant to support project clean slates.

These are two grants.

Is there a motion to discuss or approve 7.6 and 7.7?

Motion to approve.

Motion to approve.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none.

Is there a motion to send 7.6 and 7.7 to new business?

Hearing no objections, 7.7 and 7.6 will both be approved, sent to new business with the recommendation to approve.

Under the legislative policy division 7.8, this is the natural gas and electricity shutoff.

Moratorium request discussion.

If there's a motion to discuss, thank you.

For 7.8 LPD quick question.

We already received and filed this, correct?

Yes, we were wondering why it was on the agenda because I thought it was even five last week.

So we can probably wanted to read it and comment on it.

I don't know.

No.

Um it sounds like we can remove it, Dr.

Powers.

Is there is there a motion to remove motion?

7.8 will be removed from our agenda.

Thank you.

7.9.

This is a memo.

Oh no, this is the reports, the resolution to support Michigan Bills 508 through 510.

Is there a motion to approve to new business?

Motion.

Thank you.

Hearing no objections, 7.9 will be sent to new business with the recommendation to approve.

Under the departments of transportation 7.10.

This is the reports that we saw this morning for the KPIs for quarter four of last year.

Is there a motion to receive and file?

Motion.

Hearing no objection, 7.10 will be received and filed.

It's a long report, but I find it very helpful.

Under miscellaneous 7.11 is a memo relative to requirements for implementing pre-sale inspections for residential properties.

We've been asked to bring this back in three weeks.

Motion.

Hearing no objections 7.11 will be brought back in three weeks.

7.12 is a memo relative to a request for a memo concerning an eviction moratorium.

We've been asked to bring this back in three weeks.

Motion.

Hearing no objections, 7.12 will be brought back in three weeks.

This brings us to member reports, but we will go back to 7.5.

Mr.

Washington, do we have someone to discuss 7.5 chair?

Um I believe we'll have to let Patel joining us.

I believe he's preparing to log in.

Um if you could come back after member reports, he should be available.

Okay.

So we can jump into member reports.

I will start with uh member waters.

All right, thank you.

Um thank you, madam chair.

Um, a couple things this week.

We have um our skill trade task force meeting, the first one for the year.

Um co chairs are my colleague here from the 7th district.

Um member McCampbell and um our colleague from the 5th district, uh, member Miller.

So uh it will be held at the um Carpenter and Mural Rights Training Center on American Avenue is from 4 to 6 p.m.

4 to 6 p.m.

this Wednesday, uh which is the 18th.

So we're encouraging everyone to come out and participate.

Um I'm issuing a special call out to to sing a moms uh this year uh to get engaged in skilled trades.

Uh what a unique opportunity, uh career opportunity uh for them and an opportunity to create generational wealth with their children.

So single moms uh come out and see us uh this Wednesday at the Copper's Mirror Rights Center on American Avenue from 4 to 6 uh p.m.

Then on Thursday in partnership with my colleague uh member Santiago Romero from the 6th District, uh we will be doing deed fraud.

Uh and that will be from 4 to uh 6 p.m.

at the Kimbate Recreation Center, which is located at 2260 South Fourth Street again this Thursday, deed fraud um from 4 to 6 p.m.

at the Kimini Recreation Center in partnership with uh member Santiago Romero from District 6.

You can also join us via Zoom because this is a hybrid meeting.

Um I've got to tell you, colleagues, this has been such a tremendous interest uh from people throughout the city.

Um, whether they are there in person or even virtually, the the numbers are pretty high, and so we want to make sure that we give them as much as information as possible in order to protect themselves.

And so since this is a hybrid meeting, you can call my office for uh the Zoom link, or you can check our social media page or the the city's uh page as well.

But my number is 313 628-2363, 313 628 2363.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Waters, Vice Chair McCampbell.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Just a few updates for folks.

Um tomorrow we will have the evening community meeting for city council in District 7.

This will be um at the Kadesh Baptist Church on Plymouth Road at 7 p.m.

Uh, folks can also join via Zoom and um uh via phone.

So really invite folks out um to the district, and I'm looking forward to seeing folks there.

Uh and also just want to note for I believe it's ending soon, but we are under air quality advisory.

And I just wanted to bring this up because it is another another sign of you know uh climate change and and deep freeze, right?

And uh uh snow and this dust particles are coming from melting snow.

So it's it's something that um just wanted to lift up if you are someone who have who has respiratory issues or um any trouble with breeding or such, um, it's advised that you uh limit your time outside, and if you have to wear a mask.

So I just wanted to bring that up.

And um that is the end of my oh, I will say also um, Madam Chair, as we were talking about the um with DPD, it's my understanding that um during the Board of Police Commissioners meeting on February 12th, they also discuss um that there were suspensions of the officers that were found to be in coordination and that the BOPC is considered further actions, whether that be uh removal or pay or termination.

So thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Uh yes, thanks, Member Water for sharing our deed prevention events this Thursday.

I want to invite uh residents to join me tonight for our office hours.

I will be at Community Rec from 4 to 6 p.m.

This is a great time to ask me any questions, share any ideas or concerns.

Um if you can't see me today, hope to see you Thursday, and if not Thursday, this Saturday.

We are going to have our next February monthly meeting.

It's going to be from 11 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

We will have food.

We will um know we will learn about know your rights um as well as foreclosure prevention.

And please check out our social media for more details.

Um, but with that, Mr.

Washington, do we have Mr.

Patel with us to discuss 7.5, I believe Arthur Russian is joining us.

If we can make Mr.

Russian into a panelist.

I'll tell you what, I can bring it back.

We'll bring it back in one week motion uh because I want an opportunity to take a look at that at the building anyway.

Okay.

All right.

So there's a motion to bring 7.5 back, and when we hear no objections, we will go ahead and bring that back.

And since we've done member reports, there's nothing else before us, so we are now adjourned.