Good afternoon.

I'd like to call the budget finance and audit standard committee of Wednesday March 4th 2026 to order.

Would the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Denzel Anton McCampbell.

Present.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Mr.

Chair, you have a corn present.

Thank you so much.

Members of the committee should have received the minutes.

And with that, if there's an approval of the minutes, motion to approve.

There's been a motion to approve the minutes with all objections, the action shall be taken.

That'll move us on to chair reports.

So I do not have any uh remarks today.

That'll move us on into public comment.

Um request for public comment will close at 10.

Um please limit your remarks to two minutes.

We'll start with the folks in the room and then move over to folks that we have joining virtually.

Um do we have any public?

All right.

I see in one hand in the room, if you would come forward.

Good afternoon.

Uh, if you could just state your name and then you can proceed with your public comment.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

Uh I just I'll make my oh, I'm gonna make a comments read if I use my full two minutes.

But I just want to uh direct my comments through the chair uh to LPD.

Um there is a lawyer in the city of Detroit, his name is David Whitaker.

He's worked for the city of Detroit for probably 30 years.

Um he's one of the longest tenured members in the city of Detroit.

Um department in any on any payroll, he makes 243,000 per year.

Uh so city council, you guys all just received a 6.5% pay raise through the elected officials compensation commission.

Hopefully, you guys earn that.

I'm not saying you guys are done a bad job, some people are brand new, but uh there's a year after year raise for the head of LPD legislative policy division, and this the mayor just received a 5% increase with that same elected officials compensation commission, and she only makes 235,000.

The salary before is 224,000.

Her 5% raise equated to $11,000.

So the head of LPD makes a level $8,000 more than the mayor of the City of Betray.

That is an egregious waste.

You can hire two lawyers.

He makes $117 approximately per hour.

You can hire two other lawyers, put them in a law department, or put them LPD and appoint somebody else to be the head of LPD and save money.

We have lots of positions in the City of Detroit that are uh huge like this.

And I think this is not a charter mandated position.

This is not a position, you have to have LPD head of LPD, but it's not a charter mandated salary.

So that salary can be looked at, it can be changed.

So now we're coming up on budget season.

I think we have to be very responsible when it comes to our fiscal matters when it comes to City Betray.

This is a business, and so as a business, you have to operate as such.

Um, it's not about the the best well-being of the citizens.

I understand it should be, but it's not, it's about profit.

And we have people who are late with reports.

LPD is unfortunately always late.

There's always something that LPD is getting asked to do, and these reports are not coming out timely.

These reports are not coming out as complete as they should be, and we don't have the amount of thoroughness that we should have.

And I think we should replace people at the top if they're not doing a job worthy of 117 per hour.

That is, I'm not sure consuming of other people.

Thank you.

Um seeing no other folks in the room.

Mr.

Chair, yes, uh, as of right now, we have six hands raised.

Our first caller is Betty A.

Verner.

Miss Varner, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Uh good afternoon to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Varner, president of the Soda Elsewhere Black Association.

Uh looking forward today, hopefully, there's going to be someone who's going to from the water department.

Uh is going to um give us uh some information in regards to the H2O Life with the Lifeline H2O program.

And also, um Mary Waters.

I did submit uh my recommendation uh or my request for uh the land use uh hearing uh asking that the uh council will consider uh allocating monies from the budget uh to help uh associations, black clubs, 501 C3s to uh help them with their projects in their community to help improve their community, and either the administration to waive that $1,500 for that land use hearing, because it creates havoc for a small black clubs and associations, or the council, or both can happen if y'all see fit to have monies to assist us in paying for that land use hearing.

Uh the best recommendation, my opinion is it should be waived, because we are purchasing these uh vacant lots, which we have been asked to do by the city to beautify them, make them useful, and uh for our uh communities to improve our communities to remove that uh I saw.

So I would like to know where does that email go that is sent.

Uh what happens?

Thank you, Miss Varner.

We um we're gonna wait till the end of public comment, and then if uh members want to respond, we can do it then.

Next person.

Our next caller is owner Papa.

Uh huh.

Ms.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Uh good afternoon, uh, council McDaniel.

Thank you for hearing my as uh as councilwoman uh says uh my complaints because we're so negative.

Um I think we're negative because of the treatment.

Um councilman McDaniel said if you if you look at what's going on to the majority people in the city, like Miss Um Miss Varner, who just hung up, she has always helped, she's always helpful, but nobody wants to help her.

She's having problems paying a 20 $34 uh water bill.

And here we are with uh things like um 7.2.

Uh gonna let somebody have 15 years of reduced taxes when those property tax dollars are are taken from the general fund.

That's a reduction in the general fund.

And then whenever we have an increase or a surplus in the general fund, we can't use it.

What do you do with it?

You uh purchase sidewalks that we never see with part of it.

That's what they this council did uh some years ago.

And now this year we're going to do the most illegal thing.

The most racist thing you can do is to take my money and plug the whole of a of a of a corporate income.

So you're saying I work all year long and pay my taxes, and any surpluses I have go to the plantation owner, right?

So it goes to a fund to plug their home.

That is the most racist thing I've ever heard of, and the most unconscionable.

And this body voted for it.

So you want to know why people are negative and because we're painting, and you're taking our surplus dollars in a community where uh district six has two lactating centers and district seven has zero.

District two has two or three recreation centers, and district seven has zero.

This is not equitable.

We've already determined that separate is always unequal.

And I'm not going there with you all anymore.

Thank you.

Thank you, next person.

Our next caller is William M.

Davis.

Mr.

Davis, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Yes, you may.

Okay, I'm I am in agreement that District 7 doesn't need a recreation center.

I'm also in agreement that y'all should do more to help Miss Betty Vernon because she calls and do very good public announcements.

And you know, her group, and she's the president of has been doing stuff for years.

Because I know I used to go over there and help them with cleanups and what have you when I was the police commissioner.

Because I used to be part of District 7 before it became part of District 2.

I think more needs to be done to help community groups.

I think far too often.

We do a whole lot to help uh corporate America.

Uh, we should be doing more to help the average citizen in the city.

And uh we need to also uh I like the fact that y'all looking at under the miscellaneous about uh supporting the bills in the Senate and the House dealing with uh revenue sharing.

Because the city of Detroit went through bankruptcy because the state stopped giving us the amount of money that they're supposed to be giving us so that they could steal our assets.

So hopefully uh y'all could do more to help make sure the revenue sharing is maintained and hopefully increase.

Also, y'all could be doing more to push them for to get the emergency management law abolished.

You know, that's like the acts over our head that they keep holding, telling us that you you Negroes better stay in line, or we're gonna cut your head off.

So hopefully more can be done to help the average citizen and of course naturally more could be done to help the city of Detroit retirees.

For those who don't know, we're having a meeting today, the same matter, St.

Joseph Episcopal Church on what we're thinking.

Uh from 5 30 to 7 15.

Y'all have a great day.

Thank you.

Next person, please.

Our next caller is phone number ending in 124.

Phone number and then 124.

If you could state your name, uh good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, maybe heard.

Yes, you may.

Yeah.

Uh regarding uh Miss Betty A.

Bernard who requests to waive the land use fee for uh neighborhood association.

Uh I'd like to remind for people who were not here last year.

The BZA wanted to put a $500 community appeal cost for community appeals.

And member Letisa Johnson's and others expressed concern and shut it down because of the high cost.

So if you're concerned about $500 for a community appeal, how about help out uh Miss Barner and uh black club associations that are trying to do these types of things in their neighborhood?

But also, Miss Verner, understand that all of a sudden last year the law department is pushing the BZA to charge over six dollars a page for transcripts.

So they're trying to get our appeals to dismissed if we won't pay $4,700 for transcripts.

The city the BZA is already required to have by Detroit City Code 50-2-66.

Now, why no one on the council will take a look at that and see that what they're doing is wrong and they're being misguided by the BZA is beyond me.

Also, when you spend money for the master plan update, it should be done in a way that's it truly inclusive and not just have 41 people, a selected unelected uh master plan advisory group that meets every other week, probably with free food and stuff, and the rest of us don't get to go.

That's very disrespectful to the rest of us residents who would like to be involved in the neighborhoods where we live and pay taxes.

So please modify that contract.

Otherwise, when it comes to you for a vote, it was not done with sincere, meaningful, inclusive community engagement.

So please check.

Thank you.

Next person.

Our second to last caller is phone number ending in 482.

Phone number ending 482.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Our next caller is phone number ending in 039.

Phone number ending in 039.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Okay.

What up, Joe Detroit?

Hey, Councilmember McCamp.

You don't know, but all the rest of the TV then elected, selected TV then public officials here in the city of Detroit.

That's the Board of Police Commissioners, the school board, the mayor, and the city council, which you are a member of.

Now I can't prove and demonstrate 2025 with bold.

But 2020, yeah.

2021, 2022, and 2024 is in the books.

Y'all TV, all TV lands, public officials here in the city of Detroit and Mr.

Root and Mimi want what she won't.

Uh, Mrs.

McCampbell.

The rest of these council members, except for you and Miss Uh Miller.

They've done her whole story, but I'm gonna run it down to you just like this.

Because meet the Coleman, DPB case number 20-11112, did not shoot her Fell.

Sermain McCloud did it.

And that's my word.

And I'm rude.

Um Joy Row rule, six-mile rule, seven mile rule, and now Mr.

Route.

And a whole bunch of other monikers too.

I ain't got to go all down that line, but what I'm telling you is this.

Janice Wolfrey's been seen in Detroit elections for 15 years.

I can only prove section.

And that's what I'm about to do and demonstrate to all of y'all.

And all the rest of these in words in the city of Detroit.

And that's my word.

Um alleging.

A legend.

Detroit legend in District 7.

Check the resume.

Check the record.

Stand up 100.

And I am who I am.

And I'm about to do what I'm about to do again.

In regards to it.

Thank you.

Next caller.

Um going back to our last caller, it is phone number ending in uh 482.

Phone number ending in 482.

Are you there?

And if you are tempting to speak, you'll have to come off mute.

482 going once.

One twice.

All right.

If you could just go ahead and um if you have a public comment, you can submit it to the clerk's office or reach out to our office as well.

All right, that'll bring us on to the end of public comment.

Um, I just a few notes on this very soon.

It's my understanding that there will be more information on the Red Center in D7.

Um, so please stay tuned on that.

Um, and just to note for um, as mentioned, you know, uh Miss Farner did bring up the water affordability plans.

We did um connect her to the water department on the issue that she was having, and today we'll have that hearing um that presentation coming up on the lifeline program.

Um, and yes, the uh definitely agree on the revenue sharing, which you will talk about later.

And I would just remind you all as emergency management came up, there is a statewide election this year.

So as folks are coming to your door to ask you for your vote, um, emergency management should probably be a topic that you ask them.

I know I will be doing that as a voter myself.

Um, any other and oh, I want to mention something on NEZs because it can continues to come up for our hearing.

We have had a very robust conversation about NEZs, and as folks may or may not know, um, due to state law, when NEZs come to city council, um, we cannot deny them.

Uh, that is in the state statute.

Um, that's something if to change, if that is to change, the state legislature will have to change it.

Um, there has been conversation about what do we do with the zones or establishment of zones and anything to attach to that.

Um, I just want to let folks know where um that is right now as they see it on our agendas moving forward.

Anything else for members of the committee?

Do you want to use the land use fee?

No, I'm not sure about the land use fee, but we will we can check into the land use fee, and I I can work with um you member words in your office on that too.

All right, thank you.

That will bring us on to the next item on the agenda, uh presentation from the water and sewage department on their lifeline H2O program.

And I see um director Brown in the room and whoever else would like to come up as well.

Good afternoon.

If you if you could just state your name for the record and uh turn over to you all.

Absolutely, Gary Brown, uh Director Detroit Water and Sewer Department.

Good afternoon, Lashonda Davis, Director of Finance, Detroit Water and Source Department.

Good afternoon, Sonali Patel, Public Affairs Director at Detroit Water and Search Department.

Thank you all, and good afternoon, and thank you all for being here and being willing to come forth to talk about the lifeline program and and affordability on that.

Um we will start.

I believe if you have slides, we um do you want them to join or do you have to?

Yeah, I I mean I I really don't need the slides if unless you need them, and we're giving you a hard copy, so I'm not I'm I'm not intending to go directly by the outline.

I I know this subject matter extremely well, and so I just would like to maybe have a conversation so that I can answer most of the questions that I get asked for the department gets to ask, and I know that you get asked.

Absolutely.

So if we could bring them up just for the public to see them, if you definitely will to hear what you have.

All right.

So while they're coming up, let me let me just give you a little background.

Okay.

Um when I took over DWSD, you have 50,000 households eligible for shutoff, and you have 40,000 of them actually shut off.

And the only reason DWSD didn't shut off the 50,000 is they just couldn't get to them all.

That's when I took over.

And we uh initiated some programs that were not as successful as we hoped.

You may have heard of it, 1030-50 was a program that didn't that had less than 10 percent success.

So a person would get you know, put 10 percent down of their balance, and if they failed in the program or they couldn't make the payment, they'd have to put 30 percent down the next time, and if they failed, they'd have to put 50 percent down, and and it was uh a water residential assistant program that did not work.

And most water advocates will tell you that water assistance programs do not work in the city of Detroit.

And a water assistance program is simply I'll give you an example.

Back then, the water average bill was $75, and we'd give the customer $25, and they'd have to pay $50, no matter whether their income could support the $50 or not.

And so while it was somewhat helpful, it was not solving the problem.

It was not a true affordability program, meaning you're gonna give the customer a bill based on their income that they can afford, because when you give a customer a bill that they can afford, it's no surprise they actually pay the bill and you collect more money.

So we came up with Lifeline, which you may have heard me say, I think, is the most uh compassionate, comprehensive affordability program in America in any utility, whether you're talking about gas lights or water.

So there are three parts to an affordability program in order to make it work for the customer.

And you need all three parts of that program for the customer to be successful.

So when we created Lifeline, the first part of the program, which needed a bucket of money in and of itself, was to pay off the arrears and give the customer a fresh start.

So that's what the first that's what Lifeline initially did.

We had 28,000 households in the program, and we paid off their arrears and gave them a fresh start.

Second part to the program.

You got to give them an affordable bill.

Now, how did we define?

How did I define affordability?

One point eight percent of household income.

If a customer is paying more than 1.8 percent, then they're not able to afford food, shelter, and other necessities.

Now, around the country, you'll see that number be 2%.

Around the country, you'll see that be three percent.

There's legislation in Lansing right now that has it at 3%.

I believe in this documentation to support it from this a study out of the University of Pennsylvania, that in the city of Detroit, the correct number is the lower number, 1.8% of household income.

And that's what we started lifeline out as.

And that meant that the customer had a bill of $18, all in, water, sewer, drainage, everything.

So we've paid off all the arrears.

We've given them an $18 all-in bill, and then there's a third part to the program.

That that's as important as the first two.

You got to go in and fix the plumbing issues within their homes.

Because if they have leaks, they're gonna have two and three hundred dollar bills.

They're only paying $18, and the Water Department is subsidizing water leaks.

So you got to go in and fix the plumbing issues.

And so there are three parts to the to the to a successful program.

We had a successful program because we had the dollars available through ARPA and other state sources in order to fund the program.

And again, we had just about 30,000 households in that program.

And they were being very successful at paying the bills.

Fast forward.

This year, we only have 3.5 million dollars.

We don't have the 30 million dollars that we had when we started H2O.

And I've got lobbyists, I've got lawyers that are working in Lansing, fighting to create bills that will create dollars that will fund the program.

We have one of the best programs in America that's not fully funded.

So where are we today?

Today we had we started out with 3.5 million dollars of uh those dollars come from the Great Lakes Water Authority, and that will service approximately 4,000,500 customers, not the 30,000.

We know what the need is because we had 30,000, and be and and be mindful that those those almost 30,000 households were 200% above poverty.

They were uh in need, and that need is still there, but we only have four thousand, we only have enough money for 4,000 500.

So today we have close to 3200.

We've got enough money for about a thousand more customers.

Now, when you've had when you got 28,000 customers that have been in the program, it's real obvious that once we go back, though those customers by state law, they have to recertify every October.

So we take the 28,000 customers, and we go in and recertify them, and we're gonna fill up the list of 4,500 very quickly, and we'll be out of money.

And we'll when I say we'll be out of money, that doesn't mean we're not still searching for additional dollars in Lansing in Washington.

We are, but we cannot use rate dollars.

You cannot use a rate dollar to subsidize another customer's bill.

When you pay your water bill, what you're doing is you're paying for a service.

We deliver water to your home and we take the you know, the bad water away in the form of sewage, and we clean it and we put it back in the river.

You're paying for that service.

You're not paying to subsidize another customer's bill.

We don't get any tax dollars from the city of Detroit.

We're an enterprise agency.

All of our money comes from rates, and this program has to be outside of rates, which means we need to either get it from the state, we need to get it from the federal government, or we need to get it from from some philanthropic organization.

So that's what we said with H2O today.

You got about 3200 customers in the program.

We're gonna have it filled up by the within the next 30 days, and then we're gonna be out of money.

So, what do you do with the customers at that point?

Then we created easy pay.

Doesn't have an income qualifier attached to it.

Anybody, residential, commercial, industrial, anybody that's behind in their bills and is subject to shut-off, simply has to go to a kiosk and put $10 in the kiosk and sign up for easy pay.

If you're in easy pay, or you're one of the 4,500 customers that's in lifeline, you are protected from shutoff.

So every customer in the city of Detroit, every customer has an opportunity not to see a service interruption if they simply ask to be in one of those two programs.

And that's that's where we sit today.

And both programs are on page three of the flyer, I believe, are the are the data.

Um I'm sorry, it's page four.

Uh Easy Pay has 47,685 households in those programs.

So when you add these two programs up, you've got more than 50,000 households in the City of Detroit, and they're approximately three people per household.

So 150,000 residents of the City of Detroit are receiving some form of assistance either through Easy Pay or Lifeline out of 650,000.

Again, these are two of the most compassionate, comprehensive affordability programs in America.

They're just not fully funded.

And that's where we ask for your help, the city's help in getting the state legislature.

There are several bills in Lansing right now, two of which Senator Chang sponsored, and my staff, quite frankly, has probably written 90% of those bills.

They will create a funding source off of every meter in the city in the state of Michigan that will create a pool of money that any city, Detroit or any Flint, Pontiac, any city in the state, could tap into to fund their lifeline or their water residential assistance programs.

So that's where they are.

Again, the only thing we're missing is completely funding these programs.

And we're we're open to any suggestions or or help that we can get, because we're working hard in order to find funding.

And again, their bills in Lansing right now.

There's two bills that should have come out of Lansing in the last period and didn't.

And they will create a funding source outside of rates, not for just this isn't a Detroit problem.

This is a statewide problem.

Affordability is a statewide problem.

It's not just a Detroit problem.

That's a that's kind of a myth that I talk about when I'm up in Lansing.

This is I'm not asking you to fund a statewide program that's just strictly for Detroit.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

So with that said, I'm open to questions, concerns uh about the two programs that you may have.

Thank you, Director.

Um turn over to my colleagues first, for sure Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon.

Um I actually want to ask if you can go back and share with the general public a little bit more information about um the lifeline program and how you sign up for it, who's eligible, things of that nature.

So that um I know you indicated you have about 4500 slots, uh, you have 3200 people that are signed up, they're 1300 slots roughly.

How do people who are listening who may need some assistance, how do they sign up for it?

Yes, Nali, can you can you maybe help with that?

Sure, absolutely.

Uh good afternoon through the chair.

Uh Councilmember Johnson, thank you for that question.

Um, residents can apply either online at the website or call in to the Lifeline H2O hotline.

The website is Lifeline.gov.

Um, and the phone number is 313452055.

If a resident chooses to apply online, they would simply need to input their personal information in supporting income documents.

So, for example, if a resident is receiving SNAP benefits, they can upload a photo of their SNAP benefits award letter with their application, and then right now we're seeing about a 12-hour turnaround to acceptance.

So it's uh within 24 hours that you would be enrolled and start receiving benefits for the program.

So through through the chair of the councilman Johnson, um as you know, Wayne Metro, when we had the original lifeline program, they were the uh community action agency because the state or or the federal government will not give the water department the money directly.

It has to go through a community action agency.

And when we had 30 million dollars, and we were trying to verify the income of tens of thousands of residential customers, we needed Wayne Metro because quite frankly, they had a call center of 15 or more people that were actually vetting uh our c our customers to see who qualified.

Once we went to 3.5 million dollars, it was manageable in-house at DWSD.

And so we hired a company called Promise Pay.

They uh do this income verification.

That's all they do is income verification.

They have software to be able to do it, they do it for the state of Florida, they do it in Washington, D.C., they do it all over the country, they do it for us, they they're turning it around in less than 12 hours, where Wayne Metro, we were lucky to get it turned around in 60 days.

And so we can turn we can turn the the uh income verification around very quickly within a day, 12 hours, we we we can do that, and then the rest of uh the in the the back of the house operation is handled by DWSD staff because again, we only have 3.5 million, not 30 million, and we're able to manage it.

Now, if additional funding comes in, it won't come to DWSD, it will go to Wayne Metro and we'll enter back into a contract with Wayne Metro or another community action agency to assist us with uh administering the program.

Okay.

All right, thank you for that.

Um so I have a question relative to something we talked about, I think it was last week, um that is going to fold into this conversation.

When the Great Lakes Water Authority was created as an authority, was the state involved in the creation of the authority, the tri-county authority?

Absolutely.

Uh the you know, as you know.

If you look at the Great Lakes Water Authority Board of Directors, it it it tells you who was involved in creating it.

The state has a board member, it happens to be a member from the Flint, the city of Flint.

And then Oakland County, Macomb County, and Wayne County each have representatives.

They were all at the table in the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority.

And the beauty of the Great Lakes Water Authority is Detroit has two representatives.

It has me and it has Freeman Hendrix.

And we can shut down anything that we don't believe is in Detroit's best interest because the lease is written so that it takes five out of six votes.

There's six members, we have two votes, you can't get it done without the approval of Detroit.

So anything that's not in our best interest, we have in the past shut it down and renegotiated until we thought it was fair.

But a direct answer to your question, absolutely, the state was heavily involved in the creation of the Great Lakes Water Authority, the regional uh water authority that we have today with 112 different communities.

Okay.

All right, I I figured that was the answer.

Um so my question is the Great Lakes Water Authority able to provide support for this program.

If not, are they helping to advocate to the state to get funding for this program?

Your answer is yes and yes.

And so uh the lease agreement requires Great Lakes to put .5, a half a percent of their overall budget into a pot for wrap for the for everybody in the state.

And we advoc uh advocated to Great Lakes Water Authority that we we know what the lease agreement says, but Detroit needs a full one percent.

So we get twice as much money as the rest of all the other counties because our need is greater.

So we get one percent.

Everybody else gets uh a half a percent.

And is that where the 3.5 million is coming from?

Yes.

Okay.

Um right, I guess that's clear.

Uh the I have another question that I I want to have a a an offline conversation with you about this, but does the Detroit Water and Sewage Department have winter time shut-off protections?

We do not shut off uh when the temperatures are sub-zero temperatures.

Okay.

No.

And we don't also shut off any uh anyone that need has a medical need.

You have uh medical equipment that uh respirator um oxygen, anything that needs water, we we don't shut those off either.

I figure that was the going to be the response.

I actually have a very unique situation.

A resident talked to me about um asking for the water to be shut off to prevent her pipes from freezing.

The water was shut off and then it would turn back on, and she ended up with the problem.

So I'm I'm I want to talk to you about that.

I understand probably why the water department um didn't want to or returned back to to turn the water back on because she was living in the house, um, but she requested for very specific reasons.

Um I'm not sure how she was going to function, and it sounded to me like she does this.

I won't say annually, I guess it just kind of depends on the temperature outside.

But would love to have that conversation with you because I think it is a unique situation, um, but I certainly do understand uh why she requested that.

Um, and so now we're having to address other issues within her property.

Yeah, so every homeowner, every home has a cutoff valve at the meter that you should be able to cut the water off.

However, if you don't exercise that valve regularly, like I I hadn't touched the valve in 10 years in my house.

Same.

You know, it it's not something it will you, but you should, but you should be able to cut the water off and on to your house if you have, and if you can't, then you have to call us out, and we have to do it from the street.

Thank you for that.

And I would venture to say she probably was not aware, um, as many people are not, and and I was the same way.

I hadn't shut off one of my gate valves, and when I attempted to shut it off, I couldn't move the thing.

Um, and it was, I think, just because, and I think people don't realize this, just standard practice.

Once or twice a year, you go and move it just to make sure it doesn't get stuck.

Um, but she was also a senior, um, also on a cane, so she had different reasons probably why she wouldn't have gone down into the basement to do that, um, but certainly would like to have a a greater conversation with you about that offline.

Yeah, something else that we we do, DWC does that no other utility really does, is we don't allow landlords to use us as an eviction mechanism, meaning the landlord can't come to DWSD and say we want the water off.

And really, they're trying to avoid going to court and and doing it the proper way.

So we allow the tenants to put the water in their name, and we make the landlord put the water in his name.

If the tenant moves and leaves a bill, the bill goes with the tenant, not stuck with the landlord.

Now, no other utility does that.

They the bill stays with the property, with the owner, no matter what.

But we found that we were being used as a mechanism to put people out without going to court through the forfeiture process or eviction process, and they would say cut the water off, and then of course a person couldn't live in the house without water, and they were forced to move.

So we put an end to that by allowing the tenant to put the water in their name, and if they move the bill goes with them to the next location, and the landlord doesn't get stuck with the bill.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

We'll go over to member waters.

All right, so thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody.

Um, I just want to first say to my colleague from the fourth district that I gotta tell you, I just learned how to cut mine off and on the past couple of weeks.

I didn't know where it was.

And it's a shame I've been there so long.

Oh, I had to laugh about it myself.

They stared me right in my face.

I didn't see it.

Oh, but I have an editorial, and you don't have to respond, uh, director.

Um, first thing.

When I was a state legislator, every year that I was there, folks were trying to take the water.

They wanted Detroit's water.

I had to walk the floor constantly whenever those bills came up and beg my colleagues not to support it, not to take our water.

And in addition to that, now that they have it, they do a horrible job.

Glea does.

If D when DWSD had it all to themselves, the race were better.

We didn't have as many floods.

All kinds of crap has started happening uh once Glewa uh took over.

So I needed to say that.

I needed to, you know, you know, just express myself.

You all don't have to say a word.

That was my editorial.

Okay, so um, we have about what 3,212 households that are enrolled um and passed with past due balances.

Is that is that how I'm seeing this?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

So and what about your your uh outreach team?

Um how you're covering the entire city.

Well, that that's that's Sonali's job.

She, you know, you may have remembered Brian Peck and Ball.

Everybody seems to remember Brian.

Well, Sonali is now Brian Peck and Ball.

She's always been under Brian, right there at his side.

And so now she's taken over that area of our operation.

Uh through the chair, council member waters, thank you for that question.

Um, when we updated the program in October, a letter was mailed to all of the enrollees at that time that needed to recertify and get enrolled in Lifeline H2O, the upgraded program.

And since October, we've been doing outreach.

So right now we're knocking on doors for past enrollees because we know that they are likely still eligible to enroll again.

So we're going door to door.

We're also um sending out emails and text reminders to residents to apply as soon as they can.

Um, and we're attending community meetings, neighborhood associations to get the word out directly to residents.

Okay, gotcha.

I understand that now.

So instead of a first commodity, why hasn't the department implemented a vulnerability index on should those slots not be reserved specifically for seniors on fixed incomes, families with infants, or residents with medical conditions that require high water usage?

Because the state actually dictates uh the rules that the money go out.

Now we built this particular lifeline around the state rules because we ex I'm cautiously optimistic that I'm going to get more money from the state.

Right now we're using Glea's money, and we we could do that, but once the once the federal government or the state supplements the program, we have to play by their rules.

So we thought it was just better.

Let's set the program up under the state rule 200% poverty because we we struggle with that.

I mean, can we take the poorest of the poor and put them in the program and and the rules say no?

You have if they're 200% above the level of poverty, they're eligible for the program.

You can't tell them they they're not gonna be in the program or prioritize them.

And so we're we're playing by the rules that the state has dictated.

Okay.

Well, I do know how that is.

Um does the flat six um CCF cap disproportionately penalized larger low-income families, and has DWSD considered a tiered cap based on household size.

We we do have a tier.

You do have a tier.

We do have a tier cap.

So let's let's address the six CCFs.

And okay, maybe one of the ladies knows the exact number, but close to 90 percent of all residential house use households use less than that.

We we have the data.

We have we have the meter data to show us what a average amount of water is being used.

And six CCFs is 4,500 approximately gallons of water.

It's a lot, it's a lot of water.

Now, if they have leaks and they're using 10,000, that that's they can't afford that, and that's a problem.

And we can't supplement that.

But the average household is using that amount.

And it may be La Shonda who is in the finance department has through the chair.

Um, the number is actually higher than the 90 percent that Director Brown has stated.

Um most households use less than six C CFs of water monthly, and so with that, if there is a household that does have a larger uh volume of people that are in the household, um, we still see that most of them still fall under the 60 CFs.

Most households that go above and beyond the six ECFs are associated with some type of leak or uh water over system problem that they have at the household.

Oh, okay, all right.

Oh, well, thank you for that.

Um now just finally, I I just wanted to uh a friend of mine reached out to me yesterday.

Um his water is shut off.

So he called the water department, he was trying to enroll in a plan or something, right?

Well, then he was told, well, you don't own the property.

Um your property is owned by somebody else.

So he is still without water as he tried to go through this whole thing, uh notifying the register of deeds that he that he did not do such a transaction.

He's the one with his deed, and so here we are.

Deed fraud.

Um and he can't get his water turned on.

So I don't know how long the uh Wayne County Register of D will is going to take uh to assist, get the proof uh that the DWSD needs so he can get his water turned back on.

You have any thoughts?

If you give us you give us the uh offline just give give us the contact information, uh we we help people with this situation all the time.

So that's you you understand the predicament DWC is in.

Yeah, I you can't turn if if if a person owns a piece of property, you can't just move into it and turn the water on and then they're responsible for it.

So we we have to make sure that the person is on the premises legally.

It sounds like he is, except he is unfortunately a victim of this deep fraud that is so prevalent in around the country right now.

So yes, we we can help.

Okay, all right, thank you.

I'll get that to you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Mr.

Chair, can I just can I just just I know I was asked not to comment on it, but I I just I'm coming back at budget time, and and I'm going to bring a chart that shows what the rates were 10 years before I start at DWSD.

They were double digits, sometimes as high as 17%.

That's unsustainable.

DWC was running this system, and they were presented with double digit increase, mainly because of the debt, the bad debt that they had on the books.

Since we've taken over at DWSD, we've averaged right around 3% or less.

Now inflation has been six and seven percent in some of those years, and we still for 10 years produced a rate increase of 3% or less over the last 10 years.

And so I I just, you know, if you look at any utility, I don't know what your energy bills are, but I know what mine are.

I know what mine are.

They percent or less in this environment with all of the deferred maintenance with chemical costs, fluoride, is being affected by tariffs.

Fluoride comes from granite, the dust powder that that when you when you cut granite.

And the cost of that has gone from $300 a ton to $900 a ton.

Health care, employee benefits, our employees deserve raises.

They do they deserve a living wage, and they have that at DWSD.

So we've, you know, we we have this cost that is is inflationary, but yet we've been able to keep the rates at 3% or less for 10 straight years.

And I'm telling you, I I I can't put it out there what the next year's rates will be, because my board has to approve it on the 18th.

But we're gonna be, we're gonna we're gonna stay within that framework.

Yeah, and so uh just to just to be clear, uh my comments were directed towards gliwa, not DWSD.

I just think that things went uh a lot smoother when it was without GLIWA.

Let me make that crystal clear.

Here's what's what you're gonna see next week.

You're gonna see a whole bunch of suburban communities yelling that they're at double digit increases with GLEWA DWSD.

We're gonna be with that.

Well, I know they they want it so badly, you know.

But now they're always screaming and hollow, well, Detroit's not treating us right, our water rates are too high, we need control of the water.

Okay, well, you got it.

Now what?

I mean, and and any cities are gonna be at double digits, not Detroit.

Yeah, you see, 10 years we've been around 3%, and we're gonna be there in the future.

Hopefully.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I mean, I get a little riled up about that one anyway, because I know what what I personally went through when I was in Lansing when they were trying to do the takeover.

I remember you have some additional vice for Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, to that point, I was just going to ask if when you come back for budget, um, if you can help us better understand how the Great Lakes Water Authority's rates impact our household rates.

That would be really, really good.

Yeah, no.

It through the chair's race, it's and I I can.

And today I I know I sent it to Mr.

Whitaker and Irv Corley, but there was a uh webinar that walks all the communities through how rates are created.

First of all, the charges that you've been reading about in the newspaper that that the Great Lakes Water Authority is is giving to these communities, that's only 47% of the overall charge, or overall rates.

And so it's significant, but it's not what the rate is going to be.

But certainly I'll I'll bring that that that data back and I'll send you, I'll send everybody on on council some documentation, some written documentation on just what you asked for.

Thank you.

That would be very helpful.

And I hear you saying 3% year over year.

I don't feel like that's what I've experienced personally.

Um now I've been in my house for 20 years now, 21 years, but I can remember how much my bill was when I first bought my house.

And I I think I remember not getting a bill for almost a whole year, and I received the bill, and I know what the average was per month.

So if if I did a three percent year over year increase, it would not equate to what my bill is today.

Okay, and I'm gonna give you every year the increase for 21 years.

Okay, and then that's the data.

That's the data.

It's it's in the record.

You're gonna you're gonna give me my specific property.

You you know my address, but I'm sure.

I'll try to get that specific, but I can give you DW, this the system's average of what the rates have increased for the last 21 years, and I'm I'm telling you, I I have the data, and for 10 years before I got there, I think in 2014, double digits, sometimes as high as 17 percent, and we haven't been above just above three percent for 10 straight years the last 10 years.

So I appreciate what you're saying.

I look at the data, exactly.

And because my son is no longer in the house.

Now there's two of us instead of three.

So look forward to that.

I do have another thing, but I want to, it has nothing to do with the lifeline program.

Okay.

Um, so I want to um just raise it before we conclude.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Just a few questions, just for folks to know who are listening.

The uh DWSD budget here will be on March 20th or Friday, March 20th at 2 p.m.

Um, yes, Mr.

Corps that I said that wrong.

I think that might have moved 13.

March 13th.

Is it still at two?

Yes.

Okay.

Three, I think.

Three.

If we can just update the calendar on the website, that would be great.

Um thank you.

Uh so March 13th at 3 p.m.

All right, that would be there.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So a few questions I have on you mentioned the legislation that's in Lansing.

If you could just and you know, I was part before becoming electoral, I was a part of the coalition trying to push for that to be enacted in Lansing.

Um if you could just go and let us know if that legislation was to be enacted, how much would that add?

Would that fully cover the folks that in that gap, or how much would that add to this?

It would it would help.

It would not fully cover everybody.

I I it it's it's well, we well, there's two sets of legislation.

I think you were I don't know, I don't know which side of the yeah.

I was I was in uh I was in conversation with both, but I I know you were the the Waters were working on with uh Senator Chang.

So it we started out with two dollars on every meter in the state of Michigan that would pool an amount of money that would stay at Lansing that cities could apply for.

And we we needed Republican support, so we ended up negotiating that down to uh a dollar twenty-five, I believe is where it is today.

Helpful.

Uh well anything you get, any more, you know.

If I got five million dollars dollars more, I I could put you know, five thousand more customers.

Instead of five thousand four thousand four thousand five hundred, we'd have ten thousand customers.

That's significant, so I don't want to understand estimate that.

Um so and you you've got to get, as you know, you've got to have bipartisan support to get the bills through.

And there's another set of bills, and I'll I'll be perfectly honest with you.

It has a no-shut clause in it that you're not gonna get a utility in Michigan to support if we can't negotiate at least being able to shut off people that are um in non-compliance, meaning they uh they're not the owner of the property.

I mean, what here's here's a point that I I really wanted to make from the very beginning because I'm so passionate about it.

80 percent of Detroiters are able to pay their bills on time.

The shutoffs are not for poor people.

We have programs.

We have to have programs to help people that need help.

But what do you do with the people that live in my neighborhood?

What do you wealthy neighborhood?

Do you not do you not want they're able to pay?

Do you not want us to be able to collect?

Because that bad debt.

And I my I got my finance person here, she don't know she doesn't want me to put the number out there of what that bad debt is.

We want to stop it from growing.

And so you have to be able to have a consequence for people that can afford to pay their bills, and at the same time, anyone that needs help, these programs are in place, but they need to be funded to help them.

So it it's as long as you have that clause in there statewide, you're not gonna get support for that legislation.

So we would just like to to be able to make some recommendations on how the language could be amended so that you could get bipartisan support.

Chang's bills does have some bipartisan support.

So I work with anybody in Lansing either anybody that can find us any amount of money.

But but you know we're focused on something that we believe has a realistic chance of I'm cautiously optimistic.

I'm always going to be cautiously optimistic.

You know you you know you were there you know more than I do.

I'm just all I can do is keep pushing.

Yeah.

And ask for your help to have for you to keep pushing and for sure absolutely I and yeah no I'm having flashbacks to December of 2020 well what was that 2020 uh for yes we believe we had support.

Yes.

Really um so I and I would say you know hearing what you're uh hearing what you're saying about you know folks in Palmer with Sherwood Forest I I think also and this goes to my next question around shutoffs as you mentioned who you don't shut off right I also know that as we have come and we hear this time and time again with folks that may have maybe in homes that they may have inherited or may um have this home or and then they can't afford even property taxes or just costs are too high.

So that leads to my question of that it was a question on how you identify folks and I know you have built out um in a way uh to match with the state but I had a question on the shutoffs with uh folks who may have medical devices how do folks how do you identify those people they have to self-report.

Okay.

Yeah we we the the downside is we don't have household income we're not allowed to you know you when you initiate your account you no one tells us what their income is we don't have so you have to self-report we have mechanisms if you just raise your hand and ask anybody and I don't care what your income is no one should see a disconnection it just takes $10 and you know we have ways if you can't afford the $10 we can we can help but you got to just ask for the help and get into the program.

Once you're in the program you are immune from shutoff you're not going to be shut off.

And do you all have that maybe in the bills or anything that has that type of um language for folks that may have medical devices to that they could have shut off protection.

It's in the bills in Chang's bills it is yes oh I mean like in your bill like for payment that you sent out because I think if folks have to self-report it may be good to have something or somewhere that they you know if you especially if they're getting a shutoff notice right the if you are in danger of a shelf notice and you have a medical device let us know if we can work with you because I also think that would get people to call in and say I have a show of notice I have a milk advice and what other programs can I qualify for with help so that might be not only uh controls uh a section of the bill that we can put anything that we think is helpful in there and we'll certainly put that in there.

Thank you for that um and then I had a so the the prohibition on you know I have to pay for the service it can't go to anyone else is that on the state level is that what the is that a part of these bills that takes away that prohibition or is that still where is that come from what does that prohibition come from well it's it's built into the Hedley amendment I believe you know it um so you have a tax you can use tax you can use tax dollars but when you pay a rate you're paying for a specific service and those dollars we will we have been sued we will be sued if we take rate dollars and don't reinvest them back into the system uh my commercial customers will say that if I'm taking rate dollars and using them in the lifeline program they're not that's not what they pay for they pay for a service and it a rates are for services not for to be used as a tax.

I hear you if those commercial customers you would I would hope that they would feel that folks should have water and be able to go get their business but I have that's an editorial on that um so got you and I have my thoughts on the Hillary amendment on as you talk about the third component of this around the leakage and making sure that folks you know we hear about home repair um needs across the city all the time and I know very limited dollars are there on home repair but it we we try to do as much as we can there has the department has the system talked to folks in administration around um exploring or going out to see if there's any funding to help with plumbing repair or the leakage there?

We're we're going in there, and sometimes we get in there and there is no plumbing.

There's nothing.

I've we've literally put in laundry tubs and run enough pipe to the laundry tub in the basement just so that the house has some water.

And so we fight.

There's a lot of competing, you know.

You you get you probably get enough requests to put roofs on senior citizens' homes that would use all of the dollars available from HID.

And so I'm competing also to say if you have extra dollars and you and you're having a trouble spending them, we have the contractor capacity to go in and and uh fix these repairs.

And and we do have a pro.

I'm not I'm not saying we don't have any pro we do have a program.

It's it's just not robust enough to cover everybody.

No, and I appreciate that.

The reason I ask is that you know we have we constantly have conversation around housing and always bring up that not only is that we need to get folks into house, we need to make sure that we have adequate existing housing.

And I just want to underscore as we're talking about, of course, roofs and uh roofs and then um you know porches and such plumbing is also that need as well.

So I just want to lift that up and ask about that.

Um those are it for my questions, but I'll turn it back over to Vice Sarah Johnson for her.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, so is this is great to be in BFNA and get ahead of budget hearings.

So I'm I'm going to just kind of lay this out here because it was a conversation I had this morning, and it was with urban farmers and accessing tapping into the water line for them to be able to grow produce, um, to be able to support neighborhood grocery stores and have fresh produce for residents.

Um as I was having or involved in the conversation, it sounds to me like when we demolish properties in the city that we are not only cutting the water line but possibly removing the stop box.

Yes.

That that that's not that's not what currently is being done.

That's not what's been done in the past, but you're describing what should be done.

Why should it?

So this is this is the challenge for them to tap into the water line because the stopbox okay is gone.

So uh you have uh a house that's been demolished and their house is next door to it, and it's it and you leave that line in place, and so now water sits in that line, and if the if the water main loses pressure, it's going to surcharge back into the water main and go downstream into someone else's home.

And if it's a lead service line that you're talking about, it's against EPA as well as Eagles rules.

The lead and copper rule says we have to take the service line out at the main, not crimp it at the house and leave it in place in case an urban farmer wants to uh to someday use it.

It it's too dangerous.

The the worst thing that can happen to water is that it stagnates, that it just sits in a pipe and loses uh the properties that protect us and keep the water safe, and then surcharges back into the main and then goes downstream into someone else's house.

It's it's it's a safety issue.

So right now I have a nine million dollar contract with the Army Corps who's gonna go back and start taking out all of the lines that are attached to homes that have been demolished over the last 20 years, nine million dollars still start taking those lines out.

It's against EPA rules to leave it in place.

Got it.

So before we move on that contract, because we do have a lot of urban farmers that already exist in the city.

Um, if we can identify where they are, because they're trying to tap into the water line to be able to grow.

Um, if we can identify where they are and at least we have a program.

And uh I I have on many urban farmers, we we put a meter in, stop box, a meter, and we they supply water to that site.

So we will have that conversation offline because I heard about the program.

So it sounds like there needs to be some some tweaks to it, um, and just making sure that we're intentional about providing access to the water.

Sure.

I liking it to somebody who pulls a property off the demolition list who has to address a water line going to that property.

Um, they have to go through the same thing.

So would love to have that conversation with you and would love to see how we can provide support um to the urban farmers as we continue to move forward.

We're more than happy to support them.

Everybody understand we need a cash register.

The meter is the cash register.

And so we we if you don't meter the water, it looks like a leak.

And we're paying Great Lakes Water Authority wholesale.

We're we're paying for that water, whether it's leaking or you're using it for urban farmers.

We still gotta pay for it.

And the the urban farmers that I was speaking with this morning, they do have, so they talked about the Wabash pilot.

Um and so they it is metered, they are now paying a water bill.

So it's not to circumvent that, but just to make sure that they have access to the water to be able to grow.

More than happy to we're in the business of selling water.

And we'd be more than happy to sell the farmers as much water as they excellent.

They can use.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

All right, um, just one additional thing.

I uh it was on my list.

Um just we can talk about this at the budget here, but if you want to talk about it now as well, I'm just thinking about understanding as you said the rate increases are coming under what other you know, what trying to keep it under around that three percent.

Uh as we face, you know, as we already we know we have a affordability program for at least 150,000 folks that are just struggling to pay if that may be in those programs.

What is your thought on uh what do we need to do to make sure that this problem does not get even more drastic as also the need uh as I as we continue to see the need to increase rates?

Yeah, we need we need to fully fund this program.

Lifeline needs to be fully funded.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now I I don't I don't happen to believe that it's 30,000 households, but it's somewhere between 15 and 20.

And if we had another five million dollars, we could do we we'd be up to 10,000 homes.

We'd be halfway to where I think we need to be.

If we got that legislation through, we'd be there.

So we you know we have ideas on how to raise money outside of rates to fund the program, and and certainly I can make some suggestions on what they are.

Yeah, I would love to hear those at the uh at the appropriate time for sure.

Um and we'll put a tax on bottled water.

I mean or taxing the folks that get our water for a bottle of water, um, does another yes.

Yeah, the the biggest thing you can do to help low-income customers is get them to stop buying bottled water.

You know, 10,000 gallons of DWSD doesn't even cost you what three bottles of when you're going and paying three dollars a bottle at a gas station.

The biggest improvement we could help make is get people to stop to use DWSD's safest, cleanest water in the country, but yet people are buying bottled water when they can't afford it.

That either comes from the same source or um a worse source or source that's not as good as yeah, our sources is regulated and tested, and I'm not quite sure all the bottled water is at the same standards.

Yes.

All right, any other questions?

Mr.

Chair?

Uh Mr.

Crowley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So um Council Member Johnson raised a great question last week about the 50 million dollars.

Um I don't know if you want to raise that or you want to wait to the budget um the budget process.

That's one of my budget questions, Mr.

Corley.

Okay.

Listen, I'm ready for your budget question.

I'm ready for it.

I'm sure.

Yeah.

All right.

Okay, and my my last comment.

Um, so one of my main concerns going into this budget process is the level of federal dollars that we did get in the current year, and what we not possibly will not get going into fiscal 2027 as well as state dollars.

And so uh be wonderful.

Mr.

Brown can provide information by next Friday.

What was the level of federal dollars and state dollars that DWSD received in the current year?

Maybe even go back a year before and what's your um forecast for 4,000, I'm sorry, for 2027.

I raised this question with with Mr.

Donnie Johnson as well.

Because I think council needs to understand if we're getting less federal dollars and state dollars on into the next fiscal year, then you know obviously we have to rely more on our own dollars that we raise through taxes and fees and so on and so forth.

So if Mr.

Brown can provide that, you know, by next Friday, that'd be wonderful.

And hopefully, Mr.

Johnson can give council a global picture in terms of you know what's going on with these federal dollars and state dollars.

So council can understand that issue going into the budget process.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Carla.

Would that be no?

Mr.

Gorley makes an uh an excellent point.

I mean, the lifeblood of our capital program is state revolving funds, and they are shrinking.

And so we will we can easily provide what we received in the past and what we anticipate receiving now.

I right now I have more than a hundred million dollars uh requested in state revolving funds.

So 30 million of it is for lead service line removal in the city of Detroit.

So we don't get that money.

That's a that's a real a real danger for DWSD.

You know, the Trump administration has come out and basically said we're going to support the Biden administration's 10-year removal nationally of all lead service lines.

For for DWSD, that means a hundred million dollars a year for 10 years.

That would eat up my whole capital.

I wouldn't be able to do any other work if I spent 100 million dollars on lead service lines.

So if we don't get additional state or federal funding in order to execute programs that are regulatorily mandated, unfunded mandates, we have to cut back somewhere else.

And then now you got more water main breaks because we're not staying up to date on replacing the old main.

So we'll be more than happy to present what we've received in the past, but it's gonna be nowhere near you know what we got in you know in the Biden administration with ARPA dollars and all the other money that came.

So through the chair, just to add, um, and that those um totals are incorporated in the just the revenue conference dollar um figures that were provided, so we will definitely provide that information.

Thank you.

Thank you for that.

We have one more from local order.

All right, so you know people will continue to purchase bottled water if they don't believe that our water is clean, safe, that kind of thing.

So, what does your marketing campaign look like?

So you can get the word out say, hey, this is great water, it's safe water, it's clean.

I'm glad I'm glad you asked because we just uh I I just signed off Sonali gave me a document to review today that we're gonna publish uh, which shows uh every year we have to go in and test uh the lead levels in in our water.

And Detroit came in uh extremely low at eight parts per billion.

And you know, I've I've said I say this to my my team all the time.

We cannot come in above the actionable level.

You come in above the actionable level, and the media will write about that, and you will be perceived by the public to be Flint that your water is not safe.

So we have to stay below the actionable level.

Now you're gonna see cities around the city of Detroit that are gonna hit the actionable level.

Getting the water out of the same transmission lines that flow through the city of Detroit, but it's really about the lead service lines that feed the homes that have to be addressed.

And so we're we're doing, we we did more we did more than 10,000 lines last year, which is more than any city in the Midwest, certainly any city in in Michigan was able to do.

Flint hasn't been able to do 10,000 lines in 10 years.

We did that in one year.

You if we get the money, we can do it.

I can't pass that hundred million dollars off to ratepayers.

It will just make water more affordable for those that can't pay.

So we have to have funding in order to address the lead service line issues.

Well, well, I understand that I as well.

I just want to, I mean, are we gonna do some sort of campaign so we can convince people to to drink our water and not spent spend a whole lot of money on bottled water?

Oh the media campaign around not drinking bottled water or by we don't want to tell you not to do that.

Right.

Our water is safe.

Yes.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

And thank you all for uh coming to speak with us this afternoon.

Looking forward to seeing you next Friday.

Uh but thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you.

That will take us on to the next line item.

Under unfinished business.

Um this is uh from council member Santeoga Romero submitting a memorandum regarding the centralized fee schedule for city services.

If uh we can get a motion to discuss motion.

Um all right, so under um all right, so we I see a note here.

This has this report has been uh received as underlying item 7.3.

So if there's a motion to receive and file 6.1, there's been a motion to receive and file 6.1 without any objections that action shall be taken.

That will move us on to um new business from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Um line item 7.1, a contract number 600 7740, 100% city funding to provide representation to the RS and state of Michigan for payroll tax matters.

Contractor is Barry Mormon, um located at 255 East Brown Street, suite 320 in Birmingham, Michigan.

Contract for one year, contract amount 50,000.

Is there a motion to discuss?

Motion.

All right.

Um there's been a motion to discuss without any objections.

Um I believe we have um chair we have Regina Greer and Christopher Jones here.

Thank you so much.

If we could uh update them to panelists, please Mr.

Chair, could uh throw you to them.

Could they raise their hands because I'm not seeing them?

Uh uh, Ms.

Greer, Miss uh Mr.

Cooper, if you could raise your hand you see them yet, Miss Sullivan.

We do not see them yet.

Let me go to the next one.

All right.

Well, while we get them on, if we don't see them yet, let's um come back to 7.1 by the uh at the end of the meeting.

If that's okay.

There are motion to come.

There's been a motion to come back to 7.1 at the end of the meeting.

Um without any objections, that action shall be taken.

Um that will move us on to 7.2 from the uh city clerk's office and the city planning commission.

Um, this is a neighborhood enterprise zone certificate for application for the construction of a new single house at 4142 4th Street in the midtown neighborhood enterprise zone area.

Is there a motion to discuss 7.2?

Motion.

There's been a motion to discuss, and then um we have Mr.

Gulag here.

Good afternoon.

After Mr.

Chair Chris Gulak, CPT staff.

I do have a brief slideshow if you'd like me to show that.

And we may be joined by the by the builder for this project, Lucas uh Bondi.

Okay.

If you can go right ahead with the slideshow.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Can you see my screen okay?

Yes.

Um, the staff submitted a memo and a resolution for your consideration.

This is uh proposed to be a new house built in midtown.

It's on the east side of fourth fourth street, just south of Willis on vacant land.

You can see here it's just about a block east of the lodge.

Zooming in closer, this is the east side of 4th Street.

There's been some newer houses built on this street over the last five years, I'd say.

This is in the midtown NEZ, which was approved by council way back in March of 1999.

It's it's shown as this turquoise line um box that goes around the zone.

Um originally had about 86 acres, and at the time that was applied for by the midtown development group uh to build 70 new units, uh townhouses and uh new new houses and rehab.

So the property is vacant land, it's zoned R2, two family residential.

The records show that uh the the owner of the land is Kevin Yanos.

Unfortunately, he could not be here today.

He said he would he's on a plane, he's at an air in an airport and couldn't make it, but he asked if his um builder Lucas Bondi could cover for him.

Um but he purchased the land in November of 2025, I believe for 92,000.

That's what the Wayne County records say.

Um he's proposing to build a single family house for his family.

And the builder is Lucas Bondy of Bondi construction.

Mr.

Bondi has done quite a bit of rehab and new construction in and around this area over the last several years.

Um the proposed house would be 2,796 square feet.

It would have three bedrooms.

This is a site plan which shows that access off of um 4th Street and a rear two-car garage off of the alley.

Um Mr.

Bondi indicates the hard cost to build is about 250,000.

I'll defer to him to say what the total cost, including soft costs will be.

Um this is a proposed rendering of the two-story house um three bedrooms.

So regarding parking, there'd be two parking spaces in the rear, rear uh detached garage.

Uh regarding accessibility, they indicate this would be a standard uh feature accessibility features for a single family house.

So staff has confirmed it's in the NEZ zone.

Staff was recommended approval and the resolution has been submitted for your consideration.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Gulart.

Mr.

Bondi, do you have anything to add?

Um no, nothing, uh nothing to add.

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Um any of my colleagues have questions on this.

Um I just have uh uh one quick question, and maybe Mr.

Gulark, you could answer the or I have to um this NEZ or the midtown one you said was created to create um about 70 units.

Do we know how many of those have been created so far in the zone?

Uh to the chair, no, I haven't tracked that uh um that information, but um we would have to study that map to see how many new how new new buildings are have been built and rehabbed with inside that zone, but I have not studied that.

Okay.

I just want to just make sure we as we move forward with these zones that for the reason that they're created, we're fulfilling those, and if they have been have a conversation about the moving forward, but um just want to ask that question.

And then on the since this is a new build, once will the value of the taxable value be frozen at 427.

Uh to the chair, no, this the uh the new build actually he'll they'll receive for 15 years a uh reduction in their millage rate against the um taxable value.

So the um the mills would would be about 18 mil for new construction and single new family new construction single family, it'd be about a reduced millage rate applied to their taxable value.

Um so they would play about uh the state law says you can put you'd pay half of the state average.

So I think Detroit's mills are about 65.

Half the average is about you know 30 32, and then it'd be half of that.

So um it'd be about about 18 mills, I think.

Okay.

Thank you.

Umson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I do have a question for Mr.

Gulak.

Um, I wonder if you can share with us if there is a way or what the process might be, and that you don't have to share this now, uh, because I'm not certain that you know what the answer is.

Um, but is there a way for us to remove um NEZ districts that are stagnant where there's not development that is happening um just to allow for perhaps districts to be created in other areas because I know we have a max acreage that um we can um apply the NEZ to the chair, it's a great question.

Yeah, the um you you're right.

The state law does give a max coverage for NEZs, which is like 15%, I think, of the total acreage of the city.

And and I think when we create new zones that are reviewed at the PED standing committee that they track uh how close we are, and I think we're still only at about 8%.

But uh yeah, you're right.

If council and it's uh review wants to uh eliminate a uh, you know, if they feel a um zone is no longer needed or it's it's stagnant, then I think state law gives provisions for how to um remove that zone.

But I I could get back to you in the future on that process.

Thank you.

I I would certainly appreciate it, and I believe we are approaching 14%.

Um the last conversation, I believe we had when the NEZ, and I think it's in total, whether it's NEZ rehab construction or homestead.

Um, but I believe when we added more of a neighborhood in District 2, it was indicated that we were close to 14%.

It was 13 semi percent.

To the chair, uh through the chair.

Yes, Ms.

Kruller.

Um yes, the the council members were correct.

Well, homestead, I think has a 15% cap and the NEZ has a separate 15% cap.

And you're right, the homestead NEZ is uh is when we added that last district in um in uh district two, it would definitely have the cap for home pretty dang close to the cap in home for homestead.

But I think for NEZs, we're still below the cap by at least five percent.

But I I could double check on that.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

That that would be good to know as well.

Um, Mr.

Bondy, can you just share with us the um any projects that you've done in the area?

Yeah, sure.

So um a lot of uh a lot of small multifamily, we're building a project currently uh in midtown at Forest and John R building it for a developer.

Uh we're the general contractor, and then we've done uh similar projects, like 10 to 16 unit town home projects in North Corktown.

I build a lot uh in North Corktown, single family uh here and there too.

And so this one is yeah, for Kevin Yanos, his wife and their baby, uh building uh you know a home for them there.

They live downtown central business district and they're looking to move into midtown and and you know, put some roots down permanently in midtown there.

All right, thank you for that.

And is your construction company based in the city?

Uh yes, we are, yes.

Okay.

And are you a general contractor?

Do you hire out the trades?

Yeah, we're mostly general contracting.

We do some trades in-house, uh, but we do try to hire local trades in Detroit.

We've been established in the city um probably since about 2019.

And so we have a real good uh you know, Detroit-based um group of construction guys, yeah, different teams that are uh local and yeah, in the city, invested in the city.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, member Waters.

All right.

So you're working with the uh conferences union.

I'm sorry, what was that?

Are you working with the copper's union?

Uh we have not worked with unions.

We worked with a lot of like private, like three to five uh crew, like privately owned uh smaller businesses.

Okay.

So how how long will the uh construction take?

Uh I'd say approximately 12 months.

Our goal is to be done by Christmas, so they can move in.

Oh, okay.

All right.

So my colleague from uh district four, you know, uh brought up the um NEZs.

Um that's that legislation passed during my tenure in Lansing.

And um I would play the major role in it, just so you know.

So but the the thing about it is that and and we can have this conversation later too though, because you have some people who who who purchase their home who does not fit within that time period to qualify for the NEZs, and and it they could be right next door to their neighbor, it depends on when they purchase their home.

And so you have that group of people too who are asking that that we allow them to come in.

So I just wanted to put that out there.

That's a conversation for another day, but I I wanted to put that out there to uh with you, uh, Mr.

Gulak.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member.

Thank you, Member Wars.

And Mr.

Bondi, I would be remiss to say um the question came up with the unions.

Um we do have a skill trace uh task force here in the city of Detroit.

So we'll definitely invite you out to our next meeting on April 18th at IBEW Local 58.

Um, we have a lot of folks in the city that are in apprenticeships programs are looking or are journey men who would probably um be great workers for the work that you do.

So just want to put that out there.

Right right quick, Mr.

Chairman.

Um energy efficiency that you design this home for that.

Yeah, um, to comment really quickly on the uh that event coming up in April, I'd be more than happy to go to it.

Uh, we're definitely looking to you know hire uh local qualified trades for sure.

And as far as the energy efficiency, yeah, all the homes we do and uh build, we're building uh above like energy code standards.

Um, we're using two by six construction, we're using uh you know proper U factor rating windows.

Um we're also uh utilizing like instant hot water tanks and uh kind of capitalizing on those uh energy um you know efficiencies to make the home have lower uh you know output and uh be more efficient.

So yeah, we're definitely definitely building a highly efficient construction in every every way possible, yeah.

All right, so I'm just gonna finish with my chairman uh started uh skill trade task force meeting is March 18th, 4 to 6 p.m.

It's gonna be at IBEW Local 58 on Abbott.

Yes, thank you.

All right, thank you, Member Wardus.

Thank you, Mr.

Bondi.

Uh I think still can't believe that we're in March, so I keep saying April, but uh Vice Chair Johnson, did you have one more thing?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just very briefly, in regards to the energy efficiency.

Mr.

Bondi, what type of uh heating system are you using?

Yeah, yeah.

So this is a uh forest air um furnace and AC.

So it will be high efficiency.

Uh so it's like a 95% system, and uh instant hot water tank, uh Navyan, like 199 KBTU system, insulated uh crawl space.

All right, thank you for that.

And and you find that to be more energy efficient than a split split system.

So yes and no.

So we use mini split systems a lot.

The challenge is a primary heat source, which I actually built three houses in North Corktown with them.

The uh primary challenge is um high electricity costs in the winter just because they're they're less efficient the colder it gets.

Um they're rated to like negative 20, technically Fahrenheit.

Uh but the issue is is like as you get down below like 20 degrees positive like Fahrenheit, they begin to become less efficient.

And so the energy prices uh that we saw at three homes we did in North Corktown, um, they're high efficiency units, uh, mini split systems.

The energy cost was around like $400 a month for like a brand new house, whereas like uh the high efficiency furnace of forest air systems generally have uh a bill of around 250 dollars a month.

It's gas though versus electric uh with the mini split system.

So I love the mini split systems.

Um the technology is getting way better, but it's not quite there at the apples to apples yet, at least in those colder months.

And um, presumably you used electric mini splits.

Have you have you ever used a gas one?

So I'm not familiar with uh gas mini split systems to be honest with you.

Okay, um yeah, I know they have like different types of systems where it's like a heat pump system that has the ability to uh have like a blower motor.

Uh that'd be like probably our next our next attempt, but I'm not familiar with the gas uh mini split system or heat pump system.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Mr.

Bonnie.

Thank you, Mr.

Gulag.

Is there a motion on 7.2?

Motion to send line item 7.2 to formal with recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to send to formal with recommendation to approve.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that actually shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That will move us on to 7.3 from the legislative policy division.

Um centralized fee schedule report.

And I will turn that.

Oh, is there a motion to discuss line item 7.3?

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

Uh, I will turn it over to LPD.

Thank you, Mr.

Cheer.

Uh, I think we are joined by Miss Emberly Vick, who's a principal uh author of this report for LPD.

So hopefully she can come up on the screen.

Mr.

Chair, she's being promoted to panelists right now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning, honorable body and really vague staff analysts with the legislative policy division.

Good afternoon.

Um thank you so much.

I was just waiting for your camera to show up.

All right.

Uh if you just want to give a uh brief overview of the um report, and then we can have any questions from the committee.

Certainly.

So the report that is before you is a response to a request from Councilmember Santiago Romero.

First, to determine whether the city of Detroit um currently has a centralized fee schedule, and if not, to investigate a path toward developing one.

We were um asked to analyze the city of East Point's centralized fee schedule, and they update theirs on an annual basis.

So that is also included in the report.

Thank you.

And we'll just start with questions.

Do you have any questions?

Committee.

Okay.

We will sorry, go ahead.

Yes.

Through the chair.

Yeah, I just wanted to just provide a little bit of additional information.

Absolutely.

Yes, please.

So the process that is outlined in the report uses Smartsheets Data Shuttle program.

And so a centralized fee schedule essentially is um an aggregate of all of the city's fees in one central location, so that uh residents would not have to navigate to different screens on the city's website in order to see um what fees they may be responsible for paying.

So all of those fees would be located um on one continuous screen.

So if we use the Smartsheet Data Shuttle program, what's really neat about this um capability is that it would enable each individual department to maintain their own separate fee schedule and using the Smartsheet Data Shuttle, it would automatically import that data when they update it into the centralized public facing fee schedule on the city's website.

And so that is the process that is outlined in detail in the report.

Okay.

Thank you, Ms.

Fake.

I I do have a question, and um just if you can go over and if you if you went over this in your report and and to think about, I know it sounds like it would help the experience of residents and folks who are interacting with the city.

Um, do you see any other benefits in having a centralized fees uh schedule a system with the city of Detroit?

Great question.

So we did reach out to um one of our city departments that um has a number of different fees, which is the building safety environmental and engineering department.

They indicated that due to the infrequent um schedule at uh that they use to update their fees, that it would not negatively impact their department.

Um that was a part of our initial analysis, but since the um report or the originating memo specifically requested information around what this process would look like if it were to take place.

That information was not provided in a extensive detail.

However, the apartments, the departments that we did speak to did not indicate that there would be a challenge.

Um budget being one of those.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And just want to underscore, I think uh having this in a place for folks um for it to be centralized for a place for folks to not have to look all over and and for it to be in the one spot.

Um, and a way that we can have as be transparent.

Um, I think the accessibility goes into transparency as such.

I definitely um look favorable of further exploring and implementation of a centralized fee schedule.

So um just one last call.

Uh Vice.

Oh, yes, yes, Ms.

Vick.

Through the chair, I did just want to inform you that uh we also spoke to Councilmember Santiago Romero's staff, and they indicated that they would likely be interested in pursuing this after budget.

So there will be an opportunity for that.

Thank you so much.

Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So, to your point, um, I was just curious to know how we get the word out where um the centralized fee schedule will be housed, and how do we get the information out to the people because the the information is there, it's just all scattered, right?

Now, how do we share it so everyone knows where this centralized fee schedule is, and they refer to that to make it easier for them through the chair?

Yes.

One of the tasks that is outlined in the report for the oversight department, which would be determined by the administration, of course, is to ensure that the public has user-friendly access to the centralized fee schedule and that it is prominently placed on the city's website in a conspicuous manner.

So the hope would be that it would be displayed prominently on that initial screen that people see and that they would be able to select it from there.

So because this is multiple departments um sharing what their fees are.

Do you have any thoughts on where that would be, even on the city's website?

Our thinking is that it would be on that initial screen.

So as soon as you arrive at Detroit inline.gov.

That would be good.

Okay.

That would probably be the best location for it for people to know.

And then maybe also having it within each department's uh page so that you know if folks happen to land there, or if they go directly to their page, they can still see all of the information in one location.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

I'm good.

All right, okay.

Thank you so much, uh, Ms.

Vick, and thank you for the support and looking forward to the action to be taken on this movement forward from Councilmember Santa Romero.

Thank you.

Any additional from LPD?

You want a motion to receive and file?

Yes, if there's a motion to receive and file.

Motion.

All right, there's been a motion to receive and file line item 7.3.

Any objections?

Seeing on the action shall be taken.

That'll move us on to 7.4.

Uh report um from LPD from the legislative policy division report on the community outreach ordinance, community budget priorities form for 2026 and 2027.

And I believe we have Ms.

Short.

Is that correct?

All right.

Is there a motion to discuss it on the 7.4?

Motion.

There's been a motion to discuss.

I'm seeing no objections.

We shall discuss 7.4.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, to honorable council members.

Um, I'm here.

I'm Renee Short with the LPD division, and I'm here to report on the results of the community budget priorities meetings.

Thank you.

Next slide.

Next slide.

Okay.

In compliance with the city's community outreach ordinance, LPD is charged with monitoring the community outreach process and providing updates to city council.

I would like to thank our LPD staff, Miss Victory Corley, Mr.

John Alexander, and Mr.

Ed King for their participation in this process in the writing of this report.

This past January, seven seven community forums were held, one in each district in compliance with the ordinance.

The meetings were hosted by the Department of Neighborhood District Managers and Deputy Managers and provided a forum to discuss the community budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.

This discussion was led by the OCFO Office of Budget, the budget director, Mr.

Donnie Johnson, and the deputy director, Mr.

Matthew Spike.

Let me stop and explain the community ordinance outreach ordinance.

On this slide that you're seeing the community outreach ordinance required or appoints LPD to monitor the process.

And the budget priorities process allow us to gather that information.

Several years ago, the Office of Budget linked its annual public budget hearings to the district community priority forums.

This coordination of meetings was a process improvement that helped facilitate a more robust discussion with the community and align the community feedbacks to the budget development timeline.

And it's an educational tool that allowed to the Office of Budget to meet its charter mandate of having two or public budget meetings for eight departments to make their presentations.

And on page two of our report, we outline these results of these meetings, some of these comments that were gathered during the public budget meetings were represented in the priorities raised by participants in our priorities budget forums.

Okay.

Next slide.

So this slide just outline the process of the meetings, and the meetings began with a brief discussion of the budget process and includes the budget timelines followed by a summary of the current year budget.

Next that was followed by uh interactive portion of the meeting.

Um the Office of Budget utilized uh presented a series of short polling questions for the participants, and using the Slido app, uh they were able to present two questions on the what the participants would like to see it prioritized in the budget, and then second question on how they would rate the priorities, and that was the priorities from the previous year.

And the last portion of the meeting this year was set aside for general public comments.

We found two major differences observed this year from previous forums, and that was one the start of the meetings, it began in January this year.

Uh that's really due to transitioning to a new administration.

Um normally the public uh annual public budget meetings are held at the end of the September, and then it's followed by the community uh priority budget meetings that are held in October.

So that was one difference.

The second one was in the makeup of the uh polling questions.

Uh we had two.

The first two were uh similar to previous years, and the third question, which was a question that really probed participants on what they felt their priority rankings were, what were the top rankings and asking more in-depth questions on that was um deleted for this year's term, and we mostly mostly focused on general comments.

We in LPD believe this it was a missed opportunity.

And so we that is one that we want to recommend that we add back into the process for next year.

So this slide, we just give the overall results for the meetings.

Again, housing concerns, housing issues and concerns, top the list, affordable housing, home repair programs, home ownership opportunities.

These were considered the top priority in four out of the seven districts.

Transport emerged as the second top priority with public safety safety, blight elimination, and sidewalk repairs rounding out the top five.

Next slide.

LPD observed that some of the issues voiced, some of the priorities listed are broad national problems and generate a lot of community feedback.

And we were thinking that in our observations that a better question to ask, and that third one that was eliminated is how to identify a pro a priority area that you feel most specifically affects yourself or those within your district.

One observation made by our team member Ed King was in the case of affordable housing.

And he raised the question of how would you like to see affordable housing improved?

And that was one of the questions from previous years.

And digging deep into this question could offer valuable insight.

So he's noting that affordable housing has been the top rate priority for a number of years.

And it's again one of those national issues.

And then unpacking this issue, do citizens want affordable housing as it relates to specific, often government subsidized units restricted to low-income households, or are citizens more interested in a housing affordability, whereas housing affordability is a broad measure of whether general housing costs, rent and mortgage, are sustainable relative to average household income.

And essentially affordable housing is a targeted unit type, and we talk about new construction or existing renovation.

While housing affordability is an economic indicator of market accessibility.

So the five issues that you see on the screen are similar to the previous year except for transportation moved up to the number two spot, neighborhood rebuilding, and youth issues dropped out of the top five.

Again, I want to say that the snapshot, this is a snapshot in time representing a small percentage of the overall participants in the process.

During the previous forums, the OCFO Office of Budget reported over 300 comments from their from the forums itself and their email that residents were able to comment on their priorities for the budget.

And you will see this information when the OCFO Office of Budget presents their uh their report later this year.

Okay.

Next slide.

So in conclusion, and followed by our recommendations, City Council received constituents' concerns through various channels.

Council members routinely meet with constituents both in person and virtually.

Issues and concerns are also presented during the general public comment session of council meetings in accordance with the open meetings act.

Additionally, feedback is received via regular mail, email, text messages, and other forms of communication.

LPD acknowledges that priorities submitted through these various methods may lead to a ranking of priorities that differ from those discussed in the district priority budget forms.

All input should be carefully considered during the review of the proposed budget.

So here are top 10 priorities.

Okay.

Next slide.

So as I mentioned previously, this just being a snapshot of our observation that our recommendations include uh the Office of Budget really returning in their interactive portion of the discussion back to their previous format of questions, allowing participants to have a more in-depth discussion and give their vision on where they want the city priorities, what what their priorities should reflect the city going.

And so we think that's a good method to identify um the thoughts of residents as they participate in these forums.

Then uh the residents and participants have voiced concerns that their feedbacks aren't reflected in the budget, and uh we are recommending that uh the office of budget creates some documents, uh it could be uh scorecards or crosswalk that kind of illustrates and maps out their of the community specific priorities and where it's found in the uh budget.

Uh this year residents, participants uh again brought up participatory day participatory budgeting and continue to bring that up from previous years, and we're asking uh the department, the office of budget to uh again a direct uh and address those issues for the um public um that being that they public wants to know and have more input and direct control over the funding of programs and services in their districts and with that uh Mr.

Chairman uh I can take questions.

I end like participation in uh thank you available for questions.

Mr.

Chair, thank you so much, if I may.

So uh thanks again to Ms.

Short and the LPD team that worked on this report.

Uh so a lot of work and so really appreciate their their uh efforts in putting this together.

I do also want to encourage the council members to read this report to look at the report because what we try to do is to show the two top citywide budget priorities by district.

We also include in the report some specific budget priorities that were raised by citizens by district.

So it's gonna give you somewhat of a snapshot going into the budget process what your constituents are looking for in terms of budget priorities.

And as Ms.

Short indicated on the budget, um the Office of Budget will produce a much more detailed report, probably around June or July that's going to show how the adopted budget passed by City Council best addresses the the top priorities that the citizens you know communicated um throughout the budget process.

So just want to indicate that and thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Crowley, and thank you, Ms.

Short, for your presentation for this report.

I did read through um some of it.

Uh of course I went immediately to District 7 um to see those top two.

Seeing the um housing and elimination of blight are the top two um for this year.

And I think it also underscores as we as I mentioned earlier, but as we continue to mention of how do we make sure that we are doing as much as we can with the current housing stock and prevent blight and and ensuring that we are doing as um providing that home repair.

And I think this is also to your point that you made that so many so much could go into affordable housing, right?

It could go into new ownership and owner home ownership programs, but also could go into housing around.

I want to make sure that I have an adequate house to live in.

So um thank you for that.

We'll definitely dig deeper into the report.

I will open it up if um any of my colleagues have any question, member waters.

All right, so thank you.

Good afternoon.

Yeah, um I know that we invest a lot in uh programs for our seniors and low-income uh families.

Um, but I I can tell you that since I since I arrived, I've been pushing and pushing and pushing for people that in the workforce for middle income people who just sometimes need a leg up at least once.

And so last budget cycle.

I I put uh dollars in the in the fund to start a capital improvement workforce development uh fund.

And I put five hundred five hundred thousand dollars in that in that fund.

I've been waiting for them to set up, set it up so that I can then start going to um maybe philanthropy, uh calling on state and other folks to help fund it so that we can assist other people.

I I gotta tell you, I'm not sure what where the money went, but I at least, and then I'm not gonna ask you where it went, but I I I also uh plan to address that again, this budget cycle, because I do want to know what happened uh to those dollars that I put in the budget.

Um what are your thoughts on um you know adding um uh other income levels, you know, not high income, but you know, I guess say middle income.

Some people go to work every single day, every day, but they don't have enough to to get that roof fixed or that porch or that step repaired or whatever, and so sometimes it would be very helpful if if we we included them through the chair, council member water.

Uh the first part of your um statement, you talked about putting this uh item in the budget last um session.

Uh we at LPD uh have been tasked with and have committed to following up on your uh actions, council's actions.

And so right now we have uh prepared uh documents for the uh OCFO um Office of Budget who is working with us to determine the status of your various appropriations and your wishes outlined in the uh closing resolution.

So we're working on that and we hope to get some feedback from them uh shortly.

Okay.

Uh to the second part, uh what we've heard through the forums um over the years is that the one home and repair programs are uh, you know, a top item, and then that's why I don't really focus on a housing affordability, but calling it housing issues because it's a broad category representing a lot of things.

One of the um items that came up in the previous meetings and this one too, is that this eligibility of requirements and I think in previous year they call that the missing middle uh where there are folks who are don't meet the criteria of the the various home reimprovement, the home repair programs, and they need help.

And so uh certainly uh your desire to fund and help those residents, I think would be greatly appreciated because it certainly has been voiced over the years that uh all income levels really are seeking help to uh in the home repair area, and through you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um I did have one conversation with the director of HRD, uh, and we were going back and forth on you know uh AMI, you know, that income threshold and so forth.

And and so and I'm good with whatever threshold they came up with because like I said, there are people who go to work every single day, but the income is just simply not high enough for them to take care of such a such a need.

And um, and then sometimes people can qualify, almost qualifying they have $50 over, $100 over that their income level.

So it, you know, uh I just want to be able to put us in a position to at least um help out some of the some of our folks in the workforce.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Uh Mr.

Chair, Mr.

Corley.

Thank you.

So um, in fact, I'm gonna have a conversation, Ms.

Short, probably after the meeting.

What we're gonna probably look to do is to incorporate at least council's monetary changes to the budget, including what Mr.

Waters just uh indicated in our upcoming budget analysis reports that you're gonna start getting this week um because it's very unlikely that we're gonna get responses from the um OCFO Office of Budget to our questions about council's changes.

So if that's the case, then you know we're gonna include in our budget reports that you'll be getting on a daily basis, any issues that relate to that particular department that council put money into the budget for.

So that hopefully uh that's gonna expedite a response, you know, from the particular agencies.

So just to let you know about that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Croya.

Thank you, Ms.

Shore Member Waters.

You have a thing.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just want to say thank you for the summary of the report.

Um, we are looking at the responses that we received when we hosted our budget priorities uh session last October just to see where they align.

Um, and looking forward to seeing what's included in the budget that'll be presented to us on Monday and seeing where uh we feel we need to advocate for some additional support just based on uh the priorities that were received either um with the uh district for department of neighborhoods uh session or ours as well.

So thank you.

We appreciate it.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Shore.

All right.

That will bring us on to 7.5 under miscellaneous.

Oh, my apologies.

Yes, uh always missed that.

I hope you're better at it.

Is there a motion to there's been a motion to receive and file 7.4 and any objections?

Seeing none that actually shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That will move us on now under miscellaneous 7.5 from myself.

Submit a memorandum uh requesting a resolution on Senate Bill 559 560561, and there'll be a question to this House bill.

It will be 4311 and House Bill 4312 to go to these bills establish a revenue trust fund to ensure consistent and protective revenue share and funding.

Um is there a motion to discuss?

Discussion.

Um there's a bit of a motion to discuss, uh, Mr.

Crawler.

Mr.

Chair, please give us uh two weeks.

Okay, to produce that resort for you.

And with that uh motion, there's a motion to bring this back in two weeks uh without any objections that actually shall be taken too.

We also could I also get a motion for LPD to draft the resolution as well.

Motion.

There's been a motion to draft a resolution related to 7.5.

Any objections without any action shall be taken.

And just to note, as I mentioned, we have updated the clerk's office with a revised memo for HB to it for to read HB 431.

Thank you.

Yes, we will now go back to 7.1.

Um, do we have Ms.

Greer and Mr.

Cooper?

Through the chair, we do have Regina Greer Regina Greer online under the name S.

Davis.

All right, thank you.

Yes, here.

Okay.

All right.

Just want to make sure.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

If you could just state your name for the record.

Regina Greer, Chief Deputy CFO for the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.

Thank you, Deputy CFO.

Um, I just uh wanted to know um just a question for me.

If you could just go over the the background of this contract and the need for especially related to tax matters around IRS in the state of Michigan.

Uh yes, uh to the chair.

Uh the contract that uh the office of the CFO is requesting um is a tax counsel contract.

Uh the vendor is a tax attorney that um the office of the CFO uses for our payroll and accounts payable uh tax matters.

Uh currently um we have uh a few tax matters that date back to 2020-2021 um that um uh Barry Mormon has been assisting uh the city of Detroit with um working to resolve uh the audits and the reviews.

Um the goal for us is to eliminate uh or reduce the penalties as much as possible.

Um so that has been happening over the last uh year or so.

So we do want to continue to um with that momentum um to ensure that the city uh does not have any additional liabilities.

Thank you.

And and also for this, I know you said dates back to um 21 and and such.

Do you see is the hope that this will be resolved soon, or is that just one of the things that is just ongoing with that?

Yes, uh, we because we are dealing with the IRS uh for a couple of the issues, uh we really don't have a timetable.

Um we've been working um with them reducing the liability, uh proving out our points um to help solve the issue, but um unfortunately I actually don't have a timetable um that um to be able to give to this body.

No, that's that's fine.

And uh a last question, um, and definitely see the need around this.

I just wanted to has these services and your conversation with IRS helped in the subsequent tax years, like to on in that uh making sure that we don't have that liability there as well.

Definitely, um, for sure.

Um with them being our power of attorney, they've got that direct access um and that uh subject matter expertise that has been able to help resolve um any issues that we've had and even the ones that we're currently under, right?

Um meeting with the IRS um reducing the liability and the potential exposure.

Got it.

Okay.

Any other any questions?

Other questions?

All right, seeing that um thank you so much, deputy cf o appreciate you um being on with us.

Is there a um motion to send to formal with a recommendation to approve?

Motion there's been a motion um on line item 7.1.

Any objections?

Seeing none, 7.1 shall be sent to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, that will move us um on to member reports, beginning with member waters.

Okay, well, I'm just gonna say what I said a little earlier.

And that is the um skill trade task force meeting.

I want people to mark the calendars for it on March 18th at um IBEW Local uh 58 on Abbott Street.

That's March 18th.

That's a Thursday.

Maybe I won't say that March 18th.

4 to 6 p.m.

IBEW local 58.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

And that's a Wednesday.

Yep.

Uh Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just want to remind residents in District 4 that the Jefferson Chalmers Residential Seawall Program.

Um interest form is now available.

So if you live on the canal and you are a low to moderate income owner-occupied household, um with 80% AMI or less, um, please be sure to complete the interest form.

You can call the phone number 313232.

Again, 313 68232 to provide the information for the interest form, or you can also reach out to our office and we'll provide you with the link to be able to complete the interest form.

Um but we're excited that this process move is moving forward.

We again thank State Senator Stephanie Chang for the resources to be able to implement this program and get started on rebuilding and repairing seawalls in the Jefferson Charmers community in an effort to get the community out of the floodplain.

Um so again, that is currently open.

The deadline for the interest form is March 23rd.

So we encourage everyone uh to share the information with your neighbor if you do live in the community but don't live on the canal.

That concludes my member report.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson, and just uh one item on my member report.

Um we will have a um uh our fi our coffee hour tomorrow morning.

Uh coffee hour tomorrow morning at 10 a.m.

at Mary's Grill, located at 20804 Plymouth Road.

Again, tomorrow uh 10 a.m.

at Mary's Grill, 20804 Plymouth Road.

And that is the end of my member report.

Seeing no further business before this committee, is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion.

There's been a motion to adjourn, seeing no objections.

This committee should stand adjourned.

Thank you.