Thank you.

Sorry, Regina, you're after the part of this team.

All right, Director Thompson.

Thank you for being here, sir.

Um, and you and your team.

If you want to introduce your team, um, and then the floor is yours to begin your presentation.

Absolutely, thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Art Thompson.

I'm the chief information officer for the city of Detroit.

Uh I'll go left to right, sorry.

Good afternoon.

Regina Greer, Chief Deputy CFO or uh Office of Fight Chief Inector Officer.

My name is Robert Robert Mullin, director of public safety IT for the City of Detroit.

My name is Amber Easton, Service Level Manager for the Department of Innovation and Technology, and I support City Council.

So good afternoon.

Um and I know online we should have someone joining to do uh our slides.

Hopefully, everyone has a copy.

Yeah, make sure your person is there as well, because I don't see the screen.

I know they're working on it behind me.

So now we give you an opportunity to experience what we experience.

We'll wait.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Yeah, because today we actually had an echo going on, things.

I know we've been using Zoom for the public.

Um opportunity for them to participate, and everyone, we just it's common, it's common.

So this is what we go through now.

We got a notice as well.

I don't know if that's just internal on their computer or not.

We have a few challenges.

That's a one-drive error.

Gotcha.

We know this budget here is gonna fix all that stuff for us.

Absolutely.

I'm excited to move everyone to teams.

Boo.

Oh, oops, sorry.

Uh too early.

But everybody can't use teams in the that is correct.

And that is the problem with trying to move everyone to teams.

But I'll let you go ahead with your processation first.

Thank you, sir.

Well, I'll dive into it and we'll uh make sure to catch up as we go through.

Um you should be able to hit uh presenter on the bottom right just to give it a little bit more space on the screen, but uh I'll dive into it.

So good afternoon.

Thank you again, Thompson, Chief Information Officer for the City of Detroit.

Uh I'm very excited to be here.

This is my first time with the new administration uh and being part of administration change.

Uh so you know, one of the biggest things that do it wants to make sure is that we are in line with the new administration, uh, and we are committed to enabling Mayor Sheffield uh and her embodiment in regards to rising higher.

Uh we will do that by you know focusing on a platform and vision and equipping all of our city departments uh with the support, tools, data, infrastructure, and information they need uh in order to make Detroit the best place to live as well as more equitable.

If we can go to the next slide.

Uh just kind of as a highlight, because I know we do have some new members, uh, do its core responsibilities.

Uh we obviously focus on infrastructure and operations.

Uh we manage all of the IT assets for the city of Detroit, everything from your phone on your desk all the way to uh the city's data centers.

Uh we also oversee the enterprise solutions.

Uh we implement maintained citywide uh tools such as Microsoft, uh our email system, uh payroll and financial management systems uh to ensure that they are functioning properly.

We also oversee data.

We have one of the most robust uh open data portals that I have seen from a city, which is great.

Uh we believe in transparency, uh, as well as a very large uh and award-winning GIS team uh to make sure that we take things such as crime statistics, blight, parcel maps, uh, and make sure that we're able to share them and view them uh with the public.

We also do resident-facing innovation, uh, where we develop and maintain tools uh like the city website, the improved Detroit app, where we take citizen uh feedback for uh support and incidents that we can uh manage.

And then uh digital equity.

One of my favorite things that I get to do as a CIO is actually have a public facing area of IT, which is not common, uh, where we focus on the technology adoption of growth of our residents, uh, expanding Wi-Fi, improving digital literacy, and then security, uh, obviously a strong background for me, uh, cyber security, uh, as well as some physical security in regards to door access controls uh and things of that nature.

Next slide for me, too.

Uh just to highlight kind of last year what we have done.

Uh, we did a reduction in our operational budget.

One of the things that I maintain and strive on is our fiscal responsibility and making sure that we're able to find efficiencies and cut costs where appropriate.

We also focused uh and got a lot of feedback from this body in regards to do its high number of contractors uh over the years.

We have significantly reduced that.

Uh, and I'm very proud of that as it was a pretty large lift over the last several years.

Uh in FY26, our enterprise data warehouse team uh reduced nearly 1700 hours of staff time uh by the utilization and management of uh city data to assist in reporting and collaboration to make data-driven decisions.

Uh we also developed uh multiple functional prototypes to promote real estate development uh as well as uh project tracking, which we are continuously working on and excited to uh continue to develop for public consumption.

Uh we also had uh some fiber um well, we had some opportunities with ARPA to increase our fiber uh and create redundancy and redundancy essentially is just that if we had a power outage or something go out, we have things in place, tools in place uh to make sure that we don't lose that connection and we're able to maintain our services as a city, uh, as well as enhance our physical infrastructure, our data centers, uh, you know, including our environmental impact as well by finding efficiencies through new uh equipment and replacing legacy.

We also work with the assessor's office to uh secure funding for Detroit Street View.

And if no one's familiar with that project, uh what it is is we actually have a vehicle equipped with cameras and LIDAR where we travel throughout the city uh at least twice a year and we capture imagery for uh foliage on, foliage off, and it actually has been one of the most uh uh amazing projects we have because we actually share that with the public.

Uh so if you go onto our website, uh you can actually see all of that imagery, but we also use it internally for a lot of different uh amazing things.

Uh as well as we enhanced our uh redundancy with our 800 megahertz radio system.

Uh, this system is used by um several, uh geez, uh just about 80% of our city departments.

Uh we've got over 14,000 people using our radio system here in the city of Detroit.

Uh and so proving uh redundancy and really making that system more robust is something that we uh were very excited to accomplish last year.

Uh as I mentioned earlier, cybersecurity uh is one of the things and probably one of the biggest things we see in technology that continuously evolves uh and is a very big challenge for us all.

Uh so we've taken some great steps.

We've been proactively monitoring the dark web, something we've never done before, uh, trying to be more proactive as is opposed to reactive to see what kind of threats and intelligence we can gain from being uh more eyes on earlier in the process.

Uh we also deployed advanced uh attack surface management tools uh where we're seeing vulnerabilities, we're now collecting more of this information and better able to assess and triage uh incidents that occur or could occur in our domain.

Uh we're also rolling out a new cyber awareness training.

I know everyone's probably familiar with the old one.

It might have put you to sleep a little bit.

Uh so we're trying to get something a little bit more robust, a little bit more exciting to capture everyone's attention.

You know, I think the biggest thing there is it's not just a work thing.

You know, this is cyber hygiene that everyone should be taking uh for their personal lives, uh, and hopefully, you know, the tough things that I'm implementing here, everyone is adopting at their home life, whether it be multi-factor authentication, you know, we want you guys to use all of this stuff uh in your personal lives.

Again, my goal is to make everyone as secure as we can.

Um we also instituted uh what's called a SOC, but a security operations center, where we're now able to see again from a log uh perspective on the back end where all the technical stuff is happening, we're able to see this.

And as bad actors try to get into uh different organizations, that's usually a blind spot because you don't know where they came or what happened.

We're implementing again a lot of these great tools to be able to uh increase our security here.

Uh you're gonna see additional, this will not end.

I'll continue pushing on this, and that's the increase of single sign-on.

And what that is is we want your email, your uh password, your username to be shared across multiple platforms.

That way, hopefully I'm only having you reset one password instead of 15 uh, you know, every year.

Uh and then we're also strengthening our application security uh for mobile devices.

Everyone's got a cell phone now.

It is a growing attack vector that we want to make sure we secure.

Uh I am very proud to announce, and again, I want to stop and thank my team because they are definitely something to brag about.

It is we have won some great awards this last year.

Uh ESRI, which is one of the largest uh geographical systems uh in the world, I believe, not just nation, uh, gave us the SAG Award, which is a special achievement and GIS award uh in 2025.

We've won that actually three times over the last nine years.

Uh our data strategy and analytics team uh was a national leader in data analytics, and we actually uh were able to join the Knight Foundation for peer-to-peer networking and growth and opportunity.

We received uh that our DSNA team uh also received the What Works City Gold 2025 recertification, uh leading the nation in driven data driven excellence.

Uh we were a 2025 Bloomberg Mayor Channel finalist in 2025.

We also won uh the government experience award for DDOT.info, which uh my team put together and is a fantastic tool if you guys have not checked it out.

Uh we also won the 2025 uh Ezra User Conference and were featured as one of the keynotes where we were spoken about in regards to uh the excellent things that we have done as a city.

Um and then my team and I uh won the 2025 uh or we award for enterprise CIO of the year for the state of Michigan.

Uh so very exciting.

Again, you know, this is all accomplishments due to my team.

So thank you, team.

Uh as I spoke about earlier, one of the most exciting things about my job is I get to have that public facing arm.

Uh so do it does have a community outreach where we met with hundreds of residents uh over the last year uh to talk about our website.

You know, that has been something that I know we have needed to improve.

Uh we've been very strategic about trying to gain more public feedback and implement those changes into our website.

So we did that uh soft launch uh towards the mid to end of last year.

Uh and again, that was all thanks to residential feedback.

Uh we also, as we develop tools and we try to be innovative, we're also holding feedback sessions uh with our residents.

So we uh developed an application called Ground Truth.

It was one of our uh projects for one of the challenges that we had uh gone after.

And again, we got a lot of feedback, dozens of residents trying to help us grow and come up with a solution that would help us win uh and really push forward in the use of data.

Uh we also were collaboration with Black Tech Saturdays and held a youth tech fair event at the I think that was October towards the end of last year, where we had over 1,500 students uh attend a field trip to the Michigan Science Center.

Uh and that again, if you guys haven't been to the Science Center, it is amazing to see young people run around and get really excited about technology, so I love to brag about that.

Uh as well as creating engagement opportunities between our parks and recs to uh standardize through digital skills, uh, where we are having uh instructor-led training courses offered to residents to again hopefully focus on upskilling and educating more of our residents on how to use uh digital skills.

Uh our upcoming priorities and initiative uh, you know, do it.

We are this year I am very focused, we are very focused on strategic alignment.

Uh, as we look to grow and have more dependency on technology, we want to do that more collaboratively, collaboratively, more centralized, and pull more people to the table from a department standpoint utilizing technology and really promoting responsible technology uh and centralizing uh purchases so that we are creating more equitable uh technology here in the city.

Interoperability, again, this is kind of creating and managing those systems to reduce operational friction and improve our city services, improve our residential experience through the use of technology and empowering our departments.

Data monetization, again, we're heavily ingrained in developing tools and providing information to the public that will help us better strategize and allow for data sharing where we can protect the data and meet the needs of our residents.

Uh but again, we want to do that responsibly and equitably.

Innovation and technology adoption uh internally, one of the biggest things you guys will see this year is our push towards centralization of tools.

We want to see everybody using similar platforms and growing on those platforms so we increase collaboration as well as finalizing some of our exciting things around AI and data sharing and work with all stakeholders, not just a few, to make sure that we understand the implementation or implement implications uh for our workforce and for uh our maturity as we grow as our organization.

And then, of course, always will be on my slides as cybersecurity and risk maturity.

We want to make sure that we are again advancing, proactive when it comes to cyber security, cyber intelligence, uh, and move away from kind of the basic, we got an alert and now we're trying to fix it to pro more proactive approach when it comes to cyber and compliance as required.

And again, uh, you know, our mission is to rise higher in telling we move beyond basic support and maintenance beyond a basic tech support uh and move to more of a strategic alignment.

We're working more collaboratively with departments where we're innovating, we're growing and maturing, and we're doing so in a measurable business value.

Uh everything is about for us shifting from a service to a function to be that engine that helps transformate transform uh city services.

And with that, I end my presentation.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh congratulations on the awards.

Um, didn't know we received so many.

Great job, y'all.

Great job.

I'm gonna start uh with member waters for questions.

All right, thank you.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Um you talked about the various outreach that you do uh with young people and so forth, but I don't think I quite understand exactly how how they benefit.

You know, I mean, what what can they walk away, what can they put into their suitcase and walk away with if that makes sense to you.

How do you measure the outcome uh for what you do with them?

Absolutely.

Um, you know, it's definitely multiple different things, and I should have elaborated a little bit better.

Um, you know, and when it comes to the youth, so much of it is about exposure, making sure that they're getting familiar with technology, they're seeing the technology, and they're getting hands-on experience.

Uh, but when we start to talk about workforce development and the the older population, and when I say older, I just mean adults.

Um, you know, we do have certification programs where we are looking to roll out uh training opportunities where they will walk away with a certificate.

That is a big thing.

Uh, you know, we partner heavily with the Apple Developer Academy to make sure that we're pushing Detroit residents into these programs where they can walk away with certification uh as well as you know that confidence in their technology skills, and then we also participate um in you know, not only GDYT, where we bring in students and we're trying to educate them and do more uh to make sure that they have hands-on experience, which I think is so critical.

Uh, you know, we also participate in the internship program here where we're bringing people on to talk about to learn technology and do that over the course of the summer.

Uh so a lot of it is the hands-on training piece, um, but we all do have a lot of uh certificates that we are pushing and trying to get people to uh take so that they can leave better than they were yesterday and trying to push them in a direction that leads them to technology pathways.

Okay, good.

Well, tell us about some of those in the future so that we can refer to some people.

That would be great.

And I also just want to um lift up at least ask that you work a little bit closer with DEGC and some of their programs that they have next up 313 and some of the other programs, so that you can help to enhance those programs.

I believe that that you might be able to do that.

So I wanted to lift that up.

Now, the other thing I wanted to uh I was gonna ask you about the um City Council web page.

Well, it's only one page.

Can you fix that?

Absolutely.

Uh absolutely we need a little bit more space to report out.

Yes.

You gonna do it?

Absolutely.

Okay, it I will say from a website perspective, it is very easy for me to spin up a web page and give you more space to create.

Uh I will say uh a defecate that we we do see is you know, I want to stand up the web page, and I want to turn it over to you know, you guys to say this is what's happening, this is what we're doing in our community.

Um, so that content editing is a big piece because what I don't want to happen is art creates a web page today, and then three weeks from now, you're like, uh art, we did that last month.

Why aren't you updating it?

Because I, you know, I'm not ingrained.

So I want to make sure to empower uh your guys' staff.

So, yes, absolutely.

If you guys say, All right, we want more pages, done.

Uh you know, absolutely power us and we will get it done, give us more pages.

Absolutely.

It works for me.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Um, great to see you all.

I want to start out asking about the development tracker.

Yes.

Can you share information about that?

Let us know if it's been completed, if you need additional resources to maintain it, all of that.

Yes, absolutely.

So through the chair, you know, thank you guys because uh through your advocacy, uh, we were able to secure an FTE.

Um last year, in which we continue that through through uh, you know, the foreseeable future.

Uh, and thanks to OCFO for allowing us to do so.

Uh we have a development tracker where we have uh working prototype that I know we have shown your team.

Uh we wanted to make some additional hand enhancements and then come back to you and show you kind of this finished product.

Uh, there is additional data that I think we can ingest in it so we can still grow it a bit.

Um, but we do need to circle back to your team and show them this finished product uh product because I think it would be very cool uh to roll out publicly, but I want to make sure that I get city council your buy-in because you did you know challenge me with this uh buy-in, but we do have a working prototype, and you know I'm very excited to show it to you.

Well, I'm looking forward to see it to seeing it.

My team said it's very cool, but I haven't seen it.

I have no idea what's on it.

So certainly looking forward to uh seeing that and and hopefully the uh community can be more closely connected to development projects and and what's happening throughout the city of Detroit.

So thank you for that.

Um my other question to you is about your citywide AI usage policy.

Have you created it?

I know you were um having some angst about all of it.

Um so tell us, give us an update on that.

Absolutely.

Um, and thank you for asking because I know someone else was gonna ask me in just a minute, you know.

Um but no, it absolutely.

So, and if I can share and you know, Regina kick me if I I take it too far.

Um the policy has been completed and it has been completed for several months.

Um during uh the last administration that I don't believe they saw the value in the policy around AI.

And I want to be very explicit.

This administration is all hands on deck, extremely passionate and taking it extremely serious, uh, to the point where I had what Art would say was a uh almost finished product, uh wanted to roll it out, but we actually um got uh a new COO who is very passionate about technology, she's very experienced and wanted to bring that wealth of knowledge and depth into the policy.

Uh so we're going back through, we're revising and re-looking at it to make sure that we check all those boxes.

Um but we're on fast track.

You know, I have expressed to her this is something that we've been working on for a couple years now, and and you know, it needs to be published.

We need to push forward to this uh because it it's not just the use of AI, but it's safe and you know, really just the correct use of AI that we want to make sure we push.

Um so it's in done in draft form.

We have a few final um reviews that we're gonna go through, and it we're actually pushing uh to have additional meetings next week on it.

Uh but I am very, very confident by the end of this quarter, uh, I think we're gonna have some momentum and finalize that and push it forward.

And again, you know, it just huge kudos to this administration because the traction I'm getting around AI policy and governance uh I have not seen before uh in this city, and I'm very excited about that.

All right, excellent.

Looking forward to that.

I'm really interested in understanding whether or not it's going to impact your data center that you have, and and I'll be asking questions about that via a memo to understand perhaps you can give us greater insight on um the environmental impact usage of of water and things of that nature that we've been talking about and hearing about um as it relates to data centers.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Our member Callaway.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon, everyone.

Um I've already forwarded my questions, but this one I I want to put it on the record, and I want the residents who've asked me to ask this question on, and they're listening.

Um asking it on their behalf because they're not here today, but they're just listening.

Residents report the service requests submitted through the improved Detroit app are often marked closed without full resolution and with limited follow-up communication.

What specific steps is the department taking to improve transparency and accountability, including the ability for residents to track their request through clear, real-time status updates.

And if this cannot be implemented within the app, are there plans to develop a public-facing dashboard to track request progress?

And and and this is what I'm envisioning, and then you can answer the question.

When you place an order with Amazon, they tell you when you placed it, when it's shipping, if there's something going on with the shipping, they'll let you know if there's a hold up or never left where we're supposed to leave and get shipped to your home, and then delivery.

There should be some follow-up.

They should be able to see that you received it.

They should know who's following up.

They should have someone that they can follow up with if the person who is taking the complaint doesn't follow it with them.

They should have an opportunity and the ability to follow up, the action taken, right?

The action taken, and whether or not it's closed out.

Right now, when you report it, it's just sitting there for some period of time.

So what do you say about the improved Detroit app and how we can fix it, how we can um improve?

It's a wonderful app, but it just doesn't really work.

Absolutely.

Um through the chair, uh, you know, that this has been something that obviously, you know, Mary Sheffior Mayor Sheffield, uh boy, don't get me in trouble, please.

I want to keep my job.

Um but this is something that Mayor Sheffield has, you know, challenged us with is better delivery for our our residents.

And one of the things that you know we have been talking about for for a little bit, and I think that we can approve is addressing the service level agreements that we have uh on the background, right?

So for departments to follow through, follow up with these requests, uh, there is a in-progress option that you know I think we need to better train our departments to use and then better communicate completed and then the result and the action.

And I think one of the missing things that we had in regards to that was it wasn't and it wasn't policed properly, where you know, we weren't doing audits and we weren't spot checking to see how are you closing this out, you know.

Department, are you following through on this?

Uh, and again, I think this is one of the important pieces of having a very uh technology driven COO is that policing of departments and that follow through for that, you know, it can't just rely on art, you know, it has to have some uh you know real over real weight behind it to push that.

And so I can say, you know, we are looking through uh the improved Detroit app.

We've developed some metrics where we're tracking that internally.

Um I believe we do have a public facing web page, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna look behind me so I can see Miss Sovereign.

We do have a public facing.

Well, all of the status for the reporter, they've they receive automatic notifications, and then they have a personal language everything that they've so I will take I will take that as an action item.

Uh gonna need you to repeat what she said.

Yes, sorry.

Uh so uh what Ms.

Sovereign who oversees that for me uh had stated was within the app it gives you the ability to track it, and is Councilmember Kelloway had stated, you know, you can see a status.

Um, but we don't have a true this is the resolution, this is more of a summarized view.

Uh so one of the things I will take away as an action item is to dive into how can we create something a little bit more public-facing uh that would give that explanation uh and maybe a better detail view as opposed to the summary.

But I do wholeheartedly think a lot of this needs to be uh we've got to police our departments uh work with our departments uh a little bit better to just strengthen that and make sure that they understand when they say complete, even if it goes to the next step of the phase, the resident sees complete, not in progress, uh, but they just see that final result.

So definitely uh education around that uh I will take as an action item as well.

So we will improve that.

Okay.

Um thank you so much.

And again, I I've submitted all my questions, but um AI, everybody's talking about every day.

You you're hearing about it, you're seeing it, you're seeing results of it, you're you're engaged with it.

Is there any training for staff?

Um, do you have an AI um expert on your team, the AI guru that could visit individual offices if they request it?

Do you have that available?

Because if so, I know one um department had um had her whole team trained just to be careful how you're using it, how you're interfacing with it, and to um be in compliance with whatever policies we are going to put in place regarding AI and in the city and how we use it.

Um sometimes it can be exploited and abused, we know that, and um how we can avoid that if we understand um how to use it responsibly.

So I'll send my other questions, but what do you say to that?

Yes, uh, so through the chair, uh definitely I I have my AI guru um on the team, and we actually have recently gone through from a do-it perspective some additional training around the use of AI, um, and what we actually found was some loopholes in the training that we want to push out.

And a lot of it is in regards to things that I I think sometimes as technologists we take for granted, and and you know, I think we're seeing this nationally is the environmental impact.

And I don't mean water consumption that is extremely important, but what I mean is if we're going to AI and we're asking it what's the weather like today in Detroit.

And that app takes you know a minuscule amount of resources that you know doesn't register.

But when we take that and put it into a large language model, and now it's searching and diving into uh loads of data sets to give us something that we could quickly and easily obtain.

Um, you know, it exploited that as an opportunity for us to revise uh and really try to fine-tune our training and our messaging.

Uh so definitely I think as part of our policy, what we want to do is create a tutorial on that and make sure that people are understanding the importance of it and as you stated, the fog around it.

You know, it's not just enough to take that answer and run with it.

We want it to cite the sources, and we want people to be aware and learning and looking for where that source came from so that they can validate it.

It should be the expedient tool to make you work faster, but it's not eliminating the human element.

We still have to verify, we still have to confirm that information.

Um, and so we are that is definitely coming forward.

It's definitely coming along with the policy as we fine-tune these guardrails.

Um, these are the use cases that you know we've discovered over the last probably three or four months where we want to fine-tune training um and really just assess what we're able to do in internally and see if we do need to bring someone in.

Um, but you know, I've got a very strong team in AI that I'm pretty confident once we set those guardrails, we'll be able to come out and really have those greater discussions and train people uh more appropriately on the use of AI.

Yeah, thank you.

I had an opportunity to attend the National League of Cities in Washington DC these last few days, and that was the whole topic of conversation, AI and how to be more responsible for more responsible with it in terms of engaging it and using it.

Um and um it was just one very very serious conversation.

So I'll share with you um some of the information that I got, not that you need it, but um it was just very enlightening and educational.

Um, and that's why I went.

So I'm looking forward to um my staff getting the training that I know we all need.

Um, but I can only speak for my me and my staff, but thank you so much.

Congrats your awards and um see you in internal operations real soon.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um, thank you for being here.

I uh also send congratulations on all the wars and the work that you are doing.

Um I know it's ever changing that there's always something.

Um and I appreciate your your willingness to be open to Apple products as well.

Uh so appreciate that.

Um I had you know, we've had conversations before this about this before, but I just want to bring it up here as well.

Um and understanding I know the caveat that we don't in the city in our contracts, we don't allow the data sharing and such a third parties, but just want to see on your end with do it.

Are there any proactive and oversight measures that you have or that you are implementing to ensure that our city and residence data are not being shared by those third-party data brokers or surveillance cameras?

Because while we may have those policies, the data are in those contractors' hands, like what are we doing to make sure that if there's an extra stuff to make sure that does not happen?

Absolutely, and through the chair, thank you.

Um, because you raised uh a lot of great things in your memo where uh we quickly found gaps you know and areas where we can improve.

Uh, we rolled out uh for any vendor accessing any of our systems uh a tool called SecureLink where we are tracking and monitoring what they do, what they click on, what files they export.

Uh so we do have some decent, you know, I don't want to say perfect or great, uh, because when it comes to technology, there's loopholes.

Um, but we do have that ability to monitor track uh where what vendors are doing within our environment.

Um but to your point, one of the gaps that we have found, and you know what we are now doing is really looking at data sharing, uh data collaboration as something that needs to be backed by policy procedure, and you know, our corporation council uh and I met along with uh a few key other individuals, and we are looking at how do we carry penalties, fines.

You know, that there needs to be repercussion for anyone doing so, uh as well as auditing or spot checking uh for the use of this, you know, you the use of our data outside of our control.

Um there are tools out there that such as what we call DLP data loss protection, uh, where more monitors and tracks the flow of data, but they don't think they always match the investment, unfortunately.

You know, it's just such a hard thing to do.

Uh so we are looking at manual controls and and spinning up a task force to really focus on policy procedure um as well as changing you know ordinances and carrying some weight in regards to what happens with Detroit's data uh to make sure that there are penalties, there are fines and there are repercussions.

You know, one of the things that we've always hung our hats on is we take a strong stance in our contracts, and you know, we will terminate your contract for breach of this, but to your point, how are we validating that?

How are we confirming that?

Um, you know, we saw this as an opportunity to strengthen that, bear it uh, you know, bearing down and really tackle that.

Um so we we have areas to improve, uh, but again, you know, this this administration be so have being so heavily focused on technology and improving.

Um we've got a lot of momentum, and I will say that you know, I will get you that back as soon as possible, but but you will see some additional controls after that where we are looking to strengthen that for sure.

I appreciate that, and thank you for the work and and looking for there and diving deep into that.

Um, if there are ordinance changes or ordinances that need to come up, please let me know.

Happy to be a partner in that as well.

Um I my second question, and this goes off to uh um what member Waters brought up around the community outreach.

Um, and I know as you talked about cyber security that the city is facing, um, we also know that our seniors and and uh like everyone, but especially our seniors are um are susceptible to those scams and and uh cyber attacks and such.

Do are you all engaged in like a community education around it and it and how are would you say do we need is there an area to put more um funding behind it to have more community outreach?

Because I I feel like it's becoming more and more prevalent.

I see the state put out from the secretary of state put out alert about um a driver, I think it was a tag or something, a text message that went out.

So we're gonna see it more and more.

So just wanted to if you can touch on that.

Absolutely.

Uh and through the chair, you know, one thing I want to warn this honorable about, but uh everyone who's listening is we are seeing an uptick in parking scams where where people are putting out fake QR codes and fake things that tell you, you know, you owe the state of Michigan $60 and giving people false websites.

And the easiest way to spot that, if it's from Detroit, it's Detroit MI.gov.

There is no hyphen, there's nothing.

Detroit am I.gov.

It's from the state of Michigan, it is Michigan.gov.

Um, and so you know, one of the things that we did last year, uh, and I'll get to kind of evolution of that, uh, is we were actually going to the senior citizen homes and trying to educate and do some hands-on training.

Um, just unfortunately, you know, I I had a vacancy um where I have backfilling, and I'm very excited.

I am actively right now looking for a new director of uh what we are now calling today technology adoption and growth, where we uh are going to strengthen that public face today.

Um it's a small team, um, but I you know I'm very eager.

It's posted now, so if anyone knows anyone, I'm eager to look for applicants.

Uh, but we are going to focus back on bringing uh a director to this role, strengthening the partnerships uh and growing.

And one of the things that I I love to push is cybersecurity training and awareness.

Uh so we are looking for partners to help us um go out and tackle that and really focus on educating our seniors, but we do have some great programs uh through our recenter uh where we are offering those trainings as well.

Uh but definitely we are going to strengthen that because I think cybersecurity awareness, not just technical training, uh, is an area that I haven't seen anyone nationally do great at.

And I think that we can be leaders in making sure that we're educating and pushing cybersecurity awareness to our residents to you know hopefully strengthen our our technology users.

Thank you.

That's good to hear.

And I'm uh what I'm going to do, um, and it's great that you all think about and moving on.

Um I'm gonna make a motion to put um a conversation about that community outreach, especially around seniors and also media literacy for our youth as well, um, into executive session just so we can have further conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

There's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Miller.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just wanted to say hello, and nice to see you both, Mr.

Director Thompson, and of course, I I'm having a loss for names, but Amy, um Amber, yes.

Every time I see you both, you're always smiling.

Uh he has a saying for smiles.

I it just I just want to say anyways nice to see you both.

I will submit any questions that I have, but my transitioning here has been amazing.

Amber, you have come through even in the evening hours, and your staff has always been available to us.

That was a great part of my onboarding that I can say.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you.

And and and I and I talked earlier, and I was you know, in jest, but also seriously about the challenge we have uh at times with the with our uh online uh opportunities for folks to call call in and join the meeting.

We use Zoom.

I want to make it very clear there was not any um reflection on Amber and her team.

Thank you.

We're talking more about the technology itself.

So I know you and you've done this before.

You you kind of try to push us in the the teams world.

I'm not sure why.

When when I mean it's it's clear that most folks don't have teams.

Um most folks didn't have Zoom before Zoom came around either, right?

So I get it.

But teams you have to have Microsoft in order for it to work in order for you to um be able to uh participate.

Zoom, you you go on and you you put in your what uh and boom, you're on.

If Zoom is not the right tool for us to use, clearly Microsoft Teams is not the tool.

What is being recommended?

Because we we have issues.

I mean, my my and I inherited, you know, some of this, these challenges that I didn't know were going on.

You know, we we see some of the licenses, they're they're degraded, and it creates a challenge.

What's the solution to allow us to have these meetings um in an efficient way so that um we don't always have to, you know, pause, stop.

Uh and if we do have issues, we can get them rectified pretty quickly.

Because our policy, I mean, we've you know granted uh we are one of the very few municipalities that allow for hybrid meetings, but we do so because we want our folks to be able to participate in this process.

So I want that to be very clear once again to those who are watching right now.

This is a privilege and it's a privilege based upon the fact that this is the desire of this particular city council.

There's no law that mandates hybrid meetings, uh any um virtual opportunity, but we want to make sure that happens.

But we want to make sure that it's done so in an efficient way and everyone can participate.

So uh Mr.

Thompson, tell us you know, I know you keep pushing us towards teams, but teams ain't the solution.

And if Teams is not the solution, Zoom is not the solution.

How is your department helping us identify what is the long-term solution that we are looking for in that space?

Absolutely.

Um, you know, Mr.

Chair, as we as we look for leaders in this space, it's really Zoom is and Teams.

Um, you know, I hear you loud and clear, I believe Teams does now have a web presence, so you can join just from the web.

Um but I think the experience is something, especially with this body, uh, where I have to take that into consideration, right?

You're always gonna hear me try to push you towards centralization uh and really reducing our footprint from multiple applications.

Um but the reason we have Zoom is because you guys have been very vocal to me.

Art, you know, there are challenges with teams.

Uh that you know, we've spoken with Microsoft and we've really kind of beat them up a lot behind the scenes trying to get them to improve and really tweak and fine-tune some of these things.

Um but as we stand today, you know, I I think definitely Zoom uh is the platform that I think Detroiters are most familiar with.

I think in order to improve that, uh, we've got a lot of new people uh on the media services side who are very eager to work very closely with our department uh and make sure that we're fine-tuning it.

But I I think what we need to do as a collaborative is just get more fine-tuned in regards to doing dry runs, seeing how we can just test this more frequently uh so that we can work with our partners to make sure that these issues are fine-tuned and ironed out.

Um, because I think a lot of the times, you know, finding something when you guys have already started, we're too late, right?

It doesn't matter if I fix it in three minutes or ten minutes, the damage is already done, uh, where the public sees disruption, and that's not what we want.

Um so I definitely think you know, between having the new media team uh where we are looking behind the scenes and how we can better work and kind of flow that process together.

Uh I want to work more hand in hand with your team and make sure that you know we're doing dry runs, we're spotting things, uh, and allowing us to be a little bit more proactive to troubleshooting uh so that we can fine-tune and get to the bottom of some of these things because I know you know every time something happens, uh, you know, I'll be honest, I do it too.

It's always a technical issue.

Um, but I think sometimes my hands are tied when it comes to technical issues because if it's the platform having issue, right?

I can go to Zoom and I can say, guys, you gotta fix this, you know, we're down, we're having issues.

Um, but then it's out of my hands.

And you know, I can't really control that narrative, but I can push and try to resolve and work with these partners.

Um when if it comes to network issues, you know, that that is a hundred percent me where I want to make sure that we're fine-tuned and we have great Wi-Fi and the the room is working properly.

Um, but I think we really we're probably overdue to do some fine-tuning.

You know, work closely together, uh, find some of these issues so that I can be proactive and troubleshoot them.

Because I don't think since we went to hybrid meetings during COVID, that we've really sat down and and just done dry runs.

And you know, if it gets broadcast, I don't think the public minds, we just have to be, I think, a little bit more proactive, and I will take ownership of that.

Uh and I will work directly with your team to make sure that we're doing more of these dry runs and trying to spot some of these issues earlier on.

Uh, and I think having media at the table will help us identify those and figure out solutions and ways that we can make this better.

All right.

So when you you're saying after post-budget, because it doesn't sound like there's a budget fix at this point because if if we're hearing that uh teams and Zoom, they're the industry leaders in this space.

Um, we're already there.

So we're talking about right after budget.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

All right.

Well, looking forward to that, gonna get something on a calendar.

My last question is um I believe I read you indicated that um 17,000 hours were saved due to the data warehouse.

Okay.

Uh, with that being said, good, bad, and ugly, how many uh FTEs were uh potentially reduced, uh redeployed, or uh any dollar savings that it translates uh that that 17,000 hours um saved through data the warehouse, what does that translate into savings?

Absolutely.

Uh so Mr.

Chair, uh I am very proud to pronounce uh no reduction in in workflow and workforce.

Um, you know, again, my goal is to use data as the driver of efficiency.

And so as we find these efficiencies, uh, you know, we're taking people who are manually creating reports and now empowering them with automated reports, giving them the ability to look into and dive into a lot of these things uh more closely and create more robust uh reporting that I don't believe we've always had in the past.

Uh so we're more or less finding operational efficiencies and saving people the time of trying to hunt, navigate, uh, and create reports where we can automate those uh and really empower departments to have that data more easily accessible uh and at their fingertips.

So um, in regards to financial, you know, I think 17,000 hours uh is really about the time that we've saved for people to navigate and find those reports and fine-tune that information together.

Uh so I think the fiscal impact, uh I don't know that I've measured clear enough to give you a strong number, uh, but I know my data team definitely has been keeping a track on that, so I can follow up and tell you, you know, we estimate X dollars based on this amount.

Um, but I really view it as operational efficiencies, more opposed to you know, trying to reduce head count or anything like that.

We are trying to empower people with technology.

Okay, definitely looking forward to that.

We're gonna send those uh questions to you as well.

And uh last but certainly not least is um my partner if I ever get on uh celebrity jeopardy or something like that, and I need to phone a friend regarding AI pro Tim Yo.

Hey, thank you, Mr.

President.

I appreciate that.

Uh first of all, I just want to say uh Amber Easton, uh you are a gym and a lifesaver.

Thank you so much for everything.

Uh, we just got our TV set up, so I appreciate you.

And congratulations, uh Mr.

Thompson on the awards, and I'm sure you'll have more awards to come.

Uh it just warm my heart over you talking about you finally had plans for artificial intelligence is something I've been really passionate about for a very long time.

I just wanted to ask you, um, is it going to be something that's traditional or is it going to be something that's more for a gentic artificial intelligence?

Um, is this something that's going to include the internet of things or the cloud of things?

Um, and I also want to know is this something that's going to be just within city government, or do you plan on working maybe with a uh coordinated council without all throughout all the departments?

Because I mean, I I could see for just for just for starters for some, I know with the fire department, you have the opportunity to be able through drones and technology to be able to help with audits, uh, digital twin buildings.

Um, I know through micro robotics you can send them in the building through um through virtual reality or augmented reality, you could be able to help them be able to find out what's in the building with policing, it's predictive.

That's a little bit dangerous, but you know, you have predictive technology that you have through spatial computing.

Um I I also know there's issues involving um exoskeletons as well that would connect with um the internet of things as well as smart lighting as well.

I just want I know there's a lot I'm putting on you once I'm I don't have anybody else to talk about this.

I'm really excited.

So it's all like I'll try I'm trying to get all out right now, you know what I'm saying?

Uh for somebody to tell us we're not gonna do that, let's move on.

But uh but the reason why I'm saying that is because there you can really connect with a lot of different things, and so I just wanted to know is that something that's gonna be siloed or is it something that's gonna be connected throughout the city of Detroit?

How would that look?

Absolutely.

Uh and through the chair, you know, I I share the exact same excitement.

Uh and you definitely hit on I think the nail in the head is this has got to be a multi-pronged approach.

Um so definitely, you know, I think low-hanging fruit, something that is you know taking over IT by storm is the the chat bots, right?

Right.

Uh so as we talk public-facing tools, you know, I I think we do have some opportunities to spin up some chat bots uh and some informational tools that are limited in the data they can access.

Again, we want to improve accuracy uh and limit that scope of what it's going to search.

So, you know, definitely I'm looking at as we look to our website, uh, creating that public-facing tool.

Um and then as we start to look more internal towards our own departments, you know, our fire department is already utilizing drones and definitely diving into that.

So very excited about that.

They're uh one of our test cases uh where we're gonna see hopefully some good expansion and some opportunities uh with the use of drones.

Um but then on the AI front, beyond that, you know, internally, we've got 34 departments where each one has a very unique use case for AI.

Um and I think that you know, we definitely want to fine-tune and explore that uh and do a uh smaller sampling.

I don't want it to be siloed, but I want it to be really well thought out and planned uh so that you know I don't spin up uh uh BC'd and automated process uh and then do it, you know, using something totally different, and I'm auditing their process so I can pull data and extract it, you know.

Right.

I definitely want to tie together uh as much as we can.

And again, I just want to stress the importance of having an administration that feels that same way as me.

Uh and a council that wants to back that because that's very exciting.

Uh so definitely we're gonna take a multi-prong approach.

There's some internal tools uh as you look to um, you know, we're a Microsoft shops with Microsoft Copilot, we've got some opportunities to use Copilot Chat where we can offer uh that to more users and not drive up our costs.

Again, you know, one of the biggest things that I am really focusing on this year is how do we leverage the tools we have uh and tools that are at our fingertips.

So I definitely think as we look at our AI uh progression and what we're gonna do forward, we're encouraging vendors to come to us with AI enabled tools so that we can evaluate and really have a committee that is dedicated to review uh and sign off on those so that we can start to do that larger scoping, that larger term planning, uh, so that I don't create silos.

Because definitely I I think we've got a lot of opportunities.

As you said, you know, there is AI for everything now.

Yeah.

So you are gonna see us, you know, we we are gonna start slow.

Uh, you know, definitely I wanna be honest and upfront, but I think sky's the limit.

And you know, as I look to what we can do, yes, you know, yes, yes, I've got to do a lot of great things.

Uh, and I think we just you know, if we're calculated and strategic, we're gonna do a lot of amazing things with AI.

No, that's excellent.

Because I just I was just thinking while you're talking, I think it's just either just case management, and I'm also thinking uh, you know, in terms of um the um mayor's uh poverty office, I know that blockchain would be a real good thing, not just for transparency, but also for people who are unbanked as well.

I mean, you're kind of getting the cryptocurrency a little bit here.

I I don't want to go that far, but you know, those are things that you could do for a lot of things as well.

So I I I'm really I'll I'm really excited, and then you have autonomous vehicles, now that all connects, but we we can talk about all this day all day and we don't have that kind of time.

So I just wanted to ask you, this is just my final um question I wanted to ask you, because usually I go into my whole spiel about why you need to have artificial intelligence.

I don't need to tell you that.

So I wanted to ask you on specifically about um your data storage.

And from what I'm seeing is that you have, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you have a hybrid legacy, early encrypted cloud cloud transition.

And basically what it is, you're doing a lot of stuff on site physically, and I think that costs the city a lot of money when if you had a multi-cloud, edge computing, you know, speed storage, blockchain, trust layer, helium for your backup, minimal on-premises, you could save the city a lot of dollars.

I just wanted to ask you is the is the initial cost the reason why we don't have that, and do you know what that would be?

Yeah well, through the chair, allow me to elaborate a little bit more.

Uh so we have a very hybrid approach uh to our data center infrastructure.

So we've actually moved a lot of legacy uh servers, a lot of legacy technology and retired them and moved several workflows uh to the cloud.

Uh we didn't have a lot of things.

ARPA dollars too, right?

That allows you to be able to write, right, right.

Yes.

Uh so we we do have some things now where we're you know doing email in the cloud, we're doing a lot more in the cloud to offset that.

Um some of the things that you know I just feel extremely strong uh about is a lot of our public safety systems when we start to talk about 911.

Um, you know, this is an example of a piece of technology where I truly believe uh we have to do what's best and not rely on the internet.

You know, I want to make sure that if the internet went out tomorrow, we can still provide 9-1-1 services to our residents.

Uh so I will always push for a hybrid environment, but definitely to your point, um, you know, as we look to strategically retire legacy systems, grow our IT footprint, uh look to expand to AI.

I want to use a cloud environment.

You know, I don't want to bring more server infrastructure into uh our environment.

Uh so we are looking at you know other workloads where we have opportunity to move to the cloud uh and really be strategic about that.

But I will say, you know, with the use of ARPA dollars uh and the last five years that I've been here, we have dramatically cut cut down uh on our data center operations.

We've got a very robust and you know, very fantastic uh backup tool.

We're again we're leveraging the cloud.

Uh so I will say, you know, that the do it five years ago was you know 90% on prem.

Uh, we definitely are more of a hybrid environment now, and we have seen some cost reductions uh over the years, not all in this year, but over the years by you know taking that hybrid approach.

Uh so I definitely think we're in that best of breed standpoint, uh, where we're leveraging both cloud and on-prem for critical infrastructure.

That's good and that includes edge computing as well, in terms of doing all that.

Okay, so you're all in the process of already doing that.

Okay.

Well, listen, I just want to say thank you for your time, and I appreciate look forward to where this is exciting stuff.

You know, it kind of felt like I was running into a brick wall at 100 miles an hour.

So to finally be able to make advancements, I appreciate it.

Look forward to working with you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I am done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Colleagues, are there any emotions before we wrap up this particular budget here?

All right.

Uh Rick Thompson, the floor is yours.

Any closing remarks?

Uh, just want to say thank you.

And I really truly appreciate you all.

Um, you know, each one of you has pushed do it to do better.

Uh, and I appreciate that.

And I just want to speak to that because we are an evolving department.

We're a growing department.

Uh, you know, from a city standpoint, we're a young department.

There wasn't always a do-it 15 years ago.

Uh, so we're definitely more centralized, more eager to take on challenges, evolve.

Uh, and that wouldn't be possible with not just the supportive administration, but also a supportive uh council body.

So I I just want to say thank you, guys, and look forward to uh another year of working collaboratively and driving change here in the city of Detroit.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right, we appreciate you, appreciate all the work.

You and your team do.

All right, so we will now go to public comment.

If there's anyone from the public who would like to speak, please raise your hand if you're in the committee of the whole, please raise your hand now.

There's anyone from the public who would like to speak, please raise your hand if you're getting the committee of the whole or at home online using Zoom.

Going once, going twice, going three times.

Collection of public comments have now concluded.

Oh my.

Okay.

Yeah, Zoom is zooming right now.

Fingers crossed, it works.

All right, we have no one in the committee of the whole.

We shall now go to our online comments.

How many callers do we have, team?

And who do we have first?

Good afternoon, Council President.

There are seven online callers.

Our first caller is Mr.

Foster.

All right, Mr.

Foster, the floor is yours.

You have one minute, general public comment.

Good evening.

Just a few things.

Um, I don't think that uh I personally don't have a problem with A.

I don't know how to use it.

But I think the issue comes down with the city's disregard for the policies and the processes.

And I think that's the that's the real disregard.

The city is used to being in a crunch and things where they are expediting processes and skipping strips.

And that's where the issue is.

Yeah, secondly, it's kind of hypocritical to um award a little eight-year-old and talk about how intelligent he is, how he come from good family values and good things, and then he could he can exceed like that.

And then on the other hand, we endorse artificial intelligence.

Now we have to find a common ground and a compromise here.

I still like to read books, right?

Uh, like intelligent, right?

And I think it's possible for all our community.

Next caller, please.

Council President, our next caller is Betty A.

Varner.

This is Betty A.

Varner.

The floor is yours.

You have one minute.

General public comment.

Hello.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening.

Hi, this is uh Betty A.

Varn, the president of the Soda Elsewhere Black Association.

Uh, just asking that uh the council will consider uh allocate monies for uh to help black clubs and associations with their land use hearing fee when they have to go in front of uh BC, fill out that application to get permission to uh for projects that they want to do in their neighborhood.

For example, we would like to have uh playground equip equipment on the expanded property that we have purchased from the land bank.

Also, please consider monies for corridors that has not been blessed with this some the same attention that they have been for other corridors throughout the city of Detroit.

We appreciate all the work that has been done, but we are now wanting help for our thinker corridor.

Thank you for this.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is owner Papa.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

We have one minute general public comment.

Uh good afternoon, and through the chair, maybe I be heard.

Yes.

Thank you, Carolyn Hughes.

Yes, um, the Auditor General made some very good points.

But if you don't go, if you don't follow her recommendations, then we're wrought with corruption.

And I I think uh I've I've sat through many of her reports as well as the gentleman who sat next to her and um a lot of the problem with the assessor's office has been ongoing since he was at um the auditor general.

Um if we don't utilize the information that we got that that we get from these reports, then what's the point in doing them?

We do them so that we can make government and our money spent better, not worse.

And let me say the AI, I know you're pushing for it, and you're already uh have come to the conclusion that you're going to do it.

At least you're spending more time on this than you did on the solar, but um I think you should take it before the people before you start assuming that people want data centers in there in their communities before you start chart changing um next caller, please.

Council president, our next caller is Tyson Gersh.

Isa Gersh, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Can you hear me?

Yes, sir.

Thanks.

Um more thoughts than one minute will allow, but uh, you know, the one thing I think our city does do really well um is our open data portal.

Um, you know, those awards weren't given for nothing.

Uh we really earned that, and I I think it's something we should invest more heavily in.

Um like all of the problems with the BZA could be solved overnight if you just let the the data technology the data information technology department just like handle it.

Um it's a technology issue, and I think the problem with most of our departments um is a technology issue, and you've got a lot of like legacy leadership that maybe isn't as comfortable with the technology, but that's the solution to most of our city's problems.

Um also, you know, I feel like a cell needs to just be banned.

It seems to be the root of most of our tech issues in the thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is iPhone.

IPhone, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Are you there?

Let's put iPhone at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Our next caller is Cunningham.

The Cunningham, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Cunningham, are you there?

Let's put Cunningham at the end of the queue and go to the next caller, please.

Council President, our next caller is Marguerite Maddox and Scarlet.

Miss Marguerite Maddox Scarlet.

The floor is yours, General Public Comment.

Yes.

Thank you.

Um happy to these champions.

And me.

And people all of us to know.

And she should hit them with me.

And the oh god we can learn to right now I am using my human age.

We should connect the bag of my phone.

But it was not connect connect with with my apple my apple my book but it was connect to my phone.

So we we can't get another way to go with figuring out technology and innovation in a done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Council president, we are now going back to iPhone.

Alright, iPhone.

The floor is yours.

Yeah, one minute general public comment.

IPhone, are you there going twice?

IPhone, are you there going three times?

Unfortunately, we're gonna have to move on if you would like to provide your comments to the clerk's office that will be placed on to public record.

Next caller, please.

I know what to do.

Brother Cunningham, are you there going once?

Going twice.

I don't think we understood.

Going three times.

Collection of brothers.

Collection of uh brother Cunningham, we're gonna have to move on.

If you'd like to provide your comments to the clerk's office, it will be placed onto public record.

Yeah, I guess.

He does the whole time.

So that's that's my guy.

I know.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Josh, are you trying to I know you were someone was speaking to you when I asked for public comment?

I know you just raised your hand.

You looking to speak.

Come on up.

Good day, sir.

No, no, hit that button.

We're gonna give one minute.

Let's let's get the clock up.

I'll be faster in a minute.

No, we gotta get we gotta do it fishing.

We gotta do officially otherwise I get in trouble.

Okay, there you go.

Floor's yours, sir.

All right.

Um I'm having uh bad issue with the things you guys are talking about, but I didn't hear the whole uh the whole conversation.

So I'll just give you my experience.

My experience is that through the building department, I'm having um a nine-month plan review uh because of the system that they were just talking about.

And I think the issue is more on the side of uh a half measure of not being automated so that no one has to do anything, but also them relying on uh a certain thing that takes all of the ownership of their job away from them, and uh if if there's a half measure, then everything takes ten times as long.

So uh a one to two month process that I would have usually or in the past really here, uh, is now gonna be nine months, and we have certain entities.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yeah, we have certain entities saying that they're not gonna uh come back to Detroit because of this process.

So don't leave out.

We got someone from my team we're gonna come over talk to you, as I mentioned earlier.

Thank you now.

All right, that will take us to the end of our public comments as well.

Wanted to let everyone know that uh we will be back at it tomorrow.

Uh we have uh 10 a.m.

uh human resources at 11 a.m.

employment solutions, uh 1 p.m.

airport, and 2 p.m.

the health department.

Mr.

Quarley, anything you want to provide to us before we get out of here?

All right, seeing none.

Colleagues, is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

This meeting is adjourned.