Good afternoon, Council President James Tate.

Here.

Council President Pro Tim Coleman Young.

Here.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Member Waters is on her way.

She's tardy.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero.

Councilmember Miller.

Member Miller is tardy as well.

Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

Present.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

President.

Councilmember Scott Benson.

We have quorum.

Thank you so much.

We have a quorum, which means we're back in session.

Thank you all for your patience, like for uh the airport department.

Home in a young international airport.

Come on, Dow.

Begin.

The budget presentation.

Again for another budget hearing.

Yes, sir.

Things have changed since your very first one.

I remember when that was.

Life was way different at the airport.

Way different, sir.

Yes, it was.

And congratulations to you.

Thank you.

And it was way different because it didn't have your leadership in in charge of it.

So thankfully you're here now.

I want to give you an opportunity to uh introduce yourself and your team, and then the floor is yours to begin the presentation.

Excellent.

Uh Director Jason Director uh I'm sorry, Airport Director Jason Watt, and then to my right, I have George Gray, uh who is my finance uh uh person, and then finance analyst, I believe is your title.

Account finance accountant, and then we have James George here from the office of the uh Chief Financial Office.

All right, so uh I guess we'll start with my presentation.

So uh our new our new initiative.

So this is our our our airport uh statement here.

It says in alignment with uh Mayor Sheffield's Rise Higher platform, the airport department is evolving beyond a traditional aviation hub to serve as a catalyst for neighborhood restoration and economic empowerment by prioritizing safety, community-centric capital investments, and expanded access to quality education.

The department is driving sustainable growth and opportunity to Detroiters.

Next slide, please.

So consistent with that, uh, these are the current initiatives in progress.

Uh first we'll talk about the Tuskegee Airman Historical National Museum.

Uh then we'll move into Friends of Detroit City Airport, the Civil Air Patrol, and then we have four ongoing capital projects.

So the Tuskegee Airmen uh received a grant uh for $750,000, I believe, uh about three years ago.

And since that time, they have expanded their programs dramatically.

The I think uh on top of all the programming that they offer, um uh which everybody can see on the slides.

The big thing in this slide is that uh the touch points of some 4,000 students.

So uh that's a metric that that we're very proud of at the airport, and they're able to uh to reach out to that many children.

In addition to that, they had nine students that graduated with their pilot's license, and that's uh that was free of charge to those students, and uh uh that's a just a huge opportunity, and they're increasing those numbers year over year.

Next slide.

Then we have Friends of Detroit City Airport, similar to the Tuskegee Airmen.

Uh this is another one of our community groups that is uh forward-facing to the community, and uh that you can see the ages of the uh type of children uh that they target, and then uh uh they approximately touch about 300 uh children a year.

And then the civil air patrol has uh currently 25 cadets in that program, and uh those children are just exceptional, exceptional.

Next.

All right, this is where it gets really, really exciting for me just because for years we did not have uh any type of development taking place at the airport, but I'm proud today to sit in front of you and say that has changed.

So uh today uh we if you drove by the airport, you would notice some very significant changes.

First is this aft-flight facility.

Uh this is a small picture, but I welcome everyone to please come by, uh schedule some time to come see this awesome facility, and uh it'll be coming online fully with a ribbon cutting in the June time frame.

Uh they're waiting to put in the the facility will actually be open prior to that, but they're they didn't want to show it off until they got all the the grass in and the trees and everything up and going.

So uh that's coming.

Uh that project was approximately six million dollars.

Uh we say the completion date is gonna be sometime here in uh mid-April, but uh they still have due landscaping.

Next project or yeah, next project.

Um next, we have My Flight Tours.

Uh we weren't able to get a very good picture of their facility, but if you drove by today, you would see their facilities standing there strong and proud.

These are the first two significant developments of any kind at the airport in the last 60 years.

Um that project is about 3.5 million, and uh their completion is estimated in the May May time frame.

And uh I think when you see that building, I think every Detroiter's gonna go into that building and see a masterpiece.

It's it's a really it's a work of art inside.

They're really proud of what uh Sergio and the MyFlight team put together.

Next facility.

Next is our brand new administrative facility.

Um we had to do some shuffling at the airport.

Uh the reason we had to do shuffling at the airport is because uh Detroit Public Schools has taken uh or has leased the uh main terminal facility, and uh there that's where the new Davis Aerospace Technical High School is gonna go, so we were forced to move out of that facility as well as all the tenants that were in there, and so we we had to retrofit uh a smaller facility next door, which is uh used to be uh uh house friends Detroit City Airport.

They graciously relocated to the hangar bays, and it wasn't us necessarily putting them out in a negative way, actually, they get something out of it, and that's a hangar bay where they'll be able to store aircraft.

One of their goals was to get aircraft so that they could train children on how to fly, and uh they've been unsuccessful to this point in getting aircraft because they didn't have a house them.

So now they have that opportunity.

So we're able to make that happen for them, and so it worked out positively for everybody.

Uh next.

Just spoke about the Davis Aerospace Technical High School that will be coming online in uh the September time frame for uh this year.

So that building is uh the old terminal facility is being retrofitted.

That's a $15 million project.

And uh again, if you wanted to come by and see the progress on that, it's it's enormous.

So uh just since the last time I was here last year, you can see we've had significant growth in the airport and massive major development.

Next.

All right, so strategic initiatives for 2627.

Uh we are going to be uh establishing an office of aeromobility, create an aviation education district, and uh obviously we more potential property development.

Next slide.

All right.

The establishment of the Office of Aeromobility, I won't go through exactly what this says.

It's there for everyone to read, but really the the first part of it is the most important.

The purpose of the office uh of aeromobility is to evaluate the future of low altitude air traffic management systems and unman unmanned aircraft system traffic management or UTM for the city of Detroit.

Why is this important?

So uh this speaks this initiative speaks to several things that uh Councilman Pro Tim Uh Young uh asked me to do last time I was here, uh, which was to start evaluating drones inside of our airspace and how those things operate in our airspace.

This office will be dedicated to doing that.

And uh the establishment of it will align us with the state of Michigan and their initiatives around this, and also provide one point of contact for uh everyone to reach out to and really just align us with how the FAA does things.

It makes sense for it to fall into the airport just for the simple fact that half of our airspace sits under what we call the class Delta airspace, meaning that uh I'm I'm completely in charge of that class Delta airspace along with my air traffic control tower.

So any rules that we would have to put over top of the city of Detroit, we feel should be indicative of that.

So we won't have half the city doing one thing that the other half the city isn't.

So we'll just all bring it under this class delta, create rules that make sense and align with FA regulations and work with our citizens in development of those inside of a uh we'll call it a box because there's a box of rules that we have to follow.

And then inside of that, then we can create some of our own rules uh around how things operate here.

Um in addition to that, we are evaluating several different technologies.

Uh I mean, we've all heard about Airspace Link, uh maybe not so much about ASX, but I've seen both these systems in action, and uh they're both innovative and exciting.

And uh we are taking the lead, and we will be uh assisting in the overall management of the and deployment of those systems throughout the city when we get to that point.

Next.

All right, uh the creation of an aviation educational district.

This is one of the key focal points of of this administration.

Uh we are going to uh the mission is to create a national aerospace talent and research development hub in Detroit and Southeast Michigan.

The vision is Detroit is uh placing Detroit as a premier and national national aerospace and workforce development innovation and and a research hub for underserved populations.

So the goal of this is to uh take the corner of Connor and Grashet, bring in uh like uh like entities to promote an overall aviation education uh situation where where we can take a child, say from the age of five years old throughout our school system, and then take that person all the way through their airline transportation pilot's license or all the way through their AMP pilots license.

These are all features and things that we we uh were kind of dinged on uh because we did a great job in getting children interested in aviation, but then the follow-on, once they graduate, what was the options?

What options did they have?

And so to in order to overcome that, we said let's just bring it here.

And we've been uh successful in talking to uh several entities about that.

Uh I can't get into exact negotiations because we are finalizing those now, but we do have uh very interested parties who have signed MOUs with uh uh different school districts throughout, in fact, every school district, I believe, within Wayne County uh in the development of this overall aviation education initiative.

So all of our students will be able to uh participate in this aviation program if they so choose and then uh potential property development at the Komenay Young Airport.

The uh the big announcement around this is at the 10 acres across the street, which I believe is in District 4, uh at the Oa Dillasau High School lot, is uh where we're proposing to potentially bring in a partner uh uh for the types of education opportunities that I spoke of slide.

This is a very exciting slide too.

So this uh is from the state of Michigan.

Uh the state of Michigan uh uh has posted uh our our local economic uh benefit to the city of Detroit as uh 554 million five hundred sixty-one thousand two hundred forty-five dollars.

And what's exciting about that number is basically with the budget that I receive from this council and from the city of Detroit, I'm able to it looks almost like a hundred times that money uh in economic benefit to the city of Detroit.

So we're very, very proud of that, and we're working hard to maintain that and grow that number every year.

Uh, I think the last time uh we looked at this number, it was at 306 million.

And the exciting part about this is that when I started here in 2011, we were at about 20 million dollars of economic input to the city of Detroit.

So from 2011 up until two years ago, two, three years ago, uh we had grown from that number to 306 million, and just in the last two to three years, we've gone from 306 million to 554 million.

So you can see where our where we're starting to really accelerate the growth of the airport and our overall economic benefit to the citizens of the city of Detroit.

And on that, that's the end of my presentation.

All right, thank you.

And I will start to my right with um Pro Tim Young Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh I just want to say I I really appreciate the air mobility.

That really just warns my heart over to see that people who understand the assignment.

I really like what that is, and it's good to see all things that are going on at the combing a young airport.

Uh nice little ring to it.

Um I just wanted to ask you though, very quickly.

Um, does that when you're talking about air mobility, we're talking about drones.

Are we also talking about Ebotals?

Are we also talking about um autonomous planes and things that nature?

And also, is this something that's gonna be primarily from a flight perspective?

Is it gonna be from a corporate flight perspective?

Are we gonna now look at commercially through this technology when it's available?

And or is this gonna be something that's gonna be more freight?

Through the chair.

So the the concept around it what this is, first of all, is low-level air traffic management.

The national airspace system is uh as a complex uh uh complex organism that that has all types of stuff throughout the entire United States and air traffic control in the United States is outstanding.

We they don't need any help with that.

What they need help with though is low level.

When I say low level, I'm speaking between zero and four hundred and zero and a thousand feet.

So uh when you go below uh those numbers, it's really hard for the existing radar systems to track aircraft.

And uh that's why you have things like that would happen in New Jersey, for example, things like that, just because these aircraft operate very fast and very low to the ground.

So uh uh what we are examining now is low-level air traffic management systems that could be uh used for autonomous uh vehicle travel.

Uh and this is for the the area I'm focused on is for flight operations.

Uh but the these these systems actually can assist on ground mobility systems as well as marine systems as well as trains.

So uh we're uh any system that we get uh or that we evaluate, I will work with the chief mobility officer of the city of Detroit to figure out exactly how to best utilize the technology.

Meaning I would really prefer personally to not have uh multiple systems doing the same thing.

I would really like to see one system controlling everything because I I think there's ways, and I we're evaluating ways to monetize it so that it is not an additional expense to the city of Detroit, but uh revenue source.

So uh we're we're working through those models now, and uh this is for everything, not just for uh uh freight or for commercial application.

That this the system, this is the backbone of everything.

It's essentially think of it like a freeway.

And uh some of the systems that we're evaluating will give uh citizens the ability potentially to to say where these things land, how they operate around their house.

Uh these are really important concepts that uh are not really being evaluated by anyone at this point.

So this would put us right in the forefront of technology.

Okay, I see what you're saying.

So this is more like the backbone just in terms of um not just to one thing, but period, in terms of the sky, not and and uh I guess we're assuming like air taxis and things that nature as well.

Correct.

And this would be setting some rules of the road, not just for the airport, but just sky, period, operating the skies, period, correct?

Over the city of Detroit, yes, sir.

Okay, yes, okay, okay, okay.

And and also, can you just tell me really quickly what your department is doing and what you're doing in terms of artificial intelligence and that.

I mean, what are what are you how how are you implementing that?

And are you also implementing that with um the internet of things?

You know, are I'm sure we already talked about you know drones and things of how that just kind of tell me how the um the um autonomous planes, how all that is kind of um what you're integrating it and how all that's integrated throughout the city, how that's intermodal in terms of transit throughout the city.

And and don't hesitate to really wow me here, you know.

Really kind of laying on thick for me.

Give me that Jason Watt special about what you're doing to do this.

Yes, sir, through the chair.

So uh uh the department is really not evaluating AI.

We we we've been dabbling in it.

Everything we've dabbled in is consistent with the regulations that the city of Trade Place in front of us.

Now, uh I I will say that uh these technologies as they become more mainstream and more users get on these systems, then uh yes, the necessity for uh some of this to be AI driven will be there.

Is it safety too?

I don't really catch you up and I was asking, is it also the safety aspect?

I'll assume some people would be a little bit hesitant.

These are these are the the when we when we it's not as so okay.

Let's let's just say this.

Let's say today, at any given point, maybe there's a hundred to two hundred drones in the city of Detroit.

If you take our entire landmass, that's not an enormous number, right?

That thing the chances of things running into each other are very small.

But when you take that number and then you exponentially grow it to a thousand or or two thousand, now you've created chaos, meaning you don't know where anything is, and the potential for things to run into each other is exponential.

So that's why I see a significant need for a low-level air traffic management system that actually command and controls uh our our air space.

Meaning, in order for you to get onto this in order for you to fly in the city of Detroit, you'd have to authenticate your aircraft onto a system that we deem.

And then uh uh once you're on that system, we would be able to make sure uh that you you your aircraft is performing in a manner consistent with the rules and regulations of the city of Detroit.

Right.

Okay, no, that's excellent.

And that's a clue, like if you were doing like commercial aircraft, right?

Let's say that obviously we have a human in the loop policy.

So you actually have a human in there in case things go wrong, obviously, because you're in the sky.

But if you had some the hit like an autonomous plane, or if you had like a Joby or something like that, yes, you know that would that would apply to that as well.

Because that's what I'm thinking about.

100 takes I could take this Ewita from the airport, so I can go to um another place where I can land, you know, or I could go to the other airport as well, the Wayne County Airport.

You know, I think Cobra Young Airport Superior, you go to the Wayne County Airport, you can be able to have those flights and things that nature.

That's another side of business that you could do.

That's not necessarily commercial, but something that people will rely on, because I live close to the airport.

I can just go here, stay here, stole my car here, or whatever else.

You're talking about for all that.

Correct.

This would apply to all those different things.

Correct.

And it's consistent with that.

You can see where let's say, for example, uh, right now Amazon is operating in our airspace and they drop packages, say in your backyard.

Yeah.

Well, there's no regulations saying where those aircraft can operate.

So they let's say they fly past your window while you're in the shower, right?

And not that they're looking through your window or doing anything inconsistent with that.

But the deal is is that you you you you could be uncomfortable.

Yeah.

So these these types of of low-level air traffic management systems would would basically say, and maybe instead of flying through someone in someone's yard, you would actually perform uh a maneuver where you would fly to that person's house and then drop the package exactly where they tell you to, and then or at the end of the block.

Who knows, right?

I don't know exactly uh what how the citizens are gonna want to have this set up, but we could essentially have vertiports throughout the city where these aircraft come and land and take off.

You know, some of them will have to be uh bigger because if you're gonna move people, obviously the aircraft are bigger.

If you're gonna just drop parcels in small packages, then it doesn't really matter, right?

You could drop them in the backyard, or you could drop them somewhere consistent with with with uh where people would naturally go to pick them up.

So uh the the real focus though, right now of the office would be to streamline how we as a city Detroit operate our own drones because we're in control of those.

Right.

So the system essentially with all the different departments, we have BC Fire, uh, uh BC fire, and then we also have uh uh the police department, uh all public safety, uh to to be able to go out and do inspections, things of that nature, come up with rules that we can live by that make sense, and then test those things, and then obviously from that point grow it into the city to get uh uh input from the citizens as to how uh they would like for these things to operate around uh their dwellings.

Yeah, no, excellent.

I I I really appreciate that.

I think that those are really good things.

And so um, I really appreciate you coming out here and doing this.

I'm really excited about it.

And uh, oh yeah, I was gonna say and I also I'm sure that includes the first month doing with the first mile, last mile problem in terms of transit as well from the old intermodal aspect.

I can go take this, you know, air tax, you know, I can get on this bus, or I can get on this, the Thomas vehicle or whatever, and it's all connected, and the data's all shared in the city.

Yes, sir.

And the the mind-blowing side of this is that you can see that the the way I kind of like to look at this is that it's going to happen whether whether we decide to take the leadership role or not.

Right.

So I think that as a city, I think it's it's critically important that we take a leadership role in this.

We are the center of mobility anyway, with the big three here.

That's what we're known for in Detroit.

Absolutely.

And I think if we're able to uh to to capitalize on some of these very innovative technologies, I think that we could see ourselves as a leader in this space in the United States of America.

Yeah, I just also want to say uh good looking on in terms of the drones and fly past people's houses because they can heat map and you know have night vision, all kinds of stuff.

I I would be very uncomfortable with that.

And I also want to tell you one more thing, which is exponential will be here in May.

Are you familiar with that, sir?

Exponential is a world uh expo on uh autonomous vehicles and autonomous uh mobility systems in general, and it's the largest conference of its size in the world, it's the biggest one, and we're gonna be hosting that here in Detroit uh in May, in early May.

And we're gonna have uh uh a demonstration that will take that will take place at the airport where we're going to utilize this low-level air traffic, some of these low-level air traffic management systems in order to show uh how they work.

Excellent.

I thank you.

I appreciate it.

I look forward to seeing it.

I like a good show.

So thank you.

I appreciate that.

Uh I also just wanted to just let you know that if you so chose to invest in uh artificial intelligence, and I suggest that you do and take up all my ideas.

Um your uh total capital investment, your CapEx would be uh would be estimated to be 2.6 to $8 billion, but and your total annual operated costs will be $345 million to $890 million a year.

Your maintenance would be $1 billion, 2.5 million.

Your technological, your technology upgrade cycle would be three to seven years.

Your annual airport logistics revenue will be $75 million and 250 million.

Your total economic output would be $2 billion to $6 billion annually.

Your city tax revenue would be what $50 million to $100 million increase a year.

Your cost savings would be $100 million to $300 million over 10-year period for your automation and your artificial intelligence, your tax leakage reduction would be 20 to 40% recovered, and your covered revenue from your leakage capture would be 20 million to 80 million dollars a year.

Your tax leakage reduction would be 20 to 40 percent recovered, and your covered revenue from your leakage capture would be 20 million to 80 million dollars a year.

Um your labor uh for your your energy cost is be reduced by 15 to 25 percent.

Um your insurance risk we reduced by three to eight percent, the total jobs increase to be 10,000 to 30,000, average salary 55,000 ninety to five thousand.

High skill jobs, eight eighty thousand to a hundred and forty thousand.

Entry level jobs forty thousand to sixty thousand K and the poverty reduction, this is estimated, but be five percent to fifteen percent.

Your income increase will be five K to fifteen K per household.

So I will send you all of this information.

I don't expect you to remember all this off the top of your head.

So I will send all this to you.

Thank you so much, Mr.

President.

That is my time.

Thank you.

Member Benson.

Thank you.

And Mr.

Watt and your team, thank you for being here today.

Glad to see that we are still growing and moving forward with our airport.

We've had fits and starts over the years.

We were going to be decommissioned at one time, and now I see that we're growing, and we are a main um pillar for the mayor's platform, which is fantastic.

And I see we've got our team in the background as well of our stakeholders with the airport.

We want to acknowledge the Tuskegee Airmen as well as our Civil Air Patrol.

Thank you all very much for being here.

Um looking at your report, and then looking at airport revenues.

Page Bravo 10 TAC 8.

We're looking at for this fiscal year proposed 4.4, 28, 4.4, 29, 4.4.

We've got 15 million dollars of a school being developed.

We've got uh my flight with a brand new facility.

We've got um AVLING with a brand new facility.

I don't see any revenue growth.

That should tell me that we should have income tax growth there, we should have personal property tax growth there.

I don't re I don't re I don't remember providing any tax incentives for those other developments, which means that we should have a level of property tax increase, corporate tax, utility tax.

I'm not seeing any growth here.

Let's talk about that.

Significant levels of investment in the space without any forecasted revenue growth.

Yes, sir.

Through the chair, I'd like to start uh start on this answer.

So first I just want to thank you, Councilman Benson, and your team.

Uh, I would not be where the airport department would not be where it is right now without your assistance.

I want to make sure that everyone understands that.

Looking for a compliment, but I appreciate them.

But it's the truth.

So, next, what I'd like to state is uh uh revenues from the new facilities that are being built will uh come online in approximately the July time frame, meaning that uh they will start paying their uh ground lease rates once the facilities have been uh completed and they're not quite there just yet.

Uh so on that I will let uh James George speak to the uh tax questions.

Thank you.

So the chair, uh Congressman uh Benson.

Um page uh B 108, the revenue that you see there is only for airport revenue for the uh landing fees and uh the the Dhanger rental revenues, those are the only two revenues that airport is uh you know getting at this point.

The property tax and the personal tax, those are part of our income tax and the appra you know the uh sustainers office, so that they are not uh airport revenues, but they are not in here.

Okay.

So then the airport, the goal is to have the airport be revenue neutral.

That we've airport has always been taking a subsidy from the city.

We've been investing money there and really elevated this profile to get to a point where it doesn't need the same level of support from the general fund, or if it does, at least at the end of the year, it's revenue neutral, and the general fund doesn't see that obligation.

So I want to make sure that we're still looking towards that, and then maybe it's inappropriate to identify those other funding streams as helping to make it revenue neutral.

But if not, then we need to at least identify that's what's happening there.

Because if you don't have that, you don't have a note somewhere, then that's gonna get lost.

And then what people will think is that it's not an actual asset that's generating revenue when it is.

We have to make sure that that's identified because the airport is so important.

I believe we're gonna see some of that come back this year.

Yes, with some of our expenditures, primarily with our land acquisition.

We're seeing that for the first time.

Well, not the first time, but we're seeing that.

So we're actually seeing the fruits of our labor come back to the airport.

That story has to be told as well.

We got a new regional aviation asset there.

My flight is doing gangbusters, they're putting in millions of dollars of investment.

I mean, this we're seeing some great great return on that investment.

We're moving across French Road to the West of the airport.

If it can't be seen in this budget, then people will forget about that.

So I just want to make sure that we're also putting that type of information into our numbers.

And let's talk about the deal to keep the airport was that we would give up the crosswind runway.

Yes, sir.

I'm not sure if that has officially taken place yet, although I know we're moving Earth to the west of the main runway.

Yes, sir.

So, what's the status of that?

And I see in your report, we're in the process of rezoning that area.

Haven't heard the process or haven't heard of status of that.

What's that proposed um zoning district?

So just looking for what's going on with the future development, including the decommissioning of our crosswind runway and the rezoning, and anybody in the kicking the tires to come locate there.

Yes, sir.

So yes, I will go ahead and I will go through all of that.

So uh uh through the chair.

Where we're at today.

So first I'll talk about uh the 59.7 acres uh which is uh the former runway 725.

Uh that property received a grant from the MEDC for uh pre-development work uh consistent with uh making that uh ripe and ready for some type of development.

Uh I have not received official word from uh the new administration as to uh what direction uh they would like to go with that property.

Uh but it it is you're correct.

Uh it has gone uh through a enormous uh transformation to say the least, and uh uh right now uh uh the plan is consistent with the plan that was laid out before you as far as selling the property.

We are moving forward with that, uh, but we have not gotten official word on uh exactly uh what uh the mayor uh would like us how she would like us to handle that situation just yet.

Is that runway decommissioned?

That runway has been decommissioned and permanently closed, sir.

Is it been broken up?

It is all pavements have been removed uh as well as uh every that the property is ready to be almost ready to be developed.

Rezoning.

So uh the zoning on it is gonna be uh retain its industrial zoning.

Uh the rezoning that was mentioned in the uh uh presentation is for uh that uh parcel that uh the old DLSL high school parcel.

Uh that parcel was uh residential.

Uh it was labeled as residential, and uh we're going to be moving it towards uh I think it's the M2 or is it M3 M2 would be light industrial?

Light industrial, yes, sir.

Yes, sir, consistent with light industrial.

So that that is our request as it's gonna go through a formal process, and I don't want to be pre-judgmental on what the future outcome of it will be, but yes, we are gonna be seeking rezoning uh for that property consistent with uh uh uh facility uh like a school.

Good.

I'm glad to see we can have the spin-off from the airport, so it's doing its job.

We got a school now, we've got the AB flight investment, we've got my flight.

We're seeing uh my colleague to the east in District 4 is gonna be seeing some investment in her district as a direct result of the airport.

So the airport is uh it's bearing fruit.

Yes, sir.

Something this body has fought for before I got here.

I believe even before Member Tate got here.

This body had been fighting for the airport's uh future, and it's we're finally seeing the fruits of it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon to you all.

Thank you for being here and uh for all the work that is going on at the airport and also as remember Benjamin Benson um noted uh all the work for the friends of the airport and uh Tuskegee Air Man National Museum as well.

So appreciate especially the youth um engagement around that.

I had a question on you mentioned the aviation educational district.

Uh just if you could just go deeper into you know, as we hear um, you know uh news around uh the shortage of air traffic controllers and such and and other areas around aviation um that really Detroit is could benefit from being in that industry.

So could you just uh you talk touched on it a little bit, but any else that you want to add there on what the work or the thoughts around getting more Detroiters into that the um industry.

Absolutely.

Uh through the chair.

Uh Councilman Campbell, the where we're at right now is uh we're working with several entities.

Uh I I don't think that Wayne County would be upset if I mentioned that I am working closely with them uh as as their desire is to create these opportunities for all people in Wayne County, all children in Wayne County.

Uh the overall aviation education initiative is consistent with that.

Uh I believe that uh if the county is successful in uh their efforts to to uh receive the funding that they've requested for these opportunities.

I think all of our children here in the city of Detroit that would be interested in this type of programming will be able to get it uh for free.

And how when I say for free, uh when we talk about like an AMP air airframe and power plant license, uh which means that uh child can go to uh Davis Aerospace and upon graduation receive their general AMP license, meaning they cannot work on an aircraft uh until they go through their full AMP licensing.

Now they could leave that program and go to some type of an internship, uh which uh I'm sure Detroit Public Schools and myself we'd love an opportunity for us to to do that, and I think we'll be can the that will happen.

But for for the vast majority of children that don't get into those uh those particular programs, we wanted to have a follow-on.

And so we are uh discussing with an entity, uh which I I choose not to not to speak about because we're in negotiations with them right now, but uh an entity consistent with uh AMP licensing uh for the other two-thirds of the uh programming.

So uh child will be able to get a third for free and then come back and say for 50,000, be able to receive their uh AMP license, which means they can this particular any particular entity we bring in, uh the goal is to have direct follow-on uh placement into jobs.

So uh we're looking at large educational opportunities that come uh with uh relationships with Delta United, uh all the all the big legacy air carriers.

So children will be able to to fill those jobs as you mentioned.

The other side of this, now that's on the maintenance side.

The other side of this is the AM uh is a pilot's license.

So uh upon graduation from uh Davis Aerospace, you'll be able to uh become your pilot.

Uh you will have completed your uh first phase of pilot training, which means you can go up and operate a small aircraft.

Then there's years of follow-on training after that that where they have to build hours, they have to operate uh aircraft with multi-engines, and then they move to jet engines.

All that costs a lot of money.

The goal of the programming that we're doing here is to get you all the way through your ATP licensing as cheap as possible.

Meaning if you want to get become a pilot in the United States of America and and get your airline transfer pilots license, transport pilots license, you are going to spend approximately a hundred thousand dollars.

Well, most uh uh people that's a huge barrier to entry.

So uh the goal is to decrease that cost by at least half.

And I think we'll get there through wraparound services.

I I we were also working with Wayne State University.

I think they've made an uh announcements that they of their desire to uh start an aviation uh program uh where you can get your college degree as well as your airline transport pilots license uh all through Wayne State University through their college of engineering.

Uh and then there's also uh follow-on uh potential also in the AMP licensing space where you could get say your general uh engineering degree.

So uh we're you can see there's a I could I could go on and on, but but there's one piece that we have not we haven't threaded through the loop yet, which is exactly who is gonna be in that space because we're in negotiations with them, so I can't go further than that, but I can tell you that uh our education programming will be consistent with everything that I've just stated.

Uh that's great.

I appreciate that.

And uh really appreciate the intentionality of you know having Davis Aerospace there um at the airport and uh continual education for um our folks as well.

I I shared um uh before with my colleagues when I was little, I wanted to be a firefighter, but when I was in middle school going to high school, I wanted to become a pilot, but I don't have the best of eyes.

So uh that's where we are.

But uh really appreciate all the work that's going on there.

I know the airport is a gem of the city, especially the east side.

As someone representing the west side, would love to um talk more and have more conversation on how we get folks in D7 over to the programming that you have in at the airport.

As a new councilman, I I welcome you.

Please come to the airport anytime.

And I would love to host you, and we can go through all of this and and and hopefully you can help me with some strategies that you might have on how we can get more residents involved in our program.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Good afternoon.

Good to see you all.

Um wholeheartedly agree with my colleagues and their comments uh regarding the airport and where we've gone.

Um I do encourage member McCampbell to go to the airports.

My team and I have gone.

We have seen the in and outs, and our supportive and excited about what's coming in the future.

So really I just have one main question for you.

I I I'll take the two.

The first is um with federal funding being cut uh for any program that even mentions race.

Um do we have any concerns with our programming uh for the black pilots of America or Tuskegee Airmen?

Um seeing any concerns with our funding to support our efforts here in Detroit to make sure that we are bringing along black and brown folks in in into the aerospace uh fields.

Yes, I appreciate that question, ma'am.

Through the chair.

The answer to your question is uh yes.

But uh what we what what aviation allows where we can stand proud is that aviation that there is no such thing as a DEI or an aviation.

If you're an airport manager, if you're air traffic controller, if you're a pilot, there's a standard, and that standard's is not one that goes down ever.

It only goes up.

And uh uh the goal and what we will do is produce uh a workforce that's consistent with that level of training.

Uh we will not go below it.

So uh just inherently to the fact that where we exist, where the airport exists, I think that we will be able to consistently uh impact the black and brown community uh with the excellence that the airport has always provided uh an opportunity.

So, regardless of federal funding, regardless of what's been said, uh we're gonna continue to meet that standard and exceed that standard, and uh we're proud to say that.

Okay, thank you for the chair.

Thank you.

I appreciate that because I do think it's really great the programming that you provide.

I do think it's a really good opportunity for our young people to go into this field.

Um you are correct.

I had a friend that was in the middle of trying to get licensed, um, but it was really expensive and and and he wasn't able to do so.

Um so if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit, I know that you have shared with us how students in district six have been a part of your program.

Um I guess if you wouldn't mind sharing any other concentrated efforts um to bring more Detroiters from the districts outside of you know the the the aerospace school itself, but how do we make sure that we are including uh young people from across the city in every district?

Thank you very much through the chair.

I have this is very exciting.

So uh we we have we are uh we received a grant from the state of Michigan for uh a simple trailer.

So you say, Well, Jason, what is that trailer gonna do?

Well, the trailer is actually really important because it allows the airport to actually take aviation to the community through drones, through flight simulators, and uh so we are going to be uh launching that sometime this summer.

Uh we just received the grants, we're putting together all the funds for it.

Uh if you looked at uh my budget, I think you would see.

I think I have 25 or 50 thousand dollars.

Maybe it's not in here, but it's in our existing budget to be able to outfit this trailer, and uh, we are going to be allowing uh not just airport personnel but also our community partners as they will be partners in this technology or this piece of equipment to be able to take this to the neighborhood so that children can really enjoy and foster that that that that exciting uh the excitement of aviation.

I mean, there's so many opportunities when you look at drones, when you look at uh just piloting or even maintenance.

I mean, these are just things that I think children are just unaware of.

Uh they're super high paying jobs, and uh uh I I think that that uh just getting out into the community with with uh this simple piece of of equipment will hope help spark that imagination inside of children to want to do this type of stuff.

Through the chair, would you happen to have a flight simulator that can be moved around the city?

Uh yes.

Uh we we we we are identifying one now, yes.

Through the chair.

We have an annual celebration in District Six where we have three to four hundred young people, people from all across the districts of every age, um, including young people.

Um I will welcome you to the celebration to bring your trailer whenever it's ready.

Um, but as a space for you to do that outreach to encourage more people to think about aviation.

Absolutely.

When is that event if you don't have to do that?

It's in July.

I believe it's going to be July or August is when we're gonna have it.

Yes, ma'am.

I will go ahead and note that.

Okay.

And we can have it up and going.

I will be there.

That'd be awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon, everyone.

Um good afternoon.

Good afternoon, ma'am.

Thank you so much for hosting my team and myself on that field trip to the airport.

It was amazing.

I hadn't been out there in years.

Um and um I was just very impressed with the program, especially for the youth and um Captain Carey and the um the airplanes that are out there, and that you can actually climb into touch fill experience.

It was amazing.

So thank you for that.

Um considering that this is um National Women's History Month, and I don't see your organizational chart, and I don't see any women except for our advocates.

I don't know if they're on your staff at the leadership level or executive leadership level.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

What roles do women play on an executive level at the airport?

Because I see the men um and I know um one woman back there who's an advocate, but at the executive level, um at the airport, because I don't see your org chart.

I haven't seen any org charts at all, so I'm gonna put this out there for all the department heads who are listening.

Um I'd like to see some org charts, but I'm requesting yours.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, and the women um at the executive level level at the airport?

Yes, well uh yes, Miss Denise Vaughn.

Okay.

Uh we we have one, so we we have a team of 11, so she would represent approximately 10 percent.

Uh uh, and we also have an another uh well, not on the executive level, we have another uh uh black woman who is uh uh part of our team also.

So uh these jobs are not just for men.

I want to make sure everybody understands that, and there's no issue at all with me hiring women and uh make sure that that's very important.

But I I also want to add though that uh Miss Denise Vaughn is a uh a program manager, and uh not only does she serve as program manager, uh I often uh really downplay her because how do you explain somebody that does so much?

She is an integral part of the team, and I would not be able to operate this airport.

We're sitting up there at the head table with you guys, but we'll deal with that one next year.

Hopefully, she's sitting up there with you, not in the back.

I didn't even see her.

But um, black women represent the largest racial group in Detroit.

Um, and um we constitute 52 percent point six percent um of the population in Detroit.

I just like to see um um black women in executive leadership roles, and I know we have our first woman mayor, so that's amazing, but um we just can make sure if you have 11 executives, and I think you said one is a woman.

I have a I only have myself, George Gray, Denise Vaughn, and and Greg Williams would be my executive team.

So that's four.

That's four, yes.

That's four people.

Yes, so she represents approximately 25% of my executive team.

Okay, okay.

I'm always going to ask that.

Uh and thank you so much for that.

And I know I'll get a copy of your org chart.

Um, and uh I don't know if you could have helped to prevent this, avoid this, um, lot not let it happen.

But I remember the speculator, Michael Kelly, you know, he sold um 28 properties back to the city.

So you weren't here, I was here.

I was a resident here, and I remember when the airport opened, and they knew all along they were going to expand.

We knew that as a city that we were going to expand.

We didn't know when, but we knew that we would eventually.

And I'm just you know, I guess I'm perplexed by the whole um fact that we were allowing someone to um amass all of these vacant parcels and some had properties on them, and then turn around, buy them from us on the penny penny on the dollar, and then turn back around and sell them back to us for almost a half a million dollars.

Um that is just um Sterling to me.

Um, and I don't understand how we did that as a city when we've known all along for years, for decades, that we were gonna expand that airport.

So, what we should have been doing instead of allowing this one to speculate and purchase these properties over the years and amass them the way that he did, and then turn around um and sell them back to us.

I would have to go back to an old song, who's zooming who we got zoomed.

But um, that being said, that was out of your control.

I don't even think you were part of the airport um executive team then, but I wish we had done things better.

Um hopefully we've learned from that.

But let me ask you this.

My second question is and um, what partnerships does the airport have with Detroit at work to connect residents to jobs and how many Detroiters are expected to be trained?

You can be trained, you can just give me estimates or place into employment and fiscal year 2027.

Through the chair.

Currently, uh I am working with uh I believe it is, is it Director Terry Weams?

Uh yes.

So I am working with Director Uh Terry Weams on workforce development opportunities that can be spun off from the airport once a workforce is developed.

And and also in identifying where uh where these jobs will be, so that we're we're preparing people for real jobs.

So at this time, uh I can't say that we have any uh Detroit at work initiatives just because the airport department is still very small, and and because we're small, uh the stresses that have been put on the department just over the past year, while we've experienced tremendous growth, it we we we've had to uh contort ourselves almost uh very very delicately to be able to manage uh everything that's happening.

And uh I don't say that as I need a tremendous amount more people or anything like that, but but we're doing I I I feel we're doing as much as humanly possible with the team that we have.

And so uh uh the next phase of this as we get closer to having uh the idea of what programming will be able to offer a work uh a potential person that wants to go into the workforce, once we have that identified and have that that I will I will have numbers for you.

But today I can't give you those numbers because they're I don't they're not being tracked, and I I can't even say that our economic input on the workforce development side is is significant enough to to be tracked.

Okay, okay.

Well, thank you for that.

Um and I just want to um thank you again for the opportunity to visit um the airport.

They the experience that you share with us was just amazing, and I want to give a shout out to um Micah Elizabeth Clark, graduated from Renaissance High School in District 2 and graduate from Western Michigan University and is now a pilot with Delta Airlines.

And I'm hoping that you it I would like to work with you to highlight some of the folks who graduated from um our charter schools, our public schools, and gone on to be pilots or are working in the airport industry or airline industry.

But let's start off with her.

Her name is Micah Elizabeth Clark from District 2, graduate of Renaissance High School, and it's a first pilot with Delta Airlines.

So it'll be nice in that space that you have where the students come and learn in that educational space to the right of the airport.

I I think you know what I'm referring to.

Yes, ma'am.

It's a beautiful space to have some of the pilots, African American pilots and women, just pictures if they have um an affiliation or an association with the city of Detroit, especially if they are graduates of one of our schools here.

So thank you for that.

And I'll give you her information so maybe she can be one of the first.

I would love it.

I would love it.

And that's the case.

Well, the Tuskegee Airmen, but there's more to the story.

It it it didn't start there, it's not ending there.

There's more, it's evolving, and and women are getting um their licenses, right?

So I'd like to give you all of her information, and maybe that room, the educational space can be devoted to pilots who um or executives in the airline industry who graduated from DPS or charter school here in Detroit.

And thank you so much, Mr.

I think that's the chair.

Yeah, I can't what can I add?

I want to add one thing, one statement is that we also host uh women in aviation or girls in aviation in September.

Yes, ma'am, and that's that's done through uh Miss Beverly Kendall Walker and her team.

And uh uh it has been exceptionally successful, and we uh have tremendous amount of women that come down, they're engineering based, and uh uh they they're just I I can't speak more.

I mean, I I go to conferences and I have women run up to me and say, your program's the best.

And that's one of the highlights.

That's something I'm very proud of.

And I have to give that to Miss Beverly Kindle Walker.

She is doing an awesome job.

Well, hopefully we can through the chair, hopefully we can bring um pilot um Clark in as a speaker and a motivator to look let little girls who look like her and me know that they there's a place for them in the airline industry um as a pilot, yes, ma'am.

Right, and helping them to set their goals and their aspirations and visions on something much higher than I'm sorry.

The industry will not grow without the input of women.

It will not, it will not grow without the input of minorities.

It will not grow.

That's the problem that we're experiencing in the United States right now.

Well, thank you so much, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Jones.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon.

It's great to see all of you.

Um I want to start out by saying thank you to the Tuskegee Airmen for giving me the opportunity to join you all last summer um for the Flight Academy inaugural scholarship awards program.

It was absolutely amazing.

So I got to witness a lot of our young people receiving scholarship awards.

Um nine folks receiving their pilot's license, and I mean, these were young kids.

I got really emotional while I was there.

And I I would venture to say there were students from Southeast Michigan that were there that were involved in the program.

So it is a delight.

An amazing opportunity it is, and want to expose our our kids to it as much as I possibly can.

I also was just two days ago, I believe, Wednesday, um, at Davis Aerospace.

Um the DPSCD hosted an open house there.

Um and they talked about the application process for all of their schools, and of course they mentioned Davis Aerospace, and there was a gentleman from Farmington Hills who stood up to ask if only Detroit Detroit kids could attend the school.

And because the answer was no, I would venture to ask everybody, everyone who knows about the school to share it so that our kids learn about it and apply to the school, while if we don't, other kids will come in and take advantage of the opportunity.

So I think it's important for us to ensure we do that.

Um as much as I know Davis Aerospace deserves to be at the Komena Young International Airport.

I'm going to miss it in District 4, but it will just be across the street from us.

And so I I've made an effort to ensure that District 4 students are still engaged and attending the school.

Principal Davis has an amazing program just to make sure that transportation is not a barrier for children that attend the school.

So no matter where they live in the city of Detroit, they have a carpooling program that gets the kids to school.

So that is absolutely phenomenal and amazing to know.

Always looking forward to additional development projects throughout the district.

Right now, so any time an airport uh undertakes another massive activity, say commercial service or something along those lines, uh, we would have to look at what we call noise contours.

Those now noise contours will be consistent with uh FAA mandates.

Uh so we it gets really complicated, but nonetheless, that there's there's a different DNLs and and and decibel levels that have to be reached in order for us to be uh nice neighbors, and uh everything that we do will be consistent with that uh in addition to uh if if for some reason uh the development at the airport required us to, you know, say we have to get additional property because if the noise levels are too too high for the surrounding community, the FAA will mandate that we acquire those properties because they're not consistent with aviation, right?

So uh they would uh allow us through an environmental assessment to go through a similar process that we just went through with the mini tape.

Uh unlike in the past, though, this would be uh the noise contours would be what was driving the activity, meaning that there the FA has deemed it that there is such substantial change in the noise that uh they would have to implement a program to fix it.

So uh I can say that every development that we do at the airport will be consistent with every state and federal regulation, which is extremely tight uh regarding noise uh uh exhaust, all those things.

All those things are really heavily monitored on the federal side.

They were uh so they'll be consistent with whatever uh the federal government mandates and obviously whatever tightness we put on it here on the local level.

So the answer to your question is whatever you feel free, fit this council feels free and fit to do as in regards to noise levels and and and and uh uh uh pollution levels, the airport will be will adhere to those regulations and uh meet you uh so that we can make sure that the airport successful and the surrounding community is uh not hampered or or uh uh hindered by the development of the airport.

Okay, all right, thank you for that.

Um are there other ways though that noise can be addressed, mitigated.

So the answer to your question is uh years ago they put hush kits, they mandated FAA mandated hush kits on aircraft.

So aircraft now are designed uh to be faster to be able to climb uh more steeply uh uh so that they can get out of the airspace more quickly to decrease and keep the noise actually on the physical airport airport footprint.

Uh but there is leakage and uh uh as the airport grows, there will be more noise, uh there will be more pollution.

Uh but but there's mitigation tools we could say.

We could say, for example, uh we only allow this type of aircraft, or we only uh allow this type of emission.

And uh if the if the airline is successful or or or the operator successful, then they'll they'll modify uh how they do things in order to meet uh our regulations.

Okay, thank you.

Not to jump around, I'm sorry, ma'am.

That's a very complex question that I'm trying to answer, but I will tell you that whatever we do is consistent with federal and state law.

Thank you.

And maybe the health department will be able to help me when they come up next.

Um but and and that's something that we'll continue to monitor just as you continue to expand um within the airport, so we're making sure that the residents, the surrounding community um does not is not harmed as a result of the airport uh being activated.

My other question is in regards to an emergency response plan, um, in particular when the school is there and on site, if you are required to develop any um if there is an incident that takes place at the airport.

As far as so we have uh uh our own uh internal uh safety regulations for the airport.

So we have our own rule we call them rules and regulations for the airport and the operation of the airport, and they're all consistent with uh federal regulations.

Um we also have an airport emergency plan.

Uh we've also uh done uh exercises with DPD and uh DFD.

So uh the airport is uh ready for any incident that may take place.

Uh we also have uh firefighters that are at the airport physically three days a week, uh moving, I believe, to five days a week.

I I know they're working through some union issues, uh, but uh uh the goal is to get them there 24-7, and that will increase the overall uh activity at the airport, make it more safe environment for all users.

And and presumably the school will implement a perhaps similar emergency response plan once it's on site.

Yes, ma'am.

So so uh that's okay.

Now I see where you're going with this question.

Yes.

So uh yes, the the the when so the airfield is broken up into land side and and air side.

So when you when you go out the front doors heading towards Connor, that's called the land side.

So you can come in and out as you feel free in that area.

So whatever DPS regulations are standard for how children come in and out of school will be that will be that.

Now when you come out the back of the school and you head towards the airfield environment, all those doors are gonna be required to have keyed entry.

When we say keyed, that's a that's a literal badge, like similar to this one, that you'll that will allow, and that badge is not gonna go to every child.

The badge is gonna go to an instructor that has a reason to be on the air side.

And so we're gonna could start with controls there, and we're also gonna have uh those doors if they're also emergency doors, so if that door is open, then there will be a large uh audible uh alarm that goes off as well as uh that will note that we will we will be uh how the procedure will work is they will get the audible noise if we're not in the area and can't hear it, even though our facility is gonna be right next door to theirs, then uh they will contact us and then we'll we'll implement our emergency plan from there.

Uh and that's a simple notification to air traffic control to say that we may have someone on the airfield and then operations will will uh either be stopped or we'll we'll figure out where that person is identifying and solve it.

All right, thank you so much.

Um and if you would please tell my childhood friend that I said hello, Mr.

Williams.

Yes, ma'am.

I tried to get him to come, ma'am, today, and he's a good thing.

I was looking for them.

Yes, yes, I will tell him that you requested another beer next year.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Miss Vaughn will be up here with me also.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh in the interest of time, I will just submit my questions in writing.

Colleagues, any uh additional motions before we wrap up this pub, this budget hearing.

Seeing none, closing remarks, sir.

I would just like to thank this council very much.

Welcome all new members.

Um if if if you'd like any time, the airport is always open.

If you would like uh private time with me, just let me know in advance, and I will absolutely make it happen.

And uh I just welcome everyone to come and take a look at all the exciting things.

We're gonna have some massive groundbreakings.

Uh and when I say massive for us is huge because these are the first new developments in 60 years at the airport.

So uh those will happen uh I believe in the June-July time frame, but I will let this council know uh when those things happen, and I welcome you to come and attend.

And I I I please ask you to come and attend.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Stop closes out your budget hearing.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

If you could please note that we've been joined by Member Waters.

Clerk will note.

Thank you.

We'll now make room for the health department's budget hearing.

Will the health department please come forward?

Come on, Diane.

I'm sorry.

Sorry.

The clerk will note also.