We are I would like to now call to order the uh expanded budget finance and audit standing committee for the purposes of our budget hearings.

Um it is French Mr.

Clerk, good morning.

Will you please call the role?

Good morning, Councilmember.

Councilmember Denzel McCampbell.

A member McCampill did indicate that he would not be present today, so his absence is excused.

Clerk will so note.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Member Miller indicated that she would not be present for the morning session, so our absence is excused.

Clerical Sono.

Councilmember Latitia Johnson.

Councilmember Gabrielle Santiago Romero.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Councilmember Andrew Whitfield Callaway.

Council President Pro Tem Coleman Young II?

Yeah.

Council President James Tate.

Yep.

Mr.

President, there's a quorum.

Thank you.

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

Again, good morning again, everyone.

We will begin with our human resources department.

We ask for those representatives to come on down.

Oh boy.

Good morning, Director Starr.

How are you today?

Good morning, um, Council President Tate and this honorable uh City Council body.

Um happy to be here this morning.

And happy to have you.

Um please introduce yourself and your team, and the floor is yours to begin.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

So thank you for this opportunity for us to present our fiscal year 2626 budget.

Um my name is Denise Star and I serve as the HR director for the City of Detroit.

Before I begin, I'd like to introduce uh the phenomenal team that is here with me today.

At the table, I am joined by Deputy Director and Chief Employee Services Officer Ursula Taylor, as well as our chief policy and planning officer, Kimberly Hall Wagner, who is also our Van Awa White for today.

Um with us today, sitting directly behind us are Dr.

Iris Ware, our Chief Learning Officer, as well as Tracy Meek, our recruitment general manager.

Okay.

And uh in the audience, we are supported by additional members of our leadership team, including Marcus Holmes, our HR operations general manager.

And while they are not present today, I would also like to acknowledge Gerald Conrad, our chief recruitment officer, as well as Iana Jackson, our benefits general manager, and our entire HR team that work tirelessly throughout the year to support our 10,000 plus employees.

This team here today represents a highly aligned and forward-thinking human resources organization, and together we're committed to strengthening the workforce that serves the city each and every day.

We are entering a new era under Mayor Mayor Mary Sheffield's leadership, one that is defined defined through her vision and rise higher platform, as well as the meaningful actions within this platform.

As an HR organization, we are moving from a phase of building into a phase of refining, optimizing, and elevating.

Over the past several years, we have built the infrastructure and systems needed to support a modern workforce.

Now we are focused on maximizing that foundation to deliver a stronger outcome and having greater impact.

One of the most important ways we are supporting the mayor's priorities is through economic mobility for our employees, including the establishment of the living wage at $21.45 per hour.

And to this um to the city council for your support.

This is more than just a compensation adjustment, it is a commitment to our employees that serve the city so that we can they can um work with stability and dignity.

It strengths strengthens our retention, engagement, and overall workforce performance while positioning Detroit as a leader in supporting public sector employees.

This livable wage will take effect the first full pay period in the fiscal year beginning Monday, July 13th.

We are also expanding the paid parental leave from six to eight weeks.

This reflects this administration's commitment to supporting employees during critical moments and recognizing the full lives our employees, our employees lead outside of work.

This change strengthens retention, morale, and long-term engagement.

I would like to thank Council Members Benson and Callaway for their leadership a few years ago when we were able to first launch this employee benefit.

We have supported over 400 employees in their families since the inception of the program in 2024.

We are also addressing access to affordable and reliable child care.

We are exploring partnerships, including the Michigan Tri-Share model, and evaluating additional benefits to support working families.

Earlier in my career at CompuWare, I led the planning and oversight of an on-site child care center, including design and construction oversight.

That center is still open today.

That experience demonstrated firsthand how access to high quality child care improves employee focus, morale, reduces stress, and strengthens productivity.

As we explore solutions for our employees and their families, we do so with a clear understanding of what works and how meaningful how meaningful support can impact employees and service delivery.

Now I will turn it over to Ursula Taylor, who will talk about our rise higher strategic framework, accomplishments, and what is on the horizon for this next fiscal year.

Thank you, Director Starr.

Good through the chair, good morning, Honorable Bonnie.

As Denise noted in her initial introduction, we have been working to lay a solid foundation as it relates to our infrastructure.

And so in alignment with the mayor's Mayor Sheffield's vision to rise higher, we've established a rise framework.

And with this framework, it establishes four key pillars that really the focus is to attract mission driven talent to build capabilities as well as to drive operational efficiencies.

The first pillar is recruitment and retention of top talent, investment in employee growth and development, strengthening our culture as well as employee engagement, and enhancing operational efficiencies.

And with these collective strategic initiatives, this will result in a stronger impact for our organization as well as our employees.

And so as we look at the first pillar, retention and recruitment is a critical component when we talk about attracting mission-driven candidates and employees and focus on retention.

And so we've really look holistically at the employee life cycle, and it's critical for us to start at inception, the sourcing and screening of candidates.

So we focused on enhancing the quality of that process and really focused on engaging the community so we can position ourselves as an employer of choice.

We've elevated candidate pools through 90 year-to-date community recruitment events at stage one and at stage two.

We've really looked at the onboarding and experience component through the previous fiscal year infrastructure and integration utilizing our onboarding module.

And so that has really helped us to continue to engage and refine our experience processes.

When we look more strategically at proactive approaches to retention, we've recently brought out a structured managerial-led state interview process because this gives us more proactive insights when it comes to our employees and what they need to position them for success and acclimation in the city.

One of the other key stages looking at the evaluation and establishing accountability and making sure that our employees have a clear understanding of baseline expectations.

We focused on our new hires and those who transfer and are promoted into new positions in making sure that probationary evaluations are completed so employees have a clear understanding of their role.

And based on some of these processes that we've been able to collectively pull together, we've been able to decrease by 23% probationary discharges as well as resignation.

So we're beginning to see the impact that we're having with these priorities.

So our talent development and performance management team is really focused on not only conducting workshops and classes, we've had over 3,600 workshops and classes that have been provided to our employees.

10,943 registrations, and we've continued to get engage with our employees to support their growth and development.

I also want to give kudos to our chief Dr.

Iris Weir, our Chief Learning Officer, as well as her team, because they have also positioned us as a learning organization.

Last year we received several awards, including the 2025 Brandon Hall Talent Management Excellence Award.

And when you look at these numbers, not only do they reflect the commitment that our talent development team has made, but also the commitment that employees have made to upskilling their skills so that we can continue to be positioned for success as a learning organization.

And so we focused on futuristic skill sets that are needed as well as skills today, looking at artificial intelligence, executive leadership, customer department tracks, departmental tracks, as well as role-based skills.

And these are trainings that employees at every level can participate in to continue to advance.

One, driving recognition, two, driving employee well-being, and three, driving collaboration and connection.

And as it relates to recognition, we have been intentionally focusing on how can we begin to normalize recognition across the city.

We've been able to recognize over 3,000 employees with the launch last year of our milestone recognition service program, and hopefully you've seen recognition through social media, our newsletters, to really elevate the phenomenal work that our employees have conducted.

We launched Hometown Heroes as well as expanded our public service recognition week and many other spaces to be able to recognize our employees.

Driving employee well-being has also been critical.

We have really focused on ensuring that our employees know the various services that are available to them.

And with that, we've been able to increase 47% of our employees have actually participated in those programs, and there has been a 6.4% clinical utilization.

This has really been a critical component because it drives collaboration as well as connection.

About four years ago, we launched employee resources groups, and we've had, I appreciate the support that this honorable body has provided in various events and initiatives that have been conducted.

With the launch of these nine resource groups, over 1,400 employees have participated across the city in these initiatives that drive not only internal connections but as well as external community initiatives that have occurred.

Enhancing operational excellence.

This has been our foundational infrastructure.

And I want to recognize our chief learning officer.

Our chief, I'm sorry, Kim, our chief of policy planning, operation, and classification.

Long title for the work her and her team has done in the dedication to efficiencies and advancement and foundational infrastructure.

We've been able to streamline our salary structures from 88 unique complex ranges down to 20 unified unified paid grades.

That is a 77% reduction.

We've also slashed the time that it takes to complete market studies.

It was lagging five to eight days.

It is now down to three to ten days.

And this supports department requests for market studies, especially when there may be a hard-to-fill position, as well as our labor relations team and contract negotiations.

We've also been able through our promotionary plot process to increase by 30 32 percent managers and supervisors conducting probationary uh evaluations.

And so we've continued to accelerate the velocity, and as we uh look at ongoing enhancements of our operational excellence uh through our labor team, I want to recognize uh Valerie Colbert, our interim labor relations director, for completing uh 12 uh contracts, and these were groundbreaking contracts uh that were negotiating negotiated, leaving only 8% of our city contracts that have been expired.

They are uh currently working on contracts and no she negotiations with the FFA union as well as preparing strategically for the 2027 police union contract negotiations.

So these have been all critical to continue to advance our operational excellence.

And lastly, one of our focuses as it relates to onboarding has resulted in a four to six-hour manual coordination per hire that has been eliminated.

So the continued streamlining and advancement has really positioned the city.

And we've also established a dashboard for us to be able to continue to drive uh uh accountability of ourselves to ensure that we're providing optimal services uh to our departments as well as our employees.

And with that, I will turn it over to Director Star, and she will highlight some of our 26, 27 um focused areas.

Thank you, Ursula.

So, what's ahead for um this coming fiscal year on the um uh in the recruitment area, we will be hosting hosting uh targeted job fairs in every single uh city district.

We will launch a youth-focused career event with the Office of Youth Affairs.

We will invest further in our employees by rolling out four new certification programs, including train the trainer, and we will deploy AI micro certifications for the HR team.

We will strengthen the organization by launching a new employee partnership program for peer support and guidance.

We'll explain we will expand the employee recognition program with the launch of department-led recognition uh committees, and we will be enhancing by implementing the updated UKG learning management system and launching the executive leadership dialogue Monday series.

With that, um what you have heard today reflects the transformation in how human resource operates.

We are building a workforce that is stronger, more skilled and engaged and better equipped to deliver results.

Aligned with the mayor's vision to rise higher.

We are committed to elevating our workforce and workplace to better serve our residents.

I thank you for giving us this opportunity to present today, and we can take questions.

All right, thank you so much.

Appreciate the presentation, and we will start with questions with Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Thank you all for being here.

And just hearing about the expansion of paid parental leave is very, very exciting.

It was less than five years ago.

It was less than five years ago we were at this table fighting saying it'll cost us too much.

We can't do it.

Now not only can we do it, have we done it, but we're now expanding it.

And it sounds like we'll approach 12 weeks and cutting edge, tip of the spear level support, maybe within the next five years when it comes to paid parental leave.

So let's talk about that.

What are the costs?

How is it being received?

You said 400 families, how many people are using it a year?

Is it been a positive tool to people talk about it?

What's our experience so far?

Is it is it breaking our bank?

Uh through the chair, uh no, it is not breaking the bank.

Um it actually has worked out very well.

We do have to cover the absence of those employees with either uh employees taking on additional workload or through overtime, depending on which area that it's in.

But it wasn't as significant of an expense as we thought that it would be, and definitely an investment in our employees and our future employees.

Okay.

I mean, do we have any numbers?

I mean, was it cost per year?

How are we measuring that?

So um uh through the chair, it cost us about uh five hundred thousand dollars a year without uh including if there's overtime, uh most of the jobs are covered with other personnel that are already on the on the uh ground.

So then how do we can we account for that then, or is this really more of a management issue, the implementation of the program?

Because if it's not there, it was not an actual cost that we can measure.

We have there has to be some metric of how this is impacting us, how do we capturing that?

If we're going to eight weeks, what is an additional two weeks mean?

That's really a 30 percent increase on the program.

So that a 30 percent increase on the cost as well.

What are we doing to measure this program and its effectiveness?

It's great to talk about it, but we need some metrics.

Yes, um, through the chair.

So um what we really need to now look at is and we don't have as many years as I'd like in the in the rear view mirror, um, for us to say, is it helping us with retention?

Um in my previous role with copyright, how we would measure it is you know, will the employee stay to the age of uh six years old, right?

Because if turnover typically, you know, employees um leave us before five years, okay.

And I think if you interject there, so the average employee stays in the city for five years?

Well, more employees leave before five years or within five years than you know, once they get past that five years, they stay with us, okay.

Um, most of the employees.

So we can keep them past five years, then we've got them is what you're telling us.

Yeah, through the chair.

I would say that we have a greater likelihood of retaining them.

Not that you won't have turnover, but we don't have five years yet under our belt, but we'll be able to produce those numbers for you.

Okay, and then the cost.

The cost is approximately half a million dollars per year.

Okay, going 30 percent more, eight years or eight months, excuse me, eight weeks now.

Through the chair, it would be six hundred and fifty thousand.

And that can be found where in our in our budget.

There is uh through the chair, there is not a line item.

It's actually included in the employee salaries in each of the departments where these employees are taking uh the leaves from.

Okay, so if you don't get pregnant, you don't get to use that but that um that benefit, huh?

That's all my questions, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

And I did neglect to uh note that we've been joined by member uh Johnson as well as member McCampbell.

So no, thank you, Mr.

Clerk, and we shall go to Member McCampbell next.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, good morning.

And uh good to see you all uh really um also excited about the extended pay family leave and um also raising the pay for our city workers.

So very excited about that to live and wage um and hope that folks across the city will follow suit in what we're doing here at the city of Detroit.

I uh uh wanted to ask about I brought this up with uh the fire department and wanted to bring it up with you all around recruiting.

Um and I know there are vacancies there, and we know that in uh DPD they have specialized recruiters for their positions.

Just wanted to ask if you all had conversations about uh specialized recruiter for uh fire and how were those conversations?

Uh through the chair, um yes, we have had conversations with fire.

Um we currently have uh an academy just started in the last week or two that I believe is 30 um recruits, uh, which is the size of the class that uh the fire department can handle.

We have a list right now of 200 and 200 plus individuals that are on the list to be hired for the next academy.

So we do leverage the fire department and they're going to give additional resources to uh go to events, whether they are in high schools, um, in community meetings, um, you know, you know, we always recognize that having a firefighter or someone in uniform at these events is very helpful.

Thank you.

And glad to hear that, and the the full class and folks on the list as well.

Um, and and especially glad to hear the the extra um community outreach because we also want to make sure that the department is reflective of um the folks that we're serving as well.

And uh my next question is uh we talk about this a lot in budget finance and audit um when we get the reports back uh around vacancies, but also around contracting.

Uh and I wanted to uh ask about the cost between the con the need to go out and contract, especially for skill trades and and other uh positions that we can bring in-house.

Have you all done any analysis on what is that costing us uh to contract it all opposed to bringing those positions in-house?

And I know I can follow up with specifics, but just wanted to see if there's been any overall uh work done around that.

Uh, through the chair.

Um periodically, a department will reach out and you know, and ask um, you know, and say they need a certain skill set.

Um we have looked in and um in different periods at the wage for whatever type of outsourcing that we are doing, but there hasn't been a concerted effort to capture those individuals to come on to the city.

I think that if it's a contract that it's just temporary services that I believe that everyone can understand.

If it's ongoing services and not supplemental, so if you have a large snowfall, for instance, you would have a contract that would you know add to our workforce, but not consistently have them on our payroll.

And so there are reasons to have these contracts.

I I think it would be a good effort to uh to get with each department and talk about what type of work are you outsourcing year-round and what type of skill set would you need to bring it in-house?

Because many times you'll find that some of these contractors are charging a little, you know, a little bit more than what their employees are making.

Absolutely.

And you know, I I understand that you know these contractors are have their covering costs, they also are in the business to make money.

Um, so those contracts are like you said, are usually over what it would be and and uh understanding that there are specialized services and professional services that we absolutely have to contract out, but um we've seen constantly contracts that um could, in my view, um could be in-house.

So definitely would love to continue that.

So I have a motion uh, Mr.

Chair, if we could put into executive session uh conversation around um the looking at contracting services that could otherwise be in-house.

Okay.

Colleagues, there is a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you uh, thank you, Director.

Thank you.

Uh Pro Tim Young.

Thank you.

Mr.

President.

Good to see you.

Always a pleasure to see everybody here.

Uh I see you guys have been doing a lot, been a lot of improvements since the last time we met.

Uh I want to ask you, which is the good thing, and um my chief of staff swears by you, Ms.

Starr, so I always appreciate your leadership.

Uh, I just wanted to ask you really quickly, what are we doing about or your thoughts about flex time and about virtual uh employment?

Uh through the chair.

Um flex time um we have flex time built into some of our union, you know, contracts and and how we pay employees so that there are positions in the city that have flex time of you know up to an hour each either way on their schedule.

Also, as far as for um the flexibility for what I would call hybrid work, uh we're seeing more and more employees coming into the office, which is why uh several weeks ago we brought forth the parking um contract that we needed additional funds because of the increase of employees coming into uh the office.

I think in um uh some positions, you know, there are there's a need to allow for some flexibility as long as the work is getting done, and that is managed by other departments.

Realize that greater than 90% of our employees are on the you know on the ground.

Uh they're either police, fire, EMS, uh, the recreation centers, DPW, G, you know, GST.

Many of our positions are not the ones that you could do that, right?

Um, the you know, the positions that we do see are um what I would call office-based, that they're not public-facing, and to give them that uh flexibility.

I do know that we are running out of space in this building, I'm being told by some of the departments, and so we need to look at how are they being housed, you know.

If we're gonna increase more employees coming into the office, how are we accommodating them by looking at how their work spaces set up and how we can accommodate more employees coming into the building?

Okay, no, excellent.

I really appreciate that.

I think that's good.

And I'm really here, my heart is really um really well really excited about the fact that you're talking about artificial intelligence and what's going on.

I really like this part of the uh pioneering future skills.

I just wanted to ask you when you're talking about artificial intelligence, are those skills stackable?

And then just kind of tell me what you're doing overall in the department involving artificial intelligence, and don't be afraid to lay it on thick.

Like, really kind of impress me with what you're doing here.

Okay, so I'm gonna put the what I would call our expert on um AI.

I'm gonna ask Dr.

Iris Ware to talk a little bit about what she's been doing to train our employees in that area.

Um, through the chair.

Now, remember you asked me to lay it on thick.

Yes, I did.

So we are taking advantage of AI in every capacity capacity that's possible, and what it's allowing us to do is to use AI as a tool.

It is not the expert.

We use our experts to monitor it, but we can develop training, we can use it for simple tasks that frees us up for new and expanded roles.

Like we're working with a number of departments developing more strategic things like um standard operating procedures, so that as things change in departments, there's a standard that everyone can follow.

We're also using um AI to facilitate coaching, um, using it as a tool where an avatar or an image is presented that allows low-risk conversations and the opportunity for managers and supervisors and regular employees to improve their engagement with um employees, but not at the expense of a real conversation, which sometimes people take it personally when you have role plays.

So we're also using AI in a way that allows us to expand our capacity around the people connection.

So when we talk about neighborhoods and that concept, we look internally at the departments and our colleagues at small neighborhoods, and I think there's an opportunity to improve that engagement, and we can do that.

We all now offer retreats.

Um, and 80% of all the things that we offer are developed in-house, where I asset accredited.

So courses that you take through um the city of Detroit TDPM, um, you actually can see can receive continuing education credits, and we're nationally accredited.

We're also been asked by that accreditation body to support them in a development of an AI certification program for a nationwide standard.

Um we have uh taken our team through a certification on variant levels, and as noted in the presentation, we're going to start piloting that work so that it's connected to HR and other departments, and we're working with IT to develop a policy that will keep us safe and take advantage of the good parts of AI.

Um, we're really excited about that, and we'll be looking forward to more support from this committee as we investigate and apply AI.

Well, excellent, thank you so much.

You did lay it thick, so you understood the assignment.

I appreciate that.

Thank you very much.

Uh usually I have like a whole presentation of like why I think you should do this, because I believe you should adopt all my ideas.

But um, but for the sake of time, I'm not gonna go through that.

I'm gonna give you an abbreviated version.

But if you were to implement artificial intelligence throughout the department, your total initial investment would be about six to eighteen million dollars.

Your annual operating costs would be about one to five one 1.5 to 3 million dollars, but your annual savings will be 15 million to 40 million.

Your annual tax revenue gain would be 15 million to 40 million.

Your total annual benefit will be 30 million to 80 million dollars, and your net annual gain would be 25 million to 70 million.

Your average return on investment would be from a 150 percent to 500 percent, and your payback period would be one to three years.

So I just want to let you know that's the benefits if you were to implement that without your apartment.

Now, this is not homework.

I'm gonna send you this information that I'm having next time.

I see you to know all this off the top of your head.

But I just want to kind of give you an idea of why I believe you should adopt of artificial intelligence, and I'll give you more, and I'll give you more areas in which you can adopt it.

We could talk about whether it's good or bad later on.

But thank you so much.

Always good to see you.

I appreciate you, uh, Mr.

President.

That's the end of my time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, sir.

Um member Callaway.

Thank you, um, Mr.

Chair, and good morning, everyone.

Um University of Detroit, Lawrence Technical University, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Western Michigan University, Wayne County Community College, Oakland University, and Eastern Michigan University.

We have met with them, the directors, the deans of the IT divisions.

Is Tracy Meek here?

I don't have my glasses on this.

Tracy Meek here.

Yes, through the Tracy Meek has been doing a phenomenal job with my with my um support staff here, Benny Golston.

She organized all of the meetings.

Tracy was on every one of those meetings as the recruiter, I think executive director of recruiting, some some title like that.

Um, and all of these universities are excited about the partnership that we are establishing with them in terms of keeping folks when they graduate from these universities and others outside of the ones that I've listed in Michigan, employed by the city.

We don't have to go to anywhere else other than hopefully Michigan and Detroit in terms of recruiting.

We are helping you.

My my office and I, and I've been on all of the calls, and Tracy can attest to that, all of them, because I want to hear what they have to say.

And they said they are thirsty for the opportunity.

They want their students to stay.

U of him says they have students that live that are from Detroit but can't find employment in Detroit when they graduate.

So they go to Chicago, they go to LA, they go to Atlanta, they come back for Christmas and Thanksgiving to visit their families.

But we want them to stay.

We want them to be educated here and be employed here and buy a home here.

That's what we want, and build up our population here, preferably in District 2.

Um, so we've met with all the IT directors, we've met with civil engineering, and also on those calls, and Miss Meek can attest to this, was Art Thompson and Ron Brundage.

So we are building relationships, and I want to thank you for um agreeing with me that this is the way to go in terms of recruiting our own.

That being said, Member Benson through the chair.

It is not pay parental leave that is breaking the bank.

It is embezzlement and lawsuits and settlements that are breaking the bank.

Um, I'm going to make a motion to put into executive session again the My Try share program.

It's working, and so many other um municipalities, and I know we can do it here.

We've talked about it over the years.

I've been talking about, I think, since 2024.

Um, so I know it can work, um, and I want us to invest whatever we need to invest um to make it um successful for our for our um employees, so I will be putting that into executive session, but I've sent you my questions already, but I was just concerned about the stout audit from 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025.

It's not a good report.

So, what have we done to we have overpayments um and transactions, just it looks like manual errors.

Um 29 percent of the payroll transactions contained errors, eras.

So I I need to hear from you.

Um is there more money?

Is there something else we should be doing to avoid this because not only embezzlements, lawsuits, settlements, but errors, 29 percent errors, overpayments to employees or to contractors.

That's not good at all.

That's almost 30 percent um overpayments.

So, what are we doing to gird up or to fix this problem?

That was one of my main questions through the chair.

Director Starr.

Through the uh through the chair, thank you so much for your partnership with on the uh recruiting side and with our um you know universities.

Uh, really appreciate that.

And that and I've heard from um both uh Tracy as well as Daryl that those uh meetings have been going very well, and um I'm pleased to hear that.

Um on the stout audit.

Um so I will tell you there were not 29 percent errors.

Thank you so much for your partnership with on the recruiting side and with our um you know universities uh really appreciate that and that and I've heard from both uh Tracy as well as Darrell that those uh meetings have been going very well and um I'm pleased to hear that um on the stout audit um so I will tell you there were not 29 percent errors I would like to be able to share that or show that but um there were um some things uh in that audit that we have actually we were we enjoy working um with the auditor general's office because we can improve things as they look at our processes and so we have instituted some automation I will tell you that the uh 29 percent some of the I'll just give one small example so how they viewed it as an an error let's say that an employees um union contract was negotiated and they were going to pay back pay you to 2025 what the auditors were looking at is what should their paycheck be for that week or that two p that two week period and instead of it being for the 80 hours it was 80 hours plus those retro payments so they flag that as an error and that you know it in our mind that is not an error that is actually what was owed to the employee for the retro payments um we um you know not all of the errors were those types of examples but a majority of them were and we would be happy to share those if you would um care to meet with us yeah I I I would like to see those I didn't see those in the report but I would I I would appreciate that mute um that information um and that would um you know address some of my concerns um but thank you so much and um how many and this and I already sent these but we you said that before COVID 100 percent of the um employees were coming to work COVID is over I don't think we should have a hybrid schedule I know now we're about to spend 700,000 dollars to level play or to make um ready or prepare um a parking lot and I've asked over and over again because it came to internal operations standing committee um that we own several parking lots the city does and I I got that information um from several sources um here in the city I don't know why we can't um use our own parking structures why are we playing close to a million dollars to level set or to prepare a parking lot for how many returning employees do we know that's a lot of money for parking lot it really is through the chair so the parking that we have for the employees um we provide parking at all of our locations and so this is one of our locations and we um you know the we don't do we do not have a parking lot that they can go and park in that is within walking distance we tried using the public safety headquarters and you did a shuttle that was more expensive than the parking that we currently put before you we did look at the lot um just to the west of Joe Lewis now that's a 30 minute walk that parking lot needs uh paving as well as lighting which is a significant investment that we would have to make as well maybe at some future point someone else will develop it and that'll be an opportunity for us to find a less costly um alternative than the one we have the one we have is the least costly out of all of the um lots that are in the nearby area that can accommodate right now we have 350 individuals parking in that um structure uh and the Ford Underground is a capacity yeah well um it's just it's it's expensive and then already talked about the vehicles but that is my last question you have my others and um we have a lot of folks living outside of the city taking our vehicles home and that should never be the case they should be left in the city um and I always talked about that risk management and you know you you're supposed to ensure the cars where the car is parked overnight but some cars are parked in Birmingham I don't know about Florida because I know we had employees working in Florida and Chicago but thank you Mr.

Chair thank you um Director Starr.

Thank you.

I think you mentioned you had a motion you wanted to put on before did you want to take the motions now?

Most we'll take it okay so um Mr.

Chair I motion to put into executive session the my try share program.

Colleagues there's a motion on the floor discussion with discussion joining you on the I knew you would ask and I was ready to say yes sir with joinage any objections saying none that action shall be taken thank you Mr.

Chair you're welcome.

I will say thank you to my colleagues and to you all for the expanded paid parental support.

I did have a one of my team members who benefited from it.

She just speaks so highly of not only the ability to connect with her child, I is her first, um, for a longer period of time, but also the additional support for child care.

Um she raved about how inexpensive it was.

Um, and I reminded her to remember that when she has people recruiting her to to have her uh move on to a different position.

But I I honestly do believe that the benefits that the city offers is something that is top-notch, and I hope you all ensure that when we recruit people that they truly understand that that is a tremendous benefit.

Um, and if we could put a dollar amount to it, I think what we offer to individuals would would certainly outweigh what other people offer to them.

So I think it's important for folks to know that and to really consider that when they look at um who's offering positions to them and the overall benefit to them and their families.

So just wanted to say thank you for that.

I do want to ask about the increase in health insurance uh in the insurance rates.

Can you just talk about how you ensure that the city remains competitive and is still able to provide um top-notch health care benefits?

Uh through the chair.

Um we offer other types of benefits that actually end up saving us money on the health care premiums.

Most of the uh other employers in the Wayne County area, their rates went up twice as much as what our rates did this year, and it's because of the experience level.

We believe some of the wellness programs that we offer help to, you know, in uh addressing you know, uh, in advance of when a person might have an issue so that it's more preventable.

Uh, and then with our uh employee wellness um that individuals have somewhere to call to get assistance before they you know end up having a um serious situation.

Well, we certainly do appreciate um how you all take care of all of us and at the level that you do.

I think it's a lot of people should really um lean in and understand that better.

Uh as I am learning it more, right?

I also had a team member who went through um some additional learning opportunities just to be able to understand Microsoft Office better.

So um just wanted to elevate those things, and as it relates to what member Callaway just talked about in regards to parking, I know you indicated that the opportunities that are being provided are less expensive than the four underground, and that the four underground is at capacity.

I wonder if you've had any conversations with the municipal parking department because at one point in time there were um some portion of the Ford Underground was not usable because of the condition of Fort Underground.

So I'm wondering if we could look at actually improving for underground to be able to provide additional parking for um employees.

Um through the chair, I am in close contact with municipal parking.

We actually try to leverage any vacancies that they do have uh for the employees, and so first option is always is there any um parking available in Ford Underground?

And if not, then they go to the um LAZ lot, which is right across from the um the Marriott and the Renaissance Center.

All right, thank you.

Um, Mr.

Chair, I'd like to uh make a motion to add the parking situation to executive session so we can flush this out a little bit more.

All right, colleagues.

There is a motion on the floor.

Any objections.

See none that action shall be taken.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Morning.

Um most of my questions you covered um in your presentation.

I just want to briefly discuss the implementation of the living wage increase and better understand the job classifications that would see the most significant income adjustments in fiscal year 27.

Through the chair, we are not finished with the complete analysis.

Okay.

But many of the positions are in GSD, DPW, we have, you know, drivers, we have our recreation workers.

So that's where a large population is, but there are positions throughout the entire city that are paid below the living wage.

Okay.

All right.

And through the chair, um, when uh we did initial analysis just to get a rough idea, it was in the area of about 900 employees, which is about nine percent of our population.

Okay.

This will certainly uplift them.

Um potentially that you know they might not be have to work two and three jobs.

So it is an investment in our employees in our future workforce.

We have high turnovers in the high turnover in those uh positions, and it's well worth the investment.

Oh, absolutely.

I I as a matter of fact, um the rise hire team, thank you for proposing it.

Absolutely, the mayor and her team.

That that is really something great.

Um just in terms of your uh literacy, um, I mean, you you mentioned various trainings that you were doing with employees, so I I just kind of want to know a little bit about AI literacy, which employees, what departments might be receiving the most uh training there and data analysis.

Um through the chair, I'm gonna bounce the ball back to John.

Um, through the chair, as it refers to AI and that rollout, we completed as I mentioned earlier training with the learning team, and we plan to pilot with HR first as we work with the do it to make sure that we have a firm policy to ensure data security as well as um reduce reducing any errors that might be caused, and there's a lot of risk, as you know, associated with AI.

So we want to make sure that we have a policy in place and then we're able to train all employees around the policy before we roll it out in full implementation.

All right, so so which through Mr.

Chairman, um, which departments do you think you were sorry for after you finish all of the initial pieces of it?

Which departments do you think you roll it out with first?

Um typically we start we start with HR and then we would move into departments like OCFO and other possible high users that have the technology proficiency first because there's gonna be an area like you said, in addition to AI literacy, just plain computer usage and data safety that we want to ensure.

Uh all right, speaking of data safety, uh data analysis.

Um what departments there how many departments do we have that literally do data analysis?

Um through the all.

And I would have to pivot to um Chief Hall Wagner because her department HRIS handles that well, thank you, Dr.

Ware through the chair.

Good morning, member waters.

I don't know that I can necessarily answer that question, but I can tell you that in terms of reporting and different um access requests that we get from various departments.

I would venture to say that all departments do some form of data analysis, some more than others, some more comprehensive, but certainly there is a desire for operations to be able to leverage data to make decisions.

So I would say all departments.

All right.

All right, and so thank you all very much.

It's good to see all these women lined up here.

Is women history month?

Thank you, thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Uh quick question.

I I may have missed it, and I apologize for the how many um contract expired contracts uh do we have uh currently with our union uh through the chair.

I um I saw that uh interim um labor director Valvert Osmiati is here, so maybe she could speak to that.

Morning.

Good morning to the chair.

Um we're approximately we have approximately um about five expired contracts.

They're they're smaller asked me contracts.

So once we completed the ASME non-supervisory contract, typically these are the contracts that follow those local presidents were at the table.

So they are really contracts that kind of deal more operationally with those particular uh titles.

We have two contracts that will expire this year.

That's our D F FA contract.

And we've actually started negotiations with them early.

And our public attorney's contract expires in June of this year as well.

Okay.

So I know there was I'm trying to remember, I believe it was the uh AG's office yesterday who indicated that her workforce uh they were two years behind, had an expired contract, and he finally got it, you know, two years uh after the expiration.

I don't know if you have any um uh information as to why it took as long to uh ratify that particular contract and if there's any others that may have be that far behind if so as it relates to the former ACTI and the former S triple A, they are no longer in existence.

Their um membership voted to decertify, and so um as it related to APTI, they came on board under AFSME earlier than SAA.

SIAA's contract did not expire until 2024, which the bulk of the contracts did.

And so they came under the umbrella of ASME, we began negotiating with them when we came to the table in 2024.

So it's not that they were waiting, they decertified their union and did an election and elected to go with AFSME, and therefore they were under the ASME contract.

That contract did not expire until 2024.

We we completed that contract, I'm sure you you you know, um in uh this let was this past December.

So um that's where the pay adjustments for those groups came.

But um as it related to the APTI group, which expired in 2023, they had no leadership.

Their leadership had retired and their uh membership really did not have a leader.

You could not impose a contract because they still were a recognized union at that time.

And so once they determined went to MERC, decertified, and then went under uh then went uh uh under the umbrella of AFSME, um that's when um uh they were the contract was ex was uh uh uh negotiated as it relates to wages.

Okay.

Thank you for that uh clarifications.

I was not sure, you know, when it was uh laid out again, maybe I missed it, but I didn't uh understand why the two-year air quote delay.

Are there any that are in the pipeline that are um that may be considered uh while expired um extended expired, you know, two-year, one year.

Yeah.

Okay.

What what is it?

I think you indicated there were two that are still outstanding.

No, they're they they haven't expired yet.

There are two that have not expired, they expire in June of 2026.

We have some smaller AFSME agreements, uh, like our motor city seasonal and I think uh our forestry and landscaping folks, uh their their contract expired.

We are at the table with the uh with those groups right now.

Um and as I indicated, typically those contracts follow the ASME non-supervisory agreement.

Once that is once that has been completed, then we go into to contract negotiations with those smaller those smaller groups.

Again, those local presidents sit at the table for the non-supervisory group, so they are um listening to and also TAing many of the uh pro uh many of the articles that will appear in their contract.

So at for the most part, when we are at the table with those smaller groups, they're for more operational, unique uh situations within the departments, and then um typically there may be some wage discussion, but um the the overall contract has pretty much been settled under the non-supervisory contract.

Gotcha.

Thank you for that.

And uh I believe I read that there's an increase in HR risk management and administration costs and just trying to get uh understanding what the factors are in that increase.

If I read correctly, um would I try to address that?

Or finance.

It could just be a matter of, I do believe that there was some corrections relative to where parking and some other object accounts um were put.

I don't know, Regina, if you're able to speak to that specifically.

Is there an amount or an object account that I don't have it in front of me right now?

We talked about it earlier.

Uh to the chair, uh, my apologies.

Are you are you referring to the uh reduction in one of the budget categories?

Yes.

For the department.

Like I said, I uh me and my team, we talked about it earlier.

I don't have all those details in front of me right now.

But we'll it's it's part of the our questions that we submitted.

So yeah, there was some uh category movement.

Uh we did move parking and some of the other classifications down to the correct uh object accounts would actually put it into the different categories.

So you may see professional contractual having a reduction, but then you also see the operating services with that offsetting increase.

Okay, thank you so much.

We'll now go to uh member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Good morning.

Good to see you all, and also very grateful for the work that you're doing, uh especially to make sure that we're retaining our employees.

I'm actually curious uh to learn more about your state interviews.

Uh when do these happen?

What do they look like?

Um because yeah, it sounds that that's the first time that I've heard of something like a state interview, so just curious to learn more.

Sure, yes, through the chair.

Yes, we we actually just last week launched a communication out to uh departments regarding the state in interviews, and they can be used twofold to interview employees just to get their insight and perspective on um their desire to remain with the city, what's working well for them, what support can be provided.

So, what we've done is developed a presentation, and um we've also put together a toolkit to give them key information on uh ensuring that employees uh recognize that this is not an interview, it's not relative to an evaluation, but this is giving them voice to the work environment and just things that are working well because they're on the front line, they have more insight, and they can really be able to provide us with key information to support and enhancing the operations, and so it's a tool that has really been designed to give you baseline questions to ask your employee.

There's twofold, you could it can either be manager laid or it can be HR lay it.

Uh and leading practice is really for it to be manager laid so that those connections can be made uh directly with your employees.

Uh and with the skip level meetings, it's basically in uh sitting and engaging with your employees that um are not necessarily your direct report but may uh work a level under uh your direct report just to get to also build those connections and to gather additional information.

Okay, through the chair, thank you.

Um that sounds great and uh very proactive and uh we might take that.

Um and you mentioned this is not done, just to confirm you don't have this conversation if someone is having issues with performance or this is you're being proactive and asking what do you need to stay?

Yes, because we want you to stay.

Yes.

Okay, all right.

Well, thank you.

Um to that end, I know one thing that my employees really appreciate is a good health care package and benefits.

Just wondering uh as far as that process, um our new employees are only ever uh are only able to tap into the blue or to the uh blue care network, I believe.

Wondering why that's the case.

Um I know that's I believe they can find others during open enrollments, but is that the only time that they can do it?

And if that's the case, why?

Because they might have providers that don't take that insurance.

We know you know why they would prefer to choose others, but I'm wondering if that's the only time and why.

Uh through the chair, we actually developed that program at the request of some of our unions to offer the Blue Care Network, and that it would be the you know, the first choice, but then to give that opportunity during open enrollment if their situation was one that they wanted to try the you know, the PPO or the other HMO, uh, which is HAP.

Okay, so just to confirm that's the only time my employees are able to look at other providers is during enrollments then because of what's been negotiated.

Yeah, um yes, and uh through the chair.

Also, um, if there's a family, if you have a child, any type of life change that you would have, whether it would be um getting married or um you know, divorced or you know, depending on what your situation is, there are other ways that you could uh opt into a different plan.

Okay thank you that's helpful um my final question and maybe less of a question more of a of a thank you and a request um the investment in our employees really is awesome um I've had members of my team go through um different certifications through the city um I highly encourage them to go through different conferences um one of my policy analysts went to a smart sheet conference um so I'm just wondering but then I think also we don't know where the conferences are we don't know like who is leading in these conversations of you know next innovation and in management or whatever the case may be can you help us uh with maybe a list of recommendations of who these institutions or these conferences are or or what they are so that I can let my staff know because you know we set aside funding for them to take up these opportunities but often they're like well we don't know where to go or which conference would be helpful so that's just a a request and a comment if you can help us um as you're looking through your different service providers or opportunities um for for further developments um keeping in mind policy um keeping in mind not just um managerial but also maybe case management even social work for I know a lot of us on on on city council have case managers a lot of that could be you know helpful if if you had some training in in case management and social work things like that so as you're thinking as of of more certification for employees um thinking about city council employees as well and through the chair um I would encourage all of our employees to um work with our talent development and performance management by far um and I've worked and you know been in contact with so many other HR executives the investment that the city makes in our employees through our own um you know uh our own trainings that are developed by Dr.

Ware and her team you can't touch them anywhere else and just as Dr.

Weir indicated with the ISS certifications and now even our organizations are reaching out to us to say could we leverage what you've already created but in a we can you know also look at outside conferences and then sometimes there are for specific needs so we'll you know Dr.

Ware and uh we'll look into some of those and uh Dr.

Ware do you want to add anything else?

Um yes through the chair if you have that employee reach out directly um we can identify what those needs are and help provide um information that we have internally as well as conferences and other providers okay through the chair thank you so we can do that sounds like it's a it's it's an invitation for any of us to share some of the needs that we have well thank you thank you Mr.

President thank you uh Director Starr any closing remarks um well I want to thank you all for your questions and also look forward to and you know any additional questions that some of you will follow up and and we will respond as quickly as we possibly can and thank you always for the support that you give human resources appreciate it.

Thank you so much for your presentation I forgot to ask colleagues any uh final motions before we move forward all right I don't think so thank you so much we appreciate your work and your team's um dedication to our employees here at the city of Detroit thank you we shall now close out the human resources budget hearing and now make way for employment solutions come on down