They're not even involved in the system.

But what's really more uh beneficial is that back in 2020 and 2019, less than five percent of residents who uh who were in front of a judge had a lawyer with them.

Now that percentage is very high.

I know, right?

The council, the organization will come before you, but um we're I think they're averaging approximately 80 percent right now.

And and because there's a lawyer on each side, it's a fair process.

Um you and and we're not as judges, we take no side, we're there to we're fair and neutral parties, but you cannot have a fair system when 95% of the people in front of you are represented by a lawyer and the other side doesn't have a lawyer.

And so I I want to say that your work over the years with passing the ordinance and supporting it, uh, we're seeing the difference.

Um we started out with two agencies.

Uh we had there are four agencies in the court now.

Uh NDS is the latest agency that has come.

Um we have Lada, we have UCH and Lakeshore Legal Aid.

And so um the system is working, it's not perfect, but it is so much better, and it is getting better each year.

And so uh we are looking to um start a diversion um system.

Uh we're working with uh read, some of our some of our developers and landlords and our agencies to come up with the system.

So if you have a person that I mean they they owe a couple hundred dollars, they should not have to go and face an eviction.

There should be a process where we can give some assistance and work with that.

So there is a pilot program that is starting to work on that, and so we're trying to get that number of 20,000 cases to come down before we come here next year, and by diverting some of those cases is a way of doing it.

Um continue to be very aggressive is our grant writing.

Uh we try to make sure that when we ask uh the city for resources that we've exhausted all other remedies and that we've gone out.

Uh we have um, you know, we've been successful again, um receiving grants.

However, um there's been a change in administration and there's been a change in how the federal grants are uh being awarded for our specialty court.

And I'm gonna talk a little bit at the end um because we have uh we have a gap now where we from um federal grants that are no longer available um that we are going to ask the council uh to help us because it's very necessary.

Uh councilman Benson uh asked if we could have counsel judge uh Shannon Holmes, who's the our presiding judge of the specialty court division, if she could uh also be a part of our presentation.

I believe Judge Holmes is on Zoom and she's gonna talk about some of the things that that she's doing.

Um our revenue collections, uh we are we're on our target of our goals working with our collections agency as well as uh we have an amnesty program going right now.

Uh the amnesty program will go into the first week in April.

Uh the amnesty program uh has brought in uh over a little over 400,000 dollars already in just two weeks.

Um the benefit of the amnesty program is a couple things.

First of all, we we decided to have the amnesty program this year based on the affordability challenges that are occurring in this country, and obviously in the city of Detroit, uh everything is more expensive.

Um, you know, my DT bill is triple this year.

Uh we know what gas is, and so this is a way we don't want people driving with their license suspended because they can't afford late fines and warrant fees and things of that nature.

So we thought this would be a good time to have the amnesty program.

Uh people are, you know, our first day, you know, people were lined up everywhere outside.

You people were paying at the kiosk, they were going to cashiers, and it lets you know that people don't want to drive with their license suspended.

This is a way of letting them know you you know you're still gonna have to pay what the original fine was, but all these other things, uh, an average ticket will have roughly a hundred to a hundred and thirty dollars worth of additional late fees, fines, and uh, and warrant cost on them, then you'll have a person that may have four or five tickets.

So they're saving four to five hundred dollars by coming down during amnesty.

And so again, this is going to go into the first week in April.

Uh, I think uh I think councilwoman Johnson may have asked, did we uh have we considered uh extending it?

Uh not at this time, but if it's still going strong um in like another week, we may still consider it to, but we're gonna um I'm gonna do some more media and outreach to let people know we're still going, and please you don't want to you know start the spring out driving with your license suspended.

Come down, and we've been pushing back on some misinformation that if you come down to the court to pay your fines, you're gonna get arrested and things that you're not even seeing a judge.

You either go into the kiosk or you're going to a window and you're just taking care of it, and you can walk out with your clearance with you in your hand at your license.

The secretary of state has been very good with instantaneously uh putting the um putting their licenses back.

Um again, um another thing that we were um we've been very active is working with our restoration clinics on this same uh level to help people get their licenses, uh their license reinstated.

Um we were part of uh a warrant um uh clinic in collaboration with uh the growing uh real alternatives everywhere program on May 10th, 2025 at the Butzel uh Family Recreational Center.

Um we we uh serviced 160 residents, 745 warrants were sc were canceled on that day.

Um October 25th with the same organization.

Um there were 24 residents that were served in that restoration clinic.

A hundred uh one thousand eighty warrants were canceled uh and court dates were rescheduled.

Uh there was a road to restoration clinic in collaboration with uh Michigan Department of State, Secretary of State, uh June 24th of last year in uh Southwest Detroit at uh La Said Community Center.

81 residents uh were served there.

Um 272 warrants were canceled, and we received $3,561 in payments on the spot.

Uh again, we had one at Eastern Market on September 25th.

99 residents were served, 331 warrants uh were canceled, and 3,348 uh dollars were brought in.

And the last rec uh the last uh restoration clinic was uh held with Secretary of State.

This one was in Dearborn at the Hype Recreational Center.

Uh we saw a hundred Detroit residents, 390 warrants were canceled, and we brought in uh $5,727.

While the payments are important that we were bringing in that revenue, plus a lot of residents that their license um they were able to drive out of there uh with their license restored, and so we're gonna continue uh with our restoration clinics.

Uh restorative justice is something that we are uh trying to expand upon, and that's that's been one of those ways.

Um internship program uh last year, just a couple more items.

Uh the internship program was very successful last summer.

Uh we had uh 12 interns that participated.

The uh the colleges that were represented were uh Michigan State, uh, Florida AM, Howard University, of course, Morehouse College, uh, Western and Wayne State.

Uh Councilman Calloway, we will make sure that there is a spelman, uh at least one uh next year.

We we were a little lacking.

This is the first year in two years where we did not have a spelman student as an intern, but we'll we'll do a little better this year.

Uh this and we also had students from Renaissance High School uh that uh were part of the program.

Uh the students were very engaged with the court, they were doing court observations, writing assignments, research assignments, and also they were working with the restoration clinics.

Um I'm gonna let our court administrator speak to the uh capital improvements, and I want to thank this council for uh the assistance and the resources last year to help with the capital improvements.

That is uh it's been quite the the task uh working with the city, and uh I'll turn that over to Miss Crosby.

Yes, so again, thank you for um providing the funds necessary.

I know we brought before you last year the issues we were having with the prisoner elevator in our detention center as well as the public elevators.

And so while that has definitely been a heavy lift, um we are almost complete with our prisoner elevator.

So I just want to say thank you for that.

We will be able to move the prisoners through the detention center instead of the public elevators again, um, hopefully by next month.

So thank you again for that.

Um, the same company that is doing the prisoner elevator has also uh been contracted to do our escalators.

We talked about not having a working escalator, one semi-working and one just totally out.

And so um, although we have not finished spending all of the dollars, they are earmarked for those projects because the prisoner elevator was slated to take 18 months.

They take a take a while to install a brand new um from start to finish.

So we are working on those projects.

They also will probably run through 2027.

Um, but we definitely will complete those.

We are also working on our fire life safety system, so we needed to improve that.

We're in a very old building, and so um we need to make sure that it's safe for everybody that's in the building that you can hear when the alarms are going off, um, that the sprinkler system is working, and so we have to redo that.

So that's one of the other projects that we have planned as well.

Um we were able to complete an ADA sale in our detention center.

So we were hit with that that our sale we were not in compliance.

So that is complete.

The only thing left to do is to install railing on the outside ramp.

So when the prisoners are brought over from the Wayne community, I'm sorry, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department, they can get them into the building.

So we expect to finish that next month as well, early next month.

So that is another project that we had to do.

Um in addition to that, we had some um few other things that we had to do, like air diffusers in the building.

Um, so we were able to do that as well.

So we've made a lot of progress.

Um there's been some interruption uh to to some of the court hearings because of the um amount of noise that it requires.

So we had to, it takes it takes a little longer because we have to work around the judge's schedule a little bit.

Um, but we are definitely making project progress with those projects.

So again, we just want to thank you for those funds, and we expect to um complete those uh some this year and then the others through 2027.

And um I'll say it for the last time.

Um the these improvements, these capital improvements have been necessary for quite a while.

And but for the resources that the council gave, we would still, you know, literally we have to almost shut down the court to bring prisoners through the front and then bring them through public elevator.

It's unsafe to our to our staff, it's it's unsafe to even the private security company, more or less the public that's here.

And so this is really uh making a great improvement.

Last couple of things.

Um we have um for the fourth consecutive year, all of our numbers of how efficiently we're handling our court cases have improved.

Our compliance numbers for the traffic docket, civil, landlord, tenant, criminal, and traffic.

Every year our numbers have have gotten better.

And um the state court administrators office has literally lauded us for the work that we've done.

Cases are are proceeding on time, judges have been very efficient, and I just I want to thank our our staff and our judges for for that.

Uh before um Judge Holmes speaks directly to the uh specialty court division.

Um I now want to talk about some of the challenges that we have we've faced.

Um in the civil division over the past three years, we have uh had an additional close to 40,000 cases are filed um that we did not have in 2021 and 2022.

While we've had decreases in landlord tenant traffic of the the amount of cases that are being filed in the civil division is almost crashing the division.

Whether I mean it's a lot of credit card companies suing our residents, there's a lot of issues with with foreclosures with cars with vehicles.

Um councilman calloway brought this up a couple years ago.

Uh, and it is that was the tip of the iceberger that is really increasing.

And we're at a point where we we don't have the staff that can handle the actual paperwork.

So by the time the the paperwork gets to a judge or a file, uh they're pushing up against their time guidelines.

And so uh what we are requesting um is to uh have additional funding to hire uh five new employees to go to the civil division so that we can address the the this up tick in cases.

Uh we did not ask last year because we were hoping that there was going to be a decrease, but there was a 30% increase from that number where we were already and the system is really crashing right now.

Um that staffing expansion would be approximately $300,000.

We've uh estimated $60,000 per employee.

That includes salary and benefits.

Also, uh the second new request is just going to our general operating budget.

Um our costs dealing with utilities, uh dealing with postage, uh, which we are still having to do everything manually because we're still not an e-filing court, um, and just overall inflationary pressures that the court is under, uh, which is impacting our day-to-day.

Um we are requesting an additional 500,000 uh to meet those needs.

Uh our specialty court um over the past over the past year.

Um there's five hundred thousand dollars less in grants that are that are available from the federal government.

Um we have recent we've uh like I said, we were applying for every grant that is possible, uh, but we're going to have a hole in our in our specialty court budget because of the grants that are no longer available.

Uh we have zero our budget that we've presented the last I believe three years has asked for no money for specialty court because we've been able to go and get that from grants uh from the on the federal level.

Those grants are not available right now.

There's one more grant that is that we are writing for right now, which is going out this to next month, uh, but that it will not be able to fill fill the whole that the uh changes that the uh new administration in DC has levied.

And the last uh new ask um is um we were obviously all made aware that the mayor, uh Mayor Sheffield was requesting an increase to for a living wage for all city employees.

Um our employees are not city employees, but they are um employees of the third branch of of government in the city.

Uh we did a um an analysis, and we have 73 employees at our court that would not qualify as earning a living wage with their current salaries.

Of those 73 employees, 43 are Detroit residents, so 59 percent of the employees at 36th district court uh uh resign in the city of Detroit that they do not uh make a living wage.

And um, we would ask that, you know, humbly ask that if um the city employees were brought up to a living wage that that our employees would be able to be brought up there also uh for the 73 employees um that would run approximately a half a million dollars also, and so um you know the impact that would have on those 59 percent of our employees that live in the city, the money that they could spend in the city, and just the impact that that would have in in their lives, we think would be a um be a great benefit.

And with that, um just want you to know that 36 we are committed to this city, we're committed to our to our residents.

Uh we are we are not keeping our robes on and just staying in our courtrooms.

We're out, we're out where you are, we're trying to assist in everything that we can do.

Uh and we're making a difference.

And our specialty court is really making a difference.

Uh and right now we have more I would say individuals than we can even service in our specialty court.

We have more cases coming in that we can service right now.

And this is the first time that I've ever asked for additional funding, but it is because it is it's necessary.

And I always say that, you know, I'll never ask for something that we don't need.

And if it's not necessary, obviously it'll come back to the city.

But that's where we are.

And again, I thank you for the for your time and allowing me to uh make this presentation.

And if and if uh Mr.

President, if you would allow Judge Holmes to say a couple of things about specialty court, and then I'll be done.

Absolutely.

Absolutely always a pleasure for to see uh Judge Holmes and the work she does as well.

Had an opportunity to see it up close and personal.

So thank you for everything.

Um Judge Holmes.

Thank you, Mr.

President, for allowing me the opportunity to just talk a little bit uh about our specialty court.

I cannot do that without thanking our chief judge, Bill McConago for believing in the mission, supporting the mission, and making sure we have everything that we need in order to service the people who deserve our help.

Our specialty court consists of four different tracks.

We have a drug treatment court, we have a mental health court, we also have a veterans treatment court, and we have what we now call an empowerment docket.

These are usually where our women who have been a part of the sex industry, whether they were trafficked or exploited in some way, and so we're dealing with individuals because we've learned that while they may be addicted to drugs, they have special needs when they have been when they've experienced sexual trauma.

And so we are working very hard.

With respect to our specialty court, um this year has been a task.

As the chief said, we have not received the grant dollars that we have always relied on, and of course, the need has not diminished for specialty court.

Right now, our case managers are over the maximum capacity for specialty court, and the need continues to rise.

We have been working or had been working directly with the police department, but those individuals who are coming to us through the crisis intervention training uh to make sure that people with mental health issues, uh, people that are fighting substance use disorders or sometimes co-court curry.

They are fighting both of them, or they are dealing with both of them, and um these individuals are coming to us on a daily basis.

Uh we arraign those individuals Monday through Friday.

We do not have set hours nine to five because when those cases come before me, sometimes it's on the weekends, and we're trying to make sure that we can get these individuals into treatment, into detox, or get them the mental health uh services that they need.

And that can be very difficult, especially when our funding looks like it is not, it has not been met, and it's not going to be met going forward.

Right now we have a total of six case managers.

Um those case managers, again, are at maximum capacity.

We are governed by what is called best practices through all rise, which is our national governing body.

They are the ones that make sure that we are in compliance with all federal guidelines so that we can, in fact, get monies from BJA, which is our federal source that grants us money.

According to best practices, our case managers should never have over 50 cases.

Our case managers had at one point exceeded that amount of cases.

Why?

Because there is a need, and of course, we want to help everyone.

And so we are riding the ship, but in trying to do that, it is so important to remember that the need is still there.

And so we have had to go into pause mode because we don't know what our financing is going to look like.

We don't know if we're gonna have monies to cover us going forward.

And so we've had to go into pause mode, and uh there have been individuals who have not been able to access our services, and certainly that's not something that I enjoy doing, but it is just the current state of our program.

Um we are hoping to with additional funding to get an additional case manager.

We are hoping with additional funding to make sure that we have the ability to provide tethers and testing for the people that come into our program.

Um, most of the people that enter our program, approximately 85% of them are unemployed, underemployed, or have never been employed.

And so they don't have the funding in order to be able to utilize the tethering system and the testing system.

Both of those things are important for two reasons.

Tethers, because when we send people to tattoo inpatient treatment, most of the time, a lot of the time, many of the times, individuals do not stay there.

They're not ready.

We're ready, but they're not ready, and so they will leave treatment.

If they leave treatment without a tether, we do not have the ability to locate them.

And we have had circumstances where we've gotten individuals back, and it has not been a pleasant outcome for any of us for that individual or for their family or for the treatment court team.

And so those tethers are very important while we don't keep them on tethers the entire time that they're in our program.

Those tethers are important, especially for individuals, those first 30 days of treatment to make sure that they stay, that they don't go back into the streets, they don't overdose, or they don't go back into the community and wreak havoc.

Testing is also important.

In drug treatment court, our best practices require a minimum of two times per week, minimum for testing.

And it depends on the substance use of choice uh for cocaine and some of the other drugs, fentanyl, because they don't stay in the system as long as alcohol and and some of the other drugs, we are required to test a minimum of three times per week.

If our individuals are not working, if they've never had jobs, they don't have income, they cannot afford testing.

And so that means that we are faced with the choice of do we let them in the program because if they don't satisfy best practices, it will it will impact our federal funding, or do we find a way to make sure that everybody gets an opportunity to live a sober life, a life with uh addressing their behavioral health issues and things of that nature.

And so I'm asking that everybody be given that opportunity through funding for our testing and for our tethers.

And so we also provide the last thing I'll just include uh a plethora of wraparound services and treatment court.

Um, while um we are holding people accountable for the things that they do in the city of Detroit.

Uh we are also helping them to reshape and to rebuild their lives.

We work with them on employment training, employment opportunities, housing, dental, medical.

Most of our people have never seen a dentist or been to a medical appointment.

And so we offer those uh wraparound services.

We also offer specialized treatment, and this is all done through our providers.

We are we we offer also emergency services for individuals that need to be placed immediately, whether it's needing transportation, medication, things of that nature.

We also offer reunification for families.

But we make sure that we reach out to find out what's the dynamics of the family and how can we work to put that family back together.

Again, our goal is when a person leaves our program, which is a minimum of 14 months, a maximum of 24 months, that they will leave our program, not only with out using drugs or with addressing their behavioral health issues, but we hope that they leave reunited with their families.

We make sure that any legal issues that they have in our court that they are addressed.

And if they have matters abroad, we also form a bond or we reach out to the court that they may have other legal matters with to see if we can get those things resolved based on their performance in our specialty court.

And so that's what we do at 36th district court.

And again, I thank you for this time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll now dive in.

I think we can leave.

And Councilmerson, I just one last thing.

I just want to say um uh Judge Holmes is um is a person that has led our our specialty court, and she is a person that goes throughout this country.

Uh we are a mentor court.

We're one of 10 courts that are mentor courts in this in this country.

Well, she helps train other courts to mimic and to replicate what we're doing here.

And what we're asking is for us to be, you know, for you guys to help us continue what we're doing.

And we have the best specialty court in the United States, and we're one of the only courts to ever become a mentor court more than once.

And that's because of the work that Judge Holmes, our our case managers, our probation officers, and our staff that were doing.

And so uh and I would invite you guys to all come to our graduation that we have uh every summer.

It is a very powerful thing, it is an emotional thing.

Um, and to see because a lot of the a lot of the graduates from from our program, they've never graduated from anything.

And they have this is a real sense of accomplishment for them.

It's a sense of accomplishment for their families, their kids get to see this, and it's always and I always make sure I let them know that there's a lot of elected officials, you have law enforcement that they're just here to celebrate you.

And it would be great if they could, if you as many of you guys as possible will make sure you have the information could could come to the uh I actually think it's here this year.

Um yeah, I think it is down the hall, actually.

But you know, so that's something like that.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh, we will begin with questions from uh pro tem y'all.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And uh good to see everybody here.

Uh usually I would probably ask you about artificial intelligence, but I'm not gonna do that with the court.

You know what I mean?

Uh I don't, you know, I don't I don't I don't want people accusing me of trying to have replace judges with AI Kate or something like that.

So yeah, no.

But um I did want to say um thank you so much for your leadership um on working about the decriminalization of the uh curfew ordinance.

I just wanted to ask you uh what is your role now currently from their decriminalization?

You know, how has that process been going?

And uh if you could please lay it on thick since I'm the sponsor, I'd appreciate that.

We it's it's funny you bring this up.

We actually met with uh Detroit Parent Network uh about three weeks ago, actually.

Um they are offering to provide services to help with parents that are going through this.

I think what was very um was unique when when this ordinance was passed, I think there was a lot of uh media attention, a lot of outreach because we didn't get as many parents as we thought we were gonna get.

Now the the curfew portion actually wasn't as bad on the on the juvenile side at circuit court.

But um our judges as well as our probation officers um have been alerted we have providers that if we you know to send parents to because the the major issue, the major point of this is not to get a fine for the court.

Obviously, we want to bring in revenue, but it's to make sure parents understand we that they have a role and knowing where your kids are uh and making sure things happen.

And so we have a we have a group of providers through our probation department, uh, and again, I said we literally just had to meet with Parent Network to see what they uh what services they have, and we're gearing up, you know, it's it's gonna get hot eventually.

And so that is when, you know, when the when the first you know a little bit of heat comes, is when you know people kind of act up a little bit that first weekend.

And so we want, and then we're gonna do as a court let parents and students know if there's if there's a curfew that's been enforced, just you know, we don't we're this is not trying to be draconian or trying to you know throw the book it just just follow the curfew and parents make sure you know where your kids are.

But it's the process is working well, and luckily it wasn't.

We thought we were going to have a a real be inundated with a lot of parents, and we did not have that.

And we've also met with the chief concerning that chief of police.

Okay, excellent.

No, thank you.

Excellent, thank you.

I appreciate that.

And finally, I wanted to ask you about um your online dispute resolution program.

I just wanted to ask you um you know for traffic tickets, landlord disputes, and small claims that clog the system, it could be parking tickets, uh, landlord tenant disputes or small claims of the five thousand dollars.

Do you have a program like that?

And in and do you have lots of cases or a small number of cases, or you think about using it more or less?

Why or why not?

Okay.

So we don't we don't have an official program like that.

Um a lot of courts do have an ODR, but we don't have that.

Well, we do have a why not?

Yeah, so we have what's called prehearings, and so that is where law enforcement is actually stationed in our building.

And so instead of using the ODR, we found that our prehearings were working very well where individuals get the opportunity to meet with law enforcement prior to ever points with a magistrate indoor judge.

And so those hearings are resolved before they even get to that to the um judicial officer.

Okay.

So it's working very well.

So we have not made changes to that.

Um we will we were thinking about adding to our civil, but because of the um my file that is supposed to be coming, we have put that on pause to wait to see what's gonna happen because that would be a whole integration there, and so that would take us paperless, and that has this kind of own system in place.

So before spending money, and we know a system is coming, we're kind of waiting for that.

But the but for traffic side, we just found that the prehearings is working so well we did we didn't want to interrupt that process.

And we have been we've been waiting for approximately five years for our court to be a court that gets the e-filing and the the paperless system.

Um they started with smaller courts.

Uh and you know, we and that's a that's a task that I allow uh I I defer to uh to Miss Crosby to have those arguments because you know we've paid the most in the system.

I mean, we we have sent the most money to Lansing, and we're not getting any benefit for this, and we are holding off on things that we would like to do because you don't want to start that, and then you have to scrap it when this happens.

So uh hopefully um we still don't have a timeline on when this is gonna happen, but hopefully we'll be able to add other services when we finally get the bi-fi system.

And I just wanted to say if I may, Mr.

President, I just wanted to ask you.

Now, is the part of the reason why you hadn't had the online um system is because what you said earlier, the preclearance works so well, or is it also because of the digital divide?

So for the traffic side is because the pre-hearings work so well.

So it's just the pre- so it's just the pre-hear is work so well, not that it's not a digital divide or that you could or you couldn't.

You just like what you have currently.

Absolutely.

And the and literally I believe the state court administrator's office is testing out the system in smaller courts.

You know, and that and that's why it hasn't, you know, it hasn't made it to us or the other larger district courts.

And it's it's been piecemealed, and I think it kind of slowed up during COVID, but it's it's been piecemealed, obviously.

Well, it's the Utah Judiciary and the British Columbus Columbia civil resolution tribunal as well.

So I I would just say that you know, if you so I first of all, I would help that you implement all my ideas and suggestions.

But uh, but if you so chose to do so, I mean your court visits could be reduced by 30 to 40 percent.

Your case resolution time uh would go down by 50 percent, and your administrative savings would be two to four million dollars a year.

I'll send you this information to you.

But I just wanted to say, and I just want to say you're right about uh sending most of the money to lands.

I used to sit on the judiciary committee in the Senate when I was up there, so I remember that very vividly.

And to that and to that, uh Councilman Young, that is why the diversion program with the landlord tenant is so important that we're working on.

We won't be able to do the the other civil things, but if we can at least take that out of the system and have those things resolved before a case, that that is essential.

And so, like I said, that's something that we're we're working on right now.

And I just know I've had people who come over and talk to me about Thursday's different court, I gotta go down here, I don't want to go down here.

So I think that if you have these smaller things where you could be able to take that off your plate, you know, you could be able to be more efficient, more effective.

But you're doing a great job.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Member Johnson.

Thank you.

Um, Mr.

Chair.

Uh good afternoon to all of you.

Judge Holmes, that was just phenomenal how you just ran down everything that you all do in specialty court.

Um, I do certainly appreciate your care and concern for residents and the great length that you go through to provide supportive services to our residents.

So thank you so much for that.

Um I will make a motion to add into executive session the request that came from uh Chief Judge McConaco, uh, so we can have a greater discussion about that.

Okay, kind of there's a motion on the floor.

One of the information.

Um member Benson.

There were a number of different requests from the judge, all of the monetary requests.

I mean, can we make sure that we have that accurately in part as part of the motion so there's no confusion?

That is a yes from me, uh Member Benson, and I believe it totaled 1.3 million.

1.5 was it.

1.8.

Okay, I missed something.

Okay.

300,000 for the civil staffing, 500 for general operating, uh, 500 for specialty court, and if we were to bring our employees up to the living wage, that was the other additional half a million.

1.8 million.

But but it was the 1.3 outside of the living wage.

So you might be working.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I do just have a couple of quick questions.

Um, as it relates to um evictions that you all are seeing in landlord tenant courts.

I'm wondering if you know and if you don't know today, if you can um share some information with us, if you have any sense of how many um residents face eviction multiple times within maybe a three-year period.

Just I just want to be sure that we're providing the services to residents that are needed.

I don't um that is one where we'll we'll take that back and then we'll um we'll take that to our our our docket management um director and try to run some data and just cross-reference the name.

Um we're we're unfortunately a lot of the the residents in the landlord tenant docket move multiple times, and it's sometimes hard to track, and sometimes um when the case is resolved, the names are removed, and they'll just say all occupants, but that's something that we can can look at.

I don't have an answer for that.

Okay, but anecdotally, I believe normally the same, you you will have some people that will come back.

Um, and that is a reason that some of the agency attorneys try to have the names removed so they don't have an eviction on their record because that can prevent them from getting additional housing.

And so, but that's something we'll we'll we'll get that we'll send that back to the all the members.

Thank you, thank you.

That would be great.

And I'm thinking from the perspective of providing um additional resources to them if if we can make the connection to Detroit at work or you know, whatever it is that is creating the situation where they are going through uh evictions multiple times.

If there's anything that we can do to provide additional services, um just want to make sure we're doing that.

Thank you.

My other question is relative to folks who have financial hardships outside of the amnesty program.

Are there other um programs, ways for folks with financial hardships to uh maybe get a reduction or a waiver of their fines and fees?

Yes, um there's a there's an assessment um an abilities an ability to pay assessment uh is taken uh by the judges, and if a person cannot pay um they don't have any resources, you can do community service.

And there's a formula that so many hours uh when I was last on traffic, I believe it was an hour was ten dollars, it was like ten dollars an hour.

So if a person owed uh three hundred dollars, it would be thirty hours of community service, and that would be a way, and then and we didn't and we don't make a person you know have to clean up on a freeway or something.

You can do those 30 hours or whatever amount of hours at any nonprofit.

It could be at your church, it could be at a at a soup kitchen, and you just have to bring back, you know, that they'll go through how you get your and you can sign off on it.

But absolutely, uh, we would not um the ability to pay is a is an assessment that is done to make sure you have counsel as well as ability to pay for if a bond is set or not set, but also community service is an option if you don't have the if you cannot pay.

Thank you.

And how do you get to that point where you identify or know that they have um challenges with payment?

Do they have to articulate it?

At the arraignment stage, um, there is a form that they have to fill out so that we appoint them counsel.

That's when is and that's the same thing almost at like with uh the intake for right to counsel on a landlord tenant.

Uh, if you're on public assistance, we automatically um there's the you're automatically granted that you have uh you you you have an unability to pay, so you would automatically count for having counsel as well as um any bond that's a cash bond would be deemed to be an unaffordable bond in that in that case.

So you would be you would necessarily you would have a personal bond if there was a bond assessed, and when it came to fines and cost, then that was when the judge can can craft something different uh for that for that outcome.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

All right, thank you.

Uh member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, and good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon, Morehouse Brother.

Absolutely.

Um, you know, if you need anything um as it relates to Spelman, um, you know you can always um call on me, and I know you can also call on the president and CEO of the Detroit Parent Network, who is also uh my spellman's sister, so you know you have direct connections.

Um if we are needed, Miss Lily and I you you make sure that you um reach out to us with the mentoring court, congratulations on that.

Um is there any compensation for um Judge Holmes' um travel, lodging, her time.

Is there any compensation involved involved, or is the court um compensated?

Because she's doing a lot.

If she's traveling the world, helping to build these mentoring, helping to build these courts to get to capacity like our amazing 36th district court, which I call the people's court.

Right.

Is she being properly compensated?

Is her travel being covered and lodging and uh essentials and stipends and things like that?

Judge Holmes.

I will answer that question.

Thank you, council member.

So when I was doing this traveling for R.

I've and instructing before I was voted to be on the board of directors, okay.

I was in fact compensated for everything.

But I am now on the board of directors, which is a six-year term, and I have continued to teach and train and do all of those things without compensation because I believe in specialty courts.

I believe in what we do, and I need people throughout the country to know that we are at the table shaping these courtrooms from an urban perspective because oftentimes it had been ignored, and so now I am only compensated or my travel is covered, my hotel accommodations are covered.

And just recently, I think Miss O'Day, with our national conference, they informed us that they would not pay for our airline tickets, but we're gonna still make it happen because people need to know that we're at the table and they need to be trained on specialty courts from an urban perspective.

And that is an example of our the loss of federal funding.

Um we through the grants that we have received every year, I'm sorry, uh, with our federal funding, we were able to send uh our case managers, our attorneys that work there, uh Judge Holmes and our probation officers, but we that that funding is no longer there.

And so uh by Judge Holmes uh publicly shaming us right now, we're gonna try to figure out something.

But but the the money's not there.

And um it is it is legitimately um, you know, sometimes we we get into these funding debates with the federal government, and this, you know, it's a political back and forth between parties, but people's lives are really being impacted right now by the lack of these grant funding uh funds, and and these are things that are not these are these things are not being used, it's just not not a fund that we these things are directly impacting the lives of our citizens, and and the fact that these grants are not available is is is really putting a hardship on the court, and it's terrible.

Through the chair, thank you.

Thank you to um Judge Holmes and thank you, um Judge McConaco.

My next question.

Well, I always um begin since I've been sitting on this council since 2022.

I always say thank you first because um you know we sit through like 47 budget hearings, and you are the only one that to my knowledge who come before us and tell you tell us every year that you find grants.

You go out and find the grants, you shake the bushes, and you come back.

And so this is the first time that since I've been sitting here that you've asked for this level of funding, except for the maintenance and um the elevators and all of that.

So I appreciate you and your team for always going above and beyond looking for grants to support your program.

So thank you for that.

And um, I'm looking forward to um going through your budget, and then um member Johnson has already put it into um our session, but um, I want to thank you for also having your judges.

I call them the traveling judges.

Yes, you have our Morehouse brother there, Ponce D.

Clay.

Yes, yes, sir.

And um, you have Judge Griffin the Fourth, you have the amazing judge Chastity Youngblood, and is it Mr.

Roland Martin?

Who's Mr.

Merlin Martin?

Merlin, okay.

I okay, so he comes, he does this huge um presentation, and then they all start coming up.

I want to thank you for have having them at our 12th precinct meeting just recently.

It was standing room only, and they were all so humble and so accommodating.

So I want to thank you for having those traveling judges throughout the city and for making their way to the 12th precinct meeting just recently.

So um, I don't have any other questions.

You've already answered them.

I sent them to you on March the 12th, and you guys were very, very responsive, and I have all my answers.

So thank you so much to you and your amazing team.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Chairman.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

So let me see.

How many ways do I say thanks for all that you take your time, Councilwoman?

Oh my goodness, you guys are getting things done.

And I mean, I was listening to Judge Holmes over there.

Oh my goodness.

And Chief, I've got to tell you the way that you're rolling out things, the efficiencies that you have and so forth.

I am so happy that you're from this community and of this community.

Because it makes a difference.

And I just want to say thank you.

I you know, just to name a few.

So I just want to ask you about the compliance.

Um let's see, was it last year?

I sponsored a compliance ordinance.

And so does the uh court require landlords to present a valid certificate of compliance before accepting or hearing an eviction case.

Uh well, the the state law estates, and we've had an opinion from the state, we cannot reject a filing on a landlord-tenant case if there's not a certificate of compliance.

So we have like the case has to, it has to get to a judge, it has to proceed.

And in order, um, because they said that it's it's a bar to justice if we take if we do not allow the filing to proceed.

Where your ordinance comes into play is at the actual hearing stage.

Um and what has to occur, and this is always whenever we're we're talking about this, the the there has to be a judge cannot on its own make a ruling concerning the certificate of compliance.

Uh it's called suasponti.

A the defense has to raise that argument.

That is a defense.

If they're gonna argue that we're not, I'm not paying my rent because this they don't have a certificate of compliance, that has to be raised.

Um we have talked with and that at these meetings, we've talked with the agencies.

It's not raised very often.

If it is raised, it is it there is a hearing on that.

There are cases that have been dismissed for lack of uh certificate of compliance.

Um the def the the defendant has to put their rent in escrow uh in order to use that.

That is that has been an issue where defendants are not using escrow, but cases are dismissed for a lack of uh certificate of compliance.

That is not the norm.

That is not how because it's not raised very often.

It is it is raised a lot in meetings or when we talk about things, but people are not making that argument that I didn't pay my rent or things because the owner doesn't have a certificate of compliance.

There are arguments concerning habitability, the the furnace doesn't work, or there's lead remediation that needs to happen, and they argue on those issues, but we don't get a lot of arguments dealing with certificate of compliance.

Well, um to that, Mr.

President.

Um when they raise issues such as that, you know, things that are not being repaired and so forth and so on, that is a compliance issue.

Oh, absolutely.

But a person could actually have a certificate of compliance, and then the furnace breaks and they just don't fix the furnace.

Right.

Or um they're you know they're not paying the water bill.

And when those things are occurring, our judges are you know are gonna get our judges are fair right down the middle, but there's not a lot of not an empathy when people are not uh having people live in in conditions that are deplorable.

Uh we've had uh we've had a situation where a judge held held a um an owner of a property in contempt of court uh and fined him up to 25,000 uh just last year because his actions were deplorable.

Uh there were families without running water, without heat, and then because they complained about it, he filed an eviction case to terminate terminate their tenancy.

And so our judges are holding are holding uh people responsible for that.

But again, this is the importance of having lawyers on each side for lawyers to raise those issues.

But but a judge cannot just simply say there's no certificate of compliance in this file.

I'm dismissing this case.

It has to be brought to them.

Yeah, yeah.

I understand that state law certainly will have to change in order for for that kind of thing to happen.

Uh, what happened in that case with the the $25,000 fine?

Did they um did they evict him?

Because the ignorance retaliated.

Well what what happened in that case um is the judge required uh the the landlord to pay for uh uh a hotel stay for up to three months.

So put the person the family was taken out of the deplorable conditions, and that person was fined in that case.

And so there was a and then there was an agency that helped that family find permanent housing.

But until that permanent housing was found, that family was was put up in a in a in a hotel.

Oh well, thank you for all of that.

They certainly make it very, very difficult.

And so that's the next thing that I'll be raising a lot with our Michigan uh legislature because they just need to take a look at it.

And again, it it's just it's it's the agency attorneys um make they make decisions that sometimes they don't want to argue about certificate of compliance because they're gonna argue something else.

And so, but that is a that's a trial tactic sometimes, and so that's that's up to them, and that's the well they believe it's more important or more winnable, frankly.

Yeah, um so I just want to ask a question about the um how people who are low income and or not as tech savvy uh what are we doing to help them navigate uh through that process to receive the services that you offer?

Well, um which has been surprising.

Once we went to like uh most of the civil docket as well as the traffic docket and and first hearings on landlord tenant and um filling docket are on Zoom.

I I did believe that there was gonna be more people that would have a hard time logging in.

We we really haven't seen that much of that, but if there is, uh we can just come to the court.

We will, even though you're scheduled for a zoom hearing, but if you you know you don't you're not tech savvy, you can come down.

Um we have um, you know, there's been talk of we we have very limited space in the court now because we have lawyers that are meeting with clients for this, but possibly having a room set up where there would be like a laptop or somewhere so you could actually zoom from the courtroom.

We've not gone to that because we it just really hasn't like I said, we've been trying to pay attention to this, but the people are figuring it out and they're finding a way.

We very rarely have a person that misses court because they're saying we didn't have I didn't have access to to being able to zoom or to get on.

And so that's something that we you know we do check on uh we do check on that in all the divisions whether there's defaults based on a person not having the ability to zoom on or have technology.

We haven't seen a lot of that, but we're paying attention to it, councilwoman.

Okay, all right.

So then let me just just say that um I'm I'm certainly willing to share out whatever flyers or whatever you have via social media or whatever, so that people will number one understand what services are available, um this whole piece on your on your special report, whatever it may be, whatever you're trying to promote, and to see whatever it is, um, I'm certainly willing to be a partner to share out that kind of information so that our residents can take advantage of that.

And I want to thank you for sending your um your attorneys and and a judge Ponce Clay, too, yeah, who came to our deed fraud um uh town hall meetings, and I want to encourage you, um, and it's so sad as it relates to the federal grants that you're not able to receive anymore.

There's such a tremendous need.

Um I I want to encourage you, you know, the the the congressional representatives that we have here in this area, they have you know a um a way to to earmark some dollars from their you know from what they get on the annual basis, and and I hope that um we will reach out to uh to them um to encourage them to be supportive of of what we need uh right here in in your court.

Thank you.

And so thank you uh so much.

And we I I do have uh I call them a neophytes.

We do have three new judges and uh and and judge clay griffin and young blood, and I'm I I am I'm moving them around.

I was like, I I want the citizens need to know you, you need to know what's going on with the citizens, and I uh yes, I am they are traveling.

They are they are traveling, and we know thank you.

Um Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through you.

Good afternoon.

Good to see you all, and yes, also very grateful for all the work that you guys do.

I was able to join a specialty court graduation.

I think my first year, it was really beautiful, really inspiring.

So thank you for the work.

Um, and I'm glad we moved over to executive session, the money that are needed to continue to support you.

For my questions, just to keep focused and on time.

Do we need this to happen for the civil infractions to be able to be processed through the 36th district courts?

I know we brought this up again, but just to just to bring us back to the same page.

So currently we do receive most of our civil infractions electronically.

So those are coming in electronically, but because we don't have a paperless system, then unfortunately they are papers printed and sent to the courtroom.

Which actually that would be a part of the my file.

So when all of that comes, that's all a part of the process.

So trying to be fiscally responsible and not spend money to create a system that then could be shut down and switched over to my file.

We haven't done that, but we do have currently have those tickets.

They do come in digitally, if that if that helps.

And to that point, we have gone so far as to have a meeting with the state court administrator's office and said, listen, let us just build our own.

And so, you know, our thing was the money that you're we're sending to you, but they they've stopped, you know, they they were no longer sending them the money that we were sending, but we asked literally the money we're sending, let us keep that.

We're not asking you to do anything.

Let us just build our own system.

And they want there to be one system for this in the entire state.

And so we are we're we're waiting till they get to us, and that's all we can do.

Through the chair, I I wonder, is that all we can do?

Can we set a timeline?

Can we ask for a timeline?

Have we?

Yeah, we the the timeline I think was 2019.

And that's what I'm saying.

This this is this is going.

I mean, because when did they stop taking the money?

When was that like?

That was like 21 or 22.

Why that would be you when did we stop sending the money for the for the my fi system?

Um, geez, it probably it was 22.

Yeah, 22.

So this so you know, we were expecting this to be done three years ago, and so there are meetings had there's their changes, and we can't.

This is one time, well, you know, maybe we could you know work with you guys to send a letter to the state court administrator's office to say why this would be important to move us up on the priority list.

But we we have a meeting at least once every year, if not more than one, saying where are we in this?

It's just not being built out right now.

And I'm not I'm not here to criticize scale, but it's just it's just not happening.

And this is before I was chief.

There was we they were talking about this in 2019, and it's 26 right now.

So thank you.

Uh this needs to be prioritized and done faster.

Um, so I would be happy to add that to closing resolution.

I think that's a resolution from council, um, a letter to the states uh to expediate the e-file system for the 36th district courts.

That's a motion.

Okay.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

So we can continue to help um in in pushing that work forward.

Um really last question.

Um, we will send more.

I don't think we actually have more road, we'll continue to work with you.

I I do have a motion for executive session, but um, I recently found out that the uh um license plate readers can tell whether or not you have dry uh uh insurance.

Yes, car insurance.

Um that's pretty terrible in a city where car insurance is so incredibly expensive that people literally cannot afford to have it.

Um so you know, I'm I'm hearing you talk about people not going to get their light their their driver's licenses, which is great.

But I'm just wondering, these problems are systemic, and and and we are the ones that are left having to deal with with the consequences.

But I'm just wondering, do you ever have conversations with legislators at the state level because it's so expensive to be poor to have to pay for car insurance, to have to pay for incredibly high DTE bills, to find you know affordable housing right now.

Do you advocate to change these systemic problems or when you see these things?

Um what are the efforts that you take to address to address them?

Because I'm I'm grateful for the amnesty, I'm grateful for all these things, but you know, they tell you that you need car insurance to drive.

So how are we going to, you know, these are the pickles that our residents are in that are so incredibly frustrating and overwhelming.

I have a there's a there is a there's a line that I have to walk uh as a as a judge.

And uh we have to interpret the laws that are there and and and and handle them in the courts.

So I there's a line of advocacy that I can only go up to.

Um but I have gone to Lansing.

I have uh I went to Lansing in the last session to argue dealing with bail reform.

Uh I I speak with our Detroit caucus as well as the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus, but I have to there's only so far I can go, I can just illuminate what happens and what we see at the court, and I can say that if you would like someone to come and testify concerning how this would impact, and that's that's the way I I I do it.

As to the license plate readers, that is something that is a is a tool of law enforcement.

If that is something that if you want to change that use, that would be something that you would just speak with your local law enforcement agency.

That but that is a um I see cases every single day where the the probable cause for the stop is reading the license plate, and then that triggers other things.

That is but that is a normal tool that is happening.

And so um it's it's a normal tool that's happening, and I can just just and and again I one of the so where we can help is take away barriers for a person getting their license back reinstated, and that's I'm trying to say this is delicate.

But that's like I can't I can't advocate with the chief of police about why you're you why your police officers are running plates.

That that's that would be outside of my purview as a as a judge.

But that's not out of the purview of other people in government, but but judges really can't.

Did I do that okay, Council President?

You saw I was I was tab dancing over here.

I was obviously respect.

Yeah, I was I was but I understand your point though, councilman.

I mean I do, I mean I I literally I I get a lot of cases where the probable cause is nothing but the plate being run.

And sometimes they're parked cars where people are sitting in a car and the plate is run, and then that is what the initial interaction is is because the person is in a car without without insurance.

So thank you.

Uh, because they are coming up next.

And and and I needed to make sure that what I was hearing was true.

Oh, yeah.

And that and that we are again in these unintended consequences, not thinking through how this impacts residents, especially the most impoverished among us, and and and really then what we have to then solve for.

Um so thank you for for enlightening us uh since council passed license plate readers.

I voted no, because I was afraid of these things and and and what happens, um, and just making sure that we have policies first um and that we utilize this for what we needed to to to solve and not create more problems.

Um so thank you for sharing that.

Uh Mr.

President, I would just like to add to executive session.

Um the Southwest Community Justice Center Um is um pause on my motion, Mr.

President.

Just a quick question for um our our chief judge.

Is this would you consider this um a specialty courts or if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit more of how the 36th district courts works with the Southwest uh Justice Center?

Okay.

Um there's there's multiple ways.

Um one what is the thing that Larry is over that they do in Southwest?

The streak street, yeah, street outreach court.

Um you like to go with go over three out of report, you want to do it.

Go ahead.

Okay, so um we do have judges who sit on our street outreach court and they go out to the community, they um help with the the different individuals that come to the court, they help clear their licenses, so they go to them instead of them coming to the court, and so they're usually geared towards individuals who receive citations in the Southwest community, so then they help them clear up their license and restore, you know, get their license restored.

And that's through the regular traffic division, that's not through specialty court.

Correct.

But so we have so we have our traffic judges and those judges volunteer to do that.

So they they're they do that in addition to their regular docket.

And that's through uh Larry Williams is our judge Larry Williams is our presiding judge, and he has a team of judges that go there to do that.

So but that's not through specialty court.

No.

So we have judges there out in community and every avenue possible.

Yeah, awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarity, that's helpful.

Um and thank you for sharing the work that they do in Southwest.

I think it's important that we support them.

They are in need of funds, Mr.

President.

So I would like to move to executive session.

$300,000 for Southwest Community Justice Center.

Gotcha.

All right.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues, with a discussion.

Approach M Young.

First of all, I just wanted to say Chief Justice, you you left out a a little bit.

Remember it's got to be on the motion.

Oh well, I was I was going to I was going to I was it was going to be circular, but I was gonna wrap it up.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, I'm I'll make it quick.

I was just gonna say one that you started the Detroit caucus, and secondly, that you were very as a legislator very active in terms of introducing multiple bills involving reforming insurance.

I know because it did every other day I was up there, I heard a mechanical story.

You know what I'm saying?

And I was kind of hating a little bit like you ain't been there for seven, eight years and heard about McConago doing something.

Um secondly, I just wanted to say uh member Romero, is it okay if I join you on your uh motion?

And uh that's it.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Thank you.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none, the action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Uh, member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon to you all.

I will also join the chorus of thanks and gratitude around um not only the specialty court, um, but especially the special tea court, but also all the work that you're doing um around diversion and and making sure that folks are able to um not be burdened or going to be justice impact in ways that they shouldn't have to.

So I appreciate that.

Um I will I know we're on time running on time, so uh just a few questions on the right to counsel.

Um you mentioned uh the significant increase in tenant representation there.

Um are there other ways that the court is measuring the long-term impact on eviction prevention and housing stability there?

Yeah.

Um yes.

We are well the first way we are making sure we're taking data to see how many people are are represented.

We are we keep the data and we do this every month of how many cases are coming in.

So we're trying to see it are there any uh outside forces that are may cause more eviction cases to happen or not, or if more cases are resolved outside of the court.

That is the reason why we're really gonna do this diversion thing because we're seeing cases with lower dollar amounts.

And if if a case is at a lower dollar amount, that should not be treated the same if someone hasn't paid rent in three, four, five months.

And and the the other thing, which obviously we were not doing, and from counsel uh woman Johnson there, I I think the court it is a good idea to look to see if we are having people who are coming back.

That they were they were here in 22 and now they're back in 25 and 26.

Because if that is occurring, then there are some other things that that the court can't help with that.

That that is the situation where they need to.

So that is something that we have not we've not tracked that, and that's something that we're gonna kind of look at right now.

And uh we all kind of wrote that down that we need to need to look at.

But that the major thing is that we just want to make sure that uh we have enough space so that uh the tenants can speak and speak freely and it and and have the confidentiality, which uh and we want to make sure they have the resources for them that for the lawyers to do their job, and what we have done as as a policy of the court is wherever we can go to talk about it, um, you know, to say that we want to sub we we are in favor of supporting this program and making sure it doesn't go away or it's not diminished because we are seeing a difference at that court every day in the lives of our citizens.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

And and like you did today, as you all get that data in, if you could share that with us, that would be great as well.

Um I also wanted to um talk about uh the policy that was introduced last fiscal year on the um baylist stepping back and to involve DPD in the escalated eviction situations.

Um just wanted to know if there's any coordination that exists between the court and DPD co-response team um and mental health providers um to ensure that those sentence who are in crisis are connected with those services and not just removed because we we know it may be a layer thing there as well.

Um and what we believe it was I think it was two two years ago in May, there was the the crisis and the unfortunate um shooting of a tenant in the Palmer Park area.

Um I as well as our general counsel, we went to the scene when we heard about it.

Um that was a situation that would not occur now.

If um both working with uh Chief White and then Chief Bettison, that if there is a situation where there is uh a person that the that may be in a crisis, the the court officer is to call 911, and then the DPD is bringing a person, a medical uh expert, and then the the the eviction stops at that point.

The the the court officer is to stand down and the scene is turned over to DPD and the officers.

So what would happen on that day, it was there's been a new policy since that, and so um that cannot occur anymore.

If there's any situation that uh the Detroit police takes over that scene and the eviction portion stops until the medical emergency has ended, or DPD says that that it is now clear to to continue.

And so that that basically official policy was right at the with uh uh Chief White and Chief Bedison coming in.

It happened right around that time.

So I'm not I think that was like November, I believe, of the previous year, but that that's been in place for over a year now.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

And um, we've been having conversations now.

The administration has shifted some of that uh correspondence um to both the health department at DFD.

So if as moving forward as we go through this budget and the next fiscal year, if the court can just have those conversations with those respective departments as well, just to make sure we have a well-rounded policy as much as possible and including those as many um health professionals possible as well.

That would be great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you all for the work again that you all do.

Look, I will definitely attend the graduations, please do um send us.

And I sent a note to our team to make sure I know we have spoken, but to make sure we get you all as a guest to one of our future comedians coming through.

Thank you.

Coming through.

Thank you, Mr.

And and Council President.

Before you I I I would be remiss if I didn't say this.

Uh Judge Holmes, I've I've been messing with her all day.

She's uh she's on the sick and shed end list.

Uh and so she's she's at home right now, but then she still wanted to to be a part of this.

And I just wanted to say that we really appreciate what she what she's doing, and we really want her to uh stop working today and uh get herself get back to full strength, Judge Holmes.

Thank you.

She's she's doing the same look that she was doing earlier.

So she gotta stop.

Absolutely.

We were gonna we're about to take her there.

We're about to get her all right, get her released.

Um going to member Benson.

Thank you, and thank you all for being here.

And Judge Holmes, thank you for being here as well.

Um, my motion, my purpose today for this session was to support the specialty court, which has been done.

I will make direct the request to my colleague, can I join you on that motion?

I'll the clerk and Mr.

Curr Corley just know that please.

I just wanted to say thank you.

And so Specialty Court uh holds a very special place in my heart of actually had the chance to go and see and then have Judge Holmes take a party of CVI um community members as well as my team during the misdemeanor ordinance to actually take time with us to explain the what's how specialty court works, the different items, and just the different services that are available to how do we keep people from having a permanent record going through the process all the while being held accountable.

And well, often people will think that um if you go to specialty court, it's not about the accountability, it's about the services, it's about the accountability as well as the services.

And something that I took note was one of the members of the CBI group that we we went with, we went with Mr.

Negus Vu, Ray Wynins, then Quincy indicated while in jail, oftentimes these type of services and wraparound service are not made available to people of color.

They indicated that the white inmates were the ones who will receive these type of services, this type of counseling, and the ability to have accountability take place, but leave an institution without a record, and that's huge.

And so I just want to thank you for what you all have done, how you all taken specialty court to the next level and now become a mentor court.

Uh when we asked for support for the misdemeanor ordinance, uh the chief judge was very supportive of that and saying this is very important.

We need support prosecutor worthy, everybody else is doing this, and and this is it was a challenging topic, but Judge Holmes made that easy, getting the support of the CVI community, understanding what they do at specialty court and how that really will be a huge help to our community.

So for me, the specialty court, I will always be very supportive and want to ensure that they get the resources that they need.

So I'm glad to see that my colleagues are supportive of that today.

Hopefully, we'll see what we can do during the actual budget process.

I've been to graduation, look forward to an invitation to attend this year.

Um I've actually given personally to the uh compliance enhancers that the judge gives out in the court to ensure that those who are going through the process are given uh special um incentives to continue on, that uh Kroger gift car to buy food for family, the ability to buy gas, things of that nature are huge, something that we would take for granted, but for that population and your clientele, those type of compliance enhancers can actually probably make your ability to stay within compliance of that program, and that can be a game changer for your life.

So I just really want to make sure that that is acknowledged.

I really do appreciate what you do.

I've seen you in the public as well at church, um, giving presentations uh over at Greater Grace uh with my pastor for the uh the uh multi-denominational Easter celebration, and so just really want to uh say thank you for all that you do and how you uh advocate for a very vulnerable population to get them to the next level, and so I'm just glad to see that we'll be able to support um from our position as a city council today to help the speciality court and others you all are doing at 36th district court.

Um interesting to see what we're gonna do with that facility.

It is a bit long in the tooth.

Um we have the chance to do a behind the scenes tour of your facility and the deferred maintenance is daunting to say the least.

And so eventually there's going to have to be decision made on what we're going to do for the future.

We need to have a modern court system, and we often forget that the three branches of government don't just extend to the federal, the state, and the county.

We at the city of Detroit have a third tier of government as well, and we don't often lift that up.

And so just want to say we need to lift that up.

We are professional city, we provide top-notch services, and for you all to continue to do that, you need to have the facilities where you can provide those.

We need to have modern communication systems.

You need to have space where you can keep both the inmates as well of those who are responsible for their safety safe as well.

And the older and longer we go without the basic necessities of upgrades, that makes a challenge.

And what you don't want to hear about is somebody getting hurt on either side of that because we didn't make the proper investment in our facilities, but also understanding that money does not grow on trees.

The money tree on the roof of K Mac no longer grows.

And so, how do we find the resources just prioritizing?

And there's a modern way as well.

Do we go look for debt to do that through the bond market?

And so, which also then brings up the necessity of revenues from your operations.

Nobody likes to talk about that, but it's a necessity.

If we want to have a modern court, we need to have the revenue stream to make that happen.

And so, but we also have to balance that.

So, obviously, a lot of things there.

Judge Holmes, thank you very much for all that you do.

Uh, Chief Judge and your team, thank you for all that you all do, and your accessibility as well as your uh making yourselves uh available to teach and educate.

I was really happy to take that tour with my team so we can see what goes on behind the scenes and with Judge Holmes to help with that misdemeanor ordinance as well as educating the members of the CBI community.

Thank you.

No questions from you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

And in the interest of time, I will uh provide all of my questions in writing.

But Mr.

Corley, I would also like to join Member Johnson on her motion as well.

There are no objections.

All right.

Uh any additional motions, colleagues.

Mr.

Chair.

Uh, member McCampb.

Thank you.

Um, I so I have to leave um before the following hearings uh because of a funeral.

I do have two motions related to those.

If I can to those if we can finish this one and then we'll get right to you.

All right, uh, Chief Judge, any closing remarks, sir?

Well, first of all, it's it's always a privilege and honor to come before you.

Um I thank you for what you do.

I thank you for the support you've given the court.

Um I go to a lot of chief judges' meetings and I meet with my colleagues and I hear of their stories of meeting with their funding units, and I say that I got nothing to do with me.

That's that's not that's not how we interact, and we don't just interact when it's time to come before the council table.

And I always suggest that you should probably do something with your funding unit and do something in your community.

And and and I just I really enjoy working with you.

Um that's why one of the first things when we get new judges is I want the new judges to come to your meetings and to to see you, to see what you do.

Because this is three three branches of government, and that we all work together, we all have the same constituents, and I just appreciate what you do, what you've done in the past, and what you're gonna do in the future.

And Councilman Benson, at any moment that you want to meet about a new court, I'm always down to take that meeting.

So, but but again, no due respect.

I just I just thank you for what you do and allowing us to present and and just the support that you give us.

And I like working as a team.

That's it.

All right.

Thank you so much.

And the work you all do make it a whole lot easier to have these conversations.

So thank you all.

This now concludes the uh budget hearing for 36th district court.

Um now would like to turn to member McCampbell to uh make the motions.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So um first want to make a motion for the police department um to a motion for executive session, a conversation around the budget, especially around um automatic license plate readers and the use of flock.

All right, colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Member McCampb.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and the second motion related to the board of police commissioners.

Um put into executive session a conversation on budget in relation to um the commissioner's stipend and the workload that they have.

All right.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um, so we will be opening up for now public comment.

If there's anyone from the public who would like to speak, please raise your hand.

I see one hand in the committee of the whole.

Going three times.

See, we have two individuals in the committee of the whole.

We're gonna take those two seats, gentlemen, if you don't mind.

And while we cue up everyone, colleagues, what time would you all like to come back?

Well, let's find out how many folks were online.

How many folks do we have online, please?

Council President, we have nine nine online callers.

So it takes us to 11 individuals total.

As I've mentioned, uh, we are member McCampbell.

I know you have to to leave out.

Um want to give you an opportunity to do so.

I know we indicated that there uh we're gonna have abbreviated public comments during the budget hearings.

Uh that is one minute, both online and in person.

Uh so colleagues, you want to uh after we get to pass through the uh public comments.

Uh, are we looking at two o'clock, two thirty?

What time makes sense for you?

So I hear it too.

Is there uh anything else?

All right, two o'clock.

We will convene.

All right, so let's get get it on.

We'll go with our first uh two individuals who are in the committee of the whole.

Remind everyone you have a minute when your time is up.

Going to need you to release your seat, or you will hear a buzzer.

It's time to move forward.

All right, uh, sir, we'll go with you first.

Perfect for the record, Jadon T.

Smith.

I was gonna say the law department has very poor leadership.

I see you watching my clock, uh very poor leadership at the top, especially evidenced by the length of four years.

I appreciate Councilmember McCampbell, uh, Councilmember Santiago Mero, Councilmember Waters, and Councilmember Johnson for their uh questions to the law department uh and to the courts.

Uh also want to say that there is no faith in corporation counsel being a sole prosecutor for misdemeanors in City of Detroit uh at the misdemeanor level because as evidenced by the eight to one vote last year, September 9th, 2025.

I do the research very well.

Madam Mayor is an only no vote.

Uh also I was excluded from a budget hearing last week in violation of the open meetings act and also from a BOPC meeting, uh Board of Police Commissioners.

So MCL section 15.263, section six states a person must not be excluded from a meeting, otherwise open to the public except for a breach of the peace, I actually committed any meetings.

My rights have been violated.

You have to give a personal warning as evidenced by a corporation counsel.

So for EPU to put a person out of a meeting without uh the board saying something is in violation.

I was put out for my first amendment right, and also they need body cams on EPU.

Thanks so much.

Next caller.

Um next gentleman here.

Floor is yours, sir.

You are the caller of the commenter.

I'm just telling the truth, you're not getting ready to be the mayor of the city of Detroit.

See, James Tate, I got eyes and ears all around the place.

So you trying to put down that move, you and that pastor over there.

It's crafty, man.

Y'all ain't it ain't gonna work.

Mary Sheffield, I support her.

She should be the mayor and trying to get something released on her to make her resign, ain't gonna work.

Because it ain't gonna happen.

Now y'all ain't got it.

Y'all ain't gonna get it.

You little crafty.

Uh now I'm gonna just jump straight to uh what I'm saying about uh Conrad Malik Jr., the former Michigan state supreme court justice.

He's a whole character.

Ain't nothing wrong with 1932 7 West Chicago and got the compliance certificate.

He needs to back the F up.

I'm not playing with none of y'all.

Thank you.

We shall now go to our online callers.

Who's our first caller?

Council President.

Our first caller is Darren M.

All right, Darren M.

The floor is yours.

You have one minute, general public comment.

Darren M.

Good afternoon, counsel.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Hi.

Okay.

Um, you probably know what I'm calling in about.

So I did not see Zhausmer on that list of outside counsel that was hired.

Um, my understanding is that 21 million is the budget for the law department.

7.7 was allocated just for outside council, just for one project.

So where does that come into line with budget?

I mean, it's law.

The law departments on the lawsuits with Zausmer.

They're co-counsel.

Where does that come in?

I mean, that's a third.

That would otherwise be a third of the entirety of the budget just for one major boondoggle of a project.

All going to a Farmington Hills-based law firm to trample on people's rights.

I'm just wondering where is that represented in anything that was presented today?

Thank you.

Yeah.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Betty A.

Varner.

Miss Betty A.

Vernon, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Uh, good afternoon, Todd, within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Brown, the president of the Soda Elseport Black Association.

Here again, asking humbly to the council to uh allocate monies to help uh black clubs, 501c3s, associations, uh, with the fee, the payment for the fee to $1,500 for the land use hearing.

Also allocate monies to start a program to help uh it for neighborhoods for the corridors, monies to help to improve quarters who have not received the attention that some of the other corridors throughout the city of Detroit have received to help to clean up to bring new development businesses to those corridors, and also I'm advocating for my think of corridor.

We had uh many meetings last year.

There's positive vibe, but there's no money.

A lot of ideas, no money.

Next caller, please.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is owner papa.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

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

Council President, our next caller is resident.

All right, resident, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

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

Our next caller is to Hira Ahmed.

Caller, the floor is yours.

We have one minute general public comment.

Good afternoon, Bravo.

Member Callaway, Bravo, Member Johnson, bravo, member waters.

You all are fantastic.

I love what you're doing.

Thank you so much.

I just want to say that um as a um uh senior member of this community.

I uh have been poisoned, uh environmentally poisoned and have um MS multiple sclerosis as a result of it.

I uh am a senior and I have requested since uh well for 12 years, home repair.

I was uh fortunate, and thank you very much for getting my roof repair, but for all those years it rained through my house and have a lot of structural damage.

So I'm being told that because I got the roof repair um some years ago, it's not 10 years.

So I had to wait 10 years before I can get help.

I can't get any structural repair.

The floors are warped, and it's hard for me to walk.

I fallen several times.

Thank you so much.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Tyson Gersh.

Tyson Gersh.

The floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Thanks.

Um, with regard to the law department budget, I mean, that's like a lot of money for a department.

And I have 12 FOIA requests, none of which have been granted.

Um were like partially granted.

They gave me the runaround.

I had one outstanding for over a year.

I know two people who never received any response whatsoever.

Um, you know, our charter and like state laws all say public documents public access.

It is just there's no excuse for how impossible it is to get access to public documents in the city.

Um, I don't care how you cut it, there's no excuses.

like partially granted they gave me the runaround I had one outstanding for over a year I know two people who never received any response whatsoever um you know our charter and like state laws all say public documents public access it is just there's no excuse for how impossible it is to get access to public documents in the city um I don't care how you cut it there's no excuse especially with the budget the law department has I don't care how many staff members they have on it they're playing games with people and everybody knows it and I'd like city council to hold them accountable for that next caller please our next caller is iPhone iPhone the floor is yours you have one minute general public comment yeah this is what D D E M O C K looks like I'm telling you that I I got a two and a half years after I'd uh gone through uh parking tickets at the parking authority and now they won't let you do walk in so you've got a schedule even to hear their hearing officer not a magistrate well I so I have to go down to the court so I went on Friday to find out which what these ticket it says ticket number it didn't say ticket it said case number when I got the file I to find out how to defend myself on Monday and and it didn't even tell me the location of the time I had to go back to the parking authority and then I go down there and she said when you take the picture I said the day before I came down to the court well it's a two and a half year old ticket well we won't look at your pictures are you listening thank you next caller please our next caller is William M.

Davis Mr William M.

Davis the floor is yours you have one minute general public comment good afternoon can I be heard yes sir okay I like to start off by saying I think the the law department right now is inefficient and need better leadership I think they have better leadership when they had this uh young black lady that was leading it uh right before uh the the bankruptcy um also myself I know I turned in a freedom of information request dealing with some corrupt practices that was going on the in the board of the police commissioners dealing with some vehicles and uh that turned that in in august of 2022 and I got to run around and never did get anything also separately you know I I think that uh I think the courts and the speciality courts is doing a pretty good job in general thank you thank you next caller please council president our next caller is Marguerite Maddox and Scarlet this Marguerite Metx Scarlet the floor is yours general public comment good afternoon can you hear me yes ma'am yes ma'am we can hear you miss marguerite can you hear me thank you thank you um I would like to make a question to be into it of this city of the any shot language and tripping air splendid in the way this we depend the I know that first to be but I'm it's hard it is hard to go department and look at different kids and the the law department and they make it a lot easier the people may not be under the um sick them they are in two wings yet

The first we all but I'm hard hard the go development Different Department the law department a lot the happens under the um the call They are in two wings yes but he under with civility that can be cla excuse I'm getting Thank you Miss Met caller please Council President we are now going back to owner Papa All right caller the floor is yours you have one minute General Public Comment Caller are you there going once Yes good afternoon may I be heard Yes ma'am uh yes I am calling in reference to the budget I am I am not in agreement with uh the leadership for the law department I think we need some new leadership in that area and thank you member Johnson for your probative questions so you understand just how frustrated the majority of the city is about how things run in this city.

We do have rules and laws, but no one seems to uh follow them except when it's uh against the citizens to give them some type of uh ticket of some sort.

Uh the law department is not being run correctly and um the uh uh courts if if if if if we if we find success somewhere, why don't we pay for it?

There was money given for opiate and we're not using it for that reason.

She said they have addicted people that are down there.

Wraparound services could come from some of that money.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Council President, we are now going back to a resident, noting that they will be our last caller.

Caller, the floor is yours.

We have one minute general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

Going once.

Going twice, caller are you there, going three times.

Unfortunately, we're gonna have to move on.

Caller if you would like to provide your comments to the clerk's office, it will be placed on to public record.

Colleagues, can we extend that um recess until uh two fifteen, please?

Oh yes.

All right, see we shall stand in recess until 215.

Mr.

Smith, Mr.

Smith, don't leave.