Good morning, everyone.

Would now like to call to order the expanded budget finance and addict and audit standing committee for today, uh March 23rd, excuse me, March 26, 2026.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Scott Benson.

Yeah, Ben China.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Denzel and Thomas Campbell.

Present.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Member Miller indicated that she's dealing with a family issue.

So her absence is excused.

She sent a memo.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Council President Pro Tim Cole Second.

Council President James Tate.

Yep.

Mr.

President, you have a quorum present.

Thank you, ma'am.

We have a quorum, which means we're now officially in session for our budget hearings for today.

We're going to start off with the Department of Public Works.

We can have Director Brundes and team come on down.

Thank you for being here.

You uh would like to introduce you and your team, and the floor is yours to begin.

Good morning.

Thank you for having us.

I'm Ron Brundish, Director of DPW.

Sam Krasenstein, Deputy Director, DPW.

James George is here for an Prime Gidra.

Yes, sir.

Floor is yours.

I'll get right into our presentation, and uh this should only take a few minutes uh so we can uh get to the question portion of the presentation.

Uh DPW's budget.

Uh first of all, we're proud to align and support uh Mayor Sheffield's Rise Higher Platform and vision to lift neighborhoods, improve the quality of life, ensure equity for all of our residents.

Uh DPW's fiscal year 2027 budget includ includes funding to ensure that our neighborhoods remain clean and that they're appropriately maintained, uh, and that uh we're performing our construction work uh on streets in a manner uh that takes in into account all uses of the public right-of-way.

Uh DPW's budget includes funding to increase multiple services, including aggressively addressing and eliminating a backlog of 6300 sidewalk related requests uh that existed on January 1st of 2026.

Uh just wanted real quickly, uh I know we have a couple new council persons just provide uh organizational structure for DPW.

Uh DPW has has four core uh divisions that are four divisions that provide core services to our residents.

Uh our solid waste and street maintenance divisions are led uh respectively by superintendents William Collins and Patricia Henderson, uh our city engineering division, which is responsible for maintaining the public right-of-as well as the designing uh and managing all of our major road construction uh projects is led by city engineer Richard Doherty.

Uh our traffic engineering division led by Prasad Nana Panini also includes uh our traffic engineering science shop, which is responsible uh for fabricating and installing uh all of the parking and traffic control signs throughout the city.

Uh and we have a complete streets unit led by Deputy Director Christina Peltier, uh that's the responsible for ensuring that all of our construction projects are again again designed and implemented in a manner uh that ensures that all users of the public right-of-way uh, albeit whether they're uh operating vehicles, riding buses, uh pedestrians walking, uh, individuals in wheelchairs, uh, but ensuring that all of our projects are designed in a manner uh that is safe and accessible for all users of the public right-of-way.

Uh and our complete streets unit is also responsible uh for uh providing planning uh and outreach for all of our streetscape projects.

And also uh within DPW's solid waste division budget or solid waste funded budget uh is the Greater Detroit's resource recovery authority uh that's led by Director John Primack, who reports directly to the chief operating officer and Gidra is responsible for everything associated with disposal uh of uh of all silo waste, including landfilling, uh trash and bulky items, as well as the processing of recyclables uh and the composting of yard waste that's collected separately.

Just a brief high level summary of DPW's budget.

Our budget for fiscal year 2027 is 212 million dollars, roughly uh 40 million dollar increase from the current year's budget.

Our total number of FTE positions decreases from 48, 485 to 485 from 522 in the current fiscal year.

DPW's budget is broken down into four separate uh separate fund budgets.

Our general fund budget uh this year is $3.4 million with no change in the number of uh budgeted FTE positions.

Uh our street fund budget this year is $136 million, uh just under $30, just under $42 million increase from our current uh our current fiscal year budget.

Uh our metro fund, and I'll talk about that a little bit later.

Uh the budget for 2027 is $8 million, uh increase of just under $5 million from the current year.

And then our solid waste budget this year is decreased from $71 million to $64.6 million uh with a net reduction of $100 or 40 positions in our solid waste uh in our solid waste fund.

I do want to point out that even though we're reducing the number of solid waste funded budgeted positions by 40, uh 22 of those positions are being transferred to the street funded budget uh to cover our street, our our street sweeping operations.

So uh this reduction is in in terms of solid waste FTE positions is not going to correspond with any reduction in solid waste related services.

And and also just want to point out that by reducing uh when when DBW uh went to weekly collection of yard waste uh bulk and recycling two or two years ago, it required a uh a supplement from the general fund budget to cover all of our costs.

This reduction in the solid waste budget by $7 million, so $6.5 million will help towards reducing the amount of general fund subsidy for the solid waste fund.

So just a little detail about the respective budget, starting first with fund 1000, our general fund budget.

Uh as I indicated earlier, it's a $3.4 million budget in fiscal year 27 uh funds at 30 FTE positions.

Uh mainly it funds DPW administration's operations as well as the right-of-way uh permit operations that are provided by our city engineering division.

Uh through the permits uh through the permit fees collected, we're anticipating generating $5.2 million in revenues in fiscal year 27 uh enough to more than offset uh our expenditures in the general fund budget.

Uh funds 3301 and 3304 are street fund budgets.

Uh 3301 is the operating uh component in 3304 is the street fund capital uh budget.

Uh in fiscal year 27, our street fund budget is gonna be 136 million dollars, 41 point uh 41.6 million million increase over the current year's budget.

Uh this budget doesn't this budget increase doesn't align uh with additional state revenues that are anticipated uh from the state increase uh from the increase in the state fuel tax as well as the state's creation of a new marijuana tax.

Uh street funds are used to fund all of the activities in the public right away, including road repairs and repaving, snow and ice removal, bridge repairs, street sweeping, pothole repairs, uh city tree uh damaged sidewalk repairs, as well as maintaining traffic signals and signs.

As I indicated earlier, uh the street fund budget does include transferring residential street sweeping uh from solid waste to the street fund and the 22 positions that went along with that particular operation.

Uh continuing the street fund, uh 355 FTE positions are included in our fiscal year 27 street fund budget and increase of uh three compared to the current year's budget.

Uh some of the capital projects that are planned for this year include resurfacing or paving 27 miles of residential streets and paving 17 miles of the major thoroughfares, installing 300 new speed humps, installing 88 compliant ramps, and replacing damaged sidewalk and curb along any newly resurfaced roads.

And just want to point out that the sidewalk work is done in conjunction with our road paving projects, is separate and in addition to the sidewalk work that we're going to be doing to address the backlog of 6300 requests.

Our new streetscapes on Liver North from McNichols to Clarita, which is going to be an extension of the original streetscape on Livernoy, as well as West Grand Boulevard from Kansas Rosa Parks.

And both of these streetscapes are predominantly funded with grant funds that we receive at the state and federal level.

Fund 3301 is our metro fund.

These are the funds that the city receives from telecommunications firms for allowing them to have their uh their assets, their wires and cables in the city's right away.

And our focus this season is going to be uh addressing the the the request the the backlog of sidewalk complaints uh in front of occupied houses.

Uh fund 3401 is our solid waste fund.

Uh I mentioned earlier total budget 64.6 million dollars, a 6.7 million dollar increase decrease uh from the current year's budget.

And I just want to state again that we're really happy uh with the fact that we're able to reduce the amount of uh general fund subsidy that's going to be needed uh to ensure that we can continue to provide the same level uh of service uh to our residents at Curbside, continue providing the weekly uh collection of FRAS recyclables, yard waste uh as well as bulky items.

Uh the 100 budgeted FDE positions in the solid waste fund, uh decrease of 39.5 from the current year's budget.

Uh the solid waste fund budget also includes 50 million dollars for all of the disposal and processing services provided by the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority.

Uh and as indicated earlier, uh this fund also uh provides the funding uh for the residents uh by our contractual trash haulers, uh and again including uh trash bulky art waste and recyclables.

Two years ago, City Council approved uh uh an increase to the solid waste fee.

At that time, the annual cost of residents was 240 dollars.

Uh City Council approved uh three years of ten dollar increases, and it went from 240 to 250 in fiscal year 25, and then 260 in the current fiscal year, uh, and then that uh that solid waste fee to our residents will be increased to 270 dollars in fiscal year 2027, uh, generating about an additional two million dollars in revenue in the solid waste fund.

Uh as of today, 103,000, uh roughly 48 percent of uh our residential households have opted into our curbside recycling program.

Uh those numbers continue to go up.

Uh we have a very robust team uh that's dedicated in terms of providing outreach uh to inform residents of the benefits of participating in recycling.

So we we expect for fully expect for those numbers to continue to rise.

Uh and uh in the current fiscal year, uh City Council added 500,000 dollars to our budget uh to expand uh the number of containers that we have at uh along commercial corridors.

Uh we began a pilot uh this year uh that included uh adding additional trash cans, but also more importantly, uh recycling cans at several bus stops.

Uh and with the 500,000 dollars that council added to our budget this year, and you can expect to see contracts for new containers uh in front of this body, hopefully within the next three to five weeks.

Uh, it's going to allow for an additional 450 containers uh to be placed along commercial corridors throughout the city.

300 of those containers will be recycling containers and 150 uh additional trash containers that'll go at additional bus stops.

I just want to take the opportunity to thank uh Councilmember Callaway for uh initiating that effort.

Uh we've had a very successful pilot program.

I've been very pleased with how folks are using it for recycling containers that we place along the commercial corridor, so we're really looking forward uh to the expansion of that particular program.

And I believe that that is it.

So I want to thank you for the opportunity to present and uh hopefully I can answer and we can answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you so much.

And Madam Clerk, if you can note that we've been joined by Member Callaway, please.

Thank you so much.

And we'll start um with Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for being here.

I'll start with my question on the mic is not on.

Sorry about that.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for being here.

I'll start with um the point, Director, that you um ended on around the expanded containers in the commercial corridors.

Um do you have a map or know where the additional containers will be placed?

We we don't.

We know the numbers.

Uh again, we're uh we have funding that's gonna allow us to purchase 300 recycling containers and 150 uh 150 uh trash containers uh citywide.

I would love input from city council.

Uh we are going to be installing these containers in all seven of the city council districts.

So we haven't identified all of the corridors.

We have gotten some feedback from D DOT in terms of the bus stop locations where they see the most activity.

And of course, we want to try to prioritize those where there's going to be the most foot traffic.

Uh, but uh I'm I'm certainly looking forward with uh feedback that I get from uh from city council as well from the dist as well as from the district management in terms of the best corridors and the best bus stop locations to place those containers.

For sure.

Thank you for that.

And um I have a few ideas, so I can definitely follow up on that.

Uh a follow-up question on that.

Is there I know you have the additional funding?

Is there if there was more funding to be, could you expand it even further?

Um I bring this up because this is something that we hear from residents in D7 quite often about um the lack of containers on our our corridor uh in our corridor.

So just wondering, I hear you adding more, but is there room to even go further than that this fiscal year?

Well, I I I think I would like to see where uh the the 450 containers that we're gonna be receiving where that takes us.

Okay, uh, and then we'll continue to assess and determine whether or not there's a need, uh, a really benefit to adding more containers.

So uh if uh you would respectfully just allow us to kind of go through the process, see where this lands us, and then uh we can make a determination as to whether or not it needs to be expanded even further.

Absolutely.

Well, what I could I'll definitely do that, and I'll follow up with some um some ideas around corridors and D7 for showing that.

Thank you.

Um my next question is on the um budget around professional contractual services.

Um for DPW, um it's it looks like you all spend around 45 million on prof professional contractual services and 30 uh approximately 36 million on salary or rate wages plus employment employee benefits.

Um so seeing that in the spending more on contractors than the DPW workforce.

Have you all done any analysis on what it would cost or how those numbers will uh what would cost us to even ship 25 percent of those contractor services in-house and what that job creation would look like for um Detroit residents.

Uh uh so member uh uh member Campbell, I I think we would have to look at it on an activity by activity basis.

Uh during my presentation I indicated that uh that this year we're anticipating uh paving 27 miles of residential streets and 17 miles of major roads.

Uh historically, the the major role paving projects uh that we've done, we've utilized contractors to perform their work, and we're very fortunate that we have qualified individuals within our street maintenance division uh that are able to pave that those 27 miles of of local streets.

Uh I I think we would want to, I'm certainly open, and I I certainly agree with where you're headed in terms of uh trying to identify opportunities to bring more work uh in-house, but I think I would we would want to look at it on an activity by activity basis to see where the the best fit is in terms of you know what uh the the one thing that we don't want to do is to take something back and see a decrease in the level of quality of service that we're providing to our residents.

Uh so we want to make sure that if we if there are opportunities for us to uh to bring some of that work in houses currently being contracted out, that we can do it in a manner that uh that provides the level of service that our residents truly deserve.

So we're we're we're certainly open to it, and we're always looking at for these opportunities.

But we really want to look at it on an activity by activity basis.

Thank you for that um answer.

I will um may have a motion later on for a uh closing resolution, but that is the end of my questions.

I appreciate all the work.

I know DPW has a lot of work going on, um, especially around the quality of life for residents.

Um so I I thank you, Director, and all the um team at DPW for all the work you do.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, sir.

Our member uh Callaway.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair, and good morning, everyone.

Morning.

And thank you so much to you and your team, Mr.

Brunditch.

Um just a blanket thank you.

Um you've been so responsive, and um our residents are pleased with the services overall that they receive from your department and from your staff.

Um it doesn't take long for your the members of your staff to respond to residents and respond to our office.

So I just want to thank you.

Um I want to thank you for participating um on the calls with our universities and Wayne County Community College over the last maybe 30 days.

You've been um on those calls, and I appreciate you and your team for being on those calls.

We are in the midst of building those relationships and partnerships with those universities so we can um build from within, and so we want those graduates um to have an opportunity to have um careers and jobs with the city and you are interested in that as well.

And thank you for hiring interns.

Thank you for being willing to have career um participating in the career conferences at those universities.

I don't know if you participated yet, but I know that you were planning to because you were invited, along with Art Thompson and along with HR.

So I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of fruit those discussions and partnerships will yield.

So thank you for that.

Um what will it take to, and this is going on for about 20 years now, way before I got on the council, to pave Curtis from Livernoy to Myers.

Potholes, they've been filled with asphalt or something temporary, but my residents over there continue to complain.

And I drive over there and we have pictures, and we've sent those pictures over the course of the month.

But I have to insist that we get Curtis paved permanently instead of just going back filling in all of those potholes.

It's dangerous over there now.

And we've been continuing to send pictures that we've taken, my staff here and myself, and also residents.

So, what will it take for us to get Curtis paved?

We pay once and for all, and that is between Livernoy and Myers, sir.

So actually uh uh I just want to start out by saying that we've been hearing you, and in fact, Curtis between Liverno and Wyoming is part of our 2026 resurfacing program.

Uh so it's going to be done this year.

I just want to again take the opportunity to thank you and your team uh for pointing that uh that corridor out to us.

Uh I'd also just like to comment just real briefly uh on your initial uh component uh relative to uh some of the outreach that's occurred over the last month.

Uh as you know that uh we've had challenges over the years filling uh some of our engineering positions within our city and traffic engineering divisions, uh and you've actually led uh the effort that's resulted in some great conversations uh with uh engineering leadership at Wayne State University as well as Lawrence Tech, Eastern Michigan, just within the last two weeks.

Uh we participated in engineering job fairs at both Wayne State and Lawrence Tech.

And uh, I was actually at the job fair in Wayne State and had an opportunity to talk uh to some engineering students that are going to be graduating this year that were really surprised that there's so many great opportunities that are available for engineering students uh here in the city of Detroit.

So uh we haven't gotten any commitments yet, but I had some really good conversation, and I won't be surprised if we if we see the fruits uh of those conversations that were really led uh by by efforts that you initiated.

So just want to take the opportunity to publicly thank you uh within a couple of coming weeks.

Uh, we're also gonna be going out to the Eastern Eastern Michigan University and participating in their job fair.

Uh and again, uh and and you pointed this out during our conversations that you know we we have so many engineering, so many students out there, so many uh capable uh students that you know, whether they're from the city of Detroit or in the southeastern Michigan area that just assume uh that they have to go outside of Detroit, outside of Southeastern Michigan, as I'm sorry, sometimes outside of the state, you know, to find the job opportunities that they're seeking.

So having the opportunity to have these face-to-face conversations.

We've just found these to be very rewarding.

Uh and you mentioned the interns this year.

We're bringing in 15 uh engineering interns in DPW.

So uh again, I'm repeating myself, but I I just really wanted to thank you for uh for your your role in really initiating these conversations.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Brundage, and um thank you for all that you do to um to make sure that those who are graduating from these universities in the state and in our city.

We have UAD, we have Wayne State, we have amazing um um universities in our own backyard, and even the discussion with Wayne County Community College, even right there, um thank you because we don't we want to make sure that they do know that there are opportunities here, and you made that very um very known to them to those um the department heads of the IT department because Art Thompson was also on those calls, and you were just so generous with your time.

Even right there, um thank you because we don't we want to make sure that they do know that there are opportunities here and you made that very um very known to them to those um the department heads of the IT department because our Thompson was also on those calls and you were just so generous with your time.

And so I want to publicly thank you as well and I don't have any other questions.

All my questions um have been answered.

The main one was Curtis and you have assured us that that's going to happen this year.

I know my residents are listening especially the ones who live on San Juan they're listening and so I want to thank you for that.

It's a long time coming and thank you again to you and your team for all that you do.

Thank you.

Thank you sir.

Thank you Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Johnson Thank you Mr.

Chair Chair and good morning to all of you.

It's about to get tough I'm I'm glad he recognizes that okay very good so I get to I get to lean in on this now the one thing that you probably think I'm going to ask you about I'm not going to ask you about in that way but I am going to ask you about it.

Because as you know I inherited um a portion of district five and so now I have the boundaries of district four have expanded.

I have a very vocal um new part of the district and so they are asking me for a number of things that I'm going to put into executive sessions so we can talk about uh later but it does tie to um conversations that we've had around uh traffic calming all right um so I'm gonna start with my first question being really being around um how you all monitor and inspect the work that the contractors do um I did raise a concern um about some of the the the corners that we see that have been made ADA compliant um not far from me there are corners that are when it rains there's just a pool of water that sits in that corner I think it's difficult now to address um because the work has been done um and eventually the water evaporates it or I don't know if it's going into the ground it certainly is not going into a street drain um and so can you just talk about how you inspect the work that contractors perform and how do we evaluate it how do we um ensure that any deductions if need be are provided or um a reduction in the amount of funds that they receive as a result of uh any inspections um and how that ties into future work that they may receive from the city of Detroit uh member john uh thank you for that that that question uh uh as I indicated earlier our our city engineering division is responsible for manning uh all of the work that uh our construction contractors perform we've got about 52 I think inspectors uh in house that provide services we also have uh consultants that we utilize for assisting us in managing uh some of the larger scale uh construction projects uh I I'll just touch on the specific example uh that you gave whereby uh it appears that uh as part of a a pavement project or sidewalk work we installed uh work with uh a new AD and where ample was installed at the corner and it appears that it wasn't done in the manner uh whereby it was was uh sloped appropriate to uh to allow for water to make it to the closest uh catch basin uh our our inspectors are actually responsible for catching those types of situations uh when we do become aware that there's a situation I really uh invite you to uh to provide me that specific location because it's not too late uh to resolve the banner uh but uh when we become aware that for whatever reason uh the slopes that the contractor perform are not uh in alignment with what's required for our specifications we require them to go back out and fix those issues uh I I I do like to be completely honest you know a lot of times you know it's not you know we we may miss it if it's not you know raining of water at the time that you know that it occurs but uh uh we've had some situations in in uh in district one uh just in the last couple weeks where after significant rainwater you know we saw that water wasn't making its way to the catch basin that we know we've got to get back out there and fix that uh during the construction season but to get back to your your your more overlying question uh our contractors do have responsibilities we have the responsibility to ensure that it's appropriately inspected uh and that the work is done in compliance when we find that it's not uh we bring the contractors back in to fix it in the event that they opt not to which hasn't been an issue for us when issues are raised uh they've always been uh agreeable to going back in and resolving it at their cost uh but when those uh issues occur we we certainly take into account uh performance when we make future decisions in terms of how contracts are awarded uh I don't want to mislead you there are not thousands of companies that are out there bidding on our construction projects so uh there's a very limited pool so many times you'll see

Uh they've always been uh agreeable to going back in and resolving it at their cost.

Uh but when those uh issues occur, we we've certainly taken to account uh performance when we make future decisions in terms of how contracts are awarded.

Uh, I don't want to mislead you.

There are not thousands of companies that are out there bidding on our construction projects.

So uh there's a very limited pool.

So many times you'll see the same companies being brought in front of this body uh for construction contracts uh to be considered for your approval.

But uh but we do, you know, again we're become aware of issues where work is not done in full compliance with our requirement required specifications, how we ensure that the contractors address those.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

So I have a list that I'll send over to you of areas that should be improved.

Um some of them are actually the roadway.

You know how you have the hump in the center and the it helps to divert the water to the catch basins.

Where the two sides meet, it's now essentially deteriorating and causing potholes in the center of the street, and it's a relatively newly paved street.

So I will share those locations with you and ask that you address them as soon as you possibly can.

Some of them I have shared, but not directly with you, so I'll make sure I do that.

Um my other question is about prioritizing traffic calming projects.

How do you do that?

What kind of data do you utilize to identify areas that need that some improvements to traffic calming?

Um, and if you can share how residents can provide feedback about road safety issues and concerns or hot spots.

Uh if you don't mind, I'm gonna ask our deputy director, uh, Mr.

Krasenstein to address that question.

Sure.

Uh thanks for the question, Member Johnson.

So we have a couple different programs we do for traffic calming.

Uh the first, which people are probably most familiar with is our speed hump program.

We're across the city on residential streets.

We've done more than 10,000 uh rubber speed cushions or you know, HMA or asphalt speed humps on the residential streets.

This year we'll be doing an additional 300 in addition to the streets that we're doing through our residential paving program, in which we'll be swapping out a number of the older uh you know call first generation rubber speed cushions with the asphalt speed humps.

So that program continues and residents can request those locations on our website.

Uh and that goes to our traffic engineering team.

We look at it to make sure it's a suitable route and that it's a residential street, and we can do that.

The other programs that we have for traffic calming, uh, you may be familiar with the Safe Streets for All grants that the city has been very successful in applying for over the past few years.

So through this effort, uh we looked at the data for where traffic crashes were happening around the city and both for vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists, and we chose um the ones that had the highest number of crashes to go after grant funding.

So we've been very successful in bringing back more than you know, 70 million dollars in uh federal funding to be able to address these issues.

These projects are all in design right now, and in 2027, we'll be doing our first installations to do more traffic calming projects on our major roads.

So you can think about like East Seven Mile, you can think about Grashet, you can think about some of the larger intersections where we've had a lot of crash history that we're proactively addressing based on the data.

If there are issues that residents have, they can of course reach out to our office and we can look and see if there are short-term things we can do.

They could be adding crosswalks, they could be adding signage.

But in addition to those programs, we also have our traffic engineering team.

Anytime we resurface a major road, we will look and see what the pavement plan is, uh, how many lanes there are, if there's opportunities or a desire to add bike lanes or uh or parking on the streets.

So we do look for those opportunities outside of our grant funded project to see you know where can we be making streets safer any time that we do touch a street.

All right, excellent.

Would that include like elevated crosswalks?

Uh it can.

Uh so with elevated crosswalks and major roads.

We've only done a handful in the city, so we typically do them at really high volume pedestrian locations.

So on the east side, we have Larnett and Lafayette where the Dennis Archer Greenway crosses, where we've done elevated crosswalks, and then in southwest Detroit at Clerk Street across from on Clark at Porter across from Clark Park, we've done that there.

So we try to do these in locations only where there are you know truly high pedestrian or cyclist or non-motorized demand.

We have to be a little careful because we also don't want to adversely impact uh it could be DDOT service that uses those routes, it could be fire or police routes.

So we try to use those tools very judiciously to make sure we're using them in the most appropriate of circumstances.

All right, thank you.

Um I have my list.

Director Brundage, just so you're aware, uh, two things that I really need to talk to you about.

Jefferson Avenue.

Um, particularly near Jefferson and Connor.

I know there's still a lot of work happening, but the road is absolutely horrible.

Um and would like to talk to you about the Kirchhoff streetscape.

Um so we can talk about those two things offline.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I would like to make two motions um to add into executive session a truck route study for the east side, particularly around Stillantis or FCA.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

And I'd also like to uh move to put into executive session uh public education and a marketing campaign around reducing litter.

I know we used to do this some time ago, um, and periodically folks need to be reminded uh because I think we all appreciate a beautiful city, uh, and it takes all of us to uh support that in uh making sure that we are disposing of litter properly.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Yes, with further discussion, uh start with Member Benson, followed by Member Kelly.

And so would I.

All right.

And so was I in the name of the council, Mr.

Chair.

Colleagues, is a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

I doubt it very highly.

Seeing none that action shall be taken.

Uh and please know LPD, it it will be in the name of the council.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you all for uh the work and the uh connection um with our office.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Director Branj, I wanted to say thank you for uh the project uh that you all um worked on, accomplished and executed on Huntington Street.

Uh we put that in the executive session in the budget, and I kind of jumped the gun because when I was out riding my bike, I saw that it looked very uneven uh and it looked extremely challenging.

But you came out, you walk with me, uh, you and your team, and we got an opportunity to see uh and envision what it would look like once it was completed.

Once it was completed, it was excellent.

So great job.

So thank you for that.

Uh conversely, there is some challenges though.

Uh, and you you you um alluded to it uh on Long Acre Street in particular.

Part of the challenges they've had over there on Long Acre Street is that they've had um issues with flooding um in the past.

Um so we were thankful as a community when uh DPW decided to you know repave that whole stretch, long stretch.

But then we were saddened when it started to rain and water just puddled in front of you know driveways, uh up and down the street, uh, not one stretch, but long stretches.

Um so trying to find out.

I mean, you indicated you have 52 inspectors, and that's just one street.

I mean, we got others uh unfortunately that have a similar situation, probably not as bad as that one.

But we also seen situations where uh crews, whether they were DPW, and I know you said on Longacre, those are DPW crews, not contractors, so that's a problem for me, even more so.

Um but we also have a situation like over near Dawson, we saw, and again you came out with me, we saw that some of the uh whoever it was DPW or the contractor paid over the catch basins.

To me again, just don't know how that happens, especially when we have uh inspectors.

How how does something like that happen?

How does it, you know, uh the the grading of the streets becomes so problematic when you have individuals who are hired uh to do that function.

I would say solely that to inspect them to make sure that they don't end up in that situation.

So uh Mr.

President, um you have to forgive me for my uh for for for not recalling I I do recall us walking uh at those two different locations.

I don't recall uh that there was a situation where uh catch basin had been paved over by uh we have pictures.

We can we can I can refresh it.

I mean I think they may have come out and made repairs because you did have them come back out afterwards, or your your team did.

Okay.

So as part of the paving process, you know, one of the first things that occurs is that uh our engineering team, whether it's uh our and our engineering staff or our inspectors or or as contractors, they they actually go out and survey the roads and they actually you know mark the points with the sole purpose of ensuring that when the project is completed uh that the roads are sloped appropriate so that the water uh reaches the uh reaches the the closest closest catch basin.

Uh I I I in those specific cases, obviously Long Acre, we didn't really see in that particular case uh that it was a result of water not reaching the drains.

I know we reached out to the water department that came out and cleared out the catch basins to address the water situation uh on Long Acre.

That doesn't mean that a more thorough cleaning may not be needed to ensure that uh flooding doesn't occur, uh doesn't occur uh in the future.

But to to your, you know, to your to your bigger question, uh you know, I I would love to have our engineering team uh led by City Engineer Richard Dougherty just kind of sit down and really just go through in detail everything that their team does, you know, prior to the prior to the road work being uh uh being uh starting, but also what they do while the work is going on as they're monitoring to ensure, you know, that all of these marks are met uh when the pavement crews are out there so that this doesn't occur.

Uh I know that may not be a real good answer to to your question, but uh I really think my city engineer, uh and we can provide as much time as needed is really, you know, the best person to provide that real detail in terms of giving an understanding how this can possibly occur.

So the and and I I just also want to say, I mean, when we start talking about hundreds of miles of um pavement that uh gets addressed on a regular basis or annual basis, I would I would assume uh just by you know my vantage point that this is these are outliers.

Yeah, but this is what affects people's belief, trust uh in in us as a as as a city and our operation.

So even if it's happens in pockets, it's still problematic.

I I'm just kind of going back again.

Who even inspects the inspector's work uh if that's the case?

Because I, as council president or council member or resident, shouldn't have to go back and say, you know, this is a problem.

Someone should kind of catch that uh from the department.

That's what my expectation would be as a taxpayer, uh, not just as a member of this body.

Who who goes out and even and inspects what the inspectors do?

Because I think you're not just saying and and and is is there is there a a opportunity for additional training for these inspectors, uh additional tools that they would need.

I know my colleague is going to hit you with a whole bunch of AI stuff, but there may be an opportunity for some technology to be infused into uh how they operate, and maybe they already use it.

I don't know.

But again, even if it's happening in pockets, it becomes a problematic in terms of trust because that neighbor or that block tells other neighbors who tell other neighbors who then you know sour on the city as a whole.

Yeah, to your to your question about uh is anyone inspecting the inspectors, uh as indicated earlier, we do have inspectors that are on site assigned to specific projects, but we also have project engineers uh that are ultimately responsible for the quality of the project.

So uh the individuals that uh for lack of a better term that are providing direction uh and guidance to the inspectors that are on site, those are the project engineers uh for those respective projects.

So what would be your recommendation to help close that gap?

Even more so than where, I mean, again, we start talking about hundreds of miles, but still pockets are taking place, and again, as we look at long acre, that's a long stretch.

Even if it is, you're saying it possibly was a water department issue, connectivity, people talking to each other, departments talking to each other, looking and see how to make sure that that project does what the city, we as about as as a city wanted to do.

What what what would you recommend to help close that particular I I think just as an example, if if part of the issue, and and I don't know if I would just I I didn't mean to imply that the long acre issue was just uh a water department issue.

DPW obviously uh has responsibility ultimately for ensuring that you know the street is designed and constructed in a manner that that doesn't occur.

So that's that's our responsibility.

Uh I I I think you know, one of the things I I you know I I think one of the things that I I think uh you know that we may want to look at a little closer is as our kind whether it's our contractors or city staff that are out there doing work, you know, do we need to just reinforce, for example, uh do we want to make certain that when they're doing work uh double check to make sure that those catch basins are covered so that there's no chance of any asphalt getting to the drains that can cause backups.

And we do have processes in place to prevent that from happening, you know, but maybe we need to look at refining that even more to ensure that everyone understands that for every individual street that these things are checked, double checked, triple checked if needed, to ensure that there's no chance at all during our paving process that some material gets into a drain uh causing it to clog up.

So, you know, that's just an example of a type of situation that we can look at.

Okay.

Don't know what that um motion I'm going to request for executive session, but there will be something coming because I want to figure out how to get to to the bottom of this.

We've kind of talked about it in the past, and it just unnerves me that we have this particular issue going on.

And then my second question, I got a number of questions, and uh we got financial questions, but I really want to uh get to the issues that you know again make the community feel a certain kind of way about us on this side of the table.

And that's uh and I I sent you one about that one as well, the trash can, uh, the Corville container being eaten by the machine.

Uh that happens, it happened to me.

Nobody called me, nobody told me, and I know that you have a driver who you know uh uh plate places the uh the the trash into the machine and then it's drops it back down.

But if nothing comes back down, shouldn't there be some type of notification, some type of uh record of the fact that the machine ate the Corville container?

And if not, because I did ask this last year, um, what is being done to track that?

Because this gentleman who reached out to me was basically getting charged again for something that uh was not his responsibility.

And if it happened once and we're getting contacted uh by you know, one, two, three neighbors, and it happened to me as well.

I'm only imagining how often this takes place, but we never hear about it.

And again, people get sour.

Uh Mr.

President, first of all, let me just say it it doesn't happen a lot.

It does happen, and it's really just a matter uh, you know, for lack of a better term, the operator just uh not being not being as careful as he needs to do.

When when he servicing the container, when he picks the container up and empties it into the truck, he's releasing that arm before he brings it back down to the street.

The operators should see that.

In your particular case, I reached out to the trash hauler uh waste management.

They have can they have cameras uh that showed exactly what occurred.

It showed that the container was dumped, and then when the truck brought it back down, the container wasn't there.

The operator at that point in time should have obviously noticed that the container wasn't there and made a note of it so that the replacement container uh would be sent out.

That does happen, and that you know, you know, mistakes do occur once that container gets into the truck hopper, there's no way to get it out at that particular point.

But what should happen is that we should all, you know, we should take ownership of that, just very simply notify their leadership, send a replacement container out.

And that happens in most cases.

It's not, you know, when when the containers fall in, and again it doesn't happen a lot, but when it does.

The driver knows that, and you know, he notifies, you know, his leadership and they send a container out.

That's what should happen.

That's what should have happened in your particular case.

Right, but it didn't happen with me either.

With when it when it ate my trash uh uh Ben.

So uh how do how do we know?

When you're saying that it doesn't happen often, how do we know that?

Are we capturing the information?

Oh, if uh is there a list, because that's what I asked last year.

Is there a list of where it happened when it's happened?

Um I I'm basing it on the complaints that we get.

Uh if a container is lost, we get a call, or or the contractor gets a call saying that my container, you know, was lost during the you know.

So I'm basing it on the numbers of notifications that we've gotten, uh, which is a very small number.

Because if someone loses their container, they're not just going to let it slide, they're gonna need a container.

Right, but they'll think that it was stolen.

I mean, and that that's what some people believe that someone took the container.

That and I've seen that on next door, I've seen that uh quite often, and people have talked about that.

I I don't want to belabor the point because I want to make sure that we continue through uh budget hearing, but there'll be a some type of motion I'm gonna ask for that one as well, because I've I've asked about this before to get some uh additional definitive understanding of how many of these containers get eaten by the machines.

Though you say it doesn't happen a lot, we don't have any stats to show.

Um, or at least haven't been able to preside provide them at this point.

Granted, you may not have been prepared for that question, though I've asked for it in in the past.

So I'm going to uh uh have a number of questions again.

Uh I do uh like the program regarding the uh recycling at bus stops, but I want to know about contamination.

You know, I know if there's no education uh component on a regular basis, um, that happens.

And we talked about it in member Johnson uh motion to educate folks about just littering, period.

But we gotta educate folks about you know these recycle bins.

Um love them.

I have I was part of the first cohort in the city of Detroit to to sign up for them and love my bin.

Thankful to have my bin, but want to see a little bit more analysis on how um effective it is.

Um Southfield Yard, we talked about the condition next to the pumps.

I've been over there with um police officers who have to step in the water to uh fuel the city vehicles.

That hasn't been addressed.

I've asked that a several times sent uh photos, so I will again make that request to you as well.

Um sidewalks, we have the many of our flags, unfortunately, they crack up, you know, very quickly.

Uh we were over at uh on um Lasser off of Grand River, and uh newly paved sidewalk flags were cracking within months.

And so not sure what type of uh concrete we're using, why we're using that.

We we kind of talked about it.

You said it was designed to crack, which again didn't make sense to me why we would do that.

Um but I would like for what type of what type of concrete is that that's used uh uh along that commercial corridor.

I don't know that it's that is something I want to put in the executive session.

I I don't know.

I I know I know our city engineer was with us when we walked through that particular location, and he may have indicated to you specifics of the concrete mix that we specify.

I I don't know those specifics.

Okay.

So I do have a number of them, and I will be placing some items into executive session.

Won't be right now, I want to get the terminology uh correct because we're getting close to executive session.

Don't want to just throw stuff in there.

Um, but uh we will be placing additional items into uh executive session to discuss.

Thank you so much.

Again, thank you and your team as well.

Um we appreciate the work.

Uh member Benson, did we get you?

Thank you.

Uh and thank you to your team.

You all are very responsive.

I appreciate it as do the residents that work that we've seen in the third district.

Uh this past year we saw East State Fair uh receiver repaving.

Hopefully, we'll see that continued all the way to Grassha.

There is a huge need, and with the possibility of getting some affordable housing uh in that area near a school and on one of our more heavily transited uh streets, collector streets between Grashit and Kelly, that would be huge.

So hopefully we can see that repaving transit or move further to the west.

I know there may be a challenge with a different jurisdiction, but hopefully we can get that online.

Uh in addition, just glad to hear more conversations about grassing and east state fair as far as safety, traffic calming, what we see coming out of East Point along Grasship, heading south and heading north, uh, two lanes versus what typically will be considered four lanes along grass ship.

You all did some traffic calming work by actually painting the uh parking lane there, which really helps to delineate the fact that this is not two lanes, it's one lane, one being parking, which does help to calm, but seeing something far more formal would be fantastic in the future, and is knowing how dangerous grass it can be moving south from eight mile down to 94 now that the third district stretches all the way down to Mount Ellie, we'd really like to see what we can do to do more traffic calming along Grasshead.

And I know that the residents along East State Fair would like to see that as well.

We also have the two-lane road, which turns into a three-lane road when there are no cars there, making that very difficult and dangerous dangerous to transit.

Um motorized pathways, when we talk about safety of those who don't have access to reliable transportation or non-motorized pathways, become a definite uh mode of transit.

Not seeing them being maintained, bottlers come down, indicators come down not being replaced uh during times of heavy storms or even during snow, not seeing them being pushed, not seeing them being swept.

What is our plan?

And I don't see that in our budget.

What are we doing as far as maintaining our non-motorized pathways?

And I know in the past we talked about purchasing uh sweepers that were specifically designed for those narrower um spaces.

What are we doing?

Where can we find that in the budget?

And what was the increase or decrease from previous years to this year's so member Benson?

Uh you're correct.

We don't show uh you know the the within our budget as separate line items, you know, specific equipment or resources that uh we're setting aside for maintaining uh the non-motorized pathways, but it's reflecting in our overall operations budget uh in our street maintenance division.

Uh the the equipment that you referenced that we talked about last year about purchasing uh to to clear the the more narrow uh protected bike lanes.

Uh we did purchase three of those uh pieces of equipment that we use during the winter months for removing snow uh and during the the spring and summer months for sweeping uh as well as debris removal, and they've been very effective uh for us for uh for clearing those more narrow six foot wide uh protected bike lanes.

So even though it's not shown as a separate line item, it is comp contemplated in our overall street maintenance budget.

Okay.

And then what are we doing as far as the lineators when they break, when the bottlers fall, they fail, people drive or knock them over.

I mean, those have to be replaced on a regular basis, or it just doesn't do any good to have that.

So what are we doing there as well?

So we we we are replacing those.

In fact, uh I expect to have in front of uh council uh if it's required.

I'm not sure if the dollar is mount uh the amount of sufficient enough that it's gonna have to come to the body, uh, but we're gonna be receiving 500 replacement bollars, hopefully within the next few weeks.

We have gone out and surveyed all of the bottlers that were damaged during the uh especially during the winter months and identified those locations and we're as soon as those new uh bottlers come in, we're gonna be going out with our city crews to replace those.

Okay.

And then so a motion to place into uh executive set uh closing resolution urging a routine and advertised maintenance schedule for non-motorized pathways so residents know and can expect to understand what that routine looks like.

Okay, thank you.

There's a motion on the floor.

Colleagues, any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

And then on the solid waste, this was a huge conversation that we had between the administration and council about solid waste.

We had a new provider, uh, the cost of that, how much the general fund would be supporting, still receiving phone calls about the level of service that we're receiving.

And so oftentimes we'll hear, oh, I'm not getting my trash picked up.

You all have come out to uh community meetings in the third district, and I appreciate that brought the provider as well, but also hearing about a contamination as the uh the chair talked about, where where the providers is putting our recycle recycling bins into the solid waste uh dump versus putting that into the uh the recycling stream.

Can we talk about how we're monitoring that and then what type of accountability methods are being in place and being enforced to ensure that we compel compliance by our service provider so that it don't just say, ah, whatever, I'll just throw this recycle bin into my solid waste truck and just keep it moving.

So member Benson, uh I believe it was about five years ago, City Council uh had approved and actually initiated adding four uh positions to our solid waste division budget.

Uh these are uh district constituent relations positions, uh, and their sole focus is to monitor the work that our contractors do.

They go out every day, uh, and typically they'll go out in an area that was supposed to receive collection the day before to confirm that uh all service that was supposed to occur did in fact occur.

Uh you know, we also utilize those individuals uh when we do uh receive uh complaints that you know that the wrong truck or that recyclables weren't collected by the by the recycling truck.

We we have heard some of those uh you know, some of those comments.

Uh we've only been able to confirm it in one case, and uh when that when we confirmed that we had a very uh a very uh lengthy and and heated conversation with the president of the company.

Uh we've been monitoring that.

We haven't seen any additional uh uh indication that that's happened again.

There's really no uh financial motivation to the contractor to not utilize the appropriate truck uh to separate the to collect trash uh versus uh the recyclables.

But uh those four individuals that were added to our budget about five years ago, again, their sole focus is to monitor the work uh that our trash haul of contractors are performing, and we're really counting on them uh to provide feedback of it to ensure that the contractors are doing what we're paying them to do.

All right, thank you.

And uh thank you for your time.

And just to acknowledge what the president indicated earlier about the recycle bins, it looks like according to your numbers, we're about 50 percent of the city opting in to our recycling program that started in the first district well over a decade ago.

And so just really excited to see that our program continues to grow, and we've had these conversations within the Green Task Force.

Um, your team has been with us on Green Task Force site visits uh around the country, and it's really excited to see that these programs continue to grow, and now we see them at our bus stops as well.

And so glad to see my colleagues continue to uh support and the city continue to grow and put us in a space where we continue to be cutting edge.

Thank you.

And remember Bertha, I will say that uh when we put the first refactoring containers out along the commercial corridors, we had our recycling team uh go out and actually monitor how they were being used.

And we were very happy to see that people are using those recycling containers in the manner that they were designed.

We weren't seeing much contamination at all.

The right materials were going into those recycling cards.

We're gonna continue to monitor those.

But the initial feedback that we've gotten is that the contamination rates on those recycling containers uh that we put out in the commercial corridors has been very low.

Fantastic.

Looking forward to seeing East State Fair continue its repaving process.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President's three.

Good morning, everyone.

Good to see you.

Uh thank you.

Uh yes, for all of the work that we're able to do together.

Thank you for helping us on truck routes, um, for helping us make our streets safer in D6, um, and for even addressing problems that don't necessarily fall within the city's purview, like Ford Streets.

We're gonna get it done regardless.

And I just really want to thank you for that partnership.

Um every year I add money to sidewalks, but it does not seem like we need to do that this time around.

Um, and I and I am curious on how we roll this out.

Don't want to use um this time to ask that question.

We can have that offline.

Um, but do want to use this time uh to really say what a huge fan I am of the complete street works um that your department does, your deputy does for the city.

We see the grants go through PHS, and I try to get those through as quickly as possible to allow you guys to do your work.

Um, and I'm just wondering um if you can confirm complete streets really is around making sure that both cars, people, bikes, whatever modes of transportation are all able to be on the road.

Um if that's the case, wondering um if there are any gaps or any needs to um build on that infrastructure.

I know that as we build out the roads, we're missing some bike racks for bikes if we're encouraging biking.

Um so those kind of amenities, do we have those included in our budgeting as well?

So uh member Santa Gramara, thanks for the question.

Um also a huge fan of the the work that uh our complete streets team is doing.

So to answer the first part of your question, you know, the whole goal of complete streets is you know the spaces that like streets are for people.

So no matter if you're you know driving or biking or walking or rolling, the street the idea is that we're designing streets for all these different modes.

Um for the specific question on um, you know, what are we doing to update and like where we have needs?

So I alluded to earlier our safe streets for all grants that we're doing.

A big part of that grant is also there's a planning effort.

So we have our comprehensive safety action plan, which looks at like our crash data, what are the like non-motorized pathways and networks, and one of the things this grant allows us to do is to you know go through and update those comprehensive plans.

So, you know, this is something where we're gonna be doing community engagement, where we're gonna be engaging with city council, with residents, and with other departments, that the city does have a you know comprehensive non-motorized plan and safety action plan, and that helps influence our capital strategy.

So, where are we adding crosswalks?

Where do we need to add uh it could be traffic signals, it could be like push button signals for pedestrians, but the planning efforts gonna help um with a lot of community engagement to figure out like what are those gaps in our network, regardless if it's a city road, county road, or state road.

Through the chair, thank you.

Um, happy we're getting funding for planning.

Um, and then we find the money for for the for the infrastructure itself investment itself.

Um would like to support these efforts um and add to the executive session.

Um, if we can make it work through these discussions, 50,000 for bike racks as we build out more bike lanes, as we encourage more people to to ride their bikes.

Um, want to make sure that we can keep them safe.

So that's a motion, Mr.

President.

Thank you, ma'am.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

And for my second uh question, um, really this is going to be uh my my motion, Mr.

Presidents.

There's a lot of work being done um in midtown um in Chinatown, and um Sonya or Chang, I believe last uh budget cycle put a million dollars um into the area for more planning.

Um and what they have now is a really beautiful uh project, very walkable.

I I often think of Ms.

Maddox who who who walks these roads, these streets, um, who's always asking us to to think about the streets, um, and and this streets where where Chinatown development is happening is pretty bad.

The sidewalks are pretty bad, the streets are pretty bad.

Um, so would like to add one million dollars for the streetscape of Chinatown to the executive session, Mr.

President.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Uh, with my time, uh, we'll respect the two questions, but we'll add to um executive session for discussion, um, because these are questions that we asked uh via memo.

Um, but would like to add to executive session, these could become closing resolutions.

Uh public restrooms just in general, um, more creation of public restrooms in our parks um and in public spaces.

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

Discussion with discussion pro Tim Young.

No, I support, I just want to make sure is this like physical restrooms or it's like pork-a potties, the combination of both.

I just want to make sure what is that okay.

Thank you for that question.

It is that is you know, um, downtown uh Detroit Partnership did uh a pilot, I believe, last year, where they had a a mobile restroom.

Um so I think it's discussing all the options.

There's also a wide range of ticket prices for the kind of restroom that you build.

Um, but I I do believe as the city continues to grow as we build more parks, um, we need to make sure that folks are able to um have a place to to to rest and use the restroom.

Ms.

Cash?

Further discussion, uh Pro Tim Young.

I just want to say as a person who has literally been stuck downtown with no place to use the restroom.

I understand this.

I want to say I support it, and I want to join you on it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

I also like to any objections.

See none that action shall be taken.

Mr.

Corley, if you know uh that both uh Pro Tim Young as well as Member Callaway would like to join on that motion as well.

Thank you, sir.

There are no objections.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And last, I would like to add as well to executive session, a street vacuum.

Um, don't know if we can do this just yet, but might have to be a closing resolution.

Uh, but a vacuum again, we mentioned a lot of leads in the city.

Um, and if we can incorp incorporate this into a compost program.

Thank you.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Mr.

President.

I was one final motion, not regarding this hearing actually.

Um, but we did move PDD, I believe, um, the full budget to executive session.

Just a line item.

I know we're we're working on these things now uh for a uh framework study for the Boynton neighborhood.

We'd like to see if it's even possible.

I believe they discussed that they have more funding for these.

So want to see if this can be prioritized.

All right.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Member Waters.

Member Waters?

Oh.

All right.

Well, all the good morning.

Morning.

All the nice juicy questions have been asked.

Uh let me just um ask you about vacancies first and foremost.

How many vacancies do you have?

Member Waters, I I should have that number.

I I don't know, I can certainly get it to you.

We're actually in the process right now of hiring our seasonal uh drivers and labors before our construction season, so that number is changing on a weekly basis.

Uh so I don't have the uh the exact number, but I can certainly get that to you before the day is over.

I I I kind of like to know as soon as possible in the types of positions you have available.

Because what I'd like to do, Director Brandich, um, is to send it out to different people in the community uh so that they know that there are possibilities for gainful employment.

You know, so uh if you could um send that, send that to me, and I would really appreciate it.

And of course, I always appreciate uh the fact that you responds.

I can call you up or email you and say, hey, it's a pile of trash over here, over there, and you get it taken care of right away.

Certainly appreciate all of that.

Thank you.

So member Robert, so I while I don't have the exact numbers right now.

I can certainly comment on the fact that the positions that I know we have vacancies in uh include vehicle operators, uh, we're also hiring uh laborers right now.

I mentioned earlier that we always seem to have engineering vacancies.

Right.

Uh so I can certainly, in addition to providing the numbers, uh lay out the specific positions that uh currently posted and we're currently trying to fill.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you.

As soon as we can get this tax base up here in the city, the better off we all are.

Um just a little bit about I it's kind of two questions in one.

Just so that I kind of adhere to the standards here.

Um what do you think about roundabouts?

Are they safe?

And the fact that people want to be able to use golf carts.

Hello.

So the member Benson slide you a note to ask about roundabouts.

So roundabouts certainly have their their the purpose.

Uh you know, uh typically we you know, we found you know, throughout the region, uh not in the city of Detroit, that roundabouts are most effective when you have really, you know, large intersections uh that are receiving a lot of uh a high amount of traffic in all directions, uh and to minimize that potential uh for vehicles, you know, to uh have direct conflict with each other uh is is uh it's uh accommodated by by the roundabouts.

Uh and I've had this conversation with Member Vincent several times in a lot of different uh forms.

Uh but he was in my head alright.

We do have a couple locations within the city of Detroit that we feel uh that would be viable candidates uh for for roundabouts, uh but they're not uh roads that are under uh the jurisdiction of of the city of Detroit.

Typically they tend to be uh the larger state roads.

And an example would be uh if you can picture it the intersection where Grand River, Trumbull, and Martin Luther King all kinds of converge, those three streets uh converge.

That's an intersection where I and our traffic engineering division feel that there would certainly be some benefit to potentially considering a roundabout uh at a location like that at a location like that.

But again, that would have to be driven uh by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Uh we really uh, you know, for the streets that are you know wholly under or the intersections that are holding under the the city's jurisdiction, uh we really haven't identified uh a lot of locations where we feel that there's really a huge benefit to do be derived by uh constructing roundabouts.

Doesn't mean that we're not open to it, that we're always listening, uh, but we haven't identified any intersections uh as of now.

You believe they're safe?

Do I believe they're safe?

Yeah, I I definitely will well I uh if you look at the the statistics, you'll see that uh where roundabouts have been installed.

A lot of times they'll have a larger volume of accidents, but they tend to be much milder uh in terms of uh in terms of severity of the accidents.

You may have more uh more cases where you know vehicles are hitting each other at a really low speed, uh so there's a significant reduction in the potential for people getting hurt or even worse, dying as a result of the accidents.

But in terms of just the volume uh of accidents, if you look at uh data that SimCog is provided throughout the region, uh some of the locations where the highest number of accidents occur are where there are roundabouts, but again, fortunately, the severity of those accidents tend to be very minor.

Okay, all right.

Um you want to respond to the golf cart?

Golf cart?

What was the golf?

I'm sorry, could you restate that question?

Well, well, what people uh people are are saying that they want to propose, and I had some Detroiters to ask me about it, the use of golf cart golf cart here in the city.

On the streets?

Yeah, on the street or in the bike lane, wherever.

Yes.

So uh member waters, thanks for the question.

So uh for golf carts specifically, this is something that is governed by State of Michigan Motor Vehicle Code.

This isn't something where the city necessarily has discretion in terms of you know what vehicles we can allow on public streets versus not.

We really follow the state of Michigan for that.

So if a vehicle, if a golf cart, you know, is meeting the state of Michigan requirements, yeah, it can operate on city streets.

Um and if it doesn't, then you know it's treated as a I think it's a per it's a there's a class of vehicle below motor vehicles that can operate in bike lanes and sidewalks.

But my point is most of this is if not all of it is set at the state of Michigan motor vehicle code level, not at the city of Detroit or DPW level.

Well, thank you for that.

So I can kind of educate my constituents who've been asking about it.

I was like, I have no idea uh what we can do with golf coverage on the streets.

It makes sense that they have to adhere to the state guidelines.

Uh so if they come out on the street at this point, I mean there's nothing you can really do about it if they are adhering to the state guidelines, is what you're saying.

It would be more of a question for DPD, but that's something we'd be happy to research and provide clarification just on you know what vehicles are allowed.

So it's something we'd be happy to take a look at.

Okay.

All right.

Well, well, thank you.

Please do so that when they approach me again, I can respond.

Well, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Thank you, uh, Mr.

President.

And through you.

Sir, always good to see you, Ms.

Brothers.

First of all, let me say thank you so much.

You've always been so responsive.

Whenever I've had an issue with bulk pickup or people not picking up their things, you coming over and done this.

And so I just want to say thank you very highly.

I want you to kind of walk me through what is your plan or what have you done to implement smart roads in the city of Detroit or self-healing roads in the city of Detroit.

Really kind of take your time to wow me here a little bit.

You can.

And if you don't know if you need help, tell me, and I'll tell you what I'm talking about.

Yeah, why don't you leave that?

Okay, okay, okay.

So I I'll be glad to do so.

So a self-healing road is basically where microcapsules are put into the actual road.

And then bacteria filled concrete fills the cracks with memorable with uh with uh with minerals.

So it's basically self-healing roads.

So you had like a pothole, the pothole is formed, the min the bacteria concrete in the capsule breaks, and then you have shaped memory materials and heat activated asphalt.

And so this is something where the microcapsules rupture by cracking, the healing agent releases, and then the healing agent polymerizes and heals the cracks.

Polymerized means the chemically combined um small, simple molecules into large, complex chain-like structures, polymers.

So that's how the road self heals itself.

So it's a crack, it's no the capsule cracks, it fills that hole that's there.

So I was asking have you done anything like that at all?

Have you done smart roads in terms of being able to implement um being able to implement sensors embedded in the pavement monitor for try for traffic stress cracks, weather, it analyzes data in real time, it communicates with vehicles and traffic systems.

Oh, yeah, by the way, the uh this is super random, but I just want to bring this up.

Um the president was talking about the fact that the container was being swallowed.

You can actually you have to know you have to work with the private company because it's private, you know, because it's contract, excuse me.

But you could actually have an app that could be able to um alert people if that actually happens to them.

That's a different judge.

I I'll give you this information.

But as it but I just wanted to say to solve what he was talking about, you actually have an app that can actually alert people and you know, through the internet of things where you know you have you know, I those are literally physical items and assets.

Alert the resident?

Yeah, well, it's connected to each other and it's connected to the internet.

Yeah, it can alert the resident via their phone, via their mobile phone, via their mobile application.

Have you done any of that at all?

And if not, why?

And then I will convince you why you should.

Okay, we haven't.

Uh we we we haven't done that.

And actually, I I think this is gonna turn into uh us reversing roles and me asking you questions and you providing me answers.

I I I would be curious just to go back to your original comments about uh uh about these roads that uh uh that self-perform to a degree.

Well, were there any cities uh that were mentioned that are already uh utilizing this type of technology?

Well, it's it's it's kind of a pilot project right now.

So that's something that will be going to that.

So yeah.

But I could get you the information in terms of how it works and where it goes on.

So to answer your question, no, no, no, we haven't to this point.

Okay.

Okay, so I just wanted to ask.

So so I the the next question I wanted to ask you was something involving um, because I had a whole bunch of other questions involving uh different roads, different technologies that you could use.

I don't think you've used rubber or you've used um fiber or hempcrete or anything of that nature.

Yeah, we we've tried different technologies.

M Dotters tried different technologies over the years.

But we we tend to kind of come back, you know, to the you know, for for our asphalt uh repayment project as well as them.

We the the the asphalt uh mix that we use is uh is recommended and approved by the Michigan Department of Transportation.

So I I do recall, and it's been a while, I think about 20 years ago we did a pilot project uh that included uh where the mix included uh a component of uh the of re uh recycled or repurposed uh tires, I mean rubber from tires.

Uh and uh if I recall that you know the longevity success uh with those was not uh you know was not that great.

And this is actually an M DOC project uh that I believe was done on I-375.

Uh so uh, you know, we're uh you know, the you know the the the asphalt mix uh that we've been using now for a few years, you know, we feel confident that it's the uh the the best mix, you know, for this particular region uh of the country.

Uh I do just want to go back to a comment that member Johnson made about one of the streets that was recently repaved and at that point where the the joint smith uh that you're starting to see separation, you know, one of the things that we do in the city is that within a couple of years of a street being paved, we try to bring newly resurfaced, we try to go back through and apply crack sealing to those streets to address uh that situation that uh that uh member Johnson described so that we can maximize uh the life that we get uh once we uh newly pave a road.

So I am curious as to to get that information from her in terms of uh that particular street where that uh apparently didn't occur.

Yeah, uh I wanted to answer your question.

I'm sorry, you asked me a question about what cities are using this outside the country, but the Netherlands, United Kingdom, European Union, Australia, Sweden, uh no city United States has done this, so we would be a pioneer.

So, I think you and I need to plan a uh trip to go.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We gotta go a little fact-finding mission.

I I I I I I agree, but I just but I just want to say that.

One to kind of to kind of answer that question.

Um, and I wanted to say also I think uh New York as well as Los Angeles have implemented smart roads as well.

So to answer that other question I wanted to ask you.

Now I want to also go to you for artificial intelligence involving illegal dumping.

Have you done anything involving that at all in terms of cameras, computer vision, drones, licensed plate readers?

So we do have surveillance cameras that several uh uh locations throughout the city where we've seen issues of repetitive repetitive uh uh illegal dumping.

Uh uh we work in conjunction with the police department uh to monitor those locations.

Uh DPD uh actually provided me information last year, I mean last week of the number of vehicles that were seized that were found to have been illegally dumping at these locations where we have cameras.

Uh I don't know, Sam, if you have the number offhand in terms of how many cameras we currently have or how many sites currently have.

I don't.

Uh but we but we've installed several of them uh at locations where they've been identified as repetitive, repetitive illegal dumping locations.

And they've been very effective uh in terms of uh in terms of identifying those cameras do have the ability to identify the license plates uh of the of the trucks that are illegally dumping.

Well the reason why I'm talking about in terms of artificial intelligence because you can use the data from collected from that area to be able to determine or predict when somebody will engage in illegal dumping again.

And so I I don't I don't it it sounds like you have cameras there, which is good, and I think that's a good thing that you're doing, but I'm talking about in terms of being able to want to predict also for computer vision to be able to determine to see things that you probably couldn't see just through a camera.

I think that's something that's good.

Obviously, I think drones are a good thing.

Now again, I'm talking about for illegal dumping.

Right.

Is it not for policing or other such activities?

Let's this is a very narrow artificial intelligence implementation that I'm talking about here.

But I think it's something that would benefit you as a whole.

I and and but but if from what I see, but I but it's it's just out of curiosity.

I don't think that your department has really done anything in terms of implementing AI throughout its department at all yet.

Is that something you're looking at?

Is that something you want to do?

Is something that not?

I I suggest you do.

I suggest you take all my ideas, but uh please just kind of tell me what your plan is for implementation here.

Before we go there, would like to open up for public comment.

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

Going once, going twice, going three times.

Collection of public comments have now concluded, both online as well as in person.

Thank you.

So uh Council Pro Tem.

I'm sorry.

Um Council Pro Tem, thanks for the question.

So we do use um, so AI is very open and determine, but we do use computer vision AI for a number of things related to traffic safety.

So we have partnered with our Mobility Innovation Office on a project called Detroit Modes, where we look at our traffic camera data, we look at crash data, and we try to do predictive modeling for where crashes will occur in the city, but for pedestrians and vehicles.

Uh the other thing that we are uh that we have done is for road conditions themselves.

We have done a number of pilots to you know use the city's uh self or use the city's vehicle that drives around and takes imagery and LIDAR to see how can we use that towards projects or towards automatically seeing hey, pavement is deteriorating here or a sign might be missing.

So we always are looking for those AI opportunities for how we can be a smarter department.

Okay, so you do use it.

I made the assumption that you didn't.

I'm sorry, I apologize.

You do understand the assignment.

Okay, I was caused by the I didn't automatically do it.

I didn't really accept it that as AI right now.

No, I'll I like this.

I apologize.

So okay, listen, let me um just say this really quickly, and then I will be done here.

Um let me just say why I think that you should over a 20-year period implement smart roads and advanced materials.

And so I'll say some of this stuff and then we'll wrap and then we'll wrap up.

So this is over a 20-year period.

Your capital, your capital, uh your KPEX, your capital expenditures will be 60 to 80 million dollars.

Your OPEX would be six to ten million, that's annual, but your taxpayer savings will be 120 to 180 million, your revenue increase would be 80 to 120 million, the jobs created be 1500 to 2500.

The wage impact will be 90,000 average, no tech heavy.

Unemployment impact would um would decrease by 0.8 to 1.2 percent.

This is all projected.

Your performance gain would be 40, 50 percent efficiency, your net fiscal impact would be 120 million to 200 million dollars, and your return on investment will be 1.5 to 1.8 million.

I have much more things that you should use and why you should do it.

I will get this information to you.

I don't expect you guys to remember all this off the top of your head, but thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Always good to see you, because you know we go back like four flags on the Cal Act.

So always good to see you, sir.

And that being said, Mr.

President, I am done.

Thank you so much.

Colleagues, any additional motions before we release uh Mr.

Brundus and his team.

Uh member Callaway.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I'd like to move um, let's see, into executive session, a streetcape study for Schaefer and James Cousins.

James Cousins has is very dangerous.

Um, and it has been neglected over the years.

Um, quite a few of the businesses um have closed.

Um, and that is um for executive session and closing resolution, those two areas Schaefer and James Cousins for a streetscape study.

And I'm going to put in executive session, 75,000 per study.

So that would be a total of 150,000.

That is my motion.

That's my first motion.

Okay, so the 75,000, so uh we clear 75,000 for each study.

Yes.

Uh street skate surveys for both of those locations.

Yes, studies.

For both of those locations.

Okay.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objection?

See none.

That action shall be taken.

Thank you so much.

Um, my next one would be um another study um for the the use of recycled tires.

I know uh my colleague mentioned it, but I've been asking about this for a number of years, and we know that since you all have tried it, it has advanced in terms of its improvement.

Um the state is using it, and um it's being studied by um and researched through Michigan State University, and it's been very, very popular.

So things have changed since the last time our city has experimented with using um recycled tires.

So I want to put an executive session of $50,000 um just to study it and also put it in closing resolution, the use of recycled tires um in our streets um and on our sidewalks.

Colleagues, there's a motion for both executive session and closing resolution.

Um with discussion, pro Tim Young.

Member Calloway, I didn't know that.

I'm gonna talk about something else if I knew you were doing it.

Uh can I I would like to join you on that, every Callaway?

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken, noting that Pro Tim Young is looking to join Member Callaway on that.

And then um finally, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, only in the closing resolution, um, in the environmental impacts of using these um using recycled tires.

What is the environmental impact?

Because that's a huge discussion that is happening at the state level as well.

So I don't know if that that could just be something separate, or maybe I should add it to the original closing resolution.

If not, it could be a separate separate closing resolution, just the environmental impacts of the use of recycled tires.

And our sidewalk repairs and our street repairs.

All right.

Colleagues, is the motion on the floor?

Any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Johnson, followed by Pro Tim Young.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'd like to add to the closing resolution and executive session a streetscape for McClellan between Jefferson and Kirchville.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair.

Yes, ma'am.

I was just going to add a commentary that there may be some dollars in the budget relative to a streetscape in District 4 that we might be able to shift.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Pro Tim Young.

Thank you, uh, Mr.

President.

I would like to add, I'm gonna make a motion to put in the closing resolution smart roads.

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

Any objections?

Say none, that action shall be taken.

Mr.

President, I would also like to put in closing resolution self-healing concrete.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objection?

Say none, then action shall be taken.

And Ms.

President, I'd also like to put in closing resolution green concrete.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Ms.

President, finally, I would like to put in the closing resolution hemp crate.

Hip crate.

Using marijuana.

No, it's not marijuana, it's different.

No, well, it was it's marijuana.

It's not psychoactive, but it's marijuana.

No.

You can't you can't get high from it, but it is.

There's a motion.

There's a motion on the floor.

Any objections?

Hip creep.

See none, then action shall be taken.

And I just want to say your pothole reduction would go down by 60 to 80 percent, and your road lifespan increase will be 50100% if you take up my suggestions.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

Thank you.

Potholes, pot, hemp creek.

Got it.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Uh any closing remarks.

No, just thank you all for uh as always being very respectful.

So we appreciate uh the feedback.

Uh it's been uh from my perspective, a very great conversation that we've had.

Thank you very much.

Thank you as well.

I just don't now close out our budget hearing for the uh uh department of public works, DPW.

Thank you so much.

We shall now transition to public comment, as I've mentioned uh for the duration of our budget hearings.

We will have abbreviated public comment section.

Uh there'll be one minute.

We have one minute on the clock.

We're gonna start with our folks who are in the committee of the whole, so we can have our individuals that raise their hand, starting off with Mr.

Ronald Foster.

Then I have uh Talia Van Horn, and I have Angel Carter.

Those are the first three.

No, sir.

Thank you so much.

Ronald Foster, Talia Van Horn, Angel Carter.

And just reminding everyone, once your time is up, please relinquish the mic so that we can have the next speaker come before us.

All right, Mr.

Foster, floor is yours, sir.

Good morning.

Very briefly.

I want to say that uh director Brud is probably the coolest guy in administration with no facial here.

But he's always uh very responsive to um our community and different things, and um always been open.

I can always appreciate that.

I did want to take this time today.

I think it's very important.

Um a police report was made today, 260326-010.

And it was in reference to my time usually here.

I was a little late now.

I went to one of my parcels today, and there was somebody sitting out in the black impoller tenant windows with a license plate that read Debo.

So naturally I asked him who he is and what he's doing, and he apparently said he worked for the city, and he's sitting out here.

Um he didn't want to give his information.

He made some threats to Mr.

Foster in front of one of my parcels.

And so I think it's important that anybody riding private vehicles, they have to have decals on, identify who they are, be highly visible, have uniforms, and always identify who they are.

Fill in an empty seat will be Eileen Hammond.

Eileen Hammond.

Uh Ms.

Van Horn, the floor is yours.

Hit that button in front of you until the red turns green.

It's a button right at the bottom of the mic.

Okay.

Good morning.

It's a button right in the just there.

You go.

Now we can morning council members.

Good morning.

Power Detroit Community Outreach.

And my question to you all is just find out if you all can create a budget um helping us.

We empower the our community the members uh I'm sorry we um empower um the city of Detroit there are kids and families in need veterans we house veterans across the city of Detroit and we're just asking if you all can come up and create a budget to help us.

We're a self-funding program and we take members um not members but we take people from all over the city of Detroit we're out there in the streets homelessness is very bad and we are helping mothers veterans men young men we have boot camps and we're just asking if you can consider creating a budget for us.

Thank you so much.

Next speaker Miss Angel Carter Good morning um good morning President Council Tate and good morning to Pro Tim um coming junior um I want to send my condolence for your loss um seeing how you and my boss share the same loss and we might see them somewhere at the funeral um first I want to address and say Congress Tate um I would like to formally invite you out to one nine two three seven West Chicago all you guys um Congressman's for that to do a meeting greek so you can get a better feel for our organization what we do um I know that St.

Suzanne has been filing several complaints about our organization and saying how we disrupt the neighborhood but since we've been over there we started out with age on farter kids our age our far seconds was getting beat up shoes being taken uh we turned our facility into a veteran facility and as you heard yesterday somewhere our veterans have been robbed um beat for glasses and things of that nature police never did nothing they were supposed to send somebody to come to network never did um prior to that we had Cam Cass talk about people to us thank you we'll have someone uh touch space with you thank you so much uh our final speaker in person Miss Eileen Hammond good morning guys and good morning um women and gentlemen uh I came through I was at a shelter of cash and I was there until the end of March and I was with my for three years at the end of this month and we lived I lived there at Cash then they ship me to uh white Chicago and they put us on a bus me and this other girl and I've been there uh for three years already and he's been doing a good job and everything and and stuff like that and we do need help real bad you know yes ma'am thank you so and he's been doing stuff on his own the money out of his pocket to pay you know what needs fixing and what what needs fixing with both of his donations and hit and whatever he needs.

Yes ma'am all right thank you and thank you for coming down three of you for coming down today and we'll see what we can do.

All right next caller um actually we will now transition to our online callers how many callers do we have and who do we have first there are 13 callers online our first caller will be Betty A varner Miss Betty A.

Varner the floor is yours you have one minute general public comment uh good morning this is Betty A.

Varner president of the Sodales World Black Association asking the council please to consider uh allocating monies to help uh organizations pay the land use hearing fee when they want to do projects in their neighborhood to improve their neighborhood also asking the council if they would please consider uh allocating monies uh create a program to help um organizations do the work that they want to do to improve their neighborhoods with their neighborhood corridors uh we need help there are corridors that have been blessed that uh have beautified neighborhoods throughout the city of Detroit but you have many corridors that has not received the same attention so I'm asking that the uh the council please consider allocating monies thank you next caller please our next caller is William M.

Davis William M.

Yes, sir.

Okay, I'd like to start out by saying I think that um the city should be doing some public service announcements, especially new people know, you know, new to home ownership or renting, that um they should make sure that their trash is tied up and not loose.

That contributes to lither and also uh problems for our streets.

Uh also I I think that uh the city need to make sure that they don't that they do not stop yard weights collection before most of the leaves are down.

That's a problem, you know, that which creates a problem, you know, for our streets being flooded and our basements flooding.

You know, so I think there's a whole lot more that could be done and should be done, some common sense stuff that may not be common or knowledgeable to some of our newer people.

Uh so I think you know, more public service announcements, uh, you know, encouraging people to sweep in front of the house, you know, in the curb.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller, council president will be owner Papa.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

I I agree with uh Miss Barner.

Um instead of spending money for um speed humps that contribute to our health, the demise of our health.

Take that money and give it to the people who want to improve their neighborhoods.

Um I think that you all should also invite the people from West Chicago where they are having issues with HRD and have some wraparound uh resources for them because they seem to be doing a good job.

The people are coming and saying they're helping them.

We have uh strategic employment, we have um HRD with wraparound services, and I'm shocked that someone has been unhoused or homeless uh for for three years.

Um this is not a plan to help people, and I think we should try and help people with their own money.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Rob Volks.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Hi, my name is Rob Volks.

Thanks for your time.

Uh I appreciate it.

I'm the director of programs for the village of CDC.

We work from Mac to the River from St.

Jean to Mount Elliot.

Um, one of our largest problems within this area is unsafe vehicular traffic.

Uh it's a danger to pedestrians and other drivers.

And I want to stress that this is a problem that we cannot enforce or regulate our way out of.

It can only be solved by permanent traffic calming infrastructure.

Please do the right thing and appropriate funds to make our community safer.

I appreciate your time.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Chris Salmel.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Uh good morning, members of council.

Um is Chris Sammel.

I live in Indian village, and um I wanted to echo what the previous caller, Rob had just spoken about.

Um, I'm very concerned with the uptick in um speeding and traffic problems um in the villages, especially as our um the growth of our our area and neighborhoods um um continues.

We're having more and more traffic and then thus more and more problems.

I want to thank the council for their support of the speed bumps that has certainly helped, but a lot more work is uh needed.

Um, traffic calming uh measures and and infrastructure redesign.

So I uh would urge the council to appropriate funds and um uh and make our community safer.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Todd Scott.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Yeah, one minute general public comment.

Thank you.

Uh Todd Scott, Detroit Greenways Coalition.

Um, and I I gotta say, I've been following DPW for a long time, and and this is great.

I think the city of Detroit is really progressing and doing the right things.

Um, and I appreciate many of the comments from um city council members today, especially those involving complete streets.

I hear a lot of people on our social media complaining about specific things.

Street maintenance is still number one.

Bike racks is a big thing too.

And so we really appreciate um council member Santiago Romero's uh request.

And also um East Jefferson has gotten in really bad uh shape and uh here from a lot of folks who don't even use it anymore because it's it's in poor condition.

One last thing, too.

And so we hear from people saying the money should be spent on schools or police, and that's just not a possibility.

So I appreciate that.

Um DPW is is clear on um how this money can only be spent for transportation issues.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Josh.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

We have one minute general public comment.

Um everybody.

Um thank you for your time to speak today.

And I would just like to have all the previous um callers that are interested in the traffic mitigation along the Kirchhoff corridor and pushing for some permanent um traffic safety um abatement um in the area.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Ashley Raleigh.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

We have one minute general public comment.

Hi, thank you so much for taking my comment.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Great.

Um my name is Ashley, and I live in West Village.

Um, I am concerned with the uptick in speeding in our residential streets in the dangerous situations I encounter every day as a driver and a pedestrian.

I live on um East Lafayette, a few houses in from Van Dyke.

And um we frequently witness drag racing happening on Lafayette at all hours of the day and night.

Um it's only a matter of time until Monday gets seriously hurt.

I won't let my children play in the front yard.

And I worry when we are walking on the sidewalk as a family about speeding cars.

My dog was hit crossing Lafayette due to a speeding car that couldn't stop.

Um people are constantly using Lafayette in lieu of Jefferson because they can speed down it and avoid all the lights.

Um I would just uh like you to consider doing the right thing and appropriate funds to make our community safer by installing traffic calming solutions.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Council President, our next caller is iPhone.

All right, iPhone, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Speed bumps uh create pollution.

And uh the best way to do this if you want them is to get the rubber ones that have a separation in between.

You don't have asphalt, you're driving over rubber, and you can put one wheel down between the two rubbers.

So you don't uh and and it'll still slow down people, but we have bigger speed bumps that make it bigger uh like riding a horse in Detroit.

We need uh water fountains if you're gonna put bathrooms downtown, put water fountains that try uh can purify the water and filter it.

Like we had at Hudson's okay.

Uh compostable toilets.

If you're gonna go out in the park, you should look into that.

Uh but I uh I just started looking again at years ago.

I told somebody in legislative policy about it.

So that's something you can look into for the parks.

Thank you so much.

Next caller, please.

Council President, the next caller is going to be Jacob Graham.

All right, Jacob Graham, the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Hi, my name is Jacob Graham and I live in Island View near Butzel Park and Garvey Elementary and Boggs Elementary.

Uh we desperately need DPW to install traffic calming measures on Verner and Charleboy.

Uh we have all kinds of drag racing.

Two houses have been crashed into uh by cars speeding, uh, one on burner and one on Charlie Boy, just in the last 12 months.

Um there are there's school crossings, designated school crossings.

People are scared to use them.

And DPW, as they just said in their hearing, they only do things like raised crosswalks in areas where there are high pedestrian usage.

But if you think about it, that's completely backwards because people are scared to cross the street right now.

So of course usage is low.

Please uh encourage DPW to prioritize uh slowing down traffic and safety instead of helping cars go faster.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Council President, our next caller is going to be the caller, and the floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Hi, thank you.

Um according to your current figures, or at least 52% of Detroit residents without curbside recycling.

Um there are established alternative solid waste services in the city, such as recycle here, which provides a mean of making up for the other 52%, as well as educating residents about uh their curbside options.

Um, I would like there to be a consideration for increased funding for this program and other alternatives to help increase the education of residents about their options.

Um it's uh got a 20-year track record um for for providing this service to the city.

Um I think is really important um to uh to you know uh have people aware of so thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is going to be Gabby Weiss.

All right, Gabby Weiss.

The floor is yours.

You have one minute general public comment.

Hi everyone.

Uh my name is Anna Owens.

My partner Gabby Weiss and I live at 7840 East Lafayette Street in West Village.

Um stated that 97% of drivers speed past Moses Field Elementary School matches up with our experience of living on the street.

We're frequently woken up by late-night drag racing on Lafayette.

We walk our dog around the neighborhood and we bike around the neighborhood and have almost been hit by cars flying through the crosswalks on Lafayette.

We've seen multiple speeding cars smash into cars that are parked on Lafayette.

Um we live uh across the street from Zion Progress Baptist Church and have seen elderly congregation members almost hit as they're trying to get into their cars on Lafayette.

This road is extremely dangerous.

We urge you to consider allocating money for traffic calming measures on Lafayette to protect the residents who live here, the children who attend school here, and the worshipers who pray here.

We all deserve streets that are safe to navigate.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Marguerite Maddox Scarlet, floor is yours.

General public comment.

Yes, no, everyone.

Um big attention at the gun.

And in the past.

That's a clear need to be fixed because every time we have gone to us back and not it got the TFD guy but shut up that the city is the true and I did not know the rules the regulation under the city code under the state code shivers and nothing is that we need to find that anyway to use a thing to make sure the east the happen and we say that when we leave the another job make sure that it passed on to the next I am I am getting sick and high to keep popping up the button the shot please with each other and then keep thank you Miss Matt Ox are that takes us to the end of our public comments and it takes us to the end of our uh morning budget hearings before we uh recess uh Mr.

Corley, Mr.

Whitaker, anything you want to add.

Okay, um uh Pro Tim Young Is it too late for me to make another motion?

Nope.

Let's go ahead and make a motion.

Um I want it if it says if this has already been done, forgive me, but I just wanted to ask.

I want that motion for our traffic study for calling measures in the area of Purchal Lafayette Jefferson Werner from Mount Elliott to Connor.

Colleagues, there's a motion on the floor because it's a little bit further.

Yeah, I thought you did it's a little bit further than any okay.

See no objections, then action shall be taken.

See the marijuana stalk, not marijuana canvas.

Thank you for that, correct.

I just want to say about the hemp creep, that's bother me, so thank you.

So it's all good.

Thank you so much, colleagues.

Seeing there's no further business uh for the morning session.

We shall recess until 2 p.m.