Standing committee meeting Wednesday, April the 15th, 2026.

If the clerk could please call the roll.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Present.

Councilmember Scott Benson.

Okay tonight.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Madam Chair, you have a quorum president.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

We will now have invocation from Pastor Davis.

Is Pastor Davis available?

From New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church.

Mr.

Brox is Pastor Davis available.

Good morning.

Mr.

Brox, Ms.

JC.

Morning, madam chair.

Morning.

We have uh Pastor Melvin Davis joining us.

Good morning, Pastor Davis from New Prospect Missionary Baptist Church in District Two.

Good morning.

Good morning, uh Councilwoman Callaway.

Good to see you this morning.

Good seeing you, sir.

All right.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we honor you as the source of our wisdom, peace, and all that is good.

Well, we ask your presence to rest upon Detroit District 2, uh City Council, and upon your servant, uh, councilwoman Angela Whitfield Callaway.

God grant us clarity today and leadership, unity among the people, and we ask that peace will be in every place where decisions are made.

Well, Lord guide us and cover us and lead us in righteousness in your name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Pastor.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

Okay.

Is there a motion for um approval of the minutes?

Motion.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

There are zero chair remarks.

We have a 1015 interview with John Barth.

It's on the agenda, but he has um removed his um his um interview this morning.

He asked that we remove it, and we will reschedule him at a later date.

So we will move to the next interview, which is for Sharon White Parker, Border Zoning Appeals candidate.

Is she available?

And if she is, if she could come and take the seat right here in the center, and once you get there, Miss Parker, good morning.

You'll press the base of the microphone, and uh it'll turn green.

Yes, and good morning.

Yes, public comment.

Oh, okay.

Thank you.

And before you get started, we're gonna do public comment.

Um, we're gonna turn off public comment now.

And Miss Parker, you can stay right there.

Okay.

Public comment is now turned off.

Do we have anyone in um the room who would like to make public comment in person?

Seeing none, do we have anyone online to make public comment before we interview Miss Parker?

Anyone on um the call on the phone for public comment?

Madam Chair, we have 10 hands raised for public comment.

Okay, each person will have two minutes, and the first caller is the first caller is legendary Detroiter.

Legendary Detroiter, you have two minutes, and good morning.

Okay, legendary trader actually dropped off the number ending in 669 will be the first public comment.

Okay, caller ending in 669.

You have two minutes, and good morning.

Good morning, caller 669.

313, 444, 9114.

313, 444, 9114.

313, 444 9114.

Thank you for all the effort of the powers that be uh of this city and uh over Detroit Department of Transportation.

Uh I'm asking folks to pray for the drivers and the passengers and the creative mind that it would get better.

Um I just want y'all to remember that no weapon formed against you shall prosper.

Um you know, looking at my life and those who have had their foot on my neck.

uh uh of this city and uh over detroit department of transportation uh i'm asking folks to pray for the drivers and the passengers and the creative minds that it would get better um i just want y'all to remember that no weapon formed against you shall prosper um you know looking at my life and those who have had their foot on my neck uh those who have uh meant me no good and i don't even get paid for what i do and i want things to improve and just the present uh in the action things have improved i mean some folks get 60 dollars in a year some folks get 70 years and we get more than that and they don't do too much as of regards to improving public transportation so i'm just praying for my strength i want you to pray that i continue to be strong um i've been doing this over a decade i was looking looking at the just rewind the tape go to the old youtube channel go to the old videos of public comment not just talking about it actually uh giving out bus tickets and chatting with the people and doing bus rides along it's been a long journey and i ask for the bully you are a bully or you might have unity in being a bully but it's not good all unity is not good unity stop the bullying thank you mr cutting ham and thank you for your positive community engagement and we the residents of the city of detroit appreciate you sir our next caller is the next caller is legendary detrain legendary you have yeah can you hear me clearly Angela Woodfield Callaway District 2 representative for the city of Detroit remember I gave you that t-shirt that uh hoodie and you gave it back to me after I spoke out for Robert Bob Carmack Mr.

Carmack you gave me that hoodie back then I thought about it but I 12 that deep into it and then you did something that I found unscrupulous you said something about me do you remember what it was well now it's getting ready to come back and slap you in the face I'm Mr Root Nini gave me that name she wants that tag above her mama Kinesha Coleman DPD case 2011 112 mangela with Bill Callaway I'm gonna tell you about the AKA's yo uh sure sisters y'all and I got a line up a whole line of go back decades aka but I'm gonna tell you about you in district two I'm a resident over in district two district two is my stumping grounds I told you I lived in 1905 while I lived at about 12 13 addresses over there in district two and that's my stumping grounds and now comrade mallet junior is general corporation counsel for the city of Detroit and you internal operations standing committee chairperson I'm telling both y'all smoke D I didn't say dick I said D next caller is the next caller is number ending in three two five caller ending in three two five you have two minutes caller ending in three two five you have two minutes the next caller is and we can move 325 to the end of the queue the next caller is Betty Avarner Miss Verner good morning you have two minutes ma'am uh good morning madam chair and within the sound of my voice I'm Betty Avarn president of the Soda Elsewhere Black Association please say the date this Saturday the 18th we are sponsoring a free health fair and the time will be from 10 a.m to one p.m it's free for anyone who comes to the door through the door if you can live in the suburbs in Detroit Highland Park it does not matter you do not need to have any uh health insurance uh we will be offering free eye exams and screenings DMC will be offering free health services this will be at the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church 7151 Finco Avenue at said Finco and Monica that's a couple of blocks south of Livinois again we will be uh offering free eye exams and screenings there will be some free glass

DMC will be offering free health services.

This will be at the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 7151 Finco Avenue at Saint Finco and Monica.

That's a couple of blocks south of Livinois.

Again, we will be uh offering free eye exams and screenings.

There will be some free glasses.

Don't know if there will be glasses for everyone's prescription.

What there will be some free glasses.

DMC will be offering health services.

Please come out, share the word.

And if you don't need these services, please share it.

And we want to service as many people as possible.

I want to give uh Brother Cunningham encouraging words.

Please stay positive.

Continue to do the good work that you're doing.

You're very much appreciated, and you're providing services that people need.

So do not cater to the but uh bullying, uh, wasted energy, continue your good work.

God bless everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Far Farner.

And the next caller is next caller is 325.

Caller 325.

You have two minutes and good morning.

Caller 325.

Okay, can we proceed to the next caller and move 325 again to the end of the queue?

Next caller is uh caller William M.

Davis.

Mr.

Davis, good morning.

You have two minutes.

Uh good morning.

Can I be heard?

You can.

Okay.

First off, I like to say I think I think it's good that we're moving in the direction that we're going to try to keep City Detroit vehicles inside the city of Detroit.

I think if you work for the city and you have a job where you need to use your vehicle, you need to live in the city.

If not, you need to park your, you know, that city vehicle and drive your own car home.

And we should be paying the expense, the mileage, the insurance, gas, and all of that related, especially as high as gas is today.

Also, secondly, I think a greater effort needs to be made to keep more of our Detroit dollars in Detroit.

Because you know, sometimes it looks like I'll be watching these meetings like a lot of our dollars are going outside our city.

And I bet if you should do a report, very few municipalities around Southeastern Michigan purchase stuff, you know, for it to be going dollars to come into our city.

I think our economic power would expand more of our dollar state in the city of Detroit.

Also, you know, I think that uh we need to do something about the number of liquor stores in our city.

Uh we have the number of liquor stores as if we still have over a million people.

You know, so we need to find a way to reduce the number of liquor stores.

Uh, we need to find a way to make people aware of the fact that you know we have children uh going to school after eating edibles, you know, in a condition that can kill them because you know that they're lower body weight.

You know, so we need to make sure we're doing a little bit more, encouraging people to be aware of what's going on.

And you know, because like I said, I'm the vice president of the Barton Fire Neighborhood Association.

I know one of our schools recently, you know, I go up there, and you could smell you can read, you know, some of these children come in the school, weekly of marijuana, which is should be illegal because the parents are doing it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Thank you so much.

The next caller is good morning through the chair.

A few things.

Um always appreciate the invocation.

Uh like to go out of St.

Matthew 25, 34 through 40, but I'll just speak on 40.

And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you.

In as much as you have done it unto the least of these, my brother, you have done it unto me.

No, Jesus speaking.

But then he also says, let not the right hand, no, with the left hand that's gone.

So you don't have to brag about the good deeds that you do at life.

You uplift the spirit of another.

Most times when you keep a person's shame under you help them grow, then that is more positive than trying to get some credit for the work that you've done.

Secondly, I wanted to just talk about the Leland House.

I was very touched yesterday to hear the death of someone there.

I want to speak about what's called approximate cause, which deals with foreseeable things and unbroken chain.

And I think that when you're displacing people with high risk health issues, it is foreseeable risk of death.

The top three stresses in life are childbirth, moving, and death.

And so without providing the supports in these processes, I think that you do have to do on a great harm and disservice and are in that chain, unbroken chain of uh legality for for accountability.

Thirdly, I want to just talk about the second amendment.

I speak a lot about the first amendment.

This constitution allows for the second amendment, a well-regulated mission militia, right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be a fringe.

This purpose of the second amendment was putting government to protect the people from tyranny.

So anytime somebody stands up for oppression or against oppression, it's not bullying, it's not anything else.

It is because they have exhausted their first amendment, right?

And the second amendment then comes into play.

We have to do better and open up our grievance.

Next caller is Jadante Smith.

Good morning, Mr.

Smith.

You have two minutes, sir.

Good morning, ma'am.

Yes, sir.

So I want to say futures fuse cole Schaefer and Papa's uh is involved with the Rob Buster project, and that is uh directly connected to Demetrio's Pappas, who seems to be funding some city council members.

Also, Nicole Curtis at 451 East Grand Boulevard needs to be new since it baited.

She has a force in her backyard and has not done anything with that property in the front porch is falling down.

Kronos concrete at 3405 Gay Lord needs to be down zoned from M4 to SD2 and other residential in an entire neighborhood because this is a concrete crushing concrete mixing facility uh surrounded by the entire neighborhood.

Also, uh I request I'm gonna request and I have requested meetings with several city council members with our request a meeting with everybody with Detroit Ham Trammon Coalition to discuss this 3405 uh Gay Lord uh property in Down Zoning.

Also, the Maroon family gave the max donation of $8,325 to a city council at large member June 10th, 2025.

I want to thank some of the people who have helped me in the community, such as Ruben Carley, uh Cranston Anderson.

I had I had such a good time on your campaign, Creston.

I appreciate you trusting me to help with the campaign.

Uh Sharon Buttry, uh Tara Brown, I appreciate all the insight you gave me on research.

And I I definitely take some of your cues, like telling people have how the day they deserve.

Like people on city council need to have a day they deserve.

Um, also, someone told me not to make uh enemies politically.

I will go with any and everyone in the city, state, and federal government, private and public when it comes to putting on for my people and getting what we deserve.

There is also a charter mandated meeting tonight.

I want anybody in the sign of my voice.

If you have an issue, come and tell Mary Sheffield and all the department heads who are there what you have an issue with.

Also, to you, Angela Wilfell Calloway, you are very aware of what's going on in Kronos, and I've sent you emails.

Also, before you were run, before you got your seat, I kind of helped you run, and you don't give me any help.

And I sent you an email about Deion Larkins and Pontra train.

Check your emails and do your j.

Um, the next caller is the next caller is next caller is Google Pixel.

You have two minutes.

Caller, you have two minutes.

Hi, good morning.

Um, I was just calling because uh Can you introduce yourself for the record?

And good morning.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Tina Mahone.

I was told to um reach out to Council Woman Ramiro's office um with the home um that's in district three, um, where children um are waiting at the bus stop across from this vacant property.

It's been sitting for over three years.

Um, I did leave a voicemail with the address.

However, um, I did write down the address, and on Google, it shows 5744 Arrow Memorial Highway.

That's in District 3.

And uh other properties that should be on the demolition list but are not on the demolition list.

Um, 556 for a towns in 5730 Baldwin, these homes um have gotten worse and worse over the years, and they're in district three.

And if someone could please look into having those demo uh demolished or having the property owners fix them up to where uh the neighborhood doesn't look so terrible.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And if the um clerk could so note that member Renata Miller is present and she's on the screen.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes.

Just because of timeliness and the person's not here.

If the person who's indicating their properties that need to be taken care of in the third district, they can please call my office.

313 224 1198, 313, 2241198.

And I'm not familiar with any memorial highway in the third district, but more than happy to uh check into the status of these properties.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Are there any other callers?

Yes, we have uh call-in user two.

Caller user two.

You have two minutes.

Good morning.

I would like for answers to be given to the public as to why drugs is allowed to be sold at the Rose Parks Transit Center and also on Michigan and Washington Boulevard.

Um they stand there daily just selling heroin and crack cocaine while the grounds are not being kept up.

I think it also needs to be a policy when citizens context city council in general dealing with slum landlords that you all take effective action.

I've been watching over the years within a 16-year period of time of landlords paying off different inspectors not to be closed down when the places are totally inhabitable.

I've seen it in the second district, the fourth district, the sixth district, and unfortunately now in the fifth district.

So I'd like for council as a full body to get that address.

I look so forward to this evening time so that we can talk with an intelligent articulate mayor.

I really miss her for the 5th district, a classy lady.

Never ghetto, never ratchet.

Know how to speak to the general public.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other callers?

That was the last caller after you uh cut off public comment at 1004.

Thank you, Miss Brox.

Okay, we'll move back to our regular agenda.

And we do have Miss Sharon um, yes.

Um Attorney Keller.

Attorney Keller.

Yeah, just uh procedural matter wanted to raise um because we're in the unique situation where member millers remote uh participating remotely.

Uh we just need to make sure that that she remain on screen um during the entire meeting, and that if uh she has to leave the table for whatever reason, uh there's some kind of announcement.

Um, just for the purposes of the public knowing she's participating, and so that the committee can maintain a quorum.

Um thank you so much.

Um, member Miller, did you hear that from um LPD attorney keller that you must remain on screen?

If you should have to leave the screen, you have to make that announcement.

Mr.

Keller, thank you very much.

I did receive that notification in writing earlier because it is a private situation.

I would appreciate it being handled that way, but I do have that notification.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Miller.

Thank you, Attorney Keller.

We will move back to our regular agenda for our interview for the Board of Zoning Appeals, and we have in front of us candidate Sharon Y.

Parker.

And if you can introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you and your interest in serving on the Board of Zoning Appeals and who nominated you.

Good morning, ma'am.

Good morning.

Thank you for having me.

Um my name is Sharon Y.

Parker, and um uh Pro Tem uh Councilman uh Kombenet Young.

He nominated me for the position.

I thank him so graciously for doing so.

Uh personally, I am a widower, uh a mother and uh a grandmother of twins, the Duke and the Duchess, as we call them.

Um professionally, uh I have served in city government.

I went on to uh work for the Detroit News, was a victim of the strike, then and went on to be hired at uh UAW, Chrysler UAW, where I have landed uh softly, and I served there uh with the UAW.

Um publicly I have served in many capacities.

I serve in my community on different boards uh within Victoria Park subdivision.

I'm a lifelong um resident of the city of Detroit.

I love my city.

I've I right now currently reside in the 4th district, but I've lived all over the city.

I was born and raised on the west side and um located to uh downtown and then moved on after being married.

Uh so I serve I have served politically um with the 13th congressional district as the treasurer, 14th congressional district, same thing.

Uh um Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus have served and been a precinct delegate for over 25 years.

So uh in terms of the Board of Zoning Appeals, listen, it's just simple.

I'd love my city.

Um I just want to continue to serve in any capacity I can, and just to make sure things are done decent and in order.

And I I just you know, I know that this is what the city requires, and I'm here to serve publicly, as I'll continue to do.

Thank you so much.

We do have your um letter of application, and we do have your attached resume.

Yes, ma'am.

And um, I'm gonna ask um member Benson if he has any questions for Ms.

Parker.

All right, thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms.

Parker, thank you for coming today and your willingness to serve the residents of the city of Detroit.

Uh the Board of Zoning Appeals, can you just tell us your basic understanding of what that board does?

Well, I do know that um it consists of seven members, and the board um they are responsible for uh residential, commercial, and industrial zoning um appealing.

And so, but I'm I'm willing to learn more about it because never have served on that in that capacity, but I do know some things about it.

Okay.

So the Board of Zoning Appeals, they're responsible for allowing um applicants who are trying to build a home or residents of a home or industrial um property owners to request a variance or to diverge from zoning ordinance.

And so the zoning ordinance says that you are allowed to build to 30 feet maximum in this area, but the developer or the property owner wants to build to 35 feet, they would go before the Board of Zoning Appeals and ask for variance.

Okay.

Very rarely are variances needed for anything less than a hardship.

Most people want a variance for convenience.

My strong suggestion is never give a variance for convenience.

Uh I want a 35-foot built tall building.

Versus it's necessary because modern standards dictate 35 feet of clearance.

So you need to be prepared to say no.

I'm hoping that's what you'd be prepared to do because lots of people will come before the city of Detroit and say, uh, you're the city of Detroit.

We shouldn't, why should we comply with your zoning ordinance?

You are an old industrial city.

Um, you are a poor city.

Take what I give you.

And so that has been the philosophy in the past.

I hope that's not one that you would share.

Not at all.

And say that why can't you comply with our zoning ordinance, which is the real test?

You have staff, they'll make recommendations, and so I'm hoping that would be the type of uh border zoning appeals member you would be.

So, in your estimation, what would you bring to this body and how would you call make change in on the BZA?

Well, definitely I'm coming into uh the board uh with the city issues uh and anything at hand because that that would be my position to support that.

Um whatever, you know, and I would I would approach um any zoning issues in the same manner.

So be that if it if needs to be said, no, no will be the answer.

And um, so I just stand strong on that position.

That would be it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you, Member Ben's saying thank you so much, Ms.

Parker.

I don't have any questions.

I've read your resume and I've seen your letter of application.

We appreciate you even being out this morning, sitting through public comment, being so patient.

And um, is there a motion?

Um, I'm sorry, okay, I didn't see your hand.

Sorry, Member Miller.

Good morning, Member Miller.

Good morning, how are you?

Uh Chair Chair, Ms.

Parker, how are you today?

I'm well, thank you.

How are you?

Uh I am blessed.

I read your mess, your resume.

I am excited about it.

We share a lot of the same background.

And because you are an advocate for working families, yes, for um home ownership, obviously.

You've been in Detroit your life, your whole life.

I want to thank Coleman Young for um bringing you aboard.

I want to know are you your own person?

Do you make your own decisions or are you easily manipulated and or pushed around to make decisions based on other pieces, people's endeavors?

I am absolutely my own person.

Uh I've lived long enough to know how to do that with this life experiences, professional experiences, and I can handle myself um in such a way.

So the BZA, I'm asking because the BZA is the last stop.

It's like a last stop before anyone can have a project denied.

It is the last stop for a community appeal.

And oftentimes communities come together to appeal certain products that they feel deemed unnecessary or even worthy for being in their area, but they don't have the finances to fight.

They don't have the finances to go to circuit court if they do not, if decision rendered is not feasible for that community.

I I often worry because the people that are less fortunate that do not have the resources or have an attorney in their file, the file box, or they can pick up the phone and get someone to take their case, they're often left to take whatever's dished out to them.

And I would just ask from a perspective of you being a union person.

How do you feel about the community in Detroit?

As our city changed, we're bringing people back to Detroit.

We're saying, Here, come here.

I'm excited.

I really am excited.

But there's some things that just don't fit.

There's some things that just is not right.

And as a board of zoning appeals um person, you that's it's a great weight.

And because I am in District Five and there's a lot of development here, everybody uh thinks that this is the the this is the dumping ground.

And where we do approve a lot of projects and and and it's exciting.

But when we come to our neighborhoods and our mayor is coming back to our neighborhood, she's bringing development, she's bringing our uh uh resources for our children, our seniors for homeowners.

I just want to know how do you feel about the community itself.

Um, do you have a respect for them?

Do you believe they are they they're they they should come first?

Um is there a preference?

How do you view this position being the last person to make the decision when it comes to any type of appeal?

You know, I'm absolutely passionate, first of all, for my seniors.

Um and um and the and and the community as a whole.

Um I have a great passion for the city, uh my environment.

Um, I'm an advocate for um, you know, just being involved and and making sure things are done properly and decent and in order.

I you know, I believe in in the rules.

Okay, I know that something sometimes, you know, you have to look at circumstances and um and and what's brought to the table in order to make um vast decisions.

But I am I am someone that will examine um the circumstances and look at things and judge them accordingly.

Um, as with the body, um, you know, sometimes it takes you can't just make quick decisions on things, you know.

You have to look at circumstances, and I am I am such a passionate-driven person, and um, and I just believe in looking at you know everything that's presented, and and like I said, making a decision from that point.

Well, thank you.

I I watched one of the hearings recently, and I watched residents come ask the question, and they asked it repeatedly, and they never got an answer.

I'm on the screen because I am I suffered an injury, and I'm saying, what's the answer?

What's the answer?

I would hope that you will be someone that would say, hold on, wait a minute.

The question was not answered.

And they deserve a right to have the questions answered.

It deserves to be heard.

Yes, I've seen people sit there for eight hours, 70, 80 years old, eight hours without food, drink, and or even a lunch break just to fight for a cause that they were vehemently um connected to.

So I just I just wanted to hear you speak.

I wanted to hear your passion.

I wanted to see which direction you were driven in because it matters in Detroit as we bring development in as we grow our city as we bring residents back.

I just believe that we have to maintain civility when it comes to our legacy um residents.

I believe we have to remain respectful of the people that has been in Detroit for 20, 30 and 40, 50 years, and we have to always push for home ownership because while people get rich, which is good.

I make money.

I am a business owner myself, my family has been, but we have to push for the our entire community to have a piece of the pie to have home ownership in our our our amazing city.

So I just want to say with that, thank you very much for the conversation.

Thank you for answering all of my questions, and I have none further, and I do support your appointment.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Get well soon.

Thank you, ma'am.

All right, thank you, Member Miller.

Anything else from um member Benson?

Nothing else from me.

Okay.

Um Miss Parker, is there anything else you want to lead us with?

No, uh, just that thank you so much for having me.

I appreciate your time, and um, I hope that you consider my appointment.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for your interest.

All right, that being said, is there a motion?

I know that there's a resolution that needs to um um go to formal session next Tuesday.

So is there a motion to move this to formal session?

Motion, the recommendation to approve.

Okay, there's a motion to move line item six to formal session with a motion to approve, um, pending the supporting documentation slash resolution.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Miss Parker.

Thank you for having me.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, we are now under um unfinished business line item eight status of council member waters memorandum relative to request for information on status of mayoral appointments to the tenants rights commission.

This was brought back as directed from March the 18th.

I'll ask LPD.

Good morning, madam chair Edward King LPD.

Um, can we have an additional two weeks on this item?

I was in conversations with the mayor's office, um, the mayor's administration this this morning.

Okay.

Is there a motion to bring line item 8.1 back in two weeks?

Motion.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

King.

New business line item nine, law department 9.1 settlement and lawsuit of Tara Sherrell individually and as next friend of Darius Coleman Foster, a minor Joquan Sherell versus the City of Detroit.

Case number 24-004360-in as a Nancy, I as an impact file number L as in Love 24-00868.

RJB A to 0000 D dot.

Is there a motion?

Uh motion to approve.

Okay.

There's a motion to approve the settlement and lawsuit of Tierra Sherrell.

Line item 9.1, hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

I'm sure motion is in the uh formal as well.

Okay.

There's a motion to move line item 9.1 to formal session with the motion to approve.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Line item 9.2 lawsuit.

Settlement of lawsuit of Chafrean Bishop, may Dean versus Christopher Banks, case number 23-007671-N as in Nancy, I as an impact.

File number L is in love 23-00423.

S as in Sam Via's in Victor D as in David, A2000 D dot in the amount of 180,000 in full payment for any and all claims which may dean Jaffreon Bishop may have against the city of Detroit and any other city of Detroit employees by reason of alleged injury sustained on or about October 31st, 2022.

Is a motion discussion to discuss?

Motion.

There's a motion to discuss line item 9.2.

Mr.

Anderson, anything on this?

Through the Chair Graham Anderson Law Department.

No, I've no nothing to add at this time, but I'm happy to address any questions if this body has any.

Okay.

Well morning, how are you?

Hey, good morning.

How are you?

Okay.

I was right on session.

Um I was wondering.

Uh member Miller, if you can mute your phone, we're listening to your personal conversation.

Thank you.

Um I don't have any questions on line item 9.2.

Is there a motion?

Motion is in the formal recommendation to approve.

There's a motion to send line item 9.2 to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.3 settlement and lawsuit of motor city law, PLLC versus the City of Detroit.

Line item 9.3, settlement and lawsuit of motor city law, PLLC versus the City of Detroit, case number 24015761-C as in cat K as in Cairn.

File number Ellison Love 25-00031.

E as an egg B as in Boy G as in Girl Law Department.

This is the city shall sell the portfolio of judgments for unpaid property taxes previously obtained by Motor City Law on the City of Detroit's behalf between 2017 and 2024 to DAC Management LLC for a total of 30 million dollars.

We do have Corporation Council Conrad Mallet here to discuss this case, and this is line item 9.3.

Motion to discuss.

Motion to discuss, Mr.

Mallet, and good morning, sir.

Conrad Mallard, Corporation Council, City of Detroit.

This is one of those instances, Madam Chairperson, where when you don't follow the rules, ultimately you end up uh in a mess.

If you if you will uh having read the uh narrative uh that we provided at a certain point, because the statute of limitation supposedly was running out on the various uh uh claims that would have benefited the city had a collection, not just judgment, collection actually been made.

A decision was made by law department leadership to request an emergency contract from uh uh the city of Detroit for motor city law.

Uh but as you all uh know very well, the emergency ordinance requires that after seven days the contract come back up to city council uh for approval.

Uh it did not.

The issue here that made it difficult because in 99% of the cases, when City Council does not approve a contract, the ordinance says, the charter says pass practice clearly indicates that if it's not approved by city council, it's not a valid contract, and therefore, if you do work on that contract, you do work on that contract at your own risk.

Um this was ignored by both sides.

Uh Motor City Law then went about the business of uh excuse me, entering judgments in about 110 million dollars worth of cases.

This were numerous files where persons who had owned property in the city of Detroit.

Property got sold for uh back taxes, and there still was an amount remaining that was owed to the city of Detroit.

So the um the contract, unfortunately, did not require that there actually would be the necessity for collection.

It was only the judgments.

Uh to this day, it's not clear what the plan was.

Who was going to, in fact, uh uh collect the judgment, uh, excuse me, collect make the collections based on the judgment.

Um when this came to my attention when I went downstairs uh from the mayor's office.

I said that we needed to reform the contract.

It's not that uh I had made a determination along with the rest of the department leadership that this still was not a valuable opportunity, but it had to come before city council for ratification in the story.

We you you you all remember with some degree of pain that we had a contract uh uh executed uh uh where we had to pay out money to another factoring agent who had come up to the city of Detroit and said uh if you give us 75 percent of the dollars we collect from monies owed the city of Detroit from the state of Michigan, uh we'll get you the 25 percent.

That contract did not become before this body.

They uh were successful.

Uh the uh the body, in fact, ratified the contract, but of course, uh not without some degree of legitimate uh consternation.

In this particular instance, what we agreed, Motor City agreed with the City of Detroit and the Floyd Allen Law Group, that we would take the all of the judgments that had been collected, and all of the remaining files where there were cases that had not yet been filed, and all of that work product would be delivered, be delivered to the Floyd Allen group, and the distribution would be 35% to Floyd Allen, 5%, and this was based on the historical work that Motor City Law had done.

Now remember, the arrangement that City of Detroit had with the Allen group was that Motor City was going to be free riding.

They were going to get paid for work that they had done, but they were going to get, but they were not going to be required to do any more work.

Now, in exchange for that, we were supposed to get an accounting.

That is, let us see all of the files, let us understand completely and totally what you've done in terms of judgments achieved, law cases filed, so on and so forth.

If you've collected anything pursuant to this contract, where it went, and did the city of Detroit get any money.

That should have been a very, very simple process, because the contract that the Motor City and Floyd Allen Group would have entered into was already endorsed, agreed upon, and made public by the document that had been approved by the Detroit City Council.

It should have been a one-page agreement, it should have taken five minutes, it should have been signed, we should have been, we should not be here today.

Motor City made the determination that actually they had made a bad deal.

I think that this honorable body is painfully aware that the City of Detroit has a relatively contentious relationship with the Wayne County Circuit Court bench.

There is a proclivity to side with the plaintiffs, particularly when they claim uh the when the when the plaintiff is able to uh at least articulate that somehow or another the city of Detroit is trying to take unfair advantage.

In this particular instance, Motor City argued that they had done all of this work and that the responsible party for taking the contract up to City Council for approval was the responsibility of the City of Detroit.

We failed, not them, and therefore uh that was the argument that they made to the Wayne County Circuit Court.

Uh it it it it the case uh frankly should have been uh dismissed, it wasn't, and we made the determination that we would at least uh pursuant to the judge's suggestion, uh get a mediator, and so we got Judge Victoria Roberts, uh, and I think uh Judge Roberts is is a very, very, very effective mediator.

Uh even she in this case was not able to get quite the resolution that we were all looking for.

Ultimately, uh the parties agreed that if a factoring company, a company uh uh councilpersons who buys these kinds of judgments, who buys these opportunities, who believes that they can value uh the portfolio, once they have valued the portfolio, uh they will make you an offer, and it's going to be an offer of cents on the dollar.

Chairperson Callaway uh uh often voices concern, legitimate concern, that the city settles and we often settle for cents on the dollar, and the council in general, as a complete body council person, chairperson uh Callaway in particular, uh uh uh remains concerned and doesn't hesitate uh appropriately to uh voice her concern and disappointment sometime.

The bottom line is this is one of those cases where we are only going to get cents of the dollar.

These cases, these files are literally now decades old.

If you can find the people in terms of the service or process, if you can actually convince them that the debt they owe is one they have to pay, uh have to pay, can you get them in court?

Can you go through all of the difficult collection process?

Now we were willing to allow that process to be managed by the Allen group because frankly, one, it would have given us a good opportunity to take a large amount of work associated with, frankly, a large economic opportunity for a black law firm located in the City of Detroit, who has a long-standing relationship with the city, number one.

Number two, by having the Allen group do it, uh we would have had a lot of control over outcomes.

That is to say Mr.

Smith is 75 years old, admits he owes the money, uh it's a $15,000 judgment.

Uh he wants to offer us three.

Now, I guarantee you the Allen group is going to take that.

Uh, because Mr.

Smith is 75 years old, $3,000 on a retiree's income is a lot of money.

And it's cents on the dollar than the City of Detroit would have taken it.

What we uh uh the collection company is going to press harder than that, uh, just so that the council is aware.

The bottom line is is that we will be able to intervene as you do with the collection agencies that worked for DAH, but it will not be as direct, it will not be as smooth, and it will not be as easily achieved.

But at the end of the day, uh uh they are willing to buy this portfolio, uh, and I'll have Eric, uh, my uh colleague who just joined us, take you through the terms.

But if you look at it, uh this remains uh a good deal.

Uh we are going to achieve a large financial result over the course of time, admittedly, uh, with someone else carrying the city's water.

Uh Motor City will have to wait for their payout, the same as us.

Uh and we uh compensate uh the Floyd Allen law firm for the work they've done uh and for the risk that they took.

Uh I I strongly recommend uh that this agreement be endorsed, and Eric uh once you receive permission from the chairperson, could you take them through uh the terms?

Discussion.

Discussion, Member Benson.

Madam Chair, and I appreciate this explanation, but I'm a slow swimmer.

Can I need to ask the corporation council some questions why I understand where we are on this?

So corporation council looking at the letter from Mr.

Gabo dated the 31st of March, it indicates we're selling a portfolio of judgments worth 30 million dollars.

Is that accurate?

I I don't know that it's accurate to say they're worth 30 million dollars.

That's the face amount of the judgment, but of course, if you can't collect it, it's it's worthless.

Let me change that back then.

So the face amount of the outstanding tax liabilities is 30 million dollars.

Uh no, it's actually.

Can you answer that, sir?

Can you um um introduce yourself for the record?

Oh, I'm sorry.

Uh Eric Gabo, um, I work for the law department.

But the the amount of the judgments is microphone is the amount of judgments is uh is actually more than 100 million, but of course, um there's a question whether that can be collected.

That's always the question in these cases.

Let me stop you there.

You gotta help me slow down for me.

So the letter says for a total payment on behalf of the Detroit to a third-party DAC management for a total payment up to $30 million.

Correct.

So where's a $30 million number come from?

Yeah, what what the proposed agreement is that this uh other company that has agreed to pay for the portfolio judgments, they would have a certain amount of time, uh, a few months to uh get all the files and begin attempting to collect them.

Yes, DAC management, correct?

DAC, yes.

If they feel that this is um uh a good deal for them, we would hold a closing, and at that point they would pay $10 million up front, and that would be split among the different parties that we talked about.

After that $10 million, so that would be Member Benson?

$10 million to be split if they agree that the $30 million value or what whatever the $30 million, however you want to say it, they'll pay $10 million for it.

And then once they pay $10 million, that will go $50 Mortar City Law, 50% City of Detroit, $35% Mortar City Law, and then 15% Floyd Allen?

Correct.

And then they would continue uh working on the files and collecting, and anything they make after that closing, they would continue to pay up to the $30 million figure.

Okay.

So once they pay the $10 million, that $10 million is a payment against the total $30 million?

Correct.

The total would be $30 million.

Which is what they believe they can collect.

Uh they probably believe they can collect more than that because you know then they can't.

That's what they're better.

But but no one knows at this point.

We haven't seen the files uh you know, it's always a risk whether we can collect anything or whether they can.

So they're willing to come in at $10 million hard money.

Correct.

With an additional $20 million that will be split amongst the three parties, and then anything over that $30 million that are able to collect is just $100 percent them, correct?

Correct.

And DAC.

But they're not in this first 10 million, or are they?

No, they're they're the ones, councilperson paying out.

Yeah, well, they're not re able to receive any revenue on the first 10.

So that's hard money.

That's money cost speculation.

That's right.

And then the additional 20 is still speculation, correct?

They don't they still don't see any money from that that's a good idea.

It's it's it's all councilperson, it's all speculation.

I mean, it the the the as the as in in the preamble of my uh uh comments, uh these cases are decades old.

Uh so the the it it it you you have a judgment and you have a value, uh face value of 110 million dollars.

The question is, how much of that can you collect?

And this is their business.

Uh, and this is why they believe that even despite the age and the compla age of the of the files, the complexity of the task, that they are willing to go forward under these terms.

Okay.

And the advantage for the city is that we be paid up front.

DAC is the one taking the risk that they'll be able to collect uh a large enough amount to make it worthwhile, but we get paid first.

And we weren't gonna see anything from these, it says from the year 2017 in your letter.

Correct.

So these are at default dates of 2017 or age payables, i.e.

back taxes prior to that?

Yes, back taxes prior to that.

Okay.

Yeah.

And so the remember, council person, the law department was not interested in doing this work in the first place.

Uh it was going to be uh to use an old term, the squeeze just simply in the estimation of the law department was not worth the Jews.

Uh uh Motor City Law, uh Keith Stalworth, other people uh got involved and kept pounding the table that yes, it was, and and you know, bankrupt city, how could you possibly walk away for an opportunity for collection uh of this?

They they what they thought they saw was an economic opportunity.

Um I think at the end of the day, uh while they were able, councilperson to get the judgments, even they were intimidated by the difficulty of the task of collection.

And just so I'm clear, and I'm not an attorney.

The judgments was that that sounds like an easy lift when you've defaulted.

Most of them were defaults.

That's right.

Most of the people uh uh did not come to court after they had been properly served.

So pushing paper was the heavy lift for motor city law.

The real work comes in actually getting the money.

That's right.

In this situation, $10 million on the table, paid, City of Detroit 50 percent.

So we walk away with five million dollars, no matter what, yes on this deal.

That's right.

If DAC is able to collect more, we will get more at the 50 percent rate.

That's right.

Correct.

And it's up to them to go off and do the heavy lifting of collections.

That's right.

Okay.

But we walk away with $5 million up front on money we didn't think was going to come in anyway.

That's right.

If they are superstars, they can collect $110 million and they will enrich themselves based on old payables that we were not going to be able to collect anyway.

We get $5 million plus 50% of whatever they collect up to 30 million in total as the aggregate body, and then whatever they get beyond 30 goes right to them, and everybody walks away with some money in their pocket.

That's exactly right.

And no additional litigation, everything is wiped clean, and we get to move on and to business as normal.

Absolutely.

The only only thing that I would add for council person calloway, I would put this five million dollars on amounts collected when you see me next uh budget term.

Don't speak too soon.

We had a fabulous year.

Um soon I haven't asked my questions yet.

I think those are my questions, madam chair.

Thank you.

Um, thank you all so much.

Um this is very troubling for me.

Um at whose expense um is this part of the 600 million dollar overassessment of over a hundred thousand properties um from 2010 to 2016, and then all of a sudden, 2017, this comes up.

I believe this is a result of that.

I see I'm sensing exploitation of homeowners.

They walk away with nothing.

We are sitting here um discussing properties that were lost to foreclosure because overassessment by us against our own residents and homeowners.

So I'm not thrilled about five million dollars, ten million dollars.

I'm not thrilled about any of it.

Somebody saw, smell, just like when you there's blood and water, you know, the whales start circling the wagon, start circling whatever animal beneath the sea is injured and they attack.

And that's what's happening at the city, and that's what this case means to me.

Um, this is at somebody's expense.

This is at our homeowners' expense, and we've not talked about them.

What do they get out of it?

Are they going to get their money back?

Are they going to get what they were overassessed illegally?

Because at the crux of this, it's them.

Nobody's talking about the them, and the them is the homeowners.

That's where all this is coming from.

That's that's where all this is coming.

Because if you look at the dates, somebody saw and smelled blood in the city, and they circled the wagon at the homeowner's expense.

But these properties, this these the the um the property taxes are people behind property taxes behind properties mostly are people, families, senior citizens who lost their home because we overassessed them.

That's the blood of this.

That's the crux of it in my opinion.

And tell me if I'm wrong.

But this is all the nexus is the people's property.

And right around 2017, somebody saw blood.

They saw people not being able to pay their property taxes and being over-assessed.

And I I can appreciate the conversation, but it's bothersome to me that we not even talked about where the property taxes are coming from and how it became a big magnet for collection, so somebody can make some money.

This is all about people making money at somebody's expense.

And it's the people's expense, it's black people's expense.

And I don't like it.

Um, and then the city continues.

Nobody is held accountable around here.

Money is embezzled, contracts are entered, supposed to come to council since I've been on here.

It doesn't come to council.

We just, okay, doesn't come to council.

If it didn't come to council, it's not a legal binding contract.

If they've done something on their own and it wasn't a contract, it wasn't approved by this honorable body.

I don't think there's a contract, but there is a contract because somebody's been doing some work without a contract.

So I I mean, I mean, I'm no expert in any of this.

I just see a nexus here, connection.

2016 from 2010 to 2016, almost 2017, there was an overassessment by 600 million dollars of black folks' property.

Nobody talks about that anymore.

Nobody talks about that, but they can't get their money back.

But we're allowing um the um DAC, the MCL to create these groups at the expense of people losing their homes.

And that's um if I'm wrong, please correct me.

I don't mean to be wrong.

Um, but this is troubling for me.

I know we're in a um between a rock and a hard place.

I get it.

It seems like our hands are um handcuffed behind our back.

We say we have a contentious relationship with the Wayne County Circuit Court.

I don't know why that is.

Maybe we should take them some coffee.

Whatever we've done wrong, take them some coffee.

Let's let's build a better relationship.

Let's start right there.

So we can get some more favorable decisions.

But it's like, you know, they they're against the city.

Everybody's against us.

But they come here to make money, they come here to benefit, they come here to profit off of the despair of people.

And that's what I don't like.

So somebody tell me, is this a result of the overtaxation of the 600 million, 100,000 homes?

Is does this property tax collection have anything to do with those properties?

I need to hear that.

Because I think it does.

Mr.

Mr.

Mallet or your partner.

So the team member.

Eric, I don't I've you and I have never discussed this, and so I I really don't have an educated response.

Um clearly these are legal obligations.

Um certainly an argument could be made that it is the responsibility of this honorable body confronted with an opportunity like this to collect taxes legally owed, the failure to do so uh is is questionable at best.

Uh but I understand the hesitancy and but cannot and will not make uh any assertion that persons affected uh by the collection efforts in this particular settlement um did not have or or or or or or may or may not have responded to the ordinance given opportunity to protest uh over taxation.

I don't I don't uh I I can't make that representation.

Uh Councilmember Callaway, I think uh one thing that's important to to understand here, and I don't know the full background, I probably should, but I believe that the um the target of the original lawsuits was not just a small family that owed some money.

I think that maybe not a hundred percent of them, but I think the focus was more on either commercial properties or residential properties where they owned more than one property.

In other words, someone who's you know, maybe a company that has five different rentals, so it's not focused on the small individual who owes money.

Um that's at least my understanding of how this uh was ruled out in the first place, because they were sensitive to that fact that you know people have been overassessed and there are people losing their homes, but I believe that that's not how they were going at it.

That the focus wasn't on larger commercial properties, uh residential properties where there were multiple properties owned by one individual.

And if you remember, councilperson, when we presented the Allen group contract, there were three different tiers.

There's a significant number of owners who don't live in the state of Michigan.

There's significant number of owners who live in the state of Michigan, but not the city of Detroit.

The smallest bucket of persons were affected by this particular opportunity would be people who own property and who lived in the city of Detroit.

So we the the particularly the opportunity to bring uh uh to justice those persons who don't live here, uh both out of the state or within the state, but not in the city, again is is one that uh I wouldn't encourage this honorable body to take advantage of.

Um Mr.

Um Member Benson, give me a minute, um, and we'll go right over to you.

So um I'm I'm not gonna forget this conversation.

My hands raised.

Okay, I see you, Member Miller.

I still have the floor, though.

Um they're responding to my questions, and I'll go to Member Benson, then to Member Miller.

Um I'm asking, and I'm going to put it in writing that any money that the city receives from this effort go into a trust, some type of fund to um pay people what we owe them.

Because we owe people money.

Um we still don't pay our bills.

There was a person I met with last week.

We hadn't paid them since May 2025.

They finally got paid on Friday because I got involved.

Um it's tough living in the city, it's tough doing business in the city, it's tough paying property taxes, it's tough paying auto insurance.

It's tough living in this city.

And that being said, I'm gonna ask LPD um to draft some type of memorandum.

I don't know what type of memorandum that should the city receive any money from this effort, they go into a trust fund to pay anybody impacted by the overassessment of their property taxes and lost their homes to foreclosures.

We we have to make people whole, at least put forth some effort.

Let's pretend that we care about them.

Let's pretend.

In this effort, and and and I don't know what the legalities are, I don't know what the steps are.

I just know that this should not go into the general fund.

It should go into a separate fund, and I don't know how that would work, Mr.

King and Mr.

Keller or Mr.

Mr.

Mallet.

Um I just don't know, but um this is not a windfall for the city.

It's not um people are on the other side of these um discussions, and we're not um considering them.

And I don't believe that they were all um owners of multi-properties, sir.

I don't believe that at all.

I believe that there was a wide net cast, and a lot of people who were single family um homeowners were caught up in that net.

I don't believe, and you'd have to show me something in writing.

I am gonna ask for a list of the properties that are involved with this.

I want to see everything.

I just want to um read it for my own reading pleasure and and and edification because I want a better understanding of what occurred here, but I do believe a wide net was cast, and people who were single family homeowners were caught in that net.

I cannot believe, and and and some of the people live out of town.

Some of them live right here, is probably still doing business with the city, still not paying their property taxes.

But anyway, I um I'm gonna ask LPD to just um maybe pencil um what I'm asking, and I'll do a better job of explaining what I'm asking for.

But if you all can just note, Mr.

Keller and Mr.

King that I'm asking that um a fund be set up and that none of this money that the city will receive go into the general fund, that it go into a separate fund to benefit um homeowners.

Um folks who were impacted by the overassessment of their homes, they probably don't even live here anymore.

But if they still live here, maybe we can um find them and help repair the homes where they live, or um fix up some of the all the vacant houses that we have in the city and give back to some people.

But I'm not feeling good about this.

I know we yes, Mr.

King from LPD.

Is that a motion?

That is a motion, sir.

That is a motion.

That's a motion.

Motion.

Thank you.

Hearing no objections, um, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

King and Mr.

Keller.

Member Benson and then member um member uh Miller.

Right, thank you.

Um just looking at the letter, it indicates that there are 2900 defendants approximately who were sued over 13,773 properties, which is about 4.75 properties per defendant, which would give credence to the multiple properties, i.e.

a large portion of these could be investment properties.

I would be interested in getting the uh the chair's questions answered as well.

And I would think um involving Alvin Horn in the assessor's office in this conversation.

Not sure what the status of a database around the the foreclosed properties is, but there could be an opportunity just to do some um uh overlap to see um how many of these properties would fall into any type of uh I'm not even sure it was a profile of people who lost their properties, anything of that nature, to kind of flesh that part out.

My question to corporation council is what's the time sensitivity of this?

Are we under a deadline this has to be approved by city council within a month, it has to be approved within a day.

What's the what's the sense of urgency here?

Uh there's no um clear uh deadline, but the court has been anxious to get this resolved.

They've in fact I just had a another hearing on that this morning because we've proposed this for for some time now, and they're uh not pleased that it has taken this long, and I've had to explain the process to them.

Obviously, the parties um involved would like this done as quickly as possible.

And again, the longer that it goes on, the less likely there is for a recovery because of the age of the the judgments.

So then here's my question.

Um if there was a motion to bring this back in three weeks to give the councilman the opportunity to in this body to meet with Alvin Horn and talk to the Cessor's Department just to verify that there weren't a there wasn't a huge um group of homeowners, single family who just happened to lose their homes for the worst possible reasons that these really were the vast majority of investment properties.

Um how would that impact your ability to get this done?

Um I don't think that it would uh would prevent it from happening.

Uh again, everyone involved is anxious to move it as quickly as possible, but I think a three-week uh delay, I I don't believe would be really significant.

Okay.

I'm not sure.

I don't and I don't know if the chair would be open to that, but I I'd like to make sure so at least some answers, some questions got answered before we took this to the full body and similar questions come up.

I mean, who really are we chasing for past delinquent taxes when the people don't own the property anymore?

Are we now chasing those put insult to injury?

I lost my home, overassessment.

Now you're coming back to me again for what I owe the city of Detroit.

I mean, there there is a there is a narrative there that that might not be one that people want to talk about or or vote on anytime soon.

So I I think giving people the opportunity to be educated on who we're really looking after would be helpful in all parties.

Thank you, Member Benson.

And before I go to Member Miller, um, this just didn't happen overnight.

But all everything uh in my opinion is brought to the council with such a strong sense of urgency.

The sky is falling now.

And and and we're our backs are forced up against the wall.

Every single time there's something major like this, you know, we gotta work expediently.

We gotta work under pressure.

We gotta do this um because it's urgent, it's an emergency.

But this has been going on for a while.

I would think, and I and I don't think you were um corporation counsel at the time, and I don't think I was sitting on the council at the time.

Um so we weren't here.

The two of us weren't here.

We were not a part of this.

But this side was.

So I'm trying to understand why wasn't the council involved in this when it first started happening.

Why is it all these players are involved?

You've already decided how are you gonna split it up 50 percent to the city, MCL 35 percent, Allen group 15 percent.

Corporation council wasn't corporation council at the time.

No, um Madam Chair Curts.

From what I'm looking at the dates.

No, from the Corporation Council.

The the the scope of the problem, you're right, came up prior to your tenure and mine.

The agreement in front of you is one that was endorsed uh particularly by uh current leadership of the law department.

Absolutely.

Right.

So I just want to make sure that uh uh the chairperson is aware that yeah, I I'm responsible.

Yeah, you're this settlement done.

You're responsible for today.

Yes, ma'am.

But you're not responsible for what happened yesterday, really, but you really are indirectly because you have to try to solve a problem that started occurring yesterday, because it now is in front of us today.

So it is your responsibility, but it wasn't yesterday.

Yes, ma'am.

Years ago, because you weren't corporation counsel, but you are corporation counsel now.

And we we we thought, madam chairperson, that when we brought to this honorable body the Floyd Allen group uh contract, we really thought we had solved the problem.

Yeah.

Uh uh I I know that uh Monica Hunt and I came and briefed you.

I know that Monica Hunt and I came and briefed uh councilperson uh Benson.

We thought we had solved the problem, we thought that we had managed this.

This lawsuit was new.

Uh this was a disruption, this was this was a failure uh as far as I'm concerned uh on behalf of uh Motor City to keep its word.

I I can assure this honorable body that we would not have brought the Allen Group contract to City Council if we were not a hundred percent certain that motor city law had signed off.

Uh they changed their mind.

That's how it is that we came to be uh in this place uh today.

Um when do we bring um the Allen group on?

Because that's recent in the last what two years?

Yes, ma'am.

For this body of work, and it's at our insistence as once we started seeing other matters we weren't getting uh work going after and collecting on, that's when the Allen group came on.

So it's new for them to be involved in this.

Yes, but um the other players and yourself, um the other players were involved, you were not involved.

I was not involved.

But I'm thinking um, even if we weren't, this is this is the type of matter to me that the council should have been apprised of prior to you becoming the corporation council.

It's important, it's in front of you now.

It's in it's on your plate now because you are the corporation counsel, and I admire you and I appreciate your effort to solve this matter.

But it started before you joined the law department, sir.

It it was in the law department to Chuck Raimi, um, the other person, Lawrence Garcia, I think that's his name, they should be held accountable.

Chuck Raimi was out there entering contracts and didn't bother to bring up to the council.

We know about that too.

It's it it it it I don't know what we can do.

I don't know how we hold um the administration accountable when it should come to the council.

It doesn't.

So I'm I'm not saying we we're picking and choosing.

You are um I guess this is a mess, and you're you're attempting to clean it up.

Um I appreciate it, but it happened before you joined the law department.

It really did, and you brought in the Allen group to help deal with that.

I get that.

I I I'm clear on that, but it happened before you got there, sir.

Um, member Miller.

Thank you, madam chair.

Well, after all the discussion, I believe all the questions have been answered.

I've been uh waiting for a great amount of time.

But thank you, uh, Member Benson and Member Callaway for all your questions.

I will just say in summary, because everything's been covered.

I would support a motion to bring back in three weeks.

I believe the dates are a little conflicting with the overassessment of taxes.

I do support um any money that is given to the city to be put in even in escrow or put set aside for residents.

We constantly talk about a um a surplus, but no one ever talks about making people whole, even as far as our retirees.

No one ever brings those conversations up on the council.

Never one brings up the uh making the homeowners that were overassessed whole.

And believe it or not, I remember the city of Hamtremic did it.

They had a situation with residency.

Do you know that when they found out the residents passed away, they warded houses and money to their descendants, their children, which is the honorable thing to do.

We have been lax in finding those people, and even taking the initiative to even try.

So no, I did not support this at this moment.

I would support the motion to set aside funds and to bring back a discussion because our department have not had the opportunity to be a uh abreast on this situation.

No one contacted us or even tried to have that conversation.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yes, thank you, Member Miller.

As you can see, we're not ready to make it.

And please don't forget I am here.

I I've been waiting.

Okay, I'm sorry about that.

Um and please forgive me, Member Miller.

Uh, when I saw your hand um go up, I still had the floor, and I said after member Benson that I would acknowledge you.

Um, but um we are going to is there a motion to well before we make the motion, I do want to say um I I do agree and um with member Miller that um we should do something with our retire uh our retirees.

Um they're hurting the way that they were treated during the bankruptcy to me was unconscionable.

You work 30, 40 years, you you put into a system, and then you're told because of decisions made by the city that you're not gonna get what you paid into all for the sake of saving art.

We could have just and this is this is me talking before I even joined this council.

I watched the whole bankruptcy, and we could have sold some artwork and gotten our gotten ourselves out of out of trouble, but we refused to do that.

We refused to do that.

There were some decisions, and and had I been sitting on the council, maybe I would have had a louder voice and maybe somebody would have listened.

But um still my opinion, the bankruptcy was unnecessary.

And I was a resident and I watched the whole thing, and I saw the debates regarding the the the artwork at the DIA.

We put art before people and we're paying the price for it now.

We do need to make our retirees whole and some of this, some of these funds, whatever, we should not be putting them in the general fund.

It should go into a special fund for those who are impacted by the overassessment and our retirees.

And so hopefully Mr.

King is listening.

That's part of that earlier motion.

If I have to amend the motion, I can do that now.

But my staff is right taking notes.

Um, but this is very troubling for me, and I know we probably don't have a choice but to um um vote in favor of it.

But is there a motion?

Is there a motion to bring this back in three weeks?

Motion there's a motion to bring this back um in three weeks.

Is there are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Line item um 9.3 lawsuit of motor city law plus the city of Detroit shall be brought back in three weeks.

Thank you, um gentlemen, for joining us.

Thank you.

Discussion discussion.

There needs to be nexus here between for the three weeks.

We need to get some information about the portfolio of judgments and the I'm not sure would that be the accurate statement?

It's a portfolio of judgments, correct?

Correct.

13,000 nine seven, nine seven seven, and the number of people who lost their homes due to over taxation.

Is there a way for the assessor?

Well, it's got to be a way to help us identify if these if the portfolio of judgments is made up whole, largely in small part by those who are over-assessed.

And I and I don't know.

But maybe LPD can help me think through this, but to send we'll send this away for a reason, and that's to get data and information.

We need to have that within the next three weeks.

So we can questions can be answered.

I don't know how to do that.

Member Benson, um, is there anyone on the um from the administration who can hop on?

Um, is Mr.

Alvin Horn available just to hear these questions?

So we will have what we need to make decisions in the next three weeks.

Or madam chair, maybe there's somebody at this table, some of these learned individuals who can help us think this through.

Mr.

Mallet.

So, madam chairperson, I wondered uh if we could do two things.

Okay.

Um we'll meet with the Allen group and and get the information uh uh that between them and and and what Mr.

Gabo has, number one.

Number two, with the permission of the chairperson and uh councilperson uh Miller and councilperson Benson.

Can we limit our uh uh investigation to those persons who are single family homeowners living in Detroit, not multifamily, not people who live out of the live out of the jurisdiction, and not people who live out of the state?

I'm not sure I would become I want to see everything.

Okay, I I don't want it piecemealed uh um Mr.

Mallet.

I want to see everything and then maybe have a separate column for those who were single family homeowners.

I just want to see everything.

I want to see the judgment work portfolio.

I mean, I don't know if my colleagues, but I I want to read it.

I want to see exactly what happened, what transpired, but to piecemeal it and extract that's not a full um representation of the case that's before us.

This is serious, you know, and and we're being asked to make a very serious decision.

We're gonna have three weeks, but I want to I want to see the whole portfolio.

I want to see exactly what we're talking about, and maybe we can run a query in terms of extracting multi-family, multi-property, same owner, lives in China, lives in Canada, property brothers, real tea token.

I want to see everything, and then we can make a very sound informed decision.

But to do otherwise, we're gonna be right back here because then we would not have gotten all the information.

So I I I can't agree with you on that, Mr.

Mallin.

Okay.

Um, anything else, member Benson?

No.

All right, anything else you want to add?

No, ma'am.

Okay, all right.

We'll see you back in three weeks.

Thank you.

And um, hopefully by then we would have gotten an answer from Alvin Horn, and I'm sure they will be in touch with Alvin Horn.

We make sure discussion.

Do we need to have an assignment for this?

Or is this can we do a miss corporation council before you leave?

Corporation council before you leave.

An LPD.

Do we need to have an assignment?

Can this be a hand handshake agreement that will get this work done?

LPD, corporation counsel.

What do we need here?

We we we will uh council person.

We'll absolutely get it done.

Okay, all right.

LPD, you all will help shepherd this and make sure that things are on track on track.

We certainly can.

We need an assignment for that.

Yeah, uh, we should put it in a memo so that it's shows up on the agenda.

Yeah, we'll put it in the memo.

Peter Stanley.

Madam Chair, sounds like you you will take care of the memo.

We'll take care of the memo.

Thank you.

But but on that note, member Benson, if there's any language that you want to add to um our memorandum, we'll be working on it today.

Okay, okay, right.

If you're wanting if your staff wants to get with gift with my staff and LPD, we'll work on the language today.

Okay, LPD, madam chair, yeah, yeah, member King.

In addition to our assignment on the ability to direct those payments, we would like you to add the law department also.

Thank you.

Okay, we'll be adding the law department.

So that's LPD, the law department.

All righty, thank you, Mr.

King.

All righty, thank you, Member Miller.

Very robust conversation, very robust.

I mean, all right.

So we'll be sending that.

Thank you, Member Calloway.

Thank you.

I just I just want to say through the chair.

Member Callaway.

Yes.

Thank you for your tenacity.

I really appreciate sitting on the council with you.

You are always always have our residents in mind.

And that is why we're here.

That is why we're here, and just to hear sometimes when you speak, it just resonates.

And believe it or not, people hear you.

Our people in our community, they respect what you're saying and doing also, member uh Benson.

This is one of the amazing uh committees, I will say.

We do good work, but I'm I'm privileged to be here with both of you.

No, and we're honored to have you serving with us.

We are and this is a very important committee.

Um we do represent the voices of the people, and they're tough questions, tough decisions, but we gotta do it.

So thank you, member uh Miller, and thank you, Member Bisden.

That was tough.

That was tough.

All right, line item 9.4, settlement in the lawsuit of Alan Schwartz Medical Center, PC, Mohammed Ramza versus the City of Detroit, case number 24-165341-G as in girls, C as in cat file number L is in Love 24-01 391, C as in cat, B as in boy, A 2000 D dot in the amount of five thousand five hundred dollars.

Is there a motion?

Motion is in the form of recommendation to approve.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.5 settlement in the lawsuit of coordinated care one, Yolanda Bryant versus the City of Detroit, case number 24-005912-N as in Nancy, F is in Frank.

File number L is in Love 24-0154, Calvert Bailey, A20000, Department of Transportation and the amount of 35,000 dollars.

Is there a motion?

Motion to send the formal recommendation to approve.

There's a motion to send line item 9.5 to formal with the recommendation to approve.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.6 settlement and the lawsuit of gross beck RX L L C Nicholas Morey versus the City of Detroit.

Case number 25-161217-G as in girls, C as in Cat.

File number L is in love 25-7918.

S is in Sam V is in Victor, D is in David.

A to zero zero zero zero, department of transportation, in the amount of six thousand five hundred dollars.

Is there a motion?

Motion to approve and send the formal.

There's a motion to approve line item 9.6 settlement in the lawsuit of Gross Bec LLC, Nicholas Morey.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

We are now at line item 9.7.

Office of the city clerk submitting a resolution authorizing petition of equality Michigan number 2026-063.

Request approval for a charitable gaming license to conduct a 50-50 raffle in connection with our annual fundraiser, where the truth.

Okay.

Is there a motion to remove line item 9.7?

Motion.

There's a motion to remove line line item 9.7.

And I would certainly like to know how it even got on our agenda.

Um hearing any objections.

Any objections hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Line item 9.7 is removed.

Thank you, Member Benson.

We are at the end of our agenda.

Line item 9.8, submitting a memorandum regarding City Council Media Services Division.

Member Benson.

Um discussion.

Discussion.

Yourself, madam chair, to LPD.

How are we looking on this uh on this report?

Uh through the chair.

Yes, sir.

Mr.

King.

Uh Councilman Benson.

Can we have three weeks on this item, please?

Mr.

King's out enough time.

What I don't want to do is rush, and then we get back here and you guys aren't ready with it.

No, I think three weeks is is adequate.

Um, Madam Chair, motion to bring line item 9.8 back in three weeks.

Okay.

There's been a motion to bring line item 9.8 back in three weeks.

Yes.

Member Miller, you got your hand raised because I can't see you on screen.

Discussion.

Member Miller.

I'm sorry.

Mistake.

Any discussion.

Did you say discuss member?

It was a mistake.

Oh, mistake.

Okay, no problem.

All right.

Um, so there's a motion to bring line item 9.8 back in three weeks.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Member reports, member Miller.

Hello, everyone.

I like to say that we have our skilled trades task force tonight.

The skill trades task force with, of course, at large member waters and member McCampbell will be tonight.

And we will be located at the Labor's International Union.

That's 2161 West Grand Boulevard.

That's at the Laborers International Union located at 2161 West Grand Boulevard.

That's where we will have our skilled trades meeting tonight.

Also, we will have tomorrow the District 5 Charter Mandated Meeting with Madam Mayor and a resource fair, which will be tomorrow, April 16th at Bethel AME Church, located at 5050 San Antoine.

That'll be again 5050 San Antoine for the District 5 Charter Mandated Meeting and Resource Fair.

I'd like to encourage everyone to come out.

They will have multiple resource tables there.

Uh from examples, our ex kids enrollment, Detroit at work.

There's going to be the hope application process and of course the Wayne State Mobile Unit for blood pressure screenings, flood back flu vaccinations, HIV testing, and more.

So if you need any of those resources, come out and join us at Bethel AME Church.

Also for customer service assistants.

If you need help with your water bill, um, anything with the Detroit Land Bank, appeals processing hearings, the health department, housing, revalidation department, everyone.

Our mayor is bringing to the charter mandated meeting with district five tomorrow.

I look forward to seeing you there.

And that is from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

5:30 from 7 p.m.

for the resources and 7 p.m.

to 8 30 for the actual meeting to get our mayoral updates and citywide concerns.

Their officials will be there to answer questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Miller.

And we are um hoping that you are still um doing much better and improving.

And it's just happy to have you on the call today and to um see your face in the place.

So we are still praying for you and hoping that you will experience a full recovery.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

Absolutely.

Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

As Earth Day quickly approaches, we are having our annual Earth Day Awards, the Green Task Force, and we are moving our location this year to the Detroit People's Food Co-op at 8234 Woodward Avenue.

So please come join us at our Earth Day Award celebration from 10 a.m.

to noon this Saturday.

And as always, we will be having grits and eggs and other fantastic breakfast foods.

We make sure people eat well at the Green Task Force.

And so hopefully we'll see everybody there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Benson.

Um, and special thanks to um Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, State Representative Regina Weiss, um, Honorable Mayor Mary Sheffield, and um member member McCampbell, who joined us on this past Saturday, April the 11th for the Secondary Street designation honoring civil rights activist Viola Luizo, who was tragically killed by the Klansmen on March the 25th, 1965, while track transporting fellow activists to register African Americans to vote.

And so we honored her on Saturday, and she was eulogized at that location at the church.

It is now Pembroke Um Charter School Academy, a blue ribbon school, and um Martin Luther King attended her home homegoing service.

Walter Ruther and Jimmy Hoffa and the pictures were all on display on Saturday.

So again, we want to thank everyone for coming out and to acknowledge um her um her commitment and her sacrifice.

The deadline to apply for senior citizen solid waste discount is tomorrow.

I'm sorry, today eligible residents are encouraged to apply soon to ensure that the discount is reflected on your summer property taxes.

So the um deadline is today.

The number to call is 224 3560.

224 3560, and it's not income-based.

The Department of Public Works has released the 2026 speed hump program list, which includes plans to install 312 new speed humps.

Residents have until April the 24th to opt out of the program.

You can contact DPW you can go to their page at DetroitMI.gov slash DPW and navigate to the complete streets traffic calming section.

The City of Detroit is hosting a public meeting for district two residents about residential mid-block lighting and it is I believe today at the Adams Butzel Complex at 10500 Linden Street and it starts this evening at 6 p.m again that's the City of Detroit hosting public meeting for District 2 residents about residential mid-block lighting in partnership with the public lighting authority tonight from 6 to 8 at the Adams Butzel Red Center located at 10500 Linden Street.

And then lastly tonight Planning and Development Department at the Northwest Activity Center from 530 to 730 to discuss the city's master plan.

There will be guided discussions and opportunities to connect directly with our city planners again that's tonight at the Northwest Activity Center from 530 to 730 thank you so much and you all have a wonderful day if there's nothing else to come before this body this meeting shall stand adjourned.

Yes ma'am you came in after public comment was closed for I was on the expressway for an hour and a half because they had an accident and some room work is actually she came after