29th 2026.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Good afternoon.

Councilmember Denzel and Tom McCampbell.

Chairman McCampbell indicated that he is running late, but he's on his way.

No, Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Madam Chair, we have quorum.

Thank you.

Having a quorum present, we are now in session.

And we will move to the agenda and the approval of the minutes.

Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve the minutes.

Hearing no objections, that action shall be taken.

We are going to move into public comment.

If there's anyone joining us in person or virtually who'd like to make a public comment, please raise your hand.

And I'm going to do as the chairman does.

Public comment will be cut off at 10.

So please raise your hand prior to that if you'd like to make a public comment.

And Madam Clerk, will you please note that member McCampbell has joined us?

Clerk will now.

Thank you.

And I'll give him an opportunity to get comfortable.

Um, thank you for setting the clock to two minutes.

And seeing no hands raised in the committee of the whole, how many hands do we have present virtually?

I'm sure currently we have seven hands raised.

Okay.

We can get started with the first virtual caller.

Our first caller is William M.

Davis.

Good afternoon, Commissioner Davis.

You have two minutes for a general public comment.

Uh good afternoon, young people.

Can I be heard?

Yes.

Okay, I like to start off by saying something I've said previously.

I think the city of Detroit should be exploring all the various authorities that we have, especially in these entities that we actually, the taxpayers of the city of Detroit paid for.

Like the past two weekends, I've been going to uh events at Huntington Place, and the parking is horrible down there and it's very expensive.

Uh, I don't know if y'all remember one time there was a cobalt authority.

I don't know if y'all remember, but the citizens of the city of Detroit paid for what was Cobo Ha.

You know, I think we should be exploring ways to see if we could get some um monies from these entities that we used to own and operate and control that now have been taken over by let's say the outsiders, and you know, we we should try to receive some type of benefit.

You know, I would feel more comfortable paying 25 hours to park there if I knew $10 was going to the city of Detroit.

Uh also the the lease agreement that the Great Lakes Water Authority has with the city of Detroit is totally inadequate, and that we end up paying a portion of the lease for ourselves.

That's crazy.

And you know, the lease payment, if it was fair, if it was done fairly, would be much more than what it is.

So I think we should be exploring all these authorities.

I think we should be trying to get rid of many as we can, or at least have more voice in them.

Uh also I think that uh the state should be paying the city of Detroit some money for Bell O Lease.

Granted, they have put some money into it, but we have money to put into with the emergency manager chose to overlook that.

You know, so there's a whole lot more that could be done to help the citizens of Detroit, and we should be reaping some of the benefits of the stuff that our tax dollars pay for.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Davis, and thank you, Madam Chair or Madame Foster, for uh getting us started.

Uh next caller, please.

Our next caller is owner Papa.

This is good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, and to the chair might be heard.

Yes, you may.

Thank you.

Ditto uh from the last caller.

Um, not enough of my our money is going to uh purchase things that we need.

And I'm wondering, you you keep talking about uh the pistons and this recreation center, but we have millions of dollars in our surplus that we can build our own recenter, and if the pistons are involved in it, then we talk about ownership.

Who owns it, who controls it.

Um, you guys are adding unnecessary complexity to our lives.

Um we can purchase and build our own edifices.

We don't need the pistons to help us to do that.

And I'm looking at your agenda, and I see numerous questions about the budget, and I see no answers in most of them or any of them.

I'm wondering um when will these questions be answered?

And now that the budget process is over, um what will be the the benefit from from these from these questions?

Um I I have I have a lot of uh issues with the dirty dirt and these holes that we have.

When I when I drove through and saw those, I couldn't believe the the way it looked.

Um you just imagine if you were living next door across the street or this was in your neighborhood.

Just imagine this huge hole with orange mesh around it.

I don't see anything, no questions are on this agenda, no money is being allocated toward fixing this issue.

I know you don't think we're going to proceed much further with these things going on in our city.

You're going to have to find resolution to this, and it has to be quick.

I don't see anything on your agenda indicating the way um council one call uh was talking about the money for uh uh employees.

What about the resident?

Thank you, next speaker.

Our next speaker is Nini's friend, Mr.

Cora Crawley.

You have two minutes.

Are you there?

Nini's friend, you have two minutes.

All right, let's go.

We'll come back.

Let's go to the next speaker.

Our next caller is legendary Detroiter.

Legendary Detroiter.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Uh, Mr.

McCampbell, I want you to pay close attention to what comes out of my mouth and the words I say.

Um Mary Waters, Consulwoman, Mary Waters.

You invited me to that meeting.

You know, I know Chris Elliott.

You saw with your own eyes.

Let's see Johnson, your chief of staff, Gary, has known me since I was a child.

Over 50 years.

Man has known me.

I know you had conversations with him, and he'll tell you I'm stand up 100 from a long time ago.

Very long time ago.

Now, what happened over on 143 Spring Garden as my new residence?

It's been that for decades.

Now, Mrs.

McCampb, did a district seven representative.

I'm a whole Detroit legend over in district seven.

I need to speak with you directly because the former chairperson for this committee to budget out in the finance committee.

Me and him had a half an hour conversation at the London Top House.

And um, his wife was present.

He found out some things about Kinesha Coleman.

Now I'm gonna just say this to all of y'all.

Nini wants what the F she wants.

She wants to tag a suicide above her mama.

Kinesha Coleman, DPD case 20-112, take it off her mama.

Thank you, next speaker.

Our next speaker is Tyson Gersh.

Mr.

Gersh, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thanks.

You know, if I was billing at minimum wage for the number of hours I have personally spent trying to get counsel to address the BZA transcript thing.

Um by the five thousand dollar bill that the BZA sent me for a transcript would have been covered, I don't know, like twice over by now.

It's kind of remarkable just how much time I and others have had to spend trying to get our elected representatives to address a very clear-cut issue.

Um it's just shocking.

Um I don't understand why the BZA has not submitted a written response to LPD's budget analysis questions, or why the BZA has not submitted a written response to uh council member McCampbell or Miller's memos.

Um I think there's a long standing issue with well, it's probably because historically when the BZA has answered these questions, it's been pretty uh damning in the uh uh implications of um what's the word?

Um financial stewardship.

Um I really just wish you guys would actually address this.

I I don't want to be on these council calls all day, every day.

Um it's a massive waste of time.

Um, and it's not just me, it's an entire community of people whose rights are being obstructed by this unlawful practice by the BZA.

And I feel like everybody knows what's going on, and council does this like performative puppet theater thing where they pretend to be ignorant and pretend not to understand the question or the answers, and it's just it's like a joke.

Like I know you guys aren't stupid.

Please act like you, next speaker.

Our next caller is phone number ending in 039.

Phone number ended in 039.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes phone number ending in 039.

Are you there?

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

All right, you already spoke.

Next speaker.

Our next speaker is please listen to member waters.

Good afternoon.

Please listen to Member Waters.

Uh, you have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

May I be heard?

Yes, you may.

Good afternoon.

Yeah.

So last night I went to the mayor's meeting and I I spoke with one of uh Mayor Sheffield's staff person uh went uh who who was uh is working for her now, and when it was D5 uh uh person, and I said, Why did you let the land bank lie to you?

And he said, Well, we gotta take people's word for things.

I said, No, you don't, you're supposed to investigate.

But I said, Why aren't you listening to Member Waters when she told you that the nuisance abatement program is illegal?

It is so folks, it's very simple.

And I've written to some people here, and by the way, member Callaway gets the Harriet Tubman Award for pushing back on the David Fink Brassard contract, 6.9 million dollars.

They're the ones being hired to defend the class action lawsuit in federal court right now about the illegal nuisance abatement program and all the takings without just compensation.

So you all took an oath to uphold the Michigan and the federal constitutions, and you're letting it being violated.

Now, not all of you signed off on this uh illegal program years ago, but it is what they are doing is clearly prohibited in the second amended and restated intergovernmental agreement under section 5.05, it says condemnation prohibited pursuant to section 48 of the land bank act.

The city authority is prohibited from exercising the power of eminent domain or condemning property.

The city code defines condemning property as determining uh uh a building to be unsuitable for for occupancy, and that's exactly what the land bank is doing, running around trying to take people's property when all they should be getting possibly is a 250 dollar ticket.

Now, this insanity is has to stop.

And now I I hear they got Derhall going to to to Lansing, if that's why he's still around.

Why you won't listen to member waters is absolutely beyond me.

She was in the legislative time.

Our last caller is phone number ending in one two four.

Phone number in a one two four.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Yeah, that was me.

Sorry.

No problem.

Thank you.

Uh that'll bring us to the end of public comment.

Um, I I know there was a few questions about budget memos.

Um, we'll go through the ones that we have received.

We'll go through that.

Um, Mr.

Gersh, you mentioned the BZA questions that we submitted.

We did get a response to that that is on the budget website.

Um the budget uh website.

So please check that out.

As I mentioned before, reach out to us um for further questions and information.

All right.

Any other feedback from members?

All right.

Well, I I just want Member Waters.

I just want to thank Ms.

Warwick for always staying on top of things.

So Ms.

Warwick, I just want you to know that we are going to be requesting um some additional information as it relates to the nuisance abatement program.

Uh we're on it, and um I'm certainly not interested in approving any contract that we are we want to grant to allow the land bank to be defended in court.

Thank you, Ms.

Ward.

Thank you, Member Waters.

All right, that will take us on to unfinished business.

And I we'll get through this.

Uh so I know there are a number of budget uh memos.

So we will go through that um and hopefully clean some of this up.

Uh that'll take us on to 5.1.

A status of council member uh from council member Whitford Callaway.

Um submit a memorandum related to the request for a report on principal residence exemptions for LLC entities.

Um I would defer to LPD on this.

Mr.

Corley.

Um Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon.

Council members.

Um 5.1, please bring that back in a week.

Our report should be out within a couple of days.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to bring back 5.1 and one week?

Motion.

There's been a motion.

Any objections?

Seeing none, um, the action shall be taken.

Uh for 5.2.

Um, this is a budget memo.

We have not received this back yet.

Is there a motion to bring this back in one week?

Motion.

There's a motion to bring back 5.2 in one week.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

5.3.

This is from member Santiago Romero.

A memo relative to their participatory budget expansion.

I'm not sure if there's uh anyone from the OCFO's office that to speak to this um memo or LPD.

All right.

We haven't received it yet.

So yet Mr.

Corley.

Mr.

Chair, yes, it was referred to the OCFO.

And um it would be wonderful to hear from them, you know, as soon as they can on this issue.

Okay.

Um with that Mr.

Chair, um, Mr.

Washington is online.

Mr.

Washington.

Yes, um, through the chair, we do have Daniel Johnson online.

Mr.

Johnson in person.

Uh good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, members of the committee.

Donnie Johnson, deputy CFO and budget director for the city.

So uh this item was the the memo from Council Member Santiago Romero regarding participatory budgeting.

Um this was only just referred to at least to my inbox.

So my team's working on it.

We're working on it now.

Um part of what we're working on is research, pulling together research for what other jurisdictions do and starting to figure out kind of the the bigger picture lay of the land.

So I think we wanted to get some of that research done before we drafted a response, so we drafted at least something that was a little bit more informed.

Um this is all this is new to us, right?

This would be new to us, so we're kind of learning alongside um everyone else.

So um I think this is something that if we could bring it back in two weeks, maybe um that should be plenty of time.

Okay.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to bring back 5.3 in two weeks?

Motion.

This is a motion to bring back 5.3 in two weeks.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Um that'll move us on to 5.4 from uh member waters.

There's a memo relative to the request for an audit on the Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation funding.

Um I don't know uh if there's anyone on from the OAG's office.

We haven't sorry.

And Mr.

Corley, to you, have we heard anything from the OAG on this?

Do you know?

Okay.

All right.

Uh is there we can we'll check further into this.

Is there uh or I'll defer to you, member waters on um if you've heard anything back as well.

I think Ms.

Chairman, no, I haven't heard anything.

Would you like to bring this back in one week?

Well, it's probably longer if I haven't heard anything, it's gonna take a minute.

Sounds like so.

Let's go for two weeks from now.

Motion.

Um, there's been a motion to bring back 5.4 in two weeks.

See no objections, that action shall be taken.

Right.

Um move us on to 5.5.

Uh this is from Member Santeoga Romero.

Uh memo relative to the building of a free fare pilot.

Um, Mr.

Washington, do we have someone from D dot on the chair?

Um, no, we do not.

Can we postpone this for one week?

Motion.

There's a motion to bring back 5.5 in one week.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

All right, for 5.6, and this will get us into a string of budget memos.

Um let me double check here.

So for 5.6.

I will read them and then we can take action for 5.6 through 5.8.

First for 5.6.

This is um a memo from myself relative to the um budget here and follow follow-up from the office of umbudsman.

We did receive this, but I don't believe it is um up on the website yet.

So let's bring we I'll go through um, but also um 5.7.

Um this is a memo for myself as well, relative to the fiscal year 27 budget here and follow-up uh DP from DPD, and then 5.8.

Um, this is a memo relative to the budget here and follow up for the department the health department.

Um, is there a motion to bring these back in one week?

Motion there's been a motion to bring back in one week.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Um for five point nine and five point ten.

This is also from my office.

Uh budget hearing follow-up from the law department and five point ten is a budget here and follow from the Detroit Economic Growth Council.

We have received these and it is up on the budget site, and we have received word from the administration that the for these to be up on east cry, they will be referred next week um for that as well.

Um so I am good if there is a motion to receive and file 5.9 and 5.10.

Motion motion to receive and file 5.9 or 5.10 has been made.

No objections, that action shall be taken.

Is it all you missed this?

Uh yes.

Um, so for 5.11, 5.12, and 5.13.

These are also from me.

Uh budget hearing follows from 5.14.

Uh City Council and Divisions.

12 is uh 5.12 is the city clerk and department of elections, and 5.13 is a border review.

Uh is there a motion to bring these back in one week?

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring back 5.11 through 5.13 in one week.

Uh Mr.

Chair.

Yes, Mr.

Crowley.

Thank you.

Um 5.11.

I know that the questions related to the city council's and divisions by budget as of fiscal 2027.

Um, that memo was referred to LPD.

Okay, and it should be referred to the OCFO Office of Budget because your questions need to be addressed by them rather than us.

Okay.

Got it.

We will move on.

So I guess if you can, Mr.

Chair, motion that 5.11 is referred to the OCFO office of budget rather than LPD.

To refer 5.11 to the office of OCFO.

There's been a motion to refer 5.11 to the office of OCFO.

See no objections that action shall be taken.

Thank you for that.

And then there's still there's been there was a motion made for 5.12 and 13 that there were no objections to bring back in one week.

Right.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um for 5.14.

We did receive this one.

Is there a motion to receive and file?

Motion to receive and file.

5.14.

Seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

And then for 5.15 through 5.19.

Also from me for the budget hearing for the Civil Rights Inclusion and Opportunity Department.

And memo for uh 5.16 for the housing strategy program coordination on development accountability from Council President Tate.

5.17 from also Council President Tate.

Um budget hearing follow-up questions of infrastructure and service response review.

And 5.18 from President Tate for uh on Brightmore outcomes, workforce alignment and program coordination.

And 5.19 from Member Santeoga Romero.

Uh budget question follow-ups, uh memo related to as well.

Is there a motion to bring this back in one week?

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring back in one week.

Seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

5.20 uh from member Santiago Romero for DPW budget questions.

Um these have been received.

Is there a motion to receive and file?

Motion.

It's been a motion to receive and file 5.20.

Seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

Okay.

Um this is not a budget one for 5.21.

Uh this is from Member Santeo Romero.

A memo relative related relative to the requested updates on cost of knowledge analysis and inspector training.

Um Mr.

Washington, uh, do we have um someone from BC there any info on the status of 5.21 chair?

Um, if you could bring this back in one week as well.

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring back 5.21 in one week.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Excuse me.

We're uh we're getting through.

I'm just I promise we were gonna clean a lot of this up.

All right, so five point twenty two.

Um this is from my office, uh budget hearing follow-up memo on media services department.

Is there a motion to bring this back in one week?

Motion there's been a motion to bring back 5.22, seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

5.23 through 5.31.

These are all memos from my oh not all from me.

All right.

Um 5.23 uh is from myself a memo hearing follow-up questions from for the department uh or the Detroit Public Library 5.24 from myself with uh DWSD.

5.25 is from Member Miller, uh budget hearing questions for uh the fire department five point twenty-six is from member miller, uh budget hearings related to the destruction uh the the Detroit Construction Demo Department 5.27 for member miller from the hearing uh on the BZA 5.28 is um member miller on a budget hearing questions for the land bank five point twenty-nine is uh for member miller from the historical museum budget hearing follow-up questions and five point thirty is from member miller budget hearing follow-up questions for the lighting public lighting department and five point thirty-one is from member miller related to BC and budget hearings.

These have been received.

Um is there a motion to receive and file?

Motion.

There's been a motion to receive and file 5.23 through 5.31.

So seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

Okay.

Um and then for 5.32, member Santo Romero, um budget question related to Kimmy Recreation Center Alley maintenance 5.33 from member Miller.

Uh budget here questions for media services.

And five point thirty-four for myself.

Budget here follower from municipal parking.

Um is there a motion to bring these back in one week?

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring back 5.32 through 5.34.

I see no objections, they're actually shall be taken.

And that moves us on to 5.35.

Um, from the Office of Auditor General.

Um, this is the citywide uh this is a follow-up on the citywide payroll performance audit.

Um we've been asked to bring this back in three weeks, just so we can assure that both um that all parties are present.

It's been a motion to bring back 5.35 in three weeks.

Motion.

See no objections.

That actually shows you take it.

Okay.

Brings us on to new business.

Um 6.1 from the office of chief financial officer.

Um this is a financial report for the seven months ended February 28, 2026.

Um is there a motion to discuss?

Motion.

There's been a motion to discuss 6.1.

And we have uh Mr.

Donnie Johnson here.

Uh and I'll turn the floor over to you.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Again for the record, I'm Donnie Johnson.

I'm the deputy chief financial officer and budget director for the city, and it looks like my computer has just frozen on me.

Just as I was getting promoted to panelists.

Um it's yeah, completely frozen.

Um you want us to come back to it or Sean, are you able to Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you.

All right.

Okay.

Apologies to Madam Clerk for staring at you this whole time.

My apologies, ma'am.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So this is the um month for the eight months ended February 28th, 2026.

Next slide, please.

I need to skip this slide.

Next, thank you.

Um, so um, well, as you well know, this isn't news to you.

On April 7th, the Detroit City Council did approve the city's FY2627 four-year financial plan.

Um council's changes compared to the mayor's proposed budget totaled 8.5 million in one-time expenses, um, 7.2 million from prior year surplus, and the remainder in appropriation reductions from other locations, and 3.6 million in recurring expenses fully offset by recurring appropriation reductions elsewhere in the budget.

Of the 3.6 million recurring expenses, 2.3 million are general funded.

The remainder were non-general fund sources.

Um, and the city will transmit the approved four-year financial plan to the Financial Review Commission uh by April 30th.

Um, in fact, we plan to submit it uh first thing tomorrow morning.

Okay, so on our budget versus actual slide, um as you can see on the year to date through February, we do continue to run behind on our income taxes as we expected.

Um we are, however, running ahead on property taxes and wagering taxes continue to do gangbusters doing quite well in in wagering taxes, and that's really helping um really lift the ship um, so to speak, um, with regard to the shortfall expected in municipal income taxes.

Utility users' taxes are up.

Um this is primarily driven by weather, right?

So we've talked about this before.

Um what we're seeing now in the utility users' taxes are gonna be the revenues that are coming in from those colder months of the late part of the winter, um, and people were gonna have been running their heat, and so we're gonna see higher utility bills, which equates to higher utility user tax collections.

Um Mr.

Barr is gonna be able to give a lot more detail on that if you wish when we get to the revenue section of the presentation.

On the expenditure side, um we do see underspend in our primary expense categories, including personnel and um uh professional contractual services, personnel.

Um uh Mr.

Corley had sent the question along, and a couple council members also asked, you know, are vacancies driving that underspend on personnel?

And the answer is yes.

Um we do see a lot of vacancies across the city.

Um interestingly, um uh through the chair to Mr.

Corley.

The question was does police and fire account for a lot of vacancy and interestingly, not really, um, not as much as it used to.

It's pretty evenly spread across the general fund operations.

I would say general services carries a number of vacancies at this point.

Some related to seasonality and some related to just difficulty in recruiting for certain types of labor positions.

Police does have a number of civilian vacancies, but in terms of the uniform vacancies, they're actually quite low, considering historically where we have been.

So we do have an operating surplus year to date through the end of February.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

For our interlized budget projections, we do continue to project as we noted in the February revenue conference, which is where these numbers come from in terms of the revenues.

That $15 million, almost $57 million shortfall in municipal income taxes.

Property taxes, we do expect to collect more than we had anticipated, which is good news.

Wagering taxes, we are on track to hit that target.

We expect we're gonna end the year about 37 and a half million in wagering tax collections.

Could be a little bit more, could be a little bit less.

You know, we know how that goes as we close out the year.

Um and then utility users, we continue to be on track for that.

Obviously, if we have a warmer than normal spring or early summer, that could of course change that number upwards as utilities bills go up earlier than they normally would in a season.

In terms of expenses, salaries and wages, we do continue to expect underspend in that area as is often common when you're carrying vacancies.

Um professional contractual services, we do expect that to smooth out.

We do expect to see a good amount of that spend done there, though.

If we do ultimately see surpluses, I do expect that to be a category along with that operating services where we would see it.

Um still the Fed as of the February data, it's still a little early in that data to know where we're gonna end the fiscal year, but I think as we start getting into these later reports, we're gonna see more there.

So that leaves us uh generally with a $2.2 million expected operating surplus for the fiscal year.

On top of the $42 million we set aside for the income tax reserve, the corporate income tax reserve.

That should leave us with a 44.2 million uh surplus.

So at this time we continue to think that we will not need that reserve, that our other revenues are gonna help us out there.

Underspend on expenses are gonna pick up that um uh that loss.

Um no real changes on this slide.

This one's pretty status quo.

Um we continue to spin down our continuing appropriations.

There have been no substantial budget amendments done to the general fund, um, meaning a net ad or a net reduction to the general funds overall expected um totals.

So really no major changes on this slide.

And then finally, um our employee count monitoring, so our month over month monitoring.

So this would be from January to February changes.

You can see we only changed overall citywide by one position.

So we picked up one total net FTE citywide.

Um the two places where we did see reductions were um the largest reductions were police and fire.

Um police uh we did have an academy class graduate.

Um, unfortunately, not all of the academy students stayed on board with the city of Detroit.

Um, a number did, but on net, we did have reduction, and we did have a few retirements at the start of the year in police.

Fire, um, much the same story, although primarily in this case, it's the other side of the coin.

Fires uh vacancies were primarily driven by retirements.

Um we had a number of retirements, and I think one separation uh moving to another jurisdiction uh to be a firefighter there.

So that's really it.

So yeah, it was a very quiet January to February transition, which is pretty common.

Those are pretty quiet months.

People aren't usually making big moves job-wise in the debt of winter, we find.

So I'm gonna turn it over to our deputy treasurer, Mr.

Nobarr.

Good afternoon, uh, Mr.

Chairman and members of the committee.

I'm no bar, deputy treasurer for operations.

This is the first time on the period before this committee, I was a regular uh doing the previous uh session uh city council where um uh chairman Thor Hall chair of the committee.

Uh this is our income tax collections.

Um the collections are about eight eight million year over year of about this time 2025 compared to February 2025.

Uh withholdings are uh higher, about 14.2 million.

Uh individual collections are about the same.

And corporate is 3.5 million less.

Withholdings are uh higher about 14.2 million uh individual collections are about the same and corbury is 3.5 million less uh but it is um as you know that the the filing season now has ended and we will know more when we come back uh before this honorable come committee uh to present our April uh report even though some taxpayers may file extension so that's the only caveat slide please uh the the next slide is our cash position and overall our cash position is health if you were to compare year over year it is substantial reduction but we know what is driving we're spending our dollars we're spending covet total project dollars those are bond dollars we also um in twiscare 2024 to start making legacy pension contributions so that's part of what's driving year over year reduction in cash but we're in a good position next uh slide uh this slide is our operating cash activity and what this does for us is it gives us the opportunity to forecast what our cash needs are to fund operations payroll vendor payments and so we can invest our investable dollars in short term investments that we know what we need uh we display on this slide the next six months and then the last column is total of the following six months so we we do project to what our activities will be the receipts and and disbursements and this is a tool we use to utilize how we invest our investable dollars next slide uh this is um our accounts payable activity for the month and asher goalie has told you many times our our treasurer's office does not prepare but we presented uh overall um there's not much change for month before one thing that the team focuses is really that uh the the bottom left of this slide where it shows the the aging of the invoices uh 61 days and over um there were um two I believe and those two one was a credit invoice the other one was ARB invoice that was waiting um waiting approval um one thing I like about this slide and I always tell um my colleagues at OCFO is that the the bottom left uh the the bottom right hand corner shows our metrics for uh supplier payments and where are the 95 percent electronic payments issuing checks is very expensive uh my team goes to exercise every year where we determine what checks are outstanding how long they have been outstanding that the payees have not cashed them and then we have to go through a process called due diligence where we mail letters to the payees for them to come forward and claim those checks and then if they don't or don't provide proper documentation we exchede those dollars to the state so it saves us a lot of money when we make our payments in electronic form was ACH or wire transfer and that's really what what that slide at the bottom of the slide shows on the right hand side and I will stop here and Mr Johnson and I would answer any questions you may have and by the way Treasure Agoli is attending a conference and she wasn't available to appear before you thank you.

Thank you so much and uh great to see you welcome and and meet you as well thank you for going over this I will turn over to colleagues on the committee for questions starting with Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you Mr.

Chair and thank you for the presentation um I have a few questions that I wrote down there there are always questions that come up during the presentation although I had a an opportunity to speak with uh Mr.

Johnson about some questions that I did have um I am curious to know one I'll ask about I believe you indicated that the increase in revenue from other sources helped to offset the income tax reduction um and you also indicated uh a reduction in expenses and I'm just wondering if that is intentional if we are focused on reducing expenses just because we are maybe a little bit uncertain about income tax revenue um through the chair uh to council member Johnson we are not consciously or actively trying to reduce expenses in any systematic way um I think in some cases it's I think some expenses are being reduced kind of for us by market forces in that it's taking longer to secure certain services or we're taking longer to negotiate prices on certain things

Through the chair uh to council member Johnson, we are not consciously or actively trying to reduce expenses in any systematic way.

Um I think in some cases it's I think some expenses are being reduced kind of for us by market forces in that it's taking longer to secure certain services or we're taking longer to negotiate prices on certain things as cost inflation continues to hit us.

And so I think by virtue of timing, we are saving some money.

Um but uh we we don't have a systemic um uh order to to cut back expenses.

All right.

Um I I also we we talked about the utility user tax.

Um and I wonder how often you all actually are are those revenues estimated by the revenue estimating conference as well.

And I wonder if we should reevaluate um because DTE now has the time of day um charges that everyone experiences, and from what I recall, the time of day charge is kind of to help them balance um between the winter time and the summertime.

So the winter time we're running our uh furnace or boiler in the summertime, those that have AC units are running those, and so I personally am seeing increases in DTE bills.

Um and I think it's consistent throughout the year whereas before I used to be excited for the summertime because my bill might be less than a hundred dollars now, not seeing that.

So um I I think you know we'll start to see consistent bills throughout the year, which are considerably higher than they used to be.

And so I'm just wondering if there's been a re-evaluation of the um estimated revenue for the utility user tax as a result of that.

Um, through the chair to council member Johnson.

So I know that the revenue team, which falls under the Treasury, um, they have a pretty robust methodology for getting into this and getting the data from the I think it's a trustee or similar type organization that kind of passes the revenue from utility users tax to us.

And so we get quite a bit of granular data from them on all kinds of utility activity.

So I know they're keeping an eye on these sorts of things.

I can't speak uh in in depth about what they may be planning to do, but it's something that I can take back to them and say let's look at our methodology and let's make sure that we're keeping up with what's changing at DT.

I do know that we do maintain contact with all of the utilities.

Okay.

So we do have regular conversations, especially around revenue estimating time when we kind of talk through like what trends are we seeing.

Okay.

Yeah, I think I think it might bear some fruit.

Um not that that's a good thing.

That's a good thing for us.

And as we continue to see DTE asking for increases in their rates, I know a lot of people are pushing against it because it's happening more frequently.

Um, but certainly it just seems to be the the course that we're on right now where our energy bills are a lot higher than they used to be, and I think the uh utility user tax will um see a consistent increase.

Um the last question that I had was I heard you mention the police academy, and that not everyone um stayed with the department.

Do you know if there is a penalty for that?

How the city goes through that process.

There, I think last year, maybe the year prior, when I was chairing the internal operations um committee, there was talk about getting support um for a penalty with the state, and I thought we had gotten that support to be able to ensure that if they left within a certain time frame that they would have to help cover the cost of the academy.

Uh through the chair to council member Johnson, I would not be competent to answer that question from that perspective.

That's something I would have to defer to the police department and probably the law department um to weigh in on specifically what policies we may have put in place, you know, anything like that would have been probably still subject to certain types of bargaining related to to affected um employment classes and things like that.

So I would have to defer to them and their knowledge on that.

Um this that's not my area of expertise.

Okay.

All right, we'll submit that question via memo.

I'm not sure if it does um impact bargaining because I don't know that the students going through the academy have gotten to that point.

Um, but we'll certainly reach out to the police department and see where we go.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

And you know, is the time of day increases interesting because it's also when people are cooking and doing other things as well.

Um member Waters.

Well, thank you.

Um have to say to um my colleagues from District 4.

I don't believe that that training will have would would impact on bargaining.

I don't mean you know, but of course we will find out.

But we did have a very very intense uh conversation about those things um a year or so ago.

So I just wanted to point that out, and I'm curious.

I want to know now if in fact it ever happened.

Because it needs to happen.

It must happen.

Um how will the uh 42 million corporate income tax reserve uh be used and what conditions would would trigger its release um through the chair to council member waters?

Um so the I'll start with your second question first.

The conditions for releasing it will be when we finish the audit.

So once we close the books on 26, so usually in this case it would probably be before Thanksgiving, we would probably be in a position to say that we know for sure that the books are in good shape and we don't need to tap any of the reserve.

Um after that it would fault, it would we would just classify it as part of the unassigned fund balance.

So it would be back in the unassigned fund balance, and we would have to go through the budget amendment process to appropriate it uh into use.

Okay.

Right.

Um staffing shortages, um police fire, etc.

How is um affecting response time, service delivery, and overtime costs?

Uh through the chair to council member waters, um, I would say that overtime is running as expected at this time, considering our staffing levels.

Um I think you know, as we move as is the case in a lot of cities, as we move to warmer weather, we often see more runs, both medical for fire, both police for response to things.

I mean, we I think we know as temperatures warm, we see more activity um outside.

Um, and so we do expect to see some increases in overtime as we move into the warmer months.

Um but I would say um, you know, the vacancies are certainly not affecting our service delivery.

We we are certainly meeting all of our benchmarks and and and guides there.

Um, you know, we're we're hitting our response times and things like that.

Now we may be hitting those response times because folks are volunteering for overtime shifts and ensuring that we're covered.

So we do continue to have robust recruitment efforts for both our public safety departments and our non-public safety departments, making sure that you know, if General Services doesn't have enough staff, it's hard to keep up with the parks mowing schedule.

We have over 300 parks to mow.

So, you know, it it is it is a concern for everybody that we continue to push really hard.

And I I'm gonna use this opportunity to say if we know people who are looking for um a nice government job, we have openings here at the city of Detroit.

Do you know approximately how much we pay out in overtime on an annual basis?

Uh through the chair, I I don't know that off the top of my head, but it's something that I could get to you in writing.

I would have to pull the the numbers.

Okay, all right, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Member Waters.

Um I will I I had a question.

Uh Vice Chair Johnson asked a question around the that I also had around the police academy, um, because I thought that change had been made, but would love to once that information is gathered, would love to know about that.

I had a question on just think about long term on uh the income tax and the corporate income tax, and you we've talked about the corporate income tax uh before, but as we as we saw in the revenue estimating conference of the number of folks of Detroit residents that are making lower income um than uh folks who have who are not Detroit residents but have jobs in inside the city.

I'm just thinking about and I could submit this in writing, but the administration's uh efforts or what the administration is planning to kind of reverse that, and because I I asked that one because we want to make sure that residents are as making um as much as they uh can and should be.

Uh but I also think that we'll all that while we know that that will have a positive impact on our municipal income tax as well.

So I don't if are you able to speak towards those efforts?

Um I don't think that I can right now.

I think there's there are so there are a lot of conversations to be had, right?

This is one of those things that has many solutions that all come together.

So, you know, we know the mayor, you know, wants Detroiters to rise higher, we're working to do that.

It is many faceted about how we accomplish it.

Um and and you know, it's not just a matter of getting job openings available for Detroiters.

A lot of times it's also going all the way back to childhood to make sure that people are being skilled up and educated and trained so that when these job openings are there, they do meet those credentials.

So there's so many variables to do it.

So this is the kind of question that I think we would love to receive in writing because I think we would probably be able to put something together in writing that's a little bit more robust than what I could kind of give off the top of my head here at the table.

For sure.

Uh thank you for that.

And we will submit that right now.

I also I bring this up because I I agree that it is multifaceted, it's gonna take every aspect of what we're thinking about in folks' life and quality of life.

I I also think um it's gonna be one of those collaborative efforts between the administration and city council as well.

So definitely want to um make sure that we're part of that as well.

I those are that's the gist of my questions, but I'll go to Mr.

Corley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I'm just going back to the executive summary, and as Mr.

Johnson reminded the council and the citizens, uh council's one-time changes to the proposed budget, 2027 budget was 8.5 million and um 3.6 million in recurring and about 2.3 million of that 3.6 eternal fund.

I just want to remind the council that um in addition to that, um, council had about 2.5 million dollars in changes, but the administration included those in their administration closing resolution to basically say to council they're gonna try to use uh current fiscal 2026 monies or dollars or budgets to address some of those council changes, and then but the lion's share of that 2.5 million in the administration's closing resolution would be addressed in the upcoming um fiscal 2027 budget.

So a part of our monitoring of council's changes, um we're going to you know ask the administration to give council updates on how they're addressing council's changes um that were addressed by the administration's closing resolution.

This so just to let you know about that.

And then you know, it it looks like it it looks like income tax withholding income tax revenue appears to be still pretty strong, you know, in terms of collections.

Um and I'm wondering does Mr.

Johnson or Mr.

Barry have any indication that that would continue through June 30, 2026.

As you know, uh Mr.

Corley that uh through the chair, I'm sorry, um that the tax filing season just ended, and I think it will be more appropriate for us to present the FRO report to this body with the caveat that there might be some entities or individuals that request extension until October.

But we will we will get a better fail what the revenue, what the collection is.

Mr.

Barry apologies if you can speak it to the mic just uh it's different what the collections will be in in every when we present that report.

Sorry.

And could you just repeat the report that you mentioned?

Because I don't I'm not sure it got captured on the mic.

Uh it's it's the monthly report that we this same report when we present the April report, we will have a fuller picture since uh uh the the filing season uh will will end it actually ended, but there were with the caveat that there will be some extension is until October that may have some impact to the final number.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um and I think we well, there's a positive variance in other revenues, about 10 million dollars.

And I know this is just for the month of well, actually, this is year to date through February uh 2026, other other revenues, and so the explanation says that you know it deals with timing of reimbursements.

I'm just wondering, is there a more specific um cost that's driving that uptick in other revenues?

Maybe Mr.

Johnson can address that um through the chair to Mr.

Corley.

So some of this is gonna be um when we say reimbursements, we mean both reimbursements from outside the city to the city, but we also mean um interfund transfers and reimbursements of the general fund for expenses um incurred on behalf of non-general funds.

So um I think what we're seeing here is a lot of those interfund payments are have been processed or being processed and booked.

Um but um some of that uh income category is also um interest earnings.

So you know we do still continue to have a sizable cash balance, our pooled cash balance that's invested um continues to be high.

I mean, it's not as high as it was a year ago, right?

We've spent down ARPA, we've spent down a lot of our capital dollars, but we do have a sizable, you know, many hundreds of millions of dollars invested.

Um, and so that has been generating um, I think better than expected investment returns.

Um interest rates continue to be sort of, I would say in our favor in the sense that the returns we're seeing on our stuff, uh our investments are um I think better than we kind of expected considering where we thought the economy was going.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

That's my question.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Corley.

I do have one more follow-up question on the rate uh wager and um tax.

Um I know how I feel about the wager tax.

But uh I think about I know there is um there was action that uh the Michigan AG has taken on this, and by also I'm thinking about the what is popping up nowadays, prediction markets or was also just bits on whether you think something will happen or not, which is wild.

Um those we we do not collect wager and tax on a prediction market, is that correct?

Uh that is correct, Mr.

Chair.

So the prediction markets are not in conceptualized in Michigan's gaming laws, and so that's the sort of crux of the attorney general's activity in this regard is she's you know saying, hey, hold on a minute, you're operating essentially a gambling market.

And in Michigan, we have laws that regulate that and that also provide taxation on that, and you are circumventing that.

And so that's gonna be, I think a lot of states are now beginning to step forward and go, hold on a minute.

It seems like you're circumventing um our gaming laws.

Um and so that we're keeping a very close eye on that because obviously it's you know it's no secret, something like Calchi or Polymarket, those would be competitors to our revenue source if they didn't have to pay the same taxes as the casinos, but if they were also offering what are essentially games of chance online that would compete with our revenue streams and also the states.

And so, you know, none of us are interested in that.

And so we're keeping a very close eye on that um and monitoring what we need to do.

Obviously, we support the attorney general taking the necessary actions so that these folks are compliant with our laws, and that includes our our income tax laws, our waging tax laws.

Yeah, that's my understanding that uh a nearly 90% of those bets are sports bets related.

So you would think that that would fall into that.

And and just for um uh my understanding is has that actually is that a federal or state court that uh that the attorney general I could look it up, but I just was a I actually don't know off the top of my head.

I would assume that we're starting in state court.

So normally you would start in state court um because we're we're contending that they need to follow the laws of this state.

Um so my my assumption is that she would be starting, and I I believe it would be in one of the circuit courts here in the state.

Got it.

Thank you.

We know the federal judiciary is kind of yeah, especially today.

Uh thank you for that.

Any further questions?

Or any additional comments from you all?

All right.

Uh is there a motion to receive and file 6.1?

Motion.

There's been a motion to receive and file 6.1, seeing no objections.

That action shall be taken.

Um that will move us on to 6.2.

Um, this is uh uh resolution um around the fiscal authorizing the fiscal year 2025-2026 transfers to implement the executive organization plan amendments.

Um is there a motion to discuss?

Motion.

There's been a motion to discuss 6.2.

Um and I believe Mr.

Johnson, are you here with us for that as well?

All right.

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

Uh for the record, Donnie Johnson, deputy CFO and budget director for the city.

Um so this item is the long-awaited um budget amendment to implement the executive organization plan.

As you know, the EOP amendments went into effect on April 7th, the same day that um you all adopted the budget.

So this amendment will let us get some of the departmental operations up and running immediately in the current fiscal year.

As you know, you adopted a 27 budget um that already contained the resources for fiscal 27 and the structures for the department.

So what we're doing now is setting up the infrastructure so that um employees can have their pay strings changed to the new departmental ID, all these sorts of things, so that when we transition into fiscal year 27, it transitions very smoothly.

It's actually, I know it sounds uh kind of unusual.

It's actually easier to do this transition right now than when we're caught up in the full fiscal year system transition that happens at July 1st.

There's a lot of other system things that happen.

It's actually easier on my team and the ODFS team, the controllers team, if we do this right now and get everything mapped up and matched up so that it matches up with what they're gonna transition into for the 27 budget.

Otherwise, they'd kind of crash into that budget on July 1st, all still in the wrong places, and we need to do it kind of in a rush then.

So this lets us avoid that rush.

So, Mr.

Chair, if with your indulgence, I know I received a number of questions from your office, from LPD, a couple from Councilmember Johnson's office, and so I think I can kind of answer them with remarks if that is preferred.

Um of the questions was um details on how the figures were derived in the budget amendment.

How did I come up with these numbers?

Um, in most instances, what we're doing is we're moving the entire contents.

Let's just use that as a term that we can use to discuss that the entire contents of an a cost center within an appropriation.

That's because a lot of the we when we set up cost centers, we set them up on a pro a programmatic basis.

So for I'm gonna use for an example the homeless services group.

So the homeless services group that's currently in HRD, they're all in one cost center called homeless services.

That whole cost center, everybody in it, all of the dollars in it, including the shelter contract dollars, all of that is moving to HHFS.

So in this case, that's very straightforward.

It's what I call a lift and shift, right?

I'm lifting everything there, shifting it over, and dropping it back into a new account structures.

So in that case, 100% of what's in there is moving.

The budget is moving, the expenses that have been incurred year to date up to the day we do the transfer will also be transferred.

So they'll show as expenses in the new department.

Uh purchase orders will be reissued so that they have the new account strings on them, so there will be no encumbrances and requisitions will be returned and then re-entered with the new account strings.

So that let's say one week after these transfers are done, if you were to run a report in the system, you would get no results for the old account structure because everything in it has moved.

Budget, actuals, obligations, and requisitions.

So in most instances, that what we're doing.

Now there are a couple instances, two cost centers in HRD in particular, where we're not moving the contents of the entire cost center.

We're really only moving like two people, like two personnel are moving out over to the new department.

So in that case, I what I did was calculate knowing what I what we budgeted for each of those people's salaries.

So I know the budget to move for each of those people, and then I know what their payroll has been up to the moment of transfer.

So their budget's gonna move, their payroll costs, both salary and benefit costs, will also move with them.

So the net effect on that cost center and that appropriation is essentially no net effect because everything's being taken and moved.

Um the totals will be different, but it won't make it any less balanced than it was before.

Um, so that's a very quick explanation of this.

Um, one thing I will note is um I think it's probably no secret to anyone, setting up a new department is very complicated.

There is a lot, we we rely on a lot of financial systems, we rely on a payroll system, all of these things have to be changed.

And so, what this resolution, this amendment is gonna let us do, my team in particular is get the resources in place because in a lot of cases we can't make those other system changes without first having a budget there.

The system will reject those changes because it will say there's no budget.

You know, we have what's called budget absolute budgetary control.

And so if we try to move a PO, for example, a purchase order, or we try to change someone's payroll string, the system's gonna go, hold on a minute.

There are no resources there.

I don't want you to do this.

So first I have to move the resources, get everything there, then everything can follow behind it.

So that is sort of the high level how I got to the numbers I got to in these appropriations.

Um, so please provide the free balance amounts in the appropriations where expenditures have been occurred up to this point.

So one of the things is it it's sort of um the free balance is kind of immaterial because it's all moving in a lot of cases.

In the cases where it's not, where there will be remaining balances, um, I have provided those, and I'm going to provide all these responses in writing as well.

So they will be submitted to this committee and obviously to Mr.

Quarley and his team.

Um so I will provide those, but again, in a lot of cases, the the remaining balance is also going with it.

So it all goes together.

But where it isn't, I will call that out.

I'll make that a specific note.

Um how are um employees affected by these changes?

Um they're not affected in any um sense to like their pay or anything like that.

They're not affected in any sense to like their pay or anything like that.

They will notice no disruption to any of that.

It just flows smoothly from one pay period to the next.

Where they are affected, obviously, is their departmental assignment.

So Dr.

Schaefer and the team with HHFS, Director Schneider and Hers team and Nicole Wise and Terry Daniels and OCFO have all been coordinating on the what personnel are going where in this transition.

All personnel have been notified.

They all know a transition is occurring.

And they all generally at this stage, I would say the majority know what their final departmental assignment's gonna be.

Many of them kind of knew in advance, right?

They knew if they were working on something like homeless services or immigration affairs, these were groups that were gonna get moved.

So they they kind of knew they didn't need to be formally told.

Others, it was a matter of saying, okay, where is their skill gonna be utilized toward a program?

And those folks are being going, they're going through the final personnel discussions as we speak.

Um so, in terms of their pay or any, like they won't notice a change in their lived experience, other than they may report to a different office starting on, you know, next Monday, you now report to this off, you come to this location, you sit at this desk.

Um please explain the role of the OCFO per the appropriation uh 2936 uh 29236, which is fund development and oversight per this amendment.

So one thing that's happening with this transition is the OCFO is taking on all oversight and sort of regulatory functions as relates to HUD funding.

So originally um OCFO did that, but HRD did a lot of it itself.

They kind of served as their own oversight entity over HUD dollars.

Now that HUD dollars are being used by multiple departments, we need a more it's time to pull that back to the finance group.

Um it's kind of long overdue.

It's something that we had intended to do back during the post-banruptcy reorganization.

It was one that just kind of got left where it was because all the experts in HUD dollars were in HRD, and we didn't want to disrupt that.

Now's a really logical point.

So what that appropriation does, that's where all the grants management team is.

So Terry Daniels and all of her teams, that's the appropriation that they live in.

So Nicole Wise, um, who's currently with HRD is gonna become the head of HUD HUD compliance, um, housing and urban development funding compliance.

She's an unbelievable subject matter expert on everything regarding HUD funding.

And so she'll work under Terry Daniels and oversee that division of employees, which means some employees from HRD are now being transferred to OCFO, which is why you see um money being moved there.

Related to that, there was a question that asked why about 336,000, 363,000 was being transferred to OCFO.

That is the general fund component.

So the vast majority of the compliance staff are actually funded by CDBG.

The that 363,000 you see transferring um over from HRD to OCFO in the general fund is Nicole Wise and Kathleen Quackenbush, who is uh senior project manager, program manager on compliance.

So it's two people transferring over from HRD in the general fund.

The rest of the compliance staff are not general fund, they are CDBG, fund 2001.

Um the next question I was asked was um explain what information will be provided in the final report detailing the transfers and when that report will be presented.

So my expectation is that report would come no later than June 30th, the end of the fiscal year.

It will probably take us about a month to do all of these transfers and finish all of this stuff.

So after that, what that report will contain will be the final transferred balances.

Um and it will also contain some of the details that have been requested in other parts of the requests.

So one thing, um, Mr.

Chair that you you had passed along a question was a breakdown of the employees and the salary and wages and where they're going.

At the time I prepare that report, that will all have settled, and I will actually have final headcounts, and I can tell you it was exactly this many people, it was this much in payroll.

I will have all that detail because all the transfers will be done.

So my expectation is that report would contain the final balances and then the details of those transfers, how many personnel that entailed, how much non-personnel that entailed, and all of that sort of stuff.

So that's what I expect that report to contain.

Um obviously, I think mid-June is what I'm shooting for.

Um and if I can, you know, if I get something done earlier, I'll always submit it early.

That's you know, I have no, I'm not, I'm not afraid of that.

Um but I don't also like to cut myself short on time, knowing that this stuff can sometimes take you for longer than you think.

I like to build in a little grace period.

Um so please explain why the same amount.

This is a big question.

Every single person who asked asked this question, which I anticipated.

Please explain why the same amount of 1,178 and 28 dollars is being used to expand the neighborhood affairs, but also to re-establish emergency management, homeland security, and DPD.

So what's happening here is um the Homeland Security Department division is moving to the police department.

The police department will pay for that.

So we are going to take money from one of the police department appropriations and pay for that.

We're able to do that because we have the money coming from the state for the additional public safety support.

So that enables us to do that.

What that means is the mayor's office gets to keep the that the other 1.178 million and put that into the neighborhood services group.

So they're gonna use that to continue to um build out that neighborhood services group and make those investments there.

So kind of it lets us do two birds with one stone.

DPD and the for the remainder of fiscal 26, they have enough left in their budget to cover the remainder of the fiscal year.

And the mayor's this will allow the mayor's office to cover the remainder of the fiscal year for the um enhanced advancements in our neighborhood affairs group.

So that's why you see it twice.

It's because it's moving from one appropriation to another within the mayor's office and one appropriation to another within the police department in order for that to occur.

Um, does this budget amendment comport to the way that the HHFS, HRD, OCFO, mayor's office, and police budgets were set up in the FY27 budget adopted?

Yes, it does.

So these transfers and this amendment actually will let me ensure that it mirrors it so that the transition to the fiscal year is very smooth.

Um, Mr.

Chair, uh question from your office was provide the detailed worksheet showing how each appropriation amount in Schedule A was calculated.

I expect that would be part of my final report.

It would tell you the specific this this cost center specifically was resulted in this transfer, this one, this one.

Um because when we talk about how I calculated it, a lot of times it was how much is in this cost center.

I get to move the whole thing, made it very simple.

But for the ones where I did have the kind of bifurcation of a cost center, I would give you that breakdown in the report.

Um I think that covers all of the questions that had been sent in advance.

If I'm missing any, obviously, uh, or there are new ones, you all will let me know.

And I know Mr.

Corley will let me know.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um I can say I can say director.

Yes.

Thank you, Director.

Um I will open up for questions from the uh members of the committee.

Member Waters.

Okay, well, might have pretty quick actually, Director Johnson, because you you you already discussed the performance data and um net neutral and all the good stuff.

So I do want to better understand um how we ensure continuity, you know, of the services during the transition, especially for our most vulnerable population.

Uh through the chair to councilmember waters, it's a wonderful question.

So this this bifurcation of departments is is has been anticipated, all of all of the leadership of these departments um and Dr.

Schaefer, um, they have been laying that groundwork to ensure there's no disruption.

So one thing is the vendors, let's say um our shelter partners who are providing shelter services with our homeless services division.

Just because we changed the purchase order number with a new purchase order with a new account string, they can still deliver the services, right?

They still have a contract, nothing stops them from doing it.

It just means the next time they invoice us, they invoice us with the new purchase order number.

No, no change otherwise.

So all of our vendors that are delivering services, all of our partners that are delivering services, they can keep doing that unimpeded.

The resources are here, right?

We know the resources are here, they're just changing location.

And so by the time they come around for the next invoicing cycle, it won't be any different for them.

They get paid.

So can residents expect improvements?

What type of measurable improvements can they expect by consolidating this department?

Uh, through the chair to Councilmember Waters, absolutely.

Um, part of this is by having a department that by breaking this up, it means that housing can focus on housing exclusively, and human services can focus on human services exclusively.

And no one's attention has to be kind of split.

You get to focus your attention on this one thing.

And I think this is gonna absolutely pay dividends for us.

I think we're gonna absolutely see us being able to accomplish a lot because folks that previously had to kind of straddle different types of projects.

This is all you got to think about now.

And I think once you have that freedom and that space, you can really accomplish a lot.

I think we're gonna see this really move the needle for Detroiters.

Well, it sounds pretty good, or you're just pretty good at delivering.

Both.

No, it is it through the chair.

No, I it genuinely is a very good idea.

It's interestingly, you know, it is something that we um had thought about in the past.

It had been one of those like improvement ideas that it kind of bubbled up over the years of like maybe we should do this, and oh, it's a lot of work to split departments, and it is.

Um, and it just sort of it didn't become necessary until the last couple years, where we really started to build out more of those homeless services programs, and that became more human services.

And then that started to really pull attention, and it was like, okay, I think we're reaching that critical mass.

And then when Madam Mayor, you know, was campaigning and she said this needs to be separate, that really crystallized it for everyone.

Like, yeah, I think we're at that point.

It makes sense.

And it kind of makes sense because the housing has become just so huge all its own.

Yes.

Just you know, so I can say so.

I look forward to it, you know, uh seeing some improvements and so forth.

We'll see.

I'm I mean, I'm excited.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Member Waters, Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I don't have any additional questions, but would like to just request that when you send the report over with the new department, um HHFS, uh, as well as with HRD, if we can have names associated with um chiefs, directors, deputy directors, higher level um staff that we communicate with so we know who's in the position and who we should be reaching out to, that'd be great.

Yes, that's a good idea.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Corley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh wonderful responses verbally for Mr.

Johnson.

Appreciate that.

And as soon as you can get the um responses in writing to us, absolutely for council both on Tuesday if they choose to do so.

Absolutely great.

Um this minor question with the employees.

So, you know, as you say, payroll um information is gonna move over.

Will the title still also remain the same?

Uh through the chair to you, Mr.

Corley.

Yes, as a general rule, most employees will retain their existing titles in the few instances where they might need to transition to a new title, which honestly none are really coming up to me.

And I've been waiting through this data for a few months now.

None are really coming to mind, but if there are a few, or it just makes sense, then we would go through the normal HR processes of you know, um yeah, putting someone into a new classification.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Ms.

Crowley.

And you answered the questions that I have.

Um so uh thank you for that.

Is there a motion to um approve or a motion?

We would this will actually be we need a motion to approve and send to formal with a recommendation to approve.

There's been a motion to approve 6.2 and sent to formal with a recommendation for approval.

Any objections?

Seeing none, the action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you all for your support.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

This will um bring us to 6.3.

This is um a resolution around a fiscal year 2025, 2026, and your request to write off uncollectible accounts receivable and other non-real property tax receivables.

Is there a motion to discuss?

Motion.

And I believe we have the deputy treasurer here with us to discuss this.

Good afternoon.

Uh Mr.

German and members of the committee again.

Um deputy treasurer.

Um, with me is Mr.

Ladonna Johnson.

Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman, honorable body, Ladonna Johnson, revenue collections manager.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for being here.

I'll turn the floor over to you.

Thank you.

Um again, uh, Treasurer uh Agori is not able to attend uh meetings or Ladonna and uh Ms.

Johnson and I representing her.

What we have before you is uh 1.1 million dollars to write up to write to 1.1 million dollars to rot write off from us from the cities books.

I'm gonna start with some background how we got here.

As you know, the bankruptcy handled see these long-term liabilities such as pension uh other post-employment benefits was known as OPEP and some sum of unsecured debt, such as pension obligation certificates.

What the um bank groups did not have anything to do with was the city's books and all these aged receivables that were shown on the city's books, which also had a lot large allowance for uncollectible.

So if you look at this uh general fund is uh financial the balance sheet, it will show large the three receivable and a large allowance for uncollectible, meaning that that allowance gets subtracted from the receivable amount, so it has no impact on the books at the end of the day.

Um we have a uh audit finding in 2023 that required the city to clean up its books and remove these old receivables that are not collectible that that were deemed uncollectible.

Uh first in 2024, we came before this honorable body uh with 125.3 million uh write-offs and the committee approved it, and then the the full body approved it subsequently.

The following fiscal year, which is 2025, we came back and then we had another 75.3 million dollars of receivables that we requested they be removed from the books because they were again not uncollectible, and that brought us to this year with this smaller amount and uh resolution lays out the one makes that up in three categories.

Um the first part is uh in our deliquin um personal property tax.

Uh it's this 28.9 million roughly that we're writing off from the books, and then there's a 554 million thousand of accounts receivable that we have in Oracle, and we lay out what percent dose make uh total receivable in the number of invoices, and then we have another category where we have some old leftover bankrupt bankruptcy receivables that we research it to find out what they were, if there were any support or if we could collect, and we came to the conclusion those also are not collectable.

I am can I stop here, Mr.

Chairman, and with your uh permission, have Ms.

Johnson if she has anything to add.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Um, honorable body, we do we perform three mailings a year for um delinquent personal property and special acts.

Um each year that we do these mailings, it costs us about 10 to 15,000 dollars for each mailing.

And so when we get to the point of a write-off, we've exhausted our efforts.

And so at this time, I think that we are ready for this write-off.

We are actively collecting on years 2020 through 2025 in our delinquent personal property database.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, anything.

Go ahead, please.

No, okay.

Um, any questions from uh colleagues on committee?

Member Waters.

Um we're having such a difficult time with our collections, it seems, you know, across the board.

So what methods are we using?

Um we make a telephone call, sending letters, um liens, any other legal actions, or do we have external uh collection companies?

Who are we using?

What what methods are we using to get the dollars through the chair?

Um to council member waters.

Currently, we do not have a third party.

We are doing in-house collections, so that is phone calls as well as the mailings, the three um mailings that we do each year, and then the staff, their tax examiners, they do have a portfolio, and so they reach out through cut to customers to get a payment arrangement.

Um so that's our collection efforts at the time.

We do not have a third party, we do reach out to the law department as well to assist us on some of these collections.

What's the what's the percentage of reach?

You know, generally you might call a thousand people per week, for example, I'm using that what percentage of those you actually reach, and and then number two, you receive some sort of commitment payment arrangement and so forth.

Those numbers are very low.

I will get those for you.

Um the contacts that we make.

I forgot to mention email as well.

We do have a lot of customers that we can contact via email.

Um but collection-wise for the year, when I think about when we think about 2024, the overall um balances due were seven million dollars, and we collected 1.47 million dollars.

And so there's active collections, but to your point, I do not have those numbers for the number of contacts that were actually uh making and receiving um a response from.

I can get that for you.

Um how many times did you reach out to say each customer per week?

You know, like if you don't get them, do you call again that same person during the week, or if so, how many times you think?

For one taxpayer, if we use um a tax examiner will reach out to a customer two to three times a week.

Two or three times a week.

Okay, and so percentage of those that are on payment plans and and defaults.

I will get that to you.

The payment plan numbers are low.

Payment plan numbers are low.

So we're saying we did they just pay it once you reach them, or they you just don't they just don't enter a payment plan.

Some of them say they did not know they did not receive that mailing.

So it is important that we have a telephone number or an email address.

Um and they also um to finish that point, sometimes they'll make the payment when there's a clearance involved when they're attempting to do business with the city of Detroit.

That's when they'll make that payment.

Do we have any process for where we're gonna, you know, improvement processes so that we can, you know, that can be implemented to prevent similar similar uh aging of receivables.

I mean, anything?

Yes, I am looking at working with the law department as well as considering another third party.

Okay.

So what about adopting stricter uh deadlines for sending accounts or collections to collections?

How long does it take it?

And then what about improving that and adopting some stricter timelines for sending to collections?

I will take that under consideration.

Oh so um I am curious though.

Why weren't these um pre-bankruptcy uh receivables addressed during the bankruptcy process?

Couldn't we have just kind of lumped them in?

We went bankrupt and we still have all of these uh all this debt.

Through the chair um to Mumber Waters that the bankrupt really didn't have uh any it was not under the purview of the uh court to look at cities receivables, uh if I may say that.

Um just to take assets, huh?

They they only dealt with the liability side of the of the ledger, uh unfortunately.

Um so it's uh to your point.

Um we came before this honorable body twice in the past, and what we brought over was mainly those pre-bankruptcy items, and the ones we have on this resolution were the ones we held back to see if we can find out what they actually were because these are not individual invoices in the Oracle system, but they were rather on the general ledger.

So it was there were journal injuries that were transferred from one old system to another, and we wanted to see if we can go back to these old legacy systems and find out what they actually were, and we haven't been able to find that out.

I guess I'm trying to understand what took so long.

You know, it's been more than a decade.

What prevented collections?

Understood, yeah.

Through the chair, I'm sorry.

Through the chair, we're we're attempting to uh to make sure now we clean up the books and so we don't have any audit findings.

Uh but to your point, uh obviously this should have been done sooner.

Yeah.

We do we know why it didn't happen sooner?

Do we know?

Nobody I personally do not know.

Oh, you personally do.

Oh, wow, okay.

All right, so are any of these debts uh still enforced, enforceable?

You know, even though they've been written off of the books, can we still enforce any of it?

If somebody reaches out and say, hey, I'm gonna pay, we will take the money, but but as far as as far as the uh effort to put in more efforts, uh we we we deem these to be f uh any efforts to put in this into these would be fruitless.

We will be throwing good money after the bad, uh, like Ms.

Johnson explained it.

It costs us more to do mailings, it costs us a staff time to follow up, and sometimes the contact information is not available.

And so though we have these limitations, and we do our best to stay on top of the current receivables so they don't fall into the same uh situation.

Well, okay, thank you.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Member Warders for Sir Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon.

Um I think did you indicate that the receivables came from a prior system and you don't have a real understanding of where the receivable is from?

Through the chair uh to member Johnson.

The resolution we have before you has three different line items.

The third item falls into what you just uh point out.

And these are um there's a system used to be called Dreams.

There was a still oracle system, but it predated the current cloud that was implemented in 2020.

So those go back all the way back to early 2020s and stayed on the general ledger.

What we haven't been able to find out is how did the how were they initially recorded, even though we know they have been transferred from from one system to another in the same general ledger account, and then it they have these uncollectible allowance for uncollectible.

So they're literally zero on the CD's books, and there were never any detail invoice level detail that could tell us what they were to begin with.

And so you were referring to the pre-bankruptcy special assessments?

Uh I'm referring to number three.

Okay.

Um, are you able to classify the other two so that I have a better understanding of the type of receivable that we're no longer able to collect and um who you're collecting from?

So I'm wondering if you all work with OCP to ensure that we're not continuing to do business with entities that owe us.

I did hear Ms.

Johnson say that sometimes people will pay once they have to file or request a clearance in order for them to do business with us.

But are we sharing information with the Office of Contracting and Procurement to put them on alert so that they know that we have outstanding receivables for an entity prior to them even entertaining doing business with the city?

True the chair uh to member Johnson.

Well, we do have a clearance section actually within Treasury that works hand in hand with recruitment, and and that team is actually part of the team that clears anyone who wants to do business with us.

So we are uh working with with OCB on on those.

The only issue is that if you really don't have a history of what the original receivable was for, and then it is really hard to drill into and say this is who owes us.

Um the one is that are in our Oracle system, we do know the invoice level information, but they're old, and they're they have been very expensive, no response.

Year after year, we mail out letters, we attempt to reach out to the customers with no success.

So I understood that for number three, but for numbers one and two, you do know what entity owes the receivable or don't?

No, no number number two, we do know who who the entities are.

It's just uh we haven't been able to collect collect.

Sure.

So I understand that.

Um I'm really trying to again just understand if we could categorize um the entities in number two, because when I look at street fund and airport fund, I'm wondering what were we collecting money from them for.

Um my mind went to perhaps there was a demolition that took place and um a a sidewalk had to be addressed.

When I think about the street fund or and we replaced the sidewalk and the entity was responsible for repaying the city for the cost of replacing the sidewalk.

But that's just me speculating because I don't know what these categories are that owe us um, not the entity necessarily, but categories that we were looking to collect on that we were unable to.

That's one part.

The entity, yes, is important as it relates to communicating with OCP just to ensure that we're not working with them.

And I hear you say that you have a tax clearance process as well.

I think it's it's frustrating to think that there are people out there who will pay the receivable once they are looking to do business with the city of Detroit and not just pay it because they know that it is due to the city, especially recognizing that it's it's almost recycling the dollars, right?

They pay it and then now we're gonna turn around and pay them for uh services that they're rendering to the city.

But so because they recognize that when they're looking to get paid, how about recognizing that there are other people uh that we are um procuring to utilize services, obtain products from them that have to be paid, and we need resources in order for us to do that for the chair?

Um council member Johnson, yes, I think that's important why we work with law as well as procurement um to better align because I understand your plight is my plight as well.

Um it is disheartening that that is when they pay.

Um so strengthening our efforts as I mentioned to member waters.

I hope that I hope that will help us secure more money, more funding from the customers.

Thank you.

And and if you can help me understand, um, if you can send over something that just kind of shares what these dollars um were from, uh I really want to understand that better.

Um, in number two, the miscellaneous accounts receivable.

So I just have a better understanding of what it is that um we were looking to collect on that we were not able to.

Thank you through the chair.

Um, member Johnson, when you mentioned airport, there are such things as hangar fees, so that could be.

I would have to go back and look, but hangar fees are something that we do collect through airport.

Thank you.

I'm I'm really just trying to understand to see if there's a way for us to improve upon our collections.

Um so certainly would look forward to that.

And if there's any anything that I can come up with, I will certainly communicate with you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

I'll turn it over to Mr.

Crawley if you have any additional.

Uh Mr.

Chair, uh, thank you.

Uh I had a few questions and they they've been addressed.

I I guess the general comment I would make is that you know, now that we've kind of cleaned up the books, we had the art of finding, we cleaned up the books um pretty much.

And so we shouldn't have a continual auto finding because they're gonna come back every year.

I think they're gonna do the scrubbing of these receivables, uncollectible receivables every year.

And so it should be a small amount going forward, hopefully, you know.

And so the receivables that's on the book that are that are quote unquote good receivables, you know, you would hope they don't go back a number of years moving forward.

And if we reach that point where the receivables are fairly, you know, um fairly collectible because they're not offstanding a long time, then I think we're we're in a good place.

And so they're gonna do their best to scrub the receivable books yearly.

If there's still any outstanding receivables that they're having a hard time collecting, they'll ask for a write-off, but that's hope that that number that they'll be requesting for will be small.

And we got that indication here because they're just asking for a write-off of about 1.1 million dollars.

And we know where's before a couple years ago, you know, 125 million, 75 million after that.

That was the cleanup.

That was that was why we got the order finding.

Now that we're cleaning up our books, moving forward, the um any write-off requests should be small numbers.

So um I feel confident that you know there is a um sort of effort for treasury, you know, working with the law department to look at this every year and uh make sure that we don't have a lot of old outstanding receivables that we can't collect on.

So that's just my general comment.

But thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Corley.

I uh I echo um the desire to know as Vice Chair Johnson um mentioned the desire to know that the bucket of in the miscellaneous, the the second bucket.

Um, so as if we can get the information, that would be great.

Um, I have a question on the solid waste fee.

Um, do we know uh the geographic or demographic distribution of the right offs in the solar waste fee?

And is are there any council districts that disproportionately represented?

Um just I'm just trying to get a view of those who those fees are associated with, if they're low-income households or if they're um uh folks that maybe uh have businesses, just any view on that.

Uh uh, Mr.

Johnson uh the go into the uh detail, but what the what that category represents is uh delinquent person on property tax is property taxes, specifically special act is solid waste.

What normally happens is for real property, we turn it over to the county every year, and then the personal property tax, we keep a d database to collect.

And then by statue seven years, I believe that we actually go through the law department and have and go to the Wayne County Circuit Court and write those off.

What that does not cover is the the special act items side of the waste, and that's what you have in this category.

And I'll let Ms.

Johnson speak to the detail if she can.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So yes, the silent waste fees, they were transferred over from um the Office of Treasury to Wayne County, and Wayne County would attempt to collect on that for three years, and then they would send it back to the city of Detroit for collection to answer your question about the specific demographic.

Um we would we could query that and work with the Office of Assessor to see if by parcel number they can link it to the district number.

But that would be working with the Office of Assessors, it's not something that we could do in the treasurer's office.

Gotcha.

So just so I'm understanding that would just be the widespread of the delinquent um property tax and solid waste fees that we've seen across the city.

Just for the solid waste fees, yes.

Got it.

Um I don't have any additional.

Um is there a Mr.

Chair?

Yes.

Prior to um a request for the motion, can I just ask a quick question?

Absolutely.

Um as a follow-up to that, um, with as it relates to the solid waste fee.

If the county auctions a property off to collect the taxes that were owed.

Does the county also provide the any outstanding solid waste fees to the city if it's above and beyond what was owed for property taxes?

Through the chair, council member Johnson, I will need to follow up on that.

I do not know.

Um I don't want to speculate.

I will find out for you.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Um, I know we have a I know there's um uh a few items of follow-up information.

Um I know it's uh digging deeper to find out more information and see how what is the things moving forward and how we could um even lessen the amount of write-off that would come through in the process there.

But with that, um is there a motion on 6.3 uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh motion to send line item 6.3 to formal with a with a recommendation to approve.

All right, there's been a motion to send 6.3 to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Uh seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Thank you all so much, and and definitely looking forward to that.

Thank you.

All right.

That would move us on to 6.4 from the law department.

Um regarding uh risk management quarter report for the third quarter.

Um I will turn it over to um attorney Anderson.

Um is there a motion to discuss uh first?

Motion.

There's motion to discuss, I'll turn over to attorney Anderson.

Yes, through the Chair Graham Anderson Law Department, as uh the chair mentioned this is the quarterly report for all um the settlements um for the last quarter.

Uh but I welcome any questions, but I know we're very limited in our capacity to get too into the details in this case.

However, if there is anything that uh any office is curious about, I recommend you submit the questions in writing, and we're glad to deliver a privileged and confidential response.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And um attorney Anderson, um is it is there a does the law department see that is there a need for a closed session around this?

Through the chair, no, I don't believe that would be necessary in this case.

Um I I think just if there is any specific questions that any council member has regarding either a specific uh lawsuit or uh perhaps general strategy, I think that's something we could handle uh via just uh memo submission.

Got it and uh additional question on that with the memo submission.

Um is that something that uh we would be able to get back within a week's time, or is this something that we could possibly bring back as we get those questions answered?

Through the chair, I I think we should be able to respond to everything within two weeks at the most.

All right.

Um with that, just so I can make sure that we do give uh uh uh members the opportunity to ask any questions that they may have.

Is there a motion to bring back 6.4 in two weeks?

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring back 6.4 in two weeks.

Um seeing no objections that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, that will move us on to 6.5.

Um this is uh from the uh office of the city clerk and the city planning commission 6.5 is a neighborhood enterprise zone certificate application for the rehabilitation of a single family house at 2153, Hubbard Street in the Hubbard Farms Neighborhood Enterprise Zone.

Is there a motion to discuss 6.5?

Motion motion to discuss 6.5.

Uh Mr.

Gulag, good afternoon.

Good new, Mr.

Chair Chris Gulag, uh CPC staff.

Good to good to see you.

I will turn it over to you.

And uh we're also joined by the petitioners online.

I believe um Kim Hill, uh it's uh it's a husband-wife team, Philip and Kim Hilliard, and I see um Mr.

Hilliard on the screen as well.

Mr.

Hilliard, uh good afternoon.

If you can just state your name for the record.

Hi, my name is Philip Hilliard.

Uh good afternoon.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Gular.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh CPC staff submitted a brief memo and a resolution for the committee's consideration.

This is for an NEZ certificate and at Hubbard Street in Southwest Detroit.

This red dot shows the location.

It's on the west side of Hubbard, north of West Verner, south of Toledo, yeah, west of uh the I-75 and 96 interchange.

Zooming in closer, it's a it's an existing house.

Uh petitioner, Mr.

Hillard and his wife are proposing to uh rehab uh the property and they're asking for the NEZ certificate.

Uh this is a picture from the street of the house.

Two-story um uh residential structure.

This the staff is confirmed this is in the Hubbard Front Farms NEZ, which council approved back in October of 2002.

Um that original one had a that original NEZ is outlined in the uh turquoise box here, and it has about 245 acres uh at the time I believe that was requested.

I think by the Bagley Housing Association just for new infill and rehab.

And some of that has occurred over the years, but there's still quite a bit of vacant land.

Uh the petitioner is the JAC LLC, which is represented by Mr.

Hilliard and his wife.

Uh he indicates their local residential investors who focus on rehabbing existing houses to improve the neighborhood conditions.

Uh it's an old structure, it's built in 1890.

Um house has two stories and contains about uh 1,500 square feet.

Uh city records show that Mr.

Hilliard purchased the house in March of 2026 recently for 127,500.

Uh records show that the house does have a assessed value of 46,000.

Um Mr.

Hilliard indicates he's going to uh restore the single family house as a rental, which is allowed under the NEZ Act.

Uh in the end product, I believe it have four bedrooms and one and a half baths.

Um he's hoping to rent it a monthly rental rates between 1700 and 1900.

Uh the rehab cost rehab cost for now would be about 45,000, including new roof, updated siding, new windows, and uh adding an AC unit and interior work on the kitchen and bathrooms and flooring, and bringing the electrical and plumbing up to code.

Uh regarding parking, the house does have a driveway for two vehicles.

Regarding accessibility, uh the developer indicates there are no added accessibility features.

There's a current ramp there now, but I think it's not the code, it would have to be removed at the front yard there.

Uh however, the the house, Mr.

Hillard indicates the home will meet standard residential access and safety standards.

So in our report, we confirm it isn't in an easy zone the council created established recommended approval and a resolution has been submitted for your consideration.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Gular.

Um Mr.

Hiller, uh, do you have anything to add?

No, that covered it.

Um for I'll turn over to the committee.

Um for members, if you have any questions, uh begin with Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good afternoon.

Um Mr.

Hilliard, I'm just wondering, are you a contractor by chance?

Uh through the chair, no, I'm not.

You are not.

Okay, Mr.

Gulak.

Is so the 45,000 sounds really low to me.

Is there a is there a um an incentive, a particular reason why a rehabilitation, why rehabilitation costs might be lower?

Does is there any benefit to the petitioner uh through the chair?

Um the the state law uh would freeze um freeze the uh pre uh rehab value.

So I it depends on when the state and the city will freeze the um the uh taxable value.

So um no, I don't think there's uh an advantage for uh spending a certain amount.

I think the state law does require a minimum amount to be spent on a unit for rehab, and I think that's it's either 10 or 15,000.

So they meet that threshold.

Um but uh I think the the value will will be frozen either at the 20, 25,000 rate or the 20 to 26,000 rate, but it's up to the state and the city to work that out.

And um he wouldn't be assessed the new value after the rehab is done, say the house is worth uh you know 225,000, it would be frozen at the pre-rehab value.

Okay, thank you.

Um so I as I was looking at the property, it looks like a property that I grew up in when I was younger, and many of those houses are known to have asbestos siding, and the the siding on that house looks like it may have asbestos in it.

So, Mr.

Hilliard, I'm wondering if you have um done any investigation, looked at the property, if you know if there is any asbestos within the house that needs to be remediated.

Not that uh through the chair, not that I'm aware of.

Um, through the disclosures of the from the sellers, uh, they did not disclose any abessis um within the house itself.

Um, I'm currently gathering some bids from contractors about these siding.

Um, but that will be a question that I will ask um the uh the contractors.

I did get one feedback from a contractor saying that they would not uh need to take down the existing siding.

Um so I don't know how that would impact that, but that would be a question I'll ask.

Okay.

All right, thank you for that.

Um that is the only those are the only questions that I had.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson member waters.

Oh, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

So he said he didn't own any uh the property in the city.

He does.

Huh?

I think he does.

Okay.

Okay, how many?

How many was it?

How many properties do you own in the city?

Through the chair, this will be our first property that we'll uh we have purchased.

That's that's what I thought.

Um the renovations, when are they gonna be completed?

Uh uh through the chair.

Um currently gathering the bids, I should have that by the end of the week.

Okay, we are estimating anywhere from five to six months for it to be completed.

Five to six months.

Well, I noticed that you don't have any accessibility uh features.

Why is that?

Well, um, through the chair, this is a standard single family residence home.

Um, and other than I I believe that the previous owners were elderly and needed that ramp um for to get inside the house.

Uh there is um the the front door is probably three, four feet off the ground.

Um, and that helped them to get in.

So other than that, um, there was nothing else within the house that had um accessibility features, such as any wider doorways or any other, I'm assuming ADA type of um features to the house.

So we are not planning to add that um to make it you know fully compliant um with any type of laws with that.

So so if a if another elderly person should end up purchasing it, which probably won't happen, but we don't know, right?

Um the bathroom in the shower, um, is that easily accessible?

Um because a lot of the older homes now have showers uh and bathtubs that are too high for the elderly to climb in and out of.

So I'm so I'm just wondering.

Yeah, currently uh through the chair, uh currently the house has a full bathroom on the upstairs.

So and on the first floor, there was a bathtub.

Um, but we are planning to add in a full bathroom um or at minimum half bath, full bathroom, um, ideally, and a first floor laundry.

So um the first floor bathroom will have a standard um like a low threshold type of entry, it won't be a bathtub type of so something say a walk-in shower, something like that.

Yes, yes, that's it.

Oh yes.

All right.

All right, okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Jeremy.

Thank you, Member Waters.

Um Mr.

Hiller, um, I will say I understand it, understanding that the ramp is not ADA compliant, and that was for um uh uh uh older couple or older residents before uh as these certificates come before this committee.

Um I think the there should be a focus on having as accessible housing stock as possible in the city of Detroit.

Um so if there is, I would just highly encourage um to explore ways to make this um home accessible.

As I mentioned to other folks, um, you know folks who may need accommodation or have disabilities.

Uh, it is much better when we are looking for housing and such.

Um, if there is a uh house that already has those features.

So I would just um lift that up, especially as you I think it was indicated that you are um looking to do more of this type of work.

Um what I will I have a question on the rent for this home.

Uh the proposed rent is uh seven between 1700 and 1900.

Um that will require a tenant to earn roughly 68,076,000 annually to be under the standard 30% of income affordability test, um, which is roughly twice the Detroit medium household income.

Um so I'm just wondering, especially now with this NEZ would be a 15-year tax abatement.

Um what is what are your plans around um ensuring that there is that this home uh is affordable for folks and that those the rent does stay in a place that it can be affordable for people.

Uh thank you for that question.

Um so through the chair, our plan right now is to um rent this out at current market plug uh rates, which and doing a search around that particular area in the southwest Detroit area for a full bed four bedroom, two-bath house with a first floor laundry.

Um that is about the range that we have been seeing.

So we're not looking to go and um you know make this house a palace, I I suppose, and and um rent above market rates.

Um but what that is our plan to do as well as as we look for other investment homes within the city um in that particular um range or if not lower range of um homes.

So um my wife is very active in the community, she's on the board of uh Matrix Human Services for the last 20 plus years, so she's very well aware, and we there's a matrix uh facility just right down the road as well.

So um just a very active within the city of Detroit, and we're you know very aware of those um the rent prices currently.

Got it.

Thank you for the answer.

I'll just reiterate, you know, this is um we had this conversation in this committee um with the NEZ certificates.

Um I know we are dealing with uh higher property taxes here in the city of Detroit and the NEZs exist to help um encourage folks to renovate and and improve our housing stock and build.

Um but I also think we have to take into account the affordability aspect, especially now with that we are in a housing crisis.

Um so as much as possible uh with this um certificate um uh being a good steward and and making sure that it is affordable.

I would lift it up for you and your wife um in that uh I will so as you're talking to contractors.

Um are you planning to use Detroit-based contractors uh for renovating this home?

I do have I'm working with a project manager that has worked in the city of Detroit for many years.

Uh I haven't we haven't decided on the exact contractor just yet, but that would be a focus that we would like to do, um, especially those that will be in this southwest Detroit area or just them knowing the the area and knowing the neighborhoods and and the processes and and what would be um that would work really well within the neighborhoods.

And have you engaged any um unionized uh contractors?

Uh through the chair, no, that that has not come up yet.

I would encourage as you are still looking to please do look into uh unionized contractors as and the Detroit-based contractors for sure.

Um that is the end of my questions.

Uh any further questions there.

Is there a motion on 6.5 motion to approve?

There's been a motion to send to a formal with a recommendation to approve on 6.5.

Any objections?

Seeing that the action shall be taken.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you very much.

Uh moving us on to 6.6.

This is uh re-establishing a fee schedule and approval of shared mobility permits rankings for e-scooters.

Uh is there a motion to discuss motion.

Uh I believe we have uh Ryan Michael and Sam Krasniston on to discuss this.

Oh, here.

Oh hello good afternoon.

Good afternoon, honorable counsel.

Um, my name is Ryan Michael.

I'm the deputy chief of business innovation and emerging industries, um, and also the acting chief of mobility uh innovation for city of Detroit.

Uh what we have today is a request to reestablish the fee schedule before you before you go, Ms.

Thomas, if we uh if we can have go ahead uh introduce yourself, also uh through the chair, uh Sam Krasenstein, deputy director, department of public works.

Thank you.

All right, go ahead.

You're good.

My apologies.

Um through the chair.

So the request today is to reestablish the fee schedule and approval of our shared mobility permits for our e-scooter program.

Um the first round of permits uh began in 2024, uh went to 2026.

This is to um approve the rankings that our team has made for the issuance of permits to Lyme and spin, as well as an updated administrative fee to cover the cost um associated with those uh review with those permits.

Happy to take any questions.

Deputy Director, do you have anything to add?

Uh through the chair.

No, I just say that um the shared mobility service is something that's uh that's outlined in chapter 47 of the ordinance.

And so this is something that's administered through the Department of Public Works in coordination and collaboration with our our friends at Mobility Innovation.

Okay.

Uh then I'll turn over to the members on the committee.

Um, if there's any if folks have any questions on 6.6.

Member Waters.

All right.

So um did um did we conduct any public outreach or surveys before revising the fee schedule?

I for selecting the operators through the chair.

As far as revising the fee schedule, I would have to check with the OMI team.

I'm not certain.

I would defer to my colleague Sam if he has any additional insights into that.

Uh through the chair, uh member waters.

No, I don't believe there was community engagement or regarding the fee schedule.

This is mostly an administrative change to reflect the fleet distribution across the seven council districts.

Um and we're talking about uh the the fee schedule, as you'll see in your memo, is just uh updating the charges uh that are around the downtown uh in the five cent to 25 cent range.

So it's a very small adjustment, and it's more of an administrative change than than anything.

Uh regarding community engagement, the Office of Mobility Engage of Office of Mobility Innovation does do events to try to encourage people to sign up for scooters and shared mobility services.

And I believe those do happen at various rec centers throughout the different council districts.

So through you, Mr.

Chairman.

So that's how we'll inform uh residents about the um the changes to the scooter availability and pricing.

Is that how we're gonna inform them just through the various rec centers and so forth, or is there other ways?

Uh through the chair, the updated fee schedule will be posted on the DPW and OMI website.

Uh and it is something that the providers, once their permits are approved, uh are able to inform users when they sign up for the service of hey, if you're you know renting a scooter in the central business district or what's considered a high frequency area of what this additional uh fee may be.

And the fee goes towards just funding the operations associated with administrating the shared mobility program.

How many operators do we have too?

Through the chair, uh yes.

Today, well, today there are three operators.

The updated permit uh would be awarded to two operators based on the application submitted.

Yeah.

Have we have we considered others just so that we have better competition or coverage?

Through the chair, so the applications were open and to other operators to submit.

And through the uh through the scoring process that was made up of mobility innovation and DPW employees, uh two were ultimately recommended for uh for selection, but more applications were considered.

Part of the reason for why there's only two uh permits being issued is to improve like the overall service for residents so they're not having to deal with you know so many different companies, it makes it easier from an administrative perspective so that we're dealing with fewer companies to have a higher level of service uh across all the districts and throughout the downtown.

So then lastly, tell us about the the scoring categories and the weights that we use to rank the uh four applicants.

Uh Ryan, do you want to speak more to that?

Um through the chair, uh yes, and I can provide a written uh version of the the scoring matrix so you can see all of the fields that were considered.

Okay.

Um I don't want to it's there's several on there.

I don't want to speak to all of them without giving you the totality of the issue.

The information presented.

And uh member waters, I I'm happy to give uh you know just a brief overview.

We're happy to provide a more detailed response in writing.

But the types of categories that were considered is you know number of vehicles available in their fleet, um what their plan is for community uh outreach and engagement, what their history were what their history working through the city of Detroit and other municipalities are, what the pricing is and overall accessibility.

Um so there is like an overall scoring matrix that breaks it down into points by category.

And so the the result of those um you know reflects the the recommendations for ultimately for Lyme and Spin.

But we'd be happy to give you the scoring breakdown of not just the matrix but also the scores that were assigned by by company.

So this may or may not be within your purview, but um just in terms of where these scooters can go.

Did I did I see a sign on the river that says those scooters are allowed?

I saw it somewhere.

Through the chair.

So uh e-scooters are the e-scooters are generally allowed to operate within the sidewalks or streets.

Sometimes it's safer to be on the street, sometimes it's safer to be on the sidewalk.

It's a little bit situational.

Uh the river walk has been back and forth for when the e-scooters are allowed to operate.

Uh for a lot of years, there was a geofence around the riverfront just because of the congestion with the number of people and cyclists.

The thought and in coordination of DPD was to restrict access or reduce speed in certain areas in certain parts of the riverfront.

So it's kind of dependent on like where exactly the riverfront on like what type of restrictions are in place, if scooters have to be walked or if there's simply a speed reduction.

Well, well, I certainly uh agree with that because sometimes you know you can get hit by a scooter, you know, is it is congested, oftentimes, especially during the summer months when people are out uh walking and it becomes a hazard for for people that are walking.

So I just wondered um how that was done.

So thank you.

Through the chair.

Yes.

Graham Anderson Law Department.

One thing too for uh the public and council member waters.

If you look at our code under chapter 47 acts, that is where everything is listed on the electric personal mobility scooters.

So if you have any questions about that and and what the law pertains to that, I would recommend uh focusing on that part of the code.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mabel Waters.

Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I'm just trying to understand this.

Um so the downtown area that is included within the information that was shared with us is going to see a greater fee than anywhere else the scooters operate in the city.

Uh through the chair.

So the high frequency area is the one that has had the highest volume of scooter activity.

That uh fee is not changed.

Um that the updated fee is simplifying the previous um fee structure to just a two-tier system, the 25% or 25 cent um trip fee is for the origination fees for any uh any ride originating in or uh concluding in that high frequency area and the five cent fee is for any that fully uh occurs outside of that.

So it's really a simplification of uh a previous uh tier structure which um need to be updated.

Thank you for that.

And I'm wondering if you all have data on where they are used, scooters are used throughout the city.

We do, and as part of this, um excuse me, through the chair, we do, and as and we're happy to share uh any data metrics with with you or any uh you know any of the committee.

Um that outlines exactly where the uh intent uh if with this round of permittings was to be more intentional about placing scooters and e mobility access in the neighborhoods, not necessarily just within that high frequency area.

Um I believe the numbers uh the the two operators are going to be required to maintain four percent of their fleets within the neighborhoods, each of the council districts themselves, um, to ensure that it's accessible to to more residents, not just those within the high frequency area.

Okay, thank you.

Um, and that's where I was going um because I know I believe the only shared mobility um we have in District 4 is um mogos that are housed at St.

John's Hospital.

Uh and so I've always been concerned about that because to me it feels like somebody someone would have to get to St.

John's, utilize the bike, and then get it back there.

Um, and so it would it would be great if there were more locations where they were housed throughout the district, and I would imagine that's throughout the city, um, but also just making sure that people aren't just dropping them anywhere, although I know part of most of their programs they hire people to go out and pick them up uh and charge them and get them to the locations where they're supposed to be.

Uh, and so I think it would be great if we just kind of educated the the public on how to utilize them, where to drop them off, and just not leave them wherever the battery dies or what have you, or you know, just kind of monitoring that.

So if you wouldn't mind sharing the data, um I would love to have additional conversations with you about how we expand opportunities throughout the district.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Um I do want to uh piggyback on that.

Uh uh also in District 7.

I I believe if I'm looking, I'm always surprised when I see uh uh a scooter because I don't see it often in District 7.

Um, and it is often as just one.

So I I would imagine that it is someone who has taken a scooter from a place that there may be others available.

So I I would love to get that information as well, and also to have a further conversation on how do we uh make sure that we are um holding the um vendors um accountable and making sure that these are widespread um as much as possible.

Uh additional question I had on this um is uh on the data privacy side with the vendors.

Um how we make sure that the data is protected there uh through the chair, we can um provide information to you all uh as to what the policies are, the data management though is part of the the the application that was requested and in review to ensure um that uh that all that was was in accordance with uh what we needed it to be.

Um but absolutely I can give you specifics on what the language was that was put out and as well as the data management plan to ensure that we're working with the vendors to do exactly that.

We do request you know ridership data.

We are in constant contact with these two vendors because they're they're you know uh they were operating under the existing um 2024 permit.

Um and if there are other considerations, I'm confident that we can go to them and make sure that we're delivering exactly that for resident safety across the board.

Sam, I'm oh my apologies.

I don't know if my colleague had any additional input on that one.

Uh through the chart, Ryan, your statement was was accurate.

There is a data sharing agreement that is part of the permit process.

So we did get we do get standardized uh data about the ride so we can be seeing you know what's the frequency that's happening in the different uh city council districts and to make sure that the fleets are balanced uh in accordance with the permit requirements.

Um as Ryan mentioned, um there is a requirement to at least have I think believe it's at least three percent of the fleet for each vendor, does need to be in each of the seven council districts, so that we don't just have all of the e-scooters located uh only in the downtown and midtown areas.

A big part of the project is ensuring that this is a you know viable last mile option for residents that may not have another way to get around, and part of the data ensures that um you know that the vendors are doing what we asked them to do and not just concentrating uh all of the the scooters in the high density areas, but are ensuring that there is access throughout the different council districts.

Um even if you only see one or two, it's usually that they're they're spread out because people are using them in order to get back from a bus stop or a place of work, and that is the a convenient last mile option for them.

For sure, thank you.

And and on the on the coverage of areas, I would just say um I would I would say even at the bus stops and D7, I have not seen these.

So I I agree that they should be um and I know the view is that it should be used as a last mile option.

I just have not seen um a lot of them at those bus stops.

So uh I think that's something that we definitely have to look into.

And and um on the on the private on the data privacy side, um understanding that we are in there have agreements and it's in our contracts.

We've talked about this before, um, including with do it.

Uh we know that often it may be written there, but are they actually following that uh agreement?

And and and that's more so what I'm looking for is uh are we is the city proactively auditing these vendors to make sure that that data is protected and also that um there are aspects that make sure that when people are entering that information um that it is protected as well.

I bring this up because I believe one of the scooters um uses the tap feature um to access and we have seen that that tap feature has also um you know a gas station has been used to uh take people uh credit card information.

So like even that, especially as we're having people to pick up these scooters to charge them.

Um not saying that they are an affair, like that there that this is happening, but we know that the potential is there.

Uh so I just want to make sure that we're doing as much to protect our residents as possible um with that uh payment system as well.

Uh through the chart, I definitely appreciate that.

Um we can provide more information, but I will say, you know, each company is submitted required to submit their data privacy agreement and to let us know of any potential data breaches, and that's something that when they submit their applications, that's one of the scoring criteria and one of the disclosures we require is like have there been data breaches, whether that's you know, payments or user data.

So it's something the companies are required to disclose to us, but we can definitely take back um what our audit practices are on how we're you know basically kicking the tires during the uh performance period to make sure that uh they are being adhered to.

So I definitely definitely hear you loud and clear.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Corley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um have a few questions.

Some of them have been answers.

I appreciate that.

Uh I should know this, but where is the Office of Mobility Innovation House?

Is that in DPW or is it separate arm or what is that house?

Uh through the chairs.

So the Office of Mobility Innovation operates within the mayor's office reporting up through me.

Uh again, I'm Ryan Michael, the mayor's deputy chief of business innovation and emerging industry as part of the neighborhood economic development and small business vertical.

Um the budget is appropriated through the department of transportation.

Um, but as you know, we have grants or fees that are managed through the office.

We work in partnership with D dot and with DPW to ensure that everything is uh working as it should.

So thank you, Ms.

Mr.

Chair.

So the budget um in the in the document that's before council 117,000 uh for the administrative you know operations of of this program.

You say that's housed in D dot.

Uh through through the chair, I can take that one.

Uh no, so the the fees so the the option mobility and innovation budget.

Some of the budget is housed within D dot, some of it is provided through DPW.

In this case, the e-scooter program, the budget lives within DPW's general inspection cost center.

Uh the reason is because under ordinance under chapter 47 section two, uh, the e-scooter program is administered by DPW because these are activities that occur in the right of way, similar to how you know quadricycles or shared vehicles, uh or other vehicles are administered in the right of way, those are all handled through DPW.

So the fees collected are managed and handled through uh DPW's cost center.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um the application process uh whittled down the operators to two.

Um, I think it's nine me and spin.

Uh would that result in an actual contract with the city with those operators, or is this permit uh process in lieu of a contract?

Uh so through the chair, great question.

Uh so this is not a contracted service, this is a a shared mobility permit that we issue to authorize vendors to deploy these vehicles within the city.

Um, you know, dating back before we had this ordinance and this permit process, it was a generally a free-for-all within the city that any company that wanted to, even people that were you know sometimes operating their own scooter businesses out of their own apartments, we're just putting out scooters anywhere that they saw fit with with no regulation.

So when the ordinance was passed, the the idea was that we create a permit process to basically uh allow a limited number of operators to be able to operate within the city, but it is not a contracted service, it's simply a permit that authorizes them the ability to operate.

Great.

And then lastly, um, so the fees is not you know, it's fairly nominal, it's not a huge fee, but there's a there's a 250 dollar fee for the money permit application evaluation fee and 250 fee for the permit renewal process fee.

How are those amounts determined?

Yeah, so through the chair, so great great question.

So there's actually only one 200.50 fee, and after I look back at the memo, I I could definitely see why it was confusing.

The 250 dollar fee, I believe was set by resolution when we last reviewed the fee structure in 2024, uh, and was based on you know estimated staff hours involved with the application review.

Um, the in the memo that was provided to city council, the 250 dollar permit review will process that was simply identifying that fee as a budget line item, not as a separate fee.

So we should have probably worded that a little bit differently, but for clarity, there's only one single 250 dollar fee that's submitted by the applicant um during the time of application.

Okay, thank thanks so much.

Appreciate that, Ms.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Corley.

All right.

Any other questions?

There are a motion on line item six point six.

Motion to approve.

There's been a motion to approve a center formal with a recommendation to approve on line item 6.6.

Are there any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That'll move us on to miscellaneous under um new business.

Uh so we will handle these fairly quickly.

Um 6.7, 6.9, 6.10, 6.12, and 6.13.

I'll repeat them.

6.7, 6.9, 6.10, 6.12, and 6.13 are these are all budget memos related to the budget.

Um, they have been received.

So if there is there a motion to receive and file.

There's been a motion to receive and file 6.7, 6.9, 6.10, 6.12, and 6.13.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken, which leaves us with 6.8 and 6.11, which again are budget related memos.

Um, these have not been yet received.

Is there a motion to bring back in one week?

Motion.

There's been a motion to bring back 6.8 and 6.11 in one week.

See no objections, that action shall be taken.

Um, and that brings us on to member reports.

Um, do we have any member reports?

Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just want to remind everyone that this Saturday, we will be uh partnering with the Eastside Community Network, Mishda and Authority Health on a housing resource fair.

Uh it will take place at Eastide Community Networks building at 4401 Connor on Saturday, May 2nd from 11 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

So we will be providing housing tools, support and resources to help our residents stay secure and thrive.

So looking forward to having um east high residents.

And if you're from the west side, you can come as well.

Uh on Saturday, May 2nd from 11 a.m.

until 3 p.m.

at 4401 Connor.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson, for being so accommodant to the Westsiders.

All right.

Uh member Waters.

Well, I'm East.

So I just want to uh have people to mark their calendars for Wednesday, May 20th, 4 to 6 p.m.

Farwell, our recreation center is our next uh skill trade task force meeting, Mr.

Chairman.

You know, you're part of this skill trade task force, you and member Miller.

Um people are really taking advantage uh of these opportunities.

Uh we really want to grow uh it a lot more because there's a lot of development that's um on the rise for for the future here um in this city.

So at any rate, so that's Wednesday, May 20th, 46 p.m.

at the Far Wheel Recreation Center, which is located at 2711 Auto Drive East, and that's in the D.

I also wanted to mention you know the Supreme Court made a ruling today, U.S.

Supreme Court, eroding voting rights.

So everybody take a look.

Yeah.

Thank you, Member Waters.

And yes, you this Supreme Court continues to roll back the rights uh of folks, especially um black folks, people of color, marginalized communities.

Um we continue to see that.

So definitely uh folks should tap in and ensure that we're taking action to work to rever reverse these devastating actions.

Um, and and thank you for your leadership on the skill trades task force.

Um every time these rooms are full.

I encourage folks to come out to it because we know that many of the uh uh unions are now opening their apprenticeships uh application periods will be open as soon.

So this is a great time to come to the task uh forest meetings so you can get face-to-face from the actual folks who run these apprenticeships programs.

So um thank you so much for that.

And then uh for me uh tomorrow morning, uh, April 30th at 10 a.m.

Uh, will be the D7 monthly meeting.

Um, it will take place at Daybo on the corner of Wyoming and Grand River uh tomorrow at 10 a.m.

So please do join us.

And with that, that is the end of my member report.

Uh seeing no further business before this committee, is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion.

There's been a motion to adjourn, seeing no objections, this committee should stand adjourned.