And then Councilmember Scott Benson.

Councilmember Letitia Jackson present.

Councilmember Denzel and Tom McCampbell.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero, present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Council President Pro Tim Coleman 2.

Council President James Tate.

Here.

Mr.

President, you have a quorum.

Thank you, ma'am.

We have a quorum, which means we're now in session for those of you who are in the attendance today, both in person as well as online.

The collection of public comment cards have now begun.

If you are seeking to speak to this body for any issue whatsoever, please raise your hand now if you're in the committee of the whole, excuse me, in the auditorium, and someone will come by and provide you with one of these cards so we can get your name and put you in the queue.

Similarly, if you are at home watching on Zoom, raise your hand and you will be you will be placed in the queue as well.

We will be cutting off the collection of public comment cards very shortly.

I also wanted to give you an opportunity to get in the queue.

Providing this morning's invocation, we have none other than Bishop Jeffrey L.

Knight Sr.

Founder and Pastor of Abundance of Truth Outreach Ministries, also known as Atom A T O M, located in District 7 at 1333, Puritan Avenue.

For more than four decades, Bishop Knight has faithfully served the citizen the city of Detroit through pastoral leadership, community outreach, prison and hospital ministry and spiritual counseling.

In addition to ministry to his ministry, Bishop Knight has dedicated 33 years to Detroit public schools, uh retiring as a project specialist administrator after a distinguished career of service to students, educators, and our community.

Bishop Knight, thank you for joining us this morning.

The floor is yours, sir.

Thank you so much, Council.

Councilman President.

Council President, I thank you all for allowing me to come before you and to give this invocation.

I give honor to council president tape, as well as all of the council members that are seated in the auditorium today, as well as those that are here to pray with us for the strength of this city.

I think first of all, when I think about scriptures, it speaks about giving first to Christ and all things that we do.

We must first give honor to the Lord.

When I think in Matthew's, and it talks about thinking first about God, putting him first.

When I look at Timothy, and Timothy says that it's appropriate to pray, especially for those in authority.

So let us pray.

Lord, even now, as we stand before you in your most holy presence, we ask, Lord God, that you allow us to decrease so that you might increase in this room, Lord.

Touch the hearts, minds, and souls of those of authority in this room, Lord God, and the hearts, minds, and souls of those that pray for those that are in authority.

We ask that they can continue to have the guidance that's given unto you through the wisdom that only you can bring to them, Lord.

Touch their hearts, Lord God, for there's a heavy mantle on their shoulders.

Lord, the city of Detroit is vast and it's and it's the biggest in the state.

Lord God, everything that happens here procrues on out from here on into the states.

The things that they have to think about, Lord, the things that they must do, the decisions that they must make, Lord God.

They don't want to do it without your guidance, Lord.

That's why they put prayer first in everything that they do.

Break every yoke that may seek to bind them from you, Lord God.

Give them the wisdom that surpasses all understanding and the things, Lord God, that may help them, Lord God, so that they can break every yoke, Lord God, so that the city might prosper in everything.

The infrastructure, Lord God, the people, the prayers, Lord God, all things that may be needed, Lord, break the yoke that seek to bind them from the comfort so this city might be the glorious peace, peace that has never been before.

So we thank you, Lord God, for everything that you have done.

But we're looking forward, Lord God, for those things that you are going to do.

Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you so much, Bishop.

We appreciate you coming by this morning and providing that invocation to get us started this uh today.

Uh, we certainly welcome you to stick around with us, but certainly understand as well if your schedule does not allow.

But again, thank you so much, sir.

All right.

Uh the journal of the session of Tuesday, June 30th, 2026, will be approved.

Madam Clerk, if you can please note that we've been joined by member Campbell as well as pro Tim Young.

So note, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Um, we now will begin with we have three uh special presentations, and we actually have uh the deputy mayor who will be coming joining us very shortly uh to introduce uh some uh pretty important folks.

Are you are you all set now, Deputy Mayor?

Uh before we go into the presentation, we want to uh have this uh introduction first.

Uh we have uh counselors from various locations around the world that are joining us today, Italy, uh Japan, uh Mexico and Canada.

And they're here joining us.

And before I move forward, I would like to call forward uh Deputy Mayor Brian White for the introduction.

And the floor is yours, sir.

I was always behind the scenes.

I never had really well good morning to this esteemed council.

Thank you for this uh opportunity, especially Council President at last minute.

Um we have some esteemed guests joining us from different countries, as you as you mentioned from councilates, uh representing different countries, I should say.

And I'll I'll have them all come up and introduce themselves, but they're representing Italy, Mexico, Canada, and Japan.

Um, so we're here uh just to figure out ways we can work better together, uh knowing that things are global in nature nowadays, whether it's our economy, our social issues, uh you know, staying out of wars, hopefully, all of those type of things.

So uh it's important that we have these relationships and just wanted to have them meet you all because you're an important part of the city and wouldn't want them to come by and not not have this opportunity.

So thank you for this gracious opportunity, and I'll let them come up one by one and introduce themselves.

Thank you so much.

Thank you all for being here.

Hello, good morning.

Thank you for having us today.

Uh I'm Roberto Nicolas, Consult Mexico and Detroit.

Uh we in Mexico are very proud of this relationship with Michigan and Detroit specifically.

We have a huge Mexican community here in the city.

We work together with uh uh with the city in several ways.

So thank you so much.

Uh and uh the uh the community here chose Detroit as their home, and they are really thriving.

Business are thriving, and uh they feel the support from the city, and as well uh the uh the city feels the support from the Mexican community.

So thank you.

Apart from all the businesses that we have and the opportunities that we have together, we're looking forward to have more.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your camaraderie and your partnership.

Hello, guys.

Good morning, everybody.

I'm Paolo Zanotto, the Consul of Italy in Detroit, being here uh for six months for now so far.

Uh our offices are currently at their Manasa Center, but we're moving to uh 150 West Jefferson.

So we're staying here in downtown in this area.

Uh we have a huge Italian community in the five states.

I represent which are Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Officially, it's 25,000 of people, but of course, Americans with Italian roots are much more.

Uh, we also have a lot of Italian companies working here uh around the Detroit area, starting from Salantes and a lot of companies in the tech sector as well.

Uh, we had a very important event uh with the participation also of uh Governor Whitmer uh at the Michigan Central Station a couple of months ago.

Uh we have great projects involving the city of Detroit, and one of them is a great uh exhibit about Caravaggio paintings uh that is going to take place next year.

Um the inauguration is set up for March 21st, uh 2027 at the Detroit Institute of Art.

And together with Mr.

Salvador Salar Pons, the director of the museum, whom you probably know.

Uh, we are trying to organize this big event also with the involvement of the Italian ambassador uh to Washington DC and the American Ambassador to Rome.

Uh so I would really like also to use the opportunity to invite us all the city authorities to this big event, uh, which we will be really huge.

And yeah, I'm enjoying very much things here in Detroit, and I'm really looking forward uh to working with this beautiful cities and its representative.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, and welcome.

Welcome.

Thank you for your camaraderie as well as your partnership as well.

Good morning.

Morning.

I'm Kentaroyan.

Deputy Consul General of Japan.

Thank you very much for having us this morning.

Uh there are, of course, a huge Japanese community, and uh, we have a very long tradition in the history uh uh of friendship with Michigan, but especially recently, we have very strong relationship with uh the city of Detroit.

But especially recently, we have a very strong relationship with the city of Detroit.

Actually, almost half of our uh consulate stuff, this butts from Tokyo actually living in the city of Detroit.

And uh and also uh we have just had a ceremony for inauguration of the office of the Japanese company in the city of Detroit, and which is the uh the first Japanese company investing in this within the city of Detroit in the recent decades at least.

So we are really uh excited about this uh new development, and uh of course we have very strong research with uh Wayne State University and uh uh Detroit Institute of Art and so various kinds of uh various aspects of uh the Detroit.

So I'm really uh happy to see these developments, and I'm looking forward to seeing further uh strengthening the uh partnership and friendship with between Japan and the city of Detroit.

Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Council of General.

Welcome.

Good morning, I'd do L Al Hassani here with the Consulate General Canada.

Um I know everybody's pressed for time, so I don't want to trespass on your time, but we do appreciate sincerely yours having us over here.

Um I'm with the consulate general canada.

We're in the Ren Center, so we're family.

I didn't say that there's probably everybody has a large community over here.

We're here every single day.

Um, and we're um very much looking forward to uh developing this relationship, particularly with a critical piece of infrastructure that's going to be open a little sooner, as much of y'all heard.

So we got about a thousand and one different projects, not one specific one, but we very much look forward to developing those relationships, and we appreciate you as uh having us here.

So thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Welcome, neighbor in Canada.

All right, so thank you again to this honorable body.

Um as you can see, we have some great representation here, and I think it'll go a long way in terms of helping redevelop our city.

Um, a lot of uh these countries want to come to Detroit, want to invest, and uh you having them here today will help us uh track them even more.

So just want to get thank you.

And uh if you'd like, we'd love to have a picture uh to represent or to capture this uh historic moment.

Absolutely.

Thank you, Alex.

Any any words that you want to provide as well before we wrap this segment up and we'll go into our special presentations.

Well, as a matter of fact, let's let's go we'll go ahead and take those photos and we'll uh um uh proceed with the remainder of our meeting.

Any additional words before we go down and take a photo?

Seeing none, here we go.

Okay, uh West Cooper.

Welcome.

Okay, good.

Yeah, I think we're there.

Okay, so uh that's good.

Well right, we get ready for those trade deals and things to take place now that we've had that goodwill in the city of Detroit.

Uh we are not going to prolong the remainder of this meeting.

We're gonna go to our next presentation by member Santiago Romero.

Special presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Yes, very special indeed.

I am honored and excited to present a spirit of Detroit Award today to a leader in our district um that has done incredible work throughout her whole life.

Our office takes great pride in giving Spirit of Detroit Awards to partners, organizations, leaders, and to also give flowers to those in our neighborhood that have been nominated.

And this in this um this person has been nominated by her residence, by her neighbors because to see you, and we love the work that you do, Ms.

Walker.

I am going to share a little bit more about her work with everyone now.

Karen C.

Walker exemplifies an unwavering dedication, service, and purpose with a life's work that reflects a profound commitment to uplifting her community.

A proud native of Detroit, she builds an impressive 30-year career at the Ford Mortar Company Research and Engineering Center, serving with excellence as a member of the UAW Local 245 before retiring with honor.

This professional journey has instilled in her a strong foundation of discipline, leadership, and resilience.

Qualities she continues to infuse into every aspect of her life.

Driven by faith and compassion, Kieran serves as the president of the Goodwill Club at St.

Stephen AME Church, where we see her often in our meetings.

Thank you so much.

Where she also spearheads initiatives that provides hope and tangible support to those in need.

Her passion for service extends well beyond the church, as she has been an active member at Hawaiian's Club, Detroit number one since 2009, contributing to outreach and literacy programs to empower youth and strengthen families throughout the city.

Karen's dedication to nurturing both body and spirit is evident in her long-standing volunteer work with food not waste.

Since 2010, she has faithfully served the homeless every Wednesday at Rosa Parks Transit Center, becoming the pillar of support for countless individuals facing hardship through her consistency and compassion.

A passionate advocate for seniors and caregivers, Karen volunteers at the St.

Patrick's Senior Center, working to enhance outreach efforts and provide essential caregiving services.

She also champions educational advancement through her involvement with College Prep International, guiding high school students towards brighter futures and higher education opportunities.

Her impact on youth development is especially noteworthy.

For over 13 years, she has mentored and sponsored students, including supporting one scholar's successful journey to Jackson College.

Furthermore, her 12 years of service as a dean mother with the Boy Scouts of America have helped shape the lives of young men, contributing to the advancements of 23 Eagle Scots, a testament to her patience, leadership, and belief in the potential of the next generation.

Karen C.

Walker's life serves as a powerful example of leading with love, serving with intention, and giving without expectations.

Her legacy transcends the years of service as it is measured by the countless lives she has touched, uplifted, and inspired.

She stands as a beacon of hope, demonstrating that one person can truly make a last difference in our world.

Thank you so much, Ms.

Walker, for showing us that we can all do a little or a lot of something to create a change in our city.

I am honored to recognize you today with the spirit of Detroit Award.

Congratulations.

And Mr.

President would love to allow Ms.

Walker a few words as she joins us at the front of the stage.

And I believe we'll take pictures afterwards.

Is that is that okay, Mr.

President?

Okay.

I'll present this to you now.

Please feel free to share a few words, Ms.

Walker.

Any other time I would not be speechless, but this is um very emotional for me.

I represent students from DPA, DPS, block clubs, churches.

At any given time, you will find you will see me in public places.

When I leave here, I'll be going down to Shane Park for the senior senior fest when we leave here.

I just want to say that um each one of us can make a difference and help to turn lives around.

Thank you.

All right.

The team, Ms.

Walker.

No, we don't want to take the whole congo afterwards.

All right, thank you so much.

Member Santiago, anything else you want to add or okay.

All right, Ms.

Walker, thank you so much.

And if you can stand by, we'll uh make sure we come by and take some photos with you as well.

Coming up next, we have pro Tim Young with two additional special presentations.

Pro Tim Young.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

I'll make this as quickly as I possibly can.

First of all, I just want to say we recognize not only a courageous firefighter, but also an extraordinary family man's day.

Firefighter's greatest strength isn't just found in the courage to face danger.

It's found in love, character, and values that are carried home every day.

And so it is my honor and privilege to present a testimonial Detroit resolution from Detroit City Council to the Curtis Harris, the Carter Harris family reunion.

Let's get a round of applause, everybody.

Whereas the Carter Harris family proudly traces its roots to the union of Abraham Harris and Nisi Carter, who were joined in marriage in 1864 in Opalika, Alabama, establishing a legacy of faith, perseverance, family values, and commitment that has endured for more than 160 years.

And whereas Cornelius Harris, the son of Abraham Harris and Nisi Carter, migrated from Oblica, Alabama.

Opalica.

Thank you, Ms.

Caliber.

Opalica.

Excuse me.

Oprah Leica.

I'll see you pay attention.

Opalica, Alabama, to Detroit, Michigan in 1904, becoming part of the great movement of African Americans seeking opportunity and helping to build the social, cultural, and economic fabric of the city of Detroit, where the Carter Harris family has maintained a continuous presence for more than 120 years.

Generation, thank you.

Thank you.

Preserving family traditions and strengthening bonds.

The great family reunions, beginning with the first heart, Harris Family Reunion in 1973, followed by the second reunion in Detroit, Michigan in 1983.

And continuing this great and cherished tradition through family gatherings and celebrate family, history, family unity, family achieving, and family love.

We proudly recognize and celebrate the third Carter Harris Family Reunion, taking place on July 13th through 19th, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan.

We honor the enduring legacy of Abraham Harris and Nisi Carter, the pioneering historic journey of Cornelius Harris and the countless descendants whose lives reflect the strength and resilience of their ancestors.

May this reunion serve as a time of reflection, fellowship, and renewed commitment to preserving the rich heritage of the Carter Harris family for many generations yet to come.

Now, therefore, be it resolved.

The Honorable Coleman A.M.

II, Council President Pro Tempore at Large, along with the entire Detroit City Council, honor the third family reunion of the phenomenon's dependence Carter Harris family, and all of their exceptional lives in Detroit, Michigan, for 120 years, everybody.

Oh, yes.

Thank you, Pro Tim Young, uh, President Tate, Council members Miller, Water, Vincent, Callaway, Johnson, Santiago Romero, Campbell.

Thank you for all your hard work and you do.

We've been in this city since the early 1900s.

We bleed Detroit.

We love Detroit.

We just wish our ancestors could see the great job you all are doing to make a change in the city.

Thank you on the entire uh behalf of the entire family, the Carter Harris family.

You all are welcome to join us this weekend.

We'll be at 333 East Jefferson at the courtyard.

Thank you and God bless.

Did my colleagues have anything they want to say?

Member Miller.

I just wanted to say to Officer Harris and your family.

When I heard the word Opa Leica, it kind of made me spark.

I used to be on the Opalica Police Department.

I lived there for many years.

I went to Tuskegee when it was institute, transferred to university in 1986 when they got their first McDonald's.

And in between school time, I worked on the police department as a communications officer.

A lot of people don't know that, but that is the connection US 29.

That's where we ride down between the two cities.

And that's a strong African American community.

Also, we passed Auburn University, our rival.

But nevertheless, I didn't want to say to you and your family with your strong heritage and background.

I'm sure your ancestors will be proud of everything you've accomplished today.

And I might just stop by your family reunion to say hello to everyone, especially anyone that's from Alabama.

Just to I love to talk about uh nostalgic the South.

So congratulations again on your award.

And I'm sure you have received many and will continue to receive many, many more.

Thank you.

God bless.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Congratulations.

So we're gonna make sure we're gonna take another photo or take a photo there.

So as they're taking their photo, go ahead and take your photo, but we're gonna come down a little bit later, take one with you as well.

Pro Tim, the floor remains yours.

Thank you, Ms.

President.

I just want to say before I begin.

Technology is one of the greatest tools humanity has ever created.

But it's only as powerful as the people who choose to use it for good.

Every generation is remembered for the challenges it faced.

Ours will be remembered for how we use innovation to solve them.

Technology can correct communities, cure diseases, create opportunities, educate our children, protect our environment, but only when it is guided by wisdom, integrity, and compassion.

This testimony resolution to next, Mr.

Willie E.

Brake.

You get a loud applause, everybody.

Was born to parents Francis Brake and the late Willie Brake on December 25th, 1973.

Chris's baby in Farland Hills, Michigan.

He later moved to the city of Detroit, Michigan, where he has lived ever since, and as a graduate of Detroit Public Schools.

Willie E.

Brake is a proud graduate of Wayne State University, where he was initiated into the Alpha Upsilon chapter of the Alpha Psy Alpha Fraternity Inc.

on April 21st, 1994.

He earned an MBA from the university.

Okay.

I knew this is gonna be a problem, man.

I can't take y'all nowhere, man.

I say I say what'd I say?

Oh, oh, okay, okay.

All right, see, hold on, let me do this again.

I knew this was gonna be an issue.

I couldn't just read through this.

All right.

Alpha Psy.

Okay, I like the way I said better.

Alpha Phi Alpha.

Let me say that again.

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Yeah.

Alpha Five.

See?

I see you pay attention again.

He earned an MBA from the University of Phoenix and completed executive education programs at Harvard Business University.

Or at this school.

The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern at University, the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Whereas All About Technology is a Detroit-based disability-owned minority business enterprise.

Working to get well, thank you.

Thank you.

Working to get low-cost quality computer.

Low-cost quality computers and internet into the homes of individuals, families with low income and small businesses.

This company provides valuable service to businesses, families, and the planet by recycling, refurbishing, and retailing computers by keeping computers out of landfills and repurposing them to advance digital inclusion.

And whereas Willie E.

Brake developed and maintained his mission and commitment to his profession and has earned the respect, love, and affection of fellow citizens for being a stabilizing operational force in the community.

And Willie E.

Brake has seen firsthand as founder of all about technology, how the right device, the right repair, or the right technical guidance can change someone's ability to work, learn, and communicate with the world.

And now therefore be it resolved.

the second, the council president pro temporary at large, with all of the honorable members of the esteemed Detroit City Council to hereby celebrate the dedicated and devoted work of Willie E.

Brake, MBA, A Plus, MCP, MOS, and all about technology for phenomenal service provided for the citizens of the city of Detroit and America for 25 years.

We thank you for your stellar service, and it is our honor to celebrate your innovative and transformative work in technology that benefits the communities, all 50 states of the United States of America.

Thank you, Mr.

Willie E.

Break.

Is there anything you'd like to say, sir?

Uh yes.

First, I'd like to uh say thank you, Council Pro Temp, permanent on the second.

Uh first, I'd like to thank God because without his grace and mercy, protection and favor, I would not be standing here today.

Uh this testimonial resolution is not just a certificate, it's a remind it's a reminder that the work matter, the sacrifices matter, the late nights matter, the days when I did not know how we were going to keep the doors open, the moments when I had to encourage myself, wipe my own tears, and still show up for the community man.

Twenty-five years ago, all of our technology was born from a simple but powerful belief that technology should not be reserved for the wealthy, the connected, or the privileged.

Technology should be affordable, accessible, and available to the people who need it most.

We open our doors to serve Detroit.

We open our doors to help students, seniors, families, small businesses, churches, non-profit, and everyday people who are trying to survive in a world that was becoming more digital by today.

For 25 years, we have repaired computers, sold computers, taught people how to use computers, and help people stay connected.

But more than that, we have restored confidence.

We have helped people apply for jobs, start businesses, complete schoolwork, communicate with loved ones, and participate in a world that too often leaves people behind.

I have seen the digital divide face to face.

I have seen it in the eyes of a senior who just wants to talk to the doctor online.

I have seen it in the face of a parent trying to help their child with school work.

I have seen it in small business owners who need technology to compete.

I have seen it in young people who have the talent, the intelligence and the dream, but not always the tools.

This is why all of our technology exists.

There were times when people celebrated us, and there were times when people counted us out.

There were times when I had to be the owner, the technician, the janitor, the salesman, the teacher, the delivery driver, the lawyer, the fundraiser, and the one telling everybody else it's going to be all right.

While quietly wondering how it was going to make it all right.

But Detroit taught me something.

Detroit taught me how to keep going.

Detroit taught me that pressure does not always break you.

Sometimes pressure builds you.

Detroit taught me that you can still be overlooked and still be chosen.

You can be underestimated and still be unstoppable.

You can come from struggle and still create something that serves generations.

So today I accept this testimonial resolution with deep humility, but also deep pride.

I accepted on behalf of every customer who trusted us.

I accepted on behalf of every employee, intern, volunteer, supporter, vendor, friend, and family member who helped keep this vision alive.

I accept it on behalf of every small business owner who keeps showing up, even when the eyes are against them.

I accept it on behalf of every person with a disability who refused to be defined by limitations.

I accepted on behalf of every Detroit entrepreneur, every community servant, and every dreamer who had to build something with less than they deserve, but more faith than people could understand.

So thank you again, Councilman.

Council Pro Temp, combination on the second.

Uh, does anybody else have anything they want to comment on?

Just want to say thank you, Brother Brady, um, for the service that you have committed to the long term service, generational service that you provided uh our community, and I look forward to me personally in this body figuring out how we can uh assist in any way and then we can't.

Yeah.

I was getting ready to cover it on it.

Thank you for recognizing Brother Brake and all the good work that he does in the community, and it just shows even with challenges that you can still be a very productive member and excel at a very high level.

So that type of just dedication and setting up an example is huge.

And so thank you very much for that.

I just want to say really quickly, I just want to thank um Gary and Santiago Mirror as well.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah, I appreciate you allowed to share thank you.

We'll take photos with our guess or out of reason.

Well, thank God.

All right, thank you so much, everyone.

Thank you so much.

All right, Madam Clerk.

Now there being no reconsiderations or unfinished business, we'll proceed with the budget finance and audit standing committee.

Three reports from various city departments.

The three reports will be referred to the budget finance and audit standing committee for the internal operations standing committee.

Five reports from various city departments.

Five reports from various city departments.

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just um, I need to before on a referral items.

And I lost the referral number.

I need to remove an item from the agenda.

Oh, second.

I think it's eight point three.

I believe so.

The memo on the election.

Okay.

A motion to remove eight point three from the agenda.

So there's a motion to remove from the agenda line item eight point three, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

See none.

Then action shall be taken.

I do know that there has been a response by the uh city clerk that has been provided uh in advance.

So we'll allow that response to stand at this moment.

Madam Clerk will drop back down to the uh Mr.

President, there will be four items being referred to the internal operations standing committee.

We're on internal operations.

Yes, we just bear fine because we just removed one.

Gotcha.

Yes.

Thank you.

For the planning and economic development standing committee, madam clerk.

A submittal of a memorandum.

The memorandum will be referred to the planning and economic development standing committee for the public health and safety standing committee.

Now the 10 reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee.

We will now move to voting action matters, Madam Clerk.

Under other matters.

There are no items, Mr.

President.

Under communications from the mayor and other governmental officials and agencies.

There are no items, Mr.

President.

We will now call for public comment.

So we're going to give everyone two minutes today for public comment.

Please keep your eye on the screen.

So once your time has exhausted, we will need you to remove yourself from the microphone and allow the next person to come and speak.

What we do is we allow all of our public commenters to speak first.

And then at the last after the very last public commenters, that's when uh council would then provide any uh additional comments from this side of the table, if you will.

And our first speaker, Shelby Murphy, followed by Jerome Morgan, followed by Zelda Hill.

Oh, hit that microphone.

Uh hit that button on the mic in front of you.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you for your time and attention.

I watched a city council meeting of a woman reading quotes from people uh from current data centers.

Um this is quote I've been here 81 years.

I can't stay here.

My neighbor was washing my clothes and messed up a whole load of white whites because it came out stained from that brown water.

A conversation between a journalist and a resident.

Do you feel like it's safe to drink water?

No, I buy water.

Have they addressed that?

No, they haven't.

Have you gotten any information at all?

No, none at all.

This is my water pressure in my kitchen, a trickle.

This is where I fill my buckets to flush my toilet.

I can't breathe outside.

It smells like gas.

My electric and gas bill is more than my car payment.

The light pollution is we don't have to use a night light in the house.

You can walk around the house at night and see everything.

It's that bright.

A lawyer from Microsoft said, nobody really wants a data center in their backyard.

I don't want a data center in my backyard.

Data centers uh once operational, don't bring a lot of jobs.

How do they affect communities?

Air quality, increased ER visits due to asthma, CPOD, and three and other breathing issues.

Water loss up to uh water loses pressure, and it's tainted with sediment and aquifier strain.

Electric bills increases extreme burden on the grid.

Again, my seven-year-old niece lives in Celine, Michigan, where the data center was overturned, even though the whole community was against it, and they were sued.

What does that say to us?

What does that say?

It doesn't give us much morale or hope that we, the people who don't want it, you know, and are affected by it the most because we don't have as much money.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Our next speaker, Jerome Moore again, followed by Zelda Hill, followed by Michael Falaz.

Hello, I'm Jerome Morgan.

I'm here to support the project.

Detroit to bring a property into the city.

And I'm for the project.

And look forward to being deployment contractor on the project as well.

Thank you.

Which which project are you referring to?

Which project are you referring to?

The project every day.

Okay, thank you.

Our next speaker, Zelda Hill, followed by Michael Powaz, followed by Brother.

Thank you so much.

Um, I'm also here with uh Mr.

Morgan uh as a representative of Zermore uh plumbing and heating in support of the 1738 Michigan Avenue Project.

Um, we are a minority-owned business and we are a verified uh section three business.

And I just wanted to say that by uh putting us on one of these projects will help us with our commitment uh to Detroit to put back our low-income city workers, and uh we also have a partnership with um Detroit Job Corp where we have um successful programs and graduates currently on our projects right now.

So uh we respectfully ask that you guys consider approving the uh requested tax incentives for this program so we can move forward with this construction and also put our workers to work as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Michael for Waz, followed by Brother Cunningham, followed by Eden Loom.

How are you doing?

Uh, my name is Michael Forwaz.

I'm with Air King Heating and Cooling.

Air King Heating and Cooling has been a Detroit-based business for over 25 years.

We were on Warren and Evergreen many years ago.

We have just now uh the past two years purchased a new property on Grand River in Wyoming.

Um it's the old Leonard Storage nine story uh historical build.

We're really excited about it.

Um we've moved all of our guys into there.

Uh and uh this project 1728 Michigan Ave is one that we've been working on, budgeting and working on, uh, making happen for a long time.

Uh it seems that this final hurdle is going to be this tax incentive uh deal, and we are a Detroit-based business certified, have been one since 2016.

Um we have Section 3 workers and Detroit-based workers uh in our company.

I could easily staff this job with 45 to 55 percent Detroit-based workers.

We are ready to go to work.

Um, we are sheet metal uh technicians and pipe fitters, uh, local and uh uh in the county of Wayne, without a doubt.

And we would be very uh we'd be very happy if this did go through and we could get to work right away.

We just want to express that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker, Brother Cunningham, followed by Eden Bloom, followed by Josh Mann.

My shirt says God don't play about me.

Unity definition of the primarily refers to the state of being united, whole, or in full agreement.

Other words for unity are harmony, union, of course, solidarity, and oneness in the Bible in Amos 33, and two walk together, except they agreed.

Or I forgot.

313 4449114, 313, 444, 9114.

313, 444, 9114.

That number was made to your member.

Unity is not always good.

Everyone wants to morph the word unity to be good.

There's good and bad unity.

Bad unity, chattel slavery, brand like slave trade, African Holocaust, the Jim Crow era, doctrine of discovery, or in other words, the Catholic church ordaining slavery.

Um, there's good unity as well, like the Black Freedom Movement, Civil Rights Era, uh, African American rights movement, post-9-11, national cohesion.

And I would say, even in the church, I don't go to church anymore at all.

I still do guys' work, but I was accused of bringing guns into a church, a megachurch.

And I've never owned a gun in my life.

But things can't snowball uh false rumors and things.

Ignoring Southeastern Michigan D dot not being on time or not showing up, they're only on time like 70%.

That's a problem.

That's bad unity, the unity of ignoring the people that take the bus.

It's not good.

I want to thank you for your donations.

And anyone who wants to do a bus ride along, hit me up at that 313-444-9114.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Eden Bloom, followed by Josh Mann, followed by Betty Long.

Morning, Detroit City Council.

My name is Eden Bloom.

I live on the East Side this morning.

I'm representing Detroit People's Platform.

And this is in response to a growing concern around data center development in Detroit.

Detroit People's Platform wanted to find out how everyday Detroiters actually feel about the prospect of more data centers being built in our city.

In May, we launched a data center survey in Detroit.

And as of today, we've had just under 500 respondents.

The survey data indicates opposition across all income levels and across the seven city council districts.

That opposition is driven primarily by three concerns rising about uh utility costs rising, the lack of transparency and how these projects move forward, and a significant number of respondents oppose the use of taxpayer dollars and tax incentives to support data center development.

Overall, Detroiters can benefit from more education regarding data centers.

As a result, we are prioritizing robust public education, community organizing, and the promotion of a transparent engagement process in the face of advancing policy development.

Meaningful engagement will help ensure that all residents, especially those who may be underrepresented in current discussions, have information and opportunity needed to participate in the decisions that could affect our neighborhoods, utility cost, and quality of life.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Josh Bannon, followed by Betty Lyons, followed by Anne Bulbai.

Good morning, everybody.

Question is Are you for the people or for the policies at hand?

Nobody wants data centers, nobody wants flock.

Cities as big as Los Angeles have removed flock.

86 cities nationwide are removing ALPRs.

Why are we not at the leader of this?

Detroit is one of the most amazing cities I've ever experienced, and I fell deeply in love with all the people here.

Now after attending these meetings and the police commissioners meeting, I'm in concern of the leaders of the city.

People do not want this in their towns.

They do not want data centers.

It will ruin the value of the neighborhood.

We don't want flock delivery drones.

We want jobs for people.

It's strange to see that if this many cities are awake, their leaders can see that the communities don't want this.

Are you for the people or for the policies at hand?

Shot spotter is a complete failure.

I'm gonna leave this one alone because it's already voted, but that is a complete failure.

What I did with the drifting, the problem of drifting in the city, I solved it with 73% and 91% crime reduction.

But we're gonna spend $2 million on a thing that's a complete failure, 12% gathered shell casings.

Give me 200,000 and I'll solve your drifting problem in the city.

It's that easy.

But you guys are spending the money in the wrong way.

Please look at the rest of the country and realize people do not want ALPRs.

We do not want mass surveillance, and I don't shoot guns.

I don't own guns.

So I'm not an anti-shot spotter because I want to shoot guns.

I'm not anti surveillance because I want to create crime.

That's not it.

It's nobody in the country wants this, including you guys, I'm assuming.

So who's getting paid or what?

Something's going on.

Because people don't want this.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Betty Lyons, followed by Anne Goulet, followed by Julie Ginsner.

Ginser, excuse me.

Yeah.

What's with those foreigners that came up in here speaking broken English?

My people's language was beaten out of us.

No contact with our people.

The way we were treated as slaves is the worst in the history of slavery.

You bring all these foreigners up here, and I call the foreigners the suburbanized that you give millions of dollars every week.

Every week.

But you're not gonna help Mr.

Miles, the Leland tenants, where is that Conrad Mallet missing in uh action?

They were supposed to receive more than what they haven't received anything.

They had to come and ask for it.

Why?

But these foreigners come up here bragging about all this money they're making.

Sanctuary city, no.

Go to Bloomville Hills, Gross Point, Birmingham, and all them other uh suburbs or whatever you want to call those places.

Leave Detroit alone.

Council and the rest are a bunch of ingrates who treat their own awful.

You let Dugan sit up in here and take over 600 million dollars of overpaid property taxes.

You won't stick by us.

This is injustice.

I want justice for my people instead of hearing some broken English talking about how much they're flourishing.

The Constitution is a sham.

It's writers are black slave owners, rapists, lynching, castration of the boys, raping the boys and the girls.

So don't think that this country is so great.

It isn't.

Sally Hanson was raped and had five children by Jefferson.

Think about that.

Next speaker, Anne Goulet, followed by Julie Inser, followed by Kyle Chintala.

Good morning.

My name is Anne Goulet.

I'm an architect designer, planner, owners rep, and property development specialist.

Detroit needs much more professional, consistent, lawful, and transparent policies and procedures to deal with its many land development and rebuilding issues.

As you can hear from the people who preceded me.

This would cover two big concerns.

One, how could the Detroit secure, operate, and grow its tremendous community-owned bricks and mortar property assets and landholdings to better serve current and future residents, businesses, and visitors, primarily by implementing known economic empowerment strategies that never ever aim to harm, destroy, dismantle, or displace in keeping with Detroit's charter.

And two, how can Detroit helpfully, lawfully, safely, responsibly, and practically regulate and guide the operations and growth of all buildings, properties, and businesses in its jurisdiction, primarily via the work of professionally licensed and highly experienced architects, engineers, designers, planners, facilities and construction managers, code officials and zoning consultants.

Over the past 12 to 13 years, the city attorneys, along with various scattered staff within the executive branch, have taken it upon themselves to oversee manage and experiment with the extremely difficult profession of responsible land development and rebuilding.

This experimentation has proved proved disastrous.

A concerning pattern has emerged with sketchy and slipshod vendor contracts, sloppy database management, records keeping, outdated and damaged infrastructure, and unregulated and illegal building demolitions and property condemnations and takings.

Many of these have resulted in environmental contamination and destruction, massive budgetary overruns and resident overcharges, displaced residents and businesses, and disgruntled investors.

Worse, a pattern has emerged of city attorney harassment against Detroit's neighborhood leaders and community values, trying to sell our schools, our parks, and our rec centers.

Julie Ginson.

Followed by Kyle Kentala, followed by Kevin Tellis.

Hi, my name is Julie Genser, and I'm here again before you as a resident, a proud resident of Detroit.

I'm participatory, and um and thank you for your service to uh this great city.

Um and your time.

I'm here in support of the um right to renew for good cause um ordinance that has been proposed and uh clause uh draft written by the Detroit Dependence Union.

Um and I think um councilwoman um Mary Waters to in your uh investigation of the rights of this um ordinance.

Um I want to present some more details about my personal case where this ordinance could have made some difference.

Um, and it has to do with the uninhabitability of my apartment um unit at Alden Towers.

I was um I suffered a flood in November, and um the repairs were just enough to say that they were ongoing, but not enough to make any kind of substantial difference.

Um it was three months before they removed a rotten carpet, a rotting carpet in my daughter's room.

My children have not lived with me since November, and the real action had only taken place when I brought BC into action, and then they started moving.

Um I asked for um abatement um when these um repairs were substantially done.

Um, I was um uh what I think retaliated against by the um landlord.

Um they sued me for non-payment of rent, and um it was immediately after um the B seed um identification and my request for abatement.

Um, the time and the energy um that this has taken out of my life has been completely disruptive.

Um, the um time and energy that it took out of my life um with my children has been disruptive.

And thanks to Mayor Sheffield, um, I was lucky enough to get right to counsel um for the situation, but I don't know how I would have handled this without it.

Um, and part of what I'm here to um present to you is the abusive what I would consider abusive litigation um actions by the corporate lawyers that are working for thank you so much.

Thank you.

Tell us, followed by Charles Cousins.

Good afternoon.

Good morning, counsel.

Uh thank you for letting me speak.

My name is Kyle Kentila.

I'm a uh homeowner, uh, artist, and uh I work with a lot of nonprofits here in the city, Detroit Dog Rescue, Downtown Boxing Gym, Burke, Detroit.

So I come from a few different districts.

I think currently I am in District Three.

Um I love the city, it's people and the culture, and I would like to see our government practices reflect thriving safe neighborhoods that benefit legacy Detroiters.

With that being said, I'm tired of data centers even being considered.

86% of Michigan Michiganders do not want data center centers wasting our water, polluting our city, and lining the pockets of AI investors.

I don't want ice being anywhere in and around Detroit, leave Detroiters alone, ban ice now.

DTE, I'm tired of DTE having rec record profits every quarter while Detroiters go without power for days during minor or major storms.

Plans for solar and clean energy are only benefiting DTE in the city.

We need community solar and to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels and their monopolies.

I'm tired of the police state we've become and flock now.

Shot spotters is a broken system that correctly identifies a suspect less than one percent of the time.

AI drones will terrorize our neighborhoods.

Detroiters don't want this technology.

I'm tired of the illegally and poorly run land bank and blight department ticketing neighbors improving their houses when the land bank houses and lots sit blighted, dumped on, and burned down.

I'm tired of dogs dying in the summer being chained up 24-7, which isn't a which is illegal, and our animal control and their new director doing absolutely nothing about it and returning dogs to horrific living situations.

I'm tired of city inspectors also being police officers and harassing homeowners trying to bring houses up to code.

Do we not pair police officers enough to not have them have to have a second job?

I guess they're in the community, so that's a step in the right direction.

Um and thank you for letting me speak on this today.

Next speaker, Clement Tellers, followed by Charles Cousins, followed by Paul Chenault.

Good morning, good morning to this honorable body.

I'm Kevin Tellers.

I'm a new resident of Detroit.

Um been here only a few years.

And so I want to speak in support of some of the agenda items that I see um contracts to support community land trusts.

These are uh nonprofits, community-based nonprofits, and the contracts are to support and provide planning organizations, organizational development and site project readiness activities to develop plans for the creation expansion of a community land trust.

And so there are uh three or four different uh groups that are being proposed on the agenda.

I think you all may have discussed before in the internal committees, but I did uh hours and hours of research to create a capstone report at the University of San Francisco on community land trusts, and I definitely support these nonprofit organizations uh being able to provide affordable housing for residents throughout the city.

Um, as working with the a land bank, I think these organizations uh can build more housing, which is an initiative of the mayor, and so I just definitely want to speak in support of that.

And um I was also able to look into the ways these organizations provide different benefits um to different communities as a resource.

I'm sorry, I'm not sure I'm with the microphone.

I I think that's all I want to say today, as well as um support from a lot of other topics that uh my community members have spoken of.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Our next speaker uh Charles does follow by Charles Chenault, and our last speaker, Jadante Smith, and do apologize for the interference in the microphone.

We'll try to figure it out as we speak, Mr.

Cousins, Mr.

Cousins.

Hello, it's uh cousin, no us at the end.

Um, honorable members of the city council.

I stand here today to speak about the grave injustices and inequities occurring in our food distribution centers.

Like many, I rely on these services out of necessity.

Sometimes more often than I can volunteer.

And I've witnessed and endured harsh realities firsthand.

I once had to break up a fight at Po Francis Center, and subsequently I was banned.

I volunteered at Crossroads Suit Kitchen for the last two years and was sexually assaulted by a staff member who's later revealed to be the director.

And when I reported it, I was fired a month later.

And there are children volunteer at this place and who come to this place.

I also firsthand saw how forgotten harvest distributes food on a 90-degree day.

Just as I experienced myself, you're taking people's names down, they're getting paid to distribute food, and they're not giving people food.

This happened to me last Tuesday.

And I starved.

I didn't eat that day.

I'm from New York, where we just adopted the new model where when the power of love overcomes the power, the love of power, the world will know peace.

And I want to discuss these matters in detail with someone who cares.

Next speaker, Paul Shannon.

Good morning, honorable counsel.

I'm Paul Schnault, District 6 resident.

Best district.

Also, good morning to everyone who took the time to come down here and everyone waiting on the phone.

You know, every time I come down here, I say I'm wrong, something I'm gonna write something.

But until then, I'm just gonna continue to speak from the heart.

So speak from the soul, speak from the mind.

Can we fix that, please?

Yeah, we're trying to fix it as we we speak.

Okay, thank you.

No problem.

Um for about 12 years now, a little more or less.

Uh, I've been witnessing um my community fighting, fighting, fight for what seems to be the same fight.

Uh, we want investment, we want enforcement into these businesses.

Uh, we don't want to have a different standard than the businesses uh in the area that seem to be neglecting their properties, whereas the residents seem to be getting penalized.

Um, and it's getting it's really getting snowballed into uh into being furious about it.

Um every year we have talk with whoever the city council person is in that year, uh about budget and what it is that we would like to see.

And it just really seems as though we're getting crumbs, uh pizza crust residual.

Uh hopefully in the future, uh, we can work together to change that narrative.

Um, I'm here today to request that to at large members, uh Waters, pro Tim Young, and council member President Tate, as well as my council member Santiago Romero, get together, the five of us, uh, even some team members with my team from Midwest Civic Council, uh, to see what it is that we could do to work together.

Uh, getting together individually at community meetings or engaging at other meetings is one thing.

Coming down here to speak for one another is another thing, but we need to get together to see what we can do.

I hear I hear the bill, but I also heard a lot of static.

You can stop bringing the bill, please.

So your time's up.

That's what they think.

Well, I had about 20 seconds of static, president.

But thank you.

You didn't have 20 seconds.

Thank you, thank you so much.

Is our final speaker?

You may come for it.

Six in the year.

Not doing nothing.

So I want to say uh somebody who made some slick comments that said I was vice president.

I'm president of the Helen Street Block Club currently.

I want to say to Renata Miller, I know who pays you or not uh the billionaires and the oligarchs in the city of Detroit, including the Torgos and the Maroons.

Uh also uh myself, along with police commissioner Darius Morris did some CBI work yesterday at some real token owned property in district three.

District three run by Scott Benson, who's a no-show.

We helped an armed assailant who was threatening women with children become arrested.

Was it was armed with a rifle?

Uh we had to babysit a building, risking our own lives and our own safety to do this work.

Uh Detroit Ham Channel coalition is requested another meet with Mary Sheffield to no avail.

Uh major shout out to Mary Waters team, Joan Underwood came out and was walking around this dangerous apartment complex by herself for about 30 minutes pasting all flyers.

Uh, really shot really appreciate that.

And I won't throw the baby out with the bathwork.

Um, so what about gun violence in the city of Detroit?

I got Moses King Boosting the ground who have uh they've been victims of homicide their children, they have tons of families who have been victims.

What about them?

Every time you see me in this attire with mother skipping the ground, expect to get some H E double hockey sticks.

Um, shout out to Tyra Brown.

Any research he puts out about anybody counted as gospel and counted as coming with some refaction receipts behind it.

Also, the Maroons have a hundred-year deal with the with the Detroit Wayne uh Port Authority, pretty much.

They own all the land for a hundred years in perpetuity, and we cannot get out of this contract from the Kwame Pilpatrick era.

We have 85 years.

Abe Whitaker knows about it.

He helped him to get it too.

He was around back then, he's been around for 20 years.

Also, uh, the surrounding community around Bolsa Family Center does not support that development.

Uh contaminated dirt in the land bank are major issues in city of Detroit.

Uh, I have to visit the ombudsman far too often in the city of Detroit for you guys to be doing your jobs correctly.

It just doesn't make sense how many times I have to visit Don Business Office.

I got a water bill in the mail for the incorrect address.

I live on the east side.

I'm I'm I'm on the east, I'm in district five.

I got a water bill for district six on Scottin Avenue.

So Gary Brown, I've had issues with that's the biggest issue I have to go down to Don Business office for is the water department.

And Scott Benson, you suck.

I hope you go to jail, prison to be now transition to our online call.

How many callers do we have?

And who do we have first?

Morning, sir.

We have 29 callers on log with the first caller being caller inning at 169.

Caller inning in 169.

The floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Hello, can you guys hear me?

Yes, sir.

Great.

Um I identify as Jay.

Um thank you for praying for Brother Cunningham, Agape Agape Agape.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for my time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is going to be caller inning in 299.

Caller inning 299.

The floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

Yes, I am here.

Good morning to the may I speak now?

Yes, you may proceed.

Hello.

Okay, good.

Good morning to the City of Detroit Council members and Mr.

Chair.

My name is Joyce Moore with the Virginia Park Community Coalition within the boundaries of the Virginia Park community.

I have contacted all council members as well as the mayor and the juniors in regard to the Hermit Keeper Project.

My question is Is there any particular reason as to why I have not been contacted regarding a major development within the Virginia Park community as the Hermit Keeper Project?

Residents and others are asking me what is the status, and I cannot give them a definitive answer.

Again, is there any particular reason as to why I have not been contacted in regard to the Hermit Keeper Project?

Number two, we need to walk the streets at one time we call the beach as opposed to the shot spotter.

It was more effective.

You felt the pulse of the people and their needs.

Number three, we thank you for the approval for the number of dead trees being cut down on private property.

And I want to thank you all, and I want to yield my time.

Again, thanks.

Have a great day.

Bye.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is going to be caller inning in 534.

Caller ending in 534.

The floor is yours.

Two minutes general public comment.

Good morning.

May I be heard?

Yes.

Okay.

Well, thank you, uh, Member Denzel for uh working on the dirty dirt.

And uh the lady who brought up Saline, Michigan and to the foreign representatives, you know, our governor said at the Saline place.

We're used to people saying no, but we do it anyway.

And unfortunately, that happens in the city here too.

Um somebody brought up the right to counsel.

That's great for evictions, but this city's spending 7.7 million dollars on attorneys to take people's property for solar farms when there's no need to do it.

You you could have done an alternate study and put it on land you're already owned, but no, you got to take people's property, just like the land bank illegally takes people's property.

26 or 25.5.

What what was the point of zone Detroit if you're gonna try and ram through a massive text amendment that you know the vast majority of people don't understand?

You haven't done enough outreach on that.

25.9 master plan update process has been has a lot to be desired.

They've been secretive on their stakeholder meetings.

I asked Ms.

Connecticut to do resident stakeholder meetings in neighborhoods where people live, and apparently nobody's listening to that.

So transparent, meaningful, and inclusive community engagement is seriously lacking in the city.

Also, that saline data center, Jacqueline Benson's husband's due to make a 70 million dollar commission on that.

Think carefully before you vote for her for governor, because uh she might just be lining her pockets some more and act like Gretchen Whitmer and not care when people say no.

So um uh please uh people from the other countries take note of how we get treated here and what the residents are saying and how we will probably get ignored uh once public comment is over, like frequently happens to me, yet they will speak with some people that say more negative next caller, please.

Next caller is 1244.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Yes, I'd like to thank um oh well, maybe I hear.

Um I would like to thank um Miss Miller, City Council for just fine, Mr.

Miller for I'll take a time out to go by Marvel to see and uh the back before and tell me that it needs to be patient, which it needs to be really um restored back to as far as uh overall ma'am.

Excuse me, your your your feed is is very very low.

Can you get a little closer to your microphone?

Uh if you can stop the mic, if you can stop the time, please while I'm speaking.

Can you hear me?

Is that better?

Yes, ma'am.

Let's let's add 10 seconds to a time.

Thank you.

Yes, I once again, uh Miss Miller.

I thank you for everything that you're doing, but please go back at least two years and you'll find out that we did have the money that was alleged to fix up the park itself to um tear down the fence and do some other things as far as a freestanding restroom that is needed for the park.

Um, size that it does need his name on it.

Marlin King's name is not on the on the park as well.

And to um we just don't need the beautification.

We need to have it renovated, totally torn out, gutted, or um, the things that we had already planned for.

We had plans for it.

Uh, and I think uh Miss Patricia Miller for also for helping me with that.

Also, um that um she got back with me, and I was telling her about different things.

I will be emailing you uh some more information about the park.

Uh uh, how we had always we had already established agreement of how the park was going to be renovated, and what was um agreed upon by the uh city of Detroit to uh repair the park to bring it back and make it what it's supposed to be.

It's supposed to be a memorial park for Martin Luther King, dedicated by roads of parts, and it is now going to be 46 years old, instead of us being able to celebrate the 45th year, and we can't have uh some work done because the 65th years coming up.

Uh and I thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is gonna be black bag.

All right, caller, the floor is yours, two minutes.

General public comment.

Are you there?

Yep.

I'm right here, James Z.

Tate Jr.

And like I told you, your political career is ending.

No, it's over with because you and Solomon Kenlock and Warren Evans and Conrad Malik Jr.

The crafty Conrad character, been playing games.

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

Tate Jr.

You know, in the second grade, you were in class with one of my good, good, good friends, and I know a lot about you.

Now I done dove deep, and you cheated in the most cheated in person in that whole auditorium right now.

Cheated in by Dennis Winfrey, the cheater that's on Zoom line, April 25th, 2024, about the findings on the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report with crafty Conrad, the General Corporation Council for the City of Detroit, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice, and the crafty one because he was with crafty crafty crafty mic, and I know about the plan to turn Detroit into a non-majority black city on the international border.

Heard about it 18 years ago and laugh.

Well, right now, blacks, according to my estimates, about 60 seven 68 percent of the city of Detroit.

Plan is in full effect.

So now y'all get to get introduced to Monkey Retro.

That's me.

Black bag.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Bobby Johnson, sir.

Bobby Johnson, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Greetings.

Uh okay, one thing I want to say.

We didn't have that ribbon cutting for this recreation center, and I ain't seen a branch or a tree knocked down.

We have power over here off.

Thank you, Mary Waters, for the food that you're sending to Franklin Park.

But I do have another problem.

We've been fighting for four years.

This community and the residents in the churches have been crying out to someone to investigate, to investigate what is happening inside that homeless shelter on 1932 1 West Chicago.

For four years, we have been ignored.

We've been to courts, we've got court orders.

Let's be clear.

We're not fighting against homeless people.

We're fighting against them.

We we've heard horrific allegations of women being harassed, exploited, forced to force and coerce into sexual intercourse with men being videotaped.

We've heard serious allegations involving violation of children.

We have raised concerned about women allegedly being required to get a give up their food benefits, questions about medical service being bailed and residents' name.

And now we are told told inspectors have not even been given full access to the building.

How is this possible?

If any one of these allegations is true, this is bigger than a zoning violation.

We we could be talking about sexual assault, exploitation, fraud, a child abuse.

So I'm asking publicly who's protecting this facility, who's allowing it to be to operate with without full transparency.

And most important, who's protecting the women and children in here?

We demand an immediate independent multi-agency investigation.

We demand full access up for inspectors.

We demand that the women be interviewed private, safely away from anyone who may control.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Cindy Dora.

Sorry.

Cindy Dara, the floor is yours.

Two minutes.

General public code.

Yeah, um years ago, we were financing a lot of stuff with revenue sharing from the state.

And uh Joanne Watson was fighting it when they started taking it away.

And I guess they replaced it with the tax and uh uh incremental funding law, which allowed the the taxes that are for instance taken downtown for the millages.

Any increase, like in a school millage from the previous year, if they get more taxes, they don't give that those increases to this to the schools.

They keep it for the DDA downtown, which uh they spend it on the developers and on downtown and not on our schools, which we need good schools, and so this is unconstitutional in my opinion.

But uh we need to vote against this school millage because it has a tax capture.

Now I I find out not from you, I ask you why they're doing it.

It's a state law, they have to do it on all the millages unless now the DIA went and they fought it and they got the legislature to exempt them from the tax capture, and the food got exempted in the library because Russ Ballon and the community people fought for the library to have their full funding.

Most of the taxes in these cities across Michigan are collected downtown.

And for them to divert these millages, which we need for the uh the services to the downtown development, that's wrong.

And it's and you should make the legislature change that law and exempt everybody because it's not a good law.

You gotta finance something with revenue sharing like you used to.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

General public comment.

Good morning.

Uh, my name is Dan Neeme, and I am with the NEME Corporation, a signatory union contractor.

We are excited about the opportunity to work on the 1728 Michigan Avenue project.

This project will create good paying jobs for local workers and generate economic investment in Detroit.

We respectfully ask the Detroit City Council to approve the requested tax incentives so construction can move forward and our team can get to work.

Thank you for your consideration.

Next caller, please.

General public comment.

Hello?

Hello.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Good morning.

Okay.

Thank you.

Sorry about that.

First of all, I like to sit back and say, I want to apologize to the city council meeting.

A lot of times I was coming down there and I was with a group of individuals that had negative vibes.

Ms.

Callaway, a couple of weeks ago, you had a young man down that came from your district, and you gave recognition in response to that.

In response to that, I gave recognition and sitting back saying that was a great job.

That's what we supposedly are standing for build the community and have the young individual citizens, the black citizens from my community uplift.

Well, I was told that was wrong, right?

So I started doing research.

Come to find out these individuals that I've been dealing with, right?

Are being backed by the Charlie Kirk peoples.

And that threw me for a loop because I'm like, I don't stand for that, right?

And you know, I said back and I asked my friend, I say, because we had talked to um um the uh Gary Brown from the water commissioner, and he has said, Look, if you guys look for contracts, I can come to you contracts.

Um we'll take you step by step.

And dude was like, No, we don't want that for no.

And so now I started looking at him like, hold on, why would you shoot that down if this is what you saying you stand for?

Couldn't have found out they were getting paid all the time to sit back and come in to disrupt the things that you guys doing, being negative, and on top of that, it's like the more I looked into it, and the more I started seeing things, it's like dude come down all the time and saying you guys ain't nothing but black negative Christian folks, college educated, but at the same time, you taking your monies from a Christian individuals who's throwing you money under the table.

So I sit back and I just want to say I apologize, and I'm signed my son up to run for state rep in the 17th district, and just wanted you guys to know I don't expect to win, but in the long run, he will win maybe 10 years from now.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is uh Mariah Walker.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes.

General public comment.

Caller, are you there?

Let's put the call.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Good morning.

Oh, thank you.

Okay.

Um I hate to have the embarrassers in front of the company today, but unfortunately, the shame is well desired when I told y'all I would be back for whatever reason.

A low budget two dollar promiscuous hustler like Marvin Walker, Detroit Robert Detroit was allowed to swindle the city under a different business name.

$50,000 for a transportation contract with no transportation is crazy as fudge to me.

And an alleged constant promoter scammer on the board.

Please show me where the transportation is.

He provided with our tax dollars via the Detroit public health safety headquarters of all things.

No wonder women have alleged has said to me that he allegedly tells them he's law enforcement.

I have a text message that says he arrested somebody downtown.

Police stickers on cars, he's flashing a badge.

I talked to a bunch of women who lost everything.

Hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Men who lost money, women who are done unthinkable things for this man.

It's recordings floating around of the mayor that should not be.

And she had no clue.

I got a problem with that.

People being recorded, they have no clue.

I don't know what y'all got us into.

And I say, us, because y'all allow him to do whatever he's doing.

And he's trickling down on me because he's told people we're related, and I don't want nothing to do with that.

I don't care what police officers he know who he related to, what him and the mayor got going on.

I don't want no parts.

I have a document.

He said someone with a girl's name signed on it.

It's not her signature.

He sent a boy to California saying it was a house there.

The boy got there, he didn't answer the phone.

Somebody came to my house and put an illegal cease and desist in my mailbox.

That's terrible.

I know the law.

I used to work for the post office, and I do not play whatever game he's playing.

He has a horrible lawyer.

Let's put that on the record.

I just moved into my house.

So somebody from the city gave him my address, or somebody from DHS did.

It's not safe for me because you all have a six-foot lot that I've been claiming.

Next caller, please.

And if you if this if this doesn't impact you, there's something wrong with you.

Let me tell you.

Because the order says something entirely different.

Um that leads me to your 25.10, Miss Uh Councilwoman Miller.

I think we should have the answers to this before we move forward at all.

Uh 18.1.

Could you please identify the public housing units that you spent 33 million dollars on, or you're spending 33 million?

Because you could you tell me what they are and where they're located.

Um, and and let me say this.

The the the CDGB bunny.

Oh, your your your bright idea about land trust.

Until every area, every district has this land trust in place.

We should not move forward with any of them because it is unfair and unequal.

All of the money that we spent, CDBG money, all going to um one particular area, tax incentives, all going to one particular area.

And now you want to add more NEZ zones.

No, we don't.

We need to corral the ones that we have, and we need to re-identify those zones because we've spent millions of dollars on zones that you are calling uh uh obsolete now.

And um, I think that we need to rethink this entire process and more talk, please.

Next speaker is gonna be Tahira Amal.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Good morning.

Uh Detroit reprobation task force originated from a November 21st ballot initiative where over 80% of voters supported the creation of a body to study and address the historic discrimination against the city's black population, spearheaded by city, then city council president Mary Sheffield.

Uh, there would be no Detroit, nor America or Mexico, uh, nor America for Mexico and Italy, Japan and Canada to invest in if it weren't for the enslavement of African Americans um in Detroit and in the nation.

Uh black people before there was even a uh America.

We're here uh creating America through blood, sweat, and tears.

We deserve to be paid, it's a debt owed.

So the reparations, recommendations were not even mentioned by this body.

I would like to know from each city council member, do you endorse the recommendations replacement of the 600 million dollar illegal over taxation, which is in the recommendation?

Uh the theft of the 100,000 homes, which is in the uh recommendations.

Will you hold hearings in your district?

How will you work to implement them?

What is your timeline to uh recommend uh to implement the recommendations?

Why haven't you even so much as mentioned the reparation task force um um recommendations?

And to our great mayor, the first black female mayor of Detroit, congratulations, and will you please get started on?

Next caller, please.

Next speaker is Tyson Gersh.

Tyson Gersh, the floor is yours, two minutes, general public comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Uh okay, great.

Um regarding agenda item.

I think it's 24.25.4.

Uh the uh sixth general text amendment.

Guys, like we went through this last year and you saw what the reaction was.

Um it's 211 pages.

The charter regulates the procedure for introducing text amendments to the Detroit City Code.

Um, the rules are pretty good, you know, like it's gotta be limited to one subject, and uh it's supposed to be just like the screen changes one thing at a time.

I mean, the title for this thing is uh can you imagine somebody reading the title for this thing?

It's it's pages that is not like this is an abuse of process if the city thinks that it is legally legitimate to introduce a text amendment package of this scale in this way.

That is not like this is an abuse of process if the city thinks that it is legally legitimate to introduce a text amendment package of this scale in this way.

Um it is not possible for anybody to any member of the public to meaningfully participate in this process or comment on it within these like little one to two minute uh, you know, uh uh like public comment speaking times.

Uh two minutes, like you gotta run through 211 pages, like it just just make it make sense.

I'm not saying everything in here is good, I'm not saying everything in here is bad.

I'm saying it is not possible for the public to participate in this process with something this large.

You need to break it up into a series of smaller packages that abide by the charter and let us address these things one at a time.

That's all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's call it please.

Our next caller is William M.

Davis.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

Two minutes.

General public comment.

Uh good morning.

Can I be heard?

Yes, sir.

First off, I like to uh say I was pleased to see that uh mayor that our mayor, Mary Walk, that I'm Mary Mary Sheffield, um, made it out to my um City Church retire, uh the champion of City Chart retirees, uh really markable.

He has served his ongoing service was this past Saturday, and the church was filled.

Uh also I'd like to say I was pleased to see that councilwoman Miller.

She came and um she had a resolution also for for the family.

And also uh I see that she has uh Darome E.

Record Junior working for and today is his birthday.

I like to say so shout out to him for his birthday because he and uh Bertie Rowley uh assisted uh my Detroit National Action Network uh group years ago in getting over a couple of thousand city, you know, laptop to city Detroit uh residents.

We visited each and every city council district, and we also the main thing was signing people up for the internet because Detroit continues to be uh a big divide in access to internet, you know.

Wi-Fi is essential today, but you know, we found that out during the pandemic.

Uh we still need to be doing more.

Uh I think that helped to encourage uh the mayor, and I didn't particularly care for to do a little bit more.

Uh I think that we also need to be doing more as it relates to closing the divide in our city still.

You know, so I think we could do more.

I think we should do more.

I just like I think that uh DTE, whenever they raise our rates or asked to raise our rates, there should be a hearing in Detroit since we are the largest customer and with the largest concentration, and we have the largest problems with them.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is gonna be on the lead.

Caller, the floor is yours, two minutes, general public comment.

Caller, are you there?

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

Our next caller will be Zoom user.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Yes, I'm I'm here today to request my name is Charles Miles.

I'm asking that the city council orders their law department to release the records for the property tax history on properties at 9550 Hubble and 6463 Evergreen immediately and send them over to Judge Ewell, Third Circuit Court uh judge, Chief Judge, Judge Yule.

Send them over to his all his uh court immediately so he can take a look at the records that you guys they seem to have them locked up.

Uh also I have a uh issue for Donna Kimbrough.

Her name is Donna Kimbrough at not at 4490 30th Street.

She has an issue with the whole neighborhood uh with properties that they uh leased to own like maybe 20, 30 years ago.

And they've been in these properties, the whole neighborhood pretty much.

Uh San Diego Romero's neighborhood uh district.

And they uh being threatened that their properties have been sold up under their uh they don't know anything about it.

So they they're trying to get some help.

You can reach them at area code 3132405.

That's 313 452405.

The whole neighborhood pretty much has been sold to some outside company up under their noses, and they are supposed to be rent-to-one, least to own properties, and that they should own them by now or have uh first option on buying them, and they've been sold.

Next caller is going to be Miss Betty A.

Varner.

Ms.

Benny A.

Varner, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Uh good morning to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

Varner, the president of the Soda Els World Black Association.

I want to start off today by uh thanking honorable um uh council member Colloway for um having someone attend all of our um black club member uh meetings, uh my members and myself are very very appreciative of that.

Also, we are appreciative that uh someone from her team did contact me and took an interest.

Uh councilmember Callaway took an interest in knowing what it is that we need for our park.

Uh, we are very appreciative of that.

Uh we are having our event, our uh arise Detroit annual event on August 1st.

We are still in need of volunteers.

We're in need of people to uh help us set up and break down our tents.

We are uh looking for people to help uh monitor the games that we're gonna have for the families.

Uh it is going to be a wonderful event.

We have finally uh got a commitment from a barber.

So we will be offering the free haircuts.

We will be uh offering the hair free hair braiding, and what the children is usually be excited about is receiving the free bikes and hair moments.

So this event is for the Detroit metro area, just not for our uh community.

We want to bless as many people as possible.

We will be bringing resources to the community, and so uh we will have vendor tables available.

And so if you have a resource or a service that you would like to um uh give back to next caller, please.

Next caller is gonna be Denise Lyles.

Caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Good morning, esteemed board.

I just want to say thank you for listening to long stakeholders of Detroit and start looking at businesses and things of that nature that are in Detroit.

Let our tax dollars go to Detroit.

And for these other companies, we should have something where if they say we don't have the people that they can do the job, set up some training programs.

Let Detroit's blossom.

I enjoyed seeing the other people from the other constituents from the other countries wanting to be here in Detroit because Detroit is the place to be.

Those long-term residents that were here before it became popular to come back to Detroit.

I just want you guys to keep in mind, we're all here.

We didn't leave.

We stayed through the good, through the bad, through the ugly.

So don't forget we're here, and we've got your bet.

We just want you to have ours.

Thank you very much.

I'm district five and proud to be here.

Have a good day and blessings.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is going to be Charlotte.

No, no, we have 10 callers left, sir.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Good morning.

Finally, the treatment.

First thing on a second to dance center, so second and one to second in opposition to item 25.5, the sixth general tax meeting.

As it violates Detroit City Code Section 4-115 by addressing numerous topics.

Section 4-115 ordinance procedure and requires that no ordinance may contain more than one subject.

And that ordinance, the ordinance's title must clearly express that subject.

The title of the proposed ordinance is nearly three pages long and addresses topics as diverse and distinct as off-street loading, pet crematoriums, the definition of a family, mini golf, gem dealing, truck stops, and catering.

These are not one topic, but many stretching around 200 pages, affecting interests from the most specialized to those of typical Detroit residents.

I ask that these diverse topics are separated appropriately to comply with section 4-115 and allow meaningful democratic consideration of the many important topics it addresses.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next caller is going to be I follow.

Are you there?

Uh yes.

My name is Bill Downing of the Community Builders.

We are a nonprofit developer helping the spearhead efforts in the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative in the Creator Corktown neighborhood.

We're in the process of advancing several formal housing projects directly adjacent to the subject site at 1128 Michigan Avenue.

Um with several hundred uh units of subsidized housing plan to serve households for a 3% to 80% AMI.

First, I would like to comment that development and ownership team have been uh very proactive in communicating their intentions with our team and have been more than willing to help support neighborhood impact efforts in the greater area, and we thank them for that spirit of collaboration.

I want to provide my support for the development as it complements the mission of the choice neighborhoods initiative and helps to realize the vision of the true mixed income community.

This project adds benefit to the material and architectural aesthetic of this corridor and further achieves the goals of neighborhood validation criteria as outlined in the transformational development plan supported through the CNI grant program.

I commend the development team and efforts in this creation of this project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Darren McCleskey.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Good almost afternoon, council.

Okay.

Well, Tyson, if you think having a long text amendment is bad, imagine having a paragraph that exempts entire swaths of neighborhood from zoning.

That's probably worse.

And while we're on that topic, the only thing certain in life is death and taxes, right?

Thank God we're not talking about tax or death all the time.

So let's talk about taxes.

In a city that requires almost every project to be subsidized, almost every project.

I mean, heck, most of my rentals are going into a pilot just so they can cash flow.

There's something wrong.

There's something large that has to happen to make things work without government intervention at every step of the process.

So maybe you guys should rethink that.

But I'm sitting here on Bell Isle on this beautiful hot day.

I'm looking across the river at this Chrysler site.

65 acres next to it, 26 acres, DT, right on the river, vacant cars are parked there.

You guys could uh you guys could be using that for solar.

That would have saved two and a half of your five neighborhoods from being dismantled.

You guys could have partnered with them.

And guess what?

You wouldn't have had a single eminent domain case for that, and you wouldn't have been so far behind in your development.

You wouldn't have missed the July 4th deadline.

And while we're talking about the July 4th deadline, I did drone flyovers of every neighborhood.

July 6th, the document exactly how far along you guys are, because you're supposed to have substantial completion by July 4th, correct?

Well, guess what?

Van Dyke Lynch, yes, you guys were done there.

Very close, probably 85% completed.

Grash it finley, nothing besides a few rows of streets have been cleared.

State fair, nothing looks like a war zone.

Greenfield Park, partially cleared.

Houston Whittier, partially cleared.

You guys are failing.

You're gonna get off the government.

Caller, please.

Next caller is Mr.

Foster.

Foster, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Oh, good morning.

Chair, just give thanks first off, by the advocate wall, people very happy to see the business community come there, or if what the common denominators, people matters, right?

That's all that's right.

Because uh lift our black community doesn't mean that uh diminish or down any other community.

That's important to know as well.

When we talk about unity, you have to have a clear goal that's articulated and an objective.

Inside of unity, you have units.

In a unit, you know, units are empowered to get those and objectives accomplish.

Suggestions and feedbacks are welcome in units.

Disagreements are had in units because each individual in a unit understands the goal that needs to be achieved.

And so that's just important to understand what people go with their things and pay disruptors come down and speak about education.

That is important that we further educate them.

But um, we heard something important today about pay disruptors.

Right.

That has to get out of our government.

People have to speak with their own integrity.

We don't need city people or government paying individuals to come down there disrupt the integrity of this legislative body.

Period.

A lot of work been done over these last years to try to restore the public trust.

Our council members need to search themselves and cut out the foolishness.

Yes, that gun violence exists in urban areas where laws do not adequately protect all people.

Where fear exists in the community, they will have illegal remedies to practice, train or do anything else, they overcompensate with a standos, long ghost.

Our next caller is Mike Eason.

Are you there?

Good afternoon.

Hi, good afternoon.

Hi, my name is Mike Ess.

I'm a longtime resident of Detroit in uh district six.

I'm also the vice president of American Community Developers.

We are the largest uh developer and owner of affordable housing in the city of Detroit and also the state, and we're also partners with the city on the choice neighborhoods initiative in Corktown.

Uh, I'm calling in this morning to um urge this honorable council to support and approve 1728 Michigan Avenue.

I do not know the owner or the developer of this project, but this project will activate vacant and blighted property in the city.

And if it is to be included as part of the choice neighborhoods initiative, it will allow the city to build more than 50 additional units of affordable housing in Corktown as part of the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative.

The city's housing plan, which was approved by City Council and by HUD includes over 800 new units of housing in Corktown, 80% of which are affordable.

But HUD also required at least 20% of the units to be market rate to uh guarantee a true mixed income community.

Uh, as I mentioned, city council approved this plan.

And if Michigan, uh the Michigan Avenue Project doesn't perceive or proceed as part of uh this plan, then the city will be required to build other market rate units um as part of the choice neighborhood plan, or it risk being out of compliance with its grant.

Um if we include this project as part of choice, I think it's a good policy decision because it leverages private development activity being led by private property owners, uh, and it prioritizes council's goal of increasing affordable housing in the same neighborhood.

Um, I think this project will be a huge benefit to the city and to residents.

It's gonna leverage new housing opportunities for families of all income while also welcoming new residents to the area who likely have the means to live anywhere, but hopefully with these new options, we'll choose to live in Corktown, pay property taxes, and spend money in our city.

Uh, I think if uh council truly supports residents, new housing jobs, community and uh community development, then I urge you to support this project.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is gonna be Karen Hammer.

Karen Hammer, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Hello, hello, can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Yes, yeah.

I support the uh people's platform and uh Eden Bloom's call for continued moratorium on data centers, not just uh having a committee member Benson go into it, but uh continuous moratorium until several public meetings are held with scientific presentations on the consequences, which are water use, pollution with millions of gallons used weekly, air pollution rise in a city that has the highest air pollution in the state, and contributes to all kinds of killing, asthma, heart, lung disease, and highest and sound pollution where the sound is heard for miles, data centers equal a rise in utility bills and costs, and further DTE's rising rates.

Data centers equal a rise in utility bills and costs and further DTE's rising rates.

True public input needs to be done to prevent the corporate date takeover.

I support the right to renew and write to counsel for all tenants, and no ice in our community, and no local or state police support of their illegal snatching, killing, deporting our neighbors, which is going on under the guise of secrecy.

And lastly, vote.

Vote early, talk to people who are not voting or have a record of not voting, and give people transportation to the polls.

I am a longtime resident of Detroit from District 2.

And thank you, council.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Sir, this is our final caller before going to our one caller in the queue, and that is Yash C.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Hey guys, can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay.

Uh my name is Josh Chadriu.

I'm calling uh some DMC group.

We are uh company who's been doing business uh for over 20 years here in the city of Detroit.

Um, we've been involved in a great amount of projects that include channel construction demolition and most recently development.

We're also property owners in a few different areas.

I myself am a graduate of Wayne State University.

I studied civil engineering engineering there, and I am a proud resident of the city of Detroit.

I'm calling in support uh of the project proposed at 1728 Michigan Avenue.

Like some of the peers before me mentioned, I believe that this will bring great value into the area.

The Corktown community is a slow, slowly thriving uh neighborhood with a ton of history, heritage, and culture.

And I believe that this project, through all that its benefits from helping on the uh bringing in subcontractor jobs within the area to revitalizing um uh an area of land that has been derelict, uh, will be supportive to helping grow the community over there.

Once again, thank you for your help.

Yeah.

Right.

And that wraps up our public comments, both in person as well as online.

Colleagues are there.

Hello?

Yes, sir.

We have one caller in the queue from earlier.

Okay.

That will be Miss Yana Lin.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, ma'am.

Awesome.

Um, hello, my name is Yana.

I'm a resident of district two and a community organizer.

I'm here to push back on comments made at the last council meeting.

Um, it is disheartening and extremely dismissive to disregard the charters that come to these meetings and express opposition to police technology.

And my 10 years of activist work in the city of Detroit, I constantly feel dismissed and unheard.

Last week, a councilwoman said that she will not be taking into account the people that take time out of their day to come to these meetings and express our concerns because majority of her constituents wanted shot spotter, which has yet to be factually proven.

Then with great emotion, claim that only eight people come to coffee and conversations.

Those open meetings are at 8 a.m.

during the weekday when most people work.

These meetings, these city council meetings are at 10 a.m.

Um, and the evening district community meetings are have specific topics that y'all have already planned to discuss.

It is not easily uh is not easy to civically engage in an open format in the city of Detroit.

Working people have to work.

It is extremely out of touch to vote solely on issues based on who can make these inaccessible coffee and conversation meetings, and then cherry picking which constituents you be valuable.

It is not easy, easy to civically engage in the city of Detroit.

And when we do, we are told, nah, I'm not listening.

It honestly feels like a like talking to a wall.

And when people tear down flock cameras, think about what part you play in the madness.

Facts-based evidence says that shot spotter doesn't work.

Real community members came down to express opposition to the technology, not the ones paid for by police.

And all you have to say is eight people came down to coffee and conversation.

Is that the only information you've taken into consideration?

Detroit deserve leaders that are in tune with working class deterters, not just elders who harbor anti-blackness.

I just asked that you uh reach out to my office.

Love to have a conversation with you about your comments and see how we can get uh close to the same page.

Uh love to take in some information you have, but would hope that you would uh be open to hearing uh perspectives that may be a bit diverse than what you just presented.

Uh please give my office a call at 313 224 1027 again.

Yana, this is for you.

313 224, 1027.

Look forward to speaking with you.

Are there any other comments?

Discussion.

Uh, we're gonna have member waters followed by member Benson.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um there was a gentleman that called in, and I don't know if he's still listening.

If he is if he is, he could call my office at 313 628-2363.

He um he says that they had reached out to my office regarding um a certain building where people needed help with housing.

I just don't know.

I missed the name of the building.

Uh, through you, Mr.

Uh President.

Anyone that's here which building he was talking about.

All right, so I missed that.

But if he was talking about the seven mile, um east seven mile building.

Uh we my team has certainly been working very hard and diligently uh with the residents over there.

So uh if he's speaking of some other building, uh please give our office a call at 313 628-2363.

In fact, um, that East 7 mile building is um is is equivalent to uh to real token.

In fact, it is owned by real token, as a matter of fact.

Um just uh people living in in deplorable uh conditions.

They have um literally uh condemned uh one of those buildings and so residents about 20 residents are trying to find a place to live.

And we have certainly been in in contact with um uh our housing and revitalization department as well as the law department on their behalf, uh, Mr.

President.

So I wanted to point that out and thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Um, I'm glad to hear that people continue to be concerned and engaged around data centers as we speak.

Uh, our city planning commission staff is drafting text amendment ordinance languages to address data centers within the city of Detroit.

So please remain engaged.

You will be public community engagement process led by CPC staff as well as mandated by law, public hearings as well.

I do want to give a big shout out to Ms.

Irma Leaphart and to Aaron Stanley from Councilwoman Johnson staff who have led the environmental and community health subcommittee, and they've successfully submitted their feedback and input to CPC as of close with business yesterday.

So I want to give a big shout out to them.

I know that process is not easy.

I really do want to thank them for leaning in and getting that information over to CPC staff.

It's good to hear that my colleague is also working on the East Seven Mile and Hoover uh apartment building.

There those residents should have housing by this Friday, is the goal.

And we work on this item for several weeks now.

It's good to know that uh we have mutual numerous council members who were looking out on the uh well-being on behalf of the residents of that building.

They were living in squalor and in a very challenging um situation and environment.

In addition, there was a gunman situation at that building yesterday.

DPD resolved and solved that issue, and I will always make the recommendation.

Do not engage yourself in a situation where there is a gunman present.

You are not bulletproof, nor are you trained as a law enforcement officer.

Please call Detroit police department and let them handle the situation, which they did yesterday.

But unless you are a law enforcement officer tasked to that situation, please do not engage nor involve yourself.

Allow the law enforcement professionals to do their job, which they did successfully yesterday.

Remove the gunman, defuse that situation, and no one was hurt.

And that could have been a terrible situation with children who live in that space and the other families.

So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Alex, any additional members Santiago Lumero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Just briefly want to respond to the concerns around tenants or people living in their homes that were promised the right to buy the home afterwards.

Our office is aware of this issue.

We are working with residents.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time that we've heard something like this in district six.

We had something similar around Martin Luther King homes.

So just for my colleagues to be aware, this is something that I I guess is happening.

So we need to definitely address it, make sure that we are keeping those promises that are being made to our residents.

And to any residents that might be in a similar situation, please ensure that whatever promise you're being given is in writing.

Um, because it's going to be very helpful for us to help you to address those issues.

And just want to say thank you to Paul from Midwest Hireman who comes in asking uh my colleagues to support.

Uh, we work very closely with the residents at Midwest Hiremen, and we do need help.

Um, we do we do our best to try to put resources there, but we have a very big city.

Um, I know there are a lot of other priorities, um, but we want to make sure that we develop Warren Avenue in 4210 and Fort Streets and 42 and 7 and would love all the help that we can get.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member Miller.

Good morning, everyone through the chair.

I just wanted to respond to the caller that called in and say, um, I am sorry that you are hurt because of the spot shot or vote.

It does take five votes to pass anything in this body.

But as far as our communications in district five, if you live in five, because I've worked afternoons and midnights majority of my life and have worked in the morning.

I do take into account that we do need eight and nine a.m.

office hours.

So we do offer coffee hours for people that work midnights and afternoons because I used to get off at three in the morning and would get up and take my children to school.

So I was up and available for conversation.

Also, we have our monthly meetings at 6 p.m.

For anyone that chooses to come after work.

Uh, we have a mandated meeting through the city also at 7 p.m.

For people that get off work and would like to have a conversation that is more than a minute and 30 seconds or two minutes, which has been a big complaint when we spent two hours for um community engagement, which I feel sometimes you don't have enough time.

So I do encourage people to come out and attend those meetings so we can give you five, 10 minutes.

Sometimes I sit down and talk to my residents at the table.

We have coffee together, and I give you my undervited attention.

So I can clearly understand your intent and where you're coming from.

So there is no misconception of my interpretation.

Sometimes uh on internet or social media, the intent is not often um declared because people anticipate uh interpret it differently.

So I am never saying I'm not talking to anyone, I'm saying take advantage of the time that you can.

We offer various hours, dates, and times to communicate.

And parking is also an issue.

Our residents complain about coming downtown to park.

Parking is expensive, and the longer you stay, the more it costs.

And a lot of them occur tickets that I have even in our office have had the challenges of dealing with.

So with those options, I'm saying, hey, utilize some of the additional communication options that we give in our district.

I can't speak for anyone else's district, but I said the eight people because on that particular day, eight people showed up.

And that was just given a reference to it, would have been a lot of uh available time if someone really wanted to sit down and have a conversation if they time if they had time to allow it.

So I'm not never negating the fact that we're not trying to talk to you because we are, but I just want to say that our doors are open, our phone calls are our phones are on, and we receive I cannot tell you how many emails and how many phone calls regarding each issue that comes before us in a voting matter.

It's not just what you see here and on or on public comment.

A lot of our residents are working, they are emailing and they are calling, sometimes leaving messages overnight for us to answer the next the next morning.

So I think our district have over 50,000 people somewhere in that area.

So there is a large number of people that do take opportunity to communicate with us their desires and what they want to see from our office.

And I look forward to uh maybe meeting you in person if you're in district five.

Um, once again, you can call our office or email in.

I look forward to having the conversation with you.

Thank you.

Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to note uh some folks are saying that it's hard to hear us on Zoom.

Um, so I'm not sure that could be addressed.

I should thank you.

Colleagues, if we can just ensure that we get close to the mic and there's still um continue to be a challenge, then we'll check the system and see if there's any issues there.

Thank you so much.

Any additional comments, colleagues?

All right.

So I did want to mention um the public officials, public health officials of Michigan are continuing to investigate this uh cyclospora, I believe it's pronounced, uh parasitic outbreak.

Um it's identified in recent gastrointestinal uh illness infections within the Midwest.

Uh this statement from the water department uh states that there's no current evidence uh indicating that drinking water supply, drinking water supplied by the Great Lakes Water Authority or uh DWSD is the source or contributes to the outbreak.

Reason not why this is um uh a statement being made is because there was some allegations from some folks indicating that it may be in the water supply.

Uh Gleewa's multi-layered water treatment process is specifically designed to remove this type of contaminant from the drinking water it provides its member communities.

Uh health department routinely recommends using clean running water like that provided by GLEMA and the DWSD to thoroughly wash fresh fruits and vegetables uh as an important food safety practice to help reduce the risk of exposure to contaminants.

And it sounds like they're getting a little bit closer.

There's uh more leads um pointing towards uh produce than it is the water system, but I wanted to make sure that I put on the record the uh statement from the water department.

All right, with that being said, we shall now close out the public comment section of this particular meeting.

Thank you for your patience.

All right, uh, madam clerk, line item 17.1 for the internal operations standing community committee uh from the mayor's office.

Council member with field callaway of resolution line item 17.1.

Line item 17.1, member withfield calloway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um thank you, madam clerk.

This is the appointment of Jay Von Glenn to the Detroit Land Bank Authority effective immediately and ended on July the 1st, 2013 upon city council approval, motion to approve.

Thank you so much.

There's a motion to approve line item 17.1, colleagues.

Any objections?

Hearing none, an action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair.

Um waiver on line item 17.1.

Yes, ma'am.

Member Callaway, if you can please pull that mic just a little bit in that direction.

Request a waiver on line item 17.1.

Yes, ma'am.

There's a request for a waiver on 17.1 colleagues.

Any objections?

Hearing none, a waiver shall be attached.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh from the law department, madam clerk.

Councilmember Winfield Callaway, six resolutions.

Line items 17.2 through 17.7.

Uh line item 17.2 through line item 17.7.

Member Callaway.

Um, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um motion to approve um line item 17.3 through um line item 17 point 7.

There's a motion for approval for line item 17.3 through 17.7, colleagues.

Any objections?

Hearing none, and action shall be taken.

And Mr.

Chair, line item 17.2.

Um, I see our corporation counsel here and um attorney Harrison from the law department.

I'm sure they are here to discuss maybe line item 17.2.

Is there a motion to approve and or discuss?

Um, motion to approve with discussion, Mr.

Chair.

There's a motion to approve line item 17.2 with discussion.

Uh member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, last week, thank you, gentlemen, for being here, Mr.

Harrison and Corporation Council Conrad Mallet.

Um, we had um a lengthy discussion regarding um this particular case.

And um, we also had 299 properties before us, and we um my staff and I went out to all 26 of the properties that were on that list of 299 properties, and quite a few of them were in really good repair, really good condition.

Um, of the 26, um, a lot of them were occupied.

And we did um, I think we wrapped it up over the weekend.

So I have a full report on the properties that were in district two, and I did encourage my colleagues to do the same.

So we'll know firsthand whether or not these the condition of the properties number one and whether or not they're occupied.

So I've done my due diligence and I'm ready and prepared to move forward with this settlement so we can move this case along.

So um, that being said, Mr.

Chair, um, I'll turn it back over to you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

With further discussion, Pro Tim Young, followed by Member Miller.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, I'm in full circuit season.

I'm in full support of this.

I just need to dump just some uh hypotheticals here.

So let's say they don't comply with this, this being uh Mr.

Monios.

Um we garnish wages here.

Okay, is there an opportunity for that?

Is there an opportunity to seize assets?

There's an opportunity for debarment in terms of future contracts for the city of Detroit because of his lack of compliance with this, as well as the other penalties that are already built into this agreement.

Through the chair, thank you for the question, Councilmember Young.

We'd be seeking to uh essentially hold his corporation liable for any public nuisance damages.

Uh you may recall that we named two of his corporate entities in this lawsuit as well as him individually.

So we would pursue his corporate entities as well.

Um, but we would also, if necessary, pursue him individually.

Uh right now, you might recall we held in advance the motion per default judgment against him because he agreed to add 280, 285 properties more than the 10 originally uh that were named in the lawsuit.

So he is in default.

The good news is that it appears that he's attempting to comply.

I know a supplemental amendment was sent by BC yesterday as well as the law department.

That there are currently, I believe, 55 properties that have come into compliance since May of 2026.

So answer your question directly, Councilmember Young, we would sue, we would pursue him both on the corporate side and on the individual side as it relates to any damages that the court would issue in this manner.

Okay, so that could be a potential.

I mean, first it seems that the order would be first to be from corporately in terms of in terms of damages saw and then if that doesn't help, then you can also pursue individually in terms of ways.

Certainly, we can pursue both, and that's why we need both and individually.

I just I don't want to make sure I got that process correct in terms of how you were you were gonna see you're gonna see that.

Does that also include debarment as well in terms of doing future business with the city of Detroit?

To answer your question possible through the chair, Councilmember Young, I am not aware that he is doing business with the city of Detroit.

Well, I'm talking about the future.

I'm talking he may not be anymore, but he may want to.

He may want to come back three years or five years.

He may want to have some property, he may want to do something.

I'm saying, based on your previous record, you know what I'm saying?

And the fact that we're talking about people they're living in places that are unhabitable.

I'm assuming that you have a legal responsibility for you to provide a habitable living place, being someone who is overseeing that, being a property owner, being a landlord, you clearly did not meet that definition.

Can I debar them from future business with C Detroit based on previous action and behavior?

Uh Conrad Mallard, Mr.

Chair, Mr.

President, uh, through the chair, uh Pro Tim Young, as you know, the purchasing ordinance says that in order to do business with the city of Detroit, you must in fact be in compliance uh and and get a uh clearance right uh uh from the various entities, including taxes.

In this particular instance, the hypothetical that you're offering would mean that he would be in default of the consent agreement that he has signed, therefore he would not be able to do business with the city of Detroit until he came into compliance.

Okay, okay, I understand.

And so let me so let me even be clear.

Let me let me say that.

Let's say he didn't come into compliance, and then he does come into compliance, but I'm saying it from a standpoint that even though you now come into compliance, your previous behavior has been so incredibly egregious, and we've had to spend so much taxpayer dollars and effort to be able to get you to come into compliance.

I don't feel like it's worth, or I think it's detriment to the city and the citizens to continue to do business with you.

Could I then in that scenario?

Now I know this is a huge hypothetical, but in that scenario, could I then decide to go to engage department or legally would I be prohibiting?

Uh, through the chair, uh Pro Tim Young, absolutely remember our ordinance says quite clear that the office of the contractor purchasing director always has under his or her discretion to make a decision as to who can do business with the city of Detroit.

It can't be for biased reasons, it can't be for fraud, but the director can make a decision based on all of the things that you just described.

We choose not to do business with you.

That's there is no constitutional right to do business with the city of Detroit.

And that's at that director's discretion.

That's not something that we would have to write.

That's very important in order to get that person.

That is at the executive.

And then my final question, I'll wrap it up.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I just want to just to reiterate, there will be no taxpayer funds that will be spent for this.

He is spending his own money in order to come into compliance with this.

And if there is, we will be reimbursed the city.

Correct.

That's correct, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You have uh member Miller followed by Member Callallan, followed by Member Santiago Romero.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Harris.

How are you today?

Chair, good afternoon, Councilmember Miller.

I believe a few weeks ago in committee, we uh talked about um receiving the taxes owed on the 299 properties.

I didn't get a response over the last couple of weeks regarding it.

So we did put a memo in like to get some type of action moved on it.

Um there was talk about whether some of these were occupied, but the main, I'm just gonna read our memo.

I'm sure I'm sure some people have already gotten it.

But while our residents cannot go beyond the three-year mark on the link with property taxes, it is important to know how many of these properties are currently in or beyond foreclosure.

What are the taxes owed on Mr.

Munez 299 properties and are those properties in foreclosure status?

Uh, does Mr.

Munez own any additional properties under another name or through any other business entity?

The reason why I asked is because it was mentioned that he are he voluntarily entered in an agreement with 299 properties.

It is under my understanding that he owns many more.

And if he picked these, these probably were the less valuable.

I would like to see what is his fleet look like.

Maybe there's some more that we need to uh bring into uh compliance with this agreement.

So because I have not received any of the things that we documented, I did put it in a memo so we can get a response.

Uh I can't support this going forward until I receive the documents to see exactly uh what his deal looks like because this is a sweet deal to me.

10 properties a month at 299 in capacity, but what about the ones?

Maybe you fall in uh to be 175.

Do you have to wait till next year to get your property uh in compliance?

Or are you living, like I said in the squalor for the next year and a half until they get to your 10 fall into that number?

Um, and if they are properties that are in foreclosure that are past three years in taxes, they should not be in this pile.

They should belong to the city right now because we just took properties, I believe last couple of weeks, they were here 500 residents under foreclosure taking their properties to the taxes.

So I need to know about those taxes first.

If these are in this 299, I know what you said it was a county issue, but we talked about this maybe three weeks ago.

I hope by now that there would have been some type of notification.

We haven't received an email or anything.

So before we go forward, Member Miller, when did you submit the uh questions?

Uh we well, Mr.

Harris and I, we talked about it, I would say two or three weeks ago in iOS, and this was submitted because I never last Tuesday asked the same question last Tuesday, so we're again I still hadn't received anything.

So we dropped it in memo, I believe, uh last week.

I asked me to bring a copy of it because I know we sent it off.

Through the chair, Councilmember Miller, thank you for your questions.

I'll try to answer as many of them as I can.

We did send up a supplemental memo yesterday where we discussed the tax issue.

I don't know if you've had a chance to review it, Councilmember Miller, but I believe on page two, we talk about the tax balance of which it has been recorded, it has been reported to the law department that of the 299 properties, 237 of those properties were referred to the county for collection in the amount of 350,000, 350,446 and 71 cents.

Based upon our discussion, and and I apologize, Councilmember Miller.

A lot of this information is being uh gathered as we go along, but based upon our discussion yesterday with the OCFO Treasury Department, uh, some of that money has been collected uh in the sense that the county referred a payment of 133,898 and 86 cents at the end of last week.

So we didn't have some of these answers because of the information in the process of uh where the city refers these uh properties for tax collection.

So the other information we received in the last 48 hours, Councilmember Miller, is that none of the properties on the list attached to Judge Farhat's order uh are in foreclosure currently.

Uh so Mr.

Munoz will be required to abate these properties.

Again, he's already done 55 of them.

Uh we're not here to forecast if he's going to comply.

The good news is that now that these properties are under the court's jurisdiction, the law department has filed this pendants on about 150 of them, which means the properties have to be abated by whoever owns them.

Uh and the other good news essentially is that Mr.

Munoz is now under the court's jurisdiction, so that if he does not abide by the 10 properties per month, the law department can immediately go into court, ask for him to be uh held accountable for the default judgment motion that's currently pending, and we can pursue other equitable remedies, whether that's a contempt order, uh, whether that's to require him to come in and testify to explain why he has not done what he has said he is going to do.

All of that is now under the table because it's under the court's jurisdiction.

You may mention that 237 were sent to the county for collections.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

237 parcels, yes, property were sent to the county for collection of the 290 that are on the list.

Unfortunately, I don't have that email.

I'm looking at my staff who's shaking their head like they don't have the email as well.

Um, they're double checking.

I would have liked to have a discussion before today because yesterday we were looking at the agendas and all the everything from PHS, and I have not had a chance to put my eyes on it.

So the chair, thank you, Councilman Miller.

And again, we received this information late last week from the treasury.

We had to digest it with them.

We had another call with them yesterday, which is why we sent up the supplemental manual to try to explain the current tax situation and what's been collected.

Thank you.

Our next uh council member with questions.

Uh, member Callaway.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, Mr.

Harrison and Corporation Council.

I have a quick question.

Um, can we get a list?

Because I didn't get it of the 237 that are um um behind in their taxes or uh uh on their way to foreclosure.

I think you said 237, and then also whether or not um I'm comfortable with moving it forward.

I mean, that's just my um my opinion, but uh what about certificates of compliance for these 299, all the other properties that this man owns.

Um, do we know whether or not any of the 299 have certificates of compliance or occupation?

So through the chair, sorry, occupancy.

Through the chair, thank you, Councilmember Callaway.

I believe in the supplemental member, we apologize.

The memo was sent up yesterday because we had to gather all this information with BC, uh, with the Wayne County Corporation Council, with the Wayne County Treasurer's Office, and then have that reconciled with our client, which is the OCFO Treasury Department.

Uh, currently there are 55 certificates of compliance from the list that is attached to Judge Farhat's order.

Um I'm sorry, Councilmember Callaway was your other question.

I just okay.

So up um, I said of the 237, how many of them have certificates of compliance?

And you're saying 55 of the 299?

That is correct, and that is since May of 2026 when the order was entered by Judge Farhat.

All right.

And then um you said you'll supply that list or you already did, because I didn't we I believe BC supplied that list, but in all the information that the law department has received in the last 48 hours, we will certainly supplement this memo again with some of the spreadsheets and things of that nature that we received from the Wayne County uh corporation council.

Okay, I'm looking at my staff and we haven't received it because we've been monitoring this because it came through our committee.

So I haven't received anything, sir.

So I would certainly like to not try to hold this up because I know how important it is, and we want him to start getting um working on the tent that he's supposed to do per month, but we would like to see that list receive a copy of it.

Then also, who do we get in touch with um with respect to the maintenance of the properties, like the grass being cut?

Whose responsibility is that?

Is that a property manager?

Is it is it him?

How do we hold someone accountable in our respective districts?

Through the chair, that that would be council member Callaway BC uh that's responsible for citing uh the property if there's further problems, um, as well as I believe GSD.

Okay, and my last question through the chair is when will we know um the 10 that he's going to do per month?

Because we want to monitor the ones that are in district two very, very closely.

So is there a list?

Because I know we're gonna have quarterly updates from your office, but when will these 10 per month start?

And will we be provided with a list of those 10 monthly, or is he going to have it for the next 12 um to 18 months?

Through the chair, council member calloway, we certainly can report that monthly as part of the agreement uh that is embodied in the in the court order by Judge Farhot.

We're to have monthly meetings similar to what we're doing in the Kefalino situation with Mr.

Munoz, wherein he reports in, it's reconciled by BC, by the OCFO Treasury Department, by the law department.

We can certainly report that monthly to this honorable body.

Thank you, Mr.

Harrison.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member of Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President, through you to attorney Harrison.

Hello, and thank you so much for this work.

Years ago, we were on calls, multiple calls, trying to figure out how we hold Munoz accountable.

So I want to say thank you for the conversations that we've had and for taking this seriously because you know the issues that we need to address when it comes to these properties.

I am grateful the administration is moving forward with legal action because we we had to sitting in PHS, seeing the amounts of fees, um, the lack of certificate of compliance is we needed to take action, and I'm grateful that we're doing this.

This for me, to the rest of the questions that are remaining, this is not the end of this case.

This for me is a step in the right direction.

What we have to do to ensure that we're holding bad landlords accountable.

I will definitely, along with my colleagues, continue to monitor their properties and ensure if any issues come up again that we are addressing these.

But I just want to make it very clear for the record um that what we're doing today is a catalyst to begin to address the properties that are listed, but it's not going to forgive any of the fees.

It's not going to give him essentially a break from putting his properties into compliance and continuing to do what he has to do to be in compliance, correct?

Through the chair, that is correct, Councilmember Santiago Romero.

Thank you.

And then my other question is regarding residents while they're in their homes and properties are being uh worked on.

Do we have a plan?

Are they going to be able to stay in their homes or be relocated?

Has that been talked through at all?

Through the chair, uh, council member of Santiago Romero, you may recall that as part of the court order, HRD is to be involved.

Uh just in case people do need housing to refer candidates.

But also, if we get into a situation where the property cannot be occupied, that is something at our monthly meetings, which we will we will address.

If we need to find other houses that are available in this uh inventory or in another inventory, we'll certainly do that, but that is certainly going to be part of the monthly meetings that are required by the court order.

Okay, thank you.

So a catalyst to addressing the properties that are in terrible condition now, not a break of paying their fees and making sure that the rest of the properties are in compliance.

And quite frankly, I think an action of this administration and this council to let other landlords know that this is the action that we're going to be taking for enforcement.

Um, I really want to see it passed today with the waiver because this is gonna begin to address the properties for for our residents.

Um, I understand the remaining questions and we should ask and make sure that those are being addressed.

I just want to say thank you so much for the work that's been done so far.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through the chair, thank you.

Thank you.

Number one.

Thank you.

Mr.

President, pull this up a little further here.

You can hear me right, Mr.

President.

Yes, ma'am.

All right.

All right.

So earlier pro Tim Young did ask about if in fact he was paying or whatever.

So which is it?

Is he paying up front?

Or we're trying to seek reimbursement.

Which one is it?

Through the chair, thank you, Councilmember Waters.

Um, he is paying to abate the properties.

That's first and foremost.

He has to expend money to uh take care of the properties, number one.

Number two, he is also paying for the blight tickets pursuant to a 50% discount.

So when he complies on a monthly basis, there will be a 50% discount for those properties of the blight tickets that are outstanding.

He will he or his corporation will have to pay that or both of them.

Uh as well, I believe it's in terms uh, I believe it's in term number three of Judge Farhat's order.

He has to resolve the Detroit water and sewage balances.

Uh, and just for the honorable body, DWSD as late as yesterday has told us that they are still compiling the total balance associated with this uh uh enterprise landlord of properties.

Number two, he also has to pay BC fees, and these are the fees that are different from the DAH tickets.

These are the inspection fees, the permanent fees, the bi-NEO use license fees.

He must pay that, Councilmember Waters as a part of this uh court order if this honorable honorable body approves it.

And then he also has to pay the taxes.

So you might recall earlier on I mentioned to council member Miller uh that we did receive a payment uh from the county for I believe it was 200 237 of the properties or a portion of the 237 properties that were referred.

He now has to pay the county for any money that was given to the city uh through the the situation where we refer those uh properties for tax collection.

So he does have to pay all of those balances the tickets, DWSD, the BC fees, uh, and everything that's assigned to him in this order.

So it's zero for us on that side of it, just whatever it takes us to take it to court or whatever legal fees that we're paying is zero for us.

That is correct through the chair, that is correct.

The city is not expending money for the bank.

Okay, I want to clarify because I wasn't clear when the pro temp proposed that question when he asked.

Um, have we had an opportunity to inspect all of his properties?

Or is BC still in the process of doing that?

Through the chair, thank you, Councilmember Waters.

Uh, for the 290 properties that referred to the law department, traditionally those are referred after an inspection occurs.

I don't know if the if a BC representative is here, but it's our understanding that these these properties have been inspected, and that's exactly why they were uh incorporated into the court order with a request for abatement.

Well, I submit to you that he probably has more than 290 properties, so I'd like to ask BC uh to inspect all of his properties, everything that he uh owns and rents out here in the city uh so that we can have a status of all of his properties.

Uh I believe that's very important for us.

Um and so, Mr.

Uh Mr.

President, I'd like to make a motion that BC inspects every single property uh that you know uh owns and report back to city council.

So is that a uh resolution that you wanted to get drafted?

Because we can't direct the department.

Well, okay, why I'm just trying to give us that I'm just trying to get the avenue to get done.

Well, that that's fine.

We'll do a resolution, we'll do a memo, whatever it takes.

Um, I'll submit a resolution to LPD to draft a resolution.

Okay.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

And and so do you define him as a slum lord?

Is that is that your definition?

Through the chair, council member waters, I probably can't comment on that.

Well, what we would define him as under the order that he owns properties that are out of compliance.

Is this the best deal we could get?

Because absolutely is this the absolute best deal that we could get as a city because I'm thinking he needed some tougher penalties.

Is this the best deal?

Through the chair, council member waters, absolutely.

As you as you might recall, when this lawsuit was filed in December of 2025, there were only 10 properties attached to the lawsuit.

And that's because we asked for the worst 10 properties as certified by BC.

We use the lawsuit and the fact that Mr.

Munoz defaulted as leverage to try to implicate and absorb more of his residential enterprise orbit.

So this is this is certainly a strong, we think this is the best deal possible at this point in time.

Uh, because again, there's two big wins here.

He is now under the court's jurisdiction.

So is the is the until 2028.

So if he does default further, if he doesn't do what he's supposed to do on the monthly basis, we now have the backstop of the honorable court to go and ask for remedies at each juncture in time.

We didn't have that before.

We have that now.

Number two, we have list pendants that are filed on almost all of the properties.

We should be done with that this week.

The current number is 150.

We still have 140 to file.

And what that means is that eventually these properties are going to be abated.

Even if there's a real estate closing, uh, and a real estate title company chooses to insure against it, there's going to be an exception, which says that the property must be fixed due to the pending litigation due to the notice to all the world that the list pendants signifies.

So this is a very, very good deal.

Okay.

All right then.

Well, thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Uh, I'm up next.

And I I gotta say this is one that I'm not pleased to have to uh be close to the side of approving at this point.

Uh I am supportive of the fact that it is under the court's jurisdiction now, these properties.

But I'm I'm a bit concerned that there are potentially some other um baby landlords.

I have another word that I would use, but I want to make sure I don't get the city in trouble.

Um and speculators who are watching what we're doing with these cases, uh, Caffenos as well as Ms.

Munos and saying, well, I'll just wait them out.

I'll just wait them out.

What how do we get to the how do we create a system in the city of Detroit that does not allow for these types of individuals to uh continue to conduct this type of behavior uh over the period of time that they have?

I mean, when I'm looking at Munos, if I'm not mistaken, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm looking at about almost a million dollars in blight-related fines.

Is that correct?

And we have not calculated all the DWSD uh fees that are um their responsible for.

Am I correct with that dollar amount?

Yes, absolutely.

I think I think that's right.

Okay.

So when we talk about about a million dollars worth of blight-related fines, and this is only for a year this year, uh, for 365 days is what I was told uh for the year 2025 up to 10 till now.

How do we create a system that nipped us in the bud much earlier before we have to go into a situation where we're now uh giving an individual uh 50% off of uh approximately a million dollars worth of fines?

Because I've been in a punitive new move right now.

He's treated our folks pretty badly over the years, especially with all these occupied properties.

So, Mr.

President, uh uh two things.

One, the tax issues, uh, more than 300.

A little closer, so looking the tax issues, more than 300,000 are under the jurisdiction of the Wayne County treasurer.

Those are being managed.

So your your overall number is correct.

As Mr.

Harrison indicated, the only uh uh discount that Mr.

Munoz is receiving is on the blight tickets per se.

Everything else he's responsible for paying 100%.

So that's about a million dollars, though, correct?

I just want to make sure we're level set alternative numbers.

300, you got the what I calculated based on the.

Yes, sir, that's right.

Okay, so about 500,000 discount or no, no, no.

How much is the black tickets, Mr.

Harrison?

Yeah.

So the the blight tickets are 460k.

So that's that's about right.

That's about right.

Yeah, so he's getting a 50% discount on the blight tickets.

But again, the uh uh uh what we are looking here, Mr.

President, and for all the members of this honorable body, the uh the discount provided was to encourage compliance.

The decision, excuse me, this yeah, the the decision made by the law department that bringing these houses into compliance for the benefit of the tenants who lived in these properties was at least as important as collection.

We wanted to collect the water bill, we wanted to collect the tax bill, we wanted to collect the B seed fees that were old, the leverage that we could provide.

And remember, Mr.

President, the uh this is a self-created situation that is Mr.

Munoz, in fact, allowed these properties to deteriorate to where they were.

Nevertheless, uh uh we wanted to be sure that he had access to capital to do the work that was required.

We do think that based on the efforts that we have been engaged in today, from May until now, 55 of the properties have a certificate of compliance.

We do think, Mr.

Chairman, Mr.

President, that we have become uh obviously much more tuned.

Uh uh we have moved gently away from enforcement on the commercial level to non-enforcement on the residential level.

Uh, we've we have seven attorneys devoted to this process.

We're gonna continue to do uh this work, Mr.

Chairman.

Munoz is second, real token was first.

We continue to move uh uh dealing with these McCalsen landowners.

You're absolutely right, Mr.

President, it's not easy.

Right.

Uh and particularly uh uh we are working and watching very closely with Chief Judge uh William McConicho.

Uh uh as he works to deal with the issue of whether or not when there is an eviction in the absence of a certificate of compliance, what happens?

Right, of course, if if I may though, because I want to make sure we have space for all of the other discussions we have, uh, and we're at um about one o'clock right now.

My question though is how do we create a system?

And and again, risk management, all those issues.

I mean, while we may not be talking about us as a city putting in funds to rehab these properties, they're still you know, tax dollars being used for your staff.

Yes, sir, to work on this uh for the duration that you have.

So I'm saying I'm I'm asking the question: what are we doing as a city to ensure that somebody who's watching right now who may have four or five properties and say, well, you know what, I'll wait the city out and eventually I'll get a break at some point.

Regardless of how that, you know, the the benefit it is for us at this juncture because we have such a large collection of properties, uh, 200, almost 300 properties we're talking about here.

How do we get it get ahead of this before we get to 20 properties, 30 properties, 200 properties, 300?

That's that's my question collectively from a department department, department, department working together.

So uh uh council president, I mean, that's a very fair question.

We've had this discussion in multiple occasions.

Uh member waters, in fact, brought this up in a different venue.

Remember what we have here in the state of Michigan is these the law that allows persons to set up independent LLCs, making it purposely difficult for us to discover who the owner of the LLC is, so that in fact getting correct notice is is not always the difficulty that currently presents.

Number one, number two, just simply managing the blight tickets uh uh is not a way.

What we've got to do, and we are doing is as we get properties with a number of blight tickets that remain outstanding, then we are trying to use clear and the other devices, uh software opportunities that we have in the city to identify uh these joint owners.

Um so we're moving in the direction that you're describing.

We're not there yet.

And but people are working diligently every day to be sure that we can't uncover the identity of the common owner of these properties.

The small property owners, frankly, uh Mr.

President, we can deal with them as they come in.

Uh frankly, the 36D, if they've got an eviction uh that they're trying to effectuate.

We're working very closely with the court to try to get compliance as it relates to the circumstance that the tenant is living in before eviction occurs.

So I do think that we're making some progress on a small scale for the large property owners.

I think the only way that we can do it is the way we're doing it now.

Is there anything that we can do as a body to assist?

So if if somehow or another, this honorable body could help change the state law as it relates to the way LLCs are allowed to uh uh uh crop up without the identification of the true owner being absolutely uh available as these property ownerships change, that would be crucial for us.

Have you heard of any um initiative by the administration in that lobbying effort?

From this administration, it's it's it's it's an administration.

Yes, sir.

It's it's the administration, yes.

It's an ongoing effort.

It's an ongoing effort.

Uh so pull us into those conversations is what I'm saying.

Instead of us starting new conversations, we need to be pulled into those that are already occurring if that's the case.

Yes, sir.

As council president, I would welcome that opportunity.

Yes, sir.

Last question for me is, and I know that we had talked last week, and we didn't have, and I we do have now the number of occupied properties that are um contained within this package.

Um and I believe uh attorney Harrison last week you indicated that there was an opportunity for us to mandate that they start working on the uh occupied properties first.

My question is again, if it has not been outlined in the settlement uh documents, how can we change midstream if we have not gotten the courts to approve that at this moment?

They said that there has to be progress and we have benchmarks and that, but I didn't see anything in any documentation that pointed towards occupied properties first or any type of um prioritization, if you will, within the document.

It just said 10 properties per month.

That's what I saw per week, excuse me.

Council President, thank you for the question.

What is documented within the order is that there has to be monthly meetings, right?

The way that we're interpreting that and the way we will practice that, if there are issues associated with the properties while we were going on, including the occupied properties, we will prioritize those.

So to answer your question, yes.

Each month when we meet with them, we can go back with B seed and say, okay, now that we know I believe the number, council president was 192 and occupied, we can say these are the ones that we want prioritize.

If they object to that, we can go to court.

But I mean, but but it hasn't been outlined at this point.

So are they, if they choose to reject that methodology or that prioritization, how are they in the wrong?

And that's only say that because this is a group that has continued to litigate and fight us on every term.

This is something that I'm a sticker on right now myself personally.

I again feel that uh we're in a better situation today with this deal than we were uh yesterday without it being uh before us, but I also want to get some little bit more ironclad confidence that when this organization decides to fight us on something that we're on that level of solid ground.

Um and if it has not been codified in terms of prioritization, and if they push back on prioritization, is that something how how can I be confident or this body be confident that the courts would uphold us in that space because they're still doing 10 properties, right?

We're not saying that they're not going to be doing 10 property, but what I said was for me, it's imperative that we work on the occupied properties first, and it has not been outlined in any documentation that I've seen thus far.

Uh Mr.

President, to the chair, uh the as Mr.

Harrison indicated, we meet with them on a monthly basis.

I have no doubt, and I'm sure this honorable body would support this conclusion.

There is not a Wayne County circuit court judge who would allow them to reject the demand from the city of Detroit that occupied houses be dealt with first as opposed to unoccupied houses.

The judge would just simply say that has to be done and be surprised that we were there in the first place.

Uh I absolutely assure this honorable body that the compliance with that particular request will not be a problem.

There's nothing that we can get in writing to to state that.

That's what I would say.

You know what, Mr.

President, I'll be glad to get a letter out to Mr.

Munoz and have him co-sign the letter agreeing to that.

That's that's not a problem.

Thank you.

All right, our next up is uh Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I believe all of my questions have been addressed.

Um, I I do just want to say first, um, all of the houses that I saw in District Four from the curb, they look fine.

I have no idea what they look like inside.

Um, and so that is something that I'm concerned about.

I also because they look fine from the curb, I do believe there are additional properties that are owned or managed by this individual, this company.

And so I'm really asking for the law department to do some investigative work to identify if there are LLCs that have the same address as the ones that you are aware of.

Um, I think we have to do a real investigation to understand what wholly is owned or managed by this entity.

Um, because I do not believe that all of the properties would look as good as they look if we had the full extent of what they own or manage.

Uh, and so I I know member waters put that request in.

Um, and so I appreciate that, but just wanted to elevate that.

Um because we've been hearing this name uh for probably as long as I've been on council, and I'm sure before I got on council.

So just really asking for the city to do its due diligence to identify any additional properties that are owned or managed by them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, no questions.

I just want to say I still have the concerns on this uh settlement that I brought up last week.

I believe that if I also believe that maybe more than 299 properties, but for someone to amass nearly 300 properties and rack up that much of these.

Um, for me, this deal incentivizes bad behavior in that way.

Uh I that's uh that is a lot of money, and that is a lot of money to rack up, and we have residents that um get blight tickets and such for uh a very small percentage of that and are held accountable in that way.

Um, so I today today I will not be voting in uh support of the settlement.

Uh, but just want to make that state that for the record.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Miller.

Thank you to the chair.

I wanted to know out of the 237 center collections.

It didn't indicate I'm getting bits and pieces of the um the correspondent you sent yesterday.

How many were in default or in foreclosure?

Through the chair, uh, thank you, Councilmember Miller.

As reported by the Wayne County Corporation Council's office yesterday, none of the properties are in foreclosure.

So, but the way the properties look, um, it seems like he's collecting rent.

He's collecting rent.

Mr.

Munez is collecting rent.

He's making money.

Through the chair, like he's neglecting everything that comes with the city of Detroit to accumulate that amount of blight, a million dollars in blight.

I think maybe we need to renegotiate his deal to give 50% off reduction.

Our residents don't get a reduction.

I have residents calling all the time that have blight tickets.

And they'll go clean the alley up or whatever they need to take care of, and they still have to pay the ticket.

They don't they don't they don't get a reprieve, they don't get another option.

There's nothing our residents get.

So for me to sit here and say, I'm gonna okay this guy to get $500,000 reduction on blight tickets.

He shouldn't, and that's just for one year.

This is a year worth of blight.

I mean, we have 235 active violations on the 299 properties.

235 active violations, and majority of the properties are occupied.

So again, our residents are calling about how they're living because the landlords aren't doing what they're supposed to do.

And this man has a sweet deal.

This is like a sweet deal to me with a chimney on top.

He needs to understand that we are not satisfied.

How he got to a million dollars is beyond my knowledge.

So that's our fault.

The city is fault for not collecting.

We're trying to strike a good deal.

I guess from those who've been here prior, it's a good deal.

To me, it's too good of a deal.

And if he is in default or anything, I think those need to be pulled from the 299.

I mean, we're taking properties through Blight through intimate domain.

I mean, we're sending them to the land bank.

People are mapped to land bank, but they're not taking them.

We're giving them to the land bank.

So here we are dealing with properties.

Something like this.

So in my memo, and it did go out last week.

Does Mr.

Munez own any additional properties under another name or other any other business entity?

It's already here.

I don't know if member waters meant this, but it's in the memo and is waiting for a response.

I thought it would have been answered today prior to an email at 352 last night.

So I just say thank you for trying to do something.

It's not your fault, but our city has the worst oversight when it comes to anything.

We don't we don't have the proper staff and obviously the money to pay.

But we I don't know how we're gonna watch these 10 properties a month.

And that's at the least of these while he's collecting rent.

10, it should have been like maybe 50.

You got 30 days to get 50 properties done because you're collecting rent, especially he getting a 50% off deal on the united tickets, which I totally disagree.

He should not have got it, no discount, none at all.

And anyone else that has over, we we did put a memo also in, not on here, but anyone that has over 300 properties, 500 properties, a thousand properties.

So I never forget that guy told me he had 200 2000 properties in my district.

And he gloated about it that those women were in that apartment complex with the water up to the steps with feces for three months, and he thought it was not a big deal.

So I'm gonna know through the chair.

Thank you.

So of the of the 50, thank you, Member Miller, of the 55 properties.

How many of those that have uh been brought up to code?

Uh how many of those are occupied?

Council president, through the chair, I am not aware of how many of those are occupied.

Uh BC certainly would have that that information.

Um, the good news is that they now have certificates of compliance.

Yeah, I'm just I'm just certainly asking as we move forward with these kind of deals.

We're just asked to me asking questions that you know we should be at should be asking.

And it's just a little hard to get that information.

So before we are asked to make these kind of deals, I mean, one, how many are occupied?

To me, that's a one of those questions to me, that's a no-brainer.

We want to take care of those folks.

And I know corporation counsel, you mentioned that no judge would you know um uh turn us down or turn turn us down if we requested that, but we didn't go in asking for it.

So that's why to me, we've got to ask these particular questions.

And I'm certain that um in the future we'll have unfortunately others like this, but certainly want to have more of the germane issues.

How much do they owe?

Um what is the actual discount?

Just numbers, uh information, not just the deal before us that's going to put it in the hands of the courts, but dealing with the human element of this, um, and and the residents that contact us on a regular basis.

That's critically important.

That's what makes this a little bit difficult for me, a lot difficult for me because seems like information that we should have had um previously, um, prior to the deal coming to us.

Hopefully, uh as we move forward uh before any other deal comes our way, uh, all of the questions that my colleagues and I have asked will be taken into consideration.

Um, because I can't say I'll be as kind to the ones that come to us in the future.

Uh member Benson.

All right, thank you.

And I just want to say I appreciate the level of skepticism from my colleagues.

I also want to say, and I've given kudos to the law department for going in and coming back with I believe to be a more creative solution here, where we now have the Munoz family in court and under the court's jurisdiction, which we hadn't I hadn't seen in the past.

I'm glad to see that we're doing this.

Also, this level of skepticism is not lost only on the formal committee.

Also in the subcommittee, the chair, my colleague, myself, all very skeptical of this and kept it in committee to ensure that we have additional eyes on.

And so the law department has committed to coming back quarterly, and I strongly suggest that my colleagues come back when those reports are submitted and ask questions, and I'll urge the chair to notice that a quorum will be present, but to have this ability, and typically city council will make agreements, will sign off on things, and then we'll lose sight in this situation because this has been so long, because of the visibility and because of the interest of our colleagues, we want to make sure that we know what's going on.

Is the uh I'm not even sure plaintiff or defendant, I guess, in this situation, excuse me, I'm not an attorney.

Are they making forward progress?

Are they in compliance?

Are they in compliance just by the skin of their teeth?

Or are they complying as per the intent of this agreement?

And so I just really want to urge my colleagues to come be a part of this and hold this defendant accountable as we move forward.

And if we see that there is a loss of compliance, that we can speak as a body to the court separately from anything the law department says and encourage or urge additional um compliance measures uh be implemented.

And so I'm just really hoping that we will take a look at that and we will take advantage of these reports coming back to internal operations subcommittee to uh keep eyes on this process and ensure that we are keeping the law department um accountable when it comes to holding the feature to fire of who has because who is uh one of our our most notorious slum lords in the city of Detroit, and knowing that there are there are others who will be coming to this body with similar agreements and with the information we see today of the additional levels of compliance, different metrics of compliance, like to uh ensure and give uh confidence to my colleagues that we are going to be looking at that and paying a lot in close attention now we move forward here.

Thank you.

Didn't step into the mic, I thought you had something you want to say.

All right, last thing for me is I know uh we have motioned to uh reconsider if we decide to do so by Friday.

If this goes through today, uh corporation counsel, how soon could you have that document that you indicated that could be signed by you as well as Munos?

I mean, the the co-signed letter.

Yes, sir.

Today, tomorrow close the business tomorrow, Mr.

President.

Okay, looking forward to thank you.

All right, colleagues, the chair.

Um, Member Johnson, followed by member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I have two requests, um, two motions.

Um, one, I'd like to move to ask BC to provide the violations um within the occupied properties.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

And the other is um, I would like to make a motion to ask, I believe the law department, um how this entity acquired the 299 properties.

I'm trying to understand if they were private sales, if they were came from a public entity, um, whether the county, the land bank, what have you?

I want to say there's a motion on the floor.

Are there any objections to that assignment?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Member Santiago Romano.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just wanted to put it on the record.

I am supporting this moving forward, not because I'm trying to give win you're a sweet deal, but because I am literally out of options.

This has been the line item in public health and safety for years.

We have been trying to address these properties for years, and we have been told the only way to address them is through the single action.

And we have been told the only way to address them is through this legal action.

If we decide to not do this today, we decide to just hold them accountable, have them pay all the fees.

How likely is that to happen?

Because quite frankly, we've been trying that for years.

Do we really believe that this settlement will be the only way that we can get them to bring their properties to compliance?

Council personal, what what we have today as Mr.

Harrison described is the jurisdiction of the court.

You have Munoz individually, corporately, and 290 of his properties under the jurisdiction of the Wayne County Circuit Court.

That is what you have before you today.

I recognize and believe me, Mr.

President, and members of this honorable body.

We are taking notes to be sure that the next time that we come back, that the settlement includes the observations that you've made today.

This remains an important step forward.

Uh, no matter the and and I get it that there are deficiencies in the settlement that we need to correct going forward, Mr.

President.

But I do think Mr.

Harrison deserves some small pat on the back for bringing moonos uh in front of the court to the Bar of Justice with 290 of his properties.

This is an opportunity that we've not had before.

Uh, do we need to do a better job?

Can we do a better job?

Do we need to be more robust in the reporting back to this honorable body that we engage in?

Absolutely.

We hear you loud and clear.

We will.

Um, Mr.

President, we will get you to the letter indicating that the occupied properties uh will be dealt with first.

Uh uh, but I do think Santiago, council personalgo, you make a good observation.

This is the first time we've had this kind of leverage in this opportunity.

We need to take advantage of it.

We need to continue to move forward.

We need to do better as we go forward, but I think that this is a really like real token.

This is a really important step uh for the city of Detroit.

Through the chair, thank you to that.

And to my colleagues, I believe we need to be proactive.

This is not going to be the last time this happens, just like with Leland's.

We need to be asking the questions about how we prevent this in the future.

Thank you, Member Johnson, for the questions that you're asking.

I see where your head is going and how we prevent this from happening.

That is what we should be doing.

That is what I'm asking of my colleagues.

These again are good questions to member Benson's point.

Um, but we are trying.

So let's be proactive.

Let's ask the questions.

Let's make sure that next time we learn from our from from these cases.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

There was a motion to approve line item 17.2, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Objection.

Objection Miller.

Objection waters noting the three objections.

Line item 7.2 shall stand approved.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Chair, before council um, before corporation council leaves, um, I guess I have some questions about another line item.

I don't want them to have to come back.

Maybe they'll just and wait.

Line height of um 1810.

We're not there yet, so I just want to put them on notice that I'm going to be asking them to either come back or pay attention to when we get to 18.10, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh no pro tem.

Yeah, I just want to say to attorney Harris.

I just want to say he deserved you pat on the back.

I also just want to thank the corporation counsel for answering our questions.

We're anxious.

I have some more questions for you, but I'll be sending those to you in writing.

I just want to say thank you for your potential.

Thank you, sir.

Um, Member Callaway, did you need corporation counsel in particular, or did you just need someone from a law department?

I'm sorry, Mr.

Chair.

Did you need uh corporation counsel in particular, or did you need uh someone from the law department, period?

Uh it's a corporation council question.

Okay, and that's 18.10.

Yes, sir.

And I'm gonna try to go and talk to them right now.

Okay, all righty.

We'll make our way back.

Thank you.

Member Calvin, we are we're on iOS.

Just give me one minute.

Corporation council.

Okay, yes, sir.

Yes, Mayor.

All right, so we dropped off.

We completed with seven point 17.7 mr.

President line item 17.4 through 17.6 remains.

I thought we did those.

We approved those.

No, the first approval was taken for line items 17.3 and 7.

Then we just approved 17.2.

17.45 and 6 were not approved.

It was 17.3 through 17.7.

They were approved.

Okay, thank you for 30.

Yes, ma'am.

Uh, from the office of the chief financial officer, office of contracting and procurement.

Clerk.

Council member withfield Callaway, a resolution, noting that this line item has been amended, and you all should have a copy of the amended resolution.

Well, we have before us is the summer recess.

But I don't see the Mr.

President.

Yes, ma'am.

There is also a resolution to amend the calendar that um folks with this item as well.

Yes, ma'am.

It has also been passed out.

See it right here, and it is uh dated June 26, if I'm not mistaken, correct?

Yes, Joe.

Yes.

So is there a motion to amend line item 17.8 for the document that we have before us that adjusts the time frame?

Motion to amend.

It's a motion to amend line item 17.8 with this document before us, uh dated again June 26th.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, then action shall be taken.

Okay.

Um, madam clerk, line items, yes, sir.

Uh because this resolution that this research resolution you have before you is really done based on your calendar, it might you might want to move that first and then the research resolution.

We do have the uh amended calendar as well, colleagues that reports with the time frame that's on the contract and procurement uh resolution.

That is a walk on again.

It takes our recess from make sure we get the vote right July 29th through September 7th, 2026.

Is there a motion to walk on the amended calendar?

Um recess calendar comment.

Motion hearing no objections, we shall walk on this item.

Is there a motion to approve the amended calendar?

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to amend to approve the amended calendar, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you.

All right, now madam clerk from the office of the chief financial officer, office of contracting and procurement.

Council member with the calloway, a resolution.

Line item 17.8.

Motion line item 17.8 as amended as motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve.

Any objections, colleagues?

Hearing none, line item 17.8 shall be approved as amended.

From the human resources classification and compensation division, madam clerk.

Council member with field callaway or resolution, line item 17.9.

Um member Whitfield Callaway.

Thank you so much.

Um motion for approval.

That's a motion to approve line item 17.9.

No objections, then action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair, request a waiver on line item 17.9.

This will request for a waiver, colleagues on line item 17.9.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, a waiver should be attached.

From the human resources labor relations division, madam clerk.

Council member with field calloway, a resolution, line item 17.10.

Motion for approval, line item 17.10.

There's a motion to approve line item 17.10.

Are any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Under resolutions, madam clerk.

Council member with field calloway, a resolution.

Line item 17.11.

Item 17.11, Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

This is the appointment of Gary Ringer to the city planning commission for the remainder of a three-year term beginning February 15, 2026, ending on February 14th, 2029.

Motion for approval.11.

Are there any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair, request a waiver on line item 17.11.

Just request for a waiver on 17.11 colleagues.

Are there any objections?

See none on waiver should be attached.

For the planning and economic development standing committee, Madam Clerk from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Council Member Johnson, six resolution.

Line items 18.1 through 18.6.

Line items 18.1 through 18.6.

Member Johnson.

Mr.

President.

Yes, ma'am.

Would you like to contract spread today or you want to um thank we?

Would you like to proceed?

We're good at this moment.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Here.

Thank you though.

Move for approval online items 18.1 through 18.6.

As a motion to approve line items 18.1 through 18.6, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Objection, Councilmember Scott Benson, 18.2 through 18.5.

Member Vincent, can you say that again in the mic?

Objection line item 18.2 through 18.5.

Councilmember Scott Benson.

Are there any further colleagues?

See none.

Yeah, hit your mic, hit your mic, get your mic.

You gotta hit your mic.

Member Miller.

Objection on 18 point to 18.3 18.4 and 18.5.

Noting those objections.

Are there any further colleagues?

See none.

Line items 18.1 through 18.6 shall stand approved.

Uh from the Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority, Madam Clerk.

Council member Johnson, a resolution, noting that this line item was postponed from last week's formal session.

Line item 18.7.

Line item 18.7.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Move for approval.

It's a motion to approve line item 18.7.

Um with discussion.

Uh member Johnson, I know that you indicated that you were working with uh all parties to see if we can get a little closer to where um there's some level of agreement.

If you can talk just a little bit about what has changed from uh the previous week where we are today.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I'd like to invite the administration down to share.

Yes, please.

Good afternoon.

Uh Amanda Elias, Deputy Chief of Neighborhood Economic Development, Mayor's Office.

Good day.

Hassan Beijun, Council to uh Mayor Sheffield.

Uh Marlowe Sean Franklin, uh, mayor's office, labor liaison.

Yeah.

Okay, so talk to us about what's new, what's different.

Discussion for us.

We're in discussion now.

That was the question.

And then we'll add more to it.

Is there anything new or different?

Um, I mean, happy to answer questions.

Um, the project details, the only thing that's slightly different is the development team has um agreed to payroll um certification um and have brought on a subcontractor associated with the carpenter's union.

Happy to go into further detail or answer any questions, but that's the slightly different update.

All right, thank you.

Member of Santiago.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Um I want to provide some insights to these changes to uh the project.

Um, this is in Corktown and District 6, and from the very beginning, when the developers asked for my support, I let them know that myself, nor do I believe this council can support a project.

Um, but the way that we've seen like the Godfrey with um poor labor standards, payments, uh workplace conditions, and ask that they figure out a agreements with local unions and carpenters to make sure that we are building safe structures.

I don't want to see what we've seen in New York happen by ununionized labor creating structures that are collapsing.

I also don't want to see picketing in our districts because we have construction happening um that is uh treating their workers poorly.

Um so this update that we've heard today is from back and forth conversations with the administration.

Thank you for holding this back for us and helping us get to this agreement.

Uh frankly, I'm not sure if we will see incredible new conditions.

I think this is a test to see if that is the case.

I appreciate that Creole will be looking at the payroll, making sure that we are staying in compliance.

But frankly, if we don't do a good job this time around, I probably cannot support a project like this in the future.

But this is the first time that really myself and unions wanted to make sure that our projects was not being built the same way that we've seen other projects in the districts.

Um, and I know a lot of my colleagues have been asking me where I stand on on this project.

Um, given that the carpenters are now neutral, I'm okay with moving forward, but really this is a test um to see whether or not we're going to make sure that we're building safe, healthy structures and that we're providing good opportunities for detraiters.

Because quite frankly, I think we can do it all.

Develop, have incredible new spaces, make sure that we're also providing good jobs and that we are building safe structures in the city.

Uh so thank you, Mr.

Presidents.

Thank you to the administration, uh, to any uh companies coming in.

I I promise you, when I say things, I'm trying to work with you.

I'm trying to prevent issues from happening in the future.

Let's make sure we're more proactive.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Member Benson.

All right, thank you.

Um I also like to hear from the development team as well.

If we could just briefly speak to payroll certification, what does that actually mean?

Why is that important?

And what are we working to prevent or guard against with payroll certification?

Sure.

Payroll certification, it's a concept borrowed from the prevailing wage context, uh, namely the federal law data spacing.

So whenever you have a project that is subject to the Davis Bacon requirements, it typically engages in payroll certification.

Sorry, can you hear me now?

And what this is is a monthly, weekly, whatever the uh period is, accounting of all the contract independent contractors, the employees, what their classifications are, what their pay is.

And essentially that allows uh either an investigatory body, a municipal body like ours, to cross-reference that against our tax records, uh, and we're able to assess essentially the accuracy of the claims on who's on what part of the payroll uh are they essentially delivering on what was promised in terms of the uh payroll guarantees, who's getting paid what, what union is being used for what project, what contractor, et cetera.

So it's uh uh think of it as an accountability measure, more so than anything else.

Okay.

And so if we find I'd like to hear from the development team as well, well, Mr.

Chair, if we find that there are violations, what are our opportunities?

Development team, I'm gonna ask you to come down, please.

What are our opportunities to compel compliance?

Where is our cudgel here?

So it's essentially all the myriad of tools available to us in the in the tax context.

So everything ranging from civil liability with penalties that include interest, uh, on missed uh income tax payments to actual criminal charges uh that can be used for uh entities that evade taxes, intentionally invade taxes.

Okay.

And then I'd like to hear from the development team.

Hello, good afternoon.

Nevin Shokar, consultant to the developer.

Mr.

Shokar, if you could just tell us the changes that we've seen.

And so this was a question last week.

Are we going to see movement?

That was to you, chance.

And it looks like we have seen movement and we have at least a level of neutrality from a major um stakeholder in this deal.

So what were other changes from your words that you've made here?

Yeah, thank you.

And uh through um Mr.

President, um we made uh a number of changes to uh, as the administration mentioned, to include the payroll certification to add in uh Cowie Hayes uh uh contractor.

Um, and you know, we appreciate the urging of this body to help us reach a resolution.

And um I I can say that we um we we feel like uh this is a this is a resolution that uh both the Carpenters Union and ourselves uh you know feel like uh you know we we negotiate it uh in good faith.

Okay, and then this goes back to the administration with the cudgel available uh of criminal and civil.

What's the timeline on something like that and how easy is it to find if we're doing payroll certification that's coming in if I heard correctly weekly?

I believe I believe it's monthly under the MOU.

Uh and essentially, I I don't want to be presumptuous, but you know, if there were wrongdoing to occur, uh, we would be able to uh attack it during that period subsequent to when it was reported.

So it would be essentially in real time, should there be any allegations, uh, and emphasis on if there are allegations, and then the timeline to actually make corrections and/or hold somebody accountable was the timeline then if you actually file something.

It's essentially the statute of limitations period, which uh is roughly you know two years to uh five years, depending on what the nature of the allegations.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Proton Young.

Thank you.

Yes, I know everybody's been working really hard to be able to get this deal together.

I'm finally glad that we've all been able to all the parties be able to come together to agree to this.

I just wanted to ask, um uh can you just talk to me a little bit about the MOU that was signed in terms of what that entails and what that is, and how that is going to reinforce transparency, how that's also gonna reinforce accountability with this.

I know that's a real big deal to get the parties to be able to agree to that.

Can you just explain that to me?

Yeah, sure.

But part of the MOU and the RMLU is an agreement between uh Prio and on behalf of the city and the developer, and one part of it is essentially uh laying out that there will be a change in the the contractors utilize uh to reflect this uh union contractor uh in carpentry that's been added, but more importantly, it's with respect to this payroll certification, and it essentially is an obligation on the developer uh to uh provide payroll certification on monthly basis throughout the project.

Yeah, that's a real big deal.

And I was talking to somebody from the car you know from well and over remain nameless.

But I'll talk to somebody about this, and he was telling me about how he really thinks this is the big deal and what kind of brought him to the table and got some neutral.

I mean, that's about as good as I think we're gonna get in terms of this deal.

And so I really am a supporter of this.

I think it's a good project.

And I just wanted to just say I think a lot, and you correct me for wrong, what I'm gonna say, but I think a lot of the issues involving wages, involved pay, involving you know, workers being treated, I think are going to be addressed in this MOU in terms of this.

I'm not saying they won't apply to it, but let's say hypothetically, if they didn't, I think that the MOU is going to be able to be a hold a lot of people accountable legally in terms of being to make sure that they do.

Is that correct?

I think that's that's spot on it.

Really is uh it it it provide it presents a new level of accountability that we haven't uh seen utilized in some of these types of projects, yeah.

Uh, and I think that is that is a step forward undoubtedly, and also from the city's perspective, uh just being able to make sure on these kind of projects that we receive our uh proper share uh of tax reading.

Um, I think that is incredibly important for the city.

Right.

Thank you, sir.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Member Johnson, close us out.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I don't have any questions.

I've been working on this for the last couple of weeks, and in too many conversations, but I did just want to also move line item 18.9 that is associated with this project as well, move for approval.

There is a motion uh to approve line item 187.7 and 18.9 to the chair discussion with further discussion member melted after having great conversation with multiple people.

I just wanted to say um re after reading the MOU.

I guess it exists primarily as a safeguard because the developer has not demonstrated a level of trust necessary to proceed without an additional oversight, and if there were complete confidence, the MOU of this nature would not be necessary.

I believe today is the day for moving in the right direction.

Um, with a lot of our agenda items without a standard that should have already been in place from the city of Detroit.

We need to focus on standards for accountability, standards for integrity, and what's right by our residents, our workers, our unions, and everyone that pay a significant role in what we do in the city of Detroit.

I cannot continue to say how often we lack oversight.

We do not have the capacity to be over sight for anything.

If I were to go to a job right now, I could probably count how many were not 51% or 30% Detroit workers or even skilled labor.

But people are willing to pay the fines easily.

I think that when we accept bids, the DGC or higher it works, they should not be so easily moved by a change.

If there's a change in a gap, then a necessary adjustment should be made, and not on the city's behalf.

And our residents get none.

And it's just not right.

But yet everybody wants a tax abatement.

Everybody wants a credit, everybody wants everything we have to offer.

And while we encourage development, we should offer those things to people that do right by our residents, our employees, our labor.

As a sign that we are operating in a specific standard with CB trade.

I think it's been taken for granted for a very long time.

And as I struggle with this today, I would just say that the memorandum itself will prove right or wrong.

I hope I hope it'll prove to be this to be right.

Because I don't I have a lot of other developments in this area, and we have not had to do this.

But here we're making an exception today.

So I just wanted to um say my piece regarding this MOU.

And while our skill trades, because I am on the skill trades task force, we're constantly looking for young people that I mentor at Osborne High School that do not want to go to college.

They want to go into skill labor.

We have to find places for them to go, not provide places that will that do not welcome their training, their teaching.

And this is what this looks like to me.

Our young people are depending on us to provide those jobs.

And I believe it was for Detroit at work.

I would like to see all the people from Detroit at work that sign up.

I'd like to know how much the wages are.

What are we paying Detroit at work?

How much would they actually take per week?

Opposed to not using skilled labor who have trained and took classes to occupy jobs that we promised them through our school trades task force.

We promise these jobs.

We promise trade jobs, and for any developer to try to negate that.

Because we're remitting on what we're supposed to do.

So when I go to those trade classes and we'll have we, I think we're on suspension.

We're saying we're going to provide work for you.

We're going to provide a way for you to train.

And here we are today voting on something that's not necessarily true, but a step in the right direction.

I find it difficult to say face with our residents who constantly call us out.

And it sounds like my colleagues are for it.

But I just wanted to say my piece regarding the skilled traits who I represent wholeheartedly.

I come from union labor, and there's nothing that will stop me from supporting the hardworking citizens of Detroit that choose skilled labor as their way of income and supporting their families.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any objections?

Objection.

With further discussion, Member Benson.

Uh to the Mr.

Bailey.

So compliance.

If we do find down the line that compliance is not being met, there are some problems.

What are our opportunities or callback?

What are opportunities to hold accountable for any incentives that have been applied?

For the incentives, I'm not sure the tools translate to that context.

It really is uh our strongest tools by far are with respect to tax uh recouping tax revenue that the city is due.

Uh so I even if we had that uh the ability to cross over there, I think using the jurisdictional hook on the tax in the tax front is is frankly a more effective way to advance the city's interest than through the abatements.

Okay, but but you're not sure if we have that tool.

Uh, but I can tell you even if we do, I I doubt that it's an effective of a tool as what we would have in the tax context.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, colleagues.

There's a motion to approve line items 18.7 and 18.9.

Are there any objections?

I'm seeing it on the mic.

Objection.

Miller.

Remember, objection, Member Miller.

Noting the one object is that on both.

Yes.

Noted the one objection on both line items 18.7 and 18.9.

Those uh that motions shall stand approved for line items 18.7 and 18.9.

Thank you.

Ms.

Chair.

Um member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to uh say that as the new chair of PED and having this project come before us, um, is clear to me that there are um new requirements, new standards that the administration that um council is looking for, and certainly this requires some discussions, some conversations that need to be had behind the scenes.

Uh look forward to those conversations so that we can be on one accord um as development moves forward in this city.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Council member Johnson, three resolutions, line items 18.8, 18.10, and 18.11.

Council Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Move for approval with discussion.

There's a motion to approve line items 18.8, 18.10, and 18.11 with discussion.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just opened it up because I know Member Callaway indicated she had a question about line item 18.10.

Member Callaway.

Thank you so much.

I don't know if corporation counsel can be brought online.

I know uh my staff had a quick discussion with him um while we were um still on the agenda out in the hallway.

But um, through the chair, can we have corporation counsel um come on the screen regarding line item 18.10?

Yeah, Mr.

Washington, is he cued up?

Corporation counsel did indicate that he was gonna be recalled through the chair.

I would defer to the law department if they are present.

Nope.

Okay, through the chair, I can try to reach out as well.

I did not know that corporation council was joining online.

I didn't see the I didn't see your hair, and I do apologize.

We have not met yet, so we've got to meet.

Um I don't know, Member Calloway, you're looking for corporation counsel, but maybe the okay she can assist.

Good morning.

Good afternoon.

Uh Diana Hill, uh, law department covering for Graham Anderson.

I can, if you would like Member Calloway, reach out and call.

He's right there.

Oh, there it is.

See, thank you I speak and he comes.

The million dollars.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Member Callaway.

Thank you so much.

Um, line item 10 um is a request um to approve an obsolete property rehabilitation district on behalf of Landy Land LLC.

Um, I have a case here, and I've read all 56 pages um regarding ZB verified investments LLC plaintiff versus Adam Kessler, who's the agent on um Landy Land.

Um he's been sued for um over 20 million dollars, and I would um recommend that my colleagues get the case.

It's 56 pages, and I've sat here and read and I've gone through and I've taken notes.

This is not the kind of individual I hope that the city will do business with.

Um, he's been um the case is against him 20 million dollars, um, treble damages.

Um he committed fraud, and um he and his partner Josh Kaplan out of Oakland County.

I think he was also an attorney at Clark Hill.

He set up an LLC called Civic Companies, and so I have great, great um concern about him being the individual who's behind Landy Land LLC.

Um I would hope that we can maybe send it back to committee or not deal with it at all, because I certainly will not be in support of this individual as the res registered agent of Landy Land doing any business with the city.

I don't know if he's still with Clark Hill.

Um I looked up his fire license.

I I think it was suspended sometime in July of 2025, not that that has anything to do with this case.

Um, and they the the judge on the case saying that of the honorable Michael Warren saying this is a case that was concocted with fraud with a fraudulent intent.

Um it's just very troubling that um HRD, and I'm not saying they didn't do their due diligence, but whose responsibility is it corporation counsel to look at these types of LLCs and get the name of the agent and just do a little bit of research on the individual.

It only took me, it took our staff a couple minutes to pull up the case.

Um, and and this is very troubling.

It's it's disturbing, and we're talking 20 million dollars that this gentleman will have to pay.

So we cannot, and that being said, I don't believe he has the capacity financially at this point to even be doing these.

And I would like for somebody to look into whether or not he got the properties from um after Mr.