This is the regular session of Tuesday, July 21st, 2026.

It will come to order now.

And Madam Clerk, if you can please call the role.

Yes, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Councilmember Scott Benson.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Denzel and Tom McCampbell.

Present.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Council Member Angela Whitfield Calloway.

Council President Pro Tim Coleman A.

Young II.

Council President James Tate.

Here.

Mr.

President, you have a call.

Thank you so much.

We have a corner, which means we're now in session.

I want to let everyone know if you are seeking to speak before this body on any issue whatsoever, partner.

Any issue, raise your hand and someone from the team will come by and provide you with a public comment card.

All of those individuals who are in the queue will have an opportunity to speak before this body.

Again, on the subject of their desire.

Please raise your hand though.

We have to put you in the queue.

And that goes for the folks who are at home as well.

For those who are not familiar with our procedures, we will not be providing comments after each individual that speaks.

We're waiting to everyone, uh both in person and online, provides their comments, and then we will provide any rebuttal that is uh needed at that point.

All right.

So just want to give you kind of a layer of the land.

Um, Madam Clerk, if you can please note that we have been joined by Member Miller.

Clerk was so note, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

All right.

So uh this morning's invocation have none other than a friend of the community, friend of mine as well.

Uh, this Reverend Rosalind Bouye, also known as Reverend Ross from Ross.

Please come on up, please.

Uh, y'all give a round of applause.

Reverend Ross, I don't know how, but she has found a way to juggle multiple uh ministerial and community uh leadership roles um simultaneously and effectively.

Uh, she is the founder and pastor of the beloved community uh united church of Christ, located in District 1 at 2074 Grand River Avenue, uh, as well as the Pastor of Trinity St.

Mark United Church of Christ, uh located in District 6 uh at 9315 West Ford Street.

For more than 15 years, Reverend Ross has faithfully served our community uh through her ministry as the executive director of the Brightmore uh Connection Food Pantry, uh, where she has led efforts uh to fight food insecurity while helping families facing housing and water insecurity as well.

Her work has also opened doors for residents uh by moving, excuse me, helping to remove the barriers of employment uh to include assistance with driver's license and driving record issues.

Uh Reverend Raj reminds us that ministry extends far beyond the church walls, and through her compassion, service and unwavering faith, she continues to restore hope and change lives throughout the city.

Now, I'm not telling you what I heard, I'm telling you what I know.

You know, we'll give it up again for Reverend.

Good morning.

Good morning.

First, allow me to thank Council President Tate for this humble and privileged.

I like to uh acknowledge Council uh Council members as well.

Let me see if we can meet on a road that we all are familiar with.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Oh, good and gracious guy.

You are amazing.

You are good.

There's never been a time in our lives that you have not been concerned and interested and aware of what was going on in our lives.

You're good, God.

We just want to say thank you.

We thank you today, oh Lord, because we know while our lights may be cut off, our water bills may be high.

That's them.

That's not you.

You're good.

You are faithful and you are compassionate.

You are concerned about all your people.

And because you are concerned, you have decided today to bring the cries of your people before this amazing council of yours.

We thank you, God.

We understand that the task that is before these people today, these your people is greater than what seems possible.

But through you, all things are possible.

And so we thank you today that you're willing to allow these good people to open their ears, open their hearts, open their minds, allow them to be reminded that your people are hurting, they're weary, they're burdened, and they're worried about what's going on.

And because you've given them this power, you've vested in them that which you know to be truth, and you're trusting them to do and operate in your truth.

And so we thank you today.

We ask, oh Lord, that you would remind them today, each and every person that comes before this council, that they're just as important as the ones who are making decisions on their behalf.

And then, oh Lord, remind those who are sitting in the seats of authority to be humble, to be open-minded, and to be available to be shifted and shaped and molleable by you.

We thank you today, O Lord.

We thank you, Father God, because we know that you are taking care of situations far outside of our reach.

And because of this council today, you've placed some things within the reach of some people who can make changes in the lives of those who are less fortunate.

And so we surrender all to you right now.

We trust you today.

We can do that because you're good.

And because you're good, and because you created all of us in your image, there is an expectation of goodness to come forth this day.

And so we ask you, gracious God, that you would allow just that to happen.

Move and shift us out the way.

Set aside our pride, our ego, our position and our power, and remind us that we are all servants of you.

We just want to say thank you, Lord.

And Father God, we ask today that you would make us to be a people, not a nation, not a country, not a state, not a city, not a religion, not a faith tradition, not a color, not a race, not a sexual orientation, but make us to be a people that you are not ashamed of to call your own.

And the name that each of us holds holy by whatever name we know you and by whatever name we call you, we say thank you and amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Reverend Wells.

We appreciate that.

Uh very thoughtful, warm and poignant prayer this morning, and it's absolutely needed.

Um, we do invite you to stick with us if you would like to stay, but understand if you got to get out here because you are a busy, busy individual.

Thank you again for sharing this time with us.

We also have with us this morning, uh, we have three presentations that are uh before us.

We're gonna start out with our Detroit City Clerk, Winfrey.

Uh, she's got a few words that she wants to provide us.

That's okay.

We can give a round of applause.

Morning, madam Clark.

Okay, good morning.

Thank you for allowing me a few minutes of your time.

And I just want to bring you an update as to what we're doing with this oh so important elections.

I don't know if some of you have seen our trusted voices commercials.

Some of you are in it, some of you will be participating in it, but we've invited you all, and those that we heard from are the ones that we uh chose to use.

However, uh, hopefully more of you will be involved, and we will uh would love to highlight your comments as it relates to the importance of elections in the fall during the fall.

So hopefully I'll hear from you, those that I do hear from.

I thank you.

We appreciate you.

But we just want you to be reminded that our early voting starts Saturday, July 25th.

And of course, we're encouraging every registered voter to participate.

Our early voting block party commences that day as well.

During that block party, some of you attend every year, and we thank you.

Others of you, we'd like to encourage you to attend, to join us.

We have giveaways, bicycles this year, free food.

Everybody that comes can vote a ballot.

If you're not registered, you can register to vote on that day and vote on that day.

Early uh voting starts Saturday at our um block party, and we will have nine early bowling locations, including the one here at KMAC.

Yesterday we completed the public accuracy test.

Some of you were there, most of you weren't.

But it's important that you know that we do the public accuracy test.

Not only is it required by law, but so that you can get an understanding what that process looked like, right?

What the voting looks like and how to ensure that everybody gets a vote that was voted for, right?

I just want to say thank you, uh, Gabrielle for your participating and working with us on the election day.

We hope you do it again this year.

Because I know um El Central newspaper, they wanted to do a story on us uh and what we're doing in that community.

And I I'd suggest it to them they speak with you as well, because you do work with us and we appreciate that.

And we want all of you to work with us.

So we're giving you the opportunity to do that, and that's really why I'm here.

We're working with several different organizations this year, and one in particular is sponsored.

Well, we're sponsoring them to do a competition among the districts, a competition among the city council districts, and you should be excited.

You should be excited.

We're going to supply you with everything.

We're giving you nice little gift packages today.

We're supplying you with everything that you need to engage your district to come out and vote.

Because unfortunately, our expected turnout for the primary is about 20%.

What did Daniel go?

Oh, okay.

It's about 20%.

And we know we can do better, and we know we must do better if we want to make a difference.

I know many people think that the presidential election is also important, but it is not the midterm things.

Because if you don't do right or do your wishes in the midterm, the presidential is off or not, right?

Right.

So this is thank you for understanding that.

So the we're working on getting more people to come.

So the most important election that matters that determines your gas prices, your food prices, right?

Your tariffs or not.

So we want to encourage you to participate.

So what does that look like?

That looks like you canvassing your district, engaging them, allowing them, inviting them to come work with us for your members of your district.

If you say it's late, but if you say, you know what, Clerk, I'd like for my this uh block to work on election day, we'll make it happen.

We'll make it happen, won't we?

Uh council member uh Gabrielle.

We'll make it happen, and we pay well.

And the most so the the district that has the highest voter turnout, and we do it based on percentage, because we know there are some districts that have a larger percentage number of registered voters, so that it's fair.

We do it by percentage in the largest percentage that comes out and participate in this election.

We'll have uh be the winners, right?

And you'll get a big block party on us, and you'll get a t-shirt.

Your district will get t-shirts, right?

Let's say we're the number one voting district in the city of Detroit, something that matter, and we'll just have a good time.

We will celebrate you.

We'll celebrate you at the expense of the Department of Elections No.

But we're working within this organization, and they're really um, they're really helping us to do this for you.

And they'll be you'll be hearing from them.

I think the name of it is it's civic.

You'll be hearing from them as well.

Um, and they'll be uh sending things out to you and your district managers.

So we just that's that's really all I want.

You have uh information um in your packets that includes the block party.

You want to put if you need more copies, please help yourself.

We also have uh more copies here, and an election connection newsletter.

Now we know every registered voter household will get that newsletter, right?

But it's important that thank you.

But it's important that your your um your um constituents know where the drop boxes are and where the early vote centers are and when election day is, and even more importantly, who and what is on the ballot.

All those things are important.

We really want you all to engage your district so that you can have that barbecue part discussion.

That's it, Madam Clerk.

Yes, that's it.

Okay, okay.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

You're welcome.

You have discussion of member water.

All right, thank you.

So good.

Do you need a yes?

Yeah, for you.

And we can also know before we begin, uh, member Wards that we've been joined in the auditorium by uh county clerk, Kathy Brian here in the back day.

You want to come and say about the election, come on down as well.

Okay, but the county, the county definitely helps us, especially when it comes to uh securing the process and making sure everything is safe for all of our voters.

So kudos to comment clerk.

Catherine Garrett.

I guess today is Clerk Day.

Um I'm thinking about this contest, madam, madam clerk, and um if you're talking about the district, probably district two is probably gonna win it, or one, probably, or five, or seven, or eight.

Well, she says it's gonna be two.

But uh anyway, what about us our at large members?

You have two of them.

Oh what do we do?

What type of contest can we participate in?

Can you guys think that's a very good question?

If I were you, if I were you, yeah, if I were at large, she can't be everywhere, I would choose the the district that's typically has the lowest voter turnout, uh-huh, right?

And I would partner and work with that council member.

That's what I would do because they need help.

Not because anything they're doing or not doing, just because of the uh demographics that make up that.

Which district district is that?

Do you know?

Yes, I do.

He won't tell us.

Okay, he wants to get the statistics so we can be exact, but I can tell you who it's not anymore.

It used to be uh uh I'm gonna say a council member San Diego district, but it's not anymore.

And you know why it's not anymore?

Because she worked very hard to engage her constituents, and that matters.

I will always, always sing your praises for doing that because it matters.

So she used that district used to be the very lowest, but it's not anymore.

They've moved up.

I I used to know, I know the council member, but I don't know my district.

We're gonna wait and get you some real numbers so that that's fair.

Okay.

Thank you.

Is that it?

Any further comments?

Um, pro Tim UN.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh, excellent uh excellent presentation as always.

I don't know if this is I don't know if these questions are directed to you, so if not forgive me, but I have a question about um election security.

Of course you um yeah, I I I just wanted to ask you uh first and foremost.

I know I worked very hard to make sure that you had a police officer signed to you.

Has that happened yet from DPD?

Yes.

Excellent.

Excellent fantastic.

Um, I also just wanted to ask, from my understanding, there's been some chatters, concerns about people coming to the polls intimidating people, people who are armed with the polls, um, and also law enforcement intimidation, ice, and things of that nature.

I just wanted to ask from your perspective are you tracking those type of things?

Do you have people in place that are ready to be able to track those type of incidents or those type of complaints should they occur?

Yes.

Uh first let me answer this never happened in any of our precincts in the city of Detroit.

We did have one gun incident a couple years ago, but uh the officer apprehended immediately, and they didn't really make it into the voting area.

Um, but so so in and I we've never had that experience.

However, are we prepared and do we have uh data to track?

Absolutely, absolutely.

You know, I'm I know that you all uh uh president Tate share with you all the letter that we received from DOJ.

Um, and in my response to it as well.

I don't know if you all had the opportunity to look and read, you should have by now, but uh because it's important, but please know that we are ready.

Um we stand ready, the county clerk and myself.

Uh we've always been ready.

We've always had monitors locally, statewide, regionally, and federal monitors at our elections, and they matter not.

At the end of the day, those monitors usually are very complimentary of the work that we do because we do follow the letter to the law, but we also protect our poll workers because they're very important to us and the process.

We can't talk in terms of specifics of the things that we have in place because they that would breach the security.

However, President Tate uh is as uh a member of the election commission, he's aware, and I'm sure he'll be willing to share any and all information with you all as it relates to the protection of the process.

Well, that's excellent.

And I appreciate that because I want to make sure that people are protecting, not just citizens that are our voting, but also the poll workers and people, especially of the climate that we have absolutely controversies involving um in social media involving elections.

We want to make sure they're secured, people are safe.

I don't think this is a question for you.

I don't know if we have somebody here from the law department that that can answer this question, but I have a question about uh the Trump administration is looking to seize election records by states.

I don't know if the state would be party to that suit.

I want to know if the state is, could the city join in a meeky's curator brief or front of the court brief with the state being opposed to those records being seized constitutionally as well as just uh procedurally just being wrong.

Yeah.

So uh we've had those conversations with the law department concerning uh seizing voter records, and one of the things that we all have to recognize is that the qualified voter file uh is the responsibility of the state, the secretary of state's office.

So, in terms of seizing data, that would have to come directly from the Secretary of State's office.

And we have a window to the qualified voter file to access that information, to update that information.

But that data is the possession of the Secretary of State's office.

So in terms of that, they can't come to Detroit.

They can't go to Inkster.

They can't go to those various communities requesting that information.

That has to come directly or go directly to the Secretary of State's office.

Okay.

Do we have anybody for the law department that's here at all?

So if if I mean so the corporation council is actually a member of the election commission.

Okay.

So you know, so if we have any questions, let's try to get those.

We're trying to move this meeting along because we have a lot uh before us today.

Yeah.

Um, if there's a question that uh can be answered offline, we can bring it, you know, again to the forefront of the well.

I I just want to say usually I would understand that I think for what we're talking about and the importance of what we're talking about, we should have somebody from the law department that's here because this is extremely important, and we've had issues like this in the past that you even though they were handled professionally, we want to make sure that we do this with the best possible way.

And I do have a question about just the fact that would we file a Mickey's Curie brief along with that if this were to happen?

Because more than likely it's going to.

And so I just want to know that we're prepared and we have the right people in place in case we do.

Other than that, that's all the questions I have.

And and through the chair, uh uh uh, I just want to say in all fairness to corp counsel, yes.

I didn't request their presence here at this meeting because I didn't this was not the purpose of me being here.

I just want to engage.

Now, if you want to have if if you all want to have something like that, you're that we definitely will be you know present and ready.

But yeah, I you blame that on me because I did not even let them know I was doing this.

Well, I would never blame anything on you, Claire.

You can do no wrong time.

I'll never blame anything on you.

That's why I just want to make sure just for my understanding and P Z Q's that we're ready.

Is it okay, Mr.

President?

Ms.

Hill, did you want to contribute whatever something to answer what I what I have the questions I have?

Uh good morning, this honorable body, Deanna Hill, law department.

Um, you asked the most thought provoking questions uh through the chair to council member pro Tim Young.

Uh that is something that require a little bit more thought and detail than something that I can respond to off the cuff.

So if you would like to submit something in writing uh to corp counsel, we'll definitely make sure to get that fast tracked and answered for you.

Well, I'll get into the inside.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Other than that, I don't have any more questions.

Thank you, Mayor Clerk.

Appreciate you.

Uh member.

All right, thank you.

And I'll try to keep this brief, but once we have a city clerk here, I want to make sure and the county clerk that we get as much into the airwaves for the people who are watching today as well.

So I'm gonna go along the same lines as pro Tim.

Voter disenfranchisement is often used as a talking point more around political theater, but we have seen the ramifications of that.

And you personally as well.

And so I'm always very hypersensitive to how they try to disenfranchise my bosses and those voters in the city of Detroit.

But the recent court decision that now puts back on the table the president's executive order where they're trying to weaponize United States Postal Service to take information when it comes to voter roles.

Can you just talk about what we're looking at and how to enfranchise our voters and something like that happens?

There are other ways to still vote.

We don't have to vote that way, um, absentee, but we do, and we do in greater numbers these days.

But there are so many ways that your office, the county flerk and the secretary of state have worked to enfranchise our voters outside of the absentee voter um opportunity.

Can you talk about those for a minute, please?

Yeah, um, and I I will, uh but it Daniel, if he's over our absentee, uh uh absentee voting, but I do want to say this to you.

One of the biggest ways that we can disenfranchise voters is by disseminating false and fake information.

That's the biggest way to disenfranchise, and that's why I think it's so important.

And so that's why I make sure that all of you all have the accurate information.

I want to talk about what what you're talking about is everything came from our federal administration.

One thing I know for sure about this particular administration, just based on the letters that they've sent me and I've responded to, they're all lies.

They're all lies, and I don't entertain lies, and because it's dangerous, it makes people think it may be true when you begin to entertain lies.

But know this about me and the administration that I oversee, and that is we will always make a way.

And that is we will always make a way.

Oh, I don't know if you know this story.

I don't, I don't know if all of you know this story.

But during COVID, we were not to mail anything out.

We were not to mail applications.

We were not to mail ballots.

And we were all at home.

And I called Secretary of State and I told Jocelyn, I'm mailing my application.

She said, Well, Janice, I don't know.

You might go to jail.

I don't know.

They might.

I said, well, then I'll take that.

I said, well, you put money on my books.

And I was very scared.

And she said, girl, I put money on your books.

So we laughed and joked about it, talked to the Law Department.

I had the support of NAACP and social agencies like that organizations.

But we mailed every last voter, including every one of you sitting up here, an application so that you can vote when we were told we couldn't.

When we told we couldn't, we always have found a way to make sure that you do.

So we have drop boxes more than what's required by law throughout the city of this uh of Detroit.

And we have early voting.

When they told us we couldn't vote early, we called it absentee voting in person.

You can't tell us what we can't do because we're gonna find a way so that our voters can vote.

So now you can vote early, actually vote, not absentee, but feed the tabulators nine whole days prior to election day.

These are just some of the things that we make sure and ensure that you can do to secure your vote.

We have cameras on every last one of those uh drop boxes that are monitored 24-7.

Your vote is safe in Detroit.

And if you don't trust that we we also have our own mailing system, I don't know you all approved it of reliable.

So we send our own stuff out, thank you, Jesus.

We're gonna make a way that you all can vote your ballots, and we're gonna keep that process safe and secure because that's our job, and we take it seriously.

So we're not worried.

We're not worried, nor are we concerned.

Mr.

President, I just wanted to make sure we are prepared.

I want to make sure that got to the atmosphere and into the ecosystem that the city clerk's office is very engaged, leans in and protects our vote and fights for that right, which many of our ancestors died for.

I want to make that very clear.

Voting is very, very important, and we need to hold that sacred.

In addition, just want to make sure that people understand that when people come to this body and get on our airways and spread lies, spread falsehoods, just as you said, that is voter disenfranchisement.

We are all about voter enfranchisement here.

And I like to see the fact that we call out those lies and that behavior because it is attempting to disenfranchise our voters, and we here will ensure that we enfranchise our voters.

Thank you very much, madam.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

I'd like to uh call the close the uh collection of public comment cards at this moment.

Now I'll next go to Member Miller, followed by Member Johnson, followed by member McCamp.

Thank you for joining us, madam clerk.

I have been to uh your last several uh get out the vote rallies.

Um I implore everyone to come out and join us.

We can't just talk about it, we gotta be about it.

You got to show up, you gotta invite people, and you have to bring them to the polls.

The activities are amazing.

We need those videos, we need those comments, and we need to show our residents that we are proactive as well.

So I just want to thank you and your department for continuing to press the mark to get our voters out there and even your signs.

I see them off the freeway.

Uh, those are like an amazing touch.

I just wanted to say I thought that was um great idea.

But we as elected officials and not just on our level, but all of our city officials, all of our public officials, school board officials, we need to really push that vote.

This is an important election.

We see what's going on in Washington.

And if that does not move anyone, if that does not move the needle for you, then there's something wrong.

But I encourage everyone that hears my voice to come out and vote, make your voice be heard, and let's show the city of Detroit that we can take an election in Michigan.

We can control the voting in Michigan with our population.

There's no way in the world we should not be able to have what we want in Lansing, just because of our population.

We have over, I think it's like 700,000 votes.

Can you imagine if everyone actually went out and voted?

Yeah, we would have what we need right here in Detroit, people that represent us.

So I encourage everyone to go out and vote.

And I'm asking all the young people, once you turn 18, please run to the polls.

Grandparents, take your kids to the polls.

That is a responsibility.

It should be a mandate in your house.

Are you voting today?

And I'm taking you for the first time, and we're going to take this picture so we can establish something fundamental and have that foundation that this is what we do as humans, is what we do as an adult.

This is what we do as people that care about our communities.

So thank you for what you continue to do.

I look forward to supporting.

And I will respond to that email.

I did not see it.

I um I know pardon me.

I know you've been out.

Yes, but no, thank you again for joining us today.

And I wish our uh our city clerk would come down and let's let's see her face on camera.

Can we just applaud her to Wayne County today over here in the city of Detroit?

We are one of the largest cities in her county, and we support you.

And we just think everybody should see who you are.

We have a lot of young people who do not know who you are, and they need to see this is our county clerk who's joined with our city clerk.

We have two powerful women in the audience today.

And I just want everyone to see you today and recognize that you do support the Detroit City Council and what we're doing here in Detroit with our clerk.

Thank you for joining us today.

May I just say something?

Good morning, everyone.

Um, I guess maybe I think that it's not a lot, but it is a lot in the sense that we've been working hard together.

We are totally committed to getting an efficient and effective and safe election done.

We've been doing this for a few years now.

Yeah, not a lot of years.

So for me, and I'm not speaking for Janice, although we have spoken about this, we've been doing this.

And if we made it through 2020 as a surprise, trust me, we're prepared.

And it's good to know that all of you, as far as the other electeds, you're all hands on deck with us now.

So we're looking forward to a safe, efficient, and a good election for Wayne County, not just the city of Detroit, but but I'm being biased, the city of Detroit.

God bless you, and thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you.

And Councilmember Miller, I just want to say thank you for uh encouraging us to get those videos up because we have sent them to uh media so that they can upload.

I think they're waiting on the uh ADA part of it, but we want to show those uh those uh block parties that we have.

I like you, I agree that uh many people don't know.

And so we'll have an opportunity to share that on channel 10.

So thank you for making that recommendation.

Thank you, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and good morning to you, Madam Clerk, both of you, uh city clerk as well as county clerk.

Uh definitely appreciate the work that you all do continuously.

Unfortunately, I may not be able to make the event this Saturday.

We do have our wellness fair um at the same time.

Uh I'm going to try.

I'm I'm committed to trying uh to be there before or after our event.

Um, but I just wanted to share that one of the things we did was uh we have a mailed newsletter.

We put ballot information or just voting information in that that went to every household in the district.

Uh, I do love a challenge, and so I'm looking forward to um making sure that as we canvas, as we regularly do, we're sharing information about getting out to vote.

Um I'm sh I don't know if we talk about percentages, if District 4 is at the bottom, I hope not.

Um, but certainly looking forward to getting that information from you as it relates to the percentage of people that turn out.

Um, but if it is, that's even a greater challenge for us to make sure that we're getting information out and encouraging folks to get out and vote.

I appreciate you making sure that our residents have access to the ballot, can get out and vote, whether absentee or um in person.

I do want to make sure that we connect with you in your office for the disabled community because we hear some concerns from them.

I think it is making sure that they have the correct information.

And I think we need to do that um sooner than later, just to make sure everyone knows if you have a disability, how you can vote using the VAT machines and having access to the phone number.

Um, but I want to make sure that we, along with um our co-chairs of the disability task force are getting the information out to our residents and making sure that it is spreading throughout the uh community.

Yeah.

Um I want to ask a question as it relates to tracking our ballots, because sometimes people think that if they vote absentee, they don't know what happens to their ballot.

Can you talk about how folks can actually track their ballot once they voted?

Yeah.

Let me talk about um the accessibility part of it.

Have to be careful who you're talking um to about when people say we don't have access.

That's one of the things that the federal administration is pushing now, and that's a way to discourage the vote.

Um they're saying in the DOJ letter, I don't know if you read it, but that we didn't have uh accessibility terminals that work, that we ran out of ballots, that all lies.

That's a way to disenfranchise.

We have what we call VAT specialists.

VAT is a voting assistant terminal.

And we have specialists at every voting location, just for the VAT machines.

We have interpreters, we have um uh the visually impaired is one of our trainers.

So we and we during the off season, one of the things we do is we visit every last one of our polling locations to ensure that it's accessible.

Uh we have money coming in from one of our um partners this year.

They want to buy us new voting um booths for uh the handicap.

And we absolutely we'll take, even though we have you know, the not so old ones, but they want to replace them with new ones.

Absolutely, they'll replace them with new ones.

But that's why, council member, it's important that you get involved in the process, that you work the process, because I remember hearing similar questions from uh some of the council members prior to them getting involved in the process and they see and understand.

You can't believe everything you hear, and that's why it's so important that you become involved.

Now you asked me a question, I'm sorry.

Oh, yeah.

So uh ballot tracks were the thing that we did locally.

Um, and when you when we receive your ballot, you get a text, hey, thank you for voting.

We received your ballot.

Now that's done by the state.

Um, Secretary of the State took it over.

So whenever an individual votes by absentee, they'll get in.

Do they have to sign up about that?

Or does she automatically do it?

Please.

So when every voter receives their absentee ballot, as a matter of fact, we mailed out approximately 99,000 absentee ballots for this election.

Inside of there is an instruction sheet that tells you how to vote your ballot.

Um, and on that document, there is a link that they can subscribe to or put on their phone, and it'll take them to the Secretary of State's website where they can actually track their absentee ballot.

It will let them know that the ballot has been sent and it has been received.

If it has been received, it will be tabulated on election day or five days prior to that.

So each voter who votes by absentee ballot has that link uh inside of the contents when they receive it in the mail.

All right, thank you.

Uh and Madam Clerk, I just want to be clear.

I'm not saying that you are not providing access to the disabled community.

I think there is information that needs to be shared with the disabled community for them to know and understand how to um utilize the system that has been created to ensure that anyone with a disability has access to a ballot, has access to voting.

And we totally agree.

Actually, um, the one that the grant lane that we received to get our um uh new uh devices uh voting booth for the uh handicap is CRO, one of the organizations we work with.

I do work with power, wills on power warriors of wills and a couple other we had a whole a whole subcommittee, but uh eventually you know they begin to drop off.

But we definitely encourage and engage and we work with them, as I say, during the off years to visit these locations to ensure that they are accessible.

But they also the law doesn't require, and that's that's the other thing, and and we found that we was a big educational piece that we have with our uh uh uh uh community, and that is the law says as it relates to accessibility in a polling location that the entrance and then the room in which they vote has to be accessible, not the bathrooms in the building, not the waterfall, because we don't we we don't pay for that, we pay for the one room, and so the law requires that it's accessible in terms of entrance, parking, and that the room in which they vote in is accessible.

So sometimes we get complaints about well, I went to Bagley School and the bathrooms weren't accessible.

Well, you know, we can't.

All right, we we can work through that as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Member McCamp.

Thank you.

Uh good morning, madam.

Good morning.

Hi there.

Um, just a couple of questions.

On the um of what council member Johnson brought up, if there are any FAQs or um things to know about accessibility to the ballot that you can share with our officers, that'll be great so we can help push that out.

Um, and also on that same vein, if you have digital copies of the flyer um for Saturday and the election connection, um, would love to put that in our newsletter.

Um, I would love to be a trusted messenger.

I did not get that invitation, so if I can voice, so trusted voice.

Yeah, I did not get that invitation, so if I could be involved with that, that would be great.

Um, but one to talk about, I know you mentioned the need for folks to work the election, um, but also around election protection as something that um, you know, for us in our districts, um, being a trusted voice, like could you just talk about ways that folks can help protect the vote?

Because I agree that it is important to get um information out that the elections are secure, they're accurate um and safe.

Uh, but also think about on the day of the election and the needs around not only co-workers but election protection overall.

So are you talking speaking in terms of for the trusted voices for those that are in the community that have a voice to be shared, or for people, period.

We'll just say period.

Yes, how can people by the one thing that an individual needs to do is to educate themselves on the process before they go out speaking on the process, right?

Um, you've got to understand and know what's law and what is not law, what we do and what we don't do.

I tell people very simply, very simple.

I tell them to call the department of elections for your information as it relates to voting in the city of Detroit.

It the in the 313-876-0990 number is the most efficient way to reach us.

That's our call center 0990.

Uh oh, what is it?

Say it again.

1990.

313876 1990.

Oh, they're gonna give you the number before we leave here.

Okay.

Say it again for me, Christian.

It's not eight seven.

That's it.

And it's on your it's on that newsletter.

Okay, yeah.

But but that's the best way that you can ensure that you have accurate information.

And again, um, council member, we send that newsletter to every register household in the city of Detroit.

So they have that information.

Sometimes people just want to screw false information for their own purposes, right?

But to get factual information as it relates to Detroit voting, call the department of elections, and that's the best way to do it.

And as a trusted voice, we should hear from you.

I not only invited all council members, I am invited the school board, I invited um the police commissioners and the like, because and uh prominent um and not so prominent um members of the clergy, pastors and bishops.

I did that on purpose because they have a voice and they have a community of people who trust them and listen to them.

And we all saying the same thing.

We designed the message, and we're all saying the same thing.

You just say it in your way.

Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

So you'll be seeing those commercials.

Um, yes, you may um council member McCampbell concerning your question in terms of how to protect the vote.

I think it's so critical and so important that we understand the most fundamental thing that you can do to protect your right to vote is to vote.

That's right.

We always hear we always hear about this election, that election, and the other election, and the current election is the most consequential election that we're engaging in.

Well, to be practically honest with you, the most consequential election that we've engaged in in the past 20 years is the 2020 presidential election.

The consequence of that of that election is still haunting us today.

In the 2020 presidential election, 51% of Detroiters came out to vote.

And then in 2024, 48% came out to vote.

We're dealing with what we're dealing with because we don't vote.

That's right.

It's so essential that not only that every person that can hear this message, engage in the process, but we have to be sacrificial enough to talk to every person inside and outside of our circle to convince them and compel them that when the framers of this constitution establish this democracy.

The truth of the matter is it is still of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Thank you.

The only way that we can get full and true representation is if we get out and vote.

That's the most fundamental thing that we can do to secure our right to vote.

And I just wanted to share that.

But thank you.

Absolutely.

No, and I absolutely agree.

I the basis of my question is for us.

I know quite a few of us are around on election day.

Um, if we see anything or have any questions, that number is the best place to call.

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

And we have on election day, we have several um, what do we call those?

A troubleshooter.

What do we call those lines?

That Chris Mann, Michael Mann, call centers.

We have uh, but the high alert call centers on election day.

We have several of them in and around our buildings so that we can pick up those calls immediately and deal with them.

Yeah, they're charted and everything based on um the call that either red or yellow, and if they're resolved, they're green.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll follow up on it.

That's what it's like to be a part of that.

But thank you.

That number on that.

Don't say what I don't use the number I gave you some more.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Member Calwood.

Um, thank you.

And good morning, Madam Clerk, and to your team, Mr.

Baxter and the deputy clerk Gilbert.

Um, thank you for all that you do to ensure that the integrity of the voting process in the city of Detroit is protected.

And thank you to you and your team for making sure no one, regardless of disability, state, condition, um, economic background, transportation or not.

That's right.

You ensure that everybody can make it to the poll.

If they can't make it to the poll, there are other opportunities for people to vote.

If they cannot physically make it to the poll, so thank you for offering all of those options.

The options are limitless.

So thank you.

I also want to thank you for helping me uh make sure that every person who uh um is a voting age, especially in the high schools, register to vote.

I've been doing that since 2022, and this is for the young people there sitting behind you, ma'am.

You have provided resources to my office, you have provided your staff to come out to the different high schools in District 2, which we have been doing since 2022.

And this is for the young people.

There's a new law in Michigan, it's a couple years old.

Uh, if you are 16 and 17.5 years old, you're not quite 18 yet.

You can pre-register to vote two days.

That's right.

You do not have to be 18 to vote in the state of Michigan.

You can vote as early as 16 years old.

And I don't know if you all knew that.

I don't know if you all knew that.

16 through 17 and a half years old.

And what happens is once you reach your 18th birthday, your voting responsibility, your voting eligibility takes effect that very same day.

You don't even have to register to vote when you turn 18.

You can do that right here, right now, if you are between the ages of 16 and 17 and a half years old.

You do not have to wait until you're 18.

We have gone into every high school in my district in district two and registered those voters in the 10th all the way to the 12th grade.

Because this is what we say.

This is our model.

You get the diploma in your right hand, and you get your voters' registration in your left hand.

They go hand in hand.

They're both just as important.

I know at 16 you can get your license when you start driving.

You can take drivers at, but your voters' responsibility and your right to vote starts at the age of 16 and a half, all the way to 17.

You do not have to wait till you're 18.

And you've made that possible, Madam Clerk, you and your entire team.

There's nothing that we've needed.

We've had all of the applications.

If they do want to do a paper application, they do that.

If not, we do it online with them.

So thank you for that.

Thank you for making sure everybody can vote.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Uh, member Santiago Romero, close to the case.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I'll keep this brief.

Good morning, Madam Clerk.

Good morning.

Just wondering if we have a language access plan for the polling locations that we know will need them come up coming up this election.

We do.

We absolutely do.

We'll have a um bilingual poll worker at every one of those polling locations, and they'll be identified with by their t shirts.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Are you working with us this year?

I you know I will.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr.

I just want to say thank you all for the time you've given us.

And remember, there are free bus rides on election day.

Free bus rides on election day the entire day, not just until the polls are open, but all day long.

People can ride the bus for free, and they don't have to show that they're going to the polling.

They just get on the bus.

It's free rides on election day.

Absolutely.

Um, and and and remember, we're here to support you as you go through this very fun game, friendly competition of getting the vote out.

We want to throw you a great big barbecue picnic, party, whatever you want to call it at our expense with t shirts for getting your constituents out to vote.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Thank you as well, Lam Clerk.

Thank you and your team, as always.

And we did kind of pivot a little bit to the young folks who are in the room.

I'm going to uh come to you after I recognize these young folks.

What a uh powerful transition this is as we talk about voting and uh young folks.

We've got these young folks who are uh with the summer nights program, uh also known as Knights of Promise.

Y'all give them a round of applause, please.

We got anytime we got young folks in the auditorium led by Pastor Lance Pittman, um, who is um the pastor of First Praise Church of 17 years in District One.

Uh, Pastor Pittman, you want to come forward to say a couple words about these young folks.

Now see, they all have have documents in front of them.

Uh, we want to make sure we can capture those documents later on.

I know we don't have an opportunity to have all of their questions uh to be answered at this moment and give them a chance, but we want to make sure that we pull in as much as we can during this time frame.

Also a police chaplain as well.

Uh to the esteemed Detroit City Council uh President uh Tate, uh, who I met uh some months ago at a uh homeless um event trying to create housing for the homeless.

So thank you so much for the opportunity.

Um I had them get up here because uh some of them uh were hooting with the owls last night.

I keep telling them you can't hoop with the owls at night and soar with the eagles in the morning.

So um I thought it was important for us to be here today for them to kind of experience this process, but I want everybody to know I did get a couple of texts from uh some of them saying when when are we leaving?

So um I want um councilwoman uh Callaway to know her uh words that she just uh spoke.

Uh hopefully the young men uh heard exactly what you said.

And um one of the things that we can do to help with this process is to make it more exciting for them.

So when you started um speaking, it was exciting.

And so they perked up.

And so I appreciate that.

And we have to make sure that we're doing things uh for our young people to help them to get involved and to show them that these things can be exciting.

Now, I sat in because I'm a Detroit police chaplain.

I sat in on the uh shot spotter uh meeting, and I can tell you my eyes were nodding a little bit too.

So I want to say hats off to them for uh just being here.

So if you could just give them a hand.

And believe you me, if you were here at that meeting, it was a little bit more exciting.

So you probably would have probably would have had your eyes open a little bit more.

Anyway, uh, I want to uh just introduce my team.

Um we this program um uh is a youth mentoring and workforce development program, uh, helping the students to understand uh what uh industry is all about.

Um the university setting out talk about that in just a second, but an hour and a half of instruction of math and English um every single day.

And we've got two teachers, uh, my daughter Shekai Pittman and also Damari Young, if you stand.

He helps us every single day.

And then we've got uh Dorian that helps us uh and the barbers that help us to keep everything in order.

We just give them a hand.

Thank you so much for your support.

So there's been a lot of talk about uh team takeovers.

And I want to say that uh last week we had a team takeover of Trinity Health, and these teenagers went in and took over knowledge about learning how to be a nurse, learning how uh to be a radiologist, uh learning about the Defenji robot uh there at the facility, and they were able to volunteer on the farm where they were able to uh pick some flowers for their moms, and then also for patients there at the hospital.

So I want them to know I appreciate that.

Uh, this week is going to be civic and uh law enforcement.

They were at Macomb Community College on yesterday, learning about policing.

Uh, we're going to Detroit police headquarters this week.

Uh, next week is all things university.

So they're taking over the knowledge about how to be successful and to be productive citizens here in the city of Detroit.

I uh was born and raised here, went to Fitzgerald Elementary, uh, went to uh Emerson Middle Middle School and graduated from sweet Ford High.

And so I'm excited about coming back and giving back to the city and pouring into these young people one life at a time.

Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Thank you, me, Pastor Pittman.

And for the young man, don't leave just yet.

Um, you are here representing uh nights of praise, and we mentioned nights of praise several times.

We had uh Pastor Pittman come and say a couple of words, but we want to make sure that the record reflects that you were here personally as individuals.

So if you don't mind, if you can just come to the microphone, just say your name so that we know who was here for the record.

My name is David Brands.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Freddie Bennett.

Welcome, welcome.

Morning, my name is James Spears.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name's Xavier Pittman.

Good morning, welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Walter O'Neil.

Good morning, and welcome.

My name is Christopher Blackburn.

Welcome.

My name is Derek Williams.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Jeremiah Stiles.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Justin Dennis.

Good morning.

Good morning, my name is Darren Bram.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Darien Cover.

Morning.

Good morning.

My name is Carter Mason.

Good morning.

Welcome.

Good morning.

My name is Carlos Lovidi.

Welcome.

My name is Christian.

Good morning.

Come here.

My name is Christian Stoltz.

Yeah, he's the life of the party.

And I wanted them to say their names many times, you know.

One of the largest fears that are out here is public speaking, fear of public speaking.

And the more and more you do it, the easier it becomes.

It doesn't always become easy, no matter if you've been doing this for 17 years or so.

But I just wanted you to have the courage to come forward and let you know that it don't hurt.

It don't hurt.

And keep coming forward.

Keep using your voice verbally as well as when it comes to your vote.

And you heard that message that came earlier.

So proud of you, young man, and keep up the great work.

Thanks, Dr.

Pitt.

Thank you again, everyone.

Appreciate you.

If you stick around before into the last presentation, we'll also take a photo.

Okay.

All right.

Member Ben's going to pivot over to you.

That's a very special presentation.

Mr.

Chair.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Before you leave, don't leave, don't leave.

I do apologize.

Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to say good morning and thank you all for coming down here.

I know that these meetings are can be a little bit on the drier side.

But I will say I want you all to know that this is your government.

This is your city government.

And that is so important for you all to be a part of it to make it more exciting to make it more reflective of your needs.

Pastor Pittman, I will follow up with you because I represent District Seven.

We are creating a youth advisory council.

Would love if you have folks in D7 to be a part of that for the very reason of making sure that our government is reflective of what you all want to see out of.

So just want to say thank you for coming down and looking forward to working together.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One more phone.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Can I have the members of Allied Universal Security Court Officers?

Please come and join me.

Okay, maybe a round of applause.

Come on behind the podium.

So this is an opportunity to acknowledge exceptional professionalism, vigilance, and rapid response demonstrated by Allied Universal Security personnel in preventing what could have escalated into a potentially violent incident outside KMAC building on 30th of April 2026.

And while we often see our allied professionals in the building and the in KMAC, we don't often recognize them or hear what they do to protect us or the other offices.

And so these officers are not on the first floor screening residents.

These officers are on the seventh floor in the third circuit court.

And I'm not sure how many people know what happens in the third circuit court, but tensions and emotions can often elevate into a situation where you need to have security guards present to handle the situation.

And what we have here are officers who went above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the safety of the residents and the ability to continue doing business right here in KMAC.

So I want to describe the situation.

So following proceedings in the courtroom of Judge Melissa Cox, two litigants were being escorted under security precautions due to an earlier incident involving the litigants and members of the opposing party, meaning they were going to fight and had shown the intention to fight each other and to be violent.

So you needed professionals to make sure once they departed court that they were able to be kept apart.

During the escort, Allied Universal Security Officer Amy Ringley.

Miss Ringley, where are you?

All right.

Observed an unidentified female, believed to be associated with the opposing party approached to litigants.

The woman took photographs of the individuals and attempted to persuade them to meet her outside the building.

And I guarantee you, she did not want to meet them outside the building to talk about trading Pokemon cars.

Officer Ringley immediately intervened and insisted the litigants remain inside the facility for their safety.

The unidentified woman then made gestures simulating the firing of a handgun by pointing towards her own temple.

Shortly thereafter, an unidentified male wearing a black hoodie and black pants was observed by the litigants patting the right side of his waistband area as though concealing a firearm and exposing them what appeared to be a black handle pistol.

So now you have a woman who was prepared to fight and a gentleman she's been joined with who has a weapon.

Now recognizing the seriousness of the situation, uh Officer Ringley, promptly radio for assistance, allied universal site supervisors, Mr.

Cedric Wyckoff, who is a retired commander, 15 years from the DPD Chaplain Corps, and officer and supervisor Richard Merriff, who's also a retired police officer.

Mr.

Mirror, where are you?

And I'm not mistaken, uh Wayne County SWAT.

Yes, sir.

Yes.

So you chased you, you are a wolf that chases wolves, along with court officers James Creighton, who was unfortunately not here today, Carrie Roberts, Imondo Smith, and Salomon.

Also want all Sam Awe.

I apologize.

Responded immediately to the location, doing large part to their swift coordination and presence and professionalism.

The unidentified individuals are part of the area and were last seen walking through Hart Plaza towards the Detroit River Wall.

Detroit police department was notified and responded to the scene.

The two litigants were subsequently escorted safely without incident to the parking vehicle, and all was taken care of.

The actions by these Allied Universal Security personnel demonstrated outstanding situational awareness, teamwork, professionalism, and dedication to public safety.

Their decisive response helped prevent a potentially dangerous confrontation and ensure the safety of all involved.

And so with that, I'd like to give a round of applause to the professionalism that our officers to ensure that we're all safe here at KMAC.

And for that, we are prepared to present a spirit of Detroit award, and it is presented here with as an expression of the gratitude and esteem of the citizens of Detroit for Cedric Wyckoff.

And this is for all of the assembled uh security officers here.

And I'll just read a brief portion of it in recognition of exceptional achievement, outstanding leadership, and dedication to improving the quality of life.

The Allied Universal Security in preventing what could have been a tragic incident outside of KMAC on April 30th, 2026.

Your bravery, sound judgment, and wavering commitment to public safety, help protect countless citizens during a moment of great uncertainty.

And so it's really want to extend that.

Thank you and say this level of professionalism and ability and willing to go above and beyond the call of duty is huge, and we're just so honored and proud to have you all serving us and working on behalf of the residents of both Wayne County and the city of Detroit.

Round of applause, please.

But this is an honor.

And you have our promise.

We want to give a round of applause and thank them for that.

And then Mr.

President, that's the new Vincent.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

I was not aware.

I was not aware.

Thank you all for the work that you uh do on a regular basis, but certainly on that day.

Um, on behalf of the individuals who you helped save and continue to do so.

Thank you so much.

On the staggering we're gonna have to be close on this one.

Make sure we lift you up.

Thank you, guys.

Oh god.

You know what I mean?

Oh shit, you might have to double up.

Chris right.

Right.

So I like gentlemen smile.

Right here.

All right.

Okay.

Yeah, we're saying.

Right, right.

Right.

Um, let me see.

Do we got we have a quorum more?

Yeah, we got a we still have a quorum.

All right, madam clerk, there being no reconsiderations or unfinished business.

Uh, we shall proceed to the budget finance and audit standing committee.

Two reports from various city departments.

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

Two reports from various city departments.

The ten reports will be referred to the internal operations standing committee for the planning and economic development standing committee.

Two reports from the planning and development department.

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

Four reports from various city departments.

The four reports will be referred to the public health and safety standing committee.

We will now move to voting action matters.

Under other matters.

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

And for those who have not been a part of uh public comment, once your time is elapsed, please remove yourself from the microphone to allow the next person to speak.

Thank you always.

Uh anyone listening.

Thank you, uh Council Press for uh two minutes to speak.

Three one three, four four four nine one one four, three one three, four four four nine one one four three one three four four four nine one one four that number was made, you can remember it, and on Facebook forced subservience Cunningham.

So I want to talk about uh polarity on polarity is a condition of having two opposing contracting contrasting properties, charges or uh tendencies within a single system, objective or um concept schism schism is a formal division split or separate within a group organization movement.

Um I call it just being wishy washing.

I'm asking you to love or hate without schism and with action, hate uh gets more aggressive, more passionate uh action take it with hate as far as in my life, love more passive, and not so much inaction.

Hate uh gets more aggressive, more passionate uh action, take it with hate, as far as in my life.

Love, more passive, and not so much in action.

We need more of a love.

I'm asking you either hate or love without schism.

Please pray for Detroit Department of Transportation DOP.

Pray for the drivers, the mechanics, the riders, the leadership, the advocates.

Um, the bus service still doesn't show up on time, and they're still slow and late.

Um, I would like to do a bus ride along with you on these ride-alongs.

We give out low-income housing lists, we give out uh bus tickets, uh, and sometimes prayer.

And when I ask you to pray personally, I pray in the name of Jesus, Yahweh, you're sure.

Um, I always give God uh uh a hallelujah, the highest praise, and so be it.

So uh I pray for you, and you pray for me.

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Michelle Thurman, followed by Donna Kimbrough, followed by Betty Lyons.

Good morning, everyone.

A little bit closer to you so we can hear you.

This better?

Yes, ma'am.

Sorry, I'm sorry.

No, no words.

Um, good morning, everyone.

I reside at Garden View Estates.

Um, I've been at this podium a few times for a lot of revenge and harassment.

Um, just from the end resort, they they had two court cases against me.

They lost both cases with a judgment in my favor.

So now I'm dealing with all the harassment and revenge.

I'm a full-time social work student, and um, I'm a struggling adoption mom with a disabled child.

And that's taking everything away from my schooling and caring for my disabled daughter as well.

I recently had a review, they refused to give me documents that I reside at this property, my amount of rent, the whole nine yards.

They go through my garbage can.

I don't know what they searching for, then take their garbage and stick it in my garage, in which it's illegal dumping.

And I'm just trying to get this to stop.

This has been going on almost three years.

And if it was that simple for me to get up and move, I would do so.

And I've been searching, I know.

It's not that simple just to get up and move.

But this being, and I have great health issues, not to mention I'm caring for my adoption daughter as well.

So this is taking a lot from her and me and my schooling.

I'm trying to graduate, and it's hard for me to even think about school harassment and revenge as coming from Garden View Estates.

Continue.

Thank you.

So, as I mentioned, we won't be having comments until after all of the public comments, but there may be someone who's gonna come up and assist you, uh, noting that you are uh concerning the uh Garden View Estates.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Uh Donna Kimbrough.

Yes, followed by Betty Lyons.

I would want to Shelby Murphy.

I have a whole lot to say.

Um I don't know where to start from, but I'm gonna start from this.

I've been trying to reach out to the city officials.

I didn't I didn't call the mayor's office, I called the city office.

I call um Miss Gabriel office plenty of times.

I didn't call we reached out to the governor, and I'm addressing the situation because it's in Miss Gabrielle district.

What's going on?

I have a lot of information in my phone that people in this city official are defrogging in this building in the Wayne County building.

I've been reaching out to kind of two, four, seven news, trying to get help for these people over here in Southwest Detroit.

Only person that reached out and helped me was Michael Evans.

I don't know if y'all know, but he the only one came out to Southwest Detroit and helped me talk to these people over here.

I knocked on everybody's door.

I've been out here for a month and a half, almost two months, two months knocking on doors, talking to these people.

They told me Miss Gabrielle came out there knocking on the door, want people votes, want to vote for her, but I need her to put on her boots and go down on the ground and go talk to them.

People over there in Southwest Detroit.

I've been calling your office for three weeks.

Yeah, a lot of these people up here know who I am because I've been calling and calling, trying to help these people out here.

These people are getting robbed by your people in this building.

And in Wayne County building.

I got all this information about these people in this building that they're doing playing defaults.

So, Miss Gabrielle, you need to get up, put your boots on, and go knock on them doors and see what your people are going through.

Because I am so tired.

I've been walking for three months.

Thank you, Ms.

Kimball.

I ain't going nowhere.

It's just my address is Kimbrough.

Our next speaker, Betty Lyons, followed by Shelby Murphy, followed by Kyle Kintella.

Those young people, just beautiful, beautiful.

Now, when they do what you encourage them to do, and they come and ask for a job, I don't want to see nothing of another color out of suburbia with their jobs.

When those kids do what you asked them to do, you do what you say you're gonna do, and stop lying.

And lying does come up, and it is true.

A lie can be true.

Next thing is this Munoz.

Y'all have allowed to accumulate hundreds of properties, and you sit back behind that old Dugan, that Mike Dugan, crook, corrupt, evil, satanic, and you sit there and didn't say nothing, and then you act like it just happened.

Even the people who just were voted in, I'm sure you must have followed what's going on in this city.

If not, then you don't need to be up there.

Also, that 600 million dollars that belongs to the Detroit residents.

I want that money, and stop giving it to that lawyer out in the suburbs.

Stop giving them all that money.

Birmingham and the rest of the places, don't do it.

You know you're wrong.

You're corrupt, and you sat behind that corrupt Mike Dugan, evil, the face of Satan and the voice of Satan.

I want our money and help Mr.

Miles and those people whose homes were taken from under them.

Did you know about that, Miss Moreno or whatever your name is?

They should be helped.

Thank you.

Next speaker, Shelby Murphy, followed by Kyle Kentala, followed by Char Woods.

Good morning.

Thank you for your time and attention.

I will be here until December at least with the information about worldly detriments of data centers.

55.6% of managed U.S.

honeybee colonies were lost in one year.

The highest rate since annual tracking began in 2010 and 11, and 14 points above the 14-year average.

75% of global food crop types depend on pollinators to some degree.

And now EMFs and data center expansions are another destruction.

Dying bees aren't just a bee problem, they're a mirror for our soil, food, and the artificial environments humans keep calling progress.

Data centers don't even need water to run.

There are other alternatives like immersion cooling systems that use synthetic fluid to cool the servers, dielectric coolants, closed loop systems that recycle coolant instead of constantly consuming water, dry cooling systems that use the air instead of evaporation.

They could even build them in colder climates.

What does your support for any of this say to us about you and how you feel about us?

Again, my seven-year-old niece Harper Joe is a child living near a data center.

If this is what is happening to bees, it can't be good for her health.

You said if if we save one child's life, two million dollars is worth it about shot spotting tech.

The potential of hundreds, thousands, and millions of child's futures are at stake here.

Are you promised something you can't tell us about that overrides one child's life, let alone millions on your decision?

If we continue building data centers, there will be nothing for these young people to vote for.

Excuse me.

Good morning, council.

After speaking last week, it has come to my attention that the data center policy is a bigger issue here in the city of Detroit, which is not shocking considering I watched the city and DTE uh rush, the solar field land grab with little to no public input.

Detroiters want a mayor and a city council who are for the people.

Nobody in the state of Michigan, nobody in the city wants higher DTE bills, wasted water, late and sound pollution, and displacement to build these data centers.

Lawyers from the Detroit Environmental Justice Law Center have informed me that 93% of politicians in the state of Michigan have taken money from DTE.

Have y'all taken money from DTE or no?

We're all clear there.

All right, so let's get DTE and billionaire corporations out of politics.

And that means you, Scott Benson.

Is it true that you have a working policy group comprised of investors, developers, and DTE contractors?

And that when FOIA was pulled, you ignored the request.

Whereas is that is that legal to ignore a FOIA request?

Who's writing the data policy here in Detroit?

It's my understanding also that council has passed a resolution for a moratorium on data center policies and permits for up to a two year for a two-year period, and Mayor Sheffield still hasn't signed it, and it's still sitting on her desk.

I know she's not here, but Mayor Sheffield, do the right thing.

If you're about the people, end this data and data center permits, and let's get some actual regulation on the books.

So please don't follow.

I please don't follow Governor Whitmer's data center footprints.

DTE can't even keep up with the current grid load.

Did District 2 not have a huge blowout during 100-degree weather where they had to bring in trucks to power our houses?

How do we expect DTE to keep up with data centers?

That just waste energy all day long.

Billionaire corporations have shown us time and time again they don't care about the people.

Can you please show us that you do?

Thank you.

Our next speaker, Shah Williams, followed by Josh Mann, followed by Mr.

Hello Foodish here.

I'm so happy you all decided to have both clerks here concerning illegal voting.

Okay, it's not the ballot, it's the illegal names on the IDs that get their voting registration car, the secretary of state office.

That's how we get all these illegal non-American citizens that's on the Detroit Police Department and ex-offenders that's on the force with fake banks.

This is nothing new.

So you all sit up here and have a show every week, like it's okay.

You are pro you are the problem.

You represent the city, you sit up and lie to us, you talk about integrity, accountability when you do not do comply to the laws, the constitution, the charter, none of that.

So clearly you all cannot handle the Detroit police department.

The LBI need to take it back because the last 13 years that it moved up in different departments.

I'm tired of going through this with these ex-offenders.

You got these loony tunes, you ex oh, drug dealers, killers, addiction problem with a weapon in a bash.

That's a real bad combination.

They out here impersonating police officers.

The man that writing, he collects ISS in his real name, Terrence Reynolds, but he's on the Detroit police department working at the third, and I too many bad eye officers at the third.

Michael's internal affair boss.

It's amazing what I see every day.

And let's talk about the city workers.

They continue to be on a social media platform when they operate in any street, any city official vehicles.

Stalking is illegal people.

I come down here all the time.

I don't come down here for you all to cash in.

I come down here to exercise my first amendment right.

And clearly, if you can't handle it, you shouldn't be working here.

Next speaker, Josh Mann, and a final in-person speaker, Mr.

Foster.

Good morning, everybody.

Uh are you guys our leaders or our politicians?

Because there is a big difference between a leader and a politician.

And hopefully, you're all leaders, because that's what we need in this city.

We're gonna forgive Munoz huge debt that's here for profit.

Mass amounts of real estate, and we're gonna be like, yo, let's forgive this, where we got residents, beautiful families that have been in this city for years, losing their houses, the overpriced taxes.

And we're not gonna forgive those debts.

But hey, if you're an investor that's got 300 plus properties, we'll wash a half a million for you.

It's like, come on, be leaders.

It's politicians, this district three, the concrete crusher.

My boy just lost his house to district three.

Now we're talking data centers over there.

It's like, what's the future of the residents over there?

The quality of life over there.

We should be anti-data center, anti-drone flock deliver or Amazon delivery drones.

That's a intrusive.

This concrete crusher, that's horrible.

It's like, let's be leaders, not politicians, because that's what we need is proper leadership in here.

And we shouldn't have CVI groups like gangster Pastor Mo coming in here, even being able to voice his opinion with his group.

If you're a paid city employee, a CVI group, your your voice shouldn't matter.

Leave that to the residents because you're on a payroll.

That isn't that isn't really right in my eyes either.

90 cities stopped LPRs.

Every week it goes up by about five numbers.

Can we please be in the first 100?

We want our city to be the best in the city because it is, and we're about to ruin that.

We want to set ourselves apart to make other people move here because of how amazing it is.

But we're ruining that with data centers with ALPRs, with now we got Motorola cameras that we're about to budget in on these cops.

So what are we gonna have?

Drones, ALPRs, cameras on their vests, cameras on the corners.

Thank you so much.

Final in-person speaker, Mr.

Foster.

Good morning to the uh president, city council.

Just a few things.

Um, well, I'm always grateful for the awards and different things like that.

Awards don't pay bills, they don't provide for my family.

They don't put food on my table.

These past five years, I've watched you all get people out of out of prison.

Less than a year being in prison, they get a hundred thousand, 140,000 job a year.

Not just as a citizen, but as a combat veteran.

I just don't understand the neglect here.

When we talk about 16.1, our community education commission.

I spoke about that before.

I don't know why it continues to get on our agenda if it's not affecting all of our youth in our city.

If all of our kids can't affect or have access to gold line, then none of them should be getting these type of things on a year-to-year basis, right?

Furthermore, the director of the community and neighborhoods is also on the board for the community education commission.

So to have that type of nexus there where one have already displayed a loyalty to one particular group of people.

How can they take on a role to be inclusive to everybody, right?

Or is it personal or was it um as a consequence of being loyal to people, right?

We have to get that stuff out of government and put the best people in place to give us the best result.

When I look at 2020 and 2024, there has been a significant rise in gang violence, right?

We can't turn our eyes from it.

These people have been around for a couple of years.

They've been getting bonuses throughout the years, four times a year.

There's no excuse for why we are in the place we're in right now with the money that we have spent and allocated to these organizations, right?

Uh watching uh read in the newspaper, one of the gentlemen repeat name near Burbatum, what he heard.

And so I offer you all the either hire Mr.

Foster or have these people contact me and get the information that they need.

How many callers did we have and who do we have first?

Our first, we have 17 callers online with our first caller being caller ending in 169.

Caller ending in 169.

The floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Hello, can you guys hear me?

Yes, sir.

Great.

Um, thank you for praying for Brother Cunningham.

Let's banking Cunningham and less banking Cunningham and more banking cunning ham.

Um, 313, 444, 9114.

Um, yes, that number was made so you guys can remember it.

This past Friday, Cunningham gave our ice water and bus tickets, thanks, and parts of councilwoman Waters office.

Um, Miss Clover also helped in part honorable honorable councilman Denzel.

I think that Chantel Watkins Sheffield gave a donation.

She is a lead at DAVO.

When helping Cunningham, God looks out for you.

Thank you for my time.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Next caller is caller ending at 534.

Caller ending in 534.

The floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Carla, are you there?

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

Yes, sir.

Next caller is going to be Betty A.

Varner.

Ms.

Betty A.

Varner, floor is yours, two minutes.

General public comment.

Good morning to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Betty A.

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

But today I'm on this call advocating for myself.

First, I want to thank uh Poe Tim, uh Coleman Young and his team for uh trying to help me with my problem where my um fence and my walkways would stammered from the uh sidewalk program.

Now I appreciate the mayor, uh Sheffield's program and getting resident sidewalks repaired, but the major uh construction company dammit my walkways.

I had three walkways, they lifted them up, I tore them up, and they only replaced one.

They have damaged my fence.

Uh because of uh the help from Poe Tim Coleman Young's team.

I was able to talk to a Miss Parker, uh Director Bunwitch, Run Riches.

I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name correctly, secretary.

Uh I spoke with her yesterday for the second time, and she said my information was forwarded to someone who was over the sidewalk uh program, and they have not responded.

Uh when I was notified that my property, my sidewalk was going to be replaced.

There was uh information left on my door handle stating that if there was any damages, they would be corrected within four weeks.

They worked on they started working on my program.

I mean, on my uh sidewalk June 8th.

Now it is June.

What?

I mean, not July.

They started working on my program June 8th.

Now it is July 21st.

Okay, usually I'm here advocating for other people.

I should have peace.

I should not have to be doing this.

I want my property to look a certain way.

I want that.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is black bag.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes.

General public comment.

Can you hear me clearly?

Hello, can you hear me clearly?

We can hear you, caller.

Your time starts now.

Okay.

The gig is up, James.

Now I know what's going on with you and Conrad and Warren and Solomon.

Now I'm gonna put it out here on public record because I'm outside, outside, outside with it now.

I'm uh I got a 46-year reputation of being stand-up 100 in and around Detroit, and all the monikers that you heard me say to you are the truth.

Now, your plan to get Mary Sheffield the mayor of the city of Detroit to either resign or get removed from office, not gonna work.

Comrade trying to tie me into something that I don't do, and I got a reputation.

People know I got a F, a felony.

I wear mine like a badge of honor, though.

You don't know no other felon is gonna tell you that.

I wear mine like a badge of honor.

I did what I did, and we'll do some more if need be.

But see, this is I'm in stepping into the public realm now, so I gotta clean it up.

So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn the city of Detroit, not just upside down, all the way around.

And you gotta get out Nini's way.

Meene got to get what she wants.

She's going to get what she wants.

I have ensured that.

Everything spread throughout the country of America.

So if something wants to befall me, it's still coming out.

You understand what I'm saying?

James E.

Tate Jr.

X, soon to be exident of the Detroit City Council.

You got my word on that.

And I'm black back for real for real, for real for real.

Next caller, please.

Cindy Dara, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

May I be hurt?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Uh I just want to say that you better not go against the clerk because you might got might not get re-elected or cheated in one of the others.

So I ran to promote approval voting.

And they said I didn't sign some paper when I turned my petitions in, so they didn't count the signatures.

Then I signed up to be a write-in.

And I was telling everybody on public comments what the deadline was and what they had to do to be a write-in to have their votes counted.

Then I found out after deadline that they said I didn't sign some paper to be a write-in, so I didn't get my votes counted.

I was running to promote approval voting.

So we don't have this vote splitting like we did for the president in 2020.

And for the mayor, nine people running for the mayor.

They don't even show up with the same uh public comment or public affair to for their buttons to tell people vote.

Uh, you know, well, right now I say we got a right to vote, but we got a right to know too.

And you all are not helping people to know because you refuse to put the transcript of our meetings up online at night where people could skim them and put their own public comment up online so everybody can see it and even be identified if they want to communicate with each other.

You close the chat.

And now I would say I used to tell people years ago, vote or get a gun.

Well, I think if you don't start getting better democracy, that's what's gonna happen.

I'm working for a peaceful change because I don't want authoritarian government if we had a violent revolution, but that's what you're leading to by the poor government we have here, and it's worse government in the whole country.

We had the worst air, too.

The worst composition.

Next caller.

Next speaker is gonna be Dr.

Denise Darnell.

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

Good morning.

Can I be heard?

Yes.

Okay, thank you all for the voting presentation, and to my city council member, Angela Whitville Callaway for the information regarding 16 and 17-year-olds.

My grandson is 15 and a half years old.

That was a great Doncast last evening presented by Wayne County.

Uh D DOT's Robert Kramer did a good job giving the facts on how the proposed millage on August 4th ballot will directly benefit Detroit.

For starters, about 8 million will come back to D Dot.

The average homeowner will pay as little as four to eight dollars per month, of course, depending upon your assessment.

And this is all about making an informed decision.

Oakland and Macomb County have a regional transit system, and the millage will improve ours.

It will have new and extended smart uh routes to and from the city into other communities within Wayne County that people depend on.

For example, the Plymouth Road to West Lavonia, Plymouth and Canton, seven mile to Lavonia, Northfield Township, etc.

Another great addition that came out last night will be micro transit minivans to go where buses don't go in order to expand availability.

Residents were invited to call in and ask questions and make comments.

Brother Cunningham called to support it.

Another gentleman called to say that it'll definitely help him save money from paying Uber to go to the doctor out in Livonia.

And then Betty A.

Varner offered a resource table at her neighborhood event August 4th.

I mean August 1st.

That's what it's all about.

Residents working together to support each other.

Lastly, I, Denise Darnell Brown, am on the August 4th ballot for Wayne County Precinct 203 delegate to the county convention and would appreciate your consideration and vote for those in Northwest Detroit.

God bless you all for what you do.

That's my comment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is going to be Jacqueline.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Are you there?

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

Next up we have replant the trees, please.

All right, 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.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Good morning, council.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I want to first thank uh Angela Whitfield Callaway for all her help and helping me get home repairs.

I want to thank the property tax reform ordinance for helping people save their houses, keep from being illegally over taxing.

And the council members who voted in that reform ordinance was for she wrote women.

The women are the ones who voted it in.

The men didn't.

Councilmember Angela Wither Calloway.

Mary Sheffield, Councilmember Mary Waters, Councilmember Letitia Letitia Johnson, and Member Council Member Gabriella Santiago Ramiro.

She wrote, we need you to make sure the property tax reform ordinance is fully implemented.

You did the hard work.

Now we need you to do the equally hard work of making sure it gets implemented, fully implemented.

Thank you for your vote.

And please urge the president, the um mayor to also help in that effort because we still have a chief assessment officer who is impeding the progress that we're doing.

We need a fully um we need a fully recognized and authorized chief assessor who has passed the MMAO um uh test.

And we also want you all to work in tandem with the new mayor to get the property tax reform ordinance fully implemented.

And we thank the other uh members of the council for working with them.

We want to thank you.

Have a blessing.

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is Mr.

William M.

Davis.

Mr.

William M.

Davis, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Good morning.

Can I be heard?

I guess it's still morning.

Yes, sir.

Okay, I'd like to start off by saying that uh I think that I enjoyed most of the stuff that the clerk said, the clerk said about voting because we need more people voting.

Also, but the city attorney also is involved in some voter suppression by you know, like when I started when I first became a precinct delegate over 10 years ago, I could walk to my precinct at um McKenzie.

Now I have to go but 3.1 miles to go to Samsung Web.

I have to go through the rest of District 7, through most of District 6, almost into District 7.

No one should have to go over a mile to vote.

I think that suppress a number of people my age like to go vote in person and they like to walk to the polls.

You know, we can't you can't have seniors and disabled people walking three miles or two miles.

I can see it should you should be able to vote within a mile of where you live at if this place is available.

And it's over a dozen different places to vote in my area, but I have to go three miles.

Also separately.

You know, I think it's troubling the fact that we have health department employees, you know, going to a DI, you know, D uh WDIV event tomorrow, you know, to help pass out our resources to people in Oakland County.

You know, we should, you know, don't get me wrong.

I think if we can help the county, we can, but first we should be helping the countless number of people in the city of Detroit.

We should be using our resources to take to other to the richest county in this in the state to do stuff for them in Southville.

We should be making sure our dollars are staying in Detroit as much as possible.

You know, so the health department has a history of doing a number of questionable things like that.

Uh also 8.4 on the on the agenda.

You know, that that makes me think about the fact that maybe some city uh former workers should think about looking into the fact that we pay money that we should be getting.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next call.

Next up, we have 1244.

All right, Carla, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Good afternoon.

I'm calling about the data centers.

We do not need any data centers that are not going to bring in revenue to the people of the city of Detroit or give discounts for the DTE.

No more solar panels, fields that are not uh bringing in revenue to help the citizens of the city of Detroit.

And um I would like to uh speak about the um reparations meetings.

When will they resume so that we can note the status of our reparations over the citizens of the city of Detroit?

Also, I would like to know also about uh getting well.

I'm still working on the park.

This is not a May May Barry.

Um thank you, uh, Mrs.

Miller, once again, or uh you um looking into more uh all the information that I've sent to you about the park uh being renovated and not just for the beautification of the Martin Luther King Memorial Park that sits on uh West Grand Boulevard.

And I thank you for your time on part of your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, caller, please.

Next up, we have owner Popel.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

We have 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.

Yes, sir.

Next up, we have caller inning in 301.

Caller ending in 301.

The floor is yours.

You have two minutes, general public comment.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Good afternoon.

Uh, this is Richard Clay.

I'm the president of Detroit Advocates of the Blind, the city's premier and largest organization, uh, advocacy organization for blind people.

And I wanted to let people know about a couple of events that we are hosting.

Um, we have our annual fundraiser, um, which is going to be a sneaker ball.

Sneaker ball is exactly what it kind of says it is.

Uh formal suits, people dressed up, formal suits, gym shoes, the five gym shoes on the bottom, all to have a good time, raise funds.

It will be happening August 1st uh at the Monty Humphrey Humphrey uh ballroom um from 5 to 10 p.m.

That's a Saturday.

Uh you can get tickets uh uh by calling uh 3130632.

Tickets are 70, and of course, you while I'm kind of familiar with the causes that we do with the blind and low vision community.

We have a partnership that we're now playing gold ball.

Uh the city of Detroit Parks and Rec.

Um, director Keith Flournoy.

We've been working with them.

We now have Gold Ball, but we're playing at Far Well Recreation Center on Mondays, Roberto Clemente on Thursdays, and coming up soon at the Helen Moore.

It's open to the entire community, but definitely for blind and low vision people.

Um and we have a tandem biking event August 22nd uh from 12 to 4 p.m.

at the Detroit River Walk.

Uh, that'll be starting at the Detroit Wheels biking shop.

For any uh information on any of these, you can again call 313 723 0632.

Um, and again, Detroit Advocates of the Blind.

Uh, you can also call 313-247-3301, uh, and we will help you uh help to support uh this community.

Thank you, sir.

Who do we over next to the queue?

Our next speaker is going to be Sabrina White.

All right, Ms.

White, floor is yours.

Two minutes.

Okay.

Um good afternoon, counsel.

The council in the whole.

I have three things.

Um I wonder if the the council of the whole can pass a resolution to stop the candidates from lying.

And number two, I would like some information on the bat machine.

And number three, the most important to me is we have about five or six.

I stay in the whole village, um neighborhood.

We have about five or six homes, and one of them is a sex offender.

And I have grandchildren.

Had the neighbor not knocked on my door and told me that they was there.

It's about five or six of them.

I would like to know how do I go about see if all of these are zoning right?

And wasn't we supposed to send, wasn't the neighborhood supposed to receive some kind of uh information regarding these sex offenders?

I know they got to go somewhere, but they have a problem with them being on my block.

Could you my counsel uh person is council woman Miller?

I've called your office.

I left a message with your um secretary reader.

Uh could you please call me at Eric Code 248-794-2895 regarding the sex offenders?

That's four houses down from me.

And I yield back.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sure.

I'm glad you asked.

I preferred Versan at the uh activity question.

Uh Rita here's you loud and clear.

She will call you at the number listed to give you the information regarding the sex offenders.

Thank you very much.

All right, thank you.

Uh, who you're next to the queue, Mr.

Bell.

Next caller is Zoom user.

Sorry.

All right, Zoom user, floor is yours.

Too many Zoom user.

Zoom user going once.

Zoom user going twice.

Zoom usually going three times.

All right, Zoom users, submit your question writing.

We're next to the queue.

Our next caller is going to be Darren McCleskey.

All right, Ms.

McCluskey, floor is yours.

Two minutes.

Good afternoon, council.

Okay.

I'm not gonna talk too much about solar today, but for voting.

I think every vote matters.

I don't think anyone's challenging that.

I think it's the concern.

Hold on.

Hold on.

Hold on, Ms.

McCleskey.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Can we start the clock?

Go ahead, Ms.

McCluskey.

Okay.

I don't think it's whether every vote matters.

I think everyone can is you know on board with that.

I think it's the thought that there's extra votes being counted that is the issue.

Um if 48% versus 51% of people participated in the last election, perhaps they didn't want to voice their opinion, or perhaps they were frustrated with what was going on by our prior president.

But anyway, I have vacant homes.

I get absentee ballots every election cycle for dead people.

I mean, it's really just a joke.

Um it's nice that you guys gave an award to the allied security person, but a few weeks ago there was police chief stating he was proud that his handcuffs looked like new.

I mean, that's just a horrible way of bragging about not doing your job.

Um, and then I'll leave you guys with this.

Kyle, who I respect um who spoke earlier today, and I are a hundred percent politically opposed.

We're on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Our lifestyles are completely different.

And there's one thing that we agree on.

Solar and data centers, the way they're being done in Detroit is completely wrong.

Completely wrong.

It's it's like it's wrong on both sides of the spectrum.

I mean, taking private property for solar panel farms, and now you're gonna use it as a template for data centers.

Data centers should go on Zug Island.

You guys should work with River Rouge and maybe even e-course and get the U.S.

steel plants that are now in control of Japanese investors.

You guys should work with those entities to get data centers there.

That is the one place in Michigan where they would improve what's what's there.

So why don't you guys work on that?

Thank you.

Next caller, please.

Our final caller before going to our callers in the queue is gonna be Miss Marguerite Maddox and Scarlet.

Scarlet, the floor is yours.

General public comment.

Are you there?

Ms.

Manik, are you there?

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

Yes, sir.

Going to our queue now.

First caller in the queue is gonna be replant the trees, please.

All right, caller, the floor is yours.

You have two minutes.

General public comment.

Call are you there going twice?

Are you there going three times?

Unfortunately, we're gonna have to move on.

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

Next caller, please.

Our next caller is gonna be owner Papa.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public comment.

Um, it's afternoon.

Good afternoon, Carolyn.

I be heard.

Yes.

Thank you.

Um, yes, the clerk coming in today.

Um I'm I'm surprised she wasn't afraid to come in and give her uh testimony.

And I'm interested why she gave some type of um she needs to explain what she meant when she spoke to uh Miss Signifies with Miss Romero that they pay well.

Is she she's paying for votes in the sixth district, I guess.

Is she she's paying for votes in the sixth district, I guess, and um uh Miss Councilman McCampbell, are you aware that there are no um uh um air filters or air monitors in the 7th district, and we have all of them in six.

We have one by the uh Stallannis plant, and the rest of them are all in six, so she's the only one that deserves to have her air quality monitored when it came about because we went to Eagle to demand that Eagle do something about Usher oil that is in the 7th district that was polluting the air, and um several politicians were there and they ended up you know extending what Usher Oil was doing.

So in my community, I am disrespected, and the same way you disrespect uh elder mother uh lions.

You may not believe under you know you may not agree with what she says, but she deserves uh respect, and I would like to know what is 8.1.

Shouldn't we have a hearing on 8.1?

Um, not just leave it up to you guys, and districts were uh they are meant to divide Detroit, and they have accomplished their goals.

We have people that are just advocating for themselves, and let me say this to you, councilman Benson.

You have never found an issue that you didn't want to exploit your own people on.

You don't care about your own people.

There's also a board that should be set according to the charter called a citizens review council.

Why don't you see it?

Next caller, please.

Caller, the floor is yours.

Two minutes, general public house.

Yes, may I be heard?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, well, thank you.

I signed in as replant the trees, please, but you weren't unmuting me in time to speak, and that needs to stop, folks, because people were playing games with me on the zoom in the Doncast last night, also.

Um, I would like to say vote no on the Wayne County Transit Millage because Wayne County and the city of Detroit should have been budgeting for better transit already.

Also, uh Cindy's right, there's some problems at the election department at the last election, they were not giving out up-to-date write-in candidate list.

That happened uh several times, and that's unacceptable.

Um also member Waters Miller and Young.

Will you please do an investigation of the Allied security guards that lied to me?

A couple of them battered me, falsely imprisoned me in an elevator, and were trying to throw me out, and they're engaging in a code of silence with Wayne County Sheriff Commander Hardwick because they still won't tell him who had the decency to investigate.

And Mr.

Cedric Whitecoff looks decent.

I mean, I spoke to him the other day, and he saw the video.

I showed him some of the video of the people abusing me in November.

But oh no, the chief judges won't look into it, even though they have uh supervision over them and whoever likely called security on me.

So I'm getting a little tired of it.

Replant the trees.

Yes, the people know that there's solar plan is disgusting.

You didn't tell us the whole story about how you're gonna do it.

You cut down acres and acres of trees for DTE, and then you wonder why we're suffering bad air quality.

Where's the state of emergency like they got in California after the solar warehouse caught on fire after people were tweaking the panels?

And you guys didn't do an environmental impact study.

So we could have solar fires here too.

And um, you also didn't tell everybody the blight definition you were using.

You cannot eliminate that kind of blight.

Our final caller will be Miss Maggie Maddox and Scarlet.

Margaret Menace Scarlet, the floor is yours.

General public comments.

We fool it to get used to that I did that.

I'm running.

I'm not building me.

I'm learning.

And the ladies.

And we get it.

But the rent.

Three.

Oh, then you figure out.

But we're giving that.

Share please.

And I'm not the button machine.

He at we at common.

You die.

Yeah, I am getting much.

Thank you so much, Miss Manna.

Uh that takes us to the end of our public commenters for the day.

Uh colleagues.

Are there any remarks?

Start with member Santiago Romero, followed by member McCampbell.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I did just want to for the record um clear up any um misunderstandings about our office not working with a resident that came in uh regarding the deed fraud.

Um, I did mention that there were um issues concerning promises being made to tenants, um, being told that if they live in in their property for certain amount of time, they would be able to buy the property.

Um, we are investigating this, we are working on this, we have been working on this um with the young woman, and uh we are we are trying to help.

Um, I do believe I saw somebody maybe from member Waters office speak with her afterwards.

Thank you so much.

Um, I believe my at-large members, um, young and waters um both have had a lot of experience in our office when um we are not able to necessarily answer the question or solve the problem, we are connecting them to agencies um that can help.

Um, but oftentimes uh because we're not able to solve the problem, people are upset at us and say that we're not helping.

That is not the case.

Um, so to my at-large members, we are happy to give you guys updates on what we have done.

Would love your help because I was just told by my staff um that they went to her once again to help, and she does not want to speak with my staff.

Um, so now she's just being dismissive of my team.

Um, and I would love you your help because we do want to be sure that we are able to help our residents um that are experiencing this.

As I mentioned, this has also happened uh to residents in core city and living around Martin Luther King homes.

Um, so it is a problem.

We are working on it.

Just wanted to make that very clear, and also uh make it clear that our office is knocking on doors every year.

Uh, our office since I started uh we do wellness tracks throughout the whole district to make sure that our residents are good, we give them our information on how to call and email our office so that we're able to help.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you, member McCambo.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just want to point out was said that we do not have air monitors and D7.

We have five at least in the district, and then one at Adams Buck.

So I believe Ms.

Hughes mentioned aviation around that area.

We have air monitors at Schaefer and Joy.

We have Air Monitors at Joy Road at the Joe Lewis Greenway.

So just want to make that note.

You can view those monitors on the Wayne County website and also on Just Air's website as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Discussion.

Member Benson, followed by Member Cal.

Right, thank you.

And I continue to be just so encouraged that people are engaged and really want to know more about the data center process and what we're doing to write policy.

And so just by way of quick governance education piece, zoning ordinances are written by our city planning commission, not by city council.

By the state enabling act, as well as a city charter, the city planning commission is responsible for recommending zoning ordinance text amendments to Detroit City Council.

At that point, Detroit City Council then takes those, has its own public hearing, and then approves zoning orders, text amendments.

Right now, data center uh policy is being written by our city planning commission.

I strongly suggest if you are have passion or really engaged in this issue, go to the planning commission, go to the public hearing, call the city planning commission and let them know your feelings.

You coming here right now is not part of the policy writing process.

Make sure your voice is heard, go to the public hearings, engage the planning commission.

And then when that recommendation comes back to city council, come here and make sure your voice is heard.

Go to the public hearing.

Coming here now is not impacting the public policy process.

Go to your planning commission, which is writing policy as we speak.

Just a little bit of government 101.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Member Callaway.

Um thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I don't know if we have anyone on from the law department, um, BC.

I don't know who should come on, but this is relative to the 8,000 um power outages in District 2 and District 1 last week.

It impacted several of the community, um, several of the senior buildings in my district, district two, and we didn't know where to go.

Um, I was just reading an ordinance in the Detroit City code that says that um the city is mandated to have alternative emergency energy systems in senior citizen housing to decrease the probability of injury or death during electrical interruptions.

Um, I don't know if that happened last week because we had quite a few um senior citizens from their buildings reaching out to my office because they had no um lights, no electricity, no air, elevators were out, and I want to know what systems do we have in place to um to address this.

I'm reading the ordinance, and um we're supposed to have emergency generators on hand at these senior buildings.

That's not happening.

So I I'm kind of frustrated.

I don't know who to talk to.

Uh the folks are calling me, and I don't know who we talked to.

Is it um I've gotten in touch with DTE?

They did bring out some large generators and parked them in some spaces, but that was pretty much after the fact.

Um, so is there an ordinance or not?

And what's the enforcement of it?

And what do we do in the future to um assist our seniors who um experience these power outages?

And these power out outages are happening more regularly.

And how do we even hold DTE accountable?

I don't know the answers.

And and the folks were calling me last week.

So is there anyone from BC or the law department who could come on and answer some of my questions and address some of my concerns regarding the lack of generators, backup generators when our own ordinance, our own city ordinance requires us to do so, but that's not happening.

So I don't know who to hold accountable.

I don't know who to talk to.

Um, and I'm I'm speaking on behalf of the seniors in in district two and all other residents, and probably across the city, but especially the 8,000 who had the power outage in district one and district two last week.

Mr.

Chair.

So, Member Callaway, it always helps if you give me a heads up and I can make sure that those individuals are present and have that information available, uh, if known in advance.

I know this incident took place last week and it did affect our two districts heavily, heavily.

My personal home included.

Um I don't know if they have that information for you at this moment.

Um, I would ask if you would provide that uh those questions in a memo form that way we get everything answered as we move forward and also pull in uh LPD as well.

Um, but I would certainly support uh the motion for a assignment to provide that information to you, if you will, and we will make sure that we'll have someone here uh next week for certain uh so that they can uh come publicly.

But I we did not have their conversation with them in in advance.

Well, that that is my that that is a motion, uh, Mr.

Chair, because it's it's it's important.

Um, because it's probably gonna happen again, but we need to have our systems in place and our emergency procedures in place.

So I'll know how to support the folks who live in my district, and you'll know how to support your folks.

I mean, you didn't have lights, I didn't have lights, and and it was huge.

It was a huge 8,000 residents were impacted, and a lot of my seniors.

So um, I certainly will make the motion to bring in BC to to have the assignment go to BC law and maybe LPD regarding one uh what does the ordinance say regarding the backup generator systems and our um senior buildings?

And and and I just read it, and then number two um what is our um our emergency plan when there are power outages in the city to the magnitude that we had in two districts only 8,000 residents?

Um, and if I need to make another motion, I will, but that is my motion at this time, and that is the assignment to LPD, the law department, and BC.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

All right, there's a motion on the floor that will be followed up with a memo.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, then action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further?

Um, pro Tim Young, followed by member.

Yeah, I just had a question about um does BC or does someone from the city send a representative to the Michigan Public Service Commission?

Uh, I think that'd be very helpful in terms of what it's for us to be informed in terms of what's going on, what their plans is, um, how they address issues.

I don't know if that there's ordinance already out that's passed, but I think that'd be something I would really like to know.

You know, do we sit, do we do we communicate you know these type of questions in real time to them so they understand what's going on, the impasse of what's going on?

And I also want to know, I don't know about for every senior citizen, but I also want to know what the impact would be for microgrids as well.

Um I think that's something you know, that's a more longer term solution.

That's not something that we should do short-term for emergency.

I think generators would be better, but for a long-term solution, I think that's something that we should suggest.

Uh, so I'm gonna make a motion to uh LPD uh to assign to them a question about do we have uh representation um in front of the Michigan Public Service Commission?

Is that within our ordinance?

And also are there plans for microgrids or certain senior citizen buildings, just make sure we do have these power outages, which we will have in the future.

Um, will they be protected?

So I make motion.

Can I make a friendly amendment uh to also refer that to the administration?

Yes.

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

Are there any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

And we do have um the chief of staff, uh Bowser here who's gonna be coming up and giving an update on the air quality.

So he's hearing all the questions right now, and uh I'm sure as he stepped forward, he may have some responses to some of this information of questions that you have as well.

And Mr.

President, I'm not saying we can do this now, but I think later on in the future, I don't know if it'll be helpful if maybe either through uh a committee of the whole or through another process.

We may have somebody from DTE come down here and be able to answer some of the questions that we have about power outages and how they're going on and uh because I have some questions involving infrastructure and investment things and nature like that's for them as well.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, Member Miller.

Thank you.

Uh good morning.

Thank you, President Tate through the chair.

I wanted to respond to the commenter regarding the Munaz properties.

Well, I know this has been an ongoing issue, it seems for many years.

I refuse to pardon anyone, anyone who takes advantage of a situation or give a sweet deal to who is not current on taxes and has a million dollars worth of blight tickets accumulated in one year when our residents cannot do even a third of that.

Our residents lose their houses daily right here in this room, month away yearly right here during the tax season, and are not given a reprieve.

And I can say when it comes to taxes, compliance, bite, and things like that.

Our residents are constantly overlooked, they're constantly taking advantage of and disrespect it.

And it starts right here.

So to the caller for the person that talked about the newness properties, I will say that I would continue to advocate for our residents.

I will continue to uh advocate for fairness because no one is above the law, and it is our responsibility to make sure that we not give sweet deals to people who do not deserve it, and that is where I stand.

Also, um, to my um colleague when it comes to zoning, I am a zoning advocate.

I will tell you for many years, I was the only one, one single person sitting in on city planning meetings, sitting in on HDC meetings, sometimes till 11 o'clock at night alone, representing my own neighborhood.

It is a task that we have to endure before we complain, because in district five, we send out letters of awareness for different things that are coming, and I refuse to hear anyone say what we have not done when it comes to zoning.

I will be inviting you to the many meetings to have your say before it gets to this body.

There's so many opportunities to have your say before it gets to this body.

It's it's it's too many opportunities.

Um, and regarding to all the uh the next commoner regarding flock surveillance, that is a hard subject to to tackle when you have residents that say they want safety and they want to feel protected.

So I often ask residents do you go to the airport because you're under surveillance and they're watching you.

Do you go to the gas stations?

Because there's a green light that's in real time that's actually recording you and your license plate.

They are all over our country.

I read a book in high school called Big Brother.

I encourage you to read it.

It seemed like we're stepping into that age, but we have to be honest about where we're being watched, and it's just not in the city of Detroit, it's just not here with the cameras, and I receive daily emails.

I have a uh a meeting coming up with someone to discuss not wanting to be watched, but our residents say we should be supporting that.

We're talking about cameras on our police vests when we have a BOPC that's constantly asking for that surveillance when police are considered being negligent or just defiant when it comes to the rules that they're supposed to adhere to.

So either we want the footage when we want it or we don't.

We cannot have it both ways.

So I'm asking everyone to dig deep when we're dealing with those upcoming issues when it comes to communication and surveillance.

I do know that there are negative things regarding that, especially for African Americans, where that data is stored, who keeps it, who has who has it.

I mean, I'm asking right now, even with the data centers, as we continue to tap into our Google Drive, our chat GTP, where are those entries going?

Who's gonna have access to it?

Will it be our government?

So those are things that we have to be conscious of, but there's so many different sides when it comes to the whole entire communication surveillance cameras situation that sometimes we're actually caught in the middle, and it's hard to make everyone happy.

But we would do our best in district five, and I look forward to having a future conversation with anyone that would like to attend our coffee hours and our community meetings to get a more in-depth um conversation, so I can make wise decisions representing our district.

Thank you to the chair.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, this is going to be an assignment to LPD through yourself, Mr.

Chair.

There's been a lot of conversation about solar um farms and data centers.

Um I know where the solar farms are, but I don't know where the data centers are, and I understand we have a number of them in the city of Detroit.

So through yourself, Mr.

Chair, to um LPD.

Um I am asking for a report on all of the data centers located in the city of Detroit with the company name, the um the start date of them, the locations of them, and um any other relevant information to them being located in the city of Detroit.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Okay, so uh thank you, uh Mr.

President.

So um, I've always said that uh residents should have should be um shareholders um in uh DTE.

But um today I want to make a motion to ask um LPD to research and do a complete resolution that will go to the governor and the state legislature uh asking them to allow a representative from a major city like Detroit to be a member of the Michigan Public Service Commission.

There's a motion on the floor, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

That action shall be taken.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further from colleagues?

See none, Mr.

Chair.

Yes, ma'am.

Mr.

Chair, I just um would also um through yourself, sir to LPD.

I want to just add, and I'm gonna we're gonna send the memo, but I'd like to also add to you, Mr.

Whitaker and your team, um, the size of the data centers as well as who owns them again, the size, location, etc.

And we will put that in writing.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh as I mentioned earlier, we do have the uh chief of staff on the mayor's office uh present along with the uh health director, uh Z.

So come on forward, please.

Um we get an update on our air quality concerns in the city of Detroit.

And we know that the uh city of Detroit is not the originator of this major uh health air quality concern that we have been under, uh, but we are unfortunately having to deal with it in our residents even more so.

So I wanted to give you an opportunity to give folks an update on where things are and what to expect as we move forward uh during this particular week.

Uh good morning through the chair.

Um wanted our health uh officer to provide some uh air quality updates, and I'll provide more so the operational side, what the city is doing to respond and what we're looking to uh kind of improve in the future.

Um hand it over for the actual air quality update.

Thank you, Chief of Staff Bowser through the chair, uh council.

It's good to see you all.

Um I wish there were better circumstances, but the reality is issues like this uh are unfortunately the new normal, uh, especially related to the heat that we're dealing with and how that exacerbates air quality.

So just want to give you all a sense of uh where we are from a public health standpoint with air quality on the evening of July 15.

That was a Wednesday, last Wednesday.

Uh, we got in touch immediately with the mayor's office and uh began you know, fork or taking a look at the forecasts uh for the upcoming day, Thursday.

Just for the public and for you all as well.

There's a Department of Emergency Preparedness in the Department of Health, and it's led by Dr.

Calvin Freeman, who does a fantastic job of sort of looking at the future modeling forecast for weather, heat, you know, uh uh cold temperatures in the winter time and air quality, despite the fact that it's not part of a lot of emergency protocols uh around emergency management nationally.

We, when we started, uh started taking a look at what that would look like for air quality because we recognize the reality of you know just the moment that we live in.

And so we don't have a formal activation for air quality, but I do want the council and the public to know that the posture that we've had for the last six days has basically been an emergency posture related to air quality, which means that we have been disseminating information to the public on you know a regular basis.

We've been in touch with partners across the city and also with you all uh related to the distribution of masks that we deployed on Thursday.

Uh, and then also uh thanks to the mayor's leadership, secured an emergency order on Friday, so that we have at all recreation sites across the entire city.

I know because I heard from several of you on Thursday.

Can we get at this site and that site?

Uh we were most concerned on Thursday with equity, making sure that all parts of the city were connected, and then on Friday, when we got the emergency order, we made sure that all the recreation centers had surgical masks.

Uh, that was because on Thursday and Friday in particular, we were dealing with unprecedented air quality in the hazardous range.

We haven't seen those numbers ever uh in the city of Detroit, at least since the modern the modern air quality monitoring program started in 1999.

And so that means that anything above 300 is considered hazardous.

As you all know, we were above 500, 600, and 700 in some parts of the city.

When you get to that level, it's it's it's hazardous for everyone.

Where we are right now is oscillating back and forth between unhealthy for sensitive groups and moderate.

Now I understand that that nomenclature uh means different things to different people.

And we always try to do a good job of customizing for those who have particular conditions like asthma, COPD, or those who are living through different circumstances in their neighborhoods.

And so where we are right now is the expectation that we should be in the moderate range uh going into today into tomorrow.

Air quality forecasts are notoriously unreliable.

The Canadian wildfires are still ravaging through Canada.

And so there is an expectation that the air quality won't return back to normal uh this week.

So we will still be in the sort of zero to 50 or 50 to 100 range.

That's the expectation.

But we're taking a look for the next 48 hours and basing our guidance on that.

And then there's a lot of stuff that happened behind the scenes on operations, and I'll hand it back over to Chief of Staff Bowser.

Thank you.

So anytime we do have an emergency like this, it does take a variety of different departments to be convened to actually create a uh an intervention.

And so as a result of, you know, the we've had a couple of things happen with the heat, storms, uh, the air quality.

We've had departments come together, uh, have generators, uh, respite, you know, we have communications um strategies created, we have education campaign masks and the like.

One thing that we're gonna be doing moving forward is actually having an internal sort of crisis cabinet that's created and making sure that you all are looped into that process.

So we can do that a bit better in terms of making sure that before the communication goes out to the public, you all know what the approaches are, and maybe we can even tailor those approaches to your district, or you all have uh feedback where we can actually make uh even more equitable decisions around resource allocation.

Um, and so with that, we're gonna have that cabinet that is convened anytime there is an alert, you all will be alerted as well.

And before you see messages going out via text, I mean we do have the ability to create mass text messages, as you saw, mass emails.

We have people on the ground for the senior buildings.

We do have an office of senior citizen affairs.

We need to make sure that we have a resource that, for example, seniors can call for these things so that you all are not getting flooded with um individual calls because that's not gonna help you know groups of people.

We need to make sure we have a larger resource for people to lean on.

And so you all will be involved in a planning process as we are addressing the issues that are created through these sorts of um you know, weather-related events or any other city emergency.

So we're gonna be convening that we're reaching out to your offices so that you can be a part of that as well.

Um, but as far as communication, as far as the approach that we use for these things that more than likely will be happening more often, there will be a more collab uh more collaboration between the administration and your offices to make sure that we're all on the same page prior to messaging going out to the uh to residents.

Thank you.

Uh uh Chief Bowser, you heard a few questions.

I don't know if colleagues have any questions about the uh the wildfires, but there were questions about the power outage that took place as well.

We had back to back, we had one that was not the result of any storms, but as a result of uh cable failure, according to DTE.

In that situation, when we have thousands of people who are out, uh a lot of the communication that we were getting, we're getting, you know, through the app from DTE, but in terms of the administration and as we move forward, because as uh director said, excuse me, pardon me.

Uh these incidents unfortunately are starting to happen much more frequently, whether it's weather related or failure because of infrastructure, uh and sometimes it's just health related with COVID, just six years ago came out of the blue for many of us.

What's our tone and tenor going to be as we move forward with these very acute issues that happen suddenly and we have to react?

Um, well, I appreciate not having all the phone calls coming our way.

Really want to know in advance how we're going to move forward collectively.

Um, again, when these acute issues take take place.

I think one of the most important things is to have all of the stakeholders at the table as we are determining what our approach is going to be for these incidents.

Um, education and awareness has to be primary and reaching populations where they are has to be primary as well.

And so we do have capabilities like activating rec centers, for example, as respite.

We have the ability to send text messages to particular areas of the city or to citywide uh send citywide text messages to make sure that residents are aware of certain resources.

I think what we need to do is again, this cabinet idea is for us to begin to pre-plan for things so that we're not as reactive and we can actually fall into a process when there is an incident that we didn't foresee.

As um our director indicated, there are ways that we can sort of predict some of these things, other things there aren't, and other ways, you know, we we may not be able to know what's coming, but we have to have a process that we use.

And so we're gonna be working with with you all with Homeland with our emergency services division, with the health department, um, with all of our you know, senior uh resident services and things and human services as well to make sure that we have a group that's convened to address these things, but there will be some published information as well.

So, for example, we do right now have a code blue process, a code red process for code and for hot weather.

We need to make sure everyone is in the loop about what is what resources are convened when we have an incident.

I think we have it on the city side, but making sure that your offices know what those processes are, who the departments are to reach out to for certain things, um, is super important.

And so we have to codify all that.

Um, but I think this the start of this uh crisis cabinet um is gonna be where we sort of start creating those and making sure everyone has the same level of information.

Looking forward to the conversation, Kelly's any additional on uh for Chief Bowser.

Um member McCamp, followed by member Santa Burma.

Thank you.

Um good afternoon, Chief.

Good afternoon director.

Um, a couple of questions for me.

Uh happy to hear that you all are thinking about air monitoring as part of the emergency response.

I know we had a conversation about that, so thank you.

Um, I wanted to um go deeper into that.

Uh and would love to have the additional convos with my office, but I know the communication education is key there.

Um, one of the things that have brought up, I know we sent out guidance on the makeshift filters um for folks to make in their homes.

Have we um thought about getting as a city uh a set of filters for uh vulnerable populations or even senior buildings and such or folks who um may have uh more respiratory issues when it comes to air quality?

Yeah, council member, thanks for the question.

Um what you're referring to is uh DIY air purifiers and homes, as we all know, pure air purifiers can be a hefty expense.

Uh and so just a lot of the work that I've done uh is related to how do you make the indoor air quality a little bit better and how do you make it more accessible?

Turns out you can do that under 20 bucks if you have sort of you know go to Home Depot or or Lowe's and buy one of those air pure or uh air filters that you typically put into your HVAC system every few months, and then using a box fan.

Um before we put that guidance out, which we did, uh uh the Detroit Health Department uh with the city of Detroit uh on how to create one of those, very easy.

Uh the conversations that we had is how do we make these accessible?

How do we purchase these in bulk, quite honestly, and uh make them available to residents?

We're those conversations are out ongoing.

We want to make sure that residents have access, not just information.

Although the information does move people, uh access is important too to those resources.

Thank you.

That's great.

And maybe we can even have DIY um make uh filters of like an event or something that can educate folks on air quality.

Um additional question on um the response to these emergencies.

One, I know there was and thank you all so much for getting additional masks to other areas in D7.

I know that's things, Suzanne.

Folks are on top of that.

Um, thinking about the response here, even like with debris, and we've gotten some concerns about the the length of time that has taken for debris to be picked up.

The what I'm getting at is that has there been any thought around us possibly inviting residents in to activate to to pay them to be a part of like an emergency response.

For example, if we have so much debris to pick up that we can't um we can say, you know, we're gonna have we can pay folks $30 an hour or whatever.

I know they've done this in New York City to help with the cleanup or response to storm.

Has that been any thought around that?

I think that that's one of the things that we need to be um talking about when we convene together is how can we use best practices from other places to make sure that Detroit has a very specific response to things that happen here.

I think that can be definitely on the table.

Uh, we'd have to look at you know fiscal impacts and things like that.

But we would love to hear all the ideas that we that we can hear to supplement uh the frameworks that we build around these and to include residents in the effort as well.

So I think that's a it's a great idea and would love to look at it more.

Absolutely happy to follow up.

And last question, um, and thank you for that, Chief.

Um, on it was mentioned on public help air monitors, and I gave a resource for the county and just air.

Um, the air monitor that's on the city's dashboard is that six precinct.

Um, it is not collaborating, sending info to the dashboard.

Just one if we can check into that to get that to make sure that it's online.

Yeah, council member, um there's a lot of air monitors and they're not always connected, and so we're actually having ongoing conversations about what consolidation looks like.

Uh and and those are happening in real time.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Member Santiago.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Through you, good afternoon.

Just very briefly want to remind if you don't already know, City Council does have a task force on climate and disaster recovery.

It is culture by myself, Member Johnson and Member Waters.

So we already convene.

Uh so if you want to join, we can join you to share information because we we were created because community response to these issues so many times.

Member McCampbell, yes, we should find a way to support them if we can with stipends.

I know when it comes to flooding, um, we had a lot of community members actually be the ones that translated documents, or did the uh verbal translations in person.

Maybe we can stipend that.

Maybe we should put that money aside in an emergency management response funds that we can then pull from if we all these things are gonna happen.

Um that's that's really it.

It's because we we should work together, we should think about these beforehand and a reminder, please join us and in these conversations because um it's already happening.

We just need to really um collaborate and make sure that we are coordinated.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Um Protenu.

Thank you.

Uh, first of all, let me say congratulations.

I know you were on TV talking about this.

I think you were on CNN, you did a good job.

So congratulations on the Santa first and foremost.

Um, secondly, I just wanted to ask you, can you tell me exactly what our fire or our smoke suppression plan is when we have these issues?

And then can you tell me what is your emerging technologies strategy?

If you have one at all and we're reducing this in the future.

Yeah, thank you, council member.

Um, if if if I'm on TV, that means something is going bad.

So I I I hope I'm not on TV.

Uh uh, you know, public health uh operates best when we're preventing bad stuff from happening.

And so uh to that point, um, you know, uh I'm I'm I'm not sure if maybe there's uh something specific you're referring to with smoke suppression.

Um what I'll tell you is you know, sometimes the best technology is just Mother Nature's, uh, and it's really hard to do a lot of mitigation once that event has happened.

We don't know the particular source of this wildfire.

Um, but what we do know is that the good news, the optimistic news, is that you know, for for for the era that we live in and you know, guidance, public health guidance particular, not being uh something that folks take seriously.

We know definitively the data shows definitively that on air quality, people do tend to listen and people do tend to take notice.

I mean, we all have stubborn people in our lives.

My father's one of those people who doesn't take a lot of public health guidance, believe it or not.

Um, on issues like air quality, though, he's been inside for the last five days.

Uh so the best thing that we can do is making sure that residents are being informed.

I know sometimes we talk about like, is that enough?

On on something like air quality, it is because in 2023, we know that about 90,000 people globally died as a result of the Canadian wildfires at that time, about 40,000 Americans.

Um, and then obviously some of those were in Michigan as well because of proximity.

So when you put that information out there about staying indoors, uh, that's you know something that we take very seriously.

We're looking at how we can make those alert systems a lot more proactive and technological.

Okay, no, I I I appreciate that.

And what I want and I'll be more uh clear.

I was talking about for air filtration.

I was talking specifically about high efficiency, particular air filters.

It removes about 99.97% of the particles of 0.3 microns in diameter.

You know, much of that is those particles that are in um smoke.

I want to know did you use those and how many of those got to the most vulnerable populations and what percentage of that population was covered?

Um, I I also know that we had the worst air quality in the world.

You said it was on Wednesday.

I want to know how much have we improved from this.

I think we were like in the 800 mark or something like that.

Where are we at now with that?

And and what I was talking about in terms of technology, and if you can't answer this, I understand this.

But in the future, we need to have somebody who can answer this from the fire department or whatever.

I'm gonna I'm gonna name a couple things just so I can be a detail.

You don't have to remember answer all of it.

But I'll speak about smoke scrubber systems, water mist and fog systems, drone-based smoke suppression and detection, so that we can see this coming over, so we'll know, and then we can use the uh smoke suppression and be able to uh deal with that.

Um also artificial intelligence terms, wildfire detection.

I know it's over in another country, but I think that if we had that to be able to predict that in the future, I think we'd be a little bit better in terms of our response time, just in terms of responding to it.

I don't know if you use or you're connected to satellites at all, but I think that in terms of like you know, like you know, we are for predicting weather or things that nature, but I think that the smoke monitoring aspect, I think is critical for us to be able to know what that happens, and also your clear air shelters.

Um, you know, how many of those did we have available at that time?

And is this something that we need to invest more in for the future, or do you think that what you had now was sufficient?

And um, I and then you know, emerging technologies, I think is just I think it's important, like I said, artificial intelligence smoke, uh forecasting and next generation fire resistant building materials.

There's some other things to all the Thomas vehicles and drones and things.

I don't know.

We're gonna talk about robots right now.

So I think that these are things that are very important that we can do to be able to get ahead of this.

And so I don't know if you're equipped, and if not, that's fine.

But I think in the future, when we have things like this, we have some sort of response team, whether it's from the fire department, whether it's uh whether it's do it or somebody in terms of the technological aspect of what the tools we have being able to be able to prevent this in the future.

So with that being said, uh, if if you can't answer that, just add to the issue about the um 800 mark to where we are now and how many vulnerable people were helped.

You didn't what that percent, what that percentage first of all, what is that population?

Who's the most vulnerable, and then how much of that population did you help in a percentage or a number?

Yeah, council member, I appreciate that.

Um, there are um uh you know, we we all saw the headlines.

Detroit has the worst air quality on the planet, and you know, maybe I was getting you know too defensive.

Um, but that's something that I feel like we need to push back on.

There's nothing inevitable or inherent to Detroit that made it that we had the worst air quality.

There's nothing wrong with Detroit.

This is about proximity to the wildfires, is also about the conditions that predated, you know, the wildfires, which means little precipitation that we had in the previous two to three weeks.

So there's nothing inherent to Detroit, it's just the reality of the proximity to the wildfires and wind patterns, which again we're all learning in real time what that looks like.

Uh that said, we did have poor air quality, hazardous air quality.

Uh, where we are now is a lot better, significantly better.

If not not everyone has to stay indoors, uh that's you know, where we were on Thursday, Fridays.

It's hazardous for everyone.

Where we are now is hovering in the sort of you know, hundred range, which is technically unhealthy for sensitive groups, and also in the moderate range, depending on you know the hour of the day.

Uh, the guidance is that if you are one of those vulnerable populations that's you know, senior citizens, but also those who are living with asthma, the way we treat asthma in the elderly is different than how we treat it with child with children, someone with COPD.

Uh, probably also not the best time still to take out that, you know, gas lawnmower if you have it or gas leaf blower if you have it.

Uh, some of these things can wait.

And so that's you know, some of the guidance that we've been putting out as it relates to you know, outreach and numbers and data, we're still collecting a lot of that.

We're working with our fire department on that.

Um, and then related to other technologies, you know, we're happy to take those things into consideration for the future.

Uh, thank you for the earlier clarification.

I appreciate it.

But to another oh, yeah, I'm done.

Thank you.

To another portion of your question.

Um, the parks and rec department has a couple of units uh called resiliency hubs that actually do have some of those more um rigorous filtration systems that have their own generators.

I think we could probably take some information from those uh and maybe duplicate some of that uh at other rec centers so we can have even more robust uh respite for residents across the city.

So I can connect parts and rec to your office to see like all the technology that they have sort of piloted in those areas, and we can see where that where else that can be applied.

I appreciate thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

Uh, we appreciate it and look forward to any additional updates.

Certainly want to get more on the uh power issue and as we move forward with the I think you should call it crisis council.

What is it called?

Yeah, crisis cabinet, yeah.

Crisis Cabinet, that's it.

So looking forward to uh having more discussions on what that looks like as we move forward.

So thank you again.

Uh, and we appreciate it.

Okay.

Uh under committee reports, madam clerk from the budget finance and audit standing committee from the office of contracting and procurement.

Council member McCampal, three resolutions.

Line items 16.1 through 16.3.

Member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve line items 16 through 16.3.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair.

Yes, sir.

There's a request for a waiver on line item 16.1 colleagues.

Are there any objections?

See none.

A waiver should be attached to line item 16.1 from the office of the chief financial officer, office of development and grants.

Council member McCampbell, a resolution line item 16.4.4, Member McCampbell.

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve line item 16.4, colleagues.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Quest a waiver on 16.4.

It's a request for a waiver, colleagues on line item 16.4.

Any objections?

Hearing none, a waiver should be attached to line item 16.4.

From the office of the city clerk, city planning commission.

Councilmember McCampbell, or resolution line item 16.5.

Uh member McCampbell.

Motion to approve 16.5.

There's a motion to approve line 16.5, colleagues.

Any objections?

Seeing none, then action shall be taken.

Uh for the internal operations standing committee from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Council member Whitfield Callaway, five resolutions.

Line items 17.1 through 17.5.

Member Callaway.

Motion for approval.

It's a motion to approve line items 17.1 through 17.5.

Discussion.

With discussion, uh member McCampbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just have a question on 17.1 or the um body camera uh contracts.

I want to if there's anyone from DPD to ask about the access of the Board of Police Commissioners.

I know that was um stopped for uh I'm not sure if it's still stopped, but by the uh federal government.

Um Mr.

Washington.

We have anyone available.

Good afternoon to the chair.

Yes, we have Robert Millander online.

We'll promote that individual.

Hello, can you hear me?

How are you doing?

My name is Robert Villner, director of public safety IT.

Thank you.

Um, just a question about the access for the body worn cameras um by the board of police commissioners.

I know that the um federal administration had stopped access by the BOPC.

Um, just wanted to get an update on where that is now.

Right now, what we have going on, the Fed FBI and the state have turned up access to the body warning camera system for the Board of Police Commissioners.

So, how the Board of Police Commissioners receiving access to it is they put in request to DPD's DPD, and the request is then sent on, and then it's redacted based off and moving all serious information and then the information provided back to the OCI.

It's actually the office of the chief investigator who's requesting the information, and that's how the information is sent to them today.

And what's the turnaround on that process with the average turnaround?

They average private depending on the VL number of requests, it's probably three to four days.

And before this was halted, what was the turnaround on that?

I mean, before it was halted, they had direct access to it, so they got it at their leisure, but it was shut off because of the fact that CJ's information was done in the FBI and the federal government came in and said that they had to be shut up.

DPD and no normal one DPD, or anyone within DPD asked for it to be shoved.

It was the federal government that requested it to be shut off based off the facts using information that was in there.

Understood.

And has there been any conversation between DPD or the law department with the FBI on restoration of that access or because I would say I see that as um an affront by the administration to kind of decrease civilian oversight?

So has there been conversation about restoring that access?

That believe there was a conversation that was had between DPD, the Board of Police Commissioners, and then chief investigator and the FBI and the state in regards to that.

And the FBI was firm on the fact that the CJ's information requires them not to have it.

CJ's guidelines and policy requires them not to have it.

Okay.

I will follow up on that, but I do want to make that note for colleagues, not not related to these contracts, but um as we see access like this cut off, especially around civilian oversight.

I do have concerns that this is the federal government trying to wield their power to stop civilian oversight, as we've seen in the way that the DOJ has um when it comes to uh police violence and such has really taken the side that they do not care about civil rights infringements, and I see this as another step in that.

So just want to make sure that folks are aware of that.

Um, but that's all I have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further?

Discussion.

Uh member Santiago Groomer.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I have a question for 17.3.

Um, not sure if we have anyone that can answer questions.

They're brief, but just wants confirmation on what is meant by voice equipment.

I'm assuming these are phone lines, but just want to get that confirmation to the chair, but I believe 7.3 is the groundwork zero contract asking for if I'm correct on that.

Yes.

Yes, that is voice lines, voice and data lines right there.

That contract is actually adding us the ability to buy additional highway if requested by a department and budget by the party.

Not only to buy voice lines, not by invoice physical line, is by invoice equipment.

So by invoice and data equipment.

That contract gives us the ability to purchase that.

Are these cell phones?

Are these what are these?

You're saying 17.

It's actually death phones, the actual hardware behind that allows the dead phones to talk out to the public public telephone network and stuff like that.

So that's where it specifically is.

It's not cell phones, it's just the desk phones and the infrastructure that's behind those cell phones that gives us the ability to talk out.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

None that action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair, request a waiver on line item 17.5, and thank you.

There's a request for a waiver on 17.5 colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Seeing none, a waiver should be attached.

From the law department, Madam Clerk.

Council member Whitfield Callaway, 17 resolutions.

Line items 17.6 through 17.22.

Line items 17.6 through 17.22.

Member Callaway.

Motion for approval with discussion, sir.

There's a motion to approve line items 17.6 through 17.22 with discussion.

Member Callaway.

Thank you.

Um, Mr.

Chair.

There's been a request to postpone these the following line items 17.11, postpone for one week, 17.11, 17.16, 17.21, and 17.22.

That is a request to postpone for one week line items 17.11.

Dropping down, see 17.16, 17.21.

And 17.22.

Yes, sir.

Are there any objections to postponing the vote for one week on those items, colleagues?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Approval for all the others.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

With further discussion, pro Tim Ya.

Okay.

All right.

Seeing no further discussion.

Are there any objections for the items that have not been mentioned?

Again, um line items 17.6 through 17.22.

Minus 17.11, 17.16, 17.21, and 17.22.

Mr.

President.

Uh member Santiago Roman.

Um it was a little hard to hear.

Can you say which ones we're bringing back in a week?

Oh, my apologies.

Line items 17.11, 17.16, 17.21, and 17.22.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

And we're voting now.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Uh member Santiago Romero.

I'm in objection to 17.17, 17.18, 17.19, 17.20.

And we're bringing up the other items.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Objection, Member Johnson, line item 17.17.

Objection McCampbell 17.17 through 17.20.

Leave it all still passed, madam clerk.

Yes, they do, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Line items uh 17.6 through 17.22, minus line items 17.11, 17.16, 17.22, and 17.21 shall stand approved.

For the planning and economic development standing committee from the office of contracting and procurement, madam clerk.

Mr.

President, we do have one more for council member with field callaway.

Oh, I apologize.

That's a resolution line item 17.23.

That is correct.

Under line item uh 17.23 under resolutions, member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and thank you, madam clerk.

This is a resolution for the um reappointment of Teresa DeBose to the property assessment board of review to represent the city council district four, the term beginning January 1st, 2027 through December 31st, 2028.

Motion for approval.

As motion to approve line item 17.23, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, then action shall be taken.

For the planning and economic development standing committee from the Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Council Member Johnson, three resolutions.

Line items 18.1 through 18.3.

Line items 18.1 through 18.3.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Move for approval.

There's a motion to approve line items 18.1 through 18.3, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

Mr.

Chair, I'd like to request a waiver on line item 17.23 as well as line items 18.1 through 18.3.22.

As well as line says 203.

That's right.

That's brought back 22.

Line item 17.23.

Apologies.

As well as line items 18.1 through 18.3.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none.

Waiver should be attached.

From the Detroit Brown field authority, madam clerk.

Councilmember Johnson, two resolutions.

Line items 18.4 and 18.5.

Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Move for approval.

There's a motion to approve line items 18.4 and 18.5.

Are there any objections?

Hearing none, that action shall be taken.

From the city planning commission, madam clerk.

Council member Johnson, a resolution, line item 18.6.

Line item 18.6, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Move for approval.

As a motion to approve line item 18.6, colleagues, are there any objections?

See none.

That action shall be taken.

From the housing and revitalization department, madam clerk.

Council member Johnson for resolutions.

Knowing that line item 18.7 was postponed from last week formal session agenda.

Line item 18.7, member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Motion to send line item 18.7 back to committee.

There's a motion to send line item 18.7 back to committee.

Are there any objections, colleagues?

See none.

That action shall be taken.

Line item 18.8, Madam Clerk.

Mr.

President, that will be three resolutions.

The three resolutions 18.8, 18.9, and 18.10, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve uh the line items, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

See none.

That action shall be taken.

Under resolutions.

Council member Whitfield Callaway, a resolution.

Line item 18.11.

Line item 18.11, Member Callaway.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair and Madam Clerk.

Motion for approval.

This is um Senate Bill 1053 concerning the expansion of allowable neighborhood enterprise zones.

Um this is coming from um Senator Um Mary Kavanaugh.

I'm sorry, state rep um Mary Kavanaugh.

And um, this is just a resolution in support of that, allowing the acreage from 15% to 20%.

So it's expansion of the NEZ.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Motion for approval.

Thank you so much.

There's a motion to approve line item 18.11, colleagues.

Are there any objections?

See none that action shall be taken.

Discussion.

Uh with discussion, uh member Benson.

It's a request to join Member Callaway on their resolution.

Madam Clerk, if you could no.

Clerk will so note, Mr.

President.

Thank you so much.

Uh for the public health and safety standing committee for the from the office of contracting and procurement, madam clerk.

Discussion, Mr.

President.

Uh member Benson.

Added to which item now?

Resolution.

Resolution presentation.

Uh Madam Clerk, if you could note that member waters would like to also join on line item 18.11.

Clerk will still note Mr.

President.

Thank you.

Thank you.

For the public health and safety standing committee for the office of contracting and procurement, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Santiago Romero, two resolutions, line items 19.1 and 19.2.

Finances 19.1 and 19.2.

Member Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr.

President's motion to approve with discussion 19.1.

It's a motion to approve line items 19.1 and 19.2 with discussion.

Member Santiago Rivero.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

I moved 19.1.

I know this there was a number of questions regarding the media um plan and buying.

Not sure if there's anything else.

If not, uh we could move this for approval.

Mr.

Chair.

Uh heard a voice.

Who said member Callaway?

Yeah, I've had quite a few questions.

So I'm motioned to postpone this for a week.

This is a five-month contract, $10,000 a month at $50,000.

I have quite a few questions about what the strategists will be doing.

This is the same company.

Well, now they have a Detroit location, Mr.

Chair.

They were out of Birmingham Dawn.

Um Crowley from the DMC.

I think she came over here with the mayor.

So I have quite a few questions about this one.

She's probably gotten millions and millions of dollars.

Um, and um, I'm not comfortable with this contract, and I do have quite a few questions, Mr.

Chair.

So my motion is to postpone it for a week.

Okay.

There's a uh motion to postpone line item 19.1 for one week with discussion.

Pro Tim Young.

I'll go ahead.

Just still can't forward.

I didn't know about over the motion.

No, there's still a motion, it's still we're still in discussion phase of it.

Good afternoon.

Vicky Thomas, senior communications director for the city of Detroit and Mayor Mary Sheffield's office.

Oh, Tim?

Yeah.

I just I just want to add if you want to answer uh, yes, I'm willing to answer those questions.

I'm also joined by uh China Cochrane, Deputy Director of Media Services.

What this contract does, why we should go.

Yes.

And um I might through the chair add that um to council pro tem young that this um is an urgent situation because a lot of program and serve programs and services that the health department uh pushes out to residents using this contract are in jeopardy because it's grant funded, it's not city funded, and we would like to um have the health department move forward with their campaigns for the summer.

We do have a new contract in place as of yesterday um for the grant funded contract moving forward, and that will be coming uh before this body uh in the next several weeks.

Um your title, I apologize.

Deputy director of media services, excuse me, deputy director.

Is there something you like to add?

Uh I just agree with uh Vicky Thomas' statements.

The health department needs to complete out their summer campaigns.

This project was already for going forward, and it's gonna be a gap until the next one starts.

So they need to complete their summer campaigns.

Well, I mean, I that I I'm ready to vote on this contract now.

I think it's important.

I think this is a good contract.

This is something I want to point out.

I know that we've already made a motion for the postpone it, but I just want to make my intentions clear.

I don't know if Member Callaway wanted to ask any questions or anything.

My motion for the chair, my motion is that we postpone it, Mr.

Chair.

So my question though is why is it just coming today?

Um, it looks right now.

We're saying that it's an emergency, it's you know, we're crisis mode.

It won't be able to get the information out during the summer, summer's very important.

Walk us through why we're just receiving this contract today as opposed to um a couple of months ago, even so we can make sure we have this in the queue.

Council president Date uh sure.

I uh we'll walk you back.

Umfortunately, I was out for three months on a medical leave, and during that time, our uh director of media services and deputy director uh were still getting acclimated.

Uh we had uh OCP um asking for a requisition to extend the contract.

Had the contract been extended, we wouldn't be here today.

Um they did um the contract expired, so we had a $50,000 umount by the OCP.

And then my other question is have you had a conversation with each council member so that folks would understand very clearly your position and why it's uh yes, I have reached out.

Let me sorry.

Why why the request is for today and not a postponement even for next week?

Because the funds will go back to the state if the um item is not approved, if the additional funding is or postponed even to next week.

I mean, again, this is this is what's before us right now.

My colleague asked for a postponement for one week to get the questions responded to.

Uh, and while I'm somewhat because of the challenge that we're in right now, uh supportive of listening to the rationale as why we should uh approve this vote for today.

I think you've got to state the case.

Why today and not even a postponement for next week to allow for questions to be responded to.

Uh Council President Tate, is it okay if we could have uh Christina Floyd from the health department uh just explain the terms of the actual grant?

She has more details than I do, and the actual campaigns that it will cover during the summer months.

Thank you.

And again, make sure we hit on that question.

Postpone it for one week.

What does that do?

Floor is yours, uh, Deputy Director.

Good afternoon through the chair, uh to the body, Christina Floyd, the Chair Health Department, um, deputy director, and to the question.

Uh the contract money that we're using for this particular uh contract is through our grants from our local comp uh through the state.

If we do not spend these funds uh by 9 30, 2026, then they will be uh either reallocated or sent back to the state.

We have three particular um spending plans for our maternal child health as well as I decide uh and uh one more grant, uh one more program that we are uh looking to make sure maternal child health rather that we are looking to use for this particular funding um until we again can get the um full extended contract for the fiscal year of 2027, which is uh the start of 10.1 for our grants.

And so this particular one, like I said, the funding closes 9 30, 20 2027 to spend, and we would have to reallocate uh the remainder of this funding if we are not able to pass this and move this along.

So the so it sounds like seven, excuse me, uh uh 730 is when it has to be approved by we lose these funds.

728 is when we could come back uh if it's a one-week postponement.

So that's why I asked that question in particular, because you know, we all want to be comfortable with what we vote on, especially when it is come brought to us, you know, in this kind of manner, right?

So one week postponement.

Um I'm not hearing how would completely take everything off the rails.

All right, we do have um Hillary Edwards on from OCP because I'm not quite sure the timeline from approval of the contract to actually the implementation of the 50,000.

So uh maybe he can speak to that uh issue because that is one of my concerns.

Give me another body to Apple.

Sir, please introduce yourself for the record and you may proceed.

Uh good afternoon, Hillary Edwards, contracting and procurement and uh through the chair to answer the question relative to timing.

Uh, if approved uh today with the waiver, we can implement quickly.

And it wouldn't be uh the funding wouldn't be in jeopardy of a cancellation or reallocation.

If approved next week, there could be some delay relative to getting the approval even with a waiver.

So there it still could be in jeopardy, but if it was approved next week and we got a waiver and got the uh contract back from LPD, we probably could get it in the same day, but it is taking a little bit of a chance if we don't get it approved by next uh next Tuesday.

So today would be the most optimum time to ensure that we uh make sure we keep those funds in place.

Technically, about a couple of weeks ago would have been optimal.

It's now before us today.

So that's why we are asking these questions today, not adversarily, but to ensure that we are indeed um proper stores of these documents.

Um before we go, come back to you.

Um a couple of other colleagues that wanted to speak.

Uh see member Benson, member Waters.

And those are the two hands I see thus far.

Yes, ma'am.

Member Benson, okay.

Member Benson.

Okay, okay, okay.

Thank you.

And so I want to make sure that I I heard clearly, I heard that these funds have to be expended by September 30th.

And I also heard by July 30th.

Is there a July 30th date here?

Uh I'm sorry.

Do the chair to council member Benson.

The grants end on um for a local comp on 9 30, 2026.

And so right now, uh, if we don't allocate and spend the funding with regards to this particular section of funding, we would have to reallocate that to other areas, uh, which is called um either a minute process or reallocation, which means that we won't have the dollars to spend for actual um advertising for those particular ones through the time of now all the way up until 9 30.

So they would be reallocating.

We would have to wait till after 10-1, which is the new grant fiscal year.

So we have the money to spend.

We want to make sure that we're getting the information out and spend the dollars uh appropriately so that we either one, if we're not able to reallocate, we would have to give back to the state, which is called a pullback if we do not um spend the funding.

So what I hear from the administration is a very zealous advocacy to get this contract approved to spend the money to provide services to a very vulnerable population.

What I'm not hearing is that it is of the uh utmost priority today because we don't approve the day, it won't be here tomorrow.

What I'm hearing is that we are nine weeks away from the deadline, but we have a colleague who wants another week to get information, but what that will leave us with eight weeks to get this information out, which would mean I'm hoping that this is the case that you all would need to concentrate further more media buys to ensure that that money gets spent, and I'm sure that there is a media outlet that is prepared to take more money in a shorter period of time to ensure that the messaging gets out and you are able to spend the money.

Would that be an accurate statement?

Uh through the chair, I would uh request that um Miss Floyd take that question.

So through the chair to council member Benson, we currently had spending plans uh in place really as of April.

Um, and so we're just really waiting to be able to have the allocation allow for the extension of this budget to be able to spend.

But right now we have our plans just sitting there waiting to be able to be executed.

So there's there's no lag time or development time for plans.

They're ready.

We just need to go ahead to go to be able to execute and implement.

And and I fully support getting this money out, but I also support my colleague getting the information that she needs.

I also understand that next week is the last fight of the Apple.

And so if this comes back, I find it very difficult to believe that a vote will not take place.

And so I I just the logistics to me is always time is of the essence, but I'm prepared to allow my colleague to get the questions answered that that she wants answered.

So I'm gonna go back to the administration.

What is the threat that we will not be able to get these dollars spent with a one-week delay?

Uh through the chair, um, to councilman Benson.

Uh, I think uh Mr.

Edwards laid it out in terms of the timeline.

We are taking a gamble if we don't approve it today.

Um, and I have reached out, it was already delayed once um at committee for a week, and then I have reached out to every council member at the table um to address any issues that they may have related to the contract and answer any questions that they may have.

Further discussion, Mr.

Chair.

I don't have any additional concerns.

I want to make sure that we support our most vulnerable population.

Also want to make sure that my colleagues get the information that they need, and I'm hoping that the administration will understand that and then prepare the contractor to start working ahead of time saying, Hey, we're gonna have a shorter, more condensed timeline.

We need to get this money spent or we lose it and start that work now.

It's a week, and I understand time is always of the essence, but I also understand that you can also work when you understand the what the future outcomes may be and prepare yourself as well as your contractor for success.

So the chair, thank you, Councilman Vince.

Um I think that's a word.

Yeah, you talked a lot.

All right.

So um, yeah, I'm the culprit.

I did lay the committee a couple weeks.

Uh um, but you know, after I heard from the health department, I I was a lot more comfortable um in moving out because I do recall uh when we at IOS together, um the three chicks.

We uh we used to fight about this all the time.

This particular contractor.

So um, but you mentioned that there was another contract approved.

I don't think it's approved yet, right?

The the other one is an RFP out.

Is that what it is?

Uh through the chair to council member waters.

Uh currently um the only contract we have grant funded is the 50,000.

Right.

Uh, and the one before you uh to add an additional 50,000 so that the health department can have enough money to run their summer campaigns.

Additionally, the uh new contract for grant funded campaigns um was in the evaluation process, still in the evaluation process, but a contractor has been selected.

Um the consensus meeting was held yesterday.

Um, unfortunately, uh, just to honor the process of um OCP, we can't reveal who that contractor is asking who is um uh but yeah, the that is the grant funded contract.

The RFP for the city funded contract uh went out, I would say about two or three weeks ago.

Okay, that's the one I was thinking about the RFP for the city one, and um I believe that I'd ask um procurement if in fact you know the number of people that they invited to bid on the city funded contract, uh understanding that we certainly don't want to return this grant man back to the state.

We need all we can get, but so uh how many did you invite uh procurement to bid on the next contract, the RFP?

Uh through the chair, it was the same amount for the grants funded, it was over 370 vendors based on our new bonfire system.

We have a lot more reach to vendors, and uh it was a significant number relative to the city funded that RFP will be due August 10th.

Okay, August 10th.

All right then.

Thank you.

Um thank you, Pro Tim Young.

Yeah, I just want to ask a clarifying question.

So this is something that needs to be done by the 30th of this month, correct?

Through the chair, um Christina Floyd can handle that question so that we're uh aware of all of the dates.

So through the chair to uh Pro Tim Young, if we are unable to have this allocation uh to be completed and the 7:30 dateline came up with regards to if you guys are on recess on 2028.

So if we don't have this funding allocated, we will have to either reallocate it to uh in advertising, we would have to reallocate it to other areas in the budget, or if it's not spent at all, if we can't spend it because we can't either reallocate it or we can't also do the advertisements, it goes back to the state, which is called a pullback.

And so we basically would give the state back their funding for um advertising that they give us to be able to do the work.

If it goes back to the state, will we then have to have an emergency contract to spend money from the general fund for these services?

Through the chair to Pro Tim Young.

No, we would not be able to do something general funds, uh strictly grant funded.

So we just won't advertise at all for this then.

We would not have from from this from the time that we're doing so with these particular projects till 9:30.

It would not be spent, so we would not have any advertising for those particular ones that are within the 100,000 that we're trying to spend currently.

So we won't advertise for maternity health where black women in Michigan are like three to four times more likely to die.

So again, through the chair to Pro Tim Young, we would not have advertising for our program.

It's not to say that we'll be advertising across the city, but for our programming for the health department, we would not be able to do advertising with the local comp funding that we have been given by the state of Michigan.

I mean I'll wrap up.

I just think that the timing is just dangerous close for me.

I think this is something that we need to vote out.

So I will be opposed to um postponing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further colleagues?

Discussion.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

So I'm trying to understand this.

So one, just to share the challenge, the concern has been with the contractor, not necessarily advertisements for the health department and the work that they're looking to do.

But can you all help me to understand in the information I have, it shows that there were funds available as of June 26, 2026 that exceed 400,000.

Through the chair to council member Johnson.

Are you talking about grant funded or general funds?

I'm I'm not certain.

I'm assuming that may just be funding available with this particular contractor.

Through the chair to council member Johnson, the citywide contract is still active.

That one did not expire.

It expires August 16th.

So right now, the only we have citywide contract in place.

Got it.

And you you indicated that you've already sent an RFP out for this work moving forward.

Through the chair to council member Johnson.

Is out and uh Hillary said it's due August 10th, I believe.

And then the um grant funded contract is in the evaluation stage.

A contractor has been selected as of yesterday during our consensus meeting, and that um will be coming before this council.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um member Miller.

Thank you to the chair.

Um what is your position, Ms.

Thomas?

I am the senior director of communications for the city of Detroit.

I I heard what you said regarding your time being out.

I sympathize with that wholeheartedly.

Um I can understand why the contract is was delayed coming to us.

I am thankful that um member Johnson was transparent because I'm I was sitting here wondering like what are we waiting for?

And so it's a problem with the with the vendor, obviously.

So there seems to mean there seems to be a consensus as I sit here that there's a problem with the vendor.

Um, and I think maybe is that why our uh other councilperson wants to delay.

I think if there's a conflict and there is some concerns, I would support, but I don't have any knowledge about it.

But maybe we need to take a week to actually see what's going on with the vendor if there's a problem with this person.

Uh through the chair, um, to council member Miller.

Uh, this contractor um has gone through certification through CREO.

Um, I understand council member Callaway's concerns um prior to the contractor opening a Detroit office, but uh the emerald media is a certified Detroit-based business and women, woman-owned business, and there's nothing no way around it for me.

Um you know, we have to operate based on the rules and regulations of OCP.

Well, I will be the first to say that doesn't sit well with me.

Uh, just because you're certified, don't mean you're right, don't mean you have integrity, do not mean you look out for city Detroit residents or the money that we're paying you.

Some of that that whole process to me need to be overhauled and redone.

Um, so just because you mean the criteria, but I I um I support whatever our colleagues will want to move forward, but we have to be conscious about our vendors.

Everybody should not be doing business with us, and actually, we need to go down the list and do a great elimination of a lot of those people.

They shouldn't even make it to our list for various reasons.

And um I think it's called disparate or something.

We were talking about, I think uh member pro tem you're gonna talk about it a couple of weeks ago.

How do we do that?

We need to have uh a complete overhaul with some of those contractors, and I'm sorry, um uh the uh vendors in our city and get people that are proactive with our city that we can actually feel comfortable with serving.

So um my suggestion is that we move with the motion uh through the chair to council uh woman Miller.

Um the contractor has done great work for the city.

I'll be the first to admit that um prior to your election, uh, when the contracts have come before council, it's been uh difficult.

I know for council member Callaway because she believed that the contractor did not um have an office in the city.

And and that's what I'm saying that we have to go by what is presented to us from the Office of Contracting and Procurement, that they are Detroit based.

I can't say no, they're not Detroit based, right?

Um, and then the other thing is that prior to your election, when we've come before council, we've had multiple departments um appear to attest to the fact that this contractor, they love working with this contractor.

Um, this contractor has integrity.

There's nothing um in terms of the quality of work that Emerald Media does.

I mean, they've been in the business, they are very um astute at what they do in terms of getting us added value.

They were the cheapest at 10% of a campaign.

So when you say $50,000, the contractor is only receiving uh 10% of that.

The rest is actually going for the media buy to the various outlets, whether it's print or radio, uh TV, digital ads, that sort of thing.

So the bulk of the money is for uh paying for the media buys.

Thank you for that explanation, Miss Thomas.

I do appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So there's a motion on the floor, colleagues, for a postponement for one week uh on this particular item.

And it does appear that it the one week is not going to uh kill this item for us, but it will make things a little tighter than it they already are today.

Um I issues that I had are um not what they were in the past.

Um so I'm looking forward to us either voting up or voting down this item uh next week if again this body postponed the vote uh at this moment.

So I'm gonna call for a vote.

Are there any objections?

Objection, Mary.

Let's see one objection.

Um we shall postpone line item 19.1 for one week.

We'll see you back next week.

Thank you.

Have a great afternoon.

Thank you as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh do we then not line item 19.2, colleagues.

I think that was also moved for it was not moved for approval, just discussion.

Um line item 19.2, Member Santiago.

Thank you, Mr.

President.

Move to approve 19.2.

There's a motion to approve line item 19.2.

Are there any objections?

Uh hearing none, that action shall be taken.

From the Department of Public Works, City Engineering Division.

Madam Clerk.

Council Member Santiago Romero, six resolutions, line items 19.3 through 19.8.

Planet of 19.3 through 19.8, colleagues.

Are there any um I'm sorry, uh, member Santiago Romero?

Motion to approve.

There's a motion to approve line item 19.3 through 19.8.

Are there any objections?

See none, then action shall be taken.

We'll now move to the new business portion of the agenda under unfinished business.

Madam Clerk.

Council member Benson, an ordinance not in a roll call line item 20.1.

Member Benson.