Good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to call the budget finance and all this standing committee meeting of Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026 to order.

Where Madam Kirk, would you please call the roll?

Good afternoon.

Councilmember Genzel and Tom McKimball.

President.

Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Mr.

Chair, we have quorum.

Thank you so much.

And I'll move us on to approval of the minutes.

Members of the committee should have received a copy of the July 15th minutes.

Is there a motion to approve?

No.

There's been a motion to approve sin.

No objections.

The minutes should stand approved.

That'll move us on to chair remarks.

Just to note that this is our last budget financial audit committee meeting before recess.

And so we'll have a few items to get through.

And then we'll come back after Labor Day with additional business for the committee.

And with that, move us on to public comment.

We will close requests for public comment at 110.

We'll start with folks joining us in the room and then move to those joining us virtually.

If you are joining us via Zoom, please use the raise hand function and you will be called in order.

Seeing no one currently in person, we'll move on to those joining us remotely.

And how many folks do we have?

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair.

Currently we have seven hands raised.

All right.

We'll start with our first speaker.

All right, our first speaker is Legendary Detroiter.

Mr.

Carly, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Now you weren't there in 2024, but I'm gonna let you know that Dennis Winfrey is on Zoom lying about the findings on the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report on Zoom at the Detroit Election Commission meeting where she is the Detroit Election Commission chairman.

Chair person.

I don't know whether she is a man or a woman, but it it it's she acts like manly.

That's the way she came off.

She filed a report with the Detroit Police Department saying that uh she was uh in fear of her life threatening some nonsense.

But anyway, I wanted to bring this to your attention.

You got Letitia Johnson and um Mary Waters there with you.

Now they never received the findings on allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report.

I know because their office on May the 20th of 2024 told me they didn't know what I was talking about about the finding on the allegations of voter fraud by anonymous citizen report.

And they were at the meeting when I spoke about it, and they looked like they didn't know I got the clip of it.

So I wanted to bring this to your attention.

You need to immediately pause and stop all the money being spent by Janice Winfrey, and it's Gina A.B.

Walker, the director of the Detroit Department of Election, you need to stop every dime going to them and call Gina Avery Walker into your committee and ask her and question her about the Mary Elaine Beckman ballot.

Now I'm getting ready to turn up in Detroit.

And the president is coming on the 27th, so this is getting ready to go national.

All right, Mr.

Carly, I would say you, of course, you have free speech and you are able to say what you want to say, but I would please ask that folks be respectful and not get to personal attacks on folks in that way.

Um and I would say there are we do have an election commission when it comes to voting, and I know there has been various folks in Lanson that have looked into allegations around voting and have not found anything.

So um want to make sure that we continue to have safe and secure and accurate elections as well.

All right, next speaker.

Our next speaker is Betty A.

Varner.

Ms.

Varner, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Uh good afternoon, Chair, and to all within the sound of my voice.

I'm Daddy A.

Barnett, president of the Soda Elsewhere Black Association.

Here again, advocating for our community event that we're gonna have August 1st, uh annualized Detroit event.

Uh, we want to bless as many families and children as possible.

We're asking for help with volunteers.

Uh, think I got a set of gentlemen that's going to help us set up, but we're still in need of volunteers to help us break down our tents.

Um, a lot of our members are older, and uh we just need to help so we can continue to do this work to bless uh the people in our community, and this is open to the metro Detroit area.

We're gonna be offering free haircuts, uh free hair braiding.

There's gonna be a DJ, we're gonna be signing up uh children for free bikes and um helmets, and they will receive the bikes and helmets before uh Christmas, they'll receive them in December.

Uh you must have the child with you because the child is uh the bike is sized to the child and the helmet.

And they normally receive these uh blessings uh before Christmas.

We're gonna be uh doing snow cones, we uh giving away hygiene products, school supplies, back tax.

There's gonna be the resources offered to uh the families.

We're gonna have family fun games, games where adults can mingle with the children and get the exercise.

So we just need help and we can get some volunteers still looking for help and money for our thinkle corridor.

We also have uh been able to level off our new land that we've purchased to um expand our park.

And so we're looking for money now for that land use hearing.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Verner.

Um, if there are folks listening that are able to volunteer your time, um please do reach out to Ms.

Varner.

I hope you have a great event.

Um next speaker.

Our next speaker is Jadante Smith.

Mr.

Smith, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

I'll start off by saying some uh something I usually don't do.

So I have received three different water bills in the last two months, and all out of the three water bills that I've received, all three have had a different address, and none of those have been my address.

I don't know what the water department is doing, what Gary Brown is doing, what the water commissioners are doing, but I take I take a real problem with that.

And just a simple thing of how do you send a person the incorrect water bill, not once, not twice, but three times, and especially to send two water bills in one month.

I think that that is egregious.

And I think that that seems to be um some sort of a personal attack.

One time this could be construed as you know, just an uh accident, but to have it happen three times in two short months is very, very uh suspect to me, especially with the amount of critical uh critical uh speech that I've been putting out about the administration, the mayor.

Um I really don't talk about the water department, even though I do have a couple of friends who are plumbers who complain to me incessantly about the water department, even though I've seen other things about the water department that are very, very concerning.

I see potholes.

Um, I see water main breaks all across the city.

I see lots of um issues with water water when people's basements flooding, um, our infrastructure is pretty bad when it comes to the city of Detroit.

I think that lots of residents are receiving bills that are not accurate, correct, incorrect.

Also, I've heard reports of Moon O's Realty having uh straight pipes in basements and still charging people with water, still charging people water bills.

We just gave them a beautiful concessions agree or uh consent agreement, and they owe the water department money.

They owe the treasurer money for the county and they owe BC money.

Um but as an individual resident, I have to deal with getting the wrong bill and build some different addresses when it comes down to water department.

We have uh millionaires, multi-multi-millionaires who are getting sweetheart deals and get forever in the day to pay their water bills, but regular residents don't have that.

We don't have that necessity.

So I think that um not necessarily we don't have that ability.

So I think when you do better with the water department, please regulate them.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

And we'll figure out what the best resource to entire to make sure that those water bills get worked out.

Um next speaker.

Uh, before we go to the next speaker, just to note that request for public comment has been cut off.

Our next speaker is William M.

Davis.

Commissioner Davis, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Uh good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Yes, you can.

You know, I think that it might be good if we could get a lot of this tree debris.

Uh, you know, I still have tree debris in my backyard, but a lot of the tree debris up on the streets.

There's a lot of it over here in District 7.

And uh, because that ultimately some of that tree debris is gonna have stuff going into the catch basins, which is gonna make it more likely that the streets are gonna be flooding and make it more likely that you have basements flooding.

You know, so that would be very good if we could get some action on getting up some of this tree debris.

Uh also separately, I think the city continues to do a poor job of being a steward of our resources that the city is supposed to own as relates to uh water department assets.

Because I worked for the water property for 34 years, and uh we did not used to have flooding and basement flooding as much as we do since the bankruptcy.

I I quit before you know, I retired before the bankruptcy, but it was very rare.

Now it's very frequent.

Uh also I think a greater effort needs to be made for the city to bring in more resources into the city, you know, like an entertainment tax or downtown income tax or sales tax or something that could assist the whole city as a large at home because a lot of the stuff seems like is capitalized on going downtown.

And we know we help pay for services for these entities and these millionaires and billionaires, but the communities is not getting the benefit from it most of the time.

So uh I would hope a greater effort could be made to help the community, a greater effort should be made to generate more funds staying in the city from the city.

Uh, because far too many of our tax dollars are going to other communities.

And I think we should be doing more to help everyone in the state of Detroit.

And y'all have a great day.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Uh, we'll say on the tree debris.

Um, you probably heard the updates.

I believe that was um on Monday.

Um, we've been told that the tree debris should be clear within the next week.

Um, please do let me know if that is not the case.

And Bart McFarland uh will also say that uh you probably heard during the discussion yesterday around um uh bringing up to the administration to think about how do we expand that capacity when it comes to emergencies to ensure that cleanup happens uh quicker.

Uh next speaker.

Our next speaker is Denise Lyles.

Miss Lyles, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon.

Can I be heard?

Yes, you will.

Great.

Thank you for all you guys do, but I still want to make sure I echo the word of the citizens as far as all these different contracts and things that go to these other cities out in other areas as opposed to keeping Detroit money in Detroit.

I have noticed on some other meetings that more council members are questioning contracts that have all these other addresses as opposed to being in Detroit.

I echo the uh thoughts of ex-commissioner uh, oh Lord, you can't even think of his name now.

Just got off it, knowing very well that we do need a downtown tax.

Our tax dollars are constantly paying into it, but our smaller neighborhoods aren't being able to reap the benefits.

We need more CBAs for these developers coming in up to our communities.

Uh thank you.

And we need more tree, our trees back.

Thank you very much and have a fantastic week.

Thank you, Ms.

Lyles.

And I agree with you on the entertainment tax.

I will say as we have gone through the discussion on that on the action that needs to be taken on the state level as folks come to your door and reach out to you for uh the state elections this year.

Please do stress to them as well that we need that action on the state level in Lansing.

Next speaker.

Our next speaker is phone number ending in 534.

Phone number in the M534.

Good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Good afternoon, may I be heard?

Yes, you may.

Okay, thank you.

Um, I'd like to thank your staff uh member Denzel for finally answering the question that I've been asking for a long time to, including the three representatives I get to vote for with no response.

Uh, but your office did uh and that was about why do some people in the targeted solar areas get uh housing upgrades and the rest of us don't when there wasn't a community benefits agreement.

And um Mr.

Rosie Tano admitted, yes, there was no community benefits agreement.

However, um it uh it was the solar contractors paying people.

So very politely looks like a major bribe by DTE to me to get the people to agree who are probably desperate for some money and some help to sell out their neighbors who were having their properties taken.

And then most disgustingly, the DT contractors went around cutting down trees on property they still didn't even have title to yet.

Cutting down acres and acres of trees that do what?

Carbon capture and gave us oxygen.

And so as you all hopefully saw at the IBEW, they had some pretty cool solar panels in their parking lot.

Uh that uh migrate toward the move towards the sun.

Michigan State University solar parking lot was the largest in the country award winning.

And we could have done stuff like that instead of been so mean to people rolling over on them with a uh uh uh a law firm funded to the tune of 7.7 million dollars.

They are defaulting most people.

When some people show up at court, they don't even they don't even understand that the lady they're talking to is not on their side.

They did not get a right to council.

It's really disgusting.

And so I commend you, Member Denzel, for not being willing to go as far along with such a thank you.

Next speaker.

Um, our next speaker is Blackbag, but they have already gone.

So our last speaker is D dot Ambassador Cunningham.

Brother Cunningham, good afternoon.

You have two minutes.

Yay, God.

313, 444-9114, 313-444-9114, 313-44, 9114.

That number was made, so you can remember it.

And for subservience Cunningham on Facebook.

I'm on Warren and Van Dyke.

Waiting on the bus.

I did a bus ride along.

I endorse no candidate, but she uh wrote the coaches with me.

I am the Wong Council.

I am running for Michigan Senate.

I am at Warren and Van Dyke with Cunningham, riding the bus with my young people.

Glad to be outside, glad to get some feedback from the writers to know what's exactly needed at bus stops and what I can do to uplift them from my state candidate seats.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Denzel.

You have been kind to everyone, respectful.

You're not Saditi, you're not uppity, you're not bougie, none of that.

And um I appreciate it.

And I appreciate your donation.

Your donation went to ice water, frozen water that was given out every Friday and bus tickets, and it's called Free Fair Friday.

Uh, we go around the city, we touch 150 to 200 people.

Thank you for your prayers, everybody.

I still need another vehicle.

Um, I still need donations.

My Patreon and Cash App 313 4449114.

And I pray for you.

Yes, you listening, and you pray for me.

And I continue to ask.

It may hurt, but I want you to hate without schism, love without schism.

Be one or the other, keep it real, keep it 3,000 for the ones that came.

And councilman Denzel, we pray for you.

You good people.

Thank you, Brother Cunningham.

I uh I appreciate that.

Uh all right, next speaker.

Mr.

Chair, that was our last speaker.

All right, that'll bring us into the end of public comment.

Um, just to note for folks for the record, um, when it was just want to know since our officers brought up on the reply, we stated to Miss Ward that the home upgrades and the solar errors were provided.

Uh uh, it says benefits negotiated directly into the developer agreements with Light Star and DTE.

Um, so just want to make that for the record.

Uh anything else that colleagues want to add?

Uh by sure Jossa.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just want to uh share that there is a micro and small business summit that is taking place on July 31st from 12 until 3 p.m.

If anyone knows of businesses that are in the city of Detroit that would like to become a vendor with the city, um, for us to help guide them through the process to get signed up and also to be able to uh respond to be it's so that as contract opportunities come or vendor opportunities come, they are at the head of the line to be able to respond uh in order for them to get contracts to secure contracts with the city of Detroit.

That is the first step.

Again, the event is on Saturday, July 31st from 12 until 3 p.m.

at Wayne County Community College's Northwest Campus.

Uh, and this is put on by member Waters, Member Callaway, and myself.

Again, that is this Saturday, July 31st, noon until 3 p.m.

at the Wayne County Community College Northwest Campus.

So anyone who knows someone who has a business that is looking to do business with the city of Detroit, we invite you to come out.

We ask that you share the information so that we can get Detroit based businesses signed up to do business with the city.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair, and thank y'all for hosting that.

We will uh be sure to share that on our channels as well.

So thank you all.

Anything else?

All right.

Seeing nothing, nothing further.

We'll move on to unfinished business.

Uh 5.1 is a memo from member Miller's office on the uh taxes owed by the Moon Yes properties.

Um I would is there a motion to discuss?

Uh to the law department.

Is this something that we need to bring back after um recess?

Uh dehill law department to the chair, yes, please.

Okay.

Is there a motion to bring back 5.1 on September 9th?

Motion.

It's been a motion to bring back 5.1 on September 9th.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Uh 5.2.

Um is a memo from member Benson on data center tax revenue impact.

Uh is there motion to discuss.

Uh there's been a motion to discuss.

Um Mr.

Corley.

Uh, how long do you need for this one?

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon, City Council.

Good afternoon.

Our report went out actually today.

Okay, please bring this back in September and the report should show up as well.

Gotcha.

Thank you.

Um, is there a motion to bring back 5.2 on September 9th?

Been a motion to bring back 5.2 on September 9th.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Um, then 5.3 is a memo from Vice Chair Johnson's office on the fiscal analysis of proposed resolution contain the property tax reductions.

Um is there a motion to discuss?

I'll defer to Vice Chair Johnson and LPD on this one.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

We have not received anything as of yet.

Mr.

Corley.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, please bring this back on September 9th as well.

We'll we'll be working with the uh Office of Treasury to do this report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to bring back 5.3 on September 9th?

Okay.

Seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

And then for 5.4, we've been asked to bring back this by the admin on September 9th as well.

Is there uh there's been a motion to bring back 5.4 on September 9th?

Uh seeing no objections, that action shall be taken.

Moving us along to new business.

This is from the Office of Contractor and Procurement.

This is a resolution authorizing contract number 6007 eight two nine.

100% city funding to provide an independent evaluation of compliance with Michigan law regarding assessment evaluation and to assist with the implementation of mayoral executive order regarding ratio standards and transparency.

Contractors International Association of Assessing Officers, LLC, um located in Kansas City, Missouri.

Uh contract period is for two years and contracting models 490,000.

Um, this again is for OCFO.

Is there a motion to discuss?

Motion.

There's been a motion to discuss.

We should have Assessor Horn and also Christopher Jones on.

Mr.

Chair, I've been trying to promote them to panelists, but they are not accepting.

All right, Assessor Mr.

Jones, if you could um we're trying to promote you to panelists if you could just accept that request.

Hi, it's uh Chris Jones, OCP.

Good afternoon.

Do we see this Assessor Horn in the on Zoom?

Yes, Mr.

Chair.

He is uh listed as an attendee.

Not accepting the promotion.

Okay.

We'll try one more time.

All right.

Mr.

Chair, do you want to bring this item back at the end of the agenda?

As we try to figure this out.

Yeah, we can bring this, but there's my motion to rub back 6.4 at the end of the agenda.

All right, we'll come back to it.

Move us along to 6.2.

This is from the Office of City Clerk and the City Planning Commission.

This is a resolution authorizing neighborhood enterprise zone certificate application for the construction of a new apartment building at 1728 Michigan Avenue in the Corktown Development Properties LLC neighborhood enterprise zone.

And again, this is from the Office of City Car City Planning Commission.

Mr.

Gula, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair.

Chris Gulak, CPC staff.

Right.

And uh who do we who else do we have joining us?

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair Nevin Shokar with the development team.

All right, good afternoon.

Mr.

Gulark, the floor is yours.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh CPC staff recently recently received a request from the developed developer, and uh we submitted a memo and a resolution for your consideration.

Um this one, this any z NAZ zone was recently approved by City Council.

It's 1728 Michigan Avenue.

It's shown here on the screen on the map.

It's west of Trumbull, north of Michigan Avenue, just west of the old Tiger Stadium.

Zooming in closer, it's vacant land here shown on the north side of Michigan Avenue.

And here's a view looking northward from Michigan Avenue at the site.

Uh the um the NEZ, which is I believe called the Corktown Development Properties 1728.

It was recently approved by City Council, I think last week.

Um it has a point two four one acres.

And the petitioner is uh Corktown Development Properties.

It's the it's owned by uh developer Andra Rush, and she has a uh rush group of family companies that are proposing to develop the new project.

So the property is vacant land at zone B4, which is general business, uh which would allow this type of uh proposal.

It's in council district six.

And then the land was purchased, you know, in June 20 a year ago um for 275,000.

And uh the true cash value is listed here as well at 374,000.

Council is I think fairly familiar with this request of it's a nine-story apartment building.

We rental, so we 60 units.

The overall project is over 30 million.

Um I report with the breakdown of the different units.

There's 15 studio units, 35 one bedroom, and 10 two-bedroom.

And the developers signed an agreement with the city that 20% of the units would be set aside for no more than 50 60% area median income.

The developer has provided a table showing the different units.

So there's on the on the right here, there would be uh 12 affordable units.

There'd be three studios, seven one bedroom, and two two bedrooms.

Uh here's an image of what the uh a rendering of what the project would look like regarding parking.

Um there's 14 on-site uh spaces, I believe behind the building and 44 off-site.

So 58 total parking spaces, and then tenants would be charged 150 dollars per month for parking, but the affordable tenants would pay 100 a month.

And the developers indicated regarding accessibility to be two fully accessible type A units, and then the remaining remaining would be type B uh adaptable units.

So in conclusion, the uh it's confirmed as being in the NEZ zone, which council just approved, established recommended approval and the resolution has been submitted for your consideration.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Mr.

Gulag.

Um nothing further, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh members on the committee.

Any questions?

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just a couple of quick clarifying questions.

Um Mr.

Shokar, can you share the rental rates for the affordable units?

Uh yes, through the chair.

Um the studio units will start uh at $995 per month.

Uh the one bedroom units um will be I think around 1,100 per month, and the two bedroom units that are affordable will be um around 1200 per month.

Do you have the actual rents?

Yes, I can I can look that up if you just give me a moment.

And while you look it up, can you share where the parking is going to be?

Sure.

So there's 14 parking spaces that are on the first floor of the building that you you pull in from the back alley and almost like a garage door, come in into those spaces that are within the envelope of the building.

You also have 44 parking spaces that are um just west of uh the development sites, about 250 feet away.

Um and that's been uh reviewed and approved by the the planning department.

And is that site owned by the developer?

Yes, it is.

Okay.

All right.

If you can just share the exact rental rates, that would be great.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Um, so I have the um just a second.

Just need one more moment to pull that up.

That would be $995 for a studio apartment.

Um the one bedroom affordable apartments are at 1047 uh per month.

And the apartments.

Um I believe somewhere around 1200 a month.

Um I may have to double check that number and email that to your office.

Please do.

And your your signal is is breaking up a little, but if you can share how um how you market the affordable units sure, absolutely.

Um so through the chair, the uh the housing department, we work in close collaboration with them and and through who we select uh as our property manager, they'll have ample experience um with uh sort of leasing in Detroit, um whether that's to market rate tenants or uh the affordable tenants, and those all of those units will be indistinguishable in terms of fit and finish and located throughout the building.

Um the housing department maintains a list um that uh that will allow us to um to help occupy those units uh with affordable tenants.

Um and so we will um you know we'll we will have the all of those units listed with the housing department so that we can make make those readily available to those tenants.

Okay, thank you for that.

I'll reach out to the housing department.

I know of the website, um, and I know these affordable units go rather quickly because every time I have looked on the site, the units are a little bit more expensive, um, certainly more expensive than the rates you provided.

So I will connect with the housing department and I would venture to say that um because I believe there are 12 affordable units that the property manager would need to address those at all.

Perhaps he can focus on the market rate units, and um the city can certainly get those affordable units filled rather quickly.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Member Waters.

All right, thank you.

So Member Johnson did ask specifically about the parking.

So is it pre-assigned or is it first come, first serve?

Uh through the chair, those spaces will be uh first come, first served.

So we'll have a total of 58 parking spaces for um 60 total units.

Uh what about other projects in the city?

What that you've done?

Where are they?

Um I'm working on um a couple of other projects.

There's one in Brush Park uh that I helped work on.

Um there's another one um here in Corktown that I'm also working on.

Um there are various different stages uh of the approval process.

In Brush Park.

Okay, and then there's a there are a couple others somewhere else.

That's right.

And through the chair, I'm also working on um a number of uh pilot applications for uh as a consultant to various developers uh on the east side of Detroit, um, in New Center, um, in the Wayne State uh midtown area, where uh the majority of those developments are affordable housing developments where the the rents are restricted uh at 80% AMI and below.

Um so where are the contractors coming from to do the work?

So the the contractors that we have on this specific project, um we have a a number of Detroit-based contractors, Eric King, um as well as our plumber Jerm Germore.

Um they were uh available for public comment uh last week.

Um and uh we also have um a number of union affiliated trades as well.

Okay, yeah, I do recall some of them coming uh before uh formal last week.

Um might have a different group of listeners today, so I wanted to make sure that we share it with them as well.

So thank you, Mr.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Member Waters.

Uh just a couple questions for myself.

Um and Mr.

Gulag, if you have the information just on, I know reports have said that the NEZ for this would be around 413,000 a year in tax savings.

What would be what would be the rate that this NEZ or um the yeah we'll be the rate the uh uh this NEZ or the assessment would be frozen at for this um property to the chair, yeah.

This one is uh new construction rental, which is is more unique.

Usually we see rental rehab or uh new construction condos, but this is a rental new construction uh apartment.

So yeah, the assessors would work with the developer and will the assessors work with the state of Michigan state tax, which I think the freeze the value at the pre-development cost, but Mr.

Shokar might know the numbers better than I, but I usually don't get into the uh assessed value numbers.

But assessors, once if it gets approved by the state, then the assessors will work to under uh decide what the frozen value is pre-construction.

I think that's how it works.

Got it.

Thank you.

Yeah, and through the chair, the um the millage rate on this would be discounted.

So there wouldn't be um a discount to the assessment.

There would just be a discount to the property taxes through a reduction in the millage rate.

And so that millage rate, instead of being you know, 82 or 83 mills, whatever the full full millage rate is today, would be closer to around 26 mills.

And that would that would result in the the reduction that you um that you mentioned of around 413,000 uh per year.

Thank you for that.

And what is what are you all anticipating that you would then if the NEZ is approved that you all will pay um property taxes per year?

Absolutely.

So Mr.

Chair, right now the the family has owned this um this parcel for about um 12 years, and the current property tax rate or property tax bill is about 2300 a year.

Um the property taxes with all the incentives, the Brownfield TIFF, the NEC and everything, those taxes would jump from 2300 to about 70,000 a year after this development's completed.

Okay, got it.

So without the without the NEZ and all the incentives, it would be looking at a um a tax would be a tax bill of nearly 500,000, is that correct?

Or is my math wrong?

Uh yeah, Mr.

Chair, actually be north of $600,000 per year with with no incentives.

Um and then uh for the worker uh the folks will be working on the development.

I know you identified the contractors, but have um the individual work crew been identified for this project.

Uh Mr.

Chair, there have been no uh contracts that have been um fully awarded yet.

We have not signed a full GMP, just that this stage um of the process and where we are with trying to get um you know our tax incentives approved.

Um we have recently uh updated some of the the plans um and we'll be um hopefully in the position to uh award those specific companies, I would say within the next three to four weeks.

Okay.

And for the accessible uh units, what floor are the two that you that will be already um I believe you said type A.

Yeah, that's right.

Uh through the chair, I believe those would be on the third and fifth floor, but I will confirm via email with your office after this meeting.

Okay, and then uh thank you for that.

And then uh um second question I have on that for the type B, uh, what is the process if someone does need those accommodations?

Um, are you all able to make that or what they would the um tenant have to make those themselves?

No, Mr.

Chair, the um uh the the property owner and through the property manager that we have, we would we would make those changes uh to those units to accommodate um the tenant and so uh all of the units are they have reinforced backing, um, you know, for for grab bars to be installed, um, you know, in the showers and and those types of uh areas, they have lower all the units you know throughout the building, even the type B units have uh lower counter heights, so um so that you know folks who um who uh may have yeah um we who may be um wheelchair bound, uh they're able to um you know safely sort of navigate all areas of the apartment, the building, um and uh you know, all those all of those accommodations would be made uh on behalf of the developer for those tenants.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any further questions?

Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank Mr.

Chair.

Um very quickly to Mr.

Gulag.

Can you remind me of the size of the lot?

Uh to the chair, it would take me a moment.

Uh Mr.

Shokar might know I'm guessing a half an acre, but I could try to pull that up while we're waiting.

Yeah, through through the chair, it's a little less than a quarter of an acre.

Thank you.

And uh Mr.

Shokar, can you just share the prevailing wage commitment as it relates to um the development of this project and the the workers on site absolutely?

So through the chair, um prevailing wage conditions are are typically um due to the different um layers of financing that come in multifamily construction projects, such as these.

So that would be if there's any federal funds, um, any state funds how to CDBG, um, lie tech funds, things like that.

So in this case, this project is 100% privately funded um through uh the developer's debt and equity.

Um and uh so there are no prevailing wage conditions as a result of uh this this development.

I thought I thought you had the developer had committed to offering a prevailing wage for the construction workers.

Uh no, through through the chair, there is there is not a um prevailing wage, but we we did undergo a substantial wage analysis across all the different trades working on this um just to verify that the uh the incomes of the construction workers um what was satisfactory and can you share that with us via email?

Uh through through the chair, absolutely I can I can follow up with your office uh after this meeting.

There there are um there are prevailing wages that are that are being paid to um to one specific uh uh well I I guess all of our union um affiliated folks would be paying prevailing wages.

Um and so we have about 25 percent of the um of the the total trades working on this job, whether it's elevators, the crane operator, excavation, uh insulation, and finished carpentry, those are all union affiliated, and so those would be uh prevailing wage.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair Johnson.

Mr.

Gulap was about to be.

Oh, Mr.

Gulat.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, to the uh through the chair, I did check that the property's about a hundred feet, a hundred feet.

I mean, you can have it by 100 feet deep, so about 10,000 square feet, which is which is about a quarter of an acre.

Just answer your question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, and also um if you could send that uh wage information over to my office as well, because I was under the assumption that there was prevailing wage across the project uh also.

Um with that, is there are there any further questions or a motion on 6.2 motion to send line item 6.2 to formal with a recommendation to approve?

There's been a motion to send 6.2 uh to formal with a recommendation to approve.

Uh any objections.

Seeing none, that actually shall be taken.

Thank you both.

Thank you.

All right.

That'll take us back to 6.1.

Um we have the assessor in the room with us.

Is there a motion to discuss 6.1?

Motion.

Uh sir, if you can come forward and also we have Mr.

Jones on with us virtually.

Good afternoon.

Uh good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman's committee.

Alfin Horn, Deputy CFO and assessor for the City of Detroit.

Chris Jones, City of D Office of Contracting and Procurement.

Thank you both.

All right.

Um if you could just uh sir, if you can just go over an overview of this contract and the purpose for it.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh it serves several purposes.

First and foremost, to comply with the property tax reform ordinance, which requires an independent evaluator to review the assessments of the residential properties each year.

It is to assist the assessor's office in complying with Mayor Sheffield's executive order from earlier this year with very three specific uh items to produce a mass appraisal report, to use those sales racials and other racial studies that do not conflict with Michigan law, and to uh to modify the residential economic condition neighborhood factors.

Uh we were to do that, have that done before the end of the year.

They're also to review the operations and structure of the assessor's office to determine if it is sufficient to perform a statutory duties.

Thank you.

And um just to note because if folks are um looking at for uh at the I the IAAO, um if you can just give the reason why this contract is going um being proposed to go to that organ that company.

Yes, sir.

When the question first arose as to whether this the assessor's office to comply with Michigan law, which states that assessment should be at 50 percent market value, the determination was made to bring an independent evaluator.

Once we that decision was made, a search was done for someone who could actually perform that type of work and see the size of Detroit with its complexities.

There was only one statewide vendor who were capable of doing the work.

They have a contract with the state of Michigan to audit assessor's offices, so they weren't going to enter into a contract with the City of Detroit to basically do the same work.

There were only a handful of other agencies throughout the country who could have done the work.

Only the IAO offered to to uh be a part of this of this evaluation.

The others for various reasons declined.

Umce we reviewed who could do the work, once we asked ourselves what we were asking to do, Detroit's over 400,000 parcels.

We review over 65,000 sales for our sales study.

You couldn't just bring anyone in to do it.

You need to find someone who could actually review the work, who could vet the sales, but it actually put an assessment role together.

We want someone who actually knew how to put an assessment role together.

Because literally they were looking at our process and saying you're doing it right or you're doing it wrong.

So you need someone who could actually do it.

And once you went through those considerations, the only organization that was large enough to do it that had the background had actually done this work in jurisdictions the size of Detroit, Cook County, Marisoba County in Arizona, Cook County incorporate Chicago, I'll just say a Philadelphia.

They were the only ones who had a track record in the city approaching the size of Detroit.

That's why it was decided to do a sole source contract.

We couldn't find any vendors who were willing to do it.

The ones who might have possibly been willing to bid on it, weren't capable of doing the work.

They had they had no track record of doing anything like this in the city that size or the state's complexity, and they could do the work in the time span that the CFO and City Council wanted it done.

Okay.

All right.

Um I have additional, but I'll go to uh my colleagues, member Waters.

All right, so thank you.

Um so um the vendor um will have to travel here.

Why isn't that included in the in the contract?

Uh through the chair.

The contract requires the vendor to travel as necessary.

So, yes, if they need to come to the city of Detroit to do this work, they are required to do so.

All the data that we use to create an assessment role has been transferred to the will be transferred to the vendor as it was previously.

They will interview staff and they will report their findings to this honorable body.

If they need to come here, the contract does require them to come here.

But for the most part, most of this work can be done uh without them coming to Detroit.

Okay, so if they have to, what are we paying for?

We're paying for hotel, uh, rental cars, flights, what does that include?

I don't have the specifics in front of me.

The contract, the overall contract covers calls for them to be on call as this body uh requires.

If it's necessary for them to be here, then it's covered under the terms of this contract.

There's no specific or extra if that if I'm if I'm understanding your question, there's no extra expense.

There's no extra money that they'll get if they have to come to Detroit.

So it is included in this contract, the 490,000.

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, okay.

All right.

Yes, everything that they may have to do, they all have to do within that 490,000.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you for clarifying.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Member Warders.

Virtual Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Good afternoon.

Um, thank you for being here.

Is so I'm just trying to make sure I understand this correctly.

Is this the second contract with this vendor?

Correct.

Through the chair, correct, ma'am.

This is the second uh contract with the IAO.

And can you share what was completed with within the first contract?

Uh thank you, ma'am.

Yes, through the chair.

The first contract had very two at three very specific purposes to review our sales to determine if we were compliant with Michigan law, which required residential assessments to be at 50 percent of market value.

They reviewed our vetting process.

Basically, they looked at all the sales that we used to compute values, and then they vetted it based on their their own processes to determine if we use the sales we were supposed to use.

The second was to determine if our residential neighborhoods were appropriate or if they needed to be modified.

So, yes, um, those three, those were the three primary purposes of the original contract, and they did satisfy the terms of those contracts.

Well, can you um clarify residential neighborhoods being appropriate?

Yes, ma'am.

The City of Detroit for valuation purposes before the at the time this contract was divided, and forgive me if I go into assessor geek because I get really geeky talking about this stuff.

Um the City of Detroit was divided prior to this contract into 207 residential neighborhoods for valuation purposes.

They're known as the economic condition factors.

That's how the state of Michigan requires every assessor to value property.

Those those residential neighborhoods were created at the end of our residential reappraisal around the 2015 to 2018 time frame.

We knew they needed to be modified.

We'd already taken steps to modify it, but based on that report, they suggested strongly that you are two years behind the times.

You should start this modification earlier.

So we had actually accelerated that process.

Then we received the order from the mayor, complete the process by this year.

That's part of the mayor's executive order from this year.

So we are in in line to complete this process by the end of the year.

Um we at the beginning of this tax year, those 207 neighborhoods have been expanded to 289.

By the end of this year, we'll have some 344 residential neighborhoods.

And and would you say within that, would you say that the neighborhoods are roughly in alignment with the way the neighborhoods have been classified that are on the city's website that we all follow?

Through the chair.

No, ma'am, they are not.

Uh, even before we start this modification, they weren't.

And and there's a real reason for that.

Uh, for the assessor's offices, we value by neighborhood.

So we used our sales, we used the condition to neighborhoods, and we carved those neighborhoods out based on that information.

And it doesn't always align to the the commonly known boundaries of of neighborhoods.

Certainly, since we've we've modified them, it's gone farther away from what people commonly believe in neighborhood boundaries are because that's not the political or the established boundary.

It's a boundary whose sole purpose is to value the houses, do an apple to apple comparison for each neighborhood.

So they serve two different purposes.

That's why they don't really look alike.

I hope that answers your question, ma'am.

It does.

It just makes me um wonder about how it is broken down.

So like you may have one neighborhood on the perimeter of it, it has brick housing, and the core of it, it may have framed housing.

So is it did you all start with the neighborhoods that we are all familiar with and maybe then start to segment neighborhoods for like properties?

Through the chair, that's a great question, ma'am, and that's exactly what we did.

We started, that was the base.

This the existing neighborhood boundaries that we're all familiar with.

And then from that point, we start doing an apple to apple comparison.

Bungle to bungalow, two family to two family, brick for near to brick for there, brick to brick, frame to frame.

So that's exactly how we break up our neighborhoods by the style of the housing and then by the style of the construction.

Right.

All right, thank you.

I'm really interested in the outcome of this.

I think we all are.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

Um, to that point, um, definitely interested.

Uh do you have the delivery dates for phase two and phase three reports?

I don't have them off the top of my head and through through the chair.

I don't have them off the top of my head, and we've had to modify them.

And I I accept responsibility for this.

This contract is late in getting to this honorable body.

It should have been before you several weeks ago.

So we've had to modify the delivery dates through the IAO.

Okay.

If you could just follow up with us on those once you get the um new delivery dates.

I will, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Um, and then also a question on I see that only eight hours of training is allotted before C stop takes over the sales ratio study in year two.

Um, in your view, is that enough time?

And and are there um any quality controls that exist if the in-house study doesn't meet standards?

Uh, through the chair, that's not enough time, and I can assure you that there's that training has already started.

We have set we have sent our staff to IAO sponsored classes.

Um there are specific classes regarding racial studies, racial standards, sales vetting that we have sent our core staff to, so they've been through that process.

And many of those classes are taught by the people who will be doing the the vetting and the sales analysis for the city of Detroit.

Uh we have a contractor on site who was the former mass appraisal manager for the city of Philadelphia who worked with the IA double double IAAO, it's a tongue twister I know, to uh to develop their own racial studies.

So we've really based what we're doing on what the city of Philadelphia have done.

We brought in people who worked in Philadelphia to do that.

They have trained staff, so we're not starting from scratch.

Um that con when this hopefully when this contract is implemented and we start that sales process, our staff is three-quarters of the way there, and they're gonna get us through the finish line.

Okay.

That's great.

Um, do you have uh like a ballpark of if you could ballpark how many hours staff have gone through that training already?

Over the last three years, uh average of 200 hours over a three-year period.

Uh the classes are 40 hours.

We have in in-house uh uh training through our contractors of about 15 hours every five months.

We have a core group of five people in our modeling team who will be responsible for this.

They've done about 200 hours through both specific classroom training and injured individual training with our with our vendor.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And my last question, um, after this contract ends, will the city retain um four rights to the formula code and underlying data use in a ratio uh standard and a ratio study?

Through the chair, yes, sir.

All right.

Got it.

Any additional questions?

Mr.

Chair.

I just have one quick question.

So for those neighborhoods where there's not a lot of sales going on, what do you do to adjust to that?

Through the chair, I figure you would ask me a question like that, Mr.

Corley.

Um, it is the the it's the key of the problem evaluating Detroit.

We have plenty of sales, but they're not evenly distributed to the city.

As Mr.

Corley pointed out, there are plenty of neighborhoods where there are no transactions.

There are other neighborhoods where those transactions don't meet the definition of market value.

So we're not allowed by Michigan law to use them.

And to answer your question, the first step is to find a similar neighborhood where the housing stock is similar, where the conditions are similar, and use those sales, make adjustments based on what's going on in that particular neighborhood, but we use those sales.

And in some cases, and this is something that we start doing.

If there is no market activity in the particular neighborhood, we don't move the values.

We we adjust it based on the CPI and we leave it at that.

Um what we are coming to realization is that if there's no market activity in the neighborhood, then no one's no one's looking to buy a house there.

So why are we gonna raise the assessment?

So is this something we start doing the last couple of years?

Will we have a neighborhood where there's been a continuous uh level of no market activity?

We sit down and make a determination.

Do we want to find a neighborhood that looks like it and move the values?

Or is it more appropriate to leave the values where they are and just apply the CPI?

And what we started doing is we've just applied the CPI.

Hopefully, that answers Mr.

Corley's question.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Anything further?

All right, was there a motion on 6.1 motion to approve?

6.1 center formal with a recommendation to approve.

Any objections?

Seeing none, that action shall be taken.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you, Mr.

Jones.

All right.

That'll move us on to member reports.

Uh member waters.

No, no report.

No report.

Uh Vice Chair Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just want to remind residents that we are hosting our annual wellness fair this Saturday.

Um, that is July 25th at the Samaritan Center in the Wellness Center.

Uh, that is 5555 Connor from 10 a.m.

until 2 p.m.

We are collaborating with a couple of organizations that um work uh with various residents throughout the district.

Um, that is redeem Detroit as well as destined for greatness.

Um, so just really trying to come together collaboratively to provide resources to our residents.

We're looking to have a fun event.

We will be passing out book bags and school supplies.

I can't believe that already.

Um but I know the summer flies for our young people, so we we want it to be a fun event.

We'll have folks doing bike repairs, face painting.

Of course, we will have music, food, um, just a fun family gathering as well as dental and vision screenings, um, and a variety of other um wellness activities.

Uh, we will have our fire department that will come out and show everyone how to do CPR um training, and so we're excited about it, looking forward to it.

We'll have fun, we'll be hustling, of course.

Um, but just looking forward to to it being a fun event for everyone in the family again.

It is this Saturday, July 25th from 10 a.m.

until 2 p.m.

at the wellness center within the Samaritan Center at 5555 Connor.

Look forward to seeing you all.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Vice Chair.

You're gonna make me travel east to come do some hustles.

That's what I'm gonna just uh announcement from myself.

Uh tomorrow, uh July 23rd, Thursday at 6 p.m.

will be our district seven monthly meeting.

It will be virtual.

Uh we'll have folks from um the planning department to give update on the master plan of where that process is and additional ways for folks to give input and thoughts, and we'll also have folks from uh D dot and the county to just give education on the transit millage.

So please do join us tomorrow, Thursday, July 23rd at 6 p.m.

virtually.

If you need additional information on how to sign up, please do reach out to our office at 313-2242151.

And that brings us to the end of member reports and seeing no further business before this committee, is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion.

All right, there's been a motion to adjourn, and this committee stands adjourned.

See you at the Labor Day.