Live reporting by
Benjamin Haddix
Council denyed the appeal of former city contractor Bobby Ferguson, who was banned from contracting with the city for 20 years.
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Bhx
@BhxDetroit
Hello! I’ll be live tweeting the Detroit City Council Formal Session at 10am for #DETDocumenters. Media Partners: @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @Michigan_Public @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
08:57 AM Jun 4, 2024 CDT
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Ok meeting has been called to order (seems like there were some technical issues)
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Dr Meagan Elliott, soon to be the president of the Belle Isle Conservancy, is being honored with the spirit of Detroit Award
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The council is "cutting off" public comments, though I don't think the council ever opened up for public comments, and now someone is presenting on Lean, and the Lean Team
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It has to do with trying to improve the civic systems to be more efficient. And per Santiago-Romero, this has to do with creating continuous, accessible tools for the council to better serve the city.
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Interesting comment regarding the DPL’s library administrative fees that at one point exceeded a million in the library’s budget, but once made public was reduced to 700k, still without any justification for why the fee is necessary – questions of transparency with the DPL
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There are technical problems with the audio for the virtual callers, so the council is standing at ease momentarily…
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annd the council will move on with the agenda while technical problems are being sorted out
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A number of contracts with CVI (Community Violence Intervention) Tactics are in the process of being renewed – Line items 20.1-20.7
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A lot of discussion going on about line item 20.17 and how to vote on a closed session…
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Some discussion regarding Vincent Chin and the renaming of a street in Detroit to honor him (a man of Chinese decent who was killed in 1982 in Highland Park, a racially-motivated act)
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A commenter suggests that no waivers should have been passed on resolutions without public comments happening first (which, because of the technical difficulties, did not happen)
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Commenter questions the solar project, suggesting it was rushed and, as example, neglected to utilize the creativity of the surrounding universities
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Commenter points out that commemorating Vincent Chin and the legacy of his death is also about honoring the once robust chinatown of downtown Detroit.
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I love that a commenter is calling in, commenting at the City Council meeting, advocating for improvements to the Detroit bus system, all while getting his hair cut. Something beautiful about that and at least technology at it's best😆
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Speaking of technology at it's best… unfortunately there are more tech issues going on with the Zoom stream. It's been a bit of a slog today so I apologize for the staggered tweeting.
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Not sure if public comments had to be cut short, but now it seems that the meeting is nearing the end
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If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
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This concludes my coverage of the Detroit City Council Meeting. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings here:
Documenters.org
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For some more clarity on the earlier commenter regarding the Detroit Public Libraries being charged an administrative fee by the city, here is an article from March by Detroit's For Tax Justice:
detroitersfortaxjustice.com/f/foias-and-re…
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For clarity, in my earlier tweet on the subject, I had misunderstood the commenters statement, thinking it was the library who was receiving the mysterious fee when in fact it is the DPL that has had to pay the fee to the city.
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ALSO, in terms of the renaming of a street for Vincent Chin, I am not seeing which street was under consideration for this idea…
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As some of the commenters in today's meeting voiced their feeling that because Vincent Chin living in and was killed in Highland park, that renaming a street after him is not something the city should be concerned with (paraphrasing a few of the comments), it seems worth noting…
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…that Vincent Chin and his family all worked in Detroit, he is buried in Detroit, and the situation of his death and the racism that surrounded it was distinct to Detroit identity (perceived racial tensions in the 1980's around the failing auto industry).
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Also the renaming project, per the commenters who spoke in support of it, also aims to identify the systematic fracturing of Asian-American communities in Detroit (highly related to the many other erasure / gentrification projects of Detroit's past and present)