Detroit City Council Formal Session

Detroit City Council

Politics

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024
10:00 a.m. — 2:00 p.m. EDT

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Reporting

Edited and summarized by the Detroit - MI Documenters Team

Live reporting by Benjamin Haddix

Public commenters demand property tax reform. City Council approved spending $80,000 on chocolate for Halloween in the D because Detroit’s youth deserve higher quality candy.

Bhx @BhxDetroit

Hello! I’ll be live tweeting the Detroit City Council meeting meeting at 10:00 for #DETDocumenters. Media Partners: @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @Michigan_Public @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit

08:53 AM Oct 8, 2024 CDT

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Here is a link to the city's webpage where you can find a zoom link to watch the meeting as well: detroitmi.gov/government/cit…

detroitmi.gov/government/cit…

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And here is a link to view today's agenda: pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?I…

pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?I…

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Meeting has been called to order 10:09

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It appears that council members Tate, Waters, Young II, and Santiago Romero are all absent for roll call

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The city council is honoring Detroit's Umoja Debate League and its founder, Jerjuan Howard. Umoja means unity is Swahili. Unity, debate, unity, debate… it shouldn't be such a novel relationship. Seems like a powerful non-profit. Link to their website: umojadebate.org

umojadebate.org

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We move into public comments

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Council members Tate and Santiago-Romero have joined the meeting, by the way.

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In response to multiple public commenters speaking to the prospective i-375 project, council member Tate suggests that in addition to speaking before city council, people speak to the mayor directly about their building project related concerns at this event which is tonight:

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One commenter suggests, after seeing protesters outside on his way in to the city council meeting, that when protests meet a certain threshold of participation, that the city officials be required to step out and speak to the concerns of the people.

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…Practical systems for protests to become collaborative and generative… Of course protests can be these collaborative and generative (or simply importantly expressive), but I think…

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…we are at a point where the idea of protests, especially the city/national reactions to them are immediately conflictual, rather than seen as an opportunity

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Professor Bernadette Atuahene, a property law scholar who studied closely the history of property taxation in Detroit, and others speak to city council needing to move forward with the IAAO independent review of property taxation in Detroit.

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…Furthermore they both suggest that appointees by the city council to the review board do NOT meet the legal agreement made for the review process. Importantly, I do not entirely know what they are referring to, but per their comments…

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…there is a lack of proper training for these appointees and a lack of collaboration by the city with the tax justice community.

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In terms of the property tax assessment: commenters were speaking to assessors needing to have completed the Michigan Certified Assessing Technician (MCAT) course. There are comments that the city council has failed to appoint assessors who meet this legal requirement.

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In response to the earlier comments about said assessor appointment requirements, there was expression of some confusion / need for clarity by the council regarding this legal requirement.

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Public comments have been concluded.

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Some discussion beginning regrading Danielle January being appointed to the Property Assessment Board of Review (line item 17.12)

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Two people from the Property Assessment Board Alvin Horn (and another man whose name I missed) speak to the level of training that they feel is necessary for the role of Assessor. They argue that the MCAT is not necessary for all appointees, it seems, or at least not right away.

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They are suggesting that this has to do with the urgency, the actual requirements of the job, and the idea that it is important that the assessors be learning the same thing at the same time (not sure I understand why that is exactly).

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Council member Young II suggests that he wants to make sure that the training is not used as an exclusionary tool, but should be an inclusionary tool (which, also, does not really make sense to me seeing as the goal is to have well trained and proficient individuals).

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Not a lot of specifics regarding the actually legal requirements in terms of the MCAT training, so I can't tell why this should or should not be even up for discussion.

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Regardless, Danielle January has been appointed to the Property Assessment Board of Review. I do not know if she has met these training requirements that have been under discussion.

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Discussion regrading line item 18.1 in the agenda: Website for housing resources (and affordable housing resources) seeking ARPA funding. Member Calloway disagrees with assigning this much ARPA funding ($2,262,400.00) to a website which…

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…in her opinion does not have clear benchmarks for usefulness/sucess, or ability to track participation.

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In spite of two objections, line item 18.1 does pass.

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Line items 19.1-19.10 see a number of objections from Calloway and Johnson but all are approved

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Sorry, meant to follow-up on that last tweet saying the objections over some of the line items in 19.1-19.10 seemingly had to do with the city paying for demolitions that it seems the private businesses can themselves afford to perform.

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A discussion regarding a walk-on line item that seeks the city approving $80,000 worth of candy for city institutions / celebrations to distribute for Halloween. Member Young suggests that candy quality is important to remind young Detroiters that they deserve it.

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… Advocates for the line item agree, suggesting that is why they are trying to move on from Tootsie Rolls.

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A number of events are being listed by the council members. Here's the link for the city council events calendar: detroitmi.gov/Calendar-and-E…

detroitmi.gov/Calendar-and-E…

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Meeting has adjured at 1:19pm

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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 Formal Session. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings here: Documenters.org

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Agency Information

Detroit City Council

www.detroitmi.gov

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The Detroit City Council is the legislative body of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The Council is responsible for the creation of local laws—called ordinances. Additionally they pass resolutions, motions, and the proposed city budget. The full-time council is required to meet every business day for at least 10 months of the year, with at least eight of these meetings occurring at a location besides city hall. The council may convene for special meetings at the call of the mayor or at least four members of council. Areas of responsibility for the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee include, Budget, Finance and the Auditor General.

City Council members are elected on the same cycle as the Mayor and will be elected in 2021. Seven members represent the seven council districts, while two members are elected at-large.