A copy of this meeting's agenda can be found here: pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ash… It's a chunky file, but there is a handy HTML version: pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?I…

I can hear them milling about, getting ready.

Still waiting on the session to start

The session was called to order at 10:07am. The roll was called and the following were present: Benson Johnson Santiago-Romero Sheffield

It seems like some members, being present, did not speak into a microphone.

First off, Councilmenmber Callaway presented a Spirit of Detroit Award to Mumford High School. Alumna Jasmine Stallworth accepted on behalf of the school

The board is now accepting reports from the various subcommittees. Details can be found in the HTML agenda I posted above.

After those, the board is moving to public comment.

The chair just noted that Dave Bing is in attendance today!

First several commenters talked in favor of a Secondary Street Sign petition for Horace Sheffield, Jr, founder of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations, pastor and labor leader. pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/FileStream.ash… pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?I…

A commenter spoke in favor of a Secondary Street Sign for basketball legend Earl Cureton, and the next commenter spoke in favor of former Lions cornerback Dick "Night Train" Lane

Next commenter spoke in favor of a sign for the late Greg Mudge, who founded Mudgie's Deli detroitnews.com/story/life/202…

Next commenter spoke in favor of a sign for J Dilla

After some more reds for the aforementioned, a commenter spoke in favor of a sign for Amp Fiddler, a legend in the music industry and master of funk, soul, and electronica en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amp_Fiddl…

A commenter lamented what she described as city investment in genocide in various parts of the world and suggested the city commit to purchasing conflict-free products

The next commenters voiced vociferous criticism of "so-called Israel" and called for divestment from Israel

Some more commenters recommending secondary signs for people already mentioned

A commenter says residents of his building, Sherwood Heights are being evicted in retaliation for starting a tenants' association

The council says that they are having trouble holding landlords accountable to city ordinances, especially landlords from out of state who buy up several properties at a time and basically act as slumlords.

Another commenter criticized Sherwood Heights for putting people on month-to-month leases in order to jack the rent faster. This has become a classic tactic to get poor people to move out

A commenter, representing American Citizens for Justice spoke in favor of a sign for Vincent Chin

From Wikipedia: "In 1982, Vincent Chin was gruesomely murdered. His killers encountered Chin in a bar in Highland Park and mistook his Chinese heritage for the Japanese, whom they blamed for a recent downturn in the automobile industry... "

Despite their conviction and evidence, the killers never saw prison time and were only given light sentences. Vincent Chin's killers Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz were fined $3000 and given 3 years probation, as the judge expressed the defendants' good backgrounds."

Several commenters from the Teamsters local 283 complained about safety issues at the Marathon refinery

The strike has now been going on for 6 weeks, and the Teamsters are agitated, and consider putting the plant back online a dangerous risk, and says the scabs the company hired might not even be qualified to work in such a dangerous plant.

A commenter said that the council are ignoring the city residents, and said that the council failed to praise a presenter because they are subservient to "their master" Mayor Duggan

The commenter then suggested that Palestinians and "these so-called Jews" keep "their fight" out of Detroit

A commenter urged the council to look at the PILOT program and improve it. detroitmi.gov/news/mayor-cou…

A fast tracking ordinance is on the docket for this meeting, and a rep of Detroiters for Tax Justice spoke in opposition the proposal detroitersfortaxjustice.com

The present commenter says the PILOT program will effectively cut out the City Council and remove the process of affordable housing from the peoples' control

A woman who is the last homeowner on her block says he's been laying to keep up her property, but it's surrounded by Land Bank property , and she asked for help with upkeep. Council referred her to help for reimbursement

Minister Eric Blount spoke in favor of releasing police body cam footage in a timely manner.

At the moment there are 58 callers waiting to be heard. This is gonna take a while.

A commenter spoke in favor of the PILOT program and called the Detroit People's Platform and Detroiters for Tax Justice "scam organizations" The next commenter spoke in opposition to the measure

A lot of these are going to be advocacy for one of the various Secondary Street Signs, and I'm going to skip them for the rest of this session. I don't think we'll hear any more we haven't already heard about the candidates

A commenter spoke in favor of resolution 18.3 for Detroit Rescue Ministries

Commenter objected to the PILOT proposal. Says it puts to much power in the hands of the Mayor. "We are not red tape to cut" p

Public comment having finally drawn to a close, the council is moving on to item 18.27, which is the secondary street sign process

13 candidates, only 5 spots

Four of the names are rollovers. There are a limited number of rollovers a candidate can have.

The five have been decided, including J Dilla and Amp Fiddler

Also included Vincent Chen Horace Sheffield

Moving on to the motion 20.43 which is the Teamsters

20.43 was approved unanimously

Moving on to the PILOT program

Council member Benson says that the program will fill a gap in workforce housing

Councilmember Santiago-Romero says, in favor of the ordinance, that she regularly greenlights PILOT projects, finding the consistent and correct. She says the ordinance is needed to speed up the process and get more affordable units on the market

Councilmember Johnson noted that there are tax abatements coming to an end and that the PILOT program will help those properties to not pass those increased tax burden onto the residents

Councilmember Waters has introduced a motion to postpone the matter for a week.

Durhal asked Waters to elaborate on her reasons for suggesting the postponement. Waters responded that the copy of the ordinance they are voting on are missing amendments.

Legal department says that some amendments were decided on in the committee and she weren't, but they can include them today. The council drives to postpone for one week.

Going back to the agenda. Item 16.2 to provide long term disability insurance to city employees. Motion is passed unanimously

Now items 16.3-16.5, which are individual PILOT applications. Passed unanimously.

16.6. a new single family house building permit. Passed unanimously

17.1 and 17.2 both passed unanimously

17.3-17.8. various lawsuit settlement requests. Passed unanimously.

17.9 an appointment. Approved unanimously

18.1-18.3, contracts for renewal including "To Provide Services to Connect Individuals Experiencing Housing Instability with Resources by Direct Assistance Services and/or the Detroit Housing Resource Help Line." Passed unanimously

18.4 and 18.5 both approved unanimously

18.7 setting a public hearing. Passed unanimously

18.8 "To amends Chapter 50 of the 2019 Detroit City Code, Zoning, to exempt certain solar generation stations developed by or on behalf of the City from zoning regulation, to allow solar generation stations in industrial zoning districts and prohibit ..."

"...new solar generation stations in PR Parks and Recreation zoning districts, and to establish solar station overlay areas, in which solar generation stations may be permitted in non-industrial zoning districts" Passed unanimously

18.8-18.22 passed unanimously

18.23-18.26 various city property sales. Passed unanimously.

Now moving on to Unfinished Business

Young moved to move 19.1 back to committee and it was passed unanimously

19.2 This was postponed from last session. It's a emergency demo contract. Calloway objects to using city funds to demolish privately owned businesses when the landlords own other properties in the city. The resolution was approved over unrecorded objections

On to 20.1 It's an ordinance shuffling words and definitions in a city law. These are hard to follow and are often hard to pin down what exactly these change until the changes already happen.

Still reading through the proposal

Check it out for yourself: pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ash…

Durhal is concerned about leins to be put on properties.

The legal department says that the City already has the right under Michigan law to place liens on properties that are out of compliance, but this ordinance seeks merely formalize that fact as a City ordinance as a matter of good governance

Durhal moved to postpone the matter for one week

The matter was postponed for a week.

Item 20.2 "Authorizing the Designation of the Eighth Precinct Annex as the “James E. Tate, Jr., Annex at the 8th Precinct”."

Resolution passed unanimously

20.3-20.5, which are various events.

Chair says she got feedback that the Free Press marathon wasn't advertised widely enough and people were upset by the surprise of being unable to move freely about the city.

All the resolutions were approved unanimously

20.6-20.16 various contracts

Romero objects to 20.13 and 20.16 All items passed

20.17-20.29 various city contracts. Line item 20.25 is a notice of information and not a contract, so they approved it first.

They postponed 20.23 and 20.26 because the contracts are with a company that a resident had complained about earlier in the session. The rest were approved unanimously

20.30-20.35 approved unanimously

20.36 approved unanimously

20.37-20.42 various requests for encroachments in easements Approved unanimously

Santiago-Romero asked to reconsider 18.1.

18.1 passed over the objections of Santiago-Romero

Voted to postpone 21.1 for one week

Council approved a couple of walk-ons to be approved for referral to committees

Now the council is quickly filing and referring reports to the various committees

They suspended member reports

32.1-32.3 were approved unanimously

32.4 passed unanimously

The meeting was adjourned at 3:22pm

Well folks, this closes my coverage of the Detroit City Council meeting for October 22. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings at documenters.org

‼️IMPORTANT: If you believe anything in the coverage today is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line