Detroit City Council Formal Session, 10 a.m.

Today’s agenda is 29 pages. A video feed of the live meeting is the access to the meeting. President Mary Sheffield ask for the roll to be called and it looks like all the council members are at the meeting. Meeting opened at 10:01 AM.

Paster Aramis Hinds from Breakers Covenant Church in Detroit comes in via zoom to give the invocation. Reads the Lords Prayer with a little embellishment.

Hinds thanks God for Mike Duggan and his staff.

The transcript is on and it finally appears to be accurate. Normally it’s not even close in these city zoom meetings.

HInds prays for the council, their families and homes their marriages and children.

Hinds invocation runs nearly 7 minutes.

Sheffield gives a shout out to his church and goes to line item 20.2 which will appoint members to city council standing committees. This is the first city council meeting of the year, it’s believed. Motion is approved.

Going to standing committees and numerous contracts are approved and or received and placed on file or moved on to the standing committee. Sheffield is running through the agenda. She just took care of a good chunk of it by grouping all contracts together via committee.

Now to public comment. A regular is the first commenter. It’s Cunningham. He gives info about Metro Lift as a transportation outlet. He says he is disabled and he is in the process of filling out the application. He says things gotta change.

Before closing out coverage of this meeting this reporter will run down some of the numbers on those contracts that were passed in bulk votes.

Second caller ask for more money for DDOT. Get it running efficently. City must get back to transportation. Callers name is Rochella. Refers the council to her interview on WXYZ.

Next caller says there is no representation for the city of Detroit as related to the president of the council. Caller is concerned about electing at large city council members.

Sheffield says the issues were dealt with tif district properties. Renard Moncunski is next. He represents transit riders in Detroit. He wants individual meetings with council members. He wants to know how American Rescue Plan or RP? dollars will come to help fix the system.

He says no one should have to wait a half hour for a bus. He also brings up Metrolift for disabled riders. Tired of austerity. Real investment money in transportation is needed. Minster Eric Blount is next from Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Detroit.

Says that the council is getting off to a slow start on giving out info. Says he could not find the agenda to this meeting. Wants American Rescue money to have internal controls, accountability and guard rails and early warning alarms when things are going wrong.

Sheffield points out how to find the agenda. She says everything should be posted 18 hours before the meeting and if not contact the council. Here is a link to the agenda. https://pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=04f53f8b-45de-4c08-afb6-40b4fa621131&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English&Item=128&Tab=attachments

A member ask that the process to find the agenda get streamlined cause Sheffield just said a mouth full on finding the agenda.

It’s difficult to know who is talking in the meeting. Next caller is Jacqueline Austin from the Detroit People’s Platform. Gives a shout out to Coleman Young Jr. The peoples platform represents Detroit bus riders. She wants to know how to get bus info to the disabled…

community. She ask that someone sign the meetings cause she did not see anyone signing the meeting. Rhuben Black. He is a regular. He is back to talk about Kanisha Coleman’s murder case. He chimes in at these meetings about the same subject, a coverup in the department.

He says the determination in her case has been changed to suicide. He’s asking the city council to expedite his freedom of info act that will expose the cover up in her murder.

Kyle Van Lopez, the Wayne County Ombudsman. Offers his contact info to serve and assist as needed. And this is the second city council meeting of the year, since Lopez called in last week.

Ruby Riley is next. She has been on a housing revitalization list for two years but heard nothing. She has rain coming through her roof. She tried to apply earlier but Duggan changed the program from a grant to a loan.

She says the city has told her contractors need to come out but she has not heard from them. She says she has worked for the department of election and she should get the 50 percent off of land bank properties that is given to city employees. Sheffield gives info to contact..

the city about her problems. Next is Pat Boss. She welcomes the council. District 3 resident. Wants to work to improve the quality of life in district 3. She wants sections of district 3 to be included in the cities air quality monitoring program.

She brings her concern about cannabis businesses opening in district 3. She also wants better bus service. Last caller is Maguerite and Scarlett. The caller appears to be disabled. Difficult to understand her questions.

Would like to take everyone around the city on the bus to see what she sees everyday. She yields her time. End of public comment.

New business. Resolutions adopting meeting schedules and procedures for city of Detroit public bodies to meet remotely through July 31, 2022 are approved.

Sheffield moves standing committee reports to said committees. She invites individual member reports for the first time ever. Most council members just give best wishes to the council and look forward to work.

Angela Whitfield-Calloway says she will concentrate on keeping city contracts and grants inside of the city of Detroit.