Specifically this is referred to as the ‘Committee of the Whole’ (as in City Council) & held it appropriately named Committee of the Whole room, 1340, in CAYMC 2 Woodward Ave…but you can also attend remotely or via phone. You can get info here 👇
dethttps://detroitmi.gov/government/city-clerk/city-council-agendas-documents

Detroit has some outstanding resources for understanding the budgetary process…there is a lot of information here 👇
dethttps://detroitmi.gov/departments/office-chief-financial-officer/ocfo-divisions/office-budget

Each district in Detroit will naturally have its own priorities. For example, see D-6’s Gabriela Santiago-Romero at her website…scroll down to #TeamGSR Meeting Recordings for the February Building Power presentation City Budget 101
https://detroitmi.gov/government/city-council/city-council-district-6

For on-spot coverage of all the budget hearings be sure to check out @detdocumenters.bsky.social and @outliermedia.org throughout this parallel March Madness

Okay, #DETdocumenters @detdocumenters.bsky.social it is 12:29 and we should be rolling soon…

Calling to order at 12:33 PM…Santiago-Romero is an excused absence. Mayor Duggan starting his presentation, leading with this is his 12th time doing this with a balanced budget…and we just lost sound🙄🤷‍♂️😏

Duggan was starting by giving context…not sure why we are frozen/stopped…WIFI fine

City has averaged 7% increase in actual income tax collections…5% over the 2% assumptions used by the Plan of Adjustment…extra money has been impactful

Duggan continues to pitch this trajectory as consistent with Coleman Young’s vision for city and DEGC, emphasizing importance of working with those entities & individuals willing to invest in the city

Duggan states last thing he wants to take care of is coming to decision on what to do with RenCen before he leaves office

Duggan was talking about how City is making major progress on pension obligations…but no slide was shown. Now he is talking about property tax reductions…

Other big news is major investment in the transportation system…plans for significant increase in number of busses

He moves on to describe how help for the homeless will be expanded…up to $8.4 million from General Fund…kinda weird that they are not moving ahead with the slides

Now Duggan is talking about funding for Community Violence Intervention (CVI)…discusses importance of metrics and how City is keeping 5 of the ShotStoppers and funding available for the base program BUT additional funds caught in bureaucracy & Lansing politics…1 of CVIs didn’t pass review

He is making pitch for expanding funding of CVI and necessity of City Council to work with City’s executive office to push Lansing legislators to help with this

Final things…once again more funding for retirees who were screwed by bankruptcy & terms of POA

And (I believe) $21 million for blight removal…he explains use of Proposal N & DLBA in the blight removal process, stating that the big commercial blight projects have been done and additional funding is for emergencies

Council having a quick say before mayor concludes…Sheffield asking what more can be done for the homeless and expanding affordable housing

Hizzoner responds with repeating what was done and stating we just need more of the same

They are now switching to council members asking their questions…which seems a little awkward as the mayor stated he had a few more points before they started

They are staying on the help for homeless issue, with question about expanding use of recreation centers as warming stations; Duggan notices there is significant pushback from communities when they lose access to these

Legal settlements against DDOT and DPD are significant…if that $200 million could be recouped it would solve a lot of issues. How does he propose to limit the lawsuits?

Duggan responds by saying the two departments face different drivers for this…for DPD the core issue is wrongful conviction cases and this is made especially difficult due to length of time between alleged incidents and bringing the suit against the City

Councilmember Scott Benson asks about additional funding for DDOT expansion in proposed budget, whether it is one time or ongoing and Duggan replies that it has to be annual to get to projected number of busses

Councilmember Tate asking about strategy for getting local businesses to stop selling illegal substances to City youth…Duggan’s response is this should be taken up with DPD to move from ticketing to revocation of business license.

Councilmember Young returns to help for homeless and specifically clarification on the recent tragedy of the children who froze to death in a van…Duggan responds with a range of actions that are already in place

Young continues with another question on what is being done to reduce regulations and complexity with starting a business in the City, noting 77 forms needed to start a restaurant 😮Duggan agrees this is an issue & points to steps currently going forward

Councilmember Latisha Johnson asking how blight removal dollars might be used to rehab properties for affordable housing; Duggan responds that he has always been receptive to work with nonprofits for this issue…he notes Mayor Cavanaugh from back in the day struggled with rehab of abandoned houses

Johnson appreciates reduction of mills in property tax, she wants to know if a local option sales tax might be looked at as additional means for getting dollars within the community. Duggan points to how State law makes it difficult to establish any type of tax

Councilmember Fred Durhal asks about ongoing issues of property tax, noting confusions with titles and speculators…also asks what is in budget for the City’s commercial corridors.

That’s it for the Council’s questions…Duggan leaves and the anointed from the public are given 2 minutes to speak. First person stresses ‘these are not ordinary times’ & Council needs to be extraordinary…second person up seconds this message. Screen view is weird…we only see clock, not person

Russ Bellant is up and focusing on the library system…insists the library system is being used as funding source for City, administrative fee is too high and Council needs to not be a rubber stamp for the executive

A rep from Detroit People’s Platform is up calling for massive increase in transit system…you can learn more about their priorities and proposals here 👇
wwwhttps://www.detroitpeoplesplatform.org/issues/transit-justice/

Person now up to state the recent tragedy of person living in her van and lost her two children the cold is not an isolated issue and sizable amount of people are living in vehicles; help for homeless needs to expand

We now have person from COTS who is describing a bureaucratic snag affecting getting people into shelters plus an issue with CAM
https://cotsdetroit.org/

In-person comments are done and we move to the online participants…first person is a former City employee who is retired stating he is very disappointed in the small amount that the budget is returning to retirees

Next caller asks about charter section 7-201, which deals with delivery of adequate mental health services (& more). Learn more about it here 👇
wwwhttps://www.detcharter.com/charter/charter-07-02.php

This caller wants change to city charter…I believe article 12 but not really understanding

And Amy Hemmeter speaks up in support of doubling DDOT funding and believes it would be transformative

Public commit is done, and budget deliberations will begin Wednesday, March 12…info available online as in link posted earlier…meeting adjourns at 2:09 PM

So that concludes my coverage of the Committee of the Whole 2025-25 Budget Recommendations…if any of this coverage is not accurate email documenters@media_outlier.org with ‘Correction Request’ in the subject line

As always, find more stories and coverage at https://Documenters.org