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

Meeting has been called to order at 10:14.

Council members Waters and Benson will be absent for today's meeting.

Public comments has begun.

Much of the comments this morning are revolving around personal property disputes, mistrust in the council / city government, questions of voter fraud, and some discussion on the perceived failures of the Land Bank.

One commenter asks the council to consider allocating funding for neighborhood block clubs in the new budget plan, thus allowing neighborhoods to make internal decisions about how they want to take care of their community.

Some discussion by two separate commenters alleging that Board of Zone Appeals meetings are not only being increasingly less accessible for public participation, but also a noted disappearance of archived BZA meetings.

Council member Young indicates that these concerns regarding the Board of Zone Appeals public meetings will be discussed/addressed further in today's meeting at line item 24.4.

A commenter brings up the status of the report on Detroit's property tax assessment. Sheffield indicates that the report was pushed back for thoroughness and the deadline is February 5th (tomorrow), and that the findings of this report will be discussed in subsequent meetings.

The council approves line item 19.8 to recognize February 7th as J-Dilla Day. Ja'Mya Yancey, daughter of J-Dilla, speaks before the council to advocate for the honor.

Line item 17.5, regarding the acquisition of 8 properties for the prospective solar project sites, will be postponed for one week due to the absence of 3 council members today (Benson, Waters, and Durhal III).

Line item 18.33, concerning funding night vision goggles for Homeland Security, saw some discussion from council member Young who wants to know if this is something that will be used to meaningfully keep residents safe, or for targeting immigrant communities.

… This discussion, and the voting on this line item, will be postponed to the end of the meeting.

A discussion is happening over line item 18.34, which concerns tailoring police uniforms with a business out in Eastpointe. The council wants to know why they are not working with Detroit tailoring businesses. …

A representative from procurement joins the call and informs the council that Detroit businesses were contacted and that they declined to bid on the contract. The council wants to learn more about why this happened and how to involve Detroit based businesses more. …

… In light of this inquiry, the council will postpone voting line item 18.34 for 1 week.

A similar concern is raised (also by Calloway) regarding repairing Detroit City Fire Trucks in Grand Ledge, as opposed to Detroit. Calloway wants to know why the city isn't utilizing businesses and professionals in the city, …

… and if it is a question of capacity and training, how does the city begin to invest in supporting businesses and facilitating the necessary training so that Detroit CAN source from it's own work force for these routine civic maintenance needs.

A discussion now with the DPD to address the earlier question regarding the procurement of night vision goggles, and whether this city funded equipment would be used by ICE. …

… Representative from the DPD indicates that these goggles are being procured for their bomb squad, and that this isolated use is ensured by way of their internal systems and checked by state audits.

The Mayor will be presenting his budget to the council on February 28th at 12:30pm – this will be a public meeting.

Meeting adjourned at 12:33.

I missed some of the details about it but both Johnson and Sheffield mentioned opportunities for public discussion on upcoming budget planning. Here is a link to the City Council's events page however: detroitmi.gov/Calendar-and-E…

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