This week in the notebook:
- Tenants rights commission approved
- DMC tax breaks held amid labor conflict
- Police explain Cinco de Mayo crackdown
- Library millage vote expected
Welcome back. I’m still Malachi Barrett.
Nine-year-old Kaydn Mahouli lit a fire under the City Council when he asked them to do something about obnoxious marijuana advertisements.
Mahouli lives in Beverly Hills but sees signs for House of Dank and Mark Savaya’s Leaf and Bud when visiting his grandmother Jacqueline Miller in Detroit. Mahouli said he worries the ads are encouraging his peers to experiment with drugs.
Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway asked the Legislative Policy Division (LPD) for a report on how the city can restrict marijuana billboards. She noted that Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti warned of a “distressing” rise in kids getting high in class.
Vitti wrote a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and City Council members asking for “immediate policy intervention.”
“A week of school rarely passes where a student is not taken to the hospital due to intentional or unintentional consumption of edibles,” Vitti said in the letter.
Vitti said the district recorded 745 drug-related infractions this year. The letter included a photo of marijuana edibles with packaging resembling popular candy brands.
Whitfield-Calloway said one company in particular has too many billboards in Detroit but didn’t name it.
“It’s taking over our city,” she said. “We can’t drive down the street without seeing this one cannabis company. If we have a child here asking for help, we need to give him some help.”
LPD Director David Whitaker said curtailing commercial speech poses complicated legal questions. He also noted that Detroit dedicates 2% of state marijuana tax revenue to youth substance abuse programs.
The Detroit Health Department is implementing a new program this summer using $40,000 in marijuana revenue. Councilman Scott Benson said that’s not enough – he’s pushing for directing 10% of marijuana revenue toward substance abuse prevention.
“It’s not easy or popular to talk about youth harms around marijuana,” Benson said. “Your voice is not alone and your voice is very powerful.”
What page are we on?
Today’s notebook covers the May 7 formal session.
Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.
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Adolph Mongo and I joined the MIRS Monday Podcast to talk about new developments in the 13th Congressional District race and how the Biden campaign is talking to Detroiters. Listen here.
New commission aims to protect renters
The City Council unanimously approved the creation of a new commission to advocate for renters and prevent evictions.
The tenants rights commission will include nine Detroit residents who will provide a “collective voice of advocacy” before city bodies and departments. The commission can receive complaints, make referrals of alleged city code violations and mediate disputes between landlords and renters.
Council Member Mary Waters secured $521,000 in the 2024-25 budget to stand up the commission, including $21,000 for stipends. Members will have parking, mileage and other expenses reimbursed.
Waters said the body will play an important oversight role in housing policies, similar to how the Board of Police Commissioners has oversight over police matters.
It’s an interesting comparison in light of the police commission’s recent struggles to investigate citizen complaints against officers.
Four members will be selected by the City Council and four will be picked by Mayor Mike Duggan. Four members must be current renters, and one must be a landlord with less than 10 rental properties.
Several residents asked the council to increase tenant representation. Council Member Latisha Johnson said constituents wanted a commitment to include low-income residents on the commission.
Waters said the council can’t require income thresholds but can intentionally select members who can represent low-income communities, along with other groups like seniors, residents with disabilities and single parents.
Library will ask voters for tax renewal
Voters will likely decide whether to renew a property tax supporting the Detroit Public Library during the Aug. 6 primary election.
The council approved a resolution forwarding “Proposal L” ballot language to the Detroit Election Commission. It would continue a 3.9-mill property tax for another decade.
The millage costs property owners $4 per $1,000 in taxable value.
Voters last approved the tax in 2014. The current millage expires in 2025 and was last increased in 2004.
PL has a $39 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, with 93% of the library’s funding expected to come from the property tax. Library officials told the council earlier this year that they are hiring a public relations firm to advertise the millage.
The Downtown Development Authority will no longer capture tax revenues from the library if the millage is renewed, though this won’t apply to tax captures approved by the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority.
Council holds up DMC tax breaks amid labor negotiations
City Council delayed a vote on whether to support the Detroit Medical Center’s request to renew large tax exemptions for its Midtown campus, challenging hospital leaders to finish negotiations with labor unions.
DMC officials said new agreements were reached with four of 16 unions representing hospital workers.
Dozens of DMC staff appeared before the council to seek support while negotiating a new labor agreement. Some DMC workers have been working under a contract that expired in December 2022. Workers said negotiations haven’t improved since they visited the council last October.
Council President Mary Sheffield said she would have voted against the Renaissance Zone, despite supporting DMC, as a reminder to complete contract negotiations.
Workers are not earning a living wage, she said, and the council has a responsibility to elevate concerns of residents.
“This is an opportunity for me to stand with the workers, to stand with the union and continue to urge with great urgency that we get these negotiations done,” she said.
A Renaissance Zone was created in 2010 and is set to fully expire at the end of 2025. State lawmakers approvedlegislation for a 15-year renewal that would continue the hospital’s tax-free status.
In exchange, DMC agrees to maintain its regional headquarters in the city and continue offering core services at its existing hospitals.
The Wayne County Commission supported the extension in December. The city’s support is needed before the state can approve the agreement. DMC officials worried that delaying the vote would prevent the Michigan Strategic Fund from being able to approve the Renaissance Zone in May.
Council Member Fred Durhal III said delays could threaten the deal altogether due to political dynamics in Lansing.
Durhal also introduced a resolution passed by the council which voices solidarity with DMC workers represented by Teamsters Local 283.
“Our workers are the most important,” said Durhal, who was a union courier at DMC before entering politics. “I know because I’ve been one of them, but I also know there will be no hospital to work in if it doesn’t exist.”
DMC officials reminded the council that they manage four of the city’s six remaining hospitals, and blocking the tax break could threaten their financial future.
Sheffield said DMC officials were being condescending to the council while disrespecting their workers.
Cinco de Mayo exposes permit problems
Council members are calling for a review of events permitting after complaints that police took a heavy-handed approach to shut down unapproved activities at Detroit’s annual Cinco de Mayo event.
Detroit Police Commander Shelley Holderbaum said organizers did not secure a permit for Fiesta Detroit events at El Club, which included a wrestling match and live music. Police removed attendees celebrating outside the venue while leaving El Club open, she said.
“It was an outside, non-permitted event that we did shut down,” Holderbaum said.
Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes said police cleared attendees from sections of Vernor Highway to protect them from vehicle traffic. Hayes said police also moved attendees that were “taking over” business lots and preventing access.
Eight people were ticketed and released for public intoxication and other minor infractions, police said. The response drew criticism from attendees who felt police aggressively closed down peaceful celebrations without explanation.
Detroit nonprofit We Are Culture Creators organized the events at El Club. The organization secured a special events permit for Cinco De Mayo events in 2023 but didn’t obtain a permit this year.
We Are Culture Creators organizer Michael Reyes told BridgeDetroit they’ve held events with the same setup for the last three years. Reyes said the venue was not over capacity.
“They just systematically went down the street like a military force and shut things down,” Reyes said in an interview. “A young journalist was detained for two and a half hours.”
Reyes ran into permitting issues last year when hosting a music festival at the Russell Event Center. He said the city’s process for receiving permission to host events or become a vendor should be more accessible.
“I can understand for food, liquor in anything that’s more like health regulated, but if you’re just selling paintings, T-shirts, art and trinkets why can’t there be an app that you just click and get a permit,” Reyes said. “I’m not trying to make this us against them, just improve the process.”
Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who represents southwest Detroit communities with a large Hispanic population, said the city should reexamine its processes so events can go smoothly.
“What happened is unacceptable, I think we all hold responsibility to make sure our communities are properly educated on the permitting process and we know how to keep each other safe,” she said.
Santiago-Romero said she’s speaking with DPD about accounts of officers refusing to give their name or badge numbers to residents. Hayes said DPD policy requires officers to display that information on their clothing.
First round of art alley projects start
Federal pandemic relief funds will pay for overhauls of five alleys into new public art spaces.
The Arts Alley Initiative was announced in 2022 as a $3 million plan to revamp blighted alleys, mitigate localized flooding and uplift local artists. A second phase will include four more sites.
The council approved a $1.87 million deal with Major Contracting Group for the first phase of the program. Upgrades include debris cleanup, replacing pavement, installing new fencing, stormwater improvements, plus new benches and landscaping.
Bagley Alley, Grand River Alley, Manistique Alley, Old Redford Alley and Snowden-Hartwell Alley are included in the first phase.
Construction is expected to finish by the end of July.
Reparations task force gets bonus time
Detroit’s reparations task force was given several more months to complete its recommendations for housing and economic development policies.
It was an expected move after the task force struggled to hold productive meetings throughout its first year. The council unanimously voted to extend the deadline from Nov. 1 to March 31, 2025.
A resolution introduced by Sheffield says delays were caused by the “intrinsic complexity of the subject matter,” resignations of members and the death of executive member JoAnn Watson.
“Because of the delays experienced for these reasons, which are not uncommon for local reparations campaigns that have also encountered delays in other communities, the current Detroit Reparations Task Force membership will require more time to accomplish the ends of this historic effort,” the resolution states.
The task force did not disclose its request for a deadline extension to Detroiters who attended its May 4 meeting. Council members passed the resolution without discussion.
Sheffield is drafting a resolution apologizing for the city’s role in generations of harm against Black residents stemming from racial uprisings in 1943 and 1967, redlining, inadequate educational opportunities and disenfranchisement through urban planning decisions.
This week in land sales
A Delaware company plans to create public green space near buildings the company is renovating into artist housing. The council approved a $25,835 sales agreement with CD Gratiot, LLC for 2901 and 2913 Gratiot Ave.
City documents show the purchaser is renovating adjacent properties into 20 new apartments and a retail space, and they also own the Playground Detroit art gallery down the street.
A community nonprofit working to revitalize the East Warren Corridor purchased a city-owned lot for a public market and parking area.
The council approved a $20,000 sales agreement with E. Warren Development Corp. for 16803 for E Warren Ave. The organization holds a Thursday farmer’s market on an adjacent lot it owns.
A new restaurant is planned in the Plymouth-Hubbell neighborhood on land Danny Wade bought from the city. The council approved the sale of a commercial building 14620 Plymouth for $60,000.
City records show the building had formerly hosted other restaurants including George’s Koney Time and Renaissance Grill.