City Council authorized the Public Lighting Department to spend almost $1.3 million to acquire nine properties for the solar neighborhoods project. The council also approved about $2 million in contracts for recovery housing and substance use disorder services.
Hello! I’ll be live tweeting the Detroit City Council meeting at 10:00am for #DETDocumenters. Media Partners: @DetDocumenters media partners: @BridgeDet313 @chalkbeatDET @freep @metrotimes @Michigan_Public @media_outlier @PlanetDetroit @wdet @wxyzdetroit
09:01 AM Apr 1, 2025 CDT
Here is the link for today’s agenda:
https://pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=66664d9e-d3ba-444c-b8fe-cad42cba5ed7&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English
An organization called Global Ties is giving a presentation – an organization that hosts international exchanges. Here is a link to their website: wwhttps://www.globaltiesdetroit.org/about
(it seems like the Global Ties presentation and request for support from the city has to do with a freeze on their federal funding).
Two commenters now have advocated for moving forward an ordinance requiring police video release, as proposed by the Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability. Here is a link to that organization:
https://detroitcpta.org/home/
Public comments have concluded – today saw a diverse range of comments. Significantly there was some discussion from commenters regarding the practices of police at the Rosa Parks transit center – observing police pushing people out into the cold because of an assumption that they were …
… not there to take the bus, but rather just to be warm (is that illegal?). The commenters also observed a lack of outreach from any resources at the bus station, with only an emphasis on policing.
Line items 18.1 and 18.2 were both approved. They pertain to Opium Settlement funded assistance for recovery housing for individuals receiving Substance Use Disorder (SUD) services. Here is some state government information regarding the Opium Settlement funds:
https://www.michigan.gov/opioids/opioidsettlements/about
Some discussion regarding line item 19.6, which seeks staffing support for Public Lighting. This item has been postponed for a week. How this request for $1m fits into the new budget I’m not sure, but…
… here is a link to some information regarding city lighting projects per the new budget:
ouhttps://outliermedia.org/detroit-public-lighting-department-2025-26-budget-hearing/
A long discussion regarding several lines items under the Office of Contracting and Procurement (line items 20.4-20.13). Calloway held issue with some of the contracts being with non-local companies and requested a postponement. What followed was a long discussion about …
… to properly move groups of line items with the rules of the council.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@outliermedia.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.
This concludes my coverage of the Detroit City Council formal session. Learn more about our coverage of local meetings here: https://Documenters.org
