City Council budget hearings begin on March 12. Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero wants the council to work toward creating an office of violence prevention and seek more funding for the Detroit Department of Transportation.
Meeting is hosted by Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero and will be at online due to the weather predictions for tonight.
Info on how to join at https://detroitmi.gov/events/teamgsrs-building-power-training-series-city-budget-101-0
“Learn how to read City budget documents, participate in the budget process, and get tips for effective advocacy.” (from the flier)
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, email documenters@outliermedia.org with “Correction Request” subject line.
Meeting is starting with intro by the Councilwoman.
Goal of training series is to help residents built relationships with one another to build collective power.
This training is done annually to ensure that residents know about the process before the budgeting season begins.
Giving some tips on how to raise hand on different types of tech. Shared that there is a specific protocol for introducing selves during Q&A session so as to be inclusive. :)
Fiscal year is July 1- June 30. There is a proposed budget in which revenue must equal expenditures in accordance with city charter.
Mr. Corley is joining from the city to answer questions. He has been at the last 3 years’ budget trainings.
Fiscal year 2025 has $2.776 billion in revenue. Majority comes from taxes, followed by sales/ charges for services, followed by grants, followed by other categories.
Will go into this fiscal year with no ARPA money, which we had a lot of in past years.
Mr. Corley is sharing that the mayor will be giving a presentation to city council on Feb 28 for his proposed budget. Can also go to OCFO website to see the budget. Today just seeing an overview of budget process because don’t yet know specifics.
General fund for FY25 is $1.474 billion. This is money that can be played around with in terms of the priorities. This is in contrast with obligated funds which cannot be allocated differently in any way.
Mr Corley: General fund provides most of the services that residents are familiar with– parks, grass cutting, mayor’s office, monitoring blight.
General fund includes $37 million for BSEED (Buildings Safety Environmental and Engineering Department, I think–?), which is responsible for monitoring blight, rental enforcement, etc.
DWSD ($632 million) maintains water and drainage infrastructure, fixes clogged catch basins, lead line replacement, flooding.
Department of Public Works ($160 million) monitors waste collection from contractors, does snow removal, installs signs and speed bumps.
General Services Department overviewed.
other expenditures:
Police Department ($400 million)
Fire Department ($167 million)
Health Dept ($43 million)
Planning and Development ($5 million)
other things funded, such as Wright Museum and zoo
Councilwoman gave bar graph of how much money goes to the different agencies– DWSD at the top, followed by DPD, fire department, public works, and down from there.
Feb 28 - mayor presents budget
Mar 12 - city council budget hearing start
April 7 - council votes on budget
April 11 - mayor can veto (although Duggan has not done this in his tenure)
April 15 - council veto override if applicable
During budget hearings, after every department presents, there is time for public comment. There is a calendar which council members share of when the different departments are presenting so that residents can plan to comment. Chair can decide whether there is public comment during executive session
Giving a video example of what a presentation looks like. A little trouble with audio.
Audio is not working, so Councilwoman is taking questions from the chat.
Question about whether presentation will be available. (Yes, Councilwoman will send it out in her e-newsletter.)
Question about DDOT. Have they every underspent? (no, don’t think so) How to find the DDOT budget for year? (in the document that Mr. Corley shared)
(Hope that link works– typed it from the chat.)
Still working on example of department presentation at budget hearings. Can’t see video, but audio is of presentation of a presentation and council members asking questions.
Budget hearing schedule will be provided in advance. Reach out to your council reps with what questions you have so that they can ask the departments.
Can follow along with the department hearings via zoom, phone, or channel 10. Look on https://detroitmi.gov/budget for schedule. Can make public comment during hearings.
Last year in D6: were able to re-allocate $2.66 million. Invested $1 million to expand shelter services, $900,000 for Fort Street Bridge Park, $600,000 to launch Nurse Navigation Program to embed nurse into 911 system, and $164,000 for community engagement staff for Ombudsman Office.
This year, asking for a lot. Go big and just ask! Asking $36M for DDOT, $7M for Community Violence Intervention Program, $3M for affordable housing, $3M for sidewalk repairs, $2.5M for Merit Park in 48204, $1M for Eden Park in 48217, $1M for participatory budgeting.
Participatory budgeting would be a pilot of resource for residents. Instead of city offering residents 3 options for where budget goes, this would be a different approach.
Mr. Corley: Council is only able to adjust items in the general fund. Not able to touch revenue. Also, during budget hearing process, committee meetings are only an hour. Also, morning meetings will start at 9am.
Councilwoman explaining that executive session is where compromises and negotiations happen. Also, if something is not funded that a council member wants funded, the council member can put it in their closing resolution to have it considered for the following year.
For example, councilwoman has been pushing for an Office of Violence Prevention, and she has put that in closing resolutions for future consideration.
Ideas for advocacy:
Get together with neighbors to identify a need.
Give public comment at the right department’s hearing to tell council and dept about needs.
Organize a petition.
Send a letter to all 9 council members, your District Manager, and the mayor about the petition.
Public comment tips:
You will probably get only 1 minute, so write comments in advance, practice
Don’t waste time with “thank you, council members…”
Be specific about why you do/don’t support issue
Give context (maybe 20 seconds)
Give ask (maybe 20 seconds)
Avoid repeating
Be polite, respectful
Questions: Please share
What are your budget priorities?
What questions do you have?
Public comments: D6 resident concerned about cuts in federal funding. Has city council considered that there may be need for emergency budget? Will we lose federal funding?
Mr. Corley: Trump did not do a lot of cuts in first administration, but then Covid came and he had to provide extra funding. But this time, there are signals that there may be major cuts. What would happen?
Corley: Will pass budget on April 7th, FY starts July 1, and if there were big cuts the mayor would need to come back with new budget. (Councilwoman shared that, yes, they are concerned that this will happen.)
Question: Need for better responsiveness with regards to recent tragic loss of two children. Councilwoman agrees that she hears that there is sometimes an hour wait on housing hotline. There is definitely a need for more funding.
Question: Is DDOT enterprise agency? Corley: Yes, it is an enterprise agency. Won’t see fare as separate item in budget, but there are statistics in the back of the budget document to see fares over the year.
Question: What’s the math on what you’re asking for DDOT? Answer: Yes, it’s a big bump to ask for $36M. It’s a long shot, but we will ask. Need to make sure we give DDOT what they can spend down and ensuring that they are ready to do so.
Comment: Keep bringing up what the enterprise department is. Can’t find it anywhere in the charter. Seems like it’s a bad tradition. Can we change it? It’s not responsive. DDOT doesn’t spend all its money because it can’t hire people, so it’s leaving money on the table.
Councilwoman asking Mr. Corley to explain what enterprise department is. Is it a best practice? Is it part of the charter? Corley: In most cities, there is special authority or dedicated revenue service to fund transit. We don’t have that– we use fares. So general fund must contribute a lot to DDOT
Ideally, we could get to a regional transit system which would provide a regional tax to substantially reduce the DDOT expenditures from general fund.
Question: Land Bank is not fully funded by the city, but do we provide a budget for them? Answer: Yes, correct. We spend money on Land Bank, but they also keep the revenues that they make through Own It Now, Side Lots, Rehabbed & Ready.
Corley wants to remind residents that all budget session meetings are archived. Go to city council website and there is an archive of meetings.
Councilwoman explaining Office of Violence Prevention, such as are opening throughout the country. DC has a great one. Have research, provide grants to groups preventing violence, providing leadership opportunities for returning citizens. A lot of good work being done in the city- need office.
This office would allow us to work regionally, as well.
That’s it for presentation and comments! Now a quick evaluation. Councilwoman has master’s in social work and focused on data collection, so she loves data collection. Wants to hear from residents because residents deserve excellence.
Upcoming events: Know Your Rights will be offered again, with translation in Spanish, Arabic, Wolof, and French. It will be Tue 2/25 from 6-7:30 virtually.
Sharing community office hours and coffee hours coming up.
This concludes my coverage of City Council Building Power Training Series: City Budget 101.
If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, email documenters@outliermedia.org with “Correction Request” subject line.
For more information, including transcripts of the meeting, go to http://detroit.documenters.org/reporting/
