That would make the vote illegitimate, too, but hey, what do I know?
I know I got my Don Diva t-shirt already.
I also know many of the members of City Council also got some of those blighted Detroit Land Bank Authority properties the same way Sherry Gay Dagnogo did.
Detroit City Council postpones $250M bond vote, citing serious concerns
Michigan state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo spoke against the blight demolition bond ahead of council's vote, urging the body to vote it down. City of Detroit, Detroit Free PressThe Detroit City Council peppered Mayor Mike Duggan's administration with several concerns and questions Tuesday about his $250 million blight bond proposal, just days after a blistering Auditor General report outlined several problems with Detroit's demolition program.
The contentious vote was postponed for at least a third time Tuesday, according to the city clerk's office. The vote, if approved, would have advanced the ballot to the March 2020 ballot for voter consideration.
According to officials, Nov. 26 is the last day the body can vote on the measure before it goes on recess.
Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones said she remains concerned about the bond and suggested that the administration proves it can "do better" in light of a litany of issues with the program.
"Why not start with a pilot amount (instead of the full $250 million) to show you can do better as opposed to getting all the money and you don't do better," Jones asked. "I still have a lot of concerns."
Jones also grilled the administration on its lack of responsiveness to the auditor general. The office was forced to subpoena the Detroit Building Authority twice to receive the necessary information for its report and encountered several monthlong delays. Auditors never got some answers.
"It's just disheartening that we're talking about an audit I requested four years ago," Jones said. "To sit here and keep talking about a timeline is crazy when nobody responded properly," she said. "No one took the issue serious enough until we got a bond initiative to come before us. ... It's just ridiculous."
I bet Sherry Gay Dagnogo is mad Mike Duggan has not assisted her in finding out who is responsible for demolishing her nonprofit's blighted Detroit Land Bank Authority house she got for campaigning for him. Sherry was so distraught she went to Cuba the next day,
Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Mary Sheffield said she believes a community meeting or forum should be held prior to the council vote to ensure residents have a role in the discussion. Sheffield said she believes the bond proposal has "long-standing financial ramifications for the residents of Detroit if passed."
"Given the administration's desire to place the measure before voters in a primary in the dead of winter, I believe it's imperative for City Council to provide citizens with all the pertinent information necessary to help them develop an informed opinion about the matter before we vote," Sheffield told the Free Press after the vote to postpone.
Duggan's administration officially submitted the bond proposal in September, outlining a goal to remove remaining residential blight from Detroit by mid-2025.
According to the auditor general, the city has already spent a staggering $532 million on Duggan's aggressive blight removal effort, which began shortly after he took office in January 2014. The city has used a mix of city, federal Hardest Hit Funds and other designated monies.
If given the green light by voters in March 2020, total possible spending on blight removal over the next five years, including funds allocated outside of the bond proposal, could be as much as $500 million, according to a report written by council's legislative policy division.
That means by 2025, the city may have spent upwards of $1 billion on blight remediation, thanks to the bond and other funding mechanisms the city has planned for the next several years.
Michigan state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, one of many who spoke against the bond ahead of council's scheduled vote, urged the body to vote it down. Gay-Dagnogo based much of her comments to the council on her belief that the Duggan administration lacks transparency and credibility, given numerous recent investigations.
Citing a search warrant that was executed Friday by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's Office related to its Make Your Date investigation, Gay-Dagnogo said the city council shouldn't push the bond forward.
"We need to remove this cloud of suspicion that exists over this body," Gay-Dagnogo said. "You are able to restore true trust and transparency. We cannot have a representative democracy with all of these inquires that are going on, all the investigations that are going on and all the questionable activity."
Detroit Charter Commission member Nicole Small also urged council to vote the bond down.
"Now's not the time for you to support this," Small said. "It's OK to tell him (Duggan) 'no.' Don't be an enabler for the mayor any longer. Be a representative and advocate for the interests of the people."
Detroit Auditor General Mark Lockridge's report concluded Friday the city's demolition program has been mismanaged and beset with significant problems for the past four years.
The sweeping audit also revealed the Detroit Building Authority — along with one or more city departments — in some instances: failed to properly provide oversight and administer contracts; did not fully comply with some local and state laws; didn't monitor to ensure that demolition contractors met requirements.
Lockridge also blasted the city for having "inconsistent and unreliable" demolition data, as well as poor record keeping that made it difficult to perform the audit.
"A perception that public officials are using the procurement system to reward themselves, their friends, or supporters, poisons the public’s confidence in government and shakes its faith in the bureaucratic process," he wrote.
City officials pushed back on the report, saying the auditor general used flawed and outdated data. But Lockridge's office said they simply used the data that was provided to them and even adjusted to include a newer set of data, which produced similar concerns about the program.
Deputy Auditor General Laura Goodspeed said Tuesday the office was disheartened by the administration's response to their audit.
"We stand by our data, we stand by our numbers and yet we have not heard a comprehensive or genuine response to our findings," Goodspeed said.
Council Member Raquel Castañeda-López urged the administration to take the auditor general and recent Detroit Inspector General report on the controversial Make Your Date prenatal program more seriously.
"I think it's dangerous ground to walk on ... to dismiss the findings of the AG and OIG," Castañeda-López said.
The audit also raises questions about the true cost of demolitions per structure. Of the $532 million spent thus far, about $330 million can be attributed directly to the hard costs to demolish more than 19,175 structures across Detroit.
Of that, $202 million has been invested in administrative and other "soft" costs which include pre-demolition activities such as property surveys, personnel and other costs.
The auditor general found that the average cost per structure based on the 19,175 homes demolished thus far is $17,198.
But according to the audit, the average total cost per structure is significantly higher at $27,756 when you factor in the administrative and soft costs.
The administration has said it "fundamentally" disagrees with the administrative cost figures detailed by the auditor general.
The audit, which focused on city-funded demolitions, was launched in October 2015, when the Detroit City Council requested the office audit the city’s demolition program.
The office looked at the program’s operation between Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 31, 2018.
The bond resolution authorizes the city to secure $250 million in "unlimited tax general obligation bonds" to continue Duggan's aggressive blight remediation efforts.
According to officials, the bond will help tear down an additional 19,000 properties and it will also renovate an additional 8,000 homes through Detroit Land Bank Authority sales and legal actions against privately owned vacant buildings.
But several council members have raised concerns about the bond, in light of previous issues with the program that have been reported by the Free Press and other media over the past several months.
In attempt to assuage some of council's concerns, the administration has proposed creating an entirely new demolition department solely under city control and subsequently canceling or revising the current demolition contract with the Detroit Building Authority.
The city's demolition program is currently managed by the Detroit Land Bank Authority and the Detroit Building Authority under a structure Duggan put in place after he was elected in 2014.
The city is in the process of transitioning the demolition program away from the Land Bank, officials announced earlier this year.
Jones said in a Sept. 17 memo to Duggan and Chief Financial Officer David Massaron that she wants several stipulations and requirements put in place if the ballot initiative is approved.
Dave Massaron, the Chief Financial Officer for the City of Detroit talks with the Detroit Free Press editorial board at the newspaper on Thursday, September 26, 2019.
Dave Massaron, the Chief Financial Officer for the City of Detroit talks with the Detroit Free Press editorial board at the newspaper on Thursday, September 26, 2019. (Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)
Jones wants the bond funds to be placed in an escrow account with a requirement that council must approve any "drawdown" on the bonds. Jones also wants the bond funds to be drawn in five increments of $50 million, with 25% of those funds set aside for investment into foreclosure prevention and assistance.
Jones also wanted each increment of $50 million to have 30% of the funds set aside for Detroit-based and Detroit-headquartered businesses and for at least 51% of the individuals employed by companies tearing down the homes would be required to be Detroit residents.
Sheffield previously told the Free Press that the bond issue raised concerns, for her indicating a "proposal of this magnitude that has long-lasting social, economic and financial, implications" should have been a petition-led initiative that would have allowed "voters to be fully engaged and more educated about the proposal before it reaches the ballot."
"I have serious concerns about equity and inclusion with respect to contracts and employment as well as access to opportunity and ownership after demolition," Sheffield said.
Castañeda-López submitted a detailed memo on Monday to the administration, also asking that several provisions be added to the bond resolution. Among the proposals were "proof that all stages of demolition were monitored — including the backfill activity, any ongoing investigations or litigation, and any violations issued."
A Free Press investigation in February revealed that federal authorities were probing whether contaminated dirt was potentially used to fill sites across Detroit.
Castañeda-López also asked for several provisions be put in place for how vacant land be used after demolition.
Last year, the Free Press published an investigation that revealed just 16% of the Hardest Hit funded demolitions went toward black companies in Detroit. Sheffield said her office has been working to improve the hiring of Detroiters through a proposed local hiring ordinance.
"We must have guarantees that Detroiters benefit from the use of their tax dollars and that the goal is to truly improve the quality of life of residents and not lead to another urban renewal which amounted to urban removal in the past," Sheffield said.
More than $250 million from the federal Hardest Hit Fund was allocated to Detroit from the U.S. Department of Treasury for its demolition program since Duggan began an aggressive effort to tackle blight across the city. Detroit has the largest demolition program of its kind in the nation. Those dollars are expected to be exhausted by early next year, officials have previously stated.
The city's demolition program has faced intense scrutiny in recent years for its practices and a highly publicized federal probe.
The federal investigation resulted in criminal charges in April against two former employees of a demolition firm, one of whom worked for the city of Detroit at some point.
Federal agencies have been probing various facets of the city's program over the past several years.
After the Free Press published a series of investigative stories about the program, congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Brenda Lawrence jointly called for increased oversight of the city's blight remediation efforts.
In a statement released Tuesday evening, Lawrence said she is "incredibly alarmed" by the auditor general's findings.
"The demolition program in Detroit has been marred by a lack of oversight and administrative failures that beleaguer an otherwise beneficial program to the city," Lawrence said. "As a member of the House Committees on Appropriations and Oversight and Reform, it is my duty to ensure the proper use of federal funds, and the Detroit Auditor General’s report demonstrates a gross lack of oversight."
Lawrence said she expects the city to "institute a more robust system" of oversight.
"I urge the city of Detroit to work with relevant federal agencies to ensure the health and well-being of its residents are protected. In order to provide the people of Detroit with the certainty they deserve, I request that the city of Detroit immediately begin to remediate all demolition sites to ensure there are no environmental risks associated with the demolition program," Lawrence said.
Audit of Demolition Activit... by Mark J. Rochester on Scribd
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1 comment:
Ellen Ha generated false claims into the public record, falsely advising city council and the mayor, to fraudulently secure a bond, simply for lying about who owns the Detroit Land Bank Authority. All she had to do was search on LARA. They all lie to continue their insurrection of the 13th Congressional District and City of Detroit.
Think about that.
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