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Hey Hey, Detroit Documenters!
We hope you all are enjoying Indigenous Peoples Day. Though still recognized by our federal government as Columbus Day, we prefer to celebrate the Indigenous people who originally inhabited our beautiful state. First instituted in Berkeley, California in 1992, the city of Detroit began officially recognizing indigenous Peoples Day in 2018, on the second Monday of October each year.
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"I don't hide anything.”
—Interim Chief Investigator Lawrence Akbar, when questioned by Police Commissioner Willie Burton about his transparency. Burton went on to question how many retired officers work in the office of the chief investigator (OCI), before later being ejected from the meeting by a majority vote of commissioners for being out of order.
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The Scoop
A story about minutes, the Detroit City Clerk and the Open Meetings Act
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In response to the federal “Sunshine Act” of 1976, states enacted their own Open Meetings Acts, requiring the same level of transparency for all state and local government meetings as the Sunshine Act required for federal meetings.
State and local governments have to take and make government meeting minutes available within eight days once they are approved to comply with the law. Most municipalities post copies minutes online. It’s such standard practice that we at Detroit Documenters assumed that a city as large as Detroit, with all the resources available to its City Clerk, would make them easily accessible as well. We were wrong. Instead we discovered that the notes and live tweets our Documenters create are the only online summarized version of what happens at Detroit City Council meetings.
We know this because we went down to the City Clerk’s office and filed our own request for for minutes from the last 10 City Council Formal Sessions. In total it took us more than 12 days and multiple phone calls, emails and $9 in parking fees to get something most cities provide instantly for free. No one should have to jump through as many hoops as we did to get copies of minutes from a public meeting. Compare this to the one minute it took, on average, for us to find and view City Council minutes online from 10 other municipalities in Michigan chosen at random. Sure, the videos of every Detroit City Council meeting are posted online. And yes, if someone had 20 plus hours to watch the 10 meetings they were interested in, they could just take the minutes themselves. But then they’d be doing the job of the City Clerk, and we elect someone to do that for us.
Read our recent Op-Ed in the Detroit Free Press about these issues and, more importantly, recruit somebody into the Detroit Documenters program to create more transparency and accountability.
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City News
Politics, safety, utilities and policing
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POLITICS:
The Mack Avenue Stellantis assembly plant received an odor violation on Sept. 20 and has until Oct. 11 to respond. Scott Withington with the Detroit Health Department said if you can smell it, it's pollution and that the smell affects quality of life, even if it does not violate health standards.
There were two contracts approved for business consulting services for marijuana business start-ups. Council President Brenda Jones expressed concerns that the opportunity was not advertised well enough to Detroiters. According to Megan Moslimani, Detroit’s director of marijuana ventures and entrepreneurship, about half the clients are not residents of Detroit, yet Detroiters’ tax dollars would be used to provide services to help them start businesses in Detroit.
10/05/21 City Council Formal Session meeting notes here. Documented by Sonja Stuckey and Paul Warner.
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SAFETY:
The Public Health & Safety Committee meeting exposed a predatory parking scheme after a public comment mentioned “outrageous” parking fees of up to $80 in the Park Rite lots downtown. The Building’s Department took the heat for lack of accountability while the Legislative Policy Division and the Law Department assured an investigation would take place. Council members said the issue will be back for discussion in two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Elaine Williams ordinance, which would prevent domestic violence offenders from owning firearms, could come up for a vote soon. The ordinance would align with a $500,000 grant fund effort being used to create programming to protect domestic violence victims.
10/04/21 City Council Public Health & Safety Standing Committee meeting notes here. Documented by Eric Walton and Kayleigh Lickliter.
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UTILITIES:
The DWSD Finance Committee approved millions of dollars in contracts for “emergency investigations, cleaning and repairs to catch basins, manholes, sinkholes, etc. related to the 2021 severe flooding events.” When asked about relief claims for infrastructure, mold and other problems with the flooded basements, Gary Brown, DWSD Director, responded and said FEMA recently opened a new office. He said FEMA has issued $93 million in checks to address those concerns.
There was also a water affordability update: WRAP has increased the area's maximum payment from $700 to $1,200 annually and expanded eligibility criteria up to try to reach more households in need. CERA has served approximately 1,000 customers in the last six months who are behind on their water bills. DWSD customers have received $715,000 from the program. The program is approved through 2023 with potential for three more years beyond that. DWSD expects to receive $1 million by the end of 2021.
10/06/2021 Detroit Water and Sewerage Department All Committees meeting notes here. Documented by Amber Umscheid and Kayleigh Lickliter.
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POLICING:
At Thursday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting, we heard from Interim Chief Investigator Lawrence Akbar, who presented data on citizen complaints of police misconduct. We’ve attached his actual presentation to our full documentation, but the biggest take-away from his report is the number of complaints his office, the Office of the Chief Investigator (OCI), is tasked with investigating.
In August of 2021 alone, there were 98 citizen complaints filed, or more than three per day. Each one of those has to be thoroughly investigated with a final determination either dismissing the complaint or forwarding it on for potential officer discipline. From February 27, 2020 to September 30, 2021, the OCI received and investigated 1,960 separate complaints, closing 1,433. The Department of Justice allows 90 days to complete these investigations.
10/07/21 Detroit Police Department Board of Police Commissioners meeting notes here. Documented by Rasha Almulaiki and Paul Warner.
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Shoutouts
Pitch party
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This week’s shoutout goes to all the Documenters who attended the pitch meeting with Outlier’s media partners at Detour and Planet Detroit last week. Along with other freelance journalists, Amanda Absher, Kayleigh Lickliter, Rasha Almulaiki and Rukiya Colvin all pitched an aspect of a story they are working on or interested in working on.
We are super proud of our Documenters taking the initiative and creating opportunities for themselves, and we’re really excited to watch these projects develop. If you have great story ideas, read below about how to get involved with Outlier Media’s Freelance Journalist Network!
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Get Involved
Upcoming trainings and events
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Metro Detroiters deserve to know how their local water and energy utilities are planning for climate change, and our friends over at Planet Detroit are looking for your input. Fill out their quick survey and tell them what you’d like to learn about your water and energy utilities.
Your responses will inform a guide they’re developing to shed light on how our utilities operate, what they’re doing to combat climate change, and why our region has some of the highest utility rates in the country.
Outlier Media is building a network of freelance reporters! Here’s a short Google form to fill out if you’re interested in joining or know someone who is interested in freelancing for Outlier. You can pitch story ideas related to housing, neighborhood development, transportation, utilities, etc., or Outlier editors can reach out to you when we have assignments you’d be a good fit for.
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Just for Documenters
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Detroit Documenters Orientation
Monday, Oct. 18, at 5:30 p.m.
Are you or someone you know interested in learning more about Detroit’s local government? Maybe you want to figure out what public officials are talking about in their meetings. Come learn what Documenters do and how you can get paid to provide a public service!
Register here.
Documenters Office Hours
Every Tuesday, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Come by our weekly office hours if you have any thoughts about the program: how to improve your notes, trainings you’d like to see, questions about an agency or assignment, or just want to chat! You can join us on Zoom by clicking here or in person at TechTown (440 Burroughs St.). Just give Documenters Coordinator Noah Kincade a call at 415-336-8758 when you get to the building. And be sure to wear a mask!
You can also reach us via our new general email address: documenters@outliermedia.org.
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This week’s newsletter was written by Lynelle Herndon and Noah Kincade, with additions by Rukiya Colvin.
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