Detroit council reviews DoIT FY26 priorities — data warehouse, AI policy, Hope Village connectivity; several items moved to executive session

The Detroit City Council heard the Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) FY26 budget presentation on March 27, 2025, where department leaders described a newly deployed data warehouse, the city’s first chief information security officer and ongoing work on AI guardrails, public Wi‑Fi and a website relaunch. Council members pressed DoIT on privacy, resource use and broadband access and — by unanimous consent — moved several matters into executive session for further review.

The hearing matters because the technology projects discussed touch privacy, federal compliance and residents’ access to services: DoIT said recent work helped satisfy CJIS-related federal requirements for police facilities, ARPA dollars finance parts of the program, and citywide digital‑equity steps could affect neighborhoods with persistent connectivity gaps.

DoIT accomplishments and near‑term priorities

Art Thompson, chief information officer for the city of Detroit, told the council the department “set up what's called a data warehouse, which is where we are able to ingest or bring in different information and then tie that together to, create better analytics and reporting for city departments.” Thompson said that work, plus a newly hired chief information security officer, strengthens cybersecurity posture and supports cross‑department analytics.

Thompson also said, “we now have encryption at all of our Detroit police facilities,” a capability funded in part with ARPA dollars and cited as helping meet CJIS audit requirements. He reported DoIT has its lowest open positions “in DoIT history,” with five (possibly six) vacancies, and that the department has reduced long‑term supplemental contractors to fewer than 20.

Smart‑city and AI questions

Council member Coleman A. Young II asked, “Has there been discussion about using artificial intelligence to make the city a smart city?” Thompson said the city has joined a national coalition on AI, is drafting a policy to create guardrails, and has been collecting information about partners’ use of AI through a questionnaire. “I do wanna shy away from anything where it's getting into human behavioral,” Thompson said, but added the data warehouse gives the city a central place to begin tying departmental information together.

Council member Gabriela Santiago Romero said she was “a little weary of it, especially AI, especially knowing what it takes to run and how it's impacting our planet,” and asked how DoIT is balancing resource use and data protection as projects expand. Thompson said DoIT has refreshed data‑center equipment to improve energy efficiency and is treating privacy and policy development as priorities.

Cybersecurity and training

When Council member Mary Waters asked for specifics about cybersecurity, Thompson said the new CISO is revising policies and DoIT has rolled out user training through KnowBe4; he said training enrollment is automatic for any detroitmi.gov email account. “Our best defense is every employee we have,” Thompson said, describing plans to increase training frequency and to report departmental training completion to managers.

Digital equity, public Wi‑Fi and Hope Village connectivity

DoIT described steps to expand public Wi‑Fi at city facilities and pilot student access solutions. Thompson said rec centers already have Wi‑Fi after ARPA-funded equipment replacements and that the department is exploring Edgeroom-style connections to give students access to school networks.

Council member Angela Whitfield Calloway pressed DoIT about a long‑promised fiber plan for Hope Village (near Oakman Boulevard). DoIT officials said the full fiber rollout previously envisioned would have cost “tens of millions of dollars”; they estimated a newer wireless approach under consideration would be “just roughly over 10,000,000.” Calloway said the pilot covers roughly 200–235 homes and urged the administration to reengage Quicken Loans’ foundation and other partners. She moved the Hope Village fiber item into executive session; the council approved the motion by unanimous consent.

Website relaunch, business map and apps

DoIT and Chief Technology Officer Mike Homont described “website 3,” a relaunch driven by more than 20 resident listening sessions. Thompson said DoIT plans a District 6 business map as a beta that could be rolled out citywide and highlighted a residential hub created by the council office as a one‑stop page with services and contact information.

On resident service tools, Thompson said the city uses SeeClickFix for the Improve Detroit app; DoIT manages the cloud‑based service and routes complaints to the appropriate department. He said incoming tickets are routed “almost immediately” and should appear in department hands within an hour; departments follow their own service‑level agreements for handling requests.

Workforce and apprenticeships

Thompson said DoIT operates an ARPA‑funded apprenticeship program and currently has three apprentices earning web development and cybersecurity certifications. He said one ongoing challenge is job placement after training and that DoIT is working with Detroit at Work to improve pipelines.

Votes and formal actions

Council members used unanimous consent — “Any objections? Seeing none, that action shall be taken” — to move several items into executive session for further work. The council did not record a roll‑call vote for those actions but indicated no objections at the table. The items moved into executive session included:

- A motion by Council member Coleman A. Young II to place discussion of the data warehouse into executive session (approved by unanimous consent).

- A motion by Council member Fred Durhall III to place a proposed legislative/ordinance search portal (legislative search database) into executive session (approved by unanimous consent).

- A motion by Council member Angela Whitfield Calloway to place Hope Village fiber‑optic infrastructure into executive session (approved by unanimous consent).

- A motion by Council member Angela Whitfield Calloway to place Improve Detroit app discussions into executive session (approved by unanimous consent).

- A motion by Council member Coleman A. Young II to move a closing resolution on smart cities (approved by unanimous consent).

Several council members pledged follow‑up: DoIT promised further details on AI policy, job‑placement plans for apprentices and Hope Village options; council members requested additional briefings and offline coordination with community stakeholders.

What's next

DoIT returns to routine budget and implementation work while the council pursues executive sessions on the items above. Officials said ARPA funding will continue to support specific projects under deadline constraints and that DoIT will coordinate with OCFO, OCP and other offices on procurement, privacy and energy‑efficiency choices.

Ending

Council President pro tem James Tate closed the DoIT budget hearing and the council moved on to the Office of Inspector General budget hearing later the same day.