Detroit council hears Building Safety budget; approves executive-session reviews and funding add-ons for inspections, permitting and air monitoring

Detroit City Council members on Wednesday questioned the Building Safety, Engineering and Environmental Department’s 2025 priorities and approved a series of additions to the department’s budget review, asking staff to return with more detail.

Director David Bail, who leads the department, opened the budget hearing with a summary of 2024 workload and a set of 2025 goals, saying the department “performed 261,489 inspections” last year and oversees 323 employees. He told council the department would launch a citywide air quality monitoring network, expand compliance inspections and overhaul its permitting software, Acela.

The council pressed Bail and his team on enforcement and follow-through for rental housing and senior multifamily buildings, the practical effect of fines, and the speed of repairs for elevators and other life-safety systems. Council member Leticia Johnson said she repeatedly finds substandard living conditions in senior and multifamily buildings and that “it truly breaks my heart to see the quality of life that our residents are living in.” She asked for more aggressive oversight of landlords and better pathways to help owners bring housing up to code.

Bail said the department has increased enforcement actions and fines for rental properties — reporting more than $5.8 million in rental-related tickets issued last year — and that the department is coordinating rental inspections with elevator inspections. He also said the city launched a 15-point simplified inspection pilot covering about 75% of ZIP codes and planned a full citywide roll-out May 1, with standardized, lower fees and a combined rental-registration-and-inspection step aimed at improving the customer experience.

On permitting and business licensing, council members described the current process as burdensome for small developers. Bail described the city’s “one-stop” Development Resource Center on the fourth floor and said staff have been consolidating pre-application coordination: "If they go to any department about a new development, that department will say, you need to talk to James Foster," Bail said, describing Foster’s role in convening all departments around a single applicant. The department also plans upgrades to integrate OpenCounter, Acela and Aval (the electronic plan review system) so an application started in one system will seed accounts and plan uploads in the others.

Council members repeatedly asked for more enforcement staff and clearer outcomes when fines are paid but repairs lag. Council member Mary Waters asked whether the proposed budget provides adequate staffing for enforcement; Bail said the proposed budget would provide the needed resources but acknowledged some vacancies remain. Several members moved to add review of inspectors and enforcement staffing to the budget executive session.

Members also raised separate policy concerns that overlap the department’s work: the enforcement of unlicensed businesses, the number of state-issued liquor licenses in the city, and the long-running Brightmoor scattered-home complaints, where members asked the department to provide a status update on owner compliance and code enforcement actions.

The council recorded several motions during the hearing that were added to the budget executive-session agenda and approved without recorded objection. Those items include studies of added inspectors, a concierge permitting pilot, fee-schedule review, and the inclusion of artificial-intelligence sensors in the air-monitoring discussion.

The department reported other 2024 accomplishments: issuance of 6,866 building permits with an estimated $2.3 billion in construction value, 25,938 trade permits, 443 certificates of occupancy and 1,822 business licenses for brick-and-mortar businesses. The department also said it closed 276 illegal marijuana facilities and handled more than 300,000 SeeClickFix complaints (the transcript figure appears as 332,751 complaints). Bail outlined a list of major completed and pipeline projects across council districts, from multifamily affordable housing to a hospital tower expansion.

Council members said they will expect follow-up materials. Director Bail agreed to provide additional information, and several council members requested short-term updates before the next budget hearing.

Votes at a glance - Motion to add “compliance fairs and inspections of multifamily developments, particularly senior buildings” to the executive session — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to add a concierge project manager team for licensing and permitting and to include $600,000 for that effort in executive-session discussions — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to add artificial-intelligence sensors for the air-monitoring program to executive-session consideration — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to add $1,000,000 and 10 additional property-maintenance inspectors to the executive-session budget discussion — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to include a closing resolution encouraging stronger accountability and enforcement tied to the wealth generation task force — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to move the Building Safety budget into executive session for detailed review — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to add $1,000,000 to establish a uniform permitting process and additional FTEs — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to examine the department’s fee schedule (tickets, fines, permit fees) as part of the executive session — approved (no objection recorded). - Motion to add review of additional inspectors for senior multifamily developments to the executive session — approved (no objection recorded).

What’s next Council members asked the department to return with written details and short briefings: a status update on Brightmoor scattered homes and landlord compliance, vacancy and inspector counts for senior-building enforcement, specifics about the elevator repair contracts and parts-supply constraints, and technical details on the planned air-monitoring deployment. The department said it will brief council members and present more complete proposals after the budget review process.