Committee forwards Clark Hill immigration counsel contract to formal amid tax-clearance hold and recruitment questions

The Detroit City Council Committee of the Whole voted to send a requested amendment for continued legal counsel on immigration and employee sponsorship (Clark Hill PC) to the full council without recommendation, citing a pending tax-clearance matter and broader questions about staffing and local hiring.

Dan Hughes, an HR consultant for the city, told the committee the city has used visa sponsorship to fill chronically understaffed technical roles and to retain specialized talent. Hughes said, “the city of Detroit…began as a result of chronic shortages in certain key technical positions to sponsor foreign nationals and their visa processes,” and that the program is primarily used to support engineering, IT and data roles. Hughes said the city had foreign nationals in place and described the visa mix in his remarks (he first said “11 foreign nationals” and later outlined “4 that are TN visas, 6 that are in a stage called an H-1B, and 2 that are on student visas”). He also described the multiyear process for green cards and said the sponsored employees tend to have low turnover while they pursue permanent-resident status.

Richard Doherty of DPW told the committee engineering divisions remain understaffed and that the department has repeatedly recruited at area universities, used interns, and relied on outside consultants when positions remain vacant. He said his division has used the visa process to hire engineers that could not otherwise be recruited into city service quickly enough.

Anthony Johnson from the Legislative Policy Division informed the committee Clark Hill’s tax clearance had not been received as of his check with Treasury and the Office of Contracting and Procurement; for that reason committee members moved to send the amendment to formal without recommendation. Council members asked HR and the departments to document recruitment outreach to local universities and technical programs and to supply details about the city’s local-training and recruitment efforts before formal consideration.

Committee members framed the vote as a procedural send to the full council while requesting additional documentation of recruitment efforts and confirmation of contractor clearance. The committee recorded no roll-call vote; the chair noted the motion carried with no objection and staff were instructed to forward the item to formal.