Internal Operations committee advances multiple settlements, contracts and task-force continuations; several items postponed for follow-up

At its Jan. 15 meeting the Detroit City Council Internal Operations Standing Committee took action on a slate of settlements, contract amendments and administrative resolutions. Several items were approved by motion with no objection and forwarded to the full City Council (formal) with recommendations to approve; other items were postponed for additional review or scheduled for closed session.

Actions approved or forwarded to formal with recommendation to approve (no objection recorded): - Line item 6.1: Settlement request in consolidated lawsuits (S. A. Torello Inc. v. Rickman Enterprise et al.; Quality Environmental, Inc. v. Rickman Enterprise et al.) for the Demolition Department, $357,000. Motion to send to formal with recommendation to approve. - Line item 6.2: Contract amendment 6001522dasha7 — amendment No. 7 to extend time and add legal services funding to the City’s legal services contract; increase of $650,000; contract period extended through Dec. 31, 2025. Sent to formal with recommendation to approve. - Line items 7.2 and 7.3: Combined approval to send two as-needed preventative maintenance and installation contracts for Genetec systems to formal with recommendation to approve (Accurate Networks LLC and Infinite Technologies LLC; $750,000 each; three-year term upon council approval). - Line item 7.14: Settlement Kelvin Copeland v. City of Detroit (Department of Transportation), $10,000 — sent to formal with recommendation to approve. - Line item 7.17: Settlement Affiliated Diagnostic of Oakland LLC v. City of Detroit (Department of Transportation), $11,000 — sent to formal with recommendation to approve. - Line item 7.19: Settlement Apex Laboratories International Inc. v. City of Detroit (tax dispute) — committee approved forwarding to formal with recommendation to approve for $45,000 (committee discussion noted prolonged litigation and that costs litigating likely exceeded settlement amount). - Line items 7.22, 7.24, 7.25 and 7.27: Resolutions authorizing continuation of city Council task forces — senior task force (7.22), Green Task Force (7.24), wealth generation task force (7.25) and immigration task force (7.27) were sent to formal with recommendations to approve. - Line item 7.26: Memorandum requesting LPD draft a resolution for council member appointments to boards and commissions — motion to send to formal with recommendation to approve pending LPD response. - Line item 7.20: Resolution authorizing supplemental payments for city retirees and beneficiaries (budgeted appropriation described by administration as $10,000,000 in the adopted budget, to be split $5M/$5M between general and police & fire legacy retirees). The committee voted to send the resolution to formal with recommendation to approve; staff and the administration noted that full implementation requires an actuarial cost study requirement and bankruptcy-court approval before funds would be transmitted to pension systems.

Items postponed, scheduled for closed session, or returned for further review: - Line items 7.4, 7.5, 7.7 and 7.8: Requests for legal representation and indemnification for several public-safety officers (Assistant Chief Charles Fitzgerald; Captain Todd Messanillo; retired Deputy Chief Melissa Gardner; Sergeant Jamal Hamoud). The committee scheduled these items to be brought back for a closed session at a date to be determined. - Line items 7.6, 7.10, 7.11 and 7.12: Requests for legal representation and indemnification related to Animal Care (Mark Kumpf and others) were combined and moved to be brought back in one week for further discussion. - Line item 7.9: Request for legal representation and indemnification for a building operator (Ronald Remitz) — motion to bring back in one week for additional questions. - Line item 7.13: Settlement Lakisha Hines v. City of Detroit, $99,000 — committee moved to bring back in one week after identifying inconsistent dates in the supporting report. - Line item 7.15: Settlement Robbie and Shaniqua Daish v. City of Detroit and Kareema Yap (police department) $32,500 — committee voted to return the item in one week for further departmental discussion, citing officer conduct and training questions. - Line item 7.16: Settlement Michael Kinnebrew et al. v. City of Detroit, $650,000 — brought back in one week at request of committee. - Line item 7.18: Settlement Dwight Moss v. City/others (fire/police vehicle incident) $17,500 — committee requested additional clarification (discrepancies in department attribution and vehicle ownership) and scheduled a one-week return. - Line item 7.21: Memorandum seeking a legal opinion on the prohibition of rental-pricing software — law department requested three weeks to respond; the committee will revisit in three weeks.

Committee members placed several items on short timelines for follow-up. Where settlement documents or departmental reports contained inconsistent or incomplete information, members asked for a one-week return so that counsel and department staff could clear discrepancies before formal action.

No recorded roll-call votes were taken at the committee level on items that were forwarded; most actions were recorded as “hearing no objection” and moved forward. Items that were postponed were explicitly scheduled for either closed session review (date TBD) or a one-week return for additional information.