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Committee approves $50,000 contract amendment for H‑1B legal services; administration to form task force to replace H‑1B roles
Summary
Committee moved an amendment to extend a Clark Hill contract to support 10 existing H‑1B employees and heard administration plans to pause new H‑1B hires, cap renewals that trigger a new fee, and form a 12–24 month task force to transition roles to Detroiters.
The Internal Operations committee approved an extension of the city’s contract with Clark Hill PLC to continue legal services for existing H‑1B employees while the administration builds a plan to reduce reliance on foreign‑worker sponsorships.
Darryl Conrad, the city’s chief recruitment officer, said the city currently sponsors 10 H‑1B workers (mostly in civil engineering and IT roles). He told the committee the administration will put a hold on new H‑1B hires and will not proceed with renewals that would incur a recently instituted $100,000 fee. “We’re forming a task force now so we can actually replace this initiative,” Conrad said, outlining a 12–24 month transition window to train and hire Detroiters for the roles.
Mike Nolan of Clark Hill offered fee estimates: routine extension legal fees roughly $3,500 plus immigration filing fees (examples given included $780 and $600; initial hire filing fees were listed as a set of immigration fees and a Clark Hill fixed fee of $3,950 on average). Committee members pressed for full cost transparency; Member Renata Miller said none of the ten currently sponsored employees live in Detroit and asked for a breakdown of total city costs per worker.
The committee approved the contract extension (listed as Amendment Number 4, contract 63874‑A4‑R, city funds $50,000) and directed the administration to produce a succession and task force plan and to pursue local university partnerships (Lawrence Tech, Oakland, Wayne State, Michigan Tech) to build a local pipeline for engineering and IT positions.
The item will move to formal session for final approval.
