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Residents and callers press council on blight enforcement, language access and fees
Summary
Online and in-person public commenters raised concerns about blight enforcement equity, language access for hearings, and the cost of land-use hearing fees for small nonprofits; callers also urged clearer staffing counts at Building & Code and expressed frustration with perceived inconsistent enforcement.
Public comment at the close of the Department of Appeals and Hearings budget hearing included a string of short statements from community members raising enforcement, equity and fee concerns.
Maurice Weeks urged clarity on the staffing levels at the Building and Code division and at CREO language-access units after recent dangerous-building incidents, saying the numbers in the mayor's proposed budget appeared unchanged from last year. The council clerk said staff would follow up after the committee lost a quorum.
Online callers echoed a mix of complaints and requests. One caller, Jadonte Smith, criticized council members'responses to remarks by Mary Waters on the land bank and said he would submit written follow-up. Tahira Ahmed asked the Detroit Institute of Arts to address what she described as "false narratives" about the origins of people in the Americas and offered to provide sources.
Several callers returned to the theme of enforcement. Foster said the city must avoid uneven enforcement when the city itself owns a significant amount of blight. Another caller asked whether the city tracks how much revenue a property owner or BCID collected in blight fines; that caller asked the council to be more equitable and said some property owners have had tickets dismissed.
Betty A. Varner, identified as president of Soul of the Ellis World Black Association, asked the council to consider helping small nonprofit groups pay land-use hearing fees that she said are a barrier to community-led projects. "The application, I was told, is $1,500," she said, adding the fee diverts scarce funds from projects such as playground equipment.
The chair closed public comment and recessed the meeting until 2:00 p.m. The committee noted that the formal public hearing on the full city budget is scheduled for March 30 at 5 p.m., and staff offered to follow up on specific data requests from callers and councilmembers.
