Spooky

As always, find more stories and coverage at documenters.org

That is my coverage--such as it is--for the 10/29 Wayne County Commission Public Safety-Judiciary-Homeland Security meeting.
‼️IMPORTANT‼️--if anything in this coverage is incorrect, please email documenters@outliermedia.org with 'Correction Request' in the subject line.

Public Safety, Judiciary & Homeland Security - October 29, 2025 Standard Meeting

A video of the meeting will be posted shortly at the following link👇🔗
www.waynecountymi.gov/Government/E...

Well, golly gee! I have found out that, heh-heh, a meeting did occur but we had the wrong Zoom link 😯🤯Apparently, changing the location from usual 7th floor conference room to mezzanine required a different link .

📣👍Grateful shout out to Clerk Pamela Fordham for getting back to me to explain!

So it is 12:32 PM and...still no sign of a meeting

We are set up & ready go...but still waiting for the host to start the meeting. Don't even a teaser graphic 🫤

Wayne County Commission - Committee on Public Safety, Judiciary, and Homeland Security 06/11/2025 Committee on Public Safety, Judiciary, and Homeland Security Documenter name: Sandi Nelson Agency: Wayne County Commission Date: June 11, 2025 See more about this meeting at Documenters.org      Notes...

As always, you can check out previous #DETDocumenter coverage. The last Public Safety-Judiciary-Homeland Security meeting only lasted 11 minutes [sic] but covered significant matters of 💲💲💲in form of grants & contracts 👇🔗
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Econolite - Saving Lives Through Improved Mobility Econolite is an innovator of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Solutions, Products, and Services.

Soooo...before we start, you can find a nice overview of Emergency Vehicle Preemeption (EVP) tech below...I think this is what they mean by 'signal preemption tech'👇🔗
www.econolite.com/application-...

Public Safety, Judiciary & Homeland Security - October 29, 2025 Standard Meeting

Today's meeting is at the Guardian Building, 500 Griswold, on Mezzanine level. Alas, I again cannot attend in person 😒but there is remote access (Zoom) plus conference call options...info all on the meeting notice & here👇🔗
www.waynecountymi.gov/Government/E...

PR makes no mention of legacy costs, 'water wars' driven by aging infrastructure, OPEB, etc. But they do note some highlights on public safety spending:
🔸$1.6 million for Violent Crimes Joint Task Force
🔸$3 million for signal preemption technology in police/fire vehicles & designated intersections

Wayne County 2025-26 budget shows stability, funds key projects Wayne County Commissioners today unanimously approved a 2025-26 county operating budget that sets key priorities in public health, public safety, housing support and road repair and maintenance despit...

Source for above is 👇🔗
www.waynecountymi.gov/News/Commiss...

From one perspective, everything is groovy in WayneCo...as per PR, rising prop tax assessments push the general fund $47 million over previous year & $30.9 million surplus 🤑🕺🙌

Link to homepage is below...committee members listed and you can access today's combo meeting notice+agenda (but will have to scroll a bit).

A quick glance does not access to meeting minutes--but they do include video recording. Is that supposed to replace minutes?🤔

Per homepage, they handle 'matters regarding the Sheriff's Department; Prosecuting Attorney's Office; Corporation Counsel; Community Corrections; County Clerk; Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management; and the Wayne County courts, including Circuit, Juvenile and Probate courts.'

...yeah, the usual suspects
@bridgedet313.bsky.social
@chalkbeat.org
@freep.com
@metrotimes.com
@michiganpublic.bsky.social
@outliermedia.org
@planetdetroit.org
@wdet.bsky.social
@wxyzdetroit.bsky.social

Detroit! 10/29 at noon I live cover Wayne County Commission Public Safety-Judiciary-Homeland Security for #DETdocumenters @detdocumenters.bsky.social & media partners ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Documenters.org: Making Local Government More Accountable All the info you need on public meetings in your town, in one easy-to-search place. Get TRAINED and PAID to hold your local government accountable. Powered by City Bureau.

As always, visit documenters.org for additional coverage and more stories

So that is (finally) my coverage for the 10/2 Detroit CPC meeting.
‼️IMPORTANT‼️If any of this coverage is incorrect, email documenters@outliermedia.org with 'Correction Request' in the subject line.

Sorry--another thought. CPC homepage dominated by fee chart. Yes, there is functional benefit for this--but lets put our empathy hats on & see how this likely feels to majority of city population. If you need help accessing relevant economic data, contact me 🧐 (Just kidding--I fear human contact🥶)

One final thought...a major structural hindrance in the effort to modify zoning is that the current system is predominantly based on regulations from 1960s...and the majority of the city housing structures were constructed in first half of the 20th century, so round peg/square hole

What is more, the public that did run over during their allotted speaking time or had occasional shouts during proceedings responded to 'calls of civility'--and also remained until the end of the meeting. So there is obviously strong interest/engagement from some in the public

Additionally, it appeared that a significant number of the public that came for the meeting not only endured the VERY late start, but were also present until the very end.

I should note Vice Chair Udabe did a good job keeping her cool in face of some passionately critical comments

I also note that they were willing to contact relevant city officials to help answer their questions in course of the meeting, even after 9 PM--and they did get responses!

And this is sad, as CPC appears sincere in its efforts...the meeting was still going strong before closing at 10:35, with a commission member (perhaps chair Donovan Smith?) noting that they had to conclude due to losing access to the parking structure, not because they were done discussing the topic

From one perspective, this slide shows overall intent & helps describe the overarching framework of engagement. But for a city population that has been systematically dispossessed, illegally over-assessed & routinely deceived...well, gosh golly, this may appear less than forthcoming, Just sayin'.

I was also confused by the use of the slide shown below regarding public outreach in relation to the Lets Build More Houses proposal...note it dated 2019 and speaks to the broader ZoneDetroit initiative

While it is true that only so much can be done to reach out & only so many public meetings can be held, it is quite likely that a powerful factor in low attendance is the lack of control so many wage-earners--meaning, well, 'normal people'/the 99%-- have on their schedules

After providing a rundown of process for announcing a public meeting--emails, public notice, social media post, flyer distribution--there was the classic 'personal responsibility' comment coupled with lament of how hard it is to get people to participate

I had to wonder if any serious assessment had been done to determine level of effectiveness of outreach efforts. My strong sense is that there is an acceptance of the fact that given the nature of our society/economy & resources available for CPC, low numbers of engagement are inevitable

The discussion about outreach continued for a while with lots of back & forth. I was struck by how the commission members do not have top-of-mind grasp of how outreach is done, i.e., what channels used, frequency of events, relevant numbers concerning contacts/attendance/responses, etc.