Kayleigh Lickliter

In-person translation services are only needed a few times a week which is why the city has moved away from providing services in-house > contracting the work. The work is requested as needed

The matter will be included in the closing resolution. Santiago-Romero said she’s hoping to set up a subcommittee of some kind to address language access needs and hear from the community

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Now discussing $200K that was added in last years budget as a recurring amount for CRIO for language access services — sounds like it wasn’t used last year

Santiago-Romero said the issue they’re looking to solve is related to the language access ordinance. The city contracts with a company to provide translation services but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in that regard

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Whitfield-Calloway said she's seen the city's vendor, Creative Day, at many events and hasn't seen them do anything the city couldn't do in-house.

Moving on, I think we’re down to 2 pinned items left 👏

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📍The pinned item for media services — $300,000 to add additional staff to support council members’ offices — has been removed and a memo about reorganizing media services will be referred to the Legislative Policy Division

📍The next pinned item is for media services for the planning commission and Board of Zoning Appeals — a motion to remove was approved

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Whittaker notes this is the last day of budget deliberations and restructuring the media services department would need to be thought through, and if desired, in anticipation of next year’s budget

Sounds like most council members agree there’s a lack of support but it might be a little too late in the process to restructure a department so that it operates the way council desires

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McCampbell said he’s not sure if he supports adding $300K to the departments budget w/o separating it as a specific budgeted amount for council, planning commission, etc, especially since there’s already 38 FTEs

Mr. Whittaker, Law Department, said before bankruptcy, similar services for council were separate from the mayors administration. PEG fees were shared between council and the mayor. Post bankruptcy, it was organized under the mayors office

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bsky.app/profile/kayr... 38 staff* sorry y’all it’s been awhile since I’ve live-tweeted a council meeting 🙃

Kayleigh Lickliter@kayrl.bsky.social

Media Services is currently budgeted for 38 people, according to Mr. Johnson (unsure of his position), which he said is “size-able.” He also thinks planning in advance can address the concerns council members have shared

Miller said she sees communications as a form of support and digital outreach is a way to reach constituents with pertinent information and she wants to find a way to ensure every council district has the support it needs so members can communicate with residents

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Mr. Johnson also explained that historically, media services hasn’t been geared towards social media. The mayor’s office had their own staff to manage social media, rather than media services handling it

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Brown said it’s more of a planning issue than capacity issue. She thinks issues can be mitigated by flagging overlapping/double booked events as soon as media services are requested

Tate: council can’t always reschedule events to accommodate for the lack of media support available

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Now discussing whether to keep/remove an item she had pinned — $300,000 for media services to add additional staff to support council members’ offices

^ still discussing, rather Miller mentioned a deed fraud event that was scheduled the same time as multiple other events and there wasn’t enough staff to cover all of them

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Regarding training, Brown said the department is working on training staff to be “nimble” and flexible from a skills standpoint. They’re also working on professional development so staff can use more modern equipment. They want staff to be able to do “everything under the sun”

Brown said the department relies heavily on vendors it contracts with but it doesn’t have the ability to send a vendor out 24 hours in advance of an event.

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Water also pressed Brown on the issue about cancellations and said in the past, there’s been times where media services cancels because they have to cover a mayor’s event.

Brown said communication on both ends is important and she committed to improving that under her leadership. She also explained that it’s helpful to have information well in advance so they can ensure the department is adequately prepared.

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Young asked about using AI and Brown said it’s something the department would like to explore as a way to save time, money, and energy

Santiago-Romero said her office has experienced two cancellations with media services and thanked Brown for coming in and saving their day. Her office needs assistance with things like audio/visual setup

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Brown said the department is working through challenges around covering the planning commission and city council meetings, which are held at the same time.

Brown also said it would be helpful if every council member sent staff to the department’s bi-weekly production meetings to ensure their offices are all same page and know what to expect and vice versa

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Miller had questions about adding additional personnel/funding to her department so there’s capacity to support council members and their offices. Brown said the administration is looking to add 2 more graphic designers, bringing total to 5, as well as other staff to adequately serve council

Brown: These additional staff are accounted for in the current proposed budget

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Confirmed Miller is present on Zoom.

First discussion is about media services and the way it operates. Director Brittni Brown is present to answer questions

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^ Per Mr.Corley, Legislative Policy Division

detroitmi.govdetroitmi.gov

Here’s a spreadsheet of all the items that council “pinned” during budget deliberations this year detroitmi.gov/sites/detroi...

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Council has to agree on items to add into the final budget and closing resolution.

So far, city council has proposed about $13.2 million in changes to Mayor Sheffield’s proposed budget, which is just under 1% of the total budget

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And we’re back! Miller is present, but it sounds like she’s on Zoom. Young and Waters are also now present

There are 4 “pinned” items left. Throughout council’s budget hearings, they “pin” topics/details for future discussion, which usually takes place during “executive sessions.” Most pinned items are added into the closing resolution, while a handful are added into the budget as a program to-be-funded

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The meeting was called to order at 2:05 p.m. It sounds like council members Miller, Waters, and possibly Young weren’t present during roll call.

Recessing (taking a break) until 2:15 p.m. Stay tuned!

bridgedetroit.comDetroit 2026-2027 budget hearings: What to know - BridgeDetroitDetroit City Council is convening dozens of budget hearings in the weeks ahead. BridgeDetroit and Outlier Media will provide budget discussion summaries and key details.

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Get caught up on every department budget hearing: www.bridgedetroit.com/detroit-budg...

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Waiting for the meeting to start

Kayleigh Lickliter reposted

Detroit Documenters

pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com City Council Executive Session - April 07, 2026

Follow along at 2 p.m.! ⤵️

Kayleigh Lickliter@kayrl.bsky.social

ITS A BIG DAY! City council is expected to vote on the BUDGET for next fiscal year during this meeting 🎉 Here’s the very short agenda for today: pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx...

Goooood afternoon, Detroit! 🥰 I’ll be live-tweeting the Detroit City Council Executive Session meeting today at 2 p.m. for @detdocumenters.bsky.social #DetDocumenters

Media partners: @bridgedet313.bsky.social @chalkbeat.org @freep.com @metrotimes.com @michiganpublic.bsky.social @outliermedia.org @planetdetroit.org @wdet.bsky.social @wxyzdetroit.bsky.social

pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com City Council Executive Session - April 07, 2026

ITS A BIG DAY! City council is expected to vote on the BUDGET for next fiscal year during this meeting 🎉 Here’s the very short agenda for today: pub-detroitmi.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx...

Kayleigh Lickliter reposted

Nachum Eichenhorn

@eichenhorn.bsky.social