City Council - Regular Meeting

I'm so an extra housing commission joint meeting. It's Tuesday, August 25th, 2026. Uh, it is 6 0 4 p.m. And the meeting is now called to order. Everyone please stand for the prayer.

Yeah.

We want to leave you some prayer tonight.

Yeah.

We bow you here for a small prayer.

Father, we thank you for coming here to address all our issues, to come together as one. We thank you for all the blessings you store upon us. And bless the council, the mayor, and every administration here, and housing. In the Lord's name, amen.

Amen. Thank you. Please continue to stand for the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Roll call.

City Council, Mayor Nolan.

Present.

Mayor Pro Tem Chisholm.

Present.

Councilwoman Rutledge. Present. Councilman Bishop. Present. Councilwoman Scott. Present. Councilwoman Howard? Here. Councilwoman Richardson? Present. Roll call for Inkster Housing. Commissioner Gillette? Commissioner Moore? Present. Commissioner Miller? I'll be late. Commissioner Stroman? Present. Commissioner Thomas? Present. Mayor, you do have a quorum on both.

All right, thank you. All right, everyone had just a little backdrop. This meeting was requested by Mayor Pro Temp. I think he sent an email over to the commissioners a few weeks ago. Yeah, about a month ago. About a month ago, actually.

After, I mean, what was that sparked by?

Some of the comments at the meeting?

Comments, processes and procedures, Open Meetings Act. Yeah. process with meeting notices notifications And then of course the executive director decision, okay

So that's what caused us to request a meeting. And I think I went to their last meeting and requested after city council expressed that they would like to meet at a joint meeting to discuss some of these issues. And they agreed to come and I appreciate them coming here tonight. So we created an agenda, it's pretty broad, just so we can go over some of the things that we at least heard. We can only discuss things on the agenda because it's a special meeting, so it's very specific. But we put on there the Open Meetings Act, because there were some, I believe there were some allegations of Open Meetings Act violation. Also, process for selecting the executive director position. There's been a lot of comments made, at least at the city council meeting, regarding that. And I guess we're going to discuss that and listen to whoever would like to speak on that. And then the status of Inkster Housing. Because basically I've been getting reports of nothing but positive things for the last several months regarding Inkster Housing and HUD and some other things going on at Inkster Housing. So we can discuss the general status of what's going on at housing also. And of course we have public comments at our meetings that come at the end of the meeting. City Council will do our own public comments and then Inkster Housing can do their own. I suspect most of them are going to be in their housing comments tonight, be my guess. But anybody want to modify?

Can we even modify the agenda? We could take stuff off, I guess.

So anybody want to delete anything from the agenda? Maybe specify something that's already there, make it more specific. Anybody from housing, you want to speak to the three things on the agenda? Are you okay with them?

Okay.

Do we have a motion to approve the agenda?

So moved. Second.

We'll probably move to second. Any discussion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say nay. All right. Okay. Discussion. Open Meetings Act. Ms. Wells, I'm not sure if this is you or someone else you would like to speak to. the alleged Open Meetings Act violation. I am aware of at least one where a meeting was canceled by the city attorney for, I'm sorry, by the housing attorney. There was some sort of defect in the notice, and I understand that meeting was canceled, was not held. Is there any other violations that we need to discuss tonight? Come on up.

Good evening. Good evening.

We're going to go down the list because that was one of the things I heard at one of our meetings, that there may have been some Open Meetings Act violations. Open Meetings Act, we're not the authority on that, meaning some Open Meetings Act violations are misdemeanor criminal offenses. Some go to the Attorney General if you think someone was doing something wrong, but we at least want to discuss it as a community. We're all one community. So if we're doing something wrong, we want to fix it, basically. We're not here to punish or penalize, but I do want to be, I want to be, we all want to be aware if there's something not happening that should be happening, right?

Okay. Oh.

Actually, it is punishable. Not necessarily by the council, but it is a misdemeanor in the state of Michigan.

I won't go too far in detail. There you go. Okay.

I said it is punishable, not necessarily by the council or the mayor of Inkster, but it is a misdemeanor in the state of Michigan. And there have been a few. I don't want to give all nuggets, but I will say that after... meetings, special meetings concluded, in particular on July 11th, they were told that they could not go into closed session to discuss candidates, whether it be the candidates, the two candidates that they interviewed that day, which I have photos, videos, or any other candidates that they had interviewed prior to. Their attorney addressed it to them. on record.

Okay.

The zoom which the attorney and the recruiter this particular day was joining the meeting or the interview were disconnected from the interview until the meeting was over. Yet the board members which I have live video footage still continued to meet the zoom.

So the attorney and the recruiter was on via zoom.

They had disconnected because the meeting was adjourned.

Well, everybody else was in person?

Yes.

Okay. All right.

And by everybody else, it was just commissioners.

Commissioners. Okay.

You may recall July 11th was also our resident appreciation day. Myself, along with two coworkers, wanted to use the facility and grab something that we had left at the office. We saw that there were no more cars up front, so we assumed that the interview were over. We walked in through the boardroom. The commissioners were still there having a conversation. Papers, resumes in front of them. We did not disturb. We walked through a back door to use the restroom. One of the colleagues was the newest, so she had only been here maybe a month and a half or so.

Colleagues? One of my teams. You mean your employees?

Yes. Okay. So she's not that familiar that the house is like a fun house, the office. It's a lot of little secret doors. And once she was done, she came back into the boardroom looking for myself and another team member and heard them discussing a candidate. Not only was it a candidate that they were discussing, it was not one that was there that day. It was someone that she would not even know their name. And I immediately phoned the attorney who said that they had disconnected. The meeting was adjourned. They met for about 45 minutes. And like I said, I have footage of that. I also, when I walked in, I said, oh, are you guys still meeting? Of course, I was met with a no, but she had the proof. I asked, how much longer will you be so that I can arm the building before we go back over to The park, to Lamont Park, they said maybe about 10 minutes or so.

So the question is, do you know, well, one of the questions, do you know whether they took any action in that 45-minute period?

Well, I will say that the next open meeting, they were down to one candidate.

At that point, how many candidates was it?

Three. Three.

You were one of the three, though, right? I was not one of the three. You were not.

How many commissioners were there?

Over the course of that entire day, there were a total of five, but at any given time, two of them had left to come over to the park. So at the time when we caught them in discussion, Commissioner Thomas was not there.

So how many of these were?

Four. So it was four? Yes, ma'am.

Four people in total. Okay. No.

So this is the same, okay, let me make sure I understand. This is the same day as the Residence Appreciation Day?

Yes.

Okay. These are interviews?

Yes.

Okay. Okay.

gotcha so commissioner miller he actually joined the interviews late because he stopped at the resident appreciation event first um you can tell that by the time sync because he is in our interview video um commissioner thomas joined the interviews first and then he left shortly after so your the allegation here is that they were discussing easter housing business

after the meeting ended and not in a public forum yes and that is one of the instance incidents yes how many do you know how many um i know we had open meetings at um we had a girl come down two is okay three is dangerous four is no that's a you cannot so technically you know if we're in the room together we better not be talking this right correct you know what i'm saying so like i said two three is dangerous four is a no and you said it was four people in there yes ma'am

See, they only have five commissioners, so they would have a quorum with three.

With three, correct. So, three is dangerous.

Three is a no.

A no, yeah. It's a no. Why?

So, typically, you know, and that's not unusual in the sense that, you know, some of us, well, all of us pretty much up here are friends. I can talk to Councilwoman Howard about something. It didn't happen at the meeting because there's no quorum. Now, we can't take any action, but we can discuss it if we want. I can call Councilwoman Richardson and talk to her individually about the same thing, but we can't make any decisions until we're all together and we're in a public setting pursuant to the Open Meetings Act.

And the attorney, I'm sorry. Go ahead. And the attorney, I called and notified because the team member heard the candidate's name which I know did interview not that day the other and I have a lot so it's okay to give a little bit of nuggets on June 10th which was the date that I finally had an interview and we'll get back to the word finally that's the one that I declined but I was still there to help them because they were having technical difficulties again so I still stayed to help them There was not a roll call done before the interview start. I raised my hand and I was acknowledged by Chairman Gillette and I said, aren't you guys supposed to take roll call? And Ms. Stroman said, no, we're interviewing. Then Milt said, are you guys taking notes and roll call? You're supposed to. This is a meeting. And at that time, no one had no paper or anything, Miller actually got paper from the candidate. But the interview meeting had already began.

Did they actually take a roll call after the attorney told them they should?

No. What they did was later on in the interview, and it's all recorded in the cloud, I forget if it was Miller or Gillette that said, I'm sorry, we haven't even introduced ourselves to you.

All right. So June 10th, no roll call was taken. The interview happened. So a meeting happened with no roll call.

That is correct. And there were other people in attendance, some that are in this room.

Okay.

Is that enough of the open meetings? That's you. Yeah, that's enough. I might need to say that's enough.

Okay. One of the things I just want to let know, we did receive a copy of the bylaws. First time I ever read them was today. So they were just adopted in October of 2025, so a little under a year ago. October 16th, I believe. And there were some items highlighted. I know you guys are familiar with the bylaws because you passed them. Everybody on council got a copy. I don't know if everybody read it. But I do want to go through with that because it was presented. and it was highlighted, I think, in three different areas that probably there should be some discussion on. And I apologize for folks in the audience that don't have a copy, so you can't really, but I will read the pertinent parts, and it's pretty straightforward. Section 3 is called Nomination of the Resident Commissioner. The whole thing is not highlighted, but basically... It lays out a process for how you select a resident commissioner. And I was unaware of this, to be honest with you. But basically, it's voted on by the residents. Top three candidates, if you have three candidates, are voted on by the residents. And then they are submitted to me. And then mayor and council make the appointment. So that's according to this bylaws. I think that's new, because that's not how we appointed them in the past. But that's fine. So that was adopted October 16. We reappointed Commissioner Moore, who's the resident commissioner, November 3. Her term had already expired, but she continued to serve because we had not appointed anybody else or reappointed her. So the bylaws were in effect at the time we reappointed you officially. Now, further on in the highlighted section, Let me take a wild guess. There was no vote. There was no top three people and there was no vote taken when we reappointed you. I don't remember anybody saying anything to me about some other people were interested. We typically ask somebody if they want to continue to serve. If they say yes and we want to reappoint them, we make the motion and we reappoint them. This was new. We were not aware of this. So even though you passed it, no one gave it to us prior to November 3rd. So we didn't know about it. Yes, ma'am.

Can you check your emails? I gave it to you after we met for the first time. I said to you that your name was all through it. And you said, well, I probably should see that if my name is all through it. When was that? I emailed it to you. It was probably November. I can verify when I get back to you.

Oh, I'm not even going to dispute that. You probably did. But it's probably after November 3rd. Because November 3rd was the first Monday of the month. And we probably didn't meet on Saturday and Sunday. I know we didn't. So all I'm saying is I was unaware at the time I appointed her. I'm fine with it. Whatever you guys pass as the bylaws, we have to deal with.

Mm-hmm.

You good?

Yeah.

Now, and I'm kind of familiar with this situation. The resident commissioner will then serve the normal term for any other member of the board, which is a five-year term. At the conclusion of the term, the nomination process must be repeated, even if at the end the result is reappointment. All resident commissioners must be and remain in good standing, no lease violations within the past year, which IHC. If at any point the resident commissioner becomes more than three months in arrears with rent or other debts to the commission or violates their lease in any other ways, they will be terminated from the board and IHC will undertake the nomination process for a new appointee. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I am familiar with, there's only one resident member, it's Ms. Moore, and I am familiar with a situation, I think we have discussed in the past, where there was a mix-up or something happened, but she was in arrears on her rent. I don't know if it was a mistake. I don't remember the details, but I know it was a couple years. Well, it was a long time that the mistake was left in place, which created a large balance that was due. Am I correct? All right. So I assume that's what we're talking about here.

That's one of them. And then we also have the bylaws for resident council as well.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear that last part.

Bylaws for the Inkster Housing Commissioners and then also bylaws for the Inkster Housing Resident Council.

Why is the resident council bylaws issue?

Because one of the same people is also on the resident council that had the violations as well. And then the bylaws, they must remain in good standing. And there were two.

We don't govern now. I got it.

But I'm just sharing, so it's a crossover.

So the language is the same, essentially. Okay. So I'm trying not to, even though this is a public hearings meeting, I'm not trying to get into anybody's details of their situation. Sure. All right. Let's just say this. Has that been resolved?

Yes, it was resolved last year. It was resolved this year. It was resolved last year in November. Okay. I have all the paperwork that I can prove that that was taken care of in November.

Okay.

Do we have any arrears at this point?

No.

Okay. Ms. Wales, what's your position on that?

I don't want to put anyone's business out there.

I'm sorry.

I don't want to put anybody's business out there like that.

I don't want to hear numbers and stuff. I don't know how to say this. Do you feel there's some arrears still outstanding?

That drastic.

No, no, not three months.

No, no, no, absolutely not. No, excuse me.

That's fine.

Don't worry about it. I mean, that's fine.

So in other words at this today, this is not applicable.

No, that, that part is not. No.

Okay. Then we'll move on. The next section was section five housing commission chairperson. Um, what part is it?

Wow.

And it basically says that the housing commission chairperson should attend all the meetings. I mean, essentially. I'm just pausing because it's on. Now, I'm trying to put my finger on it. My understanding is that if you miss more than how many meetings?

Three.

Three meetings. This is the way I read it. If you miss more than three meetings, the commission can contact the mayor and say, hey, the person that hasn't been coming, we need somebody to replace them. I'm paraphrasing, but that's my understanding.

Mr. Mayor, isn't that on its views?

their bylaws don't speak to excuse aren't you you missed the meetings they have the commission has the opportunity to say hey we're trying to conduct business and this person's not coming okay mayor you need to do something about it okay to the break one second let's make a master copy make a copy oh you need this because when we have the feature that was used to highlight it it blocks stuff out it won't print right oh okay so just real quick yeah just 30 seconds i'll bring this right okay thank you all right

All right, just so everybody knows, I was never contacted about anybody missing in meetings. I am aware that Mr. Gillette is working out of town, but no commissioner has contacted me or sent me an email asking for him to be replaced. Now, the language says shall, and excuse all the legal junk, shall means they have an option to let me know or not. I'm sorry, they may, shall, may, may was the question, not shall. If it says shall, they have to tell me. May is their option to let me know if it's a problem. So I read it as they had an option. I did not get contacted. So I haven't done anything. So...

So as we did when Commissioner Stroman was out ill, and we knew that she was out ill for several months, we used that as her, that was her skills absence. So we all came to the conclusion that we did not need any cards. It's the same way with Mr. Gillette. We know that his job took him to out of town. He has been trying to communicate, you know, Mr. Miller has spoken with him. He was here. He was here in May. He was here in June, and he also was here in July. So that was one of the reasons why we did not. So the way I understand, they basically have discretion.

And I was definitely aware of Commissioner Strowman's when she missed meetings. I was with her. So I was aware of that. And they did not take any action. And then Chair Gillette, I spoke to him at least once since he's been in California. And they did not take action. Sure, go ahead.

So, yes, there is a difference between an excuse for certain reasons. Commissioner Stroman did notify me herself as the AED. Matter of fact, I think I might have, yeah, it was right after that, after we had the transition in leadership. She notified me. Typically, when the board will not be able to attend a board meeting, they notify me. Notifications and communications stopped after February 5th, 2026, when the mayor of Inkster said my name in his State of the City address. Period. Period. From who? From three of the board commissioners.

So when you say stop communicating, they talk to you at the meeting because you guys have to talk at the meeting.

Yeah, we talk at the meetings, but it's a different style. But as far as like responding to emails, calling me, someone else will be notified. So I say that to say to this moment, Gregory Gillette has not notified the AED that I am on assignment in California. I actually found out from the recruiter, not even from Commissioner Moore. Only found out from Commissioner Moore when she said that it's a three hour time difference and she had to call him late in the day.

So what are you saying? You think he has an obligation to let you know?

I'm saying that's professional. We plan a meeting. We're going through a process. I'm running an agency.

Yeah, but communication.

He's the chair.

Yeah, but he could be as unprofessional as he wants. It's a volunteer position.

Those are excuses.

No, no, no, hold on. No, no, we're not going to rock this meeting like that. Let me let you all know this is not the housing meeting. This is the Eastern City Council meeting. We don't talk out of turn. You will have an opportunity to talk because I want to hear what you have to say. If you want to do a public comment. We're not going to have chatter coming from the audience. It's not going down like that. all i'm saying to you is that okay we can take that under consideration as the person who appoints and removes um but i just wanted to make sure that you didn't feel he had an obligation to communicate with you because i i didn't see that anywhere in the bylaws that's all i'm saying i'm not defending him i'm just saying i didn't see that he had to contact you um I just see the duties for the commissioners. If they think they want to report it to me, which they have not, I didn't see anything about any communication with you. But I understand what you're saying. Once I opened my big mouth at the State of the City in support of you, he did not communicate directly with you anymore, right?

That is correct. OK. All right. Yes, ma'am.

The reason why the communication wasn't related to her after you made that particular statement Ms. Wells had notified us that she was going to be a candidate. So there was information that we really could not speak to her about because we were already into the third party person that was coming. We actually solicited him in November of 2025.

The recruiter?

Yes. Okay. We actually solicited him then. And at that point, by the time January came, it was like she wanted to be first. She said no. And she was like, yes, she wanted to be considered for the ED position. Once you did that, it was like, she's considered to be an ED, so we can't relay any information to her or talk to her about different things because she was going to be a candidate for the ED position. I mean, it would be like us talking to the other candidates, letting them know, well, this, this, this, this, this. And I do have an email that she did send me letting me know that any correspondence that need to go out, send it to Ms. Janella White. And that was because of her position.

That makes sense. I mean, I think she's talking about something else. Yes, thank you. Yeah, she should have been part of the process if she's a candidate. No question. Or even discussion about the process.

Exactly.

She's talking about communicating whether you're going to make it to a meeting or not. Probably two different things. But again, I don't think he had an obligation. We may agree or disagree that it was unprofessional if he didn't communicate with her. I mean, I don't have any opinion. But I understand what she's saying when she's saying she expected communication. Let's say that. But OK, nevertheless, do we need to discuss that any further? I don't know what to do with that.

I think we should. And the only reason I say that is because, yeah, she skipped a lot of months. The email to reach out to Jamila was way closer to today's date.

Exactly.

Yes, it was not in February. It was not in March. It was not in April. The contract and everything, he was not even paid until March.

Who wasn't paid? I'm sorry.

Stan Kwai.

Oh, you're talking about the recruiter. I thought you told Mr. Gillette.

She's saying he was, what do you say, procured and all that in November. That is not true. He didn't get.

Really, that doesn't matter.

No, but what she's saying is that was the reason why Chairman Gillette stopped communicating with me, which makes no sense at all when I'm running your agency.

You already told me your version of why he stopped communicating. After I said I support you, he stopped communicating with you. That's very clear.

And as did Commissioner Moore.

No, ma'am.

I mean, you know. Mr. Mayor, just a question. Ms. Swales, so is there a secretary of the Inkster Housing Commission?

Yes.

Who's the secretary?

Of the Inkster Housing Commission?

Yes.

Typically it's myself.

Takes the minutes. So you take the minutes.

Okay, so now Jamila does because I'm in this dual role. Jamila White, yes.

Got you. Okay, and the reason I was asking, Mr. Mayor, is how we went back and forth on the planning commission. with the recorded secretary really just kind of past practice certifying the minutes, but most times the clerk or the secretary of the board is whomever would be responsible for receiving the absences. It is professional courtesy that a board member would alert somebody from the board that they're going to be absent for an extended amount of time, whatever the case may be, unless they're incapacitated, because they do jeopardize one of having a quorum. So yeah, I think that's something that the board needs to take into consideration, regardless of it being in the bylaws or not. No, no, but he communicated with them. Oh, he communicated with them.

No, no, no, they knew.

So at the meeting, no one from the board, when his name was called, Farouk, said anything. They just sat there. Y'all just sat there silent. You just said absent, but you didn't say he's out of town.

I mean, in California, I mean. I was on the question that we all knew that he was in California. It wasn't like it was a secret because he did let everyone know that his job was taking him to California.

I think all the commissioners knew for sure.

Okay. So you said he let everyone know it was an email in a formal meeting or just in passing?

I don't know if it was an email or not at this moment because I do try to keep it as an email. He did.

I was just bringing that up for the future, many commissioners, just to know that, hey, it's a common courtesy to let your colleagues or whomever, the clerk of the board, whether it's the acting executive director or not. and appointed clerk at that particular time, hey, I'm not gonna be at this meeting because of X, Y, and Z. That way, because when we get ready to come up, if no one is communicating, and we sitting here waiting on the rest of the board members to show up, and we don't have a quorum, we can't conduct business. That makes sense.

Makes sense.

Yeah, I found out, if I may, I actually found out, as I said, by staying quiet, because when I was originally, finally reached out to one Oh, goodness. It was, I'm going to let you know the exact date. He reached out to me on Saturday, May 9th, which we also were having a Mother's Day event over at the Simmons Center. And so I remember it vividly because I was shopping for flowers for the ladies when he called. And he said that he was calling to schedule an interview for May 13th at 8 o'clock p.m. and I did ask why did it need to occur at 8 o'clock p.m., and that's when he said that, oh, yeah, chairman is in California, and I don't know when he's coming back. I said he may not be back for a while. That was how I was notified.

Okay. Anything else on this issue, commissioners?

I do have something to say as far as the opening meeting act. Sure.

Go ahead.

So the very first one that we were supposed to have was supposed to be for Friday, May 22nd, and that's Saturday, May 23rd.

Okay.

The information was taken with myself and the receptionist. We changed the top part of the meeting, the dates and everything. I didn't look at the Zoom link, because I mean, I don't do the Zoom link. This came from out of the computer at 4500 Inkster Road.

So what did you do at this time?

Well, I was doing it because of the simple fact the meeting had to be, the special meeting had to be posted. And by Ms. Wells being in, you know, in the candidate, then I had to make sure that that was done. I do have a letter here that she told me to make sure that I gave everything to Janelle, also to Troy, and also to our person that communicated, because since she could not get that information. As a matter of fact, that email was dated for May, Monday, May 18th. If you don't have that, I can always send it.

Is that the meeting that ended up getting canceled?

Yes. That's one of them. Because, as a matter of fact, Mayor Steve Chisholm called me and told me there was a number missing from off of the Zoom link. And I was like, how? Because all I did was copy. We came, copied the seat out of the computer, and we posted. At that meeting... at that meeting for us to be able to do that meeting, Milton, I can never pronounce his last name. He told us that we could not have that meeting because of that Zoom link was missing that number. That particular meeting, that's the meeting that Ms. Wells was supposed to interview. She was in the office, in her office on Zoom, which Chair Gillette did say that he had asked her not to be in the building because he wanted her to be on Zoom so that none of the other candidates, all the candidates was like that. He wanted everybody to have the same process for the interview.

At that time... How would the process be any different if she was in the building?

I don't know. I cannot question him. I'm just saying what was said. At that time, like I said...

The chair.

He didn't want her in the building when she did her Zoom interview.

Is this the chair that's in California? Yes.

He was here.

Oh, he was here.

He was here.

So what was the Zoom for?

The Zoom was for, we were told that there had to be an open meeting. There had to be participants on the Zoom and in person.

Oh, so some of the candidates had to do it by Zoom?

Yes, all the candidates did it by Zoom.

Okay, okay.

So that's why. All the candidates did it by Zoom. But we found out that they couldn't get in because he told us that there was a number missing. At that point, everybody was still on the Zoom link, and it was said, and I know everybody here knows, the commissioner knows, it was said that the Zoom link, and I quote, I made sure all my people had the right Zoom link, but Mrs. Moore didn't. She's on the Zoom now, and Mrs. Moore didn't give them the correct Zoom link. So when she came out, but before she came out, Milt said, this meeting has to be canceled. We have to stop this meeting. which we did. At that point, he did say that they could be able to go through the Sunshine Law, and we could be able to have to have 18 hours before we post the correction for the meeting. That was done. Mr. Gillette, as a matter of fact, Mr. Gillette re-initiated it. He said that this was okay for us to cross out the May 22nd date, put the right Zoom number, and put the Saturday, May 30th, 2026, before PM starts. This was posted on the building at 4500 and on the building at 29150 Carlisle, Simmons Building. Okay. And here. Yeah, oh, I forgot. And here. Because Commissioner Miller came and put it on the door. Okay. So that was all taken care of.

Did you meet the next day?

Yes, we did.

What happened at the meeting?

We met the next day, which I do have a... I do have something from our third party, Mrs. Dan Quaid, where he tried to get in touch with Ms. Wilkes the night before. He did say he spoke with her because she was a little upset, which I understood why she was upset because she said she was prepared for the interview, but it did not happen. But he wanted her to come at 4 o'clock the next day.

The next day?

Yes.

Okay.

She said at that time, she said no, but I do have the paperwork that says that he did try to contact her. He did try to contact her on her email, but he did both office and personal email because it was a Saturday and he wanted to see if she was gonna be able to reschedule for that meeting. He said there was no call, no show.

Oh, she did not communicate with him?

No.

Okay.

We did not communicate with him at that point and he did send another letter or email. She told us that she had taken a mental day. And that was why. So that was one of the reasons why she did not get that interview.

Was she still with you on Friday when you decided to move the date to Saturday?

She was still in the room. She was still in the room that particular day, that Friday, because she was really upset. Like I said, I...

But she wasn't in the room with you?

I was in the room. No.

Same room with her.

When she came out. I wasn't there. When she came out of her office. Yes, I was there. I was in the room still. We all were still in the room.

Did you decide you were going to meet the next day while she was in the room?

yes she knew that we were going to meet the next day that saturday okay like i said but it was mr quay took her out of the hall because he asked her because she was really really upset okay you know and so he asked her at that time would she be able to interview at four o'clock she did tell him no he did tell her well you need to get with me to be so we can reschedule for saturday now i have all those as his emails i have them stating This information, I'm not just talking.

So I'm just, the only reason I ask is, so it wasn't a no call, no show. He talked to her, she said she was unavailable, and he said he'd get back with her later for another time.

They both did. It was both, in the email, they both did. They said that they were going to get back with him to reschedule the interview.

Okay.

But like I said, he said when he tried to call her, she didn't answer. So, you know, we ended up going on with the interview.

The next day, you interviewed some other folks.

So that was the only violation for this. Oh, I'm sorry. The one for July 11th that was posted, that we all were there. That was the day of the resident appreciation. There was a correction. I just want to correct it. You said that Mr. Miller came straight over there. Well, Mr. Miller came to the interviews that we would have. So there was two people that would interview him because one had already interviewed that Friday. So... That was from July 10th, and this is July 11th. He came, he said that he was going to go over, he would do the interview for the Resident Appreciation. So he came in first and let us know that he was, and then he left. At that point, I had just left myself, And was Commissioner Thomas there at that time? Yes, he was. Myself, Commissioner Thomas. No, I'm sorry, he wasn't not there. He got a chance to see, was it both interviews? Okay, I'm sorry, my mistake. Yeah, he was there, that's myself, Mrs. Thomas, and Commissioner Stroman.

Okay, four out of the five.

Yes, and so after that, like I said, because they did come in, she wasn't telling the story, they did come in. And at that time, you know, we were talking about the candidate, both candidates. That was it. We didn't want to talk about anything else. And we told them, give us about 10 minutes. I told them, give us about 10 minutes, and we will be through. At that point, Commissioner Thomas left. I left myself and Ms. Drummond and Commissioner Gillette, and we all walked out because I told her, let me go over to the resident appreciation. And that's what I did.

Okay.

I think I saw y'all over there. No, I saw Mr. Miller. Okay. So let me say, to say you were not aware that you couldn't discuss, shouldn't be discussing.

Yes, we knew that. So we didn't discuss, like I said, when he came back, Mr. Miller came back for the last person that we were interviewing. And we all, we talked, after the gentleman left, we talked and we made that. Because for some reason, the Zoom link kept giving us only 30 minutes. and it was shut off.

Somebody had the cheap account. Free. Free account.

That was the reason why we ended up losing milk and sand. Okay.

So y'all did discuss two of the candidates after the meeting had ended.

Not really after the meeting had ended. We discussed it after the candidate had left. The candidate had just left. Because he had his children with

No one had adjourned the meeting. You did not end the meeting.

No, we didn't end the meeting. Why? Because we were still sitting there because we were trying to get Stan and Milt back on the line because we wanted to make sure that they knew what we had to do. Okay. Because we were supposed to do questionnaires. to score all three of those candidates. And as she said, there was only one candidate. No, there were still three candidates. We scored all three of the candidates.

She said it was three, not counting herself. I think that's what she said. I think that's what she said. Do y'all remember? You're correct, Mayor. Oh, you weren't here. But anyway, y'all had never adjourned the meeting. So basically, the meeting was still going. Whether Milt's there or not is irrelevant.

Right. The meeting was still going. We wasn't just talking amongst ourselves when the meeting was still going because of the simple fact we had just two candidates that just left. And we wanted to make sure that Commissioner Miller found out, well, he kind of didn't want one of the candidates that was there.

Not kinda.

No, he didn't. But we wanted to let him hear his opinion about everything when he came back in. So when they came in, was quite a few of the ladies that came in they came in through the side door you know and then like i said we you know because that wasn't the first interruption we had had but it was okay we just was like fine so you know like i said and i do have everything to collaborate mr um why are we on that particular subject with open meetings and utilizing a virtual platform

Going forward, in the future, a note should be taken for Zoom. If you are going to post a meeting using Zoom and allow candidates or whomever to join the meeting with the public body, a couple things should be uniform across the board. If the acting executive director is making the Zoom meeting or scheduling it, the PMI option should be selected, which means personal meeting ID. That is the one that is associated firmly with that Zoom account. If the meeting ends, for whatever the reason may be, whether it's a technical difficulty or if it's a time limit, If you restart that meeting with that same PMI, it will be the exact same information that is on the meeting notice. If you start a new meeting without the PMI, it will not be the exact same information. Therefore, it violates the Open Meetings Act.

I want to say this one thing. I want to read it to you because this is what it said because I texted her to ask the question. This is from Ms. Wells to me. It actually says... I do not believe that there are any issues that will prevent you from using the already generated board meeting link, and that's what I thought that we had on the paper. You can use the copy and paste feature that is in the calendar invite for tomorrow for ease of use. Please note that an announcement says document sheets will still need to be created, distributed to the appropriate outlet for the city we typically use I just wanted to make that note because that goes for anybody who creates it once that meeting is scheduled

Via Zoom, you should make sure that it's the personal meeting ID for uniformity across the board because that's what's on the notice. And so if you start a new one and that box isn't checked, it's going to change the information. You're going to be scrambling in the middle of meetings trying to get information. employees or candidates or elected officials whatever the case may be the new information to get online and then if that happens again it's just a recycling type of matter of issues so i just wanted to make that note um if there's no central person create uh making it just for

All right, so are we, anything else needs to be said on the meeting where they were talking about candidates?

Yeah, she just said it was the two that they had interviewed that day, or maybe even including the one that they interviewed that night before. That is not the name of the candidate that the employee heard, period.

But do you understand, though, if the meeting was not adjourned, they can talk about any candidate.

I also confirmed, because July 11th was Milton Spokoshny's birthday... By the time I spoke with him, he was out having dinner. So the meeting had adjourned, like I said, at least 45 minutes before. I have access to the cameras.

Hold on, hold on. Whether Milt was there or not doesn't mean the meeting adjourned. I'm just saying, I don't know whether it was adjourned or not. I'm just saying Milt is not necessary for the meeting. The city attorney, I mean the attorney is not necessary.

I'm sharing with you that before the meeting adjourned, they wanted to go into closed session and discuss candidates. He himself will share this. He told them, no, you have to do it in open meeting. Okay, we got it. We're done. They did the meeting adjournment. I never saw those particular notes. It's on the board minutes that I didn't get those. But when I called him back, he said, yeah, we were done a while ago. And I reviewed the footage, and he was correct. I saw when they logged off.

What I'm posting in, I'm sorry, because of my brain, I'm very linear. If no one made a motion to adjourn the meeting and they stayed and kept talking, the meeting's still going. If someone made a motion to adjourn and it got voted on and they adjourned the meeting, then you are 100% correct. If they kept talking, there's a problem. I don't know. I wasn't there. I'm just saying that to me, that's what I'm zeroing in on. They're saying they didn't make a motion. If you heard a motion, because you were on Zoom, I think the Zoom ended at that point.

No, the Zoom was over, yeah.

I don't know. I mean, I guess if you weren't in the room.

Just trust me. I don't know. I got my ways. But anyways, I just wanted to combat some of the things that she was sharing. And it's really quickly. I'm not going to take you down long memory lane, but I will share this with the council. I have all of the dates of this horrible experience during this process. And one of them, because, Mayor, I know you personally, just last Monday, I believe it was on the 17th, was approached by Ms. Yvonne Moore. And the only thing that I kept hearing while I stood over there was her saying, I declined. I counseled. I was a no-show. That is not correct. As I said, Stan reached out to me on May 9th at 8 in the morning on a Saturday to schedule me for May 13th, okay? This should sound familiar because when we did the commercial, they counseled my interview the night before at 7.53 p.m. And the reason was because they were notified that they did not adhere to the Open Meetings Act. They had not posted it. They had not made it public.

It was a statement made, and I don't know if it's true or not, that you were there and he talked to you that night.

I was there. No, that's wrong. That is wrong. This is a whole time, and that's what I'm saying. You're hearing the villain side. You're not hearing the truth. My original first interview was scheduled for May 13th. At 8 o'clock p.m., which is a Wednesday.

So it wasn't May, the later date, May.

Correct. It started way before the information that you all have received, okay? So I can vividly tell you it was a Tuesday night at 7.53 p.m. because I sat in the parking lot at Famous Days because I stayed in the office to prepare because I was excited for my interview the next day. And right up against that 24-hour mark, Stan reached out. I, too, have the same email that she has. I have everything. This is just a percentage of it.

Was that meeting noticed though?

No. Now, I also have it recorded where when he reached out to me, I also advised him to make sure that it was properly posted and communicated. And he said that, yeah, we didn't have to do that with Aaron. I don't know how they handled it with the last person, but I'll let them handle that. Okay, that was on the 9th, right? have it documented moving forward they canceled that interview okay then the next one real quick they canceled they couldn't have the meeting anyway because they didn't notice yes so they canceled my interview that was scheduled so they canceled on you first that's what you canceled on me first that was the first one the second one was when i actually was following up I have emails. And I just started being really transparent. And instead of just communicating with Stan Quag, I included all five board members. I also included starting back in April when I gave them each my resume packet on February 17th. I gave it to Gregory Gillette, Yvonne Moore, Mabel Stroman, and William Miller on February 17th.

On August... Mr. Thomas was there?

He was not there. On August 18th, this is just a disrespect. On August 18th, the packet that I gave Commissioner Stroman, she brought it back to me and said it's still sealed. I didn't even open it.

She thought you submitted through the recruiter?

She said there's a process to follow. I believe you were in that meeting, okay? But we pick and choose if we want to follow processes because we just went through the bylaws. We didn't follow processes. But anyways, so no one responded. Stan already had candidates. I'm continuing to reach out. I was advised to even ask for a job description because I never had it. No one ever even shared where to locate it. I had to Google, and I found a blurb that I printed out, a burb on NARO, very vague. And when I questioned him in here, he himself said he did not even have the job description and continued to reach out to the board. I have email where they said, just send her that one. It'll work. The old one, not the new one. My next interview date... I get contacted, let's see, on May 18th about, no, I'm reaching out to them on like May 18th, like, hey, can we get this back on schedule? What's going on? Stan sends an email and says, we're looking to do interviews sometime later next week. I also have it documented. I went on a family reunion in Tuskegee, Alabama. My daddy is 73 and he's the baby. So all 60 sisters are in their 70s or 80s. We only do it every other two years. This was booked February 23rd, 2026. I said, okay, good to know. Just FYI, I'm out next week on vacation. Ladies and gentlemen, that next week was Memorial Day weekend, Friday at 8 o'clock p.m. Now, I received a lot of ridicule from people saying, oh, you should have made it happen. You should have went. Well, guess what? Once again, it did not happen. They had to cancel what they had planned because one of the commissioners, it was his birthday weekend and no one even got with him. No, that was the weekend before. It was his birthday weekend. No one even had confirmed with him.

Confirmed what? The meeting?

That they were doing these meetings, these interviews. So let's just say, had I said, okay, daddy, lose the money that you have, you have to drive down to Alabama by yourself, and they cancel.

Well, let's not go through hypotheticals. So the meeting didn't happen. Is that the bottom line?

Again, correct. And that was not Ashina Wells.

You told them you were unavailable because you were out of town. They didn't have the meeting anyway.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

So why is it even a big deal in a sense? But I did ask for, and I was very patient, and I did ask if, you know, coming back from the holiday, which that Monday was the holiday, if I could be scheduled. and I continue to have to ask, ask, ask, ask, ask. And I can go on and on, but the process... Commissioner.

You can finish the thought and then just remember to come back to me. I'm fine.

Go ahead.

So, because I came a little bit late, I just want to make, because the way my brain works, I just want to make sure that I'm on track. So... Are you looking to have an opportunity to interview? Are you looking to, that's like ultimately your end goal, is to at least have a fair opportunity to interview. At minimum, yes. At minimum, okay. And then is there anything else you're looking for us to do in decision, like what decision do you want us to make tonight? So I can know by the end of the meeting whether if I need to take a vote or kind of where to go from, I mean, I don't know if we need to take a vote or not, but I'm just saying like. Sure. kind of like what is the purpose of us being here because my understanding like we aren't the governing body right and so at least I can speak for myself I can make suggestions and I can yeah I can make phone calls I can make suggestions I for my understanding may even be able to remove the board even though in the bylaws it says in order to even remove like one member they have to kind of initiate that so That's kind of unclear to me.

No, no, no. That's their body. Our charter said we can remove board members with cause.

Got it. Okay. So we're trying to establish cause to remove them currently. We're not trying to establish cause.

We're listening.

Okay.

If we deem there is cause, then we can take action.

Got it. Okay. So I just wanted to make it very clear so I can track. Well, okay. Thank you.

So when we say, okay, I think I got it now, unless there's more meetings. Is there more meetings that we haven't talked about? Yes. Okay.

All right. Okay, for the one that Ms. Wells was speaking of, for the one that Ms. Wells was speaking of as far as for Memorial Day weekend, that particular weekend we had asked her, because we were trying to get all the interviewers in as soon as possible. So we were trying to find out. We actually put her first and asked her if she could be available for that week. It's like she told us, and I have them emailed. I can read it, or I'll just wait and read it out. It was said that, no, I could not because I'm going to Alabama and that, you know, I won't be able to do the interview. So they asked, was it possible? because they wanted her to be able to interview. Was it possible for her to take 30 minutes maybe while she was down in Alabama At that point, she did tell us, no, I cannot because I don't know what type of activities, and this is in the email, that my aunt was going to have. So we were like, fine. At that point, there was no meetings during that week. The next week, after we came back on the 26th.

Hold on real quick. Just because she said that, you canceled all the interviews or you just decided not to meet her?

We decided not to meet at all.

So it had nothing to do with really what she said?

No. Because they was like, okay, they wanted her to be first. That was the whole point in a nutshell.

Okay.

They wanted her to be first on that. So they decided, okay, it is Memorial Day weekend, and they would not try to go on any other interviews. That's how that was.

Okay.

And next week, when she said she was coming back, you know, For the interviews, we did schedule the interview for May 22nd. That's the meeting that got screwed up and messed up because of... May 22nd?

Couldn't have been May 22nd.

It was not May 22nd, no.

That's before Memorial Day. Right.

May 22nd, that was the meeting that we were supposed to have, but we didn't. So, you know, like I said...

So that was the first meeting. Then Memorial Day weekend, you didn't meet.

We didn't meet at all, period.

So when was the next meeting?

The next meeting was... We didn't have another meeting until the 30th. That was the meeting on the 30th.

30th of May or June?

May.

Okay. There was no interview scheduled on the 30th?

On the 30th of June. Yes, not on May. Not in May, no.

June 30th, there were interviews scheduled?

No, May 30th. Okay.

Anybody follow this?

Actually, it was on May 30th. I'm sorry. It was on May 30th that the interviews were scheduled.

They were scheduled? Yes. Okay.

They were scheduled.

As well as May 29th.

The 29th and the 30th. They were scheduled for that day.

Was she... Was she...

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. My mind is just racing and confused. Yeah, it is. So the meetings for the 29th or the 30th that you scheduled, was she given an opportunity to be interviewed?

She was given an opportunity to be able to come in for that meeting.

And what happened?

That meeting, that's the meeting that we ended up having that Friday because of the

Notice.

Notice, right. And so then we had the meeting that Saturday, which she was supposed to attend for that Saturday that she did.

She was there that Friday, then she got upset and didn't.

Yes, and did not show up. Then the next meeting that we had was on, we didn't have another meeting in, we didn't have a meeting in June, but there was a conversation in June regarding the meeting.

There was what conversation?

Conversation in June regarding the meeting, yes.

So was she scheduled?

any time after that or she was scheduled after that for the meetings that we were going to have yeah that um july because that's when um we were going through all make sure all the candidates will be available and that's when we had the meeting or that when she said that she was available in july no she wasn't available because that that one 11 a.m on um july 10th in the morning she sent us an email telling us that she was withdrawing from being the ED. Okay. So at that point.

What day was that?

That was the day before. The day before 10th. 11, 1.11 a.m. in the morning.

June or July?

I'm sorry, July. July 10th. That was the last time she was going to do it. And that's when she told us that she was going to withdraw at that time.

What's your position now? I am the acting executive director and the director of human resources for the housing commission. Yes. And how long have you done that? How long have I what? I'm sorry. How long have you been in that position? So I've been with the housing commission since November 15, 2021. So it'll be five years this November. And recently I've been in the dual role of acting executive director, director of human resources since September 17th, well we dated it back, but September 28th, 2025. So next month will be a year.

There's a question.

Yes.

Do you, so when you have employees like that, do you do evaluations? to see if they're competent or they're not, or if they're doing a good job, pay raise, increase, or do you guys do evaluations?

Like for... We did not do an evaluation when they put her in as acting executive director. At the time, our other executive director had resigned. They didn't want to leave the seat open too long because we were actually going through a red development. They wanted to make sure that we still had someone in place, so they put an appointment with Wells as acting executive director at that time.

Can I ask who the they are, please?

I was about to say that. You mean the board? Commissioners.

Commissioners. So at that time, that's when they...

I'm sorry.

And she was satisfactory. I want to say I object so bad.

Okay.

Okay. All right. You good? Yeah.

Now, I received a text message at 10 p.m. from the chairman of the board after the situation with the former ED. I won't get into details about that. And I was voluntarily told, you are in charge. That is how it went down. I have the text message. Again, the board did not receive my packet until February 17th. And then Commissioner Thomas received it on March 6th before he went to a conference. So it was not in September.

I think I'm talking about two different things. She's saying as soon as the other, the last ED left, they received something from you requesting to be the acting. Is that what you said?

She said my packet.

That was your packet. I don't know. When did I give it to you? It was, but it was just, you know, it was submitted. I'll put it like this. It was a request made. That same night that she left. that we were presented with a paper that was asking us exactly what they wanted and what was all the details in that package. Who was that?

I'm confused.

The night that the executive director resigned and she left out of the building, that same night, Ms. Wells was appointed as the acting executive director. She gave us the package as far as what

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Was that a night of a meeting?

Yes.

We were in closed session afterwards. We were in closed session. We were not in a meeting. That's a meeting.

And it was a resolution.

When I said we weren't in our regular meeting, we were in closed session. And our attorney was there. He was on the phone. And that was taken, a vote was taken.

Took a vote to appoint her acting.

So you all appointed her.

That's all I need to know. Okay. That's fine. They are they. Okay.

Who recommended her? How was she recommended?

I heard it was unanimous.

No, it was.

That's what I heard from Chairman Gillette.

No hearsay. I'm just asking, I just wanted to know, who recommended her to take that position?

The majority of the commission felt that she was the right person to lead the agency at that time.

So you guys got together and said, oh, Ken would be good. And then you voted in a closed session meeting. That's what I'm asking.

Joined to the commission, made the decision, closed session, that she was the best fit to lead the agency at that time. I came back in town, I think somebody else, and we all supported that because she was our HR director. She knew the agency better than probably most people in there.

So she was recommended by the board. Right.

She was appointed. She was appointed.

But she had to have a recommendation before you even appointed her. So they had to know that she was competent and competent to do the job. That's what I'm trying to say.

So why can't you all just give her an opportunity to at least interview? We did. Hold on.

Until that day on the 10th, she withdrew. She withdrew on the 10th. That same day, she was supposed to interview at 6 o'clock in the evening. I spoke to Ms. Wells at Monday. Stan Quaid spoke to him. She said she was going to be at the interview. And at 1.11 a.m. in the morning of July 10th, she withdrew.

July 14th, she rescinded that withdrawal.

Hold on a second. Hold on. Just so the record's clear. In between there, before the second interview, I'm sorry, the only interview, before the interview was scheduled in July, I spoke to the chair. At that point, they were moving forward with the second round of interviews. Ms. Wells was not part of that. I said, I understand she didn't interview the first time. There was some confusion over who canceled what. I didn't know, but I'm having a conversation with him. I said, given the fact she's worked for you for almost a year and done a good job and is a current employee, why don't you give her the courtesy of just forwarding her to the second round? I requested. That was not a demand. Mr. Wells said, I'll talk to the commissioners. He did not say, okay. Next thing I knew, she was getting interviewed.

Okay. I was like, well, cool.

I'm happy because she's already there. You guys are going to take a look. I'm good. I'm not going to talk about my personal conversations with certain folks, but I know she had an interview schedule. Obviously she had some second thoughts about it. I know there's a residence appreciation day on a Saturday. I heard some conversation about, okay, I got to get ready for this event. So I'm not available the night before to interview. Okay. Does that sound normal? Okay. And then Saturday came and the appreciation day happened. You guys interviewed the other people. She didn't get interviewed on Friday because she withdrew.

Is that basically what everybody? Okay.

And then the next week I received the email saying she would like to be still considered for the position. Then I received a response from the chair saying you are no longer in consideration and we're moving forward. So are we all on the same page? Yes. Okay, so that's where we're at.

The young lady in the gray has been wanting to interject to provide clarity. Can I just ask her one more question?

She wants to ask Ms. Wells one more question.

Just one, because I'm nosy.

Why did you withdraw?

Several reasons at the time. And actually, I wrote my speech about it so that I don't forget anything. But I've only shared just... fog of what occurred during this process. I also was bullied into sending my resume by 5 p.m. on a day that I was not even aware there was an unknown deadline. So there was so many things leading up to that decision. Resident Appreciation Day is the one day a year that since we say we're here for our residents, we service our residents, that we all should be there. And I spoke to the chairman because it was something that was going on with somebody else, and he said no, he had other obligations. I spoke to Commissioner Moore. I said, why would you guys pick that day? Can it be after since you do interviews at 8 p.m. or another day? And she said, oh, I'll talk to him, but he's in California. I'll call him later. So it was no buy-in from any other commissioners but Commissioner Miller and Commissioner Thomas, who said we will still make sure that we're there. Then, in addition to that, there was...

So, let me cut to it. Yes. Are you sleeping? I'm sleeping. At that age, I'm just trying to go with you here. So... You resigned basically because you were upset.

No, that's the thing. I've been hearing that narrative of being in my feelings. No, it was just... With all that we have been doing, all the good, all the progress that has been coming, and to still be ridiculed. If you sit in our board meetings, they've never treated any ED this way. I don't know if it's retaliation. So, no, let me.

It's politics. They ain't going to like you. Let me tell you. I just want clarity of my name. For me. Just for me.

Okay.

So. evidently you were competent and you made a good candidate and you did a lot of things and then later through some process because I'm just saying it's like it was me to get on my nerves so I don't want it so then you thought about it is that when you reconsidered and said well I do want to be there what it was was the people that I'm doing it for was the reason that I humbly came back around and it takes a big person for the people for the people I can relate to that.

I let a lot of people down that believe in me that are a part of feeling inspired.

So for the betterment. I got you. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you. She's had her hand raised for a while. Too bad. Thank you.

State your name, Sue.

Shania Clark.

Oh, I know you.

Yes, I know you too. This is one of my first meetings I have ever came to. I am an Inkster native. I was born and raised here. Love Inkster. As some of you guys may know, I do a lot of community stuff. In Inkster and outside of Inkster, my son has a lemonade stand. We sell lemonade. We also give away gently used gym shoes to the public. I have known Ms. Wells for a very long time. I'm also a very successful businesswoman and also philanthropist, so I understand business, I understand politics, I understand emotions, and I understand what's really going on here. I spoke at the all-staff meeting this Friday. I was asked to speak as one of the keynote speakers. It was an absolutely amazing meeting. I want to give Ms. Wells, outside of me knowing her personally on a business standpoint, as a businesswoman, she's doing amazing. She is doing absolutely amazing. And I'm not sure where the disconnect is coming in, but for me, being from Inkster, to see somebody that is doing so many good things, I'm not sure why it's such a big problem on giving her a chance. I can relate to being pushed out of places or people kind of just picking on you. And we're going to act human here. You know how that feels. When you're doing so many good things, when you're trying and you do have this person, that person, people that are older than you, people that are younger than you, so many people coming at you, it does get discouraging. It gets very discouraging.

I just want to...

I want to put in my hand clap for her. For one, I never even seen the projects get redone, excuse me, Inkster Housing get redone. I just now saw it. I saw it all over Facebook and I'm like, who doing this? And when me and her actually talk, I've been doing her hair for a long time. I didn't even know all what she was doing. She doesn't come in and brag on it or anything like that. I really just found out about her role. So to be from Inkster and to see what she's doing, she's not even from Inkster. So for somebody to come in to care, that meeting, she's very professional. She keeps people in line. She keeps people focused. She brings in the right people. You need people like that. You need people like that. You need people like that. And I really hope that, I know it's like a whole process, whatever you guys gotta go through, but from what I understood in corporate America, although I'm an entrepreneur, I've been in corporate America for a long time. I have my degree and everything. usually they hire internally. Usually that's that's that's how it goes. Or they are they're the first person to consider. That's why she was. That's why she that's why they put her in a seat because she was qualified to do so. So I really hope that you guys can come together and consider somebody so great. And this is not me talking on a personal level because I I'm a business woman. So I'm You're wrong, you're wrong, you're terrible, you're terrible, you're great, you're great. I don't have, I understand feelings, and I know how to put them to the back when it comes to business. But when you get somebody great, you get somebody that can really manage people, keep people in line, and really get the job done, you really need to appreciate those type of people, you know, and someone that actually cares about the community. So I really do appreciate I hope that this goes well for the city of Inkster as a whole. I hope you guys see her value and anybody else that's contributing on a great level. But she definitely does deserve it. The city of Inkster deserves someone like that. And again, that's outside of me. Knowing her, I am not being like that because I wouldn't have came today. Because I'm that 100. I want to gain. I don't got to do that. I don't have to. I'm not going to lie to put, you know, anybody to make them look good. I'm not like that. Anybody can say that about me. But she is a woman that deserves a chance. She is a woman that deserves respect. I have witnessed disrespect. You know, I've witnessed things go on with her before and coming from, you know, Why are they disrespecting her? Why are they giving her a hard time? I think that that needs to be considered and you guys really need to look inside the staff and the board and things like that because it's a lot of disrespect going on. It's a lot of things that's going on that try to make it hard for a beautiful, smart, Black woman that is doing amazing things in the city. That's all I wanted to say. Yes.

I'm sorry. I thought we made it. I'm sorry. I thought it was for to offer clarity to a specific conversation that we were having.

that we were gonna use that for a public comment oh I didn't know I told you this is my first one y'all could have stopped me you're okay I just wanted to well no it was probably a comment that was probably needed but this is my first one if you have more feel free to fill out one of the public comments that's all I got to say just hopefully y'all give her the respect that she deserves

Thank you. I do want to say, thank you. Two things. If you guys have something to say, fill out the public comment sheet, please. Two, I don't know.

I don't.

Yes. I'm not well-versed in HR, or if it's a legal issue, I don't know. But once you rescind in that way, can you... I guess, go back on it. Like, I think that's kind of like, what's the, I'm like, give her a chance to interview, and they're saying, well, she withdrew. So if there's a possibility for her to not withdraw, then I feel like I want to go back on it.

It was never accepted or acknowledged.

Got it. Okay.

Well, nah, sort of. I mean, I've had experience from an attorney standpoint with resignations being rescinded. I don't know about participating in the interview process.

You have to be reconsidered to be interviewed. You can't ask for that.

You can ask for a million dollars. But that doesn't entitle you to be back in the process. So what I'm saying is that, let me sum it up from what my conversations with some of the commissioners, not all of the commissioners. There are commissioners who wanted you to be interviewed, and they wanted to hear you at the interview. When you decided to not interview, they closed the book on it. They said, okay, if she does not want the job, that's where they ended it. When you asked four or five days later, and I found out at the same moment that you wanted to be considered, the response was it's too late. That's what it was. It wasn't my response because it's not for me to say, but that's what they did. So that's how we're here now. I think you did a great job as acting director. I'm not there on a day-to-day basis, but I see the progress that Inkster Housing's made. But I'm just the mayor. The housing commissioner's job is to hire and fire the executive director. I haven't bullied one of them. I haven't tried to force their hand, but I know all of them. And I talked to some, most of them, probably all of them. But it's their decision at the end of the day. As far as people disrespecting folks and not acting professional, obviously I'm not there. It happens every day in life. We know that. People check me when I'm out of order and I appreciate that. But as the city council, we can't really do, we're not here to decide who's disrespecting. We're here because we want, I respect you and we wanted to listen and Chisholm asked for the meeting essentially. So the board has not made a final decision yet. I think they decided you are no longer going to be in the process. That's on them. If they want to do anything with that, that's on them at their next meeting. All we do is appoint and remove. And the only way we remove, we thought the board was doing something inappropriate. or doing something to hurt Inkster Housing Commission. So that's what our role is as city council. So I'm glad we had this meeting. I don't know if it makes anything better. Did you fill out a form already? I want to hear you. Go ahead and fill out the form. We want to hear from everybody because it does matter. Look, you all know where my support was when we started this process, but I'm not trying to step on the commission in the process. I was public with mine. I was the first one to come out. I didn't even know she wanted the position. I didn't even ask her. I just said I support her because I see the progress. Maybe I'm probably responsible for all this mess because it seemed like there was a reaction to that that was not positive. But we're going to move down to the status of Inkster Housing. I don't think you want to talk about it at this point. I'm going to leave that up to the commissioners. If you want to tell us where Inkster Housing is at, I'm familiar with some of the things that have happened, but maybe everybody doesn't know about the situation with HUD, us improving our situation, the two major redevelopment projects we got going on. We have a lot going on in the city of Inkster. So maybe somebody want to briefly kind of just Let the public know what's going on. You don't have to. It's up to you guys.

As you know, Ms. Wells, you said I'm a resident commissioner, but I'm not a resident commissioner. I'm just a commissioner that happens to be a resident. And that is something that's been told since we went to all the conferences and now we're on fire. Yes, we've been progressing with the redevelopment, but there's still some hitches in the redevelopment for residents. There's a lot of things that's happening with the developers. There's a lot of things happening with their crew that's on site. A lot of things that hasn't been really talked about that they need to talk about and talk with the new management company. Whereas I asked before, I asked them to, before the meeting, they didn't want to have a meeting on the management company, you know, but the residents really do need to speak to the management company that they're coming in. I know Ms. Wells did talk to residents at that time. They did have a meeting. She was texting, asking information, but we need to see these people. that's giving us all these, we can't block the streets up, can't get through, the garbage man can't get through. The garbage is still up there, two or three, you know, three days.

I'm sorry, sir.

I'm sorry about that.

Just for me, and since we in this forum, let's start with the, if we could start with the wings. Instead of the tough, the minutiae that we're dealing with while we're moving forward, let's just give, because a bunch of people here, people that's watching, don't know what we've been doing. We've been at it a lot.

I understand that part, but I still want them, there is still some things that need to be addressed. I mean, it's a good thing. I'm not saying it's not a good thing. I've been watching. I've been looking at the units. I've asked to go through them and walk through them, the ones that's finished and the ones that they are doing. I mean, I'm proud of what's going on. You know, but I mean, and I know the city's proud, too. But I'm still not going to just not pay attention to all the other things that's going on, too.

I walked on. There's some problems going on, though. But I stay in my lane. So I went to the acting director and expressed myself and I'm sure she communicated with the with whoever You know, but I didn't want to you know, I'm not gonna call him directly. That's not my that's not my lane But some of the stuff they were doing was different from what they promised In the initial meeting because I went to initial meeting. I was disappointed. We weren't getting brand-new housing But I understand that's the way the deal worked out I'm really disappointed that they have so much power over this thing. They have their own management company. They're making decisions. They're firing vendors. But again, it's not my deal. You know what I mean? Because it's going to be a problem. And right now, the moment that we make a mistake, it's going to be a problem. Inkster Housing is going to look a lot different. That's just, I can already see it coming, you know. Like I said, you know, there's stuff that has to be managed. My logic was, since we're already there, and the acting director is managing it now, I'm not saying she's perfect. I'm saying she's managing it while we want to bring somebody new and hope that they can handle it.

That was my position.

You know, sometimes, you know, I knew her. The other person could be excellent. She could be 10 times whatever. I don't know. I didn't sit in on the interview. I didn't look at her resume. I'm just saying I know what she's doing now. That's how I was looking at it. But that's just my little two cents. I think housing is going in the right direction. And I think the chair, somebody said to me, one of the commissioners said, it's a group effort. And I believe that wholeheartedly. It's not one person, not just Ms. Wales. It's a group effort. And I know that because I know how the city runs. It's not about me. If my staff is lousy, I'm lousy. If my staff is great, I'm great. That's the way it is.

Mayor, if I could, I just wanted to address that the process right now that we're going through with, be it the third-party management company, the actual developer, those were voted on by the sitting board and the former ED. So the team now, we inherited it, and we are kicking up rocks and dust, challenging and giving them pushback to hold them accountable. Not everybody's going to be able to do that. They tried to even change the appliances from what's been advertised as stainless steel to black. and tried to tell me they already ordered. Well, guess what? As Ms. Clark said, I pushed back. Well, cancel that order. They deserve stainless steel. That's what's on a resume, I mean, on a website. That's the pamphlets. That's what we need. So, Commissioner Moore, you were a part of it from the beginning. So now we have to work together and get around. As Commissioner Miller said, we can't stay in the complaints. Now what are we going to do? We're here now. It was voted. We're here. We have to learn and work together. We can't work against each other. And I include you all in those correspondences. And again, I don't expect you to respond, but don't act surprised when it doesn't work. Because I include us in there because we are one voice. We are. And I'm fighting and To answer your question again, it's hard to fight the people that's in California, not Gillette, but the developer that's from California and Montana and the others that they have coming here and fight with the board as my key stakeholders. It's very difficult. So all of those go into it. We say one thing, and I am talking to you right now, and I'm not being disrespectful, and I mean it, because you're really the only one that's sharing much over here. You asked was I in my feelings. I think you might be because it's nothing that you can say as a reason that makes sense for where you live that you don't want a person that will fight, that will make things happen. The whole team has on not troubled shirts. They couldn't give you an answer when you just asked what's going on at Easter housing. They couldn't answer that. We're not troubled. Our five scores increased dramatically. We had the first ever 96%, 97% in HUD's INSPIRE, health and safety, an A, from a D of the last ED that you guys hired. Why wouldn't I get a chance? It's proven. The communication has improved. The collaboration has improved. The energy. People want to come to work. They beat me to work. So it's not making sense. And to take a gamble, to take a gamble, I've said it before, you keep doing the same thing, you'll get the same results.

You know what? What you just said was exactly what I want you to say at the interview.

Exactly.

Because you have a case to be made to have the job.

Exactly.

The only thing I'm mad about is the interview didn't happen. And I'm not blaming. I'm just saying the interview didn't happen where you could make your... They listening to you right now.

Respectfully, Mayor, I'll say this. Me doing that, I am a God-fearing woman, and everything happens for a reason. And I sincerely, I'm not one to just pray silently. I talk out loud, okay? My aunt is in the audience. She will tell you. My mother spoke to you all already, right, and let you know. So I ask them to guide my decisions, be it if I understand them or not. I even spoke to you before I made the decision. That was a part of my decision, okay? Let's just be transparent, okay? And what that decision...

I said make your case. Sure did. Look, if you're on the spot and you have a resume... I was mad. Yeah, I know. You don't quit. You make your case and make them make that tough decision. They're going to have to tell me I'm not the best candidate if I know I've been doing it for a year.

They got to tell me that.

You don't bow out. It makes it too easy. Because if this is personal in nature, some people don't like you for whatever reason. Whatever. Look, trust me, I know all about that. You make it hard on them by doing your job and then making sure everybody knows what you're doing. If they want to select somebody they don't know over you with your resume and what you've done in the last year, then make them make that decision. But you do not bow out.

So where I was going to say, when things happen for a reason, that out of control of what we actually do here in the physical. In that moment is when I realized how much this team relies on me, how much this team respects me, how much this team, because I've seen their resumes now on Indeed, because I'm on there, right? They're looking. We've already lost a couple because that's what they're saying. I have residents even saying, this don't make no sense. I finally get callbacks, right? So maybe in that moment, That letdown had to be done in that way that it was done to let those that I'm a voice for realize. I did not ask them to do any of this. I'm very humble about it and appreciative. When I walked in the office and saw red eyes, right? And they even said, why would the commissioners not see it, right? Right? So, again, and I think Commissioner, I'm sorry, Councilwoman Scott was there to kind of see the stability. Someone in the audience right now, they're sick of having transitions. I've been there, you asked how long have I been there, since 2021. And that's going on five years, and there has been three EDs.

That's been our history.

We have to change it. That's what I'm saying. If you look at my resume, my last job, I was there for 18 years. I know I look, you know, young, but I was there for 18 years. So it's longevity. I'm also one of those people when I interview, I look at stability, longevity. So that is something that needs to be taken into consideration.

I just, because of what you just said, because of the people behind you, look at all them people behind you. I feel it. You should have been at that interview.

If you would have been at that interview, they could have sat at that interview with you.

It would have been very difficult for them to be like, nah, we're going to ignore everything she's done. We're going to hire Sally Smith, who we don't know.

I just wanted to share that. I did ask you that morning. Why? Remember I asked you. It was afternoon. But I asked you. I asked you. I said, you were sitting in her office talking to Ms. White. And I asked you, I said, come here for a minute. This is your office. And I asked you, why? I said, why did you withdraw? And at that point, if you hadn't told me that you changed your mind, I would have went and told the commissioners, Ms. Wells changed her mind. She needs to take that interview tonight.

But when you approached me, was that after I had rescinded already?

No, you hadn't rescinded. That was not after you had rescinded.

No, no, no. Rescinded four days later, you mean?

Yes, that was before she rescinded. She said the next day. The text came in at 1.11 a.m. And we read everything. I went over to the office. She was getting things ready for the appreciation. Ms. White and her were in the conference room that was right there. I asked her, I said, come here for a minute. She came to my office. I said, why?

But I'm sorry, you had said that had you known, then you would have talked to me. So this is after I already had done it.

No, but it didn't matter.

I just wanted to be clear, that's all.

She said she got your email that one morning, the next day she saw you on Saturday.

No, this was the same day. It was 7 p.m. That's what I'm saying. It's not adding up. It was 7 p.m. Me and Jamila were still packing up things for the big event that was the next day. And she was looking for assistance to set up the laptop and just happened to be on our side by the office. And she grabbed me playfully, like, come here. What's wrong?

That's what she did. I said, why did you withdraw? I said it point blank. Why did you withdraw? Because if you hadn't told me right then and there that you changed your mind, I would have told them because it wasn't quite six yet.

Yes, I had.

I had already sent the email at one in the morning. She got it wrong.

You talking about Friday before Saturday or Saturday?

Friday, that same day. She texted her at 1 o'clock. She saw her the same day. She asked her, hey, why did you withdraw? Instead of saying in that moment, hey, actually, my feelings are hurt, X, Y, and having the conversation and saying, actually, I do want to interview, that day she waited four days after, and that's when she said it. And that's what Ms. Moore is saying. Why wait so long if you can't get there?

i could have told them miss wells changed her mind because i was in there early because i went early to make sure that everything was set up because that was why mr gillette was coming in and he mentioned to me make sure i got there early and i asked her why did you withdraw okay i asked that question and then four days later she rescinded it did you fill out a form

We're about to get busy with the public comments, okay? Anybody have anything else on the status? That's the last thing on the... Oh, no, Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas and Will. I wanted to say something.

Good evening, everybody. Actually, I'm offended by being here tonight. Wow. To be honest with you. I don't know who the young lady was speaking on. She's saying the commissioner is disrespectful to Ms. Will. because we some is some of us on this commission as some of her biggest supporters right it's some of us who found out when she pulled back custer out and told her to come back to the commission still at this moment right now the reason is not a ed in place right now because there's been a pushback from commissions that we need to talk about this before we make this decision right good she has support she's been a walking resume but easter housing And I told everybody, get out your feelings because it's not about y'all, it's about the damn people.

There you go, there you go.

Everybody been around and seen how inch the housing was just five years ago. It was the most embarrassing sight to see. We winning now. We in the best position we can possibly be in. That's because the collaboration that everybody as a team have made the sacrifice to make it happen. Members of our teams work overtime. At one point, they would never do that. Don't think that's not noticed. Don't think that's not appreciated. She's not out to race. Like I just told everybody last week at the meeting, she's not out to race. There's still discussions about this situation. Again, she's been a walking resume. I asked the question, what number would we give the agency? I believe I got about a seven, eight, where we thought the agency was at. That's a great number compared to where we was at. I think everybody want to do the right thing. Just get the emotions out the way, y'all. Because I know for a fact, me as a black man, can't no woman stand up here and say I disrespect them and inch the commission nowhere else. And I think I serve more people in Eastern probably most than everybody, and the money come out of my pockets when it comes to serving these people in Eastern. And I'm here on Eastern Commission because the condition is and the way the people is being treated in housing. And the team have done a great job. I don't think nobody can question Ms. Will integrity, her professionally, and what she have done with the culture of the agency. A decision has to be made. It's going to be made. It's going to be the right decision that's best for the agency. She was the number one prize for us. And that's honest truth. So we got a decision to have to be made, and we gonna have to make the decision.

What they waiting on? They can do it. What they waiting on?

Mr. Miller.

Yes. I was gonna wait till everybody else spoke, but the mayor called my name, so. My man. A lot of this brother words is echoes, right? I am proud as all get out to see all like that, right? For me, from my first day coming in, the culture bill was the most important thing with regard to the organization. We have to build a culture that we can grow from, right? Because Inkster housing had a lot of tumult. It's been a lot of in and out, up and down, you know, for not just years, for decades. It's been a minute. And there's been some great folks at the set. Yeah, it's still, to see where it is now is immensely impressive. It's a testament to the work of many, many folks. There's folks here who I know who here now sitting out there with y'all who frowned up about the place, right? They're like, man, I got to go work because I got to eat, right? People come here now because they want to build something, right? So I'm proud. Suited up police officer sitting over there whose family, right? He came through. He trumpeted the, you know, saying for the organization i will say this thing right here is heartbreaking for me for us to be sitting on sideways or opposite sides of the table talking about what's going on for me this shouldn't have got nowhere near this right right we family we y'all got my look we can talk and work it out at least i would have i would have thought so right and i don't want to mistake the decorum of me sitting here silent because you call my name i'm gonna talk but it's like I don't want to, me sitting here silent is the quorum. We got a vice chair, we got a pecking order. That's why you're not hearing from me speaking, right? I say that to say, because I got to stop because I'll talk all day. I say that to say that this could have been done better. We set up what we believe is the proper way to do things. You set up a, we have a committee that's doing this. That's why they speaking. There's two people that built, we built a committee around it so they can focus on it and bring things to us. Right. That's how this, this thing works so that they can concentrate and move the things forward. Right. Unless you concentrate the work. Um, I'm, I'm so heartbroken that we're here with this. Um, If I can reserve, just because I want to hear from y'all, y'all my people. I didn't hear y'all. So many fooled me to the size. So I've had that. I know I have an idea of what y'all going to say. God bless y'all for saying what's on y'all minds and your hearts. If I can reserve something, I'll speak at the end. I'm glad y'all are here, man. Thank y'all.

Let's hear from the public. All right, first one, Donya Johnson.

Oh, Madam Clerk, you want to announce the rules for... Good evening. Hold on one second, please. Madam Clerk, you want to announce the rules for public comment, please? Yes. For the Inkster City Council.

For public comments for the Inkster City Council, you get three minutes, and your three minutes starts once you approach the podium. Once the sound go off, that's when it ends. Let me restart it because I did take nine minutes from it.

Seconds. And just to state for the record again, the Inkster City Council will recognize the public comments that were turned in for the Inkster City Council, any that were turned in for Inkster Housing. If we have them, we will ensure that the Inkster Housing Commission gets them, and then they will address those.

And I did forward them over.

And you forwarded them over. All right. So you're good to go.

Good evening, y'all.

Good evening.

First of all, I do apologize.

My name is Donya Johnson. I am a resident of Inkster Housing. I live in LeMond Gardens, too. Why y'all broke it up, I don't know. I've been there my whole life. It's just been LeMond Garden. But I can say this. Inkster Housing's turnover rate is horrible. You are HR. I cannot personally say I don't like you. I can say I hate your work ethics. I do not like the work ethics of your team. Case in point. You stated that you sent someone to my home to do drywall. Lie. You sent someone to my home to paint over the mold in the bathroom. I approve. You have a landscaping company that comes through, supposed to do landscaping. They have to do it.

I have proof.

Secondly, do you remember the first encounter we ever had? First encounter we ever had, you ran up to the maintenance yard, speaking to a cousin of mine, didn't know it was my cousin. Like this was a dating service.

Excuse me. Diane, I'm sorry. You have to... I do apologize. Your statements have to go to the chair.

The first impression I ever had of her She came over to the maintenance office. I was discussing something with one of the maintenance persons, which was a relative of mine. And he was telling me why he did not get to my home, because I had a furnace that was out. They were out partying. So she ran over, telling my cousin she had a date for him. That was the first impression. I didn't even know who the lady was. I asked him when she left. He said, that's HR. Next time I see her, she's serving drinks out of her car at our appreciation. don't appreciate that if they want to make her ed that is fine if she has the qualifications just get the job done and follow through and follow up that's all I ask I managed for 18 plus years and this is horrible thank you George T Anderson

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm George Terrell Anderson. I've been with the Housing Commission for 41 years. I wonder if some of these names that I'm about to read off, some of you might notice or recognize. How about Floyd Simmons? Did some of you ever know Floyd Simmons? How about Dr. Terrell Lesane? Did y'all know him? Martel Armstrong, Linda Bernard, Aaron Cooper, Gladys Neal, Paul Bollinger, Linda Jones, all former Inksterhausen executive directors. I knew all of them. Commissioner, I remember you 41 years ago. I voted for you 41 years ago.

Thank you. That's sweet.

So in regards to the current temporary executive director, Ms. Wells, I think she's doing a wonderful job. I saw, I've seen everyone on this list And I can tell you some stories about all of them, good and bad. Some of them left in questionable circumstances. And I won't go any further than that.

Ms. Wells, you're all right with me.

Don't change course in the middle of the stream. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Keisha I just I lived at Twin Towers and I've had an issue with

with a person, I don't even know her full name, but she lives above me in my apartment. But it seems as though the issue is the disrespect. And it seems as though when you report it to the manager, he's on her side. First of all, she was a security guard for maybe about six months. And another guy that lives there. But it's just the point of He's on their side. He claims he's not a biased person. Every time you see him, he's in the guard's booth, not in his office. He has them two laughing and giggling. You walk past, she can say snide comments. But then when he's not around, if you comment back, she goes in on you. So I'm not going to let nobody call me bitches and hoes and ball head, and I don't say anything back to her. But you know what? I didn't even know we were able to – Put in complaints every 10 seconds. But she can make her complaint. She throws rocks and then hides her hand. When I first started, if I say anything to this lady, if I say, she'll walk past them. Ugh, ugly. And I'm like, grow up. I wasn't talking to you at your bald head ass. Rudy says he sees the camera, but you cannot hear any voices on the camera. I just want the stuff to stop. It makes no type of sense. He's not addressing it. She's not even supposed to be in the guard's booth. They have a note on the door that says, No residents in the guard booth. She's in that guard booth. We just had an incident. So when I see her in the guard booth again last week, I got upset because Rudy is in the guard's booth right with her and Evans. So I didn't have my key fob. They have this thing when they want you to use your key fob, use it. Sometimes they just let me in the building without the key file So this particular day I work for meals on wheels and I know I ain't got that much time left But it's just the point of when I seen her I got upset and I don't know how many letters is in my file right now because The stuff is not being addressed. I just came here for that Thank you.

Thank you Anita Walker

Good evening. I wrote down just so I don't forget anything. While I'm not a resident of Inkster, a lot of my family members are, and I do a lot of business in Inkster. And I just would like to express my concern regarding what appears to be an unfair and inequitable hiring process within the city of Inkster. When an employee has served successfully in an interim leadership role, for nearly a year, demonstrating their ability, commitment, and qualifications to perform the duties of that position, it's troubling to see that individual be overlooked for the permanent role. Personally, I feel like you should hire from within. Sometimes you don't even, I don't know you guys' policy, but I work in HR as well. And sometimes you don't even have to open the position externally. If you know you have a great person internally doing that job, you snag that person up before somebody else grabs them from underneath you. um the city should be committed to fair transparent and consistent hiring practices that recognize experience performance and demonstrated leadership employees who have already proven themselves while doing the work deserves genuine consideration and a fair opportunity for advancement I respectfully ask the city council and city leadership to examine the hiring and selection process and ensure that qualified internal candidates are being evaluated fairly and without favoritism or bias. The employees of Inkster and the residents they serve deserve nothing less. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Sheena Wells. Can I go ahead? Sure.

She may have Clark To basically conclude what I said earlier about internally when you have someone that has proven themselves over the years I just want to know why are we considering anything outside of her so I just want to leave that question with you guys and that's all I have to say

Just so you all know, for the city, since we're a governmental entity, we have to post positions. So when we have an opening, we have to post it and interview. We can't just hire without posting and giving people opportunity to apply for the job. Kenneth Scott. Finally. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.

Good evening.

My name is Kenneth Scott, and I am a maintenance technician for Easterhausen, and also the union steward for AFME 290. And I'm here to let you know that the members of 290 endorse Ms. Wells to be the ED.

Give her an interview, give her a job. We know where she stands.

Now, like you say, we have some residents here. It's hard to make everybody happy, you know, sometimes you're gonna have that problem. But believe you me, if there's any residents that's gonna be mad, it's probably because they got bad housekeeping.

That's no offense to any residents in the room.

They ain't paying any bills, they tearing up the residence, or they're part of the criminal element. They gonna have a problem with this, okay? So, as a Navy veteran, if you got a person, a woman in place to command the troops, let her do her job, all right?

Tangela Ward. That ain't working.

Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Council.

Good evening.

I have a couple of questions to ask. I have been in the city all of my life, moved out a couple of times. I have been over to the Simmons buildings, for one, to get an office, nothing. For two or three years, nothing. Why isn't our Envision Center open? Why is it being utilized? why is it so hard to use the simmons building why can't you get in there to use the simmons building now we have all of these people that's working for housing where is the residents at because i'm getting complaints from the residents i'm getting complaints from the residents saying they've been pushed out of their apartments um i have one resident that's scared to come she's struggling with her rent but you said on her website you had programs to help people with the rent that's not true i have a lot of residents that's not getting any help with their rent Again, the building, the vision center is for the community, right? Is it for the community? So why is it being used by the community? I've been over there several times to put in, to use the building. Several times. I even offered to rent a building with paying money over at the Simmons building. Nothing. I had a meeting with the ED and Cooper. Nothing. I'm still waiting. That's been about, what, a year? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I don't know anything about this ED. So I can't really say anything, but I think it's very biased to have all of the staff coming in for our support because the staff needs a job, right? So they're not going to go against their ED rights. And another point I want to ask, how many residents do you have that work in Inkster housing? I know a lot of people that apply for jobs that was qualified. Nothing. Wasn't even called back. I'm not pointing the fingers at anybody, but it's about the community. Again, we have a beautiful stage over at the Simmons building that is not being utilized. You can't utilize it unless you know somebody that's sitting in a commissioner or on a board or something. I don't know how you get in there because I've been trying for almost five years now and for the council. The Inkster Rec is for the community. The Inkster Rec is for the community. No one should have a problem with getting inside the Inkster Rec. I live in a community, I don't want to call anybody names out, but we are going to have a problem if I hear of a next person trying to put a program in the Inkster Rec and it's not getting done. Good programs. It was a basketball program. This guy brought in at least 50 youth off the street. He's not in there anymore. He's the resident of Inkster, Hamby. He's not in there. Me, I have a youth program, criminal violence intervention. My youth was in the wreck. You know what I had? A bunch of grownups talking about kids. talking about how bad they were, how disrespectful they were, but guess how many people came to me and said something? These are adults, not one. And guess where my program is? Struggling on the streets with kids that's homeless. Did y'all know we have homeless kids in Inkster? We have homeless people in Exeter. I don't have anywhere for them to go. We talk about gun violence. I went to Lansing to advocate for CVR Day. Nowhere for the kids to go. I can stop it, I can minimize it, but where are we going? Where do you take them to? Where do you take it to? It's about the community. It's about the community. It's too much bickering. This meeting was not even supposed to happen. What is it for? a bunch of nonsense. If they were going to hire, she should have been hired. It's no need to come here and do all of this. It's a waste of time. It's like she's bullying herself to be ED. If you want her, you want her. Now let me tell you, I'm a manager. I'm a manager. And if someone, I never heard of anything that you can schedule an interview. Because if I say that I need for you to interview on Tuesday at 2 o'clock, if you're not there, then you don't want the job. Period, point blank. You don't want the job. When I was hired for salary, I did not have an opportunity to tell them when I wanted to come in. I'm not shooting any shots at her because I don't even know her. But I'm just talking about business. Okay, thank you. Have a good day.

Taylor Lewis.

Hello, everyone. I am Taylor Lewis. I am the director of finance at IHC. I'm not going to give my backstory about how I came in. However, I'm going to start from September. September 2025, we had a transition. It wasn't just because someone decided to resign. Mrs. Wells got voluntold to be in the position, and whatever formalities they had with the resolution, it happened. And so my issue was She was doing such a great job. I even reached out to the mayor myself as well as the chairman and the vice chair to say, hey, because I knew that the process was happening, what began to happen to support. Why would we even reach out to a third party that's going to take a percentage of whomever's salary that they recruit when you have the person that's already right there? And why would you even allow him to be her recruiter when she's already in-house with you? He did not recruit her. She's already there. So why would she go through that type of process? Okay, they say that's the formality of it. It didn't happen with the prior ED, that same formality. Fast forward, I sent them all an email. The only person that responded to my email out of, I guess we're just going to say just because, because you don't have to be professional in a volunteer position, right, was the mayor. February, rolled around. Ms. Moore always comes to the finance office. And I have to say Ms. Moore because Ms. Moore is the only commissioner that we see all the time. She will always come in and speak to us all day. It really just drastically changed. And for everybody saying, well, she had the opportunity, she had the opportunity. The opportunity and the support dwindles down when you can tell that there's pressure or some type of issue. We all know that. We're all human. When a situation occurred with the prior ED, Miller reached out to make sure we was OK, but that was it. And that's just not how that's supposed to work. Fast forward, they would say, oh, she had the opportunity. Yeah, she had the opportunity. But talk about all the disrespect in between. We're not going to sit around and act like things do not bother you on a mental level. And when they're talking about the things that we need to fight for and all of that, Mrs. Wells and myself that got through into this at the last ninth hour, the only reason that we still have employees that's working for the management company is because of Mrs. Wells. We went to bat for those employees to make sure that they stayed there. And I know because I was line by line with her, right along with Milt, our attorney, to make sure we're able to keep our staff. So it's not just about doing what's best for... just the agency and the residents she tried to do was what's best for the employees and the residents as well so it's kind of just like i think of like the ladies on the board act like they don't understand why we're here or is because the support is not really there how do you govern a board a board that you only show up to once a month or you're in california majority of the time while i understand it's a volunteer position how could you really manage what's going on you're never here The people that are here are here. If you would have asked any one of us what's going on in the agency, we could have answered you. We could have gave you a long, positive answer beyond, well, this is what's going on negative with the management company and all of those things. Well, of course there's negativity going on because when the decision was placed in front of the stakeholders that make the decision, they didn't think this far ahead. That we would get to a place that is positive, that's less turnover, that's more staff retention, more people that want to be in the place and those are not the people that created that advocacy i love commissioner thomas i love commissioner miller i love commissioner strowman i had a different kind of respect and love for commissioner moore but she showed that it became more personal than it was anything else and she showed that across the board The thing is, it's not just about, oh, she had a missed opportunity and she just threw the towel in. We beat her over the head about why would you, you know, rescind your, I mean, withdraw your offer to be the ED. I understood why because I worked side by side with her. And so she got back in. And I just think as a courtesy, you would want to say, well, we received your withdrawal and that's it. But if I don't know if you received it, opened it, responded to it, why wouldn't I go in and try to rescind my withdrawal if nobody responded to it? I know everybody that's up there on the council. If you send them an email, well, maybe they don't respond, but you would expect them to. The respect is not the same.

Thank you. Appreciate that.

Good afternoon, council.

Good afternoon.

Commissioners, as you guys know, I'm a police officer. I'll be 10 years next month, and I will be a... Because I love this city. I live in this city. I've been in Inkster Housing maybe going on three years with Inkster Housing as a police officer. I just want to talk about a few things internally. I think you all should go look internally at things. Like right now, you've got Ms. Wells and the team, because I see this from the outside. We got an issue now where the new company, once again, before she got in, they're trying to change the pest control. But a lot of people don't see this. I remember I came to the city council meeting one time. Everybody was about to fight, but they break up fights because people playing about the roaches all on the news. We don't want that again. The management company now is trying to change that till they do like two sprays a month or something. So we don't want that. Letting you guys know what's going on because a lot of people don't mind I say that, but it's internal. And you got people like Ms. Wells and everybody on this team that's fighting for that internally. And I see it because I'm working side by side with them. Like the process of hiring, I know Ms. Lewis mentioned it. Like I said, I know some internal things as well. Not going to mention that. But there was no process for that either. Just here you go. We could do the same thing. Give her a try. Could do the same thing. No interviews, none of that stuff took place. We did the same exact thing. If she didn't work, didn't do the interview process. Wasted money. I see what's going on. I see it.

You mean with the last CD? Yes.

It was just given. Here you go. It was no interviews, none of that. And she's doing a great job. From a D to an A. And I see the progress of it. I love it. I'm sending extra housing probably for a while. They tried to promote me, but I was like, no, I'm going to stay over there.

Going back to the road. No, no, no.

And just like now. Thank you for the fight for the commission as well. She, Ms. Wells and the team, Taylor, of course, got to figure out the money. We got a new housing officer that just started. She made that company pay half of the price, probably more, I don't know how much, to get another officer over there because we know what's about to happen. That wasn't a thought before all this. She had to kind of bully them. Hey, we need X, Y, and Z. So things like that, I think you guys should come to these commission board meetings and ask for numbers, ask for certain things, because even like the roast problem. When I first started, I was going to people's houses with a hood on. A hood. Or tell them to come outside. I'm not going to catch nobody. Now I can walk in. You wouldn't chase the criminal in the house? No, I wouldn't, sir. It was bad. Like I said, internally, things I know about the last situation, we could have done the same thing. Once again, I say wasting money because I know a lot of people don't have money. Cities don't have money. Government don't have money. Why waste money? That just didn't make sense to me. And I'm a city of Easter, resident, and I see how this stuff is progressing. I know people talk horribly about things. I like to ask people a question. For the last couple years, where did you see it going now, though? We could talk bad about certain things, but where was it at before? Where was it at? So that's all I got to say.

Thank you.

Are you good? Jamila White. I wasn't going to say that.

uh no i ain't gonna do that today um good evening my name is jimmy white um so i've been here since 2022. i have been in six different positions um i believe that i have been in these positions due to that um more than likely common sense right you see something do something about it seriously right um How many on a lot of people don't know the things that happen on the back end with housing? We always hear the complaints as far as these people are homeless or they're getting put out, they can't seek assistance or anything like that, right? We have, Ms. Wells have put in place that we do call out and reach out to these organizations to make sure that they even have money. But the thing about it is that past leadership, and it skills my expression on it, was shitty. Very much so. And I'ma speak on that due to the fact that last year, we didn't know what was going on in back end when this new development company was coming in. Pretty much I was told in so many words that I wasn't gonna have no job. Just like that. And it was not nothing that was going to save us at all. Anything. They're going to do whatever they want one by one. Y'all might be walking about here come next year, which is actually this year. So Ms. Wells did fight back and forth, everything, and literally stood on it so that we wouldn't have to be on that face front with that. On top of that, Instant Housing wouldn't even be where they're at right now. If it was not, we inherited it. a tremendous amount of debt from residents who was able to stay in housing by previous leaderships. And I can't say nobody's name, but I'm gonna say the highest I ever had to go to court for was $40,000 in back rent. How, when this lady inherited this debt long way, eons before I even got here, but it was my job to clean it up. so for that negative impact i don't think that we should you know i mean of course people got their personal feelings that's fine you know or whatever whatever but gotta look at the impact of the positivity that it has made the changes in everybody's lives we have not just you know made people homeless come to us help we are here to help we do need that support but as far as Back then and where we are right now, it is, I'm very happy about it.

Thank you. Ms. Sheena Wells.

Do I get six minutes like her? Nope.

You already had like 20.

They told you I like you. Anywho, I do want to thank you all for giving me your Tuesday evening. I do. I don't know what will come out of this, but earlier you did ask the question, Lindsay. So I will respond with what my hope is. It doesn't mean it will happen. But I do want to address something. You know, number one, you really find out how they feel when they come up to this mic. And that's good to know. Because my mother always taught me when you point the fingers, three pointing back at you. And we can point that out. So anyway, for quite some time, I have carried the responsibility of a very, very important role with Inkster Housing Commission way before we had the transition from the last ED. I was, since day one, the go-to person. The reason why it's obvious to see the shift in a couple of the commissioners is because I was once told, you have done amazing things here at Inkster Housing. You've changed it around. I know there was a comment not too long ago that said that my work ethic is not up to par with I can outwork anybody in here. Let's just know that, okay? Including you, Mr. B, because I get on the flight in the morning, okay? On my anniversary to better myself. But anyways, the actual, we go with data, and I know that Tangela left, but she asked how many people are employees that live in the city of inkster and i don't know if she heard me but it's about 30 and i actually just hired another inkster resident that started last week so i do respond you still have to be qualified you still have to fit the culture because we work too hard so it's not just we're going to hire your niece or your uncle they still have to fit the culture and get it As Ken said, I am a drill sergeant because I believe in you. I got to be able to believe in you. I respect you. Respect me. And we came a long way. If that man stands up and endorses me, that shows that it's power and leadership. I'm the wife of a Navy veteran. So I do believe in discipline. But nonetheless, the responsibilities that I've had to carry, I definitely take it serious. And, you know, I understand the mission. The vision. I don't know what that was. The vision. And I know that we can continue to make progress. As someone said, I'm not perfect. Nobody is. I don't even strive to be perfect. I strive to be the best at what I do. I strive to make sure that my name means something. And so with that being said, I really do hope that the city of Inkster, the mayor, the city council members understand that while you're not over the Inkster Housing Commission, we are one. And it's very important. If the news came in here right now, they're not going to see Easter housing. They're not going to see city council. They're going to see the city of Easter. And my pledge is to continue to change that narrative. As Taylor said earlier in September, we could have took it in a different direction. I intentionally did not. There was not one press release that went out because the city of Easter did not need that bad eye, black eye at all. And I still stand on that. So I hate that we're here too. I really do. I think it's very unprofessional and immature. Even tonight. I don't want to have to go back and forth with it. But here we are. So Lindsay, my ask is there needs to be a change on the Board of Commissioners. There's two of them at least that needs to change. We're not going to get anywhere. One of the former EDs that hired me left and said Unless that board changes, you're not going to be able to really make real change. And I've experienced it now firsthand. Even the last DD, the governance needs to be there. It's just oversight. That's it. It's just oversight, but we have to respect each other and work together. And I'm committed to it. We don't need to lie. The truth doesn't need any colors. It is what it is. We both have emails, I'm sure. I've been doing HR a long time. Probably got a little more. But I don't want to take it there because that's not what it's about. When you ask, why did I change? Again, it's for the people that believe in me. And so I just ask that you all believe in us and understand if you keep doing the same thing, you will get the same results. And I thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. City Clerk?

No comment, Mayor.

City Treasurer's not here. What you waiting on me?

Getting some public comments. All right. Sorry. You going to read them?