Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
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Authentically Detroit
Candidate Series: Championing the Little Guys with Todd Perkins
This week, Donna and Orlando sat down with Todd Perkins to discuss his vision for Detroit’s future. This episode is the fifth in a series of interviews with candidates in the race for Detroit’s 76th mayor.
Todd Perkins grew up in the North End, raised by parents who instilled in them the values of hard work, education, faith, and integrity. The home he lives in today was purchased by his great-grandparents nearly a century ago. As a proud graduate of The University of Detroit Jesuit High School, he credits them with instilling the mission of being “A man for others.”
As the founder and owner of one of Detroit’s largest Black-Owned law firms, The Perkins Law Group, he’s dedicated his career - spanning three decades - to serving the city. In addition to his law firm, he founded and has continued to operate a sports management company representing athletes from their high school to and through their professional careers.
Todd also leads a nonprofit organization, The People’s Voice, dedicated to giving back to Detroiters. He believes that together - with bold, experienced, and compassionate leadership that puts people first - we can make Detroit a better place.
To learn more about Todd Perkins and his vision for Detroit, click here.
Up. Next, todd Perkins joins the Authentically Detroit Candidate Series to share his vision for the city as Detroiters prepare to select the 76th mayor. This will be the fifth in a series of interviews. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages. Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true. Formerly known as the Deep Network and located inside the Stoudemire, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network offers studio space and production staff. To help get your idea off of the ground, just visit authenticallydetcom and send a request through the contact page. Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now let's start the world.
Speaker 1:Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's Eastside at the Stoudemire, inside of the Eastside Community Network headquarters, inside of the new Auth. It's supposed to do. I like it. Y'all should see it. Y'all got to come visit us. We got coffee tables and plants and furniture. Thank you all so much for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Authentically Detroit Candidate Series, where we're interviewing each mayor, hopeful to get to know why they want to be Detroit's 76th mayor. Next up we have attorney Todd Perkins. The home Todd Perkins lives in today was purchased by his great-grandparents nearly a century ago. His grandparents, like so many others, came north during the Great Migration, escaping the Jim Crow South to build a better life in our city. Todd grew up in the North End with his five brothers raised by parents who instilled in them the values of hard work, education, faith and integrity. His mom worked at Duffield Library on West Grand Boulevard. His dad worked at Hills Barbershop on Hastings.
Speaker 1:Todd is a proud graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. His dad worked at Hills Barbershop on Hastings. Todd is a proud graduate of the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. His education at the University of Detroit Jesuit instilled in him the mission of being a man for others. Following high school, he attended Dartmouth College Did I say that right? Dartmouth? Dartmouth College, where he played football throughout his tenure, graduating with a BA in history. Following graduation, he returned home to attend the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law for his JD. Like so many Detroiters, he faced personal loss, the sudden passing of his first wife. Help me with her name, todd.
Speaker 3:J'Todd.
Speaker 1:J'Todd In front of him and their children was devastating. Through faith, prayer and therapy, his family found healing. Years later, he was blessed to marry Michelle, a remarkable woman who has brought love and strength to their home. His son, todd Jr, is a college sophomore and his daughter, kennedy, is a high school junior. As the founder and owner of one of Detroit's largest black-owned law firms, the Perkins Law Group, he's dedicated his career, spanning three decades, to serving our city. In addition to his law firm, he founded and has continued to operate a sports management company Kilimanjaro Sports Management. The company represents young athletes from their high school years up to and through their professional careers. Finally, todd leads a nonprofit organization, the People's Voice, dedicated to giving back to Detroiters. Todd Perkins I think we're saying this for the first time Welcome to Authentically Detroit.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for having me and I just would like to a couple of corrections. In that bio is my dad Hill's Barbershop is still a bar shop. That's on Seven Mile, but it was my dad's father that had a barbershop on Hastings Street.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. So yeah, I was wondering about that, because there's only like one little block of Hastings left right. I was like how old is he?
Speaker 3:Exactly so. My grandfather was born in, I believe, 1887. Oh, wow so you know, he moved from, I believe, Arkansas, Tennessee, and then he moved up here and started cutting hair.
Speaker 2:See, I thought my grandparents were old. My grandmother was born in 1898, and I thought I had everybody beat right. So yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:Well, he was a little older than my grandmother. She was born in 1910.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So he was older than her.
Speaker 2:He robbed a couple cradles.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, Maybe one.
Speaker 3:The statute of limitations is run on that, so we're going to leave that.
Speaker 2:No, just joking. Those were different times, right it?
Speaker 3:was different times and you know, my mom's parents were born in 1910 and 1911, so they were consistent with my grandmother.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:My grandfather was just older, older and he passed away. He was actually killed by another barber on Oakland Avenue.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, yeah, what's that story?
Speaker 3:Well, no, I don't mind. You know, and my brother's sort of the historian, my younger brother's a judge at 36 District.
Speaker 2:Court, the one I met last year, the one you met, yes, a couple of years ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and he does a lot of the family tree that my mom used to do when she was living and he's taken that over. So apparently my grandfather was the first barber prosecutor in the state of Michigan, or at least in the city of Detroit. I didn't even understand what a barber prosecutor was, but he would go around and check people's licenses and things like that. He eventually removed he left that position, but he was still a significant figure in the barber world, got into a dispute with another barber and you know my grandfather apparently had a knife. The other guy shot him and you know. So this happened sort of around the corner where I live today.
Speaker 1:Wow, so I still live on the North End, did you know?
Speaker 3:your grandfather? Oh no, this is. He died in the 40s, In the 40s.
Speaker 1:Wow, go ahead.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say that you know, I did meet you a couple years ago when your brother the historian had a party Right and he lives in the house I grew up in Exactly, and so that was really amazing. It was a great time, great food and drinks and everything. I was like this is fun, but one of the most memorable parts that evening was there was a man there who your brother had knew I don't know whether you knew him and you were his attorney who had been freed after serving being wrongfully convicted of a crime. Correct, you remember him? No, he's Marvin Cotton.
Speaker 3:Marvin Cotton. Marvin Cotton he's actually I gave. I give Marvin Cotton office space in my firm and so that he because what he does is important work and he goes around the country and he's speaking on the issue and he assists people who are similar conditions than himself. He's using his platform to help those who are now returning citizens. He's using his platform to help those who are now returning citizens. So these returning citizens even the ones who are, you know he was found to be acquitted because he didn't do it what they claimed he did and did 19 years. And you know he comes out. He didn't have the anger that you might associate with someone who did that. He's come out with a fury.
Speaker 2:And he had a lady that waited on him. It was the most beautiful story. She waited on him. It was the most beautiful story. She waited on him. He met her before he went to prison, waited on him and they were married they were newlyweds when I met him. And that was really amazing. And so, from him and from other people, I think my understanding of your legal career is that you are a defense attorney.
Speaker 3:I am a defense attorney, but what's happened is that I began as almost exclusively criminal defense in the 90s. I expanded that to do civil work, lawsuits and doing business work. Ultimately, I definitely expanded a lot further when I became the city attorney in Highland Park and that's where I got used to dealing with policy. You know the political framework of even though Highland Park is a much smaller policy. You know the political framework of even though Highland Park is a much smaller city. You're still dealing with the. You know the components of elected officials that you represent and after that, and then also the water issue that Highland Park had it really started. It's really spawned into a bigger thing under Mayor Windham's administration and ultimately it's been resolved since then.
Speaker 3:I mean with you know conditions, but I now sit as the city attorney in Inkster, so those things expanded my platform from a legal perspective.
Speaker 3:So, but I still will always thirst for the idea of representing people who are the little guy, you know, the person who has the great weight of the government behind them or against them. You know, and it's just you hear the championing of people who you need to give people a voice who don't have a voice for themselves, and it's consistent with, you know, segwaying into the whole idea of running for mayor and what it means and how you intend to attack that idea. That's why I come to this, you know, to this forum. I come to this position in my life or point in my life where I recognize I would be best served in this area and I know that I'm the best skilled to do so, a skill to do so. So, you know, and it becomes a life's work of practice, of education, of application of the education in the courtrooms, in the streets, in city halls. And I actually represent today, I represent Detroit City Council on an as-needed basis.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, so I have the ear of many people and I know what their concerns are, even from the people who are elected. I understand that and understanding about budgeting and how you know you're going to run a city and how it needs to be run.
Speaker 1:Your career is storied. We know your name, we know who you are, we've heard the radio commercials, we've seen you in high profile cases on the local news and we even see your billboards as you are campaigning for mayor right now. But aside from all of the accolades, your pedigree, your degrees, all the cases that you've tried and won, who is Todd Perkins?
Speaker 3:You know that's a great way to start and I think I should have started started there. Um, and and let me start by thanking you for inviting me, because I think what you all do is important work and it falls outside of the mainstream of you know, as we grew up, as I grew up not necessarily you, but you you know what I'm talking about two, four and seven and you know you don't get the content and the detail that I think is necessary to inform people on the various different subjects that you do. Right now, you're doing this mayoral topic, so I want to thank you for that and I want to encourage you to continue the work. It's important work.
Speaker 3:And you're welcome. You're welcome so, todd Perkins. Todd Perkins, you said a lot about me in that bio, but I'm an individual who has—I've grown up as an individual who didn't grow up with a lot, but I grew up with, you know, materialistically, but I grew up with a family and I recognize, with the family structure in place and with parents who are supporting you, that you know, you have to believe and you have to instill in young people, just like my parents instilled in me when you couldn't see it for yourself, right in front of you. You couldn't see that you would go off to an Ivy League education. You couldn't see that I would go off to school in France and study in France, or you couldn't see that I would be a lawyer that's arguing in our Supreme Court. You know you couldn't see that at a point in time in your life when you're 10 or 11 years old and sometimes you don't have lights or gas. You know, you just don't see it and you just think you know. But you had to trust and have the faith in your parents that they wouldn't send you astray or guide you or misguide you.
Speaker 3:And I did trust them and my, you know, along with my brothers, we trusted our parents and in some points in times you know you look at your parents who didn't have at the time my dad was not a college educated man. My mom, once they began the family, she graduated from Cass. She was complete family from that point forward, didn't go to college and ultimately my dad looked up at I think it was 98. And he looked up. He says I got all these boys in college and graduated college. He went back and he graduated with my younger brother, sean, from Wayne State. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, were there stories. I've seen some people have you know feature stories on that kind of accomplishment.
Speaker 3:Well, you know we didn't do a story about it, but it's definitely part of my. You know the importance that education has played in our household Because my mom used to always say this she says you know, they can take anything away from you, but they can't take away your education, they can't take away what you know. And so you know now you know those whole things, those idioms you hear could do with. You know, with very little, that they did with six boys who all have had. Even some of my brothers didn't graduate, but they're doing well. You know, when they all went to college and they gave them that opportunity, and it is just so me I'm inspired because I do have more because of them. So when I get the opportunity and I get married, I have two kids I am thirsting to do everything I can provide for them. My first wife, who did pass away, she was a social worker and she was getting her doctorate in physical therapy. She's a University of Michigan grad. We won't hold that against her.
Speaker 3:But, but no but yeah, so you know what they call it. Those guys, those people call it the Harvard of Midwest and everything like that. I know how they get down.
Speaker 2:You know what, you know what it's one of those things you know, all time PWI right and if you don't know what a PW-W-I was you know, back in the 80s, emphasis on the W right.
Speaker 3:Right, right right.
Speaker 2:Dominic White Institution Right U of M was not embracing. Yes, you know now, my oldest and my youngest did go to U of M and they really enjoyed themselves. Those were dark days for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh no, I applaud you for doing you know, you were the pioneer.
Speaker 2:No, my dad was a pioneer.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:My dad went to U of M medical school with Dr Ellison, Leonard Ellison. They were two or three black students in the school and he used to have to sit outside of the class because some of the professors would not let black students sit in the class.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:He went to one anatomy class and the professor said you know, black people have tails and when he and my mom moved to Ann Arbor they could not find housing until my mother wrote to the Ann Arbor News. So I have to say my experience was slightly better than that and my kids' experience was slightly. You know, some people say things nothing's changed. Of course it has right, but you still have the problems. Let's talk about Detroit, though. Let's segue into the city of.
Speaker 2:Detroit. What's working in Detroit from your point of view, and can you talk about the bankruptcy and the impact the bankruptcy had on the city of Detroit?
Speaker 3:Well, let's talk about it from a standpoint of how people have felt about it. You know it sent a chilling effect down people's spines. I mean, my mom was a City of Detroit employee and who suffered from the bankruptcy with the callback and my mom was the person who planned on retiring and she said my mom said this was what's going to happen and she retired before the bankruptcy. But she anticipated this. She said all these things were going to happen considering how you know the lead up to it. And she retired and she expected to be able to pay for her insurance. You know, have enough to pay for her insurance and not recognizing that was going to be taken away and that she was going to have to pay it. But you know, my mom had the benefit of having six boys and you know we're not going to let my mom but look at the other average person who doesn't have that.
Speaker 1:It's a material loss.
Speaker 3:Right. So we don't want to say you know, if I did it, you should be able to do it. No, it's, you know. We need to understand how it affected us as a whole. So you know it's affected decision-making that we have as it relates to how are we ever going to be able to give that callback back to those retirees that we don't want to? Exactly that's the question you have to ask.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean but you're running for mayor. Is there an appetite?
Speaker 2:Do you want to? Do you believe that the city owes something to retirees who had some of their pension and their benefits clawed back? Does the city owe them something?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll answer it two ways. Well, I will answer it, but I think it's a two-part thing Do I believe spiritually and do I believe holistically?
Speaker 2:I mean legally, You're an attorney.
Speaker 3:That's the two questions. I think that they're owed something because there was a promise and they used the bankruptcy in order to take that back. But legally legally they don't.
Speaker 2:Let me ask you a question. I mean, this is the first time in the history of the United States that anybody's able that people's pensions were messed with after they retired. People used to think I'm retiring, I have a pension, this is my money.
Speaker 3:It's not. It's not the first time. Remember Snyder taxed them 4%.
Speaker 2:He taxed pensions 4%, but I'm saying the pension was reduced.
Speaker 2:The benefits were reduced. I'm not talking about taxation. I'm saying that most people believed that their pensions were secure Absolutely. And in Detroit they were not. And I always like to look at things through the lens of what would have happened if this was Grosse Pointe. You live in Grosse Pointe. What would have happened you know Grosse Pointe right If this was Grosse Pointe? Do you think that if there was evidence that Grosse Pointe residents or homeowners had been overtaxed by $6 million not $600 million, $6 million that they would sit there and accept the fact that the city said we don't have to pay you back, it's not within the legal framework to pay you back. And what? Because I think you know to me there's the law and then there's how we interpret the law and how we enforce the law, and there's always exceptions made for us that would never be made for other people.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And so when we talk about those pension clawbacks, when we talk about overtaxation and many of the other things that have happened to Detroiters, I'm wondering how you, as mayor, see yourself changing the law or challenging the law on behalf of the people, because you've done that in your career right, absolutely.
Speaker 3:So talk about it. Oh, so you know something I got to admit I am excited about this. You're as engaging as anyone I've seen so far as far as the questioning. So, as a lawyer but not only that as a person who wants fairness and equity for everyone, it's time that we all make plans, that we look at and take a hard look at our tax structure and to ensure that people you know it's not necessarily disenfranchising our citizens and while other people come in the city and benefit from the tax incentives, so there needs to be some fairness surrounding that.
Speaker 3:What does that look like? So what does that look like? That looks like doing tax incentive developments in the neighborhoods. That's exactly what that look like. That looks like doing tax incentive developments in the neighborhoods. That's exactly what that looks like. And using the public private partnerships, that that exist downtown, like you get the Wilson's Association or the Wilson Foundation that's essentially even building the west side of the, the riverbank, you know, using those organizations, just like they do in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor's use those public-private partnerships and in Flint they've used with the Mott organization for the purposes of having the gap that people need in order to finance homes.
Speaker 2:You know, in 2000, year 2000, 1999, I was the first executive director of Vanguard Community Development Corporation, which services your community in North End right.
Speaker 2:They built the homes they built the homes, we built the homes. Those are my homes right, and when we did it, you know we were a nonprofit community development corporation and a public-private partnership was us. Yes, now when people talk about public-private partnership, they're talking about rich folks, but there was a time when the city actually made it possible for leaders like myself and so many others to invest and to facilitate reinvestment. You know the good thing about partnering with me I don't make a profit.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about how nonprofits get included in your conception of public-private partnership, because part of it is not. I don't necessarily want no offense, dan Gilbert, on the east side. We're here, and so I think the challenge is the values around who we select. How would that be different?
Speaker 3:So I look at it from the perspective of a neighborhood quarterback or a community quarterback, and I used an example that was from out of Atlanta and I can't remember the guy's name, the individual. He owned the Atlanta Hawks at one time. He was a real estate developer, so he had a background in that and he looked at a particular area that he wanted to get involved in. But what I want to do is I want to bring those nonprofit organizations, the community organizations in which development is going to occur, and they have a seat at the table and have some say into the build-out of that neighborhood. So what I mean by that is there's an unrelenting and a willingness not to leave the table, no matter what the disagreement is. So you know, those individuals may come in with financial backing, but the city is also going to create a platform in which they provide the backing. That gives the say-so from the neighborhood organizations.
Speaker 2:I'm not looking for say-so, I'm looking for power, I'm looking for equality, that's what I mean by that. I'm saying we want to show up as equals right Absolutely. I don't want community benefits where I get to ask for permission. I think that what we did, we did right there and you've seen it, because you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3:right there on near Oakland, that's my street.
Speaker 2:Del Mar. Well, those are others, but I'm talking about East Grand Boulevard, those homes right there.
Speaker 3:Melrose Square, right next to Triumph Church now.
Speaker 2:Those homes. There's 24 of them there. We did not ask permission. We didn't go to somebody and say you know what? This is what we want you to do. Instead, the people with money were required to partner with people like us so that we got paid out of that deal. We had influence over that deal, and it still is in the hands of an entity that is co-owned by this organization. So I think the challenge is a lot of times people see people like me and other community leaders as being people who have really good ideas and very passionate and stuff like that. We have skills over here too.
Speaker 1:Can you talk about your? Can I?
Speaker 3:finish that. Sure, what I'm saying is that having a seat at the table is not as bad as having a seat at the table having to ask, but to be able to make those demands, and the city creates the atmosphere that makes them want to participate and will not allow them to leave. Them want to participate and will not allow them to leave. And so I'm not looking at it from perspective of, like you said, may I or can I. I'm not looking at it from that perspective.
Speaker 2:But you know what used to happen. I just want to know. What used to happen is when developers wanted to develop somewhere. They had to go before city council and city council would say who are you partnering with in this community? So developers knew I can't do anything in this neighborhood unless I'm working with the people in this neighborhood. We can make it part of public policy. We don't just have to make it nice, and I'm looking for ideas in mayoral candidates about how we can re-empower our people people. The reason that Detroit had the great middle class that we grew up with is because Coleman Young used his power, his bully pulpit, to demand equality and inclusion of our people. So how do you see yourself doing that?
Speaker 3:Well, it's not too much different, but what it is is identifying areas that are going to be targeted, areas of development, and it's going to not necessarily come from city council, but this is going to come from the administration, now city council, in its power as a legislative arm of the city of Detroit.
Speaker 3:They can fight me on this, but at the same time, I'm willing and I have the skill set to understand that how the legal fight can be won, and so I intend to have those individuals who, those community organizations, just like the North End Coalition that's right now fighting. I'll give you an example of what happened where the city didn't get involved and didn't help this organization because now they're in litigation. And once you get in litigation, you know what happens. Nobody's talking, and those other sides, they have way ball forward with this neighborhood organization subjected to ordering a transcript that costs $6.25 a page in order to just you know it's going to cost them $5,000 for a transcript. It's almost cost prohibitive if those neighbors didn't come together and do that. So that type of behavior and that type of that's something that the city should have been long involved in, long before that happened, and that's something that's just unacceptable under any administration that I foresee.
Speaker 1:Talk about the current community benefits ordinance. That's on the books.
Speaker 3:So you mean the? May I, instead of requiring?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what would you do with it?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it needs to be revamped. So, just in that language it needs to say shall you know? And then there needs to be a component of a penalty that's so significant that people you know the ne'er-do-wells won't just be able to write a check and continue to go do business with the city of Detroit, you understand. So that's a simple fix from the perspective of creating the ordinance and we'll propose an ordinance and I hope that I can lobby that in front of the city council. The news obviously there's going to be a new city council. That comes.
Speaker 2:You know the existing ordinance. Proposal b was lobbied by a city council person. It was not brought by the people, it was, you know. Proposal b was scott benson's, you know. Response to proposal a proposal b1 oh b b b. Proposal a was the one that the people had put on the ballot. And then Scott Benson came along with Proposal B, which watered it all down, and you can see it's watered down and locked out businesses and community development organizations out of it, absolutely. Because Stellantis developed right there, right behind us, we parked back here.
Speaker 2:Stellantis right back here and we had no power. I run this nonprofit Right and I was not even allowed to be on the community benefits you know the neighborhood advisory council. I was not given this. There's a business that's right next door to the plant it's a liquor store that's been there forever and that business owner said what about me? You know, nobody talked to me, and so I think that there is the need for more community voice. But also I want to talk to you about Downtown Development Authority and tax abatements.
Speaker 3:Can you talk about whether or not you think the Downtown Development Authority is serving the interests of Detroiters in 2025? Now, I think the Downtown Development Authority needs to continue. I think the idea of tax abatements is something that needs to continue, but not just in the downtown development authority, you know, because that's all we've heard about and that's all we've seen. And, again, there needs to be a calculus in place for those people, like what you were talking about earlier when we were talking about organizations that want to do business with the city of Detroit, but what are you doing for us uptown? So there needs to be a tie-in and tie bar, that particular relationship with whatever development you're doing in the Downtown Development Authority, because it was necessary for us to get that on the way At a point in time. You know they're saying and you know I'm not here to talk about what people did in the past, because the past is the past, but we don't want, we need to understand our past so we don't relive it in the future. Right, and so.
Speaker 1:We're going to take a quick break, Okay, and we're going to come back with this discussion about tax abatements downtown. We'll be right back. Detroit One Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with one million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to support Black independent reporting. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events or resource fairs? The MassDetroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents and businesses and organizations. To learn more about rental options at MassDetroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecn-detroitorg or 313-313-3133. 331-3485. Welcome back to Authentically Detroit. We are here with Todd Perkins, candidate for mayor. Todd, you were talking about the usage and the expansion of the Downtown Development Authority and particularly making sure that that tax capture extends beyond downtown. How do you plan on doing that?
Speaker 3:Right, the Downtown Development Authority is the Downtown Development Authority.
Speaker 1:What.
Speaker 3:I do foresee is capturing is using the tax incentives that have been used in the Downtown Development Authority by residential organizations and nonprofit organizations.
Speaker 1:So neighborhood TIFs.
Speaker 2:But the challenge with neighborhood TIFFs is that neighborhoods Downtown Development Authority is capturing about $68 million a year, you don't have $68 million in neighborhood.
Speaker 2:TIFFs and that money is being diverted from schools, libraries and the county, and the county to some extent makes up the loss of funding by foreclosing on our houses and contributing to a foreclosure crisis. So the reality is that we have these systemic issues. When people talk about 2 Detroit, the Downtown Development Authority is the driver of 2 Detroit. As long as it stays in place as it is, you will always have more revenue there. Now can neighborhood organizations collect taxes? Yeah, you might be able to get a couple million dollars in property taxes diverted here, but the reality is that state law prevents those dollars from being spent that $68 million from being spent anywhere but downtown. And just a couple more things. The other thing is that when city council gives tax abatements to any developer downtown and they approve it, people get mad, but they're not spending general fund money. They're spending downtown development authority money which they don't control anyway.
Speaker 2:The reality is, as long as city council is abating monopoly money, which is money not theirs, then you're not going to see them making the kinds of decisions we need to be made. So I'm looking for some ideas for how we begin to change that, Because I know people say well, you know, we can do the same thing in neighborhoods, but Detroit doesn't have an extra $68 million to spend in neighborhoods while still spending it downtown. I'm not even debating the past. How did we get here? Okay, we got here, and now what You're running for mayor, Now what? So respond to all of that please?
Speaker 3:Okay, absolutely. So what I'm saying is I'm incentivizing growth through tax incentives, and so it's not necessarily a TIF that we're talking about in capturing the tax where it doesn't even exist. They have no economic centers in these neighborhoods in order to do that, and so what I'm also doing is tie-biring. Tie-biring the individuals who do benefit from the Downtown Development Authority and who have historically benefited, who are not the people in the neighborhood, ensuring that they are responsible for developing and developing in these neighborhoods. The idea that neighborhood quarterback, that I said, the community quarterback those individuals are required to be at that table. And the people who are in the neighborhoods, who are delegated or who are part of that nonprofit corporation they have as much say so and they're board members essentially, Are you?
Speaker 1:talking about, like a capture offset to be re-diverted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it would be like that, in the sense that if you've benefited, if you I'll give you an example if you've benefited from the tax capture to in order to build this great edifice that you're building, then you have to take that, you have to take a percentage of that and and pledge that to a particular development or an area of development in the city of Detroit.
Speaker 2:So they call that a linkage fee and that's done in Los Angeles and several other communities where you're charged for somehow in the process of approvals. You're charged a fee that is then reinvested there. So what I'm hearing you say is that you see a linkage fee as a way to capture some of that wealth.
Speaker 3:Correct. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, but what I'm also saying is that I want that participation from their own. If I looked at these corporations, I want their participation from their own financial wherewithal because of the benefit that they receive.
Speaker 2:The linkage fee comes from them.
Speaker 3:Right. They pay the fee. I got that, but I want more.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I want more.
Speaker 1:And how does this kind of change happen? Is this a change in state law? Is this a change in?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it's a change in policy first. Okay, and I think it's a change in policy first. Ok, and I think it's a change in policy first, because if you're going through state law, you know getting things through the state are not going to move as swiftly as the DDA exists because of state law, absolutely and the money's diverted only downtown because of state law. Absolutely. But I'm saying changing that immediately.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about immediately changing it, you know you can't, the policy city council could write a new ordinance and restructure it. There's actually the Citizens Research Council of Michigan actually produced a whole report on how this can be done, and so we're really looking for leadership there. It takes a lot of courage, running for mayor, for somebody to say you know what? I'm changing this because everybody wants to get the approval of downtown people right, and so you're running as this different kind of candidate.
Speaker 3:You're running as a people's champion and I want to hear how you're going to champion us. Here's the thing they know who I am before I come through the door because of the people that I've represented and the people that I will continue to represent. That's been my brand, that's what I'm going to do, so they automatically know it's going to be a new sheriff in town and it's going to be a new approach as it relates to that.
Speaker 2:So you're saying that money's not flowing into your campaign yet?
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no. And you know something their money. God bless it if it does. But I mean we're going to win this campaign with or without them. So they might as well join the parade rather than staying on the sideline, because at the end of the day, you know what's good for Detroit and what's good for Detroiters will continue.
Speaker 3:So, to the extent that I don't know why they operate in fear of someone who's here for parity and for equality for the individuals who live in the city of Detroit, but they do. And so why would you think that it's such a bad thing that Detroiters drink from the same well that you've been drinking from for the past 30, 40 years, at least my lifetime, my adult lifetime. So they know that as they approach it and that's the conversations I'm having with them and I mean they have to respect what I'm saying because the numbers don't lie I mean that's just what it is. So I think policy can be done immediately. And then you lobby your positions through city council. I hope that we have a more progressive city council that comes, that's elected this time around, so that we do have individuals who will see the benefit of supporting the people and championing the people.
Speaker 1:And a city council that knows what their job is. Wow, just on the baseline, at a baseline level. You know another piece of your. You have a 10-point campaign. Another piece of your campaign is talking about a safer city Correct, and you talk about incentivizing police officers and firemen to come back and live in the city of Detroit. We'd love to hear how you plan on doing that, because, as of right now, state law doesn't require residency. We'd love to hear you talk about your affinity for technology usage and even some AI usage to enforce safety in the city of Detroit. We'd love to hear what side of the coin you are on when we talk about some of the current technology uses like the green light and shot spotter. All of these tools of surveillance have just cause for controversy in the blackest city in America.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, because what you're speaking to is the fact that black people have been over surveilled, over penalized, over incarcerated over the life of what we know the criminal justice system to be operating, incarcerated over the life of what we know the criminal justice system be operating. I got that, but at the same time we have to balance that with. You know, community safety. You know you can't grow a city if it's not safer. You know, if you want people to come back to the city, you want it to be safe. You know. But at the same time, when you populate it with people who I'll give you another example, I use this, I like to speak by example. If you remember Copper Valley, copper Neighborhood, or over there in Eight Mile Greenfield, Eight Mile and Gratiot.
Speaker 2:I mean there's a Copper Canyon right over here. Yes, absolutely Right over here, just east.
Speaker 3:It doesn't necessarily exist the same way it used to. You know, as soon as they were allowed to leave you know, by the case law, when the case was decided, I believe in the late 90s under the Archer administration they left. So it did change that dynamic. But so how do you incentivize people for coming back as far as law enforcement officers? Because you know we have a land bank that has thousands of properties and we can use that land bank, because I don't think the land bank's used, for you know it's a developer-friendly, not necessarily a neighborhood or individual-friendly organization. You know it's called a—it's basically a community land trust and it doesn't necessarily serve the interest of the community but it serves the interest of potential developers more so than that, and I think that's the feeling that people have.
Speaker 3:Yes, it absolutely is, that's the reality of what people have. You know I've done so much pro bono work for people who've done, who've gotten properties from the land bank and I've had to advise them. Some I've had to represent because you know if they miss something or they miss this, you know they get this red tag or they get a court summons to come to court and they don't have. You know the very fact that they're trying to build a home for their family, they don't have the necessarily funds to fight the land banks.
Speaker 2:We've experienced that here. Okay, we've purchased four houses, pulled them out of the demolition pipeline and fixed them up, trying to assemble the financing.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And while trying to assemble the financing, we're being threatened because and I'm writing letters saying you know, listen, this is where we're at we're getting mish to financing to support this home. And we still had to play games and jump through hoops.
Speaker 3:It feels very bureaucratic and you're more sophisticated. You understand that you operate in a different sphere than an average individual.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to tell you what I did in order to comply, but it would not be on the list of being sophisticated. I'm just not going to say that here.
Speaker 1:What I'm going to say is.
Speaker 2:I will, because the reality is I was trying to do it the right way, what I considered the right way, and then I got some common sense advice from some folks in the hood they were like this is how you do it and I did it their way. Do not implicate yourself here, and I am not implicating myself, because we have not done anything at home. It's almost done. It's beautiful and so it's going to be sold. It's taken us so long. You know it's so expensive to do this.
Speaker 1:I'm really proud of it, and so one of the police that you're trying to lure back to the city can buy the home in Chandler Park that Donna has renovated, because that's where you were going. You were talking about incentives.
Speaker 3:And for ones that need more development. You know that we find grant money for them to do so. You know to get them to entice them to buy these properties, whether it be discounted rates. But also you know the idea of streamlining city services. It falls in line with some of the things that you can impose on the land bank, even though the land bank sort of operates like this. You know sort of dark channel in a lot of people's minds, and particularly your co-host's mind, how you feel like you're being treated. But if you streamline the services and streamline the access, then you don't have that lag time and you also have-.
Speaker 2:The city already has an incentive program. I think that if you are a city employee, you get 20% off of the cost of homes that you're purchasing through the land bank. So if you're working with police officers and you're trying to get them here and they may be the last- to bite and they've already raised salaries and they've already raised salaries. What extra things can you do to help bring more black people into policing our community?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, one of the things I did learn, especially on this tour, is that some police have left because, you know, I was doing a home visit this weekend and a guy who was a police officer rename, name, nameless but he moved out because people were following him, he was targeted, he was targeted. And so when you have a situation, but you know it's also, he became a target because so many people had moved out. And you know, when you come in and you can explain that a little bit more, I'm not understanding what you're saying so when he's targeted, when he he would leave the precinct and they were followed.
Speaker 3:some people would follow him home and just to find out where he lives. And you know, because he was working on these elite kind of task force and so when he's not home you know things would happen. I mean God, you know it was a blessing that nothing ever seriously happened at his home. But you know, when he's away from home his kids and wife are scared. What's the next thing a guy's going to do? He's going to? He moved out.
Speaker 1:I want to spend some time here, Todd, you know, because I think when we talk about, I know that every mayoral candidate has to have a safety platform, and how I've been hearing people talk about safety does not, in my opinion, get at the nuances and root causes that make neighborhoods and cities unsafe. And so I'm not necessarily and I understand the benefit as someone who has lived the kind of life I lived and have the kind of education and experience that I have the benefit of a cop living in my neighborhood. But the people who are coming up, the people that I grew up with, aren't necessarily happy if a cop is moving in across the street. We're not necessarily happy if there are cameras installed at traffic lights. We're not necessarily happy that our face could be used from where at the real-time crime center for facial recognition technology that misidentifies black people, a mass. We're talking about a state where black folks are 14 of the population and represent over 50 of the prison.
Speaker 1:You know this absolutely, you know this and so I I really would like for us to have a much more expansive conversation about how we keep the city safe. That gets at something beyond just policing.
Speaker 2:Because when we talk about, safety.
Speaker 1:Everybody's answer has been police and more police or police, but there's really been no mention, little mention, of community violence, intervention, neighborhood development organizations like this one.
Speaker 3:Right and let me say that. So we hadn't really gotten and delved into that. You know that's a significant part of my platform because I know it from a perspective of being on both sides. Yeah, I know it from being a city attorney that represents the city and represents the mayor who manages a police force. I know it from you know, just experience, my adult, entire adult experience of being a defense attorney. I recognize how often it feels targeted, but the numbers don't lie. You're right that 14% versus over 50% being incarcerated, the numbers don't lie. So what do I look at it? I look at the neighborhood organizations being involved in the policing from the master plan. You would agree there's a different type of policing that would take place at Six Mile and Gratiot versus what happens in Sherwood Forest. You know you can't have a one size fits all type of policing and that's something you cannot have. You know you can't have a one-size-fits-all type of policing and that's something you cannot have. You know I was listening to your childhood story Place-based policing.
Speaker 2:It is place-based, but I was listening to your childhood story and it's moving right and a lot of these childhood stories were with the adults in our lives took care of us, modeled things for us, sacrificed for us. We have a whole generation of the children of mass incarceration, the children of foster care, the children of epidemics, of drug use and every other kind of thing, children whose parents and family systems have been absolutely destroyed.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:So more and better policing and neighborhood plans is not going to fix a broken person. And that's where CVI comes in. And it's always like, yeah, well, that's an afterthought, yeah, well, we need more police, and then you know. But what we really need, yeah, that's good, but when we get to that? But right now we have to stabilize the here and now. And over the course of my very long career, I've had the opportunity to see young people diverted from crime simply because somebody cared about them enough to give them love. And I think the question that Orlando is asking is how does that play out in a policy framework? With you as mayor, what are we doing? Not just you know nice things to say, but in terms of how we spend our money, how do we spend our money differently to ensure that our city is loving on our young people?
Speaker 3:Well, and I was going in that particular direction as far as creating the different type of policing for different areas. But I've been involved from a standpoint of volunteering and also being in the infrastructure of organizations that advance the ball forward, because we understand there's a value-added cost to our neighborhoods when we get these kids at 11 and 12 years old and we are able to intervene with mentorship. We are able to, you know, because you can identify some kids who are acting out, as we call it. Because we call it acting out when they're kids. When they get older we call it a case.
Speaker 2:When they're white. We call it mental health issues Right.
Speaker 3:We call it mental health issues, right, and so I think the issue is.
Speaker 2:I think the problem is that we have a way of criminalizing pain in our community and as a criminal defense attorney, you know what I'm talking about. Oh, absolutely, because I know. When you're talking to people and they're telling you their life stories, you're hearing some less than Ozzie and Harriet kind of conversations. Whew.
Speaker 3:You really are.
Speaker 3:And the thing is there are resources that are not aligned for the purposes of uplifting these particular organizations, because here's the thing we would rather spend money on after the problem versus preventative mechanisms.
Speaker 3:And that's where you want to align the county and state services that are available to be used in that particular pipeline of preventative things.
Speaker 3:And so when you prevent, you know that again, that value added cost is, you know sociologists say, you know the cost of death in our community is billions and billions of dollars.
Speaker 3:And just because of a life not lived, what it does to the students, you know, just like their studies and I look at all of these things you go to Chicago, they use this study in Chicago, where kids seize violence on the way to school, they perform precipitously less than what they've been accustomed to performing because of that trauma. So when we talk about so it has value, you know what you have to do is you have to announce why it's so important and why that should be the you know that's public safety has always been the number one thing that I'm concerned with, because it touches so many other aspects of growth, of human development, or allowing people to even develop rather than staying shut in for, you know, particularly for older people but for younger kids being able to recreate themselves and all of those things. But yes, preventative intervention and preventative methods, that we be using our resources through D-WIN Because we work with Wayne County.
Speaker 2:But the city doesn't fund Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Authority. No, it doesn't. How does the city use the city budget, prioritize spending in the city budget to address these very issues?
Speaker 1:Because what we know right now is that one of the and this has been the case for years one of the largest budget items is the police budget. But even adjacent to the budget that's allotted for police is the budget for police settlements. Police is the budget for police settlements. The city of Detroit settles cases against the Detroit Police Department every year worth millions of dollars.
Speaker 3:And I've been involved in it. Yeah, you know, I've been the plaintiff's attorney in some of those situations.
Speaker 3:In fact, I've been the expert witness in some of these cases that have been brought on, where a police officer who has essentially lied and placed this person in the crosshairs of the criminal justice system and serves 10 years, knowing what they did to this individual, knowing that an individual didn't do it and seen it, having been a part of it, having seen the ugliness of that, how it has, as your co-host says, destroyed lives, destroyed families. I mean, this is one individual that I'm speaking about. You know, I pray that he's getting some of the services from institutions that are out here and organizations that are out here. He's getting some of the services, but it's quite possible he'll never be the same. He'll never.
Speaker 3:You know, the story of Marvin Cotton is one of an anomaly, you know, and that's why he's so passionate about going around the country speaking on this and making sure that he's there when those people get released from prison. He's at the prison there with, you know, sundries and socks and you know making sure that his family can greet him at the gates that you know. Those are the type of things that, but those are the things that happen afterwards you are talking about. How do you stop that from happening in the first place?
Speaker 1:How do you allocate city resources?
Speaker 3:Allocating city resources. Number one you know, what I look at is training that's going to have to happen within the Detroit Police Department, so we need to spend more time on training on how to talk to people.
Speaker 2:So you think that training police officers is going to stop my mental health issue?
Speaker 3:No, no, no no, no, because I'm already struggling.
Speaker 2:I just I think we're asking about how you will spend the money, not I get it. There's a whole police budget. Okay, yeah, outside of the police budget, if we can talk about outside the police budget, what does that look like?
Speaker 3:So those funds that we would take, we would have to establish the um, the organ paying for or using our resources to go towards organizations that stop homelessness. But I most importantly identify the mental health conditions that people have, because it's almost just like most, a lot of the homeless people are people who have mental health conditions. A lot of the people that I see in the criminal justice system are people that have mental health conditions. A lot of the people that I see in the criminal justice system are people that have mental health conditions. So, first and foremost, we need to identify.
Speaker 1:Probably because they're homeless, or incarcerated. Or it could be a combination of both. Poverty is violence.
Speaker 2:We work with a lot of unhoused people here, a lot. We have a whole system that we've put in place to deal with and try to help address that. I think you know what I'm getting at is. There is this way of writing us off as criminal, as bad, as mentally ill. Poverty is violence.
Speaker 2:You know, I used to have this joke and I don't know if it's a joke, but you know, back when Survivor series everything was big I wanted to have Survivor Detroit hood and take some white folks and give them that amount of money and say I want you to survive on this for two or three months and see what happens. Okay, because the reality is, people have to work so hard just to exist, and so when we talk about it, we're talking about mental health, but we're also talking about creating a care community, right, and so I don't want to spend too much time on this though. This, this is your, this is your interview, but do you have anything else that you may want to contribute? Just think through that. You may want to contribute to the conversation about how you would move the needle in terms of building that care community.
Speaker 3:Well, part of building the care community is just expanding the resources, expanding and fueling those current organizations that we have that provide them. They need the resources from the city of Detroit in order to do that and they've already proven their worth. And what they haven't proven is so far they haven't gotten the funding that's necessary to continue the work that I think the good work that they're doing, so expanding and making sure it's an intentional expansion into those particular current organizations and organizations beyond that. So you have to make that a priority if you're going to make a dent in this idea of homelessness and mental health.
Speaker 2:Is there anything Detroiters should know about what set you apart from other candidates?
Speaker 1:Well, and why now Todd? Why not four years ago or years before that?
Speaker 3:That's a great question and the question is or, excuse me, the answer is right now. In my career I look at an individual. I've had success at practicing law. You know, the reality is just from a family perspective, what I went through nine years ago and my kids were younger. My kids are at an age right now that they're getting ready to go off. One's in college, one's getting ready to go to college.
Speaker 3:I couldn't see myself, with my kids 10 or seven years old, doing and committing to this, because this is a commitment that people can't really appreciate. You know, for people to say that I'm going to, you know, like other candidates saying I'm going to run a massive church and still be your mayor, that's not even practical, you know it. Just, it goes beyond. It's almost nonsensical to say that. I mean, it's insulting, you know. And then you and then I look at the individuals. What happened is?
Speaker 3:I look at individuals who also were championing for your vote, who have been in positions of power and have said nothing over the past 10 years. So what's there to make me think that they're going to do something different? So myself, I've been championing for the city of Detroit all my career. I've been doing it on my own dime and on my own time, whether it be the community you know, the donations that I make to the community organizations, the donations of time, money and other resources, the other people in my firm being involved in these organizations that provide preventative violence intervention before it happens and even after it happens with pro bono work that we do. So that commitment.
Speaker 3:I know what the people, I know the thirst of the people and I know people need and people need to know that someone's out there, that it has their, has their, you know, has their interest at heart and is willing to give all they can to their growth, Because this city can't grow by having just the, the, the people who are just negated and left left, almost essentially left, to die talking about growth, I know every mayor hopeful wants to grow population and you said the city can't grow without it being safe.
Speaker 1:But the city also can't grow with a school system that is inadequate and dps cd is actually a point that you make, um, in your platform, on your website. Talk about the mayor. To be clear everybody, the mayor does not have control over, uh, the detroit public school system, but you make it a priority yeah, talk about that.
Speaker 3:Well, okay, I I don't like when people say the mayor doesn't have any control.
Speaker 1:It's almost like kicking the can down the road. Well, the mayor is not. I know that.
Speaker 3:But when I hear candidates start off with that, that's not leadership. Leadership is stepping up and saying what can I do to make this work for the school system? What can I offer? What overlapping things that is the school system already doing something so that the city can do it, like maybe, security and providing an area for kids to again recreate themselves?
Speaker 3:As part of my plan, I want to reactivate the recreational centers and allow those centers to have training and to have technology to use computers, you know, because it's a big thing that the city of Detroit, a lot of kids in the city of Detroit, don't have access to internet, and so I need to provide that vestibule so that they can have that access, so that they can do the work that they need to do outside of the school system, to have the train, you know, to have those places be viable and have them active, with individuals who are there to support them, tutors and using those resources in that particular area.
Speaker 3:So making these recreational centers sort of being the hub for kids but also doing much more than that, it would be the community hub for that particular area. I also want to put medical provisions within those centers to have a clinic that people can go see. So the health department, through our health department, providing that and providing those resources to our citizens of the city of Detroit. And you know, it all costs money, people say. But the thing is the city of Detroit has resources. It was about realigning them to where they're most important and where they're going to most value or bring the most value to residents of the city of Detroit and understand that residents of the city of Detroit Understand that residents of the city of Detroit.
Speaker 2:What does your first 90 days look like?
Speaker 3:My first 90 days, my first 90 days. The first thing I want to do is I want to do an audit, and I want to do a massive audit of the city of Detroit, because I want to know where the money has been spent.
Speaker 1:A financial audit.
Speaker 3:A financial audit yes, a financial audit. I want to also audit every department within the city of Detroit For efficiencies, for efficiency purposes, and I'm doing all that. We already have an advanced team that's set up to do these things. And those are the focus things, because here I believe that we have the city of Detroit spends about 50 to 70 percent of its budget on employment, and so, therefore, we have to figure out a way. Are these people?
Speaker 1:Ask us every other organization.
Speaker 2:How is this not like Doge Pardon? I mean, you know, hold on, hold on. You can't say like Doge.
Speaker 3:Doge has no empathy. Doge has no empathy in what they're doing.
Speaker 2:I'm not coming in here saying Because when people talk about redundancies and people talk about those types of things, this is the rhetoric we're hearing, and if I'm working for the city of Detroit, I'm feeling like am I redundant? And so I think it's important for us to actually articulate what we mean.
Speaker 1:And to remove bureaucratic barriers.
Speaker 2:Yes, because I think you know there's always this mindset that everybody is. Your mom works for the city, right, and was she doing? Was she just unnecessary?
Speaker 1:She was in the library. No, she was in the library. See what I'm saying, and I would love to get your take on like the state of libraries. But again you pointed out, like the budget line item, in every organization the employee expense is going to be the biggest expense.
Speaker 3:Oh, I understand that, but what I'm saying is getting value out of it, training them and retraining some departments for AI development. And we have to be concerned about certain things where there's going to be a loss of funding for the city of Detroit that people haven't thought about and no one's talking about and having that hardcore discussion about the ARPA funds. That is a thing of the past. You know those and we're going to lose-.
Speaker 1:We've been asking that question.
Speaker 3:We're going to lose about a thousand jobs that are funded through ARPA, and I think that what happened is there's been overspending by the city of Detroit, where we can get the same people working and the same value from the work, but we didn't have to do it at the cost, and that's the reason why I want to do a financial audit. I want to know how things have been sent as you should.
Speaker 3:And so again then auditing the departments to see where I can put people in other areas to provide the services that Detroiters need, and to retrain and provide for retraining and so that we're fit for a new age of employment, we're fit for AI and technology, and looking and making. My goal is making Detroit a greener place.
Speaker 1:OK, ok, so we are at time. That went by really really quickly, what?
Speaker 3:has it been 30 minutes?
Speaker 1:No, it's been over 60.
Speaker 3:It's been over an hour. Wow, I talk too much, no.
Speaker 1:Todd, we want to give you the last word to address our listeners and tell them why they should cast their vote for you in August.
Speaker 3:First and foremost, you're going to get transparency. You're going to get honesty. I'm not going to promise you something that I can't produce as a lawyer. I can't promise people outcomes that they want. I know, when they come and see me, what they want. But I can tell you and I can promise you that no one will outwork me. No one's ever outworked me in the performance of my work and in my personal life, and so I have the time, the commitment and I have the skills that no one else offers. You know, I am the only self-made CEO that's built a firm from the ground up and with nothing. You know, I had a neighborhood that was behind me and that was it, and from there I've been able to touch thousands upon thousands of people in the city of Detroit. So I intend to replicate that in what I do for the city of Detroit, and again, I offer a set of skills that no one else has.
Speaker 3:People want to equate being an elected official with being a leader. That doesn't equate the same way. That just means you got elected. What did you do when you had the role and you were serving the city? Did you just go along to get along, or did you lead the way and you were the squeaky wheel. Just go along to get along, or did you lead the way and you were the squeaky wheel? When you see injustice and you see citizens of the city of Detroit who are not having their fair share, you know. But again, what I'm intending to do is you know, I'm built to lead and I'm ready to do this, and it's time to level up Detroit. It is, and we're going to do that together.
Speaker 1:All right, Attorney Todd Perkins, candidate for mayor. You will cast your ballots on August 5th 2025. Listen, if you have topics that you want discussed on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit, on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or you could, or X you can email us at authenticallydetroit at gmailcom. Todd, where can the people learn more about you and your platform?
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, and that's something that my team always says. I leave out Perkinsforthepeoplecom.
Speaker 1:Perkinsforthepeoplecom.
Speaker 3:Right and our platform's there. My story is there. The reason why I'm doing this, you know, and essentially at the core of it, is this city has loved me and this is a time for me to love the city as it's you showing up on people's porches?
Speaker 2:absolutely, absolutely love to hear the love, oh yeah you might be the busiest man to run from here.
Speaker 3:It's like how many, oh no but I when I win, it's over.
Speaker 1:I already have a succession plan in place. You're not going to keep doing everything you are doing. You're not going to keep doing it. No, no, no.
Speaker 3:Why would I hold up? Why would I denigrate someone or go after someone who says that they're going to do that? No, as we already have a secession plan in place. I have many lawyers who I've trained over the years. I have others who are intending to come back to the firm once I win this election and will take over, and Perkinsard will continue to be a known entity in the city of Detroit. I'll just be in another office working on behalf of the citizens.
Speaker 1:All right, it's time for shout outs.
Speaker 2:Let's start with you, donna I want to shout out all the magical mamas out there.
Speaker 1:Happy Mother's Day.
Speaker 2:You know, I had a wonderful Mother's Day with my daughters and my grandchildren, just really, you know, celebrating first of all birth and life and all the exciting things that happen, because this is such a really dismal time in our history, and so sometimes just playing with the grandchildren and just thinking through what we can do and what can control makes me feel good. How about you, orlando?
Speaker 1:I want to shout out Daria Burke, who I'm going to be interviewing tomorrow or today, depending upon when you hear this at the Detroit Public Library. She wrote a memoir of my own making, who has an MBA, graduated from Renaissance, went on to University of Michigan and then went to NYU at Detroit, born of two parents who struggled with addiction in the 80s and sort of parented herself to an amazing stratosphere of success, working for Fortune 500 companies like Estee Lauder and Facebook and CVS doing marketing and branding and beauty. Her memoir is scintillating Donna, if you're free, you should come and Facebook and CVS doing marketing and branding and beauty. Her memoir is scintillating. Donna, if you're free, you should come. It's going to be at the Detroit Public Library, tuesday, may 13th at six o'clock. So Tuesday, may 13th at six o'clock, I hope to see you there. It's going to be what I hope to be a really transcendently spiritual conversation about her journey and her life Amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm excited Ty. Do you have any shout outs?
Speaker 3:I have, you know something and I hate to borrow from your co-hosts I have a shout out to my mom. This is the second Mother's Day without her, so I spend. You know, I figured out how I would spend my Mother's Day and what I did do was I went to maybe nine or ten churches yesterday and I gave a card and a gift, you know, from our firm, to the oldest mother in each church and you know I gave it to the pastor. But I ran around doing that and it was a surprise and it just, you know, to see all the people loving on their moms.
Speaker 3:And I heard one pastor say you know, if you haven't talked to your mom or you have these relationships that might be fractious at times, just pick up the phone and you'd be surprised how happy they will be to see you. They birthed you and you know, and it just was. It was a very emotional day for me and it just it didn't start off that way. I didn't think that it was going to be that way, but I mean positively emotional. I mean it wasn't without some tears, but it was still so positive to just see those people with their moms and, you know, to see and be able to gift them with something and let them know how important they are.
Speaker 2:You know I can't end this podcast without also shouting out my late friend, colleague, partner, angela Brown Wilson, who we lost just last week. It's been devastating having Angela, who battled you know disease for so long, but you know I have to shout her out. She was an amazing woman and we'll be celebrating her life on Friday at Sacred Heart Church at 11 am. Family hours at 1030. Shout out to her sister, to her niece and to all of the people who surrounded her with love and her son who surrounded her with love, and shout out to Maggie DeSantis and the many other people in her life. Life is precious and we love you, angela.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, we do. We love you, angela. We thank you all so much for listening and until next time make sure you love on your neighbor. We're moving on. We're moving on To the sun. We're moving on, like the hot moon in the sky, moving on To the sun. We finally got a piece of love. It's so bright in the kitchen the beans don't burn on the grill. Bye.
