Community Advisory Councils Seek Recognition.

Detroit, MI – On Tuesday November 24th at 4:30 PM members of two Community Advisory Councils (CAC) held Detroit's first CAC Summit. They gathered in front of the Spirit of Detroit to demand recognition of Detroit government's most ignored elected bodies. Like most members of the Detroit City Council and the Board of Police Commissioners, CAC members petitioned for ballot access, fulfilled residency requirements, and were elected by their Districts. Unlike other elected bodies, there has been no mention of them on the Detroitmi.gov website.

District Seven's current Community Advisory Councilmembers Regina Ross, Clinton C. Topp and Bobbi Johnson attended. They were joined by District Four's Community Advisory Councilmembers-Elect Scotty Boman and Gregory Creswell.

Scotty Boman, who was just elected to the District #4 CAC with 20,357 votes, said,

"The purpose of Community Advisory Councils is to improve communication between the City Council and residents, but that job is undermined when someone looks us up on the City's website, to see if we are the real deal, and finds nothing there. This lie of omission is a great disservice to the people of Detroit. It's not for the benefit of CAC members; it's a matter of our local government accurately informing residents about their own government."

The DetroitMI.gov website provides a description of every other elected body as well as identifying current members, and how to contact them. A search for "Community Advisory Council" only yields results about unrelated appointed bodies. The District #4 CAC just formed, but District #7 has had a CAC for 6 years and has continuously struggled for recognition. One of its members, Bobbi Johnson said,

"If Gabe Leland would have activated his CAC, there's a 9 out 10 chance he wouldn't be in this trouble. The CAC's are City Council's check and balance."

Another distinguishing characteristic of CAC's is that they are the only elected body created by petition, instead of being created directly by the Detroit City Charter. Boman filed the petitions on October 1st 2019 following a brief news conference with Detroit's Fourth District Councilman Andre' Spivey. Scotty Boman. Gregory Creswell, and Washington Youson were elected in the 2020 election (with Creswell and Youson being write-in candidates)

Gregory Creswell commented,

"I welcome the challenge, and I promise to obey and defend the US Constitution, the Michigan Constitution, and the Detroit's city charter. I look forward to working with Mr. Boman and Mr. Youson in District #4. The people of Detroit have a right to know this, so why are other politicians trying to keep it a secret?"

The Seventh District was previously the only district in Detroit to have a CAC. It was established by petition in 2014 The CAC is composed of two appointed and five elected members. Seventh District voters first chose elected members in the Presidential election in 2016. In spite of being in existence for four years, the Detroitmi.gov website has conspicuously omitted any mention of their Community Advisory Council, its meetings, its members, or how to contact them.

Both the District 4 and District 7 Community Advisory Councils will be on Detroit's 2021 Municipal Election Ballot.