District 4 Community Advisory Council

Please click here for meeting information.

New Community Advisory Council Seated

In the November 2021 election, District 4 voters elected Dennis Bryant (8,479 votes), Jocelyn F. Harris (70 votes), Adrian L Green (28 votes), and Rose L Jones (28 votes) to serve on their Community Advisory Council from 2022 through 2025. Information about their first meeting is here.

District 4 CAC Charter Mandated Mayoral Meeting

Please click here for meeting notes.

District 4 CAC Welcomes Sandra Turner-Handy

At our April 12^th meeting Sandra Turner-Handy became our 5^th Community Advisory Council member.  Her appointment, by City Councilmember Andre Spivey fills the remaining vacancy that resulted from only three members being elected.

A lifelong Detroiter, Sandra Turner-Handy is the mother of six children, 11 grand-children and two great-grandson. Sandra is a graduate of Wayne State University with a bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Master of Science in Leadership Development, and is completing a Doctorate of Education in Leadership Development.

Sandra has worked in the political arena as a chief of staff for Representative and Senator Hansen Clarke. It is this position that has motivated her to work and engage in the areas of social and environmental justice in the City of Detroit. Sandra has found her niche in engagement of others to raise the quality of life for residents within the city. Sandra is the Engagement director for the MI Environmental Council, where she has worked for the past 13 years.

Sandra currently sits on a number of boards coalitions whose goals are to mitigate environmental impacts, improve Detroiters’ health, and improve the built environment through practices and policy changes.

As a community leader Sandra leads the Denby Neighborhood Alliance since 2013, serves as president of the Ninth Precinct Community Relations Council and sits on the board of Life Builders and Camp Restore Detroit. Sandra enjoys reading, landscaping, writing, developing youth leaders and working on beautification and re-development projects in her community.

District 4 CAC welcomes Karen Knox

Detroit, MI – Detroit’s District 4 Community Advisory Council (CAC) welcomes Karen Knox.  She is the first appointee to the CAC in the wake of an election where only three candidates qualified to fill the five elected positions.

In keeping with Detroit’s Charter, and municipal code, District 4 Council Representative Andre’ Spivey filled the vacancy. Knox is Executive Director of Eden Gardens.

Karen Knox is also an actress and vocalist. She is interested in producing movies and television programs. She is currently working on a community center following the success of Eden Gardens.  Here is a story on Michigan Radio about Eden Gardens:

“Eden Gardens” is one Detroit neighborhood not waiting for help.

---

District #4 Community Advisory Council Elected

Scotty Boman (left), Washington Youson (center) and Gregory Creswell (right). Creswell and Youson source: Ballotpedia.

Detroit, MI – On Tuesday November 3^rd Detroit’s District #4 elected three Community Advisory Council members: Scotty Boman, Washington Youson, and Gregory Creswell. Community college Professor Scotty Boman was elected to Detroit’s Community Advisory Council (CAC) in District #4.  The officially canvassed results show he had 92.91% (20,357) of the votes, with the remaining 1553 votes going to write-in candidates.”

Only two people submitted the required paperwork to have their write in votes counted: Gregory Creswell and Washington Youson. Since five CAC seats were available they are presumptive winners. Preliminary* write-in counts posted by the Wayne County clerk show Washington Youson to have 24 votes and Gregory Creswell to have three votes.

The two vacancies will be filled by 4^th District Councilman Andre Spivey, and the five will conduct a search for persons well-qualified to serve as senior citizen’s issues representative and others as Youth Representative (This is the only body in Detroit government to have a voting member under 18).  The Councilman will chose on Senior citizen and youth representative from the list.

• We have reached out to the County Clerk for clarification and are awaiting a response.  Since the county and state Board’s of Canvassers certified the election, these should be official, but we also know these write-in counts to be inaccurate to the point that they would statistically imply that only one in four absentee ballots were counted. The actual valid write-in votes must have been higher for candidate Creswell.

For more details and on-going developments visit our blog here.

---

Community Activist Files 1,570 Signatures to Create Community Advisory Council

Detroit, MI – District Four is the second of Detroit’s seven districts to establish a Community Advisory Council (CAC). This is thanks to the effort of community college professor and local activist Scotty Boman who spent his summer collecting 1,570 signatures on a petition to create a Community Advisory Council for Detroit’s fourth District.  Only 1,141 signatures needed to be validated for the petitions to be approved. The City Clerk approved the petition on October 4^th.

Boman, filed the petitions on Tuesday October 1^st following a brief news conference with Detroit’s Fourth District Councilman Andre Spivey. Spivey and Boman met up at 9:30 AM to answer questions at the Coleman A. Young Center, then walked the petitions down to the City Clerk’s office.  According to the Detroit City Charter, “The purpose of these Councils is to improve citizen access to city government.” And “The City Council member elected from the non at-large district in which a Community Advisory Council resides, or their designee, shall attend all official meetings of that Community Advisory Council.” Spivey and Boman also addressed the topic in the citizen comment portion of today’s Detroit City Council meeting.

Councilman Andre Spivey is a native Detroiter and Cass Tech grad who was first elected citywide in November 2009.

Boman commented, “In the course of circulating petitions to constituents I found that one of the most popular provisions was that a CAC may require that the City Council representative receive prior consultation from the Community Advisory Council on all issues which relate exclusively to that district. Another popular aspect of CAC’s was their duty to assist groups, agencies, businesses and residents in community problem solving by meeting with them. In general people are looking for more transparency and to have a voice in the decision making process.”

Boman said he has encountered objections, but those were largely based on misunderstandings. “Some people were concerned that creating an organization with seven office holders would strain the city’s limited budget at a time when many retirees continue to suffer from lost benefits in the wake Detroit’s bankruptcy.  I wouldn’t have undertaken this effort if it would add an additional burden on taxpayers.  The Charter is clear on this.  It says, ‘Community Advisory Councils shall receive no appropriations from city funds, but may accept donations or grants in accordance with state, federal or local law.’ Others thought that the CAC would replace their favorite community group, but they would simply be an additional avenue of communication, not a replacement for existing ones.”

The Seventh District is currently the only district in Detroit to have a CAC.  The CAC is composed of two appointed and five elected members. Seventh District voters chose the five elected members in the Presidential election in 2016.

The members of the Fourth District Community Advisory Council will be chosen in the 2020 General election.

The Petitions were approved as indicated in this letter.

---

Boman discusses new CAC on WHPR “Feedback”