Detroit council debates dedicated media‑services staff, withdraws $300,000 request

Council members on the expanded budget finance and audit standing committee debated whether to fund a council‑specific media team on April 7, briefly moved a $300,000 recurring allocation for dedicated staff and then withdrew the request to allow additional planning.

Councilmember Reneta Miller moved that the city “have media services, with 2 graphic designers, 2 videographers, and 2 photographers in the amount of $300,000” as a recurring line item for council support. Miller said her low, target and ceiling estimates ranged from roughly $2.75 million to $3.5 million for broader service but offered $300,000 as a conservative recurring request for immediate staffing needs. “I was trying to be modest and a little conservative,” she said.

Several members questioned whether additional recurring funds were the right approach or whether reassigning or better deploying existing staff would solve the problem. An administration representative cautioned that media services historically did not manage elected officials’ social‑media pages and that adding a large recurring general‑fund commitment would require offsets elsewhere in the budget.

Director Brown (Media Services) told the committee the department is expanding production staff and plans to add graphic designers, photographers and videographers to improve coverage; she said Media Services’ focus remains production and that social‑media management and event decor are not core in‑house functions. “We are going to be allotting more team members through the funding that we already adequately have,” she said, describing plans for dedicated production staff for council corners and events.

After sustained discussion over staffing, cross‑training, vendor use and budget trade‑offs, Miller withdrew the $300,000 request pending more planning. The committee then approved a motion from Member Scott Benson directing the Legislative Policy Division (LPD) to draft a plan to reestablish in‑house media services for city council, with Benson’s office promising to supply a memo and to explore equipment purchase or an MOU to share resources.

Members also agreed to add language to the administration’s closing resolution committing the administration and council to continued dialogue and planning rather than adopting a large recurring line item at the eleventh hour. The committee set follow‑up work on implementation details, cost estimates and potential timing for any future personnel additions.