Committee delays $3.5 million environmental testing amendment, asks law department to review cost-recovery options

The Detroit City Council Public Health & Safety standing committee on Monday deferred action on a $3.5 million amendment to an environmental due-diligence contract after members pressed administration staff for information about cost recovery and possible contractor breaches.

The amendment (contract 6006589) would increase available funds for the Monique Smith Group — one of the city’s environmental-services vendors — and extend the contract through Sept. 23, 2027. Nick Payne, planning and strategy manager with the Construction and Demolition Department, said the vendor will mobilize to identified sites, take backfill and topsoil samples, send samples to labs for analysis, and prepare analytical reports to determine which properties require remediation.

"They’re mobilizing to each of the sites that we've identified and they're taking backfill and topfill soil samples ... to determine which properties need soil remediation and which ones do not," Payne said.

Members expressed concern about who will pay for remediation. Vice Chair Denzel McCampbell pressed for clarity on contract language and whether demolition contractors had complied with requirements to use fill material that meets federal, state and local cleanup criteria. "This $3,500,000 is not a drop in the bucket," McCampbell said, asking whether contract terms or enforcement mechanisms could produce automatic cost recovery.

Payne said the department’s scope requires demolition contractors to use compliant fill material, and that confirmation of any contractual breach would be a law-department matter. Committee members asked the law department to prepare a confidential (privilege) report outlining possible causes of action and prospects for recovery so the council could discuss strategy without creating a public road map for litigation.

A city staff member said more than 600 sites have already been tested and that the administration is in the process of replacing contaminated soil where required; the chair pointed the public to an interactive "fill material" test map at detroitmi.gov that lists addresses and testing status.

The committee agreed to bring the contract back in two weeks after the law department consults about recovery options and next steps. No final authorization or appropriation was approved during Monday’s meeting.

What happens next: The law department will be asked for a report on potential claims and recovery strategies; the committee will re-evaluate the amendment after confidential legal guidance is available.