On today’s edition - we talk with former city council president and recent non-profit executive at The Heat and Warmth Fund, Saunteel Jenkins. She’s running for mayor of the great city of Detroit, and we’re going to get into a number of issues that matter.
Jenkins said that she is running because of the pain facing Detroiters that has not been adequately addressed and discussed her vision for the city,
Below you will find a video of the conversation and a full automated transcript. Please excuse any errors and check with the original audio content.
Joining me here at the Daily Detroit studio at TechTown is candidate for Detroit mayor, former city council president, executive chair, and former CEO of The Heat and Warmth Fund, Saunteel Jenkins. Welcome to Daily Detroit. It's your first time.
Saunteel Jenkins: It is. I'm so happy to be here.
Jer Staes: Yeah, I'm glad to have you. I'm glad to talk about these issues that are so important to Detroiters. You know, I think it's a really important thing. Why don't we get started here introducing you to people? Obviously, people who've been following the city for a while know that you were a former city council president and things. But why now? Why run for mayor? Because at least to me, as an outsider, this feels like you're asking for a lot of pain.
Saunteel Jenkins: First of all, I would say you're not an outsider. Anybody who knows you knows you're not an outsider. But also, I think it is a tough job, and it would be a tough job. But pain is what so many Detroiters are facing. It's not what you know ... the person who's in the mayor's office ... there is some sacrifice, but there's also great privilege. And it's about addressing the pain that so many Detroiters are still facing, whether it's the families I'm serving every day at THAW, or families who are still suffering and afraid because of the gun violence in some of the communities across the city of Detroit. Those are the people who are really feeling the pain. And and it's a part of why I'm running.
Jer Staes: You chose to have your announcement at St. Suzanne in the city. Why select a venue like that? Because you've been around the city for a while. There's all kinds of beautiful venues. Why St. Suzanne?
Saunteel Jenkins: Yes, there are all kinds of venues around the city. But St. Suzanne represents so much of what this campaign is about, right? It's about the community. It's about the neighborhoods. It's about youth and making sure we have safe spaces for kids. And St. Suzanne Cody Rouge [Community Resource Center] is really a cornerstone in my life's journey. I lived on Westwood. St. Suzanne sits between Westwood and Granville. I grew up on Westwood. My 14-year-old brother died on Granville shortly after he had left playing in a basketball game at St. Suzanne. So that particular location has so many different meanings to me.
Jer Staes: You've always been called to public service in one way or another. What drives that for you? Because there's a lot of people who are very smart in the city and can do a lot of different things. Public service requires a different level of sacrifice. What draws you to public service?
Saunteel Jenkins: I've wanted to be a social worker since before I knew it was called social work. When I was a kid, I knew I wanted to grow up and help other little kids that had been hurt in some way because my sister had a friend who was in an abusive home. We came home one night, and this was like January, February, and she jumped out of the bushes. We pulled in the garage. She had been hiding in our bushes for hours waiting for us to get home because her mom and her mother's boyfriend were beating on her. And I remember then thinking, I want to be somebody who helps kids like that. Um, I didn't know it was called social work, but that's been what's driven me. My mother has instilled in me and my sister the importance of giving back, and that's how I've lived my life.
Jer Staes: So, someone who's followed you for a while will know that you were a former city council president. You're now looking at the office of mayor. In between those times, you know, working at The Heat and Warmth Fund, why walk away from the Council Presidency, right? That was something that I've honestly wondered for a while, and I've never had the chance to ask you about it.
Saunteel Jenkins: So, I never walked away from Detroit. I chose to serve Detroit differently. And just a reminder, at the time I left, I wasn't the council president. I was still a member of City Council. And I had been the president through the toughest part, the bankruptcy. The week that I left council, we announced that we were exiting bankruptcy. We had our 10-year plan of adjustment in place. The courts were approving our exit from bankruptcy. The Grand Bargain was in place. So the most difficult work to get us through our darkest times had been done, and then this opportunity came along to serve families like the one that I grew up in. I lived in a house where we had no lights or no gas in the winter. I know what that feels like for families. And to be able to help families who were struggling, the way my family had struggled, it was an opportunity that was important to me.
Jer Staes: So what are some of the things in these experiences that you've learned that you think will help you when it comes to possibly being the mayor of the city of Detroit?
Saunteel Jenkins: Well, first, the last 10 years, I've been a CEO. I've learned how to be an executive where the buck stops with you. And it's important. Certainly, our legislators are doing very important work. But it's different from the work that the mayor has to do. You know, at the end of the day, once any legislation is passed, the mayor has to know how to execute, how to implement, how to manage. And that's what I've honed over the last 10 years, and I'm ready to manage the city.
Jer Staes: So, what are a couple of your top priorities with this? Let's say you you do get elected through this. What is one, two, and three? And I know that it's hard to say there are so many priorities the city's dealing with, and I'm not trying to belittle anything. But, I have learned that if everything's a priority, nothing's a priority, right? You have to focus.
Saunteel Jenkins: That's fair. That's fair. Yes. And I would say the first two things would be making sure I have a strong team in place, but also making sure that we understand our revenues, we understand our liabilities, and then prioritizing how we spend and utilize our resources. That includes master planning for each of the seven districts. And and I start with the master plan because it feeds into everything else. If we want to talk about affordable housing, if we want to talk about supporting and building more local Detroit-based businesses and creating more entrepreneurs, those things start with a master plan. And then making sure the tax incentives make sense. So if the master plan for district seven says a movie theater, then we're offering incentives to developers who are going to bring a movie theater. And if you live in District Seven, you get more incentives. If you live in Detroit, you get more incentives. So creating these plans for each of the seven districts that make sense, that include public input from the people who live there, and then allow for the kind of developments district by districts that will help strengthen and build out our neighborhoods.
Jer Staes: I know that an ongoing frustration of some of our listeners is they feel like there's a lack of plan. There's like ... we're in emergency mode still. We're still in the echoes of what you were talking about where we're applying band-aids or we're doing things as we can do them. And that's not a slight against anyone specifically, but to look at a more holistic vision, maybe over the next 5, 10 years of what Detroit could be. What about things like zoning reform or or looking at individual places where okay, the city is I know so many people want to get the city back to what it was. But the city also cities change and evolve, and I feel like in some cases, we still have kind of prescriptions for a city that you know, it was the fifties, it was the sixties, and we love the pictures, but I'll be honest, like that's 60 years ago now, 70 years sometimes in some cases.
Saunteel Jenkins: And we have to remember that going back to what it was wasn't always good for everybody, right? The right? It's like, "Make America great again." Great for who? becomes the question. So we don't want to make the city what it was. We want to make today's Detroit the best that it can be for everyone. That's what this is about. And zoning the reason that it all goes back to master planning, because zoning is a part of master planning. So if you are a developer, you don't have to jump through the hoops of a special zoning request because you already know what the corner of Plymouth and Evergreen is zoned for, or the corner of Mack and Bewick is zoned for, and you can bring your development.
Jer Staes: Well, in some ways that also acts as an incentive. And I share that because if you make the system easier for people, you know, the more complicated a system is, and this is just my own opinion, but the more complicated a system is, the more money it costs to navigate it, which then shuts out the door to smaller developers, to minority players, to all kinds of things because the people who have the most money have access to the lawyers. They have access. They can wait out every single process. Somebody who's trying to rehab a fourplex or a duplex somewhere or trying to do a storefront, they don't have those resources. And making the system work better in my mind would help create a more even playing field for everyone without having to go to the incentive bucket.
Saunteel Jenkins: I agree 100%. And it's not only do the folks with resources have more lawyers, they will often have the direct line to someone in City Hall, right? So like you said, if you're a small business owner with a duplex or a small restaurant owner. I was speaking with a young African American woman who has a place downtown this past summer. It was August. She was still waiting for the approval for her permit for her patio. It's August in Detroit. We only have about two more weeks of summer, and you're still waiting for an approval. That shouldn't be the case. I'll just say that's where the executive experience comes in.
Jer Staes: So you've got this plan. What's next? Let's get through the planning process. You helped to find those things. You know, I said, you know, two or three. So two and three for you.
Saunteel Jenkins: It is the master planning, which includes better development. It includes better management, but then we have to bring it all together with a public transit system that makes sense and can get people to and from the places they need to be.
Jer Staes: And how do we get there? Because funding is an issue. There's multiple layers to this onion when it comes to transit. As listeners of the show will know, we've talked to Transit Riders United. We've talked to people at you know, Smart because although it's not something the mayor controls, you interact with the suburbs with a lot of those things because there are so many Detroiters who go to work in the suburbs, those kind of things. How do you start to address some of that? I know you don't have all the answers right now, but what are a couple of key things with transit to make it better that you'd like to see?
Saunteel Jenkins: I think one of the things that's happening now, which is encouraging, is more regional cooperation, which we know had not happened for a very long time. I think we're in this unique space today where we could get regional cooperation and we could work together to go after federal funding and state funding to fund our local or regional public transit in a way that makes sense.
Jer Staes: Do you have any preferences on how that looks, or is that something that you kind of look at the the process? What form that would take? Are you looking at like bus rapid transit or increasing rail or people mover, or is it more of a fungible kind of flexible thing for you?
Saunteel Jenkins: I think everything needs to be on the table. What we don't need is another People Mover, which is very, you know, it's very cool when you come downtown, if you work downtown, if you're playing downtown; it's not a transit system. You know? So, we need the kind of transit that is going to get people to work from work. We need transit that will support young folks who don't want to drive because we know today, everybody doesn't want to own a car, and a people mover system won't do that. So rail, rapid bus, we need to have all options on the table.
Jer Staes: You mentioned co-operation, and I think that is a crucial thing to talk about, not just with the suburbs, but also with Lansing. The mayor of Detroit is a very special position in that way. The whole region looks at the mayor and what they're doing. What are some of the ways that you'd want to work with Lansing or priorities you'd like that you're like, "Okay, this has to happen on a state level." What are some changes that you'd like to see?
Saunteel Jenkins: I would love to look at the way sales taxes are applied. And depending on who you talk to, some will say it requires state legislation. Some say it requires a constitutional change. But in many states, municipalities can add 1% on top of the state sales tax. So it would be 7% sales tax in Detroit instead of 6%. If we were able to do that, it would create an opportunity to reduce income taxes, which could be another incentive for businesses to come and create jobs. It could reduce property taxes, which would be an incentive for more people to move and repopulate neighborhoods, but certainly looking at ways to restructure the way we apply taxes in the city of Detroit. More sensible gun laws that keep people safe. I think that's very, very important, and it's something that is near and dear to my heart because I lost my brother to gun violence.
Jer Staes: And with your view on things through this lens of community work and wanting to be in social work and things like that, how do you feel that relates to the public safety question? Because you know, a lot of Detroiters will say then, "You got to have safety first, right?" So how do those two things come together for you when you think about police chief and all the things because that's a huge part of the job of the mayor of Detroit.
Saunteel Jenkins: Yes. You know, in social work, we talk about the hierarchy of needs, right? And and the first thing is always safety and security because when you don't feel safe, it's hard to really think about any of the other things, right? So that's very important, and working with the police chief, the police department to make sure not only that we are policing in a way that is punitive, we have to police in a way that is preventive. We have to police in a way that is community-minded. So community policing is important. I talk about often community hubs and having community hubs that include everything from educational spaces to after-school programs. I think the mini stations that we used to have would be important as well and making sure that we have officers that are actually interacting with the public. When I had my youth violence prevention task force, I always had the police chief come and participate with us and the youth, and they'd sit in and we'd have these conversations that went both ways about the things that officers are thinking about, the things that teenagers are thinking about. You know, you build trust by getting to know people and understand them.
Jer Staes: That makes me think of recent efforts not just in Detroit, but across the country of community violence initiatives. How do you approach those, think about those? There's a number of groups that it seems like they have been able to make a dent in helping as part of the mix around public safety.
Saunteel Jenkins: Yes, and there are some great groups out there, very innovative who are making a difference. I would want to continue to work with the groups that are making a real difference. Even the ones that aren't quite moving the needle, work with them to see, you know, if there are ways where we can tweak their programs to make them more effective. But also, it's really, I go back to, and I know this part of this is my social work training, but it's prevention, right? It is starting with kids from a very early age and making sure they understand all of their options. If you only give a child negative choices, they can only make a bad choice. If we help kids understand what all of their choices are, and we're exposing them to those things, then they're more likely want to have hope for themselves and their future, but also to make a better choice.
Jer Staes: Well, we've talked about a lot of serious things. I will say we aren't Daily Detroit unless we have a little bit of fun with things. So I know that when somebody's running for office, it's hard to pick a place or two. But where do you like to go? Like what are some places that you're like, "Hey, whether you're new to the city or maybe you're an East Sider and doesn't often go to the West Side or something like that, some places you you really enjoy that you want to you want to share with people."
Saunteel Jenkins: So, first, I will give a shout out to the West Side. Westwood Fresh Market, which is on the street I grew up on, but it's a grocery store that just opened, but they have hot food inside of Westwood Fresh Market. There's a meat market in there. So the woman cooking is cooking listen. This food is so good and I love liver and onions, but I won't cook it, but I love them. They have liver and onions and and pork chops and catfish and baked chicken and listen. Westwood Fresh Market. You can pick it up and take it home with you and it is worth the drive. Even if you're an East Sider, it's on Westwood and Plymouth, and yes, it is worth the drive.
Jer Staes: Well, Saunteel Jenkins, I really appreciate your time on Daily Detroit. I know this may not be our only conversation in this whole journey. I encourage listeners dailydetroit@gmail.com where we're doing this series if you follow ups, ideas, questions that you have, please let me know daily detroit@gmail.com. Thank you so much.
Saunteel Jenkins: Thank you. And can I tell your listeners, my website is saunteeljenkins.com. No "H". Thank you.
Jer Staes: Until tomorrow, remember that you are somebody, leave five stars on your favorite podcast app, and we'll see you around Detroit. Take care.
