2025 in Review: A Look at What Happened in East Lansing This Year

From a competitive local election cycle to huge development proposals and community reckonings over public safety, housing and budgetary policy, 2025 was a year filled with important moments in East Lansing, and the ELi team covered it all. 

With calendars set to flip to 2026 in a few hours, let’s take a look at what happened in East Lansing over the last year. 

Two new members are elected to City Council. 

Nationally, it was an off-year for elections. But in East Lansing, it was a pivotal cycle that saw two new City Council members elected, council members who will help make important decisions over the next four years. 

Leading up to the election, ELi set the stage for the local races with enterprise stories about the startlingly low voter turnout from MSU students in council elections and low pay for council members that has led to high turnover on council.

To help voters get to know candidates, ELi cohosted a candidate forum, introduced all six candidates in profile stories, had candidates describe how they would approach some of the city’s most pressing challenges and analyzed finance reports to break down how candidates made and spent campaign money. 

After announcing that Steve Whelan and Chuck Grigsby had been elected to council, we took a closer look at election results and covered the swearing-in of the new council members. Grigsby and Whelan also spoke on the recently-revived East Lansing Insider podcast days after being elected to react to the results and share their approaches to governing. 

Beyond elections, ELi continues to cover City Council and the city’s boards and commissions. So, every big development, ordinance change and major budget decision, readers will know about. 

Already, the stage is set for huge council decisions on a pair of massive apartment complexes proposed for downtown, the city’s first Sheetz restaurant and gas station, and much more. 

Troubling financial forecast gives way to talks of spending cuts, new taxes. 

Early in the year, a financial forecast presented to City Council projected that the city could face bankruptcy within five years if it does not make adjustments. Still, City Manager Robert Belleman told ELi there are many options the city has to address its financial challenges, expressing confidence in East Lansing’s future. 

While preparing the city’s budget for fiscal year 2026, council mulled over proposed department budgets and held a town hall to help the public understand where the city’s money comes from and how it’s spent. 

After the Michigan Supreme Court ruled East Lansing issued an illegal “disguised tax” through Lansing Board of Water and Light bills, city finances were further imperiled. Additionally, Belleman said the city’s financial challenges have been masked by American Rescue Plan Act dollars and staff vacancies in recent years. 

Belleman proposed a deficit reduction plan to address the budget shortfall. The biggest part of the plan was replacing the city’s general fund contribution to parks and recreation with a new property tax millage, a move that would need to be approved by voters. 

City Council voted to put the millage on the ballot, but it was soundly rejected by voters in November’s election, sending city leaders back to the drawing board. 

Late in 2025, City Council appointed members to serve on a Financial Health Review Committee. Starting early next year, the seven-member committee will take a deep dive into the city’s finances to recommend budgetary changes. 

East Lansing police oversight clashes with safety concerns. 

Leadership questions emerged in ELPD after former Chief Kim Johnson resigned in 2024 shortly after he had been placed on administrative leave. For more than a year, it was unclear why Johnson was placed on leave, but ELi found out the action came after he was accused of sexual harassment.

Late last year, Jennifer Brown was named interim ELPD chief and in February, Brown was selected as one of four finalists for the position. The finalists were flown to East Lansing, went through a gauntlet of interviews and took part in a public forum. Eventually, Belleman chose Brown to lead ELPD – a decision members of the city’s police oversight commission voiced concerns about. 

Months after Brown was named chief, ELPD became subject of controversy after it issued a misleading press release and Brown made a comment that has been broadly characterized as racist. In reaction, the city’s police oversight commission and human rights commission have each called for Brown to be removed or resign.

While City Council has remained mostly quiet about Brown’s comment and the misleading press release, the body did hire an independent investigator to review police policies and actions.

At the same time, owners and employees of downtown businesses have often spoke at city meetings, raising concerns about violent incidents that they say have become common downtown and voicing support for Brown. 

Late in the year, City Council considered initiatives that aim to improve downtown safety and opted to hire more police officers. Council will also further consider ordinance changes that would ban public camping and loitering in parking garages – though leaders of some local nonprofit organizations worry the city would be criminalizing homelessness.

City Council also enshrined ordinance changes that strip the city’s police oversight commission of some of its powers. City officials who voted in favor of the changes said they are needed to comply with a collective bargaining agreement the city recently reached with a police union, though members of the oversight commission think some amendments go too far. 

Collective bargaining, funding questions surrounded East Lansing schools this year. 

Every year, monitoring actions in East Lansing Public Schools is one of ELi’s most important responsibilities. This year was no different, and we regularly reported from ELPS board meetings. 

Perhaps the most important school storyline from this year was the collective bargaining process the ELPS teachers’ union and district engaged in. The teachers’ union initially rejected a proposed contract, before later agreeing to a deal that included a modest raise.

Some of the controversy around the bargaining process stemmed from large raises that the district recently gave top administrators, which board members said were necessary to remain competitive with neighboring districts.

Throughout the year, ELi responded to community questions by reporting on safety concerns at MacDonald Middle School, a false alarm at Whitehills Elementary School, the district’s approach to discipline and a Powerschool data breach, among other topics. 

2025 produced good news stories from the district, like the Trojans boys basketball team capturing a state championship, and test scores that indicate Red Cedar Elementary students are overcoming unique challenges. 

We’ve also kept an eye on emerging challenges to the school district, like students using AI to cheat on assignments and the impact state and federal funding cuts could have on ELPS. 

We got to know the history of our city better. And our neighbors too. 

Mostly through the work of Reporter Dustin DuFort Petty, we have a better understanding of some of the most important people and moments in East Lansing history. 

Dustin wrote stories about MSU’s first Black faculty member, East Lansing’s prohibition era and Rick Rapaport, a community leader who became one of the area’s first AIDS deaths. 

In more current news, we met Flirty the miniature service horse, spoke with a local man with cerebral palsy who has become a powerful advocate for people with mobility challenges, checked in with a 19-year-old East Lansing author and got a traffic safety lesson from a longtime crossing guard. 

We talked with residents of a historic East Lansing rental community who were being priced out of their homes, met with members of a local cycling group and (finally) figured out why there are so many shoes hanging from power wires. 

In 2025, the city said farewell to longtime employees who retired, like former Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Cathy DeShambo, and Dawn Carson, the first woman to serve as East Lansing fire chief. We also met some emerging leaders in the city ranks, including the Gordon sisters – Amy and Emily – who grew up locally and now work together to lead an important city department. 

The ELi team is excited about 2026. 

For more than a decade, ELi has been sustained by community support. 

This year, we received a large grant that allowed us to greatly expand our reporting capabilities. Our reporting team grew from one full-time employee, Managing Editor Luke Day, to four, as Deputy Editor Anna Liz Nichols and reporters Dustin DuFort Petty and Ayah Imran came aboard. 

Additionally, ELi hired a new executive director in Tedda Hughes, and we will soon announce several additions to our board. 

Our reporters will continue to monitor the important storylines that are already in motion and pay close attention to new developments that pop up. In the meantime, readers are always encouraged to reach out with questions and story ideas. Often, our most important stories originate with a question from a community member. 

The ELi team remains grateful to the people who allow us to do this work, and we look forward to all the new opportunities 2026 will bring.