Meet East Lansing City Council Candidate Joshua Ramirez-Roberts
This is part one of ELi’s City Council candidate series. Over three days, ELi will publish articles introducing each of the six candidates in this November’s election.
Joshua Ramirez-Roberts describes himself as a “mediator” who has the skills and knowledge to improve East Lansing if elected to City Council.
“I’ve been involved in this community,” Ramirez-Roberts said. “I know the history of this community, I’ve seen where we’ve been going, and I know what improvements we need to make.”
Balancing the budget, bringing back the folk festival, improving communication with nearby governments and ensuring smart and sustainable growth are some of his top priorities.
The 24-year-old candidate placed sixth in the 2023 City Council election. In 2024, he won a Crystal Award for community service. He currently works for the Michigan Office of Retirement Services.
He has previously worked in the Michigan House of Representatives and as a teacher at East Lansing High School. Ramirez-Roberts has served on the University Student Commission, Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, Community Development Advisory Committee, Fenner Nature Center’s Board of Directors, the Bailey Community Association, the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee and the Folk Festival Study Committee.
Top priorities
“First things first, I mean, you have to deal with the budget,” Ramirez-Roberts said.
Ramirez-Roberts thinks his time on the Fenner Nature Center’s board of directors has given him helpful experience in setting budgets.
Ramirez-Roberts wants strong citizen involvement in the financial review process. He praised a resolution recently passed by City Council to assemble a Financial Health Review Committee made up of community volunteers.
“I think it gives us a good perspective of where the community’s at, the kind of changes they would like to see,” Ramirez-Roberts said. “It also brings an outside perspective, which always helps.”
Looking at East Lansing’s budget, Ramirez-Roberts said he found several “operations and services” costs that do not have a clear purpose detailed. He wonders if taking a closer look at these expenses will help identify areas where spending can be cut.
Michigan State University could also increase its contributions to public safety expenses in the city, Ramirez-Roberts believes.
“MSU is bringing in a record number of students every year,” he said. “The vast majority of them don’t live on campus, right? MSU is staffing their police department like they have these 50,000 kids on campus all the time. But they’re in East Lansing.
“So I think we need to be looking into a better agreement with MSU to say, ‘Hey, we help provide fire and safety for all of these students who come and give you guys money. We need to get fair compensation for that.’ I really don’t think we are at the moment.”
Development
Ramirez-Roberts has also familiarized himself with East Lansing’s development trends and standards.
“I really want to take a look at those zoning codes we have right now,” he said. “I think East Lansing is pretty notorious for just having a jumbled mess of a zoning code. It’s incredibly complicated, and a lot of it is so restrictive that it actually leads to overbuilding.”
Ramirez-Roberts said the city should look to add more owner-occupied units, like condos, to help residents generate wealth.
“We’re actually building new opportunities for people to get a foothold in the community, start paying taxes, start building their own personal net worth, their own personal asset value that they can carry with them that’s not throwing rent into the wind,” he said. “That’s a mortgage that they’re paying and a property they can eventually sell.”
To encourage smart and sustainable growth, Ramirez-Roberts said new developments should be ecologically balanced, and sometimes be made with communication and cooperation with surrounding governments.
“We never meet up and say, ‘Hey, what are you planning on doing?’ By coordinating and presenting a solid, unified vision, you can get much better results than all this piecemeal getting thrown at the wall and hoping it sticks.” Ramirez-Roberts said.
Other priorities
After serving on the Folk Festival committee, bringing the festival back is a key goal for Ramirez-Roberts.
“These big community events make people want to live here,” he said. “They help people stay in East Lansing. They make it more attractive to prospective residents. It’s just overall good for the community. Brings in money to local businesses, local artists. It’s a benefit at all levels.”
With a personal interest in ecology, Ramirez-Roberts spends his free time removing invasive species. Improving the general ecological balance and encouraging native growth is also one of his priorities.
“I grew up here my whole life. I really love this community. It’s where I want to keep living,” Ramirez-Roberts said. “I know I have the ability to help, especially with the city’s budgetary situation. I have skills to offer.”
This story was updated to clarify Ramirez-Robert’s role at ELHS.