Former East Lansing City Council Member Filed Discrimination Complaint Against City Manager
Former East Lansing City Councilmember Dana Watson filed a complaint with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, or MDCR, accusing City Manager Robert Belleman of discrimination based on her race and sex, saying she was intentionally excluded from communication about police interactions last year.
Ultimately, the complaint was not sustained by the department.
Watson is the longest serving Black City Council member in East Lansing history, spending more than five years on council from 2020 to 2025. Her complaint stems from Michigan State University’s welcome week in August 2025, which saw multiple incidents that drew accusations of police brutality – including one incident that is the subject of lawsuits filed in federal court.
Watson said Belleman communicated with other council members over the phone about incidents that occurred during welcome week, but not her. Watson was the only Black member of City Council, and was often the only member of council who questioned police actions at public meetings.
Watson wrote to the current City Council about the complaint in an email on April 21, correspondence that was included in the written communications attached to the meeting agenda of the council meeting held the same day. Watson wrote that while her white colleagues were given information about what happened during welcome week, she was reliant on “unconfirmed clues” from TikTok.
Watson alleges the exclusion hindered her ability to adequately act as both a council member and the council liaison to the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission.
“The community began approaching me for accountability and expressed their concerns with what was happening,” she wrote. “I looked like a fool that no other council member did.”
A letter from MDCR Watson shared with ELi states that Belleman included Watson in email communication, but did not call her because he was calling council members in alphabetical order, leading to the “innocent mistake” of not contacting her individually. Watson’s name was last alphabetically on the five-member City Council.
“When I mentioned my ignorance and referenced tiktok during an in person gathering with our then Mayor [George] Brookover, mayor pro tem [Kerry Ebersole] Singh, Robert [Belleman], MSU president, MSU athletics director and some partners, the city manager did not acknowledge the ‘innocent’ oversight or offer to bridge the communication gap,” Watson wrote in her April 21 email to City Council.
Watson wrote that during closed sessions she was “forced to stand alone against the white establishment and institutionalized biases.”
The news that Watson filed the complaint comes shortly after another controversy around equity within city government. Earlier this month, Belleman sent a vague memo to both the city’s Human Rights Commission and Police Oversight Commission stating that DEI Director Elaine Hardy was being replaced as their staff liaison by a human resources employee, a move that triggered broader concerns about the state of DEI in the city.
The MDCR closed the complaint with insufficient evidence to proceed. The letter says Belleman was counseled on improving communication and apologized to Watson. Belleman did not respond to a request to comment for this story.
When asked if she was worried about burning bridges with city government leaders like Belleman, Watson told ELi, “What bridges would I burn trying to hold people accountable? Are you on the right side of what’s happening, or are you on the wrong side?”