City Council Gets a Progress Report on Priorities Set Last Year

The prospect of losing city employees to the state and Michigan State University is what keeps City Manager Robert Belleman up at night, Belleman said while discussing a review of City Council’s priorities for 2024 and 2025. 

Council checked in on five of its 10 priorities for the two-year term at its Tuesday, Feb. 11 discussion-only meeting. The “progress report” was developed by Belleman and staff, and gives insight to where city staff believes it stands in carrying out the goals of City Council. 

The priorities were set early last year and encompass a broad range of government responsibilities. While council was initially set to review all 10 priorities at the meeting, members opted to just look at the first five on Feb. 11, with the next five to be discussed at the discussion-only meeting in March. 

The priorities reviewed by council include staffing goals, improving technology, being responsive to community needs, improving public trust and holding safe and secure elections. 

Goal one: To become the region’s preferred municipal employer by reducing employee turnover by 5%.

Heading into the 2024-2025 term, employee turnover was a chief concern for council, as many of the city’s top employees had left in recent years. 

The report on this goal showed that the city has made progress on most of its action items, with significant progress updating personnel standards, coordinating outreach to a diverse set of prospects and conducting a job classification study. 

Other action items, such as implementing a leadership training program, developing a mentorship program and offering recruitment programs through job shadow opportunities and open houses, have seen little or no movement. Belleman said the city will continue to work towards completing all action items in this category. 

Belleman said the city has been “much more successful” in filling vacancies and attracting more applicants, though the city could take strides in attracting a more diverse set of candidates. 

Mayor Pro Tem Kerry Ebersole Singh asked Belleman what “keeps him up at night” with hiring and retaining employees. 

Belleman said the state and MSU poaching employees is a constant threat. He said the city can stave off other employers by offering training to employees and ensuring salaries and benefits are competitive.

Goal 2: To deploy and upgrade technology to streamline operations and improve internal and external user experience. 

The core of this goal was modernizing important city systems. A few action items to accomplish the goal were digitizing important records, implementing electronic filing for the city’s income tax, utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping and providing online access to all city board and commission meetings. 

Belleman highlighted the online GIS mapping that allows residents to see where road construction has been done or water/sewer lines are located as a recent improvement. He also applauded the recent launch of the electronic income tax filing system. 

Belleman said an area that could be improved is the city’s water meters, which cannot be read remotely. He said a “significant investment” will be needed to upgrade the water meters, which provide alerts about leaks. 

Additionally, the city still has not made most board and commission meetings available to view online.

Goal 3: Remain a responsive municipality by ensuring local laws and policies are relevant and increase input from all stakeholders.

This goal had only three action items: To appoint a charter review committee, incorporate inclusive and accessible economic development practices, and to implement the six pillars of 21st century policing. 

Belleman noted that the Charter Review Committee that was appointed last year is going about its work and has already made six to eight recommendations that will later be passed on to council. 

There is work to do on incorporating inclusive economic development practices. Belleman said that looking into pilot programs to incentivize affordable housing is an example of action that could be taken on this goal. 

Belleman said that the East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) has made progress on its goals by sending more officers to community meetings. However, the department has not been able to establish a downtown business officer due to staffing shortages. 

Goal 4: To strengthen public trust and community connection in the City of East Lansing through enhancing its communication program.

For this priority, the city aimed to improve communications with a broader segment of the community, put city officials through media training, collect community input on important happenings and improve partnerships with MSU and East Lansing Public Schools. 

Belleman highlighted major city plans like the five-year parks plan, non-motorized transportation plan and wet weather resiliency plan, that received substantial public input as successes in this category. 

Belleman said that the recent creation of a page informing residents of the police chief search and asking for input on what they would like in a new chief, is also in line with this goal. 

Councilmember Dana Watson asked why the action item of re-engaging partnerships with MSU and ELPS showed no movement. 

Belleman said the city works with MSU fellows and coordinates with MacDonald Middle School athletics, but these actions are anecdotal and hard to quantify. 

Councilmember Mark Meadows jumped in to say the city has “well over 100 partnerships” with MSU, but the goal was to re-engage quarterly meetings with MSU administration. He said the city also used to meet quarterly with ELPS leadership, but has not recently. 

Belleman said he and members of council were invited to a future dinner with the MSU Board of Trustees and President Kevin Guskiewicz, and that he communicates with some MSU administrators on a monthly basis. 

Meadows stressed his belief that reestablishing face to face meetings is important. He said city leaders and university leaders used to hold two meetings at city hall and two meetings on campus every year.

“I think they were very useful in making sure that we had some common ground that we were proceeding on,” Meadows said. “We still haven’t received any real discussion with regard to what’s going to happen at Spartan Village, with the redevelopment there. Those are the type of things that come up during those meetings.”

Goal 5: To support and advance Democracy by ensuring safe, and secure access to voting, encouraging voter registration and enhancing voter education through accurate information sharing and increasing overall community turnout in early voting. 

Each of the 10 action items under this goal showed 100% completion, as the city held five elections from November 2023 to November 2024 with few hiccups. 

Belleman highlighted the new Election Day Voting Centers and Early Voting Centers that played a role in significantly reducing Election Day lines as big successes. 

He also said the city utilized a state grant to provide rides through Uber and Lyft to the correct polling place for residents who mistakenly tried to vote at the wrong location, a common problem in college towns. 

City to take bids for attorney services. 

Council also discussed a Request For Proposal (RFP) that will soon be sent out to solicit bids for legal services. Currently, Giarmarco, Mullins & Horton, PC provides general municipal services, and Easterly Law, PLLC provides prosecution services.

The contract with Giamarco, Mullins & Horton runs through the end of February. The contract with Easterly Law expires at the end of March. The contracts can be extended month-to-month once they expire, if needed. 

Council made clear that sending the RFP when contracts with firms will soon expire is the standard process, not a poor reflection of the city’s current legal representation. The city’s current representatives will be welcome to submit new bids. 

Council wants voting representation on BWL. 

After the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) raised rates without notifying East Lansing officials last year, council began having discussions about asking for voting representation on BWL. Currently, the board is made up of seven voting members from Lansing, and three non-voting members–one of which is from East Lansing. 

BWL provides electricity for about 90% of East Lansing residents.

The request for a voting seat would be sent to the City of Lansing, which oversees BWL. Councilmember Erik Altmann suggested East Lansing officials could also communicate with the commission currently reviewing Lansing’s city charter. 

Singh suggested the city reach out to other municipalities with non-voting members to gauge interest in adding voting representation to municipalities other than Lansing. Council agreed to have Belleman reach out to these municipalities.