City Leaders Urge Council to Move Forward with Charter Review Commission
An open letter shared with ELi on Tuesday afternoon (Dec. 12) encourages the East Lansing City Council to put the establishment of a charter review commission on the ballot in 2024. The letter, signed by nine local civic and school leaders, lays out the case for such a ballot proposal.
“East Lansing has seen numerous and substantial changes over the last several years,” it reads. “The city has established an income tax, gone through a global pandemic, and has increased its focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. With so much change, we believe that it is necessary and proper for the city to consider if the current Charter is sufficiently meeting the city’s needs. During the most recent city council election, several candidates, including some of those currently on council, voiced support for calling for a charter review commission. One councilmember’s campaign website states, ‘It’s time for a thorough Charter review…’ We agree, and ask the council to begin this process now.”
The letter was signed by Adam DeLay (Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission), Kath Edsall (school board and Independent Police Oversight Commission), Tali Faris-Hylen (school board), Chris Martin (school board), Karen Hoene (Human Rights Commission), Rebecca Kasen (Human Rights Commission), Ernest Conerly (Independent Police Oversight Commission), Joseph Sullivan (Planning Commission), and Nell Kuhnmuench (Age Friendly Community Committee).
The idea of a charter review was part of the platforms of several of the eight candidates who ran in November for a City Council seat. Recently-elected Councilmembers Mark Meadows and Erik Altmann each went on the record endorsing some form of review committee if the charter were to be changed, as did George Brookover, who was then a Council member and is now mayor.
The driving force behind the letter is Adam DeLay.
ELi reached out to several members of the coalition for comment, with Martin and Kasen both directing us to DeLay as the leader of the initiative.
“When Adam sent an email asking how I felt about a charter review,” said Kasen, who ran for a seat on City Council in November’s election but came up short, “I said I thought it was a great idea. It was something I was thinking about for a month or so.”
“For me personally,” DeLay said in a Tuesday night telephone interview with ELi, “when you look at the November election, we had three charter amendments that were considered, potentially could have had a fourth, and if you look at how those broke down, OK, one was defeated by a pretty decent margin, but then the second two, expanding the Council and ranked-choice voting, both were very close, something in the 48/52 range. When you look at that, you say clearly there’s a pretty defined view on these things. You could have seen either pass or fail. And that, to me, suggests that there might be an appetite for a larger discussion on what we want the city to look like.”
When asked what kind of updates he envisioned, DeLay said that members of the Human Rights Commission had mentioned that the language in the charter was gendered and could be updated. He also mentioned a discussion about enshrining the police oversight commission in the charter and the direct election of a library board.
DeLay was eager to say his bigger ideas were his alone and didn’t represent the wider group.
“If you look at the City of East Lansing regionally,” he said, “it by far has the weakest municipal government, including very small townships, like Lansing Township or Delta, and all these others that are smaller than East Lansing.”
He explained Grand Ledge, for example, has a stronger municipal government in terms of its elected apparatus than East Lansing.
“That sort of goes back to when the city adopted its current charter, which was in the 1940s,” DeLay said. “It was a city that was less than half the size it is now in terms of population. And even geographically, you look at the Pinecrest neighborhood, for example. If I remember correctly, in the 1940s when this charter was passed, Pinecrest was not part of the city, it was part of Lansing Township and later annexed.
“So you have to ask yourself, you have five individuals, the City of East Lansing is the only municipality in the region that does not elect its chief executive,” he said. “Even townships where they have a township manager, they at least separately elect their supervisors. Even in cities like Grand Ledge, again, where they have a city manager, they at least elect a mayor. We’re the only municipality that doesn’t elect its clerk. Every municipality in the region has a full-time elected clerk, I believe.“
DeLay said the city has changed over the last eight decades and the charter should reflect those changes and growth.
“At the time our charter was formed, it was a very very small, unique city with the university, which at the time was just Michigan State College,” he said. “It’s time to bring the city’s elected apparatus up-to-date in a way that reflects a city of nearly 50,000 people and that, I think if you allow yourself to have a stronger elected capacity, that allows you to address some of the back and forth you’ve seen between the city’s elected and the city’s staff.
“I think right now, our municipal government’s elected officials are so stripped of formal power that anything, any peek under the hood, any conversation is viewed as overstepping,” DeLay said. “And that isn’t something you would see in a city like Lansing, for example.”
Another concept DeLay would be interested in exploring is that of a ward system, where an area is divided into districts that directly elect individuals to represent their interests in a governing body.
“I would like to explore a ward system,” he said. “I think East Lansing is perfect for that. This city has very, very strong neighborhoods you can sort of rattle off: Pinecrest, Southeast Marble, Bailey, Glencairn. A ward system that would allow a city that has diverse, unique neighborhoods [to have] representation from all those different areas. I also think that by having a ward system and a seven-member Council, that would increase the chances, because you’d have a campus ward, of getting students elected to Council. Having at least one is beneficial to the city.”
“Whether it would be done or it wouldn’t be done, whether I’d suggest it and everyone in the city would tell me it’s a terrible idea, don’t suggest it, that’s what the point of the commission is for, to explore those questions in an open-ended way,” DeLay added.
Councilmembers Altmann and Meadows react to the charter review commission idea.
DeLay said his interest in the idea of the charter commission began with Lansing’s approval of a charter commission in November.
“The review commission election in Lansing was triggered by a charter provision that we don’t have,” Altmann told ELi when reached for comment. “We’re just getting going and haven’t started to talk about how to approach our own review.”
Meadows based his thoughts on the process East Lansing used to update its charter in 1997.
“During the campaign, at least three of us advocated for the establishment of a committee to take a look at the city charter and think about changes,” he said. “The items on the ballot were fine to be reconsidered, but we need to take a look at the entire charter.”
“Because it’s such a long and expensive process,” Meadows added, “I would personally support a committee over a commission.”
Meadows explained a committee could be named by City Council whereas a commission would need to be voted on in a special election. In 1997, East Lansing voters considered 62 charter changes, each its own proposal. Half were decided on an August ballot and the rest on a November ballot.
The 1997 committee had five participants and, according to Meadows, was chaired by current Mayor George Brookover.
ELi reached out to other Council members and will update this story if comment is received.
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