City Manager Robert Belleman Reflects on City Developments, Looks Ahead

“It’s an exciting time for the City of East Lansing,” City Manager Robert Belleman said, speaking with ELi over the holidays in a Zoom interview. He looks comfortable wearing a fleece jacket in the book-lined walls of his Saginaw family home.

Belleman spoke about his first 15 months on the job, challenges facing the city and opportunities that lie ahead.

One of his primary goals as city manager has been to flesh out city staffing.

“We filled several key positions,” Belleman said, pointing to Ron Lacasse who was chosen as department of public works director, Annette Irwin who now leads the planning, building and development department and Prime Time Seniors Director Alesha Williams. 

Belleman is still left with vacancies in the office of police chief, city clerk and the chief financial officer.

Belleman said the city has interviewed chief financial officer candidates, but has not landed on a long term fit yet.   

“My goal is to find the right one that will lead that team and help us get our arms around the finances and make sure that we’re looking at our unfunded liabilities as well as [the city] income tax, which has a short window before we have to ask residents to consider renewing that [in 2030],” he said.

Last budget cycle, Belleman proposed creating a deputy city manager position to help with his workload. He proposed including the position in the 2025 budget, but City Council opted against funding the position.

“Maybe the idea of a dedicated deputy city manager isn’t the right mix for the City of East Lansing,” Belleman said. “It’s looking at making sure I have the right management team in place. I brought on an intern [who] has done a great deal of support to the office by doing a lot of research for me.”

Belleman acknowledged that flooding was one of the East Lansing’s biggest challenges last year, but said he believes the city may find solutions as it hires more employees. 

2024 saw a pair of large storms cause street and basement flooding around the city. Dozens of East Lansing residents attended a listening session with department of public works employees, passionately expressing their concerns.

“One of the positions that we put into the budget was a grant coordinator,” Belleman said. “We did hire an individual and she has recently started. Part of that is to look at grants, not only for water and sewer, but for the fire and police departments.”

Belleman said projects currently being carried out could help reduce flooding as well. 

“The city will continue to do the Wet Weather Resiliency Plan to map the current storm water capacity and to look at how the weather patterns are changing,” he said.

Belleman added that the city will continue to communicate with residents on what they can individually do to prevent or reduce flooding on their property.

When talking about the city income tax, Belleman admits he is already looking at an eventual campaign to convince residents to vote to renew. The current tax will end in 2031. 60% of the revenue from the tax is diverted to pay for unfunded pension liabilities for city employees, which is vital as the city works on paying off its unfunded liability. In 2022, the income tax brought in more than $14 million. 

“We are reducing some of the long-term liabilities,, but not as fast as I think the leadership in East Lansing wanted to, but a lot of that had to do with changing investment–so investments weren’t performing exactly as everybody would like it to,” Belleman said. “If you have your own retirement fund, you know exactly what I mean, that investments have hit hard.”

The city’s charter review committee, formed last year, has already made recommendations concerning gender neutral language and discussed adding a preamble to the charter, Belleman said.

He expects the committee to address ranked choice voting that was passed by East Lansing voters in 2023 and the timeline of swearing in new councilmembers. City officials have said that the city charter may not be in compliance with state law because it does not give enough time for canvassing between Election Day and the swearing-in date.

In 2023, voters rejected a proposed charter amendment to move the swearing-in date to January. Currently, new councilmembers are sworn-in in mid-November. 

Belleman also offered his thoughts on the passage of Proposal 1 in November and the Michigan State University students who overwhelmingly supported the measure, propelling it to victory.

“[The students] votes count just like anybody else,” he said. “It’s a democratic process and clearly that democratic process supported Proposal 1. It’s my job now to work with city staff to make sure that we fully appreciate and understand what [it] means to the city and our rental regulations.”

In the new year, the city manager said he will continue to attend various city commission meetings, so he can learn more about their work. He also touted a strengthening relationship with leadership at Michigan State University.

“A lot of good things are happening in East Lansing,” Belleman concluded. “My biggest encouragement to the citizens is get involved if you’re not involved. Stay involved if you are and engage us on all levels.”