City Donates $5K to MLK Celebration…and Other Happenings at Last Week’s Council Meeting
East Lansing City Council’s meeting of Jan. 10 took place with a full house – city staff brought in extra chairs in several rounds – as the city’s legislative branch worked its way through three motions to change the deer cull, a 3-1 vote to declare East Lansing a sanctuary city, and the selection of five finalists for appointment to the vacant council seat, as ELi has already reported.
But more happened at the meeting:
The city donated $5,000 to support the annual celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Mid-Michigan. The commission is chaired by the City of East Lansing’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Elaine Hardy, and includes East Lansing Mayor Ron Bacon and Public Library Director Kristin Shelley.
Today starting at 11 a.m. at the Lansing Center, the commission will host its MLK Day luncheon in person for the first time since the pandemic started. Hardy told Council on Jan. 10 the group is very excited about gathering together again.
The event will have as its keynote speaker attorney Fred Gray, now 92 years old. Gray is nationally renowned for his work including the defense of civil rights icon Rosa Parks and representation of the survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a federally-funded study that for decades deceived and left a group of Black men untreated even after penicillin, a cure for syphilis, became available.
Council passed a four-page resolution praising King, Gray, and others, and encouraging citizens to participate in the commission’s celebration at the Lansing Center or to watch its broadcast on local television stations.
The resolution concluded by stating, “The City Council of the City of East Lansing is committed to the ideals of building the beloved community and will conduct policy in accordance with these values.” It was signed by the mayor and the city clerk.
The meeting also included a public hearing on an application for a Special Use Permit to sell recreational marijuana at 2040 Merritt Road, near Costco and Red Cedar Spirits and less than a quarter-mile from Pleasantrees, another marijuana retail operation. No one came forward to speak at the public hearing other than the applicant, and council unanimously approved the request.
ELi reported in November that there was supposed to be a hotel and retail strip built in conjunction with this new marijuana shop – built on land sold by the city via a controversial eBay auction – but those other parts of the approved site plan have not come to fruition.
On the consent agenda (a set of motions approved as a block without discussion), Council also made various appointments to commissions and approved several contracts as well as granting the Coalition for Catholic Private Education the recognition required by the state to hold a fundraising raffle. Find the complete agenda here and the recording of the meeting here.
This week’s meeting of Council, on Tues., Jan. 17, is set to include the selection of the appointee to council, a discussion of proposed 5G small cell installations in the city – something that has been causing upset among East Lansing homeowners – and traffic issues at the drive-through Starbucks on Grand River Avenue. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. at the Hannah Community Center and the agenda is posted here.
Correction, June 7, 2023: The original version of this article said that Council made the $5,000 donation to the MLK Commission. Subsequent research showed the donation was not approved by Council (except insofar as the Council approves the City’s annual budget). The article was corrected to state that the city made the donation.