Council Majority Moves 2 of 3 Charter Amendments to the Ballot

It appeared as though voters would be deciding in November whether or not to expand the East Lansing City Council from five to seven members – briefly.

Mayor Ron Bacon had started reading the final item on the business agenda at the Tuesday (July 11) City Council meeting when City Attorney Anthony Chubb interjected.

“I apologize, could we take a brief recess?” Chubb asked. “We just have realized a documentation issue that’s come up.”

Following a short break, Council reconvened and Chubb announced there was a problem with the resolution to ask voters whether to expand Council. The motion had passed in a 4-1 vote about 13 minutes before Chubb called for the break.

“I just realized that the document that was previously voted on is not the updated document that revises all the necessary charter sections,” Chubb said.

He explained the amendment voted through did not include various accessory changes to the Charter that would be required if the voters decide to increase Council from five to seven members. For example, there are parts of the charter that refer to a council quorum and council majority as three members, and this change would require those sections to refer to four members.

Subsequently, Chubb advised Council to vote to reconsider the motion and then vote against the item, effectively withdrawing it entirely so a corrected version can be decided upon at the Friday, July 21, special Council meeting. (No explanation was given for next Friday’s meeting, which apparently was previously planned but is not yet on the city calendar.)

At the June 13 Council meeting, when the amendments were initially discussed, Chubb had said there would be a review of the entire charter to ensure amendments fit with other sections of the document. He said the attorney general’s office does a similar review as well before language is approved to be put on the ballot.

While the motion to expand Council was tabled Tuesday night, the other two charter amendments considered passed on split votes, and will consequently be on the November ballot, assuming no objections from the Michigan Attorney General’s (AG) office.

One would change City Council elections from odd- to even-numbered years and the other would create a lame duck session following Council elections to allow for adequate time for election canvassing.

Prior to Chubb asking Council to reconsider its vote, there was strong support for Council expansion.

Wider representation was the reason most named among Council members supporting the motion to expand the body.

“East Lansing is too large and too complex to be ruled by a body that is this small,” Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg said.

Gregg added she is comfortable with her decision to move the motion forward because it will ultimately be voted on by the electorate. (All charter amendments must be approved by voters.)

“This is something for our citizens to decide,” she said.

Bacon said expanding the Council would allow the group to include more expertise and representation. He said there is an opportunity to bring in people from different interest groups, faith groups and neighborhoods.

“I just believe in more voices,” he said, calling East Lansing a “city of neighborhoods” and adding, “I think we have tons of expertise in this city. I’d like to see more of it on Council.”

Councilmember Noel Garcia said he was on the fence about this resolution but would vote in favor of it after he had to miss several meetings due to his mother falling ill and eventually passing. (Since his appointment in mid-January, Garcia has also missed meetings for work-related events.)

“That was scary,” Garcia said. “To start thinking that maybe we’re not going to be at a quorum for that [meeting], for others.”

Before the vote was reconsidered, Councilmember George Brookover was the only one to oppose the resolution. He did not speak before the vote, but shortly before Chubb paused the meeting he said he had concerns about the amendments clashing with other parts of the city charter.

Brookover ultimately voted against all three amendments, agreeing with former mayors who came forward at an earlier meeting to say so many changes to the charter should not be put on the ballot without a charter review commission and careful consideration of the entire charter and the proposed amendments’ implications.

Resolution to ask voters whether to move Council elections to even-numbered years narrowly advances.

The amendment to switch City Council elections from odd- to even-numbered years passed in a 3-2 vote, with Garcia joining Brookover in opposition.

Data shows the switch to even-numbered election years will greatly increase the number of students who vote in City Council elections, which was a main point of discussion. It will also greatly increase off-campus voting. ELi recently reported that, in on-campus precincts, 2,504 more people voted in 2022 than 2021, while in off-campus precincts, 6,881 more people voted in 2022 compared to 2021.

“To me, keeping our off-year [odd-numbered-year] elections and shouldering the cost of a City Council only election, to me, equals expending city resources to disenfranchise two-thirds of our residents,” Gregg said. “That does not sit right with me.”

Bacon expressed support for the amendment and pointed out that passing the resolution means voters in the odd-year November election will get to decide whether or not to make the switch.

Bacon also said more participation in elections is a good thing and could bring officials who better represent the city’s population.

“We’re sitting here, as myself and Councilperson Watson, I mean, 114 years and all our liberalism and inclusion and didn’t manage to find any minorities to fill on this council for 114 years,” Bacon said.

Brookover interrupted him to correct him, noting that Thelma Evans, an African American woman, served on East Lansing’s City Council in the early 1970s. (She was appointed to the position.) Bacon and Watson were elected to Council in November 2021 after being appointed to vacant seats in 2020. East Lansing has also had two mayors of color before Bacon, namely Sam Singh and Aaron Stephens (elected in odd-numbered-years at ages 24 and 20, respectively).

In his comments, Brookover rejected earlier public comments that accused people in East Lansing of voter suppression and disenfranchisement of minorities like what has been seen particularly in the American south.

“I respectfully disagree with those labels,” he said.

Brookover said he has concerns about moving Council elections, which are non-partisan, into a hyper-partisan election cycle.

“I’m not in favor of this,” he said. “I think what it’s going to do is further politicize non-partisan elections.”

Brookover said the switch could also drive up the cost of running a campaign, likely because candidates would have to compete with the much deeper candidate pool for name recognition in even-year elections.

He also shared that in 1967, Council elections were held in April and voters were required to be at least 21 years old. He said his father was elected to East Lansing City Council that year, largely because he campaigned to professors on campus, a population overlooked by other candidates. (Brookover’s father Wilbur Brookover, who became East Lansing’s mayor, was a sociologist at MSU.)

Four years later, Brookover said, the election was moved to November and the voting age was dropped to 18. That year, he added, students were elected to Council and Brookover’s father was reelected, largely because he campaigned with students on campus.

“I think that an election in November of an odd-year is a good thing,” he said. “Any student or anybody else… can vote.”

Brookover cautioned people who think they know for sure what the changes could bring and he finished by saying he was worried about changing the city charter without reviewing the entire document.

“I don’t have any problem looking at the entire charter to see if things need to be changed or not,” Brookover said. “I am very concerned about cherry picking charter provisions without looking at the entire charter,” he said.

About six minutes later, Chubb requested the break because of the “documentation problem.”

A lame-duck session for outgoing Council members may be necessary due to changes expected to come in state law.

The final charter amendment, if approved by voters, would move the swearing-in date of new council members and election of the new mayor to the first Tuesday after Jan. 1. The charter currently calls for this to occur the Tuesday following the election.

Interim City Clerk Marie Wicks explained at the June 13 Council meeting the change will likely be necessary to be in compliance with future state law. She explained the passage of Proposal 2 in the 2022 election requires ballots received within six days after the election from military and overseas voters be counted before certification. Additionally, the canvassing of the election will likely be extended by the state from 14 days to 30 days.

City Attorney Anthony Chubb confirmed it would be impossible to allow the six days for overseas ballots to come in and still certify the election before the swearing in date on the current timeline.

Answering a question from Brookover, Chubb said there has not yet been an attorney general opinion on the topic. But Chubb said there is legislation pending that would render this section of the City Charter void.

There was no discussion of alternative dates for this amendment. Earlier, some citizens commenting had suggested the amendment proposal could instead change the swearing-in date to the first Tuesday after the election’s certification, effectively bringing the charter into compliance with state election requirements while also eliminating any lame-duck session.

Ultimately, Council voted 4-1 in favor of moving the initiative to the November ballot.