Council Split the Pickleball Vote. What Else Happened at Council?

The East Lansing City Council meeting this week (Jan. 24) lasted less than a half-hour. Jokingly asked after the meeting by newly sworn-in Councilmember Noel Garcia Jr. if the meetings are always this short, this reporter assured him they are. 

In that half-hour, Council followed staff’s recommendation to push off working on what to do with the city’s property on the northwest side of town, split on a vote about a pickleball court contract, heard from one citizen with sharp questions about George Lahanas’ contract termination, and passed a few items on the consent agenda.

Mayor Ron Bacon also announced that he would be holding a special “listening session” on Friday where community members can air concerns about violence, including in the schools. Bacon made his announcement the day after a packed and emotional school board meeting and, since he announced the meeting, tensions in the school district have persisted. 

Garcia joined the council, bringing it back to full strength.

With Police Chief Kim Johnson serving as Acting City Manager, the meeting began with the swearing in of Garcia by City Clerk Jennifer Shuster. He has been appointed to fill the seat left vacant by Lisa Babcock’s election to be a 54B District Court judge. 

Garcia will serve through the council election this November. At that time, the seats he, Mayor Bacon and Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg now hold will all be up for grabs. They will all be four-year seats at that point.

Garcia recognized many supporters in the audience, but in particular his twin teen sons, his sister and his father. He also thanked his brother who he said was home caring for their mother.

Garcia said when he applied to be an officer with the Lansing Police Department over two decades ago, he told the person hiring him that he wanted to help people and make his community better. Those goals never changed for him, he said, and they are the same two goals he has for his time on Council. 

A citizen questions council’s decisions around the termination of Lahanas’s contract.

During public comment, Jill Young of Longfellow Drive came forward to criticize Council for how they handled the termination of George Lahanas’ city manager contract. She said the public was not properly notified the issue was coming forward and calculated the termination will cost the city at least $460,000 given what Council promised in the separation agreement.

She referred to former city councilmember Mark Meadows warning Council, when Meadows quit in 2020 because they had just fired the city attorney, that you don’t deal with differences by just getting rid of them.

Young also threw doubt on whether former fire chief Randy Talifarro – set to become interim city manager on Feb. 13 – can run the city. She also criticized the terms of his contract.

Young asked whether there has been a search committee set up for finding a new city manager and whether Council will be transparent in the search process. Council did not respond and had no discussion at the meeting about plans for a search.

Council tabled the question of what to do with the West Road property.

Council had been scheduled weeks ago to use this meeting to discuss what to do with the 27-acre site at Coleman and West Roads (on the city’s northwest side) owned by the city. In fact, the memo on the subject in the packet was written by now-departed Director of Planning Tom Fehrenbach to now-departed City Manager George Lahanas.

Given the “whirlwind” turnover among staff, Interim Director of Planning Peter Menser recommended Council put off this big issue until such time as everyone can regroup. 

As ELi reported in November, Council was shown the proposals for the land that resulted from a Request for Proposals having been issued. This week, Menser indicated he thinks it’s time to reconsider the matter, saying the land represents a “tremendous opportunity to this city” and saying a decision should not be rushed.

Councilmember George Brookover made the motion to table the matter and received full support from Council.

And then came pickleball.

Staff asked Council to approve an approximately $43,000 contract with Floor Care Concepts to install a color-coat surfacing on the new pickleball courts at Patriarche Park. This is the last step needed to finish the courts.

According to the staff memo on the project, about $900,000 has been spent “to reconstruct the tennis, pickleball and basketball courts at Patriarche Park….The project was funded through a $300,000 Natural Resources Trust Fund Grant, $500,000 from the parks and recreation portion of the East Lansing Income Tax Fund and a $160,000 donation from the Patriarche Park Pickleball Association, a 405(c)3 comprised of area pickleball players and advocates.”

The Pickleball Association wants the remaining contingency funds that had been set aside to now be used for this special surfacing. The club promised to make up the difference between the funds left and the cost of the contract, about $13,000. The contract-approval request came on the consent agenda, a group of items approved as a block without discussion.

But Brookover pulled it off the consent agenda because he had questions.

Asked if the contract had been bid out, Assistant Director of Parks & Rec Wendy Wilmers Longpre responded this is the vendor recognized in Michigan as the “sole source vendor” the city should use for this project. 

Brookover also asked about a typo in the contract, which City Attorney Tony Chubb said he would fix.

Finally, Brookover asked, “with all due respect to the pickleball players,” whether they were going to make up the difference between what was in the contingency funds and what this contract would cost. He noted the promise was not in writing, and that the city was promising to pay the full amount.

Longpre said she had full confidence they would raise and provide the money, given their history on this project.

When it came to the vote, Brookover was the sole vote against. He did not explain his vote and did not respond to a request from ELi to explain.You can see the rest of the consent agenda and watch the video of the meeting here.