Council Talks Budget, Establishes Charter Review Committee
City Council continues to make final adjustments to the city’s budget ahead of the July 1 start of the next fiscal year. At the Tuesday, May 14 council meeting the body deliberated whether or not adding a deputy city manager to the staff is necessary.
“I don’t feel like we need that, at this point in time,” Councilmember Mark Meadows said, adding that the more than $160,000 that would be spent annually on the position gave him pause.
Other members of council also wondered if the position is needed, before the topic was eventually tabled to be decided later on. Councilmembers Dana Watson and Erik Altmann said they would like the city manager to explain why the additional employee is needed.

Mayor George Brookover motioned that the deputy city manager line item be deleted from the budget, and asked City Manager Robert Belleman to comment.
Belleman said workload and having a built-in succession plan are the main reasons a new employee is needed.
“There’s a lot of issues that are still very pending in the city of East Lansing, a lot of work that needs to be done,” Belleman said. “If we’re going to focus a lot on reestablishing regional, local and state relationships, that means a lot of meetings that are taking place, also a lot of meetings with staff to make sure that we’re all on the same page. That consumes a great deal of my time.
“Secondly, was succession plan,” Belleman continued. “I think the city experienced that [need] eight months ago, 12 months ago with the departure of [former City Manager] George Lahanas and the need to appoint an interim. Back then, if you had a deputy city manager that person would continue the operations, continue the goals and efforts and they would know staff.”
Meadows said he appreciates Belleman’s explanation, but he still does not think hiring a deputy city manager is necessary. He said City Council decides who serves as interim city manager, if a replacement is needed, and he thinks there are capable department heads. He also said Lahanas and the city manager before him, Ted Staton, were able to keep up with the workload without a deputy city manager.

A decision was tabled until next week in a 4-1 vote, with Meadows in dissent – indicating he was ready to vote at the May 14 meeting.
CDBG funding comes in lower for fiscal year 2025.
Community and Economic Development Specialist Matt Apostle opened the public hearing on Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds by saying the city will receive $421,420 from the federal program in fiscal year 2025. This is about $40,000 less than the city received for the current fiscal year.
At the previous budget session, the city had used the current fiscal year’s CDBG funding to set the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025. Because the funding came up lower, staff adjusted the budget proposal prior to the meeting.
The proposed budget calls for just over $63,000 to be used on public services, about $310,000 to be used on facilities improvement and housing, and about $47,000 to be used on administration and planning.

54B District Court Judge Lisa Babcock returned to a familiar setting, as the former council member spoke during the public hearing regarding CDBG funds. Babcock asked that the roughly $4,500 designated to be spent on the court be redirected to other public services.
Babcock explained that the funds were requested to be used to pay an attorney to represent tenants who were indigent on rent and facing eviction. However, the court has been unable to find someone to fill the role. She said the court will continue to look for someone to fill this role and hopes to come back next year to request funding for the position.
Council voted to take the money from the court and reallocate it to other public services.
Council votes to bring renowned speaker Vernā Myers to East Lansing to give unconscious bias training.
Council voted 3-2 in favor of bringing author and speaker Vernā Myers to East Lansing to give unconscious bias training for staff and host a community event in the Hannah Community Center auditorium.
“It’s an opportunity for us to bring one of our nation’s most renowned DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) experts to our community to work with staff for an hour in the morning, and then we have an opportunity for her to engage the community that evening,” DEI Director Elaine Hardy said.

Hardy said right now the plan is to allow staff to attend the training voluntarily, though a final decision on who attends will be up to Belleman.
The engagement agreement costs the city $60,000, plus an additional $4,000 for travel and other related expenses. Belleman explained a virtual training would cost $30,000 and he believes it would be much more impactful to have the in-person session. Belleman also said the East Lansing Public Library (ELPL) plans to purchase some of Myers’ books to hold a book club prior to her arrival. Belleman said the plan is to have Myers in East Lansing on June 12.
Altmann was reluctant to support the proposal because of the price.
“$60,000 is a lot of money for two hours,” Altmann said. “I guess, at the moment, I’m not satisfied that we couldn’t get that resource, get that service from other means.”
Mayor Pro Tem Kerry Ebersole Singh pointed out that having Myers in town provides more value than just the training sessions, if staff mobilizes to get the most out of her appearance.
“This is part of, really, a larger program of engagement,” Singh said. “To Councilman Altmann’s point, I take it as a challenge, a challenge for staff, and I’m looking at Carrie [Sampson] our communications director. We have someone like Vernā Myers join our community, there’s a lot of, not only social media content that can be created by her content, but you can really also do additional outreach from that.
“So, it helps you kind of leverage the $60,000 investment,” Singh said. “There’s probably other creative ways we can leverage this investment.”
Meadows said he sees value in having Myers in East Lansing, but that he does not see a “game plan” to maximize the opportunity. He said he would like to see a “One Book, One Community” event to accompany her appearance, but there would not be time to set up that precursor event.
One Book, One Community is a program the city and library did previously that saw many East Lansing residents read the same book and engage in dialogue about it. The program has been absent the last few years and is currently “reorganizing,” according to a webpage dedicated to the program.
Hardy said many copies of Myers’ book “What if I say the wrong thing?” will be made available at the library soon. It is unclear how many copies the library will purchase, but Hardy said she believes it will be upwards of 100.
“From what I heard from your prior comments, it would almost be like a One Book, One Community lite,” Singh said.
Watson supported bringing Myers to East Lansing, saying it could have a large impact on staff.

“I caution scrutinizing too much DEI efforts, this is something that could impact all staff and it’s needed,” Watson said, going on to say that other expenses don’t face the same scrutiny that DEI efforts do.
Meadows said that his issue is not spending on DEI, but that he does not see a plan around Myers’ appearance. He expressed interest in pushing a decision to a future meeting. However, Belleman said the city is trying to lock Myers in for June 12, and delaying a decision could cause a scheduling challenge.
Before the vote, Watson said she would be voting in favor of bringing Myers to East Lansing and questioned some of her colleagues’ commitment to DEI.
“You all have already provided pushback on us getting DEI training ourselves,” Watson said. “Now, it feels like there’s pushback on our staff getting DEI training. So, please support this initiative, it’s not that much money out of the budget, and even if you as a person don’t value DEI training, as was shown… the last time we met, please don’t let this organization not benefit from what is happening.”
At council’s last meeting on April 23, DEI training for members of council was discussed. After a 20-hour training program was recommended, Altmann said he thought council members should do the same training as staff and that 20 hours is too much time.
“Twenty hours is unrealistic, in my view,” he said at the April 23 meeting. “We’re volunteers, we have day jobs. I think if I had an extra 20 hours to spend, I would want to look at other ways to receive training. I think that I could learn a lot about municipal accounting in 20 hours and sharpen my oversight of the city budget.”

The motion to bring Myers to East Lansing passed 3-2, with Watson, Brookover and Singh in favor, and Meadows and Altmann voting against.
Belleman said that in addition to Myers’ presentation, the city plans to use resources from the state and Michigan State University to do implicit bias training later on.
Council votes to establish Charter Review Committee.
Council voted to approve the formation of a charter review committee. The topic, which was initially on the consent agenda, was moved to the business agenda and discussed by council.
Meadows said that a charter review was last done about 30 years ago. At that time, he served as a council liaison to the committee, and Brookover served on the committee.
About 40 recommendations were made by that committee, Meadows said.
The committee was initially slated to include five members, which Meadows said was the amount used in 1995. Watson motioned that the committee be expanded to seven members, a motion that was approved 4-1, with Altmann the vote against. Council then voted unanimously to form the committee.
It was clarified at the meeting that members of the charter review committee will be appointed by council. According to the agenda packet, residents will be able to apply to be on the committee through the Board and Commission application process outlined on the city’s website. Applications are due on June 15.
Within two weeks of having members appointed, the committee will hold its first meeting. At that first meeting, the committee will decide on at least three dates to hold meetings, so members of the public can suggest changes to the charter. The committee will complete its work within one year of being appointed, according to the agenda item.
Council did not discuss potential changes to the charter. Talk of reviewing the city charter has been happening for some time.
At the 2023 election, there were three potential charter amendments on the ballot. Additionally, the previous council voted to let voters decide on another charter amendment that would move City Council elections from odd to even-numbered years. However, this initiative was shut down by the governor’s office before it reached voters.
Shortly after the 2023 election, a group of school board and city commission members signed a letter asking that a charter review commission be formed. Meadows also said that a charter review was a common request from residents when he was campaigning for his seat on council last year.