Draheim Appointed to Fill Vacant City Council Seat; Gregg Sworn In As Mayor, Watson As Mayor Pro Tem
Jessy Gregg, flanked by her husband and three of their children, was officially sworn in as the Mayor of East Lansing at a City Council meeting on Thursday night at the Hannah Community Center, making her the City’s third mayor in the last 13 months, and the fourth in less than two years.
By virtue of having been elected Mayor Pro Tem by the Council last year, Gregg fills the mayoral void left by the early departure of Mayor Aaron Stephens.
Stephens had been Mayor Pro Tem when then-Mayor Ruth Beier resigned abruptly in July 2020, along with then-Council member Mark Meadows. That made Stephens the mayor, and led to the appointments by Council of Ron Bacon and Dana Watson to the two vacated seats.
But Stephens relinquished his own Council position on August 11, 2021, after announcing the month before that he’d be departing early.

Dylan Lees for ELi
Jessy Gregg being sworn in as Mayor of East Lansing on Aug. 19, 2021The special meeting tonight was convened chiefly for the purposes of doing what is required by the City Charter — filling the role of Mayor Pro Tem (substitute mayor) and filling the vacant fifth City Council seat.
On the question of Mayor Pro Tem, Council member Ron Bacon nominated Council member Dana Watson. No other nominations were offered, and a vote of 4-0 made Watson Mayor Pro Tem.
Bacon noted that it was a historic moment for East Lansing, as Watson is the first Black person to hold the title of Mayor Pro Tem.
“I’ve been in review of the charter,” Watson said, “for what the responsibilities are for the Mayor Pro Tem, I counted the number of weeks until a new Mayor Pro Tem will come, and I looked at my time off that I had at my job — so I am more than ready to be prepared to step in, and I’m happy to serve in this way for these final 10 weeks.”

Dylan Lees for ELi
Dana Watson being sworn in as East Lansing’s Mayor Pro Tem on Aug. 19, 2021As for the vacant Council seat, Council voted unanimously to appoint former City Council member Shanna Draheim to serve the approximately 10 weeks until the November elections. Five people had applied for the position, including Draheim, Nichole Biber, Leslie Shanlian, John Monberg, and Efe Scott-Emaukpor. (See the applications here.)
The appointee-selection process on Thursday was vastly different to that of the process that played out when Bacon and Watson were appointed to Council almost a year ago, when there were interviews conducted in public. Gregg offered an explanation as to why. She said the terms to which Watson and Bacon were appointed were for fourteen months, and this would be for ten weeks.
Gregg said that, in the previous case, “the Council that was still seated really felt a responsibility to the community to seat Council members that could have been elected by this community, basically.”
Gregg termed this “a much different situation,” noting, “this is a three-month appointment.”
Because of Draheim’s past experience on City Council — she was elected in 2015 and decided not to run for re-election in 2019 — she was the preferred choice by all four Council members on Thursday. Each commended the other four applicants for what they potentially brought and encouraged them to stay involved in the City.

Raymond Holt for ELi
Shanna Draheim when she was on East Lansing’s City Council (Sept. 19, 2019).So, following the shuffle in Council in July 2020 — caused by the 3-2 vote to fire then-City Attorney Tom Yeadon — Gregg moved first to Mayor Pro Tem, and now, almost a year later, she’s become the mayor.
Coincidentally, on Thursday, the four-person Council made the decision to potentially ditch the Foster Swift law firm (which replaced Yeadon and his firm) as City Attorney, and put out a request for proposals for a new City Attorney. ELi will have a report on that in the morning.