East Lansing May Lose BWL Representation
Lansing voters will likely consider several changes to its charter this fall, including one proposed amendment that would strip East Lansing of its non-voting advisory seat on the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) Board of Commissioners.
The proposed change is to standardize all Lansing boards to eight voting members, which would eliminate the three non-voting members on the BWL board, according to the City Pulse.
If voters approve the charter change, it would represent a step backwards for East Lansing representation on the BWL board, after city officials have said they’d like to have a voting member on the board.
If East Lansing loses its non-voting member, it could hurt the city’s ability to stay informed on BWL’s plans or weigh-in on potential changes.
Robert Nelson served as East Lansing’s first non-voting commissioner from 2015 to 2017.
“There are several benefits of having a seat on the commission,” he told ELi in a phone interview. “First, we know where BWL is coming from. When I was there, they were in the process of planning for a new gas fired plant. We could ask questions and comment.”
Nelson resigned his seat in protest when BWL decided not to opt-in to a program that offered low-income energy assistance.
“I didn’t win that particular battle to convince them otherwise,” he said, “but they did eventually change course so my voice had some impact.”
The idea of taking the non-voting members away spawned from a conversation the East Lansing City Council had back in March when discussing goals City Council had for the coming year.
Councilmember Erik Altmann floated the idea that East Lansing could create its own utility while council discussed a goal “to enhance the city’s skyline, tree canopy and utility reliability by relocating utilities underground.”
“I’ve been thinking that we need to aim a little bit broader than this and…thinking about starting our own power utility,” he said at the March 11 council meeting. “A municipal power utility in the same vein as the Board of Water and Light, except that I don’t think we would plan to build our own [power] plants. What we would basically be doing is establishing a regulatory authority that would buy wholesale power and then retail it to our residents and perhaps beyond.”
Altmann went on to say that the BWL contributes $25 million to Lansing’s budget each year and some of that money comes from East Lansing users. Revenue the city earns from selling electricity to its residents could be used to bury utilities underground.
It was this simple exchange — and Altmann’s request that city staff look into the feasibility of such a plan — that caused members of the Lansing Charter Commission to recommend the removal of all non-voting board members.
ELi spoke with Brian Jeffries, the chairperson of the Lansing Charter Commission and a lawyer with a practice in East Lansing. It was Jeffries who brought it to the commission’s attention that East Lansing officials had discussed creating a utility.
“[The non-voting seats] were put on with the goal to hopefully come to the meetings and there would be more transparency about what is going on at BWL,” he said. “But it presents a huge conflict of interests for members who serve [on the BWL commission] to have access to financials and management information. It makes no sense to have that type of conflict of interests. Having access to that kind of information doesn’t make any sense at all.”
Jeffries said that there have been attendance issues with the non-voting members, as well, which also prompted the discussion of their effectiveness on the BWL Commission.
East Lansing’s non-voting member of the BWL Commission since 2023 has been Jean-Richard Beauboeuf. Beauboeuf did not return ELi’s request for comment, but commission meeting minutes show that he has not attended a commission meeting since September 2024, missing the last four.
Jeffries also said that while he hasn’t discussed the issue with Altmann or East Lansing City Manager Robert Belleman, he has talked with Mayor George Brookover. He said that there have been attempts by unnamed East Lansing officials to make the non-voting East Lansing member a voting member.
ELi spoke with Belleman about the situation. He confirmed that he was aware of the Lansing Charter Commission’s decision to offer the proposed amendment to its electorate. He also said that the proposed goal has not been acted on and the city has not studied creating its own power utility.
When asked if he thinks the idea held merit for the city, he deferred, saying that council was empowered to approve and enact such a plan.
Altmann still wants to explore the idea.
“We could achieve a lot if we had more control over our power in East Lansing,” the councilmember said in a statement to ELi. “We could start to bury utilities to improve reliability, we could take better care of our tree canopy, and we could improve our streetscape by getting the junk out of the sky. And right now our rate payers are subsidizing Lansing, because BWL makes a payment in lieu of taxes to Lansing that’s funded out of its revenues. We could keep that money here at home. What I’m advocating is exploring the possibility of our own utility as part of long-term planning. Maybe it’s not feasible but right now we don’t know.”