Know the Ballot: Three City Charter Amendments Will be Decided at August Election

Voters will decide on three proposed amendments to the East Lansing City Charter during a stacked Aug. 4 election.

The amendments would pull the charter into alignment with state law regarding procedures following City Council elections, and impose new regulations around the city manager position, if approved by voters.

The amendments were initially formed by a committee the city created to review the City Charter over the course of 19 meetings in 2024 and 2025. These are the first of more than two dozen amendments recommended by the committee to make it to the ballot, with recommendations to be spread out across several elections.

Along with the charter amendments, East Lansing’s Aug. 4 election will feature primary elections for congressional, state and county seats, and four different county tax proposals.

Proposals around City Council elections would pull charter into compliance with state law.

Two of the proposals would aim to achieve a similar goal and specify important proceedings following City Council elections are to be held after the election is certified.

Currently, the City Charter says that new council members are to be sworn-in and the mayor and mayor pro tem are to be elected on the first Tuesday after the election. However, it can take more than a week to certify an election, Councilmember Mark Meadows, who served as liaison to the Charter Review Committee, told East Lansing Info in a phone call Monday.

One amendment is to hold the swearing-in of newly elected council members the first Tuesday after the election is certified and the other is for the election of the mayor and mayor pro tem to take place the same day. The five-member City Council elects a mayor and mayor pro tem among themselves.

Language that would amend the City Charter to hold the first City Council meeting after new members are elected to the Tuesday following the certification of the election.

If the amendments are approved, they would pull the charter into line with current practice. When it has taken more than a week to certify City Council elections in past years, the council has waited to meet until after the results are finalized, as state law trumps local policies, Meadows explained.

In 2025, the first City Council meeting after the election was held the second Tuesday after the election. In 2017, delays in certification forced the city to cancel the first council meeting scheduled after the election.

This is not the first time the city has considered changes to the process after City Council elections.

In 2023, a charter amendment was placed on the ballot that would have moved the swearing-in date to early January. At the time, city officials said the change was likely necessary due to recent changes in state law that could extend the time it takes to count ballots, like a requirement that ballots received within six days after the election from military and overseas voters be counted before certification.

Language that would amend the City Charter to elect a mayor and mayor pro tem the Tuesday following the certification of the election.

The 2023 amendment was rejected as some community members raised concerns about creating a two-month lame duck period for departing council members. The proposals on the August ballot eliminate a guaranteed lame duck period by replacing the January start date with language that specifies new members will be sworn-in and the mayor and mayor pro tem will be elected on the Tuesday following the certification of the election.

While the process outlined under the amended charter leaves the possibility of a lame duck period, a future council would have to depart from current procedures to hold a lame duck meeting, Meadows said.

Proposed amendment would require city manager to live within 25 miles of East Lansing, spell out succession plan.

Another charter amendment would solidify emergency succession should the city manager be indisposed and require the city manager live within 25 miles of the city’s boundary.

While the City Council operates as the policy-making body for the city, adopting and amending city rules, the city manager acts in an oversight capacity to ensure those policies are implemented amongst city departments and programs. The city manager, who is appointed by the City Council, informs and advises the council on the day-to-day operations within the city, recommending policy and presenting a proposal for the city budget that aims to support those operations.

The charter amendment would require that the city manager take up residence within 25 miles of the city boundary. It also would outline that the city manager is to designate a deputy city manager, with the approval of the City Council, and would allow the city manager to designate a city department head to serve as acting city manager, should the city manager and deputy city manager be indisposed.

Ballot language for a proposed City Charter amendment that would create new regulations around the city manager position.

Last spring, while the Charter Review Committee was conducting its work, ELi spoke with Charter Review Committee Chair Diane Goddeeris about the need for new policy surrounding the city manager position.

In the event the city manager suddenly died, Goddeeris said, without a deputy city manager or clear plan for who will immediately take the helm of the city, it would leave city leaders at a disadvantage.

“… instead of having everybody have to come together, try to figure out what to do, there should be somebody that’s designated that will take over from that point until council takes action on what to do next,” Goddeeris said in an April 2025 interview with ELi.

Current City Manager Robert Belleman lives in Saginaw, in the Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan and about an hour Northeast of East Lansing. The charter amendment would not apply to Belleman who was appointed by City Council in September 2023.

Belleman was placed on leave by the City Council at the end of May after a city employee publicly accused him of sexual harassment and verbal abuse. The city released an investigation report for the accusations which did not find evidence of any sexual harassment or illegal activity by Belleman, but did find that some city employees said Belleman communicated in a more demeaning manner towards female employees.

Records obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests to the City of East Lansing by ELi found that since the start of 2024, there have been more than a dozen occasions where Belleman appointed city leaders as acting city manager in his absence. These appointments include former Parks, Recreation and Arts Director Cathy DeShambo and former Planning, Building and Housing Director Annette Irwin. When Belleman was placed on leave in May, he appointed Interim Fire Chief John Newman to serve as acting city manager.