Lawsuit vs. ELPD, Solidarity vs. White Supremacy and a Mystery Closed Session: Council This Week

It’s been a heavy news week for the East Lansing City Council. Mayor Ron Bacon announced Wednesday evening (July 12) he won’t be running for reelection and, just hours later, Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg announced she won’t run either.

Those announcements followed an action-packed Council meeting Tuesday night (July 11). As ELi’s Luke Day reported Wednesday morning (July 12), in split votes, Council took action on two of three charter amendment proposals, moving them to November’s ballot.

And, as ELi’s Mya Gregory reported Thursday (July 13), Council voted unanimously to release one developer from its obligation to build affordable housing near Valley Court Park and to allow transfer of that project to another developer.

Here’s what else happened at City Council’s meeting this week:

City Attorney Tony Chubb announced the city prevailed in a lawsuit.

The federal suit had been brought by Najeem Naseer who, in December 2020, was wrongly accused of being a violent rapist in a press release from the East Lansing Police Department. The lawsuit described the press release as “extraordinary.” Naseer was released after evidence from his phone exonerated him, but not before he suffered negative media coverage and spent two weeks in jail.

Two weeks after the charges were dropped, then-Councilmember Lisa Babcock demanded an investigation of ELPD’s actions in the case. Subsequent investigative reporting by ELi’s Andrew Graham showed Naseer spent those two weeks in jail without bond while police and prosecutors struggled with the technology that ultimately exonerated him.

Naseer’s suit named as defendants ELPD Chief Kim Johnson, then-City Manager George Lahanas, and ELPD Officers Jeff Thomas and Jose Viera. It claimed false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more, and asked the court to award Naseer $1.8 million plus his legal costs.

Chubb said Tuesday the judge in the case had dismissed it “with prejudice,” meaning Naseer cannot try to bring the case again. The court’s decision indicates Naseer failed to cooperate appropriately in discovery. It orders him to pay the City’s legal bills in the case. The judge is Paul Maloney who is expected to soon rule against the City in the Country Mill case.

In his comments Tuesday, Chubb called the court’s decision “an exoneration” of the charges against Johnson, Lahanas, Thomas and Viera, and said the charges were “deemed to have no validity with the court.”

But answering follow-up questions from ELi, Chubb said by email the judge did not weigh the facts of the case, because it was dismissed before it got to that point.

“The fact that it was dismissed with prejudice,” Chubb explained, “means that it functions as an adjudication on the merits, and a final determination that the claims are dismissed. It does not have a trier of fact at the stage that this matter was dismissed, however, it has the same legal effect.”

The Council passed a resolution to express solidarity with the congregation of Shaarey Zedek.

As ELi’s Dustin DuFort Petty reported last week, the synagogue has been the recent target of violent threats. The resolution passed on Tuesday “acknowledge[d] the FBI for their role in thwarting this attack and preventing a tragedy here in East Lansing like the ones we witnessed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques in 2019 and the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston in 2015.”

It also said, “the Mayor and City Council state unequivocally that there is no home here for the politics of hate, for white supremacy or neo-Nazism” and that “East Lansing stands together as a community that embraces the interconnection of diversity in all its forms.”

Bacon said in his remarks on the subject that he had spoken with Rabbi Amy Bigman and that she wanted to express her thanks to the city for support and police assistance. He said she also recognized the local interfaith community, which Bacon called “one of our greatest strengths.”

Interim City Manager Randy Talifarro recognized the work of city staff in his meeting report.

Talifarro thanked the staff of the Family Aquatic Center for continuing to host disability-friendly swim events. He said he was “thrilled” that the Department of Parks, Recreation & Arts makes such events possible.

Talifarro also recognized the work of outgoing Library Director Kristin Shelley and Assistant Library Director Brice Bush, who both recently resigned. He called the two women “hardworking” and added, “They were innovative, progressive and just pushed us forward in a new direction.” He wished them the best in their new endeavors.

Bacon seconded Talifarro’s comments, saying Shelley has been one of the closest people to him in the city and he is grateful to her for all she had done to help youth with whom he worked.

Council scheduled a public hearing on a controversial rezoning request.

As ELi previously reported, local developer/landlords Hagan Realty are asking to rezone the west side of Grove Street in the 700 block – north of Burcham Drive –  for possible future redevelopment. The rezoning would allow for denser housing.

Tuesday’s agenda included simply the scheduling of a future public hearing for the matter. But Council ended up engaging in some discussion of the ownership of the properties and the question of what might get built there if the rezoning is approved.

ELi will be bringing a report on this matter in advance of the public hearing, which is now set for Aug. 15, 2023.

Speaking of rezoning…

The Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) is looking to rezone three vacant parcels along the 1100 block of Burcham Drive and the substation property on the 600 block of Stoddard Avenue. Right now, the parcels are zoned R-2, Medium Density Single-Family Residential District. BWL wants them rezoned to C, Community  Facilities. The agenda packet didn’t provide an explanation of the request.

On Tuesday, Council made the standard first move for a rezoning request, referring it to the Planning Commission for a recommendation.

Council extended a lease agreement that allows the city to keep open the parking lot behind the Peanut Barrel and Campbell’s Market Basket.

Council voted unanimously to extend a lease agreement that will allow the city to keep the entirety of surface parking lot #11 open downtown as much as a year longer. That’s the lot at the southwest corner of Bailey Street and Albert Avenue.

As ELi previously reported, the western two-thirds of that parking lot is privately owned, and now the owners are looking to sell that land to American Community Developers (ACD). ACD wants to build a “workforce housing” (income-restricted) apartment building there.

The agreement passed at Tuesday’s meeting allows the city to keep using the land for a parking lot through as late as August 2024 while ACD moves its proposed project through the review and approval process.

During the discussion, Interim Planning Director Tim Dempsey suggested that, if and when ACD starts building the project, the city might lease the rest of the parking lot to the developer for use in construction staging. That would mean the whole lot would be closed to parking.

Dempsey said he expected the site plan and special use permit applications to be submitted by ACD to the city this week. Besides obtaining approvals from the City Council for the plans and related matters, ACD will need to obtain funding with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) to make the project viable.

Dempsey did not hazard a guess about how long it all might take, but said the city would try to keep the parking lot open as long as possible.

Various actions were taken on a “consent agenda,” which is passed with block vote and typically without discussion of listed items.

The consent agenda, passed unanimously, included the appointment of Carol Brownell to the Seniors Commission, a resolution endorsing the Tri-County Office on Aging’s Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Implementation Plan, and establishment of a committee to look into renaming the Hannah Community Center’s Prime Time Art Studio after Kelly Arndt, the longtime director of Prime Time.

The consent agenda also included approval of a right-of-way request from the Downtown Management Board for sidewalk sales to take place July 20 through July 23; approval of a $60,000 change-order for professional engineering services; approval of a two-year renewal for contracted janitorial services (not to exceed $507,475); and approval of an agreement regarding the Lake Lansing Road/Towar Avenue/Birch Row Drive intersection reconstruction.

Work on that intersection is ongoing and the intersection is presently closed. The redesign includes plans to install nearby a large modern sculpture owned by the city, a piece called L5 and Beyond. The sculpture used to sit in downtown surface Lot 1, where the Albert Avenue parking ramp and Newman Lofts now stand. The reinstallation is costing $11,568. Trails will also be improved in the area.

Council went into a mystery closed session.

At the end of the meeting, with the support of all five council members, Council entered into a closed-door meeting “to discuss an attorney-client privileged memorandum.”

ELi requested that Council tell the public the topic of the memo, but that request went unanswered. The session lasted about 45 minutes.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated (July 15, 8:17 a.m.) to correct the photo credit on the Prime Time photo.