Meet East Lansing City Council Candidate Adam DeLay
This is the final story in ELi’s City Council candidate series. Over three days, ELi has published articles introducing each of the six candidates in this November’s election.
Adam DeLay said he prides himself on being a specific, honest and blunt politician.
“Everyone is going to say, ‘This campaign is going to be this, I want to balance the budget and I want to focus on our fiscal needs,’” DeLay said. “Then the question is going to be, OK, all six of us say that. But who can take that next step towards offering some suggestions?”
DeLay’s top priorities are balancing the city’s budget, traffic safety and increasing the affordable housing stock. He previously ran for City Council in 2021, finishing fifth.
The 37-year-old candidate, originally from Romulus, graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in journalism and social relations and policy.
His first night at MSU, he met his wife, and the two have lived in the Lansing area ever since. They have lived in East Lansing for the past five years, where the eldest of their two children will soon start school.
Candidate background
DeLay has held roles in constituent services in former U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s office and for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. He now works for the Michigan Department of Health and Human services as a legislative analyst.
His previous experience as an elected official was on the Lansing Township Board of Trustees from 2016 to 2019. He currently serves on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission, and has served on the Community Development Advisory Committee.
DeLay said was inspired to run for council again when the city decided to move forward with a Parks and Recreation millage, which DeLay is opposed to.
“I think it’s just a general property tax increase disguising itself as a Parks and Recreation millage in order to garner public approval for it, having been done with virtually no input from the [parks] commission and opposition from the commission,” DeLay said. “That was the thing that really got me to say ‘I’m going to run,’ because I think that the current leadership in the city is just not taking us in the direction that we want.”
Top priorities
DeLay said his top priority is the city’s budget and finances. Reviewing all the city’s contracts, streamlining the employee search process and encouraging development are some of the ways he plans to address the city’s $2 million structural deficit.
“The council is routinely signing off on contracts of $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 for consulting services, design services, communication services.” DeLay said. “When you’re in a financial crisis, you have to ask yourself, ‘What are these things? Are they luxuries that otherwise could be done either by city staff, or do we need to go without some of these things?’”
To increase the city’s revenue, DeLay suggested encouraging development, therefore growing the city’s tax base. He said he supports a project proposed by the owners of the Student Book Store to build a large apartment complex downtown.
“That right there is going to take out a fairly substantial chunk of the city’s deficit,” DeLay said. “But I can already see, given the current composition of council, that there will be opposition to this, and there will be various questions raised about it, and it’s going to be a fight.”
Another top concern of DeLay’s is traffic safety, a problem he heard about from several residents while door knocking. Southeast Marble, Glencairn and Chesterfield Hills neighborhoods were specifically identified as dangerous, with residents petitioning for safer conditions.
“It’s a simple matter of residents saying they want something, and the city says, ‘Well, no, that won’t work. Or you actually don’t want that for reasons,’” DeLay said. “Could be implemented with little difficulty, but for some reason, we don’t do it.”
Development
Increasing affordable housing by diversifying the city’s housing stock is another of DeLay’s top priorities.
“The reason I’ve only been here for five years is because I couldn’t afford to live here for the 10 years after I graduated,” DeLay said. “That’s why I went and lived in an apartment in South Lansing, because that was what was affordable.”
DeLay believes the City Council has been unnecessarily critical of proposed new housing developments.
“That is the kind of frustration that leads me to be in this [race]. We’re very anti-development. We can’t even build a gas station in this town without it being turned down two, three times to replace the gas station that, frankly, was in terrible, derelict shape,” DeLay said. “At some point you’re going to get the reputation that you are not business friendly, that you are anti-development. Developers won’t want to build here, and then you don’t increase the value of property in order to address your financial situation.
“I’m not saying I want to pave over the entire city. I’m on the Parks Commission, right? You can develop some of these downtown properties that are already urbanized and raise a fair amount of revenue doing that, but you can’t even expand the Field House [sports bar] without three current council members opposing it.”
Other priorities
DeLay is concerned by a surge in city staff vacancies. He suggested the lack of department directors is in part an intentional method of cost saving, by only paying an interim salary for a director’s work.
“I hate to say it’s a simple matter, because nothing is,” DeLay said. “But same as the development, how do we encourage development that could raise the city’s tax base? Stop saying no to every single thing that comes across your plate. How do you deal with the city’s issue of vacancies? Start hiring individuals.”
DeLay said since his last run, he has built better understanding of the community and support from residents and politicians, which encouraged him to run again.
“Vote for me, don’t vote for me. That’s OK,” DeLay said. “I would rather you know exactly what I want to do and say, ‘No, I’m not going to vote for that guy,’ than I offer some platitudes, and you go, ‘Well, I guess it sounds OK, I’ll vote for him.’”