Meet East Lansing City Council Candidate Adam DeLay
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of East Lansing City Council candidate profiles ELi is running to help voters get to know the candidates. Check out ELi’s Elections coverage for more profiles. Click here to find our voter guide to the election.
Adam DeLay tells ELi that he is running for East Lansing City Council because he wants to reinvest 25 percent of the East Lansing Police Department’s operating budget by 2025. Three important issues DeLay lists as motivating his run for Council: restructuring the police department; budgetary issues resulting from the pandemic; and government transparency.
“I think that in order for us to meet these challenges, we have to go beyond getting back to normal, or beyond tweaking the system,” DeLay said in an interview with ELi. “I think it needs to be something that’s much more radical.”
DeLay said he remains undecided about for which seat – either the two-year or four-year term – he will file. He said that he is waiting to make this decision because he does not want to challenge the candidate that most represents his own views.
His plan is to continue watching which candidates file and then, “well before the deadline,” he will choose a race.
Candidate’s background:
DeLay graduated from Michigan State University in 2010 and has since worked in public service. He worked four years for Sen. Debbie Stabenow and then spent a year-and-a-half working for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. He currently works for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. In all these roles, his work has involved constituent services.
“My role has always been to try and help people figure out their issues and get them on a better path,” DeLay told ELi. “That experience I think has given me an inside view to the issues that folks face, the common problems they run into when dealing with government and government bureaucracy, and just sort of the frustration that people sometimes have when government isn’t working for them the way that it ought to.”
DeLay characterized his work as “social work without the degree” and says he is proud of the instances when he has helped individuals. He named as examples assistance he offered to people in foreclosure and to those struggling to find jobs during the pandemic.
DeLay noted that he has experience as a municipal official in this region. When he lived in Lansing Charter Township for three years, DeLay served on the Township’s Board of Trustees.
According to the Clerk’s office of Lansing Charter Township, DeLay was appointed to the seat in 2016 and then ran for election, winning a four-year seat in Nov. 2016. He resigned that position when he moved. DeLay told ELi that, in that role, he focused on township development and on ensuring equitable property taxes for residents.
Candidate’s view on the important issues:
When asked by ELi to name three important issues shaping his campaign, DeLay named as his top issue restructuring the East Lansing Police Department. He wants to establish a Community Service Department using 25% of the police department’s budget. DeLay explained this new department would house social workers and would handle social issues – for example, helping those behind on rent or struggling with mental health issues.
“What we’re not talking about is defunding public safety, and I say that because homelessness is a public safety issue, mental illness is a public safety issue,” DeLay told ELi. He considers a re-envisioning of public safety as a way to addresses “the root of the problems.”
DeLay also wants to see the closing of the City jail and directing the City Manager to terminate officers that no longer maintain the trust of the community.
DeLay names as a second campaign issue addressing consequences from the pandemic and working on what a post-Covid community should be. DeLay said this may include addressing economic impacts for businesses, and funding assistance for those who lost jobs or are facing evictions. He said this will require creativity and reimagining spaces.
Government transparency is the third important issue named by DeLay. He said East Lansing already does a decent job compared to other cities and he believes the community is very engaged and educated.
“One of the things I want to do is cut FOIA fees in half across the board for the City and also be more liberal with granting waivers on FOIA fees,” he said.
DeLay added that he believes that FOIA fees can be used to shield the City, and he said the City’s website should provide more specifics, especially with regard to the budget.
Overall, DeLay said his goal in the race is to get the City of East Lansing where it needs to be on issues of racial justice in terms of economic equality and equity.
Find out more from ELi about the November 2021 Council election, including filing deadlines, who is running, and more, by clicking here.