New Emergency Alert System, Budget and Potential Charter Change Addressed at Council Meeting

After months of meetings and tinkering with spreadsheets, council has set the city’s budget for fiscal year 2025. 

The budget was approved unanimously at the May 21 City Council meeting after Mayor George Brookover motioned to make a few notable changes, including removing funding that would be used to create a deputy city manager position. 

At council’s last meeting on May 14, members of council questioned if a deputy city manager is needed. City Manager Robert Belleman said the new employee would help him keep up with workload and create a clear path for succession, if Belleman were to vacate his role. 

Council was not sold by Belleman’s pitch, and the roughly $165,000 that was designated to create the position was removed. 

Brookover also motioned to put a moratorium on several fees issued to businesses, including amusement and video arcade fees, dance hall fees, entertainment fees, restaurant fees and takeout stores fees. 

“I’ve looked at that [fee schedule] and also received communication from downtown business owners about whether our fee structure is A fair, B really makes sense in this day and age,” Brookover said. “I also have my own concerns about whether those fees are actually related to our actual costs. So, I’d like to have some examination of that.”

The moratorium was put in place through Nov. 1. As part of his motion, Brookover arranged for Councilmember Mark Meadows, City Attorney Anthony Chubb and Belleman to review the fees. He said he’s hopeful this “task force” will be able to complete the review well before Nov. 1. 

In response to a question from Councilmember Dana Watson, Brookover said he doesn’t know how big of a financial impact it will have to stop collecting the fees, which is a reason he believes it’s necessary to examine them. 

Meadows added that there is a state statute that fees must reflect the city’s costs, and he isn’t sure what the costs related to the fees are, exactly. 

Additionally, as part of Brookover’s motion Veteran’s Day will be a free parking day in the city this year. 

ELi’s previous reporting on the budget for the next fiscal year includes an overview, and how different departments plan to utilize funds. Those stories can be read here and here. 

Ingham County to switch to a new emergency notification system soon. 

Residents relying on Ingham County’s Nixle emergency alert system have until June 1 to switch over to the Rave alert system, as the county will transition to the new alert provider. 

Ingham County 911 Director Barbara Davidson presented at Tuesday’s meeting, explaining the several new components to the Rave system. 

Davidson explained the need for a more robust mass communications system came to light after the February 2023 mass shooting at Michigan State University, and that the county’s contract with its previous partner, Everbridge Nixle, is expiring. 

The county purchased Rave Alert, which is the leading mass communications system in the country, Davidson said. 

Rave Alert can send alerts through text messages, phone calls, social media and more. The county will now need to notify residents to switch over to the new system. Residents will be able to choose if they want to opt-in to receive updates on different topics like traffic, weather and more, Davidson said. 

Rave will integrate with the county’s Smart911 system, which allows users to create a profile sharing personal information that can be critical to responders in emergency situations. 

“I have a Smart911 profile at home, I use it because my daughter has asthma,” Davidson said. “When I call 911 through my cell phone, through this Smart911 profile, it displays in the 911 center and 911 dispatchers are able to have that information at their fingertips.

“I also provide things, like, my dog is named Hank and he’s kind of a pest,” Davidson continued. “Just ignore him and go about your business.“

Davidson said users can provide as much or as little information as they wish to create their Smart911 profile. Users can also build profiles for family members, Davidson said she created a profile for her elderly mother. 

Every six months the application will give users a “nudge” to update information, so the profile stays current, Davidson said.

Additionally, Davidson said the county encourages businesses to create Rave Facility accounts. Rave Facility allows companies to share emergency contacts and other key information like door codes with emergency responders. 

The county has also added Rave Link to its arsenal. Rave Link notifies stakeholders of large events that are unfolding and helps first responders stay organized in situations that can be chaotic, Davidson said. For example, if there was a structure fire, Fire Chief Dawn Carson would be able to put together a task list ahead of time that responders could go through and check off. 

“It’s like having a little assistant to put in their pocket,” Davidson said. 

Finally, Davidson presented on Mobile Reach, which allows users to receive alerts on unfolding situations in areas they are from if they are out of town. Some emergency notifications are sent to individuals near the emergency, Mobile Reach allows for a broader segment of stakeholders to be contacted.

“If you reside here, in East Lansing, but don’t happen to be in East Lansing at the time of the incident, we still want you to know about the emergency that is occurring in East Lansing because we don’t necessarily want you to come home,” Davidson said. “That was another lesson we learned back in February [2023].”

Residents who would like to sign up for Smart911 or opt-in to notifications can do so using this link. 

Residents, some council members exchange differing opinions on potential charter amendment.

In late 2023 and early this year, many residents came to City Council meetings to express concern and confusion about the city’s rental and housing laws. 

The dispute arose when residents petitioned for part of Glencairn neighborhood to become a rental restriction overlay, which essentially banned rental licenses from being issued in the area. Residents wondered who was allowed to stay in a home without needing a rental license. Some spoke about concerns that close friends, relatives or even care givers would be ineligible to stay in their home for an extended period without a rental license. The city launched a communications campaign that somewhat clarified the exemptions, extinguishing many residents’ concerns. 

However, some of the same residents who previously spoke and others are now petitioning to have a charter amendment that would clarify the city’s laws.

“The purpose of this amendment is to make it so you can live in your own home, with whomever you choose, as long as they do not pay rent,” said Patrick Rose, who is an organizer for the movement. 

Rose said that more than 40 community members are currently collecting signatures to get the charter amendment on the ballot for November’s general election. The group has set up a website that explains what it seeks to enshrine in the city charter, and why it is pursuing the changes. 

Meadows and Councilmember Erik Altmann pushed back against the need for the charter amendments. 

“I stand by my position that our rental regulations and our housing code are not just effective, but also progressive and forward thinking,” Altmann said. 

Much of the dispute comes down to the “domestic unit” clause in the housing code. There are many people explicitly outlined as eligible to live in a household for an extended time because they are part of a family, like a parent or sibling. Many others who may stay in a home may have to fall under the domestic unit definition.

“As herein defined, a domestic unit shall be given the same rights and privileges and shall have the same duties and responsibilities as a family, as defined herein for purposes of construing and interpreting this chapter,” the city code reads. “Domestic unit shall mean a collective number of individuals living together in one dwelling unit whose relationship is of a regular and permanent nature and having a distinct domestic character or a demonstrable and recognizable bond where each party is responsible for the basic material needs of the other and all are living and cooking as a single housekeeping unit.”

Altmann and Meadows said exemptions are expansive. Some speakers were unsure and worried that they could face fines if a situation arises where a friend needs to stay with them. 

Soren Anderson is a resident who is working with the group gathering signatures. He shared a story of a friend who was threatened at her home and no longer felt safe there. He said the friend lived with an older couple who had extra rooms in their home for eight months while she saved money for a new place to live.

“My reading of the East Lansing code is that this is not legal,” Anderson said, going on to read exemptions from the code that he does not believe fit the situation. 

Anderson and other speakers questioned the “regular and permanent nature” language in the domestic unit clause, wondering if a friend or person needing a temporary place to stay are really covered by this definition. 

Altmann floated the idea of adding an “extraordinary circumstances” provision, where people who fall adjacent to the domestic unit clause can gain approval to stay in a home. 

Meadows also raised concern that the amendment would undermine the city’s rental restriction overlay zones. 

“If the city cannot regulate who lives in a particular house, we don’t have any authority to limit the number of people who might be in that house and don’t have the authority to limit the unrelated individuals who might live in that house,” he said. 

Members of the petitioning group said they are not trying to interfere with the overlay districts. 

Meadows also said many of the things in the proposal could be addressed through ordinance changes, and don’t need to be charter amendments. He indicated he would like to look at the rental code to see how it could be improved. 

“I want to take a look at it,” he said. “I want to go line by line through our rental housing code. It’s been 30 years, just like our charter, and it’s time to take a look at it.”

Meadows continued to say that the charter review committee currently being assembled, can look at recommended charter changes as well.

Altmann said because the code is complex and housing regulations are found at various locations throughout the document, the city needs to give clear guidance on what homeowners are and are not allowed to do. 

Watson expressed interest in the petitioning group’s work, and said that many old policies need to be examined because of discrimination that was baked in when they were crafted. 

“Who is living with who has historically been embedded in systems of oppression,” she said. “When you think about why these rules are even in place, and why people care so doggone much about why who’s walking into whose home, I think it comes from anti-semitism, it comes from homophobia, heterosexism and it comes from racism, and people having problems with who they’re seeing.”

Watson went on to say that households look different today than they did decades ago, and she looks forward to examining policies the city may need to modernize.