Special ELi Investigation: Why Have So Many Senior Personnel Quit the City of East Lansing?

A months-long investigation by ELi – involving numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests plus sourcing from current and former employees of the City of East Lansing – finds an anonymous complaint made to City Council accurately described the central reason for why many top-level staff decided to quit the city’s employ.

As ELi reported in April when it became public, the anonymous complaint described senior staff losing patience with the perceived overreach of powers by some members of the Council, particularly Mayor Ron Bacon.

It also detailed senior staff’s frustration with the actions of Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Elaine Hardy.

Signed only “Anonymous Public Servant,” the complaint described the actions of Bacon and Hardy in particular as contributing to bad morale, uncertainty in City Hall and a growing sense of workplace unfairness.

It suggested Hardy – director of a small and relatively new department – was being allowed to wield extraordinary powers with Council and over the city’s day-to-day operations, powers the City Charter does not intend a city employee (other than the city manager) to have.

The complaint also suggested, as detailed below, Interim City Manager Randy Talifarro, appointed in January, added to the problems.

After the complaint became public in April, noting that those primarily targeted by the complaint are Black, Bacon and Talifarro decried the complaint as racist.

But several top former and current employees – who are white and who have spoken to ELi on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal and being publicly labeled racist – have told ELi the central issue in the mass exodus of senior employees is not race or racism.

They say it is the upending of the city’s day-to-day work-life as Bacon and Hardy, in particular, have allegedly disregarded the separation of powers described in the City Charter and made working life uncertain, unpleasant and difficult for departmental leaders.

Amid the turmoil, Bacon has decided not to run for reelection to Council, and Mayor Pro Tem Jessy Gregg has made the same decision. 

The matter has spilled over into the issue of the appointment of the next city manager, as detailed below.

ELi contacted Bacon, Talifarro and Hardy earlier this week to ask for comment on the findings of this report. None responded to the request. 

But at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting (Sept. 19), the strained situation was alluded to repeatedly and Bacon “took a point of privilege” to speak publicly to the story, saying, “This is being framed in a way that is absolutely disgusting.” 

He said he would be “controlling the narrative” from here on out.

East Lansing’s City Charter calls for a “strong city manager” form of government.

Because the anonymous complaint objected to alleged Charter violations by members of City Council, particularly Mayor Bacon, as being at the core of city staff’s upset, it’s important to understand what the Charter describes and why it matters.

There are two basic forms of city government in Michigan: the strong mayor form and the strong city manager form. 

The City of Lansing’s charter calls for the strong mayor form of government, with a well-paid, directly-elected, full-time mayor (currently Andy Schor) effectively in charge of the executive branch of the city. 

By contrast, the type of government established by East Lansing’s City Charter is the strong city manager form, wherein a full-time city manager runs the day-to-day executive-branch operations. In East Lansing, the City Council (the legislative branch) is made up of low-paid, part-time elected officials who hire, fire and manage only two people: the city manager and city attorney. 

The Council (not the electorate) chooses the mayor and mayor pro tem (substitute mayor) from among their own ranks. Council members currently make about $8,000 per year, except the mayor, who makes about $10,000 per year. As interim city manager, Talifarro is currently being paid at the rate of $180,000 per year.

When it emerged in the early 20th century, the strong city manager form of government was a reaction to cities using the strong mayor form, some of which were being run by corrupt elected officials who used governments for their own political agendas and personal benefit. The strong city manager approach is meant to prevent the inappropriate use of public resources (including staff labor) by politicians.

In East Lansing under the Charter, the five Council members are meant to generally be equal in power. The mayor, according to the Charter, plays the head of the city for ceremonial purposes and for the purposes of signing off on matters approved by the five-member Council, while the city manager runs the city. Employees are supposed to report to and be responsible to the city manager.

The city’s organizational chart shows that the DEI Department, which came into being with the Fiscal Year 2022 budget, is responsible to the city manager, just like other departments.

The chain of command described in the Charter and the organizational charts put departmental staff below the city manager and separated from the Council by the city manager.

As DEI Director, Elaine Hardy has had unusual access to Council, particularly the mayor.

Communications between Hardy and Bacon released under FOIA confirm the close working relationship between Bacon and Hardy alluded to in the anonymous complaint. They show Hardy often consults with Bacon directly on legislation, budgeting, external relations, public relations and more, with no looping in the city manager or going through that office. Hardy has Bacon’s ear and often works for and advises him, although that is not in her job description.

Text communications between the two released under FOIA show Hardy and Bacon jointly making arrangements for the “mayor’s listening session” on violence in the schools, jointly working on PR releases in the name of the city, managing the city’s public relations after the shootings at Michigan State University, and arranging a dinner with Talifarro when he arrived in February to take over as interim city manager.

Other texts show Hardy telling Bacon what she thought the city should do with 27 acres of land the city owns and how to bring the planning/development matter to Council. Texts also show Hardy encouraging Bacon to put forth a draft ordinance (a law) to set up a new commission, the youth commission, which her department would staff.

At times in their communications, Hardy comes across as functioning like an executive assistant to Bacon. (Hardy: “Are you gonna do something for Lisa’s [Lisa Babcock’s] last meeting in December?” Bacon: “Yes help me plan some type of acknowledgment.”)

A designated member of the City Clerk’s staff with the title of the Assistant to the City Council is actually assigned to Council members to help them with things like Council-related scheduling and photocopying. The DEI director is not assigned to such work.

Texts released under FOIA also show Hardy communicating with Bacon on financial decisions being made during a City Council meeting. On Feb. 21, 2023, she texted him from the audience during the Council’s budget discussions, “We don’t have to approve ARPA for sidewalks.” (ARPA stands for the American Rescue Plan Act, which has provided about $12 million in federal funding to the city.)

In all, the evidence supports the complaint’s claim that one departmental director (Hardy) has had extraordinary access and power not in keeping with the system described in the city’s charter.

Staff members say they were upset about this wide-ranging collaboration between Hardy and Bacon not because they see it as a mere technical violation of the Charter. It’s because they’ve seen Hardy’s and Bacon’s approaches as upending their public service work lives and creating unfair and difficult working conditions.

Long-time municipal employees are known to be people who value structure, regulation, clear and strong chains of command, and predictable promotion systems. East Lansing’s lead employees have been of that ilk.

Bacon, by contrast, has sometimes expressed frustration with how government rules and procedures seem to get in the way of what he sees as progress, including progress in DEI.

This clash of cultures between Bacon and Hardy and long-time senior staff has contributed to the decision of many senior personnel to quit. Sources have said the alleged favoritism shown to Hardy – one director among many – has also contributed.

This clash was on display at Tuesday’s Council meeting when Annette Irwin, who has worked for the city for over 25 years, suddenly came to the podium to speak. Council was planning to go into closed session about a lawsuit issue at the moment when Irwin stood up and asked if she could speak out of order. She was given permission to do so.

Irwin referred to Bacon’s earlier remarks, saying, “We can’t control the press, I know that – but we can all control what we say.” She took Council members to task for talking about “in groups” and “out groups” as if every employee is in a partisan group.

“We are a staff of professionals,” she said. “We will continue to be a staff of professionals. I would like to be treated as such.”

During his comments, Bacon had also said, “As a city, I’m going to give a direct apology to our DEI Director Elaine Hardy. I feel the behavior of, particularly our local media and other people and just kind of in the implications of some of the stuff, are absolutely disgusting. And I know it’s been trying.”

He asked how “an employee of 20 years who has every option, one of the most respected workers in DEI and the work of the community” could be treated badly.

To this, Irwin asked for “less talk about who’s a good employee and who you may have heard bad things about or good things about. I think it would help all of us that work at the city.”

Hardy’s role as DEI Director started in 2020, when Lahanas followed the lead of City Council and moved to shift her into a new city position.

In June 2020, against the volatile backdrop of the murder of George Floyd and accusations of racist police brutality in East Lansing, Lahanas issued a statement “Regarding the National Conversation on Racial Inequality.”

That statement committed “to dismantling the systemic inequalities in City government and working with staff and the community to make East Lansing an inclusive, welcoming and affirming place to live, work, visit and do business.”

The plan Lahanas put forth in June 2020 included creating a full-time position “for a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion administrator for the City of East Lansing who will focus on building relationships with the LGBTQIA+ community; immigrants; refuges; students; persons with disabilities; and Black, Indigenous and/or People of Color (BIPOC).”

Hardy, who had been employed as coordinator for the Hannah Community Center, was moved into this new role.

Tensions were running high in the city at that point, not just because of national and local reckonings with long histories of racism but because of the pandemic wreaking havoc with daily life in this college town. Michigan State University had shut down in-person classes in March and, by June, the city was running many operations remotely.

Just a month after Lahanas’ statement on racial inequality, in the middle of a Council meeting held online because of the pandemic, Mayor Ruth Beier and Mark Meadows quit the City Council. They resigned immediately after the firing of City Attorney Tom Yeadon by the other three members of Council – Gregg, Babcock and Aaron Stephens.

The Charter required the remaining three Council members to appoint replacements within 30 days. They appointed Ron Bacon and Dana Watson.

As she was quitting in disgust at the July 15, 2020, meeting, Beier had admonished Lahanas that, after firing Yeadon, the remaining members of Council were “coming for him next.” Worried about destabilizing the city more than had already occurred, the newly-reformed Council gave Lahanas a lucrative new four-year contract.

Nonetheless, Lahanas knew that, under the City Charter, the city manager serves at the pleasure of Council, and he could see Hardy was valued by his new set of bosses.

In November 2020, Council passed a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis. That resolution, drafted by Hardy, included a promise to “Commit to preserve the DEI administrative role as a permanent position within the city government.” Putting this in a Council resolution effectively took that personnel decision out of Lahanas’ hands.

By May 2021, Council members had let Lahanas know they wanted to turn DEI into a full-blown department. This occurred with an amendment to the next year’s budget.

After the November 2021 election – which seated Bacon, Watson and George Brookover alongside Gregg and Babcock – Bacon was elected mayor by the Council and Gregg was named mayor pro tem.

Prior to his being appointed to Council, Bacon and Hardy had known each other through the Dr. Martin Luther King Commission of Mid-Michigan.

The connections of various players through the MLK Commission was mentioned in the anonymous complaint as being significant to the concerns about alleged inappropriate uses of power.

The way the city has treated the MLK Commission has been seen as evidence that Hardy was not subject to the constraints put on the work of other employees.

Texts and emails released under FOIA show extensive discussions between Mayor Bacon and Hardy about the MLK Commission, a nonprofit (501c3) organization the two have led for many years, predating Bacon’s appointment to Council.

The MLK Commission works in the region to provide unique networking opportunities to people of color and to provide small scholarships for youth. It also supports and hosts local programming related to the values expressed in the life’s work of Dr. King.

ELi reported in June that the MLK Commission is being openly run by Hardy as the commission’s board chair from her city desk even though, under federal law, 501c3’s are non-governmental organizations by definition and are not supposed to be run by governments. State law (as described further below) strictly limits municipalities’ relationships with non-profit charities like the commission.

Yet the city’s DEI Department’s webpage states that “DEI staff support…the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Mid-Michigan in its work to preserve the legacy and teachings of Dr. King.” An examination of publicly available materials, including the commission’s tax returns and Hardy’s job description, shows that the City of East Lansing, and only the City of East Lansing, has been paying Hardy to run this external nonprofit corporation.

Material obtained by FOIA shows Hardy using her city email and title to do work for the commission, including arranging events and soliciting support for the charity (examples here, here and here). City funds have been used to pay for food from Sam’s Club for the “non-governmental” commission’s meetings and to buy supplies from Office Depot for the organization.

In addition, Hardy has used the services of Parks & Rec staff who work the front desk at the Hannah Community Center to sell tickets to the commission’s events (records show her writing to 13 staff members about this) and to receive scholarship award application packets. She has also had Parks & Rec staff help her with tasks like ordering more office supplies for the commission.

Records show the commission has also benefited from free use of rooms at the Hannah Community Center, space for which other external groups are required to pay. Records released also show tickets for MLK Commission events are run through the city’s treasury, with checks cut back to the commission using “custodial” accounts. This means staff time in the city’s finance department has also been devoted to the commission.

FOIA results show that, since December 2013, the City of East Lansing has made a total of $66,170 in payments to the MLK Commission. This sum includes $43,900 in cash payments. There are no written contracts between the city and the commission.

Advice provided in 2012 by the Michigan Department of Treasury to municipalities states that, with regard to charitable donations to nonprofit organizations, “Unless the payment is in exchange for the provision of a governmental service that the local unit could have provided itself, this is not a valid public purpose.” (See page two here.)

Again, there are no contracts between the City of East Lansing and the MLK Commission, which means there are no contracts indicating the provision of legally allowable municipal services by the commission.

The sanctioning for years by city leaders of this use of public resources, including cash and labor of dozens of city employees, for the benefit of this external nonprofit corporation that is run by Hardy, has been perceived, according to employees, as giving her special latitude.

East Lansing’s approach to funding the MLK Commission appears to be extraordinary. In December 2022, MLK Commission Treasurer Steve Japinga approached the City of Lansing to ask for a big cash donation to the MLK Commission, but then-Lansing Deputy Mayor Jane DiSessa responded, “As I explained to you earlier, in accordance with the Michigan Constitution and State laws, a municipality has the power to expend funds only for a public purpose.”

DiSessa attached in her message to Japinga a fact-sheet from the Michigan Municipal League explaining that Michigan cities can’t legally cut checks to external charities unless there’s specific contracted work that a city is legally allowed to undertake. (State law includes these restrictions as part of anti-corruption measures.)

Japinga forwarded DiSessa’s message to Hardy who forwarded it to Bacon. Internal records show Hardy then came up with a list of “talking points” that Bacon could use to try to reverse DiSessa’s decision.

The talking points revealed how many East Lansing taxpayer-funded resources were being provided to the MLK Commission.

As mayor, records show Bacon worked to increase the power of the DEI Director.

This was manifested notably in the now well-known eight-page plan, drafted sometime around August 2022, to remake substantial portions of the East Lansing government, a plan for which Bacon advocated.

The document outlined a scheme to create a new Department of Culture, Equity and Placemaking that would have – if enacted – come under the power of the DEI Department. It would have involved moving funding and staff from the Department of Planning, Building & Development and the Department of Parks, Recreation & Arts and would have formally given the DEI director far more power.

FOIA shows that, on Sept. 26, 2022, Bacon sent a message to Lahanas with a cc to Gregg on this matter. The subject line was, “Proposed realignment for community development, DEI, business, peacemaking [meant to be ‘placemaking’] and culture.”

Bacon attached the eight-page reorganization plan and wrote to Lahanas, “I do not approach these proposals lightly, they are rooted in hundreds of conversations and inputs over the last couple of years.”

Lahanas appears to have brushed off the plan, but it made its way around City Hall and was met with shock by a number of employees. The plan is mentioned in the anonymous complaint as contributing to low staff morale. Additional information obtained by ELi since supports that reading.

From the point of view of past and present leadership staff who are on the “other side” from Hardy, the most troubling aspect of the reorganization plan was that the staff knew the mayor was seriously considering a plan for changing their jobs, departments and budgets (without any public discussion) to give Hardy more power.

This was, according to the anonymous complaint, more proof that Bacon and Hardy were essentially upending the legal power structure of the city to further their own agendas (including rewarding allies) and doing so largely behind closed doors.

“It is known to internal staff that those employees called out in the plan [for being given more power and resources] have close ties to Elaine and/or the Mayor. This plan appeared, to those who were watching, to openly award more staff, more funding, and more authority to a Director who openly acts as a conduit for a specific segment of Council’s will in City operations in contradiction with the City’s Charter,” the complaint said.

Like many of his directors, City Manager George Lahanas wanted the Charter followed.

By late 2022, a year into Bacon’s mayorship, Lahanas had become upset about the amount of power Hardy was wielding with City Council and in City Hall. On Jan. 2, 2023, Lahanas sent an email to City Council with the subject line, “City Charter Issue.”

“I want to express a significant concern,” Lahanas wrote, “that has occurred a number of times over the prior several months where I have objected to City Council members becoming directly involved in personnel management. As I have stated, such involvement violates the City Charter, which prohibits Council or its members from directing or interfering with my management of City staff.”

He told them that if they disagreed with his reading of the Charter, they should get a legal opinion.

Two weeks after sending that memo to Council, on Jan. 17, 2023, Lahanas’ contract was terminated and Council named Talifarro as interim city manager.

In May 2023, ELi followed-up on the tips provided in the anonymous complaint and the draft reorganization plan became public. At the time, Gregg called the heated public reaction to the revealed draft plan overblown and said the matter should be “put to rest.”

Adam Cummins, who was known as an ally of Bacon and Hardy, came forward to claim he was the author of the plan and to say it “should no longer be the focus of discussion.” (For reasons unstated, Cummins had quit his job in late January. In March, Bacon gave him a letter of recommendation as mayor on city letterhead.)

But despite Cummins, Gregg and Bacon downplaying the reorganization memo in the face of public upset about it, among staff, the reorganization plan had come to represent a major sign of the powers-that-be coming to disrupt or even eliminate their jobs as they had known them.

FOIA shows an email dated April 11, 2023, from Tim Dempsey as the new interim planning director to Talifarro. Dempsey attached the draft reorganization plan and said, “Per our conversation last week, please see the attached document. This was given to me by a staff member who asked that they not be identified for fear of retaliation. After reading this, I better understand some of the concerns and fears being expressed by staff.”

The way Lahanas was pushed out and Talifarro brought in added to the tensions.

According to published agendas, City Council met in closed session to discuss Lahanas’ job performance on Oct. 4, Oct. 18, and Nov. 1, 2022. Nothing was made public about the content of those discussions.

Then, on Jan. 17, 2023, with no prior warning to the public, the Council’s agenda for that night was amended to show a termination agreement with Lahanas and an interim city manager contract for Talifarro.

Bacon had been working behind the scenes with City Attorney Anthony Chubb – without public discussion with the rest of Council – to arrange to bring in Talifarro to replace Lahanas. Chubb told ELi on April 29, “I contacted Randy regarding the role of Interim City Manager after consultation with the Mayor. Anything beyond that is attorney-client privileged.” The contract ultimately presented to Council for approval was marked “version 3.”

Watson did not respond to questions about when she learned about the plan to terminate Lahanas’ contract and hire Talifarro. Gregg said “the first time I saw [the interim city manager contract] would have been on the Agenda,” and Brookover said the same. (By that point, there was no fifth member of Council; Garcia was chosen on Jan. 17 to fill Babcock’s seat after she was elected to a 54B Court judgeship.)

Bacon declined to publicly say why the decision to terminate Lahanas’ contract was made, saying only that he wanted to move in a different direction.

But it was not lost on senior management employees that no reason was given for terminating Lahanas’ contract and that, instead of installing one of them as interim city manager, Bacon had reached out to Talifarro to bring him into that job.

This was in spite of the fact that, in a memo to the Council dated six months earlier (June 27, 2022), Lahanas had named five employees about whom he said he was “confident in the ability of any one of them to serve as Acting City Manager should the need arise.” They were Tom Fehrenbach, who quit just before Lahanas left; Police Chief Kim Johnson; Director of Parks, Recreation & Arts Cathy DeShambo; HR Director Shelli Neumann, who quit around the time Lahanas left; and Fire Chief Dawn Carson.

Bacon has not responded to questions from ELi about why he sought to appoint Talifarro rather than drawing from the pool of existing management staff Lahanas had recommended.

It was also not lost on senior managers who remained that Talifarro also had had a long association with Hardy and Bacon, including through the MLK Commission as he, too, served on that board. (Today, he is listed on the commission’s website as an “Emeritus” member.)

Based on FOIA responses, public discussions, and sourcing in interviews, the power wielded by Bacon and Hardy seemed to be increasing exponentially by January with the termination of Lahanas’s contract and the installing of Talifarro. This was when the wave of resignations really took off.

Once Lahanas was out and Talifarro was in, Hardy appeared further emboldened, according to other staffers. The anonymous complaint refers to Hardy allegedly making a threat to Interim HR Director Ben Dawson about falling in line if he wanted to keep his job. The threat was allegedly conveyed by Dawson’s underling, Emily Kenney, who has since been promoted to Director of HR by Talifarro. (Dawson quit in March.)

ELi asked Hardy and Kenney to respond to the claims about this “threat” made in the complaint. We received back a response from Carrie Sampson, who Talifarro recently named the new City Communications Director. (Mikell Frey, long-term head of communications, resigned in April.)

Sampson said, “Because the investigation of the anonymous complaint is still ongoing, we have asked employees not to comment on this issue. We have no further comments on it at this time.”

The anonymous complaint also claims that Talifarro “made clear” at a Jan. 30 executive meeting that he would “not [be] making personnel decisions without including feedback from Council or other external parties….This is concerning for multiple reasons, but the most important is that the Charter clearly delegates the administration and handling of personnel matters to the City Manager, not Council or any other external body. Furthermore, these external parties are not responsible for the internal operations of the City, as per the Charter, so the idea that they would have say with regard to complicated personnel decisions when they are not aware of the facts surrounding them was troubling to senior staff.”

The whole system of separation of powers and chains of command seemed to be breaking down in City Hall in the eyes of some senior management. The resignations kept coming.

“There have been a number of times where the media has had the information [about a new resignation] almost as quickly as I have,” Talifarro said at a Council meeting in mid-March.

That was because ELi’s in-box was lighting up with anonymous tips about new resignations inside City Hall as employees kept hoping the public would understand what was going on. The anonymous complaint was the document that finally explained the point of view of those who felt the scene had become abusive. But it was quickly denounced by Bacon and Talifarro as racist.

Is racism at the heart of the complaints?

Bacon and Talifarro do see it that way, and Bacon even suggested he might take legal action to defend his civil rights.

On April 25, at City Council, speaking of the anonymous complaint, Bacon said, “I don’t consider it veiled [racism] anymore.” He said he was “going to direct the city attorney to give me my options as a city [official] or as an individual… I’m not even excluding the state department of civil rights as a function in this process.”

At the same meeting, Talifarro said, “It’s not lost on me, the individuals that were targeted and what they look like.”

He continued, “These things are not unintentional. I’ve seen this happen, I’ve spoken up about these issues elsewhere and it’s insulting.” (Talifarro was previously fire chief for both Lansing and East Lansing, and referred to what he saw as racism in the treatment of other Lansing officials.)

But, as noted above, white East Lansing city employees past and present who have objected to Hardy’s and Bacon’s actions do not believe they are motivated by racism in their criticisms and their decisions to quit.

The problem is not, in their view, their refusal to move towards a more diverse, equitable and inclusive city.

The problem, as they see it, is self-serving power grabs that have caused profound uncertainty about people’s jobs and futures and that have not actually advanced DEI in any meaningful way other than the most obvious – that the mayor, interim city manager, police chief, DEI director, plus one additional Council member are Black, a notable historical first for East Lansing.

The anonymous complaint addressed the issue this way:

“The work of DEI is very important, but DEI should empower organizations through education and raising awareness to overcoming impediments to inclusivity as a unified group toward our goals as a community. Progress in DEI should be made without resorting to tactics of manipulation and bullying, but I believe that while Elaine [Hardy] is the Director of the City’s DEI Department, and she maintains such close personal relationships with members of Council, and enables them to violate the Charter, that the true work of DEI cannot occur, and conditions in the City will only continue to worsen.”

Those complaining about the situation with Hardy and Bacon do not see meaningful advancement in terms of DEI.

For example, they point to the resolution passed by Council in November 2020 declaring racism as a public health crisis in the City of East Lansing. Besides declaring that Hardy’s job would become permanent, that resolution required “an annual review of the declarations and commitments listed in this resolution on racism as a public health crisis across the various governmental bodies by the DEI administration in partnership with the Human Relations Committee [sic], and all other appropriate boards and commissions.”

Nearly three years later, there is no evidence Hardy has conducted these annual reviews. (ELi has asked and received no information.)

According to critics who have worked in the city, the cause of advancing DEI has actually been thwarted sometimes because of Hardy pursuing what amounts to a personal agenda of taking care of the people she holds close.

An example given of this is the fact that Hardy delayed bringing forward to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) the complaint of Stelisha Foreman, a Black single mother whose Black son was wrongly accused by the city’s white library director of having committed an act of arson months earlier.

Library Director Kristin Shelley called the police on the East Lansing High School freshman when he refused to leave the library. (She thought he had been previously banned but had the wrong individual.) Foreman filed a civil rights complaint to the HRC and wanted Shelley fired.

Hardy, as staff to the HRC, was charged with bringing forward complaints made to the body. Foreman made the complaint on Jan. 30. Hardy did not bring it forward to the HRC until the March 13 meeting and, Foreman told ELi, Hardy never advised her when the HRC would be discussing her complaint. Consequently, Foreman was unaware the meeting to discuss her civil rights complaint against Shelley was even happening at HRC.

Shelley was a long-time board member of the MLK Commission of Mid-Michigan, serving on the board Hardy chaired. After Shelley resigned, Mayor Bacon publicly lauded Shelley, saying she was one of the people he was closest to in the city.

Some people do, however, continue to perceive the words of critics (and ELi reporters) as manifesting racism. And the cumulative claims by people like Bacon, Talifarro, former school board member Nell Kuhnmuench, and Police Oversight Commissioner and School Board Treasurer Kath Edsall that critics of Hardy and Bacon are simply racist – even white-supremacist in their attempts to maintain existing power structures like those enshrined in the City Charter – has caused a chilling effect on some people’s speech.

Consider the comments by Council candidate Rebecca Kasen, a supporter of Bacon and Hardy, during public comment at the Aug. 15, 2023, meeting:

“I want to call out the veiled and not so veiled racism I see in some of the comments [of the public]. The attacks on Mayor Bacon, Councilmember Watson, and DEI Director Hardy are disproportionate to other members of Council and city employees. The statements often surround them being in cahoots with each other. Why is no one saying Mayor Pro Tem Gregg, Councilmember Brookover and Interim Director Dempsey are in cahoots? No one is saying it because it is not true. It’s also not true for the three persons of color who sacrifice every day for our city.”

After that meeting, a citizen in the audience who had been planning to object to the hiring of Robert Belleman as city manager over Dempsey and city employees who watched the meeting told ELi that Kasen’s message was clear: if you object to the actions of Bacon and Hardy, or even to the hiring of Belleman, you’re a racist. That person opted not to speak at the meeting.

City employees tell ELi they felt that, when Bacon and Talifarro denounced the anonymous complaint as racist at City Council in April, the message was also clear: if you raise objections to how Black people are using power in the City, you are racist.

One noted that this framing of the complaint as racist – with Bacon saying he’d consider formal civil rights complaints to the state – happened at the final budget meeting of Council. That meant all senior staff were in the room to hear Bacon’s and Talifarro’s remarks, because senior staff attend the budget talks.

This helps to explain why it has taken months to investigate and bring this story. Sources have been deeply hesitant to talk about what’s happened for fear of being labeled racist and fear of retaliation.

The whirlwind of tensions has boiled over to involve the city manager appointment.

ELi’s investigation into the situation at city hall also sheds light on the decision by three Council members—Bacon, Watson and Garcia—to hire Belleman over Dempsey in a move members of the public have described to Council as “a huge blemish for this City,” “appalling,” and “disappointing.”

Dempsey is the former deputy city manager of East Lansing and former director of the Planning, Building and Development Department. He returned to the city in March to help out after two of his predecessors quit in quick succession.

When Council voted on Aug. 13 on who to make the new city manager, Gregg and Brookover supported Dempsey. But Dempsey lost out to Belleman in the 3-2 vote.

Belleman was fired in June as controller of Saginaw County amid claims of a toxic workplace environment, and East Lansing residents have been asking Council and ELi why Bacon, Watson and Garcia would make such a choice, particularly at this challenging moment in the city’s history.

“With the tumultuous condition of our city government,” resident Tara Monterosso wrote to the Council on Aug. 14, “hiring someone who was fired for creating a toxic work environment seems like it is not setting our local government up for success.”

“What a travesty of Justice,” wrote resident Mary Bouchard to Council the same day. “The morale has to be the lowest EVER….You are offering the top administrative position to someone known for creating hostile workplaces. How does that even make sense?”

But Councilmember Garcia explained how it made sense to him in remarks at the League of Women Voters’ Council candidate forum last Thursday (Sept. 14).

Garcia is running to keep the seat to which he was appointed in January. During the public portion of Thursday’s forum, Garcia said he has talked to employees who have left and most of them said they left for better opportunities for their careers and families.

“I couldn’t argue with that one bit,” he said. “I didn’t try to talk them out of that decision at all.”

Then Garcia said more, hinting at the reality of why so many have left: “There’s a little bit of turmoil in City Hall. There’s an in-group and out-group.”

Immediately after the formal portion of the forum ended, this reporter went to Garcia to ask him to confirm that he knows about the tense division into two factions in City Hall.

“Listening to your comments about why city staff have left,” I asked, “are you unaware of the issues within City Hall with regard to divisions?”

“Yeah, I’m very aware of it,” he answered.

“So you don’t think that’s responsible for why a lot of the people have left?” I asked.

“I think that’s part of it, yes, absolutely,” he said, “and the handling of it, you know.”

“Whose handling of it?”

“Everybody involved,” he said. “OK, so this is what is hard for me to talk about. When I went to make my decision on Belleman, I went to City Hall, I walked the halls, I sat on a bench,” to hear what employees had to say. “And I heard not just great things about Dempsey, I heard really bad things about Dempsey. And I think part of the turmoil down there was the infighting that was occurring between the group he’s in and the other group.”

The “other group” is the one that includes Bacon and Hardy.

This among other information gathered by ELi indicates that, rather than the environment improving since the filing of the anonymous complaint in the spring, the situation in City Hall is at least as hot, if not hotter. Belleman’s appointment, sources have said, is sending a strong signal to employees about how the power dynamics have still not changed in City Hall.

But, some remaining employees told ELi in the last two weeks, they also recognize everything could change with November’s election. The city manager serves at the pleasure of Council, and a new Council may come with a new set of approaches and instructions – or even seek a new city manager.

Belleman’s contract passed 4-1 Tuesday night (Sept. 19), with Brookover being the lone vote against. Belleman is expected to take the reins of the city Monday (Sept. 25).

In her remarks Tuesday night, Irwin (whose supervisor is Dempsey) told Council, “We’re going into a new direction. It’ll be a new time in our history. And I can assure you that our staff will be professional and welcome our new city manager to lead us on.”

Meanwhile, in advance of his departure as interim city manager, Talifarro has given Hardy a new title: “Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Organizational Culture.”

Talifarro told ELi Monday (Sept. 18), “Elaine’s job title was changed to reflect the linkage between DEI issues and other general supervisory skills necessary and desired in a healthy organization. It makes sense to train on topics such as Leadership, Coaching, Team Building, Managing Change, etc. as a part of discussions and in-services surrounding the topics of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The title change should allow her, or anyone working in that capacity, to coordinate with HR concerning these matters.”

More information is likely yet to come.

Council voted on April 25 to spend up to $30,000 to hire former Assisting Prosecuting Attorney for the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office J. Randall Secontine to conduct an investigation into the anonymous complaint. Secontine has not yet submitted his report.

Because Secontine has most likely had access to people and resources ELi has not, we anticipate his report will shed more light on these matters. ELi will bring his report and an analysis of it when it becomes available.

Editor’s Note: Correction on Sept. 23, 2023 – The original version of this article stated Randall Secontine’s former title as “Prosecutor for Oakland County.” This has been corrected to reflect that he was an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office.

Lucas Day contributed reporting. This special investigative report has been made possible by donors to the ELi Investigative News Fund. Join them today!