The city of East Lansing has appointed a familiar name to fill a short-term vacancy on the city council.
The council voted unanimously Thursday to appoint Shanna Draheim to a 10-week term.
Draheim previously served on the East Lansing City Council from 2015 to 2019.
I'm confident that she would be able to hit the ground running.
She’ll finish the rest of the term vacated by former mayor Aaron Stephens, who resigned in July to attend Harvard University.
Draheim says it just made sense for her to step in for a short time and offer her experience on issues like economic development.
“You know, my hope is that I can provide some background of some of those things coming up from my time there and at least just my knowledge of some of the issues around budgets,” Draheim said.
East Lansing Mayor Jessy Gregg says of the five candidates before the council, Draheim was the only choice for her.
“I’m confident that she would be able to hit the ground running, so to speak,” said Gregg. “Business will be done in these three months; we can’t just hit pause. So, having somebody who knows what they’re doing and has recently served would be a good appointment.”
Also on Thursday, Gregg was formally sworn in as mayor.
Dana Watson was selected as the first African-American woman to serve as mayor pro tem.