The city of East Lansing has had a rocky start to this year, beginning in January when the city council voted unanimously to dismiss the city manager.
Multiple officials within the city government have also resigned in recent months.
Alice Dreger is a reporter at the online publication, East Lansing Info and has been following what’s been happening in the city.
WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke with Dreger to discuss where the city's leadership goes from here.
Interview Highlights
On the current vacancies in the city
The city is still without a permanent city manager, so that search is ongoing. They have not yet started the interview process or anything like that. But in addition to that, the city currently lacks a permanent director of public works. Scott House is that director but he's been gone on military leave for two years, the acting director quit. So there's a new acting director. In addition to that there's currently no deputy police chief. There's also other departments lacking permanent coverage, the human resources department, which of course takes care of hiring people.
On changes to the East Lansing Police Department's practices
This has been part of the police department undertaking an interest in doing ... an accreditation with the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. And they've just become accredited. But as part of that they have a lot of work to do in terms of policies and procedures and trainings. There was also an independent report from CNA which was an independent contractor hired by the city to do an examination of the police department. And that came up with 72 findings and 92 recommendations, and the police department has said they're committed to going through all of those and dealing with all of those recommendations.
On the fallout over allegations Mayor Ron Bacon overstepped his leadership
The City Council voted on April 25th to hire an independent investigator over charges made an anonymous complaint that Bacon had overstepped his authority under the city charter. The city charter limits how much power the city council members have and how much the mayor is one of the city council members that limits their power. And the charges are that he's been overstepping that including trying to create a new city system.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: The City of East Lansing has had a rocky start to this year, beginning in January when the city council voted unanimously to dismiss the city manager.
Multiple officials within the city government have also resigned in recent months.
Alice Dreger is a reporter at the online publication East Lansing Info and has been following what’s been happening in the city.
She joins us now. Alice, thanks for being here.
Alice Dreger: Thank you Megan.
Schellong: So, like I mentioned, the city has been facing a lot of vacancies in senior level positions. What do things look like right now?
Dreger: The city has just hired a new finance director. So, that's filled a vacancy of the senior management. But of course, the city is still without a permanent city manager. So, that search is ongoing. They have not yet started the interview process or anything like that.
But in addition to that, the city currently lacks a permanent director of public works. Scott House is that director, but he's been gone on military leave for two years. The acting director quit, so there's a new acting director.
In addition to that, there's currently no deputy police chief. There's also other departments lacking permanent coverage, the human resources department, which of course takes care of hiring people.
And then in addition to that, the building department has a temporary hire right now. So, it's been a lot of turnover. I mean, truly extraordinary.
Schellong: We're talking about leadership turnover, and I want to shift now to gun violence. A report had come out recently about a shooting at an East Lake Lansing Meijer that occurred about a year or so ago.
And the report showed that the police department can do better in a couple areas, does there seem to be movement or work on these recommendations?
Dreger: There's really a sort of global movement within the police department to try to improve policies and procedures and behaviors. This has been part of the police department undertaking an interest in doing ... an accreditation with the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police. And they've just become accredited. But as part of that they have a lot of work to do in terms of policies and procedures, and trainings.
There was also an independent report from CNA, which was an independent contractor hired by the city to do an examination of the police department. And that came up with 72 findings and 92 recommendations and the police department has said they're committed to going through all of those and dealing with all of those recommendations.
There's a lot of attention right now being paid, especially to how the police department deals with people in mental health crisis and also how they can work on de-escalation techniques.
They're doing that in conjunction with the police oversight commission, which has tensions with the police department over issues, especially around issues of potential racism around issues of escalation and de-escalation. So, there's a lot of attention right now being paid, especially to how the police department deals with people in mental health crisis and also how they can work on de-escalation techniques.
The shooting of DeAnthony VanAtten is part of that sort of powder keg of discussion going on, and that case led to no findings by the state level and the decision by Dana Nessel not to bring charges against the officers, but that's been quite controversial.
Schellong: So, we've been hearing that folks are disgruntled by city leadership. And on that same note, there's also been complaints that some city leaders like Mayor Ron Bacon have overstepped their authority.
Bacon has pushed back against those allegations, claiming they were motivated by racism. Is the fallout over this issue mostly done at this point or not really?
Dreger: Not at all. So, the City Council voted on April 25th to hire an independent investigator over charges made in an anonymous complaint that Bacon had overstepped his authority under the city charter.
The city charter limits how much power the city council members have and how much, the mayor is one of the city council members, that limits their power. And the charges are that he's been overstepping that including trying to create a new city system.
So there's a lot still coming, at East Lansing Info by the way, we're doing our own look into that, looking at all five council members and whether or not we find places where they have overstepped their authority under the charter.
Schellong: So, we know Mayor Ron Bacon is receiving some backlash. And the city council is kind of seeing some of the same, with its potential approval of a half million dollars in community development block grant funds.
Those can be used for public services like the East Lansing Public Library among other things, and in the past, this money was used in a way that garnered some scrutiny. Are those concerns still valid this time around?
Dreger: I think things are a lot calmer this time around than say five years ago, but this is money coming from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And it's supposed to be spent on issues for low-income and moderate-income individuals. So in the past, it had been used to in part build a retaining wall in the city attorney's private property which was very controversial, build a housing development that has houses that actually cost quite a lot of money in Avondale Square.
This time around, I think it's going to be a lot less controversial, although the disagreement between city staff and the Advisory Committee on how much money should be spent on things like sidewalks versus park improvements versus other kinds of infrastructure projects. So, we'll see that coming forward.
Can they get a city manager that makes everybody feel like things are moving in the right direction and everything is calming down?
Schellong: And Alice, last question here, what are some of the most pressing issues the council needs to get sorted out ahead of the November election?
Dreger: Definitely the turmoil within the city staff trying to calm down the staff, not have so many people leaving. And in addition to that, definitely the city manager search which is intimately tied to that issue. So, can they get a city manager that makes everybody feel like things are moving in the right direction and everything is calming down?
Schellong: That’s Alice Dreger. She's a reporter at East Lansing Info. Thanks Alice.
Dreger: Thank you Megan.
This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.