Voters this month selected Erik Altmann as one of East Lansing's three new city council members.
Altmann ran on a platform of increasing government transparency, maintaining rental restriction policies, climate action, and rebuilding the city’s workforce.
He previously served on the city council from 2015 to 2019.
WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke to Erik Altmann to discuss his plans for his second term on the East Lansing city council.
This is the first candidate profile in a series where WKAR interviews the winning candidates for East Lansing City Council. Altmann was the first candidate to reply.
Interview Highlights
On Altmann's return to the council
I've learned a lot from the four years between when I stepped down and now. I think the council during that period was a sort of a good example of how not to govern. So I think we have a lot to work with, we have a lot of experience on the council now, and a clear mandate from the voters to govern effectively and communicate effectively and maybe try to be a little bit boring for a change.
On the current climate of East Lansing city government
The current climate in the city workforce is one of sort of deep concern about unstable leadership. The previous council was really sort of a wrecking crew. And that's one of the reasons that we lost so many city staff, apparently, especially in the past year or so. And so, we're at a point now where we need to rebuild the city workforce. And that starts with stable and transparent leadership at the top of the organization.
On funding storm infrastructure upgrades
This keeps me up at night right now. I'm very concerned that we are missing out on opportunities to attract infrastructure funding, because we do not have the staff anymore to go after that money. And so we need to resolve that issue quickly. There's a trough and we need to be sitting at it. And it's just a really urgent problem that is at the top of my list right now.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: Voters this month in East Lansing selected Erik Altmann as one of their three new city council members.
Altmann ran on a platform of increasing government transparency, maintaining rental restriction policies, climate action, and rebuilding the city’s workforce.
He previously served on the city council from 2015 to 2019.
Erik Altmann joins me now to discuss his plans for his second term on the East Lansing city council.
Thanks for being here.
Erik Altmann: Thanks for having me.
Schellong: So this is your second time serving on the council. How do you feel about returning after losing an election and stepping down?
Altmann: It’s great to be back. And during the campaign, it was great to talk to people in the community who I think were very welcoming. It felt like I was reconnecting with old friends that I hadn't talked to in years, people I got to know when I was on the council previously.
I've learned a lot from my first time on the council. I've learned a lot from the four years between when I stepped down and now.
I think the council during that period was a sort of a good example of how not to govern. So I think we have a lot to work with, we have a lot of experience on the council now, and a clear mandate from the voters to govern effectively and communicate effectively and maybe try to be a little bit boring for a change.
Schellong: You mentioned that the council was previously an example of how kind of “not to govern,” how do you want to shift to the current direction the city is heading? Describe the current climate and your plan to change it.
Altmann: The current climate in the city workforce is one of deep concern about unstable leadership. The previous council was really sort of a wrecking crew. And that's one of the reasons that we lost so many city staff, apparently, especially in the past year or so. And so, we're at a point now where we need to rebuild the city workforce.
And that starts with stable and transparent leadership at the top of the organization. So, I think we took an important first step by electing a council that's interested in governing.
But now we need to figure out what specific things caused the exodus of city staff in the past year. And we need to correct those factors. And then we need a plan for rebuilding. I don't think we can go about hiring people, people willy nilly, we need a strategy.
And a lot of that work is going to fall to the city manager who is the professional that the council hires to run the city. But we're going to have to engage in strong oversight to make sure that there's progress on that goal.
Schellong: We're talking about rebuilding the city's workforce. You mentioned that a lot of that rebuilding will rely on the city manager to do, but in your role as council member, what will you do in the capacity you're able to help rebuild the city's workforce and re-instill that trust in our city government?
Altmann: One of the most important things that the city council can do is make sure that city staff have the resources they need to do their jobs, and also, the backing that they need, if they come under fire from the public. Public sector jobs are really difficult because you're working in a fishbowl, everybody's looking over your shoulder. And everybody's got criticisms, and we need to have people's backs and that's something that we did when I was on the council previously.
And so that I think people who work for the city felt like they had the trust of the people who led the organization. So a lot of it is just sort of establishing a culture of trust and support and I hope we can do that quickly, and that over time, the city's reputation as a good employer will recover. That's going to take time.
Trust is one of those things that you can lose in an instant and it takes a long time to rebuild. And so, it may take a while before people start wanting to work in East Lansing again.
Schellong: You also ran on a platform of climate action, including the need to upgrade infrastructure to handle severe weather events like the flooding we have here in East Lansing. What kind of budget and spending plan did you have in mind for those storm infrastructure upgrades?
Altmann: Yeah, that's a great question. And that kind of work is really expensive. And we need to be chasing federal grant dollars for this, there is a lot of money available under the Biden administration from the Inflation Reduction Act and various other infrastructure bills that Biden got through.
And I'm very concerned, this keeps me up at night right now, I'm very concerned that we are missing out on opportunities to attract infrastructure funding, because we do not have the staff anymore to go after that money. And so we need to resolve that issue quickly. There's a trough and we need to be sitting at it. And it's just a really urgent problem that is at the top of my list right now.
Schellong: So you're saying the city of East Lansing doesn't have grant writers to apply for federal funding?
Altmann: That's exactly right. And we can do some of that work through consultants and the state has offices that could help us with this. But we don't even have the staff to do the outreach to make those contacts at this point. We basically have a skeleton crew of people who are overworked and maybe a little traumatized after the last four years. And so, we really need to make that a high priority.
Schellong: That’s Erik Altmann. He's one of East Lansing’s new city council members. Thanks Erik.
Altmann: Thanks very much.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.