Voters this month in East Lansing selected Mark Meadows as one of their three new city council members.
Meadows ran on a platform of rebuilding the city’s workforce, diversifying housing stock, strengthening recreational activities, and improving the local economy.
Meadows has a long career as a politician, serving on local boards in the 1980s, being appointed to city mayor in 1997 and serving until 2006, and then, being elected to the Michigan House of Representative’s 69th District.
Meadows most recently served on the City Council as mayor from 2015 to 2017. He was a council member from 2017 to 2020. He resigned in July 2020 amid opposition to the council's 3-2 vote to fire then-city attorney, Tom Yeadon's contract. He and then-Mayor Ruth Beier both resigned from the council at the meeting.
WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke to Meadows about why he has made the decision to return to the council.
Interview Highlights
On his return to the East Lansing City Council
I felt that my experience on the council would be beneficial, primarily because we had lost such a large number of upper-level employees at the city. And that meant that we lost a huge amount of institutional knowledge there. Having been involved with the city for so many years I felt that my institutional knowledge would be beneficial going forward.
On his concerns about the city's workforce
The first thing that the city needs to do is to replace the employees that have left, hopefully with people who have a similar experience. But the direction of the city, which has always been very positive and has been positive for a number of years is something that I want to continue.
On East Lansing's housing needs
It's a mixed bag, we need more housing, because I think we're going to have more employees throughout this area, especially if we have some business development within our city. And I think that we need to address that. But we also need to make sure that we have all kinds of diversity here. And including income diversity, because I think it's healthy for our community to have that.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong: Voters this month in East Lansing selected Mark Meadows as one of their three new city council members.
Meadows ran on a platform of rebuilding the city’s workforce, diversifying housing stock, strengthening recreational activities and improving the local economy.
Meadows has a long career as a politician, serving on local boards beginning in the 1980s, being appointed to city mayor in 1997 and serving until 2005, and then, being elected to the Michigan House of Representative’s 69th District.
Meadows most recently served on the City Council from 2015 to 2020. He resigned in July of the latter year.
Mark Meadows joins us now to discuss his plans for his third term on the East Lansing City Council.
Thanks for being here.
Mark Meadows: Hey, I’m happy to be here.
Schellong: This is your third time serving on the council. Why did you decide to return to office after stepping down in 2020?
Meadows: Well, there were two openings that I knew were coming up. And I felt that my experience on the council would be beneficial primarily because we had lost such a large number of upper-level employees at the city. And that meant that we lost a huge amount of institutional knowledge there.
Having been involved with the city for so many years, I felt that my institutional knowledge would be beneficial going forward.
Schellong: How do you want to shift the current direction the city is heading? Describe the current direction that you see it going and your plan to change it.
Meadows: Well, I think the current direction is really related to the lack of experience and the emptiness of those positions. The first thing that the city needs to do is to replace the employees that have left, hopefully with people who have a similar experience.
But the direction of the city, which has always been very positive and has been positive for a number of years, is something that I want to continue. There are things that we addressed during the last four years that I think needed to be addressed.
I was not probably very supportive of the idea of reducing the leadership in the city at the time we were entering into the COVID era, which was very destructive across the country, in terms of the way local government was able to provide services to its citizens.
Schellong: In addition to running on platform of rebuilding the city’s work force, you also ran on a platform of improving the local economy. In your view, where's the money going to come from in order to do that?
Meadows: Well, you think that continued redevelopment will help us in the future. We've seen that as we redevelop, we do see higher value on that property that's being redeveloped. And I want to make sure that we have a wise redevelopment. One that benefits all of our community, doesn't benefit just a few. And we'll take a look at that. And as those come in, I can't say exactly what could happen, but I want us to be open to change.
Schellong: We're talking a little bit about developments. And you mentioned that you don't think that East Lansing has a housing crisis. But you acknowledge the need to address increased demand for student housing in the city. In your view, why don't you believe there's a housing crisis in the city of East Lansing?
Meadows: Well, I don't think there's a housing crisis because we have housing that is available for almost every income group. I really feel that we need more of a diversity of housing within the community and that we need to accentuate, a little bit anyway, the opportunities for low to moderate-income individuals and families to live within our city.
I know people think that we have a high value on our property. But considering the surrounding areas of the areas that surround the city, like Meridian Township, we really have bargains here in terms of the cost. And we live in a region, frankly, that has some of the best housing costs in the state.
It's a mixed bag. We need more housing, because I think we're going to have more employees throughout this area, especially if we have some business development within our city. And I think that we need to address that. But we also need to make sure that we have all kinds of diversity here. And including income diversity, because I think it's healthy for our community to have that.
Schellong: That’s Mark Meadows, the former Mayor of East Lansing, who has returned as one of its newest council members. Thanks, Mark.
Meadows: You’re welcome.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.