The host of the “What Lansing Council” podcast Jill Dombrowski has spent the past year attending and watching Lansing City Council meetings and then breaking down what happened for her listeners.
As an election poll worker, she noticed people coming in to vote for national races but feeling less confident about their choice for down ballot, local ones.
Dombrowski started the podcast to provide an accessible and straightforward recap of regular council meetings.
"I wanted to create something that allowed people to have more confidence in knowing what was going on in Lansing, knowing what our city council members were up to," she said.
While some may think municipal meetings are boring, Dombrowski says she's become more engaged watching the process, especially during public comment.
"There's an exchange of power that happens that I just think is really energizing. Like the council members have to sit there and shut up, and the people have to go up under these bright lights and stand before them to speak eloquently about what their problems are," she said.
She says when you have something you want the councilmembers to address, it's important to be specific and maybe bring a friend, so they hear about the issue more than once. But there's also work you can do before the meeting.
"You don't want getting up there in front of them at a council meeting to be your first time interacting with them," she said. "You want to write an email. You want to give their office a call. You want to go to a committee meeting."
In the future, Dombrowski says she'd like to partner with Michigan State University or Lansing Community College students to expand the podcast or get new voices involved.
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Interview Highlights
On starting the podcast
I've been an election poll worker in the city of Lansing, and I've seen a lot of people come in to vote for the national elections, and they didn't have a lot of confidence in voting down the ticket on the local issues. And I wanted to create something that allowed people to have more confidence in knowing what was going on in Lansing, knowing what our city council members were up to.
On how to communicate with councilmembers
You want to write an email. You want to give their office a call. You want to go to a committee meeting. And it's a real pain to like go to all these meetings, but the more you can show that this is an issue you care about and you're going to show up for it. They want to see that you've put in some time, some dedication before coming to council to kind of prove that this issue matters to you. And I think having very specific asks for the council members really helps them out.
On the future of the podcast
Something I'd love to do is partner with MSU in some way, or LCC to kind of get some fresh blood into this, get some other people involved. I think there's a real opportunity to introduce civic engagement to others through this process of going to the meetings, summarizing it, talking about it with other people. So, it would be great for me to work on creating some connections and some partnerships, but I haven't really done that.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: The host of the “What Lansing Council” podcast Jill Dombrowski has spent the past year attending and watching Lansing City Council meetings and then breaking down what happened for her listeners.
Jill is here with me now to talk about what’s she learned putting together this show every two weeks. Thank you for joining us.
Jill Dombrowski: Thank you so much, Sophia. I really appreciate this opportunity to talk about the project and to talk about what's going on at city council in Lansing.
Saliby: Going a year back, why did you decide to start this podcast?
Dombrowski: So, I've been an election poll worker in the city of Lansing, and I've seen a lot of people come in to vote for the national elections, and they didn't have a lot of confidence in voting down the ticket on the local issues.
And I wanted to create something that allowed people to have more confidence in knowing what was going on in Lansing, knowing what our city council members were up to.
Saliby: I think most people see any kind of government meeting as boring. So be honest, do you ever get tired of sitting through these council meetings, having signed up for this job of hosting this podcast?
Dombrowksi: I think I'd been to one or two council meetings before deciding to do this project, and they were incredibly boring. I think having this goal of I need to make this understandable for other people, it really keeps me engaged. I'm looking at what the councilors are doing, what they're wearing, like, what are their ticks? What do they seem to be caring about because I really want to understand.
I really am trying hard to understand what's happening, so I can explain it to other people. It's that whole idea of you learn the most by teaching it to others. And that's kind of what I'm trying to do here.
Saliby: Is there anything you've learned about civic engagement, about politics, about local governance, while working on the podcast?
Dombrowski: Something I love about the meetings is the theater of it. So, everybody is there in person talking about these issues, and of course, and they do have the ability to give a virtual comment, but that really doesn't happen that often. So, the people are in the room, and you have people from a bunch of different issues coming together, and they have to share this physical space in the council chambers and the way that this plays out is the council members are all sitting up there quietly while the people of Lansing come up to give their comment.
There's an exchange of power that happens that I just think is really energizing. Like the council members have to sit there and shut up, and the people have to go up under these bright lights and stand before them to speak eloquently about what their problems are. And I just feel so much pride in the people of Lansing who do that, like, it's amazing to hear what they're saying, to hear what really affects them enough to go through this sort of arduous process to give a comment at council.
Saliby: Maybe people don't have the time to tune in or attend their local government meetings every week. But do you have any ideas for how people can be a little more civically engaged?
Dombrowski: I've certainly picked up some tips on how to, the coded communication to council works best, and that would be, don't take council by surprise. You don't want getting up there in front of them at a council meeting to be your first time interacting with them.
You want to write an email. You want to give their office a call. You want to go to a committee meeting. And it's a real pain to like go to all these meetings, but the more you can show that this is an issue you care about and you're going to show up for it. They want to see that you've put in some time, some dedication before coming to council to kind of prove that this issue matters to you.
And I think having very specific asks for the council members really helps them out. They want to help. They want to help the people of Lansing. And to say, very clearly, I know this is something you could do, and this is it that would help me out.
I think having very specific asks for the council members really helps them out. They want to help. They want to help the people of Lansing.
Also bring a friend. Because I think the more people you have talking about this issue, council hears it again and again and again. It's just like in advertising or whatever, where you hear the same message again, maybe in a different voice that helps it stick.
Saliby: Are there any plans to expand the podcast, or what is the future of "What Lansing Council?"
Dombroski: I have so many ideas that I'm not working on, just like council. [laughs] Yeah, something I'd love to do is partner with MSU in some way, or LCC to kind of get some fresh blood into this, get some other people involved. I think there's a real opportunity to introduce civic engagement to others through this process of going to the meetings, summarizing it, talking about it with other people.
So, it would be great for me to work on creating some connections and some partnerships, but I haven't really done that. But that is certainly a goal.
Saliby: Jill Dombrowski hosts the "What Lansing Council" podcast. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, on social media and on Patreon. Thank you for joining us.
Dombrowski: Thank you so much.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
