KIDS IN THE HALL

The Lansing City Council held a brief meeting today due to the July 4 holiday.

A Committee of the Whole meeting was scheduled immediately after the Council meeting, but Council members Brian Jeffries, Carol Wood and Eric Hewitt voted against moving to CoW for the same reasons they have objected over the past few months: No public input is allowed.

“If it is because members can’t meet at any other times than after Council, then I don’t have a problem accommodating them,” Wood, an at-large member, said. “But I will continue to make this vote.”

With only four others present to vote in favor of going to CoW (Vice President Kathie Dunbar was absent), Council President A’Lynne Robinson moved CoW to Monday at 6 p.m., just before the next Council meeting. The committee is scheduled to discuss amendments to the Employees’ Retirement System.

City Clerk Chris Swope reminded the public that applications for absentee ballots are being turned around the same day and that ballots are also available in his office.

Executive Assistant to the Mayor Jerry Ambrose informed the Council that the first week of new trash collection hours left some Lansing-area residents confused. He said the mayor’s office will do everything it can to inform the public of the new hours. “No one wants trash sitting in their garage for a week,” Ambrose said.