Lansing Charter Commission hits the road for community feedback

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 21 — Lansing’s Charter Commission ventured beyond the friendly confines of City Hall last night to seek community input on its revision efforts.

The nine-member body met at the Alfreda Schmidt Community Center in south Lansing to host the first of four planned community meetings, in partnership with the Churchill Downs Neighborhood Association.

Dozens of south Lansing residents heard a League of Women Voters’ presentation on the basic functions of the existing 1978 charter. After that, they weighed in on what they’d like the commission to look at during its two-year quest to rework the city’s foundational document.

Frederic McLaughlin, a south Lansing architect and frequent speaker at the commission’s regular meetings, used his five minutes to paint a picture of the disparities between Lansing’s charter and those of other cities in Michigan.

“It's sort of where the devil resides, which is in the details — and some of those details are just as boring as hell. There needs to be more fat in the document, which is to say more body, more substantive material,” he said.

South Lansing resident Frederic McLaughlin weighs in during the Lansing Charter Commission's first community meeting at the Alfreda Schmidt Community …

He pitted Lansing's nine-article, 27-page charter against Ann Arbor’s, which spans 20 chapters and 71 pages. He said adding more definitions and concise language could encourage more residents to become engaged in city politics, especially younger citizens.

“There are all kinds of places where referencing and cross-referencing are desperately needed in the present document, and that refers to statutes, regulations and ordinances,” he said.

Alexis Jones asked if the charter could require city employees to live within Lansing city limits. While this has been illegal statewide under the Residency Act of 2000, Charter Commission Chair Brian Jeffries said there are “other ways to get around it to make it happen,” such as incentive.

“The city could, through the Council, add an incentive to live in the city by saying, ‘We'll give you $20,000 for a downpayment,’” Jeffries said.

Mike Redding, a former president of the Churchill Downs Neighborhood Association, noted that the Lansing Board of Water & Light’s public hearing on proposed utility rate increases started just an hour before. He asked commissioners to consider capping increases through the charter.

“We as homeowners are just being forced down. They're going: ‘We're going to raise it, and there's nothing you can do.’ Last year, they did the same thing, and that doesn't save us anything,” he said.

“A majority of the people that live in this city are headed into retirement. These are people on fixed income, and the BWL just keeps wanting to take from us. There has to be a cap in there to protect the citizens, because there's not one there now,” Redding added as the room broke out in applause.

Jeffries agreed that it was something to consider, adding that he was impacted by the BWL’s decision to phase out a senior discount program.

Tim Poxson, the American Legion’s Michigan legislative chair, hoped that the charter could somehow incorporate a provision for hiring veterans.

“My suggestion would be that if more than one candidate for a position qualifies for that position and has the same qualifications, and they are equal in all respects, the city would give preference to the veteran, and the veteran would then be hired with the chair's approval,” Poxson said.

Churchill Downs Neighborhood Association member Mike Marriot asks the Lansing Charter Commission to consider the impact a revised charter could have …

South Lansing artist Mike Marriot urged commissioners to also consider future generations.

“The people that are most going to be impacted by this charter are going to be in the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s,” Marriot said. “They're at Eastern, Everett and Sexton — and they just got there as freshmen. They should also have a say in this document.”

Thomas Hamlin, a south Lansing businessman, asked commissioners not “succumb to evil imaginations” as they carry out their work.

“What good are changes to the city charter when the city officials unilaterally divert city resources to meet the demands of radical pressure groups? For example, selective non-enforcement of laws, social workers rather than fully manned police departments, deforestation of our city, lousy FOIA request fulfillment and DEI proposals. The updates, if any, should provide practical benefits,” he said.

Another former Churchill Downs Neighborhood Association president, Jay West, countered Hamlin’s mention of DEI by citing cities like Tacoma, Washington, and New York, where anti-racism provisions have been incorporated.

Commissioner Liz Boyd agreed that promoting equality was an important consideration.

“One of the things we have talked about as a commission is that our charter does not reflect state law in terms of protections for sexual orientation. So, we know that, at a minimum, our charter needs to be updated to assess what has happened in the state law. That's something that we're going to look at,” she said.

As the session concluded, Commissioner Guillermo Lopez noted that not all the proposed changes could be best implemented through the charter. Some could be better suited as ordinances. He encouraged continued engagement, nonetheless.

“Realistically, there are some things that we may want in the charter that don't belong in the charter,” he said. “But if our form of government is going to either continue or change, it’s going to require your participation.”