Lansing residents ask charter commissioners to consider ethical investment clause

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 11 — Advocates of amending the Lansing City Charter to include a clause requiring “ethical investment” presented their proposal to the city’s Charter Commission last night.

The proposal calls for a Sustainable and Ethical Preferred Procurement Policy to establish investment standards as well as an Ethical Investment Review Board to keep tabs on those practices.

“The City of Lansing shall not, directly or indirectly, through subsidiary or otherwise engage in investments or procurements from industries, entities, or ventures that are dangerous to human life, complicit in human rights abuses, or contribute to the destruction of natural resources,” the draft states.

A half-dozen residents spoke on behalf of the proposal during public comment.

Anna Martínez-Hume, a 2nd Ward resident, praised the city for implementing its Green Procurement Policy to help guide contract and purchasing decisions.

“But ethical investing extends beyond just making purchases that impact our environment, and Lansing should also have a policy that ensures we're not actively investing in entities that cause harm to human life,” Martínez-Hume said.

She noted that this divestment plan would include prohibiting agreements with entities that profit in any way from “weapons manufacturing, fossil fuel pipelines, the prison system and states that are actively engaged in illegal apartheid, annexation and human rights abuses.”

Another advocate, Dominik Finch, appealed to Lansing’s history of promoting diversity.

“I think about several years ago, when we declared ourselves a sanctuary city. I think about when we signed on calling for a ceasefire, and I think about when the whole community comes out and gives support so local families who have experienced structural harm can thrive,” Finch said.

“That's the kind of city that we live in.”

“We know that we don't have a lot of control over where our tax dollars go, but locally, we do,” Finch added. “That's one of the things that you guys are deciding in Article Seven — what is the impact of our tax dollars locally?”

Finch's reference was to the commission’s review of one chapter of the charter. Voters elected members of the nine-member panel to review the entire charter and make recommendations.

Mick Teti-Beaudin said the commission has an opportunity to effect change.

“People say, ‘Think globally and act locally,’ and I think the people of this city care so much about the ways that the things we do in Lansing ripple across our world,” Teti-Beaudin said. “The charter hasn't been changed in over 40 years, so this is a really unique chance that you all have to make sure that the charter represents the concerns and the vision of this city.”

Resident Laura Spitzfaden argued that ethical investment procedures would benefit the city financially as well as culturally.

“According to the Harvard Business Review, ethical investment pays off. It is increasingly absurd and surreal to have to justify investing in our very survival, or to have to prove that we should stop funding what's killing us,” Spitzfaden said.

“At a macro level, we've long passed the point where the cost of action is far lower than the cost of inaction,” she added. “Huge swaths of the planet are becoming uninhabitable, which, again, is very bad for business. We can make a difference by choosing where to invest our funds.”

Later, after reviewing Article 7, on taxation and finance, and Article 8, on city regulatory powers, contracts and public utilities, Commissioner Liz Boyd said she wanted to know more about the city’s existing investments and how they might be impacted by such a clause.

“I don't personally have enough information to know whether it's a good thing or bad thing,” Boyd said. “But I wonder if we might be able to refer this to a member of the finance committee and ask for some sort of review. Maybe we're not doing anything as a city that would be impacted by this. Maybe we're doing a lot. I don’t know.”

Boyd wondered if other cities in Michigan have adopted a similar clause. If so, she asked, how many of them did so through their charter versus through ordinance?

Charter Commission Chair Brian Jeffries said they would reach out to find the answers.

Commissioner Jody Washington urged residents who may know an area where the city’s spending could be considered unethical to bring it to the commission’s attention.

“I would like to know, even from the group that brought the proposal, are you aware of any entity we're doing business with that would violate this clause? If you do, please let us know,” she said.

For ideas on how to implement such a clause, Commissioner Guillermo Lopez suggested reviewing a city ordinance from several decades ago, which he recalled as imposing similar restrictions on “buying from companies that dealt with child labor.”

The Commission won't review Article 9, Jeffries said, because it primarily outlines the charter revision process itself. He said the next step was to bring attorneys from the Grand Rapids-based law firm Cummings, McClorey, Davis and Acho into the fold at their next meeting, where the group will start to outline how they’ll go about implementing revisions.

In prioritizing its decisions, Jeffries said the commission may first want to address calls to pivot away from the city’s existing strong-mayor system, in which voters elect the mayor to run the executive branch, appoint department heads and a few other posts, subject to Council approval, and maintain veto powers.

Some residents have asked the commission to consider moving to a city-manager format, in which the City Council would vote for one Council member to serve as mayor and lead the Council. The body would then hire a professional city manager to be responsible for the city’s day-to-day operations and staffing.

“We might look at making those bigger decisions first, because going to a city-manager would require a lot of other changes,” Jeffries explained.

The nine-member body will reconvene at its next regular meeting Sept. 24.