LANSING, Mich — Lansing voters will decide whether to approve significant changes to the city's charter this November, including adding a new city council ward and modifying mayoral powers.
- The proposed revised charter would increase city council members from 8 to 9
- Changes would modify how the city attorney can be removed from office.
- Election years would shift from odd years to every four years after presidential elections.
The 34-page document that guides how Lansing is run was written in the 1970s and had never been revised until now.
WATCH: Lansing's charter commission proposes major changes to city government
In 2023, 51 percent of Lansing voters supported revising the city's charter, which led to the formation of a charter commission.
"I was very much in favor of the charter revision," Loretta Stanaway said.
Stanaway was among those who voted for the revision process.
"I especially wanted to see the city have a deep dive to see if it would be better to have a strong mayor system or weak mayor," Stanaway said.
Currently, Lansing operates under a strong mayor system of government, where the mayor serves as the city's chief executive.
Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope explained the process that led to the proposed changes.
"Last May 2024, we elected 9 members onto the charter revision and they have been meeting to come up with this proposed revised charter," Swope said.
The proposed revision contains approximately 20 changes, including increasing the number of council members from 8 to 9.
"They added a ward, so it would be 4 large council members and 5 at large," Swope said.
Stanaway had hoped for a different approach to council structure.
"My preference would have been for them to have 3 at large and 4 wards and used the remaining of the funds to cover a city legislative analyst," Stanaway said.
The revised charter also proposes changes to mayoral power. While the current charter states that only the mayor can remove the city attorney, the proposed revision would allow either the mayor or council to remove the city attorney.
"I would've preferred to see the city attorney only represent the citizens and the mayor and for council to have their own outside attorney that represents them," Stanaway said.
Another significant change would shift election years from every odd year to every four years after the presidential election.
When asked if she would support the revised charter in November, Stanaway was clear.
"No, I won't because I really wanted to see a switch from strong mayor to weak mayor," Stanaway said.
I reached out to some members on the charter commission, who referred me to Chris Swope. I also reached out to Lansing's Mayor Andy Schor, whose communications director sent this statement: "Mayor Schor is carefully reading the draft Charter and looking at all of the proposed changes. He hasn't seen anything that would make him opposed, so at this point he is undecided on whether to support or remain neutral until he has a chance to study it further."
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