Members of the East Lansing based political action committee, Neighborhoods First, staged a protest Tuesday night outside of East Lansing City Hall an hour before City Council was scheduled to meet.
The issues being protested included a proposal by the council to amend the city’s charter for city property to be sold with a simple majority of approval from council members, as opposed to the current set up which requires a city-wide voter support of 60 percent to pass, according to a Neighborhoods First statement.
At Tuesday night’s work session City Council addressed a proposal to place a charter amendment on the May 5, 2015, Special Election ballot.
“Hopefully when people see how restrictive we are about selling land, they’ll think that’s perhaps a good idea to change that,” City Manager George Lahanas said in an interview Friday.
City Council will have to make a decision on the proposed charter by Feb 3. If approved by voters, this charter amendment would replace the three-fifths voter requirement needed to sell property of value in excess of $194,000.
Protesters were also raising issue with the closing of Bailey Child Care and Bailey Community Center and also questioned if the city carried out proper “due diligence” before allowing Park District Investment Group to begin its development on Grand River Avenue and Abbot Road.
The City of East Lansing is one of the most restrictive cities in Michigan when it comes to voter requirement for selling publicly owned property. Since 2006, four land sales have not passed despite having majority vote, 58.7 percent, 57 percent, 59.7 percent and 56.6 percent respectively.
Most recently, East Lansing’s Park District project failed to pass after receiving a little over 56 percent of the vote.
Due to the complexity of the proposed voter requirements, council agreed it would be best to simplify the language.
“It gets very confusing,” Triplett said after recalling a conservation with a confused resident during Tuesday’s work session.
The last scheduled City Council meeting before a decision is required is Feb. 3.
“I think the cleanest way is to put one question before the voters and let them make an up or down decision and then go from there,” Triplett said.
East Lansing resident Don Power, a former council member and one of the two founders of Neighborhoods First, said the protest was a start of “many blows” the organization would engage in its campaign.
Power also expressed a lack of trust in City Council.
“We own this land,” Power said. “All of us who are taxpayers, we own the land, so we should have the right to of whether we want to sell it or not.
“Part of it is a lack of trust of the administration in terms of having expertise to set the price, negotiate a correct price and get the job done. We don’t think they can do it.”
