While many Spartans left campus over the summer, the City of East Lansing has seen an eventful few months, facing several issues directly tied to student life.
Below is a list of notable East Lansing news you may have missed while you were away:
East Lansing City Council
On May 12, during budget discussions for the 2027 fiscal year, East Lansing City Council amended proposed budget cuts to the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC), who oversee incidents involving human rights concerns and police brutality in the area.
The agenda item report explained that “these costs have been budget for previous years and not expended.”
After proposing to gut ELIPOC’s budget by $42,000 on April 28, the city council approved adding $6,000 back into it for their annual use-of-force analysis, which uses reports from the East Lansing Police Department. The city council also amended the Human Rights Commission budget to return the total of $2,000 in proposed cuts to their budget.
On June 16, the city council unanimously approved amendments stripping the HRC of their investigative powers — despite commissioners and community members calling for the vote to be delayed. Lead City Attorney Carlito Young said that the 60-year ordinance unlawfully bestowed the HRC with judicial powers, and that since the city council doesn’t possess such power, it cannot be extended to its commissions. Notably, the revisions protect the city and all of its departments and officials from any complaints filed against them by the HRC.
While the city council cited the need to comply with state laws, some viewed the amendment adoption as “rushed.” The revisions came soon after the HRC issued corrective actions to the city on May 27 for a 2025 Michigan State University Welcome Week pepper spray incident.
The city council also unanimously approved a proposal from the East Lansing Police Department to implement Municipal Parking Services (MPS) SafetySticks to curb illegal parking on July 21. The sticks use a 24/7 high-definition motion detection camera system and radar vehicle detection to read and capture images of license plates of vehicles that are parked in a zone for longer than 90 seconds. The sticks will be active in various no parking zones downtown pending state court approval.
East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission (ELIPOC)
