Each of the East Lansing City Council candidates has his own vision for the city's future.

The State News met with all four candidates and grilled them about relations between permanent residents and students, the April 2-3 disturbances, housing and other issues East Lansing has potential to improve on.

We've done the research and made decisions about what we think is best for the city.

Agree or disagree, it's now left in your hands to vote on Tuesday.

You can learn more at www.votesmart.msu.edu and www.youvote.msu.edu. Don't waste the liberties given to you as an American citizen.

Out of four leaders, we need the two most capable of helping the city grow.

Those two are John Fournier and Vic Loomis.

Fournier's campaign is professional and mature. He claims that by election day, he will have been in every precinct knocking on doors and handing out voter information about his campaign. And he's a student.

Fournier's an underdog, but he's running a real campaign that's not focused only on student issues.

He has impressive endorsements from George Griffiths, former mayor of East Lansing, state Rep. Gretchen Whitmer, democratic Congress nominee Bob Alexander, the Ingham County Democratic Party, Democracy for America and the Lansing Association for Human Rights.

Loomis, an incumbent, offers his experience and separate view of the city as a longtime resident. He, too, knocked on doors asking residents to vote, and offers to listen to the concerns of any citizen. Although his name is already in the community, he is making the effort to reintroduce himself to his constituency.

Although we call Fournier a student voice, but Loomis is willing to listen to the concerns of students. Both present themselves as trustworthy, hardworking, versatile and dependable.

Fournier realizes steps need to be taken to mend issues between students and residents and said his "ideas stretch beyond student issues and go toward the city."

"If my campaign becomes a referendum on student issues, I will lose," he said.

Loomis, however, is optimistic about community relations, highlighting the many events the greek community sponsors that also include permanent residents. But relations can improve, he said.

Neither Fournier nor Loomis believe that student affairs should be ignored.

Loomis recognizes students have a valuable voice and said positions on city boards reserved for students often go unfilled.

"There shouldn't be any vacancies," he said. "People should line up to serve on these committees and councils."

Fournier also realizes students are a valuable asset to the city and doesn't believe that students are apathetic.

"I've never run into a demographic that is more willing to talk about politics," he said.

Communication is key in helping the community move past sensitive issues. Both promote more dialogue between student and city groups.

They also recognize the need to fix issues between students and permanent residents in East Lansing. They understand the role of police and the independent commission investigating the April 2-3 disturbances.

The two realize what happened that night was unnecessary and blame falls on all parties involved.

Fournier, however, sets himself apart by saying the commission failed to help heal the community.

Fournier didn't attend the independent commission meetings because he said they were a waste of time and felt the restitution required from all arrested students was "absurd."

We agree.

Loomis was in town during the disturbances and made efforts to be fully informed of the situation. He saw footage from that night and couldn't believe some of the things he saw.

"I saw some tear gas being fired that I can't figure out for the life of me why," Loomis said.

Until he looks at the submitted recommendations, he said he will reserve final judgment on the event.

Both campaigns don't hinge solely on community relations, but also have concrete plans for the future of East Lansing.

Fournier's main economic model is to diversify the downtown area of East Lansing with small business incubators and encourage wireless hotspots. He also promotes protecting the environment with smart-use land planning and passing the second half of a wetlands protection ordinance.

Although critical of the concept, Loomis doesn't believe a business incubator is a bad idea, but wants it thought out more thoroughly.

Loomis said he wants to continue to balance East Lansing's budget while maintaining civil services, such as fire and police protection, trash pickup and emergency response. He is against creating an income tax in East Lansing and raising taxes to help city finances.

As a developer, Loomis wants to provide safe and affordable housing for students, young professionals, empty nesters and seniors while also expanding the role of downtown. However, he rejects the prospect of eminent domain — the idea that governments can force owners to sell property for redevelopment. This sort of situation is being seen in the East Village development plan.

"You develop it from negotiation," Loomis said. "You can't do anything if the people are unwilling."

Fournier said students need to agree on plans before anything can be done in the East Village development plan.

Although not rejecting Fournier's plans and ideas outright, Loomis offers his own perspective to help balance them.

There's too much at stake to just sit at home and not vote Nov. 8.

"Everybody should get out to vote," Loomis said. "It's one of the fundamentals of a free society."

We couldn't agree more.