Previously, Lahanas served as interim city manager since October 2011.

Recently, the East Lansing City Council members completed their city manager evaluations, concluding Lahanas met or exceeded all of their expectations for the last year. Some criteria used to evaluate him included leadership, financial management and community relations.

Despite good marks, Lahanas faced challenges during his first official year on the job, including the fourth floor collapse of the St. Anne Lofts, 215 Ann St.

The collapse was a result of too much drywall being placed in a small area, which became too heavy to bear.

Lahanas said the city went through a process of letting the public know the city was handling the situation while trying to maintain residents’ faith in other city projects.

“We were able to get to the bottom of why that happened rather quickly,” he said.

Councilmember Kevin Beard said Lahanas handled himself well during the St. Anne collapse.

“I think he did a great job identifying what went wrong and taking steps to assure the city hall (and) city government meet challenges like that in the future,” he said.

East Lansing resident and former councilmember Don Power said he read through the council evaluations and agreed with their assessment.

“He’s maintained an excellent relationship (with the unions) … (which) led to cost effective labor contracts,” he said.

A representative from the Community Relations Coalition and communications junior Tony Biallas has worked with Lahanas through the Interfraternity Council, or IFC. Biallas, the IFC president, said Lahanas has helped try to get the city’s youth involved and tried to get their input on different boards or commissions.

“If you don’t get the youth involved and get their views, you’re not going to be able to prevent some of these problems,” he said, citing issues such as littering after football games and couch burnings.

Still, Lahanas said something he could do better is to think of “new and creative ways to get citizens to be engaged in government and find ways that encourage people to come out and participate.”

“That’s a tough thing (to do),” he said. “You don’t claim success at that and say we’re done. That’s kind of like an ongoing process of making, setting the stage so that people come and participate.”