After a discussion-filled gathering last week, Tuesday’s East Lansing city council meeting saw the approval of a diverse group of items, including two labor agreements, five housing commissions, two traffic control orders and a health care contract.
One of the biggest changes noticed at the meeting was its new starting time at 7:00 p.m. The move was approved at last week’s meeting for purposes of improving consistency with its work sessions and other public meeting times.
East Lansing Police Chief Juli Liebler kicked things off by introducing Ashley Harkins, a new East Lansing police officer, to city council. Harkins comes to East Lansing after serving as an officer in Saginaw for three-and-a-half years.
Within the consent agenda, McLaren was approved as the city’s healthcare provider. The contract with go into effect from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014.
“It is a very high quality health plan that helps to control costs for the city,” City Manager George Lahanas said.
Discussion then commenced on the consideration of Ordinance No. 1297, an amendment that would add Section 8-75 in order to define good moral character for taxi licenses in East Lansing. The move would loosen restrictions for those applying to become a taxi driver in terms of legal history. The ordinance was approved by a 3 to 2 vote.
“We should give the good faith effort to actually determine what in fact occurred to their past and why they are in that situation,” Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett said in approval of the potential amendment.
However, some of the council had differing viewpoints on the changes.
Council member and former East Lansing mayor Vic Loomis expressed strong feelings towards the ordinance before the vote occurred.
“It’s a service we have in our city, it’s a service that has been safe; I think we want to continue to assure, … that it’s a safe service,” Loomis said. “I just feel like the burden of proof is on the city to prove that someone doesn’t qualify rather than an applicant having to prove that they do.”
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