East Lansing City Council approved an ordinance to mandate the council meet three times a month, televise the meetings, and require candidates to make their campaign donors public.
There will no longer be work sessions held on a regular basis and all meetings will be considered regular city council meetings with the exception of no less than four "discussion only meetings" a year.
The meetings will all be televised, said Mayor Mark Meadows.
Two of the meetings each month will be televised live on East Lansing Community Television, otherwise known as WELG.
The remaining meeting will be available to stream online the morning after the meeting and will also be available to watch, on WELG after the meeting has taken place.
Council also unanimously approved an amended version of an ordinance regarding the East Lansing City Council’s Code of Ethics.
Councilmember Shanna Draheim said the changes to the code of ethics "codifies" what council members have already been doing as they are required to submit campaign filing and donors are made public through the county clerk.
Draheim also said council members should have already been disclosing conflicts that may have come before council.
The amended ordinance addresses solicitation and receipt of political contributions.
It states no council member shall solicit, accept, receive, or retain a contribution if the council member believes that the contribution is intended to influence her or him in the performance of his or her official duties, including but not limited to actions related to the award of city contracts or businesses and votes taken on an impending or anticipated matter before council.
The amended ordinance also addresses the issues of "full disclosure."
It states a council member must disclose campaign contributions, received during the past five years, to his or her candidate committee in the following circumstances: A person who is named party in a matter before council contributed a total more than $100 to the committee in a single election cycle or a person who was the owner or an employee of a named party before council at the time the contribution was made, contributed a total of more than $100 to the committee in a single election cycle. These disclosures must be made by council members at the council meeting or meetings during which the party is discussed and,or decided on.
"The way we have tightened it up, it does increase that transparency," Draheim said. "It makes it clear at every meeting, but it does in a way to me that is very manageable and realistic."
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