"I always knew that I wanted to stay in East Lansing because I love the community and I've stayed here ever since I started attending the university back in my freshman year," Richichi said. "I love the community. I love the university. I think it's rich and diverse. It has a lot to offer for young professionals and young adults who are looking to start their careers or grow a family here, so I knew that I wanted to stay in East before I even considered running for city council."

Richichi is currently the vice chair of the Ingham County Democratic Party and secretary of the 7th Congressional Democratic Party. He said he already knew he’d be staying in East Lansing post-graduation and after encouragement from mentors, decided to launch his campaign.

His mentors "believed that there was a desire for some younger representation on the city council," Richichi said.

The MSU graduate brings a track record of student engagement to his campaign. Under his leadership, MSU College Democrats became the largest chapter in the nation, with over 2,000 active members and $13,000 raised to support student voter turnout. The organization hosted town halls, expanded door-to-door canvassing and increased campus visibility.

If elected, Richichi would become the second youngest person to become a council member of East Lansing City Council at 22 years old, behind former councilmember and mayor of Aaron Stephens, who joined the council at 21 years old.

Fiscal responsibility

As council member, Richichi intends to tackle the city’s budget issues, saying there’s been "a couple of missteps" with the city council and the budget. Richichi said East Lansing could be in financial trouble if the current budget spending isn’t resolved.

During a Feb. 18 city council meeting, a five-year financial forecast was presented, showcasing the city would go bankrupt by 2030 if it stays on its current spending course. Several proposed solutions were to cut city spending, including a potential $2.6 million cut to the Parks and Recreation Department. Other proposals also opted to reduce certain city services. 

At the same meeting, councilperson Mark Meadows said the city is expected to lose between $1.5 million and $2 million each year because of a court ruling in the BWL franchise fee case, meaning the city will have to issue a large payout to BWL customers. Meadows also warned that if voters choose not to renew the income tax in the future, East Lansing could lose another $14 million in yearly revenue. 

On May 27, the city council approved East Lansing's budget for the 2026 fiscal year after weeks of back and forth, opting to keep the funding for the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

In a forecast projection last year, the city was slated to lose around $9.4 million over the five-year stretch. This year’s projection predicted roughly $17.9 million in losses over the same period, with the loss of income from the franchise fee case explaining much of the difference. 

For Richichi, he wants to find a way to balance the city's budget while providing the same level of service to the community.

"With responsible spending and responsible sources of funding, we  have a really great area with a lot of opportunities," Richichi said. "We want to find a way to balance the budget and provide as many of the crucial services that many of our residents and students rely on."

Symbolic relationship between MSU and East Lansing

Richichi also seeks to improve the relationship between Michigan State University and the City of East Lansing by working more closely together. The MSU graduate said that he believes in creating "an inclusive dialogue" between city officials, MSU leadership and faculty, students and residents.

"The university would not be here without the city and the city would not be here without the university," Richichi said. "There may be a little bit of lapse in communication — and there has been for quite a while — between the university and the city that has potentially caused some issues. I think it's time to bridge the gap by ensuring that all voices, whether they're long-term residents, students or faculty and staff, are heard in shaping the future of East Lansing."

If elected, Richichi believes he would provide a "unique" voice due to him being a recent graduate. With his connection to MSU and MSU College Democrats, Richichi will attempt to bridge the gap by having students at the table when discussing decisions that affect the community.

"I believe we need everyone at the table when discussing big decisions that would affect our city," Richichi said.

Tackling lack of housing head-on

MSU’s population of over 50,000 students, staff and faculty has increased the demand for affordable housing — especially single-family homes. Richichi said he would focus on "prioritizing policies that would protect neighborhood character and maintain a quality of life for long-term homeowners."

"We need to build more student apartments, whether that's developments like we have with The Hub, which was recently built on the east side of campus, or The Landmark, which is downtown, or The Abbot," Richichi said. 

According to Census Reporter, over 60% of housing units are occupied by renters, whereas 39% are occupied by homeowners out of 15,693 housing units total. For the 13,914 registered households in East Lansing, 53% are non-family occupied and 37% are occupied by married couples. Richichi's solution to the shortage would be the approval for more high-rises apartments while using "some good union labor" to develop the properties. 

"There are a lot of union folks in the community of East Lansing and the surrounding mid-Michigan communities that want to have students who go to MSU,  that want to stimulate the businesses here in the local economy," Richichi said. "Building those high-rises would alleviate the need for single-family usage of student housing and open up some more single-family homes to move in and for young professionals to move into."

More engagement, open dialogue with every community

Richichi acknowledged that most people don’t understand what the city council does. A way to fix that is to hold more community town hall meetings and build engagement with students and residents through inclusive dialogue.

"When I'm talking to folks in the community, hearing what issues are important to them, whether that's recycling, sustainable development, whether that's inclusivity of union labor, whether that's something like trash pickup or composting pickup or those kinds of things, there's a lot of issues that I've heard that you otherwise would not hear unless you are in the community, engaging with folks, listening to the issues on the ground that are important to them," he said. 

Whether or not the campaign is successful, Richichi said the goal of the campaign is to build an inclusive East Lansing that represents the needs and wants of the community.

" I'm ready to get that work done and I hope through the conversations that I have with folks in these next couple months leading up to the election, regardless of their background, I’m hoping to represent the city and I’m excited to see what lies ahead," Richichi said.