city attorney

Tuesday Night Massacre (with apologies to Richard Nixon) // Eliot Singer

Back around 2007, when I first realized there was something rotten in the City of East Lansing and started complaining about Staton’s arrogant unwillingness to deal with neighborhood problems, I had a conversation with an activist in the local Democratic Party who said, “Staton, Meadows, and McGinnty.” McGinnty was then city attorney, and Yeadon did the scut work of plea bargaining MIPs, etc. This was shortly after Meadows had left Council for State Representative (after Whitmer had moved on to Senate). The feeling was … Read more →

In-house city attorney // Eliot Singer

I’m going to write a couple of posts regarding the firing of Yeadon and resignations, from a historical perspective.

First, I want to review the financial argument for an in-house city attorney (city employee). When we did the petition drive, the primary motive was to get rid of the law firm that had had the contract for a long time, because of the many reasons that law firm had failed the public interest.

But we did also make the case that an in-house attorney would save … Read more →

Decommissioning Yeadon // Eliot Singer

Ah, nostalgia, to quote the great storyteller, Gamble Rogers.

I see the DDA is finally giving up on Yeadon. I still maintain, if the city gave up on the DDA, eliminating staffing costs and reducing it to paying its existing debts and bills, it would save more money than trying desperately to make good on the idiotic 2009 decision to borrow to buy the Evergreen properties. By time any big new project is completed, the debt of the bonds for City Center I will be … Read more →

re: City Attorney Ad Naseum // Phil Bellfy

Eliot Singer is right on about the need to get rid of the private-practice lawfirm posing as East Lansing City Attorneys.  Long-time readers of PR may remember the numerous posts that called them out on just about everything, ranging from “assigning” the City’s right of Eminent Domain to “third parties” so these private parties could avoid paying their taxes, to the latest “splattering the blood of a women on the floor of a bar is really nothing more than ‘littering’ in East Lansing” BS … Read more →

City Attorney Ad Naseum // Eliot Singer

ELi has another story about the city trying to keep secret information surrounding what us old-timers call retaining-wall-gate.

http://eastlansinginfo.org/content/following-fraud-suit-city-admits-fault-has-not-released-public-documents

The city spent a significant amount of HUD Community Development Block Grant money to fix the retaining wall of the city attorney’s firm’s building. There were people yelling and screaming about it at the time, so pretending they didn’t know is absurd. Secrecy over this or over the hundreds of thousands of dollars in Lotto 1 fees to pay the developer’s lawyer and the … Read more →

Fraud Lawsuit Involving City Attorney // Alice Dreger

for publication:

Public Response has long been a location for ongoing discussion of concerns brought by East Lansing residents about governmental actions and policies. One of the stories that Public Response contributors and readers have tracked for years is of the use of taxpayer funds to reconstruct a retaining wall and sidewalk running along the east side of the City Attorneys’ property.

Today at ELi ( eastlansinginfo.org ) we have a report up on a whistleblower suit brought on this case jointly by the United … Read more →

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