mark meadows

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 →

Center City District bond and TIF update // Alice Dreger

There’s good financial news emerging on the Center City District project — the strict cost-control measures put in place by now-Mayor Ruth Beier and her colleagues on Council in 2017 turn out to be stricter than we had realized. In 2017, the TIF was effectively reduced by Council from a $56M cap to a $50M cap!

Combined with the new valuation method from tax assessor David Lee for big apartment buildings, this means that the Center City TIF will pay off years earlier than … Read more →

The Quest for Answers on the Center City Ground Lease Payments // Alice Dreger

East Lansing’s City Council voted on Tuesday night to clarify the Center City District ground lease deal so the City can finally start getting paid for use of the public land. I explain the details of the deal in a  new report   up today at ELi . 

Readers of Public Response are often interested in the backstories of major stories, so I wanted to make sure you note you have the opportunity to see my correspondence with city officials and the developers in terms of trying … 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 →

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