Council - Special Meeting

This is the East Lansing City Council special meeting of Tuesday, June 16th, 2026. Could we have the roll call please?

Council Member Whalen. Here. Council Member Meadows. Here. Council Member Singh. Here. Mayor Pro Tem Grigsby. Here. Mayor Altman.

Here. I'll move approval of the agenda. Is there a second? Second. Motion by Altman, second by Meadows. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Agenda is approved. Is there a motion concerning closed session? I will make a motion concerning closed session. I move to enter closed session to discuss and consult with the city's attorneys regarding the following. One, privileged and confidential attorney-client legal correspondence that is exempt from disclosure by state law under MCL 15.243 sub 1 sub G as allowed under subsection 8 sub 1 sub H of the Michigan Open Meetings Act and two, Trial or settlement strategy in connection with pending litigation in the University Place Associates Condominium Association versus City of East Lansing Ingham County Circuit Court case number 25-4268-CB for the reason that an open meeting could have a detrimental financial effect on the litigating or settlement position of the city as allowed under subsection 8 sub 1 sub e of the Open Meetings Act. That is my motion. Second. Second by Singh. Roll call vote, please.

Council Member Whalen. Yes. Council Member Meadows. Yes. Council Member Singh. Yes. Mayor Pro Tem Grigsby. Yes. Mayor Altman.

Yes. Motion carries unanimously. We are adjourned to closed session. we are returning from a closed session that began at 5 30 and so we are wrapping up that special meeting and then once we have adjourned that special meeting we will continue to call the order uh the regular meeting which was posted for 6 30 p.m but before we get to that point we need to transact some business so now that we are back in open session Are there any motions?

I do have a motion. I move to direct the city's labor attorney to proceed in the manner discussed during the closed session.

Motion by Whelan. Second. Second by Singh. Any discussion of that motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Are there any further motions?

I've got a second motion. I move to approve the separation agreement and release of claims with Robert Bellaman authorize the mayor to execute the same and authorize the fiscal year 2026 budget to be amended to reflect the amount of the city is obligated to pay as set forth in the separation agreement. Motion by Whalen.

Second. Second by Grigsby. Any discussion of that motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries unanimously. Are there any further motions?

I've got a third and final motion. I move to appoint Annette Irwin, Interim City Manager, effective June 22nd, 2026, approve the employment contract between Annette Irwin and the City Council of East Lansing, and authorize the Mayor to execute the same.

Motion by Whalen. Second. Second by Grigsby. Any discussion of that motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries unanimously. So those agreements are approved. I will just make some brief remarks at this point. City employees and taxpayers deserve a government that maintains high standards of conduct and delivers high quality services. That is why we acted quickly to open a new chapter for our community. We and former city manager Robert Bellman have mutually agreed to part ways and we have accepted his voluntary resignation. We wish him well in his future endeavors. We acted to ensure experienced leadership during the transition to a permanent city manager by recruiting Annette Irwin to serve as interim city manager. Ms. Irwin has served as acting city manager in Mr. Bellman's absence on numerous occasions and is well qualified to lead during this transition. Residents can rest assured that operations will continue without interruption. In the coming months, we will conduct a thoughtful and thorough search for a permanent city manager. Details will be released as they become available. Would anyone else like to comment on any of the decisions that we have made at this point? Okay, I want to thank John Newman for agreeing to stay on as acting city manager through June 21st. Annette Irwin's first meeting as interim city manager will be our next meeting, which is July 21st, and she will not take the helm until June 22nd, which is Monday. But she is here tonight, and I'd like to invite her to the podium to say a few words to address the room and our staff and our community.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Altman, Mayor Pro Tem Grigsby, Council Members Singh, Meadows, and Whelan. I thank you very much for entrusting the leadership of this organization with me. I will say to you and to some of my past coworkers here and the residents in the room, this was not on my radar. So this was not something I was setting out and planning to do. And when asked, I want everyone to know that I did take this very, very seriously and gave it a lot of thought and discussed it with my family. Because as I said, this is interim, so it's not a long-term commitment for me, but still is a big commitment and a lifestyle change for someone who I have shared with everybody who has asked, yes, retirement is wonderful. And yes, I spend every moment that I can outdoors typically. So I've had a couple months, as I had said, in the wild. And so I wanted to discuss this, of course, with my family and my husband, Ron, who is very supportive. We have two daughters and two son-in-laws, and everyone has been supportive, including my now out-of-state parents. So I did not enter into this lightly. I'll just share a few things just to orientate people, I think, to where I'm at and who I am. Even though I've worked for the city for many years, not everybody knows who I am or knows much about me. But I did want to speak a little bit to the organization and my past coworkers and my soon-to-be coworkers once again. A while back I read a book by Michael Lewis, who I happen to think is a great author. I kind of got into reading some of his books more probably from the things he wrote about sports. And maybe there's a lot of connection between sports and government, I'm not sure, because he does do a fair amount of writing also about government, but has many topics. He recently authored, or I don't know if he would say authored, but was responsible for a book called Who is Government? And the book is really comprised of essays by many other well-known authors or people. And I found it to be fascinating. It's Who is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service and essays about federal government. So much bigger picture than city government and a city government that works with 50,000 or so residents. But still, it made me think of our organization Because what the author profiled was folks that were dedicated and often just overlooked in what they did and they really didn't mind because they were really liking what they were doing and they were all in on it. And some of the subject matter that they were all in on are things that none of us really ever think about. But it was really good that somebody was thinking about these things. And so it kind of made me think about our city government and the folks that I have worked with over the last three decades. The people that spent their education and their careers and their time learning their skill or their trade or their expertise. Whether it's the engineers who are designing some of our roads or working with the designers who design our roads. Whether it's the planners who spend their time learning that craft, which we all know there's lots of different ways to plan and so it's kind of a tough one. The city clerk. who in today's world, the job is not what it used to be. When we look at the elections that have been held over the last few years and the responsibility of the people in all local government in that particular, what is usually a small office in a city organization. The list can go on and on. Recycling. We've all been entertained by Cliff, haven't we? Technology. I can't tell you how many times when I leave City Hall, I see a vehicle that belongs to someone in the IT department. Or when we get a notice from someone in the IT department that, hey, we'll be doing this upgrade on a holiday because that's when they can, or that they came in because some weird thing came over that we could get some sort of thing that impacts our internet and our computers. So they are monitoring, literally monitoring this kind of thing all the time, even when they're not here working. There are many hours that lots of folks in city government spend working when they're not really here working. They're honing their craft. And then there's all those folks that are on call. The people who get up and leave Christmas morning in the middle of opening Christmas presents because this Michigan weather has called for them to come to work. And they do it. There's also the police and fire. We all know. We've all seen the responsibilities that they all have. Whether it's something as small as someone coming out to your car, and I've seen it out the window at City Hall before from the police department, to show new parents how to safely install a child seat. and being a grandmother and watching my granddaughter and putting in that doggone car seat last week, let me tell you, I almost drove to the police station to say, did I do this right? Things have changed. So something like that to, of course, when the city has something much, much more tragic, like we did a few years ago on the night of February 13. All of these people make a commitment to doing their work and serving the community. And it was one of the things that I was proud of in why I came to work in this organization, and why I stayed for the length of time that I did. I had great coworkers. They cared very deeply about this community. Some live here, many don't, just the way it is. But they care about the work they do because they know the residents who live here. The people that are picking up your trash, they wave back when the kids are waving at the cool big truck. And they get to know and watch some of those kids grow up in that particular home if they stay there for a number of years. So they're part of their life. So that was part of the reason why I put a lot of thought into this. I think it's a big responsibility to lead this organization and to work with those folks who make that commitment and lead with them. To council and the residents, I will share that I didn't grow up here. I grew up on the east side of the state in what I think is a great town, Marysville, Michigan. I had a great time there. I enjoyed my community. I don't look back thinking, what a terrible place to live. So when I compare where I grew up to where I raised my kids, I mean, there was expectations, right? Like everyone, I was anxious to get out of town and try something else and lived in a few communities. And I will say that when we settled in East Lansing, I couldn't have been happier. I will say we settled actually in Lansing. We are two blocks over the line in all transparency. We're in the East Lansing School District. I had been to East Lansing as an undergrad, visiting one of my best buddies who went to school here, going to football games, because a couple of our high school classmates were managers and trainers for the MSU football team. So I was a sports enthusiast for MSU from the start, and I thought this was a great and cool and fun town then. Then I met my husband, who just happened to grow up here, and when we graduated from college, he came back here. The rest was history, as you might say. I truly believe this is a special place. I raised our girls here. We thought it was a great experience for them. Was it perfect? No. Is any place? No. But I think what we felt was that there were a lot of people here that were really trying. And so if you have a lot of folks in a community that are really trying, it's going to be okay. The other thing that certainly makes this community special is the larger community connected to MSU. Of course the Capitol, we've got the Capitol. But our real connection, I think, is to MSU. That's how many of us, some of you, first might have come to East Lansing and gotten to know the community was through your experience as an undergraduate or a graduate or working or a spouse that did so. There are lots of connections between this organization and Michigan State University. They go on daily. Most of them people don't even hardly recognize anymore because it's just ingrained in what we do and how we do it. Some of the big things like the voting on campus gets lots of press. Some of the other things that happen are just us doing our jobs together. And that's part of the other part of my work that I always really, really enjoyed. You know, we have an MSU staff person who comes to our leadership meetings on Wednesday morning. That's how integrated we are. We have staff from MSU and East Lansing that serve the University Student Commission, again, in partnership. It's a unique commission and it works best with having close connections. So there are, I could go on and on and on, but who wants to listen to me? So I'll stop. But I wanted to say that I think for many, many of those reasons, this is a great place to be and a great community. And I know that there's a lot happening in this organization, in this community. Not to mention, since I said MSU, might as well, you know, the elephant in the room, right? They've got some stuff going on too. And what I will say, I'm gonna quote a past MSU personnel that I just recently heard on the news. When it comes to me and my few months of service that I will have here is that I will not be able to fix everything. It's not all gonna get better instantly. I'm not gonna be able to make certain things disappear. Our team isn't going to be able to, but we will move forward the very best we can. And to quote Mark Hollis, and if you watch athletics, you will know he used to be athletic director at Michigan State University. I will use my ears before my mouth. Thanks.

Thank you Ms. Irwin and welcome back. okay we are near the end of this special meeting i have slips from the public which i will call during the public comments section of the regular meeting which will start once we are able to adjourn this meeting, but we have to have public comment at all our meetings. So I will ask, is there anyone who would like to address the council during this public comment period of this special meeting? If so, please approach the podium. Seeing none, are there any callers?

There are no callers on the line.

OK, that ends communication from the public, which brings us to adjournment. Is there a motion to adjourn? I move. Moved by Grigsby. Second. Second by Singh. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. And we need five minutes to do some transition work. And so we can expect to start the regular meeting in about five minutes. Thank you all for your patience with the delayed start.