Really surprising shift over there. I don't disagree with the termination, I do think that the city attorney should have been bid out sooner rather than just a few years ago. I haven't been a fan of how the current city attorney has handled a variety of issues, especially that whole driveway situation a couple years ago, as well as a retaining wall being paid for by city/federal funds outside of his private property.
I haven't agreed with a lot of how Meadows has handled things, too. Personally I think he and Beier being gone will be good for East Lansing. Those two aren't used to having resistance on the council, I guess when things got tough they decided it would be best to depart.
It's funny, because when she was first elected, I made secret that I was not a fan of her's to put it lightly. She came in and thought it was her job to simply say "no" to everything, and generally just be an obstructionist. But somewhere along the way she matured into the job, and to a degree that when she was announced as mayor last year I wasn't scared or mad or anything. I accepted it. She surprised me in the second half of her second term up until now with being a pretty progressive vote when it came to development.
I'm really kind of disappointed it had to come to this. I don't follow the internal politicals of East Lansing as closely as I do Lansing's, so I don't know much about the city attorney issue beyond what's in the articles. So my layman's take is that it looks like he had a chushy job, but also that the firm he worked for must have at least done decent work for the city if they'd been kept on through dozens of administrations for decades on end. I think there were probably legitimate concerns and issues with how his firm kept their contract.
But it's also really sneaky and unprofessional to fire a long-time contractor in the middle of a pandemic and apparently without cause. This seems to be something that was at least worth having a discussion before the public about when people could physically be in the room to discuss it. I don't think the other three violated the Open Meetings Act like the other two accused them of doing; I think they simply got politically outmanuevered. But this, again, this was really unprofessional. And if I were some community stakeholder, it make me think twice about dealing with the council.
It seems as if EVERYTHING could have been done in a more transparent way from how the contract was doled out that caused this blow-up on one end, to the firing on the other.
As an East Lansing resident, yesterday's news on the firing of Yeadon and the resignations of Meadows and Beier was nothing short of Christmas in July1!!! Yeadon, in my opinion, is a incompetent slimeball who was wasted hundreds of thousands (millions?) of taxpayer dollars. He's also a fraudster - along with the city manager - who tried to rip of the federal goverment, and ended up costing East Lansing over $100K. That alone should have been the end of his contract, as well as the city manager's.
I generally like Beier, as she is community oriented and genuinely cares about East Lansing. I also agree with Mich that she has gone from obstructionist to more of a progressive pragmatist over the years. However, she has at times been somewhat unprofessional, and that comes through in her activities on Council... for example, during the deer culling debate, she refused to even consider a cull because she (apparently) couldn't bear the idea of killing animals. Although this is a perfectly fine position for an animal lover to take, it is not exactly a professional position for an elected official who is in charge of solving a public health issue. And her comments about her fellow council members in the lsj article were really childish. But... considering she was planning to step down when her term was up next year, and that she generally supports fair and transparent government, I was surprised that she quit so suddenly over Yeadon's firing.
Meadows, on the other hand, was a career politician, and an irresponsible clown. As far as I can tell, he helped create the financially disastrous pension situation for East Lansing when he was on council in the 90s. And then he "solved" the problem during his second go-around as mayor by burdening all of East Lansing's current residents with the unpopular income tax bailout. It's no surprise that he quit now that he no longer had his crony Altmann to help pad the council votes and push his outdated, and fiscally irresponsible agenda. Keep in mind he was barely elected last fall (like by 2ish votes...), and then probably because of the quirks of the ballot. So he was a lame duck who was not interested in "serving" the public if he couldn't serve his own selfish interests first.
Overall, I have to agree with Gregg's assessment in the lsj article that Beier and Meadows basically "packed up their toys, and stormed off" when they didn't get their way. Beier's main argument seems to be that parliamentary procedures weren't followed and Yeadon should have been given the chance to correct the problems. How one changes systematic incompetence and illegal activities performed in the past is beyond me, however. Meadows argument was pure sour grapes though, as I detailed above. Good riddance to them all!!!
Finally, I really, really, really hope the city manager gets fired ASAP by the new council. After an thorough public investigation of his past ethically challenged and potentially illegal activities, of course. Keep in mind that he was complicit in a whole lot of Yeadon's (and probably others) bad behavior, especially during the Meadows years as mayor.
Aside from the brou-haha at this week's council meeting, something else interesting happened for us urban planning nerds. There are two parcels in the Northern Tier, 3400 West and 3401 Coolidge, which used to be a single long rectangular parcel stretchning between those two streets. 3400 West included one of the city's rare industrial buildings. Originally built in 1997 for a company that soon went out of businesses, the Gentilozzi's purchased it in 2002 and expanded it and turned it into a garage and production facility for their racing team, and an office for their real estate business.
They've been trying to market the rest of the land since they've owned it, and requested a lot split in 2014, but didn't do it correctly, so they only got it split into two lots instead of four. Well, earlier this week they lined up a complicated set of approval requests: a lot split that would split the existing two lots into 4, a rezoning that would make three of these parcels B-5 community retail (and one M-1 industrial for the existing garage), a site plan for 3401 Coolidge for a state EGLE office on the parcel second from the east, and a modified site plan for the parcel which holds the existing garage which would give up some of its land to the EGLE parcel so it won't take up as much of the wetlands.
BTW, can anyone scale the elevations at the end of the packet to see how tall the building stands from grade (100'-0") to the top of its elevator overrun? Never get why this information is often not included.
Wow... I was driving by the Red Cedar site and happened to see that the old pontiac dealership has been knocked down! I haven't seen any recent info on development of this site. Last I heard, the owners put in an unsuccessful bid to open a recreational dispensery there.
The owner is still trying to decide what to do with the site, and wanted to clear it to prevent it from becoming even more of a blight than it had already been for all these years.
Sounds good to me. My fear was that it was going to become a commuter lot by default, and slowly fall apart until the owner got a hot offer on the site.
I went and looked back at the recent planning commission agenda where this came up. The current owner is in the process of selling off the site and requested an extension of a year (to March 26, 2021) the existing site plan and special use permit for the dispensary. Apparently, the site plan and special use permit required the building to be torn down. Also, they were fighting with the Drain Commissioner over some infrastructure that has to go through the site, and couldn't demolish the building until that court case was resolved.
It was always planned that the smaller building would hold the dispensary. Honestly, though, with how the area is developing now, to lower the building square foot on the site seems like a complete waste of valuable space. Hopefully, someone else snaps this site up between now and March 26 of next year.
Comments
I haven't agreed with a lot of how Meadows has handled things, too. Personally I think he and Beier being gone will be good for East Lansing. Those two aren't used to having resistance on the council, I guess when things got tough they decided it would be best to depart.
I'm really kind of disappointed it had to come to this. I don't follow the internal politicals of East Lansing as closely as I do Lansing's, so I don't know much about the city attorney issue beyond what's in the articles. So my layman's take is that it looks like he had a chushy job, but also that the firm he worked for must have at least done decent work for the city if they'd been kept on through dozens of administrations for decades on end. I think there were probably legitimate concerns and issues with how his firm kept their contract.
But it's also really sneaky and unprofessional to fire a long-time contractor in the middle of a pandemic and apparently without cause. This seems to be something that was at least worth having a discussion before the public about when people could physically be in the room to discuss it. I don't think the other three violated the Open Meetings Act like the other two accused them of doing; I think they simply got politically outmanuevered. But this, again, this was really unprofessional. And if I were some community stakeholder, it make me think twice about dealing with the council.
It seems as if EVERYTHING could have been done in a more transparent way from how the contract was doled out that caused this blow-up on one end, to the firing on the other.
I generally like Beier, as she is community oriented and genuinely cares about East Lansing. I also agree with Mich that she has gone from obstructionist to more of a progressive pragmatist over the years. However, she has at times been somewhat unprofessional, and that comes through in her activities on Council... for example, during the deer culling debate, she refused to even consider a cull because she (apparently) couldn't bear the idea of killing animals. Although this is a perfectly fine position for an animal lover to take, it is not exactly a professional position for an elected official who is in charge of solving a public health issue. And her comments about her fellow council members in the lsj article were really childish. But... considering she was planning to step down when her term was up next year, and that she generally supports fair and transparent government, I was surprised that she quit so suddenly over Yeadon's firing.
Meadows, on the other hand, was a career politician, and an irresponsible clown. As far as I can tell, he helped create the financially disastrous pension situation for East Lansing when he was on council in the 90s. And then he "solved" the problem during his second go-around as mayor by burdening all of East Lansing's current residents with the unpopular income tax bailout. It's no surprise that he quit now that he no longer had his crony Altmann to help pad the council votes and push his outdated, and fiscally irresponsible agenda. Keep in mind he was barely elected last fall (like by 2ish votes...), and then probably because of the quirks of the ballot. So he was a lame duck who was not interested in "serving" the public if he couldn't serve his own selfish interests first.
Overall, I have to agree with Gregg's assessment in the lsj article that Beier and Meadows basically "packed up their toys, and stormed off" when they didn't get their way. Beier's main argument seems to be that parliamentary procedures weren't followed and Yeadon should have been given the chance to correct the problems. How one changes systematic incompetence and illegal activities performed in the past is beyond me, however. Meadows argument was pure sour grapes though, as I detailed above. Good riddance to them all!!!
Finally, I really, really, really hope the city manager gets fired ASAP by the new council. After an thorough public investigation of his past ethically challenged and potentially illegal activities, of course. Keep in mind that he was complicit in a whole lot of Yeadon's (and probably others) bad behavior, especially during the Meadows years as mayor.
They've been trying to market the rest of the land since they've owned it, and requested a lot split in 2014, but didn't do it correctly, so they only got it split into two lots instead of four. Well, earlier this week they lined up a complicated set of approval requests: a lot split that would split the existing two lots into 4, a rezoning that would make three of these parcels B-5 community retail (and one M-1 industrial for the existing garage), a site plan for 3401 Coolidge for a state EGLE office on the parcel second from the east, and a modified site plan for the parcel which holds the existing garage which would give up some of its land to the EGLE parcel so it won't take up as much of the wetlands.
Anyway, all of this got passed.
Special Use Permit/Site Plan Application Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) Corner of Albert Avenue and Abbot Road
BTW, can anyone scale the elevations at the end of the packet to see how tall the building stands from grade (100'-0") to the top of its elevator overrun? Never get why this information is often not included.
It was always planned that the smaller building would hold the dispensary. Honestly, though, with how the area is developing now, to lower the building square foot on the site seems like a complete waste of valuable space. Hopefully, someone else snaps this site up between now and March 26 of next year.