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City manager summarizes second-quarter progress on East Lansing’s 2024–25 strategic priorities
Summary
City Manager presented a Q2 update on 10 strategic priorities (June–November 2024), highlighting progress on workforce retention, technology upgrades, public engagement, policing transparency, and election administration; council members asked to receive the written report and to schedule follow-up questions at a later meeting.
City Manager Mr. Bellman presented East Lansing’s second-quarter (Sept.–Nov. 2024) update on the council’s 2024–25 strategic priorities on Feb. 11, summarizing accomplishments and work remaining across 10 goals.
The report covered workforce retention, technology modernization, code and policy reviews, community engagement, and election administration. For workforce retention (goal 1) staff reported turnover rates of about 4.09% (June–Aug. 2024) and 3.66% (Sept.–Nov. 2024) and completion progress on multiple action items (for example, personnel policies and DEI training). Council members questioned some percentage figures and asked for clearer metrics; the city manager said some percentages are staff estimates of task completion rather than calculated values.
Under technology (goal 2), staff reported purchases of portable microphones for meeting rooms, work on audiovisual upgrades for the Hanna Community Center, and ongoing evaluation of an electronic human-resources information system to support recruiting, training tracking and wage/benefit benchmarking. Council members asked that digitization of city records and online application processes receive attention as priorities during upcoming budget decisions.
Goal 3 highlights included charter-review committee progress and plans for more inclusive economic-development policy work. Goal 4 items included public listening sessions after flooding and a switch of the emergency communication platform from Nixel to Rave. Goal 5 — election administration — received notable attention: staff reported that two early-voting centers (Hannah and the Communication Arts Building) recorded more than 5,600 early voters, and election-day vote centers recorded 697 voters at City Hall and 1,051 voters on campus during recent election activity. The city also deployed a $1 million special-appropriations state grant to provide rides (via Uber/Lyft) for voters who arrived at the wrong voting center and needed transportation to the correct site.
Council members generally praised the written report and the graphic presentation, asked for a printed copy to review in greater detail, and agreed the manager should provide written quarterly reports with focused highlights for future meetings. Several councilors said it would be more efficient to accept the written report, study it, and bring substantive questions to a later discussion-only meeting; the manager offered to provide a redline of any future presentation and to focus verbal updates on key highlights that “keep him up at night.”
Ending — Follow-up and scheduling Councilors asked the city manager to circulate the written report and a redline of any edits and to schedule a future discussion-only meeting for focused follow-up questions on specific goals and budget priorities.
