At the January 5th Lansing City Council meetings the council chose their new president and vice president: fourth ward representative Peter Spadafore and at-large councilmember Trini Pehlivanoglu. A failure of the accessible commenting option, disagreement about the procedure for signing up for public comment, and a racially charged comment had this council off to a rocky start.

Our guest  William Lawrence is running for United States Congress to represent Mid-Michigan's 7th Congressional District in Washington D.C. A lifelong organizer, he founded a youth-led national climate action organization, Sunrise Movement, and has been working on housing issues at the local and state level as the founder of the Michigan Rent is Too Damn High Coalition. He was raised in East Lansing and now lives near downtown Lansing.

You can learn more about William’s campaign here:

https://wewill2026.com/

Here is where you can get involved with The Rent Is Too Damn High:

https://mirentistoodamnhigh.com/lansing/

Support this independent podcast and find meeting issue maps and bingo results on the patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/whatLansingCouncil

Check out the Lansing City Council here:

https://www.lansingmi.gov/186/City-Council