- East Lansing City Council has appointed George Brookover to be the city's new mayor.
- Former Mayor Ron Bacon served in the roll for the past two years, making history as the city's first Black mayor.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
With Mayor George Brookover now sworn-in in East Lansing, former Mayor Ron Bacon is reflecting on his time in the position. One that was historical for the city when appointed.
“I don't even know, yet, quite how I feel about everything, but I'm excited for the future,” Bacon said.
Bacon was appointed mayor by council in 2021. He had run for re-election that year after previously being appointed to fill a vacant seat on council. His appointment to mayor made history, becoming the first Black mayor of East Lansing.
“I'm one who definitely understands the importance of the role and being first," Bacon said. "What I also did, I didn't come to just do the role. I've been a change agent and one who kind of sees things in a certain way and likes to act on those things.”
By being the first Black mayor, he hopes he's paved the way for more people of color to run for office and leadership roles in the city.
“You have to be deliberate in your choices," Bacon said. "Be that with your hiring, be with your budgetary priorities, be that with programs, I think all those things have to stay in place and be built upon. I think if we do that we'll see just the natural growth and inclusion and diversity in the community and it'll be very positive. I think it's a strength.”
Looking back, he feels council was able to accomplish a lot in his two year term.
“We did a lot of work around the budget and just trying to make sure the city is right sized, be that public safety law. enforcement, fire, just looking at all those things budgetarily. As well as you know, really working on things around diversity, equity and inclusion, and different regional partnerships. And I think a lot of those things came a long way including the relationship with Michigan State," Bacon said.
While some topics will need to carry over to the next council.
“There's a lot of questions around development and housing and those types of things as a long term project," Bacon said. "So I think obviously, it'll have to be addressed over time. There's still elements of public safety and public finance that are going to be challenging in the near future.”
As for what's next, Bacon says he doesn't have set plans.
“No plans at this time," Bacon said. "Just kind of enjoying community and family and I'm always available to the city and the community and different nonprofits, whatever's out there to support the community.”
But he hopes to see the new council pave a successful path for the city.
“We went through some really challenging times and I'm hoping they'll have an opportunity to just kind of govern outside of the constraints of pandemics and many of the other challenges that we went through," Bacon said. "I really hope they have a really tame tenure and are able to just do standard smaller government activities.”
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