Loomis appointed to 2nd term as mayor
East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis is accompanied by his daughters Angela, 9, left, and Elaine, 11, as he is sworn in for his second term as mayor by East Lansing City Clerk Nicole Evans, right, during Tuesday’s City Council meeting at City Hall, 410 Abbot Road.
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Diane Goddeeris
Beard
East Lansing City Council members Vic Loomis and Diane Goddeeris were granted a second run as the city’s mayor and mayor pro tem at yesterday’s East Lansing City Council meeting at City Hall, 410 Abbot Road.
After Loomis and Kevin Beard took the oath of office for the council seats they won in the Nov. 3 election, the council unanimously appointed Loomis and Goddeeris to the leadership positions.
This is Beard’s second term on council and Loomis’ third. Their appointments to mayor and mayor pro tem mark both Loomis’ and Goddeeris’ second term in the positions.
Loomis was appointed mayor in 2005 and was elected to council in 2001. Goddeeris was appointed to council in 2006 after state Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, left his post as mayor of East Lansing after being elected to the House of Representatives. Goddeeris was reelected to council and appointed mayor pro tem in 2007.
Goddeeris said she wanted to continue serving East Lansing and said she will continue to find solutions for budgetary problems during this rough economic time.
“I will try my best,” she said.
Loomis said he was thankful residents re-elected him to his seat on council and thanked his peers for reappointing him as mayor. As Loomis took the oath of office, his two young daughters raised their right hands along with him.
“It is a lot of hours … but they’re very enjoyable hours,” Loomis said. “The opportunity to get to know the community better on a day-in-day-out basis is a very rewarding part of this.”
Beard thanked his family and campaign workers, as well as the residents who came out and voted.
Councilmember Nathan Triplett said he looks forward to continuing to work with Goddeeris, Loomis and Beard for the remainder of his term. He said reappointing the same people as mayor and mayor pro tem will allow the council to continue to focus on issues it’s been deliberating.
“The most important thing we’re going to focus on is maintaining city services and dealing with the difficult budget situation that our city, like every city in the state of Michigan, faces,” Triplett said. “Having some continuity is obviously important to that.”
Commentary
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Eliot Singer
(11/18/09 10:46am)Report
The election showed that the suburban districts now dominate East Lansing, and my personal alienation from the city, which has been unresponsive to any of the simple, minimal, affordable problem-solving I have requested, is more and more complete.
I identify with MSU and Michigan—and what happens to MSU and the state affects me far more than anything East Lansing city government does. East Lansing is simply where I pay taxes and who picks up the garbage and, I hope, who would respond in an emergency, like anywhere else I might live.
I’m unimpressed by all the wonderful things the city of East Lansing tells me it provides in the world of art and entertainment and recreation—MSU has good stuff, not East Lansing. Downtown East Lansing has no shops or restaurants (other than Curious Books) to which I have had any loyalty since Jocundry’s was put out of business years ago. I doubt if City Center II actually succeeded and city government actually transformed downtown into something oriented toward other than the student population—not going to happen—I would go there anyway.
At this point, my hope is that Loomis and the rest don’t do so much damage to the historic neighborhoods, we can’t hold on in survival mode. I’m sorry these folks don’t understand that the only thing East Lansing has going for it is MSU and that the only hope for economic development would be from connections to MSU. But at this point, if East Lansing wants to have a perpetual mayor with conflicts of interest, there’s not much we can do about it.