City Council selects Lahanas as city manager
Interim City Manager George Lahanas now will take on the role permanently
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Editor’s note: This story was altered to accurately reflect councilmember Nathan Triplett’s stance on candidate Brian Murphy.
The East Lansing City Council unanimously selected current Interim City Manager George Lahanas as its next permanent city manger on Friday morning after more than three hours of back-and-forth discussion.
Lahanas has served in the interim role since October 2011, when former city manager Ted Staton stepped down to become the city manager in Upper Arlington, Ohio.
Lahanas now will be responsible for, among other things, upholding policies Staton worked to implement, including ones that affect some MSU students, such as the city’s party litter ordinance.
Lahanas also will continue to work toward implementing the city’s budget for this upcoming fiscal year, a process that will start in February.
“I’ve greatly appreciated the past 13 years of service and I’m greatly honored by the trust and confidence (the council has placed in me),” he said. “I look forward to the service.”
Throughout the meeting, council members recommended specific finalists for further discussion and also outlined their personal views on the criteria they used to make their recommendations, divulging their views related to the candidates’ leadership, financial management and other factors.
Lahanas and Plainfield, Ill. Village Administrator Brian Murphy ultimately were the two finalists council discussed following the elimination of the other candidates.
Each candidate brought unique qualities to the table, Councilmember Don Power said, but ultimately, Lahanas’ prior work in labor relations and other areas helped him rise above the rest.
“When I look at the daunting tasks we have … the tough decision in my view is who can carry that out best?” he said. “In the end, for me, it is (Lahanas).”
Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett was among the advocates for Murphy to advance into the final discussions, citing information he gathered from officials in Troy, Mich., one of the cities Murphy worked in before taking his position in Plainfield.
Triplett also recommended Lahanas be advanced into the final round of discussions. Triplett said Murphy’s work in molding regional partnerships with other nearby communities was a deciding factor in his choice to recommend that Murphy move forward in the discussions.
“That’s something that … lends itself to East Lansing,” he said, noting the importance of the relationship between MSU and the city.
Councilmember Vic Loomis offered a firm vote of confidence for Lahanas prior to the council’s decision.
“It’s a wise choice,” he said. “It’s the right choice.”
Commentary
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mayor missing?
(01/27/12 2:41pm)Report
Has anyone else noticed that Mayor Goodeeris seems to be MIA? Nowadays when the State News has a headline referring to “the mayor,” it’s Virg they’re talking about. Anybody seen Diane, or has Nathan just taken over as mayor?
Eliot Singer
(01/27/12 5:15pm)Report
George was by far and away the best candidate.
All you had to do with Murphy was google (something the incompetent headhunter failed to do) and discover he had been involved with a City Center II type boondoggle in Troy and the current Council, with a libertarian mayor, was elected to put an end to it.
But of course the likes of Triplett still want to give tens of millions of dollars to Strathmore Development, despite the foreclosures and breaches of contract and tax liens and so on.
In Troy, redevelopment boondoggles were killed by libertarians. In California by Jerry Brown. If we did an anti Brownfield and DDA ballot proposal in Michigan, it would win by about as much as the anti-eminent domain ballot proposal (a proposal Staton hated because it killed his approach of theft for development). It doesn’t matter what your political stripe, the only people who like giving tax money to developers are professional politicians like Triplett, who gets campaign contributions from them, and scoundrels like Staton, whose misuse of bonds for boondoggles (including the Avondale Square one from which Triplett benefitted by sidestepping the city charter’s conflict of interest provision) is draining almost $2 million a year from public services (not to mention the frivolous public works projects piggybacked onto brownfields and the brownfield giveaways to developers so they can maximize their returns).
What George and the rational members of Council need to do is focus on one thing: providing the best public services we can get for the dwindling money available. Staton’s madness of turning East Lansing into the next great city in the midwest is history. Unless city officials are willing to understand the real world, East Lansing will be history, too.
Putin is to Medvedev as Staton was to Lahanas
(01/28/12 8:55am)Report
Who better than Ted Staton’s protege—George Lahanas—can continue the iron wall of severely and deception, as well as the crony capitalism and corruption which is ruining our city?
This entire selection process was a sham, because any outsider would be required to report such rampant corruption and fraud to the authorities. An insider can just sweep it under the rug, while cashing in on more CC2 kickbacks!
The iron wall of secrecy--not severely.
(01/28/12 8:58am)Report
Lahanas will continue the propaganda and failed policies honed under Staton.
What a joke
(01/28/12 8:02pm)Report
Shocking! They picked the insider. What a waste of time and resources to execute a sham discovery process. The City can’t bring in an outsider for fear of uncovering the blatant disregard for citizens rights and policies of corruption. Status quo! It won’t be too long before these crooks are brought to justice.
Pat McGinnis
(01/29/12 11:32am)Report
Excellent job by the City Council, the staff and the search consultant. East Lansing will be very well-served for many years by a professional and experienced City Manager. Best wishes to the City of East Lansning, the coming years will present opportunity to remain a truly great university City.
Alice Dreger
(01/29/12 7:46pm)Report
Council has definitely done the right thing in selecting George Lahanas. We are fortunate to have him as the city manager. For those who say he will be just like Ted Staton, I hope they start watching more closely, because he has already distinguished himself as a new kind of leader — one focused on the city’s long-term needs, including in terms of fiscal responsibility and transparency.