Lansing City Operations Committee, April 23
Contents
- Attendance
- Item 3.A: Approval of the April 9 minutes
- Item 5.B: Compost Awareness Week 2026 resolution
- Item 5.C: LPD Flock briefing
- Item 5.D: Cur, LLC to Morning Post Downtown LLC liquor-license transfer
- Principals named in the MLCC letter
- Adjournment and the working record
- What the committee committed to
- Companion piece
- Sources
LANSING, Mich. — The Lansing Committee on City Operations met for 32 minutes on Thursday, April 23, with three of three members present. The committee approved the prior committee meeting's draft minutes, passed a Compost Awareness Week 2026 resolution, received a verbal briefing from the Lansing Police Department on the city's Flock Safety camera program, and placed on file a state notice about the transfer of a downtown liquor license. Each item carried unanimously when a vote was held; the Flock briefing was a discussion item only and produced no committee action.
The Flock briefing is the substantive policy item from the meeting and is covered separately in "Lansing's First Flock Briefing." This recap covers everything else.
| Item | Action | Mover | Result | Substantive discussion logged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.A | Approve April 9, 2026 draft minutes | Martinez | 3-0 carried | None |
| 5.B | Resolution proclaiming Compost Awareness Week 2026 (May 3-9) | Martinez | 3-0 carried | Drop-off centers expanded to a sixth (O&M); school-district pilot in discussion; no nonprofit partner; no restaurant outreach yet |
| 5.C | Discussion: LPD Flock Grant system and safeguards | n/a | No motion, no vote | See "Lansing's First Flock Briefing" for the full account; 23 specific Backus claims, two apparent contradictions, no follow-up calendared |
| 5.D | Place on file: MLCC notice of Cur, LLC to Morning Post Downtown LLC liquor-license transfer (RID #2602-01589) | Martinez | 3-0 carried | Pehlivanoglu asked for questions; Kost stated he is not concerned with this service; no opinion transmitted to MLCC |
Attendance
Three council members sat as the committee: Trini Pehlivanoglu (Chair, At-Large), Clara Martinez (Vice-Chair, At-Large), and Ryan Kost (Member, Ward 1). Two staff from the Office of the City Attorney attended, Elizabeth Krochmalny and Keith Goodwin. Jeremiah Kilgore, Public Service Deputy Director, presented the compost item. Robert Backus, the Lansing Chief of Police, presented the Flock item. Renee Richmond, Council Administrative Assistant, served as recording secretary and submitted the draft minutes that are the source for this account.
The minutes were posted to the city's CivicClerk portal as a draft, watermarked accordingly, and pulled on April 25. The recording secretary's paraphrase is the operative public document until the next committee meeting approves a final version. This recap is built from those public records and not from in-person attendance at the meeting.
Item 3.A: Approval of the April 9 minutes
Martinez moved approval of the April 9, 2026 draft committee minutes as presented; the motion carried 3-0 with no further discussion. The April 9 record covers nine items: three claim appeals (one granted, two denied), two noise special permits (Michigan Paving and Materials Co.; Granger Construction at the Tecumseh River Road Pump Station), and four traffic control orders adjusting on-street parking on Kensington Road, Markley Place, Cascade Boulevard, and the 100 block of West Elm Street.
Item 5.B: Compost Awareness Week 2026 resolution
The committee proclaimed May 3 through May 9, 2026, as Compost Awareness Week in Lansing. Public Service Deputy Director Jeremiah Kilgore briefed the committee on the program. The minutes record that curbside food-waste pickup has been operating "under a pilot program for about a year," and that drop-off centers have expanded from the initial five locations (Letts, Foster, Gier, Fire Station 1, and Schmidt Center) to a sixth at the city's O&M drop-off center.
Kost asked whether the city is looking to expand further and whether a nonprofit partner is involved. Deputy Director Kilgore answered that internal city-hall discussions are underway and that no nonprofit is currently a partner. Pehlivanoglu asked whether discussions have been held with restaurants about diverting commercial food waste from landfill; Kilgore answered that none have been held. Kilgore added that material from drop-off centers is hauled at city expense, and that the city has discussed adding the school district to the pilot.
Martinez moved approval of the resolution; the motion carried 3-0.
The school-district pilot expansion is a commitment by the Public Service department on the public record. The committee did not set a date for the expansion. Whether the school district joins, and on what terms, is something a future committee meeting can ask about.
Item 5.C: LPD Flock briefing
The committee received a verbal briefing from Chief Backus on the Lansing Police Department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader camera program; the briefing occupied the majority of the meeting. The briefing was a discussion item; no motion was made and no vote was taken. Two parts of the chief's account are inconsistent on their face. The chief said both that the department has no data-sharing agreements with peer police agencies and that some such agreements are in place for emergency help and violent-crime investigations. The chief also said the written data-retention policy is 90 days while the actual practice is 30 days. When asked, the chief confirmed that there is no civilian oversight of the program, no review by the Board of Police Commissioners, no scheduled review of the system's record of who has searched it, and no record of any officer being disciplined for misuse. The Office of the City Attorney representative said the question of whether Flock data is subject to Michigan's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has "not come up" and the matter would have to be raised with the City Attorney directly.
The full account of the briefing, including each of the chief's specific claims and the questions the committee did and did not ask, is in "Lansing's First Flock Briefing."
Item 5.D: Cur, LLC to Morning Post Downtown LLC liquor-license transfer
The committee placed on file a notice from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission about the transfer of an escrowed 2025 Class C and SDM (Specially Designated Merchant) liquor license from Cur, LLC to Morning Post Downtown, LLC, doing business at 637 East Michigan Avenue, Suite B, in Lansing. The transferred license includes Sunday Sales Permit (AM and PM), SDM-Mixed Spirit Drink, and an Outdoor Service Area; the application also requests a new Dance-Entertainment Permit and is identified by the MLCC's reference number RID #2602-01589.
Under MCL 436.1529(1), local-government approval is not required for a license transfer of this kind; the MLCC referred the matter to Council for opinion only. The MLCC referral letter quotes administrative rule R 436.1105 in stating that the Commission "shall consider the opinions of the local residents, local legislative body, or local law enforcement agency" in deciding the application. Under standard committee procedure on an opinion-only referral, the committee can send a substantive opinion to the MLCC, place the notice on file with no opinion attached, or refer the matter onward; the committee chose to place on file.
The minutes record the entire substantive committee discussion of the item: "Councilmember Pehlivanoglu asked for any questions on this. Councilmember Kost stated he is not concerned with this service." Martinez then moved to place on file, and the motion carried 3-0; no member raised any zoning, sanitation, code-enforcement, or noise concern, and the committee transmitted no opinion to the MLCC.
Principals named in the MLCC letter
The MLCC referral letter, included as page 9 of the committee packet, names two principals for the transferee, Morning Post Downtown LLC. Arnulfo Ramirez is listed at 90 East Sherwood Road, Williamston, Michigan; Daniel Tyler is listed at 15629 Chandler Road, Bath, Michigan. The application's attorney is Mike Brown at the email mbrown@cebhlaw.com; the domain belongs to Carlin Edwards Brown Grobbel & Bellanca PLLC, a Michigan firm specializing in liquor-license law with offices including a Lansing location. The committee's place-on-file action moves the matter to the MLCC for final disposition.
The transferor, Cur, LLC, is listed in the MLCC letter with one contact: an email address at pgillespie@gillespie-group.com. The committee's April 23 disposition is procedural; the transfer itself is for the MLCC to decide.
Adjournment and the working record
The committee adjourned at 4:37 PM. The submitted draft minutes are signed by Renee Richmond as recording secretary and bear the standard "Approved by the Committee on" line that will be filled in when the next committee meeting approves them. Until then, the document is the working draft of the public record, and a final version may correct any paraphrasing the secretary made in real time.
What the committee committed to
The April 23 meeting produced two unanimous votes (the April 9 minutes approval and the Compost Awareness Week resolution), one place-on-file action with no opinion sent (the liquor-license transfer), and one discussion-only briefing that closed without action (the Flock program). The committee did not request follow-up materials on the Flock program, did not direct the Public Service department to set a date for the school-district compost-pilot expansion, and did not transmit any opinion to the MLCC on the liquor-license transfer.
The Committee on City Operations meets again on a schedule published through the CivicClerk portal, and public comment on agenda items is taken at the start of each meeting, with signup in the room when residents arrive; written comment can be sent in advance of any meeting to city.council@lansingmi.gov or phoned to (517) 483-4177.
Companion piece
- Lansing's First Flock Briefing. The full account of Chief Robert Backus's verbal briefing on Lansing's Flock surveillance camera program, including the two parts of the chief's account that are inconsistent on their face and the gaps the chief confirmed when asked about oversight.
Sources
Lansing Committee on City Operations April 23, 2026 meeting record, including the 3-page draft minutes (watermarked "DRAFT," submitted by Recording Secretary Renee Richmond, Lansing City Council) and the 9-page agenda packet (posted April 21 and updated April 22, 2026), retrieved on April 25, 2026. Lansing Committee on City Operations April 9, 2026 meeting record for the prior committee minutes referenced at Item 3.A. Michigan Liquor Control Commission referral letter dated April 6, 2026 (RID #2602-01589), included as page 9 of the April 23 packet. Michigan Compiled Laws section 436.1529 on local-government approval requirements for liquor-license transfers. Carlin Edwards Brown Grobbel & Bellanca PLLC profile of Michael J. Brown for the firm identification on the MLCC letter. Quotations are taken from the minutes' phrasing and do not represent verbatim speaker quotes.
More from Government
All Government →Public Housing Commission Conflict-of-Interest Standards
Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 2026
Federal and Michigan rules that govern conflicts of interest on a public housing commission cluster around four authorities: HUD's mixed-finance development standard at 24 CFR §905.604, the federal-award procurement standard at 2 CFR §200.318(c), Michigan's public officer conflict statute at MCL 15.321 et seq., and the Lansing Housing Commission's own bylaws. Each rule names a specific prohibited conduct, a required disclosure or recusal, and a specific body authorized to act when conditions covered by the rule appear in the public record. HUD's Office of Public Housing Investments (working through the HUD Detroit Field Office for Michigan) and the Michigan Attorney General's Public Integrity Unit hold the federal and state authority respectively.
What Is the Lansing Housing Commission?
Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 2026
The Lansing Housing Commission is the City of Lansing's public housing authority, chartered in 1964 under MCL 125.651 and governed by a five-member volunteer board appointed by the Mayor. As of 2025 LHC operates 66 public-housing units (down from 833 in 2020), administers 2,252 federal Section 8 vouchers and 253 project-based vouchers, and acts as development partner on a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit pipeline of more than $200 million in active project cost. Three of the people sitting in LHC's governance hold paid positions at organizations that earn fees from LHC's deals: Board Chair Emma Henry at Capital Area Housing Partnership ($123,787/year per its FY2025 IRS Form 990), Commissioner Ashlee Barker at Cinnaire (the standing purchaser of LHC's tax credits), and Executive Director Doug Fleming as agent of the General Partner LLCs collecting developer fees on LHC LIHTC partnerships.
Lansing's First Flock Briefing
Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 25, 2026
On April 23, 2026, Lansing Chief Robert Backus gave the city's first sustained public description of LPD's Flock surveillance program, in a 32-minute committee discussion with no written materials. The chief disclosed 52 personnel with platform access, 391 vehicles or vehicle parts recovered with 97 arrests, and six "not concealed" intersections. The minutes record two contradictions: no data-sharing MOUs but MOUs for emergency help, and a 90-day written retention policy versus 30-day practice.