Ask ELi to Investigate

Above: The author, about a hundred years ago. She is shown on the left.

Readers sometimes ask me why I founded ELi—especially given that I donate lots of money and work to it, and earn no income from it. I also get this question when I’m on the road speaking for my usual professional work as an historian, mainstream nonfiction writer, and patient advocate. Some people wonder aloud why on earth I’d spend so much time working on hyperlocal issues when I usually write for the national and international press.

Campaign finance has become a perennial “ask” of ELi’s readers. Here we report on what we know so far about who is donating to the six people running right now for three spots on the East Lansing City Council. If this work matters to you, please take a moment to donate to support our work.

Which candidates are disclosing early, and which are not?

East Lansing Info is now in its second year of operations, and so I can now bring you information on our first fiscal year in terms of donations and expenditures.

History of Eli:

Photo credit: Zachary D. Blount.

Ever wonder about those big numbers posted in a window in that tall building on the east side of Farm Lane, across from the entrance to the MSU Dairy Store?

Right now, the digits read 63000. That’s the number of generations in an experiment that’s been running in my lab for over a quarter century.

Above: The site at issue; photo courtesy City of East Lansing.

A reader asked us to find out: “What is the appropriate way to report street lights that are not working in East Lansing? On Spartan, between Albert and Synder there are 3-4 lights (all along the two block section) that are not working. What is the city doing about keeping streetlights working? How do street lights play into city's effort to keep residents safe in light of the recent break-ins?”

Who maintains the streetlights in East Lansing?

When we conducted our first ELi reader survey, those polled indicated high interest in this reader-suggested topic:

“Your series on campaign contributions was especially eye-opening. I would be interested in finding out more about where the people currently running for council are raising their money from.”

Image: East Lansing work crew dealing with a sewer

After Monday’s very heavy rain, a reader wrote to ask: “We have had this [a sewer back-up in the drain] happen in our home for three years in a row now, and East Lansing govt. says it is a freak ‘act of nature’ that they can't control. Do you know if there are any organizations discussing putting some pressure on City to deal with combined storm/sanitary sewer problems? I would like to be part of a group making this effort.”

Photo, courtesy City of East Lansing.

An ELi reader asked, via Twitter: “It’s six in the morning. Is the street sweeper really necessary right now?”

The answer we have for you comes from Ron Lacasse, Infrastructure Administrator for the City of East Lansing, who explains, “Our sweeper comes in at 5:30 in the morning for two reasons.”

Image: Two of the vacant and blighted properties along Grand River Avenue, subjects of the most recent "Rumors & Trending Topics" page.

A reader asked ELi to investigate who is behind the City of East Lansing’s “Rumors & Trending Topics” page. Here’s what we have been able to ascertain.

A reader asks: How will this year’s City Council election work on Tuesday, November 3?

The basics: The East Lansing City Council has five members in total. Each serves for a four-year term.

The terms of three Councilmembers are ending in November: Mayor Nathan Triplett, Mayor Pro Tem Diane Goddeeris, and Councilmember Kathy Boyle. (Boyle will not have served a full four years because she was chosen by Council to replace Don Power when he resigned shortly into his term.)

We now have the results to our first ELi reader survey which focused primarily on asking people to rank, in terms of interest to them, the “Ask ELi to Investigate” requests we’ve gotten from readers. We had 52 respondents to the survey, although not all answered every question.

Readers were asked to rank the following possible investigation areas in terms of level of interest. Number values were assigned as follows:

• very interested = 1
• somewhat interested = 2
• neutral = 3
• disinterested = 4
• very disinterested = 5

Image: Courtesy City of East Lansing

The question this week: Who funded Diane Goddeeris’ last campaign for City Council?

The quick answer: Nobody. Goddeeris raised no money and spent no money on her last campaign (for November 2011). If you want to see a direct comparison of the campaign financing for all five of our current City Council members, click here.

Image: Courtesy City of East Lansing

The question this week: Who funded Kathy Boyle’s campaign?