City Council Candidate Profile: Mark Meadows

City Council candidate Mark Meadows is familiar to many East Lansing residents due to his years of public service.

Meadows began his career as an Assistant Attorney General in the Michigan Attorney General's office. During this time, he worked on cases where he represented the Departments of Social Services, Mental Health, Natural Resources and the State Police. He also served in the Environmental Protection Division.

While working for the AG's office, Meadows became a member of the East Lansing Commission on the Environment and later served on the East Lansing Planning Commission. He was first elected to City Council in 1995 and served for eleven years, nine of those as mayor.

As Mayor, he was a member of East Lansing's Downtown Development Authority (DDA). In 2006, Meadows was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives and served on the Great Lakes and Environment committee, the Urban Policy committee, and was Chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Meadows is running for City Council because of the tremendous challenges facing the city that "need to be addressed immediately." Specifically, he cites these challenges as "a resolution of the stalled development of the corner of Abbott and Grand River." the "declining stability of our infrastructure (streets, sewers, water lines)," and a "looming legacy cost involving pensions and retiree health care." Perhaps the most serious issue Meadows sees is the "breakdown in trust between the City government and many of the City's citizens." For Meadows, rebuilding that trust is a high priority.

When asked how he can help the City face its challenges, Meadows compares problems facing East Lansing in 1995, when he was first elected, to those problems currently facing the City. He states that he was able to bring about resolutions to those 1995 issues through "a program of inclusion, reaching out to people in the neighborhoods, reaching out to people who had participated in the detachment attempt and making the improvement of the quality of life for our citizens the primary objective of City government.”

Meadows adds that he “didn't work alone. The Council as a whole was dedicated to making things right. But, in the next four years there were significant changes in our ordinances, changes in the City Government's relationship with its citizens and the City's approval rating climbed to over 90% among its citizens.” It is Meadow's belief that in order to enact positive change, Council must become "proactive in community relations instead of reactive."

Meadows sees the biggest challenge facing the Council to be developing "a mutual trust among its members. Mistrust of motive or objective can make a Council ineffective." He promises to strive for consensus among fellow Council members to make compromises that are in the community’s best interest.

The final two questions posed to Meadows were "How will you, as a Council member, help the Council take on these challenges?" and "Is there anything else that you want to add that will help the readers understand why you're the best candidate for the Council position?" Meadows chose to combine the questions and answer them as one. He stated "...I have a track record. Only Nathan and I have a record involving City Government that voters can judge. None of the other candidates have been in the position of making decisions that affect the lives of East Lansing Citizens. I will match my track record to anyone's."

Meadows wants voters to remember that he will "study and work hard," that he "understands the challenges facing downtown," that he "know[s] the neighborhoods," and that he brings the experience to the job. He came to East Lansing in 1981 and "found a community devoted to giving, helping others, with real neighborhoods and with interesting, opinionated, dynamic people devoted to maintaining the quality of life here. I don't expect that I will always agree with an action taken by the Council, but I do think that I will help make East Lansing an even better place to live and raise a family."