There seems to be a perception by some that city employees drive into to town, work their 40 hours, collect a paycheck and hit the road. I am deeply concerned about the implication that members of staff are not invested public servants, but rather, resemble the carpetbaggers of old who set out to loot and plunder the post civil war south. Incidentally, this term has also been used to describe “outsiders attempting to gain political or economic advantage, especially in areas to which they previously had no connection.”

The suggestion that staff actions and decisions are motivated by self-interest or potential personal gain couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is that members of city staff are dedicated to maintaining and enhancing the quality of life we enjoy in East Lansing through strengthening our local economy and our neighborhoods. To wit, an impressive number of city employees reside in East Lansing and are anything but “outsiders” but are, rather, woven into the fabric of community life. Starting with me, that list also includes the assistant to the city manager, director of administrative services, director of code enforcement and neighborhood conservation, the budget and accounting administrator, community development administrator, planning department senior project manager, historic district administrator, parking administrator, director of parks, recreation & arts, child care coordinator, community center coordinator, police chief, deputy police chief, fire chief, fire marshal, director of public works, parks maintenance supervisor, children’s film festival director, as well as numerous other staff.

The fact that some staff choose to live in East Lansing is only one indicator of their investment in the community. In fact, many of those who don’t live here make a significant contribution through service clubs such as Rotary, Kiwanis and Zonta and through their churches. They also volunteer for events such as the East Lansing Art Festival and Great Lakes Folk Festival that make our community so appealing. City employees deliver food for meals on wheels during lunch hours and raise funds for any number of organizations such as the American Diabetes Association, the Juvenile Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, The Race for the Cure and the Capitol Area United Way just to name a few. Rather than acting out of self-interest, it has been my experience that city employees rely on their status as public servants to leverage support for a number of important causes that ultimately benefit the community.

I am very proud of my colleagues here and of the great service they provide, as well as the good works they do off the clock. To suggest that any of them are carpetbaggers, so to speak, is unfair at best and I feel it necessary to let the community know that they too are community stakeholders who understand the importance of the services they deliver. They too are dedicated to the health and success of this community – the one many of us call home.