Lansing residents seek to form ‘The People’s Council’ community advocacy group

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - A group in Lansing is looking to establish a community advocacy group, to be known as The People’s Council. They say it’s designed to mirror local government.

News 10 was at their first meeting Wednesday night to see what the group hopes to accomplish.

At the meeting, Jerry Norris addressed the large group that wants to be a part of the grassroots group in Lansing called The People’s Council.

“It is time to do something and tonight I hope we can start to lay the framework for how that will be done,” Norris, a co-organizer of the group, said. “Sometimes we will elect officials and expect certain things and they never seem to see what we’re saying.”

Norris and others say they are tired of feeling like city officials are ignoring their ideas and decided to form a community-backed group that mirrors the city council.

People at the meeting voted on eight council members, representing different wards, as well as at-large representation.

Michael Lynn Jr. is also a co-organizer of the group. He says the responsibility of the citizen council members is to attend the government-recognized city council meetings and act as voices for the people.

“The big thing is us taking the processes that they put in place and to hold them accountable,” Lynn said. “We get bogged down as advocates. We have to step into the place where we’re going to take these processes on.”

News 10 reached out to members of Lansing City Council and Mayor Andy Schor’s office to get their thoughts.

Only councilman Adam Hussain responded with a statement saying, “Personally, I fully support this group in their efforts to build coalitions and leverage their collective voice.”

About 50 people showed up in person for the meeting while others joined virtually.

Everyone who came pledged to be at the Lansing City Council’s meeting on Monday to introduce themselves.

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