Lansing City Council could expel one of its own over alleged ethics violations

Correction: Gouri Sashital is a partner with the Southfield-based law firm Keller Thoma. Her gender was incorrect in an earlier version of this story.

LANSING — The full City Council Monday is set to accept an ethics complaint report made by a group of City Council members and Lansing Mayor Andy Schor against first-term Council member Jeffrey Brown that could result in a range of disciplinary actions, up to expulsion from the Council.

Brown, who was the second-highest vote-getter in the November 2021 city election for an at-large seat, was accused by Schor and the council majority in March of three violations:

• Offering support for a development project in return for the developer making an individual's rent payments

• Offering support for a Lansing Housing Commission resolutions in exchange for the LHC paying an individual's tenant late fees out of a "slush fund"

• Going beyond his official capacity in seeking congressional funding through Rep. Elissa Slotkin for projects.

An attorney hired to investigate said in a report that she could not substantiate the first or second allegation. However, the lawyer said she believes Brown has violated ethics codes in requiring support for his priorities in exchange for supporting other efforts.

"However, while I do not find that Council Member Brown engaged in the conduct as specifically alleged in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the ethics complaint, I do substantiate that Council Member Brown has suggested that his support on matters is based upon whether he has received reciprocal support on a matter of importance to him," Gouri Sashital wrote.

Regarding the third allegation, the report states Brown likely violated the city ethics ordinance in seeking congressional funding.

The Lansing Board of Ethics conducted a special meeting June 6 to discuss the complaints and voted to “adopt the report and submit to City Council for review of the third allegation and recommend training for Council Member Brown on funding requests on behalf of city council and council members.”

Brown did not respond to a phone call requesting comment. His attorney, Brendon Basiga, declined to comment because of the referral to the full Council. Basiga and Eric Doster, who also represents Brown, had requested that the Ethics Board dismiss the complaints and said they represent “an abuse of the ethics process.”

An email to the Ethics Board from Basiga and Doster stressed his status as a “rookie member” of the Council and portrayed him as a man “not afraid to take on the status quo to benefit the citizens of Lansing.”

In the email, they asked for the complaints to be dismissed, calling them false and added that they contain no allegations of personal benefit to Brown, that the investigation inappropriately went beyond the ethics complaint, and that many of the allegations were based on hearsay and conjecture.

According to Brian Jackson, chief deputy city clerk of Lansing, the letter of notification will be on the Council’s agenda for its 7 p.m. Monday meeting. Council has significant discretion in how it proceeds regarding the findings of violations of the city's ethics ordinance.

According to Joe Abood, chief deputy city attorney, Council could take no action, refer the issue to a committee, set a hearing, require additional training, censure or expel Brown. It could also refer the issue to the city attorney for prosecution.

Mayor Andy Schor's Communication Director, Scott Bean, said via email that "We have not been commenting on the situation as Councilmember Brown is a member of the legislative body and it’s up to them to discuss and handle."

Council President Carol Wood, in an email, said, "Council is waiting for the referral and then this matter will be taken up in Committee of Whole at a future day. This is matter that whole Council will have a chance to weigh in on."

What the complaints say

Five members of the city council submitted the March 27 complaints against Brown, including Wood, Vice President Jeremy Garza, and members Peter Spadafore, Adam Hussain and Patricia Spitzley. Schor also joined in the submission. Council members Brian Jackson and Ryan Kost did not join the complaint.

Brown was accused of having a conversation with a representative of developer Jeff Deehan in which he indicated he would vote favorably on resolutions relating to the Ovation project if, in exchange, Deehan’s company or Schor agreed to pay first and last month’s rent for a constituent’s apartment, according to the complaints.

The Ovation performing arts center project is a $17.5 million, two-story, 49,000-square-foot facility on nearly an acre of vacant property in downtown that is slated to get underway in 2023 and fully open in 2025.

Deehan, the primary developer behind the Ovation project, denied Brown made the comments in a conversation with a company’s representative, as did Brown.

"(Brown) stated that he does not know who the constituent is and that he represents over 112,000people. Council Member Brown stated why would he ask someone to pay a few hundred dollars in rent in exchange for a $40 million project? 'It doesn’t make any sense,'" the ethics report states.

A second complaint claims Brown, during a conversation with Lansing Housing Commission Executive Director Doug Fleming, said the LHC has a slush fund and suggested he would vote favorably on resolutions relating to the LHC if the LHC paid tenant-related fees for a citizen who had voiced a complaint during public comment.

Fleming told the city's investigator that while Brown discussed a slush fund serving as a possible source of funding for his constituent, both individuals concluded Brown did not suggest he would vote differently as a result of this action, the report states.

Sashital said she was not able to substantiate the first two complaints regarding Brown offering his support for specific projects following requests for favors, but she did find that Brown likely violated the city ethics ordinance.

"While it is a close question, I find that Council Member Brown’s comments could be viewed as an indirect solicitation of a thing of value (i.e., support on matters of importance to him), with the understanding that his support would be reciprocally influenced thereby. I therefore find that Council Member Brown violated Section 290.04(b) with regard to these comments," she wrote.

Finally, Brown allegedly requested on behalf of the city “Community Project Funding” for two multi-million-dollar projects from Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, although Council had not passed resolutions authorizing the requests nor had Schor included them in his funding requests to Slotkin.

In an interview with Sashital, Wood stated that the normal practice with respect to requesting congressional earmark/funding is that the mayor makes a recommendation to Council regarding projects. Council reviews recommendations during open session, discusses them and votes on them, passing a resolution on projects to request funding.

"Wood stated that Council speaks as a body through its resolutions, and no individual council member can say they represent the Council or even suggest that they represent the Council," Sashital wrote.

In an interview for the report, Brown said he spoke with the mayor and believed he had support and was following procedures in emailing Slotkin's office.

"Council Member Brown stated that he “100%” believed he was following the process by working with the Mayor’s office. He stated, 'If I didn’t, why would I cc the Mayor if I was trying to be ethically rogue?'" Sashital said Brown asked in an interview.

Sashital also determined Brown violated council ethics in his correspondence with Slotkin. Brown wrongfully submitted grant funding proposals for the Ladybug Center and International Center "for a significant amount of money: $2 million and $3-5 million" without authorization and misidentified the city as an applicant, Sashital said.

Contact Sheldon Krause at skrause@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @sheldonjkrause.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Lansing City Council could expel one of its own over alleged ethics violations