Mayor Jeramy Hing joins Scott McMahan to trace the recall effort back to his first week in office and to break down a draft housing study that points the city’s master plan away from what residents said they want.
In this episode:
(01:02) The missing FOIA records. Hing explains how he spotted gaps at the dais in John DeAngelis’s FOIA response on the Brady CDBG matter, and why he posts records in the Public Records section of his website.
(04:48) Where the recall started. Hing says Commissioner Brady’s first call to him, less than a week into his term, was over a proposed dais seating change, and that Brady called it a charter violation and threatened a recall on the spot.
(10:58) Why the seating change. Hing wanted the public to be able to tell the elected commission apart from advisory staff, after years in which the city manager appeared to be running meetings.
(15:15) The Womack contract. Hing corrects the record: the former manager’s severance rose from 6 to 7 to 9 to 12 months. He also questions how city attorney billing fell from about 40 hours a month to under 20, and notes that Commissioner McCarthy’s request for an attorney RFP got a fee comparison instead.
(25:44) The September 14 joint meeting. Five boards met at the Lapeer Recreation Center to hear Sharon Woods of Land Use USA present a draft target market analysis and resident survey for the master plan update.
(28:40) Survey vs. study. About 68% of respondents favored single-family ownership, including smaller homes and fixing existing stock. The draft study leans toward rentals because it forecasts demand from households on the move. The city already has 2,245 renter households and 1,930 owner households.
(36:07) Who’s shaping the plan. Hing reviews Woods’s roles with the Congress for the New Urbanism and related groups. He also says he never saw the study authorized or capped at either commission, while comparable communities like DeWitt Township capped theirs at $30,000.
(51:59) What residents actually said. The top survey themes were wariness of apartments and subsidized rentals, a desire for a path to ownership, and concerns about downtown homelessness, code enforcement, and small business support.
(56:36) The Brookwood project. Hing lays out the 10+ ordinance compliance problems and the 30-year tax abatement (upwards of $16 million) that Commissioners Brady and Atwood voted to approve. He points to the Opera House redevelopment as an example of subsidized development he did support because it fit.
(1:05:15) Accountability. Scott discusses the city attorney’s duty to the full commission. He also reports that he invited Brady and Atwood to talk: Atwood left the group text, and Brady declined to comment for the prior story.
(1:20:52) Closing. Hing talks about his faith, why he stays in the fight, and his conversations with some of the people behind the recall.
Check out Mayor Hing’s transparency website here: JeramyHing.com/public-records
