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Two civic organizations lose City of Lansing recognition October 11, 2019
On July 19 of this year, community organizer Michele Ramon received this email from Andi Crawford, Chief Innovation Officer/Director, Neighborhoods + Citizen Engagement, City of Lansing:
Lansing Cityhood is two different entities, both created by Michele Ramon. One is a "news aggregator", a website with links to stories from various local and state news sources including the Lansing State Journal, the City Pulse and ELi (East Lansing Info). The other is a community engagement organization that puts on events like the July 25 debate between candidates for Lansing city council's first ward. Here is its Facebook page. In addition to special events, the group holds monthly discussions called "Cityspeak" on the first Thursday of each month.
Foster Farm and Friends is a traditional neighborhood organization on the east side of Lansing. At one time, the name was simply Foster Farm. Here is its Facebook page. Michele Ramon is one of its founders.
Neighborhood groups are a big deal in Lansing. Mayor Andy Schor’s first executive order was to create a Department of Neighborhoods and Citizen Engagement. There is a Neighborhood Organization Resource Handbook. There are 74 civic organizations listed under the Department of Neighborhoods and Citizen Engagement in the City staff directory.
Neighborhood groups don't need the City's permission to organize, but there are benefits to being recognized by the City. A number of programs and resources are available to help them, including money grants, so the expulsion of Cityhood and Foster Farm and Friends was very upsetting for Michele, especially when she had no knowledge of "false and disparaging information sharing." She submitted a FOIA request asking for a copy of the complaint. Her request was denied by Assistant City Attorney Mary Bowen:
While it is true that the FOIA has all those restrictions, the local government may choose not to be so strict. To comply with a request, all that is needed is a way to deliver the materials, and in this case, the City obviously had Michele's email address. Michele contacted me and I offered to make the request for her. I sent it on July 31:
Mary Bowen responded August 15 saying my request was granted. But all she provided was a complaint from Bridget Doyle regarding the formation of Foster Farm and Friends. She made no mention of the complaint regarding false and disparaging information sharing by City Hood. I replied by email the same day:
She did not respond, so I sent another FOIA request on August 23 asking for the complaint regarding false and disparaging information sharing by City Hood and I included the Andi Crawford email that referred to the complaint. On September 3, Mary Bowen denied my request saying "the City did not identify any responsive records. This letter serves as a certificate that the requested documents do not exist . . ."
I emailed Andi Crawford on September 11:
She responded September 12:
Now let's examine the July 19 email from Andi Crawford. Statements from the email are in bold italics.
On April 30 of this year, Michele Ramon emailed Andi Crawford complaining that Nancy Mahlow, a member of the Neighborhood Advisory Board and president of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization, posted publicly that "It is my understanding that Foster Farms & Friends does not exist anymore. Since Bridget [Doyle] was the one who started this group it doesn't seem fair to continue posting under this name." (Bridget Doyle also is a member of the Eastside Neighborhood Organization.) Michele told Andi that although the group was dormant for a while, it was now active and she was outraged that a member of the Neighborhood Advisory Board was publishing false information. Here is Andi's May 1 response:
In Cityhood's case, Andi seems to have changed her mind about negative comments being within the rights of all citizens. Anyway, Michele Ramon denies that she or anyone in the group was involved in any "false and disparaging information sharing."
Finally, the complaint is entirely undocumented. It was made verbally and no notes were taken. I've asked Andi Crawford who made the complaint and she has not responded.
Cityhood is a civic organization. Cityhood is also the name of a website that provides links to a wide range of news and information. Michele Ramon created both. There seems to be no reason why the existence of Cityhood, the news aggregator/website, should invalidate Cityhood, the civic organization.
A copy of that complaint was provided in response to my FOIA request. The entire response is here. It included an email from Bridget Doyle, below:
Now let's look at four passages from Doyle's email (above). Number 1:
There's that free speech issue again. And, again, Michele Ramon denies that she or anyone in the group posted derogatory statements. If a civic organization was going to post derogatory statements, it would probably be on their Facebook page, and I see none on Foster Farm and Friends' Facebook page. Number 2:
It doesn't say much for the City's Information Technology Department if it allows people to hack in and make changes to the City's website. Of course, that didn't happen. What did happen is that Michele Ramon asked Andi Crawford to make the changes in an April 14 email:
Maybe the above email is what Bridget Doyle considers "hacking."
By the way, Michele sent a FOIA request asking for a copy of her April 14 email to Andi Crawford (above). Amanda O'Boyle of the City Attorney's office replied in a September 19 letter:
So who is lying, the Department of Neighborhoods and Citizen Engagement or the City Attorney's office? Number 3:
Michele denies saying anything of the sort, and she does not seem to me to be the kind of person who would make such threats. Since Doyle knows for a fact that she was not the only person Michele has said this to, Andi Crawford could have checked out this bizarre accusation by getting the names of those other persons and asking them. Number 4:
So what would be the problem if the group was revived by Michele Ramon?
On September 18, I emailed a letter to Andi Crawford saying her expulsion of Cityhood and Foster Farm and Friends was unjustified and suggested she restore them as recognized civic organizations and apologize to Michele Ramon. She has not responded.
Redaction inconsistency
On September 13, Michele Ramon got an email from Lansing police officer Kasha Osborn saying she was informed that Michele had concerns for the safety of Nancy Mahlow. She asked if she could meet with her. Michele was upset about this and asked me to get the police report this was based on. I received it on September 20. Then on September 18, I asked for all police reports related to the first one. The second response included the incident report from the first response, but apparently the person doing the redacting for the second response had a different understanding of LPD redaction policy. You can read the full responses by clicking the excerpts below.
Michele denies making any calls to Nancy Mahlow. I mean Nancy Mahlow.
Send comments, questions, and tips to stevenrharry@gmail.com, or call or text me at 517-505-2696. If you'd like to be notified by email when I post a new story, let me know.
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