When Lansing voters approved the formation of a Charter Commission in November 2023, they gave nine elected residents a simple but profound responsibility: listen, learn, and propose revisions to a document that defines how our city governs itself.

Over the past year, we’ve done exactly that — through more than 36 public meetings, four community listening sessions, and hundreds of comments from residents across our city.

The Lansing City Charter is our local constitution. It lays out how power is distributed, how decisions are made, and how residents engage with their government. Our current charter, adopted in 1978, was itself the product of a charter revision process. Now, over 45 years later, the entire document is again under review – word for word – to allow residents to decide if o

See Full Page