CITY of LANSING 2020 ANNUAL REPORT Updated January 21, 2021 CONTENTS CONTENTS FROM THE MAYOR 3 ASSESSING 4 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & 7 PLANNING FINANCE 25 FIRE 27 HUMAN RELATIONS & COMMUNITY 38 SERVICES HUMAN RESOURCES 42 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 43 NEIGHBORHOODS & CITIZEN 45 ENGAGEMENT OFFICE OF THE CITY ATTORNEY 50 PARKS & RECREATION 53 POLICE 58 PUBLIC SERVICE 99 TREASURY & INCOME TAX 127 DOWNTOWN LANSING INC (DLI) 129 LANSING ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 133 CORPORATION (LEDC) LANSING ENTERTAINMENT & PUBLIC 138 FACILITIES AUTHORITY (LEPFA) 2020 ANNUAL REPORT | 2 FROM THE MAYOR During the third year of my administration, the City of Lansing, along with cities across the nation, faced extraordinary challenges. On March 16, 2020, I issued an emergency order closing all City buildings to the public and sending a large portion of our workforce to work from home due to the COIVD-19 pandemic. We were faced with the same questions as the rest of the country: how to run a city while protecting our employees and our residents? City of Lansing employees showed up and continue to serve residents with integrity and professionalism. Our essential workers, the backbone of our City, washed their hands, masked up and went to work. Our police officers, firefighters, paramedics and EMT’s responded to tens of thousands of calls for service to aid our residents and keep them safe. Our Public Service staff completed more than 14 miles of road improvements, more than 1,200 tree trimming/removals and cleaned more than 66 miles of storm and sanitary sewer pipes. Ingham County Parks Millage funded work continued to maintain and improve the Lansing River Trail by resolving riverbank erosion near Moores Park that included fortifying the riverbank and repairing fencing. Trail and bridge rehabilitation work was also completed in several locations well to preserve and improve this city’s most prized assets. Our Parks staff also partnered with the Lansing School District to host Learning Labs to assist students with online learning during the pandemic. COVID-19 reiterated the importance of community partnerships. I established the Mayor’s Community Response Cabinet, a group of nonprofits, business organizations, education partners, and community leaders, to work together and combine resources and efforts to help residents, non-profits and local businesses who needed it most. I was thrilled to attend a socially distanced ribbon cutting of the new Capital City Market in our down- town and as work continues on the new McLaren campus on the east side, I can’t wait for the day it opens its doors and beings to serve our region. I can’t thank our City employees, community partners or residents enough for all of the important work they’ve done in the face of an invisible adversary. I look forward to seeing what 2021 brings the City of Lansing. It will be a tough year both, budgetarily and mentally. As distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations continues, I hope that we are able to move closer to a time where we can be back in each other’s company enjoying all the great things our city has to offer. Andy Schor, Mayor 2020 ANNUAL REPORT | 3 ASSESSING Sharon Frischman, MMAO, Director Department Description The Assessing Department is responsible for the annual valuation and assessment of all real and personal property located within the City of Lansing. Each year, the Assessing Department prepares and certifies the ad valorem (according to value) assessment roll and the special acts (incentives) assessment rolls in accordance the Compiled Laws of the State of Michigan. The City of Lansing has 40,835 real property parcels, 1,491 exempt properties, and 3,051 personal property par- cels on the 2020 assessment roll. The total parcel count is 45,377. The composition of ad valorem property count is as follows: • Agricultural Less than 1% (1 Parcel) • Commercial 6% • Industrial 1% • Residential 83% • Personal Property 7% • Exempt Property 3% Industrial Facilities certificates, Neighborhood Enterprise Zone certificates and OPRA certificates are valued and tracked. The Assessing Department is responsible for creating invoices for Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) holders; track the Tax Increment Finance Authority (TIFA), Brownfield developments. OPRA accounts and pro- vides data for the invoices for the Principal Shopping District. This group also completes Industrial Facilities Act, Obsolete Property Rehabilitation Act (OPRA) reports for State of Michigan compliance. There are 588 parcels on the special acts roll, the composition of the parcel count is as follows: • 330 County land bank sale properties • 17 County land bank sale brownfield properties • 18 P.A. 328 accounts • 62 Neighborhood Enterprise Zone properties • 29 Obsolete Property Rehab properties 2020 ANNUAL REPORT | 4 • 28 Industrial Facilities exemptions • 5 Renaissance Zone Porperties • 48 PILOTs The department also tracks 41 Tax Capture districts (33 Brownfields a Smartzone , 5 TIFAs and 3 Principal Shop- ping Districts. The total assessed value of the ad valorem (according to value) and special acts (tax incentives) rolls was $2.884 billion. The total combined taxable value of the ad valorem and special acts parcels was $2.365 billion for tax year 2020. The total 2020 taxable value (ad valorem and special acts) increased approximately 5% from 2019. The composition of assessed value is as follows: • Agricultural Less than 1% • Commercial 34% • Industrial 6% • Residential 54% • Personal Property 6% There was no change in the percentage of total assessed value for commercial property, however, industrial property is up from 5%, residential is down from 55% and personal property is down from 6%. The personal property percentage will likely continue to go down with the continued phase in of property exempt as Eligible Manufacturing Personal Property. The increase in the percentage of industrial property is likely from the increase in marijuana facilities that are currently classed as industrial as well as expired industrial exemptions returned to the ad valorem roll. The Assessing Department is responsible for listing the legal descriptions for almost 45,000 properties. The de- partment must determine the value of more than 45,000 real and personal property parcels as well as determine the correct capped and taxable value for these properties for the annual tax rolls. Property information must be confirmed and updated. Building permits must be monitored and properties must be inspected for new construc- tion or demolition. We added almost 114 million in new construction value on the 2020 roll. 2020 ANNUAL REPORT | 5 • The Assessor’s office visited approximately 2,500 properties during 2019. The purpose of the visits were to follow up on building permits and/or update property information. • Approximately 114 million dollars of new construction was added to the 2020 assessment/ tax roll. This exceeds 2019 by more than 60 million. The Department must maintain ownership information, track transfers of ownership, Principal Residence infor- mation, Veterans’ exemptions, general property tax exemptions and personal property exemptions. • Over 5,000 ownership documents were entered and analyzed for transfer of ownership. Approximately 1,900 transfers of ownership were processed in 2019. Principal Residence exemption requests were also pro- cessed with these transfers. The Assessing Department handles all Michigan Tax Tribunal appeals until they reach the point of a full Tribunal trial. Accomplishments The Department continues to refine and document uniform operating procedures. Verification of property information is a high priority for the department. During 2019, a summer college intern began collecting and verifying property data. We will continue this process annually to establish a system of visiting property on a rotating schedule at least every 10 years. We have not sent anyone out to verify data during 2020 due to the pandemic, however, we hope to continue in 2021. A partnership with the University of Michigan yielded some great ideas to engage taxpayers. We look forward to implementing these ideas next year. I have begun reviewing existing property tax exemptions to ensure that the owner continues to qualify and to better document the existing exemptions. I have also removed a little over 700 exempt records from the main database that were simply road right of way parcels. The exempt parcel count is more accurate now. The department has struggled with retirements. Open positions have been difficult to fill. We are currently staffed with a combination of contract and full time employees with three vacant positions (out of 11). Training for new and existing staff is on-going. 2020 ANNUAL REPORT | 6 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & PLANNING Brian McGrain, Director Department Description The primary objective of the Department of Economic Development and Planning (EDP) has been to stabilize the City’s economic base and, through continued planned and directed development, “grow” that base to a level ca- pable of providing continuous support for the City’s services and infrastructure. The Department has since 2018 consisted of six separate divisions: • Administration; • Building Safety; • Code Enforcement; • Parking Services; • Planning; and • Development Office. Additionally, Downtown Lansing Inc (DLI), the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and affiliated bod- ies, and the Lansing Entertainment and Public Facilities Authority (LEPFA) report indirectly through EDP. The Building Safety Office is operated as a Special Revenue Fund, per State Law. Building safety is responsible for all structures in the city and ensures the safety of such structures, whether they be new, existing, or at the end of their useful life. Code Enforcement serves to protect the health, safety, and welfare of Lansing residents through the preservation and improvement of the housing stock by assuring safe, decent, and sanitary housing while preserving the integ- rity of Lansing neighborhoods. In the middle of 2020, action was taken to merge Building Safety and Code Enforcement together into one unit. Work continues to meld staff and activities under the guidance of the Building Safety Office Manager.