Two candidates are advancing to a special election for a partial City Council term representing northeast Lansing.
Brian Daniels and Ryan Kost were the top vote-getters in Tuesday's Ward 1 primary, according to unofficial tallies which are awaiting certification.
They'll compete November 8th for a one-year term that will begin in January and last throughout 2023.
Daniels, the co-owner of an east side boxing gym, has been serving in the seat since February of this year, when the rest of City Council appointed him to fill a position vacated by former Ward 1 Council Member Brandon Betz.
Kost, who also put his name in as a candidate for the appointment to replace Betz, holds leadership positions in community groups, including the Eastside Neighborhood Organization and Friends of Bancroft Park. D. (DeMarco) Taft came in last place and got knocked out of the Aug. 2 primary.
When Betz resigned in January, he cited a desire to focus on his health and personal relationships. Betz had been censured by the rest of the council for "unbecoming" conduct about a year prior after it became public that Betz had exchanged profane and combative text messages with an activist.
Daniels, who led the pack of candidates, calls crime prevention a priority, along with keeping housing up to code.
"[I'm] looking forward to continuing to work for the people of Lansing and helping to make Lansing safer overall," he said late Tuesday.
Both Daniels and Kost oppose the planned sale of public housing by a federally-supported agency called the Lansing Housing Commission. Kost also says the city needs to hire more code inspectors and to actually follow through on enforcement.
"We had, a month and a half ago, a child die in an unregistered rental house because it didn't have a working smoke detector," Kost said, referencing a fire that killed a Lansing toddler.
Lansing voters pave the way for land sale
Lansing residents on Tuesday also gave their thumbs up for the city to sell a small section of land that's classified as part of the North Cemetery on Miller Road, unofficial results show.
Sale of city-owned land requires voter approval under Lansing's charter.
The terms of any final sale would still need approval by City Council, but city officials say they want to offload the property because it's never been used for graves and because it's topography makes it a poor candidate for burial plots.