My Hopes for City Council Candidates: Be Informed, Honest, and Care

We’re almost through another work week, we all could use a little boost to get us to the weekend, so welcome to 🔥🔥🔥 takes, where we offer … Let’s call it constructive criticism. Or big ideas we’d like to see in Flint. Or maybe just a rant about something. If you have an idea and would like to write one, pitch it to team@flintdaily.news.

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One of the tropes around election time that I despise the most – and I’ve been guilty of it myself – is the stereotype that everyone is corrupt anyway, so why bother paying attention? 

That sort of thinking is lazy, and when we fall into the trap, it lets us off the hook from the responsibility of ensuring the people we elect to represent us in our community do so with care and thoughtfulness. When a significant number of us start believing everything is corrupt and check out as a result, that opens the door for people who are opportunistic, self-interested, or substanceless to slide in the door. So, as we approach an extremely consequential Flint City Council election in 2026 in which all nine seats are up for grabs, I have one simple challenge for voters: be vigilant. 

Flint. Daily., and I’m sure our sister local publications as well, will do everything we can to shed light on who is running – once we get past the April filing deadline so we can separate the people actually running from the ones who are running for Facebook clout only while not collecting any signatures. But in the meantime, my hope for voters is that we take this election seriously, that we do our homework, and that we hold the candidates who emerge in our respective wards to high standards. 

I wanted to take a minute early in the election cycle to share what my standards are for City Council as a voter who lives in the seventh ward. Like many residents, I find the near constant dysfunction of the current City Council somewhere between mildly annoying and downright embarrassing. However, I know many of the current Council members on a personal or professional level. Individually, I’ve never had a bad interaction with any of the ones I’ve met, interviewed, or worked with on local projects. I think for the most part, people run for that position with good intentions, even if that intent gets derailed once they get into office. So with a chance to reshape the makeup of that body and hopefully make it more responsive and efficient, here is what I would hope to see and hear from candidates whether they are incumbents or seeking office for the first time:

* As a baseline, an understanding of what City Council actually exists to do. Before any wild promises are made to voters, here are my basic questions: do you know Robert’s Rules of Order so that meetings can run efficiently? Do you understand the Open Meetings Act? Are you versed in the City Charter and our local ordinances? I don’t expect candidates to have those things memorized, of course. There’s some grace we can allow for on-the-job learning. But a general familiarity with and commitment to follow those guiding documents and laws should be a requirement.

* Model the behavior you hope to see from residents. Anyone who watches City Council meetings has no doubt seen that the public comment portion typically looks like a pretty bad open mic night (although admittedly … one gentleman who couldn’t stop accidentally swearing, apologizing for it, and then swearing again in his apologies a couple months ago was hilarious). I’m sure that is no doubt frustrating to people on the Council when they are the targets of some of the … let’s say less than constructive comments. But you get the environment that you model. And Flint City Council meetings, dating back even before the current group was in office, have a long reputation for encouraging chaos. So be committed to following established rules, exercising restraint and decorum with colleagues, listening in good faith to residents even when you disagree with them, and then you will see that culture and environment change and evolve into the more constructive one you wish to see.

* Show me how, not what. I have no doubt that every candidate running wants good things for Flint. Many will actually advocate for the same things. The differentiator for me is the ‘how.’ How will you work with people, even people that you don’t get along with, to get projects done? Everyone wants businesses to thrive, what do you see as the barriers currently and how will you reduce them? Are you aware of the many resources and programs that already exist in the city and are underutilized? Show me that you know about those and how to maximize them, rather than coming up with grandiose ideas that reinvent work others have already been doing.

* Understand that everything in every ward impacts us all. The ward system exists for a good reason – to ensure that people all over the city have maximum representation in local government. But that shouldn’t result in competition between wards. A recent example: the North Flint Food Market is a win for the city. It fills a need, the store is beautiful, and people all over Flint shop there. So to see a Council member rooting against its completion and claiming that residents of her ward didn’t want it was disappointing behavior. Represent people in your ward, but also have a bigger picture ability to see and support what is good for the city as a whole. 

* Do the work. Honestly, the biggest red flag for me for any candidate will be if you are running for office and you haven’t been doing things in the community already. Have you participated in cleanups in your ward? Are you involved with any local boards or organizations? Do you shop at Flint businesses and eat at Flint restaurants? Have you shown you are passionate about Flint and doing good work in the city to advance it regardless of whether you are elected or not? We have the tools to lie about a lot in this era of cultivating a social media image. But we still can’t fake work that hasn’t been done. If you weren’t visible before announcing a campaign, I can’t vote for you. 

What Readers Say

I am grateful for the many people who responded to our survey about what they’re looking for in a City Council candidate (stay tuned, because we’ll do this again for Mayoral candidates). A couple things emerged from the data:

• We had respondents from every ward except the third. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not engaged there, it just means Flint. Daily. isn’t reaching many people there yet, so we’ll work on that.
• Of the people who have had to contact their current City Council representative for an issue, all but one said they received a response. Of those responses, nearly 75 percent were satisfied with the response. So even if people are dissatisfied with the Council as a whole, they’ve often had positive interactions individually with their representative.

Here were what some readers had to say about their hopes for City Council candidates:

• Acting civilly, getting a budget done on time, responding to constituent calls promptly.
• Passing a budget on time, less embarrassing fighting at meetings, focusing on bringing more affordable housing and businesses to the city.
• Civic minded individuals, folks that seem like they will put our community needs before their own/close friends’ own. Using our funding to help make our community a place where more people want to live.
• I want them to stop acting like teenagers with big egos. Flint has enough problems. City Council doesn’t need to be one of them. Also, I think there should be fewer wards. We don’t need nine now that the city is much smaller. A while ago a “blue ribbon” commission recommended that, but no one had the political will to do it.
• Blight is my number one issue when deciding who to vote for. I don’t care if Flint eventually looks like farm land, it beats having kids growing up looking at burned down houses for their entire childhood.
• (Someone) who’s gonna be there to speak up for us and get stuff done. Also someone who works well with the rest of the government.
• They must be from and for Flint, education-forward, and development-driven.
• Help homeowners with repairs, water, and food scarcity.
• Professional experience, their vision for our ward and Flint, their reputation in the community, and how long they have lived in their ward.
• Honesty and integrity. 
• Cleaning up abandoned homes without a blight ticket punishing the residents that do pay property taxes. Add blight issues to ALL residents’ property taxes so they can finally afford to take care of all the demolition homes.
• An ability to comprehend finance, budget, the city charter, & local ordinances.
• Communication.
• Having a vision for their constituents and trying to move mountains to accomplish that vision and being a problem solver.
• Education and ability to work well with others. 
• How they spend money and take care of abandoned homes in their ward.
• Crime, blight, water rates, ability to work with (others) on Council.
• Someone who cares about the job and the people of Flint.
• Bringing improvements to the city that will appeal to others but keep housing affordable.