Lansing City Council ‘strongly suggests’ Betz resign over profane tirade

Ethics complaint could also push unemployed Councilman out of elected office

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TUESDAY, Feb. 9 — The Lansing City Council voted unanimously last night to censure First Ward Councilman Brandon Betz and strip him of his two committee assignments after he had a heated text message exchange with the co-leader of the local Black Lives Matter chapter.

The Council also voted not to excuse Betz’ absence from last night’s meeting — triggering a 60-day window after which the Council could force him to forfeit office should he remain absent.

According to the resolution, Betz made “inflammatory and unbecoming statements” that “do not reflect the professionalism expected of City Council members.” It also removed him from the City Council’s Development and Planning Committee and the Committee on Ways and Means and “strongly suggests” to Betz that “he consider resigning” from the City Council altogether.

“This is almost the most egregious situation that I’ve faced. When I received notice about the comments and things that were said and I read through them, I was sickened by what I read,” explained Councilwoman Carol Wood. “To lash out in that manner is just not acceptable.”

After Mayor Andy Schor’s annual State of the City address, Betz sent a string of text messages to firefighter and local Black activist Michael Lynn Jr. In them, Betz taunted Lynn — calling him a “dickbag troll who no one listens to” and a “weak ass bitch” who only wants more political clout.

Lynn repeatedly asked Betz to stop sending him messages. Betz kept them coming, later ending the chat with a one-liner that echoed across the First Ward: “I don’t represent assholes.”

Lynn sent screenshots of the conversation to City Pulse and later posted them on Facebook. Dozens of residents criticizing Betz at public comment pushed last night’s meeting past 11 p.m.

Betz also lost his job as a policy analyst with the Michigan League for Public Policy last week following the angry text-message exchange. His employer said they “agreed to part ways.” Former allies of Betz have also called for him to resign from the City Council, including the local chapter of the Black Lives Matter Movement and the Lansing Democratic Socialists of America.

Lynn said he also filed an ethics complaint against Betz. If he is found to have intimidated or threatened a member of the public, he could be slapped with a misdemeanor — additional grounds for office forfeiture. The next meeting of the Ethics Board is 5:30 p.m. today.

The remaining seven members of the City Council would be tasked to appoint a replacement through the end of the year should Betz resign from office or eventually be forced to leave. A replacement would be elected to finish out Betz’ term, which runs through 2023.

Betz hasn’t responded to calls or text messages from City Pulse since early Thursday morning, when he told City Pulse that his language was “unprofessional” and claimed that he only wrote the messages in response to Lynn’s “threatening physical harm against me and my family multiple times.” Betz also said Lynn had been “wildly abusive.” Lynn denied making or intending threats.

In a letter to the City Council sent on Sunday afternoon, Betz repeated those unfounded claims.

“I’m embarrassed by my actions and lack of restraint,” Betz added. “I’m not originally from this great city. I’m from Alaska and was raised in a conservative Mormon family. Life and people are very different there. We thrive off hard work, marry quickly, and take threats rather seriously.”

Betz said he plans to address the public and offer Lynn and his family an apology “soon.” Lynn said that apology hadn’t arrived by 9 this morning. Betz hasn’t made any public statements.

“He keeps talking about these threats, and I just keep waiting to see any evidence,” Lynn added.

City Attorney Jim Smiertka said aside from a censure, the City Council can also seek office forfeiture — but only if Betz is found unqualified to hold office, is convicted of a misdemeanor or felony or if he violates a section of the city charter that specifically calls for him to forfeit office.

An Ethics Board finding or 60 days of unexcused absences could trigger forfeiture, he added.

Betz was a vocal critic of Schor but changed his tune this month, especially after joining him and Council President Peter Spadafore in cutting the line for their COVID-19 shots.

In response to that incident, Lynn labeled Betz as “useless” and urged him to resign last week — triggering a public rift between two advocates with “major public platforms,” Betz explained. Lynn and his wife also host the “Merica 20 to Life” live talk show on Facebook.

This month, Betz also backed away from pursuing a vote of no confidence against Schor, further eroding an “alliance” between Lynn and Betz in which they have both called for Schor to resign.

“I’m concerned for him. He needs help. I’ve seen this type of behavior before,” Lynn told City Pulse “He’s obviously having some type of crisis. But it’s scary as a Black man. The way he was talking to me made me feel like he was trying to goad me into a fight. I’ve seen this before.”

Betz also told City Pulse that Black Lives Matter activists have repeatedly pressured him to pursue a “no confidence” vote against Schor, but no other Council members would support it. Both Betz and Lynn acknowledged that the divide helped trigger a dispute between them.

“Although I had sacrificed my political career for this cause, they turned on me and began harassing me both privately and publicly,” Betz told City Pulse in a brief statement last week.

Lynn said last week’s text exchange was the first time the two have spoken since December.

Betz worked with activists and leaders of the Lansing chapter of Black Lives Matter last June to craft a resolution that would’ve defunded the Lansing Police Department. It never saw a vote.

Afterwards, those ties devolved into a “one-directional relationship where I was told what to do by Black Lives Matter, and I did it without questioning,” Betz told City Pulse. That included pushing a no-confidence vote against Schor last year that also never materialized, he said.

"I made calls to each Council person in turn to determine their support and I found that I would be the only yes vote on Council on that particular vote. As such, I made the decision to not move forward because I felt that bringing forward a vote of no confidence would not be effective at achieving the goals that Black Lives Matter were seeking,” Betz said in a statement last week.

In a Facebook post, Black Lives Matter Lansing said Betz “agreed” to call for a vote of no confidence against Schor in November. His failure to do so “effectively ended the alliance.”

“The community has moved on without you to continue our work to defund the police which began long before you ever thought about the Lansing City Council or building a political career on the Black struggle for liberation,” according to a Facebook post shared by BLM last week.

Schor — who is facing racial discrimiantion lawsuits from Lynn and several other current and former employees — declined to comment on the situation last week, but last night also admonished Betz’ conduct, labeling it “inappropriate and frankly appalling” in his remarks.

“As elected leaders, we should always rise above the name calling,” Schor added.

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