Virgil Bernero
Virgil Bernero (born March 31 1964[1]) is the current mayor of Lansing, Michigan, elected on November 8, 2005. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to serving as mayor, Bernero served as a legislative aide, an Ingham County Commissioner and as a legislator in the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate.
Personal life
Bernero was born and raised in Pontiac, Michigan in the Metro Detroit area. He was the youngest of five children born to Giulio, an Italian immigrant, and Virginia, a first generation Italian-American. Bernero has said that the diagnosis of schizophrenia of one of his brothers, and the death of another brother to AIDS in 1990 (on the same day he was elected to the Ingham County Commission) have helped to shape his life and politics.[2]
Bernero graduated from Waterford Mott High School in 1982, and from Adrian College in 1986, with a B.A. in political science. He is married to Teri Johnston, with whom he has two daughters.
Political career
Mayor Virg Bernero has many years of experience as a public servant, having served as a legislative aide in Michigan's House of Representatives and Senate, as an Ingham County Commissioner and as State Representative and Senator for the Lansing area. On November 8, 2005 he was elected Mayor of Lansing, a position he assumed on January 1, 2006.
Mayor Bernero's career in government began in 1987 with the Michigan House of Representatives, where he served as a legislative analyst for House Speakers Gary Owen and Lewis Dodak. Taking a slight detour in 1989, Bernero served a stint as a consumer advocate with the Michigan Citizens Lobby, then the state's largest grass-roots advocacy organization. In 1991 he was sworn in as Ingham County Commissioner, where he represented south Lansing for eight years. That same year he went to work for the Michigan State Senate and became Chief Legislative Aide to Senator Jim Berryman (D-Adrian). He later served as a Development Officer for Alma College and as Executive Director of the Michigan Association for Children with Emotional Disorders (MACED) a United Way advocacy group for children's mental health.
A leading advocate for mental health and children's services, Mayor Bernero has been active in a wide variety of civic affairs and human service issues. He is a past board member of the Capital Area Girl Scout Council and served on the Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Community Mental Health Board, Capital Area Community Services Board of Directors and the Michigan Association of Counties Human Services Board. He was recognized by the Michigan Association of School Psychologists in November, 2003 for his exemplary advocacy on behalf of Michigan's children. In August 2004, the Michigan Association for Local Public Health presented him with the "Friend of Public Health" advocacy award.
After one term in the Michigan House of Representatives, Mayor Bernero was elected to the Michigan Senate in 2002, where he served as Minority Vice Chair of the Senate Health Policy Committee and as a member of three additional standing committees (Judiciary, Technology and Energy, and Local, Urban and State Affairs).
Mayor Bernero is a 1986 graduate of Adrian College were he received his B.A. in Political Science with honors. He received the Young Alumni Award for outstanding achievement from his alma mater in 2004. He resides in Lansing with his wife Teri and their daughters, Kelly and Virginia.
After defeating Mayor Benavides with 62% of the vote, Virg Bernero was sworn in January 3, 2006
As Mayor
As Mayor, Bernero has administered the government of a city with a dwindling population and a local economy with a rapidly shrinking manufacturing sector. Bernero has continued to support the strong reinvestment in central Lansing begun under Mayors David Hollister and Tony Benavides, seeing a quadrupled amount of private investment in his first six months in office resulting largely from the work of the previous administrations.[3] The mayor has presented the Lansing City Council two balanced budgets that did not include the city tax increases by reforming city spending, spinning off large cost items (regional-ization of city zoo) cutting city services, leaving staff positions vacant and increasing fees on a range of amenities and programs (city golf courses, permits, etc).
Controversy
At a February 2006 Lansing Economic Development Corporation board meeting, feeling that Lansing City Council Vice President Brian Jeffries was purposefully delaying his appointment of a manager to that agency, Bernero referred to Jeffries as a "pathetic piece of shit".[4]
On July 8, 2006 Lansing resident John Pollard launched a recall effort against Bernero, claiming the mayor "unfit and his behavior is too inappropriate to serve as Lansing’s mayor," which was rejected by the Ingham County Election Commission to be too vague to be put on a ballot. The commission later approved a more specific recall effort on August 17. The effort, which required 8,468 signatures, failed as the November 23 deadline past having only been able to collect just over 6,200 signatures.[5]
See also
References
- ^ Michigan Manual 2001-2002 p.189
- ^ The Primary Prelude: Benavides, Bernero Test Voter Support, by Daniel Sturm & Berl Schwartz, published March 7, 2003
- ^ Resident refiles petition to recall Lansing mayor, by Laura Misjak, The State News published July 25, 2006, accessed July 4, 2007
- ^ "Pettit: Bernero sows seeds of optimism" by William Pettit, Lansing City Pulse, 17 January 2007
- ^ "Bernero appears safe as Nov. 23 petition drive deadline approaches" by Thomas P. Morgan, Lansing City Pulse, Published 15 November 2006