Virgil Bernero (born March 31, 1964 in Pontiac, Michigan[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.
In 2007, Bernero appeared in a documentary by Annabelle Gurwitch (a woman famous for being cruelly fired from a play by Woody Allen) entitled Fired!, a film that chronicles the experiences of individuals who have been fired from their jobs. Bernero was interviewed about his efforts to pass a law that would make it illegal for Michigan employers to fire their workers at will or for "moral or ethical reasons."
Political career
Bernero began his involvement in government in 1986, running unsuccessfully for county commissioner in Oakland County. In 1987, he became a legislative analyst to House Speakers Gary Owen and Lewis Dodak in the Michigan House of Representatives. In 1991, he was elected an Ingham County commissioner, where he represented south Lansing for eight years. He then served, again, a legislative aide in the Michigan State Senate, and later in various advocacy roles. Bernero ran for and won a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives in 2000, serving one term before being elected to the Michigan State Senate in 2002. After serving one year in that role, he ran for mayor of Lansing against incumbent mayor Tony Benavides in 2003, who was finishing out mayor David Hollister's term, who had resigned to serve in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration. Bernero lost by only 258 votes.[3] Returning to the state Senate, he then launched another campaign for Lansing mayor two years later in 2005, this time defeating Benavides, winning 62% of the vote.
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. The mayor has presented the Lansing City Council three balanced budgets that did not include city tax increases by reforming city spending, spinning off large cost items (regionalization of city zoo), leaving staff positions vacant and increasing fees on a range of amenities and programs (city golf courses, permits, etc).
Controversy
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 passed without a sufficient number of signatures being collected. Petition circulators claimed to have collected just over 6,200 signatures, but because no signatures were ever submitted to the Clerk's Office for validation, there is no way to verify their claim.[4]
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
- ^ "How Tony did it – and how Virg almost did" by Evan Steiner, published November 12, 2003, accessed July 4, 2007
- ^ "Bernero appears safe as Nov. 23 petition drive deadline approaches" by Thomas P. Morgan, Lansing City Pulse, Published 15 November 2006
External links
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