RESOURCES:
Washtenaw County Official List of Candidates: November 4 2025 General Election
TRANSCRIPTION:
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, your host of All Things Considered. And my guest today is Laura Russeau. She's a candidate running for Milan Mayor, a race which voters will decide on November 4th. Thank you for joining me today, and let's go straight to it!
Laura Russeau: Thank you!
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me a little bit about your background, first of all.
Laura Russeau: Well, I studied music in San Francisco. I was studying holistic health and traditional Chinese medicine, did Tai Chi and Shaolin and herbology and things like that--just a broad survey of like Western traditional medicine and Eastern medicines, which gave me a lot of great contexts for life.
Caroline MacGregor: How long have you lived in Milan?
Laura Russeau: We've been here just over 20 years. I moved back from San Francisco and met my husband. And we moved here around 2004. And we've lived here since!
Caroline MacGregor: Okay! So, you've been here a good amount of time and to get to know the area really well. Tell me why you're running for mayor, why you think you're the best candidate for the job and the experience that transfers to this role.
Laura Russeau: Well, in recent years, I've become an advocate. I have a daughter with Down syndrome. She is 11. She's in the school system. I have also organized the Pride parade for the last four years. And in general, I have learned a lot about advocacy through my daughter and through just throwing myself into the community and doing community events and working with some non-profits. You know, I ran for City Council a couple years ago, because I did want to be involved. I did not win. There was pretty heavy competition, and we had a primary. So, I did get through the primary. But this time around, I really thought about what was happening in the world. And I wasn't sure who was going to run, first off. But, for myself, I wanted to make sure that everyone has an advocate in our local government, as far as leadership, and I thought that I could be that person.
Caroline MacGregor: What are some of the big issues facing Milan today that you would like to see addressed if you were mayor?
Laura Russeau: Well, I see that in talking to people going door-to-door, a lot of people have just pretty local concerns, you know? They're concerned about the roads. They are concerned about the infrastructure and the current city council and mayor. They've done a lot of moves to make those improvements. And, I think the community, they have genuine concerns about our just local area and seeing that events are continued. But, for me, I did work at the senior center. I see that the cost of living is increasing. I have concerns about the seniors at Milan Seniors for Healthy Living. I have any concerns for just local families and individuals. Seeing that the food pantries, there seems to be like they're running short of food in different places. So, being someone that will help advocate for our families and our community to make sure that they're meeting their basic needs going forward. That's my big concern.
Caroline MacGregor: I read somewhere one of the things you talked about was leading with purpose and accountability, and I think you said that the strongest communities are built through honest conversations and shared responsibility. What is the importance of community when it comes to leadership?
Laura Russeau: Yeah. I think it's really important to be able to hear people. I don't necessarily have all the answers. I'm really willing to work with whoever is on city council, but it's really important for me to raise visibility of different voices in the community. I think people feel a little left out of decision-making. And, clearly, when people vote, we only have a certain percentage of people voting. But, if there's any way for me to engage people, to get more people voting, more people involved in raising their voices, I feel like I'm an approachable person. I see that as I go door-to-door. Lots of different people are willing to discuss issues with me, and I just want to be somebody that is a person that they can approach. They feel like I'm hearing them, and I'm able to take action. And I am willing to take action and bring those things in front of city council.
Caroline MacGregor: If you're just joining us, my guest today is Laura Russeau. She's a candidate for the mayor race in Milan, and we're talking about the issues that are an important part of her campaign. How important is fiscal responsibility in all of this? Obviously, the leadership of Milan, this would be something that would be high on a list of priorities, just given how we're facing so much inflation and all the other things that you mentioned.
Laura Russeau: Yeah, I think it's really important. Obviously, that's one of the main parts of the job is going through the budget every year, maintaining a healthy fund balance for unexpected things, but just maintaining that, so that we have the money to project what our goals are and to meet those goals. Yeah, I'm not somebody who wants to just throw down a bunch of ideas and promise that I'm going to make all those things happen. I think it's more important for me to see where we've been and maintain what we have, as far as a healthy fund and listen to those independent ideas about where we're at and then plan accordingly. The roads and the water system beneath--it is a huge thing! I know that the current city council has done a lot of work on that. I'd like to continue that and continue seeking grants for quality of life initiatives, things that may improve things for the community, the wide range of the community, so not just for kids, but to include all ages in our parks and our greenways to make everything more accessible.
Caroline MacGregor: I was going to ask you actually about quality of life. So, you've answered that question. You did mention somewhere, too, accessible streets and bikeable, walkable streets as part of your platform too.
Laura Russeau: Yeah. I mean, it is important we have our parks here, unless you're driving outside of the city to enjoy different things. But it's really important that we have bikeable paths. We have pretty limited.... like, our roadways and our park, we're a small city anyway. But we have the parks that we have. We don't have a lot of room to move outwards these roads and create bike paths.
Caroline MacGregor: Right.
Laura Russeau: But I think we need to be a little innovative about how we move forward to make transportation options for kids and whatever community, so we're not all driving all time.
Caroline MacGregor: You served as co-chair of the E3 Neurodiversity Conference at Eastern Michigan University this April. Tell me how this impacted you, as far as reinforcing different perspectives and things like that. How did this affect you?
Laura Russeau: Yeah, it was huge! It was such a confidence booster to think about that before it happened. I had a friend in the disability community who's got a family, and she insisted that we go to a conference in Las Vegas. And I walked away thinking, "Well, we can do something like that! We could do a one-day thing." And it ended up coming and neurodiversity conference that we could bring a lot of different things. We wanted to have some appeal for a wide range of neurodiverse-type conditions. But as far as planning it and working with our steering committee, working in a small group and organizing all the little details that go into it, I had a big role in reaching out to speakers and creating those lists and the scheduling parts of it. So, it was amazing! And I think it was really successful in the end. I'm glad for all the experience I've had in doing different smaller community events, because I was able to bring all of those skills to the table. And as far as listening to different voices, you start thinking about what neurodiversity is and it's all encompassing. We're all somewhere in this world of neurodiversity. And you walk away knowing that listening to and being able to engage different voices, that leads to innovation. It builds trust. Being able to be vulnerable and being able to create a space where more vulnerable people, perhaps, are able to engage in a meaningful way is good for everyone.
Caroline MacGregor: You've been listening to 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, and my guest today that you just heard me speaking with is Laura Russeau. She is a candidate for the City of Milan mayor. Thank you so much for joining me today!
Laura Russeau: Oh, thank you! It's been a pleasure! And I just want to remind people that, no matter how you vote, get out there and flex that muscle and just vote!
Caroline MacGregor: And stay tuned to hear from the other candidate at 5.48 as part of All Things Considered. This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti, your community NPR station.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on X (Twitter)
Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org
