Meet the Candidates: Casey Lester

FLINT, Michigan — To be an active member of the community means to sacrifice. Whether you sacrifice your time, your money, or even just being present for events, being a community member means showing up however you can, whenever you can.

Casey Lester understood this long before he decided to run for the 8th Ward Flint City Council Seat, even before he moved to the city of Flint. He was born and raised in Clio. His father — the youngest of 6 siblings — was a Marine. From a young age, his father would instill in him the importance of serving a purpose larger than yourself.

“My dad, when you think of a Kentucky Marine [who] worked at General Motors, that was him. He was that through and through, and he taught us hard work. He taught us that if there’s a problem, we’re going to jump in and fix it.”

Lester moved to Flint in 2012, buying a house on the west side of the city for the intimacy and connectedness only Flint can provide.

“I felt it was always something that just resonated with me, and being able to be a part of something bigger than myself was important. There are so many resources to work with community members and make things better. So that’s what really drew me to Flint, the ability to just surround myself with as much culture as I could.”

Lester got his first chance to serve the community in 2014, when he, like so many others, volunteered during the peak of the water crisis, starting by distributing free water on Saginaw Street. He would be appointed to the Citizens Advisory Council for the Land Bank shortly thereafter.

As Lester continued to participate in various community organizations throughout Flint, he would take on more organizing and administrative roles. He was appointed to the school board in 2019. In just a year, he was elected president of the school board and oversaw a lawsuit with the Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) over Act 18 funding.

“We were able to go up against some much larger authorities than ourselves and get them to change the Act 18 funding for City of Flint. So, our kids are receiving more funding now for special education than they were prior because of the work that the board collectively did together,” Lester said.

Act 18 funding was a controversial formula used for determining the funding public schools receive for their students. Before the 2020 settlement, the formula allocated funding based on the total number of students receiving special education services full time and part time, along with the school’s total student body. After the settlement, Act 18 no longer considers total student body, allowing for a more equitable distribution of funds.

Lester’s term ended in Dec. 2020, and he chose not to seek re-election. But before his term expired, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, he oversaw Flint Community Schools’ curbside pickup program to feed students affected by the quarantine.

After his time on the school board, Lester focused on his job in banking. He currently works for Oxford Bank but has previously worked for Huntington and Chase. He couldn’t resist the call to serve his community for long, joining the neighborhood engagement hub from 2021 to 2024 and becoming board president in 2022. In Lester’s view, one way he excels as an organizer is his understanding of finances.

“Working as a banker, my go-to spot where people put me is as a treasurer, and that’s just kind of the default. I do a good job of using my platform to try to say I do everything I can to advocate for causes throughout the community,” Lester said.

Lester decided it was time to run for Flint City Council — after years of organizing and working throughout the community, it felt like a natural progression.

“My history on the school board was a big thing, and you learn a lot about your community when you’re helping govern the laws of the schools. I’d never done anything like that before, and so I wasn’t afraid to call people for advice and opinions. I usually enter every situation [knowing] I don’t have all the answers. One of the biggest things that we struggle with on council right now is that everybody’s so reactionary,” Lester said. “Everybody is just ready to fight all the time, and I don’t intend to fight.”

For Lester, the seemingly constant conflict within Flint City Council was as personal as his connection to his community. While there are particular issues he has policies in mind for, what’s most important in Lester’s mind is having a functioning government that can provide the fundamental services every local government ought to provide.

Lester also advocates for a stricter schedule for how long city council meetings run and a streamlined agenda. He is one of many residents who feel it’s unfair for city council meetings to run for upwards of 4 hours, especially given the many extenuating circumstances that may keep someone from attending. He also feels council members should receive agenda packets at least 2 days before the meeting, arguing that to engage with agenda items, there should be time to think it over.

One particular issue Lester wants to platform is accessibility. He feels it’s necessary not only to have American Sign Language interpreters at all city events, including city council, but also to have Spanish-speaking individuals at City events. He says the voting process can be discouraging for community members whose first or only language is Spanish.

On issues affecting the 8th Ward, Lester feels many of the problems any ward faces are shared across the city.

“Collectively, the issues that are affecting the First Ward are the same issues that are affecting the eighth and the ninth. When I started walking the streets, knocking on doors, and talking to neighbors, I was surprised by how three things came up: police, blight, and accountability. If we were to walk right now through the First Ward and start knocking on doors, it would be the same conversation. There are things that are unique to different wards, but I think by and large it will boil down to the same root causes.”

Regardless of the outcome of the election on Nov. 3, Lester will continue to make his presence felt throughout the community. For him, this election cycle has always been about bringing his skills where they’re most needed, and he trusts that Flint will call upon him when the time is right.

“I’ve always tried to spread the word for any events I attend or boards that I’m on. I am a recognizable person in our community just because of some of the stuff that I’ve done. So if I can use that position to shed light on some of these nonprofits that are doing incredible work, any organizations in the community that are just not getting the recognition for it, I try to do that. That’s the biggest thing: spreading awareness for things.”