Michigan Municipal League

The Michigan Municipal League is a nonprofit association of municipalities and municipal leaders in the State of Michigan. The group banded in 1899 under the motto “Cooperation solves any problem” to reflect the organizers’ combined purposes: exchange of information, shared learning, development of unified policies on matters of municipal concern, and to form a collective voice on matters including home rule for local government.

The organization today remains the largest collective voice for municipalities in the State of Michigan, and represents the mutual interests of villages and cities of all sizes in its advocacy activities at the state and federal level.

In August 1898, the city of Saginaw sent its mayor, William B. Baum, Sr., to a meeting in Detroit of the National Municipal League, which had been formed in 1894 in Philadelphia as a citizens’ group aimed at finding ways to achieve good city government. The National Municipal League was later renamed the National Civic League and is today known as the National League of Cities, the oldest and largest organization in the United States focused on advocating for municipalities.

Inspired by the conference, Baum wrote to the mayors of 50 Michigan cities but only heard back from 15 so he decided there was not enough support at the time to pursue the idea further. Then in January 1899, Grand Rapids Mayor George H. Perry wrote to Baum to enlist his support in calling for a meeting of Michigan mayors to champion the principle of home rule. An invitation from Perry, Baum, Jackson mayor M.G. Laenecker and Detroit Mayor William Maybury was sent to every Michigan mayor for a meeting held in Lansing on May 23, 1899, where a constitution was drafted and temporary officers were elected.

Mayor Baum became the first president of the new group. Traverse City Mayor Frank Hamilton was the first vice president. Adrian Mayor Willard Stearns was treasurer and Grand Rapids Mayor Frances Hunter was secretary. The mayors of Cadillac, Flint, Jackson, Kalamazoo and Port Huron were elected as directors. The group was responsible for organizing its first convention, held in Grand Rapids on September 26–27, 1899, where the League of Michigan Municipalities was officially formed with 44 founding municipalities.

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