Two days after the Warren City Council filed a lawsuit to try to make Mayor Lori Stone sign an agreement to create a land bank, Stone said she will sign it.

“If this legislation is truly the best City Council believes they can do for Warren residents, then I will fulfill my obligation as mayor and sign and submit City Council’s Intergovernmental Agreement,” she said in a Wednesday afternoon statement.

The City Council approved an intergovernmental agreement with the State Land Bank Authority in late August, paving the way for the creation of a Warren land bank authority, empowering the state’s third largest city to rehabilitate or sell hundreds of blighted properties.

The land bank deal requires the mayor’s signature, and Stone failed to sign the agreement by Monday, Dec. 2, the deadline set by the City Council.

City Council attorney Jeffrey Schroder announced at Tuesday’s council meeting that he had filed a complaint in Macomb County Circuit Court.

“She has to sign it,” Schroder told The Detroit News. “It’s her duty under the charter to sign this.”

He said Wednesday the signing of the agreement is “good news for the taxpayers of Warren.” He said the council can now withdraw the lawsuit.

The Warren council was asking for a writ of mandamus, which is a court order that would make Stone sign the document.

In her statement, Stone said she was reluctant to sign the intergovernmental agreement because she believes it will cost Warren residents $200,000 to $300,000 a year.

“Over the 5-year commitment of the contract, this would add up to $1 million to $1.5 million taxpayer dollars that will come from other essential services in the city budget,” she said.

Stone has said previously that the council’s agreement sets up an organization that “seems to carry a lot of overhead,” including an executive director’s salary, office space and legal fees. Stone said Wednesday that she tried to communicate with the council, emailing them a list of questions about how much they expected a land bank authority to cost the city and didn’t get a response.

The council approved a resolution on Tuesday saying that it supports including several provisions in the bylaws of the proposed land bank authority. One is that the city controller will be appointed the fiscal agent for the land bank authority.

Another provision says that the authority will seek any necessary office space in a city-owned building. Another is that the financial books and records of the authority should be maintained in a city-owned office or facility.

The City Council’s land bank lawsuit against Stone marked the first time Warren’s governing body has sued her since she became mayor in 2023.

Stone succeeded the litigious Jim Fouts as mayor. He had a long-standing feud with Warren’s City Council that resulted in numerous lawsuits during his 16-year tenure as mayor.

In an interview Wednesday before Stone issued her statement, City Council President Angela Rogensues argued there has been a “history of wrongdoing and corruption around properties” owned by the city or in the city’s housing program.

“The land bank would provide greater autonomy and accountability and transparency for residents and property and their tax dollars,” she said, “but also serve as a fantastic economic tool for the city to be able to do some really amazing things with the property that we have.”

She said the lack of Stone’s signature was “preventing forward movement for the city.”

“And I find that disappointing and problematic for a variety of reasons,” she added.

Stone, meanwhile, said she has researched land banks and has learned that most are funded by a city’s general fund dollars. She had hoped to work together with the council to “find a way to save taxpayer dollars in setting up a Land Bank Authority for Warren.”

“It is clear, Council has shown no interest in collaborating with me on a better way forward,” she said. “I refuse to add to the expenses of Warren taxpayers by adding costly legal expenses of paying the City Council’s legal advisor for litigation.”