Sheldon Neeley

Sheldon A. Neeley (born September 20, 1968) is an American politician, currently serving as the Mayor of Flint, Michigan. He was elected as Flint’s mayor in 2019 and served an abbreviated three-year term before being re-elected in 2022. Neeley is a registered Democrat and a former state representative in Michigan's 34th House district. He served two complete terms and one partial term in the Michigan House of Representatives between 2015 and 2019. He resigned from his position in the House when he was elected as the Mayor of Flint in 2019. Neeley's wife, Cynthia, was elected to his former seat on March 10, 2020. Neeley served two complete terms and one partial term on the Flint City Council between 2005 and 2014, prior to his tenure as Michigan Representative and was the Council's first African-American member to have come from Flint's Sixth Ward. Family, education, and early career Neeley was born September 20, 1968, to parents Marva and Sam Neeley. He was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, graduating from Flint Northern High School in 1986. Neeley obtained his associate degree from Delta College. He later attended Saginaw Valley State University, though he did not graduate. In October 2022, Neeley received backlash after Fox News Digital published an article revealed that multiple sources, including the Mayor of Flint page on the city's website, claimed he had received a bachelor's degree from Saginaw Valley State University. He later claimed this error was the fault of a political staffer. Sheldon Neeley worked as a broadcast technician for WJRT-TV12 for 27 years. He was the local union president of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communication Workers of America until 2020. He also served as a work experience counselor for 10 years for the Flint Community Schools. For 4 years, he served as CEO of the Flint Inner City Junior Golf League, an organization founded by his father, Sam Neeley.