Kalamazoo city commissioners voted Monday to explore bringing back call-in public comment, a feature dropped after in-person meetings resumed following the pandemic.
The July 20 vote, taken at the City Commission business meeting, does not reinstate call-in comment on its own. It directs City Manager Malcolm Hankins, City Clerk Scott Borling, and City Attorney Aaron Leal to prepare alternative options for amending the rules around public comment, then bring those options back to the commission for a future vote. The motion passed unanimously by roll call.
Why it’s back on the table
Vice Mayor Drew Duncan brought the motion forward, saying accessibility to public meetings had come up repeatedly during his recent campaign. The city allowed call-in public comment during the pandemic but discontinued the option after in-person meetings resumed.
Duncan’s motion asked staff to prepare options addressing the length of individual public comments, opportunities for remote participation by phone, and where general public comment falls on the meeting agenda, along with any procedural changes needed to put those options in place. He also asked staff to identify legal and operational considerations tied to each option.
Public comment on the proposal was largely supportive. Several residents said the option would help people who are homebound, work during meeting times, or have disabilities that make attending in person difficult.
Commissioners raise implementation questions
Commissioner Chris Praedel noted that only two or three of the city’s roughly 20 boards and commissions currently offer call-in participation, and suggested the city take inventory of which bodies do and don’t before deciding how to apply any changes consistently. He also raised the need to plan ahead for situations where public comment crosses into hate speech or raises First Amendment questions, saying the commission had encountered this in 2020 without a clear process in place. Praedel additionally asked that responsibility for running call-in comment not fall solely on the IT department, which handled it alone during the pandemic despite being a small team.
Commissioner Jeanne Hess asked whether call-in comment could be limited to items already on the regular agenda, rather than opened to any topic, as an option for staff to consider.
Commissioner Jae Slaby said she supports reinstating call-in comment and argued real-time discussion allows residents to react to information presented during the meeting itself, not just submit comments in advance. She also raised concerns about an earlier round of small-group commissioner meetings on the same topic, saying those conversations didn’t result in any follow-up being shared with the full commission or the public, and cautioned that deliberation happening in disconnected small groups could raise Open Meetings Act concerns if not brought back into public session. She asked that any additional feedback from commissioners be sent to Hankins with the city attorney and clerk copied.
What happens next
No timeline was set for when staff will return with options. The commission’s vote directs the work to begin; a future vote will be required before any changes to public comment rules take effect.
