Resolution ending livestreams is on commission’s consent agenda
Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday will consider adopting a resolution to no longer livestream their meetings on YouTube rather than stream the entire meetings, including the general public comment periods.
The Kansas Legislature this session passed a change to the Kansas Open Meetings Act (in HB 2134) to state that “A public body or agency that voluntarily elects to live stream their meeting on television, the internet or any other medium shall ensure that all aspects of the open meeting are available through the selected medium for the public to observe.” The law goes into effect July 1.
Under the city’s current procedures, the general public comment period — during which members of the public can discuss items that are not on the meeting agenda — is the only portion of the commission’s public meetings that is not livestreamed.
“To comply with these changes, meetings will no longer be live streamed on the City’s YouTube Channel,” according to a memo to the commission from City Clerk Sherri Riedemann in the meeting agenda. “They will be recorded and posted on the City’s YouTube Channel the following day, or as soon after as practicable.”
Resolution 7600 is on the commission’s consent agenda, a list of items that are considered routine and generally approved with one motion unless a commissioner asks to pull an item for discussion.
The YouTube meeting videos regularly get hundreds of views, and many people watch the meetings live through that format.
People can also join meetings via Zoom videoconferencing, but the Zoom feed oftentimes does not show speakers or presentation slides the way the YouTube broadcast does, which can make it challenging to know who is speaking and to follow along. One regular public commenter has frequently voiced concerns to the commission about the accessibility issues the Zoom feed presents. Zoom also requires viewers to download a program or app to their computer or phone in order to see the video feed at all.
Commissioners voted in June 2024 to stop broadcasting general public comment on YouTube because they felt some people used the time to be “performative” rather than to actually speak to the commission. Since then, the only opportunity to hear the general public comment period through the city’s means is to be at meetings in person or watching live via Zoom.
This publication has been recording and posting the videos the night of each meeting to ensure the public can access those portions of the public meetings since the change took effect. (Several of those recordings have captured the issue of speakers not being visible on the Zoom feed.)
It’s unclear whether the public will be able to comment on this proposed change.
Commissioners changed their meeting procedures in August 2023 to no longer allow the public to pull most consent agenda items for discussion. Members of the public can reach out to the commission before a meeting starts to request that a consent agenda item be pulled for discussion and public comment, but it’s up to the commissioners to act on such requests.
Under the change to state law, the commission would have the option to just livestream the entire meetings, including the general public comment period.
There is also no legal requirement that the commission have a general public comment period at all, so the commission could stop holding a general public comment period and continue to livestream entire meetings.
If commissioners approve the resolution on Tuesday, meetings will no longer be livestreamed effective July 1.
It is not immediately clear from the city’s YouTube channel how long meetings have been livestreamed, but YouTube recordings of city commission meetings go back as far as January 2012.
Lawrence city commissioners will meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 3 at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.
The commission accepts written public comment emailed to ccagendas@lawrenceks.org until noon the day of meetings. The commission also hears live public comment during meetings, both in person and virtually. Register to join the Zoom meeting at this link.
Meetings are open to the public and, currently, livestreamed on the city’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/@lawrenceksvideo. See the complete agenda at this link.
Seats of two commissioners, Bart Littlejohn and Lisa Larsen, will be on city voters’ ballots this year. Littlejohn has filed for reelection, but Larsen had not as of Friday afternoon. Mayor Mike Dever, Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei and Commissioner Amber Sellers have about two and a half years remaining of their four-year elected terms.
Here’s the full memo and resolution. The only apparent change to the resolution from the current resolution that contains the commission’s meeting structure and rules is to remove references to the beginning and end of the televised session.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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