photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall is pictured on Oct. 11, 2024.

Lawrence City commissioners on Tuesday will consider no longer live-streaming their meetings on YouTube and, instead, uploading recordings of meetings the next day.

The potential change comes after Gov. Laura Kelly signed a law in April that updated the Kansas Open Records Act and Kansas Open Meetings Act. The new law includes a provision that says any governing body or agency that “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,” as the Journal-World reported.

According to a city memo, in response to the changes in state law, the commission meetings “will no longer be live streamed on the City’s YouTube Channel.” The meetings will still be recorded and posted on YouTube “the following day, or as soon after as practicable.” The memo said the city would still offer the Zoom Webinar meeting option for City Commission meetings, which include the entire meeting.

Currently, the city broadcasts every part of the meeting except for the general public comment at the end of the meeting. The city made those changes last May right after multiple disruptions at public meetings in Lawrence and Douglas County. Last spring, a City Commission meeting was derailed after multiple public commenters on Zoom engaged in racist and antisemitic speech, including using the N-word and displaying a flaming swastika, and insulted another commenter with obscene and sexist language, as the Journal-World reported.

The change last year was one of several changes implemented by local governing bodies in an attempt to enforce decorum rules and hold efficient, civil business meetings in the face of routine disruptions. Some local government leaders still had concerns afterward that public comment periods were being abused by certain speakers.

Two commenters in particular — Michael Eravi and Justin Spiehs — frequently use the general public comment periods at City Commission, County Commission and Lawrence school board meetings to insult and berate public officials with vulgar language, including in Eravi’s case, use of the N-word and gendered slurs, and in Spiehs’ case insulting remarks about women’s physical appearance. Both men claim that they have the right to do this under the First Amendment, and they have sued a long list of public officials in Douglas County and have been removed from multiple meetings.

Some governing bodies have floated the idea of getting rid of the comment periods altogether. After a nearly half-hour-long disruption of a Lawrence school board meeting by Eravi earlier this year, multiple school board members said it could be time to rethink the public comment process, as the Journal-World reported.

The Journal-World reached out to the city about whether the recordings, under the new proposal, would include the general public comment portion of the meeting.

The changes contemplated by the city reflect how the Douglas County Commission shares its meetings. County meetings are not broadcast live, but the public is able to watch them via Zoom. Karrey Britt, Douglas County’s communications and media coordinator, told the Journal-World that the county records the Zoom meeting, then uploads that recording to YouTube. Lawrence school board meetings are live-streamed on YouTube.

The item is currently included in the City Commission’s consent agenda, which is generally approved with one vote unless a commissioner pulls an item for separate discussion.

In other business, commissioners will consider extending an economic incentives program that aims to support bringing industrial projects to the city’s business parks.

The commission will consider renewing its Catalyst Program for three more years. The program was created in 2017 and has been renewed by the City Commission twice, in 2019 and 2022. When the commissioners renewed it in 2022, commissioners indicated the program was valuable, noting the city had approved incentives for new construction or expansions with several companies in VenturePark or the adjacent East Hills Business Park since the program was introduced.

The program applies to vacant property or existing businesses in the two business parks, as well as other industrially zoned property in Lawrence. Approved projects can receive either a 50% or 70% property tax abatement for 10 years, sales tax exemption on construction materials, and waiver of all associated application fees. The program also provides free land for companies that choose to build in VenturePark or East Hills.

Although the properties enjoy tax abatements, a city memo noted those developed properties produce “more tax revenue than before they were developed.” For example, the city said the VanTrust Phase II development at 2425 Venture Park Drive produced property tax revenue of $150,000 in 2024. An adjacent property owned by the city that was undeveloped provided property tax revenue of $83,000, and the city had to pay for it.

If the commissioners vote to extend the program, it would last until July 1, 2028, before it will sunset.