Zoning board debate over minutes and attendance turns acrimonious; approval deferred

Members of the City of Kalamazoo Zoning Board of Appeals clashed over last month's meeting minutes and the use of attendance records during the May 14 meeting, with one member asking that her absences and objections be placed on the record and others pushing back that comments made now could not be retroactively added to a prior meeting's minutes.

The item began when the chair called for approval of the minutes and a member asked to have on the record that her absences matched those of the person nominated to replace her and that her attendance had been used as a rationale for that nomination. The member moved to have that attendance detail and her statement included in the minutes. Counsel and other members objected that comments made at this meeting were not part of last month's proceedings and therefore could not be added to the prior set of minutes.

Board staff said they had an email from the absent member indicating interest in continuing to serve and proposed reviewing the audio and video of the prior meeting to determine whether additional detail belonged in last month's minutes. "Shelby and I will review the meeting minutes with the video footage from the last meeting...and if there's detail missing, we will add it in there and make note of that, and we'll bring the meeting minutes with the corrections back for next month," staff said.

The exchange grew acrimonious at times; one member characterized the issue as "a microcosm of what's happening in The United States surrounding the disempowerment of the black constituency," and other members pressed to avoid policing volunteers' participation. Several board members said they were uncomfortable with the tone and requested a future conversation about civility and respect. With substantive corrections and a plan to review recordings pending, the chair deferred approval of last month's minutes to the next meeting.

What happens next: staff and the clerk will review recordings and, if appropriate, add verified content to the minutes; approval will be reconsidered at the next ZBA meeting.