Lenexa may join other area cities to make public meetings more accessible online
The Lenexa City Council will consider livestreaming its meetings and recording the Planning Commission hearings after years of having more limited access options for the public than other Johnson County cities.
“We’ve heard concerns about our process,” City Manager Beccy Yocham told councilmembers on Monday. “One thing we have consistently heard is folks wish we recorded our Planning Commission meetings.”
Since 2023, Lenexa has recorded its City Council meetings and uploaded them to the city’s website the next day for residents to tune in at a later date. The Johnson County city does not record its Planning Commission meetings — leaving in-person attendance as the only opportunity for residents and City Council members to listen to the discussion.
“We think it’s beneficial,” Yocham said about the move from recording to livestreaming. “I also think it could be beneficial to the council to be able to see recordings of the Planning Commission meetings … that’s where the official public hearing is so you can hear those, see those and hear the Planning Commission’s discussion.”
If the City Council votes to livestream the City Council meetings and record Planning Commission hearings, the decision would put the Johnson County city in line with Overland Park, Olathe, Shawnee and Leawood — all of which livestream their City Council meetings and record their Planning Commission hearings.
Opting into livestreaming the City Council meetings would add no additional cost, Lenexa spokesperson Julie Wittman said in an email. If the council votes to record Planning Commission meetings, it would cost an additional $7,400 to the current $23,000 the city pays for recording its meetings.
While the City Council did not take a formal vote this week, council members expressed support to move forward with these changes.
“I think regardless of what other cities do, I think we should stream the Planning Commission. Period end of statement,” Ward 4 City Councilmember Craig Denny said. “I don’t need to know that it’s the right thing to do because Overland Park does it. I think Lenexa leads in this regard and I don’t care what other cities do.”
Livestream questions, soapbox concerns
While supportive of improved access to meetings, Ward 3 Councilmember Chelsea Williamson said she was concerned about livestreaming through emergency situations.
“While we have been very fortunate not to have something like that occur, there’s always a possibility,” Williamson said. “That concerns me that we wouldn’t have the ability to cut the feed if something (tragic) or an emergency were to happen.”
Yocham told Williamson that staff could speak to the production company to ask about an emergency procedure where they could cut the feed during an emergency situation.
Other council members expressed concerns about expletive language used during the public comment period and folks using the time to “grandstand” in order to go viral and clip videos to post online.
“That’s a little alarming because this is to inform the public of what our choices are as public officials, but I am alarmed for livestreaming to become a soapbox for people,” Ward 3 Councilmember Avery Bell said.
Lenexa doesn’t record its general public comment period at the end of meetings. If the city opted to livestream its City Council meetings, Kansas law requires the meeting to be streamed entirely — including public comment, Yocham said. Filtering expletive language could also cause the city to run into First Amendment issues.
Despite these concerns, the city gave the greenlight. Yocham told The Star that the City Council will make a final decision in the next three to six months. If approved, the city anticipates that it could implement the changes in 2027.