The Kalamazoo Civil Rights Board, meeting Aug. 6, 2025, said the city's existing civil-rights ordinance is enforceable and discussed steps to improve enforcement and public understanding, including a possible name change to "Human Rights Board" and closer coordination around the city manager search.

Board Chair (Civil Rights Board) said the board has not made textual edits to the ordinance because "the wording of the ordinance does work" and emphasized that enforcement will depend in part on the next city manager: "We are also seeking a new city manager. The enforcement of this is vital to the city manager's position." The chair said the board has met with Mayor Anderson and will continue meeting with the City Commission to align on enforcement.

Board members said confusion about what the ordinance covers contributes to misdirected complaints. Vice Chair Lukeman urged creating process maps so a Civil Rights Board subcommittee can review complaints at the start of the city's complaint process rather than only once a complaint reaches the full board: "...we're trying to establish a process or a process map, to hopefully involve a subcommittee from this board in the inception of the complaint as well." Director Calderon told the board that ISAAC, a community partner, has already been doing related outreach and that coordinating with them makes sense.

Several members raised changing the board's name to reduce public confusion. "We thought about even Human Rights Board," one member said, noting that similar municipal oversight bodies in other cities often use the "human rights" label. The board did not vote on a name change; members said the topic will remain in subcommittee discussions.

Public commenters from ISAAC reiterated the need for stronger enforcement and community education and highlighted the ongoing city manager search. Toby Hannah Davies of ISAAC reminded attendees about a city survey connected to the city manager search and urged residents to take part in the process.

The board said next steps include continued meetings with the City Commission, advancing subcommittee work on complaint intake and education, and participating in outreach tied to the city manager search. No ordinance language changes were proposed or adopted at the meeting.