Kalamazoo ECC sets membership at up to 9, defines quorum as 50% plus one

Kalamazoo — The Kalamazoo City Environmental Concerns Committee voted to set the committee’s membership at up to nine people and to define quorum as “50% plus one” of the current membership, a motion approved during the committee’s regular meeting.

The move, put forward by Thomas Twohurst, a committee member, was intended to align the written bylaws with the committee’s typical attendance levels and to avoid repeated shortfalls when trying to hold business. Twohurst moved, “I move that we adopt a committee number of up to 9 and a quorum would be defined as 50% plus 1. No minimum required.” The motion was seconded (second not specified in the roll call) and approved by the committee.

Committee members said the change is largely practical: the ordinance that originally formed the committee and older bylaws called for 11 members, but the group rarely reaches that number in practice. Chair David Benak summarized the vote and called for a voice vote: “All in favor of the motion. Any opposed? Okay. So that motion passes.”

Members discussed related bylaw topics that were not decided in the vote. Committee members debated whether to add a secretary officer to the bylaws, and whether the bylaws should specify a fixed monthly meeting time. Several members supported keeping a fixed time for convenience, while others favored preserving flexibility and deciding the calendar annually when meetings are scheduled and posted on the city’s website. The committee also agreed to change subcommittee minimum size language from “2 to 3 members” to “1 to 3 members” to reflect volunteer capacity on smaller issue teams.

The committee agreed to have the chair circulate a revised draft with the agreed edits and to forward the package to city staff for review by the city attorney before any ordinance change is requested of the city commission. Committee members said they expect to finalize the language and submit the packet together rather than sending piecemeal edits.

Next steps: the chair will distribute the edited bylaws to members for final review and ask city staff to deliver the package to the city attorney for guidance on any required ordinance changes.