LANSING – Want insights into what’s on the mind of the citizenry?
Just listen.
One way for policymakers to find out is to pay attention to what people say during the public comment period at local government sessions.
That’s what researchers from the University of Michigan and Washington University in St. Louis explored, drawing on recordings of 259 meetings of 15 city councils around the state for a full year.
The communities ranged in population from the largest – Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor and Lansing – to the smallest: Pleasant Ridge, Cedar Springs and Williamston. Among the other cities in the study were Saline, Alpena and Jackson.
“City council meetings are vital sites for civic participation where the public can speak directly to their local government,” their new study said. “By addressing city officials and calling on them to take action, public commenters can potentially influence policy decisions spanning a broad range of concerns, from housing to sustainability to social justice.”
The cities range in per capita income – from $22,420 a year in Inkster to $84,370 in Pleasant Ridge – and in median age – from 25.9 in Ann Arbor to 48.2 in Lathrup Village. They vary in partisan voting and racial makeup as well.
The researchers’ computer analysis of recordings archived on city YouTube channels in 2023 disclosed “a rich and varied landscape of public concerns.”
Sabina Tomkins, an assistant professor of information at U-M and a study co-author, said “We saw active participation across a range of issues.”
The analysis found that the largest share of comments related to local “place-based” concerns about governance, such as policing, housing and zoning.
Second in frequency were comments on broader social concerns about the well-being of groups and individuals but not directly connected to city government, such as affordability, homelessness and public health, it said.
And some comments crossed into both categories.
Tomkins said, “People are able to span both those bases in a single comment.”
“We were really interested in how often people talk about these social concerns,” such as the Black Lives Matter movement, “and bring it back to local projects in their communities,” she said.
The research team found geographic variations in what participants wanted to talk about.
For example, the study said, “Comments in some of the larger cities mention societal concerns more often than smaller cities.” And while housing was the second-most common local concern overall, the subject was “barely mentioned, if at all,” in some cities, including Inkster and Lathrup Village.
The analysis found little evidence that “soap boxers” – “people speaking at length without any connection or relevance to local governance” – flood the public comment periods.
“The majority of the time, participants commented on concrete local concerns or on societal concerns which they wanted more government action and accountability around,” the study said.
Tomkins said the technology used to collect and analyze comments may provide useful information that assists journalists in covering their communities better.
“We know local news helps considerably in holding public officials accountable,” including deterring corruption, Tomkins said.
And journalists “ideally can use transcripts not to replace, but to supplement, local news without having to go to public meetings themselves,” she said.
The study is under review by an academic journal.
Top 10 societal concerns at public comment periods
- Affordability
- Anti-racism
- Functional democracy
- Homelessness
- Incarceration
- Public health
- Public safety
- Quality of infrastructure
- Care of seniors, children and teens
- Sustainability
Top 10 local concerns in public comment periods
- Election administration
- Housing
- Local economy
- Policing
- Public services
- Public spaces, parks and recreation
- Public works
- Transit corridors and parking
- Utility services
- Zoning
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