Michigan Open Meetings Act and You

Of note is the following which appeared in a community blog about an issue to be  discusses at an upcoming community government meeting.

"Before one word is spoken at the public hearing, I believe the Board has already determined the outcome. It will be approved as presented with a list of still "to do" items. I believe that motion is already written on a piece of paper so the motion can be "read" into the public hearing minutes correctly. The only unknown: which Board member will make the predetermined motion?"

 If this does indeed happen and the pre-arrangements can be proven it would violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act. The Act provides three public safeguards. The first is the right attend meetings. The second is the right  to be notified of the time and place of those meetings and to receive minutes of said meetings in a timely manner. The last safeguard is the most complex but perhaps the most important. Essentially  it says you must be allowed to witness the actual decision making process at the meeting. Pre-approved rubber stamping is not an open meeting.The exact wording of the act is...

 

15.263 Meetings, decisions, and deliberations of public body; requirements; attending or addressing meeting of public body;tape-recording, videotaping, broadcasting, and telecasting proceedings; rules and regulations; exclusion from meeting;exemptions.

 Sec. 3. (1) All meetings of a public body shall be open to the public and shall be held in a place available to the general public. All persons shall be permitted to attend any meeting except as otherwise provided in this act. The right of a person to attend a meeting of a public body includes the right to tape-record, to videotape, to broadcast live on radio, and to telecast live on television the proceedings of a public body at a public meeting. The exercise of this right shall not be dependent upon the prior approval of the public body. However, a public body may establish reasonable rules and regulations in order to minimize disruption.

(2) All decisions of a public body shall be made at a meeting open to the public.

(3) All deliberations of a public body constituting a quorum of its members shall take place at a meeting open to the public

except as provided in this section and sections 7 and 8.

(4) A person shall not be required as a condition of attendance at a meeting of a public body to register or otherwise provide his or her name or other information or otherwise to fulfill a condition precedent to attendance.

(5) A person shall be permitted to address a meeting of a public body under rules established and recorded by the public body. The legislature or a house of the legislature may provide by rule that the right to address may be limited to prescribed times at hearings and committee meetings only.

(6) A person shall not be excluded from a meeting otherwise open to the public except for a breach of the peace actually committed at the meeting.

(7) This act does not apply to the following public bodies only when deliberating the merits of a case:

(a) The worker’s compensation appeal board created under the worker’s disability compensation act of 1969, Act No. 317

of the Public Acts of 1969, as amended, being sections 418.101 to 418.941 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.

(b) The employment security board of review created under the Michigan employment security act, Act No. 1 of the Public

Acts of the Extra Session of 1936, as amended, being sections 421.1 to 421.73 of the Michigan Compiled Laws

(c) The state tenure commission created under Act No. 4 of the Public Acts of the Extra Session of 1937, as amended, being

sections 38.71 to 38.191 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, when acting as a board of review from the decision of a controlling

board.

(d) An arbitrator or arbitration panel appointed by the employment relations commission under the authority given the

commission by Act No. 176 of the Public Acts of 1939, as amended, being sections 423.1 to 423.30 of the Michigan Compiled

Laws.

(e) An arbitration panel selected under chapter 50A of the revised judicature act of 1961, Act No. 236 of the Public Acts of

1961, being sections 600.5040 to 600.5065 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.

(f) The Michigan public service commission created under Act No. 3 of the Public Acts of 1939, being sections 460.1 to

460.8 of the Michigan Compiled Laws.

(8) This act does not apply to an association of insurers created under the insurance code of 1956, Act No. 218 of the Public Acts of 1956, being sections 500.100 to 500.8302 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, or other association or facility formed under Act No. 218 of the Public Acts of 1956 as a nonprofit organization of insurer members.

(9) This act does not apply to a committee of a public body which adopts a non policy making resolution of tribute or memorial which resolution is not adopted at a meeting.

(10) This act does not apply to a meeting which is a social or chance gathering or conference not designed to avoid this act.

(11) This act shall not apply to the Michigan veterans’ trust fund board of trustees or a county or district committee created under Act No. 9 of the Public Acts of the first extra session of 1946, being sections 35.601 to 35.610 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, when the board of trustees or county or district committee is deliberating the merits of an emergent need. A decision of

the board of trustees or county or district committee made under this subsection shall be reconsidered by the board or committee at its next regular or special meeting consistent with the requirements of this act. “Emergent need” means a situation which the board of trustees, by rules promulgated under the administrative procedures act of 1969, Act No. 306 of the Public

Acts of 1969, as amended, being sections 24.201 to 24.328 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, determines requires immediate action.

Violations of items 2 and 3 three are hard to prove. Some things may fall under item 10. What concerned citizens can do is attend meetings and watch the replays on television. The attendance will tell the elected officials that they are on notice.The people are watching. Knowing the rules and rights granted under the Michigan Open Meeting Act or the Freedom of Information Act is a start. The complete  text of both Acts as provided by the State of Michigan can be found in the following linked
 booklet, Michigan Open Meetings Act and Freedom of Information Act.

Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty—power is ever stealing
from the many to the few…. The hand entrusted with power becomes … the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continual oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot: only by unintermitted Agitation can a people be kept sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.
-Wendell Phillips