Tag Archives: John Amrhein

Michigan Open Meetings Act: Understanding closed sessions

February 6, 20203-bottom, Citizen JournalismJohn Amrhein, Michigan State University Extension, Open Meetings ActJoanne

By John Amrhein, Michigan State University Extension

In this article series which includes “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: An introduction” and “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: Explore the details,” you will learn more about the Open Meetings Act in depth.

The Open Meetings Act provides 11 circumstances where a meeting may be closed to the public. These sessions must be called by a roll call vote of those elected and serving. This requires a majority of the total board, not just those present at the meeting. For a nine-member board, this means five votes in favor of the closed session regardless of how many are in attendance at the meeting. The roll call and the purpose of the closed session go into the minutes of the open meeting. The public body can only deliberate in the closed session. Decisions must be voted on in an open session.

Some of the closed session purposes require a two-thirds vote to approve going into the closed session. These are indicated below by “(2/3)” after the purpose. The 11 closed session purposes are:

Personnel matters, if requested by the individual, and the individual may rescind the request at any time, but cannot then request to go back into closed session.
Student discipline, if requested by the student, or their parent or guardian, with the same one time restriction as #1.
Collective bargaining negotiations, if requested by either party.
Purchase or lease of real estate up until the time an option to purchase or lease is obtained. (2/3)
Attorney consultation on specific pending litigation. (2/3)
Review of applications for employment or appointment, if the candidate requests confidentiality. Interviews must be held in open meetings.
Partisan caucuses of members of the state legislature.
Consideration of material exempt from discussion or disclosure by state or federal statute. This includes materials exempt under the Freedom of Information Act, such as written opinions from the board’s attorney. (2/3)
Department of Commerce health code compliance conference.
Certain meetings in the search for a university president, if the search process meets several specific criteria spelled out in the act.
School boards to consider security planning.

Minutes of closed sessions are kept by the clerk for at least one year and one day following the regular meeting at which the closed session was approved, and longer if it is the subject of current litigation. These notes are not available to the public. Individuals requesting closed sessions may not later request that the closed session minutes be made available to the public.

The Michigan State House of Representatives in Lansing, Michigan
CREDIT: USER CEDARBENDDRIVE / FLICKR

The spirit of the Open Meetings Act is to make government open and accessible to the people. People have the right to attend a meeting of any public body unless the meeting falls under one of the eleven statutory exceptions.

The full text of the Open Meetings Act is available online from the Michigan Legislature website. This site also provides access to all Michigan laws.

The Office of the Attorney General for the State of Michigan has for many years published an excellent Open Meetings Act Handbook, which can be found here.

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension. For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu. To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters. To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts, or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: Explore the details

January 30, 20203-bottom, Citizen JournalismJohn Amrhein, Open Meetings ActJoanne

By John Amrhein, Michigan State University Extension

In “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: An introduction,” we explored several general provisions of the Open Meetings Act (OMA). This article will further explore deliberations, decisions, meeting notices and minutes.

The OMA requires the following, subject to exemptions:

“All meetings of a public body shall be open to the public…”
“All decisions of a public body shall be made at a meeting open to the public…”
“All deliberations of a public body constituting a quorum of its members shall take place at a meeting open to the public…”

This seems straightforward, however, the attorney general has ruled that a committee empowered to make a decision, that deprives the full board of the opportunity to vote, is subject to the OMA even though the committee is made up of less than a quorum of the board. An example of this might include an assignment to narrow from four to two options,

The public body is required to post notices of its meetings at its principle office and may post at other locations it considers appropriate. The OMA also provides requirements for timeliness of meeting postings. The annual calendar must be posted within 10 days after the first meeting and changes to the calendar within three days of the meeting at which the change is made. Rescheduled meetings must be posted at least 18 hours before the meeting and meetings recessed more than 36 hours require a new notice.

There is an emergency provision which allows a board, by a two-thirds vote, to meet without the normal notice when a “severe and imminent threat to health, safety or welfare of the public” exists and “delay would be detrimental.”

The OMA also addresses minutes of meetings. In general, minutes must contain the date, time and place of the meeting, members present and absent, any decisions made at the meeting and any roll call votes taken. OMA does not require that minutes contain the contents of speeches or general discussion, although greater levels of detail may be required by other statutes for certain types of meetings.

The minutes must be available within eight business days of the meeting, open to public inspection and copies must be made available at a reasonable cost. Corrections must be made at the next meeting and the minutes must show both the original entry and the correction.

In the third installment of this article series, “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: Understanding closed sessions,” we explore certain types of discussions that can be held in private sessions.

The Office of the Attorney General for the State of Michigan has for many years published an excellent Open Meetings Act Handbook, which can be found here.

Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: An introduction

January 23, 20203-bottom, Citizen Journalism, City of Kentwood, City of WyomingJohn Amrhein, Michigan State University Extension, Open Meetings ActJoanne

By John Amrhein, Michigan State University Extension

Michigan’s first constitution, written in 1835, when speaking of the “Legislative Department” states that “the doors of each house shall be open.” It is this spirit of openness of government that inspired the Open Meetings Act. In fact, nearly all of the court decisions and attorneys’ general opinions addressing the act have interpreted it liberally in favor of openness. It has been said that for government to be “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” it must be open to the people. In this article series, which includes “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: Explore the details” and “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: Understanding closed Sessions,” we’ll explore the Open Meetings Act in more depth.

The Open Meetings Act (OMA) was written in 1976, as was the Freedom of Information Act. These two laws, known as Michigan’s “sunshine laws,” are designed to make government processes and information more open to the public. Both laws were written in the post-Watergate, post-Vietnam war era.

A former Michigan State University Extension colleague referred to the following general rule: “Any person has a right to attend a meeting of any public body at any time unless the meeting is declared to fall under one of eleven statutory exceptions.” It is a pretty good one-sentence guide to a sometimes complex combination of law, court interpretations and attorney general opinions relating to OMA.

It is important to keep in mind that the OMA applies to governmental bodies, those “empowered by state constitution, statute, charter, ordinance, resolution or rule to exercise…governmental authority.” It does not apply to corporations, nonprofits, churches or the like.

The law guarantees several rights of residents. The public has a right to record meetings, within the bounds of reasonable rules which the public body may write to minimize disruption of the meetings. The public, likewise, has a right to address the public body, also within the bounds of rules written to facilitate orderly meetings and protecting everyone’s right to address the board. An individual can only be removed from a meeting for a breach of the peace committed at that meeting.

Social and chance gatherings, or conferences which are not intended to avoid the OMA, are exempt. These types of gatherings often are treated with suspicion by the press and the public. It is important for public bodies to be careful not to deliberate or make decisions about government business during these gatherings. This can be accomplished by paying careful attention to what the OMA says about deliberations and decisions.

In the second article in this series, “Michigan’s Open Meetings Act: Explore the details,” we will address decisions, deliberations, meeting notices and minutes.

The Office of the Attorney General for the State of Michigan has for many years published an excellent Open Meetings Act Handbook, which can be found here.