Island School Board, City Council Listen to Expert on Open Meetings Act
By Sean Ely

Rules about making meetings open and available to the public were clarified for members of the school board and city council when attorney Don Schmidt of Kalamazoo met with the Mackinac Island elected officials Thursday, June 21.

The Open Meetings Act requires meetings by public bodies to be open to the public. To reinforce this idea, City Clerk Karen Lennard contacted Mr. Schmidt, who has worked with the act since it was adopted in 1976, and who was on the Island to speak about it at a Grand Hotel conference Friday, June 22.

"I think it's always helpful for public bodies to know the rules, things that they can and cannot do," Mr. Schmidt said. "It's important to hear these things so that an inadvertent or unintentional violation of the act does not occur."

All decisions of a public body must be made at a meeting open to the public," he said, and, with few exceptions, all deliberations leading to those decisions must take place before the public.

A closed session can be conducted to consider the dismissal, suspension, or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges against, or to periodically evaluate, public officers or employees if the person involved requests a closed meeting. Also, a meeting can be closed from the public to consider the dismissal, suspension, or disciplining of a student if the student, or the student's parents or guardian, requests one. A public body can also discuss strategy for collective bargaining or strategy for real estate transactions, when such discussions are in the best interest of the public.

"A closed meeting can be conducted to consult with its attorney regarding trial or settlement strategy in connection with specific pending litigation, if an open meeting would have a detrimental financial effect on the litigating or settlement position of the public body," Mr. Schmidt said.

A public body can also meet in a closed session to review and consider the contents of an application for employment or appointment to a public office if the candidate requests that the application remain confidential.

"However, you cannot compare applications in a closed session," Mr. Schmidt said. "You can look at them, but definitely not compare them."

The final way meetings can be held away from public scrutiny is if members wish to consider material exempt from disclosure by state or federal statute, such as written attorney-client privileged communications.

Committees and subcommittees of public bodies are, in most cases, required to comply with the Open Meetings Act, Mr. Schmidt said. While criminal penalties that exist might seem extreme, it's necessary to be careful, he said.

"I've kind of come to the conclusion that when you're on a public body, if what you're doing won't stand the light of day, you probably shouldn't be doing it," he said. "I'm not saying you shouldn't ever be able to go into closed session, but my experience has been that when things go bad, a lot of times it's because it's done behind closed doors."

In response to a question from school board trustee Trish Martin, Mr. Schmidt said that notification of an open meeting must be posted 18 hours before a meeting takes place, in a location that is open to viewers for a majority of that time period. If it is posted in a building that is only unlocked to the public for six of the 18 hours, then that doesn't suffice.

The minutes taken at a meeting must show who, what, when, and why any action is taking place, Mr. Schmidt said. Minutes must also record why a closed session is taking place and must be kept in closed session, but are kept separate from the open meeting minutes. All minutes must be kept for one year and one day from the day of the meeting, Mr. Schmidt said, so they can be reviewed by a court, if contested.

The Michigan Freedom of Information Act of 1976 establishes procedures to ensure every citizen's right to access of government documents. Public records can be requested of government bodies using the Freedom of Information Act. The Open Meetings Act of 1976 opens the decisions and processes of government bodies to public view. Under this act, the attorney general, prosecutor, or any citizen can challenge the decision of a body in circuit court if the decision was not made in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. Fines can be issued for public officials found to be intentionally violating the law. "He provided a lot of truthful information, and the more information we get, the more that we are informed," Mayor Doud said. "And that's a good thing for everyone to hear.

"There are times when my instinct tells me to talk about a certain topic in a closed meeting, because in a public meeting, I think, this might hurt someone," Alderman Mike Hart said. "That person might not necessarily be me, but somebody else could be harmed if this was openly discussed. That's my instinct, but the law doesn't care about my instinct. I'm not a lawyer, so its good to have a lawyer come and tell us these things."