Open Meetings Act serves the public's right to know

OUR VIEW
Feb. 19, 2008
www.clarecountyonline.com


How familiar should city, county and school officials in Clare County be with all of the requirements of the Michigan’s Open Meetings Act?

Before you answer this question, consider the following:

-- The Farwell school board voted on Monday, Feb. 11, 2008, to meet in closed session to discuss a personnel issue, a violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act (see related Page A1 story in today’s edition).

-- The Clare County Board of Commissioners voted on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008, to meet in closed session to discuss the sale of property near the Clare County Airport in Harrison, a violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act (see related Page 2A story in today’s edition).

-- The Harrison school board voted Dec. 11, 2006, to meet in closed session to discuss the sale of the district’s early childhood building, a violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act.

-- The Clare City Commission voted on Nov. 20, 2006, to meet in closed session to discuss the sale of the city’s old library building, 4th and McEwan, a violation of the Michigan Open Meetings Act.

Several things can learned from these four separate violations of the OMA in Clare County during the past 15 months.

First off, three of the four violations above each involved the discussion of sale of property behind closed doors, which is not a permissible subject or reason for a closed session. It would also appear that officials at Harrison school district and Clare county government didn’t read the news article in The Clare Sentinel reporting the initial OMA violation by the Clare City Commission back in late 2006. If they had read it, it could have spared them the fate of repeating history and allowed us to report on other news of interest to Clare Sentinel readers.

The fourth and most recent OMA violation occurred when the Farwell school board met to talk about a personnel issue, but failed to disclose the employee’s name and job title. Like the other three public organizations, the Farwell superintendent accepted responsibility for the OMA violation and promptly disclosed the name of the elementary principal (see related story on Page A1).

While we do not wish to minimize the violations of the Open Meetings Acts, we also give the administrators of local school districts, city and county governmental bodies the benefit of the doubt that they did not intentionally violate state law by their actions. We believe that they, along with the elected officials on their boards, are honest people who strive to serve the public and obey the laws of Michigan to the best of their abilities.

However, it would appear that ignorance of the law, as benign as that may sound, correlates with a failure to always conduct the public’s business in open meetings. Toward that end, we offer an mini-quiz on Open Meetings Law matters. See how many questions you can answer correctly:

Question No. 1: Can a public body vote on matters by secret ballot?

Question No. 2: If a quorum of a public body goes to its attorney’s office without posting advance notice, is it a violation of the OMA?

Question No. 3: Does the OMA apply to committees of a public body?

Question No. 4: Could a public body meet informally, at a restaurant for instance, before or after a meeting?

Question No. 5: If a public body posts a special meeting on the outside of a building over the weekend, is the meeting legal?

The answers are: 1) No; 2) Most likely; 3) It may; 4) Yes, but cannot discuss business; 5) Yes, if posted 18 hours prior to the meeting. For fuller answers and explanation on these and other Open Meetings Act questions, check out the Michigan Press Association Web site:

http://www.michiganpress.org/pdfs/righttoknow.pdf.

Our desire is for all citizens, including officials of public bodies, to be aware of the public’s right to enjoy – as Abraham Lincoln once said – “government of the people, by the people, for the people.”

The opinions expressed in the weekly “Our View” editorial represent those of The Clare Sentinel. We encourage our readers to share their views, pro or con, on this or other issues of general interest. Send letters to the editor at: newsroom@claresentinel.net or via mail to: P.O. Box 237, Clare, MI 48617.