Score one for transparency
In a stinging rebuke of the Snyder administration, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette ruled today that review teams that are part of the lead-up to imposing an Emergency Manager on a city or school district must comply with the Open Meetings Act.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette ruled this afternoon that state-appointed local financial review teams are public bodies that must comply with the Michigan Open Meetings Act. […]State officials have maintained that these review teams do not have to comply with the Michigan Open Meetings Act.
Judge Collette agreed with the plaintiff in the case – Robert Davis, the board secretary of the Highland Park School District [who argued that] the state’s financial review team violated Michigan’s Open Meetings Act by holding private meetings, failing to post public notices for the meetings, and for failing to keep minutes of the meetings.
The Associated Press reports that Judge Collette said he was issuing a preliminary injunction saying any future state-appointed financial review team meetings must comply with the act.
Good news all around. This won’t stop the freight train, I suspect, but it will certainly ensure nothing untoward is happening behind closed doors.
