Town board question

Artmaker

New Member
Jurisdiction
Michigan
This should be quick and easy. And for the time being I really don't want to state exactly where in Michigan this is.

Very rural town, I just came from the local board meeting. My question to the board was why aren't public comments actually stated in the online minutes. Just "two people made comments." Not what they were, and/or if there was a solution that might be helpful in case someone doesn't show up to a meeting might have the same issue.

The answer I got was "our legal council said not to, necessity only."
I asked the name of their legal council and got it but as I did I was told I can not discuss anything about board meetings.


So basically is this a real thing? Public comment, is that typically NEVER published in written minutes? It just doesn't seem right. And would this really be a question that their legal council would not want to answer?

Trying to find out without ruffling feathers. Lets just say SW Michigan.

Thanks.
 
So basically is this a real thing? Public comment, is that typically NEVER published in written minutes? It just doesn't seem right. And would this really be a question that their legal council would not want to answer?

Well, the lawyer works for the Board and provides to it the advice he or she believes most beneficial give the application federal, state, and local laws. The lawyer's duty of confidentiality to his/her client would mean that he or she wouldn't discuss that advice with the general public unless his/her client (the board) authorized it.

As for what the state law requires the Board to publish as a result of the meetings, that is answered by the Michigan Open Meetings Act, specifically Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) section 15.269, which reads as follows:

15.269 Minutes.
Sec. 9. (1) Each public body shall keep minutes of each meeting showing the date, time, place, members present, members absent, any decisions made at a meeting open to the public, and the purpose or purposes for which a closed session is held. The minutes shall include all roll call votes taken at the meeting. The public body shall make any corrections in the minutes at the next meeting after the meeting to which the minutes refer. The public body shall make corrected minutes available at or before the next subsequent meeting after correction. The corrected minutes shall show both the original entry and the correction.
(2) Minutes are public records open to public inspection, and a public body shall make the minutes available at the address designated on posted public notices pursuant to section 4. The public body shall make copies of the minutes available to the public at the reasonable estimated cost for printing and copying.
(3) A public body shall make proposed minutes available for public inspection within 8 business days after the meeting to which the minutes refer. The public body shall make approved minutes available for public inspection within 5 business days after the meeting at which the minutes are approved by the public body.
(4) A public body shall not include in or with its minutes any personally identifiable information that, if released, would prevent the public body from complying with section 444 of subpart 4 of part C of the general education provisions act, 20 USC 1232g, commonly referred to as the family educational rights and privacy act of 1974.
You will note that the law does not require publication of the details of public comments made at the meeting. As a result, unless some local law requires otherwise, the Board does not have to include that kind of detail in its public minutes of the meeting.

And, as a minor note, the term is "legal counsel" rather than "legal council". You can remember that by recalling a lawyer provides counsel to his/her clients; he/she is not a a council, which is a group of people that meet to discuss things, provide advice, pass rules/laws, etc.
 
Minutes are a note of the official acts of the body, not a recording of what happened for the benefit of those who did not attend.
 
So basically is this a real thing?

Not sure what this means. I assume this isn't a fictional story that you wrote. Did the lawyer actually tell the town board what was claimed? Obviously, we have no way of knowing. Is it true that you "can not discuss anything about board meetings"? Obviously not, because here you are doing exactly that.

I assume the question you intended to ask is whether Michigan law requires that your town board include public comments in the town board meeting minutes. Unless there is a law other than the one quoted by "Tax Counsel," the answer is no.

And would this really be a question that their legal council would not want to answer?

No one here will have any way of knowing what some unknown lawyer in Michigan will or won't be willing to discuss. The only way for you to know is to call and ask.
 
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